Posted on 05/20/2012 2:56:18 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column
Sunday column ping
Moldy, stinky government cheese
By Howie Carr | Sunday, May 20, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo
If you want to know how out of control the “disability” problem is, turn to Page 18 of the U.S. District Court detention order for Anthony DiNunzio, brother of the Cheeseman and alleged acting boss of the New England Mafia.
“DiNunzio has been collecting disability income for the last 15 years.”
He’s 53, so he’s been on the dole since he was 38. And he’s the No. 1 guy in what was formerly known as the Patriarca Crime Family.
Not working is nothing new in organized crime. Whoever heard of a wiseguy with a job? It used to be fashionable to have a “no-show” with a union or the even more corrupt local government. For many years, Whitey Bulger collected a paycheck as a reputed custodian at the courthouse in Pemberton Square.
But a “disability”? A gangster on the dole?
Stipulated, many people collecting SSDI can’t work. They have a legitimate physical problem.
In this putrid economy, though, when people’s unemployment runs out, many suddenly develop a disability. When you get sick, most of the time, you eventually get better. But have you ever noticed, nobody who goes out on disability ever recovers?
It started out with kids getting SSI — “crazy checks.” Then their parents realized, ‘Hey, I can get me some free money, too.’ A lot of them still work — they just get paid under the table, so they can keep collecting.
I talk to people all the time who watch this phenomenon.
Mark from Maine: “I drive a taxi. I pick up this young guy, his wife — girlfriend — and the kid. He’s on his third appeal, this time he thinks he’s gonna make it. Then he’ll have the check, Section 8, everything. Life will be great, he says.”
Most wannabes have figured it out. Don’t claim physical disabilities — they can be checked, with X-rays and MRIs and other such invasive medical techniques. Instead, go for the mental problems.
So now everybody is manic-depressive or schizophrenic or has ADD. The newest one is shy bladder syndrome. Bipolar is quite popular, as well as that old standby, depression.
Doc, I get depressed every day, thinking about getting up and going to work.
Well, who doesn’t?
Matt: “I have a friend who’s a Realtor. This family comes in, wants to buy a house, he’s going over their finances. He asks the husband, what do you do? He says, ‘I have a disability.’ Asks the wife — same answer. Asks the kid what she does, and she says, ‘I have a disability too.’ My friend says, ‘What’s your disability?’ She says, ‘Something scared me when I was younger.’ With the three checks, they had plenty of money to buy the house.”
It used to be, if your father was in the trades, you’d go into the trades. Now your dad’s on the dole, so that’s your line of work, er, non-work.
Anthony DiNunzio’s 400-pound brother doesn’t get out of prison until 2015. What’s the over-under on how long it will take the Cheeseman to get on the dole?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061132830
Bump.
via twitter
>>Sadly Robin Gibb has passed away May 20th, 10:47 UK time.
“...till, I finally died...”—’I started a joke’
Death pool?
Death pool? Robin Gibb has passed
I thought of you and the Death Pool...
death pool prob tomorrow Howie says
Thanks for the info!
I just saw that Clear Channel bought WFNX-FM, which might give them an FM outlet to mirror their talk outlet WXKS 1200AM. Any thoughts?
Supposedly it’s up at the end of Sept. of this year. He may have to let it expire and then work out a deal with someone else. In 07 he let it be know he was going to 96.9 and
Ent. got pissed and made SURE he got back with them.
Yes Clear Channel bought WFNX. The deal is that it needs
FCC approval, which is usually no big deal and takes a couple months. The Phoenix runs it for now. At some point they will announce when the switchover takes place. The tower at One
Financial Ctr will stay the same but the broadcast will
probably come from WXKS AM’s Medford studios (and the Lynn
studios of WFNX will be disassembled, ending their lease, etc.)
Will it be a simulcast of WXKS Talk 1200? Some say yes but many think it could be Spanish language. The 101.7 signal
reaches downtown Boston well but doesn’t do as well in the suburbs where many conservatives live. AM 1200 doesn’t have the best signal, but it comes in well for many. Putting it on FM would be even better—hear it at workplaces etc.
But they may opt for Spanish instead. There were even
rumors of doing country since WKLB 102.5 came in second
among all stations in the recent 6-and-over ratings (so,
why not challenge them?)
In many places Clear Channel puts their talk station on FM.
Could happen here but who knows? But just imagine: Stephen
Mindich of the Phoenix sells off the station—to Clear
Channel! Isn’t that too much! As I said elsewhere, “next,
we’ll be hearing Michael Moore has gone Republican.” WFNX
and its listeners are the Occupy Generation...the Phoenix
website has many articles praising the movement.
So who knows, could happen, or maybe not—and yes if so
they could lure Howie there. We’re waiting to hear. (And if it does happen all the other stations on Howie’s network will probably continue with him. WRKO assembled the network
but if Howie leaves he’ll just make a deal to stay on
the others, who clearly want him.)
I remember well what happened the last time that Howie tried to escape the clutches of Entercom - they threatened to sue and he had to come crawling back. It is more than obvious that he cannot wait to get out of there.
Wherever Howie does wind up, I certainly hope it will have a transmitter capable of covering his "base" - many of us live in New Hampshire, of course and it's fun to listen to him in the car on the way home. When I get home, I go online to his website, plugged right into my kitchen radio. No signal fade, interference, noise, ionization, etc. It's a beautiful thing. Gawd, I hope that doesn't make me one of The Beautiful People.
I have to chuckle at WFNX still being out there as an "alternative" radio station. I remember them as an "alternative" station back in the 1980s, flying the same old freak flag. Which begs the question: at what point does perpetual adolescent rebellion cease being "alternative" and start being... predictably...mainstream? Marketable, even? Gaia Forbid!!!
As for the Phoenix, I haven't seen a copy since I lived in the Back Bay, but I imagine that their "Alternative Lifestyle" personal ads have not gotten any less weird. Or disturbing. I have a hunch Granny Warren has a subscription. Or maybe she just steals one of the copies from the Harvard faculty lounge.
All: Death pool time.
The Phoenix is free now, so no big deal is she “steals a copy”.
If 101.7 became a simulcast of 1200 and Howie went there
(mornings maybe?), well the 1200 signal can only do so much.
Same for the 101.7 but Clear Channel, IF, if, IF they went
talk and IF they got Howie they could find a way to help
NH get him. Maybe put him on WGIR 610...?
there is a FM channel that simulcasts FNX in southern Maine or NH. I can’t remember it though. 91.7? I’ll see if I can find it
“WFNX broadcasts on 101.7 MHz from atop One Financial Center in downtown Boston, and is simulcast on another New England radio station, WFEX in Peterborough, New Hampshire (serving Manchester, NH), at 92.1 MHz. Simulcasting on another 92.1 MHz station, WPHX-FM in Sanford, Maine, ended in August 2011.”
WFEX 92.1 Peterborough NH got sold too but not to Clear Channel. The owners of WDER AM 1320 Derry NH got it and many think it will simulcast it—religion (kind of like WEZE 590 Boston). It does reach Nashua and Manchester but not solidly
IF all this came to pass that would make sense. Clear Channel talk stations like WGIR 610 Manch and WHJJ 920 Prov. tend tio carry Sean live—but their WXKS 1200 Boston goes local with Jay Severin at 3, then Hannity at 6 delayed. If 101.7 indeed goes talk and gets Howie I could see that and they could do the same with 610
(though they don’t carry Severin on 610; but Howie would make sense). btw rumor of WFNX sale price was 11 million. Today it was announced it was $14.5 MILLION.
Wed column ping
Genuine EBT fix? Senate will cash out instead
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, May 23, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
In the next 48 hours or so, we’ll know how serious the Legislature is about ending EBT card fraud.
Not too serious, would be my guess, judging from the proposals in the Senate budget.
People who work sometimes ask the question, “Why don’t solons want to crack down on welfare layabouts?” The answer is, professional courtesy.
The problem, which even legislators now understand, is that the leeches can use their EBT cards at ATMs. It doesn’t matter if you ban the illegal aliens and the fourth-generation layabouts from not using the cards at liquor stores, or for bail, or tattoos, you name it.
As long as the cards get cash, no reforms mean anything. Eighty-five percent of EBT money is taken out in cash. Good news for nail salons and strip clubs, bad news for the taxpayers.
As the Citizens for Limited Taxation asked last weekend, “Why not simply end the problem the easy and most efficient way — by restricting easy access to cash, our tax money?”
Why? Because the non-working classes now represent the Democrats’ core constituency. Most of the EBT cardholders are professional welfare recipients who’ve figured out they don’t need the money for food — they can get that at food pantries or soup kitchens and their kids get fed at the schools. No, they need the cash for drugs and other recreational substances.
So what is the Senate’s solution? They want to spend $750,000 setting up a new state police unit to investigate EBT abuse. I thought the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) already had a toll-free fraud hotline.
In other words, the Senate’s solution is to spend millions more on public employees to set up a worthless program that will not put the slightest dent in the welfare crime wave. The good news is, the Senate Republicans have some amendments to offer. The bad news is, there are only four Republicans left in the 40-person Senate.
“We’ll get a roll-call vote,” promised state Sen. Bob Hedlund (R-Weymouth). “And sometimes, when you get a roll-call vote on a hot-button issue, you get more votes than you might expect.”
But most likely not enough. And even if they did get enough votes in the Senate, they’d have to come up with a compromise with the House bill, and then it would go to the governor.
Gov. Deval Patrick. If it comes down to a fight between the taxpayers and welfare cheats, whose side is Deval on? All these scandals — they’re just “anecodotes,” right Guv?
Sure hope I’m wrong about this, but I doubt it.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061133594
does anyone know where Howie wants to land after his contract is done? sure hope it’s going to cover all of New England...
oops, never mind..I see the discussion above...
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