When the Pentagon announced it would be staging a march on September 11, 2005, to commemorate the victims of 9/11 and show support for the troops, it was hard not to expect the worst: Triumph of the Will on the Potomac. But after three of the dullest hours of my life, I’m happy to report those fears proved unfounded. Maybe… return to article
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Reader Comments (22)Page 1 of 1 pagesSo the U.S. government can have an excellent coordination of all the necessary activities deemed necessary to support “Freedom Walk” with no problem at all, including water and volunteers, yet flaps its d**k in the wind when it comes to SAVING LIVES AND PEOPLE in New Orleans. This was so obviously political in nature that it makes me, well, not surprised.
It is encouraging to see the lack of turnout at this event, especially since turnout for the anti-war protests in a week or so will be so massive. It is clear that the majority of America no longer supports this war and the administration that started it. This should be the three longest years of Bush’s life. I hope he does not enjoy any minute of it.
Posted by Liberal on Sep 13, 2005 at 5:15 PM Good report but I would have enjoyed seeing more photo journalism in accompaniment. (hey, I’m available!) I would have liked to see the two protesters and the crowd reaction, or the gal in the T-shirt, for example.
The reference to president stupidhead’s approval rating having “sunk below sea level” is priceless.
There was a time when the grunge bands of Seattle were popular and Shirley Maclain was Out On A Limb—supposedly there were all these global psychic fault lines converging in that area of the Pacific rim. I think the insanity has clearly shifted over to Florida now though, particularly since the year 2000 election.
There’s a retired fellow here in Palm Beach County that regularly sky writes G O D with his air show smoke equipped biplane. Visitors sometimes ask if this is supposed to be God’s country or something. “Just another day in paradise” is a common reply to such things but we know paradise has it’s price and that in itself is a heavy cross to bear.
And that puffy white smoke: It’s oil, you know, and eventually condenses and falls to earth like rain - an oily rain.
http://communitylink.gopbi.com/groups/planetpowerchutes
Posted by Tim Christopher on Sep 13, 2005 at 5:32 PM HA! I’ve been looking for the coverage of this “event"in the MSM! Now I know why I haven’t found much (if any).It was a NON-EVENT!!HA! HA!seems the sleeple are finally waking up!! that woman shaming on those protesters was a bit confused I’d say.People arent dieing for them,thier dieing for the fasist leaders and oil of course…
Posted by Kaw Valley Kid on Sep 13, 2005 at 10:05 PM Its all very well for liberal, lefties to laugh, but you know nothing.
The Repug’s planned all along for things to happen this way. The day was really a huge success and demonstrated once and for all that Americans were behind the President and his war.
This also proved that Iraq was behind 911, that Bush is in front of things and that only those on their knees need to open their mouths at this point.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 14, 2005 at 2:50 AM Sorry,
You have to have a sense of outrage at having been wronged for a march to be effective.The right can’t seem to grasp this.No! Clinton doesn’t count!No!He does not!Opposition is not treason!No!It isn’t!That a bunch of bland white-bread,corn-fed,right-wingers want to get together to commemorate a day that would have been prevented by a more able president is ridiculous.They should have been together to mourn the passing of gas being below two dollars a gallon.Irony,however,is beyond the right.Oh,well,that’s what makes them special.
Unsophisticated,ignorant,pugnacious myrmidons getting together to celebrate their ability to be collectively duped.Sweet.
Still,it would have been interesting if the anniversary had been on a Sunday.Talk about a conflict of interest!The game...patriotism.The game...patriotism.Maybe I can be a good American and celebrate the worst attack on U.S. soil by watching the Patriots play the Redskins! Yeah That’s it!
Such is the mind-set of a right-winger.
I only wish the media wouldn’t pester me with the activities of the Republican party’s hoi polloi.
Posted by wwoods on Sep 14, 2005 at 6:05 AM “But whereas once these memories had a raw and terrifying immediacy, you now get the sense they are indulged and lingered over like the bittersweet remembrance of an adolescent heartbreak. That 9/11 has lost the edge of rage it inspired in many is a good thing for the republic and a bad thing for the Republicans.”
Until the next attack?
Posted by whattheheck on Sep 14, 2005 at 10:16 AM “Until the next attack?”
Yeah, you have to wonder who or where the Pentagon will attack next.
Posted by Tim Christopher on Sep 14, 2005 at 11:17 AM Perhaps the lack of genuine enthusiasm is really their own fault. 9/11 was a tragic event for America, but for politicians without a conscience, it was viewed as an opportunity. They had been looking for war with Iraq since the first days of the administration. They capitalized on our fear, manipulated information and used the unity that 9/11 had created to get the war they always wanted—one that had nothing to do with Iraq. Now that it is well established that there is no connection between 9/11 and Iraq, coupled with the growing consensus that the war itself was a grave mistake, it seems now that people want to respect 9/11 for what it was, a great tragedy that took many innocent lives—not as a rally cry for war or pseudo-patriotism.
Posted by woollymammoth on Sep 14, 2005 at 11:20 AM Wow!Got my days mixed up!
The republicans got that many people to show up on a Sunday?People actually put aside the game to make a token gesture of patriotism?I guess that proves their loyalty.
While a disaster for our country,9/11 was the best thing to ever happen to the GOP.They can fight an endless,unwinnable war.They can play on our emotions when we aren’t compliant.Best of all,terrorists,unlike Soviets,can have an arsenal that we can’t keep exact,or even approximate,track of.Unlike silos and armored divisions,you can’t keep track of splinter cells.No,sir.Not to mention Osama Bin Laden who,like Orwell’s character Snowball,can be thrown out as a boogeyman when fear or hate is needed.Not to mention the tool 9/11 has become to demonize anyone who even disagrees with them.
I wonder if after the march,the Republican leadership got together and celebrated this political bonanza?
Posted by wwoods on Sep 14, 2005 at 1:40 PM I found it interesting that of the group that did attend, only a small amount were actually from the 9/11 families. The majority of attendees were the military families who came to support the unrelated Iraq war. It’s still about ideology...honoring the victims of 9/11 is just window dressing. The march was more about maintaining dwindling support for the war—and thus the backbone of neo-con political philosophy. That the group was smaller and less boisterous than expected should be regarded as a good sign that the neo-con fervor has abated.
With elections coming soon, it will be interesting to see which Republicans will jump ship first. You would think that no one would want to be connected with a President with a 30 something percent approval rate. The trouble is that old-school conservatives need the neo-con block to get elected...will they risk fracturing the party or will they sell their souls again? It’s a game of political chicken within the Republican party. It certainly is an opportunity for Democrats, which itself is fractured between true liberals and corporate minded centrists. Personally, I’d like to see a Democrat step up and take a stand for the forgotten working class. Whoever wins out will have their work cut out for them. It won’t be easy trying to undo the havoc the neo-cons have wrecked on Democracy.
Posted by woollymammoth on Sep 14, 2005 at 4:17 PM Is there no way that political systems like yours and ours which have degenerated into de-facto two party systems, is there no way we can cut out both the groups who have come to dominate our politics. We already know there is little difference between the one or the other.
The main difference being just the language employed to baffle the sheeple.
What difference between a Liberal who works for the big money and a conservative who works for the big money?
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 14, 2005 at 6:09 PM GhostRabbit, I wish there were a way to cut out the Dems and Repugs. They have become far too similar in that they seem to serve corporate interests first. The problem is that with the high costs of campaigns, the overriding issue is money. In order to compete you have to outspend the other guy… so you inevitably get what amounts to political prostitution to get the funds needed to merely compete in an election. Of course, once you’ve taken mass amounts of money from corporations—they now own you. If you don’t do what they ask, you won’t get the money next time around. The system is broken. Perhaps the answer is some sort of sweeping campaign finance reform. A much smaller, finite amount of money which can be spent would be a start. Cutting out TV advertisments would be another...all you get is b.s. from those things anyway. Wealth dominates political funding and thus, political agenda. If you can level the playing field, you’ll get better candidates, not just the best fundraisers. If you can get to the point where ideas mean more to an election than the money you spent creating an image, it will completely change the political landscape. Of course, that may be a little idealistic!
Posted by woollymammoth on Sep 15, 2005 at 7:12 AM I am glad to see that everybody is against the neo-cons. Where are the rebugs? six months ago if you said anything against bush you got hammered. Now I don’t hear any support.
Posted by brian28 on Sep 15, 2005 at 9:34 AM Where were all these people 9 months ago. The dixie chicks were the only one’s with the balls to stand up against bush, every one was afraid. I have been against bush for 4 years 9 months 15 days and been hammered for it. What has changed? What part of bush screwed so bad that now it is alright to bash him? and where were you people when the election was around?
Posted by brian28 on Sep 15, 2005 at 9:48 AM Are we going to get off are ass and vote in 06 and try for a democratic congress, at least put some balance back into the government or after the election are we going to bitch about it after we loose for the next two years. Plus it will give the neo-cons someone to blame when bush screws up again, he can blame the democatis congress.
Posted by brian28 on Sep 15, 2005 at 10:02 AM I actually feel some level of compassion for those who still cling to the 9/11-Iraq equation, despite a complete lack of evidence for it.
I see the habit of clinging to the Saddam-9/11 fiction (which apparently needed refreshing even though the administration formerly gave up pushing that line) as clear evidence of severe emotional wounds. Like a version of PTSD, a “post 9/11 stress syndrome”. They’re still overwhelmingly sad and hurt and angry, a point implied in C. Hayes’ article. I can dig it; watching the coverage of the second jet smashing in and both WTC towers fall felt like getting kicked in the crotch for me. And I didn’t even know anyone who died in the attacks! Those who did, who go on day by day with that hugely public and historically convoluted event playing out in their memories, knowing that their country was attacked and that someone they cared about about was murdered before the world, must feel the bone-deep need to understand and to retaliate. It can maybe be understood if they reflexively accept the administration’s long-standing propaganda efforts to blame Saddam Hussein for it somehow, a redux of which was included in the 4th anniversary ceremony. It’s at least easy to understand, even if it’s just hot air. Those folks can use a grain of compassion, even if I disagree vehemently with using 9/11 as in any way justifying the war in Iraq.
Still, the world didn’t really change that day. It was still the same old fucked up world after America was reminded again that it isn’t immune to terrorism. Powerful governments continue to run roughshod over people to claim dibs on the wealth and resources their backers insist they get for them. And as well, desperate, furious individuals fight, kill, and die believing that history or God will one day reveal that their nihilistic gestures meant something, contributed to something worthwhile, despite the fact that it only looks like insane murderousness to everyone else.
I for one hope that this recent 4th anniversary of 9/11 and the poorly attended ceremony can begin the process of Americans beginning to heal from it, accommodate it, understand it, and come around to deciding that we won’t let it “change the world” or our best ideals. Not let it turn us into lashing-out aggressors or historical fools.
It sure as hell means we shouldn’t cheaply give up hard-won rights and freedoms, like the right to dissent from public policy! Maybe my countrymen who flare up in patriotic defensiveness whenever government policy (read: war) is opposed can eventually be reminded that thoughtful citizens’ evaluation of government’s use of power (and maybe rejecting a particular use of power toward ends that violate civilized, advanced values) is the idealized heart of a democratic society. We don’t have to suppress our intellects and just obey.
It’s a damn-sight better value than just buying up mass-media time to continue dinning propaganda into people’s heads until they can’t resist anymore!
As much compassion as I can conceive for those who hold onto 9/11 as somehow justifying Iraq, that compassion doesn’t extend to the authors of the policy and the propaganda. It’s about time they gave up that shit once and for all. And we should just steel ourselves against it, whether they come around to dropping that bullshit line or not. Four years after is the perfect timing to begin, and maybe the poor attendance at the ceremony symbolizes that.
Posted by Kuya on Sep 15, 2005 at 10:31 AM Brian Rabbit was and is in Australia, but posted hard against Bushler from here. Our problem like yours is still those F*cking Stupid Dittoheads who consider themselves to be the moral majority. They are neither moral nor a majority anymore, but their horse is carrying the float.
Rabbit has no compassion for anyone who can allow themselves to be tricked not once but twenty times, who can allow evil to be done in their names and who look down on other people as less worthy to live than themselves.
They can all go up in the next “so-called” Terrorist attack. At least they will not be innocent victims.
Anyone who supports the Neo-con Junta and it’s Illegal Wars of conquest is not innocent and their death will be justice.
The Dems have given no indication they would have done things any different, so stop kidding yourselves that a Democrap admin would be better. Rabbit fully expects USA to get one next time and then business as usual.
Get used to it, 1984 is here to stay unless we are headed for an even worse fate.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 15, 2005 at 10:54 PM As I see it the fundamental flaw with the US democracy is its ‘winner-take-all’ electoral system. The WTA system discriminates against smaller parties, and governments with WTA electoral systems tend to be dominated by two parties. Two party systems are easily corruptible (why contribute to just one party when you could just contribute to both and be assured influence, regardless of happens in the elections?) and tend to only serve the interests of the rich well.
The way to break the two party system would be to change the electoral system to something that is more proportionally representative, or maybe even some kind of direct e-democracy.
The only way that change that fundamental would happen in the US is if things go to hell, and that sure does seem to be where Mr. Bushie is taking us.
The US as a superpower has been quite a monopolistic self interested bully. If that’s how it uses it’s power I’m all for the crumbling of the American Empire.
Bush has just hastened that inevitable outcome with his idiot adventure in Iraq. The Neocons are trying to work to advance the interests of the US power-elite but instead worked in humanity’s interests by flubbing it up so bad in Iraq. Osama couldn’t destroy American Empire, but he, with Bush’s help, was able to send it on a self destructive path…
Posted by DAMNIT on Sep 16, 2005 at 2:18 PM That is exactly how Osama brought down the Soviet Union as it happens. Bleed them dry.
He’s had practice this time, assuming he is the mastermind and not just a puppet too.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 17, 2005 at 3:33 AM GhostRabbit writes :
“ Its all very well for liberal, lefties to laugh, but you know nothing.
The Repug’s planned all along for things to happen this way. The day was really a huge success and demonstrated once and for all that Americans were behind the President and his war.
This also proved that Iraq was behind 911, that Bush is in front of things and that only those on their knees need to open their mouths at this point. “
David in Canada wrties :
Well said. I wonder when the Minitry of Peace will start organizing the “ Two Minute Hate “ to further rally support for the war on terror.
Posted by David in Canada on Sep 18, 2005 at 3:11 AM A repost of relevant rant.
Rabbit is actually sorry to be nasty to Nice Americans, and there are many who are as horified at what is going on as Rabbit. Rabbit knows that there are as many Americans who know exactly what is going on and are doing all they can to change things. There are some who are willfully ignorant and there are a vast majority who are just mis-informed.
Aussies are no better when it comes to being mis-informed, and there are also many who are doing their bit to change and then we too have our willfully ignorant.
It’s just that our bastardised government is not such a huge pain in the arse for as many other people as what the present US Junta is for the world. We cannot take bake our freedoms and rights from our lousy governments until your lot gets rid of the running dogs who rule your fatal shore.
The USA calls the shots, we know that. Aussies do not want a bar of what is going on in our name. But even the most pissed of us admit that Little Johnny HowHard, the Arse licker from Canberra, has not got much choice about doing as he’s told.
He’s a gutless little snipe if ever we had one. Our PM is from the same school of thought as Bush, he has the same empathy with the common man and the same loyalty to big business. Also a similar tolerance of the underprivelaged and minorities.
The only difference between Bushler and HowHard is about 100 in IQ. and about three feet in height, just high enough for what he’s there for anyway.
Aussies don’t believe Howhards kids are his, we don’t believe he’s ever had sex with Janet (the missus), he would not be unfaithful to GWB.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 20, 2005 at 3:39 AM Well,I was laughing at the poor turn out of the NEOcons event,though I do have utmost respect for those lost in the 9/11 false flag operation.I have some respect for the solders as well.At least the ones who joined to feed their familys and to get medical benefits,basicly those who had no other choice.I feel sorry for the ones who joined with imagined Patriotic duty to America,and ended up serving the corperation of America rather than their beloved country.
It is interesting to me that the anti war events today across the world had much higher attendence! well over 100,000 in DC alone!very encouraging.
Posted by Kaw Valley Kid on Sep 25, 2005 at 1:01 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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