It has become clear to me that this city government is rife with nepotism and cronies who are willing to lie in order to protect each other’s misconduct and dishonesty. I can’t help but wonder if city government is corrupt as well, since these traits often go together.

A few significant things to report from today: (1) At 3 today, Deborah Henson-Conant and 70 of her friends from the Arlington HS choir sang to the Belinda-Bertha-Tim tree. It was fantastic. Picture attached. A video is promised on YouTube soon. Check out the Bertha song in the link below. It would fit right in at Honk!:

Spread Christmas cheer and support alternative education by buying a Christmas tree or wreath from Next Wave and Full Circle Alternative Schools, which provide high quality instruction in a therapeutic setting for up to 104 Somerville youth in Grades 6-12.

Progressives in Somerville, as elsewhere, have invested a lot of hope in an Obama presidency. After the Bush administration's systematic attack on rights, liberties, and the common good, Obama can hardly help doing better! Yet on some of the most basic issues, Obama has been silent.

Two days ago, the City of Somerville announced it would start enforcing regulations prohibiting the use of bicycles on sidewalks with fines between $20 and $50... Given the city's budget problems, I wonder whether this policy change is motivated more by a need to find new sources of revenue rather than by public safety concerns.

When I play, I feel concentrated and sometimes nervous. I get motivated by my team mates. When I step on the field, I feel like everything around me is like a perfect dream. I can hear my heart beat.…

Somerville went heavily for Obama in the last election. Now we have to push him to make good on some of his promises; where he doesn't go far enough, to go further; where he is silent, to speak up and act; and where he is wrong, to change.