Remember a few weeks back when the only Teabagger on the NY city council was claiming that unions had intentionally caused the snow removal issues in NYC, and all the wingnuts and union bashers jumped on the story? Looks like he was engaging in the favorite past time of Republicans and teahadists, which is “making shit up”:
The story rocketed around New York City when streets went uncleared after the Dec. 26 blizzard: Sanitation workers, angry about job reductions, had deliberately staged a work slowdown.
It resulted in wisecracks on “Saturday Night Live,” fiery denunciations of unions on cable news and four criminal investigations.
And it occurred because one man, Councilman Daniel J. Halloran, Republican of Queens, said five city workers had come to his office during the storm and told him they had been explicitly ordered to take part in a slowdown to embarrass Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
But the more that investigators look into Mr. Halloran’s story, the more mystifying it becomes.
Mr. Halloran said he had been visited by two supervisors in the Transportation Department and three workers in the Sanitation Department. But the two transportation supervisors did not back up his story in interviews with investigators, according to two people briefed on the inquiries. And Mr. Halloran has steadfastly refused to reveal the names of the sanitation workers.
Mr. Halloran expects to testify this week before a federal grand jury looking into the question of a slowdown, according to a person familiar with his intentions, and it is not clear whether prosecutors will try to compel him, under oath, to divulge the workers’ names.
Meanwhile, investigators had hoped that extensive publicity would bring out others with knowledge of the purported plot. That has not happened, according to the people briefed on the investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are continuing. This leaves prosecutors with no proof that anything occurred.
“When you’re talking about establishing a negative, I don’t know how it’s going to get firmer,” one person briefed on the inquiries said.
Mr. Halloran declined to be interviewed for this article.
Of course, someone could still bring forward evidence. Investigators are examining videos of trucks driving with their plows up, although officials say the drivers must sometimes put the plows up to stay on their routes.
Yet in the days since Mr. Halloran first made his explosive accusations, he has revised his account.
Even though everything Halloran said is turning out to be unsubstantiated, I’m sure this still proves the point that these groups should be privatized. Although, when the sum total of your evidence is four union employees getting drunk, you really weren’t looking for proof, anyway.
cyntax
Clearly a living wage is unAmerican.
Scott
So does Halloran get into any kind of trouble for this? Is there a penalty for inventing a story like that? Did he actually testify before the grand jury?
BGinCHI
If journalists investigated claims like this (made by one person with reasons to mislead), would this have ever gotten into the public discourse?
No.
The lazy reporters (redundant) who picked this up and ran with it are as much to blame as the Queens blowhard who started it.
Brian
At least he didn’t blame the Unions for the snow itself. The tenuous grasp on reality remains.
“Mr. Halloran said he had been visited by two supervisors in the Transportation Department and three workers in the Sanitation Department.” What I think happened here is Halloran passed out drunk, and was visited “A Christmas Carol” style by five Public Union spirits. Except his take-away was to become a bigger douche.
jibeaux
You know, reading a BJ link a little while back with mob indictments, and listening to a podcast about the mob, I learned about the once-tight connections between NYC unions and the mob. While I don’t think it’s true any more, I wonder if there’s any sort of lingering connection in people’s minds that makes these stories more plausible? I mean, my first thought if someone told me that transportation supervisors personally stopped by someone’s house to say they’d been ordered (by who?) to take part in a slowdown designed to embarrass a guy who could presumably get them fired, is just that that doesn’t make any damn sense at all. But maybe if you grew up in a climate where the city doesn’t actually call the shots, a criminal organization does, maybe it gets more traction? I dunno, just a thought.
Loneoak
They just need to slash more union jobs because the optimal point on the Laffer curve of workers x productivity has not been met.
Warren Terra
@Scott:
Maybe the sanitation workers’ union can sue him for defamation or libel or something?
MikeJ
The proper right wing response is, “the fact that we found slander against our political enemies believable demonstrates how evil unions are.”
Steve
The thing is, everybody knows unions do this stuff. So even if the story was completely made up, I believe that only bolsters the point.
Southern Beale
Yes, making shit up is a Teanut past-time … and I hate to be cynical but I have to wonder if this won’t ultimately prove to be, if not made up, perhaps “planted” to prove the point that liberals are as violent as Teabaggers.
God I hate myself for even thinking this but with the likes of James O’Keefe stalking Planned Parenthood offices, it would be “irresponsible NOT to speculate.” As they say.
And such as.
PurpleGirl
@BGinCHI: The story originally appeared in the NY Post.
ETA: Jibeaux: The Post hates unions. They would do and say anything to make a union or union member look bad.
General Stuck
OT
Another kind of snow job, and why the kumbaya and belt tightening blather is good politics these days. Since I have always let most of what presidents say go in one ear and out the other, and just watch what they do, I approve of this message, though others don’t.
Swing voters are idiots, but they are our idiots.
Captain Haddock
This could be explained any number of ways:
1. Halloran is full of shit
2. Halloran was visited by Vito and Tony from the Sanitation Union and was, ah, convinced to think hard about what had, or had not, happened.
3. Halloran told the truth but the original Union leakers had meetings with Tony and Vito from above.
dr. bloor
I’m enjoying the thought of Mr.
LyingmyfuckingpantsoffHalloran testifying for a prosecutor in the Southern District, in front of a jury that will inevitably be composed of more than a few members of local unions.Loneoak
Why don’t they just ask the Invisible Hand to clear the streets next time?
Martin
So is this another contrapositive to our ‘technical true but collectively nonsense’ moments?
Unionized workers never did this particular thing, but we know for a fact that they do these things all the time so it doesn’t matter that he lied about it.
Punchy
I bet there’s also videos of them purposely not plowing by stopping at stoplights, filling up at gas stations, waiting before turing right on red, and inexplicably exiting the truck cab after 8 or 12 hours of plowing and leaving the premises.
Steve
@Martin: Correct. The fact that everyone finds the story plausible proves the underlying point, even though the story is false.
Southern Beale
And speaking of making shit up …
Anti-choice black op linked to James O’Keefe
At least a dozen Planned Parenthood clinics across the country have recently been visited by a mysterious, self-proclaimed “sex trafficker” who was apparently part of a ruse to entrap clinic employees. Planned Parenthood reported these visits to the FBI.
In each case, the man reportedly asked to speak privately with a clinic worker, whereupon he asked for health advice regarding the underage, undocumented girls he was supposedly trying to traffic.
Jodi Jacobson reports at RH Reality Check:
[Prominent anti-choice blogger] Jill Stanek and other anti-choice operatives, including Lila Rose of Live Action Films are effectively claiming responsibility for sending pseudo “sex traffickers” into [Planned Parenthood] clinics, and also warn of “explosive evidence,” of which they of course present…..none. They appear to have no credible response to exposure of their efforts to perpetrate a hoax on Planned Parenthood.
Elvis Elvisberg
@BGinCHI:
True.
And because that was so predictable, I don’t think this was “Teabagger stupidity.” They added a legend to “substantiate” their hatred of unions. Totally false, but who’s going to report that? The lie’s already out there all over the world, and the truth is just getting its boots on.
Not that this was this councilman’s intention, he seems dumb as a post. But the way it would all work out was pretty predictable, and helpful for the GOP.
singfoom
I read that NYTimes article and I couldn’t even follow it. It sounded like the kind of stories I would make up to get out of trouble when I was 10 or so. The guy is lying and or crazy.
How stupid do you have to be to have 100K in credit card debt?
Hmmm…. 166K annual salary….100K in CC debt. How the hell does that work?
BGinCHI
@Elvis Elvisberg: If it was the Post, as PurpleGirl says above, then it ain’t no surprise.
What’s even worse is that I can’t even think of a pro-union paper in this country.
Ash Can
As singfoom notes above, this Halloran clown appears to be yet another shining example of personal responsibility on the right; besides the credit card debt, he’s also been foreclosed on. And on the subject of things that make you go “hmm,” there’s also this from the linked article:
…Oh damn. Did I just Godwin this joint?
Face
Translation: the editing, cutting, out-of-context reassemblage of responses has not yet been completed.
Andre
@Warren Terra:
Or they could just boycott the street his house is on.
Steeplejack
Fix’d by the Balloon Juice fact-checking/proofreading desk.
BGinCHI
@Ash Can: Nice. Proves my point: any decent reporter would have done a story on him and not his snow job lies.
Newspapers can’t fold fast enough.
jl
The NYT sure soft pedaled the part where Halloran ‘revised’ his story.
First it was explicit orders to sabotage the work with the explicitly stated aim of getting back at the mayor. Now it is that they were ‘subtly informed’ there was no need to hurry.
I think ‘revised’ should be ‘totally changed’.
And he is using phony ‘attorney client’ privilege claims to avoid talking about the issue.
But maybe Col. Flounder up there is right, and the union thugs Tony and Vito intimidated all the local, state, and federal investigators looking into it, and all the union members who will not back up the tall tale.
Maybe we should ask Thomas Jefferson, he is trustworthy, and he was there and knows all about how it works.
jl
By the Hammer of Thor, the noble Halloran will be vindicated in the end!
jibeaux
@PurpleGirl:
Okay, I guess I’m just trying to figure out why anyone in the public would believe a story that doesn’t, to me anyway, make any sense at all, since apparently there were a lot of vehicles blocking the right of way and it caused a lot of chaos and I understand this time around the city is declaring a state of emergency and stating any vehicles blocking the right of way will be towed at the owner’s expense — my point being that there are what seem to be pretty logical explanations for why there would be transportation problems after a blizzard such that sketchy stories about deliberate slowdowns with no names given wouldn’t resonate with people. I’m trying to figure out why such a lame account would supposedly “rocket” around NYC, I guess.
Southern Beale
@BGinCHI:
Oh but don’tcha know it’s the foul-mouthed bloggers who are to blame for newspapers’ demise!
BGinCHI
@Southern Beale: I sure hope so.
I never thought I’d say that, as a lover of news and printed matter, but newspapers are so corporate, so afraid to do any actual work or inform people about complexity that I’ve just totally given up.
Quaker in a Basement
“Yeah, OK, I made it up. It still might be true!”
Cris
“Mystifying” is a polite term for “obviously false.”
freelancer
OT – Okay, can we start charging these functioning illiterate Godbots with Sedition and fomenting Treason yet?
jl
Think how the story would have been written, and who would be an additional subject of the investigation if an ordinary citizen, let alone, say, poor white trash, had turned in such a sketchy report to the police.
Rick Massimo
“Yeah, OK, I made it up. It still might be true!”
Which means it IS!
Rick Massimo
@jl: Oh, as long as it was bashing public-employee unions, it would still get respect. Maybe not as much play, but the phrase “his story is falling apart” still would never appear.
PurpleGirl
Yes, the City has declared a snow emergency for today and tonight (10AM Wednesday to 6 AM Thursday). It means that they can tow cars/vehicles blocking roadways and plows. They did not do this for the Christmas storm and that was important.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/oem/html/home/home.shtml
We’ve had a few hours without snow now and that will help with the ongoing cleanup; of course, there is still the snow coming overnight which will mess up the morning commute.
ETA: The Sanitation union is one that city residents love to rag on and complain about. They are overpaid and underworked, you know. (It is also one of the most dangerous jobs for workers, there have been several on-the-job deaths in recent years.) Even though NYC has been a union town, this is one union that people really dislike. (The Transit Workers Union is another one.)
geg6
@Southern Beale:
These people are so stupid, they seem to think that Planned Parenthood, of all the places, are not able to see a setup coming a mile away.
Do these dimwits not realize that PPFA has been fighting this fight since 1921? 12 different clinics, 12 different staffs suspicious enough to call HQ. And PPFA, being the finely tuned to any and all threats organization that it is, went straight to DoJ.
Dimwits. But then, so are all Christianist fanatics. That’s why they’re Christianist fanatics.
Andre
@Quaker in a Basement:
Didn’t Bobo or someone write a column during the lead up to the 2008 election that basically said “Sure, all the claims about Obama being a terrorist-loving Kenyan Muslim are patently untrue, but the simple fact that some people find these claims plausible is why we will continue to report them uncritically.”
Maude
@jibeaux:
The mayor was also trying to deflect criticism because he wasn’t around. He still won’t say where he was.
The head of Emergency Services, don’t know what the agency name is, was fired because the ambulances couldn’t get to people.
Blaming unions is easier than taking blame for cutting the budget for snow removal. There was garbage piled up in the streets because the sanitation workers were clearing snow. This brought out vermin in some places in the 5 boroughs.
Gov. Christie has been hammering unions to make a name for himself. He wants to be prez.
What has happened in NJ, is that the fed funds that were to be used to build the tunnel (Christie stopped the building of the tunnel) are owed back to the feds. Christie is using lawyers to try to keep the money. He will lose.
Chrisie was in Disney land for the “Christmas Blizzard”.
The amount of money slated for snow removal for the State of NJ is gone. Chrisite sent a letter to the feds asking for a huge amount of money for snow removal.
It seems that a reality like snow is taking the wind out of the Rightie’s sails.
tkogrumpy
@Loneoak: A gem.Averitable gem.
ruemara
My family is in Queens, I am making sure everyone I know (all union types too) know what this asshat was doing. Can’t wait to ruin his future in politics.
Rick Taylor
On the other hand, in California, companies really did manipulate the market to cause electricity shortages.
WoodyNYC
I remember when I first saw the allegation ( at Gothamist.com, yes, I admit that I read that scurrilous e-rag) and went right to the NYT article they linked to, to see if there was any substance to it. There was an insinuation in the lead paragraph, but there was nothing else. Total vapor. I don’t know why I expected more than that.
Ethical Humanist
Comments like the one linked are why I took Outside the Beltway off my RSS reader.
alwhite
Speaking of made up bullshit – I was home today & ‘The View’ was on & discussing education in America. The resident wingnut said “Education spending in this country has gone up 180% since 1970, how can they be doing so poorly with all this money?”
Anyone wanna guess how much inflation has gone up since 1970? About 560% – education funding has only gone up about 1/3 of what inflation has cost. But I’m sure its still all th teachers union’s fault.
gbear
Oh boy. Wonkette has found a video with an argument that only good christians should have the right to vote. Nauseating.
ruemara
@alwhite:
Really, you shouldn’t contradict Elizabeth. She’s blond and pretty.
Steve
@geg6: It doesn’t matter. The risk/reward ratio is in their favor and I’m sure they’d do it again given half the chance.
All they have to do is snooker one single gullible PP employee – or just get video that makes it appear thus – and they win. Another ACORN story, huge blaring headlines everywhere. And if they strike out, no real loss, because no one will ever hear about it except you and me. You won’t see Brian Williams leading off the program by telling you how sneaky conservatives tried to trick Planned Parenthood, but it turns out they’re a reputable organization that did the right thing. Not even in your wildest dreams. They can never lose, and they only have to win once.
Jay C
@geg6:
Heh – but at least you can’t tag Dan Halloran as a “Christianist fanatic”; ‘cuz “Christian” he ain’t – but Theodism? SRSLY?
God (or gods) knows how this assclown got elected to the City Council: even for Queens, this is off-the-wall: but, like some other commenters have said: this is the Post talking [through their ass, but never mind] and any opportunity to union-bash is seldom wasted in Murdoch-Land.
Yes, the City f*ck*d up on the Boxing Day Blizzard – uncharacteristically, to be sure, but these things happen: but at least someone in the “MSM”` – and typically, it’s the New York Times – is enough-on-the-ball to check into sensationalist allegations and debunk them, where appropriate.
freelancer
@gbear:
And he would abolish voting in favor of a “benevolent dictator”. Yeesh.
David in NY
@alwhite: You’re in the wrong department. It’s Kevin Drum who gets apoplectic because reporters are incapable of understanding that amounts after inflation are what count, not raw numbers.
Mnemosyne
@Rick Taylor:
But that was a corporation doing that. We’re talking about city employees. Clearly it’s perfectly okay for corporations to manipulate events but pure evil for city employees to do the exact same thing.
I mean, you haven’t heard the Supreme Court ruling that unions are people the same way that corporations are people, have you? QED.
PurpleGirl
@Steve: That’s probably why Planed Parenthood has gone public with the complaints they made to the feds. They have gotten the story out to the blogs and internet sources. At least their supporters will know about what is being done.
MikeJ
@PurpleGirl:
Are the people making these complaints lining up up for these plum jobs?
David in NY
“@Jay C: “typically, it’s the New York Times – is enough-on-the-ball to check into sensationalist allegations and debunk them”
Except, if you read the article, it stops short of any actual debunking. Too bad.
quaint irene
Horrors! Trucks seen with their snow plows up??
I live on a main street. The plows come through very regular during a big storm. But plenty of times I see the same trucks driving past with the plows up. You know, on the way to another part of their route, and it’s probably a good idea not to have the plow down to save wear and tear on the black top. But I guess that makes too much sense.
burnspbesq
@Scott:
If he was stupid enough to knowingly make a materially false statement to a Federal investigator, they will fuck him up good and proper under 18 U.S.C. section 1001, the same statute that got Scooter Libby.
Pooh
@quaint irene:
Seriously. It’s almost like the drivers know what they are doing!
Although this is another kind of story that let’s me laugh at you lower 48 types and you’re near complete inability to handle the mildest of dustings…
PurpleGirl
@MikeJ: Nope, not to my knowledge.
ETA: That fact usually escapes many of the listeners to the rants about sanitation workers.
Linnaeus
@MikeJ:
That’s the same question I ask when I hear claims about how union jobs are all easy and cushy with generous pay and benefits. I usually get no answer.
de stijl
In a word, truthiness.
Poopyman
Hmmmm.
“Marines change commander at facility where WikiLeaks suspect held.”
Couldn’t be taking the fall for something, could he?
Jay C
@David in NY:
Well, at least the NYT has something on the BS “Snowplow Scandal”: I checked online at both the NY Post and the Daily News: and they’ve posted NADA on it for weeks…..
tim serbo
@David in NY: yeah but that’s the Grey Lady’s typical secret-decoder-ring style. the reporter and editor know a lot more than their lawyers will let them say given the evidence they’re presenting in the story, so they depend on winks and nudges and that peculiar leaden archness that is the Times‘ default voice for certain stories, usually those datelined in flyover country. they assume that their sort of reader will hear the music as well as the words.
freelancer
No new thread in nearly 3 hours. I’m guessing that there will be at least 4 new posts in the next 2 hours.
David in NY
@Jay C: That’s very true.
@tim serbo: I guess I think “mystifying” was more oblique than necessary and some harder language was available. But I get your point.
Southern Beale
Just saw this over at First Draft and thought the animal lovers here would appreciate it!
Super cool, dude!
kdaug
It don’t snow in Galt’s gulch.
David in NY
And just OT, Kevin Drum called out Avik Roy at The Corner for unfair bashing of the Cong. Budget Office deficit projections. Roy reconsidered, conceded, and apologized. AMAZING!
Bubblegum Tate
So does this mean the lies were central to his point?
gnomedad
@MikeJ:
@Steve:
Another meme I’ve run into is “an overwhelming command of the facts is proof of your bias.”
tim serbo
@David in NY: no argument from me. they pulled their punches much more than they needed to, even with the lawyers breathing down their necks. i think in a free society a newspaper that depends on code and concealment to get its point across is failing epically at its mission to inform without fear or favor.
gwangung
I would also think it matters if this is per student spending or total spending. Very easy for total spending to go up 180% if the number of students went up 240%.
BGinCHI
@gwangung: However you slice this kind of thing, it’s still a reference to a woman who knows NOTHING about education, has never taught in her life, hasn’t studied the problem, just saying shit into a camera.
How much misery is created by such people?
Calouste
@Steve
Funny, I remember the head of the Metropolitan police saying something rather similar about the IRA during one of their bombing campaigns.
Villago Delenda Est
Halloran is simply a lying sack of shit, like all teabagger scum. “It’s the deficit!”, they cry. No, it’s not, or you would have been organizing prior to 4 November 2008, at 8PM PST, when a Democrat who is near was projected to win the Presidential election.
gwangung
@BGinCHI: You know, that description fits about 90% of the on-camera pundits…..
sherifffruitfly
I saw a black guy cause the snow removal issue.
/me walks away whistling innocently.
BGinCHI
@gwangung: sigh
Where’s Jeffrey. I need some pictures of food.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Need open thread with Tunch and alcohol, please.
gwangung
@BGinCHI: Yeah, I know.
I’m going home to a nice rib roast….
Rick Taylor
Good point!
bemused
@singfoom:
Halloran is just faithfully following the far right commandment, “Personal responsibility for thee, not for me”.
OT but I’ve been wondering how and why MSNBC gave Cenk Uygar an hour show in the first place last fall. I’ve never been able to listen to Cenk’s Young Turks radio show. He is awkward and annoying at the same time.
Mark S.
Kittens everywhere are demanding open threads!
JGabriel
John Cole:
I remember a couple of people here in the comments were claiming that Hallloran was trustworthy. I wonder if this changes their opinions of him.
.
jeffreyw
@BGinCHI: Recuperating from knee surgery, dude. I’ll see if Mrs J is doing anything.
Arundel
It was NYPost made-up anti-union bullshot, and they ran with it for days. I’m glad the Times wrote this, but the idea was successfully launched.. “before the truth gets its shoes on”, etc.
Last night the local NBC news had Chuck Scarborough reporting that the heavy snows this winter, with a new one coming right up, has left the city snow-removal budget ($20 million, I think) close to depletion. There was just something about the way he reported this, like with disgust in his voice, as if it’s someone’s fault that it’s been a heavy winter for snow, and oh, the budget! As if there were some other option, that the great city of NY should grind to a halt to save a few pennies. Or something. It was mostly unsaid, but knowing his wealth and summer country-club golf-pants life in my town, I have a good idea of how he votes. He just seemed outraged and disgusted that the constant snowstorms cost so much, in a city of 8 million people. Someone must be to blame, he seemed to imply. And I think the subtext of his delivery and disdain was, you guessed it, the ones who actually do break their ass in blizzards to keep the city running.
Sue Simmons should smack that attitude outta him!
Arundel
It was NYPost made-up anti-union bullshot, and they ran with it for days. I’m glad the Times wrote this, but the idea was successfully launched.. “before the truth gets its shoes on”, etc.
Last night the local NBC news had Chuck Scarborough reporting that the heavy snows this winter, with a new one coming right up, has left the city snow-removal budget ($20 million, I think) close to depletion. There was just something about the way he reported this, like with disgust in his voice, as if it’s someone’s fault that it’s been a heavy winter for snow, and oh, the budget! As if there were some other option, that the great city of NY should grind to a halt to save a few pennies. Or something. It was mostly unsaid, but knowing his wealth and summer country-club golf-pants life in my town, I have a good idea of how he votes. He just seemed outraged and disgusted that the constant snowstorms cost so much, in a city of 8 million people. Someone must be to blame, he seemed to imply. And I think the subtext of his delivery and disdain was, you guessed it, the ones who actually do break their ass in blizzards to keep the city running.
Sue Simmons should smack that attitude outta him!
GregB
Can we stop calling them tea-partiers and start referring to them as the Balloon-Head Wing of the GOP?
BGinCHI
@jeffreyw: How’s it feeling? Friend of mine just had his ankle done and he’s hobbling around on crutches. Shitty time of year for it.
Feel better and make sure and eat to keep up your strength.
(last comment edited for facetiousness)
Gustopher
If unions were the thugs that the teabaggers make them out to be, Halloran wouldn’t be mouthing off like this.
jeffreyw
@BGinCHI: Hurts like a summbitch. I get around the house with crutches. Loves me my vicodin.
Mrs J came through for me with a sausage/egg/cheese not a muffin.
Mnemosyne
@jeffreyw:
Ouch! If your doctor didn’t give you one of those cool knee wraps that constantly circulates ice water around your knee, call him tomorrow and see if you can get one. That helped immensely after I had my ACL replaced.