Karen Spiewak Fundraiser and Concert

Title: Karen Spiewak Fundraiser and Concert
Location: The Cannery Music Hall 12 Crane St (Park and Enter Behind Silver Building), Southbridge
Description: Fueling the Campaign with High Octane
Fund-raising Concert
Saturday, September 20

Meet Karen and other special guests from 7-8 pm
High Octane starts rocking at 8 pm at The Cannery Music Hall 12 Crane St (Park & Enter Behind Silver Building), Southbridge

Contribution $15 pp Tickets available at the campaign office (19 Hamilton St., Southbridge) starting 8/26 or by emailing manager@ksrepma.com
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2014-09-20

Posted in Uncategorized | 166 Comments

Bellingham DTC 2nd Annual SUMMER KICK-OFF!

Title: Bellingham DTC 2nd Annual SUMMER KICK-OFF!
Location: The UnCommon Place Restaurant, 15 N Main St, Bellingham, MA 02019
Link out: Click here
Description: 2nd Annual SUMMER KICK-OFF!
Tuesday June 3, 6 – 9 PM at the UnCommon Place restaurant. Democrats gather to meet candidates, local
office-holders and fellow Activists. Cash bar, appetizers. Tickets $25.
Call Joyce Notine at 508-966-0975 or e-mail jnotine@verizon.net
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2014-06-03

Posted in Uncategorized | 368 Comments

Bellingham DTC 2nd Annual SUMMER KICK-OFF!

Tuesday June 3,  6 – 9 PM at the UnCommon Place restaurant. Democrats gather to meet candidates, local office-holders and fellow Activists. Cash bar, appetizers. Tickets $25.
Call Joyce Notine at 508-966-0975 or e-mail jnotine@verizon.net 

Posted in Political News - MA, Uncategorized | 476 Comments

Attend a screening of “Inequality for All”

The GBV Dems are proud to announce that we will screen Robert Reich’s “Inequality for All” at the Milford Library on Saturday, 4/5/2014 at 2:00 PM at the Milford Library, downstairs in the Granite/Quarry room.

See the trailer for the documentary here:

And here’s a link to a short clip from the movie:

http://vimeo.com/84187156

There will be a short discussion before the movie and a longer discussion afterwards – we hope to see you there!

Posted in Uncategorized | 7,883 Comments

Joe Avellone’s position on casinos seems to have evolved

Last week, I attended a candidate forum in Grafton where Juliette Kayyem and Joe Avellone spent some time talking about their respective ambitions for the corner office this year.  I asked Kayyem about how she would deal with the legislature, and was very satisfied with her answer, as she talked about past jobs and how they entailed dealing with Congress and Beacon Hill.

Avellone, in his remarks, talked about how we are a commonwealth, and the meaning of that word, how it evokes an image that we are all in this together.  I asked him a pointed question about casinos and the lottery, citing my own experience with Casino Free Milford and a recent post on BlueMassGroup.com concerning the state lottery.  I pointed out how both casinos and the lottery prey on poorer, less-educated people, and a reliance on a regressive income stream of that nature really puts the lie to the word “commonwealth”.

He carefully parsed his answer to me, at one point admitting that he wasn’t giving me the answer that I probably wanted to hear, so I was happy to see that his position has apparently changed.  From the Springfield Republican (via BlueMassGroup.com) we see this today:

Avellone said the benefits of casinos were oversold and he is against casino gaming, a view also shared by Berwick.

“There is an overestimate in the revenue to the commonwealth,” he said. “And it will add a whole new health burden to this commonwealth. The cost is not worth the benefit and there are other ways to add to our economy.”

Good on you, Joe!  I hope I helped in some small way to change your mind on this topic.

Posted in Political News - MA | Tagged , | 9,424 Comments

GBV Dems St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast with Jim McGovern!

The Greater Blackstone Valley Dems are happy to invite you to a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at the Progressive Club in Uxbridge on 3/9/2014. Doors will open at 8 AM, with breakfast starting at 8:30 and a program of speakers starting AT 9:00.  Join our very special guest Jim McGovern as well as many state-wide and local candidates for a fun morning before the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Worcester!

Tickets are $20 single, $30 couple, and they are available from any of the members of the GBV Dems Executive Committee:  Lisa Mosczynski, Brett Belanger, Jay Gilchrist, Kate Mastroainni or John Tehan. Use our contact form to get in touch with the committee:

Contact the GBV Dems

You can also reserve a seat using ActBlue:

https://secure.actblue.com/page/stpat

The Progressive Club is located at 18 Whitin St, Uxbridge, MA 01569.  See you there!

Posted in Political News - Blackstone Valley | Tagged | 167 Comments

Bellingham DTC Announces Summer Kick-off Party

The Bellingham Democratic Town Committee is holding a Summertime Kick-off Cocktail Party on 6/12/2013 at the Coachmen’s Lodge at 6:00 pm. Details are in the attached PDF – they are asking to please RSVP for the event.

Bellingham DTC Summer Kick-off

See you there!

Posted in Political News - Blackstone Valley, Political News - MA | Tagged | 325 Comments

Casino Opposition Moving Forward in Milford

The Casino Free Milford group is meeting again this week on 4/3 at St. Mary’s church in the parish center at 7 PM, please come out if you’re interested in stopping the casino. We will be looking for volunteers willing to run for open town meeting seats on a write-in basis at the town election on 4/30, since it’s too late to get on the ballot.

Also, on Monday, 4/8, the Board of Selectmen will be hearing a proposal in the uper chamber at town hall from the developers, Crossroads Massachusetts and Foxwoods Resort. Please come out and show your support for stopping the casino in its tracks, and please wear red to show solidarity.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1,189 Comments

IMF: End fossil fuel subsidies, tax carbon [The Hill]

http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/290657-imf-end-fossil-fuel-subsidies-tax-carbon

“The link between subsidies, consumption of energy and climate change has added a new dimension to the debate on energy subsides,” David Lipton, IMF first deputy managing director, said in prepared remarks at a Washington event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

. .  .

The White House and congressional Democrats want to remove about $4 billion in annual tax provisions awarded to the oil-and-gas industry.

Oil-and-gas interests, and their Republican allies, say the provisions are cost-recovery mechanisms and business deductions that other industries also claim.

In 2011, nations doled out roughly $480 billion of “pre-tax” incentives, which are “when consumers pay less than supply cost of energy,” Lipton explained. They are generally found in emerging economies, according to an IMF report released Wednesday. 

And “post-tax” subsidies — the sum of pre-tax and tax incentives — hit $1.9 trillion. About 40 percent of those subsidies were awarded in advanced economies, with the U.S. leading the way at $502 billion.

Posted in Political News - International, Political News - National | 340 Comments

The Scariest Climate Change Graph Just Got Scarier (MoJo)

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/03/new-hockey-stick-graph-scarier

Today, it’s getting a makeover: A study published in Science reconstructs global temperatures further back than ever before—a full 11,300 years. The new analysis finds that the only problem with Mann’s hockey stick was that its handle was about 9,000 years too short. The rate of warming over the last 100 years hasn’t been seen for as far back as the advent of agriculture.

Posted in Political News - International, Political News - National | 9,775 Comments