Monday, July 17, 2006

The Quinnberg Administration

UP FRONT News July 13, 2006
Published by Tom Weiss Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.”

THE QUINNBERG ADMINISTRATION.
HUMAN RIGHTS SUFFERS: THE YANKEE STADIUM GIVEAWAY, THE TIBETAN GIVEAWAY, AND THE
COVER-UP OF ABUSE OF THE HOMELESS. “IT AIN’T OVER ‘TIL IT’S OVER!”

Politics, certainly in New York, is loaded with elected officials whose rise to power was accomplished in part by placing the public interest ahead of private gain, but whose engagement with political power has evidently robbed them of whatever progressive principles they may have had. Very few people, except perhaps some very rich folks in Hollywood or in the boss-filled back rooms of, for example, the so-called Working Families Party, still believe that Hillary Clinton is a liberal. (I don’t even consider her a “centrist”; she is more accurately defined as an opportunist, with strongly loyalties toward the corporate rights.
City Councilmember and Speaker Christine Quinn came up in politics with an under-standable reputation as a gay rights and tenants rights activist. There is no question that, when the issue is gay rights, Ms. Quinn can be counted on. When is comes to the very tenants rights-related issue of overdevelopment, however, such as is the case with the Yankee Stadium giveaway to George Steinbrenner, his friends and over-paid athletes, Ms. Quinn forgets where she came from, at least politically. Ms. Quinn no doubt points to her opposition to the Michael Bloomberg/“Woody” Johnson plan to build Jets Stadium in West Chelsea as an example of her standing up to the mega-developers. The reality is that, since about 99.9% of her constituents were uncompromisingly opposed to the Stadium, she had little choice. To do otherwise would have been political suicide for her, and just about every other West Side politician. Indeed, much of the support for the Stadium came from, aside from Bloomberg, a handful of non-Manhattan politicians, from people who live in New Jersey, and from “Woody” Johnson’s friend George W. Bush. Two major and compelling “outer borough” voices opposing the West Side Stadium were U.S. Congressman (and quite apparent 2009 candidate for Mayor) Anthony D. Weiner (D.-Bklyn.-Queens) and City Councilman Charles Barron (D.-Bklyn) an actual candidate for the U.S. Congress. When it came to sacrificing a treasured community park, a legendary ball park that should be landmarked, and gentrification-free community stability in the South Bronx, Ms. Quinn went with Steinbrenner and Bloomberg. But, in an especially appropriate baseball prophesy, all we need to is recall Yogi Berra’s immortal suggestions, “When you get to a fork in the road, take it” and, even more relevant, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”
Ms. Quinn also falls very short when it comes to other human rights issues. In 2001, my multi-year City Council lobbying with then Councilmember Kathryn Freed for a resolu- tion supporting the Tibetan struggle against their Communist Chinese occupiers, showed some results as Ms. Freed and Ms. Quinn (although Quinn put her name first) introduced Resolution #802. That resolution, which passed unanimously, denounced the Communist Chinese for a host of atrocities inflicted on the Tibetans and called upon the Chinese to meet with the Dalai Lama to resolve matters. As I’ve previously suggested, that resolution (missing the key ingredient by not calling for the removal of the 2008 Summer Olympics from Beijing, and/or a U.S. team boycott) had about as much effect on the Chinese government as requests to Dick Cheney for donations for the Society to Protect Quails and to the War Resisters League might have.
Christine Quinn, several months ago, in an inconsiderately long-delayed response email to my much earlier e-mail said that she was satisfied with what she had done. My January 30, 2006 response e-mail to her, emphasizing the Olympics matter (for the 2008 Olympics 2008 to take place in a the capital city of a regime that practices genocide and torture, is the moral and political equivalent of the decision in the last millennium to have the 1936 Olympics held in Hitler’s Berlin) remains unanswered despite several brief but direct conversations I have had with Ms. Quinn on the matter. Like her political boss, Hillary Clinton, Ms. Quinn is in fact beholden to the corporate lobby, which regards China as the greatest profit-making goldmine in history - and screw the Tibetans (unless, the Dalai Lama is in town and then we make nice).
The next time Christine Quinn decides to pontificate about all her and Bloomberg’s good works for the homeless, all that needs to be recalled is that for over two years she has been fully aware of the staff-perpetrated abuse homeless people in drop-in centers (like Peter’s Place, a.k.a. in UP FRONT News, as “Auschwitz Lite”, right in the middle of her district) and in shelters, about which, despite numerous communications from me, she has dome nothing.
When Christine Quinn, by virtue of classic backroom deal-making involving Demo- cratic Party bosses from the “outer boroughs”, was anointed Speaker, only one Council Member objected to the process. That was Charles Barron, the very same representative of his people who voted “no” on the Yankee Stadium giveaway. And, as far as Yankee Stadium is concerned, the Quinnberg Administration’s support for that project is wrong for the following reasons. First of all, not only is the existing Yankee Stadium more than adequate, it qualifies as a national monument and should be landmarked, a determination that would exempt it from destruction. Secondly, I’d be curious to know how Upper East Siders would feel if someone decided to build a stadium in Carl Schurz Park, right near Gracie Mansion, and a lot of other Upper East Side mansions, and the Council said “okay, we will find you another park.” My impression is that the people in the South Bronx feel as strongly about McCombs Dam Park, slated for destruction, as Madonna and her friends, not to speak of countless other New Yorkers, feel about Central Park. Thirdly, the only reason that a new stadium is desired anyway is because of the luxury boxes it will have. We do not need any more luxury boxes. And forth, a new Stadium will bring a tsunami of gentrification to the South Bronx and, no matter what Bloomberg and Quinn might suggest, gentrification causes homelessness.

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Charles Barron's Pledge of Allegiance

UP FRONT News July 12, 2006
Published by Tom Weiss Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.”

PATRIOTISM AND RESISTANCE
CHARLES BARRON’S PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

During the mid 1990’s (I don’t recall the exact year), George Pataki, working on
establishing his legacy as a politician totally beholden to the principle of private gain over the public good, cut a deal with an entrepreneur seeking to profit from the recycling business to build a pollution-spewing incinerator in East New York, Brooklyn, a low income, largely African-American community. The man who led the very grassroots effort to stop a plan that could only be described as an example of environmental racism was Charles Barron, at the time the president of the Bradford Street Block Association and now City Councilman and candidate for the U.S. Congress.

I had been introduced to Mr. Barron a few years previously by Rev. Dr. Timothy P.
Mitchell, Martin Luther King’s man in New York and Pastor of the Ebenezer Missionary
Baptist Church in Flushing, Queens (of which I am a member). Charles Barron, working closely with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG, better known as one of “Nader’s Raiders”) and a broad-ranging community coalition (I was employed as a social worker in the neighborhood at the time), confronted the incinerator-developer and the Pataki regime, who were as intent on building their incinerator as the Jets owner and Bush pal “Woody” Johnson and Michael Bloomberg were in building Jets Stadium in Chelsea. I still recall us demonstrating on a July day when the temperature was over 100. Barron meant it when he said, “We shall not be moved” and Pataki threw in the towel.

Councilman Barron seems to be showing similar persistence in his current job, much to the consternation of what may fairly be called the “Quinnberg” Administration. Barron was the only member of the City Council not to vote for Christine Quinn as Speaker because he objected to the back-room (even if the rooms were no longer smoke-filled) dealing involving political bosses from the “outer boroughs” means by which Quinn was elected. The people of New York City had about as much to say in the determination of the very powerful Speaker position as Tibetans have as to who rules their occupied country. For his rebelliousness against the Party machinery Barron was threatened with the possible loss of his chairmanship of the City Council Committee on Higher Education.
As Mr. Barron put it in a speech on July 1, at a “State of the Black World Forum” at Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry’s House of the Lord Church in Brooklyn, when Ms. Quinn told him that she had decided, as Speaker, not to take his chairmanship, he replied in effect that, as far as he was concerned, that decision was his to make, not hers.

Barron was once again the only dissenter when the Council, evidently considerably less solicitous of community opposition in the South Bronx than it had been in Chelsea, voted to give McComb’s Dam Park to George Steinbrenner so that he can wreck the existing “House that Ruth Built” (which should be landmarked rather than destroyed)and build a luxury suite-rich new Yankee Stadium for his grossly overpaid teams.

Mr. Barron, who spoke on the theme of dissent being patriotic, enjoyed describing his budget encounter with Michael Bloomberg, which resulted in the Mayor targeting the “won’t back down” City Councilman with an undeleted expletive. Since Mr. Barron’s speech took place in a church, Mr. Bloomberg’s indiscretion was once again deleted. When it comes to obtaining funding for human needs projects that ordinarily are sacrificed because tax abatements for developers tend to get higher priority, Councilman Barron seems to be doing very well both in his district and, as Committee Chairman, on behalf of college students.

Mr. Barron’s keynote speech at the Forum came in the form of his Independence Day-
Relevant “Pledge of Allegiance.” Citing the demographic fact that 2.3 million New Yorkers are black, he pledged to use the power of the vote and of the streets to make black power a small “d” democratic reality. He pledged to carry on Dr. King’s dream as regards to the not yet realized blessings for black, brown, red, yellow and white children. And, stating very clearly that, when it comes to the reality of poverty and its derivatives (e.g. crime, illness, social decay), he knows what the problem is and that he intends to focus on solutions.

Unlike many in politics, “reformers” and “regulars” alike, Barron addressed also the concerns of the many who are alienated from electoral politics altogether. Although he didn’t put it that way, the message is “Register to vote, you have nothing to lose but your powerlessness!” That makes good political sense for a small “d” democratic radical (and capital “D” Democrat) who is challenging the incumbent Clinton-style Democrat Ed Towns for Congress.

I don’t live in Mr. Barron’s district, but if I did I’d vote for him.

A few weeks ago, when I told him about the seriousness of my campaign as a Democrat to unseat Hillary Clinton in the Senate, while I did not get an endorsement from Mr. Barron, I felt very much encouraged when he smiled, clenched his fist, and said, “Go get her.” If the voters elect Charles Barron to the House of Representatives and me to the U.S. Senate, I’d call that some fundamental change.

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Sunday, July 02, 2006

The Fried Onion

By Tom Weiss FRIED ‘ONION’ May 26. 2006

THE DEGEN MEDITATION ON VOTING AND WORLD POLITICS

Stock markets and governments on all continents except Judy (“The Penguin”)
Cunningham’s home of Antarctica were shaken by an as yet unsubstantiated report that renown anarchist Richie Degen was meditating on the question of registering to vote. Mr. Degen, the only fully licensed anarchist in America, while publicly denouncing electoral politics, which has produced Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush, among other embarrassments, has been atypically under the radical radar in recent weeks. A rumor that he may have headed for Staten Island, caused a brief flurry of excitement on the ferry which soon died down after Degen was spotted in Union Square.

In any event the rumor that Degen might actually register to vote led to a notice to all members of the New York City Council to stand by for a possible emergency session, which would consider dropping the second “e” from the Major Deegan Expressway. Indeed, New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, a vocal opponent of anarchism, said that he could oppose any re-spelling of the Expressway, which runs right past the
“The House that Built”, but nonetheless a historic structure that Council Speaker Christine Quinn and her Steinbrenner-compliant colleagues want to replace, much to the gratification of some folks from New Jersey but to the dismay of many more who live in the Bronx.

Ripples of the reported Degen meditation have extended as far away as Communist China. That government, which shares George Steinbrenner’s (and George W. Bush’s views with regard to anarchism), concerned over the possibility of Degen entering a voting booth this year, has warned that it might decide to annex New York City’s Chinatown, declaring it to be a part of Shanghai. His Holiness, The Dalai Lama of Tibet, aware of Degen’s support for Tibetan independence from China, and also fully aware of Hillary Clinton’s business dealings with the Chinese Communist imperialists, and a man uniquely knowledgeable about both politics and meditation, smiled but had no immediate comment.


ILLEGAL ALIEN IMMIGRATION – AND GEOFFREY BLANK

A new ripple has just entered the hot political battle over immigration with the discovery that Queens resident Geoffrey Blank is actually an illegal immigrant - from Uranus.
Although Blank’s favorite politician Hillary Clinton urged immigration authorities to
exercise restraint, several rallies around the country called for Blank’s immediate
deportation. Surprisingly, in an effort to keep Blank from being forced to return to his home in Outer Space, a spokesperson from Al Qaeda offered Blank asylum in Pakistan, where there is an asylum waiting for him. That recommendation was immediately backed by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. another Blank role model. Acting President George W. Bush, stating, “I kinda like Blank, he’s sort of nuclear”, assured the alien that no immediate
deportation will take place for two reasons. One is the reported shortage of lifeguards at
NYC beaches. The second relates to concerns expressed by a number of pediatricians as
to what would become of Blank’s over 30 year old baby brother Jason, who may be completely unable to take care of himself with his older sibling back in Uranus. Jason, also an illegal alien, however, is from Pluto. While there is an extradition treaty with Uranus, the U.S. has no such agreement with Pluto.

Hiilary Clinton's Support for China

TOM WEISS (DEMOCRAT)
FOR U.S. SENATE May 28, 2006

HILLARY, THE COMMUNISTS, AND GENOCIDE
AND, AT HOME, CENSORSHIP BY DAN MARGOLIS

As far as I am aware, Mrs. Clinton’s strongest criticism of the totalitarian, imperialist, and Genocide-generating regime of Communist China occurred a few years ago when Communist censors made some changes in her self-glorifying memoirs published as I recall by a company owned by he pal Rupert Murdoch. Mrs. Clinton, however, is clearly unmoved by the fact that the governments of Communist China, starting at least with the megalomaniac Mao, are guilty of multiple crimes against humanity, most particularly the racist Genocide that continues in Occupied Tibet. Indeed, as the New York Times recently reported, Mrs. Clinton, using her political ally George W. Bush as an intermediary, engaged in a diplomatic unnatural act with the Chinese Ambassador in her D.C. office order to monetarily benefit the notoriously right wing corporate heads at the Corning Corporation in upstate New York. As The Times disclosed, Mrs. Clinton cut a deal whereby the Chinese Communists lowered their protectionist tariffs on Corning-produced fiber optics. Clinton got a few jobs for some high-techies and lots of campaign cash from the boys and girls at Corning.

The reason why I am emphasizing the “Communist” aspect of this Faustian episode is because it sheds light on the hypocrisy of what continues to call itself “Communism.” A left-knowledgeable friend recently told me that he would not be surprised if the Communist Party here (CPUSA) supported Mrs. Clinton in her electoral quest for continuing and increased power. Getting a straight answer out of the CPUSA, however, is in certain ways similar make an inquiry of Big Dick Cheney about, for example, quail hunting. One Party official told me that the CPUSA would not take a position with regard to the Democratic Primary, in which I am challenging the reactionary war hawk Hillary as a write-in candidate. That official refused to comment about the November election, in which I will also be a write-in candidate.

For some reason, the CPUSA maintains on its payroll one Daniel Margolis, a “reporter” for the Party’s house organ known as the People’s Weekly World. Margolis, with whom I have talked on several occasions, withheld from the Party’s leadership, membership and readership the fact of my U.S. Senate candidacy, which I announced on February 27, 2005. He then almost tried to have me arrested when I arrived with an invite at a CPUSA event at the Party’s West 23 ST. NYC headquarters. He has suppressed news about the Communist Chinese atrocities in Tibet - and elsewhere and has resorted to veiled threats against me and at least one former Communist. Considering his ethics, Margolis, who has a reported history as something of a journalistic nomad, might consid- er seeking employment at the New York Post, or maybe the totally ideologicallly “split-the left” Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr/Lenora Fulani-oriented so-called “Indypendent.” If that doesn’t work out, maybe the National Enquirer has some openings.

The CPUSA has among its members and staff some actual progressives. Indeed the Party very quietly helped out in the Democratic Party’s effort to prevent a Bloomberg reelection. The reality as regards the Communists however is that, for many of them, the killers Mao and Stalin are still very much alive. And so it figures that some of the Reds might be sympathetic to a domestic autocrat like Hillary Clinton. We’ll see.

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