A Spork in the Drawer

Time Flies

It's hard to believe that it's been seven years since George was informed that "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

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Solved?

The other terrorist attack in 2001 - the anthrax murders - may finally have been solved:

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

Ivins' suicide shouldn't be taken as proof of guilt - remember Richard Jewell and Stephen Hatfill? - so we best wait to see what evidence the FBI has compiled.

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ADDED: Glenn notes ABC News' complicity in this story:

ABC News already knows the answers to these questions. They know who concocted the false bentonite story and who passed it on to them with the specific intent of having them broadcast those false claims to the world, in order to link Saddam to the anthrax attacks and -- as importantly -- to conceal the real culprits behind the attacks. And yet, unbelievably, they are keeping the story to themselves, refusing to disclose who did all of this. They're allegedly a news organization, in possession of one of the most significant news stories of the last decade, and they are concealing it from the public, even years later.

And perhaps the Ivins story is what this was all about.

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The Company They Keep

Newsweek's Isikoff and Hosenball report from the first day of the "trial" of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed:

He then declared, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, speaking halting but clear English, "I cannot accept any attorney who is not governed by sharia [Islamic] law. I will represent myself. I will not be represented by anybody even if he is a Muslim, because he will be sworn to your American Constitution. I consider all the U.S. Constitution and laws evil. They are allowing for same-sexual marriages and many things that are very bad … Do you understand what I said?" [emphasis added]

The Republican Party will soon demand all charges be dropped so they can run him for political office.

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Coincidence, I'm Sure

About those trials for the alleged 9/11 conspirators:

The document includes an e-mail from a civilian member of the prosecution team proposing to set the trial date for Sept. 15, the Monday after the seventh anniversary of the suicide attacks.

''Not coincidentally,'' the defense attorneys say, ``that would force the trial of this case in mid-September, some seven weeks before the general elections.''

Not that BushCheney would attempt to play politics with so serious an issue.

That's crazy talk.

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Fluffing A Liar

The AP's Lara Jakes Jordan has a lightweight profile of Attorney General Michael Mukasey which includes this bit:

In San Francisco the next day, he choked up mentioning the Sept. 11 attacks to illustrate what might happen if the government cannot eavesdrop on the phone calls of suspected terrorists. "You've got 3,000 people who went to work that day and didn't come home to show for that," he said, pausing first to compose himself. The federal courthouse where he served as chief judge at the time of the attacks is just blocks from ground zero in lower Manhattan.

Perhaps this intrepid reporter should read Glennzilla here and here.

Good work, Chuck and Di.

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Republican Patriotism

Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry:

We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.

It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, “I want to see your supervisor.” Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.

More than 4,000 "two-bit security guards" have died for McHenry's favorite war.

Video at link. If you can stand it.

From Atrios:

Washington, D.C. Office

224 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Telephone: 202.225.2576

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa yesterday:

San Diego GOP Rep. Darrell Issa was under siege for suggesting the federal government had already done enough to help New York cope with "a fire" that "simply was an aircraft" hitting the World Trade Center.

More than 3,000 died when those aircraft hit the WTC, Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. IS. WRONG. WITH. REPUBLICANS?

But I'm sure they were wearing flag pins on their lapels so it's OK.

As Steve Benen says, "Let’s play, ‘Imagine If A Democrat Had Said This’"

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The Tears Of A Clown

Rudy! discussing Hillary's "emotional moment":

The reality is, if you look at me, September 11 — the funerals, the memorial services — there were times in which it was impossible not to feel the emotion.

9iul1an1, indeed.

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Power Over Principle

So Grand Ayatollah Pat Robertson has gone and endorsed Benito Giuliani despite Rudy's long history of social liberalism. (I don't think for a minute that a president Giuliani would govern as a social liberal, but that's his record.)

This just adds to the pile of evidence that the likes of Robertson care about power first and foremost. They know that whatever else, Rudy will bomb and kill and run his administration in a way that will make us nostalgic for the sanity and moderation of BushCheney. To Hell with strongly held Biblical principles so long as they think they'll be able to put a boot on people's throats.

And as Greg Sargent reminds us, somebody ought to ask Rudy if he agrees with Robertson's contention that the United States deserved the 11 September attacks.

I would enjoy hearing Rudy's answer.

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Rudy9/11Rudy9/11Rudy9/11Rudy9/11Rudy9/11

From Democrats.org:

Rudy Giuliani is now saying that he took a cell phone call from his wife in the middle of a speech last week because of--wait for it--September 11. Of course.

Giuliani also addressed a cell phone call he took from his wife, Judith, last week during his speech to the National Rifle Association...

"And quite honestly, since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane, we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other," he said.

I've said it before: If Rudy could dig up the corpses of the WTC victims and put them on the stage at one of his rallies he would.

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Rudolph

Will's right, this is sick stuff:

A supporter of Rudy Giuliani's is throwing a party that aims to raise $9.11 per person for the Republican's presidential campaign.

[...]

But Sofaer said he had nothing to do with the "$9.11 for Rudy" theme.

"There are some young people who came up with it," Sofaer said when reached by telephone Monday evening. He referred other questions to Giuliani's campaign.

"I'm just providing support for him. He's an old friend of mine," Sofaer said of Giuliani.

Sofaer was a State Department adviser under President Reagan and is a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution

The disparaging nickname "Ghouliani" has never been more apt (and don't think for a moment that his campaign didn't at least sign off on this). This is taking "waving the bloody shirt" to previously unimaginable lows. What's next, digging up the corpses of those killed at the WTC and arranging them on stage for a campaign rally?

The AP story ends thusly:

Giuliani was mayor of New York during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Like Rudy is ever, ever, going to let us forget that.

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Art Spiegelman

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To Hell With It

Let's roll:

Nearly two years after the design of the United Flight 93 Memorial was changed to eliminate any perceived Islamic symbolism, the father of one of the people killed in the crash has asked that his son's name be withheld from the monument.

"It's something I'd rather not do, but I can't get anyone to listen," said Tom Burnett Sr., of Northfield, Minn. "In a sense, I'm asking for a call to action."

Mr. Burnett, who served on the Stage II jury that picked the winning design originally named "Crescent of Embrace," said that he raised his concerns about using a crescent-shaped grouping of red maple trees around the crash site then.

"It's almost as though it's intentional," he said. "This design should not invoke any Islamic impression of any sort."

[...]

But criticism, largely driven by online blogs, has continued.

Golly, if it appears on a blog then it's true!

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There's A Surprise

This has been coming on for awhile but the murder-minded Stu Bykofsky, who wants to see "another 9/11" because it would teach us a lesson, has opened the floodgates and allowed us to see the true face of the rightwing. Bykofsky is now a hero to the FoxRushHannity crowd.

There it is: The rightists want - WANT - another massive terrorist attack resulting in enormous numbers of dead Americans (presumably not including themselves; their lives are too precious). No doubt in their twisted little fantasy worlds this would allow the imposition of martial law and the internment of evil liberals.

Insert a Nazi analogy if you wish. Our pals on the right have earned it.

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ADDED: Josh Marshall says, "The surprising part of this, however, is that a variety of far-right media outlets seemed to embrace Bykofsky's message...For a column that pines for mass murder, this isn't the reaction I expected."

Sorry, Josh, you really haven't been paying attention.

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Our Friends On The Right

Why a major daily newspaper - the Philadelphia Daily News - decided to publish this sick shit is beyond my reasoning:

ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America.

[...]

America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.

What would sew us back together?

Another 9/11 attack.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago's Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda.

Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again?

If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America's righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.

The unity brought by such an attack sadly won't last forever.

The first 9/11 proved that.

This is the true face of the Republican party.

e-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977

[Via Atrios.]

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A New Low

George this morning:

"I strongly believe that is the case,” he said, adding that it is our job to “work to change the conditions that moved 19 kids to come on airplanes to murder our citizens. … I could not send a mother’s child into combat if I did not believe it was necessary."

"19 kids"?

Honestly, there's nothing more that can be said for this sociopathic moron.

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41%...

...the percentage of Americans that still believe that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for the 11 September attacks, according to a new Newsweek poll.

In fairness, so many in the administration make that connection, and so few in the "news" media bother to correct them, that this number really isn't that surprising.

There are also some damned strange questions in this poll such as:

[Via The War Room.]

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This Is Interesting

Passed along without comment:

PARIS (AP) — A French intelligence service learned as early as January 2001 that al-Qaeda was working on a plot to hijack U.S. airliners, and it passed the information on to the CIA, Le Monde reported Monday.

[...]

Le Monde reported that the documents included a note dated Jan. 5, 2001, which said al-Qaeda had been working on a hijacking plot for months. The intelligence note reported that bin Laden had attended a meeting in Afghanistan in October 2000, where a final decision to carry out the plot was made, the newspaper said.

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There Can Be No Doubt

Disney/ABC have joined the most extreme elements of the Right.

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UPDATE: Clinton is taking action on this.

Kudos to John Aravosis for keeping the heat on.

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Good Question

LTE:

When the U.S. death toll in Iraq equals that of 9/11, will a national day of mourning be proclaimed?

BERJE SAMUELIAN
Newport Beach

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