Western Mass Politics & Insight

Our apologies for bringing the Weekly look a day late.

…And the World:

Greece appears poised for new elections.  After each of the top three vote-getting parties failed to reach a deal on a coalition government and the President of Greece failed to broker one, the only solution left is fresh elections.  If Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza party wins the top slot as polls suggest, it could form an anti-austerity government that rejects the European bailout with it.  That would likely plunge Greece into political and economic chaos if it get booted from the Euro as a result.  Europe would then have to use all its strength to keep the rest of the Euro together and prevent an economic catastrophe.  The Guardian has a view on what a “Grexit” would look like.

Notably, Ireland may face a similar choice that could expel it from the Eurozone depending on how the people vote.

Meanwhile, the other election from last week leads to a more stable result.  Francois Hollande was sworn in as the President of France today.  Wasting no time amid the Eurozone tempest, Hollande immediately went to Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Feds:

Last week, the Washington Post grabbed the attention of the media and political watchers with a story about Mitt Romney’s “vicious” attack on a schoolmate perceived to be gay when the ex-governor was 18.  Now, such reach backs into history are of debatable value.  However, if there is one analysis you should read on the subject to contemplate whether the ghosts of teenage Romney live on in adult Romney, it is this one by the Boston Phoenix’s David Bernstein.

Meanwhile, no, Mitt, the bulk of the nation’s debt is not President Obama’s fault as almost all of today’s deficit is due to policies passed under President Bush.  Indeed, based on the Time’s The Caucus blog, Romney engaged in more lies saying the President bailed out the “public sector.”  Yes, a reduction in public sector jobs of 500,000, a first for a recession, is bailing out the public sector.  Tell that to the Springfield employees who are staring down the barrel of layoffs this fiscal year.

With the Wisconsin recall race heading into its final three weeks, Democrats face an uphill battle to unseat Scott Walker.  Oddly, despite the poll herein linked, it seems unlikely that Mitt Romney will win Wisconsin in November.  It almost makes you wonder if Wisconsin Democrats should have held off on their timing to try and force the recall to match up with the Presidential election.  Either way, for Democrats to win this critical recall election, they’ll need to lean on turnout hard core.  However, new video of Scott Walker showing he had/has plans to go further on union-busting could prove damaging to the embattled Republican governor.

The Massachusetts Senate race is back in the spotlight in a national, rather than State setting following JP Morgan’s revelation that it lost $2 billion in sketchy trades.  Elizabeth Warren, the likely Democratic candidate to challenge Scott Brown, came out with a full-on media blitz pointing out more than ever Wall Street needs a cop on the beat.  Warren was on Maddow, on CBS with Charlie Rose, in the Washington Post, etc…

The State of Things:

Questions are arising over the late-night move by Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty to move the Chelsea District Court into the oft-criticized Boston Municipal Court system.  The action is being viewed as a play to help out an embattled ally of O’Flaherty’s, Kevin Murphy, the district court’s clerk magistrate.  The move, which seemed to come without the knowledge of most member, would still require approval of the Senate and Gov. Deval Patrick.

In light of the Senate Race’s place in “The Feds” today, consider the bottom two paragraphs.

Cong. Richard Neal has aparently qualified for the ballot in his effort to run for reelection in his reconfigured district.  As a result of a redistricting, Neal who was once Springfield’s mayor, has gone from the 2nd Massachusetts District to the 1st.  He faces Andrea Nuciforo and Bill Shein who live in communities to the west added to the newly drawn district.

City Slickers:

The Republican questions whether City Council President Jimmy Ferrera’s Casino Site Committee will have any real power or relevance as Western Massachusetts Communities compete for a casino license.  The law squarely puts negotiating power in the mayor’s hands, although the City Council will have a role both under the gambling law and land use ordinances.  It is hard not to wonder if Ferrera bumbled this one in another attempt to show off he can play with the big boys.  Ferrera says he telegraphed his plans in January, but obviously not in any clear fashion.  It is unfortunate because he is both right that the Council should be involved and he has assembled a pretty good group of people, but it may be for naught.  If his impertinence only serves to further alienate the City Council from the casino process, we will all know who to blame.

Finally, Springfield’s LGBT community is ginning up enthusiasm for its second Pride celebration in as many years.  Despite the city earning a designation for its gay-friendliness a few years ago, only in the past year has the city’s gay community begun to really capitalize on it.  A full schedule of Pride events are available at the link, including a Flag-raising to be attended by Mayor Domenic Sarno.

Twitter Chatter:

Sen Chang-Diaz gives perfect response 2 opponents of studying #singlepayer healthcare – if we can go the moon, how can we not study this?

— Jamie Eldridge (@JamieEldridgeMA) May 15, 2012

Today the Massachusetts Senate is debating a bill to reduce Health Care Costs in Massachusetts.  The bill is long overdue and had been expected to be worked on long before this point in the session.  Still it is a necessary debate that the commonwealth needs to have in order to control health costs.  It is the necessary second component of Health Care Reform.  While this blog is agnostic about Single-Payer, it certainly must be investigated as an option.  Indeed most English-speaking Western Countries like Canada and the UK use it to provide health care.  However, the Massachusetts Senate voted down a proposal to merely “study” the issue.  Buwuh?  Studying is a bad thing?  Senator Jamie Eldrige of Acton sums up the absurdity of that with a tweet quoting Boston Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, whose father is an astronaut (h/t David Bernstein).  Really?  We can’t even look at it?  Eldridge has won our tweet prize before so although he is the technical winner of this week’s tweet prize, we hope he will tell Chang-Diaz for us that it really is a team win for the tweet prize today.

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…And the World:

Vive Hollande!  The French cast out the incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy, of the Union for a Popular Movement, in favor of the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.  Sarkozy had been trailing for several weeks now and the first round of voting two weeks ago did not portend well for the incumbent.  In his campaign, Hollande promised to improve the economy through means other than austerity alone, which voters have begun to reject across Europe and has ravaged Europe producing almost none of the promised economic results.  The president-elect, known as “Mr. Normal” will be a striking contrast to often shamelessly jet set Sarkozy, a factor that likely worked against the latter in the polls.  Hollande, like Sarkozy, has committed to balancing the budget, but perhaps his approach will be to ease into it more carefully and with some short-term stimulus to boot.  France, like most European countries, needs considerable structural reforms that affect its deficit such that neither austerity nor stimulus is a silver bullet.  However those reforms as well as government spending cutbacks generally are best done during better economic times when the economy can take them, but also when they seem less pressing.

Hollande will have his work cut out for him convincing German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Europe must reverse course on its austerity measures and work to increase growth.  On the other hand, Merkel’s own party suffered losses in regional elections in Germany portending political troubles of her own if things do not change.

In Greece, new elections there have resulted in much a much less clear outcome.  The traditionally front line parties, New Democracy and PASOK fell from 80% of the vote collectively to around 35% as voters punished the parties for their efforts to sustain the European Union’s terms of its bailout to Greece.  The result, however, may not be a coalition government of anti-austerity parties.  Although New Democracy, which won a third of the seats under Greece’s complicated seat apportionment system, has failed to form a government only a day after new elections it is unclear whether Syriza, an anti-austerity party that came in second will do any better.  If that party and PASOK, who came in third, fail to form a government, Greece will vote again only days before it is due to cut more public spending to satisfy the terms of its creditors.

The governing Conservative Party of Great Britain also suffered electoral setbacks at the polls only weeks after that country fell back into recession.  Although the Tory’s bombastic Boris Johnson retained London’s mayoralty, Labour made gains in local councils across England, Scotland and Wales at the expense of Conservatives and their governing partner’s the Liberal Democrats.  Labour even ran well against the Scottish National Party, which is not a part of the governing coalition in London.  Although the coalition insisted it would not reverse coarse on its own austerity measures, the electoral results could further tensions between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.  The results are welcome to Labour and could offer them hope after losing the 2010 election and suffering a rather ignominious time in Opposition.

Finally, fresh elections are planned in Israel.  Following a seeming agreement between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and coalition partner Avigdor Leiberman, who runs the Yisrael Beintinu party, new elections will be held this fall.  This is partly a strategic move on the part of Netayahu who is betting the Israeli left will remain disorganized enough to stick together and take back the Knesset from the right-wing coalition controlling the government.

The Feds:

Say it ain’t so Joe?  Over the weekend, Vice-President Joe Biden said he was “absolutely comfortable” with marriage equality for gays and lesbians.  Speaking in terms that are often used by supporters of same-sex marriage, Biden’s comments touched off fresh questions as to where President Obama stands on the issue.  Officially, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, the president is still evolving.  The White House insisted only minutes after Biden‘s Meet the Press appearance that his views were not inconsistent with the president‘s belief that all marriages that are legal, including in the jurisdictions where marriage equality is the law, be equal.  Then Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, he too, supported same-sex marriage during an MSNBC interview.  While the president is widely expected to come out in favor of same-sex marriage no later than after November’s election, it seems plausible now that he may come out of the closet on the issue sooner than that.  With a rather harsh gay-marriage ban on the ballot and expected to pass in North Carolina tomorrow, it seems just as likely that Biden and Duncan’s comments were not entirely extemporaneous, but may suggest message testing for a POTUS announcement even as the White House scrambles to say otherwise.

Connecticut is on its way to becoming the 18th state to approve the use of medical marijuana.  The bill passed the State Senate over the weekend on a 21-13 vote with two absences.  Four Republicans and Three Democrats switched sides on what was an otherwise party-line vote.  Governor Dannel Malloy is expected to sign  the bill.  Connecticut’s move would leave New Hampshire and Massachusetts as the only states without a medical marijuana law, although one will be on the ballot this fall in the Bay State.

Longtime Indiana Senator Richard Lugar is in the fight for his life and by all indications he is on course to lose it.  In what some have billed as the last gasp of the tea party, Lugar, the incumbent Republican, faces fellow Republican Richard Mourdock the state Treasurer.  Despite the outpouring of support from the state establishment, a swarm of tiny, but biting negative stories hurt him as well as attacks from the far-right for Lugar’s sin like support nuclear arms control and President’s Obama’s nominees to the Supreme Court.  An Mourdock win would, however, also throw the general election of this race from solid Republican to a tossup and possible pickup for embattled Senate Dems.

The State of Things:

Oh, hey, remember this, when we mocked it for being news?  Well, it was staged and only became a reality after five takes.  Everyman knows fifth times a charm when the camera’s rolling.  Meanwhile, Elizabeth Warren strikes back against Brown after a week of questions over a box she checked twenty-five years ago.

The State’s Gambling Commission is facing pressure to decline the appointment of Carl McGee as the temporary director of the Commission amid allegations of sexual misconduct with a teenager five years ago.  So far the Commission is not backing down saying they lack the capacity to launch an investigation.  The incident allegedly took place in Florida where authorities declined to prosecute although a child advocate recommended otherwise at the time.

City Slickers:

The Springfield City Council will vote today on a resolution opposing a law proposed by State Senator Stephen Brewer (D-Barre) that would institute a “Stand your ground” law in Massachusetts.  The law is similar to the Florida one at the center of the Trayvon Martin case.  These laws are largely considerable anathema to gun control advocates and the resolution is likely to pass the Council.  The proposed law is unlikely to become law anyway, however, as Governor Deval Patrick has promised a veto.

If you have not read our profile of at-large Councilor Tom Ashe, here it is for your reading pleasure.  Yes, shameless self-promotion of ourselves.  We know.

Twitter Chatter:

Scott Brown Wants to Attack Elizabeth Warren on Silly Non-Issues to Distract from His Extremist Voting Record & Shady Actions. #MASen #p2

— TheNewDeal (@TheNewDeal) May 7, 2012

It seems impossible not to view this debacle over Elizabeth Warren’s heritage as part of a broader efforts by the Brown campaign and Republicans to keep the campaign as far away from policy and issues as possible.  That is why she is always Professor Warren and/or an elitist hypocrite.  It is spontaneous and often disingenuous name calling.  The word for most it, however, is “silly.”  Today the Twitter handle, @thenewdeal, wins today’s Tweet prize for calling out Brown for his strategy of goading voters into voting on nonsense while exposing his greatest weakness.: the issues.

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…And the World:

We start today in jolly old England where the maw that is the scandalous power and influence of Rubert Murdoch may be on the verge of claiming another victim.  Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, has been accused, based on recently released memos, of inappropriate behavior during the process that was to approve Murdoch’s complete acquisition of BSkyB a major British broadcaster.  Prime Minister David Cameron, who was ordered to Parliament today, has defended Hunt and said that any further inquiry into the matter, including Hunt’s behavior, should be handled by the Leveson Inquiry.  The Leveson Inquiry is investigating the phone-hacking scandal that began at Murdoch’s now-shuttered News of the World.  However, Ed Miliband, Leader of the Opposition Labour Party, disputes the idea that the Inquiry already has jurisdiction and calls for Hunt to be investigated under the Ministerial Code.

In Burma an impasse over the oath that Aung San Suu Kyi and her party had refused to take appears to be over.  The Burmese Constitution requires members of Parliament to swear to “safeguard” the Constitution, but Suu Kyi and her party want to amend that document that is in their view, quite flawed.  Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy has decided to drop that demand and will take their seats this Wednesday, which will put the NLD and its leader into office, 22 years after they initially won an election that was annulled by the junta that ran the country.

The Feds:

Mitt Romney’s campaign is engaging a new tactic in the Republican’s most recent (and desperate) effort to pry the security credentials away from President Barack Obama.  Pivoting off of Karl Rove’s earlier attempt to minimize Obama’s decision by selectively quoting Bill Clinton, Romney is now saying that anybody EVEN JIMMY CARTER, would have given the order to get Osama bin Laden.  Except Mitt Romney is on the record as being against getting bin Laden.  Indeed, the president was not afraid to push back on the subject.

In North Dakota, Democrat Kent Conrad decided last year to retire from the United States Senate.  After Byron Dorgan had done the same in 2010 and the seat fell to Republicans, many thought that Conrad’s seat was destined for red territory.  But maybe not.  New polling shows former North Dakota Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp may be able to top Rick Berg, the freshman at-large congressman from North Dakota.  Although SuperPACs are expected to carpet bomb the state, were Heitkamp able to pull out a win, it could prove critical to Democrats’ quest to keep the Senate.

One World Trade Center, better known as the Freedom Tower, officially took the title as New York’s tallest building ten and a half years after the World Trade Center was destroyed.  Although One World Trade Center is not the world’s tallest building (the original WTC only held that title for a few months), the milestone is of great symbolic importance as rebuilding at Ground Zero has been fraught with starts, stops, politics and of course emotion.

The State of Things:

Minimum wage on the move in Massachusetts?  Senator Marc Pacheco of Taunton is proposing a rather robust increase in the minimum wage as well as indexing future increases to inflation.  But there’s more!  The bill’s language includes, finally, FINALLY, a raise for tipped employees.  Tipped employees, which include servers and bartenders have not received an increase in the minimum wage since at least 1998 (and probably earlier than that) and the wage remains frozen at $2.63 in Massachusetts.  Think that’s bad?  The federal server minimum wage in $2.13.  The Bay State has the lowest tipped wage in New England.

This is news?

Another bizarre item from the Senate race.  Elizabeth Warren is a Cherokee?  Well, maybe, but it seems as though the Brown campaign is using the unearthed file, which Warren said she had not used to advance her career (although Harvard did appear to use to say it promoted diversity), as a means to suggest something else.  The schools other than Harvard at which she worked have not provided any documentation to confirm whether or not she used that ancestry to advance her career.  A genealogist has confirmed that she does have connections to Native American tribes, like 9% of Ohioans.  Our sense is Brown’s campaign is trying to keep the conversation off Warren’s solid credentials, create the image of someone who is hiding something (how many questions from citizens does Brown ever take) and further suggest she has gotten to where unfairly.  Any of those are cheap (and insidious) shots and little more than standard issue Brown excrement.

Governor Deval Patrick’s administration is on the verge of releasing new regulations that could put commercial-scale biomass-based electricity out of business.  While the regulations may not prohibit biomass, it would make it ineligible for certain financing programs.  While this may not stop the Springfield, Greenfield or Russell biomass projects in their tracks, it could cripple those projects and stop future ones.  The regulations are based on new research that suggests biomass does not, in fact release less carbon for the electricity produced.  Most of the energy is lost in heat.  However, biomass would remain viable for heating purposes.

City Slickers:

The Search Committee appointed to find a new School Superintendent to replace Alan Ingram lumbers closer to its choice.  The committee has whittled the list down to six from a previous eleven names, although that detail should not have been made public apparently.  The insiders’ favorite for the position is Assistant Superintendent Daniel Warwick.

Elsewhere, a late-breaking item in Springfield, where protesters appeared at City Hall demanding more action on behalf of the homeless in the city.  Mayor Domenic Sarno, who did meet with demonstrators, said the city had done its fair share of low-income and subsidized housing.  That line likely will not placate protesters who were at City Hall for five hours, nor will it house the homeless.  Further, while this fact does not house the homeless either, it is true that Springfield’s neighbors need to step up their efforts to house the area’s homeless population.

Twitter Chatter:

First Cameron said he hadn’t met Brooks, then owned up 2 Xmas meet, then said no inappropriate conversns, then owned up he talked about Sky

— Chris Bryant (@ChrisBryantMP) April 30, 2012

Today we announce our first British winner of the Tweet prize.  Technically, it is a shared prize between Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, and Labour’s Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls via the Labour Party.  Bryant’s tweet neatly summarize the mess the Murdoch scandal has dumped into David Cameron’s lap.  However, it also highlights the fact that Cameron may have only himself to blame for the worst of it as he has changed his story so many times.  That Cameron had to defend himself before Parliament once again only serve to underscore this reality, after being called to the chamber less than a week since last Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions.

By taking a more balanced approach, President Obama has delivered a growing economy in America – @edballsmp: bit.ly/Jwj9zm

— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) April 27, 2012

Ed Balls’ tweet is from Friday, but highlights how Britain has fallen into recession and attributes it Cameron’s decision to cut the nation’s deficit deeply and quickly.  By comparison, the tweet, quoting from Balls’ broader blog posting, also notes that President Obama, that’s our president, has kept the US economy growing by taking a slower approach to deficit cutting.  The US deficit must be cut, too, but a sudden swift cut will slow or even cripple the economy as may have happened in Britain.  Conservatives like to blame the Eurozone crisis, even some countries IN the Eurozone like Germany have escaped a double recession so far.  Britain has become the latest case study that deep austerity will only hinder economic recovery.

To MP Chris Bryant for neatly summarizing how the British PM’s problems are partly of the latter’s creation and To Labour for their succinct comparison in outcomes between the US and the UK, we award both this week’s tweet prize.

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…And the World:

France votes!  Yesterday French voters went to the polls in the first round of voting for that country’s presidential election.  Socialist Party Candidate Francois Hollande took the top spot beating out incumbent President Nicholas Sarkozy.  Both will advance to the next round of voting due in two weeks time.  That Hollande and Sarkozy would advance were less of a surprise than the fact that Marine Le Pen head of the hard-right Front National Party took nearly a fifth of the vote, the party’s best showing ever.  However Le Pen’s father did advance to the second round of voting in 2002, albeit with a lower vote total.  Sarkozy, whose popularity has suffered under a bad economy, and Hollande, whose platform has failed to offer French voters much of an alternative, may gain votes that went to Le Pen or other parties in the coming weeks.  However, voter discontent and the risk of abstentions among voters could roil the normal right-left dynamic.  Were Hollande to win, he would be the first Socialist President of France since Francois Mitterrand was president in the 1980’s.

Over the weekend, International Monetary Fund Director Christine Legarde praised the Fund’s successful effort to secure a $400 billion bailout fund to be used as a firewall against further Eurozone troubles.  The Fund exceeded its goal slightly after several developing economies, particularly the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) coughed up extra funds.  However, the Fund’s success did little to placate markets, which belched losses today amid Eurozone concerns and worries that political outcomes in France and the Netherlands, where the minority government just resigned, could upend Europe’s debt crisis further.

Today Burmese Peace Activist and Member of Parliament-elect Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League of Democracy were to take their seats.  However a row has developed over the oath members must take to “safeguard” the Constitution.  Suu Kyi and the NLD is prepared to swear to “respect” the constitution, but do not wish to “safeguard” it as they view it as fundamentally flawed and in need of amending.

The Feds:

The trial of one-time Presidential candidate and current disgrace John Edwards is set to begin soon.  Edwards, a former US Senator from North Carolina was John Kerry’s running mate in 2004, but launched his own bid for the White House in 2008.  He is alleged to have used campaign funds, some illegally raised, to pay off his mistress with whom he had a child.  While Edwards’ Presidential ambitions were swallowed by the Clinton-Obama race well before these allegations became public, the affair and the elaborate scheme to undermine campaign finance laws destroyed his reputation.  His wife, who died in the last year due to cancer left him and Edwards was later indicted in 2011.  Although the prosecution’s case may serve to undermine the late Mrs. Edwards’ reputation, too.

The Boston Globe is reporting that Mitt Romney may be a liar even about being the target of a “vast left-wing conspiracy.”  Alright, in this case calling Mitt Romney a liar may be an unsupported claim (a first), but it does serve to show that if true, Mitt Romney cannot claim his sinking approval rating with women, Hispanics, gays, the poor, etc, etc is not do to the media pounding him into a pulp.  Even when presented in a positive light by the media, Romney’s the one punching himself in the face.

Connecticut is poised to become the seventeenth state to legalize medical marijuana.  The bill passed a key committee and is on its way to the floor of the state House of Representatives.  The bill enjoys fairly significant bipartisan support and Governor Dan Malloy is expected to the sign the bill if it reaches his desk.  Still, the Connecticut General Assembly’s rules and procedures could scuttle the bill if it is not voted on by May 9, the drop-dead date for passage of legislation this session.

The State of Things:

Elizabeth Warren has a new ad, featured here.  In political terms this ad is a twofer.  It serves as further introduction to voters, but also stakes a position on the impending increase in student loan interests rates, which will double this July unless Congress acts.  Also on the Elizabeth Warren front, WBUR has tracked down her former students, including some that disagree with her politics and guess what?  Elitist is the last word they would use to describe her.  They love her regardless of political perspective.

Cheap shot of the day (no pun intended, or is it?).  Scott Brown says he has not had any alcohol since January 1st and will not imbibe until after the election.  Except Brown went on the campaign trail with the Boston Herald’s Hillary Chabot to taste…beer?  That was around the time he also suggested she try some sample too and said “We’re gonna have her dancing in the back of the truck.”  That’s the Herald’s quote from Brown.  Um, yeah!

Comprehensive tax reform?  Yes, but not in Washington in Boston.  WWLP says the Legislature’s Revenue Committee and the Executive Office of Administration and Finance are looking at ways to clean out the state’s myriad tax breaks and benefits to streamline the tax code.  If they can do it in a way that creates more revenue to help out localities, they may be on to something.

Boston may have some of the most expensive urban real estate in the country, but it has some of the most poorly maintained.  Whether it is apartments for the city’s preeminent universities or housing for poor and immigrant populations, many city landlords rely in large part on the ignorance of all these groups.   Slumlords extract the maximum amount possible, whether under Section 8 or from the well-healed parents of students and offer substandard conditions in return.  After numerous incidents over the last year or two, the city is engaging in a public campaign to inform tenants of their rights.

And Longmeadow schedules an election for a vacant seat on the Board of Selectman.

City Slickers:

If turning off the television at city bards caused an uproar, turning off the tap at the city’s watering holes is sure to raise a riot.  Mayor Domenic Sarno has proposed all liquor service in the city cease at 1 instead of 2 am.  The proposal has been met with fierce opposition from bar owners who point out that the city will likely be the biggest loser as businesses flees to neighboring communities.  Meanwhile, the idea that an earlier closing time would quell violence in the city is based on somewhere around zero evidence.  Unlike the late-night entertainment ordinance, the mayor cannot unilaterally impose this policy.  The License Commission must vote on it although it is appointed by the mayor.

The Springfield City Council will take up in committee the mayor’s proposals to raise the trash fee to relieve the city’s burden of covering the cost of waste disposal not covered by the current fee.

Twitter Chatter:

Marriage equality may not be a huge issue during this campaign season, especially if President Barack Obama does not endorse before the election.  However, there is a court case before the First Circuit Court of Appeals and an Ed-Op in Bay Windows last week blasting Scott Brown’s otherwise vapid support for gay rights.  North Carolina will be voting very soon on whether to deny ANY meaningful rights to gay and lesbian couples regardless of the term of the union.  Still it does beg the question what has been the harm to our society.  Anybody?  For having an answer that cuts right through the arguments of opponents of marriage equality, Young Massachusetts Dems Board Member and prolific tweeter Rob Cohen wins the week’s tweet prize.

Twitter Chatter:

If legalizing gay marriage is going to “ruin” your marriage, then maybe your marriage was not that strong to begin with

— Rob Cohen (@Rob_Coh) April 23, 2012

Marriage equality may not be a huge issue during this campaign season, especially if President Barack Obama does not endorse before the election.  However, there is a court case before the First Circuit Court of Appeals and an Ed-Op in Bay Windows last week blasting Scott Brown’s otherwise vapid support for gay rights.  North Carolina will be voting very soon on whether to deny ANY meaningful rights to gay and lesbian couples regardless of the term of the union.  Still it does beg the question what has been the harm to our society.  Anybody?  For having an answer that cuts right through the arguments of opponents of marriage equality, Young Massachusetts Dems Board Member and prolific tweeter Rob Cohen wins the week’s tweet prize.

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…And the World:

We begin today in the tiny and relatively young nation of East Timor, which held a runoff election in its Presidential contest.  The ex-Indonesian Lusophonic province is set to elect Jose Maria de Vasconcelos an ex-military chief, who, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, was recommended for criminal prosecution by the UN six years ago.  A smooth election and transition on this small nation are considered necessary to facilitate withdrawal of Australian, New Zealand and UN forces.  However, there were fears of violence in the hours after Vasconcelos’ election became likely.

In Norway the trial of Anders Behring Breivik, the man accused of killing 77, mostly youth members of the ruling Labor party began amid heightened press attention.  Brevik, who has pled not guilty on the notion that his actions were justified (he claimed the country was slipping into multi-culturalism), engaged in some courtroom theatrics while showing almost no remorse.  The obviously high-profile nature of the killings has led some Norwegians to almost tune the trial out without paper offering a Breivik-free edition of its website.

A bizarre controversy has erupted in Israel where a member of the Israeli Defense Forces was caught on tape, allegedly striking a protester with the butt of a firearm.  The event has captured worldwide attention, especially as the Pro-Palestinian activist is of Danish origin.  The Danish Prime Minister has called the accusations that the individual attacked was violent “a lie” while both Israeli President Shimon Peres and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have both condemned the attack.  The IDF says the soldier in the video has been suspended pending an investigation.

The Feds:

An international story with domestic implications.  Not surprisingly, President Barack Obama at an Americas Summit over the weekend said his administration is opposed to legalizing drugs.  Legalization is favored in some quarters of Latin America, especially since American customers are the consumers of the drugs produced in the lower half of the Americas.  That commerce has produced considerable violence throughout Latin America.  That said, Obama did seem open to looking at a middle ground between the status quo “War on Drugs” and legalization.

The “Buffett Rule,” a proposed amendment to the tax code that would require millionaires to pay a minimum 30% tax on their income, eliminating the loophole through which those who earn money almost entirely through investments, was defeated in the Senate today.  The vote was mostly along party lines (Scott Brown voted with Republicans against closing this loophole), but Susan Collins and Mark Pryor, Republican and Democrat respectively, took positions contrary to their party.  Although it failed to reach the 60 votes needed for cloture, it actually enjoyed a majority of support in the Senate 51-45 with four absences.

In Connecticut, the Democrats running for the state’s nomination for Senate met again to debate.  The debates have become increasingly…interesting(?) as two candidates unlikely to proceed beyond the convention have thrown in rather odd comments.  One has attacked American support for Israel and Chris Murphy, the race’s frontrunner, in particular.  Another advocate legalization of marijuana.  The Senate candidate who called Murphy a “whore” at a debate last week has sued Governor Dan Malloy and the progressive blog My Left Nutmeg.  Malloy has called her outbursts proof as to why she should not be invited to debates.  Four out of five admitted to trying the infamous herb.  Theater of the living at its finest it seems.

For those of you who decried the final “Texts from Hillary Clinton” a new meme has already emerged.  Last week, Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, N.J. ran into a burning building and saved somebody.  The mayor was treated for smoke inhalation and suffered some burns, but received considerable press and twitter attention, much of which played on Booker’s apparent heroism, but also traipsed into lampooning other New Jersey politicos.

Its Pulitzer Day!  Journalism’s most esteemed award was given out today.  Some surprises included no prize in Fiction writing, but also the win on the part of some lesser known papers including the Tuscaloosa News for its reporting after tornadoes devastated the town.  The Boston Globe also picked up prize, again for criticism.  The New York Times added to its collection as well.  Notably missing contenders?  The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, although the LA Times was a runner up in several categories.  Not so much for the Post.

The State of Things:

The Ways and Means Committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted its budget out of committee last week.  The budget rejected several key priorities of Governor Deval Patrick including new taxes on cigarettes and candy as well as efforts to centralize Community College Administration and hiring a full-time staff of Public Defenders for indigent defendants.  However, it also included level-funding for local aid to cities and towns.  Patrick’s budget called for cutting local aid pending the end of this fiscal year.  A surplus from this year would then be used to level fund local aid if enough is available.

From Israel and now to Boston where another image has landed law enforcement dealing with protesters in trouble.  A photograph has emerged wherein a cop has his hand around the throat of a protesters who was part of a counter-protest to a tea party rally.  Although the protester was apparently not hurt (nor arrested) the image has prompted a review by the Police Department.  This comes after last fall’s Occupy Protests, which in Boston went off by turns good and bad, a clearing of a short-lived second encampment being the prime exception.  On balance Boston dealt with the protesters better than many other cities nationally, although that may not be saying much.

City Slickers:

After the sudden rejection of 39 out of 41 applications for a late-night entertainment permit at city watering holes, a lawsuit has been filed challenging the mayor’s decision.  So far two bar owners, both represented by a city attorney, Daniel Kelly, have filed suit.  It is unclear whether these challenges are on result of the hearing, on the rule itself or on a broader constitutional charge.  Also unclear is whether the suit seeks money damages, but it is more likely at this point that the bar owners simply want the rule overturned.  There is a request for a temporary injunction to stay the rule pending litigation.  Meanwhile, eight more bars were granted the late-night entertainment license on tap of Theodore’s and Mattie’s Grille who were the only two bars that were granted the permit out of the first 41 applications.

As our post on Senator Jim Welch popped up last week so has another primary challenge to a sitting State Representative.  Joseph Fountain, a city resident and candidate for city council last year has begun a challenge to Sean Curran, whose district consists, principally of Sixteen Acres, East Forest Park, and pockets of Chicopee.  Fountain got some press coverage in the past week attacking Mayor Sarno’s budget priorities.  His ideas are novel, but may be difficult to execute under the Massachusetts constitution.

Twitter Chatter:

Heroism isn’t best exhibited in 1 big action but by those who fill their lives with consistent small acts of kindness, decency & love

— Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) April 14, 2012

In light of Cory Booker’s actions last week, we feel compelled to award him this week’s tweet prize.  We do so, but not necessarily for any one particular tweet alone.  The Mayor is a prolific tweeter and his twitter feed shows it.  There are countless ones we could use for this week, but we choose this one in light of his act of heroism, because it defines Booker quite well, which is as a public servant of competence, but also humility.  However, it like many of his tweets run much deeper.   Digging deeper, we see an official who uses a social media platform to its fullest, even offering direct constituent services.  This is especially notable given the severe challenges a city like Newark faces.  Challenges, Booker himself said to Domenic Sarno himself, when Booker spoke at the Springfield Public Forum in 2010.  For his tweet that, intentionally or not, reminds us why we like Booker and for his use of Twitter to speak with his fellow Newarkers and augment the execution of his duties, we award Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark this week’s tweet prize.

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