Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Time To Ask Randi Weingarten About The Kathy Hochul Robocalls Again

Back during the 2014 Democratic Primary for lieutenant governor, Cuomo's people started to worry that law professor Tim Wu, Zephy Teachout's running mate, could beat Cuomo's running mate, bank lobbyist Kathy Hochul.

Polls showed that Wu was indeed within striking distance, so the Cuomo campaign had some robocalls go out on her behalf.

One of the political personages taped for those robocalls was AFT President Randi Weingarten.

When Weingarten was criticized on Twitter for making robocalls for the Cuomo campaign (which is what these were, despite her claims to the contrary that they were only for Hochul), she said that Hochul was a reliable advocate for public education and she wanted to support Hochul for that.

There's news some morning that the reliable advocate for public education, former bank lobbyist and current lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul will be one of the politicians feting Eva Moskowitz at her pro-charter rally today:

Gov. Cuomo, unlike last year, will skip a large pro-charter school rally at the Capitol on Wednedsay, but his new lieutenant governor will be there.

Lt. Gov. Kathleen Hochul is one of at least nine elected officials scheduled to be in attendance. Many are from the Bronx.

Also set to attend is Senate GOP Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau County), Senate Independent Democratic Conference Leader Jeffrey Klein, Senate Education Committee Chairman John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County), Sen. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx).

Among the Assembly members said to be coming is Marcos Crespo (D-Bronx), Michael Blake (D-Bronx), Ruben Sepulveda (D-Bronx), Robert Rodriguez (D-Manhattan ) and Mark Gjonaj (D-Bronx).

...

Cuomo, who last year attended the rally and is pushing a host of education reforms this year that includes a expansion of charter schools, will be in Rochester and Syracuse pushing Wednesday is plan to hike the minimum wage.

Let me ask Ms. Weingarten once more, why did she make robocalls for bank lobbyist, Cuomo running mate and charter shill Kathy Hochul?

These are robocalls that helped Hochul beat Tim Wu in the primary and now help push an anti-public education agenda.

Why would a union president who supposedly cares about public education make robocalls for a political campaign that is virulently anti-public education and anti-public school teacher?

The excuse that Hochul is an advocate for public schools doesn't work so well now that she's shilling for Eva Moskowitz and the charters.

11 comments:

  1. After all these years of continuing betrayals, the only reasonable answer to your questions is that Weingarten is herself a shill for the so-called reformers.

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  2. Weingrovel is a wholly owned subsidiary of whoever offers her the next best career move. She is a lawyer not a teacher and has never lifted a finger on anyone's behalf unless she benefitted from it first. She is also as they say in Jersey and I believe in Lackawanna too, a piece of shit. If we could recall, impeach or ban her we should have done it a long time ago.

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  3. As I ride on a bus up to Albany, I have no choice but to agree with the sentiments of the two gentlemen above. What a farce. What a disgrace. What a nightmare.

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  4. I suffered her term as UFT head and this? NO MORE!
    WEINGREW MUST GO! VICHY QUISLINGS MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO REPRESENT US.OPEN REVOLT IS CALLED FOR! F THE SEAT AT THE TABLE BS!

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  5. Can we recall a union leader?

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  6. This will NEVER happen. People, please, look at the history of the UFT. There has been one party rule since it began-UNITY!

    Unfortunately, many teachers are apathetic. 28% voted in the last election. Many have just given up because they know NOTHING will change. Retirees vote in these "so-called" elections, how is that possible?

    Many teachers just put up with this, why, I have no idea. Then these same teachers complain and bitch and moan about EVERYTHING. The PTCs, the PD's and everything else that was included in that sham of a contract which these same teachers voted for.

    Why would Randi listen? Why would Mrs. Magoo (Magee) listen? Why would Mulgrew listen? Their noses are so far up these politicians posteriors that I swear that I saw Mulgrew's bald head in Cuomo's mouth.

    Now there is a "secret" deal. I'm pulling down my trousers because we all know something bad is about to go down and more than likely it was planned by the geniuses (term used loosely) who run the UFT, NYSUT and AFT.

    God help us all!

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  7. John Flanagan is my state senator. His father was a public school teacher prior to becoming a lawyer and politician. His wife works in the local public schools. His three kids all went to public schools. He is a graduate of a public school district.

    The first 15 years of his career were spent visiting public schools and doing everything he could to help them, teachers and students. Since being elected to the state Senate he has gone off the deep end. He is addicted to campaign contributions, using them to pay for his car, phone, food, holiday gifts, gas, parking, tolls, etc. Guess who gives him thousands? Right; the charter school people. That explains his embarrassing speech at last year's charter school rally and his scheduled appearance today.

    As a card carrying Republican I cannot vote for Mr. Flanagan every again. He knows it. He is angry about it. I really do not care. So many of us in his district feel the same way. Sad that the Democrats fail to mount a campaign against him. Still, despite never appearing in public, never spending a penny in the campaign and not even releasing a photo of himself, Mr. Flanagan's opponent last November still got slightly more than 30 percent of the vote. Think a real challenger could take him down? I do. Guess who lives in Mr. Flanagan's district? Dick Iannuzzi. Yes, Dick was a terrible NYSUT president and yes he was all wrong on APPR, Race to the Top and Common Core, but he is better than Flanagan by leaps and bounds.

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    1. I like where you are going with this and where I disagree with you is on your assessment of Dick Iannuzzi as a terrible leader. Iannuzzi was a brilliant leader and while you may not agree with his strategy, he was honest, forward thinking, and accessible. Iannuzzi was successful in agreeing to an APPR that PROTECTED teachers and resulted in a smal percentage of teachers receiving ineffective ratings. He took what could have been a disaster and managed to get local collective bargaining into teacher evaluations for the first time ever. I don't know Dick personally, but I would bet money on it that he hated the idea of student test scores being used for even a small fraction of a teachers evaluation, but as a leader charged with protecting members, he figured out a way to minimalize the impact of these test scores. On top of that, Iannuzzi had to deal with an executive vice president who undermined him every step of the way, demonstrated incompetence, and embarrassed the entire labor movement with his bullying, empty headed clown like behavior (Pallotta if you are in doubt). Iannuzzi challenging Flanagan is a great idea and I so appreciate your suggestion of it. I hope my neighbors in Suffolk County are listening to this.

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  8. Okay .... yes, Randi's robocalls for Hochul were disgraceful, and yes, she should hear loud and clear again from MANY that her promises of Hochul being pro-public education were hollow as evidenced in this rally today. But let's not forget the fact that Joel Klein, leader of the IDC is at the rally too. And let's not forget the love affair that Andy Pallotta and Michael Mulgrew have had and continue to have with this scoundrel. Remember when the Dems had the majority in the State Senate? How did that work for us? Again and again Pallotta missed opportunities to use his silly MAC and "clout" to mobilize NYSUT members in the IDC regions to push back hard. What's sad is that these NYSUT members were ready to fight back then but had no leadership from above to lead them in this fight. This is why many of us are so unimpressed with his rants against Cuomo now. Have we heard Mulgrew or Pallotta call out Klein for his participation in this rally? Will we? Without new leadership at NYSUT, teachers will find themselves again on the defense attending loud rallies with no strategy behind them and unless NYSUT members start calling their leaders out harshly and loudly, this will continue and we will lose.

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    1. reread my post and realize that I said Joel Klein instead of Jeffery Klein. Apologies, but I am not sure there is that much of a difference actually.

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  9. I'm at the point where I'd sooner elect a lipstick wearing pig then invite back the scumbags who have been screwing us year after year. I'd rather have the pig run NYSUT and the UFT as well.

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