Anthony Weiner's apologetic comeback tour, starting with a bunch of hand picked one-on-one TV interview, isn't going too well, crisis management experts tell NY Daily News.
"They faulted Weiner’s performance in a whirlwind of TV interviews
Wednesday when the former congressman could not say how many women
received raunchy texts and photos from him or rule out the possibility that more photos could emerge.
It looked like a room full of oppressed citizens seeking resilience. While the issue of gay marriage is a non-issue in this mayoral campaign, a group of rabbis, Orthodox community activists and young students, assembled together at the 'Ahi Ezer' hall in Gravesend, Brooklyn for an event in support of Conservative Democratic mayoral candidate, Rev. Erick Salgado.
The event was hosted by community activist Joseph Hayon, and attended by mayoral hopeful Erick Salgado, Rabbi Nekelbaum, Rabbi Auziel Admony, Rabbi Beni Rachmanov, and Gregory Davidszon, all who addressed the crowd during the evening.
The theme shared by the couple of speeches given by various rabbis were all shared by common defiance against the government's hostility towards freedom of religion.
While addressing the issue of gay marriage as an issue of transgression that shouldn't be overlooked or given up the right to protest and be stopped, Rabbi Nekelbaum spoke about the trend. The idea of gay marriage, he said, has started to circulate in a way that may ultimately lead in the future to Orthodox Jews trying it out and indulge in that behavior.
"Therefore we are here to support Mr. Erick Salgado because he's strongly committed to stopping these perversions, the corruption of the minds and these actions," the Rabbi concluded. "For the Almighty there are no long shots or short shots."
"This is not considered a political event. It's a religion issue. It's a religious obligation to be here tonight and support the campaign of Mr. Salgado," said Rabbi Auziel Admony.
Senator Ruben Diaz, who was introduced as the only Democratic Senator that voted against the Same Gender Marriage bill, assailed against the Democratic party, only to request the Jewish community to join him and the Latino community in creating a coalition of left behind's. "We have a unique opportunity to send a message: 'We are tired. We are fed up, and we will take it no more'," Rev. Diaz said.
"If we can get from the Jewish community 10,000 votes, we, the Hispanic community, will produce the rest. Let's do it, we can do it," he said. Adding to loud applause, "I wasn't born a Jew but I am a Jew."
Pumped up by Senator Diaz's introduction, feeling at home in a friendly crowd, Rev. Erick Salgado flourished in a unusual manner of enthusiasm and delivered a rather revolutionary speech filled with zingers and plausible lines, and less policy oriented.
"I am not afraid of being pushed. I have been pushed all my life, by the way, and I pushed back," said Mr. Salgado. "I was born in the Bronx. When I was 2 years old I was struggling with asthma, and they pushed my to Puerto Rico. But when I graduated from high school I came back because I knew it was meant for me to be in the city for a purpose, and tonight we are closer than ever in achieving that purpose."
"The career politicians" he said referring to his rivals in the Democratic primary, "they say that I have no chance. They look at me, and they laugh. But I am used to it. They push me. They twist my words. They don't like my accent. But my friends, when I finish up fixing the City of New York they are going to love my accent. They are going to try to talk the way I talk."
Not addressing them by the name, Mr. Salgado charged that his opponents, although they are attacking Mayor Bloomberg, are part of the current system. "They are also elected. They have done nothing for this city. The city does not feel proud of them. That's why the city is not going to choose them and elevate them to a higher level. They are going to choose somebody that has been working for 24 years. Somebody that has helped other people. They are going to choose somebody from main street and make him mayor," he said
Coming back to seek sympathy, Mr. Salgado didn't shy away from addressing his vulnerabilities. "They can push me. They can say you have no chance. You have no money. You have no name recognition. You can it to the list. But still, If I have the children of God with me I am going to achieve victory," he defiantly argued.
"This is doable. We can do this. If we can get the Latino community to believe I am going to be the next mayor, if we can persuade every single person in the Jewish community to vote for Erick Salgado, in the Russian communities and in the many communities supporting us, we are going to have a mayor that is going to be working for all New Yorkers," he continued.
"Many people are saying they have the Jewish community, And I know, I could feel it through the passion in this room, that after tonight everyone in the Jewish community is going to pay attention to who his 'Mr. Erick Salgado," he concluded to loud cheers.
Mayoral hopeful and Republican underdog, John Catsimatidis told NY1's Errol Louis on "The road To City Hall" that he's working very hard 7 days a week until 11PM, hitting every borough and neighborhood in NYC, in his run for mayor. "Because I am not only running in the [GOP] September primary, but also in the November election," he said.
In a 60 minutes debate, shared with 6 candidates on stage, there weren't many moments of zinger dropping, jabs or direct confrontations between the leading mayoral candidates. The only direct back and forth square off was at minute 0:56:00, when Bill de Blasio, who totally ignored the remaining candidates, took out the gun and began shooting at Christine Quinn over Stop and Frisk.
"Speaker
Quinn, the fact is, you only moved on stop-and-frisk because there was
tremendous public pressure," said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. "You
weren't willing to challenge Ray Kelly previously, and you only moved on
Civilian Complaint Review Board because, again, other people were moving on the issue."
"Bill,
you are engaged in revisionist history," Quinn responded. "What I said
to you and Councilmember Garodnick is that the legislation you had to
give the CCRB prosecutorial authority was not legally doable."
NYT's Michael Grynbuam got to smoke cigars with Republican mayoral hopeful in an extraordinary fundraiser in Queens Monday night and reports. “I haven’t smoked a cigar in I can’t tell you how long,” Mr. Lhota said before admitting his last celebratory smoke was on New Year’s Eve.
Elio Forcina, a lawyer who organized the event, introduced Mr. Lhota to an owner of the Habana Hut, adding that the proprietor, as a high school student, had once stuffed Andrew M. Cuomo, a classmate and the future governor, into a hallway locker. The owner vigorously shook his head. “It was my brother! Not me!”
“Your brother put Andrew Cuomo in a locker? Wow, wow. That’s great,” Mr. Lhota said, reaching for a cigar cutter.
Many of the attendees — almost all male — knew Mr. Lhota from his days as a deputy mayor in the Giuliani administration, where he was known to indulge in cigars and Scotch. It was a habit he picked up in college, at Georgetown, where his roommates preferred the Caribbean blend of Macanudo Hampton Courts.
George Frangoulis, who served with Mr. Lhota at City Hall in the 1990s, recalled many smoky Christmas dinners with Chianti, cigars and a seafood feast, with Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Mr. Lhota holding court. (Mr. Giuliani, he said, kept his cigars in a Tupperware container.)
Mr. Frangoulis said that Mr. Lhota often used cigars to put subordinates at ease, right before grilling them on a recent foul-up. “It was a communications device; he’d get everything out of you.”
Like Mr. Lhota, Mr. Frangoulis said he has had to cut back. “I’m 52,” he explained. “I love my teeth.”
Councilman Eric Ulrich, who's a staunch supporter of Mr. Lhota, despite of the Queens county's backing of John Catsimatidis. “We’re behind Joe 1,000 percent,” Mr. Ulrich told the crowd. He then predicted that Mr. Lhota would easily best a rival, John A. Catsimatidis, in the primary. “These are very hard-working, middle-class people,” he said. “These are the voters who will put Joe over the top.”
“If you’re together with a bunch of friends and you’re smoking cigars and you’re having a drink, the most important component is the discussion and the talk and the revelry,” Mr. Lhota told Mr. Grynbaum as the evening drew to a close.
We got word that Public Advocate and mayoral hopeful Bill de Blasio attended last night the largest annual gathering in the Borough Park community, and briefly addressed the 5000+ crowd in attendance. Mr. de Blasio was the only mayoral candidate to attend the dinner, getting a unique chance to introduce himself to a bulk of Jewish voters.
Here is the report of the massive crowd in todays Hamodia:
This was the first televised debate and the first time Hispanic pastor, Erick Salgado got to square off with all of the Democratic candidates. And boy, did he enjoy every minute of that. From suggesting Rudy Giuliani as police commissioner, interrupting Mr. Thompson over time limits, to story telling his stop and frisk incident, Mr. Salgado definitely stole the show.
As the use of drones in the united States was brought up weeks ago by Republican Senator Rand Paul, and in wake of the Boston bombing and the day long search for the 2nd suspect, the use of drones came up again as a public safety matter. Rand Paul surprised many of his supporters Monday, as he came out in favor of using drones if there was “an imminent threat.”
“I never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on. If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don’t care if a drone kills him or policeman kills him,” Paul said on Fox Business Network, in reference to the Boston Marathon bombings. “But it is different if they want to come fly over your hot tub or your yard just because they want to do surveillance on everyone, and they want to watch your activity.”
