Scattered Gunshot: Shooting Voters From A Helicopter

We all know the (in)famous tales of Sarah Palin shooting wolves from a helicopter, turning the Alaskan wilderness into her personal blood spattered penny arcade. Now, in the final days of the McCain/Palin campaign, the Republicans are shooting from their helicopters at any Obama target in sight, from a mild mannered Palestinian scholar Obama once met to the tired old Rezco and Rev. Wright connections, hoping to bag a few votes with their fear inspiring machine-gun tactics, and knock a few voters off the registry. Something has gone terribly wrong with the McCain/Palin aim. They are missing their targets, and the recoil from their gun is beginning to hurt their own credibility big time.

What I see in the Palin candidacy is only fear: the decision of a frightened candidate, John McCain, desperate to appeal to the lowest fears of the voters by selecting a rabble rousing, sarcastic, street-fighter, an expert in demonizing her opponents -- who better than one who went to her local church to have her personal demons exorcised by a witch doctor? This would be laughable because it's all so loony, but it could be tragic if any of this scattered gunshot changes the course of the election. I doubt that it will, but there are a few days to go, and not being fearless I fear that the polls are just sweet talking lovers, there to seduce us, and abandon us after they have worked their comforting charms.

A note on the recent vote of my city council in New York to extend term limits so as to allow Mayor Bloomberg and the council to run for re-election. Hiss! Bah! Humbug! Although I am against term limits, I know that they were early on supported in New York City by an influential cosmetics billionaire, determined to keep certain "elements" in city government from gaining permanent power, and by the voters themselves who feared entrenched power. I am so tired of rich men being able to buy their way into power time and again; the argument in their favor is that the rich are less likely to be corrupted than a poor candidate. Who is kidding who? Or is that whom? Bloomberg, a good Mayor during a time of prosperity (and that ain't hard to be) now tells us that he is the only one who can see us through the hard times. Ah, echoes of Giuliani after 9/11! Bloomberg is running on his record, some of which is open to question. He is the Mayor who encouraged unchecked development in the city (let us all fall down before the god of real estate taxes!!!) but forgot to build the schools for the children of the new neighborhoods, or intelligently improve the infrastructure of the city while applauding rampant growth. A tour down what was once Yorkville, now a hodge-podge of new, hideous skyscrapers lacking in human scale - our rebuilt East Berlin - shows the appalling results of that growth. Bloomberg is another candidate who uses that helicopter of his to shoot down dissident voters with his powerful personal money. Chances are a desperately strapped city will re-elect him, but that will turn New York City into a banana Republic where the rules can always be changed to benefit the rulers.

Comments

[fightorleave2]

Good for you, Mr. Yellen, if you voted against the Council bill to shred the notion that the People are in charge. Oddly, I don't believe you actually stated that you voted against the Mayor's bill, although you certainly imply as much. I worry greatly if New Yorkers can be fooled into voting for Bloomberg, who you very graciously says his record is open to question. I always ask, maybe you would know, to name one thing Bloomberg has done for this city other than the smoking ban that actually is good public policy. Please tell me one thing.

[Whinger]

Why any member of an ethnic minority would want to go to war and fight for people who hate them is beyond understanding!
After this election, if McCain / Palin are in charge they should stand back and let the good ol' boys go instead!

[knowBuddhaU]

I agree. It's feudalism, not democracy: "Noble" white men converting our Commons into private property in the context of a holy war. We do our work AND theirs. We fight and die, not them. They just reap the profits while socializing the costs.

The war on terror today is the cash cow the Crusades were to feudalists in Medieval Europe. What could we have built with all the Iraq War money? Stadia are backyard projects in comparison, nevertheless extremely instructive.

"In January 2007, the city assessed land under the new Yankee Stadium at 10 times the market value of virtually all other land in the South Bronx neighborhood. The assessment"not including the new ballpark"worked out to a fair market value of $275 per square foot. But a Daily News analysis of city property records shows that city assessors said land on a dozen blocks around the site was worth an average of less than $25 a square foot." http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/12/did_nyc_officials_deliberately_inflate_land

"Sure. I mean, I think it"s absolutely correct that every major and minor city is either building a stadium or arena or being asked to estimate somewhere around $2 billion a year of public money going into these buildings, a very, very small percentage of which comes back in terms of, you know, tax benefits or actually benefits to the cities. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/30/field_of_schemes_congress_probes_how

[operaqueen]

Once again, you're right on the money. Thanks.

[JennyJay]

I used to admire Bloomberg - until he pulled this SLIMEY TRICK - buying the power he wants.
Bloomberg AND the City Council should be thrown out on their scummy little butts for not
obeying the law.
Why do we even have laws, if they can be bought off so easily???????????

[smag]

If you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas.

[robbie44]

A pound of protection........beats an ounce of lead.