The Xsociate Files

As he has done almost since the towers collapsed, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has capitalized on the events even more so than the Bush administration. Last month he made the claim that he was at Ground Zero "as often, if not more" than the workers who spent months sifting through the rubble. The claim was easily debunked but still the myth of Rudy has savior of 9/11 still persists.

Now, the man who's taken on both Fox News and Wal-mart, is setting out to bust that myth.

A filmmaker who was behind documentaries that bashed Rupert Murdoch and Wal-Mart is now focusing on Rudy Giuliani, creating an “online viral video campaign” about the presidential candidate timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack.

Robert Greenwald on Thursday launched the first of four short videos about Sept. 11 and the Republican former mayor. The others are planned to launch throughout the month.

The videos attack Giuliani by saying he failed to prepare New York City for a major disaster, he ignored sick ground zero workers after the terrorist attack and he profited financially from his association with the tragedy after leaving office in 2001.

“We want to use this forum to reach people and show and tell and say, ‘Look here are some truths that we want you to know,’” Greenwald told The Associated Press. The video blitz has an accompanying web site, therealrudy.org.

Here's the link to the YouTube of the first installment entitled "The Real Rudy: Command Center" and I urge you to watch it. It's a stunning indictment to say the least. Naturally the Rudy campaign decided that rather than confront the merits of the accusations, it would attack the messenger as a "conspiracy theorist...disconnected from reality." Never mind that, as Carpetbagger points out, these aren't the opinions of the filmmaker but people who worked with Rudy when he made these colossal errors in judgment.

What set me off and what prompted this post really was one particular point in the video. During the Chris Wallace interview, when the discussion turned to the placement of the command center, Rudy begins grinning like an idiot, as if Wallace had just told the most hilarious of jokes. Were it not for the audio you would not even know they were discussing something as serious as perhaps the biggest mistake he ever made as mayor, a mistake that could have meant more lives saved that day. One would think he would wish to be a little more somber but then he is planning to succeed this guy.

Blog Thanks: Crooks & Liars for linking to the ASZ of this post in their blog roundup.

(Filed at State of the Day and All Spin Zone)

Posted by The Xsociate on Friday, September 07, 2007 | Permalink