Boston Public Library president Bernard A. Margolis officially lost his job yesterday. It was a move Margolis had seen coming since last May, when Judith Kurland, Thomas Menino's chief of staff told him that his contract would not be renewed beyond its current term. Freed from the constraints of office, Margolis told the Globe what he really thinks about Menino. He's a dummy. An "anti-intellectual" whose reign over Boston Margolis likened to Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan......

The Phoenix posted the tenth annual Muzzle Awards. The listing, compiled by Media Nation blogger Dan Kennedy, showcases the offenses against free speech by local individuals and organizations. An apropos way to celebrate liberty for the Fourth of July. He gets the Muzzle this year by stifling the free speech of former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami by refusing to provide state-police protection to the visiting former head of state. Boston Police stepped up to provide......

Tom Brady is awfully busy even though the Pats lost to the Colts. He's a star witness, and he's been wooing Gisele Bundchen. The Globe wonders what the two have in common other than their superhuman bone structures, and they come up with right-wing politics: The New York Post reported yesterday that Gisele refused to meet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez when she and the Marxist leader were both in Rio last week. Brady, meanwhile, was......

Houstonist reports on cross-dressing thieves and undressing educators this week. A Peeping Tom defends himself with a papaya and an outraged onlooker asks Ken Lay, "TATER TOTS OR FRIES?" Also, FEMA wants its money back. LAist are a bug bunch of geeks. They're Star Trek geeks, David Duchovny geeks and Frank Gehry geeks. During their Cochella preview their readers reveal themselves to be Depeche Mode geeks. Seattlest saw their basketball team preparing to leave for......

Time for a moment of news zen: Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, yesterday pledged to continue his country's program of providing discounted home heating oil to the poor in Massachusetts. Chavez, you may recall, is the Bush administration's public enemy number one in Latin America because he's, um, leftist. Not a dictator, not in power by undemocratic means, not giving support to terrorists; just leftist. Naturally, Republicans in this country are up in arms that U.S.......

After U.S. Rep. William Delahunt negotiated a deal with the Venezuelan government last week to provide discounted heating oil to needy families in the Commonwealth, all hell seemed to break loose. We were reminded that Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, is a really bad guy, or, as the Globe delicately put it, citing unnamed critics, "a democratically elected leader who governs in an undemocratic manner." Today, the furor seems to have died down - even Governor......

Tenth MA District U.S. Representative William Delahunt helped broker a deal with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to bring 12 million gallons of home heating oil to low income residents and charities in the Bay State. Our friend Paul over at A Blog Soup was quick to point out the Boston Globe report on this deal. Delahunt, working with Citizens Energy Corporation, secured a 40% discount on the 12 million gallons of oil arriving in Massachusetts......