Free Republic

it would be novelistically satisfying if the Democrats lost Ted Kennedy’s seat on the issue of government-run health care, thereby dooming...government-run health care.

The American Revolutionary War began in Massachusetts with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on April 19th, 1775. Following what Emerson referred to as the “Shot heard ‘round the world”, a small fledgling colony stood up against the tyranny of the greatest military force on earth… And won. Great men and women stood up in perilous times and prevailed against what appeared to be unconquerable odds. Some have referred to the present day as perilous times, and once again the people of Massachusetts have an opportunity to set into motion a political revolution. On January 19th, a special election will...

On one of the last of days of digging in Harvard Yard this fall, archaeologists believe they finally found evidence linked to one of the University's earliest buildings, the Indian College that stood on the site from 1655 to 1698. Archaeologists working in a chest-deep hole near Matthews Hall uncovered a narrow strip of dark earth in a lighter, orange-brown layer that marks natural soil. They believe that the dark earth is the bottom of an architectural trench most likely dug for the Indian College, built to house Native American students as part of the University's original mandate to educate...

"...The charity was the Joyce Foundation on whose board of directors Obama served and which gave nearly $1.1 million in two separate grants that were “instrumental in developing and launching the privately-owned Chicago Climate Exchange, which now calls itself “North America’s only cap and trade system for all six greenhouse gases, with global affiliates and projects worldwide.” And that’s only the beginning of this tawdry tale, Mr. Barnes. The “privately-owned” Chicago Climate Exchange is heavily influenced by Obama cohorts Al Gore and Maurice Strong. For years now Strong and Gore have been cashing in on that lucrative cottage industry known...

On the Next Right blog serial poster Ironman calls for Republicans to seriously contest the January 19 special election to fill Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. I’ve argued that this is a long shot, and Ironman doesn’t persuade me that it isn’t. But he does make one good statistical point. While Barack Obama’s 62%-36% margin in Massachusetts makes it seem out of reach for a Republican, Republican Chris Christie did win the gubernatorial race in New Jersey which Obama carried 57%-42%

I’ve received a lot of e-mail asking why I haven’t written about the controversy over Kevin Jennings, Barack Obama’s “safe schools” czar. To be honest, the story is so shocking that I haven’t quite grasped how to approach it. Jennings ran an outfit called Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) from its inception in 1995 until last year. During that time, as Jim Hoft at Big Government has detailed, GLSEN offered sex education seminars to young teenagers within the framework of public education that went way, way beyond explanations of human biology and disease transmission. According to multiple sources,...

Fistgate instructor Margot Abels had been with the Massachusetts DOE “Safe Schools” program for seven years by the time she ran the scandalous workshop documented at the GLSEN-Boston conference in 2000. That takes her back to 1993, the year the “safe schools” program began in the DOE. She had run “at least five” workshops similar to Fistgate prior to 2000.... It was in 1992 that Kevin Jennings joined radical David LaFontaine at the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, to “run its education committee” – which set up the “safe schools” programs in the Department of Education..... Isn’t it...

You won't believe how 'gross' topics got for teenage students Jennings was co-chairman of committee that set up statewide program A pro-family organization is accusing President Obama's Office of Safe Schools chief, Kevin Jennings, of knowing in advance the "gross and disgusting" subjects that would be covered at a seminar on sex for teenagers. There have been multiple reports about a Massachusetts school seminar 10 years ago sponsored by the group Jennings founded, the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, that included instructors providing explicit direction on homosexual activities, such as "fisting." The subject has been raised as a direct challenge...

Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s Teen Conference Literature Pushed Anal Sex in Parks With Strangers December 10, 2009 Jim Hoft In March 2000 the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization of Massachusetts held its 10 Year Anniversary GLSEN/Boston conference at Tufts University. This conference was fully supported by the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Safe Schools Program, the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and some of the presenters even received federal money. During the 2000 conference, workshop leaders led a “youth only, ages 14-21″ session that offered lessons in “fisting” a dangerous sexual practice. During the same...

The first flare-up in the general election U.S. Senate race happened just hours into the six-week contest as Republican Scott Brown challenged Democrat Martha Coakley to sign a no-tax pledge and she promptly slapped down the move as a “gimmick.” “I don’t get involved with campaign gimmicks,” Coakley said. “I’m just not going to respond to that.” Brown, a Wrentham state senator, said of Coakley’s dismissal: “I find that disturbing,” adding, “I think I’m more in line with what people are feeling - the burdens of family issues.”

Congratulations Massachussets! You have just chosen the person last night who will succeed the late Ted Kennedy in his senate seat. The Boston Globe's Derrick Z. Jackson declared the winner a week ago on December 3 in this story, Coakley gets the keys to the Senate: MARTHA COAKLEY will be the state’s next US senator. Michael Capuano handed her the keys to the late Ted Kennedy’s office by getting caught up in one last dumb shouting match with the sure loser in the race, Stephen Pagliuca. One can only imagine the smile inside Coakley’s head as Capuano and Pagliuca descended...

Sen. Brown Wins Mass. Senate Republican Primary ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 8, 2009 BOSTON (AP) -- State Sen. Scott Brown has won the Republican nomination in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. Brown defeated businessman and attorney Jack E. Robinson in a primary marked by low turnout. The 50-year-old Brown is a veteran legislator and lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard who has also gained local notoriety as a former Cosmopolitan centerfold model and the father of an ''American Idol'' contestant. He faces an uphill challenge in a state where the majority of voters are independents...

Governor Deval Patrick canceled at the last minute a speech he was scheduled to give before a little-known but prestigious men’s group, saying the invitation was accepted before he knew of its policy toward women. Patrick withdrew from the speech before the 126-year-old Clover Club about two hours before a dinner was scheduled to begin at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on Saturday, according to event organizers.

SNIPPET: "A team of researchers convened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began a series of tests today at 20 MBTA stations to determine how airborne contaminants would spread in a terrorist attack on Boston's subway system." SNIPPET: "The findings will help guide the design of future detection systems and help strengthen evacuation, ventilation, and other emergency response plans on mass transit across the country. "We hope to use the data from the two to come up with a model to predict the behavior (of chemicals) in other subway systems," Lustig said."

Six Candidates Seek Ted Kennedy’s SeatBy JIM HICKEY Islanders go the polls in the state primary on Tuesday to cast votes that will help choose Democratic and Republican candidates to run for the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate left vacant in August when longtime Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — who held the seat for 46 years — died after a 14-month battle with brain cancer. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every town. The four Democratic candidates are Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Stephen Pagliuca, a managing partner of the Boston Celtics, U.S. Rep. Mike...

NORTH ANDOVER — First it was the menorah on the town common. Now it's the Merry Christmas sign on the fire station. The town has put an end to a longtime holiday tradition ordering firefighters to take down their homemade Merry Christmas sign from outside the fire station after people complained. The sign had been up for a week before it was taken down Friday. Fire Chief William Martineau said the sign was made by firefighters some 50 years ago and was never an issue before. "I think Christmas is officially a religious holiday. But to all of us, it...

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Baker has picked state Sen. Richard R. Tisei as his running mate, according to his campaign Web site and Facebook page. An announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the American Civic Center in Tisei’s hometown of Wakefield, State House News is reporting. Baker’s campaign manager could not be immediately reached for comment. “Richard has years of experience fighting for the taxpayer on Beacon Hill and I’m thrilled to have him on the team,” Baker said in a statement posted on his campaign Web site. The Web page contained on CharlieBaker2010.com included a photo of...

It’s that most wonderful time of the year. The malls are filled with snowflakes, the oldies radio stations are Christmas music 24/7 and in Chelmsford they’re preparing for the annual arrival of everyone’s favorite holiday Aryan: Swasti-Claus! Byam Elementary School in Chelmsford is one of several area schools that raises money by setting up holiday gift shops. Parents donate trinkets and tchotchkes, which are then put on sale for a few days in December so the little kiddies can buy gifts for mom, dad and the sibs. According to organizers in the Byam PTO, it’s one of their biggest fundraisers....

Jack Spillane column: A cup of joe with a guy named Steve (Pagliuca, that is)By Jack Spillane November 08, 2009 12:00 AM He's actually better in person than his ads. I'm talking about Steve Pagliuca, the venture capitalist and Celtics co-owner who's running for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. In the wake of my initial column about Pagliuca, I had the opportunity to sit down with him for a short interview this week. He had toured a New Bedford scallop company — which must have been in between his cutting TV ads. (I don't need to tell you, of course, that...

Almost 20% of West Virginians eligible to vote are either dead or have moved. Five States with the Most Dead People Eligible to Vote: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming. FUN TIME IN ACORN TOWN: DEAD PEOPLE RULE! Are you lonely when you go to the polling place? Want some company? Perhaps, you'd like to take along a dead "friend" to vote with you. That's a scenario that's becoming more possible across the United States. A combination of old voter registration lists that still contain the names of dead voters and voters who have moved, new "Motor Voter" legislation,...

On Nov. 9 Wade Rathke will be speaking at Springfield college,Marsh Hall in Springfield Mass at 7:0PM and at UMASS on Nov. 10, Gordon Hall at 4:00PM. We will be arriving a half hour early to both. When I say we, I mean the western Mass 912 project. Our signs will be aimed specifically at ACORN's and Rathke's legal problems; they will also be aimed at student age people. Apparently we have a troll on our site, they have discovered our plans and plan to counter us. I am asking for help from anyone that can make it. The following...

Gays demand tolerance and inclusion. See how long that lasts once should they continue to get people fired because they dare not agree with their brand of "marriage"....

Facts are a stubborn thing. And despite the false claims of ideologues, academics and politicians, the facts tell the story of Massachusetts' remarkably successful health-reform law. The lengths that critics have gone to in their various attempts to disprove the obvious—that our state's landmark 2006 law and its implementation amount to a truly historic achievement—would be amusing if the subject were not so serious.

Where is Tina Fey now that we need her? Martha Coakley is the front-runner for the Dem nomination for Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat. In a recent debate, asked about her lack of foreign policy experience, the first credential Coakley offered in response was that "I have a sister who lives overseas, and she's been in England and now lives in the Middle East." Will the MSM savage Coakley the same way it went after Sarah Palin for observing that Russia can be seen from parts of Alaska? Not holding breath.

Where is Tina Fey now that we need her? Martha Coakley is the front-runner for the Dem nomination for US Senate for Ted Kennedy's old seat. In a recent debate, asked about her lack of foreign policy experience, the first credential Coakley offered in response was that "I have a sister who lives overseas, and she's been in England and now lives in the Middle East." View video here.

In Boston, the livin’ is never easy. A new report from Northeastern University finds we’re one of the priciest housing markets in America. Only San Francisco has higher rents, for example. Massachusetts has the highest energy costs in the country. Our roads are very expensive (only New Jersey spends more per state road mile) and are generally crappy - even when they’re not covered with sides of beef. And now Bay Staters face yet another challenge, according to the liberal group ONE Massachusetts: You’re UNDER taxed. In fact, ONE Massachusetts is so certain you want to pay higher taxes, they’re...

Last night in Boston, President Obama faced a half-empty hotel ballroom at a fundraiser for his pal, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who is unpopular and facing a difficult re-election campaign. Instead of confidence, he actually expressed doubt: "There really should be no doubt that this guy gets a second term. But let's be honest. This is going to be a tough race ... " Jules Crittenden has a hilarious blog post on the dismal portents for Obama and Patrick, titled "Maybe we can't," delving into the event and the press reaction. A sample: Boston Globe helpfully plays down and buries five long graphs...

Plagued by his own plummeting polls and playing to empty seats at a high-roller Hub fund-raiser, President Obama acknowledged yesterday that his close friend and political alter ego Gov. Deval Patrick faces a rough road to re-election. “There really should be no doubt that this guy gets a second term. But let’s be honest. This is going to be a tough race,� Obama told a room barely half-full with 125 deep-pocketed Democrats who ponied up $6,000 for Patrick and the party. “Re-election is not a foregone conclusion because times are tough.� Reflecting those hard times, the swanky Westin Copley Place...

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Massachusetts police say they are searching for two men suspected of robbing a woman of $27,000 after she flashed the cash in a Springfield bar. Sgt. John Delaney said on Friday that the 22-year-old woman was robbed Monday night by two men wearing dark clothing and bandanas, one armed with what appeared to be a semiautomatic handgun...

President Obama blows into the bluest state tomorrow facing a cold shoulder from once true-blue admirers, as gay rights activists, anti-war protesters and vexed environmentalists vow to picket a fund-raiser he’s headlining for Gov. Deval Patrick - a marquee event that hasn’t even sold out. As of last night, liberals who once braved frigid temperatures to behold Obama were shunning tickets to the fund-raiser at the posh Westin Copley Place featuring the president, sources told the Herald. And despite campaign denials, Patrick operatives reportedly were pushing the ducats - between $500 and $6,000 - by e-mail up to the last...

Hundreds of people have been arrested in Texas and around the country what officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel in the U.S WASHINGTON (October 22, 2009)—U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder calls the arrests of more than 300 people in a series of drug raids in Texas and across the country the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating here. Holder said at a news conference Thursday that the arrests over the past two days were aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel. Click here to find out more! Holder...

Scandal-magnet Republican Jack E. Robinson is making a last-minute bid for the U.S. Senate, filing 10,900 signatures with the Duxbury town clerk just before the Tuesday deadline, according to a source close to the campaign. Robinson, who coughed up $100,000 to collect the signatures, will challenge Wrentham state Sen. Scott Brown in the Dec. 8 GOP primary. The winner will move on to the special election in January. “He’s been trying to stay under the radar,” said the campaign source who asked to remain anonymous because Robinson hasn’t officially announced he is running. The state’s Republican party shunned Robinson after...

WORCESTER, Mass.- A Worcester, Mass., man said he will not appeal the city's order to tear down the $12,000 four-story tree house he built on his property . Michael Chapman, 48 -- who built the tree house over the course of three months from more than a ton of pressure-treated lumber, 1,000 feet of rope, about 500 lag screws and 48 feet of rebar -- said the city ordered him to remove the tree house by Nov. 2 and he intends to abide by the order, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday. Officials from Worcester's Department of Inspectional Services said they...

A 27-year-old man from Sudbury has been arrested on charges he planned terrorism attacks inside and outside the United States, according to a spokeswoman for Acting U.S. Attorney Michael K. Loucks. The man was identified as Tarek Mehanna, who was arrested in November of last year for allegedly lying to authorities about a man who trained with al Qaida, federal officials tell the Herald. Loucks and Warren T. Bamford, special-agent-in-charge of the Boston FBI field office, have called a 10 a.m. press conference to discuss the arrest. The announcement will be made at the federal courthouse in South Boston. Developing...

A reality TV star was arrested in Massachusetts over the weekend. Adam Jasinski, who won CBS' "Big Brother" last year, was charged with dealing oxycodone in North Reading Saturday. According to the Boston Herald, Jasinski allegedly told a DEA agent that he used the $500,000 he won on the show to bankroll a drug-dealing operation on the East Coast. Federal prosecutors say Jasinski spoke to an undercover agent from his home in Delray Beach, Florida and agreed to fly to Boston to sell the agent 2,000 oxycodone pills. Once Jasinski arrived at Logan Airport, the agent drove him to a...

Martha Coakley is a Mean Girl. How else to explain yesterday’s snide “I’m not going to talk to you” comeback after Boston Herald State House Bureau Chief Hillary Chabot asked her about campaign finances? The silent treatment from a U.S. Senate candidate. Like, totally high school, Martha. Meet me in the ladies for a smoke and a chat. Watch the door. This might take a while. Here’s the thing, Martha: If you’re running for Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat and proclaiming to be a progressive candidate who preaches transparency in government, it’s a good idea to answer reporters’ questions. If you...

The most important rule in health care is "first do no harm". Unfortunately Congressional Democrats seem totally oblivious to this rule. Many Democrats are so egotistical that they think anything they do will be an improvement. They seem incapable of understanding that changes can make a situation worse instead of better just like giving a patient the wrong medical treatment can worsen the patient's condition. The wrong medical treatment can kill. Making the wrong changes in the health care system can reduce access to health care and reduce the quality of health care. In one of my favorite episodes of...

These are the days of miracles and wonders, as the Senate Finance Committee approved its version of ObamaCare yesterday on 14 to 9 vote, including Maine Republican Olympia Snowe. Now their health-care marvel—a new entitlement that will supposedly "reduce the costs of health care," as the President put it in his congratulatory message—will move to the Senate floor, and perhaps then to a doctor or hospital near you. Meanwhile, Massachusetts is offering a preview of where all this will end up. The state passed a prototype for ObamaCare in 2006 on the same cost-control theory as Senate Finance, only to...

Both President Obama and the Democratic Congress have ignored the mess that three states have made of their economy and tax burden by attempting to create a public option and/or universal healthcare. Tennessee has its TennCare program, Maine has tried a "public option" program, and Massachusetts has its RomenyCare system that promises healthcare for all. Each of them has been a boondoggle for the taxpayers and has failed to deliver promised savings and enhanced coverage. In fact, each of these states have begun to cut services to people because the costs have skyrocketed despite claims that "savings" would occur and...

Sen. Lindsey Graham working with Sen. John Kerry on climate bill Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina publicly announced his support for climate legislation on Sunday in an op-ed column with Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. "Our partnership represents a fresh attempt to find consensus that adheres to our core principles and leads to both a climate change solution and energy independence," the two senators wrote in The New York Times. "It begins now, not months from now — with a road to 60 votes in the Senate." Graham's support is a major win for climate supporters, who...

Controlling Healthcare Costs The American Way: Not Doing It 08 Oct 2009 In the comments to an earlier post, KennyBoy asks: And Megan, no one on your side of the argument seems willing to answer two simple questions. If every other country (don't split hairs, you know what I mean) can cover ALL of their citizens for LESS than the US does, with better outcomes, why can't we do that? This is a favorite question of would-be reformers. There are two answers, one theoretical, and one empirical. We'll start with the theory, which won't be new to regular readers; I've...

BOSTON -- New evidence has surfaced as the case that has rocked the Boston Police department heads back to the courtroom Monday. The focus of the proceedings at Dorchester District Court will center on cell phone calls and text messages that the alleged victim made. A married pregnant Boston police officer has gone to court to ask for an extension of a restraining order against a fellow officer who she has claimed raped her several times while the pair were at a shooting competition in Connecticut this summer. Newscenter 5 has learned the female Boston officer did not report her...

A Boston police officer has filed a restraining order against another officer in the department, alleging that he sexually assaulted her - possibly impregnating her - and then stalked her, according to court records. The accusation has roiled the department, which is investigating the allegations, according to several law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case. Both officers have been temporarily stripped of their guns and have been asked to stay away from the department during the investigation, but no one has been disciplined, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized...

The day began with a shooting competition in Connecticut. By afternoon, the Boston police officers were drinking beer and margaritas in a nearby parking lot. By the end of the night, they had stopped at two bars, where they downed tequila shots and more beer. Soon afterward, the three officers, two men and a young woman only a couple of years out of the academy, went back to a hotel near Farmington, where they all agreed to share a room. As the woman collapsed into bed, she said she felt someone crawl in next to her. It was one of...

It was a Massachusetts moment last Friday, when Vice President Joe Biden swore in Kennedy-family servitor Paul Kirk to fill Ted’s oversized Senate seat until a special election in January. In 2004, when our other Senator, John Forbes Kerry, was the Democratic nominee for president, Massachusetts’ one-party state legislature (88% Democratic) passed legislation denying Republican Governor Mitt Romney the power to make an interim appointment should Kerry’s seat become vacant. But now we have a Democratic governor, and Obama forbid the Party of Plunder should be without its 60th vote in the Senate until the special election scheduled for January...

The name recognition surely can’t hurt, but Joe Kennedy, a high-tech whiz kid who plans to become the next junior U.S. senator from Massachusetts, hopes to win voters over on his own. Joseph L. Kennedy, 37, of Dedham, a member of the National Libertarian Party collecting signatures to run as an independent, has established a Web site: JoeKennedyforSenate.com. He is not to be confused with Joseph P. Kennedy II, 57, whose decision not to run for his late uncle Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat left the famous family’s faithful wistful. “I wouldn’t say I’m ‘politically active,’ but you can’t sit...

Teddymandering is the practice of changing a law to benefit your political party, then reversing the change when your political party will benefit from the original rules to which you objected. Named for former Massachusetts Senator Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy. Senator Kennedy influenced the Massachusetts state legislature to change the Senatorial succession law during the 2004 election. His reasons were strictly because Senator John Kerry, if elected President, would be replaced by an appointee of (then) Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican. At the time, Kennedy was against any interim appointment until a special election could be held. In 2009, as...

THIS IS A STORY ABOUT LIBERAL GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING. THE CONSERVATIVE RESPONSE FOLLOWS. September 30 is the end of the fundraising quarter for federal candidates and, of course, everyone wants to report healthy numbers. To this end campaigns often cite the filing deadline in an attempt to motivate supporters to give one more time or give for the first time. This time they aren't alone. Artur Davis is also using the Sept. 30 deadline to encourage contributions even though he's running for Governor in 2010, not Congress. It's a smart move that reminds supporters time is passing and takes advantage of...

Forget the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. We are now the Banana Republic of Massachusetts. That’s not original, but it’s truer than ever. Laws? We don’t need no stinkin’ laws. “First we shred the rules,” said Rep. Brad Jones, the House Republican leader. “Now we shred the Constitution.” Here’s how it’s supposed to work. If the Legislature wants a bill to become law immediately, they have to attach what’s called an “emergency preamble.” It takes a two-thirds vote to pass such a preamble. Otherwise, the bill becomes law in 90 days. So Wednesday, the Legislature approved Ted Kennedy’s deathbed wish to...

A Suffolk Superior Court judge today denied a motion by state Republicans to delay Gov. Deval Patrick’s appointment of an interim senator by 90 days. Judge Thomas Connolly this afternoon cleared the way for Paul G. Kirk Jr. to be sworn in as an interim U.S. senator today at 3:15 p.m. in Washington, D.C. Developing ...