WuzzaDem

Asswipe Lefty Livin' The Dream In Iran

In the comments of this post, in which Matthew Yglesias swoons over Mahmoud "hipster" Ahmadinejad, one commenter (let's call him Asswipe Lefty) opines:

I kinda seem him as the rock that broke the nose of the most idiotic leader our country has had.

After being told by another commenter that Ahmadinejad's politics are "Heavily militaristic, pro-clerical, anti-liberal, and anti-reform," he continues:

Militaristic?

America has invaded two of Iran's neighbors recently.

Pro-clerical?

In a country run by clerics? Is that a shock?

Anti-liberal and anti-reform?

If some half-wit wielding a $500 billion a year chainsaw was banging on your door, would you be thinking about redecorating your kitchen?

My feeling is that anyone being smeared by the morons who got us into Afghanistan and Iraq can't be all that bad...

To which the other commenter replies: "Given that outlook, I'd guess you must be a fan of Bin Laden and Kim Jong-Il too."

Then Asswipe Lefty stops commenting. Embarrassed? Maybe. Or, just maybe...

 

That's what I'm talkin' about! Finally, a place where people really know how to stick it to the Bushies.

 

 

And the best part is, there's no right-wing fundies here trying to ram their religion down my throat. Man, I hate those...

 

 

DO NOT CONSORT WITH SCANTILY CLAD WOMEN!

 

 

What? Oh, sorry, dude. I didn't know there was a rule about...

 

 

YOU SHALL INCUR THE WRATH OF ALLAH!

 

 

Right on, man - fight the power!

 

 

FORNICATOR!

 

 

That guy's intense. I don't blame him, after all, Bush has invaded two of his neighbors. I'd better move.

 

 

You know what's really cool about this place? I can say whatever I want here without having to worry about the neocons...

 

 

WHERE DID YOU GET THAT SIGN???

 

 

This sign? I brought it with me from Berkeley. Hey, did you check out my shirt? I got it at the anarchist book fair last year, and...

 

 

ALL SIGNS MUST BE OBTAINED FROM THE DEMONSTRATION ORGANIZER!!

 

 

Hey, it's cool man - I'd rather make my own.

 

 

REPORT TO THE ORGANIZER IMMEDIATELY!!

 

 

Whatever floats your boat, man.

 

 

INFIDEL!

 

 

I'm sure they had a good reason for doing this. I mean, these guys are really organized...plus, they really hate Bush.

 

 

Maybe what they're trying to say is that if Bush has his way, then free speech as we know it will end. Yeah. 'Cuz these guys really hate Bush.

 

 

Hey, there's the man!

 

 

 

 

Mr. Mahmoo! I mean, Mr. Ahbuhjinniddad! Over here!

 

 

DO NOT APPROACH...

 

 

Let him through. You are the American I've been hearing about.

 

 

You know who I am?

 

 

Certainly. I have been receiving regular updates on your activities.

 

 

Wow, that is so flattering. See, that would never happen in America, because f**king Bush thinks he's so much better than...

 

 

This is all very interesting, but I'm in a hurry.

 

 

Right, right, sorry. Well, I don't mean to tell you how to run your country - you're obviously very organized, and you're certainly no George Bush - but I do have a couple of observations.

 

 

It's just that, you know, some guy said I couldn't hang arond with chicks - what's up with that? Then some other guy changed my sign, which was kind of uncool - it just seems like you could maybe, I don't know, lighten up a little, you know what I mean?

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

Did I say something wrong?

 

 

YOU WILL COME WITH ME!

 

 

Hey, at least I'm not being tortured, like I would if I was in Gitmo.

 

 

YOU WILL COME WITH ME!

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

I bet this guy can't stand Bush.

Asswipe pic swiped from zombietime.

 

And Now, a Scene From "Fire Down Below", Starring Steven Seagal and Kris Kristofferson

We've got you on extortion, conspiracy to commit murder, murder and racketeering. You're talkin' thirty years - that's ugly.

 

 

That's a long time to go without a woman.

 

 

You know, I knew you were gonna say that. I have a dear friend named Tyrone that has promised me that, when you hit prison, he's gonna take you under his wing and teach you the most intimate social graces of prison, and you're gonna be in good hands, so you won't have to worry about that.

 

 

Well, that takes care of the woman thing, but you're talking to a sixty-year-old man, and that still means I'd probably die in prison, and wish to God I hadn't.

 

 

Unless you live to be a very, very old man.

 

 

So, I guess that makes killin' you free.

 

 

Well, it would be free if you could.

[Cut to fight scene]

Be sure to tune in next week for another exciting scene from one of your favorite Steven Seagal movies.

 

Current Rage Level of Islamic Extremists: Normal

See also: The Gitmo Terro-Gator!

We're having our first ever pledge drive and could use a hand.

UPDATE: Am I being too judgmental?

I guess not.

 

9-11-06: This Blog Is "Dark" In Honor of the Victims

Nothing will be funny today. It's the fifth anniversary of the senseless slaughter of nearly 3,000 people.

All of the posts today are dedicated to the 2,996 people who lost their lives on 9-11.

Please consider this an open thread. Feel free to share the image or event from September 11, 2001 that made the biggest impression or had the most profound effect on you on.

Say whatever's on your mind.

Never forget. God bless America.

UPDATE: I wanted to publish more posts, but time didn't allow. I would like to have paid tribute to the first-responders who gave their lives trying to save others, the men and women of the military who have died fighting fighting to protect us, and those who are still putting their lives on the line every day.

 

2,996: I Remember Sonia Ortiz

Sonia Ortiz

When I signed up to be a part of the 2,996 tribute to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, I was randomly assigned Sonia Ortiz.

I knew I would need to do some research on Sonia, but I kept putting it off, which in and of itself isn't unusual, as I'm a bit of a procrastinator. But when I finally started in earnest yesterday, I knew why I'd kept finding excuses to wait until the last minute - it was painful. Painful because I couldn't help thinking of the people who were left behind after Sonia's death - her murder, and read, in their own words, how their lives were changed forever on September 11, 2001.

I'm one "fortunate majority" in this country - I didn't lose anyone close to me on 9-11. I've felt the pain of loss. I've had the opportunity to say goodbye to someone as disease slowly overtook them, and I've felt the pain and despair of losing someone suddenly, before "their time," but I cannot imagine what it must have been like five years ago for the husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, children and friends of the 2,996 people who died as a result of the September 11th attacks. I just don't have any point of reference. But I've known loss, so my heart goes out to Sonia's family, and I hope time - as it often does - helps to blunt their pain.

Sonia at 15

Sonia Ortiz was born and raised in Colombia, where she was forced to work as a seamstress from an early age. After she immigrated to the United States in 1971, she landed a job as a janitor at the World Trade Center.

"She was so excited working in such a tall building near the sky.".

Alexa Ortiz said her mother was delighted to land a job as a trade center janitor.

"It paid good," she said. "Her English wasn't good and it was a job where she didn't have to talk much." Eventually she was promoted to run the freight elevator at Windows on the World, the restaurant near the top of 1 World Trade. "She was so excited working in such a tall building near the sky," said Sonia's son, Victor, a building painter. "She had so much pride that King Kong was made there. She said she met Michael Jackson one day."

"Everything we have today is because of her."

With her earnings, she bought a tidy two- story brick house in Flushing, Queens, that she filled with fanciful knicknacks, including place mats with pictures of cherubs, and porcelain figurines of fairy tale characters. In her free time, she loved to stitch and sew, creating ornate outfits, such as the dress for her daughter's coming-out party. "Everything we have today is because of her," said her son, Victor.

In the photograph that her children have posted on bulletin boards of the missing, Mrs. Ortiz is dressed demurely in her work outfit -- white blouse and black bow tie -- what the picture doesn't show is the book she is holding - a Spanish-language book about life after death. Her children said she became fascinated with that subject after her son, Wilson, died of a brain aneurysm at only 26, just nine years before Sonia's untimely passing.

When Wilson died in 1992, Sonia buried him in Pinelawn Cemetery, paying for two plots. She told her family that upon her death she wanted to be buried next to him.

"Everything is paid for," said daughter Alexa. "All we need is her."

“She was absolutely [convinced] there is a God and an afterlife,” said her daughter, Alexa. “She always said she wanted to be up there with my brother. If there’s any comfort, it’s knowing that she’s with him now.”

Shortly after the hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, Sonia Ortiz called her sister from work and said that she was slowly making her way down. Her family never heard from her again.

After being allowed to visit Ground Zero, Alexa Ortiz said she has lost all hope her mother is alive, but she hopes her mother's body is recovered so she can fulfill her mother's burial request.

"Please let me get her body," Ortiz said. "Let me at least get her body."

From Sonia's family:

Mom,
It's been almost 2yrs since Sept 11,2001 and I miss you still so much. Life hasnt been the same. I think of you every day every moment. You were not just my mom, you were my best friend. I never knew how painful it was to lose a mom, but to lose a mom the way I lost you is just so unfair. I pray that you are at gods side and that his angels watch over you and let you know that we will try to be ok. It's been very tough but we will try.

I miss you mom. If I could give my own life just to have you back I would, but unfortuantely that's not how god wanted it. He needed you I guess, as hard as that is for me to accept. At times I think Im just going to fall apart, but then I say to myself, god has a reason for why this happened. Why? I dont know, but he must think were strong enough to handle this, and Im not really sure I am. May you rest in peace. I'll lite a candle for you every day until I know for sure that all the DNA is done on all the remains that are still pending, when they are done I will turn off my candle and let you go.

I'll always love you and carry with me all your good qualities and all the good morals you taught me. Miss you mom...Miss you alot. Rest in peace. I love you. Your daughter who misses you alot. Alexa
alexandra ortiz

People have told me that life goes on.... and that we should let go of the past and grasp the future. Thats something I havent been able to do and probably never will. Life will never be the same and I will keep my mother alive by adding her to my music videos and pictures. Te estrano madre!!!!! xoxoxoxoxo
Victor Ortiz

Sonia, Halloween, 2000

I've never met Sonia Ortiz, but Im about to marry her son. I feel like I know her because Ive seen so many pictures of her and have see the love that her son has for her through his art work and movies. If she could hear me, Id let her know what a great job she did at molding the son that she has into the man of my life. I wish I could just have 1 hour with her so I could tell her all the things I feel about her son and all the love he has for her. Although I think she already knows what a great person he is. I know Mrs. Ortiz and I would have gotten along great, and even though I never met her I will greatly miss having her as a mother in law, and my love for her is still strong even though she is no longer here with us. She will always be alive in our household for she is kept alive through stories, pictures and videos. RIP.

Amanda

Dear Mom ,
Mothers day came and went and I feel so cheated. Everyone had a mother to gift and I didnt . I miss you so much. May you be in peace and with wilson. I love you madre!!!!

May 2006
VICTOR HUGO

GRANDMA I MISS YOU VERY MUCH AND LOVE YOU. I KNOW YOU ARE IN HEAVEN WHATCHING OVER ME DADDY AND I MISS YOU SO MUCH AND KNOW ONE DAY WE WILL SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN. I REMEMBER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPEN EVEN THOUGH I WAS VERY LITTLE I'M 10 NOW AND HAVE LOTS OF PICTURES OF US TOGETHER SINCE I WAS BORN MY MOM AND I REMEMBER YOU ALL THE TIME AND MISS YOU ALWAYS TALK ABOUT YOU WE KEEP YOU ALIVE BECAUSE EVENTHOUGH WE DIDN'T FIND A BODY TO BURY WE KNOW YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH US. WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU SO MUCH.

FATIMA

Rest in Peace, Sonia.

Photos and family quotes from Sonia's Legacy.com page and September 11, 2001 Victims.

You'll find a list of the other 2,996 tributes here.

 

Lives Intersected, Lives Lost: Flight 11

Daniel Lee (with hs wife Kellie), Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, Betty Ong

Dan Lee boarded a plane early on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, so he could be at his wife's side in California as she gave birth to their second child.

The 34-year-old Van Nuys man was on American Airlines Flight 11. His wife, Kellie, spent the day praying he had missed his plane. But the set carpenter for the Backstreet Boys tour had not.

The couple had been together 10 years and married for six years, his wife said. He still opened car doors for her and kissed her over the table at restaurants. Although he traveled the world as a roadie for acts including Yanni, 'N Sync and Barbra Streisand, Lee called his wife three to four times a day to tell her he loved her.

---

Betty Ong, a flight attendant from Andover onboard Flight 11, punched the number 8 on a seatback GTE Airfone and got through to an American reservations agent. The agent called the system operations control center in Fort Worth at 8:27.

"She said two flight attendants had been stabbed, one was on oxygen," said Craig Marquis, the manager on duty. "A passenger had his throat slashed and looked dead and they had gotten into the cockpit."

The flight attendant also said the hijackers had hit passengers with some sort of spray that made her eyes burn. She said she was having trouble breathing.

"Is the plane descending?" Marquis asked.

"We're starting to descend. We're starting to descend," she said.

---

One of the clearest ideas about what happened aboard the plane came from a call that flight attendant Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, a 35-year-old mother of two from Acton, made to a ground worker in Boston.

Sweeney called American Airlines ground manager Michael Woodward at Logan and spoke calmly to him for 25 minutes until the plane crashed. Her first comment was "Listen, and listen to me very carefully. I'm on Flight 11. The airplane has been hijacked."

Sweeney said she saw only four of the five hijackers believed to be aboard. She described them as Middle Eastern and said they had stabbed two flight attendants.

"A hijacker cut the throat of a business-class passenger, and he appears to be dead," she added. The hijackers stormed the front of the plane and "had just gained access to the cockpit."

The plane is nearing New York City, but the coach section passengers are still quiet, apparently unaware a hijacking is in progress. Woodward asks Sweeney to look out of the window and see if she can tell where they are. She replies, “I see the water. I see the building. I see buildings.” She tells him the plane is flying very low. Then she takes a slow, deep breath and slowly, calmly says, “Oh my God!” Woodward hears a loud click, and then silence.

---

Betty Ong, on another phone, apparently does not realize what is about to happen. She is repeatedly saying, “Pray for us. Pray for us,” before her phone call comes to a halt.

---

---

At 8:46 AM on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center's North Tower. It was a Boeing 767-223ER on a scheduled flight from Boston to Los Angeles, with 81 passengers, nine flight attendants, and two pilots.

---

Michael Woodward, hearing nothing but static, was still holding the telephone, hoping Sweeney would come through, when his operational manager came into the room and said that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center.

He didn't make the connection immediately. "I almost at that point said, 'Not now, we have a serious situation here,'" he said. But moments later, he realized that Sweeney's flight was the one that hit the World Trade Center.

---

On Thursday, Danny Lee's wife Kellie gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She gave her the first name the couple had picked out together -- Allison. But Kellie gave her a different middle name, Danielle, to honor her late husband.

Relatives and friends said Kellie had been in shock over her husband's death. Gathered around her in the hospital room were her parents, Tom and Sandy Whitford, and her older daughter, Amanda, 2, who has her father's wavy hair and does not understand that he is gone.

"I told her, 'Daddy isn't coming home,' " Kellie said. "She said, 'Yes he is. In five minutes, he'll be back.'"

Sources:
Newsday.com
ABC News
Boston.com

 

8:46:40 a.m: American Airlines Flight 11 Hits the North Tower of the WTC

 

 

9-11 Hall of Shame, Part 1: The 9-11 "Truthers" Speak Out

This is truly disgusting. A compilation of radio interview with members of the 9-11 "truth" movement, including Dylan Avery, the "director" and narrator of the amalgam of half-truths, distortions, misinformation, conjecture and outright lies known as Loose Change.

Avery laughs at the idea of the highjackers taking control of the planes with box cutters (at one point laughing along with the radio host as he jokes, "Look out, he's got a butter knife!", expresses his intense dislike for Debra Burlingame, the sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of the American Airlines Flight 77 that was crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11, and suggests that Bernard Brown, Sr., a Pentagon employee, put his son, Bernard Brown, Jr., on Flight 77 knowing he would be killed.

Avery tells the interviewer that Brown, Sr. took an "unusual day off" to play golf to avoid injury.

I have nothing but contempt for Dylan Avery.

Note: This is part one of a five-part series. I'll post the rest of the series at a later date.

 

I Remember The Falling Man, and All the Others

Is This Jonathan Briley? His family thinks so.

Esquire, via Malkin:

Jonathan Briley worked at Windows on the World. Some of his coworkers, when they saw Richard Drew's photographs, thought he might be the Falling Man. He was a light-skinned black man. He was over six five. He was forty-three. He had a mustache and a goatee and close-cropped hair. He had a wife named Hillary.

Jonathan Briley's father is a preacher, a man who has devoted his whole life to serving the Lord. After September 11, he gathered his family together to ask God to tell him where his son was. No: He demanded it. He used these words: "Lord, I demand to know where my son is." For three hours straight, he prayed in his deep voice, until he spent the grace he had accumulated over a lifetime in the insistence of his appeal.

The next day, the FBI called. They'd found his son's body. It was, miraculously, intact.

The preacher's youngest son, Timothy, went to identify his brother. He recognized him by his shoes: He was wearing black high-tops. Timothy removed one of them and took it home and put it in his garage, as a kind of memorial.

Timothy knew all about the Falling Man. He is a cop in Mount Vernon, New York, and in the week after his brother died, someone had left a September 12 newspaper open in the locker room. He saw the photograph of the Falling Man and, in anger, he refused to look at it again. But he couldn't throw it away. Instead, he stuffed it in the bottom of his locker, where—like the black shoe in his garage—it became permanent.

Jonathan's sister Gwendolyn knew about the Falling Man, too. She saw the picture the day it was published. She knew that Jonathan had asthma, and in the smoke and the heat would have done anything just to breathe. . . .

Read the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Trade Center: Jumping to Avoid Being Burned Alive

WARNING: Graphic

 

 

Brian Sweeny On Flight 175: "Don’t worry, Dad—If it happens, it’ll be very fast."

Brian Sweeney

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

08:37 a.m.
Flight control asked the pilots of United Airlines 175 whether they could see American Airlines Flight 11 out their viewpoint, and the response was affirmative. They were ordered to maintain distance from the flight since it was now known that it had been hijacked.

8:46 a.m.
New York flight controller Dave Bottoglia is in charge of monitoring both Flights 11 and 175. He has just watched Flight 11’s radar blip disappear over New York City, but does not yet realize the plane has crashed. “Within seconds” of losing Flight 11’s blip, he realizes that Flight 175 is also missing. He has another controller take over all his other planes so he can focus on finding Flight 175.

Curt Applegate, sitting at the radar screen next to Bottoglia, sees a blip that might be the missing Flight 11. In fact, it is the missing Flight 175. Bottoglia then notices Flight 175 turn east and start descending. He keeps an eye on it and sees it head right toward Delta Flight 2315. He recalls saying to the Delta Flight, “Traffic, 2:00, ten miles. I think he’s been hijacked. I don’t know his intentions. Take any evasive action necessary.” Flight 2315 takes evasive action, missing Flight 175 by less than 200 feet.

8:50 a.m.
Flight 175, already off course, makes a near complete U-turn and starts heading north toward New York City.

8:58 a.m.
Brian Sweeney, a passenger on Flight 175, calls his wife, but can only leave a message. “We’ve been hijacked, and it doesn’t look too good.” Then he calls his mother and tells her what is happening onboard. She recalls him saying, “They might come back here. I might have to go. We are going to try to do something about this.” She also recalls him identifying the hijackers as Middle Eastern. Then he tells his mother he loves her and hangs up the phone.

9:00 a.m.
Brian calls his parents a second time, and says to his father, “It’s getting bad, Dad—A stewardess was stabbed—They seem to have knives and Mace—They said they have a bomb—It’s getting very bad on the plane—Passengers are throwing up and getting sick—The plane is making jerky movements—I don’t think the pilot is flying the plane—I think we are going down—I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building—don’t worry, Dad—If it happens, it’ll be very fast—My God, my God.”

9:03 a.m.
Brian Sweeney's mother turns on the television and soon sees Flight 175 crash into the World Trade Center.

Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center (Tower Two). Millions watch the crash live on television. The plane strikes the 78th through 84th floors in the 110-story building. Approximately 100 people are killed or injured in the initial impact; 600 people in the tower eventually die. All but four of those killed work above the crash point. The death toll is far lower than in the North Tower because about two-thirds of the South Tower’s occupants have evacuated the building in the 17 minutes since the first tower was struck.

The 9/11 Commission later concludes that the Flight 175 passengers planned to storm the cockpit but did not have time before the plane crashed.

Brian Sweeney's September 11 Victims page.

 

9:03:11 a.m: United Flight 175 hits the South Tower of the World Trade Center

 

 

 

 

 

9-11 Hall of Shame, Part 2: Professor A.K. Dewdney

Dewdney

Mark Steyn:

Who is A. K. Dewdney? He's an adjunct professor of biology at the University of Western Ontario, and he has pieced together the truth about what happened on 9/11.
...
he argues, a mid-air plane switch took place on three of the jets. "The passengers of one of the flights died in an aerial explosion over Shanksville, Pa.," he writes, "and the remaining passengers (and aircraft) were disposed of in the Atlantic Ocean." Most of us swallowed "the Bush-Cheney scenario" because we were unaware that, when two planes are less than half a kilometre apart, they appear as a single blip on the radar screen. Thus, the covert switch. Instead of crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the flights were diverted by FBI agents on board to Harrisburg, Pa., where the passengers from all three planes were herded onto UA Flight 175 and flown on to Cleveland Hopkins and their deaths. By then, unmanned Predator drones had been substituted for the passenger jets and directed into their high-profile targets. The original planes and their passengers were finished off over the Atlantic.
...
But what about all those phone calls, especially from Flight 93? Ha, scoffs Dewdney...These so-called "calls" all used state-of-the art voice modification technology to make family members believe they were talking to loved ones rather than vocally disguised government agents. In the case of Todd Beamer's "Let's roll!" the spooks had gone to the trouble of researching and identifying individual passengers' distinctive conversational expressions.

People like "Professor" Dewdney sicken me. I was young once, so I can almost identify with the 'rebellious' teens who haunt Conspiracy chat rooms and web sites, looking for evidence of CIA involvement in some of the Bad Things that happen in this world on a day-to-day basis - after all, when you're young you want to find a 'bad guy' and place the blame on him. It's a lot less complicated than accepting the fact that there are bad people in this world who want to kill you.

But grown men and women - university professors, educated people, no less - who go to great pains to twist the facts in an attempt to "prove" the complicity of the United States government in the murder of 3,000 of its own citizens, people who would callously rob someone of the memory of the last time they heard the voice of their husband, wife, son or daughter? Those people turn my stomach.

It's hard to believe that these people are so hell-bent on imposing their own beliefs on others that they would tell bald-face lies that further the grief and agony of tens of thousands of Americans, but the only alternative I have is to believe that they're mentally disturbed, and as much as I'd like to grasp at that straw, I think their real agenda is to blame the current administration so that their beloved "progressives" can take the helm of the government and implement the kind of left-wing legislation that will bring about the liberal Utopia that exists only in their imaginations.

So, who's really lying to the American people to advance their own agenda? I would argue it's people like Dewdney.

Maybe that is a kind of mental illness. Seek help, professor.

 

Flight 93: I Have Nothing to Add

So much has been said and written about the heroic passengers of United Flight 93 - who in all probability saved the lives on hundreds, possibly even thousands of Americans - that anything I might say would pail in comparison.

Here's an excellent piece, which includes a passenger list with accompanying biographies, originally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on October 28, 2001:

United Flight 93 groaned down Runway 4-Left, pulled up and banked to the west. From the right side of the plane, passengers would have seen lower Manhattan where, on overcast days, the only thing poking above the clouds were the twin pillars of the World Trade Center. On this day, everything was clear.

No one could have known that, in the skies over Pennsylvania, the worlds of Hilda Marcin, of Thomas Burnett, of Christine Snyder, of Ziad Jarrah, would meet in a cataclysm of cool rage and desperate courage, as passengers tried to take back their airplane, all the time unaware that an Air Force jet, scrambled from a base in Virginia, was closing in with orders to shoot the plane down before it got to Washington, D.C.

By the time United Flight 93 was in smoldering pieces in a field outside the Somerset County village of Shanksville, the F-16 was 14 minutes from the range at which it could have brought down the 757 with heat-seeking missiles.

Flight 93 became an asterisk to a day of horror that claimed almost 5,000 lives, toppled buildings that stood like a twin Colossus on the New York shore, took down one side of the Pentagon, and ushered in a war without rules against an enemy without a state.

What made Flight 93 different was a decision reached somewhere over the skies of Western Pennsylvania, after passengers learned on cell phones that they were likely to be flown into a building as the fourth in a quartet of suicide attacks.

They decided to fight.

Read the whole thing here.

When Flight 93, a Boeing 757, struck the ground on September 11 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, it was traveling at more than 500mph. It crashed upside-down at a forty-five degree angle. The 128,730+ pound Boeing 757 gouged a 50-foot-deep pit in a reclaimed strip mine.

The ferocious force of this impact disintegrated metal, bone and flesh. It took investigators more than three months to identify the remains of the 40 passengers and crew, and, by process of elimination, the four hijackers.

The driver's license of John Talignani, 74, of Staten Island, N.Y., was found at the Flight 93 crash site.

Mr. Talignani was flying to San Francisco to claim the body of his son, Alan Zykofsky, who died in a head-on car crash on his honeymoon in California.

This photo of the blackened remnants of an airplane seatbelt was taken on private property outside of the fence line surrounding the crash site.

The temporary memorial site for Flight 93 consisted of the fence, a cross, and a memorial plaque with the names of the 40 heroes of Flight 93, as well as 40 slate angels (left-hand side) - one for each of the passengers on United Flight 93. Flags of the United States of America and the state of Pennsylvania fly overhead.

A rosary and wedding ring left at the Flight 93 memorial.

Never forget.

 

9-11 Hall of Shame, Part 3: Conspiracy Kooks at Ground Zero

"Giuliani had a bunker built in 7 World Trade Center, and some of the theory is that the bunker was used as a way of having a, uh...having an infra ray, or some other form of, of, of beam that would bring bring the planes into this area."

Warning: Graphic language, and this is a somewhat irreverent piece (meaning the filmmaker does a pretty good job of ridiculing these wackjobs) , complete with jokes and puns, but there are a couple of excellent shoutdowns, and right now I'm kind of enjoying living vicariously through the shouters.

Writer: Abby Scott
Director: Ray Rivera

 

al Qaeda's "9-11 Commemorative Tape"

Excerpt posted at Laura Mansfield.com:

In addition to the scenes shown on Al Jazeera on Thursday, the video includes previously unseen footage of Azzam the American, describing the September 11 attacks and the hijackers.

In a particularly gruesome scene, the video shows the hijackers practicing with box cutters, and shows them rehearsing slitting the throats of passengers on the planes.

I just watched it and I'm speechless. It's too close to the anniversary of 9-11, and the scenes of them practicing cutting throats is absolutely sickening.

I can't imagine how I would feel if I were one of the people who lost a loved one in the attacks five years ago and saw this disgusting video.

For some reason, the last few minutes are blacked out - at least, that's what happens when I try to view the video - trying to figure out if it's something on my end.

UPDATE: From the tape [emphasis mine]:

"And the brother pilots taught the youth of the Ummah a powerful lesson in sacrifice, courage, certainty in Allah's victory, and true reliance on Him.

And they reigned in the mouths of those who rant that those who undertake martyrdom operations are unemployed empty failures in life. These brothers abandoned a life of luxury and ease after the world had opened its doors to them..."

So much for winning the WOT by understanding the "root causes" of terrorism.

UPDATE II: Allah has the full video over at Hot Air.

 

2006 Democratic Soft Spots

From John Hawkins at Right Wing News:

It's not shaping up to be a great year for the GOP, the Democrats definitely have a big edge, and quite frankly, this is a lean field. Still, the GOP does have some opportunities that we may be able to exploit.

Hawkins lists "The GOP's Top 18 Pick-Up Opportunities In The House For 2006." Included in the list:

John "Abscam" Murtha

 

William "Cold Cash" Jefferson

I'm sensing a pattern here.

See also: Most Competitive Senate Races For 2006

Well, At Least He's Sincere About...Whatever

Thanks for agreeing to meet with me, Brooke. I really want to get this behind us.

 

 

No problem.

 

 

So...I guess I should just come right out and say it.

 

 

I'm really sorry for jumping up and down on your couch and making an ass out of myself on your show.

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

You're joking, right?

 

 

What? Oh...no, no, absolutely not. I'm totally sincere, here, I really...

 

 

That was Oprah.

 

 

I mean, I am absolutely, one hundred percent...What?

 

 

That was Oprah. I don't even have a show.

 

 

Oh, right, right. Sorry, I'm a little frazzled. You know, ever since we had the uh...uh...

 

 

The baby?

 

 

Yes! The baby! I knew that. Ever since we had the baby I've been on no sleep. I tell you, man, having a kid can really throw things out of whack.

 

 

So I hear.

 

 

Anyway, I'm really sorry I said you were glib and ignorant about the history of psychiatry...

 

 

That was Matt Lauer.

 

 

No, no, that was me, and I'm really...

 

 

No, dumbass, you said that to Matt Lauer!

 

 

Oh, right. Matt. Matt. Matt.

 

 

I'm in kind of a hurry, here...

 

 

No problem. Anyway, really sorry I sued you for saying I'm gay.

 

 

That was Chad Slater.

 

 

No, that me, and - Oh! Right. Of course it was. What I wanted to apologize to you for was...

 

 

Dinging your car door?

 

 

That didn't happen.

 

 

Jamming the printer?

 

 

No.

 

 

Overcooking the pasta?

 

 

Uh-uh.

 

 

Peeing on the seat?

 

 

Nope.

 

 

Hogging the remote?

 

 

Nuh-uh.

 

 

Running with the scissors?

 

 

Wasn't there.

 

 

Giving you crabs?

 

 

WHAT?

 

 

Sorry, that wasn't you.

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

...

 

 

Do you want to come back another time?

 

 

Would you mind?

 

 

No, like I said, I'm in kind of a hurry, so...

 

 

Great, great. Thanks, Blake.

 

 

Brooke.

 

 

Whatever.

 

 

He is one sorry asswipe.

 

al Qaeda Reaches Out, and CNN's Nic Robertson is There

Osama bin Laden's deputy appears in a new video posted on the Internet a short while ago. Nic Robertson joins us now from Islamabad, Pakistan. What do you know about this tape, Nic?

 

 

Well, we do know the young American who introduces Ayman el-Zawahiri likes to be known as Azzam the American. He is, in fact, known as Adam Gadahn.

 

 

On the tape he says: "This is an invitation to Americans and all non-believers to convert to Islam." He very quickly hands over the message to Ayman el-Zawahiri.

 

 

The message from Ayman el-Zawahiri follows on from Gadahn, saying that this is a message to Americans and all other Westerners, an opportunity to convert to Islam.

 

 

You know, Fredericka, this might be an effort by al Qaeda to reach out to the West.

 

 

You think al Qaeda wants to reach out to the West?

 

 

Just sayin'.

 

 

I'm not following you.

 

 

Well, you know, uh...Adam Gadahn speaks English.

 

 

And?

 

 

And, he, uh...they, uh...

 

 

And, I guess it could be that what they might be doing here is maybe offering the opportunity for people to possibly convert to Islam, and perhaps this is something that they might see as an important thing that they should maybe do...

 

 

Possibly. It's kind of complicated.

 

 

I still don't see how that could be considered reaching out to...

 

 

Look, we might not agree with these guys, but they did say, "Either repent your misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself," so it sounds like they're basically saying they'll leave us alone if we leave them alone. I mean, it's not like they're tring to force anyone to convert.

 

 

Actually, they said "Either repent your misguided ways and enter into the light of truth or keep your poison to yourself and suffer the consequences in this world and the next."

 

 

They did?

 

 

Yes, they did. You're in Islamabad right now, Nic, do you have any sense of...Nic?

 

 

 

 

It looks like we're experiencing some technical difficulties, so...

 

 

Sorry, Fredericka, I was, uh...adjusting my microphone.

 

 

...

 

 

What was the question?

 

 

What is that you're wearing?

 

 

What, this old thing?

 

 

Isn't that a...

 

 

Look, it's a little chilly out here, and Allah forbid I should catch a cold.

 

 

I'm sorry, I've just never seen a man wearing...

 

 

What is this, Project Runway? What was the question?

 

 

Right. Sorry - so, do we know whether these recorded messages from these two men were taken at the same time?

 

 

Fredericka, the only time reference we have heard so far is...

 

 

OK, what is that over your face? And don't tell me it's cold.

 

 

I'd explain it, but you obviously have a lot to learn about modesty.

 

 

What's that supposed to mean?

 

 

Oh, come on - you're on television and you're practically nude!

 

 

Nic Robertson, reporting live from...

 

 

Not that I noticed!

 

 

...reporting live from Islamabad.

Looks like he got the invitation.