Huge, Excellent Breaking National News

It was just announced at the Washington Post that President Biden will announce tomorrow he plans to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks later this year.

Excellent, even intelligent and the right thing to do, at long, long last, for America. God help Afghanistan in general but more specifically, the women of that nation.

A Timely Reminder of Things Republicans Have Gotten Us All

It was honestly quick and easy to do but I was thinking the other day about just how many things Republicans had gotten us Americans in the last several years. Republicans alone, too.

First, let's start with the Gipper--none other than Ronnie the Raygun, Ronald Reagan.

Iran–Contra affair

The Iran–Contra affair (Persian: ماجرای ایران-کنترا‎, Spanish: Caso Irán–Contra), popularized in Iran as the McFarlane affair[1], also referred to as Irangate,[2] Contragate,[3] the Iran–Contra scandal, or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.[4] The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government (except for the Office of the President and the National Security Council) had been prohibited by Congress.

And that just gets us started.

Then we go to the Shrub---George W. "Dubya", Not the Brightest Lightbulb in the Pack, Bush.

9/11

Very Republican Party President George W. Bush got us 9/11. The attack. Everything. The whole thing. It's documented.

The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings

Look it up.

He completely ignored a Daily Presidential Briefing warning of such an event.

And now, geez, this is too easy. Way too easy. 

Now we have--shudder--The Orange One. Again, Republican Party President Donald "The John" Trump.

Where to even start? Where to stop?

A Complete List of All the Times Donald Trump Has Broken

Another Way Trump Breaks the Law. Intimidating Witnesses

How Trump Built an Obstruction of Justice

Emoluments Clause Case Against Trump

All of Donald Trump's Lies

Lies, damned lies and Donald Trump

Every false claim Donald Trump has made as president

Donald Trump lies more often than you wash your hands

New York Times used a full page to print Trump's lies

Trump’s lies corrode democracy - brookings.edu

I'll stop there. It can go on. Easily. And at length.

So once again, to our Right Wing, Republican Party fellow citizens, we'd just like to say a great big, juicy THANK YOU! to one and all. Thank you for these incredible gifts you've given us all, bestowed on us, forced on each and every one of us.

We don't know what we'd do without you.

Obey the law?

Have a Democracy?

Republican Party Priorities

And note:  On the one with the most time and money spent on it, they found nothing.

Zero.

But a foreign nation? Ostensibly our arch-enemy? Attack our elections and election system?

Local Newsman Remembers 9/11

From Kris Ketz'Facebook page today.

"A personal note. 

Sunday. 15 years since 9/11. And on a day when the Chiefs open the 2016 season at home - for me - who could forget that first football game after the attacks. At Arrowhead. And it was the New York Giants in town. I'll never forget walking to my seats that morning and catching a glimpse of a sign hanging from the club level. 'KC NY.'

We all loved New York for all the obvious reasons. 

Anyone or anything from the big apple was a special guest that day. I don't know about the other 79,000 fans in the stadium that day but for me it was hard to think about football - yet - it was good to see it. It was more than a game. It was a step towards returning to some form of 'normal' and at a time when nobody knew what 'normal' would be. We all wanted to see how America and Americans would respond to what happened - long term. We were all so anxious to help in whatever small way we could. 

There was a big "fill the boot" effort in the stadium thanks to members of the KCFD (at least in my section 134) who were busy raising money for the recovery effort in NYC. I may be wrong on the numbers but I think Chiefs fans raised something north of $200,000 that day and then the Chiefs matched what was raised. The singing of the National Anthem that day meant more. 

Like most fans around us there was a lump in my throat and for once we all ended by singing 'Home of the Brave', Chiefs players & coaches had American Flags in their hands. Like I said we all wanted to help. We all wanted to do something. We all wanted people in NY to know that people in KC had their back. I don't recall the final score that day but I remember leaving the stadium thinking in any other environment this would have been just another football game. 

15 years later - KC still 's NY."

9/11

Thank you, George W. Bush.

The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings

Bush administration ignored CIA terror warnings

Bush Received More Warnings About 9/11 Than We Realized

Unheeded Warnings: George W. Bush and 9/11

Maybe The Donald WAS Set Up by the Democrats

I remember, months ago, seeing ideas floating around on the interwebs and Facebook, with the idea that maybe Donald Trump was a willing set up by the Democrats to take the Republicans down.

I tell you, with all The Donald says and does lately and what he's said and done in the last few months, it's getting more difficult to believe that isn't maybe true.

Following are all headlines I saw just yesterday, last evening, all from and n The Donald:

Donald Trump Hilariously Slams the ‘George W. Bush Kept Us Safe After 9/11’ Line

Default of Their Pledge’: Trump Blames RNC for Getting Booed at Debate

Trump Trashes RNC: GOP Keeps Losing Because They Are ‘Controlled by the Special Interests’

Trump Praises Obama’s Action to Protect DREAMers: ‘I Think It’s Great’

I tell you, it's getting difficult to believe The Donald wants Republicans to vote for him.

In Memoriam, 9/11

To the estimated 4,347 American soldiers who died in the war we were all lied into (see Casualties in Iraq),

Links:  The Bush White House Was Deaf to 9/11 Warnings

Bush Received More Warnings About 9/11 Than We Realized

Bush Warned of Hijackings Before 9-11

On This, the Anniversary of 9/11

Lest we forget.

George W. Bush was president, Dick Cheney, Vice President.

Then-President George W. Bush had ignored daily presidential briefs, warning him of a possible attack by air and by terrorists in general and Osama bin Laden specifically.

One Kansas City area resident, Tomas Young, was inspired to join the military after the attack and did so:

Two days after the September 11 attacks, Young was inspired by President George W. Bush to enlist in the United States Army. There he hoped to earn money for college through the G.I. Bill and, in his words, "exact some form of retribution" on those who caused 9/11.

On April 4, 2004, five days after being sent to Iraq, Young was shot while riding in an open, unarmored truck during an ambush staged by rebels in Sadr City. One of the bullets pierced his spine and left him paralyzed from the chest down.

He returned home to Kansas City, Missouri and joined the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). He later became a public critic of the Iraq War.

The movie, Body of War, was based on his life and eventual opposition to the Iraq war.

Before his death in November, 2014, he penned the following letter to that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

I post it here, on this anniversary, in hopes of teaching some and so that more not forget what occurred.

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

—Tomas Young

One of the Best Things Democrats Have Going for Them Between Now and November 2016

And all they have to do is let it sit there.

Yet another Benghazi investigation?

Where was their outrage from 2000 to 2008?

Quote of the day -- the "War on Terror"

And he wrote this a few years before Dubya' and Dick started both their illegal war in Iraq and our insane "war on terror" after 9/11.

Very prescient.

Here's your 9/11 Memorial

 

At the national memorial in New York, I hope they also include a copy of the Presidential Daily Briefing from August, 2001, telling then-President George W. Bush of Osama bin Laden's plans to attack the US.

 

Seriously.

 

It should be there.

 

He completely, totally and utterly ignored it.

 

 

Jimmy Carter, telling it like it is (guest post)

From the The Gazette last evening:

U.S. drone attacks amount to human rights violations, Carter says

America's citizens accepting human rights violations never imagined before 9/11

Former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday that America is engaging in – and its citizens are accepting — human rights violations that “would never have been dreamed of” before the terrorist attacks that occurred in this country 11 years ago.

The nation’s 39th president said the U.S. government under both Republican and Democratic administrations has violated 10 of 30 provisions set out in a universal declaration of human rights that was forged after World War II, including perpetually detaining people in prison without informing them of any charges, providing them access to legal counsel or bringing them to trial and more recently by killing people via the use of unmanned drones.

“We have now decided as a nation that it’s OK to kill people without a trial with our drones, and this includes former American citizens who are looked upon as dangerous to us,” Carter told a group of Drake University students involved in a social-justice learning program.

“Not just terrorists, but innocent participants in weddings and so forth that happen to be there. I think this is acting in a way that turns people against us unnecessarily because there is a great deal of animosity about the United States that is unnecessary, in my opinion, because our drones are performing these things” in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and even in the Philippines, he said.

“These are the kinds of actions that would never have been dreamed of before 9/11,” Carter noted, referencing the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I think we need to go back to the purity of the guarantees of basic human rights,” he added. “Most Americans either don’t know about it or accept it. I’m not criticizing one leader compared to another because both Democratic and Republican leaders are participating in these violations. We should all look upon human rights as something that is precious to us because we need to get back and be the champion of human rights and I believe the champion of peace as well.”

And he's so right. This is all a horrible travesty and no way to operate in the world.

Full story here: http://thegazette.com/2012/09/13/u-s-drone-attacks-amount-to-human-rights-violations-carter-says/

Let's be clear, he didn't "keep us safe for 8 years"

If anything rankles me, it's when people either don't know their history or worse, when some one or some group out-and-out changes history, for their convenience. One of the worst of those, from the last few years, is that then-President George W. Bush "kept us safe for 8 years."

This is, ladies and gentlemen, an unmitigated, bold-face lie. It is an untruth of a huge magnitude.

There have been obvious ways to know this, too, ever since that ugly, fateful day back in 2001 that is being commemorated today, too.

We've known for years that security at our airports was lax. How else could you explain the ability of anyone--anyone--let alone terrorists, being able to board planes at public, commercial airports with box cutters and/or pocket knives like the ones used to hijack that plane that day? I know as just weeks before 9/11, I boarded a flight for none other than George W. Bush's hometown airport with about a dozen business-sponsored and engraved pocket knives. I handed them out as small gifts to clients. They listed our company on them, of course.

So we've known this for years but today, yet more information came out, proving further that this President George W. Bush shirked his duties and responsibilities in that job and that led, at least in part, to the Twin Towers in New York being attacked, along with the Pentagon, as we know:

The Deafness Before the Storm

IT was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history.

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

It's the truth. It's history. To say otherwise is either to be badly, badly mistaken or a liar.

And it sickens me.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/the-bush-white-house-was-deaf-to-9-11-warnings.html?_r=0

http://news.yahoo.com/report-documents-disclose-9-11-warnings-081156564--politics.html

Another poignant, touching commemoration of "that day"

Again, from the original post (a Story Corps recording): " Always a Family On the morning of September 11th, Michael Trinidad called his ex-wife, Monique Ferrer, from the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower to say goodbye. In the wake of his death, Monique tells the story of Michael's lasting legacy—the family they built together." Story Corps link: http://storycorps.org/

One of the best ways to commemorate this day

From the original video post and NPR:

"John Vigiano Sr. is a retired New York City firefighter whose two sons followed him into service—John Jr. was a firefighter, too, and Joe was a police detective. On September 11, 2001, both Vigiano brothers responded to the call from the World Trade Center, and both were killed while saving others. Here, John Sr. remembers his sons and reflects on coping with his tremendous loss."

Story Corps link: http://storycorps.org/

On 9/11

I will forever be tired of September 11.

First because it never should have happened. If we merely had in place just a few of the most basic rules of safety and security that Europe and, honestly, the rest of the world has had in place for at least decades, it would never, never have happened.

Second, because it's been so politicized and used as a political football by the very Repubican party who was in charge of our same safety and security at the time, it makes me nauseous.

Third, simply because so many people died and for no reason and that it's just so disgusting and sad.

Pocket knives and box cutters were allowed on airplanes. And George W. Bush "kept us safe for 8 years"?

Quote of the day

"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -­ kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervour -­ with the cry of grave national emergency. Always, there has been some terrible evil at home, or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it." --General Douglas MacArthur

Have you seen this tastelessness yet?

From Seoul, South Korea: "An architecture firm said Friday it “regrets” a bizarre design for two high-rises in Korea reminds people of the twin towers exploding on 9/11. A mockup shows two soaring skyscrapers connected in the middle by a 'pixelated cloud' that evoked the clouds of debris that erupted from the iconic World Trade Center towers after terrorists flew planes into them." Yes, do tell, What were you thinking? Link: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/design-korean-towers-evokes-exploding-wtc-9-11-architects-mvrdv-apologize-wasn-t-intentional-article-1.989391

Since when did celebrities become authorities?

Two headlines out this afternoon: "Singer Pat Boone insists Obama born in Kenya" and "Tony Bennett Tells Howard Strern the U.S. 'Caused' 9/11." You know what, celebrities? SHUT THE HECK UP, how's that? Links: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-pat-boone-insists-obama-born-kenya-141751702.html;_ylt=AiI3hWf4TqzR4QFooxjNO4.r9HQA;_ylu=X3oDMTRoOWVpN2dhBGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDIwMHBvb2xyZXN0BG1pdANOZXdzIGZvciB5b3UEcGtnA2FmZThlY2VmLTIxZDctM2FjZi04NGZhLTRmZTMyNjk0M2E1MwRwb3MDNARzZWMDbmV3c19mb3JfeW91BHZlcgM0M2JmYjYzYy1lM2QwLTExZTAtODZmMy03OGU3ZDE1ZDJlMzA-;_ylg=X3oDMTM2MXZ2bjE0BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDYjY4OGEzY2MtNmU1OS0zNDMzLWI1NzYtYmU2ZTc1MjViYzRhBHBzdGNhdANlbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50BHB0A3N0b3J5cGFnZQR0ZXN0Aw--;_ylv=3; http://news.yahoo.com/tony-bennett-tells-howard-strern-u-caused-9-164810192.html;_ylt=Aqb.a2phdgTn46jQOOKLwfUSscB_;_ylu=X3oDMTRoZTNmOGM1BGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDIwMHBvb2xyZXN0BG1pdANOZXdzIGZvciB5b3UEcGtnA2I2ODhhM2NjLTZlNTktMzQzMy1iNTc2LWJlNmU3NTI1YmM0YQRwb3MDNgRzZWMDbmV3c19mb3JfeW91BHZlcgNhMzk2MWRkMC1lM2E4LTExZTAtYjdkOS0xZGZkMTZhNTMwNTI-;_ylg=X3oDMTJwb2lqczZtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDNDk1MDRjY2YtOWJkYy0zNWY1LTk4ODAtZTg1NWM0MmE5MWNiBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3