A Game Changer

SO. Candidate for mayor, City Councilor at Large Michael Flaherty just announced his new running mate in an email to supporters, and it is none other than (one of) his former opponent(s) SAM YOON.

I can't tell you how excited I am. After Tuesday night, I had resigned myself to watching Mayor Menino cruise to victory. Now, I believe we'll be spending the next month+ watching a very interesting, very close race.

I guess I should just tell you right now that as of tonight, my personal bias is towards the newly hatched Flaherty-Yoon ticket (but of course, the BU College Democrats don't endorse [ever]).

Moving on, one of my personal heroes, David Bernstein wrote in last week's Phoenix about Councilor Flaherty's need to woo former Yoon supporters. Bernstein talks about the "New Boston" ie. young progressives, minority voters and immigrants and their solid support of Councilor Yoon. According to him, Flaherty borrowed some of Yoon's campaign rhetoric for his victory speech: he was introduced as representing the New Boston, and he led his crowd of (mostly white) supporters in a "We Can't Wait!" chant.

If we do the math, Mayor Menino won 50.52% of the vote, while Councilors Flaherty and Yoon won a combined 45.12% (they each won 23.9% and 21.16%, respectively). If every person who voted in last week's preliminary voted in November, Mayor Menino would win. But of course, voter turnout in the general election will be higher than turnout last week, and the higher the turnout, the better things look for the Flaherty-Yoon ticket because it was a game of numbers for the Mayor in the preliminary, and I personally believe the same will be true of the general election.

We also can't assume that the city's progressives will just hand their votes straight to Michael Flaherty. Mayor Menino won endorsements in the preliminary from the MA League of Environmental Voters, MassEquality, the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization of Women (MassNOW) and a number of unions. Endorsements which he earned via 16 years of supporting progressive legislation in the city.

Michael Flaherty also promised a two-year term limit on the mayor if he wins, something Sam Yoon had promised all along. I can't tell you exactly how I feel about term limits. I feel like term limits assume that voters are stupid and can't decide on their own to stop voting for a representative who stops being helpful and starts becoming greedy, and I'm sure many of you would answer, "Well, voters are stupid."

...but then why let them vote?

Anyway, if you want to hear more from the campaign, make sure to tune in tomorrow at 10:15am for their official announcement/press conference.

PS: There's tons of exciting things to attend around Boston in the next few weeks: A chance to hear Noam Chomsky on grassroots democracy; a free screening of "Capitalism: a Love Story" and a Q&A with Michael Moore; a reproductive rights lobby day; and more! Check out our weekly update for more info!

A little levity in my inaugural blog post

Weekly Digest: What I am reading

Although I may be highlighting certain articles, opinion pieces, and analysis in this, and subsequent blog posts, I do not necessarily agree with all or any of the positions undertaken by the respective authors. This is merely an abbreviated list of items that I have read recently and would like to share for discussion.

Week #2

1. First, something relatively breaking.
   
2. Senate Mark Up, Finance Committee, woooooooh. Admittedly, boring. But informative.
   
3. Sotomayer is talking up some interesting notions I couldn't be more pleased about. About what? Oh this
   
4. Mayoral Race? The Globe endorses Menino and Flaherty, Pheonix goes Yoon and the daily freep...?
   
5. In case you missed it, the Newton Race is down to Ruth Balser and Setti Warren
6. The UN is coming back to NYC. What are you watching?
7. Swingstateproject
8. Looks like good news for HCR
9. I want to use words that I can't. Read this. All I can say is "ha ha"

And there, I am done for the week. Got suggestions? Post a comment.

Make sure to come to the meetings (7pm @ Sargent 102). We got some kinda big things coming up, that I won't post on here cuz... then you would have no incentive.

Joe the Racist?

I would like to preface this post by saying I'm a 21 year old white girl from the Midwest or in other words not an expert on racism. I do understand that I have white privilege and that being from a small city in the Midwest means I also haven't had an especially large exposure to minority groups (I'm not saying none I'm just saying we have a lot of Germans in Wisconsin). I don't normally preface things with disclaimers but since this post is about race and race so easily becomes a heated topic I wanted to put out there where I'm coming from. This is my opinion and you are free to disagree. On to the topic at hand...

As I am sure you know, Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) decided to heckle President Obama during his health care address.

(For the record, in 2003 Joe Wilson voted for federal money to give illegal immigrants health care.) This event has, understandably, garnered a huge amount of media attention. (Gallup did a poll that says 2/3 of Americans don't approve of Wilson's outburst). It has also brought the issue of race, and more specifically the racism that our first African American President is enduring, into the news cycle. Jimmy Carter is the most recent figure to weigh in but reporters, columnists, politicians, and celebrities across the country have commented on the racist undertones of Joe Wilson's outburst and the reaction that it produced.

Maureen Dowd wrote an op-ed piece that is highly worth reading about the cloying feeling that though he didn't actually say it what Joe Wilson meant was "You lie, boy!" Jimmy Carter told Brian Williams "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he is African-American," and repeated the sentiment at an address that he gave at Emory University when he said "When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds." Bill Cosby voiced his consent with the former President's view of the situation as well.

Dick Harpootlian, the former Democratic Party chairman of South Carolina states "I don't think Joe's outburst was caused by President Obama being African-American. I think it was caused by no filter being between his brain and his mouth." Robert Gibbs speaking on behalf of the White House said that the President doesn't belive the policy critisism is "based on the color of his skin." (both quotes from MSNB)

Before this progresses too much farther I'd like to give you some background on Representative Wilson. Joe Wilson used to work for the Strom Thurmond. Strom Thurmond held the longest filibuster by a single Senator he did this to try to derail the Civil Rights Act of 1957, he also opposed the Supreme Court decision to immediately desegregate the South. But that's just who Mr Wilson worked for. When Essie Mae Washington-Williams announced in 2003 that she was Thurmond's illegitamate daughter from an affair he had with his black maid, Joe Wilson strongly voiced his doubt. When Ms Washington-Williams' claims were varified, Joe Wilson felt that she still shouldn't have come forward because her birth was a smear on Thurmond's legacy.

Calling someone a racist is a hard move to make, it instantly raises the hackles and often times changes the discussion into how horrible it was that someone was accused of being a racist rather than how they said something that offended people . At the same time it seems hard to believe that Representative Wilson's comment did not have some backing in racism, especially given his history. Aside from Wilson's personal history I think it is also important to keep in mind that desegregation is a very new policy for the United States. A lot of the time it seems as though the Civil Rights era was far in the past, but that was our parents generation and the ramifications of the Jim Crow era are still being felt in America today. Segregationist from that era are still alive, as are their children who were raised under those conditions. Those children are now the age of our politicians. I'm not saying everyone that was raised by segregationist or racists is one, I'm just saying we do not live in a post-racial society and that deeply racist policies were widely accepted less than a lifetime ago. So is Joe Wilson a racist? It's hard to say definitively, I personally think he is, but what is very clear is that whatever his motivation he has become the face of a racist movement.

Since his outburst Joe Wilson has apologized, but he then went on to use his outburst as a stump position for campaigning. He was seen signing a photo of his outburst (right after his "apology"). Conservative grassroots organizations:

are heralding Wilson as a "folk hero" for the movement against Obama's "lies," which are actually pretty easily verifiable truths (but that requires, you know, looking at the bill). The Republican party has even decided to spin the story claiming that Obama "started it" by "being a poor guest," which actually hurts my brain to try to comprehend. Even if Joe Wilson did not mean his comment to be racist by not decrying the racist fringe of his supporters who are using his name for their cause he is passively supporting what they say.

Perhaps President Carter sums it up best, "The president is not only the head of government, he is the head of state and no matter who he is or how much we disagree with his policies, the president should be treated with respect."

additional article consultation from:
Kate Harding at Jezebel

Weekly Digest: What I am reading

Although I may be highlighting certain articles, opinion pieces, and analysis in this, and subsequent blog posts, I do not necessarily agree with all or any of the positions undertaken by the respective authors. This is merely an abbreviated list of items that I have read recently and would like to share for discussion.

Welcome to the first of what I hope to be a weekly installment on the Boston University College Democrats website highlighting news from various medias that may interest people but might have been missed in that vast system of tubes known as the internet.

Now there will be some pages that I frequent that will appear to repeat, more than likely these will be blogs in which there is a community, or at least a large number of people, posting. The larger the community, the more posts, the more issues, the points of view.

On to the posts that make my list:

1. Congressmatters has the latest in Harry Reid's attempt to make the Senate do something or else!
2. Glenn Greenwald points out the Tea Parties' Stockholm Syndrome in loving that which they rally against!
3. Every weekday (roughly) the people over at DailyKos.com compile a round of political news. Here's the latest.
4. Over at Talkingpointsmemo.com I found a new HCAN (Health Care for America Now)
5. John Cole goes to the TeaBagger's Rally to get a reality check
6. Apparently this whole healthcare debate has been an effort to further discredit Republicans. I didn't know they could get more discredited. But whatever, as long as in the end we get a robust public option in health care without triggers I'll be appeased for the moment.
7. I'll be honest, in my mind late night TV goes like this: Conan > Letterman > pretty much anyone > Leno > Carson Daly. But I'd watch Letterman next monday
8. Great news! More people will be paying more money for less healthcare!
9. Apparently it won't be long until we can get the vaccine for the swine flu. (Incidentally, I read recently that the USDA wants ppl to stop calling it swine flu because tests show it is closer to the 1918 influenza, appears to have started from humans, AND it is hurting the pig farming industry.)
10. How that works with this dreary bit of news, I dunno.
11. Although a bit dated by now, this is a pretty good run down of the MA Sen. Seat. race
12. Apparently Rep. Lynch is not going to run for Senate, and Bluemassgroup is discussing what that means....
13. Additionally, it looks like my hometown Congressman, John Tierney is not throwing his hat in either!
14. Over at the national site, college democrats of America, they're really digging into those issues that effect you and me, you know, students.
15. Has all of this confused you? Don't know where you stand on anything? Well you can count yourself as having something in common with the likely republican candidate for Senate for our neighbor to the north, New Hampshire
16. To round out the list, President Obama gives his weekly address over at the party website

While this is more a survey of stories I found interesting, hopefully it will point you to new stories, sources and opinions. Notably, most of the stories have been about healthcare. That will not always be the case (hopefully health will pass and that will be that), so I look forward to sharing more, on more topics, from more places.

Until Next Week...

Meeting Thursday

The BU College Democrats will be holding our first meeting this Thursday, Sep. 10 at 7pm in Sargent 102. We’ll be talking about what the club is all about along with upcoming events and opportunities. For more information on the BUCD, please visit our website.

1. Volunteer for Newton Mayoral Candidate Setti Warren
We’re volunteering to elect Setti Warren for mayor of Newton on Saturday. Find out more about Setti here at www.settiwarren.com. Meet in Marsh Plaza at 11am and we’ll leave together.

2. Attend a Hearing and a Press Conference
There is a big hearing TOMORROW (Wed) on giving the governor the authority to appoint an interim senator in Gardner Auditorium at the State House at the top of Beacon Hill (near the Park Street T stop). There will also be a Mass Democratic Party Press Conference before the hearing. The press conference is in front of the state house at 12pm. If you get there by 11 you will be in backdrop holding a sign. Senator Kerry and Governor Patrick are still unconfirmed to make an appearance but likely to speak. It will be a lot of fun (and Republican protestors are expected).


See you Thursday,
Katie

Secretary, BU College Democrats

http://bucollegedemocrats.com
bucollegedemocrats@gmail.com