Posted on 03/13/2010 11:29:49 PM PST by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Herald column
Sunday column ping
Judge not lest ye be judged a judicial hack
By Howie Carr | Sunday, March 14, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Theres been yet another nationwide search, and the winner is James Barretto, the Fox 25 legal analyst and the states newest hack judge.
Barretto got his Brookline District Court judgeship last week the old-fashioned way - over the past three years he gave $9,550 to politicians.
This 54-year-old Barretto is a hacks hack. He should get a standing ovation this morning at Halitosis Hall as the poster boy for the Payroll Charlie culture of Massachusetts.
One of his letters of support came from Joe DeNucci, the state auditor. Barretto has been lurking around the State House since he was a kid, starting as a page. Later he worked for DeNooch as a legislative aide while he was going to Suffolk Law School. Stop me if youve heard this one before.
Over the last three years, Barretto maxed out to his old boss DeNucci: $1,500. His wife, Luise, gave another $250. Would you care to guess whose payroll their son Christopher is on?
You are correct, sir. Boy Barretto makes $36,434 as an assistant fraud examiner in DeNuccis office.
Then theres James brother, David. Do you suppose hes in the public or the Dreaded Private Sector? You got it - probation, of all places, for $65,039.95. Good jobs at good wages.
Who else spoke up for Barretto at his confirmation hearing? Well, there was the AG, Marsha Coakley, who hired him a few months ago at $90,000 per annum. Mr. and Mrs. Barretto have given Marsha $2,650 over three years, including $200 four days before Scott Brown cleaned her clock in January.
Sadly, another of the distinguished statesmen to whom Barretto has been so generous, Sal DiMasi, was unable to attend his pals confirmation. Sal collected $750 from Judge Barretto before Mistah Speakahs indictment on the corruption charges that could send him to prison for 185 years.
Speaking of federal grand juries, in 2007 Barretto gave $350 to John Edwards, the embattled former candidate for vice president. Oh, and Edwards running mate, John Kerry, used to have a law partner named Roanne Sragow. She, too, is a judge and faxed in a letter of support from the judges lobby.
Another witness: Barrettos former law partner, Peter Bellotti, brother of the sheriff of Norfolk County, Mike Bellotti. The sheriff got $750 from his dear friend. Barretto was appointed, of course, by Gov. Deval Patrick. He gave Deval $500 in 2007.
Bill Keating, the Norfolk DA, was another scheduled witness. The soon-to-be congressional candidate grabbed $375 from Barretto.
I dont have space to tell you about the two Dukakis-appointed ex-state rep judges who personally pushed for Barrettos early retirement. Ill just give you their pensions - $78,644 and $73,005.
The vote to confirm this career coatholder was 7-1. Only Councilor Mary-Ellen Manning voted no, saying in her statement, This nominee hasnt seen a courtroom in 10 years.
On his resume, Barretto described himself as an accomplished trial attorney.
Happy St. Patricks Day.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1239554
Hizzoner.
Wed column ping
A long and winded road
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, March 17, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
I have read Fat Matt Amorellos job application to the Illinois Tollway and an old schoolyard taunt comes to mind:
Liar, liar, 54-inch pants on fire!
In case youve forgotten, Fat Matt is the career hack who used to run the Mass. Turnpike Authority. The toll road in the Land o Lincoln asked him about his REASON FOR LEAVING.
Resignation, he wrote down.
Resignation? I guess the next time you see cops surrounding a place, lobbing tear gas canisters inside and the governor with a bullhorn yelling, Come out with your hands up! consider that a resignation.
Heres what Fat Matt so modestly said in his cover letter:
My record at the Turnpike Authority is one of reducing costs, reforming managements systems and delivering a highly rated transportation agency.
Yes, and only one dead!
You ask, what other great accomplishments did Fat Matt accomplish on the job?
Negotiated and executed the sale of surplus real estate including real estate in the Allston-Brighton area to Harvard University for $75 million.
Some negotiations. Some surplus. He sold the Allston toll booths and part of Interstate 90 to Harvard. Fat Matt got an apple for an orchard.
Perhaps Im being a stickler here, because Fat Matt certifies on his application that the facts contained in this application are true and complete to the best of my knowledge.
So he must be telling the truth when he says he made $90,000 as a consultant since his, uh, resignation from the Turnpike.
Maybe hes right, that the bond-rating service Moodys affirmed the MTAs financial stability in its February 2005 rating update.
But Fat Matt, howd all those Wall Street swaptions work out of you, not to mention the toll-payers?
He notes his J.D. degree from Suffolk University? Very impressive, Fat Matt. Have you ever passed the bar exam?
Among the, uh, strengths that Fat Matt would bring to his new job is his experience in what he terms major plan/project presentations.
Yes, there was nothing like a Fat Matt project presentation. Lets roll tape of Fat Matt in 2006 after the tunnel collapse, explaining to the public what a tieback is:
Tieback is the the structure that holds the uh, a series of uh uh, shelves that hold up uh as if uh a da - uh uh a shelf where you tie the the the structure to the ceiling and then you place these concrete piles on the uh pie - uh panels on that shelf.
By the way, before he interviewed last week, he e-mailed the agency: Would it be possible to arrange for a ride back to OHare airport after the interview?
In other words, Fat Matt wanted a free ride. He told them the truth.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?article
These comments are a day late and dollar sh But
Howie, thanks again for letting Steve bash America yet again
I was really glad that as usual you never tell the listeners his nationality, or maybe the downside to his own countries handling of the same matters.
We as Americans need to heed the words of such a wise sage from a country that can truly set a health care example for us to follow.
I really enjoyed listening to you once again allow this ever so gentle creature from the north explain to us why we as Americans are just horrible stewards of this continent we share together.
Please never let your listener know the difference in the generosity we show to our group of undocumented guests in the country when they visit the emergency room, versus the mean spirited way the Quebec emergency room would deny those same Salts of the Earth types
I cannot wait until he blesses us with more wisdom
While I can only guess you sit there with Knee Pads and mouth wash by your side ready to take his call
Fri col ping
Lets put Cap on tuition bill
By Howie Carr | Friday, March 19, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Did you ever notice that on the Internet, when someone starts using all capital letters, you can safely assume that you are in the cyber-presence of a crank?
Meet Gov. Deval Patrick: crank.
But then, in his online chat with Herald readers, he was once again defending the indefensible - in-state (in effect, free) tuition for illegal aliens. Heres what he said:
I have advocated that aliens who were raised here and educated in our public schools - AND ARE IN THE PROCESS OF STRAIGHTENING OUT THEIR IMMIGRATION STATUS - should pay the same tuition as the kids they graduated from high schools with.
This, of course, is the Big Lie - Im tempted to say BIG LIE, but lets keep this discussion calm. The moonbats claim that this latest giveaway would apply only to aliens whove been squatting here for a few years.
But thats not what the bill says. Deval can use as many caps as he wants, but the actual bill makes no distinction between the long-term freeloaders and the ones who just forded the Rio Grande last week.
Lets go straight to the House bill, filed by Haitian-born tax deadbeat Marie St. Fleur. In the Senate, it used to be sponsored by Sen. Tony Galluccio, (D-Billerica) House of Correction, until he got a snootful of Michelob Ultra Brite.
The proposed giveaway would apply to any illegal alien who has achieved graduation from a high school in the commonwealth or attained the equivalent thereof.
What part of the equivalent thereof do you not understand, Deval? I mean, you went to Harvard and Harvard Law School, so you must have done very well on the SATs and the LSATs, right?
I know, there are only a few hundred kids looking for this latest free ride. Im sure they said the same thing in Texas too. The latest numbers are . . . 12,000 illegals paying in-state tuition in the Lone Star State. Military members dont get the in-state nod, but illegals do.
On Wednesday, the Cape Cod Times ran a story about a new movement among illegals for in-state tuition. The first illegal they interviewed admitted he already is paying in-state tuition at UMass-Dartmouth because he was in the process of applying for a visa when he signed up for classes.
In other words, some illegals are already getting a free ride, even though the Legislature is on record as opposing it. Its getting tougher and tougher for me to keep from hitting the Caps Lock key.
Its like a civil rights movement, the illegal told the paper.
You know who really needs a civil rights movement? Students from New Hampshire, especially ones whose parents work and pay income taxes in Massachusetts. Theyre citizens, they obey the law, and they pay taxes, and it appears they dont have the same rights as illegals, who do none of the above.
Whats that line in West Side Story? Everything free in America. At least if youre illegal.
Mistah Speakah how many more “Q-tips” must plow their cars
into medical buildings in Essex County!
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_077233023.html
BEVERLY A woman who was taking her husband to a medical appointment drove into the side of a building at the Cummings Center yesterday morning, the second time in as many days that an older driver crashed into a building on the North Shore.
Unlike Wednesday’s incident in Peabody, the car did not penetrate the building and nobody was hurt.
Eleanor Curr, 73, of Peabody, said she was pulling into a parking space just before 9 a.m. when her car suddenly took off.
“I must have stepped on the gas instead of the brake,” she said.
Curr said she was distracted by her husband, William, who was in the passenger seat. “He was driving me crazy with questions,” she said.
The light green Hyundai Accent drove over a curb and sidewalk, snapped a one-hour parking sign in half, tipped over a small arborvitae tree, and smashed into a glass annex of the 900 building, a three-story building at the Cummings Center office park.
The impact cracked two window panes in the reception office of the Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Center. Eddie O’Reilly, a rehabilitation aide at the center, said no one was in the office at the time.
“Luckily this was (the receptionist’s) late day,” he said.
O’Reilly said he heard a noise that sounded like something had fallen over. He went into the office and pulled open the shades.
“I wasn’t expecting to see a car there,” he said.
The Currs appeared to be uninjured. Immediately after the accident, Eleanor Curr sat next to the car on a chair that a Cummings Center employee had provided, with her husband’s walker at her side. William Curr waited in the car before police helped him get out. The couple were able to walk to their medical appointment at the Cummings Center.
The Currs’ car had front-end damage and was towed.
The accident is under investigation by Beverly police. Eleanor Curr has no record of any previous accidents, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Cummings Center General Manager Steve Drohosky said the company was still assessing the cost of repairing the custom-made windows and landscaping.
On Wednesday, a 68-year-old woman drove into a medical building at Centennial Park in Peabody, sending five people, including the driver and her husband, to the hospital.
The two incidents come amid an ongoing debate on Beacon Hill about older drivers. The House and Senate have passed bills that would require testing of drivers age 75 and over. The two chambers must reconcile the differences in the two versions before sending a bill to Gov. Deval Patrick.
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.