The following video incorporates an audio recording that was made by a Detroit radio station, WOMC FM, in October 2001. It contains excerpts from two speeches – President Bush’s oval office speech the evening of September 11, 2001, and the one he gave before the joint session of Congress on September 20. The music is taken from a composition by James Horner for the 1989 movie, Glory. I believe the selections used are A Call To Arms, and An Epitaph To War.
I have always loved the audio, as it touched my heart and uplifted at a time when we all needed it very much. The photos are ones that I collected after Sept 11, 2001.
A man who was convinced the Twin Towers would be targeted in a terror attack led 2,700 people to safety from the World Trade Center before being killed when he went back in looking for stragglers.
Security chief Rick Rescorla carried out training drills with staff at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to prepare them for a terror atrocity after realising the vulnerability of buildings to air terror attacks.
But after leading thousands to safety on 9/11 when his fears were realised, the 62-year-old Cornishman was last seen going back up the stairs of the South Tower before it collapsed. (more…)
New York Post
Such a lovely idea. I speak here as a person who has worked with many of the same people for more than forty years, and virtually “grew up” and “grew old” with them, many of them friends who have shared the important milestones of my life.
There is a poignant hidden significance to the placement of Cantor Fitzgerald names on the 9/11 Memorial.
To an outside eye, the names appear in no logical way — not arranged in alphabetical order, and not identified by age or company.
But 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees — all killed in the Sept., 11, 2001, terror attacks at the World Trade Center — are inscribed in a very specific pattern on the bronze panels that wrap halfway around the north pool of the 9/11 Memorial.
Seemingly random but far from it, their names are surrounded by those dearest to them — not just co-workers, but close relatives, best buddies and, in one case, a cherished former baby sitter.
“They weren’t people who just worked together and went home. They made up the fabric of their lives,” said Danielle Gardner, who lost a brother in the attacks and has directed a new documentary about the financial-services firm’s staggering loss, “Out of the Clear Blue Sky.”
Continue reading to learn some of the stories behind the memorial.
On December 7, 2001, Peggy Noonan wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal with the title used for this post. Here it is.
(more…)
Bill de Blasio, the city’s 6-foot-5-inch public advocate, sprinted to a towering lead Tuesday night in the Democratic race for mayor — but former Controller Bill Thompson was trying to hold on to force him into runoff.
With 93% of the precincts reporting, de Blasio was close to 40% of the vote — the threshold needed to win the nomination without a runoff, according to the returns by the city Board of Elections.
Thompson was a distant second, but with 26% of the vote, he was still in the hunt to force a three-week, one-on-one battle with de Blasio for the Democratic nomination. If a runoff were necessary, it would be held Oct. 1
Mayoral Candidates as of 1:30am
de Blasio, Bill – Dem 256,575 40%
Thompson, William – Dem 166,027 26%
Quinn, Christine – Dem 99,099 16%
Liu, John – Dem 44,789 7%
Weiner, Anthony – Dem 31,286 5%
Salgado, Erick – Dem 15,016 2%
City Controller Candidates (more…)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †
If you are watching President Obama’s speech tonight please share your opinions in the comments. *Transcript Added* *Video Added*
PRESIDENT OBAMA: My fellow Americans, tonight I want to talk to you about Syria, why it matters and where we go from here.
Over the past two years, what began as a series of peaceful protests against the oppressive regime of Bashar al-Assad has turned into a brutal civil war. Over 100,000 people have been killed. Millions have fled the country. In that time, America’s worked with allies to provide humanitarian support, to help the moderate opposition, and to shape a political settlement, but I have resisted calls for military action because we cannot resolve someone else’s civil war through force, particularly after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The situation profoundly changed, though, on August 21st, when Assad’s government gassed to death over 1,000 people, including hundreds of children. The images from this massacre are sickening: men, women, children lying in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath, a father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk. (more…)
How these Obama administration officials can continue to balance such sizable obfuscations on the tip of a pin is beyond my comprehension. Al-Nusra Front is the jihadist arm of al-Qaeda in Syria.
The Al Nusra Front jihadists’ fight alongside, and with, the Free Syrian Army. Their goals and agenda is exactly the same. Yet somehow, Secretary Kerry can ideologically parse the FSA as good, and Al-Nusra as bad, and somehow conflate that to claim some kind of U.S. engagement policy will benefit the FSA but yet carve out no benefit for Al-Nusra.
It is important to note in December 2012 the U.S. Administration labeled Al-Nusra Front as a “Terrorist Organization” :
(Via New York Times) WASHINGTON — The United States has formally designated the Al Nusra Front, the militant Syrian rebel group, as a foreign terrorist organization. (link)
