CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

I am voting for Obama so we can get rid of Deval Patrick, his promises to reduce property taxes, and hire 1000 new cops have never happened and it's pretty clear that his spending ideas have put the state budget in a free fall to the tune of at least $1,500,000,000.00. If Obama gets elected I think there is a 99% chance Deval will take a job with him.

Buzz unfortunately education is not about excellence it's about ensuring that every child gets educated to the same level as every other child which is what No Child left behind really means. The hard fact is that intelligence levels vary greatly from class to class, person to person so at the end of the day, the future Bill Gates of the class is as educated as much as the future ditch digger. How does that serve society? It has become abundantly clear to me that if you are interested in your child receiving the most education possible at whatever age they happen to be, you have to pay for it yourself because government schools are turning out groups of monolithically educated children.

A dollar amount per pupil doesn't equate to a good education. Imagine the education people could purchase if they were given the 18k that Orleans spends. I would gladly take the $9500 Sandwich spends. The average Catholic Elementary school on Cape Cod costs less than $4,000 a year.

Solon future attacks will happen should the fear of sudden destruction be eliminated. Granted we have not killed the biggest figure head however many of his lieutenants have been killed or captured. Make no mistake, if we elect a soft President, we will be attacked again, and again.

The Cape Light Compact has been doing this for years with Con Ed Solutions. NStar does and we should be upset? The best part is that Cape Light won't negotiate with an electric supplier unless they offer a green option, so we have been getting extra screwed because that's a pretty small field of electric suppliers to pick from.

I knew it was a scam when oil prices sky rocked and the green option became cheaper for about three months. Then they raised the price so that the green option was more expensive than regular electricity. Aren't green energy sources constant in the fact that it is renewable? Why was it less money for three months than adjusted up so it was more expensive? The green energy option is a scam, always has been always will be and it was invented, at least around here, by the Cape Light Compact.

I guess "together we can" never really included the legislature!

All I see is a bunch of kids that don't pay taxes. What is sad is that the teachers have put business before teaching because these kids just don't walk out of school without any repercussions without some sort of encouragement.

That being said the teachers deserve a fair contract and the town deserves a quality product in return.

Lets vote on it and get the heck out. If the commission changes the way they do business and shows proof that they have made changes we can opt back in.

LIER!

yawn...

As with just about every other government agency it's goal it to perpetuate itself, so that the people working there have jobs. If the commission actually did everything it was set up for we wouldn't need it anymore.

They saved Homeward Bound for the election, Turner won and now it's gone.

Figures!

I don't think anyone is denying they exist. What I think Jeff is doing is attempting to allow parents the ability to teach their children about sexuality, and homosexuality at the time they decide is right, not when the government thinks its right. Also people who's religion teaches that homosexuality is a forbidden act are given the ability to withdraw from classes. Like it or not homosexuality is a religious issue.

I know I don't want my kids learning about that stuff in 2nd and 3rd grade and it's a major reason they don't attend public school and it's not an uncommon position amongst parents either.

For anyone interested in the actual outcome of the 5 town mutual aid, SWAT team deployed call represented above.

Both charges were dismissed in Orleans District Court. Birchall is being held on something completely different and unrelated at the House of Correction.

All I know is that a criminal is much more likely to rob or burglarize someone they know is going to cause them the least trouble.

That's probably why cops very rarely get mugged. Odds are you are in for a fight.

The problem is that even if 15 kids at VT had guns in class this psycho would have just used a fertilizer bomb. There is no way to protect people from things like this, it just happened.

You want to change society? Bring back morality simple as that. Half of our society is godless and immoral. They get upset at you for judging their immorality, meanwhile their kids are running a muck in the schools and 3 of the 4 children have different parents. Until this changes society will get worse.

Democracy works here because we allow it to work. If someone took over the military, took the peoples weapons (aka guns) so they could not fight back and then killed people by the tens of thousands we would be in the same boat as many other dictatorships. It sounds far fetched but is it?

Harry Reid has emboldened the enemy and costs American soldiers their lives. IMO he is a traitor to the military and every American that has stood a post!

McGowen was in Superior court so if you thought that was bad....

The police on the lower Cape make plenty of arrests, in short they do their jobs. The problem is that once these criminals get to the courts the judges can do pretty much whatever they want and they do. Of course, it doesn't help that most judges are political hacks appointed by the most liberal judges council in the country.

There are some things being left out Crusader, first of which is that as far as I can tell we are discussing District court not Superior. Superior handles the bigger crimes, most of which have a grand jury indictment and is always in Barnstable.

As for district court, Orleans is by a wide margin much more forgiving to the criminals than Barnstable. Unless you are charged with something on the lower Cape that requires Superior court you are going to get off with maybe a fine, if you are unlucky, everyone else simply goes free, for the most part.

So the reality of the day is that 5 towns sent men and resources to a apprehend a man that will in all likelihood be set free in Orleans District Court and don't think for a minute that this lawyer didn't know this!

The amuzing part is that you and other like minded people ignore what is going on. Ameriquest is by far the largest predetory lender in the country and Deval worked for them almost until he was elected, once elected he made a call on their behalf.

The funniest part is that if Deval was republican you would be calling for his impeachment, but since he is democrat it's ok. That's hilarious!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/04/20/patrick_tied_to_company_under/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/04/22/worried_homeowners_share_their_high_interest_stories/

http://business.bostonherald.com/realestateNews/view.bg?articleid=193202

From Howie Carrs latest column, as usual right on the money.

"...After the arduous lightbulb photo op, Deval’s low-grade case of Potomac fever suddenly recurred and he flew off to D.C. for treatment.

Meanwhile, back in the city, foreclosures on homes are way up, especially in the black neighborhoods. And a disproportionate number of the bad loans were written by the company that Deval continued to lobby for after his inauguration - Ameriquest.

But please, no questions for the governor about the foreclosure boom by the predatory lender that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars - that is definitely not on his agenda. Together we can . . . ignore Ameriquest."

Lets face it Massachusetts has and is run by a group of thug criminals. In this case they are all democrats. All Howie Carr does is point out how screwed up things are and then laughs about it because hey, what else can he do? People like Democrant and there are thousands like him vote for anyone with a D next to their name and then make excuses for all of their foils like blind robots!

Getting yourself elected is a popularity contest, leading is not.

It seems to me that the only people demoralizing our troops and saying the war is unwinable are the democrats. (Although I am not sure we are in an actual war.) We still have troops in Germany, Japan and N. Korea.

I think in my case the answer is yes. I want them to get there as fast as possible. I would not want them to drive so crazy that the wind up hurting someone else but fast. I would not expect them to come from 4-5 towns away however.

On the other side of the coin if I was the person in the house holding someone hostage I think I would feel much less in control and worried if I knew the state police were crawling around outside as opposed to a group of police from 7 different towns. This is just my opinion but there is something about troopers that says you don't want to mess with that guy.

I guess you don't have to guess who the Yarmouth cops are on this board.

CCresident what is the answer to your question? How long would it take to get the SP Stop team in place, I know for a fact Yarmouth hasn't called for them this century.

I also have a buddy on the SP who told me yesterday that at least one un-marked vehicle with blue lights and sirens was heading to the lower Cape driving so fast that he was unable to catch up to it in his police cruiser.

He said to me today and I quote "well at least they didn't let this one get away".

Who is not a hypocrite? Who is perfect?

The best part about Carr's show is that the people who call in on his show point out how fat he is and that he is a hypocrite, yet somehow he still lives on.

I agree Howie's show is for entertainment purposes and is often very juvenile. However, it also very popular. To say Howie had no influence on that vote is very naive. Howie brought up the pending vote the day before it was scheduled to take place a vote that was supposed to easily pass through the legislature. The next day it was on every talk radio station in the state. I remember the day very well because I was traveling all day around the state and that issue was the only issue on every talk radio station I could find. In the end it came down to callers all over the state calling in stating their state reps position on the issue if they had one and if they didn't why not.

As for the Duke boys I am making reference to the 80 Duke professors that signed the open letter slandering the innocent boys. A letter that was posted on the internet up until they were vindicated last week.

If Vermont was to leave the Union I doubt many people would notice. Look at the bright side we wouldn't have to listen to Patrick Leahy any more!

Remember in state tuition for illegal aliens?

The Duke boys never broke a law, chior boys or not and they should have their day in court at least 80 times.

This is probably the dumbest story I have ever witnessed. Imus was falling in the ratings, it wouldn't surprise me one single bit if this was all planned.

I think the bigger story this week was the Duke lacrosse team being completely exonerated of rape charges. At least in the Duke case peoples lives, and reputations were actually hurt by the statements of another.

As for Howie Carr he has had more control and effect on the legislature than the govenor. No wonder Rant doesn't like him he is very effective in using his 1st amendment rights. He must be stopped!

I wonder if Deval has any idea how many times Mitt Romney vetoed the state budget and all of the line items only to have the great majority over ruled by the legislature.

This should be interesting.

How can the two nearest planets to Earth also be experiencing similar increases in global temperatures without any human life forms?

Depending on who you are listening too talk radio is the only place you can get the truth from news.

Why is it the banks fault? I had an adjustable rate that I knew would increase after three years, a construction loan. I also knew that what ever fixed rate I chose later would be higher than my adjustable so no matter what I did my payments would increase, so I did the math and prepared accordingly.

It seems to me that I know way too many people that drive expensive cars, go away on big vacations and have zero equity in the house they bough on Cape Cod in 1998. Certainly banks shouldn't have given loans to high risk people without stable jobs, but I don't feel bad for people that were either to lazy or to stupid to learn about the adjustable rate mortgage they signed and promised to pay.

Per Pupil spending does not equate into good schools or bad schools.

Interesting that the crime Tom Finneran plead guilty to involved the exclusion of blacks from certain districts to ensure certain white legislators kept their seats, had Finneran been a republican Deval Patrick would have been calling for his execution, but there he is mucking it up as if racially biased gerry mandering is ok.

Howie is certainly a hypocrite and a big bag of wind, but at least he admits it. Our new governor I fear may be an idiot. I can't wait to see what he gets indicted for.

Party loyalty isn't the half of it Ray. In this state if you don't do what the leadership wants you get your office moved to the closet, you don't have a shot at any of the committees you want or should ever think of leading one. Come election time you won't get the leaderships help which means they are backing someone else in the primary.

To be honest state government in Massachusetts more resembles La Costa Nostra than it does democracy.

As for Newt Gingrich, he never lied to a grand jury under oath while serving as the countries commander in chief. What he did was wrong, but not hardly as wrong a making a mockery of our legal system while the same legal system, at the time, was attempting to bring terrorist to justice.

Honestly, it was the entire Bill Clinton lying scandal that pushed me to enroll as a republican. I could not sit by and allow people to assume I was part of it (democrat) or didn't care (independent), so I took a side be an imperfect side.

Ray must be new to Democrat politics in Massachusetts.

Just because I don't see it doesn't mean a hurricane won't come along and destroy the thing spilling thousands of gallons of petroleum based mineral oil all over the coast line.

Don't forget guys that for the most part electricity isn't stored anywhere on the ISO, it's generated and then used.

So even though Chucks numbers look impressive for a month by month basis, the real crux of the matter is that we don't use much electricity at 2:00 am and that just may be the time of day with the highest wind gusts and electrical output.

Unless you have money invested in this thing, like I bet many on this website do the cons far outweigh the pros on this wind farm issue.

It's interesting that Cape Wind and friends never point out the giant oil platform that will be out there. All we ever see is the majestic wind turbines blowing in the breeze.

If something is factually wrong with the Ad then I say they are wrong, but factually, as far as I can tell they are correct, so what's wrong with that? Don't want people to know they truth?

It's troublesome to see that one of the first things a school district gives parents when they are discussing a childs learning problems is a form asking about Mass Health. Apparently, the district get's refunded any money spent on a child covered by Mass Health. That says to me it's all about the money, too bad I don't have Mass Health and my insurance isn't going to reimberse the school district I pay taxes to. In my own experience I found that at least one educator was a bit perturbed that we requested and qualified for help with speech.

My point is that a lawyer with a full time law practice doesn't have time to need a staff paid for by the taxpayers. I will note that most lawyers consider 40 hours a week part time.

Let's just say what it is, her staff person is a political hack that raised tons and tons of money for Deval to be elected so Deval got them a do nothing 70k a year job. Meanwhile Deval spent over 30k on his office furniture and drapes, bought a new Cadi and the budget is short a billion which according to the constitution must be balanced, so their will be cuts. The cuts will probably come from the most vulnerable, people sleeping in homes with no heat. I am sure the thought that the Gov. has new silk drapes in his office will warm them up!

Doesn't Mrs. Patrick already have a staff at her full time law practice? If she is working full time as a lawyer why does she need a staff as first lady? Seems to me like the secretary at her law office could handle everything for much cheaper than 70k a year, although her secretary may not be as good a fund raiser.

Look for more Deval follies in tomorrows Herald and Globe, apparently something else came up later this afternoon.

For a guy that was supposed to be very smart, he is pretty stupid.

So the Crown Vic is safe enough for our police officers but not for your highness Deval Patrick. Why didn't they get him an armored car? I would like to know which trooper told him this, but I am sure he or she will never surface, probably because they don't exist, (see Bill Clinton play book of lies). According to Motor Trend the Crown Vic is actually rated safer than the Cadi, gets better gas millage, (see hybrid pledge) and costs significantly less, but in fact a Ford is not a Cadi.

The best part is that Deval has only been in office six weeks. I can't wait to see what he does next! I am betting that he buys himself a Leer Jet and names it Mass 1.

Yea real open!

From the Globe.

Aides declined to permit a Globe photographer to photograph the new furniture or the draperies, hung at the enormous windows overlooking Boston Common.

Are the state police going to drive Cadi's too? The last time one went whizzing by me they were driving Ford Crown Victoria the same car that Mitt Romney was driven around in. Contrary to Deval Patrick and the Kool Aid drinkers Crown Vics are still available at every Ford dealership, but we can't have the King of Massachusetts driving around in a Ford, like the regular people.

I guess the furnishings that Mitt Romney had in his state house office must have been ugly because Deval Patrick took it upon himself to spend $27,000 in taxpayer money to do the office over, yes office, not a home an office.

Apparently however, the new Gov. could not in good conscience, and lambasting by the Herald and internet bloggers, allow the taxpayers to fund his luxurious lifestyle. Not when Deval is asking state agencies to make some cuts to balance the state budget. It's clear that the Gov.'s new Cadi and office furniture cost more than what two state workers earn in a year.

O yea, he says is going to contribute $543 a month to the Cadi's lease to make up the difference from what other less entitled Govenors drove, a Ford. I will believe that when I see it!

Makes you miss the good old days when Mitt Romney, didn't take a pay check, and never worried about his conscience when it came to reducing the budget he just cut it, of course he didn't feed at the public trough either.

You know there is a saying:

Don't debate with and idiot because some people may not be able to tell the difference.

It's hard to destabilize a region that was producing terror camps and sending it people to fly into buildings in the US.

How will the Democrats spin it when we are attacked again? Are we more or less likely to be attacked because of the Democrats actions in Congress?

I am sure the Dems will say Bush and his war caused it, but I am also equally sure that Osama and his men are more likley to act knowing the Dems are in Congress with a weak spine.

The topic is about Mitt Romney and so my posting was related to Mitt Romney. Deval's lavish travel habits so far are in stark contrast to former Gov. Romney who I might add did not even draw paycheck while in office, never mind buy himself a Cadi and fly around in a helicopter as if he was royalty. Maybe if the state wasn't broke nobody would care but it is and at least it appears that he is not willing to make any sacrifices himself. He has already indicated to every state agency that cuts will be made and therefore the people of the state need to make sacrifices to cut the budget shortfall. Then he gets himself a Cadi, NICE!

Don't blame me I voted for Muffy!

Sometimes the Devil you know is better than the Deval you don't!


From the Herald

The governor’s new luxury Cadillac DTS sedan is a lease that puts a $1,166-a-month strain on the state budget and replaces the much more modest Crown Victoria that former Gov. Mitt Romney was driven around in.

Patrick’s new car is one of Cadillac’s finest vehicles with a price tag that starts at $42,000. By comparison, Crown Victorias, which are the vehicle of choice for police and government agencies, start at $26,000. The DTS is the 2007 version of the DeVille and is the largest luxury sedan made by Cadillac.

I am not sure what is going on with Deval Patrick but I am starting to wonder about him. Did he take a Kerry Healey pill or something?

From the Globe,

Governor Deval Patrick is proposing a tough new mandate for the state's cities and towns: If your pension system isn't performing, we're taking the money and investing it ourselves.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We delete all url's (web addreses) as our simple rule request.

I don't know why anyone would hate Romney.

It appears that Deval is going to cut the state budget back to about what Romney suggested last year.

From the Herald,

Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget chief said today she expects to use across-the-board spending cuts - instead of new taxes or fee hikes - to balance a $1.3 billion budget gap in the next fiscal year. “To cover the deficit we find ourselves with, there are going to be (cuts) ... that will make people unhappy.” She also reiterated that many of Patrick’s campaign promises will be significantly scaled back or postponed indefinitely. Patrick has indicated that plans to hire 1,000 new cops will be scaled back to 250 next year, and he has also said that broad-based property tax relief will have to wait until later in his administration.

Really did he have any idea what he was saying when he ran for Gov.

Welcome to Beacon Hill Mr. Patrick!

http://news.bostonherald.com/localPolitics/view.bg?articleid=182780

Never mind Romney why is Deval Patrick flying around the state in the State Police helicopter? I hear that it costs $500 and hour to run that thing, who does he think he is president?

http://news.bostonherald.com/localPolitics/view.bg?articleid=182620

How do we know kids were getting hurt was there a study done, where are the statistics?

Kids get hurt walking up or down stairs should we outlaw those as well, where does it end?

When I was in school playing dodge ball shots to the head were not allowed, and that was over 20 years ago.

The history of the Earth has always been to warm and then cool. Historically we are at the end of an ice age so logically it will be warmer, and if history is any guide it will be followed by another ice age, but the great part is that nobody knows.

Global Warming as we know it is all about money and fear to further whatever agenda that happens to be the topic of the day. A great example of this would be the wind farm zealots.

Today he wrote about how the public school system could help bridge the gap between immigrants in today's society.

Ignorance is bliss!

If republicans change their views it's called flip flopping, if a democrat does it, it's called an evolving position or opinion and vice versa.

In reality it says more about the person making the accusation than it does about the candidate. I know I have held opposite positions on different issues, who hasn't?

I judge the candidates on when they last held opposing views and why they changed them. Someone who changes their views as election time nears is more likely to be full of horse pucky than someone that changed their position 10 plus years ago.

On the other hand some politicians can't be trusted whatsoever, like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.

Since I have no real knowledge of "other places" I can't speak for them but I do know that the Cape has a very large immigrant population, much higher than years past. Logically what is true in other places with similar demographics should be true here. Consider that many if not all service jobs on the Cape employ new or illegal immigrants whose children attend public schools.

In the end if education is important to parents it's important to the children, it's almost that simple.

I think a better is question is how well will your wind turbines spin and produce electricity when they are covered with 3 inches of ice as the Lady of Grace probably was.

It interesting to see that Deval has blamed the budget deficit on Romney and for the most part the liberal news media has followed his lead. Even though Deval put back into the budget nearly a half billion dollars of spending and it was his democrat controlled legislature that wrote this years budget and overrode Romney vetoes by the hundreds.

I do think Deval is much better than a Jesse Jackson, but not much better. All the warning signs are there. The Armitage bible, the picture behind his desk, the sudden appearance of black troopers at his side, just about every change he has made so far deals with a persons race, scary.

Maybe the President talked to this guy or read his blog.

http://www.abc3340.com/news/talent.hrb?i=188

Well, well. Some “climate expert” on “The Weather Channel” wants to take away AMS certification from those of us who believe the recent “global warming” is a natural process. So much for “tolerance”, huh?

I have been in operational meteorology since 1978, and I know dozens and dozens of broadcast meteorologists all over the country. Our big job: look at a large volume of raw data and come up with a public weather forecast for the next seven days. I do not know of a single TV meteorologist who buys into the man-made global warming hype. I know there must be a few out there, but I can’t find them. Here are the basic facts you need to know:

*Billions of dollars of grant money is flowing into the pockets of those on the man-made global warming bandwagon. No man-made global warming, the money dries up. This is big money, make no mistake about it. Always follow the money trail and it tells a story.

I think the people that want their quality of life improved should be listened to. That's the citizens of the town, the taxpayers.

I have no problem with the goods and services the town I live in provides. We don't have street lights because we have under ground utilities. I like using the dump because I can go when I want. I don't need or want bus services or a subway. The police and fire departments are extremely reliable.

Let the people decide what they want for services not the people providing the services, of course they will be looking to increase their budgets, their livelihood depends on it.

Seems to me that you see an opportunity to raise taxes because they are lower than most of the state. However, that's what makes it affordable for retirees to stay here and others to buy the second homes that keep our taxes low in the first place.

I for one don't want to pay more taxes, if the Opinionator feels the need to pay more taxes I doubt the tax collector will refuse his extra payments.

The last thing any politician should do is ask the agencies that work for the government what they would like to have, what do you need works just fine because they always add things they would like to have. Geez that would be like asking a child if he would like to have candy.

Opinionator maybe you should look for your utopia somewhere else, try Cuba.

Conservatives look for a tax break on everything because a true conservative sees government as the problem, not the solution.

As for an answer to your flip flopping thing. I think a persons ideology is a better indication of what they will do on certain issues than what they say.

If Romney was a liberal they would say his position on issues had evolved, not fip flopped, even though it's really the same thing.

Why is it that liberals have such a visceral reaction to anything conservative?

I don't know anyone that works for minimum wage, and I have a teenage sister. She gets more than minimum wage to babysit. Seems to me that raising the minimum wage does more to inflate the egos of liberals than it does to inflate the income of any workers.

Good luck Mr. Patrick, let us know how many of your ideas actually get a vote on the floor.

I think what you are trying to say Cod is that the Democrats made a lot of noise over the war and other policy issues when they were in the minority. Of course when your in the minority you can say whatever you want because you have no power to act on your statements.

The issue at hand is will the Democrats now act, they said what they would do different, they got themselves elected, will they do it?

It's interesting to see that the schools are now doing what other kids are not allowed to do, pointing at the fat kid and stating the obvious.

I suppose someone has to say it, with all the rules about bullying, and equality, the government now has to do what has always been worked out naturally through peer pressure.

We are becoming a Nanny State!

For anyone living in Yarmouth the rate is increasing 6.8% in one year, the highest on Cape Cod.

Well it appears that Mr. Patrick took to heart the reprecussions of violating the State Constitution and his oath of office since the vote actually took place today and democracy prevailed.

It would be nice however, for our legislators to have some basic idea of what the Constitution says before they go blogging with blind ignorance.

Just so Mr. Patrick is clear, here is the exact wording cut from the SJC's opinion.

"The members of the joint session have a constitutional duty to vote, by the yeas and nays, on the merits of all pending initiative amendments before recessing on January 2, 2007. With respect to legislative action on proposals for Constitutional amendments introduced to the General Court by initiative petition, the language of art. 48 is not ambiguous.”

Good post Porcupine!

Patrick has a Constitutional obligation to vote up or down, anything less is a violation of his oath and an unconstitutional act.

I am not so sure people really care about gay marraige as much as they care about their rights, an intentional violation of the Constitution by the legislature puts all of our rights in danger. What else will they ignore.

This issue isn't going away, 170,000 signatures were gathered pretty easily and you can be sure they will be gathered again should our legislature puposely violate the constitution.

Does anyone really like John Kerry?

Of course it depends on the person what Christmas means.

To really understand the meaning of Christmas, volunteer to help feed the hungry, and homebound on Christmas day or simply take time to do something for someone else, that's what Christmas is about, at least for me it is.