I have been inundated with requests to post this press release. All I can say is óyeme chico, what the carajo?

Did you know that the New York City Police Department plans to put new severe restrictions on sidewalk and street use? Possibly as soon as August 24th?

The NYPD's New Rules
Under the guise of protecting the public safety, the New York City Police Department plans to expand its control over protest activity by labeling many common street and side walk uses as a "parade". If put into effect, these new rules will greatly suppress the right to assembly and expose peaceful protestors as well as regular people to arrest for things as simple as crossing the street against the light.

Under the NYPD's proposed rules:

* Any group of two (yes, 2) or more cyclists or pedestrians traveling down a public street, who violate any traffic law, rule or regulation can be arrested for parading without a permit.

* Any group of 20 or more cyclists must obtain a permit and approved route from the NYPD or would be subject to arrest

* Every group of 35 of more pedestrians must obtain a permit and approved route from the NYPD or would be subject to arrest

These rules could go into effect as soon as August 24th, 2006.

This matter is urgent. We implore all NYers to attend an important public hearing on August 23rd and contact their elected officials right away and tell them to stop the police from creating these rules. Details about the August 23rd event and how to contact your elected officials are in the side menu on the right.

Join Us In Spreading the Word!
Other websites are carrying the message of this site. We invite all other New Yorkers to help get out word of this plan, and let people know what they can do to stop it from going into effect. Blog about it, email it, comment about it on other sites, link to this site. You can use the graphic in the side menu on your site to help draw people's attention to this issue. If you blog about this issue or put the graphic on your site, and want to be listed here, let us know! You can email us at assembleforrights -at- yahoo.com.
How These Rules Will Suppress Free Speech

Parade regulation was established to regulate special non-traffic use of the streets. These rules would give the police the power to arrest and detain people for things as common as walking and biking and will essentially give the NYPD carte blanche to arrest any two or more persons they want.

These rules would quash spontaneous gatherings as people would be required to file for permits months in advance. Additionally requiring small groups to navigate the police bureaucracy and negotiate the particulars of their events: which side walk they will be on, where they will make turns, how long they will be there, is an overly high burden on our rights to assembly and speech asserted by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

In addition to protest activity the new rules will affect:

* Thousands of formal and informal runs, walks, walk-a-thons, charity runs, tours and bike rides * Thousands of routine training runs and bike rides
* School field trips
* School walks to the park
* Site seeing tours
* Historical, cultural, environmental & neighborhood walks and tours
* Funerals

More after the jump:

I am quite sympathetic to opponents of the Atlantic Yards project, though I do not consider it the only factor in deciding what candidates to support. I have heard the opponents of the Atlantic Yards uber-development project called a "single issue" group. I have myself referred to them as "single issue," as a matter of fact. Now, there is nothing wrong with focusing on a single issue, but the more I think about it, I realize that issues surrounding NYC development in general, and Atlantic Yards in particular, involve some of the core issues of the progressive movement. Furthermore, in general politicians who understand the problems with Atlantic Yards are the ones who recognize the core values of the progressive movement. Those politicians who don’t get why Atlantic Yards is so wrong don’t get, on a very fundamental level, the core values of the progressive movement. There are exceptions. But in general, it strikes me that Atlantic Yards not only is, but should be one of the dominant issues in local politics. I will add that it should not be the ONLY dominant issue, but it should be one of the dominant issues.

The issues that surround development in NYC in general, and Atlantic Yards in particular, include the culture of corruption that seems to be filtering from the Federal government down to the local level, the neglect or active removal of "undesirable" communities (usually minority and poor), government secrecy, excessive links between business and government, use of tax money to aid big business, and the exclusion of the community from major decisions regarding its own future. The interests of the rich are put above the interests of the city even by the city government, and this is often done in secrecy. It is hard to think of a single issue that encompasses more fundamental concerns of the progressive movement than Atlantic Yards.

One of the key problems with the Atlantic Yards project is the secrecy, dishonesty and probably corruption that surround it. There really have been secret deals made between Rater and the mayor and governors offices promising land and exclusion from full review. The state agency that is supposed to judge if the Atlantic Yards project should be approved, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), not only rents space from Ratner, but wants to hire Ratner’s own lawyer, at Ratner’s expense, to advise them on whether they should approve Ratner’s plan. Yes, I know a court just approved these things, but come on folks! This is stuff worthy of the Federal Republican culture of corruption! It stinks. Add to that blatant lies that have been told to the community by Ratner. Lies, secrecy and what sure looks like corruption even if a court approves it. Even if all of this is legal, THESE are the very practices that the progressive movement was formed to fight. Government honesty, transparency and ethics are at the root of the original progressive reforms.

And I am not alone in thinking so. Recently, investigative attorney, former Senior White House Advisor to President Clinton, and current candidate for Attorney General recently sent out a couple of letters stating his stand on Atlantic Yards. His first such letter does an excellent job of outlining many of the problems with Ratner’s plans that I will quote directly from it:

…I believe that the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards development must be stopped-cold until some tough questions get asked and answered. As it is today, this project is the face of what’s wrong with a corrupt culture that mixes business and politics, profits and tax dollars. My objections to the project stem from the flawed and secretive process by which decisions are made. Decisions that could change the face of the community forever. Decisions that deserve more scrutiny, more tough issues like fairness and transparency and including:

· The Forest City Ratner proposal is a selective bid.

· A profound disregard for community involvement in the decision making process.

· The shameful lack of accountability and transparency by Forest City Ratner by failing to provide a detailed financial report.

· There is little evidence…that the decision making process included concern for the historical character of the neighborhood.

· The Forest City Ratner proposal does not adequately address affordable housing questions posed by concerned members of the community.

· Although the MTA appraised the value of the rail yards at $241 million, the MTA chose the lowest bidder instead of the higher bid from Extell.

This plan, as it is, cannot be allowed to move forward; however, I would support responsible development that earnestly seeks a partnership and synergy with the community rather than an exploitation of our beauty and resources in Brooklyn.

Like all of us, Maloney WANTS development. But he does NOT want secrecy, corruption and lies. And those are what we have been give by Ratner, Bloomberg and Pataki.

Now look. I have been told that this project is nothing more than free market. But it isn’t! It is a selective bid, not to mention a LOW BID. It involves the use of tax money. It has involved the threat, though not yet the use, of eminent domain to force the transfer of property from one private owner to another. None of this is free market! It is a collaboration, formed partly in secret with no input from the community, between government and a private businessman. This is the kind of collaboration between the rich and the powerful that the progressive movement was founded to oppose.

I would not say that there was no input from the community. And groups like ACORN are in favor of the project, though they have been heavily criticized for this. In fact Ratner has made a good show of interacting with certain community leaders and groups, getting them on board, and promising jobs and affordable housing. But there is no enforcement of these promises and the affordable housing is judged such that as property values go up, the affordable housing will rapidly cease to be affordable. It is not geared to the means of the community so much as being a certain amount below he market value…which will go up and out of the range of the community.

What Maloney does not even mention is the issues of the infrastructure. Traffic congestion, insufficient coverage from firehouses, inadequate schools and a grossly (literally) overtaxed sewage system are EXISTING problems in Brooklyn. Add on top of these existing problems an arena and seventeen massive skyscrapers, and you have a pretty disgusting mess. Even if there are upgrades around the Atlantic Yards project, the remainder of Brooklyn would still be affected by the added strains of the project. People talk about jobs. Well, don’t more schools, firehouses, upgrading the sewer system Borough wide and adding more public transit create jobs? And they improve the quality of life in the Borough. And the issue of fires brings up another problem that goes even beyond what Maloney covers. There already is a very surprising spike of fires throughout Brooklyn that may be due to arson and/or the neglect of these neighborhoods by the closing of firehouses. Some have even suggested that developers are burning down buildings that are inconvenient for them. This accusation seems likely in the case of the Greenpoint fire where the developer had several other convenient and suspicious fires happen to his property…probably covered by insurance. In the case of the area surrounding Atlantic Yards, there has been a particularly sharp increase in suspicious fires there and it is convenient for the developer who wants to portray the area as blighted. Beyond that, I cannot judge whether or now the old NY tradition of arson to drive out unwanted communities is at work. But, since I work in the triangle shirtwaist factory building, I quite aware that there is a longstanding link between the progressive movement and fire safety, particularly regarding poorer classes. Three politicians, Eric Adams, Bill Batson and Wellington Sharpe, each independently observed the suspicious nature of these fires and called them arson. Each of them observed that these fires are destroying the heart of historic black neighborhoods, threatening entire communities. Bill Batson went so far as to point out the convenience of these fires to developers and points out that many of these development projects are destroying the black history of Brooklyn. He used the Harriet Tubbman museum as an example and points out that if you destroy someone’s culture, you can do anything you want to them.

This threat to our heritage isn’t just affecting the black community. I would say that the Atlantic Yards Project, coupled with the many other giant development plans, changes the entire face or Brooklyn, taking away its great uniqueness. I come from Los Angeles. I am one of the few people who will admit loving Los Angeles. But it does not have much character. Brooklyn has a great character and the current style of overdevelopment destroys that character in large swaths of Brooklyn. Bill Batson calls it the Disneyfication (I think it should be spelled "Disnification," but most people disagree) of NYC through arson. A fellow local activist has called Atlantic Yards project in particular as placing a giant slice of Manhattan in the heart of Brooklyn. Manhattan is fine. But It ain’t Brooklyn.

The politician who I know who has most eloquently expressed what is happening is Chris Owens. He once described it as nothing less than "Losing Home", in essence losing our community, our uniqueness…our Brooklyn. We want development. Of course we want affordable housing and jobs. But the lies, underhanded and secret deals, the closing of our firehouses, the inadequate concern for our schools and infrastructure all combine to make us afraid that we are losing Brooklyn. The loss is much slower and less dramatic than the loss of large parts of New Orleans through criminal neglect. But there are very real parallels.

Progressives respect home, tradition, history and community. Those politicians who most respect progressive values are those who understand the real danger of Atlantic Yards style development. I honestly think that if our elected representatives (you listening Bloomberg, Markowitz? I thought not!) really laid down strict requirements for these development projects, developers would still be rushing to be in on the action. NYC is one of the world’s busiest and best cities and no developer will want to stay away. But if we neglect our schools and our fire safety, over tax our sewage system and roads, and lose our unique character that attracts so many tourists, we will no longer be one of the world’s busiest and best cities. We need a progressive vision for our city, not a vision that has to be formed in secret and covered by lies. That is why so many use Atlantic Yards as a measure for their support of a candidate. It cannot be the only measure. Tom Suozzi gets it when it comes to Atlantic Yards, yet I do not think he quite understands traditional progressive values. Denise O’Donnell didn't take the kind of stand that Sean Patrick Maloney has on Atlantic Yards, nor is she necessarily progressive. But she, along with Maloney, was still an excellent candidate for Attorney General, and I was having a hard time deciding between them. So this one project cannot be the only thing used to pick politicians to vote for. And I don't always agree with everything said and done by groups like Develop, Don't Destroy Brooklyn. But I really think that those who are perceived as excessively focused on Atlantic Yards may actually understand that what is at risk are many of the things that we, as progressives, value.

Ratner supporters are very passionate about his Atlantic Yards Project. They often brook no criticism whatsoever of his plan, always coming back to the promised benefits of the project. Bruce Ratner’s development schemes could indeed address real development needs of Brooklyn. The problem is that for the most part his actual plans DON’T address them. The “affordable housing” is defined such that poorer residents would be quickly priced out as the overall value of the area goes up. The promise of jobs is in no way guaranteed and would mainly be white collar or very low paid jobs, not solid, union jobs. There is no plan for new schools and firehouses in an area where schools and firehouses are already too few and far between. And no one has yet addressed the problems of the massive increase in traffic in an already packed area or where the sewage will go with our already overtaxed sewer system. The already smelly Gowanus canal will be the ultimate destination of large chunks of the sewage from Ratner’s 17 skyscrapers and giant arena.

But all practical problems aside, one thing not one single Ratner supporter has ever been able to explain away are the blatant lies and almost as blatant corruption that surrounds Ratner and his business dealings. Let’s face facts. The practical problems like whether the affordable housing is REALLY affordable and for how long, whether the city’s infrastructure will be upgraded adequately to deal with the increased traffic, population and sewage can all be negotiated and worked out if Ratner would actually negotiate in good faith. But what is clear is that Ratner and his business are NOT dealing in good faith. Mostly he gives the community lies and corruption and THAT is something that none of his supporters, from Bloomberg and Pataki to Marty Markowitz, have been able to justify.

First I covered Ratner’s literally secret deals with Bloomberg and Pataki PROMISING him development rights to build nearly 1.9 million square feet of residential and commercial space on properties OUTSIDE of his current Atlantic Yards project, without having to go through the city’s legal and environmental review processes. The ONLY reason this secret deal, was a community group filed a Freedom of Information Act request. Otherwise, this secret deal would still be secret. No Ratner supporter has been able to justify this underhanded secrecy.

Then I covered a particularly corrupt deal whereby generous Ratner would, with his own money, hire HIS OWN LAWYER for the Empire State Development Corporation to use in their review of Ratner’s own project. The STATE was using Ratner’s own lawyer, paid for by Ratner, to review Ratner’s project. Talk about conflict of interest! This was only stopped by a lawsuit. No Ratner supporter has been able to justify how this could POSSIBLY be honest and fair. I will add that a further suspicious close relationship between Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation is the fact that the latter uses excess space in Ratner’s underfilled Atlantic Mall, his previous monstrosity in Brooklyn. Alone this means nothing except that Ratner can’t even fill his existing retail space. But in the context of the lawyer fiasco, this becomes suspicious.

Currently, there is no evidence that Ratner is connected with the abnormal number of fires that have been occurring in the very area he wants to develop in and near. Guttman may well have been caught using arson to further his interests, but so far Ratner may simply be an innocent beneficiary of the fires in Prospect Heights and surrounding areas.

But now we have Ratner distributing a pamphlet of lies to the residents of Brooklyn. As reported extensively in the May 6th Issue of the Park Slope Paper (warning: link is a PDF), the pamphlet has little in it that is factual. I will only mention a couple of examples.

First of all, the pamphlet’s portrayal of Ratner’s Atlantic Yard’s project leaves out the entire arena, replacing it with beautiful green space, and leaves out the 17 skyscrapers he proposes to build. Hell, I think the city should hold him to what he portrays in the pamphlet! It looks good to me. Too bad it isn’t the real plan. Ratner is NOT being honest and forthright with the community!

Ratner also claims that his project has the support of several Community Boards and local organizations. Turns out that the Community Boards, though initially included in negotiations, were essentially kicked out before the plans were finalized. Further, only 2 out of 8 of the local organizations that Ratner claims were present in the negotiations of his plan even EXISTED at the time of negotiations. Apparently the other 6 organizations must consist of psychics so that they could be part of the negotiations before they even formed. Neat trick that!

In one way, though, Ratner is coming clean in this pamphlet. Ratner’s latest pamphlet now says his project will provide some 3,800 permanent jobs. This is far fewer and possibly more realistic than his original claim of 10,000 new jobs, which he used to attract the support of labor. Now if we could only make him be more honest about the rest of his project, we might be able to trust him enough to negotiate the practical aspects.

Come on folks! How can we trust a man who deals in secret, is corruptly connected with state and local agencies and politicians, and who outright lies to the entire community? Ratner supporters remind me of codependents of addicts…making excuses no matter how egregious the lies and deceptions.

The corruption of NYC’s love affair with developer Bruce Ratner is really becoming astonishing. It starts to look like the crony capitalism that Federal Republicans are currently so engaged in. Simply put, the city and state at several levels are paving the way for Ratner’s development plans without regard for the law or for the neighborhoods he wants to build in. Many apologists for Michael Bloomberg have tried to claim that Bloomberg, the city government and the state government are not involved. They claim that it is nothing but capitalism at work and that Ratner is buying the land all above board. But, thanks to the legal efforts of neighborhood groups like Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), we are discovering more and more layers of corruption.

Let’s start with an August 20, 2005 article in the Park Slope Paper. The lead paragraphs:

The same day they signed a widely publicized agreement setting aside land for developer Bruce Ratner’s proposed Atlantic Yards project, top officials of the Pataki and Bloomberg administrations signed a separate pact with the developer, granting him the right to build up adjacent urban renewal sites without city review.

That second agreement was never made public, but it turned up this week in the state’s response to a fairly broad Freedom of Information Act request made by a neighborhood group opposed to the Atlantic Yards plan.

First of all, notice the first sentence: “a widely publicized agreement�? signed by “top officials of the Pataki and Bloomberg administrations…�? What about all those Bloomberg apologists who have in the past claimed that Bloomberg has nothing to do with these development plans? We know from the maneuvering over the West Side Stadium and the Atlantic Yards project that rival bids that give more money to the city are often flat out ignored by the Bloomberg and Pataki administrations in favor of Ratner. Where is the “free market�? in that?

The second part of the above quote says that a SECOND agreement, was kept secret until a DDDB went through the Freedom of Information process. Here is the next sentence:

The document stipulates that Ratner would be able to obtain the development rights to build nearly 1.9 million square feet of residential and commercial space on properties north and west of the Atlantic Avenue rail yards, exceeding the current zoning for those sites, without having to put the proposal through the city’s lengthy land use review process.

So, let’s summarize: representatives of Pataki and Bloomberg are SECRETLY signing over development rights covering our homes and businesses to a private developer without the full review required by law. This is colonialism! Our homes and businesses are being treated like colonial land to be secretly divided up among rich developers, sometimes without our knowledge and without proper review. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am not alright with this! It is NOT good for the community, it is NOT a public process and it is NOT free enterprise. To all Bloomberg apologists: your man is excluding the public from discussions of what to do with their own neighborhoods and he is not allowing the free market to work by going through a bidding process.

Then we have Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki offering to use eminent domain to condemn the neighborhood where Ratner wants to build. This horrible violation of the property rights of New Yorkers was condemned by the NY Sun:

So Mr. Ratner wants the state government simply to take their property for him. To condemn the neighborhood and hand it over to Mr. Ratner, Governor Pataki, through the Empire State Development Corporation, must claim that Prospect Heights is so in need of economic rejuvenation that the extraordinary power of the government to seize property through eminent domain in service of a “public use�?is essential. Shamefully, Mr. Pataki is already on board, as is Mayor Bloomberg.

Those who make their living in Mr. Ratner’s path of destruction include a family-owned artsupply factory, a neighborhood bar that dates to pre-Prohibition days, and an immigrant-owned auto-body shop. Not only commercial, the neighborhood is dotted with newly renovated condominiums as well.

These owners pay their property taxes and income taxes, and they employ dozens of New Yorkers at good wages and in good working conditions. “For someone to come and tell us that we have to�? sell out to Mr. Ratner, “that is wrong,�? said Simon Liu, who moved here from China more than 30 years ago, and who employs two dozen immigrant workers at his artsupply factory.

So we have behind the scenes secret deals between Pataki, Bloomberg and Ratner handing over development rights without proper legal review and we have Pataki and Bloomberg threatening to use eminent domain to take away the private property of American citizens to give it to a private developer for his own profit. The oversight agency that is supposed to review development projects and to decide eminent domain is the Empire State Development Corporation. Well, once again thanks to the legal efforts of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, yet another link of corruption has been revealed.

From the January 28, 2006 issue of the Park Slope Paper comes the story that when the Empire State Development Corporation needed a lawyer to help with the state’s assessment of Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, who should step up to recommend a lawyer and actually pay for that lawyer? None other than Bruce Ratner himself. He recommended HIS OWN lawyer. The Empire State Development Corporation accepted his offer and used Ratner’s own lawyer, paid for by Ratner, to review Ratner’s project. To quote from the Park Slope Paper’s print edition:

Ratner suggested the firm of Sive, Paget Riesel in a letter that also guaranteed the Empire State Development Corporation that he would pay all the legal and consulting costs incurred during their environmental review of his $3.5 billion arena, residential and commercial project.

David Paget, a partner in the firm, was working as Ratner’s lawyer when the developer’s company wrote the recommendation in February, 2004. He stopped working for the developer shortly before he began counseling the ESDC in September, according to the New York Observer, which obtained the document through a Freedom of Information Act request.

So, the state agency whose job it was to review Ratner’s proposal and to decide eminent domain issues hired Ratner’s own lawyer to help them with the process and Ratner paid for it.

I am sorry, but this is Third World level corruption. This is illegal and immoral and should not be tolerated in the United States of America. I need to emphasize that even though Pataki and Bloomberg are the two main politicians who are helping out Ratner, this is by no means strictly a Republican scandal. Democrats are also pushing Ratner’s plans down our throats, led most particularly by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. However, I am unaware of outright illegal activities on the part of Markowitz or other Democrats. Nevertheless, I am disgusted that Markowitz and other Brooklyn Democrats are still behind Ratner’s project despite the corruption that has surfaced.

America is a nation where rule of law is supposed to dominate. Mayors and Governors are not supposed to violate the law to help out their friends. And yet that is exactly what is going on in New York. Where is the Public Advocate? Where is the State Attorney General?

The main group fighting this corruption is Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. They are doing it because they oppose Ratner’s Atlantic Yards plan. I am glad they are doing it because I do not like to see such corruption blackening the reputation of New York, but I would prefer if an unbiased, state agency discovered and prosecuted the corruption of Ratner, Bloomberg and Pataki. Where are the state agencies whose job it is to catch this kind of corruption? Why are they leaving it to a neighborhood group with their own agenda to do their job.

Well, until the state starts to do its job and challenge this corruption, I applaud DDDB’s efforts to reveal and prosecute the corruption surrounding Bruce Ratner’s plans.

There have been postings on various blogs recently to the effect that NDM supports the green party candidate in Brooklyn’s race for borough president.

This is, in fact, inaccurate. We have not taken a position in this race, nor have we acquired the habit of making recommendations to our members from on high, without debate or a vote.

We understand that many Progressives are displeased with the incumbent over his endorsement of the mayor, and other issues besides; but we would point out that endorsing, or voting for, a green is no different than doing the same for a republican, and that blank ballot lines send messages as well.

In addition, we are concerned about efforts by the green party to establish a foothold in Brooklyn. The candidate in question is now running her third race in four years; without exception, she has run against Democrats, as she is doing now. If she does not win this year, we expect to see her attacking yet another Democrat next year. We find this pattern troubling, not least because of conversations we have had with people affiliated with her campaign, in which they were quite open in their enthusiasm for splitting the Progressive vote from the Democratic party and strengthening their own.

On this, we do indeed have an opinion, and it is firmly, without qualification or hesitation, negative. We do not need or want an established green party in Brooklyn. Therefore, we would ask Brooklyn Progressive voters to consider the message of the blank ballot line.

New Democratic Majority
http://www.newdemmajority.org

Reform Democrat Chris Owens, son of Congressman Major Owens and candidate for Congress to replace his father, has sent out a press release announcing his endorsement of Green Party candidate for Brooklyn BP, Gloria Mattera. Here are text of that press release:

CHRIS OWENS ENDORSES GLORIA MATTERA,
GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT

Owens says Markowitz “has betrayed Brooklyn

Brooklyn, NY -- October 25, 2005 -- Representatives of Gloria Mattera's Green Party Campaign for Brooklyn Borough President announced today that contributions to the campaign have exceeded the threshold for 4 to 1 matching funds from New York City's Campaign Finance program.

"I am proud to be the first Green Party candidate eligible for matching funds for this office," said Mattera. "This demonstrates tremendous support for our campaign from city residents who are tired of watching Marty Markowitz act as a doormat for Bruce Ratner and other developers who want to take over our city. The Campaign Finance Program levels the playing field for candidates such as myself who do not accept corporate campaign contributions, and is a wonderful tool in support of grass roots democracy."

To qualify, program participants running for Brooklyn Borough President must receive a total of $49,307 from at least 100 eligible contributors with a maximum amount of $250 applying toward matching funds, which will be at least $200,000 for the Mattera Campaign.

The outpouring of donations for Gloria's campaign exemplifies true grass roots commitment to a candidate who's not for sale," said Daniel Kadin, Mattera Campaign fundraiser, who noted that more than 800 people donated an average of $70 to meet the threshold.

In contrast, Markowitz has received at least 537 contributions of $1000 or more, including from real estate, banking and construction interests, and including the heads of four banks.

"These funds will enable us to run a forceful and high-profile campaign against a well-funded incumbent who has abandoned his party to endorse Bloomberg," said Colby Hamilton, campaign manager for the Mattera Campaign. "Through newspaper, radio and TV ads, and face-to-face outreach to voters on the street, we intend to let every Brooklyn resident know they have a real choice in this election."

http://electgloria.org

Who: Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey, killed in Iraq.
Where: Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford St.,
Brooklyn When: Sunday, September 18, 8:00 p.m.

Bring Them Home Now Tour arrives in Brooklyn this Sunday evening

Contact: Rev. David Dyson - 718 625 7515; Gloria Mattera - 917 886 1419

Cindy Sheehan's son Casey was killed in Iraq. In August she camped outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, attracting international attention for her protest against the war and the senseless death of her son.

On Sunday, September 18, Sheehan will bring her story to Brooklyn. She
will be joined by members of the Bring Them Home Now tour. Members of the Tour are speaking in cities across the United States as they travel by bus from Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas to Washington, D.C. for the Sept. 24 United for Peace and Justice March and Rally to End the War on Iraq.

Show your opposition to the war. Be there for Cindy, Casey and all those
civilians and soldiers needlessly killed in Iraq.

http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org

Peace and solidarity
Gloria Mattera (Green Party candidate for Brooklyn Borough President,
www.electgloria.org)

[via Channel 5 Rejects Anti-Bush Ad of Borough President Candidate - New York Times]:

Broadcast channels, which are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, are allowed to reject so-called issue advertisements from interest groups based on their content. But they are prohibited from doing so with ads from candidates."There is part of the statute that says the station cannot censor the content of a political ad," said a communications commission official who spoke on condition of anonymity, following the commission's general practice of avoiding public comment upon matters in which it is not involved. (The F.C.C. generally only acts on complaints; Mr. Ellner said he would probably file one but had not done so.)The commission official said that after a station agrees to sell time for a campaign commercial, "the station is required to put it on the air - they have no option."Still, the official said there was a way around the rules. While stations are required to accept all commercials for federal candidates, they can pick and choose the local races for which they will run commercials. And stations in the past have cited that loophole after being accused of rejecting candidate spots based on their content.

Wow!

Brian Ellner is turning out to be the most media saavy candidate of the local races. First, he has his face plastered all over the nation with his now gaytastic 'this is my partner' ad. An ad that outs him completely from the local race with his attack on Bush. Second, he goes right to the belly of the beast and places said ad on the local FOX CHANNEL?!?! That's like, so politically macho of him.

What I love about this whole unfolding drama is the context of the rejection. You see, as if hell did not keep him busy enough, Roger Ailes was recently appointed chairman of Fox TV Stations. If you need to jog you're memory, yes, it's the Roger "Willie Horton made my day" Ailes. The Roger Ailes that had Bush's cousin declare him the president of the United States. That Roger Ailes.

Given his penchant for using his abuse of media power the way Dole uses Viagra, I wonder if he has anything to do with the station's "discretionary" rejection. We'll see what happens with this one.