Free Republic

Former President Clinton seems to be everywhere these days: at a memorial service with British Prime Minister Tony Blair; at a news conference with New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani; hugging rescue workers at the World Trade Center; comforting family members of victims; praying with 25,000 others at Yankee Stadium.

There has never been a bloodier day in American history than Sept. 11, 2001. No other single atrocity or catastrophe even comes close. The terrible toll at the World Trade Center — 6,986 believed perished so far — dwarfs anything in the experience of Americans. The previous grim standard was set Sept. 17, 1862, at the Civil War battle along Antietam Creek, on the outskirts of Sharpsburg, Md., where Union and Confederate soldiers fought from sunrise to sundown and left 3,654 comrades on the field. The next bloodiest single day came June 6, 1944 — code-named D-Day — when ...

Bill Clinton went to the NBA Store at 52nd St. and Fifth Ave. Friday, then on to Rockefeller Plaza. "He was doing what he hopes all America will do," says a source close to the former president. "Shop." He also hasn't forgotten about eating. We hear that, when he visited Ground Zero last week, Clinton grabbed one of the sandwiches that restaurateur David Bouley delivered.

Mayor Giuliani told New Yorkers yesterday not to give in to despair, and his administration prepared sweeping plans to rebuild lower Manhattan and rescue the reeling economy. A day after he was lauded for his leadership by President Bush, Giuliani warned the city there would be no quick fixes to the physical and emotional damage done by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. "This drama is a longer one," he said. "We don't have a closure, like the funeral that took place for President Kennedy." Giuliani said it would take months to clean up, rehabilitate and rebuild ...

The day before the Rolando Paulino All-Stars played here in their third game of the Little League World Series, Belkis Garcia and several other parents walked to a grocery store looking for American flags. Sure, there had been plenty of flag- waving during the previous games. But what most of the Bronx fans had eagerly unfurled was the red, white and blue of the Dominican Republic. Rolando Paulino, the president of the league, was apparently determined to change that. He asked some of the parents to wave the American flag at Tuesday's game against Bainbridge Island, Wash., Garcia said. An ...