'Lacking basic skills'?' Here's some $$

Article 6-1-09



A look at qualifications for summer jobs

by Howie Carr
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Monday, Jun. 1, 2009

Eagle Scouts need not apply. Valedictorians, ditto.

So you say English is your native language? Tough break, kid.

You live with your mother and your father? Strike 2.

Never been arrested? Strike 3, you’re outta here.

Come back after you drop out of school, or get pregnant.

Now comes the latest memo from the Department of Transitional Assistance, formerly known as welfare. If you liked the welfare Cadillac program, you’ll love the “DTA Youth Works/Summer Employment program.”

The flacks for the welfare-industrial complex are trying to put a shine on this sneaker, saying it’s all about helping “at-risk” youth. But Deval Patrick’s hacks can’t run away from their own list of requirements on page 2 of the May 18 memo.

“The client must meet one of the following criteria:

“ . . . lacking basic skills; pregnant or parenting; the child of a single working parent; a school dropout; homeless or a runaway; court-involved or an offender; or an ESL (English as a Second Language) learner; or an immigrant.”

In other words, if you’re a middle-class kid, struggling to make ends meet, you’re bleep out of luck. (Unless, of course, your uncle happens to be a solon, in which case, no problemo, kiddo.)

The DTA says anyone they hire has to be “low-income,” which I understand. But, if your father did the unthinkable and married your mother, and still lives with his family, then why is that a strike against the kid?

By the way, the money from the DTA summer job is “noncountable income for cash assistance.” In other words, you get to stay on the dole while you’re being paid to work.

According to the memo, the money for this program is coming from the stimulus funds, which we were told would be helping everybody, not just pregnant high-school dropout criminals.

So where is the empathy for the Dave and Ricky Nelsons of the 21st century? But then, the dirty little secret is out. When Sonya Sotomayor or Barack Obama talk about empathy, what they really mean is favoritism.

And there is no empathy anywhere for taxpayers. Remember the illegal-alien in-state tuition bill of 2006? It would have effectively provided free college tuition for any illegal who drifted into the state, while charging high out-of-state tuition for New Hampshire kids whose parents work and pay income taxes in Massachusetts. That one was stopped, temporarily, but it’ll be back.

Meantime, we have this DTA Youth Works/Summer Employment boondoggle.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis speaks
out on summer jobs for kids. (DNN Staff photo)

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Oppose gay marriage? 'Bigot' says the Left

Article 5-27-09


Gay marriage reveals a different America



by Bill O'Reilly
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Thursday, May 27, 2009

Here’s the thing about homosexual marriage in the United States: It is going to be legal in about half the states. There is no stopping the gay nuptials now, even though most Americans say they are opposed to extending marital law to same-sex couples.

Right now, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa and Maine allow gays to marry. New Hampshire seems likely to join them soon. Once the legislatures of New York and New Jersey get finished taxing the life out of their citizens, they, too, will most likely pass gay marriage. And even though the folks in California voted down gay nuptials, the Supreme Court there is desperately trying to find a way to nullify the vote.

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll says 54 percent of Americans oppose gay marriage, while 45 percent support it. But if you oppose gay marriage, your opinion makes you a bigot. Did you know that? That’s what the Miss California controversy was all about.

Your humble correspondent doesn’t really care much about gay marriage because I believe it is no danger to the republic and the deity can sort all this stuff out after we’re dead. I take a libertarian position on issues such as gay marriage because I want all Americans to be able to pursue happiness equally.

However, I understand that most Americans believe heterosexual marriage deserves a special place in our society. Our Judeo-Christian traditions, which have made the United States the most prosperous and just society the world has ever known, speak to a family built around a responsible mother and father; certainly the optimum when it comes to raising children.

Not only that, but people who feel strongly about maintaining a special status for traditional marriage have allowed themselves to be intimidated. When was the last time you saw a Catholic cardinal or archbishop speak against gay marriage on television?

The truth is that pro-gay marriage forces have succeeded in their bigot-branding campaign and will not stop with marriage. Because they won this public relations war, you can expect to see the racist-bigot label marketed in other controversial situations. Already, abortion zealots are branding pro-life people “anti-woman” and “anti-privacy.” The left knows it has a powerful cannon with this bigot stuff.

So the gay marriage debate is just about over. Conservative states won’t pass it, but liberal states will. There was a time when we truly were united states. No longer.

FOR LIFE: Ralph Hodgdon and Paul McMahon,
together for 54 years, will celebrate 5 years of
marriage on May 29. (DNN Staff photo)



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I hate to say 'I told you so,' but...

Article 5-26-09

Voters taken for another ride on state income tax



by Howie Carr
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

For those 2,063,891 of you Massachusetts voters who last year refused to abolish the state income tax because it wasn’t the “responsible” thing to do, I have a question. Are you happy now, dopes?

They told you if we abolished the income tax, they’d have to raise the state sales tax.

Now they’re raising the state sales tax anyway - by 25 percent.

They told you if we abolished the income tax, they’d just have to bring it back.

So now these emboldened hacks are threatening to jack the income tax up to 5.95 percent. It’s “for the children,” you know. And the most vulnerable members of our society - the ones with the welfare Cadillacs and the AAA road service that you can’t afford.

It didn’t have to happen this way. But the pinky-ring public-sector hack unions spent over $7 million on TV spots and mailings to convince you that you needed a 5.3 percent increase in your paycheck less than the hackerama did.

Boy, were you 2,063,891 stupid. No offense, but the payroll Charlies really picked your pockets this time, didn’t they? They’re handing out brand-new, six-figure jobs to all their friends and relatives, and you’re paying for it.

The hacks are no longer afraid of the taxpayers, and why should they be? Seventy percent of you can’t even figure out what your own self-interest is.

I mention this today not just because of the week’s billion-dollar frenzy of tax hikes at the State House, but also because of what happened Tuesday in California. The pinky-ring unions out there put tax hikes on the ballot, and they used the exact same take-cops-and-kids-hostage playbook that worked so flawlessly for the hacks here last fall.

But out there the voters nixed every tax increase, in landslides. I guess the voters in California are smarter than we - I mean, you -are. Don’t blame me, I’m one of the 30 percent, those 901,802 people who actually got it.

Did you see what Sen. Gale Candaras of Wilbraham said during the Senate’s tax-raising bender the other night? She compared the state’s out-of-control spending to a game of cards.

“Sometimes in the deck you’re dealt,” she said, “there’s absolutely no good card.”

Amazing. These hacks have been dealing from the bottom of the deck for decades, and now they’re complaining that they’re looking at a hand full of threes and fours.

Thirty percent of us ask the other 70 percent of you: When are you people going to wake up?

Our photographer captures a patron sipping on beer
at a tavern just miles shy of the New Hampshire border.
The owner tells DNN that his business would be
devastated if a higher state sales tax is mandated.
(DNN Staff photo)


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Bay State's biggest loons - Menino, Patrick, are taxpayers worst nightmare!

Article 5-18-09

Pathetic leadership sank Massachusetts

by Donnie Bernabei
DNN Staff – EXCLUSIVE!
Monday, May 18, 2009

Last week, I was approached by many people who complained how awful Boston has become along with the rest of Massachusetts.

Well, here is just a short list on why many of you are fed up and want to move out:

The climate. It is simply too cold and gloomy most of the times.

Living costs are too expensive because taxes are too high.

You have come to the conclusion that most of the luxuries we have are available elsewhere, in less costly and much warmer areas of the country, but you can't do nothing about it because most of you are stuck here.

You finally became aware that we have an imbecile for governor, not to mention the one that already has been in existence for 16 years at One City Hall Square for mayor. And when you combine the two with the liberal legislature, you got a disaster, which is another reason why you want to flee.

You see, Boston used to be a city known for its recognition of traditions and good nature. Today it is known for that $110 tow on top of that $50 parking ticket, called the double whammy.

Thanks to the voters, Boston and the rest of this state is now mostly made up of low income people, if that, and has become the safe haven for illegal aliens, welfare recipients, drug dealers, gangs – you name it! Yet, Mayor Menino and Gov. Patrick can't put two and two together to figure out why they aren't collecting enough taxes each year. Instead of reforming city and state government first, they believe by taxing you to death during the height of a recession will balance their budgets.

Now here's just a small list of problems that already exist, their solutions, and in my opinion, what their solutions would create:

Less people are eating out which is hurting restaurant business owners already: Let's impose a local meals tax that would drive people further away.

Consumers are buying less: Let's increase the state income tax to drive more people to shop across the borders.

There are simply too many illegal aliens that are using up all resources that are being paid for by the taxpayers, and who do not pay taxes: Let's continue welcoming them with open arms by offering them even more freebies to create even less revenue.

People who work and pay taxes are fleeing Massachusetts and moving elsewhere: Let's give the ones that are left a push by doubling the tolls and raising the gas tax to be the highest levels in the country.

Today, Menino wants to tax telephone polls. Patrick wants to use an additional $30,000 of your tax dollars and put it towards the “free car program for welfare recipients.” Menino wants a local meals tax. Patrick wants to tax candy and liquor and wants to propose a meals tax that is across the board. Menino has threatened the city's workforce to accept a pay freeze, or else. Patrick threatened all taxpayers that it is their responsibility to pay any bill that this state has got to offer.

So who do you believe is the biggest loon of them all? In my opinion, I think it's simply a draw, and that, we will be stuck with these two individuals for a while to come thanks to the Beautiful People of Massachusetts.

In that case, the rest of us better head for the hills by July 1.

Like governor like mayor: Hefty tax and spenders, Mayor
Menino and Gov. Patrick, who are both looking to take
even more of your hard-earned cash soon, are seen in
the above photo at a pride parade in Boston.
(DNN Staff photo)

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Fee hikes in works for cash-strapped towns

Report 5-17-09

Laura Crimaldi
Sunday, May 17, 2009

Municipal officials across the state, scrounging local coffers for revenue, are proposing hundreds of thousands of dollars in hikes on fees, fines and permits for everything from marriage licenses to penalties for false home alarms.

The fee hikes are coming on top of layoffs, furloughs, wage freezes and service cuts intended to cope with falling property-tax revenues and drastic cuts to local aid.

“Communities will be forced to turn to other areas like trash and bus fees,” said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “Even with these fees and other actions, the local-aid cuts are so deep that the real way to deal with this is massive layoffs and reductions in services.”

Local aid and property-tax revenue are the main sources of revenue for cities and towns. Both have been in freefall since the global economic crisis has set in.

Last July, state aid to localities was funded at $1.3 billion, but Gov. Deval L. Patrick cut $128 million from the account in January. The final House budget approved earlier this month funded local aid at about $1.1 billion. The Senate proposal outlined last week funds local aid at about $830 million.

An informal survey of Bay State communities found the following fee hikes on the way or under consideration by local officials:

Brookline estimates it could generate $130,000 in revenue by hiking a marriage license from $35 to $40, a business certificate from $50 to $75, and a Zoning Board of Appeals application from $225 to $350, said Town Administrator Richard Kelliher.

Newton will bring in an extra $115,200 beginning June 1 when it starts issuing parking permits to 120 local business employees who want to park all day at meters in municipal lots. The permit will cost $960 a year, said Board of Alderman Clerk David Olson.

Somerville will collect an additional $250,000 by hiking fees on 37 licenses, including dog licenses, vital records and taxicab medallions. Fees tacked onto late tax, water and sewer bills also will go up, city records show. Later this month, alderman will consider a measure to increase parking fines.

Worcester estimates $500,000 in new revenue by increasing fees for licenses, certain types of building permits and a $5 hike in parking fines on all tickets currently less than $50, city records show.

Swampscott expects to bring in $5,000 with a new false-alarm bylaw for burglar alarms. A fine of $60 is to be assessed on the third offense and every false alarm after that in a calendar year, said town accountant Dave Castellarin.

Medfield will raise $80,000 by hiking the fee on unpaid property taxes from $5 to $25, said Town Administrator Michael J. Sullivan.

Sunderland estimates $25,000 will be raised if all demand fees go up. The town is planning to enforce bylaws through civil means that will generate revenue from fines, Town Administrator Margaret Z. Nartowicz said by e-mail.

Chelsea is considering fees related to fire services to pay for improvements on its aging fleet, but nothing has been decided, City Manager Jay Ash said by e-mail.

Municipal officials complain the fee hikes are coming before major reforms to health care costs, which are obliterating local budgets.

“When cities and towns are pushed so much, it’s hard to accept that at the state level no factor dealing with employee health insurance is negotiated,” said Samuel R. Tyler, head of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. “At the local level every factor is negotiated.” Tyler cited a report by the Financial Advisory Committee in Somerville. It found that if no changes are made to employee and retiree health benefits in time for next year’s budget, higher health insurance costs will consume the entire amount of tax revenue growth allowed under Proposition 2 - some $2.3 million.

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Full speed ahead to end given free cars to welfare recipients

Report 5-13-09-1


by Hillary Chabot
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Driven by angry constituents, state senators are moving to flatten the tires of welfare recipients by cutting a program spotlighted in the Herald that hands them donated cars and state-funded insurance, repairs and even AAA membership.

“We can’t be giving out freebies,” said state Sen. Steven A. Baddour (D-Methuen). “At a time when we’re cutting programs across the spectrum and working families are struggling to pay the bills, this program is just too rich for this budget.”

The Herald reported last week that Gov. Deval Patrick was expanding the $400,000 wheels-for-welfare program with a $30,000 infusion despite the budget crisis.

“Folks are calling for reform everywhere I go,” said Sen. Stephen J. Buoniconti (D-West Springfield). “We need to start taking a look at the welfare packages we give to folks, including the program in your article.”

Funding for the free cars program, started in 2006 under former Gov. Mitt Romney using cars donated by charities, was included in the Senate budget - but a move to amend the budget and cut the program is speeding ahead.

Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan defended the program but would not say whether Patrick would veto a budget without the plan.

“We are pleased to hear the Senate has included the funding in their budget. We hope they keep their commitment to the single mothers and others who are working to stay off welfare,” he said.

Senate Ways and Means Chairman Steven C. Panagiotakos (D-Lowell) said the only reason the program is included in the budget - set to be released today - is because a Herald article detailing the perk ran after the budget had been sent to the printer.

Senate Ways and Means Vice Chairman Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) said there is growing support in the Senate for the amendment, specifically to cut the AAA membership and stop allowing recipients to keep the cars if they lose their jobs.

“These are the things that bother the hell out of people, and I don’t find it to be a defensible position politically,” he said.

Brewer said he understands Patrick’s position that the program helps get recipients off welfare and to their jobs, but, “There are some parts that fly in the face of common sense.”

The plan takes donated cars and uses taxpayer dollars for repairs, registration, insurance, excise tax, the title and AAA membership for one year. The cars go to families on welfare who don’t have access to public transportation.

House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has also asked his budget team to look into cutting the program.

The story went national when the Drudge Report gave it an online ride.

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Sen. John Kerry knows when to back a loser

Article 5-11-09

Sen. Kerry's efforts in trying to free a porn pervert



by Howie Carr
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Monday, May 11, 2009

Sen. John Forbes Kerry has spent last week futilely trying to prop up two of his oldest, dearest friends - the Boston Globe and a convicted kiddie-porn pervert named Wade Sanders.

You know about the Globe. Despite Kerry’s Senate hearings into the implosion of arrogant left-wing newspapers, El Globo continues to circle the drain.

You’ve heard less about Wade Sanders, or nothing at all if you rely on the Globe. He’s a liberal and a pervert and a criminal, and he’s been a close pal of John Kerry’s for 43 years. Nothing to see here, folks, move along.

Anyway, Liveshot’s fellow Swift Boat veteran just got 37 months, despite the junior senator’s letter (on stationery with the Capitol on top) to the judge attesting to Sanders’ good character.

Liveshot said he was shocked, shocked to learn of the despicable kiddie-porn charges against Sanders, who at the time of his arrest was a “senior adviser” to the lieutenant governor of California, a Democrat. “I find myself surprised,” Liveshot wrote. “Completely baffled . . .”

And not for the first time, either.

Wade Sanders got bagged with over 600 images of kiddie porn on his computer, and then claimed he was viewing them for research purposes. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Then Kerry’s pal offered an even more hackneyed defense:

Bush did it! That’s right, Sanders told the judge he didn’t start sampling kiddie porn until after he tried to defend Sen. Kerry against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. That made him a “target” of those rascally Republicans.

“That experience caused a serious resurgence of the PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) symptoms . . . I encountered (kiddie porn) while accidentally downloading what I thought was a comedy video.”

Alas, as The Wall Street Journal noted, the chronology doesn’t work. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who supposedly drove John Kerry’s pal to kiddie porn, weren’t formed until May 2004. Sanders began downloading his “comedy videos” in November 2003.

Sen. Kerry, it’s too late now to save your perv pal, but maybe, just maybe it’s not too late to throw the Globe a life preserver. Not with another of your windy perorations, but with cash - Mama Tee’s cash. Pinch Sulzberger would unload the rag for a buck.

Liveshot, you could be the next publisher of the Globe. Those Ivy League bust-outs will be lining up to mindlessly do your bidding - just like they’ve been doing for the last 40 years, come to think of it.

John Kerry's pal Wade Sanders (above)
(DNN Staff photo)


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Trying to define Swine Flu

(Article 5-4-09)

Fluency on flu not yet achieved



by Michael Graham
DNN Staff - EXCLUSIVE!
Monday, May 4, 2009

What is swine flu?

Is it one of Mother Nature’s weapons of mass destruction? Is it, to quote The Associated Press, a “virulent” killer that has “swept deeper into Europe” and “surged” to 100 cases in the United States, threatening to overwhelm our hospitals and fill our morgues?

Or is it something you treat with NyQuil?

After reading enough science reporting to ace the MCAS, I’ve concluded that the most common symptom of swine flu must be some kind of split personality disorder.

On the one hand, I am entirely ready to panic. When more than 150 people are reported killed by a flu bug - middle-aged, healthy adults - that’s a big deal. I’ve read about the flu pandemic of 1918 and the millions dead. If that’s what we’re talking about, then sound the “freak out!” alarm now.

On the other hand, there are some 100 cases here already and most sufferers aren’t even in the hospital. They’ve just got the flu.

Not “swine plague,” ’‘swine cancer” or even “swine erectile dysfunction.” Just the flu. You know - nausea, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea. That’s not a pandemic. That’s a weekend in Tijuana.

Sure, the flu can kill. It kills about 36,000 Americans every year - particularly the very young and old. If that sounds like a lot of people, keep in mind that every year, between 5 percent and 20 percent of all Americans get the flu. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 50 American children have already died from flu this year.

All before swine flu, and without a press conference.

So when President Barack Obama repeatedly interrupts his speeches to discuss possibly shutting down entire school systems in the face of a pandemic, it gets my attention. When our painfully politically correct Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano seriously considers shutting down our southern border, I have to believe we’re in real trouble.

The scary swine flu story that’s seized America’s attention is an easily spread virus that kills healthy, middle-aged people. Not a bad cold, or Montezuma’s Revenge on steroids. Something deadly, and new.

It turns out that swine flu isn’t new. Not only did we have a swine flu panic in 1976 (when the flu shots killed more people than the flu itself), but medical journalist Christine Gorman reports that “the H1N1 subtype is now very common.

“The current vaccine even includes a strain of H1N1, first identified in 2007.”

So why are we panicking again?

But there is Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, standing in front of an ominous Homeland Security backdrop, announcing the “first American death” (a 2-year-old brought here from Mexico) and promising that “unfortunately, there will be more.”

Gorman confirms that Sebelius may be right - but maybe not.

“You’re right when you say this really just is ‘the flu,’ ” she told me. “But the medical community is concerned because we don’t know yet why there are 150 deaths in Mexico.”

It could be that a lot of people in Mexico had this flu, and the 150 represents a typical rate of mortality. Or it could be that this version of the H1N1 virus has a deadly component it hasn’t shown in America yet.

Could someone just let me know when to panic?

Mexico’s Ambassador to Beijing Jorge Guajardo
speaks during an interview by Associated
Press at the Mexico Embassy in Beijing,
China, Sunday. (Photo is by AP)



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