Paul Krugman is plain awful

He's wrong when he tries to imply that you and me and every other American should feel "shame." Shame for what? That's what got me.

That, and being sacless about not allowing comments to be posted.

 

It is shameful that we allow the people who leveraged 9/11 to increase their personal fortunes (or in Bush's case, his personal agenda) to our nation's detriment to be anything less than publicly reviled.

 

Specifically what do you mean by that? I mean, really, I don't expect substance from everyone, but I do from you. The man kept the city reasonably cool despite enormous racial tensions in Brooklyn and Queens that undeniably predated his administration. Anyone in New York who wasn't worried when the L.A. riots unfolded was simply not paying attention. Dinkins had his flaws as a mayor, but as a leader he was calm and professional under pressure when it counted. Statistically, crime went down, he increased the size of the NYPD by nearly a fourth, and the cleanup of Times Square was underway. He beat Giuliani by 47,000 votes in 1989 and lost to Giuliani by 53,000 votes in 1993 an economy that was down all over the country. The notion that he was somehow incompetent, or that the entire city thought so, is revisionist. I do remember the homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks in Midtown -- in front of my newspaper and around the corner from my apartment, in fact. But it's not like Rudy fixed the problem, he simply strongarmed them out of sight.

 

Appreciate the kind words, but insist DD did little to distinguish himself. A number of his appointments were beyond atrocious, and the man also had sticky fingers (nice antique bed headboard, Dave! . . . ). I understand dealing graft, but to be grabby, yourself, is unforgivable. As everybody knows, New York's had some GREAT mayors, including a couple who get insufficient credit (including Jimmy Walker, who while a go-along, get-along guy of epic proportions, had a Clintonesque political sense which made him an amazing operative, as long as he lasted, in a difficult time . . .). New York needs a great mayor, because of the needs and demands of the job. I'm not a big LaGuardia fan, but understand why a lot of smart people loved him to death -- and still do -- and I respect that. DD wasn't Walker, LaGwatz, or Koch. Even Mike B's been better, and he's made a ton of highhanded mistakes.

 

Actually, in a number of factors, such as murders, car thefts, aggravated assaults and other violence, the period of 1989-93 was the highest reported occurences.

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm

And he had his own riot before L.A., in Crown Heights in 1991.

I'm a Democrat, but even I thought Dinkins sucked.

 

Those are statewide totals.

 

I thought Freakanomics did a pretty good job assigning proportions of credit for the drop in crime in places like New York, and politicians and police tactics are an overrated facet.

 

Whoops, you're right. My bad. I put up the wrong link.

Here's a different one. Highest amount of murders in NYC was 2,245 in 1990. During Dinkins' reign:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NYC_murders.PNG

 

If corporations, countries and people were dumb enough to put money in Giuliani's pockets for wisdom like "put your emergency command center in the one building that has a recent history of being a terror target" then that's on them.

Krugman should have been smarter than to toss something off like that.

I do agree that there was a very subdued vibe to the weekend - but I think it had more to do with people still coming to grips with the aftermath, the pain and loss that was still to come following 9/11, how we responded as a nation and the nation we've become since then. 9/11 is still casting shadows.

 

As a country we've been in a funk for past 10 years. It's time to change the narrative. Now the the anniversary is out of way, maybe we can start moving forward.

 

Rumsfeld is the man!

It would be interesting to see if many more subscribers follow suit. May be a good day to sell NYT stock short.

 

Rummy canceling will likely cause more to sign up than follow his example.