Not looking good for Rudy. In addition to 11 trips to the Hamptons, the bizarre $400,000 prepayment to American Express paid for:
– hotel and other expenses for mayoral aides — in addition to the security detail — who also went with the mayor to the Hamptons on the tryst weekends.
– Nathan’s NYPD-chauffeured trips (without Rudy) to visit her parents in Pennsylvania, 130 miles outside the city.
– NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan around the city.
– NYPD detectives and city-owned undercover Dodge to drive Nathan’s friends and family around the city even when she wasn’t in the car.
– NYPD security detail for Nathan, personally approved by Bernard Kerik.
– NYPD cops to walk Nathan’s dog.
Is somebody trying to tank Rudy, or are they just trying to get all this stuff out there now with the gamble that wingnuts have memories like sieves and in 5 minutes Matthews will be talking about Hillary’s panties again anyway?
Hard to know.
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Zed!
Will the new site pick up speed in logging on and commenting, Jane?
OOPS. Congrats, CT, ya beat me.
Congratulation CT…
Sorry for site glitches, we’ve got Jamie and John working on it right now, trying to get the servers working.
Thanks to everyone for their patience.
We’re going to postpone Book Salon and have Les Leopold back on Jan 6 so he doesn’t have to deal with our hiccoughs.
I think I know the answer to this one
do you remember when rudy endorsed comey?
payback time
Any way to increase the font size? My old eyes can’t read the new site.
For such a massive redo, I think it’s gone pretty well. Congratulations, Jane, it looks wonderful. Looking forward to all of the new things you’ve hinted at.
I miss having the prior and next posts at the top, tho. Made for easy scrolling. But we’ll adapt.
CT, it already has.
Just a drive-by to check out the new comment function and say hello. For the record, I do my own driving and all without a police detail.
I think Jane scared the crap out of everyone with that “Goodbye” post.
Jane, Would you prefer that we keep trying to do things in the new place
or
would it be better if we visited later?
do it from the browser bottom left on your screen there’s a pull down
Click on Control+
Your browser might handle it. On a Mac with Firefox, the command (Apple) key plus the + key increases the size of the display, including fonts. command plus the minus key reduces it.
Jane, do we have the same father? My dad (now deceased) used to always spell everything properly. I noticed you spelled “hiccoughs” correctly. Good on you!
Actually there is nothing wrong with the code! I have learned that the hamsters union is conducting a work slowdown in a show of solidarity with the WGA.
There are so many New Yawkers who lived through the trying Rudy experience, who can’t wait to share with the rest of us. This is going to be fun!
Sing it with me…
Oh, Rudy…..Don’t take your love (out of) town!
Just checking in….
For those who don’t know font sizing is a snap in Firefox. You use control and the + key to increase and control and the – key to shrink the font.
Rudi’s such a fascist, but leave it to the press to latch on the the “sex side of the rudi story.
Whatever it takes to expose another reich wing facist. Maybe it will result in them taking off their rose colored glasses and report like Barrett does on Yank’s Mayor.
His mafia friends are building Yankee stadium with OUR money tight now. Another reason no to go to see them.
There are so many New Yawkers who lived through the trying Rudy experience, who can’t wait to share with the rest of us. This is going to be fun!
Sing it with me…
Oh, Rudy…..Don’t take your love (out of) town!
Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
Also, I’m sad that I couldn’t keep my handle under the new regime, as we now have a four letter minimum length :(
Aside from that (and the slowness), great work all around, this feels a lot more “professional” than the old design.
We should have a thread, when this all gets worked out, where everyone who had to get a new handle re-introduces themselves.
Wow the site is very buggy and slow so it’s hard to enjoy it.
Jane please do the blog role in alphabetical order.
I don’t even think Gouliani had a thing to do with lowering crime. It was mostly a result of the end of the crack epidemic and the rising economy which created so many jobs.
Can’t get a decent window wash anymore for your quarter.
Jane-and you didn’t even mention his “ideas,” flipflops, relationship with his kids, and Keric. Without Fox’s support he would be long gone.
Okay, Here’s an update.
I’ve clicked to get the new posts and for the last two times nothing’s happened.
When I tried to submit, I got timed out of the site.
Thanks for the font size information, all of you helpful people.
Just trying this to see if it works.
Nice colors!
Now Romney thinks Guliani should get the benefit of the doubt!
I get lots of time outs and connection errors, but 1 in 50 I get normal speed.
Toolbox does nothing.
Heckuva job Jamie… jokin… Rome wasn’t built in a day.
This too shall pass.
Why is the press more obsessed with hanky panky than with torture and mass arrests of americans and Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, and Anthony Baez, and Eleanor Bumpers, and Michael Stewert, and Abner Louima, and Sean Belle… and that’s just a few of the New Yorkers killed by cops.
I don’t think Rudy’s gonna make it through December. He’s self-imploding fast!
Maybe it’s because I work in “online education” but we have made several major changes in our course management systems over the past few years. We have a huge server farm, a great technical staff and the support of the CMS vendor and we ALWAYS have issues when we upgrade. Maybe that’s why I have so little patience with people bitching and moaning. If it’s such a big frickin deal do something else, it’ll be here when you get back.
Well, my handle is the same, just with an appended 0, so…
I was worried Rudi would flame out before getting the nomination, and that seems to be happening. Betcha the GOP powers-that-be have decided he’s just too dirty in ways that can’t be hidden. Best to get it all out, make Rudi take his lumps, and see if Matthews manliness-admiration and the Villages’ Idiocy can carry him across the finish line.
After this week’s debate, I am very scared of Hucklebee.
Definitely a lot of kinks that need to be ironed out… ;-)
I certainly hope that someone took this car out for a drive before they bought it.
So far, it has reported an error during registration (”too few characters”) on one end while on the other end it accepted the registration; it responds more slowly than the other site did under heaviest load, and it is facing only (I suppose) a fraction of the traffic of a usual light Saturday afternoon.
Can these problems be solved by tuning? I hope so. Can we back out of this arrangement and go back to the previous site? I hope there is a fallback.
Have we thrown away a lot of the functionality that we became accustomed to on the old site, like ‘Preview’, ‘Quote’, etc.? I don’t happen to see them lying around here; maybe they’re hidden?
Oh my. NYPD personnel assigned to walk her dogs? I mean, I love dogs. I think all dogs in NYC should be walked twice a day. But assigning cops to do it?
I don’t think the Post is going to be able to resist this.
Preview can be found at the upper right of the comment-entering box.
“Quote this comment” is now “reply”
“Preview”, “quote” and all that are in the reply box. Ooops, just checked “preview”, and it didn’t. Guess it’s not all on line yet.
I am not sure what the new version is supposed to get us.
Can anyone do a bullet list of what the new features are?
great site redesign-inspired me to stop lurking once and for all, and register.
I used to make extra money walking dogs while I was freelancing in NYC. There are a lot of high-powered dogwalkers – I’m surprised THEY haven’t protested about the unfair competition from the City.
Unfortunately, “Quote this comment” doesn’t include the comment. If we ratchet up to our customary 250+ comments on some threads, it is going to be a pain for those of us who sometimes come late to a thread and want to respond to an early comment.
But I’ve been through a few of these, and I’m just one little voice urging patience. It is human nature to react negatively when our world changes dramatically. We probably will find that we like the new world better.
(…hoping that goes for January 2009, too…)
What could possibly be the point of pre-paying an AmEx card, especially in a public sector setting, except to hide things? AmEx has no monthly limit and it provides detailed accounting of purchases. A pre-payment would be unnecessary in any aboveboard operation.
Apparently AmEx refunded almost $300k of this pre-payment when Bloomberg took office. Did the pre-payment refund go back to the correct agency? And how, in a city budget, did they account for the cross-years refund?
Rudi’s scummy, and Judi’s the gum on the bottom of his shoe. I’m just waiting for the press conference when he fires her for mis-using the government protection detail he provided her! She and Donna Hanover can start a support group: Rudi Wives Who’ve Been Fired On TeeVee.
Aloha, VirgoTex! Nice to see another Virgo here…! 8-)
The Democratic New York politician who lost his seat for taxiing his wife on the public dime was guilty of far fewer and less egregious offenses than Rudy is alleged to have committed. In the real world Rudy would be done. In Bushworld, it remains to be seen, cuz IOKIYAR.
I love the new masthead–beautiful!
I’m not scared of Huckabee in a general election. None of the Rethugs scare me. They can all be beaten.
“America’s Mayor”? Hell if this is how he acted as NYC’s Mayor, imagine the abuses with a whole country…
Secret Service detail flies Air Force One to walk Judy’s dog in Yosemite…
I’ll second that!
Judi’s his dom prolly. At home at night she wears the heels and he licks them in his maid’s outfit. He’s a new man under her control. New teeth, and sharp look.
The man is such a creep. Another reason NOT to be a Yankee fan.
And he is responsible for not protecting the rescue workers after 911. What a schmuck.
I do like the fact of the notification of ‘new comments’ rather than the old infernal spinning wheel…
If you’re using firefox, hold down the control key while tapping the “+” key. That will increase the font size on the spot for you.
yah, it’s instructive to remember that the place the whole story broke was the Politico, or as Atrios more accurately calls them, Drudgico. the wingnuts themselves put the hit on him. it’ll be interesting to see what happens as it goes on.
surely you jest. everybody knows she doesn’t wear any, the easier to allow her lesbian lover access. :)
Just checking in. I like the new look. I’m sure the glitches will be worked out after we’ve kicked all the tires ;-) If you are adding to that list, I’ve discovered the ‘preview’ link looks exactly like the edit window…
Thank you, LooHoo, that worked out pretty well.
Nice redo, Jane. I didn’t have a problem registering, it is just like most of the email discussion groups I am on, so no complaint. So, what are these mysterious additions you talked about.
sofistic
Gee, the speed just now improved for loading the post and comments. Good job and thanks!
Hmmm. Tried to ‘reply’ and then ‘preview’ and it hung up; had to close the page and open a new one, then dive back into comments.
I dislike writing HTML and the like, because the formatting is so lame you’d think that everything we learned from C, Python, etc had been forgotten. I would not know where to start to write the guts of blog software. Are there open source starting points? Are there reliable libraries? Is the software for this incarnation of Firedoglake being written especially for us? Is it using a standard package? How can a blog have teething problems when they’ve been done so many times?
And, no, I am not going to ‘preview’ this.
Ah, now this is what I’m talkin’ about! Very zippy!
I’ll say she did. Don’t ever do that again!!!!
Is somebody trying to tank Rudy
I did think it was interesting that all this came out at once right after the dates of the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries got nailed down…
Nominally Rudy isn’t counting on winning either of those states, but I think an outright disastrous showing in those two might be too much to overcome. Maybe Mitt’s campaign thinks the same way?
The new site is certainly tres soigne, though I kind of miss the pictures that went with the posts…
(And preview isn’t working, I’m using Firefox 2.0.0.9 on XP)
Hello? [Breathless from knocking on doors and failing with the secret password] Boy, this place looks very spiffy. Nice job, pups.
As for Rudy, the phrase “dead man walking” comes to mind…
I can’t wait to see how this gets spun. The Times is pretty much obligated to cover this story. The Post will likely ignore it, since it’s full of those pesky facts as opposed to rumors, which don’t require the hard work of verification.
Suggested strategy for Rudy: OF COURSE your mistress needed NYPD protection! You (now ex) wife probably wanted to kill her!
I wonder if he’ll get prison time if it’s proven that he misspent this money.
My first comment in the new digs… Kewl! I was getting really nervous since the system kept freezing and even bumped me offline a couple of times. But yay, I made it!
BTW, did people notice the Kos contest winner naming the Rudy scandal?
Sex on the City.
What a turd.
Yeah! I’m waiting for folks to make an all-time hit out of “Rudy’s Ties to Terrorism!”
Too many jokes, too little time.
“dead man running” more like it.
I finally got registered and everything. Wanna hear my negative impressions? Nah…
*dies laughing*
dumb name for the kos kontest
69/11 was my pick
Is this dmac from Ohio?
He’s always been the one that worries me the most. I’m optimistic enough that I don’t believe America will elect a Republican this time around unless the Democrat screws up bigtime, but Huckabee is the only one who speaks dog-whistle very fluently, and pushes buttons of the wingnut base in the primary in a way that doesn’t provide great fodder for the general election (unlike the blatant pandering of Rudy and Romney, for example.)
Hi, everyone!
If this works, I’m happy to report the whole registration process took about 2 1/2 minutes and was glitch-free.
Here goes…..
Hi all
I’m scared of Huckabee too, Teddy… and I can’t quite imagine what an election would look like if Edwards gets our nod… 2 southern white guys? both populists? gonna have an odd effect.
The site layout is beautiful. Hopefully the indomitable Jamie and John can pick all the moths out of the vacuum tubes and get the circuits all lined up. In them, I have great faith. Let’s see if my updated profile works now. :)
Oh and just so I’m not off-topic twice in the same thread…
Rudy Sucks!
Yep. The site’s gotten speedier — ongoing thanks to the crew that makes this place work. I hope you have lots of coffee 8-)
I think Hucklebee will wind up the Republican nominee, to be honest. Guiliani has too many skeltons in his closet, Thompson was DOA, McCain has only ever lost traction since this campaign began, and people simply will not vote for a Mormon, knocking Romney out. Just doin’ the math.
Everything just got a lot faster! (Preview doesn’t seem to work, tho…)
I agree with both of ya, Huckabee is the one I fear most as the Repug Nominee…
’sgreat to see everyone getting on and some new friends who’ve joined us today!
Jamie and the crew are working hard to get all the little glitches worked out and I cannot tell you folks how much awesome work Jamie has done to make this and so much more possible. It just gets better gang … wait’ll you see tomorrow!
Tom Toles cartoon.
Seems like things are working *swimmingly* now.
Now how ’bout that preview linky? Nope, still don’t work. Shows “Loading” in the edit window briefly and snaps back to the edit mode after a few seconds.
Hi Jane:
WOW! Everything looks great! I know you and the team will work out the glitches and we’ll all be back to crabbing about the usual. I also notice that you can now take real ads–good for you! I hope you’ve escaped the stranglehold of Blogads.
On topic: I agree with Teddy and OC…Huckabee gives me the heebee-jeebies. I want Rudy to make it to the general election, but I’m not sure he will. I just have to hope Huckabee is wacko enough to wilt under the glare and the inability to put together an organzation.
Back OT: We’ve had 3+ inches of snow, then an hour of sleet, now it’s ice. Lovely. Egregious’ photo this morning almost had me in tears.
It worked!
I’m with the poster upthread; I work in CAD, and we periodically have updates where it can take several hours to tweak & fine tune a new version on everyone’s workstations. This seems to be working pretty good. Good Job. I like it, it’s clean. Looks a lot like Carpetbagger, which is intended as a compliment.
No no no, I want everything to be perfect right this very second or I’ll hold my breath. . .
The ugly tructh about Rudy has just begun to get some traction. Remember when he sued because New York Magazine had some ads on buses that he found objectionable?? Because they had the nerve to criticize him??
I had no trouble registering. Jane, Its about time I gave you my rent check.
testing
testing
is this turned on?
hello?
oh
okay
yea
testing dog talk on this new firedog lake by this ol’ yeller dog.
Praise be to Jane and Christy for all their Blessings they bring to us pups.
is it too late to get rudy the ReThuglican nomination now?
Huckabee’s going to be it, I think. Giuliani’s the anointed successor to Bush by the Big Money Cabal, but his scandals are destroying him. Romney is the strongest “good hair” GOP-style candidate, but he’ll never survive the Mormon problem. McCain made himself too much of a maverick to be acceptable by the GOP rank and file, even if it might work in the general.
I’d like to think Huckabee’s proud ignorance (rejecting evolution, for example) would be enough to disqualify him, but ours is a nation of ignorance and stupidity.
Things working better now? If not, I should probably go out on the lake with my dog and skates and test the ice. I see people out on the far side of the lake playing hockey, so maybe I’ll get the puck out of here.
You know, I am really getting weary of all this tabloid news stuff. Are any of these folks ever going to talk about, you know, policy and issues and stuff?
“Click on Control+”
WOW!!! I did not know this! Thanks, Firedogs!
Congratulations and nice to see everyone back. Here’s an easily fixed glitch on the congrats you’ve registered page.
You have successfully activated your account! You may now login above and conitnue on your journey.
To make Wordpress do what we want it to do … and you’ll see what we mean soon … Jamie has built an FDL specific version with the tools we need to add some great new features for everyone.
I really love the “new comments” replacement for all that refreshing and I also really like getting news clips right on FDL!
For folks asking, Preview works – just click the little Preview link in the upper right of your comment box – and notice you get some nice quick tools for editing your comment (bold, italic, underlined,
strikeout, then, links and spellcheck.)
Can you imagine a real debate between Huckleberry Hound and Hillary? Bring ‘er on, I say!
Ecahnomics–
I agree with you it would be great if the font size were bigger and bolder as well–the size of EW’s blog “The Next Hurrah” comments would be great. Meanwhile if you’re using IE 7 of course, you can click the lower right of the web page or if you’re using IE 6 you can hit Tools>Options>Accessability>take the check out of “use fonts specified on web pages” and then you can adjust or rheostat the font size by using the mouse scroll button while holding down the Ctrl key.
Also for me the Preview link does not work.
Sex scandals is what the msm goes with, they are not interested in issues like torture or the constitution.
Will we get the pix back at the headline of a story? No birds on Saturday AMs?
while we all think Huckabee is a threat, if you are a scared, racist, multinational kinda repug who likes torture, Huck is not your man.
I don’t see any Republican candidate being viable, and very few Democrats as well. I miss Gravel, and I really hope Edwards leaves them all in the dust.
That’s what appears in the comment box on my computer all the time, not just after I’ve clicked on Preview. There is no obvious difference between the regular comment box and preview.
I hope Hucksterbee gets it. Then we can watch the wingnuts try to justify his
Willie Horton
I’m not sure that worked right, but you get the gist.
Aloha, Kailuacaton!
Kailua on Oahu or Kailua-Kona? *g*
I’m really missing the ability to quote the comment referred to as opposed to trying to remember what I read or shuffling back and forth to see what the prior comment was about. Can you bring that function back?
I’d also like to request that Book Salon say not only the dates but also the times of the Book discussions.
And, maybe it’s just me, but I’m finding those ads that move stressful. It makes the site a less pleasant place to come for me.
I love the function telling us there are new comments to click and load.
Apparently my registration was carried over from yesterday’s fdl.
When I tried to register earlier today, it told me that name and email address were alreeady used and then fdl went down for more refurbishing. Now that I’m back, it seems to know me without my having to register or login.
Pete and others having trouble with Preview – are you clicking the link and then looking just above your comment box? you should see a greyed out version of your comment.
Hey Raven … you’re turning blue dear! (and thank you!)
Any chance that when we hit link we get a blank screen rather than having to delete the http? Long as everything’s getting all spiffed up and all.
New thread, I think; phew, I’m disoreinted!
http://www.boomantribune.com/s…../10497/436
Try again.
i’m trying to navigate the lake – having login probs… perhaps b/c of the new format?? and a tad difficult for me to read…i’ll get new reading glasses maybe that’ll help…all in all i guess this change is for the better…….
I’m just a boring old former accountant…but I think the real story here is HOW those charges got assigned to the other departments. SOMEONE authorized the account codes. Under standard GAAP (even on the governmental side), separate people assign the codes, then put the stuff into the accounting system (AP side), then generate a check (if someone needs to be reimbursed), then get the check signed, etc. Multiple peoples’ eyes go through this stuff. I say the question is: WHO assigned the codes – who told AP to put those charges into those other departments? If it was Rudy or one of his senior people, then they perpetrated an accounting fraud (anyone remember Enron or MCI/Worldcom?). If it was someone lower down in the food chain, the AP clerk specifically, then WHY did that person do it? Who told that person to do it?
This sort of stuff does not just “happen” — as my old audit prof, Phil Piaker said, “You can’t perpetrate a fraud by yourself.”
Yes, having the NYC taxpayers pay for his girlfriend’s trips to see her folks in Hazelton, PA is bad, bad, bad…we won’t even talk about the NYPD guys being assigned to her by Kerik (oh, please) AND WALKING HER DOG????
But someone tried very hard to hide what was going on – there is no reason to try to disperse this sort of accounting entries among small agencies OTHER than trying to hide it. This is like someone killing another person and then dismembering the body and driving all over the country disposing of the parts so that no one can find a complete person. This is fraud. This is illegal.
What Toby said
and merciful loving praise be to all the support from our IT folks working in the netherworld of the scared FDL server hardware/software.
great work!
we salute you all.
thanks
(stands on chair; holds lit lighter up.)
ya’ know, (not complaining much here) I think I liked a little bit of the blue/grey in background or on the sides of the former fdl… easier to read for some reason…
Jane, the changes are great, can’t wait to see what you are unfolding in the next few days. I’ve had a wish for FDL for about 8 months, so I’ll keep my eyes closed and fingers crossed. I appreciate your vision and hard work. FDL has made a difference in my life for 2+ years now. I can’t imagine that when you started this little blog you knew what you were getting into, but I’m so grateful you continue to take the ride.
Oh and I think it is going to be Romney/Huck. The crazies can retain power and the fundies will be satisfied.
Toby, GREAT point.
..I want to
to a BlueBayState and environs (that MA. for the USPS) meetup. A proposition for one was came up just as old style FDL came down and was continued at Trex and EW’s place in the interim this AM.
Selise, Katheryn in MA, and my humble self are on. Any others interested?
And to really facilitate our “conitnued journey,” could someone collect all the practical directions into one place and post it somewhere? A FAQ thing, as Kos has?
The type is smaller, but you can “zoom in” and change the size of the font; check your browser menu under “view”
Juslin, click on the FDL screen, then hit Control and + on your keyboard. The text size will increase.
thx for the tip – i’ll try that so my eyes can see better
Testing.
Testing.Don’t know what ‘preview’ is supposed to accomplish, but for me it only shows HTML code in the ‘Leave your response’ window; it doesn’t show the result of interpreting the code anywhere that I can find. (The other system showed the interpreted code above the edit window so that you could fix the words, spelling, and code and verify the results.
The ‘Edit this’ function has gone? (For those of us who don’t catch mistakes in the Prview wondow.)
Esthetically, I like the look of the re-design.
This could be an old lady eye thing, but I also find it harder to read and I haven’t figured out why. Increasing the text size doesn’t make all that much difference. Maybe a touch more line spacing? It feels scrunched.
Toby you are not boring, or if you are boring it’s a beautiful kind of boring.
I just sent you message, in extenso (the whole thing, word for word) to
talk@talkingpointsmemo.com
Josh has sworn to find a crime in all this and has 3 staff people working on it.
I am sure any more of your boring knowledge would be welcome.
how do we tell if there’s a new thread?
Teddy, if that were true, why do I not see what you said in my post? Reply just tells you the number of the post you’re replying to, and it will take you there, but will not bring you back to the place that you were. So, no, it doesn’t serve the same function. Although, the way I look at it, them’s the breaks. Technology moves on whether we like it or not. I’ve been watching change happen now for almost four decades, having started experience with computer technology since I worked for Indiana University Northwest in the very early seventies. Used to be time waited for no man, now it’s time and technology waits for no man.
Juslin, click on the FDL screen, then hit Control and + on your keyboard. The text size will increase.
When I do that the font size does increase, which I like, but then the page
doesn’t all fit in the window and when I slide the page to the left, it recenters itself whenever it’s got a mind to. Help.
Edward Teller, I see that you have left your * behind.
I think it might help the ability to read for longer periods of time if
you changed the background to an off white. Head toward a tiny bit of beige and it will feel more familiar, less strain.
Old Coastie, I salute you again for your citizen action–words that have new meaning now you have been outed as a U.S. coastie.
I have sent info about the same to talk@talkingpointsmemo.com to add to their list of Rudy’s worse week ever currently up on the main tpm site.
But I could not find a news item to confirm that it has been pulled from the ballot or why.
Was it the irregularities? Were their misdemeanor arrests? Tell us more.
Aloha Nui Loa Kailua-Kona where the grass is green. Sadly I now reside in Ft. Lauderdale. Please don’t ask.
I agree. I think that it is because the font stays the same (quite thin, and non-serif-ed) while it becomes mostly taller; the interline spacing does not seem to increase proportionately.
I would vote for a larger point size and a more robust font.
Sex scandals, indeed. The MSM took a big pass on Republican sex scandals too numerous to list. Gannon Guckert, FOley, Catholic Church, Rove’s daddy, and more. There’s a 50/50 chance that this will blow over.
Sex scandals, indeed. The MSM took a big pass on Republican sex scandals too numerous to list. Gannon Guckert, FOley, Catholic Church, Rove’s daddy, and more. There’s a 50/50 chance that this will blow over.
Greenwarrior, now hit control and the – sign. You’ve enlarged it too much.
How about edit. I hope we’re not losing that permanently!
Wow! Evangelicals give Hillary a standing ovation.
they wouldn’t let me bring it with – you can only use letters or numbers here when you register.
According to a front-page article in the Washington Times that I saw at the drugstore today, the “conservative leaders” are panicking and trying to agree on one anti-Rudy. There’s a quote from the guy from the American Conservative Union who endorsed Romney this week about how Rudy is counting on Huckabee knocking out Romney in Iowa to clear the way for the nomination. (Self-serving? Nahhhh…)
Republicans are in disarray! Pass the popcorn! *g*
If I were an enterprising young reporter, I’d be looking to see which agency head first coughed up his keep-this-to-CYA-when-the-audit-comes photocopies of the emails approving these expenditures.
(While writing this I see that BSRH has channeled my thoughts, or perhaps I hers…)
Another request, when you get to it: that in the Book Salon headings to include not only Date, Time and Title, but also Author.
Thanks.
and yet Loo Hoo and Ann in AZ and i have gotten to use ’space’ in our user names, which is forbotten.
I sneaked my period through. Shhhh.
Ray Metcalfe, the guy who got the ball rolling that led to the FBI investigations of a lot of legislators in Alaska, filed yesterday to run in the Democratic Primary against Ted Stevens. No other Democrat has yet filed for that seat.
Thank you, thank you (raising my calculator over my head…)
Josh needs to start NOT with the people at the top – the auditors or the controller – those guys are the ones in the “accounting policing” function. Those are the guys who lift up the carpet and go “Ewwww”. The person or persons Josh needs to talk to are the account clerks – the people who would have been told, “Do as you are told” or “Rudy said to do it this way” or “If you want a job tomorrow, you’ll do it this way” or “There’s a bonus for you at the end of the year if you don’t make any noise about this.”
Rudy and his senior people would NOT have had access to the system to input codes. Unless you work in a teeny office without enough people, the people who order the expenditures are not the same folks who put the information into the system (think “Mom and Pop Grocery Stores”) – so there had to be collusion between someone senior in Rudy’s office(under Rudy’s direction)and some account clerk. If they were smart about it, they would have limited the number of account clerks they dealth with because sooner or later, one of the account clerks would have gotten upset or felt slighted or gotten a bad performance review and tried to use leverage. So, Josh is looking for one person, probably – just one. And that person would have gotten something very good out of doing what they were told – extra perks, bonuses, etc. They had to – otherwise, there was no reason to do it, unless it was under some sort of threat(in which case, Rudy et. co. are not only fraudulent, they are also despicable).
So, Josh doesn’t have to find a whole pack of people – just the right one. and if he can get someone to audit the system to find out WHO was the person who input those charges to those account codes – that’s the person he wants to talk to.
Channeled your thoughts to Josh where the enterprisingist young reporters work.
But no harm in having Josh hear it twice. Please write.
Do you want ProfessorFoland@ 138 and I to do it for you? If you make the suggestion yourself, you might see yourself cited “TPM reader TW” and then an big block quote.
Never happened to me, but they tell me it feels better than getting a zed.
Excellent!
Was it okay for Bloomberg to just ignore this whole thing for 5 years? I don’t think it’s okay.
I see that people with their own blogs don’t have their names underlined. Guess there was no request for a URL upon registering.
BSRH – I wrote to Josh with the same info when this first broke. And now you have sent “me” over again. I’m sure Josh is a bright guy – if it’s possible, I’m also sure he’s shaken the bushes out there for a forensic accountant/detective to give him a hand – those folks are worth their weight in gold.
Wrote to TPM again. serial fraudster deserves a serial forwarder. Asked him to credit you if he uses it.
I lived in Danbury, CT (about 50 miles from Manhattan) during Rude E. Ghouliani’s term, so I got all of the NYC news every day. All he did after 9/11 was do a bunch of photo ops at Ground Zero and attend a lot of funerals. This makes him “Mayor of the World” according to Time magazine??? I have yet to read or hear any convincing explanation about why he became such a “hero” after 9/11. NYC residents couldn’t stand him on 9/10, and they certainly can’t stand him now. He couldn’t get elected dog catcher in NYC today.
Got to go. Will anyone who is still here who is in touch with Old Coastie tell her I left questions for her and a suggestion for her to write to TPM?
there is a thread upstairs but I am fighting temptation.
Nope. Just seeing my comment in the box.
I don’t find a new thread.
I think it is a TRAVESTY that Ed*ard Teller can no longer use his *.
Can we come up with and alternative for him?
Edzard?
Edqard?
I am distressed that Judith “puppykiller” Nathan even has a dog.
eCAHNomics–
Sorry–
Besides clicking the size in IE7, you can dial up or down (using Ctrl + mouse scroll button) font size in IE6 or IE7 via Tools>Options>Accessibility>Check inignore fonts on specified web page.
Great, I finally got in. I’m not sure what those nutcrackers do, next to the hyperlink chain and I’ll wait to see how things are after all the bugs are worked out.
Oh, and where’s the free drinks we were offered? And the dancing girls? And the Flying Wallendas? However, I must admit, I’m really impressed with the Cheetos & bean dip appetizers.
I’m surprised the Murdoch NY version of the London tabloids, NY Post is doing any stories showing the real Rudy.
The good news to me, is that Guilliani is the Republican front runner, because under scrutiny he is simply a cascade of hypocrisy and terrible judgement and true to Republican form has never been constrained by the truth. In the general election, if he’s their candidate, the Democrats should showcase the Rudy facade versus the Rudy reality.
Gail Collins was editorial page editor of the NY Times for 6 years and knows Rudy well. She nailed the real Rudy perfectly in her column today–Rudy is in the most systemic sense all about Rudy and no one else. He always has been and he always will. You can context everything he has done in his life with this premise.
Rudy’s Security Blanket
The parallel situation of Alan Helvisi, the former Comptroller of the State of New York who resigned as part of a plea bargain in a defrauding government conviction who used state employees to care for his cancer stricken wife, and Rudy who used many more city employees to act as servants for his Louis Vuitton stricken mistress (Judith’s bag has to have it’s own seat on the plane and has so far avoided the Terrorist Watchlist) before announcing his divorce on TV before telling his wife.
There is absolutely no reason why Rudy should not be charged and convicted just as Helvisi was.
Teddy, me too! It bothered me enormously that other than Ron Paul, the most coherant sincere (well, appearing, anyway) person there was a man who does not “believe” in evolution. Oh, dear.
this is a test
Because the country as a whole had to look at someone who appeared to be in charge and George had disappeared – briefly reappeared looking like a deer in the headlights – then was gone again. There seemedto be no one in charge anywhere.
Unfortunately, Pete, there is a reason. Helvisi was charged under a law that applies to State officials. There isn’t a similar law for City official, more’s the pity.
I see mkollb. I didn’t realize that. That is terribly unfortunate.
I like this profile of Rudy:
Two Parts hubris, one part paranoia
Great comment on the way Rudy’s people hid the expenditures by using small obscure agencies…
“This is like someone killing another person and then dismembering the body and driving all over the country disposing of the parts so that no one can find a complete person.”
Hey, and congrats on the visual changes at the Lake.
Greenwarrior–
Try this:
If incremental increases don’t suit you, then you can turn the font size up or down (in IE6 or IE7) via Tools>Options>Accessibility Button lower right>put check in “ignore font size on spec webpages”>then use Ctrl+Mouse scroll to turn font size up or down–this will give you more “granularity” as the IT types say.