Occupy Wall Street Cleanup Canceled Because of Threats From Politicians

Everyone has been wondering why the planned cleanup of the NYC Plaza hosting the Occupy Wall Street Protesters was cancelled,  the reason was pure politics. Early this morning when Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway announced that the owner of the private park, Brookfield Office Properties, had put off the cleaning people assumed that it was because the protesters were cleaning it up themselves, but later in the morning an angry Mayor Bloomberg said:

"My understanding is Brookfield got lots of calls from many elected officials, threatening them and saying if you don't stop this we'll make your life more difficult," the mayor said on his weekly radio show.

"If those elected officials had spent half as much time trying to promote the city to get jobs to come here we would a lot more ways towards answering the concerns of the protestors.

"I'm told they were inundated by lots of elected officials..."

 The mayor said he didn't know which elected officials applied the pressure, which is political talk for I know who they are but I am not going to single them out.

One possible candidate for the pressure is Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who on Thursday took the time to leave the all-you-can-eat-buffet he spends time in to demand that Brookfield and the city try to work out a voluntary resolution of the month-long sleep-in.

The progressive Nadler is not a big believer in private property and supports Occupy Wall Street protests, as most Democrats have.

The Mayor said that if they had to go back and try to get the protesters out by force it would now be more difficult.

I've asked what would happen if they cannot (reach a deal). The answer I got was they would want to go ahead and do exactly what they were going to do this morning," he said.

"From our point of view, it will be a little bit harder, I think, at that point in time to provide police protection. But we have the greatest police department in the world and will do what is necessary."

Brookfield officials called the city at midnight to ask for the postponement, saying they wanted to see if they could work out an agreement with the protestors.

"I'm not sure what that means," said the mayor. "There has to be some resolution eventually."

There has been no further word from Nadler, possibly because he is preoccupied, I understand that Wen Chao's all you can eat buffet has a special on dumplings and egg rolls.

Goodnight Irene! Hello Obama?

When I shut down on Friday night, all forecasts predicted the world would end on Saturday thanks to hurricane Irene. Thankfully they were wrong.

Last night my eyes were glued to the weather channel and the "french doors" that led outside from my family room in anticipation of the coming apocalypse. At least I was told it would be an apocalypse, after all president Obama cut his trip short for this.  This is the man who refused to cut his trip short to show some leadership, an area begging for a leader, but he came home for Irene which seemed to be handled well without him, by governors, FEMA and of course Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of NY. Heck this is the kind of operation where Bloomberg thrives, he just loves to control every aspect of people's lives, so ordering an evacuation of low lying areas give him almost as much joy as when he tells people what they can or cannot eat. There is even a rumor that when using the restroom in a NYC facility, there is a recording of the Mayor reminding people to flush and wash their hands (some even say it's not a recording, but Bloomberg making live announcements).

But not Obama, he likes other people to do his dirty work.  He hates soiling his Presidential fingers. For the President to come home for Irene, there must be something the media wasn't telling us, something severe like giant salt shakers, super-sized burgers or some other unhealthy food hiding somewhere in the storm clouds, there was no other reason why the President would come home for a hurricane while he ignored our ongoing economic crisis.

Just around midnight the wind began to whip up and what had been a light rain became a downpour.  I began to ignore the TV to concentrate on what was happening outside.  The trees seemed to be doing a synchronized dance, bending and moving their arm-like branches in unison.

The wind began to make fierce noises as it pushed around the trees. My dog ran out of the room and into the kitchen, as if she was trying to get away from any window. Just about then we lost power. Both the inside and outside became pitch dark and I pressed my face against the windows of the "french doors," looking for whatever that hidden calamity which drew the president home early from vacation to arrive.

I must have passed out around 1 am, but since the power was out I couldn't really tell.  At 8 am, I woke from my deep slumber and looked out the window.  The backyard was covered  with tree branches, the pool was overflowing with water and leaves,  the rain was coming down hard but not as hard as it had been, and the wind was whipping through the trees.

Within the hour the eye of the hurricane passed over Far Rockaway, a part of Queens NY about 30 miles west of my house. What I never saw was the giant salt shaker, hamburger,  other unhealthy food or any other reason why the President would come home for this hurricane which was under control, while he ignored the economy which is spinning out of control.

The Weather Channel is declaring that all danger to Long Island has largely passed. Irene, now a tropical storm is doing damage to northern NY State and Connecticut.  But I don't believe them.  There must be something else coming from Irene.  Why else would Obama come back from vacation?