Saturday, April 24, 2010

Some Folks Never Learn-Because They're Stupid

It's been awhile, but it's time once again to remind everyone how corrupt the Chestnut hill Community association is, and, without the helpful editing of the Local, what lengths its president Walter Sullivan will go to in order to retain the only position, of what he mistakenly believes is power, that he has ever "achieved".

In his last editorial in the Local, a privilege he subjects us to so very often, Editor Pete lets Walt bullshit his way through another extolling of a group that can't get a quarter of the people in its' neighborhood to join.

It can't get enough people to have a competitive election. Eight board spots, eight folks who want to fill them, but Walt still calls it an election. And he says the Hill has never been apathetic.

But he still finds space, and Pete lets him, to blame three people for all the Associations' problems. Okay, maybe four people.

Yes, those "few letter writers" who seek to undermine "your" CHCA.
Tell me Walt, how did I stop eighty percent of hill residents to avoid your small time power tripping circle jerk like the plague?

How did I, an admitted socialist, convince the Republican Attorney General of the state to fine your organization, even with Jeanne "the fixer" Hemphill all but dragging her dead father into meetings trying to make the biggest embarrassment ever brought to Avalon-on-the-Mount go away?

The top gun from Ballard Spahr couldn't fix it. She travels the country, getting corporate killers off scott-free and she couldn't quash this investigation.

To anyone with an ounce of knowledge concerning her culture, the conclusion is obvious.

If this was the best she could do, then the real findings were so much worse, that the efforts of a less connected defender of your coven would have resulted in a CHCA version of Jennifer Zogas' Grocery Empire. No more CHCA, no more fund, jail time for some, and of course some outraged letter blaming me.

Go ahead Walt, blame me, and Ron, and Jim. It's good for my ego. If I can get no one to join "your" CHCA, as you seem compelled, or commanded, to call it, to make eighty percent of the Hill not give a shit, imagine how powerful I am. I'm goin' after the IMF next, the bastids.

Maybe I can get people to continue to avoid "your" CHCA some more by telling them, again, that Richard Snowden, who has leased land his family owns in West Virginia to Massey Energy, whose criminal safety record has now resulted in deaths of dozens of miners, now controls "your" board.

Look it up, sheep. This is your new leader. He hasn't rented a single building, like he promised. But he is complicit in West Virginia Mining Disasters. Makes you feel all warm inside, don't it? When you feel like that in Mingo County, where his other business is , it's Black Lung Disease.

He scammed "your" board into paying for a rental consultant to train someone else so you could then pay that person to rent any of his properties that he feels like losing the tax write-offs for. Hold you breath. The "trainer" has worked for Richie before. She's gonna get more for the training than the person doing the outreach. Couldn't you just find an already trained outreach person? Not Richies' idea, you see.

"Your" CHCA is all waiting for Opie-hair to save you. To eat his table scraps, the menopausal petulant child that vomited racist signs all over "your" avenue when he didn't get his way, is given committee chairs, any variances he wants, while the Jenks principal thanks him for plowing a parking lot he had to plow anyway, and for letting art hang in his derelict buildings, making them seem less derelict without paying a cent.

He's "your" savior, and it's only costing you what, thirty-five thousand dollars?

The reason he got to take over, is that my doing too? Or is it because the exit of so many long time board members, some who were implicated in the investigation, like Stewart Graham, or others who got tired of being ashamed, created a power vacuum that Coal-boy entered, with help from his employees and renters. Richies' non-tax dollars at work.

Anyone examining Richards' past actions knows that, without his wealth, and "your" fear, someone of his psych profile would be sitting in a day-room waiting for pudding and meds.

Yes, this is "your" CHCA. Now run for his benefit. Everything else is gravy. Walts' self worth. His wife's embarrassing place at the table. Those patiently waiting for something to fall off of Richies' plate. Some resume building for the hungry young ones, formerly idealistic, who no longer speak to me.

That's okay, wide eyed successors to Jeremy and Tia. There's no afterlife, you can relax about the soul thing. Money and promotions and Ambien and Zoloft can solve everything else.

As my great-grandfather Tevye said, in a musical about his family, "There is no other Hand"

If you can't get twenty percent of the people in your neighborhood to join "your" CHCA, and you couldn't get twenty percent of those who did join to vote in the last election, when there WERE more candidates then board openings, just who DO you represent? Who is the "your" you keep modifying CHCA with?

A four-percent "non-apathetic" electorate. Nice "discovery" councilor, no wonder this is your only gig.

Did I do all this to you, you dumb fucks? Or did you do it to yourselves? Dumb fucks usually don't need help screwing themselves, that is why they are called dumb fucks. They can't even figure out how fucking works.

No, I'll go with the former. I did this to you. Feldman the all-powerful. I have told the truth without fear, and the people, apparent from their actions, and the State, apparent from theirs, believed me. And I did it, as iIhave told you before, all in my spare time.

Tune into Morning Feed, 9-10 AM Eastern on Gtownradio.com for more. Even though "your" CHCA is mentioned in only one show out of twenty, Mr. Good Food Market still found time to refer to me as a "Roxborough Radio jock" in singling me out as his adversary. I like the sound of that, it makes me sound tough.

Since I made the people not shop at your market dude, so can I please get a letter to that effect so I can show my advertisers what kind of power I have?

Ed (King of all overpriced Grocery Stores on non-commercial side streets opened in a depressed neighborhhood in the middle of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression by someone who had never done this before) Feldman

Next Time -A Really Great Jeanne Hemphill Story

9 Comments:

Blogger Ed Feldman said...

EDs' manual spell/grammar check

1.third from the last paragraph-remove "so" after comma

2.next to last pp-(in parenthesis) neighborhood spelled wrong.

3. fourth pp from end last sentence-remove lower case "i", separate capital "I" from "have"

Sat Apr 24, 03:25:00 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Borderline personality disorder. (Actually, not so borderline.)

Sat Apr 24, 09:42:00 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ms. Zoga's husband never said you made people not shop at the store. Why would he think you had the influence to do that? He wondered why you attacked his wife over an article in the Inquirer. Deluded much? And what's this with Chestnut Hillers being bad at business? Last time I looked around, houses in the residential district looked pretty damn prosperous.

And, kinda pathetic how you keep plugging some radio program I suspect no one listens to.

Sat Apr 24, 09:51:00 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Posting while drunk again? There are WAY more errors in this screed than you mention. Look it over again in the morning.

Sat Apr 24, 10:02:00 PM EDT  
Blogger Ed Feldman said...

I suspect the people who listen to my radio program are some of the same ones who read my work and then comment on it within hours of its' posting-

Let's examine the time line.

The last post on Northwest notebook was March 27.

Nothing else until my piece on April 24, 12:27 in the afternoon.

Then three brave, anonymous postings by 10:00 PM, which means:

You're looking for my work, because I'm the only one who writes here anymore.

You're checking for it regularly.

You are repeat readers, because you said you thought I was drunk before-or did you lift that incisive criticism from its' originator because you thought it was cool?

You post within hours, on a Saturday night in April, revealing your fabulous social life.

You guys (or guy) have the Perfect Profile for a loyal Morning Feed listener. Lonely shut-in, obsessed with me. I thrive on your attention. More please, and you don't have to leave your names, I'll find out.

Your Obsession-Ed

Sun Apr 25, 12:02:00 PM EDT  
Anonymous Jeff Meade said...

A few random points:

I hope you and everyone else associated with this blog is carrying a boatload of libel and invasion of privacy insurance. You're an easy payday waiting to happen.

I don't know Pete, but I've held many jobs similar to his. If I were in Pete's shoes, I'd "helpfully" edit you, too. I might even be more helpful than he is. (Often, I'm amazed and frightened by what gets through the Local's editorial filter.) Amazingly, I would not allow you to call anyone a "dumb fuck."

Strip away all of the inflammatory rhetoric, and you and I probably agree about many things. Rome is burning, but the Chestnut Hill Community Association is fiddling. And a reasonable person has to ask: Why all the vacant storefronts after all these years? How do we fill the gap left by the departure of Wawa and Borders? Is there a way to have a reasonable, open conversation about any of this in the current climate? Can we ask the hard questions without fear of lawsuit?

Having raised the questions here, I am unlikely to ever pursue the answers. I see the monkey business that goes on, just like everybody else. There is no true "civic involvement" in Chestnut Hill. There is only gang war. And yes, the gangstas wear suits and their colors are "plaid," but a simple and self-destructive gang war is what it is. More and more, Groucho's quip about not wanting to belong to any club that would have him as a member seems like sage advice.

Frankly, Ed, you are, and always have been, a significant part of the problem. Between Walt's bloviating and your gadfly ranting, the whole God-awful mess looks (and smells) like a huge, steaming mass of radioactive poo.

A pox on both your houses.

Thu Apr 29, 09:12:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Ed Feldman said...

Jeff, since you have been reasonable enough to have given your name, I will address you comments in a non-hyperbolic manner. If I have misconstrued your meaning, correct me.

Your first two paragraphs seem to indicate that you think this blog has a connection to the Local. This is untrue.

Pete edits my work in the Local. As you have never seen what he has cut, you can only take my word that the missing words have never been libelous, or obscene.

I assume that you have seen other websites, and are familiar with their language. If you read my words and compare them to others, and find anything actionable, please tell me.

You won't. What I present here, in the Local, and on my Internet radio program, falls into three categories.

1.First person accounts of events I have witnessed.

2. Multiple sourced accounts that I have received from witnesses to events.

3.Multiple sourced news reports I have researched.

4.Opinion.

5.Satire.

Compare and contrast to any Daily Show, not that I draw the comparison for any purposes other than the jeopardy you feel I need to feel.

I now mount my high horse for a moment.

In this country, and on this medium, I can call anybody anything I want to if I can back it up.
When I have accused people of crimes, I had the evidence. I have given evidence on such crimes to the PA State Attorney general.

I can characterize the actions of an individual, or a group in colorful language if I so chose.

I describe the actions that I characterize before I characterize them in that colorful language. This is only fair.

Those individuals I characterize have, by their own choosing, put themselves in the public arena, making them fair play by; seeking public office, writing opinions or making statements of their own in the press, addressing me in the press, interacting with me personally.

Any collective characterizations, ie: "Dumb fucks", are non-actionable by definition. Who would sue? All the dumb fucks? I mentioned no names.

As for me being part of the problem, I can't give you the time line of my relationship to the Hill, so I'll REALLY summarize.

I tried to help.

I found that the people in power were just trying to help themselves. Sometimes illegally.

Anyone who tried to stop them got demonized and plowed under.

Everyone else didn't care enough, was too busy or too scared to fight them.

I left. I have no stake in the Hills future. They ruined it for me anyway.

I enjoy exposing wrong, and ridiculing those who do wrong.

The people who have done this to your neighborhood have done so with impunity and deserve, finally, some exposure and some ridicule.

As an an investigator, satirist and commentator, I don't have to be part any solution. I tell you what I have found out, and what I think. You admit that you won't pursue the answers, so that leaves me. Lots of people do this job.Do you accuse them similarly?

The Pox thing was a little showy.

Fri Apr 30, 11:43:00 AM EDT  
Anonymous Jeff Meade said...

This blog, have a connection to the Local? I would never make that mistake. Not sure how you got that.

As for libel, I would only say that up to this point you have been lucky. Maybe you'll stay lucky. I wouldn't wish a libel suit on my worst enemy. Even if you "win," you lose. I hope you never find out.

Let me see if I can clarify my main point.

What passes for public discourse in this community, and often in the pages of the Local, is at best incivil, and at worst highly toxic. It's not the subtance of your contribution to the conversation that bothers me; it's more the pernicious tone.

I'll tell you a story. (Feel free to nod off. You wouldn't be the first.)

Centuries ago, when I started in newspapers, one of the first people I met on my beat was the local gadfly. One on one, a very likeable guy. You'd have a beer with him. But once the shouting started, it was pretty clear that it was more about him than it was about the welfare of the community. And in this regard he had much more in common with the targets of his ire than he would have cared to know.

Now, maybe this is not you, Ed. Maybe your strength is as the strength of ten because your heart is pure. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

But no one with an ounce of sense or a shred of decency is ever going to become more involved in this community unless and until the conversation becomes more about building up than tearing down. And that goes for everyone, including you.

And, yeah, the pox thing was showy. It just seemed less antiquated than, "I will bite my thumb at them, sir, which is a disgrace to them if they bear it."

With that, Ed, I'm happy to let you have the last word. (You will, anyway.) For my part, I've said all I want to say.

Cheers!

Jeff

Sat May 01, 11:29:00 AM EDT  
Blogger Ed Feldman said...

Jeff, I now feel sheepish having the last word, but I never know how long, or how closely readers have followed the CHCA mess, so I never know how much background they have missed.

I was a well behaved, constructive member of the board as far back as 2003. I wrote reasonable, albeit occasionally chiding opinion pieces in the Local.

What radicalized me was a culture of corruption so ingrained and profound, arrogance so undisguised and outrageous that, coupled with an uninformed citizenry, the only way I could effect change was to yell
fire in a crowded theater, under the only circumstances that justify such action. The theater was on fire.

It still is. I chased a lot of the criminals away. More have taken their place.

As to your main point, when the level of discourse was polite, the board got away with everything they did, and no one knew anything about it.

Some people tried to counter their actions, politely. They were treated so callously, it made me angry. Anne Spaeth was belittled in meetings like a child.

When I started writing about it, people started saying that the discourse was course.

But, when I began to fight back,engaging in asymetrical combat, they stopped winning every battle, because;
I mobilized enough people through my writing to stop them through direct action at meetings.

People fled an organization that I exposed, and that weakened their influence.

Now the PA AG report, which I helped push through, further weakens them.

The election of the reform minded CHCA Second Opinion Caucus, which I helped found, was the result of the largest electoral turnout the Hill has ever seen, six times that of the most recent election. Those who voted for us were energized by the discourse, not alienated by it.

Pete is wary of giving me 900 words, because those I have exposed hold his purse strings. I saved his job once. He doesn't want to press his luck. I understand.

That leaves 300 word letters, this blog, and my radio program, which I invite you to listen to, 9-10 AM Mon-Fri -Gtownradio.com, 215-609-4301. Call in.

Walter Sullivan is a faithful listener.

PS-I am a published author, and have consulted a libel attorney on numerous occasions.

Mon May 03, 12:05:00 AM EDT  

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