Left In Lowell

EDIT: In regards to signing the open letter as per the end of this post, they say they are having trouble with their website so if you want to be sure your signature gets on their list, send an email with full name and city to guisbond@mit.edu.

Update II: Also, see bottom of post for a video from Citizens for Public Schools, one of the orgs fighting the ballot initiative.

I don’t know if you even know who Stand for Children is. Some of you reading, however, will. I was approached by Stand via trusted local officials when they were trying to get a regional organizing group started up here. They’d hired someone to start talking and organizing up here and after coffee with them, and a long conversation, it seemed good, it came through a very trusted source, and so I signed up for small recurring donations.

This was a number of years ago, before Stand for Children turned into what appears to be a vampire.

Stand for Children has a long history, going back into the early 90s, about working on improving education for all, especially for the poor. What happened to them is nothing less than literally, the life being sucked out of its carotid artery, exchanged for diseased blood, so that the organization could rise again, faster, stronger, and ready to devour the very people it once fought to protect.

Now, they are Scott-Walkering our state with a ballot initiative, trying not only to destroy teachers unions and public schools with “reform” that we know won’t solve anything, but doing it on the backs of the stellar reputations of the state’s education advocacy groups, elected officials, and individuals. Including this blog, and myself.

But now the wheels are coming off the bus, so to speak. You might have remembered Jack’s post from October 2011 where he talks about Stand and the ballot initiative they want to foist on our state. (There are some really, really excellent comments on that post. Go read it. Also read this article linked in comments by pablo, about the funding shift and Stand’s about-face.)

There is a LOT more after the flip. (more…)

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I screen grabbed this from the “Legal Notice (Online) Paper of Record.” They also do PSA’s.

File this under “Plain as the nose on your face.”

“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.”

“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”

“When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”

(h/t Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire)

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Do what these folks did:

I’ve heard a few “important” Lowellians opine that the desecration of the Pawtucket Falls Dam is a done deal. Really? Well, for sure, if Lowellians roll over.
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It was the Spring of 2011. The City Council race was starting to take shape. One particular candidate popped up out of nowhere and many in Lowell’s political “bubble” took note. That candidate was John MacDonald.

Soon, there was a buzz around MacDonald’s campaign. Which was odd, as he was even less known, at the time, than candidates that we saw in 2009, e.g. Ben Opara or Ryan Berard. I scratched my head, thinking little of MacDonald’s chances. But, his name caused sparks in the bubble and the buzz grew louder. His momentum did not escape the notice of seasoned political operatives and “players” that work the fundraising underground that functions in the nooks and crannies, just out of eyeshot. Politics, yes even local politics, is an enterprise. While your friend/relative/neighbor is glad handing the voter base, being everyone’s best pal, shit is going on to ensure they win. Sometimes the candidate themselves doesn’t even know it. And if they do, they most likely can get away with claiming they don’t.

Besides the constant question of “Who?” around John MacDonald’s name, where two facts: 1) MacDonald was backed by developer & pizza mogul, Sal Lapoli. 2) MacDonald was a registered Republican.

Note: Though not very progressive, Lowell’s Democrats rally under the party flag. They are loyal to the party, if not because of ideals, but because the party has operated as a job placement clearinghouse for its most loyal supporters and their bloodlines.
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This resolution under consideration by the state legislature, while symbolic, says in no uncertain terms that the state of Massachusetts wants the issue of the Citizen’s United ruling to be addressed by a constitutional amendment. It was introduced by Senator Eldridge, and is now also co-sponsored by our state Senator Eileen Donoghue. Thank you Senator Donoghue for doing it.

The text of the resolution:

1 WHEREAS, THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
2 WAS DESIGNED TO PROTECT THE FREE SPEECH RIGHTS OF PEOPLE, NOT
3 CORPORATIONS;
4 WHEREAS, FOR THE PAST THREE DECADES, A DIVIDED UNITED STATES
5 SUPREME COURT HAS TRANSFORMED THE FIRST AMENDMENT INTO A
6 POWERFUL TOOL FOR CORPORATIONS SEEKING TO EVADE AND INVALIDATE
7 DEMOCRATICALLY-ENACTED REFORMS;
8 WHEREAS, THIS CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT HAS
9 REACHED ITS EXTREME CONCLUSION IN THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT’S
10 RECENT RULING IN CITIZENS UNITED V. FEC;
11 WHEREAS, THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT’S RULING IN CITIZENS
12 UNITED V. FEC OVERTURNED LONGSTANDING PRECEDENT PROHIBITING
13 CORPORATIONS FROM SPENDING THEIR GENERAL TREASURY FUNDS IN OUR
14 ELECTIONS;
15 WHEREAS, THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT’S RULING IN CITIZENS
16 UNITED V. FEC WILL NOW UNLEASH A TORRENT OF CORPORATE MONEY IN OUR
17 POLITICAL PROCESS UNMATCHED BY ANY CAMPAIGN EXPENDITURE TOTALS IN
18 UNITED STATES HISTORY;
19 WHEREAS, THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT’S RULING IN CITIZENS
20 UNITED V. FEC PRESENTS A SERIOUS AND DIRECT THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY;
21 WHEREAS, THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE PREVIOUSLY USED
22 THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT PROCESS TO CORRECT THOSE
23 EGREGIOUSLY WRONG DECISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
24 THAT GO TO THE HEART OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND SELF-GOVERNMENT;
25 NOW BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
26 HEREBY CALLS UPON THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO PASS AND SEND TO
27 THE STATES FOR RATIFICATION A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO RESTORE
28 THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND FAIR ELECTIONS TO THE PEOPLE.

Ultimately, the only fix for Citizens United and the last few decades of rulings allowing the intrusion of big corporate money into our politics is a constitutional amendment. No laws that try to do anything substantial about this problem will pass muster with the current Supreme Court - they’ve made it clear that the speech of people with a lot of money is way more important than the speech of everyone else, and more important than a fair democracy free of corrupting influence.

A hearing is scheduled in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, where the bill is still under review, on February 28.

What I like about this resolution, is that with it, we will know where our state legislators stand on this very crucial issue facing our country.

PS - also posted on BMG.

PPS - here is the bill on the MA legislature website - complete with history of the bill, more current list of cosponsors, and the time and place of the hearing, which is Feb 28 at 1:00 PM in room A-2.