From CBS 2:

"New York City’s fire union’s president blasted a city emergency response plan that puts the police department in charge at the scene of any chemical or biological attack.Uniformed Firefighters Association head Steve Cassidy complained that his department lost a power struggle over something they should be in charge of. Under the proposal, the police department will assume primary control of the scene at any biological or chemical attack. Fire officials, in memos and in meetings with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, lobbied for responsibility based on their decades of handling hazardous material incidents. The decision to revamp emergency response protocol was prompted by the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks. In most other major cities, the fire department responds first to incidents involving the release of hazardous materials. Peter Hayden, the fire chief of department, said his agency is better prepared than we were three years ago for a terrorist attack. The Fire Department has increased training, improved technology and added new equipment as part of its preparedness. He added that cases involving hazardous materials remain “an area in which the Fire Department has the greatest expertise. In most other major cities, the fire department responds first to incidents involving the release of hazardous materials."


A few things come to mind after this.

1]bloomberg has got a serious cop fetish. He and his NYPD choir boy Ray Kelly are very clearly not fans of the fire department and I don't know why.

2]NYPD has how many Hazmat teams? Right. FDNY has 1 main team, 7 Hazmat squads, 3 Hazmat engines, Rescue and Ladder comapnies are heavily trained in Hazmat incidents.

3]bloomberg doesn't care about the well being of New Yorkers unless they support his dumbass stadium.

Stephen Siller, beloved husband and father of five, was a firefighter from Squad 1, Park Slope Brooklyn. On 9/11, he was off-duty, and on his way to golf with his 3 older brothers. When Stephen heard on his scanner that the World Trade Center had been hit, he turned his vehicle around and headed towards the site. When his truck was prohibited from entering the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, typical of him, he raced on foot towards the site with his gear strapped to his back. He was last seen alive on West and Liberty Streets where he, more than likely, went looking for his Squad, all of whom perished.

My cell phone is barely functioning. My watch is fritzing out. My tv freezes up every now and then. I saw turkeys on the street last week. Gifford Miller likes Jelly Bellys. I woke up early on a monday. It's supposed to hit 81 wednesday. You know what this means?

Society is finally starting to break down.

Ok so yesterday was odd. On the way to campus I see 6 turkeys in the middle of the street. Turkeys. On Staten Island. And not on my plate. This makes me a bit nervous. 163/83, and 86 truck and Rescue were also on campus for a few false alarms.

Today was my first day volunteering at Gifford Millers office. For those of you who don't know, he is the city council speaker running for the democratic nom for Mayor and he will win. Really nice, personable guy, he was even singing "Stacies mom" all day which was halarious.

See.....now that....was a baseball game. Way to go boys.

Whats it say about modern day media coverage when NY1 is the first major news orginization to break news of the Popes death and keep coverage of the story all day, hours later when at the same time, CBS stayed with the story for roughly an hour and a half and then went to college basketball?

Jeez....how much do you want to bet the news people are pleasuring themselves right now?

Johnnie Cochran, The stadium, Shiavo, Frank Purdue, and now the Pope. It's a news weekend they dream about. Now I know all...what...29 people that read this are most likely thinking i'm a heartless bastard, but it's true. Most...not all...but most news people don't have feelings. They just want to get the story out, which is good and all, but have a heart.

I might be an atheist, but that doesn't mean I don't like the Pope. Matter of fact, any guy who can enjoy breakdancing as much as he did, and wear Bono sunglasses(Thanks Mellissa) is a-ok in my book.

That stadium is gonna be the end of it. This city is gonna go nuts. But before I go on with the rest of that rant I want to know why the MTA didn't just wait longer for more bids. See...they[the MTA] said that they wanted bids on the land. The MTA is cash strapped, so therefore one would think that they'd go for a nice high bid, like Cablevisions, but instead they went for the Jets bid, which was far lower. The MTA board had members from bloomberg and Pataki, so obviously they were gonna vote stadium...but the obvious fact is...the deal stinks. If the MTA is in need of money, why not go for the higher bid?

This stadium is not what we need. Even though they claim theyre going to put parking spots elsewhere, there will still be mass amounts of traffic in that already congested area.

Now, they say this stadium is a good sign that the International Olympic Committe(IOC) will give New York the 2012 Summer Olympics. This is very bad. The plan calls for events in all 5 boroughs. Summer tourists plus three million plus athletes and press, from all over the country, coming in over a short 3 week period. The mayor says that the Republican convention from last summer proves that we can handle it. Lets compare.

Republican convention prep time and event length: Roughly a week and a half.
Likely Olympic prep time and length: 3 months.

Republican convention attendees: few thousand tops.
Olympic attendees: I'm guessing 3 million. (athletes, trainers, support staff, press, judges, tourists, family)

Republican Convention area: About 15-20 square blocks at most.
Olympic area: All 5 boroughs will have at least 2 events.

Now lets talk security. NYPD, as much as I usually don't get along with them does a great job handling big events...but even this is beyond their scope. Now the government has promised to give security, but they also promised relief money after 9/11 and thats slow to come in so I don't beleive them, and some government agent schmuck from Virgina will not know how to survive in the south Bronx at 2am. New York City is already a high terroist target, the Olympics have had terrorist attacks before (1996 Atlanta anyone?) so thats like adding fuel to the fire. There is no way that we can garuntee the safety of all these extra people.

Speaking of all these people...where we gonna put them? They say they'll build hotels along with the Olympic venues. Right...and this will be done by 2012? "Yes" they say. Right. Thats why we've been wiating for them to finish the ferry terminals for how long now? It takes 2 years to repave half a mile of highway and they're gonna pop up all these hotels and event venues in 8 years?

The good thing about me being a firefighter is, we can close the bay doors and not have to deal with these people till we go out on a call...in which case they'll almost assuredly be in the way...but, again, I really gotta feel for the cops in this thing, becasue they're out on the street and they are gonna have to play tourguide to all these people...many of whom will either not speak any English or have any clue where they're goin, or both.

Another bad thing about this stadium is...now every event in the country or world is gonna be here. The NFL has already said that if and when the stadium gets built, we will be the host city for the 2010 Superbowl. Then the floodgates will open... the Grammys, Oscars, Academy Awards and probably the porono awards will want to have their show here. And the owners of the stadium, the money hungry bastards they are, will approve everything. Yes, the city does need money, but we don't need the extra hassle.

This thing is going to be very bad and not a lot of people see it.