Look, we all know that Giuliani is a slimeball of the first order so we shouldn't be all too surprised that he's trying to cover up his own failings regarding 9/11 by pointing the finger at a former president. Those of us who live in NYC and actually witnessed/went through both World Trade Center attacks know full well that Giuliani is just talking out of his ass and that his doesn't even have a passing familiarity with the truth.

After the first World Trade bombing in 2003, Giuliani was advised to move the Emergency Command Center out of lower Manhattan because the area was not a confirmed terrorist target zone. Brushing aside all warnings from terrorism experts, Giuliani had the center located at the 7 World Trade center building, which was destroyed during the attack. With the loss of the command center, the police and fire department lost their valuable nerve center for communication so the evacuation from the area was chaotic and there was no central location from which to organize rescue efforts.

After the 1993 bombing, the city was made aware that the inability of police and firefighters not having radios on the same frequency critically hampered communication during and emergency, and that the radios did not work well in buildings like World Trade Center. Yet no effort was made to upgrade the radio network or to put both departments on the same frequency. In 2001, we had the same critical breakdown of communication and it cost the lives of numerous firefighters and police officers who did not get the call to evacuate the buildings when they started to come down.

In the years of the Giuliani administration, there was enormous conflict between the police and fire department heads over who should be at the head of the command chain during emergencies. Instead of establishing a clear chain of command over who would be in charge during emergency situations, he played the two deparments off each other and let the continue fighting for control until after 9/11.

In the days after 9/11, we got the showboating Giuliani who did nothing to ensure that the workers down at Ground Zero were wearing protective gear and was seen on TV down at the site without wearing a mask himself. He then tried to postpone the transfer of power in the mayor's office, citing the emergency situation.

Prior to 9/11, Giuliani had become a joke in New York. We'd had enough of his grandstanding, his insensativity to the needs of his citizens, his gossip-column divorce... many of us are still at a loss to understand why so many people think that he did anything so fantastic in the days following 9/11. In fact, the vast majority of the city was very glad to finally see the last of him.

Yes, it is graphic and it is horrifying to watch this child being mutilated, but this is a video that every woman should see. We need to see this appalling assault on a human being for what it is, and not cover it up with polite medical terms like "circumcism". As if butchering a young girl so that she will never be able to experience any kind of sexual pleasure can be compared to the circumcism that a boy might undergo. Women have to learn that this isn't just a quaint old custom, but a brutal assault on women. It not only deprives them of their sexuality, but condemns them to suffer horrific pain during sex, childbirth and any normal physical activity.

There is only one solution to dealing with this in Western nations. If a parent is found to have allowed this to be done to their child, they must immediately lose custody of their children. They must be sent to prison. It is terrible enough to accept how hard this is to stamp out in the nations where this practice is so commonplace, but we certainly have the power to prevent it from taking root here. If these immigrants want to enjoy Western freedoms and priviledges, this is one custom from their homeland that we will not permit to be transplanted. Give them warning... if it is found that they had their daughter mutilated, they will be send to jail and they will lose their children. End of story.