The Incredible Shrinking Freedom Tower

Democrats should be on this like white on rice ...

The head of the Port Authority hinted yesterday that the planned 1,776-foot Freedom Tower will be scaled back if enough government tenants don't commit to moving in.

[...]
"If those resources are not sufficient to build it, then obviously our commitment to build it has to be modified," Coscia said.

He added, "The only thing the Port Authority has not committed to doing is spending whatever it takes to build the Freedom Tower."

In response to the attacks of 9/11/01 the Republican leadership has launched two wars and stripped away Americans' civil liberties such as due process, probable cause, habeas corpus, whistleblower protection, freedom to assemble, freedom of the press and freedom of speech.

But there's still just a gaping hole in the ground at the World Trade Center site, almost five years after the attack that brought down those massive towers.

Plans for a 1,776-foot-tall "Freedom Tower" have been drawn up and redrawn many times. The reasons for the redesigns first centered on architectural and political rivalries.

When a butt ugly compromise of a tower was finally unveiled, the NYPD took one look at the plans, which involved situating the tower mere yards from the heavily trafficked West St., and declared the tower would be a perilous security risk.

That's right, the Republican powers that be in New York (Pataki/Bloomberg) came up with a dainty, unprotected building with glass facades and hoped to build it within 10 feet of a busy road - a truck bomber's dream. This, for a structure that will surely top the al Qaeda's target list if it is ever built.

A tougher tower was designed. It was even slightly less heinous looking. On Monday, at last blasting began at Ground Zero as workers prepared the foundation of that tower.

But on Tuesday came word from Coscia that nobody, not even the United States government, wanted to lease space there. Therefore, the project could be scaled back into something smaller, something less symbolic, something less than was promised ....

It seems almost as if the Freedom Tower is shrinking at the same rate as our Freedom as Americans.

I really hope Democrats can summon the gumption to hold press conferences in front of the hole in the ground that Ground Zero will of course still be later this year and in 2008. What a symbol of the GOP's failure!

Same goes for unprotected chemical plants, unsafe ports and nuclear facilities and wide open borders to the north and south.  Let's have photo-ops at those places. The GOP is weak on security and strong on starting needless wars waged on falsehood. Let's make it clear.

As a resident of New York, where the GOP/Feds refuse to spend the equivalent of one day's cost of the Iraq War for our annual security budget, I think it's time for real security. In the subway, you cannot understand the PA announcements. On the streets, you cannot find a cop.

And at Ground Zero, you cannot find a Freedom Tower.