Best of the Week
September 8th to 13th
After many weeks of beating myself up for having many articles in which I wanted to analyze but having no time in which to do so, I’ve decided to list all of those articles and blogs. I hope you find them as fascinating and insightful as I have.
The Agora--A good commentary on the Republican’s failure to be critical of their own president’s direction on any front–Douglas concentrates on the economy and international affairs. Douglas’ title of the blog is especially clever--Barn Door Closed, Horse Gone.
Absit Invidia has attacked some great subjects this week:
- Israel’s decree to get rid of Arafat in With Friends Like These...
- The latest poll in which Bush is down to his lowest approval rating since pre-9/11 days, titled The New Poll.
- A Letter from Congressman David Obey to the President urging him to let his Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense go.
- Commentary about the latest Colonel’s damning remarks against our poorly created mission-plan for Iraq, titled The Colonel Isn’t Having It.
- A fascinating and possibly damaging revelation that Ashcroft and his Pentagon officials knew about pending attacks using airplanes–that’s why they cancelled their flights the day before Sept. 11th. Check it out in his blog titled: How Did I Miss This.
LiberalOasis is a great place for analysis on everything dealing with the political spectrum. This week, I greatly enjoyed his pieces Who is Attacking Who? (about the Republicans crying over the harsh attacks from the Democrats); Bush = 9/11, on September 11th; and Bad Day for Bush, on September 12th. Noteworthy quote:
Bush may want to be permanently attached to 9/11, but he’ll want to forget this 9/11.
He was greeted with the political embarrassment of Israel formally threatening to remove Arafat from the Palestinian territories, which disintegrates whatever was left of the "road map."
So, we have another false promise from the Iraq War. If you recall, the Bushies argued that removing Saddam would dramatically help the peace process.
The New York Times
A feature editorial on September 9th in regards to the president’s speech, titled Presidential Character, asks whether or not the Bush’s luck has run out.
A feature editorial on September 10th in regards to the $87 million dollars asked by Bush, titled Paying the Bills for Iraq. Noteworthy quote:
For now, Washington will have to pay most of the bills, and those sums cannot simply be added on to a deficit already nearing a half-trillion dollars. The $87 billion Mr. Bush seeks is equal to a fifth of next year's civilian discretionary spending at home - more than the combined total for education, job training, and employment and social services.
Two Incredible articles by Paul Krugman of The New York Times:
Other People’s Sacrifice is an incredible analysis of the president’s speech to the nation Sunday evening.
Exploiting the Atrocity (September 12th) is yet another incredible commentary on how capitol hill has exploited 9/11. Noteworthy quote:
Nor can the members of this administration simply lose like gentlemen. For one thing, that's not how they operate. Furthermore, everything suggests that there are major scandals - involving energy policy, environmental policy, Iraq contracts and cooked intelligence - that would burst into the light of day if the current management lost its grip on power. So these people must win, at any cost.
From Salon.com:
Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her husband on September 11th, who is the co-founder of the group September 11th Advocates and who is a member of the Family Steering Committee for the 9/11 Independent Commission, analyzes the Showtime movie called DC 9/11: Time of Crisis. The title of her article says it all: A "mind-numbingly boring" propaganda film.
Bill Donahue, a writer from Portland, Oregon, went in search of answers to the August forest fires (Bear Butte and Boothe) and that just happened to be going in time for the president’s arrival and speech about his controversial Healthy Forest Initiative–the "thinning of over 20 million acres of fire-prone public forests." The timing of these fires coincides with eye-witness accounts of seeing Chinook military helicopters flying from the very sites. Donahue’s amazing research is in the article Black Copters over Oregon.
Robert Sheer’s article Bush’s Big Lies, Continued, is a critical opinion piece on Bush’s address.
Perhaps the most galling aspect of Bush's consistently defensive speech, however, was his naked attempt to turn what has become a security disaster for U.S. troops, United Nations workers and the Iraqi people into a positive situation. He makes it seem almost a good thing that terrorism is on the rise in Iraq, because we've got our enemies where we want them. In claiming that "Iraq is now the central front" in the "war on terror," Bush is heralding a self-fulfilling prophecy: He claimed Iraq was a hotbed of terrorism, and he turned it into one.
And by the way, what happened to the cheering crowds and the gushing oil that the administration predicted would make this a low-cost Mideast liberation venture?
Meanwhile, as Bush boasts of how many irrelevant ammunition dumps we have seized in Iraq, the region is spiraling out of control. Afghanistan is once again falling into anarchy, with the Taliban on the rebound. The Israeli-Palestinian situation is worse after the fall of Saddam, not better as the administration promised. And the mysterious kingdom of Saudi Arabia remains a very suspicious kind of "friend." Let's remember, 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, as well as Osama bin Laden himself, were Saudis.
Eric Boehlert, in his piece Ground Zero: 2004, (printed September 11th), hints that New York may not be as welcoming to the GOP after how the GOP has treated them after September 11th.
From Tom Paine.com
Bill Berkowitz, a political analyst and columnist, describes the character of the Special Advisor for Strategy, David Kay, and forewarns us that his report on the WMD coming out this September will not show the evidence that was promised before we went to war, but that won’t stop the administration from trying to spin it so that it does. The article is titled September Suprise.
Laura Rozen, a writer of national security issues from Washington, D.C., gives a critical review of the War on Terrror, titled Terror’s Disconnect.
The Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan research and educational institute based in Washington, D.C., printed on September 11, lists What Can $87 Billion Buy?
Finally, an incredible letter written by the advocacy organization titled September 11th Families For Peaceful Tomorrows. Their letter is a compilation of their thoughts regarding September 11th and a call to change the world through peace. The article is titled Towards a Peaceful Tomorrow. Noteworthy quote:
On February 15, 2003 a great worldwide shift was made apparent -- so obvious in fact that The New York Times reported it on the front page. The millions of people in the streets around the world marching against war in Iraq demonstrated that there are now two superpowers in the world: the Bush administration and global public opinion. We are honored to stand with our brothers and sisters around the world who know that we the people must find another way to live together on this planet.
So today as we mourn, reflect and remember, we ask that you join with us in pursuit of true peace, security, and justice. We owe it to the dead, we need it for the living and we must do it for the generations to follow. Let us move forward together to build a future of peaceful tomorrows.
More Remembrance pieces on 9/11
I would be remiss in not mentioning a few extremely thoughtful pieces written about the tragedy of 9/11. In my initial piece, I mentioned the blog sites Absit Invidia and The Head Heeb. Here are a few others:
September 11, Fried Green Al-Qaeda.
Honoring the Victims, James Carroll, Tom Paine.com
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