NewsTrust - New York City - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Maddow Is FURIOUS

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Rachel Maddow - Jun. 17 (Opinion) - Rachel Maddow went on a tear Thursday, condemning Democrats for forcing Anthony Weiner to resign and warning them that they have damaged themselves "probably for a generation" because of their actions.

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Woman Has Nose And Ears Cut Off In Deadly Stabbing

Tue, 10 May 2011 12:20:09 -0700

Huffington Post - By Simon McCormack - May. 10 - Police are looking to question the younger sister of Sharon Lee-Hill who was found dead after being stabbed multiple times inside her Jamaica apartment. From...

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Students Fight Cyberbullying One Keystroke At A Time

Fri, 06 May 2011 19:33:51 -0700

Huffington Post - By Joy Resmovits - May. 06 - NEW YORK -- In a sweltering classroom in The Mary Louis Academy of Jamaica Estates, Queens, freshman Regina Maghirang, 15, sat down at a computer,...

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Spiderman on Broadway? ‘Been There, Done That,’ Say Ants

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Michael Todd - Jan. 24 (Interview) - Insect biologist Rob Dunn has uncovered a hot spot of insect biodiversity.

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The Independent Odd Couple: Bloomberg/Scarborough 2012?

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Howard Fineman - Nov. 17 - WASHINGTON -- There's no campaign yet, and there may never be, but New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and MSNBC's morning talk-show host Joe Scarborough have...

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Quran Burning Story: This Is How The Media Embarrass Themselves

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jason Linkins - Sep. 10 (Opinion) - Yesterday afternoon, the leader of a microscopic cult of idiots who announced plans to stage an "international" day of Quran burning in Gainesville, Florida held a press conference, for a rapt media which decided that his moronic plans were the single most important thing going on in America. At that press conference, in front of "9/11 Truther" signs, this cult leader lied to everyone who was watching, telling them that he was going to call off his 9/11 book burning festival because he had successfully reached a deal with the people behind the Park51 community center in Lower Manhattan, in which hey would move their facility away from the site of the World Trade Center. Not a word of this was true, but it was amazing, all the same -- at one fell swoop, we had finally knit up the strands of a season of irrationality into one big, shiny, synergized knot. This was supposed to be the end of Recovery Summer? More like Relapse Summer. The story of how one lone idiot, pimping an 18th-century brand of community terrorism, held the media hostage and forced some of this nation's most powerful people to their knees to fitfully beg an end to his wackdoodlery is an extraordinary one. It's a modern media retelling of Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying", in which a gang of Islamaphobes, cast in the role of Addie Bundren, bamboozle the media into carrying their coffin full of malevolence on a journey of pure debasement. Let's begin at the beginning. Earlier this year, an organization called the Cordoba Initiative were granted permission by the appropriate authorities in New York City to turn an old Burlington Coat Factory at 51 Park Place in lower Manhattan into a community center. The organization was headed by an Imam named Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has made it his life's work to stand against radical cults like al Qaeda and teach young Muslims that America is a place where one can freely worship at the appointed times and then join other faith communities in America in the task of building a great nation. The proposed community center was to include a basketball court and space for different religious communities in New York City to have interfaith relations. It was also going to have a place for Muslims to pray, if they liked. The news didn't sit well with many people in New York, most notably people who didn't live in Manhattan. This is because they were told by a gaggle of dumb Islamophobes that what was planned was a "Ground Zero mosque." Of course, the planned community center was not, strictly speaking, a "mosque." And it was most definitely not "at Ground Zero." "Ground Zero" is the site of an interminable municipal construction project. There are no plans to build a mosque there. "Ground Zero" is also not the name of a recognized New York City neighborhood, like DUMBO or Murray Hill. But, here's the thing: even if it was, the battle to stop the "Ground Zero mosque" was already lost, because there already is a mosque in that neighborhood. This logic failed to sink in, because very few people outside of me and the good people over at Wonkette made any attempt to bring these facts to light. But it might not have mattered, because the fertile field of opposition to the Park51 community center was the raw wound of the September 11th attacks. Obviously, many people are still feeling the loss of that day. And that loss breeds many emotions, among them sadness and anger. And people definitely do have the right to express their sadness and their anger. But what people don't have the right to expect is that the government will intervene to remedy claims that have no basis in law. As soon as the media saw themselves a shiny shiny shining thing shining shinily in New York City, they pounced! How perfect! Something for us to talk about during the slow-news summer! I mean, we could talk about the nation's unemployment crisis, but that would mean we'd have to talk to poor, jobless people, and there's no currency in having access to a bunch of poors. Right away, they accepted the premise that this was a "Ground Zero mosque," when it wasn't. And so, by the power vested in the media, things that weren't in fact true were accorded the privilege of being "one side of a great debate" and "an interesting point of view." Charlie Brooker, calling out the media for this bullshit, states what should have happened at this very moment: New York being a densely populated city, there are lots of other buildings and businesses within two blocks of Ground Zero, including a McDonald's and a Burger King, neither of which has yet been accused of serving milkshakes and fries on hallowed ground. Regardless, for the opponents of Cordoba House, two blocks is too close, period. Frustratingly, they haven't produced a map pinpointing precisely how close is OK. That's literally all I'd ask them in an interview. I'd stand there pointing at a map of the city. Would it be offensive here? What about here? Or how about way over there? And when they finally picked a suitable spot, I'd ask them to draw it on the map, sketching out roughly how big it should be, and how many windows it's allowed to have. Then I'd hand them a colour swatch and ask them to decide on a colour for the lobby carpet. And the conversation would continue in this vein until everyone in the room was in tears. Myself included. That hasn't happened. Instead, 70% of Americans are opposed to the "Ground Zero mosque", doubtless in many cases because they've been led to believe it literally is a mosque at Ground Zero. And if not...well, it must be something significant. Otherwise why would all these pundits be so angry about it? And why would anyone in the media listen to them with a straight face? And because the media couldn't do their job, a group of hack politicians, like Rick Lazio and Newt Gingrich, desperate to get a little famewhore attention for their quixotic political career goals, saw an opportunity to horn in on the "discussion." They started telling all the sad and angry people that they actually did have the right to expect someone to provide a remedy to their claims. Their case was primarily based on the idea that nobody has the rights of religious freedom, no one has property rights and that the government has the right -- nay, the duty! -- to intrude. Right away, they should have been entirely ridiculed, because the people pimping this bilge were primarily right-wing types who would ordinarily say that church and state should not be separated, that property rights are sacrosanct, and that government should be small and unobtrusive. Someone really should have said to Newt Gingrich, "Is this seriously the stand you want to take? Because if it is, we shall never allow you to claim to be a supporter of small government or a 'Constitutional constructionist' ever again. And if you try to assert that claim, we will drop on you like a ton of bricks. We will cause you real, public pain." But of course, that's not what happened. The media has too much invested in flattering people like Newt Gingrich, and whoever writes Sarah Palin's tweets. And so, these inherent contradictions simply became "one side of a great debate" and "an interesting point of view." And from there, some idiot news producer said, "Hey, I bet we can shoehorn this into our election narrative somehow!" And so the Park51 community center became an election issue. Imagine that, in a world with a nine year-long, going nowhere war and a massive unemployment crisis! Imagine how many times you would have to hit yourself in the head with a ball peen hammer before you would ask a politician from California how they stood on a local zoning issue in Manhattan. But ask they did, all the way to the White House. And that's when Democrats like Harry Reid stepped forward to publicly cover themselves in cowardice. This turned the frenzy up several notches for the media, because suddenly, they had obtained a very precious thing -- the right to say "both sides do this." The matter had become a folie a deux -- a madness made for two! -- but the media focused all their attention on the "two" and none on the "madness." And in that climate, a pastor named Terry Jones saw an opportunity to make himself famous. Jones heads up a heretofore unknown and uncared-about gang of Florida morons known as the Dove Outreach Church -- minor bit players in the field of antagonizing American Muslims. This idiot announced that he was going to burn some Qurans on September 11th, and was anyone interested in giving this nonsense a whole lot of media attention? And boy howdy, lots of people took him up on the offer! And you know why they did that? Because of the shame. Because deep down, your media all-stars knew that they had aided and abetted something that closely resembled an intellectual atrocity, and now it was time to atone by finding the lowest-hanging fruit available and make themselves feel better by beating on them repeatedly for being assholes -- something they should have already been doing for months! And this gave an opportunity for some of those who had opposed the Park51 community center -- who deserved the treatment being meted out to Terry Jones -- to do the same. They joined their friends in the media in this demonstration of game-show absolution, saying, "This level of bigotry is unacceptable! It's so declasse in comparison to our own bigotry, which is a refined, 'Sunday Afternoon On The Island Of La Grande Jatte' form of despicableness." A few people, like John Boehner and whoever writes Sarah Palin's tweets went so far as to say, "See, this is exactly the same thing we were decrying with the Ground Zero mosque." Except it wasn't, because the Ground Zero mosque was a thing they had made up! None of this bothered Terry Jones at all! Why should it? In the long history of fringe religious figures saying and doing stupid things, it is exceedingly rare for the media to provide much attention to them. Pat Robertson has been telling America that gay people cause hurricanes for years, and it never amounts to much in the way of coverage beyond a periodic reminder that Pat Robertson is a complete fool. Terry Jones, however, had been given something very precious: he was now "one side of a great debate" who possessed "an interesting point of view." And the media worked very hard to push the case that Jones was part of a debate. Now, Quran burning was an election-year issue, for which every candidate had to answer. And they even went so far as to ask Jones repeatedly, "What if President Obama told you not to do this? What if former President George W. Bush told you not to do this?" They were literally brokering negotiations between an idiot cult leader and some of the most powerful and important people in the world! By now, things were terribly out of control. President Obama had to publicly state that Quran burning is a stupid thing to do. Imagine how out of touch you have to be that you need to go all the way to the White House to find that answer! Other important people were compelled to interject at this point. General David Petraeus had to come forward and state the plainly obvious: that all the public attention being given to this Quran burning would undermine the ability of U.S. forces to conduct their counterinsurgency operations, which depend heavily on winning the "hearts of minds" of Afghans. I think a lot of people read this as Petraeus speaking out against the attention-seeker, Terry Jones. But I think he was speaking more directly to the attention-givers. And everything that Justin Elliot reports here, I believe, lends credence to my contention. Eventually, Robert Gates -- the Secretary of Defense, who is running two wars! -- had to call Jones up and try to convince him not to do this. "Which is crazy," says Alex Pareene, accurately, because when, exactly, did the Pentagon start negotiating with two-bit terrorists? All of this finally culminated with yesterday's press conference, where Terry Jones lied and said that the Park51 community center was going to move, thanks to him. You see where this is headed now, don't you? Now the people behind Park51 are on the hook for stopping this Quran burning, and all of the negative external impact it may have. Now, all of the refined hate-merchants from early in the story can say that if the "Ground Zero mosque" isn't moved, immediately, American troops could die! To go back to Charlie Brooker, let's remember that after sizing up the incompetence that pervaded the Park51 coverage, he warned that the "media" should just "give up" before they "[made] things worse." Pretty prophetic, isn't it? They got played, and played badly, by a dude with 14th-century religious beliefs, 19th-century facial hair and ultra-modern media savvy. Terry Jones has essentially blackmailed some of the most important people in America, with the assistance of the media. Let's remember that all of this paralysis was caused by 50 people who wanted to burn a book that's available for free, on the Internet! There were many, many moments where someone could have simply said, "No, we should really not be doing this. These Islamophobes are objectively wrong, objectively stupid, objectively contradictory, objectively harmful, and by God, as someone with a functioning brain and a devotion to the pursuit of reason above all else, I am going to stand here and say no to all of this." But as it turns out, it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that someone finally had the guts to say maybe we cannot really believe a word this man is saying. Well, they should have thought of that before they decided to point a bunch of teevee cameras at him, I guess. [Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

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“We want to build Park51 so it has something for everyone”

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

altmuslim.com - By Aziz Poonawalla, Shahed Amanullah - Aug. 14 (Interview) - When the Park51 project in lower Manhattan was first conceived, the developers could not have imagined that they would find themselves in the firestorm they are in today. The purchase of the property, the initial planning, and even the first community vote all passed uneventfully. But not long after the developers received their first community board approval (not a requirement, but done in order to show a commitment to the lower Manhattan community), the $100 million project has become the focus of intense debate. While national and state politicians (mostly Republicans) have been vocally coming out against the what has come to be known in the media as the "Ground Zero mosque", most local officials remain strongly in support and most observers agree that there is no legal impediment to the project moving forward. Lost in all the fracas, however, is the voice of the owner of the building and developer of the Park51 project, long-time Manhattan developer Sharif El-Gamal of Soho Properties. We reached out to El-Gamal to find out how more about the project financing, the history of Muslims in Manhattan, and how the project can bridge a gap that seems to be growing day by day.

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Greg Gutfeld: I’m raising money to build a Muslim gay bar next to the Ground Zero mosque

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Hot Air - By Allahpundit - Aug. 09 (Opinion) - Andy Levy assures me that he’s quite serious. Media narrative on the GZ mosque: Shining beacon of liberal values bursting through the overcast skies of American intolerance. Media narrative on the GG gay bar: Dangerous provocation that needlessly

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Move Your BIG Money

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Katrina vanden Heuvel - Jul. 15 (Editorial) - On Wednesday, at a press conference at the Manhattan Municipal Building, the most powerful local union presidents and the city’s chief financial officer told the Big Banks enough is enough. Rather than wait on the Obama Administration to finally put some teeth into its voluntary mortgage modification program (that the banks are voluntarily taking a pass on), these leaders are taking matters into their own hands.

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Bronx Activist Aims To Unseat Weakened Espada

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

City Limits - Apr. 23 (Opinion) - Bedford Park — When Desiree Pilgrim-Hunter announced her candidacy for the New York State Senate last Saturday, she did so to an undersized media scrum — at least, by New York City standards. The signs said things like "Honest Leadership Now!" and

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How Not to Lay Off Teachers

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

City Journal - By Marcus A. Winters - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - It goes without saying that many experienced teachers are good at their jobs; no one argues for laying off the most senior teachers en masse. And certainly some young, alternatively certified teachers are ineffective and should be let go. But the current system for determining layoffs solely based on years served is simply wrongheaded. New York should instead adopt strategies that help weed out the worst teachers and identify (and keep) the best, regardless of when they were hired. We should rely on the input of principals to identify teachers who really help students, and also use student performance on standardized tests to help guide— but not determine—necessary layoff decisions.

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Artists Offer a Visual Dialogue on a Changing Brooklyn

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Gotham Gazette - By Nicole G. Anderson - Apr. 02 (Review) - Artist Oasa DuVerney, moved to Brooklyn 12 years ago from Queens. Drawn to the warmth and the culture of the community in Crown Heights, she put down roots in the neighborhood. But over the last decade, she, like so many other artists, has watched the tide of gentrification wash over the neighborhood she calls home.

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Contradicting Secretary Geithner

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

baselinescenario.com - By Simon Johnson - Apr. 02 (Opinion) - it is impossible to believe that the government could not have been tougher on banks and bankers in spring 2009. The idea that every failed top banker needed to keep his job – and that every director of a failed bank needed to stay in place – is simply preposterous. Of course, the people who ran our biggest banks onto the rocks think they are indispensible, but as Charles de Gaulle reportedly said, ““The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.”

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[April Fools'] News Release: "The Arena Can Wait. Affordable Housing Now!"

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

dddb.net - Apr. 01 (Comedy News) - Forest City Enterprises, Inc. today announced that the Barclays Center Arena for which it broke ground just three weeks ago, is going on the backburner so the development firm can break ground on the affordable housing units it has long promised to construct for Brooklyn.

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Bronx News Roundup, April 1

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Bronx News Network - Apr. 01 () - Tenants of 2710 Bainbridge Ave. plan to file a lawsuit against landlord Frank Palazzolo in housing court tomorrow in effort to get the building into better hands. Palazzolo was rated as one of the "10 Worst Landlords" by the Village Voice. (If the name sounds familiar to readers of the Norwood News, it's because of our 2002 coverage here, here and here. Also we have a reporter at a rally in front of the building right now.)

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Elder Abuse Programs Must Be Saved

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Gotham Gazette - By Bobbie Sackman, Mara Schecter - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - Nancy Smith, a 68-year-old Manhattan resident, was being abused emotionally and financially by her 23-year-old grandson, who she had raised. Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, received an order of protection. The Jewish Association for Services for the Aging also got her locks changed and secured a court order to have her grandson removed from the home. Staff helped Smith get involved in a support group. Today, she says she is at peace in her home and feels freer and safer than she has in years. ..In his most recent budget proposal released in January, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed eliminating these programs entirely.

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New Local Stores Flout the ‘Depression’

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Brooklyn Eagle - By Dennis Holt - Mar. 31 (Editorial) - t is always a sign that at least the worst of a depression is over when many of those closed up storefronts have new stores and the news media begins to report on these outlets few of us know about. Recently, there were a series of reports in some of the magazines about some of those new places in the downtown general area that are worth noting.

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Bloomberg: Running As An Independent

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Jennifer Donahue - Mar. 30 (Opinion) - I've said it before and I'll say it again. It feels like a third party candidate election in 2012. And this feels like a candidate. Jokes aside, I think Mayor Bloomberg is running.

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Morning Read: Pot, Patience, Pop Stars

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

New York Observer - Mar. 30 () - David Paterson might run for Senate? Really? Michael Bloomberg opposes legalizing pot, resorts to "gateway drug" argument. Albany continues to fail. Borrowing is starting to look like an OK idea. Patience, patience, patience, or at least try, says Haberman. The Post backs Paterson over Ravitch. Related: The MTA makes huge cuts to bus service. The News supports NYU's expansion plans, hopes Scott Stringer won't gum things up. Voyeur, where the RNC dropped...

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Mayor Bloomberg Live W/John Gambling

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

wor710.com - By John Gambling - Mar. 29 (Interview) - It’s nine minutes after eight o’clock and it is a Friday and we do indeed have Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

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There's No Place Like Home

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Heather Kristin - Mar. 29 (Opinion) - I walked down Fifth Avenue, thinking about Obama's latest plan to aid homeowners suffering through the foreclosure crises when I passed a church and saw a family huddled on the steps. A boy around twelve years old held out his hand begging for a buck. They had a cardboard sign that read, "Homeless. Please Help." Twenty-five years ago, that was me and my family.

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Restoring Balance to New York's Finances

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Gotham Gazette - By Richard Ravitch - Mar. 29 (Opinion) - Many New Yorkers do not yet understand the severity of the structural imbalance, but it has placed New York in a fiscal position that is not sustainable. Recently I released a report titled, Five Year Plan to Address the New York State Budget Deficit. The report outlines changes in state budgeting that I believe are needed to achieve and maintain structural balance in the state budget. These proposals must be treated as an integrated whole, not a list of options. To work, they all must be adopted together. The figure below provides highlights of the report’s recommendations.

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A Minefield for Obama

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

City Limits - By Jarrett Murphy - Mar. 27 (Opinion) - The White House has refused to inject color into its depictions of the economic crisis. No surprise there: Obama's breaking the color barrier at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue hasn't given him free rein to conduct the "national conversation on race" of which he once spoke. Instead, pigment is a uniquely perilous topic for him.

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NY Pays 230 "Consultants" $722M Per Year for Computer Project 7 Years Behind Schedule

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 26 (Interview) - you could call New York’s version of Boston’s Big Dig, only it’s in cyberspace, that the city has been—is spending now up to more than $722 million, ten times what it originally started to spend, to create a new computerized payroll system.

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Educating for Democracy

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Joel Shatzky - Mar. 26 (Opinion) - In recent weeks a number of cities and states have announced school closings and teacher layoffs due to several factors including population shifts, budgetary problems and, as in the case of New York City, low scores on standardized tests. Although these factors indicate a complicated picture, my concern is that the notion of closing schools in itself for reasons that have little to do with student safety is a sign of a profound change in attitudes in this country toward equal opportunity for all young learners.

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