Monday, October 8, 2012

Google

Custom Search

September 30, 2012

The End

While you read this try and hear The Doors playing in the background for the right feel. Just kidding, trying to lighten the mood. Well, this is my last post. I am hoping and praying that by the time you read this I have not botched this suicide attempt.
We end where we started some four years ago. My first post was titled, "Why & Why Now?" It applies now as well. This is, by its very nature, going to be self indulgent and maybe a little maudlin. So most of you who read my site won't find this of much interest. As Alanis Morissette might say, this could be messy.
First, nothing sudden about this. I quit my job in March - turned out my boss on Wall St was a quasi-criminal and I was getting ensnared in his legal problems - and had three months of financial reserves. I tried to find another job, but as I expected, a felon who is a Level 3 sex offender stands no chance of gaining meaningful employment. So I decided, if by July 1 I couldn't find anything, I would take this route. By the end of June I manged to figure out how to last two more months and kept looking for work. I am just too old to be homeless and start over one more time. I don't have it in me. You may have noticed that starting in June I was posting new installments of J'ACCUSE every few weeks instead of 2x a year. I knew the end was coming and I wanted to get as much of the story out there before time ran out.
I realize the timing, weeks after Ray Harding's death, would appear to have some linkage. All I can do is repeat that this was planned originally for June, long before I knew he was ill. I will say I am glad I outlasted him, even by a few weeks. I sure as shit hope I don't have to see him in the afterlife. Not that we believe in it, but that would be a sure sign that I've wound up in Hell.
You know for most people every second of life is precious: Just another sunrise, just another dusk. Just one more. Even for sad and lonely people, the prospect of a brighter tomorrow is enough to keep them going.
Personally I've always subscribed to the Woody Allen view of life as he expressed it in Annie Hall: "Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. Horrible is blind people, paraplegics - I don't know how they get through life. Miserable is everyone else." That's just how it's been for me since I was young: a miserable life with pockets of happiness. I don't mean to sound self pitying; I've suffered from mental illness and have spent most of my life in deep depressions, so it's natural that I would view the world that way.
I marvel when I read these stories about sex offenders in Florida who make their lives living under a bridge due to Miami's and the state's residency restrictions. Life has to be really precious for you to live that way with no hope of improvement. Working harder or going to college is not getting you out from under that bridge - the state has condemned you there regardless of how you improve your life. Believe me, if I were told I'd be living under a bridge, I'd be on top jumping off. And in the end, Florida and other places want exactly that: they want you to move out of the state or kill yourself; that's what these residency laws are about.
So no, life doesn't have the same meaning to me that it does to other people. I have no family or friends to give me pause. Having to spend every single day by myself with no one to talk to can take its toll after a few years. Work was great in that I had some people to interact with. But other than that the only people I would engage with were merchants when I shopped for groceries, got my dry cleaning or had my car fixed. It was enough for awhile, but not enough to live for.
And then there's Seabright. It's hard to write this. I've spent every day since November 2003 trying to forget my dog, Seabe. The thought that I left him behind has wracked me with guilt. I can think of the worst abuses of prison and not get emotional. But any sighting of a dog on the street or on TV starts me crying. For that last four years I worked next door to the New York Stock Exchange. That street, Broad Street, has bomb sniffing dogs all along the street - they're all Labradors, like Seabe. I would walk an extra block to work every day so I could avoid seeing those dogs. When I had to pass them I would turn my head as I walked because I couldn't bare being reminded of Seabe. If you're not a dog owner - or have never met Seabe - this all sounds nuts. I know, I used to be that way too before I got him.
When I left the halfway house I had a very hard time finding an apartment because I had to have a place for Seabe when I got him back. I finally found a place that accepted dogs. I knew at the time I couldn't afford to get him back right away, I didn't make enough money. To say I was living paycheck to paycheck would be an understatement. Many weeks I would end up having to suffice on less than $5. I left for work every day at 7am and didn't return till 7pm. I couldn't afford a dog walker or day care for him, let alone food, toys and vet visits. But I had hope my finances would improve and I could get him back. That never happened. And then after 2 1/2 years some neighbor of mine discovered who I was from the NYS website, complained to the landlord and they evicted me. I couldn't find another place that I could afford that would accept pets. Suffice to say if I had Seabe I wouldn't be taking this route. It was too hard to leave him once - not that I could have controlled that back in 2003.
It was the thought of being without Seabe and not particularly wanting to go to prison for crimes for which I had no remorse, that helped me to decide that suicide was the right option for me back then. I made my plans and was 3 days away from executing it. I made the mistake of saying goodbye to someone I thought I could trust and he ratted me out. Here's the thing you may find interesting; not a single day has gone by since Nov. 3, 2003 - when I was arrested - that I haven't regretted revealing my plans. It was not a cry for help, I just fucked up by telling someone. Naturally I haven't been suicidal for 8 1/2 years, but at any moment during this entire time if you had asked me whether I wish I had been successful back in 2003 in killing myself, the answer would have been yes. Being imprisoned, poor, friendless and alone is not an existence that's worth having for me. For others, absolutely. But I didn't attempt suicide these past few years because I had some hope things might improve. I now know they won't.
There are some people who go through prison and find religion - literally or figuratively. They find some value in the experience: they got off drugs; they realize the mess they made of their life, etc. That was never me. Federal prison is a miserable, soul crushing experience if you have nothing to come back to - and even if you do. I found no redemptive value in it whatsoever. It showed me a level of sadism and depravity by the powerful over the powerless I hadn't thought possible in this country. It didn't fill me with great hope and joy for the future.
I do not write this in hope of any pity or sympathy. I know full well as I write this that there are Iraq war vets who have come back with no arms or legs and yet persevere. They run marathons, raise families, face their setbacks and move on with their lives. I am in awe of those men. It just ain't me. Not everyone can have their life crushed and come back from the abyss. Some of us just fall in. Not all of us are Harold Russell. I'm not.
Another man may have gone though exactly what I did, brushed off the experience, the injustices visited upon him, and moved on. I know that. I just couldn't. A psychologist I was required to see while on probation diagnosed me with a form of PTSD. I just could not come to grips with what was done to me and what I was made to endure. It caused me to be unable psychologically to move on until I had answers. I believed that all the dozens of people who lied, conspired, perjured and slandered me would somehow be exposed. That I would get some satisfaction from that. But it never happened. There was no justice. And I simply could never get my head around the fact that once the ball got rolling in maligning me, it would continue for nearly a decade. The lies would be compounded and then harden and then used by someone else as fact to do me more harm. By the end I would have had to go back seven steps to right the original lie that was added to and added to and being used against me contemporaneously.
It was like a criminal justice and journalistic game of telephone: A newspaper prints a lie that's then used in court by the prosecution; pre-trial uses that lie from the court and newspaper; the pre-sentencing report (PSR) uses the lie from pre-trial; the BOP uses the lie from the PSR; the halfway house uses it from the BOP; the BOP hands it off to probation; probation writes it up for the SORA court; the prosecutors use it in the SORA hearing; then again for the appeal; and finally by the journalist writing about the SORA hearings. That's bad if it's just one lie about you. Imagine if there are ten.
By the time it reaches the SORA court a lie may have been memorialized in five or ten different documents or transcripts all repeating the same untruth. And at each step of the way the lie is used to do you some harm: impose a restriction; raise a level; curtail your rights further, etc. The basic inherent unfairness of it is just something that wears on you. By the end you would have to forgive not one, but fifty people for harming you. I can't make my peace with that. Especially since, for me, the criminal justice aspect of this is now a life sentence. I simply can't see the reason why I am a Level 3 Sex Offender. No court has ever explained it to me. I've yet to meet or speak to someone who told me it was deserved. And yet, I have to live with these awful lifetime restrictions that the Supreme Court has said are not punishments.
I don't want to spend a life poor, sad, loveless and alone. Waking up to another dawn in that life state just isn't appealing to me for another thirty years, even if that were an option financially. So I've decided my time has run out.
I know that there are still one or two people from my old life who, had I asked them for help in this hour, would have helped. But I don't like making the request and I'm sure they prefer not having me make it.
It's a funny thing. When I was a kid - for reasons I cannot explain - I had a deep sense that I would die young. I know, it's crazy. But it was deeply ingrained in me. I never expected to see the age of 20. When I was 20 I was sure I would never see 30. Ironically, only once I had started to see progress in turning around HDC did I finally think maybe I would have a full life. So I guess this is just the fulfillment of a childhood premonition. Not that 48 is young. Although I have to say, I don't look or feel 48.
It seems wrong to kill an otherwise healthy body. As nutty as this sounds, I sort of know how suicide bombers feel. Yes, of course, their ideology is insane and their goals are horrific, but If you're going to die, you'd at least like your death to have some meaning. Sadly, mine will have none. Here one minute, gone the next. My life will not have been footprints in concrete, but rather in sand; washed away with the next tide. I do like to think in the end that this site actually contributed a little something and may have fostered a little debate here and there. So I am definitely grateful for that.
Am I scared? Sure. However, I watched many episodes of that Jennifer Love-Hewitt show The Ghost Whisperer. I'm hoping there's a light, that my heart becomes unburdened, my chest finally untightens and that I see my grandparents, whom I've missed a lot. If there really is a heaven, I'll see Seabe soon too. I will say this: Having taken the step in Waseca to swallow all those pills, I've pretty much crossed this line before. It makes it somewhat easier once you've done it; it really is a rubicon. Obviously this is as much psychological as it is physical. When I took those 70+ Tegretol plus two dozen other pills in Waseca, I was not expecting to wake up. That was a firm choice, like now, not a cry for help. You know what my last thought was before I drifted off to sleep that night in Waseca in 2003? As silly as it sounds, it was "I don't want to live in a world where Paris and Nicky Hilton are famous." I know, a ridiculous last thought, but that's what it was - I remember it clearly. Of course the actual reason was that I could not face going back to the SHU at the MCC where I was headed back next. Death was certainly preferable to that. I guess now my last thought might be, "I wouldn't want to live in a world where Barack Obama can be re-elected president."
I'm nervous and anxious all the time. I haven't had a vacation in 11 years. I left HDC on a Friday and by the following Tuesday all this had started. That was Feb. 2002. It was a year and half of investigations while I was at my home. Then six months more at my parent's house. Then prison for five years. Then the halfway house were, within two weeks, I was able to find a fairly crummy job on Wall St for the next four years while on probation. I'm just weary of living this life. The last four and half years was all predicated on the hope that better things were just around the corner. But in the end, the money ran out and not much I can do about that when I can't find work.
Anyway, to all of you, and you know who you are, who have written me over the last four years about issues and injustice, I thank you. The human contact, even electronically, helped a lot. I hope my thoughts and insights, even in some small way, helped to bring to the fore some issues not usually discussed broadly. I think we all did some good work on here.
I have made arrangements for the site to stay up for awhile, maybe one or two more years. Obviously there won't be any new content, but I know many people search the site for facts or quotes from old posts. Special goodbyes to RB, EK and GS.
If I have a coda, it's best expressed by Edith Piaf: Non, Je ne regrette rien. Ni le bien qu'on m'a fait. Ni le mal tout ça m'est bien égal. Mes chagrins, mes plaisirs. Je n'ai plus besoin d'eux.

I've rambled on too long. Sorry this was so all over the place. I guess "Goodbye cruel world" would have been enough. After all, who wants to leave a tedious suicide note?
I wish you all the best,
RAH
P.S. To whomever has me buried, I don't want a funeral. I just want to me buried somewhere, not cremated. I don't care where I'm buried, but no service or anything like that, even graveside. I hate phoniness and hypocrisy. No one who might attend is anyone I'd want there. If some kind reader would say Kaddish for me though, that would be appreciated. Thanks.
P.P.S. In case you're wondering, this site has the ability to schedule posts to be published at a later date. That's why you're reading this after I'm gone.
Just FYI - Everything written above was drafted in May. I am writing this now Thursday evening as I am about to do this. I've been nervous and fretful for weeks, knowing this was coming. Tonight I am very calm and OK. I've been responding to e-mails this evening and I think people will tell you I was in an upbeat mood. This is now unavoidable, so I'm OK with it. Just wanted you to know that at the end it was fine. RAH

Hire Of Local Moron Gives Nation Hope For Employment

October 8, 2012 | ISSUE 48•41 | More News in Brief

PHOENIX—Citizens across the United States are expressing renewed hopes for a nationwide economic recovery following news that local resident and complete moron Ron Freizczky has found work, sources confirmed Monday. “They hired that guy…as a consultant?” Arizona man Bob Gunderbladt said of the 27-year-old dullard, remarking that if a dumb shit like that can get a decent job, anyone can. “The man can’t find his ass with both hands, but—wow, I guess things are really looking up. This country is finally starting to feel like American again.” Reached for comment, leading economists agreed that if more goddamn idiots like Freizczky get jobs that come with financial responsibility, conditions will indeed return to where they were just before the Great Recession.

The New York Times
Ray Hernandez looks at the Dartmouth experiences of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and her Republican challenger, Wendy Long.
Russ Buettner writes about the suicide of Russell Harding.

The Rumble 2012 - "Daily Show" funnyman Jon Stewart and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly faced off in a debate Saturday tonight at the Lisner Auditorium on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Viewers can watch the event. dubbed "O'Reilly v Stewart 2012: The Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium" streaming on the web at therumble2012.com.

President Barack Obama drew laughs during a celebrity-led fundraiser in Los Angeles on Sunday when he poked fun of his debate performance against GOP challenger Mitt Romney. (Oct. 7)

Sunday, October 7, 2012

WATCH: Giants' Cruz stars in Obama campaign commercial

By MARC RAIMONDI
Posted: 2:30 PM, October 7, 2012

For Victor Cruz, politics is no song and dance. The Giants star wide receiver, known for his salsa dancing celebration on the field, is starring in a new campaign video supporting President Obama. The 30-second spot encourages Hispanics to come out and vote for the incumbent.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve actually had a voice like this and had someone that really cares about the Latin community and we need to go out there and let our voices be heard,” Cruz says in the video.

Cruz, who has stormed onto the scene as one of the NFL’s top receivers out of nowhere, talks about the significance of getting "hyped up” about the chance to vote in November.
“It’s just like game day,” Cruz said. “What you do on that field or what you do on those ballots will determine the winners and losers.”
Cruz knows a little something about the former. He helped lead the Giants to a Super Bowl title last year.
mraimondi@nypost.com

New Yorker Debate Cover Showcases Obama's Poor Performance

The Huffington Post | By Rebecca Shapiro Posted: 10/05/2012 5:42 pm EDT Updated: 10/05/2012 5:46 pm EDT

The New Yorker's Barry Blitt must have heard MSNBC's Chris Matthews screaming from Denver on Wednesday, "Where was Obama tonight?!"
Blitt, who illustrated next week's magazine cover, picked up on the general consensus following the first presidential debate: that Obama didn't seem to show up for the occasion.
As though standing behind both candidates on stage and facing moderator Jim Lehrer, Blitt depicted a sturdy Mitt Romney behind the podium with his arm and index finger extended.
For Obama, well, Blitt took a different approach. He drew an empty chair behind the podium, recalling Clint Eastwood's speech at the Republican National Convention in August, in which the actor spoke to an empty piece of furniture while pretending to converse contentiously with president.
"This image seemed like a proper response to the first Presidential debate," Blitt told the New Yorker's Culture Desk. "But I’m not sure I realized how hard it is to caricature furniture."
PHOTO:
new yorker debate cover

Mitt Romney Spain Quip Adds To Foreign Policy Troubles

By BRADLEY KLAPPER 10/07/12 10:, Elections 2012, Foreign Policy, Spain, Video, Mitt Romney

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during his debate with US President Barack Obama at Magness Arena at the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado, October 3, 2012.
(NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GettyImages)

WASHINGTON -- If Mitt Romney becomes president, he might need a crash course in Diplomacy 101.
He irritated Britons and Palestinians during a summer tour abroad and has declared Russia to be America's No. 1 geopolitical foe. Just last week, the Republican candidate, who plans a foreign policy speech Monday, raised eyebrows in Spain by holding it up as a prime example of government spending run amok.
That left Spaniards confused, and threatened to reinforce Romney's perceived handicap in international affairs, precisely at a time when lingering questions over the Sept. 11 attacks against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, has President Barack Obama on the defensive.
"I don't want to go down the path of Spain," Romney said Wednesday night during the first presidential debate. He argued that government spending under Obama has reached 42 percent of the U.S. economy, a figure comparable with America's NATO ally. "I want to go down the path of growth that puts Americans to work."
The remark was Romney's latest to cause international offense during a campaign that much of the world is closely monitoring.
The sensitivity reflects a wide understanding that Romney could prevail over President Barack Obama and take over as leader of the world's top military, economic and diplomatic power. If Romney becomes commander in chief, he could face a testy beginning with Europe's economic laggards such as Greece, Italy and Spain, whom he has beaten up regularly throughout the campaign.
No one contests that Spain's situation is dire, its economy in deep recession and unemployment hovering around 25 percent. But Spain's level of government spending is actually low by European standards, and significantly less than Germany and Scandinavian countries with far healthier economic prospects. Spain's woes were chiefly caused by the collapse of a property bubble that had fueled more than a decade of booming economic growth.
Spanish reaction to Romney was swift.
"What I see is ignorance of what is reality, but especially of the potential of the Spanish economy," said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.



Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria

Maria Dolores Cospedal, leader of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party, noted that "Spain is not on fire from all sides like some on the outside have suggested." Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo called it "very unfortunate that other countries should be put up as examples" when the facts are skewed.

The criticism comes at an inopportune time for Romney. Obama has consistently outscored his challenger in polls asking about national security leadership, but the administration is struggling to deal with last month's attack on the consulate. Four Americans died, including the first ambassador killed in the line of duty in more than three decades.
Romney will have a chance to fully articulate his vision of America's role in world affairs when gives his address Monday at the Virginia Military Institute. But the furor in Spain, however minor, instead serves as a reminder of Romney's record of diplomatic stumbles, such as calling Russia – not Iran or China, for example – America's primary global adversary in March.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has since pointed to Romney's comment as justification for Russia's opposition to America's missile defense plans in Europe, saying the statement has "strengthened Russia's positions in talks on this important and sensitive subject."
Then on a July trip to Europe and Israel meant to burnish Romney's foreign policy credentials, the candidate criticized Britain over its preparations for the London Olympic Games. The comment baffled America's closest ally, drawing withering retorts from the British press, the Conservative prime minister and London's right-wing mayor. He also cited a private meeting with Britain's spy service MI6, in a significant breach of protocol.
In Israel, he followed up by declaring Jerusalem the capital of the Jewish state, which U.S. administrations have refused to accept for decades given Palestinian claims to the ancient city.
At a gathering of mostly American Jewish donors, Romney implied that Israel was more advanced than the Palestinians because of cultural superiority. The comment drew a charge of racism from the Palestinians' chief peace negotiator, with whom the U.S. has been working to reach a two-state peace deal with Israel and counter the threat posed by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rejects Israel's existence.
The comments in some ways reflect the demands of a presidential campaign and the thousands of speeches, fundraisers and public appearances each candidate must make.
Obama, too, has made mistakes. He was forced to apologize to Poland's president in June after using the expression "Polish death camp" in reference to an extermination center operated by Nazi Germany on Polish soil during World War II.
Romney's Spain quip might play well with Americans closely split on the election, who've heard from both candidates about the perils of economic contagion from Europe's debt crisis. It also was meant as a reminder of the $16 trillion U.S. debt that Obama presides over.
But even if it barely registered in a debate that most observers credited Romney with winning, the comparison may do damage. By singling out Spain, Romney ruffled feathers in a country he will probably need to call on for assistance if he becomes president. Spain has almost 1,500 troops in Afghanistan. It contributed fighter jets, refueling planes and naval vessels to the U.S.-led NATO mission that ousted Libya's Moammar Gadhafi from power.
"When you have a party or politician that has not been in power nationally for a while, there is a learning curve," said Frances G. Burwell, director of transatlantic relations at the Atlantic Council. "Europe has changed rapidly in terms of its governance rapidly. It's a very diverse place. But I'm sure a Romney administration would quickly get up to speed on this."
Burwell didn't see Romney's slighting of Spain or other European countries significantly straining ties or complicating tough questions on the horizon for any U.S. president, such as troop deployments in Afghanistan. But she said his critique of Spain's government spending level was somewhat strange considering the Madrid government is assertively cutting expenditures to avoid a European bailout and the high levels of American debt.
Added Heather Conley, European director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "Europeans ask the U.S., `What about you?' This isn't helpful to either side of the transatlantic relationship."
___
Associated Press writer Jorge Sainz in Madrid contributed to this report.

Related on HuffPost:

Quinn quandary over sick-leave bill

Mayoral hopeful trying not to alienate potential voters

Comments (2)

By Erin Durkin / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, October 6, 2012, 7:59 PM

NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on Thursday, October 4, 2012. He spoke at a rally on the steps of City Hall calling on City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to allow a vote on the Paid Sick Days bill. The rally delivered petitions with 50,000 signatures to Quinn. (Jefferson Siegel/for NY Daily News)

PHOTO BY JEFFERSON SIEGEL/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio speaks at rally on steps of City Hall calling on City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to allow a vote on the paid sick-days bill.

IT’S THE front-runner versus everyone else.
In the battle over whether the city should force companies to give their workers paid sick days, some of the mayoral candidates are ganging up on the early campaign leader.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has been dragging her feet on whether to allow a Council vote on a controversial paid sick-leave bill.
She faces intense pressure from both sides of the issue — especially in the week since a Council member proposed a weaker version of the bill that reduced the number of required sick days from nine to five.
On one side of the debate is nearly every Democrat in Council — 37 of Quinn’s 45 fellow Dems have signed the bill — and the powerful labor unions that will have great sway in the Democratic primary next year.
On the other side are business interests who say the bill’s a job killer. They include some of Quinn’s top campaign contributors.
A Daily News analysis of Quinn’s campaign fund-raising records found that business owners and others who signed a letter urging Quinn to stop the bill have given or raised more than $250,000 for her campaign.
As Quinn contemplates how to proceed without alienating people she needs to win next year, her opponents in the race seem to have spotted an opening.
In the last week alone, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio took to the pulpit of an influential Brooklyn church to ramp up the pressure on Quinn to pass the bill.
And de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer headlined a rally of stroller-pushing parents at City Hall Thursday urging Quinn to back the compromise bill.
It would require businesses to give employees five sick days a year, but allow them to swap shifts instead of taking a sick day. It also excludes seasonal workers.
“How on Earth has this bill not been brought to the floor?” de Blasio said. “It’s not acceptable. It’s not democracy.”
Stringer brought his 9-month-old son Max to make the case that working parents should have the right to a day off to care for sick kids. “We can compromise, and a compromise is before us,” he said.
The two other major Democrats in the race — City Controller John Liu and former Controller Bill Thompson — are also both backing the bill, and that’s a wise move, said Baruch College Public Affairs Dean David Birdsell.
“There’s a lot of hand-wringing now about what happens to New York when a mayor perceived to be and credibly is pro-business is replaced by a Democrat who doesn’t have the same record,” Birdsell said.
Quinn announced two years ago that she was holding off on the bill to avoid affecting jobs during tough fiscal times and that hasn’t changed, her spokeswoman said.
“As the Speaker has stated before, given the current economic reality, now is not the right time for this policy,” said spokeswoman Maria Alvarado.
edurkin@nydailynews.com

Friday, October 5, 2012

Diaz case gets special prosecutor

By Douglas Montero
Last Updated: 5:51 AM, October 5, 2012
Posted: 7:36 PM, October 4, 2012

Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson has brought in a special prosecutor to handle a criminal case against the borough president’s sister.
Damaris Diaz, whose brother, Ruben Diaz, Jr. is the Bronx borough president, was busted recently on aggravated harassment charges for allegedly keying her boyfriend’s car.
At a pretrial hearing this week, Johnson brought in a prosecutor from Manhattan to handle the case against Damaris, 43, an NYPD sergeant, because of a potential conflict of interest.
“We requested the appointment of a Special District Attorney to avoid any appearance of impropriety because of past political support from the defendant’s father and brother [to the DA],” said Johnson spokesman Steven Reid.
Damaris’ father, Ruben Diaz Sr. is a state senator. She is still under an order of protection to stay away from the boyfriend, cop Edward Velasquez.

Lawyer disses Espada, who still thinks he’s ‘VIP’

By REUVEN FENTON and BRUCE GOLDING
Last Updated: 5:45 AM, October 5, 2012
Posted: 2:42 AM, October 5, 2012

He may be a crooked ex-pol with a trip to the slammer in his future, but Pedro Espada Jr. insists he’s still a “VIP.”
The former state Senate majority leader interrupted a court proceeding yesterday when his disgruntled defense lawyer knocked him as a has-been.
Lawyer Daniel Hochheiser told the judge he wanted to bail on Espada’s pending tax-fraud trial because the disgraced Bronx Democrat is a horribly high-maintenance client who doesn’t pay his bills.
“Not only did I have numerous meetings with Mr. Espada at my office, but we also met at my home and in restaurants because he used to be VIP,” the lawyer said.

Steven Hirsch

Pedro Espada (right) and his lawyer Daniel Hochheiser

Espada cut in, boasting: “I take exception to this ‘used to be!’ ”
The two traded personal barbs throughout the Manhattan federal-court hearing.
In one example, Hochheiser said it took 10 hours over the course of several sit-downs to discuss a single letter from prosecutors.
“It’s difficult to communicate with Mr. Espada because he tends to filibuster,” Hochheiser said.
“It’s very difficult to keep Mr. Espada focused on the facts of the issue.”
Espada insisted that he had met with Hochheiser only five times since hiring him — “and three were mostly about his demands for money.”
And the disgraced ex-pol said he expected to be represented by Hochheiser’s dad, renowned defense lawyer Lawrence Hochheiser.
“Mr. Daniel Hochheiser is not the reason I’ve retained Hochheiser & Hochheiser,” Espada said. “Lawrence Hochheiser is the reason.”
On Tuesday, Espada said he wanted Judge William Pauley III to force Daniel Hochheiser to return $100,000 in legal fees, which the lawyer insisted he had “more than earned.”
Pauley refused to let Hochheiser off the case, however, saying the disagreements didn’t warrant delaying Espada’s Nov. 5 trial.
“It is clear that Mr. Espada is a difficult client . . . but it’s clear his conduct will not change,” the judge said.
Hochheiser — who at one point had referred to Espada as his “adversary” — said, “I accept Your Honor’s ruling. I will do my best.”
Pauley replied, “I’m confident that you will do a fine job, Mr. Hochheiser. You have a difficult client.”
Espada is charged with evading taxes on about $500,000 he looted from a network of nonprofit medical clinics he founded, for which he faces 40 years behind bars after getting convicted on theft charges in Brooklyn federal court.
reuven.fenton@nypost.com

Some Bronx pols want to reign in controversial city program offering morning-after pill to school girls

But City Councilwoman Annabel Palma says she empathizes with pregnant teens

By Daniel Beekman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Thursday, October 4, 2012, 6:00 AM

Updated: Thursday, October 4, 2012, 6:00 AM

James Monroe Adams IV/for New York Daily News

City Councilwoman Annabel Palma

Male Bronx politicians are drafting state legislation that would reign in a controversial city program offering the morning-after pill to girls as young as 14 in public schools.
But a female Bronx pol who became pregnant during high school is defending the program now underway at 13 sites, including Adlai E. Stevenson and Grace Dodge in the Bronx.
"I put myself in the shoes of the teenagers who are going through this," City Councilwoman Annabel Palma told the Daily News. "I became pregnant with my son when I was a senior in high school and I would have welcomed the opportunity to access care."
City Councilman Fernando Cabrera, a pro-life pastor who previously worked as a public school counselor, was "baffled and disturbed" about the program.
Cabrera, state Sen. Ruben Diaz and state Assemblyman Marcos Crespo object to it because it allows girls to access Plan B unless their parents "opt out" of the program after receiving information.
They don't trust the school system to notify parents and want the state legislature to pass a law forcing the Bloomberg administration to give parents more control by making the program an "opt in" proposition. Albany has control over the issue because the school system operates under mayoral control.
"Students can't get an aspirin at school without parental consent," said Cabrera, who plans to introduce a City Council resolution this month. "They can't go to the Bronx Zoo on a field trip without parental consent.
"The parent should make the choice about whether the child should be able to receive the pill at school."
The morning-after pill has been available to students at dozens of high schools for several years via private health clinics in the schools, and girls can access emergency contraception at clinics such as Planned Parenthood.
But the Bloomberg administration has expanded the program over the last year to 13 additional high schools where the pill is prescribed by city Health Department doctors and dispensed by school nurses.
The national pregnancy rate for girls between 15 and 19 was about 70 in 1,000 in 2008, while the Bronx rate was 86 from 2008 to 2010, with some neighborhoods topping 110.
Plan B is about 90 percent effective at preventing pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Last school year, 576 girls at schools with the program received pills, with just 1 to 2 percent of parents opting out.
Crespo believes the program proves that Mayor Bloomberg is running the city as a "nanny state" and Diaz, a Pentecostal pastor, called it "an abuse of government power."
But Palma said she supports the "opt out" policy, saying, “I was too afraid to talk to my mother. I'm not arguing that teenagers shouldn't have that dialogue with their parents. But sometimes those relationships just don't exist."
dbeekman@nydailynews.com

Thursday, October 4, 2012

QUEENS-POLTICS TO ELECTS: GIVE BACK THE CONVICTED LOBBYISTS RICHARD LIPSKY'S MONEY

Queens Politics is calling on all candidates and elected officials to return contributions made by criminal lobbyist Richard Lipsky. It seems every politician wants to take a stand against crime and criminal activity and every candidate wants people to think they aren’t criminals and thus people should have respect for political figures, but when push comes to shove, actions speak louder than words, and right now everyone remains silent. Both prominent politicians and convicted felons received money from Richard Lipsky.

In Court Lipsky Told the Judge That He Worked for the Mon and Pop Little Guy, But An Examination of Lipsky Extensive Campaign Donations Shows That He Contributed to the Biggest Criminals in Albany

Mr. Lipsky told Manhattanfederal court Judge Jed Rakoff that for most of his 30-year career, he worked on grass-roots campaigns "for small businesses and communities who often didn't have the resources to fight City Hall." In that role, including representing mom-and-pop businesses against big-box stores' attempts to open in the city, he said he took on "powerful elected officials and special interests, questioning their motives."

Lipsky Donated $4800 to the FRIENDS OF VITO LOPEZ

Lipsky Donated $5000 NEW YORKERS FOR ESPADA

Lipsky Donated $2500 UNITED FOR MONSERRATE Lipsky Wife Dorothy + $2500 More

FRIENDS OF CARL Lipsky Wife Dorothy $9000

Friends of Silver, Lipsky Wife Dorothy + $3800

Other Pols who Got Lipsky $$$

ADDABBO FOR SENATE $2000, Lipsky Wife Dorothy + $2000; CITIZENS FOR DILAN $1500; COMMITTEE TO RE-ELECT NELSON CASTRO $2000, Lipsky Wife Dorothy + $2500; DONOVAN 2010 $500; ELECT JULISSA FERRERAS $500, Lipsky Wife Dorothy + $500; FRIENDS OF CARL E HEASTIE $500; FRIENDS OF FELIX W. ORTIZ $2500, Lipsky Wife Dorothy + $2500; FRIENDS OF JOSE PERALTA $1000; FRIENDS OF JOSE RIVERA $2000; FRIENDS OF RICHARD BRODSKY $4000; FRIENDS OF ROBERT J. RODRIGUEZ $2500; NYS SENATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE $2000; RUBEN DIAZ FOR STATE SENATE $5000; TONY AVELLA FOR NEW YORK $3000; VINCE TABONE FOR ASSEMBLY $500; FRIENDS OF MARTIN GOLDEN, Lipsky Wife Dorothy +

Judge rejects lawyer Daniel Hochheiser's bid to dump disgraced former state Sen. Espada

By REUVEN FENTON
Last Updated: 6:57 PM, October 4, 2012
Posted: 12:38 PM, October 4, 2012

A judge today ordered former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and his defense lawyer to patch up their differences, rejecting the lawyer’s bid to dump the disgraced pol.
Espada and his attorney, Daniel Hochheiser, traded pointed, personal barbs in front of Manhattan federal Judge William Pauley III.
The judge then took his own shots, at Espada, but ordered the unhappy defense duo to stick together.
“The application to withdraw as counsel is denied,” Pauley ruled.
“Mr. Hochheiser’s demeanor indicated forthrightness in contrast to Mr. Espada’s representations which were self-serving, and this court does not credit them.”

Pedro Espada Jr.

Hochheiser told the judge he wanted out because the long-winded Espada — the former state Senate majority leader convicted in May of looting the Bronx non-profit he founded — wasn’t paying him and was a horribly uncooperative client.
“It’s difficult to communicate with Mr. Espada because he tends to filibuster,” said Hochheiser, referring to an incident where it took 10 hours over several meetings to discuss one simple letter from prosecutors.
“It’s very difficult to keep Mr. Espada focused on the facts of the issue.”
It was always hard to schedule meetings with the high-maintenance Espada, according to Hochheiser.
“Not only did I have numerous meetings with Mr. Espada at my office, but we also met [at my home and in restaurants] because he used to be [a] VIP,” he said.
Espada cut in, boasting: “I take exception to this ‘used to be!’”
The corrupt pol fired back, claiming Hochheiser met with him only about five times in total — “mostly about his demands for money.”
Espada also said he hired the downtown firm Hochheiser & Hochheiser LLP — not for Daniel Hochheiser but for his renowned dad Lawrence Hochheiser.
“Mr. Daniel Hochheiser is not the reason I’ve retained Hochheiser & Hochheiser,” Espada said. “Lawrence Hochheiser is the reason I retained Hochheiser & Hochheiser.”
Daniel Hochheiser reluctantly accepted the challenge.
“I accept you honor’s ruling. I will do my best,” he said.
The judge responded: “I’m confident you will do a fine job. You have a difficult client.”
Espada’s set to go on trial on Nov. 5 for tax evasion, connected to money he stole from the Soundview Healthcare clinics in the Bronx.
Espada has already been convicted, in a Brooklyn federal court, of looting taxpayer money through Soundview.
Additional reporting by David K. Li and Bruce Golding

Spin Vs Reality of Corruption

You Choose the Future of Journalism

"An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy." Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson though all it took was a free press to protect the American people from the power of government. He never considered the possibility of the pols and power brokers corrupting a free press. Local media has always been bias toward incumbents and power. The press protected pols by not covering up stories that would hurt them for years. The internet has forced pols and the power brokers to reach out to media experts.

Today political consultants are teaching pols how to use the internet, Facebook and twitter for spin and power. This comes at the same time as cut backs in newspapers and changing standards of what is acceptable in journalism. A mover aways from serious investigative reporters to young journalist who can do no more than print fluff fed to them by pols and counsultants. Master media spinners like George Artz playing the press for sucker for his clients like political boss Seddio. Who the real Frank Seddio and what he is really up to is lost in the Pasta sorce.

Sad Journalism Written By A Political Consultants and the Events They Set Up

Frank Seddio Is Your Italian Grandmother(City and State) “You should use cold water with chicken cutlets,” says Frank Seddio, the new chairman of the Kings County Democratic Party. “You want to keep them fresh. You don’t want it to get too warm. You have to be careful with chicken. When you cook it, you can’t leave it out too long. Temperature is very important with chicken.” * The New Leader of Brooklyn's Democratic Party Hopes Cannoli Diplomacy Can Heal Old Wounds

Real Investigative Journalism (All Alone) by True News

Seddio: Leave the Gun Take the Cannolis(True News) The problem the reformers have with Seddio is that except for the Daily News warning the press has done very little to inform them who is the real Frank Seddio. There is a lot to be learned by investigating how Seddio used the machine and government to make $$$ and remain in power in a community with dramatic racial change and his loss of ability to deliver the vote.Moderator Mark Fertig asked Seddio and the other candidates running if Planning Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano should be fired because of her involvement in the Kruger scandal. Seddio did not only answer the question but he called Fertig a very inappropriate name.It is clear from the guilty plea of Kruger and his lobbyist Lipsky that Planning Board 18 manager Dorothy Turano was deeply involved in the Kruger corruption. Yet astonishly she still remains as chairman of that board. In 2007 when a BJ was chosen for that site with a different developer (the developer who the indictment said sent checks to Turaino house) Frank Seddio small business group changed their mind and accepted BJ’s at Canarsie Plaza. The Feds say Kruger partner Michael Dorothy son was delivered the bribe money shortly after the vote.

Espada’s Lawyer Tries, and Fails, to Quit Tax Evasion Case

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

The lawyer, Daniel A. Hochheiser, expressed frustration with his client, Pedro Espada Jr., who said he felt the same, but the judge refused to release Mr. Hochheiser from his responsibilities.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Culture festival to celebrate Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance with concerts, workshops & a pig roast

BomPlenazo 2012 kicks off Thursday in Bronx

By Tanyanika Samuels / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 6:00 AM

Enid Alvarez/New York Daily News

Jose “Chema” Soto and Wallace Edgecombe will host BomPlenazo 2012, the seventh biennial celebration of Afro-Puerto Rican culture at the fabled Casita de Chema.

This year’s BomPlenazo festival will celebrate the Afro-Puerto Rican music and dance culture bomba y plena throughout the U.S.
The biennial festival, which kicks off Thursday, will feature four days of concerts, workshops and panel discussions, culminating with a Vente Tú or block party complete with a pig roast and jam sessions.
“We want to cultivate an understanding and appreciation of the culture, as well as an understanding that the South Bronx - this community that people wrote off - has been an important place where this culture has developed,” said festival co-founder Wallace Edgecombe, of the Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture.
BomPlenazo 2012 will also celebrate the anniversaries of three Bronx cultural institutions.
Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College, home of Hostos Center for the Arts & Culture, is marking its 45th anniversary; Centro Cultural Rincón Criollo (nicknamed La Casita de Chema after its founder) is 40 years old; and the bomba y plena ensemble and non-profit Los Pleneros de la 21, was founded 30 years ago.
“We all came into being when the Bronx was on the skids,” Edgecombe said. “We’re all three different institutions but we endured and now we’re part of the renaissance here.”
Juan Gutierrez, of Los Pleneros de la 21, first proposed the festival idea.
“We saw this generation coming behind us and we wanted the kids and families to get acquainted with the tradition and to identify themselves with this part of the culture,” he said .
Now in its seventh year, the festival will include 15 groups from across the country.
The celebration starts Thursday night with a concert by Los Instantáneos de la Plena , Legacy Women and Semillas Caribeñas .
Among the other highlights are concerts by the all-woman bomba y plena troupe, Bámbula , and Los Pleneros de la 21; screenings of the documentary film “Plenazos Callejeros ”; dance and instrument-making workshops; and a panel discussion on bomba y plena in the diaspora.
The finale is a free block party on Sunday, with a pig roast and jam sessions at La Casita de Chema, the small green house on Brook Ave. and E. 157th St.
Festivals like BomPlenazo are vital to keeping the music and dance tradition alive in small, community settings, said La Casita’s José “Chema” Soto.
“This is the way bomba y plena developed, in settings like this,” he said. “It’s a community thing.”
tsamuels@nydailynews.com

Monday, October 1, 2012

The following two videos of a news conference at City Hall for the legalization of medical marijuana.
————————————————————————————
Supporters of medical marihuana today (October 1-2012), held a news conference attacking the distasteful comment of Staten Island BP James Molinaro's calling Lady Gafa a "slut."
Video by Rafael Martínez Alequín(1)

At a news conference, today (Oct. 1), by suppoters for the legalization of medical marihuana, Paul DeRienzo stated " As a decedant of Italian New Yorkers, I am ashamed of Staten Island BP James Molinaro for his comment calling Lady Gaga a slut."

Video by Rafael Martínez Alequín (2)