Posted on 12/04/2010 9:24:57 PM PST by raccoonradio
Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Herald column
Oh, the hack humanity!
By Howie Carr | Sunday, December 5, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Chuck “Superfly” Turner, the sticky-fingered felon just thrown off the Boston City Council, has a problem with white hacks.
Which is why I’m telling you, ’Fly, read no further into this column. It’ll make your head explode. See, Chuck thinks he’s the victim of a racist double standard, that the honkie hacks get away with stuffing their pockets, while he’s maybe going to the can for grabbing a crummy grand from The Man.
Chuck, a century ago a New York state senator named Plunkitt described the difference between what he called “honest graft” and “dishonest graft.”
On Thursday, the departing members of the state Senate said goodbye in one final narcissistic trough-feed, a salute to their careers-long pursuit of “honest graft.”
Let’s go straight to the tape. Sen. Steve Panagiotakos, the chairman of Ways and Means, was being introduced by another hack named Sen. Steve Baddour. Pangy had asked him “to say a few words. The more I thought about it, being married to a Greek girl from Lowell whose stepfather happens to be a Panagiotakos from Lowell, I thought it has more do with it.”
I never knew that! I mean, that Sen. Baddour’s wife was Greek and her stepfather is a Panagiotakos. That would be Barbara, and guess where she works — the Probation Department, of all places, for $34,517.40 a year.
Come on down, ancient Sen. Joanie (rhymes with Phony Baloney) Menard, age 74. “People,” she intoned, “forget the kinds of sacrifices our family has made.”
You mean like your daughter Jody Menard-Parece? Stuck making a mere $110,221 a year in the trial court. You can’t get much more selfless than that.
Sen. Richard Tisei, the defeated Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, wanted to thank his crew, especially “my chief of staff, who has been with me for 26 years. Cathy (Flewelling) had worked for somebody who got into a little bit of trouble.”
That would be, well, let’s not mention the solon’s name, since he beat the rap. Attempted extortion. Now his son works in the — yes, that’s right, the Probation Department, for $88,058.70 a year.
Sen. Michael Morrissey was first elected at age 22. Now he’s 56, and he hasn’t missed a single meal at the trough. As a senator he was making $82,170.09 a year, and now he becomes district attorney for $148,843. Plus for retirement purposes he is shifted into the Group 4 cop category. All told, Morrissey’s kiss in the mail should balloon by at least $50,000 a year.
“The desire to serve has never changed,” he said, with a straight face. “It really was a great education at age 22. I sat next to Barney Frank and Joe DeNucci.”
Insert your own joke here.
Next up was Sen. Marian Walsh of West Roxbury. Another pension hog, she futilely tried to upgrade from her $82,170-a-year solon’s pay to a $175,000 hack job that had gone unfilled for 12 years. See, in 2006 she was one of the first white pols in Boston to back Deval, and she wanted something in return. If they ever name a street after Marian — or Morrissey — it’ll have to be one way.
Maid Marian is married to Paul Buckley, a judge forced to retire at age 70. After a nationwide search, Mr. Maid Marian now makes $113,050 at the Division of Industrial Accidents.
“To my husband, I say as Winston Churchill said to the soldiers in battle, ‘Those who wait also serve.’ ”
Who knew Winston Churchill was a hack?
As all this vapid preening and schmoozing was taking place at the State House, a few blocks away, Superfly Turner was packing up his belongings at the City Hall office he inherited from David Scondras.
Chuck, that Tammany Hall senator made another wise statement that you might have considered: “I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.” That’s what all these hacks in the Senate did.
But you, Chuck, you seen the cash, and you took it. No pension for you, Superfly.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1300888
Hoe come so few folks in Massachusetts are ashamed of these crooks?
Because most people here are dems and they are benefiting one way or another from these crooks.
Wed column thread
Black-and-white case to dismantle Probation
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, December 8, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Please, try not to let what you’re about to read destroy your faith in the integrity, not to mention the sobriety and racial tolerance, of the Mass. Probation Department.
Come on down Dave Engren, who until his recent suspension was making $65,039.90 a year as a probation officer in Brockton District Court. He appears to have gotten his job the old-fashioned way — a nationwide search after he and at least one other family member gave some money to an obscure back-bench solon, Rep. James Murphy of Weymouth.
Now Engren is charged with committing a racially motivated assault outside a bar in Weymouth. Did you hear me, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz — racially motivated?
According to a Weymouth police report, Engren ingested a bad ice cube on the evening of July 3. Outside the Main Street Bar and Grille, a black guy and his white girlfriend, the daughter of a local politician, were hanging out. A fight broke out. Let’s go right to the Weymouth PD report:
“ ‘Dave’ and ‘Jimmy’ were talking and they (the interracial couple) heard Dave use the (n) word. ‘Dave’ called her a (n-word) and then stated to her, ‘That’s what your (n-word) boyfriend gets for trying to punch me.’ Note that (name redacted) is a white female and that she further stated that (her black boyfriend) never tried to punch Dave.”
Engren does not appear to have a listed number. His lawyer, Dan O’Malley, said his client didn’t hit anyone “and David Engren also denies ever using the n-word. If you read the police report, you’ll see that the victim, who is black, is also quoted as using the n-word.”
The Weymouth cops later sought out Engren at his home in South Weymouth and talked to his wife. I’m assuming this is the woman who gave $2,000 to Rep. Murphy over the past few years. Rep. Murphy did not return repeated calls to the State House yesterday about his relationship with the Engrens.
Engren later called the Weymouth cop. Let’s return to the WPD narrative of that call:
“He then explained to me that he worked in the probation department in Brockton and didn’t want to get in any trouble . . . ENGREN insisted that he was extremely drunk and didn’t remember anything else . . . I told him that it was pretty clear to me that he was not telling me the truth and that I didn’t believe his story. He then again stated that he did not remember anything else.”
The black guy ended up with a broken nose and a fractured eye socket.
This incident occurred July 3. Engren was not suspended without pay until Oct. 27.
Carmen Ortiz, do I have to draw you a diagram? Put this hackerama out of business once and for all. As for you, Rep. Murphy, I’m still waiting for a return call about your loyal campaign contributor, Dave Engren.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1301641
We did have a winner in the death pool as someone had Elizabeth Edwards (Dave from 781) death pool will be on FRIDAY
Nobody had Leslie Nielsen
Howie won’t be on tomorrow—wife going to see Dr. Margolis
Herald: WXKS Rush Radio 1200 has been getting crappy ratings. Also, WRKO is now running Red Eye with Doug McIntyre all week long, no more Howie reruns 1-5 am overnights.
Re: WXKS—they’re trying to build a following. Hannity has
rough competition—Howie and Severin—but even el Rushbo
has been “flat”. If anything Clear Channel is getting some
ads/shows “cleared” in Boston, and they probably make enough money on their FM signals (Jamn 94.5, Kiss 108) to subsidize
the conservative talk
There’s been no rush to Rush Radio, acc to Herald; and...WRKO is now running Red Eye Radio
5 nights a wk (at least), no more Howie reruns
Interesting doings on the airwaves.
I like XKS - there’s something for everyone without overdosing on a particular area like RKO does - all weekend on RKO there’s nothing but financial stuff - IIRC there’s a mortgage show where the people just hoot and holler about mortgage rates - then there’s that God awful bill kelly, Sunday morning has that horrible gardening show - and they finally figured out that too much of Howie is not a good thing!
Clear Channel gave prog. talk 2 yrs and 2 months (Oct 04 till Dec 06) on 1200. They will prob stay with cons. talk for at least that long (but who knows), especially since the shows they’re airing are from their own Premiere syndication company. They want to “clear” the ads and shows. It may catch on better as time goes by.
And again Hannity has Howie and Severin for competition. As for elRushbo hopefully he’ll pick up higher ratings.
Avi in today for Howie
See link above for article about Rush Radio ratings.
It’s possible when Howie’s Entercom contract expires in late 2012, Clear Channel could sign him for WXKS and also put him on their stations in Worc (580), Manch NH (610), and Prov.
(920). The Worc station is also on FM (94.1)
Again this is an IF at this point.
http://www.wtag.com/main.html
(WTAG is also on 94.1)
http://www.wgiram.com/main.html
Howie’s back for Fri’s show incl. death pool
Fri column ping
Hacks on war path in Probation scandal
By Howie Carr | Friday, December 10, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
This Probation scandal is looking more and more like a hack version of a gang war. What starts with a minor affront — one mob, the Legislature, not paying enough respect (i.e. jobs) to a rival crew, the judiciary — quickly spirals out of control.
Now, every morning another payroll patriot or two is dropped in a hail of headlines. Yesterday, it was the governor, the day before, a top judge.
The city’s various hacked-up crews, outfits and families all had a beautiful racket going — Probation. Everybody had a piece of the action. Everybody’s drunken nephew got a lifetime, no-heavy-lifting sinecure. But as always, the lowlifes got greedy. Nobody wanted to whack up the pot no more.
And now we have the biggest hack shootout in years.
Consider the case of Mary- Ellen Manning, a governor’s councilor, a nominal Democrat but a real thorn in the side of both the governor and the judiciary.
A week ago, Mary-Ellen Manning broke all the rules of the hackerama. At a council hearing, Margaret Marshall, the outgoing chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, the mama of gay marriage, was testifying under oath.
So Mary-Ellen hit St. Margaret of Marshall with a stream of embarrassing questions. Such as, how come the SJC justices get to collect fat state pensions, but don’t have to pay a dime into the system?
It was only a matter of time until somebody put a rocket in her pocket.
Now, in a gang war, you need hit men. The black-robe mob farms out its wet work to an effete band of carpetbaggers known as the Globe. A couple of days ago, Manning gets a call from the Globe asking her whether she made a call in 2005 on behalf of her brother, who is now a probation officer.
Yes, she said, she called John O’Brien, the now-suspended probation commissioner. O’Brien was the street boss of Felon Finneran’s legislative crew. He was the kingpin of Probation, although he always made sure to cut the Deval, Cahill and black-robe gangs in on every score.
Manning says she was just trying to make sure it wasn’t held against her brother that she is an “independent,” unaffiliated with any of the local political wiseguys. Should she have made the call? Of course not. But the larger question remains, who exactly handed the Globe this huge list of Probation hacks and their “sponsors”?
Wasn’t that “sponsor list” impounded? Wouldn’t releasing it to anyone be illegal, although as Marsha Coakley says, “Technically, it is not illegal to be illegal in Massachusetts.”
But isn’t it odd that one of the first pols to get outed as being on the Probation sponsor list is somebody who had just embarrassed the godmother of the black-robe crew just a week earlier?
When will the Globe’s next “scoop” appear, and why do I have this feeling that most of those who are going to be clipped will be, oh I don’t know, conservative, or Catholic and or born in Massachusetts?
It’s not O’Brien who’s leaked the sponsor list. Man, I wish he could get back into his padlocked office for a couple of hours. But it appears all he took with him were those 100 thank-you notes from assorted hacks.
So O’Brien, do I have to paint you a picture? They’re fitting you for cement shoes, you’re “embattled” — start leaking those thank-you notes, two a day.
Let’s just hope the hacks keep whacking one another out as they nervously await the subpoenas from the grand jury. You know, even more than a gang war, this is like the Iran-Iraq war.
Isn’t there some way they can all lose?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1302163
Howie and a caller were picking “Henry Morgan” for the death pool. I think they meant HARRY Morgan (MASH , Pete and Gladys)! Henry Morgan hasn’t been down for bkfst for awhile I think
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