It was Nazli's job to get mosque approval

From the NY Post:

Dozens of emails between Mayor Bloomberg’s aides and developers of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero show the mayor’s office has gone out of its way to support the controversial plan – with one of his commissioners going so far as to ghost write a letter to a community board leader on the mosque’s behalf.

In one exchange Nazli Parvizi, commissioner of the city’s Community Affairs Unit, penned a favorable letter to Community Board 1 Chairwoman Julie Menin -- thanking her for being open-minded to the project – which has drawn scrutiny nationwide for its proximity to Ground Zero.

Parvizi emailed the drafted letter to the mosque’s imam and his wife – Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan – for their permission and ended it with Daisy’s first name.

She sent along the fax number and mailing address for CB1 – which voted in favor of the project in May – and offered any further help.

The letter thanked Menin personally for “giving us an audience to share our vision of the Cordoba Center in Manhattan,” referring to the planned project.

“We are incredibly saddened by the media distortion on what this project actually is and to whom it serves,” Pavizi went on to write.

Menin, a major proponent of the development, said she never received the letter.

Bloomberg has been a vocal fan of building the project – commonly referred to as Park 51 – near Ground Zero, decrying opponents as foes of religious freedom.

His spokesman Stu Loeser today said Parvizi’s job is “to help groups navigate city government, and from helping prepare for a Papal visit to extending approval of a Sukkah in a midtown Manhattan park, this kind of assistance is typical of its regular work.”

Nazli Parvizi only helps favored groups navigate city government. When it comes to Queens, she's more likely to throw up roadblocks than help. And she makes a 6-figure taxpayer funded salary for this.

Times makes Nazli out to be a saint

From the NY Times:

AS the head of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Community Affairs unit, Nazli Parvizi says her job requires her to “be a good listener who gets yelled at a lot.” Criticism comes with the $192,198-a-year commissionership.

But no other commissioner would have to face the rebuke one critic in Queens leveled at her dismissively: “Remember, she’s a caterer.”

Go ahead, make her day. Ms. Parvizi, 32, was a founder of Night Kitchen, a catering service, in 2001, and majored in food anthropology at Barnard College. Politics is her vocation, but food her passion. She scours the city on bicycle for restaurants to use for events or to recommend to a colleague, even the mayor.

After running the mayor’s volunteer center, Ms. Parvizi was named in 2007 to run the Community Affairs unit, which links City Hall and New York’s communities.

Ok, and she became a city commissioner with what qualifications exactly? The NY Times didn't delve into that. The rest of the article goes on about how she uses food to create a dialogue with the communities she serves (They even go so far as to print her receipes). Which makes me wonder what she was dishing out when she banned a Brooklyn community board leader from a function because he had the audacity to think he could ask the mayor an unscripted question, sent a nasty letter to a Middle Village civic group in response to a sign displayed at a protest they held and dispatched one of her minions to tell representatives of a neighboring community not to expect any more help after they failed to defend the mayor's right to shit on that other group. Why not bring that stuff up, Harvey? Especially since I directed the victims to you and know they contacted you about their experiences with her...

It's a sad world we live in when the paper of record tries to pass this tripe off as news. And we have to look forward to 4 more years of the Times taking a bowl of Bloombergian pits and turning them into cherries. But that's ok, it's coverage like this that will keep this blog relevant and necessary for a long time.

Nazli, Kelly & Bloomberg met with terrorist on Veterans Day

From NY1:

"I want to make sure that everybody in New York understands that the terrible tragedy at Fort Hood was an individual who snapped but it has nothing to do with religion," Bloomberg said.

Really? Well most media outlets are reporting that the guy had contact with Al Qaeda, attended the same mosque as the 9/11 terrorists and it's looking more and more likely that Hasan pre-meditated the attack and didn't just "snap".

From the Daily News:

Siraj Wahhaj was one of nine Islamic leaders who met with Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly over fears of a backlash against local Muslims after the Fort Hood massacre.

The imam's past wound up overshadowing the get-together and the mayor's red-faced staff later said Wahhaj should never have been there in the first place.

In 1995, Wahhaj was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing - meaning he was never charged but the feds believe he had some connection.

Later that year, Wahhaj appeared as a defense witness in the trial of blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted of trying to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel and the United Nations.

Good job, jackass.

Bloomberg vows to fire commissioners - if re-elected

From the NY Post:

If he wins a third term, Mayor Bloomberg says he's going to fire about a half-dozen underperforming commissioners.

Okay, so if they've been underperforming for a while now, then why do they still have their jobs? For example, Nazli's been throwing gutterballs for years now, so why does she still make 6 figures?

Photo from the Public Art Network

Attention, Nazli Parvizi!

Nazli, how did you let these signs slip past you?

Oh my God, a death threat! Please mail a nasty letter to this woman immediately and send every city agency to her house to harass her.

The Mayor would have no problem shutting down Gracie Mansion as well as the firehouse. He doesn't live in the former and would not be affected by the latter.

Hey Jimmy, what were you doing at the protest? Remember when you said this about why Republicans should support Bloomberg?

Turns out, the City Council came up with the money yesterday to prevent these closures, as per the SI Advance:

Calling the matter "a complete victory," the City Hall source told the Advance: "The public had its voice heard, the Council members heard it, the members in turn spoke to the speaker and the speaker heard those voices."

Twelve additional yet-to-be named city fire companies have also been spared from the budget ax, according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because final city budget negotiations are still ongoing.

Nazli tramples on 1st amendment again

From the NY Times:

Mr. Esposito turned to the sign-in table. As he leaned over, he said, he felt a tap on his shoulder. This is how Mr. Esposito remembers the exchange:

“Gerry Esposito?” the man said.

“Yes,” Mr. Esposito said.

“Don’t bother looking for your name,” the man said.

“Excuse me,” Mr. Esposito said. “Who are you?”

His name was George Torres, another mayoral aide, who worked with community boards in the Bronx.

“You’ve been disinvited,” Mr. Torres said.

“Why?” Mr. Esposito said.

“You know what you did,” Mr. Torres responded. By Mr. Esposito’s undisputed account, Mr. Torres said he had been barred on the orders of Nazli Parvizi, the city’s commissioner for community affairs. Ms. Parvizi did not respond to a request for comment, but the mayor’s office said officials had decided that Mr. Esposito was a threat to order.

Several days earlier, Mr. Esposito had sent an e-mail message to the other 58 community board managers in the city, the last bastion of local government. The boards have yearly budgets of $189,000 each, but they face the same cuts of 5 percent as most city agencies.

All community board managers had been invited to the mayor’s presentation in the Fort Washington Armory, but Mr. Esposito said he suspected that more than a few would skip making the trip to Upper Manhattan.

“Perhaps we should attend to let our voices be heard about the cuts!” he wrote in his e-mail message. “What do people think?”

I know what I think: The mayor, his caterer and the entire CAU have to go.