She’s the Teflon lawmaker.
Assemblywoman Vivian Cook, a Queens Democrat, skirts on the edge of scandal while her fellow pols have been hauled off to prison.
Her colleague Bill Scarborough is expected to plead guilty this week and resign his seat in a “per diem” travel expense scam. He was accused of submitting more than $40,000 in phony expenses and said last week he had “severe financial problems.”
Cook also racked up thousands in per-diem expenses, including one 12-day stretch in 2010 when she said she was in Albany but didn’t attend any legislative sessions, The Post reported.
Cook, 77, maintains that all of her expenses were legitimate.
“A lot of things do swirl around me, but I’m one of those people — I’ve worked all my life. I haven’t had to ask anybody for any money and I haven’t had to steal,” Cook told The Post last week.
15 comments:
"She’s the Teflon lawmaker"
She's got triple indemnity.
She's a democrap.
She's black.
She's a she.
The other poor blokes only had 2 things going them.
Since Manes, was is the body count of the arrested in Queens?
How does that number compare to the number of officials in office?
Might build the case to bring back Civic Virtue.
A crooked "bro" and a crooked "sister".
Shame on them for besmirching their race.
Thank you, Anonymous, for reinforcing my organization's mission (Civic Virtue Task Force), to demand that 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue' be returned to its fountain base of nearly 70 years, before it was senselessly evicted (and exiled) to Green-Wood Cemetery, where it is still on temporary loan, since December, 2012. The public has spoken, and we want it back!
But, despite my strenuous, repeated calls and appeals to BP Melinda Katz (and her purportedly new era of openness and transparency at Borough Hall that is still not visible), the administration oddly continues to avoid, delay and deny public referendum, open meetings, Community Board 9 due process, and any and all community input (that should be steadily and openly working with Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who chairs the arts committee, not to mention DCAS Commissioner Stacey Cumberbatch, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Tom Findelpearl, the public Design Commission, as well as all members of Civic Virtue Task Force, among others), and it's still a case of blatant taxation without representation--and the public be damned!
So, keep on writing in about Civic Virtue, Anonymous, and I promise to keep my end of the bargain by raising the issue (often and loudly), for the statue's necessary and welcome return to Kew Gardens Plaza, on Queens Boulevard---and not some ill conceived, publicly unauthorized plan that was hatched by Helen Marshall's derelict, incompetent administration that bled taxpayers' with a $100,000 relocation bill for this great civic monument, that no one ever asked for its staggering removal (and eviction) to a Brooklyn graveyard in the first place!
Alas, this is how freedom and democracy continues to be ripped away from people like you and me who demand more visibility and decision making that our rogue, failed political leadership keep seizing more control and authority away from, that was never in their purview to adjudicate.
And now, with a possible sixth Queens politician like Vivian Crook, er, Cook on the way to indictment since Civic Virtue was egregiously removed from its vigilant perch, on December 15, 2012, what better time to prepare a working fountain base for the statue's desperately ordered return back home to Queens Boulevard!
And since we already paid for its conservation, it can't be returned soon enough! Are you listening, Madam President Katz? Councilman Van Bramer? Councilman Crawley? Anyone?
Another sad and tragic day in Queens County, where yet another inveterate liar like Vivian Crook (you heard it right), will continue to maintain her innocence (just like Ruben Wills and her pal Bill Scarborough did), until she makes a complete reversal, once the paper trail cements her disgraced, self imposed fate of shame and dishonor (just like Shirley Huntley, Bill Scarborough, Ruben Wills, Malcolm Smith and Dan Halloran).
So, what is it about this county and public servants, who claim to purportedly serve their respected constituencies, but instead keep straying from honest, ethical leadership (that leads by example), faster than a feral cat runs from domestic confinement?
Worse, they never stop lying, cheating and stealing from the public coffers with impunity---and they do it faster and easier than they collectively breathe!
Now, if that isn't a testament to why a great statue of symbolic art and allegorical beauty like 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue' is urgently needed, in order to keep constant vigil over systemic corruption and vice like this, then I don't know what greater argument could possibly exist to support my mission's work in demanding this breathtaking, effective monument's speedy return to a working fountain base that is adjacent to Borough Hall!
Attention all tone deaf politicians of Queens County (with unblemished records, for now): The people demand that their public art be returned to Queens Boulevard forthwith, as the watchful eyes and ears of our art-starved borough are upon you, while we continue to patiently wait for leadership to actually prevail!
What say you, all public servants of alleged leadership, and inclusionary representation? Time is fleeting!
She hasn't had to steal is a strange phrase. makes me think she would, if she "had to."
That's an excellent point, Anonymous about Vivian Cook.
But, trust me, she's already stolen, as evidenced by her peculiarly worded statement that leaves open the door for her to even consider theft (as you correctly pointed out), just like the other voracious thieves in Queens County who lied, and who've already been indicted, and soon to be jailed.
At any rate, it's still more of the same continual, grand dupe of taxation without representation for overburdened taxpayers' that is made worse by false, fake and failed leadership, that is now also part of the brazen criminal element from within the corrupt and unregulated corridors of city and state government.
Once again (as always), all roads lead back to 'Triumph Of Civic Virtue,' and its universal message that strenuously illustrates an essential code of civilized conduct, law and order that should never be ignored and disregarded---much less hidden in obscurity, among the dead of a Brooklyn graveyard.
We, The People demand our monument back where it has always belonged--now, more than ever!
poster 1: good points except there is Shirley Huntley.
poster 2: thanks SO much for bringing up that statue.
Richard: you're wasting your time. And you certainly don't need to promise that you'll keep trying to get the statue back. We already know.
And bringing it back wouldn't do a damn thing to instill the principle it was named for. It never did while it was here.
Baltimore
Three dead NYC police officers
Stop, Question and Frisk
No Justice, No Peace
Bergdahl
Clinton Cash
Oh, why I am I wasting my breath...
Richard: I won't read your posts unless you make them very, very brief. I am sure that most readers of this blog feel the same way and ignore you. You don't have to write a whole novel to make your point.
Cook will being going done, followed by Ruben Wills and hopefully Gregory Meeks, probably the biggest fish in the polluted corrupt pond of Jamaica. I predicted when I unfortunately first stepped forth in the Wild Wild West of Queens, that Jamaica's elected lackeys would begin to fall like dominoes. Let the games begin.
By they way Richard, enjoy your posts, unlike some, I do not have the attention span of a fruit fly or the MTV syndrome.
Richard,
please find another soap box or learn to recognize the sacred quality of brevity. What a wind bag!
Do you get paid by the word in your profession?
A skilled orator, you are clearly not.
Thank you, Joe Moretti, for you kind words of support, and critical thinking.
As for the minority of other pitiful misanthropes, who obviously have the attention span of a six-year-old on Ritalin (despite how they continue to read my posts--apparently to only follow with sharp, unjustified criticism that ignores the message and cause altogether), well, that's their problem.
I won't be missing their staggering ignorance, chronic pettiness and totally failed leadership, under anonymous cover, no less. It will leave more space for people like you and me to challenge authority, and the tone deaf politicians who betray public trust, with impunity!
Likewise, I am sure that they will continue to ignore many other issues that demand public support---and yes, especially activism, visibility, protest and rally that they will never connect with, because they continually fail to understand that not everything can be effectively summarized in the time that it takes them to fix a snack in between commercial breaks for 'Dancing With The Stars,' or a trip to the concession stand at CitiField!
In conclusion, without challenge there will never be change, as evidenced by the minority of nameless, invisible, focus- challenged criticizers of this post, whose hollow words of civic betrayal are exactly what feckless politicians LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to hear--and why a soon to be criminal like Vivian Cook still believes that she has a chance at escaping justice in the first place!
Nicely done, objectors!
To all of the empty people named Anonymous, who objected to my continued efforts to bring back Civic Virtue, and who likewise took liberty to make personal, unjustified jabs at my replies:
It's called free speech for a reason, all who hide under 'Anonymous,' and Queens Crap is open to whomever meets the minimum attention span of 60 seconds to read anything left on this blog, without risk of suspending all cognitive function at will (sadly, this means you).
Therefore, it you don't want to read my posts (or dislike them because of personal reasons of low levels of intelligence, short attention span, ignorance, complicity---or a combination thereof), then please don't read them at all. You will not be missed!
However, please refrain from visiting your unwelcome impositions and directives on me, that practically demand that I modify and tailor my replies, in order to accommodate your inability to follow a thread that is open to public forum, simply because you don't have the focus and will to follow. The people who have the least to offer to a cause are always part of the problem, and not the solution.
So, here's a solution for you: If you don't have anything of value to add here, then don't add anything at all--unless, of course you like the attention of sounding petty, ignorant and useless---all under the protective cover of anonymity, no less!
Sadly, even if you bothered to identify yourselves, it still would not absolve you from grinding ignorance and chronic complacency! Better to remain silent--than be labeled an 'Anonymous' fool!
A picture, Richard, is worth a thousand words.
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