July 29, 2005
Pundits are racing to describe what, if anything, will be Gov. George Pataki's legacy, and Michael Cooper's article in the Times has a terrific analysis. In short, Pataki will be remembered as the guy who beat Mario Cuomo. That's about it. He has some admirable accomplishments in protecting the environment by acquiring land for state preservation, yet he otherwise was undistinguished in the environmental arena. Pataki can now enjoy his lame-duck status for the next 1-1/2 years.
Cuomo himself told Cooper: "I think," he said, "Pataki will be remembered as the guy who beat Cuomo, and went on to run for president." (photo credit: NYT)
Tags:
albany, environmental, governor, lame duck, pataki
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Posted on 7/29/2005
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July 26, 2005
It's easy to understand why the powerful Dems made page A1 of today's New York Times, which related some interesting insights into the campaign. In the first place, Bloomberg is financing his own campaign, so the wealthy needn't donate their shekels to his campaign. Second, he's arguably the best Democrat in the race. Third, he's certainly a paragon of virtue, a model philanthropist, and one of the most successful businessmen in the city, which he aptly parlayed into his first term in office. In particular, each of the four Democrats (Weiner, Fields, Ferrer, and Miller) all have given pretty good reasons not to vote for them, the most recent being Weiner's bizarre comments yesterday at the Edgar M. Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University, when he said he favored increasing faith-based initiatives. He knew his audience, but how did he think the vast majority of Democratic voters who abhor this Bush initiative would react to his saying this?
You'll be hearing this again and again: Mike Bloomberg is the best Democrat in the race.
Tags:
bloomberg, campaign, democrats, donations, ferrer, fields, miller, rich, wealthy, weiner
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Posted on 7/26/2005
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July 26, 2005
Dog days of July: nervousness abounds, and heat adds to the woes. The Gray Line Bus Company clearly overreacted when calling in the cops on a tour bus that had five turbaned British Sikhs on board. Bloomberg apologized: "It was very unfortunate," the mayor said. "The police, I think, probably didn't have any option but to go in." Folks, anyone who has travelled in India or befriended a Sikh knows that Sikhs are universally warm-hearted, outgoing and decent people, and reading this makes me quite sad: "After the supervisor pointed out the five men, the police handcuffed them. The men were handcuffed for 10 minutes while the police searched them and looked for backpacks that the police ultimately determined the men did not have." Sad not least because I thought after the excesses following 9/11 there would not be a jihad against turbaned individuals in this country, who almost exclusively happen to be Sikh.
However, back in the department of common sense, I am happy to learn that the NYPD is expanding its effort to help businesses to deter attacks. Maybe I can suggest a few useful tips for building managers to give their security guards. I've collected these observations over a period of years:
1. Security guards ought to be awake on the job.
2. If the guards are awake (see #1, above), then they ought to be alert and not squawking at their girlfriends/wives/lovers on their Nextel push-to-talk phones.
3. On the subject of push-to-talk phones (see #2, above), security guards ought to be forbidden to spend three-fourths of their workdays squawking on these miserable devices, not least because we really have no interest in learning the sordid details of their personal lives at full blast.
4. Re-read #1 through #3, above, memorize.
Test follows.
Tags:
bloomberg, gray line, nypd, security, sikh, turban
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Posted on 7/26/2005
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July 21, 2005
After the NYPD began random searches of subway passengers' belongings, activist Tony Lu created some t-shirts that declare: I do not consent to being searched. Well, given the hideousness of recent attacks on the London Underground, this time around even an old civil libertarian like myself wonders if he will just shut up and consent.
Tags:
bloomberg, consent, search, subway, underground
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Posted on 7/21/2005
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July 20, 2005
It's the New York way: blame someone else for the bad decision you made, then reverse yourself. Initially, the Port Authority said they stopped cell service at the request of the NYPD, yet PA later admitted it made the decision itself. The Post writes that PA executive director Kenneth Ringler Jr. said yesterday's decision was made after "ongoing consultations with security officials in New York and New Jersey." Looks like enough officials told the PA they were being ridiculous.
Tags:
cellphone, port authority, tunnels
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Posted on 7/20/2005
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