(MSNBC) As libertarian Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul looks for a state he can win, some of his supporters have turned to a new theme: voting fraud.

A Super PAC supporting Paul has pledged to monitor the vote in all the remaining states, using an army of exit pollsters to fight what it calls results that are “outrageous, unacceptable and patently un-American.” The group, called Revolution PAC, has spent half a million dollars supporting Paul with videos, webcasts, online ads, direct mail, billboards and radio ads in primary and caucus states.

The leader of the group, its founder, chairman and treasurer, is Gary Franchi, a promoter of conspiracy theories and sophisticated social-media entrepreneur in the resurgent movement known as the Patriots.

Some of what MSNBC writes about is

Franchi has supported the 9/11 Truth Movement, which supports the idea that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, werean inside job to create a pretext for a reduction in American liberty, or at least involved a cover-up, with the World Trade Center brought down by a planned U.S. demolition, instead of terrorist-controlled airplanes. Franchi founded the Lone Lantern Society (a reference to Paul Revere indicating that foreign enemies are on American soil). The group supports “the birth of freedom and the death of the New World Order,” a secretive elite that is supposedly trying to set up a world government. Lone Lantern has held street demonstrations on the 11th of every month in Chicago and elsewhere, demanding an investigation of 9/11. In New Hampshire in 2008, a video shows Franchi asking Tom Ridge, the former secretary of Homeland Security, who was campaigning for Sen. John McCain, whether Ridge would support an investigation of the “controlled demolition” of the World Trade Center. Ridge was having none of it, saying, “I just don’t buy into that. That’s a conspiracy theory that has no basis in fact. It’s almost out of the Twilight Zone.”

Obviously, Revolution PAC is an outside group which can support who they want. But, Paul could finally come out and say “I do not support the 9/11 Truth movement, they’re out of their minds. He won’t. He seems to enjoy hanging with Truthers/conspiracy nuts like Alex Jones, and going on their radio programs.

Like Ron Paul, Franchi has a few good ideas, then turns them up to Ludicrous Speed, perhaps even going plaid. Ron Paul has won none of the beauty contests, er, primaries/caucuses, and will, mostly likely, win none in the future. He has a great core group, but no broader appeal, especially when people find out about his background.

Paul is doing too well and there are many reasons besides his uncanny ability to raise lots of money and a spooky, devoted blind following. He is one of the best spokesmen for libertarianism out there and people are tired of what the status quo two party system has been bringing to the table. He preaches small government and fiscal conservatism and has a record to back it up and that is the appeal to many people.

His anti-war and irresponsible isolationist philosphy on foreign policy is appealing to many independents and democrats weary of war. As a matter of fact more Democrats voted for Ron Paul in New Hampshire than Republicans. He got 24% of the Democrat vote, 32% of the independent vote, and only 16% of the Republican vote. Huntsman got 41% of the Democrat vote! I guess appealing to all parties is important in the general election, but there is no way it will make much of a difference against Obama.

The bottom line is that Ron Paul, as right as he is on many issues, has a dangerous foreign policy position that everyone needs to study closely before jumping in and pulling the lever for him. He also has a lot of fringe baggage. Just so it’s all out in the open while his popularity is pulling votes away from other conservatives….there is a case against Ron Paul.

He may be worse than Obama on foreign policy. He is an isolationist that would allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons. That is a big deal. Remember that the leaders of Iran are insane and have repeated several times how they would wipe Israel off the map. Ron Paul blames America first, and as a matter of fact has blamed America for the 911 attacks while courting 911 conspiracy nuts. There is also the racist publications published under his name. Fair or not, don’t think that won’t come up in the general election running against the first black president.

If his magnet to fringe isn’t enough, then take a careful look at his foreign policy. First off, he doesn’t want a border fence because it could be used to “keep us in”. He uses arguments of moral equivalency as the foundation to his isolationist views. I understand that Viet Nam and Iraq were unpopular wars and I understand people weary of America’s interventionalism, but not all interventions are unnecessary. What would the world be like if America had not intervened against Hitler? What if we didn’t contain Communism? Standing by and doing nothing but talk and appease while allowing evil to play by its own rules is a recipe for disaster.

Rich Lowry has a good summary of some of Paul’s views:

In the debate, Paul went on to warn against a push “to declare war on 1.2 billion Muslims,” as if a country that has resorted to force of arms to save Muslims from starvation (Somalia), from ethnic cleansing (Bosnia, Kosovo) and from brutal dictators (Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya) is bristling with an undifferentiated hostility toward all Muslims.

This isn’t an expression of an anti-interventionism so much as a smear. It goes beyond opposition to American foreign policy to a poisonous view of America itself.

Paul never knows when to stop. He lets his suspicion of centralized power slip into paranoia worthy of a second-rate Hollywood thriller about government malevolence. In January 2010, he declared: “There’s been a coup, have you heard? It’s the CIA coup. The CIA runs everything, they run the military.”

On his latest appearance on the radio show of the conspiracy-mongering host Alex Jones, he opined that the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador on US soil was “another propaganda stunt.” He exclaimed that the latest defense bill authorizing the indefinite detention of enemy combatants will “literally legalize martial law” (yes, “literally”).

Check out what a former staffer of his has to say:

Ron Paul is most assuredly an isolationist. He denies this charge vociferously. But I can tell you straight out, I had countless arguments/discussions with him over his personal views. For example, he strenuously does not believe the United States had any business getting involved in fighting Hitler in WWII. He expressed to me countless times, that “saving the Jews,” was absolutely none of our business. When pressed, he often times brings up conspiracy theories like FDR knew about the attacks of Pearl Harbor weeks before hand, or that WWII was just “blowback,” for Woodrow Wilson’s foreign policy errors, and such.

I would challenge him, like for example, what about the instances of German U-boats attacking U.S. ships, or even landing on the coast of North Carolina or Long Island, NY. He’d finally concede that that and only that was reason enough to counter-attack against the Nazis, not any humanitarian causes like preventing the Holocaust.

There is much more information I could give you on the sheer lunacy of his foreign policy views. Let me just concentrate on one in specific. And I will state this with absolute certainty:

Ron Paul was opposed to the War in Afghanistan, and to any military reaction to the attacks of 9/11.

He did not want to vote for the resolution. He immediately stated to us staffers, me in particular, that Bush/Cheney were going to use the attacks as a precursor for “invading” Iraq. He engaged in conspiracy theories including perhaps the attacks were coordinated with the CIA, and that the Bush administration might have known about the attacks ahead of time. He expressed no sympathies whatsoever for those who died on 9/11, and pretty much forbade us staffers from engaging in any sort of memorial expressions, or openly asserting pro-military statements in support of the Bush administration.

The majority of Republicans and Americans in general will not get behind Ron Paul. He is too fringe and too radical. So as far as Ron Paul asking everyone else to get out so he can beat Romney, I think he should be the one dropping out. I don’t like Romney, but I’d rather vote for him than take a risk with Ron Paul’s foreign policy.

Ron Paul is a pure, absolutist libertarian extremist with a dangerous isolationist foreign policy. He may be right on some things, but not on everything (foreign policy for sure). If the only issue important to you is the legalization of drugs then vote for Ron Paul. If you think foreign policy is even a little important pick someone else.

Doug Mataconis says last night was Paul’s high mark. I agree, but he is still sucking votes away from other non-Romney candidates and while he should drop out I think we all know he won’t. So, perhaps someone else should so the votes for “other than Romney” are not so divided up. I pray South Carolina shakes things up for this race, and I pray Ron Paul doesn’t run third party in the general.

And Curt, please…you are scaring me.

Update: More insane positions from Ron Paul:

Other than abortion, there is no particular on which Ron Paul differs with either libertarianism or the Libertarian Party. Like them, he would legalize hard drugs and abolish age of consent laws, which violate the rights of 24-year-olds to have sex with 14-year-olds.

“Atheists and radical church-state separatists have taken particular offense to the continued uttering of the Pledge of Allegiance. To these individuals, the words “under God” have no place in the public square, even when utterances are voluntary in nature.

Now, there’s a new epicenter in the debate over the Pledge. Following the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the University of Connecticut’s interim athletic director, Paul Pendergast, decided to add the recitation as a viable way for individuals to remember both the nation and U.S. troops.

Following his decision, the Pledge was first uttered after a home football game on September 16 and the response was so positive that it was extended to all football and basketball games.

Geno Auriemma, UConn‘s women’s basketball coach, agrees with the decision to include it and has been open about his support for saying the Pledge. ”It’s like anything else, you’re gonna have people that complain about it and people that love it,” he said at a press conference last week. “And then you have the wackos that say ‘well we shouldn’t bring God into this,‘ because you have to say ’one nation under God’ right?”

The decision, which has now led to the Pledge being uttered before most athletic games, is angering fans who believe the action violates the nation’s separation of church and state sentiment. Others claim that it puts non-American athletes in an unfair position — even though these individuals are obviously studying on U.S. soil and can opt out of pledging any allegiance to the country.

Some legal experts, though they may personally disagree, claim that the university is within legal bounds — so long as the pledge remains optional.

Source

Hearing someone else say something patriotic is going to do some terrible damage to you? What rubbish! This is just the “hate America” brigade at work.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

I’ve been mulling this all day *today. What should I say about the tenth anniversary of 9/11? I mean, everyone expects a blogger to have something to say, right?

Many people have written me to let me know that they feel I am “a good writer.” Of course, I thank them for this compliment, but sitting here all day looking at an empty word document sitting ready to be filled with my 9/11 remembrance, I certainly feel that my little reputation is unearned. I’ve just found it so hard to start this piece.

But sometime about 6PM on Sept. 10 I realized why it is so hard for me to start this piece. I am still furious. Feelings are still too raw, I still well up when I see video of the towers falling, my heart still stops when I see that heart-wrenching image of bodies falling from windows hundreds of feet in the air. I still get that dark feeling in the pit of my stomach, the same one I felt that morning in 2001.

It’s all still too emotional to write a mere memorial. My words fail me.

I sat there wondering why it was that 10 years on I still feel this anger, these emotions of loss?

I mean, let’s face it, we’ve come a long way from those terrible days of vulnerability on Sept. 11, 2001. We’ve killed many hundreds of al Qaeda’s operatives — including the evil bin Laden. We’ve seriously hurt that enemy.

We’ve had a healthy dose of revenge on al Qaeda so that should go a long way toward easing the emotions of 9/11.

But that isn’t the problem. The problem is that a large number of Americans still have not learned the lesson that 9/11 should have so easily taught us.

We are now mired in idiotic, Politically correct arguments about whether or not Christian ministers will be allowed at the 10th Anniversary memorial event in New York, we are told that our intelligence officials are being forced to attend Islamic services at mosques so that they can prove we “care” about Muslims. Worse, we still see a large sector of the American political arena saying Tea Partiers and Christians, our own citizens, are somehow “just like” or “just as bad” as the Islamist monsters that cut off people’s heads and throw acid on young girls that supposedly break Islamic traditions.

We have not learned that this enemy is not going to be swayed by our pitiful attempts to show them that we “like” them. They aren’t mad because we don’t like them. They are mad because they don’t rule us and their goal is to either kill us all or subjugate us. There is no black and white here, but too many of our own are fooling themselves into believing that we can “lead from behind” with “soft power.”

It is so bad, in fact, that ten years on we still haven’t been able to come together long enough to build a memorial to the attack or anything else for that matter at Ground Zero. Various governments and groups are still arguing over it all even after a decade. Ground Zero is still a barely-started construction site.

Consequently I find it hard to write a mere memorial as if this is an event long in our past. It is not. Worse, our own people are making sure that we cannot put this behind us because they are not allowing us to beat this enemy.

So, even ten years out the wounds are still raw, the enemy still strong, and traitors in our midst are lending them succor.

These words don’t come easily. Nor do they come with relief. They are hard, cold facts. We are still in danger. We can’t “forget,” nor can we start mere memorials as if it is all long over.

It isn’t over.

*This was written on Sept. 10th.

This is Brooke Alexandra Jackman. She was born August 28, 1978. She was murdered by Islamic extremists September 11, 2001, while working at Cantor Fitzgerald, where she worked as an assistant trader. She was just 23.

After reading so many touching stories and tributes about Brooke, I feel I almost know her. Her smile is infective. It seems so natural, rather then forced, as so many picture smiles are.

But, why listen to me. Listen to her father, Robert Jackman:

Brooke, the Brookster, the baby, so beautiful, so bright, so wonderful. She always made notes of her daily projects; she hated to forget anything. She had to be perfect-to do everything to perfection. She was the best and she always tried to see the best in everyone, always respected the other person’s right to be different. Brooke loved books reading all the time. I would bring her to work when she was a little girl and she would read her books all day in the office until she fell asleep on the couch. Brooke was the baby, the youngest of three, like me. I would tell her that’s what made her so strong, so independent, so focused because she always had to stick up for herself with her older brother and sister.

It seems that everyone who knew Brooke felt the same way. Apparently, she was a huge reader, with her nose always in a book, stopping by Borders everyday on her way to work. A kindred soul, since I typically have several books I am reading at one time. Makes me feel a little closer to this wonderful women I never knew, and now, will never meet.

Brooke was a giver, volunteering her time to work at soup kitchen’s, a school or the disabled, and a thrift shop that benefited cancer patients. She even won an award in 1996 from the Nassau County Executive for “scholarship and service.”

She worked on the 104th floor of Tower 1.

You can access the Brooke Jackman Foundation here.

God Bless you, Brooke, and may He always keep you in His arms.

This is Andrew Golkin. He was a Vice President at Cantor Fitzgerald. Born, 1970. On 9/11, 2001, Islamic extremists killed him. He was 30.

Born and raised in The City, he overcame disabilities to succeed in life, to be a world traveler, and a well respected member of Cantor Fitzgerald as VP of Interest Rates Derivatives.

A graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, he is survived by his parents, Gerald and Janet, and sister Susan, as well as many aunts and uncles.

He worked on the 105th floor of the North Tower on that Day.

His mother, Janet, said “He had a wonderful, sweet disposition. Friends used to say he was the glue that held relationships together.” He was a “vegetarian who liked to box, and preferred a punch in the face over a bite of steak.”

For Andrew Golkin’s family, it wasn’t so much a question of whether to have a service, but what to call it. At 30, he was too young for them to call it “a celebration” of his life, said his sister, Susan, 34, of Manhattan. They called it simply a service in his memory. Five of his friends spoke. The rabbi who conducted his bar mitzvah officiated at the service. “There comes a time when having hope is more detrimental than coming to terms with what happened,” she said.

For her family, it was vital. “So you can know how to live the rest of your life.”

His friends and family have set up the Andrew Golkin Memorial Scholorship Fund, designed to fund and promote educational scholorship for deserving kids in NYC.

Kaddish

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

Please check out this video, “September 11, 2001 – As It Happened – A Composite,” by Andrew Roman, which he writes about at Proof Positive.

Where was I? On this 10th year, so many are remembering where they were and what they were doing, so as to Never Forget. The day started out like any other day, getting ready for work. I was in the shower when the radio station I was listening to said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I hurried through, shaved quickly, and got out. And was watching the live helicopter coverage when the 2nd plane crashed. And then the mayhem that occurred at the Pentagon, people not sure what was going on, just that there was smoke or something there, till we found out the reality. People evacuating. The Towers collapsing. The horror and pain on the faces of people in New York City. We stayed tune to a little 5 inch TV I had, which I brought to work.

Where were you?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

In one of the most disgusting examples of the self-absorption of the union mind set, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka decided that his 9/11 memorial would not be much about 9/11, but would instead be just another excuse to say how great unions are and how evil conservatives are. This isn’t just gauche, but insulting, infuriating, and just plain ignorant. Not only that, but it is most certainly disrespectful of the fallen and just plain un-American.

But, then again, that describes unions in just about every instance, doesn’t it?

Disgustingly, the AFL-CIO’s Trumka turned a “memorial” to 9/11 into a union snake-oil sales pitch. Worse he began with an almost dismissive attitude to the memory of the attacks on our homeland.

Trumka begins by saying “we need no reminding” of the “horror and anguish we experienced 10 years ago.” This is his first paragraph and from here he launches into doing just that, not bothering much about what happened that day, suffice to say that the “solidarity” we experienced is the “cornerstone of the union movement.”

Yeah. I don’t know about you but as the towers were falling and thousands were dying, all I could think about was the cornerstone of unionism.

Oh, and guess what? Instead of waking us to the dangers of Islamofascism, all 9/11 did was open “doors to hate, suspicion of ‘others’ and self-centered greed. Our fear was twisted into something much more dangerous.”

Then this moron goes on to claim that as a society we have gone from treating our firemen, police and other first responders as heroes to “vilifying them.”

Just 10 years after 9/11, despite our vows, the public servants, construction workers and others who lost their lives or still suffer with the cancerous remnants of the Twin Towers haven’t just been forgotten. They’ve been vilified. The extremist small government posse has turned them into public enemy No. 1, as though teachers and firefighters, EMTs and nurses and union construction workers ruined America’s economy.

This is a bald-faced lie. No one is “vilifying” first responders. And notice how he slipped “teachers” into the same category as 9/11 first responders. Sorry, pal, but teachers are not just like cops, firemen, and EMTs.

Even more specifically, no one is saying that police, teachers and other public servants have “ruined America’s economy.” It is their unions and their handmaidens in the Democrat Party that are responsible for that. We who are against public employees unions are against the unions, not the public workers that the unions bully and steal from.

Then this creep gets into name calling…. yes, name calling in a 9/11 memorial address.

Wealthy CEOs, anti-government extremist front groups and frothing talk show hosts—from the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks to the Koch brothers, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads group, Americans for Prosperity, the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks and the American Legislative Exchange Council—also pushed open the door to hate.

Shameless.

But wait he gets worse. Now he goes into a rant of non-sequiturs:

We’ve seen the costs of hatred in ill-thought wars, in shameful attacks on immigrants and our LGBT neighbors. We saw it in the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. We saw it in the racism that has found overt and covert expression since Barack Obama began his run for office—from outright declarations of people who said out loud they would never vote for a black man to the ridiculously persistent obsession with our president’s birth certificate. Regardless of his policies or priorities, President Obama is shadowed by the drumbeat of suspicion based on his “other”-ness. And those suspicions are fed and watered constantly by forces that were threatened by his message of “hope and change.”

Then Trumka goes on to invoke the memory of those first responders that died on 9/11 and bends their deaths to his own petty cause to rape the public treasury for high salaries and overly generous pensions and benefits lans his fatcat pals created with pliant Democrat politicians over the last forty years.

It is a disgusting display of ignorance.

Now, just imagine how the extremists on the far left, those shrill voices on the left would be screaming bloody murder if some Tea Party guy, a conservative radio host, or a Republican had used the deaths of over 3,000 Americans on 9/11 for his petty political agenda? Imagine how they’d be calling foul and saying how disgusting it would be. And they’d be right, too.

But here we have a union thug, a man with a long, long history of violence and incitement of the same, using the heroes that fell on 9/11 as a foil for advancing his union agenda.

Trumka is using the heroes of 9/11 to shore up his agenda of high taxes, big government waste, and big money for himself and his other union boss pals.

Trumka is using an incident perpetrated by people that hated capitalism and tried to strike a blow against it. He is using that murderous act to promulgate his own attack on capitalism. In essence, Trumka is announcing his sympathies with the Islamofascist terrorists that attacked us on 9/11.

Remember this, as well: Democrats and Obama support Trumka and his actions.

If this isn’t appalling, what is?

This weekend, we’re coming together, as one nation, to mark the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. We’re remembering the lives we lost—nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children. We’re reaffirming our commitment to always keep faith with their families.

We’re honoring the heroism of first responders who risked their lives—and gave their lives—to save others. And we’re giving thanks to all who serve on our behalf, especially our troops and military families—our extraordinary 9/11 Generation.

At the same time, even as we reflect on a difficult decade, we must look forward, to the future we will build together. That includes staying strong and confident in the face of any threat. And thanks to the tireless efforts of our military personnel and our intelligence, law enforcement and homeland security professionals—there should be no doubt. Today, America is stronger and al Qaeda is on the path to defeat.

We’ve taken the fight to al Qaeda like never before. Over the past two and a half years, more senior al Qaeda leaders have been eliminated than at any time since 9/11. And thanks to the remarkable courage and precision of our forces, we finally delivered justice to Osama bin Laden.

We’ve strengthened the partnerships and tools we need to prevail in this war against al Qaeda—working closer with allies and partners; reforming intelligence to better detect and disrupt plots; investing in our Special Forces so terrorists have no safe haven.

We’re constantly working to improve the security of our homeland as well—at our airports, ports and borders; enhancing aviation security and screening; increasing support for our first responders; and working closer than ever with states, cities and communities.

A decade after 9/11, it’s clear for all the world to see—the terrorists who attacked us that September morning are no match for the character of our people, the resilience of our nation, or the endurance of our values.

They wanted to terrorize us, but, as Americans, we refuse to live in fear. Yes we face a determined foe, and make no mistake—they will keep trying to hit us again. But as we are showing again this weekend, we remain vigilant. We’re doing everything in our power to protect our people. And no matter what comes our way, as a resilient nation, we will carry on.

They wanted to draw us in to endless wars, sapping our strength and confidence as a nation. But even as we put relentless pressure on al Qaeda, we’re ending the war in Iraq and beginning to bring our troops home from Afghanistan. Because after a hard decade of war, it is time for nation building here at home.

They wanted to deprive us of the unity that defines us as a people. But we will not succumb to division or suspicion. We are Americans, and we are stronger and safer when we stay true to the values, freedoms and diversity that make us unique among nations.

And they wanted to undermine our place in the world. But a decade later, we’ve shown that America doesn’t hunker down and hide behind walls of mistrust. We’ve forged new partnerships with nations around the world to meet the global challenges that no nation can face alone. And across the Middle East and North Africa a new generation of citizens is showing that the future belongs to those that want to build, not destroy.

Ten years ago, ordinary Americans showed us the true meaning of courage when they rushed up those stairwells, into those flames, into that cockpit. In the decade since, a new generation has stepped forward to serve and keep us safe. In their memory, in their name, we will never waver. We will protect the country we love and pass it safer, stronger and more prosperous to the next generation.

Well said, Mr. President, well said.

With events planned to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including elaborate ceremonies in New York, a three-day commemoration at the National Cathedral and television specials with Olympics-level promotion, one wonders how likely it is that, among all the observations, the truth about the events of Sept. 11 will be told. The inescapable conclusion is that it is very unlikely.

The country has been living with obfuscations and even deceptions about those events for nearly 10 years and has largely accepted the mythology about what happened on Sept. 11 and in the months leading up to it. The myths have made heroes of officials who had failed, as shown by a group of respected people in a widely read report, to take all possible steps to ward off the attacks.

You can guess where she’s going, right?

Inescapable evidence that three of the nation’s top leaders — President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice — fell short in their job of protecting the country from attack by al Qaeda was chillingly presented in the 9/11 Commission Report, issued in July 2004. Though this report was on The New York Times Best Seller list for 19 weeks and sold more than 1 million copies, there has been a general lack of understanding of its findings. This nonfiction account, deliberately written as a novel rather than as yet another dry and unreadable government document, offered a compelling narrative of the harrowing events of that day — and also of what actions were not taken before the attacks.

Can you guess who’s names were never mentioned in the story? That’s right. Names like President William Jefferson Clinton and Jamie Gorelick were conspicuously absent. You remember them: Clinton was the president during the time when al Qaeda was plotting and training the attack, coming and going from the United States, learning to fly jets, doing dry runs. Gorelick was the deputy attorney general under Clinton who put in the famous wall between law enforcement and intelligence. How about the people in charge of intelligence and law enforcement during the Clinton years? Not mentioned.

Other information showed that the president and Rice ignored clear and urgent warnings from the CIA of imminent attacks. Before the report was issued, commission co-chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton said in interviews that the attacks might have been prevented, but they came under such a ferocious reaction from the administration that they subsequently backed off such statements. The Bush White House practice of attacking those who said inconvenient things also led to efforts to discredit terrorism expert Richard Clarke, who had served in counterterrorism positions since the administration of George H. W. Bush and persistently warned of the dangers posed by al Qaeda.

So…..Clinton ignored Richard Clarke (who, as those of is in Reality Land remember, became a primadonna post 9/11) for 8 years? Anyhow, here we go with one of the dumbest of dumb mainstream liberal memes yet again

The most disturbing evidence of unheeded warnings was the Aug. 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Briefing titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” The report warned that Osama bin Laden was taking actions “consistent with preparations for hijacking or other types of attacks.” Bush, who received the report at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, took no action. Nor, apparently, did anyone else. Rice later told the commission that this PDB “was historical in nature,” and “was not a warning.” She insisted that this PDB (which followed several others about al Qaeda) consisted of “information based on old reporting,” and “did not warn against any possible attacks inside the US.”

Once again, I’ll ask liberals to point out specifically what could have been done with that PDB to stop the attacks? The Islamist animals were not allowed to be profiled at the airports. They were mostly all in the country already. Their plan was in place and ready to be implemented. You know, the plan that really started back on February 26, 1993, with the bombing of the World Trade Center, and the emergence of al Qaeda. Clinton had 3 opportunities to take Bin Laden out, which would have put a big crimp in AQ’s operations and money flow.

And let’s not forget that Sandy Berger had Richard Clarke put together a report showing that al Qaeda was on American soil and ready to attack. That was in early 2000. And part of the documents Berger stuffed down his pants and stole.

Anyhow, there is plenty more blamestorming, attempting to provide some red meat to the unhinged left with 9/11 next Sunday. Obviously, George Bush gets the most, including some whines about his macho stance in NYC when he said “I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon”, a quote that Elizabeth gets wrong, which “produced cheers of, “USA, USA, USA.” You can just picture her sneering at this open display of patriotism, can’t you? She also whines about post 9/11 actions. As one Politico commenter writes: This is a academic hit piece, boarding upon revisionist history writing.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we mourn our losses. We mourn the loss of fellow Americans who died at the hands of a sworn enemy and we mourn the loss of those in the ranks of our military who have since fought a righteous fight to protect us from that enemy.

In a weekly radio address, President Barack Obama called for unity as the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 draws near: “We were united,” said the President, “and the outpouring of generosity and compassion reminded us that in times of challenge, we Americans move forward together, as one people.” Obama’s words are a brazen reminder of how far apart on ideas and ideals most Americans are from the current government. Americans recognize that it is the Obama government itself that has created “times of great challenge” that threaten our nation’s safety and sovereignty.

On 9/11, terrorists attacked our people and our nation. Knowing who the enemy was, and still is, is itself a uniting force in the battle to protect this great nation. Once in office and well-knowing that extremist Muslim terrorists were behind the attacks, overt efforts were made to diffuse public awareness. The Obama administration attempted to rename terror attacks as “man-caused disasters” and classify the global war on terror as “Overseas Contingency Operations.” Failure to identify one’s enemy unifies no one. 9/11 survivors well know who their attackers were. Osama Bin Laden proclaimed on video tape that his terrorist group Al Qaeda carried out the 9/11 attacks.

The Obama White House has issued guidelines for the 9/11 ceremonies. Al Qaeda’s threat is to be downplayed and the impact of America’s 9/11 tragedy is to be diminished by equating it with all other terrorists’ attacks globally. What will go unmentioned by Obama is that the Muslim Brotherhood, that is making power gains in Egypt and the Middle East, is allied with Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and the jihadists. An earlier affront to and “de-unification” of the American people came when Obama tried to transport accused terrorists, housed at Guantanamo Bay, into our American cities and courts to grant them the same Constitutional rights allowed for U.S. citizens. Americans stood “united” and stopped the outrageous proceedings by Obama and his Justice Department. The first step in Obama’s reunification should be to call the enemy what it is — terrorists.

What cannot be overstated in the healing and reunification of America, after the 9/11 attacks, was the importance of prayer. Prayer and the call to God to protect and guide the nation were at the heart, the core, of bringing Americans together with compassion and determination. This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian faith and principles. Today, a reported 95% of Americans are people of faith in various religions. Yet, prayer and clergy have been banished from the 9/11 state run day of remembrance by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. By eliminating God, the state steps into the role of God with its ceremonies devoid of prayer. Politicos will direct attention to themselves as the guiding lights of national healing, looking to reflect a god-like glow as benevolent caretakers of the masses.

Historically, Socialist/Fascist regimes that diminished God and circumvented clergy began in seemingly benign ways. Today, faith is under siege in America. (See: Christian Purge – The Obama Factor: http://darwinsracists.com/book/?p=155). Politicians supplanting prayer with their own verbiage and public spectrum, lessens us as a nation. A major factor in America’s exceptionalism is that America is the preeminent nation in the world that turns to God and prayer for healing and guidance. America may elect an Obama or a Bloomberg, but it does not worship them. The current American President and Mayor of New York will ceremoniously memorialize “sacred” ground and memories of our lost as long as God is excluded despite the fact that “sacred” by its very definition means “connected with God.” To misconstrue an ambiguous moment of silence as “sacred” is itself a sacrilegious dodge. Public office is transient and any glory derived from it is short-lived. These politicians may learn that what really “unites” Americans is political leaders going against the people’s will by imposing state censure on religious expression. The ban on clergy should immediately be reversed.

Presidents nor mayors can separate God from His people. So, there will be prayer, there will be open tribute to their Creator by the faithful across the nation for the healing and “unifying” of this great nation on this important day of remembrance. May God bless the survivors, the families, our first responders and our military warriors. May God bless America as long as its people know that those blessings come from the Creator God and not from transitory politicians.

The White House has issued detailed guidelines to government officials on how to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, with instructions to honor the memory of those who died on American soil but also to recall that Al Qaeda and other extremist groups have since carried out attacks elsewhere in the world, from Mumbai to Manila.

Just to be clear, these guidelines are supposedly for federal agencies, not for state and local governments or private citizens, as the The Politico points out in their story.

The White House in recent days has quietly disseminated two sets of documents. One is framed for overseas allies and their citizens and was sent to American embassies and consulates around the globe. The other includes themes for Americans here and underscores the importance of national service and what the government has done to prevent another major attack in the United States. That single-page document was issued to all federal agencies, officials said.

That’s strange, the NY Times makes it seem as if Team Obama is attempting to set how Americans can celebrate 9.11. The Times’ article, which was the first, never makes it clear if these “guidelines” are simply for federal agencies, or for all Americans.

After weeks of internal debate, White House officials adopted the communications documents to shape public events and official statements, and they sought to strike a delicate balance between messages designed for these two very important but very different audiences on a day when the world’s attention will be focused on President Obama, his leadership team and his nation.

Weeks of debate, eh? If only he’d take the same time to deal with the economy. But, really, you know it will be President George W. Bush who will steal the show during the ceremonies. Obama’s the guy who expressed empathy with the Islamist animals who pulled off 9.11.

Some senior Obama administration leaders had advocated a lengthy program of speeches and events to mark the anniversary, but the final decisionwas for lower-key appearances by Mr. Obama and other senior leaders only on the days leading up to the anniversary and on Sept. 11 itself.

Obviously, we can’t let the 10th anniversary get in the way of golf and fund raising.

At the same time, Obama administration officials caution that public commemorations here should not cast the United States as the sole victim of terrorism, an argument underscored by killings and maimings from extremist attacks overseas.

Who the hell do they think was attacked on September 11th? Yes, there were citizens of other countries killed in the Twin Towers, but the attack was on America. Talk about tone deaf!

The domestic guidelines, entitled “9/11 Anniversary Planning,” are shorter and less prescriptive than the talking points created for overseas audiences. For example, they note that the ceremonies will honor Americans killed in the Sept. 11 attacks but also “all victims of terrorism, including those who had been targeted by Al Qaeda and other groups around the globe.”

That’s strange, I don’t remember any Pearl Harbor day ceremonies honoring “all victims of Japanese imperialism around the world.”

Anyhow, let’s wrap this up by returning to something from earlier

The other includes themes for Americans here and underscores the importance of national service and what the government has done to prevent another major attack in the United States.

I wonder if they will highlight things like enhanced interrogation, including water boarding, which has wrung lots of intelligence out of actual terrorists. Isn’t it funny how the waterboarding issue completely disappeared once Obama took office? Enhanced interrogation worked. It kept America safer. Deal with it, Liberals!

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