GOP Protests Gas Tax

I was delighted to read that MassGOP, under the direction of newly-elected Chair Jennifer Nassour, held a gas tax protest in front of the State House this past Wednesday. By keeping the GOP visible and up front, Ms. Nassour demonstrates the Party's relevance and involvement with real issues that affect peoples' daily lives. With the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority voting increases in the tolls, Ms. Nassour's gas tax demonstration was not only pertinent but also timely. Word from the Turnpike Authority is that the higher tolls are provisional and that their continued existence will be based on the outcome of the amount of the gas tax. Since when have raised fees been lowered?

The T & G gave the Republican protest some good press on p.1 of Thursday's edition, as did The Boston Globe in the "Metro Section" on p.B4. The Globe also included an OpEd piece from the Dukakis Center that spoke in favor of the gas tax, indicating we either pay now or pay later and that if roads projects are delayed, the costs not only for construction but also to individual car owners will be higher.

Jen Nassour deserves to be commended for taking the leadership role in organizing last Wednesday's gas tax protest. She appears to be making a good start as GOP Chair.

Telegram & Gazette, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, p.A1, "Drivers jeer gas tax hike" by Glen Johnson of the Associated Press
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090226/NEWS/902260636

The Boston Globe, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, p.B4, "Patrick says he's flexible on size of gas tax hike" by Noah Bierman and Matt A. Viser
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/26/patrick_says_hes_flexible_on_size_of_gas_tax_hike/


The Boston Globe, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009, p.A15, "Gas tax: Paying cents to save big bucks" by Barry Bluestone and Stephanie Pollack
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/26/gas_tax_paying_cents_to_save_big_bucks/

Telegram & Gazette, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009, "Mass. drivers faceTurnpike toll increase" by Glen Johnson, AP political writer
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090224/APN/902241574

Let's Keep Looking

Can you remember how you felt in high school? Picture yourself in your school auditorium at an assembly where a friend, someone you like but are not especially close to, is giving a speech to your entire grade. You like this person but don't always hang out with him. Oh sure, he's smart enough, but he could never cut it in any of your honors classes. Nevertheless, you sincerely want him to succeed. So there you are in your seat, surrounded by your best friends and there he is on the stage. As he begins to speak you immediately become uncomfortable and by the end of his second sentence, you're squirming . As he goes deeper into his talk you become more and more fidgety and start crossing your fingers, arms, legs and eventually even your toes in your mind. As he continues, your friends give you worried glances. You return those glances, trying to smile, but your smile looks fake. Now you feel as though you and your friend, The Speaker, are about to fall off a cliff and the only way out is for him to stop talking. Finally, after what seems an enternity, he ends his speech and your shoulders rise up and down in an ultimate sigh of relief.

How did you feel during the official Republican response to President Obama's address Tuesday evening?

National Governors Association and Beyond

So the Governors met over the weekend, and in the process, according to the Telegram and Gazette, some of the Republicans used that forum to position themselves as possible 2012 preidential candidates. Those Republican Governors mentioned in Beth Fouhy's AP article as possible GOP contenders are Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, South Carolina's Mark Sanford, Florida's Charlie Crist and Mississippi's Haley Barbour. Governor Sarah Palin was at home working with the Alaska Legislature on her state's budget, but was characterized in the article as being "arguably the Republican Party's biggest star." If Sarah Palin is the Party's "biggest star" then the GOP runs the risk of becoming irrelevant.

Nominating Palin as the next Republican presidential candidate would have disastrous consequences to the Party and the country. We need and the country needs an intelligent, articulate woman or man who has the ability to project into the future, analyze various situations and streams of data and reach solid, well-grounded conclusions. The Republican presidential nominee should be someone who has studied history and understands other nations and their cultures. Although the Republican Party is in a shambles across the U.S. and throughout Massachusetts, we should be able to come up with a presidential candidate whose main qualifications are not confined to appearance and personality. If by 2012 we are not able to succeed at this, we may dissolve into true irrelevancy.

Telegram & Gazette, Feb. 23, 2009, A1, "GOP governors lay groundwork" by Beth Fouhy, Associated Press
http://www.telegram.com/article/20090223/NEWS/902230295/1116/NEWSREWIND

Boston Globe, Feb. 23, 2009, p.A10, "Some governors torn over stimulus" Associated Press
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/02/23/some_governors_torn_over_stimulus/

Lessons from Lincoln

Call me idealistic, but I can picture a United States of America, particularly under the influence of President Barack Obama, where people with unlike ideas respect each other enough to use civil discourse. Too long this country has been living with an "Us Versus Them" mentality. Too long Republicans and Democrats have been trying to score political points with their clever, cutting comments, many times directed at humiliating the other side. That kind of rhetoric and separatism divide us. We need to be brought together as "one nation under God".

That is not to say Democrats and Republicans should agree on every issue under the sun. On the contrary, in this age of democratic dominance and especially within our own state, standing up for what we believe to be true and just is not only the right thing to do, it's patriotic and reinforces our system of checks and balances. But when we make our stand, let us be absolutely sure to be civil. Rather than taking meaningless party line jabs and stabs at one another, stick to the item at hand.

Abraham Lincoln served as President when our country was torn apart by war, geography and ideology. He brought us together under incredibly difficult, trying circumstances and truth and honor shone through in the end. Let us resolve as Republicans to honor our 16th President, not just on his birthday but throughout the year by approaching our fellow Dems with civility and respect. By doing so, we will indeed be putting our "country first". (John McCain)

Ideology Versus Emotionalism

Just when I thought we had come to a spirit of bipartisanship and respect I pick up the paper today and read Derrick Jackson's column in The Boston Globe. Mr. Jackson seems unable to separate emotionalism from ideological differences and attributes republicans rejecting the stimulus package to uncaring and lack of compassion. Consider how he starts his article titled, "Republican obstinacy: How's it working?" on p. A15. "Not even the stimulus bill stimulated the Republican Party into any human feeling. It heard not the screams of 4 million people losing their jobs in the last year, not the slamming doors of shuttering factories, nor the shrieks at kitchen tables from Saco to Sacramento as working Americans open their mail to see they've lost 40 percent and more on the 401ks." His article degenerates from there.

Mr. Jackson speaks about Bush's low poll numbers. Agreed, but how do Bush's low ratings relate to republicans rejecting the stimulus bill? He points out that 13% of Americans polled by CNN felt Bush "brought the kind of change the country needed" and uses that figure to catapult to President Obama's election and of course, "the change we need." I highly respect President Obama, and realize he is very popular, but our country is founded on a system of checks and balances. Republicans now have that critical role of examining decisions, asking questions and voting no when wrong moves are likely to be made.

Further along in the article Mr. Jackson throws in the race card, albeit in a suggestive rather than outright manner, causing the reader to think Judd Gregg may have withdrawn his nomination as commerce secretary due to his anticipated lack of control over how the census will be carried out in terms of minority people. Not sure why I continued, but I read more and got to this line that equaled Karl Rove's America-splitting rhetoric. "No, they [Republicans] run around calling the stimulus garbage, even as maggots keep crawling out of the carcass of the last administration."

There is one very important quality I see Barack Obama bringing to the Presidency and that is a sense of civility. President Obama has courteous words for just about everybody, except terrorists. When Chief Justice John Roberts messed up his inaugural vows, Obama very kindly said something to the effect that "We were both very nervous," knowing full well it was Justice Roberts' slip. Barack Obama is forever gracious. Having read Derrick Jackson's column over time, I gather he appears to look up to his President. My suggestion to Jackson is to take some lessons from the man you so much admire.

If you want to get your blood boiling, read Derrick Jackson's article.

The Boston Globe, Wed., Feb. 18, 2009, p.A15, "Republican obstinacy: How's it working?" by Derrick Z. Jackson
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/18/republican_obstinacy_hows_it_working/

It's "Entirely Continental" --General Washington

On January 1, 1776, General George Washington issued a decree that his army, though comprised mainly of New Englanders, should be, in his words, "'a new army, which in every point of view is entirely continental.'" (p.69) The name stuck. To punctuate that order, our first Commander-in-Chief raised a flag never before seen. David McCullough writes eloquently of this account.

"With the crash of a 13-gun salute, he raised a new flag in honor of the birthday of the new army -- a flag of thirteen red and white stripes, with the British colors (the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew) represented in the upper corner. When the British in Boston saw it flying from Prospect Hill, they at first mistook it for a flag of surrender." (p.69)

"1776" by David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005, chapter 2, "Rabble in Arms", pp. 20 - 69.

His Excellency George Washington

On July 3, 1775, General George Washington assumed charge of the army that was gathering in Cambridge, Massachusetts. First called "the New England army or "the army at Boston," (p.24) what we now know as the Continental Army was a rag tag collection of untrained men wearing all kinds of dress. There were a few exceptions, however, one being our first Commander-in-Chief. According to an eye witness, James Thacher, a doctor who had just set foot on the scene from his home town of Barnstable:

"'His Excellency was on horseback, in company with several military gentlemen. It was not difficult to distinguish him from all others. His personal appearance is truly noble and majestic, being tall and well proportioned. His dress is a blue coat with buff colored facings, a rich epaulet on each shoulder, buff underdress, and an elegant small sword, a black cockade in his hat.'"
--p.34

Above was taken from the book, "1776" by David McCullough, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005, chapter 2, "Rabble in Arms" pp. 20 - 69.