In the Headlines

It's been an eventful week. Our new governor will be inaugurated today, the former governor, officially snuck out yesterday because the inauguration will not be taking place at the state house and he did not want to miss his photo op of walking out of the state house into the adoring arms of his supporters.

The carpet bagger in chief leaves behind the mess from his shameless manueverings to place himself with the presidential hopefuls. Same sex marriage is being tossed in the hopper because our spineless legislature caved on the issue. "This is an issue for the people to decide." It would seem that our current law makers have never read the articles of federation or choose to ignore the section that admonished those taking up the reins of government that the purpose of the government is to insure that the needs of the few are not subject to the tyranny of the many.

We are also being saddled with what I predict will be a nightmarish mandatory insurance law that seems to be geared as a punitive measure against the low wage earners in the commonwealth. From what I have seen so far, anyone who does not assume the financial responsibility of taking out their own insurance will be fined $295.00 a month. Businesses with 10 or more employees who do not provide insurance will be fined $295.00 per employee per year. Sounds fair, huh? It seems we don't want to interfere with businesses ability to do business. The logic is that irresponsable 20 somethings are refusing to get health coverage because they are less likely to be ill, and everyone else who is not insured can easily afford insurance. They seem to have closed their eyes to the working poor with families, and anyone else who will be overburdened by insurance costs. Once again, I say our legislators need to start paying for their own health care and get dumped into this broken system. If they had to negotiate the health care nightmare they would be enacting a socialized health system so fast your head would spin. As it stands, I can forsee a mass exodus from the state of lower income people, who no matter how unsightly we are, are necessary to do all of those tedious jobs that the well heeled cannot be expected to do for themselves.

Our new guv, Deval Patrick has already created controversy over his spending on the inaugural ball and has had shots fired over the bow by the legislature, and the man hasn't even been sworn in yet. He ran on a campaign of inclusiveness and a message of reinvolving the disaffected voter. It's great to send out a message of hope, it's another to act on it. I have lived in Massachusetts a long time now and I predict it will just be more politics as usual.

I wish our new governor luck. He is off to a rocky start already and I think he's going to need all the luck he can get