GOP values pass test

Scott Brown’s Senate victory may help revive interest in the Republican Party in the Bay State.

By Kerry J. Byrne / As You Were Saying . . .
Saturday, January 30, 2010

The modern Democratic Party has rejected these bedrock American values. Maybe it’s time for the Bay State’s lifelong Democrats to finally reject the party that no longer represents them.

So you’re a Bay State voter weaned on the mother’s milk of Democratic Party orthodoxy of the past half century. You’ve faithfully pulled levers for Democrats in one election after the other to the point that before Scott Brown, Massachusetts had sent no GOP senator to Washington since 1972.

So now you’re torn. You know that Democrats abandoned you and your values long ago with their crushing taxes on families, their over-regulation of small business and their reckless race toward Big Brother-style socialism. And you agreed with Brown’s common sense bedrock-American platform: small government, low taxes, strong military.

But you were trained from childhood to think of “Republican” as a dirty word (shocking, considering that Republicans liberated the slaves, gave women the right to vote and pushed the Civil Rights Act through Congress - but I digress). This Bay State mindset is why Brown ran as an “independent voice” instead of a Republican, despite peddling a fiscally conservative platform.

So you’re not ready to make the leap. You’re not ready to admit that (gasp!) you might be a Republican. Well, I’m here to help. Consider my “You Might Be a Republican” quiz. Here goes:

If you’re sick of being overwhelmed by an endless wave of local, state and federal taxes, you might be a Republican.

If you want your children’s schools run by local parents and local administrators instead of distant bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., you might be a Republican.

If you prefer a strong American military to a weak American military, you might be a Republican.

If you believe strong, stable families are the building blocks of a strong, stable society, you might be a Republican.

If you want your tax dollars to pay for our military to kill terrorists and not pay for lawyers to defend terrorists, you might be a Republican.

If you favor individual charity and volunteerism over corrupt government handouts, you might be a Republican.

If you want the government to live within its financial means, much like your family must do, you might be a Republican.

If you think it’s OK to say “Merry Christmas” to people around, you know, Christmastime, you might be a Republican.

If you believe you have the right to defend your home and your family from criminal intruders, you might be a Republican.

If you resent bureaucratic do-gooders in D.C. telling you how to raise your family, you might be a Republican.

If you admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people, and reject the belief that growth comes from Washington’s largesse, you might be a Republican.

Full column

The latest steamrolling of taxpayers by public unions

Anyone else remember the successful Massachusetts Teachers Association-led, nationally funded campaign to keep our taxes high last year?

Public unions are like a tax-funded avalanche, they keep rolling down the slope of the national economy, destroying everything in their path and absorbing the remnants to make an even stronger avalanche. It's disgusting, we need to ban public unions, they are a threat to democracy.
-NM

From the Wall Street Journal;

It's not often that citizens vote for higher taxes, but 54% of Oregonians have done precisely that. In a rolling month-long referendum by mail that ended Tuesday, they approved some $700 million in tax hikes on business and wealthy residents.

The highest income tax rate in the state moves to 11% from 9%, which will give Oregon close to the highest rate in the nation. (New York City residents pay 12.6%.) This ballot outcome runs contrary to the current public mood about spending and taxes, so it's worth exploring how it happened.

First, a deluge of money. Local and national public employee unions bankrolled the "yes" campaign, with a $6.5 million blitz in TV and radio ads. That was $2 million more than the business community and taxpayer advocates raised. The cash helped the tax increase roll up a 71% margin in the liberal precincts in and around Portland, even as it lost in most of the rest of the state.

The union message was also as clever as it was disingenuous: All of these taxes will be paid by someone else, such as Wall Street bankers, out-of-state credit card companies, CEOs. Only the richest 2.5% will pay a little more in taxes, the unions also claimed.

The reality is that these taxes will be absorbed by employers who sign worker paychecks—from Nike Inc. to the corner grocer. Two-thirds of those hit with the new 11% tax rate are small and medium-sized business owners. Phil Knight of Nike dubbed the tax initiatives Oregon's "assisted suicide" for business. The real victims of these taxes won't be wealthy business owners, who can always move away or shelter income, but less mobile Oregonians who will find it harder to get or keep a job.

One national consequence of the Oregon vote is that we are likely to see unions finance more of these tax-the-rich campaigns in other states with big deficits. Public employee unions have a lucrative racket: They essentially leverage the tax dollars they receive in dues from the salaries and benefits of their members to lobby for more tax dollars to secure even fatter pensions and pay.

The teachers unions exulted yesterday that Oregonians voted to "protect our schools and vital public services." What was really protected was the $83,402 a year average in pay and benefits to Oregon state workers, 30% higher than what private workers receive. This is bankrupting states like Oregon, California, New York and New Jersey. On the other hand, Oregon's folly will be some other state's gain.

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

More In Opinion

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) Responds to State of the Union

MGNA:MassDOT responds to Green Line annual report comments

From the MGNA Website;

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has released its response to public comments on its 2009 Annual Status Report for the Green Line extension and the other transit commitment projects in its State Implementation Plan.

Each July 1, MassDOT is required to file an Annual Status Report on these projects, hold a public hearing (held Sept. 9, 2009), and accept written public comments. It then has 120 days to formally submit responses to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

In its document, MassDOT responds to public comments regarding its proposed two-phase construction schedule, Route 16 station property impacts, elimination of the proposed Winthrop Street station, MassDOT’s definition of “Medford Hillside,” impacts on minority and other populations, tunneling analysis, mitigation, diesel particulate pollution, as well as the project’s funding and timetable.

MassDOT also reiterates that the siting of the maintenance and storage facility for the project remains a “formidable” challenge, but that it continues to work on the issue with municipal and public stakeholders and hopes to have a resolution soon.

MGNA: Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance

Information about our green line extension.

A GOP Road Map for America's Future

By PAUL D. RYAN

Special to the Wall Street Journal

In tonight's State of the Union address, President Obama will declare a new found commitment to "fiscal responsibility" to cover the huge spending and debt he and congressional Democrats have run up in his first year in office. But next Monday, when he submits his actual budget, I fear it will rely on gimmickry, commissions, luke-warm spending "freezes," and paper-tiger controls to create the illusion of budget discipline. Meanwhile, he and the Democratic congressional leadership will continue pursuing a relentless expansion of government and a new culture of dependency.

America needs an alternative. For that reason, I have reintroduced my plan to tackle our nation's most pressing domestic challenges—updated to reflect the dramatic decline in our economic and fiscal condition. The plan, called A Road Map for America's Future and first introduced in 2008, is a comprehensive proposal to ensure health and retirement security for all Americans, to lift the debt burdens that are mounting every day because of Washington's reckless spending, and to promote jobs and competitiveness in the 21st century global economy.

The difference between the Road Map and the Democrats' approach could not be more clear. From the enactment of a $1 trillion "stimulus" last February to the current pass-at-all costs government takeover of health care, the Democratic leadership has followed a "progressive" strategy that will take us closer to a tipping point past which most Americans receive more in government benefits than they pay in taxes—a European-style welfare state where double-digit unemployment becomes a way of life.

Full column

The lastest infringement upon State's rights by the Fed

In an extension of the stealth expansionist tactics employed in disbursing federal highway money for years, we now see the federal government using our education funding as a means to exert control over the states of the Republic. The Medford Transcript cheerfully reports;

Let the race begin!

Massachusetts is one of 40 states (along with Washington D.C.) to submit an application to the federal government for “Race to the Top” funding, as part of a new program meant to bolster school finances and improve the quality of education across the country.

Getting past the fact that central control and federal funding of our school systems - along with the emergence of the bane to merit-based selection of teachers, organized progressive teachers' unions - has deteriorated the quality of our schools, not "improved the quality of education across the country", why are we even racing for our own tax dollars back in the first place?

Washington continues to take more and more money from us in the individual states each year in the form of higher taxes and fees*, and then they make us comply with their conditions and standards to beg for the money back, either in the form of "stimulus" money for infrastructure, or "Race to the Top", or "No Child Left Behind" for education funding?

Are these federal programs even constitutional? Has the 10th Amendment been removed from the Constitution, do these words ring a bell with any of our local or state lawmakers; "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Wouldn't it be nice if we had a Supreme Court that could still make that distinction for us? No, these are not helpful programs listed above, each and every one of them is an incremental usurpation of state's rights in clear violation of the U.S. Constitution and 10th Amendment. Instead of sitting up and begging like a bunch of docile puppies, the states should be growling at the hand of the fed stealing from us every day to fund these federal supremacy ponzi schemes.

Nick McNulty

*Do not believe the farcical claims of the Obama Administration and Nancy Pelosi that taxes on the middle classes have not gone up, and will not climb further. Federal taxes - or state taxes driven higher by costs pushed on the states by the Fed - on gas, alcohol, and tobacco have all gone up since January 2009, which all hit the middle class. Additionally, while the federal government raises taxes on citizens, they are cutting what comes back to the states, leading to state and local tax and fee hikes as we here in Massachusetts(6.25% state sales tax) and Medford (.75% municipal meals tax) are all too well aware.

Blame Bush for Massachusetts

By Ed Gillespie 01/21/10 at 7:16 pm

Sen.-elect Scott Brown’s stunning upset of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has provoked a fascinating round of election-year self-examination for Democrats.

Shortly after the Associated Press called the race, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen revealed the fruits of his introspection: Blame George W. Bush. “This year’s Midterms will be a choice between continuing the economic progress and independent leadership that House Democrats are delivering for their districts versus Republicans who are eager to turn back the clock to the same failed Bush-Cheney policies,” Van Hollen said.

President Obama echoed Van Hollen’s comments yesterday, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office. People are angry, and they’re frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

Phew! Good to know. Glad it wasn’t the overreaching liberal agenda of the Democrats in Congress or the Obama White House.

Full column

Larry Kudlow's clarion call to Republicans:It's the economy, stupid

Are Republicans Listening to the Scott Brown Message?

by Larry Kudlow

Sen. Scott Brown's epic victory in Massachusetts on Tuesday night dealt a crushing blow to Obamacare, cap-and-trade, card check (and other union favors) and, most importantly, all the tax hikes that are lingering on the table. But does Washington really understand the Scott Brown message?

...Brown argued that health care reform is a tax hike and that cap-and-trade is a tax hike. This should become the Republican message, too. It's about taxes, as well as spending.

A recent Washington Post poll showed that by 58 percent to 38 percent, voters want smaller government and fewer government services. This, too, should be the Republican congressional message.

It is, in fact, an economic-growth message, the likes of which we haven't heard since Jack Kemp promoted it in the late 1970s. And the brilliance of Scott Brown was to use the JFK tax cuts -- an across-the-board reduction in marginal tax rates -- to attract Democrats and independents to his message.

An across-the-board tax cut is the fairest pro-growth message of them all. Lower tax rates for everybody. Get out of the box of rich people and class warfare. For the Ted Kennedy Democrats, that box has been a loser for decades. But for timid Republicans always on the defensive, now is the time to break out and adopt the Scott Brown theme.

Full column

Robert Maiocco, Fred Dello Russo new leadership of Medford City Council - Medford, MA - Medford Transcript

Robert Maiocco, Fred Dello Russo new leadership of Medford City Council - Medford, MA - Medford Transcript

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Reminder, Medford GOP meets tonight

We will meet tonight, at the Medford Public Library, 111 High Street at 7:00PM. The agenda will include committee updates, the meeting calendar for 2010, and membership reports from the Ward Committees.

Was it really worth it?

Martha Coakley, Paul Kirk, and Joe Kennedy (no relation) in happier times

In an interview with Matthew Reid of the Medford Transcript on September 23, 2009 - ironically the day that Martha Coakley filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate - I expressed my concern on behalf of the Medford GOP of allowing our Senate seat to be the political plaything of the Washington Machine. My exact quote on that day was, “State laws should not be subject to the whims of either federal party. It’s obvious that Kennedy’s letter is from federal Democrats who want the law changed for their own gain. Some [Massachusetts lawmakers] may not want to risk the political backlash of voting to change the law. They might be asking themselves, is it really worth it?” I think that is a question that many Democrats in Massachusetts, and indeed across the country, are asking themselves today.

Carl Sciortino, my Representative, was one of the supporters of the law change that installed Paul Kirk to, in effect, broom the Obama healthcare initiative through the Senate. I had spoken with Carl on the issue, and he promised to present an open letter of mine to the Joint Committee on Election Law, which - though he clearly expressed his disagreement on the issue - I have to believe he made good on. But he still supported the measure, the Massachusetts House of Representatives passed the measure, with Rep. Sciortino concluding, “I gave the issue a lot of thought, and believe it is important for our state to have two senators acting on behalf of Massachusetts at this time."

That was the common expressed consensus that the measure was passed behind, but looking back now, what exactly did Paul Kirk vote on? A quick look at his bio on Congress.org shows an empty voting record, though we all know he was the 60th vote on the healthcare bill. So, it is only logical to assume that the only reason Kirk was sent to Washington, the only reason that our elected legislators played backroom baseball with the Washington Machine, was to be that 60th vote.

Fast forward to today, while we await the certification of our newest U.S. Senator, Scott Brown, Republican of Wrentham. Many factors contributed to Senator Brown's victory, not the least of which was the strength of his candidacy as a populist, independent candidate that made a theme of his campaign to listen to and respect the voters. In a year where a single party is ruling the country from behind closed doors and flagrantly violating the will of the public, this was political gold. I advance that this alone would be enough to win the day, but a closer look at how this political climate came to be in America bears taking.

Beyond Scott Brown's savvy campaigning, showing Massachusetts his many strengths as a leader in a state bereft of strong leaders, is the disaffection the national and Massachusetts voting public has with healthcare, cap and trade, overspending, and the hubris of single party rule from Democrats on Capitol Hill and Beacon Hill. The weakness of Martha Coakley makes a convenient scapegoat, but in truth, she ran the same type of duck-and-cover campaign successfully run by Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Ed Markey, Barney Frank, and legions of other weak Massachusetts Democrat candidates my entire life. No, the true reason for Senator Brown's election was his appeal to voters as an alternative to the unconstitutional and unrepresentative elected leadership personified nowhere more distinctly than here in Massachusetts.

And no episode made that national malady more clear to Massachusetts voters than the absconding of our second Senate seat in 2009, nothing was a more harsh slap to the face of a free and democratic people than installing a political operative named Paul Kirk to be a 60th vote to stifle the national debate on an atrociously unpopular law that seeks to fundamentally change our country. In hindsight, it has been proved out that the central tenet of Socratic ethics still holds today, in the Athens of America; we see that even today, the vice harms the doer.

Here we are today with socialized healthcare just about completely derailed, an energized electorate unified against it, and with the Democrats losing the seat Ted Kennedy held for 47 years to an upstart Republican. If this seat had not been stolen for 3 months, to cast 1 vote, would Obama and Pelosi's agenda for further socializing America be in this kind of trouble? Had Martha Coakley not been a willing participant in the crime against Democracy that was the installation of Paul Kirk, would she have been this vulnerable, or could she have run out the clock hiding from Scott Brown as John Kerry did with Jeff Beatty in 2008? Would every Democrat in Congress today not feel a chill running down their spine every time they turn a TV on with live news coming in from Boston, with their thoughts quickly shifting from appeasing a tyrant President and his sock-puppet House Speaker to the strongest political instinct in the history of civilization, self-preservation?

Having had decades of being able to push around Massachusetts voters, having the luxury of ignoring the will of the people on everything from taxes to capital punishment, to tolls on the Turnpike, and paying no political price, it is understandable that Democrats would not see the line before they crossed it. Understandable, but not excusable in my opinion, and apparently of my fellow voters.

So, my question to the Democrats currently running Massachusetts with corrupt single-party rule is the same today as it was in September of 2009; was it really worth it? I think Carl Sciortino, Sean Garballey, and a lot of other Democrats might have a different answer today.

Nick McNulty
Medford GOP

FOXNews.com - Brown Beats Coakley in Massachusetts Senate Race

FOXNews.com - Brown Beats Coakley in Massachusetts Senate Race

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Scott Brown Defeats Martha Coakley

The seat stolen in 2009 returns to the people, Washington D.C. and the Democrat Machine is officially on notice. The Constitution endures, and the Republic with it.

Medford Transcript:Brown Has 9.6% Lead in New Poll

Brown supporters focused most on pocketbook issues, Coakley supporters on healthcare reform, undecided voters split

A poll conducted by the Merriman River Group (MRG) and InsideMedford.com indicates that Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 50.8% – 41.2% in the contest to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Liberty Party candidate Joe Kennedy pulls in just 1.8% support, while 6.2% of voters are still not sure. Brown and Coakley both have most of their supporters locked in. 98% of both candidate’s supporters say they are definitely or probably going to vote for their candidate. In contrast, 22% of Kennedy’s supporters are just leaning toward him, suggesting that Brown and Coakley may both want to take aim at swaying those voters.

Full story

Medford Republican Party to hold delegate election on Jan. 23

The next meeting and state convention delegate election for the Medford Republican City Committee will be held in the Alden Council Chambers at Medford City Hall, 85 George Hassett Drive on Saturday, Jan. 23.

Registration for Ward Members and guests is slated to begin at 9:45 a.m. and end at 10:15 a.m. The meeting will begin at 10:15 a.m. with a short business session, which will include remarks from candidates in attendance.

Coakley's gaffes have hobbled her campaign

By: Susan Ferrechio

Chief Congressional Correspondent
January 17, 2010

Martha Coakley's campaign has been plagued by gaffes for weeks, but as the election approaches, her misfires seem to be coming faster.

After misspelling Massachusetts last week in a attack ad aimed at her Republican opponent, Martha Coakley's team had to quickly pull another television spot Friday when people began noticing the picture used in the backdrop depicted the World Trade Center before it was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The ad was meant to depict Scott Brown, who is leading Coakley in some polls, as a Wall Street crony.

"Republican Scott Brown opposes a plan to reform Wall Street," a voice says, as the words fill the screen. The next image shows Brown's face beside two high-rise buildings, including one of the two Trade Center towers leveled in the attack

Republicans quickly pounced on the error, with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sept. 11 hero saying Coakley owed the families of the 9/11 victims an apology.

In addition to the ads, Coakley has said and done a few things that have left people shaking their heads.

During a debate with Brown last week, Coakley declared Afghanistan free of terrorists despite a spate of recent bombings that have killed many Americans. Coakley also earned the wrath of Boston sports fans and reinforced her reputation for aloofness by mocking the idea of standing outside Fenway park in the cold to shake hands with voters, as Brown had done.

Days later, she abandoned the Bay State campaign trail completely and headed to Washington to attend a fundraiser with health-industry lobbyists at a posh D.C. wine war. Her grinning image was caught on camera as she entered the fundraiser and used by the opposition to depict her as a Washington Insider who is cozy with special interest groups. As she left the fundraiser, one of her aides knocked down a reporter who was trying to ask Coakley a question.

Brown has not had been unscathed either. with nearly nude photos of him from a 1980s Cosmopolitan spread making the internet rounds.

But he has been outdone in the gaffe department by Coakley, who on Friday committed perhaps the biggest blunder of all in this Red Sox-crazed state: mistakenly declaring legendary former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling a Yankee fan. Schilling earned his place in Boston baseball lore when he beat the Yankees in game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship series, despite bleeding from a recent ankle surgery.

sferrechio@washingtonexaminer.com

Beware: SEIU’s Purple Army marches on Massachusetts

By Michelle Malkin • January 15, 2010 11:21 AM

They’ve dumped nearly a $1 million of rank-and-file dues into Martha Antoinette Coakley’s coffers.

They “pulled out all the stops” before the primary and they’ll be throwing all their ground troops into the Bay State over the weekend.

We know how the SEIU thugs operate. I told you in Culture of Corruption about Andy Stern’s organizational motto: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”

They’ll go after Boy Scouts.

And baby-sitters.

And home health-care providers.

They raided their treasury to pour $60-$80 million into Obama and the Democrats’ 2008 campaigns.

They’re not about to roll over and play nice while their 60-vote supermajority slips away.

Hotline On Call reports on the SEIU’s mobilization this weekend. Where are the counterforces?

Full story

Martha Coakley throws AG support behind Teamsters against FedEx

What is the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts doing injecting herself and the legitimacy of her office into an organized labor discussion between a private Massachusetts employer, and the Massachusetts Teamsters? This woman is so wrong, so often, on so many issues. It just goes to show, Democrats will vote for any stiff as long as said stiff is willing to rob the working class on their behalf.

Elected to a higher office? At this point, with her union meddling and bigoted positions on Catholicism, she should be impeached and removed from her current office.
-Nick McNulty

Martha Coakley backs plan to unionize FedEx

By Jay Fitzgerald
Saturday, January 16, 2010

Amid a hard-fought Senate race, Democratic candidate Martha Coakley tried to rev up union support yesterday by pledging to support organizing efforts of FedEx carrier workers across the country.

Appearing at a Watertown rally with more than 100 Teamsters, Coakley promised to “level the playing field” for some FedEx workers now banned from unionizing under the federal Railway Labor Act.

Coakley expressed support for the so-called “Express Carrier Protection Act,” which would effectively pull thousands of workers out from under the railway act and allow them to join unions.

Full story

Last day for absentee ballots for Brown

This is an important reminder! Today is the LAST day that you can vote in person by absentee ballot if you are unable to vote at your polling place on Tuesday, January 19th.

Also, if you have a family member who will not be able to vote on January 19, with their permission, you may apply and deliver an absentee ballot to them. Alert them about today's deadline!

Please click here to get your absentee ballot application emailed to you, complete the information, and hand-carry it to City Hall; you will be able to vote right there and then! Remember, Monday is a holiday and Cty Hall will not be open.

With your help, we can elect Scott Brown and put a Republican in the US Sentate!

More desperate measures as the City Council tries to keep up with Mayor McGlynn's spending

Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn said an increase in the distant future is worth the savings in the short term, especially considering Medford’s need to weather the tough economic climate.

“By 2013, the economic base in the city should have expanded to the point where anything extra will get eaten up,” McGlynn said. “It’s a good move for the city.”

Didn't the citizens of Medford learn our lesson following the bad economic predictions of Mike McGlynn and Deval Patrick in 2009, with the state Sales Tax and the Medford Meals Tax hikes both creating revenue shortfalls, not the promised surplusses? Apparently, our City Council did not learn that lesson. Tax and spend has become tax and borrow. Enjoy the spending, Medford, and thank your kids for paying for it.
-Nick McNulty

Medford City Council OKs bond rating adjustment

By Matthew Reid/mreid@cnc.com

Medford Transcript

It was a “save now, pay later” approach as officials last week voted to allow the city to use a bond rating one level below that of the state to secure loans. The move would save the city nearly a quarter of a million dollars over the next few years.

The Medford City Council voted 5-2 on Jan. 5 to allow the move. City Councilors Breanna Lungo-Koehn and Robert Penta dissented, agreeing that saving money in the short term is not acceptable if it adds to the debt down the road.

“We’ll pay less on bonds over the next several years, then we’ll end up paying more down the road, which isn’t the best option we have,” Lungo-Koehn said. “As a city, I think we can come up with a better solution than that.”

Lungo-Koehn said similar moves are shortsighted, and will make it difficult for future councils to work within the budget.

......

Under the higher rating, the city will spend $674,425 on debt service in fiscal 2011, saving approximately $137,000 had the council not passed the measure. The savings dip to roughly $110,000 the following fiscal year.

But then the city will see a sharp increase in debt services, first in 2013 and then annually from 2018 to 2027.

Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn said an increase in the distant future is worth the savings in the short term, especially considering Medford’s need to weather the tough economic climate.

“By 2013, the economic base in the city should have expanded to the point where anything extra will get eaten up,” McGlynn said. “It’s a good move for the city.”

Medford kids film PSA with Dropkick Murphys

Medford Transcript

Medford residents Shannon O’Donnell, 14, Caitlyn Murphy, 14, and Jessica Murphy, 7, filmed a public service announcement with Dropkick Murphys band members Ken Casey and Scruffy Wallace for Children’s Hospital Boston’s Text for Cures fundraising campaign at the House of Blues Boston.

The PSA encourages New Englanders to text donations from their phones to benefit Children’s Text for Cures fundraising campaign.

Text “4KIDS” to number 20222 to make a $5 donation to the hospital.

For more information, visit www.childrenshospital.org/giving.

Medford Republican Committee Update

With just a week to go, please make sure you volunteer or contribute to Scott Brown's Senate campaign. Visit his web site at www.brownforussenate.com . After Scott's excellent debate performance yesterday and the amazing one-day fundraising effort, he's got great momentum behind him. Help put him over the top! The campaign to win the Senate seat will be decided by the voters who will take the time to vote on Election Day (January 19) or vote at City Hall in advance. Ask your friends and neighbors to vote!

As a reminder, the next regular business meeting of the Medford Republican City Committee will be held at the Medford Public Library, 111 High Street on Thursday January 21^st at 7:00PM. The agenda will include committee updates, the meeting calendar for 2010, and membership reports from the Ward Committees.

Also, a Special Meeting of the Medford Republican City Committee will be held in the Alden Council Chambers at Medford City Hall, 85 George P. Hassett Drive on Saturday January 23^rd. The Election of Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the Massachusetts State Convention on April 17, 2010 at the DCU Center in Worcester will take place. Registration for Ward Members and Guests is slated to begin a 9:45AM and end at 10:15AM. After remarks from candidates in attendance, the Ward Committees will caucus and complete their election of delegates and alternate delegates and submit their reports to the City Committee Secretary.

Thanks,
Medford GOP

We sure hope so....

WILL THIS MAN END DEM SUPER MAJORITY?

Massachusetts taxes kill holiday sales

Notice the obedient, part-of-the-problem, "retail group" below is not proposing repealing revenue and business killing taxes, but rather broadening them so that internet and interstate commerce is punished. It reminds me of how the Medford Chamber of Commerce was in the bag for the Medford Meals Tax hike, and now, rather than suggest we repeal that tax to bring diners back to Medford eateries, the Medford Chamber will rather lobby to get surrounding towns to impose the same tax on the middle class to "even the playing field". This is how liberal "progressive" sprawl works.

How about stopping the out of control taxing and spending, that might even the playing field.
Nick McNulty

Mass. retailers report holiday sales off 2.6 percent Boston Herald

“The tax-free Internet continues to take sales away from Main Street employers,” Hurst said. “Unfortunately, that trend will likely continue until Congress fixes the problem and levels the playing field so that all sales receive the same tax treatment.”

A 25 percent increase in the state sales tax in August may have sent some Massachusetts shoppers to the Internet and tax-free New Hampshire, according to Hurst, pointing to state Department of Revenue sales tax collection reports. Those reports show drops in retail sales for August through November compared to last year’s results, including double-digits drops in August and September.

Massachusetts State Police Endorse Scott Brown

You have to wonder about the leadership ability of an Attorney General that is not backed by the members of her state's law enforcement community.

Troopers announce support for Scott Brown

BOSTON — Martha Coakley may be the state’s attorney general, but her Senate rival is vying to match her law-and-order credentials.

Republican Scott Brown was scheduled Monday to receive the endorsement of the State Police Association of Massachusetts.

It represents rank-and-file troopers.

Association President Richard Brown says "the terrorist threat in this country is real and Scott Brown will always come down on the side of protecting our nation."

Full story

Scott Brown debates Martha Coakley tonight at 7PM on NECN

A Republican Senate upset in Massachusetts?

By Kathleen Parker

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Jan. 19 special election to fill Ted Kennedy's U.S. Senate seat is beginning to resemble the 2008 presidential election, when the "inevitable" Hillary Clinton was overtaken by a surprising phenomenon named Barack Obama.

Only this time, it's a wunderkind from the right overtaking an overconfident woman on the left. Conventional wisdom in Massachusetts has long held that Attorney General Martha Coakley would sail into Kennedy's seat as a natural heiress, without having to stock up on hand sanitizer. She's a liberal Democrat in tune with Kennedy's philosophy and ready to cast her votes accordingly.

But something has happened the past couple of months. State Sen. Scott Brown, a relative pauper when it comes to political spending, has been closing in. While Coakley has been drumming her fingers until fate gets on with it, Brown has been standing on street corners, holding up signs, delivering posters and putting 200,000 miles on his pickup truck.

Full column

Scott Brown on Hannity - Jan. 8th 2010

The Massachusetts Senate race is now a toss up.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Toss up in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Senate race is now a toss up.

Buoyed by a huge advantage with independents and relative disinterest from Democratic voters in the state, Republican Scott Brown leads Martha Coakley 48-47.

Full story

Servicemember voting laws reflect changes

Please get this out to your deployed friends overseas, we missed our chance to vote in 2006 while deployed in Kosovo, glad to see the Guard is doing something to improve that broken process.
-Nick

Servicemember voting laws reflect changes

By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

One of the bigger changes in the process is that military votersmust send in a federal postcard application – again available at www.fvap.gov -- as soon as possible. "The law has changed and even if they have been getting their absentee ballot automatically they have to register each and every year," Carey pointed out.

Servicemembers also must submit a postcard application each time they move, each time they deploy and each time they redeploy."We're encouraging everyone by Jan. 15 to send in a new federal postcard application," Carey said. Local election officials, he said, are more than happy to deliver balloting materials, but they have to know whereto send them.

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LETTER: Mayor says city cannot support Green Line without more information

From the Medford Transcript;

To the editor:

The following letter was sent by Mayor Michael J. McGlynn to Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Ian A. Bowles in regards to the Green Line Extension Project Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR):

Please accept this comment letter on the DEIR prepared for the Green Line Extension Project.

The city of Medford has led by example in its support of public transportation and transit oriented development as evidenced by the redevelopment of both the Station’s Landing and River’s Edge projects adjacent to the Wellington Station Orange line.

However, due to the lack of detailed technical analyses, the inability of the State’s Project Director to deliver promises made during this planning process and the insufficiency of mitigation to ameliorate anticipated negative impacts on both residential and commercial properties and therefore the citizens of the city itself, I am prevented from fully embracing the project as proposed at this time.

Be assured that as mayor I support the expansion of public transit service in Medford with the goal of improving air quality and creating transit oriented development. The Green Line Extension originally proposed to the Medford Hillside has the potential of providing benefits in addition to improvement in air quality.

When the Romney Administration proposed substituting other projects for the Green Line, I argued for the project to move ahead and proposed that the project terminus be studied in a DEIR to Mystic Valley Parkway.

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Voting Brown

Since the Medford Transcript has gotten out of the business of printing letters from readers(3 letters posted since November 15th, one from the Mayor), I will again drop my submission here;

Thousands of Massachusetts residents will be coming out to vote for Scott Brown next week because he is a breath of fresh air in this state. They will be voting for Scott Brown because he is an honorable man, a fiscally responsible leader, and an honest broker, a true rarity in a state capital that produces more felons like Galluccio, Marzilli, DeLeo, Finneran, and Demasi than officers and gentlemen like Scott Brown.

But many of us will also be voting for him because of what he is not. Scott Brown is not what Paul Kirk and Martha Coakley most certainly are - purchasable, reliable, lockstep, 60^th votes for Barrack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid on socialized medicine, cap and tax, and every other far left policy that comes before the Senate to be rammed into law against the will of the people for the next 2 years.

Nick McNulty

Medford MA

Medford City Officials Sworn in Sunday Morning

The Medford City Council will remain unchanged in 2010 and 2011. From left: Robert Penta, Michael Marks, Robert Maiocco, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Fred Dello Russo, Jr., Paul Camuso, and Stephanie Muccini Burke.

InsideMedford.com

Despite the snow, the city’s inauguration went on as planned at City Hall on Sunday morning.

Mayor Michael McGlynn was sworn in for his twelfth consecutive term by state Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Medford resident and candidate for US Senate.

Each of the seven City Councilors- Robert Maiocco, Breanna Lungo-Koehn, Michael Marks, Paul Camuso, Robert Penta, Stephanie Muccini Burke, and Frederick Dello Russo, Jr.- were sworn in for another two-year term by City Clerk Ed Finn.

Four new School Committee members received the oath of office alongside returning veterans Ann Marie Cugno and Paulette Van der Kloot. George Scarpelli, Bill O’Keefe, Sharon Guzik, and John Falco were each sworn in for their first terms as School Committee members.

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