Saturday, May 8, 2010

New York State of Mind

So you might have heard about a little dust-up we had in New York City's Times Square this week. And according to Mayor Bloomberg's astute assessment this is the face of a potential terrorist...

I know you probably have heard and read Bloomberg's statement before, but I feel it bears repeating often. He publically pondered and I quote:
"If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that. Homegrown, or maybe a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything,"
Oops. A few days later, we found out he was wrong and he had to apologize.  And there were some in the media who were actually disappointed that it turned out to be exactly who any reasonable person would have suspected - an Islamic terrorist. Faisel Shazhad.

This is what Contessa Brewer of MSNBC has to say:
"I get frustrated...There was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country...There are a lot of people who want to use terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry."
Sorry to disappoint your Neo-bigoted minds, Mike and Contessa, but it wasn’t a crazy, redneck, racist Tea Partier. It was just your average, ordinary, run of the mill, predictably cliche-ish Islamic terrorist trained in some bomb-making camp in Pakistan hosted by the Taliban.

Mayor Bloomberg appeared at a Congressional hearing inexplicably whining that our gun laws allow terrorists to buy guns.  With the exception of the Mumbai terrorist last year and Major Hassan in Texas, there has been very little gunplay involved. Common and legal items like cars, fertilizer, and propane tanks, yes; guns, not so much.  So, as a result of his appearance, we now will have 800 new police officers walking the streets and every square inch of Manhattan will be covered by video cameras.   But maybe someone can explain why, even after all these years, we can't even stop a known terrorist from getting on a plane after buying ticket at the last minute with cash and with no luggage.

But, let’s be honest, we dodged a huge bullet on May 1st and not because of anything that the Federal Government did or didn't do.  If not for the quick thinking of a military veteran t-shirt vendor, the NYC police, firefighters, bomb defusers, and, most importantly, one incompetent Islamic terrorist, it could have been catastrophic. The very heart of NYC would have been crippled for years. So for now, the people here are a little jittery and are seeing terrorists in every shadow. As a result, Times Square was shut down twice this week because of unattended “suspicious packages”. One turned out to be a discarded water dispenser and the other was someone’s discarded lunch. Life goes on.

Moving on…

Local – We were visited by another terrorist this week. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in NYC to attend the U.N. Nuclear Nonproliferation conference. He gave a speech berating the US for “acts of terror”. As he went on his much publicized rant, the US delegation walked out along with delegates from other rational countries. He went on to explain that, and I quote:
"The sole purpose of nuclear weapons is to annihilate all human beings. Its possession is disgusting and shameful."
Okey dokey, Mahmoud. We will take all you say under advisement. BTW, would you be so kind as to stop developing nuclear weapons too. No rush.  Actually he came and left without the usual fanfare or invitations to speak to the students at Columbia University. It was finals week on campus, so I am guessing no one had the time to “speak truth to power”.

State – Well, Luv Guv Eliot Spitzer screwed us again. In the very short time he was governor, he brokered an agreement with the Service Employee Federation that if they would make a few concessions in 2006, he would guarantee raises of up to 7% -  3% of their cost of living raise, plus 4% on top of that – in 2010. Well fast forward four years and $2 billion deficit later, and now the SEF members are demanding their 7% raises and Governor Patterson is saying “No! We're broke.” What part of “$2 Billion deficit” don’t they understand? If they don’t back down, Patterson has threatened to furlough all state workers. And we can’t count on our elected representatives to be too helpful either. They refuse to approve the new state budget that was due April 1st until Patterson reinstates some of the massive cuts he had to make to try to dig the state out of a hole. Everyone wants money, but no one understands we do not have any. We can only hope that the trees that Mayor Bloomberg has been planting around town can grow money.

Federal – There are more people coming out of the woodwork to challenge Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. As you may remember, Sen. Gillibrand was appointed by Gov. Patterson to replace Hillary Clinton. This week, the fourth Republican has thrown his hat into the ring. So far now it’s Orange County Executive Edward Diana, Ex-Westchester Representative Joe DioGuardi, former NY/NJ Port Authority Board member Bruce Blakeman, and David Malpass, an economist. I do not know any of these men, but I will do a little research and report back.

13 comments:

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, I have to say that Bloomberg really, really pissed me off, to the point that I think he should be forced to resign. He happily tars regular Americans to protect the feelings of people whose lives are dedicated to murdering us?! F*** him!

And then for him to keep up the BS by telling us he won't stand for any violence against Pakistanis?! How about not tolerating violence against Americans you rotten piece of sh*t!

It's too bad his delusional rear end wasn't strapped to the bomb so that he could see firsthand the kinds of people he is collaborating with.

I can't tell you how much this angers me.

Anonymous said...

Bev, any thoughts about the plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero?

Tam said...

My thoughts about building a mosque near ground zero are about the same as Switzerland's thoughts regarding minarets. No f-ing way. But I'm not a New Yorker. I have a feeling their thoughts might be a little stronger than mine.

BevfromNYC said...

Scott and Tam: I actually think a new mosque 2 blocks from Ground Zero is in poor taste. I understand they want it there to promote better understanding, but I would "better understand" if just one Muslim would stand up publically and condemn terrorism unconditionally and emphatically.

I keep reading about moderate Muslims who "distance" themselves from the radical factions. I propose that they face them head on and take back Islam. You don't stop anything by backing away.

Tennessee Jed said...

Nice post, Bev - If I'm honest, I'll admit that politics aside, eventually one of these willgo off. I just hope injury and property damage is minimized. That said, the effort of the media to openly hope it was a conservative was pathetic.

I'll enjoy your post on the various contenders

BevfromNYC said...

Andrew: Bloomberg angers me too. He should have just kept his stupid billionaire mouth shut. All he needed to say was that they were doing all they can to bring whomever tried this to justice and not speculate on who or why.

Anonymous said...

Bev: I'm wondering who's more of a danger to New York City--terrorists or your home-grown politicians.

BevfromNYC said...

LawHawk: LOL! I think it's a toss up. But I am less afraid of Islamic terrorists...

BevfromNYC said...

TJ - Sadly your are right. We have been really just lucky so far. This guy was some finance guy. God help us when they start recruiting engineers.

BTW - Have you been effected by the flooding in Tennessee?

Tennessee Jed said...

Bev - We live outside of Knoxville, about 120 miles to the east. We got an inch or two of rain and some wind along with tornado warnings, but thankfully were spared. There are some fascinatingf photographs of the Opryland Hotel circulating on the net. I have been there numerous times, and it is sad to see such massive damage. We have a grandson whose high school graduation ceremony is scheduled in two weeks in Nashville. Thankfully, they were spared.

I can't help but editorialize how noticable the lack of attention by Obama, Hollywood, and the national media has been. It reminds me of how the Mississippi Gulf coast was ignored during Katrina as if only New Orleans had been hit. One thing I have learned about Tennessee the last few years while living here. This isn't called the Volunteer State for nothing. Locally, people are lending a hand without being asked in droves.

BevfromNYC said...

TJ: I am glad to hear you were spared. What does Obama have to gain by helping people who help themselves and each other? How could he be "the Savior"? And people who take care of themselves and their neighbors goes against everything he believes in about a paternal government.

When the South Texas was leveled by Hurrican Ike a few years ago, not a peep from the usual crowd including the victims. The MSM got bored after a few days. I heard one woman interviewed say when asked to compare the response for Ike versus Katrina (Bush was still Pres) in the aftermath "We're Texans, we can take care of ourselves"! That about sums up. So why bother if there are no "victims".

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, That makes it even worse because he never had to say anything. In fact, he went out of his way to slam middle-America. Ug.

Writer X said...

When does Bloomberg name a street after Shazhad? It's comforting to know that the NYC mayor is as big an idiot as our Phoenix mayor, Phil Gordon.

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