Come on Ray Hanania, you can do better than to write a nasty, false posting about Chicago News Bench only to quickly delete it in cowardly fashion. Previously, I've only said nice things about you, Ray, and your scribblings about Orland Park. Like
here, for example,
and here. Perhaps the Jim Dodge campaign for Illinois State Comptroller has you in their corner, perhaps not.
But honestly, Ray, although I am amused by it, I cannot think of what prompted your unprovoked attack on lil ol' CNB.
You wrote this piece of garbage on November 21:
Beware of Chicago News Bench" Blog ... tagged to with annoying ads and misleading claims
Anyone can be a blogger but not everyone can get their facts right. While I don't apologize for challenging the village of Orland Park's tax history over the years and my disappointment with some of the policies, for someone to take those remarks out of context and then use them to attack Jim Dodge, the first candidate to announce for Illinois Comptroller, is misleading and deceitful. But there…
Whoops! That's all there is, because you deleted it, Ray. You wimped out, you lost your nerve. Perhaps, like a girl scorned just before her 8th grad prom, you wrote a wrathful note. Perhaps, like some little girls, you re-read it and decided that maybe you shouldn't send it. Too late, Ray, when you hit "publish" it's out there, baby. Caching is a bitch, and you're cached all over the place. Look, Ray, I understand why the 8th grade girl would be upset and write a poison pen letter to a boy who stood her up on the night of the dance. What I don't understand is why
you wrote such a letter, especially considering that you seemed so, well, reliable and trustworthy and rational. I guess I misjudged you, Ray.
Your rationality is in question, your judgment now seems clouded. The only logical reason I can imagine is that you've been bought off by the
Jim Dodge - Jack Roeser Axis of Evil. No, perhaps not, elsewise you wouldn't have deleted it. Unless, of course, you had a sudden crisis of conscience. If what you want is a fight, Ray, then bring it on. I personally don't want one, but you threw the first punch. We're now even, Ray, with the difference being that I won't delete
this post for at least a year. It's defense against your offense, Ray, but I'm hitting above the belt. You, on the other hand, aimed for my groin. You missed, in part because your punch was wild, in part because you pulled your punch. Go ahead and swing again, Ray. I dare you.
Ray, let's examine the crap that you wrote. Let's look at it again, starting with that baffling headline,
"Beware of Chicago News Bench" Blog ... tagged to with annoying ads and misleading claims."
I mean, WTF, Ray, what does that mean? You say that ads are annoying? YOU have ads on YOUR web sites, Ray, but unlike me,
you stick them between posts (see images here; click to enlarge).
You don't like a blog that is "tagged with annoying ads?" I challenge you, then, to remove
all of the advertising from all of your web sites. I wonder if your sponsors know that you consider ads to be "annoying."
By the way, what the heck does the phrase
"tagged to with ... ads" mean, anyway?
"Misleading claims," Ray? Name one. No, wait - let's get back to
your misleading claims.
You went on to write that "Anyone can be a blogger but not everyone can get their facts right." That's true, Ray, and you proved it nicely with your bogus headline.
You then wrote, "While I don't apologize for challenging the village of Orland Park's tax history over the years and my disappointment with some of the policies,..." Ahem, let's pause here. Nobody's asked you to apologize, Ray. As I noted above, I praised you at least once for your reporting of the mismanagement of Orland Park.
You continued:
"... for someone to take those remarks out of context and then use them to attack Jim Dodge, the first candidate to announce for Illinois Comptroller, is misleading and deceitful. But there…"
See, here's where you really hang yourself, Ray. First, you refer to your own reporting as "remarks," and I gotta tell ya Ray, you do yourself a disservice in that. That said, when I quoted you on November 19 in my post "
Jim Dodge's Political Donations Show He's a Fake Republican," I took a
full paragraph from you. That's hardly "out of context," Ray. That paragraph, which you wrote
in February, 2009, is reproduced here (emphasis added):
Orland Park has raised its property taxes and even gerrymandered the "fiscal year" from 12 to 15 months because they couldn't meet their expenses. They said they were changing the fiscal year in order to re-align it with the annual calendar. But many suspect the real reason is they just don't have the funds to pay all the bills in the 12 month budget and use a cute trick to turn the budget period to 15 months to cover 12 months of expenses. It's typical bad management to delay troubles until after the election April 7, 2009.
Please enlighten us, Ray: Which part of that paragraph is not self-representative or misleading? Which part of it is an out-of-context bit that was twisted? It's a straightforward quote of your own writing, Ray. Just because Jim Dodge has long been one of the incompetent tricksters on the Orland Park village board is something that I had no part in arranging. To chastise me for accurately quoting your accurate report is, for lack of a better term, bizarre. Ray, Ray, Ray.... were you drinking when you wrote that? Were you exhausted? Cranky? Distracted?
Did I use your report to "attack Jim Dodge?" Mea culpa, Ray. You should have been flattered that someone, even I, felt that your report was good enough to quote as supporting evidence. But, Ray, are you now willing to admit that you are in Dodge's camp, that you've thrown away all pretense of objectivity? You say you are objective, Ray? Then explain your gushing endorsement of Jim Dodge:
http://orlandparker.blogspot.com/2009/08/scoop-jim-dodge-will-announce-for.html from August 10, 2009.
As for me, Ray, I'm bulletproof. See, the big red banner at the top left of Chicago News Bench says, very plainly, that my blog is about
"Conservative Commentary." I am what I am, Ray, and I don't pretend to anything else. What's
your story, Ray? And why should your readers continue their mistaken belief that you're all about objective truth telling? You've shown yourself to be a spiteful, arrogant, biased and bitter little man who can't even write a bitter and unprovoked attack on another blogger with enough conviction to not delete it in a frightened haste.
Perhaps this is not so disappointing. Perhaps I should be happy that someone as sloppy as you is on RINO Jim Dodge's side. How glad I am that you exposed yourself, albeit for one cowardly moment. It was a moment to remember.
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