George you're right! These drivers are very stupid and they don't even know how to read. I don't even know how they've passed a written exam for a chauffeurs license. Ptropbably the staff at consumer services haven't yet got caught taking bribes under the table. I would like to see consumer services get caught, just so I could see Norma Reyes sit in jail with former Secretary of State and Former Illinois Governor George Ryan.
ut should camera in this guy
01/17/2000
Chicago Sun-Times
Murder spurs march
Cabdrivers are planning a march today in the wake of the murder of driver Hisham Siam, who was found stabbed to death in his cab in the 1800 block of West Nelson on the North Side. Police said Sunday they had no new leads in the slaying. Steve Wiedersberg of the Chicago Professional Taxi Drivers Association said the cabbies are protesting what he says is a lack of support from the Teamsters union to help cabbies unionize for better protection and benefits. The drivers plan to march from the Harold Washington Library to the Pacific Gardens Mission homeless shelter, 646 S. State.
Perhaps Lutfallah is not aware of the facts or he is deliberately re-posting incorrect information for reasons only he can explain.
Lutfallah's FICTION: "... the CPTDA has been around for years."
TRUE FACT: The CPTDA or Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association was incorporated in November 2006 by two former members of the of Weidersberg's CPTCDA or Chicago Professional TAXI CAB DRIVERS Association and several independent activists in the taxi industry, Weiss, Qureshi and Budsynski.
The CPTCDA corporate status went "DISSOLVED in February of 2005 after several years of inactivity and failure to re-register the corporation by it's inactive members' apparent lack of interest and irreconcilable differences beytween Weidersberg and his Board Members.
Lutfallah FICTION: "Steve did more working independently than he ever did as "The President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association."
TRUE FACT: Steve may have done more work, but he was never - repeat never - the President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association. He may have been the President of the Chicago Professional TAXI CAB DRIVERS Association, but he was never the President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association. The President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association is Wolfgang J. Weiss,one of the independent activists who came on board during the organization of the CPTDA as a consultant along with George Kasp and several others.
Lutfallah's FICTION: "The CPTDA ... to this day their leadership does practically nothing more than talk about organizing."
TRUE FACT: TO this day the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association is not and has not been in the organizing business since its incorporation in 2006. Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association Board Members are free to work with and support organizing efforts of legitimate groups and credible individuals, which they do to fulfill one of their stated purposes in the CPTDA Articles of Incorporation.
Is Lutfallah intentionally misleading the public about the CPTDA or is he misleading the public out of ignorance of the facts?
T. Rashman
A suggestion for Wolf Weiss to make things understandable for all:
Wolf, you should change the name of CP-whatever to "WOLF WEISS' WONDERGROUP".
That way, everyone will know exactly who and WHAT??? we are referring to.
After you get some recognition, maybe Raja and Diane can start a "different" group called, "WISE WOLVES' WUNDERGROUP".
In any case, we all wonder what it is you all exactly do and who is doing WHAT???
Exactly, that is.
-Mike Foulks
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Replying to:
Perhaps Lutfallah is not aware of the facts or he is deliberately re-posting incorrect information for reasons only he can explain.
Lutfallah's FICTION: "... the CPTDA has been around for years."
TRUE FACT: The CPTDA or Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association was incorporated in November 2006 by two former members of the of Weidersberg's CPTCDA or Chicago Professional TAXI CAB DRIVERS Association and several independent activists in the taxi industry, Weiss, Qureshi and Budsynski.
The CPTCDA corporate status went "DISSOLVED in February of 2005 after several years of inactivity and failure to re-register the corporation by it's inactive members' apparent lack of interest and irreconcilable differences beytween Weidersberg and his Board Members.
Lutfallah FICTION: "Steve did more working independently than he ever did as "The President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association."
TRUE FACT: Steve may have done more work, but he was never - repeat never - the President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association. He may have been the President of the Chicago Professional TAXI CAB DRIVERS Association, but he was never the President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association. The President of the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association is Wolfgang J. Weiss,one of the independent activists who came on board during the organization of the CPTDA as a consultant along with George Kasp and several others.
Lutfallah's FICTION: "The CPTDA ... to this day their leadership does practically nothing more than talk about organizing."
TRUE FACT: TO this day the Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association is not and has not been in the organizing business since its incorporation in 2006. Chicago Professional TAXICAB DRIVERS' Association Board Members are free to work with and support organizing efforts of legitimate groups and credible individuals, which they do to fulfill one of their stated purposes in the CPTDA Articles of Incorporation.
Is Lutfallah intentionally misleading the public about the CPTDA or is he misleading the public out of ignorance of the facts?
T. Rashman
Perhaps it is best to let Lutfallah speak for himself. Stick to wondering what others are doing.
Lutfallah is quite capable of doing so without help of his pet howler monkey.
The subject of this thread is about Lutfallah's repeated posting of incorrect and misleading information regarding the CPTDA.
The misunderstanding, if any, was created by Lutfallah's repeated post of the same wrong information, not by anyone else.
The serious issue of whether Lutfallah is deliberately misleading the public about the CPTDA or if he lacks the facts is a valid question.
Either way due to his insistence on posting false information, Lutfallah can no longer claim the status of journalist. Nor can he claim he did not know the facts.
He has proven himself to be just another propagandist, a word slinger, perhaps in the hopes to further his own commercial purposes.
Doing so at the expense of others is beneath contempt.
How Peter Enger and Steve Kim are smarter than Wolf Weiss:
When they abandoned Melissa Callahan and the AUPD, they didn't name their new organization the "AUTD".
Somebody explain this to Wolf or find him a helper monkey which can.
Whatever you say, Wolf. The confusion doesn't stem from the fact that both names couldn't be more nearly identical?
I met frauds in jail, Wolf. You behave just like them.
-Mike Foulks
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Replying to:
Perhaps it is best to let Lutfallah speak for himself. Stick to wondering what others are doing.
Lutfallah is quite capable of doing so without help of his pet howler monkey.
The subject of this thread is about Lutfallah's repeated posting of incorrect and misleading information regarding the CPTDA.
The misunderstanding, if any, was created by Lutfallah's repeated post of the same wrong information, not by anyone else.
The serious issue of whether Lutfallah is deliberately misleading the public about the CPTDA or if he lacks the facts is a valid question.
Either way due to his insistence on posting false information, Lutfallah can no longer claim the status of journalist. Nor can he claim he did not know the facts.
He has proven himself to be just another propagandist, a word slinger, perhaps in the hopes to further his own commercial purposes.
Doing so at the expense of others is beneath contempt.
Subject: Fool me once Shame on you, Fool me twice Shame on me, Follow the Teamsters, Shame On All
Name: S. Watts
Date Posted: Dec 15, 07 - 9:08 AM
stringme1@comcast.net
Message:
Introduction:
The following editorial letter first appeared on the Taxi-L website and appeared in Toronto’s Taxi News, [June 2007, Vol. 22, No. 06] with the permission of the author.
Original Editorial Title:
----------------------------------------------------
Chicago cabbies suspicious of City's eagerness to 'help'
The Chicago City Council's offer to help taxicab drivers -- per Alderman Pat O'Conner's resolution calling for fare hike hearings without the usual drivers' petition -- is a milestone and historic first!
Wow, the cabbies are finally getting a break from City Hall. Sun Times reporter Fran Spielman reports that "cabbies were surprised and delighted to learn that aldermen were responding ....”
She didn't report that those of us cabbies who know and remember are and rightfully should be suspicious.
We're surprised and delighted and- suspicious. Better take a good, long, hard and cold second look. Be suspicious. Be very suspicious.
It is highly likely that this seemingly kind offer from City Hall is no more than an attempt to preempt a possible industry-wide outcry and concerted action -- petitions, demonstrations, marches, maybe even targeted strike actions in critical transportation points like O'Hare, Midway, museums, tourist hot spots, hotel cab stands and dispatch service.
It may be no more than a ploy by City Hall to buy time so that the recent changes to rules and regulations that DCS has been working on in secret can be rammed into place. Hmmmm!
City Hall's offer to review a fare increase without the taxicab drivers' petition is a first, but it is not the first time anyone offered help to ease the plight of taxicab drivers -- not just about fare rates, but also the seemingly predatory, deliberate mismanagement and misdirection of the taxicab industry by the City -- for the simple purpose of increasing the flow of taxicab drivers' and owners' cash into the city coffers.
Some of you may recall in the mid-nineties when things got really hot, the Teamsters Union -- the truckers -- showed up and offered to help. We felt the love, we felt the power.
We had rallies, demonstrations, speeches, organizing drives, the whole works. We were going to be saved from the mob-like clutches and iron-fisted control of the City.
We were finally gonna be a union! Fair fares, fair rules, fair regulations, and a level playing field in matters of City law, a kinder and gentler administration of the taxicab industry. A new age was about to dawn. The Teamsters offered to represent us and actually held a few “negation sessions” with the City via Caroline Schoenberger, Commissioner Reyes’ predecessor.
Then they went back to Teamster Hall and the Taxicab/Teamster marriage disolkved just as quickly as it seemed to have materialized. Poof, gone!
All the promises turned to dust. The taxicab organizing intitiative was 100% pre-empted – dead on arrival.
What really happened? Someone (from within City Hall itself, it is said) explained to the seemingly all-powerful Teamsters that if they continued to support the taxicab movement, not a single teamster-driven truck would be allowed to load or unload at McCormick Place or possibly anywhere else in Chicago.
And at that time, truck and container traffic at almost all Chicago entry points was growing in leaps and bounds. Business was booming fro the Teamsters.
The Teamsters, tough and powerful as they may be, ran off like screaming little school girls. I mean no disrespect to school girls! The Teamsters sold us out, thanks to the not-so-kind-and-gentle extortion by City Hall.
And oh yes, at that time the Teamsters were the undisputed number one contributors to the Illinois Democratic Party’s election coffers. Something smells here. Can you guess what it is? Be suspicious. Be very suspicious.
Taxicab drivers were left alone again, left to their own devices. The old rule continued, “Shut up, pay your lease, you have no rights.”
We ended up getting a fare increase, but we paid dearly for that increase – some of the toughest and most stringent rules came with the higher meter rates –to fulfill the City’s Prime Directive – get the money, get the money by hook or get the money by crook.
The notion that the taxicab industry could be organized to determine its own fate – to t ake up responsibility for our own profit or loss; to makesound business decisions based on real-world economic and business conditions, to improve service to our riders, to raise the standards of our work environment by our own effort, to gain that long sought-after “equality” and “equity” that workers in many other industries strive for – was not even given a decent burial.
Hopefully, the taxicab industry in not going into summer reruns this time around.
Respectfully submitted by
Wolfgang J. Weiss
Member, Board of Directors
Chicago Professional Taxicab Drivers Association
----------------------------------------------------
Post Script: How quickly we forget. How quickly those who are willing to pull the same wool over our eyes over and over again take advantage to mislead us down another dead end.
It does not matter if it is out of naivety, stupidity or malevolent design, the result is the same -- another dead end.
Are we going into winter re-runs now?
Bravenet has not banned me. Nor has Lutfallah. This posting may be deleted by him because he pays so dearly for the right to be able to decide who posts on his website.
Lutfallah has deleted many of my postings in the past. But he won't delete any more. It's time to stop with the postings that take time away from activism.
Lutfallah's felon ally has suggested that details of the civil litigation against the City need to be disclosed on the "Dispatcher Forum" and that I have some sort of duty to lay out both progress and our strategy for the City attorneys to read along with the taxi industy. I think not. The reason foulks can to to the public record to satisfy his curiousity is that it is not in the interest of my clients OR the cabdrivers in Chicago to educate the enemy.
ONLY A DUMMY WOULD JUMP INTO THAT TRAP. But foulks is an agent of Richie Rich, and we all know it. He's on the short list to be the next DCS Commissioner even though he's a convicted felon. Da Mare doesn't mind his felony background. Why should he? It wasn't a violent felony. It was only a death threat.
So I'm planning on ignoring foulks' further provocations and his rantings. Let the junkyard dog howl at the moon. Unless there's something really useful to comment on - and it's certainly not going to come from ANYTHING foulks has to say - I think it best to take a pass on saying it.
No doubt most will find this a welcome choice anyway.
Donald Nathan
Wake up, Mr. Nathan. You are subconsciously responding to me with your self-delusions.
I'm glad to hear that neither Bravenet nor Mr. Lutfallah has banned you. Who is this "Jack Spear" who claimed to get an e-mail saying that both you and Mr. Weiss were banned?
Who but an enemy of George Lutfallah would distribute such a lie in an e-mail, or obviously lie here about such an e-mail?
There are many reasons why Mr. Lutfallah has deleted many of your previous postings. All of the ones I know about were with good reason.
I agree with you, Mr. Nathan, that it is indeed time to stop with the non-productive lies, half-truths, insults, and irrelevancies.
You go first.
You already blew it when you refer to me as "Lutfallah's felon ally". I am not an "ally" of Mr. Lutfallah's.
This is a powerful self-delusion which serves no good purpose to those suffering from it. If I can't convince you how untruthful this notion is, perhaps I can suggest that it is a great exagerration to call me, "Lutfallah' felon ally".
It is as disrespectful to Mr. Lutfallah as it is to me.
I simply asked for a more detailed update on the lawsuit you filed against the City of Chicago in Mr. Weiss' interest. I don't see how discussing the public record so far could have any detrimental effect upon the case, but I tend, reluctantly, to defer to your "expertise" at the moment.
However, your credibility about your "reasoning" takes a nose-dive when you proceed to refer to me as an "agent of Richie Rich". If you really believe that the City pays such close attention to this website, I don't see how deriding our Mayor in such a juvenile manner benefits anyone.
You go on to claim that I am a possible candidate to be DCS Comissioner. I am not qualified to be the DCS Commissioner nor would I accept any employment with the City of Chicago. I am a full-time cabdriver and I plan to be so for many years, perhaps until I retire.
I never admitted to making a "death threat" against anyone at anytime. This is part of the public record. I pled guilty only to telephone harassment, and I have made a timely claim regarding this unlawful conviction. The complete adjudication of this case will likely remain out of the public record once a final disposition is reached.
I anticipate being vindicated. It is a continuing criminal investigation involving several members of my extended family and officers of the court. Quite frankly, it is simply none of your business, at least, not at this time.
This is why much of the information about this unfortunate legal situation of mine isn't accessible to you and most other people. None of this affects my chauffeur's license or my political activities.
I think you have been a failure at many things, Mr. Nathan. I think you will fail to "ignore (my) provocations".
Especially because I have had many useful things to say. I will continue to have many useful things to say. I will continue to do many things worth commenting on, whether you are agreeable or not.
None of this is meant to "provoke" you, Mr. Nathan. You think you are far more important to me than the reality: I don't care about what you say or do much at all.
However, I agree again, most of us would prefer that you stick to the issues and stay out of our personal conflicts.
Here's an underhanded softball pitch for you, Mr. Nathan:
What are your legal thoughts about the credit card requirements?
-Mike Foulks
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Replying to:
Bravenet has not banned me. Nor has Lutfallah. This posting may be deleted by him because he pays so dearly for the right to be able to decide who posts on his website.
Lutfallah has deleted many of my postings in the past. But he won't delete any more. It's time to stop with the postings that take time away from activism.
Lutfallah's felon ally has suggested that details of the civil litigation against the City need to be disclosed on the "Dispatcher Forum" and that I have some sort of duty to lay out both progress and our strategy for the City attorneys to read along with the taxi industy. I think not. The reason foulks can to to the public record to satisfy his curiousity is that it is not in the interest of my clients OR the cabdrivers in Chicago to educate the enemy.
ONLY A DUMMY WOULD JUMP INTO THAT TRAP. But foulks is an agent of Richie Rich, and we all know it. He's on the short list to be the next DCS Commissioner even though he's a convicted felon. Da Mare doesn't mind his felony background. Why should he? It wasn't a violent felony. It was only a death threat.
So I'm planning on ignoring foulks' further provocations and his rantings. Let the junkyard dog howl at the moon. Unless there's something really useful to comment on - and it's certainly not going to come from ANYTHING foulks has to say - I think it best to take a pass on saying it.
No doubt most will find this a welcome choice anyway.
Donald Nathan
