Continuing on about Rudy Giuliani-
in Wayne Barrett's Village Voice article, "Rudy's Five Big Lies About 9/11," Barrett posits lie #3 as "Don't Blame Me For 7 WTC, Rudy says." In a brazen denial of reality, the former mayor blames his then-director of emergency management, Jerry Hauer, for placing the city's emergency command center at the World Trade Center. Both the police commisssioner and the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the New York City Police Department both thought it foolish to put the command center there, unsurprising given that the terrorist behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center said that it remained a likely future target. But political considerations reigned supreme, and Barrett explained:

The 7 WTC site was the brainchild of Bill Diamond, a prominent Manhattan Republican that Giuliani had installed at the city agency handling rentals. When Diamond held a similar post in the Reagan administration a few years earlier, his office had selected the same building to house nine federal agencies. Diamond's GOP-wired broker steered Hauer to the building, which was owned by a major Giuliani donor and fundraiser. When Hauer signed onto it, he was locked in by the limitations Giuliani had imposed on the search and the sites Diamond offered him. The mayor was so personally focused on the siting and construction of the bunker that the city administrator who oversaw it testified in a subsequent lawsuit that "very senior officials," specifically including Giuliani, "were involved," which he said was a major difference between this and other projects. Giuliani's office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fire hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced. He had his own elevator. Great concern was expressed in writing that the platform in the press room had to be high enough to make sure his head was above the cameras. It's inconceivable that the hands-on mayor's fantasy command center was shaped—or sited—by anyone other than him.

In short: Rudolph Giuliani became a hero, "America's Mayor," because he was very visible and appeared authoritative walking around lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001 because he had nowhere to go. HIs command post/bachelor pad unavailable, the mayor and his huge entourage scoured the streets of Manhattan for seven hours looking for a place to hunker down.

Leadership- that's Rudy.

Rudolph Giuliani is at it again. As reported by Greg Sargent's blog, on August 9, 2007 Rudy told reporters in Cincinnatti

"This is not a mayor or a governor or a president who's sitting in an ivory tower," he said. "I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was there guiding things. I was there bringing people there. But I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

Yahoo reports the head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association of New York, John McDonnell, responding "I have a real problem with that statement. I think he's really grasping and trying to justify his previous attempts to portray himself as the hero of 9/11."
But now there is more information. Today the New York Times reports

A complete record of Mr. Giuliani’s exposure to the site is not available for the chaotic six days after the attack, when he was a frequent visitor. But an exhaustively detailed account from his mayoral archive, revised after the events to account for last-minute changes on scheduled stops, does exist for the period of Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001. It shows he was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months, often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts.

And what was he doing there? The chart accompanying the NYT's story reveals numerous meetings with dignitaries- and an interview with Barbara Walters and one with Oprah Winfrey. And Giuliani says "I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers (and) was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So, in that sense, I'm one of them." Yes, roughly ten hours a month, meeting with the likes of Dennis Hastert, Vincente Fox, Oprah, and Barbara. Just like all the other Ground Zero workers.

Leadership- That's Rudy.

Karl Rove had quite a run. Two gubernatorial victories for George W. Bush, followed by two Presidential victories for the man whose judgement, competence, and honesty are reflected in a popularity rating which has been well under 40% for a long time. And here is one major area in which Mr. Bush's judgement pales in comparison with that of his immediate predecessor: Bill Clinton's main political advisor, James Carvile, was his main political advisor; George W. Bush's main political advisor, Karl Rove, was also a policy advisor. So our nation was subjected not only to bad policy but to a President even more driven by political considerations than was William Jefferson Clinton.

Your tax cuts (for the wealthy) at work.

The Consumer Products Safety Commission has announced that Mattel is recalling 9.5 million toys made in mainland China. Most of the products contact a magnet that can fall out and be swallowed by young children and the other toys contain lead paint. Thomas Moore, a CPSC Commissioner, explained "staffing cuts and other resource reductions have limited the Commission's ability to carry out its mission."
On Lou Dobbs Tonight, correspondent Bill Tucker noted today that since 1980 the Commission's staff has been slashed 59%, from 978 to 400. That would be 26.6 (approximately) years, all but eight under Republican Presidents dedicated to the philosophy that the only thing more evil than (income) taxes is government regulation. And for the other eight years? The President from the corporatist Democratic Leadership Council, a President who prides himself on being a "centrist," whom the mainstream media generally holds in high esteem because he is not beholden to the interest groups the Democratic Party "panders" to- like, say, labor and consumers. Those annoying people who believe in fair trade because free trade works for only one side. Those annoying people who always are complaining about American jobs being outsourced. Those annoying people who believe in government inspection to keep safe our toys- and toothpaste, and fish, and pet food, and tires.

Manufacture of the recalled toys reportedly was subcontracted by a Chinese company to another Chinese company. Mattel Chairman and CEO Bob Eckert exclaimed "I'm disappointed, I'm upset, but I can ensure that we are doing everything we can about the situation." ("I'm shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!")
So Mattel is offering vouchers to consumers to buy other toys- which, presumably, also are made in mainland China, as are approximately 80% of the toys purchased in the U.S.A.

I have an idea of something else Mattel can do for its consumers in this country, its largest market. Open a manufacturing plant here and employ some Americans.

So, Mitt Romney is celebrating his victory in the Iowa Republican straw poll in Ames, where nearly 15,000 partisans paid a poll tax to vote on Saturday, August 13. But his glee, if sincere, is foolish. Take a look at these results from IowaPolitics.com:

Detailed results

14,302 ballots cast

1 Mitt Romney, 4,516 votes, 31.6 percent
2 Mike Huckabee, 2,587 votes, 18.1 percent
3 Sam Brownback, 2,192 votes, 15.3 percent
4 Tom Tancredo, 1,961 votes, 13.7 percent
5 Ron Paul, 1,305 votes, 9.1 percent
6 Tommy Thompson, 1,039 votes, 7.3 percent
7 Fred Thompson, 203 votes, 1.4 percent
8 Rudy Guiliani, 183 votes, 1.3 percent
9 Duncan Hunter, 174 votes, 1.2 percent
10 John McCain - 101 votes, 0.7 percent
11 John Cox- 41 votes, 0.1 percent

John McCain (at one time almost the presumptive nominee), Rudy Giuliani (leader in most national polls), and Fred Thompson (Anything For A Buck Fred, who leads in the other national polls and appears to be the Dream Republic Candidate) did not compete. Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, and Tommy Thompson, who did compete, finished third through sixth. Tancredo, Paul, and T. Thompson- all marginal- now, then, and forever. The first runner-up? Mike Huckabee, more personable, less threatening, and quicker on his feet than Brownback. Obviously, among the announced candidates, Romney and Giuliani are the front-runners, and I believe Romney has a much better chance of being nominated. But he can't be happy that Huckabee beat out Brownback, Tancredo, Paul, Thompson, and Hunter.

Chris Matthews, host of Hardball on MSNBC, this evening continued his role as unofficial campaign chairman of Giuliani for President. In a group discussion of Giuliani's prospects, Matthews stated "anybody that can end crime as a menacing factor, a big factor of life in the big cities, is going to be a hereo, even to people who don't live in the cities." So let's take a look at the reduction of crime Rudy G. allegedly brought about.
The crime rate (as measured by incidents per 100,000 inhabitants) did in fact decline during Mr. Giuliani's tenure in office, from early 1994 to early 2002. However, this chart, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, indicates that nationally the violent crime rate in 1993 was 747.1; the property crime rate, 4740.0; and the "crime index total," 5487.1. The latter two categories then proceeded to decline each year through 2001, and the property crime rate in each year except from 2000 to 2001 (which saw a small rise). Meanwhile, this graph demonstrates that while nationally, the rate of crime during Giuliani's tenure dropped, it may have have plummeted in big cities- for example, in Los Angeles; somewhat more in New York City; and far more in Newark, N.J. And I don't remember anyone crediting the recently-indicted Sharpe James, who served as mayor from 1986 to 2001, as a heroic crime-buster.
Pushing Giuliani now as a latter-day Elliot Ness may be particularly timely, given that his mythical reputation as the "hero of 9/11" suffered another blow by the recent Village Voice article, written by Wayne Barrett, entitled "Rudy's Five Big Lies About 9/11." So don't blame Matthews; hopefully, the Giuliani spin will fool enough primary voters and eventually give HRC (or one of the guys) a target even bigger than Rudy's ego.

Attack On The Middle Class

Normally, discussion of a law enacted 2-3 years earlier would be of little interest to anyone, but this should be an exception, and, given that I started blogging only a few months ago, I couldn't have commented then.

On April 20, 2005 President Bush signed into law the euphemistically and absurdly named "The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005," a harsh attack upon the middle class and main street America. Originally introduced eight years earlier, the act, pushed by lobbyists from the credit card and banking industries, established a means test for filing for bankruptcy protection. According to Project Vote Smart, this restriction "determines whether the individual would be allowed to file under Chapter 7, essentially exonerating their debts after they have liquidated their assets, or if they would be forced to file under Chapter 13, requiring them to pay back creditors on a court-approved timetable."

This law was, and is, a serious blow to the middle class. Testifying against the bill, Elizabeth Warren (who teaches bankruptcy law at Harvarad University) warned it would "increase the cost of bankruptcy protection for every family, regardless of income or the cause of financial crisis, and decrease the protection of bankruptcy for every family, regardless of income or the cause of the financial crisis." Supporters were unconcerned that: in the eight years since the bill was conceived, credit card profits had increased 163%, from $11.5 billion to $32 billion; effective interest rates often are hidden in the fine print of many contracts and sometimes range to 29%; and approximately half of personal bankruptcies are due to illness or medical bills (according to commondreams.org).

Why the interest in the legislation now? The bill first passed in the House, 302-126 with zero(0) Republicans having enough interest in the average American to vote against it. The bill then passed by 74-25 in the Senate, where zero (0) Republicans voted against it. (Can you detect a pattern?) I don't have to tell you how John McCain, Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, Ron Paul, and Tom Tancredo voted.

All votes opposing the bill came from the Democratic side of the aisle. Five Democrats currently running for President were serving in the U.S. Congress at the time. Representative Kucinich and Senators Obama and Dodd voted against this egregious bill. Senator Biden of Delaware, a state dominated by banking interests, voted for it. Senator Clinton was recorded as "not voting." A characteristic profile in courage.