Christine Quinn : Sexism, Homophobia, and a Campaign’s Collapse by @paulinepark http://t.co/5bGPTA7LeZ via @GayCityNews
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 19, 2013
Pauline Park authored an editorial analyzing the end of openly lesbian NYC mayoral candidate Christine Quinn's political career.
The blogger Joe Jervis is reporting that Christine Quinn's political campaign has conceded that she lost in today's Democratic primary election.
More to follow...
New From JMG: Christine Quinn Concedes: Openly lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has 15.7%... http://t.co/1SPJXCVdG5
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) September 11, 2013
Broken Lever Voting Machine - Queens 63rd Election District - No Paper Ballots http://t.co/m2qMmqBIgP @BOENYC
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 10, 2013
VIDEO : Broken Lever Voting Machine - Queens 63rd Election District - No Paper Ballots - NYC Primary Election Day
Voting problems with the single lever voting machine for the 63rd Election District in Jackson Heights, Queens. I was detained by a police officer and nearly taken into custody for using my iPhone to take a photograph and video of the broken voting machine.
We were denied paper ballots, as you will hear on the video. They tried to let us use another voting machine, but then we were taken back to the using the broken 63rd ED lever voting machine after it was "reset."
I'm taking a risk by uploading this video, but I feel it is important to document what happened and to register my vote.
A new blog has been launched, to examine possible corrupt ties between the Democratic Party mayoral primary frontrunner and real estate lobbyists :
How did Stephen Berger get away with closing so many hospitals? The story begins like this ....
An excerpt from Chapter 9 of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn, available now for a free preview on Scribd :
The hospital closings called for by the Berger Commission were formulated at a time when only some hospital patients were covered by job-based health insurance, and hospitals were forced to write down the economic costs from treating underinsured and uninsured patients. The Berger Commission, headed by a Wall Street banker, Stephen Berger, was only capable of seeing the provision of full-service hospital care from perspective of profits, losses, and debts, instead of from the perspective of providing people with the human right to healthcare. “We have a history in this state of pumping money into the system and not letting hospitals close even if they should,” Mr. Berger told The New York Times, adding, “You have to right-size the system, you have to shrink it, that is No. 1.” In typical Wall Street fashion of divorcing any moral dilemma from situational ethics, hospital closings were pushed as inevitable, and patients were expected to have to deal with it. This was about a decade before "Obamacare" would extend healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. Back then, Mr. Berger observed overcapacity among hospitals, which had to be cut. However, in the future, Mr. Berger’s draconian cuts would prove to gut healthcare infrastructure leading up to the time when Obamacare would lead to a large influx of newly covered healthcare patients. But even without knowing that healthcare coverage would be expanded within the next decade, back then healthcare advocates knew about the dangers of past outbreaks, pandemics, and unforeseen uses of bioterrorism agents, such as anthrax. There were reasons why it was penny wise and dollar foolish to make drastic cuts to full-service hospital capacity in New York City.
One healthcare union, 1199/S.E.I.U., had to scramble to deal with the fallout over job losses from the impending hospital closings. Jennifer Cunningham, who at that time worked as a spokesperson and political operative for 1199 and would later go on to work for Christine as a political campaign consultant, was more concerned at the time about employee retraining and not about the interruption of patient-centered care. The hit list of hospitals that would be targeted for closure by the Berger Commission came to be known as the Berger Commission Report, and Christine, as chair of the City Council Health Committee, was largely absent from the initial public conversation in 2004 and 2005 around Mr. Berger’s recommendation for hospital closings. Taking her cue from former Speaker Gifford Miller’s precedent of maintaining silence on the controversial West Side Stadium until the project’s outcome was clear, Christine was not visible in the resistance movement to fight the Berger Commission Report’s recommendations until very late in 2006, when the City Council issued its own report just weeks before the Berger Commission Report’s final recommendations would go into effect on January 1, 2007.
Read more : Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn, available now for a free preview on Scribd.
For 15 years, voters had to suffer through Christine Quinn's self-interested dealings as she hitched her political wagon to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Speaker Quinn's close working relationship with Mayor Bloomberg is turning off voters from supporting her mayoral campaign. Now that Speaker Quinn is desperate to rescue her political future, she is about to throw Mayor Bloomberg and his legacy under the bus. Her efforts to divorce herself from Mayor Bloomberg may be too little, too late.
Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn - Copyright 2013 by Louis Flores - Uncorrected Proof Not... by Connaissable
Christine Quinn Flip-Flopped Six Times On Term Limits : A Chronology
The Guardian reporter Harry Enten tweeted a link to the free Scribd preview of the book, Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn.
Part of reason why I never thought Quinn wud have an easy ride was cause of work done by folks like @stopchrisquinn http://t.co/eK0RmCvrOl
— Harry Enten (@ForecasterEnten) September 2, 2013
His tweet was in connection to a five six-part series of tweets sent by the book's author, Louis Flores, that document Christine Quinn's series of flip-flops on term limits.
Christine Quinn Term Limits Flip-Flop Chronology 2001 (1/5) : opposed extending term limits : http://t.co/iHGCkkgcT5 @ForecasterEnten
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 2, 2013
Christine Quinn Term Limits Flip-Flop Chronology 2001 (2/5) : 2001 : Wrote of dangers of TL : http://t.co/cUphbyKnjd @ForecasterEnten
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 2, 2013
Christine Quinn Term Limits Flip-Flop Chronology (3/5) : 2002 : voted to extend term limits http://t.co/KgJZoniLAv @ForecasterEnten
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 2, 2013
One more Christine Quinn flip-flop position on Term Limits : 2005 : http://t.co/DU4VtXEgEp @ForecasterEnten I'm updating book and blog.
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 4, 2013
Christine Quinn Term Limits Flip-Flop Chronology (4/5) : 2007 : Opposes extension of term limits http://t.co/1h8vBMiFyh @ForecasterEnten
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 2, 2013
Christine Quinn Term Limits Flip-Flop Chronology (5/5) : 2008 : votes to override term limits : http://t.co/WIp43Ty1LL @ForecasterEnten
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) September 2, 2013
Some of the fake charity groups Christine Quinn used to divert discretionary funds for personal political gain.
FY 2007 City Council Adopted Expense Budget Schedule C
As a follow-up to yesterday's post (that FY 2007 Schedule C was missing), we have turned up a copy, and now all eight years' worth of Schedules C's during Christine Quinn's speakership of the New York City Council are now uploaded onto Scribd. These are public documents, yet FY 2007 was not publicly available. Maybe it was because the FY 2007 Schedule C was used by The New York Post to expose the fact that Speaker Quinn had used fake charity groups to hide a political slush fund to dole out to her supporters. (This $$ Is Hers For The Faking * NYPost)
FY 2008 City Council Adopted Expense Budget Schedule C
FY 2009 City Council Adopted Expense Budget Schedule C
FY 2010 City Council Adopted Expense Budget Schedule C
FY 2011 City Council Adopted Expense Budget Schedule C
FY 2012 City Council Adopted Expense Budget Schedule C
Fiscal Year 2007 budget documents, including Schedule C showing the disbursement of the New York City Council's discretionary slush fund budget items, are not publicly available on the New York City or City Council Web sites. About three months before the end of Fiscal Year 2007, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was exposed by The New York Post for having used fake charity groups to hide a political slush fund to dole out to her supporters. (This $$ Is Hers For The Faking * NYPost)
Here are a few Tweets sent tonight about the missing documents. Presumably, there is a reason that Speaker Quinn wants to deny the public access to Fiscal Year budget documents, including the scandalous Schedule C ?
New York City FY 2007 budget documents are not publicly available on http://t.co/XYoxyFRKbM Web site : http://t.co/VsAxBaWi4p @Quinn4NY
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) August 31, 2013
FY 2007 Schedule C has disappeared from this page on @NYCCouncil Web site : http://t.co/YriHS3TiGR @Quinn4NY (2 or 2)
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) August 31, 2013
FY 2007 Schedule C has disappeared from this page on http://t.co/XYoxyFRKbM Web site : http://t.co/hUn7H4WjpH @Quinn4NY (1 or 2)
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) August 31, 2013
@stopchrisquinn @tomallon @chriscquinn @msnbctv don't know these deets but my exp w/her was very negative. Standard political flimflam
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 5, 2012
@stopchrisquinn Christine Quinn got the crap booed out of her at the fast food strike closing rally at union square #829strike
— A People's History (@PeoplesHistory) August 29, 2013
Christine Quinn just got booed off the stage at #829Strike
— OWS People's Puppets (@Power2thePuppet) August 29, 2013
.@Quinn4NY watered down #livingwage until it helps only 500 ppl. http://t.co/JeiTCNXUf6 @zarafa @USRealityCheck @Power2thePuppet #829Strike
— Stop Christine Quinn (@stopchrisquinn) August 30, 2013
True News From Change NYC : Latest Poll: NYC Media Disconnected With the Public
From True News From Change NYC :
NY Media's Deviant Elite Subculture. The once powerful NY Newspapers has become a subculture that the public no longer believes. The editorial boards and newsrooms are in shock that their over the top endorsements of stringer and Quinn are being rejected by the voters of New York. A media revolution is going on in New York. And its Tea Party moment (we are talking about the Boston Tea Party of 1773) was de Blasio standing up to those trying to close two Brooklyn hospitals. Not one newspaper editorial has backed Bill in his efforts to keep the hospitals open. In fact the NYT in their endorsement of Quinn said that de Blasio efforts were hopeless. New Yorkers are tired of the Bull Shit words coming out of the newspaper and candidates. They know they are being priced out of the city and those that they elected don't care.
The de Blasio Revolution: New Yorkers Have Reject the Media. When de Blasio campaign went to court to keep the hospitals open the voters saw action not words. Every candidate this year has said they were going to say the middle class. That issue must be pollng high. There are other reasons that voters are turning to de Dlasio, his son TV ads, but the main factor is that New Yorkers are mad what has been done to their city. They think their pols have turned against them. Taking cash from developers whose luxury building are pushing them out of the city. By standing in front of Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn Heights with a court order to keep the hospital from closing and being given to developers they saw someone who would protect their interests.
Bigger Tax Increase for the Rich. Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio said he would seek a slightly larger tax increase on wealthy New Yorkers than he originally indicated, raising questions as to how he would win approval for his plan from state lawmakers, The New York Times reports.
Christine Quinn Compromised On Reproductive Freedoms For Women
A passage from Chapter 8 of ''Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn'' about Christine Quinn's ascension into the speakership of the New York City Council :
For Christine to make these giant leaps in power after less than six years in the City Council, she had to cut deals. The winners weren’t going to be the voters, who were still naively waiting for Christine to be a source of top-down support for bottom-up community empowerment. Instead, the winners were going to be the power brokers, the insiders, the lobbyists, and the political operatives on whose backs Christine climbed to further her own position in government. For example, in the weeks leading to the formal announcement that Christine had clinched the speakership, Christine co-hosted a fundraiser for Rep. Joe Crowley, a weak supporter of reproductive freedom for women. Rep. Crowley had succeeded Tom Manton in Congress, and Mr. Manton expected his subjects, which now included Christine, to express loyalty to the members of his political machine. Even though Christine kept brandishing her myth as an advocate for, among other things, abortion rights, the LGBT activist and social critic Bill Dobbs told The Village Voice that Christine was motivated to help Rep. Crowley “solely to win Manton’s support and the Queens delegation.” It was no coincidence that the higher up the totem pole that Christine climbed, the more glaring the betrayals to her own political ethics became. The rationalizations of Christine’s supporters became all the more bold, as well. Michael McKee, the controversial tenants’ rights activist, who was called on to provide more and more political cover to Christine, expressed his support to Christine for her contradictory support of Rep. Crowley. “Does it bother me ? No,” he told The Village Voice.
Real Estates Donations To Christine Quinn Escalated in 2004
From Chapter 8 of "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn," available now on Scribd :
The unmistakable spike in real estate donations to Christine’s political campaign as early as the 2005 election cycle meant that real estate interests and lobbyists were intending to compromise Christine’s independence on real estate issues. The sizeable donations from Gary Barnett, Douglas Durst, George Arzt, James Capalino, and some of the donations from the Meilman family dated back to 2004, an early sign that the fix may have already been in on the speakership from a year prior to the 2005 election. It’s not uncommon for real estate interests to begin making heavy campaign donations over a year in advance to their approved political candidates. The sizeable donations to Ms. Katz’s campaign account also reflected her own contention for the speakership. Christine’s campaign for the speakership began early, as measured by the flood of real estate donations, and, Christine followed Speaker Miller’s pattern of reaching out to the county bosses for their support. This county boss strategy was confirmed by Brooklyn councilmember Bill de Blasio, as told to New York magazine. “She understood, better than I did, that a lot of this ball game revolved around the county Democratic leaders,” he said, adding, “She did a better job in developing those relationships, presenting a personality they were comfortable with, finding out how not to be threatening to them.” In 2002, the Queens County Democratic boss, Tom Manton, had negotiated from Speaker Miller the City Council Land Use committee chair appointment for one of his delegation’s members, Melinda Katz, in whom the real estate industry had already invested multiple and sizeable campaign donations. In the run up to the 2005 campaign season, Mr. Manton was interested in maintaining the status quo for his own power base, as well as for real estate interests, who did not want to take a loss on the money that they had spent to finance Ms. Katz’s appointment to the Land Use committee. Upon Christine’s assumption of the speakership, Ms. Katz kept her leadership post on Land Use, and David Weprin, another member of the Queens City Council delegation, kept his appointment as chair of the powerful Finance committee. He, too, was well-financed by real estate interests and lobbyists. The permanent establishment that spends so heavily on reelecting approved incumbents does not like insurgents of any kind.
Read more on Scribd : "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn"
