Mayor Jim’s Weblog

I met today with the race organizers from several races and with Deputy Thompson from the police department  It was a very cordial and friendly meeting. 

Everyone was in agreement that, whenever possible, we will use auxillary police to avoid charging for details at road races.  The races we have in Haverhill today are charitable races.  We all agreed that if a for profit group wants to run a race to make money, they should be treated differently than a group raising money for charity.

We also agreed that there will be an application form, that road race organizers will give the city at least 30 days to review the race route to make certain it is a safe route and that the police chief has the final authority to determine safety at races and, for that matter, on Haverhill streets in general. 

Everyone there went out of there way to praise the Haverhill police for their past cooperation on road races.

We have more to do, and follow up meeting to be scheduled soon, but it appears we are on our way towards developing a policy we can all live with.  Overall , it was a great meeting!

JIm 

We all know about Barack Obama’s former pastor endorsing him.  Obama has publicly repudiated his former pastor’s views and called them wrong.

But it seems that Barack Obama is not the only one with some crackpots endorsing him.

John McCain was endorsed by mega church pastor Rev. John Hagee.  Here are just a few of the quotes from Hagee.  McCain has not repudiated Hagee and actively sought his endorsement:

“God caused Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay pride parade the week before and was filled with sexual sin. From the same interview:

Hagee:” All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that….I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Hagee also believes that we should provoke a war with Iran in order to hasten the second coming of Christ, that Harry Potter books are designed to introduce children to the occult and are work of the devil.

Crackpot endorsements for Hillary Clinton:

Clinton is endorsed by number one right wing crackpot Ann Coulter.  Here are some quotes from Coulter, who says she is proud to call herself a “Hillary girl.”  Hillary, when asked about Coulter’s endorsement, said she was happy to have any support and that ’strange bedfellows and all that.”

When talking about the widows whose husbands were killed in the attacks on Sept 11 Ann Coulter said:

“I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much.”

Ann Counlter on soccer moms:

“Liberal soccer moms are precisely as likely to receive anthrax in the mail as to develop a capacity for linear thinking.”

Ann Coulter on the war in the Middle East:

“I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East and sending liberals to Guantanamo.”

“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

Is Obama held to a different standard?  He has publicly repudiated his former pastor’s views.

I think back to when I was a kid, going to Mass every week, with a pastor I strongly disagreed with.  Was I responsible for his views?

What do you think?