“Like the Matrix, right?”
“Right. Hey. What have you heard about Shanika?”
“Dad, stick to the point here. This is a learning experience. Don’t you see the problem? It is not always about you. Remember what the therapist said? OK. Now, what’s the big deal about Petro?”
“Basically, Petro is only person in House close to Sal. If certain wise guys wanted this casino bill to fail, which is reasonable one way or another in gambling legislation, then the best way is to buy off a politician(s).” (don’t even speculate why they don’t want it? It’s personal $$$ to them. And who cares?)
“It’s like this. Way back when Son, before they started Big Dig they went on a rat massacre . They made sure that all the rats that they knew would come out of their rat holes when the digging started didn’t take over the city. In the same way we have to be concerned about the government decision makers when it comes to casino gambling. The wise guys will come out.
“With that in mind a key government decision maker, like the Speaker Pro-Tem, should not allow even a hint of malfeasance”
“OK. But it still doesn’t make him a bad guy. He messed up.”
“Shut-up. I haven’t finished.
” Because they’re Italian, Petro and Sal have to be more careful. People fall in to the trap about Italian Americans. So unlike Irish or others pols, it is easier for naïve electorate to be suspicious of an Italian American key decision maker/politician.”
“Petro’s hair dew can’t help the cause either Dad”
“Good eye son. Good eye. But anyway. This is the important part.
“A reasonable person can now suspect that Petro and by association Sal were paid off by mobsters to block casino gambling. When you have many mobster friends and friends of their friends and they all want to help you because it is in their best interest($$$) things get unorganized. Like campaign contributions from hit men. Every rep and senator has donations from all sorts of types. No bad intent on anyone’s part. But not like this.
“Now for a history lesson son. The major advocates in the legislator against expanded gambling over the last four decades has come primarily from the Springfield area The Springfield mob is controlled by the New York mob. Boston is controlled by Providence.
Tony Scibelli was former rep from Springfield. He was in the House for 30 years. Chairman of Ways and Means. He never let a gamblin’ bill passed him.
Dad, are you making accusations?
No son. It’s like this. Too many things taken together raise questions. Questions that most likely cannot be answered one way or another. Just questions. But because they are now legitimately raised the game has changed. How much? I do not know. .
“How does this affect Sal with Governor?
“How does this affect Sal with House members?
“How does this affect future of House.? Does Bob DeLeo, Sal’s heir apparent de jour, get this stink on him?
‘All because Petro is a moron. We just don’t know if he is an honest or corrupt moron. And if he is a corrupt moron is he a bagman on the casino bill for his boss.”
“Hey Dad, look at the talkin’ turd on South Park!”
“Way to listen son. Ya little A-hole”
BLACK bag job!
This is who Ernie’s talking about; and this is what Ernie’s talking about:
http://news.bostonherald.com/n…
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p>
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p>Forget about the Caesar’s wife stuff; I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask how much Sal knew abou this.
I was thinking od someone else
Just a geographic FYI for the Eastern MA crowd — Petrolati lives in Ludlow , not Springfield. He represents a district that comprises of the entire town of Ludlow (population: 21,209), 50% the town of Belchertown (pop: 12,968, 2 out of four precincts), 5% of the city of Chicopee (pop: 54,653, 1 out of 26 precincts), and about 5% of the city of Springfield (pop: 152,200, 3 out of 64 precincts). He received only 1,173 votes from Springfield in 2006, though he ran unopposed. I don’t know where to find the number of registered voters by district or precinct online.
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p>Petrolati does not vote in the interests of the citizens of Springfield, voting against state help with the fiscal crisis caused by his former golfing partner, ex-mayor Michael Albano, the mayor under which all the corruption flourished.
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p>He also has one of the largest war chests in the state ($422k), so running against him is essentially futile. I don’t think he has ever been opposed, in either the primary or general election. This is not unusual — personally, I think the state should disallow “war chests” for elections, resetting contributions after each election. Incumbency has enough privileges.
You either get it or you don’t.
You want a single party government—then live with it.
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p>I vote against ALL incumbents. Government is like a cesspool. It must be regularly pumped out to keep it functioning properly.
I’m always amazed when I hear that the answer to our problems is to simply vote Republican. Why should working-class people vote against their economic and political interests simply because they have lousy representation in their own party?
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p>I don’t particularly like my US Congress Representative. I don’t think he’s doing all that much for the district, he’s not really moving forward on any issues on a national level. He does vote my positions on most things, so as a vote, he’s good, but not good for much else.
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p>In order to improve, I’d like someone who votes my positions AND is more effective. In fact electing someone who votes against my positions AND who is effective is like slitting my wrists.
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p>This state needs more independence in its Democratic party, it needs less barriers to entry to be elected. No one runs against Petrolati partly because of political apathy and partly because no one is that masochistic to take on a seated rep with nearly a half-million in the bank.
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p>But that doesn’t mean we should rally around Republicans, who believe in laissez-faire economics, cutting taxes on the rich while raising fees on the poor, trying to impose religious morals on the general public in private matters, etc.
Why did the Mass. Dem. women back Steve Lynch over pro-choice Sen. Joanne Sprague?
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p>Why did Mass. Teachers back do-nothing Eric Turkington, now quitting to fatten his pension, over a respected ESL TEACHER and Dukes County Commissioner Jim Powell?
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p>All Republicans are no more the same than all Democrats. And you know it. Cutting taxes on ‘the rich’ also cuts taxes on the self-employed, aka, the working class.
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p>Your party won’t rein in the hacks, and you have no shame. HEY! Elect a GOP, and THEN you can take the seat back in 2 years if they’re so terrible!
In a perfect world, unspent campaign balances would be transferred to a public education trust fund after each election.
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p>Of course, this is almost certainly unconstitutional. Also, it would violate the will of the donor.
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p>Nonetheless, it is an amusing idea.
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p>Yours,
Carey
give us chapter and verse, if you please.
I am certainly not a constitutional scholar.
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p>However I do know that the Supreme Court ruled as recently as 2006 that campaign contributions are protected free speech, and restrictions on campaign contributions can be unconstitutional. See:
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p>http://www.capitaleye.org/insi…
and a troublesome problem
Let’s jump right in, shall we?
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p>- That quote by the ex-convict guy is awesome.
– What the crap does this have to do with casinos?
– Ok, let’s forget about casinos and just focus on taking money from shady sources. I’ll pretend those two are directly connected, like Ernie did. Well…we’re talking $5,000, total, in legally filed contributions. Come on. If it’s the tip of the iceberg, then call me when you’ve found the rest of the ice.
– I am delirious with joy to know that the Springfield mob is controlled by New York mafia. Not sure what it has to do with casinos or anything else in this post, but I feel like I’m on to something huge. Wait a minute, has Sal Dimasi been to New York in the last year? Could Deval’s book deal have been linked to the mob? Hmm…
– These aren’t accusations, they’re just questions legitimately raised. Dimasi is Italian, after all.
– What the crap does this have to do with casinos?
– Oh, wait — I just don’t get it.
Ever hear the expression ‘walks like a duck, talks likes a duck’?
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p>Being Italian and from North End are not any of them. Just a red herring for the stupid. Representing a small time gangster or two is also a red herring.
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p>However, having your best pal at work and speaker pro-tem being connected to more than one made guys type is one duck leg moving forward. Especiially when some have implied bad things resulted in casino defeat.
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p>I am sorry if you don’t get it Will. But others do. People who pay attention to this stuff. People whose jobs are effected. It is a plain as day question to people on Beacon Hill. Which they are now asking more openly among themselves.
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p>P.S. Petro doesn’t help matters by looking like he came out of central casting when the call went out for someone to play the part of a “second bannana, greaseball, mobbed-up politician.
NONSENSE…it’s ok to call people greaseballs on this site?
If they were looking for a red nosed, drunken, loudmouth, corrupt, Irish politician.
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p>Unfortunately there is no name that comes to mind immediately when one encounters a loud, obnoxious, red faced, stupid, drunk, Irish guy. But they’re out their.
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p>However, what words comes to mind when you see a…. Oh never mind.
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p>The whole point is the perception of too many poeple. I have been the Sal protector and knocked Deval and others when the suggestion of nefarious dealings were hinted. The corrupt greaseball thing has been a recent constant of mine because that is what the anti-casino crowd floated. Use people’s own ignorance to scare them.
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p>Now Petro comes along and makes everyone look bad. Including Ernie!
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p>Tom Menino, Bob Traviligni, Larry DiCara and thousands of other Italian Americans in this state should take Petro out back and bundle him. And as they are kicking the crap out of him someone in the group will certainly say, “Fuckin’ greaseball”
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p>BTW I’m open to suggestions for a word or catch phrase to capture the Irish version of the greaseball. There’s way too many of them.
Its sad that the editors have not condemned this type of story or post….if we were making accusations or insinuations about other minority groups or people of other faiths, bloggers on this site would be up in arms – but sinec DiMasi and this petrolati guy are Italian it’s obviously ok to smear and make fun of them. (and to have an editor actually lend credibility by posting an editor’s note is insulting)
If, in fact, the editors actually do make a pracrice of deleting racist, sexist, homophobic, or ethnocentric posts. They probably do, albeit discreetly, because otherwise this site would end up looking like the Boston.com or herald blogs, which often get overrun by 12-year-old minds.
I’ll have an explanatory post later today. Thanks for your input.
repeated above
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p>If they were looking for a red nosed, drunken, loudmouth, corrupt, Irish politician.
Unfortunately there is no name that comes to mind immediately when one encounters a loud, obnoxious, red faced, stupid, drunk, Irish guy. But they’re out there.
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p>However, what words comes to mind when you see a…. Oh never mind.
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p>The whole point is the perception of too many poeple. I have been the Sal protector and knocked Deval and others when the suggestion of nefarious dealings were hinted. The corrupt greaseball thing has been a recent constant of mine because that is what the anti-casino crowd floated. Use people’s own ignorance to scare them.
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p>Now Petro comes along and makes everyone look bad. Including Ernie!
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p>Tom Menino, Bob Traviligni, Larry DiCara, Joe DeNucci and thousands of other Italian Americans in this state should take Petro out back and bundle him. And as they are kicking the crap out of him someone in the group will certainly say, “Fuckin’ greaseball”
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p>BTW I’m open to suggestions for a word or catch phrase to capture the Irish version of the greaseball. There’s way too many of them.
How about you simply don’t tie one’s gender, ethnic heritage, race, or sexual preference to their actions?
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p>Seems to me that if there’s too many of somebody, it’s sexists, bigots, racists, and homophobes.
get an ‘r’.
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p>See ya stormv
I am glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor stomv. Thanks for the zero. You zero.
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p>Remember how I use to get your name wrong and kept calling you stormv? With an “r”. Rememebr? Then I caught on, and did it anyways sometimes? And joked about it? And also apoligised to you for making the mistake by error? Remember? Good natured fun among people disagreeing?
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p>Rememeber?
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p>When people ask why I left BMG they can point to my last post. This one. Where your tight ass, moralistic, one-sided, self-rightous, narrow minded, obtuse, far end of Bell curve, lefty, humorless, attitude is the norm.
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p>I would rather talk to the Shoney’s Drive thru in Worcester.
A goose-egg or two never hurt anyone- remember the multiplication quiz in 3rd grade that you forgot to put your name on? Or that time Sister Magdeleine Patricia thought you were cheating and gave you a zero? You survived that, you can survive this. “There’s a place for us”-sing it with me, man, I know you feel it, “somewhere a place for us- hold my hand and we’re half-way there, hold my hand and I’ll take you there- SOMEWHERE…SOMEHOW…we’ll find a new way of living,” and so on. What would your grandfather say? I’ll bet he was no quitter!
Come back, Shane, come back!