It's Mourning in America

Believe it or not, the Bush campaign's TV ads list "an economy in recession, a stock market in decline" among the reasons to vote for their candidate. They also feature footage from the September 11 terrorist attacks, which has drawn an angry response from firefighters and family members of people who died on 9/11. The International Association of Fire Fighters, which has endorsed Kerry, blasted the ads as "hypocrisy at its worst. ... Here is a President that proposed two budgets with no funding for FIRE Act grants and still plays on the image of America's bravest. His advertisements are disgraceful." Carol Ashley, whose daughter died in the attacks, comments: "For somebody to use the death of my daughter and the other nearly 3,000 people - it's just appalling to me that they would use it for political reasons." Other 9/11 family members say they find it "an insult," "totally disgusting," "makes me sick" and is "mind-boggling ... that he can see this event as a positive reflection on his administration."