Tag Archives: Joseph O’Brien

Late-afternoon Gaffney musings …

May 13, 2017 admin

Text and pics by Rosalie Tirella

Hanging with the mutts …

… and Miss Cece …

… drinking my java, thinking about local politics – thanking the dear sweet Jesus that former Worcester mayor, city councilor and school committee guy Joe O’Brien is coming out of his new-daddy-hood cocoon to run for public office again. Yeeeehaaaa!!! He’s running for Worcester city councilor at large, which means: Mayor Joe Petty, who’s running for re-election, will, once again, win the mayoral seat and Joe O’Brien – because he’s well liked and a smart, compassionate and effective public servant – will be second highest vote getter and become the Worcester City Council vice chairperson, KNOCKING COUNCILOR MICHAEL GAFFNEY OFF THE COUNCIL VICE CHAIR PERCH, a perch he milks to no end! YAY! 🙌 🙌 HOORAY! Yipee! Reason enough to REJOICE that O’Brien is running for public office! We are so sick of councilor at large Michael Gaffney – he’s brought Woo political discourse to a new, toxic low! Plus, by being vice chair, he trots out his mayor-in-waiting schtick at every turn. O’Brien’s strong win will make him #2, the new vice chair and …. keep Gaffney off that dias at City Hall! Rip the mayor’s gavel out of the Gaffer’s cold, clammy hands! Take the pinch-hitter title away!

Again, reason enough to be ELATED that Joe O’Brien is running for city council!!! (he’d never run for mayor this election cycle because he’s Petty’s friend and political ally.) But there are other reasons to be thankful for our soon to be new city council vice chair: First, O’Brien will be the antidote to the poison that is Michael Gaffney. Every time Gaffney uses race or class to hurt one group of folks to win political points with the Turtle Boy brigade or twists the truth in the sickest ways a la sicko prez Donald Trump, O’Brien will call him out. Call out his twisted lies and counter them with TRUTH. O’Brien is an articulate, progressive policy wonk who went to Harvard. He’s also a regular guy/dad/husband who loves/lives Worcester 24/7. He’ll brook no bull shit from Gaffney. For example, we could have used Joe a few days ago: The Gaffer was on his video channel crying over the fact that our City Council went on record supporting a statewide living wage of $15/hour. His cynical, slimey Gaffney intimation? That the living wage is a nefarious Socialist plot to subvert democracy! My late great mother who worked her whole working life for minimum wage and wanted a LIVING wage for the folks who came after her was NOT a Socialist! She LOVED AMERICA! SHE WAS A PATRIOT. She once told me SHE WOULD DIE FOR HER COUNTRY! Gaffney is no American patriot. He wraps himself in the American flag and sticks a WPD badge on his lapel to create the image of patriotism. It’s all marketing. For votes. Gaffney, like Donald Trump, is a power-hungry con artist who lies to people to win elections. Joe O’Brien will, on the council floor, rebut Gaffney’s slick lies.

Second, Mayor Petty, along with most of the other city councilors, is doing an admirable job at keeping Worcester, a Mass Gateway City, open to and PROUD of immigrants…making our public schools strong and the portal to a middle class life, a life of knowledge and a never-ending quest to LEARN MORE. Our parks are beautiful, our inner city ‘hoods need help, but we are all trying. Downtown may yet prove to be our own urban dance party – singing and swinging to a million different voices! I cannot wait! Michael Gaffney is the political thunderclap over our urban dance party. Immigration, refugees, a global multi-cultural Worcester, a Woo struggling with poverty and hunger in many of its quarters…Gaffney, like Trump, exploits all this and plays to people’s economic fears and racial prejudices. O’Brien is just the opposite – he will help lead the city council – and city! – to higher ground. He will help bring people together – not divide, to conquer.

Here are last night’s Bill Maher video clips. Maher, one of America’s most gifted satirists, has Trump pegged. But you can extrapolate and apply his satire to Gaffney, on a much teenier political scale, of course. Spiritually, Trump and Gaffney are identical twins:

Good discussion:

But enough Gaffer talk! On to:

Mike Gaffney’s wife, Coreen Gaffney. She is running for the Worcester District 4 City Councilor seat – a seat her fat patootie will NEVER warm! Not for one milli-second! Once again, the Gaffneys know/show no shame. Coreen, the wife of toxic Michael Gaffney – a politician who gets his political steam from castigating minorities, refugees and Sanctuary Cities – runs for office in Worcester’s majority-minority, mostly inner-city District 4. (And, no, Mike, it is NOT sexist to write in news stories and headlines that Coreen is married to you. IT IS NEWS-WORTHY. You’re a CONTROVERSIAL COUNCILOR and you GET YOURSELF INTO THE NEWS every other day. Think of it like this: If Hitler’s lover ran for Vice Fuhrer, wouldn’t you want to know that she was Adolph’s squeeze?) Yeah, D 4 could use better garbage pick up (more often – and street sweeping, too!), but that doesn’t mean we throw the district (my district!) out with the unrecycled water bottle!

Smile, people!

This November the dynamics of the Worcester City Council are gonna change – for the better!!😄😄😄😄💗💗💙💛

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Vote Tuesday, Nov. 8! InCity Times candidate endorsements

November 7, 2011 admin Leave a comment

Do Worcester (and yourself) proud! Please go out and vote!

Thank you!

– R.Tirella

INCITY TIMES ENDORSES THE FOLLOWING CANDIDATES/Please vote for:

Mayor: Konstantina Lukes

City Council District 4: Barbara Haller

City Council District 1: Virginia Ryan

City Council-at-Large:

Konstantina Lukes
Bill (William) Coleman
Mike (Michael) Germain
Joseph O’Brien

Worcester School Committee:

Hilda Ramirez
John Monfredo
Jack Foley

Ballot Question
Vote YES for School District Representation! YES!

Green Island Grrrl, InCity Voices, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

InCity Times candidate endorsements and more …

September 19, 2011 admin Leave a comment

Please vote tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 20!
It’s our city’s preliminary election, which will narrow the field for Worcester city council at large candidates and candidates for districts 1 and 5.

We ask you to VOTE FOR:

AT LARGE city council candidates:

– Michael Germain
– Konstantina Lukes
– Joseph O’Brien
– William (Bill) Coleman

District One (1) city council candidate:

Virginia Ryan

All the above folks are good people who have a moral compass and will do right by ALL the people of Worcester. These candidates are also hard workers, folks who will study the issues, advocate for YOU and return/will return phone calls! They are passionate about public service!

Vote for them! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Thank you!

Rosalie Tirella
*************************************************

Now this from the Mass. ACLU:

Massachusetts law permits organizational T-shirts at polling places

In advance of tomorrow’s (Tues., Sept. 20) election, ACLU concurs with Worcester Elections Commission that people may wear T-shirts supporting organizations such as Neighbor to Neighbor at polling places.

WORCESTER — In advance of the preliminary election in Worcester on Tuesday, Sept. 20 – and in light of recent controversy over T-shirts worn at polls by supporters of the community organization Neighbor to Neighbor – the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts concurs with the recent ruling of the Worcester Elections Commission, which affirms the right to wear organizational T-shirts at polling places.

Today the ACLU issued the following statement, attributable to staff attorney Sarah Wunsch:

“Massachusetts law provides for a zone of 150 feet around the entrance to a polling place, within which no one can engage in activity aimed at influencing how a voter will vote on candidates or ballot questions that are on the ballot in that election. Wearing a T-shirt with the name of an organization is not prohibited advocacy.

“Those who tried to get the Worcester Elections Commission to prohibit the wearing of T-shirts bearing Neighbor to Neighbor’s name are not only misrepresenting the law for their own political purposes, they are trying to divert attention away from real issues about access to the polls, such as efforts to intimidate and deter people from voting. Wearing a T-shirt that supports a community organization like Neighbor to Neighbor, the Main South Alliance, or the Worcester Homeless Action Committee is not prohibited at the polls under state law, and people willing to assist with and observe the elections process should not be attacked for their commitment to our democratic system.”

InCity Voices, Uncategorized

Joe O’Brien bows out of Worcester mayoral race

September 17, 2011 admin Leave a comment

Worcester’s Joe O’Brien has decided not to run for mayor again. On Tuesday, September 20, city voters will still be able to vote for him – as City Counilor at Large.

Here is the letter (citing the reasons for his decision) O’Brien emailed to his supporters.

– R. Tirella

***************

Dear Friends,

I am writing to inform you of my decision to not seek the office of Mayor. Instead I will only run for City Council At-Large.

This has not been an easy decision. I recognize that it will come as a surprise because I have already launched my Mayoral re-election campaign. But over the course of the last month I have come to realize that the pressures of running another campaign and then serving as Mayor for another two years would be too much for myself and my family at this time.

When I ran for Mayor two years ago I promised that I would be a full-time Mayor and I have kept this promise. In doing so, I created significant challenges for my family.

While I have been honored to the Mayor of this great city, I have struggled to balance the life of politician, husband, and new parent. My wife Lisa and I, in our mid forties, became parents for the first time of four year old twins from Ethiopia a couple of months after I took office. As everyone knows, while being a parent is joyful it is also a challenge. Our children need to have two parents who can commit themselves to their development and integration, particularly our son who has had some special challenges adapting. To do the job of Mayor right, the commitment required me to be out for many nights, weekends, and holidays. I don’t believe it is in the best interest of my family to do this for another two years. In addition, earning a part-time salary while serving as a full-time Mayor, in our form of government, has also created financial pressures that are not sustainable for our family at this time.

It has been a honor to serve the people of this great city as Mayor and it has been great to work with so many people to make s difference. Working with the City Manager, the City Council and our School Committee and administration we have accomplished a lot of great things, and undertaken some important initiatives. Today, two years after taking office, long planned construction projects are underway, our economy is growing, our city schools are improving and our neighborhoods are more stable. With extended office hours, neighborhood walks, the new Civic Academy, and almost daily visits to local community groups we have worked hard to engage the people of Worcester and bring a new sense of accountability to local government. The Mayor’s Task Force on Economic Development produced a host of recommendations, most of which have already been implemented. We launched a Mayors Small Business Roundtable, and my office has helped lead a community initiative to improve the academic experience of our Latino students. I am especially proud of the work we have done together with our Immigrant and Refugee Roundtable to help our new Americans become fully engaged in our community. And we spent many hours working to insure that our working people have a voice at the table and that as we have grown our economy we have insured that good jobs were created for the residents of Worcester.

I am proud of this record and I hope that with your help I can continue to support these efforts as a City Councilor at Large. I plan on working with the new Mayor to insure that many of these efforts continue and I will still be on the front-lines when needed to help advance our shared agenda.

I want everyone to know, as I exit the Mayor’s office, that our city is blessed with outstanding leaders in our City Manager Mike O’Brien and our School Superintendent Dr. Melinda Boone. I have truly enjoyed working with them and I hope I will be able to continue to do so in the City Council.

Most of all I want to thank all of you for your friendship and support. I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful people who have helped with my campaigns and cared for me and my family. I could not have done it without countless people who have stepped forward to lend a hand and I will always be grateful that you helped me have the honor of serving the great people of this city.

I hope that we can continue to find ways to work together to make life better for the people of our city, state and nation. Some among us dislike politics, as if we could have good government without it. We disagree. For us politics is the way we turn citizenship into a verb. I hope we can continue to do our public work together.

Yours in friendship,

Joe

Green Island Grrrl, Rosalie's Blog, Uncategorized

Mayoral candidate Joe O’Brien: lackluster, aloof and … a bit of a snooze

October 17, 2009 admin Leave a comment

By Rosalie Tirella

Worcester – I caught some of the mayoral debates that are taking place all over our fair city, all the time, it seems. What struck me was how lackluster “the new, fresh” candidate Joe O’Brien seemed. Candidate Kate Toomey didn’t count. Doesn’t count. So I’ll skip her and focus on Mayor Konnie Lukes’ main opponent: O’Brien – the guy who is being touted as the Second Coming.

Unfortunately – or fortunately for Konnie Lukes – this guy isn’t the Second Coming. If you watch the debates, he isn’t even interesting. What’s more, during these mayoral debates and forums, O’Brien comes off as … kind of bored … a bore – an aloof, passionless guy who isn’t enjoying any of this. Watch him and you see a candidate who seems to be doing this from rote, the kind of candidate who sees running for Worcester Mayor as a task, a (thankless?) job. Maybe that’s because O’Brien sees being Worcester Mayor as a stepping stone to bigger and better … offices (state rep, state senator, etc). With his eyes ultimately on a bigger prize, it’s no wonder this ride is a bit of a snooze for Joe O.

If he wins this mayoral race, most likely he will dump Worcester by the next election cycle. He will then be an official politician and can begin his political career in earnest.

At least that’s what people in the know are saying.

State Rep. Joe O’Brien? He lost to Vinny Pedone years ago. Why do it again?

This is O’Brien’s last, best chance of jumping into ELECTIVE politics. He is in his 40s; time is running out. He has to jump at an open seat – a seat with more pizzazz/prestige than regular ol’ City Councilor.

So here we go, Worcester! Let’s all be subjected to O’Brien’s political ambitions.

Again.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

T & G’s Dianne Williamson: public relations flak/hack for candidate Joe O’Brien

July 30, 2009 admin Leave a comment

By “Cheese Wiz”

I was furious when I read the piece about Joe O’Brien in the Telegram and Gazette by Dianne Williamson. But what made me even angrier was the lame system that the telegram has for “Comments.” Thankfully, I was able to recover my text below on two pieces I wrote about the apparent “coronation” of [mayoral candidate] Joe O’Brien by both Dianne Williamson and, later that afternoon, by Jordan Levy on his radio show. Is that how the system works?

1. Dianne and Jordan Levy supporting one candidate on the same day. Instant coronation, right?

Not so fast, Worcesterites! Let’s take a closer look at your shoo in and the stinky stuff underneath. Eww.

Dianne shows all the depth of Fox News covering Sarah Palin. And Levy, well, I was just grateful he had another topic this week besides Rushford’s obvious profiteering.

So, was that a real Dianne piece or was it a tryout for a P.R. job if the Telegram thing forces her into retirement? Continue reading T & G’s Dianne Williamson: public relations flak/hack for candidate Joe O’Brien →