A self-described "progressive" who takes money from organized crime.
She claims she's not a Republican yet she's just as criminal as any
Republican and has the same low IQ as any Republican.
At issue isn't "religious belief." At issue is taking money from tax
payers and handing it to organized crime with a history of maimings
and homicides committed under the banner of "drug rehabilitation" in
a science fiction writer's insane, paranoid _criminal_ quack medical
frauds where invisible murdered space aliens called "Body Thetans" are
being removed through vitamins, drinking oil, and sauna -- along
with "touch assists."
Bush's faith based medical science, folks.
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http://www.thevillager.com/villager_119/lopezsayspostis.html
Margarita Lopez, who last week came under fire for taking contributions
from Scientology members while giving funds to the group's Downtown
detox center, is now also at risk of losing public matching funds
because of unresolved problems with her 2001 funds. Yet, the East Side
councilmember, in a lengthy interview with The Villager on Monday, said
she has done no wrong and expressed confidence in her campaign for
borough president.
Lopez blasted back at the New York Post - which broke the story of
her Scientology contributions and has editorialized against her about
it - calling it a "destructive" newspaper out to get her because
she is a progressive.
"I know there is a big effort not to allow me to run," she said.
"These articles the Post put out are just witch hunting, allegations,
innuendos. My politics is progressive politics and the Post has the
opposite position. Everything they publish is about destroying
people's lives. I care less about their opinion."
In addition, while she said she didn't know of Scientology having any
antigay bias, as gay and lesbian groups contend, it can't be worse
than that of most traditional organized religions.
"You need to ask that to the organization, not to me," she said.
"And you need to ask that to the Catholic Church, Pentecostal Church,
Lutheran Church and all the churches that are antigay."
Starting Aug. 1, the Post has gone after Lopez in a series of three
articles about the Scientology funds and detoxification center,
accusing Lopez of a quid pro quo. As if that wasn't enough, the
Campaign Finance Board last Friday denied Lopez her matching funds,
saying she owes them a "significant amount" of money for
undocumented expenses and unspent funds from her 2001 reelection
campaign. Lopez says her lawyers plan to talk with C.F.B. about it and
hopefully work things out.
On Aug. 1, the Post reported Scientology members had made contributions
to Lopez's campaign totaling a quarter of her funds. The article
reported Lopez had received almost $100,000 from 84 Scientology
members, with $38,000 of that from a January Florida fundraiser at
which the donors were all Scientologists.
The Post accused Lopez of, in return, "steering" $630,000 in
taxpayer funds to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, a
formerly privately funded facility near the World Trade Center site.
Co-founded by Scientologist superstar Tom Cruise, the center, on Fulton
St., uses long saunas, vitamins and exercise to allegedly detox
firefighters and others who worked at Ground Zero.
In June 2004, Lopez, who is chairperson of the City Council's
Committee on Mental Health, allocated $30,000 in public funds for the
detoxification center. The center later received two additional
$300,000 allocations of city money.
This June, Lopez participated with actor Cruise in a ribbon-cutting for
another Scientology detox center in Williston Park, L.I.
Asked about the Scientology funds flap, Lopez said, first of all, the
donations to her were from individuals and that people are free to
practice whatever religion they choose.
"I never asked what their religious beliefs are," she told The
Villager. "The Constitution protects the rights of people to believe
in whatever they want to. I don't care if it's Santeria, which is a
Caribbean religion, or whatever. People have a right to believe
whatever they believe."
Lopez denied that a quarter of her funds came from Scientologists and
said she doesn't ask each person what their religion is or their
sexuality, either, for that matter.
"The money that I got came from individuals, and every individual has
a right to give. I do not raise money from groups - that's
illegal," she added.
Gay and lesbian groups have noted that some early teachings of L. Ron
Hubbard, Scientology's founder, were antigay. In one of these,
Hubbard said gays should immediately be taken out of society and
institutionalized. However, Lopez - who is openly lesbian -
countered that many traditional religions are homophobic.
Lopez said she didn't know much about Scientology's beliefs, such
as on homosexuality, for example, before she supported funding for the
group's Fulton St. detox center or went to her Florida fundraiser.
"I don't know their position," she said. "I know the Catholic
Church because I was Catholic when I was a child. As a child, I was
told that the Catholic Church hates gay people and we should
disappear."
Scientology claims it does not discriminate against people based on
their sexuality.
In a follow-up article, the Post reported on an e-mail by a
Scientology-affiliated group that said it would "definitely pay
dividends" for members to donate to Lopez, whom they noted had been
supportive of the Fulton St. detox center.
Asked if there was any quid pro quo between her and the Scientologists,
Lopez flatly denied it.
"Anybody who knows me knows that's not true. Period," she said.
In another follow-up article, the Post claimed Assemblymember Deborah
Glick, who is also openly lesbian, warned Lopez not to take funds from
the Scientologists because of concerns over their alleged antigay
attitudes, and is now thinking of pulling her endorsement of Lopez's
candidacy.
"That's not true," Lopez stated, asked if Glick had warned her
not to take the funds. Glick did not return calls for comment.
Lopez said the conservative tabloid has it in for her because of her
politics. She said the Post never congratulates her on positive things
she does for the community. For example, she said, she got $1 million
in city funds allocated for detoxification programs for methamphetamine
- a drug currently posing dire health risks for the gay community -
with $100,000 each allocated to such providers as St. Vincent's and
St. Luke's/Roosevelt hospitals, Callen-Lorde Center, Greenwich House
and the L.G.B.T. Center
"I got funding for detox for methamphetamine for St.
Luke's/Roosevelt and St. Vincent's - that isn't news, right?"
Lopez asked in frustration. "That is not published. Nobody cares
about the detoxification of crystal meth."
Asked if she thinks the Scientology detox center actually does detox
people, Lopez said she thinks it's effective.
"I believe that 500 firefighters, E.M.S. personnel, have benefited
from that program and they believe that program saved their life,"
she said. "And I've seen them sick and I've seen them healthy."
On Jan. 26, The Villager's Scoopy's Notebook first reported
Lopez's Miami Scientology fundraising trip, though at the time she
referred to it only as being with a "mental health group."
Lopez said she didn't talk much with Cruise at the opening of the
Long Island Scientology detox center - "You know, I'm shy," she
said. However, asked about Cruise's recent public pronouncements
against psychiatry as a treatment for mental illness, Lopez, a former
homeless outreach worker, spoke of her own track record helping the
mentally ill.
"I worked for 20 years of my life with mentally ill people helping
them get psychiatric care," she said. "I stopped the closing of the
Bronx Psychiatric Center. I'm fighting to keep the V.A. hospital [on
E. 23rd St.] from taking away 300 beds for the mentally ill."
Asked how she feels about her campaign after the last week and a
half's developments, Lopez expressed confidence.
"I feel good," she said. "No matter how much they attack me."
In addition, last Friday, the Campaign Finance Board withheld public
matching funds from Lopez. Under city election regulations, candidates
can qualify for up to $4 of matching public funds for every $1 they
raise. According to Lopez's filings, Lopez is claiming she has more
than $115,000 in matchable funds, meaning she'd be eligible for more
than $460,000 under the 4-to-1 bonus. However, Tanya Domi, a C.F.B.
spokesperson, said Lopez has unresolved issues with her 2001 funds.
Lopez received $143,682 in public matching funds for her reelection
campaign that year.
"She basically has not been able to provide documents that back up
her expenditures," Domi said. According to Domi, C.F.B. has a
monetary claim against Lopez for undocumented qualified expenses and
unspent campaign funds.
"It's a significant amount. She owes us money. She still has to pay
us back," Domi said, declining to specify the amount. "The process
has been going on for years without being cleared up," she said.
"The complexity of the issues and seriousness of the issues -
we've had to go to third parties for information - that's why
it's taken so long."
"At this moment, I can't give you any details," Lopez said.
"I'm waiting for the Campaign Finance Board and my attorneys to
talk to each other. From 2001, the Campaign Finance Board and us have
been going through a long process and going back and forth."
The C.F.B. a few years ago sued former Councilmember Sheldon Leffler
over $40,000 he should have returned to them from his Queens borough
president campaign. In December 2004, he was found guilty of attempted
grand larceny to defraud the C.F.B. and received five years probation,
540 hours of community service and a $500,000 fine.
"We sued him. That is one of the options," Domi said.
David McWater, chairperson of Community Board 3 and a big Lopez backer,
said it was his understanding that she had just been trying to help the
firefighters when she first supported the Scientology detox center.
"I absolutely, positively believe she decided to do it because of the
firemen," McWater said. "I think it all started because the city
wasn't going to reimburse Scientology [for the treatments], even
though a lot of firefighters were using it."
As for Lopez's potentially not getting public matching funds, McWater
said, "Yeah, I'm concerned. She's going to have a really tough
time if she doesn't get them."
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://www.rightard.org/ http://www.thedarkwind.org/
http://www.spaink.net/cos/warhero/
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