Free Republic

Howie thread beginning with his Sunday Herald column

BOSTON -- The gay marriage fight in Massachusetts might not be over after all. Opponents of same-sex marriages are seeking a ballot question that would prevent gay and lesbian couples from getting married here if their union wouldn't be legal in their home state. Brian Camenker of the group Mass Resistance said Friday lawmakers and Gov. Deval Patrick bowed to the will of the "gay lobby" last month by approving the repeal of a 1913 statute that banned such marriages. Patrick, the state's first black governor and the father of a daughter who recently announced she's a lesbian, said the...

About 850 people attended the fund-raiser, which cost between $1,000 and $4,600 per ticket. Among those, 250 also ate dinner with Obama - for $15,000 per ticket or $28,500 per couple. Guests began dinner with heaping helpings of field greens, heirloom lettuces, candied hazelnuts and port-soaked currants tossed with a sherry Dijon vinaigrette. The main course: cinnamon-and-red-wine-braised short ribs and roasted porcini-crusted sea bass, plus a trio of potato confit, and hand-rolled gnocchi with wild mushrooms and a vegetable bouquet. Guests washed down that sumptuous repast with a perky 2004 Cloudy Bay Sauvingnon Blanc “Te Koko” and an impertinent 2004...

I don’t own the word “moonbat,” but I have had custody of it for a good long while now, and there are a couple of misconceptions I’d like to clear up. First, a moonbat is not something you want to be, even in Arlington, where they have begun selling T-shirts that say, “Menotomy Moonbats.” Hey moonbats, lose the bat logo. Truth in advertising requires you to put on the front of your moonbat shirts a photo of Sen. Jim Marzilli, your hero, the perv in a Prius, with these words underneath: “Sen. Marzilli Groped Me and All I Got Was...

Surrounded by cheering, clapping gay-rights activists and legislators, Governor Deval Patrick today signed a bill repealing a 95-year-old statute that had prevented gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts. "It's a good day," said Patrick, declaring that the repeal will "confirm a simple truth: that is, in Massachusetts, equal means equal." Massachusetts will "continue to lead the way as a national leader" and affirm "all people come before their government as equals," Patrick said in a bill-signing ceremony at the State House's Grand Staircase. Gay marriage "is still troubling for some of our citizens," he...

Sweet P Farm is nestled at the top of a winding driveway, hidden from view by 77 acres of gentle woods and meadows, a retreat in the Berkshires where Governor Deval Patrick can swat a few tennis balls on his private court, work on a chapter of his memoir, or stroll through the wildflowers in his backyard. But during this year's high summer season, Patrick is opening his rural getaway to the Massachusetts political world, transforming it into something like the state's own version of Camp David. The governor hosted a big ticket fund-raiser at the home last week that...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a $1 billion embryonic stem cell research bill on Monday. The measure is meant to provide the controversial research with more taxpayer money after President Bush refused to force taxpayers to fund the destruction of human life. Patrick pushed the plan through the state legislature to force the state's taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research to the tune of $1 billion over 10 years.He said he wanted the northeastern state to keep up with others like California, Illinois, and neighboring Connecticut, which have publicly funded the grisly research.   Under his plan, the state would...

Deval Patrick has been in the headlines for misuse of State Police helicopters for personal transportation. He has also been in the news lately for trying to impose a sales tax on aircraft used by his subjects. I learned today that Patrick has been shopping for a private jet to be paid for by the taxpayers. Patrick has his eye on an $11 million Lear 45. Deval Patrick was elected governor of a state that can be traversed north-south in about 1 hour by car and east-west in less than 2 hours. Why would he need a transcontinental private jet?...

I know it's Monday morning, but I'm finding it hard to get my bearings today. We, here in Massachusetts, were assured by electing Mr. Together-We-Can Deval Patrick governor, we be enjoying a new day. However, our days are a nightmare. Deval Patrick was the one who came into office claiming our state was in a bad financial situation. Yet, the independently wealthy Deval didn't forgo his salary like Mitt Romney and Kerry Healey did when they took office. Instead, he upgraded his car, started accumulating frequent flier miles on a state police helicopter, got his wife an unnecessary chief of...

With the news of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s $1 billion initiative to “woo” biotech businesses to The Bay State, not all are blindly cheering. State Representative candidate Bob Parks (R) of the 2nd Franklin District is suspicious of the governor’s motives. “Two years ago, I suggested our district apply directly to HUD and receive Empowerment Zone status. This would enable existing businesses here to grow and hire more people, while luring others. The difference between my plan and Governor Patrick’s is that it doesn’t require taxpayers to foot the bill, and my plan isn’t discriminatory, giving preference to one business...

BOSTON — The youngest daughter of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said in an interview published Thursday that she's gay, and came out to her parents after lawmakers voted to kill a proposal that could have outlawed gay marriage in the state. Katherine Patrick said her father responded to her announcement by giving her a bear hug and saying: "Well, we love you no matter what." She made her revelation public in an interview with her family published Thursday in Bay Windows, a weekly Boston newspaper aimed at the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. The governor told the paper his...

Maureen Monks, about to become the newest judge of the Middlesex Probate and Family Court, is a long-time radical lesbian activist attorney. She specializes in "gay" family issues. Last week, when her nomination hit some rocky waters getting through the Governor's Council, Governor Deval Patrick simply ignored their official vote and announced he will swear her in. Monks' nomination - and the governor's action -- was strongly supported by both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald on their editorial pages.

Governor Deval Patrick has decided against taking action to allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition and fees at state colleges and universities this fall, an administration official said yesterday, crushing advocates who were counting on the governor to deliver on a pledge to support the students. Earlier this year, Patrick said he was considering ways to offer illegal immigrants in-state rates, such as issuing a regulation, adding that it would be "the right thing to do." The governor declined to comment yesterday, but an administration source who spoke on condition of anonymity said Patrick decided that there were "significant...

DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- A new gambling study shows some Massachusetts residents who have not supported casinos in the past may be changing their minds. "Fifty-seven percent of Massachusetts residents still favor two or more resort casinos in the state of Massachusetts. That number is actually four percent higher than when we last did this poll in September," said Dr. Clyde Barrow, a public policy analyst at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. The study was funded by a real estate development firm with land interests in the proposed Palmer and New Bedford casino sites. The research showed that as the state's deficit...

If Barack Obama loses to John McCain this November, black liberals will not be the ones most angered by such an outcome. If anything, white liberals will be the most outraged. Many, though not all, white liberals supporting Obama are doing so because of the color of his skin and the perceived content of his character. Racial guilt is the gasoline that powers the engine of the white liberal: it leads Caucasian “progressives” to support such foolish ideas as hate crimes legislation, racial quotas, speech codes in universities, and all manner and manifestation of madness. White liberals who want Obama...

Howie Carr thread; columns, discussion of his show. Is there a winner in the death pool? Charlton Heston won't be down for bkfst...also if there's a Sunday Herald column today we'll lead off with that

How many times have I told you? With Deval, it’s all about showing him the money. Originality is not his strong suit; he follows in the footsteps of others. Jesse Jackson makes a fortune in the racket Tom Wolfe called “steam control,” and Deval shakes down Coke and Texaco. But when you’re building a $7 million mansion in the Berkshires with a nut of maybe $30,000 a month, it doesn’t matter how big your “severance packages” were, you always need more dough. So now Deval mimics Barack Obama. He finds some new marks and scores a $1.35 million advance for...

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

(CBS) Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said that he believed if Barack Obama goes into the Denver convention leading in the count of popular vote and pledged delegates, that he will have earned the support of superdelegates - and the nomination. “I think the superdelegates in the end will ratify the will of the people and the pledged delegates," Patrick, a Democrat, said. “He will have earned [the nomination], he will have earned it against a very entrenched and strong contender.” Appearing on Face The Nation, Patrick told host Bob Schieffer that he hoped the Democratic Party would not become divided...

Gov. Deval Patrick is preparing to launch a task force to target companies that are using illegal workers to pad their profits and deprive the state of tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues, officials said. Administration sources said the task force will focus on tightening enforcement of employment laws that are routinely being ignored by firms in multiple sectors of the economy. An untold number of Bay State companies employ illegal immigrant workers as part of a practice that has become an increasing drain on state tax revenues. Illegal workers are prevalent in restaurants, the homebuilding industry, hospitality...

Gov. Deval Patrick says we need gambling because casinos will bring jobs, tourism and taxes to the commonwealth. He didn’t mention one other thing they’ll bring: Lawsuits. Arelia Taveras is suing a whole slew of casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas because they allowed her to lose nearly $1 million playing blackjack. After weeks of crying “Hit me!” she’s hitting back with a $20 million racketeering lawsuit in federal court. If this strikes you as a ridiculous lawsuit filed by someone who lacks all common sense, you will not be surprised to learn that Taveras is an attorney. In...

Early last week, the presidential campaign was rocked by the "bombshell" that Barack Obama had borrowed certain rhetorical flourishes from Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick's 2006 gubernatorial campaign. The revelations were not universally regarded as shocking. Anyone who was aware of the existence of Deval Patrick prior to the publication of this story could see the similarities between the Obama and Patrick campaigns. Both men ran campaigns based on hope. Both ostentatiously sought out a style that would transcend politics as usual. They shared a strategist, David Axelrod, who had penned vacuously uplifting prose for John Edwards long before Edwards became...

“Speak to us, oh beautiful one, tell us how you make that glorious sound, that even now an anticipation of it has reduced me to a snarling, raging, panting, jungle beast!” Birdie: “You gotta be sincere! You gotta be sincere! You gotta feel it here, 'Cause if you feel it here, Well, then you're gonna be honestly sincere!”-- Bye Bye Birdie, 1960 Over the past weekend, several keen observers of politics suddenly noticed that Sen Obama was giving speeches recycling the same content-free platitudes that marked one of the strangest in American politics: that of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. “Don’t...

Obama says borrowed lines not a big deal By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that he probably should have given his friend — the governor of Massachusetts — credit for using his lines over the weekend. Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Obama of plagiarizing Gov. Deval Patrick. Wolfson said that raises questions about the premise of Obama's candidacy — his rhetorical skills. Obama, D-Ill., says that's going too far. He says he really doesn't think it's a big deal to use Patrick's words because they share ideas all...

Senator Barack Obama adapted one of his signature arguments — that his oratory amounts to more than inspiring words — from speeches given by Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts during his 2006 campaign.

The charismatic, brilliant, inspiring black politician came to the stage to address the latest attack from his white female opponent. "Her dismissive point, and I hear it a lot from her staff, is all I have to offer is words," he said. "Just words. "'We holds these truths to be self-evident,'" he continued as the crowd began to cheer and applaud, "'that all men are created equal' -- just words. Just words." The applause increased. "'We have nothing to fear but fear itself,'" the pol said. "Just words. 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you...

Barack Obama's speech in Wisconsin this past Saturday sounds awfully similary to a speech given by Deval Patrick in October 2006. Video of both is here.

Deval Patrick’s 2006 “Just Words” speech (October 15, 2006): Barack Obama’s “Words Matter” speech (February 16, 2008):

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. According to police reports, McGee was arrested Dec. 28 and accused of performing oral sex on the 15-year-old, who was a guest at The Gasparilla Inn & Club, a 95-year-old hotel and championship golf course in Boca Grande. McGee was held overnight on a $300,000 bond. Few state employees were aware of the arrest. An account had appeared in the local newspaper, the...

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...

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

BOSTON, January 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday against a new Massachusetts law that creates a 35-foot "buffer" zone around abortion clinics.  The law essentially eliminates free speech rights within the zone by restricting pro-life advocates from sharing their message with people entering the clinics. "Pro-life advocates shouldn't be penalized for expressing their beliefs," said ADF-allied attorney and lead counsel Michael DePrimo.  "The buffer law is breathtaking in its scope.  It obviously was designed and intended to squelch pro-life speech, but it prohibits much more, such as labor...

Howie Carr thread; talk related to his radio show plus we post some of his columns if not all (we'll start with his Sunday Herald article from today)

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...

Even as Governor Deval Patrick seeks to license three resort casinos in Massachusetts, he hopes to clamp down on the explosion in Internet gambling by making it illegal for state residents to place a bet on line. He has proposed jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines for violators. The provision, buried deep in Patrick's bill to allow three casinos to the state, puts the governor at odds with a fellow Democrat: US Representative Barney Frank, the sponsor of federal legislation to license and regulate online gambling nationally. Yesterday Frank strongly criticized the governor's plan to punish...

Governor Deval Patrick will throw his support behind Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential campaign, an endorsement that could give the Illinois senator a boost in the crucial New Hampshire primary and may help Obama blunt some of Senator Hillary Clinton's recent success in winning African-American support. Administration officials confirmed that the governor called Obama yesterday to pledge his endorsement, and Patrick's volunteers began working out the details of a public rally in Boston Tuesday. Patrick also called Clinton yesterday to break the news that he would endorse her opponent. Patrick has strong ties to the New York senator from...

Governor Deval Patrick is throwing his support to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, an endorsement that will give the Illinois senator a much needed boost in New Hampshire and help blunt Hillary Clinton's courting of African-American leaders

Governor Deval Patrick, determined to exert control over the University of Massachusetts system, is undaunted by his failed bid last month to remove UMass board chairman Stephen P. Tocco and is still planning his ouster, according to administration officials. Patrick aides have been testing sentiment among UMass trustees and said they expect the governor to have sufficient support to remove Tocco in a matter of months. Patrick was publicly stung when his allies on the board could not muster enough votes last month to force out the influential Tocco, who is an appointee of Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, but...

Governor Deval Patrick plans to propose as early as tomorrow that the state sell licenses for three full-scale resort casinos in Massachusetts, citing their potential to spur economic growth, create jobs, and generate new government revenue, according to State House officials who have been briefed on his plan. Patrick will recommend that the casinos be licensed in three regions: Southeastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, and an area that includes Boston and points north, the officials said... All three licenses would be put up for competitive bid, in a process that is expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in immediate...

This year I marked the anniversary of September 11th by driving through Massachusetts. It wasn’t exactly planned that way, just the way things panned out. So, heading toward Boston, I tuned to Bay State radio colossus Howie Carr and heard him reading out portions from the official address to the 9/11 commemoration ceremony by Deval Patrick, who is apparently the governor of Massachusetts. 9/11, said Governor Patrick, “was a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States.” “Mean and nasty”? He sounds like an over-sensitive waiter complaining that John Kerry’s sent back the aubergine coulis again. But...

...[T]he shot heard around the world and so forth. Anyway, Gov. Patrick didn't want to leave the crowd with all that macho cowboy rhetoric ringing in their ears, so he moved on to the nub of his speech: 9/11, he continued, "was also a failure of human beings to understand each other, to learn to love each other." I was laughing so much I lost control of the wheel, and the guy in the next lane had to swerve rather dramatically. He flipped me the Universal Symbol of Human Understanding. I certainly understood him, though I'm not sure I could...

In his 9/11 commemoration speech, Patrick observed that while the attack on the World Trade Center was “mean and nasty,” (that’s telling ’em, Deval!) the real tragedy of six years ago was the “failure of human understanding.” Yes, 9/11 was, Patrick said “a failure of human beings to understand each other, to learn to love each other.” [Emphasis added.] To find out what the victims of 9/11 didn’t understand about the terrorists that might have prevented the attack, I turned to Debra Burlingame. Her brother, Chic, was the pilot of American Airlines [AMR] Flight 77 - the plane that hit...

BOSTON - The state’s Republican party chief and the prominent brother of a Sept. 11 victim criticized Gov. Deval Patrick for saying at a memorial service the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people resulted "from a failure of human understanding." Peter Torkildsen, a former member of Congress, said Wednesday the comments suggested society somehow misserved the terrorists.

In organizing a State House ceremony for Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, planners said yesterday they never envisioned they would set off a political firestorm by not inviting Jim Ogonowski, whose brother was killed in the attacks and who is now engaged in a heated race as he seeks to become the state's first Republican congressman in more than a decade. Ogonowski, who has been a speaker at the ceremony the past four years, was not asked to come back. However, added to the program as the keynote speaker was Martin Meehan, a former US...