Re: Rudy’s braintrust
On Sep 14, 2007, at 11:32 AM, Michael Smith wrote:
On Fri, 2007-09-14 at 11:22 -0400, Doug Henwood wrote:
It is. I don’t think anyone who didn’t live through the Rudy years in NYC understands how awful he is.
Agreed. Serious, non-rhetorical question, though — do you feel that the Bloomberg years have been much of an improvement?
Yes. Not so much in budget, land use, labor relations, and other
material policies - but a Dem mayor would have been little different
on those things anyway, given the power of the FIRE establishment and
the ever-looming threat of a Financial Control Board takeover. But on
tone, yes, absolutely. There’s none of that repressive snarl, none of
the racial bigotry. After that JFK “terrorism” incident, Bloomberg
said something like, “Get a life. You’re more likely to die of a
heart attack than a terrorist attack.” Could you imagine Rudy - or
any other American politician - saying that? And on a day-to-day
level, the city government has never been so efficient and non-
corrupt; stuff actually works, and no one’s been hauled off to jail.
Doug