First of all – we here at The Somerville News want to start out with saying “MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL”  Yes, you read that right – with no self-serving apologies for it, no excuses for it and no substitution of the wording.  We don’t feel as though we have to apologize for making a friendly gesture.  Of course, you won’t get that from the Farm Team – they’re too politically correct.  They like to kiss proverbial butt – not us – we say it like it is.  Guess we aren’t politically correct – we should give you back your money – hey wait!  The paper is free – yeah, that’s right.

Nice that our Mayor got special mention in the national news again last week for his recent apology statement.  Apparently at the Christmas Tree lighting ceremony he mistakenly (his words, not ours) referred to it being “Christmas”, then quickly apologized and said “Holiday”.  It seems Fox News – in particular “The Beltway Boys” – is calling for all Democrats to denounce our Mayor for his apology.  It makes you wonder what Christmas will be like in a few years.  No more Santa, no trees, no lights, probably no presents.  We wonder if that’s the evolution of being politically correct or maybe its progressiveness or maybe the “New Democrat” style.  Some might think it’s Christian bashing and prejudice – you be the judge.

Stores in the Mall aren’t even putting up “Merry Christmas” signs.  You know, it’s ok to put up a Happy Ramadan sign like a local gas station did a few weeks ago – but then when it was over, they immediately put up a “Happy Holidays” sign.  Why single out one and not the others?  Why not Kwanza or Hanukah or Christmas maybe?  Does anyone see the problem with over “ACLU-izing” everything?

We suppose the election of Alderman Bruce Desmond as the new President of the Board of Alderman for 2005 could be a good thing.  Maybe now that bridge on Lowell Street will be fixed – rumor has it that his friends that are developing a nearby parcel have been holding up progress on it – hoping for approval to build more units there.  Alderwoman Denise Provost steps down after her busy year as President of the Board, now she can devote more time to her friends over at Mystic “My View” Task Force.

Seems like the Chamber of Commerce and the Parking department want to reinstall meters along Broadway – in particular Ball Square.  They had a meeting of the local businesses there to discuss it and to see how they felt about it.  That’s funny – there was NO discussion about it – they came into the meeting, told everyone they wanted to put meters back and laid out their reasons why.  Note to Traffic and Parking:  if you’re going to have a meeting to supposedly get some local input from the affected businesses and residents, you might want to actually allow them to speak.  It was a one-way street at that meeting – pardon the pun.  There’s supposed to be one more meeting about the issue – let’s hope they smarten up by then.

Did you get that special invitation to the Mayors “Holiday Party” with an RSVP?  We heard a lot of the Mayor’s supporters were not invited.  Wonder who was in charge of that list.

Ward 1 School Committeewoman Maureen Bastardi has recently taken up skydiving – you just can’t keep those East Somerville ladies down.  Pictures to come soon.

That was a great job the DPW and Police did at the recent Elm Street water main break last week.  They reacted quickly and efficiently and they got the job done – much to the relief of all the residents.  Commissioner Stan Koty is still doing a great job with his team down at the DPW.

With all the requests from different aldermen regarding expenses made from various departments in the city, have any of them requested a detailed expense of the City Solicitor’s Office account to find out just how much the Mystic “My View” Task Force has cost this city in legal bills?  How about how much tax revenue we keep missing year after year due to the hold up in development?  There should be an official accounting done on both fronts to determine how much these idiots are costing us every year and the next time we have to lay off a teacher or policeman, then we will all know exactly why.

Here’s a little bit of news for you, we need to get it confirmed, but if you want to run for Alderman or some other local office here in Somerville, any monies you raise you get to keep for your personal use if you like.  Maybe that’s why former Alderman Kevin Tarpley is charging $50.00 for a fund-raiser – for an office to be determined later.  We hope that Kevin files the appropriate paperwork with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance like he’s supposed to – we want to take a peek at what kind of idiot is going to shell out good money to someone who can’t decide what he’s going to run for.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  It’s almost as stupid as the guy who had to step down from office, recommended someone to replace him, then decided he wanted “his” seat back.  Shades of old Somerville again – no wonder the progressives are so hot to run for every seat – some people can’t help but make it easy for them.

Term and Definition of the week:  “Team”  City Hall’s version:  Do as we want, when we want it, and we will reward you when we want for being part of the “Team”  Webster’s/Rational People’s version:  A number of persons associated together in common work or cause as equal parts.  We think the term “Team” is being used a lot around here these days, but it means different things to different people.  Kinda like that Christmas thing – oops, Holiday thing.

From all of us to all of you – Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Ramadan and Happy New Year.