Eleven years after the attacks on 9-11 and the subsequent Ground Zero volunteer cleanup that left thousands sickened, the federal government finally added cancer to the list of illnesses linked to the attacks.

Today is the day in our quadrennial orgy of political campaigning where the two sides lay down their arms and grow silent in commemoration of 9/11. Ads get pulled, candidates lay wreaths, the military gets praised. Therefore, it took serious guts for the New York Times to publish an op-ed from Kurt Eichenwald, based on his reporting for a book called “500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars,” which shows the extent to which the Bush Administration simply ignored warnings about an impending attack from Al Qaeda.

Last night with his speech at the Democratic National Convention Bill Clinton reminded everyone why he has been such a successful politician. While his speech was long and rambling at a few moments, it was well delivered. He probably did the best job he could trying to sell the difficult arguments the Obama team is making; although the economy is still bad, it is better and will continue to get better with four more years.

I’ve already made myself clear about our glorious post-fact universe, and I don’t really think these examples of the traditional media supposedly meeting their obligations relative to Paul Ryan’s convention speech fit the bill. These examples come from the segregated “fact-check” organizations and the opinion pages of the large newspapers and media outlets. The facts are shunted off to the side, separated from the “news,” which is a calm regurgitation of what happened, ripped from context and perspective.

Citizens of any country who hear a high-ranking US official discuss plans to help their country “meet the aspirations of its citizens” and “counter violent extremism that threatens our shared security” should be frightened. Look at Iraq. Two scholars for Al Jazeera English write, “Saddam Hussein’s removal from power by the United States and others resulted in a protracted conflict that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, massive migration, and widespread sectarian violence. Even now, Iraq is hardly a model of stability.”

It really can’t be overstated what a massive political shift has taken place regarding views on marriage equality in less than a decade. There is probably no better symbol of how huge this shift has been than how the issue of same-sex marriage was dealt with on the ballot in 2004 compared to expectations for this November.

One problem with talking about the “Bush tax cuts” is that they incorporate much more than just the individual income tax marginal rates. Among other things, you have the changes to the estate tax. And so today, House Democrats plan to introduce an estate tax measure that would freeze the tax at 2009 levels.

On the release of his book, full of economy advice on how to achieve a recovery from the catastrophe he presided over, former President George W. Bush remembers how wonderful it was — for him — during those eight years. What a guy. Let’s have a beer.

Whenever you listen to a Republican politician, be it, say, Eric Cantor, Joe Walsh, or Chris Christie, it’s natural to wonder how, in Heaven’s name, they manage to reproduce; could anyone, even their mothers, love them? The sneering insults, serial fabrications, loathsome arrogance, pig-headed stupidity, and utter lack of empathy or self-awareness would be stunning and repellent to behold individually, yet most of them are mountainous, steaming piles of all these traits, put together. In fact, those who fail to embody every possible obnoxious personality defect under the sun, and then some, are doomed to be dismissed by their base as closet liberals.

Or worse.

A new trove of Clinton and Bush-era documents from the CIA have been released to the National Security Archive, and they show that the CIA had a bead on Osama bin Laden a year before 9/11, but did not receive adequate funding from the Bush White House in the early months of his first term to pursue him. In fact, they had to stop monitoring him.