Rally to Demand a Hospital to Replace St. Vincent's
Saturday, April 30, 2011, at 2:00 p.m.
2011-04-30 St Vincents Hospital One Year Rally PosterNews, politics, commentary, and cultural reporting with a New York perspective.
Rally to Demand a Hospital to Replace St. Vincent's
Saturday, April 30, 2011, at 2:00 p.m.
2011-04-30 St Vincents Hospital One Year Rally Poster
Geraldine A. Ferraro, First Woman on Major Party Ticket, Dies at 75
NYTimes : Geraldine A. Ferraro, a former Conggresswoman from Queens, New York, who was nominated in 1984 to be the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate, was the first woman nominated for national office by a major political party. She died Saturday in from complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Flashback : Watch an excerpt of Geraldine Ferraro's 1984 Vice Presidential Acceptance Speech :
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn refuses to support the Living Wage Bill, just like she squashed the Paid Sick Leave Bill, because she is in bed with special interest groups that oppose the middle class.
The Poverty in America blog has exposed the reason why Speaker Christine Quinn would not endorse the Paid Sick Leave Bill and why Speaker Quinn also opposes the Living Wage Bill : both laws are being targeted for defeat by a shady anti-middle class group calling itself the 5 Boro Chamber Alliance.
The 5 Boro Chamber Alliance was formed in 2009 to take down the Paid Sick Leave Bill, and now it is reportedly organising a political campaign to defeat the Living Wage Bill.
The Poverty in America blog is worried that the Living Wage Bill will be defeated the same way as the Paid Sick Leave Bill was defeated : each were opposed by Speaker Quinn.
''Quinn's silence isn't random; she's declined to take a position on either bill because of pressure from the city's business interests. One of the main business groups that spoke out against paid sick leave was the 5 Boro Chamber Alliance, a group of chambers of congress from around the city,'' reported the Poverty in America blog.
Based on her history, more and more people are worried that we can't count on Speaker Quinn to do the right thing. ''We know what her position was on the paid sick leave bill and how mindful she has been not to cross the business community as she plans a run for mayor in 2013. Let's hope this time the speaker will think first and foremost of the well-being of the great majority of New Yorkers,'' wrote Albor Ruiz from The New York Daily News.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg launches a major TV advertising blitz to fluff his ''reputation,'' even as his goodwill amongst voters shrivels up.
Mayor Bloomberg has reportedly made a media buy of almost $1 million worth of TV commercials that tell the story that he has been ''fighting for New York,'' instead of trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, avoid missing votes, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms. It should come as no surprise that, consequently, Mayor Bloomberg is falling in popularity amongst voters. It's almost as if Mayor Bloomberg's legacy has been flushed down the toilet.
Confirmation : Breaking: Apple Pulls Christian “Gay Cure” App
A Search on the Apple App Store over my iPhone Showed That The ''Exodus International'' App Has No Matches.
It Is No Longer Available !
A second search of the App Store on my MacBook matched the same results as my iPhone search : No Matches. Still yet another search of only ''exodus'' likewise turned up no results. Finally, the link to the Exodus International App no longer works.
The ''Exodus International'' App was release last month by the extremist religious group of the same name. The free App was to have provided content, such as "video, podcasts, blog posts and other content" that reflect the group's mission to help people stop being homosexuals. Their approach has been criticised as a vulgar and impossible attempt to ''cure'' LGBT people.
A petition has gathered well over 145,000 signatures to urge Apple to remove the offensive ''Anti-Gay App'' from the App Store.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNAVJw5RbxQ
Why was Wayne Barrett fired? Tom Robbins leaves The Village Voice in protest. There were times I was greatly frustrated with Barrett imparticular for his support of Bloomberg but than he exposed Bloomberg broke campaign laws which is a misdemeanor A. I called it in to Cy Vance’s newly opened Integrity Hotline and reported Christine Quinn for using her NYC gov. staff on company time for her campaign and submitted a Village Voice article with allegations re: both Bloomberg and Quinn as well as Aram Roston’s piece from The NY Observer: Inside the Secret Campaign of Mike Bloomberg.
http://suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com/2011/03/ed-koch-accidentally-outed-by-suzannah.html
http://cluster.omgit.net/2011/politics/ed-koch-im-ray-kelly-or-christine-quinn
http://mayorbloombergkingofnewyork.blogspot.com/2011/01/rewind-i-call-cy-vances-public.html
Breaking News ! Update on True News From Change NYC Blog
Gary Tilzer's blog, True News From Change NYC, about New York government corruption, political reporting, and other commentary about government transparency, has been restored. Earlier today, it had been discovered that the True News blog had been suspended by Google for inexplicable reasons overnight. The suspension of the blog had become a focal point of support today by many New York bloggers and activists. No reason for the suspension is yet known, but New York bloggers suspect political censorship might have been one motive behind the removal of the blog.
Update : True News From Change NYC Blog Has Been Restored
Google Blogspot Blog Has Been Removed For No Reason ; Blogger Community Suspects Political Censorship ; Call To Action
Please send an e-mail to press@google.com and copy Gary Tilzer, the owner of the censored blog, at Gtprinter@aol.com -- demanding that the True News blog be restored.
True News is a blog dedicated to reporting about government scandals, politics, and transparency. (Here is the cached version of the True News blog.)
This is not the first act of censorship against Mr. Tilzer. Before the 2010 election, a YouTube video that Mr. Tilzer produced was banned by NBC/YouTube and had to be replaced with an edited version. In the last couple of years, others have faced incidences of cyber censorship or retaliatory activity. One and a half months before the 2009 election, the YouTube channel owned by the artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy was likewise censored, until bloggers and a lawyer intervened on her behalf. In 2010, this blogger was attacked by computer viruses 3 or 4 times, including on the day this blogger reported to the New York Department of State Committee on Open Government an act of censorship committed by Brad Hoylman.
Flashback : Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Internet freedom as tool to ‘spread truth and expose injustice’
We need your help to keep courageous bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, doing what they do. If you are reading this, it is because you are turning to the Internet for reliable information. For it to be here, bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, have to be able to do their work without fear of retribution or censorship.
OP-ED : Japan Finds High Radiation in Spinach, Milk Near Nuke Plant
The Japanese government has detected abnormal levels of radioactive materials in spinach and milk in Fukushima and Ibaraki, two prefectures near the doomed Fukushima nuclear power plant.
So far, only spinach and milk have tested positive for above-average radiation (whatever that means). But if radiation can be found in milk, it should certainly already be showing up in beef. And if it is showing up in spinach, what about other vegetables or fruits ? What is more, with the radioactive plume blowing out over the Pacific Ocean, seafood would naturally also be exposed to nuclear radiation.
Meanwhile, the tainted Japanese food supply is already causing growing concerns outside of Japan, especially in countries, which import food from Japan.
"As uncertainty remains, countries that import Japanese food are on alert for possible contamination. Those nearby, such as Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, India, Singapore and parts of China, have begun screening the imported Japanese food for radiation, and Italy has banned all Japanese food imports outright. Tuesday, the European Union issued an alert recommending radiation checks on all imports that have come out of Japan since March 15. Contaminated food continues to emit radiation -- the stronger the level of radiation, the longer it lasts. Any exposure to radiation increases the risk of cancer."
Based on these early concerns, the world should begin a program to export food to Japan, to prevent the nuclear radiation survivors from being exposed to anymore radioactivity from domestically-produced food.
''Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media''
A sock puppet company called Ntrepid has been awarded a contract initially worth $2.76 million by the United States Central Command create fake online accounts -- what has been called a "virtual army" of profiles -- to "create the impression of consensus opinion in online comment threads, or manipulate social media to the point where valuable stories are suppressed."
The U.S. Military may be engaged in illegal activity, if it uses its sock puppet operations to target American citizens, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Persona management by the US military would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in sock puppetry have faced prosecution.
Last year a New York lawyer who impersonated a scholar was sentenced to jail after being convicted of "criminal impersonation" and identity theft.
According to The Guardian, "Once developed, the software could allow US service personnel, working around the clock in one location, to respond to emerging online conversations with any number of co-ordinated Facebook messages, blogposts, tweets, retweets, chatroom posts and other interventions. Details of the contract suggest this location would be MacDill air force base near Tampa, Florida, home of US Special Operations Command."
Nobody knows if Ntrepid will be awarded supplemental contracts that will jack-up the amount of money paid to Ntrepid after the fact from secret sock puppet accounts of the U.S. government.
Now that we have elected a straight man to office, maybe we will see marriage equality become legal in New York, because we knew we could not count on Christine Quinn to do anything about marriage equality.
It is a poor reflection on New York City Council Speaker Speaker Quinn, a high profile gay leader in New York City, that Gov. Andrew Cuomo is the politician, who will take credit for making marriage equality a reality for New Yorkers. Although a municipal-based approach to make marriage equality a reality already exists, based on the Gavin Newsom model, seeing as how Speaker Quinn has not been the source of any marriage equality effort in New York City, hopefully, Gov. Cuomo will be the one we can all pin our hopes on, because we knew we could not count on Speaker Quinn for anything.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Issues Dire Nuclear Warning about Japan ; Radiation Levels Are So High That Evacuation Zone Should Be Larger.
Earlier today, the top nuclear regulator in the United States said that the Fukushima nuclear power plant was more dangerous than being described by the Japanese government.
''Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said the spent-fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi's Unit 4 reactor may be empty and a crack may be present in the spent-fuel pool for the No. 3 reactor. Without proper cooling, spent-fuel rods will continue to heat and potentially ignite, dispersing radioactive elements and making an already complicated situation evermore difficult to contain.''
More information about the NRC's statement from earlier today :
''... 'We believe that there is no water in the spent-fuel pool known as No. 4, and I would say that it is my great hope that the information that we have is not accurate,' Mr. Jaczko added. 'I would hope for the sake of everyone that the situation is not at the state that we think it is.'''Meanwhile, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nuclear plant operator, denied Jaczko's assessment, saying that the "condition is stable" at Unit 4, according to the AP.'' ...
Not only is the U.S. nuclear regulator issuing a more dire warning about the situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but the U.S. is also calling for a larger evacuation area in Japan.