America's Mayor: Urban Legend

Rudy "Noun-Verb-9/11" Giulani is out of control.

As Arianna Hufington posts, "Giuliani's latest testosterone-fueled rant found him arguing that if we hadn't invaded Iraq, Saddam (who had no nuclear program) would be "becoming nuclear right now," and making the jaw-dropping and stomach-turning claim that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "are kind of debating whether to invite" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar Assad "to the inauguration or the inaugural ball."

What kind of outrageous statement is this and why isn't the media calling America's Mayor to task?

The myth of Giulani's role on 9/11 is exactly that. A myth. Rudy Giuliani was responsible for moving New York City's Emergency Command Center into World Trade Center Tower 7, AFTER the 1993 bombing of the WTC. When it was revealed that radio communications during the '93 attack were faulty, he waited 8 years before finally approving a no-bid contract to Motorola, who supplied the city with... more faulty radios. This was discovered in March of 2001 when a firefighter was trapped in a basement of a burning house was calling for help that wasn't heard by other members at the scene, but was heard by firefighters two miles away. This happened six months before 9/11, and instead of doing something about it, the city's answer was to swap back to the old radios.

The IAFF (Firefighter's Union) has put out a video setting the record straight. Who are you going to believe? The firemen who lost their bretheren on 9/11, or the "pandering lunatic" seeking the GOP nomination for President of the United States?

Also check out: Crooks & Liars - NYC to Investigate Giulani, faulty 9/11 radios

Say It Ain't So, Charlie!

Charles Schumer says he will vote in favor of Michael Mukasey's nomination as the next Attorney General... A shocker? Not really. Schumer was uncharacteristically quiet during the qustioning of Mukasey since the waterboarding issue came up. Schumer kept quiet because he actually recommended Mukasey.

"This is an extremely difficult decision," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement, adding that Mukasey "is not my ideal choice."
...Schumer's announcement followed a private meeting Friday with Mukasey to discuss waterboarding."I deeply oppose it," Schumer said of waterboarding. "Unfortunately, this nominee, indeed any proposed by President Bush, will not agree with this. I am, however, confident that this nominee would enforce a law that bans waterboarding."

So instead of saying he made a mistake and sit there with egg on his face, Schumer will just slink back into the corner of the room... with egg on his face, hopefully never to be heard from again.

Damn you, Chuck. I'll never believe another word you say, ever again.

Diane Feinstein has also decided to back the AG nominee, but that's not a surprise, is it?

UPDATE: Nov. 6, 2007

Schumer, Feinstein ‘surprise’ thwarts efforts on Mukasey

Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) effectively thwarted plans by the activist left to use the weekend to mobilize ahead of Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee vote and pressure wayward senators to reject the nominee, activists said.

“It was a surprise attack,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office for the American Civil Liberties Union, which wants the Judiciary Committee to defeat the nomination. “There was a limited opportunity to say much about what Schumer and Feinstein had done because the timing was very cleverly calculated to avoid scrutiny.”

King George on Mukasey

BUSH on Mukasey: “He’s a good man, he’s a fair man, he’s an independent man, and he’s plenty qualified to be the attorney general,” Mr. Bush said at the airport here. “And I strongly urge the United States Senate to confirm this man, so that I can have an attorney general to work with to protect the United States of America from further attack.”

This "plenty qualified man" also said he didn't know what waterboarding was and then when he found out, refused to make a call on determining whether it was considered torture or not until AFTER his confirmation. Well Mike, how about if we call it what it actually is: SIMULATED DROWNING. But to tell the truth, it's not simulated at all. It's real drowning and stopping just short of killing the victim.

As Senator Pat Leahy said, "...no American should need a classified briefing to determine whether waterboarding is torture.”

Krugman on Giuliani

When is someone going to call out Giuliani for the warmongering, lying asshole that he is?

PAUL KRUGMAN, NY Times: “My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States? Eighty-two percent,” says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad attacking Democratic plans for universal health care. “My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 percent, under socialized medicine.”

It would be a stunning comparison if it were true. But it isn’t. And thereby hangs a tale — one of scare tactics, of the character of a man who would be president and, I’m sorry to say, about what’s wrong with political news coverage.

Read Krugman's article here.

Bukowski: The Genius of the Crowd

I just finished watching a documentary on Charles Bukowski that I highly recommend.

About an hour into the film, Bukowski read from one of his more famous poems, "The Genius of the Crowd". What really struck me were the first five lines.

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

Robert Goulet Dead at 73

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer-actor Robert Goulet, whose rich baritone voice made him an instant success when he played Lancelot in the original 1960 Broadway hit "Camelot," died on Tuesday at age 73.

The performer, who suffered from the lung disease pulmonary fibrosis, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was awaiting a decision on whether he could receive a lung transplant...

Here's Goulet singing from Carousel.

Bill Maher - For Halloween, Fear Global Warming

Not the Fearmongers

FEMA: Fraudulent Embarrassing Moronic Administration

By now we've all heard that in an attempt to show how great FEMA was handling things while fires raged in southern California, external affairs director Pat Philbin staged a fake news conference. How insane is it, that an organization under the Office of Homeland Security, after their response in New Orleans (or lack of) to Hurricane Katrina, has to stage a news conference to show the country how much better they are handling the latest disaster?

Of course, the White House claims not to know that this happened and does not condone it. Yeah, right.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was not appropriate that the questions were posed by agency staff members instead of reporters. FEMA was responsible for the "error in judgment," she said, adding that the White House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it.
"FEMA has issued an apology, saying that they had an error in judgment when they were attempting to get out a lot of information to reporters, who were asking for answers to a variety of questions in regard to the wildfires in California," Perino said. "It's not something I would have condoned. And they - I'm sure - will not do it again."

An error in judgement?! Perino also reported that any action taken against those responsible would be handled by FEMA. And to her credit she was right.

CNN reports that John "Pat" Philbin, the Director of Public Affairs responsible for FEMA's recent faked news conference, is effectively receiving a promotion... Philbin is slated to become Director of Public Affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell.

Heckuva job, Pat.


UPDATE: Philbin denied!

Olbermann: “…We’re told that a high ranking member of the Bush administration reviewed someone’s record, found him lacking and then severed ties with him. An event some have long prophesied as the first horseman of the apocalypse.”