but you hurt our feelings!

so, it looks like menino and curtatone did decide to milk the "emotional distress" angle and have managed to squeeze turner broadcasting for about $1 million more than the response effort to quell the mooninite invasion actually cost the city and the surrounding areas of somerville and cambridge. greedy, greedy bostonians--it's people like you who are driving conservatives to stump for caps on damages for pain and suffering, and in this instance i might be persuaded to concur. sure, $1 million is no great loss for tbs and probably less than they would ultimately have paid to put an end to all this, and you've vowed to put the money to great use in our homeland security and transportation departments--but you demanded it because you were in a position to do so, not because it was your legitimate due. that isn't justice, it's bullying, and no one likes a bully. once the money was promised to you you agreed not to pursue legal action against the network or the ad agency, but you're still pressing those ridiculous charges against berdovsky and stevens, who were operating as agents of the network and the ad agency. how is that sensible? and will any percentage of your winnings go toward making it more difficult to attach a magnetic battery-operated device to the I-93 bridge? because as proud as you all are of the hub's coordinated ground operations, the real issue here is that these things were all over the place before anyone responsible for examining them knew of their existence, and all the mbta improvements you can pull out of your hat won't erase that fact from the public consciousness--particularly the consciousness of those interested in doing harm. these were blinking and flashing and you didn't see them; an actual bomb would probably call far less attention to itself. how much does expanding homeland security response capabilities really count for if we don't have any reliable preventive measures in place? and what exactly do you mean by "other important community initiatives," ms. coakley? because if any of this money funds measures not related to citywide safety, you'll have proven that you support a legal system that caters to well-represented and well-connected plaintiffs out for all they can get. at least, you'll have proven that you support such a system when you are the plaintiff. i have a friend in public defense who would be very, very disappointed in you.

at any rate, your vindictiveness in this matter is incredibly unbecoming--common and predictable, but unbecoming. and now you've hurt my feelings. i expect this wrong will be rectified in the issuance of my state tax refund.