An advertisement that is critical of New York City Council Speaker's moralizing on sexual norms was rejected last week by Facebook. Weiner jokes are appropriate content for Facebook, but not criticism of the Weiner jokes, even in the form of paid advertisements ?
The King And Quinn : "Shall We Dance ?"
At the conclusion of each and every year's budget negotiation, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn shakes Mayor Michael Bloomberg's hand and kisses him on both cheeks (on his face) in a City Hall ceremony that is much more about their close working relationship than merely reaching an accord on the city's $70 billion budget. Political games with severe consequences are played by Mayor Bloomberg after he announces proposed cuts to city programs, only to give Speaker Quinn the opportunity to portray herself as a champion of the people by restoring those cuts.
According to a WCBS report, the annual "budget dance" leads to serious instability in critical social programs :
"Advocates from the Campaign for Children were particularly pleased with the deal on preserving child care services, particularly since Bloomberg’s earlier budget proposal had called for cuts to 47,000 slots from the child care and after-school systems. But the organization said the city needs to quit threatening to put child care on the chopping block. But the cuts to day care and after school programs are not off the table permanently. They have only been averted for a year.
"Stephanie Gendell of the Citizen’s Committee for Children said the city has engaged in a budget dance where the city threatens nightmare scenarios then saves the day. She said the status quo seem like a victory, when it’s only temporary.
" 'It creates real instability for the programs, and the families to not know if the programs will be open next June,' she said."
When Speaker Quinn says that she uses her close working relationship with Mayor Bloomberg to the betterment of all New Yorkers, she misrepresents the danger that the budget games she's engaged in have on city agencies and on community groups. Is she taking into account how the annual budget dance leaves critical safety net programs at perpetual risk of being unable to adequately plan their future budgets ?
Read more : "City Budget Agreement: Some Expanded Services, No Tax Hikes"
Christine Quinn waves her finger in 50’s housewife fashion and fakes outrage over Anthony Weiner’s sex life.
O.K., so his marriage was on the rocks. But, like, are we supposed to pretend that Quinn doesn't even use sex toys with her wife ?
For the LGBT community, this is the age of sex hook-up apps like Grindr and Scruff and online hook-up sites like Craig’s List and Adam4Adam. Has Quinn forgotten that New Yorkers used to patronize the Continental Baths and Plato’s Retreat ?
In her quest for power, is she going to throw sexual liberation under the bus ? For her final act, has Quinn transformed herself into Phyllis Schlafly ?
On the Brooklyn Bridge this afternoon, about one thousand activists trying to save #LICH and #Interfaith took part in a mock funeral march mourning the collapse in public health caused by the threat of several Brooklyn hospital closings. Here, members of OWS Healthcare for the 99% portrayed Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the Grim Reaper responsible for trying to close Brooklyn hospitals.
Read more : March, rally to protest Long Island College Hospital closing
Is Christine Quinn the "Doctor Death" of New York City hospital closings ?
Will Long Island College Hospital and Interfaith Medical Center be added to this list of hospitals that New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has allowed Real Estate Developers to close ?
Christine Quinn had 10 chances to save 10 NYC hospitals from closing or downsizing.
She saved none.
In the time that Christine Quinn has been Speaker of the New York City Council, ten hospitals have been closed or down-sized :
If your life depends on comprehensive emergency care, how safe will you be with Christine Quinn as mayor ?
"We Need A Hospital. We Don't Need Condos."
On Friday, approximately 100 community activists endured an unconscionable heat wave to denounce efforts by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close Long Island College Hospital ("LICH").
The noon-time rally took place at the LICH campus in Brooklyn. LICH has been facing imminent closure through several backchannel attempts by the Cuomo administration to close any hospital in Brooklyn as part of radical cuts to healthcare that Gov. Cuomo wants to make to window-dress the New York State budget.
Unfortunately for Gov. Cuomo, New York City mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio has found the courage to challenge the governor's quest to shut down LICH.
A few hours after this photograph was taken, Mr. de Blasio triumphantly returned to LICH with a Temporary Restraining Order in a last-minute effort to keep LICH open.
2013 07 19 Bill de Blasio TRO LICH
The next few weeks will tell whether Mr. de Blasio's efforts will prove successful.
Mount Sinai Hospital refuses emergency HIV prevention treatment -- AIDS activists target hospital with street protest.
ACT UP has produced a toolkit about Post Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) as part of ACT UP's HIV emergency prevention campaign.
Updated : Video of ACT UP Protest Against Mt. Sinai's denial of PEP treatment.
ACT UP Calls For July 17 Protest Against Mt. Sinai Hospital
From EDGE New York :
As the result of an alleged case of HIV discrimination, ACT UP has called all activists to gather in front of Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan at noon on Wednesday, July 17. The planned demonstration is the consequence of an event that occurred over the July 4th weekend, when the hospital reportedly refused to treat a man who came into the emergency room requesting Post Exposure Phrophylaxis for possible exposure to HIV.
"Emergency room personnel at Mt. Sinai incorrectly informed the man that there was no such treatment," read their July 16 press release. "The man contacted ACT UP/New York who intervened on his behalf with Mt. Sinai. Precious time was lost -- approximately two hours -- before the hospital treated him."
Read more : ACT UP Calls For July 17 Protest Against Mt. Sinai Hospital
SUNY officials order police to arrest activists trying to save LICH from closure.
DeBlasio also marched out in cuffs with a bunch of media following. #savelich pic.twitter.com/aLWH8rB3Z9
— Sarah Jaffe (@sarahljaffe) July 10, 2013
New York City public advocate Bill de Blasio was led away in handcuffs after reports that a peaceful demonstration to save Long Island College Hospital from closing turned into an act of civil disobedience.
.@BilldeBlasio being placed under arrest. Put in the back of police van. pic.twitter.com/PbleLR3hbJ
— Erin Durkin (@erinmdurkin) July 10, 2013
A demonstration had been scheduled Wednesday morning to apply political pressure on SUNY management officials. SUNY will decide whether LICH remains open or is closed as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's radical healthcare cuts to window dress the New York State budget in advance of his expected bid for the 2016 presidential race.
Healthcare activists, hospital employees, and healthcare union officials have been trying for months to appeal for help from politicians from Albany to City Hall, but the state legislative session ended last month with no rescue package, and locally Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn concluded next years budget negotiations without making any provision to save LICH from closure.
In the last few weeks, activists had been holding many demonstrations, rallies, and other acts of protest to draw attention to the plight of Brooklyn hospitals. Since 2006, ten New York City hospitals have either closed or downsized, and the remaining hospitals are over-burnded. Wait times at emergency rooms are escalating, and patients in life-or-death situations are having to take longer and longer ambulance rides to get to the next nearest emergency room. To make matters worse, Gov. Cuomo empaneled a group called the Medicaid Redesign Team to identify three more hospitals to close in Brooklyn.
On Feb. 8, 2011, four community activists were arrested in an act of civil disobedience to save St. Vincent's Hospital, but the community received no support from Speaker Quinn. At a rally outside of Gov. Cuomo's office on Monday, Mr. de Blasio accused Mayor Bloomberg of just walking away from the community after St. Vincent's Hospital closed. St. Vincent's activists don't remember Mr. de Blasio being involved in the herculean effort to first save St. Vincent's and then to later preserve the hospital infrastructure for a replacement hospital. But pressure politics from this year's mayoral campaign season has finally pushed him to take bold action. Many St. Vincent's activists noted that it was about time that Mr. de Blasio took action, after all, he is the city's Public Advocate.
Speaker Quinn accepted $30,000 in campaign donations from Rudin Management Company before she approved the billion-dollar Rudin condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital.
Scott Stringer received almost $8,000 from members of the billionaire Rudin real estate empire, before he rendered his recommendation in support of the Rudin luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital.
Democratic candidate for NYC comptroller Scott Rudin Stringer received sizable campaign contributions form members of the Rudin family before he made his recommendation in the ULURP application to approve the Rudin condo conversion plan in November 2011.
Mr. Stringer, who was acting in official capacity as Manhattan Borough President, makes recommendations to the New York City Council in all zone-busting ULURP applications that come up for a vote. Mr. Stringer recommended that the City Council approve the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan, but the media made no mention of the inherent conflict of interest in the Rudin family's large campaign donations. These campaign donations were made during a time when the Rudin family were anticipating plans to develop the property underneath St. Vincent's, before the hospital was driven into bankruptcy, and Mr. Stringer cashed the checks way in advance of having to render his ULURP recommendation.
New York City Campaign Finance Board records indicate that Mr. Stringer accepted $500.00 from Madeleine Rudin Johnson, $3,850.00 from Beth Rudin DeWoody, $500.00 from Eric Rudin, $2,000.00 from Jack Rudin, and $1,000.00 from Bill Rudin. These reported donations bundle into a total of : $7,850.00. It's not known if there are other, unreported campaign donations, that might have been made on top of these amounts.
Did the $7,850.00 in campaign donations made by Rudin family members influence Scott Stringer's recommendation on the St. Vincent's luxury condo conversion ULRUP application ???
Because there is an appearance of "pay to play" or quid pro quo, was Mr. Stringer prostituting himself to the Rudin family ? We already know that campaign donations allegedly play a role in New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn determining her official acts in office. Does the same hold true for Mr. Stringer ?
In total, the members of the Rudin family contributed over $200,000 in campaign donations to various politicians, each of whom would have had some kind of influence over the fate of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital.
The Rudin campaign donations made during the 2009, 2013 election cycles follow.
2013-07-08 Rudin-Rudin Advanced Search - New York City Campaign Finance Board
2013-07-08 Johnson-Rudin Advanced Search - New York City Campaign Finance Board
2013-07-08 DeWoody-Rudin Advanced Search - New York City Campaign Finance Board
I don't know how much he really did to try to save St. Vincent's Hospital, but it is finally a good sign that he is at least speaking about the need to stop the hospital closings.
Any merger between two weak hospitals is a bad idea. We should fund each hospital so that it can fully meet the needs of their own patients.
"There was even an 'LGBT against Quinn' contingent at last weekend’s @HeritageofPride march." http://t.co/dq16QIhZsx @thenation @Quinn4NY
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) July 7, 2013
From "The Powerful Lesson of New York's Police Oversight Law" (The Nation) :
"Then there was Christine Quinn, notorious for her vow to offer Police Commissioner Ray Kelly the same job. Perhaps she just is not that angry about how Kelly has treated Muslims and people of color New Yorkers, whether gay or straight. But the NYPD has also directly profiled queer people. It’s common for transgender and non-gender-conforming people to be stopped and arrested for prostitution simply for carrying condoms, and until recently many trans people were afraid to carry condoms for fear they could be used as evidence against them in court. I’m not alone in my ire for Quinn or my sense that she’s a flip-flopper (e.g., she voted no on 1080, but yes on 1079). There was even an “LGBT against Quinn” contingent at last weekend’s pride march. How depressing that a host of prominent gay and lesbians groups and activists—most recently Edith Windsor herself—have endorsed Quinn’s run for mayor. That’s homonationalism in action."
With State Senator Brad Hoylman at her side, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said that she was changing her mind about accepting the corruptive influence of outside campaign money to help boost her sagging bid in this year's mayoral race.
In April, Speaker Quinn denounced the use of outside campaign money, sometimes called "independent expenditures" to soften the sound of corruption. That was back when Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign was ahead in the polls. But then in late June, once Speaker Quinn's campaign began a sharp nose-dive, she welcomed the assistance of outside campaign money.
Meanwhile, it was Speaker Quinn who supported loosening restrictions on the role of corporations in being able to spend money to influence municipal elections when she watered down the city's campaign finance laws.
Christine Quinn and Her On-Going Slush Fund Scandal ... Six Years Later
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s opponents in the mayoral race are trying to resurrect the “slush fund scandal”, when the Council allegedly assigned millions of dollars to fictitious organizations, The Wall Street Journal writes (via City & State) : Campaigns Hit Quinn on 'Slush Fund'
. @ChrisCQuinn's Quid Pro Quo : Slush Funds In Exchange for Campaign Donations http://t.co/fT05HkE4nj #Preet #corruption #indictment
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) July 3, 2013
