Carr: Pols tax battle
not free for all
Friday, April 5, 2013
Howie Carr
Finally, some good news out of the State House the Democratic Legislature and the Democratic governor are throwing roundhouses at one another.
As they used to say about the Iran-Iraq war, Isnt there some way they can both lose?
Unfortunately, no. Heres the dispute in a nutshell: Gov. Deval Patrick wants to extract $1.9 billion from the working classes. The legislative leadership says only $500 million will suffice. For now.
As the governor said yesterday of the general courts tax hike: Everybody pays more and gets less.
Devals plan is that everybody pays more and more and more and gets less.
The governor and his hackerama are so desperate for more money that Deval immediately issued an empty threat to veto the legislation. Ask Mitt Romney how those work out.
Republican lawmakers proposed a no-new-taxes bailout of the transportation system. But the GOP plan has three chances slim, fat and none.
Todays events on Beacon Hill, said state Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), clearly illustrate the situation were in.
Yes, they do. In 12-step terms, Speaker DeLeo is a problem taxer. Deval is a full-blown taxaholic. Both of them need to go on the wagon.
This fight has been brewing for a while now, since DeLeo reportedly described Devals tax-em-back-to-the-Stone-Age scheme as fantasyland. Id say hallucination-land is more like it.
Among other things, Deval wants billions for worthless new rail lines, from Boston to Fall River and New Bedford and from Pittsfield to New York (you cant make this stuff up).
Plus $350 million more for the department formerly run by a moonlighting, $200,000-a-year hack from New Haven whose minions couldnt be bothered to check if sex offenders were living at the same addresses as day-care centers.
Deval immediately dusted off his pal Obamas sequester playbook. The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Take hostages! Obama says, Give me the money or the cancer patients get it! Deval says, Give me the money or the T gets it!
DeLeo said, Our plan is more responsive to the needs of the middle class.
Thats exactly the problem, as far as Deval is concerned. He wants to raise the income tax, which is a burden on people who work, in order to cut the sales tax, which is paid even by Devals EBT-cardholders.
Three days ago, a Republican was elected to the House from Peabody for the first time since 1990. Leah Cole, a 24-year-old nurse, knocked on 3,000 doors in her campaign. I asked her what the No. 1 issue was among the voters she talked to.
Taxes, she said.
But thats Peabody. Beacon Hill isnt in Peabody, its in Boston.
Cruel founding fathers
This 8th amendment twist is a bit unusual Sun Apr 7, 2013...by Howie Carr
Add the name of Michelle Lynne (ne Robert) Kosilek to the list of modern phenomena the Founding Fathers would definitely not appreciate being blamed for.
Little did they know what havoc they would someday wreak by adding the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution to prohibit cruel and unusual punishment.
Now comes Kosilek, a convicted wife murderer doing life without parole. He/she is claiming that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to deny him/her a sex-change operation excuse me, gender-reassignment surgery.
Not to get too graphic, but Kosilek is begging for elective amputation of a body part. Yes, that body part. Remember, the Eighth Amendment prohibits inflicting cruel and unusual punishment. An infliction is exactly the right word for what he/she is petitioning the court for.
As a lawyer for the state said last week, This expands the Eighth Amendment to new heights.
New heights? Surely he meant to say, new depths.
And it gets even more bizarre. A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan has signed off on this infliction, and ordered payment of $724,000 to Kosileks pro-bono lawyers.
Odder still, the legal team desperately fighting to stop this latest slap in the face to common sense and the taxpayers works for a moonbat Democrat governor who began his own legal career filing frivolous lawsuits against prison officials in Maryland.
But it appears that Michelle Lynne Kosilek is a bridge too far even for ultra-Politically Correct Deval Patrick.
You may recall that back in the 90s, wife-strangler Kosilek was diagnosed with a trendy new malady called gender identity disorder. Knowing full well the type of bleeding-heart crackpots who sit on the bench in Massachusetts, the Department of Correction signed off on psychotherapy, female hormone treatments, laser hair removal, etc.
Just not the ultimate cruel and unusual punishment. So Kosilek sued and prevailed in federal district court. Now the state is appealing to the First Circuit.
By the way, despite Kosileks alleged anguish and suffering, he/she has not tried to commit suicide.
Here is what Judge Mark Wolf wrote when ordering the sex-change operation, and if Ronald Reagan could read what his appointee wrote, James Madison wouldnt be the only one turning over in his grave.
There is no less intrusive means to correct the prolonged violation of Kosileks Eighth Amendment right to adequate medical care.
After Kosilek gets the sex change, whats to stop her (what other word can you use at that point?) from turning around and re-suing the DOC for violating her Eighth Amendment rights by allowing the operation? After all, didnt the ACLU et al. go bonkers in Kansas when the legislature merely tried to impose chemical castration on convicted sex-offenders?
To top it all off, Judge Wolf issued a not-so-veiled threat to the state and Deval:
Resistance at all costs could end up costing the taxpayers quite a lot. The defendant, up to the governor, should consider whether its in the publics interest to do that.
In other words, resistance is futile. And behind Kosilek a queue of other DOC inmates are reportedly lining up for their own one-way gender reassignments to MCI-Framingham. Thanks a lot, President Madison.