HEROES – REP. DIANA DIZOGLIO (Methuen) and STATE SENATOR KATY IVES (Newburyport). Both DiZoglio and Ives worked tirelessly to get my public records bill a fair hearing in sub committees, made sure they were voted out of those committees favorably, held strong on penalties for law breakers, and then forced a full vote in the House of Representatives (The Senate is voting next month).
BOZO – OUTGOING HAVERHILL CITY COUNCILOR BILL RYAN
Ah, What can I say about my old pal Bill Ryan? He ran a dishonest campaign and the voters were not fooled. Ryan ran the failed state senate campaign for his son-in-law, (School Committeeman) Shaun Toohey last year, who, as a side note, lost his bid for re-election last month as well.
HEROES – JT TORRES, RANDY CARTER, & OUR LOCAL VETS
People may not know their names as well as other local hero vets, but in my book, JT Torres and Randy Carter should be lauded in our community for the volunteer work they do for our veterans.
BOZO – LAWRENCE COUNCIL PRESIDENT MODESTO MALDONADO
Modesto gets SUPER BOZO this year for a number of reasons. First, he is a puppet for Willie Lantigua, who is still calling the shots on the council. Next, Maldonado is a racist who not only labels and stereotypes people based on their ethnicity and place of origin, but he has also taken to the airwaves of Spanish language radio to disparage my dead father as a racist. Then, when I called him on it, he lied. Add to all that, Modesto’s efforts to unseat Mayor Dan Rivera, his support for criminals, his hatred for the Lawrence Police Department and his behavior in public, and you can see why Maldonado is very high on this year’s BOZO list.
BOZOS – THE NORTH ANDOVER BOARD OF SELECTMEN
Even though I like most of the board personally, (and even supported many of them) they pulled a BOZO move last month when they scheduled the hiring of a new police chief just a few weeks before Selectman Rosemary Smedile will be on the ballot for re-election. The excuse they gave for this odd scheduling, was that they did NOT want the hiring to look “political”. But, by scheduling the public hearings and the hiring of a new chief right before the local election, that is exactly how it looks. It looks exactly like the Board of Selectmen are trying to help one of their colleagues get her name on the front page of the paper just a few short days before voters will be deciding at the polls whether or not to return Smedile to the board. The timing of this hiring will also make it a campaign issue where candidates will be asked to weigh in and take a position on the candidates in the running, (sure as hell, I will be asking those questions myself). The appearance of impropriety and the blatant politics being played on this issue will be fun to watch. I, for one, am glad they scheduled the hiring process to talk place at election time. But lying about it earns them a spot on the BOZOS of the year list.
HERO – MASSACHUSETTS STATE AUDITOR SUZANNE BUMP
First, she belongs on the HERO list for being our Keynote speaker at The Valley Patriot’s Annual BASH in March. But the reason we asked her to join us again this year was because of her work in stopping fraud in the welfare and EBT programs. Not to mention her calling out the Department of Children and Families for not having systems in place to keep track of missing children, and her audits exposing waste fraud and abuse in state agencies that have long been considered sacred cows to the Democrat party she belongs to.
BOZOS – CNN REPORTERS
You know, it’s funny. A white man said to be pro-life shoots up an abortion clinic. Within minutes, Anderson Cooper, Brooke Baldwin and the rest of the Democratic Party operatives at CNN were tripping over themselves to call the act “terrorism”. In fact, Anderson Cooper said it was “OBVIOUS TERRORISM” and then followed up by asking, “What else could you possibly call it?” Yet, 48 hours later, two Islamic terrorists stormed a government Christmas party and murdered 14 people, critically injured 17, were clearly Muslim, had automatic weapons they used in a gun battle with police, were in contact with known terror groups… and despite all this, Anderson Cooper and the liars at CNN continued to say for three days that they needed to be cautious about calling it terrorism. Erin Burnette even postulated that the attack might have been from post-partum depression! So, a white man thought to be conservative in his politics is deemed a “terrorist” by CNN within MINUTES of the shooting, but not so much when the killers actually ARE terrorists. All I can say is that they are all BOZOS. (SIDE NOTE: Poppy Harlow is a real journalist and as always, was fair, impartial and exhibited common sense.)
BOZO – LAWRENCE MAYOR DAN RIVERA (SORRY DAN)
I do not support the recall of Dan Rivera, nor do I think he is doing a bad job as mayor. But, Dan makes the BOZO list this year because he chose to listen to people who know nothing about political strategy and have no institutional memory of Lawrence elections. At issue: Rivera’s political strategy in trying to get his friend Jim Blatchford elected as a city councilor at-large last month. Blatchford placed third in the primary, just barely edging incumbent councilor Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez into fourth (both were nominated but three get elected in November). It didn’t help Blatchford that Rivera not only spent his day campaigning for another candidate in another race, but he endorsed both Alvarez and Blatchford for the same open spot in the at-large race. This gave Alvarez the edge to place third and edged out Rivera’s candidate.
BOZOS – MASSACHUSETTS MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION
The Massachusetts Municipal Association is a group of public officials and municipal workers who get together and lobby state lawmakers for things that make their jobs easier. Since I submitted my language to Beacon Hill to change the law on public records access, the MMA has done everything humanly possible to make sure they are not held accountable when their members refuse to release public records in their care. First, they tried to kill the reforms outright. In fact, the first two times I submitted my bill, they succeeded in killing it outright. But, once the bill began to gain support from both Tea Party members and left wing progressives, the MMA changed their tactic and began lobbying the legislature to water down the bill to make it less effective.
BOZO – ACTING ANDOVER TOWN MANAGER LARRY MURPHY
Larry Murphy is an MMA representative from the Town of Andover. He is also the acting town manager and as such, sent an email to state senators and state representatives on Beacon Hill using a Town of Andover email server, and identifying himself as the acting town manager in his email. This was an underhanded attempt to kill a public records reform bill and should have been dealt with harshly by the Board of Selectmen. But it wasn’t. So, A DOUBLE BOZO to the Andover Board of Selectmen who were well aware of the ethics violations and did nothing.
HERO – NORTH ANDOVER SELECTMAN PHIL DECOLOGERO
We lovingly call him “Phil of the Future” on my radio show and in The Valley Patriot office for a reason. North Andover Selectman Phil DeCologero sits on a five member board and is the only one proactive enough to reach out to the media to let the voters know about important votes coming up, actions the board has taken, or events coming up in the community. Phil also donates a lot of his time to the North Andover Merchant’s Association and other charities but never says “look at me” or asks to have his picture in the paper.
BOZO – SANTA
I’m not sure why Santa couldn’t make the SANTA parade in North Andover this year, but sending an inflatable Santa in his place was a pretty cheap move. Sure it’s close to Christmas, and I know he’s busy, but when you make a commitment to BE SANTA you damn well better think about all those kids who showed up thinking they were going to get to see THE SANTA CLAUS live and in person for the first time in their little lives. Next year I expect a personal appearance and something special for the kids of North Andover.
BOZO – CHICAGO MAYOR RAHM EMANNUEL
So, the Democrats are declaring war on cops in Chicago and the mayor of the Windy City has enlisted the perfect guy to degrade, demoralize, and attack the Chicago PD…. former Massachusetts Governor (and cop killer advocate) Deval Patrick. Patrick as you may remember, fought as an attorney to put a cop killer back onto the street despite the fact that his chosen client stood over the officer and executed him while he begged for his life. Deval also spent his entire time as Massachusetts Governor attacking the police, calling them racist, and undermining public safety. Not to mention his letting Dominic Cinelli out on parole despite his three life sentences. Cinelli murdered Woburn Police Officer Jack Maguire just two days later. So, BRAVO to the mayor of Chicago for hiring Deval Patrick to attack our men and women in law enforcement. You really are a complete BOZO!