Hospital Corruption in New York State ?

Bribes Versus Political Campaign Donations : Who Decides When Money Corrupts The Healthcare System Of New York State ?

Healthcare activists, who are fighting for a restoration of a new Level 1 Trauma Center and full-servi e hospital to replace St. Vincent's, are discovering that the larger healthcare system across New York State is broken. Here's how.

Activists are beginning to demand a single-payer healthcare system in New York to put an end to the constant healthcare cuts, layoffs, hospital closings, and corruption that is endemic in the state’s broken healthcare system. Just this year alone, witness the bribery cases against MediSys chief executive David P. Rosen and New York State Senator Carl Kruger, each of whom were involved in hospital-related corruption. Two other state assemblymen, William F. Boyland, Jr., of Brooklyn and Anthony S. Seminerio of Queens, are also implicated, according to The New York Times.

The Rudin family head a lobbying group that calls itself the Association for a Better New York. They use it as political cover to portray their billion-dollar real estate deals as “civic-minded” projects. There’s nothing “civic” about closing a hospital in order to convert it to luxury condos. Bill Rudin is just another modern-day “Robber Baron.”

In respect of the shady closing of St. Vincent's Hospital, our politicians have failed to restore a full-service hospital. Instead, politicians want to replace St. Vincent’s with an urgent care center. This is a Band-Aid approach to healthcare, and it is unacceptable !

In spite of the corruption that exists in the state funding of hospitals, operatives for Billionaire Bill Rudin claim that Mr. Rudin owes the public nothing in terms of private support, to make up for lack of public funding to support a replacement hospital for St. Vincent's. There are resources available : Go to Wikipedia, and look up the Hill-Burton Act, which provides federal grants and guaranteed loans to improve the nation’s hospital system. Money was designated to states to achieve 4.5 beds per 1,000 people.

Did Christine Quinn Give Up On Saving St. Vincent's In Exchange for Campaign Donations From The Rudin Family ?

In an apparent conflict of interest, Beth R. DeWoody, Madeleine R. Johnson, Eric C. Rudin, Jack Rudin, Katherine Rudin, and William C. Rudin each donated $4,950 to Christine Quinn's presumed 2013 mayoral campaign. During this time, the Rudin family has been trying to salvage a multi-million dollar real estate purchase of the buildings that belong to the bankruptcy estate of St. Vincent's Hospital. Since the Rudin family wants to build luxury high-rise condos on the site of St. Vincent's, do these large campaign donations explain why Speaker Quinn has done nothing to restore a hospital to the former St. Vincent's site ?

At what point do bribes mix-and-match with political campaign contributions ?

Quid Pro Quo : After City Council Speaker Christine Quinn renames the Queensboro Bridge after former Mayor Ed Koch, the former mayor all of a sudden turns up as the temp-to-hire chairman of an astroturf-front group being paid for by the Rudin family, not unlike evil Wisconsin front groups that are union-busters.

In a brilliant YouTube video, the artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy compares former mayor Ed Koch to Snooki, seeing as how each celebrity can be hired to show up at night club parties -- or at luxury condo conversions of St. Vincent's Hospital -- if the price is right.

If you haven't yet checked it out, look at how the Rudin family has already managed to rent Christine Quinn.

St. Vincent's Christmas Carols

It's a Wonderful Life : Christmas Caroling for St. Vincent's Hospital

On Christmas Eve night, joins us as we welcome local residents, who are walking from house to house, singing Christmas Carols.

Activists will be standing outside the closed Bailey Savings and Loan -- I mean, the closed St. Vincent's Hospital -- where we will be singing Christmas Carols and handing out band-aids, because band-aids will be all the healthcare you'll get from the new first aid clinic that will replace St. Vincent's.

You see, old man Potter -- I mean, old man Rudin -- has bought the old St. Vincent's for pennies on the dollar, and he now awaits the New York City Council to give final approval for the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's. Some activists will spend the entire evening outside to demonstrate first hand how emergency care patients have been "left out in the cold" by the Rudin luxury condo conversion.

2011 St. Vincent's Protest Flyer (Dec 20 and Christmas Eve Caroling) Left Out in the Cold - Pottersville

Quinn Gum Chewing Viral Video

Christine Quinn, All The While Chewing Gum, Tells New Yorkers To Drop Dead : ''We Don't Need St. Vincent's Hospital.''

The artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy deserves an Academy Award for her portrayal of Christine Quinn in this YouTube video.

Bill Rudin Confronted Viral YouTube

St. Vincent's Hospital activist bird-dogs billionaire Bill Rudin over controversial luxury condo conversion plan.

Artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy confronts Bill Rudin on West 12th Street. Community anger towards Mr. Rudin has inspired many protests, including a sustained protest and vigil outside the sales office of the new luxury condos. Mr. Rudin has ruthlessly ignored the community’s need for a full-service hospital. Mr. Rudin paid pennies on the dollar to buy St. Vincent’s real estate, and Mr. Rudin now stands to sell luxury condos and townhouses that, once constructed, are expected to have a combined fair-market value of over $1 billion.

Voters Want A Mayor Who Supports A Living Wage

A majority of New York Democrats would vote against a mayoral candidate who opposed paid sick leave and a living wage, according to a new survey to be released today.

From City Hall News : A new survey says a majority of New York Democrats would vote against a mayoral candidate who opposed paid sick leave and a living wage – which could present a problem for Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who scuttled a paid sick leave bill and has avoided taking a public position on a living wage bill.

Rudin and Quinn Are Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Bill Rudin Gang Laugh at Us ; Meanwhile, We Still Need A Hospital

Activists and community members showed up for the first day in an on-going protest and vigil outside the Rudin Management Company's luxury condominium sales office at 120 West 12th Street, at one of the Manhattan buildings that used to comprise the campus of St. Vincent's Hospital.

In a separate action, started by LGBT civil rights activist Alan Bounville, the community is being asked to take part in a phone zap against Rudin Management Company. Mr. Bounville is asking that everybody contact John Gilbert, the COO of Rudin Management Group by calling 1-212-407-2400 and by e-mailing : jgilbert@rudin.com

"Please join the masses and flood Rudin Management Company's phone and email this week so they are aware of the growing wave of public disgust with them stealing a hospital from the community!" urged Mr. Bounville.

Record your phone calls, upload the sound files, and copy and paste your e-mails and links to the Rudin Phone Zap Facebook event page.

The economics of the Rudin luxury condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's is proving to be a very lucrative real estate development plan. Rudin paid $260 million for the St. Vincent's campus, and it obtained $525 million in construction financing for the project. If you combine these two figures, then the total cost going into the luxury condo conversion is about $785 million. If Rudin sells the luxury condos and townhouses for a combined value of over $1 billion, then it would be very easy for Rudin to net well over $200 million in profit from the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

The lure of profit well in excess of $200 million during this Great Recession may be one reason that Rudin has spent easily over $200,000 on hiring the real estate lobbyist Melanie Meyers and made a bundle of approximately $30,000 in donations to the 2013 mayor campaign of Christine Quinn.

The lure of profit well in excess of $200 million during this Great Recession has also triggered a possible fraud probe. Two months ago, The New York Post reported that the Manhattan District Attorney was investigating whether hospital executives intentionally let St. Vincent’s fail, so that the Rudin could buy the hospital’s real estate on the cheap.  

No wonder that William Rudin and City Council Speaker are laughing all the way to the bank, while community members are stuck in crosstown traffic or suffering through long Emergency Room wait times in order to get emergency medical attention.

Distribution of Hospital Beds in Manhattan

After St. Vincent's Hospital closed, a Gross Imbalance in the Distribution of Hospital Beds in Manhattan.

How can this be responsible public healthcare policy ? Don't let the congested Lower West Side of Manhattan to be turned into a testing ground for North Shore-LIJ's free-standing first aid clinic experiment. We will pay for this risky experiment with our own lives.

After St. Vincent's Hospital closed, a Gross Imbalance in the Distribution of Hospital Beds in Manhattan

Third Term Protest Chinese Article

似乎受占領華爾街抗議運動啟發，抗議市府官員任期制更改的示威者們也喊出「占領市府」的口號。（記者孟芳/攝影)

WorldJournal.com writes news article about The Day Democracy Died Third Anniversary Protest of the Term Limits Extension in New York City Hall Park.

More articles like these might help John Liu :

抗議者們高喊，「越來越多的人失業，越來越多的人無家可歸，我們要將彭博和柯魁英選下台」，抗議者們似乎得到占領華爾街抗議運動的啟發，不斷高呼要占領市府。活動發起人之一佛羅瑞斯(Louis Flores)表示，抗議由民間發起，希望選民能重視手中的選票，2013年等彭博任期滿時能選出真正代表民意、為民發聲的民選官員。

Weren't Bloomberg and Quinn Supposed to Help Us With the Economy ?

Didn't Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn say that they would help us with the economy if they extended term limits ?

Gregory Floyd Pass Fake ?

Heard on the Street: Is Gregory Floyd running for mayor in 2013 in order to split the African-American vote ?

According to a Federal lawsuit filed in Brooklyn, Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd threw the union's support behind Mayor Michael Bloomberg back in 2009 in exchange for preferential treatment. Now that Mayor Bloomberg is pulling the strings for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's mayoral campaign, Mr. Floyd is being positioned to run for mayor in 2013. Is it because Mayor Bloomberg wants to prop up Mr. Floyd, so that Mr. Floyd can split the African-American vote and diminish Bill Thompson ?

#OccupyWallStreet Marches to St. Vincent's Hospital

The activist group called Hands Off St. Vincent's endorses the #OccupyWallStreet march to St. Vincent's Hospital.

Term Limits Protest

Protest to mark the Third Anniversary of the Term Limits Extension

2011-10-23 Term Limits Protest - Third Anniversary

Bloomberg and Quinn sold the lie that they would save the economy. Have they helped you with the economy ?

Taxpayers and voters are gathering at City Hall Park on Sunday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m., to commemorate the three-year anniversary of “The Day That Democracy Died” : when Speaker Christine Quinn strong-armed the City Council to extend term limits, allowing herself, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and others to run for a third term in office.

“Since they changed term limits, more people are living in poverty in New York City. Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg’s wealth has grown over three-fold while has been in office,” said Louis Flores. “With Christine Quinn’s help, Mayor Bloomberg has been laying off police, firefighters, and teachers ; closing senior citizen centers ; cutting childcare ; and closing hospitals – just basically shredding the social safety net. Also, how is Mayor Bloomberg allowed to make money from inside information through his new company called Bloomberg Government ?”

Protesters will hold a rally, make speeches, and distribute voter registration applications, so that Speaker Christine Quinn and other City Council Members, who passed the term limits extension, can be voted out of office in 2013.

Activists Confront CB2

A Mass Civilian Trauma Exercise was held outside St. Vincent’s Hospital ; activists then interrupt Manhattan Community Board 2 meeting.

As part of the "mass civilian trauma exercise," many participants wore surgical masks and paper signs around their neck. The signs indicated what accidents, diseases, or emergencies they "have." Then, the "sick" participants "waited" for emergency medical treatment on the sidewalks outside St. Vincent's. No emergency help ever came, precisely because there is no longer a hospital in the Lower West Side. Some participants did not "make it."

After the "mass civilian trauma exercise" came to an end, team of "survivors" marched to Grace Church, 86 Fourth Avenue, Tuttle Hall, to ask for help from Jason Mansfield, the chair of CB2's Environmental, Public Safety & Public Health Committee. Mr. Mansfield turned his back on the community's need for a full-service hospital.

MoveOn.org Challenges Christine Quinn Over Paid Sick Leave

Below is an excerpt of an e-mail I received yesterday from MoveOn.org :

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Below is an email from Cari Jackson, a MoveOn member in New York who created a petition at SignOn.org that is getting a lot of attention and may be of interest to people in your area.

---

Dear New York City MoveOn member,

An estimated 1.3 million workers in New York City lack a single day of paid sick leave. When they or their children get sick, they have two choices: Risk losing their job, or go to work sick and spread whatever they have to everyone else.

The Paid Sick Time Act, which would guarantee all New Yorkers 5 to 9 paid sick days and would allow all workers to use their days when a child is ill, has the support of 80% of New Yorkers and a majority of the city council.

But New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has single-handedly blocked this bill from even coming up for a vote. That's why I created a petition to Speaker Quinn on SignOn.org, which says:

Stop blocking the Paid Sick Time Act. New Yorkers need time off when they or or their children are sick.

Will you sign the Paid Sick Leave petition? Click here to add your name, and then pass it along to your friends:

Thanks!

–Cari Jackson

The text above was written by Cari Jackson, not by MoveOn staff, and MoveOn is not responsible for the content. 

St. Vincent's #OccupyCB2 YouTube Documentary

2011-10-17 Stop the Rezoning of St. Vincent's Hospital Flyer #OccupyCB2

Quinn Walters Bronx Connection ?

Is Christine Quinn connected to Wendell Walters's Department of Housing Preservation and Development Bribery-Kickbacks-Racketeering Scandal ?

Last Thursday, Wendell Walters, an assistant commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, was arrested and charged with accepting approximately $600,000 in known bribes. His arrest was part of a sting operation that also resulted in the arrest of six real estate developers.

Mr. Walters was charged with demanding bribes and kickbacks from developers, who had been awarded contracts, by Department of Housing Preservation and Development, to building about $22 million in moderately priced housing in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

The racketeering conspiracy, extortion, bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering charges against Mr. Walters once again raises questions about the integrity of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ill-fated and karhmically-doomed third term. The Bloomberg administration had launched a hugely expensive $8.5 billion affordable housing program, and nobody knows how much of that massive budget is being wasted on bribes and other forms of corruption. Authorities in Mr. Wendell's bribery case told The New York Times that the developers and contractors, who were paying Mr. Wendell bribes and kickbacks, inflated their invoices to New York City in order to cover the costs of their racketeering operation.

Already, the blogger and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy has called into question the shady dealings of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in the Bronx, one of the areas where Mr. Wendell operated his bribery scheme. After the New York Community Bank foreclosed on eight Bronx rent-regulated apartment buildings in the Bronx, tenants sued the bank for money to repair the slummy apartments, and naturally the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn were trying to get into the action because of the real estate development contracts that would be ordered to make costly repairs.

According to The New York Times, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development is the largest municipal developer of affordable housing in the United States. Separately, The New York Daily News reported that, ''One of Walters' codefendants is Sergio Benitez, a developer who is currently at the heart of an ongoing corruption probe involving City Councilman Erik Dilan.''

Christine Quinn Expected to ''Kill'' the Living Wage Bill

Christine Quinn Is Expected to Kill the Hopes of the Middle Class to Earn a Living Wage in New York City.

The proposed living wage bill is supported by 30 out of the 51 members of the New York City Council, but it is opposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reported The New York Times.

And because City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is a puppet of Mayor Bloomberg, everybody is expecting that Speaker Quinn will go through backroom machinations to kill the proposed living wage bill, similar to how Speaker Quinn killed the paid sick leave bill last year.

''Supporters say that recently released poverty statistics, which showed one in five New Yorkers living below the poverty line, provide evidence that the bill is needed. The city 'has not done enough to advance policies that will strengthen working families,' Councilwoman Letitia James of Brooklyn'' told The NYTimes.

The NYTimes added :

''Ms. Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor in 2013, can kill a bill by not bringing it to a vote. Last year, she shelved a bill that would have required employers to provide paid sick days to their workers; it had the support of a veto-proof majority in the Council but was opposed by business interests.''

NYPD Makes Mass Arrests -- Again

Live Mass Arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge #occupywallstreet - Streaming Video by We are Change

In a flashback to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, >police rounded up and arrested over 700 activists on the Brooklyn Bridge during a political demonstration.

Police said that those activists, who impeded vehicular traffic on the bridge were were arrested. But The New York Times reported that "many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered." Look at this independent video :

Some of the activists, who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, had their hands bound with plastic ties that the NYPD has used at other mass demonstration. Separately, the NYPD admitted that they police force had taken their own videos of the protesters, who had taken part in the demonstration, deliberately and intentionally tracking and monitoring the peaceful activists.

Attorney Wylie Stecklow, whose law firm represents many of the activists, who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge, said that the pattern of the NYPD's behaviour toward the Occupy Wall Street protesters was reminiscent of the mass arrests that police made during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Vote Christine Quinn Out of Office

The Day Democracy Died : On Oct. 23, 2008, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn strong-armed an extension of term limits through the City Council. Join us for a protest to mark the third anniversary of this egregious act -- help us to register new voters.2011-10-23 Third Anniversary Term Limits Extension Protest - City Hall Park

Peninsula Hospital Files For Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy filing for Peninsula

From Crain's :

Peninsula Hospital and its affiliate, Peninsula General Nursing Home Corp. — which does business as Peninsula Center for Extended Care & Rehabilitation — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday. They listed total assets of $34.6 million and liabilities of $70.8 million, as of May 31.

Peninsula recently struck a deal to be managed by an affiliate of Revival Home Health Care, which provided an $8 million line of credit. The bankruptcy was a condition of the transaction. The filing indicates that during the bankruptcy, the hospital and nursing home will not change their current nonprofit status.

Todd Miller, Peninsula's chief restructuring officer as of Sept. 1, said in his affidavit that Peninsula would break even or become profitable “through a change in culture, marketing strategies and by feeding off synergies with Revival's related businesses.” He added that “with a new management team and fresh capital,” Peninsula can boost revenue by attracting patients who now only use the hospital for emergency care.

Mr. Miller said new management would try to tempt residents with new offerings of cardiac services, more surgery capabilities and improved oncology services. He said Revival management believes “neither the hospital nor the nursing home were aggressively managed in recent years and that implementation of new procedures will result in significant savings as well as increased revenues.”

To boost revenue, the hospital is recruiting a new case manager who will tackle the institution's higher-than-average length of stay. Mr. Miller also said the hospital was building new relationships with home care agencies and nursing homes to more quickly obtain placement for its patients.

The Revival team also is targeting purchasing and maintenance procedures, which it labeled “inefficient.” Added Mr. Miller: “Properly managing these procedures and vendor relationships will generate significant savings.”

Peninsula signed an engagement letter with Alvarez & Marsal on Aug. 29 for the firm to provide the hospital with consulting, restructuring and financial advisory services at an initial cost of $160,000.

Peninsula's payroll obligations, excluding benefits, for the 30 days following the filing are $3.6 million, with $2.77 million in payroll for the hospital and the rest for the nursing home. The hospital employs 134 doctors, four administrators and 551 other workers. The nursing home employs two doctors, two administrators, 36 registered nurses and 207 other workers.

Ed Koch LGBT Traitor

David Mixner : "Ed Koch is a traitor to the LGBT Community." Like, duh, we already know that. What about you, Mr. Mixner ?

David Mixner, an LGBT equality activist who sometimes sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for staying on Christine Quinn's good side, took issue with ex-NYC Mayor Ed Koch for helping to elect Republican Bob Turner :

In the special election to fill former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner's seat, a strong anti-marriage Republican Bob Turner is leading. In good part he has gained credibility by the endorsement of former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch who wants to send a message to Israel. Really? Let's elect an anti-LGBT Republican on the back of our community for Israel? Wouldn't it be easier for Mayor Koch just to call the President instead of sacrificing our rights for another issue?

This is not the first time that Mayor Koch has betrayed the LGBT community. During his mayoral administrations, Mayor Koch refused to pull out all the stops to help AIDS patients during the 1980's. Many activists see the source of the betrayal in the fact that Mayor Koch is a gay man, himself.

On Facebook, several activists were outraged by the former mayor's latest example of treachery, but these activists were not surprised.

"Former Mayor Ed Koch, a closeted gay man and a paid consultant of Mayor Bloomberg, endorsed Tea Party candidate Bob Turner, George W. Bush and Christine Quinn," said Donny Moss. "Strange that Koch is a registered Democrat who supports very conservative candidates."

Meanwhile, for Mr. Mixner to attack Mayor Koch for endorsing Mr. Turner is kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, for Mr. Mixner has yet to take any steps to hold neither Mayor Michael Bloomberg nor City Council Speaker Christine Quinn accountable for failing to investigate the NYPD for its pattern of sexual orientation profiling against gay men.

Campaign Slush Fund Reminder

The New York Times Editorial to Christine Quinn : Shut Down Your Slush Fund !

Last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was hand-picking Christine Quinn to be his heir to the mayoralty of New York City, because Quinn's use of a taxpayer slush fund for political corruption reminded him so much of Bloomberg's three-tiered campaign finance scheme.

Quinn, who is the Speaker of the City Council, is the openly-lesbian politician, around whom many LGBT New Yorkers are rallying around, even though Quinn has had one of her friends diagnose LGBT civil rights activists with ''confusion,'' and this on top of the fact that Quinn has done nothing to investigate the illegal NYPD raid on the Eagle Bar, just some of the many examples of how Quinn has thrown valid LGBT issues under the bus.

Is Christine Quinn going to hold the NYPD accountable for raiding the Eagle on the very night when marriage equality became law ? What kind of an LGBT leader is she, if she does not fight for our LGBT civil rights ? Join our Facebook page : Gays Against Christine Quinn.

Horse Carriages Work During Hurricane Irene In New York City Under Inhumane Weather Conditions

A horse-drawn carriage makes an illegal U-turn in the middle of a busy Midtown Manhattan street, on wet and slippery pavement no less, on a day when 370,000 people were ordered to evacuation flood zones in New York City.

Carriage Horses Working Despite New York City Shut Down #Hurricane #Irene

New York (27 August 2011) -- An hour ago, the government integrity watchdog and animal rights activist Donny Moss released the following statement by social media :

In spite of the evacuations, transportation shut down, the Mayor's plea to stay off the streets, and a law which states that carriages cannot work during "slippery conditions," carriage drivers worked all day. How does the ASPCA, which collects money in the name of helping the horses, allow this ? This industry is enabled and empowered by Christine Quinn, who has killed all bills to take these horses out of harm's way.

Animal rights activists have long complained that Ms. Quinn, the City Council Speaker, has no integrity at her core, and all of her talk about animal rights (much like all of her policies) are accompanied by touches of a legislative sleight-of-hand.

In a related e-mail newsletter to other animal rights activists, Mr. Moss remarked :

Dear animal advocate:

Several hours ago, portions of New York City were evacuated for the first time in history, and the largest public transportation system in the country was shut down due to Hurricane Irene. With conditions deteriorating, Mayor Michael Bloomberg implored New Yorkers to stay home for our own safety and so that emergency vehicles can easily navigate the streets. Downpours occurred throughout the day.

In spite of all of the above, and the law which clearly states that carriage operators cannot work during "ice, heavy rain or other slippery conditions," dozens of horse-drawn carriage operators were working as of 4:30 p.m. If history repeats itself, the horses will be forced to make the long, treacherous trip through the streets of midtown back to the "stables" when the storm intensifies.

As usual, the ASPCA, which collects an untold amount of money from donors in the name of helping the carriage horses, allowed the carriage drivers to leave the stables this morning and to work all day in the wet streets in spite of the law.

The ASPCA, which was founded to protect the carriage horses, continues to stand by and watch as the carriage operators to break the law. They mock -- instead of support -- the advocates who are working tirelessly to take the horses out of harm's way. And they continue to refuse to use their substantial clout, power and resources to shut this industry down, in spite of their own stance that horse-drawn carriages should be banned from NYC.

The horse-drawn carriage industry is also enabled -- if not empowered -- by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has blocked all efforts to take these horses out of Midtown, killing bills in committee before they see the light of day. In fact, Quinn has killed every meaningful animal protection bill introduced at City Hall since she became Speaker in 2006.

Following are pictures of horses working in the rain at about 3:00 p.m. today. Please share this information with your friends who donate money to animal organizations and/or who vote in NYC.

Thank you.
Donny Moss

Many restaurants were closed across New York City due to the dangerous weather conditions, but carriage horses were still being forced to work under inhumane street conditions.

Officials of the MTA New York City Subway ordered the nation's largest mass transit system to be closed at noon today, due to the dangerous wind and rain conditions in connection with Hurricane Irene, but Donny Moss reported that horses were still pulling carriages at 4:30 p.m. under dangerous street conditions.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed an evacuation order that demanded that approximately 370,000 people leave dangerous flood zones due to Hurricane Irene ; under these conditions, horse-drawn carriages were still working.

While businesses were closed and employees making preparations for Hurricane Irene, horses were lined up to pull unsuspecting tourists through dangerous Midtown traffic.

Riders were carrying umbrellas to protect them from the rain and wind, but horses were left to work completely exposed to the elements. Where is the humanity in this ?

A carriage driver holds up an umbrella to protect himself from the rain and wind, but the tired horse trudges through the elements as the city prepares for Hurricane Irene.

In a burst of rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Irene, a carriage driver uses an umbrella for himself, but he offers no protection from the elements to his horse.

A carriage driver wears a raincoat in a rainstorm from one of the outer bands of Hurricane Irene, as unsuspecting tourists are being driven through dangerous weather conditions. Meanwhile, the horse is being forced to work under inhumane conditions where everybody else is protected from the weather, but for the horse.

Still yet other carriage horse drivers are protected from the rain and wind by giant umbrellas, but there is no protection offered to the horses from the stormy weather arriving in New York from the outer bands of Hurricane Irene.

NYPD Raid Eagle ; Will There Be Accountability ?

Is Christine Quinn going to hold the NYPD accountable for raiding the Eagle on the very night when marriage equality became law ? What kind of an LGBT leader is she, if she does not fight for our LGBT civil rights ? Join our Facebook page : Gays Against Christine Quinn.

Hurricane Irene Evacuation Plan

Due to Hurricane Irene, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered the evacuation of all patients from senior centers and hospitals in low-lying areas in the Evacuation Zone. Too bad Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn have been closing senior centers and closing hospitals all across the city, leading to a mass shortage of senior centers and hospitals during natural disasters or other mass public health emergencies.

Quinn Slush Funds Exposed (Again)

Christine Quinn Uses City Council Funds (aka Taxpayer Money) to Reward Political Bosses

After City Council Speaker Christine Quinn got fluffed by NYTimes reporter David W. Chen, now comes Michael Powell, a columnist for the Gray Lady, who pulls back the curtain on Speaker Quinn's slush fund-tinged campaign for mayor.

Mr. Powell reports that Ms. Quinn was appointed Speaker of the City Council after she "charmed" political bosses from Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. At her coronation ceremony, she put Vito Lopez, the notorious Brooklyn political boss (who is the target of several ethical and corruption investigations) in the front row. Speaker Quinn has also scratched Mr. Vito's back in exchange for his political support. "The fates have smiled on Mr. Lopez’s social-service empire, the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council ; this year the Council sent more than $4 million its way," reported the NYTimes.

In a statement posted Facebook, a government integrity watchdog activist questioned why the latest NYTimes article stops short of probing the status of the federal investigation into Speaker Quinn's slush fund scandal.

"Instead of reporting on Quinn's criminal activity, the NY Times merely raises questions about her ethics and leadership: "But there are questions to be asked about her leadership, and not all cheery." Is it a fear of Bloomberg that prevents the Times from reporting on the well-documented budget and campaign corruption ?" Donny Moss posted on the social network.

This is how the NYTimes article ends :

Last year, a Council majority favored mandatory sick days for New Yorkers with less than a week of vacation. The mayor opposed it. Ms. Quinn killed it.

Some suggest that she has gotten lost in the game, that she can no longer recall the questions she once asked as an advocate. That sounds too definitive. Her arc is not done.

She affects nonchalance when described as a mayoral puppet: “You can call me Mini-Me. I don’t really care.”

The rub is that voters might care a lot.

St. Vincent's Rudin Probe

Manhattan District Attorney is investigating St. Vincent's ''go-for-broke plan'' that has supposedly enriched the Rudin Managedment Company, which has been waiting in the wings for the hospital to flatline.

St. Vincent's Hospital is under investigation by the Manhattan DA's office for allegations that the Rudin Management Company has been planning a real estate harvesting/luxury condo conversion plan of the shuttered hospital.

St. Vincent's closed on April 30, 2010, after it laid off many of its employees. Many employees later learned that the hospital was not paying into the state's unemployment fund, so those who were laid off were not eligible for unemployment benefits.

Ever since it closed, the impacted community of the Lower West Side of Manhattan has been calling for investigations into what lead to the hospital's sudden closure. The hospital failed to file a closure plan, as it was required to do, with the New York State Department of Health.

From an article in The New York Post :

Going broke allowed the hospital to get an OK from the state Health Department to sell to the Rudin family, which is building luxury housing on the site. Without bankruptcy, state officials would not have been permitted the hospital to shut down, the sources said.

"This was a well-thought-out plan," said Tom Shanahan, a lawyer for a group of former St. Vincent doctors and nurses suing St. Vincent's. "They wanted out and had to justify it to the state. They were running it into the ground."

DA Cy Vance's team is looking into whether vendors double-billed for services, gave kickbacks for contracts and hired relatives of hospital employees, sources said.

Quinn NYT Infomercial Fluff

To find out how real journalists assess City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's record, one needs to look no further than the sensibility expressed in this blog post on True News From Change : NYT Sets the Definition on How To Judge and Pick the Next Mayor and It Fits Quinn

In his blog post, the journalist Gary Tilzer makes many astute observations about David W. Chen's infomercial fluff piece about Speaker Quinn, and perhaps this is the most sharpest of Mr. Tilzer's criticisms : ''It was the publisher of the NYT, along with the NYP and Daily News, that used their papers to support changing the term limits law to allow Bloomberg and Quinn to run for a third term. Mr. Chen does not challenge Quinn when she brushes off her term limits and other critics as 'naïve' ideologues.''

It's already been documented how Christine Quinn bluffs her way through important social issues.

What Speaker Quinn is doing by making her ''unapologetic'' ''move to the middle'' is selling out the working class families of New York City. Her policies favour real estate developers -- and come to the detriment, suffering, and mass displacement of working class New Yorkers. Speaker Quinn's vision of New York City is a continuation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's vision : more glass and steel luxury condos and less hospitals, firehouses, public schools, and senior centers. Speaker Quinn wants to make life so unbearable to the average wage-earning New Yorker that we all pick up and leave town.

How do we know that Christine Quinn has sold out her values and beliefs and still find herself to be in a place of denial about it, so much so that she accuses her critics of being “naïve” ideologues ?

Speaker Quinn's ideas about leadership in New York, by supporting the luxury condo conversion of St. Vincent's Hospital, which used to be the only full-service hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center below 14th Street, is like GLAAD publicly supporting the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. Not only would AT&T be in an even stronger position to undo net neutrality, but what is GLAAD doing by meddling in a telecom merger approval process with the FCC ? Likewise, why is a ''supposedly!! celebrated LGBT third-term politician like Christine Quinn rushing toward the ''middle'' of the political spectrum, if it means that she has to abandon her idealistic beginnings and instead now oppose paid sick leave and a living wage bill ?

"AT&T was one of the companies whose local representatives sits on the board of directors of the Tennessee chamber of commerce," wrote John Aravosis at Americablog. "You remember them, the group that endorsed and actively lobbied for the measure repealing gay and trans rights ordinances in the state, mandating it so that no trans person can ever change their birth certificate gender in the future, and banning any future civil rights ordinances for anyone in the future. That AT&T."

What does the intersection of St. Vincent's Hospital/Rudin Family Luxury Condo Conversion and the GLAAD/AT&T T-Mobile mega deals have to do with Christine Quinn and New York City politics ?

In each case, you see the erosion of core values of fighting for an activist's central reason for being : serving their constituency. But once you get to be so big, you can blow off you constituency as “naïve” ideologues (or drop the F-bomb on them, the way that one of her administrative assistants did).

If, throughout our nation's history, our goal has been to distribute power and authority equally among voters, then the voters, who have less choices on election day, get their voices muffled. Who is going to challenge GLAAD to focus once again on its original intention ? Who is going to put pressure on Christine Quinn to deliver on the community’s demands to stop all the hospital closings that are happening across New York City ?

It is not too much to expect that the people, who you elect to City Council, start to deliver something tangible for New York City voters.

• If you disliked how City Council members extended term limits without a voter referendum, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you agree, that Speaker Quinn needs to hear the voices of communities, who are demanding that hospitals stop closing all across the five boroughs, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you can no longer accept a weekly threat by Mayor Bloomberg to layoff teachers and firefighters, and to close schools and firehouses, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you want Speaker Quinn to shut down her $50 million slush fund, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you refuse to settle for City Council members, who take tens of thousands of campaign donations from real estate developers in exchange for what seems like pay-to-play real estate development deal approvals, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you believe that Speaker Quinn betrays the LGBT community, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us
• If you have your own issue, that you'd like to bring to Speaker Quinn's attention, then let her know : quinn@council.nyc.ny.us

Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

Alec Baldwin Christine Quinn

Alec Baldwin exposes Christine Quinn for Term Limits Scandal

From The New York Times :

Mr. Baldwin suggested that the term-limit issue would hurt the electoral prospects of the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who went along with the mayor’s move. “I think it absolutely, positively disqualifies her,” he said. “She totally betrayed a huge constituency here in the city.”

Quinn Plaza Hotel Protest

Christine Quinn - Plaza Hotel - Gays Against Quinn (Protest Video)

Over 20 activists gathered outside the Plaza Hotel in a demonstration against City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Watch as protesters speak against Christine Quinn to former Mayor David Dinkins' entourage and hand anti-Quinn literature to Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Some of us were there because of Speaker Quinn's use of a $50 million slush fund during a time when we live under constant threat by Mayor Bloomberg, that he is going to lay off teachers and close down fire houses. Others were there, because Speaker Quinn pushed through a controversial extension of term limits, allowing Mayor Bloomberg, herself, and others, to run for a third term in office. Still yet others were there because of Speaker Quinn's complete abdication of full civil rights for LGBT New Yorkers, do-nothing record over hospital closings, horrible animal rights record, and use of city staff for campaign work.

Please join us for a Third Anniversary Protest of the Term Limits Extension at 2 pm on Sunday, October 23, at City Hall.

Please also join our Facebook group : Gays Against Christine Quinn.

Politicians and Protesters call for an investigation of Medisys official Robert Levine over Peninsula Hospital closing

Peninsula Hospital closure draws outraged calls for a state investigation from almost everybody, excepting for Christine Quinn, of course, naturally, it should go without saying.

From The New York Daily News :

Local pols on Sunday called on state officials to investigate the planned closing of Peninsula Hospital in Queens. During a protest that drew dozens of hospital workers and Rockaways residents, State Sen. Malcolm Smith urged Health Commissioner Nirav Shah not to approve the closing plan for the century-old Far Rockaway hospital without conducting a formal investigation of its finances first. "The Rockaways cannot afford for Peninsula to not be there," said Smith (D-Queens), noting its emergency room provides care for more than 30,000 patients per year. At the rally outside the state Health Department's office in Lower Manhattan, protestors chanted, "Keep the hospital open" and waved signs saying, "Rockaway Needs Peninsula" and "Investigate Before Closing." ....

Peninsula Hospital Closing Protest

Peninsula Hospital Center - Protesters Take Over Lobby - Hospital Closings in NYC

Approximately 200 union employees, residents of Far Rockaway, in Queens, and local officials, gathered in the rain outside Peninsula Hospital Center, across the bay from JFK Airport. Peninsula Hospital Center has filed a plan to shut its doors. The hospital’s owner is embroiled in a political and financial scandal, but employees and residents are worried about the threat to public health, should the hospital’s closure plan be approved.

Attendees of the rally braved the rain, then, once the rally had ended, stormed into one of the lobbies of the hospital, until hospital officials called the police, to clear the lobby of its own employees.

In the time that Christine Quinn had been speaker of the City Council, eight hospitals (not counting Peninsula) have closed. If Peninsula closes, it would mark the ninth hospital to close under Speaker Quinn's watch.

This week, President Obama agreed to severe budget cuts to social safety net programs, that underpin the social contract we make with our government and amongst ourselves. More budget cuts to Medicaid and Medicare will lead to a further collapse of our healthcare system. Is Christine Quinn in Bermuda with Mayor Michael Bloomberg each time a hospital closes in New York City ? Is President Obama surfing in Hawaii each time a hospital closes in America ?

If we obediently listen to people, who are in power (the same people who work for us, the very same people who are closing our hospitals), telling us to leave the lobby of a closing hospital, then it just makes it that much easier for the New York State Department of Health/Christine Quinn to keep closing hospitals.

William Rudin Peninsula Hospital

Is the Rudin Family eyeing their next real estate harvesting operation on the dead carcass of the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens ?

After he's done with St. Vincent's Hospital, it has been heard on the street that William Rudin is considering another real estate harvesting operation, this time at the Peninsula Hospital Center in Queens.

Everybody Is Gay

Op-Ed ! Everybody Is Gay

Ian McKeevor is homophobic, not only that, but he freely used gay as a pejorative against activists. I cannot reconcile how City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is out as a lesbian, can support the horse-drawn carriage industry, not only because of the way that horses are treated, but also because of the homophobia that some of the horse owners practise. But for Christine Quinn, all it takes is campaign contributions for her to look the other way. I will never vote for Christine Quinn.

Collapse of the Social Safety Net in New York City

Queens' Peninsula Hospital Center set to close ; New York Downtown Hospital putting patients on stretchers in the hallway to accommodate unmanageable influx of emergency patients.

"Sources say the Far Rockaway, Queens, hospital will shutter after owing millions to vendors and falling behind on its union benefits funds payments; the closure would cost the area about 1,000 jobs," reported Crain's.

The Queens Crap blog published a post today, indicating that Peninsula Hospital Center had filed a 90-day closure plan, a requirement under the law that was violated when St. Vincent's Hospital closed on April 30, 2010. Meanwhile, the Real Deal blog reported that once the Peninsula Hospital Center closes, all healthcare emergencies are going to overwhelm St. Johns Episcopal Hospital, which will become the only healthcare facility servicing the distant Queens neighborhood of Far Rockaway. Separately, the True News From Change NYC blog linked the collapse of Peninsula Hospital Center with political corruption and possible kickbacks.

Is our social safety net not too big to fail ?

Does nobody in City Council have any concern about the financial collapse of so many hospitals across all five New York City boroughs ?

Does Mayor Michael Bloomberg not care, either ?

Meanwhile, following the illegal closing of St. Vincent's Hospital last year, there reamins only one hospital south of 16th Street in Manhattan, New York Downtown Hospital, which The New York Post has reported as being ''overwhelmed,'' and is leading to an ''emergency-care crisis,'' the newspaper reports.

Quinn Slush Fund Report

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer Blasts Mayor's Race Opponent Chris Quinn

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer took an apparent swipe at his mayor's race opponent, calling for an end to pork spending by local lawmakers.

JULY 20, 2011 4:09 PM

Our Reuven Blau reports:

Stringer criticized City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the other 50 members for their $49 million in earmarks that neglects to reach the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"We have a system where some districts get a lot more than others and politics is the only reason," Stringer told reporters yesterday.

Quinn is an early frontrunner in the mayoral election with the largest war chest of more than $4 million. Yet one of her major challenges in her expected run is the so-called slush fund scandal that erupted in 2007.

-- Excerpted from the Daily Politics blog by Celeste Katz on The New York Daily News.

2011 07 Xx Christine Quinn Slush Fund Member Items Report

Real Estate Industry Asks Christine Quinn to End Rent Regulation in NYC

The Business Establishment wants Christine Quinn to be your next mayor, so that she can keep denying you each of paid sick leave, a living wage, and a full-service hospital that might save your life.

Real estate developers are feverishly working to appoint Christine Quinn to be the next mayor of New York City, so that Christine Quinn can end rent regulation and turn all apartments into market-rate rentals. Real estate executives are mainly impressed with how Speaker Quinn shut down St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, which Robert Moses was unable to demolish and ram through a cross-town highway decades ago.

For years now, Speaker Quinn has subjugated herself to the misogynistic male sexist domination of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been on a scorched earth campaign to destroy the social safety net by trying to close firehouses, shut down senior citizen centers, cut childcare, layoff teachers, pretend like votes don't go missing, build luxury condos on the hallowed ground of St. Vincent's Hospital, make money from government information, and end Progressive Era reforms, we are left to wonder. When will the focus of irresponsible real estate development at the expense of the middle class spark a voter backlash, that will lead to mass protests at the city's legislature, or a revolution of the likes that have been happening elsewhere ?

What will be the spark that will trigger mass protests in New York ?

Tony Simone to City : ''F#ck You''

City Council speaker Christine Quinn's director of community outreach Tony Simone tells New York City Voters : ''F#ck You!''

Monday, July 18th 2011, 4:00 AM
Bryan Smith for News

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's director of community outreach dropped a few F-bombs at a local fundraiser last week.

Christine Quinn needs to rein in her director of community outreach Tony Simone.

The City Council speaker's office has issued an apology after Simone reached out to protesters outside a Quinn fund-raiser last Monday by lobbing a few F-bombs their way.

Documentary maker Donny Moss tells us that the protest outside the Dream Downtown hotel, which drew close to 30 people, was one of several that he and others will organize "between now and the mayoral election," to urge voters to "look beyond" Quinn's "identity" as a gay politician "to her actual record."

Moss addresses the issue in a 10-minute YouTube film called "Christine Quinn: Behind The Smile," in which he outlines a number of instances where, he contends, Quinn has "betrayed the gay community behind the scenes since becoming speaker."

Perhaps that's why Simone didn't have anything good to say when he encountered the protest at the Dream Downtown on Monday night where Quinn was having an $11-a-head fund-raiser for her 2013 mayoral campaign. (Quinn avoided her critics by using a back entrance to the hotel.)

According to Moss and another witness, Simone — who's a former Goldman Sachs portfolio analyst— approached the demonstrators, who were stationed on 16th St. between Eighth and Ninth Aves. outside of the hotel's entrance.

There, Simone asked one protester if Moss was present. Told that the filmmaker was indeed among the group, Simone responded: "Tell him to go f--- himself."

Moss says Simone then spotted longtime gay rights activist Allen Roskoff, and shouted "F--- you" at him before heading inside to the fund-raiser.

Roskoff, who's also been critical of Quinn, is president of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and co-author of the nation's first gay rights bill.

When we ran this story by Quinn's office, her communications director Jamie McShane told us Simone had gone to the fund-raiser "on his own time," where he was "repeatedly verbally abused by protesters. Tony lost his cool and should not have. He apologizes for his actions."

"That's a patent lie," replied Moss, who insisted "no one even recognized" Simone until he hurled his epithets.

"I didn't even say a word to him after he said I should go f--- myself," said Moss. He added that he and Roskoff were "mesmerized" by the city employee's behavior and said nothing.

Moss said he also didn't react when, he claimed, Simone approached him at another protest in summer 2009 and "shouted in my face, 'Loser!'

"I'm more interested in exposing Quinn's record than engaging with people who are invested in her success," he said.