
I used to live in New York City. I worked on Broadway for several years. I remember the World Trade Center towers very well. I was among the few who loved those structures.
Two weeks ago my husband and I spent 10 glorious days in New York City. We traveled to the Statue of Liberty, because he'd never seen it, as well as Ground Zero, a very moving experience for us both.
I've been on the web for over ten years, doing most of my writing for other sites, but I've had my site for a long time, though it existed in relative obscurity until I went to blogging one year ago. On the morning of September 12, 2001, at 1:30 a.m., I sat down to write "Pissed Off." Just days after the attacks on September 11, 2001, I wrote the the section below on my website. I offer it certainly not out of ego but to remind everyone, because many have forgotten, due to the lies and horrors we've experienced, that our nation was once united. I don't need to tell anyone that it is no longer.
It's also important to remember that amidst the Islamic religious rhetoric and all the genuflecting to their faith, when it comes down to it, the majority of these extremists are nothing but lustful murderers, with an insatiable appetite for flesh, dead or alive. Here's part of the post I wrote early on 9/12/01.
“America’s going to see blood. Wait until tomorrow.”
Some time on September 10th, two or three Muslim men walked into a bar in Daytona Beach, Florida, sat down and began drinking and carousing. Two of the men ran up bar tabs of around $48.00, one drinking vodka; the other drinking rum (according to Fouad Ajami of U.S. News & World Report, and John Hopkins University, speaking on Charlie Rose), though other reports have the figure at "hundreds of dollars." But they weren’t simply drinking in a local tavern. These Muslims were in a strip joint talking to a bartender who must have thought they were just a couple of drunken sleaze bags spouting nonsense. The boys also did a bit of pleasure seeking while they were at it, buying erotic joy rides from naked women. They must have felt like kids in a candy store, as the strippers gyrated over their bodies, undulating their breasts in their faces, giving the Muslims forbidden pleasures they'd never known before. But what the bartender who heard their words of terror (interviewed by NBC News on 9.13.01) never imagined, was that these three men drinking and getting off on naked women would turn out to be serious Islamic terrorists imparting a chilling prophecy.
1 World Trade Center stood 1,368 feet tall, and 2 World Trade Center stood 1,362 feet tall; they were erected 28 years ago; stood 110 stories high; had separate zip codes, and were facetiously named “David” and “Nelson,” after the Rockefellers. THE TOWERS symbolized so many things to New York City, our country and the world.
Architecture has always been the orphan art of the people, but now it stands as a powerful symbol of what separates civilization from those who would destroy the world. ...
(snip)
From a strip joint in Daytona Beach, Florida, intoxicated Muslim terrorists with naked women dancing in their heads emerged dreaming of destroying a nation; hoping to bring the wealthiest country in the world to its knees by destroying symbols of our culture, and killing thousands and thousands of its citizens in the process. The only thing these terrorists accomplished was to wake us up from a long, lazy sleep in which our liberties, blessings and our way of life had become something we take for granted. Those days are gone. ...
Rebuild the Towers (9.13.01)
It's fitting to mention ABC's warm up act last night to "Path to 9/11." It was an hour of Franklin Graham, the son and evangelical heir apparent to the famous preacher to many presidents, Billy Graham. It's hard to believe, but ABC out did Fox "News" channel last night. But there you have it.
Not long after 9/11, President Bush gave his sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington. You may not remember or want to recall, but the nation backed President Bush on those horrible days after Osama bin Laden leveled the World Trace Center towers, with very little divide between political parties. We were all simply Americans. The post infuriates me today. It is called "Making of a Man." Mind you, I never stopped wishing Al Gore was the man leading us, but after a national tragedy like 9/11 you are forced to fight the terrorists with the president you've got not the one you wish you had. Reading the post still incenses me, as it will you, but please be kind. I am such an idealist that amidst the rubble that was our country I so wanted to believe that George W. Bush could handle the job, would handle the job, would do what was required. Country came before politics in the aftermath of 9/11. America was wounded, with thousands dead, and so many unknowns to face.

Our president's moral collapse is now so utterly complete that looking back on "Making of a Man" sends my nerves into spasms, my rage rising. I was one of the people who wanted to believe we were in good hands. There were many of us out here, because we simply had to trust. George W. Bush was president and there wasn't a thing we could do about it. Three days after that post I wrote "Questioning Authority." Indeed.
What I hoped would be was not to come to pass. George W. Bush took another path, the one we should never have traveled and which he has promised to pass on to the next presidents, plural, which unfortunately doesn't just include Iraq, but the Middle East, Iran, North Korea, China, energy independence, healthcare, poverty, the people of the Gulf Coast, the middle class, the debt, our future, the Constitution of the United States of America, and our very republic.
On September 11, 2001 the nation actually breathed a sigh of relief that the grown ups were in charge.
God help us. We need a hail Mary.
Bush graphic via DailyKos
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Where are the mouse ears on our Mouse-In-Thief?
Toward making sure we never forget who these traitors are and what they are trying to do to us and our country –
I propose Photoshopping those mouse ears on each and every picture of each and every bushie and bushie enabler until they die, and then Photoshopping a special coffin to accommodate the mouse ears they wear in their graves.
Impeach and to the Hague!
Fitz! Where are you??
EPU’d
Don’t tread on me!
Sometimes I think about having to explain to my future grandchildren why George Bush made such a mess of things, why the Republicans seemed to be trying to destroy our country, and why so few people spoke up for what is right…
Worst. President. Ever.
Help get these bastards out of office and in jail - support the Donation Drive for Marcy Wheeler’s Book on the CIA Leak Investigation.
twolf1 @ 6
Hear! Hear!
Don’t feel too bad. I felt the same way. I was also stupidly suckered into thinking that Iraq had some nebulous connection to terrorists. It didn’t take long to figure that one out, though. Between 2003 and 2004, my views on politics and the world in general took a sharp turn to the left.
Since then, sites like this one have helped me realized that my newly clarified views are not “fringe”, but mainstream. Thank you all for participating in the community.
twolf1 @ 6
As soon as I get a snail-mail address and can get to an envelope. (The Paypal button still insists that I need to have an account before I can use plastic. WTF? It didn’t do that a month ago.)
Anne @ 5
One request, Anne. Could you change that to ” … and why so few Capitol Hill Democrats spoke up for what is right”?
Taylor, normally I’d read anything you recommend. Forgive me for not wanting to see “Making of a Man.” Betcha can guess why I don’t want to go there.
is it still too soon to ask the forbidden quesion, “why?”.
cuz i really think we all need to read robert pape’s “dying to win: the strategic logic of suicide terrorism“… it’s the only empirical study i’m aware of….
too soon? ok, i’ll try again next year.
motherlowman - You misunderstood me. I never at any time believed Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. I was against the invasion from the start and said so on my radio show at the time. However, since we had no other option, I did hope that Bush could handle the job. The rest is history.
Thanks, Tay.
Great posts.
OT- isn’t the Chafee/Laffey primary tomorrow? Anyone have any insights there?
If need be, you could post them on an old thread, like Cuppa so’s not to interupt the 9/11 thread.
It might have been made a little easier (not much) but perhaps a little if we had actually caught Bin Laden and shut down Al Qaeda.
Instead the killers who orchestrated 9/11 roam free in the mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile Bush is determined to keep the bulk of our military resources and the bulk of our treasury in Iraq.
Bin Laden’s planning his next attack and Bush is doing NOTHING about it.
Selise, it should have been asked and understood a long, long, long time ago, imo.
OT sort of - So they are actually taking a 20 minute break in PT9/11 for chimpy’s speech tonight. A break in the evening’s fiction for some fiction and fear.
Part of my freshly-EPU’s comment below:
You know, somebody else on my mind today is our pal Subway Serenade. Anybody have any late updates on him?
Cleanup on aisle 18? (can’t read well, either.)
Taylor at 11:53
motherlowman said she was “also stupidly suckered into thinking that Iraq…”
I read it that she thought the shrub would grow into the role and, in addition, believed the conflation of Iraq and 9/11.
the Troll-Zapper has already hit — now you hit F5 to reload your page …
Got it, T. Thanks, sorry for the confusion on my part.
While we were all spell-bound watching television beginning on the morning of 9/11 in 2001, how many bills were Republicans sliding and passing under the doors?
Quick Draw Mc*ilson — man, that was fast service!
lotus– I am wondering the same thing; hope he is ok. where is punaise?
Thanks Taylor for your posts today.
The people who perpetrated this have hijacked Islam and certainly do not represent the millions who practice the faith. They have done an enormous amount of harm to so many.
Is it because I was on the west coast that I don’t understand why there was any implicit trust on the left for the chimp after 9/11?
What fundamental change would any world-changing event ever have on a coked-out dry-drunk fratboy with room temperature IQ[*] who continuously failed upward?
Some people are capable of transcending themselves. Doing so requires a certain amount of self-introspection that a dry drunk is — by nature — not capable of performing.
Are eastern progressives collectively bad judges of character? The first coherent thought I had after the morning of 9/11 was ‘Iraq is toast’, though bin Laden had already been fingered. The next was to wonder what Bush’s true role in all this was.
What didn’t you see what I did? Is it that he’s a dry drunk, and you don’t understand that condition?
Is it that I come from a family originally of Kentucky conservatives, and therefore I can better spot movement conservative bullshit when I see it?
I’m really not trolling here; please help me understand so that we can fix the problem. The Publicans will continue to gin up this crap from now until they all die from terminal atrophied brain syndrome, so it’s clear the progressives need to develop better antibodies.
[*] I’m talking about the capacity for coming to logical conclusions given good data. ‘Emotional intelligence’ is so many words for ‘empathy,’ and on that scale the chimp absolutely scores a zero, despite Clinton’s fevered diplomacy on the subject.
angie @ 14
angie, i cut alot of slack for the people personally affected… but for the rest of us, i agree - and certainly i’d like to think our political and media elite should have done so by now…. and helped the rest of us understand. there is a price to be paid for our neoimperial ambitions. what politician has the moral courage to tell us this truth?
disclaimer - in no way do i think anything justifies mass murder (ours or theirs). but, i’d still like to understand - in order to make wise choices, if for no other reason.
1,260 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ JUST GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Taylor Marsh:
It is now clear to everyone (except perhaps the elected Democratic leadership)that we have experienced a full-blown fascist take-over of all of our institutions, including the entire federal court system. Furthermore, the current administration is, in my opinion, responsible for the attack on 9/11 with knowledge aforethought. And these folks are not gunna give up power thru some mundane election results.
The Democratic Party leadership and everyone of it’s candidates for office must shift up 2 gears to directly assault the political legitimacy and the patriotism of every Republican candidate for every office down ta dog-catcher.
The reason that we must start callin’ a spade a shovel and use the “f” word to tattoo to the forehead of every Republican is that the kind of fascism we face is unique, it is in fact a movement of corporate anarchy. That is, the existing fascist power structure has as it’s ultimate goal, the dismantling of all existing democratic political and legal institutions. In addition, the bankruptcy of the federal treasury and the collapse of the public economy will leave only the corporate axis intact with private mercenary armies paid for by the last drops of working and middleclass taxes.
This is it…this is the last gasp of our electoral system and , unfortunately, we don’t have a presidential race to project Al Gore out in front of an anti-fascist movement. So we must create an anti-fascist front out of the 50 state strategy and make it clear that the fascist enablers in the Democratic leadership will be replaced unless they let go of the resources that will allow the progressive movement to take power in the congress.
FDLers…let’s get to our local county and district Democratic Party meetings and contact the DNC state organizers directly (I have done both, and those folks are plenty happy to have reserve troops in local spots.)
KEEP THE FAITH AND SPEND YOUR MONEY ON PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES….YOU WON’T HAVE IT ANYWAY IF WE LOSE!!!
Punaise is on vacation for a month.
angie, punaise is on FDL sabbatical for a few weeks to do some woik. But if you ever spy a suspicious character calling himself “3sivund” ’round ‘ere . . .
ccmask @ 27
He is so Frenchly inclined !
thanks, ccmask!
‘There are no coincidences only the illusion of such’-V. Atta? Remember the number 43 in the millions to the Taliban from the Bush adm.? 43 million to produce the ‘Hackumentary” by its producers? How about the 430 lbs. of heroin seized at Fla airport while Atta was doin’ the strip clubs? Atta was KLA vet adept at ‘the business.’ Now back to the elections, six weeks to go.
OT wrt to Subway Serenade– I found an update from the 3rd of September:
http://howardempowered.blogspo.....-with.html
Disney/ABC: What NOT TO BUY (BOYCOTT) - Printable List
by Terre
Mon Sep 11, 2006 at 11:55:16 AM PDT
http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....145516/579
This is fact not intended as an I told anybody so. I never trusted that little mind G.W. Bush.
NEVER!
selise @ 11
Please don’t wait that long.
THANK YOU, angie! Whew, so glad to hear it was benign — now to pour on the SubSer Comeback vibes!
If most of the hijackers were flying under assumed names, how did the MSM get their pictures to print in the paper a week after the terra attack? Did they have passport photos of all passengers?
OT - Jeebus! Just read back a few threads. Again, I’ve read The Cell and anyone who thinks John Miller was responsible for The Path To 911 obviously hasn’t read it. It has no more to do with his book than it does the 911 Commission Report.
End of rant.
cc, I think they had driver’s license photos for some, passport photos for others.
Taylor and Eureka, as for my own feeling about Chimpy just after 9/11, it was Okay, here’s your chance to prove me wrong, Dubya.
But of course, he couldn’t.
I think my first thought after the towers collapsed was, who are they going to blame for this and who are they going to invade?
I wish my cynicism had been misplaced.
OT - Artist Banksy targets Disneyland
I suppose one of the ways you can divide humanity is as builders and destroyers. Many of us, maybe most, are builders in one sense or another. The ones who aren’t are, I suppose, the people who cause much of the trouble in the world. I remember seeing a tape, not long after 9/11, of some terrorists experimenting with some nerve gas on a dog. They put the creature in an isolated room, and turned on the gas to see how long it would require to take effect. That alone would be a rather cruel act, I suppose, but what struck me about the video was that these guys were laughing while this poor creature died painfully.
People who act that way are, in my non-professional opinion, nasty little sadists. They aren’t Muslims or Saudis, they’re just people who derive pleasure from hurting others. They don’t really belong in any society, but we all have them.
Who the hell writes like this? T
Check out the movie 9/11 - Press for Truth. About 1.5 hours.
http://video.google.com/videop.....mp;q=press for truth
I couldn’t write anything About September 11, 2001 on that day or the day after. A lot of joy discovering my sister was OK! But I began a piece of music about it soon afterward. This is a snippet from the program notes to the piece - a set for trombone and piano:
This three-movement work was written between mid-September and early October of 2001. My immediate responses to the awful impressions of September 11 and the following week were of despair. I had an overwhelming feeling that the world had changed irrevocably - not so much for me, as for my children. The sadness I felt and continue to feel for innocent people drawn into an immense web of hatred came out in this work, which I wrote carefully, but fairly quickly.
1. Red Recitative: The recurring images of collapsing buildings, smoke, injured and maimed emergency workers spurred this piece.
2. White/Black March: The images and statements of our National Security and National Defense apparatchiks strutting around in late September, seemed to be in stark contrast to the obviousness of their failure to rationally view our world. This march questions the sincerity of visible American leaders during that time. The theme of the march’s trio is an inversion of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
3. Blue Chorale: The chorale’s theme is taken from J. S. Bach’s “The Passion According to St. John.” “Er nahm alles wohl in Acht,” No. 56, reads:
He of ev’rything took heed In his hour of dying,
Caring for his mother’s need, On friends relying,
O Man, lead a righteous life, Love God and thy neighbor,
Death will bring an end to strife, Rest from care and labor.
My sadness was almost stifling as I realized in early October that hatred between Muslims, Jews and Christians was increasingly overshadowing the redemptive glimpses some had had over the preceding three weeks.
So I felt within days that the world had changed in a major way, that our political leaders were posing (Bush’s National Cathedral speech did make a positive impression, though. I’d like to hear it again), and that religious hatred would grow.
How sad it can sometimes be to be proven correct.
9/11 Commission Vice Chair: Path to 9/11 Is ‘Not Good For the Country’
Gross and Perverted,
Obsessed and Deranged,
Vile and Pernicious,
Nefarious and Strange,
When you say Republican, you’ve said it all….
(Thanks FZ!)
You’re right, lotus, he confirmed our worst fears. By the way, I understand completely about “Making,” believe me. I offered it transparently to show just where we’ve all come. The right likes to think we’ve always had some sort of blind hatred or rage for George W. Bush. They never consider that he’s earned our disrespect over time.
lotus @ 10
Why should we let Republicans off the hook for not speaking up?
selise @ 11
Selise, that Tuesday morning my husband and I were getting ready to go to the funeral home for the family viewing of his mother. We had driven to Michigan on Saturday after his brother had called to say Mom had had a massive stroke. As eldest son, my husband had given the instructions to unplug his mom’s life support. Our son had flown in from Philly and we were all there in my mother-in-law’s house. My husband’s aunt called to ask us if we were watching TV. We said, no, why would we be, and she told us we’d better turn it on. We did, just in time to see the second plane hit.
My husband couldn’t believe it, “Why would they hit the World Trade Center?” Our son replied, “Well, Dad, it *is* the World Trade Center.”
Oh, yeah.
HotFlash @ 47
wow
selise — your question may be the most timely and important.
Unlike others here, many of whom lost friends/acquaintences/family on 9/11, my reaction was a sense that we were about to lose our ability to think clearly without hatred. My first reaction was, “we’re about to become Israel and Palestine, and we will become lost in an endless cycle of revenge and counter-revenge, with no way out, and it doesn’t matter which side we think we’re on, because we will not be able to see that our first, most powerful instinct will be our worst.”
In the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, the side you think most justified in its actions depends on which event you think is the start of history. For Americans, too much of our thinking begins on 9/11 or some similar event in which we were attacked. And in this we’re not different from others; it is always hard for any people to view their own sense of justification and history in any other way, but almost impossible for the other side to see it the way we do.
9/11 rememberances are inevitable, but I’m afraid they’re only helpful if we try to view it from another’s perspective. If we as “outsiders” can see that the Israelis and Palestinians must speak with each other to escape the cycle of violence, why cannot we see that we also have to speak with those we perceive as nothing but evil (and who see us exactly the same way).
And if someone has a better plan for how humanity gets out this endless cycle, I’d like to hear it, cause so far, the conventional wisdom is not working.
My 5 minutes of observation today was spent with Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’sHallelujiah (those of you with young’uns will know it from Shrek), tears streaming.
I must say, the day of …was the first time in over 20 years I wanted to go to a church. I restrained myself, however, not wanting to hear platitudes and attitude from anyone. I’d rather sit with beautiful music, so I went to a chorale concert and cried for days.
Anyone post the ratings yet?
HotFlash @ 47
Out of the mouths of babes.
Clenching my teeth, live on CNN of ceremony at the Pentagon with Bushs, playing America The Beautiful.
With all the deification of Guiliani happening right now, do you think the quote about how in the midst of all that turmoil and dispair of September 11, Guiliani had the “presence” of mind to stop and think “Thank God George Bush is our president” will come back to haunt him.
I hope it bites him on the ass. Hard.
Shez @ 55
I couldn’t watch.
Until ten years ago, I worked in NYC on an a part time basis. I spent a lot of time walking around the city and passed by the World Trade Center many times. I’m one of those who thought, at least when viewing them from a distance, that they were ugly modern buildings completely out of scale with the surrounding towers. But what I learned by walking close to them is that they were the most sublime and powerful buildings I’ve ever seen. To stand between those two tall structures, which were set on edge to each other, and look up as they soared into the sky would give me goose bumps. I miss them.
op99 @ 12:40 pm (#54) Anyone post the ratings yet?
It’s the first time I’ve seen them, thanks. Looks like America was smart enough to prefer football and cartoons over political propoganda.
Taylor:
Thanks for this post. One phrase in particular got me thinking, viz.:
You’re so right, that we have forgotten. There was a country song that asked “Have You Forgotten?” trying to shame people into supporting the war, using the memory of 9/11. Here’s my response to the Darryl Worleys and Geo. Bushes:
Here’s the thing about being a lone superpower: nobody can defeat us but us. If we forget what we are, then we shall have kicked our own ass.
I don’t know what infuriates me the most about this administrations actions the most. High on the list however is the way GWB has trampled our nation’s honor into the mud. His refusal to seriously pursue OBL is just one example. God, why don’t we just buy him a T-shirt that says My group attacked America and all I got was away with it.
The very first thought I had when I had heard about the attack was “I wish we had a different president”. But at the time, I only thought he was an imbecile.
I suppose the second photo with the article has been touched up. I couldn’t imagine anyone with sense or sense of pride in his country walking over an image of the flag.
twolf1, me either. I heard the strains of the song and glanced over to read the caption and then saw what it was, had to jerk my head away in disgust. All I can see is that idiot stepping on the flag rug anyways. Blech, brain bleach and 20 mule team borax needed.
morlock @ 12:46 pm (#58) - I think that sums it up pretty well. They really looked out of place where they were - they should either have been among similar buildings or standing alone. The WTC complex also broke up traffic patterns in the vicinity. Considered on their own, though, they were beautiful buildings.
Thinkprogress: To mark the five-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, ThinkProgress has created a comprehensive timeline documenting the key events since September 11, 2001. Our timeline charts five threads:
The 9/11 Timeline
Robert Scheer has a post up at HuffPo:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....29174.html
ET, is that work available for download? I’d love to hear it.
Taylor at 48, yepper.
Redshift, in my book, the Republicans are on such a hook as they’ll never wriggle off.
On target, Bri Guy.
As for “Path to 9/11,” Cujo359, I can’t believe there is more of it to watch. It was hard to decide the worst moment. Was it when they showed the Washington Monument right after Bill’s “I didn’t have sex…” appearance, or when al Qaeda was jumping through fire hoops like trained poodles? Hard to say.
scarecrow @ 49
scarecrow -
thank you for your words - filled with wisdom and compassion as always.
i don’t have a better plan… but i do have hope, that together we can find one. maybe even, or especially, in the remembrances of this day… because september 11 is a day of anniversaries - 5 years ago was a day of sorrow for us, and 33 years ago was a day of sorrow for the people of chile, but, let’s go back further… let’s go back 100 years.
100 years ago today - on september 11, 1906 - the modern nonviolent movement, ghandi’s satyagraha, began.
9/11 is irrelevent to just about everything going on today. It killed a bunch of people and made a big hole. Clusterfuck used it as an excuse to invade Iraq- something that he badly wanted to do for entirely unrelated reasons.
The point of invading Iraq was to get some oil and to show the third world that we wouldn’t put up with any of their shit- if they became troublesome- the only world superpower would blow em away in a few days- set up a democracy- and go on to the next cake walk without ever breathing hard or breaking a sweat.
Unfortunately, we had a Clusterfuck for a president- so we now have a big hole- AND Iraq. Hint- Iraq is MUCH worse than the big hole.
A very interesting article/excerpt from Foreign Affairs on the “terrorist” threat - and thus also its attempted use as political catnip.
Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?
THE TOWERS symbolized so many things to New York City, our country and the world.
Greed corruption arrogance the destruction of the many for the enrichment and aggrandizment of the few.
selise — interesting; I never knew that history. Maybe we should all march to DC, to the shores of the Potomac to pour salt on the gears of this government, or . . . You know the question I’m trying to answer.
ten primaries scheduled for tomorrow. Big day- kicks off the election season.
OT From Haaretz, Knesset member Effi Eitam, who heads the Religious Zionism faction of the right-wing National Union-National Religious Party
Left wing members called for him to be investigated for incitement to racism.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/761308.html
It is heartening to hear the condemnation for this kind of racist speech but my questions are there are more than a few Effi Eitams in the Knesset and on the Israeli political scene how exactly did they get elected and what is being done to remove them from their positions?
Great idea, scarecrow. I am going to sew myself a very plain muslin shift for that!
twolf1 @ 46
About freakin’ time.
Watching the CNN online replay of the live 9/11 feed, I’m seeing the crawl list country after country denouncing the barbarous attacks, pledging support and fellowship with the United States.
But Cheney knew better….
What a fucking shame.
What a fucking disaster.
rwcole @ 73
You know, if I were a Repug candidate [oh GOD, get the brain-bleach!], I’d be ruing that timing. I betcha that the main thought-thread in most American minds today is:
“Five years later, we still don’t have OBL. He’s still at large and we’re worse off. Why is that? Who’s to thank for that? Oh yeah . . .”
scarecrow @ 73
You want some more interesting history? On September 11, 1609 Henry Hudson was the first European to discover Manhattan Island.
(One may safely assume that the residents of the island who met him there had discovered it earlier than 1609, but that date is not known.)
Is it really any different from rascist statements (whether outright - Macaca; or in code - welfare queens), or fear-mongering by American elected officials or our own political system? We know what we are trying to do - unelect them. I presume it is pretty much the same in Israel - though in a parliamentary system.
The “people” I referred to in my comment were people of all kinds – not just people in government, not just Republicans – but ordinary people, regular citizens. Good grief, there are still way too many people who believe Saddam was connected to 9/11, people who still believe Iraq did have WMD. Democrats - on Capital Hill and elsewhere - had no more – and no less – responsibility to speak out than anyone else. Speaking out for truth and for your country is not a partisan thing, it is a patriotic thing, and there has been far too little patriotism and far too much partisanship for far too long.
I remember knowing very early on that we were going to war. I felt that it was entirely appropriate to go into Afghanistan, but it became clear that the administration was not going to limit its focus to Afghanistan. The more Bush said that all options were on the table, the more convinced I was that war in Iraq was their real end game. I didn’t believe there were WMD, I never saw Iraq as a threat to us, I never believed there was a connection to 9/11. I knew as soon as it looked like Saddam was cooperating that they would find some other reason why we still had to go to war. I knew when we withdrew the weapons inspectors before they could finish the job (report there was nothing to find), that we were going to war.
I harbor no animosity toward those soldiers and Marines who have fought and served with honor, for doing the job they were sent to do. My anger and my frustration is with the leadership that failed the men and women in their command, starting at the top.
Probably some day, when I have grandchildren, they will be very familiar with my library of books by real patriots, which will explain better than I can how George Bush and those in positions of power managed to put us at the edge of the abyss before love of country finally trumped love of power and the patriots were able to take back their country.
scarecrow - i know the question… and i’m still looking for answer(s).
Peterr - yeah, and Columbus discovered America. Riiiight…As Public Enemy said a long time ago that history is “his story” not the real story.
The Nefarious Leslie @ 77
I would say ‘a little late’.
Peterr @ 80
A perfect example of the importance of perspective. If “history” had been correctly written, it would have noted that on September 11, 1609, Henry Hudson discovered that someone else had already beaten him to Manhattan by several hundred [or thousand?] years.
EPU #81,
The problem is different in degree. Bad elected officials and racism exist in both societies but there have been few bald faced racists as extreme as Eitam in our politics since the 1950s.
Reflecting on Pt911’s dismal ratings…will the right-wing nutjobs finally understand that Americans just aren’t in the mood for their bullshit? Well, probably not but it is gratifying that Disney/ABC took a ratings dive on their $40 million investment.
And wouldn’t I be pleased if even fewer people watch tonight when the Clusterfuck in Chief is scheduled to appear in the middle of Pt911?
And on further relection, why in the world would anybody watch the 2nd half, anyway? We all know how it ends.
You should check out Digby’s comments on The Path to 9/11
http://haloscan.com/tb/digby/115799976105555524
I guess it was really craptastick, but I wouldn’t know, I avoided it.
I just did my part for our side.
I just voted.
Mail in, ALL DEMOCRAT.
Josh Marshall lays down the word:
(emphasis mine)
Read the rest. It’s good. And should be sent to every Democrat and Democratic challenger in the country. A few of them are already doing this, but not nearly enough.
mc @ 88
The ratings will really tank tonight, IMO. It was THAT bad
Hugh @ 87
I don’t see a large distinction between the comments you cited and many coming from our current Congress when they talk about what should be done with “illegal” immigrants. I’d like to believe we’re making progress, but evidence keeps fighting me.
I didn’t realize Bush knew about the 1st tower, BEFORE he went into the school on 911, I don’t care what anyone says Clinton would have been on the plane within minutes on his way to Washington, or New York, may God forgive him America never will.
Cozumel @ 92
There are also 2 Monday Night Football games on. PT9/11 will be pausing for chimpy to flap his disingenuous jaw
Hugh @
75
hugh,
and do we have no racists in office in this country? how did ours get in office? and oblique or coded language doesn’t mean much does it?
Yes, Anne, when it became clear — within just days, it seemed even then — that BushCo’s attention was pivoting away from Afghanistan to Saddam, my blood ran cold. It was the first great sign of their stupidity, and nothing they’ve done since, foreign or domestic, has failed to be stupid.
And of course you’re right: Republicans are as duty-bound as the rest of us to be patriotic. But the hidebound Bush-clingers among ‘em (like Clydeene the other day) are somehow so clearly defective that I almost excuse them from that duty, as the law does in cases of NGI.*
Dunces will always number among us. I just hope and pray this is the last time one of them reaches the Presidency.
* Not Guilty by reason of insanity [or mental defect].
In that photo, it looks like chimpy is sizing up the firefighter to steal himself a kiss.
Hoping he might get some bravery or something through osmosis.
new thread
Buy ya a drank, Busted? Whaddle ya have?