101 Comments

1. Doug:

9-11 call

ht – Deuce

Sep 11, 2008 - 6:31 am 2. programmer:

On that day, when I first heard, and saw, I set for a while, numb with disbelief, then slowly more and more livid with anger. I called the local Army recruiter and asked if there were any way I could reactivate my commission and return to active duty. He asked for my age, and a few other pertinent facts, then kindly suggested that perhaps I should let younger men and women carry the burden on this one. He mentioned that he had been swamped with calls from many veterans who also wanted to don once again their war gear and take the war and their anger to the enemy. He thanked me for my call and asked that I support the troops where possible.

The recruiter was right. The younger men and women of our military have carried the burden well and are continuing to do so. We, as a country, have dealt death and destruction to our enemy. We have extended help and friendship to those who wish to work with us in stamping out the festering evil of a death cult. We are not done yet. Perhaps we never will be done fighting evil, for evil seems to be always present, but if God is willing and the creeks don’t rise, we will chase it back into the corners and cracks of the world to the dark, dank places where it whimpers and gibbers in the cold darkness. But we should never, ever forget that eternal vigilance is the price of security.

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:07 am 3. Doug:

God Bless America
Ray Charles
This was one of the first Tributes Posted.
(I’m also looking for a longer one [20 min] that had Abba Music background)

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:14 am 4. Mark:

Please indulge a literary observation on 9-11.

New York City is a literary town, as any reader of the ‘New Yorker’ knows. Two summers ago presented a peculiar scene. During the late July lull there were at least four ‘Beowulf’ productions/readings (based on the magnificent epic Old English poem, which has little relation to the movie abominations).

Although none of the arts reviews probed into this phenonemon of readings, opera, and adaptations, an onlooker could easily discern local literary imaginations instinctively reaching back to a narrative of aspiration, conflict, doomed buildings, heroic engagement with evil, second attacks, and, looming always in the future, the eventual destruction of the shining hall Heorot and the eventual destruction of Beowulf’s kingdom by the fire-breathing dragon.

“Heorot (’The Hart’) he (Hrothgar) named it
whose message had might in many a land.
Not reckless of promise, the rings he dealt,
treasure at banquet: there towered the hall,
high, gabled wide, the hot surge waiting
of furious flame.

“Nor far was that day
when father and son-in-law stood in feud
for warfare and hatred that woke again.
With envy and anger an evil spirit
endured the dole in his dark abode . . . .”

On this day of remembrance, one would find no small profit in revisiting this great elegy on heroic encounter with human failings and monstrous evil, always aware of more evil and destruction looming in the future.

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:16 am 5. Fletcher Christian:

I and others have quoted Aragorn’s speech (which wasn’t in the book) in Return of the King. Not bad, and appropriate in context. But perhaps another speech by another king, this time one straight from the book, might give the neck-choppers pause if quoted by someone with authority:

“Arise, arise Riders of Theoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!”

Not much ambiguity in that one. I have also heard suggested that the USA change its anthem to the Battle Hymn; which would be an equally powerful message. Perhaps, also, the jihadis should be reminded of another little speech, this time a real one, from Oppenheimer:

“If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One… I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds.”

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:47 am 6. Brock:

You’re too cryptic today Richard, even for me. Your post hints, but I am not clear how to take the meaning.

Today I will just remember, and so renew my resolve. Never forget; not to wallow in self pity to feed the fires of rage, but simply to remember why we must act, where we must go, and what we must do. Never forget the reasons for vigilance.

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:52 am 7. Doug:

– Alan Jackson – Where Were You –

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:52 am 8. Jamie Irons:

Wretchard,

Thank you for your guidance these past years through the bewildering political landscape we inhabit. Your moral compass, your compassion, and your visionary understanding have never faltered.

Jamie Irons

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:07 am 9. wretchard:

Today I will just remember, and so renew my resolve.

We are all that they have now. The ghosts. Not just our vengeance, but our love. Not just our our justice but our mercy. Till the shadows end and we meet again. At the dawning of the day.

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:23 am 10. Jay:

On that day I was waiting for my friend to pick me up at the simple motel that I stay in 30 miles south of Brisbane, AU. He called me an told me about the attack and asked if we should be in to work in his office at the University of Queensland. I told him that the US is a strong country and we should go and do our research work. I had over a week before I was to return and so I did not get stuck when the flights to and from the US were canceled.

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:29 am 11. hyperborealis:

“Those who waited” – the Jihadis, hoping their act by its sheer magnitude would evoke heaven’s response. The Sword, the Writ, the Call, all those Sacred things capital S the Jihadis say they believe in. In reponse, the ordinary world, G-d’s blessing and purpose since the creation, the ordinary time that washes away human plans, and the infinite value of ordinary human life (the empty shoe), that sets to less than nothing the evil done against it.

If we also waited for a divine sign, we too were disappointed, unless we understood the ordinary dawn to be the sign, the ordinary day to be the chance for ordinary people to find justice, and to dispel the darkness.

We have the world we make. And everything we see, say, do, and hear is the mirror of our souls.

David Joslin

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:33 am 12. Lifeofthemind:

It was Primary Election day. I was one of the election inspectors at a High School in Queens when a cop said to me “My God it is real, we are under attack.” For the first time in American history we stopped an election. I had been doing Red Cross for a while already so I headed in to headquarters and got there after noon. 10,000 volunteers were lined up at the building, the old HQ since gone behind Lincoln Center, the head of Youth Services, a mountain of a man named John Royce, since passed away, organized the volunteers. That day I ran supplies down to the scene. Never to forget, advancing into the cloud below Canal street, the smell, the heat you could feel over a block away. Saw the staff waiting outside the hospital a block away, waiting for the survivors who weren’t coming, the nurses crying. The Next day I was on the gov’t liason office team at the temporary Office of Emergency Management HQ at the Police Academy after WTC 7 collapsed, every few minutes someone would yell over the noise “Is anyone from the Medical Examiner here?” or “Is anyone from the morgue here?”. Then I was the local liason to the National Red Cross team that came to do the Damage Assesment. We inspected lower Manhattan pretty thoroughly and concluded that it was damaged. Next few days did mass care at the respite in front of the Columbus school. Checked for people who hadn’t evacuated, Superintedants tipped us off. Found the Wall Street Hotel up and running to serve rescue workers.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:16 am 13. Dave:

A retired pilot friend woke me up and told me what had happened. I called in to be sure my place was open and went right ahead to work for United Reservations.

Spent the next few to several days trying to
straighten things out as best I could.

Remember how proud I and other employees were to learn how Flight 93 had fought back. We deduced that before it was official.

Then days later, the Man From Midland made his speech saying that we were going to fight. That was a prayer answered.

This is going to be a long one. But we did get off to a good start, then floundered around, then got straight. Now, do we continue to victory? That is THE question.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:33 am 14. Tomorrowist:

What strikes me, in retrospect, is that we have not had any incidents since the anthrax mailings almost seven years ago. No more Cole bombings, no more Khobar towers. No Murrah Office building. Dare I say no Ruby Ridge or Waco?

The Bush administration is to be commended.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:40 am 15. Eggplant:

Many of the moonbats would have us believe that 9/11 was America’s fault or a US government conspiracy. The worst of the moonbats propagate the vicious slander that 9/11 was a Jewish conspiracy.

We need to remember that the war started by 9/11 is not only against the Islamic Fascists but also against American and European moonbats.

Our soldiers defeat the Islamic Fascists by killing them in battle or sending them to prison.

We defeat the moonbats by proving them wrong on the Internet or in the voting booth.

We seem to be winning against the Islamic Fascists but I have concerns about the other enemy.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:48 am 16. Pascal:

Yes Eggplant. The convergence of the death cults continues.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:55 am 17. Stan:

Can’t let this day go by… we Americans are so susceptible to distraction.

1) The World is a dangerous place and the Euros that were saying “we’re all Americans now…” were happy to promise lots and deliver little (Afghan commitments were tiny and the French wouldn’t even meet those… Oil for Food program and sanctions on Iraq were cynically bypassed for years and plans for holding Saddam to his treaty commitments were knobbled all along the way…).

2) So, remember: talk is cheap and signalling that use of force is so remote as too cease to be a realistic factor (as Dem foreign policy constructs are indicating) expect the rest of the world to ignore American interests and react to real “carrots and sticks” as France and Spain have over the last decade.

3) Our leaders need our support to be steadfast in the face of these realities and to credibly assert that the “steel fist” will be (or continue to be) used if necessary.

4) Our warriors need to be supported – Soldiers Angels, USO and in every day contact – they bear so much of our burden we OWE them this.

5) Being active and engaged in these issues is our service – contact our leaders, engage those around us in discussion – share your thoughts and listen to theirs (too often actual engagement is missed as me talk past each other – listen first).

By and large the Belmont community is extremely well-informed and thoughtful – share this knowledge (and site).

Thank you, Wretchard, and to the rest of you too – keep fighting the good fight with knowledge, wisdom and persuasion.

-Stan

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:59 am 18. buddy larsen:

Re 911, and Afghanistan, don’t miss Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mullen speaking frankly to congress yesterday. Another 911 war, the one on the American economy, is today fighting a critical battle, to keep two gigantic financial institutions, Lehman Bros and Washington Mutual, from going belly up (and to box the compass with those two giants from investing and savings, insurance and brokerage have teetering giants AIG and Merrill Lynch) and thereby giving the lie to the maybe/maybe not (depending on you and your confidence) salvation of the Fan-Fred reorganization of a few days ago.

By way of interesting (and possibly nutjob) background, here’s another war declared off a terror attack –a 2004 article by that troubling Nyquist guy, saying that Putin went to war against USA because of Beslan –or at least here in 2004 said he did.

Jeez –Johnny Mac & Miss Sarah gonna have a LOT of work to do. Send ‘em a prayer on the wings of a dove –

Sep 11, 2008 - 10:13 am 19. NahnCee:

“If we also waited for a divine sign, we too were disappointed …”

I’ve always considered that Flight 93 was divine intervention. A whole bunch of little coincidence that led up to it being late enough for the news to get to the passengers, and then the passengers – unlike the other two planes – to get it together fast enough to affect the fate of that plane. If not for the hand of God diverting flight 93, we would have lost, at a minimum, Congress, and maximally, the White House.

The nation was on its knees that day. How much worse if the White House had also been vaporized (although Bush *was* in Florida).

Sep 11, 2008 - 11:59 am 20. trangbang68:

LOTM, I had the fleeting thought that day of signing up but of course it was out of the question.
My clearest memory was Friday night Sept. 14th, being at a high school football game and tears streaming down my face as they played the National Anthem. Two weeks later in a little church service in Southern Illinois, three girls sang a medley of “America the Beautiful”, “My Country Tis of Thee” and “God Bless America”. I was as moved all over again.
This is why we can’t elect Obama and the party of surrender. Too much is at stake.

Sep 11, 2008 - 12:36 pm 21. Storm-Rider:

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Thomas Jefferson

“As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.” Thomas Jefferson

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5435311044755464205&hl=en

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j2BUYMULxI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Finfidelsarecool%2Ecom%2F

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj-GkDJpr2Y&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmypetjawa%2Emu%2Enu%2F

Sep 11, 2008 - 1:33 pm 22. newtland:

How is it possible that the evil, so plainly visible that day and the days thereafter, could fade from view?

Unless, of course, the evil has more friends than we know.

The Sarah Squall seems to be the reaction to stumbling into the hive. Instructive, if not encouraging …

Sep 11, 2008 - 1:35 pm 23. OldSalt:

One of the major irritants I have about 9/11 is the defacto blackout on all newsreel coverage that day by the MSM. It’s a crime. American’s need to see the result of the failure of deterrence, of the failure of their government to adequately protect them by developing an adequate military, and by projecting power forward to any location that doubts American resolve (e.g. Georgia, for one example, Venezuela for a second example). All the “military power” in the world is useless and wasted if those holding the reigns have insufficient resolve or courage to deploy it, and deploy it sufficiently to “sell it” to the world.

Americans need to see the results of true American failure. They need to see American’s just normal and “ordinary” as themselves making the extra-ordinary decision forced upon them, i.e. to jump to their deaths from 100+ stories to avoid the suffering of burning to death. That was the choice that our politicians left them, when they failed to do their job. (I hold the Clinton Administration and their hold-overs, and the then-Democrat Senate for failing to approve nominations 9 months after the election, primarily responsible. However, there is certainly enough blame to go around, and to cover 20 years of “pretending” by both parties.)

I wish to GOD to see one of the networks grow gonads and put the entire 9/11 day of media coverage on the air. My God, the men going to war today weren’t even teenagers in some cases, and they deserve to know the full context of why the are going to war! However, the liberal MSM knows that the factual media coverage immediately begs the question of “why did it happen?”, “who could or should have prevented it?”, and truthful answers to those questions would be certain to impact the “future political viability” of some of the MSM “journalists” favorite politicians. And so, the blackout continues, even on the so-called “right wing” Fox. Not even profit moves their decisions; it’s an absolute blackout.

Sep 11, 2008 - 2:16 pm 24. Konyok:

I learned of the attacks as I was going to the airport in Spokane, Washington to fly home.
I sat in a hotel room for four days, watching planes fly into buildings in an endless loop. (They stopped showing the jumpers sometime the first night.) On the fourth day I realized that there would be no flight home anytime soon and I took a Greyhound journey through the sad American back roads of Idaho and Montana.
Blessed news blackout on the bus may have saved my sanity.
The enduring image for me is that every marquee in broken-down Butte whispered “God Bless America” from that shadowland between despair and hope.

Drink more Georgian wine.

Sep 11, 2008 - 2:24 pm 25. oMan:

I wonder how Jamie Gorelick, for one, can live with herself.

Sep 11, 2008 - 2:31 pm 26. Bob Murphy:

Dring more Georgian wine, Konyok?
Look at Spengler in the current Asia Times. He says basically there won’t be any Georgia or Ukraine by 2050 because they are both in demographic death spirals.
Why bother helping someone who can’t even pull it together enough to reproduce?
They have no future no matter what we do. And they won’t have enough young guys to have an Army in 40 years.

Sep 11, 2008 - 2:54 pm 27. Mongoose:

I actually drove by the WTC 4 minutes before the first plane struck. I was on the West Side Highway when the first one hit.

I remember every second of that week a vividly as if it just happened.

I must say that, sadly, a great many New Yorkers seem to have forgotten that week. This is truly puzzling, for NYC was in essence closed down for 10 days, and 911 impacted daily routine in Manhattan for at least a year.

It is a mark of our decadence that most of of the WTC site is still a hole on the ground.

911 is a spiritual wound that NYC still has not recovered from — a sort of “phantom limb”, yet many I know in the city will face this.

Sep 11, 2008 - 2:57 pm 28. Mongoose:

I meant “yet many I I know in the city will not face this”/

Sorry.

Sep 11, 2008 - 3:01 pm 29. Fletcher Christian:

Mongoose, perhaps the site should be left as a hole in the ground – lest we forget.

I remember, quite soon after 9/11, a comment from Jerry Pournelle about the appropriate response to that crime. The suggestion was that in every city where large percentages of the population gathered to celebrate, there should be created a monument; said monument to be roughly the same size as the disaster site, and to be created by the USAF. The monument itself? Simply a field of rubble, to be recreated every time it was built upon.

Sep 11, 2008 - 3:10 pm 30. Konyok:

Bob Murphy,

2050 is a long time from now. Al Gore tells me that melt waters will have drowned our liberal betters …

I doubt that I will be living then, should I stop eating or drinking Georgian wine? I think not.

Live in the now, drink more Georgian wine!

Sep 11, 2008 - 3:19 pm 31. Storm-Rider:

Juan Cole: “That original al-Qaeda has been defeated.”

No, the ideology of Totalitarian Islamic Government, i.e.: Totalitarian Sharia Law, has not died out. The tyranny of Totalitarian Islam, i.e.: Totalitarian Sharia Law will survive until Islam its self is either reformed or destroyed. Totalitarian Sharia Law has to go – it must be changed to a system as outlined in our Declaration of Independence – it must declare that all men (and women) are created equal before the law, and that just government power must derive through the consent of the governed.

Sep 11, 2008 - 3:21 pm 32. NahnCee:

“Mongoose, perhaps the site should be left as a hole in the ground – lest we forget.”

I don’t have a problem with that, if it’s labelled that that’s what it is. That the city of NY or whoever is in charge of the memorial has not gotten it together this far past that day itself to do ANYthing physical about a memorial is obscene. And everyone involved should be not only ashamed of themselves but actively trying to figure out what they’re going to tell St. Peter when it comes time to review their lives. Sometimes it’s just as big a sin to do nothing as it is to do the wrong thing.

But whether it’s a left a hole in the ground or becomes an awe-inspiring memorial, I sincerely think we should ban anyone who’s a Muslim from approaching within a block of the site. Muslims have not earned the right as human beings to be any place near the hole in the ground that they created by supporting their barbaric and backwards Religion of Pieces.

Sep 11, 2008 - 3:55 pm 33. Mongoose:

No, we should rebuild them; This would ring in memory.

A hole in the ground is forgetfulness, and in many more ways than one.

We should build them up, but higher. Build them with as ferocious a courage as we can muster.

This is the only fitting memorial.

And as for the weird, effete and effeminate plans for the site, they should be shunned. It is affront to the nation’s dignity (and an effront to our enemies).

As I said: A sure sign of decadence.

Sep 11, 2008 - 4:04 pm 34. KevinQC:

There is sobbing of the strong,
And a pall upon the land,

But the People in their weeping,
Bare the iron hand,

Beware the People weeping,
When they bare the iron hand.
~ Herman Melville

Sep 11, 2008 - 4:18 pm 35. RWE:

Soon after 9/11/01 I was struck by a remarkable contrast. The prior month David Horowitz had conducted a little experiment. He had taken out paid ads in a number of college newspapers attacking the concept of reparations for slavery. The main purpose of the experiment was to see how many college newspapers would actually carry the ads, but in those that it usually caused a furor. I especially recall that one student complained that the ad “hurt him really, really bad”; I compared that “really, really bad pain” to the sight of people jumping out of the WTC, choosing one form of death over another. What a contrast between worlds!

But the sight of that actual horrible pain did not stop the continued display of that contrast. In fact, it has continued and expanded in the years since. If you are able to tune in an Air America station you no doubt will be treated to a wail about how Bush and Cheny have “gone around the world collecting people and imprisoning them” and never mind that 66 years ago we did that on a far vaster scale – and it was considered then to be very humane. And listen to the “horrors” of the Patriot Act, in which Federal officials may actually be able to find out which library books you have checked out. Or the “horrors” of Abu Grabe. Or the ACLU’s valiant defense of your right to board a New York subway and not be searched; they had no problems with the security force being there, just that they not actually do anything. Or the possibility that foreigners might have their telephone conversations snooped upon. All these things “hurt people really, really bad” too. Or do we want to hear again about not enough WMD’s being found in Iraq to form a satisfactory quorum?

The most distressing thing about the Left is not just that they are contemptible, or vile, or objectively traitorous, but that they are so very petty. And they revel in this intellectual insignificance and have elevated this to something of an art form. They have learned nothing from the real horrors of 9/11/01, not even a sense of perspective.

Some people say that such pettiness is a sign that the Left are not serious people. But the fact that they are indeed serious about what could not be considered as serious from any reasonable perspective may be the worst part of their delusion.

Sep 11, 2008 - 4:35 pm 36. cjm:

9/11 was an inoculation.

was it our Cannae?

Sep 11, 2008 - 5:04 pm 37. newscaper:

“I wish to GOD to see one of the networks grow gonads and put the entire 9/11 day of media coverage on the air.”

This has bothered me for years. About the only halfway decent documentary is the national geographic one — but all of the bastards want to muck things up with talking heads and analysis and ‘context’ instead of just letting the shock of the even as it happened speak for itself. I think last year Fox News did show some of their broadcast footage uninterrupted.

The excuse is ’sensitivity’ but the real reason for sitting on all of that striking footgae is our presumed enlightened betters
in the MSM not wanting us lumpen proles to get pissed off by being reminded unequivocally about what happened.

The same sort of memory hole exists WRT all the excellent live coverage of the initial invasion of Iraq — don’t want us to have any pride in our troops and their amazing success because it might make for dreaded ‘jingoism’.

Sep 11, 2008 - 5:20 pm 38. Eggplant:

cjm asked:

“was it our Cannae?”

Depends upon context. Was it a brilliant victory for al Qaeda?

Yes, without a doubt.

Did the destruction of the WTC force us to reform our basic military approach towards Islamic Fascism?

Yes, without a doubt.

Did it mobilize the entire population against an existential enemy as in the case of Rome against Hannibal?

No way.

Sep 11, 2008 - 5:29 pm 39. trangbang68:

Juan Cole has clearly shown the utter lunacy of the left this week. Governor Palin is a dangerous fundamentalist, but Al Qaida aren’t.

Sep 11, 2008 - 5:50 pm 40. sigintel:

MSNBC rebroadcast several hours of the original “Today Show” live coverage of 9-11 “time sync’d” with EDST time today…very eerie to watch it. Katey Couric was the key commentator and she seemed very detached and unemotional. She first reported that it was the PLO but that Yasar Arafat was denying it. Right after that, they cut to correspondent Andrea Mitchell reporting from the State Department and she commented that Osama Bin Laden was a likely suspect. Then they cut to Jim Micelsevski(sp)who was live “in” the Pentagon when the plane hit saying that the “whole building shook” and that “it might have been a bomb.” At one point he said that “Rumsfeld was refusing to leave his office” even after security was evacuating everyone. It was somewhat haunting to be watching…and knowing what’s happened in the last seven short years. Almost like being in a time machine. I watched for a couple of hours and marveled at how well NBC actually covered it with live reports from the Pentagon, White House, Lower Manhattan and the President’s brief speech from the elementary school in Florida. When the first and second towers fell, the reporters were almost “non-plused” by it… maybe confused is a better description as all of lower Manhattan was covered in the smoke, dust and flying paper. I turned off the TV after a “live shot” of dozens of firefighters from NYFD,in all of their gear and air tanks on their backs, walking with purpose into that yellowish cloud of death. God Bless America !

Sep 11, 2008 - 6:39 pm 41. Aether:

The attacks on the twin towers, the tragedy of 9/11, and the intervening 7 years of warfare and political strife have taught me that there is NO action too contemptible, too vile, too traitorous, petty, mean or banal, for the hard core progressives to undertake, in order to undermine the Freedom, Democracy and the Constitution of the United States of America.

I’ve also learned that they are very serious, and that they have a perspective, which is the perspective of socialist, communists and fascists the world over, a perspective whereby they want to control every aspect of your life, up to and including your life, and they will take almost any action to destroy anything blocking their path to that goal.

I’ve learned that while the progressive elites are small in numbers they wield great power, given their infiltration of the education system, government bureaucracies, broadcast media, NGO’s and our Judiciary, and that they are using the methods of Gramisci and Alinsky to great effect to undermine our religions, cultural values, moral codes, legal system, education system, our financial system and even our rights to defend our borders and our homes.

I’ve learned that men like Juan Cole and Francis Fukuyama are very wrong, that while greatly reduced the Al-Qaeda and the Jihad are not yet defeated , the History of Communism has not yet ended, That there are plenty of Islamo-Fascist’s and crypto-communist that will be more than happy to kill and/or enslave us.

The 7 year interregum has taught me that Americans who value Life, Liberty and Freedom, must stand together in defiance of the Thugs, the Collectivists, and the Fascist, that we must stand together against the Jihadi AND the progression of socialism, that we must stand together and make our voices be heard, to stand and march together, back through our cultural institutions to retake that precious high ground, so that we may defend our Democracy, our Freedom and our Constitution , against the twin threats of Islamo-Fascism and Crypto-communism so that we may leave our country and our world, a better place for our children.

May God’s blessing’s be on those Americans and friends who passed on 9/11 and may God Bless the United States of America.

Sep 11, 2008 - 6:53 pm 42. 3Case:

A note to bin Hidin and the genocidal dwarf Egyptian Hippocratic hypocrite:

So…howzzit been workin’ out for ya? We’re still out here and we’re still after you…been killin’ your dupes n’ lackies at a pretty good rate.

Your genocidal billionaire’s parlor trick seven years ago caused a stress reaction in a friend with a heart condition (he was early 30’s then) and the real doctors hospitalized him. That Friday after, I went up to see him. He’s kind if a high strung guy…always has been…more of a lover than a fighter. Told him: “We have the people. We have the technology. We have the people to use the technology.” How’d I do on my prediction? How we doin’ with our people and our tech?

So stay where you are. I’d rather we kept killin’ your stooges. Just remember…We will not forget.

Sep 11, 2008 - 6:58 pm 43. hdgreene:

This is Off Topic but I watched the first installment of Gov. Palin’s interview. It was quite good.

First, he asked her if she is prepared to be President (she’s running for Vice President — people might be getting confused on that point). She said quite forthrightly “Yes.” She gave this answer even though Bill Clinton has assured us that absolutely no one is ready for that job. She should have given Charlie the same answer Barack Obama gave to that question back when he announced for the top spot. “You asking me if I’m ready? Are you kidding. Me? Ready? I only been in the Senate for two years. Of course I am not friggin ready to be President, you idiot. No. I’ll be ready after I’ve run for President for two years and after I’ve served my first term.” I remember him saying this because we don’t often see such humility.

After Gov. Palin said she was ready– if not down right eager — for the job, I thought I heard Charlie Gibson say “Doesn’t that take Hubris.” I think that’s a cheese sauce the French put on roast beef. No. Wait. Hubris means excessive pride or self confidence. To say you are ready to do a job when Gibson thinks your not? Was he referring to his hubris or her hubris or was he just fulfilling the role of the Greek chorus? I could not tell. In any case she just talked right over him which was just as well. Unfortunately, he did get some words in.

He asked her if she agreed with the Bush Doctrine. The Bush Doctrine is where you say “screw the French” and invade other countries. But Gov. Palin didn’t want to put it in those words, so she put it in other ones. And if Israel bombs Iran? he asked. Hey, you stand by your freinds, she replied. I’m paraphrasing. But I do want the total lack of nuance to come through. I think the mullahs just ran for their prayer beads.

Then there were a couple of those obligatory “so you got a direct line to God: what did he tell you the last time you had lunch together” type questions. I thought she handled them well. “Charlie, I don’t know what God has planned–”

She just let it rip. I think a dozen members of our foreign policy establishment had strokes. This interview will cause more controversy than her hairdo. OK, maybe not more but certainly almost as much.

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:01 pm 44. Son of Max:

The events of 2001 completed my slow transition from a vague soft (social democrat)leftism.

I KNEW, on that day, deep in my bones, that it would be hardly any time until the moonbats came out with comments in the (Australian) newspapers like “We condemn the attack, but…”.

They waited no time at all. Evil bastards. I know where they can stick their ‘but’s.

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:27 pm 45. E. Nigma:

I was in a small meeting at work on 9-11-01, when the first plane hit. Our receptionist came in and told us. I thought it must have been small plane that got lost or something like that. Then the second plane hit. We turned on the TV in the conference room, and we all were in a bit of shock. I mentioned Osama bin Laden, several people nodded.
A woman who worked for me started crying, because her son was starting his senior year at West Point, and now he would be going to war. She was right about that.
He has done two tours, and is about to start a third. He’s a very fine young officer ( now a captain), a natural leader of men, but hates the war in Iraq. He has lost men in his command on both tours; to IEDs and snipers. He had a couple of AK rounds whiz near his ear. Her daughter is also an NCO and did a tour as a medical technician in a hospital. She hated the idea of treating the insurgents that were wounded and captured.
His mom and I looked at his West Point yearbook once, and she pointed out the officers that were dead already; some from accidents, some from war. So young, and so many already gone.
Seven years in, and the rest of our lives to go.

Sep 11, 2008 - 7:56 pm 46. Lifeofthemind:

Charlie Gibson’s attempt to sandbag Pallin, an attempt that failed IMHO, gives useful intelligence on the prevailing concerns of the Democratic elites and their allies. The AP hit piece on the interview, with the offensive title “Pallin tries to defend qualifications in interview,” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_el_pr/palin_interview_7, largely read as if it was written before the event it purports to chronicle, can be considered a list of talking points for party operatives to use in coming days. There are two big items that stand out. First is the effort to demonize allowing Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO by casting Pallin as reckless to the point of being deranged for being willing to warn Russia, as every President has since Harry Truman, that invading a NATO ally means war. Second was an effort to get Pallin to speak preemptively about a possible Israeli strike on Iran when the candidate prudently stuck to US policy as recently stated by the Secretary of State. Gibson repeated this three times in an effort to make Ms Pallin look foolish.

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:19 pm 47. trangbang68:

The election turned tonight. The glow dimmed on Palin when that erudite, urbane, suave sophisticated savant, Dame Pamela Anderson of the Duchy of Bay Watch weighed in on the election.
When political speech is written in the annals of history, future generations will be moved by the words. “I hate Palin. She can suck it.”
In the accompanying bio it will say : “Pam
Anderson was a supposed actress who jiggled in the execrable tv series “Bay Watch” (She was the one with the large fake breasts). Her most watched film though was a grainy home porno movie filmed with her then spouse , Tommie (the human scabie) Lee. Anderson sadly passed away from an acute reaction to silicone.

In the 2008 Presidential election , Anderson inadvertently killed the internet labeling of sara Palin as white trash by demonstrating what white trash really was.

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:23 pm 48. Lifeofthemind:

Goofy Wordpress thinks I already posted a comment that isn’t showing. Wretchard I hate this interface. Your old one was much better.

Charlie Gibson’s attempt to sandbag Pallin, an attempt that failed IMHO, gives useful intelligence on the prevailing concerns of the Democratic elites and their allies. The AP hit piece on the interview, with the offensive title “Pallin tries to defend qualifications in interview,” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_el_pr/palin_interview_7, largely read as if it was written before the event it purports to chronicle, can be considered a list of talking points for party operatives to use in coming days. There are two big items that stand out. First is the effort to demonize allowing Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO by casting Pallin as reckless to the point of being deranged for being willing to warn Russia, as every President has since Harry Truman, that invading a NATO ally means war. Second was an effort to get Pallin to speak preemptively about a possible Israeli strike on Iran when the candidate prudently stuck to US policy as recently stated by the Secretary of State. Gibson repeated this three times in an effort to make Ms Pallin look foolish.

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:40 pm 49. Lifeofthemind:

So now my posts don’t even go into moderation, they just vanish?

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:41 pm 50. Lifeofthemind:

For reasons unkown the Belmont Club is swallowing my post. I put it on Littlegreenfootballs’ New York Skyline thread. Most annoying, would like to explore these issues with the good people here.

Sep 11, 2008 - 8:49 pm 51. fedya:

Russia and Turkey tango in the Black Sea
By M K Bhadrakumar

atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JI12Ag01.html

Thus, Turkey has ingeniously come up with the idea of a “Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Pact”, whose main virtue would be, to quote Turkish commentator Semih Idiz, to “provide Turkey with the option of remaining relatively neutral in this dispute, even if this was not to everyone’s satisfaction in Washington”. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Moscow on August 12 to discuss the proposal with the Kremlin. Idiz adds, “Put another way, Ankara is not in a position to take sides in this dispute, at a time when a new ‘East-West divide’ is in the offing, even if it is a member of NATO.”

Time to wake up! 9/11 newsreels and silly leftist derangement are fine, but the world does not go on vacation when we do. Denounce Turkish perfidy (”neutral” while working with Les Russes?) and Russian manipulation of Ukrainian politics. ( …and drink Georgian wine!)

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:17 pm 52. Ex-fetus:

You too! I asked and was told it was for an ad homineum attack. So I asked that they show me and posted a link to the definition of ad homineum, since they seemed to be confused. They being the PJM moderator. I think it is just one of them that doesn’t like my posts.
I think that the various blogs that contribute to PJM are interlinked enough to be edited by anyone with the proper clearance. I know a post at the Belmont club can be read by someone at the happy blog for left leaning, one-armed, tree frog eating lesbian midgits so long as they are part of the PJM group. I say that because I have posted at other blogs under a different Nome de` Web and seen the post show up on PJM when I surfed over there later.
YOu did get an interesting mix of posters. For example the ABBA fan. I had heard of such things, but I figured they were just rumors.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:17 pm 53. Joshua:

9/11 was a huge own-goal for Islamic supremacists. Not only did it bring down the wrath of the U.S. military upon their heads, but it also cast a harsh spotlight on their ideology itself, and on the kind of world they intend to bring about. Warnings about their growing influence in the West, particularly Europe, would be a whole lot easier to dismiss out of hand as so much right-wing paranoia if bin Laden and company hadn’t tipped their hand in such spectacular fashion on that day.

Indeed, my theory is that this is the main reason why we haven’t seen anything resembling a sequel to that attack since then – not just because it’s become a lot harder to pull off, but because Islamic supremacists belatedly realized how counterproductive 9/11 itself turned out to be.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:40 pm 54. NahnCee:

At the end of this day of remembrance, it seems to me that the KosKids / moonbats / progressive liberal voices in America have been strangely silent. I don’t believe I’ve read one single quotation by normally loquacious types like Pelosi, Reid, Jesse Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, etc, et al, ad nauseum.

Just … crickets from the left.

I wonder if it’s because they literally have nothing to say that wouldn’t sound stupid and/or evil or if, for once, all the momma’s of the Left told them to mind their manners.

But if their normal arguments and positions sound evil and/or stupid on 9/11 of any year, then why on earth would they NOT be the same thing on 9/10 or 9/12?

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:41 pm 55. fedya:

OK, so much for my gloomy side… now for the other side, THEIR DOOM…

La Russophobe
larussophobe.wordpress.com
Special Extra — The Russian Economy, Imploding
UPDATE: The following day, the market crashed through the 1300 psychological barrier to close at 1298.08 on the RTS, ignoring the reassurances given by “president” Medvedev, as described below. The MICEX was flirting with triple digits, and Russia was warned against artificially inflating the market with a government cash infusion, on pain of a reduced credit rating.

Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/1009/42/370832.htm
Medvedev Says State Can Lift Markets
Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that there were “no obvious reasons for the markets to continue to fall,” blaming this week’s losses on “emotional factors” and saying more sober sentiment would ultimately prevail.

International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/11/business/jcd.php
JCDecaux and News Corp. in talks
“The more I read about investments in Russia, the less I like the feel of it,” Murdoch said last month.

The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/09/advertising.mediabusiness
Offices of Rupert Murdoch’s Russian ad firm searched
Investigators have raided the Moscow headquarters of an outdoor advertising company owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Sep 11, 2008 - 9:52 pm 56. Eggplant:

I just read the Sarah Palin interview with Charles Gibson, refer to:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/11/raw-data-palins-interview-with-abc-news/

I was very impressed with Palin’s responses. Charles Gibson is a typical MSM liberal. He did his best to lay traps for Palin but she tip-toed past every one of them. She is very quick. It’s going to take far more than a typical MSM hyena to make a fool out of Palin.

Sep 11, 2008 - 10:52 pm 57. Doug:

Problem is Eggplant, too many read only MSM edits.

—

Google 9-11 Logo
Anonymous said,
Google doesn’t want to get on Keith Olbermann’s crap list. So they ignore anything with any possible non-Progressive slant.

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:39 am 58. Doug:

GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?

PALIN: No. Of course not. Seems to me that would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Russia.
(Biden’s Answer for Iran)
NRO

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:41 am 59. Doug:

Hey, ex Fetus!
If you’re refering to me, it wasn’t the Abba music I’m looking for but a quite impressive graphic depiction of the victims as real human beings.
(although the repetitive Abba noise didn’t really intrude.
…don’t know what it was)
McCain’s an Abba fan, fwiw!

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:47 am 60. Doug:

“Palin could have come out and said there were
better qualified people and better choices as V.P.

… but I mean who would
say something that damaging…

oh wait never mind.”

Klo

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:51 am 61. Doug:

My grandmother’s passing on September 11, 2008, reinforces the most important lesson of 9-11…
“Be on guard and be aware.”

“How ironic that I would lose my maternal grandmother (92 years old) on the 7th anniversary of the attacks of September 11.
My maternal grandmother, Rosalia Isaac, is the most heroic person I ever knew.

My grandmother was one of the last Jewish people on earth who came face to face with Joseph Mengela, and lives to tell about it.

In addition to surviving one of humanity’s most disgusting killing machines at Auschwitz, she also survived a Nazi death march and near starvation before being liberated from the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp…”

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:11 am 62. Doug:

Lucianne Goldberg on Barbara Olson
RIP

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:21 am 63. James:

Biden and his gaffe-prone reputation:

“Earlier in the week, in Columbia, Missouri, Biden urged a paraplegic state official to stand up to be recognized.

“Chuck, stand up, let the people see you,” Biden shouted before realizing, to his horror, that Graham uses a wheelchair.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/11/america/biden.php

Sep 12, 2008 - 1:42 am 64. cedarford:

All that remains of those who died that day is us. We are all they are now. It’s only over if we forget.

The problem with 9/11 is that was an initial enemy attack that only killed 2900 people in a war that may have cost at most 90,000 lives with only 7100 of those American in the last 7 years.

So it will not only be forgotten or reduced to a minor note like “BTW, today is Dec 6th, the 66th anniverary of Pearl Harbor. And on to the big Brad Pitt news..” – not only will it be forgotten, but forgotten faster than past major events or commemorations. Few Americans now mark Appotomax ending the War that cost 660,000 American lives in a population 1/8th our present size. Or Armistice Day. Or the “never-to-be-forgotten” Death of JFK and the Challenger astronauts. The days of hours of TV coverage of Jackie at the Eternal Flame, all the hagiolgraphy of our Greatest President had faded out by the mid-70s. The moment of enforced silence at the moment the Space Shuttle blew up faded before even Reagan forgot it.

The anniversary of Lindhberg’s flight lasted about a decade as something to celebrate. Same with the Moon Landing. Already, in NYC, the people are showing signs of “enough with the Mournathon! New Yorkers are saying enough with the politician’s Panderfests every Sept 11th, enough with the delays at the Pit (soon renamed from “The Hallowed Place”), enough with the Bushist “you MUST support the Neocons and more wars against Evildoers” trope.

Nationally, fading is best seen in the political capital of “Mr. 9/11″ Rudy Giuliani. Back in 2002, 2004 he was feared and a top fundraiser. By 2008, his 9/11 “We Will Never Forget!!” and all other issues are insignificant compared to the 9/11 response, message, was read nationally as an historical artifact. Rudy bombed and became an object of derision for how many times he milked 9/11 in a speech or in response to any question asked of him on any subject.

Right now, 9/11 is still im memory, but we should be using the day not to read out lists of the dead and glorifying “The Heroes” but as a time of Lessons Learned. What did we do or not do prior to 9/11 that made us more vulnerable, how are we fixing those flaws? In the 7 years after 9/11, our 1st response that was stubbornly not modified when confronted with inconvenient facts – and inept Bush implemetation – has split the country and caused tremendous problems for us here and abroad. Most strategic thinkers believe the world has become a far more dangerous place since 9/11 and US power has shrunk significantly since that day in September. What has to be fixed?

================
Eggplant – nice post.

Bush: “Future generations will see our response to 9/1 as the , err, defining moment of our era.
Questioner: “What are you calling on the average citizen to do, Mr. President.”
Bush: “They need to keep travelling, Enjoy their tax cut on a vacation. And shop. And do something nice for a neighbor.”

Galvanized by this Churchillian challenge, Americans flashed their easy credit cards backed by houses that never went down in value. And spent. And spent, and spent – on anything China could make. And invited the asshole 3 houses over for a hot dog and beer on the 4th for a few years.

Sep 12, 2008 - 5:29 am 65. DocBill:

What we all seem to forget is that 9/11 was just the latest firefight in the continuing evil that is Islam. This stuff has been ongoing for 1400 yrs. and it won’t ever end unless Islam as an idea and ALL of its adherants are exterminated. Primary tenants of this so called religion are that jhiad will never cease until all believe and that dissembeling to any unbeliever is authorized. And by the way women, children and any backsliding corelegionist are fair game in any fight. Can there ever be peace with a philosophy like that?

And do you really trust locals to exterminate every last Muslim Afghan or Paky or …..? I don’t.

May God bless the souls of all who died on 9/11 and all of those who have died for a no-Islamic world since. Damn the Islamist, they are a malignant pimple on the ass of the world.

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:30 am 66. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Quote of the Day:

[...] commenter “OldSalt” in this discussion at Belmont Club: One of the major irritants I have about 9/11 is the defacto blackout on all [...]

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:48 am 67. Charles:

Jack Wheeler is a brilliant man who was the author of Reagan’s strategy to break the back of the Soviet Union with the star wars race and expose their inner weakness. For years he wrote a weekly intelligence update that was extremely interesting and well structured and informed. He consults(ed) with several mega corporations on global trends and the future, etc. I think he is in semi-retirement now. He is a true patriot with a no-nonsense approach to everything. He is also a somewhat well known mountain climber and adventurer.

Here is his assessment of Barak Obama

Sep 12, 2008 - 8:20 am 68. David M:

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the – Web Reconnaissance for 09/12/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.

Sep 12, 2008 - 8:24 am 69. Eggplant:

Doug said:

“How ironic that I would lose my maternal grandmother (92 years old) on the 7th anniversary of the attacks of September 11.”

Sorry about your grandma. It’s tough losing a grandparent. I’m down to one grandparent, my maternal grandmother. She’ll turn 99 in March, 2009. I’m hoping she can make it to 100. I’ve been told that if the President’s staff are informed beforehand, a presidential birthday card will be sent for a person’s 100th birthday. If Grandma can hang in there and McCain wins, I’ll arrange for him to send Grandma a birthday card (I won’t bother if the Messiah wins).

Doug said:

“My grandmother was one of the last Jewish people on earth who came face to face with Josef Mengele, and lives to tell about it.”

That’s a major achievement. I presume she went through “selection” and Mengele sent her to the “left column” rather than to the “right column” and a horrible death.

Doug also said:

“In addition to surviving one of humanity’s most disgusting killing machines at Auschwitz, she also survived a Nazi death march and near starvation before being liberated from the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp…”

This is the typical story. The Nazis did a rapid evacuation from Auschwitz in the face of the advancing Soviet Army. The surviving prisoners ended up in Bergen Belsen to eventually be liberated by the Allies. Anne Frank went through that whole ordeal only to die in Bergen Belsen. One of my mentors (a brilliant aeronautical engineer) had the same experience as Doug’s grandma. My mentor (who was a young boy at the time) survived because an SS officer took a liking to him and made him his orderly. My mentor’s entire family were slaughtered in the gas chambers.

Sep 12, 2008 - 8:54 am 70. Ex-fetus:

“Dame Pamela Anderson of the Duchy of Bay Watch”

That is how she is seen today. History will remember her as the Number 1 porn star. Her Honeymoon video with Tommy Lee has sold over 600,000 copies, making it far and away the #1 porn vid. Not back for a cross between a cow and an alligator.

I knew the rumors of someone LIKING ABBA were unfounded.
As far as Big Mac listening to them, He was tortured for 5 years, so ABBA wouldn’t be anything he couldn’t deal with. I suggested using ABBA on the git-mo prisoners, but that was considered to cruel for deranged scum-sucking murderers to suffer.
I like Brother Lollypop myself, so I shouldn’t throw stones at ABBA.

Sep 12, 2008 - 10:15 am 71. Doug:

“Dancing Queen” is John’s Favorite!
—

Palin’s Wikipedia make-over

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:18 am 72. Doug:

Should be Barry’s Song:

“You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen”

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:22 am 73. Doug:

Sorry Eggplant,
I should have italicized that, if you’ll follow the link, you’ll see it’s not me.

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:28 am 74. Doug:

…oops, it’s an e-mailer to Klo, name not published.
Anyway, Sorry, Again.

Sep 12, 2008 - 11:34 am 75. Doug:

Important to get this out:
According to Woodward, Bush had to go around the Chiefs to make the surge work, …they wanted to do what Barack would have had us do!
Obama Wrong on Iraq
The Weekly Standard
Jul 7, 2008 …

OBAMA:
“I will call my Joint Chiefs of Staff in and give them a new assignment and that is to end the war.”

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:33 pm 76. Doug:

Chief Shame

In his latest insider account of the Bush administration, The War Within, Bob Woodward provides a window into the cluelessness of the chiefs and their seeming disinterest in victory that will fascinate and appall students of civil- military relations for decades to come.

In 2006, it had become obvious to almost everyone that we were failing in Iraq, with the exception of top U.S. generals. The general in command on the ground, George Casey, and his immediate superior, the head of U.S. Central Command John Abizaid, were focused on U.S. troop withdrawals the way Mr. Dick in David Copperfield is focused on King Charles’s head…

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:34 pm 77. NahnCee:

Abizaid was initially introduced to us as being a warm and caring person of the Arab persuasion who would fit right into Iraq, and understand what was going on politically and socially because of his Arab background. I guess for him, it was more important not to kill any more possible Arab relatives in Iraq than to protect America and/or win a war against Arab terrorists.

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:43 pm 78. Doug:

Why win, when you can just leave?
—
Joint Chiefs Chair Warns Obama & Clinton on Iraq
February 28, 2008 5:47 PM

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Reports: The Joint Chiefs chairman has a word of warning to Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: A rapid of withdrawal from Iraq would lead to a “chaotic situation” and would “turnaround the gains we have achieved, and struggled to achieve, and turn them around overnight.

Admiral Mullen’s comments came in a response to a question about what the Joint Chiefs are doing to prepare for a new president, given that two of the candidates have called for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

Sep 12, 2008 - 12:49 pm 79. E. Nigma:

I heard Woodward asked Bill Casey about this. Is his discussion with Bill Casey in the book??

Sep 12, 2008 - 2:31 pm 80. steveaz:

Cedarford’s rant above reminds me of a Tokyo Rose broadcast.

If I was an Islamic Jihadi – the shaved, maddrassa’d-up, and ready-to-go type, that’s the kind of message I’d want to read online: You know,…”Hey America, take two aspirin and call me in the mornin’ ’bout 9/11.”

Folks’re suggestible 7-years on, heaven knows, Cedarford, and I can’t really blame you for trying (heck, all signs are we even like to play, too), but…ya just gotta call “Bull!” on occasion.

Just sayin’s all…

Sep 12, 2008 - 2:41 pm 81. Doug:

UK Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law…
—
The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change.

Sep 12, 2008 - 3:18 pm 82. Doug:

Mark Penn:

Well, no, I think the people themselves saw unfair media coverage of Senator Clinton. I think if you go back, the polls reflected very clearly what “Saturday Night Live” crystallized in one of their mock debates about what was happening with the press.

I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don’t do that for all four of the candidates, they’re on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

And I think that that’s a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.

Sep 12, 2008 - 5:33 pm 83. Doug:

KRAUTHAMMER: Charlie Gibson’s Gaffe…

…until Iraq.
A year later, when the Iraq war was looming, Bush offered his major justification by enunciating a doctrine of preemptive war.
This is the one Charlie Gibson thinks is the Bush doctrine.

It’s not. It’s the third in a series and was superseded by the fourth and current definition of the Bush doctrine, the most sweeping formulation of the Bush approach to foreign policy and the one that most clearly and distinctively defines the Bush years: the idea that the fundamental mission of American foreign policy is to spread democracy throughout the world.

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:00 pm 84. slimslowslider:

cedarford, the kraut, would like us to believe that he is oh so American. he’s morphed this image in order to deceive. Europe, specifically germany and germanics in general, are his real priority. He’s a regular Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (claimed he was Clark Rockefeller). I’d actually say he is far worse by pulling this “I’m a great american” con.

Sep 12, 2008 - 6:07 pm 85. Lifeofthemind:

The make their eyes glaze over answer to people who think that the sole irrefutable reason to elect Democrats is to stop Republicans from nominating SCOTUS Justices who would threaten Roe v. Wade.

Over a hundred and fifty years ago the American people were increasingly outraged by the injustice of slavery. States passed laws declaring slavery illegal on their soil and Congress had prohibited the importation of slaves and had declared many territories that were not yet states to be free. It was hoped that remaining slave states would be lead to abandon the evil practice. It was generally recognized, even in the law in slave states, that lawful movement to a free territory removed the bands of bondage. In 1857 the Supreme Court chose to usurp the authority of the States and of Congress by declaring in the Dred Scott decision that Blacks were not and could not be citizens. The result of that improper act was the Civil War which cost over 600,000 American lives. That is the equivalent of over Three Million dead today. After that bloodletting the States and the Congress, their freedom to make the laws restored, passed the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution to guarantee that all persons who had been held as slaves were free and equal citizens of these United States.

Now some people think that a serious question like abortion cannot be left to the States to decide so they rely on the Supreme Court to short circuit the process. That is not only wrong because it was a badly reasoned and poorly written decision. It was wrong because it drives opponents of that position into an effort to overturn the Court by again Amending the Constitution. It is far better that the citizens of our many states be allowed to decide this issue at the State legislature where without doubt many will choose to allow the practice of abortion and all will benefit from peaceful political discourse.

Sep 12, 2008 - 7:28 pm 86. Doug:

Miller Caller cannot wait for first State of the Union
w/Vice Pres Palin Sitting Right next to
Blinkie Pelosi!!!!

Sep 12, 2008 - 7:52 pm 87. Dave:

Lifeofthemind:

Thanks for the reference to Dredd Scott.
One of the consequences of that judicial activism was to torpedo SOUTHERN abolitionists. The fanatical pro-slavery
elements became convinced they could extend their reach everywhere. That a giant slave-owning empire that included Cuba and South America down to Tierra del Fuego could be had.

This linked them with NORTHERN pro-slavery types who provided funding, manpower and sanctuary for such as the Knights of the Golden Circle.

In turn, the concept of secession, which can be protection against tyranny, became a means of expanding it.

When Roe v Wade was announced, I foolishly thought that it would settle the abortion question for once and all. Never been more wrong in my life.

Unitary government can never perform like folks think it will. It will always be counter-productive. Final answer.

Sep 12, 2008 - 9:20 pm 88. Lifeofthemind:

@Dave,
More needs to be done to tell the story of the pro-Union sentiment that was very strong in the South. When West Virginia seceded from Virginia there was a possibility that Northern Alabama would also seek to rejoin the Union. North Carolina only passed an Act of Seccesion after Virginia did and it was both surrounded by the Confederacy which cut it off from the Union and invaded by a foreign army.

Slavery was a great evil that should have been stopped as quickly as possible. The question of whether ending it in 1865 at the cost suffered was to be prefered to the possibility that, if the SCOTUS had not intervened, it would have been largely rolled back by 1880 without bloodshed is not a snap judgement.

The cotton fields were soon exhausted and without modern technology may not have supported the crops for long. The British used the wartime embargo of the South to speed the development of cotton production in India. That would have happened, although more slowly, under any circumstance.

Sep 12, 2008 - 9:50 pm 89. Dave:

Lifeofhtemind:

Well, it was not just SCOTUS. The protective tariff, designed to keep all foreign goods out, was actually producing quite a bit of revenue—-at Southern expense.

The money thus raised got spent in the North. Thus there was a great transfer of income from areas with lower per capita incomes to areas with higher per capita incomes. A sure-fire way of creating pathological hubris among “recipients” and paranoia among “donors”.

One of my favorite targets is John Quincy Adams. After losing to Andrew Jackson, he returned to the House of Representatives
and spent many years crusading against (a) recognition of the Republic of Texas and (b) Texas Statehood.

Had he been more astute about slavery (and less vituperous about Jackson’s protege Houston), Texas could have been given an even better deal than it go PROVIDED it abolished involuntary servitude first. Could have talked Big Sam into the deal and he could have talked Texas into anything at that time.

After the Mexican War of 1846-48, all that great East Texas cotton land would still have come into play but without slave labor. The slave trade was already a one-way ticket to bankruptcy, slave labor would have followed
and I daresay the 13th Amendment could have been in place not later than 1870, if not sooner.

Ain’t 20-20 hindsight just wonderful?

Sep 12, 2008 - 10:24 pm 90. Wadeusaf:

Professor Cole is Juandering around in a dull surge gown not seeing the forest…, Myopic and self centered, no doubt till the end of history.

Sep 13, 2008 - 5:58 am 91. steveaz:

Wadeusaf, RE Juan Cole:
It’s worse than that…I’m convinced he’s being cajoled to write what he does.

No objective student of history could espouse his views.

Someone other than Juan Cole has a handle on Juan Cole, if you know what I mean. Somehow, he’s fallen into some weird kind of Micheal Moorish/Edward Saidist patronage trap.

(Isn’t Columbia the beneficiary of a lot of Middle Eastern money?)

To me, Juan’s just like the minah bird in the bamboo cage at the Sumatran bazaar, he has to sing, or else he’ll get fed to the street cats.

Sep 13, 2008 - 6:39 am 92. Jay:

Dave, Read the Southern apologist book called King Cotton. I believe that the last edition was published in 1860. The Southern intellectual “elites” had screwy ideas about national economies.
The Republic of Texas could not finance itself since the founders did not want to pay any taxes. Texas was the only Southern state ruled by rednecks.
But now our major cities are cosmopolitan and we have a thriving economy as long as we avoid a state income tax.

Sep 13, 2008 - 7:36 am 93. trangbang68:

Charles Gibson in what I saw of the inquisition uh…interview came off as tremendously unfair and condescending to Palin who appeared confident and genuine. The most irritating thing was looking down his nose at her. I was expecting to hear, ” Ve have vays to make you talk..”
I was so mad my wife had to tell me to leave the room. I confess to being a partisan who despises the MSM, but I don’t think anyone with even a small degree of discernment could see that without coming away impressed with Palin and totally convinced the media is bent over grabbing their ankles for Obama.

Sep 13, 2008 - 7:46 am 94. NahnCee:

I wonder why Palin chose ABC/Gibson to begin with. I would have thought she’d choose someone with at least a small expectation of professionalism … unless it was a set-up and he performed just like the chattering monkey McCain’s staff had him pegged for to begin with.

I”m trying to think who I would choose if it were me in her power pumps. I think either Barbara Walters or Katie Couric would have done an interesting job — or maybe Tom Brokaw although NBC needs to be spanked for its support of MSNBC.

Sep 13, 2008 - 9:01 am 95. Peterike:

ABC edited out key portions of Palin’s interview and — surprise! — ended up distorting her opinions and making her look less informed than she is.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/09/13/abc-news-edited-out-key-parts-sarah-palin-interview

Not to mention Gibson was a condescending tool. At times Palin had to put up her hand trying to get him to stop interrupting her with his constant reptition of Democrat talking points.

The media are vermin, pure and simple.

Sep 13, 2008 - 9:48 am 96. buddy larsen:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2VlNThlZGMzMDBiY2M2OTZhYmExMDQ1OWY5ZTgxNDA=

Pretty good stuff from Rich Lowry on the interview –

Sep 13, 2008 - 11:46 am 97. SpeakEasy:

Have you ever watched a football game where one team took a large lead, fell into a prevent defense, only to watch their opponent whittle the lead away again? I can not remember the originator but I remember a quote, and I paraphrase: ” Hit them hard and often. And if they get up, hit ‘em again.” Sounds good to me.

Sep 13, 2008 - 1:20 pm 98. Son of a Pig and a Monkey:

Juan Cole is on the other side. Who gives a f*ck what he thinks?

Sep 13, 2008 - 2:08 pm 99. tomw:

Remember:
http://terpsboy.com/Sounds/WTC.pps

5Meg powerpoint with WTC photos. We must not forget.
tom

Sep 14, 2008 - 5:07 am 100. nope:

@newscraper :
“I wish to GOD to see one of the networks grow gonads and put the entire 9/11 day of media coverage on the air.”

FWIW, a lot of this is available on the internet, via torrent sites. I guess more than a few people thought to hit “record” on whatever technology they had for that purpose.. I have seen “complete 9/11 coverage” from multiple networks, though I have never had the heart to download it..

#$#

Sep 14, 2008 - 6:13 pm 101. Bob Murphy:

We still haven’t got even but we’re working on it.

Sep 15, 2008 - 12:42 am

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