Free Republic

Friend,   Yesterday we were able to win with 89% of the vote and I'm so proud of you and the support you have given this campaign.  The Brown Brigade has grown to over 1,875 activists with 176 local Brigades organized to help us Get Out The Vote on January 19.   I started the day yesterday like any other day by taking out the garbage and doing some chores around the house.          However, I ended the day with you and other energized supporters that want to stop the 'bailout culture' and clean up Washington from...

A Boston man was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole, hours after a jury found him guilty of beating his 70-year-old father to death, then using a power saw to cut up the body before scattering the remains throughout the neighborhood. Brian Lee showed no outward emotion when the jury returned a verdict of guilty on a charge of first-degree murder for the October 2006 slaying of Edward Lee at the victim’s home in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood, prosecutors said. He declined to make a statement at his sentencing Wednesday afternoon, Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office...

In Tuesday's primary election, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley swept the 4-person Democratic primary with 47% and State Senator Scott Brown swept the Republican primary with 89%. It attracted very low turnout -- less than 20% state-wide. The general election is in six weeks, on January 19. Herald Columnist Howie Carr gave probably the most interesting analysis of the campaign. There could not be more of a difference between these two candidates. Martha Coakley has a long record of extreme, aggressive left-wing anti-family crusading, and general lap-dog water-carrying for the Democratic establishment. Scott Brown is a fiscal and (reasonably) social...

Attorney General Martha Coakley has defeated three other candidates to win the Democratic nomination in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. On the Republican side, State Sen. Scott Brown defeated attorney Jack E. Robinson. Jim Gomes, director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise, a policy research group at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., said public interest in filling the seat with someone like Mr. Kennedy, who died Aug. 25 after a bout with brain cancer, faded after the senator's wife and other family members declined to enter the race. "I have not sensed the voters of Massachusetts...

With the clock ticking down towards the close of the polls at 8 p.m., some communities reported low voter turnout in the special primary elections for US Senate. People breezed past community centers, gymnasiums, town halls, and other polling places without a second thought, the majority paying no mind to the race to fill the office left vacant by the late Edward M. Kennedy. Four Democrats and two Republicans ....

BOSTON – Massachusetts had a light turnout for party primaries Tuesday as voters took the first step to fill the U.S. Senate seat held for nearly a half century by Edward M. Kennedy.Four Democrats, from political insiders to newcomers, and two Republicans were competing for their respective party nomination in the quick campaign to succeed Kennedy. He died of brain cancer in late August at age 77 after holding his seat since 1962. The primary winners will face off in a general election on Jan. 19.Kennedy's widow, Vicki, called each of the Democrats early Tuesday to wish them well, an...

Currently, the only people left defending the Massachusetts health care reform are liberals who want to see Obamacare passed ... and Mitt Romney. On Sunday, while the Senate debated a bill to have the government takeover the health care system, Romney went on CNN and argued that his state takeover of health care worked out quite well for Massachusetts. Asked by John King to respond to criticism offered by his likely 2012 presidential rival Tim Pawlenty about how spending exploded in Massachusetts after the implementation of RomneyCare, Romney responded...

Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts refused to appear at the Clover Club, an Irish American group of businessmen and community leaders in Boston over the weekend because it is a men-only club. Deval was dead wrong. I hope he will similarly cancel visits to the National Organization of Women for the same reason.

Tuesday, Dec 8, is the primary election for the US Senate seat, formerly held by Ted Kennedy. There are contested elections for both the Democrat and Republican candidates. The general election will be on January 19. The seat is currently held by Kennedy's former aide, Paul Kirk, who was appointed by the governor after well-publicized (and pretty sleazy) vote by the Legislature to have an interim appointee because of their fear that a vote on the Obama health care package might come up before a special election could be held. We were going to wait until the general election in...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has his facts wrong in criticizing the health care plan Romney instituted in his state. Pawlenty has repeatedly pointed to the Massachusetts plan of his potential rival for the 2012 Republican nomination as the perfect example of how not to do health care reform. The Minnesota governor has made that case in numerous interviews, speeches and op-eds that, while not focused on the Massachusetts program, make his criticism of it clear. Presented with a clip of Pawlenty arguing that the Massachusetts plan did not come close to meeting...

CNSNews.com) - Lawyers from a homosexual advocacy group took depositions from a Massachusetts parent this week, almost three years after he first exposed "Fistgate," a state-sponsored workshop in which educators instructed teens in graphic homosexual sex. The deposition of Brian Camenker, taken Tuesday by lawyers for the Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, is an effort to put parents under financial strain and to discourage others around the country from bringing similar workshops to light, Camenker charged. "If they are able to be able to beat us in Massachusetts, they can continue to hound any parent who gets...

SNIPPET: "A team of researchers convened by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began a series of tests today at 20 MBTA stations to determine how airborne contaminants would spread in a terrorist attack on Boston's subway system." SNIPPET: "The findings will help guide the design of future detection systems and help strengthen evacuation, ventilation, and other emergency response plans on mass transit across the country. "We hope to use the data from the two to come up with a model to predict the behavior (of chemicals) in other subway systems," Lustig said."

Six Candidates Seek Ted Kennedy’s SeatBy JIM HICKEY Islanders go the polls in the state primary on Tuesday to cast votes that will help choose Democratic and Republican candidates to run for the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate left vacant in August when longtime Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — who held the seat for 46 years — died after a 14-month battle with brain cancer. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in every town. The four Democratic candidates are Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, Stephen Pagliuca, a managing partner of the Boston Celtics, U.S. Rep. Mike...

The Chemsford, Massachusetts schools have been in the news lately, especially on O'Reilly because of the "holiday" festival controversy. As you recall, the Chelmsford school system went out of their way to remove anything vaguely reminiscent of Christmas so as not to "offend" anyone. Well back in 1992 the Chelmsford school system was not so sensitive to people's feelings when they put on a lewd, pornographic sex ed production during school hours at the high school auditorium. Some parents ended up sueing the schools. Here are some court documents pertaining to the lawsuit. http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=95-1275.01A

A judge has attacked parents, suggesting they are bigots for seeking to opt-out their elementary-age children from a mandatory controversial pro-homosexual curriculum, according to a non-profit law firm.

Sen. Lindsey Graham may be under fire from conservatives back home in South Carolina. But the Republican got a personal assurance from President Obama yesterday that the White House is supporting his efforts to craft a sweeping Senate energy and global warming bill. “The president told me personally he was very open, that nuclear power would be part of the mix, that clean coal would be part of the mix, that he’s for offshore drilling in a responsible way,” Graham said today in describing his Oval Office meeting with Obama. “But we have to have a price on carbon,...

Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) is expected to endorse Joe "In The Navy" Sestak, Monday, in his bid to unseat fellow Democrat Arlen Specter as senator from Pennsylvania, according to The Hill.

The nation’s richest senator - the Bay State’s own John Forbes Kerry - has been knocked down a few notches after seeing his fortune sliced by one-third by the fiscal meltdown that ripped down Wall Street. Kerry’s personal net worth plunged from an estimated $336 million in 2007 to $208 million in 2008, according to a study by the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics. The Boston Democrat’s staggering losses dropped him from first to third among the wealthiest senators, trailing Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) “So does this mean Senator Kerry is now arriving in Nantucket by ferry...

Dec 3, 2009 — In the previous entry, Darwin inspired some geologists, even though he was wrong. Here are some news stories showing nature inspiring engineers with wonders right under their noses...

NJ Democratic legislators are busying themselves this holiday season with a last minute attempt to tie the hands of incoming Republican governor Chris Christie. From the moment the votes were counted on Election Day, these folks have been foaming at the mouth about how “important” and “urgent” it was that this bill get passed before Jon “Speedy” Corzine leaves office. At issue is the way in which the NJ governor deals with a potential U.S. senate vacancy. Under the current system, the governor can appoint a replacement for the open seat or call a special election. Or both. The new...

PORTLAND, Maine – A storm packing blustery winds and driving rain knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses in the Northeast on Thursday before giving way to sunny skies and record high temperatures — all in the same morning.

A controversial Merry Christmas sign has returned to its traditional spot outside the Main Street fire station, after the town reversed an earlier decision to take it down. The decision to put the homemade sign back on display was made this afternoon, after residents protested its removal this morning outside Town Hall. "The townspeople have spoken," Selectman Richard Nardella said. Firefighters put the sign back up around 4 p.m.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senators on Tuesday gave a boost to next week's global environmental summit in Copenhagen, with a senior Democrat advocating more U.S. funding of climate change efforts by poor nations and a key Republican calling for quick action on a U.S. climate bill. Democratic Senator John Kerry, a leading advocate of climate control legislation in Congress, recommended that the Obama administration include $3 billion in next year's budget to help fund efforts to address global warming. This year's funding is about one third that amount. Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the few Republicans willing to negotiate with...

NORTH ANDOVER — An annual "Merry Christmas" sign on a North Andover fire station has been ordered removed. Town officials told firefighters last week to take down the homemade sign after they said people complained. Fire Chief William Martineau said Monday that the sign was made by firefighters about 50 years ago and never had been an issue before.

A new concept making its way through the scientific community holds that just a few key changes in the right genes will result in a whole new life form as different from its progenitor as a bird is from a lizard![1] This idea is being applied to a number of key problems in the evolutionary model, one of which is the lack of transitional forms in both the fossil record and the living (extant) record. The new concept supposedly adds support to the "punctuated equilibrium" model proposed by the late Harvard paleontologist Stephen J. Gould. Dr. Gould derived his ideas...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rep. Patrick Kennedy says all people deserve health care because they are "children of God" in his first public appearance since escalating a public feud with Rhode Island's Roman Catholic bishop over abortion and health care. The Democratic lawmaker spoke Monday at a panel discussion at Brown University.

Americans remain inclined against the health care overhaul in Congress as debate begins on the Senate floor today. The USA Today/Gallup poll released today found 49 percent saying they would tell their representative to vote against the bill and 44 percent saying they would urge a yes vote. That's about the same split as in the survey earlier this month, but a change from 51 percent support and 41 percent disapproval in October. Gallup says: "Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to new healthcare legislation -- 86% would advise their member of Congress to vote against it, while 12% would want their...

Five years after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts, the local Episcopal bishop yesterday gave permission for priests in Eastern Massachusetts to officiate at same-sex weddings. The decision by Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III was immediately welcomed by advocates of gay rights in the Episcopal Church, who have chafed at local rules that allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, but not sign the documents that would solemnize their marriages. The decision is likely to exacerbate tensions in the Episcopal Church and the global denomination to which it belongs, the Anglican Communion, which has faced significant division in the wake of...

BOSTON—Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley opposes sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Coakley issued a statement Sunday saying, "I believe we should begin the process of bringing our troops home."

Asked during last night’s Republican debate about whether his campaign was downplaying his health care plan, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney replied, “I love it.” While praising the plan as a model of bipartisanship — and citing support for it from both Ted Kennedy and the Heritage Foundation — Romney failed to tell viewers what was in the plan. It’s worth reminding people, therefore, that the plan Romney loves: Imposes an unprecedented individual mandate, requiring everyone in Massachusetts to purchase a government-designated insurance product or face thousands of dollars in tax penalties. Significantly increased Medicaid eligibility and provided taxpayer-funded subsidies...

Congress is debating legislation that would do essentially what Mitt Romney did in Massachusetts: impose a health insurance mandate, create a network of subsidies, and micro-manage health insurance policies. Before legislators take us down the same road, they should consider the Massachusetts experience. Citizens there are not impressed with RomneyCare.

Next time you run into a group of Democrats, offer to splash water on their faces. They've spent 2009 in a dream state, and it's time they wake up. They're convinced that they can subsidize health insurance for millions of people while also "bending the cost curve" of health care spending. They want to sign us up for the political equivalent of one of those three-step "eat more to lose weight" diets. Step one: Pile on the expenditures, regulations, taxes, and fees. Step two: Close your eyes. Step three: Pray it all works out in the end. Sorry, it won't....

"Millions of families have seen jobs and careers vanish in the midst of this recession," House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence of Indiana says in the weekly GOP radio-Internet address, timed this time for Thanksgiving. After trashing Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package, which he said has failed utterly given the national unemployment rate has risen to a "heartbreaking" 10.2 percent, he ridicules the president's plans for a jobs summit next Thursday. And he says the proposed health care overhaul -- especially a government-run public insurance option -- would make the situation worse. Pence, however, does not offer any specific...

The widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy told Oprah Winfrey in an interview broadcast Wednesday that even as her husband knew he was dying of brain cancer he had been "in training" to make sure he had enough strength to attend President Barack Obama's inauguration. In the most extensive interview since her husband's death in August, Vicki Kennedy said she wouldn't try to run for her husband's former U.S. Senate seat and described how he battled brain cancer — but she would not talk about the last thing he said to her before dying. "I think I'll just keep...

A new poll shows that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney now has a less than 50 percent favorability rating among Republican voters. Public Policy Polling has released its monthly 2012 survey, which finds that while 65 percent of Republicans have a favorable opinion of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and 75 percent have a favorable opinion of former GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, only 48 percent view Mitt Romney favorably. Romney's popularity has fallen 19 points in the poll since May. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling says the healthcare plan that Romney passed in Massachusetts when he was governor...

The truth hurts a lot, it seems. Especially at the Massachusetts State House. The intense hostility in the Massachusetts Legislature against the pro-family position on homosexuality in the schools was evident at the State House on Monday, November 16. A MassResistance panel was there to testify for bill H145 which would eliminate the despised Massachusetts Commission for Gay Lesbian and Transgender Youth. But unfortunately they weren't allowed to finish. At that public hearing before the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, Committee Chairman Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton) abruptly cut off Brian Camenker from completing his testimony. Khan...

A special council created by the governor of Massachusetts to help illegal immigrants integrate into society has come up with more than 100 recommendations, including a costly idea that was solidly rejected by the legislature a few years ago. Among the suggestions offered by Governor Deval Patrick’s advisory council are granting illegal immigrants driver’s licenses and discounted, in-state tuition at public colleges. In 2006 the Massachusetts legislature rejected a measure that would have given the heavily reduced tuition perk to illegal aliens who had graduated from a state high school. In all, the governor’s council offered 131 policy recommendations—labeled New...

A Republican political hopeful interested in serving as governor of Massachusetts announced Monday he has chosen Richard R. Tisei, an openly gay state legislator, to be his running mate in the 2010 gubernatorial election. "Want you to be the first to know: I've chosen State Senator Richard Tisei as my running mate," Republican Charles Baker wrote on his Twitter account. "Excited about this team." In the photo at left, Baker stands to the left of Tisei outside the civic center in Wakefield, Mass. Baker is the former CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and a former adviser to two Republican...

A convicted murderer serving a life sentence goes before a judge to ask for electrolysis treatments as she seeks a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation. Michelle Kosilek (KOH'-sih-leck) was born as Robert and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk, for murdering of his wife, Cheryl, in 1990. Prison officials oppose Kosilek's request for surgery, saying the sex change would pose security problems. U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in 2002 that Kosilek was entitled to treatment for gender identity disorder, but stopped short of ordering surgery. Kosilek sued again in 2005.

WASHINGTON -Sen. Edward M. Kennedy will be a tough act to follow, even for the Kennedys. His death, coupled with the decision by family members not to seek the seat he held for nearly five decades, has prompted predictions that the family's long-running political dynasty is over. There's talk the Kennedy political bloodlines are running thin. Some say the younger brood lacks the grit and zest for political combat that drove the liberal Democrat to become one of the leading politicians of the last 40 years. Yet it's probably too early to write off one of America's most powerful and...

Massachusetts voters will have to wait until Jan. 19 to elect a successor to Sen. Edward Kennedy, but Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing to name an interim appointee in the meantime.... Right now, Massachusetts law does not allow the governor to appoint a temporary Senate replacement. But Patrick said he supported plans for a hearing Sept. 9 on a bill that would give him the power to do just that.

SNIPPET: "Prosecutors allege that Mehanna, 27, and a second man, Ahmad Abousamra, 28, formerly of Mansfield, tried to join a terrorist training camp overseas, but were rejected, then plotted to shoot shoppers at a suburban mall, but scrapped the plan because they could not get automatic weapons. They are also accused of plotting to kill two unidentified government officials. Mehanna also allegedly incited violence by translating pro-jihad materials from Arabic to English and posting them on the Web."

In a final call home, Army Sgt. Benjamin Sherman told his sister to tell everyone he loved them, “because I don’t know if I’ll get that chance again.” Sadly, his fears proved true. Sherman was laid to rest yesterday in his hometown of Plymouth in a funeral Mass attended by hundreds. Sherman, 21, was eulogized as a selfless soldier who did what came naturally to him when he jumped into a river in Afghanistan to try to rescue a comrade in distress. “He jumped into that river because he loved deeply, he was pure of heart, and he exhibited the...

Senator John Kerry described international terrorism as “primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation,’’ and urged voters to think of deadly jihadist violence as merely “a nuisance’’ that we need “to reduce’’ - akin, he said, to gambling or prostitution. Kerry lost that election, and the Bush administration’s very different approach - treating terrorist attacks as acts of war, not criminal violations - continued for four more years. Pre-empting terror in advance, not prosecuting it after the fact, remained the overriding priority. Counterterrorism efforts under George W. Bush were aggressive and they drew much criticism. But whatever else might be...

A ceremonial moment: The grand opening of an Attleboro Department of Motor Vehicles office. A chance for a rising political star to mingle -- especially now that State Senator Scott Brown is a Republican candidate for the late Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat. “In less than three and a half weeks we got twenty-four thousand signatures and twenty-thousand of those were certified. That was the first goal. The second goal is to start raising money on our own.”

Why do so many typical Americans hate labor unions, even here in union-dominated Massachusetts?  Because of stories like this: In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park. Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city's largest municipal union. Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

Union blocks teacher bonuses By Edward Mason  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |  http://www.bostonherald.com  |  Local Coverage Photo by Matthew West Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts.The Boston Teachers Union staunchly opposes a performance bonus plan for top teachers - launched at the John D. O’Bryant School in 2008 and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates and Exxon Mobil foundations - insisting the dough be divvied up among all of a school’s teachers, good and bad.“It’s insanity,” said Jim...

Shares of digital mammogram system maker Hologic Inc. fell Tuesday after a government task force recommended that women wait longer before having mammograms, and have the breast examinations less often. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said Monday that most women should wait until they turn 50 before having regular mammograms, rather than starting at 40, and suggested women have an examination every two years instead of once a year... The task force also said the benefits of mammograms for women over 75 are unclear. It previously said those women should have a mammogram every year or two. The guidelines...