Howie Carr thread Feb 1-14, 2013

howiecarr.us ^ | 2/1/13 | raccoonradio

[raccoonradio]

Howie Carr thread for the first half of Feb. starting with today's Boston Herald column, "Dear John, it was something you said"

"This is a great day for Massachusetts. This is the day John Forbes “Liveshot” Kerry stops being our senator. The governor, who was born in Illinois, is replacing the senator who was born in Colorado with an interim senator who was born in North Carolina who will serve on Capitol Hill with the “senior” senator who was born in Oklahoma."

More below

[ConservativeStatement]

Senator Nurse Fuzzy Wuzzy.

[raccoonradio]

Fri column ping. Note: the column on its Herald page has audio clips. Dear John, it was something you said

by Howie Carr

Friday, February 1, 2013

This is a great day for Massachusetts. This is the day John Forbes “Liveshot” Kerry stops being our senator.

The governor, who was born in Illinois, is replacing the senator who was born in Colorado with an interim senator who was born in North Carolina who will serve on Capitol Hill with the “senior” senator who was born in Oklahoma.

(Go to the Herald page, linked above, for a selection of John Kerry's greatest audio clips.)

In honor of this magnificent day, which many of us feared we’d never live to see, let’s review some of Liveshot’s greatest hits.

Everyone has their own favorite John Kerry moment, and this is mine, from 2004, when he announced that his vice presidential running mate was U.S. Sen. John Edwards. Liveshot, always a superb judge of character, said this about the ambulance-chaser who touched everything but the third rail:

“I know his skill. I know his passion. I know his conscience. I know his faith. He has honored the lessons of home and family.”

Yes, Mr. Secretary, but did you know his pregnant mistress?

Kerry’s acumen doesn’t end at the ocean’s edge either. Here is Mr. Secretary on Syria and its very ethical leader: “Syria is an essential player in bringing peace and stability to the region. … President Assad has been very generous with me in terms of the discussions we have had.”

On the dedication of the Big Dig tunnel: “This tunnel will be a bargain!”

This is a guy who makes Ed Markey look in touch. Remember when the Herald caught Liveshot trying to beat the $500,000 state sales tax on his new $7 million yacht, the Isabella? As reporters swarmed, he jumped into his Chevy Volt, er, SUV, and issued this clarion explanation:

“Can I get outta here please?”

As the reporters kept pestering him with questions, perhaps because he’s never seen a tax he didn’t like, unless it was on himself, of course: “Let’s not get silly here.”

Then there was the time Mitt Romney mentioned a “tar baby.” What a racist. You can hear the cut of John Kerry talking about a “big tar baby out there.” To which the national media responded as one: Nothing to see here folks, move along.

On the fact that when it comes to charity, he tosses around quarters like they were manhole covers: “The fact is I did make some contributions. They’re not enormous. I have two kids. I live off my Senate salary. My wife may be independently wealthy. I’m not.”

Now he’s worth $193 million.

And of course, this great one from 2004: “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”

Under fire, he shot back: “Is that flip-floppin’? Is that a flip-flop?”

As a matter of fact, yes it is.

Music, anyone? “I’m fascinated by rap.”

His favorite Red Sox player? “Manny Ortez.”

Favorite football team? “You’re lookin’ at the biggest cheesehead in America, right here.”

In rural Ohio, pandering for the hick vote: “Can I get me a hunting license here?”

If you don’t study hard, you’ll end up in Iraq. “It was a botched joke.”

In the 2004 campaign, he hired a guy who worked at a bicycle or windsurfing store as his valet. One day the valet lost Kerry’s special magic hairbrush. Kerry went nuts. “Where’s my brush? Where’s my brush?”

Now Kerry has hired noted Globe throne-sniffer Glen Johnson as his new valet. Some words of advice Glen:

Don’t misplace the brush.

[raccoonradio]

Money from his second wife's first husband's trust fund. Here is Teresa with her husband the late John Heinz...a Republican, thus she was as well...at the time.

Parody lyrics by me, 2004:
Have yourself a Kerry Little Christmas, cozy all the way
While the seat of power is so far away
You'll be just one more lib in the Senate, thanks to W
You won't live on Pennsylvania Avenue
Ketchup heiress has lots of dough, lots and lots of dough to spend
It won't buy you the White House though, for the voters know, my friend
Mondale, Gore and also Mike Dukakis know just how you feel
When you're seen, you don't have any appeal
So have yourself a Kerry Little Christmas now

---

(Bee Gees Massachusetts, also parody lyrics by me)
He is going back to Massachusetts
Couldn't win the White House if he tried
And they still love him back in Massachusetts
They voted for him, through all those times he lied

Got a lot of votes in San Francisco, New York and L.A. they loved him too
But he's still going back to Massachusetts
The Swift Boat hero, left Democrats so blue

[ConservativeStatement]

Has Howie used the terms “Senior Senator Elizabeth Warren” in anticipation? How frightening is that proposition, even if temporary?

[raccoonradio]

yes he’s mentioned she now will reign as Senior Senator. And yes frightening

[massgopguy]

Hey Senior Moment Senator Granny Warren! The MA Fishing Industry just got “hammered”!

[massgopguy]

Hey Senior Moment Senator Granny Warren! The MA Fishing Industry just got “hammered”!

[massgopguy]

Hey Senior Moment Senator Granny Warren! The MA Fishing Industry just got “hammered”!

[HenpeckedCon]

“even if temporary?

Ya, for like the next six years.

[Mears]

bfl

[bitt]

AS FOR HIS ‘FAREWELL TOUR’ AROUND THE STATE YESTERDAY:

“How can we miss you if you don’t go away?

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[bitt]

Five surgeons from big cities are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on.

The first surgeon, from New York, says,

‘I like to see accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.’

The second, from Chicago, responds,

‘Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.’

The third surgeon, from Dallas, says,

‘No, I really think librarians are the best, everything inside them is in alphabetical order.’

The fourth surgeon, from Los Angeles chimes in:

‘You know, I like construction workers...Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over.’

But the fifth surgeon, from Washington , DC shut them all up when he observed:

‘You’re all wrong.

Politicians are the easiest to operate on...

There’s no guts, no heart, no ba*ls, no brains, and no spine..

Plus, the head and the a** are interchangeable.’

[ConservativeStatement]

True but she has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016 and the Dems probably will have to top Obama and make history with another vacuous individual.

[raccoonradio]

Special Sat column ping

Howie Carr: Red flags were raised long ago for future

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Good career move by ex-U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.

And Scott, thanks for giving the Herald the scoop. You promised we’d get the news first, and we did.

Not that his decision to take a pass was unexpected. Two weeks ago tomorrow, he and I were doing another one of our joint book signings at Willow Books in Acton. We had a good crowd, and after it was over, he told me how much he was enjoying the appearances.

“Want to do some more of these?” he asked.

Well, sure, I said. But aren’t you going to be … busy, or something, in another month or so?

He just shrugged.

It would have been a tough fight. He could have beaten Not-so-Fast Eddie Markey, but in less than two years, he’d have been looking down the barrel at JoJoJo Kennedy. In the end, Brown could have won two statewide races for the Senate and spent $80 million … only to serve a combined total of fewer than five years.

It was different in 2009. He had nothing to lose. The fight was a lark. It was supposed to be a warm-up for the attorney general fight in 2010, or something. But if he’d lost this next one, it would have been the end of the road. Not too many pols come back from dropping two in a row.

I didn’t talk to Scott Brown yesterday, he just texted me that he was out. But I wonder if he’ll run for governor in 2014 either. This is really getting to be a tough state for a Republican, and Brown is about as good a natural retail politician as anybody anywhere. But what can he do when so many of the low-information voters are pulling the straight Democrat ticket?

Last fall was really nasty. In our post-election book signings, Brown’s fans have been telling him endless stories about being intimidated, or forced to hold Warren signs by their unions, or having their property vandalized, all for the crime of opposing a fake-Indian carpetbagger from Oklahoma.

In Orleans right before Christmas, a female UMass freshman recalled sitting in a large theater-style classroom a couple of months earlier, and her professor asking for a show of hands who was for each of the candidates. Apparently, she was the only one to raise her hand for Brown, and everyone saw her.

On her way out of class, she was heckled, cursed, spit at and generally called every name in the book. Talk about the war on women …

At some point you say, Who needs it? If you don’t have a hunch, why bet a bunch?

The filing deadline is Feb. 27. The Republicans have exactly 25 days to round up certified signatures from 10,000 Republicans and independents. Good luck with that.

As for all you bookstore operators out there, Scott Brown and I are back in business. Give us a call.

article

[ConservativeStatement]

I won’t get more specific (he dealt with it in his own way) but someone I know who was told to take down his “Brown” sign or else! He ran a small restaurant.

[raccoonradio]

yikes...I mentioned the bit about the UMass student on Facebook to Dan Kennedy (Bos Phoenix, Beat the Press segment of Greater Boston) and he said he found it hard to believe to be true. Yeah right. I have said Brown should change to a Dem and change his last name to Kennedy to get elected in this low info voter state.

[raccoonradio]

Sun column ping

Time to plug welfare ‘leakage’

by Howie Carr,
Sunday, February 3, 2013

“Leakage” — that’s what Gov. 
Deval Patrick is now calling rampant welfare fraud in his administration.

According to the inspector general, $25 million has been wasted, and we all know that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Still, though — $25 million seems more like a flood than a leak.

But don’t worry, the governor assures us that the fraud rate is only about “average.” That’s certainly a 
relief. We’d all hate to think that the commonwealth is “below average” in the amount of fraud and abuse by the non-working classes.

But this is a governor who dismisses any and all cases of welfare fraud as mere “anecdotes.” And by the way, it appears we have a lot more “anecdotes” than were first reported — closer to 50,000, rather than the original 19,000.

None of this welfare dirty laundry would have come out if only Granny Warren’s daughter hadn’t forced the state to order a voter-registration drive last summer among the layabout class. A half-million letters went out (complete with prepaid return envelopes) and almost 50,000 came back — “return to sender, address unknown. No such number, no such zone.”

Here are a few anecdotes from the inspector general’s report involving leakage:

•     A gimme girl was receiving Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children while in jail, while simultaneously “submitting time sheets stating she was participating in a work program at a career center.”

•     In 2010, a gimme girl stated she did not know the whereabouts of the father of her child. Eighteen months later, she gave birth to a second child “and named the same father on the birth certificate.”

•     Another deadbeat claimed she’d been unemployed for more than six years and that her husband was incarcerated. The inspector general discovered a bank account into which she had recently deposited $7,000, while withdrawing $8,500. There was of course “no evidence” of investigation by the Department of Transitional Assistance.

The inspector general discovered some problems with “the relationship status between grantees and dependent children.” Does this mean that children are being claimed by multiple women as their own in order to qualify for yet more handouts? Why not? Apparently nobody ever checks.

Don’t worry though. Deval is on the case. The hacks are setting up an “Integrated Eligibility System … with anticipated implementation by 2015.”

Only two more years of leakage among the anecdotes. That’s a load off the taxpayers’ minds.

All in all, it’s a tough report. Even Deval had to do something. So he regretfully fired his DTA commissioner, Dan Curley.

“A good guy,” Deval said.

Too bad Curley’s not a lawyer. Deval could make him a judge, just like he’s doing with Mary Beth Heffernan after her bang-up job as public safety secretary.

Are there any clerk magistrates’ jobs open? Give Curley the job, and I guarantee you in three months his nickname at the courthouse will be “Personal Recognizance.”

Or maybe “Leakage.”

article

[GregNH]

Go you remember who that author he had on talking about the shroud of Turin? She had a book.

[GregNH]

Do^ Not Go...