Next Magazine validates cultural appropriation of the 2014 Black Party

In an article posted to Next Magazine's Web site last week, an uncredited write-up of the upcoming 2014 Black Party was described as a "mysterious look at the beautiful corners of India."

The article in Next Magazine never seemed to interview people connected with the Black Party promoter, The Saint at Large, which has stirred controversy with the South Asian and Hindu communities in New York over the planned theme for this year's Black Party. Some South Asians and Hindus have expressed concerns that the theme of this year's Black Party "fetishizes several cultural icons, including Hindu deities, which we see as a larger phenomenon of exotification of South Asian symbols and dress in writing, art, henna, yoga, and other art forms and practices."

• RELATED : 2014 Black Party Theme and Trailer Video Spark Outrage (NYC : News & Analysis)

A South Asian group named SALGA NY has organized a Facebook event calling for an open dialogue with The Saint at Large to resolve issues over the Black Party's controversial theme, but people connected with The Saint at Large have thus far turned down entreating requests from SALGA NY members. Furthermore, it's been reported on Facebook that the administrator of The Saint at Large's Facebook page has been deleting comments that question the wisdom of this year's Black Party's theme.

Representatives with The Saint and Large and The Task Force have not yet responded to e-mails requesting their comments to the controversy.

In the interim, members of SALGA NY have announced plans to host a rival party with their own authentic South Asian theme on the same evening as the Black Party.

Scott Levenson, NY-CLASS, Citizens United Super PAC Investigation (Updated)

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SPECIAL NEWS UPDATE: FRI, 25 APR 2014, 09:50 AM

In the past few weeks, FBI agents have been asking questions about the campaign by the animal rights group NY-CLASS to strong arm former Council Speaker Christine Quinn (center) to support a ban on the iconic horse-drawn carriages, two sources familiar with the matter told The New York Daily News. The horse lobbyists in question include Scott Levenson, and they are linked to Mayor Bill de Blasio (inset). (FBI investigating claim that Christine Quinn was threatened by Scott Levenson for refusing to support carriage horse ban during the mayoral race * The New York Daily News)

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PUBLISHED : SAT, 08 MAR 2014, 02:06 AM
UPDATED : FRI, 25 APR 2014, 12:17 PM

The mayor and his Council speaker, who both reject checks-and-balances, oversee city campaign regulators nominally tasked to investigate campaign corruption of groups with close ties to the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration.

In an article posted on The Daily Beast, NY1 political reporter Josh Robin reported that "city campaign regulators have begun investigating" Scott Levenson, the lobbyist-advisor to NY-CLASS, the animal rights group that organized Super PAC's to defeat Mayor Bill de Blasio's chief mayoral challenger, former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Information about this investigation was first reported by Michael Powell in The New York Times back in November 2013.

• RELATED : Bill de Blasio Whipped by Horse Lobby (The Daily Beast)
• RELATED : In Campaign, Cash Flowed Circuitously (The New York Times)
• RELATED : Complaint Filed Against Advance Group for Election Work (Politicker)
• RELATED : The Advance Group Federal Complaint Referred To Moreland Commission (NYC : News & Analysis)

When questions were first brought to the city's Campaign Finance Board about the role of Mr. Levenson and his lobbying firm, The Advance Group, doing unpaid lobbying work in the New York City Council speaker race, city campaign regulators looked the other way as Mr. Levenson provided a valuable gift to Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito to possibly influence her performance as Council speaker in respect of official acts that could benefit The Advance Group and its lobbying clients.

But the board members of the Campaign Finance Board are selected by both the mayor and the Council speaker, thereby preventing it from rendering an independent review of the controversies that surrounding Mr. Levenson, who likes to accept responsibly for each of Mayor de Blasio's primary win and for Ms. Mark-Viverito's selection as Council speaker. As a reward for Mr. Levenson's NY-CLASS's crucial support, the mayor attended a fundraiser for NY-CLASS, which was closed to the press. Meanwhile, Speaker Mark-Viverito, who benefitted from free lobbying work provided to her by The Advance Group, has expressed support for enacting legislation sought by NY-CLASS. This cross-support has all the appearance of a quid pro quo.

An undeniable perception exists that the Campaign Finance Board is a political organ of the occupants of City Hall. As was noted in a comment to The New York Times story, "The real scandal is the Campaign Finance Board, which spent most of its resources tracking down addresses of donors to John Liu rather than paying attention to the big money controlled by the likes of Scott Levenson." This is among the many reasons why the Campaign Finance Board cannot be trusted to lead an investigation into the co-electioneering activities of Mr. Levenson and the NY-CLASS Super PAC's.

If the Campaign Finance Board answers to the mayor and to the Council speaker and if the mayor and the Council speaker have close ties to Mr. Levenson and to NY-CLASS, then can city campaign regulations exert enough independence to fully investigate whether possible coordination of independent political campaign expenditures and free gifts of lobbying services were violations of federal laws that ban, respectively, Super PAC coordination and bribery ?

• RELATED : Under campaign finance scrutiny, animal-rights advocates NY-CLASS ditches The Advance Group, moves out, lawyers up (NYC : News & Analysis)
• RELATED : Rich backers raise $473,000 for Bill de Blasio in just three weeks (The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Bill de Blasio won't appear at fund-raising events unless it raises $75,000 minimum (The New York Daily News)

Separate from violating campaign finance laws, the role of each of Mr. Levenson and the NY-CLASS Super PAC's had damaging effects on the opportunity for reform in a post-Quinn municipal government. Because of the independent campaign expenditures that nearly totaled $2 million, the influence of NY-CLASS perverted the ability of other issue reformers from being taken seriously by the media. Witness how the media accepted the controversial appointment of William Bratton as police commissioner, even though he still supports unconstitutional tactics, such as stop-and-frisk and the broken windows theory of policing, which unfairly targets low-income communities and people of color -- but does nothing to combat the white collar crimes by political operatives or by Wall Street. Further, the NY-CLASS Super PAC's misappropriated the grassroots work by reform activists, including tenants' rights activists like John Fisher, police reform activists, QUILTBAG civil rights activists, and St. Vincent's Hospital activists, who each had separately and collectively spent years organizing to vote the former Council Speaker Quinn out of office. There was even a serialized book, recounting former Council Speaker Quinn's long record of community and political betrayals.

Using the distorting influence of Super PAC money to control media attention, political operatives loyal to Mayor de Blasio, chief amongst them, Mr. Levenson, usurped activists' abilities to continue pressing the new administration to roll out a truly progressive reform agenda, not one that has been noted to be slipshod in its attempts at "reform," like the education advocates pushing for universal pre-kinder only for New York City at the same time when those same education advocates are neglecting to call for an expansion of kindergarten to become a full-day program in its own right for the rest of New York State. While NY-CLASS awaits the enactment of its noble-minded ban on horse drawn carriages, other reform activists are left scratching their heads, wondering what happened at real attempts at government reform, like ending the Council speaker's slush fund, reforming the corrupt ULURP zone-busting approval process that continues to favor large real estate developers, the need to finally allocate all the resources that can provide shelter to the homeless, and pursuing other humane policies that would use the gains of our economy to help the people most in need.

• RELATED : When is it okay for "progressives" to vote against a Democrat ? (This Week)

The issue of reforming the process of zone-busting real estate development projects becomes all the more impossible with Mr. Levenson and NY-CLASS, since one of the group's founders is Steve Nislick, a real estate developer, who, in a shady confluence of events, is said to be trying to develop a zone-busting project on land currently used as horse stables for the horse-drawn carriage industry that he is coincidentally trying to outlaw. Add to that the fact that Mayor de Blasio has appeared to be courting large real estate developers and their lobbyists, such as James Capalino.

As Mr. Levenson and NY-CLASS continue to advance the narrative that the sole actions of the NY-CLASS Super PAC's defeated Speaker Quinn and helped to elect Mayor de Blasio, that should help federal prosecutors seal their investigation into coordinated campaign corruption, a karmically-doomed trap that Mr. Levenson and NY-CLASS operatives have documented in a series of press reports that they were too blind to see. But the still larger question for Democrats, who are said to largely favor campaign finance reform, is why do they accept that the Democratic mayor and his Council speaker have yet to call for campaign finance reform to end the corruptive role of lobbyists and big business and special interest money in the election system. As was noted in the comments below, if Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito lack the political will to enact real campaign finance reforms on the municipal level, then they also have the option of pressing on Washington or Albany to enact federal- or state-level reforms. But all voters seem to get is nothing.

The Advance Group, which provided unpaid consultants to Mark-Viverito, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates. (The New York Daily News)

Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ? (Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NY Pop Culture & Politics)

Caught in a Vicious Circle, NYC Homeless Man Describes "Broken System" in YouTube Video

One homeless man, who is gay, middle-aged, single, and overcoming the past affects of being a victim of domestic violence, describes the "vicious circle" of being homeless in the midst of the brutal 2014 winter season in New York City.

Watch as a harrowing tale of being cycled through single-male shelters, including one on Wards Island, where he was beaten ; through Metropolitan Hospital with its jaded social workers ; through a series of non-profit organizations, such as Safe Horizon, including LGBT groups, like the Anti-Violence Project and Callen-Lorde, which denied social workers based on the man's sero status ; and finally through the cold city agencies, like 311, the mayor's office, and the Department of Mental Health, which, at times, left this man waiting for appointments, sent e-mails from one commissioner no longer in office, and, incredibly, required the homeless man to have a physical address.

• RELATED : Domestic Violence Victims Wait Up to a Decade for Emergency NYCHA Housing (DNAinfo)
• RELATED : Homeless Youths File Federal Lawsuit Against New York City
  (NYC : News & Analysis)

According to statistics made available by the Coalition for the Homeless, there are more people, who are homeless, than there is space in the shelter system. “[M]ore than 5,000 homeless adults and children sleep each night in other public and private shelters, and thousands more sleep rough on the streets or in other public spaces.” On top of this, nobody reviews how “the system” treats homeless people.

Video was filmed in its entirety on 01 March 2014, edited, and uploaded on 05 March 2014.

Produced by : @ProgressQueens on Twitter

To protect the man's identity, his real name is being used in the video, but it is not being used in the text about this video. To contact the homeless man, please reach out on Twitter to @ProgressQueens.

Black Party Theme and Trailer Video Spark Outrage

Exotification, Fetishization, and Misappropriation of South Asian and Hindu Cultures

This year's Black Party on March 22 in New York City promises to be a scandal.

In a bid to give the annual gay circuit party some oomph, Black Party organizers have adopted a theme of "Passage to India or Holika Dahan with performances and aesthetics inspired by the ancient Hindu religious festival of Holi," according to Time Out magazine. The chosen theme has created a backlash amongst some South Asian communities, who say they see the Black Party's theme as offensive.

Invoking what could be described as controversial South Asian and Hindu images, the Black Party 2014 trailer posted to YouTube is titled, "A Ruined Paradise." The video, by Leo Herrara, features several images that seem to cross the line : It features a skull being blessed with a sacred ash across its forehead, what appears to be a funeral pyre along a body of water, a man smoking a pipe with an apparent subversive connotation, the colorful celebration of Holi, and, superimposed against a backdrop of a large crowd of people, who appear to be South Asians, the bold phrase "A Ruined Paradise" appears. Black Party organizers have been asked by e-mail to comment about how the South Asian culture is a "ruined paradise," along with a few other questions. Once Black Party organizers have provided a response, this post will be updated.

On Facebook, a group called SALGA NYC has created a call-to-action event against the Black Party organizer, The Saint at Large. Members of SALGA NYC have reached out to The Saint at Large to express their concerns, but the circuit party organizers refuse to back down, justifying their use of South Asian and Hindu imagery as "necessary for fetishization," according to an e-mail newsletter from SALGA NYC.

• RELATED : Black Party - Offensive Marketing and Theme (Facebook Event)

"The annual dance/performance/kink party this year has a South Asian/Hindu theme, and fetishizes several cultural icons, including Hindu deities, which we see as a larger phenomenon of exotification of South Asian symbols and dress in writing, art, henna, yoga, and other art forms and practices. While the views in our community are as diverse as our members and as such there is no singular position that reflects even the members of our board, many of us are offended at the appropriation of South Asian symbols by largely non-South Asian event-planners," members of SALGA NYC wrote on the Facebook event page.

The Black Party is an important part of the gay social calendar in New York. It's an annual celebration that takes place during an all-night binge of music, dancing, and other hedonistic activities, appealing to party-goers, who are free-thinking and uninhibited, and the atmosphere can be described as a cross between an underground disco party and the backroom of a gay club. But subculture aspects that make the Black Party so exciting is no excuse for organizers to appropriate South Asian and Hindu cultures, according to members of SALGA NYC. As a group, SALGA NYC "fully support the idea behind fetish parties, queer parties, and other forms of kink," but the group "are troubled when other queer groups marginalize, exotify and offend our community in pursuit of queering spaces."

SALGA NYC members urged The Saint at Large to "engage in active dialogue" with the South Asian community, to resolve these issues, but thus far the Black Party organizers have refused to acknowledge the cultural incompetencies of this year's theme.

The offending 2014 trailer video is currently "unlisted" on YouTube, meaning, one must have a link to it, in order to view it. But the video has been being passed around amongst activists and other concerned members of the South Asian community. A tamer, much more generic promotional video for the Black Party, this one made by BunnyZ of last year's event, is also "unlisted," but it is embedded on the Web site of The Saint at Large.

Last year, Katy Perry sparked controversy and accusations of cultural appropriation when she sang one of her songs in a geisha-inspired performance on the American Music Awards. After the discussion that followed that scandal, it's not known why Black Party organizers would move forward with a Black Party theme that obviously appropriates aspects of South Asian cultures and Hindu religious rites. And the fact that there's been prior controversy in the New York gay scene about appropriation of Asian culture that some observed bordered on racism. In 2011, gay planners were organizing a theme party called "Mr. Wong's Dong Emporium," but after the New York gay Asian community expressed their concerns, "promoters apologized and changed the name and theme of the party."

If you care to contact The Saint at Large to express your opinions about the cultural misappropriation in this year's Black Party, please send an e-mail to : thesaintatlarge@gmail.com

Following below are some screen shots of the scandalous 2014 trailer video. A still of the funeral pyre was rejected by Photo Bucket.

Here is a screen capture showing a skull being blessed with sacred ashes across its forehead.

In this still, the colorful powder of Holi celebrations are thrown in the air.

Here, a man wearing dark sunglasses smokes a pipe in a segment that may have subversive suggestions.

It remains unexplained or unqualified why "A Ruined Paradise" would be the title of this video, or why it would be superimposed against a backdrop of a crowd of people assumed to be South Asians.

The Black Party is using a controversial video to promote its South Asian/Hindu-themed event on March 22.

Jackson Heights Crap : Whose Garbage Is Really Worse ?

In Latest Jackson Heights Garbage Controversy, Scandal Depends On Eye Of Beholder

Last week, New York City Councilmember Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights) appeared at a news conference outside of the Starbucks on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens, to complain about what he saw as a nuisance : the garbage that the coffee shop stacked outside the alley gate on 79th Street, near the coffee shop's backdoor.

Hearing it told by Councilmember Dromm and neighbors, employees of the coffee shop do not neatly bag nor tie the shop's garbage when the bags are placed out for collection. "Open bags of coffee grinds, food and other trash is often strewn around, residents said, and is usually left out for 12 hours or more," DNAinfo reported. However, the photo posted by Queens Crap showed that the garbage placed on the sidewalk for pickup was actually tied and neatly stacked against the curb. Presumably the neighborhood residents, who are complaining the loudest about the Starbucks garbage bags, are the residents of the building at 35-56 79th Street, which butts up against the backside the alley, where Starbucks stores it garbage.

• RELATED : Frothing Over a Starbucks in Little Colombia (The New York Times)
• RELATED : Local Starbucks Dumps Trash Near Apartment Buildings, Residents Say (DNAinfo)

If the photo of the Starbucks garbage is to believed -- and there's no reason not to -- it's not known if after Starbucks employees place the garbage bags on the curb that they are later opened by the people, who open up neighborhood recycle bags to scavenge for glass bottles and aluminum cans that can be exchanged for a cash deposit at neighborhood grocery stores. The photo of the Starbucks garbage bags only shows a few black garbage bags, which should only contain items that cannot be recycled, such as coffee grinds, food waste, or other trash. By far the majority of the garbage bags that are stacked along the curb are made of clear plastic, which should only contain recyclables. Because people, who scavenge for recyclables know that they would only be contained in clear bags, there is less reason for the black bags to be opened once Starbucks employees set the bags out on the curb. It's bad enough that there are people, who open up recycling bags in search of an item that can be exchanged for a 5¢ deposit, but if scavengers are opening up the black bags in search of food items, then perhaps city officials should be addressing the larger problem of poverty or homelessness that drives people to open up garbage bags in search of aluminum cans or leftover sandwich crusts -- and not targeting Starbucks over the garbage bags it puts out for waste and recycling collection. There's a larger problem that's apparently being left unaddressed here.

It's ironic that the residents of the apartment building at 35-56 79th Street, which is adjacent to the Starbucks, would complain about the Starbucks garbage bags. The residents of 35-56 79th Street are responsible for their own garbage, which lays in plain sight from the sidewalk along 79th Street. There are metal pipes, an errant baby stroller, and other construction materials laying in the alley alongside 35-56 79th Street. It's not known if the Starbucks employees, who must use the shared alley, have ever complained about the garbage belonging to the apartment building next door.

The press conference outside the Starbucks was supposed to also feature State Sen. Jose Peralta, but he did not show up to join Councilmember Dromm and concerned neighbors. The Starbucks company originally opened its location in Jackson Heights as a result of lobbying by Sen. Peralta, The New York Times reported in 2008. The Queens Crap blog observed the irony that Sen. Peralta had suddenly turned against Starbucks when it was he, who had lobbied the national chain to open a coffee shop in Jackson Heights.

Judging by the high number of other posts about garbage on the Queens Crap blog, cleaning up Queens is a huge concern for residents. It is odd that of all Queens, or more specifically Jackson Heights, that the garbage put out by Starbucks would merit such a controversy.

On 74th Street and 37th Road, for example, only a few blocks away from the Starbucks, the city offers no garbage canisters to collect trash near what is arguably the largest transportation hub in the borough.

On 74th Street, some of the garbage bags, which are placed on the sidewalk, are left open, leak grease and other muck, and stain the sidewalk. While it is true that there is a perception in Jackson Heights that 74th Street needs to be cleaned up, the reality is that the city makes no resources available, like garbage canisters or regular garbage collection, to keep the sidewalks clear in that part of Jackson Heights.

Which is to say that it doesn't seem to make sense why Starbucks is being targeted for its garbage, when there appears to be more pressing areas in Jackson Heights, which need the attention of city officials.

Unless it is because the residents of 35-56 79th Street live on an expensive block, and, by comparison, the businesses located along 74th Street are being deliberately denied city resources, because those business leaders there lack affluence or influence that would translate into government responsiveness ?

Screw the Voters, Indignant Mayor Bill de Blasio Upset That He Should Be Held Accountable to Other Politicians, Even to the Press

Mayor Bill de Blasio does not believe in checks-and-balances, neither from other elected officials, nor from the fourth estate.

As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio rolls out an agenda that includes the seemingly contradictory appointment of a police commissioner who was the architect of stop-and-frisk and task him to "end the stop-and-frisk era" ; the closing down of charter schools at the same time he tries to expand public school services, like universal pre-kinder and after school programs, which he plans to pay for by slightly increasing the income taxes of the most wealthy New Yorkers ; the close incorporation of political operatives and lobbyists in his administration ; and the combative relationship he's now developing with the City Hall press corps, he has begun to upset many folks, whose support he should not take for granted : people of color, working families, the affluent, government reform activists, and the media. Complicating matters is that the mayor has yet to completely fill in his new administration.

Instead of focusing on completing his own administration, the mayor began his term as mayor by focusing his attention on lobbying the City Council on behalf of his favorite to become the Council speaker. Typically, the race for speaker is a complex, post-election endeavor that largely takes place behind closed doors. For the mayor's favorite, Melissa Mark-Viverito to be selected as Council speaker, the mayor and the teams of lobbyists working on the campaign had to undermine the political influence of U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley, who chairs the Queens County Democratic Party. Rep. Crowley had supported the mayor's arch rival, former Council Speaker Christine Quinn, in last year's mayoral race. Because the mayor has been expending great efforts to extend his power and influence over every corner of city government, the mayor was interested in weakening any competing power-centers in New York City that might challenge the mayor on controversial aspects of his agenda. Because of his stature and importance, Rep. Crowley was seen as a threat not just to Speaker Mark-Viverito's leadership race, but also as a possible check on the mayor's agenda. Three months after Rep. Crowley's favorite in the Council speaker race lost, Mayor de Blasio recruited one of Rep. Crowley's district leaders, Rebecca Lynch, into his administration. Rep. Crowley is perhaps one of the only Democratic politicians left in New York City, who can serve as a check on Mayor de Blasio, and that is why the de Blasio administration continues to focus on raiding and weakening Rep. Crowley's authority and influence.

Last week, it was announced that Council Speaker Mark-Viverito would endorse and campaign for a primary challenger to Rep. Charles Rangel. Rep. Rangel had endorsed another one of the mayor's rivals in last year's election, former Comptroller Bill Thompson. In his last re-election, Rep. Rangel barely won. Now that the mayor and his large new team of operatives occupy City Hall and City Council will be backing Rep. Rangel's opponent, if Rep. Rangel is defeated, then that would leave the Rev. Al Sharpton, a chief mayoral supporter, as the sole African American leader with the greatest influence up in Harlem. Anybody, who would potentially be in a position to criticise the mayor's agenda, is being systematically challenged.

• RELATED : NYC Council’s Mark-Viverito snatches support from Rep. Charles Rangel (The New York Daily News)

After the mayor was sworn into office, he announced that his family would move into Gracie Mansion. Thus far, he has hesitated to make the move, and it could be that if the mayor remains in Brooklyn, his power and influence would keep former Assemblyman Vito Lopez and Brooklyn County Democratic Party chair Frank Seddio from eclipsing the mayor's influence over Brooklyn. Trying to eliminate or diminish the threat of criticism is important to the mayor, and it has taken up a lot of time and energy during his young administration. Because so much of the mayor's agenda may trigger criticism or resistance, the mayor is trying to neutralize that criticism not just to protect his agenda, but also as a way to clear the field of any possible primary challenger in 2017, when the mayor is expected to run for re-election. Mayor de Blasio doesn't want to end up as a one-term Democratic mayor, like former Mayor David Dinkins was.

When Mayor de Blasio was only a candidate, former Mayor Dinkins criticised the de Blasio plan to increase income taxes on the very wealthy in order to find the expansion of pre-kinder. As the de Blasio administration seeks to neutralise his critics, either real or imagined, it remains to be seen how the mayor and his political operatives plan to neuter former Mayor Dinkins.

As one political insider said on deep background, the cumulative effect of the mayor's heavy-handed machinations to neutralise critics and possible challengers will be the creation of a new political landscape in New York City that will yield a 20-30 year plan where the political insiders and lobbyists of the Working Families Party become the sole political power center of New York City.

"Access to information is essential to the health of democracy for at least two reasons. First, it ensures that citizens make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of ignorance or misinformation. Second, information serves a "checking function" by ensuring that elected representatives uphold their oaths of office and carry out the wishes of those who elected them." (University of San Francisco - California)

Because so much efforting is being expended on this background campaign, the mayor is actually running two different governments : the actual functionality of governing New York City, and a permanent backroom campaign to solidify his power and influence over every other office holder in New York City, regardless of whether the office holder was elected to represent city, state, or federal office.

To keep these machinations hidden, the mayor has the monumental task of keeping as much of these machinations hidden from perhaps his harshest critics : the City Hall press corps.

• RELATED : Foes Seize On NY Mayor Frontrunner Bill de Blasio's Secret Lobbyist Meetings (The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Lobbyists Lined Up To Help Host Million-Dollar Bill de Blasio/Hillary Clinton Fundraiser (The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Closed to reporters, de Blasio headlines fundraiser for anti-Quinn group (Crains Insider)
• RELATED : De Blasio’s shadow transition (Capital New York)
• RELATED : De Blasio praises Israel at closed-door AIPAC event (Capital New York)
• RELATED : After Private Speech on Israel, de Blasio Is Pressed on Openness Pledge (The New York Times)
• RELATED : De Blasio Promises More Transparency After Closed-Door AIPAC Speech (Politicker)
• RELATED : Bill de Blasio Cancels Press Conference One Day After Grilling (Politicker)
• RELATED : De Blasio allies urge end to questions about his call to police (Capital New York)
• RELATED : De Blasio dodges media talk after storm backlash (The New York Post)
• RELATED : ‘Transparent’ Mayor de Blasio Closes REBNY Meeting For Press (JP Updates)
• RELATED : Mayor de Blasio blows off questions about alleged traffic violations despite promise of transparency (The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : De Blasio Takes No Questions On Traffic Violations By His Caravan (CBS2 New York)
• RELATED : De Blasio Seems to Be Struggling to Fulfill Transparency Pledge (NY1)
• RELATED : NY1 ItCH : A New Smackdown Dance for Mayor de Blasio (NY1)
• RELATED : De Blasio Has Private Sit-Down With Republican Lawmaker in Brooklyn (Politicker)
• RELATED : De Blasio Takes ‘Speedgate’ Questions After Refusing Them Friday (Politicker)
• RELATED : What is Bill de Blasio communicating? (Capital New York)

Besides trying to lay the groundwork for a new political landscape across New York City, the mayor has pushed back any time the press has tried to hold the mayor accountable. The mayor has hidden controversial appointments from his public calendar, and he attends controversial meetings that are closed to the press. He ignores reporters questions on thorny issues of his young administration, and he and his reports do not shy away from telling the media what to report and when. Mayor de Blasio doesn't want the City Hall press corps to think that they can shake the mayor down for specifics about how his administration's governance.

I still find it a bit funny when @BerlinRosen group sends out release praising @BilldeBlasio, who of course is a @BerlinRosen client.

— Ross Barkan (@RossBarkan) March 3, 2014

To continue the mayor's plan to extend his influence across New York City, his administration has installed the lobbying and consulting firm of Berlin Rosen, political operatives who worked on the mayor's campaign, in the media relations role of the mayor's universal pre-kinder initiative. Berlin Rosen will be able to "control" the universal pre-kinder messaging for the mayor this way. Berlin Rosen also serves as consultants to a coalition of major police reform groups, Communities United for Police Reform. The latter allows Berlin Rosen to control the messaging coming from one of the mayor's most politically sensitive quarters : police reform activists. Tampering down police reform activists is all the more important to the mayor, even as the NYPD continues to become embroiled in more racial profiled controversies. It was reported that another political insider and lobbying firm, Pitta Bishop, helped Council Speaker Mark-Viverito with City Council staffing.

Left out in the lurch as a consequence of the mayor's machinations are voters, who will have no say in what the messaging will be that comes out of the universal pre-kinder or the police reform movements that are now controlled by the mayor's political operatives.

• RELATED : Bill de Blasio’s Old Campaign Operations Live On, in One Form or Another (Politicker)

Already, it appears that some members of the City Hall press corps can already sense that the mayor's energies and efforts are not adding up. In an article that purported to show that the mayor has been inducing many of the city's activists into drinking the Kool-Aid of his administration, The New York Times still pointed out the nagging concern that the de Blasio administration may be becoming an "echo chamber, since almost no one in the city’s new political hierarchy seems poised to challenge Mr. de Blasio’s policies publicly." Indeed, reform activists had been pinning their hopes that some true advances were going to made after the Legal Aid Society sued the City of New York in Brooklyn federal court for the full resources to provide shelter to homeless youths, but then it was announced that to perhaps undercut the Legal Aid Society's efforts, the de Blasio administration had hired their top attorney, Steven Banks, to become commissioner of the city’s Human Resources Administration. The timing of the Legal Aid Society's lawsuit had raised hopes that some cornerstone community groups were going to stop playing the annual budget dance between the mayor and the City Council, but with Mr. Banks' departure only weeks after having filed the lawsuit against the de Blasio administration, homeless youths may have lost their only opportunity to demand and get the full resources to provide them with shelter.

Perhaps it won't be too long before the press corps catches up to the fact that the mayor's unprogressive power play machinations are deliberately creating a new political landscape whereby nobody can challenge the mayor's policies publicly ?

Paid Gay Inc. Political Operatives Counsel White House To Remain Silent As Supremacist Laws Spread Across United States

Despite Spree of De Jure Discrimination, No Gay Inc. Group Calls on President Obama to Publicly Condemn Them

All these people who espouse that the president should remain silent while supremacist laws get passed across America remind me of when folks went around silencing critics when Germany was passing supremacist laws in its own country during the last century. There are some, who say we should not enfeeble President Barack Obama by making him take sides in the spread of anti-LGBT laws, that we need the president to remain a "man of iron," figuratively speaking, to guide the nation on more important issues. On Facebook, somebody posted, in part, on my wall, "The 2 Senators have already stated their views. Do you have doubt as to where the President stands ?"

Actually, I do have doubts about President Obama. He promised to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA, but six years into his administration, we are still waiting. But yet here come folks, who appear to be paid Gay Inc. political operatives, counseling us to keep on waiting, wait more, and I ask : wait for what ? Wait for how much longer ? What does President Obama stand for ? What does he believe in ?

Whenever other oppressive regimes in other nations are carrying out violent crackdows against freedoms and liberties, the Obama administration always seems to come to the rescue of the violent dictators, who are running their respective nations into the ground. Here he is, the highest elected leader of our nation, and yet he wants to stay silent as de jure discrimination spreads from one American state to another. The false counsel that some shameful LGBT operatives are giving the White House, to remain silent as Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) considers S.B. 1062, legislation that would legalize LGBT discrimination, is a perfect example of that old adage : the chicken coop is guarded from the inside.

• RELATED : Arizona’s ‘turn away the gay’ bill part of national trend (Washington Blade)

Under campaign finance scrutiny, animal-rights advocates NY-CLASS ditches The Advance Group, moves out, lawyers up

Some fall-out of the poisonous impact of Citizens United on the recent past municipal election cycle

From Crains Insider :

"Crain's has confirmed that the Campaign Finance Board is looking into NYCLASS' outside spending on behalf of animal-friendly City Council candidates in the 2013 elections, while the Advance Group simultaneously ran the campaigns of several of those candidates out of the same office. Super PACs are not allowed to coordinate with candidates' campaigns. ... NYCLASS has hired Martin Connor, the former state Senate minority leader, to represent the nonprofit, while the Advance Group has hired well-known attorney Lawrence Mandelker. Messrs. Connor and Mandelker did not return requests for comment Monday. Others involved in the probe, such as individual City Council candidates, are also expected to separately hire attorneys if necessary."

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• UPDATED : The Advance Group Federal Complaint Referred To Moreland Commission (NYC : News & Analysis)
• RELATED : Melissa Mark-Viverito Lobbyist Firm Never Quit, Continued Lobbying Despite Investigations (NYC : News & Analysis)

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Besides its questionable involvement with NYCLASS, The Advance Group also sparked controversy after it worked for free on Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito's successful Council speaker campaign, the subject of which, along with the allegations referred to in the above Crains Insider article, were referred to federal prosecutors and to select members of the anti-corruption investigation panel, the Moreland Commission.

Maybe if activists would target Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama for their reliance on Super PAC's, it would shame the Democrats into actually doing something about ending the poisonous impact of Citizens United on the election process ?

The Advance Group, which provided unpaid consultants to Melissa Mark-Viverito's speakership campaign, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates. (The New York Daily News)

Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ? (Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NYC : News & Analysis)

Facing investigation, anti-@chriscquinn group ditches The Advance Group, lawyers up http://t.co/1pci3GNx0l @maslowsneeds @ChrisBragg1

— Informed Voting (@informedvoting) February 25, 2014

Uganda To Sign Anti-Homosexuality Law ; Justifies Discrimination On Obama Silence On Arizona's Discrimination Bill

Ofwono Opondo, the Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre and the Spokesperson of the Government of Uganda, authored a series of tweets, confirming the signing of Uganda's anti-homosexuality law today. Among his tweets was an attack on U.S. President Barack Obama for not speaking out to denounce the law allowing "businesses to deny services to gays on religious grounds."

• NEWS : Uganda's President Museveni signs controversial anti-gay bill into law (CNN)

While it seems that Mr. Opondo was trying to justify Uganda's sexual orientation discrimination on the GOP's sexual orientation discrimination in Arizona, Mr. Opondo does make a point : the Obama administration can't really denounce discrimination against the LGBT community in a foreign country if it does nothing to denounce similar discrimination right here at home.

Ugandan gov't spox confirms signing, references Arizona religious disc rim bill & asks what Obama has said about it: pic.twitter.com/pwUuq7HTJC

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 24, 2014

The Obama administration hasn't done much to stand up against anti-LGBT human rights abuses around the world. President Obama hasn't been able to bring to a stop the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place in Russia, Uganda, or Nigeria. Here at home, LGBT activists are still waiting for President Obama to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA.

Obama's America: Arizona passes 'anti-gay' bill allowing business owners to refuse service on religious grounds http://t.co/8nLrpT9hvr

— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) February 22, 2014

Assaulted and Battered by Police Officer, Cecily McMillan Faces Retaliatory Felony Charge

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance's office is prosecuting a second degree felony assault charge against Cecily McMillan, even though Ms. McMillan was the victim of NYPD brutality. Listen to attorney Martin R. Stolar's exclusive interview with We Are Change CT for details of the police's dubious charges against Ms. McMillan. How can the Manhattan district attorney seriously bring this case to trial ? The DA has discretion and should be able to see that the charge lacks merit. The NYPD wouldn't be able to get away with so much brutality if it wasn't for how much the DA's office basically enables police misconduct.

Ms. McMillan's next trial date is scheduled for March 3 at 100 Centre Street.

Risperdal Causes Abnormal Male Breast Growth

ATTENTION Parents of boys who took Risperdal - A medication for the treatment of ADHD, Autism, and Bipolar Disorder has been linked to Gynecomastia, a medical condition in which boys develop female breasts. If your son has taken Risperdal and developed gynecomastia, has developed female breasts, has had breast removal surgery or has lactated, call 1-800-BAD-DRUG today. Your family may be entitled to significant compensation. Some claims have already settled.

• RELATED : Risperdal Schizophrenia Drug Makes Boys Grow Breasts (Lawyers.com)

Vision Zero Nanny caught running stop signs, speeding, breaking traffic laws

CBS 2 New York Report : Mayor’s Caravan Violated Traffic Safety Laws Days After Safety Event

#CBS2 EXCLUSIVE @ 5 @BilldeBlasio car speeding, running stop signs-days after his plan to make streets safer pic.twitter.com/pKw1NreCHa

— Sarah Walters (@SWaltersTV) February 20, 2014

Just days after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his #VisionZero traffic safety improvement plan, CBS 2 New York reporter Marcia Kramer busted the mayor running stop signs and speeding, according to an exposé broadcast by CBS 2 New York Thursday night.

"When the mayor announced his 62-point safe streets initiative, which includes lowering the speed limit to 25 mph, he said, 'We want the public to know that we are holding ourselves to this standard,' " Ms. Kramer reported.

Because the mayor appears to have been caught being hypocritical about the enforcement of his new #VisionZero traffic safety plan, he's going to have to explain why traffic laws seem to apply to regular New Yorkers, but not to the mayoral caravan.

• RELATED : Mayor de Blasio’s Caravan Caught Speeding, Violating Traffic Laws (CBS 2 New York)
• RELATED : Bill de Blasio unveils a ‘definitional’ Vision Zero plan (Capital New York)
• RELATED : Bill de Blasio’s Vow to End Traffic Deaths Meets Reality of New York Streets (The New York Times)

The fact that the mayor believes that the application of his #TaleOfTwoCities traffic safety plan only applies to others, but not to him, will undoubtedly embarrass his administration in tomorrow's tabloids. But this pause would be a great opportunity to really evaluate the "pie in the sky" promise of dropping all traffic accident deaths to zero.

According to The New York Times, police statistics show that 176 pedestrians were killed in traffic accidents in New York City in 2013. How many of those traffic deaths were attributable to the city's encouragement of more pedestrian use of the city's streets ? We have numerous street fairs during the summer, marathons, cement parks have taken over parts of city streets with some tables and chairs mere feet away from moving traffic. Now, there are bike racks right on the streets ! The city has been encouraging more pedestrian use of the streets, and now the de Blasio administration wants to ticket people for using those same streets, either because they jaywalk, or because they are becoming victims of traffic accidents caused by vehicular traffic.

If we have situations were the mayor's caravan can run stop signs, speed, and break other traffic laws without a police escort blaring its lights and siren, how can citizens take Mayor de Blasio's new #VisionZero traffic safety plan recommendations ? There are all these mixed signals : use the streets, don't use the streets, the streets are safe, the streets are not safe. What are we to believe ?

Before the NYPD started in on its ticket blitz and brutalized jaywalkers, the mayor and the police department should have looked to what Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe tried to do to make that city safer for pedestrians. After Paris installed its wildly successful bike sharing program, the Paris municipality set out to make the city safer for all its pedestrians, bicyclers, and motorists. They rightly started their program, in part, with a huge public awareness campaign to change people's behavior. Huge signs were posted along some of the busiest streets, like the Boulevard de Sébastapol, to make pedestrians -- and drivers -- more aware of each other.

Mayor Delanoe's traffic safety program aimed to make it safer on Parisian streets after that city had encouraged tens of thousands of more people to take to the streets on bikes. It was after this mass new infusion of people on the streets that the effectiveness of the traffic safety plan was revealed to only be marginal. More than 10,000 pedestrians were injured in 2008 in Paris. By 2012, that number decreased only to about 8,327, and that was after a few year's worth of the Paris mayor's traffic safety plan.

Gains in pedestrian traffic safety will undoubtedly be made, but Vision "Zero" is impossible, because there will always be accidents, especially because the New York City is encouraging more and more people to take to the very same streets occupied by motor vehicles. Mayor de Blasio is overlooking how "Zero" is an impossibility. A much-needed traffic improvement plan should not be sold like that. How are we ever going to get to "zero," when certain drivers think that speed limits, traffic signs, and other traffic laws don't apply to them ?

Wow. @billdeblasio's office tells Marcia Kramer to call the NYPD about his detail speeding and running stop signs.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggiepolitico) February 20, 2014

Making the city "safer" for pedestrians needs to involve more than ticketing people for jaywalking, more than just empty talk, and certainly more than letting the mayor run through stop signs when he thinks nobody else is looking. Some of the safety improvements that Paris made were as a result of a whole host of efforts.

Several years in, the traffic safety effort in Paris has only made marginal improvements in safety. Their valiant efforts show that no matter how much you do, traffic is always going to be risky, if not dangerous, because human behavior will always involve risk, whether you are in a speeding cab, driving in dangerous weather conditions, or riding in the mayoral caravan. Making an effort to improve traffic safety is admirable, but let's be realistic. Vision "zero" is nanny-talk.

Cute goats balancing on a flexible sheet metal

Cute young goats, called kids, jumping on and off of flexible sheet metal.

Shih Tzu blood-curdling scream when his name is called

A Shih Tzu dog named Cody screams out loud when his name is called.

Poor puppy. How'd it come for him to react that way ? Unless the puppy thinks that when his name is called, it is a form of howling ? And the puppy must be howling back ?

This is one pet video that certainly is not the same as all the other cute videos on YouTube.

WATCH : Elaine Stritch dropped the F-Bomb on The Today Show

This morning, Broadway legend Elaine Stritch was interviewed on The Today Show when she dropped the F-Bomb. She was talking about how she always says whatever comes to her mind. Kathie Lee and Hoda reacted with restrained shock ! Ms. Stritch then rambled on in the interview, and when Ms. Stritch missed the cues that the interview was coming to an end, she was eventually cut off mid-sentence.

Alrighty then. 89-year-old Elaine Stritch drops an f-bomb in telling Hoda and Kathie Lee about her unrestrained style on @TODAYshow.

— Jon Belmont (@jbelmont) February 18, 2014

Ms. Stritch had appeared on The Today Show to promote her new documentary, "Shoot Me."

Ms. Stritch dropped the F-Bomb on The Today Show.