From 9/11 tributes to Rep Skelton's "a-holes" whisper to Duncan Hunter...

From American Progress:

Think Fast...

In New York City, "the firefighters and first responders who helped rescue New Yorkers" -- and later recovered the dead -- from the World Trade Center, will "read the victims' names for the first time Tuesday at the sixth anniversary ceremony." Tributes are also planned in Shanksville, PA, where Flight 93 went down and in Washington, D.C.

Six years after 9/11, just three in 10 Americans "believe that the U.S. and its allies are winning the war on terrorism," according to a new CNN poll. That number is down from 41 percent "when the same question was asked at the beginning of last year."

A group of Baghdadis watching the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker yesterday were "unimpressed." "I don't think this will change anything in our country because the Americans will never leave Iraq," said Saleh Adnan, a car mechanic. "For me, the main report will be the one which announces the American departure."

Contradicting President Bush's homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend, who recently called Osama bin Laden "virtually impotent," "U.S. intelligence and law enforcement chiefs and a Cabinet member said Monday that Osama bin Laden remained the most dangerous terrorist threat to the United States six years after the 9-11 attacks."

A new AP poll finds that the "public sees the Iraq war as a failure and thinks the U.S. troop buildup there has not worked." By "59 percent to 34 percent, more people said they believe history will judge the Iraq war a complete or partial failure than a success."


Yesterday while Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker testified to Congress about progress in Iraq, nine U.S. troops in Iraq were killed. Additionally, a "truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded 60 in northern Iraq, police said."

In an "effort to show that the Justice Department engaged in political prosecutions," House leaders "are beginning an investigation this week of the prosecution of Don Siegelman, the former Democratic governor of Alabama who was imprisoned in June on federal corruption charges."

46: Number of senators, including six Republicans, who yesterday called on President Bush "to rescind new administrative restrictions that will make it harder for states to expand their popular State Children's Health Insurance Program."

And finally: The "highly anticipated hearing before the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees" yesterday was marked with "outbursts from CODEPINK protesters and snafus with witnesses' microphones." "That really pisses me off, Duncan," said chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO), not realizing his mic was still on. When Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) "leaned in" to talk about the protestors, Skelton could be heard stating, "Those a--holes."

Wrap...