Firefighters Brave Polar Vortex to Save Lives in Chicago as in NYC-- Yes, those "overpaid Union Thugs " Again==ABC News

I am irate because earlier on this evening I unthinkingly copied a story about a relative handful of NYC cops and firemen caught in false disability claims..still too many, of course, but while most of these people are most likely guilty, the full details have yet to be revealed. More cops than firemen seem to have been involved,
and it is obvious some of these men were originally disabled but got much better than they were willing to admit.

Yes, I too get fed and fall for--at least for a minute-- this garbage-- by the BBC in this case, which should know better, damn them..Because it is such a relatively small percentage of September 11 first responders--and a very small fraction of all the thousands and thousands of cops and firemen who serve and have served the City of New York so valiantly.

The truth will come out and let the guilty be punished, but don't besmirch all those people who have done so much for this town..

We also have to remember how many first responders died before they ever got any help at all.  Overblowing a story such as this is an incredible mean insult to them and their families. It is gratuitous cruelty to people who have suffered so much and who deserve so much better.

This video must be seen to better understand what is really happening when it comes to the lives of firefighters

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/firefighters-braving-fires-freezing-cold-21455198 http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/firefighters-braving-fires-freezing-cold-21455198 

And while we are at it, here's footage from a helmet camera worn by a typical firefighter showing us what it is like first hand to enter a burning house etc.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/firefighter-wears-helmet-camera-intense-fires-18233204 

THAT HUMONGOUS WORST-CASE "$400 MILLION- chicken feed compared to what HSBC, JP Morgan, others have been ordered to pay in fines, with no one talking about how they have "dishonored the banking industry" or Wall Street. No, "Greed is Good" still reigns there, and the pompous NY Times is not wringing its hands over the fact of this or that none of these real big shots are EVER going to be dragged through the mud or do any hard time.  It was the same way back when we had the Savings and Loan, Banking and other scandals back with Reagan, I remember having lunch with some FBI agents, one of whom boasted about having nailed some Ayn Rand inspired banker, and then I asked him if this culprit ever saw any hard time. He blushed violently and said meekly, " Uh, no, it was all restitution." Oh, that's just great....errant bad guy firefighters and flunky cops are a shame to the nation and we all have to scream about this from the rooftops, while these anonymous bank executives and Wall Street types peel off a couple of billion from their ill gotten gains and the merry go round they are on continues, including them paying all sorts of shill politicians to say how firefighters have no right to collective bargaining etc.!!

What also infuriates me is how these Wall Street manipulators and crooks get off not only scot free with their scams but collect bigger and bigger bonuses while the same type of person has the brass to suggest we should close firehouses and do something about the "bloated pensions" say of cops and firefighters

How about it, Bill de Blasio? Are you going to put your money where your mouth is when it comes to nonsense like this or are you going to somehow also fall in to the march of politicians seeking big donations from--well, bad guys--while letting our public servants who risk their lives for us ( and how about sanitationmen working in this cold, too, for that matter)get savaged by a sensation seeking press and the immoral confederacy of mean spirited "austerity freaks" who want to crucify people whose dirty boots they are not fit to clean...

I still cannot believe how the Federal government actually told first responders it was safe to work at Ground Zero then pulled the rug out from under them when they needed help paying for the medical costs they eventually faced for their heroic efforts..with a Congress that still natters about " we have to keep cutting the budget" --at the expense, of course of veterans, of our wars and of our burning buildings and streets!