Carpundit

Police Union Extortion

In Everett and Revere, police union protestors (read: cops with guns and menacing looks) shut down state construction projects yesterday, according to the Boston Globe. My feelings about police unions and police details are well documented in the blog archives here, but this is a new extreme.

I believe the police protestors in those towns should be investigated by the state for possible extortion, or threats. Facing a picket line is one thing, but facing an armed picket line that has the power to arrest you, or shoot you, is another. The cops know that. They know they were intimidating the work crews and threatening the state.

I hope the Governor won't be intimidated. He should stop all state funding for the Revere and Everett police departments, and he should send in the State Police -as only he can do- to guard state work crews in those cities.

Those protesting cops are no better than criminals. And I don't say that lightly.

Photographic Proof that the paid police detail system is ridiculous

Here's a Boston police officer working a detail in a Back Bay alley. The alley is completely blocked by the truck and a front-loader. What's the police officer for? Keep the traffic flowing smoothly?

Asinine. It's time we ended the union stranglehold. And did you see all those cops in uniform trying to intimidate the opposition at the hearing Monday?

Massachusetts Governor

You know I didn't vote for him, but I've got to say that both this and this seem like good ideas.  Keep biotech industry here, and make the road safe enough that it doesn't kill biotech employees on their way to work.

(Image source: here.)

Evolution

OK, so I'm a week behind the news cycle; this isn't NewsPundit.

Still: I couldn't agree more.

Congressman Takes On the Mass Turnpike

Michael Capuano is my Congressman, and I voted against hin last time because I was so mad about his vote in favor of the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act.  But if he can bring down the Turnpike Authority I'll send $500 to his campaign and put his sign in my window in 2008.

On Imus Again. (Everyone Else is Talking About It.)

Fox25 reported that Barack Obama is now calling for Imus's dismissal.  I can't find support for that online, so Fox25 might be wrong.  Obama should certainly know better.  Public officials should not call for anyone to be punished because of speech.  I would expect a Harvard Law man to have more respect for the Bill of Rights, so I sort of doubt Obama said that.  Deval Patrick got it right - "That's up to the station."

Both men certainly waited to see which way the wind was blowing before setting sail, though.  Nothing like strongly-held principles.  For my part, I've been angry about his Jew-bashing and misogyny for years.  I still listened.  One accepts it as comedy.  Or, one used to, apparently, before the mainstream media decided to get even with Don Imus.

By the way, the double standard on Imus is astounding.  Robert Johnson, BET founder, and as establishment a black man as you'll find in America, said yesterday -essentially- that  blacks can have a discussion about the language they use about each other, but whites cannot.  I find the hypocrisy galling.

Make no mistake: Imus is done.  He won't come back from this.  And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy; he's a prick who deserves everything he gets.  But it's still a loss.

It is dangerous to silence offensive speech.

Self-Defense in Cambridge

I've covered this before, but there's news today.  The state's highest court ruled that Alexander Pring-Wilson is entitled to a new trial, one in which he'll be allowed to introduce evidence of his alleged-victim's violent past in support of his self-defense claim.  Pring-Wilson is the former Harvard graduate student sent to prison for killing one of the two convicted felons who attacked him four years ago.

I had hoped Gerry Leone wouldn't pursue this case the way Martha Coakley did, but I guess he's protecting his political future too.  Middlesex DA is a launching post for political careers.

Combine that with the utterly irrational knee-jerk liberalism of Cambridge and you've got a real good reason not to go there.

Imus, part II

As I write this Tuesday morning, Don Imus is getting thrashed by Matt Lauer on his own show.  He's been suspended for two weeks starting next week, has apologized, and has submitted himself willingly to repeated chastisement by the virtueless fraud Al Sharpton.  I think that's sufficient.

Sharpton thinks it isn't.  Of course, Sharpton forgave Jesse Jackson for "Hymietown."

Imus is an ass.  Sharpton is a con.

I'll take Imus any day.

Random Friday Evening Blogging

Random thoughts:

1. Why is that I am now more interested in reading Cook's than Autoweek?  Please note, I still grab SCM, Roundel, and Panorama before Cook's.  In that sense, I am more like my father these days.  It used to frustrate me that he only likes what he likes, and never spends time on the other stuff.  Is this a natural consequence of aging, spending time on only the things you know you like?  I have no patience for another article about another Japanese coupe or American sedan.  I just don't care, and you can't make me.

2. It is ridiculously easy to speed in a 996 Carrera.  I can't imagine what a 997 Turbo is like.

3. My never-before-used, been-sitting-in-its-box-unopened-for-five-years, Valentine One seems to work fine.  I decided to break it out tonight on the way to the Cape, because my usual ticket-avoidance method -eyeballs- doesn't work as well at night.  Crossing into one of the small towns along the route, I learned the V1 works when it warned me of a cruiser well before I saw it.  I wasn't actually speeding at that point, but I might have been.  A permanent install is on my modifications list.

4. Tomorrow we lift off the hardtop from the Carrera for spring.  Let's see how creased that back window is.

5. AG AG is really hanging on.  He's moved from lying denial to lying forgetfulness.  The next step is confession.  Then resignation.  Could we move it along, please?  The guy is in so far over his head, it's amazing he can breathe.  Being GWB's friend has really paid off over the past six years.  I'm sick of the whole crowd, myself.

Who Can Solve the Senate 1 Mystery?

Readers tell me I am wrong about my assumption that Robert Travaglini was the bad weather bad driver behind the wheel of Senate 1 last weekend.

So who was it?  Who can tell us the driver of a black American sedan -likely a Mercury, I now think- with Mass. Reg. Senate 1?  First one with the correct answer wins the Carpundit Know-It-All award for the week.