YouTube censors Blogger

WEEKS BEFORE NYC MAYORAL ELECTION, YOUTUBE.COM SUPPRESSES FREE SPEECH

YouTube.com has censored the artist-activist-citizen journalist Suzannah B. Troy by suspending her entire account (300 videos).

Suzannah B. Troy, a New York City-based artist, citizen journalist, and blogger, has had her YouTube.com account inexplicably suspended by the popular video website.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Suzannahartist

First Suzannah B. Troy, next us.

Ms. Troy has spent months creating, editing, and posting hundreds of original citizen journalist videos focusing on the controversial election this year of local candidates running for third terms in office. In particular, Ms. Troy's videos have been highly critical of the New York City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The nature of the videos on her YouTube.com account have ranged from breaking news-quality videos of voter demonstrations, to video blogs of her commentary on the elections, to artistic interpretation of news events. There is no reason for her account to be suspended by YouTube other than for the political and artistic nature of their content.

Please write to Youtube at: press@youtube.com and ask them for their official policy of suspending accounts of artists and citizen journalists.

We are only weeks away from an important election, which shall decide if City Council Members and Mayor Bloomberg will thwart the will of voters' two referrenda on term limits. And missing from the free exchange of ideas during the critical debates that will be taking place in the time leading up to the election will be Ms. Troy's body of work.

Without you stepping in to blog, publish, or report about this questionable suspension of Ms. Troy's YouTube account (as well as the potential of loss of hundreds of videos), other citizen journalists may face the same sad fate : cyber suppression.

Please consider the importance of voter participation in free and open democratic elections.

UPDATE: After pressure, YouTube.com restores Blogger's account

The blog site Queens Crap is reporting that YouTube has restored Suzannah B. Troy's account.

Bloomberg wanted to ban cameras in NYC

Mayor Bloomberg and his Unconstitutional Camera Law, according to wearechange.org

"First interaction between We Are Change, who are members of the independent press, and billionaire New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is trying to pass a fascist and unconstitutional Camera ban in NYC."

Revolution in New York City Government

Bloomberg kept no records of city's own audit

NYT: City Hall Broke Rules Funneling Money to Groups

After The New York Times reported that the Bloomberg administration had violated city contracting rules by directing substantial amounts of taxpayer funds (possibly in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to The Times ) to two politically connected groups, Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum asked the mayor on Thursday for all documents relating to his office’s use of discretionary funds to finance nonprofit groups.

In a blog post by Ray Rivera, the The Times reported that, "...the mayor’s office has said that there is little paperwork supporting the review and that it relied on interviews with staff members to reconstruct the financing. When The Times asked this week for a copy of the audit, a spokesman for the mayor said the report was really little more than a, 'spreadsheet that detailed what was funded and by whom.' "

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will spy on 2004 G.O.P. convention protesters and secretly audio-tape his political rival's campaign events, but neither he nor his office has any substantial record of City Hall's own audit of the slush fund scandal ?

If there's nothing to hide, then why suppress where the money went ?

I encourage everybody to follow the courageous and inspiring vlog postings by Suzannah B. Troy, who doesn't let us forget about the misuse of discretionary funds by City Hall and the New York City Council.

Bloomberg continues to 'track' Thompson's every move

The Daily News reports that Mayor Bloomberg is following his rival, City Comptroller William Thompson, in mayoral race.

In his power-mad campaign to win a previously-prohibited third term, Mayor Bloomberg's re-election campaign staff are tailing Bill Thompson at his election rallies.

The pressure of being followed and taped by Mayor Bloomberg's re-election staff is weighing down on Mr. Thompson. For example, Mr. Thompson is being baited by hecklers or activists into having to respond to criticisms of Mayor Bloomberg and his deputy mayor, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Having to respond to the deep resentment and disappointment that voters feel towards Mayor Bloomberg is becoming a challenge, because Mayor Bloomberg's re-election campaign staff is using Mr. Thompson's response (or non-response) as fodder for campaign attacks.

At a campaign event last week, [Mr. Thompson] said nothing as a cafe owner called City Council Speaker Christine Quinn a whore, instead of calling him out.

A month ago, he seemed helpless when a disheveled man started screaming obscenities about Bloomberg in the background of a Chinatown press conference.

"We're on camera?" Thompson asked. "Why does this always happen to me?"

Thompson now knows that Bloomberg's team is tracking him at every public event.

Let's hope that somebody is following and taping Mayor Bloomberg, to see how Mayor Bloomberg likes it.

Read more at: Controller needs to figure out which William Thompson is running for Mayor

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Bloomberg's Campaign peddles tapes to The New York Post

Mayor Bloomberg has a history of spying on protest groups during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Now, his third term re-election staff have started spying on Bill Thompson's campaign events.

Remember when, back in 2004, Mayor Michael Bloomberg admitted that he had ordered the NYPD to collect surveillance on groups protesting the Republican National Convention ?

Well, now comes the blogger Roy Edroso of The Village Voice, and he has reported that Mayor Bloomberg's campaign operatives are shopping around secretly-recorded audio tapes to humiliate NYC Mayoral candidate Bill Thompson. It is known that at least one media outlet, The New York Post, has been taken this bait.

"The Post says his operatives sent them a tape of Bill Thompson not reacting when the co-owner of the delightful West Village Brit boite Tea and Sympathy called Christine Quinn a "whore." "

The prefabricated outrage that is being intentionally generated by this scandal is ludicrous. Restauranteur Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett's only wrong-doing was that he had no thesaurus within easy reach; his poor choice of an adjective to describe a sell-out is understandable. When I can't think of a word to describe my disappointment in someone, I usually do turn to profanity as a literary clutch.

Meanwhile, it seems Nixon-esque for Mayor Bloomberg's political campaign to go around audio-taping his rival's campaign events. Should that be cause for more concern than the wrong use of the word, "whore?"

Flashback to 2004 G.O.P. domestic spying by NYPD

Mayor Defends Spying by Police Before G.O.P. Convention

By DIANE CARDWELL; JIM DWYER CONTRIBUTED REPORTING.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Published: March 28, 2007

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg yesterday defended police spying on potential protesters in advance of the 2004 Republican National Convention, saying that it was necessary for security during an uneasy time.

''We had a fundamental responsibility to learn whether groups might include any potential terrorists or anarchists planning to cause or take advantage of any disruptions,'' Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at a news conference. Toward that end, he said, the Police Department monitored those who said they intended vandalism or disruptions and, he added, ''in a few instances, we did keep track of groups or individuals who did plan to come to New York for the R.N.C. convention and who might have been planning violent acts.''

The administration has come under sharp criticism for its tactics with protesters before and during the convention, which included denying permission to rally in much of Central Park, sending undercover officers to infiltrate protests, making mass arrests of demonstrators and detaining many of them for days at a Hudson River pier.

But the scope of the preconvention operations, in which officers traveled widely, is just emerging from records in federal lawsuits brought as a result of the mass arrests as well as from still secret reports reviewed by The New York Times.

In defending the program, Mr. Bloomberg said that everything had been in accordance with court guidelines and was aimed at protecting the city and showing its recovery at a time when the presence of President Bush and members of Congress made it an even more inviting terror target.

''We were not keeping track of political activities,'' he said. ''We have no interest in doing that.''

But the records show that the police did covertly monitor political activity. Virtually every intelligence report, even those about expressly peaceful groups, described the political viewpoints of the organizations.

For example, a Feb. 6, 2004, police report said that Leslie Cagan, the national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, an antiwar organization, would speak at a conference later that month at City University Graduate Center. Her presence, a headline in the report said, ''indicates a reinforcement of ties between organizers and expanding activist youth movement.''

Stu Loeser, Mr. Bloomberg's chief spokesman said: ''We weren't seeking political information. We were seeking security information. It wasn't because of the political views expressed. The only concern was what security ramifications came from the activities of those groups.''