Atlantic Yards Bobbleheads take on Cuomo over Tainted Campaign Contribution on Thursday

This just in from the Fightin' Freddy's.

Bobbleheads Attack - Doing Lunch with Cuomo

Atlantic Yards Bobbleheads take on Cuomo over Tainted Campaign Contribution

"One week ago, Thursday, March 11, 2010, the controversial groundbreaking for the Atlantic Yards project took the headlines. Yet, all Brooklyn politicians except the borough president avoided the ceremony. This is the first public indication that the political tide is turning against developer Bruce Ratner.

Nine bobbleheads, seen last week on television and in the top five political pictures in the The New York Times and the Washington Post, will be calling on Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo will be asked, by the bobblehead likeness of himself, to do his job for the people of New York by investigating Ratner. It's a slam-dunk because the evidence is nine blocks up the street at the Federal Courthouse. But first, Cuomo must return the $5,000 contribution he has received from Bruce Ratner. This contribution gives the appearance that Cuomo is favoring Ratner by his unwillingness to indict Ratner for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to bribe a city council member in Yonkers.

Ratner has received favors from the government, including land, subsidies, and--apparently--immunity from prosecution. But the bribe Forest City Ratner allegedly paid in Yonkers could lead to the end of Bruce's career now that Brooklyn politicians have largely abandoned Ratner and his Atlantic Yards project. It is huge. And the bobbleheads (3 ft tall photo-realistic heads of NY's leaders) want to help Attorney General and possible future Governor Andrew Cuomo move the case forward.

THE DEMANDS
FIRST: RETURN RATNER's DONATION: Cuomo has accepted campaign donations from Ratner, and this gives the appearance of gross impropriety, since Cuomo has dragged his feet in investigating and indicting Ratner despite evidence (cancelled checks) held by the U.S. Southern District Court just up the street from Cuomo's office.

SECOND: GET THE ALLEGED BRIBE CHECKS FROM THE FEDS AND INDICT RATNER: According to the federal indictment against City Council Member Sandy Annabi and her alleged co-conspirators, the "corrupt payments" allegedly came in the form of paychecks for a no-show job to a relative of Annabi.

Annabi is charged with changing her vote on Ratner's $631 Million Ridge Hill project which overrode the Westchester County Planning Board's rejection and let the massive project go through. The allegedly tainted vote has not been annulled, and the project that is the subject of the bribery allegations is continuing, although at least one anchor store, Saks Fifth Avenue, has pulled out since the start of Annabi's trial.

At Thursday's noon press conference outside of 120 Broadway, Bobblehead Cuomo, and others, will remind Atty. General Cuomo that you don't let Mr. Big go free so you can catch the little fish. And you don't keep donations from someone who has allegedly provided evidence that he and his company bribed a public official."

WHAT: Bobblehead Lunch Hour Press Conference

WHO: Bobbleheads of Governor Paterson, Former Governors Pataki and Spitzer, Senator Charles Schumer, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Mikhail Prokhorov, Bruce Ratner, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

WHERE: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's Office, 120 Broadway, Manhattan. Outside.

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 12 Noon

*Photo from the New York Times.