THE SOROS-IZATION OF GROUND ZERO

Michelle Malkin ^ | June 7, 2005 | Michelle Malkin

[Velveeta]

I just saw your ping on the Tony Snow thread too.

Thanks so much for the pings!

Contact information will be great as I know many of us here will not let this drop off the radar. :-)

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

We can only hope that Bloomberg, Pataki-among other public officials who've completely bungled this process from its inception-won't be around to preside over the unveiling of any future memorial.

Pataki will probably have the foresight not to run for another term, and hopefully Bloomberg will lose this upcoming mayoral primary.

[Velveeta]

I hope you're right!

[tertiary01]

BTTT

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

Me too.

Our elected officials have-once again-let us down.

[solitas]

(from that website)

"I am convinced that Ground Zero must first and foremost be a memorial. All other decisions should flow from that goal. A soaring structure should dominate the site. There should be a museum and a library. People should be able to grasp the enormity of this attack by visiting this sacred ground. [The memorial] should symbolize our survival and our triumph." - Rudy Giuliani

The sad thing is: the general population is so deficient that in a few years the "enormity of [the] attack" will be reduced to the same kinds of plastic, "made in china" trinkets that are sold which resemble the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building - just another place to visit.

[Velveeta]

Update at Michelle Malin's site:
http://www.michellemalkin.com/


BATTLE AT GROUND ZERO: THE IFC RESPONDS
By Michelle Malkin · June 09, 2005 09:31 AM

Dick Tofel, president of the International Freedom Center, has a smooth piece in the WSJ today attempting to counter Debra Burlingame's devastating op-ed on the hijacking of Ground Zero. He fails. At least he abandoned the tactic he used with me of trying to minimize the amount of opposition in this country to the blame-America tenets of the IFC's patrons. Instead, Tofel uses all the right code words and spins a calming, "nothing to see here, move along" tale. (snip)

[Velveeta]

Copy of Tofel's response article in the WSJ:
(Fluff piece - barf alert)


A Fitting Place at Ground Zero
The International Freedom Center will respect the victims of 9/11.

BY RICHARD J. TOFEL
Thursday, June 9, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006795

[Velveeta]

From Debra Burlingames' website

http://www.911familiesforamerica.org/
Thursday, June 9, 2005, 6:23 a.m. EDT

Have you forgotten? What is Ground Zero to you?
And what should visitors see there on 9/11/2101?

This was 9/11/2001 at the World Trade Center:

With over a thousand already dead and trapped in the North Tower, the South Tower is attacked seventeen minutes later.

Looking to escape, a survivor looks down at the Globe from the South Tower and hopes to get out alive

While many were rescued

So many were not

So tell me, at Ground Zero, should we carve in cement and bury in an underground 50,000 square foot museum the names of the nearly 3,000 people that Islamic terrorists murdered that day? Should visitors to the World Trade Center's memorial be left to wonder what happened that day and where the artifacts of 9/11 are? Above ground, should we build a park with reflecting pools, a cultural center, and a 300,000 square foot International Freedom Center where visitors can hear lectures and discussions on why they all hated us, what we did to bring 9/11 upon ourselves, and the correct world-view future generations must choose so they won't hate us and attack us anymore? Why not also discuss all of man's inhumanities to man, especially those by Americans on Americans and all the other people in the world, since time immortal while we are at it in order to promote our own political agenda?

Does this all sound like a good idea to you?

Apparently, the president of the Internation Freedom Center thinks it is. Please read the following and the entire op-ed by Richard J. Tofel for he says the IFC and WTC memorial will be "roughly equal." How is something six times as large, above ground, and what visitors will pass through to get the "world's view on it" while on the way to the WTC memorial, roughly equal? And please, after you've read this, scan down to yesterday's entry and reread Debra Burlingame's op-ed and the links provided for some other comments on this issue:

"To be sure, the International Freedom Center will host debates and note points of view with which you--and I--will disagree. But that is the point, the proof of our society's enduring self-confidence and humanity. Moreover, the International Freedom Center will rise above the politics of the moment. It will not exist to precisely define "freedom" or to tell people what to think, but to get them to think--and to act in the service of freedom as they see it. And it will always do so in a manner respectful of the victims of September 11."

[Velveeta]

FYI...Updates beginning at post #167

[Velveeta]

Ping to updates beginning at post #167

[Velveeta]

How the Left Hijacked the September 11th Memorial

By Jacob Laksin
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 9, 2005

Imagine the following scenario. A gaggle of leftist ideologues, most of them vocally hostile to the U.S.-led War on Terror and some of them inclined to believe that the U.S. itself poses the greatest threat to world peace, is tasked with creating a memorial to the victims of 9-11 terrorism and a tribute to freedom. This, in essence, is what has happened with International Freedom Center in New York. (snipped)
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18360

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419599/posts?page=31#31

[Velveeta]

New York Post

NO PLACE FOR POLITICS
Thu Jun 9, 5:53 AM ET


Seemingly terminal reconstruction gridlock may not be the only scandal plaguing the site of the destroyed Twin Towers. Now serious concerns are being raised about the nature of the principal Ground Zero memorial.

The International Freedom Center is to be a 250,000-square-foot museum with a self-professed mission to "harness the power of history and use it a a springboard for contemporary dialogue and debate" on the meaning of freedom.


"Dialogue and debate," huh?


Time to reach for the revolver.


Because odds are that, at the end of the day, this center won't focus on freedom's triumphs, so much as on its failures — particularly those in which America can be painted as the culprit. (snipped)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nypost/20050609/cm_nypost/noplaceforpolitics/nc:742

[retrokitten]

Thanks for the ping.

I have choice words and hand gestures for Mr. Richard Tofel and all would get me at least suspended. So I will just say this- I wonder how DICK can possibly sit with his head so far up his a$$.

I just imagine him writing that whole thing with a little smirk on his face searching for quotes from Bush and Lincoln. I'm surprised he didn't find any Regan ones to use to REALLY get us going. Maybe even he knows that would be too far.

The only thing this "freedom" center will respect are the TERRORISTS who sought to DESTROY our nation. These MURDERS did not stop and ask people who they voted for in the last election. They did not ask if they were for or against war or their opinions on Islam. They did not care that there were Brits, Aussies, Mexicans, and every other nation represented by the people working in those buildings. They STILL DO NOT CARE if you sympathize with them or not. YOU are American and you are infidel and infidels must be destroyed.

Mr. Tofel thinks we Americans are stupid and will not see through his little article and the happy face and Lincoln quotes he has tried to spin. Well, DICK, we will NOT let this die. We will NOT sit idly by and let you turn hallowed ground into your Hate America Disneyland!

Try a little harder next time, DICK.

[Velveeta]

Well said!

[retrokitten]

Thank you.

Check this out. It give the names of the board of directors, staff, creative team, planning committee, scholars and advisors, and service advisory board members.

I found the service advisory board and scholars and advisors sections to be the most interesting. Cokie Roberts? The president of MTV? Oh, yes, you can't build a museum with out having Cokie and MTV involved! WTF? Then the alleged scholars have little quotes about freedom.

[Velveeta]

I saw that.

You do know who Cokie's father was, don't you?

[veronica]

This is a DISGRACE!

[retrokitten]

No, who?