During Easter Parade, A Planned LGBT Civil Rights Walk

You are invited to register to participate in the LGBT civil rights demonstration that is being planned by Connecting Rainbows to take place on April 24 during the 2011 Easter Parade in New York City. We need your help to create a mass movement to legally recognise LGBT civil rights.

Allison Jaffin-Haggerty Scam Witness

05 Oct 2011 Update : Fiona Reid has been identified as the double-dipping mayoral aide, who carried out an affair with Mr. Haggerty.

Mayor Bloomberg pays Allison Jaffin two salaries, even though she works for New York City. Ms. Jaffin is now a key witness in the criminal trial about the secret campaign money funneled to Mr. Haggerty in the 2009 New York City Mayoral Campaign.

When it comes to getting paid, Allison Jaffin likes to ''double dip'' -- she gets her first paycheck from the City of New York and a second one from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's private checkbook.

Ms. Jaffin has been identified as a key witness in the criminal investigation and trial against John Haggerty, a Queens Republican political operative, who stands accused of misusing over $1 million in undisclosed campaign payments paid in 2009 -- not by the Committee to Reëlect the Mayor (CREEM), but by (again) Mayor Bloomberg's private checkbook. Ms. Jaffin is alleged to have helped arrange the large yet unreported campaign cash transaction between Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Haggerty.

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Separately, it has recently come to light that Mr. Haggerty has been accused to have been having an affair with an unnamed mayoral aide, who was also linked with CREEM, according to desperate and lascivious rumours mysteriously leaked to The New York Daily News.

For his part, Mayor Bloomberg asserts that there's nothing wrong for one of his female aids to make money on the side. ''Mr. Bloomberg said he saw nothing wrong with his paying government employees for private work,'' reported The Wall Street Journal.

Ms. Jaffin, The Journal reported, is on the city payroll, gets paid a second time from the mayor's ''private payroll,'' and, in 2009, she volunteered for CREEM. Separately, The New York Daily News has reported that Ms. Jaffin has also worked for the Bloomberg Family Foundation. It's not yet known who was the double-dipping mayoral aide, with whom Mr. Haggerty carried his torrid, extramarital affair. But artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy believes that the salacious rumours leaked to The Daily News was an underhanded way to bully Mr. Haggerty into keeping his mouth shut.

Cathie Black Resigns Awwwwwww

Cathleen Black, Her Approval Ratings In The Dumps, Takes A Hike. Is Mayor Bloomberg Next ?

In a news analysis in The New York Times, today's resignation of the New York City schools chancellor is framed among other major failures of the stumbling and bumbling Bloomberg administration, such as :

• The city's botched snow removal following the post-Christmas blizzard ;
• The mayor's tin-eared suggestions that residents got to a Broadway show in almost 3 feet of unplowed snow ;
• The hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money wasted on the scandalous CityTime payroll system ;
• The tens of millions of taxpayer money allegedly stolen by CityTime contractors ;
• The horrible death of an emaciated 4-year-old girl in child protective services ; and
• The homicide charges against a child welfare worker and his supervisor in the death of the 4-year-old girl.

The above list, according to a conservative analysis by The NYTimes, points to a major setback for Mayor Bloomberg -- and it points to a bad omen for the mayor's th3rd t3rm.

''For his part, Mr. Bloomberg seems aware that symptoms of “third-term-itis” have manifested themselves. For weeks now, he has been using his own money to pay for campaign-style advertisements, nominally to bolster his battle with the teachers’ union, but widely taken as an effort to lift his sagging approval ratings,'' reported The NYTimes.

Maybe if she had billions, Ms. Black could have run endless loops of campaign commercials the way that Mayor Bloomberg does.

Kenneth Sherrill, a professor of political science at Hunter College, told The NYTimes, that voters are ''tired'' of Mayor Bloomberg.

Christine Quinn's ''Ma'am'' Meltdown

Make a pledge today to support Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn on Kickstarter.

Christine Quinn Has A Meltdown After She Is Called ''Ma'am'' By A Reporter

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn had a sudden outburst of anger on Wednesday by bursting into a verbal attack at Erin Einhorn, a reporter for The Daily News, who did not refer to Ms. Quinn by the courtesy title, ''Speaker.'' Instead, Ms. Einhorn had referred to Speaker Quinn as, ''Ma’am.''

“You can call me Speaker,” Ms. Quinn said in a testy tone, reported The New York Times. “It’s my press conference. I actually decide what words are necessary.”

Updated with video link ! ➔ NY1 has exclusive video of Speaker Quinn's hissy fit.

After her little temper tantrum, Speaker Quinn knew she had crossed the line, and Speaker Quinn said she was sorry. “I was nasty to you,” Ms. Quinn said to Ms. Einborn. “I apologize.”

A few weeks ago, Ms. Einhorn had reported that Speaker Quinn had had trouble paying her rent on time.

Meanwhile, Ms. Einhorn could just as easily have said, ''Deputy Mayor'' instead of, ''Ma’am.'' For all the times that Christine Quinn has gone along with all of Mayor Bloomberg's horrible plans for New York : all of the school closings and Cathie Black's controversial schools chancellor waiver ; the unequivocal insistence that more and more luxury condos and university dorms get built out of hospitals, churches, and landmark buildings ; denying us paid sick leave ; the shady way that the City Council changed term limits ; the way that Quinn will most likely deny us a living wage -- she goes along with Mayor Bloomberg rather than stand up to him.

It's almost like Christine Quinn is Mayor Bloomberg's puppet.

Bloomberg Pregnancy Discrimination Update ?

Updated ! Read the shocking update about Mayor Bloomberg's deposition testimony.

New York Class-Action Pregnancy Discrimination Lawsuit Against Media Giant Bloomberg L.P.

A couple of years ago ago, it came to light that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was deposed in the pregnancy discrimination case against his company.

''The female employees allege that Bloomberg violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, by engaging in a pattern or practice of demoting and reducing their pay after they became pregnant and returned from maternity leave. Further, the female employees allege that pregnant women and new mothers were excluded from management meetings, denied promotional opportunities, and subjected to stereotyping about their abilities to do their jobs because of preconceived family responsibilities.''

Has anybody heard any updates on this case ?

John Haggerty Update - Is the Report of Mr. Haggerty's Alleged Affair Part of a Distraction Strategy ?

The New York Daily News tries to shame John Haggerty by publicising an alleged extra marital affair Mr. Haggerty had in the time before Mayor Michael Bloomberg's 2009 reëlection. Artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy gives us her analysis of this latest tangential distraction from Mayor Bloomberg's campaign finance scandal. Does the fact that Mr. Haggerty had or did not have an affair have any bearing on the fact that Mayor Bloomberg used undeclared private funds for campaign-related activities ? Listen to Ms. Troy and decide for yourself.

In three-way North Shore-LIJ, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn Plan for St. Vincent's, a Fear of Union-Busting

OP-ED : Update on Community Effort to Create a Hospital to Replace St. Vincent's in the Lower West Side of Manhattan

When a deal was announced for the transfer of bankruptcy assets from the 501(c)(3) charity that was St. Vincent's Hospital to the private real estate developer tycoon William Rudin at values that may not fairly represent the full market value, the bankruptcy assets transfer was hailed as a health care miracle, because it would replace the Level 1 Trauma Center that was St. Vincent's with a first aid clinic.

But just a mere examination, at first blush, of the beneficial transfer of assets to insider creditors, the jobs that it would create, and the services it would provide, show that this deal is fraught with potential legal challenges.

The transfer of St. Vincent's principal assets -- its real estate -- to the Rudin family, who has always had an ''inside track'' on condo-conversion plans -- may be fraudulent, if the transfer does not happen at full market value prices. There is also community concern that the North Shore-LIJ landlord taking over the first aid clinic is going to hire only non-union employees for the 400 jobs that are expected to be created at the first aid clinic, and that the new clinic will forbid any efforts at collective-bargaining ; presently, only approximately 36 per cent of North Shore-LIJ employees receive union benefits. The services to be provided by the first aid clinic will not be able to treat ''women in labor, patients with severe trauma such as gunshot wounds or open fractures, or those requiring immediate surgery or cardiac interventions.'' In the face of the lack of life-saving services to be provided by the first aid clinic, and even the dishonest comparison of ambulance response times between 2008 and 2009 (even though St. Vincent's closed in 2010), predictably Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn can still be ''encouraged'' by the flimsy outpatient center.

Meanwhile, here is a video of a press conference outside Friday's appellate court hearing in connection with a freedom of information lawsuit.

Why Are They Closing St. Vincent's Hospital? (Pt. 23) - Freedom of Information from g. sosa on Vimeo.

As Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn try to destroy the social safety net by trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, pretend like votes don't go missing, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms, we are left to wonder. When will the focus of irresponsible real estate development at the expense of the middle class spark a voter backlash, that will lead to mass protests at the city's legislature, or a revolution of the likes that have been happening elsewhere ? What will be the spark that will trigger mass protests in New York ?

(Christine Quinn is Speaker of the New York City Council, but she has made her bed alongside Mayor Bloomberg on many controversial issues that often times she acts more and more like his Deputy Mayor than an independent voice for Democratic Party ideals.)

Improbable As It May Seem, Mayor Bloomberg Dares to Call Albany Budget Cuts An ''Outrage''

Readers' Comments : Bloomberg Calls State Budget Deal an 'Outrage'

''The mayor said the proposed budget was likely to require the city to make another round of cuts,'' reported The New York Times. Remember, this is the same mayor, who has, among other things, been trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, pretend like votes don't go missing, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms. Here's the best of readers' comments :

52.

Bob

Tribeca

March 28th, 2011

4:26 pm

hey Bloomberg, now you know what it feels like to feel outraged, and that's how we feel about you getting a third term, trying to bust our unions, and giving NYC away to your rich developer friends! attention all new yorkers, keep booing the mayor at all his public functions, you're doing a great job and it will prevent him from ever holding public office again! boo Bloomberg!

(Hyperlink added.)

Rally at St. Vincent's on April 30 to Demand a New Hospital for the Lower West Side

Rally to Demand a Hospital to Replace St. Vincent's

Saturday, April 30, 2011, at 2:00 p.m.

2011-04-30 St Vincents Hospital One Year Rally Poster

For Bloomberg and Bush, Crotch is the Focus of Pictures

At 2011 Inner Circle, Leather Straps Focus Your Attention on Fluffed Crotch, Puffed Media Coverage

Readers of The New York Daily News are flipping out, because the newspaper reported that Mayor Michael Bloomberg swung from a chandelier in a spandex body suit but could not report that Mayor Bloomberg was booed at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire ceremony just the day before. Read three scathing comments that were posted in a row :

nyc_tuber : 4:36:14 AM : Mar 27, 2011 : So we're supposed to like this fascist billionaire who stole a third term and sold NYC out to the highest bidder and screwed over police, firefighters, schools, the homeless, and everyone else because he puts on a wig? Crawl back under your rock Mike and take your henchwoman Christine Quinn with you.

hjo4 : 8:05:16 AM : Mar 27, 2011 : The NYDN tells us about Mayor Nero er,I mean Bloomberg antics while parts of NYC is burning. Also this paper fail to mention: Go to youtube Bloomberg booed Triangle shirt factory. The media is covering for him and refused to report he got booed non stop.]-- Why not the NY media is an extension of the Mayor Office,nothing more.It's almost like living in a Communist country.The media parrots the Mayor and nothing more. The public is wise to the media.

KingJay : 8:44:03 AM : Mar 27, 2011 : So the Daily News and Bloomberg have now decided that THIS IS FUNNY? REALLY ?!? Not only do you ingore the people at every opportunity, not only do you slap the people in the face with your Bike lanes and unqualified croniies, but NOT IT'S A FK"N JOKE ?!?!?!? Impeach this P.O.S. NOW !! This is a blatant "Go Screw Yourself New York" Glad this rag of a paper finds it so G.D. funny

Meanwhile, does anybody see similarities between Mayor Bloomberg's photoshoot and President Bush's ?

2010 Census Undercounts New York City Immigrants Because of Stop-And-Frisk Fears

Mayor Bloomberg is angry that immigrants were not counted in the 2010 census, but immigrants are hiding from any government officials, because of the Mayor's relentless and invasive ''stop and frisk'' operation.

The official results of the 2010 census show that there are less than 8.2 million people living in New York City, The New York Daily News reported.

Preliminary analysis shows that the outcome of the 2010 census will result in the loss of two two Congressional seats for New York state.

A low census count not only results in the likely loss of Congressional seats for the entire state, but the state and cities face the possibility of receiving less federal funds that are calculated based on population.

''City officials said the census likely missed new immigrants, including those who are here illegally or are living in illegally subdivided homes,'' reported The Daily News.

Meanwhile, as the state and cities face the prospects of a never-ending budget crisis, nobody is looking to the impact of ''stop and frisk'' policies on minorities as a determining factor in the low census count and its impact on our shrinking government resources.

Mayor Bloomberg Was Booed At The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Ceremony ; Media Coverage Insults Memory of the Dead

27 March 2011 Updated! No major New York City newspaper has reported that Mayor Bloomberg was booed at the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire 100th anniversary ceremony.

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg was booed at the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire ceremonies today.

NEW YORK - At a ceremony commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was loudly booed by labor activists and union supporters, the wire service Agence France-Presse reported.

Mayor Bloomberg had been delivering a speech about fire safety and the importance of labor protections when activists began to boo the unpopular mayor. The ceremony took place in Greenwich Village, outside the building where the fire broke out on March 25, 1911. The building is now owned by New York University.

Since he changed the term limits laws to run for a previously impossible third term as mayor, Mr. Bloomberg, a billionaire, has been on a scorched-earth campaign to shut down firehouses all across New York City. Critics allege that the closing down of firehouses and the layoffs of firefighters would put the city at risk should a large fire take place.

Today's ceremony was marking the deaths of 146 people at the Triangle Waist Company ; the outrage following the fire and deaths resulted in reforms in labor laws in New York and around the nation. For weeks before the memorial ceremony, many newspapers and even some cable news channels, such as NY1, had been paying tribute to the ''far-reaching impact on workplace safety, the labor movement and the New York political scene'' that came about as a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. To not report how community activists booed the New York mayor over his scorched-earth campaign to close down firehouses, attack city unions, and do nothing to prevent hospital closings reveals that the media tributes were not only superficial, but, at the end of the day, the total media coverage has been an insult on the sacrifice made by the 146 people, who died in 1911.

As His Popularity Sags In This Tough Economy, Mayor Bloomberg Spends $1 Million On TV Ads

Mayor Michael Bloomberg launches a major TV advertising blitz to fluff his ''reputation,'' even as his goodwill amongst voters shrivels up.

Mayor Bloomberg has reportedly made a media buy of almost $1 million worth of TV commercials that tell the story that he has been ''fighting for New York,'' instead of 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. It should come as no surprise that, consequently, Mayor Bloomberg is falling in popularity amongst voters. It's almost as if Mayor Bloomberg's legacy has been flushed down the toilet.

True News From Change Blog Has Been Restored

Breaking News ! Update on True News From Change NYC Blog

Gary Tilzer's blog, True News From Change NYC, about New York government corruption, political reporting, and other commentary about government transparency, has been restored. Earlier today, it had been discovered that the True News blog had been suspended by Google for inexplicable reasons overnight. The suspension of the blog had become a focal point of support today by many New York bloggers and activists. No reason for the suspension is yet known, but New York bloggers suspect political censorship might have been one motive behind the removal of the blog.

CENSORED : True News From Change NYC Blog

Update : True News From Change NYC Blog Has Been Restored

Google Blogspot Blog Has Been Removed For No Reason ; Blogger Community Suspects Political Censorship ; Call To Action

Please send an e-mail to press@google.com and copy Gary Tilzer, the owner of the censored blog, at Gtprinter@aol.com -- demanding that the True News blog be restored.

True News is a blog dedicated to reporting about government scandals, politics, and transparency. (Here is the cached version of the True News blog.)

This is not the first act of censorship against Mr. Tilzer. Before the 2010 election, a YouTube video that Mr. Tilzer produced was banned by NBC/YouTube and had to be replaced with an edited version. In the last couple of years, others have faced incidences of cyber censorship or retaliatory activity. One and a half months before the 2009 election, the YouTube channel owned by the artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy was likewise censored, until bloggers and a lawyer intervened on her behalf. In 2010, this blogger was attacked by computer viruses 3 or 4 times, including on the day this blogger reported to the New York Department of State Committee on Open Government an act of censorship committed by Brad Hoylman.

Flashback : Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Internet freedom as tool to ‘spread truth and expose injustice’

We need your help to keep courageous bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, doing what they do. If you are reading this, it is because you are turning to the Internet for reliable information. For it to be here, bloggers, like Mr. Tilzer, have to be able to do their work without fear of retribution or censorship.

Is It A Conflict Of Interest For Bloomberg Government To Make Money From Government Information ?

''Bloomberg Government'' is a money-making enterprise for Mayor Bloomberg's company, where he makes money from government and personal information, like contracts, employee lists, and other forms of databases.

Apparently, there is a lot of money to be made from government contracts, especially from cost over-runs, like what happened with CityTime.

So far, prosecutors can prove that $80 million has been stolen from the government payments for the CityTime payroll system, a shady black hole of an IT contract. In a separate analysis of the CityTime scandal, the newsroom of WNYC radio has estimated that, as of December 2010, New York City has spent ''more than $630 million on CityTime, which was supposed to cost just $63 million.''

If only there was a way that Mayor Bloomberg could get rid of checks and balances in New York and others could end progressive era reforms, like collective bargaining in states like Wisconsin, that way companies, which have an inside edge on government contracts and government employee lists, could go after all the cost over-runs that are possible from government contracts once there is no more government oversight ! All the more better for Bloomberg Government would be if Mayor Bloomberg could find ways to stop the City Council from checking his desire for more and more mayoral control.

Meanwhile, with all the employees that revolve between City Hall and Bloomberg L.P., how do we know if there are any safeguards on material, non-public government information ?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Legacy

NY1 Online: Mayor's Legacy Discussion On "Inside City Hall" 3/17/11

Two Manhattan scholars published in Commentary magazine a lengthy assessment of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's record for the past 8 or 9 years. That article was adapted and reprinted in The New York Post as : Bloomy's bubble bursts : New York City voters finally realize -- there's no there there.

Here are the authors of the article, Fred Siegel and Sol Stern, each from the Manhattan Institute, in a joint television interview on NY1. They offer a harsh and critical analysis of Mayor Bloomberg’s time in office.

Christine Quinn-Michael Bloomberg Term Limits Puppet Show Video

Third Anniversary Protest of Term Limits Scam : Christine Quinn's Puppet Show and Political Farce

Join us on Sunday, October 23, 2011, at 2 pm, outside City Hall, for a protest to mark the third anniversary of the City Council vote that overturned term limits.

Back on this day in 2008, the New York City Council voted to change the term limits law, thereby allowing Mayor Michael Bloomberg to seek re-election. The action by the City Council, lead by Speaker Christine Quinn, undid the term limits approved by New York City voters, who had previously passed two referendums that had restricted the service of elected politicians to a limit of two four-year terms.

Vote Quinn out of office !

Will Rudin Management profit from Bloombo Dicto's spree of school closings ?

OP-ED : After Rudin Management converts St. Vincent's Hospital into luxury condos, will the billion-dollar real estate empire next convert closed schools into even more luxury condos ?

Since he has become mayor, Michael Bloomberg has waged a sustained campaign to layoff teachers and close schools. Once wonders why he is systematically attacking public education, which is such an important underpinning of our society.

Remember how New York University got away with demolishing the Edgar Allan Poe house to build a new mega-building ? Well, yesterday, word was received that St. Vincent's Hospital, which closed after mysterious back-room meetings last year, is being converted into luxury condos by the Rudin Family. Are we beginning to see a pattern ?

In the last 10 or so years, no public institution (not a historical landmark like the former house of the famous poet Edgar Allan Poe, not St. Ann's Church, not the fabled St. Vincent's Hospital, not even public schools, where children go for an education) has been safe from being condemned and closed down -- all in the name of more and more reckless real estate development.

It is time for people to wake up and see what is on the horizon : the time is going to come when children are going to be loitering in the streets, having nowhere to go, nothing good to occupy their time, and no future to create, after all the teacher layoffs and school closings. There will be less firehouses and fewer hospitals. What kind of urban design for a metropolis is Mayor Bloomberg creating ?

But according to the real estate development wet dreams of Mayor Bloomberg, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and other development-crazed politicians, that is exactly what they want. Their vision for a new ''partnership'' for New York must include closing down public institutions, like schools, firehouses, and our historical landmarks, to make room for more luxury condo conversions and mega-buildings.

What happened to wanting to live in an exceptional city ? Aren't we capable of being better than this ? We need to organize grassroots efforts to block the elitist urban-renewal projects of real estate developers, like the Rudin Family, who seem to be joining Mayor Bloomberg on a renewed campaign to destroy the fragile character and experience of our local neighborhoods. It's time to get organized and fight back !

Without A Proxy, The Rudin Family Is Harvesting St. Vincent's Remains

Rudin Interview on New York Real Estate Harvesting From Bankrupt Hospitals.

William Rudin, chief executive officer at Rudin Management Co., talks about New York City's real estate and the outlook for commercial property, including the millions the family stands to make from the carcass picking of the real estate property of St. Vincent's Hospital. Watch at 5:40.

To add insult to injury, naturally this interview was broadcast on Bloomberg Opinion, in keeping with Mayor Michael Bloomberg's worldview of starving the beast until it dies in the back of an ambulance, stuck in crosstown traffic.