(Shit) Shovel Ready

Perhaps Bloomberg is to government as the Burns brothers are to documentaries:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, in a dramatic presentation Thursday that included a Ric Burns-narrated video and a marching band, invoked Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Sept. 11 attacks as he called for New Yorkers to endure the current economic crisis and “come out stronger together.”

In his annual State of the City address, Mr. Bloomberg described New York as “shaken” but “not broken,” and he put forward a nine-point plan to preserve and create 400,000 jobs, which he said he could accomplish without new government spending.

. . .

To bolster the city’s resolve but also pave the way for some of his austerity measures, Mr. Bloomberg invoked Roosevelt and the Depression, as well as the city’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s. The video, which cost $10,000 to produce, featured New Yorkers testifying to the perseverance of the city and its people.

Years from now, the speech may well be remembered more for its timing than its contents. Less than an hour after Mr. Bloomberg’s address, a US Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River.

And, what — no Twitter page, too? [Via.]