« AY Report For Sunday | Main | The "iron core of information," newspapers, blogs, and sunshine »
September 7, 2009
It came from the Blogosphere...
Ground Report, ACORN Affiliate Given Taxpayer Funds From Candidates It Supported
Libertarian Richard Cooper picks up on the most recent City Hall News exposé on the tangled web otherwise known as ACORN/Working Families Party/Data and Field Services/New York Agency for Community Affairs.
What do we have here? Taxpayers fund a political organization whose views they may not share. This is wrong.
ACORN and its rent-a-pickets have been at the disposal of progressive developer Bruce Ratner's Forest City Ratner's exercise in corporate welfare and eminent domain abuse known as Atlantic Yards which would incorporate a Brooklyn Nets Arena for the basketball team Ratner owns.
NoLandGrab: We would have called Bruce Ratner an "allegedly progressive" or "self-declared progressive" developer, but why quibble?
Mole's Progressive Democrat, Brooklyn Focus: NYC 35th City Council Race: Re-electing one of the few honest councilmembers
Mole333 endorses Councilmember Tish James for re-election, with an anecdote about an encounter with some pro-Atlantic Yards rabblerousers.
Her smile broadened when she saw her opponents and she went up and gave each of them a big hug. She went into the midst of her opponents, and showed that she didn't fear them and didn't hate them just because they opposed her. She showed the issues are issues, they don't have to be personal. I don't know what they were thinking, but those tough bullies sure seemed momentarily charmed by Letitia's grin and big hug. They looked just a little sheepish, in fact. The tension dissipated and we all went back to what we were doing.
THAT is why I love Letitia James. It was a moment that few politicians could have pulled off and she did it naturally and smoothly because that is who she is.
Brooklyn 11211, WITH REGARD TO THE TIMES
With regard to the Times endorsements today, Real Reform Brooklyn continues to see Atlantic Yards conspiracies at every turn. Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards Report, on the other hand, is suspicious but less willing to call foul when it comes to the Simon endorsement. Being less in the AY loop, I am skeptical, but I will agree with RRB (and AYR) that the Times' 33rd endorsement was lukewarm at best.
...As to the 35th, where the Times chose not to make an endorsement, the AY influence would appear to be more at play here. Unless, of course, the Times simply considers the race not to be among the "most competitive districts where winning the Democratic primary usually means capturing the seat". But that is outside my jurisdiction.
Posted by eric at September 7, 2009 9:42 AM