National Geographic

UPDATE: The ceremony has concluded.

According to the New York Daily News, Dubya declined to join President Obama at Ground Zero today because he feels he didn't get enough credit for taking down Osama Bin Laden.

Bush's visit to the rubble after the 9/11 attacks was the emotional high point of his presidency, but associates say the invitation to return with his successor was a non-starter. "He doesn't feel personally snubbed and appreciates the invitation, but Obama's claiming all the credit and a lot of other people deserve some of it," the source added. "Obama gave no credit whatsoever to the intelligence infrastructure the Bush administration set up that is being hailed from the left and right as setting in motion the operation that got Bin Laden. It rubbed Bush the wrong way." Bush spokesman David Sherzer said Bush "appreciated the invite, but has chosen in his post-presidency to remain largely out of the spotlight." Associates familiar with his thinking say Bush does not believe Obama or his handlers wanted to exploit his presence. But the tag-team idea "was for the benefit of Obama, and Obama withheld credit from people Bush believes deserved it," a source said.

Since leaving office, Bush has maintained the presidential tradition of declining to criticize his successor.

Starts at 7:40.

(Tipped by JMG reader Sean Chapin)

The Southern Poverty Law Center has branded vile NYC-based Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller and her fellow anti-Islam protesters as a hate group. Geller came to national prominence last year when she led the attack against the so-called Ground Zero mosque.

Stop the Islamization of America was included in the civil rights organization's annual roundup of extremist groups - a rogue's gallery that includes everything from the Ku Klux Klan to white supremacists and Nazis. Geller's group was one of the most vocal opponents of the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero. The group was also behind ads that were placed on city buses urging Muslims to leave "the falsity of Islam." Geller, who runs a blog called Atlas Shrugs, dismissed the Law Center as an "uber left" group that has "failed to address the greatest threat to our national security." "My group is a human rights group," she said. "And these people are taken seriously? This is the morally inverted state of the world."

Also making the new list is the Dove World Outreach Church, whose Pastor Terry Jones threatened to burn a stack of Korans if the mosque wasn't stopped.

In case you haven't been following along, nutjob Pam Geller is the Atlas Shrugs blogger largely behind the battle to block NYC's now infamous "Ground Zero mosque."

"An enormously, overwhelming percentage of people struggle with homosexual feeling because of some form of violent emotional or sexual abuse at some point in their life. Again, not necessarily in their childhood. A small, tiny percentage of people are born with a natural inclination they cannot explain. You find this in the animal kingdom on some level as well." - Imam Abdallah Adhami, the newly-hired senior adviser for the mosque proposed to be built near Ground Zero. Hit the link for video and reactions from David Mixner and Gay City News editor Paul Schindler.