The Maine Reason

Last week, Maine became the 31st state to reject a referendum that would have legalized gay marriage.

With 87 percent of precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote in a referendum that asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage that had passed the Legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

“The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation,” said Frank Schubert, the chief organizer for Stand for Marriage Maine, which lobbied for the repeal.

For the gay rights movement, which has gained a foothold in New England, it was a stinging defeat. Gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine, framing same-sex marriage as a matter of equality for all families in a campaign that used 8,000 volunteers to get out the message.

Five states have legalized gay marriage — Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote.

Portland resident Sarah Holman said she was torn, but decided — despite her conservative upbringing — to vote in favor of letting gays marry.

“They love and they have the right to love. And we can’t tell somebody how to love,” said Holman, 26.

Hold on a minute here…let’s get the record straight. This vote did not outlaw homosexuality, it only outlawed gay marriage. They are still free to love to each other.

While the gay marriage opponents claimed victory, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, held off conceding until early Wednesday, when he issued a statement vowing to continue to press the issue.

The fight for marriage equality will continue, he told supporters at the Holiday Inn ballroom, where a buffet table included a three-tiered wedding cake — with two grooms standing side by side, two brides standing side by side and the inscription: “We all do!”

And this is why you will never, ever, ever see gay marriage be voted on by the people, and not ushered in by a small handful of judges. The pro-gay marriage movement knows that gay marriage will not survive a vote by the people…and they will stop at nothing to keep you from voting on it.

But hey, if you want to keep electing people that choose to effectively put duct tape over your mouths, by all means…

Crime In The North Shore

A couple fathers in North Shore cities have been making headlines this week, and not in a good way.

The first being the Beverly man who tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife, mother-in-law and young daughter.

The FBI and a “Crips” gang member cracked a vile murder-for-hire plot hatched by a Beverly man who wanted a cold-blooded killer to execute his wife, mother-in-law and 7-year-old daughter, according to an FBI affidavit.

“I would like an open casket for my daughter,” John Orlowski, 49, of Beverly allegedly said in an FBI-taped meeting with the Crips informant. The phony hit man then suggested he fire a .45-caliber bullet into the girl’s chest, and Orlowski allegedly agreed.

Orlowski was charged yesterday with using interstate commerce with the intent that a murder be committed, and remained in custody pending his appearance tomorrow in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

And next, a double-murder suicide in Saugus.

A Saugus man killed his wife and their mentally disabled adult son yesterday afternoon in their home, then called the cops before killing himself in the quiet Avalon Bay apartment complex off Route 1, authorities said.

Police received a 911 call to 2818 Founders Way at 2:15 p.m., apparently from Peter A. Allouise Jr., 60. They arrived to find the bodies of Allouise, his wife, Ann Marie Allouise, 55, and their son Peter M. Allouise, 26, Essex County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Steven O’Connell said.

One has to wonder that if these men were so unhappy as to want to kill their wives and children, how come they didn’t do what most deadbeat dads do and just hit the road, or get a divorce?

Both stories are reminiscent of the Entwistle story almost a year and half ago.

How Can 1,230,065 People Be So Dumb?

To borrow a little bit of a headline from the UK’s Daily Mirror from a few years ago: How Can 1,230,065 People Be So Dumb?

I remained hopeful, yet realistic, in the waning hours of the election. Hopeful that Massachusetts residents would realize the gravity of the decision they were making today, and do what was best for the Commonwealth. I was wrong.

We are now faced with four years of Deval Patrick. Four years of one-party rule. Four years of hubris. Four years of sound bites. Four years of slogans. Four years of Deval Patrick. While there may not be a Republican in the Corner Office, today was not about electing change. There is no change. Today in Massachusetts, democracy killed democracy. The voters of Massachusetts rejected two-party government; they rejected debate in the arena of ideas; they rejected the positive, and believed the negative.

Tonight I joked with my fellow Republicans that we should all just get up and leave this state and “just let the Democrats have it.” More often than I expected, many were already in the process of move to nearest (or warmest) red state they could find; for others, tonight was the last straw. The students from Tufts University I ran into tonight, most of them shared my sorrows, but relished in the fact that they are not residents of this state–lucky them. I am not as lucky as those students only a handful of years younger than me. I still have a few years left in my graduate studies before I can join the Massachusetts Diaspora (or Exodus if you prefer), and gleefully turn back and laugh at all the suckers.

I still have a few years left in this state, during which I promise to continue to fight the good fight. Many asked Rush Limbaugh what he would once Clinton left office, for they thought he would have nothing to talk about if he couldn’t complain about Clinton. Well my friends, our work has only just begun.

You had all the reasons in the world not to vote for Deval Patrick, yet you still did. You thought you were voting for change? You let him tell you that things were so terrible here, and you believed him?

You let Deval Patrick tell you to your face that he is against all the things you believe in (like the immediate tax rollback), and is for all the things don’t believe in (like in-state tuition and drivers licenses for illegal immigrants), and you still voted for him. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

We’ve heard it many times the past few weeks, but I’ll repeat it again now. In a Democracy, you get the government you deserve. Well, my fellow citizens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (and all you illegal immigrants, too), for the next four years, we will get what we deserve.

I’ll ask again: How Can 1,230,065 People Be So Dumb?

Supporting A Rapist vs. Running Negative Ads

Another poll, this one from the Boston Globe and CBS4, has Patrick ahead by 25 points.

Patrick led the GOP nominee, 54 percent to 29 percent, in the survey of 585 likely voters that was taken Sunday through Wednesday evening. Independent Christy Mihos remained a distant third with 8 percent, and Green-Rainbow Party candidate Grace Ross received 2 percent. Only 6 percent of the respondents said they were undecided.

Here’s the bizarre part.

A majority of those surveyed, 54 percent, said they believed that Healey “crossed over the line” with her negative ads, which have highlighted Patrick’s advocacy on behalf of convicted rapist Benjamin LaGuer and a man convicted of killing a police officer. Almost half of the respondents — 45 percent — said that Healey’s ads have made them less likely to vote for her while 10 percent said they are more likely to back her.

So, let me see if I understand this correctly… A majority of Massachusetts likely voters are more bothered by Healey’s ads than they are bothered by the fact that Deval Patrick tried to put a convicted rapist back on the streets, even donated to money him, and that he was caught lying about it?

So, trying to free a convicted rapist is morally superior to running negative ads?

I don’t get it.

Violent Crime Rate Has Gone Down During Romney/Healey Administration

It’s time to do some fact-checking.

Deval Patrick said at the debate that the Romney/Healey administration’s record of crime “has marked Massachusetts as the most violent state in New England,” as well as the Northeast. According to Deval Patrick, “that’s their legacy.”

According FBI crime statistics for 2005, it is true that Massachusetts ranked the most violent state in New England, but that’s not the whole story. Let’s look at the violent crime rates in these states in 2005 vs. 2002 (in parentheses):

Connecticut: 274.5 (312.5) -38
Maine: 112.2 (107.8) +4.4
Massachusetts: 456.9 (484.9) -28
New Hampshire: 132.0 (161.3) -29.3
Vermont: 119.7 (106.7) +13
Rhode Island: 251.2 (285.6) -34.4

What Deval Patrick chooses to ignore is that violent crime rate gone down since Romney/Healey took office. Deval Patrick would also have you believe that it was because of Romney/Healey that Massachusetts ranked #1 in violent crime in 2005 for New England states, when the reality is, it also ranked #1 in 2002 (#2 if you include all Northeast states), before they took office.

It’s disingenuous for Deval Patrick claim that Massachusetts being the most violent state in New England is “their legacy,” as if to suggest Massachusetts was previously #6 in New England and shot up to #1 under their watch. The violent crime rate has gone down on their watch, even if Deval Patrick and his supporters won’t admit it.

Deval Patrick is deliberately misleading the voters of Massachusetts by not telling the whole story. The Romney/Healey administration’s legacy is one of reduced violent crime. Deval Patrick’s legacy is one of coming to the aid of convicted rapists and cop killers.

UPDATE: Irony… Yesterday the Boston Globe reported that many Massachusetts communities are experiencing… (drumroll) a decrease in crime

UPDATE: The Lowell Sun notes that since 1960, Massachusetts”has had a dramatically higher crime rate than the rest of the New England states.” I wonder if Deval Patrick will blame the Romney/Healey administration for that.