IN MEMORY:

Five years ago, 2973 souls perished on September 11, 2001.

2602 souls died in the World Trade Center. 24 remain listed as missing.

88 souls died on American Airlines flight 11.

59 souls died on United Airlines flight 175.

125 souls died in the Pentagon.

59 souls died on American Airlines flight 77.

40 souls died on United Airlines flight 93.

Rest in peace.

A complete timeline of all the events of that day relating to the terrorist attack begins here.

[This was posted in the September 11 DCDP Roundup.]

UPDATE: Naturally, we could count on Bush to exploit the memory of the crime for his own dishonest political purposes. Fortunately, Keith Olbermann promptly reamed him out totally for doing that, even citing with clips a classic episode from The Twilight Zone. You can read a transcript and (after interminable waits, because right now everybody is linking to this) view the video at Crooks and Liars. Go read and watch, and tell your family, friends, and foes!!

TELL ABC TO DROP ITS DISHONEST REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA:

This came from Tom McMahon, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee:

This is it: crunch time for getting the slanderous ABC television docudrama "The Path to 9/11" yanked off the air. The network schedule has this slanderous attack on Democrats slated to start on Sunday night, September 10, at 8 o'clock -- and as long as it stays on the schedule, we have work to do. Take a minute right now and tell Disney president Robert Iger to keep this right-wing propaganda off our airwaves.

You can send him an email from the DNC's site at Keep "Path to 9/11" Propaganda Film Off The Air.

Here's the good news: the suits at ABC and the Walt Disney Company have started panicking under pressure, thanks to your ferocious response to the outrageous decision to put this irresponsible miniseries on the air.

Think Progress has another email letter of protest you can send from "Tell ABC to Tell the Truth About 9/11". Act For Change has one more email you can sign onto at "ABC: Tell the Truth About 9/11". You can sign onto all three, and also email ABC directly through their own site at Contact ABC. Be polite but firm.

No, this isn't censorship. This is the same kind of protest against dishonesty that the far right staged to get CBS to drop an inaccurate TV movie about Ronald Reagan. (Read about that here.) For more on this new outrage, read these:

Fabricating history (a Houston Chronicle editorial)

9/11 miniseries outrages Democrats

ABC Insider Assures Right-Wing Bloggers

9/11 Miniseries Is Bunk (by a former Ambassador)

House Democrats Demand Accuracy in ABC 9/11 Film

Senate Democratic leadership threatens Disney

Scholastic Distances Itself From ABC

The True Path to 9-11: what ABC won’t tell you

Accuracy aside, ABC's '9/11' deserves to bomb

And a sign that our pressure may be working, so keep it up:
Variety: ABC Is Considering Pulling "The Path To 911"

[The above was sent out in the September 8 DCDP Roundup Bulletin.]

UPDATE: Tom Blackwell sent this link to commenting at the local ABC affiliate, writing:

Channel 8 is considering not running the "Path to 9-11" and they are conducting a survey. Here is the URL. Please pass this on to your distribution list and encourage everyone to participate. I think that it is important for survey takers to mention that the movie is not consistent with the conclusion reached by the bipartisan 9-11 commission.

BEWARE: for me, this got redirected to another page, where WFAA insists that you first sign up to "become a member". I would not give that company, which also owns the Dallas Morning News, with its long history of generations of racism and reactionary extremism, the time of day, much less my email and other info. Yes, there are good people working there. The word for that is "enabling".

WE'RE OFF AND RUNNING!:


Our Ninth Annual Labor Day Picnic was the biggest yet, and full of high spirits. The many elected officials and candidates present were introduced and good food and conversation was had by all. Thanks to the Plumbers and Steamfitters union for the great hall, and thanks to the various Democratic clubs across the county, which cooperate in putting on this yearly event. (Thanks to Tom Blackwell for this picture.)

This is the traditional beginning of the fall campaign season, so not only did we pass the hat for the party, and ask people to please support it by becoming Sustaining Members (you can do it online at this page), but people were also getting signed up as volunteers for candidates, and for the party's Precinct Walks.

DON'T BE BULLIED!!:

The Bush misadministration is heating up their words for the fall campaign, to try and scare voters into keeping the incompetent and greedy Republicans in power. Here's part of what Frank Rich wrote about it in Sunday's New York Times:

"What made Mr. Rumsfeld's speech noteworthy wasn't its toxic effort to impugn the patriotism of administration critics by conflating dissent on Iraq with cut-and-run surrender and incipient treason. That's old news. No, what made Mr. Rumsfeld's performance special was the preview it offered of the ambitious propaganda campaign planned between now and Election Day."

Read the whole thing at this site. (Thanks to Judge Ron Chapman for sending this.) Another fearless voice against this un-American viciousness came surprisingly from the Mayor of Salt Lake City, who told a rally Wednesday:

"Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president. That is not a patriot. Rather, that person is a sycophant."

Read it all at this site. (Thanks to Precinct Chair Tom Blackwell for sending this.) The proper, proudly defiant stand to take when thugs try this kind of intimidation was supposedly made by Patrick Henry in 1765. Speaking of the oppressive King of England at the time, he replied to cries that he spoke treason by saying: "If this be treason, make the most of it." This unbullied man went on to become the first elected Governor of Virginia. Let us try to follow his example.

[These were sent out in the September 5 DCDP Roundup email.]