Big Deal, She’s No Aishwarya Rai

As the Daily News’ Adam Lisberg expected, video has come out showing Indian actress Shilpa Shetty “endorsing” Bloomberg. Too bad the Bloomberg campaign doesn’t realize that the Celebrity Big Brother star is actually a hack . . .

Lie Down With Dogs, Get Up With Four Percent Raises Without An Endorsement

DC37 has 300,000 members, many of which (still) vote in New York City. Howard Wolfson is the go-to guy for the most egregious campaign bullshit:

In 2005, the union broke with its tradition of endorsing Democrats and backed Mr. Bloomberg, then a Republican, privately arguing that the mayor was likely to trounce a weak field of Democratic candidates.

Many expected the district council to do the same this time, especially since Mr. Bloomberg appears to be steamrolling toward re-election and granted DC 37’s workers back-to-back 4 percent raises last fall, despite the economic crisis.

. . .

In a statement, Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg’s campaign, said: “DC 37 opposes pension reform, mayoral control of schools, and wants the city to hire more employees, even in a time of fiscal crisis. This is their job, so we understand their position. But these are clearly not things that the mayor could agree to, and so it’s not surprising that they would endorse Mr. Thompson.”

“The real question,” he added, “is what promises Mr. Thompson made them and how much his promises will cost taxpayers.”

Wolfson, of course, is the post-modern political operative: Basically he’s telegraphing to us, “If I were being paid by Democrats, as has been the case for my entire career, I would have simply substituted ‘Bloomberg’ for ‘Thompson’ and had the same message.” It’s brilliant, in fact.

Putting The “Veil” Back In “Surveillance”

So yes, they’re watching everything we do, but they’re only seeing the tops of our heads:

In a stunning lapse of airport security, surveillance cameras at La Guardia Airport failed to capture even a single frame of the dramatic moments when would-be suicide bomber Scott McGann tried to blow himself up and two hero cops wrestled him to the ground, The Post has learned.

. . .

Investigators made the shocking discovery after they retrieved tape from Port Authority cameras, fully anticipating watching the near tragedy unfold and ultimately using it as evidence against the mentally ill terrorist wannabe.

But when they rolled the tapes, the entire episode was nowhere to be found because of a glaring lack of surveillance coverage. “There was zilch,” one flabbergasted law-enforcement source said.

“There was nothing of use,” said another.

The sources also disclosed that what little video they did recover from cameras in the general vicinity was “grainy,” of “poor quality” and basically “showed the tops of people’s heads.”

In fact, PA investigators and prosecutors at the office of Queens DA Richard Brown agreed that the tapes were of no forensic value and “unusable” against McGann.

We Can Work With That

Bloomberg gets Colin Powell — who hasn’t lived in New York since he was growing up in the Bronx — but even with that high-profile “endorsement,” Bill Thompson is now just ten points behind:

City Controller William Thompson has narrowed the gap between him and big-spending Mayor Bloomberg to 10 points in a new Quinnipiac University poll — down from a 22-point margin just a month ago.

Bloomberg would win 47% of the vote in a hypothetical matchup compared with 37% for Thompson, the poll found — versus the 54-to-32 lead he had in mid-June.

“Now there’s a little life in the mayoral race,” said Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll. “Thompson is closer than Democrat Fernando Ferrer was at this point in 2005.”

Bloomberg’s campaign shrugged off the poll numbers, saying they seemed to be influenced by a wording change. Last month’s poll called the mayor an independent, but the new one noted he is running as an independent and a Republican.

And then there’s Tony:

Some colleagues question Mr. Avella’s temperament and world view. He often acts, they say, as if he is the smartest person in the room, and he has a temper. He also evinces little interest in national or international affairs.

They act like that’s a bad thing! A mayor isn’t supposed to be interested in international affairs. A mayor needs to be primarily interested in fixing potholes. Any port in a storm . . .

The Problem With The Way You Cast Yourself

The problem when you cast yourself as a scold, er, worldwide environmental leader, is that you open yourself up to charges of hypocrisy:

In just the past week, the city-owned SUVS that hustle hizzoner around the city were timed idling from 10 minutes to more than an hour eight times, The Associated Press reported.

Bloomberg strengthened the city’s anti-idling law earlier this year, allowing just three minutes of idling. Environmentalists praised the law as the nation’s toughest. But the Mayor’s SUVs are exempt from the law because they are considered emergency vehicles.

“We’re doing our best,” to reduce idling, Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser insisted, noting the SUV’s are supposed to park in the shade so engines don’t have to run the air conditioning.

Most of the vehicles were clocked in mild temperatures last week and were parked in the shade — but the engines were still on.