Heroes In The Audience Tonight, To Bush, They're Zeroes

For the third time, Marvin Bethea will be in the audience for George Bush's State of the Union address. Thankfully to him, it will be George's last. Bethea was a paramedic based in Queens when he rushed Ground Zero to help people in one of our nation's worst disasters. Now he is taking several medications a day and is sick and tired of how the President neglects him and all the 9/11 responders who have become ill after breathing the toxic air of Lower Manhattan following the collapse of the Twin Towers.

From The Daily News:

"I'm fed up with how we're treated," said Bethea, saying he now takes 12 medications daily and still has trouble getting adequate health care. "They went from calling us heroes to treating us like zeros."

Ground Zero volunteer John Feal was even more blunt in skewering the White House.

"You got $3 billion a month to kill people," Feal said. "You got $3 billion a year for health care."

On the eve of Bush's speech, 9/11 responders, union leaders and elected officials gathered at Ground Zero Sunday to blast the White House for recently yanking a contract for ailing 9/11-responder care.

"They just don't want to spend the money," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), whose district includes Ground Zero. "They'd rather see these people die."

The apathy of the White House is sad, but unfortunately true. Bush loved to use the true heroes of 9/11 for his own quest for war but now that they need his help he refuses to give it. He rejected spending extensions for clinics that care for the rescue workers. Tonight, when he talks about what he wants Congress to pass, perhaps he could change his mind about people like Marvin Bethea and John Feal, but we already know he won't.

Giuliani Can't Help But Insult 9/11 Rescue Workers

Rudolph Giuliani is apparently suffering from an extreme case of a super-inflated ego. The "Mussolini of Manhattan" is on a quest to be our next President and he does not care who gets trampled. Even if those who are raked through the coals are the people that Giuliani builds his "America's Mayor" fame on, Rudy cares about no one but himself.

From The Daily News:

Rudy Giuliani drew outrage and indignation from Sept. 11 first-responders yesterday by saying he spent as much time - or more - exposed to the site's dangers as workers who dug through the debris for the missing and the dead.

Speaking to reporters at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame he caught between fund-raisers, the GOP front-runner said he helped 9/11 families and defended himself against critics of how he managed the attack's aftermath.

"This is not a mayor or a governor or a President who's sitting in an ivory tower," Giuliani said. "I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

His statement rang false to Queens paramedic Marvin Bethea, who said he suffered a stroke, posttraumatic stress disorder and breathing problems after responding to the attacks.

"I personally find that very, very insulting," he said.

I think many more people than Bethea find it insulting, including myself. Of course, it hits closer to home for Bethea than many people who find Giuliani to be a piece of garbage. On that terrible day, Rudy was exposed to toxins, but he was do nothing to help the people trying to rescue victims. Patting hard working people on the back does not help anyone. Screwing up the communication system between the NYPD and FDNY hurt the ability of New York to save more lives. His decision to limit time for rescue workers was nothing less than malicious. Telling people the air was safe is downright criminal.

Giuliani has no right to say what he did yesterday. His ego needs to be crushed, and that can start when he loses the Republican nomination.