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Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is taking a beating politically as the state’s economy sags and the media reports about patronage hirings on Beacon Hill. Some 47 percent said someone else deserves to be elected next year, and 51 percent said Massachusetts is headed on the wrong track. A potential head-to-head matchup shows Patrick losing to Treasurer Timothy Cahill ...

[“Uncle, uncle,” - Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick] Why are you crying “Uncle,” Gov. Patrick? It’s the taxpayers who are getting the wedgie. So a reporter asks you about your bone-headed comment about make-work jobs for your feel-good friends and you say “uncle.” But last I checked, we taxpayers are still on the hook for Carol Aloisi’s salary. And while paying Sen. Marian Walsh $120,000 is better than paying her $175,000, the fact remains that when you took office, Governor, the assistant executive director of the Health and Education Facilities Authority was costing us zero. So you get away with keeping...

Howie thread starting with his Sunday Herald column

Gov. Deval Patrick’s ratings appear to have taken a serious nosedive following months of tax hike announcements, but one politico said the new SurveyUSA poll might not be reliable. Roughly 68 percent of the 600 people questioned in the poll say they are dissatisfied with Patrick’s job as governor. That’s up 21 points from a poll in January. “I think the poll vastly exaggerates the level of dissatisfaction with Gov. Patrick,” said Tufts political professor Jeff Berry. “SurveyUSA polls are very primitive and you’d have to do a lot more searching questions to really accurately access the level of support.”...

      It is well known that Jon Corzine's numbers are collapsing in New Jersey. But that's not the only state.For example, look Governor Deval Patrick in Massachussets, as tested by SurveyUSA. He has 28% approve and 68% disapprove. This is flat across region. Even Dems net out at -11, with 42%-53%.Now look at this poll out of Michigan, H/T Race42008's Kavon Nikrad. Any credible Republican beats the sitting Lt. Gov.I haven't surveyed all the states, but it feels like someting is happening.

A throwback to the 1970s, our own original hope-n-change governor has proposed his most daring tax hike yet. A 19 cent gas tax increase to pay for the struggling Mass. Transit/MBTA department which will be on top of the proposed candy, soda, alcohol tax increases. SUVs will also be subjected to higher fees and a crackdown to ensure that MA residents avoid breaking the law and buying goods in tax free New Hampshire. How is that liberals still have not learned, that taxing people when they are hurting from a recession, depleted 401Ks, plummeting house values and rising unemployment is...

If Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is serious about restoring the GOP’s power in the Northeast, he should keep his eye on developments in Massachusetts, where beleaguered Governor—and Barack’s best buddy—Deval Patrick could face a strong Republican challenger next year. Bay State Republicans—short on numbers, long on hope—felt their spirits rise this week after Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charles Baker announced that he was considering a gubernatorial run. Baker, who served admirably in the administrations of former Republican Governors William Weld and Paul Cellucci, told the Boston Herald that a run would be an “uphill climb”; however, considering...

It seems like just yesterday we made history in Massachusetts with the election of our current governor. He ran on slogans of Hope and Change. He was called a very good speaker. He was backed by David Axelrod. So how are things going in Masachusetts now? Well, we are about to live up to our nickname of Taxachusetts again. While the rest of the country is about to go through another Jimmy Carter, we are already in the midst of Michael Dukakis Part II.

One would never guess that America is experiencing one of the worst recessions in history. Considering the legislation being passed on the federal level and proposals being made on the state level, one would think that Americans are enjoying tremendous excesses and the government simply wants to partake. Yesterday, Obama signed into law the SCHIP modifications that would expand coverage to more children. The pitfalls of this legislation are too numerous to list, the burden on the taxpayer is growing. Under the new applicants will no longer have to provide social security numbers when filing for aid, thereby allowing illegals...

BOSTON - Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick today proposed generating $587 million in new state revenue by increasing taxes on everything from hotel rooms to alcohol in an effort to fill a budget hole created by declining state revenues. Governor Deval Patrick The spending plan includes $1.6 billion in spending cuts and savings; withdraws $586 million from the rainy day fund; and anticipates $711 million from federal stimulus package that has yet to be approved by Congress. The governor also announced midyear budget cuts that include slicing $191 million from state government spending and cutting $128 million from local aid, which...

Major restaurant chains in Massachusetts would be required to prominently post the calorie counts for all their offerings - at the counter or on the menu - under a far-reaching anti-obesity campaign that Governor Deval Patrick's administration is expected to announce today. The administration's battle against bulging waistlines also calls for public schools to measure the height and weight of first-, fourth-, seventh-, and 10th-graders and calculate whether a child is overweight. The finding would be sent home with students along with detailed advice on eating better and exercising more, with the goal of reducing the incidence of health conditions...

Governor Deval Patrick is pushing lawmakers to expand the state's ability to collect sales tax on products sold over the Internet, which could add millions of dollars in revenue each year and alleviate a severe budget crisis.

Five Governors - all Democrats - are asking that the federal government provide a thousand billion dollars to the fifty states (that's a trillion dollars for those of you educated in public school) to help pay for "education, welfare and infrastructure."The Obamacratic trinity.According to New York Governor David Paterson - one of the five Governors pressing for the big T - forty-three states are running deficits totaling $100 billion (So, naturally, an extra $900 billion seems perfectly reasonable).Lookout taxpayers ... blue state grab-hands are on the way.As I have written about and lamented extensively since Bailout America hit the big...

Living in Deval Patrick’s Massachusetts prepares one well for living in Barack Obama’s America. Massachusetts state government is an enormous organized crime enterprise run by moronic thugs who work for elitist thugs. Nothing is done by Massachusetts state government to help citizens. Everything is done to further bloat itself while mugging the taxpayer and making the elite feel better about themselves. I recently paid-off my car loan. In return, I received from the RMV my new title. Just one problem. The “actual mileage” stated was 23,000 miles too high. I researched the net and found that I had to submit...

If you’re having trouble figuring out what Gov. Deval Patrick’s really trying to do with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, just keep in mind the ABC’s of Beacon Hill budgeting: Anything But Cuts. While your wages have likely remained flat the past five years, state government spending has gone up 8 percent each year. During the past year, while the private sector was losing 1.4 million jobs, USA Today reports that state and local governments added 160,000 - the second-fastest growing sector of the economy. So when you hear that Patrick is “getting rid of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority,” you should...

ALL IN THE FAMILY Senior aides to Sen. Barack Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick were aware that Obama's aunt, Zeituni Onyango, was living in the United States illegally and in a South Boston public-housing project, and were monitoring her at the request of senior Obama campaign officials, according to a current employee for Obama's key political consulting firm, AKP&D Message and Media. Back in early 2007, as Obama's chief campaign strategist David Axelrod was organizing and planning the Obama campaign, he identified Obama's unique family situation -- a number of half-brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, some living overseas -- as...

The Talk Shows Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain; David Plouffe, campaign manager for Obama.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.; former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.FACE THE NATION (CBS): David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Barack Obama; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and John Ensign, R-Nev.THIS WEEK (ABC): David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Barack Obama; Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain.LATE EDITION (CNN) : Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Govs. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Mark...

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick has lately addressed doting crowds around the country as a surrogate for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, his friend and fellow gifted orator. Last month, Mr. Obama even acknowledged borrowing language from Mr. Patrick’s stump speeches, casting a flattering light on a novice politician barely known outside Massachusetts. But there is no such glow at home for Mr. Patrick, the first Democrat to lead his state in 16 years and the nation’s second elected black governor.

Gov. Deval Patrick, a national co-chairman of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, teamed up with the Illinois senator to represent the controversy-plagued activist network ACORN in a 1993 case and secured money for the group in this year’s state budget, the Herald has learned.

For some reason, and despite my obvious interest in conflicts between civil liberties and antidiscrimination laws, I haven't gotten around to blogging about the recent pernicious attacks on freedom of expression in Canada, courtesy of provincial "human rights" commissions.(snip)During the Clinton Administration, lawyers at both HUD and the Justice Department--most prominently Deval Patrick*--were at the forefront of trying to blur the distinction between expression and discriminatory actions in the context of housing discrimination law. In particular, the Clinton Administration argued that merely speaking out against plans to locating facilities for the mentally ill or recovering drug addicts in one's neighborhood...