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Howie Carr thread week of March 30, 2008
howiecarr.com ^ | 03/30/08 | raccoonradio

Posted on 03/30/2008 4:30:15 AM PDT by raccoonradio

Howie live thread starting off with his Sun Herald column


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 7millarge; bostonsradiobadboy; chumpline; friedclams; howie; howiecarr; malepatternbaldness; neweyes; paperboy; talkradio; tartarsauce
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1 posted on 03/30/2008 4:30:16 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; CatQuilt; ...

Bio hazard: Gov’s book deal exposes him as author-tunist
By Howie Carr | Sunday, March 30, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com

How many times have I told you? With Deval, it’s all about showing him the money.

Originality is not his strong suit; he follows in the footsteps of others. Jesse Jackson makes a fortune in the racket Tom Wolfe called “steam control,” and Deval shakes down Coke and Texaco. But when you’re building a $7 million mansion in the Berkshires with a nut of maybe $30,000 a month, it doesn’t matter how big your “severance packages” were, you always need more dough.

So now Deval mimics Barack Obama. He finds some new marks and scores a $1.35 million advance for his book. Good job, Todd Shuster! The way you know you’ve made a score in book publishing is when the author doesn’t ever collect any royalties, because the advance was so over the top that the publisher could never make his money back. That’s what we’re looking at here, folks.

Deval is laughing all the way from the bank.

It’s a jackpot for a crackpot. Some people have a dream, Deval has a scheme. The corporate gigs are over, obviously he can’t run another political grift. So he doubled down. And now, to use the favorite expression of another one-term Massachusetts Democrat governor, Edward J. King, Deval Patrick is Makin’ It In Massachusetts.

The publishers, in that first flush of excitement before they are inevitably overcome with the same buyer’s remorse that now afflicts the Massachusetts electorate, are comparing the tome (“Slaughterhouse Jive”?) to “the way President Kennedy inspired the nation with his celebrated ‘Profiles in Courage’.”

With Deval, it’s “Profiles in Currency.” But the reference raises the question - who will be Deval’s Ted Sorensen? I know, he says he’s going to write it in his spare time (of which he has plenty). But he also said he was going to cut your property taxes.

Sooner or later, a “book doctor,” a ghostwriter, will have to be called in. Does anyone have the phone number of “slam poet” Patricia X. Smith - she could do this story justice. I just hope they devote an entire chapter to that brutal attack Deval suffered as a youth, when a South Side gang member supposedly bounced an empty soda can off his head.

Suggested chapter title: “Coke Can Con.”

“Gov. Patrick,” the publisher said, “will give readers everywhere a whole new sense of what is possible in both their personal and civic lives.”

Oddly, that book, too, has already been written, and once again by Tom Wolfe. Its title was “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.”

This fade-out of politics by Deval is just his standard MO. He never stays long in any one place. If you include the 2006 campaign, this is about as long as he’s ever stayed in any “job.” Stick around and actually try to do something? No dice, says Deval.

He’d rather be on the board of directors of a bunch of dodgy corporations like Long Beach Pawnshop Inc. They have quarterly meetings in sunny places for shady people. You get big money for no work, plus stock options. How long until he’s offered a radio talk show on a weak station - at least if he can get himself convicted of a felony he can blame on drug abuse?

Ben LeGuer is probably on suicide watch now, but bleep happens. Deval’s all about hope and opportunity. He was hoping for an opportunity, and now he’s got one. So what if it’s curtains (get it?) for the Patrick administration? How long until Tim Murray holds a confessional press conference about his girlfriends, even if he doesn’t have any?

“An unspecified portion” of Patrick’s royalties will go to A Better Chance, the organization that helped the governor attend Milton Academy.”

Let me translate: “Unspecified” means “very small.”

Coke . . . Texaco . . . Ameriquest . . . and now Random House. By Deval’s earlier standards, this isn’t much of a score. But at the State House, $1.35 million is big dough. It’s walking-around money. It’s golfing-with-Donald Trump money.

Which leaves one final question:

Who’s laughing now, Sal?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1083857


2 posted on 03/30/2008 4:31:01 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio
Howie's talkin’ about the next Ambassador to Luxembourg... under the Yes-We-Can, Obama administration.
3 posted on 03/30/2008 4:44:58 AM PDT by johnny7
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To: johnny7
I know, he says he’s going to write it in his spare time (of which he has plenty). But he also said he was going to cut your property taxes.

I hate to admit my first thought here was, "He didn't write it yet????" -- it's embarrassing that someone could live as long as I have -- and in Massachusetts no less! -- and still be so naive . . . I guess. :(

How does he get away with this stuff?

4 posted on 03/30/2008 9:30:53 AM PDT by maryz
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To: maryz; Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; ...

Mon ping


5 posted on 03/31/2008 10:58:24 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: maryz; Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; ...

Mon ping


6 posted on 03/31/2008 10:59:21 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio
WVMT carrying Howie @ 3PM....

Was Ingraham a "Best of" again?

7 posted on 03/31/2008 12:24:32 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke

I don’t know but the 3 pm airing is due to a Yankees rainout and I guess they figured they’d rather go live to Howie
than tape delayed Ingraham


8 posted on 03/31/2008 12:31:04 PM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio
Yes, I heard Steve about 10 seconds after I posted. I did check out the schedule on WVMT's website first, but didn't see anything about the Yankees.

I tend to tune out their spots about the Yankees too, so, through my own fault, I didn't even think about them.

9 posted on 03/31/2008 12:55:20 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; CatQuilt; ...

FR back from outage. Tue ping


10 posted on 04/01/2008 3:53:16 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: All
Deval Patrick is far more than your garden variety maladroit pol. He is instead proving himself a political bungler for the ages.

Politics of Hope, Checking in on Obama's role model (Deval Patrick)

FR's post on "The Weekly Standard" article Howie's reading from.

11 posted on 04/01/2008 3:18:30 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke
Pickwick Ale. I think it was the generic brew at The Improper Bostonian in Dennisport(?).
12 posted on 04/01/2008 3:23:57 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Calvin Locke; All

below is by Brian Maloney from http://www.savewrko.com


Crappy Ratings Have Some Entercommies Chuckling

An interim ratings trend for Boston was released today and though we don’t always cover them, this one is noteworthy because WRKO’s overall (listeners 12+) share dropped from a 4.3 to 4.0.

That caps a full year of declines, from 5.0 last spring to 4.0 today. The full quarterly ratings report will be released in about a month.

Apparently, as the numbers circulated through the building, there was chuckling in some quarters as to the unbelievably weak performance of both Finneran and the Fung Wah bus-riding, New Jersey hip hop promoter (Reese Hopkins). Word is the results were breathtakingly bad, perhaps lower than anything previously seen in Boston talk radio.

WTKK, by contrast, had a great month, rising from 3.2 to 3.6.


13 posted on 04/02/2008 1:09:07 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; CatQuilt; ...

column ping

‘Ords’ in Mumbles’ favor for big pension payout
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, April 2, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com

Whenever he finally retires, Mumbles Menino is going to get a pension of about $140,000 a year.

You read that right. This is not a belated April Fools’ Day joke. In all the city pension stories last week, we overlooked the fact that Mumbles will be getting a kiss in the mail every month for about $11,500.

That works out to just under $3,000 a week. Just for being Mumbles.

Here’s how it works. As the mayor-for-life (or so he thinks), Mumbles now makes $175,000 a year. The highest pension he could get would be 80 percent of his top three years. Given his age (he’s 65) and the fact that he’s had his snout in the public trough his entire adult life, he’s there, baby. It’ll get cut down a little, I’m sure, for the survivor’s benefits, but not by much.

Still, I say, the Mumblin’ Man is a bargain. He is not just our leader, he is our teacher. At a recent jobs-for-teens event, memorialized on local cable TV, he spoke of the value of a day’s pay for a day’s work.

“There is noth-ling,” he said, and that’s an exact quote from the tape. He didn’t say “nothing,” he said “noth-ling.” “There is noth-ling like honestly earning your own money for a job well done.”

These summer jobs “all provide these opportunities for young people who are facing some very long ords.”

Not odds, “ords.”

As CEO of a declining midsized city, he attended the swearing in of 50 new firefighters and told them of what was in store.

“Your job will give you a rare satis - satisfication.”

You know, like the old Rolling Stones song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

I mention these perorations only to show the vast breadth of the Mumblin’ Man’s contributions to the Athens of America. Here he is, Johnny on the spot at the scene of another sub-prime mortgage fiasco.

“Well there’s some uhh the corporation counsel is working with some agencies on these fact of maybe some of these uh mortgages shouldn’t of been uhhh uhhh lunt.”

You thought the past tense of lend was lent? What do you know - is your pension going to be $140,000 a year? As the old signs used to say, if you’re so smart, how come you ain’t rich? The past tense of lend is “lunt.”

Guns - a perennial problem plaguing certain sections of the city. And ultimately, Mumbles believes, it needs a federal solution.

Enough’s enough, he thunders. We as citizens have to take back our Con-gwiss.”

And after we take back Con-gwiss, let’s get our Congress back.

But Mumbles is trying to do his best to get rid of the guns. So are most municipalities, or as he calls them, “musa-palities.”

“You know we did our gun-back-by-guy-back program a year ago.”

As citizens, we can only pray that the “gun-back-by-guy-back program” was more successful than the gun-buyback program.

Ultimately, of course, it’s all about the children. So let’s crack down on billboards advertising booze and tobacco. Right, Mumbles?

“Why is certain neighborhoods immune to the advertising?” he asks. I give up, Your Honor, why is certain neighborhoods immune?

Any final thoughts, Mumbles, on the true meaning of public service?

“Use your creativity as we create the budgets as we go forward and how do we work smarter and work more effectively that’s really smarter and more effectively as we go forward.”

For this, Mumbles will someday get a pension of $140,000 a year. Does that give you satisfication? Me neither.

But guess what, there is noth-ling we can do about it. Noth-ling at all.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1084366


14 posted on 04/02/2008 4:46:43 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: raccoonradio
We all know Mumbles sounds like he has a bag of marbles in his mouth but reading about it every 8 weeks in Howie's column is getting old. This guy needs to come up with some new material.

Spring is coming, so get ready for his story about the first kid that does a Peter Pan out a third story window (because we all know how funny that is /s).

And a few months later, it'll be hunting season and Gomer's gonna shoot a mailbox or a dog.

Howie, how about a follow-up on yesterday's (April Fool's)pet ban in Cheyenne, WY?

YAWN...

15 posted on 04/02/2008 5:25:20 AM PDT by Living Free in NH
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To: Living Free in NH

I suppose it’s possible to tire of Mumbles.

But that day has yet to come for me, LOL!


16 posted on 04/02/2008 10:48:44 AM PDT by Disturbin (Liberals: buying votes with your money)
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To: Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; CatQuilt; ...

show ping (sorry late, FR was busy)


17 posted on 04/02/2008 1:08:45 PM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Disturbin

Hard to tire of him as entertainment — as mayor of Boston, though . . . . I’m so sick of being embarrassed, first by the state, and then by the city! Talk about “the ol’ one-two”!


18 posted on 04/02/2008 1:10:40 PM PDT by maryz
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To: Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; CatQuilt; ...

Thu ping


19 posted on 04/03/2008 10:45:19 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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To: Andonius_99; Andy'smom; Antique Gal; Big Guy and Rusty 99; bitt; Barset; Carolinamom; CatQuilt; ...

Fri show ping & column

Judge-in-drag should transition to TV
By Howie Carr | Friday, April 4, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

There is a way out for Robert Somma, the 63-year-old cross-dressing, drunken-driving federal bankruptcy judge who is desperately trying to rescind his resignation from the bench.

Forget the $158,000-a-year judgeship, Judge. Become a television judge - you would be filling a niche in a hugely successful afternoon-TV genre.

Judge Roberta - television’s first transvestite judge. Judge Roberta Somma - when she says she’s a TV judge, she really means TV.

I’ve mentioned this before, but he really should think about. Judge Judy reportedly makes $30 million a year. Al D’Amato, the former New York senator who is not a cross-dresser, is shopping a proposal for a judge show. Being a disgraced judge from Massachusetts is no handicap - Maria Lopez lasted a couple of seasons, didn’t she?

The only surprising thing about this whole Somma story is that he ever thought he would have to quit the bench in disgrace. Disgrace? Come on, this is Massachusetts. In case you’ve forgotten the details, the judge was arrested in February on the main drag (get it?) in Manchester, N.H., after his Mercedes E320 sedan rear-ended another car. It was 11:29 on a weeknight when his wife was out of town. He blew a .12 on the Breathalyzer. Before rear-ending the car, the Newbury resident had been drinking at a bar that describes itself as “New Hampshire’s favorite gay and alternative bar.”

And then there was his attire. Understanding the politically correct age in which we live, the arresting officer from the Manchester PD knew he could only hint obliquely at the judge’s outfit. The cop mentioned in his report that the judge “had a difficult time locating his license in his purse.”

The next day the rest of the story came out in the Union Leader. The judge was wearing a slinky black cocktail dress, high heels and fishnet stockings. The judge decided to cop a plea.

From the Caribbean, Judge Somma resigned. His last day was supposed to have been April 1. But now he’s going to try to hang on.

A letter-writing campaign was organized. Members of the bankruptcy bar deluged the court with letters, because God help any lawyer who didn’t sign the letter if Judge Roberta somehow survives.

Somma’s lawyer did not return a call yesterday, but let me guess the judge’s multiple defenses. Number one, he’s not gay. Number two, this was the first time he ever did anything like this, at age 63. Number three, he didn’t really resign.

Judge, what part of a judge being required to exercise good judgment do you not understand?

The six judges on the First Circuit will have to decide by May 15 what to do. Somma will probably lose the vote, and eventually he will sue. Amazing, isn’t it? Twenty years ago he would have slunk off in humiliation. Now he’s browsing the Victoria’s Secret catalog for the proper outfit in which to begin his/her new career as the Transgender Avenger.

Yesterday one lawyer was quoted as saying that the feeling among lawyers is, “There but for the grace of God . . .” Really? Remind me not to go bankrupt, if it requires hiring a cross-dressing drunken driver. But then, that quote appeared in a local newspaper that recently ran an obituary of a deceased primate at the Franklin Park Zoo that lovingly mentioned the dead monkey’s “brilliant, plum-colored rump.”

Yes, this was the same newspaper that refused for weeks to report what Judge Roberta was wearing until his lawyer admitted it. An editorial in support of Judge Somma will no doubt appear soon.

By the way, the judge sent a letter this week to a lawyer’s publication, in which he identified the real villain of his humilitation - “the tabloid media.”

Give it a rest, Somma. Here’s one more slogan for the career you should be pursuing: Judge Roberta - the best TV on TV.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1084876


20 posted on 04/04/2008 9:07:59 AM PDT by raccoonradio
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