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Cape Cod, Mass.My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state. Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want—or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan—we would have...

The "right" for homosexuals to have "public sex" (including not only in parks but in public restrooms too) is something they have fought for quite vigorously over the last several decades. Most people know the homosexual legal group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) as the group behind the "gay marriage" decision in 2003. But GLAD got its start back in 1978 defending the right of homosexuals to have sex in restrooms at the Boston Public Library. They still brag about that on their web site. GLAD has also gone on to (among other things) successfully intimidate the Massachusetts...

Just on Fox, a discussion of what's happening in Boston as the state gears-up for the canonization of Ted Kennedy (the "Liberal Lion of the Senate".) According to Fox, the head of the MA Republican Party is getting ready to seek an injunction to stop Gov. Deval Patrick from signing a singularly outrageous piece of legislation. According to Fox, sources say the MA Legislature needs just one day to write and pass a rewrite of the Ted Kennedy No Republicans Ever in Massachusetts Bill which, in 2004, revoked the governor's right to appoint a senator to finish the term of...

Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The federal Defense of Marriage Act interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, argues the act "constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law."

In 2006, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was hailed as a visionary for signing one of the most expansive health reform bills in the country. "MassCare" aimed to expand health insurance, achieve universal coverage, and bring down costs through a complicated set of government controls and subsidies. Just over three years later, many lawmakers are pointing to the Bay State as a model of success -- and pushing for similar policies at the national level. The reform packages put forward by both the President and Democrats in Congress contain many of the essential elements of MassCare, including an individual mandate requiring...

BOSTON (AP) - Mary Ritchie, a Massachusetts State Police trooper, has been married for almost five years and has two children. But when she files her federal income tax return, she's not allowed to check the "married filing jointly" box.

Mitt Romney praised President-elect Barack Obama Monday for extending an olive branch to Republicans. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney praised President-elect Barack Obama Monday for extending an olive branch to Republicans. “He’s been already reaching out. He’s asked for the input of Republicans with regard to the stimulus plan. I think he is very much following the speeches he used to give during the campaign that he would reach across the aisle,” Romney said during an interview on CNN’s “American Morning.” “I think he’s showing a pragmatic bent. And at a time like this with so many challenges, that’s the...

Governor Deval Patrick yesterday accelerated his administration's efforts to control spiraling statewide healthcare costs, warning that rising premiums threaten to crush families and businesses and doom Massachusetts' groundbreaking experiment with universal insurance. Patrick said officials are considering using state insurance regulations to block excessive healthcare premiums. He is also summoning leaders of insurance and hospital companies for meetings as soon as this week to ask for their "vigorous cooperation." In response to stories by the Globe's Spotlight Team about the role of Partners HealthCare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in driving up costs, Patrick convened a panel of...

Gearing up for 2009, liberals are eager to claim Massachusetts as a Valhalla of health reform. Their enthusiasm is apparently evidence-proof.-SNIP- Most of this growth in coverage has instead come via a new state entitlement called Commonwealth Care. This provides subsidized insurance to those under 300% of the poverty level, or about $63,000 for a family of four. -SNIP As this public option gets overwhelmed, budget gaskets are blowing everywhere. Mr. Patrick had already bumped up this year's spending to $869 million, $144 million over its original estimate. Liberals duly noted that these tax hikes are necessary because enrollment in...

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...

California is rewriting its marriage forms for gays By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago You have to figure "bride" and "groom" are out. So, what will the California marriage license look like in the new era of same-sex marriages? Will it list "Partner A" and "Partner B"? "Intended No. 1" and "Intended No. 2"? Or will it contain just blank spaces for the betrothed? The court decision last week that legalized gay marriage in California has created a semantic puzzle with scant time to solve it. With the ruling tentatively set to take effect June 16,...

Once they discover that she is Dr. Kate, the supplicants line up to approach at dinner parties and ballet recitals. Surely, they suggest to Dr. Katherine J. Atkinson, a family physician here, she might find a way to move them up her lengthy waiting list for new patients. Those fortunate enough to make it soon learn they face another long wait: Dr. Atkinson’s next opening for a physical is not until early May — of 2009. Now in Massachusetts, in an unintended consequence of universal coverage, the imbalance is being exacerbated by the state’s new law requiring residents to have...

BOSTON, February 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-family activists in Massachusetts warn that a series of bills pending in the state legislature are pivotal for the future of the legal institution of marriage in the state and across the US. The group Mass Resistance writes that, due to the work of homosexual activists in the courts, proposed changes to Massachusetts law regarding the definition of marriage, will necessarily bleed into the laws of other states. Two Senate Bills, S1029, S800 and House Bill 1728 propose to repeal Sections 11, 12, 13 and 50 of the General Laws that make it illegal...

The EcoCons and the conservative Eastern GOP elites praise the business acumen of the vain BAIN CAPITALIST of the GOP presidential race, Willard Mitt "the Flip" Romney. According to the establishment elites, Mitt’s the ONE who understands all of that complicated economic jibber-jabber that just has to be a mystery to all of the other candidates. And even the Gucci Chameleon himself dares voters to look at his record. But just as when Gary Hart threw down such a gauntlet (albeit on his sleazy personal life), glancing behind the tidal wave of TV ads isn’t pretty. If Mitt’s the job-creating,...

Insisting that he is a Washington outsider, Mitt Romney has been captured on tape arguing with a reporter about whether a Washington lobbyist named Ron Kaufman runs or just advises his campaign for president. The more important issue is what Kaufman lobbies for. It turns out that Kaufman's firm, as well as another Romney adviser, Vin Weber, have worked to put more American taxpayer dollars into the coffers of the corrupt United Nations and other international agencies. Kaufman's firm, Dutko Worldwide, represents and works directly with an organization chaired by Bill Clinton, the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), whose board includes...

If you've driven through any large city (and many smaller ones), you've probably been exposed to what's called a "red-light district." It is a seedy, run-down area of town with porn shops, bars and strip clubs – a place where anything goes. Few people would want one of these blighted areas in their backyard or want their children exposed to the filth and perversion there. But most of us don't realize that we have a red-light district just down the street from our homes. And our children are not only allowed to be there, their presence is actually required by...

Gee, What A Surprise... Well, it's been about a year since Massachusetts mandated that everyone get health insurance, and how's it working out? In a move that no one foresaw (except those with a modicum of common sense), numerous businesses that found themselves facing hefty bills for covering employees they had not had to cover before. And some of them found some truly novel ways to avoid -- or minimize -- the hit. After all, when a business faces a new set of expenses, who could possibly expect them to do all they could within the law to minimize their...

Here’s a quiz: Which prominent African-American politician famously said: “The politics of fear is no acceptable alternative to the politics of hope.� If you answered Barack Obama, you’re wrong …Just two years after Obama’s now-famous Democratic National Convention speech in Boston where he asked: “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope� --Deval Patrick uttered the aforementioned phrase in a statement to the press. Barack Obama went on to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2005, and Patrick was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2006. And while Obama’s impact as a...

Recently in New Hampshire, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards affirmed that King & King, a homosexual fairy tale, was appropriate for 2nd-graders. King & King is a picture book about a prince seeking a princess to marry. To his mother's surprise, he decides to marry one of the princesses' brothers instead. The book has caused controversy in districts where teachers have read it to elementary school children. In Massachusetts, parents protested the book without success even though the state requires parental notification before sex ed lessons. "Same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts but most...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ambitious proposal for universal statewide health-care coverage, announced in January, is hanging by a thread as the regular legislative session ends this week. The plan's fate could rest with California voters in a ballot initiative next year. Policy makers around the country have been watching California to see whether a way can be found to extend insurance coverage to all citizens. While Massachusetts did that last year, California has more uninsured residents than any other state, so overhauling its $200 billion health-care industry could be an important national model. But the Republican governor's $12 billion plan...

Romney concedes Iraq "a mess," describes three-step plan Confronted by an unhappy questioner, Mitt Romney said tonight at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire that the situation in Iraq "is a mess." [Video courtesy Breitbart.tv.] Romney's assessment was delivered by way of agreeing with a gentleman who stood up at a Nashua VFW post and complained that the conflict is "an unmitigated mess." "What I'd like to know is, what, if you get elected, precisely what would you do?" asked the unidentified citizen at an event carried lived by C-SPAN. "Ok, well first of all, it is a mess,"...

The candidate who masters the lessons of "the bluest state" will win the upcoming presidential election. That is what is implied in a new political book, "The Bluest State: How Democrats Created the Massachusetts Blueprint for American Political Disaster." Written by Jonathan Keller, a political analyst at Boston's WBZ-TV, the book contends that baby boom politicians and voters in Massachusetts have deeply damaged the political culture in the state, standing as a warning to voters nationwide of generational and ideological excesses. For Mr. Keller, Massachusetts is both the Petri dish of hot house liberalism and the locale from which its...

Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. "It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

SALUDA, S.C. (AP) - The motorcade of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney exceeded speed limits and went through stop lights today as local law officers escorted him to campaign events in two South Carolina counties. Traffic pulled over for the flashing blue lights. Saluda County Sheriff Jason Booth, a Romney supporter, led the candidate's motorcade to the Newberry city limits. The caravan traveled between 10 mph and 15 mph over posted speed limits of 45 mph and 55 mph. Booth says officers wanted to make sure Romney stays safe and gets where he's going. Booth declined further comment when asked...

Q. What is America's National Health Plan? A. This is actually a variation of the phrase, "HEY MOE". Its roots go back to a concept pioneered by Moe of the Three Stooges, who discovered that a patient could be made to forget the pain in his foot if he was poked hard enough in the eye. Q. If I join The Plan, how difficult will it be to choose the doctor I want? A. Just slightly more difficult than choosing your parents. Your insurer will provide you with a book listing all the doctors in the plan. The doctors basically...

Gay couples lined up before dawn on Friday to apply for marriage licenses after an Iowa judge scuttled the state's law against same-sex marriage. Two Iowa State University students, Sean Fritz, 24, and Tim McQuillan, 21, got their license along with a waiver bypassing the usual three-day waiting period. Then they rushed off to find someone to tie the knot for them in a bid to become the first in the state to do so -- and succeeded when a Unitarian minister united them in a brief ceremony in the front yard of his Des Moines home.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Polk County judge has struck down Iowa's law preserving marriage for only a man and a woman. He ordered the county recorder's office to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. Six gay and lesbian couples went to court for the right to legally marry in Iowa. Lamda Legal filed a lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of the couples in Iowa, saying they deserve equal protection under the law. Des Moines laywer Dennis Johnson represented six gay couples who filed the lawsuit after they were denied marriage licenses, and he says Hanson's ruling is a moral...

Mitt Romney, who inveighed against gay marriage while governor in Massachusetts, wasted no time today excoriating a court decision in the first-caucus state of Iowa that struck down its law banning same-sex marriage. "The ruling in Iowa today is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act," Romney said in a statement issued by his campaign. "This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one...

http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NEWS/70830044/1001&lead=1

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The prognosis for universal health care in California is grim this year, and experts say a failure could set back similar efforts nationwide for years to come. Unions, doctors and other powerful interests are arrayed against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $12 billion-a-year plan to make medical insurance mandatory. He has threatened to veto the Democrats' less ambitious alternative and take his plan to the ballot instead. A showdown could come as early as Thursday, when the Democrats plan to put Schwarzenegger's proposal to a vote in the state Assembly. The aim is to show how little support it...

In his interview on CNBC's Kudlow & Company (which will air later this afternoon), Mitt Romney had some sharp words for Sen. Larry Craig, who had endorsed the former Massachusetts governor's presidential campaign and was his Idaho chairman. "Once again, we've found people in Washington have not lived up to the level of respect and dignity that we would expect for somebody that gets elected to a position of high influence. Very disappointing. He's no longer associated with my campaign, as you can imagine... I'm sorry to see that he has fallen short." And Romney also included this jab at...

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown filed legal briefs saying the California Legislature can eliminate marriage rights and get rid of marriage. In legal briefs submitted to the California Supreme Court, which is considering whether to license "same-sex marriages" next year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown both stated that a future Legislature could abolish marriage and yank marriage rights from a married husband and wife. It was revealed today that Attorney General Jerry Brown [see PDF of AG Jerry Brown's 8/17 brief ] and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [See PDF of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 8/17 brief ] said the...

They say former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is currently leading the field among Republican presidential contenders here in Nevada ... The year before he won his governorship, Romney, a gun-grabbing socialist, ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which turned into a handy excuse to install a tax-subsidized boondoggle light rail system, even though it had been rejected by local voters nine years before. He and his gang then refused to allow Utah residents who had jumped through every (unconstitutional) hoop to acquire a concealed-weapon permit to show up armed at his big United Nations Winter Games, because...

About 500 leaks in Big Dig tunnels are awaiting repair, and that number doesn't include leaks being handled by the project's contractors, according to state officials who warn that future leaks are inevitable. Project manager Michael Lewis also told the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board Tuesday that the leak-repair program is "effective," and should be viewed separately from new evidence indicating water continues to leak steadily into the Interstate 93 Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr. tunnel. The board did not address an independent engineering firm's analysis that water continues to leak steadily into the O'Neill tunnel - a section of Interstate...

BOSTON - After a recent discovery by the press, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appears to be pulling out his investments from two companies that use embryonic stem cell research. The discovery of his investments may have a negative effect on voters who already have doubts over the statesman's inconsistent record on life issues. Members of the press and campaign opposition recently examined a federal financial statement and found that Romney owns stocks in Novo Nordisk and Millipore Corporation, two companies that use embryonic stem cells in their research, the Boston Herald Reports. Since the discovery was made public, Romney...

ROCKVILLE, MD, August 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barring a court overruling within the next few weeks, the Montgomery County School Board is scheduled to go ahead this fall and teach middle and high school students that various forms of sexual deviance are normal, the New York Times Reports.Parents & Friends of Gays & Ex-Gays (PFOX), Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) and other pro-family groups have been battling the highly controversial material for years. Parents won a victory in 2004 when the courts granted a delay on the issue. After the Maryland State Board of Education (MSBE) approved the curriculum...

The California legislature is expected to approve this month a bill redefining “gender and “discrimination” in a way that poses a moral threat to California’s schoolchildren. According to Catholics for the Common Good (ccgaction.org), the bill, SB 777, would “promote discrimination against the Judeo-Christian understanding of human sexuality.” Termed the "Student Civil Rights Act," the bill’s intent, says the its author, Sheila Kuehl, is to protect California students from "bullying and harassment" and to "ensure a safe learning environment." The legislation’s main impact, however, would be to prohibit any "instruction, school activities, or instructional material" that "reflects or promotes a...

It only took the Democrats a few hours after Mitt Romney released his personal financial filing to dig up an interesting tidbit from Romney's 1994 challenge of Senator Ted Kennedy. During that campaign, Romney objected to Kennedy's blind trust's purchase in 1981 of a property in Washington D.C., which the trust then leased to federal tenants. Romney called it "a conflict of interest, pure and simple" and rejected Kennedy's argument that he was knew nothing about the trust's investments. "The blind trust is an age-old ruse," Romney told the Boston Globe in October of that year. "You give a blind...

Lots of hot football players and sexy lesbian moms Film tells the Gay-Straight Allliance story. The Gay-Straight Alliance Network, which helps students on high and middle school campuses form Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs to provide “a safe place for students to meet, support each other, talk about issues related to sexual orientation, and work to end homophobia,” has partnered with the ACLU, Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center to promote a movie dealing with “gay” youth issues. “Wanna be an extra in this film?” asked the July “GSA Network News.” Extras were...

When Louis Brandeis praised the 50 states as "laboratories of democracy," he didn't claim that every policy experiment would work. So we hope the eyes of America will turn to Wisconsin, and the effort by Madison Democrats to make that "progressive" state a Petri dish for government-run health care. This exercise is especially instructive, because it reveals where the "single-payer," universal coverage folks end up. Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And,...

WASHINGTON, July 10 — The ceiling collapsed in one of Boston’s Big Dig tunnels a year ago, killing one woman, because builders used the wrong epoxy to hold the anchor bolts in place, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. “We’re talking about the wrong glue here, in effect,” said Kitty Higgins, one of the five members of the board, which said that the epoxy selected dried quickly but lost strength weeks later. A continuing theme of the board’s meeting Tuesday was how small a detail led to the accident. “It’s kind of ironic in a $14 billion project,” said...

BOSTON - The goal was as audacious as it was simple: Plug the holes in Massachusetts' health care network without resorting to the politically nuclear option of a single government-funded program. The result is a landmark insurance law praised as innovative, derided as a house of cards and touted by former Gov. Mitt Romney as he runs for president. As of Sunday, nearly everyone in Massachusetts must be insured or face a series of increasing tax penalties. The law won't result in universal coverage immediately, but the deadline is a critical mile marker. "July 1 is really a call to...

Socialists have historically understood that in order to implement total government, which is what socialism is, institutions that foster freedom and individual independence would have to be weakened. Total government is, after all, against human nature, which is inclined toward individual rights, private ownership, belief in a divine creator, and the sovereignty of nation-states designed to preserve, protect, and defend those natural rights. Besides belief in God, private property, and private industry, the basic family unit is a bulwark of freedom and, therefore, an obstacle to socialism. Developed over millennia, conventional marriage has been universally respected as an essential institution....

Dear Massachusetts Taxpayer, Beginning July 1, 2007, a new Massachusetts law says that residents age 18 and over must have health insurance. With few exceptions, adults must be able to show that they have health insurance by Dec. 31, 2007. Those who cannot will lose the tax benefit of their personal exemption on their 2007 Massachusetts income tax return, worth $219 for an individual. Penalties will increase for 2008.

BOSTON - Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday blocked a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriage from reaching voters, a stunning victory for gay marriage advocates and a devastating blow to efforts to reverse a historic 2003 court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. The 45-151 vote means Massachusetts remains the only state in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry. The question needed the approval of 50 of 200 lawmakers in consecutive sessions to advance to the 2008 ballot. It got the first approval at the end of last session in January with 62 votes. As the tally was announced, the halls...

Mayor of Boston to raise rainbow flag over Boston City Hall today to celebrate "Gay Pride Week." The Founding Fathers who fought the British for freedom in Boston would probably shoot themselves if they saw this. It's not enough that Mayor Tom Menino allows Boston City Hall to be used for a perversion-filled "transgender prom" for kids and gay activists, that he marches in the "gay pride" parade, or that participates in their fundraisers. He has to raise the rainbow flag over Boston City Hall and keep it there for an entire week to rub it in, and embarrass us...

CAMBRIDGE, MA, April 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A video has been removed that was posted to the online video service, YouTube, showing teachers using homosexual materials in class to promote the normalization of homosexuality to young children. The film, “It’s Elementary”, was made in 1996 by Women’s Educational Media, a San Francisco-based group that claims the film “has served as a catalyst for schools all over the world to become more proactive in addressing anti-gay prejudice in the classroom.”   The link to the site on YouTube where the video was, now carries a message saying, “This video is no longer available...

Administrators at North Newton High School in Newton, Mass., have held a seminar for students that explained how to know they are homosexual, but banned parents from attending. "It's absolutely insane," parent Brian Camenker, who also is chief of the Mass Resistance organization, said. "I met with the principal. She told me no parents are allowed. She said only by invitation. I asked, 'Can I be invited.' She said, 'No.'" The event, called "ToBeGlad Day," was the school's "Transgender Bisexual Gay Lesbian Awareness Day," and students were given a pamphlet that explains what it means to be "gay," tells students...

I told you so. I told you Deval Patrick was going to be a complete disaster. Who printed up the first batch of “Don’t Blame Me - I Voted for Muffy” bumper stickers - two months before he was sworn in? But everybody wanted to overlook the obvious fact that the guy was utterly unqualified. The electorate just wanted to feel good about itself. The voters, or at least 56 percent of them, figured if Deval got in they would feel less guilty - about what, I have no idea. Now Deval is trying to claw his way back into...