Can the bus drivers and matrons, who are strike, count on New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to stand up for ATU 1181 union members ? Or will Speaker Quinn, as usual, kiss up to Mayor Bloomberg, as he tries to bust yet another union ? Let's see what The New York Daily News is reporting : "Fellow mayoral wanna-be City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is straddling the fence."
Last Tuesday, over one dozen protesters gathered outside the New School on West 11th Street in a demonstration against New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.
Josh Isay, one of Speaker Quinn's campaign consultants, tried to walk into the New School without drawing attention to himself, but many of the protesters knew who he was. Above, Mr. Isay was photographed hustling inside to the education form whilst clutching his cup of coffee ; in the background is the community organiser, Donny Moss.
Speaker Quinn is running an unannounced campaign for mayor this year, and activists across New York City are protesting her horrible record on term limits, the use of slush funds, her blockage of the paid sick leave bill, the closing of so many hospitals in New York City including St. Vincent's, and her support to fully-fund the NYPD's practice of using stop-and-frisk.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an undeclared candidate for mayor, was booed at the Rev. Al Sharpton's Martin Luther King Jr. forum, after she had suggested that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly should stay on as mayor, reported the news Web site DNAinfo.
For a long time now, activists are pressuring Speaker Quinn to de-fund the resources from NYPD that allow the police department to carry out its unconstitutional program called stop-and-frisk.
More and more, people are standing up and speaking out against Christine Quinn. We each have our own reasons. But the more that we find the courage to stand up, the more that other people will join us, until our individual voices become a rising chorus. We demand reforms, and we won't accept anything less.
Read more : Christine Quinn Booed at Martin Luther King Jr. Day Forum in Harlem
New petition on Change.org : Norwegian Nobel Committee: Rescind the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama in 2009
In consideration of the many reasons listed on the petition, and other uses of the American military, we petition that the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Nobel Prize organization rescind the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Obama in 2009.
Please feel free to also contact the Norwegian Nobel Committee directly :
E-mail : postmaster@nobel.no or by Telephone : (+47) 22 12 93 00
Hello all of America. Hello Mister president. We are Anonymous. Dear Mister president, We would like to ask you, are you happy with what you have allowed the United States to become? The entire country a war machine, people rising in protest against you, and the city governments allowing the brutal beatings and arresting of citizens across America. By allowing this to happen you are a disgrace to the office of presidency. You mister president, you need ought rightfully to set your political career aside and focus on the city streets of your own country. So far you have done nothing about the thousands of people arrested in the streets for exorcising their first amendment rights. Stop and listen to the people you took an oath to uphold, stop treating the people of America like terrorists with the building of FEMA camps to imprison all who stand up against political control. You Mister President are a failure to America.
Citizens of the United States. The corporations that profit from permanent war need us to be afraid. Fear stops us from objecting to government spending on a bloated military. Fear means we will not ask unpleasant questions of those in power. Fear permits the government to operate in secret. Fear means we are willing to give up our rights and liberties for promises of security. The imposition of fear ensures that the corporations that wrecked the country cannot be challenged. Fear keeps us penned in like livestock.
And yet, Who will govern the governors? There is only one force in the nation that can be depended upon to keep the government pure and the governors honest, and that is the people themselves. We alone, if well informed, are capable of preventing the corruption of power, and of restoring the nation to its rightful course if it should go astray. We alone are the safest depository of the ultimate powers of government.
It is for this reason that our constitution was written. America, and the world at large is becoming informed and in turn preparing. Soon, We the people will no longer stand by in silent consent. This is a call to every citizen, this is a message to all of government.
Knowledge is free. We are anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.
(Revised : Wednesday 20 Feb 2013 6:50 a.m.) This appears to be the true story behind the YouTube video, which keeps disappearing : Queens teen accuses NYPD of police brutality
We need a federal commission to investigate the NYPD use of brutality and other misconduct.
A few police officers hold a Queens teenager down on a sidewalk for unknown reasons. In this undated video, the few police officers receive backup assistance from other officers, who then begin to use excessive force against one sole young man. Police can be observed twisting the young man's limbs, and it appears that some police officers kick the young man's body.
(When this video was first uploaded to YouTube, the young man was described as a student from a Flushing high school. But in the time since, he is described as 19 year old Robert Jackson, who was enrolled in classes at the Flushing YMCA.)
No word, yet, from New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn about the NYPD's use of excessive force against young men in New York City.
RT “@colvinj: Did you know? The #NYPD records videos of the interior areas of major #nyc hotels - dnainfo.com/new-york/20130…” #OpBigBrother
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) January 11, 2013
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo went on a verbal tirade during his State of the State speech last week, stopping short of foaming at the mouth, calling for gun control as a distraction from the fact that Gov. Cuomo is trying to close more New York City hospitals during the healthcare crisis created by Hurricane Sandy and the flu epidemic.
#NewYorkMRT #BergerCommission
Epidemic #flu deaths. Are there enough hospitals post #Sandy, post @newyorkmrt, post #BergerCommission ? @nygovcuomonytimes.com/2013/01/12/hea…
— StopNYMRT (@StopNYMRT) January 11, 2013
On Tuesday, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has yet to formally announce her mayoral campaign, is giving her "first campaign speech" (according to the press) at a high profile education event in Greenwich Village. The event is full, and press will be there. We need a good turnout of activists to display our posters and distribute handouts to attendees.
"I wouldn't normally schedule a morning protest, but this is too important an event to skip," said Donny Moss, from the Facebook group, Defeat Christine Quinn.
What: Protest Against Quinn
Where: 65 West 11th Street (btwn 5th & 6th Aves.)
When: Tuesday, Jan 15th - 8:00 - 9:00 a.m.
. @fwany Protest against Christine Quinn at Power Women Panel conta.cc/13oOJKt @stopchrisquinn #termlimits #slushfunds #ABUSEofpower
— Defeat Chris Quinn (@donnymossnyc) January 12, 2013
From Michael Petrelis :
''What we're never going to see from the Times is an in-depth examination of the public and private records of exactly what Richard Socarides did in his duties to Clinton when DOMA, HIV travel and immigration bans, and DADT were enacted and codified into federal law harming thousands of LGBT persons and people with AIDS.''
Read More : http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2013/01/nyts-free-pass-to-socarides-on-doma.html
Teen Awarded NPR's Top Storytelling Performance Prize for Powerful Tale About His Two Gay Moms: ''The Last Mile''
Snap Judgment, NPR's spoken word and storytelling show, recognised 15-year-old Noah St. John with its Performance of the Year for his explosively moving story about his two moms and the moment he thought he might lose the family he had always known.
From Cleve Jones, on Facebook :
Thank you Andy Towle, for posting this on Towleroad. I've never met Noah St. John but I was so amazed and delighted by this video that I posted it on FB twice. Now, overnight, we've taken Noah's YouTube hits to over 48,000. Please. Share. This.
I'd love to see Noah on the Ellen DeGeneris show, AC 360 or anywhere else his beautiful storytelling could reach people's hearts.
Scientific Study Links Flammable Drinking Water to Fracking
Ed Koch just called fracking the most ''liberating'' industry for New York State on NY1 tonight, because it would make New York into Saudi Arabia.
One of my Facebook friends wrote that maybe what Mr. Koch believes he sees as our future shared similarity is this : very little drinking water.
JUDGE FINDS NYPD STOP-AND-FRISKS OUTSIDE CLEAN HALLS BUILDINGS ACROSS THE BRONX ARE UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
Judge Shira A. Scheindlin issued a major court order finding that the New York Police Department routinely make unconstitutional "street stops" outside "Clean Halls Buildings" across the Bronx and and must immediately end this unconstitutional practice, reported the citizen journalist Javier Soriano.
Judge Scheindlin found that for years the NYPD has known or should have known that its officers routinely violate constitutional rights through the Clean Halls program. Nonetheless the Department fails to adequately train officers about when they may legally make trespass stops, and that this practice “has risen to the level of deliberate indifference,” Mr. Soriano reported.
Where does the NYPD get the budget to pay for all the man-hours and resources it uses to keep carrying out its unconstitutional ''stop-and-frisk'' program ? From the City Budget. And who kisses each other on the cheeks, each time the City Budget is approved and passed ? Christine Quinn and Mayor Bloomberg. During Quinn's speakership, at least 3.7 million New Yorkers have been stopped and frisk. If we all believe that stop-and-frisk is unconstitutional -- and that is what this judge is telling us -- why are our elected politicians funding this program with taxpayer money ?
Federal Court Ruling Ending Stop-And-Frisk By NYPD In TAP Operation Clean Halls Buildings
