REBEL BATTLES CITY COUNCIL MONARCHY: BARRON VS. QUINN
UP FRONT News July 6, 2007
Published by Tom Weiss
Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.” http://www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com/
Daily News reporter Frank Lombardi is correct in his assertion that the confrontation between City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilman Charles Barron over “Sonny Abubadika Carson Avenue” and, consequently Barron staffer Viola Plummer, has a lot to do with campaign politics. Mr. Barron - who is a Democrat, an elected official and a black militant – is running for Brooklyn Borough President. As a matter of fact, at a Juneteenth celebration at City Hall, he made it known that he expects to win in 2009 and to be re-elected in 2013 and then to run for mayor in 2017. Indeed, Mr. Barron was a mayoral candidate for a number of months in 2005. He discontinued the race because the money wasn’t there.
Money should be no problem for Ms. Quinn, who plans to run for Mayor in 2009. Her expected opponents in the Democratic primary include City Councilman Tony Avella (D.-Queens), U.S. Congressman Anthony D. Weiner (D.-Queens/Bklyn.), City Comptrol- ler William Thompson, and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion. My guess is that Michael Bloomberg, now freed from partisan constraints, would endorse Quinn.
Mr. Avella, the only non-hispanic white Councilmember to vote against Quinn in favor of the Sonny Carson street name change amendment, is quoted in the News article as stating that “Barron is planning to black voters, while Quinn is playing to white voters.”
It is interesting that reporter Lombardi spoke in particular to Avella, with whom I am acquainted. I first met Tony Avella some months ago when I came to the Council to testify against Intro 458, Quinn’s Bloomberg-backed bill whereby the Council substantially raised its own salary, and that of a bunch of Bloomberg aides in a town where, according to the mayor’s admission, some City workers need food stamps to feed themselves and families. The most vigorous Council opponent of Quinn’s money grab was Mr. Avella. It is not hard for me to forget Quinn’s icy stare at me. She certainly has her reasons. And I’m sure she will be thrilled to know that very shortly before the City Council Carson vote I spoke to Mr. Avella who was still undecided and urged him to vote in favor of the name change because it was a matter of community self-determination and because there were lots of streets still named after slave owners.
Christine Quinn does not like me because I do not like her political boss, Hillary Clinton. I do not like Hillary Clinton because she is a phony whose record shows that she is a militarist, anti-poor, pro-corporate, and that she refuses to assist constituents (e.g. me) for political reasons. Those political reasons are directly related to her and her husband Bill’s involvement in the coverup of the Chinese Communist Genocide in Tibet - which, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate against Mrs. Clinton and as a journalist I’ve done a lot to expose. China is one of the many places that enrich the cash cow that is the Clinton mar- riage and machine. I have the paperwork to prove it, especially my fax on Tibet from Bill Clinton’s secretary Betty M. Currie. Making things worse is the fact that I have written extensively about Mrs. Clinton’s alliance with right wing media predator Rupert Murdoch, who is very close to the Communist Chinese regime and whose newspapers censor out Tibet coverage.
Back to Quinn. In 2001, after prolonged lobbying by for the most part me with former City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed, Quinn introduced Resolution #802 which quite eloquently denounced Communist China for its actions in Tibet. The resolution, however, did not mention the only aspect of the Tibet Genocide/China situation that might have some political impact, i.e. opposition to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Many people recall that in 1936 the Olympics also took place in a nation that perpetrated Genocide. That Olympics in Berlin, known as the Hitler Olympics, was even more famous because of African-American track star Jesse Owens beating the “Aryans” for several gold medals. Resolution 802 passed and, without language calling for the removal of the 2008 Olym- pics from China, had absolutely no impact.
I have e-mailed, called, faxed and spoken directly to Christine Quinn on multiple oc- casions over the last several years urging a City Council resolution that opposes the Beijing Olympics. Quinn, doing a very good impersonation of Dick Cheney, will not respond.
Christine Quinn is in fact an autocrat in the Hillary Clinton tradition. And in that tradition she spouts populist and pro-tenant rhetoric while working to help the mega-developers and to keep people in line. The main reason she opposed the West Side Stadium plan is because, since almost all her Chelsea constituents were against it, she had no choice. But when it came to giving away millions in tax dollars and destroying two City parks in the South Bronx so that George Steinbrenner could build a luxury box-saturated new Yankee Stadium, she folded like a lapsed alcoholic.
I’ve met Viola Plummer on a number of occasions and I was near her when she made the “assassination of his ass” comment about Councilman Leroy Comrie. There are rumors, which I can’t substantiate, that Mr. Comrie had reneged on a promise to vote in favor of the Carson amendment. In the Democratic Party machine operation that is the election of a City Council Speaker, which Quinn won Carmine DeSapio-style, Comrie was for awhile a candidate but threw in the towel and supported her. The only dissenter, in the Council vote to coronate Quinn as Speaker, as in the Yankee Stadium case, was Charles Barron. I have found Ms. Plummer to be polite and indeed on one occasion helpful to me in a political situation. I do not think she is violent. I also think there may be something of another double standard here when one takes into account the professional wrestling-style steroid-like macho exchanges between for example Governor Eliot Spitzer and State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.
While Tony Avella may be right in suggesting that Charles Barron is playing to black voters, it is very likely that Barron and Avella will need votes from every ethnic group to win since it is likely that the real estate industry and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn will help a more obedient candidate for the Brooklyn Borough Presidency. And if Christine Quinn is counting on the white vote, she should not count on me. At this point I do not know a great deal about Carrion (who voted for the new Stadium) and Thompson. Mr. Weiner is very pro-labor, is not popular with real estate developers or with Walmart’s but, as far as I am aware, is being a good soldier and supporting Hillary Clinton in her attempt at purchasing the Democratic presidential nomination Clinton. Tony Avella is certainly far more qualified to be mayor than is Quinn.
* * * * * * *
Published by Tom Weiss
Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.” http://www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com/
Daily News reporter Frank Lombardi is correct in his assertion that the confrontation between City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilman Charles Barron over “Sonny Abubadika Carson Avenue” and, consequently Barron staffer Viola Plummer, has a lot to do with campaign politics. Mr. Barron - who is a Democrat, an elected official and a black militant – is running for Brooklyn Borough President. As a matter of fact, at a Juneteenth celebration at City Hall, he made it known that he expects to win in 2009 and to be re-elected in 2013 and then to run for mayor in 2017. Indeed, Mr. Barron was a mayoral candidate for a number of months in 2005. He discontinued the race because the money wasn’t there.
Money should be no problem for Ms. Quinn, who plans to run for Mayor in 2009. Her expected opponents in the Democratic primary include City Councilman Tony Avella (D.-Queens), U.S. Congressman Anthony D. Weiner (D.-Queens/Bklyn.), City Comptrol- ler William Thompson, and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion. My guess is that Michael Bloomberg, now freed from partisan constraints, would endorse Quinn.
Mr. Avella, the only non-hispanic white Councilmember to vote against Quinn in favor of the Sonny Carson street name change amendment, is quoted in the News article as stating that “Barron is planning to black voters, while Quinn is playing to white voters.”
It is interesting that reporter Lombardi spoke in particular to Avella, with whom I am acquainted. I first met Tony Avella some months ago when I came to the Council to testify against Intro 458, Quinn’s Bloomberg-backed bill whereby the Council substantially raised its own salary, and that of a bunch of Bloomberg aides in a town where, according to the mayor’s admission, some City workers need food stamps to feed themselves and families. The most vigorous Council opponent of Quinn’s money grab was Mr. Avella. It is not hard for me to forget Quinn’s icy stare at me. She certainly has her reasons. And I’m sure she will be thrilled to know that very shortly before the City Council Carson vote I spoke to Mr. Avella who was still undecided and urged him to vote in favor of the name change because it was a matter of community self-determination and because there were lots of streets still named after slave owners.
Christine Quinn does not like me because I do not like her political boss, Hillary Clinton. I do not like Hillary Clinton because she is a phony whose record shows that she is a militarist, anti-poor, pro-corporate, and that she refuses to assist constituents (e.g. me) for political reasons. Those political reasons are directly related to her and her husband Bill’s involvement in the coverup of the Chinese Communist Genocide in Tibet - which, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate against Mrs. Clinton and as a journalist I’ve done a lot to expose. China is one of the many places that enrich the cash cow that is the Clinton mar- riage and machine. I have the paperwork to prove it, especially my fax on Tibet from Bill Clinton’s secretary Betty M. Currie. Making things worse is the fact that I have written extensively about Mrs. Clinton’s alliance with right wing media predator Rupert Murdoch, who is very close to the Communist Chinese regime and whose newspapers censor out Tibet coverage.
Back to Quinn. In 2001, after prolonged lobbying by for the most part me with former City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed, Quinn introduced Resolution #802 which quite eloquently denounced Communist China for its actions in Tibet. The resolution, however, did not mention the only aspect of the Tibet Genocide/China situation that might have some political impact, i.e. opposition to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Many people recall that in 1936 the Olympics also took place in a nation that perpetrated Genocide. That Olympics in Berlin, known as the Hitler Olympics, was even more famous because of African-American track star Jesse Owens beating the “Aryans” for several gold medals. Resolution 802 passed and, without language calling for the removal of the 2008 Olym- pics from China, had absolutely no impact.
I have e-mailed, called, faxed and spoken directly to Christine Quinn on multiple oc- casions over the last several years urging a City Council resolution that opposes the Beijing Olympics. Quinn, doing a very good impersonation of Dick Cheney, will not respond.
Christine Quinn is in fact an autocrat in the Hillary Clinton tradition. And in that tradition she spouts populist and pro-tenant rhetoric while working to help the mega-developers and to keep people in line. The main reason she opposed the West Side Stadium plan is because, since almost all her Chelsea constituents were against it, she had no choice. But when it came to giving away millions in tax dollars and destroying two City parks in the South Bronx so that George Steinbrenner could build a luxury box-saturated new Yankee Stadium, she folded like a lapsed alcoholic.
I’ve met Viola Plummer on a number of occasions and I was near her when she made the “assassination of his ass” comment about Councilman Leroy Comrie. There are rumors, which I can’t substantiate, that Mr. Comrie had reneged on a promise to vote in favor of the Carson amendment. In the Democratic Party machine operation that is the election of a City Council Speaker, which Quinn won Carmine DeSapio-style, Comrie was for awhile a candidate but threw in the towel and supported her. The only dissenter, in the Council vote to coronate Quinn as Speaker, as in the Yankee Stadium case, was Charles Barron. I have found Ms. Plummer to be polite and indeed on one occasion helpful to me in a political situation. I do not think she is violent. I also think there may be something of another double standard here when one takes into account the professional wrestling-style steroid-like macho exchanges between for example Governor Eliot Spitzer and State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno.
While Tony Avella may be right in suggesting that Charles Barron is playing to black voters, it is very likely that Barron and Avella will need votes from every ethnic group to win since it is likely that the real estate industry and mayoral candidate Christine Quinn will help a more obedient candidate for the Brooklyn Borough Presidency. And if Christine Quinn is counting on the white vote, she should not count on me. At this point I do not know a great deal about Carrion (who voted for the new Stadium) and Thompson. Mr. Weiner is very pro-labor, is not popular with real estate developers or with Walmart’s but, as far as I am aware, is being a good soldier and supporting Hillary Clinton in her attempt at purchasing the Democratic presidential nomination Clinton. Tony Avella is certainly far more qualified to be mayor than is Quinn.
* * * * * * *
posted by Tom Weiss at 1:38 PM
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