Bloomberg Wants to Eliminate Public Advocate; Says New York City Has An "Aggressive Enough Press"-- He Should Know Since He Bought and Paid for It

How aggressive is the New York press? Right now, most are clamming up for fear that they might be shut out of the city hall loop in the next term. And who can blame them. The "press" were officially bought and paid for in August 2008 when Bloomberg met with Schulzberger (NY Times), Zuckerman (Daily News), and Murdoch (NY Post), promised them whatever he promised them, and got them on board with his term limits scheme. So he has had the three major papers in his pocket for over a year. He has also spent millions on print ads in just about every publication in the five boroughs (funny how many of those little newspapers are endorsing him).

His $80,000,000+ campaign spending is essentially a bribe to New York's political infrastructure--TV and radio stations, websites, newspapers, printers, paper manufacturers, consultants, lawyers, caterers, etc. Everyone has been living high on the Bloomberg hog since the summer. And this is just the above-board money. Who knows how many other millions were spent, and how much influence was exerted, through his foundation, through Bloomberg L.P., in backroom deals in City Hall, in restaurants with political bosses. And no one seems to care.

It appears that the public is about to elect a mayor who wants to eliminate the Public Advocate, who he compares to a "gadfly" (I'm a half a gadfly, and believe me when I say the City needs more than me to protect it from Bloombusconi). I really wonder what has happened to New Yorkers. When did they become so detached and passive? An old woman will trample me to get a fresh bagel in the morning, but a rich bully ignores the people’s vote, buys off the entire City, bends the rules to suit himself, and gets a shrug. It must still be post-traumatic stress from 9/11. I think New Yorkers could care less who's running the city--as long as it's not September 12, 2001. Bloomberg knows it and he’s exploiting it. He recently told the Daily News that the "bottom line is the city is a lot better than it was eight years ago." No shit. Several levels in Dante’s Inferno were "better" than New York was eight years ago.