As the dust settled on the first televised debate for this year's gubernatorial contest in Massachusetts, one clear truth emerged. There was one candidate, and only one, who could legitimately be called "the people's candidate."
While Scott Brown positioned himself as the people's candidate in his January special election victory, a late surge of campaign cash and get-out-the-vote efforts from Wall Street executives and lobbyists and other special interests surely put his campaign over the top. Capitalizing on the Democratic Party machine's condescending sense of entitlement to the late Senator Kennedy's seat, Brown asserted that it was "the people's seat", and rode his truck right into the leadership vacuum that the Democratic Party has helped to create. But Brown's slick posturing does not make for genuine leadership. And as economic and ecological meltdown continues, that leadership vacuum continues to grow.
Enter Jill Stein. Mother, medical doctor, public health advocate, climate activist, and community leader. As the Green-Rainbow candidate for governor, Stein is running the kind of campaign that is easily marginalized and sidetracked. In this two-party political system, voters and pundits alike don't know what to make of third-party political upstarts like the Libertarian Party and the Green Party (the Green-Rainbow Party is the Massachusetts affiliate of the Green Party of the U.S.). Even in Massachusetts, where 50% of registered voters are registered unenrolled, i.e. independent, there is a tendency to write off third-party candidates as a wasted or spoiled vote.
BOSTON - Jill Stein sparkled in the first televised gubernatorial debate of the 2010 elections, according to her supporters.
"It is now absolutely clear that Jill has the only truly progressive vision in this race." said Daryl Sprague, Stein's campaign manager. "All the others promised deep cuts next year to education, the state workforce, and health care. Jill was the only candidate to propose cutting the big giveaways tucked into the state's economic development portfolio. It was amazing to hear Deval Patrick threaten education and health care and then act as if he didn't hear Jill when she said it would be better to put the $1b in questionable corporate giveaways on the table."
While Baker and Cahill advocated general tax cuts as an all-purpose solution to economic woes, Stein was the only candidate to insist that tax cuts be part of a balanced package making the tax system more progressive.
(Hey, at least he's balanced by a Democrat with conviction (make that a conviction!). - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Todd Feinburg works with Tom Finneran to host WRKO's "Tom and Todd" talk show. He is one of the people who decided to exclude Jill Stein from WRKO's gubernatorial debate. Recently he was guest speaker at the candidate's night held by the Tewksbury Republican Town Committee. Here is a quote from his speech as reported in the Lowell Sun:
"We are prepared to have a year that Republicans have never seen before . . . There is never a better time to get rid of Niki Tsongas. She is new in this position and never deserved it. It's going to be a very different state moving forward."
This is the kind of person who is deciding which candidates can get free air time on the pubic airways and which can't. See the problem?
Green-Rainbow Party candidate for State Auditor Nat Fortune hit Roxbury yesterday explain his positions on school funding, transparency, health care finance, and the very long list of sweetheart deals gone bad. Nat joined five of the six candidates for this position at a "Get Out the Vote Coalition State Auditor and Treasurer Candidates Forum" at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury that was well-attended by Boston-area supporters. Noting the importance of electing an auditor who is not beholden to parties that accept corporate funding, Fortune explained that
You need to be able to follow the money. And to follow the money you need to be able to not have to worry about where that money trail leads you. That means you have to be independent of the parties, the interests, the insiders and the lobbyists that are running Beacon Hill and not have to worry about who you are going to embarrass or what contribution you are going to imperil. I'm the only candidate who refuses contributions from lobbyists, corporations, and companies that pay for those lobbyists. I can follow the money no matter where it leads.
(Kudos to the volunteers who worked their asses off to make sure they had some real choices in November! - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Dear friends,
Today we got word that we have met all requirements to appear on the ballot this November! Our volunteers worked tirelessly throughout summer to collect over 16,000 certified signatures from voters across the state. That is 6,000 signatures ABOVE the legal requirement and the last batch was delivered today. This is what democracy looks AND feels like. The commitment of our supporters to taking back our future is inspirational, and the reason I am in this race.
There is still a lot to do before election day and with signature gathering behind us there are many exciting ways for you to get involved. As mentioned in our previous newsletter, there are still some debate organizers putting roadblocks in the way of our participation. The major one involves a rule that the campaign must have raised $100,000. Because we decline donations from lobbyists and from officers of corporations which employ them, we need you to help push us over the top! Please consider making a contribution today of any amount you can afford. We also invite you to become part of our Clean Money Team - which consists of people who are encouraging friends and family to contribute and help create a community-funded alternative to the growing corporate buy-out of our elections. We provide the support and suggested materials. To join or inquire about our Clean Money Team, please e-mail Dante at dante@jillstein.org.
(I can't think of a single elected official with more integrity than Chuck. And now he'll finally have his day in court. - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Chuck Turner will be going on trial!
I met with Chuck last week to discuss ways that the GRP could be supportive.
Chuck was in excellent spirits, maintained his innocence and expressed his confidence in his legal team (See his letter below, which you can find on his web site.
The trial will begin on October 12, and he believes that it will last about 3 weeks.
Keep in touch with developments before and during the trial by visiting his website. Please do what you can to support this wonderful human being and outstanding public servant.
I will send information when I have news to report.
(sounds like a blast! - promoted by eli_beckerman)
The following was sent to the Berkshire area media today, announcing the participation of three Green-Rainbow candidates in the Josh Billings Triathlon.
On September 1, Nat Fortune will be appearing at the 2010 Get Out the Vote Coalition Forum. This forum will be for candidates for Auditor and Treasurer. It will be held at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center, 1350 Tremont St, Roxbury at 6 PM (across the street from the Roxbury Crossing T Station). The major sponsors are MassVote, the Bay State Banner and the Dorchester Reporter and there are over 30 co-sponsors.
Nat plans to arrive about 4:30. He also plans to stay until the end of the forum at 8 PM and talk with people outside. He will have literature for us to pass out. I asked Nat for some talking points when we have a chance to talk with people as they arrive. I have included his entire list, so you will have a better idea of who we are supporting. I also urge you to go to his website:
Nothing else in the world... not all the armies... is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. -- Victor Hugo
Last night I got to see Bill McKibben deliver a typically rousing and depressing speech in his hometown and the home of the American Revolution, Lexington, Massachusetts. McKibben is one of very few leading lights building a global climate movement up to the task of preventing an all-out climate catastrophe. I credit McKibben more than any other single person with pushing those concerned about climate change to take meaningful collective action. So I was a little nervous when I got to ask him a question from the audience about something I find troubling about his approach.
Early in his talk, McKibben pointed out that the number 350 -- equal to the maximum safe level of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere -- was entirely non-ideological. He went on to suggest that we can build a movement that can shame and pressure our elected officials to act to price carbon high enough that we begin to phase out our devastating use of fossil fuels. Missing from this approach, however, is McKibben's own analysis that the paradigm of economic growth is an underlying cause of the climate crisis. While McKibben was clearly embracing the task at hand as a political one, he seemed excruciatingly timid about the fact that the political task at hand is an ideological one.
{ Excerpt from a piece I wrote for Swans Commentary, June 2007 }
But before the fires from the "shock and awe" military onslaught were even extinguished, Bremer unleashed his shock therapy, pushing through more wrenching changes in one sweltering summer than the International Monetary Fund has managed to enact over three decades in Latin America. -Naomi Klein, Baghdad Year Zero
In a searing article in Harper's Magazine in September 2004, Naomi Klein laid out a theory of the Iraq War that shreds even today's conventional wisdom about the motivations for our invasion. Her theory was that the neocons saw Iraq as a potential test tube for their ideological utopia, and pursued a strategy of shock therapy, where the devastation of war would force Iraqis to rebuild their nation from scratch. Out of desperation (not to mention shock and awe), they would be receptive to U.S. economic policy unimaginable in any other country. The common refrain that Bush did not have a postwar plan is inaccurate. According to Klein, the neocons' plan started to backfire once the companies they were counting on to privatize the country hesitated to jump on board, and not for the reason you think. Yes, the security situation wasn't perfect. But more importantly, companies decided to wait for the creation of an Iraqi government because international law prohibited the United States as an occupying force from running the show.
Of course, there were other parts to the ideological impetus for this war, including but not limited to Iraq's tremendous oil reserves, the extension of US hegemony through the establishment of military bases, and the ever-present profit motives of the military-industrial complex. While Naomi Klein exposes the neoconservative drumbeat for war that we all love to hate, these other reasons hone in on a rift in the antiwar movement that must be overcome. That rift, my friends, is between those of us who hold out hope that the Democratic Party can be moved to spurn these deeper-rooted motivations for war, and those of us who know they cannot and will not.
This week a reporter from the Berkshire Eagle contacted me and other candidates for a story in progress. One item requested was a short explanation of why I'm running for office. The question is a good one to regularly ask oneself while in the public spotlight. Below is what I submitted.
(Glad to hear folks are pressuring Brown for serious climate action. I hope you also decide to shadow Kerry. His energy bill is a shameful backsliding giveaway to industry, and we must demand better. - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Sporting large, brown 'oily hands,' and carrying signs reading "Fight Climate Change Now," a dedicated group of climate activists spent nearly two hours 'shadowing' US Senator Scott Brown at fundraising events in Boston on Wednesday evening.
Four groups were involved in planning and carrying out the shadow event: 1Sky, 350.org, the Global Warming Education Network, and Paint Brown Green. Supporters of the groups first gathered outside of a fundraiser for MA treasurer candidate Karyn Polito, held at the Liberty Hotel, a former prison in Boston. Among other taunts, three of the activists chanted, "Climate change victims, hear them wail; climate change deniers belong in jail!" Senator Brown was not seen entering or leaving the event.
After 45 minutes of demonstrating outside the first fundraiser, the protesters marched past the offices of both US senators Kerry and Brown on their way to a second fundraiser, held for Brad Marston, republican candidate for US Congress, held at the Kinsale restaurant, on Cambridge Street in Boston. Commenting on Boston's weird recent weather, the activists chanted, "Six weeks of drought, then four inches of rain; how do you like your climate change?"
Then, just as the demonstrators were told that "security had been notified," the impossible happened: Senator Brown approached the restaurant on foot. Seeing her chance, activist Susan Shamel immediately went to the senator's side to voice her request for strong US climate legislation. Shamel and Brown spoke for nearly a minute before the senator waved to the other
activists and disappeared inside.
"He was supportive of my request for legislation, but blamed democrats for not bringing appropriate legislation to the senate for a vote," said Shamel. "He also said that he could not support a tax on energy," she went on. "I told him that revenues collected could be returned to the taxpayers, but he was skeptical of this approach," Shamel said.
Past a certain threshold of energy consumption, the transportation industry dictates the configuration of social space. Motorways expand, driving wedges between neighbors and removing fields beyond the distance a farmer can walk. Ambulances take clinics beyond the few miles a sick child can be carried. The doctor will no longer come to the house, because vehicles have made the hospital into the right place to be sick. Once heavy trucks reach a village high in the Andes, part of the local market disappears. Later, when the high school arrives at the plaza along with the paved highway, more and more of the young people move to the city, until not one family is left which does not long for a reunion with someone hundreds of miles away, down on the coast.
Equal speeds have equally distorting effects on the perception of space, time, and personal potency in rich and in poor countries, however different the surface appearances might be. Everywhere, the transportation industry shapes a new kind of man to fit the new geography and the new schedules of its making. The major difference between Guatemala and Kansas is that in Central America some provinces are still exempt from all contact with vehicles and are, therefore, still not degraded by their dependence on them.
As Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein called out the backroom deals with a monopoly utility at last week's Cape Wind debate by MassINC, her demands for transparency, accountability and fair competition by municipal energy providers surprised many observers. David Bernstein of the Boston Phoenix didn't even know how to categorize her criticism, incorrectly pigeon-holing Stein's critique as opposition to the Cape Wind project, end of story.
The Boston Globe reported on Martha Coakley rushing in to show that they weren't hiding anything. Nothing to see here! So it was interesting when the Boston Herald reported that Coakley's 85-page report to the Department of Public Utilities was heavily redacted. According to the Herald:
The report, which was Coakley's official justification of her rate settlement with Cape Wind and National Grid, includes "redacted" words, numbers, sentences, paragraphs and charts. It even blanked out a question asked of an energy expert hired by Coakley's office - and the expert's response was also crossed out.
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Quotes
Only one species on earth does not have full employment and that is Homo sapiens.
--Paul Hawken (Blessed Unrest)
We built what history will record is the broadest and best-organized grassroots organization this Commonwealth has ever seen... We didn't build up this grassroots just to win an election. We built up the grassroots to govern in a whole new way, to make change real, and lasting, and meaningful.
Deval Patrick acceptance speech
Nov. 7, 2006
and Now...
We had this incredibly rich relationship that we built with the grass-roots network the last time. And then we got in, and we let it go. And there are reasons for that. But I think it's a terrible thing. We missed it. I missed it personally. And I think a lot of the folks in the organization missed it.
Governor Deval Patrick, to a room of supporters, trying to reignite the grassroots
February, 2010
Graphic by Jeff Walsh, Boston Herald