Rousing 2011 #OWS speech reminds us of role of St. Vincent's Hospital on 9/11

Read your lipservice on 9/11, but we have no full-service hospital below 14th Street since St. Vincent's closed. #Rudin @Partnership4NYC

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) September 11, 2014

Twawking Tweets - Pilot Video - NY Democratic Primary for Governor

"Twawking Tweets" - Pilot Video "Twawking Tweets" is a pilot video for a TV show that gives voice to voters' concerns as expressed entirely over Twitter. In this format, tweeted messages from average voters are highlighted and discussed within the context of larger political, social, and economic issues. Entirely Twitter-driven, this show will amplify the voices of regular people, giving power to their views and opinions. For more information, contact Louis Flores at : louisflores (at) louisflores (dot) com.

Like a young Richard Nixon, Christine Quinn trying to make a political comeback

PUBLISHED : THURS, 04 SEPT 2014, 05:05 PM
UPDATED : THURS, 04 SEPT 2014, 09:10 PM

Political bloggers fear that Christine Quinn is organizing a come-back into politics after the electoral thrashing she received last year. After Richard Nixon lost embarrassing campaigns in 1960 and 1962, he finally won in 1968 and again in 1972.

Last September, almost 85% of Democratic Party primary voters cast their ballots against Christine Quinn After former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn suffered a humiliating defeat in last year's mayoral race, she has been in relative hiding, licking her wounds, plotting her political comeback. During that time, she's limited her public appearances. She reportedly turned down a job offer to lead the troubled AIDS services organization GMHC, and she has tested the waters by joining the boards of a couple of nonprofit organizations, an area she exploited over two decades ago to launch her political career. Although to some degree Ms. Quinn has become politically radioactive, due to a long record of community betrayals and allegations of corruption, she has managed to latch onto another failed politician, who has similarly become the target of voter anger : Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In exchange for fluffing his sagging reelection campaign, Gov. Cuomo has apparently promised to Ms. Quinn a way around the wrath of angry voters by offering her a rumored appointed commissionership after Ms. Quinn made statements to the press, offering superficial validity to the governor's astroturf political party, the Women's Equality Party. Ms. Quinn's propaganda confers to the governor some hope of tricking some voters to cast their ballots for him on the politically-expedient Women's Equality Party line. Gov. Cuomo has faced a tough reelection battle ever since his administration began a downward political following the launch of an investigation by federal prosecutors into alleged obstructive acts by the governor's office to thwart the corruption-fighting work of the now-defunct Moreland Commission after the panel began looking into some of the governor's political allies. To further Ms. Quinn's political reset, she deleted her old Twitter account and began anew, erasing the Twitter history of her failed political past. For her part, Ms. Quinn is no stranger to controversies about her political ethics. Activists and the media have drawn attention to the corruptive role of big money campaign donations in government, but no meaningful legal reforms ever came about during Ms. Quinn's 15 years in public office. In a 2008 report published by The New York Times, the two largest real estate contributors to the candidates expected to run for mayor in 2009, of which Ms. Quinn was one, were the owners of Rudin Management Company, who would become entangled in a protracted real estate battle over the fate of St. Vincent’s Hospital, and people tied to the Related Companies, one of the final two developers selected to work on the Hudson Yards project. When activists demanded that the local district attorney investigate the shady closing of St. Vincent’s, talk of an investigation went nowhere. Former Council Speaker Quinn approved the Rudin luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent’s, she approved decreased affordable housing requirements at the Hudson Yards project, and she exempted the living wage bill from applying to parts of the Hudson Yards project. Credible information exists about how a former campaign donor of former Council Speaker Quinn got access to a meeting involving the creation of legislative proposals and about how discretionary City Council funds from a secret reserve fund were steered to groups in former Council Speaker Quinn’s district. But when established patterns of political activities spanning for years potentially rise to the level of violations of law involve the potential for prosecution of significant political or government individuals, who may pose special problems for the local prosecutor, no federal prosecutor sees a special need or purpose to bring an federal indictment necessary for a successful prosecution of the government’s case against these individuals. An overhaul of this broken system is impossible when there is no fear of prosecution to create the political will to end the exploitation of this broken system. It’s a catch-22.

RELATED Back in Politics, Quinn Will Be Adviser on Abortion-Rights Strategy (The New York Times) ''Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn'' by Louis Flores (Scribd)

La rentrée 2014 : Election and Omnibus Update

Reforms come about by taking action

Remember the hospital closing crisis was manufactured by the Gov. Pataki's Berger Commission and by Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team AS NEW YORKERS PREPARE FOR THE ANNUAL REENTRY, it's that time of the year when everything happens all at once : the summer ends, a new school year begins, the high season of the arts is upon us, and the primary elections are only one week away. The last year has been remarkable for civic engagement and activism. We made many gains, like voting Christine Quinn out of office. We still face many challenges, like holding the de Blasio administration accountable to fully overhauling the New York Police Department and implementing other reforms. Voters are building upon this by vowing to hold Gov. Andrew Cuomo accountable in the Democratic Party primary election on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Ever since news broke of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's admitted interference with the Moreland Commission's anti-corruption investigations, the Cuomo administration has been in a downward spiral. Voters are angry that each year, politicians promise us a "change election," but no change ever comes. Gov. Cuomo campaigned for office in 2010, promising to end corruption up in Albany. By many press accounts, it took less than four years for Gov. Cuomo to embody the culture of corruption up in Albany. Back in 2010, the Cuomo campaign told St. Vincent's activists, "We'll see you after the election." What happened ? Not only did the governor fail to take action to save community hospitals in New York City, but he appointed mean old man Stephen Berger of the 1990's Berger Commission to keep closing full-service hospitals across New York City. Gov. Cuomo turned out to be another weasel of a politician, who had no intention of serving the common good. Instead, he was intent on an austerity agenda that would dismantle hospital infrastructure and enact Medicaid cuts that would negatively impact entire communities across New York City. This reoccurring pattern of political and community betrayal was what finally led voters to vote former Speaker Quinn out of office after 15 years of failure. That long period of time exasperated voters. It finally woke voters up to the opportunity cost of reelecting unprincipled incumbents, who gamed the system for their own benefit, not the communities'. Voters no longer have patience for wasting time on failed leadership. This impatience explains why activists began to protest mayor-elect Bill de Blasio last December, after he announced his regressive appointment of William Bratton as NYPD commissioner. In the time since, all New Yorkers have come to see how Mayor de Blasio was never fully committed about ending police brutality or overhauling other controversial police policies, like the Broken Windows approach to policing that essentially criminalises the poor and minorities. Minorities in New York get arrested trying to use public transportation. That stark example of discrimination that once ran rampant in the racist South now takes place right here in New York City. If the mayor was committed to a complete overhaul of the NYPD, then he would have each of appointed a culturally competent police commissioner, ended Broken Windows policing, and updated and strengthened civilian police oversight, disciplinary proceedings, and other forms of police accountability. The true test of reforms is very simple : Does the status quo come to a complete end once reforms are implemented ? Other issues awaiting the mayor that will determine if he is going to truly roll-out an aggressively progressive reform agenda, or if he is just going to keep recommending neoliberal policies that are approved by big business lobbyists. Only a civically-engaged electorate can hold elected officials' feet to the fire. As promised in a previous newsletter, here is an omnibus update : Governor's Race. Please remember that Gov. Cuomo exacerbated the hospital closing crisis in New York City by appointing Stephen Berger to close more hospitals on top of the large number of hospitals that closed following Mr. Berger's first commission report on hospital closures. Last Sept. 9, Mr. Berger was still advocating for more hospital closures. How fitting that exactly one year after that article was published, voters get to cast votes to reject these healthcare cuts that The New York Times reported went too far. Equally important, activists continue to call for reforms to end campaign and political corruption, but the media that made the Moreland Commission scandal an issue has since retired the issue, proving once again that, like with former Speaker Quinn, it is up to citizens journalists and activists to keep pressing for an end to corruption. Many bloggers are writing about the Moreland Commission (like the Perdido Street School blog and the Atlantic Yards Report blog), and it is up to voters to stay the course on an issue like this, especially when the media gets distracted or is subverted. Indeed, the bombshell report published by The New York Times about the Cuomo administration's reported obstruction of the Moreland Commission failed to mention the corrupt role of the Partnership for New York City in Albany politics. Likewise, The New York Times never reported Brad Hoylman's employment at the Partnership for New York City when he was overseeing Rudin's luxury condo conversion application at the same time when Bill Rudin was a director at the Partnership for New York City. When the media won't tell the whole story, it is up to us to keep each other informed. Keep seeking out new bloggers and alternative news Web sites. Take an average of multiple sources of information as a way to read between the lines. The Cuomo campaign is under so much stress from angry voters that Gov. Cuomo is reportedly considering dumping his running mate, former Rep. Kathy Hochul, in favor of embracing the reform candidate, Tim Wu. This is kind of what is looks like when the system turns on itself under the scaled-up participation of reform-minded voters. Whatever you do, I hope that on Tuesday, Sept. 9, you will please call your friends and families and make sure that everybody goes to the polls and votes Gov. Cuomo out of office. Christine Quinn. After almost 85% of Democratic Party primary voters voted former Speaker Quinn out of office last September, Ms. Quinn has been desperate to worm her way back into the business of politics. Baring an indictment by federal prosecutors or a negotiated plea deal calling for Gov. Cuomo to resign, Ms. Quinn's latest scheme is to shill for Gov. Cuomo in apparent exchange for a commissionership appointment in his next administration. As you may recall, last year Ms. Quinn exploited identity politics as an election year gimmick. Now, Ms. Quinn is using women's issues against another female candidate, Zephyr Teachout, to benefit a man, Gov. Cuomo, who sided with Republicans to jam the state legislature, one consequence of which was the stalled Women's Equality Act. This is a classic example of Ms. Quinn's corrupt approach to government : putting the most politically-expedient, self-serving politics ahead of long-over due reforms. It's no wonder that Ms. Teachout called out Ms. Quinn. "Christine Quinn is the one who stood in the way of paid sick days for New York City women," Ms. Teachout said, adding, "There are several ways Christine Quinn has stood in the way of core Democratic values. She was Mayor Bloomberg’s staunchest ally. She represents the corporate wing of the Democratic Party." Some political bloggers are privately worried that if the electorate is not careful, Ms. Quinn will attempt a political comeback similar to that of Richard Nixon after he lost the presidency in 1960 and the California governorship in 1962. GMHC. Many LGBTQ and AIDS activists have scored a major victory by pressuring Gay Men's Health Crisis to get rid of an entire slate of bad management. After an activist-driven campaign to force GMHC to reform itself, CEO Marjorie Hill, Chairman of the Board Mickey Rolfe, Director Manny Rivera, and former communications director Dirk McCall have separated from GMHC. Some activists have reservations about a new director, Roberta Kaplan, and the agency's new CEO, Kelsey Louie. However, if GMHC is to ever renew itself, then it certainly has a better chance now, under new leadership, than before. Time, and your continued oversight, will tell. LGBT Sell-Outs. Keep checking the LGBT Sell-Outs blog, as an updated poster will be revealed soon.

RELATED Married to a sleazy political consultant, Errol Louis uses NY1 to protect all political consultants (NYC : News & Analysis) Pledge 2 Protect latest advocacy organization to hire The Advance Group, masking donors behind a law firm (NYC : News & Analysis) Tone deaf to calls for NYPD reform, de Blasio stands by Bratton and Broken Windows policing (NYC : News & Analysis) USAO mum on new revelation about Cuomo's e-mail deleting policy (NYC : News & Analysis)

NYPD. Following the homicide of Eric Garner in Staten Island from an illegal choke hold by police, activists organised a rally outside City Hall calling for Commissioner Bratton's resignation, an end to the discriminatory Broken Windows approach to policing, and for a federal investigation into corruption at NYPD. Partly as a result of political cover provided by "veal pen" groups like VOCAL-New York and the Communities United for Police Reform umbrella group, the mayor has turned a deaf ear to grassroots activists calling for a complete overhaul of the NYPD. As with many political, social, and legal issues facing society, all one has to do is follow the money to identify what is blocking reforms. When one pulls back the curtain on the flow of money to some of the "veal pen" groups, one will see how in this year's city budget, over $7 million was allocated to some police reform groups, money which the de Blasio administration essentially used to strong-arm community groups to down-play police reform. This, and George Soros' financial connections to each of Communities United for Police Reform and to Mayor de Blasio, help to explain why a 1% policing policy, like Broken Windows, could be so vehemently defended by Mayor de Blasio, a blatant contradiction to the lip service he likes to give to his self-anointed progressive sensibilities. Again, reforms will only come about when the citizenry stays engaged, regardless of the empty rhetoric from politicians. Talk is not reform ; rather, reform can only take the shape of tangible changes that put an end to the status quo, in this case, of relentless incidence of police killings, police brutality, police discrimination against citizens -- all with no police accountability. Follow the money. The corrupt roles of big money donations and lobbyists continue to undermine elections in New York. In the 2009 municipal election cycle, the Working Families Party used an affiliate, Data and Field Services, Inc., to allegedly game the city's campaign finance laws. Those activities are now the subject of an investigation by an independent prosecutor. In the 2013 municipal election cycle, we saw how Working Families supporter The Advance Group and possibly other lobbyists coordinated their management of official campaigns with the activities of Super PAC's, a violation of the city's campaign finance regulations. And in this year's state election cycle, the Working Families Party is at it again : political operatives with connections to the Working Families Party were behind the use of Mayor de Blasio's 501(c)(4) nonprofit political arm, the Campaign for One New York, to send campaign-like literature spinning positives about the closure of Long Island College Hospital in the 52nd Assembly District in Brooklyn. That dark-money LICH mailer has propped up WFP-endorsed candidate Peter Sikora, because it takes some of the heat off the hospital closing. The value of that mailer, if indeed partly coordinated to benefit Mr. Sikora, may violate campaign finance regulations if not properly declared. Given the subversive activities of the Working Families Party during each of these election cycles, it is clear that their intention is to win political elections, not to save hospitals from closing. As if we all need to remember, 13 full-service New York City hospitals have closed or downsized since 2006. The true test of reform would have been the saving of LICH under Mayor de Blasio's watch. He failed ; LICH is closed. Now, voters in Brooklyn must decide for whom to vote in the Sept. 9 Democratic Primary in the 52nd Assembly District : Jo Anne Simon, who endorsed the disgraced Charles Hynes for Brooklyn District Attorney in last year's election, or Doug Biviano, who is the anti-lobbyist candidate calling for reforms to government. Whilst the de Blasio administration relies more and more on the same lobbyists behind the dark-money LICH mailer, such as BerlinRosen, government reform activists wonder if the media's initial reporting about the mayor's nonprofit political arm will go the same way of reporting about the Moreland Commission : by becoming history. Under conditions where those in elected office lack media scrutiny, it becomes essential that voters turn to bloggers and alternative news Web sites for information in order to cast informed ballots. Department of Justice. Besides voting, how else can average citizens participate in efforts to bring about unfinished reforms ? The first step is to test the system to determine how broken it is. This is what I have done with the U.S. Department of Justice. Under President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, the Department of Justice has been politicised to enable and extend the Bush era's use of warrentless wiretapping, to crackdown on whistleblowers and activists, and to harass enterprising reporters in an effort to abridge freedoms of speech and of the press. Against this backdrop, I filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records from the Department of Justice pertaining to the government's vindictive prosecution of Lt. Daniel Choi, who led the heroic effort to end the military's discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The Department of Justice has promised to answer an appeal of its initial constructive denial of the FOIA request. The second step to reform is to see what happens when the system realises that it being tested. Juxtaposed with how the DOJ answers the FOIA request, I await how the U.S. Attorney's Office will act upon an updated statement I filed to support the complaint against the corrupt lobbying firm, The Advance Group. Either the DOJ makes good on each of the FOIA request and on investigating how politicians and lobbyists have made swiss cheese of campaign finance laws, the DOJ makes good on one but not on the other, or the DOJ makes good on neither. Either way, we will soon find out how much integrity the DOJ has when it comes to upholding the government's own principles of justice. Also outstanding are the U.S. Attorney's Office's own investigation into the unfinished work and the possible obstruction of the now-defunct Moreland Commission. Political bloggers speculate whether federal prosecutor Preet Bharara will hand down indictments in his Moreland investigation before this year's general election. On a larger scale, some activists believe that Attorney General Holder is expected to step down from his post. We will find out shortly in what shape he leaves the DOJ. NYC IBS Support. A new support and advocacy group for people living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome is forming in New York City. The group is searching for a doctor to be a medical information sponsor for the group. If you are a gastroenterologist and are interested in being the group's information sponsor, or if you live with IBS and would like to join, please send an e-mail to : newyorkcityibs (at) gmail (dot) com.

With Cuomo's Moreland trouble, will leftists finally vote in a Green Party candidate for governor ?

PUBLISHED : MON, 04 AUG 2014, 11:50 PM
UPDATED : TUES, 05 AUG 2014, 07:10 PM

As the federal investigation heats up into Cuomo's interference with the Moreland Commission, will the governor's popularity with voters collapse, costing him the election, or will the governor resign in disgrace to avoid federal criminal charges ?

Gov. Cuomo is either a lame candidate or one facing impending resignation. Will activists from New York's political left finally wake up to the corrupt 2-party system that is owned by Big Business donors and their lobbyists ? AS GOV. ANDREW CUOMO FACES A FEDERAL INVESTIGATION overlapping with the unfinished corruption probes by the now-defunct Moreland Commission, the race for governor falls to three possible contenders : Republican candidate Rob Astorino, Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins, and long-shot Democratic contender Zephyr Teachout, if she survives the challenge to her ballot qualification. According to a new poll released today, Gov. Cuomo's favorability ratings plunged by 5% in the first poll to be taken after escalating reports that the Cuomo administration steered the corruption investigations by the Moreland Commission away from his political supporters, many press reports indicate. Several individuals associated with the failed corruption-fighting panel or the Governor's Office have either been subpoenaed to testify before grand juries, willingly volunteered to meet with federal prosecutors, or are actively cooperating with federal prosecutors. The steady drip-drip-drip of revelations only points to a sinking future for Gov. Cuomo. The last time a big-name Democrat was an early front-runner in a campaign only to see her election thwarted was former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. But former Speaker Quinn's campaign was doomed by a controversial Super PAC managed by the lobbying firm, The Advance Group. According to reports, The Advance Group may have coordinated the activities of the Super PAC to elect Bill de Blasio as mayor. Consequently, several investigations are now probing the relationship between The Advance Group, the Super PAC it managed, and the de Blasio campaign. The co-opting of the mayor's race to elect another closeted neoliberal Democrat as mayor resulted in the appointment of William Bratton, advocate of the neoconservative "Broken Windows" theory of policing, as police commissioner, the continued closing of community hospitals, and the blurring of the division of church and state with the mayor's reliance on churches to administer an expansion of universal pre-kinder, amongst a few examples of the conservative bent in the de Blasio administration. As Gov. Cuomo's political future appears to be headed in the same direction as former Council Speaker Quinn, or worse, will activists from the political left vote another official from the Democrat Party into office ? The Democratic Party is owned by some of the same big money donors as is the Republican Party. As soon as Democrats take office, they are swarmed by corrupt lobbyists and special interests, eventually forcing Democratic officeholders to keep exploiting the corrupt loopholes on special interest money. Witness the massive $35 million war chest that Gov. Cuomo has amassed from real estate and gambling interests. Campaign donations of that size only come with strings attached. Complicating matters for the Democratic challenger, Ms. Teachout, for example, is that she hails from the Working Families Party, itself the target of an investigation by a special prosecutor, who is probing into campaign corruption. This could be the year when activists vote into office a third party candidate untethered to the corrupt machinations of the corporate-controled, 2-party system. Can activists from the political left overcome the dumbed-down, local TV news broadcasts and organize behind Howie Hawkins from the Green Party ?

RELATED Crazed with anger, Cuomo fears the worst as first polls after scandal approach (The New York Post) Cuomo's Approval Ratings Down, Poll Shows (The Wall Street Journal) There's More ''Left,'' If You're Hungry -- For Change (NYC : News & Analysis) State’s biggest G.O.P. donors migrated to Cuomo (Capital New York) Special prosecutor issues new subpoenas in Working Families Party probe (Capital New York)

Corruption of New York City Council slush funds leads to another guilty verdict, this time for Ex-Councilmember Dan Halloran

PUBLISHED : TUES, 29 JUL 2014, 09:36 PM
UPDATED : MON, 04 AUG 2014, 11:05 AM

Amongst the charges for which former Councilmember Halloran was found guilty was plotting to funnel $80,000 in City Council slush funds as bribes to others

Controversy over City Council slush funds continue under the new Council speaker, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito Former New York City Councilmember Daniel Halloran was found guilty today by a jury, concluding a federal trial for corruption charges stemming from his arrest for participating in a scheme to buy the GOP ballot line for State Sen. Malcom Smith, a wannabe mayoral candidate in last year's municipal elections. Former Councilmember Halloran's accepted money in what was described as a bribe for his role in the corruption scheme. In exchange, he had pledged, in part, to use $80,000 in City Council slush funds for further bribes in this corruption scheme. Former Councilmember Halloran had planned to funnel the $80,000 from the monies awarded to him by the City Council speaker, who, at her discretion, awards member items to Councilmembers for further payment to various nonprofit groups. The practice of distributing member items from the speaker's discretionary fund has been a historical source of corruption in the City Council. Government reform activists also see the use of these slush funds as ways to keep community groups locked up in proverbial "veal pens," preventing, for example, some community groups, such as VOCAL-New York, from pressing for a complete overhaul to end corruption at the New York Police Department. Previously, three Councilmembers : Larry Seabrook, Hiram Monserrate, and Miguel Martinez, and two former council staffers of then Councilman Kendall Stewart : Asquith Reid and Joycinth Anderson, have been charged in connection with corruption related to the slush fund scandal. After former Councilmember Halloran's arrest, his slice of the slush funds came under review by former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who was once the target of a federal investigation into her own, larger slush fund scandal. After the outcome of last year's municipal elections, former Speaker Quinn was succeeded by Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito as speaker. Speaker Mark-Viverito had promised to reform the politically-corrupt process of doling out the Council's slush funds. However, this year, Speaker Mark-Viverito sparked controversy when she was caught allocating millions of dollars in slush funds to a charity group founded by one of her key campaign consultants. This year's allocation of slush funds were further complicated when Councilmember Ruben Wills was arrested on unrelated corruption charges. Councilmember Wills' cut of this year's slush funds were reportedly to be divided up amongst groups in his Council district at the direction of Speaker Mark-Viverito's office and other Councilmembers of the Queens delegation, Capital New York reported. As the U.S. Attorney for New York's southern district, Preet Bharara, continues his campaign to prosecute government corruption cases, former Councilmember Halloran's conviction shows voters that federal prosecutors know where to keep looking : at the role that the Council's slush funds plays in elected officials' machinations to "sell out their offices." How many more Councilmembers and their staff must be ensnared in corruption cases by federal prosecutors before the Council's slush funds are either reformed with true integrity or ended entirely ?

RELATED Former Councilmmember Dan Halloran Found Guilty in Corruption Case (The New York Observer) Another campaign consultant tied to Council Speaker Mark-Viverito in still yet another controversy (NYC : News & Analysis) Quinn in the Slush (New York Magazine) Lulu heroes and zeroes : End the City Council’s legal bribery (The New York Daily News) City Council members can’t prove they donated bonuses to charities (The New York Post)

When Cuomo closed the Moreland Commission, he was hoping to shut down all efforts to investigate political corruption

PUBLISHED : FRI, 18 JUL 2014, 08:27 PM
UPDATED : SUN, 20 JUL 2014, 01:45 PM

The Governor's interference with the Moreland Commission's efforting to combat corruption has prompted federal prosecutors to seek grand jury testimony in an inquiry into Gov. Andrew Cuomo's closure of the Moreland Commission Ever since the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) agreed to close the Moreland Commission as part of an unseemly budget negotiation with corrupt state lawmakers at the end of March, the sordid gossip amongst political bloggers has been whether any prosecutors would dare investigate whether allegations that Gov. Cuomo interfered with the Moreland Commission's investigations would rise to the level of obstruction of justice. When it was reported that members of the Moreland Commission were contemplating issuing subpoenas to real estate developers, including the Extell Corporation, which had made contributions to Gov. Cuomo's campaign committee account, the Cuomo administration was said to have become involved in managing those subpoenas. To the consternation of the control-obsesses Cuomo administration, the Moreland Commission was reported to have issued a subpoena to the corrupt state Democratic Party, that subpoena was later downsized and redirected under the specter of possible influence by the Cuomo administration, according to political bloggers. Finally, when the Moreland Commission dared to poke around in how the state's corrupt legislators earn outside income, that is when the state legislature brokered a backroom deal with the Cuomo administration to finally shut down the politically dangerous Moreland Commission, triggering a backlash that portrayed Gov. Cuomo as being a power-hungry megalomaniac. At one point, Gov. Cuomo publicly declared that he controlled the independent functions of the Moreland Commission in a Gollum-like "My Precious" tirade, saying, "The Moreland Commission was my commission," adding, “It’s my commission. My subpoena power, my Moreland Commission. I can appoint it, I can disband it. I appoint you, I can un-appoint you tomorrow. So, interference ? It's my commission. I can’t ‘interfere’ with it, because it is mine.” At each turn, whenever the Moreland Commission's investigations into political or campaign corruption threatened to splish-splash onto Cuomo administration officials, the governor or his staff appeared to be protecting their own political interests as they overlapped with the investigations by the Moreland Commission. Political bloggers wondered whether the Cuomo administration was trying to protect wealthy campaign contributors from the possibility of investigation or having the activities of wealthy campaign contributions come under review by Moreland Commission investigators. Actions reportedly by Cuomo administration officials or political operatives loyal to the Cuomo administration to downsize, redirect, or otherwise alter the investigative work by the Moreland Commission cast questions over the independence needed by investigative bodies, such as the Moreland Commission, conducting politically-unpopular but wholly-necessary criminal investigations into government and campaign corruption in New York state. That the Cuomo administration appeared to be heading off the possibility of investigations -- before the Moreland Commission could announce actual investigations or substantiated suspicions of wrong-doing -- created a sense of unease amongst political bloggers, because political bloggers wondered what activities were the Cuomo administration trying to conceal or hide from investigators. The culture of pay-to-play : Billionaire real estate development corporations make big money campaign donations, and then developers receive tax breaks, insider access to politicians During the period of time when the mainstream media was reporting that the Moreland Commission might investigate the culture of pay-to-play between campaign contributions made by wealthy real estate developers and the development of government policies that favored these developers, political bloggers cheered at the prospect that finally state investigators would look into corrupt real estate developers and their lobbyists. One of those lobbyists is the one-man power house, George Arzt. Mr. Arzt is a political adviser, lobbyist, spokesman, public relations consultant, and a very generous campaign contributor. Over the years, it is said that he made over $90,000 in traceable campaign contributions to various politicians in New York State. Critics of Mr. Arzt assert that Mr. Arzt buys access to top politicians with these sizable campaign contributions, and that that, plus his campaign consulting work and lobbying work, help to give his real estate developer clients an unfair advantage in gaming government policy for his clients. In this culture, where the right amount of campaign contributions, lobbying retainers, or the exchange of other funds, can give real estate developers an inside track to getting planning approvals for zone-busting real estate projects or tax breaks for billion-dollar skyscrapers, is what leads to so much corruption in government. The corrupt pay-to-play culture plays out like this : Mr. Arzt was a consultant for Extell Corporation, the developer of the billionaire luxury condo skyscraper on West 57th Street. Extell Corporation made sizable campaign contributions to Gov. Cuomo just before Gov. Cuomo signed into law multi-millions in tax breaks for Extell. All this money changing hands, and the local prosecutor for Manhattan, Cy Vance, abdicates his responsibility to investigate for bribes and corruption, leaving this matter for the Moreland Commission to investigate, except Gov. Cuomo shut the Moreland Commission down before any investigation could get off the ground. Last summer, Mr. Arzt was quoted by the mainstream media as an impartial observer during last year's mayoral race. However, political bloggers discovered that he had been part of a group of politicos having weekly meetings, strategizing how to install former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as Michael Bloomberg's successor. Closing the loop on Mr. Arzt is that he was a campaign manager for former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes' doomed reelection campaign. Questions of public ethics violations and even possible embezzlement were raised when it was discovered that former D.A. Hynes had been using an official slush fund of money proceeds from seized cash from drug deals gone bad to pay for another campaign advisor, Mortimer Matz. While Mr. Arzt wasn't implicated in that campaign controversy, when D.A. Hynes used proceeds from seized criminal activities from the office accounts of the Brooklyn District Attorney's office to pay Mr. Matz millions for his consulting services, by some estimates, that left more money in D.A. Hynes campaign committee accounts to pay other campaign consultants. Besides Mr. Arzt, another consultant who worked for D.A. Hynes and was paid through D.A. Hynes' campaign committee account was the lobbying firm, The Advance Group. All corrupt legislative deals passed through Albany are marked with the same fingerprints. Whenever corrupt big business interests and their lobbyists need legislative help, the go-to-man is New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Several sources, who were involved in the tax break for wealthy real estate developers, including Extell Corporation, told The New York Daily News that Speaker Silver was the "creator of the lucrative tax relief." Over the years, Speaker Silver has been involved in so many corruption controversies that he has learned how to survive investigations into corruption by facilitating the corruption of other politicians. In the case of the tax breaks for wealthy developers, if Speaker Silver was ever fully challenged in a criminal corruption investigation, he could possibly expose the role of Gov. Cuomo's apparent pay-to-play deal to sign the tax breaks into law in exchange for large campaign contributions from the real estate developers, which stood to benefit from the tax law amendment. Many government reform activists and political bloggers estimate that Speaker Silver has been involved in so many self-serving or insider-serving deals that, if he were fully investigated by prosecutors, a take-down of Speaker Silver could potentially implicate over three-quarters of the entire state legislature. Indeed, one outcome of the low-level prosecution of former State Senator Shirley Huntley was her revelation that she would see “bags of cash" brought into the State Senate building. From whom was all that and other money coming from ? Who, in a leadership position, having received that money, got to divide that money up ? None of these, and other activities, ever get investigated by state law enforcement, whether that be the local district attorneys, who roll up to the state attorney general, or, as witnessed by the fate of investigative corruption panels under the Cuomo administration, by the Moreland Commission. Corrupt officials and political operatives have learned to game the weak-willed district attorneys and timid attorney general. Politicians and lobbyist know that the corruption in New York state runs so deep that, collectively, the size of some investigations would involve the prosecution of significant political or government individuals, which may pose special problems for the local prosecutor, making federal prosecutors, like U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the only hope that political bloggers and government reform activists have at overhauling the corrupt political system running local and state governments across New York. It was Mr. Bharara's office, which issued a subpoena this week, seeking grand jury testimony from the assistant to the former executive director of the now shuttered Moreland Commission. Mr. Bharara took possession of the investigation files and correspondence of the former commissioners serving on the Moreland Commission, along with other records, to try to reconstruct the activities and involvements of various elected officials, lobbyists, and other political operatives. To complete his due diligence and review of all these potential criminal investigations, Mr. Bharara's office recently recruited the help of super lawyer Daniel Stein, a former top prosecutor with years of corruption prosecution experience, giving political bloggers hope that we are about to witness a once-in-a-century renewal of government integrity.

RELATED Is Gov. Andrew Cuomo under investigation for obstruction of justice ? (The New York Times)

There's More Left, If You're Hungry (For Change)

PUBLISHED : SAT, 12 JUL 2014, 06:25 PM
UPDATED : MON, 14 JUL 2014, 07:45 PM

Response to "Nothing Left" by Adolph Reed, Jr.

There's a way forward, to break through the stranglehold that neoliberals have over the Democratic Party, but, to do it, leftists need to leave the Democratic Party. In "Nothing Left," an essay by Adolph Reed, Jr., in the March issue of Harper's, Mr. Reed, described how the Democratic Party fails leftists in American politics. More or less, he described a Democratic Party that believed in working within a broken political system that affirms neoliberalism over the party's former New Deal politics. There are too many payoffs in the current broken political system for the Democrats to want reforms. Following is a response and commentary to Mr. Reed's essay. For years, activists in New York City have been trying to fight back against the influences of Big Business interests in local politics, but activists are stopped by party politics that want to see the correct Democrat elected into public office. Activists play a greater role in trying to bring about reforms, precisely because most voters do not participate in government, much less vote. In the mayoral election won by Bill de Blasio, only 24 percent of registered voters turned out to cast ballots, a rate of participation described as a record low by The New York Times. This compares with a 25 percent voter turnout in Detroit, a city in bankruptcy. A sense of voter powerlessness to fight back against the corruptive influence of money and lobbyists in politics is succeeding in suppressing voter turnout. "Three other cities showed an even deeper level of apathy. Atlanta had 17.2 percent turnout, Houston only 13.2 percent and Miami just 11 percent,” according to one report. This compares with an incredible recent peak in voter turnout of 93 percent in the 1953 New York City mayoral election. Voters have come to believe that their participation doesn’t make a difference, and in the age of the corrupt Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, they are almost right. The lack of voter participation means that activists play a larger than normal role in how political, legal, and economic issues get put on the social agenda. We know that activists are passionate, because they are driven by motivations to change the system when they take up causes. One consequence to how how we compensate for the lack of voter participation is that the same activists keep showing up over and over again for a variety of issues. In the face of such great voter apathy, some activists speak of inactive voters as uneducated, because if voters truly appreciated what was at stake in the broken political system, voters would get involved. Voters need to become activated, so that they can claim their rightful role in overhauling the broken political system. Otherwise, going forward, as in for the past decades, some activists (or, some political operatives is more like it) will take for granted that only activists or political operatives will know what reforms are needed, because only activists and political operatives know the lay of the corrupt political landscape. A huge contributing factor that keeps such super-majority percentages of voters inactive is the failure of mainstream media to fully report the truth about the depths of corruption in how elected officials run the business of government. And activists and political operatives know the truth about how corrupt the system is, but they don't do much of anything to challenge the press to fully report the truth about corruption. Somehow, the same small numbers of activists and political operatives have yet to overcome the limitations imposed by the failed mainstream media, and this keeps inactive voters in the dark. Compounding this dysfunction is the fact that some activists readily accept some aspects of the corrupt political landscape, and these activists adjust themselves accordingly to the corruption, as opposed to fighting it. Once they play by the rules of the broken political system, some activists adopt downsized scopes of reforms to make nice-nice with the power players of the broken political system. To varying degrees, Mr. Reed and others have previously described this phenomenon. Where is the Democratic Party in all this ? Democrats only care about winning elections, not rolling out fundamental reforms to overhaul the broken political system. Brining back online the inactive voters doesn't matter to Democrats, because elections can be still be won without the participation of inactive voters. Making matters worse, the Democratic Party uses what Jane Hamsher describes as "veal pens" to proverbially lock-up activists and nonprofit organizations in a state of atrophy to deescalate demands for political reforms from the political left. Except for a few brave souls, the mainstream media buys into these and other deceptions of the Democratic Party for several reasons. Some politicians, their political operatives, and their lobbyists employ teams of people to feed the media only approved talking points. Some reporters make the mistake of thinking that they have become "friends" with politicians and their enablers, losing their objectivity in the process. The influence of of corporate owners and editors slant reporting coverage according to suitable idealogical packaging. The media has often been describe to move with a pack mentality, they themselves not wanting to appear to be dissenting from their peers. And sometimes, the few brave souls, who do report the truth about government and political corruption, face a loss of access to each of sources, political gossip, or other professional privileges. Many times, this retaliation plays out privately, as the spurned reporter tries to do damage control out of the view and judgement of their peers and possible future employers. Given that Democratic Party insiders and political operatives know this, it is not difficult for Democrats to try to control the media. In respect of the media, several important things have happened in the time leading up to, and since, Mr. de Blasio was elected as mayor that can act as reality checks on the City Hall press corps. First, while LGBT activists were rejecting the "identity politics" of former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn in favor of substance, Mr. de Blasio rolled out his family, offering a "biographical narrative" to take center stage in his cornerstone promise to "end the stop-and-frisk era," a promise that was devoid of truth, in turns out, when Mr. de Blasio move the goal posts to "stop the over-use of stop-and-frisk" with the subsequent appointment of William Bratton as police commissioner, a move which the media largely did not challenge as being incongruent with Mr. de Blasio's campaign promises. At a lengthy public forum of some of the city's top political reporters held after last year's Democratic mayoral primary election, some reporters openly disavowed any duty to vet candidates for public office. As a consequence of this attitude, many reporters admitted that they had failed to scrutinize Mr. de Blasio before last year's Democratic primary race. For those few New Yorkers planning to vote, relying on the press for information was a dangerous proposition, because the city's top political reporters were saying that voters were on their own to make sense of the broken political system. Resistance to reforms that borders on needing to keep the system corruptible Who can forget Rep. Nancy Pelosi's three-part interview (Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3) revealing interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in which Rep. Pelosi refused to come clean about the Democratic Party's reliance on Big Money campaign contributions, amongst other controversies. Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised to clean up Albany of corruption, but he refused to close a gaping loophole through which Big Money campaign donors funnel campaign contributions to elected officials as a way to control the government's agenda. One of Mayor de Blasio's closest political operatives, Scott Levenson, faces what has been described as multiple possible investigations due to allegations of campaign finance violations, but the mayor refuses to update the city's campaign finance laws, as he promised he would during last year's mayoral campaign. Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito hired lobbyists in a shady campaign to become the City Council speaker, pledging to turn the page from the corrupt record of her predecessor, but, now that she's in power, she's waging an effort to take control over the city's Board of Elections, "giving her power and control of a host of patronage jobs," according to The New York Daily News. Other issues, like how Gov. Cuomo was carrying out a state-sponsored plan to close hospitals across New York City, were never reported in the mainstream media with the full truth about what was truly happening. Even when Mr. de Blasio was reportedly described as trying to save Long Island College Hospital when he was only a candidate for mayor, he never fully tied the wave of hospital closings back to Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team. When the media did work itself up into a frenzy, like when one of the mayor's political supporters, Bishop Orlando Findlayter, was let out of jail on account of alleged intervention from City Hall, the mayor blocked the release of possibly damaging (or incriminating) evidence. At the conclusion of last year, The New York Times opined that no matter the real reason former Council Speaker Quinn lost the mayoral race, it wasn't because of any "major ethical lapses," contrary to the multiple examples of ethical lapses chronicled in Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn. One way or another, the corrupt system finds a way to keep the truth from being reported. Whenever the media is interested in covering a story, like with Bishop Findlayter's arrest, the government denies requests made under freedom of information laws. Some political bloggers and government reform advocates believe that Mayor de Blasio's denial of freedom of information law requests for Bishop Findlayter's arrest report, for example, is in keeping with the Obama administration's pattern of denying requests made under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Amongst the many outstanding FOIA requests pending before the Obama administration is a request for records about the government's vindictive prosecution of activists, including the prosecution of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal hero, Lt. Daniel Choi. It's easier for the press to politically report that the Obama administration is denying FOIA requests than it is to show how the Obama administration has been targeting activists for vindictive prosecution. The political climate facing government reform activists within the Democratic Party is so severe, that pressuring the Democratic Party for reforms routinely involves backlash, sometimes in the form of political retaliation. This environment of hostility is indicative that the Democratic Party doesn't stand for reforms. That is why you see political operatives, a/k/a "Yes Men," ring fence Democratic Party politicians from criticism. When grassroots activists make demands for reforms, the Yes Men deceptively water-down those demands for reform into downsized requests that can be easily met with empty rhetoric. Given this reality, how can voters mobilize to overhaul the broken political system, if some political operatives downsize their demands for reform -- at the same time when the press refuses to report the whole truth about corrupt elected officials ? The fairytale life of elected officials Part of the never-ending election strategy for the Democratic Party, indeed for any political party, is to establish and then maintain their leaders as likable characters. And so begins the requirement that followers can never question leaders, for, if one makes this irreconcilable error of questing a leader, then one gets shown the door. The Democratic Party spends millions on campaign consultants, lobbyists, focus groups, opinion polls, other messaging, and public relations that the party will not tolerate insiders, who undo these expensive media machinations. This is why voters get duped into buying the party line. Activists, who think they can operate an inside strategy, must first pledge to operate from a place of compromise -- there can be no criticisms of elected officials. This is why there is no room for dissent in expensive modern-day politics. Even when most progressives support immigration reform, for example, the Democrats, under Mayor de Blasio, go to such extremes as only allowing supporters of the city's new identification cards speak at official City Council hearings. Free speech and open debate go out the window. Regrettably, whole classes of nonprofit executives and activists sell-out their communities in exchange for insider access privileges. Even before Mayor de Blasio took office, former Council Speaker Quinn had established new norms of what it meant to be a neoliberal Democrat in New York City. Her relationship with real estate developers, chambers of commerce-like groups like the Partnership for New York City, and big money campaign donors like Rudin Management Company, have served as a pattern for Mayor de Blasio to follow as he seeks constant approval from Big Business interests. Moving in the same Big Business interest circles of former Speaker Quinn, Mayor de Blasio perpetuates the corrupt nexus of insider access and and a culture of backroom power deals for which activists once criticized former Speaker Quinn for having embraced, but the press doesn’t report things this way. Having made his Black family the core of Mayor de Blasio's identity prevents critics from raising race as an issue, even as some of Mayor de Blasio's policies have unfair racial overtones. Look at how easily Mayor de Blasio sold out on his pledge to reform policing in New York City when he authorized the police to undertake military-style invasions of public housing projects -- public housing projects -- and blaming some of the poor for the desperate lives that some of them live on account of the broken political system that never addresses the underlying conditions, which cause that desperation, a broken political system which Mayor de Blasio so very well represents. Police raids are sinister forms of behavior modification that blames victims for being poor, and that the targets of these policing actions are largely people of color goes unexamined by the media and by long-time activists, who have, by now, adapted to the new political realities of no expectations of reforms under the Democratic mayor. That the new police commissioner has promised to keep using the racist and classist "broken windows theory" of policing means that the mayor was all talk about police reform. Now that race is not a safe subject for examination, the media fails to look at how political operatives undertook efforts last year to manufacture a spike in voter turn-out in Black voting districts as a way to help elect the next mayor. Whenever the mayor does find himself under criticism from his political left, he relieves the pressure by spouting the right buzzwords, talking points about how he's a "progressive." Mayor de Blasio likes to tout his record of having signed new labor contracts with the municipal unions. NEWSFLASH : Any Democratic mayor had to give the unions new contracts. It's not rocket science to do what the unions, which elected you, tell you to do. The left, whom Mayor de Blasio will not accommodate, gets "trashed" the way activists in other social movements were once rolled over for not adapting to the corrupt status quo. Seeing the political landscape for what it is, first ; and then organizing for reforms, second One can most visibly see this dysfunctional dynamic play out between the Democratic Party, the mayor, nonprofit groups, political operatives, lobbyists, and activists in the police reform movement. Inside this dysfunction, nonprofit organizations and their executives play by the rules of the broken political system. They lock themselves -- and others -- up in "veal pens," where the goal of the broken political system goal is for activists to atrophy and waste away. If one tries to expose how some nonprofit groups are duplicitous in this dysfunction, then it is as if one has kicked a proverbial hornets' next -- one is going to get stung for pulling back the curtain on this political charade. And the veal pens and the stingings are very effective to condition activists to obey the rules of the broken political system. The totality of this dysfunctional political dynamic is given to us by a broken political system in which Democrats fully participate, that goes to great lengths -- indeed, any length -- to avoid reforms. Besides Big Business interests, the Democratic Party has become beholden to a class of "professional" political operatives, campaign consultants, and lobbyists, such as Patrick Gaspard, Scott Levenson, George Arzt, Jonathan Rosen, Dan Levitan, and others, making it impossible to enact reforms within the Democratic Party given these co-opting political gatekeepers. Matters are so corrupt that this class of consultants and lobbyists become entrenched and form a permanent, unaccountable form of backroom government insiders. Helping these permanent government insiders stay in power is the fact that that they have learned to exploit the campaign regulations that are meant to make electoral contests open and fair. When one accounts for the added role of fundraising and bundling of campaign donations by these permanent government insiders, one can see how figures with significant political power operate in backrooms, with no accountability to voters. These permanent government insiders are also largely responsible for removing the ethic of public service from those serving in public office. And those activists, who blog or write about these truths, are labeled fringe activists as a way to marginalize and disenfranchise muckraking bloggers. At every point, the broken political system tries to discredit critics, who are only calling for an overhaul to end government and political corruption. One of the major reasons why leftists cannot reform the broken political system is that the Democratic Party has instituted a culture that prevents leftists from holding Democratic officials accountable for reforms. Activists are marginalized by the Democratic Party, a viewpoint more or less shared by Mr. Reed, forced into the political fringes, then accused of running outside pressure political tactics against corrupt or inept Democrats -- when an outside pressure politics strategy is the only approach that the broken political system leaves activists. The system blames activists for exhibiting disenfranchised behavior when it is the broken political system that causes this disenfranchisement in the first place ! The only hope for overhauling the broken political system, in my opinion, is for all of the inactive voters to become activated. The current system, where the same small pool of activists, some of whom organize from a place of privilege, move from one issue to another, in "solidarity," after each "crisis moment," as Mr. Reed pointed out, isn't enough to overhaul this system. It's not just the numbers that a successful overhaul needs, but new ideas, new voices, and enough of them -- so that the people represent themselves in the process to bring about necessary reforms. If activists need to come in out of the fringes, then voters, too, need to come in out of dormancy. People need to dial-up their civic engagement. Contrary to what Democrats, Big Business interests, and permanent government insiders would have voters believe, it will be O.K. if voters participate in their own reform movement. And there's more to civic engagement than just voting, as it should be. People need to find more and more ways to have a say in how the government conducts business on our behalf. Voters need to create new groups, new organizations, through which they can exert new pressures on the system for reform. These groups must be new, in order to circumvent the stranglehold that Democrats have on unions, nonprofit organizations, and other political clubs or groups. The first step to start organizing is to vote out the highest figurehead neoliberal Democrat, which would be New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and vote in a Green Party candidate, Howie Hawkins, who can break the corrupt two-party hegemony in American politics. Voting in a Green Party governor would demonstrate that the government can survive the loss of a center-right Democrat to a true leftist. Considering the corrupt political landscape, this is actually the only way our government can survive. The second step to start organizing is for voters to establish a new relationship with how they get the real truth about government and political corruption. This either means challenging reporters to fully report the truth, or else it means supporting new platforms or structures of muckraking-reporting that can come in out of the fringes and fully go mainstream.

RELATED Nothing Left : The long, slow surrender of American liberals By : Adolph Reed, Jr. (Harper's)

Cy Vance Power Bottom

PUBLISHED : TUES, 01 JUL 2014, 02:11 PM
UPDATED : TUES, 01 JUL 2014, 04:35 PM
Corrupt Politicians and Lobbyists Get Most of Their Power From the Bottom in Charge of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office

 

RELATED Charity tied to Council Speaker Mark-Viverito quadruples its slush funding (Crains New York Business) VIDEO : Cy Vance Dirty D.A. (Dropbox)

POLITICAL BLOGGERS and government reform activists today expressed frustration that another corrupt New York City Council speaker was going to use her control over a large multi-million slush fund to reward her lobbyists and campaign consultants, and there was nothing that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance was going to do about it. The Hispanic Federation, a nonprofit organization founded and represented by Luis Miranda, a chief political consultant of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, saw its pork-barrel funding quadruple in the speaker's first budget, through a slush fund system that critics say remains politicized despite some obligatory lip service to reforms. Press reports from The New York Post and Crains New York Business show that the Hispanic Federation consistently funnels money back to Mr. Miranda's campaign consulting and lobbying firm, the MirRam Group. Steering flush fund money to charities that then act as a "pass through entity" back to favored lobbyists and campaign consultants is business as usual in the City Council. Political bloggers and government reform activists alleged that Speaker Mark-Viverito's predecessor, Christine Quinn, did the same thing, reportedly using the High Line park as the "pass-through" to ultimately benefit Bolton-St. Johns, the lobbying firm headed by former Speaker Quinn's best friend, Emily Giske. The political, campaign, and slush fund corruption in New York City comes from learned behavior about how to rig the broken political system to keep enabling still yet more and more corruption. The possibility that Council Speaker Mark-Viverito's allocation of large, six-figure sums to charities that pay some of their money back to Speaker Mark-Viverito's political operatives is a blatant conflict of interest. Is this part of the way that the Council speaker "compensates" her campaign consultants through transactions that circumvent the city's campaign finance regulatory authority, the Campaign Finance Board ? The optics of these kinds of financial arrangements merit investigation, possible charges of corruption, and at the very least the issuance of new ethics rules of recusal and oversight. But we live in a city, where District Attorney Cy Vance is Mr. Fix It. Corrupt politicians, lobbyists, and other permanent government insiders know that D.A. Vance won't prosecute anybody, meaning, "the fix is in." Former Council Speaker Quinn and Ms. Giske got away with it, and Speaker Mark-Viverito and Mr. Miranda are gambling that they will, too. So, the crooked politicians keep exploiting the system. Does that mean D.A. Vance is a power bottom for every crooked politician in this city ? (No offense to power bottoms.) Corrupt politicians know that the prosecution of significant political or government individuals pose special problems for local and state prosecutors. Voters can tell how the clients of lobbyists and campaign consultants get preferential treatment over other schmucks, who lack the political connections with prosecutorial insiders. When Crains New York Business requested the e-mail correspondence between the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and his ex-wife, political consultant powerhouse Jennifer Cunningham, the attorney general denied the Freedom of Information Law request. Similar to how the attorney general appears to be protecting his ex-wife from media scrutiny, some political bloggers and government reform activists charge that the attorney general protected politician clients of Ms. Cunningham from scrutiny. Ms. Cunningham worked on former Council Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign at a time when activists were demanding investigations into allegations of corruption during former Council Speaker Quinn's administration of the City Council, investigations which never came to pass.