I am the God of Hellfire!

That is until he runs into the Goddess of Good: Queen Stephanie, the new--and vastly improved-- Amherst Select Board Chair. Just watch how she sorts out Larry Shaffer, the appointed Town Manager at the end of the rather brief discussion of this 'Only in Amherst' July 4'th Parade controversy.

And she was smart enough at the outset to announce that this was an internal discussion so NO comments/discussion from the general public. Two parade Committee members and two members of the League of Women Voters attended, looking 'locked-and-loaded'.

Key points: The private group who revived the Parade in 2002 (less than 10 months after the Twin Towers came down) WILL get their permit--and for the optimal time parameters, without being bullied into allowing war protesters or the KKK to march.

Don't worry about the Town Mangler babbling something about the Police Chief having concerns. In a Club for patriotic, law-and-order, stand up guys Chief Charlie Scherpa would be President.

In fact, he actually worked in uniform this past 4'th of July, and we know the Town Manager (with a much higher salary) certainly did not.

Of course Shaffer now has only two bargaining chips: use of town equipment (police cruisers, firetrucks and ambulances--you know, the kind of equipment that many other towns have unconditionally provided) and the threat from rogue elements of the League of Women Voters promoting an "ancillary" Protest Parade (with help from the Town Mangler of course).

The Select Board backed him up on the former but not the latter.

Alisa Brewer jumped in and suggested Shaffer could not deem either event the official "town parade," as to show favoritism (and we know which group he would try to anoint with officialdom).

Interestingly one of the members of the League of Woman Voters present, Robert Romer, also attended that 'Eve of Destruction' September 10, 2001 Select Board meeting where he spoke for less display of the American flag.

As a long-time, card-carrying member of the ACLU, he dubbed the original letter to the Town Manager and Select Board six months ago as "one ACLU lawyer's opinion, and is not representative of all ACLU members." Hmmm, that would be the award-winning lawyer Bill Newman, who has been Director of the Western Massachusetts ACLU forever?

And that letter had to be approved by a bevy of other ACLU attorneys before it was ever sent.

The most recent strongly worded, eyeball-to-eyeball, follow-up letter (see yesterday's upload) demanding the Town Manger stand down and issue the permit immediately--otherwise go to war--was never even directly mentioned last night; the proverbial 1,000 pound gorilla in the room that everybody tried to ignore...but whose influence was undeniable.

The Town Manager most definitely blinked.

Don't mess with Texas, Israel or the ACLU

Click image to read

So with temperatures in the single digits it’s kind of hard to get all excited about a July 4’th Parade. But tonight’s Select Board discussion (7:40 PM during Town Manager’s Report) should be interesting, if only because of a new—way more respectful of the flag—Chair replacing His Lordship Gerry Weiss and his mentor for flag rejection Anne Awad, is no longer a Select Board member (even though her term did not expire until this spring).

Look for a 3-2 vote against doing anything really ridiculous—like refusing to issue the private committee a permit (for their 8'th consecutive year), or even supporting the idea to have the Leisure Services Empire run a competing July 4 Parade.

Behold the power...

So about now perky Catherine Sanderson probably wishes her chosen exercise regime was Martial Arts rather than Aerobics. Because she’s taking some serious fire for daring to have an opinion in the overly-opinionated People’s Republic of Amherst (where only the 'H' is silent).

Yes, she’s an elected public official, but on her blog clearly states she is not speaking for the School Committee or anyone else for that matter, only herself. And based on her uploads over the past 8 months she’s a real numbers wonk.

In a Letter to the ultra-crusty Amherst Bulletin, a Marks Meadow teacher (that the clueless Bully forgot to mention his status), with obviously nothing to gain (keeping his 'Language Arts Teacher position') whines that Ms. Sanderson’s blog is “out of line” for daring to discuss something Nancy Gordon was booed for on the floor of Amherst Town Meeting last spring: close Marks Meadow, the smallest of our 4 elementary schools (only serving 180 kids at a cost of $1, 654,000)) and the only school where we don’t own the tired, old building (Umass does).

Blogs are a two-way street. You don’t like what I or Catherine writes, feel free to comment (you can even do it anonymously). Or better yet, get your own damn blog --it’s free and even a tech idiot like me picked it up very quickly.

Even the Town Manager has a blog hosted on the town website but still using blogger. Although he’s smart enough to post only sickeningly sweet puff pieces (if I want that type of fluff I’ll read the Amherst Bulletin, thank you)

One of the--admittedly many--reasons Amherst is in dire financial straits is because “new growth” revenues are down. And why is that? Because NIMBY”s do everything in their power to kill new projects anywhere in town.

Commander Spock’s dying words: “The needs of the many out weight the needs of the few.” (Although miraculously he later comes back to life)

What the fuss is all about

Well at least his Letter appears last
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And just for the record: this blog is the private property of Larry J. Kelley private citizen (sort of), life-long Amherst resident--as were four generations of Kelley's before me. I do not speak for Amherst Town Meeting (15 years experience) or the Amherst Redevelopment Authority (10 years experience) or Amherst Bulletin Columnists (14 years experience) or the Amherst Athletic Club (27 years experience).

I do, however, speak for God and Country.

God bless America (but then, this is Amherst)

How embarrassing is this: the ACLU is at odds with the People's Republic of Amherst. Yikes!

So let's hope Town Manager Shaffer has bigger and better things on his plate rather than costing the taxpayers over $10,000 to launch a competing July 4'th Parade so war protesters can march.

And last I looked the War in Iraq is pretty much over and guess what? We won! (and they hate that).

The Republican Reports Link is not perfect so click "Amherst" after clicking this hyperlink

Only in China and...

Original Post 10:00 AM

Yeah, when I was in China recently for a couple weeks I was amazed by their ability to control the Internet. In addition to censoring President Obama's inaugural speech reference to communism they also put a blogger in jail for "inciting state subversion" by exposing lousy school building construction that killed so many children in that awful earthquake in the Sichuan Province in May.

Of course the stark contrast between school buildings that pancaked like the Trade Towers compared to other government buildings nearby that withstood the quake was hard for even the highly-skilled Chinese censors to cover up.

The People's Republic of Amherst simply threatens pesky bloggers with arrest, and then has a "Trespass Notice" hand delivered by a Sheriff. But hey, at least the difference between the Schools and the other town buildings is only in hot water provided (off the charts at the Bangs Center and Town Hall) and not in sturdy construction...I hope.
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10:25 AM UPDATE

Ironically I was checking my open public sitemeter and found someone who arrived here a few moments ago from a search engine called "Onekey—the kid safe search engine,” and of course across the top appeared the names of Amherst schools. They also hit “search the web” rather than “search arps.org”.

According to their ‘About Us’ link: “OneKey partnered with Google.com provides the largest database of kid safe sites”. So I guess we do censor the Net even here in America. But still, a big difference between porn and politics.

Nice to know the Amherst schools have not banned my blog.

Freedom of the blog? Not in The People's Republic!

UPDATE: 4:15 PM Super Sprague responds...finally.
-----Original Message-----
From: Al Sprague
To: amherstac@aol.com
Cc: Helen Vivian
Sent: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 3:09 pm
Subject: Re: Permission to use the 1'st Amendment

Dear Mr. Kelley:

I’m sorry I was not able to respond to the request you sent at 3:17
p.m. yesterday asking to attend the school committee meeting last night.
Unfortunately, we were in budget planning meetings for the entire
afternoon and did not have an opportunity to check email until this
morning. If you wish to attend public meetings on school property in
the future, please call 362-1810 with as much advance notice as
possible. That is the best way to ensure we will receive your request
in time to consider it.

Al Sprague
Co-Superintendent
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Of course my reliable sources tell me the school administration was having a BIG party while watching the inauguration and everybody had to bring in food either from Hawaii or Kenya (at least they did not send out for pizza at taxpayer expense)
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UPDATE: 9:25 AM (Wednesday)
So the local media, swept up in Obama fever, had nothing to offer in their morning edition's of the Regional School Committee meeting last night where if indeed a FY2010 budget was presented makes it an important meeting.

And since I have live blogged a few Select Board meetings in the past or usually if covering a meeting on school property—such as Town Meeting—where there is no free wireless (that costs Ed $30/month) I get my posts up within the hour.

Soooooooo, if I had attended that critical meeting last night you would now be reading my impressions. And yes, I took 'Journalism 101' and watched 'Dragnet', so I know how to relate the facts.

Even if colored with my sometimes (okay, oftentimes) snarky observations, at least you would now be better informed. That is, if I were given permission to attend the meeting.
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Original Post Tuesday 8:00 PM
So I was reminded by email from a blog reader that the Regional School Committee was meeting at 7:00 PM tonight and Acting –Co-Superintendents planned to unveil the FY10 budget, a huge component of Amherst’s $60+ million operation (with some slightly strange ideas for cost savings.)

At 3:17 PM (what we in the private sector refer to as normal business hours) in order to avoid arrest I emailed for permission to attend. It’s now 7:55 PM and no response. Hmm….



-----Original Message-----
From: amherstac@aol.com
To: spraguea@arps.org
Sent: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 3:17 pm
Subject: Permission to use the 1'st Amendment

Alton Sprague, Co-Superintendent Amherst Schools


Please consider this a formal written request for permission to set
foot on Amherst School property--specifically the Amherst Pelham
Regional High School--to attend the Regional School Committee meeting
this evening January 20 at 7:00 PM.

Larry Kelley

Not ready for prime time

So according to the Town Mangler’s only upload thus far this year on his ‘Amherst Town Manager’s blog’ (1/16/09): “The skating rink has been created at Kendrick Park and is ready for use. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see people skating in Kendrick Park.”

I had a variety of business uptown today--including parking in town center with my laptop to use the free wireless and catch President Obama’s speech (as I have no TV at home) and every time I passed by the “skating rink” it was empty. The “ice” does not look overly inviting.