11 Comments

1. Terry says:

   May 21, 2009 at 5:08 am

   I see nothing wrong with the response at all…Americans of late believe that they deserve an answer to every unsolicited question asked…I myself would have responded less politely with a direct “F.U”……..Who is Kern that he should make such an inquiry and receive a “proportionate” response?
2. Buffalopundit says:

   May 21, 2009 at 5:29 am

   Because Ali has thrust himself into the public spotlight and has retained the services of a local pay-for-play website in order to promote his point of view viz. City government, and his business. The problem is that the claims about his business all seem to be dubious at best, which raises questions about his credibility on other issues.

   A few months back he was all over the pay-for-play site, and couldn’t get enough attention from Artvoice. His reaction to Kern’s question is, therefore, somewhat disproportionate. It’s not like he’s just some private person who’s busy minding his own business.
3. Terry says:

   May 21, 2009 at 5:44 am

   I disagree….respectfully. No one is under any obligation to answer or respond to anything (subpoenas aside) and this prevailing mentality that “Joe Blow” has a right to know is absurd. On the other hand, maybe I am just an elitist snob (or worse).
4. Buffalopundit says:

   May 21, 2009 at 5:46 am

   I didn’t say Ali was under any obligation to respond. But here he did respond – with legal threats. All because Kern asked him a question. What happened to:

   1. Ignoring Kern; or
   2. Politely saying that he wasn’t going to comment.
5. Terry says:

   May 21, 2009 at 6:35 am

   I agree with you Alan in that regard…however, perhaps he had a previous experience with kern which caused him to act thusly….after all, by your own terminolgy, Kern is a gadfly (i.e. one who annoys others)…perhaps this was an effort to avoid further annoyance.
6. Derek J. Punaro says:

   May 21, 2009 at 8:43 am

   From the perspective of customer service, that’s a ridiculous response. Even if the guy is sending emails every day baiting you to respond with something like he did, email filters are insanely easy to set up. Who’s going to want to do business with a company that threatens legal action in response to an email?
7. Dick Kern says:

   May 21, 2009 at 9:52 am

   After Geoff Kelly broke the incredible Syaed Ali story, I reached out to Ali concerned that he was being illegally punished for criticizing the Mayor.

   As a result, Syaed repeatedly telephoned me seeking advice. But I became more leery & withdrew support after the incredible barrage of anonymous emails to blogs critical of him, giving the powerful appearance that Syaed was highly unethical or unstable.

   It is still not known where the alleged 70 Sail-It employees reported by Business First last October work, the only known address for Ali being his family’s house on Breckenridge, now cited for housing code violations.

   And his announced hiring spree of up to 150 new staff last October has culminated in a highly irregular, detailed posting for ONE engineer position on Gramigna’s NewWNYPolitics.net., which has an estimated 600 page views daily. This unusual job posting on a political website is on top of the unusual 2% discount that Sail-It offers to Gramigna’s readers.

   I have not “harassed” Syaed, having no contact with him in months. I had never before emailed “HR@Sail-It”, resorting to it only after Gramigna never answered my repeated requests for an update of Ali’s hiring progress.

   instead, Gramigna began inquiring if I might have written the nasty gay-sex emails that began this whole sorry saga.

   There are too many unanswered questions to serious issues in this story. As Byron Brown runs for another term, it is important that the truth be told.
8. Jen14221 says:

   May 21, 2009 at 10:18 am

   Sounds douchey to me.
9. jen says:

   May 21, 2009 at 10:51 am

   The response is over the top and unnecessary. Makes him sound crazy. If Kern was interested are there any public records he could look into?
10. Dick Kern says:

    May 22, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    Today the dubious Gramigna-Syaed partnership became even more troubling.

    In response to my (unanswered) questions to Ali’s ‘human relations department’ about the current status of his hiring spree to add 150 employees to “Saili-It” announced last October in Business First,, today Gramigna announced that an unnamed “gadfly” has “confessed” to wrting the incredible anonymous Byron-Brown-gay-sex emails that began this whole scandal last summer.

    I am not named by Gramigna, but any informed reader knows he means me.
    And it is equally clear that his unnamed “source” is Syaed Ali.

    Gramigna has now removed all doubts about his lack of ‘journalistic ethics’.

    And he has opened pandora’s box further . . . is there any truth in anything that Ali has claimed these past 6 months?

    Dick Kern

    My response to Gramigna

    COPY:
    From: KernwatchMN
    To: ggramigna@yahoo.com, buffalopundit@gmail.com, editorial@artvoice.com, editor@speakupwny.com, desmonde@buffnews.com, jamesheaneyjr@gmail.com, chris@wnymedia.net

    Sent: 5/22/2009 2:57:40 P.M. Central Daylight Time

    Subj: Fwd: GADFLY ADMITS WRITING LIBELOUS, COMPLETELY INACCURATE BYRON BROWN E-MAILS

    Mr Gramigna:

    I have assumed that you are basically a decent human being, who too often compromises truth to gain income in an economically depressed city.

    Now I know for certain that you are not ethical. You must know that sending vicious anonymous emails about Byron Brown’s alleged gay-sex activity is counter to everything I stand for.

    Your unsubstantiated & utterly false charge, with no effort to email or speak to me before publishing such libelous content, is an outrage & makes me vastly more concerned about the integrity & judgment of any politician who advertises on your site. (in addition to similar concerns about Illuzzi)

    You have pushed an already seriously compromised ethical atmosphere in Bflo civic life much, much lower into an abyss.

    Richard Kern, MSW

    GRAMIGNA”s “BREAKING NEWS”

    COPY: http://www.newwnypolitics.net/

    Ex Buffalo Activist Admits Writing Notorious, Totally False Byron Brown E-Mails
    Written by Glenn Gramigna, Editor

    FORMER LOCAL ACTIVIST, GADFLY ADMITS WRITING LIBELOUS, COMPLETELY INACCURATE BYRON BROWN E-MAILS IN PHONE CONVERSATIONS

    NewWNYPolitics has learned that a former Buffalo political activist, who has since left town, has admitted authorship of that notorious series of e-mails which falsely sought to implicate Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in various forms of improper conduct. The confessions came in a series of phone calls this individual has made recently. Known to mix erratic behavior with occasionally intelligent critiques of area shortcomings, this person has stayed active in local affairs through e-mails and phone calls, while living out of the area in recent years. His signed e-mails often consist of wild charges and bizarre claims, not unlike those contained in the civilly actionable series of untrue cyberspace attacks aimed at the Mayor.

    Meanwhile, despite the claims of some, WNY information technology entrepreneur Syaed Ali, has not permanently forsaken Buffalo for Toronto, Stamford, CT or anywhere else. Instead, this 25 year old high tech professional is currently on a business trip to the West Coast and intends to return to the Queen City soon.
11. Jen says:

    May 24, 2009 at 11:50 am

    “Instead, this 25 year old high tech professional is currently on a business trip to the West Coast and intends to return to the Queen City soon.”

    lol!