Update: New York Post turns Will Bredderman's article into a Sunday Punch about Golden's Letter and Golden's Comments about intrusive mosque surveillance

Sunday feature in the "New York Post -- Brooklyn Weekly"  highlights Jerry Kassar's showing  his own silly side during what he calls the "Silly Season" by jumping in on the Golden-signed  letter about surveillance at places of worship

On Thursday, October 25, 2012, in my post below, “Pressures of local politics cause State Senator Golden to go soft on the terrorist threat in our midst — a squishy Golden becomes a pouting weak sister in his support for NYPD’s anti-terrorist intelligence and surveillance operation” I had mentioned that State Senator Martin Golden had apparently flip- flopped in his support of an NYPD operation that had targeted for close surveillance certain terrorist suspects at their places of worship and other gathering places.  In that post, I mentioned that several local reporters and/or bloggers had reported that Andrew Gounardes had called Golden out on his rather obvious reversal while speaking to a largely Muslim audience at a candidate’s forum sponsored by the Arab-American Association of New York. One of those reporter/bloggers was Will Bredderman, whose article appeared in The Brooklyn Paper and whose post of that material appeared at various other sites including BrooklynPaper.com and Feedage.com.

The most recent iteration of the Will Bredderman’s piece was the one that appeared in the Sunday New York Post at The New York Post – Brooklyn Weekly for October 28, 2012; that article was entitled: “Golden: Spying is Fine Sometimes – Tells Arab-American group mosque-watching is bad, but letter he signed says otherwise”

The reason for this update is that Bredderman’s most recent version specifically mentioned  my friend Jerry Kassar’s October 17, 2012  “Common Sense” column (for the week of October 18th in the Home Reporter), which had not been mentioned in my earlier post below about the same material. According to Bredderman’s remarks about the Kassar column, “... Golden[‘s] chief-of-staff Jerry Kassar came to the senator’s defense in his weekly “Common Sense” column in the Home Reporter newspaper, declaring that the Hikind-Golden letter in no way endorsed spying on mosques. “The letter said nothing of the sort,” Kassar wrote, though he didn’t include any quotes from the document or explain what he believed it really said. Kassar did not respond to requests for comment.”

Well, that’s all easy enough to check....

But first here’s what Kassar said about all this in his “Common Sense” column, along with some related material for context:
“The Marty Golden vs. Andrew Gounardes appearances featured some hot exchanges with Senator Golden and his campaign raising concerns about Andrew’s inaccurate information concerning voting records and positions. ***  As an individual who works in Albany during session on Senator Golden’s legislative agenda, I found the misrepresentations shocking because the information to disprove Gounardes charges is so readily available. I understand that the senator’s campaign has provided several members of the media with the proof. ***  One glaring example involved a letter sent to Police Commissioner Kelly and released to the press supporting NYPD efforts to monitor terrorist organizations.  Gournardes at the Arab American Association forum referenced the letter and said it showed that Senator Golden supported the spying by the NYPD on mosques.  The letter said nothing of the sort. ***  The last weeks of political campaigns are often desperate times for candidates that are fighting uphill battles.  The late State Senator Chris Mega used to call it the “silly season” because lies and half truths paid for by the underdogs often arrive by mail in your home or on your phone answering machine each day. ***  It is easy enough to research a legislator’s record and there are some excellent good government groups like the venerable Citizens Union that interview candidates and issue recommendations.”  That’s fine advice, and you’ll find a copy of the letter signed by Golden at: http://www.vosizneias.com/115160/2012/10/18/brooklyn-ny-marty-golden-now-says-he-opposes-nypds-spying-program.  A lone comment maker at Kassar’s Common Sense” site provided that link in his rejoinder to Kassar, in which the comment maker completely disagreed with what Kassar had to say about the meaning and import of the Golden letter praising the NYPD surveillance at houses of worship.

An edited excerpt of the Golden-signed letter reads as follows:  "Although many of the reports have been critical of the NYPD’s tactics, we, elected officials of New York City and State, write to you today to applaud you and the NYPD for using all means at your disposal to prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11 from occurring. We admire you for going to precisely the source of the problem….
At the same time, we encourage you to investigate any church, synagogue, or business, which may pose a threat to the safety and well-being of our society."

Yes, it is indeed “Silly Season” and that includes for Golden, his campaign and his staff. Btw, by all means do the research about State Senator Golden’s record that Mr. Kassar recommends  —  you might be surprised at what you’ll find; and maybe Kassar and Golden are hoping that you just won’t do it.