bijou
01-12-2010, 11:45 AM
Kennedy seat or people’s seat? Bush-Cheney-Palin vs. Kennedy-Obama, or truck-driving centerfold-posing eye-candy conservative dude vs. plodding Joe Friday liberal woman? We don’t always get much of a choice around here, but I’d call that one.
We’ll get to all that plus the fact that for once, Massachusetts voters actually have an opportunity to tip the national scales. Can’t remember the last time that happened.
First, here’s Martha Coakley, getting tough with the ladies’ gardening clubs of Massachusetts two weeks ahead of an election. May seem like a bad move for a politically conscious AG who is relying heavily on the women’s vote, but maybe she figures the ladies are all Republicans anyway. It’s quaint, it’s old worldy, it’s weird, it’s a headscratcher, and it’s in the Boston Herald:
Attorney General Martha Coakley’s crackdown on Bay State gardening clubs for failing to file financial disclosure forms has left some green thumbs fearing arrest – and many sore at the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
Linda Jean Smith, president of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, has been besieged with calls from frightened, angry members after a prickly Jan. 4 letter from Coakley’s office declared many of them were breaking the law for failing to file their financial records for the past four years.
“One club president asked me if she was going to be led away in handcuffs,” said Smith, adding that many members are in nursing homes or in Florida. “These ladies are confused.”
Roughly 100 garden clubs “ranging from 12 to 100 members” got the stern letter last week informing them they need to file four years’ worth of financial records by Feb. 4.
“A lot of them do their bookkeeping with checkbooks. One treasurer doesn’t own a computer,” Smith said. “It isn’t that none of them want to comply. They would be more than happy to do it, if they understood how to.”
The local clubs quietly maintain traffic islands, town halls, libraries and veterans’ hospitals across the state. Most take in about $5,000 to $10,000 a year in annual dues and plant sales, Smith said. ...
Martha Coakley, tough on gardening and tough on the causes of gardening. (http://www.julescrittenden.com/2010/01/12/martha-vs-the-ladies-gardening-club/)
We’ll get to all that plus the fact that for once, Massachusetts voters actually have an opportunity to tip the national scales. Can’t remember the last time that happened.
First, here’s Martha Coakley, getting tough with the ladies’ gardening clubs of Massachusetts two weeks ahead of an election. May seem like a bad move for a politically conscious AG who is relying heavily on the women’s vote, but maybe she figures the ladies are all Republicans anyway. It’s quaint, it’s old worldy, it’s weird, it’s a headscratcher, and it’s in the Boston Herald:
Attorney General Martha Coakley’s crackdown on Bay State gardening clubs for failing to file financial disclosure forms has left some green thumbs fearing arrest – and many sore at the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
Linda Jean Smith, president of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, has been besieged with calls from frightened, angry members after a prickly Jan. 4 letter from Coakley’s office declared many of them were breaking the law for failing to file their financial records for the past four years.
“One club president asked me if she was going to be led away in handcuffs,” said Smith, adding that many members are in nursing homes or in Florida. “These ladies are confused.”
Roughly 100 garden clubs “ranging from 12 to 100 members” got the stern letter last week informing them they need to file four years’ worth of financial records by Feb. 4.
“A lot of them do their bookkeeping with checkbooks. One treasurer doesn’t own a computer,” Smith said. “It isn’t that none of them want to comply. They would be more than happy to do it, if they understood how to.”
The local clubs quietly maintain traffic islands, town halls, libraries and veterans’ hospitals across the state. Most take in about $5,000 to $10,000 a year in annual dues and plant sales, Smith said. ...
Martha Coakley, tough on gardening and tough on the causes of gardening. (http://www.julescrittenden.com/2010/01/12/martha-vs-the-ladies-gardening-club/)