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Like his homeboy Scott Brown, Boston's elephant in the room is poised to make noise beyond Massachusetts
Like his homeboy Scott Brown, Boston's elephant in the room is poised to make noise beyond Massachusetts

EAT AT JOE’S: Ligotti is a force of nature on the airwaves, but the plus-size gadfly truly gets loose over a plate — or several plates — of food.

Even in a world of Howie Carrs and Jay Severins, Joe Ligotti might be the most bizarre broadcast talent working in New England talk radio. And not just because the weekend WTKK host is a foul-mouthed mountain of a man weighing in at 400-plus pounds.

The 44-year-old Ligotti — better known as The Guy from Boston from a series of YouTube tirades he began detonating four years ago — has a growing following among conservatives and so-called moderates who worship cultural anomalies. His popularity is no surprise; for three hours on Saturday afternoons, Ligotti and his co-host Lawrence "Huggy" Bergman enliven — or, depending on your perspective, pollute — the airwaves with artful rhetoric that ranges from the familiar to the phenomenal.

For now, Ligotti occupies a small slice of the Hub's talk ozone. But the recurring Fox News contributor and onetime Tonight Show guest has the potential to surpass his yapper contemporaries and tread nationally. Anything is possible in the Scott Brown era — especially for Ligotti, who campaigned alongside the Wrentham Republican, and who often raps with the senator on and off the air.

To appreciate the girth of his personality — from amiable Everyguy to seething hatemonger — it is best to catch Ligotti off the microphone and over a plate, or several plates, of food. That's what I did over spicy tuna rolls and much more at Jae's in the South End.

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On the front lines of Obama's campaign in Afghanistan
Major Jim Contreras was awaiting his marching orders. Literally.

Major Jim Contreras was awaiting his marching orders. Literally. Stuck in Lashkar Gah, the capital of the Afghan province of Helmand, he was supposed to take his troops, along with a unit of an elite Afghan police force known as ANCOP, to secure the area around Nawa, so the people there could vote. It was part of the past year's biggest US offensive against the Taliban. But he couldn't leave, because his Afghan counterparts hadn't gotten their official order from the Ministry of Interior. The order had been signed five days earlier, but it had to be delivered to the commander, Colonel Gulam Sakhi Gahfori, by courier, with its seal intact. Then again, Colonel Sakhi had also not gotten basic supplies like fuel, ammunition, and radios. Contreras and Sakhi spent a fair amount of time discussing how the Afghans were to refuel at Nawa. Nobody knew if there were any gas stations there.

Contreras is a small man with a big grin who served in Bosnia, Haiti, and the first Gulf War. He was excited about his work in Afghanistan. He believed he was fighting to protect the American way of life. His wife had been working near the Pentagon when it was hit on 9/11. "This is in its infancy," he said. "We're beginning to see the military might that we as a nation can bring."

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Barack's Best Buddy
Speakers rarely get as warm a welcome as President Barack Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett received last Thursday at Harvard Kennedy School.

Speakers rarely get as warm a welcome as President Barack Obama's senior advisor Valerie Jarrett received last Thursday at Harvard Kennedy School. But just weeks after Scott Brown assumed his US Senate seat — a victory that proved even the bluest of states could deliver a red-letter day to frustrated national conservatives — evidence of the contentious political environment was nowhere in sight.

Instead, Jarrett — who has been painted as a "slumlord" by some and called a left-wing extremist by teapartiers — was greeted with a standing ovation and, in keeping with the theme of amity surrounding her public conversation with former presidential advisor and current Harvard professor David Gergen, referred to as the president's "First Friend."

A long-time mentor to Obama who first introduced him and his wife to Chicago power players, Jarrett vacillated between her professional and personal roles, referring to the president by his first name when discussing the time they spend together outside of work. "Of course he's Barack then," she told Gergen, who appeared shocked by the informality.

Though she maintained her composure under the bright lights when talking about creating jobs and moving health-care reform forward, Jarrett's professionalism was superseded by a broad smile when talking about her decades-old companion. "I don't brag about him too much," Jarrett said, "but he is pretty terrific."

Stressing Obama's ability to listen and his even-keeled temperament, Jarrett explained that the president does not fight back against Republicans, teapartiers, and birthers in the way many of his supporters wish he would — though of all his critics, "the birthers really do annoy him."

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Freedom Watch
Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.

Last Thursday's Supreme Court opinion striking down corporate campaign advertising restrictions might as well have been divorce papers in the rocky marriage between the political left and the First Amendment.

The contentious 5-4 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission saw the high court's conservative wing invalidating, on free-speech grounds, two federal statutes that had prohibited corporations from financing partisan messages during elections. Liberal advocacy groups immediately sounded the alarm: "A disastrous decision with a disastrous outcome" (moveon.org); "Shed a tear for our democracy" (Public Citizen); the decision "does not promote free speech; it mocks it" (People for the American Way).

Editorialists, too, mourned the death of democracy — soon to be buried, they wrote, by mega-corporate coffers (not realizing, perhaps, that nonprofits and labor unions are corporations, too). Even Barack Obama promised a "forceful response," notwithstanding that his presidential campaign already proved that an army of small donors on the Internet can best a regiment of moguls.

But what good is the First Amendment if it does not allow citizens, individually or organized as a corporate entity, to disseminate political speech (and in the case brought before the Court, a video broadside against Hillary Clinton) during an election cycle?

Seeing such restrictions as an affront to free speech, the conservative majority ruled for Citizens United, a nonprofit. Yet their stance is likely based not on principle but on politics; recent cases show that the right's affinity for the "free marketplace of ideas" can waver when it's their ox being gored. For example, pornography and obscenity have been favorite targets of the court's conservative bloc. Controversial expression on religion or drug use seems to be on shaky ground; combine the two, and all bets are off.

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What Have You Done for Me Lately Dept.
This week marks the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration. Can you believe it?

This week marks the one-year anniversary of Barack Obama's inauguration. Can you believe it? It's been 365 whole days since that frigid winter afternoon when Pastor Rick Warren intoned a prayer for "Malia . . . and SA-SHA!" and Aretha Franklin wore that ridiculous, big-ass hat.

It's been, shall we say, a fractious dozen months. And in the waning days of his first year, so much of the focus of the 24-hour news circus was focused on Obama's campaign promises that haven't been kept.

Last October, Saturday Night Live hit a nerve when it laid out the grim facts in a skit with Fred Armisen playing the beleaguered Barack: "When you look at my record, it's very clear what I've done so far. And that is . . . nothing. Nada. Almost one year, and nothing to show for it."

A bit of an exaggeration, perhaps, but from gays in the military to Wall Street reform, from getting us out of Iraq to closing Guantánamo Bay, Obama has what seems to be an unusually long Still To Do list.

It gets worse, people! It turns out that list is even longer than we'd figured. The Phoenix has uncovered a secret memo outlining some of the things the POTUS will try to square away in the embryonic days of Year Two.

1) Have one of those "Mad Men days" where everyone drinks booze and smokes butts in the Oval Office; make sure to invite Henry Gates and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley

2) Spit some sick rhymes for that Jay-Z collabo

3) Close Guantánamo Bay prison — and open Guantánamo Bay Club Med

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More than 1500 miles from the epicenter of the Haitian quake, its effects rippled through Boston's teeming Haitian community
From the second that the Richter scale registered at 7.0 in Haiti, a desperate grief rippled through Hyde Park, Dorchester, and other corners of this region, which is home to the third-largest Haitian population in America.

HOLD ON: At a vigil on Monday in Somerville, Haitian Coalition Executive Director Franklin Dalembert and the Mission Church True Light Choir helped those in attendance find some solace, if only temporary, in the days following the earthquake.

Haiti earthquake resource guide. Covering a tragedy: How does a small local paper cover the world's biggest story? By Adam Reilly. Disaster, then détente: Politically speaking, Hurricane Katrina this was not. By David S. Bernstein. Quake response: Boston organization fighting good fight in Haiti. By Jeff Inglis.

From the second that the Richter scale registered at 7.0 in Haiti, a desperate grief rippled through Hyde Park, Dorchester, and other corners of this region, which is home to the third-largest Haitian population in America. Barber shops, offices, and island restaurants from Morton Street to Union Square buzzed with horror. Unless they were giving interviews themselves, Haitian-Americans spent every minute scanning broadcasts for news of surviving friends and family.

In service to that community (various reports have the state's Haitian count at between 80,000 and 100,000, and Greater Boston's at between 40,000 and 60,000), organizers and elected representatives did more than just issue press-release condolences. Working closely with Haitian community leaders, who, within 24 hours had established the centralized Haitian-American Earthquake Relief Task Force, Mayor Tom Menino arranged a Haitian Family Relief fund with Bank of Americato solicit donations. Meanwhile, Governor Deval Patrick provided the federal government with a roster of available disaster-tested aid workers.

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Software ‘Saint’ Richard Stallman fights for computing freedom — and against corporate control
Stallman — a legend in the programmer community for more than a quarter century — considers it his life’s work to proselytize the free-software gospel, educating the lay people who’d otherwise assume that Microsoft or Apple are exclusively synonymous with computing.

The GNU and you. By Jeff Inglis.

Twenty minutes into our interview, at the Downtown Crossing headquarters of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Richard Stallman learns that I own an iPhone.

“That’s a shame,” he says, leaning back in his chair, fixing me with a stern gaze, and fiddling, as he’ll do for much of the next hour and a half, with his beard.

Stallman founded the FSF in 1985, two years after he’d launched the still-ongoing mass-collaboration GNU software project at MIT — which provided the fundamentals for the hugely popular GNU/Linux operating system that’s in millions of computers today. He has no truck with the “iMoan.” Nor with the “iScrod.” And certainly not with “MS-DOG,” as he derisively dubs Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system.

Such proprietary technology, trussed up with “malicious features” designed “specifically for the restriction of the user,” says Stallman, “impose control to an unusual degree” and represent “forms of subjugation.”

And here you thought you were just checking your e-mail.

But Stallman — a legend in the programmer community for more than a quarter century — considers it his life’s work to proselytize the free-software gospel, educating the lay people who’d otherwise assume that Microsoft or Apple are exclusively synonymous with computing.

“They think it’s natural that the software developers will have power over them,” he says. “My mission is to point out to them that that isn’t natural. It’s wrong. It’s an injustice. And they shouldn’t stand for it.”

Some in the open-source community (a note about semantics anon) have griped that Stallman is a stubborn utopian, whose Manichean worldview and rhetoric are counterproductive to the larger cause.

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Obama’s days of greatest power and popularity lie before him. But be warned: he might not do what you want with it.
Barack Obama’s popularity should not be judged by the day-to-day, media-driven vagaries of politics — nor by the wishful thinking of his opponents.

Has Obama peaked? Yes, he has. By Steven Stark. Slideshow: Highlights from Obama’s first year.

Barack Obama’s popularity should not be judged by the day-to-day, media-driven vagaries of politics — nor by the wishful thinking of his opponents. Current Republican leaders — trying to capitalize on momentary blips, and hoping to boost optimism and activism within their diminished ranks — are nonetheless trying their best.

The Obama skeptics are fond of invoking comparisons between 2009 and 1993. That was the year that the last Democratic president took over from a Republican predecessor, and it led to dramatic GOP off-year gains the following election — in reaction, it is said, to the same liberal over-reaching we now see with Obama.

It’s the wrong analogy. A more apt precedent is 1981, when Ronald Reagan was struggling with a recession in his first year in office.

Then, as now, the president had charged into office with a majority of the popular vote (unlike Bill Clinton, who won just 43 percent of the vote in 1992) — along with a wave of party gains in the House and Senate.

But by early November of 1981, according to a New York Times poll, Reagan’s approval rating had dipped to 53 percent. (Obama is right around the same figure today.) Reagan’s numbers continued to decline, plunging into the low 40s (and even lower by some measures), as unemployment continued to climb through his second year in office.

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Yes, he made history. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there.
To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama’s public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the undeserved Nobel Prize, his approach to the war in Afghanistan, or when he revved up his pursuit of national health-care reform.

Has Obama peaked?: No, he hasn’t. By David S. Bernstein.

To listen to some pundits, Barack Obama’s public image began taking a serious beating when the off-year election returns came in a week ago. Or maybe it was the undeserved Nobel Prize, his approach to the war in Afghanistan, or when he revved up his pursuit of national health-care reform.

But the pundits, as usual, are wrong. In reality, Obama peaked the night he was elected.

That astonishing evening was both a blessing and a curse for our 44th president. As the first African-American elected to the Oval Office, Obama made the history books in indelible fashion, generating an uplifting sense of national pride and renewal along the way.

That alone is more than many presidents accomplish in a lifetime. But that achievement— if that’s what you want to call it — came a very long year ago, before he was even president. The 10 months since he took the oath of office have been a letdown, even to most of his supporters.

Obama still doesn’t seem to grasp that the collective Election Night reverie is over, and that now we are waiting for him to lead us in real time. Sure, a little bit of hubris was probably inevitable, but it led Obama to conclude, despite what he said back then, that the historic election had been about him. When in the end, as always, it was about us.

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Think busing was a problem in this town? Some are labeling charter schools as Boston’s newest educational battleground
At the Edward W. Brooke School in Roslindale — a kindergarten-to-eighth-grade public charter school — the push to advance graduates to elite secondary programs begins in fifth grade.

At the Edward W. Brooke School in Roslindale — a kindergarten-to-eighth-grade public charter school — the push to advance graduates to elite secondary programs begins in fifth grade. That means students are routinely steered toward such private and parochial schools as Milton Academy and Catholic Memorial. How about your standard-issue Boston public district high schools, such as English (in Jamaica Plain) and Madison Park High (in Roxbury)? Almost never. In fact, quite the opposite: Brooke students are told explicitly by advisors and through literature that teenagers who attend Boston district high schools are “unmotivated,” “disorganized,” and uninterested in education.

The dismal reputation of Boston’s district system might be a sad reality of institutions filled with children from broken and low-income families. But according to teachers and administrators who work within the traditional order, charter schools are only exacerbating the problem by using tax revenue to help cycle promising city students out of the district system. In response, charter advocates are unflinching in their belief that the plight of the overall framework should not be a factor in considering the academic future of their select students.

Weighing both sides of the school-choice spat, two things seem certain with regard to Boston charters: 1) many are unfit to accommodate needy, foreign-language-speaking, or poorly behaved students, yet 2) they have proven capable of launching proficient learners onto extraordinary life trajectories. Indeed, the charter movement has by all measures replaced busing as the hot-button issue in a city that will always be the national poster child for operatic battles over public education.

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