In today’s Globe, Massachusetts Senate president Robert Travaglini puts the incoming Patrick Administration on warning, saying: “I have senators across the state who share my vision and my approach and if forced to choose, I’m comfortable with whom they’ll choose.”
I suppose it’s too much to ask that our elected officials hold the interests of their [...]
People often ask me if I’d return to writing a column for the Brookline TAB. I tell them that I have more of an audience on this site than I ever had while writing for the paper. And that I left because the standards on the op-ed page were not in line with [...]
I was curious as to what Brookline’s state house crew thinks on the new Governor’s $1.4 million inauguration plans. I asked Representative Frank Smizik (why bother with the others?) and State Senator Cynthia Creem (why bother, period?) for their reaction.
True to form, only Smizik has something to say on the matter. Here’s his take:
“I [...]
Gee, why is Brookline’s representative in the US House - Barney Frank - so defensive over the “Grand Bargain” he proposes to ease corporate regulations?
Maybe because it’s a lousy idea?
Here’s a link to onbrookline.com’s take on the Grand Bargain, first posted in November. And here’s a minor prophetic from August.
Comedic Update: Frank says of [...]
More details on the $1.4 million inauguration brought to you by corporate interests. Apparently, there’s going to be a footwear drive as part of the festivities.
I suppose that’s a good idea, but we’re past the point where donating sneakers to homeless kids is a meaningful gesture.
Mayor Tom Menino wants to sell Boston’s City Hall and relocate.
Why can’t we do the same in Brookline? We can sell the big box to one of the developers that already operate out of the site. Then we can move the town hall to a more convenient location for the 62% of town employees who [...]
Florida’s incoming Republican Governor cancels a $2 million inauguration party saying, “Upon reflection, it doesn’t feel right to me when there are people having trouble paying their insurance bills and making ends meet.”
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Democrats will party on. Would that the crowd advising Governor-elect Deval Patrick be as enlightened as the Florida Republicans.
Update: Non-disclosure [...]
Question: When did Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s pandering to religious zealots (over his opposition to same sex marriage) no longer become an embarrassment to the Commonwealth and simply become a self-disgrace?
Answer: Today.
Apparently, the reason Governor-elect Deval Patrick needs a five day, $1.4 million inauguration celebration (sponsored by corporate interests at $50K a pop) is because the grass roots nature of his campaign has left him with a lot of people to thank, and “to engage.”
The campaign is over. It’s time to govern.
Patrick promised a new [...]
It’s been quite clear for some time now that the New England housing market is in steep decline. Workers are leaving Massachusetts for more affordable places to live. And wages are barely keeping pace with increases in health insurance, energy and education costs for individuals.
So when faced with “the worst budget picture in [...]
The thing about being a cynic is that you’re rarely surprised by the way in which campaign rhetoric is abandoned for political expediency.
But even I wouldn’t have expected the $1.4 million gubernatorial inauguration (the most expensive in Massachusetts history) being planned by the incoming Patrick Administration. I mean, the Patrick Campaign was all about a [...]
According to today’s TAB, a Proposition 2.5 override is being pushed by the Brookline Board of Selectmen. Applying my considerable experience in writing for marketing, I’ve come up with a positioning statement for the Selectmen as they wage this campaign:
Vote for an override because we need more money to mismange in the way of generous [...]
Archie Mazmanian’s on top of the Urban Ring Project and has this advisory - concerning a pair of public hearings - for onbrookline.com readers.
I have been actively following the MBTA’s Urban Ring Project since its inception several years ago.
The MBTA had its last public meetings on the Project back in June of 2003. [...]
With all the attention being paid to the release of an Iraq study group report, one point is inescapable. This is the price we pay for putting an incurious, anti-intellectual person in charge of complex decision-making.
Back in 2000, the US political media decided that Al Gore thought he was smarter than the rest of [...]
Last night’s Selectmen’s meeting resulted in no tax relief for business (as pressed for by the Brookline Chamber of Commerce last week).
The business community’s champion on the Board is Selectman Michael Merrill.
But when Merrill is throwing his campaign cash around (cash presented to him by individuals who, like Merrill, are offended by the notion that [...]
