Category Archives: Newburyport Daily News

November 9, 2007 · 12:00 am

Mike Costello is not the Legislator of the Year

When I saw the headline, “Costello wins bar’s top honor,” in the November 2nd issue of The Newburyport Daily News I thought that something special had happened at one of Newburyport’s drinking establishment.

Not so. The article under the title, by Stephen Tait, was about our state representative Mike Costello being honored as the Legislator of the Year by the Massachusetts Bar Association.

I’m glad that someone thought that Mr. Costello was an honorable legislator because I certainly don’t. He fell out of my favor with his pathetic performance in the marriage amendment fiasco.

Those with memory problems may have already forgotten that 170,000 petitioners in this state requested permission from the state legislature to find out if the voters of Massachusetts believe that marriage is only between a man and a woman. These petitioners were not asking the state legislature to decide anything about marriage. All they wanted was for the voters of this state to have the opportunity to give their take on this issue.

Remember that this wasn’t the effort of a few sorry malcontents but of 170,000 people. The sheer numbers didn’t faze Mr. Costello and his legislature friends. When it came time for the legislature to decide if the general populace would have a say in defining marriage they defiantly slammed the door. Shameful.

An appropriate lawyer joke comes to mind: How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb? None, they’d rather keep their clients in the dark.

Simply put, the Massachusetts Legislature got its chance to vote on the marriage issue but the rest of us were left in the dark thanks to award-winning Mr. Costello. You should be able to see what distain these folks have for the rest of us even if you are opposed to man/woman marriage.

In the Newburyport Daily News story, Mr. Costello suggests that he is willing to take unpopular stands. He has that right. He would also be right if he suggested that his stands are predictable.

I guess, on the other hand, that my stands are predictable as well. I think that the majority in this state believe that gay marriage is an unfortunate arrangement and that this would be confirmed in a statewide vote. I believe that more time should be spent in protecting the unborn than in protecting the abortionists. I believe that more time should be spent protecting the rights of victims rather than the rights of criminals.

Mr. Costello doesn’t agree with me and that’s not likely to change. Then why was he quoted in the article as saying that in his five years in office he has always fought “to make sure people get a fair shake?”

Some of us out here are still waiting for our “fair shake,” Mr. Legislator of the Year.

( Appeared in the Newburyport Daily News – November 9, 2007 )

Iraq Improves, Surveillance a Necessity

I read Michael Cook’s letter-to-the-editor (“Bogged down in Iraq, under surveillance in U.S. – October 8th) with both interest and disbelief.

I can always count on Mr. Cook to reveal a wide assortment of illusions that the Far Left wants the rest of us to believe.

He would have us believe that the war is a disaster – “quagmire” is his term. No mention is made of the recent optimistic report from General Petraeus. No hint that a world without Saddam Hussein is a better place for a whole lot of people.

This part was expected. The disbelief part kicked in when Mr. Cook suggested that he and his political associates are the real supporters of the military not the President. That’s laughable.

These people fool no one with their opportunistic interest in patriotism, least of all the military itself. A survey taken in 2004 among active duty personnel showed Bush favored over Kerry 73-18 per cent. I wonder what the poll results today would be with the same group if Hillary/Obama/Edwards were matched against Bush. Mr. Cook might not want to know.

The desire for peace by Mr. Cook and his friends is admirable. The problem is the price they’re willing to pay to achieve it. They are not willing to fight for peace. To them Pearl Harbor happened because of a misunderstanding with Japan. To them 9-11 was our fault. They never seem to want to accept the idea that evil exists and that we have options as to where and when we will deal with it so that peace can result.

Mr. Cook finds fault with the way we are fighting the terrorists. What he doesn’t mention is that if it were up to him and his friends we would flee the Middle East entirely. He has no concern whatsoever for what such an exit would cause to happen in the Middle East. That our early withdrawal from Vietnam was a travesty for our friends in and around that country appears to be unimportant to him.

Another source of disbelief for me was Mr. Cook’s suggestion that our government goes too far in gathering information about people traveling overseas. Oblivious to evil, Mr. Cook cannot comprehend the necessity of such action. I’ll bet he has complete trust in the millions of illegals in this country as well.

Mr. Cook closes by saying that, “soon I’ll be back in the rain forest.” I think that a better place for him might be the desert. There he could resume burying his head in the sand. Those periodic burials have apparently caused him to have missed the lessons of history and prevented him from having any sense of the real world the rest of us live in.

( Appeared in the Newburyport Daily News – October 15, 2007 )

Teaching Moments in Minnesota

There are lessons to be learned from the recent happenings in Minnesota. Let me go through a couple of them.

First, we have this ongoing furor over repairing the 1A bridge over the Parker River in Newbury. Was the bridge calamity in Minnesota not shown on local TV?

The bridge in Newbury needs repair. The best time to repair a bridge is before it collapses not the way it worked out in Minnesota. Inconvenient? You bet, but how about considering the flipside, could you?

I read of the appeals to various politicians to stop the process and wonder why any of the politicians bother to listen to any of this nonsense. It sure wouldn’t look too hot on a politician’s resume to say that he/she stopped, or tried to stop, the repair of a bridge that badly needed repair.

The idea that the bridge would be kept open while they work on major repairs is laughable. It is somewhat like asking for major surgery while insisting that you will continue jogging while the surgery is taking place. Close the bridge down completely so that the work can be done without interruption.

Soon we’ll be hearing from folks insisting that the bridge be repaired quickly. Patience they don’t have. We’re talking about a potentially life-saving operation and these people will want it done fast. Try that one on your doctor before he performs open-heart surgery.

The work on the bridge should begin as soon as possible and be allowed to take as long as necessary.

Also in Minnesota we had an unfortunate lesson learned at Minneapolis Airport by Idaho Senator Larry Craig. This pathetic Republican tried to strike up a sexual relationship with a complete male stranger in a bathroom there.

The stranger happened to be working for the police department and arrested the Senator. The Senator hoped that a quick admission of guilt would put an end to his problems but it didn’t go that way. Soon there were denials which failed miserably especially since a tape with the Senator’s confession was handy to repute the denials.

The lesson that Senator Craig should have learned in Minnesota was that he was representing the wrong state and in the wrong political party. If he had only been from Massachusetts the idea of resignation wouldn’t even have been an option. He could have trusted the voters of this state to let him continue no matter what he did.

After all this state voted to let Democrat Ted Kennedy continue in the Senate even after he fled the scene of an accident that turned fatal because of his negligence. After all this state also let Democrat Barney Frank continue in the House of Representatives after he was picked up for allowing a male hooker to run a prostitution ring out of his apartment. Frank’s conduct was so deplorable that even the Boston Globe abandoned him but not the voters of this state.

It’s one thing for voters to lack good sense but people living near a dangerous bridge should know better.