Posted on 03/23/2008 5:39:26 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie returns on Monday the 24th. His Sunday column starts us off.
Swift lifeboat: War chest loot keeps pol afloat
By Howie Carr | Sunday, March 23, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Recession? What recession? Jane Swift doesn’t know the meaning of the word, although of course the former acting governor doesn’t know the meaning of a lot of other words either, starting with “work” and “real job.”
But in case you were wondering, everything is just fine and dandy for the 43-year-old failed pol who last won an election on her own 10 years ago. It was the Republican primary for lieutenant governor.
Now, thanks to the wonderful campaign finance laws of the commonwealth, even though she hasn’t been in office since 2002, Jane Swift is still living off her campaign funds.
She is living, you’ll pardon the expression, high off the hog.
I got to thinking about Gov. Firing Mood after reading the Herald story on the bloated campaign war chests of people who run unopposed, or very close to it. So I decided to check out her funds, all these years after she retired due to ill health. The voters got sick of her.
As of Dec. 31, Swifty still had on hand $231,697.43.
For the calendar year 2007, according to the records she filed with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, she spent $65,387.93. All on campaign-related expenditures, of course. That’s not bad, considering you’d have to earn upwards of $120,000 before taxes to have that kind of walking-around money.
But then, she did so much for the commonwealth. Think babysitters, State Police helicopter rides home for Thanksgiving, a $3 billion deficit, pervert-coddling Judge Richard Moses and Big Dig boss Fat Matt Amorello. Seldom has so much damage been done in so few days.
Now it’s 2008 and the bad news for Swifty is that her “total receipts” were less than $10,000, $7,431.97 of which came from interest in her Fidelity accounts. So she’s about four years away from a Bear Stearns-type bust-out. Never fear, though. Jane is taking a flyer on the future. On Jan. 28, she invested a grand in “Straight Talk America,” John McCain’s campaign. As has been noted, she’s also had a thing for older men.
Of course, she doesn’t spend this money on herself. One of her recurring expenses is “gifts for supporters.” She does a lot of shopping for gifts at Nejaime’s Wine and Liquors in Lenox. She dropped $66.95 at the packy on Jan. 29, and just before last Christmas she spent another $382.20 on Nejaime’s on, you guessed it, “gifts for supporters.”
And what do supporters do? They go to “political meetings.” Swifty, perhaps preparing for some campaign, spent $76.25 on just such a confab at Sal’s Pizza in Lawrence on Feb. 1. Hey Jane, hold the anchovies on mine!
When she showed up at Sal’s, I’m sure Swifty was sporting a nice tan, because according to the reports, she’d just returned from Florida, that sunny place for shady people.
On Jan. 25, she dropped $394.05 at the Colony Hotel in Longboat Key, Fla. Then it was off to West Palm Beach, where she stayed at the less-posh Hilton Garden Inn. Tab: $199.59. I see a charge on Jan. 31 of $229.72 to Hotels.com - I suspect we’ll be seeing more of those as the years go by.
Oh, by the way, she got picked up on Jan. 28 by Norm’s Limo Service. I guess husband Chuck was too busy fertilizing the blueberry patches behind the double-wide to make the run down to Bradley.
A call to the Swift Committee in Williamstown was not returned.
When she’s in Boston, she prefers the Onyx Hotel on Portland Street. Her bill there was $257.28 on Feb. 6. She also listed as an expense an “annual event” for supporters at the Taj Boston, which was formerly known as the Ritz Carlton. Another $2,700, which doesn’t go far at the Ritz - but then, how many supporters does Swifty have, now that she’s not handing out judgeships.
Jane deserves her own show on the Travel Channel, the way she gets around. When in Manhattan, she prefers Le Parker Meridien on 57th Street. She ran up an $800 tab there in two days in January.
If you ever go to the OCPF Web site, you’ll see the names of any number of the forgotten-but-not-gone. Those who still file reports include Brad Bailey, Newman Flanagan, Lois Pines, even some guy named Willard Mitt Romney.
There’s an old saying. It’s one thing to feed at the trough. It’s another thing to lick the plate. But that’s what Jane Swift is doing: licking the plate. What else is new?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1082218
“She is living, you’ll pardon the expression, high off the hog.”
LOL, Mr. 800-Large Howie is, pun intended, living high off the hog.
LOL, good line!
Recession? What recession?
Has Jimmy Myers gone completely out of his mind?
It's great to be driving to my relatives on Easter Sunday and happen to have WTKK on the car radio and hear how Mr.Myers is telling'Black America' that "we gotta take things into our own hands" and "there's gonna be violence in the streets,because the (white) man is lynching and crucifying all our black political candidates like Obama and Deval."This guy,over his entire illustrious career ,has always been paranoid,and always thinks race is involved in everything.He is undoubtably the angriest and most jaded broadcaster in this area.All he wants for callers are sycophants who agree with his venomous bigotted views.I noticed that any callers who disagree with him are talked over and insulted and branded as ignorant racists themselves. I remember on the radio many years ago(probably on 850AM before he wore out his welcome as he always does) that the same Jimmy Myers argued that it was impossible for any black man to be a racist.
Obviously Mr. Myers didn't listen to the Rev.Wright talk or even to his own rhetoric on the radio. Why is this guy so hateful and angry ? Last time I checked he has a 'no heavy lifting' job and no matter what venom he spews on the air he always seems to get another job on the radio. Talk about a 'golden parachute'.............. What a country,Jimmy. The rest of us actually have to be accountable for our actions and words at work.
Jimmy Myers is horrible. Other than sounding enthusiastic, some of the rhetoric is unbelievable.
Mon show ping. Howie is back
Man, I wish his podcasts were updated more frequently and included the entire show.
“Man, I wish his podcasts were updated more frequently and included the entire show.”
Ditto, it used to be just the chump line. Now it’s the ocassional chump line, and sometimes more.
"To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure," the Boston Globe reports:
Instead of calling these chools "underperforming," the Board of Education is considering labeling them as "Commonwealth priority," to avoid poisoning teacher and student morale. Schools in the direst straits, now known as "chronically underperforming," would get the more urgent but still vague label of "priority one." . . .At a December meeting on how to improve struggling schools in Holyoke, Lawrence, and Springfield, superintendents implored members not to stick them with a label of "chronically underperforming."
"For our teachers, it's a blow," said Wilfredo Laboy, Lawrence superintendent. "It demoralizes staff completely." Joseph Burke, Springfield superintendent, said that while he is not crazy about any label, he would prefer "priority one," because "It sounds nicer."
Well, at least Massachusetts never disappoints! ;-)
Boy oh boy, it’s Laboy. Wasn’t he the one who couldn’t pass an English proficiency test as superintendent or something?
Censored! Howie said a naughty word on the radio!
“Oh, breaking news-— Justice Dept. has approved the (silence). Oh that’s good...(to producer)
Did you bleep that out? I can’t report the news?”
Went to drudge: Sirius XM Merger Approved.
That’s right folks: WRKO does not want you to hear the news.
(Similarly back when WTKK had Hannity and he had Opie and Anthony on as guests, WTKK
would not carry the hour. Promoting the competition.)
I got an XM radio the other day. Bleep THAT out, Entercommies!
LOL! I had forgotten all about that!
Oh, and thanks for the news that got bleeped!
His webpage isn’t updated that often either...”Now that Romney’s out of the race...” showed up awhile after it
happened.
Hopefully, somebody will ask, um, "axe", Max about what the Comedy Channel was thinking, the way they not only stomped over a first run set of productions, but threw in so many commercials and in house promos, that they absolutely ruined the experience.
No, but when Howie had Billy West (voice of Fry) on awhile back he said Fox ruined Futurama by constantly changing the time slot; tough to find meant ratings suffered and
eventually it got cancelled.
I haven’t watched too much of the show but have seen
some episodes—like the Willy Wonka spoof (slurm!) and
the one where two kids (one reminiscent of Bart
Simpson) start up a delivery business.
The bitterness at Fox is still there. The first new epi beat up on Fox and the executives for the first few minutes, and ground up "executives" were literally sprinkled from a shaker throughout the four epis.
I thought it was overkill on staff's part, myself, but the Comedy Channel didn't do the return any favors. overlaying part of the opening scene that has some trite advertising-like slogan that's part of the appeal of the opening.
Guess I missed Billy West on Howie. Must have been when Entercom was screwing up Howie's syndication.
Tue ping
The world of Commander Hillary McBragg!!!!
Ahh yes! she was being strafed by the nazi Stuckhers
Works for me.
How about "Sgt. Prevaricator" for Hillary? Or REMF Clinton?
RRRRRRRHOOODDDDDAAAAMMM!
Sgt. Prevaricator is great too.
That ‘s not me on the phone!
The Meadow party's convention is across the street, and a Dem delegate asks about the candidates..."...and a dead cat.", looks over his shoulder at the Dems, then joins the Meadow party.
I feel like joining the Meadow party.
News break says Canseco's book has him introducing ARod to a steroids dealer. ARod then goes putting the moves on Canseco's wife.
Payback, anybody?
Wed ping and column
Taxpayers chip in to pay these double dippers
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, March 26, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
It’s not just the high cost of pensions that’s killing the taxpayers, it’s the even higher cost of double-dipping.
Check out the new listing of City of Boston pensions now posted at bostonherald.com. It’s a stroll down memory lane with the forgotten-but-not-gone brigade. And the funny thing is, some of the coatholders with the top pensions are still chowing down at the public trough, on top of collecting their monthly kiss in the mail.
Come on down former Boston cop Bob Hayden. Retired from the Boston PD in 2000, had a cup of coffee in Lawrence and is now collecting a pension of $63,592.92 a year. Hayden’s now got himself a job at the MBTA. He’s the assistant general manager for safety, for a cool $110,000 a year.
Then there’s former Boston Fire Commissioner Martin E. Pierce Jr. Cashed out four weeks after Bob Hayden in 2000, and now has a city pension of $72,039.96 a year. Would you care to guess where the Comish now works? If you said MBTA, you win! Pierce is now a “fire safety consultant” for the T, getting paid at the rate of $55 an hour. According to the MBTA, in 2007 Pierce was paid $75,185.
Next we come to the former police commissioner, Francis M. “Mickey” Roache. Mickey stepped down in 1993, after his Southie pal Ray Flynn gave up the mayor’s job to become an ambassador. Mickey then got himself elected to the City Council, but has now really died and gone to heaven.
He is the elected register of deeds in Suffolk County - a job that pays $97,270.50 a year. In addition to that, his pension, which he began collecting in 1993, is $43,904.64 a year.
Alas for Mickey, his salary at the courthouse is now less than that of the other local registers, who just got a raise. The problem is, the Suffolk register’s salary is set as a percentage of the judges’ pay. What a terrible injustice for Southie’s favorite double-dipper. For God’s sake, someone pass a home-rule petition and get Register Roache the raise he so richly deserves. This pay freeze will not stand!
Next comes Paul McCann, veteran Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) coatholder. His pension is $96,651.84 a year. But how can everyone at the BRA miss McCann when he won’t go away. He’s still there, for 20 hours a week at $127.50 an hour. That works out to $2,550 a week - a four-day week, by the way. He doesn’t come in Mondays.
A BRA spokesman said yesterday of his deal: “No sick pay, no vacation pay, no benefit pay.”
The thing about the City Hall pensions is that they’re inflated by the fact that the hacks down there make so much more than their counterparts, and not just in the Dreaded Private Sector (which is of course expected). They also get more money than comparable state hacks, or even those at the authorities. No wonder the tax rate in the city is so out of sight - it takes big money to keep the Friends of Mumbles happy.
The great thing about pensions is, no one asks you if you were competent at your job. Look at Richie Rouse, an ex-state rep and the one-time High Sheriff of Suffolk County. Worthless as mammaries on a bull. Run out of office on a rail, and now he’s grabbing $81,180 a year. For life. Which, considering that Richie Rouse is still only 53 years old, could run into very serious money over the decades.
Talk about forgotten but not gone. How about another ex-fire commissioner, George Paul. He checked out with Mayor Kevin White in January 1984. I still remember one City Council budget hearing where he appeared with a female City Hall lawyer. Councilor Dapper O’Neil worked Paul over for a while, then told him to screw. As Paul and the lawyer stood up to leave, the Dap looks at the woman and says:
“We won’t be needing your services for the next witness, my dear. The next witness plans on telling the truth.”
I thought Paul was going to jump over the desk at Dapper he was so angry. Dapper’s gone now but not Paul. He’s in his 24th year of collecting. His pension: $49,772.04.
Most of the old city councilors are gone now, but some of their children live on. Kitty Craven once threw a shoe at Bill Foley. One son became a judge - that would be ‘Doughnuts‘ Craven. Another son is Brendan, who became a BPD detective. His pension is $56,536.92.
But the king of the kiss in the mail is still Whitey Bulger’s little brother Billy. He wanted to be mayor - the Corrupt Midget could taste it he wanted it so bad. But it was not to be. He figured he could succeed Kevin White, but in the end he didn’t even run. Ray Flynn won going away.
That was the bad news. The good news is, Billy ran his state pension up to about $200,000 a year, while between them, the pensions of the two mayors, White and Flynn, total $72,000 and change. There must be a lesson here somewhere, but I don’t even want to think about what it might be.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1082871
My blood pressure just soared............
Wasn't he always front and center in the "quick picks" backup list?
DP today???
DP probably tomorrow, "some time".
Translation, "The run on 'Double Whoppers' is too good to let some real fun get in the way finally being able to nail, er, point out the congenital lying, of HRC.
thu ping
Howie did another column today.
Boston’s top twenty having a grand old time
By Howie Carr | Thursday, March 27, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Mr. Chips is in the chips.
That’s the first lesson from the Herald’s new, improved Boston city pension list. Michael G. Contompasis - who would have ever thought that an old chemistry teacher at Boston Latin would end up as the Hub’s highest-grossing payroll patriot?
A pension of $139,782.36 is the reward for the former acting superintendent of schools. Which seems like a lot, until you see his name on a year-old City Hall salary list and realize he was pulling in $270,000 a year.
Perhaps that’s why he has a new job at City Hall, making another $65,000 as the director of intergovernmental relations or some such thing.
Who the hell does Contompasis think he is anyway, the Corrupt Midget?
Headmaster Contompasis, you know the old saying. It’s one thing to feed at the trough. This is licking the plate.
One thing, though, that we know for sure: Mumbles did not do this as a favor for an old high school teacher. Say what you will about Mumbles Menino, no one will ever accuse him of being a graduate of Boston Latin.
Whatever, it’s good to finally have the complete list of pensions. I’m sure it was just a mere “glitch” that denied the Herald access to the six-figure pension kisses of the city’s Top 20 Golden Oldies.
I became suspicious of the list Monday night when I looked for Charlie Cellucci, who perennially appeared at the top of the city’s roster of detail-devouring cops, even though he is no relation to the former governor. Then he, like so many of the others on the list, died and went to heaven - Charlie is now director of security for the Boston Red Sox [team stats].
Imagine my surprise when I pulled up his name and the number came back $3,432.08. It didn’t seem right, but with all the other hack surnames, it was like being in a giant buffet line that’s just run out of, say, spinach quiche. You notice tenderloin, and oysters on the half shell, and jumbo shrimp, not to mention an omelette station and an open bar, and you pretty soon you’ve forgotten all about the lack of spinach quiche.
I forgot all about Charlie Cellucci.
Coming in at No. 3 is a former police commissioner, Paul F. Evans, at $118,302.36. I have a DVD of Evans from 1990 - he spoke glowingly at Joe Tecce’s, at the retirement dinner of Zip Connolly, the mobster who infiltrated the FBI for a serial killer named Whitey Bulger. Zip is now awaiting trial in Miami on murder charges. Evans will soon be cashing another kiss in the mail and no doubt fondly remembering his dear chum, Zip.
A tip to all you wannabe pension hogs out there: Become night superintendent of the Boston Police Department. I count three of them in the top 10, and just for the record, in case the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is monitoring the situation, two of them are black.
They would be Bobbie J. Johnson at $133,982.16 and Charles M. Horsley at $109,105.92. The third is Joe Driscoll, at $103,683.96, and say, isn’t there an Elaine Driscoll who is a spokesflack for the BPD? Do you suppose they’re related?
The lesson is, that night differential can really add up fast, although when one gets into “public service,” who’s counting?
Right, Headmaster Contompasis?
Coming in at No. 13, with $103,142.52, is one Ed McNelley, who I believe used to be the head of the detectives’ union. He is also a lawyer and shares an office with former City Councilor Diane Modica.
One notch below him is William J. Parlon, at $101,573.40, whose brother Jack is still on the job and is, by an amazing coincidence, a top guy in the detectives’ union.
It’s all a big family, a very big and a very happy family, at least as long as the taxpayers never wake up.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1083158
The CBC runs Dr. Who, CTV runs CSI, CSI Miami, and some other US shows. CTV has a great comedy called Corner Gas. The CBC has Little Mosque on the Prairie.
Both networks are good for movies that US networks ignore, or edit the hell out of. Kill Bill was close to the DVD on the CBC.
And, for the Olympics, the CBC puts NBC to shame. Heck, I also get the CBC/French, and they do a better job than NBC on sports.
New DP:
1. Phyllis Diller
2. Jo Stafford
3. Mitch Miller
4. Fidel Castro
5. Patrick Swazye
6. Kirk Douglas
7. Farrah Fawcett
8. Dom DiMaggio
9. Nancy Reagan
10. Ryan O’Neal
11. Paul Newman
12. Britney Spears
13. Elizabeth Taylor
14. Karl Malden
15. Amy Winehouse
16. Osama bin Laden
17. Barrack Obama
18. Eddie Fisher
19. Roger Clemens (Hung up)
20. Eunice Shriver
21. Billy Graham
22. Hugh Hefner
23. Harry Morgan
24. Ernest Borgnine
25. John Wooden
26. Mary Kate Olsen
27. Pope Benedict
28. Wilford Brimley
29. Les Paul
30. 50¢ - Curtis Jackson
31. Joe Torre
32. Sid Caesar
33. Robert “Sheets” Byrd
34. Perez Musharraf
35. Mickey Rooney
36. Charleton Heston
37. Bill Belichick
38. Andy Rooney
39. Hal Holbrook
40. Jan Michael Vincent
41. Studds Turkel
42. Dick Clark
43. Artie Lange
44. Liza Minnelli
45. Jerry Lewis
46. Maggie Thatcher
47. Ted Kennedy
48. Art Linkletter
49. Charles Manson
50. Milt Schmidt
51. The Fonz - Henry Winkler
52. George Steinbrenner
53. Bea Arthur
54. Betty White
55. Olivia DeHavilland
56. Cheetah
Thanks for keeping track of the death pool, Calvin!
to all: Howie show ping, also a column below.
You’re Sal, and you’re fit to be tied
By Howie Carr | Friday, March 28, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
You’re Sal DiMasi, and you’re fit to be tied You’re House Speaker Sal DiMasi , and this is what you understand about yesterday’s front-page story in The New York Times [NYT].
It’s not about you,; it’s not even about Deval Patrick, that no-good dime-dropping bleepity-bleep. It’s about Barack Obama, and whether or not Massachusetts’ fading enthusiasm for hope, opportunity and moonbat-ism could be a national model for an Obama administration.
You’re Sal DiMasi , and you get that. This whole national infatuation with the black candidate is like the romance Massachusetts endured in 2006. And here in Boston, it’s following the same pattern of a romance. First discovery, then infatuation, then familiarity and, finally, contempt.
Like the contempt you have for Deval.
But still, why was the story about Deval on the front page? Above the fold? This is the first time anything political in Boston involving the North End has been on the Times’ front page since Joey Prevost Anzalone’s $1 townhouse back in 1983. When Mayor Kevin White was running around the Parkman House waving the paper around and yelling, “What are they thinkin’ in the Kremlin when they read this? The Times puts a story on Page One - about a house! In Boston! Mother o’ God!”
You’re Sal DiMasi, and all the news that’s fit to print is that you “embrace old-school ways of doing business.” On Hanover Street, they spell that H-A-C-K.
You’re Sal DiMasi, and you understand how these things work. Deval is incompetent, but no one, least of all The New York Times, can admit that, for the obvious reason that - well, you know. So they need a villain. And you, Sal DiMasi, are white, middle-aged and ethnic. If only you were a little shorter.
They did everything but call you the Joe Bruno of Boston.
You’re Sal DiMasi, and in all the papers you have “henchmen,” while Deval has “aides.” He goes on “trade missions,” you take “junkets.” The money that Deval “appropriates,” you “funnel.”
Every morning a new drive-by shooting in the newspapers,; thank God they’re using BB guns so far. Golfing dates, film festivals - empanel a grand jury already, we got a crime wave here.
You’re Sal DiMasi, and you know which of Deval’s coatholders is behind all this, and you will deal with Doug Rubin in your own good time.
But you understand the context here. When most people in Massachusetts read the word “Speaker”,” they think “felon.”
Which is only to be expected, because your immediate predecessor as speaker, Tommy Taxes Finneran, is a convicted felon. And his immediate predecessor, Good Time Charlie Flaherty , is likewise a convicted felon.
You’re Sal DiMasi , and you’d just as soon keep this fight local. You’ve got enough headaches with your own seething membership to deal with - starting with all of Felon Finneran’s minions that you demoted, led by Jolly John Rogers.
You don’t want Finneran to get control of the House again after you’re gone, but your crew is running short on talent - Ron Mariano, Petro. You don’t need tough guys, you need intelligent tough guys.
So The New York Times thinks it’s “too soon to predict whether Mr. Patrick will ascend beyond state politics, as so many other Massachusetts lawmakers have done.”
Ascend? Surely they meant to say, “tried to ascend, but failed miserably.” Ted Kennedy 1980, Mike Dukakis, 1988, Paul Tsongas 1992, John Kerry 2004, Mitt Romney 2008.
Massachusetts - mother of failed presidential candidates.
You’re Sal DiMasi, and the good news is, today they’ll be wrapping fish with yesterday’s front-page story. And you won’t be back on Page One - at least as long as you don’t buy any $1 townhouses on Unity Court anytime soon.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1083373
Howie’s poll is do you think Deval will be a one term governor and I think they said 92 per cent said yes. Another poll
could by WHY would he last just one term?
-—Appointed to Pres. Obama’s cabinet
-—Failure to win re-election or even re-nomination
-—Forced out of office by scandal
Hopefully Deval will have to leave because of
illness: the voters are sick of him (Howie’s saying)
Just checked the poll: 95 per cent say Deval will be
one and done.
Michael Graham, speaking in Montana, brought up Patrick's personal website hosting discussions of a 9/11 conspiracy.
Aaaaargh! Picture a whole nation the size of this one -- all run on the Massachusetts model! The mind boggles . . .
I’ve been predicting “Massachusetts politics” at the national level from mid-January ‘09 on for awhile! This possibility alone should be incentive enough for conservatives throughout the U.S. to truly and to seriously elect as many conservatives to every political level of office as possible in ‘08 and beyond.
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