Deckchairs on the Titanic.

August 25, 2004

Landing in NYC

The Republicans are coming and, while I'm not as hateful as many of my fellow New Yorkers may be, I'm thrilled that Wayne Barrett took the opportunity to write the Village Voice cover story called The 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York. I see Wayne regularly and I can't wait to congratulate him on this piece.

In fact, I've been waiting for a piece like this for a long time; why it's so difficult for other New York-based media magazines and newspapers to rush to the defense of New York City, which gets pennies to other states' dollars in spending after it went through a massive attack and an ugly financial implosion -- it's truly beyond me.

Briefly, here are Mr. Barrett's Top Ten:

  1. Osama is at large thanks to the war in Iraq.
  2. The 9-11 investigation was shamefully resisted by President Bush for no good reason.
  3. The Bush team, armed with the knowledge that something was coming down the pike, did nothing to even try to prevent 9/11.
  4. The Bush Deficit, now at $500 billion, will have to hurt domestic programs in NYC.
  5. Bush has been cheap when it comes to going the extra mile for New York's struggling economy
  6. NY is ranked "35th in anti-terrorism per capital funding and 50th in bioterrorism." Egh.
  7. Ground Zero workers (and maybe all of us in Brooklyn under the WTC plume in September 2001) probably inhaled too much crap, but the EPA is partisan and disassembling.
  8. Government educational funding cuts have hit NYC super-hard.
  9. Bush is proposing to cut $107 million for the city's housing vouchers - a first!
  10. Bush, alienating his allies overseas and international treaties generally, has made NYC far and away less safe.
    11. Posted by Andrew at August 25, 2004 8:51 PM