This Woman Should Run For Congress

Kristin Breitweiser, one of the 9/11 widows, has written a powerful deconstruction of why Bush doesn't need any more spy powers. He needs more intelligent analysis of the existing intelligence:

The King's Red Herring

President Bush should be stopped in his tracks with regard to his use of 9/11 scare tactics to circumvent constitutional laws that are meant to protect U.S. citizens. His justification for doing so – the inability to conduct surveillance on the 9/11 hijackers – is a red herring. History will bear out the truth – our intelligence agencies held a treasure trove of intelligence on the 9/11 hijackers, intelligence that was gathered through their initially unencumbered surveillance. President Bush should busy himself by investigating why that information was then stymied and not capitalized upon to stop the 9/11 attacks

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Kristen Breitweiser's Smackdown of Karl Rove

06.23.2005 Kristen Breitweiser
Karl Rove's "Understanding of 9/11"

the concluding grafs:

Finally Karl, please “understand” that the reason we have not suffered a repeat attack on our homeland is because Bin Laden no longer needs to attack us. Those of us with a pure and comprehensive “understanding of 9/11” know that Bin Laden committed the 9/11 attacks so he could increase recruitment for al Qaeda and increase worldwide hatred of America. That didn't happen. Because after 9/11, the world united with Americans and al Qaeda's recruitment levels never increased.

It was only after your invasion of Iraq, that Bin Laden's goals were met. Because of your war in Iraq two things happened that helped Bin Laden and the terrorists: al Qaeda recruitment soared and the United States is now alienated from and hated by the rest of the world. In effect, what Bin Laden could not achieve by murdering my husband and 3,000 others on 9/11, you handed to him on a silver platter with your invasion of Iraq - a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.

Which leads me to my final questions for you Karl: What are your motives when it comes to 9/11 and are you really sure that you understand 9/11?

Why Isn't there a DNC Commercial that Asks, "Why Did Bush Threaten to VETO the $87 Billion for Our Troops?

Why didn't I know this? Read this article.

Joe Conason: 'Here's what Kerry needs to tell us'

Question: What about your vote on the $87 billion appropriation for the war? You said you voted for it before you voted against it. Weren't you having it both ways?

Kerry: You're asking all my favorite questions tonight. But I hope you will ask the President why he repeatedly threatened to veto that same $87 billion bill. I suspect most Americans still don't know about his veto threat.

He told us he would veto the $87 billion if we tried to share the burden with the Iraqis by making a loan instead of a grant. He said he would veto that bill if we allocated money to provide medical care for our veterans, and for our National Guard and Reserve families. He threatened a veto unless we agreed to add that $87 billion to the deficit, rather than reduce his most profligate tax cuts.

In the Senate, we knew that the needs of our troops would be met one way or another, but we sharply disagreed over the best way to do that. I wanted a fiscally responsible bill that provided medical care for military families. The President cared more about preserving tax cuts for those who need them least. And now we know that he has failed to spend nearly all of the $20 billion in reconstruction funding that Congress appropriated--while the costs of the war balloon toward $200 billion. The administration's incompetence is costing American and Iraqi lives.

Terry MacAuliffe, wake up & make this commercial (right after the Kristen Breitweiser commercial.)

DNC: Where is the Kristen Breitweiser commercial?

Terry MacAuliffe: Listen to the people. Unholster one of your best weapons. Get Kristen Breitweiser out front of the Kerry campaign. She's bright, she's articulate, she speaks from her heart & she knows more about September 11th than either of the candidates.

Sept. 11 Widow Joins Campaign

On Tuesday, the 33-year-old New Jersey widow was stumping in swing states with Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards for the second day in a row. It's here that Breitweiser's fresh face and emotional story are becoming an integral part of an effort to convince "security moms" that the Democratic ticket of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Edwards can make them safer and that four more years with President Bush is dangerous.

Wearing her husband's wedding band, the only evidence of his life to be recovered at Ground Zero, Breitweiser said she steeled herself to hit the campaign trail this week with Edwards, a North Carolina senator. She fought back a fear of flying born out of the World Trade Center disaster and overcame her jitters about public speaking to become a blunt instrument of attack against a president she once supported.

"I would love to have heard President Bush and the Republicans in Congress say, 'Here's what we'll do better.' But they didn't do that. They circled the wagons, they stonewalled, they blocked, they foot-dragged," she said in an interview aboard the Edwards campaign plane.

Before large, sympathetic crowds here, as well as in Iowa and New Hampshire, she offered a blistering account of the obstacles she says she faced during a three-year battle to start the nation toward a new intelligence system. Her presentation is raw with anger and grief, and it registered strongly with the Democratic loyalists. At a town hall meeting, under a hot midday sun in downtown Manchester's Victory Park, she moved museum volunteer Fran Gordon, 84, to tell Edwards: "You should put her on a TV commercial. People need to hear her."

On the rope line later, as Edwards shook hands, Breitweiser was swamped. Jane Ryan, 54, of Hollis, Maine, begged her to stick with the campaign. "They need you," Ryan said. "You are so powerful."

Debate questions

Daily Kos asked his readers to come up with debate questions. This one is my favorite of their suggestions:

"If Andrew Card came to you in that Florida classroom and told you that your family had been carjacked on September 11, would you still have sat there for seven minutes and done nothing?"

Personally, I think we should plant Kristen Breitweiser in the audience & let her ask ALL the questions.

Jersey Girls Endorse Kerry

Kristen Breitweiser & the three other Jersey Girls are endorsing John Kerry.

The Jersey Girls, as they have come to be known, are four widows of men who died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. They lobbied for the 9/11 Commission & for the truth to be told.

They know more about 9/11 than anyone & they know, the guy who didn't react to "Bin Laden Determined to Strike In U.S.", the guy who read "The Pet Goat" after learning "Our country is under attack", that guy does not deserve to be President again.

Update: Read "Fairly Unbalanced" for a savage account of Judy Woodruff's SCLM interview with Kristen Breitweiser.