If you ever had any illusions that you live in a democracy, the testimony at the DiMasi trial should lay them to rest. The trial is trying to decide if DiMasi goes to prison. But as State House News reporter Kyle Cheney noted “It was the rare moments of agreement between prosecutors and defense attorneys that were often the most jarring: If you want to win the speaker’s ear, no matter how worthy the cause, hiring a well-connected lobbyist is a must. If the speaker wants something in the budget, it will appear in the budget – or in a bond bill, or in a supplemental spending bill – Ways and Means Committee be damned.”
Continue reading A Clear Message From the CourtroomCorruption
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
The other day I called Governor Walker’s appearance on a prank phone call — showing the world the corrupted state of affairs inside the halls of power here in the U.S. — his “Mubarak Moment.”
I think today he’s done it again. Walker’s Mubarak Moment #2 was today’s attempt to close down the Capitol Building, giving protestors a 4pm deadline to leave.
Check out Ben Brandzel’s live feed of what’s happening in the Capitol Building. I think it’s possible that Walker’s curfew might have sparked the defining battle, like that over who controlled Tahrir Square. Whose House?! OUR HOUSE!
Continue reading Governor Walker’s Mubarak Moment #2Reporters keep asking me why I won’t resign since I have been convicted of the crime of extortion of $1000 and three crimes of lying to FBI officials. I appreciate the Fenway News giving me the space to explain in detail why I think it would be absurd for me to resign from the City Council.
The first reason is that my constituents elected me last year, after I was indicted, with a larger plurality in my district than the Mayor received in the City and despite my conviction they have continued to support me. While the Boston Globe and Mayor Menino have tried to coax people in my community to stand up and speak out against me, they find themselves virtually standing alone.
The second reason that I would never resign is that I was found guilty of a crime that was planned by US Attorney Sullivan and executed by his paid agent, Ron Wilburn. Even though Sullivan tried to convince the public that there was a conspiracy between the Senator and me. At the trial, it became clear that the conspiracy was between Sullivan and Wilburn as they conspired to take me down.
Some may ask “Why”. That is, what was Sullivan’s purpose in using Wilburn to create the picture that I was a corrupt elected official? He knew there has never been even the hint of me being corrupt during my 33 years of activism and 11 years on the Council. Obviously, he did it because he and others wanted to silence me in my advocacy for the working class and poor of Boston.
Continue reading Chuck Turner – Why I Won’t ResignThis piece was written as part of GreenChange Blog Action Day. Learn more here.
I’m not going to pull any punches here. I detest the two party system. I believe that it undermines representative government. It makes our government more responsive to corporations than to citizens. It decreases the chances of progress and it results in many good ideas being shut out of the national political debate.
The limits imposed on this nation by the two party system are slowly leading to its demise. Partisan gridlock in Washington, outright corruption, the absurd difficulty of kicking out incumbents, corporate control of Washington, and the infamous backwardness of many local governments (among many things) are all symptoms of this same disease. And I do not use that language lightly.
Continue reading Thinking beyond the two party systemThe criminal, anti-democratic racket described in this NYT article is just the latest blatant display of greedy Wall Street manipulation of the global economy.
Dean Baker has a great summary of Goldman Sachs’ “savvy” track record in this Guardian/UK article. And don’t forget Matt Taibbi’s mind-boggling portrait in Rolling Stone of Goldman Sachs profiting from one self-created economic bubble after the other. And it was the finance industry who gave Scott Brown a big last-minute send-off to Washington, signaling their equal opportunity approach to looting.
I’m starting to think that a focus on unearthing the dirt behind Goldman Sachs and its political influence might shine some daylight on the criminal convergence of politics and economics at the start of the 21st century.
Continue reading Obama praises a criminal racket as savvy, puts them in his Administration