in the words of those who were there on 9/11

A rich vein of city records from Sept. 11, including more than 12,000 pages of oral histories rendered in the voices of 503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians, were made public on Aug. 12. The New York Times has published all of them.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html

Letter Of The Day

Do commanders in chief go on vacation during war? Have the terrorists gotten the memo, and are they also on holiday?

Fourteen Marines are killed in one incident on the same day President Bush departs for Crawford to start his vacation. I am sure there will be plenty of photo ops of him clearing brush and his mind.

I bet there are a few boots on the ground in the Middle East that would like a vacation, even if it's in West Texas.

-R. D. Smith, West Des Moines.

--source

think this would sway opinion on the bush war?

from Knight-Ridder:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi investigators have uncovered widespread fraud and waste in more than $1 billion worth of weapons deals arranged by middlemen who reneged or took huge kickbacks on contracts to arm Iraq's fledgling military, according to a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials.

...

The contracts under scrutiny total $1.27 billion, nearly equal to the estimated $1.3 billion allocated for the Defense Ministry's budget this year. The money came solely from Iraqi coffers, not from the training budget of the U.S. military or from NATO and foreign donations to Iraq's military.

"There's no rebuilding, no weapons, nothing," said retired Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul Aziz al-Yaseri, who worked in the Defense Ministry at the height of the alleged corruption. "There are no real contracts, even. They just signed papers and took the money."

--source

think that's bad? that's nothin compared to what bush has done to America.

Letter Of The Day

You really have to give it to the House for finally passing an energy bill. It left no oil company behind, what with the generous federal subsidies it's going to give to the oil and gas industries. (Why are large corporations exempt from the ownership-society concept?)

Considering the time it took for the "great minds" to come up with this bill, you'd think they could have arrived at a national energy-conservation program that would have involved real conservation.

Instead, the one big idea it came up with is to extend daylight savings time.
-Rita Luther,
West Des Moines.

--source

just when you thought there couldn't be any more foolery

from an administration based and operated totally on tom foolery, i give you the winner of the "thank god for 9/11" contest:

The Pentagon would hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing today.

"This year the Department of Defence will initiate an America Supports Your Freedom Walk," Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of "the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation".

--source

rummy is calling out to all Americans to celebrate 9/11. since 9/11 was the start of their dictatorship, no doubt they _would want to celebrate.

and talk about fuckin up

this one takes the cake. and certainly provides even more ammunition to the premise that the 9/11 commission was a whitewash for the bushites.

from today's papers on slate:

Relying on Representative Curt Weldon, R-Pa., and a "former defense intelligence official," the NYT says above the fold on Page One that a secret Pentagon program actually pegged four of the 9/11 hijackers—including Mohamed Atta—as al-Qaida men back in 2000. The secret program, which used data-mining, was called "Able Danger." Again, according to Weldon and the other source, program officials wanted to pass along the tips to the FBI but were overruled by Pentagon lawyers concerned that the military would be overstepping its authority. "We knew these were bad guys, and we wanted to do something about them," the former unnamed DoD official said. That source also charged that the 9/11 commission was told about the scoop but never followed up.

the piece on slate goes on with more details on weldon.

if you need any proof that bush is the worse president ever

take a look at this

Letter(s) Of The Day

today, there are several that deserve the distinction of Letter Of The Day. all from the same source.

GOPAC, a Washington, D.C.,-based Republican action committee, has announced plans to financially support Republican candidates for school boards in Iowa ("Political Group Targets School Boards," Aug. 1).

For what reason would a national organization in Washington, D.C., involve itself in our local school board elections other than to put in place candidates who will promote its political agenda?

With President Bush leading the charge to force his and the far-Christian right's beliefs onto the electorate (limiting stem-cell research, advocating intelligent-design curriculum, providing nonaccountable funding of faith-based organizations and vouchers for private schools) this is not the time to keep from voters the political affiliation of each school board candidate.

The deck is already being stacked by GOPAC. Hopefully the Register and organizations like the League of Women Voters and Women for a Stronger America will do their part to educate the electorate.

-Nancy Theodore, West Des Moines.

and

When does deference to a public official become blind submission? The Register crosses that point in its Aug. 2 editorial, "Bolton's Almost Beside the Point," which is dismissive of President Bush's recess appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.

Let the ruler do whatever he wants, the editorial basically says, that's what he is paid to do - rule. Whatever happened to accountability or the checks and balances system in our democracy?

Further, the editorial is just too dismissive of the role of the U.N. ambassador - a position that has been held by several of our nation's finest public servants over the past 60 years. Check the lineup - Ralph Bunche, Henry Cabot Lodge, Adlai Stevenson, et al.

John Bolton is a disastrous appointment and subservience to presidential power can't change that.

-Herb Strentz, Urbandale.

and

Many modern-day, church-attending Christians seem to have forgotten the fundamental message of Jesus. How can individuals who are trying to imitate Christ support pre-emptive military actions, more deadly weapons systems, the death penalty and more punitive sentencing, tax breaks that expand the separation between the rich and the poor, unrestricted gun access and ownership and minimal foreign aid to needy nations?

How can such actions and attitudes be reconciled with the central messages in the Beatitudes or in the basic edict from Christ that we should love our neighbor as ourselves? Is real Christianity simply too difficult to practice for most people?

Bill McKibben recently observed in a Harpers magazine article that "America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior." Perhaps it is high time for Christians to strive to more closely emulate their leader's teachings.

-Dean R. Prestemon, Ames.

KUDOS TO ALL THE WRITERS!

and open letter to LEXMARK:

WHY DO YOU HATE YOUR CUSTOMERS SO MUCH?

Letter of the WeeQ

this wins hands down for the Letter of the WeeQ(tm):

I commend Iowa Sens. Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin for trying to limit farm payments to $250,000. The existing limit of $350,000, with loopholes that allow landowners with good lawyers to collect millions, is patently absurd. Taxpayers' money is being used to bankroll the biggest corporations so they can continue to force small farmers off the land.

Our senators are not even trying to go far enough, however.

The Department of Human Services will tell you that a single, disabled mother of five children, with no means of support, can collect about $1,800 per month, or less than $22,000 per year. The biggest 10 percent of agricultural producers got 86 percent of the $28 billion in welfare (called subsidies) last year.

It is time we limited ag subsidies to $25,000, or perhaps $20,000, per year. Why should a "proud, independent, self-sufficient farmer" get a bigger welfare check than a poor, disabled woman with five children?

Big farmers will tell you, of course, that they take "big risks," so they are entitled to big welfare checks. The fact is, if you have a multimillion-dollar business, and you still need government assistance, you need to get into another line of work.

-Garry Klicker,
( small farmer who collects conversation subsidies), Bloomfield.

--source

Letter Of The Day

Regarding your photo of neighbors enjoying a picnic lunch in a new unoccupied confinement building:

Buildings do not stink, but fermenting feces and urine do stink beyond your average reader's comprehension. I would be glad to host a picnic 1,000 feet downwind from that building a year from now, but you have to honestly publish our guests' remarks.

-Ron Kielkopf, Fremont.

--source