Tuesday, April 24, 2012

How Dare They?!

This morning I happened to be reading the Worcester Telegram when a bold headline on the local page caught my eye. For those who have not seen it, the headline of the article, which was written by Shaun Sutner, declared "ROTC flags raises issues" then asked directly underneath, "Was political event proper?" Well, after reading Shaun's article, I find myself once again dismayed by the glaring partisanship this paper continues to engage in. As it turns out, Shaun never once asked that question in the article. Nor does he ever explain how ROTC flags raised any issues. Instead, we learn a school committee member, Tracey O'Connell Novick and other critics of the event are the ones who raised any issues. I tried but I could not find any quotes from any flags. Novick is apparently very upset the North High Junior ROTC participated in what she believes was a political event held by a conservative group. (The reader is left to infer that by the article in which Shaun refers to critics who say it was a political event just before quoting Novick.) Her indignation is clearly focused on the participation by the JROTC at the event as an honor guard. Wait, didn't the headline read just ROTC? A seemingly small point but the Junior ROTC and the ROTC, which is generally made up of college students, are two separate entities. As far as I can tell, the ROTC was not at the event. It is not until the reader gets to the back page of the article that the proper JROTC title is used. Novick goes on to say in the article there should be rules against this practice if there are none already. Really MS Novick? Do you really want us to believe any students, including JROTC members, do not benefit from meeting a sitting US Senator? I cannot help but think if the Senator who attended was named Kerry we would not have heard from you at all. To Shaun Sutner's credit, he clearly stays neutral and allows Chris Pinto to give a separate point of view. Too bad the headline writer doesn't have the same principles. Maybe it's just me but I can almost hear Novick and others saying things like "How dare they have a get involved event!" They of course meaning Republicans and like minded people. Well MS Novick, here's something to think about. The silent majority is not staying silent anymore. I for one am thrilled you chose to overreact to this in this way because your true colors bleed all over the article! Thank you for that.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Bill's Monday Rant

On April 4th there was a fundraiser held at the Cherry Valley American Legion Post for the Leicester Library which is undergoing an extensive renovation and expansion. As a resident of Leicester, I received a flyer in the mail which notified me of the time of the event and a short list of people attending which included one of our selectman, Doug Belanger, State Rep. John Binienda, and our State Senator, Michael Moore. When I first saw the flyer a couple things immediately came to mind. First, while the library project is a noteworthy thing, it would seem to me replacing our out dated main fire station or the rehiring of the town's laid off police officers would be more of a priority for our elected officials. Maybe that is asking too much of the likes of Belanger who eagerly went along with a money laundering scheme set up by then Congressman Richard Neal involving funds from the Obama stimulus of 2009. That scheme resulted in Becker College receiving around $425,000 dollars of Federal Stimulus funds in the same month those officers were laid off in 2009. Secondly, I thought it strange the event was being held at the same time as a campaign kickoff for a local resident, Scott Francis, who is seeking a spot on the school committee. Scott also happens to be an active member of the Leicester Republican Town Committee and the local Tea Party. That event was held at Ellers restaurant, which is located almost directly across the street from the aforementioned Legion Post. I guess I should have thought of a third thing to be upset about. Apparently the library fund was just a pretense for a campaign event for the sitting politicians who were in attendance.
Last week I read an article about the event and some sort of dust up between one of Mike Moores people and Steve Simonian, an Auburn selectman who is challenging Moore for his seat. See the article here:


http://www.thedailyleicester.com/news/simonian-and-moore-dispute-fundraiser-incident


Whatever went down with the incident, it is not as problematic for me than the less than honest way the event was advertised. If it was in fact a campaign event, that should have been made clear on the flyer. I am also curious whether the politicians sponsored the event out of pocket or if they used campaign funds. If they did use campaign funds that should have been disclosed as well.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

When will enough be enough?

On Wednesday yet another government board populated by political hacks will meet to discuss how to best put the taxpayers on the hook for their mismanagement, bad decions and subsequent shortfalls. Once again the MBTA, whose Board of Directors is tasked with balancing its own budget, is over budget. Since January, when the projected fiscal 2013 budget shortfall was 185+ million, the board has found a way to get it down to around 84 million. In this latest episode of doomsday politics the board and the Patrick administration are begging the state legislature to kick in 51 million dollars to try and avoid fare hikes of 23% to 45% and drastic service cuts, as if that money is theirs to spend indiscriminatley. Tim Murray, our beloved NASCAR Race car driver wanna be, goes as far as to tell us he thinks the MBTA is under funded by over 1 Billion dollars. If true, shouldn't that be enough incentive for our pols to discuss better ways of dealing with the long term problems in this agency? It seems to me the taxpayers would be much better off without such a money wasting enterprise as the MBTA, especially if the solutions proposed so far are truly the only ones available. Of course they are not.
Here are a couple of alternative ones I thought of in the few minutes it has taken to write this blog. First off, what about selling the whole thing to the highest bidder and privatizing it? If not that, Heaven forbid, then how about a freeze on all salary increases until the budget is balanced? What about ripping up the 29 union contracts and cutting the bloated salaries they create down to size. I mean do we really need to be paying bus drivers $70,000+ per year with all of the out of touch bennies to boot? Would it be too hard for the Transportation Secretary to take the $100,000+ dollars a year spent on individual parking attendants at Logan Airport and put that money towards the MBTA budget. Or how about making the same corrupt people who approved the out of touch outrageous union contracts get on the phone to the Obama Administration and secure a couple billion dollars from the stimulus package of 2009. After all a large portion of those funds have still not been spent.
Instead, predictably, we will hear the all too familiar Bacon Hill vitriol about riders needing to pay more due to increased fuel costs and the need for more revenue generating projects (Democrat double speak for higher taxes on everyone, whether they use the T or not.) They will publicly lament the "fixed" cost of the union contracts and insist there is nothing to be done about them. They will be lying of course but no one will question their arguments. What we won't hear are any discussions about cutting the budget in the drastic way it needs. Oh no, not that. After all lifestyles need to be maintained and besides, where would all the displaced politically connected workers go?