Bill de Blasio’s Communist Pals

Who will train New York’s finest — Sandinistas or former Stasi? 

When the New York Times revealed that New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio had been an enthusiastic supporter of Nicaragua’s communist Sandinista regime, old arguments from the 1980s were suddenly rekindled, with renewed debate over the nature of that regime. The left once again emerged from the woodwork to insist that the Sandinistas were never bad guys (or even communists) — quite the contrary. The Times quickly published letters-to-the-editor whitewashing the Sandinistas’ tyranny, and one Times’ blogger went so far as to publish a post declaring: “Whatever their failings, the Sandinistas did not impose a repressive regime on their impoverished Central American nation. There was no mass jailing of opponents nor mass execution of opposing soldiers.”

Gee, that’s good — assuming that it’s even true. Of course, it isn’t true.

To cite just once source, the Russian-born scholar, Dr. Jamie Glazov, who came to America as a child when the KGB forced him and his pro-democracy, dissident parents into exile, is among those who beg to differ. Glazov wrote:

The Sandinistas quickly distinguished themselves as one of the worst human rights abusers in Latin America, carrying out approximately 8,000 political executions within three years of the revolution. The number of “anti-revolutionary” Nicaraguans who disappeared while in Sandinista hands numbered in the thousands. By 1983, the number of political prisoners inside the new Marxist regime’s jails was estimated at 20,000. This was the highest number of political prisoners in any nation in the hemisphere — except, of course, in Castro’s Cuba. By 1986, a vicious and violent Sandinista “resettlement program” forced some 200,000 Nicaraguans into 145 “settlements” throughout the country. This monstrous social engineering program entailed the designation of “free-fire” zones in which Sandinista government troops shot and killed any peasant of their choosing.

Via: The American Spectator

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New York CIty: Bill de Blasio defended teacher at daughter's school facing jail for Israel protest

Bill de Blasio once went to a bat for a teacher at his daughter’s school who was arrested protesting Israel’s policies in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Newly available documents from de Blasio’s years as a City Councilman show the Democratic mayoral frontrunner intervened with the Manhattan District Attorney in 2004 to help first-grade teacher Steve Quester avoid jail time after he and 15 other protesters were charged with blocking traffic and disorderly conduct during a 2003 protest.

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“I want to personally call the D.A.,” de Blasio wrote in an email to a top aide in April, 2004, the documents show.

It’s not clear if de Blasio knew about Quester’s controversial views on Israel.

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The teacher, who worked at Public School 372 where de Blasio’s daughter Chiara was a student at the time, was quoted in a 2002 Associated Press article calling suicide bombers “desperate and hopeless” and adding that “all the heartbreak flows directly from Israel's policy” of occupying the Palestinian territories.

After Quester’s arrest in 2004, de Blasio sent a letter to then-District Attorney Robert Morgenthau calling jailtime for the arrested protesters “extreme and unjust for participation in a peaceful political protest.”

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He also penned a note to the Manhattan judge overseeing the case asking for leniency.

“Mr. Quester upholds the school’s high standards each time he steps into the classroom,” de Blasio wrote in a letter to Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Robert Stolz in May, 2004. “I hope you will take his praiseworthy character and his extraordinary contributions to his community into account.”

Via: NYDN

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Filner guilty plea: Ex-San Diego mayor banned from public office

SAN DIEGO -- Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner on Tuesday agreed to give up most of his mayoral pension and never again run for office in exchange for avoiding jail time related to criminal charges that grew out of the sexual harassment allegations that drove him from office.

Under the plea agreement, Filner on Tuesday pleaded guilty to one felony count of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor counts of battery. The charges, filed by the state attorney general's office in San Diego County Superior Court, relate to three alleged victims, identified in court papers as Jane Doe 1, 2 and 3.

The felony count involves allegations of false imprisonment by violence, fraud, menace and deceit.

The count alleges that Filner used "undue" force to hold a woman against her will.

The battery counts involve accusations that he kissed one woman and grabbed another by the buttocks.

In addition to the agreement on running for office and his pension, Filner also agreed to spend three months in home confinement. He will also undergo treatment as “directed by a mental health professional” during his three years of probation.

The felony count could have brought a maximum sentence of three years in prison, each misdemeanor count a maximum of 12 months in jail.

Via: LA Times

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TIME Interview with Mike Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg is about to be unemployed for the second time in his professional life. The first was in August of 1981, when Saloman Brothers fired Bloomberg from the only full-time job he had ever known. The second time will be January 1, 2014, when he hands control of New York City over to the next mayor.

The cover story of this week’s TIME magazine is about what Bloomberg will do next, with a clear focus on his enormous wealth and his determination to spend it down changing the world to fit his vision. We live now in a new age of mega-philanthropy, when newly minted billionaires have enormous powers to influence politics and how we live our lives. To report the story, I travelled in late September with Bloomberg to Paris and London, where he reviewed grant proposals and launched new philanthropic efforts and met with British Prime Minister David Cameron.

To read the full story, click here.

Below are some additional excerpts from Bloomberg’s conversation with TIME in London.

On what he will do next:

I’ve said I’m not a consultant. I would want to own the company. I’m not a teacher. I want to learn, but that’s not my bag. I’m not an investor. I delegate that to others. I’m not an author. I wrote one book, did a book party, know what it’s like. I wrote every word in the book no matter what anybody says. But I’ve done it once. I want to do things. And I think the first answer to your questions is if you came to me and said, “I’m just retired or lost my job or whatever. What should I do?” My answer is wait a little while, a couple of months, and see what’s out there because of the things that will become available to you that you never ever even remotely thought about. And it would be a shame to commit yourself. And whatever’s available to you day one is going to be available two months later if it isn’t “So what?”

Via: Time

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Feds Want Detroit Mayor Jailed for 28 Years

Detroit citizens endured a tumultuous period of corruption, scandal, mismanagement and greed under the leadership of their former mayor, say federal prosecutors in asking a judge to slap the thug with nearly three decades in prison.

It would mark the harshest punishment for public corruption in U.S. history, but the truth is no one deserves it more than Kwame Kilpatrick. If this were the Olympics, he’d get the gold. If it were the Tour de France he’d wear the yellow jersey. Even among today’s dirty politicians, Kilpatrick sticks out among the pack, even compared to the Louisiana congressman (William Jefferson) busted with a $100,000 cash bribe in his freezer!  

Convicted of 24 corruption charges, Kilpatrick operated monstrous extortion, kickback and bribery schemes in which virtually all parts of city government were up for grabs for the right price. He also lived the high life on taxpayer dime, charging hundreds of thousands of dollars on city-issued credit cards for pro football tickets, fancy spas and restaurants, rock concerts and family trips to Las Vegas. Kilpatrick even had taxpayers pick up the $42,000 tab to lease two luxury vehicles for his wife and he put his friends and relatives on the city payroll.  

But the single transgression Kilpatrick is most famous for involves lying under oath and billing his constituents north of $8 million to cover up an extramarital affair with a city staffer. Cops on the mayor’s security team were forced out of their job for raising questions about the affair and the city kept the wrongfully terminated officers quiet with an $8.4 million settlement. Kilpatrick and city-paid lawyers masterminded the secret deal, but two local newspapers got wind of it and obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act.

Via: Judicial Watch

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Six decades in Detroit: How abandonment, racial tensions and financial missteps bankrupted the city

It was called a city of magic, and many believed the best was yet to come.

For a week in July 1951, Detroit put down its tools to reflect on its magnificence. The city that in four decades transformed from an unremarkable Midwestern community into a prosperous urban powerhouse was celebrating its 250th birthday.

A million people lined Woodward for a parade. A musical written for the occasion, “City of Freedom,” ran for 11 days. The city marked the anniversary by creating the Detroit Historical Museum and launching a fundraising drive for Cobo Hall.

“The magic of Detroit is the way it sprang apparently full grown, fully prepared, into a world-wide metropolitan eminence, virtually overnight, after two centuries of somnolent obscurity,” John C. Manning, editor of The Detroit Times, wrote in the anniversary’s program.

Detroit was something new and hopeful. Its 185 war plants cranked out arms that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II. Its population soared because of a promise: Sacrifice your body to the assembly line, make enough to realize the American dream.

But as Mayor Albert Cobo lit a cake with 250 candles and sent balloons into the summer sky, Detroit was already in decline. President Harry Truman capped the celebration with a speech outside City Hall assuring residents that layoffs rippling through the city were a “temporary situation.”

They weren’t. The nation was on the brink of a recession. The auto industry was consolidating. Racial tensions were festering. The slow descent that ended 62 years later in the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy had begun.

Many of the forces that propelled Detroit to such heights — autos, the might of unions, migration from the South and inexpensive housing — also contributed to its fall.

Via: Detroit News

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ACORN sowed seeds for de Blasio

The leftist group ACORN has been plotting for more than a decade to install Bill de Blasio at City Hall, a Democratic Party source has told The Post.

“Without exaggeration, ACORN’s long-range plan since 2001 was to elect de Blasio mayor,” said the Democratic insider. “De Blasio was a big ACORN project.”

The Democratic mayoral candidate has marched in lock step with ACORN, now renamed New York Communities for Change, even before he took public office in 2001.

The group backed de Blasio that year over Legal Aid Services director Steven Banks in a six-way Brooklyn City Council race, despite Banks’ reputation at the time as a one of the city’s leading champions of the poor and liberal causes.

Eight years later, ACORN was back at de Blasio’s side and, with the union-financed Working Families Party, helped him become public advocate, a perch he used to become the Democratic nominee for mayor.

A key cog in the de Blasio political machine is Bertha Lewis, the former ACORN head who also co-founded the Working Families Party.

On primary election night earlier this month, when she stood on stage t next to de Blasio, Lewis made it clear ACORN’s work had paid off.

“We’re baaaack. The right wing will have to deal with it,” she chuckled.

But Lewis scoffed that she or the organization had a “master plan” to elect de Blasio as the city’s chief executive.

Via: New York Post

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Documents: Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner gave staff $86K in raises before resigning

SAN DIEGO - Bob Filner gave raises to several staff members totaling $86,000 just before he resigned as mayor of San Diego, according to documents obtained by Team 10.

Filner authorized the raises before leaving office amid a lawsuit and several allegations he sexually harassed city staff and other women in the community.

The largest raise went to former Filner press secretary Lena Lewis. Her salary was $82,500 in July, and it rose to $115,000 by August.

In July, Filner protocol officer Molly Chase earned $50,000. On August 1, her pay was bumped up to $65,000.

Filner binational affairs manager Mario Lopez also had a $15,000 increase. His annual salary went from $70,000 in July, to $85,000 in August.

Chase, Lopez and Lewis continue to work for the city of San Diego under interim mayor Todd Gloria. Gloria adjusted the trio's salaries once he took office.

Chase, now the director of appointments and protocol, is earning $60,000. Lopez remains the director of binational affairs and earns his original salary of $70,000. Lewis now serves as a council liaison, with a current salary of $95,000.

Filner also gave three administrative staff raises -- Adriana Martinez, Kimberly Ricci, and Antoinette Duran. The three saw their pay go from $30,000 each in July to $35,000 in August.

Gloria did not adjust their raises, and according to Gloria's spokesperson, all three staffers continue working as community outreach representatives.

The seventh Filner staffer to receive a raise was former council liaison Francisco Estrada. He salary went from $101,500 in July to $110,000 in August.

Via: ABC 10 San Diego

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Anthony Weiner concedes, flips off reporter

Anthony Weiner’s circus of a mayoral campaign came to a thudding halt on Tuesday as Weiner offered his concession speech, dropping out of New York City’s Democratic primary.

With three-fifths of the vote counted, the disgraced ex-congressman had 5 percent and was in fifth place in the crowded race.

“We had the best ideas,” Weiner, who at times seemed to be holding back his emotions, said. “Sadly, I was an imperfect messenger.”

On Tuesday Weiner voted with his young son in tow, and later held an Election Night party at an Irish pub in Manhattan. His wife, Huma Abedin, did not appear with him, and she and their son weren’t mentioned in his concession speech.

(Also on POLITICO: Sydney Leathers shows up at Anthony Weiner election party)

“There was never any quit in this campaign,” he said in his concession speech, as he outlined his policy positions and thanked volunteers, family and staff — especially the “wonder women in this campaign.”

Weiner, a former lawmaker who resigned from Congress in 2011 over a sexting scandal, initially looked like a plausible candidate. But it all ended with graphic new revelations that he continued to have illicit online relationships even after leaving Washington.

When Weiner entered the race in May, he painted himself as a reformed family man and a fighter for the middle class. In a campaign announcement video, he appeared with his wife and their child.

Via: Politico

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NYC MAYORAL HOPEFULS TRY TO GET TO EXPECTED RUNOFF

New York City's wild mayoral primary campaign hurtled to the voting booth Tuesday as New Yorkers begin the process of replacing the man who has led their city for 12 years.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg never offered an endorsement in the race, but the campaign has been defined by his legacy. The Republican mayoral hopefuls are largely promising to maintain his policies, while the Democrats have offered a sharply different approach.

Their front-runner, public advocate Bill de Blasio, is pitching himself as the cleanest break with the current administration. And while just weeks ago his campaign was an afterthought, he now has a legitimate shot of surging right past the 40 percent mark that would avoid a runoff three weeks from now.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday, de Blasio was the choice of 39 percent of likely Democratic voters. If no one reaches 40 percent, the top two finishers advance to an Oct. 1 runoff.

De Blasio's rise was as sudden as it was unexpected. He benefited from placing his interracial family at the heart of his campaign, connecting with voters over the need for NYPD reforms, and by drawing away voters from Anthony Weiner supporters following the former congressman's latest sexting scandal.

If de Blasio's support holds, the other spot in the potential runoff appears to be a matchup between City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and former comptroller Bill Thompson.

Via: Breitbart
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District of Columbia mayor proclaims ‘Lifeline Awareness Week’

OBAMAPHONES FOR EVERYONE

District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray has proclaimed the second week in September to be “District of Columbia Lifeline Awareness Week” in an effort to sign up more people for taxpayer-funded phones.

“[T]he Lifeline Assistance programs offer tremendous benefits for eligible consumers in America which help make basic telephone services more affordable and provide a discount to eligible low-income customers,” Gray wrote in his proclamation.

The Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia, an independent agency that regulates D.C. utilities, announced the Lifeline awareness week Thursday.

“The goal of the Public Service Commission is to sign up as many eligible District consumers as possible,” Commissioner Joanne Doddy Fort said in a statement. “We hope that by raising awareness of the Lifeline Program, we can ensure that the District’s Economy II Service Program can reach more consumers. In today’s highly interconnected world, no one should be left out.”

In D.C. the Lifeline Program is known as Economy II Service and under the federal and local program District residents who participate or are eligible for certain public assistance programs are able to receive phone service through Verizon’s Economy II Service as a discounted rate of $3.00 a month or, for seniors, $1.00 a month plus applicable fees.

The Lifeline Program, which is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has come under criticism from Republicans recently as the program’s cost has more than doubled, from $822 million in 2008 (when the FCC expanded the program to subsidize cell phones) to $2 billion in 2012, leading some to label the phones provided though the program “Obamaphones.”

“This phone program has expanded far beyond its original intent, and as so many middle class Americans struggle underneath this economy, it is really offensive for Washington to make taxpayers pay for free cell phones for others,” Louisiana Republican Sen. Davis Vitter said in a statement earlier this year introducing a bill with Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe to end the mobile phone service subsidy in the Lifeline Program.

In August, a National Review reporter revealed in an article how she ended up receiving three taxpayer subsidized cell phones, despite being well off and upfront about her ineligibility. According to the author, as recently as June there were 13.8 million active Lifeline subscriptions.

Via: Daily Caller

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Weiner's inner circle says he's prepping for future comeback

Former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-N.Y.) friends believe that, while his campaign for mayor may have become a joke, it will set him up for a future political comeback.

New York voters puzzle over why Weiner stays in the race despite constant ridicule. The city’s tabloids pump out streams of headlines punning on his name while late-night comics have made him a national punch line.

Instead of dropping out, Weiner has embraced the media maelstrom in a calculated gamble that voters would respect his toughness and dedication to their issues.

A new documentary by Stateless Media captures Weiner’s unorthodox campaign strategy, which sometimes resonated and, other times, fell flat with voters.

Weiner’s friends say he is setting himself up for a comeback in another race and another year.

Bill Brandt, a close friend of Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, said Weiner’s campaign will clear the way for a future run for office.

“The truth of the matter is he’s been beaten up now for two months nonstop. When he does something for the future, it will be fair of him to say ‘asked and answered’” when reporters ask him about his personal life, said Brandt, who is also a long-time supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton. 
Via: The Hill

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