From the Times Newsweekly:
Ranking members of the Juniper Park Civic Association (JPCA) publicly slammed "clubhouse" politicians who allegedly put their own self-interests before the people they represent during the civic group's meeting last Thursday night, Mar. 8, at Our Lady of Hope School in Middle Village.
Robert Holden, JPCA president, specifically railed against Rep. Joseph Crowley, who is also the head of the Queens County Democratic Party, for overseeing a "corrupt system" that has led to the gerrymandering of the borough in order to ensure the re-election of established incumbents with little or no opposition.
Toward the end of the session, things turned testy when a member of the civic group spoke out against the ranking members' opinions about local lawmakers, past and present, in an editorial published in the JPCA's magazine, The Juniper Berry, which criticized Crowley. Holden and others defended its position, saying that the organization maintains its right to criticize anyone it believes is misrepresenting or harming the neighborhood.
Holden criticized the proposed realignment of Assembly and State Senate districts as proposed earlier this year by the Legislative Task Force on Redistricting and Reapportionment (LATFOR), claiming that the lines give an unfair advantage to incumbents and political parties.
"We've had that in Queens County for far too long," he said, charging that Representative Crowley and his cousin, City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley, "are an example of this clubhouse atmosphere in Queens."
Holden claimed that Representative Crowley was "handed the Congressional seat" from the late-Rep. Thomas Manton, who declined to seek re-election in 1998. The civic president claimed that after Manton — the former head of the Queens County Democratic Party — secured the petitions to get on the ballot, he announced his retirement, which allowed him to pick Crowley to take his place on the ballot.
Since winning the Congressional seat in 1998, Holden stated that Representative Crowley has run unopposed in many elections since. He went further to claim that the legislator keeps his primary residence in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. rather than in his own Congressional district.
"This is the kind of corrupt system that we have," Holden told residents.
27 comments:
congratulations to the officers of Juniper Park Civic Assoc.
reminds me of the north queens civic that i was a active officer at in the 1975 -85 period.we also went after the enemy among us.
read the entire J.P.C.A. newsletter editorial. are the writers patriots ?
Wake up people...............
I agree,
Wake up People
Is it true that Joe Crowley begins each closed door meeting with a toast to "Boss" Tweed?
Politics
will always remain---politics!
Don't expect any change.
We can only hope
for some improvement over time.
Politicians have always engaged in backroom dealing from the very beginning---when Man and Woman first walked the Earth.
It all started in the prehistoric era when one cave dweller first decided that he would become "cave (district) leader".
Quickly,
another rose up to contest him.
Soon afterward, offering prime cuts of Mammoth meat in exchange for supporting a particular candidate began. Thus, "The Bribe" was born.
The rest is history.
Loyalty to political party (Cave #1 Club) comes first---over doing the right thing for all of the people.
Power brokers and stud poker--cigar smoke and deals cut---William Marcy Tweed perfected all of the techniques thousands of years later.
And we're still learning!
I love J.P.C.A. !
B.F.H.A.
should take a lesson from them!
Of course it stinks.
It's rotten!
How ironic.
Mc Laughlin f---s Crowley (Liz) then Crowley f---s Maspeth.
If that isn't a sweet little daisy chain, WTF is?
Yes, everyone living in Queens MUST read the entire JPCA editorial article on the Crowleys. Shocking and a real eye opener. I agree, those Juniper guys are REAL patriots.
J.P.C.A. rocks while the northeast Queens bunch are just a bunch of political cock suckers.
No matter how well you endeavor to stroke a pol's shaft...you'll get it up the ass in the end...unless you stand up on your hind legs and bite his head off!
Juniper Civic Association is an inspiration and model for all civics. If more followed their example we would not have politicians in office like the creepy Crowleys.
Well written but this is stuff that anyone with any acquaintance of local politics knows - so the big question is why does everyone Go To Joe's parties and raves what a great time they had?
You got to drive a wedge into that crowd -
and the zombie-like influence that a dispensing of cash to the right cause
will suddenly compel your good neighbor to abruptly say bad things about you and go after your throat -
just because you state the obvious....
Puzzle out these solutions and you might get somewhere.
Tie this into developers financed by the banks supported by Washington and pieces start to fall into place.
The country is run by a small group of self-profiting insiders.
I read the article in the JCPA newletter, which was very well written and factual. The sad part is that all the little old Irish ladies will vote Joe Crowley in because he sang at their senior center and he is Irish. All the Democrats will vote him in because they are loyal to their party. Until they SMARTEN UP and vote for what is best for the people, we will continue to watch our neighborhoods decline and the Middle Class move out. It's ironic that Joe Crowley doesn't even live in the State, let alone the districts he represents. He even admitted that he wanted a better life and education for his family. Why is he still allowed to represent people in Queens when he doesn't even live here? Isn't there a residency law? If so, why does he still have this position? What can be done to get rid of him and his incompetent cousin?
Queens county is probably the most corrupt county in the country, from the Community Boards, to the Boro pres. to the City council. It needs a concerted cleaning by the voters and the feds.
I agree with the Occupy guy and Missing.
You got to go after his support which means all those bright young things that are looking for a job in politics and that provides them with new blood and ideas.
You got to dog them in every community, asking the questions and writing the letters.
These guys are brittle and not very smart - loyalty is the only requirement and we saw what happened to loyalty when millions got slaughtered on the battlefields of the past century.
The real problem is the stupid that are on automatic pilot and the venal whose support is bought with money.
The rank and file still think the word 'Democrat' means 'Roosevelt' or even 'Kennedy' when in reality ...
it hearkens back to to the machine of William Mary Tweed and Fernando Wood
and the antebellum South where you have a small elite that extracts every penny as it ruins the earth (cotton then, development today)
and keeps everyone disfranchised and dominated (Crackers and Blacks then, Archie and clueless immigrants today).
TO DO; if you want to remain anon and not use your e-mail forward, print copies of the JPCA editorial and the Q.C comments. send a copy to every church group and civic assoc. /homeowners group in Queens.
many senior civic leaders do not use computers at their homes and depend on the Queens government dictator controlled weaklies for "news".
maybe those civics( N.E.Queens) that have been contaminated by gov. controlled agents will begin to wake up ?
the crowley's and their kind have brought queens to it's knees by their shocking lack of representation and clubhouse cronyism. jpca editorial should be distributed to all voters in queens. wake up voters!
I just finished reading the Juniper Park Civic Association editorial. I agree it should be required reading for everyone living in Queens. Too bad that the newspapers don't write about the Crowley corruption. Thankfully we have blogs to get the real story. If you only read newspapers you would think the Crowleys are great.
Hey Crappy, please continue to expose the corrupt machine politics of the Queens Democratic Party. As a Democrat I sure would not vote for any candidate that was supported by this bunch of Tammany inspired career politicians.
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CROWLEYS!
They call themselves Taminent and you wonder?
The Crowleys are now pretending to a political feud. What garbage! Vote anyone with a name, Crowley, out.
Found some more JPCA articles on the Crowleys... GREAT!!!!!
http://www.junipercivic.com/LatestNewsArticle.asp?nid=377
http://www.junipercivic.com/juniperberryarticle.asp?nid=1078
http://www.junipercivic.com/juniperberryarticle.asp?nid=1075
Not clear with JVCA.
Are you against the system, or just against the Crowleys?
If you're against the corrupt system then you must be against the Crowleys. Duh.
If you're against the corrupt system then you must be against the Crowleys. Duh.
Then the only way to change things is to start to attack their props - just bitching about them while glassy eyed hordes attend their stupid functions will get you nowhere.
About Joe Crowley living in Virginia, § 5-104 of the Election Law says: "For the purpose of registering and voting no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of his presence or absence while employed in the service of the United States...."
Ed Unneland
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