The Commentariat -- September 10
In his weekly address, President Obama marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks:
... The transcript is here. ...
... The New York Times has a special report on the decade after September 11, 2001.
Joe Nocera: "... far more than tax relief, small businesses need credit. That is what the president should be pushing for."
Charles Blow: President Obama "isn’t only battling a calcifying cynicism about the inefficacy of government in general, he’s battling the rapidly hardening public perception that he himself is a product of what I call the doughnut doctrine of leadership — soft, glazy, hollow in the middle and ideally suited for getting dunked."
President Obama discussed the American Jobs Act yesterday in Richmond, Virginia -- CW: and he held me up in traffic on I-95 South for 45 minutes:
Right Wing World
"The Execution Cheer." Peter Capatano of the New York Times has a rundown of opinions regarding Rick Perry's record as the Execution Governor, and the big cheers that went up among the audience in the Republican debate this week when Perry defended his record and "Texas Justice." ...
... The most important link Capatano makes is to Marie Diamond's Think Progress post. Diamond debunks Perry's contention that the Texas judicial system is always fair:
... during Perry’s tenure as governor, DNA evidence has exonerated at least 41 people convicted in Texas, Scott Horton writes in Harper’s. According to the Innocence Project, 'more people have been freed through DNA testing in Texas than in any other state in the country, and these exonerations have revealed deep flaws in the state’s criminal justice system.' Some 85 percent of wrongful convictions in Texas, or 35 of the 41 cases, are due to mistaken eyewitness identifications.
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Egypt’s ruling military council announced a security crackdown Saturday, saying it would make full use of the country’s emergency law to ensure safety a day after an attack by protesters on the Israeli Embassy prompted Israel to withdraw its diplomats. The crisis exposed the fragility of the Egyptian government’s control of the streets as well as Israel’s vulnerability in a region reshaped by protests since winter."
New York Times: "Bells tolled 40 times here Saturday afternoon as the names were read — those of the 40 passengers and crew who died 10 years ago after terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 and, with passengers in rebellion, slammed it into a field in southwestern Pennsylvania."
... The Hill: "In emotional speeches, former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton paid tribute to the 40 passengers and crew who were killed when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa., on September 11, 2001." See President Clinton's speech in the September 11 Commentariat. ...
Washington Post: "Israel airlifted its ambassador home and sought U.S. intervention with Egypt to help secure its embassy here early Saturday, hours after thousands of Egyptian protesters besieged the building, with several managing to gain entry and fling Hebrew-language documents from a balcony. Protesters knocked down a 12-foot concrete wall that had been built last week to protect the embassy, which is near the top floor of a 21-story residential building in the upscale Dokki area. At least two protesters scaled the front of the building to pull down the Israeli flag, hanging from the 20th floor. It was the second time in recent weeks that demonstrators had removed the flag." ...
... New York Times: "Israel evacuated most of its embassy staff [in Cairo, Egypt] at dawn Saturday after six members had been trapped in the embassy for hours by a mob of protesters who attacked and invaded its offices overnight. The attack was the second time in a month that an angry mob stormed the Cairo embassy and tore down its flag. Coming a week after Turkey expelled Israel’s ambassador over its refusal to apologize for a deadly raid on a Turkish ship, it left Israel was facing crises in relations with its two most important regional allies, with ambassadors in neither country."
AP: "Al-Qaida may have sent American terrorists or men carrying U.S. travel documents to launch an attack on Washington or New York to coincide with memorials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, government officials say. One U.S. official says al-Qaida dispatched three men, at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens, to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities."
AP: "A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion — all the way down to the core."
AP: "Japan's new trade minister resigned Saturday over a remark seen as insensitive to nuclear evacuees, dealing a blow to a government that took office just eight days ago in the hopes it could better tackle the daunting tsunami recovery."