9/11/04

On 9-11-

My prayers go out to all who lost loved ones three years ago today.
In their memory, I reprint the 2002 Congressional testimony of Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her beloved husband Ronald on that dreadful day.
Listen to Kristen's voice.
It took quite a while for Kristen's voice to be heard. After many Stonewalls and U-Turns, the Jersey girl got what she and other 9/11 families had hoped for.

"The mortal citizens of a planet are praying right now that we will bear in mind, better than ever before, that no kind of bomb ever built will extinguish hatred."

-Barbara Kingsolver / 9-23-01

Statement of Kristen Breitweiser, Co-Chairperson September 11 Advocates, Concerning the Joint 9/11 Inquiry
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Reprinted from September 18, 2002


I would like to thank the families of the 3000 victims for allowing me to represent them, here today, before the Joint Intelligence Committee. It is a tremendous honor. Testifying before this committee is a privilege and an enormous responsibility that I do not take lightly. I will do my best not to disappoint the families or the memories of their loved ones.

Toward that end, I ask the members present here today to find in my voice the voices of all’ of the family members of the 3000 victims of September 11th. I would also ask for you to see in my eyes, the eyes of the more than 10,000 children who are now forced to grow up without the love, affection, and guidance of a mother or a father who was tragically killed on September 11.

I would now like to thank the members of the Joint Intelligence Committee, Eleanor Hill, and her staff for giving the families this opportunity to be heard. It has been an excruciating and overwhelming 12 months, and it is now time for our words and our concerns to be heard by you.

My three-year old daughter’s most enduring memory of her father will be placing flowers on his empty grave. My most enduring memory of my husband, Ronald Breitweiser, will be his final words to me, “Sweets, I’m fine, I don’t want you to worry, I love you.” Ron uttered those words while he was watching men and women jump to their deaths from the top of Tower One. Four minutes later, his Tower was hit by United Flight 175. I never spoke to my. husband, Ron, again.

I don’t really know what happened to him. I don’t know whether he jumped or he choked to death on smoke. I don’t know whether he sat curled up in a corner watching the carpet melt in front of him, knowing that his own death was soon to come or if he was alive long enough to be crushed by the buildings when they collapsed. These are the images that haunt me at night when I put my head to rest on his pillow.

I do know that the dream I had envisioned, that I so desperately needed to believe—that he was immediately turned to ash and floated up to the heavens, was simply not his fate. I know this because his wedding band was recovered from ground zero with a part of his left arm. The wedding band is charred and scratched, but still perfectly round and fully intact. I wear it on my right hand, and it will remain there until the day I die.

September 11th was the devastating result of a catalogue of failures on behalf of our government and its agencies. My husband and the approximately 3000 others like him went to work and never came home. But, were any of our governmental agencies doing their job on that fateful morning? Perhaps, the carnage and devastation of September 11th speaks for itself in answering this question.

SEE REMAINDER OF STATEMENT HERE

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REALITY: Who would think you'd see a sign like this at the site of the World Trade Center just three years after the 9/11 tragedy?

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Commending an AP Politics Writer

Commending an AP Politics Writer
This is the way it should be done.

I highly respect Pete Yost from the Associated Press for quoting Dubya Bush at a West Virginia rally yesterday and then following up on Bush's biting rhetoric with some facts. We just don't see enough honest journalism like this anymore.

THE RHETORIC: "The newest wrinkle is that Sen. Kerry has now decided we are spending too much money in Iraq even though he criticized us earlier for not spending enough," Bush said. "One thing about Senator Kerry's position is clear. ... If he had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power and would still be a threat to our security and to the world."

THE REALITY: Kerry has not chided Bush for spending too much money on the war but has criticized the president for engaging in "a war of choice" without obtaining more financial support from allies. The war has cost nearly $200 billion that, according to Kerry, could have been used for domestic programs.

Mr. Yost wrote about the fact that Zell Miller was campaigning in West Virginia with Dubya.
Yost followed up with this fact:

THE REALITY: Miller's keynote address at the Republican convention galvanized delegates and left Democrats fuming over what they called an angry, inaccurate rant by the Georgia Democrat.

Does Lack of Vision Perpetuate American Fear?

"Fear is not the natural state of civilized people."

--Aung San Suu Kyi

Does Lack of Vision Perpetuate American Fear?
James Wolcott believes so, and explains how our cultural attention-deficit disorder stymies our progress
[LINK]

"Now there are lots of reasons bruited about for why this election is dragging so much dead baggage.
• The group narcissism of the baby boomers.
• The unhealed wounds of Vietnam.
• An attempt to misdirect attention from a war we're in the process of losing (Iraq) to thrash about in the big muddy of a war we lost thirty years ago (Vietnam).

All very plausible explanations. One or all may be true.

But I also think that the future is what this election wants to avoid. The country now has such short attention span that it can't/won't concentrate on the future, finds it too taxing, would rather back up into the future than face it honestly."

--James Wolcott

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See: The Long Now Project, a cultural institution, where the necessity of mechanism or myth which encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility is stressed. 'Long-term' is measured at least in centuries.

"Jesus-Loserman"

This one's making the rounds. I found it on Daily Kos.
It's from Mad Magazine.
I call it 'Jesus-Loserman'.

William Saletan: Wrong-Way Bush

Wrong-Way Bush
In the war on terror, the worst defense is a bad offense.
There isn't much we can do now about the damage the Iraq war has done to our campaigns against al-Qaida and WMD proliferation. But there is something we can do at election time about a president who persists in running the wrong way despite all pleas and evidence: We can tackle him. LINK/SLATE

Bush: Cowardice, No WMD, Nat'l Guard Updates

Bush: Guided By Moral Cowardice

From The Hill-
Bush’s National Guard years-
His moral cowardice has guided him all along
By Josh Marshall
The same sort of moral cowardice that led him to support the Vietnam War but decide it wasn’t for him, run companies into the ground and let others pay the bill, play gutter politics but run for the hills when someone asked him to say it to their face — those are the same qualities that led the president to lie the country into war, to fail to prepare for the aftermath and then to refuse to take responsibility for any of it when the bill started to come due.

Iraq Survey Group Verdict: No WMD

Nothing on their hands except...

The final [no WMD] verdict in the long-awaited report from the Iraq Survey Group will prove a great embarrassment for both leaders:
George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

National Guard Headlines

• Which is more cowardly? Bush's Alleged Service or Recently-Alleged Lack of Service?
• CBS convinced of 60 Minutes Guard document authenticity even though Bush campaign is trying hard to make it look like they're forgeries.
• Bush's Lost Year by James Fallows
• Now It's Bush's Turn to Squirm by Sidney Blumenthal
• Diagnosing Dubya-The president who mistook his wife for a hat by Timothy Noah
• Sen. John F. Kerry to Address National Guard Association Conference Sept 16
• Texas National Guard has first Iraq fatality

UPDATE:
• Daily Kos: TANG Typewriter Follies; Wingnuts Wrong
• The Moderate Voice: Were The CBS Documents On George Bush's Military Service Forged?
• At The Angry Liberal: A good summary of the latest articles
--C. Murphy Archibald, who worked on the Blount campaign, said that in the fall of 1972, Bush frequently was late for work on the Alabama campaign and often bragged about how much he drank the night before. (USA Today)

Kerry: Bush is No Good Samaritan

Kerry: Bush is No Good Samaritan

"Four years ago, George Bush came to office calling himself a compassionate conservative. Well, in the story of the Good Samaritan we are told of two men who pass by or cross to the other side of the street when they come upon a robbed and a beaten man.

They felt compassion, but there were no deeds. Then the Good Samaritan gave both his heart and his help.

It is clear: For four years, George W. Bush may have talked about compassion, but he's walked right by. He's seen people in need, but he's crossed over to the other side of the street."

--John Kerry, speaking today at the National Baptist Convention in New Orleans, LA

Dog Does WHAT?!?

Dog Does WHAT?!?



You've heard of 'dog bites man', but......click on this photo and you'll see what this dog did.

Bushes Attacked Nat'l Guard Service of Others

The Bushes Attacked National Guard Service of Others

From The Daily Mislead:
As reported in the August 23, 1988 Los Angeles Times, then Vice President George H.W. Bush's campaign co-chairman John Sununu went on national television to impugn an opponent's dealings with the National Guard during Vietnam. Sununu specifically claimed Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX) had improperly helped get his son into the Texas National Guard during Vietnam. Bentsen's son served in the very same National Guard unit at the very same time as George W. Bush. The Bush campaign's attacks came just days after Bush's allies on Capitol Hill launched a vicious attack on Gov. Michael Dukakis (D-MA) for receiving a draft deferment during the Korean War. At the time of the coordinated attack, George W. Bush was serving as a senior adviser to his father's campaign.

[A further irony is that Texas politician Ben Barnes now admits he helped both young men get into the Guard]

A Moral Course? NeoCons Willing to Overlook Terror

A Moral Course?
NeoCons Are Willing to
Overlook Terror

At TomPaine.com, Robert Dreyfuss details an incredibly hypocritical statement from semi-retired NeoCon Richard Pipes and a Guardian article pointing to the "American Committee for Peace in Chechnya" (ACPC), whose members include Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, Midge Decter, Frank Gaffney, Bruce Jackson, Michael Ledeen, James Woolsey, etc.

In both articles, we see Bush's Manichaean war of great moral consistency fall flat as a pancake.

In their rush to do as much damage as they can to Russia, these NeoCons are perfectly willing to look past the terror that killed hundreds of Beslan's babies last week. They're the blame-Russia-first crowd.

While it is a worthy cause to support liberty for the decent people of Chechnya, it is politically devastating to Bush's moral cause to use a double standard. After the past week's terror attacks on Russia, we can no longer look past the fact that their innocent people are being targeted by the same terror that is being practiced throughout the Middle East.

If we are Americans are a truly moral people, we will stand behind Putin in his time of weakness rather than proclaiming to the world that we wish to beat him down to nothing as everyday Russian citizens face the fiery trials of terror.

That would make us the most immoral poopyheads in the world.
That may be what the NeoCons want to be, but I don't think they are working in America's best interest, anyhow.

Allow me to say it loud and clear.
They are working in Israel's best interests.

We need to get them the hell out of OUR White House.

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James Wolcott's new blog is a joy to read.
I'm so glad he's become a blogger:

"Podhoretz and his fellow neocons will not be satisfied until there are as many world wars as Police Academy sequels."

Mr. Wolcott's witty commentary on American culture and a Canadian NeoCon who plots wars for those tacky U.S. hominids:

"[David]Frum, Canadian, has little understanding of the manicured grasp [Kitty]Kelley has on the sordid imagination of America. He has spent too much time with his coauthor Richard Perle plotting to grease America into neverending war to understand what a destructive dynamo in a bouffant is Ms. Kelley.

Gee, Thanks, George Pataki

Gee, Thanks, George Pataki

N.Y. is the most heavily-taxed state in the Union.

Go Republicans.

We Are No Safer Today Than 9/11/01

We Are No Safer Today Than 9/11/01

The LA Times Editorial staff puts it bluntly.
(I love the LA Times' editorial attitude.)

Regardless of what we think of Dr. Horror's Dick Cheney's statement yesterday, there is one clear-as-a-bell truth that has popped up its head and is waving to us all.

That truth is a'ringing and singin' throughout all of political creation this morning:

We are no safer now than we were on 9/11/01.

Howard Dean got a lot of -gasps- when he bluntly stated, on the morning of December 14, 2003, that America was no safer with Saddam Hussein caught.

If Osama bin Laden is snatched up in the next few weeks, I'll be equally blunt in joining with Steven Simon, co-author of the new book, "The Age of Sacred Terror":

"bin Laden has successfully launched a global insurgency with franchises that operate autonomously. The cancer has metastasized and it's doing fine on its own. Osama bin Laden's done his job well."

Here's a challenge to any of you. Give me real and true examples of how America has been made safer since the dreaded day the towers fell. Give me something tangible...no idealistic visions of liberty sugarplums and freedom fairies.

Shall I repeat that in case someone didn't quite get it the first time?
Hello??
We are not safer now than we were on 9/11.

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The NYT Editorial beats on Dr. Horror Dick Cheney for making the statement at all. I've got to say that I was not surprised at all to hear Cheney give strong voice to the threats that face America.

Threats of terror are real and Dick knows we'll be hit again. While Bush twiddled his thumbs in Texas, an overwhelming blow to America was planned, then executed without a hitch. While we got pretty color-coded threat levels, Osama bin Laden got hundreds of thousands of inspired recruits.

The Bush administration has not stemmed the tide of terror and I predict that Europe's stability will soon be rocked and devastated by terror right under our noses...while the president and vice-president tell us there should be no priority on treaties or global organizations. While Bush and Cheney tell us we should stay the course in Iraq, where we are losing more and more control by the day.

Rather than wringing our hands over Dr. Horror's Dick Cheney's words, we should be crying out for good-faith re-engagement with the world before it's too late for not only Europe, but for all civilized human beings.

This administration is hopeless.

Plainly and simply hopeless.

I Can See Our Playgrounds Bleeding

I Can See Our
Playgrounds Bleeding

Our legislators have completely failed us.
The 10-year old federal assault weapons ban is set to expire.

Our president can push just about any part of his agenda through his puppet House of Representatives, but when Tom DeLay really wants payback, Bush gives it to him.

This time, Tom DeLay and George W. Bush will be responsible for more dead children in the halls and grounds of our schools.



Maybe a terrorist or two hiding right here in our nation will find it much easier to get hold of the Uzis that would take out as many of us out as possible at one time.

The Great Sniper of 2002 would have loved the news. I'll bet there's other perfectly insane and depraved folks out there that are waiting to be the next Sniper of the Year. With a fancy new sub machine-gun, he could have a field day.

Buy two weapons from Beretta and get two free 15-round magazines!



Disgruntled employees---just think of how many you could take out at one time with one of these babies.



Order one now from ArmaLite Inc. and get a bayonet to go with it!

Homeland Security is a joke to our legislators and our President.
They're enabling the heavily-armed and kicking our children's safety in the ass.



The power-team of Delay and Bush are proving what they think about public safety right before your eyes. I could be holding a dead child in my arms and some of you would still be in my face telling me it's all about your (godforsaken) freedom.

Ohio's Todd Schneider: Kerry In Akron/A Dem Weekend

Todd J. Schneider, Ohio Correspondent Checks In

A Democratic Labor Day Weekend in NE Ohio
John Kerry in Akron, Ohio

A 'loyalty-oath'-free 3 days was enjoyed by all Democrats this weekend in the land of John Brown!

It actually began early in the week, with a phenomenal job of preparation for a surprise visit (at least to most of us) to Akron by Senator John Kerry.

My family's involvement started on Tuesday, when I picked up 20 tickets. I am sad to say the person at the office didn't trust me to have this many - I think she thought I would waste them on no-shows. They were gone by Thursday, and every ticket given represented a body at Firestone Stadium in Akron on Saturday.

Friday evening was the volunteers' meeting for the rally, then Sat. at 6:30 the volunteers' arrival at the Stadium. After some waiting for the magnetometers to get set up, we finally got into the stadium to go to our assignments - ours being voter registration and absentee ballot applications. My apologies for this amount of boring detail, but for those who will have Senator Kerry or Edwards coming to their town, this is the formula, so you will know ahead of time.

The rally itself was a gathering to make every Democrat proud. In the crowd were Union folk, business men and women, the elderly and invalid, babies, their moms and grandmas, veterans, firefighters, teachers - in other words, America was there. And on the stage was a list of speakers that represented everything Democrats could hope for, and a group that while unique to Ohio, would register in the minds of Democrats across the nation. There were Representatives Sherrod Brown, Tim Ryan, Stephanie Tubbs-Jones and Dennis Kucinich. There was our beloved John and Annie Glenn, and the man who we are working to make another great U.S. Senator, Eric Fingerhut.

My personal favorite though, is Akron's Mayor Don Plusquellic, who is currently the President of The U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mayor Plusquellic and Rep. Tim Ryan breathe some fire, my friends. They call them as they see them, and every Democrat was on their feet while they slung some crap at our boy-king and his minions.

Senator Kerry was right on the money with all that he said, though every last one of the 12-15 thousand attendees not-so-secretly wished he would REALLY let 'what's-his-name' have it in the manner that the repubs dish it out. Taking the high road is not always easy to like. Even so, every person that we gave tickets to said they wouldn't have missed it for the world.

On Sunday, we had a nice gathering of Democrats in nearby Tallmadge, in the 'circle' (Northeasterners - the ancestors of us all in the Connecticut Western Reserve - will know this as a 'rotary'), ably put together by Pat, Lisa and Mike Carano and our independent Summit Dems group, led by John Cross.

Considering the energy-draining day we had the day before, we were very pleased by the attendance. It would be hard to gauge the exact number, but the eagerness to be there and the fellowship displayed made it seem like thousands. And let me say that it was a day that sprung from a meeting of 12 or 13 people in a Starbuck's back in February - a group of people that heard the clock ticking and wasn't going to wait for the Party apparatus to get moving. If ever the term 'grass roots' could be applied as a visual aid, this group would be the poster child.

The very same day (5 Sept.), The Cleveland Plain Dealer had an article that showcased our grass-roots organization, emphasizing the cross-section of life it represented, and the urgency with which it has acted. This author is blessed to have been some small part of this cadre, and I will treasure these past months forever.

On Labor Day (brought to you by our progressive ancestors), the anti-Bushite City of Barberton held it's annual parade, which according to Al Canfora (who gracefully answered my 14-year-old son's inquiries into his May 4 1970 bullet wound) was a rousing show of Democratic politics in this proud, yet depressed Ohio city. For me, our talk with Alan and Gwen was the icing on the cake of this Democratic weekend. It was a talk with an two courageous Democrat soldiers that gave us inspiration down the home stretch.

The Sunday before last, it was a glorious adventure with anti-Bushites from across the land in beloved NYC.

Last Sunday, it was more of the same with friends and family at home.

We are ready to defeat the tyrant here in NE Ohio.

Will you join us?

--Todd J. Schneider

Alan's Ditty

Jesus would vote for me, you fools!
Why won't you?--you know He rules!

I'm gonna be spankin' that slaveholder Obama
Get me Jesus on the Hotline, hoo-lawdie Mama!

-Alan

Dick Cheney: "D" stands for Dr. Horror

Dick Cheney:
"D" stands for Dr. Horror

David Corn writes about Dick Cheney's fear-mongering:
'Expect Worse Than This'.

"Vote for Kerry and die!"....it has a nice ring to it, don't you think?



If "W" stands for WRONG,
"D" stands for DR. HORROR
Mwuhahahaha--ha!.

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James Wolcott describes Dr. Horror Cheney as a "broken down sidekick ready for a lawnsale".

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Juan Cole's analysis of Dr. Horror's comments: 'Cheney seems to be saying that the reason there won't be another attack if he is reelected is because he will keep fighting "preemptive" wars. So, he is promising us more wars, folks. And he almost certainly has Iran foremost on his mind.'

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At the WhyWeAreBack blog, Ron shows us How to Cheney Cheney.

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This golden tidbit from Bill Maher was mined by Atrios. It's a must-see.

9/11 wasn't a triumph of the human spirit. It was a fuck-up by a guy on vacation.

Nothing But a Lie

Nothing But A Lie

"So bring them back, and make it soon
Before we lose one more
And tell us now what we can do
To end this needless war

We honor and respect our troops,
and hold our flag up high.
But please don't make them shed their blood
for nothing but a lie."

--Mona Abboud, writer of the song "Nothing But A Lie"

Ben Barnes Unfairly Characterized By White House

Ben Barnes Unfairly Characterized By White House

If you're wondering what the significance of THIS might be, I'll explain.
On 60 Minutes tonight, Ben Barnes will reveal how he got Bush into the National Guard.
As you might expect, the Bushites are ready and willing to trash Barnes.
Today, White House spokesman Scott McLellan said of Barnes’ comments: "It is not surprising coming from a longtime partisan Democrat. The allegation was discredited by the commanding officer. This was fully covered and addressed five years ago. It is nothing new."
Longtime partisan Democrat...hmmmm.....that's funny....

In 2002, Ben Barnes gave $10,000 to the GOP's own Carole Keeton Strayhorn's Texas campaign. (See that link again).

Oh---and by the way......

Carole Keeton Strayhorn is Scott McLellan's MOTHER!

James Carroll: The unwinnable war

The unwinnable war
By James Carroll

"..There is the single most troubling aspect of the war in Iraq. We launched it against the wicked Saddam Hussein, yet the majority of so-called "insurgents" against whom our forces are arrayed hated Hussein more than we did. We are killing people by the thousands who threaten absolutely nothing of ours....

...Even though the war on terrorism is indeed, as the president said, a "crusade," it has nothing real to do with Islam.....although Islam is surely its target. Not Islam as it actually exists in dozens of different settings and cultures across the globe, but an imagined Islam that exists only in the troubled minds of a people who project "evil" outward and then attack it. Alas, it is an old Christian habit.."

Please read this article.

Bush Service Questioned In 'Texans For Truth' Ad

Bush Service Questioned In 'Texans For Truth' Ad

A new group, Texans for Truth, are claiming that George W. Bush dodged his military responsibilities during the Vietnam war.

A timeline of Bush's National Guard service is here.

You can watch the group's new TV ad online.

There was an article about the group and its ad in USA Today.

Texans for Truth plans to spend $100,000 to $250,000 to run the ad for a week in closely contested states that are home to large numbers of families of U.S. troops killed in Iraq. Such states include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Oregon and Arizona.


If The Texans for Truth don't have enough information for a super-sleuth like you to read through, you always have the option of going to AWOLBush.com

At ChangeForAmerica, Adam Mordecai is a wee bit skeptical about what could have happened to all those records that the dog ate; or that were burned or wrecked; or just plain got lost or "don't exist".