Brooklyn Ron

Ed Towns is 'Bothered' by Hillary Clinton's Race-Baiting, But Sticks With Her Anyway

Congressman Ed (Edolphus) Towns is quoted in The Brooklyn Paper saying he's "bothered" by Hillary Clinton's race-baiting remarks that have drawn condemnations across the Democratic spectrum.

Even Clinton's staunch backer up there in Harlem, Congressman Charles Rangel, has said the New York Senator's comments were "dumb."

“It bothered me because that’s not what I’m about,” Towns said.

Then, almost remarkably, Towns seemed to use that very disappointment as a justification for endorsing Clinton in the first place.

“This nation is about ability and performance. That’s why I’m backing Hillary Clinton — and I’m still backing her, even though that comment bothered me.”

What?

Triggering the controversy, Clinton effectively said (with evident approval) that struggling whites will not vote for Obama but that they love her.

Anyway, in addition to Ed Towns, the other Brooklyn Congressmember who's still with Hil, despite representing a district that went for Barack Obama in the Feb. 5th primary, is Yvette Clarke, who like Towns is African-American.

Last week Clarke greeted Obama with whooshing enthusiasm on the floor of Congress, where Obama was taking a kind of pre-victory tour.

But Clarke, though she must privately be desiring to go with Obama, is apparently staying with her New York leader. Her precise feelings are hard to gauge because she hasn't said much publicly.

Fears Grow That Verizon, Comcast and Others Will Restrict Web Access

                          SUPPORT 'NET NEUTRALITY'

Fears are growing that Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner and other Internet Service Providers are going to limit Web access of their smaller, less powerful customers or -- in a potentially grave threat to the First Amendment -- restrict downloading capabilities of sites they find (for reasons political or otherwise) offensive.

This is leading to enough concern that members of Congress are becoming involved and, in fact, a bill recently was introduced addressing the matter.

Congressman John Conyers of Michigan said:

"Americans have come to expect the Internet to be open to everyone. The Internet was designed without centralized control, without gatekeepers for content and services. If we allow companies with monopoly or duopoly power to control how the Internet operates, network providers could have the power to choose what content is available."

The legislation introduced on May 8th by Democrats requires Internet Service Providers "to operate their network in a reasonable and nondiscriminatory manner so that all content, applications and services are treated the same and have an equal opportunity to reach consumers."

Republicans and ISP's have opposed the measure, saying it is a "solution in search of a problem."

But some believe that Comcast in particular has already been found to limit access of smaller customers, especially during times of heavy Net traffic.

The movement against this perceived ISP threat is being called "Net Neutrality," which is defined as "the fundamental principle that prevents service providers from discriminating against websites or services based on their source, ownership or destination."

And the group that is pushing the issue, and trying recruit Netizens into its cause, is SaveTheInternet. [Click the opening image or the link to the left of here to find out more about them and/or how to join the movement.]

Bill Moyers, for one, has been expressing serious worries about this threat to the free nature of the Internet.

The Democracy of the Net is at stake, and it's extremely meaningful that figures of Moyers' stature are becoming so involved.

Knowing How Clinton Dissed Her Black District, Yvette Clarke Must Be Dying to Bolt for Barrack

Okay, this is based on circumstantial evidence, but that's the only way to know what a politician is really thinking in Central Brooklyn.

I recently came across  a clipping about Yvette Clarke's race for the historic black Congressional seat that she won two years ago.

The seat, you may recalled was first won by the late Shirley Chisholm exactly 40 years ago, and it was created to give Brooklyn's substantial and then still-growing black population a voice in the halls of Congress.

Well, in 2006 the seat, vacated by Major Owens, was up for grabs and Yvette Clarke was running against a field that included white City Councilman David Yassky, who was widely perceived by black pols as a reverse carpetbagger.

Yassky, who moved into the district in order to legitimately compete in the race, would have, had he won, gone down in history as the one who broke the sting of black representatives in Shirley Chisholm's Congressional District.

And who was apparently backing him in that effort, at least according to strong circumstantial evidence?

Hillary Clinton!

You see, it seems Clinton's very close aide Howard Wolfson, through his company, the Glover Park Group, worked for Yassky during the heated and racially charged campaign. And there are those who say there's no way he would have done it without Clinton's support.

Now, given what Hillary Clinton has been saying of late about her appeal with struggling white voters -- comments that even her strongest black backers like Charlie Rangel have called "dumb" -- one has to wonder about Clinton's instincts when it comes to matters of race.

It's said that irritation over Clinton's suspected involvement in the Yasssky campaign is why Yvette Clarke took so long to endorse the New York Senator. Clarke was the last New York Democratic Congressmember from the state to do so.

And so now we understand the joy that we saw on Clarke's face when she greeted Barack Obama in Congress last week, in his pre-victory lap. That's when she asked him to sign her copy of The New York Daily News that had Obama on the front page, declaring, "It's His Party."

Perhaps what we were seeing was relief that maybe her day of deliverance is finally at hand. (see previous BrooklynRon post.)

That is to say, maybe -- if and when Clinton ever concedes she can't win the nomination -- she'll be free to dump the Hill and opt for Barack, as the voters of Clarke's district did in the Feb. 5th primary.

By the way, this photo we discovered from last year, with Clarke standing next to Clinton, doesn't show Yvette looking very happy, does it?

Yvette Clarke Takes Strongest Stand Yet on Obama; She Asks for His Autograph!

Well, after months of declining to say anything much about the heated Democratic race (and at times even suggesting she would stay with Hillary Clinton all the way through the summer Convention), Congresswoman Yvette Clarke finally told a bold step.

She asked Barack Obama for his autograph!

Yup, as Obama strutted around Congress on Thursday, doing a great PR job of portraying himself as the inevitable nominee (some critics might say presumptuous nominee, but let's not give them any ammo), Clarke approached him with a copy of The New York Daily News, the one bearing the headline saying, "It's His Party."

Of course, everybody was smiling.

Now this is a watershed moment, because up to now Brooklyn's Conressmembers have been doing all they can to assure the Democratic race, exciting and enlivening to the rest of the country, remains here passionless and virtually silent. (see previous BrooklynRon post.)

On Clarke's end (and Congressman Ed -- Edolphus -- Towns' end), the reasons for being so low-key have been obvious: Their districts went decidedly for Obama in the Feb. 5th New York State primary, despite some indications that Democratic Party bosses were teaming up with local election officials to tilt votes toward Clinton, in old-fashioned sleezy Brooklyn ways. (see earlier BrooklynRon post.)

But the evident motion now in the grueling and nasty Dem race seems decidedly toward Obama, and it was an act of bravery perhaps for Clarke to do what she did in asking him to sign her Daily News.

[The past reluctance of Clarke to say or do anything that smelled of support for Obama was captured by the New York Observer, which also showed how Yvette's mother and political rabbi, Una Clarke, seemed even more steadfastly in Clinton's camp.]

Al Sharpton at His Best, Protesting Police Killings of Young Men

Whatever one may think about him -- and the thoughts range a very wide gamut -- there's no doubt that the Rev. Al Sharpton has virtually no equal in New York City history when it comes to aggressively opposing unjustified killings of young Black and Latino men by New York City Police.

There he was again on Wednesday [see wcbs story], putting out his wrists for the waiting handcuffs as he led city-wide protests resulting in the arrests of more than 200 men and women, black, brown and white, who were protesting a judge's acquittals of three police officers in the gunning down of Sean Bell in Queens two years ago.

Judge Cooperman's decision was broadly considered to be an outrage, and the most base of motives have been attributed to him, namely that he is near retirement and did not give a damn what the public thought or said about what he did.

What he did was withhold even the lightest hammer of punishment or disapproval that he could have brought down on the cops who pumped dozens of bullets toward and into Bell, killing Bell and wounding two friends with whom he was -- it is conceded -- celebrating a raucous bachelor's night -- his own.

It is not a stretch to suggest that Brooklyn's Congressman Vito Fossella, had he been stopped for drunk driving in New York rather than Virginia last week -- and had he been a young Black male -- would have been putting his life on line.

Think about that.

Ray Kelly, though he is often thought of as accommodating and liberal on the race issue compared to his predecessor Howard Safir, the yes-man commander under race-baiting Rudy Giuliani, has failed to confront this continuing problem of police abuse in a firm manner.

And so Al Sharpton remains the city's necessary counter-weight.

Sharpton's finest moment, and one of the finest moments in the annals of New York City activism, occurred nine years ago when he led huge protests against the police killing of African immigrant Amadou Diallo.

As some like to say, la luta continua.

Protesters to Gov: This Land (Atlantic Yards) Was Made for You and Me

On sunny Saturday, May 3rd, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries told the crowd of hundreds gathered at Atlantic Yards that they should put their trust in their new Governor, David Paterson.

"Let's give Governor Paterson a chance to engage in a real dialogue with this community about this project,"  Jeffries said on a sunny May 3 Saturday afternoon.

The Assemblyman [photo] called Paterson "a person who understands the importance of community input."

The protesters were hoping the Governor joins them in calling for a halt to the demolition taking place for Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, which envisions a new Nets stadium and (according to Ratner's web site) "commercial offices, retail establishments and a boutique hotel."

The project is side-by-side the borough's signature Williamsburg Savings Bank, which has been converted into condos and is anticipating a big name company as its anchor retail tenant, perhaps even Microsoft (see The Brooklyn Paper).

The Ratner project is so vast that opponents say it will destroy the character of that part of Brooklyn. The opponents also object to the use of eminent domain under which the state allows the developer to take possession of land within the footprint of the project. Already businesses have closed and the land on which they operated lies vacant.

Earlier that Saturday of the protest, many hundreds of others were in same area of Atlantic Yards but were demonstrating for the arena and the other buildings to be erected.

Opponents maintained that the pro crowd was made up mostly of union activists paid to attend and protest.

One thing seemed clear: Even if Ratner is able to overcome the obstacles posed by the poor economy and housing market, the opponents and elected officials who stand with them (Leticia James, David Yassky and others) will continue to stand in the way.

Download atlantic_yards_movie_real2.mov

Bklyn Flash: Dems Stunned as Clinton Vows to Fight Beyond Nov. 4th

Hillary Clinton -- her daughter and husband seeming near tears after the candidate's poor performance in Tuesday's primary contests -- said she would not only fight Barack Obama through the summer, but even beyond November 4th.

That would be date on which the nation actually votes for its next president.

CNN commentators pointed out that, under Hillary Clinton's threatened scenario, Republican John McCain conceivably could waltz into the Oval office unopposed -- given a free pass, so to speak, as Clinton and Obama continue to slug it out.

Even some of Senator Clinton's staunchest supporters were cool to her new strategy. Some of them declared that her radical no-surrender course could mean the end of the Democratic Party and, perhaps, the country.

Confronted with these concerns, the Senator reportedly barked for 30 seconds and accused the doubters of being pansies unwilling to do what it takes to win.

Two sources close to the Clinton campaign said that the candidate had a plan under which, assuming an unopposed McCain victory, she would ultimately finish off Obama "by any means necessary" and then go to the Supreme Court arguing for a nullification of the Nov. 4th election.

An ad hoc coalition of Democrats issued a statement calling the Clinton scenario "undemocratic" and even "whacky."

Asked to respond to the candidate's strategy, her husband Bill Clinton glared and then angrily accused the reporter of "race baiting."

Cheney's Fella Fossella is in a Helluva Mess

Brooklyn's Newest Baby Daddy?

Now comes the New York Daily News telling us that the Hon. Vito Fossella, in addition to facing jail time for drunk driving, is very possibly a baby daddy.

Of course, many Republicans would have you believe that baby daddies are creatures of the ghetto, that  they are all young, dysfunctional and amoral Blacks and Latinos.

[For the unhip, a baby daddy is a man who has fathered a child out of wedlock.]

Well, The News suggests that the person Fossella was going to see the night he was busted for driving drunk was retired Air Force Lt. Col. Laura Fay, who has a three year old daughter.

The paper also raises the possibility that the child may be Fossella's. Fossella, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, has three children with his wife, Mary Pat. (read the article.)

What makes this all so interesting, and especially painful for Fossella, is that he's up for reelection this year. Even before this mess he felt himself in enough trouble politically that, last month, he had Vice President Dick Cheney do a fundraiser for him.

If he was worried then, he must surely be in a panic now.

Maybe he and Elliot Spitzer are off somewhere in a secret 12-step program for wayward pols.

Tony Avella: Mayoral Candidate Siding With Communities Against Big Developers

There he was on Saturday, May 3d, with the hundreds of Brooklynites opposed to Bruce Ratner's plan to build a Nets stadium at Atlantic Yards, along with a conversion of the signature Williamsburg Savings Bank building into condominiums.

Tony Avella [photo], Councilman from Queens, took the stage in the afternoon and joined several Brooklyn politicians in denouncing the Ratner plan as a kind of steamrolling over local residents and an abuse of the powers of eminent  domain.

Calling out to Bruce Ratner (who, of course, was not there), Avella told the enthusiastic crowd, "We're not going to let you destroy a neighborhood!"

He added that New York State "should not use eminent domain to give some developer millions of dollars."

Atlantic Yards is one of the biggest development projects in city history, though doubts have arisen lately as to Ratner's ability to carry out his plans given the sagging economy and real estate market.

Avella's presence at the anti-Ratner rally brought to mind his appearance some months ago on Gil Noble's "Like It Is" Sunday television program, on which he appeared with Councilman Charles Barron (one of the most radical African Americans every to occupy a seat in that local legislative body) and oppose the redevelopment of Central Harlem's W. 125th St. commercial strip, using the same kind of language he's employing in opposing Atlantic Yards.

Given his announced intentions to run for mayor in next year's election, we'd have to say we'll be in for a very exciting campaign.

Quite a Fella, That Fossella. But What Was the Congressman's Real 'Error in Judgment'?

Many Brooklynites, when they hear Congressman Vito Fossella's declaration that he made an "error in judgment," will be overcome with satisfaction, in the belief that that a member of the family had finally come to his moral senses.

But it turns out that Fossella [photo] is not referring to his recent reliance on friend Dick Cheney (architect of the Iraq fiasco) for financial help, as Fossella tried to hold onto his Congressional seat.

(Recall that Cheney did a fund raiser last month for Fossella.) [see Times article.]

Rather, the Representative is talking about something that is, let's say, more personal.

It turns out the error in judgment was his arrest yesterday on drunk driving charges in Virginia.