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Posted on 01/06/2004 3:35:27 AM PST by kattracks

Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter has burned Mayor Bloomberg in the latest round of their feud over New York's smoking ban. Two tirades aimed at the mayor appear in the magazine's February issue, on stands tomorrow. "Under current New York City law, it is acceptable to have a loaded handgun in your place of work," Carter fumes in his editor's letter, "but not an empty ashtray."

The rant comes after city officials hit Carter with three separate summonses for having an open ashtray in his Conde Nast office on Times Square.

Carter also sics bad-boy author Christopher Hitchens onto Hizzoner. Hitchens writes about his efforts to break as many laws as possible in Bloomberg's New York, which he moans has become "the domain of the mediocre bureaucrat."

He lights up a cigarette in a bar, takes up two seats on the subway, even sits on a milk crate in broad daylight - all activities that have earned New Yorkers summonses in recent months, as first chronicled by The News.

"This current Niagara of pettiness and random victimization may well be Bloomberg's attempt at a wanna-be reputation as heroic crimefighter and disciplinarian," writes Hitchens. "Who knows what goes on in the tiny, constipated chambers of his mind?

"All we know for certain is that one of the world's most broad-minded and open cities is now in the hands of a picknose control freak," Hitchens concludes.

But Bloomberg spokesman Ed Skyler told Daily News City Hall bureau chief David Saltonstall that all of the laws Hitchens broke - with the exception of the smoking ban - have been on the books for years.

"This so-called story [is] nothing other than the latest hit piece commissioned by Graydon Carter," he thundered.

Who was it that said you can't fight City Hall?

[snip]

Star Jones' troubling 'View'

Star Jones had a rough day yesterday, with some accusing her of homophobia following her appearance on "The View."

Jones said on air that she went to a Jamaican resort for "traditional couples" that excludes same-sex pairs.

"Star is one pompous, nauseating, racist, homophobic, illiterate slob," ranted one viewer on the Web site, thedatalounge.com. "You know where she can shove her law degree!"

But a rep for ABC insisted that Jones had been misunderstood. The spokesman said she and her entourage, which included banker boyfriend, Al Reynolds, briefly visited Negril's Couples Resort, but did not stay there. (An employee of the resort confirmed they do not rent rooms to same-sex couples.)

The ABC rep added that she visited the resort's grounds only to make use of their nude beach.

Try getting that image out of your head.

I hear she used the old come-on on Mayor Bloomie.

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