Free Republic

“Why can’t Justina just come home?” Of course that’s the question Lou and Linda Pelletier are asking about the daughter taken from them more than a year ago. As a parent, isn’t it the question you’d ask? That’s not the question the Patrick administration wants people asking in the Justina Pelletier case. They want you asking why Justina’s parents won’t just accept Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz’s family reunification plan. The Patrick administration doesn’t want you asking parenting or medical questions. They’re handling Justina like a political issue. How do I know? Because I saw Justina’s “reunion” plan...

We’ve now reached the “Watergate” stage of the Justina Pelletier debacle: What does Gov. Deval Patrick know and when did he know it? Justina is the former Tufts Medical Center mitochondrial patient seized by Boston Children’s Hospital and the state Department of Children and Families, who turned her into a somatoform subject. After reports in these pages Friday that she was being denied the opportunity to attend Easter Mass with her devoutly Catholic family, Patrick rushed out a letter to state Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) about accommodations DCF was making. “I see in your letter that you continue to misunderstand...

There is a young person held captive in Massachusetts today who is not allowed to participate in religious ceremonies, or visit family without government agents watching. No, it’s not accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. It’s 15-year-old mitochondrial disease patient and nonterrorist Justina Pelletier. U.S. District Court Judge George O’Toole Jr. ruled Wednesday that the now-20-year-old charged with four deaths and injuring more than 260 people should be able to see his sisters without an FBI agent present. The feds can appeal, but he says their case would have to be “pretty convincing.” “Can you believe it?” That was Jennifer...

At the center of the seemingly incomprehensible case of Justina Pelletier lies one very simple, and unanswered, question: What did her mom and dad do to lose custody of their daughter in the first place? Gallons of ink have been poured on this story since last November, when a Connecticut TV station first reported the story of a sick teenager ripped from her family over a medical dispute between two hospitals. But having read every report on the case, including Judge Joseph Johnston’s ruling Tuesday, I can’t find a single claim — substantiated or otherwise — of bad behavior by...

Who says the Obama administration can’t bring people together? Polls may show that America is more politically divided than ever (Obama’s approval rating among Republicans hit a record-low 5 percent last week). But today in Worcester the lion will lie down with the lamb as Tea Party activists and teacher’s union members team up to “welcome” Obama’s secretary of education, Arne Duncan, with twin protests. That’s how much they both hate “Common Core.” Common Core is the latest federal education reform fad. Like “No Child Left Behind” before it, Common Core uses federal money to bribe local schools into using...

They sure don’t make political scandals like they used to. In 1903, the sitting lieutenant governor of South Carolina shot and killed the editor of the state’s largest newspaper in broad daylight, in front of the State House. Jim Tillman believed the paper’s attacks cost him his bid for governor. He was acquitted in a trial controlled by his uncle — former governor and then U.S. Sen. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman. He literally got away with murder. Now that was a scandal. Yesterday Gov. Chris Christie held a 107-minute presser responding to a story about the politically motivated closure of several...

“I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” — Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Vice President Joe Biden Hey Bob, tell me a liberal who hasn’t. Step back from the ongoing scandal of Benghazi or the shameless politics of Hillary Clinton’s “I opposed the surge because you were in the primary, Barack” politics. Look instead at the Democratic Party’s record on foreign policy over the past 40 years. It’s not bad — it’s abysmal. Take Gates’ challenge: Name a foreign policy position that Democrats like John...

t's a perfect political storm: President Obama's popularity is down, voters are angry over his unpopular health care law, and Republicans are energized and excited about voting. Just the conditions a minority party like the Massachusetts GOP needs to pick up a governorship and send a couple of Republicans to Congress. Only one problem. I'm not writing about 2014. I'm writing about 2010. And while the Republican tide swept over nearly the entire country, it stopped dead at the border of Massachusetts. Voters re-elected Gov. Patrick and sent every member of Congress back to DC. The Republican candidate for state...

This week, low-income minority residents of Cambridge public housing learned a cold, hard truth about their “homes.” These apartments aren’t their homes at all. They belong to the government. And because the liberals who run Cambridge government don’t like smoking, the citizen-residents of Cambridge’s housing projects must learn to not like it, too. Smoking has been banned. The new policy takes effect next August. Massachusetts software businesses just learned a similar lesson. For years, these businesses overwhelmingly gave their political contributions to Democrats. Those same liberal pols turned around and hit these Obama-supporting, Prius-driving computer geek friends with the “tech...

I realize the only question the mainstream media want answered about Obamacare is, “When do John McCain and Ted Cruz rip off their shirts and knife-fight on the floor of the Senate?” But at the risk of being utterly irrelevant and hopelessly out of step, I have another far-less-relevant question about Obamacare: Does the damn thing work? Not to be the party pooper — I like a knock-down, drag-out political fight as much as the next guy — but we are talking about people’s health insurance here. And health insurance affects other small side issues of life such as, “Do...

For American presidents, moments of great tragedy are often also moments of great opportunity. Ronald Reagan and the Challenger explosion, George W. Bush and 9/11 — these are powerful events that presidents can use to unify and inspire the American people. And then there’s Barack Obama. While his fellow Washington, D.C., residents were still “sheltering in place” on Monday morning, as police sought a potential second and third shooter from the Navy Yard shooting, President Obama took the podium to give a speech attacking “extremist” Republicans for not supporting Obamacare. People were bleeding and dying literally within walking distance, but...

Who are the two happiest people in the world this week? Bashar Assad and Jimmy Carter. One week ago, Assad was a war criminal awaiting certain retaliation from the most powerful military force the world has ever known; and Jimmy Carter still owned the title “Worst President Ever.” Not anymore. Whatever keeps a brutal dictator like Assad up at night (fear of another dinner invitation from the Kerrys, perhaps?), it’s certainly not Barack Obama. America’s commander in chief has made it abundantly clear that he won’t support any military action vigorous enough to cause a Damascus traffic jam. The Los...

Do liberals hate Boston’s young black men? If you knew nothing about politics but everything about economics and jobs, that’s what you’d think. Under the leadership of Mayor Tom Menino, Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama (the Mount Rushmore of Massachusetts-style liberalism), unemployment for black teenagers is around 40 percent — about 600 percent higher than overall joblessness. And what are Beacon Hill Democrats pushing? An increase in the minimum wage to $11 an hour — aka “The ‘Hire Fewer Entry-Level Minority Employees’ Act of 2013.” The Boston Globe-Democrat claimed economists are “divided” on the impact of raising the minimum...

The people have spoken, the ... conservatives? The original, less-family-friendly quotation came from California Democrat Dick Tuck after he lost a U.S. Senate primary in 1966. This particular sentiment reflects the divide between the ever-more-left-leaning Democratic Party and the average person — even here in Massachusetts. Wednesday night the Westford Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to withdraw an article from the Town Meeting warrant calling for the town to ban the possession of virtually all modern firearms. An overflow crowd of more than 400 people showed up to let liberal Selectman Robert Jefferies know that he doesn’t speak for them....

Protest ‘flowers’ but misses the point Nothing says “Happy Valentine’s Day” like getting badgered by an illegal immigrant in downtown Boston. While forgetful husbands were rushing in a panic to the nearest Hallmark shop yesterday to dig through the near-empty shelves (remember trying to pass off the Passover card as a Valentine last year?) amnesty advocates were stopping commuters to make the case for opening America’s borders. A group calling itself the “New England Coalition for Keeping Families Together” was handing out flowers at Government Center as part of the “Where’s My Valentine” campaign, according to the Associated Press. “The...

Our weak economy is stumbling yet again. America’s GDP actually shrank during the last three months of 2012, after three years of Obama’s “recovery.” Jobless claims jumped last week “unexpectedly.” And a new report says our national debt will soon be 200 percent of our entire national output — or twice as high as that of Greece. Since the inauguration, what have President Obama and the White House been talking about? Jobs, the economy and debt? Nope. It’s been gun control, same-sex marriage, women in combat and illegal immigration. I’m so old I remember when campaigning on divisive wedge issues...

There is one question, and only one question, that you should ask President Obama or U.S. Sen. John McCain about their amnesty — sorry, their “pathway to citizenship” — immigration reform proposals: If every illegal immigrant were granted instant citizenship this Monday, what would happen to the illegal immigrant who slips across the border on Tuesday? We all know the answer already: Nothing. Everything you’re hearing in both Obama and Senate proposals about “heightened border security” and “unmanned drones” is three-card-Monte stuff. Obama, who helped kill an immigration reform deal in 2007 authored by U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, isn’t interested...

President Obama, in dogged pursuit of his liberal Nirvana, is free to lift the ban on women serving in combat positions. He is, alas, unable to repeal the laws of nature, physics or gravity. Ask a combat veteran you know how he would have felt knowing that, after being wounded in combat, the only person around to pick him up and carry him to safety was a 5-foot-3, 120-pound woman. Ask any active duty serviceman how he’d feel knowing that, as he lay on the ground bleeding, the only thing between him and a cave-hardened Tali-ban killer was a 20-year-old...

Welcome to the world of “reality TV politics” — or maybe the right word is unreality. Call it “Liberals Unleashed — 2013!” As hungry for your cash as a “Walking Dead” zombie, as math-challenged as Honey Boo Boo’s mom in a dollar store, and as self-serving as the worst “Bridezilla.” After six years of exploding state spending and steady tax hikes, is Gov. Deval Patrick even a little embarrassed about pushing a $2.8 billion-per-year income and business tax increase? Not a bit. President Obama, having jacked up the debt by almost 60 percent in just four years announces it’s time...

Anyone know what Vice President Joe Biden’s gamer handle is? Maybe “StandUpChuck” or “Amtrak1” or “NoChanceIn2016?” How about Attorney General Eric Holder (“Fast-
andFuriousUnleashed”)? Or Health and Human Services chief Kathleen Sebelius (“WhatsAGamerHandle?”). I ask because these folks led Friday’s session of the White House task force that grilled members of the video game industry. Three people who couldn’t tell “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” from “Assassin’s Creed II.” To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I could, either. (Is “Halo” the one with Master Chief, or is it “Gears of War”?) But I’m not the one accusing an entire multibillion-dollar,...