Yesterday, the blogger and artist Suzannah B. Troy starred in a humorous YouTube video promoting the publication and sale of Volume I of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn. Ms. Troy says in the video, "This book is better than Cats!" -- a reference to a campy commercial for a Broadway show that was often parodied.
Roots of Betrayal, written by the LGBT blogger and activist Louis Flores, examines the arc of Christine Quinn’s political career, which nominally began as a hero’s journey before it morphed into a tale about political betrayals. The entire book will be serialized this summer in four volumes reminiscent of pamphleteering done in our tradition of bringing about political change.
“Before the advent of blogs and digital social media, political pamphlets allowed activists to mobilize voters,” said Flores. “My hope is that Roots of Betrayal will educate voters offline about how Christine Quinn is the worst mayoral candidate this year.”
Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn can be purchased at the following bookstores :
Book Thug Nation, 100 N. Third St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn ;
New York City will be better off without Speaker Quinn as Mayor. Her record on living wage, paid sick leave, term limits, lack of support for animal rights and animal welfare, combined with her reputation for siding with the rich and powerful to advance her own political aspirations, makes it clear that as mayor, Quinn would only continue to appease special interests that do not have the well-being of all New Yorkers in mind.
Many activists openly question the viability of Speaker Christine Quinn's mayoral campaign, because she has been attracting ever more criticism from unions, LGBT activists, animal rights groups, Progressive Democrats, and even some of her former major donors, such as Wendy K. Neu, who has abandoned Speaker Quinn's campaign.
If Speaker Quinn's campaign is now doomed, based on all of the opponents, who are now lining up against her, then maybe the right action by New York Democrats would be to encourage Anthony Weiner to enter the race.
It's like "Upstairs, Downstairs" amongst the anti-Quinn movement, some activists say. A handful of activists have been working for over four years to fight for integrity in New York City government on no budget, but here comes along NYC Is Not For Sale 2013, pledging to spend $1 million to defeat Speaker Quinn's mayoral campaign. Activists welcome the help, but what message does another million dollar electioneering effort say in this Citizens United era ? Look at the humour and satire in the art of Suzannah B. Troy's political commentary :
Mayor Bloomberg-Christine Quinn-Britney Spears "Stop Picking On Me" parody!
After Mayor Michael Bloomberg begged for people to "Leave Christine Alone !", the blogger-activist-artist Suzannah B. Troy has produced a hilarious parody YouTube video based on Chris Rocker's "Leave Britney Alone !" video.
Suzannah B. Troy dressed up in drag, first as Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and then as New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. In a hilarious send-up of the "Leave Britney Alone !" video, Ms. Troy weeps and whines the way that Mr. Rocker did, only the subjects of Ms. Troy's complaints have to do with serious public issues, like the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital and the massive fraud in connection with the doomed CityTime project.
From The New York Post :
The mayor yesterday launched an impassioned defense of his longtime ally and suggested she was getting unfairly pounded for a corruption scandal involving another member of the council.
“I’ve always said that I think Speaker Quinn, who is getting criticized for this, is a person of enormous integrity, and I think she has done an excellent job of running the city,” Bloomberg declared.
“It’s not an easy job, and I think she’d done it well.”
Mayor Bloomberg was angry at critics of Speaker Quinn, like Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who has called for the elimination of Speaker Quinn's slush fund after Queens Republican Councilmember Daniel Halloran was arrested in bribery and corruption charges in connection to Speaker Quinn's slush fund.
After months of maintaining a cool, above-the-fray approach to the 2013 mayoral race, Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and presumptive candidate-to-beat next year, is enduring the first bumps of what may be a pockmarked road to the Democratic primary.
This week, Ms. Quinn was criticized for a campaign finance bill that opponents — including her most important ally, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — said would tear a loophole in New York City’s election spending rules.
On television, there was Alec Baldwin, the temperamental actor, telling Piers Morgan’s national audience on CNN that Ms. Quinn had “blood on her hands” for supporting Mr. Bloomberg’s successful bid to circumvent term limits.
Suzannah B. Troy mocked the media bias by editors, including Carolyn Ryan, at The New York Times, which promotes the mayoral candidacy of Christine Quinn.
"John Liu exposed CityTime and ECTP 911 tech corruption -- bigger than CityTime. Liu called for criminal investigation on ECTP based on audits. Where are the investigations ? Liu killed major deals, but leading billionaires as well as SAIC that gets bail-outs -- oops contracts from Pentagon -- and are connected to The White House."
So far, Louis Flores, the activists who was pushed around by NYPD Officer Lamonica, has received no communication from either the Civilian Complaint Review Board or Speaker Quinn's office.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.''
Union representatives from Local 375 and DC 37, community activists, New York City taxpayers, and others gathered at 1250 Broadway in a demonstration against the technology company known as SAIC.
For years, newspaper and television reporters, bloggers, and whistle blowers have been reporting details of a massive taxpayer fraud perpetrated by New York City officials, by employees of SAIC and of another company known as Technodyne, and possibly by lobbyists in connection with the scandalous CityTime project.
The CityTime project began with an original budget of approximately $60 million, but has since ballooned to over $700 million.
The U.S. Attorney's Office has begun an investigation, but nobody yet knows how high this scandal, and other technology consultancy contract scandals, may go up the Bloomberg administration.
Christine Quinn's ''Dream'' Fundraiser Turns into ''Nightmare'' as Her Personal Assistant Screams the F-Bomb to St. Vincent's Protesters.
LGBTQ activists, Health care activists, government transparency activists, public official integrity activists, and animal rights activists held a flashmob protest outside City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's fundraiser at Dream nightclub Monday night in Chelsea.
Many LGBTQ activists and allies joined the emergency protest organised outside Speaker Quinn's fundraiser. Many LGBTQ activists said they believe that Speaker Quinn should have started fighting for marriage equality in 2005, back when Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the appeal of a landmark gay marriage ruling. In all her time in public office, Speaker Quinn has subjugated herself to the misogynist domination of Mayor Bloomberg.
Donny Moss, left, with Allen Roskoff, right -- officers of the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club -- protesting outside tonight's fundraiser organised by Christine Quinn.
Still yet other protesters held up signs as a reminder to the U.S. Justice Department that nobody has yet to be indicted in Speaker Quinn's office for her role in the City Council slush fund scandal.
Community activists, who support the opening of a full-service hospital with Level 1 Trauma Center held up a banner, shaming Christine Quinn's ''do nothing'' record on saving St. Vincent's Hospital. The banner attracted hate speech from one of Speaker Quinn's highly-paid staff members, as indicated below :
Tony Simone, photographed right, a NYC official who is paid $113,000.00 in taxpayer money each year (plus opaque discretionary member item bonuses) and who reports directly to Speaker Quinn, left, told the St. Vincent's protesters, “F*ck you!” outside Speaker Quinn’s fundraising event at the ”Dream” nightclub in Chelsea.
Protesters gathered outside the private setting for a fundraiser to benefit the ill-fated third-term candidacy of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The protest event, held on September 2, 2009, at 6:30 p.m. at 61 Jane Street, was intended to shed light on Speaker Quinn's numerous failures to the constituents of her city council district.
This morning, NYPD arrested four activists, who protested the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital. Politicians, on whose watch the hospital closed, remain at-large.
Watch a YouTube video of the protesters, as they were taken into police custody. While they were being put into the back of the police van, the activists shouted : "Land-lock St. Vincents ; Trauma 1 now !"
A group called Hands Off St. Vincent's held a sit-in Tuesday morning at the shuttered medical center. At approximately 10:30 a.m., four activists were arrested. It is not known how many other activists took part at the demonstration.
Among the protesters, who were arrested, were LGBT civil rights activists Iana Di Bona and Alan Bounville. Following is the statement from a press release, which was distributed to the media, by one of the group's members :
New York, NY – On February 8, at 10:30 am, four former patients and impassioned community members entered the building at the location of the closed down Saint Vincent's Hospital. These activists then sat on the ground, unfurling a banner that read, "Guilty : Neglect !" and began to chant - refusing to move. Saint Vincent's personnel closed off that section of the building - currently operating as a Credit Union - and refused entry to members of the credit union as well as persons employed within the building. Two hours after their arrival, the four activists were arrested and taken away by the police.
For 284 days, 1.3 million New Yorkers have been without a hospital in the West Village. Since St. Vincent’s illegal closure on April 30, 2010, the community has been laden with false promises, patronized with a bogus needs assessment and forced, with tragic consequences, to seek emergency or medical care at already overcrowded uptown or East-side hospitals.
“Everyday that passes is critical,” said Iana Di Bona, one of the arrested activists, “Our elected officials have the ability to turn things around, yet they do nothing. It is so important to speak out and to continue to pressure and hold them accountable to service the needs of our community.”
Commitment for a New Village Hospital by the people of the West Village and all of New York City has not wavered. Any politician not actively working to get a new hospital is a target. That is a promise the St. Vincent’s Hospital Community Activists intend to keep.
Before the sit-in took place, it appears that the activists held a "peoples trial" of politicians, on whose watch St. Vincent's closed. According to the description of the YouTube video, an unidentified Hands Off member made the following statement : "We hold the elected officials responsible for betraying their very own constituency."
On her blog, the artist and political commentator Suzannah B. Troy broke the news of the activists getting arrested at St. Vincent's. Ms. Troy made the observation that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn recently pushed through a new smoking ban in public parks as a sign of their concern for public health, but Ms. Troy questions their commitment if politicians have made no commitment to save city hospitals from closing.
Quotes by Suzannah B. Troy regarding City Councilwoman Christine Quinn's addiction to over-development.
New York City has named a block on Hudson Street, "Jane Jacobs Way," after an important author and activist, who changed the course of urban planning.
City Councilwoman Christine C. Quinn was there for the renaming ceremony. Quinn has been the subject of investigations regarding her close ties to developers. Activist Suzannah B. Troy was outraged to see Quinn trade on the goodwill of Jane Jacobs.
"It was laughable and yet horrifying the way Jane Jacobs' name was bandied about, and the sheer denial of politicos pretending that Bloomberg-Quinn did not sell out (and destroy) New York to greedy developers from right under the people of New York's feet -- including how many eminent domain abuse battles going on right now here in NYC ?"
"Yes, I get emotional because on every street there are closings, and, at this street naming, it was the usual "orgy of admiration club" -- complete lies and denials. You heard the introduction Quinn is given -- an air brushed rosy introduction, which is extra horrifying because any one using their eyes can see the Village has buildings every where that busted thru zoning and evictions of small businesses everywhere -- because she was part of the corrupt politico that sold NYC and the people out."
" When Mayor Bloomberg wants something, he has plenty of tools to help him get it - friends in high places, a bully pulpit, six-figure donations to political parties and money for influential city nonprofits. ¶ One of his most prestigious and mysterious perks, however, has two wings and three engines, " Adam Lisberg reported in Sunday's New York Daily News.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been identified as being among the politicians, who received undisclosed luxury trips on Mayor Bloomberg's private jet, a Dassault Falcon 900s. At least one of Quinn's trips on the Mayor's jet was not disclosed in official government records, according to Mr. Lisberg.
Meanwhile, in an advisory to city employees, the Conflicts of Interest Board offered guidance in respect of accepting gifts from one's supervisor : accepting "regular and extravagant" gifts may create an appearance that a supervisor is "attempting to buy" certain kinds of behaviours from the supervisor's subordinates, Mr. Lisberg added. And now that Mr. Lisberg has reported about these extravagant gifts, how can City Council Speak Quinn or the other government officials, who have received these regular, luxury gifts, explain that they can remain independent, impartial, and free from undue influence or corrupt interference from the Mayor's Office, after they have accepted free rides on his private jet ?
Perks, privileges, and a sense of entitlement.
In her latest video blog, Suzannah B. Troy has lost her patience with Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speak Quinn. Ms. Troy has said, "Sub-zero trickle down when it comes to the people...huge trickle down for pals."
