Author Of Roots Of Betrayal Is Interviewed By BQ Brew

In my first major interview to support Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn, I shared my opinions about the many ways that New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has betrayed the LGBT community, how she turned her back on St. Vincent's Hospital, and how she has become a predictable supporter of billionaire real estate developers.

Read more : Uncovering Quinn’s Political Roots with Author Louis Flores

Please read the interview and share your links with your friends.

Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn - Copyright 2013 by Louis Flores - Uncorrected Proof Not... by Connaissable

Edward Snowden PFC Bradley Manning Videos

REVEALED : Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old whistleblower behind revelations of NSA surveillance

Justin Nozuka ft. Zaho - Heartless (la promesse)

Candidate Barack Obama in 2007 on Warrantless Wiretapping

Excerpt from President Obama's speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center on August 1, 2007.

... This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our Constitution and our freedom.

That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works. Our Constitution works.

We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.

This Administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not. There are no short-cuts to protecting America ... .

Read more : Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, gave this August 2007 speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center.

Obama Video Taping Your Colonoscopy

From Salon :

"Now we know for sure: The Obama administration has presided over the most thorough expansion of the domestic surveillance state of any U.S. presidency. Even as the nation was still absorbing the news, broken by Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian on Wednesday night, that the National Security Agency has been routinely collecting phone call records for millions of Americans, the Washington Post and the Guardian published articles revealing even broader government snooping powers: Since 2007, the NSA and the FBI have had the power to watch nearly every aspect of our online life as well."

Is Gina Galaviz stalking members of GetEQUAL Texas ?

Remember this face and look out for her if you're ever in San Antonio. This is the woman who was caught taking photos of the license plates of the automobiles of GetEQUAL Texas members. When asked what she was doing, Gina replied, "If y'all are going to protest, then we have a right to know where you live."

Read more : David Medina's campaign tries to intimidate GetEqual protestors

VIDEO : Drone Like Device Flying Over Luxury Condo Conversion Of St. Vincent's Hospital

Is Bill Rudin using a #drone like device for security over the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital ? youtu.be/XXOU3C-YQNk

— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) June 6, 2013

Is Rudin Management Company using a drone-like device to create a security checkpoint around the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital ? Has Rudin Management Company received clearance to operate a private security drone from NYPD ?

Quinn Betrays AIDS Activists In Exchange For Manufactured Koch Endorsement

In act of desperation, Quinn camp goes digging for endorsement from Ed Koch beyond the grave.

Christine Quinn has become so desperate for campaign endorsements that she is going to get one out of a dead man. Let's hope she doesn't try to get some votes the same way, too. She's already trying to fake her popularity with sock puppet Twitter accounts, mind you. But seriously, Ed Koch, whose endorsement she is seeking, was the beginning of the neoliberalism bent in Democratic policies. One needs to look no further than to the cruel betrayal in Mayor Koch's non-response to the AIDS crisis. Mayor Koch refused to take any meaningful action on HIV/AIDS out of fear that he would be outed as a gay man. What kind of a message is Speaker Quinn trying to send by reaching for this grave endorsement ? Mayor Koch's endorsement in encumbered with betrayal and closet politics. This one issue alone should be a clarion call for every New York City LGBT voter to question Speaker Quinn's judgement. How do AIDS activists feel about being thrown under the bus in exchange for an endorsement from the late Mayor Koch ? (Ed Koch’s Sister to Amplify His Support for Christine Quinn * NYTimes)

Will insensitive and revisionist statements like this, from the Quinn campaign, drive LGBT activists to demonstrate against Christine Quinn during Pride Month ?

“Ed Koch was an incredible leader for the city,” said Josh Isay, Ms. Quinn’s chief strategist.

Related : Ed Koch, 88, Dies : "How Am I Doing ?" AIDS Memorial Reality Check

Dalida / Jouez Bouzoukis

A great up-tempo song by the late and great Dalida.

Fake Twitter Accounts Reminiscent Of Fake Slush Fund Charity Accounts

Last week, in a sign of desperation, Christine Quinn's Twitter account jumped by 20,000 followers overnight. City & State reviewed the sock-puppet Twitter accounts, and this was their analysis before Quinn's campaign people were forced to get rid of these fake followers after the negative publicity.

Some of the fake Twitter accounts, which was pointed out by City & State, included "Mary DeBoos (@deecohunk0106), Sergio Andres (@deecohunk0105), Tiffany Stone (@deecohunk0104), Quy Sin (@deecohunk0102), Osmany Adrian (@deecohunk0100), Mukhtar Bako (@deecohunk0099), Nick Afriza (@deecohunk0098), et cetera, ad infinitum. Then there is the whole series of followers who coincidentally picked some permutation of @byhnoleda0080 as their user name like Rona Ghotra (@byhnoleda0078), Vija Kumar (@byhnoleda0074) and Kelly Batista (@byhnoleda0072)."

The 20,000 fake Twitter accounts is reminiscent of the umpteen fake charity accounts, which Speaker Quinn used to use, to divert her slush funds for years, until her shady practise was exposed.

At the time the slush fund scandal broke, The New York Post reported about the fake slush fund charity account names used by Speaker Quinn : "Among the dozens of fabricated groups that were slated to receive funds were the Immigration Improvement Project of New York ($300,000), the Coalition for a Strong Special Education ($400,000) and the American Association of Concerned Veterans ($422,763)."

Will Bill Thompson Betray Black Voters on Stop-And-Frisk ?

New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson’s restrained approach to ending stop-and-frisk policing has paid dividends with the endorsement from a coalition of city law-enforcement unions, the NYTimes writes. (via City & State First Read)

From the NYTimes :

Jumaane D. Williams, a city councilman from Brooklyn who has sponsored legislation against stop-and-frisk tactics, bluntly suggested that Mr. Thompson was taking the allegiance of black voters for granted.

“I think he believes that the color of his skin is what’s needed to get to communities of color, rather than standing on the correct substance of issues,” he said.

Obama Heckled About Drones, Guantanamo, Muslim Murder, War On Terror

From Yahoo! News :

Obama was heckled at length by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the anti-war group Code Pink and a leading (and highly recognizable) critic of the so-called war on terrorism.

"Can you tell the Muslim people their lives are as precious as our lives?" she shouted as she was finally ushered from the hall. "Will you apologize to the thousands of Muslims that you have killed? Will you compensate the innocent family victims? That will make us safer!"

After trying and failing several times to get her to sit quietly, Obama went off script and enlisted her protest to reinforce his message about the need to close the Guantanamo facility.

"The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to," the president said, to applause. "Obviously, I do not agree with much of what she said. And obviously she wasn’t listening to me and much of what I said. But these are tough issues. And the suggestion that we can gloss over them is wrong."

Leading up to President Barack Obama's formal address on the drone war, it was revealed that President Obama has used drones to kill at least four Americans.

Ms. Benjamin, in her remarks made later to AOL/Huffington Post, said that the Obama administration has been playing prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner.

One of the demands Ms. Benjamin made was to call for the removal of the controversial drone program from the secret operations of the Central Intelligence Agency.

2013-05-22 Eric Holder AG Congress Letter Drones by Connaissable

Anthony Weiner Enters Mayoral Race

Christine Quinn's History Of Using Hate Crimes For Political Gain

From The Village Voice :

"... the prospect of Quinn's active participation in the march provoked a sort of counter-protest by a small contingent of activists who are unimpressed with Quinn's record. As the main rally moved south on Greenwich Avenue, marchers passed a tiny contingent of activists holding up a sign on the island intersection at Seventh Avenue. 'We need a hospital, we don't need condos,' it read. The side-vigil raised the question of why Carson was taken to Beth Israel, on First Avenue, and whether he could have been saved if he was treated nearby. The handful of activists standing in the shadow of the building that used to be St. Vincent's Hospital, now being converted into 350 luxury condo units, criticized Quinn for signing off on the zoning change that made this development possible, even though the City Council speaker's brand had been stamped all over the larger march itself."

Did New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn cancel her planned political exploitation of Monday night's Mark Carson vigil, after The Village Voice and Michael Petrelis exposed these concerns ?

Speaker Quinn has a history of exploiting tragedy for political gain.

Earlier this year, after former mayor Ed Koch passed away, Speaker Quinn's campaign staff were trying to figure out how to exploit Mayor Koch's endorsement of Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign, even after he had died -- and he was no longer around to approve of the campaign's messaging.

And in 1998, while she was in her first political campaign to be elected to the City Council, Ms. Quinn was using a spike in bias crimes against the LGBT community as an excuse to call for canceling that year's annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

SIDEBAR : Please watch this video, which I just discovered this morning, which explains why it might be more accurate to describe the discrimination against the LGBTQ community as "heterosexual-supremacy" instead of using the term "homophobia."

Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson At St. Vincent's Hospital

Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson

Mark Carson was shot and killed in a hate crime over the weekend in New York City. He was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Medical Center, where he was taken by ambulance.

Since the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital in 2010, all of Lower Manhattan has been without a Level I Trauma Center.

Join us on Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. for a silent vigil for Mr. Carson, and for all the other patients in medical emergencies, who have nowhere nearby to go after the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

Date : Monday, May 20, 2013
Time : 5:30 - 6 pm
Place : In front of the old St. Vincent's Hospital, 7th Avenue South, between West 11th and West 12th Streets.

Please bring candles. RSVP on Facebook : Memorial & Vigil For Mark Carson At St. Vincent's

We Mourn the Senseless Death of Mark Carson by Connaissable

Related : Adam Feldman organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson : Reflections by Dan Fishback

"Long-time activist and Stonewall vet Jim Fouratt pointed out something that SHOULD be obvious, but which hadn’t occurred to me — that there used to be a hospital TWO BLOCKS from that corner, but in the wake of St. Vincent’s closing, Mark had to be rushed to Beth Israel all the way across town. Perhaps, in the distance between these hospitals, Mark’s life could have been saved. In that sense, the politicians that allowed St. Vincents to be converted to a luxury condo high rise — politicians like lesbian mayoral candidate Christine Quinn — may have gay blood on their hands. Jim helped us understand how depriving a gay neighborhood of a hospital is inherently homophobic and violent."

"And while I’m sure individual NYPD officers were polite in the lead-up to this vigil, we cannot forget that the NYPD ritually harasses trans people and people of color in this city ! Trans women are arrested simply for walking down the street! So when we talk about how queer people need to be 'safe,' we have to ask ourselves what 'safety' really means — because the NYPD does not makes us safe ! It harasses and imprisons us ! We must reckon with these connections — that Mark Carson’s death is an extension of the violence that oppresses so many others, from the institutional violence of governments to the random violence of a crazy guy with a gun. …"

Dan Fishback, the author of this post, added : "I wish I had specifically named the Stop & Frisk policy that makes queers and people of color vulnerable to police harassment. I wish I had called out Christine Quinn for supporting this policy."

Link : Adam Feldman organized a midnight vigil for Mark Carson : Reflections by Dan Fishback