Bloomberg Fails 9/11 Heroes Again

You know that old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?" Well Mayor Bloomberg really needs to check that one out after supporting Charles Hirsch's decisions regarding the heroes of 9/11 who worked on that wretched pile. Officer James Godbee was a well-fit ex-Marine and an NYPD cop, but after working on the pile, he suffered a fatal heart attack caused by sarcoidosis at the young age of 44.

It sounds like he was one of the many victims of the toxic stew that engulfed lower Manhattan in the days, weeks and months following September 11th. Yet when his widow talked to Hirsch, he told her that his death would remain "classified" and marked as "natural causes" because he wasn't there on the pile on September 11th. Instead, he was there on September 13th. Big @#%$& difference!

For the Mayor to support this man and not a blue ribbon commission is outright absurdity. The victims and their families deserve better than this. Hirsch was already taking fire over Officer Zadroga' death a few weeks ago and now we have him in the news yet again for similar reasons. I guess this was better because he didn't accuse Godbee of injecting prescription medication....nevertheless, Hirsch insulted both families and he is a stain on this city. Bloomberg should have him removed or at the very least investigated, not a man to be commended.

Shame on Hirsch and shame on Bloomberg.

It Isn't Hard To Say "I'm Sorry"

Even though thinking of uttering those two words can be anxiety-ridden for many, it is generally a good thing to do when you have made a mistake. When politicians make mistakes (which is all the time) it is even harder for them to own up to their actions. Yet with enough public pressure and especially from those offended by an elected official, you can get an apology, even with Mayor Bloomberg...well, sort of.

From NY1:

After a very public battle with the mayor over his late son's reputation, Zadroga says he finally got an apology and that he was satisfied.

"He admitted that he was misquoted and that he may have mis-said it," said James' father Joseph Zadroga. "It didn't come out the way that he wanted it to come out and obviously the press ran with it the wrong way."

Calling the mayor “gracious,” Zadroga’s father said Bloomberg also told him he would try to find a way for the September 11th victims’ memorial to also include those who have been sickened by the toxic dust and debris at the WTC site.

Admitting you were misquoted is not an apology, but mis-stating something is a little bit closer to what we usually deem an acceptance of responsibility. We are talking about a politician here, not a real human being or anything like that.

Zadroga's father was also very humble in return and was satisfied with the Mayor's statement that he would look into adding the heroes of 9/11 into the Victim's Memorial. In political-speak that sounds like placating to me, but who knows what could come out of all this bad press for Bloomberg. Maybe all of the victims of September 11th will get their due, we'll just have to see.

What Does Bloomberg Know About Being A Hero?

The Mayor has some nerve determining who was and wasn't a hero on the pile at Ground Zero. During September 11th he was far from the death and destruction that was wrought down in the Financial District. The man isolated by his money tries to be like one of the people by riding the subway (after being driven to the express stop by his police detail) but in reality he is no hero, just a rich media tycoon that was anointed by Rudy Giuliani right after the attacks.

For him to call a man who spent 450 hours working and trying to rescue people in the smoking inferno nothing more than a drug addict is nothing short of atrocious. Bloomberg made those comments while accepting an award at Harvard, well Detective James Zadroga didn't have a chance to make it up to Cambridge, he died from scarred lungs as have many other workers on the pile.

From The Daily News:

"Our chief medical examiner believes that the deceased was using some of his drugs in a manner for recreational drugs," Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg said that instead of taking his medications orally, Zadroga "was injecting them into his veins - a common practice, I gather."

"Nobody wanted to hear that," Bloomberg said. "We wanted to have a hero. There are plenty of heroes. It's just in this case, the science says this was not a hero."

Zadroga's father was shocked.

"For Bloomberg to say that he's not a hero, that is a disgrace," Joseph Zadroga said. "Why is he trying to malign my son and deny that Jimmy is a hero."

Bloomberg made those shocking comments based on a second autopsy done on Zadroga. Before the family wanted their son's name added to the official list of 9/11 victims the autopsy showed he had in fact succumbed to the toxic air of Lower Manhattan.

Only after there was something at stake for the city did the results change. Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association is now accusing the Chief Medical Examiner that his results were politically motivated. Serious charges for a serious case of degrading treatment of a hero by a callous and insensitive Mayor.