Howie Carr thread week of Aug. 12, 2012

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column, "Ryan pick misses the Marco"

Sunday column ping. Radio reminder: Rush returns to WRKO
on Aug 21. WXKS AM “Talk 1200” is now “stunting”—running a loop of famous “gaffes” as “Gaffe1200”. It is expected a new format will launch around Aug 21, and could be all-comedy
or maybe syndicated conservative or prog talk (if they’re going back to conserv talk why the stunt then?). Some speculation is all comedy until the winter, when they may wind up with Fox Sports Radio. Who knows....Rush fans this week can pick him up on WGIR 610 in NH, WHJJ 920 in Prov., and WTAG AM 580/FM 94.9 in Worc. area...other shows like Hannity, Beck, etc are also on those stations I believe.

Ryan pick misses the Marco
Dems gear up to slam ‘polarizing’ Paul
By Howie Carr | Sunday, August 12, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Photo by AP
So Paul Ryan isn’t giving up his race for re-election to the House of Representatives.

Good career move, Paul.

Somehow, this vice presidential choice seems somewhat underwhelming. I still say Marco Rubio would have been the better candidate — and please, spare me the arguments about Rubio’s alleged support of the DREAM Act and whether he’s a “natural-born citizen.”

Rubio would have brought more votes to the GOP ticket. Guys like Paul Ryan were already going to vote Republican. They’ve been voting Republican since 1980.

Rubio might have had more upside, but he’s a little on the flashy side, and Mitt doesn’t do flash. Paul Ryan is this year’s Muffy Healey, more experienced and smarter, to be sure, but like Muffy undeniably subordinate to The Man. Ryan won’t make waves, but I fear he also won’t make the difference.

His career highlight, which you should definitely watch if you haven’t already, is his six-minute YouTube evisceration of Obamacare and Obama to the president’s face back in 2010. It’s a modern version of The Emperor Has No Clothes. Unlike the president, Ryan doesn’t come unglued when the teleprompter goes down.

Everybody describes Ryan as a “policy wonk,” but is this good or bad? He’s supposed to be a good athlete, but he still looks like the guy who wore a pocket protector in high school.

The conservative bloggers are saying this is now going to be an “election about ideas.” The problem is, are modern American voters ready for anything weightier than a debate over Bud Light vs. Coors Light? After all, 53 percent of this same electorate voted for Barack Obama in 2008. How bright can they possibly be?

Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat, was once supposedly told by a supporter, “Every thinking person supports you.”

“Yes,” Stevenson allegedly replied, “but the problem is, we need a majority.”

The Romney-Ryan ticket is facing the same problem. Surely the debate between Ryan and Joe Biden will be the worst mismatch since the last time Joe Biden debated anybody (that would be Sarah Palin, and as you may recall she cleaned his clock).

But the Democrats already have an Internet ad of the Paul Ryan lookalike pushing a wheelchair-bound granny over the cliff, a la Richard Widmark in “Kiss of Death.” And if the killer’s jet-black hair doesn’t convince you it was Ryan who snuffed Granny, the ad’s final words leave no doubt: “Is America Beautiful Without Medicare? Ask Paul Ryan and Friends.”

Stand by for another sliming. Paul Ryan is “polarizing.” He would end Medicare “as we know it.” (On the verge of bankruptcy is how most of us know it.) He was a Bush “rubber stamp” and he “exploded” the deficit. He will “slash” investments and he backs “trickle-down economics on steroids.”

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Let’s just hope the ending’s different this time. If not, Ryan goes back to the House in January and runs for president in 2016. His slogan: “I Told You So.”

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061152513
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but Richie may go madly for Adlai to win the affection of a girl whose family supports Stevenson”

"Family Ties" had a similar theme, but it was feminism, iirc.

"Family Ties" had the best memory of the 1972 election. Youngest was being born in the middle of the afternoon, and the father's also worried about being stuck in the hospital, not being able to vote for McGovern. He asks a nurse about any election reports, and she says "It's over. I'm on my way to a Nixon victory party."

A young Alex P. Keaton enters, arms upright, hands displaying the "V"s, and says "Dad! Did you hear?"

By the bye, I saw a promo for "I Married a Mobster" on DiscoveryID. I think Whitey Bulger is featured this Wednesday.

Thanks for the pings, FRiend. I'm trying to catch up, but I admit I've only had a small amount of time to just skim your pings.

Bottom line... 1200 AM in Boston is no longer "Rush radio"?? Wow... are the libs up there celebrating this venture as a "total failure"?

Why did 1200 go from all conservative talk radio to (barf) all COMEDY radio?? Good grief... sounds like somebody screwed up at that station big time.

Seems like only yesterday I saw numerous proud "1200 AM - Boston's Rush Station" billboards all over the Boston area. 1200 is going out with a wimper, I guess...

Glad to hear WRKO will pick up Rush again. Sounds like Howie still may be on the way out of WRKO?

What happened to Jeff Katz? Will another Boston station pick him up?

Yes here’s the story: 1200 debuted as Rush Radio in March of 2010. Last year it was redubbed Talk 1200 (hey they have other stuff besides Rush). Clear Channel which owns 1200 and syndicates Rush and other shows figured it wasn’t making money etc (not the best signal for some) so on Aug 21, RKO gets Rush back. (CC wants it that way and so does WRKO) along with Coast to Coast. I don’t know who will pick up other shows like
Levin and Hannity.

Jeff Katz and Jay Severin were both laid off. In fact WRKO
was to make a big announcement last week and a radio expert told me that Katz and Severin were laid off. This was about a minute before the announcement. I figured right away the
“big” person coming back would be Rush. Sure enough... so for now they are running political Gaffes as “Gaffe 1200”

The rumor now is they will go all comedy and have Kiss 108 morning man Matty Siegel as a part of it (maybe simulcast the morning show). Domain names have been registered suggesting it and Siegel has a “big announcement”
schedule for tomorrow morning/

Katz is now unemployed but I hope he will find a station somewhere, hopefully in Boston. Howie’s option got picked up by Entercom—so he has 2 more years there but claims now he KNOWS for sure he will be out of there in late...2014.

Tue column ping, below. A death pool will take place today, tomorrow, or sometime soon (Johnny Pesky RIP)

Dems’ double standard when it comes to ‘the law’
By Howie Carr | Tuesday, August 14, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Photo by Herald file
Granny Warren and Deval Patrick and the rest of the Massachusetts Democratic Party have a very consistent position when it comes to compliance with the state’s laws.

If the law increases Democrat turnout, it is absolutely mandatory that it be enforced, costs be damned.

If the statute adversely impacts any Democats — say, illegal aliens — then said law should be ignored, not to mention denounced as racist and/or nativist.

This is the lesson of last week’s $276,000 mailing to the state’s 477,000 welfare recipients, including illegal aliens, exhorting them to register to vote. Granny Warren, the fake Indian Senate candidate, was the main beneficiary of the taxpayers’ involuntary in-kind contribution. Defending the indefensible, the forked-tongue Harvard professor traded in her usual favorite verb, “hammer,” for a new one, “comply.”

“This is about making sure Massachusetts is complying with the law,” she told a TV reporter. “This is about Massachusetts complying.”

Are you confused about this sudden outbreak of law ’n’ order? After all, this is a state where the attorney general has publicly opined, “Technically, it is not illegal to be illegal in Massachusetts.” Where Mayor Mumbles Menino has stated that grand theft auto is not a serious offense — at least not if it’s committed by an illegal alien.

Just two weeks ago, the governor vetoed a bill that would have required “proof of legal residence” to register a motor vehicle here. He wanted the statute to say merely, “proof of residence,” legality be damned. (Amazingly, the veto was overridden by his fellow Democrats.)

“This is about compliance with the law,” the fake Indian continued Wednesday, after this newspaper busted the moonbats’ latest scam, “so that the law should be enforced.”

The Motor Voter law, that is. Not the motor vehicle laws. And not the immigration laws. Enforcing those might depress the Democrat turnout.

“Look,” she went on condescendingly, “I don’t know how else to explain this ... the law has been in place for a very long time.”

The reporter, though, wouldn’t let up. She wanted an answer from Spreading Bull, not a soundbite.

Reporter: Should the state pay $276,000 to mail out these forms?

Lieawatha: I think the state needs to be in compliance with the law.

What didn’t this reporter understand? An organization run by Granny’s daughter filed the lawsuit. The pro malo (as opposed to bono) legal work was handled by Mrs. Deval Patrick’s law firm. It’s not justice, it’s just-us.

Reporter: Should the state be paying this money?

Fauxahontas: I think the state should be in compliance with the law.

Reporter: And if it’s a waste of money?

Granny: I think the state should be in compliance with the law.

But only if the law is Politically Correct, and an asset to Democrats.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061152938

Wed column ping

Whitey Bulger only married to a life of lies
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, August 15, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Photo by Patrick Whittemore

My first problem is with the title of tonight’s show on the Investigation Discovery channel: “I Married a Mobster.”

Well, actually Lindsey Cyr, no you didn’t. Maybe you had Whitey Bulger’s kid, but he never married you — or anybody else, for that matter.

I think the only person Whitey might have ever even considered marrying was Stevie Flemmi, his partner (in business, you understand). Spouses, as you know, can’t testify against each another, as Zip Connolly found out to his everlasting chagrin when his ex-wife took the stand against him and spilled the beans about the diamond ring.

But when Whitey took it on the lam in late 1994, gay marriage was still a twinkle in Margaret Marshall’s eye. So Whitey never got the chance to tie the knot with Stevie, although he did tie the knot around the necks of two of Stevie’s girlfriends, not to mention one or two other people who ended up buried in a basement, covered with some of Phil Costa’s lime.

I remember when this story about Cyr’s kid by Whitey first came out. At the time I was writing a book about Johnny Martorano, one of the founders of the Winter Hill Gang. I asked Martorano, what’s all this about Whitey’s kid? He told me, and yesterday I called him back, just to make sure I had the story straight. Another guy from the old Marshall Street garage confirmed that Whitey had told him basically the same thing.

Apparently Whitey walked into the garage in Somerville one morning and said something like:

“I never told you guys, but I have a kid — had a kid, because he just died. Now, I know some of you will probably want to go to the wake or send flowers or something, but that won’t be necessary. Please, I’m asking you, don’t go to the wake.”

Kinda brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?

Then I remembered something else, from my first book, “The Brothers Bulger.” As the posse was closing in, Whitey started keeping a journal, talking about what had led him into a life of crime. You’ll be surprised to learn that Whitey was a victim of circumstance.

One of the biggest problems, he wrote, was the LSD experiments he took part in while incarcerated in the old federal pen in Atlanta back in the late 1950s. He thought he was doing it for his country, he wrote, for the CIA. But then he found out later that he couldn’t have children because his chromosomes had been damaged.

I guess not that badly, though, right Whitey? Maybe all that stuff about LSD was just more anti-acid propaganda from Jack Webb on “Dragnet.”

Oh well, Lindsey Cyr, good luck with your new career as Whitey’s wife, I mean moll. And all my best to your three pugs, Roger, Carmel and Sylvia.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061153240

Special Thu column ping

Moonbats, shut your pie holes!
By Howie Carr | Thursday, August 16, 2012 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Photo by John Wilcox

Some subjects that I write on I happen to know more about than others.

The Ever So Humble Pie Co. is one of those topics that I’m very familiar with. Probably too familiar.

Not its Whoopie pies, that’s not my thing. I’m a regular pie guy. Ever So Humble’s are for sale at, among other places, Volante Farms in Needham. Look for the pie with the heart-shaped hole in the middle of the pie crust, with the heart right off to the side. That’s Ever So Humble’s trademark.

Last weekend I bought a blueberry-raspberry pie. Regular sized. My sister-in-law was in town, and she always insists on having one. It was gone by Monday. Last night I went with the Summer Medley.

I always loved Ever So Humble pies, but now that I’ve spoken with the company’s owner, Andrea Taber, they’re going to taste even better. Because she refuses to take EBT cards for her products at the Braintree Farmers Market.

She doesn’t have a problem with welfare recipients using taxpayer cash for basic foods, but her pies are, as she pointed out in a letter to the farmers market, “a gourmet or luxury item.”

She’s right. The little Summer Medley pie I bought yesterday was about a third larger than your traditional old-style Table Talk pie. It cost $6.99. The standard-sized blueberry-raspberry last weekend — $16.99. That’s steep — fresh berries are expensive, you know — and can somebody seriously argue why taxpayers who have to buy their own pies at Market Basket for $7.99 should be subsidizing layabouts’ fine desserts?

Especially after the gimme girls and guys have just finished their Lobster Taxpayer Newburg, and by the way, isn’t it terribly unfair that the nonworking classes can’t buy cooked lobsters with an EBT card, only the uncooked ones?

I spoke to Andrea yesterday and she told me that since the story broke, she’s been deluged with emails, the vast majority of them positive, but some filled with what has become the traditional moonbat vitriol.

These are the same people who have bumper stickers on their Priuses that say “No Farms, No Food” or “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

Andrea Taber is a conservative, but she truly believes the words on those bumper stickers. She “recycled” an old building in Walpole for her bakery, and she buys from local farms. Her cranberries come from Sandwich, the rhubarb from Northbridge, the peaches from Stow.

Ever So Humble’s squash and pumpkins come from Brookline. I kid you not.

Maybe if the moonbats knew some of Ever So Humble’s ingredients came from the People’s Republic, they’d leave Andrea and her loyal customers alone.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1061153514

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