How Soon We Forget… September 11th 7 Years Later…
I’m not sure if I saw any news specials last night about the 7th Anniversary of one of the most horrific attacks on American soil in recent history. I’m not sure that I saw all the media blitz that covered the airwaves on 09/11/01 and in 02, 03, and I think even in 04 while the media was still interested. ’05 showed a sharp decline in coverage, ’06 less, don’t even remember ’07, and here we are. Today. 09/11/08. Where’s the coverage? Where’s the interest? Where’s America?
In the months after the attacks on that dreadful day people all over the United States Americans stuck flags on their car antennas, bumper stickers, shirts, houses, jackets, everything. You could not look anywhere and NOT see an American flag. Notice I didn’t say “Americans stuck flags…” I’d be insulting all those illegal aliens I witnessed in my old neighborhood of East Elmhurst putting out flags and wearing “our Colors” even while the Country may not have wanted them around – immigration and what not. People all over the United States cried for weeks and swore never to forget, blah blah blah.
Well. Here we are 7 years later. 09/11. Forgotten.
Hit CNN right now, and you’ll see what I mean. It isn’t even Headline News. September 11th has been trumped by Texans Fleeing Ike and stories about the disasters of Hanna among other things. Oh, wait, there’s 09/11 on the sidebar under “Latest News” on the CNN Home Page. How very much we forgot. Well, at least NY1.COM has it as a Top Story on their Home Page.
What’s more important than today? A hurricane? Has America become so complacent that we’re returning to our roots after the first attack on the World Trade Center? Why aren’t the memorials completed already? And why, oh, why in the hell did McCain and Obama visit the World Trade Center site? Even though they were, “[t]aking a day off from election squabbles…” If there isn’t Political motivation behind that visit then we’ve got something else to worry about.
Every year on this day I share MY STORY about what happened on that day, and I ask everyone to remember what happened, where they were, what they saw, who they were next to, at the moments when the airplanes ripped through the World Trade Center towers and in the minutes after each tower collapsed. I was running for my life. I was scared.
This year I’d like to ask you to find a quiet place, where you won’t be disturbed. Sit or lay down and think of nothing for 9 minutes, close your eyes for the last minute. Read my story. Now find the person you most love and be with them for 11 minutes without saying a word – and no other distractions.
I hope, as I usually say, that I don’t offend anyone that will read my story, but it is what it is, and it’s what I wrote.
09/11 – We Will Never Forget…
Please read… September 11th – My Story…
The Electoral Map Begins to Shift…
According to NBC’s FirstRead,
After the conventions and the candidates’ VP picks, Obama still maintains a slight lead electoral lead, according to NBC’s map. Obama has 228 electoral votes to McCain’s 200, with 110 electoral votes in the toss-up column. The changes from last month, when Obama held a 217-189 advantage: Missouri moves from toss-up to Lean McCain, Pennsylvania moves from toss-up to Lean Obama, and Wisconsin moves from Lean Obama to toss-up. We came VERY close to moving North Carolina to toss-up, but until we see one decent poll showing Obama ahead, we’re not there yet. Every North Carolina poll has had McCain ahead, though it is worth noting the RNC and the campaign are finally up in the Tar Heel state with paid media.
This shapes things up as follows:
Likely Obama: CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA (190 electoral votes)
Lean Obama: IA, MN, PA (38 votes)
Toss-up: CO, FL, MI, NV, NM, NH, OH, VA, WI (110 votes)
Lean McCain: AK, GA, IN, MO, MT, NC, ND, SD (64 votes)
Likely McCain: AL, AZ, AR, ID, KS, KY, LA, MS, NE, OK, SC, TN, TX, UT, WV, WY (136 votes)
So, it begins, and our eyes are firmly set on how this map will end up on Election Day. If you live in a Toss-up state take the initiative and get your neighbors initiated and let’s get Barack Obama elected this Fall!
McCain… The New Change Agent…
I’ll let Barack Obama speak for himself, but listen carefully, and remember what McCain’s been saying…
So, what is McCain trying to shovel? Except for more of the same old same old? This is part of the reason why we have to shake things up this Fall and make sure that McCain DOES NOT win the election. Letting him win will show the WORLD that Americans are as ignorant about their leaders as we are perceived to be on a number of things.
Let’s show the world that we’re not ignorant. Let’s show the world that we believe in REAL CHANGE, not just hype talk and double talk, like McCain is doing right now.
The End Game
Last night marked the end of the Primary process as McCain accepted the nomination of his party at the Republican National Convention. We now move into the End Game for the Presidency of the United States, and the stakes have never been so high – which we will probably say again in 2016, 2016, 2020 and beyond.
The speech last night by John McCain was a bit of the same old McCain, but it appears as though his handlers told him to keep his tone low key and to sound caring – which he did. Oddly enough, I wasn’t completely incensed by his speech, though he took hits at Barack Obama. He spent most of his speech reminding Americans that September 11th happened and because of that we should elect a President that knows what to do with terrorists, because it is of course the President that “actually” decides what actions are taken, ahem… Right.
The media, in it’s continuing wisdom, after the speech, pointed out that Barack Obama spoke about McCain some twenty plus times in his speech last week, and that McCain only mentioned Obama 5-6 times. How great it is to know how to spin something, because he may have mentioned Obama BY NAME 5-6 times but if you count the times that he talked about “his opponents” and the “there are people” statements, I’m sure twenty is a low number.
The speech would not have been complete with John McCain reminding us that he was a POW in Vietnam and that he survived because of his sheer love of America and his neighbor fellow POW who encouraged him to stand up and keep fighting for his beloved America! He got the usual ocean of applause for this part of his speech, and the cameras hit the faces of a few crying members of the audience, and the Veteran with his head down, possibly remembering his own stories from Vietnam. Now, I absolutely have the utmost of respect for Veterans and what they have done for our great Country, but, I keep asking why is it SO important to continuously remind us that McCain went through this? Connecting that experience with September 11th and the fear of God instilled by the Boogeyman comments? Fear. As usual. We must FEAR that this will happen again, maybe to a loved one.
I’m not sure what I am trying to say here, honestly, I don’t even have a clear thought right. However, one thing is clear… The End Game is here.
So, Palin’s Daugher is Pregnant? Should we Care?
Raide your hand if you have a child born anywhere in the beginning of 1990.
Raise your hand if you had a child born anytime around the time you were just getting out of High School.
Raise your hand if you know someone in these shoes.
Raise your hand if you remember your parent’s reaction when you told them.
If you’re like me, you’ve just raised your hand a total of 5 times, and have had a growing concerto of images brew in your mind thinking back to those days. Ah, the sheer bliss of the late 80′s – Boy George, Run DMC, and Bush Sr., what a life we had. Then roared in the 90′s with the financial downfalls of empires built by the like of Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken and the sheer madness of the Internet boom and the dot.com growth that made instant millionaires overnight on novel ideas like selling books online or helping someone sell off garage sale items on the Internet to auction frenzied overpayers who’ve since become smarter and simply hit Buy it Now – even at a premium price.
Those years were nuts. True. So were all the babies having babies all around us. Me, my sister, her best friend, some of my friends, some of their friends. We were ALL having kids. We were ALL 16-18. I don’t remember anyone of us being close to 20, and there may have even been one girl who was 15 and I think knocked up by a cousin or an uncle or something – I think I remember her having an abortion. Yes, that.
We’ve all grown up since then, and our kids are now entering college. Yes. College. And in some cases, heck, even have kids of their own. So some of us hitting our mid to late thirties are even Grandparents. Since the 80′s some studies would suggest that more and more kids are having kids, and I would beg to differ. Honestly, I’ve seen less pregnancies among teens, at least in my old neighborhood – when I visit.
But, of course, leave it to political spin to bring this issue to the limelight because Palin’s 17 year old daughter is pregnant. We need to get this out of the airwaves and back where it belongs… In Palin’s living room or her daughter’s bedroom – wherever the act occured, because it simply isn’t a good comparison to the REAL issue of teenage pregnancy. Again, not agreeing that there is a real problem, unless I’ve missed something.
Palin’s daughter being pregnant, at this stage in her life, guarantees her most of the things that many of us struggled to get when we were kids having kids. I am sure Palin’s daughter won’t be sitting in some general hospital asking for Medicaid, or filling out an application for Food Stamps, or trying to get WIC checks to get her baby’s milk. The baby will be born in much the same fashion as any other celebrity baby – with the usual media frenzy, and millions being paid for the first pictures.
Man I wish I’d had it that easy when my first son Michael was born. Life may have been different for me. For him. For all of us.
So, my point is… Palin’s daughter is pregnant. Woo hoo. Can we ask the Republicans and the Media to put attention back on the REAL issues? She had her fun, let’s not let it waste our time.
And We Lost in 2004? Liebercrat
Okay, so I know he flipped quite some time ago, but WHAT THE HELL is LIEBERMAN doing at the Republican National Convention? Why not just switch party’s altogether? Rathern than being a holdout? Why did we loose the election in 2004? Again? Hmm… Conspiracy theorists unite…
What a sellout.
Where’s the Crowd… More Vietnam… And Fear…
I’m sitting here watching the Republican National Convention and I’m wondering how you can compare it to what happened last week for Democrats? I mean, there simply isn’t any comparison.
Here I am once again watching the cameras pan around at members of the crowd, and it’s interesting to note that there are like a tenth of the people that went the Democrat’s Convention. When you see the people waive banners there are like 20 in the whole field, where in the Democratic Convention you could barely see the people in the crowd.
As the camera pans around I also notice one thing, and I don’t want to go racial here, but it’s funny… As far as the eye can see you see the epitome of “conservative” America. A bunch of Senior Citizens and powerful “white” men and women sitting around with tight lips. I don’t see one young person in the crowd, and quite honestly have only seen one African American and he was an interviewer for NBC News.
I don’t get it. It’s not about Obama’s “Star” power or anything like that, but where’s the support of young people for the Republican party? Where are the African American? Where are all those hard working single mom’s with 2+ kids?
Is this what we want for America? Long drawn speeches about McCain’s service in Vietnam and the fear of terrorists coming back to kill more Americans on American soil if Obama wins? Who cares if his arms were broken during Vietnam? Honestly? So what? Does that qualify him to be President? And if it doesn’t then WHY is it something that we kept being shoved in the face with?
Women Scorned? Why?
So, in response to the comment made on my last post by SportBabe, I’m not sure I can comment without pissing off a ton of women who might read this. But? What is the problem? Ladies? Tell me? Please?
Hillary fought a hard fight but she ultimately lost the battle because she made poor decisions about where to caucus and who to vet for votes during the primaries. She also didn’t use the Internet as Obama did, which might have helped her a little bit in this day and age.
Vote for McCain because Hillary lost? How very intelligent a proposition is that exactly? I wonder. As I sit here watching the Republican National Convention on its first official night and watch George Bush make a speech that just made every hair on the back of my neck stand up. The man is just scary at so many levels, and John McCain is just about the same.
There’s Bush hailing McCain for his glorified service in Vietnam – that was? 30? 40? Years ago? Can we say history? The other part of his speech was about HIS War in Iraq and how great it’s going and how McCain will continue to do what’s right. Scary.
Yet? You Women scorned because Hillary’s not the candidate will vote for him? Should we rewind the clock and remember who was most AGAINST women being able to vote in the first place? It certainly wasn’t African American men in the 1880′s.
If any of you have any sense of what is right for the United States, if you’re not going to vote Democrat, then do me and a lot of us other people in the Democratic Party a favor… Stay home on Election Day. I mean, it’s admirable that so many of you support Hillary, but don’t waste our opportunity to take control of our future by being selfish.
And… We’re Back…
So, I’m sure many of you have missed my posts over the past several weeks (month’s even), and I won’t make any excuses only to say that while Obama, McCain, and the Campaigns continued moving forward during my sabbatical I’m sure the news was about as much the same as it was before the political Summer lull began.
Nitpicking, negative ads (on both sides, I might add, to the scorn of some of our Supporters), and all around political position for the beginning of the Conventions was to be expected.
So the Summer lull draws to a close with IOC along with China and the world having wrapped up what I would say, for now, is the BEST Olympics we’ve EVER witnessed – THREE CHEERS for CHINA on a job very well done.
So Kennedy and Michelle started things off right last night as many of you should have seen, and the Convention in Denver is off to a great start. No surprise the pundits will be all over every single word spoke and every action taken as will we here in the ethos of the Internet. Let’s see what tonight brings and let’s hope we keep our blunders to a minimum, and let’s get ready to ROCK this VOTE!!!
I’m happy to be back, and I hope you all are as well… I am still looking for volunteers to start blogging with me as I’d LOVE to take The Political Mangu to a level of discussion unheralded on the web… Yes, I’m a dreamer, but so was Martin Luther King 45 years ago… Not that me asking for volunteers compares.
Iran… Here We Come… Why?
Israel demonstrated that it can some weeks ago with a massive military exercise, and more specifically a massive air strike run, and the United States in the Republican’s everlasting wisdom – rather Bush’s – are ratching up rhetoric of invading Iran before the elections this Fall.
One thing’s for certain… Iran is next for the Bush Administration. My question is why? Why does Bush HAVE To attack Iran? Why does Bush care? I mean the cover of wanting to stop the Middle Eastern power from building a nuclear arsenal is one spin of course, but WHY does Bush REALLY want to attack Iran? I’d submit that Bush is trying to pull votes towards the Republican’s since most people think that Democrats will want to shy away from continuing attacks around the world. I submit that the idea of attacking Iran before the elections, or even Inauguration day, is simply to place the attention of the world on that event and none other.
Why does Bush want to attack? I want to attack Iran… Post your comments and let’s start some dialogue.
