Howie Carr thread week of June 5, 2010

Special Sat column ping

Dems have new hack hero
By Howie Carr | Saturday, June 5, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Is it too late for the state Democratic party to schedule a video tribute this morning at their convention in Worcester to John Buonomo, the former reprobate register of probate in Middlesex County?

Joe DeNucci, the retiring state auditor, had his video moment last evening. But let’s face it, what are his accomplishments compared to those of Buonomo’s - caught on state police videotape stealing thousands of dollars from the copying machines at the Registry of Deeds in the courthouse at East Cambridge.

The man, the legend, the career coatholder and hack is currently doing a bit at the Billerica House of Correction. But now he gets his pension back. Age 58, a $38,700 annual pension. Felony conviction, where is thy sting?

Buonomo fought the law and, well, at least he keeps his kiss in the mail. Ed Kelly of Local 718 salutes him with a Bud, or maybe five. Across the cellblock, Buonomo’s fellow jailbird, ex-Sen. Tony Galluccio, yells, “I am not worthy.”

Somerville is proud of its sticky-fingered native son! You know what they say about the math classes in the All-American City. They teach you how to add, but never how to divide.

The decision to restore Buonomo’s pension, however temporary it may turn out to be, was rendered by Judge James H. McGuinness of the Lowell District Court. There used to be a slogan for a famous imported beer, Guinness is good for you. And McGuinness is good for Buonomo, and all hacks everywhere.

Buonomo used to sneak downstairs after-hours at the courthouse to loot the copying machines at the Registry of Deeds, which is presided over by Buonomo’s fellow Somerville payroll patriot, Eugene Brune.

However, as Judge McGuinness noted, “Coinage and currency taken could not be considered public funds . . . or the property of the Commonwealth. RICOH, the company that owned the machines, also owned their cash contents.”

Even though he was collecting more than $100,000 a year as register, Buonomo had also retired from the city of Somerville at age 48, and thus was double dipping. And that, according to this interpretation of state law, is what saves his pension. Greed pays, big time.

See, the judge is ruling that Buonomo wasn’t stealing from the people who were giving him his pension, he was stealing from somebody else. Wow! What a precedent. Is Jackie Bulger taking notes? Not to mention, Sal DiMasi, the ex-House speaker, accused of looting $57,000.

Speaking of Sal, by an amazing coincidence, would you care to guess which crooked future speaker Judge McGuinness contributed to before he was appointed by Gov. William Weld in 1996?

Yes, friends, you would be correct. Sal DiMasi.

Not only did McGuinness give money to Sal DiMasi, he also gave dough to Tom Concannon, the former mayor of Newton, who Buonomo defeated for the job of reprobate register of probate.

Democrats, raise a toast this morning in Worcester to the hack of the year, maybe the decade. McGuinness is good for you.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1259438

Sunday column ping

Deval Patrick: I stand before you to get behind you
By Howie Carr | Sunday, June 6, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com

Here is the speech Gov. Deval Patrick could have delivered yesterday to the payroll patriots at the state Democratic convention in Worcester:

“My fellow hacks, let me begin by quoting a line from one of my favorite films, ‘Blazing Saddles,’ which perfectly sums up what this campaign is all about.

‘We have to protect our phony baloney jobs here, gentlemen.’

And not just our phony baloney jobs, but those of our worthless kinsmen and pals. It’s for the children - our children - that they, too, might one day have toll booths and fare boxes to steal from, like their jailbird forefathers before them.

We may have our differences, you and I, but remember one thing: As governor, I am the only person standing between you and the Dreaded Private Sector, as if any of you slugs in the Probation Department or the DCR could find, let alone keep, a real job, the kind where you don’t get Bunker Hill Day off.

Think about all we’ve accomplished together: sales tax up 25 percent, new drapes in the Corner Office, casinos on the way. Auntie Zeituni on the dole. A $1.35 million book contract for me. And don’t forget our ethics reform - not a single member of the Legislature has been convicted of a felony in the last 48 hours.

Vicki Kennedy is here today. We cherish the memory of her late husband, which is costing us at least $58 million in federal pork, and I urge everyone to read his biography, or should I say hagiography, “Last Lion,” now available at fine remainder tables everywhere.

Let us recall, too, the other fallen heroes of the hackerama, laid low by surveillance video, bad ice cubes or simple hubris. Finneran, DiMasi, Galluccio, Marzilli, Dianne Wilkerson - and pay no attention to that robo-call I made for her in 2008.

And a very special shoutout today to John Buonomo, an inspiration to us all. Forget Beacon Hill, let’s hear it today for Winter Hill.

This is an exciting moment . . . well, OK, it’s actually pretty dreary, spending a weekend in Worcester, unless maybe you’re Guy Glodis. Speaking of which, we’re with the sheriff. It’s how we modern Democrats celebrate diversity, by allowing a white male or two from Massachusetts on the statewide ticket. I need Suzanne Bump about as much as I needed Susan Goldberg in ’06.

I can’t come right and say it, but I’m with Steve Murphy, too. Number one, if he wins, I get another one of my homeboys, Tito Jackson, onto the City Council. Plus, I’m not sure Steve Grossman can beat Polito. He’s one of those guys who if he gave a fireside chat, the fire would go out.

Have any of you been reading the national polls? At the risk of jinxing myself, I’m one of the few Democrat incumbents anywhere who’s ahead, and I may be the only one who’s up by double digits. As you leave the hall this afternoon, if you see Tim Cahill out on the sidewalk with a megaphone pretending to attack me, be sure to shake his hand, wink, and tell him how grateful we all are. Our plan is working perfectly.

And thanks, too, to Charlie Baker, for resurrecting the same all-star GOP brain trust that ran such a stellar campaign for Muffy Healey against us four years ago.

Now, I’m headed out to my mansion in Richmond. I’ll be writing my book this weekend, and if you believe that one, you probably think I’m still working on that property tax cut I promised the suckers four years ago.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1259602

Wed column ping

Marine can help make sure unions sink this fall
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Charlie Baker, do you have the phone number of USMC Maj. Stephen L. Godin (ret.)?

One of the big issues in this campaign for governor is going to be the outrageous power of the public-sector unions, and what better example do you need than a Marine officer who the teachers union in Worcester wants fired because he won’t pay $500 in union dues?

His feeling is, he gets all of his benefits and half of his salary from the military. In other words, what has the union done for him?

Do you get the feeling that somehow this problem is exacerbated more than somewhat by the fact that Godin is the senior naval science instructor at the Naval Junior ROTC unit at North High School?

Do you think the union would be after Godin if he were, say, an illegal alien? Or gay? Or best of all, a gay illegal alien?

Maj. Godin, a former pilot, is this week’s poster boy for the abuses of the state’s out-of-control public-sector unions. This is all unfolding in the city of Worcester, where the paper yesterday reported that a policeman remains on the public payroll for $73,000 a year despite writing an ex-girlfriend that he has dreamed of murdering her.

Can’t get rid of that guy, though. He pays his union dues.

Let’s face it, the leaders of the teachers unions don’t like the military, and it’s not just “don’t ask, don’t tell,” although that’s a very big part of the problem with this crowd. Remember years ago at Cambridge Rindge & Latin, where they wanted the military recruiters to put up giant posters “warning” the students that they might possibly be harmed if a war broke out and they were in the service.

In Boston, the cowering City Council votes today on whether to give the firefighters union a bonus for coming to work clean and sober.

The State Police get extra money for staying in shape. The hack toll takers on the Mass Pike get to ride for free, and get to go out on disability after they allegedly drop the cash drawers on their feet - and if you don’t like it, well, go fight the Teamsters.

In his early 40s, Whitey Bulger’s nephew finished his 23 years at the T and went to work on a second state pension at the Probation Department, where one of his brothers already was on the payroll for a six-figure salary.

Meanwhile, in the Dreaded Private Sector, the real un- and underemployment rate is 20 percent.

This is a two-tier society, split between those who are struggling to make ends meet in the DPS, and those who are living higher on the hog than ever before, and whose pinky-ring union bosses have the power to cast those who won’t toe the line out into the darkness, as they’re trying to do with the Marine in Worcester.

Some candidate needs to make an issue of Maj. Godin. I nominate Charlie Baker.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1260339

news on Jimmy Marzilli (who thinks with his willie)

Court says former Sen. James Marzilli can be prosecuted
By Laura Crimaldi | Wednesday, June 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics

The state’s highest court today ruled former state Sen. James Marzilli can be prosecuted for attempted indecent assault and battery.

In the ruling written by Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, the Supreme Judicial Court found while Marzilli reportedly did not touch the alleged victim, Middlesex County prosecutors have enough evidence to show he attempted to do so.

“The fortuity that the defendant failed in his attempt to complete a crime does not absolve him from responsibility for it,” Marshall wrote.

Marzilli, of Arlington, was indicted after he allegedly accosted several women on June 3, 2008 while attending a function in Lowell.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1260456

Special Thu column ping

St. Paul(i) grads get taste of the real world
By Howie Carr | Thursday, June 10, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

After all his decades of hot air, Sen. John “Liveshot” Kerry has finally delivered a speech that will be remembered down through the ages - at least at his $48,000-a-year prep school.

What did the windbag senior senator say - who knows, who cares? The only thing that matters is, last Sunday Liveshot delivered a pompous commencement address to his fellow alumni at St. Paul’s School in Concord N.H., about the “challenges” that they will face in the years ahead. Hours later, approximately half of his audience from the Class of ’10 were picked up by the local constabulary, for public intoxication or something like it.

Only a handful were up to the challenges posed by the Weare Police Department - those are the ones who ran into the woods and escaped. Scholarship kids would be my guess. The rest, well, not only were they lugged, but 30 of their parents’ Mercedes and BMW’s were towed to the nearest lots. The two hosts of the party, a pair of limousine liberals from the Harvard Medical School, were handcuffed.

This is what you call a feel-good story.

You know the cops were loving this. One way to tell is from their press release, about the roundup of dozens of the pampered offspring of the Beautiful People from “St. Paul’s High School.”

The St. Paul’s graduate nominally hosting the beer blast was Ariana Boyd, and her dad is Dr. J. Wesley Boyd, with both an M.D. and a Ph. D. from Harvard, which makes him “Dr. Dr.” Boyd. Mom is a pathologist at Harvard Medical School named Theonia Boyd, so she too must have an M.D.

“Kids in these situations,” Dr. Dr. Boyd told Ch. 7, “despite their best intentions, can’t be trusted to monitor themselves.”

Their best intentions? These were their best intentions - to get dozens of cases of beer into the backyard of the house in Weare where the party took place Sunday night. Some would argue, didn’t these overprivileged little trustafarian pukes owe it to themselves to have a wee small taste of the creature, after having to endure 30 or 40 minutes of John Forbes Kerry ’62 earlier in the day?

How dumb are Ariana’s parents? They have already played the race card, the one Skippy Gates never leaves home without. And they’re both white!

These cops, Dr. Dr. Boyd claimed, were making “derogatory comments” about the poor little rich kids from St. Paul’s who were stumbling around the front yard, legless.

“A red head,” sniffed Dr. Dr. Boyd, “was called Red.”

Oh my Gawd. Someone call the ACLU.

Hours earlier, Liveshot Kerry had told the thirsty graduates how he’d had to go to chapel or Mass nine times a week.

“So I was praying at least nine times a week. And I always prayed for the same thing that one day the school would actually allow me to meet a girl.”

Preferably an heiress worth at least several hundred million dollars. Gigolo John’s prayers were answered - twice. Otherwise, he would still be sleeping in his Dodge LeBaron convertible.

Now it turns out that Dr. Dr. Boyd writes for the Huffington Post. As a Beautiful Person, he has of course denounced American corporations for selling... fast food.

Question for Dr. Dr. Boyd: what kills more people in your daughter’s age group, Big Macs or 40-ounce malt liquors? Perhaps the National Institutes for Health would subsidize a monograph or two. And, by the way Dr. Doctor, condolences that your fellow Globe-reading blow-in Needham rich-kid Smulowitz got his butt kicked in the recent special state Senate election. Maybe there are still more of us out there than there are of you, college boy.

Cut to Dr. Theonia Boyd’s letter to the media: “My husband and I did not experience drinking at group parties in high school... therefore we had no red flag precedents to rely upon.”

Dr. Boyd and her husband Dr. Dr. Boyd will be back in Goffstown District Court next month. Verdict: guilty.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1260546

Fri column ping. btw Howie has been openly dropping the name of WXKS host Jeff Katz (who had filled in for Howie
before Clear Channel/WXKS hired him) on air and yesterday he got Charlie Baker to say “Oh yeah, he’s on Rush Radio”.
Free plug for competition! Who knows maybe post 2012
Howie may be working there? He’d like to...

The latest status symbol: Illegal alien
By Howie Carr | Friday, June 11, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

If I ever get in a jam, I ask no special favors.

Just treat me like an illegal alien. Please. Especially one from terror-infested Pakistan. Believe it or not, it’s even sweeter to be a Pakistani Illegal - excuse me, an undocumented worker - than a pregnant illiterate freeloader from Mexico.

Let us consider the cases of the Khan cousins from Pakistan. Their attorney is one Saher Macarius, who won’t return my phone calls.

First there’s Pir D. Khan, a 43-year-old illegal cabbie who on at least one Boston hackney license scrawled “illegal.” He illegally entered the country from Mexico. Even the impeccably PC Attorney General Eric Holder has said that Khan and his illegal-alien pals may have provided money transfers to would-be Times Square terror bomber Faisal Shazad.

In 1994, Pir claimed he had a wife and child in Pakistan. At the time he was seeking “political asylum.” This is also known as “doing the Auntie Zeituni,” because a successful plea enables the invader to immediately begin collecting welfare from the infidel dogs.

Pir D. Khan’s plea to go on the dole was rejected, but pending appeal he was allowed to stay in the land where everything is free, at least if you’re illegal. In December 2008, Khan got married to an American woman known as Rebecca May Barry.

This would have made him a bigamist, but not to worry. His lawyer now says that despite what Pir D. Kahn had claimed earlier, presumably under pains of perjury, he had never been legally married to the first woman, in Pakistan. And if that wasn’t enough, now she’s dead.

Khan’s American “bride” didn’t show up at his most recent immigration hearing. But his lawyer said she would suffer “extreme personal hardship” if her, ahem, husband, is sent back to the Third World hellhole from which he fled. At the time of his arrest, by the way, Pir Khan was living not with his “wife,” but with some other males in an apartment in Watertown, including his fellow illegal-alien cousin.

Do you begin to see how the immigration/welfare system works? An illegal alien’s case is never over . . . until the illegal alien wins. After which he goes on welfare, or more likely, continues on the dole. Like Auntie Zeituni.

Imagine if you - or any other U.S. citizen - had lied on an official document about a spouse. Can you say “perjury?” And if the feds had evidence tying you to an Islamic terrorist who was trying to blow up a theater full of American kids at a Saturday matinee of a Disney Broadway show in Times Square. How would the feds treat a “militiaman?”

Next we come to Pir’s cousin, Aftab Khan. This illegals visa expired Nov. 17 and the very next day, he married an American citizen at Cambridge City Hall. True love, obviously. She got him on the rebound, according to the feds, after another U.S. citizen declined his offer of $5,000 to marry him.

Oh sure, the G-men say this scheming foreigner had the Times Square bomber’s phone number on his cellphone, and yes, the number was also found on a piece of paper in Aftabs’ Watertown hideout. Gunga Din he wasnt. But Aftab Khan “denies the allegations.”

You got a problem with that? Then prepare to get a subpoena from the U.S. attorney’s new hate-crimes unit.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1260793

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