Mr. Super 9/11 Rudy

Giuliani. Just the name brings back memories of New York City, my birth place, and the city that I grew up in, but left over 20 years ago. I had never really paid much attention to local politics in those days, but Koch was still mayor when I departed that scene to make my way to sunny California. But forget about my history, this is about Super Rudy, the saviour of our nation from the boogeymen in the shadows, who wait to drive fear into the very heart of our nation. Let's put aside all of the 9/11 talk. Let's forget the fact that this is the man who placed the Emergency Response Center IN the WTC, against the advice of his own people. Let's put aside his running for President on the souls of dead Americans, both civilian and soldier alike, or the fact that had their been no terror attack, Rudy would have gone down in flames as mayor of N.Y., due to his tyrannical rule over the city.

Instead we'll concentrate on some facts and numbers that Rudy constantly lies about, and the numbers that just pop into his head, and spew out of his mouth like so much wasted air. Let's open the book, shall we?

Rudy loves to tout himself as the mayor who cleaned up N.Y. He claims to have instituted programs such as Community Policing that helped curb crime in N.Y.'s inner city neighborhoods. This is a patent falsehood that no one in MSM has bothered to dispute, but the facts are clearly evident. Before Giuliani came into office, it was actually Mayor Dinkins who started the Community Policing Program in N.Y. by hiring Dr. Lee Brown, who started his career with the San Jose, California police, before moving on to become sheriff of Multnomah County, Oregon, which is where he came up with the concept of community policing. It was so successful, that he was hired by the city of Houston as Police Chief, where his programs helped to transform that city's entire police department.

Tapped by then Mayor Dinkins to be the N.Y. Police Commissioner, Mr. Brown proceeded to implement his strategies in the inner city neighborhoods that led to the greatest reduction of crime in the city's history, even as the national crime rates were skyrocketing. After Brown, came Police Commissioner Bratton, who furthered Brown's program's and was actually featured on the cover of Time magazine, but was summarily fired by Super Rudy afterwards, for daring to take the spotlight away from the mayor himself. Giuliani merely inherited a program that was already in place when he took office, but now claims to have started the program himself. This is misleading at best, and a patent lie at worst.

What Rudy doesn't like to talk about is the fact that under his administration, incidents of police brutality went virtually unchecked altogether, rising 41 per cent, and he even fought off many complaints of abuse by trying to block investigations into the exact number of incidents.

In his also touted 'welfare for work' program, Rudy loves to tout figures that show that he moved almost 500,000 people off of the welfare rolls. Well, he might have, but not in the way you think. He instituted his 'welfare for work' program by declaring that everyone who receives a welfare check had to work in exchange for that check. In the case of single mothers, he made no distinction at all, and didn't care if they had access to child care. Some mothers tried to bring their kids to their designated job sites, but that wasn't allowed, so they ended up being kicked off of the welfare rolls for not showing up for work. Such compassion! And so, homelessness rose, shelters became overwhelmed, and Rudy had his gestapo forces kicking the homeless out of city parks, in violation of N.Y. law. Law? Who cares what the State Supreme Court says! Not to mention the fact that using this 'welfare for work' was tantamount to slavery due to the fact that an average workweek of 40 hours pared against the average welfare check meant that those people were toiling for Rudy for an average of $2.80 an hour.

Rudy, following the standard neo-con vision, also cut taxes for the rich in N.Y., while still presiding over a population that held 1 in 5 New Yorkers below the poverty line, well above the national average.

But let's examine one of his latest statements that has drawn the ire of many Europeans. He recently said this: “My chance of surviving prostate cancer – and, thank God, I was cured of it – in the United States? 82 per cent. My chance of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 per cent under socialised medicine.” This blatant falsehood was refuted by England's Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, who said that Rudy should get his facts straight before spouting off. The national figure for survival of early detection of prostate cancer in England is actually 74.7 per cent, and rising.

Lastly, even though I could continue to write about Rudy's misconduct and outright fraud during his tenures as prosector and mayor, New Yorkers themselves will remember the photo op storm trooper assault on the financial firm of Princeton/Newport, that involved fifty federal marshalls armed with automatic weapons. Or his having two investment bankers hauled off of the trading floor in handcuffs. All were later exonerated of any wrongdoing, but Super Rudy has yet to apologize for his overzeolous nazi tactics. We could also ask Rudy about his involvement with the security firm he still works for and uses to protect him while out campaigning. This is a clear violation of election laws, but who cares? They all do it, so what's the big deal?

Let's just say that if you walk down the streets of N.Y., and ask the average person walking down the street their thoughts on Super Rudy, be prepared for an angry tirade of epithets. No. Rudy is just another tyrannical neo-con, who was a bumbling buffon as mayor, and as President, would be another in a long line of neo-cons who want nothing more than to take ALL of your rights away. Batmanchester