Click to enlarge/readUPDATE: 5:00 PM:
So there's hilarious Comments (always my blogesphere favorite) over at Princess Stephanie's "blog" or whatever she calls it (that would be O'Keeffe--with two e's two f's and another e)
Princess Stephanie "reports":
Masslive Amherst Forum:
Gotta love uber-lib Lloyd Loar's all too typical response:
Yes Lloydy, anti-aircraft guns (or better yet Patriot missiles) would have come in handy over the skies of lower Manhattan on that awful morning.
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Original Post: Yesterday
To: ShafferL@amherstma.gov; selectboard@amherstma.gov
Sent: Wed, 20 May 2009 10:32 pm
Subject: Public Documents Request
Could I please get a copy of the memo you issued to Fire Chief Keith Hoyle on March 27 concerning Amherst fire trucks not being allowed in the July 4 Parade?
Thanks,
Larry K
Sent: Thu, 21 May 2009 6:20 pm
Subject: FW: 4th of July Parade.FD participation.032709 - RESPONSE FOR INFORMATION REQUEST
Thank you for your e-mail communication to the Select Board. Each member of the Select Board has been sent a copy of your e-mail; however, any action by the Select Board in response to your e-mail must be deliberated and decided upon in a posted and public Select Board meeting. E-mail communications with departments and officials are public documents under State Law. Thank you for your interest and involvement in our community.
To: ShafferL@amherstma.gov; SelectBoard@amherstma.govSent: Thu, 21 May 2009 7:01 pm
Subject: Re: 4th of July Parade.FD participation.032709 - RESPONSE FOR INFORMATION REQUESTThanks Larry. Keep your head down.
LK
16 comments:
I wonder if our Fire Chief would know if it is possible to pay another town to rent it's firetruck for him to ride on? I will pay for it myself.
Larry can take his football and go play on a field somewhere else.
I am certain that any of the fire depts. that are in the parade would be happy to let him ride. But that is not the point! What an insult.
It has been stated over and over that nobody is denied being in the parade, and they are ALL supposed to follow the same rules. That should have been enough for Shaffer but he was already in too deep.
Our Fire Cheif is thinking of his men, who serve under and with him, in this town that used to be a beautiful place to live, until the Activists took over and changed all that was good. I hasve been here for 65 years, and my voice will never be heard as long as Larry ShaftAss is TM. I admire Cheif Hoyle, whome I have known since I became the FIRST Civilian Dispatcher, in this town.
I am glad that he has taken this stand, even if I am on the Parade committee. A good captain never deserts his ship and crew.
Until later..............
"Our Fire Cheif is thinking of his men, who serve under and with him, in this town that used to be a beautiful place to live, until the Activists took over and changed all that was good."
Anyone listening to THIS voice?
Anyone?
It's time to push them out.
Shaffer is a one trick pony.
This is his trick - Deny some group of Amherst Residents the use of town resources and justify so doing on the basis of some strange righteous value and the authority of his position
Would somebody (The SB or The Republican or The DHG or LS please) ask him to explain why he is co certain that protesting in the parade is an objective the government should involve itself in?
Shaffer has it backwards. The government cannot curtail free speech which is different than what is happening - the government is trying to curtail the free speech of the Parade Committee.
It's too bad his bosses don't call him on the "reasonableness" of him so exercising this authority.
At least he didn't try to hold another parade on the same day or charge the parade committee a tax or plant wheat on your lawn, or suggest your lawn should have a town maintained skating rink on it or build a PVTA public restroom on your lawn or turn swimming pools into sprinkler parks becuase swimming is antiquated.
Thank god this nitwit is not on the select board or school committee.
We can make this about Larry Shaffer or we can make this about having a parade that is something the vast majority of us love.
I'm not crazy about having protesters in the parade, and I really wish Mr. Shaffer were not playing such a large role in this.
But on this topic, I find moderates like Alisa Brewer to have the most credibility and I credit the conclusions and observations she expressed at the last Select Board meeting about the Parade Committee's intransigence in establishing the current impasse.
I would hope that the Parade Committee would decide instead to simply ignore Larry Shaffer and try to work through Ms. Brewer and Ms. O'Keeffe as honest brokers in this mess. Based on their comments in the past, I think that they understand the sensitivities of the members of the Committee.
I think that the appetite in town for a celebratory parade on the Fourth is far greater than the importance of this battle over who can march with what signage. I think that the oft-discussed "silent majority" wants the parade that the Committee wants.
I suspect that once a compromise is crafted, the folks who want to use the parade as some kind of rolling soapbox will find, after several marches, that the novelty has worn off. My guess is that, without this battle to rally around, they will ultimately discover that the receptive audience for a chanting critique of the US of A is not standing on the side of the road on this particular day. Give them close to what they want, and I believe that they will then run out of gas like a popped balloon. Within 3-5 years, they will gradually find something else to do on the Fourth.
The Parade Committee has failed to recognize its ace in the hole: on the Fourth, just about everyone loves a parade and very, very few people want to be sour on that day about this country.
Rich Morse
Oh, I would say the “novelty” has already worn off as the League of Women Vultures this year decided not to do their own Parade.
And a few years back ACTV also decided not to do one. And of course the town backed down TWICE—once when Czar Awad told the Town Manager Barry Del Castilho (in violation of Open Meeting Law) to deny the private committee a permit and have LSSE do one, and last year the new Town Mangler tried to “take over” the Parade—counterchecked by the ACLU.
I absolutely realize the Parade committee’s ace in the hole. It’s called being a normal American!
Rich, You see a new way forward and I agree. The way forward is not through Shaffer who wants to own the conflict it is around Shaffer and through Brewer and O'Keefe. Smart guy.
Tried that Monday night during the Question Period.
I mistakenly assumed Ms. Brewer, Ms. O'Keeffe and Mr. Hayden--would being somewhat normal moderates--overrule Mr. Shaffer.
Larry-It can't be through you. Despite your best efforts, you are a polarizing figure, even if often you are right, some person or group of people who do not carry as much history, need to express to Brewer, Hayden, and Stephanie, how disappointing this whole mess is and how calmer heads must prevail. The 4th of July can not be hijacked by one town employee and that is what has happenned with Larry Shaffer.
Agreed.
Exactly why I resigned from the July 4'th Parade Committee over a year ago (one of the harder things I've done in life as a matter of fact)
The really funny thing is that if the protesters were in the parade this year they would be celebrating the win of "their" president. There would be nothing for them to protest.
Except the rookie President is actually talking tough on Afghanistan (you know the backwater country that allowed the SOB Bin Laden to orchestrate 9/11)
"(that would be O'Keeffe--with two e's two f's and another e)"
Wait, I'm confused - are you making fun of how her name is spelled?
as in: "she's so stupid... look how many e's and f's her name has!"
Larry Kellllleeeeeyy (look at how many l's ane e's... and y's!!!!!!!), you must be able to come up with better insults than this.
No, actually it's an inside joke with her husband who made a huge issue of my misspelling her name one-out-of-three times in a post a while back where I suggested Princess Stephanie used the power of the blogesphere to get to where she now is and has pretty much gone south as far as blogging goes.
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