From Max Page of PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts):

The Massachusetts Budget – A Work of Shame

Democrats all – the Speaker, Senate President, and Governor – are patting themselves on the back for passing a budget that had three main features: crushing cuts to virtually every aspect of state government that services regular people, a major attack on public employee unions and their collective bargaining rights, and – best for last – not a dime of “shared sacrifice” from the wealthiest in our state.

Yes, those “crazy liberals” from Massachusetts have for the third year of this recession failed to ask for a single dime of “share sacrifice” – the favorite phrase of the political class who seek to undermine government and its duty to enrich our public life and lift up the neediest in our society – from those who have the most in our society.  The last time the state raised taxes, what did it do?  It raised the wrong tax – the sales tax – the one that is most regressive, affecting the poor more than the wealthy.  And before the budget debate even began this year, those good Democratic leaders decided that no amount of cuts to libraries, schools, parks, services for the mentally ill would be painful enough to get them to violate the sacred commitment to the wealthy – no tax increases.

We have a bill to raise $1.4 billion a year, mainly from the wealthiest in our state. See ourcommunities.org.  Now we just need the movement to get our “representatives” to see the light.

-Max Page

P.S. Public higher education was cut by $60 million, and financial aid by another $2 million.  The catalogue of shame is detailed at our reliable friend, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

Stephen Thomson does a tremendous job putting Bill McKibben’s recent Washington Post Op-Ed to video. Watch it. Share it.

Mother’s Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,

whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by

irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking

with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be

taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach

them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another

country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From

the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance

of justice.”

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons

of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a

great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,

to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the

means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each

bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,

but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a

general congress of women without limit of nationality may be

appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at

the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the

alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement

of international questions, the great and general interests of

peace.

Julia Ward Howe

Boston

1870

From the Green-Rainbow Party

May 5, 2011

BOSTON – This year’s state budget has revealed a yawning gap between the priorities of state legislature and the priorities of the people of Massachusetts, according to Nat Fortune, who will testify today as a Green-Rainbow Party representative at a State House hearing on budget measures.  Fortune noted that while schools, health care, social services, and environmental protection are being severely cut this year, legislators have seen fit to largely protect tax giveaways to businesses with strong lobbying presence on Beacon Hill.

“How did spending public tax dollars on public services for the public good become a lower priority than subsidizing private industries?” asked Fortune.

The Canadian Greens and the voters of the Saanich-Gulf Islands BC riding made history yesterday by electing Green Party leader Elizabeth May to Parliament. May, who was excluded from the national debates (as a national party leader) on the argument that they did not have an elected Member of Parliament, became the first Green MP in Canada’s federal government. They excluded her despite the fact that May participated in the 2008 debates and did very well, resulting in significant federal funding of the Green Party annually. The Greens also fielded MP candidates in 304 out of Canada’s 308 total ridings.

Asked what just one lone MP can do, May responded “Just watch me!”

Watch her victory speech and post-election interview (below the jump):

Come one, come all!

Come to a hearing on Thursday, May 5, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston, to support “An Act to Invest In Our Communities”

by John Andrews, Nat Fortune, Shirley Kressel, and Jill Stein

{ Cross-posted at Open Media Boston and Blue Mass Group }

Dear GRP supporters and activists,

Please join us at a hearing on Thursday, May 5, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston. Come tell the Governor and legislature to stop slashing critical health, education, social and environmental services in order to protect billions in useless corporate tax giveaways and subsidies for the massive, needless health insurance bureaucracy!

Raise the bar for a better budget and real tax reform. As a first step, we’re supporting “An Act to Invest In Our Communities” (SB1416 / HB2553) at the hearing. Supporting this revenue bill is one part of our commitment to stop the cruel, needless cuts that the governor and legislature are making to critical programs.

This is a great tool to get a quick glimpse of the effect of money in state legislative races. What did Bob DeLeo need $895,000 for? Well, it’s one way to funnel money around to your Democratic buddies who do your dirty work. And it’s sure gotta be nice to have $446k in the bank.

From the Green-Rainbow Party

4/29/2011

Dear GRP supporters and activists,

Please join us at the hearing Thursday, May 5, anytime between 10:00 AM & 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston. Come tell the Governor and legislature to stop slashing critical health, education, social and environmental services in order to protect billions in useless corporate tax give-aways and subsidies for the massive, needless health insurance bureaucracy!

Raise the bar for a better budget and real tax reform. As a first step, we’re also supporting “An Act to Invest In Our Communities” (SB1416 / HB2553) at the hearing. Supporting this revenue bill is one part of our commitment to stop the cruel, & unnecessary cuts that the governor and legislature are proposing.

In addition to asking the rich to pay their fair share, the GRP is also calling for single-payer Medicare-for-all health care and the elimination of unjustified and ineffective corporate subsidies – saving at least $2.5 billion a year. The Green-Rainbow Party alone brings it all together into a “Better Budget,” which will not only prevent new budget cuts, but will allow us to restore essential public services that have been severely compromised over the past decade.  

{Note: it appears that this subpoena was served on David House of Cambridge, who was detained last year in connection to an investigation of WikiLeaks.}

FBI serves Grand Jury subpoena likely relating to WikiLeaks

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Wednesday, Apr 27, 2011

In the wake of a massive disclosure of Guantanamo files by WikiLeaks, the FBI yesterday served a Grand Jury subpoena in Boston on a Cambridge resident, compelling his appearance to testify in Alexandria, Virgina.  Alexandria is where a Grand Jury has been convened to criminally investigate WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and determine whether an indictment against them is warranted.  The individual served has been publicly linked to the WikiLeaks case, and it is highly likely that the Subpoena was issued in connection with that investigation.

Notably, the Subopena explicitly indicates that the Grand Jury is investigating possible violations of the Espionage Act (18 U.S.C. 793), a draconian 1917 law under which no non-government-employee has ever been convicted for disclosing classified information.  The most strident anti-WikiLeaks politicians — such as Dianne Feinstein and Newt Gingrich — have called for the prosecution of the whistle-blowing group under this law, and it appears that the Obama DOJ is at least strongly considering that possibility.