Why? Because they know how much he FUCKED UP before, during and after 9/11.
Hundreds of firefighters died because Giuliani didn't give them adequate radios. Ask the NYC firefighters if he's a hero and they'll tell you "Hell no!". He also ignored FBI warnings about 9/11. He lied about the air quality after 9/11 so rescuers got lung disease. He used the remains of the dead to fill POTHOLES on highways. He supported mobbed-up Bernie Kerik. And despite warnings from the FBI, he built his command-and-control center NEXT TO the World Trade Center. So when the attacks happened, the command-and-control center was destroyed immediately.
Go ahead and try to campaign like you're some kind of "tough guy," Giuliani. New York City cops and firefighters and regular New Yorkers will speak up and tell the whole country that you're full of shit.
Giuliani was a 9/11 Failurehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/23/11431/2093by davefromqueens
Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 09:15:17 AM PDT
It's September 10th, 2001. Rudy Giuliani is so unpopular in New York that he couldn't be elected dogcatcher. Having raised middle class taxes/fees, presided over the continued decline of one of the worst public school systems in America, worsened the state of health care in NYC, and doled out corporate welfare to his fat cat buddies, Giuliani was mostly a failure as Mayor. (As have most mayors of both parties been.) Sure crime fell (but it did nationwide and NYC was still safer in the 1960s than it was in 2000 so Giuliani's statistics are misleading) and Manhattan was cleaner (I'll give him that) but this is the same imbecile mayor who tried to close down a museum over a picture he personally disliked and who encouraged the kind of behavior that resulted in tragedies like Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima. Oh and I haven't even mentioned his personal behavior because Giuliani actually makes Brittney Spears seem tolerable.
But Giuliani's biggest failures as mayor stems from 9/11, both prior to and afterward. I live here, was in Manhattan on that day, so if you're not from NY, take it from those of us who live here first.
GIULIANI'S 9/11 FAILURES
A. PRIOR TO 9/11
1. IGNORING THE FBI - When the WTC was attacked in 1993 and we had a President who actually captured and killed EVERY person responsible for those attacks, the FBI released a series of recommendations to NYC to follow in the mid 1990s. But Giuliani, by that point replacing a competent Bill Bratton with an incompetent Howard Safir (and later third grade detective and door holder Bernie Kerik) put his ego (Giuliani is an incompetent leader and only feels secure around people even more incompetent) ahead of security and snubbed his nose at the FBI. Had these recommendations been implemented, more American lives in NYC would have been saved on 9/11.
2. FIREFIGHTER EQUIPMENT - Part of those recommendations were to give the firefighters radio equipment to communicate from ground to air. Those on the ground knew that the WTC would collapse 15-20 minutes down the road. IF the firefighters had the proper radio equipment, they would have been told to get out. Instead, they climbed to their death.
3. The COMMAND CENTER IN THE SKY - Only an idiot builds a command center 23 stories in the sky next to a major target of terrorists AFTER being told by the FBI NOT TO. Had there been an operational command center on 9/11, more lives would have been saved.
4. COORDINATION OF DEPARTMENTS - Again Giuliani the incompetent ignored the FBI recommendations to coordinate police with fire and EMT. Instead, we had a bunch of people running around not knowing what to do. This indecisiveness and confusion cost lives on 9/11.
B. GIULIANI ON 9/11
1. INTRODUCTION - Of the 3 categories, Giuliani will get his highest marks here by default. What Giuliani does best is speak to the camera and he did that well. But giving press conferences as opposed to taking meaningful actions are two different things. And keep in mind that with Bush reading My Pet Goat, ANYBODY would have looked good compared to Bush.
2. RUNNING AROUND, DOING NOTHING - From 8:46 am to 10:00 am was the time for Giuliani to be a leader. And Giuliani failed. He spent the time wandering the streets of lower Manhattan aimlessly not knowing what to do. He was lost and clueless. (The press conferences came later.)
3. SCREWING THE FIREFIGHTERS - Giuliani and his brass had the opportunity to save lives but didn't. Instead they got word that the WTC might collapse. Instead of captains taking 2 extra minutes to help their sailors, Giuliani decided to jump ship without the thought of trying to send word to the firefighter to get out of the buildings.
C. AFTER 9/11
1. EPA CORRUPTION - Giuliani and the Bush administration concealed environmental hazards and air conditions at 9/11 basically sending rescue workers to their deaths down the road. This is shameful.
2. LAWSUITS - Instead of helping the victims of 9/11 recover, Giuliani and Bush have been preventing these plaintiffs from getting what they are entitled to. Hero my ass.
3. PROFITTING OFF 9/11 - It's been well documented how Giuliani has exploited this tragedy for personal profit. The thing is Giuliani didn't do anything.
4. STEALING 9/11 VICTIM FUND MONEY - This is the one that should destroy Giuliani. To have the chutzpah to take money meant for the widows of 9/11 and redirecting it to his cronies is unforgivable.
5. TRIED SUSPENDING DEMOCRACY - If the terrorists hate us for our freedom, they sure must love Giuliani for Rudy tried to extend his term as mayor for 3 extra months.
6. IGNORING BIN LADEN, PRAISING BUSH During the 2004 convention, Giuliani said "Thank God George W Bush is our president." (I'd love for Democrats to make a commercial out of that in 2008 if Giuliani did get the nomination.) But what pissed New Yorkers off most is how Giuliani didn't give a flying **** about capturing Bin Laden and instead being a cheerleader for unrelated policies. New Yorkers want Bin Laden dead and Giuliani gave us a big middle finger.
CONCLUSION
The record as a whole shows Giuliani to be a miserable failure on 9/11 and his status as some kind of hero is completely mythological and driven by the corporate media. Somewhere in a safe house in Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden was probably saying to himself, "Thank Allah George W Bush is President, Thank Allah Rudy Giuliani is Mayor of New York City. The death toll would never have been as high without them."
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Other links:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/6/74858/89641=====
NYC Firefighters say "HELL NO" to Guiliani (+why it matters) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/8/181511/0665by SemDem
Thu Mar 08, 2007 at 03:50:41 PM PDT
It's bad enough for his campaign that conservatives don't like him, hence probably why this story got picked up just now from FAUXNEWS. (I visit so you won't have to.) But at least Rudy had that whole credibility thing with 9/11 and would parade around in a firefighter's jacket.
Not so damn fast.
Essentially, the International Association of Firefighters were going to invite all the major presidential candidates to their forum, but specifically left out Rudy Guiliani because of his decision to "scoop and dump" the victims, reducing the number of rescuers, and arresting 15 firefighters who protested.
The full content of the letter is
hereThe slam comes at the end:
We have heard from some affiliates that Giuliani's campaign is beginning to reach out to our locals, looking to build support. If you are contacted by Giuliani, Von Essen, or a representative of the Giuliani campaign, we hope you will say not just, "No," but, "Hell no." And please let the IAFF Political Affairs Department know about it by calling (202) 824-1582.
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More comments below from Steve Gilliard. Steve is a New Yorker, by the way.
Giuliani lied to Ground Zero workers about the air there and now they're getting sick as dogs. Same with firemen and cops. All sick from the crap that spewed in the air. And all lied to.
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/08/2004_08_01_archive.html#109232172546308812#109232172546308812The sad truth is that New Yorkers saved themselves on 9/11, with scant help from City Hall or anyone else. The story of 9/11 is about the way people, in good order, walked away fromn the World Trade Center and got home. No one panicked, no one got trampled, no one rioted. New Yorkers pulled together and got about saving themselves.
The city has been in denial for years. About the way Giuliani and the EPA lied about the air quality, as thousands of workers now suffer from mysterious illnesses. You could smell the burning flesh and plastic from miles away, I know I choked on it for days. When I went down to Ground Zero in October, there was still a fine dust covering everything on Broadway. People had to be sick from this.
But the biggest denial cuts to the heart of Giuliani's management style, the inefficient and ultimately contrary way he managed the uniformed services. The rank and file of both the FDNY and NYPD hated Giuliani because he wouldn't give them decent raises. Things were so bad that the LAPD and LA Sheriff's Department held successful recruiting drives in New York. However, he lavished praise on their management, despite the rank incompetance of Howard Safir, Giuliani's lacky and the commissioner of the NYPD during it's worst racial incidents.
...
The reaction to Giuliani was long suppressed anger at the lies and obfuscation handed down by politicians. People want to know why their kin died, why those who worked at Ground Zero are sick. Giuliani's ass-covering excuses are no longer acceptable. We're past the time for myths and need real answers.
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_archive.html#108515272487847996#108515272487847996But the biggest denial cuts to the heart of Giuliani's management style, the inefficient and ultimately contrary way he managed the uniformed services. The rank and file of both the FDNY and NYPD hated Giuliani because he wouldn't give them decent raises. Things were so bad that the LAPD and LA Sheriff's Department held successful recruiting drives in New York. However, he lavished praise on their management, despite the rank incompetance of Howard Safir, Giuliani's lacky and the commissioner of the NYPD during it's worst racial incidents.
The firefighters absolutely hated their commissioner, former union chief Thomas Von Essen. He was so hated he was disinvited to several funerals.
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_archive.html#108515272487847996#108515272487847996Giuliani isn't ready for prime time, forget running for president.
New Yorkers find the whole idea of Giuliani running for president amusing. Because he has no shot. This shows exactly how second rate his team is.
The fact is that the Giuliani campaign can't even explain it's liabilities well. The refusals to deal with black officials, the living with gay men.
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html#116782464160432896#116782464160432896Myths of a 9/11 hero, debunked
After the terrorist attacks, Mayor Giuliani was the man. Now his leadership comes under fire in "Grand Illusion."
By Kit R. Roane
Special to The Times
August 22, 2006
'Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11'
Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins
HarperCollins: 390 pp., $25.95
Few reporters who covered New York City government during Rudolph W. Giuliani's reign would dispute that the mayor saw himself as a powerful leader destined for greatness. But many were shocked when much of the country began to agree.
Giuliani was a lame duck when 2000 drew to a close, a mayor whose political stature was in a tailspin and whose private life was being rocked by illness and scandal. A local tabloid had revealed Giuliani's long-term affair with a pharmaceutical sales manager, which led to an equally public call for divorce from his apoplectic wife. Meanwhile, prostate cancer had forced him from a tepid U.S. Senate campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton.
To Giuliani's political enemies, this delicious farrago had been a long time coming. They relished the comeuppance of a man whose self-assured rhetoric often came off as mean-spirited bullying and who most often reacted angrily to criticism when he wasn't being dismissive in the extreme. Many New Yorkers thought Giuliani would have had trouble being elected dogcatcher. Talk of a run for president of the United States would have been rich indeed. But as Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins note in "Grand Illusion," their superb dissection of the reality behind the Giuliani myth-making after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: "What a difference a day made."
...
But although Giuliani's "quick response and personal fearlessness ... provided a clean and reassuring narrative," Barrett, a senior writer at the Village Voice, and Collins, a senior producer at CBSNews.com, argue that there is a darker, more important narrative of the mayor's failures, one they contend cost many lives on Sept. 11 and may contribute to future illnesses and deaths due to lax safety standards during the cleanup. The tone of "Grand Illusion" is often prosecutorial. But the writers' extensive research results in a convincing indictment of Giuliani's priorities as mayor and his later self-promotion as a terrorism expert.
...
The focus of their ire is Giuliani's claim that, although the magnitude of the attacks was unforeseeable, he had assumed from the moment he came into office in 1994 that terrorists would attack New York City and so he made the city's emergency response a priority. There has been little in Giuliani's record to support that claim. But "Grand Illusion" now reveals a record that directly contradicts it.
It is not that Giuliani wouldn't have had reason to prepare. After all, terrorists had exploded a car bomb underneath one World Trade Center tower in 1993. But Barrett and Collins' detailed research shows a mayor who utterly failed to grasp the importance of readying the city for another terrorist attack. Lou Anemone, the police department's chief operating officer during much of Giuliani's tenure, recalls trying to brief the mayor on a citywide terrorism security plan in 1998. "Rudy glazed over," he said, adding: "We never had any discussion about security at the World Trade Center. We never even had a drill or exercise there.... There was just a lack of recognition of the problem at City Hall."
...But the wealth of material paints a clear picture of City Hall ineptitude in the face of continuing terrorist threats.
...The book handily punctures a hole in the myth of Giuliani as a praiseworthy terrorism czar who had prepared his city for the tragedy that unfolded. Although there is plenty of blame to go around, Giuliani, as mayor, set the tone of his administration and picked the people who would be counted on to respond appropriately. At both tasks, he failed miserably, the book shows, choosing politics over public safety.
"The facts — depressing but unavoidable — were that Giuliani had allowed the city to meet the disaster of September 11 unprepared in a myriad of ways," write the authors, a statement that rings depressingly true by the end of "Grand Illusion."
Yeah, Kelly hates Giuliani.
Kelly was a Marine Infantry officer, Vietnam Vet, former street cop and retired from the Marine Reserves as a Colonel. He thinks Giuliani is a pussy.
The whole thing of Giuliani as hero was bullshit anyway. He did his job on 9/11, but Kerik didn't. A lot of people didn't, and his money making after 9/11 was sleazy.
What people don't understand is that when Giuliani became mayor, Sharpton was little better than a joke. Tawana Brawley had done a number on him in the press. His lawyers were in deep shit and facing legal sanction. Calvin Butts was getting a lot of positive press while Sharpton's Brooklyn base was stagnating.
By the time he left City Hall, Sharpton was the most powerful politician in the city.
Why?
Because he was the only opposition to the mayor and he NEVER called him a racist. Which left Giuliani sputtering. Giuliani's disrespect towards half of the city was amazing. It was as if he was at war with black New York. By 9/10 he was headed towards ignominy. Even Ed Koch had no use for him.
The glow of 9/11 lasted about a week in New York. Yes, just one week. Two things happened which reminded people exactly why they hated him.
One, Giuliani tried to extend his term to March, 2002. Pataki was going along with it, but Roger Green, head of the Black and Latino caucus in the Assembly threatened to block legislation if they even tried it. Then Gail Collins delivered the final blow condemning it in the Times.
Two, the weekend after or close to it, it's fuzzy, Giuliani went on Saturday Night Live with 100 firefighters, cops and EMT's. Not one black person included. People noticed. I remember seeing this and being pissed. 100 people, not one black face.
While the rest of the country was falling in love with him, New York was planning to move past him and his racist confrontational methods. Giuliani's baggage is massive and this is just part of it.
http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2006/08/2006_08_01_archive.html#115639942320342082#115639942320342082 
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