Heard in the Hall

How many of these people actually live in Philadelphia?

I never thought I would see the day, that politics in Philly get's worse. Indictee's, Union thugs, dressed in armor ready to attack. I want to tell the voter's in the first senate district one thing. If you have ever spoken by phone to any of these candidates personally, and received their help for any of your needs, vote for them. Because these two men are totally out of reach, when it comes to personal contact with their constituency. I remember a man named Bill Barret, of South Philly, he would open his office at least one night every week, and personally exchange conversation, and listen to problems. Another guy in the first senate, was always in his office when not in Harrisburg, and greeted his constituency at the door. His name was Frank Lynch. And there was the infamous Buddy(Brown) Cianfrani, you could always talk directly to him, and guaranteed, the problem was resolved. Try and do this with either Fumo or Dougherty. The idea of talking to a person without an appointment is beyond them. Where are they when you really want to talk to your representative, not his Tom, Dick, or Mary. Now I don't know Ms. Dicker, from Adam, but maybe she is listening too. Shake my hand, or say hello, or worse yet, please fix my problem.

Dougherty is like all the rest of the politicians - he likes to wear two hats.
1) casino foe when he's representing the Pennsport Civic Association
2) casino advocate when he's representing his union

he's the worst kind. he'll sell out his neighbors to further himself. and he does it openly...and the people around him let him get away with it because, if they don't, they'll lock themselves out of getting something in return one day.

again, philly will get what it deserves.

Remember, Johnnie Doc was an ardent supporter of John Street.

Eight years of corruption, arrogance, and general incompetence.

If you want more of that, vote for Dougherty.

I can't imagine why anyone who has even the slightest bit of desire to see Philadelphia improve would vote for John Dougherty, or Vince Fumo for that matter. He represents just about every single characteristic that has held the city hostage and stagnant: back-room deals, good ol' boy handshakes, no bid contracts, uneven labor negotiations, threats of violence or strikes against anyone who disagrees, no interest in diversity, no interest in allowing the next generation to get involved in the process, and no appetite to try something new.

Hooray for the status quo! Hooray for keeping things mediocre!

But then again, Anne Dicker has very little to offer so I can't say I'm running to the polls for her either.

Johnny Doc was Chairman of the Board of the RDA when it gave all that property to Kenny Gamble and Universal. The conflict of interest in being Chair of the RDA while being treasurer of the Democratic City Committee was what ended my interest in working in the Dem party.

I'm pretty sure that Doc has to run for Fumo's seat because he can't get appointments to the boards of agencies or get back in the upper official echelon of the local Dem City Cttee without bringing FBI pay to play scrutiny and bad press with him.

The fat lady has not sung. She's still going through all the paperwork she requested. Will indictments follow? Given the lawsuit by Carl Greene of Gamble and Universal, the likelihood that documents coming out of Doc's RDA coupled with a review of the NUR-PAC campaign filings is going to make Doc unable to run in Nutters' new day ethics rules.

It's an open secret that the Inkrag won't cover -- Doc took checks for the Dem City Cttee as treasurer while structuring RDA deals of low cost land giveaways to low performing "affordable housing" builders who give a lotta dough to local pols. Forget nonprofits that are good -- Habitat, etc. Give the land by the hundreds of parcels to someone who still holds hundreds of parcels -- King Kenny.

The editors of the Ink think that this is the only way local dems can compete with the big money of the PA republican party. I have more faith in democracy, but people think I'm INSANE. I'm a goo-goo who says we don't need pay to play to get dems on the national stage. Talk about making yourself a pariah!

Someone needs to give Nutter's ethics lady a ringy-dingy before we have any more of this rash of unfortunate paper fires in offices of politicians. Terrible epidemic, lately. I predict an electrical fire in offices that store Doc's archives.

Doc never accepted that taking kick backs, uh, contributions from people getting RDA properties with NO strings attached is a violation of the Hobbes Act. This is not legal in city and state law his people shriek. But it's illegal at the federal level. Just ask Ron White. Leonard Ross. Corey Kemp, remember him? Mr. Fall Guy?

These redevelopment agreements for all the large political contributors are distinctive from all the others in that they are virtually empty, with whole clauses on timelines or performance, or reversion back to RDA ownership in cases of nonperformance or malfeasance REMOVED.

I'm PRETTY sure that's enough to make the case. At least for the next round of bugs.

Maybe someday the local papers will try to win prizes again and request these redev agreements. You could make not just an article, but a spreadsheet of how easy it is to get city property -- if you kick back regular campaign finance iffy contributions.

We're never going to have a good school sustaining tax base; we're always going to have blighted city controlled or pay to play related properties if the press never deals with this and leaves their investigative journalism up to the next FBI press release.

Tools.

Doc for Fumo. Where did I sign up for the screw me treatment?

At some point the South Philly Dems have to take responsibility for their role in the fall of Philly.

Is there a white boy, Irish or Italian, who isn't tarred with corruption? Because that's what the corrupt black pols and their numerous supporters always say to justify themselves -- "but what about YO boy? But what about YO boy?"

(Real reason given for supporting a corrupt John Street for reelection to this community meeting attendee).

I tried to explain that neither Fumo nor Doc are my "boys." You would have thought that I poured gasoline on people's head and set them on fire.

"THEY YO BOYS, THEY YO BOYS!" Street won reelection after an open law enforcement investigation triggered by a narcotics trafficking sting persuades a judge that an Imam who extorts high level street dealers might be funneling money right to the office of Connie Little, exec. sec. in the office of John Street.

But, hey, who's worried about facts. If the Irish and Italians have their bad boys of politics, so fair is fair. If it is a new day in Philly, we are going to have to have open, transparent records.

Doc is the dark opposite of open and transparent. He's the back door sneaky deals, dog ate my file guy. His people are just like the upper BRT judges who lost the Fumo file. They all work together.

They keep taxes low because it reassures their reelection no matter where the money goes. We may as well have reelected John Street if we are going to have Doc in the 1st District.

We may as well let Milton work the phones from his cell.

His people ARE the BRT judges who lost the Fumo file.

Anon at 4:12 you mean that Doc's people say that taking huge contributions for giving huge parcels of properties to donors who already have huge parcels of vacant/blighted RDA conveyed properties is OK at the state and city level.

No matter that this is illegal in every major city and every state with a large city.

The Doc folks (and, publicly, the whole local Democratic party) officially sanctioned it. "It's actually perfectly legal at the state and city level" became their mantra.

The Doc Dems operated daringly -- they were correct -- that the FBI would be so swamped with drugs and HIDTAs that they wouldn't have the resources to fund municipal corruption.

Turned out that we got a republican as president who funds MC investigations. I really think I'm gonna have to vote for McCain. How else can we get these brazen bandits and have a government for the community, by the community?

Ann Dicker, at least, won't be running a goon squad. Open shop, clean house, it really is going to be a new day in Philly.

Doc is getting indicted -so he is a non issue,

Dicker is a non issue