As always...

Looks like open letter day around here...

Dear Alicia M. Cohn,

If your lede begins "Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani…", you're writing the wrong story.

Unless, of course, you're writing about 9-11, but since, when Rudy opined that he doesn't "...want a president to become a commentator on 10 Republican candidates,” he failed to point out the fact that 10 is the number that falls between 9 and 11, thereby bringing to mind a titillating 9-11 anecdote that might have provided some rationale for seeking his views in the first place, well, you wrote the wrong story.

Better luck next time.

Very truly yours,

Upper Left

Good question…

…or two from David Weigel…

In the seven years and four months of George W. Bush’s presidency after 9/11, how many times did reporters ask “9/11 Truth” questions in White House briefings? How many times did they ask it of the president himself?

From the "Some days ya' eat the bear…" file.

Good news abounds...

AFP - President Barack Obama Wednesday signed a historic law repealing a ban on gays serving openly in the military, and the Senate prepared to hand him another win by backing a new Russia nuclear deal.

Reuters - A bill to provide medical care for firefighters and other responders to the September 11, 2001 attacks passed the Senate on Wednesday after backers struck a deal to end a Senate Republican blockade of the measure.

AP - The U.S. Senate approved a new strategic nuclear arms treaty with Russia on Wednesday, handing President Barack Obama a major foreign policy victory in his drive to improve ties with Moscow and curb the spread of atomic weapons to other countries.

The Senate voted 71-26 in favor of ratification after a contentious debate that threatened traditional bipartisanship on national security affairs.

71-26? Why did that have to seem so hard?

(Yeah, that's a rhetorical question.)

From the "Mission Accomplished" file.

AP - President Barack Obama on Saturday recalled "that awful morning" nine years ago when "a sorry band of men" who perverted religion attacked the U.S. in hopes of demoralizing and dividing the country.

If those were their hopes, I'm thinking that "sorry band" would be pretty happy with their achievement.

Still...

It'd be nice to have some of our civil liberties back, too.

What Rudie said…

…slightly bowdlerized.

...the Gulf oil spill is not Obama's Katrina. No, it's his 9/11: a sudden, explosive event that hit in the first part of the presidency and revealed to the nation a threat that crosses party lines. Now, howzabout DC Republicans get off their bullsh*t propaganda machine for a little while and saddle up to help? Howzabout the media do what they demanded of Democrats after 9/11 and tell Republicans to put aside "partisan bickering" for the "good of the nation"? Maybe a little help instead of mindless slash and burn?

Oh, wait. Don't forget that we're dealing with Republicans.

Reminding us, of course, why...

Just wondering…

…where the Iraqis in this group are (Mohammed's a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani)...

Four men—the two Yemenis, a Saudi and a Pakistani-born Kuwaiti—will face trial alongside Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of helping finance and plan the attacks of 11 September 2001 in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.

I mean, I get why we went into Afghanistan originally. They were harboring criminals from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait and Pakistan, but we short-sheeted Afghanistan to invade Iraq. And that was because….?

Another one, I suppose, for the "What if there were no rhetorical questions" file.

Still...

A reminder…

…from Dave Johnson…

We were attacked on 9/11 after the Bush administration ignored a memo titled, "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US," and went on vacation. Never forget that.

Never.

Still...

Godwin's Law of Campaigns?

Nah. Credit where it's due. Call it Schechner's Corollary to Godwin's Law…

"As a primary campaign grows longer, the probability of invoking imagery involving Osama bin Laden or 9/11 approaches one."

The Big Dog bites...

And finally, Bill Clinton was confronted by a group of Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire yesterday, which insisted that 9/11 was an “inside job.” The former president responded, “You wanna know what I think? You guys who think 9/11 was an inside job are crazy as hell. My wife was the senator from New York when that happened. I was down at Ground Zero. I saw the victims’ families. You’re nuts.”

Sic 'em, Bill!

Boo!

Senator Clinton…

"We have people who are plotting against us right now, getting ready to repeat the atrocity of Sept 11. We know it, I see the intelligence reports."

Hat tip to PSoTD.

Truth.

A full Friedman unit's worth…

9/11 has made us stupid.

Yep.