GRP Candidates Unanimously Support Bill and Decry Legislative Inaction

The Green-Rainbow Party calls on the Massachusetts Legislature to adopt, without delay, “An Act to stabilize neighborhoods” (H 4595, a.k.a. “the foreclosure bill”). As summarized by City Life/Vida Urbana & MAAPL, the bill

“…would prevent foreclosing banks from evicting tenants `no-fault’ in buildings banks own after foreclosure. The law would only affect foreclosing banks, not subsequent owners. The proposed law would not require state funding. It will help homeowners facing foreclosure by making banks make a good faith offer for a loan modification to prevent foreclosure or the bank will have to wait an additional 60 days up to a total of 150 days before it can foreclosure. This will provide incentives for more good faith negotiation by banks.”

The legislation will also make mortgage fraud a criminal action and assist localities in rehabilitating foreclosed properties.

…and pass h.4595, “An Act to stabilize neighborhoods?” The Senate passed the damn thing months ago–UNANIMOUSLY!!!–as it’s a NO-COST to the taxpayers, common-sense bill that actually affords real protection to those being screwed by our infinitely mismanaged economy.

(NB: the legislative session ends on JULY 31!!!)

We’re looking at around 12,000  

Yeah, I’ve already come out on this issue. But I’d really like ALL of our candidates to come out swinging for the fences when it comes to legalization. Not simply because it makes sense economically, nor because it’s the right thing to do, or even simply because prohibition (and fines) is a total freaking joke that continues to screw kids–like mine, again, goddamnitall–but because it makes sense politically.

Here’s an excerpt from a short article by Josh Green, writing in The Atlantic under the heading, “Do Marijuana Ballot Initiatives Help Democrats Win?”:

Acting on a tip from an Obama official, I found a few Democratic consultants who have become convinced that ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana, like the one Californians will vote on in November, actually help Democrats in the same way that gay marriage bans were supposed to have helped Republicans. They are similarly popular, with medical marijuana having passed in 14 states (and the District of Columbia) where it has appeared on the ballot. In a recent poll, 56 percent of Californians said they favor the upcoming initiative to legalize and tax pot.

The idea that this helps Democrats is based on the demographic profile of who shows up to vote for marijuana initiatives–and wouldn’t show up otherwise. “If you look at who turns out to vote for marijuana,” says Jim Merlino, a consultant in Colorado, which passed initiatives in 2000 and 2006, “they’re generally under 35. And young people tend to vote Democratic.” This influx of new voters, he believes, helps Democrats up and down the ticket.”

Key line, which I’ll repeat over and again: “the demographic profile of who shows up to vote for marijuana initiatives–and wouldn’t show up otherwise. You know, the ones who haven’t exactly been flocking to the GRP…

For goddsakes, let’s not let the Dems reap the  advantage on this. We need to be VOCAL.

Except, of course, that it isn’t a performance at all–you won’t find a more forthright, sincere candidate anywhere.

I don’t ordinarily post simple links, but this extensive interview with Jill on Finneran’s RKO talk show is too good to pass up–primarily because of the sound–actually, critical!–discussion of the need to support local agriculture and extend its benefits via farm-to-school and farm-to-etc programs. The type of agricultural policies and programs Jill supports pay off in too many ways to enumerate–they’re win-win-win-win all around. Programs like these are a good start, but what we really need to do is to create structures here in MA that allow small, local, organic farmers to compete WITHOUT relying on federal or even state subsidies. That’s a hallmark of the Stein campaign–and only one of various issues she addresses in this interview.  

The following is from OpenMedia Boston. I’ve seen Ms. Mai’s work, and she is not only a TERRIFIC photographer–she shows up. We complain about our non-access to mainstream media–here’s a chance to support the best alterna media channel in Boston. HIT THE LINK AT END for how to help.

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Last week our ace staff photographer Diana Mai had all her camera equipment (and a Dell laptop) stolen from her Mission Hill apartment.  

Michael Horan

Never mind my own transparent interest in this year’s state elections–it’s gonna represent a major fix for political junkies everywhere. When the Republican GOP primaries in Utah and Kentucky fascinate, you know it’s gonna be a good one. By November, people may have forgot all about Scott Brown’s win. Great fun if you love this kind of thing. And watching everybody get it wrong makes it that much tastier.

Check out Matt Taibbi in Wednesday’s NYT.

When I hauled out of Newark (NJ) for the pastures of upstate New York some 25 years ago, intent, for reasons which today I honestly cannot recall, on adding another degree to my vita, I figured I’d stick around just long enough to complete what coursework I needed in advance of my dissertation and then get the hell out. Lovely country, to be sure, but after the thrills of Newark–at that time, car hijackings at high noon on main street was the sport of choice–Binghamton seemed, let’s say, a bit … placid. Tame. OK: downright freakin’ dull.

To my surprise,  I stayed on for a decade. Binghamton turned out to be manageable, libertarian (rustic style, and that ain’t a bad thing), maybe even a good place to raise a brood, and not incidentally chock full of lively bars featuring astonishingly cheap beer, wings made the right way,  blues bands out of Syracuse, and other stuff you do not need to know about.  But the local economy–heavily dependent on IBM and Martin Marietta–took a nosedive when quarterly earnings reports called for one big-ass axe, and when I left Binghamton for Philly,

The NYT “Room for Debate” column is hosting a discussion between five pundits under the rubric, “When is it Smart to Abandon your Party?”(The question actually refers to the wisdom of politicians themselves, and not voters, doing just that, with a focus on the Charlie Crist campaign in Florida). Sadly, all of the pundits themselves are in thrall to the system, and are more interested in how to strategize within it than in proposing solutions–in other words, trying to figure out what’s best for politicians–not voters.

I posted the following comment in the thread (still awaiting moderator approval as I write):

It’s interesting to see how many of these commentators note that the game is, in effect, rigged, to the benefit of the two majors. 1) Removing constraints to ballot access and 2) implementing clean elections funding laws would go a long way towards opening up opportunities for voter choice–but equally critical is 3) instituting instant run-off voting, which solves “the Nader problem” (voting for your preferred choice can lead to election of your least-favorite candidate) along with one of the most depressing aspects of current electoral politics–the woefully unexciting decision to vote for “the lesser of two evils.”

The need for such a system was well-evidenced here in Massachusetts during the recent special election. Many voters decided (unhappily, in my view) that the race for Ted Kennedy’s seat was a referendum on healthcare reform. For the relatively small percentage of true conservatives, that was no problem: their preferred choice was Scott Brown. But what of progressives who opposed a HCR bill that didn’t include a public option (along with a process that never even broached the subject of single-payer)? Alas, some voted for Brown, biting off their nose to spite their faces; many others simply stayed home. The ultimate effect: electing someone who is never going to be a friend to their own crusade.

Now we have a governor’s race–which is in fact a three-way race, as Dem State Treasurer Tim Cahill wages an independent battle, squaring off against presumptive GOP nominee Charlie Baker for conservative votes. At the same time, progressives’ dissatisfaction with Gov. Deval Patrick runs high. There’s an alternative there, too–the state Green party (Green-Rainbow Party) is running a first-rate candidate in Jill Stein (who garnered some 18% of the votes a few years back when she ran for Sec of the Commonwealth). The Party is sufficiently well-organized to overcome ballot access hurdles–but the money issue (GRP candidates don’t accept corporate contributions), lack of media attention (the media consortia who hold debates don’t want third party candidates), and, most of all, the fear of the spoiler effect aren’t easily resolved. The Libertarian Party faces the same dilemma. And it’s not just a dilemma for the parties, but for voters who are clearly VERY hungry indeed for more choice. But until the three reforms I noted above are put into play, too many voters will once again go to the polls holding their noses, while the corporate donors who fund BOTH major party candidates laugh all the way to the unregulated banks.

Yeh, this one’s for the workers who toil night and day

By hand and by brain to earn your pay

Who for centuries long past for no more than your bread

Have bled for your countries and counted your dead

Read on.

What strikes me as most important about this piece isn’t BP’s insanely long history of conscientious neglect. It’s the business about how BP isn’t particularly concerned with the ramifications of cap-and-trade. We can’t do much to save the shrimp–not that any of us have actually tasted wild domestic shrimp lately–but we can … maybe .. do something about cap-and-trade.

BTW, this is off Kos. Which I every now and then take an oath never to visit again. But if you can get past the snarky attitude of Markos and friends when it comes to third parties (and even noble Democratic outliers like Mike Gravel)… there’s much on the site that’s indispensable.

That there are people out there staying up all night doing this kind of research in order post an article gratis makes me more hopeful than does anything else. No, DGW isn’t going to approach Beck’s ratings anytime soon. But he’s reached me, and he’s reached you, and now you’re going to disseminate that link far and wide….