Let Us Count The Ways Andrew Cuomo Is A Despicable Human Being

Yeah, I know - technically this is Sandra Lee that was hit with a lawsuit for being a deadbeat, but don't forget who shares that home with her:

Food Network star Sandra Lee has made good on an $800 overdue bill from a Putnam company that removed snow from the roof of her $1.2 million home earlier this year, a court clerk said Tuesday.

Lee had been scheduled to appear in Town Court last Thursday after The Honey Do Men Gutters and Roofing Corp. of Mahopac sued her for $800 plus interest, claiming she paid only part of a $4,000 bill after company workers spent two hours clearing snow from her roof in February.

But the matter was settled prior to Thursday evening's court date, which was then canceled, the clerk said. The company's attorney, Francis J. O'Reilly, confirmed Lee paid.

A message left through the website of Lee, 47, seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Lee is known for her "semi-homemade" cooking method in which she primarily uses prepackaged products along with fresh products. She shares the New Castle home with her boyfriend, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo,

In the lawsuit filed in Town Court, the company claimed a representative of Lee, a woman named Irma Martinez, called them Feb. 20 to remove snow from the roof of Lee's home at 4 Bittersweet Lane.

Honey Do Men said it did $4,294 worth of work but that Lee only paid them $3,494 after they contacted her three times for payment.

Now if only Deadbeat Cuomo would let the town assessor into his home to do a proper assessment of improvements he and Sandra Lee had done to it:

Lee's home has been in the news in recent weeks after lohud.com Tax Watchdog David McKay Wilson reported that Lee had made many improvements to the property without town approval.

By improving the home without proper permits, Lee likely had avoided paying higher taxes because town officials had not been aware of any changes that could potentially increase its value, Wilson concluded.

In the wake of Wilson's reporting, a town assessor visited the house and came up with a tentative reassessment raising its value by 29 percent. The value was based on an exterior inspection of the home because the assessor was not allowed inside. Cuomo later told Wilson he was not aware the assessor was not allowed inside.

Can you imagine what the Cuomo campaign would be doing if his GOP challenger, Rob Astorino, were as big a deadbeat as Sheriff Andy Cuomo and Sandra Lee are?

Hell, Cuomo sent David Paterson out after Astorino yesterday to dredge up some political corruption Astorino's father was involved in over 20 years ago.

I noted the following in a comment on State of Politics:

Wait, so Paterson calls the girlfriend of his aide who's filed domestic abuse charges to get her to drop the charges against his aide, but he's bringing up a 20 year old criminal conviction of Astorino's father?
 
Seriously?

I'm a Democrat, been one since I could first vote, but I have to tell you, the criminality and sheer gall that comes out of the Democratic Party leadership in this state makes me sick.

David Paterson should be in jail for witness tampering.

Had there been a real attorney general at the time and not Quid Pro Cuomo in that office, maybe there would have been a real investigation into Paterson.

Hey, you know what? Maybe you folks at State of Politics can ask Paterson where he gets the nerve to let these statements go out with his name attached after he barely got out of Albany without a perp walk?

There's just so much to despise about Andrew Cuomo and his consorts, both political and otherwise.

Sleazy, nasty, criminal deadbeats.

That's Cuomo and Company.

And yeah, I'm including Sandra Lee in that mix.

UFT Tells Teachers Bill Thompson Promises Retro Pay - But He Doesn't

More lies and misinformation from the United Federation of Teachers leadership over the Bill Thompson campaign:

The United Federation of Teachers is telling its members to come out in droves to vote for mayoral candidate Bill Thompson because he will give them back pay — even though he insists he didn’t promise fat raises to win union support.

The UFT, which endorsed Thompson in the hotly contested Democratic primary, sent tens of thousands of fliers to its members reading, “Bill Thompson Stands With Us,” followed by a checklist of issues he supposedly supports.

But sandwiched between promises he has actually made — to appoint an educator as chancellor and limit standardized testing of kids — is one he hasn’t: “Retro-active pay.”

The retroactive pay issue has become a flash point in the race because Mayor Bloomberg is set to leave office in January with every municipal labor contract long expired.

Officials have projected that providing back pay could clobber the city with nearly $8 billion in additional expenses.

Despite the mass mailing, Thompson spokesman John Collins reiterated that the candidate has not promised the UFT retroactive pay — either publicly or in private.

All of the leading Dems — seeking to win support of union workers — have hedged on providing retro pay.

The $69,705 mailer was funded by the UFT’s political action committee, United for the ­Future, which has spent nearly $3.3 million on the race so far.

A spokeswoman for the union declined to comment.

What's the description of a union leadership that tells its membership to vote for its endorsed candidate because he will provide retro pay when that union leadership knows the candidate has promised no such thing?

Liars.

What happens if Thompson wins and doesn't hand out the retro pay like the UFT promised members he would?

The UFT leadership will do what they always do - lie some more, jive some more, divert some more.

Anything to maintain their power and privilege and keep the membership in the dark, powerless and under their boot.

Do not be fooled by either the UFT leadership or the Thompson campaign on this retro pay issue or any other issue.

Bill Thompson=Randi Weinergarten=Michael Mulgrew=Merryl Tisch=Al D'amato.

Now We Know What Tony Bennett Means By "No Excuses!"

Another education reformer exposed as a cheater and a liar - Chiefs For Change chief, Tony Bennett:

INDIANAPOLIS — Former Indiana and current Florida schools chief Tony Bennett built his national star by promising to hold "failing" schools accountable. But when it appeared an Indianapolis charter school run by a prominent Republican donor might receive a poor grade, Bennett's education team frantically overhauled his signature "A-F" school grading system to improve the school's marks.

Emails obtained by The Associated Press show Bennett and his staff scrambled last fall to ensure influential donor Christel DeHaan's school received an "A," despite poor test scores in algebra that initially earned it a "C."

"They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work," Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12 email to then-chief of staff Heather Neal, who is now Gov. Mike Pence's chief lobbyist.

The emails, which also show Bennett discussed with staff the legality of changing just DeHaan's grade, raise unsettling questions about the validity of a grading system that has broad implications. Indiana uses the A-F grades to determine which schools get taken over by the state and whether students seeking state-funded vouchers to attend private school need to first spend a year in public school. They also help determine how much state funding schools receive. A low grade also can detract from a neighborhood and drive homebuyers elsewhere.

GOP donor's charter school is getting a "C" instead of an "A" on its school report card?

"No problem!" says Chief For Change chief Tony Bennett, "we'll change the formula and make sure that donor - who's given over $2.8 million since 1998 - gets his A"!

The change in formula still doesn't get the school an A?

"No problem!" says Chief For Change chief Tony Bennett, "we'll just change the formula again and make sure it's an A!"

I'd say this story is unbelievable, except that it's not.

Another education reform "hero" exposed as a crook and a liar.

Rhee and Bennett - Chiefs For Cheating.

Wiener: Sure, I Sent Penis Photos, But At Least I Didn't Overturn Term Limits

Love it - Anthony Weiner, in defending his sexting communications, attacked Christine Quinn yesterday:

Serial sexter Anthony Weiner admitted yesterday he had cybersex with at least three women after he resigned from Congress over his infamous sexting scandal.

That brings his total extramarital Internet dalliances to at least 13, and Weiner suggested that was his final answer.

“I don’t believe I had any more than three,” he said when pressed for a count of his post-resignation assignations by a Post reporter during a campaign stop at a Brooklyn soup kitchen.

The married mayor wannabe claimed he’s still “working with people” to curb his peter-tweeting proclivities, but insisted he’s not a virtual sex addict.

...

Weiner also took time during the firestorm of questions to lash out at mayoral challenger and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has questioned his judgment.

“I didn’t lie to the people of the City of New York and say I wasn’t gonna overturn term limits,” he blasted.

Excellent strategy, Anthony.

Dish some dirt on Quinn while you're drowning in your own scandal and try and help people remember just what a sleaze Quinn is too.

That's what we want to see.

Eliot Spitzer Hires Former Students First/Michelle Rhee Press Hack

Hari Sevugan just got hired to be Eliot Spitzer's press flack, but he used to work for Michelle Rhee's Students First political action committee.

At Students First, his job was to defend Michelle Rhee's right wing, pro-public school privatization agenda and pretend like it was a progressive agenda.

As you can imagine, he spent most of his days spewing lies and half-truths and making believe like they were truths brought down from the mount by Moses.

Diane Ravitch did a nice job countering some jive he spewed earlier this year when he was still working for Rhee here.

Now Sevugan has given up lying for Michelle Rhee for a living and taken on lying for Eliot Spitzer for a living.

But so far, Hari's not doing so well at his new job:

The battle between former Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is getting personal.

Campaign spokespersons on both sides of the divisive comptroller’s contest got into a Twitter flap this afternoon after Mr. Spitzer’s new communications flack, Hari Sevugan, shot off a passive-aggressive missive at Mr. Stringer’s long-time spokeswoman, Audrey Gelman.

“Congrats to @audreygelman for making Politico’s 50 to Watch List. She gets way better press than I do… Or her boss does, for that matter,” he tweeted earlier this afternoon, an obvious dig at Ms. Gelman’s many glossy magazine profiles and appearances on the hit show Girls.

Mr. Sevugan, apparently realizing his misstep quickly, apologized in a direct message to Ms. Gelman obtained by Politicker.

“Mr. Hey Audrey – hope I did’t go too far. I have a calibration problem, which isn’t the best quality in a flack. a sincere congratulations…,” he allegedly wrote, also offering his contact information in case she ever wanted to reach out.

Mr. Sevugan, who was also featured on Politico‘s “50 to Watch List” back in 2009, told Politicker he’d meant no harm and looked forward to sparring with Ms. Gelman through the campaign. “I was just have a little fun at her boss’ expense,” he said. “She deserves all the accolades she’s gotten.   She’s doing a tremendous job. And I look forward to going up against her in the papers every day.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Sevugan’s remark resulted in a barrage of criticism from Mr. Stringer’s not-so-secret allies.

The first came from Bloomberg spokeswoman Julie Wood, a close friend of Ms. Gelman. “@HariSevugan hi, who are you?” she asked.

“Welcome to NYC, this isnt how we do things here, dude,” added Risa Heller, who–in another layer of intrigue–is former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s former spokesman. Mr. Weiner, of course, hasn’t benefited from Mr. Spitzer’s jump into the race, which has dragged both of their infamous scandal back into the spotlight.

“Classless,” added Michael Morey, spokesman for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and mayoral candidate–a vocal Stringer ally. Mr. Morey works at the same consulting firm, SKD Knickerbocker, as Ms. Gelman, as does the Washington-based Hilary Rosen, who also piled on.

“Spitzer – a classy guy with classy staff!!” agreed Dan Levitan, who reps fellow Stringer supporter and mayoral contender Bill de Blasio.

“Grabbing popcorn,” chimed Kamran Mumtaz, who works with Ms. Wood in Mayor Bloomberg’s press office.

Ms. Gelman herself declined to comment but re-tweeted a couple statements of support.
“Audrey is loving every minute of it. so are her twitter surrogates like julie wood. and so are her frenemies,” said one self-described “frenemy” of Ms. Gelman of the spat.

Now I know this is all inside baseball stuff and most people probably don't care much about this kind of thing.

But I want to point out two things here:

First, Spitzer hired a former Students First p.r. guy to work for him.

Second, that guy is an ass.

You know what, let me point out a third thing here:

Since Spitzer hired a former Students First p.r. guy to work for him, I will not be supporting him for comptroller.

Juan Gonzalez: Years Of Lies And Delays From Bloomberg Over PCB's In Schools Laid Bare This Week

The Children First mayor has been saying it will take 10 years to get the light fixtures with the PCB's in them out of the schools:

A fluorescent light suddenly exploded Tuesday morning in Room 316 at Intermediate School 123 in Harlem.

Fumes from the failed classroom fixture laden with toxic PCB fluid spread so quickly the entire school had to be temporarily evacuated. Nine pupils and two teachers were treated at a nearby hospital for asthma attacks and severe coughing.

“We had the same thing happen a month ago in Room 216, though it wasn’t as bad as this one,” Hope Scott, president of the school’s Parents Association, said.

Then late Thursday, Department of Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said: “Today a smell was emitted from a fixture on the second floor. It will be removed tonight and the room will be ventilated.”

These three incidents in just one Harlem school have finally laid bare years of lies and delays from the Bloomberg administration over the huge problem of PCB-laden lights in our public schools.

Just six weeks ago, a Brooklyn federal judge blasted the Department of Education for flouting the City Council, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and previous court orders that have urged faster action in removing PCB ballasts from public schools.

Until this week, the city kept insisting it needed 10 years to replace more than half a million lighting fixtures that contain the dangerous substance.

But in response to a lawsuit filed by New York Communities for Change challenging that 10-year plan, U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson labeled the city’s reasoning “spurious.”

Johnson’s decision virtually predicted the harrowing incidents at IS 123 and other schools .

Since the federal government banned the use of PCBs in 1979, any such fixtures in city schools are now more than 32 years old — twice their useful life.

“As they age, the failure rate . . . increases dramatically,” Johnson noted, and he ordered the city to stop “foot-dragging” and mediate a settlement with the plaintiffs.

Other leaders have offered concrete plans. City Controller John Liu has proposed a bond issue that would more than pay for itself through energy savings.

Meanwhile, Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) has questioned why in some buildings a charter school’s lighting fixtures have been replaced but not those of the co-located public school.

Until this week, Mayor Bloomberg ignored everyone.

Then some students and teachers in Harlem ended up in the hospital. So Wednesday evening, only hours after Rosenthal called for a news conference outside IS 123, Bloomberg’s people suddenly announced the city is speeding up the removal of PCBs fixtures. But given their outrageous record on this issue, let’s see their plan.

These people in the Bloomberg administration are liars and criminals who do not care at all about the children in their care.

If they did, they would not send children to schools in these conditions.

Parents Accuse DOE Of Lying, Covering Up PCB Problems

From DNAinfo:

UPPER WEST SIDE — PCB leaked in another two Upper West Side schools in the past two months, education officials said — adding to a growing list of affected schools and concern among parents.

P.S. 242, the Young Diplomats Magnet Academy on West 120th Street, had leaks of the carcinogenic chemical polychlorinated biphenyl last month, according to the Department of Education.

P.S. 185, The Early Childhood Discovery and Design Magnet School on West 112th Street, had a leak in early March, the DOE said.

The reaction of parents?

The recent incidents add to a brewing distrust in the district, particularly at P.S. 242. 

Parent Angela Jenkins has taken her second grade daughter out of school for the remainder of the year and is homeschooling her after the PCB leak convinced her the school was unsafe, she said.

"I don’t trust the DOE with my daughter. There’s so much lying and cover-up," said Jenkins, adding the school was evasive about the leak and its remediation plan. "I have to really ask my self, 'Do I want to send my daughter there?'"

And why isn't the DOE doing more air testing, taking additional safety precautions?

Why cost, of course:

Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal is working on a bill that would force the DOE to speed up the remediation timeline.

“Once again, lighting ballasts leak PCBs in schools and the Department of Education recklessly dithers...The DOE must stop making parents choose between their children’s health and their education. I renew my demand that the City remove all toxic PCB lighting ballasts from classrooms immediately,” Rosenthal said.

The DOE does not conduct air quality testing after a PCB leak, which is one way to ensure chemicals aren't leaching into the air, said District 3 Superintendent Ilene Altschul. The United Federation of Teachers, however, performed air quality testing at P.S. 242, Altschul said.

Air testing is "incredibly expensive and it requires a space be completely shut down," said Community Education Council member Michelle Ciulla Lipkin of testing. "It’s a very cumbersome process.

"It’s absurd that we’re not doing more air testing," she added, "but it’s a much more expensive proposition." 

It seems Bloomberg, Walcott and the DOE are only in favor of standardized testing.

 

When it comes to testing the air in a school for safety, whether from PCB's or mold, Bloomberg, Walcott and the DOE are MIA.

You can bet the DOE has not divulged full information on these leaks even as they claim that they put "Children First".

At least the UFT has helped conducted some air testing to ensure safety.

But the UFT shouldn't have to conduct the testing.

That is Bloomberg's and Walcott's job.

How many children come down with cancer in the future because these two callous men refuse to make the schools safe for children, refuse to test schools when there have been leaks and other safety issues, have delayed as long as they could on fixing the leaking lights?

12/21/2012

It's the apocalypse, folks.

If the United Federation of Teachers leadership does not sign off on a new teacher evaluation agreement that is full of junk science, an absurd observation rubric longer than War and Peace, a Student Learning Objective process so convoluted it will be essentially meaningless, and other so-called "reforms" imposed by the corporate education deformers, the world will end.

That's right - the end of human history as we know it is right in the hands of teachers.

Because the Mayans knew, when they ended their calendar on 12/21/12, that the United States public education system would be in crisis and only "Bolder, Faster Change" in the form of high stakes tests in every grade in every subject, teacher evaluations tied to those test scores via a value-added measurement algorithm with a margin of error bigger than the hole in the ozone caused by human hair products, and the immediate firing of as many "ineffective" (i.e., expensive veteran teachers) as possible can save us all from destruction.

And so that figure of the spirit, that man in touch with the soul of the universe, the Dalai Bloomberg, has come to us all with a plan to save humanity from total destruction.

Agree to the evaluation system the NYCDOE has put before the UFT leadership or else.

The phone hacking criminals running the NY Daily News concur - agree to the new system or suffer the wrath of the universe.

So what if the value-added measurement they're going to use on you is error-riddled, subject to wide swings in stability and will eventually tar every teacher as "ineffective" if they hang around long enough?

So what if the Danielson rubric has a 57 page checklist that will be used on you and it is nearly impossible (not to mention ludicrous) to be expected to hit all the criteria on the checklist in a 45 minute class, day-in and day-out, as the new evaluation system will mandate?

So what if the Student Learning Objectives process, which will account for 20% of the evaluation grade, will be complex, convoluted and useless?

So what if the education leaders at the NYCDOE, the NYSED, and the Regents are misleading the public about the "objectivity" and "scientific" nature of this system and know that it has been specifically designed to give districts the tools they need to shed thousands of teachers every year and turn the teaching profession into a right-to-work job?

We simply must agree to what the Dalai Bloomberg has put in front of us, even though we know the system is unfair, unjust and rigged or the world as we know it will end.

You have been warned, my friends - agree to the worst possible teacher evaluation system or be responsible for the end of humanity.

The future is in your hands.

Bloomberg Releases "Edited" 911 Report That Still Shows How Woefully Unprepared City Is To Handle Emergencies

The edited report is really, really bad - what could be in the full report that Bloomberg refuses to release?

NEW YORK (AP) — The city's overhauled 911 system is beset by delays and errors that could leave callers without help for crucial seconds in an emergency, while the fire and police departments aren't collaborating on how to handle a surge in calls from a massive crisis such as a terrorist attack, a report said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office released an edited version of a consultants' report on Friday. His administration is fighting legal efforts to force it to release earlier versions. When the New York Post first wrote about the report last month, it described a 216-page document, but the version released Friday had 133 pages.

Cas Holloway, the deputy mayor for operations, said the city would immediately adopt two of the report's 14 recommendations and would soon adopt others. Bloomberg will create a working group to consider the report's suggestions and will issue an executive order establishing an ongoing process to improve the system, Holloway said.

...

The report, initially prepared by outside consultants hired by the city, found that call operators waste time on duplicative questions and employ inconsistent questioning procedures. The system, it found, sends some responders to the wrong address and slows fire and medical dispatchers' efforts to give instructions to callers.

The report follows a yearslong overhaul of the system that included a new $680 million call center that combined the operations of police, fire and medical dispatchers. City officials have said the update improved response times, eliminated inefficiencies and reduced confusion for callers, but Friday's report seemed to call some of that into question.

"Statistical information provided to City Hall management to demonstrate the success of the (Unified Call Taking) project contained errors and does not provide a clear picture of the effectiveness of UCT related business processes," the report said. Holloway said that comment referred largely to the city's practice of not tracking how long it takes from the moment an emergency call is placed until the moment responders are dispatched.

The data is phonied up, the response times are phonied up - but the deputy mayor says fatalities are down 20%, so everything's good.

But do you trust them when they say fatalities are down?

They have phonied up the budget, phonied up the crime stats, phonied up the test scores and graduation rates - why should we believe anything - seriously, anything - a city official who works for Michael Bloomberg says?

In any case, given how bad this "edited" report is, the full report must be a doozy.

Hey Bloomberg - you couldn't wait to release the Teacher Data Reports with the 87% margins of error.

Release the damned 911 report - all of it.

An Open Letter To Erin Durkin, Rachel Monahan And Ben Chapman

Dear Ms. Monahan, Ms. Durkin, and Mr. Chapman,

Now that your April 8th article about Chaz has been found to be error-riddled and your editor has issued a note saying just that, I suppose you'll be writing another story in the Daily News that will be displayed as prominently telling us how you got this allegation against Chaz wrong?

You'll of course note that whoever you received the info from at the DOE was lying to you about the details and you'll apologize for not checking your facts before printing your story, yes?

And then you'll quit your job as "journalists" and go and work as stenographers for the NYCDOE, a position for which you are much more suited.

If the world were fair, this is what would happen.

Of course the world is not fair and I did not just fall off a turnip truck, so I know you will still be around tomorrow to print your lies and destroy innocent people on a daily basis.

How do you sleep at night?

How do you look at yourselves in the mirror?

How do you do what you do on a daily basis, slinging the lies of the rich and powerful and smearing the reputations of the poor and humble, and not think of yourselves as evil?

Seriously.

If ever there is a time for a serious re-examination of career and self, this would be it.

Please see this instructional video to aid you in your quest to living a life of truth, honesty and integrity.

Why don't you quit doing the evil you do for the union-busting Mort Zuckerman and the union-busting Michael Bloomberg and do something you can be proud of?

Sincerely,

Reality-Based Educator
NYC Teacher