Thursday, November 28, 2013

Campaign 2013 Media Failure And Broken Political Promises 6789





How the Media Failed New Yorkers 
Instead the candidates offered dozens of new services and programs with a simple way to fund the extra costs, taxing the rich. De Blasio said taxing the rich will pay for universal Pre-K.  de Blasio and others said that the rich will pay to keep hospitals open, to make up for federal cuts to the NYCHA.  Others said that keeping the middle class, fixing problems in education and all the other ills in the city would be solved by getting rid of Bloomberg.  The debate moderators did not once challenge the candidates to state the obvious That taxing the rich is not enough money to cover all the promises they are making.
Mayoral Candidate Albanese: The NYC Media Behaved  More Like TMZ That Responsible Journalists
Clowns Journalists
How the Media Lost the Race for Mayor(Sal Albanese, City Limits)
Bill de Blasio won the Democratic primary. Sal Albanese did not. But thanks to poor coverage of the race, the former councilman argues, New York's voters are the real losers.As an outsider candidate for mayor, I never expected great coverage, but I was shocked to see how much the landscape had deteriorated. Before any major poll, the New York Daily News decided to lock our campaign out of three televised debates that it hosted early in the year.
When I reached out to an editorial board member for an explanation, I was scoffed at and denied any objective criteria. So, I sought a different path.I offered substantive op-eds, most notably on poverty in schools and the need for early intervention. Rejected. I held press conferences with victims of Hurricane Sandy to demand tougher action from the mayor. Uncovered. Then, the Anthony Weiner Circus came to town. Newspaper editors put public safety, failing schools, and the affordability crisis aside in favor of anatomical puns. In a real twist, I received more quotes in the month of July, when I called for Mr. Weiner to step out of the race, than during the preceding six months. But the long-term impact that shallow coverage has on our city is much more troubling than its impact on my campaign. We're now poised to elect Bill de Blasio as our next mayor. Unfortunately, we know less about his public policies than we know about Anthony Weiner's private life.We would be much better off if we knew what our next mayor had accomplished and really plans to do over the next four years. Unfortunately, the fourth estate has failed to provide that information. Elections have consequences, and so does the way that we cover them. For the sake of our city's future, we must demand better.




From Carriage Horses, Closed Hospitals to Stop and Frisk Another Mayors' Campaign Promise Abandoned 
Police reform groupcut ties w public affairs firm closely identified w de Blasio  @BerlinRosen And in a sign of the critics’ growing frustration with their onetime champion, an influential police reform group recently cut ties with a public affairs firm that is closely identified with Mr. de Blasio, seeking to be unconstrained from exerting greater pressure on his administration.  This week, Mr. de Blasio frustrated some liberal advocates by failing to brief them beforehand on changes to the Police Department’s enforcement of marijuana laws — an effort that was subsequently dismissed as a “sugar pill” by Cornel West and others who said the overhaul did not go far enough in addressing the concerns of black and Hispanic New Yorkers. It is an intriguing moment for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is determined to be a beacon for the new left, but must balance bold rhetoric with the realities of bringing reform in the complex city he govern (NYT) * DanMorris Leaves Red Horse to Start ‘Progressive Cities’ Firm(NYO) Dan Morris, the communications director for the prominent Democratic consulting firm Red Horse Strategies, is leaving to start “Progressive Cities,” billed as “a new strategy firm designed to help drive the national urban agenda” and sustain the progressive momentum of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. * Communities United for Police Reform replacesBerlinRosen as public relations firm as CPR ramps up NYPD criticism of de Blasio



NYT Puts the Rose Color de Blasio Glass Back On . . .  Did They Get A Call From Berlin?
.@nytimes softens headline. “De BlasioBalancing Promises W/ Reality” URL: “Liberals Growing Frustrated w/ de Blasio" 




Why Does Both the Daily News and NYT Fail to Name the Mayor Flack Lobbyists Fired?  Berlin Rosen, Berlin Rosen, Berlin Rosen
Finally ready to break free from veal pen, Communities United for Police Reform fires BerlinRosen (Progress Queens) In reports published tonight by The New York Times and The New York Daily News, it was hinted or announced, respectively, that a police reform group had fired its public relations firm, which has close ties to the de Blasio administration.  Both articles failed to identify the public relations firm, BerlinRosen, and only the report in The New York Daily News identified the police reform group, Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR.  


This move spells trouble for Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-New York City), who has tried to deescalate calls for aggressive police reform as he keeps repeating empty rhetoric about being a "progressive."  With a New York City Councilman poised to introduce legislation that would criminalize police use of a choke hold, de Blasio reiterated his belief that existing NYPD policy is sufficient, the Daily News reports:  * Leading police reform group pushing NYPD for majorchanges (NYDN) The police reform group that helped push the Community Safety Act last year - against the wishes of then-Mayor Bloomberg - is now gearing up for a fight with NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.  It has hired publicist Dan Morris of Progressive Cities consulting firm to lead the media push.


The Mayor's Image Maker Gets Caught Controlling A Liberal Groups Agenda
CPR was the large umbrella group, which led the fight against stop-and-frisk in the final years of the Bloomberg administration.  CPR was founded and funded with controversial grants from George Soros, an early supporter of the de Blasio campaign for mayor.  Not only was CPR being funded by a major de Blasio backer, but CPR also employed an operative, Dan Levitan, from Mayor de Blasio's go-to public relations firm, BerlinRosen, as its spokesman.  Mr. Levitan was also the spokesman of Mayor de Blasio's own lobbying group, the Campaign for One New York.   Now that BerlinRosen is no longer in a position to control CPR's public messaging, this means that CPR may be getting ready to make greater demands of Mayor de Blasio, demands which BerlinRosen may not have been comfortable making.  * Mayor Criticized for Not Moving Faster on MarijuanaPolicy (WSJ) Advocates, Some Elected Officials Frustrated With Pace of Change on Several Issues Chokeholds  De Blasio maintains chokeholds should not be made illegal(NYP) * Mayor de Blasio pushes back against upcoming Council bid to criminalize NYPD use of choke hold(NYDN)

You Didn't Pay Attention To Money In Politics In 2013, So We Boiled Down The Whole Year For You ______________________________
_How the Media Lost the Race for Mayor(City  Limits)


Cuomo bemoans "24-hour blogs": "You have this constant chatter that is not necessarily the most credible"

Dumbing Down News

24-Hour News Cycle Makes Governing More Difficult, Gov. Cuomo Says(NYDN) Gov. Cuomo, media observer: "They have to get it up first. They have to get it up fast." “I don’t believe it raises the quality,” he added. “As a matter of fact, I think it lowers the quality, but it increases the frequency. So you have this constant chatter, that is not necessarily the most credible, the most insightful. But it’s constant and that dictates a rhythm to the governmental dialogue, which again is fast, and quick and facile, but not necessarily intellectual or correct.”


No Morality Journalism

The Shame of New York: The Advance Group Joins Top NY Journalists to Review the 2013 Campaign
After the Worse Covered Election in Recent Memory A Elite Group of Journalists Are Going On A Panel Tuesday to Tell Us All What A Great Job They Did.  And That  is Not Worse of It.  Mayoral candidate Sal Albanese said her got more press coverage when he demanded Weiner leave the race than the the whole campaign when he talked about issues the other candidates were not talking about. How the Media Lost the Race for Mayor(City Limits)They Will Share the Stage With the Advance's Group's Scott Levenson who gamed the election process and manipulated campaigns and the so called reporters coverage in ways they will never understand or care to learn about.

Group Think Masterbation Journalist Dumb Down the Public and Tell Each Other What A Great Job They Did
This generation  of journalist do not understand that fair elections and an informed public are  important to the well being of every New Yorker.   Participants will include: Kate Taylor, The New York Times; Maggie Haberman, Politico; Brian Lehrer, WNYC; Scott Levenson, The Advance Group; Stu Loeser, political strategist; Errol Louis, NY 1; and Joel Siegel, New York Daily News. Moderator: Greg David, Crain’s New York Business columnist and director of the Business & Economics Reporting Program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

Reporters Says Campaigns Are Just About "What People Want" A Good Rational Why Journalists Did Not Cover Issues in This Years Campaign

We Don't Need Reporters Just Let Campaigns Spin
SALLY GOLDENBERG ON NY1: "IN NEW YORK, YOU NEED A REASON NOT TO VOTE FOR THE DEMOCRAT. It's not a good example to look at Bloomberg because of his money. It's not a good example to look at Giuliani because it was just a different time then; Giuliani was sort of the answer to what people wanted and now de Blasio is the answer to what people want. And there's no rationale for Lhota's candidacy. That doesn't mean he's not a good candidate or has good ideas or whatever; the appetite of electorate doesn't point to Joe Lhota."


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Media Failure Campaign 2013


The Media Failed During the Entire 2013 to Get the Candidates to Say How They Would Pay for the Union Contracts and Increase Pension and Health Care Costs
There is still a lot of uncertainty about how de Blasio will negotiate union contracts for police, firefighters and teachers, but labor is optimistic and happy to at least have a mayor who will negotiate, NY1 reports The Daily News says that throughout the campaign de Blasio left unresolved how he would create economic equality and drive down crime, and the need to get “clarity" on his approach to these issues is "fast-approaching" and "inescapable”:




Media Covers the WWW Political Fight, They Do Not Grade Pols on the Delivery of Services to New Yorkers


Yet Prendergast chided the mayor for refusing to cough up the $3.2 billion the MTA requested from City Hall to fund the agency’s five year capital plan to fund future projects, and pointed out that Gov. Cuomo has already pledged to contribute $8.3 billion.* Mayor Bill de Blasio and MTA Chairman Thomas Prendergast clashed in separate speeches at the opening of the new 34th Street-Hudson Yards 7 train station over how much the city should fund the MTA, the Postreports:  * Tension among de Blasio, the MTA, and the subway workers’ union spiked further Sundayduring the opening of the first city-funded subway station in more than 60 years. At the opening ceremony for the $2.4 billion station, the head of the MTA pushed the mayor on the deficit in the $26.8 billion capital plan.


After the Quinn Endorsement Proved the Media Disconnect From New Yorkers. The Fools At the NYT & NYP Are Still Telling the New Mayor What To Do
The New York Times opines that it is Bill de Blasio’s moment after voters said loudly that they support his unabashed “progressive values,” but he must fight the impulse to get testy when he suffers inevitable setbacks:* The Post writes that the legal case challenging Judge Shira Scheindlin’s ruling on stop-and-frisk is “a gift” to de Blasio because it saves him from having to impose the “most dangerous promise of his campaign"* Bill de Blasio & ‘Death Wish’ NY(NYP)



For Two Weeks the Press Has Been Attacking Weiner 24/7.  NYT Writes Today That the Campaigns Are About to Turn Negative
The Media Has Failed to Connect the Dots For the Voters of NYC
To Inform the Voter
To Challenge the Candidates Promises 
Primary Is Getting Closer? Cue the Negative Phase(NYT) After months in which candidates have sat beside one another at a seemingly endless series of forums, most of them polite, and few of them memorable, the campaigns are going negative.


The New Journalism is Not to Inform It is to Entertain and Titillate

Everyone knows reporters and even the so called elite media have turned into gossip whores looking for anything salacious about Weiner






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Clueless Debate Moderators

Everyone Agrees the Public Advocate Debate Sucked But Nobody Blames the Moderator
Not On Follow Up Question That What A Public Advocate Promised to Do Could Not Be Accomplished Because of the Limited Power of the Office
Lewis and Lehrer Run A Circus Not A Debate
Ester Fuchs a professor at Columbia said on NY1  said on NY1 right after the Public Advocate debate that what the candidates promised to do had nothing to do with the powers of the office.Fuchs' comments came after NY1 Errol Lewis with his constant sidekick WNYC's Brian Lehrer ran the circus. Nobody seems able to connect the dots and blame the Lewis and Lehrer for not asking follow up questions and allowing a debate about nothing.  The Daily News said today in their editorial Dodos are extinct, the candidates conversations were about nothing, because the office was about nothing. At the debate, each candidate catalogued the ills of the “other New York,” detailing a host of “crises” in housing, jobs, education and so on, and their plans for advocating for “the most vulnerable.” None seemed to have a serious idea for how they would square these ambitions with the office’s limited mandate and scant budget.


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Newspaper Campaigning

How Not to Cover the Mayor's Race
The Daily News Reports Nothing About the 8.4% New Yorkers Unemployed, But Writes About Horse and Carriages
EXCLUSIVE: Horse-and-carriage drivers lash out on ASPCA’s alleged anti-Christine Quinn moves(NYDN) *EXCLUSIVE: Children of mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio are going with the 'fro as dad tries to get the city's top job

What is not being covered
Mayor Mike Bloomberg's 911 CityTime Corrupt Media Mayoral Race Hugest Scandals Not Issues

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Political Journalism

 As Newspapers Weaken the Politicization of Journalism Has Grown and Real Reporting Has Stopped

Who Knew That the Last of the Corrupt Albany 4 Amigos Would Be the the Carrie In the Coal Mine That Warned Us the Politicization of Journalism Has Gone Over the Line

Corrupt Pol Charges Journalism is Corrupt - He is Right

Sen. Ruben Diaz wonders: Who is watching the watchers?  So he has released a new “What Your Should Know®” that goes through a litany of thinly veiled Page Six-ish blind items aimed at state and city political reporters.  Like the hit Adele song, each charge begins with a “rumor has it” as if to indemnify himself. What Diaz did not ask is NY's political corruption epidemic caused by a lack of investigative reporting due to media cutbacks or the corruption of the journalist themselves?


No Wonder Reporters Will Not Go After Corruption
Diaz did not look at how campaign consultants like the Global Strategy Group  used pols who they have worked for to get their hand on the pension funds. The NYP's Seifman sends out reporters to ask Spitzer over and over if he has a girlfriend, but never has a reporter confront the  assemblywomen of Albany and ask them why they support a speaker who cover up sexual harassment.  Diaz did ask in a very crude way if some journalist are giving out patronage jobs to their family and friends.  Thomas Jefferson said the job of the press is to protect the public from government tyranny.  Can anyone claim that the New York press is press is protecting New Yorkers from political corruption.  Or the gangs of thug lobbyists and party leaders who run campaigns and elected their puppets to assure the corruption continues.


Who is watching the (press) watchers? 

"I have no doubt that there are political darlings who will never be mentioned in the press in any of these corruption rumors.”
                                                                                Sen. Ruben Diaz




Diaz: Rumor has it that there may be a powerful political reporter from one of New York’s tabloids who accepts money and favors from elected officials when the elected officials want to get a bill passed in order to get covered. 
It is No Secret That Lobbyists and Elected Officials Are Paying Some Reporters to Place Stories 



Diaz: Rumor has it that there may be a political reporter on TV who uses his evening air time for political maneuvering that may be right in line with the political will of his spouse, who might be found on the top of a list of the most politically influential New Yorkers.Errol Lewis' whose wife now works for Al D'amato who works for Thompson 

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A Campaign About Nothing

 By Limiting Their Coverage To Sex the Media Is Allowing Candidates to Get Away With Not Offing Solutions to Rising Health Care and Pension Costs And Promising Programs and Services That There is No $ For

The Tinker Bell Mayoral Campaign

New York is one of many cities warning municipal unions that if they cannot figure out a way to rein in health costs, the looming “Cadillac tax” in the Affordable Care Act could threaten raises and jobs, The New York Times writes: *  Mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn eyes big-money proposals (NYDN) Staten Island Ferry to midtown and iPads for every student are just part of candidates pricey plans. he leading mayoral candidate’s costly raft of proposals includes an $3 million-to-$6 million express ferry from Staten Island to midtown, a $60 million-to-$100 million plan to give every public school student an iPad and an up-to-$1 million-a-year proposal to subsidize tuition for bilingual students willing to work as translators for the city. * NYC spends $8 billion on pensions. That's more than police, fire and corrections combined.



Media Failed At Its Coverage of Campaign 2013 but WNBC TV Does Give Us Bloopers
Campaign bloopers: Highlights (and lowlights) from the 2013 New York City mayoral race | WATCH: (WNBC)  Mayoral candidate Sal Albanese Sal Albanese states thanks to poor coverage of the race, the former councilman argues, New York's voters are the real losers. (City Limits).  New Yorkers are bombarded with a dumbed-down discourse that focuses on sensationalism and the political horserace. This trend is not only pushing smart, underpaid reporters to premium niche sites read mostly by the chattering class; it's hurting our citizens. Then, the Anthony Weiner Circus came to town. Newspaper editors put public safety, failing schools, and the affordability crisis aside in favor of anatomical puns. In a real twist, I received more quotes in the month of July, when I called for Mr. Weiner to step out of the race, than during the preceding six months.Elections have consequences, and so does the way that we cover them. For the sake of our city's future, we must demand better.




The Daily News Think New Yorkers Should Know How Good the Mayoral Candidates Can Sing
Mayoral hopefuls get patriotic with their best renditions of 'The Star Spangled Banner'(NYDN)
 
McDonald Understands That the Only Way to Break Into This Type of Entertainment News Cycle is To Attack Weiner - Become Part of the Weiner Story
Tensions between Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner and Republican candidate George McDonald came to a head at an AARP forum where the two had a testy exchange, the Daily News reports: * Even Before a Debate, an Unfriendly Exchange(NYT)




Serious Questions Not Being Asked by the Media to the Mayoral Candidates
Union Contracts The city will face a $2 billion deficit next year on a $56.3 billion budget. Every labor contract is expired. Retroactive raises, which could cost $7.5 billion. Yet union leaders demand back pay. What would you do if a union threatened an illegal strike? Would you fire striking workers?

Pensions for city workers will cost $8.3 billion this year. Police pensions are $2.5 billion. The city has more retired cops (or surviving spouses) than active cops. Did Gov. Cuomo’s 2011 pension reform — which raised retirement ages and worker contributions, but only for future employees — go far enough? Can New York keep itself safe if police officers can retire after 22 years? Should city workers have 401k-style pensions instead? * State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said that for the first time in five years, the state and local governments will see a slight reduction in their pension contributions, while the pension rate for police and firefighters will also drop, Gannett Albany writes: 

Luxury Tax Breaks  Do you think the tax breaks and credits to luxury developers and the campaign contributions (bribes) they funnel to politicians are pushing the middle class out of the city? * Bloomberg’s Plan for Bigger East Midtown Towers Is ‘Zoning for Dollars,’ Group Says(NYT) Bloomberg’s proposal, developers seeking to build towers larger than zoning rules allow would pay $250 for every extra square foot into a fund.* . previews tonight's GOP debate with a wish list of questions via

NYT  Editorial "A common complaint is that this year’s candidates look small, like dots on the slopes of Mount Bloomberg"
A common complaint of the candidates this year was they were giving headline talking point and not explaining how they would fix education, rising pension and health care costs, expired union contracts, etc.  They including Quinn are just saying trust us.

A Class Act As Debate Moderator, But Drop the Lighting Round and Singing Crap
Marcia Kramer showing why she's the queen in this business. Can she moderate all debates going forward?

Spitzer said pension fund has underperformed. He said the performance was bad b/c leadership was inadequate. * Marcia Kramer questions Stringer about the number of pension board meetings he attended. For a moment, he looked like deer in headlights.Stringer with the cut-down to Spitzer: "You didn't make that much of a difference... You've been in your ivory tower," not real NY. * "Yes, I fought big battles. I won some. I lost some. I made a mistake, but I made a difference." - Spitzer * "I’m glad that you finally showed up at a NYCHA development," Stringer says. "I think it’s good for you to see how other people live."* Spitzer says he invited Stringer to come look at his tax returns, but he hasn't come.


Nobody Watch the Mayoral Debate on NY1

NY1 Exposed as Low Rated Cable
That OnlyPolitical Insiders Watch

NY1, the cable news channel that telecast the face-off on Wednesday, has a smaller audience than the network TV stations.
The audience represented barely a tenth of the viewership of the previous televised mayoral debate, which was broadcast on WABC-TV on Aug. 13 and averaged 449,000 viewers, although it is not clear how many of those viewers lived in New York City.





In this Season of Fake Groups Designed to Manipulate Voters, Lhota Gets Caught
Anti-de Blasio advocacy group has GOP ties(NYP) A newly-formed Hispanic advocacy group that slammed Democrat Bill de Blasio’s stop and frisk stance at City Hall Thursday has ties to the Republican mayoral candidate’s campaign  Hispanics for Safe Communities founder Juan Reyes and about 20 associates warned that de Blasio’s bid to limit stop and frisk would bring back the crime waves of decades past.But Reyes didn’t mention that his son, former Mayor Giuliani aide Juan D. Reyes III, was a committee member for GOP nominee Joe Lhota’s birthday fundraiser bash at the midtown Sheraton later that same evening.



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Thursday's Mayoral Debate

No Hard Hitting Questions From Debate Moderator the Candidates Mud Fight About Nothing
At times, taken aback by the intensifying barrage, Mr. de Blasio appealed to the moderator to intervene. “In professional wrestling,” Mr. de Blasio moaned, “they allow tag teams.”  The Moderator who many believe did not show up for the debate not only let the mud fight go on he and his fellow journalist did not ask on question that got the candidates go beyond their talking points.  No questions were ask about how to pay for new union contracts, rising pension and health care costs. No questions about affordable housing and homelessness and no questions about education. They did for the dumb lightening round questions.

A Tag Team Gang Developed Because the Debate Was So Out of Control
Instead the candidates offered dozens of new services and programs with a simple way to fund the extra costs, taxing the rich. De Blasio said taxing the rich will pay for universal Pre-K.  Others said that the rich will pay to keep hospitals open, to make up for federal cuts to the NYCHA.  Others said that keeping the middle class, fixing problems in education and all the other ills in the city would be solved by getting rid of Bloomberg.  The debate moderators did not once challenge the candidates to state the obvious That taxing the rich is not enough money to cover all the promises they are making.

The Permanent Government Now Runs the Press, No Jack Newfield to Fight Them
When Weiner asked a serious question about the council slush fund cover-up of Quinn his question was cut off by a reporter saying that she said enough.  It looks like these reporters are picked to question candidates in debates because they will not ask questions challenging the control of the city's permanent government.  Not one question was ask if the candidates who all took money from Excell One57- door for the rich and one for the poor - would return the money to the developer. Or if they would return the money to the Rudin people who are build luxury co-op on the site of the closed St. Vincent's. Besides different ideas how to deal with stop and frisk not one candidate or debate journalist asked or talked about how to keep New Yorkers safe.

NYC Jobless Rate Goes Up And No Candidate for City Office Has Come Up With A Plan to Create More Jobs in the City

A Issues Never Discussed in Campaign 2013 is Unemployment

City’s Jobless Rate Increased to 8.6% in August Despite Hiring Gains(NYT) The rise in the unemployment rate, from 8.4 percent in July, reflects an increase in the number of people looking for work in the city, biggest increase in a year since 1999. NYC's unemployment rate is 1.3% over the nations.   The new jobs in New York City are mostly low-paying and in the service industry. [David Seifman]  * State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's scary report about Wall Street shedding jobs is not surprising. [Nicole Gelinas] * The New York financial industry has replaced only one-third of the jobs it lost during the financial crisis.(Guardian) * Why New York's future is fleeing Nowhere near enough jobs for the younger generation(NYP) * City unemployment rate ticks up to 8.6% (CrainsNY) New York state's unemployment rate also rose slightly in August, to 7.6% from 7.5%. Both city and state trailed the national unemployment rate, which dropped slightly to 7.3% from 7.4%.


NYC's Budget Debt, High Taxes and Changing Population Will Are Limiting the Number of Jobs
The NYC budget has grown 56 percent above the rate of inflation over the last 11 years.” For the first time in history, the city has more than $100 billion in outstanding debt. The borrowing, which grew by 83 percent in the last decade, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. The borrowing carries debt-service costs of nearly $7 billion a year, a tab that will grow when interest rates rise. Throw in more than $8 billion a year in pension costs, and the combination consumes more than 20 percent of the budget of $70 billion, yet doesn’t hire a cop, a teacher or fill a pothole.  

Florida has no state or local income tax, so it can offer immediate savings of 13 percentage points to beleaguered New Yorkers. Bloomberg makes that point repeatedly, noting that about 5,000 wealthy families pay 30 percent of the city’s income tax. ‘Wall ST.’ flees NY for tax-free Fla. (NYP) * Escape from New York A new poll last week showed that more than one of every four New Yorkers is headed for the exits.*  Since 1960, 7.3 million people have left New York for other states.* NYers take worst tax hit in nation(NYP) Poll: 47 Percent Of New Yorkers Are Worse Off Financially Than They Were 4 Years Ago(WCBS) * Study Finds More New Yorkers Leaving State(NYT) * Census Shows New York Exodus(WSJ)* tudy finds NY entrepreneurship lagging nation Just over 15% of people in New York state are involved in some kind of entrepreneurial activity, compared with a national average of 18.8%.* NY ranks 49 in business tax climate * Taxes, regs hobble NY manufacturing recovery(NYP)


Erie Canal Became NY's First Economic Engine, Wall Street and Banking Followed Later . . .  Will High Tech Be the City's New Economic Engine With All the World Wide Competition?
Governor De Witt Clinton in spite of a lack of public support, funding, untrained engineers, and unforgiving terrain had the vision and leadership skills to build the Erie Canal in the early 1800's. The canal which opened New York’s manufacturing goods to the Midwest markets was responsible for the state overtaking Boston and Philadelphia to become the commerce and jobs capitol of America - increasing the state’s population five fold, in the decade after it was open.
 
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Besides the Personal Attacks On Each Other the Moderators Allow the Candidates to Talk About Issues That Cannot Be Accomplished By the Limited Powers of the PA

Debate Does Not Matter (nobody watched) 
It is All About Turnout and GOTV
Dan Squadron says James has agreed with Mayor Bloomberg "98% of the time." Goes into attack mode, saying she's taken corporate contribu...
Squadron says James was accepting donations from coke when she was opposed to mayor's soda ban.
Squadron says Tish James voted w/ MRB "98% of the time." Squadron raises a trustworthiness issue with James, saying she didn't disclose rental income or taxes. * Squadron is asking James a Q. He's looking at her. She's not looking at him. Icy. But perhaps not as icy as Lhota not asking Cats a Q. * Squadron says he didn't endorse in 2009 race. * Squadron says he did speak out against the extension of term limits.* Daniel Squadron hit Letitia James for accepting money from Coca-Cola while opposing the mayor's soda ban. James hit Squadron for supporting Bloomberg's 2009 re-election and not opposing the mayor's term limits extension. [Derek Kravitz]

Public Advocate Debate About Personal Fiances, Attack on Truthfulness &Bloomberg, Another Debate Moderators Failure
He doesn't say anything about Thompson. * "I don't have a trust fund," Squadron says. He says his family was victims of Madoff scheme. He says they lost everything. * Squadron says personal attack on him is deeply inappropriate. This feels ugly and tense. * James pledges to Squadron that she'll release her tax returns tomorrow. She pivots to ask about Squadron's "trust fund."* "What we really need is a public advocate who has uncovered CityTime" and will do more on waste and fraud: James* Both candidates agree we should have instant runoff voting. But for now, RUNOFF DEBATE! The next public advocate, live * Dan Squadron going after Tish James on "transparency" again -- says he doesn't take PAC money. * Squadron says the intent of saying he brought lux housing to Bklyn Bridge Park is just out there to "mislead voters." * \James comes back at Squadron; says he broke trust with the voters by bringing luxury instead of afforable housing to Brooklyn. * . claims took $100k from charter supporters but he counters that he doesn't support all of their co-locations * quadron says Silver should not step down. James says he should. *  James says she has worked effectively with Ray Kelly to increase community policing.* Public Advocate Runoff Candidates Debate On NY1 * Bitter Tone in Debate Between Public Advocate Rivals(NYT) * Below you can watch both State Senator Daniel Squadron and Councilwoman Tish James talking to reporters after yesterday’s public advocate debate:

Mayoral Debates Set All With Clueless TV Reporters

News Team Assembly for Debates
Mark your calendar: televised mayoral debates will be held Oct. 15 on WABC-TV, Oct. 22 on WCBS-TV and Oct. 29 on WNBC.
De Blasio and Lhota Agree to 3 More TV Debates (NY

  1. Why did clueless jerky TV reporters get all the debates?
  2. cuz who's gonna watch a Buncha losers blogging?

A Mayoral Race About the Past . . .  Gray Lady Gets Into Local Cartoons
 
The Ghosts of Mayors Past(NYT) David N. Dinkins and Rudolph W. Giuliani are not on the ballot in this year’s mayoral election.
But they haunt it, nonetheless.Similar to the specters in Charles Dickens’s “Christmas Carol,” the two former mayors have been cast as the Ghosts of Mayors Past in this year’s contest, symbolizing how the city could be transformed should Bill de Blasio or Joseph J. Lhota take up residence in Gracie Mansion.* Dinkins: “I have enough ego to think I’m an asset” to former aide de Blasio's campaign:



NYP's Michael Goodwin Must Feel Very Alone in NYC
 It’s not ‘divisive’ – it’s the truth!(Goodwin, NYP) Such is the fate of any who dare throw off the smothering blanket of leftist conformity. The thought police, having learned well the wrong lessons from George Orwell, insist that the only truth is the one they approve. The only standards they endorse are double standards. And so dissent was patriotic when George Bush was president, but treasonous under Barack Obama. The symbol of Dinkins’ New York was the squeegee man, whose business model was intimidation. Trapped motorists paid for dirty water on their windshields, or else. It was a stickup, $1 at a time.


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All the Media Silent On Local Impact on  Citizens United
We have just gone though the first local election since the Citizen United ruling where two major IE groups Jobs4NT and NYClass has pumped money into almost every first time winning candidate or attacked their opponent.  CrainsNY reporter Chris Bragg has done a good job showing that on of the big PAC groups headed by Advance's Scott Levinson was not following the election law and was in some elections working against the interests of his council clients.  Only True News has asked where is the media on Citizens United effect on the city's elections. Mark Levine ran  in a minority created district he did not even live in won with the help of Jobs4NY, NYClass and United for the Future.* Politicians for Sale (NYT Ed)The Supreme Court should follow its own precedent and uphold overall campaign contribution limits.




Parkside Groups Citizen's United Invisible Campaign Consultant/ Lobbyist Operates in Dark Pools
 
NY's Corrupt Campaign Culture Enablers
The Parkside Group's Evan Stavisky is using the Supreme Courts Citizen United ruling to completely hide from the city and state campaign disclosure reporting reporting system. Despite being involved in over 50 campaigns this year, Parkside name is not in the CFB or NYS BOE campaign disclosure reporting files. How about that Moreland Commission.  Stavisky ran the so called independent expenditure PSC Jobs4NY which spent $10 million to elect council members and is now working with the Queens' democratic organization and other PACS to elect the next speaker.  Last years Parkside made $1.8 million in lobbying fees.  Parkside also took in $2.77 million from Albany legislator campaigns

New York's Culture of Corruption is Caused By the People Who Elect Them
Campaign Consultants/Lobbyists are often connected at the hip,” said NYPIRG’s Bill Mahoney.  What the NYPIRG worker was saying their is a secret bond between elected officials and those that run their campaigns.  What NYPIRG has not looked at is the secret bonds between campaign consultants many of whom are also lobbyist. These secret bonds were not caused by the courts but by the state's weak campaign reporting requirements. Parkside which was paid over $2 million by the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee hires other consultants to do some of the work, but does not have to disclose who they are paying.  The big money and lack of rules have developed a secret world of Dark Pool where campaign consultants make deals giving each other work and trade support for their lobbyists clients.  

Campign Consultants Working On More Than One Side in the Same Time
This secret horse trading world has not only created a monopoly on who becomes a campaign consultant the money and power the chosen consultants are making and amassing has caused them to become sloppy arrogant as they go for the big money. Incredibly with the help of Citizens United they have found a way to work on more than one side in the same race.   The advance group got paid $28,000 by gay city council candidate Yetta Kurland at the same time the firm worked secretly to promote her opponent Cory Johnson’s candidacy through an IE paid for by the UFT via a company called Strategic Consultants—apparently a dummy shell corporation set up to obscure the Advance Group’s double-dealing.True New is working on more examples of campaign consultants working together to game New York's election system and why the DAs, Moreland and AG is silent on the Advance Groups Corruption

Jobs4NY Parkside Helped Elected to the New Council

Margaret S Chin (1), ), Inez E Dickens (9), Andrew Cohen (11), Andrew  King (12), Fernando  Cabrera (14), Vanessa L Gibson (16), Paul A Vallone (19), Costa G Constantinides (22), Costa G Constantinides (22), Rory Lancman (24), Laurie Cumbo (35), Ritchie Torres (36), Rafael L Espinal, Jr. (37), Alan Maisel (46), Mark Treyger (47), John Mancuso (50)


How Come the Millions Spent By PACS are Not Included in the Lobbyists Tally
About $105 million was spent on lobbying in the first six months of the year, the lowest in five years, according to a JCOPE report.

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Another Secret Attack Between Two Elected Officials Through A PAC
Independent Expenditure Effort Raises Eyebrows in the Bronx(NYO) Ms. Mark-Viverito and Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda were two of mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio’s earliest backers. But behind the scenes–as the two appeared together at press conferences–Mr. Sepulveda’s chief of staff, Kenneth Thomas, was serving as a board member on a political action committee that had set its sights against her.



Mayoral Candidate: The NYC Media Behaved  More Like TMZ That Responsible Journalists
Clowns Journalists
How the Media Lost the Race for Mayor(Sal Albanese, City Limits)
Bill de Blasio won the Democratic primary. Sal Albanese did not. But thanks to poor coverage of the race, the former councilman argues, New York's voters are the real losers.As an outsider candidate for mayor, I never expected great coverage, but I was shocked to see how much the landscape had deteriorated. Before any major poll, the New York Daily News decided to lock our campaign out of three televised debates that it hosted early in the year.
When I reached out to an editorial board member for an explanation, I was scoffed at and denied any objective criteria. So, I sought a different path.I offered substantive op-eds, most notably on poverty in schools and the need for early intervention. Rejected. I held press conferences with victims of Hurricane Sandy to demand tougher action from the mayor. Uncovered. Then, the Anthony Weiner Circus came to town. Newspaper editors put public safety, failing schools, and the affordability crisis aside in favor of anatomical puns. In a real twist, I received more quotes in the month of July, when I called for Mr. Weiner to step out of the race, than during the preceding six months. But the long-term impact that shallow coverage has on our city is much more troubling than its impact on my campaign. We're now poised to elect Bill de Blasio as our next mayor. Unfortunately, we know less about his public policies than we know about Anthony Weiner's private life.We would be much better off if we knew what our next mayor had accomplished and really plans to do over the next four years. Unfortunately, the fourth estate has failed to provide that information. Elections have consequences, and so does the way that we cover them. For the sake of our city's future, we must demand better.


The Media Takes No Responsibility to Inform and No Shame For Failure to Do So
"So which is Bill de Blasio, Sandinista or Clintonista, radical or clubhouse regular.  It’s a good question, particularly considering how vague he has been about so many things as a mayoral candidate." Daily News Op-Ed






The NY Media Covers Putin's Corrupt Election in Crimeans and is Silent About Selling the Mayor's Ballot Line in A NYC

Will Putin Take Over NYC Next?
 In two weeks it will be one year since Senator Malcolm Smith, Councilman Dan Halloran, Bronx Republican Chairman Jay Savino and Queens GOP VP Vince Tabone. The media has not done one investigative story about the Smith attempt to buy the mayor's seat. As U.S. Attorney Bharara pointedly asked: “What can we expect when transgressions seem to be tolerated and nothing ever seems to change?” “Putting dirty politicians in prison may be necessary, but is not sufficient. Hard as it is to believe, New York’s public-corruption crisis is getting worse.

The press has a role to play, Mr. Bharara said, noting that he is saddened by recent reports of newspaper closings and staff downsizing. "Rather than just covering the cases that my office and other offices are already bringing, figure out ways to break new ground and to cover new stories," he said. "Groundbreaking corruption coverage is not just good copy, it's a path to good government." Bharara Preet Bharara hopes for more muckraking in ... - Capital Sept 18, 2013 As Queens City Councilman Dan Halloran, who was also arrested, put it in an FBI transcript, “Money is what greases the wheels.” Politics is “all about how much.”
 ‘Bribing’ his way onto the ballot: State Sen., city Councilman Halloran face fed rap today(NYP) State Sen. Malcolm Smith and city Councilman Dan Halloran will be slapped with federal charges today in a stunning bribery scheme to rig this year’s mayoral election.* The king of Queens graft(NYP Ed) Smith has been linked to so many dubious schemes the FBI must have had an entire branch on his tail: Bid-rigging for the Aqueduct racino. Co-founding a Katrina charity that saw nearly $30,000 vanish. Diverting campaign funds for lavish personal trips and meals. Even opening (and then ruining) a Queens charter school in what appears to be a plot to boost home sales for a developer and big-time donor.








Mark Green Goes Rogue On de Blasio, Cuomo and Sharpton 
Tell-all book dishes dirt on New York’s top Democrats (NYP)Former NYC Public Advocate Mark Green has penned a tell-all book about New York politics that savages NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio as a pandering phony, Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a pompous elitist and the Rev. Al Sharpton as a lying con man. “To keep my wife and sanity, I’m now done with electoral politics and free to be candid about politicians of all persuasions — and myself,” he wrote in an early draft of the book, published by St. Martin’s Press and sent to The Post. He complained that de Blasio sent mailers ripping his brother, Steven Green, a prominent real-estate developer, as “one of the most corrupt landlords in New York City” during the 2009 election battle between the two for public advocate. “What the hell are you doing falsely sliming my brother? I thought there’s a rule that candidates lay off families,” Green says he told de Blasio during a phone call. 

“He [de Blasio] smoothly begins saying, ‘Well my research people tell me that . . .’ I interrupt and say, ‘You are so full of s–t and we both know it. Goodbye.’ ” Green then fast-forwards to de Blasio’s successful 2013 mayoral campaign. “Bill visits my ‘corrupt’ brother at his S.L. Green office to ask for money,” he writes. Green’s harshest accusation against de Blasio is that the mayor exploited his own mixed-race family for political benefit. “His first four citywide mailings are composed largely of pictures of him with his African-American wife and mixed-race children. OK, we all have wives and children who we love and campaign with, although I’ve never seen a candidate advertise his quite so much,” Green writes.  

When it comes to Cuomo, Green portrays him as behaving like a pampered, wealthy scion of a major political family.  Green said he got a taste of the then-future governor’s arrogance during a “get to know” meeting in 1996, in which Cuomo behaved like a prince by not looking Green in the eye and instead speaking pompously into “the royal middle distance.” He said that in 2002, he questioned Cuomo about why he would challenge then-state Comptroller Carl McCall in the Democratic race for governor — and Cuomo replied by asking: “Mark, do you know the three pictures every black family has on their walls? . . . Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King and either John or Robert Kennedy.” Green said he was confused at first by the comment — but then the later realized that Cuomo was implying that he expected African-American support because Cuomo’s wife at the time was Kerry Kennedy.

Green is most anguished when discussing his 2001 loss to Bloomberg for mayor.  He directs much of his wrath at Sharpton, who supported his Democratic opponent, Fernando Ferrer, in the primary that year. Green says Sharpton turned on him because of a controversial flier sent out by Green supporters in white neighborhoods linking Sharpton to Ferrer. Green disavowed the fliers.  Green says Sharpton sabotaged his campaign by falsely claiming Green sought his endorsement.“He’s a riveting, entertaining ‘confidence man’ — see The Sting, Music Man — who charms his way out of a list of particulars that would destroy anyone of lesser talents — mob ties before becoming an FBI informant against the mob, Tawana Brawley, IRS fines, multiple campaign violations, anti-Semitic comments, racial bullying,” Green writes.  When told of Green’s book, Sharpton dismissed the criticism as coming from a “sore loser who’s trying to sell books.”Cuomo’s spokesman, meanwhile, brushed Green’s book aside by saying “Mark’s memoir should be called ‘Green with envy.’ ”

 

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