It's amazing how easy it is to manipulate the gullible and simple-minded in this country. According to the administration, the deaths of 3,000 on 9/11 was a horrific catastrophe that "changed everything," and apparently justified starting new wars with costs in the trillions of dollars and thousands of US lives, as well as the lives of hundreds of thousands of foreigners. Just a couple of weeks ago, when a new report suggested that 150,000 more people die every year in the US because salt in foods is not sufficiently regulated, the administration response was that it would be too large of a burden on the food industry to regulate the salt content. WTF?!?

We can kill many times 3000 people and that's okay. We can kill people through lack of safety regulations to our food, water, roads, medicine and air. That's just normal daily life and that's okay. We can go to other countries and kill and overthrow their governments. That's okay.

Instead of a wake up call to the evil we do 9/11 it just increased the nightmare that is the United States of America, an evil, corrupt society.

KIVALS -- you might consider re-framing your very fine argument, for the masses:

How can we morally adhere to an administration that is not able to burden the food industry with regulation on the salt content of our foods,

when it directly kills (aborts) the fetuses of ~ 23,000 women, out of the 150,000 total of US citizens, that are expected to die each year

And lots of those people are Christian republicans too!

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
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nspire,

Thanks for your kind suggestion, but if we could get our progressive messages out to the masses, we (progressives, the USA, the human race) would not be in this pickle!

Well, you can thank our corrupt leadership in the Democratic Party and our liberal blogosphere and groups for ignoring George Lakoff on the idea of framing. Then again, populists like David Sirota and Jim Hightower get ignored all the while puffshit celebrities like Arianna PUFFington, George Monbiot or shall I say LOSERbiot, and the likes get all the attention. The liberal blogosphere could give a shit less on important issues such as the economy, environment, foreign policy including wars and trade, privacy, security, etc ... but yet have the time to go apeshit on frivolous issues such as "abortion", evolution vs creationism, guns, gays/lesbians, or some social bullshit nonissue which has virtually no effect on us all !

Yes, the hypocrisy is suffocating. But these professed christians seize upon every opportunity to stoke the fears of their followers and declare 'war' upon yet another set of beliefs, ideas or peoples. Pat Robertson blamed 9/11 on the gays - if that doesn't about sum it up i don't know what does. my own father sent out an email to his family 'explaining' 9/11 to us, telling us that 'this country really needs to change its ways'....yes, us liberal warmakers caused 9/11. All you can do in face of such absurdity is to calmly inventory the wrongs of the true villains despite their inevitable attempts to deflect and cast blame on you. Their weapon is blame - they throw it at their enemies every opportunity they have. So when you say we have killed 'countless others' in Iraq - no sir, between 500,000 and 1,000,000 civilian iraqis have been murdered as consequence of this Administration's henious crime against humanity. I will not adopt the watered down language with which these criminals seek to soften their crimes.

If only Bush hadn't been president when 9/11 happened. Maybe a real president would have seen it for what it was a crime against innocent civilians. And If we hadn't had George Bush as president maybe the president would have surmised that it was blowback on a failed foreign policy. If only Bush hadn't been reelected we wouldn't be beating the war drums against Iran and maybe we would be out or withdrawing from Iraq. What a different world this could be if the United States would just for once do the right thing instead of following corrupt corporate wishes!

You make the right point, but it's too little, too late, and it's still far too little compared to the truth, which is far worse.

The number killed on 9/11 should not be compared to how many are killed by fellow Americans; true that number reveals our blindness to our own evil. The number killed on 9/11 should not be compared to the number of troops lost in our blind swipe at revenge at the wrong enemy. The number of people killed on 9/11 should constantly and fervently should be held up against the number of Americans are killed every year by reasons that we have repeatedly shown we have utterly no concern for: Accidents (auto and just plain stupid), Heart disease/emphysema/cancer from smoking, and worse yet those who die ten, twenty, thirty years prematurely simply because of their own lack of concern for common sense and moderation in their own behavior.

We love to go after a nefarious and evil enemy, convinced that if we just kill the right person/people we can all live forever.

We have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us.

But then we closed our eyes, said "NAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" and set out to kill somebody, anybody, to make us feel like we had found the REAL evil we should be afaid of.

So, hows that working for us?

We lost the same number of people that we lost on 9/11 from car accidents - - people who could have been saved simply from wearing a seatbelt or by having more effective driver education and driver licensing programs - in the first month after 9/11, and yet there is no "war on driving".

If there is a god, and I am sure there is not, he would be laughing his omniscient and omnipotent ass off at our shameless ability to always find an enemy everywhere we look - everywhere but in the mirror.

Don't forget the brave and kind Amish in Pennsylvania who sought out the family of the killer of their youth and asked if they could help them in any way and then stood in solidarity with them at the killer's funeral.

By the way if you want to hear how a real leader rallies a brave people, you can hear FDR's first innaugural delivered on 03/04/33(the one where he counseled the naton that the only thing they had to fear was fear itself) at:

http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/index.php/scripps/digitalarchive/speechDetail/24

For an example of campaign rhetoric with some real punch scroll down to the 10/31/36 campaign speech at Madison Square Garden and especially listen to the spirited crowd reaction. I'm not sure anyone could move our people thusly among the current crop of mouthpieces trying to become president.

The irony is so many of FDR's points are on point for our times today. The oligarchical elites never change, why should the lreaders of the common folk who are their victims? (The question is rhetorical because I know the real reason they have changed--they have been bribed to become elites themselves.)

Pat LaMarche you rock girl!

9/11 and its aftermath, an illogic war -- separating the chaff from the wheat.

I have seen many I thought were courageous souls in their personal lives become cringing cowards in their public lives; and I have seen those who I thought to be weaklings bravely stand up and become active in the public sphere.

This is a time that challenges men's and women's souls.

Alas, we need a new mythology. The stories we tell ourselves just aren't working anymore.

The recent mass killings in the mall and churches certainly give the right wing conservatives plenty of ammunition for their non-stop effort to arm everyone in the country for our "safety". It works exactly the same as 9-11 did for scaring us all into depending on our great protectors in the white house. Doesn`t it give one a good secure feeling to know any grandmother or trigger happy maniac may have a concealed weapon in their handbag or sweatshirt? Just move very slowly and do not say or do any thing suspicious like talking in a whisper, laughing strangly, looking around or taking a picture, or you may get full of lead for someones protection. The next thing we are setting ourselves up for is what the Germans fell for, spying on and turning in neighbors and friends who might be working with the "enemy" as big brother in the White House describes it to be. Lets just try to get back about seven years to when we had a country worth living in.

Question: What is the 4th leading cause of death in U.S. (kills more than all car accidents, homicides, and AIDs COMBINED every year (according to Harvard Medical School study) ?............................................................... Answer: medical malpractice.
The point of this article is correct. But the fear and propoganda of MSM is much more profound than even author suspects.

I think people who oppose the illegal occupation of Iraq should not have to pay taxes.

To paraphrase an oft quoted phrasing...

The only fear we need fear... is fear of our own freedoms.

This is a repeat echo of the following received after 911 nd before Bush attacked IRAQ:
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

This is a repeat echo of the following received after 911 nd before Bush attacked IRAQ:
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar."

"I think people who oppose the illegal occupation of Iraq should not have to pay taxes."

Some aren't. I'm looking into this as well - at least, the portion that goes to funding war (which may be half of my taxes this point).

http://wartaxboycott.org/
http://www.warresisters.org/wtr_menu.htm

nspire-- I'm going to reserve my sympathy for living humans, if you don't mind.

September 11th was a window of opportunity. If at that time we had a Statesman as a president, the world would be a much better place. We had worldwide sympathy and support. A Statesman would have examined the events, and their causes, and changed the direction of our country, and the world. But instead of a statesman we had a political whore and you can see the mess he has made of our country, and the world today. The "Good American" can go go in the history books alongside the "Good German".
Hoa binh

In the aftermath of 9/11 we made one critical error in our response. We refused to ask honest questions and seek honest answers as to why (really) terrorists would be motivated to do what they did. Our glib rhetorical questions and insular answers blinded us from a broader perspective that might have set us on a course of getting along in the world. Instead we chose to seek to dominate. Big mistake.

How does a nation ever admit the error of its ways? And then, how does it backtrack in order to pursue a path that actually works in a complex world?

OLDGUY -- Although I also share similar thoughts of insufficiency to the task of that moment, you may find solace in knowing that thousands did question the "naked emperor's" claims w/o a shred to stand upon, that the brightest klieg lights were held up to cast the shadows from the transparent shell of smoke, dust, and fumes.

If someone had just lit a match, he would have caught on fire from his own stinking vapors.

Besides, this smirking fool knows full well what was wrought, especially where the billion$ of psychological operations (PYSOPS) propaganda dollars were carefully targeted to lull and contrive the bedazzled bambozzlement of real patriotic Americans.

Well eclipsed by his outright lies, he paid very serious (taxpayer) funding into a pervasively persuasive champaign over years of crafted multimedia "advertisements", which twisted truth into fear, while setting brother to hate brother, actually creating the very war of terror that he himself claimed to be fighting - as he was and is the world's terrorist_in_chief.

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
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