Bonehead Of The Day
As many of you know, the Massachusetts Republican State Committee will soon be either reelecting or electing the Commonwealth’s GOP chair. Both candidates were recently asked questions and the answers were telling.
How will or have you embraced the Tea Party? Bill McCarthy’s response:
I will and have embraced the Tea Party in Massachusetts. While the current chair has shunned their support, I feel their enthusiasm and activism can play a critical role in the future of the party. Several active political groups, including the tea party, have been marginalized or completely ignored by current leadership. Ironically, these groups have put forth some of our best candidates, made strong financial contributions, and had the most consistently active volunteers. I will work with every group that supports Republican candidates.
Jennifer Nassour refused to Debate.
Jennifer Nassour refused to present the accounting of funds spent in 2010.
Jennifer Nassour takes credit for the minor voctories of Massachusetts Republicans in 2010, blames every loosing republican for their loss!
State Spends Millions On Methadone Clinic Rides
By Kathy Curran, WBZ-TV November 15, 2010 10:58 PM
BOSTON (CBS) — The state is strapped with a $2 billion budget deficit, yet it’s spending millions of dollars on chauffer driven rides to methadone clinics.
An I-Team investigation found that day in and day out, chauffeur driven livery cars make the trek to local methadone clinics with recovering heroin addicts and other drug users on board.
Most of the passengers are members of MassHealth, the state medical plan once known as Medicaid, and it is an expensive trip when there’s only one person in the passenger seat. Expensive for the taxpayers, that is, who are paying the fares. “The word has got out now that MassHealth is pretty much a free taxi service,” said one professional driver who asked the I-Team to hide his identity. “Why would you want to use your own gas and your own car when you can just call MassHealth and get a luxury ride to Boston in a Lincoln Town Car?” said the driver, who used to work for a livery service that contracts with the state. “I found myself doing taxi work, basically picking up people and shuttling them down to Canal Street in a luxury vehicle,” the driver said. “I’ve done as many as five or six trips in a week and I’m just one person.”
Making the daily trips to methadone clinics is a huge cost to MassHealth, a program that is the single biggest account in the state budget. In the last two years, more than $71 million were spent driving MassHealth members to medical appointments. And the I-Team has learned that last year, in four regions of Massachusetts, the state spent an estimated $1.4 million just on rides to and from methadone clinics. Methadone clinics aren’t always easily accessible to patients or to public transportation, but critics say one patient in each chauffer-driven car goes too far. “Clearly chauffer driven transportation is not a requirement in order for somebody on MassHealth to go to a methadone clinic,” says Michael Widmer, head of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Widmer said the $10 billion MassHealth budget accounts for one third of the state budget and is growing rapidly. “This is a perfect example where there has to be some savings,” he said.
“This is the way the system is. It just wastes money because it can,” said Barbara Anderson, who heads Citizens for Limited Taxation. “I remember when they used to send welfare mothers to the welfare office to get their welfare checks in a cab, and this is the same sort of thing.”
Terry Dougherty, the state director of Medicaid, said the state is required by federal rules to provide transportation services to MassHealth members. To meet that requirement, the state contracts with regional transportation authorities, which then hire private livery companies to drive MassHealth members. “I can see where people may think of it as a taxi service,” Dougherty said. “The fact of it is that since 1986 under federal law we must provide everybody their transportation to medically necessary treatments. If we can do a better job, we’ll look into that and get even more efficiencies. ” To get the free rides, Mass health members need a letter form their doctor saying it is a medical necessity.
$35 million in emergency healthcare spent on illegal aliens in Massachusetts alone
Under legal order from the Massachusetts Secretary of State, Gov. Deval Patrick’s office just released figures announcing that $35.7 million in free emergency health care has been spent so far this year on 52,000 illegal aliens. Massachusetts taxpayers paid $13.7 million of the cost, while federal Medicaid picked up $22 million. Additionally, the data shows that an astounding 69 percent of the state’s MassHealth Limited subscribers are actually illegal aliens who have received $33.8 million in taxpayer-funded in-patient hospital treatment this year alone.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), told the Boston Herald: “Incorporating illegal immigrants into any type of government-sponsored health care is legitimizing their presence here. It’s a kind of piecemeal amnesty.’’ According to the CIS, there are 220,000 illegal aliens now living in Massachusetts. Along with a host of other crimes, illegal aliens are stealing health care for which the rest of us must pay. The enormous bills which illegal aliens leave unpaid at American hospitals, leave those hospitals with two choices: They can either distribute those costs among their paying customers, or operate annually at a loss and eventually close their doors.
In 2003, the American Southwest saw 77 hospitals enter bankruptcy due to unpaid medical bills incurred by illegal aliens. Over the last several years, a staggering 84 hospitals in California alone have been forced out of business due to the growing crisis. Hospitals which manage to remain open, pass the unpaid costs onto the rest of us, which translates into more out-of-pocket expenses and higher insurance premiums for Americans.
Everyday, pregnant Mexican and Central American women on the verge of giving birth, make their way across the U.S. border to have their baby in an American hospital. These children become infamous "Anchor Babies" so prized by their criminal parents. Once the child is born on American soil, he or she instantly attains U.S. citizenship. Not only are the parents almost always allowed to stay, but since they have no income, the baby is eligible for welfare, WIC, Food Stamps, etc.--all at the expense of the great American taxpayer.
At one of North Carolina’s Goshen Medical Centers, nursing assistant Jessica Roberts told USAToday in 2008, about an illegal alien who arrived more than eight months pregnant with her eighth child.
There are 350,000 of these so-called Anchor Babies born in the U.S. every year. It is estimated that they consume $118 billion annually in government services. A 2007 March of Dimes survey placed the average cost of an uncomplicated, vaginal birth in a U.S. hospital at $8,800, with the average cost of a cesarean birth at $11,000. Of course, these hospitals have no choice but to treat these women along with their newborn babies. However, the bills racked-up in the process always go unpaid. According to a 2000 report by the United States/Mexico Border Counties Coalition, counties along the Mexican border lost over $800 million in health care services, at least 25 percent of that could be attributed to unpaid bills incurred by illegal aliens. The American border states currently shoulder the brunt of the burden, for instance the Texas state comptroller estimates illegal aliens cost hospitals $1.3 billion in 2006 alone.In California, a 2004 study conducted by FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform) placed the now bankrupt state's annual cost for treating illegal aliens at $1.4 billion. But with the spread of illegal immigration now throughout the U.S., the same such studies in 2005 found that health care costs for illegal aliens in Colorado and Minnesota were $31 million and $17 million, respectively. In recent years, North Carolina has seen an explosion in the state’s illegal alien population, as well as sky-rocketing medical costs. According to a University of North Carolina study, one in four new residents to the state from 1990 to 2004 was an illegal alien. The Pew Hispanic Center claims there are now more than 300,000 illegal aliens living in North Carolina.In 2008, Jeff Spade, vice president of the North Carolina Hospital Association told USAToday: "It's exploded the amount for hospitals, the burden of the uninsured immigrant is huge. It's exploded the amount of work that they have to do." A March 2007 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association claimed that during the period 2001-2004, emergency Medicaid costs for illegal aliens rose by 28 percent in North Carolina. Duplin General Hospital in Kanansville, NC, now faces a rather bleak financial future due to the large influx of illegal aliens, and their unpaid medical bills. CEO Harvey Case recently addressed the hospital’s lack of profits, when he said: "We're living off reserves." U.S. hospitals often seek help for the unpaid bills as well as with transportation back to Mexico from the Mexican Consulate offices. However, the Mexican government rarely even arranges flights for their severely injured citizens to return home. The illegal alien patient usually ends up staying in the hospital for weeks or months, with the hospital usually paying for a flight home, along with the enormous unpaid bill. A 2008 New York Times article told the incredible story of a1999 Florida car crash which left Guatemalan national Luis Alberto Jimenez's with severe and permanent physical and mental injuries. After spending more than $1 million on Jimenez’s treatment, and failed attempts to secure assistance from the government of Guatemala, the Florida hospital eventually paid to fly Jimenez back to his own country. The incredible part of the story…Jimenez is now suing the Florida hospital, which he now says “falsely imprisoned” him and deported him against his will, to avoid anymore unpaid medical bills. We have been told by our government that the number of illegal aliens currently inside the U.S. is about 12 million. However, we have been given this same figure for the last seven years, and even then that figure was considered very low by those who have studied the problem of illegal immigration. With close to one million crossing our border with Mexico illegally every year, the number of course, is much higher than 12 million. Just like American citizens, illegal aliens get sick, they get injured, and they give birth. However, unlike most Americans, illegal aliens do not pay any portion of their medical bills. Many use fake or stolen Social Security numbers, as well as aliases and move back and forth across our unprotected without detection.Of course, we know that nothing in life is free, someone has to pay for it. Hospitals are not the federal government, therefore they cannot simply print money out of thin air to cover their expenses. So, all of the bills left unpaid by this country’s illegal aliens are being paid by all of us who pay for our own healthcare, as well as through our federal and state income taxes.
Though President Obama will never mention this hard truth, if we simply ordered all illegal aliens out of the country and deported the ones who refused the order, as well as placed our military along the border…Healthcare costs would stop rising and could even drop.
Thursday December 2, 2010
Federal prosecutors are asking a grand jury to weigh charges, including fraud, extortion, and conspiracy, in the widening patronage scandal that has staggered the Massachusetts Probation Department, reports the Boston Globe. U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz has ordered probation officials to preserve all documents that could be used as evidence in the criminal probe, including e-mails, laptop files, BlackBerry text messages, and all of the agency’s paper records. “This letter shall notify you that a federal grand jury is and has been conducting an investigation into allegations relating to violations of certain federal statutes,’’ Ortiz wrote to Ronald Corbett Jr., acting commissioner.
News of the federal investigation comes just days after Attorney General Martha Coakley said she has assigned a team of state prosecutors to “aggressively pursue’’ charges that might stem from bogus hiring and promotion practices at the 2,000-employee state agency. The twin criminal investigations were launched after the Supreme Judicial Court strongly endorsed a damning report by an independent counsel who concluded that the Probation Department is riddled with fraud and “systemic corruption.’’
Boston GOP Chair Jen Nassour For her comments in a recent Boxborough Town meeting, where she attacked conservative principles, called them racists and bigots and begged conservatives to leave her party to form their own. 2009
Jen Benson Sign the bill raising your Sales tax from 5 to 6.25%
Boston GOP Chair Jen Nassour Sets forth her new platform which includes; The MAGOP l not would not necessarily support a pro-life candidate, if a better “republican” candidate was available who happened to be pro-choice.Nassour then interjected herself in a Republican sponsored fiscal bill being worked in the Capitol and opposed the majority of Republicans working the legislation in favor on a minority opinion, without so much as alerting the majority Republican coalition of her intentions, she further proclaimed in Bay Windows that under her "leadership" Social issues to include pro-life and family values were not part of the MAGOP! Calls those who do not agree with her SEXIST and then tells the conservative (a.k.a Activists) to leave the party.... And all the while posing for and having a charming interview with BAY WINDOWS the most extreme GLBT "media" outlet in the country!
Deval Patrick named of Sen. Marian Walsh as assistant executive director at HEFA - whether her salary is $175,000 or $120,000. the fact remains the position was unfillesd for 12 years
Deval Patrick; 19 cents per gallon added gas tax, making Massachusetts number ONE, $2.00 parking fee increase at Logan Airport, for a "Carbon Credit" on top of the $1.00 just rasied, making Logan Airport the most expense in the country to park,raised taxes on businesses by nearly $500 million a year since taking office, his Revenue Department offered amnesty to 159,000 tax delinquents who might pay up $20 million.
Judge Howard Whitehead; A Lawrence man accused of beating another man to death outside a bar nine years ago has been freed by a judge who said he had no choice because of the man’s low IQ. Eric Falaradeau was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the October 2000 death of William Beal of Salem, N.H. Judge Whitehead dropped charges against the 29-year-old Falardeau on Tuesday, saying he would never go to trial because learning disabilities prevent him from understanding the proceedings, and he can’t be committed to a psychiatric hospital because he is not considered mentally ill.
Jen BENSON, State Representative 37th Middlesex District. while the State and Nation faces cuts , while people are loosing their jobs announces her environmental protection, that bill will require customers to pay a surcharge of five cents for each plastic bag used at grocery stores. Customers would pay no surcharge for paper bags, reusable bags, or plastic bags brought from home. The surcharge would go to the Clean Environment Fund to be used for environmental projects. New Hampshire shopping looks better every day.
Massachusetts Lawmakers...The Bay State’s convicts will get to watch the Super Bowl on 117 brand-new high-definition flatscreen TVs purchased with the OK of state prison officials. The cash-strapped and over-crowded prison system spent a mind-boggling $76,958 for the N/D big screen TV'S this month even as Gov. Deval Patrick moves to lay off state workers and slash local aid in the face of the worst financial meltdown in a generation.
Sal DiMasi is the THIRD Democrat annointed as Speaker of the House to resign. His predecessor, Thomas Finneran, stepped down as Speaker in 2004 and three years later pled guilty to criminal obstruction of justice, stemming from his testimony in a court case regarding the redistricting process that took place in 2000. Charles Flaherty, who preceded Finneran, resigned in 1996 after pleading guilty in federal court to tax evasion and admitted to the State Ethics Commission that he received free vacation lodging from lobbyists and business interests.
Deval Patrick... grapples with layoffs and budget deficits, he has hired a close neighbor in Milton to be the state’s $120,000 director of real estate services, Attorney and real-estate consultant Dana Harrell, 60, a frequent contributor to Patrick’s campaign coffers, was introduced Oct. 27, less than two weeks after Patrick announced 1,000 jobs would be lost to the state’s $1.4 billion budget crunch.
MASS GOP... During the 2008 election cycle raised $946,626.23 and spent $83,998.94, on direct candidate contributions this included a mere $226.50 for Beatty for Senate. And recently annointed yet another Chair, this one with absolutely no experience in party leadership.
Massachusetts Ex officials... Four ex-governors of Massachusetts have gone to bat for former house speaker Tom Finneran, who plead guilty to obstruction of justice. Ex-governors Dukakis, ( A Democrat, it figures) Weld, Cellucci and Swift (all alleged Republicans in fact RINO's) have endorsed and sent a letter to the President supporting Finneran’s bid for a pardon from President Bush. Finneran wants his felony conviction for lying under oath to be expunged.
Massachusetts Debt...Despite statutory and administrative debt limits, the Commonwealth’s debt burden remains among the highest in the nation by certain measures. A recent U.S. Census Bureau study of state finances ranks Massachusetts third in the nation in outstanding debt and first in the nation in debt per capita. Moody’s Investors Service ranks Massachusetts fourth in total net tax-supported debt, third in total gross tax-supported debt, second in net tax-supported debt as a percentage of personal income, and first in net tax-supported debt per capita. Standard and Poor’s Massachusetts rankings are similar: first in tax-supported debt per capita, second in tax-supported debt as a percentage of personal income, and fourth in total tax-supported debt.
Massachusetts lawmakers ...will be able to get a 5.5 percent pay raise, an automatic hike provided for in the state Constitution that is keyed to the increase in the state's median household income. Under Article 118 of the amendments to the state Constitution, which was approved by voters in a 1998 referendum, lawmakers will now see their base pay increase from $58,237 to $61,440. The automatic pay raise does not apply to the extra pay that House and Senate members get for leadership positions. this while the state is layiong off mental health workers talking tax increases and facing over one billion dollar short fall.
Richard Voke, a former House majority leader.. from Chelsea who retired in 1998 after losing a bitter fight for the speakership to Thomas M. Finneran in 1996, upped his pension from about $14,779 to $28,193.
Former State Representative Francis G. Mara... from Brockton who retired in 1996 after he was fined for taking gifts from insurance lobbyists, increased his pension from about $3,783 to $18,921.
Former State Representative Vincent J. Piro... from Somerville who lost his seat after he was charged with taking a $5,000 bribe, used the law to boost his pension from about $6,750 - not including annual cost-of-living adjustments - to $18,872.
Former State Senator James Marzilli... charged with attempting to grope a woman, asked the state to nearly double his pension, just 11 days after he resigned from the state Senate in disgrace.
Alfred E. Saggese Jr., a Winthrop Democrat... got his pension boosted to $18,872, after retiring from the House in 1991, a year after he missed more roll call votes than any other member,
State Senator J. James Marzilli Jr., arraigned on 4 June 2008 on charges that he tried to grope a woman and harass another on busy streets in downtown Lowell, faces further investigation as more women came forward with accusations of inappropriate sexual contact. Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said law enforcement officers are investigating a report of an assault in Arlington last year, one in Brighton two years ago, and additional reports in Lowell Tuesday. The veteran lawmaker fled police who tried to question him, causing cars to swerve out of his way and pedestrians to scramble as he darted through city streets. Marzilli was arrested in a parking garage, where he was cut off by police cruisers chasing him. After officers threatened him with pepper spray to make him submit to handcuffs, according to a police report, he broke into tears and cried that his "life was over."
Quincy Mayor, Thomas P. Koch, recently made headlines for spending nearly $19,000 on wall-to-wall carpeting for his office and a 47-inch flat-screen TV. Public outrage over the expenditures - including widespread incredulity that a rug cost so much - prompted Koch to promise to pay for the rug with campaign funds and give the TV to the senior center.
State Senator (Former State Representative) James Eldridge… Found in violation on three separate occasions of OCPF (Campaign Finance) violations and ordered restitution and other forms of corrective action.
Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner… Arrested and charged with accepting a $1,000 bribe and then lying about taking the money in a widening federal corruption inquiry.
State Senator Dianne Wilkerson …Arrested in Oct 2008 by the FBI on public corruption charges. U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said Wilkerson took $23,500 in bribes between June 2007 and October 2008 .
Middlesex County’s Register of Probate John Buonomo.. was arrested in August 2008 by state police and charged with 18 counts of breaking and entering into a depository, eight counts of theft of public property and eight counts of larceny under $250, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. Buonomo had been caught on tape counting and stealing cash repeatedly from machines inside the Office of the Register of Deeds
Deval Patrick.. This is what he said about anone who is cybical about Massachusetts Politics “We are awash in cynicism in the commonwealth, but the cynical are not smart; they’re just pretending to be.”
Deval Patrick.. Promised three prime issues on/during his campaign, Property Tax relief, 1000 more police and educational excellence.. so far 0 & 3
Deval Patrick… who once decried the cozy “Big Dig culture” on Beacon Hill - names controversial Big Dig insider James Aloisi transportation secretary , Aloisi who made 3 million dollars off of Big Dig Contracts.
Deval Patrick…Hires his former co-chair of his fund raising committee at $72,000/year to be the secretary for Mrs. Deval Patrick making her official schedule.
Deval Patrick… Facing a billion dollar deficit, spends 27 thousand dollars on Drapes and office furnishings.. Is now repaying the State.
Deval Patrick… Criticizes former administrations for being “Out of Touch” however he uses the State Police Helicopter to commute back on fourth to work
Deval Patrick… Facing at the time of his inauguration a state with a billion dollar deficit spends over one million on his inaugural parties .
Deval Patrick… Purchase of a Cadillac. Initially saying the Crown Vic was old and the heater did not work, Then saying they did not make Crown Vic’s any longer and finally indicating the State Police “ordered” him to get the Cadillac. Patrick caved and finally paid $543.00 per month, the difference between the Caddies cost to tax payers of $1,166.00 and what the Ford would have cost to lease!
Billy Bulger .. The former president of the state Senate and, sadly, the University of Massachusetts, was allowed to add $17,000 to his $179,000-a-year pension for the value of his “housing allowance,”
Former Massachusetts Turnpike Authority chairman Matthew J. Amorello ...is under investigation by the state Ethics Commission — a paper tiger if there ever was one — for possible violation of conflict-of-interest laws. While crafting a golden parachute for himself and some of his close associates as he was forced out of office, Mr. Amorello initiated last-minute policy changes that enabled some turnpike managers to walk away with $320,000 in unused sick pay. The chairman’s own take was $80,000.