Ground Zero

by Saul Bloodworth

Why is there still a big hole in Ground Zero? Because the people responsible for the rebuilding are lying not only to the public, but also to themselves.

Ground Zero belongs to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, i. e. the state governments, or. The towers have been leased to Larry Silverstein; and the center is, by and large, a commercial project. Hence Silverstein has the right as well as the obligation to rebuild twelve million square feet of office space in Downtown Manhattan.

After he signed the lease, Silverstein also signed a preliminary insurance agreement. Alas, he insured the actual worth of the twin towers, not the money needed to rebuild them new and sparkling. Since you can't rebuild two 30-year-old office towers that went through bankruptcy at least once for the kind of money they're worth, he dd never have enough money to begin with.

Even worse, twelve million square feet of office space are not needed in the live time or Silverstein, ever. But the Port, or rather, the Governor of New York, does not want to kick Silverstein out, because he pays them $120 million a year. Plus, if they did, he would sue them and they would be blamed for having driven away the only developer so far. The Port could ask Silverstein to change the whole project to something more residential/cultural/artsy/whatever but then he would ask them to relent on the lease.

On top of that, the City of New York made Silverstein add a whole bunch of additional staircases and elevators and extra walls, for safety reasons, thus reducing the sellable office space to, I‘m guessing here, 30 percent of the floor plate.

So, right now, Silverstein doesn't want to (or can) pay for a white elephant, and neither does the Port (even though, right now, the Port is actually financing the Freedom Fries Tower, the tower formerly supposed to have 1776 feet). However, if the project were to be changed to something more useful, everybody would make a lot less money, albeit only on paper, of course. On top of that, it's necessary to rebuild the World Trade Center to show the terrorists that they did not win. let alone the Real Estate Board of New York.

So, my guess is, they will simply do the World Trade Center all over: They will construct a gazillion square feet of office space and then go bankrupt. On the happy side, Silverstein could be dead. His office was hit during the attack, he only survived because he went to the doctor this morning.

Healthy and Healthier

by Saul Bloodworth

Debate over health care is raging, and droves of scared white people are up in arms.

So, here is my five cents: Obviously, there is a big, big resistance from the Republican base, i. e. from white people against the Obama health care plan and government health care in general. So, why not compromise and start with a nationalized health system only for black, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern and Native American people?

If whites want to follow eventually, that can be implemented in a second step some years down the road. No need to rush someone. And white people who want health care can always marry someone who has.

No need to thank me

Fake Is As Fake Does

by Saul Bloodworth

Here is an interesting story from The Guardian: The "Palestinian Terrorist" presented by Sacha Baron Cohen in his "Brüno"-movie is not a terrorist. In fact, he is not even a Muslim. He is a Christian, a Palestinian who works for a non-profit to improve the situation of his people. Well, who would have thunked Cohen would smear such a person?

Also, the whole "this-was-so-dangerous-and-now-I‘m-threatened"-situation seems to be a bit oversold, to put it mildly. The scene was filmed in a location completely under Israeli control. Now the guy is taking Cohen to court. Well, he should have enough money left from "Borat".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/31/bruno-israel-terrorist

The right to defend yourself against the government

by Saul Bloodworth

About the Gates-controversy: Here is one thing I don‘t understand. According to Republican (or generally conservative) beliefs, people should bear arms to keep intruders out of their homes, they should use them, and they should specifically be entitled to get the government out of their hair, especially an overbearing government.

So why is it a big deal or even a bad thing when a private citizen kicks a cop, i.e. the government, out of his house who is in there for no good reason? What do they want, Gates should have shown him a National identification card? They should be applauding him for standing up to an intruding government!

Birth of a Nation

by Saul Bloodworth

Let's assume, just for the sake of the argument, that Obama was born in Kenya, and is not an American citizen, despite his mother being a citizen. How, do the birthers think, did he become a citizen, obtain a social security number and a driver's license?

Because a) you can't take a foreign baby to the United States, just like that. If you are a citizen you can apply for citizenship for your children, parents, and siblings; that's how Mexican-Americans get their family here. This is quite some effort, you need to apply for a Green Card, that takes at least one year, the actual act of getting citizenship takes five years and involves a lot of red tape, no matter what Lou Dobbs says. You can stay here illegal, but you won't raise above the status of an apple picker.

Of course Obama's mother could have smuggled him into the U.S., hidden in a suitcase at JFK (not very likely, also, why would she not have given birth in the U.S. in the first place?). But still, he would not become a citizen just by spending time here, much less obtain a legal SSN, which requires documentation of status. So, how and when did all that happen? Birthers, you prove it: Where is Obama's Green Card?


citizenship