Posted on 06/29/2005 10:32:25 PM PDT by Coleus
Republicans' liberal use of Mafia metaphors has angered some Italian-American activists who weighed in on the contentious campaign for the governor's office Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester enjoyed some unexpected praise from environmental leaders who are at odds with his Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine, over preservation of a Delaware River island.
The Italian-American activists gathered in Trenton to demand an apology from top Republicans, who have repeatedly compared Corzine and his allies to mobsters in an effort to underscore his links to the party's most controversial figures.
"To actually have a party organization that uses this as a playbook ... is disgraceful," said Robert Bianchi, president of the state chapter of the Italian-American Bar Association. "A lot of times, Italian-Americans have just accepted these insults as a punching bag, and I'm not going to do that."
Republicans have not said anything about Italian-Americans in general, but party Chairman Tom Wilson has on several occasions referred to "La Cosa Nostra," another name for the Italian Mafia, and called Corzine and other Democrats "capos," or mob chiefs. Bianchi said that perpetuates negative images of Italian-Americans to the exclusion of more laudable figures such as explorer Christopher Columbus and continental namesake Amerigo Vespucci.
Manny Alfano, who heads an organization called the Italian-American One Voice Coalition, wrote a letter to Wilson decrying the "cheap effort to taint the electoral process." Alfano was one of several critics who pushed Corzine to apologize for two jokes he reportedly made about Italian-Americans during the 2000 Senate campaign.
A call to Wilson on Tuesday was returned by two Italian-American Republicans, former acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco and Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce, who explained that Wilson meant no offense.
Earlier, several environmental leaders appeared with Forrester in Trenton to applaud the Republican's stance in favor of preserving a 300-acre island in the Delaware River near Camden. State and local officials have agreed on a plan to develop housing and a golf course on Petty's Island, but environmentalists say the state should accept owner Citgo Corp.'s offer to donate it as open space.
Corzine said in a statement Tuesday that it remains unclear whether the redevelopment plan is up to environmental and economic standards. However, he said the oil company's donation offer should be viewed "very skeptically" given pollution problems on the island, which is home to a pair of bald eagles.
Lansky?
Meyer Lansky, yeah, now that's an Italian name if I ever heard one. :-D
Clinton?
Oscar Meyer Lanski (note the "i") had his name changed on Ellis Island.
It seems the dems aren't real happy with the truth being spoken in spite of the fact that they constantly accuse Pubbies of "Lying." Rather amusing actually.
Little known fact: The word "mafia" is actually derived from an Arabic word.
His original name was Maier Suchowljansky, born a Polish Jew (though many in "the business" considered him "paisan").
Nope.
It's an oldschool name with plenty of notoriety in the NYC are a well into the 1980s and 1990s - one of the region's crime families still bears the family surname.
See, you know what I'm talking about! ;-)
;-)
Yep - Sicilian (the dialect/language most identified with the Italian Mob) is a mishmash of Italian, Greek, Maltese, and Arabic, and probably some other influences from the region.
I knew some of those characters and know how they act. :D
That's the line that many believe. There's also a story about it being an acronym. Apparently someone traced it back to arabic that translates from "bold men." Something about being hired to fight off arab invaders.
Bonnano ? Genovese ? Lucchese ?
Talese?
That's so Gay.
I like the language of the oldschool Italian Mob - refering tko their enterprise as 'Cosa Nostra,' literally 'Our Thing,' as in 'the man has his thing, and we have our thing.' Kinda cool, if you ask me.
People also don't know much about the history of the mob in NY and in the states. What started in some respects as legitimate protection from gangs from other neighborhoods, crooks, etc, quickly (and naturally) evolved into 'protection from us!' From there, some 'victimless crimes' like booze and prostitution seemed natural, and it degenerated from there.
Still, mob life isn't nearly as violent as media suggests. while getting roughed up here and there happens, I recall reading that there is something like only 300-400 Italian mob-related hits in the USA in the 20th Century. While people on the outside like the concept of 'whacking' people, the truth is that it was relatively rare, mostly because it was just bad business.
Not that I would know much about this kind of stuff...
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