You are absolutely correct. I only visited Manhattan for 6 months in 1998. I had a unique position, as the wife of a 26yr old cancer patient at Memorial-Sloan Kettering, so no, I was not a resident. We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House, on the upper east side, but we mingled with patients daily 4-5 hours about the goings on in the chemo rooms. These people commuted to the hospital by car or foot and were real New Yorkers, ran the gamut. What I am saying is that from so many in that year Giuliani and Kerik were noble for their achievements, and it was so much safer, cleaner, etc. That was relatively unanimous; the papers raved over his accomplishments. There is no excuse for corruption, and organized crime. I just get really tired of the double standards, we expect politicians to be infallible, but we aren't polished enough to do it ourselves. Until we all accept that people screw up and any of us are prone to make poor choices will will just point fingers, That's what I was saying. I don't condone what you have described.I am not replying to escalate this conversation, I just wanted to make it relative to what I see daily. That is nurses feeling pressured to document things which do not actually get done due to the enormous load placed on them. Physicians are being shoved in the same role now. They have more required paperwork, forms, algorithms, and if they mess up (or the staff) that claim is denied. Many Medicare services can only be submitted once, so that erroneous claim is denied forever, even if it's changed/corrected. We all want to see accountability and fairness, but I am just saying the crime rate in NYC c.1998 - miraculous comparatively. What you have described is wrong, and unacceptable anywhere. He apparently was corrupted, as he plead guilty, but I am hearing some stories that he was already charged for some of the charges at the state level. At some point it becomes a witch hunt. What is worse, is that it took this long (Blame Bush, that's ok with me, though it does not help achieve our real objective which is some common ground), and we have Congressional leadership which are allowed to sit in committees while investigations into their tax problems seem to stagnate until their term runs out. I agree with you completely, get every single corrupt person out of the Congress, Senate, and WH. I hope people aren't too intimidated by the witch hunts to step up. Theorhetically a lousey house keeper/babysitter tax issue from 20 yrs ago might haunt a person and damage a life of integrity; I don't know why anybody but corrupt people would want the job for $167k/yr. We have all done something we are not proud of, I just hope there is someone who's willing to risk it all to clean up this mess with an honest mop.