Worcester County Freedom Trail

I’ve lived in this stage nearly 30 years and I still can’t believe how many of the Democrats on Beacon Hill are prepared to publicly lie and scam the system just to keep their stranglehold on politics in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. Not only did the Dem’s show their hypocrisy in rewriting the rules for appointing a Senator, they then took advantage of an “emergency” loophole to put the measure into effect immediately because they didn’t have the 2/3 majority they needed to pass it.

Is anyone surprised that the Tea Party movement has so many followers? We’re sick of the deceit and political power plays.

I can’t say it better than it was said in this piece in Las Vegas Review Journal piece:

If Democrats remain mystified by “tea parties” and other recent expressions of outrage against Washington, they ought to look no further than what their own are trying to pull in Massachusetts as a perfect example of why many Americans are fed up with politicians and politics.

The shenanigans involve the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy.

Until 2004, Massachusetts law empowered the state’s governor to fill an unexpected Senate vacancy. But the state had a Republican governor that year, and Sen. John Kerry won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Worried that a Republican might be appointed to replace Sen. Kerry if he were elevated to the White House, Bay State Democrats, enjoying large legislative majorities, changed the rules to mandate that any vacancies be filled via special elections.

Fast forward five years. A Democrat now sits in the governor’s office. Sen. Kennedy loses his life fighting brain cancer. It will be at least four months before Massachusetts can hold a special election, and Democrats are one vote short of a filibuster-proof 60 in the U.S. Senate as they race to pass a radical agenda.

Solution? Massachusetts Democrats rewrite the rules again.

On Tuesday, the state Senate voted 24-16 to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to select Mr. Kennedy’s successor. The House passed the bill last week.

End of story? Nope.

Turns out that under the state constitution, laws passed by the legislature take effect 90 days after they’re signed by the governor — unless lawmakers attach a so-called “emergency pre-amble.”

Such emergency measures must be approved by a two-thirds majority — a benchmark lawmakers failed to achieve in ramming through changes in the succession process.

Not to worry.

The president of the Massachusetts Senate argues that the governor can get around the two-thirds problem by writing a letter to the secretary of state declaring his own “emergency.” Presto! He can then appoint a favored Democrat immediately to save the day for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The lesson all this nonsense sends to schoolchildren is clear. Maintaining power is the primary purpose of political life. And if politicians don’t like the rules or constitutional restrictions that stand in their way, they simply change them — and if they can’t change them, they ignore them.

It’s the attitude that has given us a government that has grown far beyond the boundaries imposed by the nation’s founding document, a government that meddles in even the most minute aspects of daily life, a government fast heading off a financial cliff thanks to big spenders and redistributionists who view the productive classes as their own giant Treasury.

It’s the attitude that has a great many Americans up in arms. And they may have finally gotten sick enough to do something about it.

Apologies to my conservative Democratic friends, but I can’t resist. I have to post this, one of the greatest political lines in movie history. Thanks to Michael for the heads up.

From Bob Hope, in the movie “Ghost Breakers,” comes this classic…

Geoff: “When a person dies and is buried, it seems there’s certain voodoo priests who have the power to bring him back to life.”
Mary: “How horrible.”
Geoff: “It’s worse than horrible because a zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes, walking around with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring.”
Larry: “You mean like democrats?”

Well, duh! I’d laugh if the whole situation wasn’t so horrifying. Job losses, reduction in buying power of the dollar, companies going out of business… We cannot sit idly by and let the government further damage what is fundamentally good about the US economy. Nice to see someone in Congress realizes how this latest problem arose. But I’m not holding my breath that the legislators will admit their culpability.

From Townhall.com:

According to a report released from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Tuesday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the leading culprits in the housing crisis because they encouraged people to borrow money, despite the fact they might not be able to pay it back. Duh.

It took 9 months and a 26-page government report to realize this?

Conservatives have long been warning that federal programs like the Community Reinvestment Act would build an inflated housing market resting on shaky foundations.

In fact, the report explains how Fannie and Feddie–government programs exempt from the oversights governing other publicly-traded firms–”privatized their profits but socialized their risks.”

CNSNews reports.

You know the system is out of control when legislators sit around thinking up repressive bills that will put control of airline carry-on size in the hands of the federal government. For goodness sake, the airlines can take care of this themselves.

From Townhall.com:

Three-term U.S. Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) this month introduced a bill that would impose a federal limit on the size of baggage allowed to be carried by passengers boarding aircraft. It sounds like while jet-setting to and from the nation’s capital, the Congressman has been somewhat inconvenienced in the past: “The passengers who board the plane last often don’t have any place to stow their carry-ons because the people who got on first fill the overhead bins with oversize roll-on bags,” Lipinski said.

Instead of arriving for flights earlier to secure overhead space, let’s introduce some legislation! While we’re on the subject, can we ban carry-on luggage from being stowed beneath seats? Air travelers should have a right to overhead compartment space and adequate leg room!

If you’re interested, get out your tape measure and read the full story to see if Rep. Lipinski would deem your carry-on acceptable.

Surprised I’m just seeing this now for the first time, but I really like it so thought I’d share it with you all. Pastor Joe Wright from Central Christian Church in Kansas, delivered this prayer on the floor of the Kansas House of Representatives in 1996. Somehow this got attributed to Billy Graham, but it’s actually Wright’s.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.

We know your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that’s exactly what we’ve done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I’m appalled the House approved the sales tax increase. But apparently all is not lost in Worcester County. We have 18 rep districts. Nine voted for the increase, nine against.

Time for the nine who voted for the tax increase to go. Here are the details and where we need to field new candidates.

The nine who voted for the increase. These guys have got to go:
- Alicea, Charlton, 6th Worcester
- Binienda, Leicester, 17th Worcester
- DiNatale, Fitchburg, 3rd Worcester
- Fernandes, Milford, 10th Worcester
- Gobi, Spencer, 5th Worcester
- Naughton, Clinton, 12th Worcester
- O’Day, Worcester, 14th Worcester
- Pedone, Worcester, 15th Worcester
- Spellane, Worcester, 13th Worcester

Here are the nine who voted against:
- Callahan, Sutton, 18th Worcester
- Evangelidis, Holden, 1st Worcester
- Fresolo, Worcester, 16th Worcester
- Frost, Auburn, 7th Worcester
- Kujawski, Webster, 8th Worcester
- Peterson, Grafton, 9th Worcester
- Polito, Shrewsbury, 11th Worcester
- Rice, Gardner, 2nd Worcester
- Rosa, Leominster, 4th Worcester

UPDATE:
Had enough? Write a letter to the editor:
- The Boston Globe – letter@globe.com
- The Boston Herald – letterstoeditor@bostonherald.com
- The Worcester Telegram – letters@telegram.com
- The Patriot Ledger – editpage@ledger.com
- The Metrowest Daily News – mdnletters@cnc.com
- The Sentinel & Enterprise – Letters@SentinelAndEnterprise.com
- The Lowell Sun – backtalk@lowellsun.com
- The Eagle-Tribune – kjohnson@eagletribune.com
- The Springfield Republican – http://www.masslive.com/contactus/
- The Cape Cod Times – letters@capecodonline.com
- The Berkshire Eagle – letters@berkshireeagle.com

Pictures of the Worcester Tea Party keep flowing in from all over the county. Thanks to all who contributed. See if you can find yourself in these pictures!

Btw, did you hear about the horrendous pork being piled on to Gov Patrick’s budget?

House lawmakers have already larded a $27.4 billion state budget with dozens of pork-barrel amendments totaling millions of dollars despite a crippling economy – including one $150,000 request to study the winter moth.

I’m thinking we need a pork roast next, eh?!?!

Great letter to the Telegram editor by local activist, Desiree Awiszio:

Mr. Obama returned from his European public relations exercise. Europe told Mr. Obama ‘NO’ to helping militarily in combat or economically in Afghanistan. Appeasement and eating humble pie gains no credibility. It didn’t make a particle of difference how much Mr. Obama smiled and bowed to Saudi Kings. It diminshed Mr. Obama and the United States. North Korea fires a missile while the American President gives a speech about disarming the U.S.. Russian President Medvedev is thinking, what a pushover. What did Mr. Obama gain with the nice language ? Zero.

Mr. Obama’s deficient knowledge of American history is shocking. Mr. Obama says there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Maybe that’s because when there was genocide and civil war in the Balkans, it didn’t lift a finger until America led. Maybe that’s because when there was an invasion in Kuwait, it didn’t lift a finger until America led. Then Mr. Obama calls America arrogant, dismissive, and derisive regarding Europe. When Kennedy arrived in Paris, he did not attack Eisenhower and the United States. In order to gain the adoration of the crowd, Mr. Obama denigrated his country disgracefully.

The Obama administration undermines U.S. missile defense while imagining a fantasy world of trust and cooperation. How do we apply President Ronald Reagan’s slogan of ‘trust but verify’ in dictatorships we can’t trust and can’t verify? Reagan had to rebuild the U.S. after Carter allowed U.S. security policy to wither in the 1970s. The next Republican President will do the same.

As if the assault on American’s freedom and capitalism wasn’t bad enough, it just got worse. The Obama administration has several formerly private sectors on tinder hooks waiting for more bailout money. The Treasury Secretary is now resorting to blackmail to get CEOs from these companies to resign (see story about Wagoner at GM). And now, hot off the press, Rep Barney Frank is determined to make the government responsible for setting EVERYONE’s salary in the new Pay for Performance Act of 2009:

Now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the “Pay for Performance Act of 2009,” would impose government controls on the pay of all employees — not just top executives — of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

The purpose of the legislation is to “prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards,” according to the bill’s language. That includes regular pay, bonuses — everything — paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.

The Pay for Performance Act of 2009 will start with companies who’ve accepted bailout money. But don’t be surprised when it spreads its wings to all private sector companies.

At this point, we would do well to heed the words of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2009. From the Wall Street Journal:

Esteemed colleagues, one is sorely tempted to make simple and popular decisions in times of crisis. However, we could face far greater complications if we merely treat the symptoms of the disease.

Naturally, all national governments and business leaders must take resolute actions. Nevertheless, it is important to avoid making decisions, even in such force majeure circumstances, that we will regret in the future.

This is why I would first like to mention specific measures which should be avoided and which will not be implemented by Russia.

We must not revert to isolationism and unrestrained economic egotism. The leaders of the world’s largest economies agreed during the November 2008 G20 summit not to create barriers hindering global trade and capital flows. Russia shares these principles.

Although additional protectionism will prove inevitable during the crisis, all of us must display a sense of proportion.

Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence is another possible mistake.

True, the state’s increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.

The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.

Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

And one more point: anti-crisis measures should not escalate into financial populism and a refusal to implement responsible macroeconomic policies. The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

Sponsored by the Republicans on Beacon Hill, the first of a series of events called the “Hardship Listening Tour,” brought a standing room only crowd to Auburn Monday night. Reps. Paul Frost, George Peterson, and Karyn Polito listened carefully and promised to bring the “no new taxes” message back to Beacon Hill.

Governor Patrick, take note — the people of this state can not afford higher taxes. It’s time you start living within our means.

Watch the news report from Channel 5 Boston.

Watch the full, two hour long hearing on video.