Controversial LGBT Poster Debuted At Brooklyn Pride, First Project of "The Reformers"

(Some Of) The Faces That Sell-Out The LGBT Community

We're celebrating Brooklyn Pride pic.twitter.com/jiRcM5pff2

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) June 14, 2014

RELATED The Faces That Sell-Out The LGBT Community (LGBT Sell-Outs)

At the Brooklyn Pride festival yesterday, the city's LGBT community turned out for food and entertainment, a street fair, and a rude wake-up call. A poster showing the faces and names of 16 LGBT leaders, who, over the years, have stopped fully advocating for the community on whose behalf they serve, was taped up along several blocks of Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. Some posters were affixed to the front doors of Port-A-Potties, a popular place for festival-goers to congregate. Outside one Port-A-Potty, a group of gay men surveyed the poster. One remarked of the leadership of the Human Rights Campaign, or HRC, the largest LGBT advocacy organization in the United States, by observing, "HRC doesn't hire people of color." This observation is backed up by criticisms made by many LGBT civil rights activists, most notably, by the San Francisco-based blogger and activist, Michael Petrelis. When Mr. Petrelis blogged about HRC's sudden funding of LGBT equality efforts in Alabama, Mr. Petrelis noted the lack of any people of color in HRC's partner for that state. Mr. Petrelis is not involved in the postering effort in Brooklyn, but his observations help to underscore how many activists raise criticisms about the LGBT community's leaders, which our leadership organizations never fully address. The failure of LGBT community groups to be fully accountable and transparent to the broader constituency forms the basis of the controversial "LGBT Sellout Faces" poster that was taped up along the route of the Brooklyn Pride festival.

LGBT sellout poster reaction : "HRC doesn't hire people of color." pic.twitter.com/l1j4RvC1qz

— LGBT For Change (@lgbt4change) June 14, 2014

Another reaction to LGBT sellout poster : "OMG I have friends on this, but you're right." #BrooklynPride pic.twitter.com/hq0Kzyp2wp

— LGBT For Change (@lgbt4change) June 14, 2014

Besides poster-sized forms that were taped up along the route of the Brooklyn Pride festival, a flyer of the poster was also handed out by activists calling for reform of LGBT community groups and their leadership. At one point, a flyer was handed to a volunteer for HRC. The volunteer said he refused to take an "anti-HRC flyer." A companion HRC volunteer refused to take the flyer, as well. But a third HRC volunteer, perhaps a supervising volunteer, accepted the flyer, and this third volunteer inquired about the nature of the flyer.

When told that veterans, including Lt. Dan Choi, and GetEQUAL pressed for DADT repeal, HRC volunteer had no reply. @lgbt4change

— LGBT For Change (@lgbt4change) June 14, 2014

When a reform activist told the third HRC volunteer that the flyer represented LGBT leaders, who have "sold-out" the community, the volunteer noted that former HRC President Joe Solmonese, who appeared on the flyer, was no longer in a leadership post at HRC, but the volunteer asked why was the current HRC president, Chad Griffin, appearing on the flyer ? The activist responded that under Mr. Solmonese, HRC was not responsive to the LGBT community's demands for reform, which is why he was forced to step down. Mr. Griffin, in his relative short tenure at HRC, has created controversy by claiming credit for the nation-wide movement for marriage equality, a claim that flies in the face of the truth that grassroots activists have been pressing for equal civil marriage rights for decades before Mr. Griffin's ascention into HRC's top leadership post. The HRC volunteer replied that volunteers are "told to respond" by saying that "HRC repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell," referring to the U.S. military's former discriminatory policy against LGBT recruits. When challenged with the truth about how U.S. servicemember veterans, such as Lt. Daniel Choi and others, as well as members of the grassroots group GetEQUAL lead the charge to press Congress and the White House to repeal DADT, and that HRC was busy soliciting donations from military contractors to fully press for a revolutionary end to the Defense Department's discrimination against LGBT servicemebers, the HRC volunteer responded that volunteers are "told to respond" by saying that HRC was responsible for passing the Matthew Shepard Act, referring to the hate crimes law named after a student, who died in 1998 of torture-related injuries he received in a vicious hate crime attack in Laramie, Wyoming. The way HRC claims the progress and successes in LGBT equality made by other groups is a long-standing complaint about how HRC disrespects the grassroots role of many LGBT activists and their grassroots organizations. As it appeared pointless to continue the conversation with the third HRC volunteer, the activist distributing the "LGBT Sellout Faces" flyer walked away, leaving the HRC volunteer with a copy of the flyer. In the last year, many grassroots LGBT activists have been questioning the equality movement's leadership. In New York City, voters rejected the fordmidable mayoral campaign of former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Former Speaker Quinn, the highest-ranking LGBT politician in New York City government, spent 15 years in office without having enacted one transformative LGBT equality law during her incumbency in office. In the same year when former Speaker Quinn's political career came to an abrupt halt, LGBT activists succeeded in unseating former Gay Men's Health Crisis CEO Marjorie Hill. GMHC, as the agency is better known, suffered a series of grave financial reversals under Ms. Hill's leadership. Other agency officers, such as Dirk McCall, separated from GMHC during the management reshuffle. In San Francisco, LGBT activists are working to unseat San Francisco Board of Supervisor Scott Wiener, who is viewed by many as a neoliberal Democratic politician working to serve wealth campaign contributors and real estate developers instead of San Francisco's LGBT constituency. The "LGBT Sellout Faces" poster was the first project of "The Reformers," a new activism group formed by the documentary filmmaker Wolfgang Busch and the blogger Louis Flores, who are calling on a political and nonprofit overhaul in LGBT leadership.

Chelsea Manning exposes U.S. military role in restricting freedom of the press

Chelsea Manning on the Obama administration's police of making the U.S. Military control and restrict Media Freedom

RELATED If a reporter’s embed status is terminated, typically she or he is blacklisted. (The Fog Machine of War : Chelsea Manning on the U.S. Military and Media Freedom * The New York Times) Mushroom clouds, duct tape, Judy Miller, Curveball. Recalling how Americans were sold a bogus case for invasion. (Lie by Lie : A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq * Mother Jones) "The Justice Department has completely lost sight of the First Amendment." (A Radical Departure on Press Freedom * The Wall Street Journal)

From her prison confines in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, former United States Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has written a scathing editorial, published in today's Sunday edition of The New York Times. "WHEN I chose to disclose classified information in 2010, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others. I’m now serving a sentence of 35 years in prison for these unauthorized disclosures. I understand that my actions violated the law. "However, the concerns that motivated me have not been resolved. As Iraq erupts in civil war and America again contemplates intervention, that unfinished business should give new urgency to the question of how the United States military controlled the media coverage of its long involvement there and in Afghanistan. I believe that the current limits on press freedom and excessive government secrecy make it impossible for Americans to grasp fully what is happening in the wars we finance." Fromer PFC Manning, now jailed by the Obama administration as part of the White House crackdown against government corruption whistleblowers, provides a needed reality check -- really really REAL TALK -- on how the government bullies journalists into reporting government propaganda in the mainstream media, deceiving the public about the government's actions. Her editorial is a must-read for any First Amendment activist, blogger, and voter.

DELETE YOUR FACEBOOK

Instructions : How to Permanently Delete a Facebook Account (Wiki How)

Gov. Cuomo Solicits Campaign Donations From LLC's, Exploiting Loophole In State's Campaign Finance Regulations

The governor has called for closing a gap in the state’s campaign finance laws, but he’s taken far more through the loophole than his predecessors, much of it from real estate developers.

RELATED NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Has Raised Millions Through Loophole He Pledged to Close (ProPublica)

New York State campaign finance laws make it illegal for corporations to give more than $5,000 a year to candidates and political committees, ProPublica notes in its damning examination into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign finances leading up to this year's gubernatorial election, but Gov. Cuomo has violated the spirit of this rule by drawing on corporation donations from limited liability companies, a form of corporate organization that corporations and individuals can set up in unlimited numbers, essentially gutting the state's campaign finance regulations. The scathing ProPublica investigation identifies numerous campaign contributions that Gov. Cuomo received, which appear to be timed to influence the governor's conduct of state business that would, in turn, impact the business of his campaign donors. The ProPublica article observes when Gov. Cuomo shut the whole Moreland Commission down, the panel's recommendation to close the LLC loophole was bargained away. Government reform activists are waiting to see if federal prosecutors, who assumed the investigative work of the now-defunct Moreland Commission, as well as other ethics complaints, will find any legal evidence that politicians may have obstructed the justice and reform work of the Moreland Commission.

New revelations about possibly greater coordination between controversial anti-Quinn attack Super PAC and official campaigns

Anybody But Quinn Used Voter Info From Other Advance Group Campaigns : Sources

RELATED Anybody But Quinn Used Voter Info From Other Advance Group Campaigns: Sources (The New York Observer) Did New York State Election Officials Create a Dual Mandate Loophole to Campaign Finance Caps ? [UPDATED] (NYC : News & Analysis)

Somebody from the corrupt “Anybody But Quinn" Super PAC has leaked new information about possibly illegal campaign coordination to the reporter Will Bredderman of The New York Observer relating to how information sharing was done behind the scenes at The Advance Group. That customized voter registration information belonging to official campaigns was, inturn, used by the Super PAC adds to a pattern of coordination following revelations that campaign cash flowed circuitously amongst the Super PAC, its contributors, and the official campaigns managed by The Advance Group in the last election. As if that wasn't enough, many activists taking part in the Anybody But Quinn movement carried the banner for reforms to end Quinn-like government and campaign corruption. But as soon as the new mayor was elected, the entire Anybody But Quinn movement ceased their calls for reform, raising the obvious quesiton : what was the real intention of the Anybody But Quinn Super PAC, if it was not to press for reforms of the broken political system ? It's getting ugly, but it's only when the system turns against itself, as demonstrated by the leaker of these latest revelations that voter registration information was shared, that voters find out the real truth about the duplicitious role of dubious campaign consultants, lobbyists, and other political operatives in setting up corruptive Super PAC structures, and controversies such as these are the only things that can lead to reforms to end the corruptive role of Super PAC's in our elections system. But more people need to join the call to press Mayor Bill de Blasio to make good on his outstanding campaign promises made during last year's mayoral campaign to further reform the city's campaign finance system. "The important thing is to respect the fact that we may not like the way the law is, but it's the law," Mr. de Blasio said last year after he was confronted with questions over a controversial Super PAC's attack TV ads against former Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "I certainly will put energy going forward into trying to further reform the campaign finance system," he added, but Mr. de Blasio has so far failed to keep true to his campaign promise to reform the city's corrupt campaign finance laws. Here's an opportunity to use the growing campaign finance controversy engulfing The Advance Group to press for reforms. Voters can make this opportunity work for them, to bring about reforms, but voters need to take action to demand that the mayor keep his campaign promises to reform and update the city's corrupt campaign finance laws that allow Super PAC's to exploit our elections system.

Long history of prosecutorial and ethical misconduct by Brooklyn D.A. Hynes triggers proposal for state disciplinary commission

In New York, the state Attorney General has lost control over his wayward District Attorneys. Now, the State Legislature wants to appoint a disciplinary commission to review the corrupt acts of the state's "Dirty D.A.'s"

RELATED Prosecutor misconduct commission moves forward in “Hynes” legislature (The Brooklyn Paper) After Bitter Election Loss, Charles Hynes Shredded His Office Documents : Sources (The New York Observer)

The New York State legislature, that swamp of corruption, is hoping to create an independent commission to investigate the prosecutorial misconduct of New York’s state prosecutors. The commission members would be able to recommend disciplinary actions against prosecutors engaging in "improper activity or whose performance displays a degree of incompetence not suited for the office," The Brooklyn Paper reported. The possibility that the state's district attorneys have become corrupt is too much for the state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, to handle. The only way hot political corruption cases like this can be handled is to outsource it to an incompetent commission, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo can then disband if the political heat becomes too much to bear, like what he did with the do-nothing Moreland Commission. The scandal with Brooklyn D.A. Hynes is only coming up now, because Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating JCOPE ethics complaints and Moreland Commission corruption files. Were it not for Mr. Bharara's ongoing campaign to clean up government corruption, the city's lazy Department of Investigations would not have investigated any of the corrupt district attorneys in New York's five boroughs, much less D.A. Hynes. Naturally, there are rumors being shared amonst activists that the DOI probe into former D.A. Hynes may have been politically-motivated, like all the other take-downs in New York City. Of course, nothing is going to happen in respect of this proposed district attorney investigation commission, unless Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver blesses this commission, which voters know he won't, because Speaker Silver has a long history of enabling corruption all across New York state. But some New York City-based bloggers and activists privately wonder if just the fear of the idea of this commission will scare the crap out of some corrupt local district attorneys, like Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance, who many good government reform activists believe avoids prosecuting political corruption cases. Besides Mr. Vance, the new Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, also avoids thorny political cases. For example, Mr. Thompson failed to examine the slimy circumstances of how one of the mayor's loyal political supporters was allowed to basically get out jail for free. The long-time Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, refused to find any wrong-doing when the New York Police Department kidnapped and held prisoner the whistleblower Adrian Schoolcraft in the psychiatric ward of a Queens hospital. In New York, whenever political or law enforcement corruption becomes so bad, the only way the corrupt justice system handles it is by outsourcing the investigation to an independent commission or to an independent prosecutor, because the district attorney, attorney general, or federal prosecutor with normal jurisdiction doesn't want the political blowback from these kinds of investigations. Look at how the Staten Island district attorney appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the corrupt Working Families Party ; the Staten Island D.A. didn't want to touch that investigation. These kinds of cases are TOO HOT for the normal investigators to handle. Investigators race to outsource probes to others, who can either afford to take the political heat or who are too stupid to know the difference. But if only voters could see why these investigations have to get outsourced, then that would show voters how the justice system truly has become corrupt, because there should be no reason why there should be a "tale of two justice systems" for political corruption. Meanwhile, as Albany considers more and more layers of supervision over the state's crumbling law enforcement apparatus, it was reported this week that Mayor Bill de Blasio has yet to appoint a chair to the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, a do-nothing oversight panel meant to push papers about in respect of civilian complaints against the NYPD, in spite of the fact that the NYPD appear to be openly engaging in racing profiling in respect of the low-level marijuana arrests that police are making under the de Blasio administration.

Following bombardment of bad press, Mayor de Blasio spinning his way back to illusion of competency

After a barrage of negative publicity over the closure of Long Island College Hospital, de Blasio administration operatives plant a spin doctor story in Capital New York about background political machinations

Last week-end, the columnist Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times wrote a fair critique of the de Blasio administration's failure to live up to his change and hope hype for transformational progressive leadership.

Ms. Bellafante listed concrete examples, such as the closure of Long Island College Hospital ; the unsavory Working Families Party endorsement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which Mayor Bill de Blasio helped to orchestrate ; and the limited impact that raising the minimum wage would have on the actual cost of living hardship for average New Yorkers, amongst other observations. Ms. Bellafante balanced her assessment with news about some accomplishments that have been overshadowed by the mayor's penchant for drama.

Against a backdrop of recent press reports, which have crushed the de Blasio administration's efforts to spin a reputation for itself for being a beacon of "progressive" values, City Hall has been shaken by an emerging new impression of the mayor's neoliberal inclinations.

• RELATED : Bill de Blasio betrayed his believers in Cobble Hill (amNewYork)
• RELATED : de Blasio Used LICH as a Political Prop, Angry Ex-Supporters Say (DNAinfo New York)
• RELATED : NYTimes LICH Hospital Report Back ; Scandal : Red Hook Death (Suzannah B. Troy)
• RELATED : Bill de Blasio stumbled on Long Island College Hospital (amNewYork)
• RELATED : The tragic way Bill de Blasio supported Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the Working Families Party convention (Twitter)
• RELATED : For de Blasio, Deals, Drama and (Maybe) Progress (The New York Times)

In the wake of such criticisms in the mainstream media, the de Blasio administration is fighting back in the press with a story in Capital New York, where the mayor's political operatives leaked a rehash of backroom machinations in their supposed efforting to save Long Island College Hospital. We'd heard this before, like when the same Capital New York reporter had reported that the mayor's operatives, Emma Wolfe, had grown concerned with the crumbling deals to save Long Island College Hospital, also known as LICH.

Repeating the administration's "concerns" for the community is just a way to deflect any further criticisms of the de Blasio's apparent exploitation of the hospital closing crisis as an election year tactic.

Still no arrest by AG Schneiderman in "dirty DA" Hynes corruption probe

A stunning probe by the city’s Department of Investigations revealed last week that former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes may have used drug money to pay more than $200,000 to the political Svengali Matz, and that was just in 2013.

RELATED The state’s top cop is looking into possible criminal charges against former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. (Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenas former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes aides in state theft probe, says source * The New York Daily News) Hynes's campaign committee paid over $600,000 to The Advance Group. (NYC : News & Analysis)

How broken is the system ? You have the normally do-nothing state Attorney General begrudgingly have to investigate corruption by one of his very own former district attorneys. This is the very tip of the iceberg of how corrupt the justice system is. Since this story first broke last week, police have raided housing projects for youth gang members not yet committing any crimes, but here you have the normally do-nothing city Department of Investigations and the press conclusively prove that Charles Hynes used the seized assets from drug deals gone bad to pay for one of his campaign consultants, and still there is no arrest. But the true booby prize is that we are only hearing about how corrupt former Brooklyn DA Hynes is because he was unfortunate enough to get on the wrong side of the mayor and his supporters, thus making the Hynes take-down all about dirty, vindictive politics -- and not actually about reforming the broken justice system. At this rate, the only way to expose the other dirty district attorneys, is to elect a mayor, who is their sworn political enemy. This is the best we can expect from the current state of the broken political system.

The New York Times wakes up to a harsh reality about de Blasio's piling examples of selling out

PUBLISHED : WED, 08 JUN 2014, 01:46 PM
UPDATED : THURS, 13 JUN 2014, 19:35 PM

The NYTimes' Ginia Bellafante on Mayor Bill de Blasio : The absence of any real template for governing from the vantage point of economic liberalism

RELATED For de Blasio, Deals, Drama and (Maybe) Progress (The New York Times)

In today's Sunday edition of The New York Times, the columnist Ginia Bellafante examined new mayor Bill de Blasio's record of broken campaign promises and other compromises in his young administration. "For years since, you could get by calling yourself a liberal in New York State politics simply by loving pro-choice arguments and same-sex marriage as much as you loved Wall Street and real estate developers. That is no longer so, which leaves centrists moving toward compromises that look semi-noble, and liberals in the position of seeming to have settled for too little and sacrificed their souls too much." On the closure of Long Island College Hospital, Ms. Bellafante wrote that, "the sense that Mr. de Blasio exploited the issue, declared victory in the face of a loss and then moved on has clearly taken hold." Ms. Bellafante's observation is backed up by a column by Liza Featherstone in amNewYork : "Bill de Blasio betrayed his believers in Cobble Hill," in which the author of the column wrote : "There are signs de Blasio is willing to fight for ordinary New Yorkers. Additional paid sick leave and universal pre-K are nothing to dismiss. But when the interests of ordinary New Yorkers conflict with those of the real estate industry, which donated heavily to de Blasio's campaign, is Mayor 99 Percent setting aside his protest placards? Many in Cobble Hill think so." In respect of the de Blasio administration's plans to preserve affordable housing, Ms. Bellafante noted that there was a "mounting sense that he has reneged on promises to involve neighborhoods in decisions that intimately affect them." This is backed-up by the relentless postings on the Atlantic Yards Report blog, and you can begin by reading this post : "As de Blasio announces affordable housing plan, Atlantic Yards (delay, modular, lack of neighborhood planning) remains an awkward backdrop," in which the author of the blog noted of the mayor's affordable housing plan : "There was no mention of the planned affordable housing that he and others cited to justify their support for Atlantic Yards, likely because that housing has taken so long to be built--and perhaps because it recalls the absence of ground-up neighborhood planning." (emphasis added) With respect to Mayor de Blasio enabling Gov. Cuomo to lock up the Working Families Party nomination, Ms. Bellafante wrote : "When Mr. de Blasio recently facilitated a deal between the leftist Working Families Party and Mr. Cuomo to secure the organization’s endorsement of the governor for re-election, it pushed certain quarters of the left toward lamentation." This is backed up by one of numerous tweets in the aftermath of the WFP deal to endorse Gov. Cuomo, brokered by Mayor de Blasio, such as this one by Tom Watson : "Still some surprise/horror that progressive deBlasio cut a deal with Cuomo in the #WFP saga. Of course he did, it's politics." (emphasis added) Ms. Bellafante also provided a balance to her criticism, by noting some achievements in Mayor de Blasio's first five months in office. Taken as a whole, Ms. Bellafante's article is an indication that growing liberal disappointment with Mayor de Blasio is seeping into the pages of The New York Times, something that took 15 years to happen with former Council Speaker Christine Quinn's political career. This change is due to the impatience with which voters now express about political deals made between politicians that betray campaign promises, such as with the embarrassing Working Families Party endorsement, an observation that Ms. Bellafante herself made when she wrote, "What looked like a mayoral assertion of authority to some felt like abdication to others."

de Blasio's high poll numbers amongst minority electorate may sink, if the NYPD continue their racially-tinged, broken windows policing tactics

RELATED Mayor de Blasio’s Approval Rating Improves, Poll Finds (The New York Times)

A majority of Black and Latino voters said that they approved of the job Mayor de Blasio was doing, a new poll shows, The New York Times reported. But it is not clear that this new poll factored in the immense anger in the Harlem community in response to a shock and awe invasion by the New York Police Department to round up innocent young public housing tenants on trumpted up charges of conspiracy to commit gang activities. Already, the new poll shows that the new mayor has lost more than half of the support amonst whites. If the police continue their crackdown that targets people of color, it won't be too far long before the mayor loses support amongst his minority base.

More questions about Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaign finances and her lobbyists

Undeclared campaign finance expenses tied to a fundraising trip to Chicago and the growing role of Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaign consultants increases concerns that Speaker Mark-Viverito may be further flouting campaign finance regulations and ethics rules.

Five months into her Council speakership, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito continues to be dogged by questions about her campaign finances and her compliance with city ethics rules.

The latest campaign finance issue centers around a fundraising trip Speaker Mark-Viverito made to Chicago in the time leading up to last year's municipal elections. Although the trip included fundraising activities, Speaker Mark-Viverito's campaign committee neither incurred nor declared any expenses for that trip. If her campaign committee benefited from in-kind contributions from others, those contributions must be declared, according to campaign finance regulations. In a press report in The Wall Street Journal about this latest campaign finance question, it was shown that Speaker Mark-Viverito's trip was paid for by the Participatory Budgeting Project. But a review of her contribution records available online with the city's campaign finance regulatory authority, the names of Speaker Mark-Viverito's contributors do not include the Participatory Budgeting Project, not even in an in-kind capacity.

The campaign consulting firm, Pitta Bishiop Del Giorno, which managed Speaker Mark-Viverito's City Council reelection and speakership campaigns last year, has seen its influence increase in city government since last year's municipal elections. Pitta Bishop Del Giorno has even begun to lobby Speaker Mark-Viverito, a worrisome sign to good government reform activists, who fret about the growing corruptive role of money and lobbyists in the conduct of government business.

The on-going questions about how Speaker Mark-Viverito and her lobbyists managed her campaign finances, and the growing role of those lobbyists in the conduct of the city's business, raise concerns as to whether her management style leans toward a predisposition of flouting compliance with campaign finance and ethics rules. Last year, Speaker Mark-Viverito accepted unpaid and undeclared campaign consulting services from a controversial lobbying firm that has since become the subject of possible federal and municipal corruption investigations, according to several press reports. In respect of those free campaign consultant services, provided by The Advance Group, Speaker Mark-Viverito's campaign committee never declared the fair market value of the intensive lobbying efforts involved in the heated speakership campaign as in-kind contributions, either.

Public servants are prohibited from accepting valuable gifts from firms that intend to do business with the city, and lobbyists, in turn, are prohibited from giving those gifts, according to an analysis of city ethics rules by The New York Daily News.

• RELATED : New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito held a fundraiser last year in Chicago on a trip paid for by a nonprofit organization, city records show, raising questions from government watchdogs about whether her re-election campaign skirted campaign-finance laws. (New York City Council Speaker's Trip for Fundraiser Is Questioned * The Wall Street Journal)
• RELATED : During her Council speakership race, Melissa Mark-Viverito may have violated city ethics rules by accepting unpaid and undeclared assistance from a controversial lobbying firm, The Advance Group, working to further her speakership selection. (City Council Speaker candidate Melissa Mark-Viverito may have violated city ethics rules * The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Pitta Bishiop Del Giorno, the firm that helped Mark-Viverito win her races for City Council and Council speaker, has now lobbied her on behalf of several clients. (Pitta Bishop, the consulting firm that aided Melissa Mark-Viverito's campaigns, now lobbies to her * The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : New revelations show that Mayor Bill de Blasio has had official meetings to discuss city business with the top lobbyist Vincent Pitta, who was also a campaign supporter and a paid consultant for Melissa Mark-Viverito. (Pitta Bishop and other lobbyists, who backed Bill de Blasio for mayor, have access * The New York Post)

But Speaker Mark-Viverito is not alone in stirring controversy with her close alliance with the lobbying firm of Pitta Bishop Del Giorno.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's office has released records of his meetings with lobbyists during the first three months of his term in office, and those records show that he met with Vincent Pitta, a name partner in the lobbying firm of Pitta Bishop Del Giorno that is closely allied with the mayor and with Council Speaker Mark-Viverito.

A press report about Mayor de Blasio's early meetings with lobbyists make no mention of lobbying meetings with James Capalino, a shady real estate lobbyist, who supported the mayor's successful political campaign last year. Mr. Capalino was one of the top lobbyists, who orchestrated a corrupting million-dollar, lobbyist-fuled fundraiser for the mayor's campaign last year at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Mr. Capalino also worked as a real estate lobbyist on the controversial conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital into a billion-dollar luxury condo and townhouse complex in the West Village. Activists shilling for Mayor de Blasio claimed that he was going to offer the voters a clean break from the lobbyist-enabler that was his main rival in last year's mayoral race, former Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Former Speaker Quinn had a reputation for working closely with lobbyists and campaign donors, including having meetings with former donors to discuss legislative proposals. But judging by how both the mayor and his new Council speaker have incorporated their lobbyists into the conduct of city business, there may be no detectable difference at all in the way Mayor de Blasio runs the city from how former Council Speaker Quinn would have administered the city.

Another controversial, politically-connected firm that was left out of early disclosures of the mayor's meetings with lobbyists was Berlin Rosen. Berlin Rosen was installed by Mayor de Blasio to run his outside lobbying effort to campaign for a universal pre-kinder program in New York City. Berlin Rosen was also placed in charge with assisting with the media communication of the controversial coalition of police reform groups known as Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR. Ever since Mayor de Blasio appointed William Bratton as police commissioner, the mayor has needed to have loyalists control the messaging for police reform groups, in order to demobilize calls for radical reforms to city's law enforcement agencies. It's unclear why the mayor failed to classify his administration's meeting with Berlin Rosen as not rising to the level of lobbying, when that's exactly Berlin Rosen's role.

Separately, The Wall Street Journal's report included an update from the city's campaign finance regulatory authority, namely, that the Campaign Finance Board had not yet completed its campaign audit for former Council Speaker Quinn's unsuccessful mayoral campaign.

National Park Service calls for study to landmark LGBT historical sites. Truck stop tea rooms, anyone ?

PUBLISHED : FRI, 06 JUN 2014, 07:28 PM
UPDATED : SAT, 07 JUN 2014, 10:20 AM

LGBT civil rights activists keep demanding full federal equality of the Obama administration, and all Obama can do is to keep blowing a lot of hot air.

RELATED Pelosi Photo-op at Interior Department's Gay Panel ; Historians Named (The Petrelis Files) No Drag Queens, People of Color, Stonewall Riot Vets at Federal Photo-op (The Petrelis Files)

ON TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis will host a panel discussion including leading historians and scholars to discuss ways to sweep President Barack Obama's failed LGBT agenda under the rug. Before lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender historians and academics interpret and denounce the president's many broken campaign promises to the LGBT community in the context of the broader Obama administration's failures, U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Ambassador to Australia John Berry will deliver kick-off remarks at the Interior Department's panel discussion to give the administration's limp efforts some shallow liberal optics. This panel discussion is the first step in the LGBT Heritage Theme Study that Secretary Jewell announced on May 30th at the Stonewall Inn in New York City to identify places and events associated with the story of LGBT Americans for inclusion in the parks and programs of the National Park Service. While landmarking places of historical LGBT significance is noble, the real reason behind this latest initiative is to ensure that historians and academics desperate to appear on official Obama administration press releases are seduced into writing some empty and meaningless "inspirational" Obama administration talking points. The LGBT Heritage Theme Study is timed to drag on through the 2016 election cycle, so that LGBT historians and academics can placate more militant LGBT activists to prevent any dust up as Hillary Clinton contemplates another run for the White House. During her term as the Secretary of State, she basically allowed fundamental radical American evangelists and their political enablers to spread a private foreign policy of hate and discrimination around the globe, with many nations introducing, debating, and enacting laws that persecute and even execute people for being LGBT. As President Obama completes his transition from the hope and change president to a massive disappointment to a lame duck to history, his administration officials are desperately trying to fluff their credentials with the LGBT community after so many years of impotence. At a time when LGBT activists are taking a harsher look at the failed Obama's record, including Obama's tortured support for the Employment Non-Discriminatin Act (ENDA), in spite of its unacceptable religious exemption loopholes, all the Obama administration can muster in response is an offer to not only blow some more hot air about his LGBT dedication, but to gather some more people to join him in blowing even more hot air. With all this blowing, let's hope the Interior Department landmarks a few token truck stop tea rooms. Indeed, according to the Department of Interior's official media advisory, "The goals of the heritage initiative include : engaging scholars, preservationists and community members to identify, research, and tell the stories of LGBT associated properties ; encouraging national parks, national heritage areas, and other affiliated areas to interpret LGBT stories associated with them ; identifying, documenting, and nominating LGBT-associated sites as national historic landmarks ; and increasing the number of listings of LGBT-associated properties in the National Register of Historic Places." The deep-seated resentment by LGBT activists of the Obama administration's empty-suit machinations has been building up for many years. After promising to repeal the military's former discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama dragged his feet. Not until Lt. Daniel Choi, Capt. James Pietrangelo, other service members, and other activists, including members of the direct action group, GetEQUAL, mounted a direct action campaign targeting members of Congress and the White House itself did the Obama administration finally sign into law a repeat of DADT in 2010. Similarly, activists from GetEQUAL have routinely pressed the Obama administration to enact federal laws to end legally-sanctioned discrimination against the LGBT community. In 2011, members of the LGBT activist groups GetEQUAL, Queer Rising, Join The Impact, and others protested outside an Obama administration fundraiser at Sheraton Midtown in Manhattan. The activists were demanding full federal LGBT equality. Members of GetEQUAL and Code Pink have subsequently continued to birddog the president to deliver on the community's demands for full federal LGBT equality. LGBT activists have for years communicated to the White House that the LGBT community demands full federal LGBT equality, but the Obama administration only throws the crumbs of incrementalism, or worse, more hot air in our direction. Speaking of truck stop tea rooms, I would love to see the LGBT community call out the Obama administration's LGBT Heritage Theme Study for what it is : a sham. Instead of validating the landmarking process, I wish LGBT activists would flood the White House with nominations of their favorite adult bookstores, porn theatres, and gay bathhouses. Since many of these places may have been run out of business by free Interent porn, their dwindling numbers may make them "historically" significant. Besides, places where the LGBT community used to cruise each other or meet up for sex actually do have significance in our history. Besides the larger march for equal civil rights, our history includes the long struggle for cultural and social changes that have to do with our sexual liberation -- our freedom from oppression. If you would like to nominate your favorite glory hole, please send an e-mail to Gautam Raghavan, the White House's LGBT liaison, at : LGBT@who.eop.gov -- making sure you use the subject, "LGBT Heritage Theme Study." The LGBT Heritage Theme Study was kicked-off with a press event last week outside New York's landmark Stonewall Inn, the site for the 1969 riots that marked the beginning of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. At that kick-off media event, protesters once again demanded that the Obama administration do more than just talk -- "to create a roadmap to end what they call legal discrimination against the LGBT community," according to NY1. Activists from GetEQUAL and Queer Nation NY were among a number of protesters demanding "full federal equality." Many LGBT civil rights activists were surprised by these sudden machinations of the Obama administration. New York is home to many radical LGBT activists, and none were invited to take part in the media event at the Stonewall Inn. Some national LGBT civil rights activists, such as Michael Petrelis from San Francisco, criticized the media event for its lack of inclusion. No person of color, drag queen, or veteran of the Stonewall riots were invited to speak on behalf of the broader and diverse LGBT community. The Interior Department's study, hastily timed to coincide with LGBT Pride Month, is being funded with the help of Tim Gill from the Gill Foundation. Mr. Gill contributed $250,000 to help fund this study. Mr. Petrelis, the blogger and activist, has listed the names on his blog of the historians and academics taking part in the study.

This week in the CPR veal pen

PUBLISHED : THURS, 05 JUN 2014, 05:21 PM
UPDATED : THURS, 05 JUN 2014, 11:13 PM

A reporter from The New York Times apparently was embedded with NYPD for a military style raid in some Harlem public housing projects, resulting in biased reporting that was pro-police invasions, similar to when The NYTimes sexed up its reporting by printing propaganda to sell the public on the U.S invasion of Iraq.

Commissioner Bratton is exploiting The NYTimes' weakness for shock and awe, showing us once again that the Gray Lady apparently learned nothing of its Iraq War reporting prejudices.

Selling military style police invasions like war games

RELATED A report back on activists, who expose and overcome the corrupt nonprofit industrial complex, puppet politicans, and veal pen bouncers (NYC : News & Analysis)

IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS, the New York Police Department have begun raiding homeless shelters to arrest poor people on outstanding warrants (whose only crimes are, basically, being poor), and police have begun invading public housing projects in military style to round up youngsters allegedly involved in gangs on the basis of flimsy evidence. Many professional, nonprofit organizations that lobby for police reform issued statements to denounce the police actions. "This incident goes against what this administration stands for," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration, "and is going to drive people out of homeless shelters." But these profession, nonprofit organizations are nothing but talk these days. Grassroots advocates for wholesale law enforcement reforms are not as restrained as the professional, nonprofit organizations. Last week, some of these advocates attended a meeting, where advocates discussed issues that are blocking professional, nonprofit organizations from resuming the direct action, pressure politics campaign for reforms that were beginning to produce some results in the final year of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. A large coalition of professional, nonprofit organizations is called Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR. These organizations are either administered by operatives loyal to the Democratic Party, or else they are funded by deep pocket donors, who are loyal to the Democratic Party. These close political ties prevent these professional, nonprofit organizations from making Mayor de Blasio look like he is betraying his many campaign promises to reform the NYPD, as these militaristic police actions most certainly confirm. One way many grassroots activists have, to determine how the CPR member organizations are committed to reforms, is by gauging CPR's actions. Are CPR's actions consistent with the intentions of the movement to reform the NYPD ? Right now, CPR is just talk and no action. Of special consternation to some law enforcement reform advocates is the apparent silence of Picture the Homeless, one of CPR's member organizations. As people in homeless shelters are being rounded up and arrested, Picture the Homeless is not calling on help from other CPR member organizations to protest the de Blasio administration's policy decision to shock shelter residents in the middle of the night, forcing them to uncomfortably witness the shackling and arresting of fellow shelter residents under such jarring conditions. Protests by the CPR member organizations against brutal and unconstitutional police tactics peaked on Father’s Day in 2012, when a silent march from Harlem to Mayor Bloomberg’s mansion drew tens of thousands of protesters. Right now, one group visibly pressing for aggressive reforms is New Yorkers Against Bratton. As Commissioner William Bratton continues to stir controversy with the police department's use of aggressive, brutal, and often unconstitutional tactics, more and more New Yorkers are going to plainly see that the CPR member organizations are not committed to reforms, because they are unwilling to back up their talk with action. While the NYPD raids homeless shelters and public projects with no visible protestations from CPR member organizations and while the media play up the dramatic military style use of helicopters and battalions of cops in dawn surprise attacks, another high-profile police reform group, the Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, is organizing an art exhibit next week. The NYPD's "Broken Windows Policing" escalates into "Preventative Policing" ? As if all of this just wasn't enough, the NYPD has announced a new program with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, whereby the police department has entered into a "close collaboration" with prosecutors, sharing electronic surveillance information between prosecutors and police officers on people, who have committed no crime, but who are targets of prejudice for possible suspicion. It's like straight out of Minority Report, where people are arrested by law enforcement for having committed no crimes, yet. The kind of "preventative policing" that NYPD and Manhattan prosecutors envision is an escalation of "broken windows policing," where people are arrested for minor crimes before they theoretically commit bigger crimes. This obsession with preventative and broken windows policing will flood the justice system with many people being tried for minor infractions or no infractions, but these discriminatory approaches to justice will not allow prosecutors to focus on complex public, corporate, and campaign corruption cases -- an imbalance in the prosecution of crimes that lead many law enforcement reform advocates to describe a legal system that treats petty criminals worse than white collar criminals. Indeed, a glaring example of this tale of two justice systems is the police department's military style invasion of Harlem public housing projects for the arrest of alleged young gang members during the same week when former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes remains free with no imminent threat of arrest for having used the money proceeds of drug deals to pay for his campaign consultant.

Digestive Health Alliance : Congressional Call-In Day is June 17, 2014

If you want to sign up directly for Digestive Health Alliance's updates and for Call-In Day materials, please visit : http://www.dha.org/events/1015

From Digestive Health Alliance :

Attention all whose lives have been impacted by functional gastrointestinal and motility disorders, including patients, health care professionals, family members, and friends:

Functional gastrointestinal (GI) and motility disorders affect 1 in 4 people in the US. Be a DHA advocate and fill the information gap about these disorders in the nation's capital. You can help educate policymakers about functional GI and motility disorders and the needs of patients with these conditions. Encourage Congress to take action that will expand critical research and facilitate the development of new treatment options to improve health outcomes for this patient community.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 the digestive health community is asking you to take a few minutes of your time to reach out to your congressional representatives about this important issue. By joining together on one day, our voices are amplified with one clear message.

This national Call-In Day will set the stage before advocates arrive in Washington, DC on June 23-24 to meet with Members of Congress for DHA Advocacy Day 2014.

It's easy to take part in Call-In Day. Register to attend this event and you will receive an email on June 17th with instructions, including a phone number for your Member of Congress and talking points to help guide your calls.

With Haggerty seeking retrial and Hynes using drug money for campaign consultants, will campaign finance laws ever be reformed ?

State Sen. Malcolm Smith goes to trial for trying to buy the GOP ballot line just days after Gov. Andrew Cuomo "secures" the Working Families ballot line.

A strange convergence of four different election scandals is taking place this week. Former Queens GOP operative John Haggerty, Jr., requested a new trial on technical ground for stealing $750,000 from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the 2009 mayoral election as it was revealed that former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was using the seized criminal assets in the District Attorney's Office to pay for a campaign consultant.

• RELATED : GOP operative who stole $750K from Bloomberg wants retrial (The New York Post)
• RELATED : Ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes in hiding after report shows he may have misused public funds for reelection bid (The New York Daily News)

As if it couldn't get any worse, two politicians are being treated different by prosecutors for essentially having done the same thing.

• RELATED : Prosecutor In Corruption Trial: State Sen. Malcolm Smith Betrayed Constituents By Bribing His Way Onto Mayoral Ballott (CBS New York)
• RELATED : Rob Astorino To Cuomo : Reveal Ballot Line Agreement With Working Families Party (CBS New York)

Why is State Sen. Malcolm Smith facing a corruption and bribery trial for making deals and proposing bribes in order to make a "deal" to get his name on the GOP ballot line in last year's mayoral race, at the same time that newspapers widely reported that Gov. Andrew Cuomo made his own "deal," including offering to contribute to a possible $10 million election fund, to get on the Working Families Party ballot line on this year's gubernatorial race ?

The pattern of corruption in the Haggerty-Hynes cases show how political operatives and elected officials themselves are so starved for corrupt campaign finance money that they will go to great lengths to misuse other people's money. Mr. Haggerty was already convicted in a trial, whereas Mr. Hynes is said to be awaiting possible criminal charges. While State Sen. Smith faces trial over his efforts to buy the GOP line, there's not even a hint that Gov. Cuomo may face criminal charges for trying to possibly buying his way onto the WFP line.

The apparent similarities in these cases, but the unequal application of the law, seem to point to even added corruption in how prosecutors decide which politicos to charge with election and campaign finance crimes.

Charles Hynes Used Seized Drug Money To Pay Campaign Consultant

If the former Brooklyn D.A. was improperly using money seized from drug dealers and other criminals to pay a political consultant, what does that say about the political consultants he paid through his campaign committee ?

The disgraced former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is accused of paying the consultant Mortimer Matz over $200,000 in payments from the seized money from drug dealers and other criminals. By law, the seized money controlled by the district attorney's office can only be used for law enforcement purposes, The New York Times reported.

Since Mr. Hynes's campaign activities were benefiting from the political consultations being paid for by these illegals payments, Mr. Hynes was not just allegedly engaging in public corruption, but he may have also been engaging in campaign finance corruption by failing to declare these illegal services to the state's Board of Elections.

Hynes's campaign committee paid over $600,000 to The Advance Group.

Select Schedule F reports filed in 2013 by Mr. Hynes' official campaign committee with the Board of Elections show that Mr. Hynes' use of seized drug money to pay Mr. Matz allowed his campaign committee to make rich payments to still yet other political consultants. For instance, The Advance Group, a lobbying and political campaign consulting firm operated by Scott Levenson, who is already facing multiple investigations into electioneering and campaign finance improprieties, was paid over $600,000 in declared consulting and campaign mailing expenditures from Mr. Hynes' campaign committee in 2013. Will the illegal use of seized money for campaign activities render a shroud of criminal scrutiny on Mr. Hynes' political campaign committee expenditures ?

• RELATED : Ex-Brooklyn Prosecutor Charles J. Hynes Accused of Misuse of Funds (The New York Times)

If it is possible for one of New York City's district attorneys to dip into the seized criminal assets for political campaign spending, does that mean that the city's other powerful district attorneys, including Cy Vance, will be investigated, too ?

2014-XX-XX Charles Hynes - NYC Department of Investigation Misconduct Report

2013-07-Xx Charles Hynes - Nysboe July Periodic Report - Schedule f Expenditures

2013-01-Xx Charles Hynes - Nysboe January Periodic Report - Schedule f Expenditures

2013-XX-XX Charles Hynes - NYSBOE 32 DAY PRE PRIMARY - Schedule F Expenditures

2013-XX-XX Charles Hynes - NYSBOE 11 DAY PRE PRIMARY - Schedule F Expenditures

2013-Xx-xx Charles Hynes - Nysboe 10 Day Post Primary - Schedule f Expenditures