Response to Don Gordon's Political Obituary

Don Gordon recently published an open letter to Joe Moore that was posted on "The Broken Heart of Rogers Park," here is my response. I've posted it here in case blog administrators remove the post.

This letter is too little too late from a clearly floundering campaign.

Don claims to have been an activist for decades. Other than a notably abandoned Rogers Park Conservancy project, what else has Don been involved in? Was he involved in the effort to elect David Orr alderman? Did he get involved in Harold Washington's historic campaign? Did he help elect Jan Schakowsky or Barack Obama? Did he help bring CAPS to the ward, or Blue Light Cameras for that matter?

He decries Half-Truths, but refuses to acknowledge the words posted on THIS VERY blog by some of his most ardent supporters? Craig, to his credit, had the appropriate response, that the comments were shameful. Why doesn't he just come out and state the obvious, that when people say things like "section 8 housing is like underbrush, and needs to be burned," that it's disgusting and should be condemned.

You claim that Joe Moore's campaign is claiming that you'll tear down low income housing, which it isn't. The fact that Don Gordon wants to wait a year to release an affordable housing plan speaks for itself.

No one is suggesting that Don Gordon is racist. What ACORN is stating is that Don Gordon supporters have made hateful comments towards low income housing residents, and Don has refused to distance himself these people.

To say that people like Toni Duncan (North Coast), Hugh Devlin (Hugh), and Laura Louzander (Paradise) are not associated with your campaign is an outright lie. These people campaign for you on a daily basis, and at least two of the three were actively campaigning on 2/27.

The Joe Moore campaign has leveled serious attacks on the Don Gordon campaign, mainly that Don Gordon does not support the Living Wage ordinance, which 77% of the ward voted in favor of last election, and that Don Gordon opposed the Blue Light Cameras, a point which Don emphatically reinforced on the second Chicago tonight debate.

David Herro donated more than twice as much money to Jack Ryan, one of Barack Obama's GOP opponents. Of the money that David Herro has donated to political campaigns, a vast majority has gone to Republican candidates and causes. To say that he donates across the political spectrum is a gross distortion. It is more accurate to say that David Herro has a history of giving to Republicans, those opposed to the living wage, and a few big Democrats.

I urge Don Gordon to provide a list of projects he was associated with prior to the year 2003, after which his community involvement would have been entirely geared towards building a resume to run for office.

Don Gordon's campaign won't stoop to polarizing rhetoric because it's not neccessary to stoop. They've been stooping all along. Gordon supporters are positively vicious in their insinuation and distortion of the truth.

Gordon ends his charming obituary with an interesting byline, "Democratic Candidate for 49th Ward Alderman." I challenge Gordon to name all the Democratic campaign (besides Bobby Kennedy's) that he has worked on. If he's such a wonderful Democrat, I'm sure he has something to show for it.

A Modest Set of Questions to the Usual Suspects

1. How's your love life?


2. Are you currently employed? (trust funds don't count Craig!)


3. If you are currently employed, are you "self-employed?"


4. If you are currently "self-employed," does that count?


5. How many hours a day do you spend blogging? (This one's multiple choice)
A. 4-8 Hours
B. 8-12 Hours
C. 12-16 Hours
D. 16-20 Hours

6. How many hours a day do you think about your blog?

7. How many hours a day do you read your blog statistics?

8. Do you believe you are a journalist?

9. Do you ever say to yourself:
"Darn that Joe Moore, Foiled Again!" or "I'll get you next time Joe Moore!"

10. Do you hate Rogers Park?

11. If no, why do you shit so close to where you eat?

12. Do you thinly disguise your racism by complaining about crime and gangs, or do you not bother to disguise it at all?

13. If elected, would you support Don Gordon's final solution?

14. Do you really believe Joe Moore is part of "the machine"

15. Are you registered to vote in the ward? Are you registered to vote at all?

A Taste of Your Own Medicine

With no expectation of even moderate success, I started this blog to shed light on some of the negativity and nastiness going on in this particular blog neighborhood. I don't pretend to be a saint, or even without an agenda, but I would like to give some of the very opinionated people who seem to take themselves very seriously a taste of their own medicine. So quite modestly, let us begin this humble exercise.

I will pose a series of questions, some serious, some not so much. I doubt any of the bloggers have the balls to answer my queries, but it's worth a shot. To be clear, I'm talking about a limited number of blogs, so let's take a moment to lay out the usual suspects:

Craig Gernhardt - http://morsehellhole.blogspot.com/
Toni Duncan - http://howardwatchers.blogspot.com/
Tom Westgard - http://morosehellhole.blogspot.com/
Tom Mannis - http://rogersparkbench.blogspot.com/

And yes, my spelling will be sloppy, and my grammar won't be perfect. Deal with it.

Welcome to the 49th Ward TruthSquad

Negative attack blogs are playing a role in elections today. Here in beautiful Rogers Park, a couple of nasty people with way too much time on their hands have set to work to systematically set out to frame the debate surrounding the re-election of Alderman Joe Moore, a progressive with a prove record of accomplishment and distinction.

Many of these blogs are anonymous, and many of them thrive on misinformation, deceptive practices, slander, and out right lies.

Many of these blogs assume to publish truth, or behave as though they are journalistic entities, although they aren't bound by traditional journalistic principals such as fact checking, or balance.

Some Blogs allow comments, while others selectively delete comments that the blog author doesn't agree with.

The one thing that most of these negative blogs share, is a willingness to engage in the politics of destruction. Taking a page from the Karl Rove school of politics, and the "Fair and Balanced," school of journalism, these blogs have had a significant, and unfortunate consequence: turning the aldermanic campaign in the 49th Ward into a nasty race that has the net effect of turning people away from the political process.