The following is the cover letter I wrote yesterday to accompany my answers to ten questions from the Massachusetts Citizens for Life. YES answers on the questionnaire indicate agreement with MCFL‘s position. MCFL describes itself as the “commonwealth’s largest pro-life organization.”
Continue reading MA Citizens for Life – A Candidate QuestionnaireOK, I’ve done my homework. I supported Mike Lake in the Democratic Primary because I felt he would be the candidate to do the work without closing his eyes to favorite agencies or favorite officials, or ignore wasteful policies that support this or that corporation or other anti-taxpayer type “look the other way” shenanigans. But he didn’t win.
I am a registered Democrat, and have been a Democrat my entire adult life. So I will say that it took some time, thought, and reflection to decide to break with my party and publicly support and promote Jill Stein for Governor. I am convinced it is the right thing to do. I can confidently promote her candidacy to others knowing that she is the only candidate looking out for the working middle class in a meaningful way.
I am not a big fan of Suzanne Bump. I feel she has too many friends in corporate circles and that she may not always do what’s best for the people of this state. My concern is that more often than not she will approach government spending with an eye to benefiting corporate interests and corporate profits. We just don’t need anymore of this in our government. We already have too much. Mary Connaughton is not an option for me because I just can’t support the Republican principles that got us into this economic mess in the first place. Not only that, there are other social issues that the Republicans stand for that are so contrary to my values that my voting for a Republican will simply never happen.
Continue reading I am supporting Nat Fortune for State AuditorFront Page – Above the fold:
Covert Operations
The billionaire brothers who are
waging a war against Obama.
Kudos to the Sunday Republican Newspaper for reprinting this story by Jane Mayer, first published in the Aug 30 edition of The New Yorker. This article exposes the Koch brothers for their role in swaying elections and influencing legislation by using their bottomless pit of billions:
The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry-especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies-from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program-that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Kochtopus.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/repor…
It shows their connection to the Tea Party through the Americans for Prosperity organization, heck, it shows the connection to the Americans for Properity organization.
Continue reading KUDOS to Springfield’s Sunday Republican .Watch the video linked to this story — all 5 minutes and 58 painful seconds of it — and try not to cringe as the Honorable former State Representative/Lobbyist/Cabinet Secretary Bump explains in her own words the technical basis on which she is entitled to a residential tax break for two different residences:
http://www.patriotledger.com/n…
Is the auditor supposed to practice evasion, or expose it? Is this the kind of nuanced argument — I didn’t get a break on those property taxes, I got a break on this other property tax! The tax break I got for saying I lived in Boston was different from the tax break I got for saying I lived in Great Barrington, so I’m not really claiming two tax breaks! — that we expect a state auditor to accept?
Wasn’t it Suzanne Bump who was rightfully going after Guy Glodis for acting as if the laws applied differently to him than for everyone else? That there’s no place in the auditor’s office for tax evasion and double dealing?
Continue reading Democratic party candidate for state auditor explains property tax laws for the laypersonSTATEMENT BY SUZANNE BUMP, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR STATE AUDITOR, REGARDING SHERIFF GUY GLODIS AND TODAY’S FRONT PAGE STORY IN THE BOSTON GLOBE
Sep 2, 2010 | Suzanne Bump for Auditor
What makes Guy Glodis believe he is not subject to the same rules which apply to everyone else? And, more troubling, why, when caught red-handed in wrong-doing, does Guy Glodis refuse to take responsibility for his actions? Today we add federal tax evasion to the growing list of apparent violations of the law involving Sheriff Guy Glodis. MORE ยป
THE GREEN – RAINBOW PARTY OF MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON CHAPTER SAYS: CHUCK IS INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES!
On October 12, 2010 the federal government will put on trial the most prominent elected official affiliated with the GRP, neighbor and friend, Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner. It will attempt to convince a jury that he is guilty of extorting $1,000 and lying to FBI officials.
Chuck Turner is an honest man who has never extorted a penny from anyone. He has championed justice for everyone, especially the residents of District 7 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Chuck maintains his innocence. He will use the trial to expose the unethical and immoral behavior of those who have conspired to silence him.
Members of the Boston chapter of the Green-Rainbow Party have known and worked with Chuck Turner for many years. We Believe in Chuck and stand with him during this time of government and media persecution.
We believe that Chuck’s re-election, after being falsely indicted on these false charges, is proof and evidence that his peers and constituents know that he is innocent. We also demand that President Obama’s Justice Department immediately drop the false charges brought by the Bush Administration.
Chuck Turner has been a community organizer and civil rights activist in Boston since 1966. Since his first election in 1999, he has been an outstanding City Councilor. He played a major role in the fight that brought reform to the Cori laws at the city and state level. Other legislative accomplishments have included the banning of carrying machetes as well as the selling of “crack pipes” in Boston as well as giving voters the right to bullet vote in At Large Elections.
Continue reading THE GREEN – RAINBOW PARTY OF MASSACHUSETTS, BOSTON CHAPTER SAYS: CHUCK IS INNOCENT OF ALL CHARGES!From Nat Fortune for State Auditor:
October 6th, 2010
CONNAUGHTON OVERLOOKS OWN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM LOBBYISTS
In brief remarks today, Green-Rainbow Party State Auditor candidate Nat Fortune said Republican candidate Mary Connaughton was right to criticize Democratic candidate Suzanne Bump’s reliance on contributions from political action committees and lobbyists, but also noted that Connaughton failed to bring up her own campaign’s dependence on industry and lobbyists.
“Looks like Mary Connaughton needs to do a closer audit of her own campaign,” said Fortune. “As of 20 July 2010, the independent watchdog group National Institute for Money in State Politics http://www.followthemoney.org/ had identified at least a dozen contributions from lobbyists to her campaign, including prominent Beacon Hill lobbyists Thomas Trimarco of O’Neil and Associates and Robert White of Robert White and Associates,” Fortune continued. Other contributors included Daniel Haley and William Weld of the New York based lobbying group McDermett, Will, and Emery, recent lobbyists in Massachusetts for Raytheon Corporation and the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers (2008).
Two news events in the past week make clear the importance of bringing new ideas and a new approach to the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding the “radio silence” about the race among most members of the media. First, there is no doubt that behind L’Affaire Loscocco, and the continued calls from pundits and politicians alike for both Tim Cahill and Jill Stein to drop out of the gubernatorial campaign, is the concern for the “spoiler” effect, that somehow votes are being stolen away from the dominant party candidates. But this belies the fact that, in the face of catcalls and negative advertising, thousands of Massachusetts voters still believe in the messages put forth by the non-mainstream candidates. The voices of these voters should not be functionally silenced, even though our election system creates the perverse incentive to do just that.
Second, Suffolk University Law School last week released the results of a September poll, which found that (1) 70% of Massachusetts voters “believe that public access to government is critical to the functioning of good government”, but (2) 57% of the voters believe that Massachusetts government is secretive in nature. This is easy to understand when requests for public records can often be costly and time consuming, when electronically-collected state ethics information is not accessible online, which is the case in 29 other states (see Boston Globe, page B1, August 14, 2010), and when requests for e-mails are made, the response is often to print out page after page, rather than simply copy them to disk. In essence, our almost 40-year-old public records law is not working to break down the barriers to easy and inexpensive access to public information.
As Secretary, I want to tackle both of these problems, to make sure that we are engaging the people of Massachusetts in their government, and not erecting (or maintaining) barriers that hold them at bay. I will actively work with the legislature to update the public records law, to truly recognize the existence of electronic records and our expectations of their availability. But more crucial is the adoption of the “open data” model as part of an updated public records law, as that will go a long way to reducing the sense of secrecy. Likewise, I will honor the voices of all voters in Massachusetts, including the majority who identify themselves as independents, by advocating for ranked choice (or instant runoff) voting. Voter turnout in statewide elections continues to be unacceptably low (our most recent primary had only 17% turnout), so we must work to reform our election system so that voters can feel they have something to vote for, instead of simply being left with the Hobson’s choice of voting against a particular candidate. I will improve upon our rather imperfect status quo. Please visit my website to get involved in my campaign and help me bring these innovations to the office of the Secretary.
(And for a special bonus, look below…)
Continue reading Through all the noise, reforms for next Secretary become evidentOn Saturday, October 2, the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) kicked off a cross-state walk/bike-a-thon which began at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield. Participants are traversing the commonwealth from the Berkshires to Boston. I and some other candidates for office were invited to speak, as were some students, faculty, administrators, and a city councilor. The event was designed to draw attention to the cuts in public spending on higher education that now mean that Massachusetts ranks 46th of all states in such spending. The result is growing unaffordability.
It was encouraging to note that a number of student speakers were aware that other countries make more public investments into higher education than this country does, which substantially relieves cost and debt burdens that students would otherwise face. In this country, the high costs of higher education not only mean that fewer numbers of students are able to afford higher education, it also means that the debt loads that a student incurs will dictate the course of study for those who decide to take on the burden. High costs and high levels of debt translate into a student body excessively pre-occupied with concerns of how to pay off their loans.
The walk and bicycling began after the speeches. Later in the day I joined the group of about twenty students on the final portion of their walk from Pittsfield to Lenox. It was a pleasure to meet the students, faculty leaders, PHENOM board members, and to introduce them to my community. By the time we arrived at the library, the park benches offered a welcome respite. The day was beautiful and the spirits were high, even if the bodies were fatigued.
The following are the prepared notes I made for the speech I delivered in the morning at Berkshire Community College.
Continue reading Public Higher Education – A Candidate’s SpeechFrom Maggie Zhou, MA delegate to GPUS, to the peace contingent gathering for the 10/2/10 One Nation Working Together march in Washington, D.C.
Brothers and Sisters,
We are here today because we are angry at the multitude of problems that our government is responsible for, the many ways the system has failed us, and we recognize the root causes of all these problems are the same, and therefore they require common solutions.
Many of us here are peace activists. For nine years, we have been trying to stop the ongoing US wars for oil and for the expansion of the military-industrial complex. In fact, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are epicenters of the larger war we’re waging against Mother Earth & her children. It is where our death-dealing empire bombs the planet, drill her, bleed her for her oil, poison her with radioactivity, and rape her out of the life she had, the innocent lives of men, women and children, and the fertile soils that once was the food basket of the Middle East.
But, there are many other epicenters in this larger war against Mother Earth. A massive hemorrhage was just inflicted in the Gulf of Mexico by one of the worst perpetrators in this war. Mountain Top Removal coal mining has been denuding, defacing & poisoning the beautiful mountain ranges and streams of Appalachia and the entire coal country. Hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, for “natural gas” extraction, has been poisoning our groundwater, and consequently food production, anywhere it touched, and it’s taking over America with a vengeance. Looking around the globe, the gazillion mines where we humans extract the insides of Mother Earth & poison her outside with it, the many shopping malls and pavements and parking lots we built in place of her life-giving forests and grasslands, the many dams we built that chokes the life out of her ecosystems, the diversion of her rivers & streams & precious groundwater reservoirs for monoculture, chemical-laiden farming operations, and now devastatingly, the crazed worldwide expansion of “energy crops” for biofuel, biomass & biochar production…
Continue reading Maggie Zhou’s speech to the peace contingent