Strike Report 12/20/05
Mike's Morality Play

In the wee hours this morning, Mayor Mike Bloomberg labeled the strike by New York transit workers as "morally reprehensible."

He knows what he's talking about.

You expect tortured logic from the handlers of a doofus POTUS like George W. Bush. And you figure that the mayor of New York City would do all he can to sway public opinion against the transit workers.

But accusing these workers of "morally reprehensible" acts? Here's a closer look at Bloomberg the moralist:

• Bloomberg did nothing but buy his current job. And he still had money left over to buy silence. As my colleague Wayne Barrett recently wrote in "Shut Your Mouth: Big-Bucks Bloomy buys corporate silence in six sex and race cases":

The problem with Mike Bloomberg's money isn't limited to the $175 million he'll soon have officially spent in two campaigns to tell us what he wants us to know about him. It's the untold millions he and his company have paid in secret settlements and other deals to make sure we never learn his whole story.

• Bloomberg's silence about this year's outrageous Xmas bonuses on Wall Street speaks volumes. But it's "morally reprehensible" for workers to strike to get more money? People should be marching on Wall Street, whether or not the buses and trains are running.

• Bloomberg has had no problem rolling out the red carpet for a Central Asian despot whose prison guards have been known to boil people to death.

Back in March 2002, while the U.S. was sucking up to Uzbekistan for help in the War of Terror, its tinpot dictator, Islam Karimov, stopped in at the White House — see the ludicrous video of the Bush/Karimov photo-op, courtesy of the Uzbek government. Then the dictator flew to New York, where Bloomberg invited the morally reprehensible dictator into the mayor's office.

As I noted in a June 2005 item, you won't find photos of Karimov's NYC visit on Mayor Bloomberg's or the city's websites. That's OK; Karimov's ego impels him to put it on his own government's site.

You also wouldn't catch Bloomberg having anything good to say about the protesters at the 2004 Republican National Convention. To the city and the mainstream press, the protesters were "anarchists" or "extremists." What does that make Karimov, whose government killed protesters and other citizens in Andijan earlier this year?

To top it all off, Karimov was escorted to Ground Zero, where he not only desecrated the site by his mere presence but even laid a wreath and scribbled on the wall. See photos below:

Maybe when Karimov's regime is finally overthrown, he'll flee to New York, where the Bukharan Jewish emigre community loves him.

Maybe the subways and buses still won't be running. Maybe Karimov will have to call his pal Bloomberg to come pick him up at the airport.