August 31, 2005
Four years later, it's very tough for even the most hardened New Yorker not to be totally blown away by the massive scale of Katrina, the worst storm in American history. We lost our thousands on 9/11, and the wounds still run deep. Obviously rebuilding will still take years here, but rebuilding here is on a tiny scale compared to the massive scars deep along the Gulf Coast. And seeing these images of refugees in our own country—tens of thousands? hundreds of thousands? a million or more?—displaced and now heading as far away as Houston, you have to wonder: how could we be so unprepared? I am sure there are thick volumes of preparedness manuals for any type of future scenario here in New York City. But we knew—we knew this would happen in Louisiana. The New Orleans Times-Picayune published an award-winning series of articles about this in 2002! And now we have the largest refugee crisis in American history on our hands, and New Yorkers are wondering: what the hell can we do about it?
Donate cash to the Red Cross, now.
A society is frequently judged on how it treats the poorest of its poor. Well folks, loading up thousands for a long ride on 475 old buses from the New Orleans Superdome to the Houston Astrodome looks more like Burma's SLORC regime organized this evacuation instead of FEMA.
Tags:
911, red cross, refugee
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Posted on 8/31/2005
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August 30, 2005
Tabloid media feed off stories like this; editors drool as the tales are churned out of the grist mills, becoming ever more lavish and embellished as the days go on. Yes, Robert Chambers is a convicted killer. Obviously a handsome youth who had attended the prestigious York Preparatory School generated big news headlines during the slowest news week of the year exactly 19 years ago this week after he strangled 18-year-old Jennifer Levin some hours after meeting her at Dorrian's Red Hand on the Upper East Side. We soul searched for months: a nice young white girl killed after sex in Central Park behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art always generated exponentially more big headlines than a black woman similiarly-strangled in the northern end of Central Park. So too does a ferryboat disaster in Bangladesh killing 250 people generate far more coverage than one white woman killed in Central Park: it is assumed we just can't relate, and therefore generate much sympathy for those victims.
But let's talk about the killer today, who has dealt with obvious drug problems for a long time. Sabrina Tavernise writes in the Times: "It was hard to believe that the frazzled and disheveled defendant standing before the judge was the same smooth and handsome young man whose crime had once obsessed New York City." Oh really? Don't guys with drug problems flake out and fade into oblivion? Especially guys caught with trace amounts of heroin? Chambers arrived late to court, and actually proferred a decent excuse: He had been "trying to pay several hundred dollars in parking tickets" so his 1999 Saab, "his only worldly possession," wouldn't be impounded. Now irrespective of everything else, that's something any Manhattanite with a car can understand. The judge gave him an additional 10 days for showing disrespect to the court, which of course anyone who knows anything about the Michael Jackson trial can understand.
I have no sympathy for Chambers. He's a loser whose life is ruined. He's obviously ravaged by drugs and by time, like a faded child star reminiscent of Gary Coleman or Kirstie Alley. He didn't become a freak, like Coleman, who shows up at California media events or staged a comeback by running against Schwarzenegger in a crowded field of loser candidates in order to generate publicity. We killed off Coleman years ago; he just isn't cute anymore. Similarly, Kirstie Alley leveraged the tabloid vendetta against her obesity by becoming the fat actress. Nevertheless, she remained the freak. Because she showed herself to be what so many Americans are today: incredibly unhealthy, binging and purging, eating all sorts of garbage. Of course we killed her off again because we don't want that side of ourselves exposed.
Now examine that photo in today's Times. Here is a man who destroyed his life 19 years ago, who served 15 years in jail for the crime (admittedly a pretty lenient sentence), and is reduced to a living zombie. Why? Ask the tabloid media that has hounded him and will hound him to his dying days. Perhaps he deserves it. So Chambers will serve 100 days at Rikers Island. Tavernese recollects: "Chambers was arrested in Harlem for driving with a suspended license. His car did not have an inspection sticker, and a police officer stopped him at a red light. The police later discovered two straws and a piece of tinfoil dusted with drugs in the back seat." Loser, loser, loser. And then: "Drug addiction has dogged Mr. Chambers for much of his adult life, and is one reason he served his full sentence in prison. He was rejected for parole five times, partly because marijuana and heroin had been discovered in his cell." Loser, loser, loser we think. So yet again, rather than useful rehabilitation, one of the dregs of society gets sent to the slammer, where he can experience all manner of emotional and physical depravity, rather than get the substance-abuse help he so desperately needs. He will return hardened by a stay in prison, though probably with a new black book full of dealers' names and numbers. And we'll all be following his next three months closely, thanks to the watchful eye of the tabloids. Because we haven't quite killed this killer off just yet. We prefer to watch him decline into oblivion, at least until it gets too ugly. At that point we can focus our attention on someone else; perhaps O.J. will have a drug problem or something like that.
(photo credit: John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times)
Tags:
drug bust, heroin, jail sentence, preppy killer, rikers island, robret chambers
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Posted on 8/30/2005
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August 27, 2005
Grumpy old men butt horns and later sound off. NY1 captured this gem, courtesy of the Daily News:
Rep. Charles Rangel, dean of the city's congressional delegation, blasted Vice President Cheney yesterday as a "sick man" who "grunts a lot."
"Sometimes I don't even think Cheney is awake enough to know what's going on," Rangel (D-Harlem) said during an interview on New York 1 last night.
"[Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld is the guy in Washington to watch. He's running the country," Rangel added.
"He's a sick man, you know," Rangel said of Cheney, prompting host Davidson Golden to point out that the vice president suffers from heart disease.
Rangel retorted, "He's got heart disease, but the disease is not restricted just to that part of his body. He grunts a lot, so you never really know what he's thinking."
Asked whether he thinks Cheney is healthy enough to do the job, Rangel said, "Why do you think people are spending so much time praying for President Bush's health?
"If he ever leaves and Cheney's in charge, there's not very much to pull together for the rest of our nation," he said. "This is a sad state of affairs."
Tags:
cheney, daily news, ny1, rangel
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Posted on 8/27/2005
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August 26, 2005
A search in the archives reveals: Lockheed was linked to the Parking Violations Bureau scandal of 1986 (remember Donald Manes?). Followed by negative city investigation in 1993; and in 1994, Lockheed agreed not to bid on city contracts for 4 years. What a difference Homeland Security makes! More juicy details in Sewell Chan's true crime article in today's Times. And this delicious quotation:
The MTA had better be careful about what they're buying, because a lot of technologies that have been sold in the name of homeland security have been proven to be utterly ineffective.
Anyone search in that trashcan yet? The Lockheed system is incapable of detecting bombs in trashcans, thereby creating the biggest Achilles heel since the Peloponnesian War. Maybe the MTA should hire the army of homeless trash-can-pickers to do it; they've got the proven experience and are available cheap. Or perhaps Halliburton is available?
Tags:
homeland security, homeless, lockheed, mta, subway
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Posted on 8/26/2005
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August 25, 2005
There are more Pataki tapes, essentially ending Pataki's dipping his toes in the waters outside the cozy castle of Albany. In today's New York Post, audio expert Paul Ginsberg said the 45-minute tape of secret conversations is made up of 88 different edits. After Murdoch Jr. (as recently noted in this blog) departed posthaste for Oz, Big Daddy Murdoch returned to the helm of the failing paper. Considering how much Big Daddy needs Hillary these days—the billions gleaned from running a multinational media giant far outweigh the need to be a 24/7 conservative pundit—perhaps Big Daddy himself decided to snuff out Pataki and stop sittting on these tapes, which Fred Dicker may well have already had in his hot little hands for years. The WSJ notes today that Murdoch's annual bonus jumps over 50% to $18.9 million: Under an incentive plan, News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch can earn as much as $25 million in annual bonuses if the company's earnings rise 40% or more from the previous fiscal year.
Besides, Pataki isn't conservative enough for Murdoch; just yesterday, we learned the gov signed legislation that requires all schools to use "green" cleaning supplies.
Tags:
clinton, dicker, hillary, murdoch, new york post, pataki
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Posted on 8/25/2005
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August 23, 2005
Yesterday we learned how backroom deals are modus operandi in New York State. Today we learn that massive defense contractor will get a $200 million-plus contract with the MTA to build a huge surveillance network, ostensibly to "help thwart terror attacks" in the subway. Problem is, Lockheed is one of the biggest backroom wheeler-dealers in the USA, delivering less bang per buck than even some of the biggest other notorious defense contractors. Rest assured, some fat cats will make top dollar on the contract, while the subway creaks along with a third-rate security upgrade. Problem is, only three companies bid on this "integrated electronic security system" project, so it wasn't tough for the MTA to decide the company was the best qualified. It was a three-way tie for last, in other words. It doesn't help the MTA's lousy reputation that comptroller William Thompson raised concerns yesterday about the MTA's plan to use "more than half of its $833 million surplus" to build a huge platform over the West Side rail yards and put its headquarters there. This authority is truly a boondoggle. Oh, and this system is incapable of detecting bombs in trashcans, thereby creating the biggest Achilles heel since the Peloponnesian War.
Tags:
albany, mta, security, subway, underground, west side stadium
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Posted on 8/23/2005
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August 15, 2005
NYC has a sheriff, and it is his posse of depuy sheriffs who tow a lot. But the 36 bigwig marshals, who are actually private businessmen, will reap huge profits, according to the New York Post, because the Bloomberg administration is granting them "the multimillion-dollar monopoly on towing parking scofflaws in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx by year's end." Anyone who has ever seen these guys on the job knows they work like horse thieves in the dead of night, moving slyly. Ringelmatz himself recently observed their posse of four trucks (and an unmarked van with secretary utilizing a hand-held scanner and an old-fashioned pen, paper and clipboard) rip a car out of a parallel-parking space in under a minute. The entire job from rip to tow took just two minutes. Part of this payoff is because of a new law that raises "from $230 to $350 the amount a driver must owe in parking-ticket fines before his vehicle can be towed." As anyone who ever parks in Manhattan below 96th Street knows, it takes just two $115 tickets to hit the old $230 threshold.
Ringelmatz does admire this paragraph so much here it is verbatim: A Post investigation found that 54 percent of the 136,243 vehicles towed last year had less than $350 in unpaid tickets. The marshals — whose gross income averaged $1.04 million in 2004 — handled 75 percent of those tows. The deputy sheriffs — civil servants making an average of $50,000 a year — took care of the rest.
Tags:
marshal, parking, sheriff, tickets, tow
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Posted on 8/15/2005
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August 12, 2005
Reading through the PDF of 911 EMS transcripts from September 11, which were released today, you get a frightening reminder of how the events unfolded on that day:
8:47:45
SUPPLEMENT-PD
(D41A) ----BLDG EXPLOSION---BARCLAY N CHURCH-----BLDG EXPLOSION
08:50:12
PDEMS
(Y33) ANOTHER CALL MC STS PLANE JUST FLEW INTO WORL TRADE CENTER--POSS
COMMERICAL AIRPLANE----BLGD WITH LARGE TOWER---
09:09:21
SUPPLEMENT-PD
(T06) MC STS 2 WT CNTR---MC STS PEOPLE ARE JUMPING OUT THE SIDE OF A LRG
HOLE---POSS NOONE CATCHING THEM--OPR 2322 C06
09:47:15
SUPPLEMENT-PD
(T70) -------------------STS 2 WORLD TRADE CNTR------------FLR 105-----
STS FLOOR UNDERNEATH HER---------------COLLAPSE------------NFI....OPR
2331 CP 70
10:12:05
SUPPLEMENT-PD
(D41A) ---OFFICERS ON 2 FLR-------NEED IMMEDIATE MEDIVAC------1191
10:12:14
PDEMS
(D44A) ---------T A R U-----TRAPPED AT LIBERTY N WEST---D1070
You read through this, realizing people are dying all over and nothing can be done to help them. It is truly haunting. There are names, addresses and phone numbers of callers, as well as what is happening in black-and white: "ANOTHER CALL MC IS NAME IS RIICK IS ON THE 88 FLR STS PEOPLE PASSING OUT----FD 331 WAS NTFD----CB 212 323 8421-----DIFF BREATHING PEOPLE PASSING OUT--------BREAKING WINDOWS-" or "CALLL ERTS HE'S ON THE 100TH FLR------NORTHWEST CONFERENCE RM---ON
THE FLR---THE ONLY ONE THERE---FD 313 NTFD----ANI-ALI-2124793501 AON
RISK SERVICES 2 WORLD TRADE CTR OPER 1535-CP57 "
And you realize once again: these people died. It's just awful.
Tags:
911, ems, fdny, transcripts, wtc
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Posted on 8/12/2005
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August 08, 2005
The weakest link in our rail system has been plugged, thanks to the NYPD teaming up with Amtrak police and other state police forces between NYC and DC, Newsday reports today. While there are no specific threats against Amtrak, anyone who has spent more than five seconds on a train platform in Penn Station since 9/11 has realized that security is not what it ought to be. As the tragic events in London remind us, our rail systems are critical infrastructure and deserve additional financing and security. Given that the Northeast Corridor has the most dense concentration of rail traffic in the United States, it is shameful that it took this long to get here.
Tags:
amtrak, nypd, police, railroad, secure
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Posted on 8/8/2005
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August 02, 2005
By the time you've watched just one hour of the Fox show "American Idol," Rupert Murdoch has lost $7,990 on the New York Post. The slumping tabloid is hemorrhaging as much as $70 million a year, according to revelations that have emerged amid the sudden resignation of Post publisher Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert's son.
OK, so the Post's biggest competitor, the Daily News, leads with this shocking and true revelation. Of course the Daily News would love to jab the Post in the eye whenever possible, not least since the Post so adroitly skewered the News over its bungled scratch-off instant winner sweepstakes game. (Anything to sell a newspaper in this town!) But the truth is, under young Lachlan Murdoch's tutelage, the Post has declined inexorably into a Fleet Street-style mudslinging, recycling, and plain ol' making up stuff tabloid. Last week's front page about Osama bin Laden's alleged attempts to poison cocaine destined for the United States is the stuff of pure fantasy, the sort of rumormongering that belongs in the pages of the Weekly World News next to an article about Elvis sightings, and not in a newspaper established by Alexander Hamilton. For the record, the DEA said it was news to them, and the Daily News responded with this screamer: Feds snort at Post's coke tale.
Tags:
cocaine, daily news, dea, lottery, murdoch, new york post, osama
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Posted on 8/2/2005
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