Special event!!! This Sunday Ed Markey will be coming to Northampton, and with him will be the celebrated composer/singer Carole King(!). Yes, it’s Mothers’ Day - so bring Mom! This is an opportunity to meet Ed.
Come out and meet Ed and Carole!
WHERE: The Roost, 1 Market St, Northampton
WHEN: Sunday, May 12
TIME: 4:30pm
At his victory speech on April 30, ED MARKEY SPOKE SUBSTANTIVELY ON THE ISSUES THAT MATTER to ordinary working families (something his opponent Mr. Gomez did not do): protecting social security, ending unfair tax breaks and subsidies to corporations, meaningful environmental activism, sensible gun control, health care and women's health, women's right to choose, bipartisanship, and much more. He's ready to fight for us!
Have a look:
This general election is going to be a tough fight. If you are with Ed Markey on the issues, please participate, and help Ed win this seat in the Senate, and become an able partner with Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Have a look: his long and proud record as a legislator makes him the ideal progressive candidate to partner with Senator Elizabeth Warren. We need Ed Markey in the Senate, and Ed Markey needs our votes!
Hi all. Come to a Get Out The Vote RALLY with ED MARKEY!
When: Tonight @ 8 pm!
Where: JFK Middle School, Community Room, 100 Bridge Road, FLORENCE, MA
Exciting news: Along with Ed, Terry O'Neill, President of National Organization for Women (NOW) will be at the rally this evening!
Please help us get the word out about the rally supporting Ed Markey for Senate, and Terry O'Neill, who will be a great addition to the event.
RSVP if you can: corey@edmarkey.org but if you decide late, come anyway. You'll still be welcome!
Other GOTV rally locations: http://bit.ly/MarkeyRally
Another announcement:
We will be doing VISIBILITIES (holding signs for Ed Markey Monday, & Tues./Election Day, to remind folks to come out and vote in this special Senatorial Primary.
Place: Bank of America in Amherst (corners Amity, Main, and S. Pleasant)
Times: Noon to 1:00 pm, and 4:30 to 6:00 pm
Please RSVP if you can to Carlos Ortiz: crortizjr@aol.com but come anyway. No one turned away!
Don't forget to vote on Tuesday, April 30. Tell your friends to vote, then go make more friends, and tell them too. If you'll be away, vote now by absentee ballot in the town clerk's office. In a special election like this, the winner will be the one whose supporters care the most to come out to vote.
You can help Congressman Ed Markey be elected our next MA Senator. Here’s one option:
“PIONEER VALLEY FOR MARKEY” is buying space in the Daily Hampshire Gazette for a large SIGNATURE AD of supporters before the April 30 primary. This will publicize Markey's candidacy, and remind voters of the coming election. Deadline for the ad is Wednesday, April 17. To support his candidacy, please add your name ASAP; THE AD CAN INCLUDE ANYONE IN THE ENTIRE AREA, so please encourage friends/colleagues to join in.
To be included in the ad, it’s easy: email Alice at pv4markey@gmail.com Please give permission to use your name in support of Ed Markey for U.S. Senate. Include your name as you’d like it to appear, with town, and phone number.
The ad is expensive; if you CAN make a contribution to “PIONEER VALLEY FOR MARKEY” of any size, large or small, mention it in your email. You’ll be contacted with details for making a donation. If you can’t, don’t let it prevent you from adding your name.
Thanks for your help! Let's encourage others to come out and vote for Ed Markey.
REMINDER: the PRIMARY is on April 30; the SPECIAL ELECTION is on June 25!
Stay connected on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PV4Markey
Hi all. Help Congressman Ed Markey be elected our next MA Senator. REMINDER! The PRIMARY is APRIL 30. The SPECIAL ELECTION is JUNE 25. With regard to the campaign, there's something for everyone here:
CANVASSING: Please help with canvassing tomorrow (Sat.) at 11 am. Meet at Wildwood School parking lot on Strong St. We’re going to homes of likely supporters so you might see friends. If 3 hours is too long, come for a shorter time. Bill Ward will be keeping track of how many people will be coming so please contact him at williambward@gmail.com This is an opportunity for face-to-face meeting with voters. There will be canvassing EVERY Sat., 11 – 2, from that location.
GAZETTE SIGNATURE AD: We plan to have a large SIGNATURE AD with many names of Markey supporters in the Daily Hampshire Gazette shortly before the April 30 primary. It will be organized by town and alphabetized by name so your friends can find your name easily. We hope people will see names they recognize and go out to vote for Markey. If you'd like to have your name listed so your friends will be encouraged to come out to vote for him, please send an email to pv4markey@gmail.com , saying, “I agree to have my name in an ad in the Daily Hampshire Gazette supporting Ed Markey for U.S. Senate”. Give your name as you want it to appear, your town, and your phone number. Please encourage other people, especially those who are well known, to sign too. THE AD IS NOT JUST FOR AMHERST, BUT INCLUDES ANYONE IN THE ENTIRE AREA. It will be very expensive, so if you can, please write a check for any amount to “Pioneer Valley for Markey”, and send to Alice Swift, 36 Pondview Dr., Amherst, MA 01002. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY CONTRIBUTED!
MEETING & PHONE-BANKING: The AMHERST FOR MARKEY group will meet on Monday at 5:30 before phone-banking at 6 pm. Everyone is welcome at both, which will take place at Faythe Turner's house, 129 Heatherstone Rd., Amherst. Please feel free to come to the meeting or phoning, or preferably both. Bring a cell phone if you're going to stay for phoning. We need people to help get the word out that there is an election on April 30 and why Ed Markey is the one to vote for. Training and talking points will be available. Bill Ward will be keeping track of how many people will be coming so please contact him at williambward@gmail.com
WRITING LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: We need more people. If you’re interested, please contact Herschel Shohan, jhshohan@comcast.net He had a great letter in the Amherst Bulletin and the Republican.
VISIBILITIES:
Please join us to stand out with signs in front of Bank of America every Wed. from 5:00 to 6:00 if the weather cooperates. Just come; no need to RSVP. This will give visibility to Markey and help get his name out. We can also talk to people who come by and give them literature. It's another way of connecting with people on a personal basis.
- on South Hadley election day, Monday, April 1. Some of us will stand out in front of S. Hadley High School on their election day, Mon. April 1. The high school is pretty far down on rte. 116 on the left at 153 Newton St. (past the rte. 33 traffic light). Please RSVP if you can help, pv4markey@gmail.com 11:30 – 1 pm
- Sat. mornings at 10 am. We can't table inside at the winter market, but we can stand outside the Middle School handing out lit. Susie Lowenstein did it last week and others are encouraged to join her. If you can’t or don’t want to canvass, this is a good alternative.
- Thurs. April 4, 5?-?8 pm, Amherst Art Walk @ Burnett Gallery, Chamber of Commerce, Gallery A3, Hope & Feathers, Town Hall, Collective Copies, Freedom Trails Gallery, GoBerry, JCA, Amherst Community Connections, and others. This is a free cultural event in downtown Amherst. We want to have people walking around downtown with signs and lit, starting at Bank of America. Come if you can for a little while in the early evening.
SOCIAL MEDIA – Facebook: PV4Markey, Twitter @PV4Markey, email: pv4markey@gmail.com
Thanks for your help! Let's encourage folks to come out & vote for Ed Markey on April 30 and again on June 25!
It’s time to overturn DOMA. By Bill Clinton, The Washington Post, March 7, 2013 http://www.washingto...turn-doma/2013/03/07
The writer is the 42nd president of the United States.
In 1996, I signed the Defense of Marriage Act. Although that was only 17 years ago, it was a very different time. In no state in the union was same-sex marriage recognized, much less available as a legal right, but some were moving in that direction. Washington, as a result, was swirling with all manner of possible responses, some quite draconian. As a bipartisan group of former senators stated in their March 1 amicus brief to the Supreme Court, many supporters of the bill known as DOMA believed that its passage “would defuse a movement to enact a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, which would have ended the debate for a generation or more.” It was under these circumstances that DOMA came to my desk, opposed by only 81 of the 535 members of Congress.
On March 27, DOMA will come before the Supreme Court, and the justices must decide whether it is consistent with the principles of a nation that honors freedom, equality and justice above all, and is therefore constitutional. As the president who signed the act into law, I HAVE COME TO BELIEVE THAT DOMA IS CONTRARY TO THOSE PRINCIPLES AND, IN FACT, INCOMPATIBLE WITH OUR CONSTITUTION.
Because Section 3 of the act defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, same-sex couples who are legally married in nine states and the District of Columbia are denied the benefits of more than a thousand federal statutes and programs available to other married couples. Among other things, these couples cannot file their taxes jointly, take unpaid leave to care for a sick or injured spouse or receive equal family health and pension benefits as federal civilian employees. Yet they pay taxes, contribute to their communities and, like all couples, aspire to live in committed, loving relationships, recognized and respected by our laws.
When I signed the bill, I included a statement with the admonition that “enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination.” Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. IT SHOULD BE OVERTURNED.
We are still a young country, and many of our landmark civil rights decisions are fresh enough that the voices of their champions still echo, even as the world that preceded them becomes less and less familiar. We have yet to celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, but a society that denied women the vote would seem to us now not unusual or old-fashioned but alien. I believe that in 2013 DOMA and opposition to marriage equality are vestiges of just such an unfamiliar society.
Americans have been at this sort of a crossroads often enough to recognize the right path. We understand that, while our laws may at times lag behind our best natures, in the end they catch up to our core values. One hundred fifty years ago, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln concluded a message to Congress by posing the very question we face today: “It is not ‘Can any of us imagine better?’ but ‘Can we all do better?’?”
The answer is of course and always yes. In that spirit, I join with the Obama administration, the petitioner Edith Windsor, and the many other dedicated men and women who have engaged in this struggle for decades in urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.
The GOP is feverishly working to grab the next election, using gerrymandering and electoral college rigging.
To see how the destruction of democracy will look, watch 1:04 - 1:26 (after the ad).
On W2 day I just have to write a note to my sister and brother UMASS workers who are married to OPPOSITE SEX SPOUSES... you may now clap yourself on the back in congratulations that you are not being targeted as a SECOND CLASS CITIZEN OF THE USA and that you are not PAYING MORE TAXES BECAUSE YOU LOVE THE WRONG KIND OF HUMAN BEING!
Because of DOMA (thank you very much Bill Clinton) I am forced to pay taxes on my wife's health insurance premiums that my co-workers who are married to the opposite sex DON"T PAY ONE PENNY OF TAXES ON!! I am being economically punished for marrying a lovely person rather than staying with my violent ex-husband, THANK YOU AMERICA for MAKING ME LESS THAN EVERYONE ELSE.
Does my USA/MTA Union care? NO! Does my Department Head or the Faculty care? NO! Do my co-workers care? Why should they? They don't pay a f**king penny while I'm taxed on an additional $5,110 a year (and growing)!
So just a little tidbit while you're spending your tax return, think of your gay married co-workers, friends and family and know that we are being DISCRIMINATED AGAINST DAILY, WEEKLY, MONTHLY, YEARLY and we will be getting a lot less on our tax returns than YOU!
Now go write a letter to Congress to STOP SUPPORTING DOMA! Thank you.
Like millions of others, I am dazed with sorrow since the massacre at Sandy Hook. I attended several vigils since Friday; did you as well? We’re all heartbroken. President Obama, a father, was clearly stricken with empathetic grief; his statements were beautiful and heartfelt. But will he lead on taking the "meaningful action" he called for? If now isn't the time to demand sane gun policy, then when? Or shall we wait until after the next massacre? Mass shootings, along with the less dramatic yet steady flow of single homicides will continue, until we ban easy access to these armaments.
The dead on Dec. 14, 2012 in Newtown, CT. were victims of WAR.
When our American forefathers acted to ensure "a well-regulated militia", they never could have imagined these mass shootings of innocents in the name of 2nd Amendment “freedoms”. It would have horrified, enraged, and revolted them. How can we continue to tolerate the worship of guns over the lives of our friends, neighbors, and children?
Some of the Newtown teachers were brave enough to give their lives to try to protect other people's children. Will politicians be brave enough to protect us from the NRA? The NRA and the gun culture are a cancer on law enforcement, and a cancer on the country. No civilian should have access to any automatic, high-speed, high-kill weaponry. If we do not act, keep your mourning clothes on; we’ll meet soon enough, at the next vigil.
Sen. Feinstein is bringing legislation to ban assault weapons on Day One of the new Congress. Let's stand with her, and pressure others in Congress to work for sane gun regulation. It’s no longer enough to cry, light candles, or pray. The greatest tragedy of all would be to avoid our responsibility to our communities. Words of comfort, from high or low, will be meaningless without unified action. I'm in; are you?
Here is a poem from a different war, but with the same victims:
* * * * * In Guernica * * * * *
In Guernica the dead children
Were laid out in order upon the sidewalk,
In their white starched dresses,
In their pitiful white dresses.
On their foreheads and breasts
Are the little holes where death came in
As thunder, while they were playing
Their important summer games.
Do not weep for them, madre.
They are gone forever, the little ones,
Straight to heaven to the saints,
And God will fill the bullet holes with candy.
So, it's now official -- America has reached de Tocqueville's tipping point: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." In short: The takers now outnumber (and so can outvote) the makers. And so, America's decline has begun in earnest. Now begins the rejoicing of those around the world who have so long envied and resented our freedom and success.
Have you ever worked at a job where somebody was actively trying to sabotage you? Do you remember what that feels like?
Well, that has been President Obama’s experience from Day One. As African Americans, we have a special sensitivity to situations where folks are unfairly set up to fail. We shouldn’t allow such tactics to determine the outcome of a national election.
This is especially true in the president’s case. Obama’s performance has been extraordinary in both foreign and domestic policy, but he has gotten almost zero credit for truly historic achievements.
ON THE ECONOMY: The U.S. economy is growing at a rate of about 2 percent, according to the most recent Commerce Department report. In the abstract, that might seem like not much to cheer about. But what we are comparing that 2 percent rate of growth to?
Let’s look at the rest of the industrialized world. Japan is SHRINKING at a rate of about 2 percent, as is all of industrial Europe.IN FACT, THE USA IS THE ONLY INDUSTRIALIZED POWER THAT’S GROWING — IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. Developing countries like China, which is growing at about 6%, are a century behind us. Much of their growth comes from doing things we did long ago, like building roads, sewers and cities.
A Republican president might be hailed as an economic genius by beating all of our industrial competitors by 4% in terms of GDP, despite the economic pain that the country is going through. Instead, Obama is castigated. Instead of praise and respect, he is continually attacked by his Republican colleagues in government.
ON FOREIGN POLICY: No recent U.S. president could do what President Obama has done: He convinced China and Russia to side with us against Iran. Thanks to his leadership, Iran is fully isolated. It is being strangled by crippling economic sanctions, even by Iran’s friends and key allies. This represents a huge diplomatic and foreign policy success by Obama. But again, he’s gotten zero credit from Republicans and even from the mainstream media.
Let’s look at Libya. On the one hand, George W. Bush bankrupted the federal government and cost America tens of thousands of lives trying to bring about regime change in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the other hand, Obama helped bring about regime change in Libya without a single military casualty. It is the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to continue to politicize the death of a brave American diplomat, Ambassador Christopher Stevens, without acknowledging first the incredible success that the president achieved by avoiding any American loss of life in Libya up until that point.
No president should be expected to achieve even half of what President Obama has been able to achieve with zero support and actively daily obstruction from the rival political party. He has faced an unprecedented level of sabotage by the Republican Party — at a time when the nation is in the middle of two wars, the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression, and faces a range of challenges across the globe. It is unconscionable.
Voters should be abandoning the Republicans in droves and rallying to this president’s side.
I see this as a moral question. IMAGINE A LIFEGUARD TRYING TO SAVE LIVES IN THE WAKE OF A TSUNAMI. NOW PICTURE THAT LIFEGUARD BEING UNDERMINED BY PEOPLE WHO ARE HOPING MORE PEOPLE DROWN, JUST SO THEY CAN GET THE LIFEGUARD’S JOB.
This is what we are faced with. Whatever frustrations any of us have had with this president (AND I HAVE HAD PLENTY), Americans of all colors have a duty to reject the politics of obstruction and give him four more years to complete the mission.
Everyone has had to face down a jealous, destructive “hater” at work. Next week, we have the chance to send a clear message to haters and saboteurs everywhere: this kind of behavior is unacceptable, and it will not be rewarded on the national stage.
[Van Jones is president and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, a platform for bottom-up, people-powered innovations to help fix the U.S. economy. A Yale-educated attorney, Van has written two New York Times Best Sellers: The Green Collar Economy, the definitive book on green jobs, and Rebuild the Dream, a roadmap for progressives in 2012 and beyond. Van is currently a CNN Contributor.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Let's give the President a Congress who will work WITH him, and that includes Elizabeth Warren for Senate. Thanks! Dinah.
Feel free to share with others.
A recent
"Investor's Business Daily" article provided very
interesting statistics from a survey by the United
Nations International Health
Organization.
Percentage of men
and women who survived cancer five years after
diagnosis:
U.S.................................
65%
England..........................
46%
Canada...........................
42%
Percentage of
patients diagnosed with diabetes who received treatment
within six months:
U.S.................................
93%
England..........................
15%
Canada...........................
43%
Percentage of seniors
needing hip replacement who received it within six
months:
U.S.................................
90%
England..........................
15%
Canada...........................
43%
Percentage referred to
a medical specialist who see one within one
month:
U.S.................................
77%
England..........................
40%
Canada...........................
43%
Number of MRI scanners
(a prime diagnostic tool) per million
people:
U.S.................................
71
England..........................
14
Canada...........................
18
Percentage of seniors
(65+), with low income, who say they are in "excellent
health":
U.S.................................
12%
England..........................
02%
Canada...........................
06%
And now for the last
statistic: National Health Insurance?
U.S.................................
NO
England..........................
YES
Canada...........................
YES
Check this last set of
statistics: The percentage of each past president's
cabinet who had worked in the private business sector prior to
their appointment to the cabinet. (You know that the
private business sector is a real-life business, not a
government job.) Here are the
percentages.
T.
Roosevelt.................. 38%
Taft................................
40%
Wilson...........................
52%
Harding..........................
49%
Coolidge........................
48%
Hoover...........................
42%
F.
Roosevelt................... 50%
Truman..........................
50%
Eisenhower....................
57%
Kennedy.........................
30%
Johnson..........................
47%
Nixon.............................
53%
Ford................................
42%
Carter.............................
32%
Reagan...........................
56%
G. H.
Bush..................... 51%
Clinton...........................
39%
G. W.
Bush.................... 55%
Obama...........................
08%
This helps to explain the
incompetence of this administration: only 8% of them have
ever worked in private business! That's right! Only
eight percent; the least, by far, of the last 19 presidents!
And these people are trying to tell our big corporations
how to run their business?
How can the president of
a major nation and society, the one with the most successful
economic system in world history, stand and talk about business
when he's never worked for one? Or about jobs when he has
never really had one? And when it's the same for 92% of
his senior staff and closest advisers? They've spent most
of their time in academia, government and/or non-profit jobs or
as "community organizers”. They should have been in an
employment line.
Quoted verbatim from FactCheck.org:
The article referenced is an extremely lengthy and comprehensive exegesis on the case from every angle. You can read it for yourself.
"Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown and challenger Elizabeth Warren are accusing each other of “not telling the truth.” Brown says Warren worked to “restrict payments” to asbestos victims, while Warren says she worked to “get more money” for them. WE FIND WARREN IS CORRECT; BROWN'S AD IS A DISTORTION."
"WE FIND WARREN IS CORRECT; BROWN'S AD IS A DISTORTION."
(emphasis is mine).
"It may seem counter-intuitive that Warren’s work on behalf of an insurance company that covered an asbestos manufacturer could be work on the same side as the victims of the case. But Warren was brought in as a bankruptcy expert on a case before the Supreme Court to secure a $500 million trust to pay asbestos victims. As part of a settlement that Warren worked to preserve, the insurance company sought immunity from lawsuits in exchange for releasing the $500 million trust. Attorneys for most of the asbestos victims supported Warren’s efforts. ...
Warren’s version of the case has been publicly backed by several attorneys representing the asbestos victims, as well as leaders of an asbestos workers’ union. “He’s flat out misrepresenting the facts,” Francis C. Boudrow, business manager for the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Asbestos Workers Union, Local No. 6 told the Boston Globe. “It’s offensive to all these people who’ve lost lives” to asbestos-related illness, he said.
Bruce Carter, an Ohio attorney whose firm has worked on behalf of over 19,000 claimants in the case, told us Brown has simply mischaracterized Warren’s role. The idea that Warren was working against the interests of the victims, he said, is ”not true.”
“During the period she worked with Travelers, the claimants (the victims) and Travelers were working together to do what was necessary to get these funds approved and established,” Carter said. “We were all working together for the benefit of the victims. We were working together toward a common goal.”
It was only after Warren left the case, he said, that Travelers “tried to back out of the deal and try to get something for nothing.”
Another lawyer representing victims in the case, Edwin L. Wallace with the law firm Thornton & Naumes in Boston, echoed Carter’s assessment.
“She was working for the victims,” Wallace said.
Carter and Wallace both said that — contrary to what the Brown campaign is now saying — neither they nor Warren could have foreseen the lower court ruling that let Travelers off the hook for the $500 million trust.
And Wallace is confident that ruling will be overturned. “They will get paid,” Wallace predicted
PLEASE SHARE WITH OTHERS: SCOTT BROWN IS LYING ABOUT ELIZABETH WARREN TO WIN RE-ELECTION.
Scott Brown speaks of himself as a supporter of women: defended his mother against an abusive step-father, has daughters, says he's pro-choice, folds laundry, etc.
Here's what Elizabeth Warren said about the choice we face in this election, with regard to protecting women's rights: