Hard to Believe It Has Been That Long Ago

 

Those of course were the towers before the attacks.

I had just gotten up and was getting dressed to get ready to go teach at  a second-grade class at a private school in Reno.  I really thought there was about to be a world war; it was that shocking.

Nothing has been the same since.

The NYT has some photos from that day.

Let's See That Death Certificate

I was as shocked as anybody the report bin Laden was "buried at sea." What the HELL?

And yes, I am cynical about Obama doing this in order to shore up his shitty poll numbers and help his chances for him.

Unfortunately for Obama, the election is a year-and-a-half away, a political eternity, and this latest news doesn't change the fact he is a crappy president who does NOT deserve re-election.

So how did they find him, Osama, I mean, IF they found him?



Reports have it officials are conducting DNA tests on him, and there is even talk of releasing photographs of the body.

There are questions to be asked about this death, going beyond identity.

News Briefs

I have no television access apart from web streams, but I know enough that the big story of the past couple of days was that failed Christmas attack aboard an airplane headed to Detroit.

Multiple law enforcement officials said the suspected attacker — identified as a Nigerian man named Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab — claimed to have acted on instructions from al-Qaida to detonate the explosive device over U.S. soil. The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.

The law enforcement officials cautioned that such claims could not be verified immediately, and said the man may have been acting independently — inspired but not specifically trained or ordered by terror groups.

One law enforcement official, also speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the case, said Mutallab's name had surfaced earlier on at least one U.S. intelligence database, but not to the extent that he was placed on a watch list or a no-fly list.

As investigators try to determine the veracity of his claims, they also want to figure out exactly how the explosive device was made — and how much of a broader threat it may pose to air security.

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I really hate to see cursive writing go the way of the dodo bird; there is a lot of be said about developing fine motor skills.

There are a lot of teachers out there who don't know how to teach cursive, let alone write it.

Campaign Notes.

WSWS notes the rare honesty of people like Charlie Black who state what everybody knows to be true, and that's McCain (or any other Republican candidate for president) would benefit from another terraist attack.
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McCain tries to divert attention from the latest controversy by talking up green issues meaning the environment and not money.
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Hillary Clinton returns to work.
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More Campaign Follies.

Senator Biden literally calls bullshit on our dictator's remarks.

I wish there was a video of it, I really do. The guy should have been on this year's ticket with John Edwards (despite Edwards' silly endorsement of yesterday):

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), piling on to Democratic complaints about President Bush’s speech in Israel today:

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

Edit: There is an audio, but unfortunately, the "bullshit" is beeped out.
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Allegedly there is video out there of Michelle Obama making racist cracks about "whitey" at good old Jeremiah Wright's church. It's probably true. It wouldn't surprise me.

Pass the popcorn. The fun's just beginning.
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Campaign Notes.

Our dictator deliberately confuses Obama's message of transformative politics by claiming he's soft on terraism rather than soft on our own homegrown fascists.
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As somebody who has participated on message boards for many years, I agree with blogger Joseph Cannon when he says the level of discourse on the so-called progressive blogs and boards like Daily Kos and Democratic Underground has degenerated to freeper levels or even worse. This is extremely true this year in the cultlike zeal of the Obamabots who not only try to drown out dissent, but they shit all over other Democratic opponents. Of course Hillary Clinton is the last opponent standing, but the trashing was true when there was a whole field of candidates.

It's disgusting beyond belief.
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