GREAT NEWS re the Bus ads (from Atlas Shrugs) UPDATE!! August 9, 2010:
MTA Caves: Ground Zero Bus Campaign Will Run
“The MTA has recognized the justice of our position in our lawsuit, and has agreed to run our ad as originally submitted.”
“This is a great victory for freedom of speech, and we are grateful to our attorneys David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise for mounting such an effective defense against politically correct censorship.” Read more at Atlas Shrugs
……
BREAKING from Atlas Shrugs (August 6, 2010) Bloomberg and the MTA are now bowing to 7th century Sharia Law . They have censored the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) PAID FOR Bus Ads . Be sure to read the entire article at Atlas Shrugs.
Below TSM has posted all the versions that Geller submitted to the city, yet the city continues to stall-out on accepting any of these adjustments :
From Pamela Geller at ATLAS SHRUGS:
Today we filed a lawsuit against the city of New York. Here is the complaint: Download Complaint–FDIvMTA–Filed_Stamped
The city has refused to run my SIOA “Preservation of Ground Zero” bus campaign.
It seems that Mayor Bloomberg invokes certain freedoms when it serves his 2012 agenda. Doing away with term limits wasn’t enough […] Bloomberg’s frenzied push may have inspired Al-Azhar clerics to oppose the Ground Zero Mosque, calling it a “a zionist plot.”
Last month, I signed a contract with CBS Outdoor to run a “Preservation of Ground Zero” bus ad campaign. The campaign was paid for in full.
Here is the ad I submitted:
The ad was refused. I asked on what grounds. CBS Outdoor told me that the city said that “images of 911 were not allowed.” I was floored. I said, “It is American history. How can it be banned? What about Pearl Harbor? Is that censored too?” I said, “On what grounds is 911 images banned?” It is unconscionable. Will of CBS said, “You can’t run the plane.”
I asked CBS/MTA to provide me with the guidelines for these seventh-century censorship restrictions. They never did. […]
CBS refused this ad as well. They said I had to remove the smoke. “The smoke?”
When I spoke to CBS’s representative concerning the second rejection of my Ground Zero bus ad, he said that the MTA “doesn’t want to associate the new building with Ground Zero.” The showing of the burning buildings “hurts people.” “Hurts people?” I find bus ads proselytizing for Islam hurts apostates, are you going to take those bus ads down?
I said, “Are you saying images of the largest attack on American soil are censored?” Are Pearl Harbor images censored? Gettysburg,too?
He said, “The people behind the new building say it has nothing to do with Ground Zero.” I said, “So what? That’s what they say. Others think differently. […]
I said, “I took out the plane as requested — now what’s the problem?” He said the flames.
And so I took out the smoke and submitted this ad:
CBS, on behalf of the MTA, said, “Remove the plane.”
Will of CBS said[…] he was “trying to help me.” He said, “Get me an ad a/s/a/p without smoke, without any flames — just the towers.”
And so, I submitted another planeless ad[…]
[…] I am still awaiting approval from the MTA.
Today my legal team of David Yerushalmi and Robert Muise filed suit against NYC.
The complaint against the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority has now been filed. It alleges violation of FDI’s (and Pamela Geller’s and Robert Spencer’s) Free Speech rights under the First & Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
[…] the MTA decided that it was going to accept the “viewpoint” of Imam Rauf and his Islamist co-conspirators – to wit, that their plan to develop the Ground Zero Mosque has nothing to do with marking the “victory” marked by the destruction of human life and property on 9-11. Literally, the MTA made it its business to decide which of many viewpoints it would deem politically correct speech for advertisements on its buses.
[…]this jihad against free speech […]MTA has run any number of controversial religious and political ads without batting an eyelid […]the Shariah-faithful cowed Mayor Bloomberg and the MTA […] dhimmi-like submission, the First Amendment to the Constitution gave way to Shariah’s blasphemy laws. (what’s next?) […]the Mayor’s office begins issuing fatwas against those who dare counter the “noble and peaceful outreach” narrative?
Mr. Mayor and your colleagues at the MTA and the Landmark Commission:
[…]You claim the mantle of the Constitution as a basis for supporting a Shariah-Islamist mosque at Ground Zero, yet the MTA—a government agency of the City—cavalierly denies “infidels” freedom of speech. Enough is enough. (David Yerushalmi)
Bloomberg and the CBS etc will be long remembered as traitors ,and hated by many.What goes around comes around .Bloomberg is beyond belief and money will not save him from the legecey he so richley deserves in hell,may he rot !