Octoberfest

The weather's changing and silly season is upon us.

First, Mohegan Sun announces they are in the game for the low-chip price of $25-$50 million dollar licensing fees, no high roller $200-$250 million dollar entry fee for those boys.

Then, 10 Western MA legislators respond to the plea from labor to build a casino in Palmer, the real western MA - not to be confused with the abutting town of Warren (in Worcester County - boo!) by signing a pledge to not support casinos if it ain't in western MA, as long as it ain't in their district. There isn't even a coherent proposal on the table and they aren't asking questions let alone the important questions about cost-benefit. This is not the brain trust of western MA...Rep Scibak, c'mon!

Then, and I say then, Palmer Town Councillor Paul Burns gets out his megaphone and blasts the honorable state Senator Stephen M. Brewer and Palmer's native son, state Representative Todd Smola in both the Springfield Republican and with a Letter to the Editor in the Journal Register newspaper. The pledge for what? There are 17 pathetically disparate, inept bills filed with the Committee for Emerging Technologies and Economic Development (sheesh that needs an acronym...CETED). CETED, oh my, see Ted? Prophetic or what? See Ted roll in his grave as Democratic leadership race to the bottom to fund government services through predatory gambling and exploitation of human weakness. At least the Councillor is thorough and makes sure that none of the people he is hell bent on pissing off, miss his public diss-fits and covers himself in both papers.







Fab photo courtesy of Gladys Kravitz









Not to be outdone, the President of USS Mass was featured in today's Statehouse News (despite their cozy relationship with O'Neill Associates - casino shills extraordinaire and ad sponsors for SHN) setting the record straight on the laugh-ability of the inevitability word out of the Senate President's mouth. At least there are more syllables and therefore potentially more thought to saying the word, "inevitable" than "ca-ching!"

STATE CAPITOL BRIEFS – THURSDAY, OCT. 8, 2009
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

GAMBLING FOES DOUBT S.P. MURRAY’S ‘INEVITABLE’ CLAIM
Casino opponents are speaking out against Senate President Therese Murray’s assertion that casinos are “inevitable,” saying proponents are trying to oversimplify and paint the introduction of expanded gambling as foregone. “It’s all over the map,” said Kathleen Conley Norbut, a casino opponent who held meetings Thursday with state officials. “This inevitability is the proponents’ message, and it’s a clever marketing ploy, but it’s not based in fact.” Norbut, a Monson resident who leads United to Stop Slots in Mass., said she met with first assistant Attorney General David Friedman and chiefs of staff to Sens. James Eldridge and Susan Tucker, discussing the downsides of casinos and what she called a need for a cost-benefit analysis. “[Murray] has yet to speak about the mitigation costs, the cost of the gaming regulatory commission, the cost for infrastructure,” Norbut said. “The costs are extraordinary, and our research shows that there is … in fact a long-term economic problem.” Asked whether she believed casinos were likely to pass next year, Norbut replied, “I think it’s very complex, and I don’t think they have it together.” Murray made her claim Wednesday in a WBUR interview broadcast Thursday.

Ya, and there's a casino in Middleboro today too, not! That was "inevitable" wasn't it?

Governor Patrick where are you? We could use some leadership on this messy issue you brought to the Commonwealth. Stop the insanity. Take the whole thing off the table, due diligence, create a cost-benefit analysis commission...I'll serve. Cripes we did a ground breaking study in the Quaboag region with local Selectmen and appointed volunteers with no money.

BTW, thanks for the funding for the EMTs, it's not really stimulus but it's needed. Still sad the town was too cheap to fund it ourselves.

Thoughts on Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Thoughts on Senator Edward M. Kennedy by my parents Edward T. and Louise F. Conley, members of the Greatest Generation as recorded by Kathleen Conley Norbut, DSC member.

I learned about the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy from a retired gentleman at sunrise who was enjoying his daily coffee at the N. Kingstown, RI, Dunkin Donuts. “Did you hear that Senator Kennedy died?” he asked me without introduction. “It’s in the Globe; they’re the only paper to carry it.” I had not heard and we chatted about the end of an era.

I did the first thing that came to mind as I started to process the impact of the loss of Senator Kennedy to the Commonwealth and called my father from our family vacation spot at the Rhode Island beaches to talk to him about the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. My father is a resident of the Chelsea Soldiers Home, he turned 84 years old in July and is a WW II Marine Veteran who served in the Pacific Theatre, including battle on Iwo Jima. When his home care became overwhelming last year due to his multiple health issues and his safety was at risk, I contacted state Senator Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) to guide our family with an application to the Soldier’s Home. My mother who is also frail and elderly, had finally surrendered her Irish pride and admitted that she could no longer care for him.

Senator Brewer met with me on a summer afternoon at a picnic table about a year ago in Wales, Mass in between his many engagements of the day. I told him about my father and mother and he listened with great attention and respect. He offered some direction for me to pursue and stated that he would contact some people on my father’s behalf, including my parent's state Senator Patricia Jehlen (D-Medford). Within a couple of days, Senator Jehlen’s office contacted me and offered further direction for our family. Then, to my great surprise Senator Kennedy’s office contacted me to assist in our application on behalf of my father. I was astounded. They knew about my father and wanted to help. Tears in my eyes, I recall being simultaneously grateful, honored and justified that these public servants and their staff would reach out to our family, an average working middle class family, to help us in our time of need. We were scared and vulnerable fearing the costs of long term care, wondering if my parents would have to sell the house they built, had raised six children and lived in for almost 60 years. Even with daily home health aides we had not being able to sustain adequate care for my father’s multiple health issues.

Senator Kennedy’s brain cancer had been announced prior to his extension of assistance to my family. How typical, and how amazing to have the Senator and his staff thinking and working for us when they were vulnerable too. With the assistance of these honorable public servants, my father has a place to live where he is cared for in a government health care system.

My father talked about Senator Kennedy and his slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He stated that Senator Kennedy, had a, “rough and tragic start” (to his career) and my father was not shy about discussing the tragedy at Chappaquiddick. As a Senator, “Ted was always thinking about the people of Massachusetts and working for better conditions for us.” My father described what it has been like to be a lifelong Massachusetts resident of Irish descent and observe the Kennedy family dynasty. “I have lived to see the Kennedy era from start to finish,” he stated, “they had their struggles like the rest of us, yet they kept moving forward.” Civil rights, decent wages and safe conditions for blue collar workers, good public education for his children and health care are the products of the Senator’s work that my father has received.

My mother who is 81 years old and still works part-time at the Irish Cottage in Burlington, MA began with this when I called her, “I left you a message, I have no one to talk to about this!” Most of her close friends have passed away. We talk about politics continuously and we share a very strong commitment to the values, the long and proud tradition of the Democratic party of advocating for social justice, working for policies that promote the public health, and fighting to protect citizens from exploitation and oppression.

My mother talked about her memories of going to Wednesday night Novenas at Mission Church with “the girls” after work in the late 1940’s. “It’s just what we did on a Wednesday night”. As a Catholic of mixed Irish and English heritage, seeing the Kennedy family rise to prominence in national politics was as groundbreaking to her as seeing an African American rise to the office of the President. Her mother was welcomed to this country with, "No Irish Need Apply" signs in shop windows. She was struck by the fact that Senator Kennedy had visited the Basilica throughout his daughter Kara’s struggle with cancer.

One day when working at the Irish Cottage, a young mother walked in to buy a Cross for her daughter, to have and to hold during her father's absence. She talked about her husband having to return to a second tour of duty in Iraq and worried that the equipment was inadequate. Shortly after that encounter, my mother described learning about Senator Kennedy’s push to provide safe personal armor and vehicles for soldiers. His commitment to military members, their families and veterans was often over-shadowed by the magnitude of his work on education and health care.

His legacy is irrefutable regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum. We lost a lion in the Senate and there is no one of his caliber to fill the void. Indeed that could be said of the Kennedy brothers, including Joe who was killed in WWII, and the rest of the Greatest Generation.

Rest in Peace.