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New York, 9:01 PM
Sat Nov 28
9 posts in the last 24 hours
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04/04/09
04/04/09
04/04/09
Seriously, a President Palin would TALK about banning books. President Rudy would actually DO IT.
04/04/09
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04/04/09
These guys are so successful that it doesn't even matter that their 3rd party endorsement comes from George Bush. Ewwwwwwwwww.
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I don't know what kind of President Rudy would have been, but I watched enough interviews to know that he at least understands the concept of fiscal responsibility and wouldn't have required a crash course in monetary policy.
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04/04/09
On 9/10/01 Rudy was the most hated man in NYC. I can only imagine that somewhere deep in his heart, Rudy thanks bin Laden for saving his career.
04/04/09
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04/04/09
Yes, he was an ok mayor for a while, but he's certainly no Allen Dulles. It's the same stupid rationale about how being mayor on September 11th gave him expertise.
Plus, Rudy is fundamentally an asshole.
04/04/09
Further, I'll tell you what. The next time there's a huge catatrophe in New York I'll put on a police jacket and walk around for three days clapping people on the back and telling them what a great job they're going. Make me a hero. Make me a millionaire.
04/04/09
BTW, how the hell do you know his biz is "fake?" Say what you will about Rudy, but few people have ever experienced what he has, truly being on the front lines of a disaster recovery of that magnitude. I do believe that gives him a bit of an edge over some other consultants. Not a lot of terrorism going on US soil right now. Business is slow.
04/04/09
04/04/09
@Mike Jahn: It was a little hard for any of us to enjoy the soul of New York because we were doing wind sprints from our cabs or trains to the hotel or apartment in which we would lock ourselves with multiple dead bolts. Are you also mad at those Clinton bastards for ruining Harlem?
New Orleans? Are you fucking kidding me? I've lived there. Lot's of artistry. Zero positive vibe. Tons of poverty, unemployment, corruption and crime. If you were going to pick any city in the Continental US to try to make your point, New Orleans falls somewhere between Camden and Detroit.
@momof3wildkids: You were perfectly understandable. Listen, idiots, Las Vegas is suffering right now too. Is that because all of the casinos are run by incompetent boobs? Not every enterprise that fails is because it is run like GM or AIG. As long as this crisis has been going on you would think that people would educate themselves a little bit about businesses and economics.
@Mike Jahn: Mike, you're right. As much as I disagree with the two of you, "Lord Humongous" is a totally kick ass screen name. Sometimes you have to step back and appreciate the beauty of the little things, or in this case, the humongous things.
04/04/09
He didn't even bring the crime rate down. That started under Dinkins. He played the typical race baiting Repugnant card that the previous mayor was only looking out for his own, i.e., only protecting Harlem citizens somehow.
He was an utter and complete fraud. He's still talked of because of the power of celebrity, which seems to run longer the least substance there is behind it. He is Jessica Simpson, no less, certainly no more.
04/04/09
There were a million or so on the scene at the time, and most of them willing to walk through rubble for stardom, had they been asked. Plus, they didn't make any decisions which worsened the catastrophe, such as failing to see the response personnel in one tower could communicate with the other, plus seeing the headquarters of emergency planning was not in the most likely strike vicinity.
So you have millions literally who were higher up the hero scale than this self-promoting dud. The Hypocrites Oath: First; Do No Harm.
04/04/09
04/04/09
I'm not calling him a hero, I'm just saying his experiences, both the successes and failures (as it is far easier to learn from your mistakes), might qualify him as a consultant in that biz.
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Typically what then happens is that they choose a common channel so that they can communicate information that needs to be shared. That telling every member of each division to switch to an alternate channel. The next difficulty comes from the fact that you need to account for each person on the new channel. You can't just jump to channel X and hope that all of the hundreds of people heard it. People are dealing with shouting, screaming, face to face conversations and dead zones within buildings. Not everyone will get the message.
The benefit of having a megaphone to reach the people in your immediate vicinity is so that you don't tie up the radio air for something that only needs to be communicated to someone relatively close to you.
I'm not saying he was the Second Coming on 911. In fact, I don't know how much any elected official should be directly involved in supervising an emergency. However, There isn't one mayoral candidate in the history of NY that had a pat plan for planes colliding into buildings.
I doubt that the radio situation is much better. It is an inherent problem with two way radios. I know we haven't improved much in my agency.
@Mike Jahn: Feel free to jab. I have a thick skin. I couldn't figure out how to locate you on FB. Sorry.
04/04/09
04/04/09
The icon of all Motivational Speakers on auto safety should never have been Ralph Nadir but any crash test dummy, which Ghoulyahi resembles anyway.
04/04/09
04/04/09
They have their job cut out for them down at SMU, rehabbing the rep of the utmost disaster of American history. Doofus Dohbya makes even Ghoul look good.
04/04/09
[www.cnn.com]
04/05/09
04/05/09
"Government at all levels was forewarned of the catastrophic nature of the approaching storm and did painfully little to be ready to evacuate, search, rescue and relieve," said the Connecticut lawmaker, who had accused the White House of stonewalling the committee.
More than 1,300 people were killed by Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- where the storm first hit August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane.
A special House committee concluded last month that the response to Katrina at all levels of government was dismal, poorly planned and badly coordinated, showing that "America is still not ready for prime time" more than four years after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
I always wanted to write this: italics mine.
The article does seem to establish, as CNN is his witness, that Browny was at least more engaged earlier than the disastrous doofus in DC. Of course, grading on that curve, even Gonzo doesn't look quite so dumb. Besides, you would expect, especially with a puppet president, the various department heads would realize they would have to carry the load in their own fields. Even political hacks should realize that. And which department head was most responsible for such emergencies?
04/05/09
In addition, the training in the military is far superior to the training in law enforcement. This is because when they aren't actively engaged in fighting, they are rotated out for training. Law enforcement doesn't have that kind of overflow to constantly rotate people to train. The average cop receives less than one year of academy and on the job training. Maybe two weeks of that is allocated to dealing with major catastrophes.
If he or she works for a good agency, he/she gets two weeks a year of refresher training. Maybe a day of that is dedicated to a class room review of disaster response. You see where I'm going with this?
The military has a very specific group of objectives. Law enforcement deals with everything from huge catastrophes to check kiting. It's a little unrealistic to think that the cops responding the Twin Towers would be as prepared to deal with that disaster as a military unit that is trained for specific objectives, like taking a beach or a hill.
This training situation is not a situation specific to Giuliani's NY. This is the status of Law Enforcement around the US.
04/06/09
After that - are you ready for this? - they were returned stateside for either six months or a year and a half of "training" to complete their enlistments or draft requirements. If your MOS was artillery, then you might rise up and go out in the field and fire the 155 Howizer all day, in preparation for civilian life.
It was utterly useless and it was simply to complete terms of service. (Incidentally, most of the discipline troubles and bad paper of the Vietnam era, which set records, resulted from just this cracked notion of sending a troop back to school after he'd been under fire.)
The military today confronts everything from firefights to mortar rounds incoming to fires and explosions and building bridges, plus regular duties as door-to-door police work. This is much more variety than your average fireman, or your average cop on a beat as well. Plus, you have no politicians or political appointees in charge of any unit. The commanders are trained just as the enlisted were. No Ghoulyannis need apply (and, in the case of Repugnants, most duck service anyway).
The Twin Towers were essentially two big fires. None of the responders had to be concerned with "terrorism." All the terrorists were ash by the time the first siren sounded. It mattered not what caused the blazes. If they could not be expected to respond to these particular emergencies, it just means they were not ready for really big fires in their city.
Sorry, I'm still not understanding why utter radio confusion is endemic to emergency responders in major cities with no remedy.
04/06/09
I don't know how to make the radio situation any clearer than I have without getting 1000 radios, hand them to a thousand people and let you witness how many of them think that their piece of information is the most vital thing going on.
04/06/09
04/04/09
[www.giulianipartners.com]
04/04/09
Similarly, when the organization that funds most the "economic research" (along with NBER and NSF) that helped get us into our huge mess -- CEPR -- has their annual report on their website, but it's from 2002-2003, one really must wonder.
[www.cepr.org]
That's cepr.org. Not to be confued with cepr.net
11/19/08
11/19/08
I love it when you flossynaucinihilipillify.
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11/19/08
"Stay close, but not too close. Back off when I say."
11/19/08
@Richard: Fortunately, one of the kids has a father who drives a school bus, so when Dan Abrams sabotages their truck, they'll still be able to get there in the nick of time.