I just caught this. On Urban Elephants' thread officially announcing the Giuliani candidacy, 'GOPNY' left a comment that included this remark:

The adoration he's received from 9/11 -- mostly because he gave voice to our city's collective grief -- will disappear quickly in a general election campaign, when people will start questioning why he had a command center at the most vulnerable target in NY; why he never unified command between the NYPD and FDNY on that day (police choppers could not tell firefighters the towers were in danger of collapse); why he took no action to improve the repeaters on the firemen's radios (something that had been warned about well, well, before 9/11); why Bernie Kerik was essentially AWOL from One Police Plaza and basically acting as Rudy's "bodyguard" that day; why he changed command centers at least three times on 9/11; why he exposed nearly every city official under him to attack by leading the parade of them up from lower Manhattan...

Now where have I heard that exact same litany of Rudy's 9/11 failings before?

Kidding, actually - much of that comes from Wayne Barrett's excellent work...and even Republicans are forced to notice.

The Giuliani campaign plan caper has touched off a storm of talk not only about incompetence and dirty tricks, but about the very dangerous list of Rudy's weaknesses enumerated in the document. Joyce Purnick had a nice piece at the Times contrasting the internal memo to the campaign website. Funny how the latter doesn't mention ex-wives, ex-police commissioners, racial firestorms, "liberal" social views, authoritarian tendencies, etc.

But what Purnick doesn't mention - because the memo doesn't acknowledge it either - is the most damaging possibility of all: that Giuliani could be attacked for his 9/11 performance.

By now we're all familiar with how the Swiftboat ads slandering John Kerry worked according to a central principle of Rovian politics: attack your opponent on his strengths. In part because this is where he is least prepared to defend, and in part because, if successful, such an attack generates a devastating reversal in political momentum, and everything else can come crashing down around it.

And the fact is that Giuliani, by all rights, should be even more vulnerable to such tactics than was Kerry. Not just because of his arrogance, but because of the record. Kerry really did serve honorably, despite the dirt flung at him. By contrast, there are serious and unanswered questions that could explode Giuliani's 9/11 myth. These are not 9/11 conspiracy theories, they're simple factual questions about his competence and judgment before, on, and after that day. Here are a few of them:

This morning the Post reports on how 9/11 families are inconveniently refusing to play along with the Rudy Giuliani 9/11 Hero Myth. This is one of the biggest political con jobs - well, there have been a lot of political con jobs over the last few years, but this is a big one, too - and I know I won't be the only one talking about it over the coming months. But let's start with Sally Regenhard and the Skyscraper Safety Campaign.

From the Post:

"I can't see why any 9/11 family member who knows the truth about the failures of the Giuliani administration . . . would not be outraged about the failures," said Regenhard.

She co-founded a group called the Skyscraper Safety Campaign and heckled Giuliani when he testified at 9/11 commission hearings in 2004. She has long blamed Giuliani for communications failures, including faulty radios, at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Giuliani's self-serving version of the 9/11 story doesn't include the part about his own incompetence:

I have been inundated with requests to post this press release. All I can say is óyeme chico, what the carajo?

Did you know that the New York City Police Department plans to put new severe restrictions on sidewalk and street use? Possibly as soon as August 24th?

The NYPD's New Rules
Under the guise of protecting the public safety, the New York City Police Department plans to expand its control over protest activity by labeling many common street and side walk uses as a "parade". If put into effect, these new rules will greatly suppress the right to assembly and expose peaceful protestors as well as regular people to arrest for things as simple as crossing the street against the light.

Under the NYPD's proposed rules:

* Any group of two (yes, 2) or more cyclists or pedestrians traveling down a public street, who violate any traffic law, rule or regulation can be arrested for parading without a permit.

* Any group of 20 or more cyclists must obtain a permit and approved route from the NYPD or would be subject to arrest

* Every group of 35 of more pedestrians must obtain a permit and approved route from the NYPD or would be subject to arrest

These rules could go into effect as soon as August 24th, 2006.

This matter is urgent. We implore all NYers to attend an important public hearing on August 23rd and contact their elected officials right away and tell them to stop the police from creating these rules. Details about the August 23rd event and how to contact your elected officials are in the side menu on the right.

Join Us In Spreading the Word!
Other websites are carrying the message of this site. We invite all other New Yorkers to help get out word of this plan, and let people know what they can do to stop it from going into effect. Blog about it, email it, comment about it on other sites, link to this site. You can use the graphic in the side menu on your site to help draw people's attention to this issue. If you blog about this issue or put the graphic on your site, and want to be listed here, let us know! You can email us at assembleforrights -at- yahoo.com.
How These Rules Will Suppress Free Speech

Parade regulation was established to regulate special non-traffic use of the streets. These rules would give the police the power to arrest and detain people for things as common as walking and biking and will essentially give the NYPD carte blanche to arrest any two or more persons they want.

These rules would quash spontaneous gatherings as people would be required to file for permits months in advance. Additionally requiring small groups to navigate the police bureaucracy and negotiate the particulars of their events: which side walk they will be on, where they will make turns, how long they will be there, is an overly high burden on our rights to assembly and speech asserted by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

In addition to protest activity the new rules will affect:

* Thousands of formal and informal runs, walks, walk-a-thons, charity runs, tours and bike rides * Thousands of routine training runs and bike rides
* School field trips
* School walks to the park
* Site seeing tours
* Historical, cultural, environmental & neighborhood walks and tours
* Funerals

More after the jump:

Funny Bouldin would write :

New Yorkers should also ponder what would happen if - rather, when - we ever face a disaster again. Bush's FEMA has just glaringly demonstrated their lack of competence. I hesitate to think what would happen if we ever need to evacuate the five boroughs.

I published the following yesterday over at culturekitchen : A link to New York Presse's kick ass article about what would happen if a hurricane hit NYC --an article that was published on the 20th of July. Which makes it a warning article, since the hurricane season starts in late August and runs through October (sometimes November) :

[New York Press | THE BIG ONE by Aaron Naparstek]

For a taste of what will happen to the city's infrastructure, we can look at the damage wrought by the great nor'easters of the early 1990s. During those storms, the L train had to be backed out as the 14th Street tunnel began filling with water, and the FDR highway was so badly inundated that 50 motorists had to be rescued by dive teams. In the event of a direct hit by a category-3 hurricane, surge maps show that the Holland and Battery Tunnels will be completely filled with sea water, with many subway and railroad tunnels severely flooded as well. The runways of LaGuardia and JFK airports will get flooded by 18.1 and 31.2 feet of water, respectively.

This is what is so weird about the way Republicans think.

Earlier during the Hurricane, Pataki sent a National Guard airplane with medicines. Meanwhile 35 members of New York City's Urban Search went over to help with the relief effort. Given that Bush has crowed how the National Guard mission to defend the homeland has not been affected by them being in Iraq, it's amazing that only one airplane was available --then again, kudos to Pataki and Bloomberg for a far swifter response than Bush's.

Yet, let's take a moment to look at what caught my eye about the second deployment of relief personnel [via NY1: Top Stories]:

A huge group of city workers are on their way to help evacuees along the Gulf Coast. The Port Authority is also sending teams to New Orleans. The New York Air National Guard, the FDNY, NYPD and Office of Emergency Management are also helping out.

Seventy buses left from police headquarters Saturday, bound for New Orleans and 30 more will leave Sunday from Staten Island. The convoy includes more than 200 MTA personnel and 170 NYPD officers along with dozens of vehicles including highway cars, supply and communication vehicles. Police officers will provide security and help board the evacuees, once they reach New Orleans. The buses will then move residents to Texas and Arkansas.