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Tuesday, September 25, 2007


ON A CLASSINESS SCALE OF ONE TO TEN, RUDY GIULIANI IS A 9/11!

Running for the Republican presidential nomination is a pretty complicated thing when you're Rudolph Giuliani. First, you have to convince a majority of primary voters and convention delegates that you're not significantly to the left of them on issues that don't involve killing foreigners in large numbers. This is further complicated by the fact that you are.

Indeed, you have to magically have them forget that your position on most social issues makes you the dream Democrat.

Actually, on gay marriage and gun rights, Giuliani would make the perfect running mate for John Edwards. And it wasn't too very long ago that Rudy was significantly to the left of Edwards on guns. As mayor of New York, Giuliani bitched incessently that President Clinton's 1994 assault weapons ban wasn't tough enough and even went on to sue gun manufacturers. Shit, John Edwards didn't go that far and he used to sue people for a fucking living!

Here's a stroll down memory lane for you.





Memories are wonderful things, aren't they? I can't blame anyone for forgetting about that. It was all the way back on June 20, 2000.

Compare that to this from last Friday.



I sure am glad that the third Mrs. Giuliani called in before Rudy could further tell the members of the NRA that he doesn't understand them and how they're indirectly responsible for the murder of New York City cops.

Okay, you got me. Hizzoner wasn't going to say that at all. He was actually going to kiss their asses in the most nonsensical and humiliating way imaginable. It was an about-face so waterheaded that it probably made Mitt Romney burst out into tears of jealousy.

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Friday said Americans' right to own guns is as important as free speech in remarks to a powerful gun advocacy group that has long viewed him with suspicion.

Giuliani acknowledged his differences with the National Rifle Association, a group he once referred to as "extremists." As New York mayor, Giuliani initiated a lawsuit against U.S. firearms manufacturers.

"You never get a candidate you agree with 100 percent," Giuliani told an NRA convention in Washington, then chuckling, "I'm not even sure I agree with myself 100 percent."
How about a candidate without a history of calling you cop-killing extremists? Is that really so much to ask? Given his past positions on the NRA, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he addressed the next NAMBLA convention and said, "You are sick, twisted bastards, but that shouldn't stop you from voting for me." This guy is turning into Mayor Quimby with a lisp.

While I'm sure that the NRA is pleased as punch to see Rudy embrace the Second Amendment, they should know that Giuliani has a slightly more ... elastic view of what a right is before they get too happy.

Giuliani touted himself as a law-and-order candidate and defended himself from NRA criticism over the 2000 lawsuit, saying it was necessary to reduce crime in New York.
Because the Bill of Rights didn't apply to New York City in 2000? Is it okay to subvert the Constitution because the mayor says that it's "necessary?" Wow, President Bush has had an even more profoundly cancerous effect on the GOP than I previously thought.

But before we get any further into Rudy's "strict constructionalism," let's hear what changed his mind about gun rights.

He said the September 11 attacks made him believe more strongly in the constitutional right for Americans to possess weapons to defend themselves -- but he pointedly left himself open to changing positions if elected.
I'm not sure I follow. I know that a .357 Magnum is a pretty powerful weapon, but I doubt that it would do very much against a 757 Boeing product careening at the office tower you occupy at 500 miles per hour. Of course, Giuliani could be arguing that airline passengers should be allowed to carry firearms. But that would be the single craziest fucking thing I've ever heard. It also would have made those boxcutters sort of unnecessary for al-Qaeda.

It could lead to a great bumper sticker, though: "When Guns In Church Aren't Enough For You, Vote Republican."

"You should know I understand that the right to bear arms is just as important a right in that Constitution as the right of free speech and the other rights ... It's not going to change, unless something dramatic has happened to make it change, and then I'll explain to you why," he said.
I hope by "something dramatic," he means "two-thirds of each house of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states." Otherwise, Rudy is so much scarier than even I had imagined. And I've seen him in a dress. More than once.

It was merely amusing when Rudy was opportunistically pandering to anyone who would listen to his shrill, self-satisfied nonsense in the hopes that he might win a few extra votes in Iowa. But he's gone far, far beyond that now. Giuliani is now going before conservative audiences and openly declaring that he will ignore the United States Constitution whenever circumstances make doing so conveinient. And as he does so, he paints himself as the heir to the Reagan legacy.

To make such an argument is merely laughably empty-headed and dangerous. To invoke 9/11 as a justification is an obscenity in both constitutional and human terms.

Let's explore Rudy's views on the War on Terror in their feeble-minded totality, shall we? According to Rudy, the terrorists attacked America because they hate its freedom. Yet, a President Giuliani would limit those freedoms, presumably unilaterally, when "something drastic" happens. On the bright side, it would then follow that America would no longer be as free and would not be as hated by the terrorists, making everyone live happily ever after. Except for maybe Norway, which would be levelled by al-Qaeda for its freedom.

Okay, I take everything I've said about Rudy back. The man is the master strategist of the War on Terror. His theory is so fucking dumb that it might just be brilliant.

Obviously, exploiting 9/11 for political gain in areas completely unrelated to national security is perfectly acceptable because it will get Rudy elected and that'll make America safe.

Which probably goes a long way in explaining this.

A supporter of Rudy Giuliani's is throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican's presidential campaign.

Abraham Sofaer is having a fundraiser at his Palo Alto, Calif., home on Wednesday, when Giuliani backers across the country are participating in the campaign's national house party night.

But Sofaer said he had nothing to do with the "$9.11 for Rudy" theme.
Jesus. Fucking. God. That might be the crassest, most disgusting, god-awful thing I've ever heard. What are they going to do for a show-stopper, bury a fire fighter after the weenie roast? Give the kids model airplanes and Mohammed Atta action figures?

Hopefully, the people at Giuliani for President 2008 have declared that they will accept none of that money and sent a note to the organizers asking them to go fuck themselves in the most forceful way possible.

Giuliani's campaign had no immediate comment.

According to the invitation, "$9.11 for Rudy" is an "independent, non-denominational grass-roots campaign to raise $10,000 in small increments to show how many individual, everyday Americans support 'America's Mayor.'"

There you have it, "$9.11 for Rudy." It really finally has come to this, hasn't it? The single most devastating terrorist attack in human history has been cheapened to this extent. And it only took six years - a new record.

And the Giuliani cmpaign had "no immediate comment." I think that's all the comment you need on what their priorities are. There's absolutely nothing left to say when it comes to what Rudy Giuliani's values are. This is a man who told Ground Zero recovery workers that he put himself at the same risk they did, despite the fact that he spent a grand total of 28 hours at the former World Trade Center over the course of a year. He spent more time at Yankee Stadium than he did at Ground Zero. But he's "one of them."

I didn't think it was possible to top the callowness of Mitt Romney's remark that his sons are sacrificing for America by getting him elected president, which is just like serving in Iraq. I was wrong. Knowing about "$9.11 for Rudy" and having no comment whatsoever is a new low in an industry founded upon the low and tawdry.

Forget politics, Mr. Mayor. Try to look at this as a human being for just a second. 3,000 people were murdered for no other reason than because they went to work that morning and that has now become a cheap tag line for a political fund-raiser held in your name. Over three hundred of your police and firemen ran into those buildings and were either burned alive or crushed under millions of tons of concrete and steel. And your goddamn fucking political organizers are no longer even pretending that those people are anything more than political props.

If nothing else, we've learned what the memory of those who died - and your own soul - is worth to you.

Nine dollars and eleven cents.

As much as I love politics, I've been outraged and disgusted by it more often than not. But this is the first time I've actually been ashamed of it. Mr. Giuliani, I'm ashamed of it because you might actually win and you could very well be the most shameless person to ever run for president. I'm ashamed of it because you refuse to be ashamed of yourself.

Fuck partisanship and fuck politics. As a human being, I'll have no other choice but to support Hillary Clinton if the Republican Party gives Rudolph Giuliani its presidential nomination. That man seems almost detemined to break America's heart and I won't have any part of it.

Easy Listening Recommendation of the Day: The Man Who Couldn't Cry By: Johnny Cash From: American Recordings

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