http://taxdayteaparty.com/
Why fight the traffic to go to the rally at The State House - you can protest closer to home!
Date: Wednesday April 15, 2009
Time: Starts @ 4:00 PM until...
Place: Corner of The Fellsway @ Salem Street MedfordBRING YOUR PROTEST SIGNS!
(Please contact medfordgop@gmail.com in advance if you need a sign.)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
GOP gleeful at prospects for 2010
Donald Lambro (Contact)
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Republican strategists eager to rebuild the party and regain voter confidence see the comeback road running over a number of unpopular Democratic governorships on a playing field that favors making statehouse gains in traditionally Republican red states.
Boosting the Republicans' potential political appeal in the current two-year election cycle is the Democrats' tendency to propose higher taxes as the solution to their state budget deficits that has sent gubernatorial polls into a steep nose dive in these tight economic times — giving the Republican Party a potent issue in the contests to come.
That scenario appears to be a work in progress in Massachusetts, where the governor's mansion would be considered a long-shot in the heavily Democratic state, but where Gov. Deval Patrick's plummeting approval numbers has become a story line that some political analysts see playing out elsewhere in the country.
Full story
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Republican strategists eager to rebuild the party and regain voter confidence see the comeback road running over a number of unpopular Democratic governorships on a playing field that favors making statehouse gains in traditionally Republican red states.
Boosting the Republicans' potential political appeal in the current two-year election cycle is the Democrats' tendency to propose higher taxes as the solution to their state budget deficits that has sent gubernatorial polls into a steep nose dive in these tight economic times — giving the Republican Party a potent issue in the contests to come.
That scenario appears to be a work in progress in Massachusetts, where the governor's mansion would be considered a long-shot in the heavily Democratic state, but where Gov. Deval Patrick's plummeting approval numbers has become a story line that some political analysts see playing out elsewhere in the country.
Full story
Monday, March 30, 2009
Letter to the editor
From Sunday's Boston Globe;
ANOTHER DAY passes, and another revelation of stimulus graft emerges. Coming on the heels of the discovery that the Senate protected AIG bonuses before feigning outrage that the bonuses were protected is the news that most public works projects that would create long-term stimulus are exempt from the stimulus plan ("Stimulus rules may stymie transportation projects," March 26, Page B7). Is this the bailout plan, or the bait-and-switch plan?
It is becoming increasingly evident that the "shovel-ready" projects Democrats used to sell this plan to the American people can be found in piles, wherever manure is sold.
NICK MCNULTY, Medford
ANOTHER DAY passes, and another revelation of stimulus graft emerges. Coming on the heels of the discovery that the Senate protected AIG bonuses before feigning outrage that the bonuses were protected is the news that most public works projects that would create long-term stimulus are exempt from the stimulus plan ("Stimulus rules may stymie transportation projects," March 26, Page B7). Is this the bailout plan, or the bait-and-switch plan?
It is becoming increasingly evident that the "shovel-ready" projects Democrats used to sell this plan to the American people can be found in piles, wherever manure is sold.
NICK MCNULTY, Medford
Column: Bay State Republicans need to find their conservative souls
Taylor Armerding
I hear the Massachusetts Republican Party is beginning a series of navel-gazing forums to figure out how it can resurrect its own cold, dead corpse.
The "MassGOP Grassroots Forums" began this past week in West Springfield and are coming to Plymouth, Fall River, Worcester, Dedham and Andover.
I can't wait. I think I have a closet that will easily hold them all.
Yeah, bad joke. But the party is a bad joke. If those who claim the GOP label had any energy, any smarts, any charisma, any passion, any ambition other than to "get along" with the Democrats at the Statehouse, they'd be on a tear about now.
They have had a literal feast of "issues" dropped in their laps.
They've had a Democratic state senator caught on video stuffing cash into her bra. They've had a Democratic House speaker resign just in time to avoid being forced out of office due to ethical, uh, "problems." And he's the third in a row.
They've had a remarkable run of stories, even in the left-leaning Boston media, about how the honest, working taxpayers of both parties are being shafted — paying for a pension system for public employees that is beyond outrageous, brought to you courtesy of the Democratic Party, which has controlled the Massachusetts Statehouse since 1958.
They've also had a run of stories about the outrageous provisions in union contracts. Which party is in bed with the unions? It ain't Republicans.
What is wrong with the Massachusetts Republican Party is not complicated. It does not require a series of grassroots forums to figure out. For my eminently reasonable $100,000 consulting fee, I can tell them what to do in three words: BE REAL REPUBLICANS.
You'd think that would be obvious. But in Massachusetts it is not. Republicans are convinced that their party's fundamental principles — limited government, personal responsibility along with personal freedom, the free market, low taxes, fiscal responsibility — won't sell in Massachusetts. They think the route to electoral success is to be Democrat Lite.
Full column
I hear the Massachusetts Republican Party is beginning a series of navel-gazing forums to figure out how it can resurrect its own cold, dead corpse.
The "MassGOP Grassroots Forums" began this past week in West Springfield and are coming to Plymouth, Fall River, Worcester, Dedham and Andover.
I can't wait. I think I have a closet that will easily hold them all.
Yeah, bad joke. But the party is a bad joke. If those who claim the GOP label had any energy, any smarts, any charisma, any passion, any ambition other than to "get along" with the Democrats at the Statehouse, they'd be on a tear about now.
They have had a literal feast of "issues" dropped in their laps.
They've had a Democratic state senator caught on video stuffing cash into her bra. They've had a Democratic House speaker resign just in time to avoid being forced out of office due to ethical, uh, "problems." And he's the third in a row.
They've had a remarkable run of stories, even in the left-leaning Boston media, about how the honest, working taxpayers of both parties are being shafted — paying for a pension system for public employees that is beyond outrageous, brought to you courtesy of the Democratic Party, which has controlled the Massachusetts Statehouse since 1958.
They've also had a run of stories about the outrageous provisions in union contracts. Which party is in bed with the unions? It ain't Republicans.
What is wrong with the Massachusetts Republican Party is not complicated. It does not require a series of grassroots forums to figure out. For my eminently reasonable $100,000 consulting fee, I can tell them what to do in three words: BE REAL REPUBLICANS.
You'd think that would be obvious. But in Massachusetts it is not. Republicans are convinced that their party's fundamental principles — limited government, personal responsibility along with personal freedom, the free market, low taxes, fiscal responsibility — won't sell in Massachusetts. They think the route to electoral success is to be Democrat Lite.
Full column
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Medford runners prep for Boston Marathon
By Christopher Hurley / churley@cnc.com
Tue Mar 24, 2009, 07:33 PM EDT
Medford - We’re less than a month away from the 113th running of the Boston Marathon as a plethora of local runners continue to prepare for the big race.
If you’ve seen a lot of joggers roaming the streets of Medford lately there is a very good reason. A total of 88 Medford residents have officially entered the 26.5-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston.
Many will be running for a reason and this year will be no exception.
Kate Blumberg, 32, Michael Carli, 26, and Christine Carlson, 32, will be raising thousands of dollars for those who suffer from life-threatening liver diseases. They will join a team of 240 runners from 26 states that comprise the American Liver Foundation’s Run for Research (RFR) team.
This year’s field also features a great cross section of runners including three Medford teenagers, Allister Chang, 18, Molly Moulton, 19, and Evan Steinberg, 10. Medford’s John Turchi, 56, and marathon veteran Sue Fowler, 54, head up a strong senior circuit.
The Boston Marathon will be run on Monday, April 20.
Tue Mar 24, 2009, 07:33 PM EDT
Medford - We’re less than a month away from the 113th running of the Boston Marathon as a plethora of local runners continue to prepare for the big race.
If you’ve seen a lot of joggers roaming the streets of Medford lately there is a very good reason. A total of 88 Medford residents have officially entered the 26.5-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston.
Many will be running for a reason and this year will be no exception.
Kate Blumberg, 32, Michael Carli, 26, and Christine Carlson, 32, will be raising thousands of dollars for those who suffer from life-threatening liver diseases. They will join a team of 240 runners from 26 states that comprise the American Liver Foundation’s Run for Research (RFR) team.
This year’s field also features a great cross section of runners including three Medford teenagers, Allister Chang, 18, Molly Moulton, 19, and Evan Steinberg, 10. Medford’s John Turchi, 56, and marathon veteran Sue Fowler, 54, head up a strong senior circuit.
The Boston Marathon will be run on Monday, April 20.
Mitt Romney on card check
Cautionary tale of card check
Mitt Romney
In 2006, my last year as governor of Massachusetts, I vetoed a card-check bill that allowed public workers to organize if a majority signed union authorization cards as opposed to casting a traditional secret ballot. The veto was a gain for the rights of employees and employers to a fair election, but the victory was short-lived.
After I left office, organized labor had another run at replacing the secret ballot with a card check. With the support of Democrats in the legislature, that same bill I had vetoed was passed again in 2007 - and my Democratic successor signed it into law. What happened next is a cautionary tale for Congress as it moves toward a vote on national card-check legislation.
By tilting the playing field in favor of unions, card check not only robs workers of a secret ballot, it deprives management of the right to express its point of view. It will dramatically change the workplace as we know it, just as it's beginning to do for charter schools in Massachusetts. Small businesses will have to hire labor lawyers and follow burdensome new rules. If the parties can't agree on a contract, mandatory arbitration follows and employers that don't yield to union demands will have contracts foisted on them.
All of this will raise costs, leading to more unemployment. The Labor Department reported that unemployment in February rose to 8.1 percent as American employers cut another 651,000 jobs. Unions are supposed to serve the interests of working people, yet in this case more power for the unions would help destroy many thousands of jobs throughout the economy.
Full Article
Mitt Romney
In 2006, my last year as governor of Massachusetts, I vetoed a card-check bill that allowed public workers to organize if a majority signed union authorization cards as opposed to casting a traditional secret ballot. The veto was a gain for the rights of employees and employers to a fair election, but the victory was short-lived.
After I left office, organized labor had another run at replacing the secret ballot with a card check. With the support of Democrats in the legislature, that same bill I had vetoed was passed again in 2007 - and my Democratic successor signed it into law. What happened next is a cautionary tale for Congress as it moves toward a vote on national card-check legislation.
By tilting the playing field in favor of unions, card check not only robs workers of a secret ballot, it deprives management of the right to express its point of view. It will dramatically change the workplace as we know it, just as it's beginning to do for charter schools in Massachusetts. Small businesses will have to hire labor lawyers and follow burdensome new rules. If the parties can't agree on a contract, mandatory arbitration follows and employers that don't yield to union demands will have contracts foisted on them.
All of this will raise costs, leading to more unemployment. The Labor Department reported that unemployment in February rose to 8.1 percent as American employers cut another 651,000 jobs. Unions are supposed to serve the interests of working people, yet in this case more power for the unions would help destroy many thousands of jobs throughout the economy.
Full Article
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
T set to raise cash with billboard blitz
Deval Patrick keeps searching for revenue solutions to his spending problem, and, as usual, he is not afraid to trample the rights of citizens to do so.
-Medford GOP
19 localities receiving ads have little power to say no
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
The MBTA, desperate to raise money, will auction off space for 60 new billboards along highways in Eastern Massachusetts, in what officials are calling the largest single introduction of new billboard sites in state history.
The jumbo advertisements, expected to earn the agency about $6 million a year, will be grouped in 32 locations in 19 cities and towns that have little or no control over their placement.
"At Wellington station? You've got to be kidding," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, when a reporter told him about a plan to erect two billboards back-to-back in his city. "No one wants someone just coming into their community and saying 'Hey, here's where it's going. Like it or lump it.' "
The new billboards, announced yesterday as the agency tries to stave off a fare increase, are part of an ongoing program launched last month, when workers began installing 20 new signs at 10 locations along interstates in Boston, Somerville, and Westwood. By the middle of next year, the MBTA expects to have more than tripled the number of supersize "bulletin" billboards than it had at the beginning of this year.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency is exercising its special right, affirmed last year by the Supreme Judicial Court, to put up ads on its property without local zoning review. In their ruling, the judges said that the T, in fact, had a responsibility to try to minimize fare hikes by leasing ad space.
The value of these advertisements stems not only from their high visibility but also because companies would not otherwise be able to erect signs in many of these cities and towns if local officials had their say. None of the officials reached yesterday were aware of the MBTA's plans.
"What's a billboard? We don't allow them," said Buzz Stapczynski, town manager of Andover, where the MBTA plans to install four new signs on either side of Interstate 495.
Stapczynski called it another example of the state stepping on the rights of cities and towns.
-Medford GOP
19 localities receiving ads have little power to say no
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff
The MBTA, desperate to raise money, will auction off space for 60 new billboards along highways in Eastern Massachusetts, in what officials are calling the largest single introduction of new billboard sites in state history.
The jumbo advertisements, expected to earn the agency about $6 million a year, will be grouped in 32 locations in 19 cities and towns that have little or no control over their placement.
"At Wellington station? You've got to be kidding," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, when a reporter told him about a plan to erect two billboards back-to-back in his city. "No one wants someone just coming into their community and saying 'Hey, here's where it's going. Like it or lump it.' "
The new billboards, announced yesterday as the agency tries to stave off a fare increase, are part of an ongoing program launched last month, when workers began installing 20 new signs at 10 locations along interstates in Boston, Somerville, and Westwood. By the middle of next year, the MBTA expects to have more than tripled the number of supersize "bulletin" billboards than it had at the beginning of this year.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Agency is exercising its special right, affirmed last year by the Supreme Judicial Court, to put up ads on its property without local zoning review. In their ruling, the judges said that the T, in fact, had a responsibility to try to minimize fare hikes by leasing ad space.
The value of these advertisements stems not only from their high visibility but also because companies would not otherwise be able to erect signs in many of these cities and towns if local officials had their say. None of the officials reached yesterday were aware of the MBTA's plans.
"What's a billboard? We don't allow them," said Buzz Stapczynski, town manager of Andover, where the MBTA plans to install four new signs on either side of Interstate 495.
Stapczynski called it another example of the state stepping on the rights of cities and towns.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Cradle of democracy?
By Jeff Jacoby
March 18, 2009
IF ANY STATE could be called a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, it would be Massachusetts. Its statewide elected officials are all Democrats, as is every member of its congressional delegation. The Legislature is the most lopsidedly Democratic in the union - there are only five Republicans among the 40 senators, and just 19 in the 160-member House of Representatives - and it has been more than half a century since the GOP controlled either branch. Political analyst Jon Keller writes in "The Bluest State," his uninhibited survey of contemporary Bay State politics, "Massachusetts over the past few decades has been a Democrats' Burger King: They always have it their way."
Massachusetts isn't only the nation's most Democratic state. It is also the nation's most undemocratic state. Elections occur on a regular basis, but few of them are contested. Republican and Democratic candidates squared off over just 35 of the 200 legislative seats on the ballot last November - a pathetic 17 percent. In no other state are competitive races so rare. And rarer still are contested primaries: Last year, nearly 9 out of 10 Democratic incumbents were renominated without a challenge.
What explains the Bay State's dysfunctional democracy?
The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a nonpartisan Boston think tank, has been trying to answer that question. In the current issue of its journal CommonWealth, Alison Lobron contrasts the sclerotic political culture of Massachusetts with the electoral vibrancy of Minnesota. The dissimilarity between the two could hardly be more pronounced. Last fall, while the overwhelming majority of Massachusetts legislators ran unopposed for reelection, the Republican and Democratic parties contested every seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
What accounts for the difference? Part of the answer, Lobron suggests, has to do with money. Legislative candidates in Minnesota abide by a $35,000 spending cap, and taxpayers who contribute to public financing designate which party they want their dollars to support. In Massachusetts, incumbents deter challengers by amassing vast campaign war chests. Minnesota politicians, on the other hand, have a "carry-forward" rule that bars them from retaining more than $15,000 from one campaign to the next.
Full column
Related story;
CEOs put Mass. near bottom for business climate
By Jay Fitzgerald
Massachusetts rates a lowly 47th on a CEO survey of the best states to do business.
The Bay State can take some comfort that it overtook New Jersey on the annual list and that New York and California ranked dead last on the 2009 list released by Chief Executive magazine.
But the survey showed, as it has in prior years, that Massachusetts doesn’t have the best reputation among the nation’s top business leaders.
The biggest complaint, according to survey results, was that the state is too expensive.
Full story
March 18, 2009
IF ANY STATE could be called a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party, it would be Massachusetts. Its statewide elected officials are all Democrats, as is every member of its congressional delegation. The Legislature is the most lopsidedly Democratic in the union - there are only five Republicans among the 40 senators, and just 19 in the 160-member House of Representatives - and it has been more than half a century since the GOP controlled either branch. Political analyst Jon Keller writes in "The Bluest State," his uninhibited survey of contemporary Bay State politics, "Massachusetts over the past few decades has been a Democrats' Burger King: They always have it their way."
Massachusetts isn't only the nation's most Democratic state. It is also the nation's most undemocratic state. Elections occur on a regular basis, but few of them are contested. Republican and Democratic candidates squared off over just 35 of the 200 legislative seats on the ballot last November - a pathetic 17 percent. In no other state are competitive races so rare. And rarer still are contested primaries: Last year, nearly 9 out of 10 Democratic incumbents were renominated without a challenge.
What explains the Bay State's dysfunctional democracy?
The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, a nonpartisan Boston think tank, has been trying to answer that question. In the current issue of its journal CommonWealth, Alison Lobron contrasts the sclerotic political culture of Massachusetts with the electoral vibrancy of Minnesota. The dissimilarity between the two could hardly be more pronounced. Last fall, while the overwhelming majority of Massachusetts legislators ran unopposed for reelection, the Republican and Democratic parties contested every seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives.
What accounts for the difference? Part of the answer, Lobron suggests, has to do with money. Legislative candidates in Minnesota abide by a $35,000 spending cap, and taxpayers who contribute to public financing designate which party they want their dollars to support. In Massachusetts, incumbents deter challengers by amassing vast campaign war chests. Minnesota politicians, on the other hand, have a "carry-forward" rule that bars them from retaining more than $15,000 from one campaign to the next.
Full column
Related story;
CEOs put Mass. near bottom for business climate
By Jay Fitzgerald
Massachusetts rates a lowly 47th on a CEO survey of the best states to do business.
The Bay State can take some comfort that it overtook New Jersey on the annual list and that New York and California ranked dead last on the 2009 list released by Chief Executive magazine.
But the survey showed, as it has in prior years, that Massachusetts doesn’t have the best reputation among the nation’s top business leaders.
The biggest complaint, according to survey results, was that the state is too expensive.
Full story
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
REMINDER: Medford Republican City Committee Meeting this Thursday (3/19)
A reminder that the next meeting of the Medford Republican City Committee is scheduled for this Thursday, March 19, at 7pm, in the Magoun Room at the Medford Public Library (111 High St, Medford).
Peter Georgiou, Treasurer of the Malden City Committee, is expected to attend and offer brief remarks. Also expected is Helen Hatch, State Committeewoman for the Fourth Middlesex District, who will offer guidance on "Voter Vault" use.
Peter Georgiou, Treasurer of the Malden City Committee, is expected to attend and offer brief remarks. Also expected is Helen Hatch, State Committeewoman for the Fourth Middlesex District, who will offer guidance on "Voter Vault" use.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Medford Democrat State Representatives proposes additional 12 cent gas tax for MBTA pensions and salaries
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick has taken flak for proposing a 19-cent gasoline tax hike to fix an array of state transportation problems, but two state representatives are proposing a 12-cent increase just for the T.
Reps. Alice Wolf of Cambridge and Carl Sciortino of Medford say the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority needs the money to both close a $160 million deficit and return the system to a state of good repair.
Wolf told reporters Tuesday that if the T isn’t properly funded, "we will have road congestion no one’s ever thought about."
Full story
Reps. Alice Wolf of Cambridge and Carl Sciortino of Medford say the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority needs the money to both close a $160 million deficit and return the system to a state of good repair.
Wolf told reporters Tuesday that if the T isn’t properly funded, "we will have road congestion no one’s ever thought about."
Full story
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Lyndon Baines Obama
By Patrick J. Buchanan
It was the winter of conservative discontent.
Barry Goldwater had gotten only 38 percent of the vote, and his party had suffered its worst thrashing since Alf Landon fell to FDR in 1936.
Democrats held 295 House seats, Republicans 140. They held 68 Senate seats to Republicans' 32, and 33 governors to the GOP's 17. Democratic registration was twice that of the GOP. The liberal press was gleefully writing the obituary of "The Party That Lost Its Head."
Decades might pass, it was said, before the GOP recovered from its fatal embrace of right-wing radicalism and foolish rejection of the leadership of Govs. Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton.
Wrote Robert Donovan in the opening lines of his book, "The Future of the Republican Party": "The devastating defeat of Barry Goldwater at the hands of voters in all sections of the country but the Deep South has damaged, weakened and tarnished the party. For years to come ... the two-party system will be crippled."
Donovan and all the rest were wrong. The GOP came roaring back in 1966 to capture 47 House seats and eight new governorships. In 1968, Nixon led the party out of the wilderness and into a White House it would hold for 20 of the next 24 years.
Obama is misreading the election returns. When America voted to cancel the White House lease of Mr. Bush, it did not vote Barack Obama a blank check.
By misinterpreting his mandate, Obama has accomplished something John McCain could not -- unite the Republican Party and instill in it a new esprit de corps. For the Obama budget is an insult to the core belief of the party -- that free people, not coercive government, should shape the character of society.
By daring Republicans to fight on the issue of a $1.75 trillion deficit, Obama has liberated the GOP from any obligation to him. He has come out of the closet as a radical liberal spoiling for a fight over an agenda of radical change.
Sooner than any might have thought, we have clarity.
Full article
It was the winter of conservative discontent.
Barry Goldwater had gotten only 38 percent of the vote, and his party had suffered its worst thrashing since Alf Landon fell to FDR in 1936.
Democrats held 295 House seats, Republicans 140. They held 68 Senate seats to Republicans' 32, and 33 governors to the GOP's 17. Democratic registration was twice that of the GOP. The liberal press was gleefully writing the obituary of "The Party That Lost Its Head."
Decades might pass, it was said, before the GOP recovered from its fatal embrace of right-wing radicalism and foolish rejection of the leadership of Govs. Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton.
Wrote Robert Donovan in the opening lines of his book, "The Future of the Republican Party": "The devastating defeat of Barry Goldwater at the hands of voters in all sections of the country but the Deep South has damaged, weakened and tarnished the party. For years to come ... the two-party system will be crippled."
Donovan and all the rest were wrong. The GOP came roaring back in 1966 to capture 47 House seats and eight new governorships. In 1968, Nixon led the party out of the wilderness and into a White House it would hold for 20 of the next 24 years.
Obama is misreading the election returns. When America voted to cancel the White House lease of Mr. Bush, it did not vote Barack Obama a blank check.
By misinterpreting his mandate, Obama has accomplished something John McCain could not -- unite the Republican Party and instill in it a new esprit de corps. For the Obama budget is an insult to the core belief of the party -- that free people, not coercive government, should shape the character of society.
By daring Republicans to fight on the issue of a $1.75 trillion deficit, Obama has liberated the GOP from any obligation to him. He has come out of the closet as a radical liberal spoiling for a fight over an agenda of radical change.
Sooner than any might have thought, we have clarity.
Full article
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