Foreign Leaders No Match For Arrogant Boston Liberals

World leaders, you have met your match: the sheer arrogance brought upon by single-party rule in New England.

What else explains the disgusting sense of entitlement that exists within the Bay State’s corrupt politics-media ruling class?

With today’s revelations that WTKK’s Jim Braude tried to interfere with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s motorcade, the libtalker has revealed just how overconfident Boston’s politically-connected hacks have become.

From the Boston Herald:

State police Sgt. Steven Godfrey said he was at his post for two minutes when his lieutenant radioed that the escort was leaving the library. It was then that Godfrey heard a “car horn blaring” and saw a black SUV “traveling northbound in the southbound lane” on Morrissey Boulevard.

Godfrey then saw the SUV making an illegal U-turn.

“I don’t know whether this is a terrorist or an aggravated driver,” Godfrey recalled yesterday. “Had they continued to go all the way around the U-turn . . . they would have been heading in the direction that the escort was coming.”

Godfrey said he ran into the roadway, arms flailing and yelling, to get the driver’s attention.

“This was a potential life-and-death situation for this person and/or one of us,” Godfrey said. “Had he continued to drive in toward the escort, he could have put his life in peril. He could have been shot. The Secret Service doesn’t take this stuff lightly.”

The driver, who turned out to be Braude, pulled over and began yelling at Godfrey out the window, according to the sergeant.

“You people don’t know what you’re doing,” Braude said, according to Godfrey. “You people are screwing up traffic. There’s people that need to get places. I demand to know what’s going on.”

(Braude said he never demanded anything.)

Godfrey told him the “only demand that would be met” was his demand for Braude’s license and registration. Godfrey mailed Braude a citation for wrongway operation and illegal U-turn.

“This was a situation that could have become an international incident,” said Godfrey, a 20-year veteran of the force who didn’t know the media personality. “This guy just had that demeanor of entitlement.”

Especially troubling is not just the fact that Braude feels justified in fighting his citation, but that there are 100 other local hacks who would have behaved the same way in those circumstances.

And why didn’t we find out about this until now? The incident occurred in April, when the PM was here to suck up to the Kennedy family.

Did The Globies cover this story at all, or are they protecting a local establishment figure, as they usually do?

This astounding level of self-importance is what happens when checks and balances are removed from the political process. Because Massachusetts is ruled by Braude’s friends, laws don’t apply to him, they’re for serfs.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Eagan and Braude’s ratings have been sliding like crazy recently, with the most recent figures showing Rush Limbaugh now beating them.

And with stupid “topics” such as bickering over sandwiches and burritos in the studio, why would anyone be surprised?

Braude image: Ted Fitzgerald, Boston Herald

Curtis Sliwa: Pinstripes Come First

At least there’s no longer any dispute: Curtis Sliwa has made it clear that New York-area topics will come first, even as he embarks on a shaky national syndication bid.

After assuring Boston-area media that he would be live and local for our area during his WTKK evening show, it’s now clear that was a lie.

But he’s also trying to have it both ways, claiming he knows the streets of all of these cities thanks to (largely failed) efforts to bring Guardian Angels here and elsewhere.

It’s one thing for New York to tolerate Curtis’s decades-long scam, but expecting other cities to follow suit is ridiculous.

Worse, in a New York Daily News interview, Sliwa twice sucks up to Barack Obama, in a move that will please left-leaning managers at these stations.

If that wasn’t enough, Sliwa reveals he knows nothing about where news-talk listeners live, mistakenly believing they reside in large cities, rather than suburbs and rural areas:

Curtis Sliwa’s vocal his new show stays local

By DAVID HINCKLEY

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, November 11th 2008

Curtis Sliwa of WABC (770 AM) insists that he will remain “live and local,” even as his new evening show is carried by stations in multiple cities.

While WABC wasn’t officially confirming any changes yesterday, Sliwa left his 5-6 a.m. and 10 a.m.-noon shifts and did 9 p.m.-1 a.m. – which will push out Laura Ingraham’s tape-delayed show and cut Bob Grant to an hour.

That slot lets Sliwa go live on WTKK in Boston, then on tape-delay over KABC in Los Angeles. He’s also been carried, he notes, on WABC sister station WMAL in D.C.

He says “the show is working out great” for WTKK and KABC. “They love it.”

WABC’s two morning shifts yesterday were handled by supersub Mark Simone, who said on the air, “I’m just in here for a while.”

“Management didn’t want me doing three shifts,” said Sliwa. “I agreed to do those morning shifts because they needed someone there during the election. Now that the election is over, this other opportunity has come up, so this is what I’m doing right now.”

There’s a major debate in radio over whether talk radio fares better with “live and local” shows or with well-known syndicated hosts. Sliwa says with him, listeners can get both.

“My show feels live in every city because I know those cities so well from working there with the Guardian Angels,” he says. “I tie a local story into a larger issue, and it entertains everybody, which is what talk radio needs to do.

“I can do 10 minutes on Eliot Spitzer and everyone gets it.”

It helps, he says, that “I’m not like a lot of my colleagues. I don’t talk straight politics. I talk about what’s going on in the streets – and in an Obama presidency, that’s important, because many of the issues over the next four years will be urban.

“I can tune into those issues and tie them together. I can help radio reach the generation that helped make Barack Obama President.”

Sadly for Sliwa, his new syndicator is Citadel’s ABC Radio, which is completely broke and not expected to survive. But for now, he can help the company fill airtime at Citadel’s affiliates on the cheap.

In Boston, however, WTKK has no connection to Citadel. So what’s in it for them? Why help the company survive, when its failure could mean an opportunity for owner Greater Media to pick up stations in Providence, New York and across the country for pennies on the dollar?

Having Curtis Sliwa on the air in Boston makes about as much sense as opening a Yankees fan store on Yawkey Way.

What Margery Is Afraid To Tell You

Let’s face it: Margery Eagan’s performance at the Boston Herald has been spotty for some time. Occasionally, the WTKK talker makes a decent point or two, but it’s usually followed up with a crappy piece that probably isn’t worth publishing.

In particular, she has an obsession with the appearance of other women, coming across as catty and petty. That is still evident in her references to Sarah Palin.

In Sunday’s Herald, however, she’s played defender of evil, attacking those who dare to question the increasingly-creepy cult forming around Barack Obama.

Clearly, the body-snatchers have full control over Margery, so she’s gone on the offensive, accusing cult critics of suffering from “Obama Derangement Syndrome” (itself a cheap rip-off of Michelle Malkin’s Bush Derangement Syndrome of a few years back).

Subject to the Herald’s standards (which must have been relaxed a bit to run this rubbish), it’s her column, so that’s not my objection.

In two places, however, she’s completely out of line. See for yourself:

Meanwhile conservative talk radio, having failed to prevent Obama’s election, has launched the undermine-him-right-out-of-the box squad. My Herald colleague and fellow WTKK 96.9 FM talk radio host Michael Graham has his own Obama resistance movement, warning about civilian police forces and mandatory youth indoctrination, etc.

Personally, I love Michael. Politically, I think he’s out there.

“So Michael, are you deranged?” I asked him yesterday.

“Just because you’re paranoid, huddled in your bed in the fetal position doesn’t mean somebody’s not out to get you,” Michael said.

Deranged? I let you be the judge.

First, Margery wants you to think that conservative talk radio “failed” to defeat Obama, despite being burdened with John McCain, a candidate the right never wanted.

And if Rush Limbaugh and others are so ineffective, where does that leave Margery Eagan? She fails to note in her column that in the most recent Boston ratings, Rush is now beating her program in the critical 25-54 demographic.

That’s thanks to a 22% drop for her team, versus a 44% gain for Rush over spring 2008 figures.

Second, many talk programmers I know would be quite uneasy over the way Eagan has used her column space to attack a fellow host so directly. An oblique reference to The Felon in Howie’s column is one thing, but at most stations, Margery would be in hot water this morning with management.

The problem is that she’s undermining WTKK’s image and credibility by making a co-worker out to be a nutcase. A station’s brand name can be damaged this way.

Obama cultists will be looking for a variety of ways to attack resisters in coming weeks and months and Margery has offered her own approach, weak as it may be.

Were We Used By Curtis Sliwa?

Just a short time after kicking off an evening Boston program that has perplexed many in New England, baggage-burdened New York City radio host / Guardian Angel Curtis Sliwa is apparently switching the show to national syndication.

That’s after convincing locals that he was interested in Boston-area issues, despite his Big Apple / pinstripe background.

Now, we’re learning that WTKK may have simply been a short-term testing ground for a national show to be heard during that very timeslot, primarily on Citadel – ABC Radio stations.

In other words, we’ve been had.

With Citadel so close to a complete corporate financial collapse, it needs cheap programming that can be fed to its stations nationwide. Never mind the fact that Sliwa’s only success in talk radio was as part of a left-right morning show team.

Now, he’ll do four hours alone, in markets where most people have never heard of him. Citadel’s dire situation makes all of this largely irrelevant.

But what’s in it for WTKK and Boston? Not a damn thing.

This is like having one of the Yankees warm up for a few weeks in a Sox uniform for the benefit of his teammates in New York.

Jay Severin On Women

Here’s a question we get reasonably often:

HEY BRIAN, can you clear something up for me please?
why does Jay Severin constantly talk about seducing hot women, is he a married man?

he mentions his family all the time, it’s confusing to the listeners.
does he mean his brothers and sisters, real men who admire women don’t talk this way, he sounds like he has to prove something, almost gay!!

he comes on like such a family man, I know he’s smart on politics, so what goes with him? love your blog.
THANK YOU , JACK G

Jack, Jimmy Severino is indeed married, see my 2005 background piece here.

Why does he behave this way? That I cannot answer.

Graham’s Fauxtography In Focus

There’s a mini-brewhaha forming over the use of a phony Obama image by WTKK’s Michael Graham on his website. Some Obama supporters are unhappy with the fauxtography, as it includes a backdrop of the late Cuban Marxist leader Che Guevara.

With so much bona fide political ammunition to use against Obama, especially his ties to radical fringe organizations engaging in voter fraud and other misdeeds, why fake images? It only serves to give uptight blue state snobs a reason to go on the offensive.

Particularly hard to defend is Graham’s response to complaints:

Please be sure to read the comments below, particularly those demanding I remove the photo above because, they “say,” it’s not real! What? Not real! Why, it’s as real as the claim that Sarah Palin charged rape victims for rape kits, or the Obama campaign’s ad claiming that John McCain is an anti-Hispanic bigot and supports Rush Limbaugh’s immigration policy.

One poster below suggests the photo above might be some kind of “joke.” Joke, sir? Didn’t you know that the Obama campaign has outlawed frivolity? Keep hope alive! Change can happen here! Long Live the Revolution!

After so many scandals involving ethics and honesty at WTKK, one wonders why they still seem to care so little about public credibility.

At the same time, the image really underscores the baggage issue that may yet deny Obama the presidency: had this not been pointed out as a fake, how many would draw that conclusion on their own?

Barack’s an extremist and the average person in this country simply doesn’t share his views. Whether he succeeds in scamming enough voters on election day is another story.

Graham To Appear At Question One Rally

With an upcoming rally, backers of Question One are hoping to drum up some coverage for their plan to eliminate our onerous state income tax. It will appear on November’s ballot.

Normally, I wouldn’t expect it to have a prayer, but voters are in a foul mood and will have few opportunities at the state level to register a protest vote. With so much excessive spending and corruption in the Commonwealth, this one’s a wild card.

Were it to pass, the legislature would block it anyway, so there’s no “risk” in voting yes. Having lived in two states without one, I can tell you from experience that the Commonwealth will not sink into the Atlantic should the tax be repealed.

In fact, our young people might even be given some hope of remaining here, rather than fleeing for greener pastures after graduation. Imagine New England with an economic future instead of the long and painful downward spiral we currently face.

Even if it doesn’t succeed, a yes vote above 40% could send a signal that voters are deeply unhappy, if our corrupt legislature dares to listen.

Apparently, WTKK’s Michael Graham will attend, but there’s no sign of Howie Carr in the lineup:

RALLY TO END THE STATE INCOME TAX

WAYLAND, Ma, September 23, 2008: The Committee For Small Government, sponsor of Question 1, is hosting a rally to the end the income tax at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall on October 4, 2008 from 1:00pm-3:00pm. Doors will open at noon.

Confirmed speakers include: Michael Graham, host of The Natural Truth on WTKK 96.9FM; Carla Howell, chairwoman of the Committee for Small Government; Kamal Jain, independent state budget analyst; Keith C. McCormic, candidate for State Senate; Matt Kinnaman, columnist for the North Adams Transcript; JC Cunningham, candidate for US Congress; Cynthia Stead, columnist for the Cape Cod Times.

Additional speakers for the event will be announced in the coming days. All are welcome to this free event.

For further information on the rally please contact:

Garrett M. Quinn, Jr. garrett.quinn.3000@gmail.com

Or visit: www.onemonthfromnow.org

For further information on Question One to end the income tax please contact: Susan Mojica at 508-875-7736 suemojica@msn.com http://www.smallgovernmentact.org/

WTKK’s Graham Plans Lipstick Stunt

This press release was just issued by WTKK-FM:

96.9 FM WTKK’s Michael Graham Says NO to Lipstick Politics

Graham to Deliver Over 500 Lipsticks to Senator Barack Obama Tonight in Concord, New Hampshire in Response to Obama’s “Lipstick on a Pig” Comment

Boston, MA (September 12, 2008): Michael Graham, radio host on Boston‚Äôs Talk Evolution 96.9 FM WTKK – 9am ‚Äì 12noon is sick and tired of the trashing of Governor Sarah Palin. He‚Äôs heard enough accusations that she’s a bad mother, bad parent, and a bad wife and he‚Äôs not taking it anymore.

Michael Graham and his listeners are sending the message tonight when Graham delivers over 500 lipsticks to Senator Barack Obama at the New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord where Senator Obama will be speaking at 6:00 p.m.

On Wednesday, Michael asked listeners to give him a lipstick as a show of support for his “Say NO to Lipstick Politics” Campaign. Listeners have been steadily dropping off lipsticks for the past 2 days at the station and at Ken’s Steakhouse in Framingham.

‚ÄúI‚Äôm sick and tired of the Democrats and the liberal media trashing Governor Sarah Palin,‚Äù said Graham. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs not about one ‚Äòsnarky‚Äô comment,‚Äù Graham continued, ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs about the constant assault on her character. My listeners are furious and this is our chance to speak out against these attacks ‚Äì and peacefully confront Senator Barack Obama with our lipsticks and gloss.”

Since most of the lipsticks are new, if Senator Obama chooses not to accept them, they will be donated to the Portsmouth office of A Safe Place, a non-profit organization that provides free shelter and support services for victims of domestic abuse. For more information about A Safe Place, visit www.asafeplacenh.org.

Talking Up Duluth

From the Duluth News-Tribune:

Heard on the floor (and on the street) at the Republican National Convention

[...]

“I worked at Grandma’s in Duluth. I did standup comedy for six years and then I ran Republican campaigns. The Republicans were much funnier. When I worked in Duluth, I worked with Tom Arnold. He almost got thrown off stage because he used goldfish in his act and he would make them do circus acts. People thought he was killing the goldfish. Duluth helped make Tom Arnold famous. The last time I saw him, I said, ‘Hey, remember Grandma’s?’ He said, ‘Grandma’s! Yeeeaaaah!’ ”

— Michael Graham, Boston Herald columnist and talk show host, WTKK-FM, Boston.

Which Group Is Worse?

In today’s Globe, Jeff Jacoby turns in what deserves to be an award-winning performance, nailing the Bay State’s increasingly corrupt government.

Here’s an excerpt, though it’s essential you read the entire column:

JAWS CLENCHED, blood pressures spiked, and radio talk-show hosts spontaneously combusted when the Globe reported last week that the $15 billion Big Dig – formerly known as the $12.2 billion Big Dig, and more formerly as the $7.7 billion Big Dig, and even, once upon a time, as the $2.5 billion Big Dig – will in fact cost a staggering $22 billion and not be paid off until 2038.

The Page 1 story was filled with infuriating details, such as the revelation that 80 percent of Massachusetts Highway Department employees are being paid with borrowed money. Bay State politicians originally sold voters on the Big Dig in part by assuring them that Washington would pick up 90 percent of the cost.

In reality, nearly three-fourths of the tab is coming from the pockets of Massachusetts drivers and taxpayers. What we were told in the 1980s would set us back about $350 million will actually cost us more than 50 times as much.

Well, as Willie Stark would say, are you on your hind legs yet? Are you good and angry?

[...]

Column after column could be filled with the ways the Massachusetts political class and its hangers-on play taxpayers for suckers – the gold-plated tax breaks for moviemakers, the insanely lucrative sick-time buybacks, the indefensible police details, the public-sector-only paid holidays, the “temporary” tax hikes that last forever, the state budgets that keep growing even as family budgets shrink.

It will never end – not until the suckers get riled up enough to fight back. Not until they start throwing incumbents out of office, instead of blindly reelecting them. Not until they stop letting themselves be treated as ATMs for politicians and doormats for public-employee unions. Not until they force their public “servants” to defer to them, instead of the other way around.

One question, however: did Boston-area talk hosts really develop this topic the way they should have?

Did The Felon come down hard on the one-party Beacon Hill corruptocrats who sponsor and promote this sick system? No, he’s one of them.

Did Don Imus cover this? No, he’s in New York.

Did Howie Carr make full use of this terrific topic, or did he gloss over it and quickly move on to silly entertainment or pet talk segments?

Did Vay Cay (“I left my brain in Sag Harbor”) Jay spend any time on it at all, or merely plug a few zingers and listener calls into the short space between endless commercial segments, only to rerun the whole mess two hours later?

So which group is guilty of a greater degree of professional malpractice? Boston talk radio sure doesn’t appear to be setting the proper example.