Left In Lowell

Tomorrow we’ll be talking to some local artists on Thinking Out Loud. They’re both interesting people and it should be lots of fun. Please join us!

I got the motherload email from the Governor-elect today with a list of the next two weeks’ community meetings of all shapes and sizes. They are listed below the clicky thing. There are definitely a few I’d like to attend myself!

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An alert reader sent me a link of an article looking at one of Deval Patrick’s appointees to his Technology transition team, Brian Burke, Microsoft’s Regional Director for Public Affairs.

If you’re just joining this fight mid-program, Massachusetts had become a battleground in the open-source software movement vs. big giant software company (read: Microsoft). This ZDNet blog post gives some (old) details…Romney and his CIO Peter Quinn were opting for Open Document Format, which would open the doors to a number of cheaper open source computer programs which could replace expensive MS Office. (Romney’s peeps occasionally get things right.) The article is old, it says Romney’s favored for reelection, but it gives you an idea.

So to have a Microsoft PR guy [who was known to have shilled for MS] on the team is a little tricky here.

I am heavily for open source software. I’ve used Star Office and it’s a good program (though I do have MS Office myself). In fact, back in the day when I was an admin assistant, Star Office used to help me retrieve MS Office files which had corrupted due to the poor quality of Microsoft’s products (my files had a lot of photos in them, and MS couldn’t handle that for some reason and would sometimes crash). Star Office saved my bacon more than a few times.

I won’t jump to conclusions here, as I do know that Patrick is asking for people of all stripes to be on his teams - people who disagree with him or whose interests do compete. But, I believe that once all the facts are in, open source will be the way to go. With some of the others listed on the team, I expect open source software to get a good hearing. I hope that the new governor’s team will be fair, but this does bear close watching. Brian Burke is a known shill lobbyist for Microsoft, one of the biggest bullies on the block, and I hope his arguments will be taken with a huge grain of salt.

[Update: My reader also sends me another link which has more information on each member of the team, from a poster on Slashdot. His conclusion? Same as mine…that this group should be watched for its final recommendations, but it could be a fair group. By the way, Charles SteelFisher was Patrick’s tech guy, and I think it’s fair to say (though I won’t put words in his mouth) that he “gets it” in regards to open source software.]

Everyone wants a piece of the pie now that Patrick and Murray won the corner office. Susan of Beyond 495 reminds us that the pie took a lot of hard work, and not everyone brought their best ingredients to the table. Or brought anything at all.

Democrats are famous for the circular firing squad and pulling defeat from the jaws of victory. I hope this is not really such a commentary. But I would like to be frank about what did and did not happen in Lowell when it came to winning the election this year. It’s probably unwise and I’m sure some of my friends would recommend against it, but I’ve never been one to back down from saying something true because the truth might sting a few people a little.

The fact is, is that the local Democratic establishment, what is left of it (which isn’t much), largely stood by after the primary while we did the hard work. Oh sure, they showed up to the big gatherings, the kickoff parties and the day the candidates came to Lowell. And some volunteered their resources so we could phone bank and have an office. All commendable.

And the Lowell region had lots of help from volunteers who supported other candidates in the primary, workhorses all, both rookie and veteran. I know how hard it must have been when their candidate didn’t win, how disappointing, but they came anyway to help elect the ticket. And we had quite a lot of help from some local elected politicians from City Councilor on up to US Representative, and whose staff were instrumental to the effort, on their own time and because they wanted to win.

But the people whose names are on local Democratic committee chairmanships, who’ve taken on the responsibility for leadership in the party in our city? Where have they been all these years? Where are the voter registration tables, the outreach to the diverse groups who live in the city? Where were they when we ran phone banks or planned our events? What have they been doing to build a party which is based on involvement and participation? The “machine” is ratty now, a pale imitation of a working committee. But hey, Democrats get elected in this city and state anyway, right? What’s the point of trying to earn the votes of the people. They’re stuck with us, so why bother?

If someone out there is reading this and thinks it’s about them, you should try and work out why you have such a guilty conscience. Or, you could just get irked at me for writing it. After all, we are just the worker bees you seem to believe you don’t need. Sure, we’ve been welcomed…sometimes, not always…at the rare occasional meetings. But it’s so very hard to do the work without strong leadership. Frankly, we don’t want to do it without you. But we did, and we will. Revitalizing the party, and keeping it in tune with the city and its residents, is damned hard work.

And someone has to get it done.

The Lowell Sun has in place a business model that is not acceptable for a newspaper and they just got called out on it by columnist Steve Bailey in today’s Globe. Bailey portraits Sun publisher Mark O’Neil as strictly a business man who does not have a full understanding of the journalistic responsibilities.

As us locals know, the Sun has ran a special pullout when the former CM, John Cox left office and tomorrow we will have one for Chief Ed Davis as he is leaving.

Someone at the Sun came up with the brilliant idea of celebrating our Representative, Marty Meehan’s 50th Birthday with a special pull-out and the Congressman went along with it.

And please this thing about giving a portion to the person’s charity is a smoke-screen.

I am disappointed that Congressman Meehan would have gone along with this and help “sell the section.” For the record, Chief Davis refused to go along with the Sun’s advertisement campaign on “his pull-out.” (more…)

The best City Council meetings are those with a light agenda . Tonight’s meeting was no exception.

The major issue discussed was the fee and permit costs adjustment. I learned a lot and sad to say, so didn’t some of the City Council members. I know I say this almost every week but City Manager Bernie Lynch knows municipal government. Speaking as one who works in the private sector, as a CEO he is vastly underpaid.

Did you know that the permit and fees have not been adjusted in 10 years in this City? Did you know that our trash fees have not been adjusted since 1988? Did you know that we have ordinances that require that we charge a certain fee for a particular service and we have been assessing less than the ordinance requires?

The proposed fees (available on the City website) with a small adjustment passed 9-0. In the words of a former City Council member, “It was a no brainer.” You have to pay for the cost of a service; it is that simple. (more…)

The Higher Ed transition group is holding citizen forums (and yes, I am posting a Patrick/Murray press release straight up, because I think it’s worthy). If you ever wanted to give your 2 cents to how your tax dollar is spent, now is the time to get involved!

PATRICK/MURRAY TRANSITION TEAM TO HOST FIRST FORUMS WITH LOCAL CITIZENS IN BOSTON AND WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Issues Working Groups Will Solicit Ideas from Residents Across the State in Series of Community Meetings

BOSTON – Tuesday, November 28, 2006 – Acting on the pledge to lead an inclusive and active grassroots government, the Patrick/Murray Transition Team will host the first in a series of Community Meetings this Friday, December 1st in Boston and Amherst to address issues of concern to local residents and receive input on the best priorities for the incoming administration.

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We all supposedly pause with baited breath for the soon-anticipated report of the Iraq Study Group, dubiously co-chaired by Bushie Senior adherent James Baker (who has many known sets of conflicts of interest and shady dealings).

They are charged with, among other things, thinking about studying the idea of maybe changing the course in Iraq.

Meanwhile, every day, thousands of Iraqis and many of our men and women in uniform suffer grievous harm and death, tearing families apart, ruining lives for all time. Today, our idiot-in-chief still insists it’s not a civil war, it’s all al Qaeda’s fault: “There’s a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented in my opinion because of the attacks by al Qaeda, causing people to seek reprisal.” He says we ain’t leaving until the mission, whatever that is now, is complete.

Biggest. Moron. Ever. It’d be funny except his wrongness has caused so much useless, needless bloodshed. I believe that his total failure to see reality will, in posterity, be held as one of the most tragic and unnecessary catastrophes our country has ever known. Emphasis on the unnecessary.

The rest of us know we can’t wait for some high-minded theoretic ideology-driven commission to “study” Iraq and see if, you know, maybe we should change our strategy, or something. Adding 20,000 more troops (that we do not have!) will do jack sh*t. It is obvious to anyone with one quarter of a brain that we need to redeploy and get OUT. The Iraqis overwhelmingly want us out - even the Sunnis. Invading Iraq - especially invading it with no plan for success - was the biggest war crime of them all. I doubt anyone will go on trial. You see, the Republicans think that casting around for blame now is not useful…time to move forward, and all that.

If these useless sacks of flesh had been in charge after World War II, we’d never have had the Nuremberg Trials.

This report, of course, won’t say any of this. But the rest of us ought. How anyone can look at the situation our kids are in over there, that the Iraqis are living with day to day, and not riot in the goddamned streets baffles me no end. What the hell have we come to, that these outrages can occur with nary a whimper from American citizens?

No where am I reminded just how weird I am then when spending holiday time with my mostly NH-based family. My dad, the eternal political libertarian cynic. My mom, the emotional social conservative. My brother, the widely apolitical conservative. My youngest uncle…who, while severely conservative-libertarian, at least is internally consistent - he accepts that his brand of libertarian would have many people, old and young, starving in the streets, without housing, health care or schooling. He’s cool with that.

Oh yes, and almost none of them believe global warming is caused by humans. They believe they’ve been snookered every decade or two by the latest apocalyptic science, like the 1970’s global cooling predictions. (I still don’t see how being overly alarmed by Y2K has anything to do with environmental science, but whatever.) The thing they are missing is the accumulated evidence of all those previous visions - and the way that they have come together to fit. Global dimming, masking the worse effects of global warming; inaccuracy in the old ways of measuring temperatures, which when corrected, actually confirm the global climate change phenomenon.

Oh yeah, and then there’s the evidence of your own eyes. It will be in the 60’s this Thursday. Good for me in my studio where we have no heat. Bad for the crocuses who are very confused and are starting to come up in December and January.

Yes, family. They have to love you, no matter what! And vice versa.

It has come to my attention lately (through various channels) that some local politicians have become agitated with commentary on Left in Lowell. Some have even gone so far as to be offended by comments which are not even about them, which tells me that they aren’t reading these things themselves, but getting their information third or fourth hand through the notoriously unreliable rumor mill which is omnipresent in Lowell.

It would probably behoove them to do their own reading, but I digress.

To be fair, there are city councilors and other members of city government who do “get” what this whole newfangled webby thing is about. Some of them are people with whom I am often in disagreement, but I’m gratified to know they understand one very simple concept: blogging is a direct, messy, democratic, often contentious but very rewarding method of communicating with and hearing from the people they represent.

Those pols also understand that generally, there is zero censorship on this blog (notwithstanding certain tussles with disruptive people) and that the only things I endorse as my point of view are things with “by Lynne” after them, and with two co-bloggers, and however many commenters, anonymous and named, that paying attention to the author of a statement is important to assigning blame or praise. This is an open forum, and in the great tradition of American political writing, we do allow anonymity.

Finally, I’ll make an offer to city politicians I guess I should have made clear a long time ago. If you get the urge to write about your point of view, to explain a vote, or ask for the people’s opinion, all you have to do is email us (top right links, replace the words with the symbols). I’d be pretty apt to publish commentary by one of our politicians, whether or not we agree on the issues or on the running of the city. Or hey, you could even start your own blog, like the Somerville mayor did. Now that takes cajones! I know it’d be hard to go on the record every day or week, but it’s free, it’s easy to set up (you can even moderate comments more than I do), and I certainly would love to hear from you more directly, instead of all through this backroom rumor mongering. I’m sure the people of Lowell would love to read you in your own voice, too.

I’d even be happy to give you some advice on writing a blog - be interesting, take a well-reasoned stand, and don’t let your blog go too long without new material. Writing a blog does take up some time, but it’s worth it. It’s almost as immediate and direct as having a conversation in the street, if it’s done right. Except you can have it out in the open, on the record, and with many constituents at once.

If that idea scares you…perhaps you are in the wrong line of work.