Lots of catching up...

I'm feeling a bit better with regards to health right now in case anyone was wondering why blogging has been light lately.

So I posted the other day saying that I wasn't going to watch the ABC docudrama this weekend. Well, I ended up watching the DVD on Saturday and caught part 2 of the docudrama last night. I didn't watch part 1 since I had other things to do. Granted, I don't believe I am able to comment on it's accuracy since I have yet to read the 9/11 Commission report's findings yet.

Looks like Mayor Daley has some company. Jesse Jr. is running for Mayor, it seems.

Senator Joe Biden of Delaware has offered his own national security plan.

Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, a White House hopeful, said Thursday that the al-Qaida terrorist network clearly wants to strike the United States again, perhaps with an attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I believe they're planning something as large and complex as 9/11," Biden told an audience at the National Press Club four days before the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

"If you look at their modus operandi, that's how they have proceeded. That's how they have worked. And, I believe that's what they're doing," said Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"We have a lot of their leadership on the run, some of which we've captured," Biden said. However, "they're patient," he said, and it could be years before they go after the United States again.

"These folks are in it for the long haul," he said.

I'll have to check out John Mayer's latest single.

John Mayer: When a baby-faced hitmaker like Mayer gets into the fray, you know it's serious. On his new single, "Waiting for the World to Change," Mayer laments the state of the world and its leadership but goes on to suggest that it's not worth trying to fight the government, singing, "We just know that the fight ain't fair."

Mayer's song drew an intense reaction from the elder Graham Nash: "You can't wait for things to change, you have to change them. This is how we got here. Waiting. Waiting to find the weapons of mass destruction, waiting to find the evidence al-Qaida was in bed with Saddam. Waiting for all this stuff. You have to do something."

Senator Evan Bayh has called on Congress to implement all the 9/11 Commission recommendations.

"I think the best way to honor those who lost their lives in that tragedy is to do what it takes to defend this country so we never experience a calamity like that again," said Senator Bayh. "We've made some progress, but we simply have not done enough to make us as safe as we ought to be. (We need to be) doing more to protect train stations, bus stations so the attacks that occurred in Madrid or London don't happen here.

Senator Bayh also predicted we'll see troops gradually come home from Iraq over the next year and a half.

He hopes when they leave, Iraq will be a stable force in the region.

I don't know about you, but I just have this feeling in my gut that it won't be anywhere close to stable at all.

TMV has this article about the ABC docudrama. I did notice something. There was no scene where President Bush was reading the book, upside down at that.

I don't get this. You have a candidate criticizing a Senator for saying something back in 1998. Oh, and here's this letter, where Lamont said he supported the speech. Then there's this.

Ellen Degeneres has been tapped to host the 2007 Oscars.

Back to 9/11, here's a look at the media released as a result. A better look at the media following.

Oct. 20, 2001: Paul McCartney is one of first major rock stars to organize an all-star fundraiser for 9/11 victims in New York, with a lineup including the Who, John Mellencamp, Macy Gray, Melissa Etheridge, Bon Jovi, the Goo Goo Dolls, James Taylor, Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Gwyneth Paltrow and John Cusack.

The Bayh watch deals with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

President Bush honored those who lost their lives five years ago yesterday with two moments of silence.

Oy vey, reason to be worried again.

There's a big race in the 4th District here in KY.

Former Congressman Lee Hamilton spoke about The Path to 9/11.

An hour later in the press club's ballroom, Kean professed to being puzzled by the conspiracy crowd.

"It seems every time there's a traumatic event in American history, it spawns conspiracy theories," he said with a laugh. "I mean, people still think that John Wilkes Booth got away and hid somewhere in the South. As for the 9/11 conspiracy theories, he said, "I don't know what to do about them."

Kean saw no link between the conspiracists and his work in the docudrama trade. When the ABC question was put to him, Kean declared himself mystified by the criticism.

Portion's of the President's speech last night:

Bush addressed critics of the war, who note that the administration’s earlier warnings of ties between Al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein and of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction proved untrue, key elements in November mid-term elections that could end Republican control of Congress.

"The world is safer because Saddam Hussein is no longer in power," Bush said.

He suggested that terrorists are strengthened by dissent.

"Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country," he said.

"So we must put aside our differences, and work together to meet the test that history has given us."

President Clinton recieved applause from Jewish groups yesterday for condemning the Bush foreign policy.

He said the central lesson he drew from the attacks is that "people are the prize": The West must counter terrorists not only through war, but also through long-term investment in developing countries that produce terrorists.

Speaking to 1,500 female fund-raisers, Clinton derided the deterioration of the fragile democracy in Afghanistan and said, "The one thing we learned at that moment in time is that we can’t practice hit-and-run democracy, and that we have got all of the military power in the world to defeat a traditional foe in the moment but insurgencies are about the long run; they are never defeated by superior military power alone."

I think that covers everything.