ASSEMBLYMEMBER MATTHEW TITONE: A COMPETE FRAUD & DISGRACE TO THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT
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ASSEMBLYMEMBER MATTHEW TITONE: A TOTAL, UNEQUIVOCAL, CORRUPT FRAUD - AND A DISGRACE TO THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
The liberal Democratic Assemblymember John Lavelle, who represented the largely Democratic and ethnically diverse 61st Assembly District (North Shore Staten Island), died in office on January 25, 2007. The manner in which the vacancy was filled is a classic in backdoor Democratic Machine Tammany Hall-style politics, the beneficiaries of which have been the fundmentally corrupt and arrogant Assemblymember Matthew Titone and his de facto political Mother Superior, the Speaker and Empress of the New York City Council and Mayoral wannabe Christine Quinn.
At the time of Assemblymember Lavelle's death, Staten Island remained as the only borough in New York City without an openly gay person holding a relatively high level elected position. That reality was unacceptable to Ms. Quinn, who is hell-bent on become the first lesbian president of the United States and is prepared to purchase the NYC mayoralty Michael Bloomberg-style on the way to occupying the White House - by any means necessary.
Ms. Quinn needed someone to fill that vacancy who had two essential qualifications. 1.) be openly gay, and 2.) follow orders dictatorship (read Christine Quinn)-style.
Matthew Titone, whose father Vito had been a Court of Appeals Judge and who had been defeated in 2006 by Republican Andrew Lanza for the NYS Senate, was perfect. In what may have been a nicotine-free but nonetheless smoke-filled room, Machine Democrats State Senator Diane Savino and NYC Councilmember Michael McMahon in attendance (I don't know if Queen Quinn was there) Matthew Titone was anointed to fill the seat left vacant by John Lavelle.
Because I am in favor of full gay rights and was at the time unaware of Matthew Titone's fundamentally corrupt nature, when he ran in a special election I voted for him. Under the lemon law one can in certain situation return a defective vehicle. When an ethically defective politician is (s)elected, and protected by a corrupt Democratic Party Machine such as prevails in the North Shore of Staten Island rendering the Island (Richmond County) as perhaps the most politically corrupt county in New York State (and perhaps beyond), returning (e.g. by impeachment) the defective entity is not as simple as returning a Corvair. Voter remorse is one of the symptoms of a defective democracy such as exists in the United States.
After Matthew Titone was (s)elected to the Assembly, out-polling a Republican sacrificial
elephant, I contacted him for an appointment for assistance with a number of serious constituent matters. Among those matters was a health-related one involving major negligence and violations of my rights as a patient of the NYU Dental Clinic, which had dismissed me as a patient because of a serious medicaid-related blunder by clinic staffer. When NYU played the age-old corporate game of "blame the victim" I made a complaint to the NYS Department of Health. Not only did NYSDOH substantiate my complaint, the State found a bunch of other NYU-committed violations. NYU is known for its arrogance and expansionism and is about as popular with the 99%'ers who live in Greenwich Village as is Mao Zedong in Occupied Tibet or Osama bin Laden in TriBeCa.
For months Titone and his Chief of Staff, a Democratic Party hack (who had been Chief of Staff to Lavelle) Keith Parascandola simply ignored my calls and e-mails.
For a number of years I've been a member of the largely African-American First Central Baptist Church in Stapleton in the heart of North Shore Staten Island. The Pastor Rev. (now Rev. Dr.) Demetrius S. Carolina, Sr. - well known as a clergyman and as a civil rights leader, agreed to contact Mr. Titone on my behalf to urge that the Assemblymember meet with me. It didn't work. (I don't know if Titone is an atheist but he acts like one.) I (correctly) hypothesized that the insecure Titone might be scared of me because I had enraged the Democratic Party Machine in 2006 by running as a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate against then incumbent Hillary Clinton. Also likely was the reality of Titone manifesting symptoms of paranoia because Democratic Party hack (ex)-NYC Public Advocate and professional paranoid Betsy Gotbaum publicized her bizarre fantasy life by accusing me of "stalking" her, a matter that was properly covered (with my setting the record straight) in NYC Newsday (August 26, 2005), the Daily News and The New York Times (both on August 27, 2005) and willfully and libelously mis-reported by America's worst journalist Tom ("Wrongleski") Wrobleski in New York's most politically corrupt newspaper, the Staten Island Advance. I therefore contacted Sgt. Det. Al Fiore, then with the NYPD's Intelligence Division, whom Ms. Gotbaum once called in an attempt to have me arrested when I was at her Public Advocate offfice for a scheduled appointment with her Chief of Staff, and who, after interviewing me there, had understood that Ms. Gotbaum's concerns for her safety were baseless. Sgt. Fiore at my request sent an e-mail to Titone assuring the nervous Assemblymember that I had been completely cleared security-wise and urging him to meet with me. No response.
Titone's boss in the Assembly is Assembly Speaker Sheldon ("Shelly") Silver. My friend
(Touro College) political science professor Steven Gradman, very well known among Democratic politicians and clubs, in the gay rights community and in the Jewish community, happens to attend synagogue at the Stanton Street Shul on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Also attending services there are Stu Loeser, until recently Mayor Bloomberg's Press Secretary and Stu's wife Jessica. Mr. Silver also shows up for services on occasion. At the time Jessica Loeser was a staffer for Speaker Silver. At my request Mr. Gradman spoke to Ms. Loeser about the Titone problem and she agreed to discuss the matter with me over the phone. Ms. Loeser and I had about a 20 minute telephone discussion, during which I politely indicated that it was necesary for Sheldon Silver to direct Matthew Titone to do his job and meet with me. Although Ms. Loeser was unwilling to put anything into writing she promised to discuss the matter with Speaker Silver.
(Touro College) political science professor Steven Gradman, very well known among Democratic politicians and clubs, in the gay rights community and in the Jewish community, happens to attend synagogue at the Stanton Street Shul on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Also attending services there are Stu Loeser, until recently Mayor Bloomberg's Press Secretary and Stu's wife Jessica. Mr. Silver also shows up for services on occasion. At the time Jessica Loeser was a staffer for Speaker Silver. At my request Mr. Gradman spoke to Ms. Loeser about the Titone problem and she agreed to discuss the matter with me over the phone. Ms. Loeser and I had about a 20 minute telephone discussion, during which I politely indicated that it was necesary for Sheldon Silver to direct Matthew Titone to do his job and meet with me. Although Ms. Loeser was unwilling to put anything into writing she promised to discuss the matter with Speaker Silver.
It was not too many days later that Matthew Titone and I crossed paths at a protest demonstration (organized as I recall by Rev. Carolina) near Staten Island Borough Hall.
Titone sidled over to me and whispered to me that he will meet with me.
The meeting took place at the First Central Baptist Church. Rev. Carolina stopped by but had to leave on another matter. Also present was Sgt. Fiore, who had driven from his office in Brooklyn. The first words out of Titone's mouth were in the form of a political threat. He told me that if I did not cease writing the articles about him widely read by his colleagues in the state legislature and the general public appearing at www.tomsupfrontnews.blogspot.com that, as he put it, were "embarassing" him, he would not help me. I stifled the urge to openly insult him by simply stating that if he had been helping me, I would not have had to write those articles.
It was necessary to schedule a second meeting, which he canceled at the last minute, thereby inconveniencing Sgt. Fiore, who drove to S.I. from Brooklyn for nothing. The next time the phony Titone professes respect for law enforcement, I'll bring that up.
Ultimately Titone wrote a perfunctory letter to the NYU Dental Clinic. Not at all surprisingly, NYU, which has been in full coverup mode on its negligence toward me for years, did not respond.
Titone has since ignored my request for a followup letter, perhaps to a higher NYU authority inasmuch as NYU President John Sexton is aware of the matter.
Several weeks ago Matthew Titone accompanied by his Machine-mate Sen. Savino, and I crossed paths at a meeting of a very gentrified Staten Island "animal rights" group lobbying for legislation to end the abusive horse-drawn carriage industry that attracts the rich and some tourists to Central Park. In a brief private discussion between Titone and me me I reminded Mr. Titone of our unfinished business. He responded verbatim by saying, "You know I love you, Tom" (yes, Mr. Titone is a gay married man and no, I am not gay) and immediately telling me that I should contact his Chief of Staff Chris Bauer for an appointment, no problem.
A few days later I called Bauer, who told me that he would get back to by e-mail within a week with an appointment date. Several days later as I was leaving my home in the morning I got a call from Bauer who told me, "Mr. Titone will not see you." He made a reference to my "record." When I asked him to be specific, he refused. When I asked him to put Mr. Titone's decision not to see me in writing by means of an e-mail, Bauer refused., I hung up.
The most basic responsibility of an elected public official is to represent his or her
constituents. Matthew Titone is one of several elected officials in perhaps the most corruption-riddled district (North Shore Staten Island) in the United States who fails to do even the part-time job for which he is (over)paid. Although I am not aware of any Monica Lewinski or Paula Broadwell-David Peraeus-style liaisons in Matthew Titone's love life, he deserved to beimpeached. But inasmuch as the New York State legislature - with some exceptions - has done little to rebut the rating it has earned from the NYU (of all places) Institute of Justice rating at "The Worst State Legislature in the Country", I'm not anticipating impeachment charges against Matthew Titone.
Under any circumstances, Assemblymember Daniel O'Donnell (D.-Manh.) the Chairman of the Committee on Ethics and Standard; Lisa Reid, the Executive Director of the Legislative Commission of the State of New York; and Ellen Biben, the Executive Director of the NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), know all about the phony Matthew Titone - a gay politician doing his sleazy best to give turn gay rights into a gay wrong.
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Nov 17, 2012
Nov 17, 2012
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posted by Tom Weiss at 1:48 PM
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