....August 12, 3:42 PM
 
 
   
Shame On You: A Vile & Ugly Campaign Tactic

In the race for the 25th Assembly District seat, the campaign of Morshed Alam (left) has launched a vile and ugly attack falsly accusing Rory Lancman (right) of racism.
By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

A decade-long commitment of working for new Americans’ – immigrants’ – piece of the political pie is being tossed away and sullied to play the political game.

Morshed Alam is a candidate for the 25th Assembly seat in Flushing. I’ve known Morshed for the last decade-plus as a quiet champion – a worker – for the new Americans’ involvement in the political process. I now am witnessing that political process corrupting him and his principles, all for that very long, long shot of winning an election.

It is painful to watch. It is a shame. And it angers me.

I like (or maybe now it is liked) Morshed and have admired his quiet diligence toiling in the political fields, building a new immigrant voting block, and playing Democratic sacrificial lamb in a credible 1998 race against Republican Senator Frank Padavan.

Now Morshed faces the impressive efforts of Rory Lancman, a Democratic Party regular who has also toiled in the political fields and has embarked on a quest for the Assembly seat with an impressive and thorough effort. Rory was out of the gate so fast and so strongly that Morshed, who should have at least been competitive, has been left behind. The September Democratic Primary seems to have been clearly won already.

Rory’s impressive, early lead is not due to the Democratic Organization’s support. It is not due to the color of Rory’s skin. It is not due to Rory’s intellect or ideology. Rory is basically like a large group of Democratic politicians – well intentioned, ordinary people pursuing a career in public service. For that matter, a lot like many Republicans too. If there were really votes that mattered in the Assembly, you could be pretty sure that Rory and Morshed would cast them identically. Rory has grabbed the significant lead by hard work and using a network he has effectively established. He has played the system very effectively.

That is not to say that Morshed has not. Morshed is (or perhaps was) the most recognized and respected Southeast Asian Queens Democratic Leader. There are now others vying for the limelight and some foolish decisions on the part of Morshed may precipitate his quick fall from grace.

Let me explain.

The Queens Democratic Party, which supports Lancman’s candidacy, has challenged the petitions of Alam and his running mates. Coincidentally, Alam and his group have reciprocated and played the same game challenging the petitions of Rory’s group of candidates (including Southeast Asian District Leader Uma Sengupta). The vile and ugly accusation that Lancman is racist because of the challenge is an integral part of the Alam campaign. And Alam tries to distance himself from the smear campaign. Alam claims he is not involved.

Bullshit!

The false and outrageous accusations that Rory Lancman is racist can be clearly and absolutely traced to Morshed Alam and his campaign. This is not even a case of Alam’s acquiescence to campaign workers’ independent free speech, or even Alam turning a blind eye to the vicious attack of racism. This is a concerted effort on the part of Alam and his campaign to use the ugliest form of false personal attack for political gain.

Alam’s paid campaign manager Chuck Mohan – who has received some $5,000 in the past 2 months from Alam – leads the malicious racist slur campaign. The press releases are emailed from the Alam campaign email address and the faxes sent from the Alam Campaign headquarters.

Alam consultant Lois Marbach, a longtime respected Queens political consultant – respected because she ably challenges the Queens Dem organization, not because she uses vile and disgusting campaign tactics – is hiding behind the free speech rights of individuals.

Shame on you Lois, you know better.

But the biggest shame is on Morshed Alam. He is on the verge of throwing away a Queens lifetime of respectable hard work. The ugly campaign will get him nothing but disrespect and at the end of the game he will not be welcomed in circles of good will.

There is still time for him to right this wrong.

Morshed, apologize for your campaign’s wrongdoing and involvement and coordination of the ugly and false attack on Rory, fire Chuck Mohan, the instrument of the attack, and publicly acknowledge that Rory is no more (or perhaps less) a racist than you.

Morshed, if you’d like to do so, we have space for you on this page; contact us.

Although this writer has political leanings and often strong feeling about issues and elections, it is incumbent upon this paper and the mission of this column to stand up when politics crosses the line of civil sensibilities.

This is such a case.

Morshed Alam clearly owes Rory Lancman an apology.

Shame on you Morshed!

Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.

 
 
WW III Began 10-23-83; We Were Unaware Until 9-11-01

By HENRY STERN

When the illusion of tranquility and good will is shattered, even briefly, by the rant of a drunken Mel Gibson, many people wonder how many other Christians share his hostile views. We know some Muslims who have expressed contempt for Jews (as sons of apes and pigs). We thought this had begun with some latter-day hatemonger, but it appears that the words may have been written into the Koran.

Sura 5:60- “There are those whom Allah has cast aside and on whom His wrath has fallen, and of whom He has made some as apes and swine.”

Does that mean us? It’s hard to be certain, but the language does not appear complimentary. And if one listens to the Arab radio and television stations broadcasting in the Middle East or the schools established and operated with United Nations funds, it is made clear exactly who is intended to be the subject of the verse.

When the chief executive of a member state of the United Nations proclaims publicly that another member state should be wiped from the face of the earth, and suggests that if he had the means, he would act on that idea, the world is not at peace, even if it is quiet at the moment. And, of course, there is a great deal of shooting going on, and hundreds of rockets flying each day, all intended to kill people.

Some historians believe that World War III is already under way. To us it began in Beirut Oct 23, 1983, at 6:20 a.m., although we had no idea of it at that time. That date should have been proclaimed to live in infamy. It is when a Hezbollah truck loaded with explosives was driven into a barracks at the international airport, killing 241 American servicemen and women, primarily Marines. Rather than pursuing and eliminating the attackers, President Reagan responded by withdrawing all American forces from Lebanon, which became a Syrian protectorate. President Bush the elder led a worldwide response to the invasion of Kuwait in 1991, over the opposition of a great majority of Senate Democrats, but due to international pressure, he left the invaders alone. The United States did urge the marsh Arabs in Southern Iraq to arise, after which they were slaughtered by Saddam Hussein and the marshes drained so the area could no longer support life. The outcome was similar to winning the battles of World War II and then stopping at the German border.

President Clinton was distressed at the first attack on the World Trade Center (February 26, 1993), which was treated as an isolated criminal act masterminded by a blind sheik in New Jersey; the bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996, which killed 19 U.S, servicemen; the bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, on August 7, 1998 (in Nairobi, 224 killed and in Dar-es-Salaam, 11 killed); and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000, which killed 17 sailors. Our reaction to the African bombings was to fire a Tomahawk missile into a soap factory in the Sudan.

Plans to kill Osama Bin Laden, who was thought to have some responsibility for these events, were reportedly scotched by Samuel R. Berger, the national security adviser, who was recently prominent when he was caught trying to steal documents from the Library of Congress by stuffing them in his pants.

Clinton deserves credit, however, for his use of force (78 days of air strikes on Belgrade) which brought peace to the former Yugoslavia in 1999.

With the modest and ineffective United States response to his previous efforts, it is understandable that Osama Bin Laden felt the necessity to do something bigger to call attention to his cause. The tragic result was Sept. 11, 2001.

We all know what has happened in the last five years. The point we make in this article is that there were warnings, there was an eighteen-year run-up to 9/11, and that earlier American action might have had an impact on Al Qaeda’s growth, its leadership and its ability to conduct major operations.

We hope you will excuse this diversion from New York City government issues, but there are several wars under way at the moment, and we thought this minor historical excursion might be helpful in promoting understanding of where we are and what happened in the last quarter-century to put us in the current situation. Compared with the world situation, our city looks pretty good.

starquest@nycivic.org

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Michael Schenkler can be reached via this contact form.