Free Republic

WASHINGTON – He's not president, a Cabinet member or ambassador, but Sen. John Kerry has ascended to the unofficial role of President Barack Obama's global adviser on key issues that could reshape the nation's image around the world. Mediating Afghanistan's presidential election vaulted Kerry from the already prominent chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee into the most exclusive circle around a new president who is juggling but has not resolved a variety of domestic and foreign policy matters. Beyond policy, Kerry knows how Washington works. ... "Obviously, Sen. Kerry is somebody who has a broad range of experience and...

Cited on a variety of Internet shops like The AtlanticWire, Newser and Lara Ebke’s Red State Eclectic yesterday was a quote from Matt Lewis, writer, blogger and commentator from Alexandria, Va. He writes in Politics Daily: “If recent elections are any guide, the Republicans' heads will tell them to choose Mitt Romney. Their hearts whisper something else. Is ‘Sarah’ the name of this siren song?” W. McCahill at Newser says: “No matter what kind of gains Republicans make in the midterm elections next year, it’s going to be tough to unseat President Obama — and that’s why the GOP is...

The Massachusetts man charged with conspiring in a terror plot has been a middle school math and religion teacher at a Muslim school in Worcester. Colleagues at the Alhuda Academy say they cannot believe the allegations against Tarek Mehanna (TEH'-rek meh-HAH'-nah), who was arrested Wednesday and charged in conspiring to support terrorism. They say he was a sweet guy and loved by his students. But prosecutors say Mehanna and his associates sought training at terrorist camps and discussed plans to target U.S. troops in Iraq and two politicians and to randomly shoot shoppers at U.S. malls.

Here are some highlights of the allegations contained in an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant for Tarek Mehanna's computer by FBI Agent Heidi L. Williams of the Joint Terrorism Task Force:

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...

If you invested $76 million in a company only to watch as it lost millions and its stock plunged from $19 a share to $1.83, you’d call that a financial disaster, right? You know what they call it in the Patrick administration? A public relations problem. Because it’s not their money. It’s yours. The company is Evergreen Solar, a darling of the Al Gore/environut crowd. Not surprisingly, Deval Patrick is a big fan, too. Did it matter that the company has never earned a penny? That, as The Boston Globe-Democrat reported, “Evergreen has lost $308 million since its founding in...

A Massachusetts man is in custody at the Rock County Jail today after allegedly kidnapping a West Springfield, Mass., car salesman during a test drive and driving the stolen vehicle more than 1,000 miles overnight before getting caught speeding early Friday morning in Rock County. A Wisconsin State Patrol trooper, according to a lead dispatcher at the Rock County Communications Center, pulled over Aleh Kot, 32, of Massachusetts at 2:30 a.m. at Interstate 90/39 mile marker 165 just north of the Newville exit. Kot was arrested on charges of operating a motor vehicle without owner consent, speeding and reckless driving,...

A friend in Massachusetts calls me up and starts laughing at all the snow on the field. He says it's the earliest snow he can remember and he has lived in Eastern Massachusetts all his life So much for global warming and AlGore's lies. I hope things keep getting colder so 0bama is simultaneously doling out heating oil relief checks and pushing for cap n trade legislation

Three years ago, Massachusetts passed the most sweeping healthcare bill in the country, adopting a plan that closely resembles the proposals being considered by Congress. It is a plan that now offers powerful lessons for the whole nation. The state's system, like the proposals moving toward votes in the House and Senate, focused on three goals: making medical insurance almost universal, fostering competition through a regulated insurance exchange, and helping low-income workers pay for coverage. Today, Massachusetts leads the nation with 96% of its residents covered by insurance -- an even larger share than some of the plans before Congress...

Opponents rallies against health care reform The nationwide "tea party" movement came to Boston Common on Saturday, as people upset with government spending turned their focus to health care. The rally came as President Barack Obama once again used his web address to push reform. "I'm really opposed to having the government control our health care and rationing health care to people who really need it," Woburn's John Radzikinas said. The group of conservative activists which took to Boston Common on Saturday said health care reform has not worked in Massachusetts, and would be a disaster for the rest of...

Some things to ponder in the wake of today's news that the New York Times Co. won't be selling the Boston Globe after all (Herald story here, Globe story here, entire memo to follow): 1. Given the speed with which the Times Co. decided to reject the bids assembled by Steve Taylor and Platinum, it seems--at least from the outside--like not a lot of deliberation was required. When did the Times Co. make up its mind not to sell? And what was the determing factor? 2. The elimination of lifetime job guarantees earlier this year paved the way for some...

... In a video released today by the MBTA, Brown's Chevy Malibu can be seen crossing the median line before slamming head-on into an MBTA bus in Holbrook. ... Approximately 350 buses of the MBTA fleet of 1,100 are equipped with eight cameras each, providing views inside the bus, in front, and on either side. ... Sprague said the footage showed the bus driver was not at fault, and that Brown probably fell asleep. He said that Brown appears to be slumped down before impact. She was cited with failure to stay within marked lanes. Brown could not be reached...

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...

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a symbol that represents eastern religious beliefs carved into the green. Lakeville Country Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning. Police believe the vandals meant to carve a swastika next to President Barack Obama's name on the 18th hole; however, the symbol was backwards and means hope and peace in some Eastern countries. The vandals snuck in at night to carve their message, according to the owner of the country club.

In the Iraqi desert - or wherever he was - Nick Xiarhos had a presence. "Everyone was his best friend. And that was his personality. He could make everyone feel important," his mother Lisa told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann. The born Marine was the first child of police lieutenant Steve Xiarhos and wife, Lisa. "We were so proud - proud he wanted to do that and serve our country, especially be a Marine," Steve Xiarhos said. But Xiarhos was also a son of Yarmouth, Massachusetts... Last July, the 21-year-old Marine corporal was killed in Afghanistan. The pain of Nick's...

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a swastika carved into the green. Lakeville County Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning. Carved into the green on the 18th hole was a swastika next to President Barack Obama's name. The vandals snuck in at night and carved their message of hate, according to the owner of the country club. "We don't know if they did it with some type of cleated shoe, or they had some type of tool and this time of year to have that happen, it's...

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a swastika carved into the green. Lakeville County Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning. Carved into the green on the 18th hole was a swastika next to President Barack Obama's name.

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a swastika carved into the green. Lakeville County Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning. Carved into the green on the 18th hole was a swastika next to President Barack Obama's name. The vandals snuck in at night and carved their message of hate, according to the owner of the country club. "We don't know if they did it with some type of cleated shoe, or they had some type of tool and this time of year to have that happen, it's...

I've received dozens of emails forwarded to me in the past month, with the senders' grave concern over an alleged U.S. Senate bill, SB2009, that would require gun owners to list all their firearms on their tax documents and pay upward of $50 per gun owned, annually. While this bill is very believable, considering President Obama's rabid, unjustified and foolhardy anti-gun/anti-hunting administration, it's another urban legend, at least for now. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) wishes to be perfectly clear on this matter: "There is no such bill," the NSSF stated in a news release. "And if the NSSF...

Is this the type of healthcare system that President Obama wants for the rest of the country? Update: Make sure you check the update below. Rationing! The Baucus plan and the Waxman Murphy plan both will tax you if don’t have health insurance. But as we pointed out right here it’s so much more than that. You will be taxed even if you have coverage, IF, it’s not up to government standards. Remember, you read it here first?

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...

OMAHA, Neb. -- A familiar face came to Nebraska on Friday, hoping to raise a lot of money for the state Republican party and perhaps raise his profile for the 2012 presidential race. Former candidate Mitt Romney was the keynote speaker for the Nebraska Republican Party's Founder's Day dinner. The appearance, one of several planned in the past few weeks, may have helped boost his party's hopes in Nebraska's second Congressional district. He said he's also hoping to bring attention to the debate over health care reform.

(snip) "Every idea is on the table," said Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of Senate climate legislation. "We're going to work in a bona fide way with everybody to see how to bridge a gap here. We've got to get a 60-vote margin. That means you've got to legislate, which means you have to compromise." Several moderate Senate Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they are in talks with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the nuclear language, as well as other key issues."A guy like Senator Kerry...

I have repeatedly written articles about the complete disregard for the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts's as well as the disregard for the United States Constitution by elected officials in this State. Today, however, Massachusetts goes above and beyond into what can only be viewed as a true case of Big Brother knocking down the doors of American citizens. Today, by a vote of 113-36, the Massachusetts's House voted to grant the State's Governor the ability to force residents into mandatory vaccination in the event the Governor feels so inclined. It also grants him the right to declare martial...

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) -- A Massachusetts man who stole a hot dog from another man sitting under a tree in a park has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Antonio Judd pleaded guilty Monday in Worcester Central District Court to charges including larceny from a person.

In 1995 MassResistance (then known as Parents Rights Coalition) wrote and successfully lobbied for the Parental Notification Law (Ch. 71 Sec. 32A) which was signed into law by Gov. Bill Weld in 1996. Unfortunately, the law (which is "opt-out" and is aimed at sex education) has serious flaws and loopholes. In 1995 we did not anticipate the aggressive homosexual agenda in the schools. MassResistance has carefully crafted a new bill to address this issue properly, and close those loopholes. It's Bill H406 which we've named the David Parker Parents Rights Bill. It completely re-writes the current Parental Notification Law. It's...

As fears of an H1N1 swine flu epidemic emerge, a draconian "pandemic control bill" that would give broad extra-constitutional powers to the state to enter and search houses, take property, detain people, require vaccinations, and more has passed the Massachusetts Senate and is now in the House Ways and Means Committee. The bill sets penalties for non-compliance at $1000.00 per day and jail time.

Senator McCain's daughter Meghan was in Amherst on Wednesday night. She talked to the UMass-Amherst Republican Club about her life in the spot light. Meghan McCain is famous in her own right for blogging and writing a column while her father ran for office. She talked about health care reform, gay rights and creating a more civil discourse between Republicans and Democrats. She also Glen Beck and Sarah Palin.

Republican state Senator Scott Brown sent a letter to Governor Deval Patrick and Attorney General Martha Coakley yesterday demanding the state stop doing business with ACORN, the community organizing group whose tactics have sparked a national controversy. Brown, who is running for Edward M. Kennedy’s US Senate seat, appears to be looking to taint Bay State Democrats - namely Coakley, a leading contender for Kennedy’s seat - with ACORN’s problems. ACORN is an acronym for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. A branch of the group, ACORN Housing, received a $33,000 grant last April from the Massachusetts Office...

State Senator Anthony Galluccio was cited Monday for leaving the scene of an accident after he allegedly collided with a vehicle carrying three people on Sunday afternoon in Cambridge and then fled. Galluccio, a Cambridge Democrat, collided with the other vehicle at about 5:30 p.m. as he was driving around Garden and Linnaean streets, said officer Frank Pasquarello, spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is expected to decide whether a state law that requires residents to apply for gun licenses with their local police departments is unconstitutional. The challenge is being brought before the court by Paul W. Patten, a Fall River defense attorney who is representing Nathaniel DePina, 19, a New Bedford man serving a 2-year jail sentence after being convicted last year of illegally carrying a firearm. Patten is appealing DePina's conviction on the grounds that the state gun licensing statute is "vague and overbroad," inconsistent in application and violates an enumerated, fundamental right protected by the...

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...

1. Meet “Ardi”Evolutionists aren’t yet sure if they should call it a human ancestor, but one thing they do know is that “Ardi” does away with the idea of a “missing link.”Although first discovered in the early 1990s, the bones of Ardipithecus ramidus are only now being nominated for evolutionists’ fossil hall of fame—via a slew of papers in a special issue of the journal Science. In it, Ardi’s researchers describe the bones and make the case that Ardi is even more important in the history of human evolution than Lucy. Despite claims of its evolutionary significance, one of the...

BOSTON -- Text messages and phone calls are raising questions about allegations by a Boston police officer that she was repeatedly raped by a fellow officer who then threatened her husband's life. The young female office said in August a 42-year-old member of the Boston police SWAT team raped her three times in a hotel room that the two were sharing with another officer. The officer, who is pregnant, said she was forced to have sex with him several more times after the trip, claiming he used threats to keep her silent. "He could shoot my husband in the head...

Recently the Massachusetts Attorney General filed what is called an Amici Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the case of Commonwealth v. Richard Runyan. The brief is signed on to by a host of district attorneys and state officials. This is a case that is going before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court regarding the Massachusetts firearm storage laws. In typical fashion of what we have come to expect of our state officials, the brief is full of support for state restrictions on innocent lawful citizens and an outright objection that the Second Amendment applies to the states. One of...

Want to see a great conservative take over the late Senator Ted Kennedy's seat in the US Senate? Please take time to get to know Massachusetts state Senator Scott Brown. He is running for the US Senate and his election is in January which is only a little over three months away! Let's show the members of Congress that the upcoming elections are going to CHANGE the control of the US House and Senate! Scott Brown has been campaigning for a short time and has raised over $155,000. That is super, but he really needs our help to run against...

There's Romney . . . and then there's RomneyCare. BY ALLYSIA FINLEY Mitt Romney clearly is laying the groundwork for another White House bid, but he's keeping his cards close to his chest. "It's way too early to make that consideration. Who knows what the future holds?" he says. . . . . . As he geared up to run for president a few years ago, Mr. Romney notably switched his positions on abortion, gun rights, immigration and "don't ask, don't tell." He won't find it so easy to flip-flop on Romney care, and he apparently knows it. Mr. Romney...

It was the kind of emergency call every dispatcher dreads. The one about his own house. Quincy Police 911 dispatcher Mike Bowes knew something was wrong Friday when dozens of callers suddenly jammed his lines. “I was talking to an EMT when the call came in, all the lines lit up red,” he said. “That happens when a lot of people call at once. I said ‘This isn’t good.’ ” The 11-year veteran, who has steered help to thousands of emergencies, doesn’t startle easily, but what he heard when he started taking the calls floored him. “The first one said,...

The Bay State's mandatory insurance law is raising costs, limiting access, and lowering care. BY PAUL HSIEH Sedalia, Colo. - In his recent speech to Congress, President Obama could have promoted healthcare reforms that tapped the power of a truly free market to lower costs and improve access. Instead, he chose to offer a national version of the failing "Massachusetts plan" based on mandatory health insurance. This is a recipe for disaster. Three years ago, Massachusetts adopted a plan requiring all residents to purchase health insurance, with state subsidies for lower-income residents. But rather than creating a utopia of high-quality...

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney had already sent out invitations for his Phoenix fund-raiser, offering supporters the chance to meet him in a Chase Field luxury box over a $300-per-person lunch or a $3,000 VIP reception. But when former rival John McCain called with an offer to be listed as host for the event in his hometown, Romney happily went back to the printer for a new invitation with McCain’s name emblazoned on it. Yesterday, McCain’s gesture helped Romney’s political action committee raise about $80,000. It also consummated an 18-month rapprochement between two competitors who battled for the 2008 GOP presidential...

President Obama’s “Dreams From My Father” is creating a nightmare for 1,099 Hingham High students cramming to wrap up their “required” summer read - a book, it turns out, they didn’t have to read in the first place. With school opening Tuesday, the Herald has learned teens whose offended parents complained were allowed by Principal Paula Girouard McCann and Helaine Silva, head of the Hingham Public Schools English Department, to pick any other memoir - an option they never publicized. “I had no idea,” sophomore Graham King, 15, who was only on page 120 of the 460-page autobiography yesterday, told...

An American Airlines flight attendant found a bomb threat left on a note in the bathroom of a Miami-bound jet this afternoon during a preflight inspection. The note reportedly stated: “Bomb on board, Boston-Miami.” everyone aboard the plane was removed and it was towed to the end of a runway ... The Massachusetts State Police, federal Transportation Security Administration, and the FBI are investigating.

The state Appeals Court has refused to get involved in a mother’s efforts to force a Newton sperm bank to reveal the identity of her twin daughters’ father so she can sue him for child support. The woman, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe, was contesting Suffolk Probate and Family Court Judge John M. Smoot’s dismissal of her 2006 motion to compel the New England Cryogenic Center to out the young medical student who sold his sperm in the early 1990s with the agreement his identity be held “in strictest confidence.”

Sometimes the National Rifle Association needs to know when it’s time to lighten up. It pains us to say that, because the NRA has fought hard to keep the state and federal governments from denying responsible, law-abiding Americans from possessing and enjoying guns. But the organization jerked the trigger recently when it targeted Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik and other Western Massachusetts mayors because they had the temerity to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national organization that works to deny irresponsible and criminal citizens from getting their hands on guns. It would take the logical skills of Aristotle to...

They are from the government, and they don’t want you to help. Lisa Snyder’s neighbors in Middleville, Mich., left for work every morning before the school buses arrived. So she told her friends she’d watch their three kids at her house before school. She didn’t get paid for it. She didn’t get reimbursed for Cheerios or juice boxes. So what did Lisa get for her trouble? Threatened with prosecution. The state declared her yard an illegal day-care operation. She either had to stop, get licensed or go to jail. “We’re just friends helping friends,” Lisa says. But that’s not good...

BOSTON - Sex in a dorm at Tufts University is fine. Sex in a Tufts dorm with your roommate there? That's a no-no. The Boston-area school has a new policy this semester banning sexual activity while a roommate is in the same room.

If you've ever lived in a college dorm and you had a roommate, you can probably relate to this story. What kind of agreement did you have with your roomie when on of you needed a little privacy? You know, a little alone time with your boyfriend or girlfriend. Chances are you came to an agreement on your own. No need to get the college involved. Well one Boston school has come up with some new rules when it comes to having sex in the dormitory. Tufts University officials say they had a lot of complaints last year from students...

Revenue dropped despite a controversial decision by Patrick and the Legislature to increase taxes by more than $1 billion, including boosting the state sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent. Retailers warned that the state would not raise nearly as much as estimated, predicting that customers would go to New Hampshire or the Internet to avoid additional taxes.

A vampire worshiper accused of plotting to kidnap a 12-year-old South Boston girl he met online was under indictment for child molestation in West Virginia and out on bail when caught by Boston police, the Herald has learned. Bryan Confere, 20, of Diamond, W.Va., is being held on $25,000 cash bail pending a pretrial hearing Wednesday in South Boston District Court. He is facing 7 years in prison in Massachusetts if convicted of child enticement and child endangerment. Prosecutors in Kanawha County, W.Va., last week filed a motion to revoke the $70,000 property bond he was free on when Boston...

Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr is apparently okay after crashing his car into a telephone pole in Wellesley Sunday morning. According to police, the 57-year-old scribe and WRKO talk-show host was driving south on Wellesley Avenue, between Oakland and Forest streets, when his 2004 Acura suddenly crossed into the oncoming lane, hit a curb, and slammed into a telephone pole. Wellesley police Sgt. Marie Cleary said Carr refused medical treatment and the car was towed. (The pole was split in half.) Carr was cited for a marked-lanes violation. "There were no signs of alcohol or anything suspicious of that nature,"...