We Must Have Two Senators

Some pundits and politicians would spin Ted Kennedy's request to change the state law and allow Governor Deval Patrick to choose a replacement Senator rather than hold an election in 5 months as a left wing vs. right wing affair. Or Democrat vs. Republican.

I disagree. I think it's about "no taxation without representation."

We must have two Senators representing Massachusetts in Congress. The issues before that much maligned legislature are too important.

So here's my prescription: the Democrats who blocked former Governor Mitt Romney from appointing an interim Senator when John Kerry ran for President in 2004 must apologize profusely for changing the law. They need to hang their heads and beg forgiveness. Then they should change the law back to the way it was and give the Governor the power to pick someone to fill the vacant seat as long as that person agrees not to run in the eventual election next year.

The Republicans will get their chance. (Even if they nominate Kerry Healey). In the meantime, Massachusetts needs full representation.

Turning Point for Open Media Boston?

The Weekly Dig reports this week that the New York Times Company - owner of the Boston Globe and Boston.com - will start charging people to view the on-line content. Earlier, the Associated Press quoted a Globe spokesperson as saying, "the Globe has been conducting market research to determine what readers would be willing to pay, and weighing that against any potential loss of advertising."

Whee doggies!

This could be Open Media Boston's moment in the sun.

If the progenitors and prognosticators are right, internet users expect their web content to be free. To the extent that on-line viewers go to Boston.com for their daily dose of news, sports and weather happening right now, but will be prevented by a wall of subscription fees, I'm betting they will turn to well-written, independent, story rather than ego driven, local publications.

Just like Open Media Boston.

So why wait? Browse over to our site NOW before it gets so crowded, the pages are as cramped as an elevator at Fenway during a Yankees series.

We only ask you do one little bit of homework. While you're enjoying the arts, news, and techie coverage, can you please figure out how we're going to pay for this little slice of journalistic heaven?

Cheers,
Dave "your friendly neighborhood news editor" Goodman

Jason's Favorite Photos: Special Near-Infrared Film Edition

Hi folks! It's been a couple of weeks since I posted my latest fav pics ... but as previously promised, I just got a bunch of shots back from the photo lab that I took using Ilford SFX 200 near-infrared film on my old Pentax ME Super with an Osawa 49mm Red 25 filter onboard. Even though the lab's scans of the prints I got have come out a bit foggy (quite different that the nice sharp prints themselves), I still think these scanned images are worth displaying here. The near-infrared spectrum that the film and the filter create very interesting high contrast photos with a hyper-real feel to them. Best on very sunny days, the film also makes plants and bright surfaces show up as very light or white - which also makes for neat effects. Anyhow I very much like SFX 200, and if you shoot 35mm film I highly recommend that you check it out. [And if anyone can find it in their heart to donate me a professional high-quality film and negative scanner, I will inscribe that person's name onto the Open Media Boston Honor Roll of the Chariots of Fire.]


Reflections


Children at Greenway Fountain


Building on Bright Day


Sometimes People Look Like Cutouts


Windows and Shadow


Hidden Fountain


Ghost Building


Modernist Christ Statue


Burning Bush


Chimney and Sky


Tasty Gelato


Church on Bright Day


Tunnel Redux

This blog post and all photos are published under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2009 Jason Pramas.

"You Can't Handle The Truth"

It's a reporter's nightmare.

A source knowingly gives you false information in order to subvert the search for truth or hides their identity as a way of masking less than honorable agendas and motivations.

And you publish or air that false information - usually in good faith, because you think the source is honest - thus perpetuating lies and misinformation.

At best, you look silly for not realizing you were "being played."

Something like that happened to me recently.

A man on the street, who gave his name as "Phil Davis" of Westwood, MA, agreed to speak with me briefly following a Veterans for Peace / International Socialist Movement protest against Egyptian attempts to stop an aid convoy from crossing the border into Gaza. He was very angry at the protesters; in fact anyone who would support helping the people living in Gaza, because the elected leadership of that territory come from Hamas. And Hamas, according to this man, (and frankly the governments of Israel and the United States as well) is a terrorist organization.

Now, we can debate endlessly what constitutes "terrorism:" from the plagues bestowed upon native North Americans by European explorers and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, all the way to the Katyusha rockets fired across the Gazan and West Bank borders towards Israel.

The point, I believe, is that in order to have an effective, meaningful conversation about differences in political opinion we have to trust each other.

However, "Phil Davis," rather than engendering trust acts like a bully, and goes way beyond the point of ever engaging in rational conversation.

"Phil Davis" it turns out, is Hillel Stavis, former owner of Wordsworth Books in Harvard Square, an active member of the political correctness pushing organizations CAMERA and The David Project, and self-appointed crusader on behalf of all things Israel.

I know this, because three sources came forward, after listening to my recorded interview with this man (www.openmediaboston.org/node/796) to say that "Phil" sounded just like "Hillel."

It's true, and the following video (http://tinyurl.com/mtcysy) convinces me that it's the same person.

Why am I spending so much time on this? Because Hillel Stavis goes from one event to another; from the Cambridge Peace Commission one day to a Harvard lecture the next, trying to impose "righteous" thinking on anyone with whom he disagrees.

Except, it turns out, the truth is much less important to "Phil/Hillel" than his pro-Israel agenda. So how can anyone believe anything he says, ever?

Sometimes, all we can hope for, in the words of Carl Bernstein, is the "best available version of the truth." However, Hillel and his ilk are manipulators, bending reality to fit their political world view.

Hmmm, sounds awfully like a recent former president and vice-president and their policy towards the truth.

If I were leading any discussion at any forum on any topic and Hillel Stavis raised his hand to speak, I would immediately ask him to declare his fealty to veracity; then take everything he says with a grain of salt.

So I've got egg on my face. I got duped by a professional sheister. But in my own defense, I did everything I promised. I published his quotes and aired our entire conversation on the radio.

The same integrity can't be ascribed to those who would lie and cheat to get their way.