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February 7, 2007
What America Needs to Know About Giuliani
Crooks and Liars has an excellent run down of what Giuliani did NOT do in the aftermath of 9/11. Basically he looked good on TV and that was about it, but that shouldn't be surprising.
And Giuliani walks on. He walks from his bunker, up Barclay Street and went on television. Went on and announced his heroism and then came back every hour or so until he became a star, a great figure, a national hero, the mayor who saved New York.Most of this comes from these dazed Pekingese of the Press. … Giuliani was a hero with these news people. He did not pick up a piece of steel or help carry one of the injured off.
We've seen this time and time again with Republican "leaders". Take Bush in New Orleans after Katrina. What did he do exactly other than roll up his sleeves and walk around in circles looking arogant and out of touch with reality? Did he help clean anything up? No. Did he help search for lost or missing? No. Did he even do anything but talk about how it should be done? No. He wouldn't even help with funding! That's not leadership, that's acting for the cameras.
And now they want you to think that if Giuliani had been mayor of New Orleans things would have been different? Not quite!
So exactly what did Mayor Giuliani do to exhibit “leadership”? The fact is that post-Katrina New Orleans was a much bigger mess than post-9/11 New York, and Rudy Giuliani did nothing after 9/11 that would indicate his “leadership” would have made much difference in New Orleans. As Michael Atkinson wrote in the Village Voice last year, “After 9-11, a sick, scandalized lame-duck mayor became a national hero for simply keeping his composure on TV.”
And to make matters worse, Giuliani lied (remind you of Dubya anyone?) in order to try to secure the legacy he wanted, instead of what his legacy actually was:
On perhaps the most painful of these, the loss of at least 121 firefighters in the north tower, Mr. Giuliani suggested that they stayed inside the trade center because they were busy rescuing civilians — never mentioning that they could not hear warnings from police helicopters, that many of them never learned the south tower had collapsed or that they were having serious problems staying in touch with their own commanders.Witnesses who escaped from the tower tell a vastly different story than Mr. Giuliani. They say that in the north tower’s final 15 minutes, only a handful of civilian office workers were still in the bottom 44 floors of the building, perhaps no more than two or three dozen. Many of the firefighters who remained in the towers were between the 19th and 37th floors, having made slow progress up the stairs in their heavy gear.
It is clear, witnesses said, that even after the south tower collapsed, many, if not most, of the firefighters had no idea that they were in dire peril, or that it was time for them to leave. In contrast, police officers received strong guidance from their commanders to get out of the building, the commission reported, thanks in large part to the information sent to the ground by police helicopters.
Giuliani is not the person we need running our country. He's far from what we need! We don't need another show off. We don't need another liar! We need true leadership and someone that will stand up for what is right and what is just. Giuliani wouldn't know either if they hit him square in the face. We need someone who will get in there and get their hands dirty in order to make our country a better place. Giuliani wouldn't even know where to begin.
Found via Crooks and Liars.
Posted by Dianne at February 7, 2007 2:54 PM
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