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- Blogging (2)
- Race for Congress (55)
- December 31, 2007: New Year's Eve
- October 31, 2007: Share the Sacrifice
- October 15, 2007: Election Day!
- October 15, 2007: Patrick Murphy -- Priceless!
- October 13, 2007: Trick or Treat?
- October 12, 2007: Patrick's Closing Remarks
- October 10, 2007: Murphy Takes Ogonowski's Breath Away
- October 8, 2007: NECN Debate on ON DEMAND
- October 8, 2007: Updated Slideshow
- October 8, 2007: Ogonowski and Oil
Blogroll
New Year’s Eve
December 31, 2007 by Dan.
Early this blue-black morning, before the plows, before the crows, before the road salt was thrown, I watched from my window the winter’s soft, cold cotton falling beneath a streetlamp. A blanket of snow was quilted over
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Share the Sacrifice
October 31, 2007 by Dan.
For now, let me thank again everyone who helped with our campaign. While were obviously not pleased with the result, I keep hearing that support for Patrick was much greater than anyone could have imagined. Many have said that it came down to fear in the booth–that a vote for Patrick would unwittingly be a vote for one of the party candidates. In an ideal system, everyone would have watched the final debate, Patrick would have been given even ink by the papers, and Patrick would’ve been raising mayhem down there right now. As it stands, Patrick was first to have his legislation sponsored:H.R. 3948
If you’d like to track the bill, you may do so here:
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Election Day!
October 15, 2007 by Grainne.
Last things first. We would like to invite everyone to our celebration tomorrow night at Hookslide Kelly’s. We plan to be there from about 8 p.m. onwards (feel free to arrive earlier, though, if you wish). We’ve reserved the back room, where there are two TVs — one for the Sox game, the other for the election results (or maybe just two for the Sox game). The pizza’s on us.
If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need reminders about when to vote or for whom you should be voting. But just in case, here’s where you vote: http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php, and the candidate for whom to cast your vote: www.sendmurphytocongress.com. Polls are open from 7 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Patrick will be stopping in at a number of polling locations throughout the district tomorrow, and his supporters will be out holding signs and showing support in as many of those locations as possible.
Thanks everyone for your encouragement and support, and we hope to see you tomorrow night, if not earlier in the day!
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Patrick Murphy — Priceless!
October 15, 2007 by Doug.
Here’s our first and final commercial. Click HERE. All data referenced in this video is publicly available (without charge) at http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/efile_search.shtml.
Posted in Race for Congress | Print | 2 Comments »
Trick or Treat?
October 13, 2007 by Grainne.
Yes, as we encounter pumpkins, cobwebs, and spooky signs of ghosts and witchery while going door-to-door canvassing with Patrick, we oftentimes feel like trick-or-treaters. No luck getting any early offerings of Halloween candy yet, though. We have, however, had the pleasure of meeting some really lovely people in this district, many of whom are thrilled with Patrick’s campaign and his ideas.
If, by chance, we’ve missed meeting any of you, and you’d like to get in touch with Patrick to ask him a question before Tuesday’s election, please note that you may email him at volunteer@sendmurphytocongress.com. He would be happy to talk or exchange emails with you.
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Patrick’s Closing Remarks
October 12, 2007 by Grainne.
These are Patrick’s closing remarks (in video form) from the UMass Lowell Debate last Tuesday. They may be closing remarks from the last debate before the election, but they’re not the last you’ll be hearing from him…
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Murphy Takes Ogonowski’s Breath Away
October 10, 2007 by Grainne.
“I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t swallow.”
– Jim Ogonowski
Admittedly, that quote is taken out of context. You may have heard it once, twice or twenty times before in the context of Jim Ogonowski’s non-life-threatening case of a sore throat in that horrible Communist country to our north, Canada, where, rather than admit Jim to a hospital, evil Canadian doctors had the gall to send him packing to a pharmacy to buy some cherry-flavored throat lozenges, a bottle of Sudafed and a pack of Kleenex. Of course, Jim tells this story in the context of yet another logical vacuum in the health care debate. (Seen through to its conclusion, Ogonowski’s fairy tale actually turns out to be a parable demonstrating why a single-payer health care system is most effective, but that’s a matter for another day.)
At any rate, last night, Jim appeared to have been revisited by the same malady that struck him during his travels in Canada. He couldn’t talk. While symptoms of Jim’s affliction manifested themselves early in the debate, Patrick’s rebuttals pointing out Jim’s logical deficiencies inflamed and aggravated these to a point where not even a throat lozenge would bring back his voice.
Unless you actually saw or heard the debate last night, you probably wouldn’t be aware of this since, yet again, the newspapers failed in their responsibility to provide even the most basic of facts to the people.
Fred Thys of Boston’s NPR affiliate WBUR, however, did manage to get some airtime for Patrick. His short piece on last night’s debate, which can be heard here, highlights one of Patrick’s many victories. It also highlights the reasons why the Tsongas-supported Massachusetts health care plan fails and why a universal, single-payer health care plan would best serve us all.
Video from the debate is now available online so that you may draw your own conclusions about it. I believe you’ll find that Patrick gave real meaning to the word “debate” last night in a way that no other candidate did. He not only effectively stated his own positions, but also he was the lone force driving rebuttals that challenged the other candidates’ statements. This is what we should all want in a congressman: someone who drives the debate with thoughtful ideas and solutions, who challenges the flawed arguments that do nothing to advance our society as a whole, and who, all the while, does so with the utmost conviction and decorum.
We only wish the debate were longer so that Patrick would have had more time to convey his nuanced ideas (which are difficult to fit neatly into 10-, 20-, and 30-second responses) and to expose more comprehensively the fallacies of the other candidates’ positions. I must say, though, that I am personally grateful that I will never again be subjected to Ogonowski’s “Canadian sore throat” or “great-grandmother from Poland on the deck of a ship” stories again.
One last thought. The only criticism Patrick received after his performance last night had to do with his local accent. For the record, Patrick has always spoken this way (as his older sister, I know this). While his opening and closing statements may have sounded more lyrical than his everyday banter, this is a good thing. For how can we expect people to be inspired by a leader unless he delivers his remarks in an inspiring manner?
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NECN Debate on ON DEMAND
October 8, 2007 by Dan.
For those of you who may have missed the debate on TV, it can be found on On Demand under “Get Local” and “NECN” and “NewsNight.”
Don’t let the papers tell you what you’ve seen or should have seen. Don’t let the bloggers tell you either. Watch it for yourself.
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Ogonowski and Oil
October 8, 2007 by Dan.
MURPHY CALLS FOR OGONOWSKI TO DIVEST OIL STOCK
Independent candidate for Congress Patrick Murphy of Lowell calls upon Republican candidate Jim Ogonowski to divest himself of his significant holdings of Exxon-Mobil stock.
This past Thursday, in his interview with Lowell Sun Editor Jim Campanini, Republican Jim Ogonowski railed against the rising costs of gas prices, and exclaimed on the NewsTalk program that he did not even have an extra “buck in his pocket” to pay for this price rise. Perhaps it is because his money is tied up in Exxon-Mobil stock, in which he has invested an estimated $50,000-$100,000 according to Federal Election Commission personal disclosure reports.
While on the campaign trail Mr. Ogonowski has professed support for alternative energy measures, ending our dependence on foreign oil, and a stabilization of oil prices, his personal profiteering from this company and its recent success runs counter to his public statements. In the recent NECN debate, when pressed on what Democratic measure he might support, Mr. Ogonowski gave a vague answer of “environmental bills,” unaware apparently that top Democrats have tabled any call for raising fuel efficiency standards for vehicles.
On September 18, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Exxon-Mobil, the largest oil company based in the United States, lobbied the federal government — Congressmen and women — with nearly 6.4 million dollars on a number of different legislative measures. A report issued earlier this year by the Union of Concerned Scientists, called Exxon-Mobil “the worst offender among oil corporations for disseminating false scientific claims about climate change.” The company lobbied for laws relating to “energy, climate change, labor laws, corporate taxation, pension reform, fuel efficiency standards and international relations.” Perhaps most troubling is the corporation’s involvement in the latter, as Exxon-Mobil has posted record profits throughout the duration of the Iraq War, a war which Alan Greenspan recently deemed to be “largely about oil.”
In order to remain free of the “special interests” that Mr. Ogonowski purportedly condemns on the campaign trail, independent candidate Patrick Murphy urges the Republican to divest himself of his Exxon-Mobil stock. Mr. Ogonowski’s oil holdings raise serious questions about the sincerity of Ogonowski’s calls for environmental protection and for “cleaning up” Washington. Additionally, Ogonowski’s oil holdings introduce a question of morality: is it right to be profiting largely because of a war, because of others’ losses?
Murphy calls on Ogonowski to follow in the footsteps of Democrat Niki Tsongas, whose spokeswoman, Katie Elbert discussed her candidate’s divestment in an earlier Lowell Sun article: “The position that she’s taken on these issues are the exact opposite of what those companies stand for,” Elbert said. “She would not want there to be even the slightest question as to her independence as a member of Congress, which is why she sold those stocks.”
Murphy has never owned stock in an oil company and practices the environmental conservation that he preaches. Some may remember the Sun’s June article “Some vote-hungry hopefuls have gas-thirsty vehicles” which concluded: “Maybe everybody looking to save the environment should take a page from the playbook of Patrick Murphy, the independent candidate for Congress. Patrick doesn’t own a car, and carpools to work each day with his cousin. ‘On trips downtown Lowell, he uses an unregistered pair of 2005 Adidas with high mileage,’ his brother Dan Murphy wrote in an email. ‘On trips to the city of Boston and beyond, he takes the T.’” With his cousin Dan O’Connor, the family business uses traditional methods in masonry: mortar is mixed, cuts are made, and materials are moved all by hand. Murphy is also a member of the Merrimack River Watershed Council which helps monitor and ensure clean waterways and for which, in lieu of accepting campaign donations, he is currently raising money through his website, www.sendmurphytocongress.com.
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