After the robo-calls, the mailings and the meetings, Marty Golden’s “Republicans for Change” and Craig Eaton’s Kings County Republican Organization, and others move into laying out their separate petitions with slots for elective office and party committee positions

Both sides’ mailings and meetings, and the rest generated lists of hundreds of new names for Republican County Committee, even while some key Republicans wonder whether it’s worth the effort and expense to try to make all these new GOP County Committee members

The Brooklyn GOP Organization held three outreach meetings this week: the first was held in the Trump Village part of the 46th A.D. and was attended by about fifty people, half of which were eligible to vote and/or run in that district; the second was at Buckley’s in Marine Park where Craig Eaton, Russell Gallo and Diana Sepulveda spoke to a packed house getting a favorable response from most; the most recent event for “County” was earlier this evening at the Grand Prospect Hall, where Eaton, Gallo and Sepulveda were joined by Gerry O’Brien and introduced about 45-50 newcomers to the world of the Kings County Republican Committee.

Perhaps cutting into a few of those that might have gone to the GOP event at the Grand Prospect Hall, was the competing meeting thrown at Gargiulo’s by “Republicans for Change.” More than the selection of the site suggests that “Republicans for Change” is focused on a few districts in Southwest Brooklyn. The selection of the event’s speakers, Marty Golden, David Storobin and Clorinda Annarumo suggest that the “Republicans for Change” group does not cover a lot of territory. Nonetheless, the evenings offerings at Gargiulo’s might have succeeded in bringing out what one of my operatives described as a much larger contingent of supporters than the similar affair last week at the Bay Ridge Manor.  However, maybe that should be taken with a dose of salt, because another source reported in some detail that the event was dismally similar to the earlier event that Golden threw at the Bay Ridge Manor, but this time with many more bumps along the way and a crowd that was largely confused as to why they were there. Interestingly, mayoral candidate Joseph Lhota was introduced but didn't give a speech.  ( If I can get some second sourcing of some nifty quotes, I'll do another report on this event --- otherwise, I will just give an "UPDATE" with the details once they are established to my satisfaction.)

As a result of this week’s effort, the Kings County Republican Party might have added about 200-250 new names to the various Assembly Districts’ slates for Republican County Committee. It remains to be seen how many go out and petition themselves onto the ballot, or otherwise have their names circulated by others so as to qualify. Several may qualify for the ballot and still be challenged by other qualifying Republicans, who will be competing for the same positions; in which case the outcome will be decided in the GOP primary in September.

At least two Republican leaders have expressed to me that the resources committed by the two competing sides thus far could have made a sizable impact in any competitive City Council race in November ( John Quaglione and David Storobin should take special note of that, both now and again in late October or early November).

“Common Sense: Scandal” — OR — “How things are done and said in the 'false flag' world of Jerry Kassar”

As is often the case with too many long-time c[C]onservatives, a large part of their message is bait and switch — In that regard, Kings County Conservative Party Chairman  Kassar is clearly proof of the rule and in no way exceptional 

A case in point is this week’s Home Reporter/Sunset News “Common Sense” column by Mr. Kassar, spectacularly and ironically  entitled  —   “ COMMON SENSE: SCANDAL ” (See “Common Sense: Scandal” by Jerry Kassar, 5/28/13. Home Reporter/Sunset News [http://www.homereporternews.com/opinion/common-sense-scandal/article_91694df6-c7c9-11e2-8b90-0019bb2963f4.html]; also linked in the Conservative Party Blog as: “Common Sense by Jerry Kassar -on National and NYS Scandals and Candidates Offering Hope for Future” by Ross Brady, 5/30/13 [http://brooklynconservativeparty.com/?p=905]).  Here is how it was described by Ross Brady, “May 28th, 2013 – in Home Reporter and Brooklyn Spectator- Brooklyn Conservative’s Chairman Jerry Kassar has an article on scandals of national implication and here in the NYS Assembly. He also discussed Lhota and Quaglione events.”

As is often the case with a Kassar opinion piece, his May 28th column marches or sails in small circles and usually under a false flag. He opens with a passing mention of the national IRS-Tea Party scandal and opines that we shouldn’t look at the Republican push for more investigations as an attempt to “drag it out.”  His reasoning is a little pied, but it runs like this, “... [The IRS] certainly must be above politics. There are many Democrats calling for a thorough review. ***  For this reason, a full investigation by Congress is warranted....”  –  in other words, a thoroughly politicized investigation to look into politics in the IRS in order to eliminate politics at the IRS is justified because some other politicians might agree.  Shockingly, Kassar describes this IRS scandal as “...Tea Party audits...” —  as an “accountant” and seasoned political observer and writer he should know better; "audits" are a tiny part of what was wrong, to the point of being illegal, at the IRS.  However, the reason that Kassar's opening section was so shoddy was that he could care less about the Tea Party or even the national IRS scandal, right now. But, no matter  —  for him,  that was just the bait and any offal would do to chum the waters of any unsuspecting readers that he still might have.

Kassar then segued into a chorus about the more local scandals involving Vito Lopez and Shelly Silver  —  again, with very little substance in those discussions. This part of Kassar’s column was really ironic false flag stuff, because Lopez and Silver have long been benefactors of Kassar’s boss State Senator Martin Golden, and for his part, Golden has been a cooperator and facilitator of both Silver and Lopez. Little of import was mentioned or accomplished other than a tip of the hat to two of Kassar’s friends in the NYS Assembly Nicole Malliotakis and Joe Borelli. All that Jerry was missing as he marched in his ever narrowing circle was a tin toy soldier hat, tin whistle and tin drum.

It was after mentioning Vito Lopez and Shelly Silver that Kassar pulled down his false flag of convenience and hoisted the Jolly Roger and embarked on his real acts of rhetorical piracy. The real meat of Kassar’s column was the half of it that was devoted to a meeting of what Kassar described as  “...a new group calling itself Republicans for Change.”

Kassar went from his falsely flagged pettifoggery to an open and notorious “Big Lie” when he opened the final segment of his propaganda published weekly with this: “Mayoral candidate Joe Lhota and City Council candidate John Quaglione had a large crowd at a recent event held at the Bay Ridge Manor...”  The “crowd” was anything but “large”; in fact, except for a tight contingent of close-in Quaglione supporters, the Bay Ridge Manor crowd was embarrassingly small  —  a fact not lost on Lhota and his close-in supporters. You see, the fact not being reported by Jerry Kassar is that this “event” being hosted by Tim Cochrane  was the first gathering for “Republicans for Change”; and it fell on its face.

Also not reported by Jerry Kassar is that “Republicans for Change” is an alter-ego of Kassar’s boss, State Senator Martin Golden; and that "Republicans for Change" is part of Golden’s thoroughly corrupt effort to take over control of the whole Kings County Republican Party. So far Golden’s name has not been formally mentioned in connection with these so-called “Republicans for Change”; and certainly Kassar wouldn’t be serving his boss by doing that in his column.

Based on robo-calls, there is another gathering of “Republicans for Change” tonight at Gargiulo’s. Let’s see if Golden is announced in connection with all of this — OR — whether like Kassar, one of its creators, promoters  and facilitators, “Republicans for Change” continues to move under its own false flag.

GOP candidate for City Council in the 44th Counc. Dist. no longer "unsettled" --- It's Joseph Hayon

Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton and Joseph Hayon had been having difficulty settling on a GOP candidate to run against David Greenfield until Hayon said that he would be willing to do it 

Eaton's support for the independent Republican and social conservative Joseph Hayon signals the second open break from the Conservative Party in a district that is made up predominantly of Orthodox Jewish voters. Craig Eaton also showed that he is willing to reach beyond his inner circle of Republican operatives to generate active and dynamic candidates to fill his slate of prospective members of the City Council from some of those parts of Brooklyn where Republicans have not routinely run candidates in recent elections.

For his part, Joseph Hayon announced that he intended to continue supporting Craig Eaton as his favored candidate to lead the Brooklyn GOP going forward to the 2013 GOP County Convention and for the next two years. Hayon also said he he would be willing to support most of the State and County Committee slate that is endorsed by and running along with Eaton.  However, although he is running as the Republican Candidate for City Council in the 44th Council District, Joseph Hayon will not be supporting any of the Republican candidates for mayor. According to Mr. Hayon, none of the Republican candidates was running on a solid family values platform; and as a result, Hayon could not morally support any of them. Even more controversial, Mr. Hayon states that he will continue to actively support the candidacy of Erick Salgado, a socially conservative Democrat, who is trying to become that party's candidate.

Hayon is expected  to form a campaign committee and file in time to participate in the NYC Campaign Finance matching funds program.

The Kings County Republican Party -Official- Organization of County Leader Craig Eaton pushes back against the “Republicans for Change” across all media and across all of Brooklyn

The GOP Organization’s internet postings, emails and printed handbill flyers are being disseminated, even as I write this post, inviting all Republicans to various organizing events across the county  —  In addition, Chairman Eaton’s outreach includes new openings to prior insurgent independent Republicans and even to some of those behind the scenes leaders and workers who might have moved over to the “Republicans for Change” but are wavering

Posted on the Brooklyn GOP homepage is an announcement, dated May 23, 2013  from “Old Abe” that accuses  “.... Corrupt legislators in Albany... [of counting] on Republican voters like you ... [of not being] involved in local politics... [so] they can get away with anything...”  Old Abe then urges Republicans to “Join the County Committee. It’s the Republican Party’s single most important grassroots organization...”  That announcement was/is  accompanied with an invitation to two Republican Neighborhood Meetings —
(1) Wednesday, May 29, 7:00 PM, Buckley’s, 2926 Avenue S, Corner of Nostrand and S, Marine Park, Brooklyn NY 11229 – B44 Nostrand Avenue bus line   — and —
(2) Thursday, May 30, 7:00 PM, Grand Prospect Hall, 263 Prospect Avenue, (near 5th Avenue), Park Slope, Brooklyn 11215 - 1 block from R Train at Prospect Ave (See “Fed up with political corruption? The only way to change things is to get involved in politics at the grassroots level. Join the Republican County Committee and make a difference” by Honest Abe, 5/23/13 [http://brooklyngop.com/?p=982]).

On Friday a reworked version of the “Old Abe” piece was posted by Gene Berardelli on the “Brooklyn GOP Radio -Official- Show Blog” – it contained similar arguments and made the same invitation to the May 29th and 30th meetings mentioned above ( See “The Only Way to ‘Change’ Things: Get Involved! Join County Committee” by Gene Berardelli, 5/24/13 [http://brooklyngopradio.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-only-way-to-change-things-get.html#more]).

Perhaps the most interesting battleground in all of Brooklyn is within the boundaries of the 46th AD, headlined by a full-contact MMA cage-match between incumbent Republican State Committee Members and District Leaders Lucretia Regina-Potter and Clorinda Annarumo. The way things look now, that brawl will overflow into this year’s City Council races; and, more than likely, into next year’s legislative and congressional battles in the 46th AD and surrounding districts.

The 46th AD leadership fight exposes an interesting contradiction within the core of the “Republicans for Change” crowd, who are forced to have a contradictory-exceptional identity and hyphenated slogans to reflect their leading 46th AD leadership candidate. It all looks like this: “Republicans for Change  —  Except in the 46th AD where change is bad”; “Revitalizing OUR Brooklyn Republican Party —  Except in the 46th AD where the old are better than the young, and the old ways of doing things are the only ways they’ll let us try to get things done”; and  “Be part of a New Day for Our Party” — Except in the 46th AD where “Yesterday all our troubles seemed so far away... Oh, in the 46th AD we all believe in Yesterday.”

In addition to the meetings mentioned above, the Brooklyn GOP is sending out flyers and emails to announce a meeting in the 46th AD sponsored by the Brooklyn GOP and Gloria Hacken, a longtime Trump Village community activist, to take place at the Community Room in 2942 West 5th Street, Brooklyn NY at 6:00PM on Tuesday, May 28, 2013. The purpose of the meeting is to recruit and instruct County Committee members in that part of the 46th AD and surrounding districts and to involve Republicans in the campaigns of John Catsmatidis for Mayor and for Brooklyn GOP City Council candidates. The principal attraction at the event is Margo Catsimatidis, wife of candidate John Catsimatidis, who is also described as “...the youngest person ever invited to dance with the [ ]Bolshoi Ballet.”

“John Catsimatidis A Mayor for Every New Yorker” — One minute bio-pic hits the airwaves

It was nice and it was long; that would make it nice and long, but you’ll come away thinking that it’s long and nice..... and long

According to the posted text in YouTube, “John Catsimatidis' 60 second bio spot is the first candidate ad of the 2013 NYC Mayor's race.” It was bigger than a  “bio-spot” and a little smaller than “The Odyssey” or one of my longer posts.

According to the Catsimatidis Campaign’s press release, “CATSIMATIDIS HITS THE AIRWAVES  —   60 Second TV Ad Starts On Cable & Broadcast ....”

It does look and sound good  ---  a thirty-second version could be great !

Boom – Boom – Boom – Bambambam — Boom – Boom – Boom – Bambambam — Boom – Boom – Boom – Bambambam — Boom – Boom – Boom – Bambambam — Boom – Boom – Boom – Bambambam — Boom – Boom – Boom – Bambambam — She, she ain’t real .... She is a stranger ... Sure, she’s got it all ... Rumour has it — Rumour has it — Rumour has it — Rumour has it ...

STOP !  STOP !  STOP !  NOT “RUMOUR HAS IT”... This is  not at all like Adele’s song  —  It’s RUEMMLER  has it .... RUEMMLER, you know, the President’s White House Legal Counsel — But, the real question is this: “Just what is it that RUEMMLER has  ON or FOR  the President ?”

There was much more going on “between the lines” in Jackie Calmes’ NY Times piece about Kathryn Ruemmler than happened inside those plastic lines on the clay courts in the two Williams sisters’ matches at Roland Garros (and that includes the grueling first round loss by Venus)

Maybe the most important story to date involving Obama’s triple-scandal, certainly the IRS part of it, was what appeared in the New York Times yesterday. It started like this: “WASHINGTON —  It is a Washington truism that if the White House counsel — the president’s lawyer — is in the news, that cannot be good for either of them. ***  And so it seemed last week when the counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, made headlines for having been told about a draft report confirming the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups. Suddenly Ms. Ruemmler, a 42-year-old former prosecutor of white-collar crimes who is as influential with President Obama as she is obscure beyond his circle, was being introduced to the nation under a cloud of questions about her role and, worse, her judgment. ***  The controversy began when White House officials acknowledged as the week opened that she had learned in April that an independent audit, expected in May, would confirm I.R.S. wrongdoing. She decided that neither she nor other aides should alert the president....” ( See “President’s Lawyer Finds Herself Center Stage for Once” by Jackie Calmes, 5/26/13, NY Times
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/us/presidents-counsel-finds-herself-center-state.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp]). Sounds like a page-turning pot-boiler in the making doesn’t it ?  Like, who died and made her boss; who cares how good a lawyer she might be ?

Well, if you read the rest of Jackie Calmes’ article in the Times, you’ll see that this is more than a lengthy “person in the news” piece about some young and very able female lawyer, who’s giving the President bear hugs and a hand when he needs it most. What’s described in the Calmes’ article are lots of one-on-one meetings “with my lawyer,” but without any other long-time confidantes around, and lots of jokes about Ruemmler’s fancy shoes. If this was about some high class slap and tickle, that would just make her a handy John and Maureen Dean wrapped into one neat little package, or a Monica Lewinsky with some snazzy legal cred.  No, Calmes is teasing us with a better “between the lines” story than that. What Jackie Calmes is suggesting has the makings of a Kathryn Ruemmler handling the role of a female Svengali to Barack Obama’s Trilby.

You read the Times article and see what you think. Even if you come away thinking it’s only hum-drum biographical detail about Kathryn Ruemmler and a “Who’s Who...” of the rest of the President’s inner circle, you’ll be better off for that. But, I’m sure you’ll come away with a feeling that there’s much more to be told about Ms. Ruemmler and that Jackie Calmes will get around to telling it, sonner or later. By comparison, a similar article in the Washington Post is a much drier, and not nearly as suggestive as what you’re likely to read into the Time’s piece. According to the WP, “Kathy” Ruemmler is just a wonderful person, a great lawyer and wears nice shoes  ( See “White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler: From outsider to protector of the presidency” by  Philip Rucker and Juliet Eilperin, 5/26/13, Washington Post/ WP Politics [http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-counsel-kathy-ruemmler-from-outsider-to-protector-of-the-presidency/2013/05/26/78a6986e-c3f0-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html]).

GOP candidate for City Council in the 47th Counc. Dist. remains unsettled — Maybe not so much!

Republican primary fight by some Candidate  "X" against Quaglione still being considered by top Brooklyn GOP advisers

Yesterday my sources deep inside the Brooklyn GOP establishment said that the 47th Counc. Dist. was "up in the air" --  especially with respect to "Hardhat Andy" Sullivan's running there  ---  Today's party line is:  "Well, it looks like it's going to be Andy Sullivan..."  What changed ?  A simple two words:  "It's official..."

Andrew Sullivan has announced by Twitter that "It's official..."  --  What that means is he has received the endorsement of the Conservative Party to run as its candidate for City Council in the 47th Counc. Dist. for the seat being vacated by Democrat Dominick Recchia.

The Republican Party leadership had been considering the advisability of backing Sullivan in the 47th Counc. Dist., as opposed to running the GOP firebrand as its candidate in Vinny Gentile's 43rd in a primary against John Quaglione. Then Quaglione's active participation in the insurgent "Republicans for Change" operation put the backing of his candidacy by the Brooklyn GOP leadership on hold and renewed the interest in Sullivan’s running in the Gentile district. The Conservative Party move by the heads-up Chairman Jerry Kassar seems to have done both Quaglione and Sullivan the favor of ending their potential head-to-head confrontation in a primary. It also shows that while his “opponents” are playing slow-checkers with their candidates in the GOP, Kassar is playing speed-chess with his in the Conservative Party.

Here’s what Andy Sullivan has tweeted about some of this recently:

“Andy Sullivan @JustinBrannan yo ! Don't know if you heard the news but your boy caught a break. Looks like I'm jumping to the 47th - LOL good luck J – Thursday, 23 May 2013 12:41”; and
“Andy Sullivan It's official and sideways lol Conservative Party endorsement!! http://t.co/Zrwv91eldQ  –  About 21 hours ago [at 11:50AM 5/26/13]”

Earlier today, candidate Andrew Sullivan said to me that he was authorized to announce his endorsement by the Conservative Party; and in light of the Conservative Party nod he is going forward with a City Council candidacy in the 47th Council District. Although not etched in stone, it looks like the GOP will stick with Sullivan as its candidate in the 47th.

One of the Brooklyn GOP County Leader’s key operatives indicated that a search for a candidate to run against Councilman Gentile [and by implication against John Quaglione] is now under way.

GOP candidate for City Council in the 44th Counc. Dist. remains unsettled

There have been meetings, interest has been expressed back and forth, but no GOP petitioning decisions and/or commitments have been arrived at to date

Some of my sources that purport to know have indicated to me that there are several inaccuracies in the YWN report that Kings County Republican Chairman Craig Eaton had reached an agreement with Chaim Israel to back that Democratic Party candidate on the Republican line in his quest to unseat David Greenfield (See “YWN Confirms: Chaim Israel Is Seeking To Challenge Greenfield In November” by Jacob Kornbluh, 5/23/13, Yeshiva World News [http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/169200/YWN-Confirms:-Chaim-Israel-Is-Seeking-To-Challenge-Greenfield-In-November.html]). Although Chaim Israel has sought the GOP line for a November 2013 run against Greenfield and he has discussed the matter with key Republicans, there remain several details that have to be worked out before any commitments are made by Chaim Israel to let his name be put on GOP petitions and by the Brooklyn GOP Chairman to allow Mr. Israel to run on the Republican line.

A Tale of Two Parties – Or why it was the best of times for Craig Eaton and the worst of times for Marty Golden

Wednesday night’s fete in Aqua Blu at 150 Highlawn Avenue was a rousing success, filled to overflowing for John Catsimatidis, Craig Eaton and the Brooklyn Republican Party Organization; while the Thursday night gathering of the now insurgent band of Marty Golden’s  “Republicans for Change” might have seemed less out of place, than it did in the “expansive” Bay Ridge Manor, if they had taken their subdued affair a couple of blocks away to Clavins. Well, at least Marty Golden didn’t formally have Joe Lhota laying down in a silk-lined box in front of what looked like a room not-so-full of mourners.

The buzz has the numbers at the events favoring the Catsimatidis-Eatons over the Lhota-Goldens by more than two-to-one, but that wasn’t the only measure of the drubbing that happened to “Republicans for Change” at the Bay Ridge Manor. Marty Golden and Jerry Kassar were made to eat a humble pie of blackbirds in front of their city-wide guests. Not only was the crowd small, even by Bay Ridge standards, there was almost no representation of any key “Republicans” from most of the other neighborhoods across Brooklyn.

While the guests at Aqua Blu were given a larger than life and future oriented view of things to come, those at Marty Golden’s personal venue were treated to small potatoes and crocodile tears. The decision to have Peter Cipriano speak his piece about Craig Eaton made it Tennyson-clear to Lhota and company that “... someone had blundered” –  and that Jerry Kassar and Marty Golden were looking a lot like Raglan and Cardigan, and I’m not talking about sleeves and sweaters here. [It appears that I blundered - I misinterpreted a report from one of my Baker Street boys.  PC did not speak at the "Republicans for Change" event he was merely introduced. He was heard talking at length about Eaton, but it was in the context of a conversation during the event. I'm relatively sure the Raglan-Cardigan line can be recycled about Golden and Kassar soon enough. - GM, 5-26-13]

The neatest move of the two nights was the lit-drop by the Eatonians at the Lhota-Golden affair at the Bay Ridge Manor. That flyer was headed, as follows: “Why is Senator Marty Golden attempting to oust Republican Chairman Craig Eaton ?” The  handbill took three of Golden’s reasons for stabbing Craig Eaton in the back; and it turned them on their ear as well-thought counter-charges against Golden.

One of my Baker Street Irregulars reports that State Senator Martin Golden’s Chief of Staff Jerry Kassar was especially impressed [NOT] at Eaton’s mini-operation dropping leaflets on Golden’s doorstep. That flyer stands for an unstated principle that all Brooklyn Republicans and those who want to do work with Brooklyn Republicans need to understand  —  One can’t expect to take refuge in something called an “Eleventh Commandment” when one feels free to violate any of the first ten.

BREAKING NEWS IN BROOKLYN D.A.’s RACE: First, Gentile’s Bay Ridge Democratic Club rejects Hynes; then, Judge orders CBS to turn over emails and other correspondence with Brooklyn D.A. Hynes — two producers and a Hynes insider to be subpoenaed — Court will consider delaying first episode of CBS' "Brooklyn D.A." Show, if necessary

Here’s something that is likely to be spicing up the Joe Lhota - Marty Golden “Republicans for Change” show at the Bay Ridge Manor Tonight  –  for the second night in a row the presumptive GOP candidate for D.A., Charles Hynes (who is a friend of State Senator Marty Golden and is likely to get the GOP line without opposition), has hit a speed bump on his way to a probable Democratic Party Primary victory 

Two nights ago the Bay Ridge Democratic Club voted to endorse one of Hynes’ opponents  —  former Associate U.S. Attorney Kenneth Thompson  —   and this afternoon Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten handed Hynes’ other Democratic Primary opponent, Abe George, a signal victory

According to a report on the Daily News Daily Politics Blog, “Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten ordered CBS to turn over all communications it had with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office about the production and promotion of its upcoming documentary “Brooklyn DA,” said Abe George, the Hynes primary challenger who filed the suit.” (See “Manhattan Judge To CBS: Turn Over Emails On Brooklyn DA Reality Show” by Celests Katz, 5/23/13, Daily News/Daily Politics [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/manhattan-judge-to-cbs-turn-over-emails-on-brooklyn-da-reality-show]).

Abe George, who is himself a former Manhattan Assistant D.A., had claimed in his legal papers that CBS and Hynes had colluded and conspired to evade the New York State Election Law by arranging to provide the 2013 Hynes Campaign with an illegal corporate campaign contribution in excess of the limits of the election law.  Earlier in the campaign both of Hynes opponents, Abe George and Kenneth Thompson, had complained that CBS was providing the Hynes Campaign with a huge “donation in kind” by running a six-part series entitled “Brooklyn D.A.” that both George and Thompson alternatively referred to as an “infomercial” or  as “entertainment programming” in the nature of a “reality show” starring Hynes. For its part, CBS described the show as "news programming," in the nature of an inside look into an urban prosecutors’ work; CBS also noted that Hynes, who is 77 years of age, plays only a minor role in the show and doesn't appear until the third episode.

Being an attorney, Abe George thought it was appropriate to take the case into court. Up until earlier this evening, few gave the case, George v. Hynes and CBS, any chance of success.

Hon. Paul Wooten, JSC, shook everybody’s world with his late afternoon ruling that CBS turn over its correspondence about the production and promotion of its show by Friday morning; and in addition the court indicated it would allow Mr. George to subpoena two producers of the six-part prime time show that's set to debut next week along with a Hynes insider who allegedly negotiated certain terms on behalf of the Brooklyn D.A.  A hearing before Justice Wooten that is scheduled for Friday afternoon will attempt to clarify whether Hynes had any editorial control on the show’s content; and to determine if there had been any give and take about when the show would be aired by CBS.  In the event that the defendants can't timely comply with discovery, the Court will consider halting the first episode of the show scheduled for next week.

George Arzt, Hynes’s campaign spokesman, said that “the judge is just going through his due diligence [and] we are optimistic about a positive outcome.”

PART II — Before anybody supports Marty Golden’s “Republicans for Change” they should know that Marty Golden is no kind of “Family Values” Conservative — CHARGES AGAINST GOLDEN

Joseph Hayon, a socially conservative –  family values Republican, puts the lie to the notion that State Senator Martin Golden and his Chief of Staff, Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, are any kind of  “Family Values” conservatives

The NYS Senate Republicans’ cave in on the "Dignity for All Students Act" (DASA) was part of a cynically motivated and orchestrated plan by the Senate GOP leadership team led by then-majority leader Dean Skelos, which was fully supported by State Senator Martin Golden, who signed-on as a co-sponsor of the NYS Senate version of the Dignity for All Students Bill.  Skelos and Golden were seeking to avoid the impact of Golden’s seat being targeted by NYS LGBT groups in the 2010 election. The ulterior Skelos-Golden plan worked like a charm — and it resulted in LGBT groups withdrawing their active support during the campaign of Michael DiStefano, the openly gay Democratic Party candidate who was running against Golden in 2010.

The passage of DASA was part and parcel of the same overall sell-out strategy that later was followed by Skelos, Golden & Company in their transparent “opposition” to a LBGT-supported same-sex marriage bill pending in the New York State Senate — in that instance, on June 23-24, 2011 the majority GOP caucus in the state senate allowed a same-sex marriage bill to be considered on an expedited basis and with out debate by the whole New York State Senate, where it passed with four necessary Republican votes and subsequently became the law (The Marriage Equality Act) in New York State.

Back to DASA: after not passing the New York State Senate for nine years, the Republicans in the New York State Senate reversed their opposition on a version of the “Dignity for All Students Act” that was being pushed by  LBGTQ advocates across the several United States and in the U.S. Congress. As a result of the turn around of the Republicans in the New York State Senate led by Dean Skelos, and with State Senator Martin Golden as a senate co-sponsor, the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA) was enacted in New York State in 2010 (with an effective date in 2012). The bill was presented as an “anti-bullying bill,” but DASA is much, much more than something that prohibits bullying in schools.  Among other things, DASA does prohibit students from engaging in “harassment or discrimination,” including discriminatory acts based on a person’s “actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or sex.” However, DASA additionally requires schools and districts to: adopt non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies and to inform students and parents of those policies; develop guidelines for nondiscriminatory instruction and counseling and for training teachers, administrators, and other school employees to discourage discrimination and harassment; and to report incidents of discrimination and bias harassment to the New York State Department of Education. DASA also requires the State Education Department to assist schools and  districts to implement the requirements of the act with regulations, direct services, and model policies.

Shortly after Governor Patterson signed DASA into law in 2010, several conservative-minded religious groups were concerned that it would be used to force religious schools, like Yeshivas, to teach various aspects of homosexuality to children. As a result, Joseph Hayon, a representative of several of the communities and yeshivas that felt threatened recounted the following:  “ I approached Gerry Kassar, who is Senator Marty Golden's chief of staff.  He told me it was too late to sponsor any legislation to remedy any perceived overreach in the New York Dignity for All Students Act, but Kassar assured me that it would be taken care of in 2011.  Since I had long history with Kassar, I was very surprised that I had to keep reminding him about it during 2011. Since nothing happened by going through Golden’s chief of staff,  I decided to approach Senator Golden personally in 2012. He listened and seemed supportive.  Just like with Kassar, nothing happened as a result of talking to State Senator Golden about it”.

During the same time Democrat Assemblyman Steve Cymbrowitz, a man that Mr. Hayon had run against in 2010, took up the issue. As a result of Cymbrowitz’ efforts, the NYS Assembly passed a bill unanimously that exempted private schools from DASA. In spite of regular lobbying by Joseph Hayon, Golden never sponsored similar companion legislation in the State Senate.  After former Republican State Senator David Storobin was elected, during his few days serving in the State Senate, he sponsored the Cymbrowitz version of the bill, but Golden didn’t co-sponsor or support Storobin on that bill. According to Hayon, “An alternative piece of legislation might have been introduced somewhere along the line in the State Senate, but this makes no difference to me or others who care about what is taught to children in the religious schools.  My kids are in danger because Golden refused to sponsor the Cymbrowitz bill in the Senate.” Hayon  passionately added this, “For protecting my three lovely children, I fully endorse David Storobin for City Council.”

It should be noted that even though Steven Cymbrowitz’ DASA remedial bill was never passed or signed into law, as a result of his lobbying with the NYS Department of Education, they have specifically issued a statement of policy that DASA would not be applied to religiously based schools.

That remedy does not satisfy Joseph Hayon. “Regardless of what Assemblyman Cymbrowitz got from the Education Department, the way the DASA law now reads, Yeshivas may be forced to instruct children in ways that might ask them if they will kiss each other or treat each other in other wrong ways. Marty Golden is my representative and represents many Jews and Catholics and others who send their kids to private religious schools. Thanks to Golden all those schools are still covered by the ‘Dignity for All Students Act’ with all that it means about possibly teaching abhorrent things to our children.”

The New York Times, Washington Post and MSNBC whip up their readers and watchers over the White House handling of the DOJ investigations of reporters and news organizations in leaks cases

The mainstream media appears to be pushing the narrative and the criticism of the Obama Administration over subpoenas and investigations directed at the media

NBC ‘s Chuck Todd slammed the Obama Administration’s over the seizure of reporters’ emails and phone records. NBC’s chief White House correspondent appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program said that “[T]hey want to criminalize journalism.... You can't look at this and see it as anything other than an attempt to basically scare anybody from ever leaking anything ever again.” ( See “CHUCK TODD: OBAMA WANTS TO 'CRIMINALIZE JOURNALISM' ” by Wynton Hall, 5/22/13 [http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/05/22/NBC-WH-Chief-Reporter-Obama-Wants-To-Criminalize-Journalism]).

The New York Times Editorial “Another Chilling Leak Investigation” opened with this momentous statement: “With the decision to label a Fox News television reporter a possible ‘co-conspirator’ in a criminal investigation of a news leak, the Obama administration has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news.” (See “Another Chilling Leak Investigation” By THE EDITORIAL BOARD 5/21/13, NY Times/Editorial [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/22/opinion/another-chilling-leak-investigation.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=2&]). After a lengthy description of the case involving Fox News and its reporter James Rosen, the Times concluded with this: “Obama administration officials often talk about the balance between protecting secrets and protecting the constitutional rights of a free press. Accusing a reporter of being a “co-conspirator,” on top of other zealous and secretive investigations, shows a heavy tilt toward secrecy and insufficient concern about a free press.”

And in the Washington Post, progressive columnist Dana Millbank made the following charge against the current team in the White House: “The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of.” (See “In AP, Rosen investigations, government makes criminals of reporters” by Dana Millbank, 5/21/13, Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-in-ap-rosen-investigations-government-makes-criminals-of-reporters/2013/05/21/377af392-c24e-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html]).  “.... [The Obama] administration’s actions shatter the president’s credibility and discourage allies who would otherwise defend the administration against bogus accusations such as those involving the Benghazi “talking points.” If the administration is spying on reporters and accusing them of criminality just for asking questions — well, who knows what else this crowd is capable of doing?”

PART I — Before anybody supports Marty Golden’s “Republicans for Change” they should know that Marty Golden is no kind of “Family Values” Conservative — SOME BACKGROUND

State Senator Golden supported the NYS GOP leadership in allowing a vote on “Same-sex Marriage” that was necessary to pass it into law; he consistently refuses to support the strongest bill to protect children from sexual predators; and he strongly supported a bill that did become law, which  had been pushed by the LGBT community called the “Dignity for All Students Act” (DASA), that has been used to promote religious diversity and tolerance of unfamiliar lifestyles in all schools, and  has been used to foster such things as role playing in middle schools, including same-sex kissing

[In PART II (due out in 24 hours) see how, since DASA became law, both Golden and Golden’s Chief of Staff  Kassar have resisted attempts to limit the reach of that law or lessen its impact on religious schools  —  while instead they have proudly announced their support of an amendment that broadened its coverage]

It has been long known to me that State Senator Golden has been unmoved by the needs of the victims of infant sexual abuse; and as a result he has never attempted to be properly educated on the complexity of the problems surrounding the issue of protecting the children from sexual predators in the first instance, and bringing justice to most victims of such crimes after the fact. Once I became aware of his lack awareness on those issues and his intractable position on proposed legislation, I stopped supporting Marty Golden for re-election. That was because I could no longer see him as my sort of “Family Values” conservative.

Since that time, Golden’s votes on several other matters have betrayed him as a completely false “Family Values” conservative  —  over and over again. The most notable of those were his New York State Senate Republican caucus votes in support of a GOP leadership team that allowed a New York State Senate vote on the “Same-sex Marriage” bill that resulted in that measure’s passage into law.  It also recently came to my attention that State Senator Martin Golden had cynically and quietly supported other aspects of the LGBT agenda, as well. I am specifically referring to what has benignly been called the “Dignity for All Students Act”.

The “Dignity for All Students Act” (DASA, a/k/a “The Dignity Act”), which was pushed as an “anti-bullying” law was eventually passed with the active support of State Senator Martin Golden.  In practice, DASA has had a far more pervasive and negative history than people like State Senator Golden  would like for you to know about. In fact, DASA has been described by certain socially conservative religious organizations as the boldest attack on religious values in recent history. Once it had been added to the NYS Education law in 2010 (effective on July 1, 2012) it required in no uncertain terms that all schools teach “a set of principles” that could be in direct contradiction to what those schools previously taught in conformity with their religious values.

One need go no further than DASA’s own “Home Page” [http://www.p12.nysed.gov/dignityact/] to see the big-government nanny-state administrative monster that was created by that law (Yes, there is an official NYS Department of Education website for DASA) . The socially conservative Orthodox Jewish blog “United to Save America” is far more anecdotal and documentary in its condemnation of DASA and those who support and protect it. It is at that blog site where you can find a lengthy recitation of the legislative history of  DASA; together with details of things that have happened since its passage into law, such as how DASA has fostered middle-school lesbian role playing (See “11 Years old Girls Required To Ask To Kiss Others Girls Due To New York Law,” United to Save America [http://unitedtosaveamerica.blogspot.com/2013/04/11-years-old-girls-required-to-ask-to.html] [with links to instructional video and other material] ; also “Asking Girls To Kiss, How It Did Happen, The History Of The Dignity For All Students Act Part 1” by Robert Adler, 4/28/13, United to Save America [http://unitedtosaveamerica.blogspot.com/2013/04/asking-girls-to-kiss-how-it-happened.html]).

By contrast, a visit to State Senator Martin Golden’s web page would disclose several posts showing the State Senator’s complete support for the DASA and his efforts to extend its reach to so-called  “cyber-bullying, ” without any support for the attempts by fellow legislators to limit DASA’s application [to and effect on] [10:54 AM 5/22/13] religious schools.

HOW’S THIS FOR A TURNABOUT: Local DA Candidate seeks Brooklyn Prosecutor’s emails

In a lawsuit to block the early summer “News”/Reality Show  “Brooklyn D.A.”  —   Brooklyn D.A. candidate Abe George wants Emails between Brooklyn D.A. Hynes’ and CBS

Tomorrow Supreme Court Justice Paul Wooten will make a decision on various aspects of D.A. candidate Abe George’s suit to enjoin the broadcast of a six-part series about the Brooklyn D.A. that is scheduled to start shortly and continue into July  —  or the Court might simply dismiss the candidate's action against Hynes and CBS.

The twist, especially in light of recent DOJ attempts to subpoena journalists’ emails is that in this case,  it is the  private citizen that is seeking the prosecutor’s and the broadcaster’s emails about the projected show about the Brooklyn prosecutor. In this instance, CBS is expected to claim that its communications with the Brooklyn D.A. are privileged material from a confidential "news" source. If that reasoning prevails, and it might well do so, it would be an ironic application of the privilege to shield a prosecutor’s communications.

For the details of this case please see my earlier post, “Friday is a very big day for the presumptive Republican nominee for Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles Hynes ...” posted  below on May 15, 2013; a copy of the complaint by Mr. George can be found as a link in the following posting by Celeste Katz : “Document Drop: George V. Hynes And CBS” by Celeste Katz, 5/14/13 [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/document-drop-george-v-hynes-and-cbs].

BREAKING NEWS --- DOJ Going after Fox News and Reporter James Rosen --- gets after phone records, etc., without notice — virtually charging him with crime of espionage

The Washinton Post has broken the news that the Obama administration tracked the movements and correspondence of a Fox News reporter. This has led to a fresh round of condemnation by journalists on Monday (See e.g.: “DOJ's Targeting Of Fox News Reporter James Rosen Met With Outrage” by Jack Markinson, 5/2/13,  Huffington Post [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/20/james-rosen-justice-department-co-conspirator-obama_n_3305857.html]; “The Department Of Justice Targeted A Fox News Reporter During A Leak Investigation” by Brett LoGiurato, 5/20/13, Business Insider [http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-james-rosen-doj-department-of-justice-leak-2013-5]). This case involving a source named Stephen Jin-Woo has already been condemned by critics of the White House's hyper-aggressive approach to leaks, but the details of the DOJ's tracking of Rosen have not been known until now.

The Washington Post's Ann E. Marimow laid out the intensity of the DOJ's intrusion into areas protected by the First Amendment in an explosive story about the Justice Department's monitoring of James Rosen, a Fox News reporter based in Washington ( See “A rare peek into a Justice Department leak probe” by Ann E. Marimow, 5/19/13, Washington Post [“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-rare-peek-into-a-justice-department-leak-probe/2013/05/19/0bc473de-be5e-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_print.html]).  According to Marinow, Rosen allegedly spoke to Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a contractor for the U.S. State Department as part of Rosen’s research and reporting on North Korea's nuclear program. As a result of that, the Justice Department charged Kim with violating the Espionage Act for his contact with Rosen. The Marinow article goes into great detail as to how the FBI and DOJ have virtually charged Rosen with being a co-conspirator in Jin Woo-Kim’s espionage and has actually characterized James Rosen as a co-conspirator.

The Brooklyn Tea Party (TBTP) and the Brooklyn Young Republican Club hold overlapping meetings Downtown

On Sunday afternoon, Frank Russo's Brooklyn Tea Party was all business, adopting it's new by-laws; while Glenn Nocera's YR Club was all politics --- urging participation in the Republican Party's county and state committee races --- and finishing it's Republican mayoral candidate series with candidate George McDonald of "Doe Fund" fame 

As a result of the overlapping scheduling, the Brooklyn Tea Party picked-up about four or five new members from young Republicans, who arrived early at Ceol to see what the Brooklyn Tea Party was all about. This month it was almost exclusively to hash-out the final draft of its proposed constitution and by-laws, which was kept simple and passed  unanimously after substantial wrangling and compromises over  specific language. TBTP President Frank Russo said that everything worked out very well, and he thought the overlapping meetings benefited both organizations, because about ten of his members stayed to hear George McDonald, even though everybody knew that he wasn't a Tea Party-style candidate. Russo asked McDonald almost the exact same question that he had asked John Catsimatidis; and according to Mr. Russo, George gave a much better answer, at least I know what his program is -- I don't agree with it -- but I know what it is.

Glenn Nocera opened the Brooklyn Young Republican Club meeting with a lengthy  discussion of the Republican County and State Committees, as well as a discussion of the possibility of primaries in some areas or districts in Brooklyn. He also announced and passed out fliers for the "Republicans for Change" event this week at the Bay Ridge Manor, although he also mentioned that the YR Club was not formally backing that group or any other "side" in any GOP primaries that might happen throughout the county. He said that he encouraged participation of the Club's membership no matter what side each member might choose, and that for the early going, he was sitting on the fence even though he might run with a slate of other candidates in his district. Glenn, George McDonald and another speaker, Stephen Maresca, all discussed the need for petitioning and petitioners to get on the GOP ballot.

George McDonald was cordially received and those gathered seemed quite impressed by his personal history, which of demonstrated high principle and a commitment to private public service. After his personal background he discussed his "path to competitiveness and victory" which has largely been blocked by the NYC matching funds rules, which he called corrupt, undemocratic and counterproductive. In his brief speech, he stressed that even in a time when the economic circumstances in New York City are not at their worst, the City still has difficulty paying its bills and as a result, all of the gimmicks to keep the current system going also keeps stifling small businesses, new and not so new, and the level of overall employment keeps falling in most categories. When he got more specific, he emphasized the more conservative aspects of his program, stressing the need for a better business and employment climate, no new City taxes and contracts with City workers that include health insurance payments of 20% of the cost of the insurance. He also said that he favors an immigration fix with a path to citizenship for most immigrants, he absolutely opposes granting the vote for non-citizens in NYC elections.

McDonald got a laugh from the crowd when he opened the floor to questions and expressed his familiarity with the goings-on at the prior meeting with a casual remark, "I know that this club is famous for it's questioning of its guests..."  This time there were no fireworks during the Q & A.

Glenn Nocera was content with the afternoon. Because of the overlap, we had a good crowd even though George McDonald isn't quite the draw of Catsimatidis or Lhota. We completed  our club's Republican mayoral candidate series with candidate George McDonald. As a result, the Brooklyn Young Republican Club is the only Republican organization in Brooklyn to have sponsored all of the Republican candidates for mayor to appear and discuss their candidacies with the club's membership and the public. Nocera added that at this time the Brooklyn Young Republican Club was not planning to endorse any candidate for mayor, and would likely await the results of a GOP primary before it would do so.

“...Irrelevant...” – “... Irrelevant...” – “... Irrelevant...” Those would be the Obama Administration’s “Words of the Day” for Sunday, May 19, 2013 — OR — Would those be the Obama Administration’s “Words of the Week” ? — OR — Would those be the Obama Administration’s “Words for the rest of the.....” ?

Actually, “irrelevant” was just one word used by President Barack Obama’s “Senior Adviser” Dan Pfeiffer at three different times, on three different Sunday morning news shows on May 19th,  and referring to three different aspects of Obama’s current scandals

On the CBS program “Face the Nation,” Pfeiffer said that it was “largely irrelevant” who edited the talking points the Obama administration trotted out in the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 ( See “WH: ' IRRELEVANT ' WHO EDITED BENGHAZI TALKING POINTS” by William Bigelow, 5/19/13, Breitbart Big Government [http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/19/WH-Benghazi-talking-points-irrelevant]).

On Fox News Sunday when Pfeiffer was asked a follow-up question by Chris Wallace about exactly  where in the White House President Obama was in touch with the National Security Staff during the September 11th attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, Pfeiffer answered that, “I don’t remember what room the President was in on that night and that’s a largely irrelevant fact.” (See “WH: ' IRRELEVANT ' WHERE OBAMA WAS DURING BENGHAZI ATTACKS” by Ben Shapiro, 5/19/13,  Breitbart Big Government [http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/19/WH-spokesman-Obama-Benghazi-irrelevant]; also “ 'Largely Irrelevant' White House aide downplays importance of Obama's whereabouts during Benghazi” by Jeff Poor, 5/19/13, Daily Caller [http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/19/white-house-aide-obamas-whereabouts-during-benghazi-attack-irrelevant-video/]).

On yet another Sunday TV news  show, “This Week, with George Stephanopoulos” the very same White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer told Stephanopoulos that the legality surrounding the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service is “irrelevant”.... And when Stephanopoulos asked Pfeiffer if he really thought the law is “irrelevant”; Pfieffer answered, “What I mean is, whether it’s legal or illegal is not important to the fact that the conduct doesn’t matter [sic] . The Department of Justice has said they’re looking into the legality of this.” (See “Dan Pfeiffer: IRS Behavior ‘Inexcusable’ Whether or Not Illegal” by Benjamin Bell, 5/19/13, ABC News  [http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/dan-pfeiffer-legality-of-irs-targeting-of-conservative-groups-irrelevant/]).

Repeatedly telling news people that their questions are "irrelevant" is not the best of techniques for "Senior" White House advisers appearing as the White House spokesperson on five different Sunday morning news shows, but it may be an indicator of the level of desperation and/or annoyance that the White House is experiencing over the questioning it's getting on these scandals.

“HOUSE DIVIDED: Republicans fear fallout from Golden-Eaton feud....”

Paula Katinas’ Brooklyn Eagle feature about the current situation of the Brooklyn GOP didn’t mention the heavy hand of Jerry Kassar and others in the Conservative Party in the so-called “Republicans for Change” initiative or the absence of any mention of rank and file Republicans in the effort

The recent emergence of an open split between Kings County Republican Chairman Craig Eaton and Republican State Senator Martin Golden has been re-circulated as news, because it upsets  somebody described as a “longtime GOP leader.” ( See “HOUSE DIVIDED: Republicans fear fallout from Golden-Eaton feud, source says” by Paula Katinas, 5/17/13, Brooklyn Eagle [http://brooklyneagle.com/articles/house-divided-republicans-fear-fallout-golden-eaton-feud-source-says-2013-05-16-180700]).  According to Paula Katinas’ report,  “‘It could set us back 20 years,’ said the Republican Party member, who agreed to be interviewed by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on the condition that his name not be used. ‘It’s a very divisive situation,’ said the source. The party’s rank and file members are hoping the two men can patch up their differences before the campaign season goes into high gear, but no one is holding their breath, the source said. ‘They’re both strong headed individuals,’ he said.

Ms. Katinas was almost correct when she identified the source of all of this tempest in a teacup, as follows: “The feud blew out into the open last month after Golden sent a letter...”  However she mis-identified the letter that caused the current brouhaha as being the one that went to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. Although related to the cause of the split, that letter merely showed that State Senator Golden was grandstanding the issues involved with the indictment of Malcolm Smith and others, and that Golden was guilty of extremely bad form and completely uninformed as to the workings of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. (Btw, why not send the U.S. Attorney a similar letter about another Republican in Brooklyn, asking the U.S. Attorney to release the details connecting Golden’s political ally Congressman Michael Grimm to those under charges and connected to the investigation of Grimm’s campaign finances ?)  The actual letter that caused the damn to burst was the one that Golden sent to Brooklyn GOP Executive Committee members calling for the replacement of Eaton (only a handful responded to the entreaty, most have apparently stuck with Eaton, and a few others remain unmoved toward/by/against either Eaton or Golden).

Another interesting item raised in the Katinas article involves something called "Republicans for Change."  According to Paula Katinas, "... another source, one close to Golden, said the senator is seriously worried about the direction of the party and has formed a new committee called Republicans for Change to mount a serious effort to overhaul the party’s leadership. 'He has a lot of support on this within the party. People want change,' the source said."  Although Paula Katinas identified her source as "one close to Golden," she did not indicate whether or not they themselves were in the Republican Party.  This is important because the Katinas article is silent as to whether anybody in the GOP rank and file supports Golden's attempt to completely take over and "overhaul the party's leadership."

As I had pointed out in earlier posted material on this blog, “Republicans for Change” is a name that seems to have sprung full blown from the head of Jerry Kassar, who is State Senator Martin Golden’s Chief of Staff, but who is not in any way a “Republican.” In fact, Jerry Kassar is the chairman of the political party that competes most directly with the Republican Party in Brooklyn for both influence and patronage  —  the Kings County Conservative Party (See my “... Brooklyn Independent GOP Fountainhead” post “Really Not Quite ‘Republicans for Change’ mailer appears in some of our mail boxes,” posted below on May 14, 2013).

The Paula Katinas article is not the only place where there is nary a mention of any rank and file Republicans in the “Republicans for Change” operation.  A careful reading of the recent mailer announcing a May 23rd event sent around by “Republicans for Change” of 7304 5th Avenue ( which “address” is a commercially operated “mail drop”) would disclose that there are no Republicans named on that flyer as the “host” of the event. The only “Republicans” named in it are the guests, Joe Lhota, who Marty Golden endorsed for mayor, and  John Quaglione, who works on Marty Golden’s staff and who has been endorsed as a City Council Candidate by both Golden and Golden’s Chief of Staff Kassar, in his capacity as Brooklyn Conservative Party Chairman.

In a related matter, it has also been reported by one of my Baker Street Irregulars that one of Jerry Kassar’s key operatives in the Brooklyn Conservative Party has been making phone calls in an effort to coordinate Golden’s efforts to pack the Kings County Republican County Committee.

MSNBC's Morning Joe hammers David Axelrod over DOJ’s subpoenas of AP reporters’ and editors’ phone records

NY Times and Morning Joe Scarborough accuse Obama Administration of trying to chill whistleblowers and other confidential sources of leaks with announcement of DOJ subpoenas on the AP  ---  David Axelrod  says it's for "National Security"

Citing an editorial in Wednesday’s New York Times (See “EDITORIAL – Spying on The Associated Press”
by the Editorial Board of the NY Times, 5/14/13 [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/spying-on-the-associated-press.html?_r=0]), Joe Scarborough challenged one of Barack Obama’s top political advisers that the real purpose of the recently served DOJ subpoenas was to suppress whistleblowers and other confidential witnesses who leaked embarrassing information about the Obama Administration.

Yesterday, Morning Joe Scarborough hammered David Axelrod with the  NY Times Editorial over the possible real purpose of the DOJ’s subpoenas of AP reporters’ and editors’ phone records (See “Scarborough goes off on Axelrod, suggests DoJ’s AP effort meant to intimidate confidential sources” by Jeff Poor, 5/15/13, Daily Caller [with link to MSNBC’s Morning Joe Program] [http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/15/scarborough-goes-off-on-axelrod-suggests-dojs-ap-effort-meant-to-intimidate-confidential-sources/#ixzz2TR9j11Je]).

In its report on the MSNBC interview, Daily Caller boiled it down to this: “Axelrod said the DOJ’s seizure of months of phone records from hundreds of AP journalists was just an investigation gone overboard as Justice tried to determine who was behind two national security leaks — a failed al Qaeda plot from last year and the Stuxnet computer worm. ***  Scarborough, however, suggested another possibility — that the phone snooping was not meant to determine leaks but to intimidate sources.”

Things got really testy when Axlrod said, “Joe, last summer, I appeared with you and you challenged me with the same tone, actually, on these leaks and said, ‘When is the president going to send a strong signal to people that leaking classified information won’t be tolerated? When is he going to make people accountable for these leaks?’... That’s what Sen. McCain and others said. The attorney general empanelled these two U.S. attorneys. They apparently interviewed 550 people and went to court and got a subpoena to do what they did. In order to do what you and others said should be done. Do I agree with that?”

Scarborough snapped back, “I’ve heard the president’s defenders try to say this and I congratulate you guys for going off into a room and calling each other for coming up with this bogus argument.... But never did I suggest that 100 AP reporters have all their phone records seized, their private cell numbers seized, their home phone numbers seized. So please save that for somebody else that’s going to buy into that. Don’t shift this to me. Answer me this question: Will sources — confidential sources inside the federal government be intimidated because of what this administration, according to The New York Times, has been doing from the very beginning?”

Neither the NY Times nor Morning Joe made a specific connection between the chilling effect of the DOJ’s Associated Press subpoenas on confidential sources and whisleblowers and the recent appearance of the three State Department whistleblowers before Darrrell Issa’s Congressional Oversight Committee.  Nonetheless, the timing of the DOJ’s hasty subpoena announcement in its longstanding investigation of leaks in other matters is awfully suspicious. And the question needs to be asked whether the breaking of this scandal at this specific moment was intended to cause a freeze of future whisleblower witnesses  and other “national security” leaks of matters involved with the Benghazi fiasco.

Seven Days in May * — It just depends on who is counting the days ?

Seven days ago, three “State Department” whistleblowers were testifying about Benghazi in front of the Congressional Oversight Committee chaired by Republican Darrell Issa  —  for the Obama White House it seems like the world has turned around many more than seven times since then —  and Congressman Issa and his committee, and a few other Committee Chairmen are now getting ready to look into two or three more White House scandals.

Oddly, most of the main stream media think that Obama & Co. is only six days into their current  travails. That’s because they don’t look upon the Issa Committee’s whistleblower hearing of last week as having uncovered or accomplished anything new (of course the MSM is wrong about that, but no matter, right now). The MSM sees the Obama Administration’s recent problems as having begun when certain members of the MSM started to turn on the administration.  That moment is measured from last Friday when ABC News broke the Jonathan Karl report about the leak about the twelve times revised/edited talking points for UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s Sunday talk-show dissembling about Benghazi ( See for example “The Strange Creation of the Obama Scandals” by Jonathan Chait, 5/14/13, New York Magazine/ Daily Intelligencer [http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/strange-creation-of-the-obama-scandals.html]).

According to Jonathan Chait’s take on it, “The sudden barometric change in Washington has arrived so rapidly that it is hard to comprehend. ‘The town is turning on President Obama’ ... The black clouds may dissipate within a few days or weeks, or they may hover over the White House for the rest of Obama’s term... [W]e ought to step back and ask, what the hell just happened here? ***  Scandal is a powerful, yet weirdly amorphous term of art in politics. Conceptually, the division between a scandal and a mere controversy or flub or policy dispute is hard to define. It required a peculiar sequencing of events to transform what would on their own have been normal political controversies into the nebulous, all-encompassing Obama Scandals. ***  The episode began at dawn last Friday, when ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl broke explosive news about Benghazi.... ***   The Benghazi report was still fresh when a second bombshell exploded Friday, in the form of the revelation that the Internal Revenue Service had undertaken a one-sided, partisan campaign to scrutinize the tax- exempt status of right-wing activist groups, without applying any similar scrutiny to organizations on the left.... ***  The combination of the Benghazi and IRS stories formed the predicate for the revelation Monday that the Justice Department had conducted a massive sweep of phone records used by the Associated Press.... ” And Chait concludes that “[t]he head-spinning sequence of events from Friday to Monday suddenly elevated the phone records story from a one-day story that would produce denunciations in liberal blogs and taunting from the libertarian right into something categorically different. It was the capstone of the Obama Scandals.”

One can’t help but think that a liberal member of the MSM, like Jonathan Chait, believes that these conflated scandals have only produced a startling blip on the screens of otherwise fawning Obama-watchers. And that after sufficient explanation and analysis, it will all go away or be put into a manageable perspective. That view may be more pervasive in the MSM than other more ominous and negative ones.

However, there are some other views and outlooks out there among those in the MSM. It is only now, and as a result of the eruption of the current scandals, that some in the MSM have actually expressed any foreboding about Obama, his administration, his agenda and his legacy.

A very worthwhile read in the realm of the main stream media for any conservative-minded observers that are looking for some straws in the wind indicating a cyclonic storm that might sweep away this Obama aberration  is a lengthy item in Politico ( See “Obama's dangerous new narrative” by Alexander Burns & John F. Harris, 5/15/13, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/obamas-dangerous-new-narrative-91390.html]). Although the portend is not of any kind of overthrow in the nature of a “Seven Days in May” scenario, or even an ushering away of a fallen POTUS aboard a helicopter, ala Richard M. Nixon; the authors do suggest the possibility of an Obama presidency that is completely up-ended and critically judged by the American people with an MSM not nearly as protective as it had been until the events of six or seven days ago.
______________________

*  “Seven Days in May” is a 1962 suspense novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II about an attempt to overthrow the POTUS.  It was the book that I was in the middle of when JFK was shot by ....   I’ve read SDIM again at least two times since 1963.

The book was made into a movie of the same title in 1964 with Frederic March playing the beleaguered president, also starring Kirk, Burt and Ava with a great supporting cast directed by John Frankenheimer; it should have been better than it turned out.

Friday is a very big day for the presumptive Republican nominee for Brooklyn District Attorney, Charles Hynes — Whether or not a six-part TV series about him and his office to be broadcast on CBS can go forward before the 2013 Primaries and Elections

First round: a tie  -----  Temporary Restraining Order  "DENIED"  -----  Parties to return on Friday to argue about  INJUNCTION and other relief

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice, himself briefly a former Brooklyn DA candidate, Hon. Paul Wooten, JSC,  has ordered an expedited schedule and told Hynes’ attorney, former State Senator Martin Connor, and the attorney for the plaintiff, Aaron Rubin, to submit briefs by Friday

Abe George is a liberal-libertarian Democrat who has sued Brooklyn DA Hynes and CBS, to keep what some keep calling the “Tiffany Network,” from going forward with a six-part summer reality show concerning the inner workings of the Brooklyn DA’s office in advance of the Democratic Primary next September. According to Mr. George’s complaint, he is seeking an injunction to keep CBS from giving an UNLAWFUL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION  to the incumbent DA candidate  Charles J. Hynes. According to the complaint, CBS would be doing exactly that by starring the sitting Brooklyn DA  in a six-week reality show called  “Brooklyn D.A.” as Hynes runs for  for re-election for a seventh term.

A key portion of the complaint against Hynes and CBS reads as follows: “ [ ] The broadcast of  [“Brooklyn D.A.”]  is nothing more than an in-kind campaign contribution by CBS to Hynes in excess of the $5,000 legal limit imposed on corporatecontributions by New York State Election Law. *** [ ] The defendants’ actions and intended conduct will illegally and unfairly contribute to Charles Hynes’ chances of re-election by maximizing his fund raising efforts and swaying the election in his favor, while causing irreparable harm to the grassroots campaign of Abe George, who is challenging Hynes for his seat in a closely contested race.”

Yesterday, according to reports in the Daily News, “Manhattan Supreme [ Court Justice] Paul Wooten ... denied  [Brooklyn DA Candidate Abe] George’s request for a temporary restraining order that would halt ads for the six-part series -- but also refused the defendants’ request to take legal steps that would hasten the death of the case. Instead, more briefs must be served up by Friday.” (See “Document Drop: George V. Hynes And CBS” by Celeste Katz, 5/14/13 [ article contains link to download the “Complaint” of plaintiff DA Candidate Abe George]  [http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/document-drop-george-v-hynes-and-cbs]).  A spokesman for the DA’s office called the plaintiff, Abe George’s case "nuts" and a wholesale “publicity stunt” that steps on the First Amendment.  For his part Mr. George called the suit's continued life "a huge victory" and the broader issue an important test of “whether or not corporations are allowed to interfere in local politics.”

What seems odd to me is that as soon as something isn’t going his way, this “liberal-libertarian” office seeker goes straight to government and the courts to interfere. What makes things even worse, he seems willing to step on the  1st Amendment rights of a longstanding public officeholder and a pillar of the mainstream media, not to mention the viewing public and advertisers, to do it. If one disgruntled office seeker can get away with all that, what will happen next.

Really Not Quite “Republicans for Change” mailer appears in some of our mail boxes

“Republicans for Change”  —   Sort of sounds familiar  —   Sort of sounds a little strange  — Sort of sounds “Not Quite Republican”

Could it be that Conservative Party Chairman Jerry Kassar had his hand in it ?   Woops there it is !

One of my Baker Street Irregulars called me earlier this afternoon with the news that there was a glossy mailer being delivered to certain homes in Dyker Heights. As soon as the snail mail arrived at my Owls Head  villa, an abode that rivals the “stately Wayne mansion” in size and luxury, I had my staff deliver it to my personal underground bunker where I was working on other important things.  Atop the pile of routine postal correspondence was a flashy mailer, emblazoned with a schematic red, white and blue GOP elephant over the large print headline,  “Republicans for Change.”

The aforementioned “flashy mailer” announced that this so-called  “Republicans for Change” group  “... is working to revitalize the Republican party in Brooklyn and in our City.”  Then it summons the recipient to “a special meeting to learn more”; and it then gives the names of  “Joe Lhota for Mayor and John Quaglione for Council” as “special guests.” The special meeting is scheduled for an evening next week at .................. wait for it.................. the Bay Ridge Manor.

So who are these “Republicans for Change” and what is their plan for “Revitalizing Our (underlined and in red) Brooklyn Republican Party” or to “Help build a stronger Brooklyn Republican Party” ?   Well, that remains a secret, “need to know only,” confidential, arcane, abstruse, mysterious, played very close to the vest, quite hush-hush, enigmatic code inside of a cipher.

Luckily, we do have a Rosetta Stone to help with the translation of all of this code.

Not long ago an item appeared in Ross Brady’s Brooklyn Conservative Party Blog entitled “Read Chairman Jerry Kassar’s Common Sense Column - April 29: Republicans for Change”  (See “Read Chairman Jerry Kassar’s Column in Home Reporter and Brooklyn Spectator” by Ross Brady, May 2, 2013 [http://brooklynconservativeparty.com/?p=852]). Brady’s article then quotes the whole of Jerry Kassar’s column from the Bay Ridge Home Reporter and Sunset Park News with a very similar sounding title  —   “Common Sense: Republicans for change” Oddly, there is only one item in the Kassar’s column that remotely relates to Kassar’s title. That lonely item is a reference to a series of proposals supported by Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis and  The New York State Assembly Republican Conference that called for a New York State constitutional  amendment that would give the New York voters the right to recall elected officials. Irrespective of the merits of those proposals, the key line in Kassar’s column is this: “The New York State Conservative Party supports all three proposals....”

Now let’s see we have Jerry Kassar doing a column that announces he supports the proposals of  “Republicans for Change” —  we have John Quaglione and Joe Lhota appearing as “guests” —  we have a function being held at the Bay Ridge Manor.  Who could it possibly be that are these  “Republicans for Change,”  who are hosting this event at the Bay Ridge Manor ?  

Could one of these "Republicans for Change" be State Senator Martin Golden ?   NAH !  He’s a not quite Republican RINO  who wants no change at all.  Besides, his name doesn't appear anywhere on the glossy mailer  —  that's so "not Marty Golden."

Could it be Brooklyn GOP Chairman Craig Eaton ?  Nah !  His idea of change is Adolfo Carrion or John Catsimatidis, not Joe Lhota.

That leaves only Jerry Kassar and his Brooklyn Conservatives  —  they're the only ones who could be hiding behind the pseudonym "Republicans for Change" in Brooklyn.

Mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis and Michael Reagan headline successful Brooklyn GOP “Lincoln Dinner”

Brooklyn GOP leaders Craig Eaton and Russell Gallo deliver speeches urging Republican officeholders be true to legitimate Republican principles, and not to what an officeholder might think would be expedient to get re-elected or aggrandize himself

On Thursday, May 9th, John Catsimatidis, who describes himself as an independent Republican candidate for Mayor as well as a successful businessman, was honored as the Brooklyn GOP’s "Man of the Year" at its annual Lincoln Dinner held at El Caribe in Mill Basin.

John Catsimatidis had been endorsed by the leadership of Brooklyn Republican Party.

According to one of my Baker Street Irregulars, Catsimatidis said in his speech that it is his commitment to keep NYC safe and secure, and to create jobs in all neighborhoods throughout the city as Mayor. He also pointed out that has unique ability to build a winning coalition in November by gaining the support of Independents, and Reagan Democrats, as well as the rank and file Republicans who are so well represented by the Brooklyn GOP leadership at that dinner.

Michael Reagan, the eldest son of former President Ronald Reagan, appeared as the keynote speaker for the Brooklyn GOP’s annual banner gala. Michael Reagan serves as chairman and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation.  As president of that organization, Michael Reagan seeks to advance several of the causes President Reagan held dear during his life and to memorialize the accomplishments of his presidency. He told those gathered that, like most good Republicans and other Americans who respected his father, they all knew his father as a actor, governor and President of the United States, by contrast Michael Reagan said he knew Ronald Reagan as a father. He emphasized how important it is for him to be Ronald Reagan’s son and to keep the Reagan name in its place of honor before the nation.

Another of my operatives reported that both Kings County Republican Chairman Craig Eaton, and Dinner Honoree Russell Gallo, a war veteran and  Brooklyn GOP Executive Member each delivered modulated speeches that did not avoid making comparisons between good GOP candidates and GOP office holders and those that could not be relied upon to properly stand up for their constituents or to the pressures of their offices, or against the counsel of those outside the party, who have interests unrelated to the elected official’s core principles or those of his constituents.

Newly Fallen Snow and Pepper Spray

Pure as the newly fallen snow... That’s how “some people” look at their “friends” and allies in politics...  Maybe, that’s how “some people” see Democrat-Conservative David Greenfield...

Thanks to a few Orthodox Jewish bloggers  —  already,  there are more and more footprints in the once-clean snowy patch that was City Councilman David Greenfield  —  Now, one of those bloggers is even trying to turn the once snowy-white Greenfield into a huge dirty snow angel of old slush by using the arm-flapping, mud-splattered  Moshe Friedman as a huge slushy angel-maker

For Brooklyn Republicans, the Jewish parts of Borough Park have long been terra incognita; and since that neighborhood has become almost completely Orthodox by various definitions, it largely remains virgin territory for the GOP.

Several years ago nobody in the GOP covered themselves with glory with the shenanigans involving the special election in the 44th Council District. And for whatever they got out of it, the Conservative Party and State Senator Marty Golden wound up on the winning side behind Democrat David Greenfield  —  where they are ensconced to this day.   —  BUT !  —  That was then and this is now.

There is a buzz that Craig Eaton’s Brooklyn GOP organization and a few Orthodox Jewish activists are in the final stages of selecting a consensus GOP candidate to take a run at the Cons-emocrat Dem-ervative Councilman Greenfield. Whoever that candidate turns out to be, that person will get the benefit of a couple or a few blogs, among whose social conservative missions is the dismantling of Councilman David Greenfield’s un-earned reputation as a social conservative.

Right now, one of those blogs stands out from all the rest; because "Nobody does it better...." Perhaps that is because it's the immediately most threatening thing happening to Councilman David Greenfield, and it's happening right now. Before his eyes, he’s seeing his good name in his home base in Borough Park drop like the glittery ball in Times Square at 11:59 PM on December 31st.

This outstanding new voice in the Orthodox Jewish Community is a new aerosol of blogging mace called  “Unorthodox Yidden” [http://unorthodoxyidden.blogspot.com/]. It is an obviously socially conservative Orthodox Jewish blog that pulls no punches; is unashamedly anti-status quo; and whose title clearly refers to the status and/or category in which it sees its targets and chooses to portray them to the public. Obviously, David Greenfield is a person who the host blogger of "Unorthodox Yidden" sees as a clearly unorthodox character in word, deed and motivation.

Here are some recent peppery posts that have popped up on “Unorthodox Yidden” that will give the uninitiated a flavor of what goes on at that site vis-a-vis  the “Honorable” David Greenfield: “Guilty! Unorthodox Moshe Friedman Plays the David Greenfield Game (Updated)” 5/9/13 [http://unorthodoxyidden.blogspot.com/2013/05/guilty-unorthodox-moshe-friedman-plays.html];
“Unorthodox David Greenfield Plays Ring Around the Mayoral Race!” 5/8/13 [http://unorthodoxyidden.blogspot.com/2013/05/unorthodox-david-greenfield-plays-ring.html]; and “Unorthodox David Greenfield Impersonates on This Blog” 5/7/13 [http://unorthodoxyidden.blogspot.com/2013/05/unorthodox-david-greenfield.html]. (For those who don't know, Moshe Friedman is a "paid operator" of sorts who plays the Democrat and Republican "ends" against some undefined "middle"; ostensibly on behalf of Democrat-turned-Republican Nachman Caller. Recently, some have said that Mr. Friedman seems to hand out checks willy-nilly, or at least one that they're sure of. -- GM)

Among the “some people” who will soon be very unhappy about all of this is the Kings County Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, or as he is often called, “Jerry” by friend and foe alike, and most especially fiendish friends. For some not so clear reasons “Jerry,” has long been a super-strong supporter of David Greenfield and is a charter member of the “blogs don’t matter” crowd. Although he should have learned by now that some blogs and bloggers do matter  —  if he hasn’t yet reached that level of enlightenment  —  “Unorthodox Yidden” will soon be getting Kassar's very welcome but probably unwelcoming attention. As that blog’s electronic mixture of fine capsicum fills David Greenfield’s eyes, ears, nose and throat, it will be Jerry Kassar, the so-called conservative chairman who will quickly feel the stinging in his eyes, the tears running down his face and soon after that the choking in his throat. All of that, falling so hard on his staunch and unquestioning support for Greenfield, should happen so fast that Kassar will think and hope that he's only having an intuition or dream of things that are yet to come, but Jerry Kassar will soon find out there are no "Christmas Carols" in Borough Park.

Another of the less-than-happy “some people” might be GOP-Conservative State Senator Martin Golden, Jerry Kassar’s boss and the principal beneficiary not named Greenfield of the deal(s) that put and keep David Greenfield in his Council seat unchallenged.  State Senator Golden likes to keep his dealings with any Jews at arms length and clearly defined by agents, fund raisers and other intermediaries. As a result, he will only find out about all of this from underlings and advisers who can translate things from Yiddish and Hebrew into English, and then even more important, from English into Bay Ridge Irish-American. Given all that involves, Golden might well remain happily unaware of any of this, no matter how it turns out.

Are there more “Benghazis” that the American people just don’t know about ? What about more than a dozen Navy Seals of “SEAL TEAM SIX” fame and dozens of other personnel, all killed by “one lucky shot” fired by the Taliban on August 6, 2011 ?

Were thirty American servicemen “executed” by the Taliban in retaliation for the killing of Osama Bin Laden ?  Were thirty American servicemen ambushed in an inside job ?  Were thirty American servicemen killed because of bad planning and “politically correct” rules of engagement ?   All of the above?  Something completely different ?  Were the fallen Americans called “the defeated” in an Islamic service conducted at the U.S. base in Afghanistan ?

—   The people who know are not saying...

—   And the families and others who really care are not being told very much... 

On August 6, 2011, a group that included 25 American special operations personnel, five U.S. Army National Guard and Army Reserve crewmen, a U.S. military dog, seven Afghan commandos and an Afghan interpreter supposedly were killed when their very old Chinook helicopter was downed by a “lucky shot” of a Taliban-launched rocket propelled grenade.

On August 9, 2011, during one of those all too frequent casket ceremonies at J.B. Dover, when the incident is important enough for even the President of the United States to show up and say a few words to the grieving and bereft, POTUS Obama whispered to one of the parents of a dead Navy Seal, “We will look very, very, very deep into this.”

Well, enough of that !

Now, when  parents of any of the thirty Americans killed in that Chinook helicopter on August 6, 2011 ask any questions about the incident, they are either ignored or told to “quit harassing” the high government officials who are in positions to find out and tell them what happened (See “WND EXCLUSIVE –  NAVY SEALS SACRIFICED TO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS? – Families say insane rules of engagement cost their sons' lives” by Garth Kaht, 5/9/13, Wold Net Daily http://www.wnd.com/2013/05/navy-seals-sacrificed-to-political-correctness/#zPOlKFjZLBS4dDf1.99]; see also “Parents of Slain Navy SEAL: The White House Is Responsible” 5/9/13, by Bill Hoffman, Fox News [http://nation.foxnews.com/navy-seal/2013/05/09/parents-slain-navy-seal-white-house-responsible#ixzz2SuGrndiz] [(same as a Newsmax article with a video link to an interview of these parents by Steve Malzberg of NewsmaxTV]).

Early reports had indicated that the helicopter crash in Afghanistan on August 6, 2011 marked the largest single loss of U.S. military lives in the 10-year war.  Lt. Cmdr. Jonas Kelsall and 16 others were part of Naval Special Warfare Command, nearly all of them members of SEAL Team 6, the unit that conducted the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and is made up of just a few hundred of some of the best-trained fighters in the U.S. military. And that among the fallen were five support sailors, five aircrew members from the Army's 10th Mountain Division and three Air Force ground support personnel ( See “Father of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan: 'He loved what he did'” 8/10/11, LA Times Blogs [http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/08/father-of-navy-seal-killed-in-afghanistan-said-he-loved-what-he-did.html]). It is interesting that shortly after the original incident, in the story about Lt. Cmdr. Jonas Kelsall, who was one of 30 U.S. servicemen killed in the helicopter crash, it was reported that  “... A subsequent U.S. airstrike killed the local Taliban leader as well as the man determined to have actually shot the chopper down...”

There is still confusion in the reports as to who exactly was on board the Chinook helicopter at the time that it crashed.

In addition, there is a claim by the parents of one of the deceased service personnel that these fallen Americans were subjected to a formal post mortem Islamic ceremony in violation of their First Amendment Rights, held at the American base at Bagram, during which the dead Americans were described as having been defeated.  According to Bill Vaughn, father of Navy Seal Aaron Carson Vaughn,  “At the ceremony at Bagram Air Force Base, the military allowed an imam to desecrate their bodies with an Islamic prayer that he helped pray their souls into hell [as] infidels and, in the end, said that the Muslims are the winners”  (See  “Parents of Slain Navy SEAL: The White House Is Responsible” by Bill Hoffman, 5/9/13, Newsamax [http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/slain-navy-seal-Afghanistan/2013/05/09/id/503754] ).

Rather than focus on the graphic testimony about Benghazi by three “State Department” Whistle Blowers, Mainstream Media would rather focus on the political motivations of GOP congressmen trying to tarnish Hillary Clinton for 2016

Oops there it is !  With the testimony of the three whistle blowers, some in the mainstream media finally are admitting  things like “... the tragic events that unfolded last year in Benghazi are ... worthy of serious investigation...”;  and/or that there are “... very serious issues associated with protecting our diplomats and our interests overseas...,” which need to be looked into

Yesterday and today, members of the mainstream media had to work overtime to distract and deceive their print-readers, TV-watchers and computer-searchers from the big news of the testimony of the three State Department whistle-blowers that came in and appeared before the Oversight Committee yesterday. What makes that fact especially interesting is that a couple of other news stories had apparently stolen the thunder from yesterday’s congressional hearing — the Jodi Arias “Guilty” verdict, and the kidnapping and rape charges against Ariel Castro in the case of the three imprisoned Cleveland women.

According to one of the most heavily-credentialed members of the MSM, “Rep. Darrell Issa must be ruing his bad luck. The hearing he carefully orchestrated to pick at the scab of Benghazi was stepped on by the verdict in the Jodi Arias murder trial and by the story of three women held captive and brutalized for a decade in Cleveland. He was out-sensationalized and out-tawdried this week despite his own best efforts and those of his committee colleagues and staff members.”  (See “Benghazi hearing's real target: Clinton in 2016 ” by  David Rothkopf,  5/9/13,  Special to CNN  [http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/09/opinion/rothkopf-benghazi-hearing/index.html]). Of course even David Rothkopf had to admit that all the circumstances of Benghazi do raise very serious issues associated with protecting our diplomats and our interests overseas; and that the tragic events in Benghazi are. worthy of serious investigation. Rothkopf writes regularly for CNN.com and is the CEO and editor-at-large for the publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

A compelling report of the substantive testimony at the Congressional Oversight Committee appeared in an unlikely place  – Politico –  which focused on the testimonial description of the events on or about 9/11/12 and allowed the words of the witnesses to convey the importance of  what went on: nine months ago, in Benghazi and Tripoli, and at various command centers; and yesterday, in the congressional hearing room ( See “Benghazi hearing: State officials get emotional” by Ginger Gibson, 5/8/13, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/benghazi-hearing-house-oversight-committee-91066.html]). The main talking points of the Democrats were presented in a straightforward manner in the final segment of the article along with the quoted  remarks of the Ranking Member of the Committee, Elijah Cummings.

Brooklyn GOP Radio — shilling for the un-indicted co-conspirators

The recent spate of Democrats incarcerated, indicted or investigated is a result of one party rule  —  Even with all of the disclosures of criminal corruption attributable to incumbent Democrat officeholders in Brooklyn and nearby counties, Republicans are not able field competitive candidates to replace them, or even raise systemic Democratic Party corruption as an issue in the races to remove and/or succeed the wrong-doers

The Brooklyn GOP Radio program for May 8th opened with a “Rogues Gallery” segment about the arrest of Democratic State Senator John Sampson, other recently arrested/indicted/convicted Democrats and the published list of Democrat office-holders subject to some degree of formal investigation due to the wire recording and/or testimony by their fellow Democrats that were already caught. As usual, the presentation by Gene R. Berardelli and Russell Gallo came up short and was little more than a rant.

Russell Gallo, Moron #2, and now “12-step on the air Russ” was sort of getting it  —  but only as far as saying the political criminality, so far disclosed, is the result of one party rule. True enough, as far as that goes; but what is the cause or at least one of the causes of one party rule in Brooklyn ?  Could it be that the complete failure to of the GOP to organize and engage as an organized party in over half of the Borough of Brooklyn, County of Kings, is a significant contributing factor in the “One Party Rule”?

The same logic applies to the dynamic duo’s later rant against the pending City Council legislation to allow non-citizen voting in New York City; and the 33 City Council members favoring that resolution who were unanimously selected this week’s “Buffoons of Week”  — that too  results from largely one party rule in NYC,  etc., etc., etc....

We have met the co-conspirators and they are us !

btw, running away is not the answer even for a moron who needs a mental health break...

Almost on the eve of the Kings County Republican Party Lincoln Dinner, one of its principal honorees, John Catsimatidis, received the endorsement of the Liberal Party

The Brooklyn Republicans and other wags in attendance tomorrow night should be abuzz with the possibilities of a Catsimatidis run all the way to November 

Will Kings County GOP Chairman Craig Eaton seize the opportunity to remake the Brooklyn GOP as a free-standing and growing political entity, or will he fold under the pressure of maintaining the long-standing tail-wags-the-dog relationship with Brooklyn’s Conservative Party ?

The other day, when I received an email from a Catsimatidis insider giving me the heads-up about the Liberal Party endorsement, I responded with this: “Politically, if John the Catman were to commit to rebuilding the Liberal Party on a modern model, that would be a big deal.... If not, it still keeps him in the game through November... but why would he want to if he doesn't win the GOP primary....”  I do not feel at liberty to give you the response from someone who’s pretty much a fixture on the inside of the JC campaign.

If I were to have gotten an identical email from Craig Eaton, my response would be a little more ironic, cryptic and provocative.  “These are the best of times and the worst of times — they are certainly interesting times  —  how will you turn this to the immediate and long-term advantage of the Kings County Republican Party ?”

A long time ago, I had a conversation with Arthur Bramwell over coffee at what was then a “Roy Rogers” on Court Street. He had recently taken over the leadership of the Brooklyn GOP with the help of many of my friends in the Brooklyn GOP and some of my friends NOT in the Brooklyn GOP (wink — wink). That’s what made what Mr. Bramwell said next most intriguing; Arthur said, “I know who some of your friends are, because in the beginning they sent you to me....  But you are a Republican first.... And if this party is going to do well, it has to be separate and apart from the Conservative Party....”

At the time I completely disagreed  —  now I see that Arthur was correct about all of that. Since 1993, we’ve had  “Republican” mayors in NYC and for several of those years we had George Pataki as a “Republican” Governor of New York State; also since 1993, relative to the GOP the Conservative Party has flourished and the Republican Party has withered on the vine  —  especially in Brooklyn.

Rob Ryan, a key man for Catsimatidis, knows a thing or two about the NYS Conservative Party generally, and he even could tell quite a few stories about its Kings County Conservative Chairman Jerry Kassar.  Mr. Ryan has pointed out that history indicates that an endorsement by the Liberal Party of a Republican running for mayor is a significant predictive factor in determining whether that candidate will be ultimately elected. Once the Republican candidate, John V. Lindsay, was even elected mayor on the Liberal Party line, even though he had lost the GOP line in a primary.

If Eaton wants to do something truly historic, he’ll commit to going all in with Catsimatidis until November, even in the event that John Catsimatidis loses the GOP primary in September.