A debate on the Iraq war initiated a little bit of a tussle among Boston's city council members on Valentine's Day. They decided that they were tired of being left out by the other, more important legislative bodies, who have all debated and voted for or against totally pointless resolutions against the war. Members quotes American legends such as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in their attempt to seem larger-than-life, like their idols.
Boston City Council members debated a non-binding resolution named "The Resolution to Support Our Troops By Bringing Them Home from Iraq and Afghanistan" to call for the immediate withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq. An entirely symbolic measure that, at best, would effectively accomplish nothing. At the worst, however, it tied up 48 minutes of city council members' precious legislation time (over 10 other actually local issues used up 42 minutes of the council's time by comparison) and drew a painful parallel between the bloated, ineffective nature of the council and the wave of violence that has been sweeping Boston's streets for over a year now.
Councilor Chuck Turner led the City council on the debate, and he took the most heat for the useless showboating. Almost half of all the victims of violence that were gunned down last year were killed in Turner's district and local community activists have lambasted him for ignoring his duties as councilman. At critics, Taylor fired back that a shortage of funds resulting from the United States' expenditures in its quagmire of a war in Iraq have caused a decrease in public safety funding like police and other anti-violence measures.
Boston City Council members are paid $87,000 dollars a year, and members critical of Chuck Turner's move insisted that they are paid that salary to discuss and legislate issues local to Boston, not the Middle East. More conservative city council members like Sal LaMattina, Stephen Murphy, and Jerry McDermott argued that if the council was allowed to discuss the Iraq war, it should also be allowed to discuss other hot buttons issues (especially those dear to the right-hand side of the political spectrum) like immigration and the prison industry. Sal LaMattina represents East Boston, Charlestown and the best neighborhood in the world, the North End. Jerry McDermott is the representative from college-kid-town Allston/Brighton, and Stephen Murphy is a council member at-large, representing the entire city.
While Boston City Council president Maureen Feeney initially did not oppose the debate because of Turner's focus on budgetary issues she ended up joining the Pro-war side and opposed the limp resolution. On the other hand Micheal Flaherty initially opposed the debate when he was city council president using a technical loophole that limits what can be discussed during hearings to prevent such debates, but voted on the anti-war side of the resolution. Other city council members Micheal Ross, Felix Arroyo, Sam Yoon, and Charles Yancy supported the measure and voted on the anti-war side.
I typed "ICA" into the "Service Nearby" option on the new MBTA site, and was surprised to find that not only did their option for the Institute of Contemporary Arts put me smack dab in the middle of a body of water, but when I zoomed out, I realized it was just off the coast of Africa. Oh, really, T? I mean, I know it's pretty far from any of your train lines, but I didn't think it was that far…
In a post yesterday, we asked our in-the-know readers to help us solve a blind item published by the Inside Track (we even offered a prize!). In the comments comes the first guess, NESN personality Hazel Mae.
Now, we don't watch TV, so we had no idea who this Hazel Mae chick was, but after a bit of research we found HazelMae.net, and this tribute video:
Who this blind item in the recent edition of Naked City is referring to:
Then there’s the veddy enterprising media gal who always gets the big scoop. Could it be that she’s willing to do anything - and we mean anything - to get the story???
Good (creative or correct) guesses in the comments will win a free pool party at Felt, with free appetizers, for you and 19 of your closest friends (a 450$ value), so make 'em good.
Alcohol, explosives, gun violence, and bigotry. True American values. Of course, let's not forget what Independence Day is really all about: the Declaration of Independence and our freedom-and-justice loving forefathers:
He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
This morning, Mike over at T-Rage discussed his take on what pushes urban cyclists to the dark side:
So cyclists think to themselves, “here I am, actually doing something, and burning calories, not petrol, and I get no respect!” Understandably they start acting out, swerving artfully through traffic, running lights, scaring pedestrians. But they’ll never be a match for a soccer mom in a monster Esplinade.
I don't know, maybe I'm just a jerk, but it's the swerving through traffic and blowing red lights thing that makes biking in the city so much fun to me. I ride a track bike with no brakes, so I tend to prepare for possible incidents by slowing early, so it's not as balls-to-the-wall dangerous as it may sound. And while I can definitely confirm his assertion that pedestrians have this idea that it's not gonna hurt so much if a bike hits them (if they even look before scampering into the middle of a car-free street), I'm more than willing to give pedestrians, yes even blatant jaywalkers, the right of way. My only enemy out there is the cars (for lots of reasons, but that's a post unto itself).
We got an email from a tipster last night about our favorite local-politician-and-TV-newsperson-offspring-cum-American Idol non-winner, Ayla Brown:
Ayla is signing with a record and distribution company on 8/24 and then recording that day. She will have a single out late August/early Sept. and a full CD by mid-Oct. She will also be singing with the POP on 7/3&4 and also on 7/12 at Fenway with Theo Epstein.
Around the BWP offices, we're looking to fill a few vacancies in our blog lineup. So if you're from the Boston area and would like to blog for the coolest blog network in Beantown, drop us a note, and we'll set it up. We handle hosting, development, marketing, and design; you do the writing. We split the advertising revenue generated by each blog with its author, 50-50.
Here are the sites were currently looking to get going. Most of the domains/sites are fairly self-explanatory, and most are already (at least partially) designed, but we're always open to suggestions or new ideas.
Not ones to miss a chance to rain on a celebration parade, Jeff Rizoli and Jim Rizoli, anti-immigrant brothers from Framingham, scored themselves some unflattering press by bringing their bigot-trash selves to a Brazilian soccer celebration yesterday in the 'burbs. We've noted before that the whack-jobs in the 'burbs get bored easily and resort to ridiculousness, but this time even the popo don't got their back:
As Jim Rizoli was talking to a police officer about his concerns about the Brazilian crowd, he patted the officer a few times on the shoulder.
"If you touch me again, I will lock you up," said Deputy Chief Steven Trask, who declined to comment further.
The brothers were incensed.
"When we were attacked over there last week, where were you?" asked Jim Rizoli. "You guys are working for the Brazilians!"
Which is surprising, since one of the brothers, Jeff Rizoli, is head of CCFILE: "Concerned Citizens and Friends of Illegal Immigration Law Enforcement." It's the same thinly-vieled racism that these groups always have: the assertion that a human being trying to make the best for himself and his family can be "illegal" based soley on his place of birth (let's of course forget about the genocidal policy of early US history and how its legal dominion over this land came to be).
But seriously guys, a World Cup victory party? Are you kidding me?
Thanks to the fine folks over at Felt, we've recently come into a few sweet prizes to give to you, our adoring fans. You can win a free Pool Party at Felt — that is, 2 free hours of pool and appetizers for you and 19 of your closest friends, a $450 value. We have a few to give out, so we'll do a series of contests, starting today.
The first one will involve one of our BWP brethren, Boston is Funny. Charlie Wrigley over there is a lonley man, and we'd like it if you got to know him a little better, so we challenge you to find his boss's name, as he's mentioned it in at least one post since the beginning of December. The first person to find the name and link to the post in a comment on this post will win the first free Pool Party certificate.
