My 9-11 Questions
Here are my 9-11 questions of the day.
- Are we safer?
- Is 9-11 becoming a distant memory, as opposed to a real event?
- How do you think it will impact George W.’s legacy as President?
- What’s the best way to win the war on terror?
Feel free to pontificate after taking a moment to reflect on those who lost their lives that day.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:29 am
1. No we aren’t safer.
2. Yes, 9/11 is receding into the past with all that entails.
3. It gave Bush a chance to fail in bigger ways than he was already failing.
4. You can’t win a war against a tactic – winning a “war on terror” is the same as trying to win a war on “flanking maneuvers.” Perhaps we can win a war against the people using the tactic, but given that the U.S. chose to fight a war with Iraq and then occupy it instead, we’ve drastically reduced our chances against those who use terror as a tactic.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:05 am
I agree with Doug.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I agree with Doug with one exception. Bush’s reaction to the day’s events on 9/11 will be the only thing remembered. His steady hand on the wheels of government and return to Washington were comforting to the nation. Subsequent failures to protect us is his legacy. Failed wars and not concentrating on the real war, the religious war by fanatics out to destroy our way of life will be what historians write about him.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:29 am
MoDem, how does a country founded on religious tolerance fight a “religious war” when freedom of religion is written into our fundamental law?
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If you really meant “war on religious fanaticism”, I’d agree. We have been fighting THAT war (in Afghanistan) since 9/11.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:50 am
9/11 just greased the wheels of the neocon fast train into middle east oil fields. Tragic on several levels.
Vote “Enough”.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:59 am
We are exactly as safe although we have had our personal freedom considerably restricted.
It disgusts me to be frisked in order to gain entrance to a ‘public’ event, to have to remove clothing to enter the City-County Building, to be forbidden to carry-on simple toiletries when boarding a plane unless they are a certain size and in a plastic bag.
The entirety of homeland security is built on the premise of ‘elephant repellant.’
September 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am
1) We’re somewhat safer, if terrorism uses some of the same methods used before.
2) It’s fading. We’re too disparate and polarized for it to last as it would if the bad guys wore uniforms and were in specific countries like WWII. Guerilla terrorism. We got into Iraq in part because the memory of Vietnam didn’t linger with us.
3) It will show that due in part to his poor leadership, we compromised our economics, foreign policy, and global leadership due to a petroleum addiction as ugly as a junkie.
4) Economics that leads by example. If we ever get out of our hole, a country such as ours of 20-50 years ago has a lot to offer.
September 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I see another 3,000 American civilians need to be slaughtered before the first 6 posters will give any credit to the man.
we took the war to the enemy, and we are winning. colts games are not “public events” (though you can make an argument about public money). do you remember the shoe bomber? if it wasn’t for his ineptness, all those passengers would be dead. several other attacks and plots on American soil have been foiled. Some were made public some have not been made public yet. this war will not end anytime soon. the only thing i regret is that really really haven’t taken the gloves off yet. and it took us over 3 years to learn that lesson in iraq.
as far as the security in the city-county building. that’s not so much for terrorist as for our own murderous citizens. people do go into court rooms and kill defendants, judges, and civilians.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
1) I feel safe, yet we have to be right 100% of the time. A crazy terrorist only needs to be right once.
2) Yes, unfortunately, people are letting the memories of that day slip away, and in doing so are becoming complacent.
3)I think W’s legacy will be well served by his reaction to 9/11. Still not sure why Bill Clinton can get a free pass on all that he did, or in fact didn’t do prior to 9/11. Many of these incidents led up to our being struck.
* 98 – Kenya & Tanzania – Us Embassys bombed- No US action taken
* 93 – US troops in Somalia ambushed, killed & bodies dragged through the streets. US respones. Pull all US troops out of Somalia.
* 93 – World trade center bombing – US response, treated it as a law enforcement matter.
* 00 – USS cole bombing in Yemen. – No US response.
I honestly believe that they thought we were weak and would fold if we were attacked at home. If you never stand up for yourself and let them hit you again and again without consequences, why would they think any different?
Thanks Bill. This day is for you!
September 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I see it’s finger pointing time.
9/11 was well into Bush’s first term; he’d received warning about al-Qaeda’s determination to strike the U.S. and not cut short his vaction. Giuliani didn’t do anything to respond to the ’93 World Trade Center bombing except to move his emergency response equipment *into* the World Trade Center.
You know, if we’re blaming people other than the Saudi Arabian religious fanatics who attacked us with their box cutters and then our airplanes.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Let’s see….8 months VS 8 years!! Sudan wanted to turn Bin Laden over to us, Bill said no thanks! Believe it or not, I defended Slick Willy, I was a hard core bleeding heart liberal. I voted for the POS twice. I was raised in a union household that had been deomcrat since before I was born. 9/11 opened my eyes. I saw that while he was playing his little games with his women and lying to grand juries, he should have been looking out for us. He had 8 years to go after these people but rode the poles and worried about his popularity. I don’t want to “point fingers”, but I do want some of the blame to be placed where it belongs. Bill, Sandy Berger, the whole bunch just said, we werent here, blame them. They built the deck of cards and when it came down, they were out the door!
Yes, the terrorists held the box cutters…. We all, through our compcacency, let them in the door.
September 11th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I don’t feel safe from my predatory government. Today I paid my new mortage escrow payment which went up $400 per month.
I could do a lot of home improvements with that money.
Instead I am forced to give it to the government and get nothing in return. Heck, if I had kids I couldn’t even send them to public schools and expect results from the schools in my district.
September 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Agree with George,
Yes, I feel safer! Spoiled! Spoiled! Spoiled Americans. Thank God the terrorists didn’t carry out their plans across this country in every major city before President Bush went after them. The Democrats and media told us the war in Iraq was for oil only and the public chose to believe it. I would rather have bombs dropped on foreign soil than America’s. Did Americans think we could go to war at anytime and not have casualties? The media consistantly show pictures daily of mass bombings and murders over there. We have stupid people in this country killing each other everyday day over illegal drugs, domestic violence issues, child custody cases,complete insanity. Yet, nobody seems to care until their personal lives are affected.
Americans today can’t handle all the natural disasters when they hit. God help us if the terrorists really get a foothold in this country!
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September 11th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Sigh…… OK, one more time for the idiots who just don’t get it and don’t WANT to get it…WE ARE NOT IN IRAQ BECAUSE OF 9/11!!!
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We are in Iraq because Saddam Hussein failed to meet the terms of the CEASE FIRE from the original occupation of Iraq, which was a direct result of HIS occupation of Kuwait.
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The UN refused to enforce their own resolutions of cease fire, so we (and several other countries) did it ourselves. We ar in Iraq because the UN is a joke!!
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It was not until after we occupied Iraq the second time that we found Al-Quaeda training camps that Hussein was allowing with open arms.
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The only country that we are in BECAUSE OF 9/11 IS AFGHANISTAN!!
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Now, are we safer now than we were then? Hell yes. Why? simply because of heightened awareness. I have been boarding aircraft before when I heard people complaining about security and what they had to go through. Sorry pal, but MY safety is worth a helluva lot more than your inconvenience. Also, I am VERY conscious of my surroundings and movements of others on any aircraft I am on.
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The 9/11 attacks have become a thorn in the sides of Dems who want people to forget that OUR PRESIDENT did what HAD TO BE DONE to make our country safer. The media FABRICATED the myth that we are in Iraq because of 9/11 with strong support from the Left.
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George W. Bush’s legacy will be placed in the “Tyrannical Invader” category by those who would write the history books….with their liberal slant.
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The best way to win the “War on Terror” is to stop listening and pandering to the bleeding hearts and do what needs to be done to get the job done. The problem is that as long as there are fanatical whackos out there that regularly use hallucinogenic substances as a false part of their “religion”, and continue to misinterpret their own religious books, we will continue to be a target.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Uh… StatlernWaldorf …..”WE ARE NOT IN IRAQ BECAUSE OF 9/11″…President Bush in June, 2005….. “We went to war because we were attacked….some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world’s terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror….Our troops are fighting these terrorists in Iraq so you will not have to face them here at home.” I do agree that we are not really there for this reason but it was certainly one of the many reasons Dubya floated to justify his well-oiled imperialism.
Enough!
September 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
This was AFTER we went in and found that Al-Quaeda was operating in Iraq. We knew they were getting money from Saddam.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
2557.
That’s the number of days since the last successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the defense rests.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I remember the day as clear as a bell. Disbelief that something like that could happen in America. It was a wake up call for the United States! My dad said it was the same feeling he got when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
“We went to war because we were attacked….some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world’s terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror….Our troops are fighting these terrorists in Iraq so you will not have to face them here at home.”
All ten of ‘em,LOL.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Tom,
Please stop taking speech (writing) tips from Olbermann. When he told Obama to use more exclamation points in his speeches on 9/8, and Obama started using them on 9/10, does not mean that you or anyone else needs to use them. I mean enough is enough, isn’t it?
September 12th, 2008 at 6:24 am
If you (want to) remember the feelings of Americans after 911 some 70% were ready to strike out against someone and they supported the invasion of Iraq. Congress Voted to use force in Iraq. Yes Bush order that invasion but what would people have been saying if he had not and we were attacked again? He was only doing what most of the American people and Congress was behind. That is until they found out that people die in war, then and only then was it Bush’s mistake.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:33 am
Elect the McCain/Palin ticket on November 4th.
Obama Sued in Philadelphia Federal Court on Grounds he is Constitutionally Ineligible for the Presidency
by Jeff Schreiber
America’s Right.com
A prominent Philadelphia attorney and Hillary Clinton supporter filed suit this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic National Committee and the Federal Election Commission. The action seeks an injunction preventing the senator from continuing his candidacy and a court order enjoining the DNC from nominating him next week, all on grounds that Sen. Obama is constitutionally ineligible to run for and hold the office of President of the United States.
Philip Berg, the filing attorney, is a former gubernatorial and senatorial candidate, former chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery (PA) County, former member of the Democratic State Committee, and former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania. According to Berg, he filed the suit–just days before the DNC is to hold its nominating convention in Denver–for the health of the Democratic Party.
“I filed this action at this time,” Berg stated, “to avoid the obvious problems that will occur when the Republican Party raises these issues after Obama is nominated.”.
Berg cited a number of unanswered questions regarding the Illinois senator’s background, and in today’s lawsuit maintained that Sen. Obama is not a natural born U.S. citizen or that, if he ever was, he lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia. Berg also cites what he calls “dual loyalties” due to his citizenship and ties with Kenya and Indonesia.
Even if Sen. Obama can prove his U.S. citizenship, Berg stated, citing the senator’s use of a birth certificate from the state of Hawaii verified as a forgery by three independent document forensic experts, the issue of “multi-citizenship with responsibilities owed to and allegiance to other countries” remains on the table.
In the lawsuit, Berg states that Sen. Obama was born in Kenya, and not in Hawaii as the senator maintains. Before giving birth, according to the lawsuit, Obama’s mother traveled to Kenya with his father but was prevented from flying back to Hawaii because of the late stage of her pregnancy, “apparently a normal restriction to avoid births during a flight.” As Sen. Obama’s own paternal grandmother, half-brother and half-sister have also claimed, Berg maintains that Stanley Ann Dunham–Obama’s mother–gave birth to little Barack in Kenya and subsequently flew to Hawaii to register the birth.
Berg cites inconsistent accounts of Sen. Obama’s birth, including reports that he was born at two separate hospitals–Kapiolani Hospital and Queens Hospital–in Honolulu, as well a profound lack of birthing records for Stanley Ann Dunham, though simple “registry of birth” records for Barack Obama are available in a Hawaiian public records office.
Should Sen. Obama truly have been born in Kenya, Berg writes, the laws on the books at the time of his birth hold that U.S. citizenship may only pass to a child born overseas to a U.S. citizen parent and non-citizen parent if the former was at least 19 years of age. Sen. Obama’s mother was only 18 at the time. Therefore, because U.S. citizenship could not legally be passed on to him, Obama could not be registered as a “natural born” citizen and would therefore be ineligible to seek the presidency pursuant to Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution.
Moreover, even if Sen. Obama could have somehow been deemed “natural born,” that citizenship was lost in or around 1967 when he and his mother took up residency in Indonesia, where Stanley Ann Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian citizen. Berg also states that he possesses copies of Sen. Obama’s registration to Fransiskus Assisi School In Jakarta, Indonesia which clearly show that he was registered under the name “Barry Soetoro” and his citizenship listed as Indonesian.
The Hawaiian birth certificate, Berg says, is a forgery. In the suit, the attorney states that the birth certificate on record is a forgery, has been identified as such by three independent document forensic experts, and actually belonged to Maya Kasandra Soetoro, Sen. Obama’s half-sister.
“Voters donated money, goods and services to elect a nominee and were defrauded by Sen. Obama’s lies and obfuscations,” Berg stated. “If the DNC officers … had performed one ounce of due diligence we would not find ourselves in this emergency predicament, one week away from making a person the nominee who has lost their citizenship as a child and failed to even perform the basic steps of regaining citizenship as prescribed by constitutional laws.”
“It is unfair to the country,” he continued, “for candidates of either party to become the nominee when there is any question of the ability to serve if elected.”
September 12th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Another lengthy cut&paste hate-screed from Jocelyn whats-her-name…
September 12th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Wilson,
While I doubt OBama is NOT a legal or natural citizen, how does challenging and wanting clairification on Obama’s legal citizen status translate to hate? If someone disagrees or questions your candidate…its hate????
September 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
They call it simply ‘hate’ because even Obama’s most ardent supporters think it would cause too much negative press if they call it what they really consider it: ‘blasphemy.’
September 12th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Interesting series of comments and responses regarding the catalyst that has done more to re-shape US domestic and foreign policy than any other single event in US history – including the 19th century war of secession (incorrectly characterized as a “civil war” by the liars who publish our history books) and the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that Roosevelt needed to genrate popular support for US entry into WWII.
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As a result of 9/11 we now have domestic laws that allow US citizens to be classified as terrorists, granting legal authority to federal agents to arrest them without warrant, to imprison them without charge, and to keep their detainment secret from anyone and everyone. That single policy on it’s own should make every patriotic American shudder when considering that our liberty is no longer in the hands of the US Constitution and it’s lawfully coded interpretation. Our liberty is now dependent upon the “good will” or “best intentions” of those who have the authority to classify a citizen as a potential terrorist. And for those who know how the Military Commissions Act defines a potential domestic terrorist, the potential consequences are horrific to most of us if the “wrong” person ever get’s elected.
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If I were a terrorist who hate’s Americans because of our freedom, I’d be dancing in the streets over that single item, not to mention the hundreds of other changes that erode our Constitutional rights, changing them from “I have a right to…” to “I’m not worried because I’ve done nothing wrong.”
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Is it all worth it? I can promise you that you’ll get a resounding “yes” from the policy makers like Cheney and Rumsfeld who wrote in 2000 that the US needs a “new Pearl Harbor” if we want to implement aggressive foreign and domestic military policies. And I can also promise you that you would hear a resounding “No” from the thousands of 9/11 first responders who are dying from cancers and other illnesses suffered as a result of White House driven EPA lies in the days, weeks, and months after 9/11.
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My tribute to the victims and to the heroes of 9/11 is also a poignant reminder of the lies and distortions of the corporate media and the criminal Dem/GOP corporate cabal in Washington whom they work so hard to promote and to protect. Like yesterday – hours of live media from ground zero, while thousands of patriots assembled peacefully outside demanding the truth.
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Here’s to the victims and to the hero’s. One of the Port Authority police who never came home lived across the street from me in NY. My county lost more FDNY members than any other. The funerals and memorials went on for months. May justice one day be theirs:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufv1funsVgY
September 12th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Edit to response to question 3:
“…and our jihad-provoking Israeli support.”
September 12th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Mr. Break, just a minor clarification: terrorists will only be dancing in the streets when they’ve killed every last American. Or, like in Breslin, they take over a school, kill the boys outright and then rape the girls until an entry is made, at which point they just shoot as many hostages as they can until they themselves get shot.
September 12th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I agree with Doug on his post of September 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm. Ann Coulter said it best Bush 7 Terrorist O.
September 13th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
1. No, definitely not safer.(Sen. McCain, if you need any help finding Osama, you needn’t go to the gates of hell…most Americans, indeed anyone with a peabrain, can tell you exactly where he is within a few statute miles. What a tool.
2. Nothing distant about it. It’s as real as it gets.
3. W’s legacy was never going to be stellar–he’s just not very bright, he’s mean-spirited and he’s got a vindictive streak wider than a Texas tornado. Oh yeah, and he didn’t win in 2000.
4. We win a war on terror, if there is such a thing (Doug is mostly right) by living up to America’s standards and ideals, not “down” to W’s talking points.
We cannot hope to revive our dismal standing among governments and peoples of the world, as long as we don’t uphold the ideals under which we were founded.
Like we tell our kids, walk the walk…
Mostly, my heart still aches for the families of those whom we lost on 9=11=01. And for the families of those lost in this stupid testosterone-driven “war” in Iraq.
Bring the soldiers home. Now.