http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/10/08/national1456EDT0705.DTL Seems the FBI had an interest in what was going on inside the democratic mayors office. Inside the story there are allegations that this is anattempt by republicans and the DOJ to "win PA at any cost" Denied by said republicans. Sounds like good ole fashion local politics.
Nor does it have anything to do with his re-election campaign against Republican Sam Katz. Street's not evil. Frank Rizzo was evil.
Street's a corrupt hood. The bug device was placed there by the FBI for good reason. Two investigations of Street are underway. One of them is a no-bid, $1 million-a-year airport-services contract between the Street administration and a company owned by the mayor's brother, Milton Street. If that was Halliburton and Bush/Cheney, the liberals here would be having orgasms of delight. The other investigation is a parking-ticket fixing scandal involving more than 125,000 parking tickets between 1997 and March 2003. Street is no different than all the other liberal Democrats in power in big American cities. He's corrupt up to his teeth in kickbacks.
Wait a second, Ian. Are you suggesting a double standard on the part of liberals? They are ignoring shady deals on the part of the notoriious and hugely powerful Ed(?) Street, but overreacting to the same "types" of crimes (on admittedly exponentially larger levles) committed by Cheney/Bush? Phew...that would be really annoying of them. Maybe you could lead the way in your call for balanced criticism: please point to a post you've made calling Cheney a "crook" for his numerous dealings with Enron, Haliburton, and now the various war profiteers...dealings that make Street look like the older brother who skims a bit off the top of his little sister lemonade stand profits. We're talking fraud on the largest scale in Wall Street history, entire regions of India screwed out of affordable power, and California's energy crisis. Cheney was mixed up in that at every level. Remind me where you, in your unfailing sense of fairness, criticized him for it.
You mean the contract that never happened because John Street told the city's legal department to get out of it? If it were Halliburton, we wouldn't even be hearing about it because Cheney would sue to keep all papers associated with it classified. You mean that scandal that Street has nothing to do with? Does your mother know just how much you lie? Or is it kinda like your porn collection, a secret that just you and local law enforcement share?
Actually, Street's even worse than most of the others. He's been accused of intimidating Sam Katz campaign workers (including one report that a Street associate left death threats on a 71-year-old Katz volunteer's voice mail) and was probably behind an incident where a Molotov cocktail was thrown into a Katz campaign office hours after Sharif Street, John's son, and another Street worker threatened the man who rented the space to the Katz campaign.. I mean, it's not a partisan thing, I think Ed Rendell was a superb mayor. But Street is absolutely crooked as hell.
Ah, now there's some definitive evidence. Some campaign worker acts like an idiot, and Alex concludes that the mayor himself "was probably behind" it. Please, call the prosecutor's office and offer to testify. Rendell used to have Eagles season tickets in the 700 level, and during a game against Dallas when there was snow in the stands, he offered to pay any fan $20 that could hit the Dallas bench with a snowball. Jimmy Johnson (the 'Pokes coach, not the Eagles D coordinator) was hit in the head on his way to the tunnel. Not that that makes Ed a bad guy, but an interesting story nonetheless.
Obie, haven't you heard of when Street and his wife sat by and did nothing while his supporters roughed up protestors?
BTW - there's an effort underway to recall Newark mayor-for-life Sharpe "Sharpie" James. It doesn't stand a chance. Sharpe could blow a male prostitute in the middle of Broad St. during lunchtime and still get elected. http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1065621147154510.xml?starledger?nex
Not rock-solid evidence, I'll admit--but it wasn't just "some campaign worker", it was Street's son. A city managing director and a Rec Department employee were also involved. When I was little, one of my friends' parents used to throw a huge Christmas party every year, and my family would go. One of those deals where the adults would all be upstairs and their kids would be in the basement watchign TV or whatever. Anyway, my friend's mom was one of the top trial lawyers in Philly so there were all sorts of "big names" running around the place, and one year when I was about 9 or 10 I'm down in the basement with the rest of the kids when who should come down but then-Mayor Rendell. He spent about 10-15 minutes down there hanging out with us, playing some pool, talking about the Eagles, generally juts bullshitting. The Mayor of the 5th-biggest city in the country hanging out with a bunch of 10-year-olds, not because there were any TV cameras around and he was posing for a photo op, not even because it looked good in front of the other bigwigs at the party (my friend's parents had no idea he was down there until my friend told them 2 days later), just because he was a genuinely nice guy. (OK, maybe he was just looking for future gubernatorial votes--but if that's the case it worked, since I would've voted for him if the bastards at Delaware County had ever sent me my absentee ballot for last year's elections.) He's really a great guy--wouldn't have voted for him if he had ran for the Senate like there were rumors that he was going to do, since I'm simply too far apart from him ideologically to support him for a legislative position, but he did a great job in an executive position as mayor of Philly and from everything I've heard he's doing a good job as governor of PA as well (of course, Schweitzer was a joke).
That's funny, Alex, the article you posted didn't mention anything about Sharif Street threatening anybody. Instead it says Later in the article it says It doesn't mention anything about Street's son being involved in anything illegal, unless it's illegal to look for office space to rent. Were you just hoping we wouldn't read your link? Or are you just a lying liar?
OK, it doesn't mention Sharif Street threatening anybody, it mentions Sharif Street driving two of his goons over to threaten somebody and standing there while they did that, if it makes you feel any better.
I don't post much on the politics board because of people spewing outright lies like this. I don't know where you learned to read, but it says nothing of the sort which you just posted. This is what it says in relation to Street's son: Earlier the same day, Harris also had a run-in with Alexander. Alexander was in the neighborhood with the mayor's son, Sharif Street, who was looking for office space to rent for his father's re-election campaign. So of the two goons you speak of, only one was even with Street's son and nowhere does it say he drove either of the goons there and stood watching while they threatened the guy.
Everything I know about Philly comes from watching "Trading Places" and eating cheesesteaks at D'Agostino's, so I won't comment on the mayor. However, is the FBI normally the one to do these investigations? Why isn't the city or state doing it? Are there mob connections, or did he take cigarettes across a state line?
It says he "was in the neighborhood with the mayor's son, Sharif Street". I suppose it's possible that Sharif dropped Alexander off and circled around the block while he threatened Harris, but he clearly knew what was going on. And yes, I misread about the two goons, Street only accompanied one goon. The second goon came back later without Street, from what I can tell. Another account is here (use e-mail bigsoccer@bigsoccer.com and password bigsoccer): http://www.kansascity.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/6742887.htm (not sure why the server is www.kansascity.com, since it takes you to a Philly Daily News web site)