Posted on 01/30/2010 5:48:09 AM PST by kristinn
A spokesman for the leftist think tank headed up by Obama transition chief John Podesta has insulted eight million New Yorkers, mocking them over their concerns about the Obama administration's plans to hold civilian trials in lower Manhattan for several of the 9/11 attack conspirators.
Speaking to Politico, Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress said, "Frankly, I thought New Yorkers were made of sterner stuff than this—traffic is going to be disrupted?”
Gude is listed as the Associate Director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program at CAP. His most recent paper for CAP, published January 20, is titled, Criminal Courts Are Tougher on Terrorists than Military Detention, Intelligence Collection Is Not Impeded by Access to Attorneys.
Obama's plan to hold the trials in Manhattan was initially well-received by Mayor Michael Bloomberg until this week when NYPD Chief Ray Kelly started working out a security plan that would severely disrupt for years the financial center where the federal courthouse is located and would cost the city an estimated $200 million per year.
Gude also told Politico the president needs to get in the face of those 'sissy' New Yorkers and straighten them out, "Obama and the Department of Justice need to get out there and push back very clearly with the public."
Concerned that the trial would destroy small businesses near the trial location, the Real Estate Board of New York set up a Web site called movethetrial.com.
A bi-partisan group of six U.S. Senators sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder this week urging him to change his mind on the trials, saying among other reasons they would tactically benefit al Qaeda:
“You will be providing them one of the most visible platforms in the world to exalt their past acts and to rally others in support of further terrorism. Such a trial would almost certainly become a recruitment and radicalization tool for those who wish us harm."
New Yorkers wishing to straighten Mr. Gude out can contact him at his published contact e-mail address through the Center for American Progress: kgude@americanprogress.org
Maybe all the people in the Obama General Paresis, ergo their specious thoughts.
There are many Military Bases where these self confessed Terrorists could be contained and put to death without a crowd .
Or without threatening the lives of innocent citizens.
Guys like Gude have no empathy for the American people. Yet they keep trying to tell us how America should be run. They’re extremely tiresome.
Do you mean, like, uh, Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba? What a brilliant idea!
This is strange. Why is it so important to this group that the Gang of Five be tried in a Federal court in New York City? Or are they merely intent on making Obama propaganda?
This whole line of argument is really starting to get my goat.
As a native New Yorker, this claim that New Yorkers are "scared" of holding the terrorist trial in Manhattan enrages me.
(1) The NYC economy is in the toilet. Specifically, the financial services industry - which employs hundreds of thousands of non-fat cats in the NYC area - has shed more than a quarter million jobs in the past two years. The trial was supposed to be held in the heart of the NYC financial district.
Creating a locked-down Green Zone in the middle of downtown Manhattan is going to severely reduce pedestrian mobility and make having meetings and doing transactions in the area a logistical nightmare.
The trial is anticipated to last as long as five years.
(2) Many key tourist areas in the area will be affected by hypersecurity - Trinity Church, South Street Seaport, the World Financial Center marina, the Elizabeth Ann Seton national shrine, the Staten Island ferry terminal, the gateways to both the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
This will also kill jobs in a hurting city.
(3) It will cost the city up to a billion dollars in wasted tax revenue paying for a symbolic venue. The city will need to raise taxes up front, even if the feds eventually make good on the suggestion that they will help reimburse the costs. That will also drive away business and destroy jobs in the city.
(4) Why should New Yorkers, already plagued by some of the worst traffic crunches in the nation, be effectively deprived of the Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, the Manhattan Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge? That is five out of the ten car routes into Manhattan for crying out loud! That will cause millions and millions of wasted man hours and will put hundreds if not thousands of small businesses (contractors, caterers, etc.), already hurting, out of business. Not everyone can take a helicopter into Manhattan like Panetta and Weiner.
(5) This whole civilian trial is grandstanding by a terrorist-sympathizing AG and a terrorist-sympathizing President. If they care so much about symbolism, let them hold the trial in the White House or at the DOJ.
New Yorkers are not afraid of the trial - they want to know why they should have to spend a billion in taxes and lose thousands of jobs and spend millions of hours in unnecessary traffic to safeguard the imaginary "rights" of a single murdering foreign scumbag who killed thousands of their innocent fellow citizens.
Why should they, you arrogant SOBs?
Tell them why.
“It’s always someone else’s neighborhood with these guys”
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I agree. If it has to be held in the US, I nominate Chicago. If Hussein could not deliver the Olympics, this should be the next best thing.
This is a BIG mistake and could cost them the state. As someone who works in Manhattan and was in the city on 9/11 and went back there two days later, I resent those comments. Once this spreads, New Yorkers will be outraged.
This is a BIG mistake and could cost them the state. As someone who works in Manhattan and was in the city on 9/11 and went back there two days later, I resent those comments. Once this spreads, New Yorkers will be outraged.
This is a BIG mistake and could cost them the state. As someone who works in Manhattan and was in the city on 9/11 and went back there two days later, I resent those comments. Once this spreads, New Yorkers will be outraged.
Michael Bloomberg is a full-of-sh!t @sshole.
Exactly what O-Holder wants.
AND
kgude@americanprogress.org
Regards . . . Penny
Proof that The Lyin’ King and his minions HATE New York, HATE America, and HATE Americans.
They will do everything and anything in their power to hurt, insult, and diminish us at every opportunity.
This should be spread far and wide. This was a very callous, contemptous thing to say. It reflects what the Democrat leadership in Washington thinks of the average New Yorker.
“Proof that The Lyin’ King and his minions HATE New York, HATE America, and HATE Americans.”
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At the very least, I think the politicians like Obama, Daley and other liberals view the constituents that overwhelmingly vote for them as chumps and suckers. Obama is from the Chicago machine. A machine that has been in place and in complete power for decades. The politicians can do what ever they want and the electorate will always vote for them again and again and again.
I hope that they, the politicans, don’t learn from Mass. and continue this behavoir and attitude. They will have a very rude awakening in November.
Does no one own brass knuckles anymore? What an arrogant pr*ck!
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2007/08/attempted-suicide-bombing-in-morocco.html
Egypt’s biggest Islamic militant group said Tuesday it had carried out the Luxor attack in which nearly 60 tourists killed in an attempt to free its leader from a U.S. prison. Al-Gama’a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) said in a statement received by Reuters that it had planned to take hostage as many tourists as possible to force the release of its leader, blind cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, from a U.S. jail.
New Yorkers sissies? I think Zero is a sissy when he tries to bribe the Taliban for peace. New York’s Finest and her fire fighters are HEROES. WE MUST NEVER FORGET!
First Air Force One buzzed this town. Then the show-trial. BO has it in for New York — it’s perverse.
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