49th ward Alderman Joe Moore is at it again. He's sent me his third mailer in two weeks. This time he's exploiting the Iraq war as a way to get re-elected, again. How come every election cycle, our Alderman speaks up on this issue?
Last time I checked, the decision to go to war is the direct responsibility of our congress and the executive branches of national government. Not local governments of cities, towns or villages. They're not part of that process.
* Notice the style and message from the last Aldermanic election? (Yes, I save these 'silly' things.)
In 2003, our Alderman duped a great number of people with this issue. It brought Alderman Moore into the national spotlight. Like Foie Gras. He flew to New York to talk with Katie Couric on the Today show. It was a powerful moment in the anti-war moment.
But along the way, Alderman Moore ignored his duties to his 49th ward constituents. We suffer, he gains.
Funny thing, this has Robert Creamer's - Republican bashing style all over it. Isn't this guy in prison or something?
Alderman Moore, out to save the world - one war at a time.
13 comments:
We got the Adams mailer and another Joe Moore mailer. This one takes the cake. It was so offensive to us, that Steve called up the Alderman's office and complained about it.
What about the Ward Joe???
The mailing was a slap in the face as far as Steve and I are concerned. Until the Block building, the rampant criminal activity on Morse and lack of decent retail is resolved, I don't want our Alderman going out to solve the world's problems. Period.
This is EXACTLY why I am not voting for Joe Moore.
It's not like Joe could do something about Vietnam! He's doing what He can with today's war.
With his record of how crime is in the neighborhood, I think Joe is well-qualified to defend our right to not defend others.
He's figthing the wrong battles isn't he. He sounds like he doesn't belong on Chicago's city council. Sounds like he needs to be in the US Congress somewhere.
Oh and don't feel bad I tend to save old campaign literature and souvenirs too.
Questions from Hugh.
I'll kick it off:
MY #1 QUESTION FOR JOE MOORE
Alderman Moore,
According to your filings with the Illinois State Board of Elections, Bob Creamer's company Strategic Consulting managed your last race for alderman, earning more than $5000.00 per month:
Citizens for Joe Moore to Strategic Consulting
$5,235.71 on 2/12/2003, Purpose: campaign manager fee
$5,300.00 on 1/21/2003, Purpose: campaign manager's salary
$5,450.00 on 12/23/2002, Purpose: campaign managers consulting fee
$5,450.00 on 12/6/2002, Purpose: Consulting and campaign manager's fee
Also according to your filings, the political action committee you chair, Citizens for Joe Moore, made a series of large, short-term loans to your campaign manager, Bob Creamer:
$6,000.00 on 6/12/2002, repaid 6/20/2002 , 18 days later
$5,000.00 on 1/26/2001, repaid 11/9/2001, 10 months later
$4,000.00 on 1/22/2001, repaid 5/4/2001, 4 months later
$10,000.00 on 11/4/1999, repaid 12/31/1999, 8 weeks later
$25,000 in all!
On March 11,2004 your campaign manager Creamer was indicted on charges of fraud in an elaborate check kiting scheme.
On August 30, 2005 your campaign manager Creamer plead guilty.
On April 5, 2006 your campaign manager Creamer was sentenced to 5 months in prison.
QUESTIONS
What is your explanation for this highly unusual series of large, short-term loans, for periods as short as 3 weeks? What were they for?
What was your role in Creamer's check kiting scheme?
Were you contacted, questioned or deposed in the prosecution of your campaign manager Creamer?
Did Creamer's guilty plea save you from having to testify?
Did you ever visit your campaign manager Creamer in prison?
Even after your campaign manager was indicted (3/11/04), even after he plead guilty (8/30/05), even after he was sentenced (4/5/06), even as he served his sentence, you and your ward organization continued to do business with Creamer:
Citizens for Joe Moore to Strategic Consulting
$2,600.00 on 3/3/2005, Purpose: fundraising consulting
$5,590.00 on 2/1/2005, Purpose: fundraising consulting
$4,642.00 on 1/11/2005, Purpose: fundraising consulting
$5,590.00 on 7/12/2004, Purpose: fundraising consulting
$2,600.00 on 6/28/2004, Purpose: fundraising consulting
Democratic Party of the 49th Ward to Strategic Consulting
$7,680.00 on 3/6/2006 Mail Services
$490.23 on 3/15/2004, Purpose: development production & delivery of mail
In fact, Citizens for Joe Moore has spent nearly $300,000 with Strategic Consulting since 1999.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS (IF ALLOWED)
What is Creamer's and Strategic Consulting's role in your current campaign?
Is a federal felony fraud conviction a credential in your line of work, campaigning?
More: Moore's campaign manager Creamer convicted in fraud
So that's my question. What's yours, neighbor?
Now Rogers Park: You SOUND OFF!
What have you been dying to ask Joe Moore? Now's your chance. Ask in the comments.
I save all the christmas cards I've gotten from Obama. I gave money once and get a christmas card every year now.
Joe Moore has been ignoring the wars and their carnage in this neighborhood for years.
Moore obviously considers his office to be a lowly post that's useful only as a stepping-stone to greater things.
He's like somebody who writes porn or drek romances for money and then thinks that he can present himself as a great literateur. Well, nobody bought Danielle Steele when she tried to re-invent herself as a serious author, and nobody's gonna buy Joe as a national leader.
When he tries to run for national office, his record, duly archived on these blogs and in many other places, will be there for all to see.
Desperate people do desperate things!
Either Joe's desperate or his PR staff is at wits end!
This is high school harry literature.
Ginderske blogger responds...
... Moore Is Not The Answer:
* Is this a parent of the six children who died in a fire in Rogers Park?
* Is this the grandfather of one of the little kids that fell out of a window in Rogers Park last summer?
* Maybe it's a diabetic Rogers Parker who is no longer able to drive across the county to get health care?
This is just a blatantly exploitative photo of a man who lost a relative in Iraq - a situation Joe Moore has neither the power, nor the inclination, to fix.
The first lie in Moore's flyer is the first sentence: "Four years ago, when it was politically unpopular to do so, Joe Moore [opposed the Iraq War]"...
When exactly did anyone in Rogers Park support the Iraq War? The Iraq War has always been unpopular in Rogers Park, and for that matter, in Chicago. It took absolutely no political courage for an alderman from Rogers Park to oppose the Iraq War - all it took was political opportunism. Joe Moore had the opportunity to show political courage by supporting Forrest Claypool in the March primary - and he took the patronage promises instead. Now, Todd Stroger is creating tragedies right here at home. Unlike Joe Moore, we don't have to go to Iraq to find tragedies - they're happening in the apartment next door and in the house across the street. Street crime, lack of healthcare, shoddy housing, the list goes on.
Being an effective alderman requires skill, diligence, and real compassion. Joe Moore's career as a celebrity newshound requires ... the skills and integrity of Paris Hilton.
For what it's worth, I don't think anyone is fooled by this mailer.
Posted by Thomas Westgard at 6:22 PM
I guess Joe is focusing on his next job, or at least I would if I were him. Everything he's done is calculated to curry favor with celebrity contributors. None of us is in that category, so we don't count.
I guess he's counting on the old Peter Principle to hoist himself to the next level of incompetence, and maybe he is not wrong to do that, given the predilection of entertainment types for grand gestures and 'feel-goods' as opposed to real qualifications, achievement, or competence. I really don't think these people bother their heads about what's happening in some middle-to-low income nabe in the midwest.
Bob Creamer completed his "40 lashes with the wet noodle" prison sentence a few days prior to the November General Election. It obviously didn't take too long for him to resume his ability to make a living (unlike other freed federal convicts who do not have friends like Lying Joe Moore or a Congresswife waiting for him to get out of the slammer.
If you want to check out the slimy-looking relationship between Moore and Creamer, just head on over to the State Board of elections office on the 14th floor of the Thompson State of Illinois Building (100 W. Randolph). Once there, check out the campaign disclosure reports for Moore's committee from late 1997 and early 1998.
You will find that in a short span of time there were a number of loans made by Moore's committee to the group Creamer ran at the time, Citizan Action, and a number of repayments (often just a few days later). Citizen Action threw in a few bucks, the equivilent of a bank transaction fee. When Moore's committee submitted its semiannual report, the totals showed more than $25,000 extra in income received, thanks to this money (thousands of dollars each way) being shuffled back and forth with Citizen Action. In reality, the net gain to Moore's campaign was just over $20!
Were these loans an effort to cover up past check kiting by Creamer (the offense for which he got his slap on the writst by a very friendly federal judge, whose son-in-law had business dealings with Creamer!)? Since the Statute of Limitations has passed in this instance, we may never know. But it doesn't hurt to ask. You should also contact the office of the US Attorney at the slightest hint of any new slimy actions by these guys.
I don't care what my alderman thinks about the war in Iraq
I don't care where my mailman stands on abortion rights
it doesn't matter
it just doesn't matter
not when there are open air drug markets and problem landlords and teenagers dying on the sidewalk and families burning in their homes
Moore would interview candidates for dogcatcher on their views on Iraq
I saw Joe Moore on the street and I asked him his stance on the war in Iraq. Here is his exact response: "I'm for the war but against the troops, now get out of my face before I have you killed." That is vintage Moore.
What a total waste, that is 'Moore on War.' Can't Moore focus on something local? Graffiti, perhaps? The strange news is that if you follow the Red line, the Graffiti pretty much starts in Mary Ann Smith's Ward, saturates Uptown, Wrigley and Belmont; spews in DePaul and peters out downtown. Yet, in our alleys, Moore has not done much to deal with our lazy neighbors.
At least Craig focuses on local issues, like crime, among other things. I mean from Big Box to Goose Livers; the dilapidated buildings are more of a priority. If Moore wants to focus on War, then why doesn't he run against Jan or Rahm? Well, probably b/c Jan and Rahm agree.
However, doesn't it make good press to fixate on international touchy feelie issues? Maybe Moore thinks that some of us thinks Council resolutions really convince Republicans that war is stupid, ugly, and bad, bad, bad.
Post a Comment