Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Howie Carr thread week of Feb 1, 2009
howiecarr.com ^ | 02/01/09 | raccoonradio

Posted on 02/01/2009 4:34:47 AM PST by raccoonradio

Howie thread starting with his Sunday Herald column


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 8mil; carboncredits; corruptmidget; fatboy; friedclams; hackarama; hacks; honesthowie; howie; howiecarr; kowloons; michaelsdeli; officermark; paperboy; talkradio; tartarsauce; thefelon; wrko
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

1 posted on 02/01/2009 4:34:47 AM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio; Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; ...

At this rate, our hacks will sell on eBay
By Howie Carr | Sunday, February 1, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Question: Why did City Councilor Mike Flaherty announce his candidacy for mayor on YouTube?

Answer: Because there is no Web site named YouHack.

So I was watching his recorded announcement, filmed in his kitchen. The words were nonsense, but I couldn’t take my eyes off that high-end yuppie KitchenAid mixer on the granite counter behind him. Close to $500, would be my guess.

Then you realize: a year from now, that pricey mixer is going to be on an even fancier granite cabinet - in Duxbury.

Baby Flats has 600 large to blow on this fight. Why doesn’t he just give everybody in the city a buck and put his house up for sale?

Tell me where he beats Mumbles. In Southie, of course, and in coastal (read: white) Dorchester, and Charlestown. That’s Wards 6, 7, 16 and 2, which wouldn’t be bad, except that the city has 22 wards.

The only issue this year in Boston is rampant corruption and cronyism, and the Flahertys aren’t part of the solution, they’re part of the problem.

For the record, Baby Flats is not related to convicted felon ex-House speaker Good Time Charlie Flaherty. But Felon Flaherty’s son, Tim, represents Baby Flats’ cousin Frannie, who was recently indicted in an alleged MBTA no-show job scam.

Baby Flats’ father is the former state rep and judge Mike Sr. Before Flats Senior retired to the bench, he was in private practice. Then his cousin Jimmy Flaherty, who was simultaneously on payrolls at the State House and City Hall, was murdered by a hustler in Florida.

Flats Senior handled Jimmy’s estate for his beloved Aunt Millie. Imagine Millie’s surprise when she got the bill from her dear nephew and he’d charged her his usual billable-hour rate for watching Jimmy’s adult videos and standing in line at the post office to buy stamps. The joke in Southie was, it was the first time in 40 years Flats hadn’t cut in line after yelling, “Do you know who I am?” Mainly because he was making money waiting his turn.

I don’t have room to run down all of the Flahertys on public payrolls. Baby Flats’ sister Peggy is the South Boston district court clerk, appointed, like her daddy, by a Republican governor.

Maybe Flats Jr. can campaign on a platform on mandatory drug testing for firefighters. First he’d better bounce it off his uncle and his cousin, both of whom are longtime loyal members of Local 718.

Flats understands he’s the longest of longshots. He wanted to be district attorney even when Dan Conley was on City Council. That’s why, before he voted for Flaherty for City Council president, Conley made him promise he wouldn’t run even for district attorney.

Flats would still love to be Mr. District Attorney, but the only way to get rid of Conley would be a judgeship, and appearing in that ad for Kerry Healey in 2006 likely put the kibosh on favors from Deval.

Remember when Felon Finneran got booted from the 400-large-a-year lobbying job at the biotech council? For a while it looked as if Sen. Jack Hart of Southie might get the job? Flats was sniffing around that potentially open seat, too, but it was not to be - kind of like his run for mayor this year.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1149173


2 posted on 02/01/2009 4:35:47 AM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
It always amazes me how Howie can get away with exposing the fraud and abuse in Mass without getting double tapped....

but what amazes me most is...How the residents of Mass keep putting the same old foxes in charge of the hen-house....
Are the people that don't reap any benefit from the corruption really that naive/stupid???

3 posted on 02/01/2009 5:26:32 AM PST by M-cubed (Why is "Greshams Law" a law?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: M-cubed
Are the people that don't reap any benefit from the corruption really that naive/stupid???

Yes

4 posted on 02/01/2009 5:50:17 AM PST by Living Free in NH (Where's MY bailout???)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

This column is a reprint from a week ago. What happened?


5 posted on 02/01/2009 8:20:26 AM PST by GQuagmire
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: GQuagmire

yeah I was thinking that myself as I scanned it, or maybe it’s the start of that column and he threw stuff on at the end. I went thru my Herald rather fast this morning (and left it at the Salem Diner!) and am trying to remember what column he had in it, if any. This was what was on the website. Maybe I’ll check their site and see if another column was done but just not put up there?


6 posted on 02/01/2009 9:38:17 AM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
hmm-I checked the site and it indeed the same column they'd run on 1/26--and many of the comments do point that out! For Howie's sake I'm hoping it's a glitch on the part of the paper-- "Entercom Herald Happens..."
7 posted on 02/01/2009 9:41:22 AM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
Editor’s note: This is the print version of a January 26, 2009 web exclusive column.

Updated note at end of column at Herald website....
8 posted on 02/01/2009 11:32:55 AM PST by GQuagmire
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: GQuagmire; Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; ...

yup, saw that...And now: A Monday column! Ping
(PS: your humble raccoonradio guy turns 47 today... :) )

‘Credible’ Sal Dimasi uses system to his benefit
By Howie Carr | Monday, February 2, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

How much is Sal DiMasi going to get?

That was the big question last week. The inquiry didn’t concern possible prison time, but his about-to-begin monthly kiss in the mail - the state pension.

Speaker Sal hung on into January for one reason - as a solon, one day of “service” in 2009 bought him an extra year of what is ironically called “credible service.”

Anyway, Sal now has two ways to go: Option C, which provides for the pension to continue after his death for his trophy second wife Debbie, or Option A, which is more, because the pension would end with his passing.

If DiMasi had quit in 2008, he’d have finished with 32 years and 3 months at the public trough. Under Option A he’d have gotten $68,800 a year for life. If he went for the survivor’s benefits, it would have been $57,000.

For hanging in those extra few days, greedy Sal will receive credit for 33 years and 3 months. So Mistah Speakah is now looking at $71,000 under Option A and $59,000 if he cuts Trophy Deb into the jackpot.

By the standards of the Dreaded Private Sector, it’s an incredibly generous pension, especially considering the dodgy circumstances of his exit. But Salvatore’s take will merely be average compared with the other extinguished statesmen.

Topping the list, of course, is the Corrupt Midget himself, ex-Senate president Billy Bulger. His current annual take is $197,665.92 a year - a record that will be harder to break than Joe DiMaggio’s consecutive-game hitting streak.

Number 2 is ex-House Speaker David Bartley, who last won an election in 1974. Like the Corrupt Midget, he fled into so-called higher education, taking over his hometown school, Holyoke Community College. Bartley’s annual take: $152,505.72.

Compared to those Killer B’s, the other General Court hacks are collecting chump change. On Jan. 2, 1991, two squalid legislative careers ended, with one final year of “credible service” recorded to fatten up their pensions.

Ex-House Speaker George Keverian retired due to ill health - the voters got sick of him. But no problem, he’s still taking $54,498.84 a year. The man he vanquished for speaker, Tommy McGee, has also been collecting all these years, and is now at $47,224.68.

Keverian was succeeded as speaker by Good Time Charlie Flaherty, now a convicted felon. Good Time Charlie grabs $44,122.32. Felon Flaherty was succeeded by yet another criminal, Felon Finneran, who is stripped of his $23,712.94 pension, although he is scheming madly to get it back.

Folks, these bloated pensions are the real reason Sal’s pals are itching to tax you back to the Stone Age. It’s what the hacks call “fixed costs,” because the fix is in - for them.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1149360


9 posted on 02/01/2009 9:51:43 PM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

And a happy birthday to you


10 posted on 02/02/2009 4:43:08 AM PST by rockabyebaby (Say what you feel, those who matter don't mind, those who mind don't matter.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby

thanks! I’m a little less than 10 yrs younger than Howie,
who was born on 1/17/52...


11 posted on 02/02/2009 5:38:03 AM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby

Happy birthday! :)


12 posted on 02/02/2009 6:35:04 AM PST by maryz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: maryz

It’s raccoonradio’s birthday today,,,,mine’s not til July but thanks for the early greeting!


13 posted on 02/02/2009 10:09:23 AM PST by rockabyebaby (Say what you feel, those who matter don't mind, those who mind don't matter.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby

LOL! Oops — I’ll try to remember in July!


14 posted on 02/02/2009 10:13:32 AM PST by maryz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: maryz

LOL, if you’re over 50 you won’t even remember this converation 10 minutes from now!! LOL!


15 posted on 02/02/2009 10:34:53 AM PST by rockabyebaby (Say what you feel, those who matter don't mind, those who mind don't matter.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby

Huh? What conversation? ;-)


16 posted on 02/02/2009 10:55:46 AM PST by maryz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: maryz

LOL, there ya go!


17 posted on 02/02/2009 11:42:05 AM PST by rockabyebaby (Say what you feel, those who matter don't mind, those who mind don't matter.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
Happy Birthday RaccoonRadio

FYI - Still Down
mms://wmc1.liquidviewer.net/wrko

18 posted on 02/02/2009 2:09:11 PM PST by AlexSmyth
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: AlexSmyth

Thanks!
Yikes on the stream....again, try WNTK or WCRN or even
the Screamer Radio (unless they are using WRKO’s stream!)


19 posted on 02/02/2009 2:43:11 PM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: rockabyebaby

thanks to all for the birthday wishes! I’m taking it off from my REAL job. Saw movie “Cadillac Records” at a theater here in Beverly (about Chess Records, Chuck Berry etc) then went to Pizzeria Uno to redeem “free birthday pizza from Insider’s
Club” coupon). Tonight I may see trivia guy Morgan White Jr
assuming he isn’t in Vegas (as he’s been known to do on
Super Bowl weekends!)


20 posted on 02/02/2009 2:44:46 PM PST by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson