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09-12-2006, 08:04 AM | #1 |
has great self of steam.
Location: SECRET OBAMA FUCKDEN RENDEZVOUS
Posts: 24,305
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Keith Olbermann's 9/11 Speech
This pretty much sums up how I feel... figured I'd share it and start a flame war, I'm sure there's some douche in here that's going to counter it.
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09-12-2006, 09:19 AM | #2 |
Registered User
Location: In my house.
Posts: 14,464
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"they thwart private efforts" amen. Ground zero is a great example of the government trying to do something it shouldn't.
As for the rest of it - that was really good. I'm glad it was posted. |
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09-12-2006, 11:47 AM | #3 |
Netphoria's George Will
Location: Fenway Park
Posts: 37,109
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Mr. Olbermann: 1
This administration: 0 And that was game, set and match. He's dead right about the WTC hole, too. We went back to NYC in July and I wanted to go pay my respects to some of those who died. I was greeted with viewing platforms, Chinese immigrants hawking fake purses and sunglasses, a map of the new PATH train and makeshift memorials. Nothing permanent, nothing legitimate and nothing sacrament. I vowed to never return until private investors take the land, build the memorial and buy the office space that will return. The U.S. government is more beurucratic and impotent than most any other including France, Cuba and China, and they get less done than any and all. Shameful. |
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09-12-2006, 01:38 PM | #4 |
Newly independent
Location: Some state's capitol building
Posts: 7,242
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Text of his speech:
Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter. All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and -- as I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul -- two more in the Towers. And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors. I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal. And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft,"or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante and at worst, an idiot whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President. However, of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast -- of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds -- none of us could have predicted this. Five years later this space is still empty. Five years later there is no memorial to the dead. Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals. Five years later this country's wound is still open. Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked. Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op. It is beyond shameful. At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial -- barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Lincoln said, "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice. Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So we won't. Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off columnists to write how good a job they're doing instead of doing any job at all. Five years later, Mr. Bush, we are still fighting the terrorists on these streets. And look carefully, sir, on these 16 empty acres. The terrorists are clearly, still winning. And, in a crime against every victim here and every patriotic sentiment you mouthed but did not enact, you have done nothing about it. And there is something worse still than this vast gaping hole in this city, and in the fabric of our nation. There is its symbolism of the promise unfulfilled, the urgent oath, reduced to lazy execution. The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support. Those who did not belong to his party -- tabled that. Those who doubted the mechanics of his election -- ignored that. Those who wondered of his qualifications -- forgot that. History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage. Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people. The President -- and those around him -- did that. They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists." They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much as we did. The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is "lying by implication." The impolite phrase is "impeachable offense." Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space, and to this, the current, curdled, version of our beloved country. Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears the full brunt of the blame for 9/11. Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he has seemed not even to be the man most responsible for anything in his own administration. Yet what is happening this very night? A mini-series, created, influenced -- possibly financed by -- the most radical and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into our homes. The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry story blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option. How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you -- or those around you -- ever "spin" 9/11? Just as the terrorists have succeeded -- are still succeeding -- as long as there is no memorial and no construction here at Ground Zero. So, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this government uses 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans. This is an odd point to cite a television program, especially one from March of 1960. But as Disney's continuing sell-out of the truth (and this country) suggests, even television programs can be powerful things. And long ago, a series called "The Twilight Zone" broadcast a riveting episode entitled "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street." In brief: a meteor sparks rumors of an invasion by extra-terrestrials disguised as humans. The electricity goes out. A neighbor pleads for calm. Suddenly his car -- and only his car -- starts. Someone suggests he must be the alien. Then another man's lights go on. As charges and suspicion and panic overtake the street, guns are inevitably produced. An "alien" is shot -- but he turns out to be just another neighbor, returning from going for help. The camera pulls back to a near-by hill, where two extra-terrestrials are seen manipulating a small device that can jam electricity. The veteran tells his novice that there's no need to actually attack, that you just turn off a few of the human machines and then, "they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves." And then, in perhaps his finest piece of writing, Rod Serling sums it up with words of remarkable prescience, given where we find ourselves tonight: "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men. "For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children, and the children yet unborn." When those who dissent are told time and time again -- as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus -- that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American...When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"... look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me: Who has left this hole in the ground? We have not forgotten, Mr. President. You have. May this country forgive you. |
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09-12-2006, 03:29 PM | #5 | |
ghost
Location: @SactoMacto
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09-12-2006, 04:23 PM | #6 |
Apocalyptic Poster
Location: THIS IS IT!
Posts: 2,921
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nothing but sad. damn sad.
on cnn they went up to new yorkers and asked them about that "docu drama" and they said it was shameful to ignore factual information and fictionalize this tragedy. it's weird that new yorkers' thoughts on this matter are derided as facist or pro-terrorist. bush's pro-iraq speech last night was deplorable. iraq had zero to do with 911, and it's all he talks about. osama (the terrorist who actually killed 3000 americans) is still winning.
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09-12-2006, 09:14 PM | #7 |
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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I can't believe people give any consideration to what this hack has to say any more than they do hacks like O'Reilly. Sure, any idiot in the world can see that the fact that nothing has been done with the WTC site in 5 years is inexcusable. Its a situation that deserves intense scrutiny at all times until something finally gets done. I think every media talking head in the world, hack or not, should be all over trying to get to the bottom of what the problem is there. If Olbermann's little speech had been mainly about that then it would have been just fine, but he had to go and ruin it with the typical looney left wing diatribe against the President.
And people said Bush's speech was too political... |
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09-12-2006, 11:24 PM | #8 |
Netphoria's George Will
Location: Fenway Park
Posts: 37,109
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Wait, you are comparing Bush's speech to Olbermann's? You're fucking crazy.
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09-13-2006, 12:22 AM | #9 | |
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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I understand that Bush's speech was an official affair, and should be held to a little higher standard than that of cable news blowhards, but IMO nobody should have been spouting politics under the guise of 9/11 rememberance yesterday, President or not. If I'm not gonna stand for Bush doing it, I'm sure not going to do it for Olbermann. |
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09-13-2006, 07:49 AM | #10 | |
has great self of steam.
Location: SECRET OBAMA FUCKDEN RENDEZVOUS
Posts: 24,305
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I suppose you think the President has done a bang-up job the last few years, eh? |
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09-13-2006, 07:51 AM | #11 | |
has great self of steam.
Location: SECRET OBAMA FUCKDEN RENDEZVOUS
Posts: 24,305
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Quote:
So you think criticizing a politician for politicizing 9/11 in terms of the war in Iraq is, in and of itself, politicizing 9/11? |
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09-13-2006, 09:25 AM | #12 | |
ghost
Location: @SactoMacto
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09-13-2006, 09:36 AM | #13 | |
Registered User
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I think this is a great point. The only people I've seen come even remotely close to investigating it are Penn and Teller. |
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09-13-2006, 04:50 PM | #14 | ||
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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09-13-2006, 05:04 PM | #15 | |
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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I'm sure this stuff is all perfectly fine and acceptable to you since you agree with the sentiment of it, but that doesn't make it any less looney. Especially since it follows a pretty reasonable and well thought out section of speech that espoused something we could all get behind. I think that's kinda ironic, considering how Olbermann himself is lamenting the fact that 9/11 got everyone on the same page momentarily and then it got squandered by politics. |
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09-13-2006, 06:58 PM | #16 |
Quaid Hates You
Location: Hollywood
Posts: 14,155
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Nobody likes you corgster.
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09-13-2006, 08:39 PM | #17 | |
ghost
Location: @SactoMacto
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so its fine to point out what has gone wrong, but looney to place blame. |
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09-13-2006, 08:57 PM | #18 | |
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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But like I said, I don't care. It just shows me you've got nothing to offer to the discussion. God forbid you actually man up and say where you disagree with me. |
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09-13-2006, 09:04 PM | #19 | |
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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09-13-2006, 09:30 PM | #20 | |
The Man of Tomorrow
Posts: 26,965
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09-13-2006, 09:55 PM | #21 |
Master of Karate and Friendship
Location: in your butt
Posts: 72,975
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So according to Olbermann, it's Bush's responsibility to create something at ground zero, but he wants private industry to create something at ground zero
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09-13-2006, 10:04 PM | #22 | |
Minion of Satan
Location: Arkansas
Posts: 7,240
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09-13-2006, 11:20 PM | #23 |
ghost
Location: @SactoMacto
Posts: 12,201
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looking at approval polls, its not that divisive at all to rail against this president.
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09-14-2006, 02:21 AM | #24 |
*****
Posts: 15,731
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I'm no fan of bush....at all. But how is it bush's responsibility to rebuild something on ground zero? From what I understand the property owners of the WTC are responsible for what is built there. Over the past few years we have seen sketches of different office buildings they wanted to rebuild there (which I found offensive), and I have seen where families of the victims are wanting a memorial center built there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought plans were in the works for a memorial center that will ******* pictures of all the victims, pieces of wreckage and some films for visitors to view.
Personally, I would like to see the gaping hole gone and replaced with a memorial. They had one built for the victims of the OKC bombing way before five years had gone by. Keith Olberman made some fine points, and I agree with some of what he said, but he too had to politicize what SHOULD be a day of mourning. Damnit! I seriously cannot imagine having lost someone in that mess and have their death be part of one's political agendas. To have it dishonored and crapped all over by these stupid docu-dramas filled with half truths. We had people, jumping out of windows holding hands with some for crissake so they wouldn't have to burn to death. Using these people to one upmanship another in the political arena is just sick. |
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09-14-2006, 03:17 AM | #25 |
Brazilian Blouselord
Location: heavy metal pool party
Posts: 35,781
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When he asks for something to be built, he isn't talking about why the president hasn't built a physical structure there to house offices. If you sincerely think that is what he wanted, you have missed the entire purpose of his speech. The hole George W. Bush left there is his way of creating a symbol. Basically he's equating the commercialized "Ground Zero" to the Bush administration and America. And what is this about how you can't "politicize" on a day of mourning? This guy lost friends; this is how he's chosen to react to their deaths, by standing up. He's trying to get justice here, for them, because he actually gives a shit about those who died. If you think that the best thing to do is, half a decade later, sit around and cry about what happened, then you're, put bluntly, wrong. The man making this speech is someone who wants to see Osama pay for what he did, but rather saw his government wage wars against false enemies for political and personal gains. How dare you people actually scrutinize his speech, unless you lost loved ones and want to avenge them by sending your children to Iraq. Excuse this man for speaking the damn truth and demanding justice where his president failed miserably.
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09-14-2006, 03:39 AM | #26 | |
*****
Posts: 15,731
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Do you really think a day of mourning should be used as political fodder?
I happen to agree with Olbermann on many things he said, I just found it tactless and disrespectful to deliver his opinions on that particular day. Of course I don't want people to sit back and do nothing but cry. Quote:
There were protesters who were lined up protesting bush and the war there. I'm an active protester myself but I'd never show up to someone's grave, at least not a mass grave like ground zero to desecrate it because of my opinions. It's late and maybe I'm not getting my point across. |
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09-14-2006, 06:57 AM | #27 | |
Quaid Hates You
Location: Hollywood
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09-14-2006, 07:14 AM | #28 | |
no more than sympathy
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only people actually mourning this day are people who have lost friends or family. 9/11 has been politicized for the iraq-war, for the homeland security act, it has even been used by politicians in other countries, especially for agendas which cut down the personal rights of citizens...it's main purpose right now is to be a looming shadow where conservative politicans an point to and say "if you don't let us do this something like that will happen again" |
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09-14-2006, 07:16 AM | #29 | |
Amish Rake Fighter
Location: You're a stone fox
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09-14-2006, 08:07 AM | #30 |
Minion of Satan
Location: the institute
Posts: 6,421
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well that was clearly an editorial, not a remembrance.
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