As mayor he was lucky to have a few exceptional people in his administration that helped turn the city around, especially in terms of crime. But in terms of race, it went backwards, as well as in other things, including civility.
For him to now be slamming Clinton (a cry I am sure the rest of the Republicans and right wing talk hosts will take up) for being “weak on terrorism” when it was Bush who ignored the Clinton administration’s warnings about Bin Laden (and don’t forget Bush took his more-than-a-month-long summer vacation—the longest of any modern president—just before 9/11 disregarding even members of his own administration who noted the Clinton administration’s warnings, not to mention he continued taking those long vacations even as everything went to shit around him) and Giuliani who didn’t get the radio frequency problem fixed so that all those firemen and cops died unnecessary deaths on 9/11, let alone some of the civilians, caused by Giuliani’s fuck up.
Are there any Democrats out there tough enough to throw this shit back at Miss Thing (his love of dressing in drag should be reassuring to transvestites, but how does it make him a strong hero type again? Just more confusing hypocrisy and double standards from the right).
New York City firemen sure don’t endorse him. But if it ends up being a race between him and Hilary, even though she could obviously kick his ass in everything from arm wrestling to fisticuffs—and certainly intellectually, no matter what else you think of her—he might just fucking win because they are so good at branding their people heroes!
I mean, they turned a silver spoon rich spoiled DUI collecting Yale frat boy FUCKING CHEERLEADER into a Reganesque cowboy (as if Regan himself was ever a real cowboy, but at least he loved to ride his horse)!
And where’s Obama in all this. I’m almost wondering if the death threats and racist attacks—that caused him to be the first candidate to get Secret Service protection (besides Hilary who got them because she was first lady)—didn’t also cause him to deliberately damp down his speeches and pull back his charisma and seemingly take calculated steps to lower his poll ratings.
But every Democrat, not just the candidates, should be rushing to kick Giuliani’s ass or at least set the record straight. The guy grabbed credit from those who actually turned the city around and then kicked them out because they were crowding him out of the spotlight. Beware a “hero” who needs the spotlight and situations that make him look heroic when not in drag. He was, and I assume still is, a mean spirited little repressed altar boy getting even with the really tough guys.
But the right loves these kinds of Christian hypocrites, don’t they? Like Gingrich who told his first wife he was divorcing her for a younger woman while she was lying in a hospital bed recovering from a serious illness (cancer if I remember right) and Giuliani who told his wife he was divorcing her and marrying another woman at a press conference so she could learn about it on TV or in the paper.
If a Republican wins in ’08, the Democrats deserve it, and so do the voters, just like they deserved Bush and all the failure he brought to what was an amazingly successful society when Clinton turned it over to him. The problem is, it won’t be the Democratic politicians or mainly the voters who suffer, it’s usually kids who aren’t even old enough to vote yet who get sent to the next fiasco “war” and people too poor to have much of a stake in the system who end up on rooftops wondering when their government will rescue them, if ever.
God bless “America.”
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6 comments:
Brilliant commentary. Always a pleasure reading your blog.
Lal:
I agree with all of what you sagely say here, but I think you minimize the "suffering" if we get another Republican prez. The big problem is the Supreme Court. Sure, we could probably withstand yet another four years of greed, corporate welfare, and obscene tax cuts for the ruling class, but a couple more appointments like Roberts and Alito, and we are all going to suffer for a long-long time. Witness the rulings that have just come down.
~ tom
Thanks for the kind words Viv, and Tom, I hope it didn't sound like I was saying there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans (I think one paragraph says I could go on forever about those differences) not just does it matter in terms of the Supreme Court, but also all the federal court justices and the federal prosecutors, as we've seen, the environmental protection agency and the civil rights department of the Justice Department, the torture memos, etc. all have been put to nefarious ends by the Republicans etc. I was saying that if voters still vote for a Republican for president, then the Democrats deserve what we get and so do the voters. There's enough intelligent Democrats around to fashion a smart campaign that simply tells the facts about what this administration has donen and what the Republican candidates have done, that was my point. Which I probably just didn't make any clearer! It's the humidty!
The differences between the Republicans and Democrats were made painfully clear in the Pataki/Giulianni reaction to 911 as compared to the Blanco/Nagin reaction to Katrina.
As long as we continue to elect lawyers to office, we are doomed to be governed by people who will assume any role necessary to increase their wealth and self-importance.
The CIA report recently issued sheds light on the similarities rather than the percieved differences.
Katrina? You dare bring up Katrina, as an illustration of what, you brainwashed twit. The difference between FEMA under the Democratic administration of Clinton was that it was run by professionals who were hired for their expertise which is why the major catastrophes that happened on his watch were dealt with expediently and humanely, and then the Bushies and Cheney clones got in and people were given jobs based on their loyalty to them thus FEMA's inability to respond to Katrina etfuckingcetera.
You get funnier by the post.
The City of New Orleans did little to nothing for the people at the convention center or the Super Dome.
The next parish threatened any New Orleanians with death if they came over the bridge into their parish.
The State of Louisianna did nothing for the people left in the city who refused to leave the path of Katrina. Blanco never at any time suspended habeas corpus allowing the feds to walk in with assistance.
FEMA hands out money to aid in the aftermath of emergencies. Blanco and Nagin took any monies offered and stuffed it in their pockets.
Now that Blanco has pocketed millions in federal aid funds, she has no need to run for re-election. Little has been done under her programs to rebuild storm affected areas.
The worst disaster that the FEMA folks had to deal with in the previous administration was the mid west heat wave where they failed miserably.
Blanco hired Witt from FEMA and Louisianna has become nothing but a bank account for crooked politicians.
I see the brain washing. You seem to have been washed clean of clear thinking. You are a true reactionary. Try taking the lead or blazing new areas of thought instead of grabbing onto the coattails of the most recent fad. But most of all, when you can see the happenings in the world for what they are with less emotional nonsensical reactionary thinkng, you may start seeing the world for what it is and why things happen as they do.
Or you can maintain the thinking of the Wild Geese and have the pleasure of realizing that yet again another bad decision had won another day.
Every day is the time for a regeneration.
Think of it as a peaceful rational revolution.
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