Stockstradamus AKA Stocky’s Blog

A few days before Christmas we get this heartbreaking Frontpage above the fold story about a young mother who just gave birth to a new baby but is struggling to keep her family warm.

In a sign of the times twist, it’s not some generic evil landlord that is keeping our poor family in the cold but it’s an evil bank/mortgage company who recently foreclosed on the previous generic evil landlord.

It’s a terrible situation. The new evil landlord will not pay for the delivery of heating oil. They won’t clear the sidewalks of snow either.

Tenants in some foreclosed Boston apartment buildings are living without adequate heat because the new landlords - mortgage companies often based in other states - have not repaired broken systems or paid for the delivery of heating oil.

Karla Herrera, who gave birth to a daughter Wednesday, has lived without heat in her Roxbury apartment since November, when the system broke. “Sometimes, I turn on the oven for 20 minutes for heat,” she said in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter.

Now Stocky is not a total bastard. I do have sympathy for those poor kids but there are some things the Globe left out of the story that leads me to ask a few questions.

The woman spoke through an interpreter. What are the odds that she’s here legally?

She just gave birth to another kid. Where is Dad(s)?

Is there a law against her paying for a load of heating oil herself? She could deduct the amount she paid for the oil from the rent she’s paying.

Assuming she’s paying rent, of course. The amount of rent is mysteriously left out of the story. You’d think The Globe would put that in the story. It would certainly add to the outrage. Call me a cynic but I’d bet half her welfare check that she is not paying a dime in rent.

Which leads me to another question. Why did the buidling go into foreclosure in the first place? Is it possible that tennants not paying rent could have contributed to that? How hard would it have been for the Globe to find the previous owner?

And who do you think is paying for her hospital stay? Hint: look in the mirror. Again, where’s Dad(s).

In another building the Mortgage company has offered the tennants $1,000 to vacate the building. Sounds reasonable to me but not to some of them:

All but one of the other tenants, a woman with a new baby, left after receiving $1,000 from New England Group, which represents the new landlord, GMAC Financial Services.

Murdaugh’s reply to the offer: “Are you serious? Where do we have to go?”

Much less is known about Murdaugh’s situation but I think it’s fair to guess that she’s not paying rent either. If that’s true then yes, finding a new place to stay for free would be tough.

So excuse me for lacking “compassion”.

No, not Dennis and Callahan this time. It’s 2 Bloomberg reporters who show total ignorance of how Bookies make their money.

As I posted earlier, even sports “experts” don’t have a friggin clue about this.

In case you’re not sure yourself, just remember 2 things:

• BOOKIES DON’T CARE WHO WINS!!
• BOOKIES MAKE THEIR MONEY NO MATTER WHAT THE SCORE IS!!!!

It’s not a difficult thing to understand. The point spread (and the over/under) is not based on what a Bookie thinks the score of the game will be.

It’s based on getting 50% of the betting public to bet on one side and 50% to bet on the other side. The Bookie collects a fee for the transaction of both winners and losers. The winners and losers effectively transfer the money between themselves while the bookie collects his transaction fees.

In cases where the Bookies miscalculate where the line should be due to more money being bet on one side or the other the line moves which encourages money to come in on the other side.

NONE OF THIS IS A PREDICTION OF THE SCORE OF THE GAME!!!!

Let’s hear from the 2 Bloomberg dummies, Aaron Kuriloff and Erik Matuszewski:

Las Vegas sports books are one of the few places that haven’t benefited from the Patriots’ dominance. New England has outscored opponents by an average of 20.8 points and its offense — 34 points shy of setting an NFL record for points scored in a season — has been a big draw for bettors while making it difficult for oddsmakers to accurately predict the outcome of their games.

You fucking dopes!! They are NOT trying to predict the outcome!!!!

The quote they get from the vegas bookie is priceless. The more action he gets the more money he makes. If people think he’s getting screwed, all the better. Do you think he would point this out? Of course not. So this is his quote:

“Let’s just say the public has done very well backing the Patriots,'’ said Chuck Esposito, assistant vice president of Caesar’s Race and Sports Book in Las Vegas.

Translation: “You 2 reporters are fucking morons but if you want to write an article publicizing my business and encouraging people to bet who am I to complain. Let’s just say that I’m making money hand over fist and leave it at that. Good luck with your journalism career.”

It’s time to check in on the Housing Bust. Stocky’s favorite Economist makes an appearance in a Wall St. Journal article on the “Mortgage Relief Plan”. It seems not everyone’s thrilled with the plan. Particularly people who played by the rules and don’t qualify for any help while their deadbeat neighbors look for a handout.

It’s an interesting article if you have a WSJ subscription but what really caught my eye was a quote from John Husing. He’s a previously Stocky profiled “Economist” from the “Inland Empire” section of California. Apparently one of the areas most effected by foreclosures and the Housing Bust.

Some of his quotes from my previosu post:

‘They don’t get the market,’ Redlands-based regional economist John Husing said about buyers. ‘They don’t understand it. They think prices are too high.’

…

“‘It’s fear,’ said regional economist John Husing of Redlands. ‘People just flat don’t understand this market. If you’re thinking about the biggest purchase of your life and you don’t understand it, you don’t buy.’”

Those damn buyers!!! If they weren’t so stupid we wouldn’t have this problem!!!!!

He, like a lot of “Economists” had been predicting an upturn in the market “soon”. His tune is now changing and he doesn’t see a recovery anywhere in sight.

However, the cause of the problem remains the same:

Mr. Husing is an authority on the Inland Empire, a term coined in the 1950s as the region evolved from an agriculture belt to a suburban sprawl of 48 cities, interlacing highways and grueling commutes. “My sense is that the [rescue] plan won’t help,” Mr. Husing says. “A lot of people made dumb decisions.”  

Those Godamn dumb buyers again!!!! But this time they are dumb because they DID buy. 9 months ago they were dumb because they “Think prices are too high” and were NOT buying.

John Husing. Another blowhard with a stack of degrees that I wouldn’t trust to balance my checkbook.

In that hard hitting interview with Emily Rooney the other night Gov. Do-Nothing said he had the votes right now to pass his casino plan.

Oh really? Those meanies at the Globe decided to actually check that claim out. What they found is not surprising. 

An informal Globe poll of all 19 members of the legislative committee that will consider Patrick’s proposal showed that it would probably get a negative vote that could prove difficult to overcome.

“There’s a lot of strikes against it,” said Representative Barry Finegold, a Democrat from Andover and a member of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies who does not support the governor’s plan to license three casinos.

…

Twelve members of the committee said they are inclined to vote against the proposal, unless wholesale changes are made, such as reducing the number of casinos in the plan, giving more gambling proceeds to cities and towns, or allowing the state’s racetracks to add slot machines. Three members said they are leaning in favor of the proposal. Four said they are on the fence.

So, of 19 members of the committee that has the power to kill his proposal, 3 are leaning in favor of it.

Do they teach Math at Milton Academy?

I know the Guv has been getting affirmative action handouts his whole life and has never had to play by the same rules as most people but this is ridiculous.

His entire administration is riding on these Casino’s getting built and producing the revenue he claims they will so one would think he’d have a better handle on the prospects for approval by the Legislature. A Legislature consisting almost entirely of members of his own party.

You’d also think that with the stakes so high he’d be busting his pampered ass working on getting this approved. Let’s hear  from some of his fellow Dems in the Legislature:

Patrick’s administration said it has been speaking with legislators, but most of those on the committee said they have not been contacted by the governor on the issue.

“It’s interesting to me that the governor proposed it, but he has not been crusading for it,” said Representative Ellen Story, a Democrat from Amherst who is opposed to the proposal. “He proposed it, and that was almost the end of that.”

This preening shmoe of a Governor has been handed things his whole life. Once he was plucked out of the Chicago projects, being smart + Black (not necessarily in that order) has been enough. Has he ever had to work for anything?

Once these casinos go down in flames, what then?

Despite all these obvious shortcomings, Stocky sees a bright future for our Preening Shmoe Gov Do-Nothing. Unfortunately for the Citizens of Massachusetts and the United States in general that future involves the U.S. Senate.

Could there be a more fitting job for an empty suit windbag like Deval? Forget Emily Rooney, he belongs in front of the bright lights of Tim Russerts show. He would be perfect for that. Pontificating endlessly, sanctemoniously lecturing everyone on what they need to do while never doing much of anything himself. 

Sounds a lot like the current job description for John Kerry. Or Barack Obama.

What we have is an Obama in waiting. AKA Obama Lite. 

Reach for that, Guv.

The Globe’s lazy Business reporter Steve Bailey gets the bad timing award of the week with his column today on the new Boston Fed Governor.

He sings the praises of Eric Rosengren for being the lone dissenting vote at the last FOMC meeting. Eric wanted a half percentage point cut in the rate instead of the quarter point cut we got.

The argument for the bigger rate cut is that a slowing economy is the biggest worry. The argument for a smaller rate cut is that Inflation is the biggest worry.

Bailey compares Rosengren to a previous Boston Fed governor Morris who wrongly opposed Chairman Volker for pushing up rates to stem inflation.

Keep in mind that inflation is the single biggest destroyer of wealth there is.

Bailey, sings the praises of Rosengren for standing up against Bernacke while acknowledging a previous Boston Fed Governor who did the same thing which we now know was flat out wrong.

Right on Queue we get new economic data today that the WSJ reports:

Friday’s report, particularly coming on the heels of the import price and producer price data, appears to justify the Fed’s modest rate cut — which disappointed many on Wall Street — and its decision not to cite slow growth as a bigger risk than inflation, as many analysts had thought it would.

Bailey’s new “Boston Leader” so far looks like a dolt. But in Bailey’s world doing something, anything, even if it’s wrong is to be admired:

“What I am encouraging the organization to think about as we gather the data and do the analysis,” Rosengren said, “is that the end point is not doing a working paper, the end point is not doing a speech, but having some tangible impact.”

Here in Boston, we’re forever wringing our hands about the dearth of leaders. We may have been given a good one in Eric Rosengren. Sitting atop the Boston Fed at the age of 50, the man now has a decade or more to make a real difference. What an opportunity.

What an opportunity all right. An opportunity to destroy an economy.

Emily Rooney did all of her fellow journalist’s proud by forcing Gov Do-Nothing to submit to a viscious waterboarding on her WGBH Show Greater Boston last night.

As has been documented recently, Emily is renowned as one of the toughest interviewers in the Boston Media. As John Gonzalez from Boston Magazine wrote a few months ago when talking about Emily and Jim Braude:

They have well-earned reputations as two of the toughest interviewers in town.

…

I’ve been on both your shows, and it’s not easy. Do you realize how direct you two are? It can be intimidating.

…

But when you’re trying to get information out of people, and maybe you have someone on the show who isn’t used to that style, do you ever consider easing up on the waterboarding?

Yes, take it from Johnny, that Emily is one tough bitch. So last night she has Deval Patrick on her show and opens by noting that it’s been nearly 1 year since he took office.

(Oh, this should be good, you’re thinking. Wait till she asks him what the fuck he’s been doing for a full year and why he has nothing to show for it.)

Well, first she spends 5 minutes talking about his junket to China. Then she soft peddles a question about him taking campaign contributions from the same old cronies as his Republican predecessors which the Globe recently reported on. Gov Do-Nothing can’t stumble his way to a good enough excuse so Emily chimes in with:

  “You’re not going to turn away money from groups if they haven’t done anything illegal.”

Thanks Emily. Your invitation to the Gov’s “Holiday” Party is still intact.

Then it’s on to more “waterboarding” as she prefaces a question on the Casino debacle with:

“I’m sure there are things you do every day that the public has no idea about and it’s hard to measure accomplishments …”

Yes, Emily. It’s certainly hard to measure accomlishments when there are none.

After nearly 15 minutes Emily notes that she’s almost out of time but she’ll try to “summarize” Deval’s 1st year in office. The Gov giggles at a reference to his Cadillac and gold plated drapes as Emily gets back to her “waterboarding” with this final question:

“What are some of the things that emotionally make you feel good about your leadership of this state?”

Emotionally makes him feel good??? Is this the Governor being interviewed by one of the “toughest interviewers in town” or are these 2 teenage girls talking about their boyfriends?

That’s just fucking pathetic. Can anyone imagine Mitt Romney or any Republican being asked that question?

The Great Black Hope answers by noting what a ”Great Team” he has along with some other insignificant nonsense before Emily literally teases him about his property tax relief campaign promise. Yes, Miss Waterboard finally brings up Gov Do-Nothings signature campaign promise 30 seconds before the end of a 20 minute interview. Wow. That Emily really is one tough bitch. 

And Gov Do-Nothing does not disappoint with his answer. You see, it’s all the Legislature’s fault that there has been no property tax relief. Gov Do-Nothing promises to try to get the Legislature to focus on that next year.

Not his fault. Nope. Not him. It’s that incompetent legislature. Of course “the Legislature” probably would say that there is no money available for Property tax relief. Which brings me to the single biggest lie of the Deval Patrick campaign.

He said many times that he would find $750 million of waste in the State budget and that was how he was going to fund property tax relief. Not only has he not cut state spending, the first thing he did when he took office was restore cuts that Romney made.

This guy is such a blatent lying moron that he hasn’t even appointed some phony commision charged with finding the mythical $750 million in waste. And why should he when even the “Toughest interviewer in Town”, Emily Rooney behaves like a Bill Clinton Intern instead of a journalist when she has an opportunity to hold the Governor accountable.   

This State is mind bogglingly (is that a word?) pathetic.

Todays Globe and all of Boston.com for that matter contains not a word about this person. Jeanne Assam.

Who is she? Some might find her newsworthy. She saved scores of lives yesterday. How did she do it?

With her legally owned Gun.

That’s strike 1 if you’re keeping score for the Globe.

And she praised God for giving her the strength to gun down the scumbag who was shooting up her church.

God?? Strike 2 for the Globies.

She’s a single woman, apparently not gay nor a feminist.

Steeeerike 3!!! She’s out of the paper!!!

Fortunately you can read all about Jeanne by doing a quick Google News search which as of  11:00 AM Tuesday pulls up 726 hits.

The Boston Herald does better. At least they took time out from inserting annoying ads on their web site to include a pretty long AP story which identifies Jeanne as the “security guard” who ended the carnage by shooting the gunman.

Of course any story where a Gun is used in self defense is a “non-story” as far as the Boston Globe is concerned. The Globe has a long history of ignoring those stories.

One that comes immediately to mind was a mid-day shooting in Davis Square  Sommerville. The shooting victim ran from the scene and jumped on the Subway. The Police tracked him from his blood trail and stopped the train in Cambridge, pulled him off the train and placed him under arrest.  

That sounds like a wild scene. A bleeding man running through yuppified Davis Square at 1:00 in the afternoon jumping on the T to avoid arrest. That would make a good episode of some police show.

The story was that a homeowner, home for lunch shot the perp after he broke into his house. The Perp had a history of burglaries but in the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts that still meant the homeowner was held for hours of questioning before he was released.

Surprisingly, this only made Page 2 of the Boston Herald. But at least it made it into the paper. Unsurprisingly, not a word was ever written about the incident in the Boston Globe.

Law abiding citizens defending themselves with legally owned Guns does not fit the Globe’s narrative.

Gov Do-Nothing gets asked about the piss poor performance of the Commuter Rail service and responds with this, from the Sunday Dec 9th Globe:

“You haven’t heard me screaming?” Governor Deval Patrick said, only half-jokingly, when asked about the late trains during a recent news conference.

Ummm, no Gov. we haven’t heard you.

Not to worry though. Gov Do-Nothing has been screaming so no doubt long suffering commuters will get their satisfaction as the Gov cracks the whip.

Or Not.

Just in on Monday Dec 10th:

The company that runs Boston’s commuter rail service will get another three years to transport 72,000 suburbanites to their jobs every day, despite a recent spate of delays that has caused uproar among passengers.

Thanks a lot Governor!!!!!!! Good work!!!! Your screaming really helped!!!!!

Christ Almighty. This guy is a fucking disaster.

Joan Vennochi gives a nice slap to the dumb voters of Massachusetts in her Sunday Column:

BARACK OBAMA is promising to change politics as usual in America. As Massachusetts already knows, that can be one tough promise to keep.

Last year, Deval Patrick promised to do the same, when he ran for governor. Voters bought the message, making him the first Democrat in 16 years to win the corner office, and the first black candidate to do so.

What dummies we all are. Well, not Stocky. I didn’t vote for Deval but the rest of you sure are dopes.

Joan takes a small swipe at Deval later in the column:

Obama has held elective office on the state and national level, so he has much more political experience than a neophyte like Patrick.

Neophyte. Not very endeering. That Joan sure is tough on our Governor and the rubes who fell for his campaign spiel.

But what about Joan? Let’s hit the way back machine and find all those columns she wrote during the campaign warning us not to be fooled by the Great Black Hope’s Hype and accurately describing his lack of experience….

Damn. The friggin machine must be broke again. I can’t find a single Vennochi column like that. In fact, all I can find are column’s where Joan is fawning all over Deval like Bill Clinton on an intern.

Revisionist history at work in your Boston Globe. Be a Woman Joan. Admit you’re a dope too.

More on Deval:

Howie Carr takes time off from his much less listened to radio show to make a point that Stocky has been making for months:

What exactly has the guy accomplished in his first year in office?

Exactly nothing if you ask me.

Gov Do-Nothing is back from a “critical” trade mission to China where he set up an office to do who knows what. Sounds like more good jobs at good wages for Deval suckups and campaign contributers.

What a joke this guy is.

All this is detailed at devalpatrickwatch.com

The Junior Blowhard (John Kerry) from Massachusetts checks in today with a Boston Globe Op-Ed.

Planet’s fate hinges on our choices.

…

This week, Senator Barbara Boxer and I are leading a Senate delegation to Bali. We have been on the front lines of the battle to change America’s domestic policies on energy and emissions.  

…

blah, blah, blah

Of course, no word from Senator “do as I say not as I do” on what choices he’ll make to  help save the planet. 

Get back to me after you’ve done something other than preach about sacrifice you sanctemonious douchebag.

Peter J. Howe checks in today with a story about Bush 41 installing a windmill at his Maine Home.

Of course no story on the Bushes can be approved for publication in the Globe without some negative slant. In this case, Howe snidely notes:

his choice of watercraft remains a 28-foot Cigarette speedboat powered by two gas-chugging 185-horsepower engines.

And of course a swipe at Bush 43 always is in order:

His son may be known as a big friend to Big Oil

What you will never read in the Globe and what I’m sure will come as a surprise to everyone who reads this is that Bush 43 is the most environmentally friendly politician in history when it comes to his own home.

The 4,000-square-foot house is a model of environmental rectitude.

Geothermal heat pumps located in a central closet circulate water through pipes buried 300 feet deep in the ground where the temperature is a constant 67 degrees; the water heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. Systems such as the one in this “eco-friendly” dwelling use about 25% of the electricity that traditional heating and cooling systems utilize.

A 25,000-gallon underground cistern collects rainwater gathered from roof runs; wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers goes into underground purifying tanks and is also funneled into the cistern. The water from the cistern is used to irrigate the landscaping surrounding the four-bedroom home. Plants and flowers native to the high prairie area blend the structure into the surrounding ecosystem.

No, this is not the home of some eccentrically wealthy eco-freak trying to shame his fellow citizens into following the pristineness of his self-righteous example. And no, it is not the wilderness retreat of the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council, a haven where tree-huggers plot political strategy.

This is President George W. Bush’s “Texas White House” outside the small town of Crawford.

I’m skipping the link since the rest of the article is just tree-hugging nonsense.

Nope, no mention of this in the mainstream press. Even a story about Bush 41 installing a windmill has to include slaps at his “gas guzzling cigarette boat” and his “friend of big oil son”.

What about the Globe’s favorite son, John Kerry? What is his “choice of watercraft”? He of the enviromentalists wet dream of a book “This Moment on Earth”.

From his web site:

Now, in this passionate and personal book, Teresa and John shine the spotlight on an inspiring cross-section of these new environmental pioneers and offer a guide on how you too can get involved to protect the world that we all know and love.

His choice of watercraft? Do they make Hybrid boats? Surely Kerry must be a fan of sailing on the cool breezes of Nantucket sound, emitting nary an ounce of carbon. Right? RIGHT?????

Wrong. Like algore and other big mouth do as I say not as I do limousine Liberals, Kerry does not walk the talk. That’s for others, not the aristocrats like him.

On Nantucket, Kerry has 4 boats docked/moored within 1/2 mile of each other. 2 small Boston Whalers moored a few hundred feet off the beach in front of his seconds wife’s first husband’s house along with a “cigarrete boat” with gas guzzling twin 225 Yamaha engines. (He used to have American made Mercury’s on board until he lost the presidential election. Now it’s Japanese made Yamaha’s)

He also has a 40 some odd foot Hinkley docked at The White Elephant Hotel inside Nantucket Harbor. 4 boats for 1 family. All spewing carbon and guzzling fuel. And this is just 1 of his houses. There’s the Beacon Hill house. The Idaho house. The Private Jet. A fleet of jeeps/suv’s. You get the picture.

Bush 41 puts up a windmill and gets snide commentary from Peter Howe in the Globe about his 1 boat. John Kerry writes a book on environmental activism while spitting out Carbon faster than Monica Lewinsky spit out Bill Clinton and not a word out of the Globe on the hypocrisy.

Just more of the same from The Globe.

One of the Hazzards of doing this blog is actually reading the Boston Globe editorials. That’s something I never used to do. I come across enough shit during my day to get my blood boiling without reading that crap.

However, in the interest of the greater good, I now read them. Or some of them anyway.

Saturday’s Globe Editorial Gem really needs to be read in full. Here it is: 

THE MOST significant actions by the Legislature in its last week of formal sessions this year included the passage of bills to hold the Massachusetts presidential primary on Feb. 5, a month earlier than usual, and to provide greater protection against predatory mortgage lending. Hardly earth-shattering, to be sure, but many important bills are still in the pipeline. A better test of legislative performance will come in February or March, when lawmakers have a window to act on these bills before turning to next year’s budget.

The most enduring decision by the Legislature came in June. The representatives and senators, acting in constitutional convention, decided not to place a proposal banning gay marriage on the ballot. This 45-151 vote, supported by Governor Deval Patrick, put the full weight of state government behind the Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing these marriages. This is a lasting victory for liberty and equal rights.

Beyond that, the session that ended this week could at best by called workmanlike. The Legislature approved a sound budget and began tinkering with the laws to provide cities and towns with better tools to address financial problems. But the new laws to bring more local government employees into the state pension and health insurance systems are not enough to reduce the growth in local property taxes. And the Legislature rejected Governor Patrick’s attempts to offer communities new sources of revenue. The lawmakers will need to revisit the issue next year.

The governor and legislative leaders are properly concerned about economic development. The mortgage lending bill would impose a sensible degree of state regulation on an important part of the economy. Other crucial issues failed to get on the legislative fast track, most notably Patrick’s plan to assist the biotech industry. House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi’s package to assist renewable energy production sped through the House, but hasn’t cleared the Senate. Another issue that needs attention is the governor’s anticrime bill, with its provision for mandatory supervision after release from prison.

And then there’s casino gambling, an issue with implications both for revenue and for development. Patrick and Senate President Therese Murray like the concept; DiMasi doesn’t, but what source of revenue does the speaker have in mind to fulfill the obligations of state government? The governor filed his proposal too late for action this year, but a decision shouldn’t be avoided in 2008.

Among its last significant actions of the year, the Legislature approved the governor’s plan for a Commonwealth Corps to encourage volunteer service and provided $15 million more for home-heating aid - good but easy votes. Let’s hope that, in January, lawmakers will come back refreshed from their holidays and ready for harder decisions.

The title of the editorial is “Quiet Times on Beacon Hill”. Another way to phrase that would be:

Not a fucking lot got done this year on Beacon Hill.

And who’s fault is that? Why the Legislature of course. According to the Globe. Hmmm, I seem to recall something significant happening at the beginning of this year…. wait… I’ll think of it… give me a moment … OH YEAH! WE GOT A NEW FUCKING GOVERNOR!!! A Democrat who got elected in a landslide and ended 16 years of Republican control of the Governors office.

Glory Be!!! Let’s review all his accomplishments!!!! Wait. The Globe did that in their editorial. Only they pinned the blame on the Legislature.

According to the editorial, the Governor was just a supporting character in all this. It seems the Globe status quo is to give the Gov a free pass. The soft bigotry of low expectations coming into play again.

This is a change of tactic for the Globies. Let’s look back to February to this Frank Phillips piece detailing the disappointment the moonbats had with their Great Black Hope’s performance.

Some Highlights:

“He has been exceedingly cautious in trying to determine what his first priorities are,” said Jeffrey M. Berry, political science professor at Tufts University. “So much so that he has already lost a little momentum.”

Patrick advisers concede the governor has not followed the usual tradition of strong media management during his first days in office. But they say that he has been active on a host of major issues, including the daunting task of closing a $1 billion deficit in his first budget. That work — along with a series of other initiatives — will be evident in the next few weeks, they say.

“This is not a governor who is focused on quick headlines in the press that provide little benefit for people’s concerns,” said Kyle Sullivan, his press secretary. “He is focused on developing thoughtful public policy for the long term. Stay tuned.”

 We’re still tuned in Kyle. Any Updates?

But to many who are watching him closely, Patrick appears to be struggling to find a pace and theme to launch his administration.

“A honeymoon period is a unique interval, and he will never have another opportunity of such uncritical acceptance,” Berry said.

Patrick’s untraditional approach has some of his backers worried. “It’s odd,” said one old political hand from the Dukakis administration, who is active in the state Democratic Party. “You go days without seeing him in the news.”

Days without seeing him in the news? Try weeks. How long was his vacation at his mansion in the Berkshires? A Month? Was he working on our property tax relief out there?

Furthermore, he said, Patrick doesn’t need to make a bold move because he secured his image during his two-year campaign for governor, which ended in his landslide election.

“Patrick was elected essentially because he developed a thematic image of himself,” said Goldman, host of a national program on Bloomberg Radio. 

Image. That’s all that matters to Moonbats. Listen to the sickly sweet campaign speaches and then feel so good about yourself when you vote for the Black Guy. Aren’t you just wonderful?

“People asked for a change, and they got it,” said Crosby, who worked on Patrick’s transition team. “They don’t have media-conscious, conventional politicians running the administration. But perhaps there is a trade-off. You don’t get the splash, but maybe still water runs deeper.”

Maybe that still water is no deeper than a soap dish.

Will the Globe even acknowledge the 1 year anniversary of Patrick taking office? Talk about putting a shine on a sneaker. How will they spin Gov Do-Nothings first year as anything but a disaster? 

Judge Kathe Tuttman + Murderer Dr. Richard Sharpe.

Have they ever been seen in the same room together??

UPDATE: After further review, Stocky would like to issue an apology. The Blogosphere is a cold heartless place but Stocky always vowed to maintain some standards of dignity and decorum.

This post comparing Judge Kathe Tuttman to convicted murderer Dr. Richard Sharpe crossed way over the line of decency and fair play.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I offer a heartfelt apology to Dr. Sharpe. As far as we know, Dr. Sharpe was responsible for the death of only one person. It was totally unfair to compare him/her/it to Judge Kathe Tuttman.

Dr. Sharpe, please accept this apology in the spirit in which it is offered. Thank You.

Epilogue: What kind of twit spells their first name Kathe?

Gov Do-Nothing Tipped his hand in a Herald story yesterday about supposedly eliminating police details on construction projects.

Like nearly all of Gov Do-Nothing’s proposals, it sounds good but I’ll believe it when I see it. Ask Bill Weld how his plan worked out.

The way this looks to play out, we’ll get a lot of bluster and chest pounding in defense of the poor put upon tax payers, right up until the proposal fails.

Then, as Gov Do-Nothing says in the Herald story:

“Our responsibility is to try to get all the waste and inefficiency out (of transportation agencies) . . . before we go to the general public for broad-based tax increases,” Patrick said.

Broad based tax increases. Nice.

I’m wondering if those tax increases will come before or after the property tax relief he promised us in his campaign.

Somewhere up on the North Shore, Muffy Healey is kicking back, ordering her 4th glass of wine and laughing her ass off.

He must have been in a Coma. How else can you explain this piece where he discusses the Left’s comparisons of Bush to Hitler?

I suppose it was inevitable that the liberal intelligentsia would start comparing George Bush to Adolf Hitler.

Here is what Los Angeles Times columnist and Georgetown University law professor Rosa Brooks recently said on my favorite oddball webcast, bloggingheads.tv:

Inevitable??? Recently??? Where have you been Alex? You must have been in a coma. The Left has been doing that since the first year Bush was in office. A quick search of the Globe archives for Bush + Hitler brings back hundreds of hits.

Hint: Use Post 2000 dates. Otherwise you get hundreds of hits of the Left comparing Bush 41 to Hitler.

Christ Alex. You really don’t get out of the house much, do you?

Just a quick followup post on the Howie Carr disaster.

I was the first to predict that Imus would end up back on WTKK. At the time, “industry expert” Brian Maloney at savewrko.com insisted that would never happen.

Not only did it happen, it was announced the same day Howie submitted to Julie Kahn.

(Note to self: Find out if Julie now refers to Howie as “Submit”.)

WTKK had this in the works for weeks as the Howie drama played out. WTKK is so far the only syndicated Imus station. As I posted before, I bet Imus loved screwing his good friend Howie … I mean, Submit.

Probably the main reason I started this Blog is to vent about the Morons I hear in the media on nearly a daily basis.

Today, D+C had a short rant about one of the hardy perrenials of Sports related ignorance.

The Point Spread.

If there is another subject so often and consistently misunderstood I can’t think of it. Nearly every sports commentator will at one time or another spew complete and utter nonsense on the subject. As D+C did today.

D+C: “How can the wise guys in vegas only favor the Pats by 14? They must be racking their brains right now trying to figure out how bad the Pats will beat Philly next week”.

NO NO NO NO NO NO You fucking dopes!!!!!! 

Those “Wise Guys” in Vegas don’t give a rats ass how much the pats will beat Philly by next week. They couldn’t even care less what the goddamn score is or who wins.

THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT SETTING A POINT SPREAD THAT WILL GET THE BETTING PUBLIC TO WAGER EQUALLY ON BOTH SIDES!!!!!!!!

Get it, you fucking dopes?

It’s NOT what they think the score will be, IT’S WHAT THE BETTING PUBLIC THINKS THE SCORE WILL BE. In fact, if the betting public “changes it’s mind” during the week by betting more on one side than the other, the point spread moves until there are equal bets on each side.

THE SPREAD IS NEVER WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It reflects 50% of the bets on one side and 50% of the bets on the other side.

IT’S NOT A PREDICTION OF THE SCORE OF THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jesus H. Christ. Is that so fucking hard to understand?

Now that Howie is back in Julie Kahn’s stable of neutered talk show hosts, Stocky is free to reveal the rumored “3rd option” Howie was contemplating the last couple of months.

It only appeared that Howie’s lawyers were complete morons. They actually had a secret plan to move Howie beyond the reach of U.S. contract law.

New Zealand. Howie’s childhood in Western Mass, his relationships with Sheep and his experience as a chicken farmer were finally going to pay off. Alas + Alack, that dream was shattered by the New Zealand authorities once Howie stepped on a scale.

Oh, well.

On to Howie’s first day back on the “Job”. It most certainly sounds like Howie is working a “Job”. He said several times that it was “great to be back on the radio”, but not a word about being back on WRKO.

Within the first 10 minutes he dissed Wolf Blitzer for “caving to the pressure” and not asking a followup question to Hillary on her drivers license flip-flop.

You would know all about caving under pressure Howie, that’s for sure.

He promised that from now on he would be taking off “every 2-bit holiday” and not working like he has in the past. The Mumbles Menino segment sounded forced and way too long. All in all, it sounded more like a 4 hour hostage tape than a radio show with a host interested in entertaining his listeners.

The unanswered question remaining from this debacle is what kind of contract did Howie get?

As I said before, if he got stuck with the one WTKK gave him, he’s screwed. That contract was incentive laden based on ratings metrics that Howie will likely never meet. Especially if he doesn’t change his piss poor attitude. As he himself said in the Lisa Hughes interview, “the listeners can tell if you’re not having fun”.

So, unless ‘RKO gave him a major concession and reworked his deal to not include ratings incentives, he is looking at a pretty severe pay cut.

After all the publicly expressed hard feelings the last few months I can’t imagin that Entercom would not want a ratings based contract with Howie just to protect themselves from Howie “taking a dive” either intentionally or unintentionally. 

Looking down the road, I can see Howie’s poor attitude driving poor ratings, driving poor paychecks, driving even worse attitude, … rinse and repeat.

Where’s William Bulger when we need him. I’m sure there is some obscure tragic literary figure that represents Howie in this dilemma. I guess we’ll have to wait until Bulger “deems it appropriate” to chime in on this.

Todays Gov Do-Nothing proposal is this:

Gov. Deval Patrick wants to spend a record $1.1 billion on housing-project repairs, construction loans and other upgrades to the state’s affordable-housing stock.

“Affordable housing (is vital to) our communities and our economy,” Patrick said in unveiling plans to spend $1.1 billion over five years on affordable-housing improvements. That’s some $250 million more than currently budgeted.

Patrick wants the state to sell $1.1 billion of bonds - a record affordable-housing request

Nice to see Gov Do-Nothing has taken time off from vacationing at his mansion in the Berkshires to look out for the needy.

Taxpayers?? Not so much.

As usual though, this swell sounding scheme to help the needy is likely to go nowhere.

Patrick’s plan has bipartisan support among lawmakers, but it’s unclear how the state can cover the plan in addition to projects already in the pipeline.

Massachusetts can by law only sell $1.5 billion of bonds per year, but Patrick has recently proposed spending billions on roads, bridges, university campuses and other infrastructure.

Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation added that the state already has a $10 billion backlog of capital projects.

“The reality is that even if the Legislature approves (Patrick’s housing plan), the state doesn’t have the means to raise this money in the short term,” he said.

Just more sweet sounding pablum for the Moonbats. Is this Fucking guy going to accomplish 1 single thing before his term is up?

Casinos are a pipe dream. Property tax relief? Forget it. More Cops on the street? Forget that too.

What an incompetent fool. An intelligent guy who got passed along via affirmative action his whole life without ever having to actually accomplish anything.

As George Bush would put it, he’s been a victim of the soft bigotry of low expectations.

What excuse can he use for not doing anything? The entire state, including the legislature, is full of Moonbats just like him.

Let’s see what he ends up accomplishing in his 4 years. I can’t wait to see what the Globe uses to justify their endorsement.

Other than he’s a Black Guy.

OK, I was channeling Brian Maloney when I added those exclamation points to the title of this post.

Anyway, an odd story makes it into todays Boston Herald. It seems WTKK host Michelle McPhee said something very un-PC about Gay men on her show last week. As Jessica Heslam reports in the Herald, where McPhee also works:

WTKK-FM host Michele McPhee issued an on-air apology to anyone offended by remarks she made on an earlier show about gay men and the fashion industry.

“I’d like to take a moment to just briefly comment on something I said about the fashion industry during my show on Tuesday,” McPhee said at the start of yesterday’s midmorning show.

“I was talking about how clothes are designed to fit boys rather than full-figured women, like myself, and I made an inappropriate, incorrect statement about gay men. Sometimes things don’t come across the way they were intended, and that was definitely one of those cases,” said McPhee, the Boston Herald’s police bureau chief.

“I am very sorry if I misspoke and I apologize if I offended anyone who was listening. I just want everyone to know that. I apologize. It was certainly not meant to offend anyone. I was talking about clothing.”

The Greater Media-owned station issued a statement earlier this week. “Michele’s comments were made in the context of a fashion industry that designs women’s clothes for atypical body types. She regrets if her remarks were taken to mean anything else, as no other meaning was intended.”

Station officials have refused to release an audiotape of the comment in question.

McPhee is the host of a Saturday show on WTKK-FM (96.9) and has been a regular fill-in on the midmorning show in recent months.

So. What the fuck did she say?

WTKK won’t release a tape but how about asking a friggin question of your own co-worker? What shitty journalism to not pursue this. (I was going to use the cliche’d term ’shoddy’ but what the fuck. This is a blog so I can write whatever the fuck I want.)

Luckily, the incredibly bad new design of the Boston Herald web site has 1 good feature. Comments by readers are allowed at the bottom of stories. So, one of the dozens of people who were listening to McPhee will no doubt post what she said, right?

Just go to the Herald site and wait for the comments.

Wrong. This particular story is not allowing comments. How odd.

Fortunately, Stocky used his vast internet sleuthing skills and used google news to search on McPhee + Gay and had the answer within seconds.

The Bostonist (whoever that is) has the story.

Along with a Photo of the “full figured” McPhee we get what she said on the air:

Word is out on the Web that McPhee has a theory for why fashion designers like skinny models. She said on her WTKK show, “And who do homosexual men like? Little boys.”

There. Was that so hard? Now we have the whole story. It seems that in addition to being a radio industry expert, Stocky is now a journalism expert.

The Herald should do a little research on coverups vs the actual crime. The coverups are always worse.

What the Fuck is wrong with the Boston Globe???

Can’t they get anything right?

A story about the renewed interest in the Celtics on TV fails to address the number 1 issue thousands of viewers want an answer to.

Why the Fuck aren’t all the games broadcast in H FUCKING D!!!!????

Comcast OWNS the station!!! They add HD stations to their cable package every other friggin week, why the Fuck can’t they add one they own???

The home games appear to be swapped over to the lame HD Mojo channel. Is that how it will work for the whole year? Why can’t they do that for the away games??

Can’t they update the guide data to show the home games on Mojo HD so DVR users can setup the recordings in advance without monkeying with the shows listed on the guide for Mojo HD???

Christ almighty. Not a fucking word about this in the Globe story. I swear, when I become king I am going to fire scores and scores of people immediately after my coronation.

Starting with Nancy Marrapese-Burrell.

Yes, as the final hours of Howie’s self imposed radio silence grow few, we look back at one of the last sightings of Howie in the wild with his balls intact.

The Lisa Hughes interview.

Realizing that this footage could be too painful for some to watch, Stocky brings you some of Howie’s most memorable quotes:

I’m really happy to be getting on the FM dial.

I don’t really know how long AM stations … are going to be around.

The FM band has every advantage and it’s just better for me and honestly I’ll be surrounded by better people.

I’m in a lineup at ‘RKO where nobody gets on base.

I know the type of people Entercom hires and I know what they are capable of … they think they have a lot of money and they can tell me what to do.

I’m being dragged through the mud by these people.

Everybody’s gotta take a beating. Some times it’s your turn to take a beating.

I’ll be listening to Jay Severin, WTKK, 96.9 Boston’s talk evolution.

So sad, Howie. You coulda been a contendah.

Howie is back at ‘RKO. Just as I predicted.

All hail industry expert, Stocky!!!!!!!

It’s hard to keep up with the drivel that appears on savewrko.com but Stocky will try.

Crack business analyst Brian Maloney brings us this scoop:

GREATER MEDIA SHAFTS ENTERCOM

Really? How so?

It seems tiny little privately owned Greater Media, owner of WTKK bought a couple of North Carolina Stations.

Big woop. How is that shafting Entercom? According to Brian, Entercom bid on those stations too.

According to Reuters, Entercom topped the firms favored to win control of these stations,

Except that’s not what Reuters said. The firm selling the stations, Lincoln Financial has all 18 of it’s radio stations up for sale. Entercom was just listed as 1 of 4 companies who were interested in “some” of the stations. Reuters and Brian have no idea whether the North Carolina stations were ones that Entercom MIGHT have been interested in.

It’s a grand canyon sized leap to get from being listed as 1 of 4 firms potentially interested in some of the 18 stations up for sale to saying that GREATER MEDIA SHAFTED ENTERCOM. But that’s Mr. Shrill with an axe to grind Brian Maloney for you.

He then goes on to speculate in another post that Howie Carr could end up at one of those stations.

That giant sucking sound you hear is the sound of money streaming out of Howie’s bank account as he contemplates the much much lower salary in Hicksville, USA. It’s stupid to even speculate on it but that doesn’t stop Brian.

Never mind the fact that HOWIE IS STILL UNDER CONTRACT TO ENTERCOM!

Let’s hear how Brian addresses that unfortunate fact:

But the million- dollar question is this: could a Howie Carr Show based in Charlotte be carried in Boston without causing more legal troubles with Entercom? Hard to say, but it might be possible, depending on the language.

Christ what a dope. The “million dollar question” is how does Howie get out of his Entercom contract without being sued into the poor house? And to speculate that a new show could air in Boston is just moronic.

We also hear from Brian that Howies potential “new job” could be TV. Setting aside the contract thing, TV is a possibility. But where? NECN could never pay enough.

What about a national cable show? MSNBC was considering one overweight loudmouth (Rosie O’Donnell) and their lineup is full of stiffs so A Howie show is not out of the realm of possibilities but let’s face it. Howie’s medium is Radio not TV.

That seems pretty unlikely too.

All in all it still looks like Howie back to WRKO. It shouldn’t take too much longer for them to kiss and make up.

We should hear soon.

Stocky apologizes for not keeping the updates on the amount of cake slipping through Howie’s fingers up to date.

Today I will get a little ahead of the game and assume 4 additional weeks of lost revenue since my last update. If Howie makes it back on the air by Wednesday, I will revise this post. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen though.

As of Wednesday of this week, Howie will have lost …

119,230.85 

Stocky doesn’t even want to guess how much Howie has spent on Lawyers in the last few months. This is money that is NEVER coming back. Each day that passes puts our Hero another day closer to retirement and his former listeners scattered acrosss other entertainment choices. When he comes back to WRKO, he won’t be meeting any of those ratings based bonuses anytime soon, if ever.

If you see an overweight, balding, pasty white man crawling on his knees towards Guest St. in Brighton, tin cup in hand, that would be Howie.

Speaking of tin cups, hopefully Howie will be able to continue his association with the Salvation Army. He’s almost due for his hour ringing the bell in Downtown Crossing. Maybe this year he can apply for a handout himself from the good folks at the S.A.

If all you did was read the shrill commentary at savewrko.com you would think that Entercom is one step away from Bankruptcy.

That is just not true.

On Wednesday Maloney posted about ETM hitting a new low of $16.67 along with a dire prediction of what was in store for the stock as earnings were about to be reported.

Quarterly earnings are due to be reported this week, so Wall Street obviously isn’t expecting much in the way of results.

First of all, what Brian fails to note is that while a fall to a new low for the stock is not good news it’s not the whole story. Management started paying dividends in 2006. In the last 2 years they’ve returned over $3 per share to shareholders. At an almost unheard of yield of more than 9%. If dividends are your thing, ETM is a pretty sweet looking stock.

Second of all, Brian couldn’t have been more wrong in his prediction for the rest of the week if his name was Mr. Wrongy Wrongenstein.

The last 2 days of the week ETM was up 10%, while the market itself was brutal. The S+P 500 was down 2% the last 2 days.

That includes a 6.46% gain on Friday after they reported earnings. Wall st very much liked what David Field had to say.

What did David Field have to say? A lot. In fact Boston/WEEI/WRKO were a big part of ETM’s conference call and Q3 results. Not that Brian would tell you that.

Some highlights taken from the conference call:

Third quarter performance was led by strong results in Seattle, Boston, Indianapolis and Milwaukee.

…

Q. your experience in Boston, it sounds as if you grew revenue against the grain of what I think most other media competitors there, newspaper and television and so on in the quarter which was a tough time there.

A. Yeah, Boston is again a direct perfect example of where our strategic focus pays off. We are doing well digitally, we are doing well with our business development.In fact, I mentioned on our last call a program we developed with Shaw’s Markets, which is the largest grocery chain in New England where we did a multi-platform integrated program with them, which has generated substantial incremental dollars that has kicked in over the last couple of months, and we’ll continue over the next couple of years.

And also on branding content side where we continue to invest in great content on our sports station, WEEI, which is the number one radio sports station in the United States, and in addition, investing in great content on our other properties in that market that has enabled our brands to stand strong. So yeah, at the time when Boston is a flattish market, we’ve been able to achieve significant growth as a direct result of those efforts.

And just as Stocky predicted (do I ever get a prediction wrong?) Howie Carr makes an appearance in the Conference call.

Q. A just one quick follow-up on WRKO. Could you tell about thought to us on how that land up — are you pleased with the progress there, when do we really see the ratings gains that we’ve seen in WRKO really translate to increases revenue there, and did WEEI suffer any revenue losses? Thanks.

A. Yes. We are thrilled with how WEEI has faired, namely even though we took of the Red Sox, our ratings have remained outstanding and so as predicted that’s worked out terrifically for us. WRKO situation is little different, because while the dishes was playing out, unfortunately we had a contract dispute with our number one personality who has been off the air for the last couple of months and had a high profile contract dispute over the course of the summer and I think that was meaningfully disruptive to both our advertising and to our listening strategies. We very much hope and expect to see a positive resolution to that situation, but it’s obviously put us behind schedule here, as we have sort of waited through that disruption.

There you have it. A 700 million dollar corporation is forced to try to explain why Howie is not honoring his contract. That probably sounds great to the likes of Fanboy Brian and Joy but to shareholders it sounds more like some fuckup (Howie) is stealing money out of their pockets.

Don’t think ETM’s legal staff is not working on this right now. They are. ETM management has a legal obligation to protect the shareholders. If a contract has been violated they have an obligation to try to recover damages.

Howie is in violation of his contract. A contract that has held up in court. He better get his ass back behind the Mic before ETM shareholders start calling for his scalp.

From Howie’s number 1 Fanboy Brian Maloney at savewrko.com we hear that Howie is “leaning” towards coming back to WRKO.

Oh, he’s leaning all right. Just like I’m leaning towards taking a dump soon. I don’t necessarily want to but I know I’m going to have to. It’s inevitable. Just like Howie on his knees in front of his Entercom Masters.

Maloney’s delusions bring back memories of Bahgdad Bob.

He also wants to avoid the degree of personal humiliation suffered by Dennis & Callahan, who tried to play hardball with Entercom and were crushed. That’s why he’s more likely to settle with them now, rather than fight an extended battle.

Howie has already been crushed by Entercom. I suspect that personal bankruptcy has more to do with Howie not wanting to fight an extended battle than anything else. And D+C’s “battle” with ETM is long forgotten by most listeners. They’ve been better than ever since they came back on the air.

Howie’s humiliation has had much more drama. Lisa Huges Interview, Howie invoking slavery, near daily reports in the press on the latest Howie courtroom beatdown.

Does the Hearth + Kettle serve Humble Pie?

Back to Fanboy:

He does have a potential departure option that does not involve WTKK or a contractual dispute with Entercom. The company is apparently aware of this.

Talk about burying the lead. Do tell, Brian. If you weren’t told what it is than at least use your “industry experience” to speculate on what it might be.

Poor old Stocky doesn’t have a clue.

Howie is under contract with Entercom. Short of coming back to work for Entercom he will likely be sued. Entercom has warned him of that. What could he possibly have up his sleeve that could trump that?

A buyout of his ETM contract and a promise not to compete with ETM properties???? That’s the only scenario that I can think of that “might” be acceptable to ETM. And even then the non-compete thing might not be enforceable so why would ETM agree to it? 

Sounds very fishy to me.

The main concession Howie is seeking is to knock off at least the last three years of his contract, in effect making him a short-timer upon his return to Guest Street. At the end of that abbreviated period, he would be free to go wherever he wants.

At LEAST 3 years??? His contract is 5 years. Does that mean he’s trying to get 4 years knocked off but will settle for 3 years?? Cut the Shit. ETM is holding a contract that has held up in court. Why would they waive 3 years of it so Howie can then go on a competing station? Who does Brian think is representing ETM? Howie’s lawyers?

The only thing ETM should be waving for Howie is a lawsuit over his head. The legal fees for them won’t even merrit a footnote in their financial statements. For Howie, it’s bankruptcy.

He also wants an end to the arrogant and counterproductive public statements by local managers, company attorneys and George Regan’s PR flunkies. That’s why both sides are suddenly so quiet.

You first Howie. Cue the Lisa Hughes interview.

There may be some additional concessions, but otherwise, he’s looking at pretty much the same pay package and timeslot upon his return.

Oh sure. ETM is anxiously sitting by the fax machine waiting to get the full list of concessions Howie is demanding. Give me a Fucking Break. Howie has 2 choices. Return to ‘RKO or go bankrupt.

And He better hope that ETM gives him his old pay package. If they stick to the WTKK contract, he’s fucked. He won’t be earning any of those ratings based bonuses anytime soon, if ever.  That contract was as delusional as Eddie Endleman thinking he was going to crush WEEI when he left. How’d that work out for Eddie?

The ultimate goal is to resume his show in a way that preserves his dignity. Does this deal accomplish that?

No. But keep pumping Brian. I’m sure you’ll spin the final result in favor of Howie. That’s what Fanboy’s do.

Isn’t that what every Real Estate agent will tell you no matter what is going on in the market?

Well, it isn’t. Prices are going lower so why not wait if you can? If you have to sell do NOT play the “I’ll list it high and then adjust the price if I have to game”. Better to way underprice it and hope for the mini-bidding war the low price attracts.

But what do I know? I’m not a realtor. And I’m certainly not the President of the National Association of Realtors.

Thomas M. Stevens was. That has not helped him sell his own house. Priced too high initially, taken off the market, re-listed $165K lower and still not sold 766 days later.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.

Let’s start with a Stocky “favorite”, Steve Bailey of The Boston Globe. In todays column, Stevie takes time off from committing felonies to write about the fascinating subject of The Massachusetts Business Court.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz …. oh, sorry. I dozed off there for a minute.

In the middle of an excruciatingly boring piece he inserts this non-sequetor:

 Let’s stipulate, as the lawyers might say, that Howie Carr is no van Gestel fan; after losing repeatedly in his court, the Boston Herald columnist is probably headed back to “indentured servitude” at WRKO-AM at more than $1 million a year. But beyond Howie, van Gestel is a judge with many fans, the person most responsible for turning the business session of the state’s Superior Court into the success it has become.

Nice little whack at Howie. What does it have to do with the reorganization of the Mass Business Court?

Not a fucking thing.

And of course Mr. Business Writer extrodinaire gets the salary figure wrong. No way Howie pulls in $1 mil per year anytime soon. His contract is incentive laden with a base salary that’s actually a pay cut. It’s not certain what time slot he’ll return to never mind if he’ll meet the high bars the incentive clauses have set. But that level of analysis of the situation by Bailey is pretty typical of his work. His thinking runs as deep as a soap dish.

For Moron #2 we go to our Hero Cap’n Carr. In this time of crisis it appears that Howie is regressing to his journalistic childhood. He’s writing columns about City Council races.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz … oh, sorry. I dozed off there for a minute.

Howie eloquently describes the level of interest in yesterdays election:

After days of being called “liar” and “sneak” and “coward,” the college boy from Harvard ousted Felix “No-Show” Arroyo from the City Council in an election 85 percent of voters took a pass on.

If 85% of the voters in Boston didn’t care about this election, what percentage of the Herald’s readership gives a Rats Ass about it? Less than 5%? Forget about that talk of Howie trying to get himself fired on purpose when he returns to ‘RKO, it looks like he’s trying to get himself fired from The Herald.

We get a hint of what Howie is doing with all his free time from an indication that he was actually out “pounding the pavement” for quotes last night.

I asked him if he had any final thoughts on Connolly.

“Nothing,” he said, chuckling. “Not tonight.”

Nice work, Paper Boy. I’m sure it was tough fighting off all your fellow scribes to get that exclusive quote.

Speaking of savewrko.com, we get to Moron #3. Brian Maloney. In a ridiculous jealousy laden post today he calls Tom Bradys lifestyle “borderline disgusting” and repeats the days ago refuted claim that Gisele Bundchen refuses to be paid in Dollars.

Do a little work Brian. Here is a quote from her manager:

But just a few minutes ago, CNBC Squawk Box producer Stephanie Landsman spoke by telephone with Anne Nelson, Bundchen’s manager.  Nelson tells us reports that Gisele wants to be paid in euros are “false.”   Nelson’s take: “Some idiot in Brazil reported something just to make news.”

Nelson points out that Gisele lives in New York City, and thus needs U.S. dollars for her big-city lifestyle.

And Tom Brady’s personal life is “disgusting”. He’d already broken up with his over the hill former girlfriend before she announced a couple of months later that she was pregnant. Can you say TRAPPED? She’s the one who is disgusting.

In a comment Maloney states that there are better ways to hedge than to play the currency markets. Do tell, oh investment guru. I suppose thousands of red blooded American currency traders are just disgusting Morons and un-American if they short the Dollar.

I guess Stocky is Un-American too for investing in all those sweet multinational energy services companies who don’t get paid in Dollars but make a killing when they convert the revenue to the sinking Dollar. 

Stick to your day job of wrongheaded commentary on the Boston Radio scene.

From Howie’s fellow Boston Herald staffer Jessica Heslam, we get a report via some radio trade publication called “All Access” that Howie is getting ready to call off the dogs.

When asked by Jessica to comment Howie responds with:

       Chirp, Chirp, Chirp …

You get the picture.

When Jessica asks the WRKO attorney to confirm a deal we get:

WRKO attorney Shep Davidson couldn’t confirm a deal.

Of course he couldn’t. It’s not done. YET. It will be though, you can bet on it. All that’s required is for some way to be devised for Howie to save face. As I posted weeks ago, I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Howie bounced the Felon from his morning slot. I wouldn’t give that too high of a probability though. Entercom is holding 4 aces, Howie has a pair of 2’s.

At this point he and his creditors should thank their lucky stars that WRKO is willing to take him back. He’d be royally fucked if the deal to come back to ‘RKO goes bad.

There’s a lot of nonsense going on at savewrko.com. And not just from Brian Maloney. Lots of comments about boycotting sponsors, Howie getting fired on purpose, etc.

Please. What a bunch of crap. Take it from an industry expert, Howie will be back with bells on. Loving life at RKO and cashing his fat paychecks. Because as Richard Gere/Mayo so eloquently put it in An Officer and a Gentlemen:

           “I’ve got no place else to go! No place else to go.”

Maybe we’ll hear that sound bite on Howies first day back. 

On another note, is Jessica Heslam as hot as her Herald photo looks? If so, how long before we start seeing her on TV? Seems a shame to waste all that journalistic talent writing for the Herald.

On a day when Bill Belicheck is looking for a little revenge for Tony Dungy’s comments comparing the Pats to Barry Bonds, we get Billy Bulger commenting on the mess our dear Cap’n Carr finds himself in.

A Globe Op-Ed piece on Howie’s mess by Joan Vennochi. Stocky is actually a fan of Joan, back from the days she used to be the go-to-gal on the Globe’s business pages. She has serious moonbat tendencies of course but she usually writes interesting and somewhat balanced pieces.

Joan goes straight for the Jugular with a quote from Billy Bulger who references an obscure French philosopher.

He’s “a donkey caught between two bales of hay,” noted Bulger, referencing a problem of decision-making that is named after the 14th-century French philosopher Jean Buridan.

Bulger must be beside himself with glee over Howie’s fate. Yet he still “deems it appropriate” to express himself like the erudite snob he is. Bulger still has scars from the day Congressman Dan Burton dropped an Edmund Burke quote on him like an anvil just prior to Bulgers disasterous testimony before congress.

This must take a lot of the sting out of that old wound.

Joan then shows her excellent grasp of the situation by noting that Howie will likely end up back at WRKO.

Carr will end up with one very lucrative bale, probably at WRKO-AM, the station he tried to leave.

That is what Stocky has been saying for months. What choice does Howie have? You don’t need to be an “Industry expert” like Brian Maloney at savewrko.com to see the obvious.

Brian is still sticking to his guns and claiming that WTKK will wait for Howie and would never consider hiring the now available Imus.

Brian, when Imus ends up back at WTKK and Howie at WRKO, I will annoint myself the “industry expert” and you can write about Entercoms daily stock moves. 

Brian is twisting himself in knots trying to defend his foolish “logic”. Saying recently:

Brian Maloney, an industry analyst and creator of the Radio Equalizer Web site, said the logical choice for Imus in the Hub is WRKO.

Umm, no. WRKO already has a morning show. A bad one, but one they are committed to. Or at least they are  committed to pay the Felon for the next few years.

WTKK does NOT have a morning show. Hmmmm, let’s see. what would be the “logical choice” for Imus?????

Christ. What moronic “Logic”.

Oh wait, according to Brain WTKK “quashed” the possibility of Imus returning. Let’s hear straight from WTKK:

Greater Media, which owns WTKK, said it’s “keeping all options open as we decide how to move forward.” 

That doesn’t sound like “Quashing” to me. But then, I’m not an “Industry Expert” like Brian.

Back to Joan. She quickly gets to the 4th quarter and she’s still got Tom Brady tossing bombs to Randy Moss.

Meanwhile, WRKO hopes Carr’s Boston Herald salary and earnings from the sale of “The Brothers Bulger: How They Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century” will only go so far in maintaining his lifestyle. “I have no idea what the Herald pays him, or what he’s getting from his book. But he has a second wife and kids in college. The compensation [at stake] is not nominal,” said Davidson.

Yes, yes. How true. This is what it boils down to. Dough-re-me. If there’s anything we know about our Hero Howie, it’s that he loves money almost as much as life itself. So, despite what he said in the Lisa Hughes interview, it IS about the money. It always is.  

A wife who works Real Estate, kids in college, a big house in Wellesley and years of legal bills staring him in the face must be making for some sleepless nights for our Cap’n. And if you think that lifestyle is not expensive, Stocky directs you to this recent Globe article.

This is a little too creepy for Stocky to go into in detail but if you care to do a little work yourself you’ll see that Howie needs to bring home more than Bacon every month. He needs an entire Pig farm.

Howie’s many, many enemies are still running up the score. What’s next? A sound bite of Mumbles Menino giving Howie advice? Maybe Joe Kennedy can offer him a job pumping oil this winter. Better yet, Joe-for-oil could offer to deliver some Hugo Chavez heating oil to Howie’s house.

There’s still plenty of time for more scoring in this game. Only Howie can call off the dogs.

Take the money. Go back to ‘RKO.

And LIKE IT!!!!

Sometimes I read a news story that makes me laugh for the moment and sometimes there are those stories that the more you think about them later the more you laugh. For days on end.

I came across a DJ News Service story posted on a message board that has MSFT puffing out their chests and bragging how they, not AAPL or GOOG, will dominate the mobile/smart phone market.  

First of all, who knew MSFT was big into this market? Second of all, I guess that explains all the crappy UI’s on all those phones.

But let’s go to the story:

In short, some new and very powerful forces are attacking Microsoft´s leading position in the business of creating new generations of smarter cellphones, a business that Microsoft says is increasingly key to its future.

What is Microsoft going to do? In essence: Nothing different, according to Scott Rockfeld, Microsoft´s mobile products manager.

Do nothing different?? Sounds like a winner of a strategy there Scott.

Meanwhile, its new rivals in Google and Apple are starting from scratch in a complex business they don´t know much about, illustrated best by Apple´s recent stumbles introducing its iPhone.

Apple’s recent stumbles with the Iphone!!!????? You gotta be fucking kidding me. It was only the most succesfull release of a consumer electonics device in the history of mankind!!! What delusional fuckwads.

“We´ve emerged as a leader and are positioned for long-term success,” Rockfeld said.

Microsoft hasn´t changed much in how it sells its phone software, but it has been tinkering with how it adopts and implements its mobile strategy. As a consequence, in recent weeks, Microsoft´s mobile software unit has been reorganized, and two veterans of Microsoft´s Xbox videogame unit now play key roles.

XBOX360?!?!?!????? You mean the product that has yet to make a penny profit and who’s losses are above 6 BILLION dollars and still counting?????

Don’t stop there Scotty, why don’t you bring in some key veterans from The Zune. Or if they are too busy working on their resume’s you could pull some people from the Vista team. Unless they are too busy providing help for customers who are trying to roll back to Win XP after installing Vista. Geeze what dolts.

Microsoft is confident it not only can continue leading the market but also be the one responsible for driving its overall growth.

“What we´re doing is sticking to our strategy,” Rockfeld said. “We are built to scale and can grow as rapidly as the smart-phone market grows.”

MSFT shipped 11 million “smart phone units” in 2007. AAPL shipped 1 million Iphones in Q4 2007 and expecdts to ship 10 million Iphones in FY 2008. That comes to …. 11 million Iphones. Imagine that. The same number as MSFT shipped in 2007. While AAPL is just getting rolled out worldwide.

That MSFT strategy of not changing anything sure sounds good to me.

Could these MSFT Morons do any worse if they were trying to run the company into the ground??

Buy AAPL.

Is Stocky smarter than most of the people on Wall St? Maybe not. But am I smarter than Mark Long? (mark.long@dowjones.com)

Goddamn right I am.

Who is Mark Long? He is the guy who wrote this in a DJ wire report this morning:

Halliburton’s shares were hit Friday along with other energy-services firms after rival Schlumberger posted weaker-than-expected results and offered a bleak portrait of the months to come.

Weaker than expected results?????

• THEY BEAT ESTIMATES FOR BOTH THE TOP + BOTTOM LINE!!!!!!!!!

Bleak portrait of the months to come?????

• THEY SAID NO SUCH FUCKING THING!!!!!!!!!!!

As I detail in my previous post, the ONLY issue SLB had was pricing pressure for a small part of their North American business. But because of morons like Mark Long the stock got crushed - down 12% on Friday.

Today, it’s down another 4% to $95. This is fucking criminal. Douchebags like Mark Long don’t deserve to be running a Dairy Queen never mind reporting on multi-billion dollar corporations.

Not everyone on Wall St. is so stupid. Here is how some of the higher than room temperature IQ types have reacted to SLB’s quarter today:

• Friedman, Billing & Ramsey raised their price target to $124
• UBS Reiterates it’s BUY rating
• Wachovia on Monday reiterated its market perform rating for Schlumberger Ltd

When the action settles, just buy the stock. Existing oil production is in decline, SLB’s technology and services slow the decline. They will make tons of money for years to come.

This story got almost no play in the Boston Media. I couldn’t find it in the Globe or the Herald. Although it might very well be in The Herald and just buried beneath the piss poor new web site design.

We go to a bostonchannel.com item for this:

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a $280 million spending bill that gives pay hikes to various public employees, including the state’s district attorneys and himself.

 

But Patrick said he wouldn’t accept the 4.8 percent pay raise unless it’s recommended by an advisory panel he will appoint.

Previous mentions of this spending bill in the Boston Media noted that Patrick and his Lt Gov would not accept the pay raise. Now we find out that he will accept the raise IF it is recommended by a panel he will appoint.

We can add this to the list of Life’s sure things. Death, taxes and a recommendation for a pay raise for Gov Do-nothing. If you attempted to get odds on this from Vegas they would tell you to forget it. It’s a sure thing.

Does Deval actually think we are this stupid? Apparently he does.

And what about this nugget?

The spending bill also includes about $453,000 to double the governor’s staff in Washington so it can better direct federal dollars to Massachusetts.

Isn’t that what we pay Kennedy + Kerry for? What the fuck is all that money going to be spent on? I’m guessing we’ll have a few nationwide searches for new personnel that will end with new employees who happen to be supporters of Gov Do-Nothing.

Christ, this state is pathetic.

Normally I don’t really think I’m that much smarter than most of the people active in the Stock Market but days like yesterday make me wonder.

The action in the oil services sector yesterday was SO FUCKING STUPID I’d rather bang my head against my desk than write about what happened.

The only consolation I get is knowing with 100% certainty that the long term story is more intact than ever. The short term story is intact too despite what the fucking morons did yesterday.

SLB - Schlumberger is the king of all energy services companies. I love listening to their earnings calls as they describe how they continue to kick ass. Yesterdays call was no different. They beat estimates handily. Profit up 35%, revenue up 20%. Great results and ahead of the estimates.

So why did the stock drop 12% yesterday??? Let’s take it from a WSJ article:

Third-quarter profit at Schlumberger, which is seen as a bellwether for the sector, was up 35% on strong international growth, but analysts saw only the depressing results from North America,  

Depressing results for North America??? SLB only gets 25% of it’s revenue from North America and the vast majority of the “depressing results” was due to weather related downtime from Rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Overall revenue was only down 3% in North America for reasons (weather) not related to ongoing demand or pricing pressure.

SO WHAT’S THE BIG FUCKING DEAL?!?!?!?

What went over the wires was a quote from the CEO from his answer to the first analysts question. Pricing has declined in recent quarters for work SLB does on North American land based Natural Gas rigs. This is a pretty small part of SLB’s business. They say it will likely continue to decline due to overall high supplies of Nat Gas (less pumping) and an abundance of equpment available to do the work. BFD. A nice cold spell this winter and Nat Gas supplies will be down and pumping will ramp up. Even if that does not happen, who cares. It’s not that big a part of SLB’s business.

When asked where the bottom of the price decline was, The CEO said he didn’t know. How could he know? What other answer could he be expected to give? He already said 2008’s declines would continue to be “single digits” but who could possible know beyond that?

So that’s the quote that all the stories jumped on:

“Where the bottom is I really don’t know,” Mr. Gould said. 

That single quote, referencing a tiny part of SLB’s business, on a day when they blew away earnings estimates, took SLB down 12% and crushed the whole sector.

OIH, the ETF that tracks the sector tanked 6% and my beloved FSESX Fidelity fund which counts SLB as almost 25% of the fund was down over 7%.

This sector has been on a huge run recently so some profit taking could be expected but for a gem of a stock like SLB to go down 12% in 1 day is fucking criminal.  

SLB’s counterparts report next week, including the universally hated HAL - Halliburton (Great company - weak stock) which only went down 3%. Which in itself is fucking stupid since HAL has much bigger exposure to North American Nat Gas work.

Expect a not so great quarter from HAL which will likely take the sector down further. 

Or as a friggin genius analyst said:

“If [Schlumberger] isn’t safe, who is?” asked Dan Pickering of Tudor Pickering Energy in a note to clients. “North America really hurt [Schlumberger]. Rest of the group is probably guilty until [they] prove themselves innocent.”

Except that North America DIDN’T REALLY HURT SLB!!!!! Other than that, your note to your clients is accurate you fucking dolt!!!!

Excuse me while I bang my head against my desk………………….

OK, I’m back. That felt better.

So, to end this really long post, buy some SLB, NOV + RIG next week, assuming the market does not continue it’s nose dive. The era of cheap oil is O V E R. SLB, NOV, RIG and companies like them will be pumping profits for years + years. 

Our do-nothing Governor is beginning to hear some faint criticism from his allies. Todays Boston Globe has a story about a group of Black Harvard Students holding a candlelight vigil to protest the do-nothing Governor doing nothing about violence in Boston.

Oh, wait. My Mistake. The Governors not a Republican???? Scratch the candle light vigil/protest. Let’s call it a “visit”.

Holding lit candles while wearing black suits and dresses, members of the Harvard Black Students Association visited Boston last night to add their voices to the chorus of those challenging Governor Deval Patrick to combat black-on-black youth violence

This follows yesterdays story which also laid a velvet glove on Gov Do-Nothing:

Among the 1,500 mourners was Governor Deval Patrick, who had been admonished a few days earlier by Odom’s mother for doing too little to quell gun violence in the city, the kind of complaint regularly directed toward mayors, not governors. Dickerson told the congregation that some had criticized Kim Odom for “calling the governor out” and asked whether Odom should expect more from Patrick because he is black.

Gun Violence in Boston has been on the rise for several years despite what that series of lying though their teeth billboards on the Mass pike behind Fenway have said. What’s interesting is occasionally the Globe gets it right. Just a few days before these stories were printed the Globe had a story about 3 major cities in Massachusetts where shootings have recently decreased by 45%. Drastically improving the lives of everyone who lives there.

But progress has been made in reducing gun violence, according to police statistics. Reports of shots fired have declined 45 percent through August, and the number of people struck by gunfire has dropped to seven, from 25, through August 2006, according to police. The city had five gun slayings last year but went nearly 10 months until recording the first gun killing of the year, on Sept. 30. New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang, a former prosecutor, is a supporter.

…

Hockert-Lotz, who has publicly praised Sutter in opinion pieces published by the Standard-Times newspaper, said Sutter’s approach, and the drop in gun crimes, has given him hope. “New Bedford is the safest it’s been in the 20 years I’ve been doing business,” he said.

The Cities are New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton. 3 of the roughest cities in the State.

Well Holy Shit!!! You might think. Why couldn’t Boston do the same??? Bristol county must have some extra special gun laws to accomplish such a drop in Gun crime. Let’s get busy doing the same thing in Boston. Imagine how many lives could be saved!!!

Sorry, but you would be wrong to think that. It appears that no one in Boston or the State House is interested in reducing gun crimes by 45%. If they were they would be using the Bristol County model. There is nary a peep about what’s going on in Bristol County.

The reason??? 

O’Berg and police in New Bedford and Fall River are pointing to the aggressive move by Sutter as a key reason gun violence and reports of gun violence have seen double-digit drops in the three Bristol County cities since January, when Sutter took office.

While other prosecutors in Eastern Massachusetts seek to hold someone as a danger to society on a case-by-case basis, Sutter requests a hearing whenever anyone is arrested on gun charges.

“We’ve pushed the envelope,” Sutter said. “We haven’t had a 100-percent success rate, but we certainly are pushing it.”

Dangerousness hearings have been held in 58 cases, according to Sutter’s office, and defendants have been ordered held in 45 of them. Fall River has had two gun-related homicides so far this year, and there were two during 2006. But Police Chief John Souza said his city is more peaceful, as the reports of shots fired have dropped by 40 percent through September.

 Go figure. Locking up the scumbags who commit these gun crimes reduces the amount of gun crimes? How shocking is that?

One thing we know for certain is that Gov Do-Nothing will be doing and saying nothing about the success in Bristol County. To advocate locking up inner city thugs would risk a “visit” from the likes of Al Sharpton.

That’s an outrage Gov Do-Nothing will not stand for. And of course, speaking of outrage, there is none from Steve Bailey.

As I said in my very first post on the Howie situation, for someone like Howie who has spent his entire career ridiculing the misfortunes and missteps of others to find himself in this position is just laughable.

Especially since his current predicament was totally avoidable and entirely his own doing.

To Quote Dean Wormer: “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.” In Howies case it ends up being expensive. At week 4 the running total of lost money NEVER to be recovered (it’s gone, baby gone) is: 

84,615.45

Go back to RKO, Howie. This should be easier for you than it was for D+C. WEEI openly mocked those 2 loudmouths and they bent over and took the money. They weren’t even locked into a contract like you were. They could have gone on the air someplace else. For a lot less money, sure but they at least had that option. You have no options. You can’t go on the radio anywhere. You’re not very good on TV, not that NECN pays very well anyways. You could up your workload at the Herald to 4 columns a week but how much can you really make at the Herald?

Stop delaying the inevitable, cut your losses and go back.

Howie, the clock is ticking. Step away from the lawyers and get back to work for Entercom before your bank account gets hurt more than it already has.

Unlike Billy Bulger you have no monthly kiss in the mail to take care of you and your family. You need to actually work for a living. And it could very well be even worse than that. As todays globe points out:

Entercom has already put Carr on notice that he could be liable for significant damages if he doesn’t fulfill his contract.

Do you really want to start paying lawyers to defend that kind of lawsuit at the same time you’re paying lawyers to appeal yesterdays decision? On just your Boston Herald salary? As that clock ticks, the damages grow. You could lose everything you own. Well, not the Florida property, you + OJ got that covered, but everything else.

When is that next Tuition payment due? What’s the in-state rate for Umass Boston? Am I making this clear enough for you?

Take the money and go back to RKO. All of the people who will be laughing their asses off at you would do the same thing. Me included. So suck it up and go back to work. D+C did it and they are bigger loudmouths than you.

When you get back on the air trash the bosses and the company. It’ll be great for ratings:

“Talk radio is a different animal,” Fishkin said. A host disgruntled with the station “might make for good radio. It’s about getting the viewer interested, creating controversy, not being boring. Controversy goes a long way in talk radio.”

Howard Stern was at his best before he went into therapy when he was ranting and raving about his boss Tom “Cheapasano” and dissing everyone in management. More ratings makes for more Clam Plates for Howie.

Go ahead. Take the dough.

Remember the courtroom scene in the movie A Few Good Men where Tom Cruise objects to a question asked of a witness and the Judge quickly overrules the objection? Whereupon Demi Moore jumps up and says:

“Your Honor I *Strenuously* Object!!”

The Judge looks at her likes she’s a whack job and issues the same decision again overruling the objection.

That’s what Howie’s Lawyers looked like yesterday. The same arguments in front of the same Judge only this time they really, really, really meant it. Gosh darn it, they were strenuously objecting this time!!!!!

Just like in the movie, the Judge didn’t change his mind. He upheld his decision and issued a disdainful ruling which I take from Todays Globe:

“Carr is not, as he argues in his brief, ‘in essence [subject to] a lifetime employment agreement’ with Entercom,” the Judge wrote. “And wherever he legally finds himself, it is of his own conscious doing. He has not, as he publicly claims, been placed into some form of high-paid indentured servitude by this Court.”

Stocky loves the reference to Howie’s “indentured servitude”. For more on Howie’s slavery complex see my earlier Kunta Howie post.

What does all this mean? 2 things:

IMUS IN THE MORNING!!!!!!!! (on WTKK)

Howie takes the Entercom money. And likes it.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years about our Hero Cap’n Carr, it’s his love of money.  

How much money is a big question. The Globe story says todays ruling “ratchets up Howies salary” by forcing RKO to match the WTKK offer but that offer was full of incentives based on ratings. It’s also unclear whether the morning drive time slot is considered part of the contract that RKO must match.

One possible scenario for Howie to save face and make his WRKO comeback would be for RKO to dump his nemesis Tom Finneran and let Howie have the morning drive slot for what he can claim is a much bigger salary.

Stocky admits that scenario is fairly unlikely but it’s not impossible. Could they move the Felon to afternoon drive? Would his probation officer need to approve that change in work hours???

Still lots of questions left unanswered. 
 

That didn’t take long.

FBN’s first 5 minutes of programming yesterday morning included a sports report. Odd for a business channel but Fox did say they were targeting more main street as opposed to wall st.

Not that CNBC is paying attention but … this morning on Squawk Box they also did a sports report, giving the scores of the 2 baseball playoff games and the Monday night football game. Joe Kiernan ended the report with “Now you’re up to date on Sports”.

Other than events like the Super Bowl and even then only in the context of how it affects business have I ever seen a segment on sports on CNBC.

What’s next? Local traffic reports? I guess we should watch FBN to find out.

Brian Maloney has another post up on Howie Carr. In it he contends that WTKK “quashed” rumors of an Imus return.

In another way, Greater has also positioned itself well: recent rumors that Don Imus might return to WTKK were quickly quashed. Instead, the company says it will wait for Howie’s legal battle to end.

Stocky is unsure how you could conclude that committing to waiting for Howie’s legal battles to end translates to “positioning itself well”. The legal battle could drag on for months. Waiting for that is a good position????

Contradicting himself in the very next graph Maloney says:

But WTKK desperately needs Howie Carr to join its lineup as soon as possible.

So how does commiting to waiting potentially months make them “well positioned”? What they need is someone other than a Temp in the morning slot. And they need it yesterday.

I still say that unless Howie settles and/or wins his case quickly with WRKO it will be Imus in the morning on WTKK.

But WTKK “QUASHED” that rumor, right? No. They didn’t. Here is the quote from a Jessica Heslam blog entry that Stocky missed. Just the title of the link should tell you what you need to know: “No-imus-for-now”

When asked if Imus could return to WTKK, station spokeswoman Heidi Raphael said today: “As you know, we are pursuing another avenue for mornings and we expect to prevail.”

That’s “QUASHED”???? Where in that answer did they say No? Maloney falls for the baloney but Stocky won’t.

Let me translate that for you: Howie better win his case ASAP or it’s Imus on WTKK.

Not a good start for FBN.

It took all of 49 seconds for one of the newsreaders to get something wrong.

Hitachi has a new chip (actually, smaller recording heads) that will allow hard drive makers to dramatically increase the amount of storage they can fit on a disk. Except the newsreader Chick called it Memory, not Storage.

Does it really take a geek to know that hard drives provide storage, not memory? Anyone who has ever compared PC’s or laptops before buying one at least knows that they are different things.

She looked good though.

And then we got an explanation that Hitachi is an ADR along with a definition of what an ADR is. Talk about unimportant info. Does it trade on the NYSE, NASADQ or AMEX? Who really cares if it’s an ADR and what an ADR is? 

Could be an internet first here. Who wants to live blog a game and sit through all those crappy commercials. Tivo blogging - way behind real time - is the way to go.

I had no intention of doing this but something made me jump out of my seat and fire up the laptop. No, not the back to back bombs by Manny and Lowell. It was the shot of John Henry’s reaction to Lowell’s HR.

Was that the wrinkly plagerist from the leafy suburbs, one Doris Kearns Goodwin with Henry???? Christ almighty. Didn’t we get enough of these get-a-lifers after the Sox won in 2004?

I’ve had enough of “The Sox as a religious experience”, thank you very much. Just the sight of her makes me want to gag. The only thing worse than seeing her would be another shot of Ben Affleck. Or maybe John Kerry could tell us all about “Manny Ortez” again.

Just go the Fuck Away!!!!

(Ready to un-pause the Tivo now. Some more “skip thru commercial time” built up)

So early this morning I’m getting ready to roll out of bed and as usual I’m listening to D+C on WEEI. On comes an ad for Nikki Tsongas. Typical crap about voting for someone who will “change Washington” and “bring home the troops”.

Which is all the more galling given the fact that Nikki’s main accomplishment in life was sleeping with Paul Tsongas.

But that’s not what this is about. At the end of the ad which slams Jim Ogonowski and praises Tsongas by name there was a disclaimer stating that no candidate had anything to do with the ad. It was paid for by Abortion Loving Democrat Women, AKA Emily’s List.

Stocky is embarrassed to admit that the first thing that came to mind was “Hey, that fucking commercial is illegal!!”

The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law specifically forbids those type of ads within 60 days of an election. That Stocky knows this is evidence that I need to get a life.  

This will get no play anywhere.

The election will come on Tuesday and Tsongas probably wins. Who cares if months or years later, Emily’s list pays a fine. That’s assuming anyone even notices what they did.

Although just imagine the hysterics if the NRA started running ads for Jim Ogonowski. The Globe would be calling for congressional hearings.

Howie oh Howie. Wherefore art thou Howie????

Awful quiet on the Howie front. No leaked stories to the press from either side.

Hmmmmm. No idea what this means.

I still see Howie back at WRKO. He’ll take the money. What choice does he have?

We are now past week 3 of what should have been Howie’s new job at WTKK. The running total of lost wages is:

 75,961.55

Looking at that number my thought was “That’s a lot of fried clam plates”.

How many? Good question.

A delicious Clam plate at Kelly’s is $16.95. Add a Frappe for $3.95 and a large Coke (Diet, of course) for $1.95 and you get a total of $22.85.

Add the typical Howie tip and you end up with a total of $22.85.

That ends up being 3,324 Fried Clam Plates.

Put in perspective that comes to 1 fried clam plate a day for the next 9 years, 5 weeks and 1 day. (Howie, if you’re checking my math and why wouldn’t you, what else do you have to do, don’t forget the leap years.)

Despite what you may be thinking, it gives Stocky no joy to report this. I’m just serving the public.

Yes it must be true.

I think yesterdays story in the Boston Globe about Black Men being held to higher standards than whites in the workplace is just pure bullshit.

How does the Globe define “higher standards”? Are they being asked to work longer or harder for less pay? Nope. Are they given impossible to meet deadlines and then disciplined when they don’t meet them? Apparently not.

So what are the big outrages? Let’s see:

A Black guy named Michael James got a few comments when he wore shorts on a Casual Friday. According to him the obvious reason is because he’s a black guy. This is how far we’ve come in America when some guy with bony legs gets a comment about wearing shorts and he thinks he’s Rosa Parks.

Donovan Mcnabb makes an appearance with this complaint:

He said even when he plays well in a game, critics will say of him: “We would have scored more points if he would have done this.”   

I don’t know if Donovan has been paying attention to the media lately but there’s this new thing called Cable. On it they have lots of stations that do nothing but broadcast sports and do analysis of sports 24 hours a day. There’s also this thing called talk radio. There are entire stations who do nothing but criticize athletes 24/7.

If the only commentary allowed for a QB who played well is “He played Well.” There would be lots of dead air time.

And just a suggestion Donovan. The next time you’re in the Super Bowl and are trying to bring your team down the field for a needed score at the end of the 4th quarter try not to puke in the huddle. You choking dog.

Now back to Michael James:

James makes accommodations because of his 6-foot-2 height, which, he says, has made people view him as “threatening and menacing even though I’m the most peaceful person out there.” He shies away from making declarative statements at work, to prevent himself from appearing too aggressive. “I say, ‘What are your thoughts about it?’ rather than demanding they do certain things,” James says. “I put it out there in a fashion that they feel they have a choice.”

Let’s see … according to James his management style is not to act like a dictator. Instead he solicits opinions from others to gain a consensus; thereby getting buy in from those who will be doing the work.

THAT SOUNDS LIKE WHAT THEY TEACH AT FUCKING BUSINESS SCHOOL!!!!!!

But James does it because he’s a victim of Racism??? Give me a fucking break. 

More wisdom from James:

James finds the persistent negative stereotyping that accompanies having brown skin baffling. “It’s like we have our priorities in the wrong place,” he says. “My success shouldn’t be dependent on how I look or how well I can replicate what you’re comfortable with. It should be about what I bring to the table and how I help the organization advance in its goals and objectives.”

His success shouldn’t be dependant on how he looks??? What a noble concept. Too bad it’s illegal to practice that in America. Preferences must be given to women + minorities. If you’re a white guy forget about what you can bring to the table, black guys like James get the advantage.

Just a little more from James:

“I’ve been terminated from [a] job,” says James, who didn’t want to specify which company, “because I’ve taken on the top leaders based on ethical principles.

Now that’s a great career move. “Take on the top leaders”, that will get you far. I bet he lasted in that job a lot longer than some white guy with no affirmative action protection would have.

The whole premise of the article is such bullshit. EVERYONE modifies their behavior to fit in at work. It’s not a fucking elementary school playground. White + Black have to conform or they get canned.

Well, at least the hetero white male will get canned.

If you’re like Stocky, often times while reading a column in the Boston Globe a couple of burning questions come to mind:

        Who are these twits who write for the Globe?

And

         What the fuck do they do all day? It can’t be much.

Alex Beam answers question number 2 in yesterdays column leaving us with one less mystery of the universe to ponder.

It’s true that I hang around the house a lot …

Thanks for clearing that up Alex.

That description of Imus is courtesy of Brian Maloney at savewrko.com. While I don’t quibble with the description I do disagree with his conclusion. That Imus is too old to be a contender for his old position at WTKK.

The arguments against that are many:

Imus’ last contract still had several years left on it when he got fired so a new 5 year deal won’t run that much longer than his last deal. He received a multi-million dollar settlement from that contract. If he was too old + tired to continue he could easily retire with plenty of cake.

The Citadel contract has to be at least 3 years if not 5. Citadel will put him on scores if not hundreds of it’s own stations. Why wouldn’t WTKK?

Boston was one of Imus’ few major markets. By his standards he did pretty well here. You know Citadel will be shopping him to someone in Boston. Let’s see …. which talk station in Boston does not have a morning show???? Hmmmm, WTKK!!!!

Brian thinks that since Howie has 5-10 years left, WTKK will sit around and wait for Howies legal issues to get settled. That’s absurd. Howies situation could drag on for months and ultimately could end up with Howie not being allowed to work for WTKK. In the meantime WTKK’s ratings/revenues sink. What manager would risk their job by sitting on their asses and waiting for Howie.

The safe choice is to go with the known quantity. Imus.  

And as old and rapidly aging as Imus is, don’t forget about his wife. Without Imus on the air she goes back to being just another almost pretty blonde with a geezer husband waiting for her inheritance.

Before Imus got canned she had appearances on Oprah + Martha Stewart lined up to promote some dopy book she supposedly wrote. Imus probably needs to get back on the air just so he can get laid again.

She will make sure he works until the day he drops because once his fame is over so is hers.

They both could be getting Fucked by Don Imus.

In Deirdre’s case it’s dependant on Don’s Viagra prescrition staying current.

In Howie’s case it’s the new Imus/Citadel broadcasting deal.

As Drudge initially reported and Howie Kurtz follows up on, Imus is ready to strike a deal with Citadel.

Citadel Broadcasting, which owns 243 radio stations, including ABC Radio Networks, plans to put the I-Man in the morning slot on the powerhouse New York station WABC, the source said. The program would be offered in syndication to other stations around the country.

Italics added by Stocky.

It just so happens that Citadel does not own a Boston station. Imus, as untalented as he is, was still “successful” in Boston on … wait what was the station he was on …. WTKK!!!

You know the WTKK folks have to be considering cutting their losses and picking up Imus again. Imus is likely to come a lot cheaper this time around so if he was worth it before why wouldn’t he be worth it now for less money?

Citadel has a bunch of small stations that ring Boston who no doubt will have Imus on so why not syndicate him out to WTKK and “dominate” the dim-witted shut-in demo that Imus brings you?

It makes perfect sense.

The only potential problem is if Imus doesn’t want to screw a good friend like Howie.

Oh, Wait. HOWIE SUED IMUS AND WON!!! (at least his wife did)

Don’t think that old geezer Imus is too far gone to remember and don’t think he wouldn’t love to stick it to our man Howie.

Where does that leave our hero Cap’n Carr??

It leaves him pulling a D+C and crawling back to WRKO. Without the WTKK morning slot what is he going to do? Take the money of course. And like it.

And don’t think WRKO hasn’t considered this scenario. They are still operating as if Howie is coming back. I think he is.

Lots of Howie Coverage at savewrko.com but you heard this here first.

Well, here we are at what should have been the 10th day on the air for The Cap’n. Time to add another weeks paycheck relegated to the dustbin of Howie history.

Added to week 1 and the lost Oct 1 starting bonus it’s with a heavy heart that Stocky brings you:

67,307.70

{Insert Dr. Smith Voice Here} Oh, the Pain!!!

Stevie has another anti-casino column today which starts off with a lame shot across the Bow of Gov. Moonbat. Stevie calls him “Governor Slots”.

That’s Stevie being “hard on the governor for embracing gambling” again. But as he takes a tiny slap he can’t help but fall into swooning mode:

I have been hard on the governor for embracing gambling. But to be fair he is a man with great ambitions for the state - a very good thing - and he has been honest enough to say we are going to need new money to pay for it. 

If Stevie was really interested in being “fair” he would note that it’s only recently that Gov Moombat has “been honest” about needing money to pay for all of his “ambitions” AKA campaign promises.

During the campaign Kerry Healey nearly lost her voice screaming about how ridiculous all of Deval’s promises were. SHE WAS THE ONE who said over and over that there wasn’t enough money to do the things he was promising.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that our intrepid “business reporter” Mr. Bailey never wrote about this during the campaign. It’s only now after Deval is governor does Bailey become Mr. Authority on the states revenues and budget.

What’s really amazing is that at no time during the campaign was Deval in danger of losing. He had a huge lead yet he was falling all over himself pandering for votes; a puppet of the special interests.

God forbid his next election is close. Who knows what he’ll promise all the special interest groups.

His only response to Healey during the campaign was his mythical $750 million in waste and inneficiency he was going to eliminate from the budget.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for any press releases on that one. In fact, one of the first things Deval did was restore millions of dollars in cuts the Romney administration had made in order to balance the budget.

But back to Stevie. He has a much better idea for generating revenue than casinos:

The math is not complicated: 10 cents a gallon yields $300 million; 20 cents a gallon is $600 million. The Massachusetts’ gas tax, which hasn’t been raised since 1990, is 23.5 cents a gallon; in New York it is nearly 39 cents. And unlike gambling, we won’t have to set aside a dime to treat the victims of raising the gas tax.

Raising the Gas tax. Gee, there’s a new idea. But what about the $750 mil Deval is going to find in waste + inneficiencies??? Oh, wait. He’s going to use that money to give us “property tax relief”. Or is it the 1000 new police officers he promised? It’s hard to keep these broken promises straight.

Could the lead Business reporter for the globe spell all this out or does it take some dope with a blog like Stocky to do this?

Apparently the answer is some dope with a blog.

This fund continues to rock. Most of the holding are mostly trading with the price of crude but there are days like yesterday when crude goes down but these stocks go up.

Rarely do you see the opposite action. Over time FSESX is putting some serious seperation between it’s own value and the price of oil. While pullbacks are guaranteed to occur this fund will rocket higher. Take a look at the returns from the top 10 holdings. All of these companies have bookings several years out.

With returns Year to Date of more than 50%, Stocky loves this fund more than life itself.  

With the Cap’n down to only 1 paycheck, it’s hard to imagine that he won’t come crawling back to WRKO like D+C did to WEEI. 

Who has deeper pockets, WRKO or Howie?

Reportedly, Howie would have scored a $50K bonus if he was on the air at WTKK by Oct 1, 2007.

It’s now Oct 2nd and no Howie on WTKK.

As Bill Clinton would say, “I feel your pain, Howie”.

50 large. That’s gonna leave a mark.

How long can Howie go before he pulls a D+C?

If you’re keeping score at home, our 1 1/2 week total is:

58,653.85

That’s a lot of fried clams. It’s hard to imagine that Howie could go back on the air at WRKO but the same was said of D+C on WEEI. It seems unlikely but it’s not impossible.

If Howie loses the court case(s) what other choice will he have?

Todays Sunday Globe front page above the fold screaming headline:

53% in poll back Patrick casinos plan

Very first sentence in the story by Andea Estes:

A majority of Massachusetts residents supports Governor Deval Patrick’s proposal to license resort-style casinos across the state, …

Slight problem with that. They don’t.

To the Globes credit, they include the entire poll details in a PDF. I initially went there to find the margin of error for the poll. The 4.4% margin of error was not metioned in the story but was footnoted in an accompanying graphic. So it’s within the margin of error that the “majority of residents support Patrick’s plan”? That doesn’t sound like it deserves a screaming page 1 headline to me. But that’s not the real problem with this.

I went to the actual poll and looked for the question: Do you support Gov. Patrick’s Casino plan?

That question WAS NEVER ASKED!!!!!!!!!!

You have to go to page 28 of the PDF doc to find the question they used to come to their headline conclusion. Here it is:

“I’d like to turn to the subject of gambling in Massachusetts. Governor Patrick has recently proposed legal casino gambling, including slot machines, at three locations in Massachusetts. Supporters argue that this will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues to the State of Massachusetts while opponents argue that casinos will increase social problems from compulsive gambling. What about you … do you favor or oppose legalizing casino gambling in Massachusetts?” “Is that strongly or just somewhat?”

After a lengthy preamble that starts with Patricks plan for 3 casinos across the state and ends who knows where since all we get is the dot dot dot treatment we finally get to the question they asked:

Do you favor or oppose legalizing casino gambling in Massachusetts?

That was the friggin question. Not “Do you agree with Patrick’s plan?”

Christ almighty. Is this so fucking hard to understand? If it is, the very next question in the poll tries to clear it up:

“As I mentioned, Governor Patrick has proposed 3 casinos in Massachusetts. How many casinos, if any, would you like to see in Massachusetts?”

Based on the Front Page screaming headline and accompanying story any rational person would have to assume that 53% of the respondants would answer “3 or more casinos.”

Nope.

29% say None, 23% say One and 9% say Two. Only 28% say Three and 5% say Four or more.

Translated to non-globespeak we have 52% of the people who want no more that 1 casino in Massachusets. The Goverenor’s plan calls for 3 casinos and the poll shows that only 33% agree with 3 casinos.

That is way outside the margin of error and a landslide win for people who disagree with the Governors plan.

Is this bias in favor of Governor Moonbat, Bias in favor of anything that might generate more tax revenue, just plain stupidity on the part of the Globe or all 3.

Who the fuck knows.

The issue of casinos is a hot one in Massachusetts. The proposed Indian Tribe Casino in Middleborough seemed to come out of nowhere and has generated heated debate in that town. I checked Dan Kennedy’s blog and sure enough, he has a post up on the Globe story. Dan grew up in Middleborough and is adamantly against the Casino and the proces the town government has used to authorize the plan. I have to sympathise with Dan and the Opponents, it does sound like they are getting a raw deal. If that casino gets built Middleborough will change forever.  

But back to the Globe story. Amazingly even Dan Kennedy misses the glaring misrepresentation of the poll results.

Dan focuses on the questions that highlight NIMBY opposition to casinos in Massachusetts.  Most people don’t want a Casino near their house. Which by itself is also a repudiation of Patricks plan since it’s primary focus is to put a Casino within reach of everyone in Massachusetts.

But that doesn’t fit the Globe’s ”narrative”. 

Man, it’s hard not to laugh at all these dopes who hacked their shiny new Iphones and  got to watch them self destruct in front of their eyes after they applied the first software update from Apple.

The best part is that Apple warned everyone that this would happen if they hacked the phone to avoid AT&T and then applied the software update. But they all applied the update anyway.

That sound you hear is all the AT&T executives laughing and high fiving each other. All other potential Apple business partners take note: Our man Steve Jobs gots some serious street cred. Customers will do what they’re told or he’ll bring his pimp hand down hard on their sorry asses. 

You have to admire the fact that they did this and in typical Apple style the way they did it has a certain elegance. If you hacked your phone and then installed the updates you are definitely fucked. The phone don’t work. Unless you have an emergency that is. There are some reports that you can still dial 911 but nothing else with the shiny Ibrick.

Daddy Steve knows you did a bad thing and reluctantly delivered some “tough love” to you with that software update but he really loves you and wants to make sure you stay safe.

How funny is that?

Of course there is some serious bitching and moaning going on at macworld.com interspersed with sentiment like this:

If Apple warned us not to hit our iPhones with hammers, there would be like 1% of users who would hit them with hammers and then whine about how Apple should have made them hammer-proof. As a long time Mac user I feel justified in saying buh-bye, do not let the shiny glass door of the Apple Store hit you on the ass on the way out. Who needs you? Get a Vista PC and a Windows Mobile, that will give you something to complain about.

Get a Vista PC????? Man, that’s cold.

I picture these uber-geeks fretting over their predicament in their Mom’s basement wondering  how they’re going to keep their dungeons + dragons themed Myspace page updated without their Iphone.

Too bad loser. Cough up the dough and sign up with AT&T. As part owner of the company I want my share of your monthly phone bill.

Get your ass down to an AT&T store NOW!

No, I’m not talking about my posts. I’m talking about some shots being fired from the surprising Boston Magazine.

What makes Boston Magazine surprising to Stocky is that it’s still being published. Back in the day their annual “Worst of Boston” issue was a must read. Before Al Gore invented the interweb, poor schlubs who got crappy service from a waiter or had their dry cleaner lose part of their order had nowhere to vent. To see restaurants and Dry Cleaners raked over the coals in the WOB issue was a rare chance for the “common man” to be heard.

Back in those days our man Howie also contributed to the Mag.

Alas + Alack, those days are long gone. The “Worst of Boston” issue has been “modified” to only include the “Best of Boston”. What it should be called is “Our Favorite Advertising Clients” issue. Not all of the Best of Boston businesses advertise with BMAG of course but without the “Worst of” list BMAG avoids pissing off their most important paying customers.

The advertisers, not you dopes who buy the Mag.

Brian Maloney from savewrko.com calls our attention to a blog post from John Gonzales at BMAG. Who is John Gonzales? Good question. Stocky has never heard of him but something tells me he’s got good fashion sense, his apartment is appointed wonderfully, he loves show tunes and he’s very close to his Mom.

But that’s just a guess.

Johnny takes some shots at Howie and his listeners. As is typical for a “progressive” and  ”tolerant” person like him he sterotypes all Howie’s listeners as redneck, bigoted, homophobic xenophobes. Oh wait. He didn’t say anything about homophobic. Hmmmm, I wonder why he skipped that????

Typical of the elitist moonbat that he is, Johnny is too busy spewing moonbat talking points to get his facts straight.

Howie does not have a “Whiner Line”. It’s the Chump line. A little history lesson is in order here. Howie explained the genesis of the Chump line one day on the air. As Howie tells it he was listening to Howard Stern’s show; Stern was going on the air with a new station the following week and he had that stations GM on the air playing the nasty voice mails he’d gotten after the station announced the switch from music to Stern.

Stern listened to the voice mails pausing to comment on each one. That gave Howie the idea to launch the Chump Line. The Chump Line predated the Whiner Line despite what helium gun sucking Glenn Ordway says.

D + C tried to glom onto this concept with their ill-fated Dump Line. They promo’d it by asking their listeners to “Take their morning Dump.” 

To put it kindly, the quality of the “Dumps” was pretty weak and the Dump Line was quickly relegated to the Dustbin of Talk Radio history.

No doubt the fact that the Dump Line was not played until just before the show ended at 10:00 AM had a lot to do with the poor quality of the calls. Who can listen to the radio at 10:00 AM? Most of us are working so why call in a message that you’ll never get to hear on the air?

Back to Johnny. He’s obviously not bright enough to keep 2 afternoon talk radio shows straight but that doesn’t stop him from calling all of Howie’s listeners rednecks and bigots.

That’s not unusual in the “reality based” moonbat community. Stocky recalls a segment on Emily Rooneys PBS show several years ago where the topic was Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. This was the Friday show called “Beat the Press” where 5 moonbats spend 5-10 minutes pontificating about 3 or 4 “media based” topics of the week.

If I recall correctly it was Emily, Dan Kennedy, Callie Crossley, John Carrol and 1 more whi I can’t remember. They spent about 10 minutes taking turns spouting banalities about Rush and his show. I remember wondering if any of them had ever actually listened to the show. I got my answer when John Carrol ended the segment with a statement along the lines of “and it’s amazing that Limbaugh can hold an audience for so long given the fact that he doesn’t take phone calls during his 3 hour show”. The rest of them all tut-tutted in agreement.

I swear I’m not making that up. Like Johnny they spewed nonsense about a show they’d never even listened to.

Now that I’m done defending Howie I can get back to calculating how much money he’s lost so far. Look for a Post early next week. Hint: Bonus clause!!!!!!!!

   8,653.85

Our man Howie Carr finds himself in an awful position. He’s down to only 1 job which is basically a part time job. 3 columns a week at The Boston Herald.

That’s the type of workload a Massachusetts Judge would envy.

Howie fills us in with some details on what he’s doing with all his newly aquired free time in todays column:

So 10 days ago I got to be a judge at the Ipswich Lions Club ChowderFest.

…

I got an invite yesterday to judge another North Shore chowderfest next month and I’ll be there - with bumper stickers, lots of bumper stickers, direct from Merlin Printing in New Hampshire. See you there.

I wonder how much they pay to be a chowderfest judge? And to think Howie is probably at the peak of his fame. How can Stocky get in contact with Howies Agent? He sounds like a real go-getter.

Of course in Howies circle of advisors his agent is know as “the smart one”. His legal team makes some of those Dolts in the legislature look bright.

As documented before here, Howie finds himself down to 1 job due to the ineptness of his legal team. According to legal analysts with IQ’s above room temperature, all Howie had to do was wait until his contact with WRKO expired on Sept 19th before signing the new deal with WTKK. Simple.

If only Howie were on the air to talk about this. He could tell us for the 78th time, the story about meeting Rupert Murdoch where Rupert complimented him on getting out of the newspaper business. He always adds a comment about needing more than 1 job.

Now our Hero is left only with The Boston Herald as a means to support his Wellesley lifestyle.

Is there any of that Don Imus money left?

Do you think Felon Finneran could float him a loan until “pay day”? Or is Tommy taxes too busy laughing his ass off?

Will he be forced to drive only cars he paid for?

Oh the horror.

Today should have been the end of his first week on the new job. According to many published reports, he should be looking at a pay check of $8,653.85.

Ouch. 

For someone like Howie who is obsessed with money, his own and everyone elses; he must be longing for this paycheck the way a State Worker longs for a Holiday in August.

Stocky will be keeping a running week by week total of the cake Howie is losing.

How long before He + WRKO “settle” this dispute? (Translation, Howie/WTKK forks over some cash)

Not too long is my guess.

END OF DAY UPDATE:

Great action today. Volume and price building in the last 2 hours to a close of $153.17. Right near the top of the price range. 

Hopefully we’ll get some followup and/or consolidation tomorrow.

This is a MONSTER stock!!!!!

End of Update

Stocky is not huge on Chartology, preferring fundamentals like earnings, business model and sector analysis.

But that doesn’t mean a review of the charts isn’t part of the analysis.

In the case of AAPL, the stock/company is a runaway train. It’s going much higher. That’s all there is to it.

However, what we have today(Sept 25, 2007) is a case where the technicians out there may pile into the stock along with the rest of us who are in it for the earnings and/or fundamentals.

AAPL is sitting at a nice “double top” chart pattern of $149-150. With yesterdays upgrade we’ve seen several bounces off the 52 week high. If we could get a push beyond $150 we could see this stock really run.

On a side note, you have to love Jobs’ approach to the hackers. From todays WSJ comes a story of AAPL poetntially disabling Iphones that are hacked in order to use non-Apple business partner carriers. 

Apple itself, though, has recently suggested it might make deliberate attempts to counteract the effects of the unlocking programs. When asked about the topic in a recent interview, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said he wasn’t worried about the impact of such programs. “It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Mr. Jobs said. “We have a lot of really good cats.”

Go get’em Stevie. Wouldn’t it be sweet to see some techno nerd’s Iphone blow up in his face after he hacked it to use another carrier. No more youporn.com in your pocket for you dude.

From a Scott Van Voorhis front page story in todays Boston Herald about Red Sox owner John Henry doing a Teardown on his recently purchased Brookline mansion.

It was one of the priciest residential sales in Bay State history, just a few million short of the $18.5 million record set by another Brookline mansion in 2001.

Ummm no. That is not correct.

$18.5 mil will get you a nice starter mansion on Nantucket but it’s definitely not a record price.

But what does Nantucket have to do with Massachusetts???

Jules Crittenden reviews Ken Burns’ work Here.

No mention of the Japanese internment camps in any of the reviews listed so it looks like the show description put out by Tribune was a case of political correctness and/or an extension of the “Blame America First” attitude.

My original post lays it out here.

There is so much good to write about with Apple that Stocky almost does not know where to start.

I’ve come full circle on my views of Apple. I used to be like every other Windows bigot and look at Apple as a Macintoy. Used by artsy nerds and pony tailed do-gooders.

My eyes first started to open a few years ago when I walked into an Apple store to look at this new fangled thing called an Ipod. I was immediately put off by the store staff. You know the type. The pony tails, the piercings, the know it all attitude. Even as a total Apple convert I still have to supress the urge to slap the shit out of some of those Apple weenies in the stores. But I digress.

The other thing I noticed on that first trip to the Apple store was the line of people waiting to buy stuff. Man, people are really into this shit, I thought at the time.

Once I got the Ipod home and installed the Itunes software the product really got me. Not the Ipod even though it’s a great product but the Itunes software. To me that was the key. It was really well done, ran flawlessly and was easy to use. Mind you this was Apple software modified to run on a Windows platform. Yet it was head + shoulders above the crap that’s become the norm for Windows applications.  

That’s when I stopped looking down my nose at Apple and seriousy thought about where the company could go. I started paying attention to all the coverage of the company and have gotten to the point where when I hear Becky Quick on CNBC talk about the Friday “Jobs” report I wonder if she’s talking about Steve.

I eventually built a position in AAPL at a level higher than it should have been. Especially given that maddening pullback on huge volume to $49 a while back. If only I had the balls to pull the trigger on more shares at anywhere near that level. Oh well. It’s still the best stock in my portfolio and I have no intentions of selling anytime soon.

In fact, even at these levels($144) I think AAPL is still a screaming BUY. For me, AAPL still has tremendous untapped upside potential. I think ultimately, the “end” of the APPL story will be how they moved into the Enterprise and really delivered a well deserved beatdown to Microsoft.

A very good and under read publication is ComputerWorld. Lately they have been doing more and more coverage of AAPL. These 2 stories on APPL + the Enterprise really say a lot.

Story 1 talks about a company that is going full speed ahead with dumping Windows and going to the Macs. Note the sidebar on the Iphone. They are buying 50 Iphones to hand out to their sales people. 

July 16, 2007 (Computerworld) — It’s little things like the small silver Apple logo on CIO Dale Frantz’s crisp white shirt that signal the sea change in the works at Auto Warehousing Co.Over the next 60 days, AWC will begin systematically pulling the plug on all Windows-based PCs in its cavernous auto processing shop and power up Macs to execute virtually all of its revenue-generating operations. The move comes on the heels of a quiet wholesale replacement of Windows-based servers for data storage and Web operations, which are now running on Apple Inc.’s Xserve RAID machines.

All good stuff there.

With the ability to run Windows if you have to why not get a Mac? Stocky’s next PC/Laptop purchase will be a Mac. If a former windows bigot like me is making the switch many many others will too.

Story 2 Details Apples NON interest in cracking the enterprise market. Huh? Why not? This is the “untapped potential” part of the story. I believe that AAPL just has not gotten around to making a push in this market yet. Remember that they had to pull resorces from the Leapord O/S effort to support the Iphone rollout. The Leapord release has been delayed until October demonstrating that as good as Apple execution has been up till now, there are limits to what they can do.

I think that as the Iphone rolls out around the world and Leapord gets released, some time after that will be the time AAPL trains it’s guns on the enterprise. With only 5% of the PC market now, even small increases in market share will have massive impacts on the Top + Bottom lines of AAPL.

Even without the Enterprise push AAPL has started to kick ass in the Mac sales department. This is highlighted in a story from thestreet.com

People familiar with the company say Apple is selling computers at a blockbuster pace. The Cupertino, Calif., company is expected to sell 2.35 million iMacs and MacBooks this quarter, TheStreet.com has learned.

A sales number that high would beat analysts’ estimates by nearly 400,000 units. Pegging the average Mac sales price at a conservative $1,500, a beat of that magnitude stands to boost Apple’s top line by about $600 million. Analysts expect the company to post fiscal first-quarter revenue of $5.94 billion.

To say nothing of a rumored new product.

Looking ahead, people inside the company and those close to Apple’s plans say there will be a big announcement regarding a so-called subnotebook Mac. The ultra-thin device will have a 10-inch to 12-inch screen; sleek, rounded edges; and weigh less than 2 pounds.

The subnotebook’s introduction is planned for next quarter, and the product is expected to be available for the holiday sales season. In preparation for a big year-end sales push, Apple has told some employees to cancel vacation plans “between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” says one source familiar with the memo.

This could also be the long awaited (by Stocky anyway) Flash Hard drive laptop. Toss in some touch screen technology from the Iphone and you coul have another killer product.

With a revamped Ipod line, Iphones selling like crazy

September 20, 2007 (Reuters) — Apple Inc. has prepared plans to nearly double its iPhone production in the fourth quarter, financial news Web site TheStreet.com reported, citing people familiar with the company.

And a new O/S release in Oct spurring Mac sales, AAPL will have a MONSTER holiday quarter.

There are already rumblings about Apple being the new Microsoft and from a stock standpoint that is music to Stocky’s ears. However, I think as long as Jobs is running Apple it will never become anything close to the hated behemoth that is Microsoft.

I can say that based on Jobs’ own words. He was asked recently about what he planned to do with the massive amount of cash AAPL has on it’s balance sheet. The questioner wondered why AAPL didn’t put the cash to work creating new products.

Jobs answer was “Creating new products is more than just writing a check. If that’s all it took, Microsoft would have good products”.

Classic. 

Yesterdays Boston Globe had a very good article by Brian Ballou on Crime in the notorious Franklin Hill Housing Project in Dorchester.

Lots of Bad stuff going on there. Ballou does some nice reporting detailing some of the problems:

After a 48-year-old man was fatally shot Monday night inside a hallway, some residents expressed frustration yesterday over the violence.

“They should just tear this whole place down,” said McKinley Sykes, 60, a longtime tenant in the complex in Dorchester. “I told the management before that, anything short of that won’t solve the problem.”

The body of the victim, identified by sources close to the investigation as Kelvin Alexander of Providence, was found not far from the spot where two other men, Jeffrey Jones, 41, and Jarrid Campbell, 27, were slain July 13 as they sat in a parked car.

…

Many tenants clamored for more police foot patrols, especially in areas of the development neighbors know as trouble spots.

“I’m very cautious, because this place just draws the worst kind of people,” said Frederick Bridgewater, 65, who lives in the building. He said he recently refused to open his door after someone professing to be a neighbor knocked and told him his car lights were on. “I didn’t come out, because there was another resident who was busted on the head and robbed some days before,” Bridgewater said.

Jerome Gary, 61, said that he has lived in the development for 14 years and that “it’s never been this bad.” Gary said that he and his grandson “go inside when it gets dark, and we don’t come out.”

…

The Rev. William Dickerson, pastor of the nearby Greater Love Tabernacle, said he grew up in the Franklin Hill area. He also said he presided over the funerals of the two men killed in July.

“An increased police presence will calm things down there,” Dickerson said. “We saw a decrease in violence when police began patrolling several hot spots in the city, and that’s commendable, but we also have to change a whole culture that has become violent.”

That place sounds like a disaster. Maybe an article like this will spur the Boston Police and/or the Mayor to do something to help.

In a case like this Stocky parises the Globe for shedding light on a horrible situation without falling into the intellectualy lazy trap of blaming Guns for the problems.

Speaking of intellectualy lazy, that brings me to Steve Bailey. Not a word of outrage from Mr. Bailey on this. You’d think a good liberal like him would be all over this story. Crying out for justice for the poor residents of Franklin Hill.

You would be wrong.

While Mr. Bailey did have a column in yesterdays paper he chose to address the issue of Casinos in Massachusetts. Interestingly enough, the Column was titled “Collateral Damage”. Gambling is bad, economic impact is overstated, blah, blah, blah. You’ve heard it all before.

One wonders if one of these proposed casinos might be near one of Bailey’s vacation homes.

Maybe he should conduct a “sting” operation similar to the one he executed at the NH Gun Show. He could head to one of the Connecticut Casinos and have the Globe buy a bucket of quarters for a chain smoking Senior Citizen living off Social Security.

Said Senior Citizen blows the liberal wad with nothing to show for it and Stevie gets to pontificate about how evil Casinos are.

Stevie could do that if he has time out from defending himself from felony charges, that is.

I have a dream. One day Howie Carr will be judged based on the content of his character and not the quality of his legal representation.

Howie, what the Fuck?

Will Tom Finneran be taking any sick leave to recover from injuries sustained from days of laughing hysterically? Maybe you can fill in for him while he’s out. That would give you the “morning drive” slot you want at least until Tommy Taxes stops laughing at you.

For a guy like Howie Carr who has spent his entire career ridiculing the missteps and misfortunes of others to find himself in this position is just too much. To paraphrase Howie, paraphrasing someone else, “It would take a heart of stone not to laugh”.

Stocky is a big Howie fan but even I can’t help but laugh.

Despite what Howie’s flack would have you believe, he got his ass kicked in court yesterday. From the judges written decisions it appears that Howies legal team was not even competent enough to get the proper questions before the court. Assuming that someday they succeed in getting the judge to look at the proper issue who thinks they’re competent enough to argue effectively? Not me.

Geeze, what Dopes.

The judges decision is desribed best in todays Boston Herald.

The whole sordid mess has been chronicled at savewrko.com.

The aftermath of the court decison was advanced best by WBZ TV’s Lisa Hughes in a 21 minute video interview  of Howie posted on their web site.

In the interview Howie compares his $700K per year job at WRKO as Slavery. When pressed on that by Hughes he backs off but only a little.

Slavery??? Give me a fucking break. How many times did Howie rightfully ridicule the Gay lobby when they compared Gay marriage to the civil rights fights of the 60’s? Answer: A lot.

To hear Howie whine about slavery is pretty tough to take.

Other than the slavery thing it’s a very good interview. Hughes does a nice job. Who knew she wasn’t just another news reader Bimbo?

It remains to be seen if Howie will pull a D+C and just take the money or if he’ll drag this fight out to the end.

There has been plenty of discusion of the advertisers disdain for DVR’s/Tivo. There have been a few attempts to “work with” the DVR to make sure viewers actually watch the commercial instead of fast forwarding. One notable scheme was the freeze frame “free KFC sandwich” spot.

At least I think it was KFC that did that.

Anyways, last night I saw another attempt on NBC’s The Biggest Loser.

At the beginning of each commercial break they quickly cut to a multiple choice fitness/diet based question. A sample question was:

How many Americans admit to eating fast food as a family meal at least once per week?

Kind of a head scratcher question. The announcer noted that the answer would appear “later”. I quickly tapped the Tivo 30 second skip button a few times to get to the beginning of the new segment only to NOT see the answer.

Hmmmm. So I hit the rewind button and watched a commercial or 2 in reverse before I saw a screen with the question and answer (51%) highlighted.

They inserted the answer into the middle of the block of commercials. Interesting. No doubt an attempt to get viewers (both DVR + Non-DVR) to pay attention through the commercial break.

So from then on I fast forwarded “slowly” through the commercials looking carefully for the answer screen instead of blindly skipping forward.

Not a guarantee that I would actually watch a commercial but I definitely looked at what was going by and may have stopped if it looked interesting, ie a hot babe.

If I was an Ad person I’d be extremely intersted in Tivo’s StopWatch stats from that show.

Did it help commercial viewership??? Pay Tivo for the StopWatch service and find out.

That’s the only way to tell and that’s why Tivo is developing a gold mine with this data/Service.

This award goes to some “expert” named Dan Rayburn. His post today on how Tivo is so far inferior to the Verizon DVR is filled with “inaccuracies”. It’s also on seeking alpha.

This is not suprising if you follow Tivo. Lots of morons spew nonsense when pontificating about Tivo. What is surprising is that this Dope actually owns a Tivo. Yet he still doesn’t have a friggin clue.

Bear in mind that this dolt has not even used the Verizon DVR yet. He’s just read about the features. But he already loves it.

I can’t come up with one strength TiVo has over the Verizon TV DVR

What a Douche. What are the “strengths” that the Verizon DVR has over Tivo??

The Verizon DVR can record in HD, can record two shows at once, can playback recorded shows in multiple rooms at once with only one DVR and can record up to 85 hours of standard definition.

With the exception of playback in multiple rooms with only 1 DVR Tivo CAN do all that. There’s also Amazon Unbox, Tivocasts, Podcasts, Yahoo Weather + Traffic (don’t laugh, the weather feature is very usefull) internet radio stations and a promised implementation of music via Rhapsody.

Good luck with that Verizon DVR. You are too stupid to be a Tivo Customer.

You’re probably wondering what Stocky does with his time when the markets are closed and CNBC is devoid of smoking hot babes like Becky, Trish, Erin, Melissa, Michelle, Mary, etc. etc. etc.

Yesterday, Sunday (sept 17 2007) Stocky found himself in the Peoples Republic of Cambridge. I stumbled across a film crew. Not much filming was going on and only about 20 people were watching but I stopped anyway to ask what was going on.

It was a music video shoot for the band Boys like Girls. Never heard of them? Then you must not be a teenage girl. You can listen to and watch the videos from 2 of their songs here.

Apparently they won Spin magazines new artist of the year award in 2006. They should have a great career. At least until they hit puberty and their voices change.

Nothing blog worthy about all that. What I did find funny was the reason shooting was halted. This part of the video was to be shot with the singer driving a cherry 60’s era Dodge Charger that they had rented for the day. A metallic blue “muscle car” from the late 60’s, no doubt chosen to toughen up the bands image.

Only one problem with that plan. The singer doesn’t know how to drive a standard shift.

You can’t make this shit up.

So, while a severely bored looking Mass State Trooper sat in his car with the small one way side street blocked off, the “braintrust” debated how to make the shoot work with a ”Rock Star” that didn’t know how to drive the car they rented for the day.

Being the important person that Stocky is, he couldn’t hang around long enough to see how they worked this out. At last check, they were debating having the film truck tow the car while “Rock Star Boy” pretended to drive.

Stocky will be checking back with the bands web site to see how this video turned out.

OK, another Stock Pick.

Tivo has to be one of the worst acting and most frustrating Stocks to own anywhere. It’s known to swing up wildy for no reason (other than MM manipulation) and float downward slowly (or not so slowly) after nearly every big up day.

A nice stock to play the swings you might say. Yes, that’s true but Stocky believes that Tivo’s swinging days are coming to an end.

Tivo has several significant upward catalysts ready to hit. They are:

• Comcast Rollout (Friggin finally)
• Comcast likely to make Tivo their standard DVR (if this happens look out shorts)
• Lower priced HD Tivo doing well (sales appear to be better than expected)
• Echostar case coming to an end (or at least the latest end until Dish appeals to the supreme court)
• DTV Relationship improving (look for a new DTV HD Tivo after Liberty deal closes)
• Increasing revenue from StopWatch second by second commercial ratings
• Mexico rollout
• Cox Cable rollout next year
• Huge (20%+) short position
• TivotoGo and Multi-room viewing for S3 + HD owners soon
• Tivo Branded Plugin Hard Drives to expand storage capacity by end of year
• Amazon Unbox Downloads gaining popularity
• Australia Distribution Deal

The huge number of shorts significantly reduces the downside risk. The only way those shorts make their money is by buying back the stock. So in the event of a disaster (like losing the Dish appeal) the plunge in stock price would be muted as the shorts create buying pressure on their way to cash out. It sounds like spin but it’s true. You just have to be willing to get out of the stock at the first notice of a disaster.

On the flip side, good news, like the more likely scenario of winning the Dish case is a delicious short squeeze.

While Stocky would still like Tivo at $6 without a Dish win; short term would be ugly. A Dish win also plays into more deals with others who don’t want to get sued. It’s not inconceivable to imagine that Tivo could be paid a dollar per month for every DVR in use in North America. At least every non-crappy DVR.

That’s a 2 - 3 year view though and the revenue gains from StopWatch is also relatively long term.

The Comcast relationship is also key to Tivo’s fortunes. Comcast recently agreed to fund development of the Tivo/Comcast software to run on their Scientific Atlanta set top boxes. That will give Comcast the ability to offer the Tivo DVR to all of their customers. Stocky will predict that Comcast will dump their crappy DVR and make Tivo their standard DVR. That may not happen for a while but it will.

As soon as the DTV/Liberty deal closes (by the end of this year) DTV wil have no reason to continue with Ruper Murdochs crappy NDS DVR. In fact, Tivo CEO Tom Rogers has already commented on the “Improved relations” between Tivo + DTV and Tivo announced that they will be providing updates to the millions of Tivo DTV boxes still in use. Why do that unless you plan to do a longer term deal with DTV?

In addition to Comcast + DTV, in the shorter term you have Amazon Unbox going gangbusters with the ability to order downloads from your couch and the long awaited implementation of TivotoGo and MRV for S3 + HD owners. There are thousands of Tivo Geeks that have been waiting for these features before plunking down the money for an additional Tivo. Tivo HD has been showing very strong in the Amazon top electronic products sold list since it was launched and it should do even better for the holiday season. Who is going to spend 2-3 grand on a new HD TV and not want to drop a mere $300 for a Tivo?

Another massive oppurtunity to sell into the existing Tivo customer base is the addition of a Tivo Branded external hard drive to increase storage capacity. The Tivo Uber-Geeks have been adding drives on their own for months and as usual Tivo has stumbled in the execution of this but in the end nearly every S3 + HD Tivo owner will purchase more storage via the Tivo drive. Tivo BETTER get some great margins out of this product.

So, let’s review. By the end of next year Tivo could have locked up DVR’s for DTV, Comcast + Cox. The 2 biggest cable providers and 1 of the 2 Sat providers. The other Sat provider, Dish is worthy of a future post of it’s own.

Add the stand alone Tivo customers (analog + HD) and you have a bunch of subscribers.

The better to use when selling StopWatch services.

It’s a good business plan finally coming together in spite of Tivo management. As I said at the beginning of this post, Tivo has been a frustrating stock to own.

One wonders why a company with the most and best data in history on the second by second viewing habits of highly desirable (affluent) Americans at their fingertips cannot execute a marketing campaign to save their life.

Christ Almighty what dopes.

However, in the end, Stocky believes the subscriber numbers will overcome all.

$20 is not out of the question.

After being bombarded with commercials for the new Ken Burns PBS “The War” series, Stocky clicked on the Tivo remote a few times and looked up the show in order to setup a season pass.

Yes it’s PBS and Yes some of Burns’ work can be tedious and overwrought but World War II truly was an amazing time. A fight for civilization that even the leftists of the day (well, maybe not Joe Kennedy) and today can’t deny. As they are for todays fight for civilization.

Anyways, it was with high hopes that Stocky found the first episode of The War, made sure to select the HD channel version and setup the season pass. Good stuff or so I hoped.

Before clicking back to Squawk Box on CNBC (Becky was looking particularly fine that morning) I read the program description for the first 2 1/2 hour episode. Here it is:

The War

“A Necessary War”  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor thrusts the United States into World War II; thousands of Japanese-Americans are forced into inland internment camps.

You gotta be fucking kidding me.

Internment camps get the same billing as the attack on Pearl Harbor???????????? Those PBS leftist assholes!!!! Leave it to them to excentuate a perceived blackmark in Amerca’s WW II history. Of course Michelle Malkin wrote a book arguing that the camps were justified but Stocky will go out on a limb and predict that she was not a source for this PBS series.

When putting together this post I found that maybe it’s not the leftists at PBS who are to blame here. While looking for a link to the program guide I found that the TV Guide listing is significantly different than the one provided to Tivo (and many other customers) via Tribune Media. Here is the TV Guide listing:

Episode Detail: A Necessary War (December 1941-December 1942) - The War

Debut: Ken Burns’ seven-part series tells the story of World War II through the experiences of ordinary people from four American towns. First up: a summary of the war and its cost (some 50 million lives), and reasons for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It also chronicles the first year of U.S. involvement, focusing on, among others, Glenn Frazier, from Mobile, Ala., who survived the Bataan Death March; and Sid Phillips, who fought the Japanese on Guadalcanal.

Not a word about the internment camps in that description. That sounds reasonable. I bet the internment camps get too much air time along with black units who fought in the war. Not that they shouldn’t be mentioned but my guess is their importance will be exaggerated in relation to the grand scheme of the War. But we’ve all come to expect that. To even point this out is to invite the racist card to be played.

Oh well.

But back to Tribune Media. They are the ones who provide the guide data to Tivo and many other customers. Who is Tribune Media? They are owned by Tribune Broadcasting. Tribune Broadcasting owns:

 Baltimore Sun  · Chicago Tribune · Hartford Courant  · Los Angeles Times  · Newsday  · South Florida Sun-Sentinel  · Orlando Sentinel  · The Morning Call  · Daily Press  · The Advocate 

Among others. No liberal slants there.

Is this all a stretch??? Maybe. But it’s the little things like this show description that never get called out for what they are and really piss Stocky off.  

Ellen Goodman makes an appearance today. She thinks it’s just swell that gay men meet and suck each other off in public restrooms. Who are these homophobe bigoted jerks who would dare think that is unacceptable behavior.

Stocky would like Ellen to send her grandson into a public restroom in a trainstation, bus station or airport and cool her heels waiting for the little tyke to come out. I bet if she did this a few times the little homophobic bigot would have some “interesting” stories to tell granny.

From Granny’s column: 

I don’t want to send my grandson into a public restroom used for assignations.

Assignations?????? Now there’s a euphamism for you. What is the definition of Assignation? Here it is from an online dictionary:

A “secret rendezvous”. How friggin quaint. This is how Granny thinks of 2 gay guys sucking each others dicks in a public place without even exchanging names. I guess she has to elevate the behavior to that level if she’s to present her “narrative” of gays as victims. Back to her column:

Sex stings to catch gays have been around for more than a century. Sodomy itself was illegal in Minnesota until 2001. It was a “crime against nature” in Idaho, punishable by five years to life in prison. Then in 2003, the Supreme Court finally overturned all the laws against sodomy.

…

Yet the stings go on. Craig was only one of 40 arrested since May in Minneapolis. There were 45 arrested in the Atlanta airport this year. How many elsewhere? There must be saner ways to keep a restroom from becoming a meeting ground, better than using a dubious law that shames men into pleading guilty for the same reason Craig did: humiliation and the fear of exposure. “I don’t call media,” said the policeman. But exposure often follows. So too, a lifetime of registering as a sex offender.

Oh boo hoo. If this type of stuff was going on in womens restrooms do you think Ellen would be complaining about the “stings”? These skeevie guys are swapping semen but not names in the stall next to her grandson but Ellen is more concerned with the gays “civil rights”.

And “there must be saner ways to keep a restroom from becoming a meeting ground” is just so precious. Do tell, Granny. Don’t keep us all in suspense. Come up with a “saner” way to handle this. If you can’t then shut the fuck up and stop complaining about the police doing their jobs.

I can picture her outside a mens room waiting for her grandson, cooling her heels while twiddling her ever so tasetfull pearl necklace. Meanwhile, inside the mens room there could be several “assignations” going on within reach of her grandson. Would it take her grandson getting his own “pearl necklace” for granny to climb down from her politically correct high horse? Does she even give a shit about the men (straight + gay) who are subjected to this shit when all they’re trying to do is take care of business and be on their way? To say nothing of her grandson. 

Nice grandmother she is.

I wonder if she lets him go unattended into the mens rooms on Morrisey Boulevard?

If this Boston Globe piece wasn’t so pathetic Stocky could almost laugh. Almost. Well maybe not almost. The piece does feature the terminally unfunny Jimmy Tingle. But I digress.

Note the deferential treatment Scott Ritter gets:

 In his new book, “Waging Peace: The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement,” former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter discusses John Boyd’s theories of aerial warfare, compares the ideas of Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz to those Sun Tzu proposed 2,500 years ago …

Why from that lead and the resulting story you would have no idea that Ritter is a sex offender.  It seems that the esteemed Mr. Ritter likes to have underage girls watch him jerk off. Isn’t that swell. Not that the Globe would mention that. Can we imagine what the treatment would be for a Bush supporter under the same circumstances?

Of course as long as you’re on the right side of the political debate, the Globe will work with you on resurrecting your career. No matter what the offense. Take Paula Pondstone, please. Here the Globe omits the sexual assault aspect of Paula’s “debacle” and simply states that she “Fell out of favor”. 

Poundstone fell out of favor in 2001 when she pleaded guilty to felony endangerment and misdemeanor child abuse after driving while intoxicated with her children in the car. She was sentenced to five years’ probation and six months of drug treatment, which included attending AA meetings. She emerged with a tarnished image, but her sense of humor still intact.

She was initially charged with 3 counts of committing a lewd act on a child under 14 and she lost custody of 2 children who were in her home via Foster Care. The felony lewd act charge was dropped when she plead out on a lesser charge.

Do we have to ask how the globe would play this if she weren’t a moonbat Lesbian?

if you’re an “economist” at a place like UW-Madison it probably doesn’t take long for you to realize it’s in your career best interest to forget most of what you learned about economics and start spouting the Socialist party line.

Here we have Morris Davis dancing to the moonbats tune. Should we crack down on all the phoney baloney mortgages that have been given out in the last few years?? Not according to Morris:

But before placing all the blame on subprime lenders, the UW’s Davis says it’s important to realize that extending credit to poor people is central in helping everyone realize the American dream of home ownership. He says fair housing advocates should be pressuring federally-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make loans to those with lousy credit.

“There is nothing wrong with (subprime) loans as long as home values increase,” Davis says. “The problem comes when values are falling like they are now.”

Keep handing out the money. Who cares if they have lousy credit and can’t pay it back. Have the “government” foot the bill.

Besides, home values always go up. Right??????????

Any teachers union official reading that headline would be on their way into full cardiac arrest before reading further. For you non-union types, you know there’s more to the story.

 A globe editorial no less on school funding has this:

… with the goal of creating parent-consumers who will demand rich educational choices for their children. These families will also get scholarship money to spend on such programs. Rolnick argues that these choosy mothers with money will stimulate the marketplace to create more high-quality preschool programs.

Ah ha!! There’s the rub. It’s only PRESCHOOL the Globe is interested in. Once we get the little tykes through high quality preschool programs it’s on to the soft bigotry of low expectations in the union controlled Public Schools.

So it’s a great idea for parents to be given money to spend on Preschool programs which will have the effect of improving preschool programs for everyone but any Voucher programs after preschool are considered the work of the anti-christ????!!!!!

How do those fucking bow tied bum kissers on Morrisey Boulevard sleep at night???

Is there a bigger blowhard than Geraldo? Some “highlights” of a Globe story about Geraldo the Sailorman.

“Look, I don’t care what people say about me. I’ve had a wonderful career,” he says. “I’ve been famous for 40 years.”

Jeffrey Dammer is famous too Gerry. That doesn’t mean he had a wonderful career and the same goes for you, douch.

On his autobiography:

“It started as a good yarn about a guy who worked his way up to become the first million-dollar reporter,” says Rivera. “I should never have written the other stuff. It was self-aggrandizing in a reckless, Romeo kind of way.”

Self-aggrandizing?!?!????? Geraldo??????? Stop the presses. Geeze what a douch.

Between 1997 and 2000, Rivera sailed Voyager around the world, and the tales he tells about the experience are predictably swashbuckling. “I’ve survived a hurricane and been chased by Somalian pirates,” he says. “Sailing is laden with so much crap - the tasseled loafers, the swells. I’m not into any of that.”

Where to begin? I guess with the fact that our swashbuckling hero Geraldo did NOT sail around the world. His boat did, but he didn’t. We know this because the trip was chronicled by and broadcast on the Travel Channel. Voyager had “permanent” crew that did all the heavy lifting. Geraldo flew back + forth from New York, joining the crew for the “fun” legs of the voyage. Crossing the equator, interesting ports, etc. In no way could he legitimately claim to have “sailed around the world”. It’s just self aggrandizing bullshit spun by a media whore/swell.  

Of course, Marion isn’t exactly gritty. The exclusive Kittansett Club is barely a nine iron from his circular driveway, and Rivera’s well-heeled neighbors include Goldman Sachs partner Sidney Weinberg, Staples founder Tom Stemberg, and attorney Linda Kenney-Baden and her husband, forensic pathologist Michael Baden.

Yes, Marion, Mass on Buzzrds Bay is quite a place. Stocky was once told a story of a tennis match played at Geraldo’s club. It was the finals of some tournament and many people were in the stands watching. As the match was going on, our swash buckling hero Geraldo decided that he needed to get workout in. So he took off his shirt and began jogging in circles around the tennis court.

A more common example of Gerry pissing off the members would be the landing of his helicopter near the club. 

Swell guy that Geraldo.

Of course Stocky would be remiss if he didn’t address the most aggregious part of the story. The Michelle Malkin smackdown or I guess Spitdown would be more accurate.

“Michelle Malkin is the most vile, hateful commentator I’ve ever met in my life,” he says. “She actually believes that neighbors should start snitching out neighbors, and we should be deporting people.

“It’s good she’s in D.C. and I’m in New York,” Rivera sneers. “I’d spit on her if I saw her.”

 Well, at least Geraldo is getting wiser in his old age. No more picking on Men. That never worked out too well for Gerry. Frank Stallone delivered a nice Geraldo Ass-kicking on the Howard Stern show and who can forget the skinhead who broke Geraldo’s nose on his show.

Those are just the beatdowns Gerry’s gotten while the cameras were rolling. I hope they are rolling the next time Michelle bumps into Gerry.

I bet Mr. Tough Guy ends up a loser again. 

OK, Stocky finally gets to a stock pick or 2.

The theme of our times is (or shortly will be) Peak Oil. We are not running out of oil but we are running out of cheap oil. Mainly due to increasing demand. If the world consumtion were to stay at 86 million barrells per day then we’d be fine for the next half century. However, barring a worldwide recession, demand will continue to increase. That means squeezing every last barrell out of mature fields and extracting “unconventional” and hard to reach oil.

FSESX is a sector fund that specializes in Oil Services companies. It’s true that Fidelity uses these sector funds as a training ground for new fund managers but you can’t argue with the success of this fund. (And some of their other sector funds)

Take a look at the performance of the top 10 holdings as of Sept 1, 2007

Is there still room to grow? Oh yes, these companies are booked solid for the next several years and while they do fluctuate based on the cost of crude, their earnings will continue to rock as long as Oil stays above $45-$50. And even then, their backlogs will carry them for many quarters.

The reality is that Oil is never going that low again for any significant period of time and eventually the street will have to recognize that these energy services companies are no longer a cyclical play. Their P/E’s should be on a par with other high quality growth stocks instead of the 17 or so this fund sits at now. (Actually SLB’s P/E is much higher than the rest which brings up the funds average. Bringing the other companies just up to SLB’s P/E will make for some huge gains.)

Much more room to run.

Of all the sections of the Boston Globe that Stocky reads none is more painfull than the editorials. You can’t make some of this shit up.

Todays editorial lavishes praise on Deval Patricks choice for the SJC. Judge Margot Botsford. A trust fund beneficiary, soft on crime, limousine liberal judge from New York who’s in the tank for the teachers unions and was originally appointed to the bench by one M. Stanley Dukakis. The only thing missing from her resume is a “husband” named Stephanie instead of Steve. For the Globe, what’s not to love?

Diabetics should be careful to check their insulin levels before reading the sickly sweet gushing praise for Ms. “slap on the wrist” Botsford.

It’s the last paragraph that is particularly galling:

Botsford’s mentor was SJC justice Francis Quirico, for whom she clerked in 1973. Quirico was a towering legal mind known for a philosophy of judicial restraint. At a memorial service for him in 2000, Botsford said: ‘‘I knew after about six weeks on the job, just watching and being with the judge, that what I wanted to do in life was to become a judge myself, and I spent the next 16 years after my clerkship ended trying to figure out work experiences that would give me a chance to apply.’’ That speaks to Quirico’s influence, but also to Botsford’s own diligence.

Luckily, Boston is still a 2 newspaper town so we are able to learn just how far Judge Botsford was willing to go to “apply” for the position. Howie Carr does an excellent job laying out the Judge’s “credentials” here.

Her “credentials” include her husband making illegal campaign contributions to the person who took her “application” for the job, Gov Deval Patrick. Only in Globeland does a $50,000 illegal campaign contribution by the husband of a nominee to the SJC get no mention anywhere.

A search for Steve Rosenfeld on Boston.com turns up not a word about the “inadvertant over contribution”.

Judge Botsford does all but confess that she’d do anything to become a Judge, her Husband gives $50K in illegal campaing contributions to the Governor and the Globe thinks this is just swell. More than swell, it speaks to her “Due Dilligence”.

Pass the barf bag.

All quotes taken from stories listed in the excellent Housing Bubble Blog.

“‘I’m a little hesitant to jump right in immediately, because I think that prices are still going to go down,’ said Duplessis, who has been paying $2,600 a month in rent since she sold her last home in the city of Inglewood near Los Angeles a year and a half ago.”

“‘I’m not at this point too anxious,’ she said. ‘You know why rich people are rich? Because they shop around.’”

*****************************************************************

“Winckel said builders also are concerned about their livelihood. ‘We’re not looking to go from bust to boom again; we’re just looking to get back into the business,’ he said.”

“Winckel urged potential buyers to…take advantage of the swelling inventories of for-sale signs in neighborhoods all over the county. Economist Robert Campbell predicted most buyers won’t. ‘We’re in a hurricane right now. The leading edge of the hurricane is hitting us with full force,’ he said. ‘You think people are going to jump back into this market after what’s happened the last year and a half? No way.’”

*****************************************************************

“Chris Ragsdale, the Los Angeles Police Department’s senior lead officer for Westwood and Bel-Air, recalled one case from the end of that era in Pacific Palisades. The squatters changed the locks, turned on the electricity and brought in furniture. When the agent trying to sell the place showed up, they maintained that they had a lease.”

“‘If you know what you’re doing, you can get six months in a place with a kick-ass view,’ Ragsdale said.”

******************************************************************

“Foster knows of two or three Folsom couples in their 20’s who allowed the bank to foreclose on their homes, opting to rent instead.”

“‘They weren’t even behind on their mortgage,’ Foster said. ‘They just figured they could rent a house for half the payment, and twice the square footage.’”

*****************************************************************

“After juggling 15 calls from debtors, creditors and clients, Seither lays the phones aside and delivers a pep talk to herself. ‘I’m not a real estate bum,’ the president of Executive Preferred Properties announces. ‘I wear diamonds, Rolexes and necklaces. I’m a classy Realtor.’”

********************************************************************

“Some buyers are bailing because they no longer can afford their investments. Blank said another agent in her office represented a buyer who walked away from two downtown condominiums he had contracts to purchase. He lost about $100,000 in down payments rather than risk foreclosure or bankruptcy, she said.”

“‘People are losing big money,’ she said. ‘It’s almost like a crash.’”

********************************************************************

“Many sellers are still unrealistic, believing that their homes can fetch the same prices the could two or three years ago, Deleo said. He estimates most of the houses on the market are 10 percent to 20 percent overpriced.”

“Naiveté among sellers is a real obstacle, he says. ‘You’re the messenger, and you’re the one getting shot,’ Deleo said.”

*********************************************************************

“‘How can there be no buyers? None?’ Damonte asked. ‘It’s not even a buyer’s market; it’s a nobody market. We’re not flipping houses or trying to cash in. We just want to move on with our lives. We’re in a tough spot.’”

“Ganda, who lives a couple of miles away, said there are dozens of ‘For Sale’ signs in his immediate neighborhood, so he isn’t optimistic about the prospects for selling his house.”

********************************************************************

“Buyers were escorted out of the ballroom to a nearby side room where they opened escrow. But most of the crowd, like the Reineckes, left via the front door. But Michael Reinecke and his wife weren’t deterred.”

“‘We’ll just wait for the market to get crappier,’ Reinecke said.”

********************************************************************

“‘I’m not seeing it, I’m sorry,’ said Hibnick. She said the inventory of houses for sale in her area has doubled since the beginning of the year.”

“‘I used to tell them they have two choices — either price it [lower] to sell it or get it in absolutely gorgeous condition,’ she said. ‘I tell them they have to do both now, unless they’re going to dump the house. Their first reaction is, ‘Are you crazy?.’”

********************************************************************

“Fenn recently tried posting huge signs in the yard and on the garage door. One read: ‘Reduced $1,000 a week until sold.’ The city of North Port cracked down on the signs, and Fenn has since turned to more traditional means. ‘I think I can keep my head above water the next 90 days,’ he said. ‘At that point in time, I am going to be in big trouble.’”

“Fenn still likes Southwest Florida. He just wishes he did not own so much of it: ‘I think I got greedy and I think the greed came back to haunt me.’”

********************************************************************

“Meanwhile, the back rooms of area pawnshops are filling up with saws, drills and other tools and equipment pawned by displaced workers in the construction trades. ‘We’re being swamped, to the point that we’ve pretty much stopped taking it,’ said James Sewell, co-owner of Goldcoast Pawn & Jewelry in Sarasota. ‘It’s gotten really bad in the last four to five months.’”

“Sewell said many of the former construction workers tell him they are leaving the Sunshine State. The unemployment situation combined with rising taxes and property insurance premiums has made Southwest Florida unlivable for many, Sewell said. ‘It’s gotten to be like California, but without the wages.’”

********************************************************************

Just an average story today in the Boston Globe. Cops get in gunfight with gang banger, shots are fired and a cop is wounded. Except that we now learn that the wounded cop was shot by another cop, not the gangbanger.

If the account of the cops is true, the Mass State Trooper shot the perp but the round ricochet’d off the perp’s body and lodged in the chest of the other Cop.

Bad luck for sure but not totally unexpected. Stocky does not know this for sure since it’s not mentioned anywhere in the story but I can almost guarantee that the State Trooper was NOT using hollow point ammo.

You know what Hollow Point ammo is right? The Media has told you over and over again that they are “lethal” and “Viscious” ammo. Used only by people who are intent on causing maximum damage to humans. Apparently there are times when you need to shoot someone but don’t want to Really hurt them. How moronic is that?

The real story of Hollow Point ammo is that it is SAFER than the jacketed ammo likely used in this case by the State Trooper. Hollow Point ammo expands when it hits something. Spreading out and yes, causing maximum damage to what was hit. What it almost never does is ricochet from one place to another.

If that State Trooper had Hollow Point Ammo in his gun, that perp would have stayed hit and Officer Romano would have gone home to his family unhurt.

Jacketed ammo will ricochet off the intended target as well as penetrate doors + walls. In this case you have a highly trained State Trooper who showed good judgement and perfect aim when firing his service weapon yet still an innocent person was hit by the Troppers bullet. Why Law enforcement does not exclusively use Hollow Point ammo is beyong Stocky’s comprehension.

Of course in this pathetic State (Massachusetts) thousand of Law Enforcement personel are carrying state issued weapons that the Attorney General has deemed Unsafe. Pretty much all Glocks manufactured after 1998 are considered “unsafe” by the AG and gun shops that sell them to private citizens are prosecuted. None do.

Law Enforcement personel are excluded and are allowed to purchase the Glocks.

This makes sense??????

You always have to ask yourself what agenda those limousine liberals are trying to advance for each story. I can only guess that in this case it’s in response to the devastating anti-diversity study the Globe wrote about a few weeks ago. The bottom line of that study is that the more diverse a community is the worse off it is. On every meaningful measure, diversity harms communities.

The Globe can’t leave that notion unchallenged.

As luck would have it, there is a magical community where immigrants and natives alike live in perfect harmony. Perfect harmony with a liberal dose of white guilt, that is. Although nothing those plucky immigrants can’t overcome.

That place is Nantucket. A place Stocky is very familiar with. Let’s take a look at the article on Nantucket. There’s plenty of ommisions and mischaracterizations.

It is an unlikely spot to chase the American dream: a rural island 30 miles offshore, famous as a summer retreat for the rich and powerful, where the median house price tops $1 million, gas costs almost $4 a gallon, and a cheeseburger at one bistro sells for $19.

A chasm separates most foreign workers on Nantucket from their moneyed neighbors. Many immigrants work two jobs, ride bicycles to get around, and live two to a room to cut costs.

Immediately, The Globe misses the most important aspect of life on Nantucket. Those “moneyed neigbors” are only around for at most a few months in the summer. Most are there for only a few weeks. The “locals”, the people who live there year round also ride bikes to get around (lots of bike paths on the island) and while they don’t live 2 to a room themselves, they are likely to have at one time or another rented a room to someone in order to make ends meet. And they have a name for somone who works 2 jobs. Lazy. Most locals bust their ass during the “season” to make a buck any way they can.  

Those “immigrants” also tend to disappear at the end of the season. National Politicians take note: When the jobs leave, so do the illegals. No deportation required. Back to the story:

Many of those who employ them inhabit sprawling mansions, travel by private jet and yacht, and do not work.

Well, that describes John Kerry to a T. I’ll give them that.

For well-off families who summer on the island, shopping for clothes might mean a trip to Lilly Pulitzer, where a man’s cotton blazer in a pink-and-green hibiscus pattern costs $595.

Some immigrants find their clothes at the dump.

Images of peasants rummaging through the squalor of a dump on the outskirts of Mexico City or some other third world hell hole come to mind.  Not so on Nantucket.

The Dump. Just off Madaket road. Like a lot of dumps it has an area where people leave things others might want. It is even staffed by a town employee. It’s “Official” name is the Take it or leave it shop. It’s unofficial name is The Madaket Mall. Lots of good stuff there. While you wouldn’t expect to find John Kerry checking out the offerings(unless he was between heiresses), there’s no shame in picking up an item or 2 from the Madaket Mall.

Besides, Amazon.com ships for free to Nantucket just like anywhere else. It’s not like you are forced to pay Island prices.

But enough with the white guilt. Nantucket is a magical place where immigrants and locals live in perfect harmony. Let’s get on with the “narrative”.

In interviews, foreign workers voiced little resentment of the leisure and luxury that surrounds them. If anything, they say, the excess provides inspiration.

“Here, you sit next to a multimillionaire and you’re treated the same,” said a 34-year-old man from Ireland who was drinking beer at The Muse, an island nightclub, and declined to give his name because he is in the United States without proper immigration documents. “There are a lot of success stories of people who came here with nothing.”

“Without proper immigration documents” …. hmmmm Stocky isn’t sure but that could make him ILL fucking EGAL. Maybe not though. If he were I’m sure the Globe would point that out.

True enough about those success stories though. If you’re willing to work and make sacrifices there is money to be made on Nantucket.

Foreign workers’ presence on the island has grown more visible. The Brazil Mini Mart sits at a busy intersection near Brant Point Lighthouse, its wooden sign shaped like a whale.

Gee, a regular Horatio Alger story there. Brazilian immigrant starts own business and lives happily ever after. Well, not exactly. The Globe left out a few details about the Brazil Mini Mart. The landlord wanted to expand the building and rent it out to new businesses no doubt in order to attract higher rents. When word got out that the Landlord did not intend to renew the lease for the Brazil Mini Mart, the plucky immigrant owner showed just how much she’s assimilated into the American culture by screaming Racism. It now appears that this property owner has a tennant for life. Playing the Race Card trumps all. 

Foreign players dominate the island’s adult soccer league

That is certainly true. One small detail about that soccer league the Globe left out. 2 weeks before the Globe ran the story, the league was shut down. Not because of the piles of trash left on the sidelines after every game but because of a fight, a knife and a gun all coming together during a game between 2 Jaimaican teams. Yup, it’s just a swell time at those soccer games.

Where do all these immigrants live? Now we’re getting to the real impact of illegals on the Island. Even the Globe has a difficult time sugar coating this:

On Essex Street, a curving road in a dense neighborhood near the island’s center, many immigrants live in tidy, gray-shingled duplexes built close together.

Some house as many as 18 people in four bedrooms, said Rose Altunsacan, a legal immigrant from Brazil who moved here from Florida five years ago.

“A lot of people, when they first come, they get a shock,” said Altunsacan, who runs a small housecleaning business. She pays $2,800 a month to rent a bright, airy duplex on Essex Street, which she shares with her husband, a tiler.

Tidy??? A quick drive down Essex St will bring many adjectives to mind. Tidy is not one of them.

18 people in 1 house??? That’s the one with only 10-12 vehicles jammed in and around it.

The other houses obviously contain more people.

What can be done about this? Apparently, not much.

Richard Ray, director of Nantucket’s Health Department, tries to enforce housing rules, which limit how many people can use one septic system or inhabit a certain-sized room, but said his job is complicated by the cultural gap between Nantucket and the places workers come from.

“This has been their way of life in their country of origin, so to convince them you can’t have nine or 12 people in a three-bedroom house is difficult,” he said.

Where Stocky comes from, robbing banks is considered a way of life. I bet the Nantucket authorities wouldn’t waste a lot of time trying to “convince” me to stop robbing banks. WTF is Richard Ray smoking?

But lets get back to the narrative. All is wonderful for the immigrants on Nantucket. Or is it?

Among foreign workers, competition for jobs is intense. The going rate for cleaning houses is $25 per hour, but Altunsacan said she has lost jobs to other immigrants who are working illegally and offer to clean for less.

Let Stocky translate that Globespeak for you. Even the immigrants are bitching about the illegal immigrants.

Sorry to digress. Let’s get back to the narrative and finish this story on an upbeat note.

Peña said she feels at home on the island she loves dearly, and she laughs at the “very Spanish” name she gave her daughter, Chelsea. But the simplest things about life on Nantucket can still cause amazement.

In some of the big houses she cleans, there are just two people, and “all those rooms,” she said.

She expressed no envy of the size of the houses. But she marveled at the orderly calm of such a life.

“If they put something down in the house, it stays there, and nobody takes it,” she said.

Nice. Stocky has a warm and fuzzy feeling now. Do you? This story is a Jenna Russell creation. She has made Stocky’s “list”. On her way to her own category maybe.

Kim gets 2 mentions today.

First, she writes what at first glance seems to be a pretty good article about “short sales” What makes it different than most of these “homeowners lose house” story is first the successful short sale aspect and second the lack of the “homeowner as a victim” angle.

The husband lost his job and now they can’t afford to pay the mortage(s) after refinancing. Reasonably standard stuff. No tales of woe about how they got taken advantage of by a mean mortgage broker and no story of “medical bills” being involved.

What makes the article bad and bad it is, is what she left out. That couple that executed a “successfull short sale” and skeedaddled to North Carolina where they bought a new, cheaper house is in for a big tax bill. The difference between what they owed on their old house and what the bank accepted for the sale price is whats called “forgiven debt”. Or as the IRS likes to call it, Income.

In this case, $168,000. 1/3 of that leaves them with a $56,000 tax bill.

And the IRS will get their money. Short of bankruptcy (which is now much more difficult) there is no walking away from that debt.

Writing an article on short sales without a single mention of the tax implications is just poor work. I wonder how many strapped homeowners read that article and now think they have a chance to save themselves from financial ruin when if you factor in the IRS hit, it’s a bad option.

Kim’s second item comes from a story she writes about Countrywide Financial. The same Countrywide financial that Kim said “Depeleted” an 11.5 billion dollar line of credit a few days ago. 

Totally false of course.

Today she “corrects” (sort of) that falsehood here (the very last line of the story).

Countrywide drew down a $11.5 billion line of credit from its banks to replace funds that Wall Street investors no longer can provide by purchasing mortgages

“Drew Down”??? What does that mean. Stocky thinks she’s still insinuating that the line of credit has been “depleted”.

Maybe it’s because of media types like her that we have what she describes in the beginning of the article:

Some real estate agents no longer refer their home buyers to Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, because they fear it would be unable to fund the mortgage at the closing table, loan brokers said. And some depositors, particularly retirees, have been concerned about the safety of their savings at Countrywide’s banking unit, even though their balances are federally insured up to $100,000.

Gee, some people are concerned about CountryWide continuing in business???? Where could they be getting that idea??????

America as the worlds “Melting Pot” has a long history of embracing elements of other cultures and making them our own.

Despite what the pony tailed nitwit teaching at the local university says, That’s not always a good thing.

Stocky gives you Machetes.

A scan of the news on any day of the year will turn up many stories of Machetes being used in crimes. A lot of the stories will not the immigration status of the perp while others don’t. In any event, in nearly all cases the surnames have a distinctly “undocumented worker” sound to them.

Todays NY Post gives new details to one of the most horrific crimes in recent memory. 3 dead and 1 wounded in an execution by “undocumented workers”.

Yesterday, a family member of one of the slain victims, Iofemi Hightower, described the level of savagery of the attack. He said the thugs used a machete to hack their victims.

“They cut my niece’s face off,” said John McClain, who is Hightower’s great-uncle, and the chaplain of the Newark Police Department. “They cut her from cheek to cheek. They left her head hanging.”

Just using the weapons Americans won’t use.

More Machete Madness from Todays news:

Nashua, NH

Palm Bay, Fla

From the title of this post you’d probably assume that Stocky is shining the light on some Real Estate professional. Not Exactly. It doesn’t take much effort to come up with many “It’s a great time to buy” quotes from realtors and/or delusional predictions of a “U Shaped recovery”. (Note: At the time of the U shaped recovery prediction, market is always at or near the bottom of the U. Funny how that works.)

What’s caught Stocky’s eye, mostly via the excellent Housing Bubble Blog is California “Regional Economist” John Husing who said in July 2007: 

‘They don’t get the market,’ Redlands-based regional economist John Husing said about buyers. ‘They don’t understand it. They think prices are too high.’

It apppears that our esteemed “Regional Economist” missed the Jr. High class on Economics where what something is worth is defined as what somone is willing to pay for it. That advanced economic concept has escaped Mr. Husing.

That doesn’t keep Mr. Husing from getting quoted in Calif papers though. Here are some more gems:

“‘It’s fear,’ said regional economist John Husing of Redlands. ‘People just flat don’t understand this market. If you’re thinking about the biggest purchase of your life and you don’t understand it, you don’t buy.’”

Who’s to blame?

“‘A lot of those loans are loans that should not have been made,’ Husing said. ‘Anytime you have a speculatize boom with excesses, there are prices to pay. This time we have homeowners, we have people who were trying to flip properties and we have the enablers.’”

Enablers??? You mean Enablers like empty headed academics who are looked at as “Experts” and who totally misdiagnose the problem??

Personally, I wouldn’t ask John Husing for advice on which bank to open a checking account in never mind ask him to analyse a modern economy. 

In his defense, if you need help with the Housing Market in the Stone Age, John’s your guy.  

Stocky wonders how many copies of Barrons walked away from the newstands with Media whore/stock guru Jim Cramer on the cover. Stocky give the Cramer article 2 cuervo gold thumbs up.

With careful analysis applied to Cramers stock picks you find out that you’re better off just investing in an index fund. Mr. Stock Market Idiot Savant turns out to be more Idiot than Savant.

The folks at CNBC did some serious backpeddaling when confronted with the facts of the poor performance of Jimmie’s picks.

CNBC officials also said that viewers should buy Cramer’s picks a week after they’re aired. They said that the show is mainly educational, and not just about stock-picking. In the end, they said we should focus only on the tiny universe of stock selections — about 12 a week — that Cramer researches the most.

12 stocks a week????? He does 5 hours of TV a week and manically yells and screams about hundreds of stocks. Viewers are only supposed to listen to 2 stock picks a show???

What about Jim’s favorite and most hyped segment of the show, the lightning round. Cramer no longer destroys chairs at the begining of each segment but he clearly revels in showing off his supposedly encyclopedic knowledge of thousands of stocks and dispensing buy + sell recomendations on nearly every one.

But wait. Now we find out that all that yelling about buying + selling should be ignored. The Barrons piece  looks at his latest book about his Mad Money TV show and it’s description of how to use the lightning round segement.

He writes that, by definition, Lightning Round recommendations are based on his previous knowledge of the stocks, not on fresh research. Yet he doesn’t tell his viewers to ignore the call-in segment’s Buys and Sells, concluding: “I still think you should listen to what I’m saying.”

Huh??

Should we just fast forward through the lightning round (does anyone watch TV live anymore) like we do the commercials or not? CNBC would have to agree with that according to their 12 stocks a week statement. But what about Cramer?

Luckily, last night, in his first show after the Barrons issue he addresses the subject. After several veiled references to “partners” being biased (Vast right wing conspiracy anyone?) he finally gets to the lightning round.

Immediately after explaining the “rules” of the Lightning Round (You give me a stock, I tell you to buy or sell …) Cramer starts whining about the Barrons piece. He ends the whine by saying that his LR picks are “not based on as detailed analysis as the rest of the show” and he’s “just trying to point you to Best of Breed.”

Wait, what was that about “buy or sell”. Cramer even flip flops when describing the rules to a segment where he spends most of his time flip flopping.

With commercials on each end the LR took 17 minutes. Thats 34 clicks of the Tivo 30 second skip.

For all you Cramer lemmings, Stocky has just saved you 17 minutes a day. You’re welcome.  

From the Boston Globe:

About 1:30 a.m., the couples, who said they were laughing and chatting excitedly, began walking back to the hotel. They were about a block away when they saw three women whom they estimated to be in their late 20s staring at them.

As the couples passed, Lakeesha Johnson said, the women, who were White, screamed “N—-r” at them and swore at her.

Tameeka Johnson said she responded, “Excuse me?”

“They took offense at it,” she said. “Who knows what offends people?”

The couples walked on hurriedly and were about 10 feet away from the hotel door when the attack began, she said.

Lakeesha Johnson, who fell to the ground, looked up to see her sister-in-law surrounded by women. One woman had grabbed her from behind and wrapped her arms around Tameeka Johnson’s face.

…

Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department said it is too early in the investigation to determine whether the attack was racial. “To suggest a motive at this point would be inappropriate,” she said.

To suggest a motive would be INNAPROPRIATE?!?!?! You gotta be friggin kidiing me.

Oh. Wait. I quoted that story incorrectly. The attackers were BLACK and the racial slur they used was “Honky”. The women who got attacked were white and their names were Sullivan.

My mistake. Hold the 7 part series on racism in Boston.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Local WEEI radio morning duo John Dennis and Gerry Callahan had the crap kicked out of them by their management team. The short version of the story is that the duo had illusions of grandeur by jumping to a ”new” sports station funded by Venture Capital when their WEEI contracts ran out in Sept.  

Unfortunately for them and their wallets, WEEI took them out behind the woodshed and laid the lumber to them by buying the “new” sports station. Leaving D+C with few options but to come crawling back to Daddy WEEI. The long version of that story is detailed here.

What does Stocky have to add to this? Well, I wonder what the over/under is on how long it takes a caller to say “Joe Athlete ended up taking the money. Just like you 2″.

How will D+C’s contract squabbles temper their criticism of Athletes who talk a good game about “it’s not about the money” but end up following the dollar signs just as D+C will likely do.

I’d love to see them pull some rabbit out of a hat here (WBCN?) but the likely scenario has them eating WEEI crow and liking it.

It’s interesting that just recently when the Dems floated the idea about re-implementing the Fairness Doctrine they were rightly shouted down due to the huge number of outlets now available to anyone who wants to get their point of view out there. What all those outlets don’t guarantee is the right to be paid a $mil plus per year.

D+C got schooled on that by WEEI.

Another day, another gang banging thug gets a free pass from a Judge in Massachusetts.

Michelle McPhee does some more excellent work here.

   Last week Boston Municipal Court Associate Justice Annette Forde gave a stay of execution to a convicted gun-toting thug who secreted a loaded weapon - with its serial number filed off - in a “hide” built into a car stereo. The judge’s move is essentially a free pass to stay home while he appeals his jury conviction for gun possession.

    These are the facts of the case:

    Locksley Bailey, 20, was arrested less than two hours after a shooting when the car he was traveling in was approached by Boston cops, who said they who smelled marijuana coming from the windows. He fit the description of the gunman who unloaded a fusillade of bullets on a Dorchester street corner, hitting a man in the buttocks and hand.

A search of the Globe Website finds nary a mention of a “yout” named Locksley Bailey. No surprise there. Stocky bets they will get around to this story in the unlikely event that Locksley actually begins to serve some time. Look for a story on his aspiring rap career with the standard quotes about “turning his life around” along with a heartfelt shoutout or 2 to his kid(s) and his girlfriend suddenly turned fiance.

And of course, not a word of outrage from Steve Bailey.

Business reporter Kim Blanton draws Stocky’s attention with a story yesterday with a blatant mistake about Countrywide financial. More on that shortly. Stocky perused the Blanton archives at boston.com and found this gem from a few months ago.

Remember a few months ago? Stocky does. The cratering of the housing industry was continuing unabated. Unless you read Kim’s article from April 15th.

According to Kim the it looks like the “worst is over” for the Boston market. This graph sounds like it was taken verbatim from NAR press release.

If you’re selling a home, it’s not great, but not awful, either. Expect a still-slowish market for a time, though not as dreadful as 2006, which posted the fewest home sales in a decade, and a nearly 6 percent drop in prices. Don’t expect prices to bounce back much this year, though one silver lining is they probably won’t fall anymore, either.

But if you’re shopping for a house, 2007 looks pretty good — so far. You have many houses to choose from, and the upper hand in negotiations. One risk: other buyers are also more active, so moving too slowly may mean missing out on good opportunities.

Sounds like “It’s a great time to buy”. (more…)

What do you get when you take a clueless Boston Globe (sorry for the redundancy) “business” writer and let him write about Guns?  Typical liberal kneejerkism followed by holier than thou excuse making and attention diverting attacks on the messenger.

The Steve Bailey Straw purchase is detailed here. To summarize, Stevie is bored with writing boring business stories so he grabs the Globe’s favorite loony leftist gun control nut (John Rosenthal) and he heads to a New Hampshire gun show. Hijinks follow when Stevie uses his El-Globo expense account to have someone else buy him a gun. Otherwise known as a “Straw purchase” and/or a felony. (more…)

What is it about AAPL that brings the morons out of the woodwork? Neil Cavuto on Fox News delivered a pathetic end of show “commentary” that showed how little he understands about Wall St., product marketing and for that matter the pop culture of the Iphone. I happened to catch his performance on the air and was stunned at how much he got wrong in his folksy “commentary”. Maybe he should take a page out of the Katie Couric and Dan Rather playbook and have some low level staffer write these “from the heart” commentaries. (more…)

Being a CNBC addict, I’ve watched countless reports from Jim Goldman. He’s the “tech” reporter usually doing a standup outside some Silicon Valley company after they’ve reported earnings.

Besides looking like he just finished sucking on a helium gun before going on the air, Goldman has a self-important air of smarminess about him. Like he’s the expert on all things tech and we should consider ourselves lucky to hear his “insight”.

It was after reading his post about being “Flamed” on his blog that I knew I had to get off my ass and start my Blog. Mind you, reading Jim Goldmans blog is not something I’m proud of. What a waste of friggin time you’d say. (And you’d be right) But I stumbled on it after catching up on Diana Olick’s very good housing blog.

Anyways, back to Goldman. This post got my blood boiling. Here is the money quote:

In the media business, we have a term for the Mac (now iPod) faithful when we write or report some less-than-flattering comments and angles to the Apple story. We call it, “getting flamed.”  

 You gotta be friggin kidding me!! The CNBC Tech “Expert” thinks being “Flamed” is something he and his media insiders made up for and use themselves. What a fucking moron.

Flame wars have been going on in Usenet since shortly after Al Gore invented the Internet.

In fact, Goldman doesn’t even use the term properly. Getting boatloads of Email telling you what a clueless Dolt you are is not getting “Flamed”. Flaming is typically done in an open forum like Usenet or some message board.

An important aspect of Flaming is the public humiliation involved as all your Usenet/Message board buddies get to watch you getting stomped on by the Flamer. Good Times.