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Michael Flaherty announces run for mayor on YouTube
By adamg on Sat, 01/24/2009 - 11:12pm
Ed note: See the comments for all the drama (in my own mind?) about the video going up Saturday evening, then coming down, then going back up again.
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Comments
Kinda strange
Nothing like launching your campaign late on a Saturday night. I'm almost tempted to think somebody posted it prematurely.
would someone please tell me...
...what this guy offers that is compelling, visionary, and inclusive of the entire city???
He's no worse than a half dozen other pols who might toss their hat into this ring, but for the life of me I cannot think of any signature accomplishment he's had as a councilor that tells me he's gonna be a great, or even good, mayor.
I get the sad feeling that this is gonna be another sorry ass mayoral campaign.
...government starts listening ...comments have been disabled
Michael Flaherty Announcement 0:18 > "I've heard a consistent call that our city is ready to move in a new direction where government starts listening to their residents again."
"Adding comments has been disabled for this video."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRfiA0kkLpc
Hah!
Good catch! I also liked how he complained about Boston city government being conducted behind closed doors - how many open-meeting complaints is his name on again?
Sumit a message... get an error
At
http://michaelflaherty.com/contact.html
submit a message... get an error
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare sendemail() (previously declared in /usr/local/apache_2.2.9/portal/main.php:72) in /usr/local/apache_2.2.9/portal/class.phpmailer.php on line 1535
Ah, so it was a mistake
The video's been deleted. Question: Should I post the crappy copy I made?
share it with us
share it with us
Yes, it's newsworthy
So put it up until a real, better copy becomes available.
Well, the audio is good, at any rate
I've swapped in my copy in the post. As you can see, making things level is not my strong suit. Basically, I put my laptop on the floor, propped my camera on a couple of books, then got both the YouTube video and the camera running. I actually recorded it in 640-pixel-wide mode, but shrunk it down to reduce the size, natch.
Another avenue of communication with the people deleted.
How hypocritical to delete an another avenue for communicating with the people that would gather ideas, responses, feedback!
It would be interesting to read Councilors' contradictory court testimony with respect to sunshine open public meetings.
One of the statements in the video mentioned having been an assistant district attorney. Our Massachusetts district attorneys are responsible for enforcing the sunshine open public meeting law. The Councilor having been president of our Boston City Council had failed to assure the people's access to their public meetings, their minutes, their public records.
City Councilors and other officials responsible for records management at our Boston City Hall haven't followed the state guidelines http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcrmu/rmuidx.htm
for future reference
Grab the DownloadHelper Firefox extension, which allows you to grab flash videos directly.
It's Official
I just got an e-mail from Flaherty saying he's running. So, it's finally official.
Cool, thanks
Will grab that.
I found the video
The full video is up here at this link -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1mPH5y5pzc
Maybe he is taking a page out of Barack Obama’s playbook and sending his txt message to his supporters.
They just don't get it
Of the three comments so far on the "official" YouTube video, one is from The Zak, whom we know is legitimate. The other two users -- both full of praise for Candidate Flaherty -- registered today. Oh right, like that's not totally obvious.
Well, the video you describe
Well, the video you describe seems to be up and running at http://www.youtube.com/flahertyformayor - looks like it was posted about 4 hours ago, so I don't think it was unavailable long, and I can make comments as well (I already have a YouTube account - you need to sign in to post comments). Also, the video is on his website. You guys sure you didn't just catch a reupload period or something? Seems actually kind of cool to me - one thing to see this at the national level, but neat to see at the local level as well.
Last thing - why french toast? I mean, I read the explanation (pretty funny), but how about giving bagels and muffins some love?
Wasn't just reuploading
They took down not just the video, but the account they used to post it with. It was originally posted by somebody with an account like flahertymayor2009. Not it's posted by flahertyformayor.
Seems like he announced last night/ this AM
I got an email from his campaign at 7AM today with his announcement. It included the embedded YouTube video and the text looked like it was straight from the video.
Here is a link to the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1mPH5y5pzc
His face is shiney and it
His face is shiney and it looks like he is wearing eyeliner... Couldnt they have done a better job of prepping him for this video? By they I would assume someone was in the room who had the sense to check how he looked on video before shooting this?
Maybe it was just a glitch, then
I've re-embedded his video, which is much better quality than my awful copy.
It is better but he still
It is better but he still looks like he is wearing makeup... Im not a Boston resident so I dont know what his normal look is, maybe thats just his natural look.
Be afraid!
I like where it suddenly zooms in and it looks like the Kitchen Aid is going to eat him.
(BTW, the white mixer doesn't really go with the deep cabinet finish and the dark granite. I'd have gone with one of the darker colors, like maybe the Cinnamon or the Onyx.)
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Symbolic Mixer
It means he buys his appliances at Costco or BJs like everybody else. But only the best ones, as would fit his station in life. For his working class home. Yeah, that.
Does it also mean he's ready to mix it up?
Could be worse, he could
Could be worse, he could have shown himself to be a Building 19 shopper with a mixer in the back thats hot pink and yellow.
Here, Shady, you be the judge:
Which one should he get?
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com/2009/01/most-compe...
Howie Carr and eeka: BFF!
Carr writes about the video today:
Howie Doesn't Cook
That isn't a yuppie mixer. First off, it is white. Second, they go for about $300 or less if you shop for them. He could have verified that with a quick bit of what is called research in his line of work. Third, real yuppies wouldn't want one of those ... they last too long and go out of style.
Otherwise, I have seen those mixers in the most working-class of homes where people actually cook big meals for big families. That mother of eight that my husband taught with - the one with umpteen grandkids who serves gigantic meals on every major holiday - can't live without one.
If you do massive quantities of food or make bread weekly, that mixer the most affordable large-scale kitchen tool for big mixing jobs available. It took several years of near daily use in my and Ron's 30-person coop to do one in, after which they promptly bought another that lasted several more years.
KitchenAid
Ditto the description from Swirly. I just bought my friends one of these for their wedding and it definitely couldn't have cost more than about $350. The only way to get a $500 KitchenAid is to get one of the commercial line ones where the neck is more linear and vertical than curved at the top or to get the artisan style design (like the one in the video) but in a chromed metallic shell (as opposed to the painted version in the video). The best he could have is the $350 variety (depending on motor/bowl size). Interesting that he went for the tilt-head instead of the bowl lifter model. I think a good mayor would use the bowl-lifter instead.
Seriously, though, why would you offset your speaker if you're not going to use the corner to flash up keywords or something else? By doing so, it just heightens the attention given to the dead space behind him...which was then filled visually by a giant white mixer on a relatively dark background. It's like the whole thing was an ad for KitchenAid (as seen on YouTube!).
Product placement?
That'd be one way to fund a campaign...
howie carr is an idiot
He just has something against Michael. The video isn't even filmed in the Flaherty kitchen.... Sorry to all u who waste your time criticizing stupid things like that instead of things that really matter. They have four kids trust me there aren't any $500 appliances in their kitchen.
It must be a terrible burden
To focus on totally serious, weighty issues all the time. The weight on you must be crushing.
So whose kitchen is that?
$500 appliances
Maybe you can find a cheap stove for $400 on craigslist, but it is difficult to find a refrigerator for less than $500 - not one that works for four kids and doesn't take $100 a month to run.
Unless they just get take out all the time or squander hundreds or even thousands of dollars on electricity to run an older cheap model, I'd bet there are a couple of appliances in their kitchen that cost at least that much. If there aren't, I'm not sure that's the guy I'd want running city budgets. More of the same lack of attention to maintenance and efficiency that wastes so much tax money in the long run.
I dont claim to speak for
I dont claim to speak for the anon but I can only assume he/she meant small appliances and was not refering to the stove/fridge/dishwasher.
First off, I agree about
First off, I agree about Howie Carr, but that guy has something against everyone lol. I dont like his journalistic method ( can I call him a journalist without getting hit by lightning from the journalistic gods?) and think he is essentially a shock jock and nothing more.
That is not his kitchen? Whose kitchen is it? Why is he in someone elses kitchen anyway??? What sort of man breaks into someones kitchen and starts filming a youtube video? In all seriousness if that was not his kithcen, considering we dont know who you are I cant verify that your claim is accurate, why is he filming in such a yuppie looking kithcen anyway? If I were going to film a campaign announcement in the style he chose I would have found an old couple from West Roxbury or Roslindale with an old country style kitchen, with wall paper etc and did it from their kitchen. You know the ones Im talking about, everything is really really really old but in perfect shape, and the kitchen is outdated and worn, but so very very clean. The fact that it might not be his kithcen makes it even worse because it was a very poor choice of location, which would have been acceptable if those were his cabinets and that was his actual table.
Another person wondering about the mixer
Richard Howe asks about it and other matters:
Mixer Talk Is Fun, But...
No comments on the neatly-rolled "let's get down to work" shirtsleeves?
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Wait til spring
When we see him emerging from a T stop with his tie loosened and his jacket slung over his shoulder.
Has anyone seen Sharon Worthy??
"Heckuva job, Flaherty!"
I find it funny that
I find it funny that everyone is making such a big deal about his kitchen though. Granted I have a kitchen that looks kind of like frankensteins monster with appliances that dont match, cabinets that dont look right, and no counterspace at all but I hope to have something that looks like his kitchen when Im his age... Its a nice kithcen, from what I see, but its by no means super expensive.
If Flaherty can't stand the heat
Perhaps he should find another venue for his video ventures?
Nice job pissing off the Globe on the first day of your campaign
So somebody at the Globe saw the video here and called up Flaherty minions for the 411 last night, only to be told nope, wasn't us, what sort of idiot launches a campaign on a Saturday night?
And now, of course, we find out that Flaherty officially launched his campaign at 7 this morning. So either the campaign didn't know what it was doing last night or it just hates the Globe or it figured, after speaking to the Globe, what the hell, the cat's out of the bag, let's do this thing now, instead of in a month. In any case, the Globe is left looking kind of dumb and, guys, you don't want to annoy Donovan Slack.
Who are these nincompoops?
And then the "Flaherty minion" hung up on the Globe reporter. HUNG UP on the reporter! Great campaign kickoff move.
Nincompoops
I saw that word in the sidebar and expected to find independentminded when I clicked through.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Go for it, Michael
Michael will make a race of it. People are tired of the heavy hand of Menino and his control of economic and artistic activity in the city.
Flaherty on WBZ: "A technology glitch"
WBZ Radio interviewed Flaherty this morning, and he said the video appearing last night was a "technology glitch." He said that the person in charge of the video put it up early "to test it."
How did you find it so fast, Adam? Certainly the campaign team has to assume that you might see it when they "test it." Also since when do you have to "test" YouTube videos, anyway? They are pretty easy to post.
And you are right, ticking off the Globe is not a good idea. Why not make lemonaid out of lemonade out of lemons by giving the Globe the full story, so people have something nice to read on Sunday morning?
Talk about stumbling out of the gate.
Ross Levanto
Beacon Hill
How I found it
YouTube lets you set up RSS feeds on tags. I have one on "Boston," and as I was riding our exercise bike last night (the one we had to make sure had a "lip" to support a laptop so I can be online while riding, because, man, exercise biking is boring), I saw a link to a video about Michael Flaherty running for mayor. "Hmm," I said ...
And, sorry, that was no "technology glitch." YouTube has a way to keep a video private. Whoever posted it forgot to check a box after uploading the video. That's a careless error, not really very important in the greater scheme of things, but please, it wasn't an issue of "technology."
Good deal
Well, the 2009 campaign has begun!
hope he wins
I think Michael Flaherty will make a great mayor. People want to sit on here and say "what has he done" and all negative things. Maybe everything isn't for publicity. The comments about the kitchen though?? And how he looks?? That is ridiculous, what does that have to do with a campaign?? He'll be a great change from Menino.
You must be real fun at a poker game
No kibitzing for you, no sir!
And now...
And now that we've heard from the candidate's mother, let's see if any of his other relatives would like to chime in as well.
The problem with a common name
I wonder if he'll take it down again when he sees the related vidoes on YouTube, e.g. Michael Flaherty Womanizer.
hope he wibs
Michael Flaherty would make a great Mayor. He does plenty for this city and also plenty that he wouldn't ever want recognition for. The comments on his looks and kitchen are foolish.... What does that have to do with a campaign? Who cares if the video went up early then down and blah blah blah. We need a new mayor and he is a great candidate.
his mother?
why because I'm a supporter?
Are you athletic?
<>
Regardless of whether he wibs...
Are you unfamiliar with the concept of poking not-so-serious fun at people who put themselves in the public spotlight?
I suppose you also viewed the SNL presidential debate sketches as serious political commentary.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
I'm voting Bennett to the Council to replace Michael Flaherty!
I'm voting Doug Bennett into Michael Flaherty's position on the Council. I live in Southie on E. 4th Street and Bennett came to my home last Summer and asked for my vote. Normally my family and I give Michael the bullet vote. Now we'll give it to Bennett.
Go on his website at:
www.bennettforboston.com to learn about Bennett.
Or watch Doug Bennett's speech against the Toll Pike Hike at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk0M7DaBaDE
Bennett
This one should have been signed by Epstein's, I mean Doug's, mom
Orphans?
Isn't Doug Bennett the guy whose connection to Boston was that his grandparents were "Orphaned at the State House", according to the campaign literature he was handing out?
I still want to hear the rest of that story.
Yeah that's the same Doug Bennett whose Papa was orphaned.
Yeah that's the same Doug Bennett whose grandfather Larry Gardner and his great uncle were abandoned inside the Massachusetts State House by their father at ages 3 and 5 respectively in the 1920s. Gardner was an orphan
I've lived in Boston my
I've lived in Boston my entire life, but my Papa was orphaned as a child in New York City. Hey-- wait a second! That makes me a New Yorker!!!! Right, Doug?
I think I'll go to NYC and run for Mayor! Look out Bloomberg!!
I wonder how Bennett sold himself to Nantucket. What a joke!
Ooh, look, Kevin McCrea has a video, too
OK, from his city-council race two years ago, but you gotta love the circle slashing and eye pointing and the artists' rendition of what City Hall would look like with a Vote McCrea sign on it:
The Michael Flaherty Remix
Steve Garfield presents:
I like this version
I like this version best.