Patrick to Murphy: Uh, no

Both Murphy and the Bancrofts have once again proven that “when they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money”.

Normally, when I see you this cranky, I start to think that it’s that time of the Summer when you need your hiking vacation time.But then again, you just had a nice hiking trip recently, so what’s “frying up your nose, Dan?” WHat’s with the bad mood?For the last many months I have held off on commenting on so many posts and petty issues and you get worked up about some like a fish in a frying pan.First you post many times about crucial youth and Media issues and you miss oportunities there to address some important aspects, including a poignant study right in your backyard published recently about the subject. I could have posted half a book in responseto the posts and the ensuing comments you got, especially the VC guy and NPR and Journo non-profit cheerleaders.Then you go on a tangent trying to scuttle a casino deal, chipping away with some weak arguments. Now it is blaming the Police Chief with the fact that he belongs/lives in to a town he polices, which is something we generally want and owning property in a capitalist country should not be taken agianst one’s character or turned into unseemly motive when he did not generate this casino drive, nor sponsor it or bankroll it. But we will ‘punish’ him for happening to be a property-owning stander-by.Then you say Cramer is a loon, but a fair description of him really is a(n overly) quirky TV character who is not that funny but actually is a well-meaning genius who is a decent guy and good family guy who is worth his salt many times over compared to the pompous idiots on business TV and wait until clunky Fox Business starts and you’ll appreciate him even more.Then you insert yourself in the greater-than-life Mideast squabble and the Methodist/Christian activism saga when if we use 10% of one’s brain, we’d know exactly how Hill would respond to your hypothetical question. Given the choice nowadays between reaffirming the tenets of a candidate’s faith and risking poll numbers decrease, you know which they’ll choose.And now today, you start with snark targeting a small independent free tabloid that competes with your beloved Phoenix, I can understand the biased cheerleading but from a news man who is usually for the little guy, I didn’t expect to see you come down as you did on a struggling little publication who is trying to make it in a tough business world, let alone a media/publishing tough business climate. I am not a fan of them in the sense I have rarely been to thier site and rarely get a chance to pick their copy and don’t enjoy that flavor of journalism, but there is a demo/demand for it. So as small media organization as they are, I wish them well and hope they make it. Don’t we need more options not less? Freebies in this town are missing a huge opportunity given their watered content, but it isn’t time to give up on them yet, they need encouragement. I hope the Wilper/Permagint crowd refine their product to actually be relevant and original and more impactful. It’s a contrast to an emerging trend in Europe with these freebies like in the UK or with the Danish Experience Elsewhere, a “casino” magnate is shelling out close to $200 million for an upstart freebie in the Mideast.Then…(phewww)…we haaaaave this:”I don’t consider myself a Murphy-basher. I don’t doubt that he suffered terribly at the hands of the Herald’s sensationalistic coverage of him — although Media Nation readers know I disagree with the libel verdict that he won”No, Sir, it’s beyond that. YOu actually have contempt for the guy, you are squarely and mysteriously on the Herald side. I still cannot understand how you came down on that whole situation, unlike no-nonsense John Caroll’s instinct. I commend the governor for denying the request because I think judges are a tough breed of human beings and I believe he is still able to carry out his duties. But the impropriety with the letters is a textbook example why we have officers of the court recuse themselves from cases involving aquaintances, because as imperfect human beings, when it is too close to home, we can fall into minor mistakes like this, or just like the Stoughton case albeit this time, more serious. Murphy’s was a misstep but not one we should impeach him for nor bar him from the bench for. Power is a blinding thing often, judges are very powerful and this was a fairly beningn display of power, given that he had a court ruling already on his side and the judgement/payment had already been entered in his favor, so let’s not build this up more than we should, (ok Bailey?)If we were to smother lawmakers for such minor abuses of power/ego, no US, state or world assembly or court would be left undissolved. That’s why we have ethics commitees for minor breaches and we have prosecutorial remdies for more serious lapses (Alaskan trip, anyone?)And finally, we come to the revelation that -who knew?- Howie doesn’t mind associating with hate radio kinds? And yes, the sky is still blue. What I do like about the post, is precisely the inside baseball story you wrote before and would love to see more of. (countdown on when is over-exposed Ernie JR would popoff on the subject) Just please be careful with your language next time. Ending your piece with the oft-borrowed “Come On Down” is dicey business. Gazillion-dollar Boch Empire is suing the ‘pants’ (How about that for random judge parody for ya??) out of another “charming” not-annoying-at-all entity for the ‘very original’ catch phrase, namely Bob’s Store. As of to when a re-energized “The Price is Right” would come down and sue ALL of ya for copyright infringement, that I don’t know. “I hear in recent meetings, the issue drew careyful blood”N.PS: Boston Sports Media in print and radio yet again, in the space of 12 hours, jumped the snark -strike that- jumped the shark on many issues. I thought I’d see you post something about that. Still weighting! -Sorry I was thinking of the BigShow- make that ‘Still Waiting!’PPS: Does Boch family’s supposed ‘Hate radio’ past complicate life in the Vineyard Haven property dispute? (What, another Boch botched product delivery/architectural design?) We hear from Brian Phoney Baloney that most CapeCoders – how about capers or capians…rhymes with homosapians if we replace ..oh never mind or even the more French CapeCodiens- are mostly crypto-Elephants down there, so beware the long memories.What are they down there? Repubs? Nimbys?Pimbys? What is exactly Kennedy-Kerry-Clinton-Russert-LarryDavid’s playground? Or does it straddle ‘both sides’? hmmm…

Why, pray tell, is the Governor and not an independent panel of MDs deciding whether or not a state employee is disabled by a MEDICAL condition? “Together we can” render medical opinions even though we have no background in medicine. Ha!This is almost as good as Al Gore, complete with his B.A. in Government, making pronouncements on “global warming”. The beautiful people know no bounds when it comes to knowing it all. Hilarious!So now what happens if Murphy returns to the bench, has a “meltdown” and hurts himself or somebody else. Is Dr. Deval going to be on the hook?

I dont know what this n. guy is more full of — himself, or horse manure. but either way, dan’s right – he should quit whiNing and start his own blog.

Middlesex? Is that another kind of marriage that’s legal in MA?

Here are some statistics Mike thinks I don’t understand: 14 W, 11 L, 3.29 ERA, 240.2 IP. I think I understand those rather well.Mike this subject is long over with, but I find it fascinating that you keep holding me up for my alleged statistical ignorance.Here’s challenge: Find one baseball pundit other than yourself, anywhere, who thinks the Red Sox didn’t miss Bronson Arroyo last year.

Mike: That’s not really what I asked you, but OK. I think most knowledgeable baseball people believe Arroyo could have made a difference if the Sox hadn’t fallen victim to the injury bug in such a big way last year.Arroyo’s streaky, but he had a very good year in 2006 and finished strongly. His implosion this year certainly wasn’t predicted by the Reds.

Mike: Johan Santana couldn’t have made up those 11 games. You’re stacking the deck. I’m talking about the mid-July 2006 Sox, before everyone went down with injuries. If the Sox had been within two or three games of making the playoffs, Arroyo could have spelled the difference. We know that Wily Mo Peña didn’t.

At 4:24 PM mike_b1 wrote: “Put another way, when you have a headache, do you call the doctor every time or do you just take a damn aspirin?” —Mike, perhaps for a headache I would take an aspirin but for diagnosis of a career ending disability I would call a doctor, not a politician. For me the Globe story raises more questions than it answers. Chief among these, why is the Governor–bereft of any medical training or experience– apparently authorized to “reject” an employee’s application for disability retirement?Imagine if Deval donned a white coat, took the Caddy over to the state lab and began examining petrie dishes to determine which mosquitos had EEE. The scenario is absurd, but no more so than Deval passing judgement on a state employee’s medical fitness.State law seems both clear and strict in cases of disability retirement. Here’s an excerpt from the website of PERAC (Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission): “When a member of a contributory retirement system applies for disability retirement benefits, he/she must file a Member’s Application for Disability Retirement with his/her retirement board. When the retirement board determines that the application is complete, the board (which meets at least once each month) will petition PERAC’s Disability Unit to appoint a three-member, independent regional medical panel (of doctors) to examine the applicant.” “To be considered disabled, a member’s retirement board must find that the member is totally and permanently unable to perform the essential duties of his/her position.” “If the member is applying for an accidental disability retirement, the retirement board must also find that the member’s incapacity is the natural and proximate result of sustaining an injury or undergoing a hazard while performing his/her duties at a definite time and place without willful and serious misconduct on his/her part.”Elsewhere on the website is a reference to when certain employees must apply for disability retirement. State court judges are mentioned: “Firefighters, municipal police officers, elected officials, personal staff of an elected official chosen by that elected official, policy-making appointees, or immediate legal advisors of an elected official and state court judges must apply before reaching the maximum age for their group.” Check out the PERAC site here: http://www.mass.gov/perac/disunit/processing2.htmPlease correct me if I’m missing something, but it seems that the decision making authority is placed in the hands of the retirement board (based on the findings of the medical panel) precisely to avoid political interference in cases just like Murphy’s.While many of the above listed PERAC regulations may sound Greek to the folks in the dreaded private sector, most public employees are at least somewhat familiar with them. The first thing I thought of when reading the Globe story was, what did the medical panel say?Frank Phillips would have done well to report on why a Governor with no medical expertise has the authority to “reject” an application for disability retirement and why Murphy’s application seems to have followed a far different route than prescribed by state law. Although judges seem to be covered by the PERAC regulations, perhaps there is some extraordinary alternate method for judges. It would have been nice to have an explanation in the Globe. I won’t even delve into the whole separation of powers thing, but I also wonder why the Executive is exercising administrative powers over the Judiciary.

Mike: You may recall that this began when I first ripped the trade, in April ’06. Nothing hypothetical about it until the Sox fell out of contention.