September 11, 2001

The Democrats, angry at 5 years of Republican lies, scandlas and failure since 9/11, are coming out swinging, making national security a prime issue. Here is Howard Dean's most recent fundraising letter for the DNC:

You can't trust Republicans on national security -- and two things proved it yesterday:

1) In a powerful interview that aired yesterday, President Bill Clinton took on the extremist Republican propaganda about 9/11 -- and Fox News tried to cover up the fact that the Bush administration downgraded terrorism as a priority before September 11th and has failed to eliminate Osama bin Laden since the attacks.

2) An explosive report on the still-classified National Intelligence Estimate states that the "invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks" -- and Republicans have been trying to cover it up.

This is what we're fighting against every day -- an administration covering up of the Bush failure of 9/11 and covering up an honest look at the war in Iraq and the war on terror.

You know that Democrats have a real plan for destroying Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, fixing the mess in Iraq, and really securing us at home.

The regional French newspaper, L'est Republicain has published a report from the DGSE (France's intelligence agency), claiming Saudi intelligence have reason to believe Osama died of typhoid. Of course, Jacques Chirac scrambled to disallow the report ( he says other agencies have not been able to corroborate the Saudi sources ) and the pile on of disallowals and denials were echoed in Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and the US.

'No evidence' of Bin Laden death

Is Bin Laden Dead?

Why death rumours dog Laden?

France to probe bin Laden memo

Officials Doubt Report Of Bin Laden's Death

Bin Laden may feel lure to disprove his "death"

When 51% of the US population believe the war was wrong and 3,000 Iraqis demand the return of Saddam Hussein, what will happen to Bush's warmongering if Osama is indeed dead?

[Karen Bradley, a co-founder of The Democracy Cell Project and well-known advocate of individual grassroots activism, is deeply embedded in Ground Zero at Camp Democracy in Washington this month. I'm taking the liberty of reposting today's report from Karen here on CultureKitchen because her message is an eloquent reminder of some critical but oft-missed points about the power of progressive peacefulness.]

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100, 10, 5 YEARS LATER
by Karen Bradley, democracycellproject.net

Today looks to be gloomy and chilly in our nation's capitol and that works just fine.

Despite the beauty of the Camp Democracy location, with stunning views of both the Capitol and the Washington Monument, we cannot help but be reminded, throughout each day, of the outrages being committed at both ends of the Mall. I often feel squeezed and anxious, choked between splendor and the dream of justice, and the harshest of realities: the knowledge that nothing seems to work.

The past week has been an ongoing unfolding of where we are as peace and justice activists, and the view is sobering. We have had moments of tremendous inspiration and purpose (the press event yesterday morning with the young Iraq vets was deeply moving, mostly because truth to power seems to choke a lot of us up), and moments of shaking our heads, wondering how we can ever get to a place where speaking truth to power will affect more than those few actually speaking.

This was first published at c u l t u r e k i t c h e n:
today was like any other day.

it was a beautiful day, just as it was two years ago. blue sky, gentle breeze.

the kids were romping and jumping. we took time to play, time to read and time to learn. the house was a mess, we were running low on groceries, and the kids were getting antsy. so we picked up a bit, i left the kids in the playground with our neighbors while i went to the store.

it has been just a day like any other day. still, evan asked:

"are they coming back?"
"is the empire state building still sad?"

this day, two years ago, i was feeling a bit tired, a bit disoriented and, well, a bit lazy. september 10, 2001 marked out first day of homeschooling. i had this great week planned out for our official first week. i had decided not to go to the observatory, just to keep things simple, and just go to the empire state building because it was closer to us.

the "observatory" was the top of world trade center #2.

this year, two years ago, we heard a loud boom. not a sonic boom, but a boom louder than the one a truck would make after hitting a pothole. i thought "that must have been one helluva big truck".

minutes later our baby-sitter walks in and says, did you notice one of the towers is on fire? although we are on a tall building in the east village, we face north. i had to go up to the roof to check it out. i did and came back and we put the tv on. and as the news anchors are trying to make sense of the information being fed to them and the image that was on the screen, the second plane hit. all us saw it, even my kids.

I don't know about you, but I am damned sick of the right wing nuts exploiting 9/11 for their own benefit. This year they plan to do it again and ABC is hosting it. From Truthout:

Clinton, 9/11 and the Facts
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 30 August 2006

The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks is less than two weeks away...ABC intends to mark the occasion in far more grand a fashion. Starting September 10th and ending September 11th, the network will show a miniseries titled "The Path to 9/11." According to reports from early screenings, the writer/producer of the miniseries, Cyrus Nowrasteh, has crafted a television polemic intended to blame the entire event on President Clinton.

Nowrasteh, an outspoken conservative...spoke last year at the Liberty Film Festival, described by its founders as Hollywood's first conservative film festival. Govindini Murty, actress, writer, and co-director of the Liberty Film Festival, wrote a review of "The Path to 9/11" for the right-wing online news page FrontPageMag.com.

In the review, Murty states, "'The Path to 9/11' is one of the best, most intelligent, most pro-American miniseries I've ever seen on TV, and conservatives should support it and promote it as vigorously as possible. This is the first Hollywood production I've seen that honestly depicts how the Clinton administration repeatedly bungled the capture of Osama bin Laden."

From New Democratic Majority.

Ann Coulter is one of the favorite spokespeople of the Republican Party, having appeared, among other venues, at CPAC, the annual rightist conference in Washington; in that particular instance, she spoke right after Dick Cheney.

So it's entirely fair to assume that Coulter speaks for the Republican Party, and that her views represent those of the party.

So does the Republican Party support her statement on the 9/11 widows "These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazis. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much."?

Not a single Other than Pataki, no Republican elected official in New York State has publicly said a word about Coulter's vicious attacks on the 9/11 widows. Silence, in this case, implies consent.

We suggest that all New Yorkers who live in Republican districts get on the phone and ask what their representative has to say about Coulter's statements. Contact info is after the break.

I know she shouldn't be given any publicity whatsoever, but Ann Coulter's most recent oeuvre - "Godless: the church of liberalism" - is just too good an example of how the right hates everything that is decent and good in this country to simply pass on by.

In particular, I'd direct your attention to a this excerpt of her book, from an exchange she had with Matt Lauer this morning, as quoted on her Amazon page.

LAUER: On the 9-11 widows, and in particular a group that had been critical of the administration:

" These self-obsessed women seem genuinely unaware that 9-11 was an attack on our nation and acted like as if the terrorist attack only happened to them. They believe the entire country was required to marinate in their exquisite personal agony. Apparently, denouncing bush was part of the closure process."

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazis. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's death so much."

Coulter is, in all fairness and objectivity, a hateful shrew. She thrives on publicity, even if that involves mocking widows. Perhaps especially if it involves mocking widows.

That's why I strongly suggest to interested New Yorkers that they go to her Amazon page and write a few notes on her book; Amazon has a nifty feature that allows you to write such reviews. The page is here.

On 9/11/2001 the consequences of ignoring the threat of al-Qaeda was driven home dramatically. America, NYC in particular, had the lesson slammed home on that day. President Clinton had warned us, Bush included, that al-Qaeda was the threat to watch. His warnings were ignored. We paid the price on 9/11.

But has the lesson been learned? Did the Bush administration realize that its agenda had to focus on defeating al-Qaeda? At first it seemed that they had. The invasion of Afghanistan and the toppling of the al-Qaeda-allied Taliban was clearly the right first step. I was heartened when Bush took that first step.

But then came Tora Bora. Bush abandoned the War Against Terrorism, pulled out a large chunk of our troops and let Osama bin Laden get away. Why? To invade Iraq, a nation that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11. Bush let his attention wander from the war against those who attacked NYC and America. Bush dropped the ball.

As I have written recently, and perhaps at too great a length, that decision by Bush to abandon the real war in favor of his directionless war on Iraq has allowed al-Qaeda and the Taliban not only to regroup, but to expand. They are stronger than ever by our own admission. Bush dropped the ball and the enemy that attacked NYC and America is stronger than ever. Bush is losing the War Against Terrorism, just as he is losing his directionless war against Iraq, "Mission Accomplished" not withstanding. In fact, the Iraqis are taking Bush up on his offer and are "Bringing it on." And now we have even given al-Qaeda its long-desired foothold in Iraq.

A day in infamy, indeed. It's been three years since the first "Shock and Awe" carpet bombing of Iraq under the current president.

What does Bush have to say? Taking his father's chant to political alienation, "Don't worry. Be happy."

Problem is, more than half the country is very, very unhappy.

[via CNN.com - Bush: Iraq center of war on terror - Mar 20, 2006]:

"The situation in Iraq is still tense, and we're still seeing acts of sectarian violence and reprisal," Bush said in Washington. "Yet out of this crisis, we've also seen signs of a hopeful future."

While the president is upbeat about Iraq, a recent CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll indicates Americans are more pessimistic about the war and where Iraq is headed.

In the survey, 41 percent of respondents said the prospect of a U.S. victory is unlikely or certain not to happen. In a 2003 poll, 1 percent was sure of a U.S. defeat, with 3 percent saying a U.S. victory was unlikely.

Most of the people questioned March 10 to 12 -- 55 percent -- thought Iraq was headed for civil war, while 40 percent said the country could emerge with a stable government.