Posted on 04/13/2008 5:30:59 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Howie Carr live thread, starting off with his Sunday Boston Herald column
Howie column ping
For Petrolati, crooked is as crooked does
By Howie Carr | Sunday, April 13, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Who put the rocket in Petros pocket? Thats the question at the State House: Who dropped - not a dime, but a bomb - on the Speaker pro tempore of the House of Representatives?
It seems that Tommy Petrolatis contributors list is larded with gangsters, bookies, extortionists, bank fraudsters, tax cheaters, cash-skimmers, witness-tamperers and embezzlers.
To which there are two responses at the State House: No. 1, Thats Petro. And No. 2, Thats Springfield.
Yet Petro somehow hangs on. I mean, Speaker Sal DiMasi even invented this new phony-baloney title of speaker pro tem to keep his greasy-haired protege from Ludlow in the chips. But Petro has paid his dues, or as his most loyal plug-uglies would say, made his bones.
He went up before the federal grand jury that indicted the previous crooked speaker, Felon Finneran, and told them he did not know which river the Mystic-Tobin Bridge spanned. He was not indicted; the grand jury decided that he was, in fact, that stupid.
What saves Petro is that the Legislature, in its own dysfunctional way, really is a family. And Petro is a member of that family - the family dog. But the problem is that hes always growling at the familys other flea-ridden hound, Jolly John Rogers, the majority leader.
You might even say Petro is a problem dog, the kind that eventually pees on the rug once too often. That time is now for Petro, and it is time to find him a new home . . . in the country.
The leadership would love to do a Nagle and ship him out to a nice, obscure little courthouse sinecure in the Golden West, like they did with former majority leader Bill Nagle. Alas, this latest episode with the gangsters will scotch that. As hopelessly corrupt as the Massachusetts judicial system is, the last thing it needs is another Jackie Bulger. Sal DiMasi cant be thrilled either: Petros organized-crime pals are yet another reminder of his own past associations with the likes of Vinny the Animal and Joey Y.
And by the way, whats up with Petro getting $500 from mobster Frank Colantoni? Colantoni says a friend asked him to pony up. I always thought the rule was that if youre going to shake down hoods for cash, you instruct them to find citizens to make the actual contributions, not vice versa.
Petro must not have gotten that memo. But he doesnt seem to get a lot of memos. He also misplaced the one on Brylcreem - the one that said A little dabll do ya.
Given his dodgy record, not too many golden-parachute options remain for Petro. Perhaps a tollbooth on the Mass. Pike with a surveillance camera. He wouldnt be the first Petrolati on the Pike payroll, thats for sure.
But the news isnt all bad for the Vitalis Kid. Things are starting to look up for his closest political allies and contributors, the Asselin family. His great friend, ex-Rep. Chris Asselin of Springfield, is getting out of prison on June 15. And Chris Asselins wife, Merylina, who was also indicted in the corruption case, just scored a massive Bulger-like hit on the public mammary.
She is grabbing $210,000 in back wages from her job at Chicopee High School as a guidance counselor, now that the federal charges against her have been dropped.
Before his incarceration, Rep. Asselin was working as, what else, a lobbyist. Convicted of bribery, theft and mail fraud, hes at least as big a crook as his fellow lobbyists Felon Finneran or Good Time Charlie Flaherty - plus he actually did time. I think once he gets sprung from Club Fed, ex-Rep. Asselin should reopen his lobbying office, just like his fellow felon Finneran is doing.
And could there be . . . room for one more?
What a perfect fit: Petrolati & Asselin Global Strategies. Youse have made the right decision to use us. Stop me if youve heard this one before.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1086796
I really wish some big news would break — lately we’ve had an unbroken stream from Howie of details on the corrupt low-lifes that run this God-forsaken state! I can’t take much more . . .
Oh man. Howie is a great writer.
Monday ping
Convicted Pedophile and alleged cannibal Nathaniel Bar-Jonah
will not be down for breakfast
http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view.bg?articleid=1086901
>>DEER LODGE, Mont. - Convicted sex offender Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, who authorities accused of killing and cannibalizing a young boy in Great Falls, was found dead in his cell early Sunday at the Montana State Prison.
The former Massachusetts resident was serving a 130-year sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and choking a teenage neighbor boy.
In 2000, authorities also charged Bar-Jonah with murder in the 1996 disappearance of 10-year-old Zach Ramsay. Authorities said they had evidence suggesting Bar-Jonah had butchered the boy and disposed of his body in meals served to neighbors.
They were later forced to dismiss the murder charge after Ramsays mother said she would testify she believed her son was still alive.
Sunday morning, shortly after shift change at 6 a.m., Bar-Jonah was found unresponsive in his cell, prison spokeswoman Linda Moodry said.
“Emergency medical response was initiated and he was transported to Powell County Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:06 a.m.,” Moodry said in a written statement.
Moodry said the cause of death is unknown at this time. She added that Bar Jonah had been in poor health recently and said an autopsy will be performed by the state medical examiner to determine cause of death.
Take the case of Carlos Enrique Lugo, also known as Albert Varga, who was charged with heroin trafficking on the North Shore. If convicted, he faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.
A judge ordered him held on $50,000 bail, and he sat in Middleton Jail for several months.
Then, last November, a Dorchester woman walked into the jail with a bag of cash and posted Lugo’s bail even though Lugo was also wanted by immigration authorities for being in the country illegally, and would immediately be turned over to them. ...
A week after Lugo was sent back to the Dominican Republic, the woman who posted his bail showed up at Salem Superior Court looking for the $50,000 she had posted.
And she got it back because even though by posting bail she had made a legal promise to ensure that Lugo would make all court appearances, the bail law allows someone to get his or her money back if a person cannot appear in court due to an act of God or the government.
Prosecutors believe the money may not have belonged to the woman, who is listed in court papers as a telemarketer, and that it will simply be used to help Lugo re-enter the country under a new identity.
video (via this page): Outside his State House Office, state Rep. Thomas Petrolati (D-Ludlow) ducks a Herald reporter’s questions about campaign donations made to him by several felons, including convicted mobster Frank Colantoni.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/politics/view.bg?articleid=1086418
So he was 51.
Must have been something he ate...
I think El Globo gave his age. btw the Globe also had a cool
ad by Jim Ogonowski (R), who’s running against Kerry in MA,
congratulating Kerry on the 9th anniversary of when he
last sponsored a meaningful bill. They encourage people
to send the ad, congratulating Kerry on his ineffectiveness,
to Kerry campaign HQ! And this was in the Globe!!
Web version!
https://www.jimogonowski.com/splash
Tue ping
Longface figures he’ll sponsor a bill once a decade, just for good measure.
It’s high time (no pun intended) for mandatory “dug” testing of Congress.
Back around 2004, there was a caller that said he or she called up Kerry’s office on something or another, and the response was “What ever Sen. Kennedy’s position is....is Sen. Kerry’s.”
Speaking of the "Glob" -- Taranto yesterday linked to a Globe editorial that actually made sense, on ethanol: Can't eat ethanol. I guess the Globe is losing its grip . . . or getting one!
The producers there must have been smoking something before they booked him.
Either that, or complaints about their overt, over-the-top biases must be having an effect.
Beginning of a trend? :)
Wed column ping
Tell tax-happy pols to keep mitts off your income
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, April 16, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Mailed my state income taxes Monday. Stood in line at the post office. Thought about writing that check the night before, and all the layabouts who would be getting the money.
Thought about who was responsible for the fact that instead of 5 percent, its 5.3 percent - a certain bald-headed, talentless fork-tongued little corrupt felon-lobbyist who should be doing a five-year stretch in prison, if only Judge Stearns had given him the same deal hes going to give Cadillac Frank Salemme.
God, I cant wait for Nov. 4, when I get my chance to vote to abolish the state income tax.
Its going to be on the ballot in the fall. Could you use a 5.3 percent pay increase, or would you prefer that the money go to the children - the Bulger children?
Oh sure, the hacks will refuse to implement the peoples will. So let em. Let em thumb their noses at the public and keep the income tax after we vote to get rid of it. Maybe this time their arrogance will wake up the sheeple of Massachusetts.
The people who are pushing the income-tax repeal already are anticipating the 30-second TV scare spots that the pinky-ring boys in the public-sector unions will be paying millions for in October. The state income tax provides 39 percent of Massachusetts revenue. If its abolished, the state will still have $17 billion a year left in revenues - as much as the entire state budget was in 1995.
Have state services improved since 1995?
Here, according to Small Government News, is a partial list of state taxes that still will exist after you vote yourself a 5.3 percent pay increase Nov. 4:
A 5 percent sales tax, estate taxes, gasoline taxes (sure to be going up soon!), booze taxes, cigarette taxes, fishing and hunting licenses, water and sewer assessments, Registry of Motor Vehicles fees, and various assorted other taxes on cable TV, electricity, the Internet, long-distance telephone services, professional licenses, hotel occupancy and gambling.
Then throw in lawsuit settlements (including suits against Big Tobacco, which makes less profit on a pack of smokes than the state does), investment earnings (billions in retirement funds) and federal grants.
And this doesnt even include the local taxes - property, auto excise, room taxes, building permits, dog licenses, etc.
Last Thursday night, the House got this years tax-hiking frenzy under way. The leadership rolled out a Worcester rep/reprobate named John Spuds Binienda to shed a few crocodile tears about the need to soak the working classes yet again.
Its never easy, Spuds said, according to the State House News Service, to ask the people we represent to pay more.
But its a bit easier, I suppose, if you know that a lot of the extra dough to be extracted from your constitutents wallets will not only go to pay the reps own $65,737.10-a-year salary, but also his son Jamies take of $90,835.50 a year (with overtime) as a special investigator with the ABCC.
Granted, the Republicans at the State House are totally powerless. But on the issue of taxes, they do understand what people are thinking. Heres Rep. Lew Evangelides, (R-Holden):
When I go around my district, everybodys asking, are you guys going to raise my taxes again? Theyre thinking about the income tax, the gas tax . . . You start with the taxes you think you can get away with. You pick on the cigarette smokers. That wont cost us any votes.
Not until November, anyway.
What we are establishing here, said Rep. Bob Hargraves (R-Groton) is a breeding ground for a vote in November, a vote to eliminate the income tax.
Im keeping my fingers crossed, how about you?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1087426
I didn't know they made that much . . . :(
I heard Carla Howell on the show yesterday, and I definitely wish her luck (didn't it get almost 50% of the vote last time?) -- maybe next time she can get up a referendum to eliminate the legislature! :)
Actually, I did hear a news bit on the radio that businesses are protesting the higher business taxes. I wish the businesses (not the big ones who have the legislature in their pockets) could get together and scare up some candidates and assure that no seat would go uncontested in the next election -- they could run sort of state-wide, on the model of Gingrich's Contract with America. The uncontested rate in this state is a disgrace.
Jess Cain has just been chosen for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame (based in Chicago). Jerry Williams was inducted in the 90s.
AND...
There are some various other awards to be given out by the Radio Hall of Fame and one category is "Local or Regional--Active". Among the nominees?
>>Howie Carr, outspoken, conservative commentator, he has been on the air for almost two decades in the Northeast U.S., currently on WRKO/Boston.
Details here >>The national online balloting will begin on May 1st and ends at midnight on July 15th.
Voting is free and open to the public as well as major radio industry leaders, however, an online registration will be required. Please visit Radio Hall of Fame to learn more.
[Nathaniel Bar-Jonah. AKA David Paul Brown. Born: 15-Feb - 1957 Birthplace: Worcester, MA.]
I didn’t know that had happened over in Deer Lodge until I saw it on this thread. (I live a couple hundred miles from there.)
So, do you want him back? We’ve got lots of ground in Montana, but I’m not sure I want to pay to bury that sh** here.
Hope Howie gets it.
He’s a radio staple around here.
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