Washington Post: "Ben Wilson sat in his living room in Harlem late Monday and listened as former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani talked of Sept. 11, 2001, and why the events of that day all but demanded that Americans vote for President Bush. Wilson listened -- and clicked off his television. He had watched the first airplane crash into the World Trade Center. His son serves in Iraq with the Marines. 'Listen to me: A lot of us suffered that day,' said Wilson, who is African American. 'You tell me what Bush has done that gives him the right to come here and milk that attack for votes? Man, the Republicans annoy me.'"

"In February, 2002, Giuliani insisted upon transferring guardianship of the $100 million remaining in the city-run Twin Towers Fund to a private charity he controlled. The families of the police and fire rescuers who died in the attack balked at Giuliani's plan to take up to a year to dole out the money, with his new organization billing $2.2 million in anticipated administrative expenses (including six-figure salaries for friends he appointed as officers). The families argued that the fire union had far more quickly distributed $111 million with an estimated administrative cost of just $30,000. Under embarrassing pressure from the victims' families, unions and state Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, Giuliani backed down... The families of the deceased rescuers, the real heroes of the 9-11 attacks, received a one-time benefit of about $230,000 each from the Giuliani-privatized fund in 2002. That year, [he] earned some $8 million in speaking fees alone, more than $650,000 per month."

Joe Conason writes, "Again and again, the [9/11] report takes careful note of Clinton's active, personal participation in the effort against al Qaeda during the Millennium alert, exploding myths about his supposed distraction by domestic scandals. Clarke spoke directly with the president on several occasions that month. 'In mid-December,' the report reveals, 'President Clinton signed a Memorandum of Notification (MON) giving the CIA broader authority to use foreign proxies to detain Bin Ladin lieutenants'... The commission confirms Clinton's widely reported 'obsession' with al Qaeda, describing in detail his efforts to raise international awareness, increase spending on counterterrorism and homeland security long before that phrase became fashionable, and to demand action by the nation's covert forces. Indeed, their report credits Clinton with ignoring a serious threat to his own safety to seek [Pakistan's] assistance in the struggle against bin Laden."

"What's your library doing on September 11? On Saturday, September 11, 2004, people around the world will come together at public places like local libraries. What: Share and discuss your ideas about democracy, citizenship, and patriotism through public talks, roundtables, and performances. Where: Libraries are ideal hosts for community events. They are free. They are open to the public. And there are over 16,000 public libraries in the U.S. Let's begin at the libraries. assemble + express + vote. Be heard on September 11, exchange ideas, and register to vote. The September Project is a collection of people, groups, and organizations devoted to make this happen. "

"The Center for American Progress writes: The President [sic] took the rare step of publicly rebuking one of his own cabinet members, Attorney General John Ashcroft, for engaging in an unmitigated smear campaign designed to discredit Commission member Jamie Gorelick. During Ashcroft's 4/13/04 testimony he declassified and distributed a 1995 memo written by former deputy Attorney General Gorelick, prompting conservative members of Congress and rightwing pundits to launch relentless attacks against Gorelick. Emerging from his off-the-record session with the 9/11 Commission, Bush told the Commission he was 'disappointed' by Ashcroft's actions. [But days later the smears remained on the DOJ website!]"

Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), who is also a pilot, said before 911 the FAA "did things like allow fairly open access between the cabin and the cockpit based on that theory--'Let the hijackers come in and we'll talk about it; get the plane on the ground.' I think that once this administration understood the degree of vulnerability we had from a new use of airplanes as weapons of mass destruction, they had an obligation to tell the FAA and the commercial aviation industry of this so that they could have gone about the business of redeploying their past practices in order to meet this new threat. Now, would that have avoided September 11? I don't know. But it would have been an intelligent thing to do in any event." The FAA could also have ordered the airlines to "harden" cockpit doors to prevent hijackings.

"While the Bush administration maintains it was focused extensively on terrorism, our analysis of 557 public statements reveals only one mention of al Qaeda by the administration over the 8-month period. Notably, this single mention of al Qaeda was found in a signed notice from President Bush continuing an executive order - issued by President Clinton - prohibiting transactions with the Taliban [But in Spring 2001 Bush gave the Taliban $43 million to curtail poppy production, which is now booming!]... bin Laden was mentioned only 19 times during the same period, 17 of which occurred in the context of press briefings or questions from journalists. The record clearly shows that terrorism and the threat from al Qaeda were not on the list of priorities for the Bush administration in early 2001. At a time when al Qaeda was finalizing its plans to attack America, the Bush administration was focused on Iraq and national missile defense rather than the threat from extremist terrorist groups."

"As Bush tours the country touting his economic record, he is trying to shift the blame for the more than 2 million jobs that have been lost since he took office. Specifically, he has repeatedly claimed, 'over a million jobs were lost because of the [9/11] attack'. But a new report shows that there are no statistics to support this assertion, and that the White House itself cannot provide any evidence that this is the case. According to the Bureau of National Affairs, 'White House officials were unable to point to any specific information that supports a direct link between massive job losses and the attacks'. While one White House spokeswoman claimed that the President's statements were 'supported by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),' that agency's associate commissioner 'said BLS has not compiled any specific study on jobs which were lost specifically because of the Sept. 11 attacks.'"

Bush "told America he wants a 'society in which people take responsibility for the decisions they make' instead of 'blaming somebody else.' Yet he still refuses to own up to specific decisions he and his Administration made before 9/11 to 'de-emphasize terrorism' as a priority, terminate a key program to track Al Qaeda suspects in the United States, and 'veto a request' to put more money into counterterrorism after the Bush White House tried to slash the FBI's counterterrorism budget. The Administration also refused to take responsibility for rejecting January 2001 recommendations from the U.S. Government's bipartisan Commission on National Security and instead waited five months to create a counterterrorism task force, which it then never once convened. When asked about this on CBS' Face the Nation, Secretary of State Colin Powell said only 'I-I-I can't answer the specific question'." Impeach Bush Now!

Will Pitt writes, "Of course the Bush administration could never have anticipated an attack like the one that took place on September 11. They weren't paying attention to the threat. Had they done so, the attack could have been stopped. Final proof of this can be found in the events of December 31, 1999. Al Qaeda planned, and put into motion, simultaneous attacks against the national airports in Washington DC and Los Angeles, the Amman Raddison Hotel in Jordan, several holy sites in Israel, and the USS The Sullivans at dock in Yemen. In scope, scale and import, these attacks would have matched the catastrophe of September 11. Each and every single one of these attacks, which ranged from one side of the planet to the other, were foiled by the efforts of the Clinton administration. They were able to stop these attacks because of one simple reason: They were paying attention to the threat. September 11 could have been stopped. September 11 should have been stopped."

From CAP's 'Progress Report': "Bush yesterday used a 'brief visit' to a 9/11 memorial to force taxpayers to pick up the tab for a political fundraising trip in which he raked in more than $1.6 million for his campaign... as the WP notes, the proximity between politics and Sept. 11 'was unmistakable' yesterday. Unfortunately, yesterday was only the latest chapter in the White House's deliberate attempt to politicize 9/11... Here is a timeline of the politicization of 9/11, and questions that are still unanswered."

Will Pitt writes, "Bush is going to run in 2004 on the idea that his administration is the only one capable of protecting us from another attack like the ones which took place on 9-11. Yet the record to date is clear. Not only did they fail in spectacular fashion to deal with those first threats, not only has their reaction caused us to be less safe, not only have they failed to sufficiently bolster our defenses, but they used the aftermath of the attacks to ram through policies they couldn't have dreamed of achieving on 9-10... Never before has an administration used so grisly a personal failure to such excellent effect. Never mind the final insult: They received all these warnings and went on vacation for a month down in Texas. The August 6 briefing might as well have happened in a vacuum. September 11 could have and should have been prevented. Why? Because Bush knew... Someone needs to say those two words. Loudly." Kucinich, Dean, Clark, Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt - we're waiting!

Tom Flocco writes, "The following Senators will have to face voters in November, 2004 and answer for their actions in aiding and abetting the cover-up of airport security, shielding the identities of those who gave the orders to continue lax airport security in spite of dangerous intelligence reports, and failing to warn United States pilots, boarding gate personnel, flight attendants, air-traffic controllers and airline executives. They voted on November 19, 2002 to hold safe and harmless foreign-owned companies operating in the U.S. - Argenbright Securities (British), Globe Aviation Security Services (Sweden), and Huntleigh USA Corporation (Dutch). Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT), Sen. Christopher Bond (R-MO), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), Sen. Ben Nighthorse-Campbell (R-CO), Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)."

The 9-11 Calendar Page has launched a grassroots fax campaign to tell Bush we want the truth about 9-11. Choose from 3+ pre-written letters that you can download and fax to the White House.

"The National 9-11 Visibility Project formed in the Fall of 2003 by a group of concerned citizens in Seattle and Kansas City working to support the efforts of the 9-11 victims' families to obtain a complete and unobstructed investigation into the 2001 terrorist attacks. After learning about each other's activities, the Seattle and Kansas City groups joined together in organizing simultaneous street visibility actions the weekend after Thanksgiving. These public actions were so mutually inspiring and successful that a small group of us decided to launch a national organization/website to expand our efforts and promote the formation of similar 9-11 action groups in other cities. Our mission is to: 1. Raise public awareness of the disturbing, unanswered questions surrounding 9-11; 2. Draw attention to the Bush Admin's ongoing efforts to obstruct the current investigation and stonewall the 9-11 National Commission; 3. Support the victims' families in their efforts to obtain the truth."

"At his press conference yesterday, Bush was asked about charges that he had received warnings prior to the September 11th attacks that a terrorist incident was imminent. He answered that even asking such a question was 'an absurd insinuation.' It was the same sentiment expressed by Condoleezza Rice, who said in May of 2002 that '[no one predicted] that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane.' The problem for the president and the administration is that the White House has previously admitted that the president had personally received such specific warnings. As ABC News reported in May of 2002, 'White House officials acknowledge that U.S. intelligence officials informed Bush weeks before the September 11th attacks that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network might try to hijack American planes.' ... [And Bush] specifically received an 'analytic report' on August 6th, 2001 that 'talked about Osama bin Laden's methods of operation' and 'mentioned hijacking.'"

"TOMORROW'S 9/11 NEWSMAKERS TODAY" at the National Press Club on Wednesday, 12-10-03. Press Conference at 7:00 P.M. with ELLEN MARIANI: New Hampshire 9/11 widow who lost her husband Louis in Flight 175 which hit the WTC South Tower filed a 62-page RICO Act complaint against Bush, Cheney and other White House officials on November 26th charging foreknowledge of attacks; failure to act, prevent, or warn; passive abetment for personal & political gain; intentional, organized criminal activity; wrongful death; obstruction of justice; etc. PHILIP BERG: Ms. Mariani's attorney and former Deputy Attorney General of PA. JEFFREY A. TRUEMAN, Mariani Litigation Team Coordinator and Founder, Veterans Equal Rights Protection Advocacy, Inc. (www.verpa.org). JOHN BUCHANAN: Investigative journalist who broke the October story documenting Prescott Bush's role in Nazi financing from 1926 to 1942, now preparing to run against George W. Bush in the New Hampshire GOP Primary as the "9/11 Truth Candidate."

"We are an action-oriented 9-11 website. Many good websites already exist offering research and analysis of the events of September 11th, 2001. Our purpose is not to duplicate these efforts, nor to prove or disprove what really happened. Rather, our goal is to support the 9-11 truth movement itself, led by the victims' families' efforts to obtain full government accountability for the unprecedented intelligence and air defense failures that took place before and during the attacks. What you will find on this site are information and tools designed to help build this movement."

Howard Dean took on Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday. "WALLACE: 'The most interesting theory is that the president was warned ahead of time by the Saudis.' Why would you say that, Governor? DEAN: Because there are people who believe that. We don't know what happened in 9/11. Tom Kean is trying to get some information from the president... WALLACE: Do you believe that? DEAN: no, I don't believe that. I can't imagine the president of the United States doing that. But we don't know, and it'd be a nice thing to know. WALLACE: I'm just curious why you would call that the most interesting theory. DEAN: Because it's a pretty odd theory. What we do believe is that there was a lot of chatter that somehow was missed by the CIA and the FBI about this, and that for some reason we were unable to decide and get clear indications of what the attacks what were going to be. Because the president won't give the information to the Kean commission we really don't know what the explanation is."

"Two Democratic House members from South Florida, Peter Deutsch and Robert Wexler, are calling for an investigation into how Bush administration officials allowed about 140 Saudi nationals to leave the country in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At a time when all private aviation was grounded, top officials allowed charter flights to pick up Saudis around the country and then leave for Saudi Arabia, according to reports in Vanity Fair and The Tampa Tribune. The group included some members of the royal family and some relatives of Osama bin Laden. The departures occurred as investigators learned that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, and some Saudi officials said they feared a backlash against their citizens. Deutsch and Wexler requested the General Accounting Office to launch a formal investigation of the incident." The emperor is losing his clothes - and it's gonna be one helluva cold winter.

"There are three National Actions in the works for the upcoming commemoration of 9-11-03 happening across the continent. #1. 'AFTERMATH' simulcasts throughout North America. This historic guerrilla simulcast is happening all across North America. http://www.guerrillanews.com/after_math/ #2. 9-11 BOSTON TRUTH PARTY which will CONNECT THE 'DOTS' of 9-11 and literally throw them into the Boston Harbor. This action is designed to be used across the nation, but in BOSTON it is taking on the Revolutionary context of the Boston Tea Party (more info below) Contact: 'Honegger, Barb USA' NEW! #3. CONFRONT BUSH WITH TRUTH DOTS! I am getting contacted by people from Montreal, Seattle, Boston, NYC, Toronto, and more across the continent about events happening following the 3 actions listed above. "

Mike Tomasky writes, "Picture it. During the most political event American politics has to offer, a quadrennial nominating convention, the assembled honchos trudge down to ground zero and perform their ceremony. Pataki, Bush, Giuliani, Bloomberg; former president Bush, no doubt, and every major Republican figure from the past twenty years, with not a Democrat in sight (although, bet on it, the Boys Choir of Harlem or some other suitably multicultural outfit would be on hand). It would obviously be broadcast on every cable channel, and probably on the real networks, too. An event like this would make every person who died on the site a martyr - to a reelection campaign. If that's not politicizing 9/11, there is no such thing. So you would think someone would say something. Maybe the Times would editorialize on it. Lo and behold, the Times did-and said it was a pretty grand notion!... I can tell you exactly how they were read in the governor's chambers: Green light, baby!"

"Bush banked $4 million for his re-election campaign Monday, telling donors in [NYC]... that 'terrorists declared war on the United States of America, and war is what they got.' Bush was careful not to directly mention the Sept. 11... in his campaign speech here. Aides have said they won't use the attacks as campaign fodder." Yeah...right... they will use 'plausible deniability' by having Dubya 'beat around the Bush' while a proxy will mention 9/11 explicitly. This is also how they do political attacks -- such as back in the campaign against John McCain. "Gov. George Pataki was explicit in citing Sept. 11 as a reason why Bush should be re-elected... 'On Sept. 11 and thereafter we could have never had a stronger leader for our country.'" You mean the 'leader' who sat in the classroom and read a story about a goat, and then fled to the skies out of fear for his own safety, as Bush admitted to a German TV crew? Who has failed since then to secure our infrastructure?

AP reports: "Three senior senators are raising questions about the FBI's decision to conduct a fourth internal investigation of an agent who aired concerns about the bureau's counterterrorism investigations. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Republican from Utah, and Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, and Charles Grassley, Republican from Iowa, said in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller that the FBI seems quick to launch such probes when agents speak out publicly... The FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility has already conducted three investigations of FBI agent Robert Wright, who has claimed during news conferences and television appearances that he was ordered to drop terrorism investigations in the Chicago area by FBI intelligence officials. This was disputed by other FBI agents. The Senators have requested a briefing about his case."

On 9-11-01, after innumerable warnings from the FBI and the CIA, while Bush read a children's book about a pet goat, 2,819 people died at the World Trade Center. Bush has NEVER explained why he ignored all the warnings, and NEVER explained why he sat in the classroom while the nightmare unfolded. Bush has done EVERYTHING in his power to block a thorough and independent investigation of 9-11. Yet he has used the WTC as the backdrop for several photo ops already, and now plans ANOTHER one during the Republican convention in August 2004. It's time to say NO to Bush's exploitation of 9-11! Sign our petition (http://democrats.com/nyc)

Condoleezza Rice "said immediately. 'I think September 11th was one of those great earthquakes that clarify and sharpen. Events are in much sharper relief.' Like Bush, she said that opposing terrorism and preventing the accumulation of weapons of mass destruction 'in the hands of irresponsible states' now define the national interest.... Rice said that she had called together the senior staff people of the National Security Council and asked them to think seriously about 'how do you capitalize on these opportunities' to fundamentally change American doctrine, and the shape of the world, in the wake of September 11th." (New Yorker, 1/4/02) In other words, the target is not terrorism. The supposed suppression of terrorism worldwide merely offers 'opportunities' for the US to pursue its strategic agenda without geographic or temporal limits." Condi's sick remarks about the "opportunities" of 911 eerily echo what Bush has said many times about that day: "Lucky Me, I Hit the Trifecta!"

Writes Jimmy Breslin: "I am walking along lower Broadway, where there are not two jobs anywhere you look, and here was the always distasteful crowd looking at the former World Trade Center. It is so marvelous what the government is going to do with the remains of the trade center. They are going to take steel from Tower Two that was dumped at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island and ship it to Pascagoula, Miss., where they will build the USS New York at a local shipyard. It is being named in honor of the people who died at the World Trade Center. As I happened to see both those trade center towers go down and take a lot of people with them, I cannot fathom why we send the name of the city and state, and steel for a building job worth $800 million, to Pascagoula, which still believes the Civil War never ended."

"Bear in mind that the Clinton White House, right up to its last hours in office, kept very close tabs on Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Upon taking power in January of 2001, George W. Bush and his advisors were far less careful and watchful. This is shown by details such as outgoing Clinton advisor Sandy Berger's having told incoming Bush staffer Condi Rice that she would be spending more time on Al Qaeda than any other issue -- a warning ignored by Ms. Rice. It's also shown by Clinton's having ordered spy submarines to patrol the waters nearest Afghanistan -- submarines that George W. Bush took off that patrol when he assumed power...And let's not forget the scores of warnings the Bush circle ignored about a possible terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. However, it's very likely that Henry Kissinger will, in spite of these facts, choose to blame Bill Clinton, not the lax pre-9/11 Bush Cabinet...This is because Kissinger has a score to settle with Bill Clinton."

Timothy Noah writes: "Various people have explained why Henry Kissinger is a bad choice to run an investigation into what went wrong on Sept. 11. He's a liar. He's an apologist for corrupt regimes. Through his consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, he has a commercial interest in not shaking things up...Kissinger's defenders, of whom the most surprising is the longtime Kissinger critic William Safire, are not terribly convincing when they argue that Kissinger will do a good job because he is a better man than many give him credit for. (Safire's new line is that although Kissinger used to be a bad man, he's evolved into a good man.) But Chatterbox thinks it's still possible that Kissinger may - emphasize may - prove a smart choice to run the commission precisely because he's the same Machiavellian schemer he always was. The 9/11 committee carries great potential to become a vehicle for Kissinger's revenge against his bitterest bureaucratic foe. That would be Donald Rumsfeld."

"Infuriated Democrats on Sunday called for Ohio Republicans to pull a television ad using images of the destroyed World Trade Center... in an ad against Ohio Democratic congressional candidate Tim Ryan, calling it 'disrespectful' and 'a new low.' The political ad is believed to be the first in the country to use images of the destroyed towers, where 2,795 people died after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, in a negative political ad... The issue ad... starts out with a satellite shot of the Ground Zero area with the familiar plume of smoke rising in the air. A female voice narrates 'Americans are targets across the world: shootings, bombing, murders. America must fight back with the strongest military possible yet what does Tim Ryan say?'... Democrats immediately attacked the spot. 'This is a new low,' Ryan said. 'Apparently, my opponent has no shame and will do anything to get elected, including exploiting the saddest day in our nation's history, its victims and their families.'"

"The following, alleged to be a draft of a speech George W. Bush wrote himself, to be delivered on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, recently came into our hands from a usually reliable White House source, the person known to us as 'Shallow Throat.' Previously, this GOP mole slipped other papers and insights our way. (See 'The 'Shallow Throat' Documents: A Pre-9/11 Bush&Co. Scenario,' published here in February, and ' 'Shallow Throat' Reveals Bush&Co.'s Weak Spots,' published here in June.) We can't attest to this document's validity, and we have no idea if the speech actually will be delivered. But the reputed draft certainly leads to interesting speculations. See what you make of it." So writes Bernard Weiner.

Delegates to the International Association of Fire Fighters passed a "sense of the convention" advisory motion to their General President Harold Schaitberger protesting Bush's veto of a $5.1 billion supplementary spending appropriations bill that included $100 million for communications systems improvements for firefighters, police officers and emergency workers, $90 million for long-term health monitoring of emergency workers at Ground Zero, and $150 million for equipment and training grants to fire departments. 'I did get the message loud and clear: my members are angry about this veto and they do not want to let the president [sic] use their image for his political benefit any longer. This veto is a slap in the face to every fire fighter across this country,' said Schaitberger.

"FBI agents have questioned nearly all 37 members of the Senate and House intelligence committees and have asked many if they would be willing to submit to lie detector tests as part of a broad investigation into leaks of classified information related to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to officials involved in the inquiry. Most of the lawmakers have told the FBI they would refuse a polygraph, citing the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches of government and the unreliability of the exam, those involved in the inquiry said... Congressional leaders established a joint intelligence panel this year to review the performances of the CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks and to recommend improvements to the government's intelligence community."

"By billing Bush as a 'wartime commander,' the White House found a useful way to stifle dissent, and build support for the Justice Dept. campaign to restrict the rights of people with plans like fingerprinting every American who is tanned and suspected to be from the Middle East. The public, however, has caught on to the game. Support for Bush's 'war on terror' is on the wane. Many call the battle a 'draw,' or even say the bad guys are winning. That was the conclusion of a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll survey released on June 2… Bush is hard-pressed to get people interested in swallowing his war line, when the only evidence of a threat are the vague terror warnings offered by the Administration. The public is more than tired of the 'boy that cried wolf' warnings given by various Administration officials. E.g., terrorists may strike the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Sears Tower, DisneyWorld, Golden Gate Bridge or Grand Canyon but don't worry and have a nice weekend."

Spinsanity writes, "Democrats have been asking tough but fair questions about information the government had prior to the attack. Many Republicans and conservative pundits, however, have claimed such questions amount to suggesting that Bush had knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks and failed to prevent them. This is only the latest example of GOP officials and their supporters in the media using bombastic, anti-democratic rhetoric to shut down debate on any issue related to the war... This Republican-pundit alliance has launched a massive and aggressive counteroffensive to silence critics - with grave implications for open debate about the war on terrorism… Any questioning of the administration's handling of the war on terror is immediately mischaracterized and attacked as unpatriotic. This bullying makes actual dissent from the president's [sic] policies nearly impossible - and it appears to be working yet again. And every time it does, our democracy is debased just a little bit more."

"Imagine two better-functioning voting machines in Florida, and imagine President Gore. Then imagine the news of the past two weeks about reports coming into different parts of the federal government about the likelihood of Osama bin Laden launching a major assault in the US. Imagine an FBI agent informing Gore's attorney general about Middle Eastern students in flight schools not interested in learning how to take off or land. Imagine earlier intelligence reports projecting a new terrorist strategy of flying airliners into buildings. Imagine President Gore. Then duck. Hours into the news story... a Republican congressman would have introduced an impeachment resolution. Several might have been trampled in the stampede to get to the House floor. By the next day... the Gore White House would have vanished under a blizzard of faxes generated by talk radio." So writes David Sarasohn of Newhouse.

"According to a Time/CNN poll, nearly half, 46 percent, indicated that Bush himself is very or somewhat responsible for a lack of action to stop the attacks on September 11th. More than half of Americans polled said the FBI, CIA and President [sic] Bush's top advisers bear at least some responsibility for not preventing the Sept. 11 attacks. Among the polls other findings, more than one-fourth of Americans have little or no confidence in the CIA or FBI in preventing future terrorist attacks in the United States."

The NY Post reports, "House Republicans yesterday yanked a bill providing death benefits to survivors of firefighter chaplain Mychal Judge and nine other Sept. 11 heroes after critics raised objections... If the bill had passed, any beneficiaries named by the 10 victims in their wills or life insurance policies, including siblings and gay or straight domestic partners, would have been eligible to collect the federal money. The measure was named after Judge, who was gay. The other nine Sept. 11 workers who would be affected were not identified. The bill had been passed unanimously by the Senate and was endorsed by a variety of organized labor and public-safety groups. It cleared the House Judiciary Committee, but just hours before it was slated for a floor vote, House Majority Leader Dick Armey pulled it." What contemptible politicization of 911 - we are outraged!!!

Under fire for its bungling of 911 warnings, the Bush administration has adopted a new strategy. According to AP writer John Lumpkin, a senior White House administration official admitted that the blunt new warnings are designed to give Americans better notice - and to protect Bush against second guessing in the event of another attack. In addition, a top White House aide said last week's criticism has prompted a two-pronged political response: Bush accuses Democrats of playing politics with the issue, while his advisers remind voters that America is still a certain target. Hey Ari! Would you care to remind us again about which party is politicizing this national tragedy for the November elections?

Regent Dick Cheney spent an hour evading responsibility for his boy emperor's failure to stop the 911 attacks. Cheney also continued the coverup by insisting that no independent investigation could be conducted, because the Bogeyman is coming. (Hey Dick, maybe YOU should spend your time reading scary stories to 3rd graders!) But the most extraordinary part of Cheney's performance was his defense of PhotoGate - the outrageous use of the Bush 911 photo to raise CASH for Republicans Congressional candidates. "I signed the letter after we revised it, but it's - for us to be actively involved in the campaign, it strikes me as perfectly appropriate. This is an election year. That a picture of the president talking on the telephone is hardly a unique kind of picture. I think from this standpoint I was surprised that the outrage that was voiced by some on the other side was as great as it was. Frankly, I didn't think that it merited that kind of reaction, really." Where is the outrage???

"The 'Imperial' White House of George W. Bush -- is unexpectedly exposed, apparently in panic, and scrambling to save face. For eight months now, Bush [has ridden the political crest of the 9/11 wave]. But now its bluff is called, as layer after layer of the warnings it received [are unpeeled. At the heart of the biggest scandal since Watergate, is the August memo -- which leaves little doubt that the hijacked airliners were to be used as missiles against targets inside the US]. As a shamed Presidency goes on the defensive, so the rest of American society has suddenly discovered its old roles. The press, slavish for eight months, has regained its position as the Fourth Estate... The Democrat Party [has] broken ranks with a battered White House. The charge was led by none other than former First Lady Hillary Clinton. [Meanwhile, Lieberman & McCain] have drawn up a Bill to launch a special congressional commission of inquiry... It had been a curious eight months in American politics."

"Since Sept. 11, George W. Bush's political team and their Republican allies have used every trick to exploit the tragedy for political advantage. Just this week, they were trying to raise campaign money by hawking photos of Bush taking instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney on that fateful day. The crass politicization of a national tragedy may have offended Bush's critics. But the image of Bush as the serious-minded battler against threats to homeland security was too good a political tool to surrender. And they planned to keep hammering the Democrats with it through November. Then the hammerhead flew off. Two days of revelations about how [Bush was briefed that Osama might hijack airplanes] provided a reminder that exploiting tragedy is a dangerous political game. It can fairly be said that May 16 was the first day since Sept. 11 that the terrorist threat was not being played for advantage by the Bush camp." And the GOP accuses the Dems of politicizing 911 for wanting answers?

Anthony York writes in Salon, "The White House came out swinging Friday, accusing Democrats of insinuating that President [sic] Bush could and should have done more to prevent the attacks of Sept. 11. At a Rose Garden ceremony for the Air Force Academy football team, Bush called Washington 'a kind of place where second-guessing has become second nature. The American people know this about me and my national security team and my administration: Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people.' [Ari Fleischer went further,] specifically accusing Sen. Hillary Clinton, of being among the most guilty of political opportunists on the other side of the aisle. The White House's decision to call out Clinton -- is perhaps the clearest sign of just how political this Sept. 11 finger-pointing has become."

The last thing we'd expect is Dick Cheney's apology for Bush's failure to heed the hijack warnings. But the extent of Cheney's arrogant reaction is astounding. He actually had the nerve to insinuate that critics were engaging in partisan attacks and said Democrats' criticism was "thoroughly irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war." Get this, Cheney: We're getting SICK and TIRED of your bushit. First off, it's YOU and your frat-boy puppet that acted irresponsibly. Secondly, it's YOU and dimwit who put us in a perpetual state of war to justify your destruction of our Constitution and country! And it's your administration that needs to learn a few things about patriotism. The TRUE patriots are the ones who are calling for an investigation, NOT you and your cronies you use pseudo-patriotism to try to stifle criticism of your ethical lapses and blatant lies!