Friday, October 07, 2016

RICHARD REICHARD FOR CONGRESS? UNQUALIFIED!

UP FRONT News   October 7, 2016
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Published by Tom Weiss
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RICHARD REICHARD FOR CONGRESS? UNQUALIFIED!

  Although it is the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump who is known for disrespecting reporters whose questions and views he doesn't like, Richard Reichard the Democratic candidate for Congress in New York's 11th congressional district (Staten Island and the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst and Gravesend in Brooklyn) obviously has some Trump in him - at least when encountering this reporter. Several weeks ago I called Mr. Reichard's campaign office and spoke with his campaign manager Roy Moskowitz, with whom I've been politically and journalistically acquainted for several years and who either talks politics with me in whispers or avoids me entirely. It was some years ago that, during a conversation Mr. Moskowitz and I had about prominent Staten Island Democratic Association member David Jones, who was NYC Councilmember Debi Rose's 2009 corruption-tainted campaign manager and for years a big shot at Peace Action of Staten Island (PASI, of which his wife Sally was President) that he acknowledged that Jones is an "Israel basher". Given Jones's record in PASI of consistently demonizing Israel and sometimes depicting Iran as a beacon of peace, Moskowitz's reference to Jones as an "Israel basher" was approximately 100% correct. Moskowitz, however, was - and is - unwilling to say anything about Jones's history of making threats against me and his attempted assault on me some years ago at a candidates forum when I was running for the U.S. Senate as a Federal Elections Commission-registered candidate for the U.S. Senate against then incumbent Hillary Clinton. Being critical of Israel about some of its policies and actions against Palestinians (as I am) is not the same thing as anti-Semitism. As far as I am concerned David Jones blurs that distinction.
  During my phone conversation with Mr. Moskowitz in response to my request for information regarding Mr. Reichard's position on some issues (e.g. self-determination for Communist China-occupied Tibet), he asked me to send an email. I did and got no response.
  Mr. Reichard was one of two congressional candidates (Green Party candidate Henry Bardel was the other) showing up at the October 5 candidates forum at the Fort Hamilton Senior Center (of which I am a member) in Brooklyn. The meeting was chaired by Staten Island Democrat Peter Killen of the Bay Ridge Council on Aging. (At last year's forum, when I was a candidate for Congress, it was with considerable reluctance that Mr. Killen allowed me to participate; he was much more small "d" democratic this time.) When, during the Q&A, Mr. Killen called on me to question the candidates I had two questions. In my first question I cited some of the facts about the brutal genocidal Chinese Communist occupation of Tibet and asked whether the candidates would support a congressional resolution (such as I've proposed) calling upon the U.S. to formally acknowledge the nationhood of Tibet and to call for the withdrawal of all foreign (i.e. Chinese) military and police personnel from Tibet. Mr. Reichard, not acknowledging the human rights issue, said "I'd have to read the resolution first." I then asked if he would introduce such a resolution (which he would obviously read) and I got no answer.  I then asked him his views on the responsibility of candidates to respond to reporters' emails and elected officials to assist constituents on government related problems. His answer: "I won't answer your emails."
  That is what Strom Thurmond might have said to an African-American reporter or constituent.
  Richard Reichard is the candidate of a thoroughly corrupt Staten Island Democratic Party Machine that includes NYS Senator Diane Savino (D.-S.I./Bklyn.) and her Chief of Staff, Robert Cataldo, a known criminal and perpetrator of a major violation of my civil rights when he attacked me at my scheduled appointment with him in Ms. Savino's S.I. district office on an urgent constituent matter. At the time, as already noted here I was an announced Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate against Savino's pal Hillary Clinton. That attack (NYPD complaint # 2006-120-8244) occurred without witnesses, inasmuch as Mr. Cataldo, anticipating my scheduled arrival, had emptied Ms. Savino's office of all other staff. And so, when Democratic Party official Mendy Mirocznik last April told me that Cataldo had committed a similar crime against another victim and that "Robert Cataldo is a member of the Sicilian mob" I was not surprised.
  Since then the criminal and identified mobster Robert Cataldo has been enjoying the protection of Ms. Savino and the Staten Island Democratic Party machine, which includes Roy Moskowitz, Richard Reichard, NYS Assemblymember Matthew Titone, NYC Councilmember Debi Rose, David Jones and even some religious leaders such as Savino pals Rev. Tony Baker and Deacon John McBeth of St. Philips ("No Apostrophe") Baptist Church in S.I., among many others as well as the Staten Island Advance, a paper with a long record of protecting the politically entrenched regardless of Party.
 U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the FBI at their respective requests, have received detailed emails from me on this matter.
  No wonder that Reichard won't answer my questions.
  Regarding Tibet, Green Party candidate Henry Bardel said nothing about the human rights disaster in Tibet or about self-determination for the people of that occupied country and said only that the U.S. should not use military force against China.
  I am in contact with Republican Congressman Dan Donovan (who was not at the forum) on the Tibet issue and other matters.
  I am not a betting man. If I were I would not bet on Richard Reichard.