Howie Carr thread week of Feb 7, 2010

Jason Wolfe has posted a statement on the WRKO site under “Want More Howie? You Got It!”

“Howie Carr is our #1 asset....we’ve decided to give our listeners more Howie by re-playing his show overnight. No host has the credibility to discuss these issues better than Howie”

A) I’m sure this has nothing to do with losing Coast to Coast

B) Hey Howie! Aren’t those new studios you got great? Everything works? I’m really glad they gave
you these new studios instead of the sports guys. (/ sarcasm)

C) I’m sure Howie will appreciate all the bouquets he’s been getting from upper management and
will continue to praise Entercom and WRKO. He’ll be sure to re-up in 2012, right? :)

Fri column ping. Wonder if Howie will have an additional, special column what with news of Patches pulling out?

A ‘suctioner’ born every minute
By Howie Carr | Friday, February 12, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Calling all hacks, we need your bosses’ e-mails.

We now know that the number of six-figure state and city layabouts slopping at the public trough is out of control. Poor Marian Walsh - she feels persecuted. That’s why she’s quitting, that and a primary opponent who was going to beat her.

So we need you to send us the hacks’ correspondence, so that we, the taxpayers, can at least see what we’re (not) getting for our money.

Don’t forward them. Print them out, stick them in an envelope and send them via snail mail. It’s safer that way.

I already have a few hack e-mails. This first one is from a guy who didn’t want me to name the hack or the agency, but here is one of his boss’ illiterate e-mails from last year, signing off on a request from an underling:

“I will allow this to happen temporally (sic) upon your request, but keep in mind all employees are suppose (sic) top (sic) work out of there (sic) own agency faculties (sic) unless it has been suctioned (sic) by the commissioner.”

Suctioned by the commissioner? This clown makes $112,500 a year. A dear friend of Deval’s - I wonder why the governor likes him so much.

Here’s another missive to his “officer’s” - not officers, officer’s.

“You are to report to your prospective Regions . . .”

Prospective? Would that be anything like “respective?”

Here’s a UMass e-mail from last fall, from an “assistant vice chancellor” who’s good for $150,171 a year. It concerns something called a Forced Leave Furlough Program, and it’s only for the $120,000-plus employees, of which there are many.

“(You) will be required to use 8 days of your vacation and/or personal leave for the furlough . . . If you do not have sufficient time to cover the 8 day furlough before the end of this calendar year you may request to advance your award of calendar year 2010 personal time.”

Sounds to me like fuzzy math, as George Bush used to say. Must have something to do with buybacks. The guy who sent it to me wrote, “The most highly paid people are being told they have to take vacation days to ‘save money.’ ”

Does this mean that if you never come back and keep getting paid, the school will save even more money?

Some workers in Boston sent me e-mails about new hires in their department. And you thought this was a time of austerity in the hackerama. “The Energy Team is pleased to announce our first full-time hire under an energy grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).”

This is why Sen. Scott Brown said the “stimulus bill” has created no new jobs, and nobody called him on it. No real jobs, is what he meant to say (except for his own). By the way, the new hire “is originally from New Jersey.”

Isn’t that special?

The next memo welcomes another new hire named Jeff who “has relocated from California.” California! Welcome to Massachusetts, Jeff.

Let me close by saying, there must be at least eight million e-mails in the Naked Hackerama. We’d like to see a few.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1232323

Special Sat column ping

William Delahunt, you’re next contestant in losing game
By Howie Carr | Saturday, February 13, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Bill Delahunt, come on down!

The only question is, does he permanently adjourn to Hedonism II now, or in 2012?

It’s like a logging forest out there for congressional Democrats these days. Timber! First Chris Dodd falls, then Patches Kennedy, not to mention a whole host of lesser-known Beltway banditos. They’re all retiring due to ill health - the voters are sick of them. The question now is the same one they ask at the deli counter. Who’s next?

Consider why Delahunt might want to call it a career. First, he’s already got a state pension - $58,343.76 a year. He’s also vested for a congressional kiss in the mail, probably at least another $90,000. He turns 69 in July, so he’s still young enough to cash in on his career in, ahem, public service, as well as finding time to fact-find at those clothing-optional Jamaican beaches he so enjoys.

On the other hand . . . first of all, there’s a congressional redistricting coming up. Massachusetts may be losing a seat. Redistricting is all about carving, and it would be immensely easier if there’s a solon who is retiring and whose district no one would miss.

And if Delahunt runs, and loses, which certainly seems possible, then who better to gerrymander out of Congress in two years than the cheeky Republican who knocks him off?

Next, the Kennedy factor. If Delahunt doesn’t run, most likely the young Kennedy kid, Carrot Top, also known as Joe Roman Numeral, steps up. You can’t redistrict a Kennedy out of Congress, even now, not in Massachusetts.

But is this a good year for a Kennedy to be running anywhere? Ask Patches. To use a nautical metaphor, 2010 is looking like low tide for Democrats. Better to let the tide come back in, as it always does. If you run now and lose, Carrot Top, Camelot really is dead, forever. Better to wait your turn, kid - you know, like Uncle Teddy never did.

Moving along, the oldest congressman in the state is John Olver of Amherst, age 73. Olver is one of the few human beings at risk of contracting Dutch elm disease. His western Mass. district would be as easy to chop up after the 2010 Census as Delahunt’s, so he probably hangs on for one more term.

Next in age is Barney Frank, who will turn 70 next month. Have you seen all these grumpy TV interviews he’s been giving lately? It’s just not as much fun anymore never knowing when someone is going to play your sound bite from 2008 about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in great shape going forward. . . .

Then there’s Easy Ed Markey. His district makes no sense, and at the age of 63, neither does he. But it would be cruel to deinstitutionalize him after 34 years in the halfway House of Representatives.

Having said all that, I still think Delahunt quits. I heard it’s going to be 81 at Hedonism II today.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1232545

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