Phillipe + Jorge were shocked — shocked, we say! — to recently learn via Buddy Cianci’s WPRO radio show (upon which we are occasional guests) that Valerie Forti, head honcho of the financially troubled Education Partnership, is married to none other than Fast Eddie Achorn, deputy editorial page editor of the Urinal.
We’ve never supported the adage that the sins of the father shall be visited upon his children, so we do not give much stock to condemning a person based upon the actions of those to whom they are married. (Oh, OK, fie on Hill and Bill, but we mean real human beings.)
But when a spouse is in the position of attempting to sway judgment and policy — the guiding purpose of any editorial page writer worth their laptop — he might want to let on in print, even occasionally, that he is hitched to the head of a highly visible and reported-upon union-bashing educational think tank of sorts. (Perhaps this is why union activ-ist Pat Crowley, blogging at RI’s Future, previously made the Forti-Achorn connection.)
Whether dinner table chat had any sway on Achorn’s wife or vice-versa, it is incumbent in this instance to at least let people know who you are in the same bed with physically, never mind philosophically.
This is especially true if Achorn, as he has many times, very correctly and courageously climbs on his high horse and attacks the General Assembly for its conflicts, sometimes questionable ethics, and other shortcomings. Yet the Education Partnership, after going into receivership, now faces questions about its own accounting.
There has barely been a peep, if that, about the Achorn-Forti link in the Other Paper since the receivership story broke, and don’t expect to see anything anytime soon. Big sur-prise, eh, boys and girls?
Perhaps the Mighty Favog of Fountain Street, Urinal publisher Howard Sutton, is keeping mention of this little scandal locked down, so if you need to know whose what is where when and how at the BeloJo, don’t expect to find it in the Other Paper. You’re welcome.
Savage love of Jihad
Miss Lonelyhearts, Dr. Phil, and “Dear Abby” Van Buren and her sister, Ann Landers, better make room in the advice column pantheon now that Al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al Zawahri has taken up correspondence with those making important decisions. It’s only fitting to consult with a man who is the subject of a $25 million bounty for being an in-ternational terrorist.
The Washington Post reported on June 24 that in an online chat room set up by Osama Bin Laden’s organization, to discuss hot issues with Ayman, a religious radical had a couple of pressing concerns about the Egyptian secret police. He typed to his Web site counselor: “Are they committing unbelief? And is it permissible to kill them?”
Well, P+J are still weighing that one, the allowable right to off a secret policeman — especially when it involves our swarthy sons of the desert in the Mideast — always being a tough call.
Before we could agree on a response, Aywan pulled the trigger, so to speak: Killing the police would be hunky-dory, he said, because they are “infidels, each and every one of them.” Well, you just can’t argue with that kind of logic, can you?
Next week in “Dear Ayman”: If your fanatical jihad leader is a bed-wetter, is it alright to wire the generator in your cave to the metal frame of his cot to discourage this behav-ior? Death to America, dear readers!
A lot of Tanaka
Our esteemed news editor, Ian Donnis, revealed Monday in his Not for Nothing blog that Mike Tanaka, a longtime Casa Diablo regular, has accepted a post as Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts’s communications director. Yes, it’s the same Mike Tanaka better known locally as a jazz guitarist par excellence and stalwart member of top-notch locally based rocker Mark Cutler’s various outfits.
More to the point, Mike’s hidden career has been as a nationally respected television producer (Good Morning America in the days when it overtook The Today Show as the top-rated morning show; MSNBC; The Oprah Winfrey Show, etc.). In other words, Mikey has a long and distinguished pedigree in the broadcast biz.
He is also one of the best and brightest guys we know. This is good for Mike (who is willing to take a big pay cut to be where he wants to be, at home in the Biggest Little), and good for Liz, who gets a real ace.
We don’t know what this means about the speculation that Roberts will pursue the brass ring of governor in 2010. We sure hope so, as she’s a Casa Diablo fave rave, and a lot more than just a leading advocate for health-care reform. Elizabeth Roberts stands to be the Barack Obama of the 2010 gubernatorial race. And we feel about her the same way we feel about him.
Real patriotism
Those who would question Obama’s patriotism should remove their craniums from the buttocks-end of the Internet, where morons continue to spread innuendo about his reli-gious beliefs, heritage, and feelings for his country.
