The non-FR links will likely expire within a month, I will post the articles in a week or so for archiving purposes. I hope that folks elsewhere will read this, and not be as complacent as I have been regarding patronage jobs - apparently, it's not so funny after all.

Ping

As promised, full coverage of the Massport scandal. The more I read, the angrier I get.

Bump. I haven't flown lately but I regularly went through Logan metal detectors with pocketfuls of change without setting anything off.

Another article in today's Globe, this one a "Spotlight" article:

Patronage, far-flung roles hinder Massport mission (Boston Globe, 9/25/01)
The scores of former political operatives preside over a culture marred by infighting. ''Backfilling,'' what Massport workers call the process of hiring trained professionals to assist political appointees, helps ensure that core functions are performed, but wreaks havoc on morale.

The only quibble I have with this article:

Patronage jobs are a way of life in Mass, for both parties.

There aren't two parties in MA. AT most one and a half. It often seemed to me, when I was out there, that Weld/Cellucci (R-MA, supposedly) appointed as many democrats to offices as Republicans. Must not have been too many republicans in the state if they couldn't find any to hire. Or Weld/Cellucci weren't republicans, either way, there weren't very many of them.

patent

The more I read, the angrier I get.

This isn't going to change out there. I don't care how bad the terrorist attacks were, patronage in Boston started before the Indians got there, and it is going to outlive the cockroaches.

patent

"Bump. I haven't flown lately but I regularly went through Logan metal detectors with pocketfuls of change without setting anything off."

This past spring I went through the metal detector at the Muskegon, MI airport. Everything set off the beeper, they finally hand-scanned me with a wand. When I say "everything", I'm talking about my belt buckle, the metal zipper on my pants, and the shoelace eyelets on my shoes!

Yet, the stuff from my pockets, which I'd emptied into the bowl at the counter before walking through the detector? Totally ignored. I emptied my pockets on one side, picked it up on the other, and no one bothered to look at anything I'd placed in the bowl!

It was obvious that the people running the show were utterly devoid of clue one. It did not give me a "safe" feeling knowing that I could have brought anything I wanted onto the plane. I guess the idea was that if you put it in the bowl, it somehow becomes "OK". Sort of like the airport restaurant deal mentioned in another thread. Shortly after the attack, security came to the restaurant, took all their metal steak knives, ran them through the Xray machine, and then handed them back.

Huh? What were they looking for? Knife-elves hidden in the handles?

The airport "security" apparatus is staffed with morons, who are trained to go through a set of motions by rote, but are devoid of any logical thinking process. "Knives can be dangerous. We're trained to take things that might be dangerous and put them through the Xray machine. So, we put the knives through the Xray machine." No, that's not a quote, but I guarantee you it's the "logic" behind that stupid gesture.

Time for some heat to be brought to bear.

Being from Louisiana and all, I'm confused by this indignation over the discovery of patronage at Massport. Surely that's what it's for in the first place, isn't it? Similarly with the public schools down here: education is strictly a by-product.

Bump for a later read. Thanks OPH

True, true, the Weld/Celluci/Swift administrations could only be considered Republican here, they'd be Dems anywhere else. At least there's *some* choice on the state level, in the Boston area, when there's an open seat for anything, the Democratic primary is the election. You can choose between hard-left, loony-left, moderate-left, etc. Ugh.