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August 24th, 2011 at 5:19 am
Jack,
You as transparent as they come. Get a job and you might feel the impact when your taxes and fees get raised.
August 24th, 2011 at 6:02 am
Has McDonald given any indication of what he wants to cut? Costs escalate each year. It’s easy for a politician to take the “let’s reduce taxes” pandering approach - but it takes a real leader to put his or herself out there and state what they would want to cut and/or eliminate to achieve that goal.
August 24th, 2011 at 6:14 am
Mr. Bowen’s statement is as foolish as it is inane. It is either lying to create a straw man or ignorant.
August 24th, 2011 at 7:15 am
So true. This is a perfect sum-up.
Bowen - watch the tone, please. Personal attacks are not acceptable, and you are coming perilously close. Attack what someone says, attack what someone does, but do not attack the person. Yes, we like rules of basic etiquette you’d use if you were talking in person. Would you insinuate someone was unemployed if you were standing in front of them??
As to the substance of your silly attack, it makes no sense. Isn’t the point of the post that the people who ARE hurting for real (as in, unemployed, underemployed, working three jobs at minimum wage, etc) ARE the ones who feel tax increases and fee increases? Yeesh.
I have to wonder who’s being unwittingly transparent yet obfuscated - Jack, or someone who (it appears) is shilling for a candidate? Would you be attacking Jack out of no where if you weren’t a supporter of MacDonald? Obviously that’s an assumption on my part, but you never have posted before, so I wonder where you’re coming from. Are you working for or volunteering for the campaign, perhaps?
August 24th, 2011 at 7:17 am
Oh, and I fully expect Mr. Bowen to be the first of many from MacDonald’s campaign to come here and comment. I welcome it (sans personal attacks), but I do hope they identify themselves as supporters and…hey, here’s a thought! Maybe tell us why you are supporting him rather than being negative and personally attacking a poster? Or using an even tone to convince fellow readers why you think Jack is wrong?
August 24th, 2011 at 7:48 am
OMG, I just watched the video itself. Awful! I felt like I was playing Sim City, from the soundtrack. LOL it reminded me of the online game for Settlers of Catan, where, when the die are rolled and you get a commodity in your hand, it does this weird, goofy little trumpet lick.
Either that, or I’m running on a beach in a training montage. ADRIAAAAAAN!
Also, he undermines his own argument (which BTW is a very negative one - break-ins and car thefts and OMG OMG OMG danger Will Robinson!). He complains about the tax rates and fees rising (which really isn’t so large a problem in Lowell as we’ve held the line on that better than most communities), and then complains we don’t have enough police! I mean, who do you think PAYS the police?? Magic fairies???
In addition, he specifically says “fees, permits, and taxes keep escalating” and then later his solution for illegal trash dumping is “stiffer fines” and against absentee landlords is to “triple fines on deadbeat landlords who abuse our City!” Besides the questionable writing of some of these lines (”abuse the City”??), what does he mean by deadbeat? Meaning, not paying taxes? Well, we have a system of liens and such, and eventually lawsuits and eminent domain taking if it goes that far. Does he mean not fixing the front porch?? So we should have intrusive laws to make people paint their houses when the paint is flaking and to make them cut the lawn or fix a fence? I’m just confused, and trying to clear this up.
And RE businesses…businesses are struggling to open because of the general malaise of the US economy (and yet, we seem to be able to attract them to Lowell, it seems) which is much larger than a simple tax rate at the local level.
These are classic (if you’ll excuse the partisan intrusion into a largely nonpartisan race) Republican tactics. Make you a-scared that the crime rate is sky high (even if it isn’t) and give you a perception that it’s all going down the freaking tubes…be afraid, be very afraid…
Now, there’s an argument to be had that perhaps our commercial tax rate is a little too high in proportion to residential (and we’ve made that argument through Move Lowell Forward) but taxes are NOT the reason a business decides to open or where to relocate. Businesses open because there is a demand, and they relocate based on a whole huge set of variables, such as local schools, the character of the community, access to higher ed, etc etc. And you can’t have ANY of that without paying for it.
Going back to the “absentee landlords”, “we talk but do nothing” crap, where’s he been? (First, are you for government intrusion or not? I can’t decide.) There IS a limitation, short of a ridiculous sets of regulations, as to what you can do about privately owned property (are we going to, for instance, cap the height you can let your grass grow, so we can fine those absentee landlords for not taking care of their property? Cuz I’d be screwed…). Second, there’s been a lot done with regards to empty properties and/or ordinances limiting the degradation of a property and the fines being enforced, especially in the last few years. The reinvention of Inspectional Services into Development Services is a positive step. This video acknowledges none of that.
“Time to stop property increases.” Ummmm. No. That would be suicide. Costs go up every year - inflation does exist, health care inflation, etc. So the city would be stuck basically at the same revenue level for the next decade while costs go up? So we can do less and less and deliver fewer services? Well if you like potholes and lack of enforcement of the ordinances against absentee landlords and trash pickup, sure. Freeze property taxes and fees. *rolls eyes*
Basically, this video leaves me with the idea that MacDonald’s campaign is taking a craven, negative, fear-mongering tact, calling for knee-jerk reactions, without showing that the candidate or at least his campaign thoroughly understand the issues at hand at all.
August 24th, 2011 at 7:55 am
Oh and I meant to add this…with regards to the tone of the video and MacDonald’s campaign in general…it reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite movies, The American President. After being attacked by his Republican opponent in his reelection campaign, President Andrew Shepherd surprises a room full of the press with his presence and a speech. In it, he says:
August 24th, 2011 at 8:00 am
I also have a question for MacDonald’s campaign: Where are you getting the music for your videos, and, do you have copyright to reuse it? I’m wondering because some of it sounds familiar, or sounds like it comes from movie soundtracks, and I doubt, if that’s where they are from, that you have permission to use them.
Secondarily, the “Faces” video music is effing CREEPY. Ew.
August 24th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Taken together, I don’t think these are good videos (others have cited reasons why), but I would not underestimate how the lower taxes claim may resonate with the voters, particularly seniors who could receive a special benefit if the special legislation were ever to be passed.
But for whatever political benefit they could have, his campaign should remember who is actually viewing the videos, and they may then understand that this advertising will not be very effective with that audience.
August 24th, 2011 at 9:08 am
Odd that the “faces” are all fairly well known Lowellians. The video is about burden of taxes? Or is it a parade of supporters?
August 24th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
There was one non-white person in the “Faces” video.
She was looking down and doing one of the white people’s nails.
I guess that’s because Mr. MacDonald’s campaign team wanted to show “regular folks.”
August 24th, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Give Joe a prize! I had exactly the same reaction. Also the faces are of the same people multiple times. I really think MacDonald just took some pictures during a few family barbeques. MacDonald is so weird!
August 24th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
I have to wonder if he pulled them off of Facebook, some of them were so blurry or washed out.
August 24th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
some of them were so blurry or washed out.
Some Lowellians are blurry or washed out. Whattyagonnado?
August 24th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
I never thought people from my democratic party would be such profilers. Look at the comments. Such thoughtless, catty comments about people you don’t know. WOW!
August 24th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
To further show he’s a real Lowellian, the next video will feature the gargoyles from the outside of city hall.
August 24th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Mr. Bowen,
Funny you should mention “profilers.” You need to throw in some forensics, too. You see, I can’t find a record of you in the voter file. You or Ed Howe, actually. So, I did some snooping around FB and such.
I don’t think you exist. I believe that you are a “sockpuppet” managed from within the MacDonald campaign, maybe by John MacDonald himself.
Funny thing, you and John, both use the word “Ugg.” Who says that?
August 24th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
A true conspiracy nut Jack. Over the top! LOL! Get a job! UGG! UGG! UGG! Keep looking. Ah ha ha ha!!!
August 24th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Does anyone know them in real life? I said yes because they were friends with Paul Belley at the time. That would be pretty low.
August 25th, 2011 at 9:40 am
I never thought people from my democratic party would be such profilers.
Hey, I remember you from 2008!
“Dear Editor,
As a lifelong member of the Democrat Party, I am concerned that Barack HUSSEIN Obama will not be as strong a candidate in November against Senator John McCain as the she-beast, Hitlery.
Sincerely,
I. M. Librul”
August 25th, 2011 at 9:45 am
Get a job and you might feel the impact when your taxes and fees get raised.
I never thought people from my democratic party would be such profilers.
So, here we have someone arguing against taxes by accusing his opponent of not having a job or paying taxes; which he follows up by claiming that noticing the utter absence of minorities in a campaign video is “profiling.”
Uh huh. “my democratic party.” Uh huh.