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2 opinions posted

Selectman Bruce Sauvageau

Selectmen meeting turns downright nasty

Tuesday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting turned ugly during Citizen’s Participation when controversial local web host Bill Whitehouse asked Chairman Bruce Sauvageau if he beats his wife.

Sauvageau, clearly stunned by the allegation, responded “I love my wife more than my own life.”

Then Whitehouse and a woman later identified as Cara Pillsbury quickly left the room together. Pillsbury made a comment toward the board as she was leaving, questioning Sauvageau’s sincerity.

Pillsbury’s husband Charles is a Wareham police officer who once pulled over Sauvageau’s wife for allegedly having an invalid registration. Charles Pillsbury, who claimed it was a random stop, was less than 10 minutes into his shift following 8 a.m. roll call at the Police Station.

Rose Sauvageau’s car was towed about a block from her Swifts Beach home. The charges were dropped the next day.

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Robert Slager - 7 opinions posted

FinCom Chair disputes Standard-Times story

Richard Paulsen, chairman of the Finance Committee, is disputing a story in the Standard-Times that suggests the town took a “substantial amount of money” from the Health Trust Fund and may be forced to give it back.

According to Paulsen, School Committee Member Geoff Swett approached the FinCom during a meeting Tuesday night, questioning a five-year-old town policy that allows surpluses in the Health Trust Fund to roll over each year in order to prevent shortfalls in the future. Paulsen said Swett, a board member of the Citizens for a Better Wareham, wants the town to re-examine that policy and consider giving any yearly surplus back to employees in the plan (employees are currently responsible for paying 25 percent of the fund).

“At this point we don’t even know if there is even a surplus,” Paulsen said. “This doesn’t have the appearance of being a really significant issue. A question has been asked. Geoff brought it to our attention. Changing policy would be up to the town administrator.”

When told the local hate bloggers are claiming selectmen stole the money to pay for the audit of town-owner computers, Paulsen burst out laughing.

“What these people write is beyond me sometimes,” he said. “I don’t know whether to smile or just shake my head. Sometimes I feel like doing both at the same time. The policy to roll over surpluses has been in effect for years.”

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Robert Slager - 1 opinion posted

Makepeace comes to the table

     After nearly two years of simmering tension, representative from A.D. Makepeace finally met with the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night to discuss Makepeace’s massive development plans in Wareham.
    After Makepeace president Michael Hogan made a lengthy presentation on behalf of his company, the two sides spoke of the scope of the development, the possible environmental impact, and the desire of Makepeace to tie into the town’s sewer system.

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Robert Slager

LIVE CHAT

Observer Media's weekly LIVE CHAT has ended. Thank you all for participating. Please join us again on Sunday, July 5 at 8 p.m. If you are not a subscriber, please consider it. Live Chats are a great way to share viewpoints without the fear of personal attacks. No matter which side of the political spectrum you may stand, you are welcome to put in your two cents. All Live Chats are moderated to prevent the unpleasantness found in other forums. This is a place for mature, respectful discourse, so please join in! Just click on the LIVE CHAT link, post a comment and enjoy!
Cheers.

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122 opinions posted

Joanna C. (Campinha) DaSilva

Obituaries

Joanna C. (Campinha) DaSilva, 83, of Wareham died June 18, 2009 in the Forestview Nursing Home, Wareham. She was the daughter of the late Luiz and Sylvania (Roderick) Campinha.
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Alexis Arguello

The life and death of Alexis Arguello

   Unless you’re a fan of the sweet science of boxing, you’ve probably never heard of Alexis Arguello. He certainly wasn’t a household name. But when he allegedly took his own life yesterday at the age of 57, a little piece of me died as well.
    At his peak, which stretched from in the late 1970s through the early 80s, Alexis Arguello weighed only 135 pounds. But as I would slowly learn, he was a giant of a man.
    The first time I saw him fight I prayed he would be knocked unconscious. He was fighting one of the heroes of my youth, a tough, Italian kid called Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini from Youngstown, Ohio. I became enthralled by Mancini early in his career when I learned of his quest to win the lightweight crown for his father Lenny. Lenny Mancini has been the top contender for lightweight title just prior to World War II. But instead of pursing personal glory, he enlisted in the military. He was badly wounded and never got his shot at the title.
    His son was absolutely determined to win it for him. I watched Ray Mancini grow from a raw prospect to a fringe contender to the No. 1 challenger for the belt worn by a man from Nicaragua named Alexis Arguello.

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Robert Slager

Pretty Fair start for new COA director

Marcia Griswold just came up for air, but if you blinked you probably missed it. The director of the Council on Aging, who just celebrated six months on the job by hosting a Health Fair on June 21, spent last Sunday in Boston at another health fair.
She was looking for even more vendors for next year’s COA event.

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Robert Slager

In This Corner - Robert Slager

The delusion of Bill Whitehouse

   In Tuesday’s Standard-Times, local web site operator Bill Whitehouse (who runs the fake Wareham Observer web site) wrote a letter to the editor titled “Selectmen have made their delusions real.” Then he goes on to claim selectmen have spent $100,000 to shut his web site down.
    If Bill Whitehouse wants to know what delusional looks like he only needs to look in a mirror.
    Whitehouse’s desperate need for attention is surpassed only by his overinflated sense of self-importance. He claims the reaction to his web site has been “explosive.” He now wants to be known as “insurgent leader” and “Commander X.”
    Bill Whitehouse is not a freedom fighter. He is not a courageous advocate of the First Amendment. He is a self-serving anarchist who created a web site where defamation, racism and sexism go completely unchecked. He created a forum where every bitter, nasty political partisan in Wareham can make any claim under the sun about their perceived adversaries. Private residents who have nothing to do with town politics are routinely torn to pieces by anonymous hate bloggers. Whitehouse does nothing to stop it. In fact he often leads the charge.
    Whitehouse recently admitted that his first web site was bankrolled by acting library director Susan Pizzolato. He created his fake Wareham Observer website after his request to become a reporter for the Wareham Observer newspaper was rejected. He registered the domain name before we launched our first edition and then tried to sell it to us for $5,000. When we declined his offer, he linked his domain name to a gay pornographic web site. Then he posted a bizarre diatribe claiming this writer was sent to Wareham by the Boston Herald to destroy the Wareham Courier. I left the Herald in 1999. The Wareham Bulletin was launched in 2005. I guess I was one of the Herald’s secret sleeper agents for those six years, three of which I pretended to be a stay-at-home father for my twin daughters. The Herald is shrewd that way.
    Last summer Whitehouse claimed he sold the domain name to somebody else, but in his letter to the editor he refers to it as “my site.” Then he claimed he is being persecuted for telling the truth.
    Whitehouse repeatedly claims his site has “exploded,” but a closer look reveals he has at best 100 or so regular visitors to his site. Each new thread receives less than 100 views if no additional posts are made. For every additional post around 100 new views are recorded. It’s pretty consistent for all the threads on the site. If there are two posts, he shows around 200 views. For three posts there are about 300 views. That suggests that the same 100 people are viewing every new post to the site.
    Half of those viewers are likely the people being attacked by Whitehouse’s anonymous bloggers. That means 99 percent of Wareham’s population has no interest whatsoever in what Whitehouse or his hate bloggers have to say.
    Explosive? Only in Whitehouse’s head.
    Whenever somebody tries to post a comment on Whitehouse’s site challenging the hate bloggers, that person is sworn at, threatened, and accused of being somebody else in disguise. And still Whitehouse tries to claim to be an advocate of freedom of speech. When a woman made a comment critical of late selectmen Mary Jane Pillsbury she was permanently banned from the site. Apparently Whitehouse can't see the hypocrisy in preventing despicable comments about some people and allowing despicable comments about others. Hate speech is hate speech and it shouldn't be allowed anywhere.
    Whitehouse showed his true colors Tuesday night when he stood up during the Citizen's Participation portion of the selectmen's meeting and asked Chairman Bruce Sauvageau if he beats his wife. Sauvageau, to his everlasting credit, simply said "I love my wife more than my own life."
    Whitehouse should be absolutely ashamed of himself. Sauvageau has done nothing to warrant such a question. There is no evidence whatsoever of domestic abuse at the Sauvageau residence. Did Whitehouse stop to think what effect his question might have on Sauvageau's wife Rose? Of course not. Whitehouse can't see anything beyond himself.
    Whitehouse’s biggest delusion is his claim that selectmen have spent $100,000 to close his web site. In his twisted world of self-importance, he still believes that the audit of town-owned computers is about him. That’s absolutely laughable. He will learn that soon enough.
    Whitehouse clearly has a relationship with the Standard-Times. Portions of stories from that paper are routinely posted on his site before they are posted by the Standard-Times. Somebody from that paper has to be providing him advanced information. Whitehouse believes that somehow gives him credibility. From this perspective, he is simply being used to promote the agenda of the Standard-Times.
    No, Bill Whitehouse is no hero. He is a coward. The reason he won’t launch his own newspaper is because he’s afraid of being held legally accountable for what he writes. He hides behind a piece of legislation known as the Communication Decency Act of 1995, which protects internet service providers from being held liable for content posted by third parties. That law was created to protect giant companies such as AOL from having to monitor the millions of comments posted in chat rooms each day. It was not designed to protect individual web hosts such as Whitehouse, who theoretically could be posting defamatory comments about others on his own site using an anonymous name.
    Whitehouse is no insurgency leader. He is just a man so desperate for attention he allows his web site to be used by others to hurt innocent people.
    He is truly delusional if he believes there is anything more to it than that.

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In This Corner - Robert Slager - 6 opinions posted

Earning the trust of a trustee

   It was another typically slow news week in Wareham (wink, wink). In yet another "coincidence" the former board of library trustees is now begging to settle its litigation with the town. Like the one-second "retirement" of former police chief Tommy Joyce and the sudden resignation of acting library director Susan Pizzolato, the decision by the former trustees had nothing to do with the audit of town-owned computers (wink, wink, wink).
    The panic of the former trustees appears to have doubled over the past several days. The hunt is on to discover which of them had the courage to speak to me about the inner turmoil within the group. Their new plan is to pass around a letter for each former trustee to sign, disavowing what was written in this week’s Observer. Of course my source will sign it. Otherwise that person’s identity will be revealed. Then the former trustees will say I made the whole thing up. Clever in a third-grade sort of way.
    The truth is I’ve been in communication with two of the former trustees for well over a year now. One of them is too terrified to be quoted, even as an anonymous source. The other is the person who finally granted an official interview as long as I swore I would protect this person’s identity.

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Editorial - Robert Slager - 2 opinions posted

The very notion of America

   My eight-year-old daughters know the Fourth of July is America’s birthday. They know there will be parades and ice cream and fireworks and more ice cream. They will wave there tiny flags and smile their tiny smiles and not truly understand what this day is really all about.
    They will not be alone. The true meaning of the Fourth of July will be lost on millions and millions of Americans. Sure, there will be barbecues and beers and plenty of red, white and blue everywhere. People will be thankful they live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. But they will still see this great nation as a place on the map and not what it truly is.

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Editorial - Robert Slager - 1 opinion posted

In This Corner - Robert Slager

Learning to live without Andrea

   Rows of trailers surrounded the big top at Plumb Corner in Rochester Wednesday morning. The circus had come to town once again, and men and women of all shapes and sizes rubbed the sand from their eyes as they began the task of rebuilding the source of their livelihood once again.
    It was a stark reminder of the transition of life. For these people, they tear down and build up their lives every few days. There is always another town. There is always another show.
    Most transitions don’t occur so frequently, but when they do they can be every bit as jarring.
    After the sudden departure of Andrea Smith, who served as the heart and soul of the Tri-Town Observer since its inception more than two years ago, this newspaper is facing a transition of its own. As we noted in last week’s edition, we can find somebody to fill in for Andrea, but we’ll never replace her. She was too much a part of the fabric of this newspaper. When such fabric is torn away there will always be a hole.

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In This Corner - Robert Slager