Bloomberg Claims Halloran, Smith Indictments Are Call For More Politicians Like Himself

Our unindicted criminal mayor, the man who finagled three elections via unethical and/or potentially criminal activity with the Independence Party, told reporters today that the criminal indictments of State Senator Malcolm Smith, City Councilman Dan Halloran and others on bribery and fraud charges are an example of why the country needs more "non-partisan" elections that elect politicians like, well, himself:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg today argued that the U.S. attorney's complaints against State Senator Malcolm Smith and Queens Councilman Dan Halloran present as strong an argument as any for nonpartisan elections in New York City.

"All of this comes out of the fact that we have partisan elections when cities aren't partisan," said Bloomberg today, during a press conference about education in Queens.
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"If you go back to 2005, I think it was, I think I spent $7 million of my own money trying to convince everybody that we should have nonpartisan elections," said Bloomberg (who has very much played the partisan game when he's needed to, and contributed millions of dollars to the controversial Independence Party, which provided him a crucial non-major-party line to run on). "We are the only big city in the country that has partisan elections. The only one. ... But I could not get any newspaper or any good government group or any union or anybody to back it."

"Generally speaking, partisan elections deprive the public of the right to pick their own leaders because the only people that vote and the only elections that matter are the fringe group of whether it's one party or another party," he continued. "And maybe they make good choices, maybe they don't. But it's very hard to argue that it is democratic. It is not. And that's where all this craziness comes from."

Bloomberg is of course full of it on multiple accounts here.

First, as Capital NY points out, Bloomberg has gamed the election system more than once by changing party affiliation the way he changes tuxedos.

First he was a Democrat, then a Republican, then an "independent," then he was a Republican again.

If anybody has made a sham out of "partisan elections," it's our "non-partisan" mayor whose only allegiance is to himself and the corporate state of affairs.

Next, he's corrupted elections all over the country by using his billions as a bludgeon against anybody or anything he doesn't like.

The Bloomberg M.O. goes like this:

Agree with the mayor, receive Bloomberg largess.

Go against the mayor's wishes and the mayor's PAC drops a bunch of money into your opponent's campaign bank account and runs commercials against you.

The mayor's PAC has threatened politicians all across the country on a multitude of issues, most specifically gun control and education reform.

A billionaire soon-to-be ex-mayor with billions to toss into politics to influence elections for years to come is much more corrosive and damaging to the political system then two bit crooks like Smith and Halloran taking and/or receiving $50,000 in small cash bribes.

Finally, as I pointed out earlier and as the Capital NY article points out as well, the mayor has bribed Independence Party officials through three election cycles to put him on their "non-partisan" ballot line and fool people into thinking it's some independent ballot line rather than a sham front for Bloomberg.

Is that fraud perpetrated by Bloomberg, a sham that twice won him the votes that meant the difference between winning and losing the election) any less corrupting that Halloran and Smith's shenanigans?

It would be nice if the journalists covering him would call him on his b.s. to his face and ask him how his PAC, his Independence Party shenanigans, and his party switching isn't crazy too?

Why Doesn't Bloomberg Go To Jail With Him?

John Haggerty was ordered to jail today to start serving his sentence for defrauding the Bloomberg campaign back in 2009 to the tune of $1.2 million dollars:

John Haggerty was convicted in December 2011 of second-degree grand larceny and second-degree money laundering charges.

Haggerty was found guilty of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mayor Bloomberg that was supposed to go toward an Election Day poll watching operation.

The political operative instead used the money to buy a house.

Prior to his court appearance Tuesday, Haggerty had been out on bail pending an appeal.

He will spend at least 16 months behind bars and have to pay Bloomberg $750,000 in restitution.

Meanwhile the man who used Haggerty's Independence Party to launder money and skirt campaign finance laws - Mayor Michael Bloomberg - has not been held accountable at all for his crime.

Funny how that is.

Will De Blasio Get "Liu'ed" For Saying He Wants To Work With Labor?

The corporate shills at the Daily News took Public Advocate Bill de Blasio to task in an editorial today for saying he believes in defined pension benefits for public workers over 401(k) plans:

Later, in an interview, de Blasio ruled out trying to switching future city employees from traditional pensions to a 401(k)-style retirement savings plan.

“I believe in defined benefit pensions, and I don’t want to move away from it,” he said, adding, when pressed for details, “I want to work with labor, by gathering everyone around the table.”

This statement about pensions, along with his willingness to work with as opposed to do to labor groups, infuriates the corporate shills at the Daily News.

They promptly declare de Blasio is "off to a bad start" in his quest to be mayor at the end of the editorial.

Now this is the kind of thing that can be a problem for a candidate and politician.

The corporate media went after Comptroller John Liu early and often for standing with labor and the working families of this city and have helped smear him as a "crook" over campaign finance fraud even though no charges have ever been filed against Liu and the associate of his who has been arrested has claimed the Feds tried to get him to manufacture charges against the comptroller.

The ironic thing about all of this is, Mayor Bloomberg admitted in a court of law that he laundered $1.1 million dollars through illegal channels to the Independence Party, and yet somehow he is not smeared by the Daily News and the Post as a campaign finance fraudster the way the unindicted Liu is.

Still, while he is no Liu and does a much better job of assuaging the hedge fundies of this city by doing nothing to upset them, De Blasio had better watch out when he talks to the DN corporate shillsters about labor.

Make enough statements about how you want to work with labor and you support pensions over 401(k) voodoo and you'll end up like John Liu - a target for the corporate shillsters in the press to smear

Lawyer Says Feds Tried To "Manufacture" Case Against John Liu

The allegation against the feds was made in court today:

An indicted fund-raiser for city Comptroller John Liu claims the feds wanted him to help "manufacture" charges against the embattled mayoral hopeful.

In court this morning, a lawyer for Xing Wu "Oliver" Pan said "the facts here are so unique and disturbing" that he would seek the unprecedented dismissal of campaign-finance charges against Pan.

Defense lawyer Irwin Rochman cited the "highly improper manner in which the government dealt with Mr. Pan" prior to his arrest following a sting operation last year.

Rochman said the feds tried "to pressure Mr. Pan to help the government manufacture a case against Mr. Liu."

Rochman didn't elaborate on his allegations, and refused to do so outside court, saying more details would be contained in a motion due Sept. 10.

But he specified that the feds wanted to build a criminal case against the Queens Democrat, and "possibly some of his associates."

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan US Attorney's Office declined comment.

Liu's campaign spokesman also declined to comment.

Pan is charged with scheming with an undercover FBI agent to use phony "straw" donors to funnel $16,000 into Liu's 2013 campaign account.

The amount is more than three times the legal limit of $4,950 in contributions from a single individual.

Earlier this year, Liu all but dared the feds to bring charges against him in the case, in which his former campaign treasurer, Jia "Jenny" Hou has also been charged.

"If there is anything that my campaign is guilty of, or my supporters or my staff or by extension me, then prove it," Liu said at the time.

So far, the feds haven't proven anything, although the allegations against Liu have been damaging enough to short circuit any chance he might have had to win a race for City Hall in 2013.

Interestingly enough, one politician has been caught in a money laundering scheme to pay an associate $1.1 million dollars from his own personal account to a political operative in order to campaign finance rules.

That politician's name is Michael Bloomberg.

Funny how the politician who serves the interests of the elite 1% pays nothing for breaking campaign finance law while the politician who seems to try and serve the 99% is destroyed by campaign finance fraud allegations from a case that so far hasn't even been brought by the feds, let alone proven.

If it turns out the feds were putting pressure on Pan to "manufacture" a case against Liu, that makes this even worse.

But in a country where you are rewarded for serving the interests of the elite and punished if you try and serve the interests of the 99%, I guess none of this should be a surprise.