Notice in all of these headlines: no quotes around “disgusted,” “angered,” “outraged.” Reported as fact. Yet the same wire services carefully surround every reference to “terrorism” with doubt-inducing scare quotes.
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Why do I get the feeling that the the people speaking out against these ads were full-fledged idiotarians before 9/11, and never thought to shift gears afterwards?
Probably because it's an accurate perception, Jaffar.
I saw the ads, and they're great. Definitely extremely tasteful.The "outrage" peddlers are just feeding a line to credulous Blue Staters.
In fact right now I am imagining what emotionally manipulative advertising a Democrat in the same position would use, and I'm getting really pissed off at the hypocrisy. It seems Bush is always accused of the things Democrats are much guiltier of, in spades.
It's pretty obvious who the demagogues are.
The Dems want to shutdown/gag President Bush. Geez, wish they could do that with Hillary Clinton.
He is the Commander in Chief, we were attacked on September 11th, and since then there have been no major terrorist attacks on America. Incidently, there are less WMD's in Libya...delivered to Tennessee...
Kerry, not present for less than 36% percent of votes in the last year...
We have a Commander in Chief and President that I'm going to support.
Jane Freakin' Kerry can go pound sand in the Hamptons.
I saw the ads and have no problem with them. They state the truth of the matter and the challenges on Bush's watch. Some of these folks were Bush bashing before the ads anyway.
MoveOn.urge says that Bush has reversed policy on using 9/11 in his campaign.
[Link: www.misleader.org...]
MooveOn said he said that he had "no ambition whatsoever to use [the war on terror or 9/11] as a political issue."1 Note the []'s Footnote one takes you to this link:
[Link: news.bbc.co.uk...]
However, NO WHERE on that page does it say what they are implying. The actual quote is "I have no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue. There is no daylight between the executive and the legislative branches," he said.
The this in that quote is the plans for a $48bn increase in defence spending to fight the war on terror.
These people are fabricating and deceitful. Oh, ya, we already knew that. Well, ok, more of the same lies.
Charles - how dare you accuse the media of bias?!? We all know that they're perfectly objective and always report both sides of every issue. They would never let their own feelings creep into what they report, you can be sure of that.
If Dubya is guilty of exploiting the deaths of 3,000 people for political gain, then how many tens of thousands does Kerry exploit by constantly bringing up Vietnam?
I don't post often here, but I come to the site several times a day when I need a break from my writing.
I am a native New Yorker. I did not see the towers come down with my own eyes, but I smelled the aftermath for weeks afterward. I know men and women who died there, including firefighters and office workers alike. I escaped the torment of losing any relatives, but the blow was still an immense one. Downtown is one of the three or four neighborhoods that have always been my haunts, and some of my earliest memories are of the Twin Towers. In many ways for me, those towers WERE Manhattan. I remember the panic I felt the first time they were bombed as my father was supposed to be there for a problem with our mortgage (our bank was the Citibank in the concourse). I still feel agonized every time I pass the empty space where they once were, which is three or four times a week. I still ache when I see the skyline, which is every single day.
All that being said: these ads are not just acceptable ... they are essential. Too many on the left want us to forget 9/11, to sink back into blissful ignorance. Because if 9/11 is forgotten, if we forget how strongly George W. Bush responded to that atrocity and how strong his leadership has been since for the most part, and how important it is to our survival that we continue to redefine our relationship with terrorist regimes in the wake of such devastation and murder ... then how easy it will be to vote for a man to whom these issues clearly carry no weight.
There is only one man running for President who understands the threat, and will take any measures at all to confront it and defeat it. And his opponents want to flense from the public memory all recollection of the crucible that made that man step forth.
President Bush must force the naysayers to acknowledge what he did ... and what they plan to do to prevent another mass murder on American soil. Barring that, he must provoke them with even stronger ads to force them to reveal their essential cowardice.
OT: Terrorists May Use Pen Guns
FBI warns that cartridges could be filled with poison, used as weapons
Well, DUH! A [popular cheap brand of] pen is quite lethal, even more so if the ink cartridge is removed and stuck between two particular ribs. Hairspray and a butane lighter ain't so nice either, both of which are allowed in the cabin. There are so many allowed dangerous every-day items on-board it's scary.
BTW, NWA is now providing regular metal knives in Super Coach First Class. Good thing. They are less dangerous than those plastic ones with the flesh-ripping serrations like shark-teeth.
Someone really, really, really needs to go to the major media outlets and conduct a tutorial on the proper use of Google. It took all of 15 seconds to come up with this May, 2002 story on Colleen Kelly, mentioned at the start of the AP story, and her Peaceful Tomorrows organization.
It's not too hard to speculate from looking at that article that Ms. Kelly wasn't leading the charge for Bush and the Republicans during the 2002 midterm elections, either, which I would think might be at least worth mentioning in a sentence in the story, but then, to do that would ruin her positioning as an "everywoman" representing all the families of the 9/11 victims.
At least the AP did mention the International Association of Firefighters Unions endorsed Kerry in their story.
Fuck these people, these elitist leftist fucking jerks. The family members, firefighters, emergency personel should be thrilled that their loved ones, friends and compartriots will NEVER be forgotten. Political gain or not.
This is the year that regardless what Bush does the slime on the left will attack, under the guise of 'their decency'. Bush can't land on Aircraft Carriers, (to political) can't fly to California, (to political) can't hold talks with world leaders (to political), etc. etc.
Yet kerry can fly all the fuck around the world, get 'endorsed' by mullah's in iran, a fucking madman in north korea, leftists in OLD europe, leftist media here and this is what, NOT political? BULLSHIT!
I heard one of the WTC widows castigating Bush for these ads, today. As she spoke her agenda came forth, blaming Bush for NOT preventing this. The facts are sweet ass is that if the FORMER President had done his job as a man and a leader NONE of this would have happened.
Handling the terror of WTC 1 as a 'police matter', as kerry wants to do, led to the horrific, WTC 2. Firing a few missiles into camel asses, in Afgahistan, led to this. Not capturing ubl, we the Sudan damn near forced clinton to take him...and clinon saying, on record, we just didn't think we had enough on him to bring him to the States, led to this. madeline notsobright ellicting this line, as well as sandy berger, led to this.
Getting cyptic messages from agencies that before this act, couldn't even speak to one another, by law, led to this.
Lady I'm terribly sorry you lost your husband, but it seems as though now that you have your money, you have donated the money, your heart and your soul, to the very people that watched all of this unfold before them, and because of their 'police action attitude'...KILLED your husband.
#17 - Yeah, I just love the attitude that "this is Bush's fault because it happened on HIS watch." As though Al-Qaeda didn't form until after Gore became a sore loser. As though Islamic terrorism didn't exist anywhere in the world until Bush took office. As though Clinton's strong, shining example of strength held off the mad mullahs for eight years.
Puke. Between this and the wretched Independent article that Drudge linked to this morning (the one bemoaning the fact that "the human race" can't all vote for Kerry), I'm going to have to stop eating meals in front of the computer.
As much as I loathe the elite media, I have a feeling that they might overplay their hands on this one, again. The more they scream and yell, the more crazy they look. Consequently, that will pull Kerry to the left instead of allowing him to go to the center. Such a distortion in the general election, when a candidate tries to get as much of the center vote as possible, could have profoundly negative effects for the Kerry camp.
Furthermore, the unfairness of the media will probably motivate those who otherwise would be independent or at least swing-voters, to look with sympathy on a President who's being unfairly attacked merely for stating a record on how he's tried to protect America.
That's the good side.
The down side is, inevitibly, these sort of attacks will only deepen the stupidity of those prone to believing this sort of bullshit. The Bush-haters, fanatical already in their delusions, will only become more so.
The magnitude of the opposition to President Bush can be quite depressing sometimes. I have a feeling that, like the Cold War, the War on Terror will never really be a bipartisan effort. Just as the Democrats were soft on Communism from day 1, apologizing for its murderous ideologies, refusing to accept the genocidal actions of the Soviets until the very end, making excuses for traitors, and even now claiming that Communism can be good "in theory", so too will the left and the Democrat Party, and their allies in the media, be forever soft to the threat of radical Islam. During the Cold War, the Russians could at least be reasoned with. They did not want to see the end of the world. So electing a softy like Carter was bad for many, many reasons, but it didn't mean that Americans would be put in IMMEDIATE threat. But given the militant opposition to confronting Islamic terror from the left-wing and Democrats in general, I have to wonder if the rational choice to guarantee safety for America is to forever elect Republicans to the Presidency?
I hope not. Sheesh, that's a bleak prospect, for the simple reason that it's impossible. But the stakes this time around are much higher than the Cold War, because negotiation with the enemy is impossible.
Are there any Democrats, future Democratic presidential prospects (like Governors) who could possibly win their nomination and be a hard-line fighter against terror? I don't think so. And that's scary.
New York, NY - Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani issued the following statement:
"September 11th is the defining event of our times. This was a shared experience that the American people have all been through together. The war that the terrorists began on September 11th continues today.
"President Bush has provided the steady, consistent and principled leadership to bring our country through the worst attack in our history. His leadership on that day is central to his record, and his continued leadership is critical to our ultimate success against world terrorism."
The U.S. Army intends to court-martial a sergeant accused of tossing grenades into fellow service members' tents while stationed in Kuwait. The attack killed two officers.
What pisses me is that up here in Montreal, the CBC and CTV television networks are also headlining this Bush ad and ensuant reaction.
We don't even have the ad aired here, obviously. The lefty media sticks together. And it seems, idiotarians the world over hate President Bush.
But how many old fogeys watching our 11:00 news have seen them? The network news showed only the 2-3 seconds of the WTC footage. The rest of the "report" focused on the L3 whiner victims. No context.
I'm the worst enemy of a fuck of a lot of people. I am and have been for over 25 years a Timeshare Consultant, (yeah, yeah) to Timeshare Developers. I handle everything from the people snatching your asses off a street, to Building the resorts, to pricing the resorts, to training salespersons, to make sure in MY INSTANCE, that it is sold 'straight', to Resales 'straight up' for those that have no need for their ownership, any longer. If you don't know how to use what you own and want to keep what you own, I explain to you, how to use it. No Bullshit. Average sales price with MY resale effort for owners is roughly 3 quarters of what they paid. As I say 'straight up deal'
'Straight' IS You ain't NEVER going to retire as a rich shit, by owning a week of Timeshare. It's a way that the average person can enjoy his/her slice of luxury, he/she could NOT otherwise afford. I hold several Real Estate Broker Licenses, and have NEVER had a blemish on any of them.
Long premise of what I do, to explain what occured at one of the resorts I handle. Shortly after 9/11/01 a New York City Firefighter, visited one of our resorts (on a exchange) in Tennessee. Typical New Yorker...fast talking, know it all. As a highly trained salesperson, I'm taught in recognition of signs of a or the potential of a purchaser. This FDNY already owned as I said as he exchanged in to our resort.
He and his wife came to one of our meetings...NO NOT a sales pitch...just a damn meeting, but his defenses were up in anticipation of a 'sales pitch'. In looking at this person, I could see the heartfelt hurt in his eyes. The entire meeting consisted of me introducing an American Hero, to a room filled with about 200 people from all over the country. For all this Firefighter's bluster, HIS response to a standing 10 minute ovation, was breaking down and crying, which led to another 10 minute standing ovation for his bravery.
Did I exploit this man and his family?...NO, I honored him. Did I use this event as a sales ploy? NO I honored him. Did the 200 guests in that room feel that I had exploited him? No they were thrilled at seeing a true American Hero.
Is Bush exploiting these people NO! He is honoring them. Just as I did Bush he saw the horror. The difference is that Bush heard the crys, saw the bodies and parts of bodies, smelled the stench of massacre, first hand, just as this Firefighter had.
What Bush is honoring is nothing more than what Roosevelt did, what Lincoln did, what Wasington did.
What the left is doing is DIShonoring those poor souls and their families by pretending that it never happened, or that as kerry indicates resort to a 'police action' again.
If what Bush is doing is exploitation, then will should dig up Arlington, valuable Real estate, you know. Bring up the Arizona, in Pearl Harbor, tear down the Vietnam Wall. For if Bush is 'exploiting' WE ALL ARE.
Leftist's need their asses kicked, whether it be a politician, a media or a country in OLD europe.
The family members expressing their "outrage" over the use of images from 9/11 were undoubtedly already far left of center long before 9/11. The attacks on that day simply gave them another reason to hate Dubya and America.
Good roundup Charles. This is a golden moment for the blogosphere to nail old media's slimy asses to the historical wall, and the best way to do it is to just keep track; as their spiritual mentor Karl Marx once suggested of capitalists: they will provide the rope to hang themselves.
There is only one man running for President who understands the threat, and will take any measures at all to confront it and defeat it. And his opponents want to flense from the public memory all recollection of the crucible that made that man step forth.
Had to look this one up: flense(v) -- To strip the blubber or skin from, as from a whale, seal, etc.
I sense a new addition to the blogosphere lexicon, and just in time for the long eight months ahead.
flense(blogosphere) -- (1) To strip the context or facts from a media story in order to present its subject in a predetermined or worst possible light. (2) To try to remove topics from public discourse by preemptively declaring them offensive (see Kerry, John F. and Vietnam; Bush, George W. and 9-11).
Methinks both these Democrat 9-11 widows and Kerry doth protest too much.
Hey, Mrs. Casazza, over 50,000 Vietnam veteran brothers were buried in a war for our country and got no recognition for their service. Their families did not receive a million dollars for their suffering. These families still have that pain. So shut the hell up and tell your firefighter friends to get a life. We make a choice and live with it, death is not easy, but we will all go there eventually, I will find it easiler to go to the afterlife without a union leader stuck up my butt.
Oh, get real. The media plastered us with those images non-stop for about 5 months. Now people are angered by someone who's spent his entire presidential career trying to make sure that it doesn't happen again putting it on little dinky commercials--the central event of his time in office? What would Kerry have done if he had been president during Sept. 11--send a "strongly worded letter" to Osama and tell him to give peace a chance? And tell him that he fought in Vietnam? Sometimes I'd just like to move to Iceland and become some no-name fisherman and ignore this idiotic world.
I suppose that if TV had been around, they would have cricitized FDR for using footage of Pearl Harbor.
Thank You. 'That was a great fucking experience'. For as long as I live, I will NEVER forget. To see, feel and hear the emotion this REAL MAN let loose in that room, that day. To see his fellow citizens, citizens of the world show their appreciation for his honor and bravery.
No one with the common bone of dignity and humanity, should EVER forget.
The tools, fools and copperhead press, all willing to collaborate to tear apart the foundations of the nation to get something not wanted except by them and not worth having except as coveted by their failed sense of value. John Kerry, running his "swift boat" along the byways of American politics and turning the campaign into a free fire zone, trying to turn 9-11 into a parody of the parody of that the press made of Tet.
I gotta say that even as a non-Bush supporter I think this story is overblown. It's quite clear that the people making these complaints have a political agenda. When you hear them interviewed, they don't talk about the use of the 9/11 images, rather they talk about how they think Bush failed to prevent 9/11 or how they disapprove of what he's done since.
Damn gymnast, you must be a Vietnam veteran. I do like Tet though. Peace, family, time to be thankful for the past, and pray for the future. Maybe, Buddism has it's good moments. Thought it does suffer as Judism does. Inter-peace is always thought as a weakness.
I say where's the outrage about John Kerry using Vietnam as a campaign issue? 57,000 people died in Vietnam. How dare he exploit the memory of those who died there for his own political gain?
Gymnast, I haven't been to Thailand since 1975. I enjoyed the culture very much. I will be returning to Vietnam in August of this year and hope to get to Thailand. I would like to visit Cambodia and also Laos. I never worried about it being safe before. In a time of such violence. People should take care to know how wonderful these cultures are and be respecful.
On November 19, 1863 - almost exactly one year before his successful reelection bid - Abraham Lincoln had the audacity to go to Gettysburg, where he shamelessly exploited a recent battle to further his political ambitions:
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who died here that that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
One of the articles I read today, can't remember which, did however mention that unions were upset, and that they had endorsed Kerry before the ads started. The Dems say they want more money for first responders. However, that money is for after a terrorist attack. Somehow, that doesn't make me feel safer...
I can say one thing. I watched a firefighters Union official on TV do his little number in front of the press tonight, and a lot of the goodwill capital that firefighters as a group have accumulated since 9/11 has just evaporated as far as I am concerned.
If (or when) Kerry or a Democrat becomes President, firefighters will have a lot more work for sure, for the country will become wide open to be hit.
Hey thanks for posting this link for all us deprived Canuks. ALL the alphabet networks (except Fox) are playing the same lefty tune. This is sickening. 9-11 IS THE DEFINING MOMENT OF OUR PERIOD --- of course Bush should remind people that when the going got tough,the tough got going. People have short memories right up to the point when the fanatics come calling AGAIN.
Between whining that their $1.8 million payouts weren't enough... and now whoring themselves to the democrats... these 9-11 survivors may still deserve sympathy... but any respect they once had, forget about it.
... We write this from offices that are 200 yards from Ground Zero and were rendered uninhabitable for almost a year by the attack. (The photo below was the view from our windows.) The threat of another such assault, and how to prevent it, has dominated our politics for three years. From tax cuts designed to save the economy from the double-whammy of terrorism and recession, to the Patriot Act, to regime change in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of Mr. Bush's "forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East," just about every recent major policy is inextricably linked to the event so mildly depicted in these Bush ads. Isn't an election supposed to be about such things?
Even Democrats know that it is, so they are manufacturing this outrage for a political purpose: President Bush still polls extremely well on his handling of the war on terror, and Democrats are trying to define the debate in a way that keeps him from playing to his strengths. The polls also show that Mr. Bush scores well as a "leader," so Democrats are also trying to stop him from reinforcing that image.
But what is Mr. Bush supposed to do, stop being President? Incumbency clearly has its large (and sometimes unfair) advantages. Yet try as we might, we can't seem to recall similar outrage about Bill Clinton's use of incumbency when he was running for re-election--at least not outrage that got any media traction.
Where, for example, was the tut-tutting about the former President "exploiting" the Oklahoma City bombing by giving an election-year speech there in April 1996? We'd also take the current handwringing a bit more seriously if we heard any similar worries about John Kerry "exploiting" his service in Vietnam. ...
There's no liberal media bias! A friend told me Al Franken disproved it in his book. And he believed it. Really. I wonder if that was before or after the part where he stole Harvard letterhead to write prank letters.
May I add one concept. That President Bush earned the right to use those images. He came to Ground Zero Friday Sept 13th and let me tell you that took guts. It took guts for anyone to walk towards that pile.
The President drove past us on the West Side Highway that night and the crowd cheered.
Fighter jets patroled the skies above.
Mr. President you have my vote.
I’m struck by the similarity of these ads to those in Wag the Dog. Bush’s ‘Steady leadership in times of change’ has strong echoes of the film’s lame re-election slogan ‘Don’t change horses in midstream’ which gets trashed by the Dustin Hoffman and Denis Leary characters (“Why are they sticking with the same old garbage. Who hires these people?” “I feel insulted just having seen it.”) Between this folksy horseshit and Kerry asking to be recognised as the second black President after Clinton I’m surprised any of you can keep your meals down. And you’ve got another eight months of it.
The ad is excellent, very effective, has the Dems hoppin' mad, and it's getting a lot of news exposure for free. I can only hope Bush's campaign will continue the good work!
Agreed. Whomever came up with that slogan should be out on their ass (arse?)
How about, "Strong leadership in times of crisis?" Or just cut to the chase: "Who would the terrorists vote for?"
People, this manufactured "controversy" is the first real battle of Election '04, and the Bush team damn well better appreciate what they're up against. Kerry's only chance to win in November is to make this election about things other than 9/11 and the WoT. He would like nothing more than to intimidate the Repubs into not talking about it for fear of giving "offense." With the bulk of the major media lined up behind Kerry, trying to play nice will be fatal.
First, you have families of victims who are very sensitive about the portrayal of events on 9/11. Some are now politically active (the firefighters' union guy actually endorsed Kerry before the Bush ad came out).
Some think that 9/11 itself should not be the subject of political ads out of a notion of sanctity and respect.
Others think that this is a perfectly acceptable ad to run, because it reminds people exactly what we're fighting for (freedom and preventing terrorism) and against (Islamic fundamentalism, despotic regimes, and extremism).
When I saw all these different stories coming out, I was not surprised that some used different adjectives to describe the response from 9/11 families.
This is no uniform group of people. There are dozens of families' groups. Some represent firefighters, some are umbrella organizations, some represent single companies, other represent police rescuers. All have different motivations. So, when you have one headline that says families are outraged while another says some families are outraged, you know that editorialization is at work.
Frankly, I know that some families are outraged, and they're entitled to that opinion, but without qualifying that only some families are outraged, you would think that all 3,000+ families affected would be outraged, which is clearly not the case.
Laura Ingraham just read a bit of opinion off of the Wall Street Journal that totally nailed it.
She didn't , however, mention the article's author.
Supposedly Clinton did a speech at the Oklahoma Bombing site. No one seemed to care or whine over that.
The hypocrats and LLL will whine about anything.
So, maybe the LLL media elites and whiners should provide the Bush administration with a list of topics that would not offend their delicate sensibilities.
Maybe George Bush can talk about his hair - that's safe.
So, I guess Bush has zero talking points.
So that liberals wont be offended or challenged - Bush should just sit down and shut up and happily let the media, John Kerry, and each and every LLL idiot on the Katie Couric show - beat the crap out of him.
We all know how fairness and tolerance are the center piece of liberal philosophy.
Speaking of the media echo chamber and distorted views, how can [Link: news.bbc.co.uk...] be construed as Palestinians living in slums and under depraved conditions when they're able to stroll on beautiful beaches in Gaza?
Of course they can, when Israelis have a much better view:
[Link: news.bbc.co.uk...] - tourism in Gaza went bye bye because Arafat's goon squads pilfered every last dollar coming into the country. No wonder developers decided against putting any money into the cesspool of Arafat's own creation.
Those links will all get to the same page, so the first link is meant for the first picture in the series, the second link is the second picture, and the third link is for the third link.
I remember being surprised after 9/11 at the (admittedly few, that I heard) relatives of victims who opposed any military response on our part.
Regarding the ads, I think they set just the right tone. Let the liberals complain. I doubt they're going to be able to coerce a majority of people into believing we ought to forget about it.
And I also think, in fairness, it should be pointed out that John Kerry pays $200 for a haircut and color, and styling - as I understand it.
We had a very very very very very rich fellow in our town who recently died. Whenever he decided he was ready for a haircut, he would come into the barber shop and put himself at the front of the line and compensate those whose schedules had been delayed by paying for their haircuts. When it established itself as a pattern, he was told by the owner that it had to stop. Those as rich as Kerry's wife are often quite eccentric.
You're right...I'm sure that if all (or at least a majority) of the 9/11 relatives were polled on this, their responses would be all over the place.
The larger point, though, is that whatever their opinions on the ads or whether or not those opinions are politically driven, ALL the 9/11 relatives need to understand that their tragically personal connection to 9/11 does not give them ownership of the event.
9/11 was an attack on America. It is part of our history, our darkest day since Pearl Harbor. Regardless of their feelings about President Bush, the attacks and his leadership in response to them are public record and therefore legitimate points on which to campaign.
Everytime I see the name of a 9/11 family member which is accusing President Bush of insensitivity for using these events in his campaign videos. Colleen Kelly, Monica Gabrielle, Tom Rogers, Harold Schaitberger all have made their thoughts know to the media and I respect their lose, 9/11 was a terrible tragedy it has had a life changing effect on a great many Americans. Yet when I google those names I continue to find out that these same people have no problem invoking the memory of 9/11 to push their own political agendas, or are all the articles and letters by these people inaccurate. I suggest everyone do the same search and find out for themselves if these folks are hypocrites, It certainly appears to me they are.
9/11 was a national tragedy, as a Vietnam veteran I have never felt such forboding and grief for our nation. These events also spelled out the fact that Islamists had declared war on our freedoms and nation. They showed the world that President Bush is a honorable and strong leader who would never run from assassins and murderers. They showed that this country would never live in fear, and they showed the world that America is really a nation who knows what price must be paid to live in freedom. These events are as much a part of America as the attacks at Pearl Harbor and they belong to all Americans, they should never be forgotten and they don't belong to all one group of people.
9/11 has been a watershed event in the 21 century, Islam extremists proved they wanted war with the USA . And use the words of their prophet contained in the Koran to justify those actions, These events aren't isolated and they aren't a criminal act, they were a act of war, these actions are talked about and condoned in the Koran. People need to wake-up and read and understand the enemy, because our enemy is coming and he has no regard for the "infidels".
President Bush is right and if anything he needs to use more reminders of 9/11 lest we ever forget. This same war has been fought for 50 years in Israel, it's not going away until the evil and corrupt regimes in the middle east from where it springs are gone. Those regimes and the practice of pure Islam brought the USA 9/11 and the President is right to remind everyone...
In a comment titled "Dung Patty," --- Jonah Goldberg makes the following comment on the head of the Firefighters Union (the Kerry Campaigner who is bashing the Bush ads).
Tim - that guy's name is "Schaitberger"! High school must have been a real treat with that name.
Federal #80 Good post
I would add something to the idea that it was an attack on all America and belongs to us all. On discussions with people, I have been amazed at how many there were personally affected. Not just in general as an American, but that they had a family member killed, survived, just missed being there, etc. At most there seems to be only one or two degrees of separation from the event - e.g., they go to church with parents of a victim. I myself have a cousin who was supposed to work on one of the flights but she switched shifts with someone else the night before. 300 million people and it seems everyone knows somebody or knows somebody who knows somebody, if you know what I mean. I can only imagine what it is like with the attacks in Israel.
#79 - there's a fat chance of that happening. Many of these family groups were set up for one of four basic purposes:
1) counselling and support;
2) lobbying for better construction/safety in buildings;
3) lobbying for better compensation from the Victim Compensation Fund; and
4) lobbying for more say on the reconstruction of the WTC site.
All of those are worthy goals in and of themselves, but as you say, should not impose themselves and exclude non-victims from having a say on 9/11 related items (reconstruction, defense, memorials, etc.)
Thanks for your very insightful post. You said, so much more eloquently, what I’ve thought since 9/11. I feel a deep respect and sorrow for the lives lost and for the families of those who lost loved ones during the destruction of those Towers. I resent the blatherings of those who are now diminishing our President’s tasteful representation of that destruction in his campaign advertisements. With all due respect, some of them seem to me little more than a bunch of narcissists who think that the awful devastation that day was just about them. Well, as my old Pop would say, “In 100 years, ain’t nobody gonna remember me”. And, sadly enough, in 100 years few will remember the individual souls who perished at the WTC either. But the whole nation for generations to come is going to remember 9/11. And they are going to remember who our leader was at the time and history will judge him by the actions he took to diminish the threat of those who would continue to destroy us. There is no way that GWB’s Presidency can be separated from 9/11.
I do not always agree with all of our current administration’s policies. But I do agree with the preliminary actions taken in Afghanistan and Iraq that began the process of eliminating what I would call Global Mohammedan Destructionism. I have fears about electing a new administration this year that might take us back to 9/10/01. To believe in “peaceful tomorrows” is delusional. The next few years are going to present our nation with new and more clever catastrophes of destruction because these people aren’t done with us yet. Who will be in command then to react to that, and how will they react? And I use the term “react” because total prevention is just a pipe dream. If this administration reminds us in their ads that our whole world was turned upside-down on 9/11 and draws upon that realization to encourage us to keep a leadership in place that would do more than just sit around with their thumbs up their butts negotiating and wishing for a utopian peaceful solution, they’ll get my vote.
By the way, I love your use of the word “flense”. I visit LGF every day and am never disappointed because I always learn something new.
So that liberals wont be offended or challenged - Bush should just sit down and shut up and happily let the media, John Kerry, and each and every LLL idiot on the Katie Couric show - beat the crap out of him.
Well Duh.
But ya know what's funny? If the L³ had any argument at all, wouldn't they be just waiting to debate that, not scream foul?
I think their strategy is to attempt to pre-emptively challenge any criticism that makes Kerry look bad. I heard of the criticism before I'd even seen the Bush ads. Big problems there. First off, 9-11 and its aftermaths can't be ignored. They are too important, too critical, and too consequential. Secondly, Kerry isn't even the nominee yet, but everyone else has quit, so you don't even get to have a defining debate within the party. How anti-climatic will the Dem national convention be? (Except for maybe infighting and maneuvering) and Bush has enough money to continuously hammer Kerry on any number of issues - for months before he's even official.
Kerry finds himself in a position to define the Democratic party, we'll see what he does with it.
BigMedia (read: LLL) is definitely going to overplay the 'outrage'. It's already begun. But just wait until round #2. If the Dem's and their allies in the media are 'shocked' by these ads, it's going to be a very long campaign for them.
And don't for one minute think that Mr. Rove or Mrs. Hughes (Thank God she's back!) didn't understand that the DNC and BigMedia would react this way.
Eight months of Kerry taking both sides of the issues. Eight months of Kerry screaming 'They're questioning my patriotism!" Eight months of Kerry and the DNC whining and moaning about the campaign. Eight months of Kerry droning on about '"Bring... It... On!". Eight months of Kerry twisting out there in the wind, screaming about the economy and Iraq even as both issues continue to improve.
As things currently stand, provided nothing terrible happens between now and November, Bush will win. It won't be a landslide - but it won't be a replay of 2000 or 1960.
People, this manufactured "controversy" is the first real battle of Election '04, and the Bush team damn well better appreciate what they're up against. Kerry's only chance to win in November is to make this election about things other than 9/11 and the WoT. He would like nothing more than to intimidate the Repubs into not talking about it for fear of giving "offense."
And remember folks, this is from the same media that gave us "no fighting/bombing during Ramadan" and the "brutal Afghan winter"...
I don't know if this was brought up yet, but perhaps the left's bitching will work to the Presidents advantage. Compare Mel Gibson's movie (and NO, I'm not trying to start a thread on that). If people wouldn't have made such a big deal about it, it'd be a little independent film for a specific audience. Instead he's at...I think $155 million in sales so far.
Now people will watch the "controversial" commercial to see what the big deal is. Bush is going to get a lot of mileage for his advertising dollar.
And just when I was getting a little down on Bush due to some of his domestic policies, I'm back up to full steam in supporting him again.
I am so sick of the left rhetoric about everything the president does. I believe that President Bush had every right in the world to use scenes from Sept. 11 in his campaign ad. I believe that those images and message he protrayed are vital to reminding the American people about the leadership he provided and has provided since the tragedy. People that suffered losses in the tragedies that day need to remember that their lives weren't the only ones uprooted and changed forever that day. Our country and how we view the world can never be the same, and it is the responsibility of the commander in chief to stay the course, and defend our way of life. So, when you feel like downgrading your and MY president for using a piece of historical reality that affected all of us, please think about the big picture and remember that it wasn't only your tragedy, it was all of ours.
I am comfortable and secure raising my daughter in the country that we currently live in. When I look at John Kerry and George Bush running for president, I have to ask myself, who would I rather have in charge of the security of my family? A man like George Bush who will stand tall, tackle evil head on, and honorably defend freedom, or John Kerry who when is faced with the same challenges will choose to sit on the toilet to urinate rather than stand. It's not a difficult decision for me.
It's important that the President make it clear that he's not politicizing 9/11. I hope he does this as soon as possible, or at least by the conclusion of the Republican National Convention. In September. In New York City.
also, no one has mentioned Clinton waging a war on terrorism before his 2nd term was up (one of three wars waged in two weeks during his trial). his war consisted of lobbing a few bombs at an Asprin Factory in Afgahn. this didn't kill the bear, it just made him mad. and then Bush had to clean up the mess and now he's under attack for running the 911 ads. it is outrageous how much the media backs the democrats not only by attacking Bush, but by not attacking Clinton or their new holy boy, Kerry. they don't have a liberal bent, it's more of a liberal doing-cartwheels. lame, lame, lame, but what can we do but take it... for the left wing always acts as if they're the underdogs fighting the establishment, when in reality they are the Establishment trying to rule the world!!!
Music is the most physically inspiring of all the arts. -- Said as he gave the keynote address at the American Society of University Composers in Columbus Ohio in 1985.
Frank says:
