Abducting The Tragedy

[bemildred]

Reprint from 2002, but a current article.
Posted for the excerpt.

Giuliani staggered around looking for a place to become the boss.
He called on fire commissioner Von Essen to leave the firefighters
and come walking with him. High over the buildings a police
helicopter was calling down that the towers were going to collapse
as sure as the smoke coming out of them.

Their calls fell on no ears. The firefighters were not equipped with
radios for an emergency such as this.

In fact, their communications were poor nearly everywhere. The
fault was with Giuliani and Von Essen. Three hundred and forty
three firefighters died. Most of them died because they didn't get
out of the building because they couldn't hear anybody signal them
in time.

The huge blame goes to Giuliani first and then Von Essen.

Newsday

[CulturalNomad]

1. I was living in London during Sept 11 and have a question

what exactly did Guiliani do that he suddenly became this great leader? When i left NYC he was just a fascist mayor.....

[bemildred]

2. Nothing. That was all a media construct.

Not unlike Mr. Bush's "leadership".

Edit: you appear to be a DeadHead. :thumbsup:

[aquart]

3. Then let me tell you.

He walked out of the dust and kept us moving.

He refused to let us focus on anger or revenge, as opposed to useless George.

And, so far as we knew, he wasn't holding anything back.

HE LED.

This man, who had been a total embarrassment for two years, kept us together and focussed. If he said attend funerals, my mother who has use for very few politicians and certainly no Republicans, attended funerals. If he said, give blood, we poured out of our houses and stood on blood lines.

Was the preparedness screwed up? YES!

But don't anybody dare to tell me he didn't do exactly what he should on the day and the days afterward.

And, to put it in perspective, he was there. He was on site. He ran from the buildings falling and got trapped. He spoke to old friends who were dead fifteen minutes afterward. He was one of the victims and his response was to keep going and going and going and going. Like our cops and our firemen and our rescue workers.

What he was before, what he has been since does not change what he did THEN. He was with us. He was one of us. He knew.

[Virginian]

5. He appeared on TV.

First, he (unlike Bush) went to the sceen of the "accident." (Even if he couldn't do anything it would get his face on camera, free publicity.) Then, when the second plane hit and it was known that we were under attack, (unlike Bush) he didn't run and try to find a secure location in which to hide.

He came close to being swallowed in the dust from the falling towers, then (unlike Bush) he appeared on TV trying to calm people. He also, (unlike Bush) made decisions such as closing the Bridges.

He didn't have to do much to become a hero, he just had to (unlike Bush) do his job.

During this time, Bush listened to a story about a goat then went and hid for about 12 hours before he appeared (from a secure location) on TV to make a statement. Bush had to wait for his writers to write what he was supposed to say and he had to reherse the tone of voice he would use and learn to pronounce some of the multisylible words. He might have said something inappropriate if they had allowed him to make a statement earlier.

[teryang]

4. What a slease-bag!

Typical new york politician.

[bemildred]

6. I saw a Breslin piece about the radios right after 9/11,

which nailed Drooliani on it, but cannot find it now. I
thought this would serve.

[roguevalley]

7. He didn't hide. In those moments that was more than you can imagine.

He never showed fear or fatigue. Just be his presence
did it become better.

[teryang]

8. I can imagine

My brother saw it in person from his office window.

New Yorkers hardly need Guiliani to be courageous. Sorry, I despise the guy. He's a venal opportunist.

The one thing I object to is that no effort was spared to criticize the NYC emergency response while the CIA, DOD, FAA, Transportation dept., and various corporate offenders have been given a free pass. Don't think that Lehman could have acted that aggressively with those culprits. This is pure hypocrisy.

[bemildred]

10. I do get so tired of this shit where "leadership" is

equated with posturing convincingly for the media. I don't
want a cute bullshitter, I want someone ugly and smart and
competent to run things. Americans are supposed to govern
themselves, not be lead around by some shallow actor with
ego-problems.

[bemildred]

9. I don't watch much TV, so it don't mean shit to me.

(Apologies to M. Knopfler.)

[Miss Authoritiva]

11. Okay, I'm no accountant or funds administrator, but

a projected annual operating cost of $1.168 million to $2.255 million for a $70 million fund seems out of line.