Giuliani, Our Ex-Mayor

We had more or less had it with Giuliani when 9/11 hit. At that point he had done everything wrong. His emergency headquarters had been located in the main target site which had been hit in 1993, so that they were out of action from the get go. Giuliani made much noise about his super role in leading us during the aftermath, but our fire fighters knew better. He had left them without the equipment to learn of the hazards they were facing. Hundreds died and they have come out hard and fast against his presidential candidacy. Giuliani also did the clean up of the pile (Ground Zero) on the cheap and now many thousands are lung damaged and some have died from the lack of protective equipment to keep them from inhaling the poisons stirred up by the clean up process.

Enough of Giuliani's claims that he was our super hero then! Other things that he did was to leave our city budget deeply in the red. He fired Our Police Commissioner, Bratton, considered the best in the country who had completely reformed our force -- because Giuliani could not stand criticism and appreciation for someone that did not grovel. He messed up our schools with misbegotten attempts to transfer monies to the privates rather than focusing on the public schools where underpaid teachers were increasingly becoming fed up and moving out to the prosperous suburbs to teach.

Giuliani in New Hampshire Saturday played the usual Republican tune -- Republicans are for the people (no income taxes there) and the Democrats are for government. Needless to say this slogan is ridiculous. We need some things done by government (police, fire, education for most, infrastructures, etc., etc. -- some others can be done privately. We need last resort protections that are publicly funded (e.g. emergency medicine at the minimum), food and shelter for the disabled, etc., etc. But above all government authority must regulate people and businesses that would steal from us, endanger us, whatever crooked folks can figure that they can get away with such as the sub prime mortgages that are doing in our economy, credit card interest bandits, drug and medical scams that enrich mainly CEOs -- that cost the rest of us. Every other developed nation has single payer medicine -- better service at half the cost or less.

Finally let Giuliani's private life be the province of his family. He came into office with two happy kids and a fine wife. He took up secretly with a ________ and let his wife and children know that he had walked out on them in a press conference! Wow! How low can one sink. And then there are some pretty dubious crooks that Giuliani has backed for high positions, e.g. national security. Some president with the power of appointments!

The truth will out about Giuliani down the line. Too many of us of all political persuasions here in NYC despise the man.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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