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Here you go, boys.
Submitted by Susan_Madrak on Mon, 04/09/2007 - 10:15am.
If there's anything you want to know about the Knox campaign paying for signatures, call Josh Morrow, our campaign manager, at 215-636-0660 and speak to him directly. He's the one in charge.
And you know, I just have to point out that if there was anything to your insinuations, Lou/Councilman, why on earth didn't anyone challenge our petitions? Seriously, why do you constantly come on here alleging illegal activities, and yet you never report said activities to the people who are in charge of policing them?
Are you telling me you saw a crime and didn't report it?
Bookmark/Search this post with:
I am over 18 and I am
I am over 18 and I am insulted you called me a boy.
Also, it could be a derogatory reference to a black man.
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Staff member of Longacre for 5th Council District.
Wow, your skills as a hack are declining
Thats all you got? Are you kidding me? I stopped using lines like that in Jr. High.
"Yea well why don't you call my mom and ask her."
Look, MikeL
I am not a big fan of Tom Knox, and I don't object to you saying whatever you want about him, but going after Susan on such a personal level will not be tolerated. Suzie is not only a valuable member of the Philly netroots, she's also a friend, and so if you want to "go negative" with her you'll have to do it someplace else.
Seriously- this tit-for-tat is on the same level as those people who continually point out that Councilman Kenney used to work for the Vince of Darkness. Kenney has his own history which we can judge him by, and I for one think that he's one of the best politicians this city has had in many, many years. Likewise, Susan's work goes far beyond Knox, and no matter what you might think about him, she is employed by Tom, and is not the man himself (yes, I know that sentence is constructed wrong, but you get my point).
Focus your attacks and stop taking shots at the messenger.
I work for Damon K. Roberts in his run for City Council. Unless otherwise stated this and every comment by myself is the opinion of myself, and not of Damon or any other candidate, organization, committee, etc.
Alex...and Anne
I apologize for bringing down this website to a less than professional level. I would love to engage Susan about Tom Knox and his policies, however, everytime myself, or others confront her on Tom and his policies, she goes below the belt. She has yet to argue clearly about the reasons why Tom should be elected and instead has focused on attacking Kenney, Brady and making juvenile and condescending remarks towards anyone that tolerates a different point of view.
I understand your post towards me. But don't forget that Susan repeatedly makes slanderous remarks about Brady AND Councilmen Kenney on here. I personally don't find it effective dialogue to claim someone is involved in corruption (expecially given our current state of affairs in Philly) simply as a 2nd rate comeback. I'll do my best to refrain from personal attacks on Susan, however, I'd like to see a public post regarding her behavior as well.
Councilman Kenney
I try my hardest to do the same every time I see attacks on Councilman Kenney here, and I have seen Kenney complain (justifiably) that he has been attacked in a similar personal fashion. The internet seems to bring out a certain nastiness in most people, and a "toughness" that primarily exists online (though I think I may be the exception to the rule- I'm just as much of an asshole in the real world as I am online, and I think I'm a good deal more calm and collected when my ADD ass is forced to type out my thoughts).
Primaries are always hard, and when your in the heat of battle fighting for your guy/gal against another person's guy/gal who you might support . But in the end I think most people come to this site for one reason- they feel passionately about this city that we all love. Sometimes it's hard to separate the passion from the people, but I think that for the good of the city and the Democratic Party it behooves us all to keep things in perspective. (You know things are bad when I become the voice of reason)
And for the record, I don't think that Philly's problems are necessarily the result of corrupted people, but rather of processes and institutions that fall victim to the ever present corruptness that is human nature. That's precisely why I feel that Councilman Kenney is one of the best politicians that this city has had in a long time: if just two of his bills would pass--311 and Zoning reform-- a good deal of the corruption would have to find a new way to game the system. 311 fights corruption by ending the mind-numbingly stupid reason that many people decide to support a candidate: "constituent services", which most of us call "doing the damned job you were paid to do" or "making the city work for its citizens in an efficient and effective way". Zoning reform would (hopefully) remove one of the most obviously corrupted city process from the hands of those who seek to exploit it for their own personal gain or the betterment of their small constituent group (I don't know what this city would do without all the central air, but I'm sure we'd survive). It might not take that long for corrupt individuals to figure out a new way to game the system (who knows?), but the fact that Councilman Kenney is working to fix these obviously exploited processes says a whole lot about the man.
Anyway, enough of my post-work rants. I gotta get back to the j-o-b at hand.
I work for Damon K. Roberts in his run for City Council. Unless otherwise stated this and every comment by myself is the opinion of myself, and not of Damon or any other candidate, organization, committee, etc.
Personal attacks
Don't you think being able to post anonymously adds to the personal attacks. Often when I post something that someone does not agree with it is "The guy who punched somebody". Nobody would say things like this and others if they were not anonymous. Further, I am careful what I post because my name is attached.
I decided long ago...
That I would post with my own name, and it has both good and bad consequences. I think that it may or may not encourage bad behavior, depending on the person. As I noted below some people have completely justifiable reasons for posting anonymously, but there certainly are those who use it as a shield. We have a word for those types of folks in Philly: food.
I'm surprised I'm not known as "the guy who bit somebody, or a few bodies". That was what they called me in high-school, and for good reason (I bite people), but I guess it didn't stick.
I work for Damon K. Roberts in his run for City Council. Unless otherwise stated this and every comment by myself is the opinion of myself, and not of Damon or any other candidate, organization, committee, etc.
Agreed...
Elections are never pretty. While I don't understand why someone who support Knox, thats their right and whatever. But before people go running to Susan's defense lets not forgot some of the things that she's said and done on here. I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but come on.
I appreciate your trying to calm the situation and I couldn't agree with you more regarding Kenney, he's one of our best. I will not however apologize for calling Susan a hack, but I will apologize for turning the point of this site into a pissing contest.
Also...
Here's another thing to keep in mind: I don't know you or really know who you are (outside of the fact that you support Brady), but I'm guessing that you don't work for either Brady or Kenney. On the other hand Susie does work for Knox, and so while it might seem like a double standard we should all recognize the fact that we can't be as candid as we'd sometimes like to be when the subject is our bosses or our workplaces. Check out how many people blog here anonymously, and for good reason. People are fired pretty regularly for their online lives (for example: the guy who exposed Mark Foley as a predator, and thus the guy who helped the dems sweep the reps out of the Congress, was fired for the human rights council for his amazing work), and so there is a double standard for this type of communications, and rightfully so.
I work for Damon K. Roberts in his run for City Council. Unless otherwise stated this and every comment by myself is the opinion of myself, and not of Damon or any other candidate, organization, committee, etc.
Susie Madrak is GREAT
She's a nationally respected activist in the progressive netroots movement.
She's smart as hell.
And she joins campaigns because she BELIEVES in the candidate, not just another paycheck.
And she reads more newspapers before 6am than you or I can get in before 9.
There are VERY FEW people in the political world as talented or as true blue as Susie -- so please, spare the nonsense.
This isn't "Old" Philly Politics, is it?
I'm sorry if I offended you. I just couldn't bring myself to say "gentlemen," since the way I'm treated here is often downright rude.
Do you want some cheese with your whine
Maybe if you engaged in dialogue, held back the mud and weren't so condescending people might take you a bit more seriously. I wouldn't, but others might.
I've said this before, but I
I've said this before, but I think supporters of every candidate are guilty of being incredibly rude. I'll never understand why people think it is somehow productive to engage in endless pissing matches on the internet. Everyone just ends up looking foolish.
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http://benwaxman.com
Knox Petitions
I would have challenged Knox petitions if there was a legitimate challenge to bring the signatures under 1000. As it was there were a minimum of 2300 bad signatures. This was all bad circulators, not bad signatures. I did not check signatures. This leads me to think they were paid. Also there were many petitions that had the circulator circulate four partially completed petitions in different parts of the City on the same day. This is usually someone who signs as circulator who is signing for someone else. This is a sign of paid circulators.
Finally, there was a petition circulated at the Shop-Rite in my neighborhood that the circulator signed as being there. I called three people on the petition and described the circulator. They all said that no one by that description was there. If you want I can name the circulator.
I looked at every petition and there is little doubt in my mind that there were paid circulators gathering signatures for Knox. Not illegal but in light of former statements, it is less than credible that signature gatherers were not paid.
With regard to the Brady challenge, when Knox releases his tax returns perhaps there will be things he omitted, and would be challenged.
Once again, I suggest you call our campaign manager.
I have no way of answering most of your questions. I can tell you I was one of those people circulating petitions at the Roxborough Shop-Rite, and I know one other person, as well.
But come on, Lou, you know as well as I do that people can't identify petition circulators unless it's someone they know. They're not looking at you, they're looking at the clipboard you stuck in front of them. I myself was so bundled up, all they saw was my eyes. (Just look at the Casino Free Philadelphia petition challenges as a recent example.)
I can also tell you I personally saw petitions tossed because they were brought in to be notarized by people who didn't circulate them, and I myself had to return 300 signatures because the person who circulated the petitions couldn't make it into our office to get them notarized.
Naturally, I can't personally vouch for every single petition or what every individual did, but everything I did see personally was done properly. Staffers were given explicit instructions as to what was and wasn't acceptable, and I didn't see any deviation from that.