The following sentence was taken from The Declaration of Independence that frames the basic principles on which this great nation was formed and has endured conflict from within and abroad for over 232 years:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
I have highlighted the clause that makes this document so very sacred and noteworthy as we protest this usurpation of the voters rights in this great City of New York by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Speaker Christine Quinn.
The sanctity of the voters will is so very precious to protecting the rights set forth in the Declaration of Independence and in the United States Constitution, that even the horrific events of 09/11/2001 would not be sufficient justification to forego the November 2001 Mayoral election for The City of New York. Clearly, neither Mayor Michael Bloomberg nor Christine Quinn nor the entire body of the New York City Council has demonstrated any compelling reason to usurp the will of the voters. This legislation is merely the product of a well planned, well financed, move by an arrogant, despotic Mayor and a sheepish self serving City Council that has betrayed the trust that their constituents have placed in them.
Certainly, the written testimony of others that are opposed to this legislation will point out the many short comings of Mayor Bloomberg and those dysfunctional agencies that he is in charge of. They will also point out his abusive use of eminent domain at a proposed cost of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. They will point out that despite the fact that he founded and owns most of Bloomberg L.L.P., the largest worldwide financial data organization, he did not warn New Yorkers of the financial storm that was brewing for several years, because sub-prime mortgages were extended to unqualified people. Nor did he note the complicity and collusion that permeated both the real-estate and banking industry in granting these loans, with the tacit approval and direction of congress.
I will close my testimony with a much used but very appropriate quote. French president Charles De Gaulle had something to say on political indispensability: “Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible,” De Gaulle said. “The cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.”
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Napoleon Bonaparte quotes that may also apply to Mayor Michael Bloomberg:
“I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.”
“If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.”
“In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”
“Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.”
“Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”
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The Bloomberg who came into office as the anti-politician, promising to transform city government, has been transformed himself. Some of us liked him precisely because his wealth insulated him from the kind of horsetrading that diminished his predecessors.
But seven years later, Bloomberg has not only proved himself to be a master politician, as hungry for power as anyone we've ever seen, but he's also ended up putting nearly everyone who deals with the city deep into his political debt.
Bloomberg is not, obviously, the first mayor to try to undo term limits as his days dwindle. After 9/11, Rudy Giuliani cajoled the council to re-introduce a bill that the previous January had been bottled up by a 5-to-4 vote in committee…Giuliani's excuse was the 9/11 attacks; Bloomberg and his billionaire backers apparently believe that the end of the credit swap and subprime orgies at Lehman and elsewhere are an even greater cause for emergency mayoral retention than the slaughter of three thousand.
The claim that all this was done because of Bloomberg's sudden discovery, apparently in late September, that the city faced a daunting financial crisis is a joke… Bloomberg would have us believe that the city requires his mastery of market and municipal economics, though he was one of the few people in town who, by his own account, didn't recognize that the crisis was so severe that the city needed him—until Lehman collapsed, which is when he ostensibly made up his mind to run again.
Excerpted from “The Transformation of Mike Bloomberg” by Wayne Barrett, Village Voice, November 19, 2008
