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"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...

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.

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...

The woman accused of killing two of her lover’s children in April by setting fire to their South Boston rowhouse was ordered held yesterday on $1 million bail. Nicole Chuminski, 26, of South Boston wept in Suffolk Superior Court as she pleaded not guilty to torching Anna Reisopoulos’ West Sixth Street home April 6, killing her two daughters, 14-year-old Acia and 3-year-old Sophia Johnson.

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...

Last night, WBZ-TV hosted the annual Boston Pops 4th of July Concert in Boston. Whether through sheer stupidity or through dislike of country, they chose as host a amazing doofus who had recently become a US citizen. His comments to the audience were astonishing: "I'm an American citizen now so if you give me any crap, I can shoot you back." "So here again is the good-looking and good-smelling Keith Lockhart." There were more but I did not write them down. WTF is wrong with one of the country's biggest TV stations (part of CBS, BTW) that they would chose...

Massachusetts State Representative James Fagan (D-Taunton) argues that “Jessica’s Law,” which prescribes a mandatory 20-year sentence for rape of a child under 12, would force him to verbally and psychologically destroy the victims in order to free his clients. “As a defense attorney it is my obligation to use any legal means to help my client avoid a conviction,” Fagan explained. “The harsher the punishment for conviction, the more vicious I must be to try to ensure it doesn’t happen. If a 6-year-old is going to testify against my client, I’m going to rip her apart. I’m going to make...

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...

LISTEN ONLINE TO KFI IN LOS ANGELES WATCH THE MOCKING YOUTUBE SING-ALONG OF THIS HORRIBLE HUMAN BEING

Deval Patrick, already arguably the worst governor in the United States, has announced that he intends to give illegal immigrants free tuition to Massachusetts state colleges. "It's a simple matter of justice," he is quoted as telling reporters. As the station notes, out of state US citizens are required to pay a higher-than- instate rate to attend the same schools.

WATCH THIS DISGUSTING HUMAN BEING SAY WHAT HE WOULD DO IN COURT TO CHILDREN WHO HAVE BEEN RAPED YOUTUBE ONE TIN SOLDIER SING-ALONG If you have a chance, leave him some appropriate comments. I'm going to send the YouTube to the Boys and Girls Club of Taunton, on which he is a board member. He must be forced to resign.

The US Army has ruled the controversial shooting death of a Massachusetts soldier in Afghanistan was a suicide, according to the soldier's family's website. Ciara Durkin, a 30-year-old Army specialist who worked in finance, was found dead with a single bullet in her head on Sept. 28, 2007, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, near her M-16 rifle. At the time, the Army declared that her death was not combat-related, but provided no more public information. "The Durkin family has received the Army's final report into Ciara's death, with their conclusion that she took her own life," her family said...

A Massachusetts city is investigating an apparent teenage "pregnancy pact" that has at least 17 high-school girls expecting babies, four times more than last year, including many aged 16 or younger. A high school health clinic in the city of Gloucester became suspicious after seeing a surge in girls seeking pregnancy tests. Local officials said on Thursday nearly half of those who became pregnant appear to have entered into a pact to have their babies together over the year. "Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time...

A child porn possession charge lodged against a Department of Industrial Accidents investigator fired for having smut on his state-issued laptop has been dismissed because experts concluded he was unwittingly spammed. “The overall forensics of the laptop suggest that it had been compromised by a virus,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley. Nationally recognized computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs told the Herald Michael Fiola’s ordeal was “one of the most horrific cases I’ve seen.” Loehrs, who spent a month dissecting the computer for the defense, explained in a 30-page report that the laptop was running corrupted...

“Whaddaya gotta do to get fired in this town?” It’s a great question, asked by a co-worker of mine (emphasis on “worker”) shaking his head over the latest Department of Public Works story in the Herald. This time it was five city workers hanging out at the Northern Avenue Bridge, watching satellite TV and throwing steaks on the hibachi. After opening the swing bridge once a day, they’ve got nothing to do, all day to do it and the taxpayer’s dime to do it on. My buddy, like every taxpayer reading that Herald story, knows that despite the obvious waste...

BOSTON — Nearly 100,000 Massachusetts taxpayers have been fined for failing to obtain health insurance, even as a major survey concludes the effort to create near-universal coverage in the state is meeting key goals. Five percent of taxpayers failed to obtain health coverage last year, and more than half of those — about 97,000 — were forced to forfeit their personal exemption — worth $219 — after it was determined they could have afforded health care. Two percent of taxpayers — about 62,000 — were found not to earn enough for health care, avoiding fines. Under the landmark law, taxpayers...

The announcement that Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) has a malignant brain tumor has raised the issue of who will inherit his seat. The assumption has been that under Massachusetts law, the sear would pass to his eldest son. However, experts in that state’s statutes said the succession is not so “cut-and-dried.” “The commoners of Massachusetts anticipate that Edward Kennedy Jr. would inherit the seat,” said family spokesman, Lowell McGuff. “Actually, the law gives Senator Kennedy the right to name his successor.” Those familiar with the Senator’s will, say that the document bestows his seat to his wife, Vicki. The bequest,...

When the deadline for certification passed yesterday, Jim Ogonowski, the Republican leadership's choice to challenge US Senator John F. Kerry, was 82 signatures short of qualifying for the GOP primary ballot, according to the state's central voter registry. But Ogonowski's campaign aides contend there are enough certified signatures at various town offices around the state not filed yet on the computerized registry to put him across the 10,000 threshold. Local election clerks were legally required to finish their certifications yesterday. The majority of those clerks have shipped their results to the secretary of state's office via computer, but some may...

IT'S WELL KNOWN that innovation is the lifeblood of the Massachusetts economy. At every period of stagnation or decline over the past 400 years, someone's bright ideas have turned the tide. Too little valued, however, is the central role played by minorities and women in helping Massachusetts thrive. This morning, the state's political, business, and civic leaders will spotlight the contribution of a diverse workforce to the region's success, and challenge each other to do more. Much more. A 2006 report by the Boston History and Innovation Collaborative found that of 64 game-changing innovations in Massachusetts - from wiping out...

Ted Kennedy has made clear to confidants that when his time is up, he wants his Senate seat to stay in the family - with his wife, Vicki. Multiple sources in Massachusetts with close ties to the liberal lion say his wife of 16 years has long been his choice to continue carrying the family flame in the Senate. Kennedy won the seat in 1962; his brother John held it from 1953 to 1960. “There’s no question that he’d like Vicki to continue in his seat,” said one Massachusetts Democrat with ties to the Camelot clan who spoke to Kennedy...

Well, now in Massachusetts they are looking to tax college endowments, university endowments that have more than a billion dollars in it. They say that by doing this, they can put more than a billion dollars a year into the state revenue. Legislators have asked state finance officials to study a plan that would impose a 2.5% annual assessment on colleges with endowments over a billion dollars. Now, the universities are very upset and here's quite possibly -- I want to frame this. I want to frame this. I want this on my wall of my office. When a nonprofit,...

On Dec. 3, 1943, a B-24D Liberator bomber with two Army airmen from Massachusetts flew a stealth mission to destroy Japanese war vessels in the Bismarck Sea. The mission turned out to be a success. The crew found a Japanese convoy and bombed it.

And ad in yesterday's Boston Globe--and on the web, see link--by MA Senate candidate Jim Ogonowski heartily congratulates the man he's trying to unseat, John Kerry, on his ineffectiveness. The print ad asks people to send it to Kerry's HQ! "Congratulations John! It's been 9 years since you passed a bill on your own! Great job on being so ineffective!" The web ad shows a picture of a mansion on Nantucket (one of Kerry's five) along with Kerry windsurfing. A Heinz ketchup bottle marks the passage of time. Ogonowski ran against the widow of Paul Tsongas for Martin Meehan's congressional...

BOSTON - Two years after the state's landmark health law was signed, the cracks are starting to show. Costs are soaring and Massachusetts lawmakers are weighing a dollar-a-pack hike in the state's cigarette tax to help pay for a larger-than-expected enrollment in the law's subsidized insurance plans. But that hasn't dampened enthusiasm at the Statehouse. Leaders there boast that in the two years since former Gov. Mitt Romney signed the law with a choreographed flourish at historic Faneuil Hall, the number of insured residents has soared by nearly 350,000. Along the way the law has been scrutinized by other states,...

Many Massachusetts parents and taxpayers have long complained that the people in our public school system are “certifiable.” Apparently, we were wrong. Every year, hundreds of would-be classroom teachers fail the MTEL, the Massachusetts Test for Education Licensure. According to Charles Glenn at the Boston University School of Education, independent evaluations of teacher tests like the MTEL put the skills required at the eighth- to 10th-grade level. Unfortunately, this is still too high for about 40 percent of the test takers each year. So last week, the Democrats of the Massachusetts Senate voted unanimously for a waiver program covering wannabe...

Governor Deval Patrick isn't merely penning his memoirs. The book proposal he submitted to publishers reads like the roadmap for a self-help manual, one in which he will celebrate optimism, rail against cynicism, and seek to inspire a nation with his own life story. The 65-page pitch letter that led to his $1.35 million advance last week from a Random House imprint reveals, in its overflowing optimism and aggressive marketing plan, just how high the freshman governor is aiming when the book is published in 2010. It details a strategy to sell at least 150,000 copies through a "vigorous media...

Massachusetts State Tax Form excerpt     Form 1, Resident Income Tax Return (Full-year resident only. Includes Schedule HC, Health Care Information)IMPORTANT: Beginning in tax year 2007, Schedule HC, Health Care Information, MUST be filed with Form 1. Failure to do so will result in a delay in the processing of your return.     Schedule HC, Health Care InformationIMPORTANT: Beginning in tax year 2007, Schedule HC, Health Care Information, MUST be filed with Form 1. Failure to do so will result in a delay in the processing of your return. 2007

For Massachusetts’ worst public schools, failure is not an option. Literally. The Department of Education is considering a request to drop the label “underperforming” for failing schools in places like Randolph, Lawrence and Holyoke. Instead Massachusetts would declare these schools “Commonwealth Priority” institutions. For those institutions that truly excel at incompetence, currently known as “Chronically Underperforming,” the new title would be “Priority One” schools. You can just imagine the delight in the hallways of Lawrence High. “Our school’s a ‘Commonwealth Priority!’ I wish I could spell that.” “Don’t worry, they’re going to grade our spelling tests on the ‘Commonwealth Curve’...

NYT THURSDAY: New Massachusetts Governor 'On The Ropes'... Developing...

Everything you need to know about Rep. Byron Rushing’s “anti-lookism” legislation, you can learn from your local Hooters. The restaurants, I mean. Anyone who understands the basic economic principles behind the world’s most successful retailer of both chicken wings and orange-clad booty knows what Rushing wants to legislate against isn’t discrimination. It’s human nature. In Rushing’s world, if Pamela Anderson and Paul Prudhomme applied for the same job at your business, you wouldn’t be allowed to notice the physical disparities. Either of them. To notice, Rushing told me yesterday, “would be unfair.” So if hiring a qualified George Clooney over...

To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure. more stories like thisInstead of calling these schools "underperforming," the Board of Education is considering labeling them as "Commonwealth priority," to avoid poisoning teacher and student morale. Schools in the direst straits, now known as "chronically underperforming," would get the more urgent but still vague label of "priority one." The board has spent parts of more than three meetings in recent months debating the linguistic merits and tone set by the terms after a handful of superintendents...

What happens in a town when the privileged move in Town Meeting and elections have been held here in NH over the last couple of weeks (with more voting in some towns still to come).  I've been helping one group of people, the Moultonboro Citizens Alliance, with their site as they advocate for implementing SB2 style of voting and for keeping taxes lower.Well, while they did not achieve their goal of getting SB2 implemented, they came REAL CLOSE!  And they did defeat a contentious issue of a new edifice in town.During that time, lots of Letters to the Editors were...

A recent study conducted by the University of New Hampshire confirms what curmudgeons in these parts have been complaining about for a long time: The Granite State may be turning into a suburb of Boston. more stories like thisThe report, "The Changing Faces of New Hampshire: Recent Demographic Trends in the Granite State," released last month by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, indicates that nearly 25 percent of New Hampshire residents were born in Massachusetts, and Internal Revenue Service data indicate that the largest source of new migrants to New Hampshire is Greater Boston. According to...

The 18th annual Better Government Competition is focused on education — specifically, identifying ideas and programs that decrease drop-out rates, increase graduation rates, increase attendance rates, improve student performance, and make the schools safer. DEADLINE: To be considered for a 2008 Better Government Competition award, all applications must be postmarked or e-mailed by April 7, 2008.

Practitioner Who Killed Woman in Botched Abortion Faces Lawsuit by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor March 21, 2008 Hyannis, MA (LifeNews.com) -- The Massachusetts abortion practitioner who killed a woman last year in a botched legal abortion is facing a lawsuit from her mother and a possible indictment from officials. Rapin Osathanondh gave up his medical license permanently last month and now he faces more repercussions from the failed abortion. Osathanondh did the abortion on 22-year-old Laura Smith, who died in September at his Women's Health Center abortion business.

This week, talk-show host, Boston Herald columnist, and all-around gadfly Howie Carr published what has to be one of his easiest pieces of the year: he calls around to the offices of prominent Massachusetts Democrats and asks them about their tax filings. Several years ago, the Massachusetts legislature voted to raise the state income tax. (Remember, in liberal-speak, tax cuts are always temporary, and the "natural" state of any tax is higher. This applies even when the hike was passed with a promise that it would be temporary, as it was in Massachusetts. This also applies, on the federal level,...

Francisco Teixeira is up at 6 every morning, taking care of his 7-month-old daughter. The 33-year-old then heads to the Brazilian Convenience Store on Main Street, which he runs with his wife. They keep it open until 8 every night. Teixeira has been in the United States for the past 12 years, including his first eight in Massachusetts. After a four-year stint in Florida, he moved here to take over the store last month. The state has become his second home. After having a child, he said, he isn't considering going back to Brazil, and is looking to buy a...

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with Jeff Beatty, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate for the state of Massachusetts. Beatty is currently rallying support in order to offer a strong challenge to the current seat holder, Senator John Kerry. Jeff, who was in town to receive the prestigious "Guardian Award" from the International Association of Counter-terrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP), left me confident that we are putting our best foot forward in November's race and that Kerry will be facing a worthy opponent. Jeff's unique background as a counterterror professional and businessman positions him well to unseat...

NATICK - You could call them the Override Moms - politically powerful suburban women who lobby for property tax increases to pay for teachers, new schools, and better classroom gear for their school-aged children. Think soccer moms, with an activist bent. In one community after another, these mothers have banded together in common cause. They are nimble and they are quick, often performing with the agility and strategy of an expert strike force. With at least 40 Eastern Massachusetts cities and towns planning to ask voters for more than $50 million over the next few months, this is the make-or-break...

A do-gooder who recorded abusive Boston police officers was himself arrested under a controversial ‘wiretapping’ law This past October, when Simon Glik used his cell phone to record Boston police officers making what he thought was an overly forceful arrest on Tremont Street, he didn’t think he would be the one who ended up in the back of a police cruiser. But cops saw Glik using his cell phone’s camera with its sound-recording feature, so they arrested him for breaking the Massachusetts law that prohibits secret electronic recording, deemed “wiretapping.”Was he wiretapping, though? In Massachusetts, a “two-party consent” state since...

$17 billion of the Massachusetts state government budget comes from other taxes and other government fees. 61% of state government funding comes from other taxes and other government fees. Taxes and fees like these: * 5% Sales Tax * Business and Corporate Taxes * Death Taxes (Estate Taxes) * Gasoline Taxes * Turnpike, Bridge, and Tunnel Tolls * Motor Vehicle Registration and License Fees * Beer, Wine, and Liquor Taxes * Cigarette Taxes * Cable TV Taxes * Electricity Taxes * Internet Taxes * Long-distance Telephone Taxes * Water and Sewer Assessments * Professional Licensure Fees * Fishing, Hunting, and...

Let me start with a confession: Unlike Michelle Obama, this isn’t the first time in my adult life I’ve felt this way. Embarrassed. By now, every American has heard Michelle’s assertion that “for the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change.” And how could Michelle have ever felt pride in America before, given that we have, according to her, “holes in our soul.” “Barack Obama is the only person in this race who understands that, that before we can...

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor February 20, 2008 Hyannis, MA (LifeNews.com) -- The abortion practitioner responsible for killing a young woman in a botched legal abortion has seen a state health board revoke his medical license. Laura Smith, a 22-year-old from Honduras, died in September after getting an abortion from Rapin Osathanondh at the Women Health Center abortion business.

A 63-year-old Massachusetts federal bankruptcy judge has resigned a week after he was arrested for driving under the influence in New Hampshire while reportedly wearing a woman’s dress, heels and stockings, and carrying a purse. Judge Robert Somma, a Newbury resident, pleaded no contest to the drunken driving charge in New Hampshire and agreed to have his license suspended for 12 months, the Manchester Union Leader reported. “He decided with the media coverage the way it had been, it was best to put this behind him,� Gary Wenta, circuit executive for Boston’s First Federal Circuit, told the Herald. Wenta said...

AMHERST - In the end, no Breathalyzer tests were administered before Friday night's performance by the Amherst Regional High School Women's Rights Club performance of 'The Vagina Monologues.' 'It was under active consideration, and we decided not to. We're not inflexible,' said ARHS Principal Mark Jackson, who was checking for tickets outside the school. Jackson said he had gotten a few, but not many, emails from parents, either complaining that students shouldn't be allowed to produce the play or that administrators were making it too hard for students to see it. ARHS students under 18 had to have permission slips...

Show Us the Money: Open the Books for all Massachusetts State Government Income and Spending **** An Open Letter to the Massachusetts State Legislature **** from Michael Cloud and Carla Howell Dear Massachusetts State Legislators, On behalf of the 3,000,000+ taxpayers of Massachusetts, For the purposes of transparency and accountability of the Massachusetts state government, We request that you show us the money: open the books for all Massachusetts State Government income and spending. We ask that you post the Massachusetts state government budget - every dollar of all state government income and spending online - on an open, free,...

A top official in the Patrick administration has been placed on unpaid leave because he was arrested in Florida and charged with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old male in a steam room at a $500-a-night Gulf Coast resort. Carl Stanley McGee, 38, assistant secretary for policy and planning, is scheduled to be arraigned next week for sexual battery in Lee County, Fla. McGee helped draft Patrick's casino bill, life sciences legislation, and his plan to bring broadband Internet service to the farthest reaches of the state. According to police reports, McGee was arrested Dec. 28 and accused of performing oral sex...

I woke up this morning to a ton of e-mail from aggrieved southerners, almost outnumbering the ton of spam for generic Viagra, which I've forwarded to the RNC. Anyway, southern voters resented my (and John O'Sullivan's) assertion that they hadn't voted for Mitt because he was a Mormon. Au contraire, they said they hadn't voted for Mitt because he's a north-eastern liberal. Whatever. I rather enjoyed this Georgia gal's take: I was one of your "No Mormon, no way, no how" Southerners until someone at a dinner party asked me if I'd support Orrin Hatch for President. And you know...

Massachusetts state authorities on Friday charged Merrill Lynch and Co., Inc. with fraud and misrepresentation related to about $14 million worth of subprime securities it sold to the city of Springfield. The complaint also charges Merrill agents Carl Kipper and Manuel Choy. "This complaint is focused on Merrill Lynch's (MER)sale, through agents Kipper and Choy, of certain esoteric financial instruments known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) to the City of Springfield Massachusetts, which were unsuitable for the city and which, within months after the sale, became illiquid and lost almost all of their market value," the state said in its...

In a case that could wind up in the U.S. Supreme Court, an appeals panel upheld dismissal of a lawsuit by Massachusetts parents seeking to prevent discussion of homosexual families in their children's elementary school classrooms. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday agreed with a judge's decision last year that a school can expose children to contrary ideas without violating their parents' rights to exercise religious beliefs. Lynch reasoned that schools must accept the Massachusetts high court's groundbreaking 2003 decision ruling "that the state constitution mandates the recognition of same-sex marriage."