Wednesday, July 31, 2013

VIDEO : Quinn Supports Kelly ; Does She Endorse NYPD Police Brutality ?

Christine Quinn Supports Ray Kelly. Does She Endorse Police Brutality ?

A new video posted on YouTube shows New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn heaping praise on NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, even though the NYPD has had a record of racism and brutality under Commissioner Kelly. The new YouTube video shows six real examples of how law enforcement officers have a pattern of using excessive force.

Links to examples of excessive force used by NYPD and by peace officers :

Chapter 7 of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn, which is being serialized this summer, addresses the NYPD’s history of violating the civil rights and civil liberties of activists. The conversation around reforming the NYPD needs to be enlarged to also address the police department’s persistent violations of civil rights and civil liberties. A task force should be empaneled with subpoena power and charged with investigating and issuing binding recommendations to finally overhaul the NYPD.

Since its debut on Scribd, a free preview of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn has generated over 16,000 combined reads, and research from Volume I inspired Michael Grynbaum to write a front page article in The New York Times : Quinn’s History of Mastering the Insiders’ Game.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Christine Quinn Negative Ad Rejected By Facebook

Christine Quinn Phyllis Schlafly Double Headed Nonsense photo Christine-Quinn-Double-Headed-Non-Sense_zps6501f4bf.jpg

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 ?

Mike Bloomberg Christine Quinn Annual City Budget Farcical Yet Dangerous Budget War Dance

The King And Quinn : "Shall We Dance ?"

2013 City Budget Kiss-In Between Michael Bloomberg and Christine Quinn

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"

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Who is Carlos Menchaca ?

Who is Carlos Menchaca ?

Carlos Menchaca Nancy Pelosi Nydia Velazquez

Carlos Menchaca, center, poses for a photograph with his idols, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, left, who supports NSA spying, and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, right, who The Daily News described as the most inactive New York delegate to Congress in 2011.

How real can Carlos Menchaca be ? He is running for the 38th City Council District City Council from Brooklyn based on a fine line that the advocacy for work he was paid to do after Hurricane Sandy makes him most qualified for that post. He is running in opposition against incumbent Sara Gonzalez. At the time of his ascendancy in Red Hook circles, Mr. Menchaca was a paid staffer/informant for New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and he was tasked to do electioneering work on her behalf, in an effort to fluff her image among people, who suffered damage as a reslut of Hurricane Sandy

Here is a video of Mr. Menchaca made in 2011 by a prominent Brooklyn blogger in which Mr. Menchaca introduces himself as representing New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's office :

After Hurricane Sandy, Mr. Menchaca was dispatched to Red Hook, Brooklyn, to collect political information that could help Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign efforts. Once she was done with him, Speaker Quinn turned to support the incumbent, Ms. Gonzalez. Although Mr. Menchaca likes to spin his Hurricane Sandy work in a positive light, look at how writer Zoltan Gluck portrayed Mr. Menchaca's lack of community sensibilities :

The agenda of the small business coalition was captured succinctly by ReStore Red Hook founder, Monica Byrne, at a community meeting in early November : “We will not stop until every single small business in Red Hook re-opens its doors again.” As a vehicle for fund-raising, grant applications, and political lobbying, ReStore Red Hook has become a pivotal actor in the dynamics of recovery and reconstruction in the neighborhood. The example of a large grant awarded by the Brooklyn Community Foundation in December for Sandy recovery work is symptomatic. Through personal connections with Carlos Menchaca, Christine Quinn’s official liaison in Red Hook, a coalition of five organizations in Red Hook (including NGOs, residents and small businesses) were able to secure a large grant from the Brooklyn Community Foundation. Without any community oversight over how such funds ought to be disbursed, 80% of the funds were ultimately allocated to ReStore Red Hook. In a neighborhood where over 70% of the population lives in public housing, to allocate 80% of incoming resources to small businesses along a gentrifying corridor simply callous. It is also a form of institutional racism reproduced and replicated through everyday practices. By mobilizing cultural, legal, and political capital to control incoming resources and funnel them towards small businesses, this coalition is indirectly working to disempower and displace the working-class Black and Latino community of Red Hook. (Race, Class, and Disaster Gentrification * Tidal)

Even after he curried favour with Speaker Quinn's office by doing her bidding, he was betrayed by Speaker Quinn. Then, the work that Mr. Menchaca did on her behalf was portrayed as furthering the pain of gentrification in Red Hook.

The election system seems to be broken if people, who get paid to do community work, then turn around and portray that paid community work in a way to offer it as evidence of sufficient qualification for running for public office.

First, if Mr. Menchaca wanted to portray his work in support of people, who suffered damage as a result of Hurricane Sandy, in a positive light, then he would have had to have done it from a noble place, not as part of a paid political staff member for Speaker Quinn's political machine.

And second, Mr. Menchaca's contributions to the hurricane recovery effort should have actually helped those with the least, and not aggravated the pressures caused by gentrification, as pointed out by Occupy activists.

Maybe Mr. Menchaca is trying to use a strategy from Speaker Quinn's own political playbook. When she was young, Speaker Quinn was once the paid executive director of the Anti-Violence Project. She later used her paid work at that agency to parlay it as evidence of her commitment for advocacy work in her campaign for the New York City Council in 1999. If Speaker Quinn's real record of advocacy is any indication, Mr. Menchaca would do better to just come out right now and openly represent himself to be a tool of business interests. That would spare voters the need for him to be dishonest with the community he intends to represent.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

This Week-End in Carolyn Ryan Media Bias

Carolyn Ryan, left, is the politics editor at The New York Times. Prior to that post, she served as the metropolitan editor, where most of the articles she assigned and edited were of a favourable nature to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Many bloggers now believe that Ms. Ryan does the bidding of PR guru Howard Rubinstein, who is a corrupt media master of powerful New York corporate business interests.

Regarding : "Citing Scandals, Quinn Sees Way to Stand Apart"

How much more one sided an article can The NYTimes publish ? The headline seems to indicate that only Anthony Weiner has scandals in his past. The reporters downsized the implications to democracy by seeming to undercut Speaker Quinn's prime role in overturning term limits. And the article don't even mention each of Speaker Quinn's use of accounting fraud to hide a slush fund that she controlled at her sole discretion and the pattern of pay-to-play politics where if developers become campaign donors they always appear to get their way in real estate projects. More and more people are seeing through how disingenuous the reportage in The NYTimes is becoming in the editors' quest to install Mayor Michael Bloomberg's puppet as the next mayor.

Perhaps voters should be grateful to editors at The NYTimes for making the bias easy to spot, so voters can see this for themselves.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Christine Quinn Right Wing Turn

Christine Quinn Phyllis Schlafly Double Headed Nonsense photo Christine-Quinn-Double-Headed-Non-Sense_zps6501f4bf.jpg

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 once patronized 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 ?

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Christine Quinn Phyllis Schlafly : Double Headed Nonsense

Christine Quinn Phyllis Schlafly Double Headed Nonsense photo Christine-Quinn-Double-Headed-Non-Sense_zps6501f4bf.jpg

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 once patronized 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 ?

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Christine Quinn is the "Jack Kevorkian" of NYC Hospital Closings

Is Christine Quinn the "Doctor Death" of New York City hospital closings ?

Dr-Jack-Kevorkian-Christine-Quinn-Ten-Assisted-Hospital-Closings photo Dr-Jack-Kevorkian-Christine-Quinn-Ten-Assisted-Hospital-Closings_zpsbe4e40d2.jpg

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 :

  • Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx became bankrupt and was sold in 2013 ; it is expected to be down-sized into an urgent care center
  • Peninsula Hospital Center in Far Rockaway, Queens, filed for bankruptcy and was closed in 2012
  • North General Hospital in Harlem declared bankruptcy in 2010
  • St. Vincent's Hospital in the West Village was shut down in 2010, so that the Rudin family could build luxury condos
  • St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst went bankrupt in 2009
  • Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica went bankrupt in 2009
  • Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills closed in 2008
  • Cabrini Medical Center in Manhattan closed in 2008
  • Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge closed in 2008
  • St. Vincent's Midtown in Manhattan closed in 2007

If your life depends on comprehensive emergency care, how safe will you be with Christine Quinn as mayor ?

@stopchrisquinn

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Christine Quinn Emily Giske Anne Washburn Friends of the High Line Slush Fund Allegations of Corruption

City & State investigates the use of taxpayer money to benefit Friends of the High Line. This taxpayer money is funneled to FOTHL through New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's slush fund accounts. Lobbyist and former high level state Democratic Party official Emily Giske's wife is connected to FOTHL, and Giske is close personal friends with New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. In the past, Giske has been retained to do lobbying work for Friends of the High Line to do what else -- lobby Speaker Quinn ! There's a lot of shady conflicts of interest here, with the appearances of possibilities of taxpayer money flowing through FOTHL back to conflicted parties, lobbyists, and close personal friends of Speaker Quinn. This is a situation that appears to be ripe for graft. How do Speaker Quinn, Emily Giske, Giske's wife (Anne Washburn), and FOTHL get away with this ?

Monday, July 22, 2013

Media Advisory : "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn" Book Reading and Discussion

2013-07-23 Roots of Betrayal Book Reading - Media Advisory by Connaissable

''Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn'' is on sale now.

Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn can be purchased at the following bookstores :

  • Book Thug Nation, 100 N. Third St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn ;
  • Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers, 218 Bedford Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn ;
  • St. Mark’s Bookshop, 31 Third Ave., Manhattan ; and
  • Bluestockings, 172 Allen St., Manhattan.

Friday, July 19, 2013

A Comparison of @anthonyweiner and @ChrisCQuinn on LGBT Issues

A Comparison of Anthony Weiner and Christine Quinn on LGBT Issues

Both Anthony Weiner and Christine Quinn are candidates for mayor of New York in the 2013 election, and each are courting the LGBT vote. Samantha Henderson from Out magazine makes a list of how the two candidates have been good and bad on LGBT issues.

Read more : The 'Gay Pants' Candidate vs. the Gay Candidate

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Working Interns To Collapse In Heat Wave

How many more slush fund arrests ?

Christine Quinn - How many more slush fund arrests photo ChristineQuinn-Howmanymoreslushfundarrests_zpsa0203bdb.jpg

Head of Huntley-linked charity surrenders in 88G ‘scam’ : "Van Holmes, president of the Young Leaders Institute in Laurelton, was arrested as he walked up Austin Street towards the 112th Precinct in Queens at 5:50 a.m.," Sally Goldenberg of The New York Post reported this morning. "Charges by state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are expected to include grand larceny, forgery and falsifying business records. He faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty, sources said. Holmes allegedly stole money directly from his nonprofit — funds that were allocated by Huntley and City Council members." Christine Quinn continues to insist that her slush fund is being used for community empowerment, but every time that City Council discretionary funds make the news, those funds are tied to corruption arrests. Meanwhile, there are very worthy community groups that go unfunded. If we want to empower the community through discretionary funds, then the allocation of those funds should be determined by the community, and not by corrupt politicians.

We already know from press reports that Christine Quinn funnels discretionary funds to nonprofit groups, who then bundle contributions to her mayoral campaign. How much longer can Quinn keep up these shady acts before prosecutors catch up with her ?

Monday, July 15, 2013

Today in Carolyn Ryan Media Bias

2013-07-15 Poll Finds Quinn, Weiner and Spitzer Are Out Front - NYTimes.com by Connaissable

Quinn reimbursed to New York City $18,000 in travel-related expenses

Activist and blogger Michael Petrelis is reviewing Christine Quinn's campaign finance filings, and he has discovered that the Quinn campaign has reimbursed to New York City over $18,000 in travel expenses. These expense date from March 2011 through March 2013. There's no explanation yet from Quinn's campaign spokesperson why the reimbursements needed to be made from Quinn's campaign account.

Friday, July 12, 2013

This Week in Carolyn Ryan Media Bias

If you read The New York Times, you might ask yourself, "What hospital closing crisis ?"

In the last week, doctors, nurses, medical staff, Brooklyn residents, advocates for improved healthcare access, and even politicians (!) have been staging almost daily demonstrations in an effort to apply political pressure on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to save Long Island College Hospital (LICH).

Last Sunday, "Public Advocate and mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio rallied with nurses and healthcare workers outside the struggling Long Island College Hospital Sunday, calling on Gov. Cuomo to intervene to save the Cobble Hill facility and another Brooklyn hospital," reported Metro New York. On Monday, several hundred activists congregated outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office, demanding that the governor take state action to save LICH. On Wednesday, NYSNA ED Jill Furillo, RN ; President-Elect Judy Sheridan Gonzalez, RN ; Mr. de Blasio ; and about a dozen others were arrested in a trying to deliver a petition with approximately 7,000 signatures to SUNY officials in an effort to save LICH. On Thursday, Assemblywoman Joan Millman was among three people arrested at Brooklyn Bridge in another LICH protest.

But if you've been reading the "political coverage" on The New York Times, you would have only read one surly blog posting by Anemona Hartocollis (@anemonanyc), the hospital closing reporter. Ms. Hartocollis, who is normally asleep at the switch, or out shopping at for trendy shoes, wrote an article glamourising mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio for getting arrested on Wednesday's act of civil disobedience.

But Ms. Hartocollis's blog posting completely left out the growing community's concerns with the chicanery going on with Gov. Cuomo's deliberate attempts to shut down LICH.

But in all of the hospital closing articles or blog postings that Ms. Hartocollis has ever written, she's never managed to connect the dots with the pressure that the for-profit insurance industry and austerity cuts to healthcare being made by politicians are each having on the finances of New York City hospitals. Too bad Ms. Hartocollis shares the same lack of political depth in her reporting as Carolyn Ryan, the new politics editor, at The New York Times, has in her editing.

It might have been premature to think that Ms. Ryan had evolved from her identity politics support for her fellow lesbian mayoral candidate, Christine Quinn.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

NYSNA Nurses Were Arrested At Hospital Protest To Save LICH

2013-07-10 NYSNA Arrest Photo-LICH CD SUNY- Judy Sheridan Gonzalez and Jill Furillo photo 2013-07-10NYSNAArrestPhoto-LICHCDSUNY-JudySheridanGonzalezandJillFurillo_zpsb4c8b879.jpg

NYSNA ED Jill Furillo, RN, right, and President-Elect Judy Sheridan Gonzalez, RN, left, were arrested on Wednesday alongside Long Island College Hospital nurses, caregivers, community allies, City Councilmember Stephen Levin, and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to #SaveLICH and keep Brooklyn hospitals #open4care !

Nurses, doctors, and community activists have received no support from City Hall or Albany, and they are having to resort to civil disobedience in an effort to save LICH from closing. What does it say when police drag our nurses into jail, just because our nurses are fighting to save our hospitals ?

Activists are calling on LICH's operator, SUNY, to stop their unlawful and dangerous ambulance diversion and to stop trying to sabotage care for Brooklyn patients.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Activists and Bill de Blasio Were Arrested in an Act of Civil Disobedience to Save LICH

New York City public advocate Bill de Blasio was lead away in handcuffs after reports that a peaceful demonstration to save Long Island College Hospital from closing turned into an act of civil disobedience.

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 for help, but the legislative session ended last month with no rescue package, and locally Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn closed 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.

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.

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.

Roots Of Betrayal : Book Signing And Discussion At Bluestockings

"Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn" -- Book Signing and Discussion

 photo RootsofBetrayal-VolumeIScreenshot_zps84c67581.png

On Tuesday, July 23 at 7 p.m., the LGBT blogger and activist Louis Flores will be at Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street, Lower East Side, to present a short YouTube video from his online activism, which shows how the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital led to the beginning of his research about the political betrayals of Christine Quinn. And then the author will read from Vol. I of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn. A Q&A will follow.

Please RSVP to the Facebook event : "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn" -- Book Signing and Discussion

Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn can be purchased at the following bookstores :

  • Book Thug Nation, 100 N. Third Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn ;
  • Spoonbill & Sugartown Booksellers, 218 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn ;
  • St. Mark’s Bookshop, 31 Third Avenue, Manhattan ; and
  • Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street, Manhattan.

2013-06-26 "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn" - Press Release by Connaissable

Monday, July 8, 2013

Did Scott Stringer Prostitute Himself to Rudin Management Company ? Is This a Rhetorical Question ?

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

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Christine Quinn and Her Six Year Slush Fund Scandal

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'

Monday, July 1, 2013

Litter and symbolism in the 2013 Heritage of Pride Parade

Does Speaker Quinn's campaign material only amount to litter ?

 photo 2013-06-30LGBTAgainstQuinn_zps4582a162.jpg

Yesterday's Heritage of Pride Parade was billed as a huge celebration of the SCOTUS victories that saw the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") and Prop 8. To that end, you saw political spin being given to the participation of political figures in yesterday's parade, as if each year, politicians needed a different reason to march in the Heritage of Pride Parade -- reasons other than the fight is not over for civil equality.

But if there was any extra jubilation in the parade to be found from the advancements made in the area of marriage equality, what does it say about the parade's symbolism when LGBT New Yorkers come together to march against the mayoral campaign of openly-lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn ?

After members of Queers Against Christine Quinn completed the march in yesterday's Heritage of Pride Parade, members found hundreds of posters from Christine Quinn's mayoral campaign abandoned and discarded at the end of the parade route, just off of Christopher Street. The Quinn campaign's participation in the parade was all for a temporary show of support for her troubled mayoral campaign. But the reasons that voters have against for voting against her in this year's mayoral election are rooted in her long-term betrayals on issues like overturning term limits, her conflicted handling of the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital, and her refusal to stand up to Mayor Bloomberg's 1% agenda. Quinn's campaign treats her resources as disposable, and that includes the one-time support she used to have in the LGBT community.

Christine Quinn Campaign Posters - Heritage of Pride Parade NYC 2013 photo 2013-06-30QuinnCampaignPostersLitter_zpsda8da6df.jpg

Term Limits Taking Toll On Quinn Campaign

"In more than two dozen interviews last week with registered Democrats who participated in a Wall Street Journal/NBC 4 New York/Marist College poll that showed Ms. Quinn dropping to second place in the primary field, many volunteered that her handling of the term-limits issue led them to rule her out," reported The Wall Street Journal. "Ms. Quinn had long opposed overturning term limits but changed her mind after the economy went into a deep recession in 2008 and Mr. Bloomberg, whom she counts as a close ally, began making a vigorous case for a third term. At the time, Ms. Quinn was also facing a scandal: a federal investigation into how the City Council had issued grants to community organizations. ... Giving herself, Mr. Bloomberg and other city politicians another term was seen as helping her put distance between the scandal and her 2013 run for mayor. "

Well, it seems that extending term limits has backfired on Speaker Quinn.

Link : Term-Limits Decision Taking a Toll on Christine Quinn in Mayor's Race