Posted on 08/01/2002 7:17:30 PM PDT by John Jorsett
About once in every generation, an event occurs that focuses the minds of everyone so sharply that they never forget that moment--for the rest of their lives.
Ask anyone who was alive when Pearl Harbor was bombed where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Unless they were in a coma, or too young to realize what was happening, they can tell you--in great detail.
Likewise, on the fateful day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, everyone from that generation talks about the moment they heard the news, and how it impacted them.
I remember where I was when I learned that the Berlin Wall had been opened, and when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded.
But those two moments in my life pale in comparison to what happened on September 11, 2001. Even before I learned of the terror attacks, it was an important day for me--September 11 is my birthday.
It was about 6:15 in the morning, and I had just woken up and was getting ready to go to work when the phone rang. It was my mother. She wished me a happy birthday, then she said, "Turn on the television."
I remember thinking, "Wow, Mom must have gotten someone on television to wish me Happy Birthday!" So I asked her, "What channel?"
She replied, "Any channel." My heart sank--I knew this was probably bad news.
And then I saw it--the World Trade Center on fire. The newscaster was saying that a plane had flown into one of the towers. From the video, I could tell it was a large passenger plane.
I watched the video of the second plane hitting the tower. I was shaking with fear and rage.
I drove to the office, but no work was being done that day. We were all watching the news, or listening to the radio. After about an hour, they told us all to go home--many of us had family and friends in New York and Washington, including me, and we were anxious to contact them.
I watched, live on television, as each tower collapsed. I remember trembling, and saying "Oh my God," over and over.
Needless to say, it was a traumatic event in my life, and one that I surely won't ever forget. I've even considered moving my birthday. How can anyone celebrate on September 11?
I'm willing to bet that all of you can remember that day vividly as well.
Some people, on the other hand, decided after learning of the attacks that it was a great moment to make a political contribution.
Really.
Check out this page at OpenSecrets.org, listing the campaign contributions to the Honorable Ms. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia. Notice anything unusual (besides the fact that so many of her contributers have Arab names, and very few of them are from her district)?
I'll give you a hint: if your browser has a search function, type in 9/11/2001.
Here's what you'll find:
Thats quite a haul for one day: $20,300.
Probably a coincidence.
They couldn't spread it out over a few weeks, but had to contribute THAT VERY DAY.
Good move. I got the pointer to this piece from Glenn Reynold's InstaPundit.com web site. It's great how the universe of weblogs can dredge up this sort of thing and get it out there.
McKinney's district is probably about 60% black, with a pretty good spread of incomes, her district includes low-income areas in south DeKalb County, along with Lithonia, a community that has (arguably) among the highest per-capita income black populations in the Southeast.
Her white constituency is spread among soccer households in north DeKalb and south Gwinnett Counties, along with the liberal enclaves around downtown Decatur, and surrounding Emery University. I would say that the district is about 80% or so liberal if you had to break it down.
Many blacks in the bedroom communities in Lithonia and Stone Mountain think McKinney's nuts, as do many of the white voters in south Gwinnett and up in north DeKalb. It'll be interesting to see how they fall in the primary.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
This is positively bizarre, and perhaps of great significance. It obviously did not spontaneously occur to all these people, most of them in Nevada, to donate to the campaign of some obscure representative from Georgia. One $64,000 question is whether this was pre-planned, i.e they all had instructions to donate on 9/11, or "when something big happens," or even more ominously, "when it happens," where "it" was something they knew was coming. Or, were all they all contacted on 9/11, and told to make these donations? If so, by whom? And how? Are there phone records? Email backups? Who coordinated this? This is potentially a crack in something big and important, and I hope our "homeland security" folks go find out what went on here. This is very interesting 'community of people' that has been exposed by this fluke. What do they have in common? And then... why McKinney? Were they buying something, or were they paying for something they'd already bought? It looks to me like they were collectively paying on behalf of someone else. McKinney might have the power to place certain people in certain places. Not so much as any sort of actual authority, but more as a consequence of favor-seeking types hiring someone or putting someone in a certain place as a favor. McKinney serves on the House Armed Services Committee, which would tend to cause Pentagon bureaucrats to bow and scrape when she called. I wonder whom she placed in the months leading up to 9/11? |
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