Bush and his cronies like to claim Reagan's legacy. Bush is no Reagan. Bush sent 10,000 troops to Afghanistan (gradually increased to a now 25,000) to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban. A year and a half later, he sent 100,000 troops to Iraq (gradually increased to a now 150,000) to fight a tin-pot dictator who was neither a tangible military threat to the United States nor involved in the September 11^th attacks at all.

If Ronald Reagan were in office, after September 11^th he would have sent those 175,000 troops to Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden's head would have been sitting on a pike in front of the White House by the end 2001. He would have rhetorically asked "Anyone else?" and brought the troops home. The war in Afghanistan would be long over and the war in Iraq would never have started.

Bush's $2.9 trillion dollar budget proposal seeks to cut FEMA funding by 14%. Does he somehow believe that FEMA has been too well funded to handle disasters? Does he WANT another Katrina-style disaster? Perhaps he simply needs to scrape more money up for his failed wars and hopes that the public view this as punishing FEMA rather than further crippling an agency that was already decimated by his post-9/11 homeland security reforms.

I've been very impressed by how many Boston area liberals have gained a sense of rebellion in recent days by rallying around mega corporation Turner and their corporate lackeys who planted the devices. It's almost surreal that commercial culture has taken such a grip that even rebellion against authority has a corporate edge. None of the myriad of REAL abuses of authority since 9/11 have garnered such a tremendous response. Fail to give a favored marketing firm free reign to do whatever they please in the city, especially if they're advertising an important cartoon network show, and you have a massive outcry.

A lot of people seem to think the response to the Mooninite devices was overblown and paranoid. While I certainly agree that a lot of the post-9/11 security in the United States has been based on paranoia, I find it completely reasonable to treat strange unknown electronic devices attached to supports for overhanging highways with a high degree of suspicion.

found through recoiling:

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly. The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be "off his rocker." The second congratulated him and added: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country ... they are here to kill us." Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver's licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. "What good is identifying them?" he asked. "You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans." At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of "the threat in our midst" would alleviate the public's fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America. "I can't believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said," he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL, which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland ... "Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen ... We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous." ... Those in agreement are not a fringe minority: A Gallup poll this summer of more than 1,000 Americans showed that 39 percent were in favor of requiring Muslims in the United States, including American citizens, to carry special identification. full article

39% percent is a scary number. The Nazi Party never got 39% of the German vote before Hitler became Chancellor. In fact, in the election just prior to his becoming Chancellor, the Nazi Party received only 31% of the vote. The 39% of the American public supporting the marking and separation of Muslims does not necessarily mean we will have a repeat of the Nazi atrocities, but it does mean that we are closer to the edge of that precipice than we'd like to believe.

We all know the September 11^th attacks were a great tragedy and none of the victims deserved to die. After the disaster, the victim's family (excluding same-sex partners) were given large sums of money in "compensation". Unlike in the aftermath of Katrina, no one was snooping around to see if these families were "wasting" their money on "inappropriate" things such as clothing they shouldn't have.

There was not a move to pinch pennies in the recovery effort. Nobody freaked out if they so much as heard a rumor from someone who knew someone who was a Katrina victim who bought nice clothing are jewelery.

The World Trade Center had been attacked before September 11^th, yet no one blamed the victims for working in a known target and rightly so. Why then are the Katrina victims blamed so much for what happened to them?

Why are the Katrina victims so much less deserving than the victims of September 11^th? There are two obvious differences in the demographics groups of people: race and wealth. It's pretty obvious that both have played a role.

I thought that I could not be any more disgusted by the Bush administration, but his response to the Israeli assault on Lebanon has proved me wrong. While the numbers killed vary widely depending on what source you use, but by any count the vast majority of the Israelis killed by the Hizbullah "terrorists" have been soldiers while the vast majority of those killed by Israel have been civilians. The word "terrorist" has become a term simply meaning "Muslim enemy", it no longer has any connection whatsoever to action.

As if on cue, Bush is rolling out the 9/11 bandwagon, that somehow a Southern Lebanese resistance movement is responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center. Bush cannot be a peace broker, he is only interested in lies and war.

According to BushCo anything Israel does is okay. Anything. They can murder and bomb and kidnap and hold hostages and assassinate anyone they deem appropriate. No condemnation ever. However, if a group of Palestinians kidnap a soldier, a soldier and not a civilian, it is terrorism. It is proof of every muslim is evil, and every non-US supporting country supports terrorism and probably was behind the 9/11 plot just like Saddam Hussein wasn't. Bush can't condemn Israel of course, Israel's actions in Gaza and Lebanon follow the same sort of "logic" he used to attack Iraq. He can't condemn the Israeli government's actions without condemn the actions of the United States.

I've heard a lot of talk around about the hatefulness of Zacarias Moussaoui's testimony at his death penalty trial. It angers and upsets many Americans, especially families of the September 11 victims. And rightfully so.

Us Americans, however, should turn that mirror on ourselves and see that the often equally hateful rhetoric spewed by American politicians and media personalities and even web critics might make people in the Arab world react similarly to how we react to Moussaoui, especially given the orders of magnitude more civilians that have died as a result of the Iraq conflict than died in the September 11 attacks.

Perhaps us Americans should reflect about ourselves what one CNN talking head did about Zacarias Moussaoui, "What motivates such hatred?". The cycle of violence must end. Blood for blood only leads to blood for the blood that was taken for blood.

11 Congressional Republicans (no Democrats) authored the Congressional Report on Katrina entitled "Failure of Initiative". Here are some of the highlights:

"Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare" "Katrina was a failure of initiative" "Chertoff executed his responsibilities late, ineffectively, or not at all." "a litany of mistakes, misjudgments, lapses and absurdities all cascading together, hobbling any collective effort to respond." “We are left scratching our heads at the range of clumsiness and ineptitude that characterized government behavior before and after this storm,” "This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted" "We had a tabletop exercise — Hurricane Pam — that predicted at a level 4 [hurricane], the dam was going to be breached." "If this is what happens when we have advance warning, we shudder to imagine the consequences when we do not," "Four-and-a-half years after 9/11, America is still not ready for prime time." "The White House was clearly in a fog" "Chertoff was clearly detached. He didn't even go to New Orleans 'til Wednesday; then you have [Michael Brown], who was clueless and negligent." "[The Department of Homeland Security] just stood and watched it fail"

Forgiveness is a powerful thing. So powerful that it can truly startle people. The bombings and attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were expected. While they may have scared some into submission and angered others to fight, they did not surprise anyone. If instead of attacking, the Christians in charge of the United States instead followed Jesus's advice and said "We forgive you.", it would have utterly shocked supporters of Al-Qaeda and other like-minded groups. Forgiveness would have completely baffled them, and made it very difficult for them to motivate others to kill themselves in a similar attack. September 11^th was intended to motivate the wrath of the United States, and was only made successful by the providing of that wrath.

This does not mean that if persons who aided the act are caught in the course of law enforcement that they should not be brought to justice. Rule of law must still exist, but invasion of other countries is not in the course of law enforcement. Forgiveness of the transgressions upon us by those outside our laws would keep us far safer than all the weapons in the United States arsenal.

I just got back from davis_square. purpleglitter drove me there so I could light several candles in memorial of the dead and in hope for the struggling survivors of Katrina. I wouldn't feel right buying new candles to put up, as any money I would spend on them would be better sent to the relief effort, so I used ones I had lying around the house_of_clocks plus one donated by merryperseis. I lit them on the concrete pillars on the side of the road by the park in the square. I wanted to put them in a prominent place, but the best location (the compass needle) was already dedicated to 9/11 with a large memorial plaque. I know someone else had already noted the pillars as a good place to light a candle as there was already fresh wax on one of them (although the candle was gone). I know what I did really doesn't help much, but it felt like the right thing to do.

My sister, ellynx, sent me a package from gotfruit.com out of the blue today. The card read "To help pass the hot days of summer". Inside was a nice wooden box containing large cashews, a fruit heavy trail mix, dried pears, and best of all: cinnamon candied almonds. The almonds are heavenly, completely decadent. I don't think I've ever had nuts that good. The only thing remotely comparable were the honey-roasted cashews I got from a street vendor near Rockefeller Center on my visit to New York City five years ago with purpleglitter and zarthon. It's the only time I've actually been to New York City other than just passing through. I remember having breakfast at Windows on the World. I remember the window that went all the way to the floor near the entrance of the restaurant. I stood on the edge and looked down. The drop was breathtaking, like standing in the sky. It is strange to think the number of people who fell that distance a year later. The winding associations with that fateful day are an odd juxtaposition with sinfully indulgent candied nuts.

Fuck GWB. "Shock and Awe"? "Shock and Horror". Am I supposed to be impressed at buildings blowing up in large clouds of smoke? Got my fill of that on September 11^th, thank you very much. Fuck GWB. Fuck this war.

I slept late one year ago today. I was supposed to meet my friend Kat for coffee in the afternoon. Around 2:00pm, the phone woke me up. It was Kat, and she asked "Do you still want to get together with everything that's going on?".

I replied "What's going on?"

"You don't know?"

"No."

"Turn on your TV."

"What channel?"

"Any."

"Any?"

"Any."

Why are the airlines so intent on stopping canes and nail clippers? Does anyone think that even if a group of, say, 4 or 5 people managed to board a plane with knives at this point, that they could successfully hijack a plane? I don't even think someone with a gun could do it. Much less, someone with a cane or nail clippers.The passengers would rebel. Look what happens now when someone tries to light their shoe, or someone tries to break into the cockpit. The passengers stop them.

The passengers on the first three planes went along with the hijackers, because, that is what they were taught to do: Obey the person with the weapon. Don't fight. That's your best chance of survival.

Passengers, now, don't have that attitude. Passengers will not sit back now and let someone hijack a plane. I don't think the over-the-top airport security will stop the next hijacking, I think passengers will.

From the Westboro Baptist Church: WBC to picket New York firefighter on his Topeka trip, Mar. 1-3, in religious warning/protest to fag New York and fag America: 'God is not mocked!' God Hates Fags! It was God's wrath that smote you for your fag sins 9/11!... see full text

Fred Phelps is now going after New York City firefighters, claiming God justly killed the firefighters on 9/11 because of their accepting of sin amongst them. The firefighter he's protesting isn't even queer! I think Phelps should get lots of prominent air time to spout his views. I want to see him on CNN. I want to see him in prime time. I think his mouth could be the most effective tool for the queer rights movement.

Under the government compensation plan for families of victims of September 11^th: survivors of a low-income, 60-year-old single victim would receive around $300,000, while those of a very-high-earning 35-year-old married victim with two children could receive up to $3.8 million dollars. Is someone's life "worth" more money because they're younger, married, make more money, and have produced children?

This whole new crash thing is freaking me out. I just want the world to go back to how it was before September. Even if this isn't terrorism, it still brings all the fear right back from September 11^th. I know fear does no good, but I still feel it. Every plane crash, whether terrorism or not, will strike everyone a little deeper now, I think.