Results tagged “memos”

Fox News Porn Robert Greenwald, the man behind the 2004 documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism which concluded that Fox News Channel is biased to the right based on memos and footage from the network, is at it again. This time around he is using clips from the channel culled from six months of broadcasts featuring women in bikinis and pixilated nudity in a YouTube video and website that mimics a porn site called...

The penultimate sentence of the memo notes that this is a precautionary memo, but that agency heads should be prepared for more draconian steps. "Although budget reductions are not being directed at this time, such reductions may be necessary in the coming months," [underlining Bloomberg's]. The Daily News notes that such unpleasant memos are usually delegated to the Mayor's budget czar, but this year Bloomberg decided to write it himself. We suspect that the Mayor's favorite fable by Æsop is The Ant and the Grasshopper.

The New York Times has a story today on the required unveiling of NY Sen. Hillary Clinton's investments, which were previously held in a blind trust jointly owned with her husband and former President Bill Clinton, but needed to be disclosed as Sen. Clinton is now running for President herself. The trust was liquidated in April after the Clintons learned that their holdings included potentially politically damaging investments in military contractors, oil, pharmaceutical companies, and Wal-Mart. That the latter three could be considered politically damaging is interesting and says something about America's political landscape, because we imagine that 95% of all Americans either consume oil, ingest pharmaceuticals, or shop at Wal-Mart in any given week of the year.

The Daily News' Ben Smith looks at a possible stumbling block for Rudy Giuliani's presidential hopes. And it would be a big one. With September 11 fire responders falling ill and memos about the Giuliani administration opening downtown earlier, in spite of EPA warnings, becoming a bigger and bigger story this year, some who hope for "Giuliani 2008" are concerned that Rudy could be vulnerable, the way John Kerry was when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth emerged in the last presidential election. Smith writes:

Many of the workers who spent time near Ground Zero, including at least one of his top aides, have come down with respiratory and other illnesses doctors link to the air quality following the attacks. Giuliani and former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman have traded blame over the fact that more workers didn't wear respirators. But it was Giuliani's old rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who helped organize research into the health impact of the towers' collapse.

Continue reading "Giuliani's Potential "Swift Boat" "

In other mayoral news, the Post reports that Mayor Giuliani "conducted scathing research on his political enemies" while campaigning for Mayor and during his terms. Many memos are now in the Municipal Archives, such as one that says, "BILL CLINTON IS NO FRIEND OF NEW YORK CITY!" Oh, Rudy, we knew you had it in you, you don't fool us with any of that September 11 stuff.

You know, even though the fall is our favorite month, Gothamist never looked forward to the end of summer, and thanks to the hell on wheels production of the Republican National Convention, we're hoping that construction on our time-machine keeps progressing. There was yesterday's Daily News report that some extreme/fringe protest groups were devising ways to divert police and bomb-sniffing dogs with "anarchist" tactics, like lacing things with ammonium nitrate and forcing the evacuation of Madison Square Garden. Police Commissioner Kelly freaked out, "Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?" Mayor Bloomberg responded to the news by saying, "If people want to come here and protest, we also want to accommodate them, but nobody is going to take away the rights of our citizens to go about their business, go to school, go to work." Gothamist agrees, but we find it funny, because a lot of businesses near Madison Square Garden are going to be closed, because there's so much chaos expected. The management company of Penn South, a co-op near MSG, is telling residents to stock up on food and water, making the comparison of the convention to a hurricane apt. Even though we don't live near MSG, should we assume our landlord doesn't love us, since he doesn't give us memos like that one?

To celebrate support tax-free week, Mayor Bloomberg went to the Rego Park, Queens Sears and bought a denim jacket with a faux fur collar. Hot. Oh, wait, it's for one of his daughters; who knows what Gothamist would have done to see Bloomby in a denim jacket with a faux fur collar? Anyway, the New York Times reports that the jacket was $29.99, marked down from $40, and then the Mayor tried to apply for a Sears card to take advantage of a further discount, but he wasn't approved immediately. In his press release about this year's tax-free week, the Mayor says:

The Daily News says two new statements from New York Times management have been released, to ensure staffers and employees of better management practices, but still blame Jayson Blair himself for the problems. The New York Post implies the memos were released to further placate those who'd been wary of Blair all along and that "heads will roll," according to an employee.