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Is it possible to replace the “money bomb” with a “Democracy Day?” Can we stem the tide of unjust, profit-driven policy, controlled by big-money corporations and their lobbyists? What would it take in Massachusetts to build a viable political alternative that is NOT beholden to special interests, and is instead truly accountable to the people of the Commonwealth, driven by the needs and desires of ordinary citizens across the state?

As Carl Davidson said at a Majority Agenda Project event, we need to organize our money, our votes, and our ideas. I think one way to do all 3 together is through the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts.

One mechanism I’ve been working on to help us organize our money is a remix of Ron Paul’s “money bomb.” Hating that term, we’ve been cooking up a more positive spin, called “Democracy Day”:

Continue reading Democracy Day #2 – 232 small-money contributions towards democracy!
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Originally posted at DemocracyDays.com, cross-posted at Blue Mass Group.

Nobody symbolizes the interests of organized money to corrupt the political process in Massachusetts, to generally subvert the will of the people, and in one notorious instance, to squash the Clean Elections Law, more clearly than disgraced former House Speaker Tom Finneran.

And nobody symbolizes the struggle for clean, corruption-free elections in Massachusetts more clearly than Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor in 2002 and now in 2010.

Now, Finneran is daring you to tip the balance towards democracy.

Continue reading Stein campaign is a clarion call for clean elections
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The MA legislature’s conference committee just made another $300 million in cuts to state health care, education grants, elder home-care services, child care for working parents, human services, and other areas of the state budget for FY2011, conveniently putting the blame on our newest senator, Scott Brown.

Not mentioned in the press releases is the fact  that our legislature  gave away $300 million they would otherwise have this FY2010 in “single sales factor (SSF)” tax expenditures to Fidelity/Raytheon/related manufacturing corporations for “job creation,”  even though many of those corporations  are actually cutting jobs. According to the Boston Globe, “Fidelity’s Massachusetts workforce now stands at  a more than 9,000 workers, down from 13,000 four years ago.”

As Jill Stein often puts it, these tax expenditures are literally  “payoffs for layoffs.”  In my opinion, they are also the legalized theft of public funds.

Why not use the tax dollars we’re throwing away on tax expenditures like these  to really create jobs by rehiring laid-off teachers, firefighters, librarians, and health care workers? Why not collect the taxes we would otherwise be due instead of raising the sales tax?

Want to know  how the “single sales formula” or “tax apportionment” scam works? Read on.  

Continue reading Payoffs for Layoffs Continue As Massachusetts Legislature Cries Crocodile Tears
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The Age of Reptiles ended because it had gone on long enough and it was all a mistake in the first place. (Will Cuppy, How to Become Extinct, 1941)

What makes the town of Amherst what it is?  First, it is the presence of UMass and the two colleges. That is what makes the area the largest source of employment in western Massachusetts, bread and butter for many households, and that is what makes it a culturally stimulating life style desired by many-some fleeing urban anomie. Students clamoring for living space make it a landlord’s paradise.  Adding the bucolic remains of a previous agricultural setting has attracted gentrifying upper middle class families and retirees, turning it into a real-estate bonanza for banks, invested property owners and overrated Wall Street securities. Finally, the town’s well-regarded public schools attract many.  

Continue reading After Amherst
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Between 1790 and the Civil War (the early republic) the people of New England (and much of the US) lived mostly scattered about on small farms. The miles between town centers would increase with Western expansion. But what has been called the “friction of distance” was, from the start, a much greater challenge to travel, location and commerce than it is now-in the era of carbon-fueled vehicles.   In fact, hundreds of thousands of people traveled primarily by foot (“shank’s pony”), not horse and wagon, increasing this friction even more. In the 1840s, tax records and household inventories make it clear that horse ownership was then less equally distributed than automobiles are among Americans today.  

Continue reading Build Up, Not Out
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In our recent columns we questioned whether the historically inherited political structure of our existing towns with their existing borders remains relevant for addressing the looming energy and climate crises we face and suggested the benefits of a regional approach to economic production and services.  We also introduced the logic of relocalization, which would make towns more energy and food self-reliant and more carbon-conserving by shortening the distances of people to work and crops to market.  We now examine as case studies in relocalization two plans under review for Amherst: a corporate R&D project that has been proposed for land zoned “professional research park” or PRP in the very north of Amherst, and a redevelopment project that would bring a mix of housing and commercial/retail space to an area between the downtown and the UMass campus called the Gateway District.  

Continue reading Amherst Grapples with Relocalization
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This is the prepared text of a speech that I gave at the Berkshire Regional Convention of the Green-Rainbow Party on June 19, 2010 in Pittsfield.  I am running for State Rep in the 4th Berkshire District.

Other speakers at the event were JD Hebert, who spoke on homelessness, Nick Stanton, who discussed Transition Towns, Mark Miller, candidate for State Rep in the 3rd Berkshire District, and Jill Stein, candidate for Governor.

Continue reading A Candidate’s Convention Speech

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Everyone knows that third party candidates have a rough time in the media, if not for the fact that outlets who favor Democrats or Republicans don’t like third parties, then simply because they think people are uninterested in hearing about them. And anyone who’s interested in seeing third parties do well in elections knows that this is somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy; news outlets don’t adequately cover third-party candidates, meaning fewer people hear about them, which in turn means that not many people end up voting for them on election day. We all know this to be an intrinsic reality of our democracy, but I’m staring at this first-hand, right now, and we all need to see it.  

Continue reading This is how negative feedback in politics works
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A picture says a thousand words, and the big smiles across the faces of the insider candidates for governor in their pre-debate photo-op with disgraced Speaker of the House Tom Finneran says it all.

From a Jill Stein press release:

EXCLUSIONARY GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE WAS DISSERVICE TO VOTERS, STEIN CHARGES

BOSTON –  Following today’s gubernatorial debate on WRKO,  gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein  noted that “In this debate, Tim Cahill, Charlie Baker, and Deval Patrick cozied up with the disgraced former House Speaker Tom Finneran to give the voters of the Commonwealth a very narrow vision of the state’s future.  The failing policies of the Beacon Hill machines were endorsed as great ideas and real solutions were kept off the table.  We’re going to work hard to break up this tedious deception and let the voters hear a real alternative to business as usual in Massachusetts.”

The debate was hosted by Finneran and included only three of the four gubernatorial candidates.  The Green-Rainbow Party candidate, Stein, was excluded from the debate, whose producers declined to return numerous phone calls from the campaign requesting that Stein be allowed to participate.

After noting that the three candidates invited by Finneran found themselves agreeing on issue after issue, Stein offered the following critique of the debate (below the fold):

Continue reading Lovefest on WRKO with Beacon Hill insiders
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