Throw Roger from the train!

[BrklynLiberal]

Another great post from http://stevegilliard.blogspot.com

Yeah, right
The first part was an editorial from The Daily News

That uppity negro


Throw Roger from the train!



Roger Toussaint, we dare you to take to the Brooklyn
Bridge this morning to tell the cold, walking throngs
why you chose to disrupt the lives of millions, jacked
up the expenses of tens of thousands, shuttered and
crimped businesses, exposed the subway system to terrorism
and generally threatened the public health and welfare.

It would be delicious watching you try to justify the
reckless, lawless transit strike that you have inflicted
on the city - assuming your fellow New Yorkers didn't hurl
you over the railing into the icy waters before you got a
word out. For this town, a labor town, is seething at
getting hammered for no good reason.

The rage will only build as the public gets the full
picture of how Toussaint rashly led the Transport Workers
Union away from the bargaining table despite winning
concession after concession from the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority. The most furious of all should
be the 33,700 workers who are on the street without
paychecks and facing huge penalties for violating the Taylor Law.

They are about to lose thousands of dollars each - and
their union will be financially broken by $1 million-a-day
fines - unless they pressure Toussaint to return them to
service, having gained all they are ever going to gain
through his extortion. Remarkably, the president of the
TWU International is urging the transit workers to go
back to work on their own, en masse. And well they
should, because the makings of a good deal await them.

................................................................

Uh, this is bullshit. The Daily News had an online poll which showed 90 percent of the web audience blamed the MTA for a strike. Of course, that poll disappeared when I reloaded the page. I wonder why? Maybe the poll was freeped. Maybe the bosses didn't like the message it sent.

Funny thing, when Toussaint showed up at Grand Central, he was given a fairly warm reception by the commuters. The claim "Mad as Hell" is really "funny as shit".

Maybe in the fantasies of the DN editoral writers New Yorkers might have Touissaint being tossed into the East River, but reality would have Peter Kalikow swimming from an angry mob, much, much sooner.

I'm watching a much more moderate Mike Bloomberg speak right now. He's not demanding that the union go back to work before negotiations, and he certainly didn't call anyone thugs. Why? Because his black supporters read him the riot act. Toussaint was on Kiss-FM and used that word to good effect.

I think he's facing the reality, like the tabs tommorow, that the union has won the first point, which is the MTA has a billion dollars and the pension hike was unfair. And that most New Yorkers, in scientific polling, support the union.

But what this really shows, more than the election, is that there are two New Yorks. One with a white upper middle class in Manhattan, south of 96th Street and in downtown Brooklyn, and a working and middle class outside of that. The fact is, as the mayor is now digesting, is that New York is a 55 percent minority city. The TWU is a majority minority union.

The reason the DN can write such a ridiculous editorial, belied by every interview I've seen, is that they aren't talking to the majority of New Yorkers. They're talking to their friends and neighbors and their small circle, and people outside that, most of New York, disagree.

When the mayor tries to hide behind the ill and home health care aides, let me tell you what people told me: they are treating these people this way because they are black. I heard that more than once yesterday. You won't see that in the Daily News, but I heard it on the street.

The media in this city does not realize that it's not 1997. Minorites now make up the majority of this city. Mike Bloomberg is mayor because of minority votes. Yet, they vilify their readers because they think they don't have the support they do. Believe me, no one is happy biking or walking in cold weather, but this idea of most New Yorkers cursing the TWU is bullshit for now.

posted by Steve @ 3:02:00 PM

[Eric J in MN]

1. Can you please update your post to write "Daily News" above

"Roger Toussaint, we dare you to take to the Brooklyn.."


At first, I thought the start was by Steve Gilliard.

[proud patriot]

2. BrklynLiberal please read

in the future please limit your snips of articles
to 4 paragraphs as per the Democratic Underground
copyright rules.

proud patriot Moderator
Democratic Underground

[BrklynLiberal]

3. oops. Will do. Sorry.

:-)