I remember: Jospeh Angelini, Jr.

(Note: This post will remain at the top of the page until 9/12.)

Joseph Angelini Jr., age 38 of Lindenhurst, NY, died heroically on September 11, 2001 in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. He was a New York firefighter with Ladder Co. 4



Joseph Angelini Jr.
A Firefighter Passionate About Family, Gardening

October 22, 2001

Joseph Angelini Jr. may have lived for the New York City Fire Department, but he didn't hang around when his tour ended.

"Gotta get home to the kids," he'd tell the guys in Manhattan's Ladder Co. 4 before heading to the 6:33 p.m. train to Lindenhurst.

Angelini's wife, Donna, has scheduled a memorial service for today to help 7-year-old Jennifer, 5-year-old Jacqueline and 3-year-old Joseph Angelini III to finally understand that he won't be coming home anymore.

"My son asks everyone he sees in uniform, 'Did you find my daddy, did you find my daddy?'" Donna Angelini said Friday.

The seven-year department veteran followed in the footsteps of his father, Joseph Angelini Sr., 63, who was the senior member of Brooklyn's Rescue Co. 1 and also perished in the World Trade Center attacks.

The younger Angelini, 38, was assigned to a house that protects New York's theater district. Its motto: "Never miss a performance."

But at home, he was a cook, craftsman and avid gardener who grew pumpkins, zucchini, eggplants and hot peppers and filled the house with the smells of pizza and focaccia.

"He was the air in my lungs, and now that air is taken away from me," Donna Angelini said. "I keep waiting for him to come off a 24 [hour shift] and come through the door and say, 'You wouldn't believe what happened to me today.'"

Angelini also is survived by his mother, Anne, a grandmother, Mary, sister Annmarie Bianco and brother, Michael, all of Lindenhurst; sister Mary Angelini of Washington D.C.; and by seven nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in Lindenhurst.
-- Elizabeth Moore (Newsday)

CNN.com profile of Joe Jr.

Living Tribute to Joseph Angelini, Jr.

Joe's father, Joe Sr. also died that day:
The Veteran and His Son

Joseph J. Angelini Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., were firefighters, and neither survived the twin towers' collapse. "If he had lived and his son had died, I don't think he would have survived," said Alfred Benjamin, a firefighter at Rescue Company 1 in Manhattan who was partnered with Mr. Angelini for the last six months.

The elder Mr. Angelini, 63, was the most veteran firefighter in the city, with 40 years on the job. He was tough and "rode the back step" like everyone else. His 38-year-old son, who worked on Ladder Company 4 on 48th Street, was on the job for seven years.

"If you mentioned retirement to Joey, it was like punching him," Mr. Benjamin said. Joseph Jr. was proud of his father's reputation and tried to copy him any way he could, said Joseph Jr.'s wife, Donna.

And they never gave up their tools. "Think about climbing 20 stories with bunker gear, ropes, hooks, halogens and other different types of tools and somebody wants to borrow a tool -- no way," Mr. Benjamin said. "You ask them what they need done and you do it for them. You carried that tool all the way up there, so you're going to use it. If they thought they were going to need a tool, they should have carried it up. Joey Sr. always said carry your own weight. He always carried his."

Joseph Jr. applied to the department 11 years ago. He got called seven years ago. "It was the proudest day for my father-in-law. It was a great opportunity," said Donna Angelini. "His father was a firefighter and he wanted to be one, too."

Mr. Angelini, who had four children, taught Joseph Jr. carpentry. Often they worked on projects together, including a rocking horse. Joseph Jr., who had three children, had started building a dollhouse for one of his daughters. Unfinished, it is sitting on his workbench.

Joseph Angelini, Sr.
The quilt

A brother, Firefighter Michael Angelini, was there as well, but, in a move that probably saved his life, left when asked to help carry out the body of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the fire department's chaplain.

From Newsday:

Between Funeral and 'Pile'

September 21, 2001

Michael's choice: remain with his mother, Anne, in Lindenhurst and support his family during the wake, today, and the funeral, tomorrow, for his father, New York firefighter Joey Angelini, 63; or, return to The Pile to continue searching for his missing brother, New York firefighter Joey Angelini Jr., 38.

Michael, 33, knew yesterday that his mother and Joey Jr.'s wife, Donna, his two sisters and his nieces and nephews needed him, needed a strong, grown, male Angelini nearby, perhaps as much or more than he needed to be nearer his brother. "It's hard to figure out what's the right place to be in," he said, already having decided to stay with the family. "I want so much to go back there."

Michael works for the Fire Patrol of New York, which operates under the New York Board of Underwriters, protecting the interests of insurers during and in the aftermath of commercial property fires. Wearing the same firefighting gear, except for the distinctive red helmet that denotes Fire Patrol, he responded to the World Trade Center disaster last Tuesday morning, as did his father, a 40-year FDNY veteran assigned to Rescue 1, and his brother, of Ladder Co. 4 in the Theater District. "We were all in the same area, and none of us knew it," he said.

In the lobby of one of the stricken towers, a fire supervisor suddenly ordered him out of the building. They passed firefighters who had just encountered the body of department chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Michael helped carry Judge away. "... but then my officer grabbed me and said, 'Let's go!'" he said. "We ended up a block or two north on West Murray Street."

Michael entertained a slender hope that his brother might have finished his tour early and gone home. He suspected otherwise, and he learned later that afternoon that Joey had done what his father would have done and what so many other firefighters did who were supposed to be ending their tours at 9 a.m. They went to work.

Once a jokester and a partygoer, Joey Jr. had undergone personality changes increasingly noticeable to Michael during the past seven years, since he had joined the department and Donna gave birth to the first of their three children, Jennifer. He had worked previously as an electrician with the Transit Authority. "I didn't want him to leave Transit," said his mother, "because they were about to make him a foreman. But, for some reason, he switched over to the fire department."

"Since then," Michael said, "I saw him taking on more and more of my father's traits. Before, we used to go out a lot, he and I. He was silly, funny. Now, getting him to go out was like pulling teeth. I tell old stories to guys he worked with, and they'll look at me like I'm talking about somebody they don't know. He had become so, like, straight. He just wanted to be with his family. He was showing more and more of that integrity, that seriousness, like my father.

"Three things were important to my father: his family, the church and the department, and I'm not sure in what order. My father was honest to a fault, religious. I remember walking back from the store with him. I was only little. He realized that the counter girl had given him 30 cents too much in change, and we had to walk all the way back. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. Joey was becoming more like that. It was good to watch, but it's hard to live up to."

The elder Angelini was in special operations that morning, and Michael hoped he too might have been sent elsewhere, but he really knew better. His father was legendary in the department for loving the work, for loving "to get dirty," for loving "making a grab [rescuing somebody]," for routinely walking out of a mostly extinguished inferno and lighting a cigarette while younger firefighters lay sprawled around him, exhausted.

Earlier this year, at a Holy Name Society communion breakfast tribute for his 40th anniversary as a firefighter, the short, wiry, gray-haired Angelini resisted efforts by his fellow firefighters to get him to wear more of his medals. "They convinced him to put on maybe a third of them," Michael said. "Then he said, 'Stop. I'm tired of pinning these on.'

"He kept them in the back of a drawer, in a box," Michael said. "He didn't tell us about half of them. He didn't talk about what he did. You would be eating dinner across from him and notice that he looked dif- ferent, like, strange, and then you would realize that his face was all red, and his eyebrows were completely gone, and his hairline had receded. He was burned. You would say, 'What happened to you?' And he would say, 'Aw, something flashed over me.'

"At the site, all week, guys were joking about him finding a pocket and eventually walking out. They said to me, 'He was probably buried in a void, and as soon as he runs out of cigarettes he's gonna come walking out.'"

Rescue workers found the body of Joey Angelini on Monday. He had been listed as missing since the day after the attack. Joey Jr. still is missing. After tomorrow's funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Lindenhurst, Michael probably will return to the site.
--Ed Lowe (Newsday Columnist)

Attacked.

Spitzer resigns

Here's the full text of the speech:

In the past few days I have begun to atone for my private failings

Only because you got caught, Eliot.

with my wife, Silda, my children, and my entire family.

If he had any honor at all he would NEVER mention them at all. If he was a man, he would have actually sent them out of the country to spare them all this humiliation.

The remorse I feel will always be with me. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for the love and compassion they have shown me. From those to whom much is given, much is expected. I have been given much: the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York, and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me. To every New Yorker, and to all those who believed in what I tried to stand for, I sincerely apologize.

It's all about Eliot, Eliot and more Eliot: eleven "my", "me" and "I".

I look at my time as governor with a sense of what might have been, but I also know that as a public servant I, and the remarkable people with whom I worked, have accomplished a great deal. There is much more to be done, and I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work.

Translation: I'm setting up my comeback as we speak".

Over the course of my public life, I have insisted, I believe correctly, that people, regardless of their position or power, take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor. At Lt. Gov. Paterson's request, the resignation will be effective Monday, March 17, a date that he believes will permit an orderly transition.

Here you go: the start of the comeback tour is now official.

Then he did a little motivational speak to warm them up to the idea:

I go forward with the belief, as others have said, that as human beings, our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. As I leave public life, I will first do what I need to do to help and heal myself and my family. Then I will try once again, outside of politics, to serve the common good and to move toward the ideals and solutions which I believe can build a future of hope and opportunity for us and for our children.

Translation: Give it a couple of months, a carefully coreographed appearance with the Mrs on Oprah, a profitable book deal, and I'll be back "for the children" and "the common good".

And good luck to the guy who's left holding the bag,

I hope all of New York will join my prayers for my friend, David Paterson, as he embarks on his new mission, and I thank the public once again for the privilege of service.

As Siggy would say, "what a sanctimonious ass".



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What Mrs Spitzer should do

Deadline to quit for NY's Spitzer

New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer has been given a deadline to step down or face impeachment proceedings over allegations that he hired a prostitute.

I was looking at the headlines, which are sordid and will continue to get worse, particularly since in addition to the sex scandal,

Federal investigators say there is no evidence Spitzer used state money or campaign funds to pay the prostitutes, but that the way he moved an estimated $40,000 through various accounts violated federal money laundering laws.

And here is what Mrs. Spitzer should do: She needs to get her daughters out of the public eye, right now, right away.

How to do that?

She needs to leave the country with them (and hopefully another close relative), and go on an extended trip - possibly until after the November elections - to a place where they can live away from the American media. Possibly Switzerland, which is not papparrazzi-obsessed the way other countries in the EU are, and where her daughters could enroll in schools that have very high security.

I'm sure she has enough relations and contacts that would support her decision and help her settle (at least temporarily) in the new place. She has the money, she has the contacts; it needs to be done, right now.

From the looks of it, however, that's exactly what she's not going to do.



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The Spitzer investigation

While I certainly got a good chuckle out of the Spitzer news, I am rather intrigued by the question of why would a judge put his job on the line to approve the wiretap on the governor.

Surely, saying "we want to wiretap Spitzer because he's seeing call girls" wouldn't have been enough for a judge to go along.

It Wasn't the Sex; Suspicious $$ Transfers Led to Spitzer

The federal investigation of a New York prostitution ring was triggered by Gov. Eliot Spitzer's suspicious money transfers, initially leading agents to believe Spitzer was hiding bribes, according to federal officials.

Mind you, Spitzer prosecuted enough prostitution rings to KNOW that would be the sure way to get found out:

Spitzer, who made his name by bringing high-profile cases against many of New York's financial giants, is likely to be prosecuted under a relatively obscure statute called "structuring," according to a Justice Department official.

Structuring involves creating a series of financial movements designed to obscure the true purpose of the payments.

Prosecutors reportedly have a series of e-mails and wiretapped phone conversations of Spitzer.

In a interview two years ago, Spitzer, then-attorney general, told ABC News he had some advice for people who break the law. "Never talk when you can nod, and never nod when you can wink, and never write an e-mail because it's death. You're giving prosecutors all the evidence we need," he said.

He winked, he nodded, he email.

And he's not going to resign, even when he's exhausted all political goodwill. Whether the pressure from being investigated under the Mann act (for transporting prostitutes across state lines or persuading prostitutes to cross state lines for sexual purposes) by the Feds or by the state will force him to resign, remains to be seen.

For now he's staying put.

UPDATE
Today's WSJ editorial:

The stupendously deluded belief that the sitting Governor of New York could purchase the services of prostitutes was merely the last act of a man unable to admit either the existence of, or need for, limits.

In today's podcast at 11AM Eastern Rick Moran joins us to talk about Spitzer, and also about Barak Obama and Tony Rezko. I'll also rant about all these political "wee wifeys" standing by their men, too.

Chat will be open by 10:45 and the call in number is 646 652-2639. Join us!


UPDATE 2
The Governor, by the Competitive Enterprise Institute:




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Threats?

Mariane Pearl drops lawsuit against al Qaeda in NY

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has dropped a lawsuit against al Qaeda, other radical groups and Pakistan-based Habib Bank Ltd over the abduction, torture and murder of her husband, court records show.

Lawyers on behalf of Mariane Pearl filed the lawsuit in July which sought unspecified damages against "those terrorists, terrorist organizations and the supporting charitable and banking organizations for the senseless kidnapping, torture and murder of Daniel Pearl."

A notice of voluntary dismissal was filed late on Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan that stated Pearl had decided to dismiss the case.

"The withdrawal was done for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit," a spokesperson for Pearl's lawyers Motley Rice told Reuters.

Hat tip Siggy.

Gone are the days when you actually had to work for a Nobel Peace Prize

Linus Pauling, who is the only person to win two undivided Nobel Prizes, won one in Chemistry in 1954 for his work applying quantum mechanics to chemistry, and eight years later one in Peace for his work against above-ground nuclear testing. In his spare time Pauling also worked towards developing the electrical car. While most people of our parents' generation remember Pauling as the guy who wanted you to take vitamin C, Pauling is regarded as one of the outstanding scientists of all time.

Back in the olden days people like Albert Schweitzer, who was a medical doctor, a concert organist and a great humanitarian, won Nobel Peace Prizes. Schweitzer was also a theologian and a philosopher who believed that Western civilization was in decline for having abandoned the affirmation of life as its ethical foundation. He lived by his beliefs and spent most of his life working as a doctor in what is now Gabon, Africa.

Now you get a Nobel Prize for making a movie about yourself.

Al Gore, who the Nobel Prize announcer called Albert Arnold Algore Jr., made a movie that British courts found partisan, ruling last week that it contains no fewer than eleven material inaccuracies that need to be drawn to students’ attention if it is going to be shown in schools. That's the movie the Nobel Prize Committee praises as an effort "to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change".

Gore, unlike Schweitzer, is not depriving himself of the pleasures of a home that consumes electricity at a rate of about 12 times that of a typical house in Nashville. Gore also favors private jets instead of public airlines when he travels.

The Committee says that climate change (what ever happened to global warming?) might lead to wars and violent conflicts, hence the Prize. Those involved in the fight of their lives, the fight for liberty and democracy while oppressed by dictatorships, like the Buddhist monks in Burma, or the Ladies in White in Cuba, better come up with their own movies or they'll get no prize at all.

I have referred to the Peace Prize as the Norwegian Badge of Uselessness, as we look at the awardees:

1988: The UN Peacekeeping forces, who have distinguished themselves after receiving their prize by their rapes and sex abuse, along with bribery and corruption, in places like Kosovo, Angola, Guinea and Congo.

1992: Rigoberta Menchu Tum, who lied about her life in Guatemala.

1994: Yasser Arafat, the inventor of skyjackings and father of modern terrorism.

2001: The UN and Kofi Annan, perpetrators of the largest scam in the history of mankind, the $30 billion dollar Oil-For-Food scandal.

2002: Jimmy Carter, who goes around the world certifying the elections as "open and democratic", after spending less than twenty-four hours in country.

2004: Wangari Maatai, who preaches that AIDS is a virus created by Da Man.

2005: The International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed el-Baradei, who have yet to stop North Korea or anyone else from developing nuclear weapons.

I'm not even counting Betty Williams (1976) who earlier this year said she could kill George Bush, or Mikhail Gorbachev (1990) who embraced peace after losing the Cold War, and let's not forget Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho (1973) for that "peace with honor" bit.

Small wonder that the Venezuelan government news agency wants us to believe that Hugo Chavez was a finalist for the prize in 2005. Hugo's certainly buying enough weapons and making deals with Russia and Iran to earn himself a Prize down the line.

This year Al Gore won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Nobel Peace Prize. At this rate he may run for president again, or instead he may star on a one-man show on Broadway featuring the world’s most famous Powerpoint presentation. If he wins a Tony award for that, he'll then outdo Rita Moreno, who hasn’t won a Nobel Peace Prize yet.

And here are the ones who didn't win:

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

Or to Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.

Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.

Or to the people of Iraq, who bravely work to rebuild and reunite their country amid constant threats to themselves and their families from terrorists who deliberately target civilians.

Or to Presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili who, despite the efforts of the Kremlin to undermine their young states, stayed true to the spirit of the peaceful "color" revolutions they led in Ukraine and Georgia and showed that democracy can put down deep roots in Russia's backyard.

Or to Britain's Tony Blair, Ireland's Bertie Ahern and the voters of Northern Ireland, who in March were able to set aside decades of hatred to establish joint Catholic-Protestant rule in Northern Ireland.

Or to thousands of Chinese bloggers who run the risk of arrest by trying to bring uncensored information to their countrymen.

Or to scholar and activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and other democracy campaigners in Egypt.

Or, posthumously, to lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni; journalist Samir Kassir; and other Lebanese citizens who've been assassinated since 2005 for their efforts to free their country from Syrian control.

Or to the Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

But leave it to Paul Krugman who is (finally!, after being freed from the Times Select premium) getting some mileage out of being ridiculous,

What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?

What, indeed, Paul, why don't you tell us?

Which brings us to the biggest reason the right hates Mr. Gore: in his case the smear campaign has failed. He's taken everything they could throw at him, and emerged more respected, and more credible, than ever. And it drives them crazy.

That must be it! Of course!

And how can Paul be wrong, when he knows that the French got it right when it comes to healthcare?

Erik at No Pasaran's been giving Al the respect he is due:


Maybe if Paul keeps it up, he'll get his own poster, too, green camo shirt and all.

For a Nobel Peace Prize, Paul's going to make himself a Powerpoint presentation and a movie.

Update
Jules Crittenden and Siggy take on the goracle. Tim Blair looks at the unclean Europe, but Mark Steyn remembers the cows.

(The first part of this post was cross-posted at Heading Right)

Technorati: Al Gore, Paul Krugman
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