Bloomberg Congratulates Quinn On Council Reserve Fund Discretion

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday that the reserve fund operated by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn was thankfully no longer the subject of public scorn, unlike the reserve fund being operated by New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Was NYPD Responsible For All Innocent Bystander Shootings Outside The Empire State Building Today ?

Confirmed on NYTimes: Bystanders Hurt in Manhattan Were Hit by Police Gunfire

Confirmed on CNN: Police gunfire responsible for wounding all 9 innocent bystanders in Empire State Building shooting in New York

Rumors are flying around that all of the innocent bystanders, who were shot outside of the Empire State Building this morning, were not shot by bullets from the the shooting suspect, Jeffrey T. Johnson -- who was shot dead by police -- but by bullets shot by police. Not yet confirmed, but I heard this from a very reliable source. I wonder how this will change the narrative of today's story of a disgruntled ex-employee shooting indiscriminately at the throngs of crowds outside the Empire State Building ?

From The New York Times, the police description of the firing of the bullets seems to indicate that the only people shooting their weapons outside the Empire State Building were police officers, not the lone gunman, Mr. Johnson :

The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said one witness had told investigators that Mr. Johnson had fired at the two officers, “but we don’t have ballistics to support that.” Mr. Browne said “it’s possible” that the officers had shot him before he could return fire.

One officer fired seven times, the other nine times, Mr. Browne said.

According to the Associated Press, the NYPD has so far admitted that some of the innocent bystanders were struck by bullets or bullet fragments shot by the responding police officers, but the story has not yet been fully told : if the gunman Mr. Johnson did not fire his weapon, that means that the collateral damage that took place today was as a result of "friendly fire."

Bloombo Dicto NYC IT Project Corruption Fall Guys - To Be Announced !

Mike Bloomberg is Trying to Brush the Billion$ in IT Tech Fraud and Corruption Under the Rug of TBA Political Fall Guys

Angry that huge IT projects were exposed to be sources of billions of dollars of corruption, the Bloomberg administration has found a political escape hatch : they are going to outsource all scandalous IT projects to a new quasi-governmental entity that will operate free of regulation and oversight. How is this going to fix corruption ?

The new entity, being described as a new “NYC Technology Development Corporation” by The New York Times, will become responsible for all the IT projects [like CityTime, NYCAPS, and the new 911 emergency dispatching system, which is also called the Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP)], which have "raised questions about one of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s perceived strengths as a billionaire who made his money through technological innovation," The NYTimes reported.

Deputy Mayor Caswell F. Holloway, who spearheaded a review of the city’s technology woes, is hoping that the new entity would shift political responsibility away from Mayor Bloomberg for some of the mega-huge corruption scandals, which have been being investigated by U.S. Attorney Preetinder Bharara.

Harvey Robins, who was operations chief for Mayor David N. Dinkins and who reorganized several city agencies, told The NYTimes that the immediate effect would be to distance Mayor Bloomberg from future technology problems. “It’s a headache,” Mr. Robins said, “and he doesn’t want the headache anymore.”

Read More : Bloomberg Administration Sets Up a Corporation to Protect Mayor From Tech Projects Corruption Scandals

Related : Politically-edited report predicts danger in New York City's 911 scandal-ridden emergency response system [Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP)] (Gothamist)

Council Redistricting In Exchange For Campaign Endorsements ?

Are Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg Engaged In An "Endorse-to-Play" Quid Pro Quo Over The City Council Redistricting ?

Council Redistricting Corruption Silence

From True News From Change NYC, written by Gary Tilzer :

Many of his fellow reformers felt that Citizens Union puppet general Dick Dadey sold out last year when he supported Albany's compromise to put off independent redistrict for 10 years. But nothing can compare to Dadey and the rest of the goo-goos, editorial boards', and reformers' silence on the corruption going on with the City Council redistricting operation. For starters, the appointed council redistricting commission is controlled by two people supporting Quinn for mayor in 2013 : the council speaker herself and her puppet master the mayor. Although the redistricting commission work has just begun, there are already reports that county bosses Crowley and Lopez, ethic and minority leaders are already dealing with Quinn operatives to cut districts favorable to them or those they support in exchange for their endorsement for Quinn's 2013 mayoral bid.

NYPD Muslim Spying Program Has Been A Total Waste

AP : The NYPD spying program on Muslim led to no leads or any terror cases

The Demographics Unit at the NYPD was the central command of the Bloomberg administration's police spying program, the Associated Press reported. The Demographics Unit was "built with help from the CIA, which assembled databases on where Muslims lived, shopped, worked and prayed." The NYPD spies "infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques, monitored sermons and catalogued every Muslim in New York who adopted new, Americanized surnames."

"Police hoped the Demographics Unit would serve as an early warning system for terrorism. And if police ever got a tip about, say, an Afghan terrorist in the city, they'd know where he was likely to rent a room, buy groceries and watch sports."

In testimony provided in a June 28 deposition as part of a longstanding federal civil rights case, NYPD Assistant Chief Thomas Galati said that none of the conversations the spying police officers overheard ever led to a case. "Related to Demographics," Galati testified that information that has come in "has not commenced an investigation."

"The NYPD is the largest police department in the nation and Mayor Michael Bloomberg has held up its counterterrorism tactics as a model for the rest of the country," according to the AP report. ... "Galati testified as part of a lawsuit that began in 1971 over NYPD spying on students, civil rights groups and suspected Communist sympathizers during the 1950s and 1960s. The lawsuit, known as the Handschu case, resulted in federal guidelines that prohibit the NYPD from collecting information about political speech unless it is related to potential terrorism. Civil rights lawyers believe the Demographics Unit violated those rules." ...

Read more : AP : The NYPD spying program on Muslim led to no leads or any terror cases

Pages From Thomas Galati NYPD Handschu deposition EBT 6-28-12 Tcm28 8694 title="" target="_blank"

Regret Over Bloombo Dicto's Third Term

New Yorkers Are Tired Of Mayor Bloomberg

New Yorkers are having second thoughts about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s third term.

With less than 18 months to go in Mr. Bloomberg’s unexpectedly long mayoral tenure, nearly three-quarters of New Yorkers said Speaker Christine Quinn should not have overturned term limits to allow Mayor Bloomberg and other politicians to run for a third term, according to the latest poll by The New York Times.

Mr. Bloomberg, having persuaded the City Council to approve a change in term limits that paved the way for his re-election in 2009, has presided over city government for more than a decade ....

Here's a round-up of some of the low-lights of Mayor Bloomberg's three terms : trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, avoid missing votes, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms.

Bloomberg-Quinn's Budget Has A Hole Innit

From True News From Change :

Just weeks after Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn celebrated their inside budget negotiation deal, acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron issued an opinion that put a stop to the mayor's taxi medallion revenue plan for the Fiscal Year 2013 budget. The court ruling creates a $600+ million hole in the Bloomberg-Quinn budget.

... At issue is a law, passed in February, allowing New York City to create a new fleet of 18,000 lime-green "borough taxis" to service the outer boroughs and Upper Manhattan, where regular yellow cab service is a rarity.

That same bill also allowed the city to auction off 2,000 wheelchair-accessible yellow cab medallions, which were expected to garner more than $1 billion for the city's budget and also vastly improve the fleet's ability to serve passengers in wheelchairs. As the fleet now stands, there are only 233 wheelchair-accessible yellow cabs. ... (Capital New York)

Mayor Bloomberg warns of layoffs after judge shoots down outer borough taxi plan (NYDN) Judge's decision creates $1.46 billion hole in the budget, including $635 million for this fiscal year.

Do Mike Bloomberg And NYPD Use Intimidation Against Bloggers ?

Watch as how NYPD Detective Lynch guided political blogger Suzannah B. Troy off the sidewalk and onto the street, and then watch as how Det. Lynch called Ms. Troy out for being on the very street he lured her off of.

Ms. Troy then called NYPD Internal Affairs to file a complaint, according to her blog post about how NYPD use intimidation against, give false information to, and withhold identification from, bloggers.

In the second video, Ms. Troy shouts some of her criticisms to Mayor Michael Bloomberg of the corruption she says has taken place in respect of the large and expensive IT technology deals under the Bloomberg administration.

"NYPD Det. Lynch who refused to identify himself and was abusive as well as physically intimidating," Ms. Troy wrote on her blog.

Michael Bloomberg Oreo Protest

Advocates for animal rights and members of the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages held a protest earlier this afternoon across the street from the Plaza Hotel, WCBS Channel 2 News reported. The protest was in response to a traffic accident that injured a horse named Oreo last Thursay.

“Horses don’t belong in traffic, it’s an inhumane and unsafe industry and it needs to be shut down,” coalition president Elizabeth Forel told WCBS 880′s Jim Smith.

The artist and political blogger, Suzannah B. Troy, was dressed up in a red wig and symbolic costume and pretended to be New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Animal rights activists, who have been putting pressure on the New York City Council to pass legislation to support the safety and wellbeing of horses by banning horse-drawn carriages, point to Speaker Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg for blocking any meaningful animal rights protection legislation.

Fran Lebowitz OWS Mike Bloomberg

Read Also : Fran Lebowitz And Frank Rich At The Town Hall : A Review Of The State Of The Union Conversation

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Fran Lebowitz spoke about the intersection of Occupy Wall Street and Michael Bloomberg, and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

"The thing I have enjoyed the most, I have to say, about Occupy Wall Street, because I am a vengeful and superficial person, is to see Bloomberg not have any idea which way to go with this thing. ... We know how he really feels, because, I mean, this mayor is not even in the 1%. He's in the 1% of the 1%. We have a mayor, who is so rich, that he will not live in a place actually called Gracie Mansion. It's not nice enough for him, you know ? He has not in any way attracted the ire of these [activists], which is shocking to me. I mean, when I walk around and sometimes these kids talk to me, I say, 'Go to Bloomberg's house.' You know, the day that they went to rich people's houses, I said, 'Go to Bloomberg's house,' and those kids said to me,'No, no, no. He's O.K., he said we could stay.' I said, 'What are you talking about ? This isn't his city. Anybody can stay. This is not his estate.' ...

"And we've seen the new, doe-eyed Christine Quinn -- all of a sudden, champion of the people, you know, not in fact his henchman or henchwoman that she's been for the last 40 years of his mayoralty, who helped him overturn two elections in order to have this third term.

Two days after the Zucotti Park eviction, Ms. Lebowitz said, Mike Bloomberg "is a central villian in all this." In respect of Speaker Quinn, Ms. Lebowitz said, "She is an architect of this."

Mike Bloomberg aka Robert Moses

The Sexton Plan for NYU represents a new low in "urban decay."

That which Robert Moses was not able to do to Lower Manhattan (demolishing the special social fabric of neighborhoods to construct a cross-borough highway), Christine Quinn will do (demolishing the special social fabric of neighborhoods to let NYU carry out this reckless expansion plan). Jane Jacobs advocated for that special "secret sauce" to successful large cities, whereas Mike Bloomberg, John Sexton, and Christine Quinn call for more indiscriminate zone-busting urban development.

Political Poster Fines Benefit Quinn

Is Mayor Bloomberg deliberately trying to drain the campaign funds of the competitors that are challenging Christine Quinn for the 2013 mayoral Democratic primary ?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg seems to be engaged in a public relations campaign to turn public opinion against, and to drain the campaign funds (aka clear the primaries) of, the leading primary challengers that are competing with New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to be the Democratic Party's candidate in next year's mayoral election. * "Mayor Bloomberg Friday blasted mayoral candidate John Liu as a hypocrite for grumbling about companies that owe the city money — while failing to pay his own city debts." (NY Daily News) * Now that he has finally collected $444,000 in public matching funds from his 2009 campaign, Bill Thompson should return the money to the city to help cover the fines he owes for illegal posters, Mayor Bloomberg suggested yesterday. (NYPost)

NYPD Arrest OWS Activists at Gracie Mansion

At a protest outside Gracie Mansion, over 50 activists from Occupy Wall Street participated in a demonstration late yesterday afternoon against Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Members of the #OWS Disability Caucus and #Queering OWS joined in this demonstration. Activists denounced Mayor Michael Bloomberg's "1% policies, which continue to marginalize New Yorkers of all backgrounds." According to reports on Facebook, NYPD disrupted the peaceful protest.

Protesters yelled "Shame !" to the police officers. "One of our members was arrested without warning for apparently not moving fast enough crossing the street," one of the activists posted on Facebook.

"Unlawful arrests are still happening." In a subsequent update, the same activists wrote, "They were demanding the mayor uphold the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) instead of ignoring it. People were also there demanding more wheelchair accessible cabs from Bloomberg. 7 or 8 were arrested in total. 3 or 4 protesters early on and after an almost hourlong standoff with police in the street, 4 protesters in wheelchairs . The 4 in wheelchairs were taken away in Access-A-Ride vans. There were livestreamers there ..."

La Cuccaracha es Carlos Slim !

Cerca de 100 activistas realizaron una protesta frente a la tienda Saks Fifth Avenue en Nueva York. Los activistas denunciaron los beneficios del monopolio de telefonía de Carlos Slim. El gordo es dueño de una gran parte de la empresa Saks Fifth Avenue.

#OccupySaks Fifth Avenue - Protest Against Carlos Slim #OWS

Carlos Slim is the world's richest man, the largest stakeholder in Saks Fifth Avenue, and has been accused of overcharging impoverished Mexicans by over $129 billion as owner of Mexico's largest phone company. Activists from Occupy Wall Street demonstrated outside the fancy and expensive retailer, before they snuck inside in a direct action against each of Mr. Slim and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Updated : Javier Soriano, a prominent freelance photographer and journalist, was shut out of the Monday's “Two Countries One Voice” press conference.