[Marxism] Who's running the city an' making it airtight?

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.nydailynews.com/04-11-2005/news/local/story/298623p
-255698c.html

Mayor's Rap-sody
By DAVID SALTONSTALL
Monday, April 11th, 2005

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, rap icon?

Proving again that politics makes for strange bedfellows, supporters of
controversial Independence Party leader Lenora Fulani have written a
rap song in honor of Bloomberg, dubbed "Mayor Mike's Rockin'."

The mayor is expected to hear the song tonight at Lincoln Center, where
the All Stars Project - a charity co-founded by Fulani that provides
after-school programs to city kids - is holding its annual gala.

"Who's running this city an' making it airtight?" says the chorus. "I
can tell you that nobody cares like Mayor Mike."

Like Bloomberg, the event's invitees seem to defy political
pigeon-holing. They include Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan); Henry
Louis Gates, the liberal Harvard professor of African-American studies,
and Hunter Hunt, a Texas oilman and big-time supporter of President
Bush. But the real political dance at the party will be between Fulani
and Bloomberg.

Although Fulani has been dogged for years by allegations that she is
anti-Semitic - which she vehemently denies - she also is the main power
behind the Independence Party, whose ballot line could prove crucial to
Bloomberg in November.

In a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans, 5 to 1, Bloomberg
needs to give Democratic swing voters a way to vote for him without
pulling the Republican lever.

And that place will very likely be the Independence Party ballot line,
where Bloomberg picked up 59,000 votes in 2001 - boosting him to
victory.

The importance of Fulani in Bloomberg's political future was
underscored last year when the mayor quietly contributed $250,000 to
the party.

Party strategists used the money to fund a phone bank to target some of
the 800,000 city voters not registered with any major party.

In the past, Bloomberg has tried to distance himself from Fulani,
saying he doesn't agree with everything she says. But such other
mainstream candidates as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and state Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer have accepted the Independence Party's line in
recent years.

"Clearly they have made a judgment that it is more important to have
the line and do it publicly than to back off of it," said Doug Muzzio,
Baruch College political science professor.

"Mayor Mike's Rockin"
BY ALISTAIR (CHARLIE BIGGS) SEALY
and LENNY (MR. L) MOORE

Who's running the city an' making it airtight?

I can tell you that nobody cares like Mayor Mike

Make your own way, go against that grain

It takes an independent mind to wanna change this game ...

For people who thought he was keepin' his dough

Saved the Harlem Dance Theatre when it needed him most ...

The Board of Ed failed, that remains a true thing

Some are scared to change the way we do things

Mayor Mike is gettin' with the times

Leaders should be independently inclined


from Brian Shannon


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