This afternoon, the Giuliani campaign is set unveil its "Justice Advisory Committee." In addition to Ted Olson, who is chairing the committee and has already endorsed Giuliani, it will include former Bush administration deputy attorney general Larry Thompson and Miguel Estrada, who would be on the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. today were it not for Democratic filibustering:
Estrada became the poster boy for President Bush's stalled federal judge nominees. Social conservative lawmakers and pro-family groups fought extremely hard to get him confirmed. Eventually he pulled his name from consideration. But the fact that he's back on Giuliani's justice committee is a major "get" for him.
Anything that Giuliani does to reassure conservatives that as president he would appoint strict constructionist judges will provide a boost to his chances of capturing the Republican nomination. Having Estrada on his team goes a long way.
The Washington Times: House Republicans are pushing legislation to protect airline passengers from lawsuits for reporting suspicious behavior that might be linked to a terrorist attack. Finally! Somebody is going to stand up for the American public!
Rudy Giuliani yesterday blasted Democrats in Congress for blocking a measure that would protect from civil lawsuits citizen tipsters who report suspected terrorist activity.
Giuliani, the Republican 2008 presidential front-runner, charged it's another example of Democrats being soft on terrorism.
The proposed amendment to anti-terrorism legislation, sponsored by Long Island Republican Rep. Peter King, would provide immunity to citizens who alert authorities to suspicious behavior that turns out to be unfounded.
The measure, known as the "John Doe" amendment, was spurred by a discrimination suit filed by six Muslim clerics in Minnesota who were removed from a plane last November after passengers reported suspicious behavior. They were cleared of wrongdoing.
"This is a terrific idea. And we absolutely need it," Giuliani said
Perhaps hearing from Rudy helped serve as a wake-up call. Key Democrats have changed their mind and now support the anti-terror bill:
People who tip off authorities to potential terrorists would be shielded from lawsuits under new anti-terrorism legislation that has won agreement from key lawmakers.
The so-called "John Doe bill" would protect the tipsters as long as they acted in good faith and didn't knowingly make false statements.
Democrats agreed to add the provision in negotiations over a House and Senate-passed homeland-security measure, which also implements many 9/11 commission recommendations.
Rudy must be a little miffed that it was the Dems that finally did the 9/11 bill. This should have been done a while back but the GOP had different priorities.
It seems the Dems stepped in & became the party of national security whiel the Republicans have been busy becoming the party of Iraq.
Rudy's 'princess bride' wants to be a queen, former aide says Nick Juliano According to an expansive profile of Rudy Giuliani's wife in September's Vanity Fair, the former pharmaceutical sales representative's lifelong dream seemed to be to move to New York City and become famous.
After a lengthy affair with the former mayor while he was still married to his second wife, Judith Stish Ross Nathan Giuliani recited her third set of matrimonial vows at Gracie Mansion in 2003, and Vanity Fair profiler Judy Bachrach notes a suspected motive behind her fashion choices at the wedding.
"There is a reason why she wore that tiara at her wedding: she really does see herself as a princess," a former Giuliani aide told the magazine. "Not as a queen. Queen is her goal. Queen is who she wants to be."
The 19th century pearl-and-diamond encrusted tiara, lent to her by Fred Leighton's jewelry store, was worth somewhere in between $60,000 and $90,000, and Judith's decision to wear it raised some eyebrows at the time.
"Wearing that sparkling tiara was a former-mistress-now-wife's equivalent of doing an elaborate touchdown jig," observed the Washington Post's fashion critic Robin Givhan...
BY CELESTE KATZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Friday, August 10th 2007, 4:00 AM
Rudy Giuliani drew outrage and indignation from Sept. 11 first-responders yesterday by saying he spent as much time - or more - exposed to the site's dangers as workers who dug through the debris for the missing and the dead.
Speaking to reporters at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame he caught between fund-raisers, the GOP front-runner said he helped 9/11 families and defended himself against critics of how he managed the attack's aftermath. "This is not a mayor or a governor or a President who's sitting in an ivory tower," Giuliani said. "I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." His statement rang false to Queens paramedic Marvin Bethea, who said he suffered a stroke, posttraumatic stress disorder and breathing problems after responding to the attacks. "I personally find that very, very insulting," he said. "Standing there doing a photo-op and telling the men, 'You're doing a good job,' I don't consider that to be working," said Bethea, 47. Ironworker Jonathan Sferazo, 52, who said he spent a month at the site and is now disabled, runs a worker advocacy group with Bethea and called Giuliani's comments "severely" out of line. "He's not one of us. He never has been and he never will be. He never served in a capacity where he was a responder," Sferazo said. ...
The International Association of Fire Fighters has released a 13 minute web video, attacking Rudy for 9/11. The main criticisms are that he failed to provide firefighters with working radios that could have saved lives before the towers collapsed, that he located an emergency command center in the 7 World Trade Center building even though the WTC complex had been attacked in 1993.
The Giuliani campaign has fired back, touting his support for firefighters as mayor, and exposing the IAFF as a partisan Democratic union. Also, there's a clip around on youtube (Ray will like that) of a IAFF chapter president featured in the anti-Rudy video, acknowledging that the video was a "political message."
I wonder if this is simply more smears from a partisan union?
...I wonder if this is simply more smears from a partisan union?
Well if you examine what Rudy said...
Quote:
"This is not a mayor or a governor or a President who's sitting in an ivory tower," Giuliani said. "I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."
I could see where folks who were digging in the rubble for bodies would get pissy about him saying that.
Estimate: Giuliani spent 7 percent of time spent by first responders at Ground Zero Nick Juliano Published: Friday August 17, 2007
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has faced repeated criticism of his apparent attempts to trade on his reputation that grew out of Sept. 11 to propel his presidential campaign.
A new estimate shows Giuliani spent about 7 percent as much time at Ground Zero as did the typical first responder during a three month period after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
On Friday the GOP frontrunner faced more harsh words after the New York Times revealed that Giuliani spent only 29 hours at the smoldering pile of wreckage that was the World Trade Center from mid-September to mid-December 2001.
During those same three months, rescue workers were putting in 12-hour shifts digging through the World Trade Center's wreckage. And Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association of New York City, told the Times that officers averaged 400 hours each at the site during that time. ...
RAW Rudy may want to stop exagerating about the time he spent at ground zero since we now know that it was nothing comparable to all the first responders that averaged over 400 hrs in that hell.
After 9/11, Rudy wasn't a rescue worker -- he was a Yankee
Giuliani said he spent as much time at ground zero as many rescue workers. Where was he really? Much of the time, at baseball games.
By Alex Koppelman Aug. 18, 2007 | On Friday, a New York Times story examined Rudy Giuliani's schedule in the months after 9/11 to verify his controversial claim that, like rescue workers, he'd spent long hours at ground zero, and so was "in that sense ... one of them." In fact, the Times found, he only spent 29 hours at the terror site between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16.
What was he doing instead? Giuliani's beloved New York Yankees made it to the World Series in 2001. We decided to compare the time he spent on baseball to the time he spent at the ruins of the World Trade Center.
The results were, considering the mayor's long-standing devotion to the Bronx Bombers, unsurprising. By our count, Giuliani spent about 58 hours at Yankees games or flying to them in the 40 days between Sept. 25 and Nov. 4, roughly twice as long as he spent at ground zero in the 90 days between Sept. 17 and Dec. 16. By his own standard, Giuliani was one of the Yankees more than he was one of the rescue workers. ...
By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd said Tuesday a fundraising party for Republican Rudy Giuliani seeking $9.11 each from guests exploits the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for political purposes.
Dodd called on Giuliani to refuse the money raised at the event, saying the theme "is absolutely unconscionable, shameless and sickening." A Giuliani spokeswoman said the $9.11 idea was selected without the campaign's knowledge. "Mr. Giuliani was quick to express much vitriol for the independent ad created by MoveOn.org last week; we would hope he would express the same kind of outrage and indignation about this group that he is the beneficiary of," Dodd said in a statement released by his campaign.
Giuliani and other GOP presidential candidates strongly criticized the liberal, anti-war group MoveOn.org for a full-page advertisement the group bought in The New York Times. The ad included the headline "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?," a reference to Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq.
Dodd also said Giuliani "should reject and/or return any money raised" through the party, which is to be held Wednesday night at the home of Abraham Sofaer in Palo Alto, Calif. Giuliani's campaign is sponsoring house parties across the country that night for the candidate's backers. ...[quote] Yahoo
From the part of the article Kabul Zick intentionally omitted:
Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella said: "These are two volunteers who acted independently of and without the knowledge of the campaign. Their decision to ask individuals for that amount was an unfortunate choice."
Now this is the kind of attention that Giulliani DOESN'T need if he's going to be courting anyone BUT those on the extreme fringes of the right. He'd do well to muzzle his hate monger if he wants to appeal to moderates and Reagan Democrats.
This story also made it to light on Sunday. It's not exactly a position I welcome but then more importantly neither does the Republican base.
His critics say the presidential hopeful is less welcoming to illegal immigrants than when he was mayor of New York.
By Janet Hook, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 23, 2007
WASHINGTON -- -- After Congress passed a landmark welfare law with support from both parties, one prominent mayor became furious. His concern: a provision that would lead, he believed, to the "inhumane" treatment of illegal immigrants. He promptly dispatched his lawyers to file suit against the federal government.
This was no bleeding-heart liberal championing the rights of illegal immigrants, but the Republican mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani.
"I believe the anti-immigration movement in America is one of our most serious public problems," Giuliani said in announcing the lawsuit in 1996. "I am speaking out and filing this action because I believe that a threat to immigration can be a threat to the future of our country."
Today Giuliani is running for president, and one of his leading GOP rivals, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is pointing to his record as mayor to accuse him of being soft on illegal immigration. That charge threatens to undercut the image Giuliani has sought to cultivate as the law-and-order champion best equipped to keep the U.S. safe.
Under attack, Giuliani is striking a tougher, less welcoming tone toward illegal immigrants. He is calling for stricter border control, tamper-proof identification cards for noncitizens and the deportation of foreign-born criminals.
But his substantial record on immigration is likely to ensure that the issue remains a point of tension throughout the primary campaign. Indeed, immigration is one of several social issues -- including abortion and gun control -- on which Giuliani's relatively liberal stances have been fodder for rivals who say he has proved himself out of step with the conservative base.
As mayor, Giuliani was the rare Republican who rolled out the welcome mat for legal and illegal immigrants. He took his legal challenge to the welfare law as far as he could, appealing to the Supreme Court. He lobbied Congress against other measures he considered punitive. Although he worked to deport illegal immigrants who committed crimes, he defended others as valuable contributors to the city's economy and culture.
"Some of the hardest-working and most productive people in this city are undocumented aliens," he said in 1994. "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city."
Giuliani's stance as mayor was all the more remarkable because it placed him out of step with the nativist feelings that were sweeping much of the country and that had become prominent within the Republican Party. Two years before Giuliani sued over the welfare law, California voters passed Proposition 187 to cut off public services to illegal immigrants. Congress was cracking down even on legal immigrants.
Liberals who disliked other aspects of Giuliani's administration swooned over his advocacy on behalf of immigrants. "He was like a beacon of light in a storm," said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.
Giuliani's campaign rhetoric today sidesteps the question of what to do about the millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. But when he was mayor, those immigrants were a significant presence in his city.
Illegal immigrants had become key to New York's economy and a substantial part of the city's culture. Giuliani casts his approach to immigration as more pragmatic than ideological, in contrast with many Republicans.
"I had 400,000 illegal immigrants, roughly, in New York City," Giuliani said at a recent debate. "I didn't have the luxury of, you know, political rhetoric. I had the safety and security of the people of New York City on my shoulders."
That viewpoint led Giuliani to continue an executive order, first established in the late 1980s under Mayor Edward I. Koch, that prohibited city employees from reporting to federal authorities the immigration status of people seeking city services.
Romney charges that offering this kind of protection turned New York into a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants.
Giuliani said there was a solid rationale to the policy.
Unless they were guaranteed that their status would not be disclosed to federal authorities, illegal immigrants would not send their children to school, seek medical care or cooperate with police. Giuliani reasoned that it was good for the entire city for all residents to obtain medical treatment rather than spread disease, and for children to be in school rather than on the streets.
He considered the policy integral to his focus on law and order: He worried that police would be hamstrung if illegal immigrants, fearing deportation, did not report crimes.
Giuliani acknowledged that the policy offended some who wondered why taxpayers should pay for services for illegal immigrants.
"The answer is: It's not only to protect them, but to protect the rest of society as well," Giuliani said at the time.
But in 1996, Congress included in the welfare bill a provision specifying that no city employee could be prohibited from giving immigration-status information to federal authorities.
Saying the effect of the provision would be "inhumane and indecent," Giuliani went to court, though many allies believed he had little chance of succeeding. Indeed, he lost at the district court and appeals court levels, and the Supreme Court refused to take up the case.
People who knew Giuliani as mayor believe his open-arms approach to immigrants had a personal dimension: He was the grandson of an Italian immigrant. But as a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic city packed with foreign-born people, being pro-immigrant was also smart politics. Though his views were controversial and out of step with his party nationally, they were popular in New York's vast immigrant community.
The suit challenging the welfare law was part of Giuliani's effort to establish a high profile as an advocate for immigrants.
He successfully lobbied Congress to repeal a provision of the welfare bill that would have cut off federal benefits such as food stamps to legal immigrants. Giuliani also lobbied against a 1996 measure to bar children of illegal immigrants from public schools.
In 1997, Giuliani invited thousands of public officials from around the country to New York City for an immigration conference. He criticized Proposition 187 and cheered its demise in 1998, when it was struck down in court.
"There isn't a mayor or public official in this country that's more strongly pro-immigrant than I am," he said in 2000.
Although he did not condone illegal immigration, Giuliani often treated it as practically inevitable.
"We're never going to be able to totally control immigration to a country that is as large as ours," he said in a 1996 speech.
Those words have come back to haunt him. A video of that 1996 speech began circulating on YouTube this summer after Giuliani, in the wake of Romney's attack, declared in South Carolina: "I promise you, we can end illegal immigration."
Giuliani explained the apparent contradiction by saying that advances in technology had created methods of fighting illegal immigration not available in 1996.
"People that come in illegally, we've got to stop," Giuliani said in a recent radio ad. "You stop illegal immigration by building a fence -- a physical fence and then a technological fence. You then hire enough Border Patrol so they can respond in a timely way."
Asked in a recent debate about his New York policies protecting illegal immigrants, Giuliani said they were a "sensible" response to a federal failure to secure borders and to deport even the illegal immigrants in jail for crimes.
"I had 400,000 illegal immigrants," he said. "The best year they ever had for deportations was 2,000. So I figured out I was stuck with 398,000."
Some advocates for immigrants are concerned about the apparent toughening of his approach to illegal immigration.
Some conservatives want Giuliani to do even more to distance himself from his record as mayor, pointing to Romney's repudiation of his past support for abortion rights as a model.
"Romney has made a good case for having changed his thinking on abortion," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which favors limits on immigration. "Giuliani could make the same case on immigration, but that is not what he is doing. He has a record he needs to overcome."
Randy Mastro, a deputy mayor under Giuliani, says Giuliani's views have been consistent: Both his call for stricter border control and his treatment of illegal immigrants reflect his overarching concern for public safety.
Still, people who see a marked shift in tone and emphasis wonder which stance Giuliani would bring to the Oval Office.
"How would he be as president? It's really hard to tell," said Marshall Fitz, advocacy director for the American Immigration Lawyers Assn.
"That's the danger of flip-flopping: You lose your compass."
I wonder if the delegates will bring mocking flip-flop sandals to the RNC in '08?
ow both these stories IMO show how Rudy is trying to be all things to all constituents. Thru his campaign manager, he'll toss in a bit of fear and hate. And thru his own policies he'll try to appeal to "liberals". So I agree with that last sentence. It's hard to know exactly WHO Giuliani is. You leave only assuming he's a pandering politician. So in that sense he doesn't differ much from Hillary.
From the part of the article my handsome nemesis intentionally omitted:
Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella said: "These are two volunteers who acted independently of and without the knowledge of the campaign. Their decision to ask individuals for that amount was an unfortunate choice."
You might have noticed that I included the part of the article where a Rudy person claims they had nothing to do with the pricing.
Considering Rudy's recent diseasters with using 9/11 on the campaign I wouldn't put it pass him to see the $9.11 pricing as a good idea.
The portion that Kabul Zick intentionally admitted, as set forth above, also had the Guiliani campaign criticizing the move, calling it "an unfortunate choice" on the volunteer's part.
Look, Zick, we get it. You love the cock. You're a proud gay man who likes to suck dick. Understood.
In fact, since we all know you want us to know it, I've decided to amend my signature to help you out so you don't have to keep reposting the same information over and over.
Look, Zick, we get it. You love the cock. You're a proud gay man who likes to suck dick. Understood. Do you have to keep reminding us with every other post you make?
Now don't lie. Your intentially not mentioning that it's what you said. I'm just quoting you. Personally I try to avoid using such vulgar language.
I'm not sure why you think your being exposed as a hypocrite is some sort of victory for you. I guess the Bin Laden/Soros finishing school taught you some stranger ethics than we thought.
G-man as a bartender I've cut off dragqueens who have had one to many gin & tonics. There really isn't anything you can post about me that would bother me.
Ok. I get it now. This whole feud started because you wouldn't serve G-man any more gin.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
Meh. I've seen bitchier arguments in Gay chat rooms...
It's been half hearted on my part & not really my thing. I post in the politics area because I'm interested in discussing politics. G-man seems to want to keep up the personal assualts but the shock value is pretty much gone.
Meh. I've seen bitchier arguments in Gay chat rooms...
It's been half hearted on my part & not really my thing. I post in the politics area because I'm interested in discussing politics. G-man seems to want to keep up the personal assualts but the shock value is pretty much gone.
My remark was meant as sarcasm, MEM.
But you knew that... I do my best to talk online as I would in person, because I see too many people bashing others online, whereas I seriously doubt they'd do it in person.
The line in bold is not meant for anyone in particular, as there are many who do that..
ABC: Giuliani 'defending and protecting' predator priest? David Edwards Published: Tuesday October 23, 2007 This morning on ABC's Good Morning America, Brian Ross reported on a priest who is a Giuliani employee and has been accused of molesting teenage boys.
A report from ABC News says, "Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani hired a Catholic priest to work in his consulting firm months after the priest was accused of sexually molesting two former students and an altar boy and told by the church to stop performing his priestly duties."
"The priest, Monsignor Alan Placa, a longtime friend of Giuliani and the priest who officiated at his second wedding to Donna Hanover, continues to work at Giuliani Partners in New York, to the outrage of some of his accusers and victims' groups, which have begun to protest at Giuliani campaign events. "
ABC: Giuliani 'defending and protecting' predator priest? David Edwards Published: Tuesday October 23, 2007 This morning on ABC's Good Morning America, Brian Ross reported on a priest who is a Giuliani employee and has been accused of molesting teenage boys.
A report from ABC News says, "Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani hired a Catholic priest to work in his consulting firm months after the priest was accused of sexually molesting two former students and an altar boy and told by the church to stop performing his priestly duties."
"The priest, Monsignor Alan Placa, a longtime friend of Giuliani and the priest who officiated at his second wedding to Donna Hanover, continues to work at Giuliani Partners in New York, to the outrage of some of his accusers and victims' groups, which have begun to protest at Giuliani campaign events. "
MSNBC: Leaked memos show Giuliani's ignorance of terrorism before 9/11Mike Aivaz and Muriel Kane Published: Friday October 26, 2007
David Shuster, substituting for Keith Olbermann as host of Countdown, reported on Thursday that Rudy Giuliani's description of himself as the only candidate who foresaw the danger posed by al Qaeda before 9/11 has now been refuted by a leaked document.
Typical of Giuliani's claims on the campaign trail is a speech he gave last summer in which he said of the pre-9/11 period, "Bin Laden declared war on us. We didn't hear it. ... I thought it was pretty clear at the time -- but a lot of people didn't see it, couldn't see it."
Wayne Barrett, a reporter for New York's Village Voice and author of Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, has now obtained leaked memos describing Giuliani's testimony before the 9/11 Commission which directly contradict that claim.
Barrett told Shuster that taken as a whole, Giuliani's testimony "was a confession of ignorance. He basically said, 'I knew nothing about al Qaeda.'"
For example, Giuliani acknowledged that even though he had received information on threats between 1998 and 2001, "At the time I had no idea it was al Qaeda." He further told the commission that after 9/11, "we brought in people to brief us on al Qaeda. ... We had nothing like this pre 9/11, which was a mistake."
Giuliani's testimony, like that of other witnesses describing New York City's response on 9/11, was supposed to remain secret until after the 2008 presidential election.
Barrett also emphasized Giuliani's continuing ignorance of technological systems involved in the fight against terrorism. As late as April 2004, when he testified before the commission, Giuliani admitted that he didn't know much about a New York Police Department system called ComStat -- which he's now saying he'd like to see extended nationwide. He was also unable to answer questions about the malfunctioning radios which caused many deaths among firefighters or about a repeater installed in the World Trade Center after the 1993 bombing to amplify radio communications.
"He still wasn't studying the response issues," Barrett said.
With all due respect, I would submit that you are recasting the issue.
The thing about Rudy and 9/11 is not that he was better prepared for it than anyone else. Indeed, no one was prepared for it. Including the federal government. Furthermore, it's ridiculous to think that a Mayor should have anticipated things that the federal and state government hadn't considered vis a vis the worst potential terrorist attack in history.
Where Rudy gets, and deserves, credit is for his handling of the crisis after it happened. Unlike other major cities hit with a crisis (see, e.g., New Orleans), many of the city's major services were quickly restored. Were things done perfectly? Of course not. I don't think anyone could have dealt with something like that with perfection. However, the general consensus was that Rudy did a great job uniting the city in a time of crisis.
Now, I realize that you will quickly dredge up a partisan blog, a liberal newspaper article or a statement from a union official that disagrees with me. And, of course, there is never universal agreement on anything. But regardless it's Rudy's response to the crisis, not the idea that he should have predicted it, that made his reputation in regard to that horrible event.
