Puppolo/Franco

A queer debate.

Recently there was an event held to honor State Representative Angelo Puppolo for his vote last year to help preserve the right of homosexuals to marry in the State of Massachusetts. Governor Deval Patrick was there, as seen in this photo I ripped off from Mike Dobbs of The Reminder.



The problem is some folks believe Puppolo promised to try and block gay marriage when he was running for election. They were gathered outside the event, protesting the honoring of Puppolo, as seen in this other photo lifted from Dobbs' paper.



I do not place these protestors, who were led by right-wing Holyoke activist Mike Franco, in the same category as that nut that stands out on Route Nine in Northampton attacking the Springfield Republican.



They are however, the same folks supporting this ridiculous billboard in Springfield.



Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold and Angleo Puppolo are moral equals? Even people who think Puppolo flip-flopped on the marriage issue are unlikely to buy that logic. I don't think it's the same thing as putting Jesus in danger, or an act of treason against the United States, for a politician to say one thing and do another. If so, then every politiican there ever was or will be is just as guilty as Puppolo.

I've been following this war between Franco and Puppolo for some time now. My primary desire has been to try to ignore it, but that has proven impossible. The shame is I know and like both Puppolo and Franco. It was Puppolo after all who nearly got into a fistfight with Mike Albano's main thug Anthony Ardolino, and for that incident alone Puppolo has earned a permanent place in my hall of heroes. In general, he was one of the best City Councilors of the Albano era.

Mike Franco, who I know primarily from WAIC radio and the late, lamented Tony Gill Show where he was something of a regular guest, has fought some pretty good campaigns over the years against some pretty lame Democrats. I do think Franco is a bit unhinged on this gay marriage thing, but alot of political people are a little nutty in some way.

However, my intentions to stay out of this fight were cancelled last summer when I received this press release from Franco:

Dear select WMass Media:

A little over a month ago I was attacked and roughed up on a street corner in E. Long. by a couple thugs who got out of a truck and rushed me because they didn't like the sign I was holding, "Angelo Puppolo is a Thief & Traitor."

Just an update and FYI: Complaints have been filed in the Palmer District and Hampden Division Juvenile courts against the father and his 16-year old boy with "show cause" hearings scheduled.

The complaints are generally as follows: Assault and battery with injury, and A&B combined with an infringement of my civil rights to free speech and assembly in violation of state and federal law, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. (Note: I'm not a lawyer, but an Alliance Defense Fund law firm drew up each application upon reviewing the record from the ELPD.)

The adult assailant (a Chicopee businessman and resident of Wilbraham) happens to be connected with Puppolo, and perhaps other unsavory characters (i.e., a former mayor). In fact, he contributed to Angelo's campaign - as recorded by OCPF - the max amount of $500.00 during the pre-primary reporting period in 2006.

We also have it on good authority that this man was part of Puppolo's campaign team. He and his boy (who he's teaching how to street fight) certainly seemed to take the message on the banner as a personal affront.

Off to work now. Still have to earn a living like the rest of you.

Have a nice day...

Mike Franco

To me any kind of violent intimidation, no matter what the issue or for what cause, is absolutely unacceptable and must be totally, unconditionally condemned by everyone from across the political spectrum. Instead what I heard was a cowardly silence from virtually every source except Dobbs. Therefore I found myself forced, despite being a totally queer individual, to publicize the most prominent gay-bashing activist in the Valley in order to defend the higher principle of unintimidated political speech. That's the funny thing about acting on principle, you can land yourself in the damnedest company.

So I was glad when the whole controversy appeared to blow over, but now alas it is back due to the ugliness of the recent anti-Puppolo rally. As reported by Dobbs, besides Frano's sign:

Other protesters held signs denouncing same sex marriage "It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve" and homosexuality "Quarantine Queers."

Oh, am I supposed to be locked up somewhere? As Dobbs said in an accompanying editorial:

As I walked up to the sidewalk to speak with Mike Franco, one of the leaders of the protest, one young man made sure I saw his placard. It read "Quarantine Queers."

He looked very proud and smiled.

All I could think of was the image of concentration camps.

My conservative friends, yes I actually have some, have pointed out to me there is "hate speech" on both sides of the political discourse. They are right. Many people, left and right, have said and written grossly inappropriate things that have not advanced constructive dialogue.

That doesn't excuse what I saw the other night.

No it does not. The only consolation we take from such a display of hateful ignorance is that it probably backfired. As Dobbs wrote:

Although Puppolo didn't want to comment much on the protest, he did say, "The more they protest, the more support I get."

I sometimes wonder whether people who are so hateful are secretly gay and trying to deny it to themselves. If so, I wish they would just suck a dick and get over it.

Turning to closet cases of a different sort, some conservatives are accusing presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain of being "a closet liberal."



I think McCain is the only Republican on the field who is electable. I fear the GOP voters are going to make the same stupid mistake they always do of rejecting their own candidates because the nominee doesn't agree with them 100%. The only place you are going to see a candidate you totally agree with is in the mirror. So unless you are running for president, pick the best of what the field has to offer that has the best chance of winning. Do that, or else practice saying President Clinton or President Obama.

Deadhead Ann Coulter believes that Obama is doomed - he's too nice to survive against the ruthless Clintons. She sees disaster ahead no matter who wins the final Clinton/McCain contest:

If Hillary is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with Republicans ferociously opposing her, followed by Republicans zooming back into power, as we did in 1980 and 1994, and 2000. (I also predict more Oval Office incidents with female interns.)

If McCain is elected president, we'll have a four-year disaster, with the Republicans in Congress co-opted by "our" president, followed by 30 years of Democratic rule.

There's your choice, America.

Meanwhile, here's a truly brilliant analysis of the Super Tuesday results by Robert Novak.

Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) late-night Super Tuesday victories in Missouri and then California give him half the convention delegates needed and all but clinch the nomination for him. Once again, Romney's tactics such as pouring $10 million into California worked in theory but not in practice.


The anti-McCain barrage from conservative talk show hosts led by Rush Limbaugh did not work. The old GOP tendency to get behind the presumptive leader trumped irritation with McCain. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour went on TV last night to say it was time for McCain's opponents to get out and make him the nominee.


There is now no clear path for Gov. Mitt Romney to the nomination. The former Massachusetts liberal never was able to sell himself as a conservative, finishing third behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and McCain in Southern states.


McCain is still a heartily disliked figure in the Senate, but usually soft-spoken Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), uncharacteristically, was the only anti-McCainiac to speak out. The reason may be that Cochran is the Senate's king of pork while McCain is a leading anti-porker.


A test for McCain comes Thursday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an event he stiffed last year. He has to repeat what he has been saying lately: First, he will veto any tax increase passed by the Democratic Congress. Second, he will name Supreme Court justices in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. More than that, he has to say he is one of them.


McCain's asset is that there is no genuine conservative left against him. Huckabee is an evangelical, not a conservative (which is one reason he is unlikely to be picked as McCain's running mate). In next week's "Potomac primary" (Virginia, Maryland, and D.C.), it looks like McCain will be the winner, with Huckabee a strong second in Virginia.


Thanks to proportional representation, the Democratic fight will stretch out into April. It would have been a very big night for Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) had Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) not squeezed out a win in Missouri. The next really big tests come March 4 in Texas and Ohio.


The overriding story is that twice as many Democrats as Republicans voted on Super Tuesday, and the gap in enthusiasm was even larger. McCain as nominee faces a massive task ahead.

When Springfield's Dr. Seuss was alive, he totally resisted the constant pitches made to him to capitalize on his famous children books by using them for commercial products. Since he died, his heirs have been criticized for apparently allowing his drawings to be used by virtually anyone that offered a check that didn't bounce. But when I was in Michelman's Gallery in Northampton recently, I couldn't believe the depths they have sunk to in order to make a buck, actually killing the characters and mounting them on the wall!



But imagine my horror when I saw, mounted and stuffed, the supreme icon himself!



What could I do but flee from the gallery in tears, weeping for a world in which nothing is sacred.

Here's another picture I came across of me from last summer, looking all wasted and scrawny at the height of my addiction.



Here I am last week, clean, sober and looking all healthy and studly as I pose by a dirty, wet sock I put on the radiator to dry.



Finally, here's a video I like featuring cameos by my man Ted Nugent, although I'm not sure my drug abuse councilors would approve.