I'm probably breaking some corollary of Godwin's Law by asking this, but here goes:

Other than frequency and duration, what exactly is the difference between a annual "day of fear" and the daily Two Minutes Hate?

The president's passivity invites this kind of attack, which will continue until he learns to jump on his opponents faster and more aggressively. He let health care attacks continue to the point that they cannot be quieted, especially with his cerebral approach which works well when used with people who actully think, but will never reach fox news fans.

One of the reasons I voted for Obama was because of his appeal to bipartisanship, but I didn't vote for rolling over and playing dead.

You say Godwin I say Orwell
Godwin Orwell
Tomato pajama
Bircher birther
Sociopath Malkin
Lets call the whole thing nuts

that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.

Ah yes, radical community organizing. Sometime in the future, I would love to see a Democratic Presidential nominee come from the background of small town mayor of 8,000. The creative slights the reich-wing would dream up might on that day will be truly entertaining.

There it is, the Republic brand:
9/11 is and always has been "a 'day of fear' that helps Republicans"

Maybe if suggestions had been made for the kind of service that people might want to do, such as:

- Volunteer to patrol the U.S./Mexico border to keep out illegal aliens
- Help organize activism against health care reform
- Firebomb a church that you don't agree with
- Distribute free guns

It's just a matter of perspective, after all.

Paulo beat me to it.

Shorter Vadum: Fear helps Republicans; hope helps Democrats.

Okay, then.

Matthew Vadum: "Moderation in defense of our meal ticket is no virtue."

Are we allowed a paid day off on a "day of fear?" If so, I'm for it.

Be Afraid, Very Afraid Day

As I remember it, every day under the Bush administration was a day of fear.

Other than frequency and duration, what exactly is the difference between a annual "day of fear" and the daily Two Minutes Hate? Posted by: scott_m on August 25, 2009 at 8:37 AM | PERMALINK

scott_m nails it in the first comment.

i'm setting aside the anniversary of 9/11 to remember who was in charge -- in nyc, in the state of new york, and in washington -- that day.

On the date, why don't we remember that thanks to the Republicans in charge & the craven Dems that did nothing to halt them, the United States responded to the terror attack by going after a small (1000 or so!!) band of religious lunatics with all its military might, bungled it, started a wholly unnecessary war that's cost hundreds of thousands of lives, destroyed a country & middle east quasi-stability (hello empowered Iran) and rang up a massive trillion dollar price tag that would pay for the health care reform we need.

Why doesn't anybody in this country actually point out just how small that band of lunatics was? I bet James Dobson has larger numbers in his flock.

There is one proper response to terror, you know, and that is to not be terrorized. The Republicans failed.

I would suggest that 8/6 of every year be proclaimed a 'National Day of Remembrance'.

It should be a day of remembrance of George Bush receiving the Presidential Daily Briefing labeled 'Bin Ladin determined to strike in the U.S.'.

It should be a day of remembrance of George Bush telling the briefer "Now you've covered your ass, you can go back to Washington".

It should be a day of remembrance of the gross failure of George Bush to take the protection of the United States and American citizens seriously.

Then we can more accurately remember 9/11/2001 as the day that provided the excuses for Bush administration wars and abuses of the Constitution and laws of our country. Then we can remember 9/12/2001 as the day that the coverup of Bush negligence began.

Those leftists are truly despicable. The next thing you know, they'll be holding their national convention in New York City to try to capitalize on the proximity to Ground Zero. And they'll move the convention to September, despite having held it in July and August for decades. Slimy and shameful, they are...

Vadum needs to crawl back into the hole in which he lives so we can witness him doing the honorable thing! He also should note, fear owns a reptilian intellect! His included! -Kevo

A national day of service seems quite appropriate. If anyone cares to remember the actual event, there was huge interest in national service. People donated their time, treasure, and (literally) blood to the victims and those directly involoved in the recovery efforts. People joined the military and other national service groups. People flew flags and were extra courteous to their fellow citizens. I don't remember a lot of fear. Oh, the president did go into hiding for a while....

It is amazing how much people desire to fear. I guess this is why terrorism too often works.

We can spend a day worrying about attacks and imagining what was, or we can decide on that day that we will do things to make things better for our fellow human beings. One way the terrorists win, in the other we negate their efforts to control us. Scary how few folks understand that.

Perhaps he should have declared it a National Day of Wallowing and General Self-Absorption... then again, that's every day for the right.

which remains almost uniformly terrified of criticizing the nation's first black president

Seems to me that the right-wing bloggers over the past 8 years remained almost uniformly terrified of criticizing the nation's first retarded president.

Desecrate: to violate the sacred character of (an object or place).

Sacred: made or declared or believed to be holy; devoted to a deity or some religious ceremony or use.

It's an interesting choice of words. The immolation of 3,000 people was a sacred event for conservatives.

Whereas liberals looked to explain the attacks as the backlash to American foreign policy, conservatives like Falwell and Robertson explained the attacks as the result of God's removing protection from America because of gays and lesbians and abortion.

Hence, it's a sacred event.

"...capturing him (Osama bin Laden) is not a top-priority use of American resources....I truly am not that concerned about him".

George W. Bush, interviewed by Fred Barnes, Sept 14th, 2006

If you were looking for an example of "draining 9-11 of all meaning", you'd have to go some to beat that, Vadum. Put that in your tea-bagging ass and spin on it a little. While you're at it, think about how George Bush wanted ordinary citizens to respond to 9-11 only a few days after it happened. Don't remember? Let me help you; go shopping. Yup, that's right, and it's a matter of public record. There was no need to make up ridiculous stuff where Bush was concerned, and he was an icon of the conservative right.

The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol

National Booze Day!

"easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign."

If he is simply enacting the agenda that he ran and got elected on, isn't that Democracy in action? Do they just have a problem with Democracy?

How long before the thugs start calling it 'The National Day of Servitude'?

Let's see what would conservatives prefer...

National Stroke Your Gun Day

National Self-Righteous Bluster with Fear and Paranoia Day

Any other suggestions?

It is impossible for me to separate the right's political rhetoric from its religious rhetoric. The belief in Obama's long and sinister reach, in the face of obvious contrary evidence, can only be attributed to a significant majority of the religious right having concluding that Obama is none other than the anti-Christ. There was some suggestion of this in the summer of the campaign, before McCain's folks (believe it or not) pulled it back to more rational ground. I know it seems absurd, but they did this to poor Jimmy Carter as well. I know because I was born into a fundamentalist family, and we weekly heard dire predictions that Jimmy Carter was none other than the dreaded beast, notwithstanding the ample evidence that he was a somewhat naive, but kindly Christian gentleman from Georgia. I don't think things have changed a lot in 30 years. This stuff is a dog whistle for fundamentalists and evangelicals. It taps their biggest fears and mobilizes them to act. If you don't understand the mindset (and I personnaly am relieved if you don't), I think a lot of this stuff must seem bat-shit crazy. If you do, you at least understand where the bat-shit crazy is coming from.

Vadum: "The plan is to turn a "day of fear" that helps Republicans..."

...and Osama bin Laden.

Seriously, the whole point of terrorism is to terrorize, to keep people afraid and change their behavior as a result. Let's not forget that the GOP is still working hard to make sure that Osama gets as much fear as possible from his big bang, even as it recedes into the middle distance of the past.

"They're taking that day and they're breaking it because it gives Republicans an advantage."

Maybe Mr Vadum should entertain the thought that Obama is actually doing the Repubs a favor here. They have already exploited 9/11 to the full and continuing to insist that this day be viewed as 'a day of fear' might eventually get somebody to wonder about the stewardship of the man at the helm in those days.

After all, he was told 'Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US' on August 6, 2001, and as it turned out, that warning wasn't 'cover your ass' action.

Of course this reflects the division in the country to the actual attacks.
In New York, the response was service, volunteering, comforting the afflicted, and coming to grips with the reality.
For a lot of others, it was cowering under the bed, walking around in fear that their post office would be attacked, and building a fantasy world.

The truly terrible part of the legacy of that day is that we're beginning only to recall the tailspin the rest of the country went into, and not the heroism of the people who actually dealt with the horror.

The Republicans turned the day into a cartoon. The peril is that, by (perfectly rightly) decrying the cartoon, we misremember the reality.

It's not The Day America Went Nuts. Not just that.

(As an expat New Yorker, I spent the days after 9/11 feverishly trying to find out the fate of friends, some of whom lived 8 blocks from ground zero. I'll never forget it.)

There exists today medications to treat such obvious examples of psychotic paranoia. I hope Mr. Vadum comes to grips with his problem and seeks help before it's too late.

I was living in downtown NYC at the time, less than a mile from the WTC. I watched the towers come down from a street corner. Traffic had been blocked off on the avenue; across the street, at a hospital, staffers were feverishly bringing out gurneys for the ambulances that were sure to come speeding up shortly.

There were no ambulances, of course.

Oddly enough, my recollections of living through the city's post-9/11 trauma are some of my nicest NYC memories. People were deliberate and uncharacteristically gentle with one another. Everyone wanted to help make things better any way they could. I remember noticing on 9/12 (or thereabouts) that, though traffic was just as bad as ever, almost nobody was honking their car horns.

A Day of Service would represent the unity and fellow-feeling we had in NYC — a far better way to honor what Americans did *right* in mid-Sept. 2001.

If the purpose of 9/11 was to disrupt our commerce and way of life, I can think of no more appropriate remembrance than going about our business as we would on any other work day.

You've gone too far, Benan; I'm not even going to follow the link. The Vadum piece is obviously a hoax. Nobody could be that witless.

Let's see... 3000 americans killed because republican president ignored cia warnings about impending attack - and that HELPS the republicans???.... only in america's upside-down media world could that happen.

It gets even worse. Obama has hired a dim witted Dutchman to set fire to the Capital Building on 9/11, after which he intends to proclaim an enabling act to consolidate all power into his own hands.

Look, you dem libtards, that's "9/11 REGISTERED TRADEMARK." We own it, and if you try to use it we'll sue your asses. Fear helps us, and we want to make sure you and everyone else stay good and scared. Why do you think Osama bin Laden released that video just before November of 2004? It was because he knew we'd raise the security alert level to orange, and that George Bush would get re-elected. So there.

Good one, ML@12.22p.

Oh, and if you think the article was bad, read some of the comments below it. It's downright scary to think these people really exist.

I suppose I could gather a group of children together and read them "My Pet Goat."

I know, I know, we are SUPPOSED to honor Sept. 11th by shopping. After all, that's what Bush's first address after the attack urged us to do. How dare anyone suggest we do something for our country and community rather than wallow in the greed and frenzy of commercialism?

The ideal liberal way to conmemorate September 11 is to emphasize how badly the US has treated the islamic world. Above all do not mention names like Mohammed Atta, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shekki, Ziad Jarrah, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. They were just a few of the men who planned and executed the attack.

Mhr, remember the character of Fearless Fosdick in the old Lil'Abner comic strips? He used to fire his gun wildly when chasing an unlicensed balloon salesman, usually killing dozens of innocent bystanders but letting the balloon salesman get away. Well, except for the fact that Osama bin Laden is a lot more dangerous to this country than an unlicensed balloon salesman, that is exactly how the Bush administration handled 9/11. No wonder Bush decided to stop talking about Mohammed Atta, Ramzi bin alShibh and the rest of them pretty early on, and saying that he wasn't that concerned about capturing ObL. Why call attention to his own spectacularly miserable failures? Except, of course, when he needed to scare Americans to whip us into line?

"The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry."

Is this anything like the cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the true meaning of the May 30th Memorial Day observance from the American psyche and convert Memorial Day into a day of mindless beer-drinking and sales at the mall?

Django: No, I think it's more like the effort to encourage idolatry of the Noble and Great Leader in his flight suit, heroically flying to the rescue of His People just like Superman. There were, and God help us still are, people who truly and devoutly believe that God chose Bush to lead this nation. What that would say about God's attitude toward the U.S. I'd prefer not to think, but that's what they believe.

Two Word idiot libtard:

Fuck You.

You bastards side with the damn terrorists. You ought to be shipped to gitmo yourselves.

mhr - I am no liberal! I am a conservative libertarian Republican, and the only thing that separates me from many of my fellow brethren is the fact that I am literate! You my dear sir may be literate, but from your posts I believe you are also a very sad creature.

You like straw men do you? Well, how will you be spending this 9/11? Cowering in fear, or willing to take command of our beloved nation and offer it something else instead of your usual blather? Your fellow conservative on this thread wants to know! -Kevo

Oh, and Pat - get some help! -Kevo

It truly doesn't matter what Obama says or does, they will find a way to portray him as dangerous and threatening. Obama could find a cure for cancer and they'd say that he did so only to make government more powerful, that it's all part of a socialist-commie-nazi plot to hurt old white people.

They didn't start off with much reason or logic but they are completely devoid of it now. They have transformed into a full-blown brainwashed cult, they just *believe* things and that is all that matters. Reality, civility and critical thinking be damned.

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One lie leads to another.