Some people have complained in the comments on my previous post that I was being too kind to Joakim in my assessment of the "check-writing fiasco". On the contrary, my post was designed for a specific purpose - to point out the criminality of the COGers irresponsible actions.
Anyone could write a post simply piling on Joakim or supporting her. That was not my intention. Sometimes, the most interesting and important parts of arguments are not the main issue, but the OTHER things we learn during the discussion.
Am I disturbed by the "check-writing fiasco"? A little. Does it call into question the financial responsibility of a Town Councilor responsible for the large financial burden of our over $100 million budget? Yes.
On the other hand, one has to wonder if the problem was not the $45 bounced check in question, but a $400 unpaid bill, why didn't the store owner do anything about this in the last 3 years??? Couldn't he have gone to a number of places - Cape Cod Times, Barnstable Patriot, the league the purchase was made for, local Democratic leadership, a collection agency, small claims court - at ANY point before now???
Sounds to me that both sides have issues here, and that blame cannot fall on either party fully. I don't like sticking my nose into these "he said-she said" arguments. There is never anything of substance that any outsider, other than a real judge and/or jury after a trial, can add to the discussion.
As I said before, the MUCH larger issue here is the apparent criminality of the MULTIPLE COGers' actions. Posting someone's PERSONAL check online is not only irresponsible, but a criminal action. Posting the personal check with the sensitive personal info (routing number, account number, etc) blacked out would have been fine. Posting a TOWN check acquired via a Freedom of Information request would be fine. However, leaving someone entirely vulnerable to identity theft is inexcusable and warrants the attention of law enforcement officials.
This posting of personal info online was only the next logical step in the COGers' invasion of public officials' privacy. Whether it was John Klimm's cell phone number, or any of the other personal information not intended for public distribution provided by COGers in their online forum, they HAVE done similar acts in the past, and NO ONE should be surprised.
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10 comments:
You are blaming the store owner for not wasting his valuable time with courts or other remedies? The guy is trying to make a LIVING. Who do you work for - bet you do not work for yourself, or you would never make such a foolish argument. Bookkeepers cost 25 bucks an hour. The owner called and e-mailed Joakim a bunch of times about the check. She even acknowledged in an e-mail that she did it, and promised to pay. Larceny by check is a crime. Hope that kid enjoyed receiving stolen goods from her mom. The only satisfaction the VICTIM - the store owner would ever get was public humiliation of the deadbeat who bounced the check TWICE. Joakim should understand that tactic, since she regularly uses it on her website. Her tactics are akin to Sadaam Hussein gassing his own people. Most politicians want to be liked, and will do whatever they can to keep communication open and relationships reasonable, but not Janet Joakim. She thinks that posting nonsense and creating little wars on her blog makes her look powerful. The bad check was one thing, but her response to it really hurt her politically. She will never survive another election - that is if she even makes it that far!
NO attempting to figure out who people are.
* NO name calling.
* NO cheap shots.
YOU ARE FULL OF SHIT! THIS IS JUST ANOTHER JOAKIM SUCKING HATE BLOG!
I am very disappointed that I have had to spend time deleting VERY inappropriate comments from the last two posts. Even some of the ones I have kept have been stretching the rules. Keep your comments constrained to the issue at hand without insane & vulgar commentary.
To address the issue AGAIN - Let me make this CRYSTAL clear - I blame neither party at this time. Both sides have some measure of blame and could have resolved this LONG ago without making this the blog-hot-topic that it is now.
My issue - the ONLY one that I am discussing at ANY length - is that the COGers illegally posted personal financial info on the internet. They are the ONLY people to have EVER done this in the Barnstable blogosphere, and their HIGHLY illegal actions need to be investigated.
TJ from Barnstable Beat, your right about the actions of the coggers. The check has now been posted on a total of six seperate bogs. The postings included twice and the Lopez blog and three times on another
Let's put this in perspective...passing a bad check is wrong, and failing to take care of it is wrong.
However, those facts to not make it right to place someone's private information on the internet for everyone to read. The Wizard of COG and the Techno Terrorist have only one goal...to embarass and punish someone who wanted do what they want. This is a consistant pattern, going back to attacks on previous Council Presidents Farnham and Brown, and even before.
I'm sure if someone wanted to expose the Wizard or the Terrorist, they could do some snooping and dig up some dirt, as there have been enough rumors around, but that would also be wrong.
Fight for what you believe right, but base the fight on the facts, not on personal attacks.
I agree that there has to be more to the story here, and read something on joakims blog saying there was more but she didn't want to get into it or something. That is the way to handle it. I would bet there are TWO sides.
Does anyone think joakim would have just not paid a guy $45 if she knew? There are holes all over the place.
These two people have made their intentions clear, there are lies upon lies and the is intention to drive joakim out of office. They are going after her family, her kids and digging to find something, ANYTHING to question her integrity.
They found a $45 check.
They want her to quit.
Just read the last line of lopez's post from sunday - " 'if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen' get the hint janet?"
Lets face it, they are digging and digging and can't find a criminal record, can't finded a jilted ex-lover or something scandalous and were as thrilled as children at the circus to find a $45 check.
I would really question anything else from that story unless it came from the people at that business.
They twist the numbers and twist the facts so we can be sure they are twisting this story too.
Joakim was asked by countless people to stay out of the neighborhood mess, which was PEACEFUL for three months, but she spalshed a bunch of libelous accounts of what happened just to kick up the heat in the neighborhood full of kids. You really have to examine WHY she did this. Your excuse does not wash.
The neighborhhod dispute as you have mentioned was NEVER PEACEFUL for more than 3 days. The only time it was quiet was when one neighbors was running for a seat on the charter. When that failed, she started up again. If anything, she took some time off.
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