Howie Carr thread week of June 19, 2011

howiecarr.com ^ | 6/19/11 | raccoonradio

[raccoonradio]

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column

[raccoonradio]

Sunday column thread

Good Time era still rolling
By Howie Carr | Sunday, June 19, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo

Remember this photograph from 1996 — the House Democrats massed on the State House stairs in a brazen display of support for the first of the three (so far) felonious speakers, Good Time Charlie Flaherty?

See, Charlie was framed. One of his coatholders publicly compared his conviction to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The feds actually expected him to pay his taxes — imagine the nerve of those G-men!

Fifteen years and two more convicted speakers later, the hacks still don’t get it.

The same Alibi Ikes who worshiped Good Time Charlie now make lame excuses for Shakedown Sal DiMasi. The jury pool was “tainted.” People hate you if you’re a rep, just because you make big money for doing nothing and get per diems of up to $110 a day for driving to work.

The payroll patriots whisper to one another, why do you think the jury let Richard Vitale go? Because he’s in the Dreaded Private Sector, not like Sal and Dickie McDonough the lobbyist.

Shakedown Sal will appeal his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, the hacks assure one another. At least one of the charges will be thrown out. So what if he was convicted on seven counts — Sal can keep appealing till he’s dead. What’s he care? Sal ain’t paying for his lawyers, the taxpayers are.

The hacks haven’t been this angry since the pervert Sen. Marzilli got jail time. Don’t they understand, he had a disease? Ditto, Sen. Galluccio.

It never ends. The same week Shakedown Sal took his fall, state Rep. Mark Cusack of Braintree got a pass from the latest speaker, Bobby DeLeo of Winthrop, who happens to be a high school classmate of yet another of the crooked speakers, Felon Finneran.

Cusack is Good People, you understand. Twenty-six years old, never had a real job. Lived in his mom’s basement until very recently.

He’d been discovered on the House rostrum with a young female aide at 4 a.m. When he was confronted by a court officer, he wasn’t quick enough to say, “Do you know who I am?” Instead he gave another rep’s name — just like Marzilli did when he was lugged by the Lowell cops.

In his campaign last year, Cusack vowed, “I will not duck and cover.” Now he ducks and covers.

If anything, the Legislature has gotten worse in the 15 years since the photograph on the stairs. In 2000, the sheeple got drunk and began chanting “Toga! Toga!” One member who fell asleep, shall we say, had his legs shaved. It was like pledge week, in college.

This recent Cusack incident involved sneaking beers in other people’s offices after the so-called leadership had gone home. In other words, the House is now like high school, with “the kids” sneaking around with their cases of beer from one unoccupied house to the next.

They’ll never learn. But it doesn’t matter, as the voters don’t either.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1346461

[M-cubed]

Damn u Howie.......some rails u cant touch...even in Mass$$*#@(!

[Former War Criminal]

Not one of Howie’s better efforts, IMO.

But then again, the truth hurts.

[AlexSmyth]

Please….

I worked at ESPN in the late nineties . It was NOT uncommon to see employee’s with Che Guevara posters in their cubes.

[Calvin Locke]

Fireworks. Might I suggest tracking down an mp3 of one of Jean
Shepherd's 4th of July readings of his short story Ludlow
Kissel and the Dago Bomb that Struck Back.

[raccoonradio]

I’ve got 3 collections of his works but that one isn’t in them, I think, but years ago a friend brought over a videotape of a special called the Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters.

Some of his stuff turns up on YouTube (Shep’s piece about beer from J. Shepherd’s America, for example)

I have
—4 albums by Shep (dubbed on audiocass.)
—DVDs of A Christmas Story and My Summer Story (”sequel”)
—Books: bio of Shep by Eugene Bergmann, A Christmas Story,
Wanda Hickey, Fistful of Fig Newtons

[raccoonradio]

Special Tue column ping

TOWHEADED MONSTER: This photo of Whitey Bulger, second from left, shows the gangster in the early 1940s in Southie.

Young Whitey Bulger caught ... on camera
By Howie Carr | Tuesday, June 21, 2011 |
http://www.bostonherald.com

No, this photo is not an early publicity shot of the Bowery Boys, with their little sister in the front row.

That blond kid, second from the left — that’s the young Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger, in what is the earliest known photo of the future serial-killing gangster to be made public.

Think of it as the portrait of the underworld boss as a young boy.

The photo was obtained by the Herald from a woman in North Attleboro who was left the picture by the little girl in the front after her death. I traded a copy of my new book, “Hitman,” for the snapshot.

In the photo, Whitey appears to be about 12 years old, which means the photo was probably taken sometime in the early 1940s. (Whitey was born in 1929, and will turn 82 in September.)

Check out the hats. How far did the guy to Whitey’s left have to chase Jughead (or maybe the Bowery Boys’ Satch) to steal that hat? The guy on the far left of the photo is wearing “Slip” Mahoney’s chapeau. The photo was taken somewhere near the Old Colony housing projects in Southie, where Whitey and Billy et al lived. The names of the other youths are unknown.

In this period of his life, the young Whitey was studying the careers of gangsters — Hollywood gangsters, anyway. As he told his associates in the Winter Hill Gang 30 years later, he used to go to Jimmy Cagney’s Warner Bros. movies and try to memorize his mannerisms.

This amused his fellow thugs greatly, since when they compared “Jimmy” to famous cinematic gangsters of yore, it wasn’t to Cagney characters such as Rocky Sullivan or even the post-war Cody Jarrett of “White Heat.” Whitey, they figured, was a lot closer to Richard Widmark’s Tommy Udo in “Kiss of Death.”

You know, the guy who pushed the old lady in the wheelchair down the stairs while giggling.

Catherine Greig, beware!

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1346890

[raccoonradio]

Anyone surprised?
Deval “Thanks Timmy” Patrick...

>>Files link Cahill to lottery’s ’10 ad blitz
Agency promoted during campaign

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/06/22/cahill_led_lottery_advertising_blitz_during_his_run_for_governor/

>>Former state treasurer Timothy P. Cahill was directly involved in the state lottery’s decision to launch a $1.65 million taxpayer-funded advertising blitz seen as benefiting his campaign for governor last year, according to e-mails and other documents obtained by the Globe.

Tweet Be the first to Tweet this!
ShareThis

In August 2010, Cahill met for lunch with Hill Holliday chief executive Michael J. Sheehan, according to e-mails between lottery officials and the Boston firm. Following that lunch, Diane Anderson, then the lottery’s marketing director, and Hill Holliday executives scrambled to put together new television and radio ads.

While the original plans called for ads that focused on specific lottery games, the new ones promoted the lottery’s management, which is overseen by Cahill as state treasurer. Though they do not mention Cahill by name, the revamped ads portrayed the agency as a well-run operation that returns billions of dollars to local communities.

...State law prohibits government officials from using their position or public resources to further their political career. It calls for heavy fines and up to five years in prison for those who use substantial resources for their campaigns with “fraudulent intent.’...The ads began running in late September and were scheduled to end in late November, consuming more than 80 percent of the lottery’s entire annual advertising budget, just a few months into the start of the fiscal year.

But Cahill pulled the campaign in mid-October under pressure from Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the media campaign. As it has in the past, her office declined to comment on the probe.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

In other news, water is wet; ice is cold, scientist say.

[raccoonradio]

Yep; btw I’m away the next week but WILL keep us updated on Howie columns etc. via netbook and elsewhere. I attend a cartoon fan convention in Pittsburgh (yes I know Sox are in town but I don’t want to miss conv. events) with a side trip to Akron OH. And the “57 states” guy who needs a teleprompter is due on Fri—not at our conv but somewhere else in town. Groan. Well, time to brush up on my Pittsburghese. Yinz goin’ dahntahn to watch da Stillers at a bar? Don’t be a jag-off, an’ ‘at. Have an Ahrn City Beer. Or a pop (soda). Is that a gumband around your wrist?

[GOPsterinMA]

Nope!

2010 had the worst slate of MA Gov. candidates since...? to choose from.

Timbo was the stalking horse for the Coupe.

[raccoonradio]

indeed, who can run in 2014? Deval says he won’t.

[GOPsterinMA]

I don't know. That's why when Polito, Connaughton, Bielat, etc., lost last year, it effected the present and the future of MA politics.

Maybe Bob Hedlund, who's more Libertarian than Republican? That's the only name I can think of. Don't forget the exact same MA GOP “leaders” are still in power.

The other question is: What's going to be left to govern? The Rats would steal hot soup if they had rubber pockets in their pants.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I’ve said it 10,000 times (or at least it seems it). Until the leadership of the state party is sacked to the last, nothing will change. Put in actual Conservative activists in leadership, run like-minded candidates, win more seats in the legislature, build on that, and then when we get enough members to sustain a veto, elect a Governor so real change can be affected. No more of these “I’m more Socialist than the Democrat” leftist RINOs (your Willie Welds or Janie Swifts or Slick Willards or Charlie Bakers). Offer no legitimate ideological choices for the population, these fugly twin sisters of the Rodentry Party and don’t act shocked when all the GOP elected officials can caucus in a bathroom stall... and with a wide stance to boot.

[GOPsterinMA]

“Until the leadership of the state party is sacked to the last, nothing will change.”

Yes. And the same scums are still “in power”, so nothing will change at all.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

They nabbed Whitey! Howie’s Heart must be like an aligator. A 60 foot, 40 ton prehistoric aligator. They’re fallin’ like flies: Sal, Whitey, who’s next?

[AlexSmyth]

Howie; PLEASE put ALL of today's show on a PodCast!

I have meetings this afternoon, and will not be able to listen it

[Calvin Locke]

I heard BOR’s radio blurb today bragging that AFTER his show did a spot on Bulger/Grieg, “...the tips came pouring in...”.

[raccoonradio]

Fri column ping

http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1347631&format=textNews and Opinion
Whitey Bulger a wolf in sheep’s clothing
By Howie Carr | Friday, June 24, 2011 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists

Mother of Gawd, have you seen the photo? It looks like the feds pinched Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus.

And no, there is no truth to the rumor that when the G-men asked him his name, Whitey told them he was Rep. Nick Collins of South Boston.

What a great day — it’s truly a “Whitey” Christmas in June. And look on the bright side — at least he didn’t leave behind a herd of cattle for his neighbors to care for. Plus, maybe they can also get him for breaking his lease.

So what if he supposedly patted the agents on the back and said, “Good job”? And “giggled” in court and said he hadn’t counted the charges because there were too many of them?

Could he be laying the foundation for an insanity defense? Will Tom Kiley take on yet another allegedly indigent client from the political class?

Already yesterday you could feel the first faint stirrings of a sympathy backlash. Dopey listeners asking, “Is he really that bad?” Yes ma’am, as a matter of fact, he is. And it’s not just the murders and the rapes, either. He was an extortionist par excellence.

Here’s a story that you hardly ever hear. It’s in Stevie Flemmi’s DEA 6, his official confession. It begins with the cold-blooded murder of five men in the Blackfriars bar in the summer of 1978. Whitey had nothing to do with it, but he figured he should somehow be able to make a score off it.

He knew a Boston businessman owed $60,000 to the dead owner of the restaurant. He would need a prop to shake down the debtor. So he called his own personal FBI agent, Zip Connolly, and asked if he could obtain the grisly crime-scene photos from the Boston police.

Whitey got the photos and then went to the debtor’s office. Bulger — or should I now call him Chromedome or Cueball? — told him that not only could he get away with murdering five people, but he could also stick around and take photos, knowing he owned the cops.

“(The victim) was shown the pictures and promptly paid the money to Bulger.”

So what if that American Gothic photo of him and the moll yesterday is missing only the pitchfork, this guy was a monster.

Good old Whitey. Here he is trying to collect on a “loan” in Dedham in 1976 from a guy named Francis X. Green.

“If I don’t get my money, I will kill you. I will cut your ears off. I will stuff them in your mouth, and then I will gouge your eyes out.”

What did Billy Bulger say at the congressional hearing in 2003? About how certain parties, including himself, defended Whitey to the hilt and claimed he was being unfairly accused.

“At the time,” Billy said, “there was no talk of the more terrible crimes.”

That was then, this is now. And anyone who feels sorry for Whitey Bulger is out of his mind. He’s caught, and we’re all happy, but let’s be honest. Whitey won. He’s going to jail for 20 minutes before he kicks the bucket. Do you think he believes in the afterlife?