Urbanite

Henican: Beauty supply stores have ugly potential

Thursday September 24, 2009 8:17 PM By Ellis Henican

Told you they had some scary stuff in those beauty supply stores.

Hair dyes, face creams — weapons of mass destruction!

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had his ag-store farm fertilizer and his 55-gallon drums. Now, if the NYPD and FBI can be believed, alleged terror plotter Najibullah Zazi was brewing his own deadly boom-boom with large quantities of hydrogen peroxide or acetone — purchased off the shelves of local beauty supply stores.

Products made for beauty, turned ugly indeed.

Was Zazi a very busy cosmetologist — or a very explosive guy? Either way, shopping for shampoo at the neighborhood beauty supply store never will be the same.

The experts explained: Hydrogen peroxide and acetone are good for removing nail polish — and just as good for making things blow up.

Who is this guy? As Zazi was arraigned Thursday at the federal courthouse in Denver, he didn’t seem like the sort of man who’d indulge in frequent manicures.

Fussy wasn’t the word to describe him. Vacant was.

And yet, in the past two weeks, court documents said, he diligently prowled beauty supply stores in Denver. Friends from New York came out to help. He might have even done some shopping here during a recent visit to Queens.

Authorities said he put out an “urgent” plea for his own Terry Nichols, the man who taught Oklahoma’s McVeigh how to turn legal chemicals into deadly homemade bombs.
This may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

The 24-year-old airport shuttle driver, who allegedly received al-Qaida weapons training in Pakistan and visited New York last month, now has been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. His lying-to-investigator arrest last week in Denver set off raids in several suspected terror spots — and national warnings about attacks on transit systems, sports stadiums and entertainment halls.

Attorney General Eric Holder tried to keep things calm Thursday, saying, “We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted.” Give the AG points for trying.

But who could ever walk past another beauty supply store without a furtive glance inside?

Email ellis@henican.com. Follow at twitter.com/henican.

Henican: Politics drive ACORN attack

Thursday September 17, 2009 8:44 PM By Ellis Henican

There is no defending what the ACORN workers did.

Why even try?

Offering to help a couple of undercover filmmakers set up an underage brothel — that’s just wrong. The workers should be fired, as they have been — perhaps even prosecuted, as they may well be.

But the roar of outrage at ACORN — well, that has far more to do with today’s ideological politics than with the actions of a few of low-level workers or even the caught-on-tape gotcha techniques of conservative activists.

Follow the money — and the politics!

ACORN, which has existed for 40 years, organizes poor people around issues such as affordable housing, voter registration and community health care. The group has pushed for a higher minimum wage and gotten federal grants to provide loan counseling and foreclosure relief.

And those voter-registration campaigns in minority neighborhoods tend to help Democrats.

Especially since the election of Barack Obama, some conservative activists have been itching to get ACORN.

That a couple of low-level ACORN staffers made it so easy is too bad. That ACORN’s good works may suffer is even worse.

ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation’s largest grassroots community group. Not too many other organizations are eager to roll up their sleeves in the neighborhoods where ACORN has thrived.

But on this flash of fresh outrage, the House and Senate moved quickly to cut off ACORN’s federal grants. And in the rhetoric of the moment, a few bad or stupid comments could easily tar a far-flung organization of 400,000 families in 1,200 tough neighborhoods.

Much of ACORN’s work, in areas such as central Brooklyn and the South Bronx, has been terrific. Some has been sloppy, ill-supervised and, in a few proven cases, deceitful or criminal. Some ACORN voter-registration cards were obviously false. Is “Mickey Mouse” really registered to vote?

But what large organization doesn’t have its errant members?

The National Rifle Association?

The American Automobile Association?

The church?

And who will take up ACORN’s essential work?

E-mail ellis@henican.com. Follow him at twitter.com/henican.

Henican: Change the world in 140 characters

Friday June 19, 2009 3:31 PM By Rolando Pujol

Why should Iranian election protesters have all the Twitter fun? Can't other world events be hijacked, one 140-character outburst at a time?

Sure, they can. And soon they will be. Every day, it gets a little bit harder to tell the

social-networking Twittersphere from so-called Real Life.

Even the U.S. State Department can see the power of what is happening here.

The quickie-calls-to-arms are lurking everywhere - in nice, little chewable 140-character

bites. You never know who'll turn up next at the short-attention-span party.

Verbosity's the only one who isn't welcome here. Pick an issue, any issue

- then stand back and behold the game-changing tweets! No, Mir Hossein Mousavi (18 characters, space included) isn't the only Twitter star this week!

There's David Letterman, whose secret Twitter blast probably read something

like this:

D GovSarah Loved the "Fire Dave" rally! Lets keep the back-and-forth going for years. Working out great for both our careers!

Surely, the FBI has discovered the Joy of Tweets:

D John Robert Barnes. Sorry. DNA never lies. Ur no Steven Craig Damman.

And here's something from someone whose Twitter login is Katie 27:

D Billy60 Moving out, Grandpa? I always knew you were 2 old!

Believe me, it won't stop here. Singing stars, evil dictators, nice people too. Soon

enough, they'll all be making their marks with tweets.

Some worthy forwards:

@BarackO Happy with your current health care? Didn't think so. Single payer will heal you soon.

@KimJongMadman How'd you like your own missile launch, Hawaii? No? Here's one anyway!

@Bruno GQ really put me on the cover? They did? They did?

RT@Gays Don't ask, don't tell and don't complain either.

RT@Woody I want Carla (for my next movie).

RT@iPhone Great apps. Hope no one notices the call reception.

RT@PETA Flies are god's creatures too! Impeach Obama now.

And whatever you do, keep an eye out for this fine Twitter category:

#thewholeworldisgoingtohellandthereisnothinganyonecandoaboutit.

But you knew that.

E-mail ellis@henican.com.

Follow at Twitter.com/Henican.

Henican: Ethics take a vacation

Sunday June 7, 2009 8:19 PM By Rolando Pujol

Albany!

Honesty in government forced to wait!

Holy kickback, who would have expected something like this?

Only someone who’d never driven within 100 miles of New York’s cozy state capital, where legislators and lobbyists never, ever forget who’s who. (Hint: The lobbyists pick up the tabs. The legislators show their appreciation.)If secret deals ever took a holiday from Albany, there’d be no deals up there at all.

There has been much talk this year — and no real action — on state-government ethics reform. Gov. David Paterson, who fashions himself quite a reformer, was unequivocal on the topic this week.

“We’re not putting anything off,” Paterson declared. And he seemed to really mean it, unless by “putting anything off” you mean putting anything off.

Ethics reform, he explained, will have to wait ’till fall. But fear not: “We are actually far closer to a resolution in the last couple of weeks than we have been at any time that we’ve been in Albany,” the governor said.

Got it? Of course not. None of this makes any sense. If they’re so darn close, why not just do it? If they aren’t close, why pretend? But those are logical questions. This is Albany.

They don’t apply, especially when the issue is ethics reform.

Paterson isn’t alone in his confused self-righteousness.

On Thursday, Malcolm Smith, the state Senate majority leader, announced that ethics reform cannot wait until fall. June 20, he said, would be a better date.

But of course, Senator Smith doesn’t have the power to actually do anything, even if he had the inclination to. He can’t even get his Democratic majority to hold together for something easy, such as gay marriage.

Something sticky like ethics reform? Good luck!

Thankfully, Sheldon Silver, the Assembly boss, was standing by to help.

Silver has his own version of how to reform Albany’s ethics rules. The details aren’t

important, any more than Paterson’s are. What you need to know is that sorting out all the differences between the two plans — gosh, that could take months or years or decades.

Brilliant, huh?

Albany time!

E-mail ellis@henican.com.

Follow on Twitter.com/Henican

Henican: Obama reclaims war on terror from those who ignored our basic values

Thursday May 21, 2009 7:30 PM By Rolando Pujol

No one was waterboarded. No secret tribunals were held. The word “Guantanamo” wasn’t even mentioned.

It was old-fashioned police work, overseen by a civilian federal court, that busted open America’s latest terror plot. Investigation, arrest, arraignment, evidence, prosecution and defense — the time-honored techniques of the justice system serve us well again.

This is worth remembering as Barack Obama tries to reclaim the war on terror from the political scaredy-cats, those nervous Nellies who think we have to trade in our basic American values in order to be safe.

It’s a false choice, the president made clear.Our leaders went “off course” in the war on terror, he said Thursday at the National Archives. Waterboarding and other torturous techniques “did not advance our war and counterterrorism efforts — they undermined them.” And the “mess” at Guantanamo Bay “has weakened American national security” by handing our worst enemies their easiest rallying cry.

And yet 10 blocks away at the American Enterprise Institute, there was Dick Cheney, still defending the discredited tactics of the past.

“They were legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do,” the former vice president said.

It’s an important debate, this question of exactly what we believe in and exactly what we will do. But like most such debates, it’s unlikely to change many minds.

Maybe this will: a confidential informant. A careful surveillance program. A crafty sting. And the fine, quiet work of the New York Police Department and the FBI.

Thanks to the tools of traditional law enforcement, four alleged terrorists were taken off the streets Wednesday night and are likely on their way to long prison terms.

The scaredy-cats keep telling us that basic American justice doesn’t work anymore, that concepts such as evidence and proof and constitutional rights are just too risky for such a dangerous age.

They say we just can’t afford the values we used to afford.

Well, some hardworking cops and agents had a well-worn answer for that kind of thinking.

“You’re under arrest,” they said.

Henican: Notre Dame anti-abortion activists fighting wrong battle with Obama

Friday May 15, 2009 1:41 AM By Rolando Pujol

It’s one of the great things about America’s Catholic universities, one of many -- the long coexistence of intellectual openness and faith.

We Catholics are not expected to shut ourselves off from honest discussion. We are not taught to close our minds but to open our hearts.

Someone really ought to mention this to the ardent band of anti-abortion activists trying to turn the University of Notre Dame into a Catholic madrassa – and boot Barack Obama as commencement speaker on Sunday.

What are they so afraid of?Most college seniors, including those at Notre Dame, would be honored to receive a commencement address from a president of the United States.

Especially this president.

He won with wide support from college-age voters. He’s inspired a sense of public spiritedness in young people everywhere. He certainly isn’t known for boring speeches.

But these one-issue activists, many from nowhere near campus, insist that the president be forbidden to speak because he hasn’t campaigned to overturn legal

abortion rights.

Even though Obama’s not a Catholic, he is somehow expected to embrace every teaching of the church?

Father John Jenkins, Notre Dame’s president, begs to differ. He believes the president should be welcomed. He understands the difference between civil and religious leadership. He’s confident in his university’s core beliefs.

Now this kind of rigidity can turn Catholics into a political fringe group. It’s been especially hard on Catholic politicians. Just ask Joe Biden or Geraldine Ferraro or Mario Cuomo.

No one objected in October when New York Cardinal Edward Egan invited candidate Obama to speak at the Al Smith Dinner along with pro-choice politicians Al Gore and Tony Blair. Why the sudden outrage now – and on a college campus?

Father Thomas Reese, the Georgetown theological and former editor of the Jesuit magazine America, said it best in an essay this week: “If Catholic universities are afraid to have people on campus who challenge our views, then we are not training students to listen and think critically. We are admitting that our arguments are not convincing.”

We’d be closing our minds – and our hearts.

Henican: Wretched '08 sets bar low for '09

Tuesday December 30, 2008 1:25 PM By Emily Ngo

At times like this, it’s always better to look forward than to look back.

And I will. In a moment.

But who can resist one last outburst of disappointment and disgust at the past 11 months and 30 days? Good riddance, 2008! Do you know anyone who had a really good year?

The stock market tumbling. People losing their homes. Retirement savings, cut off at the knees. The banks and the car makers, teetering at bankruptcy. Two million jobs, just gone.

It was a year of problems so real and so personal, many people even forgot about Afghanistan and Iraq. And now, just in time for the ball drop, the Middle East is on fire again. The Chinese were obviously onto something with the Year of the Rat. The only hard part is choosing an official mascot: Bernie Madoff? The credit-card pushers? Our own shallow greed?Now here’s the good thing about hope: It really does spring eternal. And here’s the good thing about new years: They really do come around every 12 months.

And here’s a cheery fact at the year of 2008: This miserable year set the bar of comparison so low, we’re likely to be grinning like maniacs this time next year.

If the economy is only half a disaster, it won’t feel so awful any more.

If you still hate your job but you have it — hey, break out the champagne.

If your stocks are down just 20 percent, shrug and tell yourself, “It could have been a whole lot worse — and was.”

As you might have heard, we have a new man moving into the White House. He ran on

a slogan, “Yes we can.”

Who knows whether he can — or not? But after eight of “no we can’t ever,” even the occasional achievement will look pretty good.

Happy New Year! Bring it on!

Henican: Wishing you a merry 'Money Christmas'

Tuesday December 23, 2008 3:03 PM By Emily Ngo

Years from now, people will still remember 2008 as the Money Christmas — and not because we all have so much of it now.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t felt this broke since college.

And 2008 didn’t become the Money Christmas because Grandma decided, after all these years, to slip $50s — not $20s — into the little money envelopes she sends to the kids this time of the year.

Honestly, Grandma, it’s the thought that counts, not the denomination — although, yes, some greedy eyes did shine a few watts brighter when the Christmas-Eve-Eve mail arrived.

But that goes only so far.

This is the Money Christmas because — let’s just face it — the impossible issues of money, money, money are dominating not just the news right now but also our lives. The lack of money. The lust for money. The hope that some day, we might actually have some money again.

Is this really what the Celebration of the Birth of Christ is supposed to be about? Of course not. But here it is, Money Christmas, 2008.

Money: Not enough to pay the mortgage.Money: Not enough to fill the stores.

Money: Mega-bailouts for Detroit and Wall Street.

Money: Not even mini-bailouts for you and me.

Money: The CEOs are still getting theirs.

Money: Blago’s auctioning a Senate seat on eBay.

Money: Caroline’s obviously loaded, but she won’t say how much or from where.

Money: The MTA has so little, the subway fare could be $3 soon.

Money: Gave it away to Bernie Madoff.

Money: Mets and Yanks think we should be pay more for their stadiums.

Money: Your pension and my 401K — both cut in half.

Money: Barack’s coming — and he’d better get us some.

When I was a kid and $10 was Grandma’s Christmas denomination, we had a sticker on the back of our car. “Keep Christ in Your Christmas.”

We could probably use a new one now: “Christmas: Give Cash This Year.”

Caroline's every kind of Democrat

Sunday December 21, 2008 11:04 AM By Rolando Pujol

Caroline Kennedy says she’s a “Clinton Democrat.”

This might come as a small surprise to Hillary Clinton, who stood by helplessly in the make-or-break Democratic primaries while Caroline and her Uncle Teddy grandly backed Barack Obama.

But don’t read too much into that little disconnect. Caroline’s also an “Obama Democrat” and a “Kennedy Democrat” and a “Schumer Democrat” and apparently a “Sharpton Democrat” too.

Now that she wants to be New York’s junior senator, Caroline will be whatever kind of Democrat she has to be, even if that means riding up to Lenox Avenue and sitting for a full cholesterol infusion with Democratic Reverend Al.

Oddly, she did fail to mention she’s a “Paterson Democrat.” Once reminded that Governor David gets to name Hillary’s Senate replacement all by himself, don’t expect that omission again from Caroline.

This label flexibility is possible only for a candidate, like Caroline Kennedy, who is a political blank slate, someone who has hardly ever had to take a public position on anything. Heck, she could be a “Blagojevich Democrat” if she chose to, although that might not be so helpful right now.

She was pleasant and poised as she stepped out of Sylvia’s Restaurant. But asked how she’s prepared to be a U.S. Senator, she fell back immediately on genealogy and her nice-person resume.

“I come at this as a mother, as a lawyer, as an author, as an education advocate and from a family that really has spent generations in public service,” she said.

Ah, families. There are families all over this mess. It isn’t often that three of America’s top Democratic clans — the Clintons, Cuomos and Kennedys — are all so intertwined in ambitions and resentment with all of them pretending to still be friends.

A quick review: The Kennedys sold out the Clintons. Hillary created the Senate-seat drama by signing on as Obama’s secretary of state. So Mario Cuomo’s son Andrew was the heir apparent – until Caroline, whose cousin Kerry divorced Andrew, decided she might want the job.

Pick your label: Aren’t families fun?

Henican: The perils of bathrobe reporting

Thursday December 11, 2008 3:56 PM By Emily Ngo

Facts are pesky little things.

They have this maddening habit of refusing to present themselves.

Often — and I know this from many years of wrestling facts as newspaper reporter and columnist — you have to go outside and grab the jumpy suckers one by one. Then, you have to shine a light in their eyes and slap ’em upside the head, stunning them long enough for the rest of the world to get a good, clear view and start to figure out exactly what these particular facts might mean.

Whew!

I’m not complaining here. Fact-hunting, often called “reporting,” is a noble and rewarding occupation, although not so much monetarily any more. But it sure isn’t quick or easy. I promise you that much. And it sure isn’t cheap.

What’s cheap is some self-absorbed nitwit sitting in front of a computer in his bathrobe, stealing the facts that some hard-working, low-paid newspaper drone just spent hours collecting.Then, Bathrobe Boy tosses off a condescending comment or two about those stolen facts, throwing in a few dismissive pokes at the fact-chasing newspaper dinosaur who did all the grunt work of discovery.

You want to know about the current state of the news business? That’s where the news business is today.

The people who gather the facts — the vast, vast majority of them still employed in the ink-on-paper world, even though their stories now also appear on the Internet — are watching in horror as their beloved business collapses and all the preening Bathrobe Boys declare themselves “The Future.”

Hell, maybe they are.

But get back to me — will you? — when all these New Media outlets achieve the cash flow and the attention span and the social conscience to sit through a three-week trial at the courthouse, prowl the corridors of power with a notebook, read the agenda of every zoning meeting, climb the housing-project stairway before the body is cold, stand outside the precinct in the rain until the perp is walked — all to gather some facts.

The Bathrobe Boys may do the hard work one day. They haven’t done it yet.

And that’s just a fact.

Henican: Too-small sacrifices for Big 3

Thursday December 4, 2008 3:27 PM By Emily Ngo

Tough times demand tough measures, and I know I’m doing my share.

You should have tasted the squirrely cup of deli coffee I choked down this morning. That swill almost had me mumbling on the sidewalk: “Hey, brother, can you spare a grande skim cappuccino?”

I’m not alone in this, I understand. And I’m not looking for sympathy. Half my friends in New York are cutting out luxuries, skimping on essentials and trying to convince themselves that mac-and-cheese is a great new kind of pasta dish.

And those “Rolexes” you see on Canal Street? They more or less keep time.

But as rumors of recession have given way to an undeniable economic collapse, the people at the top still aren’t suffering like the rest of us are. And I don’t just mean the indignity of leaving the corporate jet at home, driving a shiny new car to Washington and stopping at a Quiznos on the way.

Quiznos, huh?When General Motor CEO Rick Wagoner saw the sign outside the sub shop saying, “MMMM … Toasty,” he must have thought it was an omen for the cheery welcome he’d be getting Thursday on Capitol Hill.

What he got instead was a snarky crack from Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby and lectures on his industry’s many screw-ups.

“Are you gonna drive back?” Shelby asked. “And if so, if some of us wanted a ride to Detroit, could we ride back with you?”

Well, now that it’s become an issue, yes.

But big business, big government — the payback has only begun. These are the people who got us into all this trouble. If they can’t get out of it in a hurry, at least they should suffer at our sides.

I didn’t write any subprime mortgages or pay myself $30 million a year. And no, it isn’t nearly enough to take a $1 annual salary during the bailout phase, no doubt expecting fat bonuses at the end.

Wagoner came up Pennsylvania Avenue Thursday in a plug-in Chevrolet Volt. The electric car looked nice, but it isn’t even for sale yet to regular people. And that, right there, is a big part of the problem.

Henican: Somali pirates a swashbuckling downgrade

Tuesday November 25, 2008 3:10 PM By Emily Ngo

They don’t say “matey.”

They haven’t forced anybody to walk the plank.

There isn’t an eye-patch or a Jolly Roger or a shoulder-perched parrot in sight.

What kind of sad-sack pirates are prowling the waters off Somalia? Someone ought to take these wannabes to a “Pirates of Penzance” road show — or at least a Johnny Depp matinee! Don’t they have any respect for the noble traditions of piracy?

Sure, these seafaring gangbangers have grabbed their share of floating real estate, 40 ships this year. The pirates are still holding 15 of them plus 300 crew. And in the most audacious attack so far, these latter-day Jean Lafittes commandeered the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star and its 2 million barrels of crude.

OK, one loud “YAAAR!” for that.

But these Somali pirates have been comporting themselves more like low-level mobsters than proud swashbucklers of the sea, appreciated more for their strong-arm earning potential than for courage or derring-do.

Where’s the rough-hewn code of honor? Where are the peg-legs? If Captain Hook had been a part of this sorry mob, he’d have been calling out for help from Tinkerbell.

These are pirates-light.In the Somali town of Eyl, where many of the sailor hostages are being held, special restaurants have been opened to accommodate the dining preferences of the pirates’ international guests. How thoughtful, huh? And the pirates have shown real flexibility in their ransom terms, reportedly coming down to $15 million from $25 mil for the Sirius Star.

Whoever heard of pirates with a holiday sale? Now they’re even getting cheery references from their hostages.

British sailor Peter French, lounging aboard the captured Sirius Star, just told the BBC:

“The pirates are no problem whatsoever. We’ve had no mistreatment. Hopefully, we get a phone call to our families soon. All in all, we’re not too badly off. The boys are quite happy. We’re talking to them, reassuring them. Apart from the inconvenience of being locked up, our life is not too bad.”

They’re the perfect gentlemen pirates, soiling a once-proud and frightening name.

Quick, someone give these modern pirates a hug!

Henican: Too many signs of a scarier New York

Tuesday November 18, 2008 4:09 PM By Rolando Pujol

Here in tough-times New York, all of us have to cut back where we can.

So when I landed the other night at JFK, I didn’t head straight for the taxi line. I was alone. I was traveling light, just an over-the-shoulder carry-on. Did I really need a $45 taxi ride — plus toll and tip — when I could jump on the $5 MTA AirTrain to Howard Beach, then grab the A train home?

It was my first time on the AirTrain, and I have to say: What it lacked in charm, it made up in efficiency. Clean, shiny and hushed, a perfect emblem for easy-money, pre-9/11 financing in New York.

The subway was another story.The A train took a good 15 minutes — maybe 20 — to arrive. And when the doors opened, I swear I stepped off the platform into 1974. The car was filthy. A crumpled McDonald’s bag was on the seat beside me. Loose newspaper pages were blowing around on the floor. I didn’t notice any ’70s-era graffiti. But you could barely see out the windows, they were so scraped up with 2008 scratchiti.

And the service! A bridge was out on the way to the Rockaways. So half the people in my car — including three moms with strollers and cranky kids — were doubling back at Rockaway Boulevard for a subway-bus-subway shuttle reverse.

“And now they want to raise the fare to $3?” one of the moms grumbled over her shrieking child.

I just shrugged.

You can’t prove a social trend from a single subway ride. And I did get home eventually.

But lately, I keep noticing signs of a New York slip-back — little reminders of the last time the world’s greatest city really was in undeniable decline.

Have you noticed it too?

More homeless people on the sidewalk and in the subway. Garbage sitting longer in the street. A few more boarded-up buildings in iffy neighborhoods while the owners struggle with their bankers or try to decide if the renovation numbers still make sense.

I don’t drive. So I can’t speak first-hand about squeegee men. But I hear talk.

Then I read that the city is skipping a recruit class at the Police Academy. And I hear about the giant budget deficits that loom in Albany and at City Hall.

Don’t you have to wonder?

Are we returning to shabbier times in the city? Are the various troubling signs coalescing into a genuine trend? Are we about to make the mistakes we swore we’d never make again?

The last time we were here, in the 1970s, the politicians did as politicians do: They tried to cut the things that no one would notice, not at first, anyway. Subway maintenance. Police, fire and sanitation headcounts. Teacher training. Building inspectors.

A few quiet years of this, and the city was hollow at its core.

As I rode the A train home the other night, I was remembering another train ride. I’m guessing 1990. The worst of the bad days were behind us. The city had inched back.

This time, I was on the No. 1 train, heading to the Bronx with David Gunn. He was president of the Transit Authority. He deserves a major part of the credit for pulling the subway back from its last abyss. As we rode and talked about New York’s hard road back, Gunn reached down and grabbed a candy wrapper from the subway car’s floor.

He was the president of the Transit Authority and he was picking up trash.

“It’s the little things,” Gunn said when I asked him why he did that, the wrapper still in his hand. “Before you know it, those little things turn into big things. And then the whole thing comes crashing down.”

Ellis Henican: Pony up, D.C.: Bail out the MTA

Thursday November 13, 2008 3:11 PM By Sean Joseph

They’re bailing out the bankers.

They’re bailing out insurance giant AIG.

Pretty soon, they’ll be bailing out the auto industry too.

Hello? Remember us?

If Washington is feeling momentarily generous, if even the Republicans are saying, “Now’s the time to lend a helping hand” — well, I know a highly worthy recipient, and it’s rumbling beneath our feet.

Bail out the New York City subway!

There’s a tragic hard-luck story right at the MTA.

A $1.2 billion hole in next year’s budget year. A bus-and-subway fare that could go to $2.50 or $3 a ride. Longer waits for buses. More crowded trains. The prospects of tolls on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.

Who knows? The MTA board members could even be forced to give up their cars.

OK, that much we could live with. But in a city whose economy is built on top of mass transit, somehow the people have to get around.

And all David Paterson has to offer is a warm I-feel-your-pain. The bleak numbers, the governor said, are “another reminder of the dire fiscal situation facing all New Yorkers.”

Gee, thanks, Governor. That’s supposed to make us feel good?

Gene Russianoff of the Staphangers Campaign, who has survived numerous transit battles, said Thursday that the current squeeze is a real one. The best the riders can hope for, he added, is to spread the pain around.

“The riders shouldn’t make up the entire deficit with high fares and major service cuts,” he said.

So pony up, Washington. From the suites to the streets to the subway!

George W. Bush was in New York Thursday trying to calm nerves on Wall Street as the Dow dipped below 8,000 and then shot up 552 points. Of course, he arrived by air and moved through the city by motorcade.

But even Bush recognized that something has to be done, and quickly. “I’m a market-oriented guy,” he said, “but not when I’m faced with the prospect of a global meltdown.”

But don’t look up, Mr. President. Look down.