FOR THE RECORD
While the union rally outside the New York Stock Exchange Sept. 25 was meant to increase public pressure on Congress to make significant changes to the Wall Street bailout package proposed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, it also had many of the trappings of a campaign event on behalf of Barack Obama.

Among a somewhat disappointing crowd of no more than 1,000, many were carrying signs for the Democratic nominee for President rather than signs aimed at the perceived inequities in the bailout proposal. And when AFL-CIO New York City Central Labor Council Executive Director Ed Ott finished his speech with a call for change in November and a full-throated cry of "Obama!," he drew a roar of approval from those assembled.

Asked whether it hadn't turned into a political rally in the guise of a protest, Randi Weingarten replied, "Originally it was supposed to be a Wall Street rally, but after that speech last night by President Bush, it turned into a campaign rally."

We missed Mr. Bush's address, having been preoccupied with one violation of the Geneva Conventions for which he can't be blamed: the Mets' torturous loss to the Cubs that was going on at the same time. Several commentators suggested that the President seemed less than animated, perhaps understanding that his credibility about the magnitude of the crisis had been irreparably damaged by the whoppers he and his aides told the last time he ratcheted up the panic meter to lead us into war with Iraq.

Ms. Weingarten, who heads both the American Federation of Teachers and its New York City flagship, nonetheless said she and her colleagues took umbrage at his warning of dire consequences if the bailout package wasn't enacted unchanged and without delay.

"That was so irresponsible," she said, contending that the essence of his message was, '''You don't do this, your lives are gonna be dreck.'" She paused a moment, then added, "Like he hasn't already made our lives dreck?"

The United Federation of Teachers leader also was among those who marveled at the ease with which the Federal Government was suddenly coming up with what could eventually approach a trillion dollars to prop up the financial markets when it couldn't spare far smaller sums to provide health insurance for children or increased aid for education and infrastructure repairs.

"It's amazing," Ms. Weingarten said: "all of a sudden that money can materialize? I understand the need for this, but it is certainly the rewarding of bad behavior and the rewarding of market greed."

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When we ran Jim Callaghan's column last week in which he imagined Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson becoming as generous with employees as the Bush Administration was being with Wall Street, we assumed readers would quickly grasp that the piece was intended as satire rather than reality. The fact that all this information appeared on Page 5 of the paper, rather than on the front page, also seemed like a good tip-off that none of it had really happened, unless someone believed our news judgment was incredibly bad.

Some of you apparently weren't convinced, maybe because tongue-in-cheek fantasies are not our stock in trade. That would explain the phone calls we got from a few readers and one ranking union official, as well as e-mails Mr. Callaghan received, wondering if all the details he spun into the piece could possibly be true.

And so we feel compelled to state unequivocally that no, the subway fare isn't being reduced to 30 cents, free tuition isn't being reinstated at the City University of New York, city employees aren't getting 10-percent annual raises for the next five years and there is not going to be a change in pension rules to allow employees to retire at age 45 with 15 years' service and collect a full pension.

One e-mail to Mr. Callaghan stated, "Surely this is a misprint!, and if it isn't what's the catch?" Another wondered whether a quote he attributed to Mr. Bloomberg was just a case of the Mayor being "sarcastic." One more-skeptical reader stated, "Your report appears to be the only one that contains this 'information.'''

As Mr. Callaghan noted wryly to us, "Good news: they are reading your paper."

On the other hand, if in a future column he writes that Martians have landed and taken over the Department of Education, we'll make sure to note this is just his imagination at work.