Wednesday, April 9, 2014

After gaming NYC campaign finance model, mayor and his allies plan to game the NYS model, too

PUBLISHED : SUN, 09 APR 2014, 09:30 AM
UPDATED : SUN, 11 MAY 2014, 10:00 PM

If we have to depend on the Working Families Party for election and campaign finance reform, we are in big trouble

The $200 million cost of spreading the corrupt New York City campaign finance model to the rest of New York state would form an avalanche of money, and all this money would pick up wild speeds as it hurled straight into the pockets of the corrupt campaign consultants and lobbyists that keep the political system broken and owned by big money donors and special interests. This is not what real reform would look like. Real reform would be banning all private donations, ending the appointment of campaign finance regulators by politicians, and instituting newer, tougher regulations of campaign consultants/lobbyists.

"The WFP, a strong ally of Mayor de Blasio’s and, after a string of victories in last fall’s elections, the most potent player in city politics, believes that winning approval of a public-finance system — which could cost taxpayers $200 million per election cycle — would enhance its quest for higher taxes and more government spending throughout the state."

In it's article, The New York Post lumped the Working Families Party in with "election reformers" and "good government groups." What a joke !

In last year's municipal elections, the most visible Working Families Party political operatives, Scott Levenson and Patrick Gaspard, became the subject of federal complaints over corrupt electioneering activities. These and other corrupt campaign consultants and lobbyists know how to game the system of public matching dollars that once made the New York City model of campaign finance such a darling for government reform activists. However, in the years since its inception, the New York City campaign finance model has shown that it can be exploited by shady lobbyists seeking to make Swiss cheese of city campaign finance regulations. Not only that, but the Working Families Party is said to have many issues with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's neoliberal policies, but the Working Families Party is actually engaging in negotiations to broker a deal to endorse Gov. Cuomo in this year's race reelection race, in spite of Gov. Cuomo's failure to revolutionise campaign finance reform in New York state. It is now possible for candidates to violate caps on political campaign donations by opening several campaign accounts across several jurisdictions and for multiple political campaigns -- all during the same election cycle. Just look at what New York City Councilmeber Melissa Mark-Viverito did in last year's race.

With support from the Working Families Party and operatives loyal to the WFP, Councilmember Mark-Viverito was eligible for four campaign accounts last year: a campaign account, for which there is no transparency, for a Democratic Party District Leader race ; a campaign account for a City Councilmember race that was eligible for public matching dollars in exchange for a spending cap ; a largely unregulated campaign account for a controversial Council speaker race ; and, as icing on the cake, a campaign account for inauguration and transition activities to reward her donors and political operative supporters. Combined, her dependence on a never-ending cycle of corrupt campaign finance spending opens New York City government to the corruptive influence of big money donors, corrupt campaign consultants, and shady special interests and their lobbyists. Add to this the fact that the corrupt political campaign system selects do-nothing officials to nominally oversee campaign finance regulations. In New York City, Rose Gill Hearn oversees the Campaign Finance Board, the city's campaign finance regulatory authority. In her past post as chief of the city's Department of Investigation, Ms. Hearn did nothing in the face of a massive $600 million CityTime fraud by SAIC. If she has no integrity to stop massive corporate fraud, then her corrupt record makes her perfect to keep allowing political operatives and lobbyists to keep gaming the city's campaign finance regulations under the de Blasio administration.

This same model is the vision that the Working Families Party has for the rest of New York state : a campaign finance model that can be gamed and exploited, that leaves elected officials incapable of providing any checks-and-balances on government or corrupt special interests, precisely because all these elected officials are feeding off the nipple of a corrupt campaign finance system that allows big money donors and special interests to set government agenda. It's been reported that the WFP plans to use changes in the state's campaign finance regulations to enact its agenda across the state. But the WFP has shown that what drives its agenda is the source of its campaign donations. In the effort to raise vast amounts of money for state-wide political campaign races, the WFP is going to represent the interests of its donors and the lobbyists, who are paid to conduct these campaign, similar to how the party conducts its business in the city level. How many Bloomberg-era policies have yet to be fully ended or reformed ? If the WFP portrays itself as a reform party, where has it been on the controversial appointment of William Bratton as police commissioner ? What is the WFP going to do to force City Hall to settle the class action lawsuit filed by homeless youths by fully providing the resources to homeless youths so that they can receive shelter, as required by law ? It seems like the WFP isn't interested in reforming some social issues, unless there are big money donors attached to those issues.

In spite of all of his empty rhetoric during last year's campaign season, Mayor Bill de Blasio is still going to allow real estate developers to get their hands of valuable hospital property for zone-busting luxury housing development deals in gentrifying neighborhoods, like what is happening at Long Island College Hospital. Amongst big business special interests, real estate lobbyists and developers have become key mayoral supporters, so it should come as no surprise to see the mayor carry out a city agenda that delivers on the corrupt expectations of real estate developers. On the other end of the political spectrum, you had a Super PAC administrated by Mr. Levenson, the WFP operative and former ACORN spokesman, which spend a million dollars to defeat former Council Speaker Christine Quinn in last year's mayoral race in what some have said was a coordinated act to benefit the mayoral campaign of Bill de Blasio. Further muddling this electioneering controversy is that the NY-CLASS animal rights group and their supporters, trying to enact a noble ban on carriage horses in Central Park, chiefly funded the Super PAC, provided electioneering support to Councilmember Mark-Viverito, and its Super PAC administrator, Mr. Levenson and his lobbying firm, helped to select Councilmember Mark-Viverito as Council speaker, a position from which NY-CLASS would expect Speaker Mark-Viverito to deliver the horse carriage ban.

Once the mayoral race was over, the corruptive role of money in politics cycled out of their Super PAC structures and into 501(c)(4) structures. Witness how the mayor became entangled in a political vendetta against the powerful charter schools executive, Eva Moskowitz. After the mayor took actions to destroy Ms. Moskowitz's charter school corporation, Ms. Moskowitz raised big money donations and launched a powerful multi-million TV attack ad campaign against the mayor. Ms. Moskowitz was so successful that the governor, impressed by her fundraising prowess, came to her rescue ; the mayor, out-raised and out-spent, had to retreat ; and now, the mayor is fighting to resuscitate his damaged popularity poll numbers by mounting his own TV campaign blitz, touting his nominal win in expanding pre-kinder in New York City.

If the mayor needs to keep fluffing his image with political TV commercials, then he's going to have to keep raising more and more special interest money from big money donors. And the Working Families Party, which the mayor co-founded, will undoubtedly keep helping the mayor to keep money in politics, so long as it is to their advantage, meaning that we have very little hope of ending campaign finance corruption in New York. And what can big business interests, like Ms. Moskowitz, learn from these first 100 days of the de Blasio administration ? Keep raising 501(c)(4) political campaign money until it comes time to switch back to Super PAC's, for Ms. Moskowitz has proven herself to be able to challenge Mayor de Blasio in 2017. It's not that her ideology is right, it only comes down to her ability to raise big money donations that can roll over the mayor's political machine in a backdrop of lax campaign regulations and do-nothing regulators. In this vicious cycle, the awareness by the mayor and by his scores of political operatives of Ms. Moskowitz's campaign finance threat frightens the mayor into greater and greater dependence on political campaign donations to fund paid sick day advertising blitz and the pre-kinder commercials. Instead of reforming campaign finance by banning all private donations, along the lines of reforms called for by Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins, the mayor and his team of political operatives are going to double-down on their dependence on big money campaign donors.

QUESTIONING THE NEW YORK CITY CAMPAIGN FINANCE BOARD

With John Liu's lawsuit against New York City over conflicted city campaign finance regulators, this makes three federal referrals of elections violations, forcing Mayor de Blasio to lawyer-up, recruit special inside election counsel.

After a wave of federal complaints that have been lodged over electioneering violations in last year's municipal elections, Mayor Bill de Blasio has hired a special legal advisor specializing in election law.

Since Mayor de Blasio and City Council Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and/or their political operatives, are entangled in some of these federal complaints, it should come as no surprise that Mayor de Blasio is now maneuvering to use his public office to defend himself against allegations of wrong-doing that took place during the electioneering of last year's municipal elections.

The three federal complaints lodged following last year's municipal elections :

  1. GOP consultant E. O'Brien Murray argued to the State Department that Patrick Gaspard, a former top White House aide with a deep history in Gotham politics, violated the federal Hatch Act by getting involved in Mayor de Blasio's campaign -- and City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito's subsequent election as speaker -- while representing the U.S. in South Africa. (GOP Operative Files Hatch Act Complaint Against U.S. Ambassador Patrick Gaspard * The New York Daily News)
  2. Louis Flores, a local political gadfly who ran a blog and wrote a book criticizing Christine Quinn, has filed a complaint with U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s criminal division against Scott Levenson and The Advance Group consulting firm, which came under deep scrutiny during the mayoral campaign. (Federal Complaint Filed Against The Advance Group for Election Work * Politicker)
  3. Former New York City Comptroller and failed mayoral candidate John Liu has filed a federal lawsuit against the city and its Campaign Finance Board. He says the board unfairly crippled his campaign by denying him matching funds in last year's race for mayor. (Ex-NYC mayor hopeful sues Campaign Finance Board * AP/The San Francisco Chronicle)

Lax city campaign finance regulators allowed loopholes and exploitation to corrupt the race for the New York City Council Speaker

A series of editorials by the Editorial Board of The New York Daily News slammed City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito during the Council speaker race, first for circumventing city campaign finance laws, and then for exploiting loopholes in the state's campaign finance laws.

"Mark-Viverito has opened a campaign account under state regulations. She is apparently accepting contributions and apparently paying different consultants to advance her cause. Who’s giving her money and who’s getting her money will not be disclosed until after the speaker’s contest is settled," the Editorial Board wrote in the second editorial, noting, "At the same time, hopefuls Dan Garodnick of Manhattan and Mark Weprin of Queens are dipping into campaign accounts to give tens of thousands of dollars to fellow councilmembers and party organizations," before concluding, "None of this is acceptable."

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Boeing role in missing Malaysia Airlines crash not yet fully reported ?

Will Malaysia Airlines replace transponder, other communication, and tracking instruments aboard its fleet of Boeing aircraft, like how Air France replaced airspeed instruments aboard its fleet of Airbus aircraft following the crash of AF447 ?

As hopes ebb and flow over the intensive mobilization to locate and retrieve the Boeing 777-200’s data and voice recorders of the missing Malaysian flight, the authorities taking part in the coordinated international effort to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 are having to bear the expense of a "needle in the hay stack" search and recovery effort that just should not be.

The report in The New York Times indicated that authorities and companies participating in the search will likely bear their own costs for the search, but it is a shame when there appears to be negligence involved in the horrible fate that befell Flight MH370.

After news first broke that the flight went missing, the Malaysian government was reluctant to share information, because they feared exposing their "weak radar and satellite systems," The New York Times reported at the time, alluding to a shared fear by American aviation officials, who didn't want any political blowback directed their way over American failures, chiefly from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, that may have contributed to the crash. Boeing, an undisputed leader in aviation, has taken a backseat in the search for Flight MH370, an aircraft it manufactured. Will U.S. and other aviation authorities focus on the spectacular manufacturing failure that appears to have allowed people aboard the missing flight to deactivate transponders and other tracking equipment, as speculation suggests, exposing a lingering risk of vulnerability aboard aircraft to criminality over a decade since the Sept. 11 attacks ? There seems to be a lot of hostility directed at the Malaysian government over its troubled search efforts, but nobody questions Boeing's faulty manufacturing that may have had a contributory negligent role in the flight's disappearance.

Five years ago, the prior record for the costliest aviation search and recovery effort ever undertaken was set following the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447 several hundred miles off of the coast of Brazil, The New York Times reported, adding that the cost of that two-year effort, for the remains of an Airbus A330, reached about €115 million, before noting that "... the search for Flight 370 is already far more complicated, and may have already topped that total. Some of the ships involved cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a day apiece to use, and some of the aircraft being used can cost thousands of dollars an hour each to operate, officials say."

Misreadings by airspeed instrumentation aboard the Flight AF447 Airbus was ruled to have contributed to that accident, and Air France ultimately "replaced the speed sensors, known as Pitots, which were manufactured by French company Thales, on its Airbus planes with a newer model after the crash," The Daily Mail reported. No word yet if Malaysia Airlines plans to audit, investigate, and ultimately replace transponder and other communication and tracking equipment on other Boeing aircraft in its fleet.

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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

GMHC CEO search committee diversity controversy triggers protest

GMHC's search for a new CEO is clouded in secrecy with no input from the agency's clients, activists say

Roberta Kaplan Paul Weiss GMHC Diversity Scandal photo Roberta-Kaplan-Paul-Weiss-GMHC-scandal_zpsdbc92bba.jpg

Members of the Consumer Advisory Board, a committee representing clients served by Gay Men's Health Crisis, made an appeal to GMHC's CEO search committee's leader, Paul Weiss partner Roberta Kaplan, "to include black and Latino voices" on the search committee, DNAinfo New York reported, but Ms. Kaplan "brushed them off."

Activists and clients plan to protest outside GMHC offices on Thursday at 1:30 p.m., demanding justice and transparency by GMHC's CEO search committee and by the agency's Board of Directors.

Over a year ago, leaders from New York City's Ballroom community and other activists launched a protest campaign against the agency's former GMHC CEO, Marjorie Hill, for exploiting New York's Ballroom community and for leaving the agency in a financial mess.

Ms. Hill was fired from GMHC the same year that New York City voters rejected former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's mayoral campaign. After a recent press article reported that former Speaker Quinn, who never delivered any transformative reform for people with AIDS, much less never established a comprehensive city agenda on HIV/AIDS, was being considered for the CEO position, the report triggered a swift backlash of outrage amongst activists. Some activists alleged that Ms. Kaplan, a leading QUILTBAG civil rights attorney and close political ally of Ms. Quinn, was trying to rescue Ms. Quinn's public career at the expense of the agency's critical mission. In the last year, New York QUILTBAG activists have become emboldened to demand real change everywhere from city government to leading HIV/AIDS service organizations, and activists are not going to take anymore empty rhetoric or false promises for change, not even from fake leaders from within the GUILTBAG community. There's no more patience for that.

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If U.S. Fracks Gas For Europe, How Much Sooner Will We Poison Our Water Supply ?

The foolish drive to export liquefied natural gas to Europe overlooks the environmental hazards to the United States

Congressional pressure is building on the Obama administration to "quicken gas exports to Europe," The New York Times is reporting, in order to reduce the continent's dependence on dirty fossil fuels from Russia. Instead, U.S. oil companies want Europe to increase their dependence on dirty fossil fuels from the U.S.

For the U.S. to ship its gas to Europe won't solve the fossil fuel dependency problem in any permanent sense, but it will hasten the day when the U.S. poisons its groundwater supply as a result of fracking and may foreseeably force the U.S. to, as a consequence, import clean drinking water from Europe, if European nations are willing to sell it that precious commodity to us in the future.

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Monday, April 7, 2014

Putting New Yorkers in jail because of healthcare cuts, lack of housing, and racist policing, but blaming mental illness

The Editorial Board of The New York Times thinks that enrolling all jail inmates into Medicaid will solve the "mental health" crisis of jail inmates. What a joke !

How many people with mental health needs end up in jail, because of each of a lack of a specialized municipal healthcare system that should first provide people with the full-service mental healthcare treatments that they may need and the NYPD's continued use of its "broken windows" theory of policing that deliberately targets people with the least and people with hardships for incarceration ?

The Editorial Board worries about discharged inmates receiving post-detention care, but what about providing healthcare and support so that people don't become jail inmates in the first place ? Why doesn't The New York Times oppose policing tactics that lead to the arrest of people solely because they may be homeless, may be poor, or may have unmet healthcare needs ? The systematic closing of so many of New York City's full-service hospitals, including specialize mental health hospitals like Holliswood Hospital of Queens, added to a broken municipal shelter system and the lack of affordable housing, leave people with special needs with fewer and fewer places to go. Mix in Police Commissioner William Bratton's crackdown on the poor, and you have a perfect storm that puts people into jail for all the wrong reasons. How do we even know that jail inmates are truly even "mentally ill" ? Maybe some inmates are just plain discouraged as a direct result of either their dire economic circumstances or being targeted for arrest by police for being poor or being of color ?

Furthermore, the Editorial Board's Medicaid advocacy falls short of the realities of the broken healthcare system. So many experienced healthcare providers don't accept, and many specialized medications aren't covered by, Medicaid. By railroading inmates into a Medicaid healthcare plan that doesn't allow access to a full-range of healthcare treatment, I don't know what good the Editorial Board really expects will happen. Have members of The New York Times' Editorial Board ever tried getting an appointment with a good doctor, or filling a prescription, on Medicaid ? How do we know whether people on Medicaid with mental healthcare needs aren't being driven into incarceration by their failed healthcare coverage, the hospital closing crisis, and Commissioner Bratton's crackdown on poor people of color ? Where's the safety net ?

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Sunday, April 6, 2014

Mayor Bill de Blasio blocks homeless shelter in Upper West Side

Is Mayor de Blasio backpedaling on homelessness in New York City ?

Mayor Bill de Blasio has opposed the conversion of a building into a homeless shelter after NIMBY opposition to the homeless shelter came from Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, The New York Post reported.

With growing numbers of people turning to the city's shelter system for housing, progressives have escalated pressure on the de Blasio administration to address the underlying determinants that are exacerbating the homeless population in New York City.

"Last year was the first time the number of homeless people sleeping each night in shelters exceeded 50,000," The New York Times reported.

On the eve of Mayor de Blasio's inauguration, the Legal Aid Society filed a class action lawsuit against the city on behalf of homeless youths, demanding from the city the full resources to provide shelter to homeless youths, as required by law. But many liberal groups, including the administrators of homeless LGBT shelters, have tried to de-escalate the pressure on the administration into making piecemeal or token gestures to address homelessness.

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Bill de Blasio denies email FOIL request pertaining to City Hall's effort to spring Bishop Findlayter from jail

Is Mayor Bill de Blasio obstructing press FOIL requests into City Hall Biship Findlayter correspondence ?

When The Wall Street Journal first published an exclusive report about the de Blasio administration's efforts to spring one of the mayor's political supporters out of jail, the newspaper reported that the "mayor's office sent emails to the NYPD officials" involved in the arrest of Bishop Orlando Findlayter. Now, City Hall claims that no email communication exists pertaining to efforts to bust the mayor's supporter out of jail.

Mayor de Blasio had previously told the City Hall press corps that it was his aide, Emma Wolfe, who first alerted him to Bishop Findlayter’s arrest, The New York Daily News reported.

"Neither the mayor nor his office have ever questioned the veracity of the paper’s original report," The New York Observer reported. But after The New York Observer filed an "extensive" request under Freedom of Information Law, Ian Bassin, who is City Hall’s Records Access Officer, replied to the FOIL request by saying that there were no "responsive records."

The FOIL requests may be being denied to avoid further criticism of City Hall over the Findlayter scandal. The original article published by The Wall Street Journal "sparked days of tabloid headlines and charges of two standards of justice in the new administration," The New York Observer reported. Ever since charter schools executive Eva Moskowitz mounted a multi-million TV attack ad campaign against Mayor de Blasio, City Hall has been going to great lengths to avoid any bad publicity.

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Saturday, April 5, 2014

NYPD cop accepts dance battle. Kills it!

Amazing NYPD officer enters dance battle contest and outperforms other dancers.

I wonder what it would be like if the community felt that police officers were actually part of the community, as opposed to being oppressors of the community ?

Post by Stanton Warriors.
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Mayor de Blasio with Bill Rudin (twice) ; Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital and Dr. Brickner

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

From the Demand A Hospital listserv :

Dear All :

A news round-up, plus photographs of Mayor de Blasio kissing up to Bill Rudin and embracing Rudin lobbyist, James Capalino.

1. Remembering Dr. Brickner. Dr. Philip Brickner, who was chairman of St. Vincent's community medicine department, made house calls and set up a “free clinic” for people in need. He passed away on March 24 at his home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He was 85. (Remembering Dr. Philip Brickner, who made house calls to the vulnerable, dies at 85 * The New York Times)

2. Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital. Some say that Rudin Management, the builder of the new billion-dollar luxury condominium complex at St. Vincent’s footprint, was coincidentally former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s largest campaign contributor, and she didn’t do all she could do to save the hospital. Sadly, this article unfairly blames St. Vincent's for the economic consequences of making good on its own charity mission. Healthcare has taken a beating in Greenwich Village and Chelsea, and, citywide, the assault continues. (Remembering St. Vincent's Hospital * The Indypendent)

3. Bill Rudin breakfast. Mayor Bill de Blasio makes a "surprise" appearance last Wednesday morning at Bill Rudin's Association for a Better New York power breakfast. (Mayor de Blasio makes surprise stop at ABNY insider breakfast * The New York Observer)

4. Bill Rudin gala. Mayor de Blasio expresses support Thursday night for police crackdown as a way to jack up real estate values at Bill Rudin's Waldorf-Astoria charity benefit in this desperate Bloomberg public relations puff piece meant to help rehabilitate the Rudin family's tarnished image. See photo. (Mayor de Blasio kisses up to Bill Rudin at Waldorf-Astoria gala * Bloomberg)

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton with Mayor Bill de Blasio and Bill Rudin photo BillBratton-BilldeBlasio-BillRudin_zps2e98efb1.jpg

5. James Capalino connection. Reminder that last year, then mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio literally and figuratively embraced campaigning with Rudin's corrupt ULURP condo conversion lobbyist, James Capalino. See photo. (James Capalino, a former Rudin lobbyist volunteers for de Blasio * Capital New York)

Bill de Blasio with James Capalino photo james-capalino-bill-de-blasio_zps92ca225a.jpg

Thank you for all that you do.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Sprint Framily Commercial Uses French Version of Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home"

The latest Sprint commercial features a French cover of Mötley Crüe's famous song, "Home Sweet Home." A young girl, portrayed by the actress Tatyana Richaud, sings in French as she plays piano.

The Sprint commercial, for its Framily Plan, is the latest major American TV commercial that features French music. A Verizon Droid TV commercial featured Françoise Hardy's big French pop song hit, "Comment te dire adieu." One of Netflix's TV commercials uses a song, "Hey Now," from one of French pop music's most successful disk jockeys, Martin Solveig. And a long-running Google Chromecast commercial features an instrumental cover of Mikis Theodorakis's "Zorbas," which had inspired a famous French song by Dalida, "La Danse de Zorba."

It's great to see these American advertisers embrace French music like this, a sharp contrast to the French-bashing in Cadillac's widely panned commercial for its 2014 Cadillac ELR Coupe.

Several years ago, Pepsi elevated the use of French music in its "pinball" commercial with the use of the song, "Ça plane pour moi" by the American alternative rock band, The Presidents.

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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Is Council Speaker Mark-Viverito Caught In A Corrupt Pay-to-Play Fix ?

"Lobbysists are brazen. Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito is smug. They make an ugly couple." -- The New York Daily News

Campaigning for selection as the City Council’s speaker, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito accepted free services from the lobbying firm The Advance Group until she and her lobbying firm faced allegations of possible electioneering corruption. Then she used a controversial second electioneering account to hire a different lobbying firm, Pitta Bishop Del Giorno & Giblin, to further her speakership campaign. Councilmember Mark-Viverito relied on Pitta Bishop during her her speakership campaign, and later to raise money for her inauguration and transition committee. Her lobbying firm "reciprocated" by raising a substantial amount of the money towards her speakership campaign, "as well as most of the $27,000 tab for her bash," the editorial board of The New York Daily News writes in its house opinion piece. In the wake of having ingratiated itself, now Pitta Bishop has "lobbied Mark-Viverito on behalf of four clients," The New York Daily News adds. Because of the blatant conflicts of interest and appearance of pay-to-play politics, the editorial board of The New York Daily News calls on Councilmember Mark-Viverito to either recuse herself from voting on matters involving Pitta Bishop clients or bar Pitta Bishop representatives from her office.

Melissa Mark-Viverito photo melissa_mark-viverito_3_zpscc49b72b.jpg

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Romina Power and Al Bano sing "Felicità"

Romina Power, daughter of famed Hollywood icon Tyrone Power, sings one of her biggest musical hits, "Felicità," with her then husband, Al Bano.

The ending is kind of cute, because Mr. Bano was swept away by the great passion of the song, so much so that he continued to sing a couple of lines of the song after the music ended.

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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

The Moreland Commission Were Supposed to Be 'Super Cops' -- April Fool !!!

To scuttle possibly devastating investigations into public corruption, Gov. Cuomo announced that he was closing his ethics commission

Was the Moreland Commission some kind of sick and twisted, do-nothing joke that is finally getting exposed on April Fool's Day ?

Some state legislators and good government groups speculated that Gov. Andrew Cuomo was embarrassed to have to endure the unwelcome distraction of multiple public corruption investigations during an election year, The New York Times is reporting.

One of the co-chairs of the Moreland Commission, a Long Island district attorney, Kathleen Rice, is mounting a fun for Congress. It's unknown, yet, how voters will react to her abdication of her public corruption investigation duties.

Is Long Island Prosecutor Kathleen Rice's Reputation Going Down The Toilet ?

Andrew Cuomo Kathleen Rice Maitre Karlsson photo andrew-cuomo-kathleen-rice-maitre-karlsson_zpsf2dca878.jpg

Critics question how deeply corruption panel co-chair Kathleen Rice would probe Sheldon Silver after campaign contributions.

State government officials are questioning how aggressively Gov. Cuomo's corruption panel would investigate Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, after the law firm that employed Silver gave nearly $300,000 in campaign donations to co-chair and Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. (The New York Daily News)* Governor’s Crusade Against Corruption Comes With Too Many Asterisks (NYTimes) * To Gut Independence of Moreland Commission, Cuomo appointed Kathleen Rice as co-chair. Rice had been Cuomo's favourite for Attorney General before Eric Schneiderman won the AG race. (Capital New York) * Cuomo's naming of Rice to co-chair of Moreland Commission was a way to cut out Schneiderman from Moreland investigation of political corruption.

Another district attorney co-chair of the Moreland Commission, Bill Fitzpatrick, said that the public was deluded into thinking that the members of the Moreland Commission were "super cops," even though that's exactly the role that the state laws provide that gave rise to the commission in the first place. Already, a backlash appears to be growing amongst good government groups and government reform activists, who claim that members of the Moreland Commission appeared to do nothing more than Gov. Cuomo's political bidding. For example, when the Moreland Commission threatened to issue subpoenas to political supporters of the governor, the governor was said by some to have obstructed their efforts.

Eleanor Randolph was disappointed that the Moreland Commission didn't do more to report on the pay-to-play corruption in New York politics.

Eleanor Randolph, appearing on The New York Times Close-Up on NY1 photo Eleanor-Randolph-The-New-York-Times-IMG_5319_zps42b52e22.jpg

Last December, Eleanor Randolph appeared in the roundtable segment of The New York Times Close-up on NY1, and she expressed annoyance that one of the Moreland Commission's reports skipped over so many details of public corruption.

It's a good thing that federal prosecutors, who are presently engaged in a crackdown on public corruption, don't agree to be disbanded during election years. Otherwise, voters would really be in trouble.

2014-04-01 Moreland Commission - Follow-Up E-Mail Re Pitta Bishop USAO

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Sunday, March 30, 2014

Has Facebook exceeded peak goodwill ?

"We don't care. We don't have to. We're Facebook."

Facebook has come under fire in a new posting on The New York Times. In a panic to shore up public confidence following its never-ending changes to news feeds, its perpetual weakening of privacy controls for its users, questions over the way Facebook distributes traffic to page "likes," and its alleged close association with the National Security Administration, Facebook has been on a buying spree -- first engulfing Whatsapp and now Oculus VR -- desperately trying to acquire new individual users to make up for the users scrambling to abandon the once mighty social media network.

But in Facebook's strategy to buy individual users, it has neglected the legion of small businesses that had turned to Facebook as part of their online marketing strategy. Case in point : Eat24.

According to The New York Times, small and growing businesses like Eat24 blame Facebook for upending the way it allows businesses to interact with individual users. "Facebook has changed its algorithms over the last couple of years to highlight more posts by individuals and bury posts from brands — unless, of course, a brand wants to pay for ads to promote its posts."

With Facebook's goodwill deteriorating with individual users and businesses that formerly enjoyed their Facebook experience, all this reminds us of comedian Lily Tomlin's hilarious satirical skits of a fictional telephone operator, Ernestine, who became famous for her trademark line : "We don't care; we don't have to. We're the phone company."

Let's see how long before the next brilliant college student invents a new social media platform that will create a wild Internet sensation amongst college students, leaving Facebook to join the land line telephone company and MySpace as obsolete telecommunication business models.

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This Week in Carolyn Ryan Journalism Realness

Is Carolyn Ryan engaged in a smear campaign against President Barack Obama, or is she only reporting the truth ? Public Editor's "AnonyWatch Review" weighs in.

Before we delve into the latest chapter of Carolyn Ryan's media bias, let's begin by first examining the obsession with "polish" by readers of mainstream journalism. By polish, we mean the fetish with exacting spelling, grammar, syntax, and punctuation on big-name news Web sites.

Earlier today on Facebook, a social media network friend of mine shared a status update in which she made the observation that typographical errors in mainstream media Web sites were distracting, and they degraded her perception of the quality of news being published on said Web sites. This led to a back-and-forth discussion of this topic. At the end, I raised some concerns about how an obsession with typos may distract from the fact that very few journalists (either mainstream or alternative bloggers) very rarely tell the whole truth, that the real quality of journalism may transcend typos and should be judged, instead, on the larger quality of reporting the truth. For example, Anemona Hartocollis, the metropolitan healthcare reporter at The New York Times, gets her copy published in a form that is generally free of copy errors, but her journalism is biased as all get out. Ms. Hartocollis's reporting is emblematic of the corporate agenda in mainstream journalism. Whenever Ms. Hartocollis reports about another community hospital closing in New York City, her reporting only represents the corporate speak of profits-and-losses, and she makes no attempt to humanize the healthcare cuts' impact on real people's lives. Because corporate public relations spin is devoid of any moral obligation, Ms. Hartocollis reduces all her healthcare reporting to be about dollars and cents, siding with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's and his budget axman, Stephen Berger's, desire to make scorched earth cuts to healthcare. As far as Ms. Hartocollis's reporting is concerned, she's never attempted to ever report about the human right to healthcare. Just because Ms. Hartocollis's copy is clean of typos, it doesn't mean it's anymore truthful than a Medicaid Redesign Team press release.

Another example I noted in the back-and-forth on Facebook today was that of a blogger, with whom I'm on the outs. She butchers the presentation of information on her blog like nobody's business. Sometimes, her stream of consciousness blog postings contain incomplete sentences, but more often than not she gets it right when it comes to exposing government and real estate corruption. Her reporting delves deeper than the reporting of some reporters published in The New York Times, for example. Another blogger I know makes big-time typos, too, and sometimes his text "disappears" because of slip-shod copying-and-pasting, but from his blog his readers can learn how to see the corrupt political chess pieces move on big social issues. I acknowledge that it is important to present information, especially journalism, in a way that is accessible to readers, but mainstream journalism, even factoring into account all the waves of "corporate layoffs," still have access to resources like copy editors, interns, other editors, and webmasters that can proof writing after it's been submitted. But, as have been noted time and again, mainstream journalism has come to reflect a corporate agenda that distorts the ability of mainstream journalists to report the whole truth.

Over time, astute readers of political reporting learn that to discover the truth, once must read multiple sources of the same story in order to "average," "balance," and/or "correct" the news. If readers were to solely judge writing on cosmetics, that criteria will short change readers on the truth. Obvious mistakes should be corrected, but some bloggers don't even have editors. So, I'll always defend bloggers before mainstream reporters. But even then, I don't look at polish as being the only criteria for realness.

Carolyn Ryan's use of anonymous sources to report about President Obama's political backlash in the final midterm Congressional elections

Two weeks ago, Washington bureau chief Carolyn Ryan oversaw a report published in The New York Times about Democrats's fears about "their midterm election fortunes amid President Obama’s sinking approval ratings." The article contained a passage with a shady anonymous attribution :

“One Democratic lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, said Mr. Obama was becoming ‘poisonous’ to the party’s candidates. At the same time, Democrats are pressing senior aides to Mr. Obama for help from the political network.”

Public editor Margaret Sullivan chastised Ms. Ryan for the use of an anonymous quote, an issue of recent concern to the public editor and the readers of The New York Times. In her defense, Ms. Ryan pieced together a weak defense in which she denied engaging in an hominem attack on the president. It's difficult to believe that Ms. Ryan, as editor, or Jonathan Martin and Ashley Parker, as the reporters of the subject article, would go out of their way to wrongly roll up responsibility for the flagging fortunes of the national Democratic Party on the president. But the larger political reality that Ms. Ryan and Ms. Sullivan ignored is how the Obama administration silences dissent through political machinations, maneuvering that every high-level elected official uses to control his or her own political narrative. Ms. Ryan was famous for espousing the political narrative propagated by former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn when Ms. Ryan used to serve as the metropolitan editor for the newspaper. But now, Ms. Ryan has perhaps learned to challenge power holders, and, by relying on the sentiments of an anonymous source, Ms. Ryan may actually be expanding the political reporting in The New York Times rather than just repeating the official party line of the politicians she's tasked to cover.

No doubt that Ms. Ryan's anonymous sources for the subject article really exist, because many Democrats are plainly fed up by President Obama's corruption scandals involving the National Security Administration, the Monsanto Protection Act, and other political controversies. The public editor was critical of Ms. Ryan's use of an anonymous source, but if Ms. Sullivan would like to further examine why Democrats are afraid to speak out against President Obama, perhaps the editors of The New York Times should examine President Obama's political persecution of liberal advocates and institutions he locks up in the veal pen ? In her further defense, after Ms. Ryan endured so much criticism about her biased reporting that benefitted Ms. Quinn, Ms. Ryan may finally be learning the truth about how journalism really works when one is fully reporting uncomfortable truths about the corrupt political machinations of an elected official. Some sources may not want to go on the record for fear of political retribution. Like a typo hear or their, sometimes journalism realness doesn't always come neatly packaged and wrapped. After President Obama's veal pen gets examined, maybe editors can turn their attention to Ms. Hartocollis's media bias ?

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