While NJ struggles with flood waters the White House tells us how to observe Sept 11

We’re still drying out here in central NJ. Route 206 now appears passable but Bound Brook, Manville, parts of Somerville and Neshanic Station are still flooded. I took a ride around town yesterday to see the extent of the damage. Despite the water in my basement (which didn’t even happen during Floyd in 1999), my area of town doesn’t flood. I have a big retention basin next to my house. I’ve seen that sucker fill to nearly overflowing but my basement is still dry. I think the power failure contributed to the watery basements because no one’s sump pumps were working.

But there are still parts of the area that are inaccessible. I couldn’t get into Neshanic Station. There’s a bridge over the South Branch where the water overflowed the top of the road bed in Floyd. That was pretty impressive. I’ll try to get some pics when the road opens to give you an idea of how high the water was. Parts of Manville and Bound Brook are under water, again. After Floyd, there was a $130 million flood control project built to prevent it from happening again. The water level this time was the same as with Floyd, which makes me wonder how much worse it could have been. News choppers have been whump-whump-whumping overhead for the past couple of days but roads to that area are blocked so no pics. I still have no Internet connection.

Meanwhile, back at the NYTimes, it looks like the editorial board has finally turned on the Obama administration. Maybe that was scheduled to happen anyway but they’re getting an early start. I can just picture some editor dude in a pinstripe Oxford, sleeves rolled up, tie loosened, peering over his glasses at his calendar watch, “Well, it’s a week before Labor Day. It’s a little early to be pulling the trigger but what the hell. The honeymoon is over and it’s good copy when he loses his cool.”

So, this twist of the knife has to do with the White House instructions to all of us on how we should commemorate 9/11 , because just like Michelle assumes we don’t know that fresh vegetables are good for our children, and the Obama operatives assume we haven’t figured out that the Lily Ledbetter Law hasn’t significantly improved our working lives, it also assume that we have NO Idea who caused the terrorist attacks on 9/11 or what the country’s response to it was. For those of you who have been asleep for the past 10 years, it was Al Qaeda and the country reacted with the equivalent of anaphylactic shock.

But take a look at how the piece is written. I find it very telling:

” The White House in recent days has quietly disseminated two sets of documents. One is framed for overseas allies and their citizens and was sent to American embassies and consulates around the globe. The other includes themes for Americans here and underscores the importance of national service and what the government has done to prevent another major attack in the United States. That single-page document was issued to all federal agencies, officials said.

After weeks of internal debate, White House officials adopted the communications documents to shape public events and official statements, and they sought to strike a delicate balance between messages designed for these two very important but very different audiences on a day when the world’s attention will be focused on President Obama, his leadership team and his nation.

The guidelines list what themes to underscore — and, just as important, what tone to set. Officials are instructed to memorialize those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and thank those in the military, law enforcement, intelligence or homeland security for their contributions since.

“A chief goal of our communications is to present a positive, forward-looking narrative,” the foreign guidelines state.

Copies of the internal documents were provided to The New York Times by officials in several agencies involved in planning the anniversary commemorations. “The important theme is to show the world how much we realize that 9/11 — the attacks themselves and violent extremism writ large — is not ‘just about us,’ ” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal White House planning.

Some senior Obama administration leaders had advocated a lengthy program of speeches and events to mark the anniversary, but the final decision was for lower-key appearances by Mr. Obama and other senior leaders only on the days leading up to the anniversary and on Sept. 11 itself.

Mr. Obama in his weekly address on Saturday said that this year’s anniversary will be one of “service and remembrance.” ”

Oh, gawd, spare us the lengthy Obama teachable moment speeches. The less he says about 9/11, the better. I don’t want him trying to emote over a script constructed by Jon Favreau. Can we get Carolyn Maloney or Kirsten Gillibrand to do this? Here’s the speech I want him to give: “I can’t possibly do justice to the memory of those who lost their lives during 9/11. Seriously. I don’t [insert air quotes] “feel your pain”. So, I’ve been told by my political staff to let the victims’ families speak for them. I will be in the Oval Office that day, working diligently [by my standards] and with [what we hope to be perceived as] reverential silence, on a plan to put Americans back to work. Kirsten can take it from here.”

I don’t know if this piece was written with the intent to throw us off our Obama kibble (when we’re already anorexic) or whether the journalists and editors responsible are simply getting into fine horse race coverage condition and they aren’t giving it a second thought. They’re probably dog whistling to Andrea Mitchell. Jay Rosen has had quite a bit to say recently about the failings of journalists during campaign seasons But if this is what we have to look forward to for the next 15 months, it’s going to be ugly and brutal. It looks like Obama will be getting the full Hillary treatment minus the misogyny. While I can’t say he doesn’t deserve it, do we?

A little more news, people. A little less poli-operative tea leaf readings. We’ve still got high unemployment of overeducated geeks, and floods, and no sentient being needs another lesson on September 11 or how condescendingly cynical the Obama administration is.

Now, back to the basement…