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Republican presidential candidate John McCain's short list of vice presidential possibilities has been essentially narrowed to six, according to a source familiar with the search. Factions within the Arizona senator's campaign are pushing for their favored candidate, sources tell the Phoenix Business Journal, a Baltimore Business Journal sister publication.

Here is the political question of the morning: When is the term “tar baby” not a racial slur? Answer: When a liberal Democrat uses it. If you’re a Republican and those two words pass your lips, stand by for a barrage, no matter what the context. Just ask Sen. John McCain or ex-Gov. Mitt Romney or late White House spokesman Tony Snow. Over the last couple of years, they’ve all had to issue groveling apologies for mentioning the old Uncle Remus character. But that didn’t stop “outraged community leaders” from tearing into them as arrogant and out-of-touch.

In a futile but determined effort to get some representation in the US Congress I tried to contact Senator kennedy's office to urge him to support domestic drilling for oil and gas. First, you cannot contact his office online. All you can do is fill-in blanks of an online form that will be seen by a $ 5.85/hour flunky who will delete it. Second, you cannot chose "energy" or "oil" as the topic. Kennedy won't stand for it. I wrote anyway, as I did to Senator Kerry and Congressman Neal, and will post their replies.

Spinners Get Politically Correct, Incorrect This Week Salute to the sensitive nature of political correctness, July 23-24  LOWELL, MA – The Lowell Spinners, Class A affiliate of the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, announced today that this week’s upcoming homestand against the State College Spikes, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate, will salute both the sensitive nature of political correctness and incorrectness.   WEDNESDAY, JULY 23 – Political Correctness Night at LeLacheur Park. Returning for a second season, the Spinners will take measures to make sure nobody—including the players—leaves the ballpark offended. Players committing an error will not be identified for...

The husband of a Taunton woman who police say shot herself after faxing a suicide note to the company foreclosing on her home had a troubled financial history, including three recent bankruptcy attempts and an earlier foreclosure filing, the Herald has learned. Taunton police said Carlene Balderrama, 53, shot herself to death Tuesday after faxing her mortgage company a note implying suicide hours before her home was to be auctioned off. “ ‘By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead,’ ” Police Chief Raymond O’Berg said the note read. PHH Mortgage Corp. received the fax at 2:27...

Massachusetts, which earlier this decade had the lowest percentage of eligible residents using food stamps, now has the fastest-growing food-stamp program in the country, a dramatic turnaround that state officials attribute to soaring food prices and a simplified application process.

Menino: Bodybuilding Firefighter Should Quit Albert Arroyo Did Not Show Up To Work Monday BOSTON (WBZ) ― The Boston firefighter who claimed to be permanently disabled - but then competed in a body building contest was a no-show at work on Monday and now he might lose his job altogether. Albert Arroyo was ordered to return to work by Fire Commissioner Roderick Frazer. He sent a letter to Arroyo late last week ordering his return to work on Monday. Arroyo did not show up for his shift and he did not contact anyone with a reason for his absence. "The...

Mexico will soon bestow its highest honor upon liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) for his work in “defending the rights of immigrants.” The Mexican government announced last Friday that it intends to present Kennedy with the Order of the Aztec Eagle. Ricardo Alday, a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Cybercast News Service that the award, the highest that Mexico gives to foreigners, will be presented “at a time that is convenient to the senator.” The presentation will laud Kennedy for his work on immigration, and “for (promoting) full political participation and increased access to health and...

Mayor Menino, tear down this wall. The firewall of low-level graft and back-scratching hackery for which Boston has become famous. It is the only thing protecting a chump like faux-firefighter Albert Arroyo. Everybody knows the story of Albert Arroyo. One day he claims to be “totally and permanently disabled.” Fifteen days later, he’s a top contender in a body building competition - caught on videotape. And yesterday, Mr. Mayor, the “Hardest Non-Working Man In City Government” ignored the commissioner’s order to show up for work. Arroyo may be known for his bulging biceps and six-pack abs, but right now he’s...

We should every year remember the true story of Mary Jo's death, and how it revealed the true "character" of one Edward M Kennedy.

Gov. Deval Patrick filed a special appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008 that would drastically increase the fees for certain firearm licenses. The cost of the License to Carry Firearms would double under the proposal, jumping from $100 (for six years) to $200 (for six years). The non-resident License to Carry Firearms fee would jump from $100 for one year to $250 for one year. Licensed firearm dealers will also feel the bite as their license fees would be increased from $100 for three years to $250. The governor then adds a $100 inspection fee in the second and third...

"Friends, red-necks, suckers, and fellow hicks," he would say, . . . "That's what you are. And me - I'm one, too . . . Oh, I'm a sucker, for I fell for that sweet-talking fellow in the fine automobile . . . But I'm standing here on my own hind legs, for even a dog can learn to do that, give him time. I learned. It took me a time but I learned, and here I am on my own hind legs." And he would lean at them. And demand, "Are you, are you on your hind legs? Have...

Last week also brought the story of Albert Arroyo, a Boston firefighter who applied for disability retirement in March on the grounds that he was left "totally and permanently disabled" after tripping on a staircase in March. He went on injured leave and continued to collect his full salary, tax free. But Arroyo's "total and permanent disability," it appears, wasn't very disabling. In May he entered a men's bodybuilding competition, and finished eighth. When the fire commissioner learned of Arroyo's bodybuilding prowess, he shifted him from injured leave to regular sick leave. (On Friday, Arroyo was ordered to return to...

Mexico to honor Sen. Kennedy for work on immigration Friday, July 18, 2008 - Updated 7m ago MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government is honoring U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy for his defense of immigrant rights. Mexico announced today it will award Kennedy the Aguila Azteca, the highest honor the government can bestow on foreign dignitaries. An announcement on Mexico’s federal registry says Kennedy will be presented with a sash in the United States. Mexico says the Massachusetts Democrat has denounced injustices against migrants and "highlighted the importance of addressing illegal immigration by looking for an integral solution." Kennedy co-sponsored an...

On July 18, 1969, Ted Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick, a small island adjoining Martha's Vineyard and connected to it via a ferry. The party was a reunion for a group of six women, known as the "boiler-room girls", who had served in his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. Also present were Joseph Gargan (Ted Kennedy's cousin), Paul Markham (a school friend of Gargan's who would become United States Attorney for Massachusetts under the patronage of the Kennedys), Charles Tretter (an attorney), and John Crimmins (Ted Kennedy's part-time driver). Kennedy was also competing in the Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta,...

Rotting holes in steel support beams, enormous rust patches, small splits in steel girders and broken bracing are evident all along the underside of the John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge, the heavily traveled Interstate 95 span that crosses the Merrimack River between Amesbury and Newburyport. A just-released state safety report filed in the wake of last year's disastrous collapse of the similarly designed Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis gave the 57-year-old Whittier Bridge "poor" ratings due to deterioration. On a 10-step ranking system, the rating is just two steps above the point where engineers consider closing a bridge due to safety...

Surprise! The $ 2.4 B Big Dig in Boston is now up to $ 22 B plus! And the federal reimbursement is down from 85% to 27%, leaving MA taxpayers with an unpayable bill due by 2038. If you like MA, you'll LOVE the U.S. under Barack Obama.

A company in Massachusetts says it trademarked the name “Rail Runner” in the nineties. And now they want New Mexico to stop using it. "Rail Runner Incorporated filed what's called an opposition to the use of New Mexico Rail Runner on September 2, 2006 with the trademark trial and appeal board of the U.S Patent and Trade Mark Office," said a spokesman for the East Coast company. The company makes a machine that they say makes it easier to move containers from trains to semis. The East Coast company is now waiting for a decision from the patent and trademark...

Massachusetts residents got a shock when state officials, at the peak of construction on the Big Dig project, disclosed that the price tag had ballooned to nearly $15 billion. But that, it turns out, was just the beginning. Now, three years after the official dedication of the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel, the state is reeling under a legacy of debt left by the massive project. In all, the project will cost an additional $7 billion in interest, bringing the total to a staggering $22 billion, according to a Globe review of hundreds of pages of state documents. It will not...

Forget soccer moms and NASCAR dads. It looks like the swing voter this election year is going to be the “deadbeat borrower.” In Congress, Republicans and Democrats are pushing Barney Frank’s $300 billion boondoggle to underwrite bad loans given to worse customers... And now, activists for the newest civil right - the right to skip your mortgage payments - have taken to the streets of Roxbury. On Tuesday, around 60 local housing activists gathered outside the condo of Paula Taylor. Led by Steve Meacham of the group City Life, they sang the civil rights anthem “‘We Shall Not Be Moved”...

Report: Father charged for defending 4-year-old from molestation By Michelle Malkin • July 16, 2008 10:36 AM Your Wednesday morning blood-boiler comes from Raynham, MA. Over the weekend, the Raynham Enterprise News reported that a father had blown the whistle on an elderly, non-English-speaking grocery worker who allegedly reached under a bathroom stall and groped his 4-year-old son’s leg. The suspected molester has been charged with indecent assault and battery on a child. The police are also filing assault charges against the father. Really:

H.R. 415, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, would amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate a commercial river since the 1800’s as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. http://propertyrightsalliance.org/index.php?content=hr415

In the debate over gay marriage, strikingly little attention has been paid to the impact on children. Some question the wisdom of having children raised by two homosexuals, but the best they can seem to argue is that serious flaws vitiate the literature defending it. Almost no attention has been devoted to what may be the more serious political question of who will supply the children of gay "parents," since obviously they cannot produce children themselves. A few will come from sperm donors and surrogate mothers, but very few. The vast majority will come, because they already do come, from...

The Massachusetts Senate today passed a bill that would repeal a 1913 state law that prevents gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts. The bill, which had the support of Senate President Therese Murray, passed with no objections on a voice vote. Proponents of the repeal called the 1913 law archaic and discriminatory. "There are very few laws on the books that I can say that I'm ashamed that they're on the books," said State Senator Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat. He said he opposed the law because of the "immorality of discrimination." "This...

Governor Deval Patrick has scheduled a picnic fund-raiser this month at his vacation estate in the Berkshires, where he will once again exploit a method he pioneered for skirting state campaign contribution limits, a funding system the Legislature so far has declined to shut down. Guests at the gathering at the 7,500-square-foot mansion situated on 77 acres in Richmond are being asked to contribute up to $5,500 to the governor's Seventy-First Fund. The fund - as the formal invitation to the soiree explains - divides the contributions between Patrick's campaign and the state Democratic Party

City to go after bodybuilding firefigher (Greg Wayland, NECN) - Boston's fire commissioner wants the city to deny the disability claim of one of its firefighters. It's the result of a video showing Albert Arroyo out on disability competing in a body building contest. The video of Albert Arroyo turned up on YouTube after the 46-year-old had been granted disability leave for a back injury. The May 3rd event came just six weeks after his injury claim. Arroyo had been collecting his full salary tax free, but has now been switched to regular sick leave. A lawyer for Arroyo says...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—Mitt Romney failed to win the Republican presidential nomination because of inexperience and inconsistency, according to GOP political guru Karl Rove. Rove, who grew up in Utah and masterminded President George W. Bush's election and re-election campaigns, told those gathered at the Television Critics Association press tour that the former Massachusetts governor didn't understand what he was getting into. "Running for president is unlike any other political task that anybody has ever taken on," he said. "So running for governor of Massachusetts, while it prepares you to some degree for running for president, there's nothing like running for...

Mass. Legislature poised to export our "gay marriage" across the country by repealing "1913 Law". National gay groups pouring in money to lobby. Pressure needed NOW to stop Senate vote Tuesday - (see our new fax feature!) The national homosexual movement is funding a huge lobbying effort over the next few days to persuade the Massachusetts Legislature to repeal the "1913 Law" which would allow out-of-state "gay" couples to legally "marry" in Massachusetts -- and then cause havoc in their home states. Currently, out-of-state couples can not marry in Massachusetts if that marriage would be illegal in their home state....

July 14, 2008 Dear GOAL members and friends, This requires our immediate action. We urge you to contact your State Representative and Senator and ask that they not support the Governor's Appropriations Bill. On Sunday July, 13, 2008 Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick filed a special appropriations bill for fiscal year 2008. (As of the filing of this report, the bill had not yet received a number.) Within this bill sections 24 - 27 drastically increase certain firearm licenses. Sections 24 & 25 attack lawfully licensed firearm dealers by increasing their license fees from $100 for three years to $250. Then...

Raynham father warns Market Basket shoppers of ‘predator’ employee he says groped his 4-year-old son A father says he was horrified to find out that a janitor accused of groping his son in a bathroom stall at Market Basket is still working there. RAYNHAM, MA — One Raynham father is taking justice into his own hands, warning other parents this week about an alleged “predator” who he says groped his 4-year-old son in a supermarket bathroom last month. Police said the suspect, an elderly janitor at Market Basket, allegedly reached under a bathroom stall partition and touched the boy’s calf...

Signaling a potential state money meltdown, Gov. Deval Patrick is asking lawmakers to grant him extraordinary budget-slashing power to make emergency cuts if the economy takes another turn for the worse. In addition to bracing for the effects of the shaky stock market, state officials are working furiously to secure a Medicaid reimbursement for the state’s new Universal Health Care Law worth hundreds of millions in federal dollars. “It’s an ugly scene to say the least,” said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Patrick vetoed $122.5 million from the pork-packed budget yesterday, but financial watchdogs say the reduction...

Howie thread starting off with his Sunday Herald column

On the Spot (CNSNews.com) – A top Democrat told high school students gathered at the U.S. Capitol Thursday that climate change caused Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Darfur, which led to the “black hawk down” battle between U.S. troops and Somali rebels. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House (Select) Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, also equated the drive for global warming legislation with the drive for women’s suffrage in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But one global warming expert from the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) told Cybercast News Service that such a remark...

It may come as a surprise to some on the left, but it is the Bush administration that made the state of Massachusetts' health-care revolution a reality. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, together with Massachusetts leaders from both parties, enabled our state to launch a health-care plan that is on track to get virtually every citizen insured. Moreover, Bay Staters are now able to own their own insurance with the same low rates that are paid by employers. And there is no more worrying that if you lose your job, you lose your health insurance. The Bush administration...

BOSTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Massachusetts lawmakers say they are preparing to vote on whether to repeal a 1913 law that bans out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in the state. Lawmakers say they expect the state Senate to take up the law Tuesday and the state House to do the same soon after. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray back the repeal, but their support alone may not be enough to secure other lawmakers' votes, The Boston Globe reported Thursday. Supporters of gay marriage rights say they are optimistic the repeal will be approved because of...

Hold your (native) tongue! English embarrasses Obama By Michael Graham Thursday, July 10, 2008 Michael Graham hosts a talk show on 96.9 WTKK. Embarrassed again. First it was Michelle Obama, who had never been proud of American democracy until her husband’s electoral success. Now Sen. Barack Obama says his fellow Americans are “embarrassing” him. Why? Because we don’t speak enough French. “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, ‘merci beaucoup,’ ” Obama told supporters on Tuesday. Just...

MBTA general manager Dan Grabauskas is spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars urging suburban commuters to “Dump the Pump,” brave the heat and take the T, yet the transit boss continues to drive to work from Ipswich to Boston in the cool comfort of his T-owned SUV. Grabauskas was observed by a Herald reporter on several occasions over the past seven weeks, including yesterday, driving his agency-owned 2008 Ford Escape hybrid to his office at the state Transportation Building in Park Square - a roughly 60-mile-a-day commute round-trip. The T chief also drove his roomy, air-conditioned ride to a...

Embarrassed again. First it was Michelle Obama, who had never been proud of American democracy until her husband’s electoral success. Now Sen. Barack Obama says his fellow Americans are “embarrassing” him. Why? Because we don’t speak enough French. “It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, ‘merci beaucoup,’ ” Obama told supporters on Tuesday. Just “merci beaucoup”? C’est dommage! (“That’s too bad!” for those readers not currently serving as Massachusetts’ junior senator). And why is it a big...

State lawmakers are expected to vote next week on repealing a 1913 law that prevents out-of-state gay and lesbian couples from getting married in Massachusetts, reigniting a divisive debate on an issue that has stirred passions and put the state in the national spotlight. The Senate is expected to take up the legislation Tuesday, and the House will follow shortly afterward, according to several lawmakers. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Therese Murray favor the repeal, but their support on such a hot-button social issue does not guarantee that rank-and-file lawmakers will follow. Advocates of same-sex marriage rights...

Behold the Taunton River in Fall River, Massachusetts, pictured nearby. Congressman Barney Frank thinks your family would love to visit this scenic wilderness. Among its attractions are the fuel-storage tanks along the eastern shore. The container ships and piers are always a hit with the children looking for a place to romp. This could be America's next "wild and scenic river," if Mr. Frank gets his way. Last month the powerful Congressman pushed a bill through the House Natural Resources Committee that would give the Taunton River that designation under federal law. The bill could come up for a vote...

According to the Greenfield Recorder, “A $3 million grant from the state is expected to lead to 250 new jobs for people living in the North Quabbin and Franklin County areas. The North Quabbin Mixed-Use Development Project has been awarded a $3 million Massachusetts Opportunity Relocation and Expansion Jobs grant to make multiple infrastructure improvements to develop 495,000 square feet on 300 acres between Route 2 and Route 2A.” Our state representative Christopher Donelan has seemingly showed renewed interest in economic development. “Rep. Christopher Donelan, D-Orange, said he filed legislation two years ago so the town could create an economic...

Massachusetts Presidential Voting System Could Be Changed!!!! The Massachusetts House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a bill Wednesday, July 9, 2008 that would change the way Presidents are elected. If passed, H.678 "An Act Relative To The Agreement Among States To Elect The President By National Popular Vote" would place Massachusetts into a group of states that would elect the President and Vice President via a popular vote system. While this is not an obvious Second Amendment bill, it could have a serious impact as it could change who will be appointing future Supreme Court Justices. Currently the...

Dukakis calls for end to Electoral College Dave Wedge By Dave Wedge Tuesday, July 8, 2008 Calling it “critically important” to eliminate the Electoral College system, former Bay State Gov. Michael Dukakis called on lawmakers to join a growing number of states supporting a switch to a national popular vote to elect the president. “I think it is high time we got rid of the Electoral College and elected our presidents the way we elect every other elected official in the country - by a vote of the people,” Dukakis wrote in a letter e-mailed to state lawmakers yesterday. “The...

The owners of a small South End gallery say they had the best of intentions when they commissioned a famous and often mischievous street artist to install a massive political mural on a construction wall lining one of the artiest strips of the South End. The mural, 13 feet high and nearly a block long, features multiple composite portraits of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, their faces melded together in a rainbow of colors. It is meant, the gallery said, to inspire dialogue. That it did. The morning after artist Ron English and his band of...

Frisky sun worshipers are flocking to have sex on the beach in Provincetown - but are sending horrified family vacationers packing, officals said. Angry Cape Cod National Seashore officials said they are cracking down on public sex acts along the picturesque shoreline after the number of citations for public sex acts more than tripled, from an average of 40 to 132 last year. “This is not what we’re interested in seeing,” said George Price, Superintendent of the National Seashore. “Over the last couple of years, public (sex) acts like this have been viewed by visitors.” Price said officials are baffled...

Karen Coughlin, a psychiatric nurse in Taunton, Mass., remembers the evening four years ago when her 14-year-old son asked her if any patients had tried to kill her that day. “I was astounded, but he was serious because he’d heard about co-workers going to the hospital for injuries,” Ms. Coughlin said. “I’ve been hit, I’ve been kicked and spit on. I’ve had a knife pulled on me. I love what I do and many of the patients I work with, but I don’t love the conditions I work in.” Three years ago, an enraged patient — 6 feet 4 inches...

Man held in Fourth of July attack By Ira Kantor Sunday, July 6, 2008 A 20-year-old man was arrested Friday night for allegedly attacking a New York Yankees fan with a baseball bat after a Fourth of July fireworks display in Falmouth. According to police, officers responded to 153 Worcester Court after receiving a report about a fight in progress. On arrival, officers noticed several youths, including Robert Donald Correia of Falmouth, bothering a family in its car because the vehicle had New York license plates. Police said Correia and others accused the family of being Yankees fans. The family...

Melissa Wagoner, spokeswoman for Kennedy, added that "Making sure each American has access to quality, affordable healthcare is the cause of Senator Kennedy's life."

A Massachusetts trial lawyer, also serving as chairman of the State House Ethics Committee, is under fire for advocating "ripping apart" child sexual abuse victims on the witness stand. Massachusetts State Representative James Fagan, a Taunton Democrat, was speaking against "Jessica's Law," a proposal already on the books in many other states that imposes a mandatory minimum sentence for those convicted of raping children. He described how he, as a defense attorney, would treat a six-year-old rape victim on the witness stand. "And I'm [going to] rip them apart. I'm [going to] make sure that the rest of their life...

FALMOUTH – A 14-year-old boy was arrested yesterday after he pushed a senior citizen off a dock because he “thought it would be funny,” police said. The North Falmouth teen – whose name was not released because he is a juvenile – was at Megansett Beach when the 2:20 p.m. incident occurred. Police said the boy ran up behind the 71-year-old victim, who was fishing off the dock with his grandson, and pushed him off the dock and into the ocean. The man suffered lacerations to both knees and lost his prescription glasses, police said. Although the boy fled into...