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On September 11th, 2001, on what was a perfect morning -- right up until the very moment a Boeing 767-223-ER slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center -- I stood on the corner of Delancey and Ridge Streets in downtown Manhattan.

I was working on an election campaign – it was primary day in New York – and little did I realize that politics, culture and our entire trajectory as a nation was about to change forever. I had been alerted to the first crash by a friend calling my cell phone, but it was as I was staring at the gaping hole in this New York City landmark, in horror, shock set in as I saw a second plane approaching.

I can see it all in slow motion these days – the airplane seemed to glide in almost effortlessly, and as I and others around stood unable to move, a loud explosion echoed through the canyons of lower Manhattan as a fireball erupted that almost seemed to reach where I was standing. It was, for lack of a better term, surreal.

For me, the journey forward from that day would be a difficult one. I was born and raised in Manhattan and was young enough that I couldn’t remember the city without those two awe-inspiring landmarks. It is what I would use to figure out where I was going whenever I came up from the subway system.

I had to process the knowledge that I had been in the North Tower only 16 hours before the attack. Because I had been delivering campaign literature to a volunteer who lived in the neighborhood and thought to myself, “I haven’t been in the Twin Towers for a while.”

What sticks with me most, though, is that after seeing the second plane hit, a lanky, salt-and-pepper-bearded man standing next to me who was holding his bike at his side, saying, “this is terrible; we’re going to be at war tomorrow.”

He wasn’t far off the mark. He only underestimated the wars.

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REID CALLS ON BUSH TO REPUDIATE ROVE'S REMARKS

"I am deeply disturbed and disappointed that the Bush White House would continue to use the national tragedy of September 11th to try and divide the country. The lesson our country learned on that terrible morning is that we are strongest when we unite together, that America's power is in its common spirit of democracy and freedom.

"Karl Rove should immediately and fully apologize for his remarks or he should resign. The lesson of September 11th is not different for conservatives, liberals or moderates. It is equally shared and was repeatedly demonstrated in the weeks and months following this tragedy as Americans of all backgrounds and their elected representatives rallied behind the victims and their families, united in our common determination to bring to justice those responsible for these terrible attacks.

"It is time to stop using September 11th as a political wedge issue. Dividing our country for political gain is an insult to all Americans and to the common memory we all carry with us from that day. When it comes to standing up to terrorists, there are no Republicans or Democrats, only Americans. The Administration should be focused on uniting Americans behind our troops and providing them a strategy for success in the war on terror and the conflict in Iraq. I hope the president will join me in repudiating these remarks and urge Mr. Rove to take appropriate action to right this terrible wrong."

via Talk Left:

Dan Rather gave his last CBS evening news broadcast tonight. Here's the text of what he said:

We have shared a lot in the 24 years we've been meeting here each evening. And before I say good night this night, I need to say thank you. Thank you to the thousands of wonderful professionals at CBS News, past and present, with whom it has been my honor to work over these years.

Download | play -WMP

Download | play -QT

(please link to http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/03/09.html#a1850 if you want to post the video-Many websites are linking to the server directly by mistake)

"And a deeply felt thank you to all of you, who have let us in to your homes night after night. It has been a privilege and one never taken lightly.

"Not long after I first came to the anchor chair I briefly signed off using the word 'courage.' I want to return to it now, in a different way, to a nation still nursing a broken heart for what happened here in 2001, and especially to those who found themselves closest to the events of September 11th. read on

The Moderate Voice has a roundup

CIA Shakeup

David Kaplan and Kevin Whitelaw have more pieces of the puzzle, and provide some intriguing insights about the odd departure of super-spy Stephen Kappes. This just appeared in Monday's issue of U.S. News & World Report.

Here is the enticing opening to a very interesting article:

To those who worked with him, Stephen Kappes seemed the perfect choice to lead the covert side of the CIA in the midst of the war on terrorism. Appointed in June, Kappes, a former marine, is a veteran CIA case officer who served in dangerous and difficult postings in Moscow and Pakistan. More recently, he reported directly to President Bush as the CIA's point man in secret high-stakes negotiations with Libya that ended the rogue state's weapons-of-mass-destruction programs.

So last week, many CIA insiders were astonished when Kappes became an early casualty under the rule of Porter Goss, the recently appointed director of central intelligence. Goss, himself a former CIA case officer who recently chaired the House Intelligence Committee, came into his job in September with a mandate to reform a troubled agency blamed for a series of grave lapses before the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war.

But while Goss was widely expected to shake the place up, the departure of Kappes and his deputy, Michael Sulick, stunned intelligence veterans in Washington, who saw the pair as the most qualified team to lead the CIA's Directorate of Operations in years. "The planets lined up," says Milt Bearden, a 30-year CIA veteran who ran the agency's arming of Afghan rebels in the Soviet war. "You had the right guys in the right job at the right time." Ironically, the two men shared Goss's critique of the CIA's shortcomings.

Says a former top CIA official who worked with Kappes: "These guys weren't in denial that 9/11 and Iraq were intelligence failures."

This September 11th, Tea Party organizers will commemorate that American tragedy not with a plea for shared sacrifice and national unity, but with a partisan shindig. But what they are calling the "Woodstock of tea parties" has only one thing in common with the legendary 1969 gathering in upstate New York. Like the throngs at Yasgur's farm, the Tea Baggers are hallucinating, just without the acid.

From the Des Moines Register comes the latest word from the Tea Parties who turn on Fox News and tune out the truth:

An event described as the "Woodstock" of tea parties is planned for Sept. 11 at the Monona County Fairgrounds in Onawa in western Iowa.

Craig Halverson of Griswold, who is helping to organize the event, said supporters hope to attract at least 1,000 people from Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and other states. He said they are inviting prominent conservative speakers and plan to have bands perform patriotic music

The event will have a "Take back our country" theme, Halverson said. Although the activities will occur on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he said organizers don't plan to spend the day reflecting on those events.

Of course, reflection has never been a strong suit of the Tea Parties. Even without the herb, acid and peyote, the Tea Party movement has been a non-stop 18 month hallucination. Just by getting high on Glenn Beck, the assembled Birchers, Birthers, Deathers and Deniers wrongly believe Barack Obama is a Muslim who wasn't born in the United States, that Medicare isn't a government program and that 70,000 marchers at a DC event spontaneously morphed into 2,000,000. Only two percent of Tea Baggers are even aware of the Obama tax cuts that 95% of them received. Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, the Joan Baez and Janis Joplin of Tea Partistan, claim the hard-core conservatives masquerading as independents are anything but reliably Republican voters.

While details of the event remain sketchy, the theme song of the September 11 Woodstock event should be Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale." Regardless, the coming desecration of the 9/11 disaster is just the latest manifestation of the bad acid trip that is the Tea Party movement.

(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)

(above video of King is from March, 2008)

Many of you will remember this outrageous and hateful statement from Iowa Republican, Steve King in March of 2008:

"I'll just say this that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- and I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?

"And I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the, the radical Islamists, the, the al-Qaida, and the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11….

King is a standout, even among the numerous right wing crazies in the GOP. He's up to his old tricks, going flat out homophobic, and lying through his teeth about President Obama's Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings:

“Kevin Jennings lacks the appropriate qualifications and ethical standards to serve in a presidential administration. Despite serving as the ‘safe schools’ czar, Jennings has demonstrated a willingness to look the other way on sexual abuse. His life’s work has been the promotion of homosexuality, even in elementary schools, and he has demonstrated no qualifications to make students safer in our schools. Jennings is committed to the ‘safety’ of only a narrow portion of American students, while expressing disdain for religion and traditional values. President Obama should fire Kevin Jennings immediately.”

It's now been widely reported that the allegations that Jennings failed to report a statutory rape were incorrect, but Rep. King would never let a little thing like facts get in the way of a good, right wing rant. Even Fox News was forced to post a correction on this story. Jennings has every right to sue Fox, and each one of their entertainers who have spread the lies about him, and King needs to take down his statement and apologize to Jennings -- and Nancy Pelosi needs to demand it.

Bushsecrecy.org

Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix...President Harry S. Truman

Harry Truman understood the importance of open government in a free society.

George W.Bush does not.

From the first days of his administration, President Bush has taken steps to tighten the government's hold on information and limit public scrutiny of its activities. Expansive assertions of executive privilege, restrictive views of the Freedom of Information Act, increasing use of national security classification, stonewalling in response to congressional requests for information - all these were evident even before the September 11 attacks. Since then, the clamps on information have only tightened.

Here, Public Citizen chronicles and documents the administration's obsession with secrecy, as well as the steps we, and others, are taking to fight it. By clicking on the links provided here, you can reach up-to-date summaries of each of the administration's major secrecy initiatives, with additional links from those summaries to key documents, such as executive orders, congressional materials, judicial decisions, and legal briefs filed by both sides in the court battles raging over these issues. We'll also provide links to other resources on the web, as well as information about how you can use the Freedom of Information Act to take on government secrecy yourself.

In the long run, we don't think Americans will put up with a government that operates on the principle of keeping them in ignorance. The more light we shine on these, the better. More

Cliff Schecter: September 11, 2001: They knew but did nothing

Tennessee Guerilla Women: Madeline Albright: Sexism in Politics

Whistle-Blower: Feds have a backdoor into wireless carrier - Congress reacts

Cynics' Party: Farted, Sat, and Nothing More

Sunday Bookchat: This week, Joseph Stiglitz tallies the real cost of the Iraq war, Steve Weinberg tells the tale of the tycoon and the muckraker, and Carl Zimmer describes the Republican Party's favorite bacterium. Meanwhile, Philip K. Dick gets another long-overdue honor and Jonah Goldberg gets a pantload of dishonor.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: MobLogic, black woman unhinged, Pruning Shears, Middle East Diaries

John Cole noted, “I honestly cannot recall a State of the Union address which has received less hype.” Neither can I. Usually, even for lame-duck presidents, the SOTU is a pretty significant moment of political theater. I remember the last addresses for Reagan and Clinton drew quite a bit of attention, but going into tonight’s speech, no one, on either side, seems to care at all. I frequently get the sense the country is asking Bush, almost in unison, “You’re still here?”

Of course, the SOTU invariably leads to some reflection and introspection. For example, a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino a very good question: “Is the country better off now than seven years ago?” Given the response, I don’t think Perino was prepared for the question.

“Certainly seven years ago — well, seven years ago, right before September 11th, I think that people would say that the country certainly felt better off. There’s been — once we were confronted with terrorists who would fly jumbo jets into buildings and kill thousands of our citizens in an instant, it created a sense of fear and nervousness about our security. And that’s why the President decided to take on the terrorists head on and go on the offense.

“And we have done that around the world. We have been successful so far in preventing another attack on our country. But it’s not for their lack of trying. And that’s another reason why the President — tonight you’ll hear him call on Congress to pass the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization. They have until Friday to do that, and the President sees no reason why they shouldn’t be able to get that done.”

Um, Dana? (Can I call you “Dana”?) The question was, “Is the country better off now than seven years ago?” The fact that you couldn’t answer it — you barely tried — doesn’t exactly reflect well on Bush’s presidency.

Of course, this shouldn’t come as too big a surprise. What, exactly, could Perino say?