After having a new position personally created for her as a consolation prize for her 2010 defeat, she must miss all the political contributions and spending accounts, staff and servants… As published in the Eagle Tribune May 2012: Meaningful Ethics Reform Starts with the Candidates Running Barbara L’Italien’s candidacy for State Representative should make any [...]
Well, if you’ve not heard about it by now, the wires are lighting up with news of the ‘decertification/nullification’ of the Republican Caucus held last week to select party-goers to the Presidential rah rah in Tampa. And a big thanks to Paul Ferro for his posting on www.RedMassGroup.com that let the cat out of the [...]
Well, the news is getting out there….seems MassGOP Chair Bob Maginn put out a slate of candidates (mailed it, and e-mailed it widly) which was full of ULTRA-LIBERAL Matt Sisk type ENTRENCHED OLD GUARD members and recent ‘friends’ (gifts for voting certain ways?) voting for Maginn’s slate, as Delegates for Romney. Who lost? We’re told [...]
All I can say is CHECK IT OUT! Great articles from a patriot! http://www.jazzpatriot.com/ p.s. We still have LOTS of candidates to list, and updates to complete……in a few days…check back daily….
After having a new position personally created for her as a consolation prize for her 2010 defeat, she must miss all the political contributions and spending accounts, staff and servants…
As published in the Eagle Tribune May 2012:
Meaningful Ethics Reform Starts with the Candidates Running
Barbara L’Italien’s candidacy for State Representative should make any good government advocate feel like they just took a late round sucker punch right in the stomach. Despite the rhetoric you may hear, there is a serious ethics problem in state government.
A national study recently reviewed all 50 states and graded Massachusetts with an “F” on transparency in state government.
Governor Patrick and Lt Governor Murray refused to disclose their cell phone records to the Boston Globe and Herald. The Probation Department is under scrutiny for hiring former political friends to high paying jobs. Former Treasurer Cahill is facing charges from the Attorney General for using taxpayer funds to promote his candidacy. Numerous Boston based non-profits are receiving millions of dollars in taxpayer money only to pay for high rent costs and bloated salaries. This only skims at the surface, deeper below is a much more troubling problem. Public information and reform are hard to come by.
Unlike other states, elected officials may meet behind closed doors and decide major economic issues. These meetings are held in the Statehouse, a public building, without the press or public permitted to enter. The Governor, leaders in the Legislature and Statewide elected officials all participate in these secret meetings, without any oversight from the public.
If you are a civic minded resident and want basic information from your state government, a request may be made. Unlike other states, here in Massachusetts, these public record requests are billed to the individual taxpayer. This tactic is used to deter good government advocates from uncovering fraud and abuse within state government. It’s a ploy to keep the public in the shadow and keep information out of sunlight.
How does this apply to Ms. L’Italien? For starters, she took a $100,000 position working for State Treasurer Grossman only days after her defeat in 2010. When recently asked if she would run again, she denied the rumors. Days later, she pulled papers to run. Since then, Ms. L’Italien remained on the state payroll earning $100,000 while collected petition signatures and planning her run for public office.
While not illegal, one has to ask if it’s ethical for Ms. L’Italien to resurrect her political career while enjoying the patronage position that costs taxpayers $100,000 a year. The federal government has prohibitions on such activities; it’s called the Hatch Act.
This also raises other important questions for Ms. L’Italien; did she solicit political contributions while working a taxpayer funded job in the Treasurer’s office? Does her two years in the Treasurer’s office boost her state pension since she is earning considerably more now than as a State Representative? Can the public request copies of her email, travel schedule and meetings while she worked for the Treasurer without being charged an arm and a leg? If she is unsuccessful again in 2012, will her $100,000 a year taxpayer funded position be waiting for her in the Treasurer’s office?
As predicted by the editorial page of the Eagle Tribune on November 19, 2010, they warned readers that Ms. L’Italien would run again. The editorial page described her as, “the arrogance, the sense of entitlement, is quite overwhelming. It’s what happens when politicians lose sight of their role as citizen legislators and seek instead to serve themselves… The naive might imagine that voters of the 18th Essex sent L’Italien to Beacon Hill to represent their interests. What rot! L’Italien was there to invest in her own political future.”
Ms. L’Italien was sent into retirement in 2010, the voters wanted change. Since then, she’s enjoyed a plush state job paying her $100,000 a year. She plotted her political comeback while working for the state, in a position some would argue was a patronage job. For those who want to see ethics reform and support Ms. L’Italien’s latest run for public office, is as ridiculous as NASA claiming they couldn’t land on the moon but now they attempting to land on Mars.
Paul D. Craney is the executive director of Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
And the MassGOP finally got something right: Expose this FRAUD Warren. And the more we learn about Pinnoccio-haunt-us, the bigger her nose grows.
Hey Liz, we don’t need liars. We have plenty of them already!
The Rapoza Report
“Shining the light of truth on the offerings of liberal media pabulum.”
- Linda Rapoza
(Warning to liberals in both Parties: The following is not for the faint of heart.)
The Department of Public Health and Education has just outlawed school bake sales. Lucky for us, the Massachusetts legislature reversed it – maybe.
While much of the money for athletic equipment and school trips comes from such activities conducted by the very people who pay for our public schools through taxation, unelected government busy-bodies never miss an opportunity to regulate anything that moves.
To some, the story of government-approved snacks seems silly. But is it? A burgeoning government at the hands of those seeking total control of the masses is an affront to the individual liberties laid out in our Constitution. This isn’t about cupcakes or candy bars. It’s another power-grab by liberal bureaucrats who see the rest of us as unsophisticated bumpkins incapable of making decisions they can agree with.
Who defines our constitutional freedoms? Is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness something “endowed by Our Creator” only if it comports with unelected government institutions? How far can government go if those who control it decide you’re incapable of making the “correct” decisions concerning your own children? Could the violation of government-approved eating habits be expanded to define child abuse?
While individuals with an insatiable appetite for hovering over our every move continue to promote anti-constitutional encroachments on our liberties, more “nudging” of the populace to perform according to the will of the state has stepped up its pace.
Along with the indoctrination of government-approved beliefs and principles in our schools and universities, this administration has inserted itself into our relationship with our churches, attempting to bully us into practicing our faith in accordance to their will.
We’re now like caged rats in a government-driven experiment for a socialistic command-and-control utopia being operated by government employees who’ve been assigned to redesign our lives for the betterment of the collective over the individual.
On June 9, 2011 President Obama signed Executive Order #13575 establishing a White House Rural Council for facilitating the federal coordination of sustainable development at the local community level. More have followed, referencing the United Nation’s Agenda 21 and its numerous tentacles, one of which is “Smart Growth” – a concept that defines sustainable development in terms of controlled living through reduced consumption; the redistribution of wealth through the elimination of the “social injustice” of private property; and population control and reduction with the goal of returning the land to its “original wilderness”. This would include a future without automobiles, a limit on rural development, and a whole host of new environmental regulations on private property, farms and waterways, just to name a few.
The new civic engagement in academia is not about rigorous debate in maintaining the liberties that built this nation, but about obedience to the U.N’s communistic concepts in caged-living, of government-controlled stackable communities where “the people” will be required to live, work and play all in the same fenced-in corral for the glorious goal of “saving the earth”.
What does the future look like? Since government-approved behavior is being dictated by the carrot-and-stick approach, you’ll be taxed on any choices that aren’t approved by the state including food processing and the dispensation of water. You’ll be required to drive a government-approved vehicle, (or bicycle), and travel on government-approved roadways. You’ll live in government-approved housing operated by government-approved energy, and you’ll even have the pleasure of partaking in government-approved recreational activities in your spare time.
Far-fetched? Hardly. The blueprints for implementation for all of the above are already in the pipeline, all of which requires a Constitution made irrelevant in order to achieve “success”.
The time for sitting on the sidelines is over. Everyone who values their freedom will have to make the decision to either fight for every liberty that’s left, or lie down and become just another speed bump to the aspirations of those who have put themselves in charge of creating a New World Order.
For those who pay no attention to history, lost liberties don’t mean much until they’re gone forever. To those who think America is worth saving, we remember the words of President Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Linda Rapoza, President
“Mildred Fay Jefferson” 4th Congressional District Chapter – MA-RA
The darling of the ‘progressives’…Ms. Pinnochio-Haunt-Us Elizabeth Warren has had a lot of ‘splaining’ to do, most recently due to her distortions regarding her supposed ‘minority’ hiring status.
At perhaps 1/32nd Indian, she listed herself as Native American at Harvard.
When are we going to drop the race card? The race baiting? The using of racial profiles and racial tricks? When are we going to embrace the “melting-pot” of America? And realize that with few exceptions, we’re all mutts? There are few thoroughbreds…
I wonder how many REAL Native Americans, how many REAL minorities have been pushed aside for jobs, scholarships, positions or advancement by Warren-like pretenders and Pinnochios?
Meanwhile, she’s ignoring her other lineage: the direct-line relative who fought in the Indian Wars AGAINST the Indians!
With regret, he had lost touch with his voting base….years ago…
Updated at 9:50pm ET Republican foreign policy elder statesman Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, first elected to the Senate in 1976, was defeated in the Indiana primary Tuesday by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who was backed by conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists to the Washington-based fiscal conservative group the Club for Growth.
Mourdock scored a landslide victory, winning more than 60 percent of the vote with almost all precincts reporting.
Darron Cummings / AP
Sen. Richard Lugar responds to a question outside of a voting location Tuesday, May 8, 2012, in Greenwood, Ind.
Looking toward the November election, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said two weeks ago that “it will probably make it more of a contest if Sen. Lugar is not the nominee, but I’m confident we’ll hold the seat.”
In a statement Tuesday night once the outcome was clear, Cornyn said Mourdock “has the NRSC’s full support and we are committed to helping elect him as Indiana’s next U.S. Senator in November.”
Conceding defeat, Lugar told his supporters “I hope that Richard Mourdock prevails in November so he can contribute to that Republican majority in the Senate.”
Related: Lugar’s goodbye
But Lugar also said that unless Mourdock “modifies his approach, he will achieve little as a legislator.”
Within minutes of Mourdock’s victory, leading Senate conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina — who’d stayed neutral in the primary — sent a message to supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund, urging them to donate money to Mourdock.
“A year ago political pundits said Richard Mourdock couldn’t win this race. They said he couldn’t build the support needed to overcome the establishment machine. They were wrong,” DeMint said.
Now, DeMint said, “he needs our support now more than ever. Mourdock is virtually defenseless after spending everything he had to win the primary election. The Democrats are going to come at him very hard in the next few weeks and work to brand him as an extremist. We need to act quickly to replenish Mourdock’s war chest so he can get the truth out about his record and vision for the future of this country.”
As DeMint noted, Democrats quickly issued statements alleging that Mourdock is “extreme.”
Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Mourdock was “a right wing Tea Party ideologue who questioned the constitutionality of Medicare and Social Security, says there should be more partisanship and less compromise in Washington, and actually compared himself to Rosa Parks.”
Related: GOP infighting gives Democrats hope of picking up Indiana Senate seat
The Democratic candidate in November will be Rep. Joe Donnelly. Although both Democratic and Republican strategists see Donnelly as having a better chance to beat Mourdock than he would have had against Lugar, it remains to be seen whether Donnelly can raise enough money to make it a truly competitive race – given that Democratic donors must also fund much more competitive Senate contests in Ohio, Montana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia and New Mexico.
In his statement Tuesday night, Donnelly wooed Lugar’s supporters, thanking Lugar for “his many years of service to our great state and to our nation. He and I share a history of working across the aisle. I agree with the senator that we accomplish more when we work together. Senator Lugar and I stood together to rescue the American auto industry, and our state has benefitted greatly from his efforts in so many areas.”
In 2009, Mourdock became famous as Indiana state treasurer for opposing the auto industry bailout and the forced write-downs for Chrysler bond holders. Indiana is home to Chrysler plants in Kokomo, Ind.
Related: First Thoughts: Five reasons Lugar likely loses
Lugar, along with Utah’s Orrin Hatch, is the longest serving Republican in the Senate. But like GOP senators Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Bob Bennett in Utah, and Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania in 2010, Lugar found himself challenged by those in his party who decided he was not conservative enough on federal spending.
And Republican insiders in Washington said Lugar seemed to underestimate the seriousness of the challenge that Mourdock posed.
Mourdock criticized Lugar for voting for Obama’s two Supreme Court nominees and for his vote to end a filibuster on the Democratic-sponsored DREAM Act which many conservatives see as merely a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
But if one looked at Lugar’s voting record, he usually sided with solid conservatives. For example he voted against the 1994 crime bill which included the original Violence Against Women Act and he voted “no” again two weeks ago on re-authorizing money for programs under VAWA.
Mourdock’s attacks on Lugar didn’t always give voters the complete story. For example Mourdock assailed Lugar for supporting an increase in the gasoline tax but didn’t mention that Lugar favored offsetting that increase with a cut in payroll tax so that taxpayers would see no net tax increase.
Mourdock’s campaign ads tarred Lugar with his friendship with President Barack Obama. In 2005 Obama accompanied Lugar on a trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan to inspect weapons sites.
Obama told a Council on Foreign Relations gathering in Washington after they returned that “If anybody has ever accompanied Sen. Lugar on a (foreign) trip, you know that he is a rock star wherever he goes,” but Lugar’s foreign policy focus wasn’t the asset at home that it was in Washington, D.C.
For his foes, the fact that Lugar did not maintain an Indiana residence came to symbolize his disconnection from the state he had represented in the Senate since Jimmy Carter was president. Democrats mocked him in February for telling Indiana reporters that he was unsure what address was on his Indiana driver’s license.
We received a few nominations for this guy, with one calling him a “Nazi”.
Well to be fair, he isn’t advocating killing anyone, but he sure is advocating tossing down a big hammer on free speech, and that means assaulting newspapers, magazines, television….AND TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, the MassGOP spends NO time finding an opponent to this guy….looks like he’ll have a free-pass in the 2012 elections…
He’s in our slouth with the other oppressors to be reviewed for posting…this is just a head’s up gang. Absolute power corrupts absolutely..and certainly true for this guy…
Read George Will’s post, from which we post in part from The Clinton Mass. Tea Party:
“Now comes Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) with a comparable contribution to another debate, the one concerning government regulation of political speech. Joined by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), 26 other Democrats and one Republican, he proposes a constitutional amendment to radically contract First Amendment protections. His purpose is to vastly expand government’s power — i.e., the power of incumbent legislators — to write laws regulating, rationing or even proscribing speech in elections that determine the composition of the legislature and the rest of the government.”
…
So Congress — and state legislatures and local governments — could regulate to the point of proscription political speech, or any other speech, by the Sierra Club, the National Rifle Association, NARAL Pro-Choice America or any of the other tens of thousands of nonprofit corporate advocacy groups, including political parties and campaign committees.
Newspapers, magazines, broadcasting entities, online journalism operations — and most religious institutions — are corporate entities. McGovern’s amendment would strip them of all constitutional rights. By doing so, the amendment would empower the government to do much more than proscribe speech. Ilya Somin of George Mason University Law School, writing for the Volokh Conspiracy blog, notes that government, unleashed by McGovern’s amendment, could regulate religious practices at most houses of worship, conduct whatever searches it wants, reasonable or not, of corporate entities, and seize corporate-owned property for whatever it deems public uses — without paying compensation. Yes, McGovern’s scythe would mow down the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, as well as the First.
http://kipper1969.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/taking-a-scythe-to-the-bill-of-rights/
Well, nomination papers are now in, and as they get certified, we’ll be revising our pages…stay tuned folks….lot of action this year…
If you want to post something, send it along….
Well, if you’ve not heard about it by now, the wires are lighting up with news of the ‘decertification/nullification’ of the Republican Caucus held last week to select party-goers to the Presidential rah rah in Tampa. And a big thanks to Paul Ferro for his posting on www.RedMassGroup.com that let the cat out of the bag.
What happened? The MessGOP put out a slate (see postings below) of their favorite, and almost 90% ULTRA-LIBERAL or empty-suit, or eye-candy candidates.
Problem? They lost.
They went down in flames.
Anyone who wasn’t an insider/liberal stayed home, turned off by the Maginn e-mails, mailings, and the ROBO-CALLS from “I’m LEFT OF OBAMA on most issues” CHARLIE BAKER. And, the Ron Paul and liberty folks walked in and won.
This posting from a great site called www.RedMassGroup.com summarizes things pretty well:
May 2, 2012
Holliston, MA …Today Marty Lamb, Republican candidate for State Representative in the Eighth Middlesex District, announced that his team has collected over 1500 signatures for his campaign for the Massachusetts House. This is ten times the amount needed.
“I’m thrilled so many people signed my nomination papers and want me to run for State Representative. This shows our campaign to put people back to work, demand integrity and accountability at the State House, and control state spending has both grassroots support and momentum,” said Lamb.
Only 150 certified signatures are required to make the ballot for State Representative. Yesterday, Lamb’s team submitted 1500 to the four town clerks in the district.
“This is a critical election for the people of Holliston, Hopkinton, Southboro and Westborough. We need a new Representative who is focused on job creation all the time not just during an election year. As a small business owner and someone who has struggled to make it work in Massachusetts, I know how to improve our economic environment. We don’t just need green jobs. We need jobs across the board,” said Lamb. “The amount of people willing to sign and help collect signatures proves that voters want change at the State House.”
Mr. Lamb graduated from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in 1985 and received his Bachelor of Arts from Hampshire College in 1982. He has an extensive background in real estate law, formerly with Adelson, Golden & Loria, P.C., Edward A. Sokoloff & Associates, and is currently with Lamb and Associates, P.C. He is a member of the Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts. An active participant in community affairs, Mr. Lamb sits on the Board of Directors of New England Region of United Synagogue and is a past president of Temple Beth Torah in Holliston. He has also served on the Holliston Elementary School Council and the Campaign for Holliston Schools. He resides in Holliston with Peri, his wife of 22 years, and his two daughters Elissa and Simma.
For more information on Marty’s candidacy, voters can visit his website ElectMartyLamb.com or follow him on Twitter at @ElectMartyLamb, and Facebook at Elect Marty Lamb
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2012__Election_Self_Assessment_VoteCoreValues
Folks have asked, so we’ve updated the listing of some activities, since the 2010 release.
Have at it. This pdf file lists just a few things you can do to directly support YOUR candidate who is giving up her or his time, sweat, blood, and money to win. There are MANY things you can do at NO cost (except time) and mean quite a lot.
(Suggestion: you might want to print copies and bring them to your next RTC meeting, or if you want, just write me at Lonnie@VoteCoreValues.org and I’ll send you however many you need).
