Rudy's Charm Offensive

rudy is the only bald guy that looked better with a comb-over. however, someone needs to get don trump to give up on the comb-over. he needs to go with a traditional hair garland.

I would recommend every person within 100 miles of Church and Vesey read 102 MINUTES by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. These two reporters covered 9/11 and most follow-up stories for the Times. Their thesis is that of all the people killed on 9/11, 1500 of them were no more killed by terrorists "than most people on the Titanic were killed by an iceberg" and that people were giving the terrorists too much credit when outdated building codes, unpreparedness, and piss-poor coordination between FDNY and NYPD probably cost many lives.

And in the center of this, according to Dwyer and Flynn, was Sister Rudy himself. And by playing up the "hero" aspect, he not only basked in their reflected limelight, but helped sweep away his own culpability (putting the OEM at 7 World Trade, not forcing the FDNY and NYPD to work together - in fact he exacerbated tensions, and in general making public safety a hallmark of his administration while in fact we were more vulnerable than ever).

Good read. Makes you think.

Umm... no.

But the toll went up as preparedness went down. That was the point.

I think the people who love Giuliani are haunted by visions of Dinkins. When's the last time anyone mentioned that guy, anyway?

Tim N. -YOu are so right. Yes, of course if those bastard highjackers hadn't done what they did, none of those folks would have died in the OTwers on 9-11--BUT, Rudy and Bernie's lack of leadership in getting the PD and FD to work together, to establish decent communications between the forces--that certainly lead to the higher death toll. Of course the highjackers are to blame. BUt, "try again" if the tower management had a policy of having the fire exits locked at all times, wouldn't you agree that they bear some responsibiblity too? Rudy was the man charged with providing leadership for this City and charged with making sure that things within his power were set up in ways that would help those who live and work in this City be as safe as possible. HE FAILED miserably and yet is laughing all the way to the bank with his Sept 11 blood monye.

thanks tim n. for letting me know that terrorists weren't responsible for 9/11. I really thought that was the case, but I guess I just didn't know the facts. That's really a good find that you discovered that 9/11 was caused by building codes and unpreparedness. It must be true if you read it in a book. I hereby nominate tim n. to be NYC's official hall monitor. You can patrol the city's sidewalks and office toweres looking out for building code violations and making sure that all offices are properly stocked with masking tape and freeze dried eggs. It is you tim n. that are the real hero.

Fair points, TA. Of course the responders were heroes... the likes of which the city's never seen. But let's keep focus... RG's shamless shilling of his own role is masking huge errors of negligence on his part. How many less firemen would have died if they had communicated better with NYPD, who could tell from their helicopter patrols that the collapse of the towers was imminent? That's just one example cited in the book.

Rather than answer to the truth, our beloved former mayor just likes to wave the bloody badge. What he's doing is waving it over his own mistakes.

Bob - maybe you can get the Professor and Mary Ann to explain this all to you.

such testy lil' neokons. things seem to be fraying around the edges of late for the supporters of God's Chosen President. They are all over fair Gothamist of late, trolling and letting some of that good ol' cracker anger out.

So soon after the election too...

The towers did not fall immediately. Scores of people were alive and relatively well after the attack but were told not to evacuate after they had already started to evacuate. I love how the repubs whine about personal resposibility, but they never hold themselves or their cronies responsible even one whit for things that happen on their watch that they could have had some effect on.

oh, and the fire exit thing was a hypothetical-even with my typos you should have been able to tell.. It was meant to help you undestand that sometimes, even though someone else bears the lion's share of responsibility for something, others also have a responsibiblity to help contain and lessen the negative effects that the actions of hateful terrorists have on citizens.
By your reasoning, T.A., if a bullet proof vest manufacturer uses aluminum foil instead of kevlar to line the vests it sells to policce departments, and cops are shot and killed by disgusting horrible criminals whose bullets sail right through the crappy vests, the vest manufacturer bears NO repsonsibility? What about an air bag manufacturer that makes the air bags out of mylar balloons instead of the proer materials? they would bear no responsibility for injuries to drivers who were hurt by thier subpar aiirbags if a drunk driver were to smash into the car? Of course the drunk driver is at fault. they are no less at fault even though the air bag manufacturer also bears responsibility.

Guiliani's lack of leadership with the PD and FD contributed to some deaths on 9-11 and he is making money off the tragedy.

If only Rudy had geniuses like Tim, Honey and Peter there to guide him this never would have happened. What do you people do for a living anyway? Something tells me not much. But that doesn't stop you from dazzling us with your 20/20 hindsight. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but people of modest achievement should view the actions of leaders with some perspective.

At any given time there are hundreds of problems facing the mayor of NYC. Has there ever been a mayor who could solve every one? And what did Rudy's predecessors do about the PD/FD problems or the WTC fire escapes? Nothing. Why didn't one of you dipshits tell him this might happen?

And, daybird, don't worry about us "neokons". Winning elections soothes our cracker anger quite nicely. And watching losers come here to hyperventilate is fun, too.

Nola, my friend, Rudy's predecessors didn't make millions of dollars waving bloody badges around the country, raising money for people who hate our city.

And as for people of modest achievement, I don't see it tempering any of your opinions. In all seriousness, read the book. It's not a wacky conspiracy theory collection (I personally find 9/11 conspiracy theories offensive), but it makes good points. Give it a look then tell me what you think of it.

nola, do you think it's prudent to allow anyone, regardless of political party, to profit or advance a political career based on past performance without actually looking critically at his performance?

it's not about how unsuccessful we are at influencing those leaders or about us doing their job for them ('why didn't we tell him'), it's about their performance. if we have to make it a red vs blue thing again, we might also mention that the neocons, in fact, did have significant prior warning and did nothing. again, remember the whole grilled Rice affair. she still got her promotion, but even the senate can recognize the wisdom in checking the past performance of our future leaders even if they fail to act on it.