Let's end the week on a lighter note - SUPPORT MR. Clucky !!

Mr. Clucky Goes to Court
By Kyle Munzenrieder in NewsThursday, Jul. 30 2009 @ 11:29AMThe legal saga of Rooster-American Mr. Clucky went to court this morning, and he doesn't have much to crow about.


Clucky and his activist owner Marc Buckley have been South Beach fixtures for years, riding up and down Lincoln Road and even appearing on the cover of New Times. Problem is, roosters technically can't be kept as pets on South Beach. So early last month, code enforcement told Clucky and his girlfriend Wallflower they have to get out of town.


Today, Buckley went to court and wasn't told much different. He has to pay a $50 fine and was informed the chicken might be removed from his home.


But Buckley can still ask the city commission for an exception to the rules or continue the appeals process through the court system.

Charlie Baker is being over estimated.

Charlie Baker is a 'Their guy' candidate.
by Kevin Sowyrda


Not much time to blog this date, given the fact that it's been atleast a day since I watched The Michael Jackson Story on TVONE..........so here goes.

Charlie Baker could well be the Steve Pierce of 1990, then the House minority leader who was the 'chosen one' of the G.O.P. establishment and the winner of the party convention that pivotal election year. In fact, just weeks before the big primary vote in September, the party bosses demanded that the populist in the race, Big Red Bill Weld, drop out for the sake of the party; and to avoid the embarrassment of a crushing defeat.

Didn't work out that way, did it? Unless I'm pulling a very senior moment, Weld put it into fifth gear and left Pierce in the dust..........and the party elite looked red faced, if not ashen.

Sure, Weld had a smoking gun in his hands. News of Pierce ignoring his state income tax obligations for a matter of years didn't exactly endear him to Joe and Mary voter. But I think it was more than that. If there's anything rank and file primary voters can't stand, it's being told who to vote for.

Proof of this? Just drive down to Pennsylvania where newly created Democrat Arlen Specter is loosing ground quickly to the likely G.O.P. nominee, Pat Toomey. The party bosses have annointed Specter as 'their guy' since he defected from the G.O.P. but the endorsement from the Governor Rendell and President Obama doesn't seem to be paying off in good polling data.

Link -

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/philadelphia/20090723_Poll_shows_Specter__Toomey_even_in_Senate_race.html

But 'Their guy' candidates tend to be losing candidates. Charlie Baker is the epitomy of a 'Their guy' candidate.

For my money Baker's got problems. Questions regarding his big dig financing decision are legitimate, regardless of how much he dodges them. Further, the G.O.P. primary will be flooded with independents, given the fact that the Democratic Primary will be a yawner, as Gov. Patrick will likely not be opposed.

Independent voters like an independent candidate, and G.O.P. hopeful Christy Mihos embodies that spirit more than Baker ever could.

Simply put, it's the clash of the establishment candidate, Charles Baker, versus the populist candidate, Christy Mihos. In an era when independent voters are telling pollsters they see Beacon Hill insiders as poison fruit, who will they support......Baker, the Beacon Hill Secretary of this and that, or Christy Mihos, a self made man who blew the whistle on Big Dig corruption when everyone else had their whistles in a lock box?

In any event, the campaign begins and everyone should get involved and study the contenders.

Channel Two is hard up?????

Boston Globe reporter Megan Woolhouse reports that Channel Two is about to bring the hatchet down in light of budget shortfalls (click title for full Globe story).

Alert to the brain trust at Channel Two. I’m here channel surfing as I blog - quite the multi tasker aren't I - and in between words of wisdom on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, National Geographic (which now goes by the much cooler moniker, NatGeo) I’m seeing a ton of ads and I don’t see how it’s eviscerating the educational programming for which the aforementioned media outlets have won numerous, prestigious awards. Do the execs in Brighton think commercials cause cancer, or something?

When does PBS wake up and smell the coffee???

Would a few volvo ads really descimate The American Experience, Nova, etc? In fact, a few commercials during the Emily Rooney Show - a.k.a. Greater Boston - would give me the time I need to run to the medicine cabinet for the Pepto Bismol.

Even better, becoming an independent broadcasting network, like everyone else, would alleviate the taxpayers sending the annual 400 million dollars PBS has become addicted to. Let me think......400 million in tax dollars........maybe better spent on cancer research, feeding the poor, anything but TV.

Can the HERALD just finally disclose the conflict????

At what point in time does the disgruntled, X-Employee move on.
by Arthur Stamfordham

If you are a reader of the Boston Herald you might actually take the time to skim through the meanderings of the "Lone Republican," a.k.a. Holly Robichaud, a former state house worker (read - legislative aide) and now a self proclaimed Dick Morris with a skirt on.

Problem is, she doesn't seem to be able to get over her former boss Christy Mihos, a successful businessman who ran for governor in '06 and is trying to make the second time the charm in 2010.

In column after column, Robichaud takes Mihos to task for everything from costing the G.O.P. the election last cycle (Mihos ran as an independent) to you name it. Her recent proclamation is that Mihos should drop his bid for governor as he was a bad boy for running in last time around. Problem is....the rest of the story.

Toiling for Independent Candidate Christy Mihos in 2006 was none other than the Lone Republican herself, Holly. According to records at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, Robichaud made a pretty pile of cash off the convenience store magnate before she flew the coop and decided to take up a new career of hitting the guy over the head with a baseball bat at each and every turn.

What happened? According to a Mihos insider, "it was a nightmare." Beyond that, he wouldn't elaborate. I suppose we can all use our imaginations. And one might imagine - hope - that Robichaud's boss at the Herald might insist that she atleast disclose her past work for Mihos before another mugging via her Herald blog.

Here's my principal beef with this ongoing Friday morning press conference being held by the solid BLUE LINE regarding the arrest of Harvard's Professor Gates. They've decided that Governor Patrick owes an apology to the constabulary? Are you absolutely kidding me? I understand the beef with President Obama (though I agree with the president....I would not have thrown out a form of the word stupid, or even gotten involved - as the president must maintain a distance from the quarrels of local life) but Governor Patrick has been measured and mature in his commentary and done nothing to be regretful for.
This is about police authority being challenged - and they, the police, find it as distasteful as eating rotten fish cakes. Police have developed a sense of entitlement and as a result citizens are dragged into jail every day of the week for paltry reason. But the governor has been far from incendiary in this matter, and has yet to make any statement that should offend the hypersensitive solid BLUE LINE.

The governor has been very gubernatorial throughout this event and proven a good demeanor throughout. Maybe one of the reporters should have asked this question - "if this had been your father, all things being equal, would you have believed his arrest the only course of action for the police to take?"

Charlie Baker needs to get the needle pointed the right way, not the extreme right way.
by Kevin Sowyrda, political commentator
Gossip in Bean Town, more critical to survival than franks at Fenway, is telling us that newly born gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker is about to ink a deal with G.O.P. hit man and Lee Atwater wanna-be Rob Gray to run his campaign for the corner office. If "you know them by the company they keep" is applicable here, Baker's about to alienate more than a phalanx of party activists - and Democrats - who remember Gray for political tactics that don't seem in sync with Baker's reputation as a moderate Republican, high on ethics and committed to a think tank governing style.



Sure, it's inside baseball. The average voter isn't going to que on election day to vote for or against a candidate because their campaign chieftain is Gray, Rubin, Morris, or whoever. But in a town where the primary sports are Red Sox Baseball and Beacon Hill Intrigue, this story is juicy, and will only get better.

Watching Gray in action at the state house was always like Francis Ford Coppola's, 'The Godfather.' I don't know of any bleeding horse heads deposited into the beds of Gray's enemies (of which there are too many to enumerate), but all the broken toes still healing from Rob's political stampedes would, alone, be enough to Bring Baker's HMO company to its knees.

Sure, he says he was offered a high ranking position in the White House after toiling for George Bush and Dick Cheney on the campaign trails of New England; though a number of G.O.P. operatives tell me that his claim was dubious -a spin effort worthy of Gray who counts as his clients the Toiletry Foundation of America......really.

So how and why the Rockefeller-like Republican Charlie Baker goes to bed with a G.O.P. right winger is a hard question to answer, especially given Gray's penchant for rewarding his mentors in a less than conventional manner. After pocketing plenty of easy cash from no heavy lifting contracts via Mitt Romney's graces, Mr. Gray, famous for his trade mark jeans and penny loafers minus socks, showed his gratitude by joining John McCain's presidential operation. Et,tu Brute?

Finding Republicans willing to share their distaste for Gray was as easy as finding a new reality show on TV. But trying to get one to go on the record was not a realistic expectation. For a disheveled little man, Gray intimidates a fair number of political operatives who don't care to incur his wrath but are nonetheless loaded with anecdotal information as to why Gray is the best thing to ever happen to the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

"He's the reason Kerry Healy lost", said a former high ranking Weld Administration official who asked not to be named because......well maybe she doesn't like horse heads in bed. Gray managed Lt. Governor Healy's gubernatorial bid in 2006, which went down in flames; especially after her media war created more controversy than votes. Gray's so called "parking garage ad" warning citizens about the dangers of being raped was lambasted by critics for racist undertones. "I think it was extremely negative and I think the parking ad was so over the top. It was racial. It was scare tactics that if you don't elect her then everybody else will be week on law enforcement," said the former Weld Administration insider who worked in the corner office.

So is it all a harbinger of the type of campaign Charlie Baker will run - one of those Willie Horton specials that has us rolling in the gutter; or atleast rolling our eyes? If Gray is in total control, yes. Gutter politics is where Gray's needle is pointing to. But should Baker actually be in this to win, he needs a broader path. "Charlie's success would be found in people viewing him and his campaign as a moderate operation," media consultant and '06 Kerry-Healey supporter Jan Saragoni told me on Tuesday morning.

In any event, Baker's facing a Pork Chop Hill of a campaign. Despite the fawning coverage his drinking buddies still toss his way from the city's broadsheet, Baker is hardly the eight hundred pound guerilla he's portrayed as. While it's fun for the G.O.P. establishment to make fun of businessman Christy Mihos as a pushover in waiting, I'll put my money on Christy any day of the week. Don't put it beyond Mihos to give Baker a shellacking. Mihos is independently wealthy and ran for governor in 2006, while Baker's campaign experience does not extend beyond his riveting race for Swampscott selectman.

Come the general election, Governor Patrick could become the man to beat, with an Independent Tim Cahill siphoning off votes from the Republican nominee. Then again, the governor still has a lot of damage repair ahead of him after squandering so much political capital on cynical patronage ventures; and my sources say that Mihos is taking solid advice from campaign guru Dick Morris and is in this thing to win, having learned from his mistakes in '06.

For my money, Baker's the candidate of the Boston Globe and the Republican Party preaturians. This crowd makes a roar now and then - and they're great to meet for chocolate martinis at the Hampshire House - but they rarely pull off touch downs in the final quarter.