Mike's so out of touch, it hurts (Bloomberg)

The Daily News ^ | 8/11/03 | Sidney Zion

[qam1]

A savvy but rich New Yorker opined the other night that Mayor Bloomberg would be reelected. Seeing my eyebrows rise higher than a cat's back, he said: "Stranger things have happened." "Name one."

"Let's have another drink," he said.

The way things look now, Bloomberg is lucky he's not the governor of California. Do a Rorschach on him in New York, and you get tix blitz, taxes, no smoke, no booze, no fun. No nuthin' but orders from the CEO, who tells you that if you don't like it, you're fired.

Our amazin' mayor has managed to turn off just about every element in the city. Nary a day goes by that, by his acts or his words, or both, he doesn't alienate some group or other.

It's as if he wakes up every morning and decides how he can fix what ain't broken.

He never would have been elected but for 9/11, that's for sure. Until then, for all his millions that he ran into the campaign, he was running 25 points behind Mark Green.

The disaster at the World Trade Center turned Rudy Giuliani into a saint, and Rudy's arm made Bloomberg.

So last Fourth of July, Bloomberg's cops raided a beach party in Far Rockaway, Queens, a fund-raiser for the victims of 9/11.

They came in like a SWAT team, sweeping people off the beach. They even handcuffed an off-duty cop.

One woman showed the police a picture of her son, who died at Ground Zero. "This is a party in the name of my son," she said. "You should be ashamed of yourselves."

And the cops went on doing what they were doing.

Bloomberg justified the raid. The people were drinking, against the law. "The truth of the matter is, half a dozen people have died - drowned off the Rockaways," he said.

Except that none of the six drownings involved alcohol.

When it was pointed out that Bloomberg himself watched people drinking at a concert in Central Park, he said, "I don't know anybody that's drowned in a tuba recently."

You can't make this up. Yet Mayor Mike is oblivious, he doesn't dig why anybody would consider him an elitist.

He ran on a platform guaranteeing he would never raise taxes.

So he raised taxes more than any mayor in history.

What he never said was that he would outlaw smoking in every bar and restaurant in New York. The first thing he did was to make New York the No. 1 prohibitionist city in the country.

He did it, he said, to protect bartenders and waiters from the terrible health hazard of secondhand smoke.

"If I owned a bar," he said, "I would love to have a no-smoking bar. Then people would drink more."

If that's not meshuga, another word needs to be invented.

At a rally the other day on the outskirts of City Hall, a bartender put it this way: "Bloomberg did this to protect my health. Now I can't pay my health insurance."

The bars and restaurants are dying - all over town bartenders are laid off. Bloomberg never asked them if they needed this help, because Bloomberg doesn't ask, he orders.

Now he sits without a clue, a billionaire who knows what's good for us. "It works in California," he says.

In California, if I hear it right wherever I go, he'd be recalled this weekend.

[jjm2111]

Mark Green certainly would have raised taxes, but he wouldn't be doing the drinking SWAT assaults, the cig ban, or the ticket blitz.

[qam1]

Bloomberg makes me grateful for McGreevey, how scary is that.

As an ex-New Yorker myself I agree, As bad as New Jersey is it is a paradise compared to New York. Pataki makes me grateful for Mcgreevy and Joe Bruno makes me grateful for Bennett. Our Democrat state Senators are further to the right than without exception every New York Republican state Senator.

[WhiteGuy]

Bloomburg,

Arnold

and George Bush

Welcolm to the new republican party.

[jjm2111]

Bloomie combines the zealotry of the ex-smoker with his lust for power and complete lack of humor at the snub.

[housethatruthbuilt]

that has been what has been thrown around on the fan club forums.

[cake_crumb]

"Bloomie combines the zealotry of the ex-smoker with his lust for power and complete lack of humor at the snub."

Well said. The man is a walking catalog of leftist neuroses. He's every bit as nuts as Hitler and Saddam. Bet he plans to run for president. What's his approval rating down to now? Still hovering around 24%?

[jjm2111]

"He's every bit as nuts as Hitler and Saddam."

If he could get away with it, he would act like either of them. It's in his character. Bubba will prolly run and beat him in '05. I almost choke saying this, but Bubba would be better.

[cake_crumb]

"I almost choke saying this, but Bubba would be better."

LOL...but it's true. I've choked but said the same thing.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

That's what they're telling us on all the McClintock bashing threads.

Amen to that. I think I will link to this thread for all the know it alls that lecture me day in day out about the virtues of Arnuld "don't caw me Me-ayor Bloomberg" and how deathly important it is that my state get a Governor with a little 'R' in front of his name.

[austinTparty]

It would have been better to have a Dem---then a real live Republican could have run against him the next time around. That guy defines the word "disaster".

[jocon307]

"A week later I am still unable to think of how the RAT would have done a worse job or raised taxes more."

Cripes yes, AGREED. Fine, they don't come any more liberal, or ego-maniacal than Mark Green, but at least Green is a real native New Yorker. I can't imagine he'd've been worse than Bloomberg.

The neophyte City Council deserves a lot of blame too. Bloomberg is not the king you know.

If NYers know what is good for them, if they want the Big Apple to stay the Big Apple and not become, oh, say, Jersey City (at least you can still smoke in bars there) they will vote this whole crew out en masse next time around. This is what we're going to have to start doing, just enacting the term limits that are already available to us. No messy recalls required. Just kick the bums out.

[Just another Joe]

IMO, Bloominidiot doesn't have a snowball's chance in he!! of getting reelected.
He's ticked off to many of the citizens of NYC.

[jocon307]

"This nutball also watched in absolute horror as Keith Richards and Ron Wood lit up a couple cigs on stage during a Stones' concert at the Garden a few months back, and told the Garden cops to arrest them immediately."

LOL, I hadn't heard this one. God Bless the NYPD, one of the two good police forces in the world. All I know is the last time I was in MSG for a concert (Dylan, probably 1999 or 2000) folks were smoking in the hallways during intermission, which they never did when NYC had NORMAL smoking laws.

It just makes a mockery of the law, that all stuff likes this does, and that's just not a good thing.

[NYCVirago]

If he could get away with it, he would act like either of them. It's in his character. Bubba will prolly run and beat him in '05. I almost choke saying this, but Bubba would be better.

I'd love to see a freeper poll on this -- I'd bet Bubba would beat Bloomie!

[qam1]

IMO, Bloominidiot doesn't have a snowball's chance in he!! of getting reelected. He's ticked off to many of the citizens of NYC.

Well you can't tell him that, Talk about being delusional he is running around claiming he is going to easily win a second term. So far the only people I can think that are going to vote for him again are a few of his cocktail buddies and some local radio host (John Gambling) that sucks up to him every chance he gets.

People and jobs are fleeing NYC in droves and no buisness in it's right mind would set up shop there, But in Buffoonberg's warped mind he is claiming that the people that are leaving aren't leaving because they are fleeing his policies and there are in fact many buisnesses that really would want to move into city but they are leaving/staying away because there is a housing shortage.

I seriously belive in terms of crazy billionaires Buffoonberg has past Howard Hughs in being totally mentally warped.

[Phantom Lord]

The cig ban is now state wide, so it would be in effect in NYC regardless of the mayor.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Bloomer is a fool and he's killing NYC.

[montag813]

The bars and restaurants are dying - all over town bartenders are laid off. Bloomberg never asked them if they needed this help, because Bloomberg doesn't ask, he orders.

This is the arrogant Johns Hopkins mentality.

[VermiciousKnid]

Phantom,

My "illustrious" RINO state senator told me during an irate phone conversation which took place shortly after the stunning surprise vote in NY that one of the primary reasons he (Flanagan's his name) supported it was that the NY Restaurant and Bar Association finally caved in and allowed it to happen.

Here's what had to be spoon fed to this idiot: Nearly 80% of the NY Restaurant and Bar Association's membership is comprised of businesses within the NYC/Long Island area. NYC and Nassau County had just passed smoking ordinances in their own areas and they were getting SLAMMED by businesses in Suffolk County and New Jersey. THAT'S why the NY Restaurant Association wanted this law...to "level the playing field" as they like to say.

What nobody wants to talk about is that the Empire State Bar and Tavern Association DWARFS the NYRBA in membership numbers (the Empire State Assoc. has 20,000 members; the NYRBA has about 8,000 -- according to their own numbers), and they vehemently opposed this law (still do; they are suing the state, in fact).

Bloomberg and the Dems in Nassau County pushed their own agendas, then strong-armed the rest of the state into "levelling the playing field" because they knew the establishments in the non-smoking areas could NEVER compete on a REAL "level playing field."

I still can't figure out WHY the RINOs in the state legislature were so easily swayed, but let me tell you: if you could have heard the tap-dancing my "representative" was engaging in, you'd swear his name wasn't "Flanagan," but "Bojangles." There's a whole lotta back-scratching going on up in Albany...

Regards,