Letters to the Editor
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Clinton Doesn't Need to respond to Giuliani
The Clinton campaign has enough dirt on Giuliani to start the world's biggest worm farm. They will spread it out in good time, my dears. All-l-l-l in good time (rubbing hands together, eyes glinting).
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JackHughes
Thank you for making this point. I do recall, amidst the fear and vulnerability of Sept. 11, finding comfort in the media's portrayal of the heroic Guiliani. It doesn't feel accurate to blame the media or Guiliani for the way we all reacted that day. As a shocked and traumatized country, we needed to look to someone for leadership, even if only the illusion of leadership. (And clearly it wouldn't be to the President).
But four years later, to witness Guiliani continue to shamelessly profit off of the fear of the American people, is sickening. It's time for everyone to wake up and stop blindly accepting fear tactics from any politician.
P.S. A vote for Rudy Guiliani is not the equivalent of support for the FDNY or NYPD, as his campaign seems to imply.
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Had Enough
Have Presidential primary run-ups always seemed this deranged? Or is this one especially kooky?
Then I remember that we'll soon have had eight years of GW Bush...a man who shouldn't have been elected dog-catcher in a sane world, and I realize, with real despair, that any damned thing is possible now.
-- had_enough
Precisely. Sigh. How quickly we forget our assumption in 2003 that any idiot the dems nominated would wipe the floor with the Usurper, and in 2004 that a genuine war hero would absolutely flatten the Emperor of Abu Graib.
2008 is not going to be a walk, people - it's going to be literally the fight of our lives. If 2004 was the most important election since 1860, 2008 is the most important since the 1787 choice of delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
Next year, as in 1787, the future of the nation will be on the line. If you write the repug doofuses off now, Rudy won't seem so funny when he's taking the Oath of Office.
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HowDoes Rudy Explain Rice's Comment?
Condi Rice told us that the warning Bin laden Determined To Strike at US was history. How does Rudy explain that the Bush adminstration was deliberately ignorant?
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Mega D
The Party has no intention of actually running any of these people
I'm wondering if it will be whoever steps in to replace Cheney. Do you think it will be Condi? Whenever someobody mentions her abysmal record, the GOP will scream racism. It would be sooooo GOP to do something like that. Run a candidate has been painted as "independent" of Bush (in the past weeks, Condi and Colin have been undergoing a rehabilitation in the press, being described as "uninformed by" and "appalled" by Cheney. Makes you wonder why, doesn't it? Condi and Colin are grownups, they could have spoken out on their own and quit their jobs if they were so miffed. Why paint them as dissenters? ).
Phase I - Put someone who could be deemed by the GOP and the media as "independent" of Bush and Cheney (while still working for them... only in America could this happen) in the office of VP.
Phase II - Since the GOP has repeatedly tried to whitewash Gonzales Gate by screaming that Fredo is being persecuted because he's a "minority", running a candidate who can be designated a minority and screaming "racist!" at any valid criticism would, in GOP minds, be a great way to rehabilitate themselves as the party of strivers.
Phase III - the usual gay marriage/abortion/Christianity-is-under-seige nonsense as a platform. GOP then challenges minorities at polling places in key precincts while they scream racism in front of cameras. (which reminds me - WHY doesn't the Democratic Party ask for volunteers to stand near these precincts and videotape people who come out who are willing to tell what happened inside? I know you're not allowed to videotape an actual polling place on Election Day, but plenty of people have camcorders nowadays. Go down to a polling place wherever it seemed the GOP showed a pre-election interest in looking at voter rolls and see if there's some kind of hocus pocus going on. Videotape people at the legal distance allowed at polling places telling of their experience and throw it all on youtube. You can't expect the media to actually look into GOP intimidation at the polls; that would be stupid and fruitless).
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Covering his own ass
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.