2008 It’s the Seventh Anniversary of Sept. 11
posted by on September 11 at 9:10 AM
Which means the heated attacks from the McCain and Obama campaigns will be on pause for about 24 hours. In fact, McCain and Obama will be making a joint appearance today at Ground Zero.
The candidates are also issuing high-minded statements. Here’s Obama’s:
Today, we honor the memory of the lives that were lost on September 11, 2001, and grieve with the families and friends who lost someone they loved in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. We will never forget those who died. We will always remember the extraordinary efforts of our firefighters, police and emergency responders, and those who sacrificed their own lives on Flight 93 to protect their fellow Americans. And we give thanks for the Americans defending us every day in our communities at home, and in our military abroad.On 9/11, Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country. Let us renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose. Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice. Let us resolve to defeat terrorist networks, defend the American homeland, stand up for the enduring American values that we cherish, and seek a new birth of freedom at home and around the world.
And here’s McCain’s:
No American living then should ever forget the heroism that occurred in the skies above this field on September 11, 2001. It is believed that the terrorists on United Flight 93 may have intended to crash the airplane into the United States Capitol. Hundreds if not thousands of people would have been at work in that building when that fateful moment occurred, and been destroyed along with a beautiful symbol of our freedom. They and, very possibly I, owe our lives to the passengers who summoned the courage and love necessary to deny our depraved and hateful enemies their terrible triumph.I have witnessed great courage and sacrifice for America’s sake, but none greater than the sacrifice of those good people who grasped the gravity of the moment, understood the threat, and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives.
I spoke at the memorial service for one of them, Mark Bingham. I acknowledged that few of us could say we loved our country as well as he and all the heroes of September 11 had. The only means we possess to thank them is to try to be as good an American as they were. We might fall well short of their standard, but there is honor in the effort.
In the Gospel of John it is written, ‘Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Such was their love; a love so sublime that only God’s love surpasses it. I am in awe of it as much as I am in debt to it. May God bless their souls.
Tomorrow, of course, it’s back to attacking.
Eli,
A friendly correction: It's actually the 35th anniversary of September 11.
Just to clarify.
I was listening to some of the 9/11 memorial coverage on the radio this morning, and found myself very angry. I was sad (again, of course) at the loss of life, but I was actually angry at the place 9/11 has taken in our culture, at all of the misdeeds our government has used it to justify. And I found myself thinking, How many Americans die each day from gun-related violence? How many Americans die each day for lack of health insurance? Where's the annual day of mourning for those folks? Don't their families grieve just as much? Where's the national call to action to prevent further deaths of each of these kinds?
So, McCain, anyway God can send us back to 9/10/01? No? M-kay. Just askin'.
8 year neocon response:
Ummm.... Where is Iraq?
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Alex Trebek:
Oooh, sorry, the answer was "Where is Afghanistan. Afghanistan."
Obama: we, us, Americans.
McCain: I, I, God, and my favorite, "the terrorists could have killed ME!"
Guess who's getting my vote, you fucking dick. Way to use a national tragedy to further yourself. While I realize that everyone is going to put these statements out every year for the next century, at least Obama approached it with the spirit people are supposed to embrace: "we're all Americans." McCain's campaign couldn't figure out how to get to that high road.
Wasn't Mark Bingham the gay rugby player? WTF was McCain doing at his memorial?
of all days, today is a perfect day to attack republicans. they sat on their hands when basic intelligence could have foiled the plot. they bungled the response in afganistan. they overextended our resources with an imperial foray into iraq. they waited until nearly 4000 americans had died in the insugency before they instituted basic occupation strategies from the colonial era.
fuck the GOP, fuck bush, fuck his staff, fuck mccain, fuck the military, fuck the TSA, fuck the supreme court, fuck the sheep who supported the invasion of iraq, fuck al queda, fuck the sauds, fuck the ISI, fuck musharraf, fuck the pashtun, fuck islam, fuck judaism, and fuck christianity.
and fuck the FBI, CIA, ATF, & DEA.
What happened on 9/11? is this the reason we kill all those people and when I say people I mean our soldiers?
@6,
A) yes
B) not acknowledging question A, as far as i know.
If Bush and Company wanted to truly honor the memory of those who died that day, they would have found Bin Laden (remember him?) six years ago and shot him dead in whatever cave or hole they found him in.
I'm not a fan of the death penalty in general, but if anyone deserves to die, he's near the top of the list.
And where the fuck is he?
Drinking virgin margaritas in some fucking cave watching the lunacy that has taken over here. While spineless Democrats don't do shit and the asshole Republicans try to use what he did to justify war in a country we never had any fucking business being involved in.
Using the deaths of thousands of people to line the pockets of oil companies. Thanks a whole fucking lot, Dubya.
No wonder why McCain can't define honor. It's about as extinct as the fucking dinosaurs.
I hate this country sometimes.
Wow, does anyone else think that McCain's was way better than Obama's? More personal, more heartfelt, more touching. Obama has got to stop being so boring. I know he has it in him to be better than this bland statement.
@5: precisely.
Pronoun statistics:
Obama:
we: 5
us: 4
they/them: 0
he: 0
she: 0
I: 0
McCain:
we: 2
us: 1
they/them: 4
he: 1
she: 0
I: 6
Interesting, no?
@12,
No.
What struck me was how McCain's only ever mentioned Flight 93 and only alluded to the other 3 planes.
On this anniversary, let's remember that as reported by Peter Tatchel of The Guardian on September 12 2007, chair and vice chair of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, have since stated that they were "set up to fail" and were starved of funds to do a proper investigation. They also confirm that they were denied access to the truth and misled by senior officials in the Pentagon and the federal aviation authority; and that this obstruction and deception led them to contemplate slapping officials with criminal charges. Also note that despite the many public statements by 9/11 commissioners and staff members acknowledging they were repeatedly lied to, not a single person has ever been charged, tried, or even reprimanded, for lying to the 9/11 Commission.
The final report did not examine key evidence, and neglected serious anomalies in the various accounts of what happened. The commissioners admit their report was incomplete and flawed, and that many questions about the disaster remain unanswered. Despite these unanswered questions, the 9/11 Commission was closed down on August 21, 2004.
This just in: Well, it’s official. The Democratic National Committee has ceased to exist. That’s right, on 09-11-08, the 7th anniversary of the 09-11-01 attacks, the DNC for lack of a better analogy, has been relegated to the dustbin of history. Wherein, it has joined such notables as the former Soviet Union, mood rings, and disco. So long DNC, it’s been real. America needs a two-party system, but the DNC could run on fumes for only so long. It’s up to Barack Obama to restructure the platform. And, perhaps he’s the man for the job. Now the DNC sputtered along nursing its panoply of grievances, eye poking, finger pointing, hair pulling, nail splitting, and head banging from which it garnered a more than substantial income. But shortly after 09-11-01, the DNC also collapsed into a pile of smoke & rubble. Did most Democrats / Liberals truly have nothing in common with, and dislike the very people they relied on to get them elected? D’oh! What happened and why, will no doubt be fodder for more practiced wits than my own; but one thing’s certain: the DNC is finished, the Democratic Party is over: http://theseedsof9-11.com
heroism that occurred in the skies
I can't help but hear that as POWPOWPOW.
I doubt they were after the Capitol. The White House is much better known internationally, and a much more attractive target.
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