A Penguin in the Orchard

Cheers

Cheers to MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann for some tough words in last night’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.” It’s the only 9/11 coverage I watched, and all I needed.

And lastly tonight a Special Comment on why we are here.

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter. And all the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and — as I discovered from those “missing posters” seared still into my soul — two more in the Towers. And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors.

I belabor this to emphasize that, for me… this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.

And anyone who claims that I and others like me are “soft”, or have “forgotten” the lessons of what happened here — is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante — and at worst, an idiot — whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.

[From Crooks and Liars]

The show aired just before the President’s speech from the Oval Office, the very same speech in which he tried again to tie Al Quaeda and 9/11 to Iraq. “Countdown” also aired footage of a testy Bush interview conducted by Matt Lauer, one in which Bush continually cut Lauer off and got in his face with typical arrogance.

When we’ve created a terrorist training camp in Iraq, including the entire lost Anbar province, we all have to ask who’s forgotten the lessons of 9/11.