PamRotella.com

Bloomberg terrorizes New York with a tacky Bush ploy
[Posted 21 October 2005]

OK, it's been a couple of weeks, and few are brave enough to say it outright, but didn't New York's recent elevated terror alert come at a convenient time for New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg?

Everyone was slinging opinions around New York about Bloomberg's decision NOT to participate in the debate at Harlem's famous Apollo Theater. His absence was the top news story the following morning; clearly the black community of Harlem had been snubbed. It seemed Democrat Fernando Ferrer and Thomas Ognibene of the Conservative Party were getting the better of Bloomberg, with the empty podium making quite a visual on local news stories. But then... right around the time of the debate... a "terror" alert was raised in New York, thus occasionally bumping Bloomberg's decision to chicken out of the Harlem debate from the top story on TV news.

While reporters repeated the somewhat strange line that terrorists were thinking of using baby carriages to bomb the subway, other government officials started to discount the credibility of the supposed terror plot and question Bloomberg's decision to raise the alert level at all. Unfortunately for Bloomberg, and the rest of New York, it seemed the terror alert was nothing more than a tacky, Bush-style media manipulation. Usually Bloomberg is above simple-minded Bush tricks, but he decided to try it this time, and, well, it flopped. Tripe like that may play well in the red states, but New Yorkers are a little too sophisticated not to question their "leadership," especially when it seems they need some good questioning.

Meanwhile, news stories from the Harlem debate featured Bloomberg's empty podium, with most attacks focused on Bloomberg from both the Democrat and Conservative candidates. Tom Ognibene dismissed Bloomberg's claim to be a Republican, saying that Bloomberg only wanted power for his own gain: "I don't see him as a Republican. I see him as somebody who wants to usurp the system and use it for his own benefit." Ognibene also refused to answer who in the Ferrer-Bloomberg race he'd prefer to win, but then made a statement that Ferrer was a more honest man. No doubt an easy conclusion to draw in the midst of a phony bomb threat. Can't get much more dishonest than that!

It's too bad that Bloomberg would stoop to the level of George W. Bush. They don't call Bush President Moron for nothing. Bush's pathetic and cruel attempts at media manipulation through terror threats and other simplistic diversions are old news -- old and stale. They just don't play well with America anymore, and realistically, never played well at all. Bush was never genuinely elected, and wouldn't be in office today if it weren't for voting fraud. And if the rest of America can see through Bush's ploys, why wouldn't they see through Bloomberg's cheap imitations?

Well, the Harlem debates are over, and Bloomberg still leads in the polls. That's most likely because, as his Democratic challenger Ferrer says, Bloomberg has a personal fortune to spend on his campaign. But the debate snub and shameful Bush-style manufactured terror plot won't be forgotten. Tom Delay was just arrested yesterday, if you'll remember, and the Rove-Cheney-Libby trio should be posting bail soon too. The process is slow, and it's true the public has a short-term memory. But public trust erodes rather quickly whether the specifics are remembered or not, and sometimes political criminals are actually punished.

In this case, everyone now knows that Bloomberg wasn't man enough to show at the Apollo, and that he is willing to threaten people with a terror plot in order to cover his tracks. Not admirable traits at all. A few more cheap Bush ploys like that, and Bloomie can retire with his own Chief Moron title.


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