Howie Carr live thread Week of May 18, 2008

http://www.howiecarr.com ^ | 05/18/08 | raccoonradio

[raccoonradio]

In another thread I recalled how one candidate was so sure
that Kerry was gonna win in ‘04 that his people let it be known that the following Sat., there would be a press conference to announce his candidacy for Kerry’s seat. I
thought it was Steve Lynch.

Howie just mentioned it (and said it would have taken
place at the IBEW hall); yup, was Steve Lynch. As I said in
the other post, the press conference was...cancelled...
shortly thereafter.

[maryz]

Weren't there five or six salivating at the starting line for it? Meehan was, I think, and several others.

Howie mentioned today that even the Globe has noticed MA is losing population (wonder how big a congressional delegation we'll have after the next census). Heard today on Fox 25, they're debating where to add tolls -- Zakim Bridge is one possibility (note: not whether -- where!). The famed MA health insurance initiative has won national notice! Here's the WSJ piece Howie mentioned: The New Big Dig.

I'd resort to that old quip, "Last one out, please turn out the lights," but given MA's historical sluggishness paying its bills and its dim financial future, I guess the utility companies will take care of that!

[raccoonradio]

Thu column (a day later than usual) & show ping

Pike commuters don’t need equity, just reparations
By Howie Carr | Thursday, May 22, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com

Memo to the Turnpike Authority’s Toll Equity Working Group:

Those of us who commute on the Pike don’t want “toll equity,” we want reparations. How many times do you tax-fattened hyenas have to hear this - the tolls were supposed to come down after the original bonds were paid off, sometime around 1985.

Guess what? The sun never set on the sun-setted tolls. The hacks decided to “earmark” the toll money, for themselves.

At the State House, they are just itching to pull the trigger on more toll hikes, and more toll booths, and what comes in their wake, which is more toll-takers. Why else would they keep floating these ridiculous trial balloons, only to shoot them down, sort of, later in the day?

In case you didn’t hear the most recent non-denial denial, it’s not that tolls on I-93 are off the table. They’re off the table “at this point.”

So Monday the Pike releases its “37 options” for dealing with the so-called toll equity issue - the fact that some drivers are paying billions for other drivers who pay nothing. As for some of these 37 suggestions - you hacks were kidding, right?

This is on page one, under the chapter heading “MassPike Commuters Believe That Not All Commmuters (sic) Are Paying Their Fair Share of Tolls.”

So Option 3 concerns the West Newton exits, Exit 16, where the toll booths were taken down by then-Gov. Bill Weld during the 1996 Senate race. It’s one of the very few breaks the MetroWest crowd gets - you cut through Newton on Route 16 and you can save the $1.25 you’d otherwise pay at the Weston tolls.

The Turnpike’s suggested “solution”: “Reinstate Int. 16 toll.”

So to deal with the problem of MetroWest commuters getting hammered, the solution would be to make them pay even more.

Next, we have another thorny issue (at least to the Pike’s payroll Charlies): On the western part of the Turnpike, “commuters pay nothing for CA/T (the Big Dig).”

There’s a reason for that, of course. People in the 413 area code don’t use the Big Dig. Studies have been done showing that only 8 percent of the MetroWest commuters use those leaky, God-forsaken tunnels on a regular basis, so you can imagine what the number is in the Golden West. Maybe .08 percent. Again, the equity solution - beggar more of the drivers who aren’t even using the rotten road that’s eating up all the money.

Here’s another bulletin from the Toll Equity Working Group: “Many People Have Observed that MHS (Mass. Highway System) Tolls are Being Diverted Off of the Turnpike.”

And here is their solution to this plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face information: “Explain CA/T funding that MassPike only paid 12 percent of total CA/T cost.”

Only 12 percent! That might be a good argument, if the Big Dig only cost, say, a hundred bucks. But it cost $16 billion - so far. So 12 percent is $2 billion.

No, the 37 options aren’t really getting the “toll equity” job done. Last I checked, “equity” more or less means “equality.” So here’s the deal, either you take them ALL down or you build them for everybody. Of course, the hacks could just increase the gas tax, but that would leave all those toll collectors with no jobs. That ain’t gonna happen.

Which is why I demand reparations. If you stipulate all the boilerplate in the 37 options, it becomes clear that everyone who drives the Pike has been robbed over the past two decades or so, since the original bonds were paid off. We’re not talking about something that happened hundreds of years ago to our ancestors. I just got robbed of $1.25 a couple of hours ago, in Allston. Put it on my tab.

Toll Equity indeed. Repeat after me, Mass Pike commuters: No justice, no peace!
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1095642

[maryz]

It’s only a matter of time (or state budget, I guess) before they figure out how to charge tolls for pedestrians — think of all the hack jobs that could generate! ;-)

[Calvin Locke]

Barry Nolin?

He crossed the line at passing stuff out at the dinner...so yes, he should be out.

[raccoonradio]

Friday column ping AND show ping. Howie does the show today from Burlington, VT (Sheraton). Featuring the $10 "Cheap Bastard" Buffet.

Welcome to Burlington, HC!

Howie Carr is Coming to Burlington!Howie Carr will be broadcasting live from the Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center on Williston Road 3-7Pm near Tuckaways and G’s Restaurant May 23rd. There is no charge, it's free to come and see! Watch Howie and enjoy a specially priced cheap bastard’s buffet. Howie will also have copies available of his best selling book on Whitey Bulger. It's his first ever appearance in Burlington.

Bail deal could be Cheeseman’s last ‘Straw’ By Howie Carr | Friday, May 23, 2008 |
http://www.bostonherald.com

You’re Carmen DiNunzio, the Cheeseman, the indicted, super-sized reputed underboss of the New England Mafia, and you know what really gets your goat?

Marinara sauce! You bleepin’ dribble some down your chin onto your beautiful XXXXL blue sweatshirt, and damn - hey, Ma, ask Lois if she’s doin’ another load tonight.

You’re the Cheeseman, and what kind of bail deal is this here, when you can go home to East Boston but not over to Fresh Cheese, on account of the easy access to LCN members, as Judge Magistrate Dein calls all those half-assed wiseguys in the North End.

Hey, Judge Dein, not for nothing, but there ain’t no Mafia. That’s what they told us to say at the initiation right after they pricked our fingers and burned the Mass cards.

The worst thing about this pinch is all that personal information the feds put in, like how you’re unmarried.

Now the papers are calling you a bachelor, which will eventually become confirmed bachelor, and you ain’t no college boy, but you know what they’re getting at, and it just ain’t true.

You’re 50 years old - in the old days, that would have made you a Mafia elder statesman. Now, you’re the kid.

You know what Peter Limone says about all the geezer gangsters - 80 is the new 70.

Speaking of which, you still haven’t seen that list of the guys the feds say you ain’t supposed to be associating with, so what happens if you suddenly hear the dulcet strains of “Turkey in the Straw,” and you run to the window and see a Mr. Frosty Ice Cream truck outside, and you waddle down the stairs for a triple hot fudge sundae with extra whip cream and jimmies, and it turns out Peter Limone is the driver?

You’re the Cheeseman, and you once read about an old-time gangster named Dutch Schultz, whose real name was Arthur Flegenheimer, and how Dutch always said he regretted not keeping his real name, because it was too long to fit in the tabloid headlines.

Hey, Dutch, it coulda been worse - you could have had a short nickname and weighed 400 pounds.

You think it’s funny for Ma to read all them joke headlines: “Judge Cuts Cheese Loose.” Or, “Judge Weighs Cheese Decision.”

But you gotta tell your sister to stop yelling at them Herald photographers lurking outside the house. That’s just making it worse. It’s not like they’re calling your niece the Little Cheese.

You’re a goodfella, not a dumbfella - and you’d like to thank all-a-youse at the Globe for not running that headline with the D-word.

You’re the Cheeseman, and they want how much for imported asiago?

And how come the feds were busting your chops there Wednesday, keeping you up there in the probation office for three hours, and finally your mouthpiece, Tony Cardinale, takes you out the front door of the courthouse, where the cameras are waiting for you.

They wanted you to pull a Lindsay Lohan and show off your new ankle bracelet, but dammit, you’ve got some pride.

Your co-defendant, Anthony D’Amore, he had the right idea after they released him - out the back door and see ya later.

You’re the Cheeseman, under house arrest, and - wait, off in the distance, is that music you hear? Could it be “Turkey in the Straw”?

Hey, Ma, run out and tell Mr. Frosty to park on this side of the street, in front of the house. If I stay on the sidewalk, maybe the ankle-bracelet monitor won’t go off.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1095835

[raccoonradio]

Sheraton Burlington

[Lancey Howard]

I love it when Howie writes this way!
BUMP

(”Turkey in the Straw”, lol!)

[Disturbin]

Wow, speculating that the Cheeseman is a confirmed batchelor? Taking over for Whitey in that regard?

[UGH UGH]

Looks like the Jons will be making house calls now that the Cheeseman is on house arrest.

[Disturbin]

“how long will it be before he gets a slot for Wolf on RKO????”

He’d do best on mid-mornings ... right after the felon, and on opposite the other felon on WPRO.

[raccoonradio]

Surely the Dems wouldn’t be arrogant enough to suggest changing the law again and making it poss. for a (Dem) gov
to appoint a senator? Yup, you guessed it...

>>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2020145/posts

Notice it appeared in Gloucester Daily Times. Cape Ann
folk duo Daisy Nell & Capt Stan have a nice little ditty about that paper:

Who’s got the nose for news, boys, gotta put down your
five thin dimes
Talk is cheap, you gotta read it and weep,
You gotta read it in the G.D. Times...