It looks like the Arizona 9/11 Memorial scandal is getting some traction. See my earlier post here. Drudge has a link up to the story since last night with a picture. As Allah said, once there is a picture on Drudge you know it’s going somewhere:
There’s something about it on Drudge as I write this. Red-fonted. With a photo.
Getting the photo accompaniment on DR is like getting a guest shot on Ed Sullivan during his heyday. You’ve made it. You’ve arrived.
This story has arrived.
Ace told me the other night it would be big. Nuh uh, I said. No Drudge link; no alpha bloggers behind it either. LGF posted an item, but it was perfunctory. The boss, for whom stories like this are tailor made, hasn’t said much either.
But now Drudge is onboard. And he’s got a killer photo of one of the slogans: “You don’t win battles of terrorism with more battles.”
You get that inscription?
“You don’t win battles of terrorism with more battles.”
The local paper has picked up the story:
Inscriptions etched into Arizona’s Sept. 11 monument — meant to inspire and capture the horror of the terrorist attacks — sparked the beginnings of a political blog battle this week.
[…]But this week, blog visitors have said they’re shocked at some of the inscriptions, which they describe as political statements against the Bush administration and its war on terror.
One inscription states, “You don’t win battles of terrorism with more battles.” Another: “Congress questions why CIA and FBI didn’t prevent attacks.” And another reads, “Erroneous US air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians,” referring to a wedding reportedly hit by mistake in Afghanistan.
“It’s a worldview that is critical of America, and in many cases cheapens 9/11,” said Greg Patterson, a lobbyist and consultant who operates the EspressoPundit blog, where he and his readers have been critical of the memorial. “It is bent on attacking the Bush administration’s take on the war, at the expense of the memory of 9/11.”
Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said he was stunned to learn of the inscriptions. “To politicize it to me is absolutely outrageous, instead of a memorial to remember those who have sacrificed their lives,” he said.
Tempe resident Donna Bird, whose husband Gary was killed in the attack, was among the 30-member Arizona 9/11 Memorial Commission created by former Gov. Jane Hull in 2002.
She said all the inscriptions were found factual by an Arizona State University history professor. She added that she wouldn’t have helped design the memorial, which names her husband, if it were political.
Allah found this photo on Yahoo:

You see that inscription at the far right edge?
“Feeling of invincibility lost”
Add in the architects quote from a local paper:
“The attacks gave America a sense of what the rest of the world is feeling, sometimes on a daily basis,” architect Eddie Jones says.
“We’re certainly not as innocent as we used to be,” says Jones, co-designer of the Arizona 9/11 Memorial, which is being dedicated today at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza near the state Capitol.
And you have the makings of a great Democratic shrine to appeasement and blaming America first.
I hope your proud of your state John McCain.
UPDATE
Hot Air has a video from Fox with one pissed off Arizona State Representative.
UPDATE II
This comment left at LGF by someone who lost a family member on 9/11 needs to be reprinted. It’s in response to this comment by a lefty about those inscriptions:
“But only a ‘moombat’ would think that, so LGF and the others call it a disgrace. I’d like to know if that entry was proposed by someone who actually lost a family member on 9/11.”
And here is the response:
I’m sick of people like you invoking family members of the dead in your conceited attempts to make an argument for your POV, working it in as a throw-away line, implying a moral superiority involved. You want to know? I’ll tell you. I lost a family member in the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon on September 11. And I think the proposed Arizona 9/11 memorial is a disgrace. I think you’re a disgrace.
Never, ever, not once have I heard any friend and family member express the argument you so casually throw out. I have, however, heard it all too often from those who are trying to defend the indefensible. It’s insulting to decent people everywhere. With that line of reasoning, then a father who comforts his son and imparts strength to him because of his grandchild’s death would be ineffective because he has never experienced the death of his own child? A woman helping a vulnerable friend heal from a tradegy isn’t quite as effective because she hasn’t experienced that tradegy herself? How stupid and small you must think the human race is.
It’s shameful this line of thinking is used as conversational banter. In case I wasn’t clear: It’s disgraceful. Charles scored a hit when he called it. If he decides to issue a cyber restraining order and show you the door from his site, that’s his business. Your posts fall in my category of what I call pothole posts — I go around them.
Because I’m annoyed I’ll break my own rule and play the word police. Bone up on the difference between effect and affect. They are not interchangeable. If you’re going to write drivel, use a dictionary.
I’m done.
Bravo! When the left can’t find any reasonable point to argue (which is quite often) they always resort to these kind of statements…..pathetic.
UPDATE III
A reader at Hot Air has travelled to the memorial and took a ton of pictures:
UPDATE IV
Check out the pic at stikNstein of Arizona Govenor Gov. Janet Napolitano appeasing Islam. Is it any wonder this memorial went up in her State?
UPDATE V
Mary Katherine Ham found a doozy of an interview with two of the 3 designers of this POS:
Michael Grant:
Maria, just about out of time, but I understand there was an interfaith service early this morning before the official dedication? Pretty moving?Maria Salenger:
It was a wonderful event. The Arizona interfaith movement had representatives from many different religions there. I think there were eight to 10 people that spoke and each of them gave a prayer, a blessing, and a song for the space.Matthew Salenger:
I think the most important thing that they did was really — they were calling for peace. And all the memorial, the most important thing I think about the memorial is that we need to remember, you know, the events of 9/11 because of where it’s brought us today. And it’s important to understand those pieces. It’s led us into war and it’s important to understand if there were misleadings into that based on 9/11. We need to remember those things. And they brought all that up and brought up peace.
Surprised? I highly doubt it.
This is the same ole’ Bush Lied People Died crapola we have become used to from the lefties, but this time it’s on a memorial for the victims of 9/11.
Mary also found that the commissioners on the board for this memorial are all Democrat donors, except 1.
Another surprise?
UPDATE VI
Michelle Malkin with a well needed pep talk:
Five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we must remain as vigilant as ever against those who would exploit jihadi acts of war and mass murder as opportunities to erect literal Guilt Complexes on American soil. They tried it at Ground Zero. They tried it at Shanksville. They succeeded in Arizona.
This kind of moral relativism should not be any memorial for that terrible day. It’s trash, foolish hate America trash. If someone wants to put up a “America Bad” crescent then so be it, but DO NOT put it on a memorial for the victims of 9/11.
UPDATE 09/25/06
New post up, check it out here.
Other’s Blogging:

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oh waaaah.
your fake outrage is hilarious.
it is a circle. not a crescent, you idiot.
it’s a memorial to all the things that happened on that day, and since then. why do you think we should not be allowed to question the actions/policies of our country? your thought-police antics only prove you are truly unamerican.
it doesn’t make any sense why every memorial has to pass your war-monger jingoist-nationalist tests before it can be put up.
go torture someone or something. get over it.
Stik sez…
Glad to see this getting some light.
Check out the Guv promoting understanding.(this is not a photoshop)…..sadly.