POLITICIZING THE EVENT? WHO, US?

President Bush will address the nation Monday on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The White House requested network time for the speech from the Oval Office. The speech will begin at 9 p.m. EST and could last up to 18 minutes.

Bush is expected to reflect on the lessons learned from Sept. 11 and the future of War on Terror. It is not considered a political speech and will not be used to call on Congress to do anything specific.

"It will not be a political speech. It will not be calls to action by Congress, but instead reflect a date that's burned into all our experiences," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. He said the speech "will have a note of optimism and at the same time sobriety about what we've been through."

The president will travel Sunday to New York's Ground Zero. On Monday, he will visit the Pentagon and the rural Pennsylvania field where United Flight 93 passengers forced hijackers to crash to avoid further loss of life.

--Fox News

Watch a preview of the speech here.

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Nine o'clock Eastern? Hmm, that'll be just about midway through part 2 of The Path to 9/11. I guess ABC lied when it said the show wouldn't carry commercials.

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Don't forget what Atrios noted a couple of days ago:

According to Variety (sub. req.) ABC is now going to be broadcasting this pile of lies commercial-free, leaving extra time at the end for... oh, they're not sure yet. Dollars to donuts they're planning to finish their little miniseries of lies with 10 minutes from the Preznit Himself in prime time.

Change "at the end" to "near the end" and that's exactly what seems to be happening! What an astonishing coincidence!