Cambridge, Massachusetts is the East Coast’s Berkeley, California. Its crunchy reputation — from hippie/granola to People’s Republic — is well-earned on average, but, well, a bit off-target and way out of date. You see, since rent control was thrown out by the end of 1994, Cambridge has seen a dramatic erosion of its working class communities. And going back to 1940, when the Plan E / City Manager form of government was first instituted, the elites have found it easier and easier to pull the strings on policies of social upheaval and community destruction.

While no substitute for reading Bill Cunningham’s historical backgrounder Which People’s Republic?, he manages to sum it all up in one sentence:

In Cambridge, these policies have uprooted poor and working class communities in order to cultivate, on the same soil, the University City.

And for all the feel-good progressivism that pervades this city, there is an underbelly of corruption, liberalism, and exploitation that stink up the place. The racial diversity is lovely, but quietly growing apartheid conditions and a fierce, latent racism mean that such feel-good sentiments are dangerous illusions. And while it’s lovely that we are sister cities with so many others around the world, we are on a path of social destruction here at home. I am proud and grateful to live in a city that has an active, funded Peace Commission, but I am ashamed to live in a city with a more active, better-funded city government that colludes to protect the elite university, biotech, and developer interests at the expense of its own people.

So it is with a bit of glee that I observe the unfolding drama around the wrongful-termination lawsuit that is haunting City Manager Bob Healy and the complicit City Council. It’s rare that all the corruption, hypocrisy, and racism hiding under the veneer of all the many positives that Cambridge has going for it bubble to the surface in one instance.

Peter Vickery gave me chills today, when he painted the picture of what will happen on October 18th this fall, when Mark C. Miller becomes the first-ever Green-Rainbow Party candidate elected to the State House. Mark, who received an extraordinary 45% of the vote against an incumbent Democrat in his first time running for office,  spending just over $3,000, would raise $20,000 this go-round, and run a 90-day sprint to reach the 4,000 Unenrolled voters in his district.

Mark followed up this grand introduction by pointing out one key difference from his 2010 run — this time he’d have a campaign manager, Peter Vickery. He then proceeded to outline what he was struggling with as a candidate, and what he was yearning to bring to the 3rd Berkshire District. And there was no simple rhetoric available to him, no campaign playbook for messaging his vision for Pittsfield, the Berkshires, and the Commonwealth. He is looking to run a transformative campaign, sparking the economic, cultural, and political transformation that Pittsfield and the rest of the state is burning for.

Transformation is what we need, and Mark’s victory will indeed be a transformative act. It’s easily within our grasp if we rise to this exciting — joyous was Mark’s word — 90-day challenge and make it happen.

Part of the challenge will be communicating the idea of a transformative campaign in a way that connects with the average voter in Pittsfield, and re-connects with those who have given up on the political system entirely. It will be a crowded field for this open seat, and there’s a mountain to climb to win it. But we have 93 days in which to do it. 93 days to change Massachusetts politics forever.

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.

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):

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.