TrueNews: NY Political Parties for Sale: Ballot Corruption

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

NY Political Parties for Sale: Ballot Corruption

NY Political Parties for Sale: Ballot Corruption by Political Mob Bosses

The leaders of New York’s Political Mob are the City’s party leaders who exist with the Tammany Hall power control template, unchallenged and unaccountable to the voters in New York’s broken down election system. Their soldiers are campaign consultants who also operate as lobbyists and are as accountable to the voters as Bernie Madoff was to his investors. In this war the 4th estate has limited itself to covering only the horse race and simply reprinting the candidate’s press releases. The press coverage of politics is amazingly similar to the SEC reviews of Madoff’s records over the years. New York’s Political Mob Wars

Pay to Play Indy Party
Indy Party chief in jam over wife loan The wife of the chairman of the state Independence Party solicited and received a $10,000 business loan from a candidate who got the party's coveted endorsement days later. (NYP) * MacKay and Co. overturned local recommendations in Western NY, favoring incumbents over challengers. * MacKay Under Fire * Frank vs. Frank, Take II

Pay to Play Liberal Party
Ray Harding, former head of NY Liberal party, pleads guilty to taking $800K in pension fund scandal

Pay to Play GOP
Indictment Over Bloomberg Campaign Funds (NYT)

Ballot Corruption
True News has been reporting that ballot lines are for sale for two years while the good government groups have hidden from the issues. Organized Crime Politics Ballot Lines for Sale (TN) * Tammany’s Ballot Control Again and Again (TN) * Organized Crime Politics - Episode Two: The Rigged Election System

Council Ethics Committee to Meet Tomorrow, Could Decide Rodriguez's Fate

AG wanna-be Rice flies nice in donor's plane Rice traveled aboard "boutique, luxury aviation" provided by a campaign donor (DN) * The crowded AG race is attracting contributions from big donors.

Mark Levine and his Senate primary opponent, Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat, exchanged barbs over a nonprofit that employs the assemblyman’s allies and relatives. More here.

The TU thinks state legislators should be held accountable for the budget mess and hopes voters remember that in the fall * Bill Hammond believes New Yorkers who awarded the Legislature an “F” for their budget efforts this year were “way too generous.”

New York Economic Meltdown Uh, owe! NY plunges into $87M hole as cash runs out (NYP) *State Budget in for a Loss (WSJ) *Hammond: An indefensible state budget (NYT) * Mayor Says $500 Million Can Be Saved Yet Not Harm Services ( NYT) * Townhouse Price Cut Hits Ritzy Neighborhood (WSJ) * That $1 billion in FMAP cash? It’s not coming to New York anytime soon If the money doesn't show up soon, officials warn, there will be layoffs. * There are 8,000 empty desks sitting around gov't offices.

Crane Trial
Rigger is crane 'fall guy,' lawyer (NYP) * Ground Zero fire defense Prosecutors are "scapegoating" three construction officials for a blaze that killed two city firefighters at a condemned Ground Zero skyscraper (NYP) * Crane collapse could have been prevented: prosecutor (DN) * Sling Is Focus as Prosecutor in Crane Fall Wraps Case (NYT) * Verdict In Crane Collapse Trial Expected Thursday

Bloomberg's World

Mayor Has Strong Words for Palin Bloomberg said he strongly disagreed with Sarah Palin's call for New Yorkers to reject a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near Ground Zero. (WSJ) * To Get an Internship at City Hall, It’s Not Always What You Know (NYT) * Mayor sticks up for aide after her Twitter tangle with Palin (DN) * Bloomberg fires back at Palin over WTC mosque (WABC)

Charter Backers Flex Political Muscles

Rent Subsidies Cut Nice headline spin NYT but it is still a cut Stricter Rules Likely to Make Fewer Eligible for City Rent Subsidies (NYT)

The End of Newspapers POLL: Will Newspapers Go Extinct By 2050?
Joseph Mercurio ‎64% of Americans do not believe paper editions of newspapers will exist in 2050. Pew Research. That long? Newspapers will have to figure out how to sell advertising on the web. *Just like AT&T made a bad mistake not taking the offer to run the internet when DARPA came calling and offered it to them, one has to wonder why the NY Times with its indexes and microfilm in every library did not see the opportunity of the internet and become Google before the kids though it up.

Law and Order Fended off 3 before 4th opened fire (NYP) *EMT was killed while fighting over parking spot, police sources say (DN) * Investigators: Parking Spat Led To EMT's Shooting Death* 3 killed on bloody night in Brooklyn (NYP) * Police Shoot Man Alleged to Have Fired on Officers (WSJ) * Son arrested for slaying of dad in UWS tragedy (DN) * The Don of Screwups now begging for witness protection * 'Good kid' killed by bullet meant for someone else (DN) * Cops hunting rapist of elderly woman with Alzheimer's* Police Investigate Raping Of Elderly Bronx Woman (NY1) * Police Respond To Brooklyn Shooting, Return Fire (NY1)

Terrorism NY Faisal bomb would have killed thousands(NYP) * Drill for the truth: Brits must explain how – and why – Libyan terrorist was freed (DN ed)

Editor Martin Dunn is Out at The Daily News

Media and New Tech Senate Set to End Stalemate and Extend Jobless Aid (NYT) * Mort Zuckerman Taps Boston Herald Editor Kevin Convey to Take over Daily News * Sumner Redstone offers bribe to reporter for name of MTV leaker (NYP)

Why Donate to True News Keep Real News Alive. Put simply, True News -- and the truth – cannot do more and could even end without financial help from the people who want to hold the government accountable for their actions. As you know True News, without any support, has fought to keep the real NYC’s investigative and analysis reporting era of great journalism alive. True News is a living memorial to publisher John Peter Zenger who was jailed in 1733 by the King for reporting to New Yorkers what was going on in their city. It is also in the tradition of the Ben Bradlee generation that believes that all reporters would not be doing their job if they did not follow the story until they got to the truth. Today’s reporters copy press releases from elected officials and lobbyists hired by the special interests who want to control the message. The lost circulation of newspapers has created a generation of young reporters who not only rely on elected officials and lobbyists for stories, but don’t even Google to find the historical context or, more importantly, the truth behind the stories they write. In this era of sell-out journalism, the public has become disconnected, powerless and trapped by a permanent government that has turned against them. The media blames an apathetic public for not voting even after democratic consultants act like an Orwellian 'Big Bother' threatening them to vote or be looked into. True News reports that the reason for the decreasing turn-out is the public no longer feel their votes matter. If you value hard hitting Investigative Journalism, don't let True News go the way of the Passenger Pigeon. The Newfield, Barrett, Kempton, Hammel of yesteryear are no more. Local TV news limits itself to good looking women and men reading about breaking fires and crimes, with few exceptions. What's left that isn't tabloid is a wasteland of superficial news, driven by political and corporate PR machines, sowing the fertile seeds of corruption public and private hand in glove. Despite the soft news we see, standard bearers play a significant albeit vestigial role. Newspapers constantly pick up stories from True News (without crediting us of course) avoiding the costs to investigate themselves. Without True News, the New York Press and this blog's over one and half million readers will be utterly lost in the wilderness. Only True News is explaining: How Blacks, the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Pushed out of Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers and Apartments Gives Details How Lobbyists and Developers Run A Secret Shadow Government that Also Controls Elections With Big Money and Their Control Over the Media Investigates How Political Party Bosses Have Been Replaced By Lobbyists' Privatization of the Tammany Hall Machine Reports How the WFP and the Elected Officials Who Are Supported By Them Have Abused and Aggressively Broken Campaign Finance Laws. True news is not funded by special interests like the other news blogs. True News has been self-funded all these years. True News does not make nice with sitting politicians, developers, lobbyists to fund it or to provide its young clueless reporters with story ideas. True News wants nothing more than to scratch out a modest living in its aim to investigate, connect the dots, and get to the truth of every newsworthy story. To carry on in this mission, True News needs funding from people like you -- People Who Want Better Journalism in order to learn what is really going on in their government and fight the corrupt politicians. It's been written about True News Those of you who have an involvement in the dangerous game of politics, it may be of interest to know who’s telling the truth these days, and, whether the articles we read are real or imagined disinformation, emanating directly out of a governmental PR department. No genuine journalist would ever rely on such a source for the truth. As publisher of the SoHo Journal, through personal experience, take it from me that it is possible to become a political target for simply writing about the truth. And the mainstream media and writers eat their own for sales— as well as take orders from their masters— corporate, financial and political masters. Always pay attention to the agenda. Read between the lines. That is the basis of real reporting and political comprehension. Not the rehashing of a press release. OWS had a handle on this reality as well. Pay attention to the current daily blog written by Gary Tilzer. His True News is one of the few remaining sources for political investigative reporting. His fearless reporting of the truth in political circles is worth noting. Contributors names are confidential

Other Views

On October 15, 1958, veteran broadcaster Edward R. Murrow delivered his famous "wires and lights in a box" speech (VIDEO) The Last Lion of Tammany HOW JIMMY McMANUS, MANHATTAN’S LAST GREAT TAMMANY DISTRICT LEADER, HELPED TO REVIVE HELL’S KITCHEN AND THE THEATER DISTRICT c By James S. Kaplan f On January 13, 2011, the law firm of Proskauer Rose moved into 11 Times Square, which is located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues. In moving west to the final building of the City’s Times Square redevelopment, the Proskauer firm joined such other major law firms as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Covington & Burling, Roberts & Holland, and the advertising firm of Ogilvy & Mather. That such major professional firms, along with a number of newly constructed luxury apartment buildings on 42nd Street from ninth to eleventh avenue and trendy restaurants and off Broadway theaters would be located west of 8th Avenue in midtown would have been almost inconceivable fifty years ago. Tammany Last Stand Continued

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