Posted on 05/03/2009 2:57:05 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie weekly thread starting with his Sunday Herald column
Sunday column ping
Shed no tears as Boston Globe fat gets Pinched
By Howie Carr | Sunday, May 3, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
The Boston Globe is dying this weekend, one way or the other. It probably lingers on a while longer, on life support, a Terri Schiavo of journalism, but this comedy is ending the way it was destined to.
Labor is caving, management is winning. Pinch Sulzberger, it so predictably turns out, is only a liberal with other people’s money. So now the rich kids in New York do away with seniority and the “lifetime” job guarantees for their fellow silver spoons in Boston.
Sorry, comrades. The Velvet Coffin is being shoved into the crematorium. Maybe you can get a job from Barack Obama.
Here is what happens next, and I know because it’s what went down at this newspaper when the Herald almost folded back in 1982. The bean counters are going to swagger into 135 Morrissey Blvd. and take a chainsaw to that petrified forest of deadwood.
They’ll need to set up a makeshift morgue in the newsroom. Five science reporters? Whatever they do, they’re not going to be doing it anymore. The Globe “magazine” is skinnier than a CVS circular. See ya!
As for the future job prospects of the about-to-be-unemployed, I am reminded of the old New York Titans’ final AFL game in 1962. The owner, a few sheets to the wind, drifted into the locker room before kickoff and delivered a pep talk to his players
“For most of you,” he said, “this is your last game. Most of you aren’t good enough to play anywhere else.”
I know, they can’t brag enough about their Pulitzer prizes, like they’re on the level or something. Seriously, the limousine liberals who pass the Politically Correct Pulitzers around among themselves every spring ought to rename them the Olbermanns and run the awards ceremony live on MSNBC. Truth in advertising.
I’m sure Pinch Sulzberger this weekend is fielding phone calls from his Park Avenue squash partners, the Beautiful People who’ve been pulling strings over the last decade or so to line up no-work sinecures at the Globe for their shiftless offspring.
Belatedly, the Globe has been trying to present as its public face the salt-of-the-earth types in the backshop, guys who live in towns like Weymouth and went to work at the paper out of high school.
These are the same blue-collar Massachusetts natives that the bow-tied bumkissers upstairs alternately disdain or despise as mean-spirited bigots who can’t be trusted to vote the “right way.”
Outside the employees themselves and a few limp bloggers, nobody cares about the Globe’s demise. Let the epitaph be: Smug Is Not a Workable Business Plan. These pampered poodles assumed they had a monopoly. Nobody ever has a monopoly, at least not for long.
I’ll miss the old Globe. It was a laff-riot - remember in 2006 when its crack sports columnist previewed the Final Four matchup between George Mason and LSU, except there was no such game. They were in opposite brackets.
One last thing to all my dear friends on the Boulevard.
We’re not hiring.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1169666
Except this time there won't be many FReepers arguing against yanking life support.
Obama seems to think it makes good national policy.
I’ve been told, via a post on the boston-radio-interest mailing list, that the SeeBS Evening News did a story on the potential closing of the Globe, and they talked to Howie
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4988077n
1:25 or so in
Howie: “The Globe is completely out of touch. It’s run by Ivy leaguers with trust funds, most of whom aren’t even from
New England”
(Shot of Howie with daughter, walking dog)
Howie knows his paper is also not immune.
“If we outlast the Globe by one day..we win.”
one of the Angiulo brothers won’t be down for breakfast
Howie’s 24 seconds of fame from CBS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxAJbvZcyz0
(just added may take a moment to process)
I have a few friends that worked at the Hartford Courant until last year, and are pretty left on their views.
They have told me before it is run by snooty Ivy Ledger's
Wed column ping
Before bingeing on sales tax, pols should purge hack kin
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
The hacks at the State House are desperate to raise taxes. They want it so bad they can taste it, and it tastes like beer - free beer, their favorite kind.
So I have a suggestion. For once the solons should lead by example. Before they raise taxes on people who actually work for a living, each legislator should offer up sacrifices, human sacrifices. Each rep should agree to remove not one, but two of their hack relatives from the state payroll.
Let’s start with Rep. Garrett Bradley of Hingham. You see, he voted last week for the outrageous 25 percent hike in the sales tax.
Bradley became a hero in the hackerama when he snatched Carol Aloisi off the payroll-patriot waiver wire. The do-nothing Carol, sister of the greed-crazed transportation secretary Jim Aloisi, now works in Bradley’s State House office.
First, Garrett Bradley could order his wife, Heather, off the public payroll. She works at the Plymouth County district attorney’s office for $47,502 a year. The DA is Tim Cruz, whose brother used to be a rep. Heather’s husband the rep made $65,737 last year, and now he’s in leadership, the first “division chair.” Plus last year he made more than 100 large in his private practice. So surely the Bradleys won’t miss Heather’s salary.
Next, Bradley can prevail upon his brother Michael to give up his $80,000 hack sinecure at the Division of Industrial Accidents. The DIA has become a popular hack holding pen, and its payroll includes the son of state Rep. Paul Kujawski, the husband of Sen. Marian Walsh, not to mention the ex-state Sen. Cheryl Jacques (rhymes with Fakes) whose brother Steve works at the Turnpike . . . But I digress.
Michael Bradley used to work at the Plymouth County House of Correction, until shortly after Democratic incumbent Joe McDonough was ousted in 2004. Among those he worked with was one Jack LaLond, who now has an $83,562 a year hack job at the Department of Conservation and Recreation. The DCR payroll is also the home of one Patty Vantine, who makes $105,000. Patty is the sister of Gov. Deval Patrick’s campaign manager, John Walsh, who, by an amazing coincidence, happens to have run the unsuccessful re-election campaign of one Joe McDonough back in 2004, when Sheriff McDonough employed Bradley and LaLond.
Rep. Bradley sent me an e-mail, saying he has two other brothers - a car salesman and “the other works for a private ambulance company.” So I guess we don’t have to get rid of them.
One rep down, 199 to go.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1170381
Can anyone tell me why we have a "Department of Conservation and Recreation"? Of course, I'm still trying to find out precisely what function (apart from good jobs at good wages) MEFA is purported to serve . . .
for second straight time WRKO/Metro Networks news guy has said tonite’s Sox game is in Cleveland. Wrong. Fenway. I double checked yahoo sports and Sox site. Fenway.
Airport 1, coyote 0:
from Herald
Coyote killed at Logan Airport
By Joe Dwinell
Wednesday, May 6, 2009 -
A wily coyote blocked jets from landing on a runway at Logan International Airport today while workers chased it down.
The coyote was run over and killed by a Logan truck. Airport officials were worried the animal would pose a danger to a jet if it ever got sucked into a jet engine.
“We had to close a runway for 4 to 5 minutes,” said airport spokesman Phil Orlandella. “It didn’t cause any delays.”
He said the plan was to keep the coyote off any active airfield, but the pesky pup slipped past them and onto the runway.
Orlandella said jets were able to land on other runways. And, no pilot heroics were required.
Special Thu column ping
This is not your father’s welfare state
By Howie Carr | Thursday, May 7, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
And here I always thought “Welfare Cadillac” was just a stupid novelty song from 1970.
Now it turns out Guy Drake’s tune is another state entitlement here in Massachusetts, compliments of the Department of Transitional Assistance, formerly known as welfare.
In Gov. Deval Patrick’s Massachusetts, if you’re on the dole, you may be eligible to get a free car. So much for the budget Armageddon they keep talking about at the State House.
Let the taxpayers worry about those billion-dollar deficits. If you’re on welfare, come on down!
Nice enough that the layabouts get a free car - plus the state picks up the tab for insurance, excise tax, title, registration, inspection, and approved repairs. The absolute frosting on the cake is a free AAA membership.
Please, try not to let this newest handout destroy your faith in the truth of the budget crisis. You’re just angry because you can’t afford AAA. But your average welfare leech needs guaranteed road service a lot more than you do.
Don’t you hate it when you’re fleeing a department store after utilizing the five-finger discount, and the store security and the mall cops are in hot pursuit, and you jump in your Coupe DeVille and it won’t start. Damn!
Of course the gimme girls and gals need Triple-A for their welfare Cadillacs. (And yes, I understand they’re not really Cadillacs. Only the governor gets a Caddy on the arm.) You can’t expect a body to walk to the packy for their nightly supply of forties, can you?
Supposedly, these free welfare cars will enable the non-taxpayer to get a job. If they lose the job, the state comes down hard on them -we the taxpayers will not reimburse the cost of insurance after the first six months. If the client quits work or is laid off during the first 12 months, all transportation benefits end, but the client will still keep the car.
But, but . . . what about the Triple-A? That’s an entitlement, you know. Has anybody got a phone number for the ACLU?
A lot of snotty people at the Boston Globe are going to be unemployed very shortly. Finally, a ray of hope for the bow-tied bumkissers. Maybe they, too, will be eligible for a welfare Cadillac.
Cut to the final stanzas of Guy Drake’s immortal tune. He’s singing about this new president and his whole new poverty plan.
“Why, he gonna send us poor folks money/They say we gonna get it out here in stacks./In fact my wife’s already shopping around/For her new Cadillac.”
Guy Drake - not just a country-music hack anymore. He was a prophet.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1170618
Whew.... Massachusetts.
Did this start under Deval? With his blessing? Or does welfare just have so much money they have to find things to spend it on? Just curious . . .
Fri column ping
One thing about Liveshot, he knows when to back a loser
By Howie Carr | Friday, May 8, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Sen. John Forbes Kerry has spent the week futilely trying to prop up two of his oldest, dearest friends - the Boston Globe and a convicted kiddie-porn pervert named Wade Sanders.
You know about the Globe. Despite Kerry’s Senate hearings into the implosion of arrogant left-wing newspapers, El Globo continues to circle the drain.
You’ve heard less about Wade Sanders, or nothing at all if you rely on the Globe. He’s a liberal and a pervert and a criminal, and he’s been a close pal of John Kerry’s for 43 years. Nothing to see here, folks, move along.
Anyway, Liveshot’s fellow Swift Boat veteran just got 37 months, despite the junior senator’s letter (on stationery with the Capitol on top) to the judge attesting to Sanders’ good character.
Liveshot said he was shocked, shocked to learn of the despicable kiddie-porn charges against Sanders, who at the time of his arrest was a “senior adviser” to the lieutenant governor of California, a Democrat. “I find myself surprised,” Liveshot wrote. “Completely baffled . . .”
And not for the first time, either.
Wade Sanders got bagged with over 600 images of kiddie porn on his computer, and then claimed he was viewing them for research purposes. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Then Kerry’s pal offered an even more hackneyed defense:
Bush did it! That’s right, Sanders told the judge he didn’t start sampling kiddie porn until after he tried to defend Sen. Kerry against the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. That made him a “target” of those rascally Republicans.
“That experience caused a serious resurgence of the PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) symptoms . . . I encountered (kiddie porn) while accidentally downloading what I thought was a comedy video.”
Alas, as The Wall Street Journal noted, the chronology doesn’t work. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who supposedly drove John Kerry’s pal to kiddie porn, weren’t formed until May 2004. Sanders began downloading his “comedy videos” in November 2003.
Sen. Kerry, it’s too late now to save your perv pal, but maybe, just maybe it’s not too late to throw the Globe a life preserver. Not with another of your windy perorations, but with cash - Mama Tee’s cash. Pinch Sulzberger would unload the rag for a buck.
Liveshot, you could be the next publisher of the Globe. Those Ivy League bust-outs will be lining up to mindlessly do your bidding - just like they’ve been doing for the last 40 years, come to think of it.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1170830
BUMP!
raccoonradio,
It is my opinion that this column (as well as any other column by Howie that is not too Massachusetts-centric) deserves its own thread. Howie’s columns are too good to have your threads glossed over by freepers who aren’t familiar with Howie Carr and therefore don’t stop to click on the ‘Howie Carr thread week of...’ titles.
FWIW
FRegards,
LH
You’re right in this case especially!
Fri show ping
FRIDAY, MAY 8
1st Hour
2nd Hour
3rd Hour
CHUMP LINE!!! Call 617-779-3469 and leave a message for Howie or Sandy that may be played back on the air!
It is Police Blotter Fax Friday! You can fax (617-779-3467) or e-mail your funny police/accident/crime stories from your local papers to Sandy. Make sure to include your name address and phone number on your entry and if faxing that it is a copy and not the original! If Sandy picks yours as one of the two big winners you will win a fabulous prize!
4th Hour
Veterinarian John deJong will be with us to talk pets.
From the police log of today’s Salem News:
BEVERLY:
>A raccoon with a mayonnaise jar stuck on its head was reported at the corner of Lothrop and Dane streets at 10:04 p.m. Police dislodged the jar and sent the animal on its way.
Ha! And this is just a couple blocks from my house. Interesting image of the little animal with a Cain’s (or
whatever brand, take your pick) jar on its head.
True story: a couple years back, a raccoon paid a visit to my back porch. It was freaking out a neighbor’s cat. After a minute or so, the raccoon ran off. A week or two later, the cat wandered into my own apartment...and spotted a foot-tall raccoon doll someone had given me, which was on the floor.
The fraidy cat slowly backed away from it :)
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