After natural distasters, there are folks who are up bright and early the next morning to defraud devastated survivors with lying offers of roof repair, cut-rate funeral plots, and, oh yeah, toxic trailers in which to house their children and ill family members. We have a special contempt for these particular kinds of deceit, which plays on need and vulnerability to make money and accrue influence.
On this anniversary of 9/11, a day when briefly we mourned together as a nation and hoped for leadership that would give us guidance, I urge us to complete our grieving process by also catharsing the justifiable rage we feel at those who used this terrible event for personal gain.
I'll "let it go" once all the truth has been exposed and the criminals are held responsible. And no, I'm not referring to those in Gitmo, I'm referring to the criminals whose decisions resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands more innocent lives, bankrupted an economy, and shredded our Constitution.
"After being told 'America is under attack' when the second plane hit the tower on 9/11, George W. Bush continued to read 'My Pet Goat' in a Florida classroom for the next seven minutes." -from Fahrenheit 911 by Michael Moore
If we do not demand accountability for the vile treachery perpetrated on us in the name of 9/11, we'll be stuck here forever.
Keith Olbermann addressed it last night in his Special Comment. (Hat-tip to Crooks and Liars for the transcript and the video.)
And finally, as promised, a Special Comment about the shout of "You Lie" during the presidential address to the joint session of Congress last night on the
matter of health care reform.
The 43rd president of the United States lied the nation into the war, lied 4,343 of his fellow citizens to death in that war, lied about upholding the constitution, and lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction.
He lied about how he reacted to Al-Qaeda before 9/11 and he lied about how he reacted to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.
He lied about getting Bin Laden, and he lied about not getting Bin Laden.
He lied about nation-building in Iraq, lied about the appearance of new buildings **in** the nation **of** Iraq, and lied about embassy buildings in nations like Iraq.
He lied about trailers with mobile weapons labs in them, and he lied about trailers with Cuban prostitutes in them.
He and his administration lied -- by the counting of one non-profit group -- 532 times about links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq. Only 28 of those were by that President, but he made up for that by lying 231 times about W-M-D.
And yet not once did an elected Democratic official shout out during one of George W. Bush's speeches and call him a "liar."
Even when the president was George W. Bush, even when he was assailed from sidelines like mine, even when the lies came down so thick the nation needed a hat... he was still the President and if he didn't earn any respect, the office he held demanded respect.
More over, that President and his Congressional tools like Congressman Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson of South Carolina insisted not just unquestioned respect for the office; they wanted unanimous lock-step compliance with the man.
And when the blasphemy of mere respectful criticism somehow came anyway -- say by, or built on that by, the real Joe Wilson -- lord help he who might have made the slightest factual error in that criticism.
Congressman Wilson and his masters and the flying monkeys of right-wing media would pursue the erroneous critic to the ends of their careers, firing hot accusations of moral or intellectual confusion and incompetence at the unbelievers.
And that is the line Congressman Wilson crossed last night when he shouted "you lie" at this President of the United States.
Not the respect line.
The stupid line.
Watch the whole thing below:
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