Cult of Puri cries foul

Behind a "gutless cloak of anonimity" [that's how they spell anonymity], the Cult of Puri has notified me of an alleged error in my speculation about Sunil Puri's involvement in an apparent feud between John Taphorn and Larry Morrissey.

According to online tax records, there is only one record for a 120 W. State St. (the address of Taphorn's downtown building) in Winnebago County, but the Cult of Puri begs to differ.

Because I noted the parcel is owned by "Winnebago Corners, LLC," Puri-ists are apparently assuming it literally refers to the "Winnebago Corners" at U.S. 20 [State Road, not State Street] and Winnebago Road west of town.

But according to county records, Winnebago Corners, LLC also owns 5 other properties.

Regardless, in fairness, I've passed along their claim to consider for yourselves.

By the way, if rumors of a Puri divorce are true, Sunil will be shopping the market for a new young trophy wife. Good luck, ladies!

UPDATE:
Through a hail of insults, the Cult did manage to make a valid point of clarification. As it turns out, the building is listed as 124 S. Wyman instead of its actual address of 120 W. State, in the name of Amcore, not Puri.

Puri a player in riverwalk grudge match?

Uppance has come for John Taphorn, who backed out of a deal last summer to lease the city 265 feet of riverfront sidewalk at 120 W. State St. for Mayor Morrissey's riverwalk. The city would have paid $10 a year for the 20-year lease.

For 10 bucks a year, it's no wonder Taphorn wanted to graze in greener pastures.

A 2003 brief on Statelinebusiness.com identified Taphorn as president of Rock Valley Brick and Supply Co. I don't know if that info is still accurate, but my imagination suggests that maybe John was hoping for assurance of a contract for the riverwalk project. This, of course, is only speculation, but my gut is usually pretty close to the mark.

The $950,000 originally planned to develop that portion of the riverwalk went to other city projects, like elimination of the Main Street mall.

Larry hasn't forgotten and Taphorn was recently cited for not having permits for a significant "landscaping" project on the riverfront strip Morrissey hoped to lease. Work was brought to a halt until Taphorn plays by the rules.

I guess Larry only wants the area improved on his own terms. With Taphorn, not the city, taking on the beautification project, the area will remain private property.

Interestingly, Taphorn contributed $1,000 to Morrissey in 2004. Larry must be wondering what John's done for him lately.

By the way, Taphorn apparently only owns the building, not the land. According to county property records, a parcel at 120 W. State is owned by Winnebago Corners, LLC - You guessed it: Sunil Puri.

The big orange problem child

Met-ro-cen-tre
n.
1. A hole in downtown Rockford into which money is poured

What's another $600,000 we'll never see again? That's how it's gonna go down and there's nothing you can do about it.

I returned home to Rockford this weekend from my jaunt in Puerto Rico and returned to work today, recharged and more Patriotic than ever.

Spade, I did get some longboarding (and plenty of sun) in by day. By night, well, that was time for serious debauchery with old friends aboard a yacht called Vajoliroja, which is bigger than my house.

It was hard to leave, especially since I hadn't even pissed off the San Juan authorities yet. But here I am, giving serious consideration to negotiating an early retirement package with my financially strapped public employer. I would think they'd be happy to get rid of me at nearly any cost, but we'll see how far I can push it.

In games of chance, either I'm lucky or my systems simply work. In any case, I think I could easily replace my income by instead spending 40 hours a week at the tracks and at card games.

Going back to work today was nearly enough to make me forget my toes had been wrestling with sand in a carefree paradise for the past week, which can sure make a guy resent working for a living.

The regular crowd was absent from the compound's usual city council drinking event. I suspect they haven't realized I've returned, and that's just as well. I could use the quiet.

Oh, I still drank as I watched the meeting, but at least I was able to do it in peace.

Okay, the Metrocentre wants a $600,000 loan so its employees and other obligations can get paid a little while longer.

They say one of the main disappointments is that naming rights haven't been sold yet. Don't worry, lads and lasses, I fully expect to visit the Puri Center in the near future

The council keeps on getting put in the position of injecting more tax dollars into a Titanic disaster, because the Authority Board knows the city has too much invested to cut them off now. Truly, think of it as using a bucket to rid water from the hull of the doomed luxury liner.

You know, Doug Block mumbled about this issue during the mayoral campaign, but he should have spoken louder, as it was obviously put off by Morrissey until after the election. Alas, hindsight is always 20/20, they say.

What I don't understand is why the city keeps bailing the Metrocentre out, but that the leadership there is never questioned. These people promised us grand results for the $20,000,000+ they talked us into not very long ago and it's time to pull rank and appoint some competence.

-"You think I'm skimming off the top, Mike?"
-"No, I think you're unlucky. Maybe we can do better."

19 county board members shit on District 2 in Puri County

Before I headed out the door for a night of hedonism at the OTB, I just had to watch last night's county board meeting on cable to see exactly how the Cult of Puri goose-stepped all over the will of the people.
Children of Winnebago County, you've got a bunch of pushovers on the county board. The biggest ones are Bob Kinnison and Randy Olson, who didn't even bother to show up for the vote. (We'll count them as yes votes). At least everyone else had the balls to take a position.

Well, almost everyone else. Chairman Christiansen let developer Frank Gambino and banker Kyle Logan off the hook. Gambino said he has no financial interests in the project, but abstained anyway. Logan works for Amcore, which apparently asked him not to vote on the controversial subdivision. (Both would likely have voted yes, by the way). What in Winnebago County isn't somehow connected to Amcore Bank? Mr. Logan, you're the Wuss of the Week. Normally, I like what you have to say, but you still need to grow some balls, young one.

Steve Schultz, former president of the group that sued the county for granting the first permit in 2006, obviously had to abstain. That's unfortunate, because he's a good man and a good rep. I would have liked to hear what he had to say on behalf of constituents.

Schultz's Second District counterpart, Dave Yeske, waged a filibuster of sorts as the sole voice of reason, but it was futile in a room filled with the Cult of Puri.

Whether it's the city council or the county board, the rest of the body usually goes along with the wishes of those representing the ward or district that is affected by a vote. When the roll call goes another way, I usually smell bullshit, but I think Yeske was sincere, so he's my Patriot of the Week for trying like hell to convince his questionable colleagues to say no.

Paul Gorski was the only Democrat with the cajones to speak against the egomaniacal development, so I'll let him share Patriot of the Week with Yeske.

Shame on loudmouth, "double-dipping" Doug Aurand, tin-eared Ted Biondo, pushover George Anne Duckett, short-timer Karen Elyea, realtor Angie Goral, pro-labor Bob Hastings, Mother-of-Pearl Hawks, "property rights" Pete MacKay, puppet Tom Owens, big Mel Paris, glossy-eyed realtor Diane Parvin, Dorothy Redd, who said "pass" until she saw how others voted first, "manscaper" Dave Tassoni, tax-dollar-partier Fred Wescott and Uncle Tom LC Wilson.

As predicted only here before the vote, it was mostly Democrats who sided with the Puri/Cannell development. Big fucking surprise considering that Blago-pal Puri is a huge Dem-contributor lately. Republicans had the numbers to metaphorically sodomize him without the courtesy of a reacharound, but they didn't, which doesn't speak highly of their intellect or party loyalty. Way to go, guys and gals.

My suspicion is that this is the way Christiansen wanted it. His campaign has also accepted thousands from Puri. Nevermind the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars invested in professional opinions on land use policies. Apparently, he was just throwing a bone to contributor Nicolosi & Associates for busy-work. It's clear the county has no will to follow the advice it's paid handsomely for. EVERY indication is that this subdivision is a bad idea. More importantly, people just don't want it. Last I checked, new housing like this was not in demand. I guess Sunil and that smug Chris Cannell didn't get the memo.

Potential challengers, I wait for your mission statements. I fully intend to start a PAC to support righteous candidates to replace these career deadbeats at the city and county levels.

"Death to the screwheads."

Patriot's note:
I guess the Cult of Puri didn't like what I had to say.

My Puerto Rican vacation skidded briefly to a halt today after I received a comment from an employee at a Rockford news outlet. He indicated his employer received an email from a county representative who alleged someone at the news outlet is behind this blog.

-Not true. As I've mentioned previously, I am a public employee. But for the sake of my own job, I'd prefer not to say which entity I work for.

This blog is not about me; it's about the incompetence that politics in Winnebago County is rife with, and this is a classic example.

Point 2: The media employee asked me to clarify my "death to screwheads" comment. As it turns out, the county official suggested this to be some sort of threat, so I would like to dispel that right now, and then get back to my rum-soaked spot on the beach.

Jesus, I'd better not wear my "Eat the Rich" t-shirt for fear wealthy folks will feel threatened.

If one were to peruse other posts here, you'll find I've used the phrase at other times as a motto or mantra, of sorts - never as a threat.

For instance, I closed another post with something like, "Stay tuned, stay off your knees and death to the screwheads."

As you can see, it's really a stylistic device, but I'm glad to know county officials are reading! Data from my site meter and the comment from the media employee only confirm this.

Alas, the employee didn't want to give me any names yet, but I suspect I can trace IP addresses easily enough to find out which county folks are reading blogs on the taxpayers' dime. Stay tuned for that.

Now, if it were meant to be a threat, I would have implored, "Death to [insert specific name here]," and even then it would be difficult to construe it as a threat, considering my admittedly ridiculous writing style.

Stand down, Winnebago County government - you're not reading a terrorist manifesto here. I'm just some asshole with a blog. You can take us back to DefCon 5. All is well.

The only action I call upon readers for is through the democratic process to clean up local government.

I also gave the gentleman the number for a great little lawyer with a big hardon for government bullies, should the county official cause further problems.

By the way, look who I ran into today:

First Rockford not just first in Rockford anymore

I was finally able to sedate myself for a few days of respite and decompression. Quite literally, I came up too fast and got a case of the political bends. Feeling better now after much self-prescribed medication. Thanks for your cards and flowers.

Mr. Correa, I'm sorry if I pissed off your friend, but someone had to pay for the day I had. Luck of the draw. I'll talk more about Jesus in my next post.

You might say I awoke from the American Dream. While glad to be back at it after my coma, the problem is that I awoke to an uglier place than I'd fallen unconscious in, atop piles of uncashed checks no bank would honor. I've been meaning to assure my bank I'm good for every penny I write checks to myself for, some day. I'm sure they'll see things my way.

The daily and weekly both rang the bell on Sunil Puri's plan to get his special use permit pushed through again before anyone realized the court threw out the first one. But it seems no one is listening. RRStar later reported the zoning committee voted in favor of it again. Now I see the board is set to vote on it April 9, and Steve Schultz is learning he had more power as a civilian than on the board, where he can't say a thing about it.

And the makeup of the zoning committee is a joke, but nobody is laughing except for realtors, developers and other land-raping, sprawl-mongering, greed-heads, which arguably account for a majority of the committee's members. Oh yeah, they're also the ones tweaking the land use plan as we speak, and it appears that's the way Scott Christiansen likes it.

Keep in mind this is exactly the type of sprawl, a "leapfrog" subdivision on septic no less, that the county's new land use plan is supposed to prevent. That means Sunil's gotta get his permit passed again before the 2030 plan is adopted this spring, and he's not getting much resistance from board members. Absolutely fucking disgusting. Somebody oughta have the balls to say no to that donkey-humping (as in Democrats) apparent egomaniac who wants his name on everything.

Paul Nicolosi should be crying foul and directing attention to this, because he's gotten a lot of bad press from RRT for the same type of contributions-for-influence stuff. He can't fart without them writing about it, and Sunil deserves at least as much scrutiny. But I suppose Puri's lineage doesn't jibe with RRT's evident fixation with the Italian mafia.

Anyway, the last time the board voted on this, it was approved 19-4. Unfortunately, I doubt it'll be close this time, either, and it will speak volumes about the power of money over the wills of good Patriots like you and me.

I wish I didn't have so much corruption and utter incompetence to write about. You think there aren't other activities I'd rather be doing? Fuck-n-A.