Blogs

by Scotland Willis

Massachusetts legislation House Bill 3515, Senate Bill 1480 for which the session ended July 31 2010(According to legislative sessions and rules ). Further discussion on the matter of bottled water and soft drink deposit requirement(of .05 cents) is essentially moot.

by Scotland Willis

On Sunday, August 22, the Rockport Legion Band welcomes Creagan More Pipes and Drums for a joint concert on the bandstand at Rockport's Back Beach. The 7:00 P.M. program is free to the public and will be the second year that the two groups have joined forces. Last year's performance received rave reviews, and we expect that this performance will equal the last. If you like the pipes, you should not miss this show.

Drive an hour and come up for the day. Enjoy Rockport, then stay a bit late. The Rockport Legion Band will present the sixth concert in its 2010 concert series on the band stand at Rockport's Back Beach.

Jason Howard leads the band this week. Planned music includes selections from both "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Dances with Wolves"; marches by Hall, Sousa, Jewell, and Huff; a suite of ballet music by Jacques Offenbach; song medleys by Vincent Youmans and Johnny Mercer; plus some swing, ragtime, Italian songs and show tunes from Broadway.

I can't believe there have been 100 posts in a little more than 6 months. I set out to post once a week and have instead found things to post about nearly every other day. In celebration of this post and with some encouragement from friends, I'm going to list my top 100 reasons to live in Dedham. It initially felt like a difficult task, but when I sat down with a pen and paper and numbered 1-100, I got to 100 things in about 10 minutes.

They are in no particular order and feel free to leave any omissions in the comments.

1. Location, location, location
2. The neighborhoods and the neighbors
3. The teachers-they are the best!! (Let the contract negotiations end!)
4. Convenience-Do you ever have to leave?
5. Parks: Memorial, Paul and Condon
6. The Endicott Estate-sledding, public gardens
7. Fairbanks House(my neighbor!)
8. Dedham Community Theatre-Beer and Wine while you watch a great film
9. Museum of Bad Art
10. Dedham Pottery
11. Dedham Women's Exchange
12. Dedham Parent Time
13. Dedham Community House(Memeber yet?)

On Tuesday morning, I was informed by members of my community that a developer was requesting a variance from the City of Boston, on a property in our area of Highland Park at 9:30 am- now it's 30 minutes before the hearing was suppose to occur- SHUCKS! So I changed, jumped on my bike, and sped down to City Hall Rm. 801

Mac D'Alessandro, running against Stephen Lynch for Congress in Massachusetts' 9th district, addressed a rally on the Boston Common Tuesday, August 10 organized by Boston MoveOn members.

A vote for Mac on September 14 is a vote for a better, more progressive Democrat. Mac is pro-choice, Lynch is not. Lynch voted for the war in Iraq, Mac did not and does not support extending the wars. Mac supported health care reform, Lynch voted against it. They both support Elizabeth Warren to run the consumer protection agency. Let Mac tell you why he's running and what he stands for (video):

Boston is the birthplace of the American Revolution. The time has come again for Bostonians and all Americans to stand again for their interests as a people and a nation to demand their birth rights including that of free speech and an open marketplace of ideas.

AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are making a play to fundamentally change the way the Internet works. If they succeed, we'll all lose. A free and open Internet is critical for our communities to speak in our own voices and to organize and advocate for ourselves. Congress.org has the recent developments.

Before the Internet, there was a high barrier of entry into publishing. Now, a journalist like Adam Gaffin can build a site like UniversalHub and cover a segment of Boston news left unexplored by the big news organizations and, provide a forum for the news to be discussed by interested parties who live in the hub.

As they approach the dock I can kind of tell that the captain, or acting captain of the vessel, is not the sharpest sailor on the sea. He misses his approach and is forced to place the vessel in reverse(missing the 30 feet of dock before him). It was not a terribly embarrassing moment- though you would never be able to tell from the apparent"spouse's" reaction towards me. Crewed with three people I thought for sure that they would have someone among them, who could safely and efficiently dock. Nada uno.

Accelerating up the slope of Hawthorne street, I held enough speed to take the corner leading me to Highland; anticipating the momentum I would gain down Highland Street towards Cedar, my adrenaline began to build. Suddenly I was perplexed by the two canoes atop a familiar looking Jeep at the Highland and Fort Ave. intersection- it my attention from the corner of my eye.

Remember when Scott Brown said he'd be an independent senator who voted the interests of Massachusetts? Well not so fast. Scott Brown and every single other Republican senator voted against a bill Thursday that would aid small businesses by cutting taxes and making credit available. Just as a reminder, what was it Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said when Brown joined the Senate?

Mac writes:

...my opponent in the Democratic primary, incumbent Stephen Lynch, voted for the Iraq War and its continued funding, for the Patriot Act and its reauthorization, and against health care reform, and has voted to restrict a woman’s right to choose. more here

Here's a video of Mac D’Alessandro visiting Needham Community Council Thursday

While I welcome President Bill Clinton's interest in the MA-9 race and his willingness to stump and fund raise, I'd ask him and the MA Democratic Party to wait until the people have selected their candidate in the primary before stumping and fund raising - which is to ask the President to respect the will of the people not tilt the field to the incumbent.

We have an important Democratic primary in MA-9 this year. Candidates and campaign volunteers are out canvassing and phone banking for Stephen Lynch, Mac D'Alessandro and Phil Dunkelbarger.

The Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus has endorsed another group of strong female candidates this election season. Read about them and all the other latest news from the MWPC in our summer newsletter!

Be sure to visit our webpage for more.

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My old house.

by Scotland Willis

Whether you are a believer in climate change or not, the intensity of your belief passes through many filters. This is one of the many things preventing the kind of progress which advocates for climate change would like to see.

Opponents, on the other hand, lack research infrastructure, attempting to manipulate and falsely extrapolate intensely researched data from climate experts- not advocates.

Photo credit CBC Sports 2006

That the Iroquois Nation could not get a visa to travel to the FIL Lacrosse World Cup in Manchester, England is clearly a great failure of the Great Britian's consulate. And it's too bad the US State Department and Canada could not do more to pave the way: Don't they know sports can be a path to mutual respect and cooperation? Not for nothing but don't they know American Indians invented the frigging game?