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Jeff Crosby of IUE-CWA Local 201 in Lynn, Massachusetts has written an insightful post on the abandonment and demonization of both the public sector and the public good by our own legislative leaders.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04…

He proposes union rank and file take 5 steps to better “protect both public workers’ living standards and public services for the rest of us” — should be all of us there, Jeff! — but in my opinion, these are 5 principles we all need to adopt. As Jeff notes,

Either we change the public perception of government-equating the public sector with the public good with each word we speak-or we lose public jobs and services. And that hurts us all.

Continue reading Public Sector, Public Good
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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.

Continue reading follow the money
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[Update: Read the comments to see the Committee of Seventy’s response. -ed.]

Hello from Philadelphia, Green Mass Group!  Here we’ve got a VERY strong candidate for Sheriff running on a “no evictions” platform, promoting ideas like community land trusts and greening the sheriff’s fleet.  Her name is Cheri Honkala and she’s a longtime activist in Philadelphia and around the country.

But an important civic organization here in Philadelphia, the Committee of Seventy, is ignoring her candidacy.  They won’t give her a spot on their website alongside the duopoly candidates (although here in Philly it’s really one-party rule by Democrats), and they pretty much won’t even acknowledge she exists.

So we’ve got an online petition that we started yesterday, and all that I’m asking now is that you sign the petition and pass it along to your Green friends and any friends in Philadelphia.  This is an incredibly easy thing to do and one instance where an online petition could actually make a difference!

Here it is:  http://www.change.org/petition…

[And keep us in mind in the coming months, because the campaign is having events all over the country to support Cheri!]

Continue reading Green solidarity: two seconds of your time to help Cheri Honkala, candidate for Philly Sheriff
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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.  

Continue reading Join us May 5th – Stop the needless cruel cuts!
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{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.  

Continue reading FBI serves Grand Jury subpoena re: WikiLeaks to Cambridge resident
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I think we’ve reached that point in the movie where the hapless, soon-to-drown protagonist frantically abandons his lifeboat as it is drawn ever closer to the waterfall,  in the desperate but curious hope that sending the boat to its demise will stave off his own death long enough for rescue by a passing commercial steamboat. The audience has seen, however, what the protagonist has yet to recognize: that his fate was self-inflicted,  and the promised help of the steamboat will never arrive.

One wonders what the elected pilots of the good ship MA Legislature have been thinking when they first set sail on this voyage.

First there was the curious assertion by the legislature and governor that they could provide affordable and universal heath care coverage by subsidizing private insurers already imposing tsunami inducing price hikes, without ever addressing the exponentially rising costs the price hikes were supposed to cover. Ignoring the only demonstratively seaworthy vessel for affordable and comprehensive health care for all — single-payer —- the legislature charted a course for failure at the very outset of its voyage, saying it would revisit the issue of costs once they reached open water.

http://network.greenchange.org…

Once ship has started to take on water, our legislators started to bail. Ending collective bargaining in an effort to temporarily reduce their costs is only the latest attempted port of call.  

Continue reading MA Democratic Party rips apart its union-made lifeboat in hopes of rescue by corporate steamer
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[Ed. note: for all the power and inspiration that came out of the NCMR, it did feel incredibly white and timid]

From Black Agenda Report

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR editor and columnist Jared A. Ball

4/26/2011

The Media Reform Conference and Democracy Now! share common characteristics: they are the best that the white left has to offer, and profoundly inadequate. Democracy Now! doesn’t just shortchange people of color, but unions as well. And the politics of periodic Media Reform conferences are as blindingly white as the corporate variety.

Race, Class, Unions and Media “Reform”

There is truly good reason for friends to remind me of my having gone back on a previously made promise to stop attending the very white and liberal National Conference for Media Reform [6]. Again the conference gathered, this year in Boston a couple of weeks ago, and again nearly all of the Black and Brown people I spoke to expressed disappointment at being present but not so much heard. One friend promised to smack me and anyone else he hears about coming back in the future. Another more prominent Black woman within this and other related political struggles whose experience and work truly deserves more credit and attention than she gets simply raised her tired eyes above her glasses and asked me with all the frustration and fatigue in the world, “Jared, why do you come here?”

Continue reading Race, Class, Unions, and Media “Reform”
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…posted below.

Of course, if you’re gonna see it anywhere, it’s likely to be GMG. So, ’twas even better to see it posted by a serious candidate for US Senate on his public FB page–Somerville’s Bob Massie. How many mainstream candidates do you see touting McKibben? And how many mainstream candidates do you see McKibben showing up to endorse?

Eli wrote some time ago that “Bill McKibben has accepted that the time for individuals acting on their own has past, and that it is time for collective (i.e., political) action.” He seems to be embracing this with a vengeance now. I know that his decision to actively fundraise for a Democrat will be disappointing to some–Eli’s point, of course, was that Bill should be actively working to promote a party/parties that share an ecological vision as opposed to a growth-oriented economy.

But simply deriding or dismissing individual candidates because they’ve opted for a different strategy gets us nowhere.

So, with, so far as I can tell, no GRP candidates prepared to take on Scott Brown, I’d urge all Greens to have a look at Massie. I’ve come out about as publicly as possible noting that I’m very much liking what I’m seeing.  

Continue reading Good to See The PowerSpeech Video

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http://www.kickstarter.com/pro…

RDTN.org: Radiation Detection Hardware Network in Japan

RDTN.org is a website whose purpose is to provide an aggregate feed of nuclear radiation data from governmental, non-governmental and citizen-scientist sources. That data will be made available to everyone, including scientists and nuclear experts who can provide context for lay people. In the weeks following launch, it has become evident that there is a need for additional radiation reporting from the ground in Japan. This Kickstarter project will help us purchase up to 600 Geiger Counter devices that will be deployed to Japan. (The project minimum will fund 100 devices).

hat tip boingbong

They’ve raised $13,104 of their $33,000 goal from 128 backers and have 14 days left to fund their project.

Continue reading Citizens’ Radiation Monitoring Networks
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