Lenox Hill Hospital ended its paramedic service to the #UES and turned in its licenses. @micahkellner @billdeblasio
— Sarah Steiner (@Sarahgoat) January 14, 2013
Monday, February 4, 2013
Does anybody have an update to the Lenox Hill Hospital EMS Paramedic Layoffs ?
Ed Koch Rudin Family Quinn Pro Quo ? Posh Apartment - St. Vincent's Hospital
Rudin family offered #EdKoch posh apartment.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/nyr… ; Koch promoted Rudin condo plan for #StVincent's. dnainfo.com/new-york/20110…
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) February 3, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Closeted Mayor Will Eulogise Another
At tomorrow's funeral service, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to deliver the eulogy for former Mayor Ed Koch, who passed away on Friday at the age of 88.
Mayor Koch has been the subject of harsh criticism on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media Web sites since his death, for what critics see as his damning role in the spread of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980's, while he was mayor.
It's more than just a bit ironic that Mayor Bloomberg, who some say is gay, will eulogise Mayor Koch.
At tomorrow's service for #EdKoch, one #closeted mayor will eulogize another. Or will @mikebloomberg use occasion to finally come out ?
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) February 3, 2013
To distract from his sexual orientation, Mayor Koch made a game of appearing to have had a pretense of a relationship with former Miss America Bess Myerson, whilst Mayor Bloomberg uses Diana Taylor for similar purposes.
No word, yet, as to the subject of Mayor Bloomberg's farewell remarks.
Seven Brides for Seven Corporations (a Citizens United Wedding)
Get Money out of Politics - visit Move To Amend : https://movetoamend.org
Ed Koch and the AIDS Crisis - A Historical Fact Checking Duel Between NYT and YouTube Videos
In response to the biased "praises" and instant beatification of Ed Koch, I made a YouTube video set to music by Dalida, to help visualise former Mayor Ed Koch's complete failure on the AIDS crisis.
My video was made in response to the video promoted by The New York Times, which whitewashes any responsibility or culpability of the AIDS crisis away from former Mayor Ed Koch :
I'd love to hear what folks think ?
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Ed Koch, the Closet, Neoliberalism, and AIDS
From The Nation
The instant beatification of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch has a lot of folks itching to do some grave dancing. Leftists will denounce Koch because he was one of the original neoliberal mayors, ushering in a regime of gentrification and finance-driven inequality that defines the city to this day. Minorities regard him with suspicion because he marginalized the city’s black and Hispanic leadership and inflamed racial fault lines to corner the white vote, presaging the Sister Souljah moments that would come to afflict the national Democratic Party. And yet even there, among the new Democrats, Koch was never a stalwart, breaking with the party to endorse George W. Bush for president in 2004 and flirting with the neocons over Israel late in his life.
All that said, there is a special place reserved for Koch in gay hell—because he was mayor during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, which he is widely seen as failing to do enough about, and because it’s commonly assumed that Koch was a closeted gay man. “I hope he’s burning next to Roy Cohn”—or sentiments quite like it—have appeared frequently on my Facebook feed, especially from vets of ACT UP. ...
Read more : Ed Koch and the Cost of the Closet (The Nation)
Friday, February 1, 2013
Ed Koch dies unforgiven by AIDS activists (except by Christine Quinn, who is turning his death into a crass voter outreach opportunity).
@chriscquinn Don't let history sanitize the past. #EdKoch was silent while 1000's of LGBT NY-ers fought and died from AIDS. @tlrd @joemygod
— ACT UP New York (@actupny) February 2, 2013
From Gay Star News :
After lesbian NYC mayoral candidate Christine C. Quinn released a statement calling Koch a 'great mayor' and a 'great man,' LGBT activists pounced. Among those critical of Quinn is Peter Staley, one of the key members of ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) whose activism and innovation is credited with playing a crucial role in HIV-AIDS going from a death sentence to a manageable condition with the help of certain drugs.
'I'm supporting Christine Quinn for mayor, but this mass email she just sent out is completely tone deaf to the generation of gay New Yorkers who worked tirelessly to throw (Koch) out of office (and we succeeded),' Staley writes in a Facebook post. 'We will never forget his contemptible legacy of neglect during the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis.'
I'm a supporter, but @chriscquinn's mass email is tone deaf to the gen. of gay NYers who fought Koch's AIDS neglect twitter.com/peterstaley/st…
— Peter Staley (@peterstaley) February 1, 2013
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
REALITY CHECK : Christine Quinn is not tone deaf. Instead, she is taking for granted that the LGBT community will vote for her. Therefore, she is taking us for granted. She is playing politics with Mayor Koch's AIDS responsibility in order to appeal to voters in the run-up to this election year. When will people wake up to this fact ?
@chriscquinn I'm a bit shocked by this.Koch is a TRAITOR to New Yorkers and Democrats.He can rot in hell for all I care.
— New Yorker (@vesnawasrobbed) February 1, 2013
Ed Koch, 88, Dies - AIDS Controversy - Memorial Tweets
I'm a supporter, but @chriscquinn's mass email is tone deaf to the gen. of gay NYers who fought Koch's AIDS neglect twitter.com/peterstaley/st…
— Peter Staley (@peterstaley) February 1, 2013
Closeted Former NYC Mayor #EdKoch Reviews @surviveaplague joemygod.blogspot.com/2012/10/closet… #HIV #AIDS @actupny @joemygod twitter.com/stopchrisquinn…
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) February 1, 2013
Ed Koch did more to spread HIV/AIDS than Patient Zero. This is a disgusting, abhorrent human being who was granted one thing...(cont)
— Kenny Sullivan (@kennysullivan) February 1, 2013
...he denied thousands if his gay citizens: the gift of time.
— Kenny Sullivan (@kennysullivan) February 1, 2013
Ex Mayor #EdKoch died today.Let tens of thousands die from #AIDS, supported @mikebloomberg, @chriscquinn, #RayKelly, and #stopandfrisk. RIP
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) February 1, 2013
The New York Times obit of Ed Koch has ONE fleeting reference to the AIDS epidemic, and nothing about what he did/didn't do. Pathetic.
— Jake S (@JakeMHS) February 1, 2013
Ed Koch's passing is almost as sad as how he ignored the HIV/AIDS crisis in NYC in the 80's.
— Scot Rose (@ScotRoseYaBoat) February 1, 2013
Ed Koch died. Mixed feelings. Sad for his family's loss. Still some anger over how he refused to deal with AIDS crisis.
— Abby, Queen of All (@abby_queenofall) February 1, 2013
Very curious what longtime #AIDS & #gay rights activist Larry Kramer will say on the passing of former NYC Mayor Ed Koch. @surviveaplague
— Ian Thompson (@iantDC) February 1, 2013
Rally to Save Interfaith and LICH outside Cuomo's Office
Call Gov. Andrew Cuomo : (212) 681-4580. Tell him : Save our hospitals !
Rally on 31 Jan 2013 to save Interfaith Hospital and Long Island College Hospital (LICH) in Brooklyn.
Gov. Cuomo and his political aide, the investment banker monster Stephen Berger, are obsessed with closing hospitals. And now, they are setting up "for profit" hospitals in Brooklyn. This is dangerous !!
Gov. Cuomo, in a supreme act of failed neoliberalism policies, has proposed to make Brooklyn one of two counties in the state as a pilot project, in which current state regulations would be to waived to allow for-profit health care investments. (Read more : Judy Wessler).
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Bill Thompson Political Advisor Attacks Quinn's Critics
Hank Sheinkopf, an advisor to Bill Thompson, predicts that the growing grassroots movement against Christine Quinn, and her political doctrine of corruption and neoliberalism, will fail. What do you think ?
Democratic Party political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said that he thinks most of the protesters’ arguments against Christine Quinn are bogus.
Among the lone few truly real Progressive voices in New York City, one person spoke up to question the outrageous statements by Mr. Sheinkopf. Gerson Borrero took to Twitter to express his dissent to Mr. Sheinkopf's lack of any political ethics.
WHO IS HANK SHEINKOPF WORKING FOR? Anybody But Quinn | City & State: cityandstateny.com/anybody-but-qu…
— Gerson Borrero (@GersonBorrero) January 30, 2013
From City & State :
Despite the ongoing protests, political insiders say the [growing grassroots] movement [against Christine Quinn] probably won’t gain enough traction to affect the November mayoral primary.
“There’s always unusual things that occur in every mayoral election, and this is the first unusual thing that’s occurring here,” said Democratic Party political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, who added that he thinks most of the protesters’ arguments are bogus.
“The speaker makes deals,” he said. “That’s the nature of legislative government. Her job is to make deals.”
Sheinkopf, who is serving as an advisor to mayoral candidate Bill Thompson, also downplayed Quinn’s status as the Democratic front-runner. A recent poll has her far ahead of the pack, with 35 percent of likely voters pulling the lever for her as compared with 11 percent for Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and 10 percent for Thompson.
Have we reached a low point in New York City politics, where campaign consultants cannot attach the most corrupt mayoral candidate for fear of exposing the shared, underlying political corruption that exists amongst all of the mayoral candidates ?
Hank Sheinkopf defends @chriscquinn against protests. Really? @ows_getmoneyout @occuvote cityandstateny.com/anybody-but-qu… @gersonborrero @ny1thecall
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
"Look at that ass on her."
If you know whose derrière Mayor Michael Bloomberg was admiring, please give The New York Daily News a call at (212) 210-1585.
Guantanamo Farcical Military Sept. 11 Trial Feed Censorship
During Monday's military court proceedings in Guantanamo, the audio/video feed was shut off -- but nobody knows by whom ?
"Judge Col. James Pohl remains puzzled by an anonymous censor that cut the audiovisual feed during September 11 courtroom proceedings. Ryan Reilly joins Abby from the Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba," reported Huffington Post.
And from The Washington Post :
David Nevin, one of Mohammed’s civilian attorneys, was discussing a defense motion to preserve any evidence from the secret overseas prisons where the defendants were held by the CIA. The motion had been declassified, but Nevin had barely gotten a sentence out when the audio feed to the media centers on base and at Fort Meade was smothered in white noise. Then the video of the courtroom was cut.
When the feeds were restored several minutes later, Judge James Pohl, an Army colonel, seemed perplexed as to not only why Nevin was censored but by whom. Pohl said he did not cut off the feed, and it did not appear that the court security officer who sits beside him did, either.
Union Rat at 304 Park Ave. South - SL Green
SL Green properties has hired Topline Drywall to work on a renovation project at 304 Park Avenue South. But SL Green and Topline Drywall are not paying the construction workers the Area Standard Wages, including neither providing or making payments for family healthcare and pension benefits. Representatives from the New York District Council of Carpenters showed up to shame SL Green to do the right thing. Please call Andrew Mathias of SL Green at : (212) 594-2700 to do all they can to make right be Topline Drywall workers -- and to see that all Area Labor Standards are met at all SL Green projects.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Man With 4th Amendment Written on Chest Wins Trial Over Airport Arrest
Aaron Tobey Wrote An Abridged Version Of The 4th Amendment on Chest In Protest Against Nude Body Scanners, Leading To Arrest, Naturally.
Aaron Tobey vs. Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security, Transportation Safety Administration (USDC Complaint) by
From Wired :
A Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area won a trial Friday in his lawsuit seeking $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.
Aaron Tobey claimed in a civil rights lawsuit (.pdf) that in 2010 he was handcuffed and held for about 90 minutes by the Transportation Security Administration at the Richmond International Airport after he began removing his clothing to display on his chest a magic-marker protest of airport security measures.
“Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated,” his chest and gut read.
In sending the case to trial, unless there’s a settlement, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 and reversed a lower court judge and invoked Benjamin Franklin in the process. According to the opinion by Judge Roger Gregory:
Here, Mr. Tobey engaged in a silent, peaceful protest using the text of our Constitution—he was well within the ambit of First Amendment protections. And while it is tempting to hold that First Amendment rights should acquiesce to national security in this instance, our Forefather Benjamin Franklin warned against such a temptation by opining that those ‘who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ We take heed of his warning and are therefore unwilling to relinquish our First Amendment protections—even in an airport.Tobey didn’t want to go through the advanced imaging technology X-ray machines, or so-called nude body scanners, that were cropping up at airports nationwide. Instead, when it was his turn to be screened, he was going to opt for an intrusive pat-down, and removed most of his clothing in the process.
Among other things, the federal lawsuit claimed wrongful detention and a breach of the First Amendment and Fourth Amendment. Tobey was on his way to Wisconsin for his grandmother’s funeral. Despite his detainment, he made his flight.
According to the suit, while under interrogation, the authorities wanted to know “about his affiliation with, or knowledge of, any terrorist organizations, if he had been asked to do what he did by any third party, and what his intentions and goals were.”
Two weeks later, Henrico County prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge against him, and he sued the Transportation Security Administration and others.
In dissent, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote:
Had this protest been launched somewhere other than in the security-screening area, we would have a much different case. But Tobey’s antics diverted defendants from their passenger-screening duties for a period, a diversion that nefarious actors could have exploited to dangerous effect. Defendants responded as any passenger would hope they would, summoning local law enforcement to remove Tobey—and the distraction he was creating — from the scene.
Aaron Tobey vs. Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security, Transportation Safety Administration (USDC Judge Rulin... by
Monday, January 28, 2013
Downtown Hospital Needs Lifeline ; Calls to Action on Single Payer and Fracking
From the Demand A Hospital (St. Vincent's activists) e-mail list :
Begin forwarded message:
From: Demand A Hospital <demandahospital@gmail.com>Subject: NEWS ALERT : Downtown Hospital on brink of collapse ; plus, CALLS TO ACTION on Healthcare and FrackingDate: 28 janvier 2013 21:00:18 UTC-05:00To: Demand A Hospital <demandahospital@gmail.com>Reply-To: demandahospital@gmail.com
Dear All :NEWS ALERT. From our friend, Barbara Ruether, that Downtown Hospital has been on the verge of financial collapse and will be acquired by New York-Presbyterian.This article points out how Downtown Hospital had to double the beds in the neonatal intensive care unit in 2010, which was when St. Vincent's Hospital was closed. Downtown Hospital could not afford the expansion of maternity care, but the State Department of Health gave Downtown Hospital no extra support in the face of the closing of St. Vincent's. In contrast, Medicaid reimbursement rates were cut by Gov. Cuomo. It is almost three years since St. Vincent's closed, and we are still dealing with the severe effects to public health. And the State Department of Health still has no plan to equally fund all of our hospitals and medical centers, so that each hospital can fully meet the needs of all patients.NY-Presbyterian to bail out Downtown HospitalLower Manhattan's last medical center on brink of collapse.By Barbara Benson @Barbara_BensonJanuary 27, 2013 5:59 a.m.The last remaining hospital in lower Manhattan, financially unstable after years of operating losses, is being bailed out by a wealthy uptown white knight, Crain's New York Business has learned.New York-Presbyterian Hospital has asked state health officials for permission to acquire New York Downtown Hospital, the only institution below 14th Street since St. Vincent's Hospital closed in 2010. Downtown "has experienced persistent, significant financial difficulties that threaten its future viability," New York-Presbyterian officials wrote in December in a request to the New York State Department of Health. '[Downtown Hospital] is projected to have a significant operating loss in 2013, unless the current situation is changed."Downtown will become the sixth campus of New York-Presbyterian. Currently a 180-bed community hospital, Downtown may look very different as a campus of an uptown owner, although it was not clear late last week what plans the huge health system has for Downtown. "[The facility will] transition into a sustainable and financially feasible model of care," according to New York-Presbyterian's application to the state.The proposed deal seems similar to the transaction struck last week between Montefiore Medical Center and New York Westchester Square, a bankrupt Bronx community hospital. Both Montefiore and New York-Presbyterian are buying financially troubled community hospitals. Under Montefiore's ownership, Westchester Square will cease being a hospital and will have only emergency, surgical and primary care services.Unlike its Bronx counterpart, Downtown will stay a hospital, simply because lower Manhattan can't do without one. Manhattan overall has 6.3 hospital beds per 1,000 residents. Lower Manhattan has a paltry 0.57. New York-Presbyterian executives believe they can save Downtown by improving the "quality, delivery and efficiency of the existing services.""Our plan is for Downtown to remain a community hospital," said a New York-Presbyterian spokeswoman, declining to elaborate further. Jeffrey Menkes, Downtown's president and chief executive, declined to comment.Downtown has been in the New York-Presbyterian health system's sprawling network since 2006 but is a separate corporate entity. Downtown has struggled for years, even selling off a parking lot to developer Bruce Ratner in 2004 to raise cash.New York-Presbyterian, meanwhile, is a behemoth with nearly $4 billion in revenue. It employs some 20,000 workers, including 6,000 doctors, and has nearly 2,300 beds.Heavily reliant on MedicaidThe uptown health system expects to be able to absorb Downtown's losses and assume all its outstanding debt. Under new ownership, Downtown would become a "financially viable division of NYP Hospital," according to the state filing.New York-Presbyterian blames Downtown's financial collapse on federal and state reimbursement cuts and the hospital's inability to either boost revenue or reduce costs. Downtown is heavily reliant on revenue from Medicaid, the government program for low-income and disabled people, which covers 45% of the patients it discharges. Among patients treated in the emergency department, 20% are uninsured.Downtown also has been forced into the red by maternity care. Between 2002 and 2011, the number of obstetric patient days grew about 3.3% a year, prompting the hospital to convert eight regular beds to maternity beds, for a total of 24. That move followed a doubling of beds in 2010 in the neonatal intensive care unit. Now the neonatal IC and maternity units lose more than $1 million a year, thanks to high staffing and operating costs, pricey medical malpractice insurance and low reimbursement rates.Despite that shaky financial foundation, Downtown is the only hospital serving the 314,273 New Yorkers who live below Houston Street—not to mention the daily surge of 750,000 people who work in the area. And once the September 11 Memorial and 1 World Trade Center come online, those numbers will spike even more.Downtown evacuated before Superstorm Sandy hit, based on the assumption that lower Manhattan would lose electrical power. It suffered no damage beyond the loss of revenue for about a week. And a good thing, too: In early January, more than 20 passengers from a ferry crash in lower Manhattan were treated at Downtown.A version of this article appears in the January 28, 2013, print issue of Crain's New York Business as "NY-Presby to bail out Downtown Hospital".CALL TO ACTION / HEALTHCARE. Please contact the new State Senator Brad Hoylman. He has been assigned to the Investigations and Government Operations Committee, which is charged with investigating the state's infrastructure collapse in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Please contact Sen. Hoylman with your concerns about the lack of adequate full-service hospital care in New York City :District Office322 Eighth Avenue, Suite 1700New York, NY 10001United StatesPhone: (212) 633-8052Fax: (212) 633-8096Albany OfficeRoom 413, Legislative Office BuildingAlbany, NY 12247United StatesPhone: (518) 455-2451Fax: (518) 426-6846Here is information to read before you contact State Sen. Hoylman : please make a plug for the single payer bill that is being discussed and reviewed by the state legislature.Link : http://www.pnhp.org/news/2013/january/single-payer-system-is-only-way-to-keep-health-costs-downCALL TO ACTION / FRACKING. From our friends Barbara Ruether and Carol Yost come word about this invitation from CREDO Action : Everybody is being asked to show up to an anti-fracking demonstration outside Gov. Cuomo's Manhattan offices :Governor Cuomo has until February 13 to decide whether he will lift New York's fracking moratorium.1 If he doesn't lift it, he will have to announce another major procedural delay.That gives us less than a month to put overwhelming pressure on Governor Cuomo to maintain the current moratorium on fracking. Our friends at New Yorkers Against Fracking are organizing a rally at the governor's office in New York City to tell him to ban fracking forever. Will you join them?What : Rally to ban fracking at Governor Cuomo's NYC officeWhen : Friday, February 8, at noonWhere : Governor Cuomo's office, 633 Third Avenue, Manhattan (between East 40th and 41st streets)Thank you for all that you do.
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