Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Bloomberg Discrimination Update

City Workers’ Discrimination Lawsuits Rise under Bloombo Dicto's Thr33 T3rms, Reports NYT

From The New York Times :

"The number of discrimination cases filed by city employees in New York has risen even as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has adopted a far less adversarial tone than his predecessor did in dealing with the city’s vast work force.

"During Mr. Bloomberg’s first two terms in office, the number of lawsuits by employees accusing the city of discrimination was 12 percent higher than the number during Rudolph W. Giuliani’s two terms as mayor, according to government data furnished under Freedom of Information Law requests. ...

"Workplace discrimination has been an awkward issue for Mr. Bloomberg. The financial services firm he founded and led, Bloomberg L.P., has been battling a long-running lawsuit contending that Mr. Bloomberg and top managers created a hostile workplace for pregnant employees. Mr. Bloomberg testified for about eight hours over two days in 2009; the case is expected to go to trial next year," reported The Times.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Role of Lobbyists in CityTime Fraud : What did SAIC and Technodyne want ?

Keeping in mind that Mayor Bloomberg is skilled at funneling campaign money in many ways that go undetected and undisclosed, a skill he shares with Speaker Quinn, who still maintains her shady City Council slush fund. These experts at funneling and slushing money around in opaque structures and technicalities are the ones, who never detected the massive $600 million CityTime Fraud. Really ?

During the 3 terms of the Bloomberg administration, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn kept approving each year's city budget, which included all the approvals and sign-offs on the CityTime cost over-runs.

During the Bloomberg-Quinn administration, lobbyists for the primary CityTime contractors, Scientific Applications International Corporation and Technodyne, kept teams of expensive lobbyists on their payroll to do exactly what ? Were lobbyists being paid to prevent any government agency to investigate the 2003 Richard Valcich letter ?

2003 02 19 Richard Valcich Letter SAIC CityTime Corruption Scandal

In 2003, Mr. Valcich was the Executive Director of the Office of Payroll Administration. In his 6 page letter to SAIC, Mr. Valcich questioned the motivations behind SAIC's poor performance on the CityTime contract ; SAIC kept dragging out deadlines and delivering product that Mr. Valcich described as "below acceptable standards."

As of the time of the writing of Mr. Valcich's letter, New York City had spent $35 million thus far on the doomed CityTime project. Current cost estimates put the price tag at over $700 million, of which $600 million has been described as "fraud."

During all this time, though, the principal outsourced companies working on CityTime were dispatching teams of lobbyists, to keep the cost over-runs being paid, and maybe for other motives.... The newsroom of WNYC, the public radio station, cannot pinpoint the exact role of the shady CityTime lobbyists.

"What prosecutors have yet to publicly discuss is the role played by former city officials from both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations that acted as lobbyists on behalf of SAIC and subcontractors such as New Jersey-based Technodyne. ...

"The city's lobbying database shows a small army of former prominent city officials who did work for SAIC and Technodyne. Defense contractor SAIC has retained former City Comptroller Liz Holtzman, Peter Powers, who served as Mayor Giuliani's top deputy Mayor for operations, and Seth Kaye, who worked in both the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations. Technodyne's lobbyists include former Bloomberg Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Gino Menchini and Agostino Cangemi, who also held key posts in both administrations.

"National Strategies, the lobbying firm that employs Menchini and Cangemi, says the firm had no role in CityTime and discontinued working "on general business procurement" for Technodyne as soon as the criminal allegations surfaced. (Another Technodyne lobbyist of record, Sal Salamone, was director of the Mayor’s Office of Computer Planning and has worked for SAIC.)"

No journalism outlet has yet to report the extent of lobbying by other CityTime subcontractors, such as Spherion and Gartner. If the lobbyists were trying to thwart any investigation into the $600 million CityTime fraud, would those lobbying activities rise to the level of obstruction of justice ?

Monday, July 4, 2011

Bloomberg St. Vincent's Medical Malpractice

Eileen Dunn, R.N., tells residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan that Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the ''knife to the chest'' of St. Vincent's Hospital, and that the mayor is responsible for blocking the restoration of a hospital to the Lower West Side.

Nurse Dunn also said that the municipal governments in Miami, Florida, and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, either forbid ambulances from taking emergency patients to the kinds of first aid clinics that Lenox Hill plans to build at the O'Toole Building in the West Village, or forbid to license such first aid clinics altogether.

Too bad we can't count on Mayor Bloomberg to do the right thing -- and fight for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

William Rudin St. Vincent's Hospital

Community Activist Yetta Kurland presented a stack of over 7,500 signatures on a petition to a representative of the Rudin development family. The petition demands that the Rudin Family must be blocked from undertaking a luxury condominium conversion of the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. In her presentation, Ms. Kurland explained the history of a prior deal that gave the Rudin Family use of a hardship exemption, but, which Ms. Kurland said, no longer applies. As William Rudin salivates over the condo conversion deal, Jane Jacobs is turning in her grave.

Bloomberg Lenox Hill CB2 Meeting

Under the cover of darkness, over a holiday weekend, and in usual opaque fashion, Community Board 2 announced with very short notice a meeting for tomorrow that will keep pushing a first aid clinic to replace St. Vincent's Hospital.

In spite of the Lower West Side's united demand that North Shore-LIJ open a hospital to replace St. Vincent's, Community Board 2 keeps its head buried up the ass of the Rudin Family.

JOINT LANDMARKS & PUBLIC AESTHETICS & ST. VINCENT’S OMNIBUS : Tues., 7/5 @ 6:30 PM– NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Pl. Room 208 - 30 Seventh Avenue (O’Toole Building) - Application for façade changes and new entrances. For more information go to: http://bit.ly/iNUSWj

Bloomberg CityTime Ethics Investigation

If the U.S. Attorney General won't appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the CityTime scandal, can we ask Public Advocate Bill De Blasio to launch an independent ethics investigation into the Bloomberg-Quinn administration ?

Michael Bloomberg, our control-queen mayor who is famous for fighting for more and more mayoral control over everything, including public education, is spinning the tall tale that he was never in control over the fraud being committed during the cost over-runs during the CityTime payroll system scandal.

"The fraud-riddled CityTime payroll system is being transferred to the city's control in the wake of indictments, guilty pleas and the public demand by Mayor Bloomberg that he wants $600 million back from the company in charge of the project.

"Rather than rely on contractors caught up in the corruption scandal to oversee the system, the city will assemble a team of roughly 70 technicians under its own control -- including many who worked for the companies now under investigation," reported The New York Post.

Just a week ago, Mayor Bloomberg was defending the hundred million dollars in cost over-runs in the CityTime project. (As if mayoral control hadn't yet been exposed to be a joke (take, for example, the Cathie Black appointment) Mayor Bloomberg is now trying to extend mayoral control from public education to the juvenile justice system.) And if that wasn't enough, now that Mayor Bloomberg claims that ''control'' over CityTime is being transferred to City Hall, one wonders who is the man behind the curtain, who is pulling all the levers, flipping all the switches, and turning all the dials ? Meanwhile, to no one's surprise, now that the CityTime milking project has gone bust, the Bloomberg administration is now on the prowl for another "new" payroll system.

"Buried in the agency's resolution was the surprising announcement that, come January, the city will seek new proposals for computerized payroll management," The Post report added.

During these three terms of Bloomberg mayoral control, he and Deputy Mayor Christine Quinn have complete and total control over the city budget, including approving appropriations of most, if not all, of the cost over-runs on the CityTime project. Will Mr. de Blasio do the right thing -- and launch an independent ethics investigation ? For more coverage, please visit the CityTime cover-up reporting by True News From Change. For more coverage, please visit the CityTime cover-up reporting by True News From Change.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

CityTime Special Prosecutor Bloomberg

Ask United States Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a federal special prosecutor to investigate the Bloomberg Administration and the City Council for the massive CityTime fraud.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday called for an almost complete $600 million refund of the fraudulent CityTime automated payroll system, reported Celeste Katz of The New York Daily News.

Mayor Bloomberg made his request for a refund in a letter addressed to Walter Havenstein, CEO of Science Applications International Corporation ; the letter has been released to the public.

2011 06 29 Michael Bloomberg Letter Saic Citytime 600M Refund

For months now, political commentator, artist, and blogger Suzannah B. Troy has also been calling for a complete refund of the taxpayer money wasted on CityTime.

The U.S. Congress also has some power to appoint a special prosecutor or special investigator, if Mr. Holder doesn't have the guts to investigate the Bloomberg-Quinn administration.

We need to take this investigation out of the hands of any city official, whose investigation budget depends on Mayor Bloomberg's or City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's oversight.

Mayor Bloomberg has previously attacked the budgets of the Manhattan District Attorney and of the Public Advocate.

For her part, Speaker Quinn still likes to use the city budget to dole out her politically-motivated special member items.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

SAIC CityTime Legal Discovery

Evidence, Documents, Response to Requests for Production : Growing Collection for Preetinder S. Bharara :

In addition to Suzannah B. Troy's detailed blog post about the criminal fraud involving the CityTime tech contract, check the following documents, which will be supplemented here from time to time :

2009 12 18 Joel Bondy CityTime Hearing Transcript

Waste-Abuse at the City of New York..an Insider Story - CNN iReport

2003 02 19 Richard Valcich Letter SAIC CityTime Corruption Scandal

SAIC SEC 8-K Date of Report : June 2, 2011

UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
__________________________________

FORM 8-K
__________________________________

CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of The
Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported): June 2, 2011
__________________________________

SAIC, Inc.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
__________________________________


Exhibit 99.2

Regulation FD Disclosure

Timekeeping Contract with City of New York

Since 2000, the Company has performed under a systems development and implementation contract relating to an automated time and attendance and workforce management system (CityTime) for certain agencies of the City of New York (City). The Company has billed approximately $635 million under the contract through May 31, 2011. During fiscal 2011, the Company and the City entered into a contract amendment that provided for, among other things, modified performance requirements for the Company to complete the contract. The Company believes it has substantially completed its performance obligations under the amended contract and has outstanding receivables of approximately $40 million as of May 31, 2011, reflecting the amount owed by the City to the Company under the terms of the amended contract and prior amendments to the contract.

In the course of conducting an internal investigation of the CityTime program, the Company discovered that it could not validate all the time recorded to the contract by its CityTime program manager. As a consequence, the Company could not determine the extent to which any time may have been incorrectly overbilled to the City for this employee. The Company then informed the City on May 23, 2011 that it had terminated the employment of this employee and offered to voluntarily refund approximately $2.5 million, representing all of this employee’s time directly billed to the City. The Company recorded a liability of approximately $2.5 million as of April 30, 2011, associated with its offer to refund this amount.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York is conducting a criminal investigation relating to the CityTime program. In December 2010, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint against six individuals who were employees of the quality assurance vendor that was under a direct contract with the New York City Office of Payroll Administration, or were principals of staffing firms that provided staff to the CityTime program as second-tier subcontractors to the Company, or were otherwise relatives of those individuals. On February 10, 2011, a federal grand jury indicted four of the individuals and added another individual defendant. On May 27, 2011, a criminal complaint was filed against the former Company employee whose time charges were subject to the refund offer. The complaint alleges that this former employee conspired to defraud the City into extending the duration of and overpaying for the CityTime project and personally received kickbacks totaling $5.6 million. It also alleges that he defrauded the Company by depriving it of his honest services, and charges him with money laundering to conceal proceeds of the fraudulent schemes. The Company is continuing to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s investigation but cannot predict its outcome.

Statements have been issued from the City’s Office of the Mayor and Office of the Comptroller indicating that the City’s Department of Investigation would conduct a more extensive investigation regarding the CityTime contract, and that the City would withhold payment of amounts owing to the Company until the investigation was complete. In addition, these statements have also indicated that the City intends to pursue the recovery of costs associated with the CityTime program that the City’s investigation reveals were improperly charged to the City. The City has not filed any claim against the Company or otherwise requested reimbursement or return of payments previously made to the Company and the Company has not recorded any liabilities relating to this contract other than the approximately $2.5 million it offered to refund. However, there is a reasonable possibility of additional exposure to loss that is not currently estimable if there is an adverse outcome. An adverse outcome of any of these investigations may result in non-payment of amounts owed to the Company, a demand for reimbursement of other amounts previously received by the Company under the contract, claims for additional damages, and/or fines and penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated financial position, results of operations and cash flows.

Peter Powers

Peter Powers update : his company was a lobbyist for SAIC.

2011 06 29 Michael Bloomberg Letter Saic Citytime 600M Refund

Monday, June 13, 2011

Faith-Positive Marriage Equality Rally

Faith-Positive Marriage Equality Rally at New York City Hall

Following a week with multiple religious leadersissuing statements in support of marriage equality in New York State, two prominentgroups, the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and Queer Rising, are endorsing a faith-positive LGBT rally organized by Connecting Rainbows in support of marriage equality at New York City Hall on Tuesday, June 14, 2011, at 11:30 am.

Everybody is asked to meet at the East Side Security Gates outside City Hall. (This is the area right outside the fenced-in parking lot.)

2011-06-13 Marriage Equality Connecting Rainbows -- City Hall Demonstration

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Marriage Equality Rally City Hall

Marriage Equality Rally at City Hall on June 14 :
It's a Civil Rights Issue

Join the growing number of voices, who are saying that Gov. Andrew Cuomo should pull out all the stops -- and get marriage equality passed through the state legislature.

LGBT New Yorkers, who have faith or who follow a different spiritual journey, should not be the targets of religious rhetoric. Yet, a group of extremist and right-wing religious organisations are holding a press conference on Tuesday, June 14 from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm on the steps of New York City Hall. These extremist groups are asking all believers in the Lord to join in a day of fasting and prayer to invoke ''divine intervention'' to prevent the passage of Marriage Equality in New York State.

Connecting Rainbows, an LGBT civil rights group, is inviting all community groups, activists, and allies to join us -- and to spread the word to others -- about a counter demonstration that supporters of Marriage Equality are holding at the same time and at the same place : on Tuesday, June 14 at 11:30 a.m. on the steps of New York City Hall ! Please RSVP to the Marriage Equality Rally Facebook Event.

Connecting Rainbows is asking for a similar and powerful coälition of Marriage Equality groups to show up -- and to send a message that these religious organisations should be protecting the sanctity of LGBTQ lives, too. We are each somebody, and we each deserve full equality.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Michael Bloomberg : ''Don't be an obstructionist, like I have been.''

OP-ED : My prediction for how history will judge the New York State politicians, who are blocking marriage equality :

‎''You should not be inbetween on equality,'' to quote Iana Di Bona.

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 * NEW YORK MARRIAGE EQUALITY **
The bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964 and the "Southern Bloc" of 18 southern Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage. Said Russell : "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states." The bill has yet to come before the full Senate for debate and already the notorious hate group National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has forged an alliance with Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-Bronx), to prevent its passage. Diaz and NOM sponsored a hate rally in the Bronx on the same day as AIDS Walk New York. Said Diaz : "We're sending a message to the governor that the Hispanic community is against gay marriage."
The most fervent opposition to the bill came from Senator Strom Thurmond (D-SC) : "This so-called Civil Rights Proposals, which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary, unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the Reconstruction proposals and actions of the radical Republican Congress." The most fervent opposition to the bill came from Senator Martin Golden (R-Staten Island), who introduced a hostile "defense of marriage" bill that would declare same-sex marriages entered into outside of New York void under New York law : "I am sending the message that there is some normalcy in this great state when it comes to the principled idea that marriage is between a man and a woman."
Michael Rubens Bloomberg attended Johns Hopkins University, where he joined Phi Kappa Psi, and graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electrical engineering. In 2005, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appealed a landmark marriage equality ruling and has been providing financial support to right-wing Republican legislators, including Senator Golden.
Christine Quinn was not yet born when the Civil Rights Act was enacted. In 2008, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn changed the term limits law to reward Mayor Bloomberg with a third term in office.
Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., was born in 1964. Sen. Joe Addabbo (D-Queens) voted against marriage equality in 2009 and is sitting on the fence as to whether he will support or oppose the pending marriage equality bill.
Carl Kruger was a teenager when the Civil Rights Act was passed into law. Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) voted against marriage equality in 2009, even though Sen. Kruger has recently been outed as being gay. Yet, he still has the gall to yet say whether he will support marriage equality in 2011 for other LGBTQ New Yorkers.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, who wanted the bill passed as soon as possible, ensured that the bill would be quickly considered by the Senate. Normally, the bill would have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator James O. Eastland, Democrat from Mississippi. Given Eastland's firm opposition, it seemed impossible that the bill would reach the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield took a novel approach to prevent the bill from being relegated to Judiciary Committee limbo. Having initially waived a second reading of the bill, which would have led to it being immediately referred to Judiciary, Mansfield gave the bill a second reading on February 26, 1964, and then proposed, in the absence of precedent for instances when a second reading did not immediately follow the first, that the bill bypass the Judiciary Committee and immediately be sent to the Senate floor for debate. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who wanted the bill passed as soon as possible, has not yet ensured that the bill would be quickly considered by the Senate. Normally, the bill would have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator John J. Bonacic, Republican from Mount Hope, New York. Given Bonacic's firm opposition to marriage equality, it would seem impossible that the bill would ever reach the Senate floor. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Long Island) has backed away from initially signaling that senators should "vote with their conscience" on the bill and has now, instead, threatened to not allow a vote on marriage equality. Thus far, excepting for intense lobbying and some major political demonstrations, the bill has not progressed within the state legislature after having been first introduced in the Assembly on May 10, 2011, by Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell.
Shirley Huntley participated in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Queens) marched in Selma and didn't learn a thing.

Key :

* Quoted entirely from Wikipedia, excepting for the references to Speaker Quinn's birth, Sen. Addabbo's birth, Sen. Kruger's age, and Sen. Huntley's march in Selma.

** Quoted from other sources over the Internet.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. Who's the Fairiest One of All ?

''Who's that woman? I know her well,
All decked out head to toe.
She lives life like a carousel:
Beau after beau after beau.
Nightly, daily,
Always laughing gaily,
Seems I see her everywhere I go.
Oh!''
-- ''Who's That Woman?'' from Follies

After the Cathleen Black hiring and firing, the constant threat to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, the fake surprise that votes don't go missing, his support to build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, the audacity to make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms, after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day booing, St. Patrick's Day Parade booing, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire booing, the St. Vincent's Rally booing, after his record on rounding up the homeless and undertaking mass deportations, and even after his opposition to marriage equality, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is under the delusion that history is going to be kind to his legacy.

We know he is out of touch with reality, but when did he go off the deep end ?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Bloomberg Booed at St. Vincent's Rally

At One Year Anniversary Rally of the Illegal Closing of St. Vincent's Hospital, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn are Booed by the Crowd.

Yesterday, it was almost like a repeat of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day booing, St. Patrick's Day Parade booing and the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire booing. Only the trigger that made the crowds boo at the unpopular mayor and city council speaker was the mere mention of their names.

At the one year anniversary of the hospital's closing, several speakers spoke at a rally, demanding that a hospital be restored at the site of the former St. Vincent's. Nurse Eileen Dunn worked for 25 years at St. Vincent's Hospital -- right up until the time that the hospital was closed after shady meetings between the hospital's management, politicians, potential buyers, and officials with the Department of Health.

Watch the booing beginning at 2:37 :

In this video, which was recorded on 30 April 2011, at the one year anniversary of the hospital's closing, Nurse Dunn asked if the crowd was angry at Mayor Michael Bloomberg or New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for not doing a thing to help save a full service hospital for the Lower West Side in Manhattan.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Caroline Murphy dedicates to St. Vincent's her latest Music Video

Caroline Murphy's St. Vincent's Music Video : New Single : ''Waiting This Out'' is a ballad about the community's fight for a new hospital to replace St. Vincent's in New York City.

Join us for a rally at 2 PM on Saturday, April 30, 2011, to restore a hospital to the Lower West Side of Manhattan. The greedy Rudin family luxury condo conversion is not a done deal, yet. Join us in the struggle to protect the social safety net that is under attack by extremist billionaires.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Shirley Huntley Gay Marriage Protest

Senator Shirley Huntley Marched in Selma and Didn't Learn a Thing : Epic YouTube Video of Daring Protest in Jamaica, Queens, in Support of Marriage Equality

At noon on Wednesday, LGBTQ activists demonstrated in front and visited the office of Queens Senator Shirley Huntely in Jamaica Queens calling upon her to be a champion for full civil rights, including marriage equality for LGBTQ Americans.

Protesters handed out a scathing flyer, calling Sen. Huntley, ''Dreamless,'' and unfurled a 20' banner that stated, "Sen. Shirley Huntley Marched in Selma and Didn't Learn a Thing," while blaring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, giving her a much needed wake-up call.

In 2009, Senator Huntely voted "No" on the marriage equality bill, which would grant same-sex couples the same 1,324 legal protections that opposite-sex couples already have. When asked the reason for her vote, she explained that she was speaking on behalf of her constituency in district 10.

Shirley Huntley - LGBT Marriage Equality Protest Flyer - Connecting Rainbows

This protest was organised by members of Connecting Rainbows. LGBTQ activists are protesting several New York state legislators who voted ''No'' to marriage equality in 2009. Who will be the next target for marriage equality activists ? Stay tuned....

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Bloomberg Maternity Leave Discrimination Update

Mayor Bloomberg Bares His Fangs to Female Attorney During Testimony in a Major Federal Lawsuit Alleging the Mayor's Company Was Sexist and Discriminated Against Scores and Scores of Women, Who Took Maternity Leave.

In the summer before the 2009 mayoral election, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was deposed twice -- for a total of almost 8 hours -- in connection with a major federal, class-action lawsuit brought by 65 employees of the mayor's media empire. The employees have accused the mayor's company of systematically discriminating against pregnant women, who took maternity leave.

To no one's surprise, the details of the mayor's shocking deposition testimony were somehow suppressed before his embarrassingly little win in the November 2009 election.

During some of his testimony, the mayor gave a lot of nasty attitude to a female attorney, Kam S. Wong, who worked at the time for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and who questioned the mayor. It is not clear from an article about deposition excepts published by The New York Times if Ms. Wong questioned the mayor in both of the depositions.

The Times describes the mayor's attitude toward the female attorney as ''patronizing,'' ''unsympathetic,'' as well as ''sarcastic,'' and, at ''one point in his testimony,'' Mayor Bloomberg also ''mocked'' Ms. Wong.

The Times reported that excerpts of the mayor's deposition testimony showed numerous examples of ''moments of thrust and parry, irritability and self-assuredness bordering on cockiness,'' which ''are perhaps the most striking parts of Mr. Bloomberg’s deposition in a federal discrimination lawsuit against Bloomberg L.P., the giant financial services and media corporation that he founded.''

At one point, when Ms. Wong read a portion of Mayor Bloomberg's memoir into the record, which was about how the mayor held grudges against employees who took leave from his company, the mayor became patronising and belittling to Ms. Wong. Instead of addressing the subject of how the mayor's company treated employees, who took leave from his company, the mayor was sarcastic about how Ms. Wong actually read the portion of the book.

“Your reading is good,” the mayor retorted, according to The Times.

The federal, class action lawsuit covers a period of time in his company's office culture after Mr. Bloomberg had already become mayor. The Times reported that recent legal filings by the E.E.O.C. indicate what the commission ''asserts to be a pattern among company executives, not only of bias, but also of outright hostility toward women who took maternity leave, with some executives suggesting that they did not deserve to work for Bloomberg L.P.'' In his defense, the mayor said that he ''lost track'' of what was going on at Bloomberg L.P., after he became mayor, in spite of the fact that Mayor Bloomberg is an infamous control queen, who is obsessed with mayoral control over everything that he gets involved with, be it snow removal or the CityTime project.

In spite of his supposed defense, Bloomberg L.P. has a reputation for being a good old time ''boys’ club.'' In one example, The Times reported that Mayor Bloomberg was alleged to have compared women taking maternity leave with men wanting to take time off from work to play golf -- in other words, in the mayor's mind, maternity leave was a foolish expectation that pregnant women had, namely, to get paid for goofing off. In another example, whilst Mayor Bloomberg still controlled his company, Mr. Bloomberg was outright sued by an employee. The employee alleged that after she became pregnant, Mr. Bloomberg personally made a demand that she have an abortion. The Times reported that, at the time, Mr. Bloomberg told her to just, “Kill it!” Supposedly, Mr. Bloomberg adamantly denied any wrongdoing in the abortion case, and The Times reported that the abortion case was settled ''out of court for an undisclosed amount.''

Monday, April 11, 2011

Are Mailings by Westside Healthcare Coalition a Nasty Trick ?

''West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie''

In a sneaky marketing ploy, the backers of the first aid clinic that is being proposed to replace St. Vincent's Hospital has been mailing deceptive brochures to residents of the Lower West Side of Manhattan. The brochures indicate that they are being mailed by a group calling itself the Westside Healthcare Coalition.

A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc.

According to a press release distributed by angry residents, ''The practice of setting up seemingly grassroots groups to lobby for corporate or political interests is known as astroturfing. The stealth-style marketing technique is banned by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).''

The real group that has been fighting to restore a hospital to our community is the “Coälition for a New Village Hospital.”

West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie

Don't be fooled by the suspicious mailings by the front group calling itself the Westside Healthcare Coalition. They are just as fake as the claims being made by North Shore-LIJ, namely, that the first aid clinic that the Rudin family is proposing to install in the O'Toole Building will be able to treat real medical emergencies. And even in the face of all this deceptive literature that is being sent through the U.S. Postal Service, still no word from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Sarah Jessica Parker Is Interviewed About The Need To Replace St. Vincent's Hospital

Sarah Jessica Parker endorses a Full-Service Hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

In an interview with The Villager newspaper, Sarah Jessica Parker expressed her support for a full-service hospital to replace St. Vincent's.

''Asked what she thought of the latest post-St. Vincent’s proposal, for an emergency-care facility at the site of the former hospital’s O’Toole building, the Sex and the City star looked skeptical. 'I’m concerned, let’s put it that way,' she said. 'The community needs a hospital — and I think there’s been some clever obfuscation.' As a parent of three young children, she noted, she’s especially concerned about local healthcare. 'I would like to see a proper, functioning [hospital] — not a walk-in,' she stressed. She said she had spoken to Council Speaker Christine Quinn about the issue.''

The interview given by Ms. Parker took place before information came to light about a deceptive political campaign brochure, which was mailed to residents of the Lower West Side by a front group calling itself the ''Westside Healthcare Coalition.'' A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc. Whereas Ms. Parker was not directly speaking to the example of the campaign brochure as political subterfuge, you can see how she has already been concerned with the pattern of clever obfuscation.

North Shore-LIJ have a vested interest in installing a first aid clinic in the O'Toole Building in the West Village, so that the Rudin Family can build luxury condominiums on the former site of St. Vincent's Hospital. Meanwhile, watch this video about what having a full-service hospital in the Lower West Side means to one parent, whose child was treated by the live-saving emergency room at St. Vincent's Hospital :

North Shore-LIJ PR Campaign ?

The community of the Lower West Side of Manhattan are outraged over a deceptive political campaign brochure that was mailed to residents in connection with a proposed first aid clinic that may replace St. Vincent's Hospital.

Community anger has reached a new high, such that one member has launched a new blog, Every Minute Matters, to counter the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent by North Shore-LIJ and the Rudin family, to make sure that their greedy hundred million dollar condo conversion deal goes through.

The slick mass mailer is an act of political subterfuge, community residents say, because it is being mailed by a front group calling itself the ''Westside Healthcare Coalition.'' (A WhoIs search on Network Solutions today showed that the website for the front group is registered to Mehigan, Bellone & Associates, Inc.) The intention of this fake political brochure can only be to intentionally confuse the public between the front group and the real group called the Coälition For A New Village Hospital. The real group has been fighting for over one year to, at first, save St. Vincent's Hospital from closing. Then, once the hospital closed under shady conditions, the real Coälition has been fighting in court to save the hospital buildings and zoning, so that a new hospital can open on the location of the former St. Vincent's site.

Here is an anonymous line item review of what some community members describe as deceptive advertising that is printed on the controversial political brochure, which was mailed through the U.S. Postal Service :

West Side Healthcare Coalition is a Lie

The community isn't surprised that the axis of evil (aka North Shore-LIJ-Rudin Family) would resort to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a sick and twisted public relations stunt ; the Rudin family stands to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital. Even in the face of these deceptive political advertisements that are being mailed to city residents, the community continues to be likewise outraged by the veil of silence around City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who have taken no concrete actions to save St. Vincent's.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Civil Rights Route Map To Be Used By Connecting Rainbows During 2011 NYC Easter Parade


Join us for an LGBT civil rights walk
that is being organised by Connecting Rainbows. The walk will 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.

Suggested Connecting Rainbows Route During NYC Easter Parade 2011

Create profiles, form and join groups, and plan LGBT civil rights actions at our social media site at : Connecting Rainbows.