Democratic Party Chair urges focus on Spreading Message and Raising Money

by Ciatlyn Kelleher                                                                                                                                

Response to November Losses  

Massachusetts Democratic Chairman Thomas McGee said the Democratic Party needs to figure out why areas of the state are turning towards the Republican Party and how to compete against outside money in the next election.

McGee, a state senator from Lynn, addressed the Lexington Democratic Town Committee about the state of the party on Saturday February 7th.  He encouraged local members to become recurring donors, to encourage young members to join and begin to focus on the mid-term election in 2016.

"We're really under assault as Democrats for what we believe in,"McGee said.  "It's critical to build at the grassroots level, at the town committee level."

This winter the state party is kicking off two initiatives.  The first is to build recurring donors at $10 a month to compete with money being used in the Republican campaign efforts.  The second is to have everyone register 1,965 people to vote in commemoration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which turns fifty in August.

"I think it's important for us to reflect on where the nation is going and where the state is going: McGee said.

McGee said the state party is trying to analyze the results of the November election in which Charlie Baker beat Martha Coakley for Governor while the Democratic Party candidates won the other state constitutional races.

"We put together a pretty good grassroots campaign," said McGee of the governor's race in November.  "We were less than 40,000 voters from winning that [governors] race.  I don't think we need to hang our head on anything."

McGee said one of the focuses of the state party is to look at areas, like Central Massachusetts, where voters choose Republican candidates more often.

:"Why are some areas turning more red? I don't understand that because there are people that really should be what we stand for," he said.  "It doesn't make sense when your looking at some areas that used to be Democratic and are trending the other way."

As party chairman, McGee said one of the efforts the party leaders need to focus on is to simplify the message of what the Democratic Party stands for and what issues are key in this state.

"It'd not a simple answer to a question," he said.  "The other side has a simple message: less government, less taxes and more money in your pocket is a simple message."

McGee reminded the members of the Town Committee to remember the importance of mid-term, county and municipal elections.  He believes the 2016 congressional races and the local state representative races will have a favorable effect overall.

Higher Taxes for the MBTA

MBTA Spends Above the National Average

The tax-and-spend liberals are out in force demanding higher taxes for the MBTA.  They are blaming the lack of resources as the reason for the MBTA's failures.

Money is not the problem.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the MBTA's bus maintenance department spends 94% above the national average.  A Pioneer Institute report shows $250 million being wasted just within the bus maintenance department.

The T spent millions of dollars on a scheme to connect it with Connecticut before that state committed to the project.

The MBTA pension system is keep secret despite the taxpayers bailing it out.  Most of the other quasi-independent authorities do disclose their pension payouts.

On the road and bridge side of transportation, the Commonwealth spends $675,000 per mile on road and bridge maintenance.  That's four times the national average.  Our state spends $78,000 per mile on administration costs yearly.  That is eight times the national average.

All these facts seem to be missing from news story after news story on our transportation failures.

The Bonds assigned to the MBTA to finance billions in "Big Dig" costs by diverting ridership income only serves to make additional shortages larger.

Making the ability to operate the T far worse are proposals to enlarge to MBTA by expanding the trolley lines and stations and connecting them to the ancient 'core' facilities that were never designed to provide the patronage envisioned by proponents.  Legacy expansions of rail and trolley lines and stations may fulfill the fantasy of institutions, unions and advocates but they ignore the flexibility needed in the local Metro area which is better served by buses.

The Green-Line expansion which is expected to deliver patrons attending events connected to the proposed 2024 Olympics to sites on the Tufts campus will never meet the income needed to meet costs over the long-term by increasing ridership anywhere near the 20%  needed to operate trolley and commuter-rail side-by-side from West Medford to North Station.

Proposals quietly being considered to increase income to the T are additional charges on the 'Cherry Sheets'  to the local communities being served by the MBTA.

Republicans More Informed Than Democrats According to Pew Research Center

Few traits better characterize contemporary liberals than their false sense of intellectual superiority..... There's only one problem.  The actual, objective sociological evidence continues to demonstrate that the opposite is true.

Republicans routinely prove themselves more knowledgeable than Democrats.  The left-leaning Pew Research Center provides the latest examples.

Read more now.

4 Sentences = 10,535 Pages

Really Clever and Succinct

Here are the 10,535 pages of Obama Care condensed to four sentences.   As humorous as this sounds.....every last word is TRUE!

1. In order to insure the uninsured, we first have to uninsure the insured.

2. Next, we require the newly uninsured to be re-insured.

3. To re-insure the newly uninsured, they will be required to pay extra charges to be re-insured.

4. The extra charges are required so that the original insured, who became uninsured, and then became re-insured, can pay enough extra so that the original uninsured, will be insured free of charge to them.

This ladies and gentlemen, is called "redistribution of wealth".....or, by its more common name, SOCIALISM.

Should Students Learn Cursive?

The swirling lines from Linden Bateman's pen have been conscripted into a national fight to keep cursive writing in American classrooms.  Cursive.  Penmanship.  Handwriting.  In years gone by, it helped distinguish the literate from the illiterate.

But now, in the digital age, people are increasingly communicating by computer and smartphone.  No handwritten signature necessary.  Call it a sign of the times.  When the new Common Core educational standards were crafted, penmanship classes were dropped.  But at least seven of the 45 states that adopted the standards are fighting to restore the cursive instruction.

THE ARGUEMENT FOR CURSIVE

Bateman, a 72-year old state representative from Idaho, says cursive conveys intelligence and grace, engages creativity and builds brain cells.  "Modern research indicates that more areas of the human brain are engaged when children use cursive handwriting than when they keyboard" said Bateman, who handwrites 125 ornate letters each year.  "We're not thinking this through.  It's beyond belief to me that states have allowed cursive to slip from the standards."

WHY WAS IT DROPPED

State leaders who developed Common Core -- a set of preferred K-12 course offerings for public schools -- omitted cursice for a host of reasons, including an increasing need for children in a digital-heavy age to master computer keyboarding and evidence that even most adults use some hybrid of classic cursive and print in every day life.   "If you just stop and think for a second about what are the skills that people are likely to be using in the future, it's much more likely that keyboarding will help students in careers and in schools than it is that cursive will," said Morgan Polikoff, an assistant professor of K-12 policy and leadership at the University of Southern California.

THE MOVEMENT TO HAVE TEACHING CURSIVE RESTORED

States that adopted Common Core aren't precluded from deviating from the standards.  But in the world of education, where classroom time is limited and performance stakes are high, optional offerings tend to get sidelined in favor of what's required.

That's why at least seven states -- California, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Utah -- have moved to keep the cursive requirement.  Legislation passed in North Carolina and elsewhere couples cursive with memorization of multiplication tables as twin "back to basics" mandates.

Cursive advocates cite recent brain science that indicates the fluid motion employed when writing script enhances hand-eye coordination and develops fine motor skills, in turn prompting reading, writing and cognition skills.   They further argue that scholars of the future will lose the ability to interpret valuable cultural resources -- historical documents, ancestor's letters and journals, handwritten scholarship -- if they can't read cursive.  If they can't write it, how will they communicate from unwired settings like summer camp or the battlefield?  "The Constitution of the United States is written in cursive.  Think about that," Bateman said.

WHAT DO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS THINK?

All the fuss seems a bit loopy to certain members of Gen X, Y and Z -- which have diverged increasingly from handwriting to computers.   The volume of first class mail at the U.S. Postal Service fell in 2010 to its lowest level in a quarter-century, just as computer use -- and the keyboarding it involves -- was surging.  Some 95 percent of teens use the internet, and the percentage using smartphones to go online has grown from 23 percent in 2011 to 37 percent today, according to the Pew Research Center.  A 2012 Pew report found the volume of text messages among teens rose from 50 a day on average in 2008 to 60 a day on average two years later.

Pew research has also shown that educators don't necessarily think that's a bad thing.  A survey

Thank Our Veterans

The Land of the Free because of the Brave

By Charlie Baker

For the past few years, a friend of mine who spent four years in the Marine Corps has invited me to the Maine Corps birthday celebration at the South Boston Convention Center.   It's quite a scene - 2,000 men, a handful of women, a boatload of beer, and a ton of pomp and circumstance.

Amidst the 'hoorah' there are moments that stay with me for months: stories of profound heroism and gargantuan courage under extraordinary situations, spellbinding speeches that powerfully express what it means to be part of one the world's finest military organizations, and ritual that has its origins in the founding of this great nation.

But the moments that I never forget are the ones that come when the Corps honors the mothers and fathers among them who have lost their sons and daughters on the field of battle.   As their names, along with the names of their fallen children, are read, they stand and turn towards the crowd.   The applause starts loud and then explodes, as 2,000 men and women of all ages stand and honor those who have paid the highest price a parent can pay in defense of their country.   It is beyond moving.   It tugs at the heart and sears the soul, and it speaks volumes about how high the stakes are every time a parent sends a son or daughter off to war.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "The land of the free because of the brave."   True enough.   The men and women who choose to serve in our military are, indeed, very special, and so are their families.   Please take the time this Veteran's Day to honor their commitment to us, their love for the country, and their unflinching willingness to put themselves in harm's way.

Thanks - and God Bless America.

Business Lobby Seeks a More "Governable" GOP

By Geoffrey Lysaught

Even before Democrat Terry McAuliffe narrowly defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the governor's race, lobbyists representing the business community were rethinking their relationship with the GOP and planning to challenge conservative incumbents in next year's primaries.

Their goal: to replace principled conservatives with candidates who will be more protective of Big Business interests.   As U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue put it, his group will get involved in primary races to produce a "more governable Republican party."

Which is why the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which says it's strictly in "the wins business," is threatening more electoral intervention.   "There's no rules," NRSC executive director Rob Collins said.   "The path to getting a general election candidate who can win is the only thing we care about."

This shift will certainly surprise those who naively believed that the grassroots Tea Party movement was a creation of big business.   But "Tea Party as a Wall Street front group" has been a popular belief among the left for years.

To read the rest of the story, click here.