In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Now its getting good
Helen's Back
Helen's asking about Bush's weird little 1972 jump into "community service." i.e. why did he do it.
Q: Did the President ever have to take time off from Guard duty to do community service?
Scott McClellan: To do community service? I haven't looked into everything he did 30 years ago, Helen. Obviously, there is different community service he has performed in the past, including going back to that time period --
Q: Can you find out if he actually had --
Scott McClellan: Helen, I don't think we remember every single activity he was involved in 30 years ago.
Q: No, this isn't an activity. Was he forced to do community service at any time while he was on --
Scott McClellan: What's your interest in that question? I'm sorry, I just --
Q: Lots of rumors. I'm just trying to clear up something.
Scott McClellan: Rumors about what?
Q: Pardon?
Scott McClellan: Rumors about what?
Q: About the President having to do community service while he was in the National Guard, take time out for that.
Scott McClellan: I'm not aware of those rumors. But if you want to --
Q: Could you look it up? Would you mind asking him?
Scott McClellan: That's why I'm asking what's your interest in that? I just don't understand your interest in that.
Q: It's what everybody is interested in, whether we're getting the true story on his Guard duty.
Scott McClellan: Well, you have the documents that show the facts.
Q: I'm asking you to try to find out from the President of the United States.
Scott McClellan: Like I said, it's well known the different jobs he had and what he was doing previously, that we know. That goes back to --
Q: I didn't say "previously." I said, while he was on Guard duty.
Scott gets more and more confused... other reporters have to join in:
Q: But you still haven't answered Helen's question. She asked you a simple question.
Scott McClellan: There are people that want to replay the 2000 campaign all over again, Bill, and --
Q: You still haven't answered her question about community service.
Scott McClellan: -- there are too many important -- there are too many important policies and decisions that are being made that we need to discuss.
Q: Why does a "yes" or "no" elude you on this?
Scott McClellan: I didn't say that. I said that these were all issues addressed four years ago. If there's additional information --
Q: This issue quite obviously wasn't addressed four years ago.
Scott McClellan: Oh, issues -- these issues were addressed four years ago.
Q: This issue was? The community service issue was addressed four years ago?
Scott McClellan: The issues -- the issues that we're going to here --
Q: I don't recall --
Scott McClellan: This is called chasing a rumor. And I'm not going to engage in this kind of politics, Bill.
Q: -- finding out whether a rumor is true or false.
Scott McClellan: No, this issue, absolutely --
Q: Why can't you say whether or not he performed community service?
Scott McClellan: Absolutely, this issue came up four years ago. And if you all want to play politics, then go call the RNC, call the campaign.
Q: The best defense is offense. We know that. Just, all you've got to say is you don't know.
Scott McClellan: Helen, it was -- this issue was addressed four years ago. I think people that were involved in the campaign will know --
Q: -- if they know --
Scott McClellan: -- that the issue that you're trying to bring up was addressed four years ago. It's about chasing rumors.
Q: It isn't a question of four years ago. The issue has come up now, very large.
Scott McClellan: I'm not going to get into chasing rumors.
Q: Headlines.
Scott McClellan: I'm not going to get into chasing rumors.
Q: So you refuse to answer the question?
Scott McClellan: You're saying that people said he was forced to do something, and you're asking me to chase a rumor.
Q: Everything is politics today, of course.
Q: She asked you a "yes" or "no" question.
And now, since for some reason I've decided this is song snippet Friday, our little piece of an appropriate song:
If you got bad news, you wanna kick them blues; cocaine.
When your day is done and you wanna run; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine.
If your thing is gone and you wanna ride on; cocaine.
Don't forget this fact, you can't get it back; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine.
-Cocaine (made famous by Eric Clapton)
- rob 6:01 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Krugman Doesn't Hold Back
Op-Ed Columnist: The Real Man
To understand why questions about George Bush's time in the National Guard are legitimate, all you have to do is look at the federal budget published last week. No, not the lies, damned lies and statistics — the pictures.
By my count, this year's budget contains 27 glossy photos of Mr. Bush. We see the president in front of a giant American flag, in front of the Washington Monument, comforting an elderly woman in a wheelchair, helping a small child with his reading assignment, building a trail through the wilderness and, of course, eating turkey with the troops in Iraq. Somehow the art director neglected to include a photo of the president swimming across the Yangtze River.
It was not ever thus. Bill Clinton's budgets were illustrated with tables and charts, not with worshipful photos of the president being presidential.
The issue here goes beyond using the Government Printing Office to publish campaign brochures. In this budget, as in almost everything it does, the Bush administration tries to blur the line between reverence for the office of president and reverence for the person who currently holds that office.
Operation Flight Suit was only slightly more over the top than other Bush photo-ops, like the carefully staged picture that placed Mr. Bush's head in line with the stone faces on Mount Rushmore. The goal is to suggest that it's unpatriotic to criticize the president, and to use his heroic image to block any substantive discussion of his policies.
In fact, those 27 photos grace one of the four most dishonest budgets in the nation's history — the other three are the budgets released in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Just to give you a taste: remember how last year's budget contained no money for postwar Iraq — and how administration officials waited until after the tax cut had been passed to mention the small matter of $87 billion in extra costs? Well, they've done it again: earlier this week the Army's chief of staff testified that the Iraq funds in the budget would cover expenses only through September.
Why so many photos of Bush?
Because:
You can tell a macho, he has a funky walk
his western shirts and leather, always look so boss
Funky with his body, he's a king
call him Mister Eagle, dig his chains
You can best believe that, he's a macho man
likes to be the leader, he never dresses grand
Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!
Macho, macho man
- Village People
- rob 12:47 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Facts will not stop Bush from making this the new Jerusalem
Bush Advocates Abstinence-Only Education
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is proposing to double spending on sexual abstinence programs that bar any discussion of birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy or AIDS despite a lack of evidence that such programs work.
...
In Minnesota, a study found that sexual activity doubled among junior high school students taking part in an abstinence-only program. The independent study, commissioned by the state's health department, recommended broadening the program to include more information about contraception. Emphasis Mine.
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon America's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On America's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the countenance divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among those dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spear! Oh, clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Til we have built Jerusalem
In America's green and pleasant land!
- Jerusalem (sorta)
- rob 12:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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BUSH A NO-SHOW AT ALABAMA BASE, SAYS MEMPHIAN
MEMPHIS ? Two members of the Air National Guard unit that President George W. Bush allegedly served with as a young Guard flyer in 1972 had been told to expect him and were on the lookout for him. He never showed, however; of that both Bob Mintz and Paul Bishop are certain.
The question of Bush?s presence in 1972 at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Alabama ? or the lack of it ? has become an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign.
Recalls Memphian Mintz, now 63: ?I remember that I heard someone was coming to drill with us from Texas. And it was implied that it was somebody with political influence. I was a young bachelor then. I was looking for somebody to prowl around with.? But, says Mintz, that ?somebody? -- better known to the world now as the president of the United States -- never showed up at Dannelly in 1972. Nor in 1973, nor at any time that Mintz, a FedEx pilot now and an Eastern Airlines pilot then, when he was a reserve first lieutenant at Dannelly, can remember.
No Bush was a party boy with a big name daddy, surely someone would remember him???
Of course, maybe he was with Elvis?!?:
I'm going to Graceland
Graceland
In Memphis Tennessee
I'm going to Graceland
Poorboys and Pilgrims with families
And we are going to Graceland
My traveling companion is nine years old
He is the child of my first marriage
But I've reason to believe
We both will be received
In Graceland
-Paul Simon
- rob 12:37 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Most Think Truth Was Stretched to Justify Iraq War
And the most are right.
A majority of Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
The survey results, which also show declining support for the war in Iraq and for Bush's leadership in general, indicate the public is increasingly questioning the president's truthfulness -- a concern for Bush's political advisers as his reelection bid gets underway.
Barely half -- 52 percent -- now believe Bush is "honest and trustworthy," down 7 percentage points since late October and his worst showing since the question was first asked, in March 1999. At his best, in the summer of 2002, Bush was viewed as honest by 71 percent. The survey found that nearly seven in 10 think Bush "honestly believed" Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Even so, 54 percent thought Bush exaggerated or lied about prewar intelligence.
Americans have a good grasp on Bush and that's why the stats above seem to be a bit confusing. While 70% believe Bush "honestly believed" Iraq had WMDs, 54 precent believe Bush lied or exaggerated about WMDs. How is that possible? Simple, no one things Bush is in charge or even intelligent enough to know what is going on. I personally believe he did know about the lies, but when you seem him stare blankly, stumble, try to remember what he was told to say, it is perfectly reasonable to believe that he is an (almost) innocent puppet. That way people who like Bush might be able to forgive him, but they won't re-elect him.
Tell me lies
Tell me sweet little lies
(Tell me lies, tell me, tell me lies)
Oh, no, no you can't disguise
(You can't disguise, no you can't disguise)
Tell me lies
Tell me sweet little lies
-Fleetwood Mac
- rob 12:04 PM - [PermaLink] -
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White House Rocks!
Excellent (flash required)!
- rob 11:54 AM - [PermaLink] -
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State panel backs disputed lesson, infuriates supporters of evolution
Columbus - The State Board of Education gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a 10th-grade biology lesson that scientists say could put "intelligent design" in Ohio classrooms.
Intelligent Design is Creationism packaged with a new consumer friendly brand name. It isn't science. You can say, "we don't know" in science. That's fine. But saying "God did it," just doesn't seem right for a school. Way to go Ohio.
Thus the Pretenders sing:
I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga falls
Said, A, O, oh way to go Ohio
- rob 11:53 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Cheney Calls for Patriot Act Renewal (free registration required)- Thursday, February 12, 2004 -
ROSEMONT, Ill. -- The United States was justified in going to war in Iraq because Saddam Hussein was capable of producing weapons of mass destruction, Vice President Dick Cheney told backers of GOP candidates.
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Speaking to nearly 200 people at a $1,500-a-plate luncheon benefiting Republican U.S. House candidates, Cheney said that while inspectors have failed to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the regime did have the scientists and the technology needed to produce them.
"We know that Saddam Hussein had the intent to arm his regime with weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein had something else -- he had a record of using weapons of mass destruction against his enemies and against his own people," he said.
You know, I'm physically able to go to a store and buy a gun and then go out and kill someone, does that mean that mean I should be "pre-emptively" arrested? As to Cheney's second point. He's right, we should have never sold him the means to generate weapons of mass distruction in the eighties when he was our "friend." Nor should we (while Cheney was secretary of Defense) encouraged the south to rise up against Saddam (and with offers of help) and then sit back and did nothing when they were slaughtered. That's George the elder and Cheney's little personal pay of pigs there.
Cheney's theme song for the extend Patriot Act?
Who's watching me
I don't know anymore!
Are the neighbours watching me?
Who's watching
Well is the mailman watching me?
Tell me who's watching
And I don't feel safe anymore, oh what a mess
I wonder who's watching me now
Who?
The IRS?!
I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy, whoa-oa-oa
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Tell me is it just a dream
I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy, whoa-oa-oa
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me?
- Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell
- rob 11:46 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Ode to Responsibility
Shame me once, fool on me, shame me twice, fool on me, shame me every minute of every hour every day and I become a shameless fool. Yet why do those who continually make me feel enduring shame always feel themselves perfectly shameless?
The answer is that to be righteous one must always be right, and always being right means infallibility -- and being infallible means that one never, under any circumstances, conspicuous or otherwise, cedes the high moral ground on any subject for any reason, because infallibility is a divine appointment, and one divinely appointed is appointed by the Divine. Thus one is entitled to find faults in others but perfect faultlessness in oneself; and since such Divine entitlement is entitled only to the Divinely entitled, one is entitled to feel perfect shamelessness as well.
The God of Wisdom tells us that the one true God is Great and Good, and confers goodness upon his people because we are His children; and since goodness begets goodness, we His people therefore must needs be great and good. It therefore stands to reason that good people beget good people.
Yet where Evil dwells, the kinder, gentler Hand of the God of Mercy and Compassion, guided by the smiting Hand of War and uneven Hands of Justice, insists on an eye for an eye -- no, make that two eyes and a whole head for nothing -- for God is jealous and trucks no dissent, especially in God's country (the old one, not the new one), and if you don't like it, prepare to suffer the consequences of His wrath.
The Gods of Honor and Integrity (who were born identical twins) never could account for their service to the God of Accountability, who never held them accountable, which is a shame, since all the other gods also consistently failed to notice that they were missing -- a truly inconspicuous absence.
Yet the God of Evil is always missing and everpresent at the same time, even if he never turns up, and the God of Fear is having a field day. Truth is unconcerned though, because truth is double-edged, a sword that cuts both ways (the God of War made sure of this), and if truth is a paradox, then the reverse is also true. But be warned: while this may certainly be true today, it may not be true tomorrow, and vice-versa. Beauty concurs with this, and that's the beauty of it.
Guilt, cousin to Grief, went out for a little walk and never came back -- lost in a desert probably, with his head stuck in the sand; but sadly we'll never know, because the only eyewitness -- Grief -- is completely hidden from view and forbidden to show her face, ever. This too is a shame, a crying shame.
But if all this shames a fool like me, I expect no less from shameless fools.
- Michael 4:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The GOP begins to feed on their own
Mystery E-Mail Causes Uproar In GOP Primary
A Maryland state senator yesterday accused U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest's reelection campaign of appropriating his name to open a phony e-mail account and to spread allegations of sexual harassment against Gilchrest's opponent in the March 2 Republican primary.
Sen. Andrew P. Harris (R-Baltimore County) said he sent letters yesterday to the FBI and the U.S. House ethics committee calling for an investigation into an e-mail that bears Harris's name but contains information suggesting that it was composed on a computer in a congressional district office.
...
"I would not be surprised, when all is said and done, that someone connected with the congressman and his campaign is behind this," said Harris, one of three Republican lawmakers in Annapolis who have endorsed Colburn's long-shot bid to unseat Gilchrest, who is seeking his eighth term in Congress.
- rob 3:37 PM - [PermaLink] -
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More of the watergate lesson that wasn't learned.
The cover up is worse then the crime.
USATODAY.com - Ex-officer: Bush file's details caused concern
WASHINGTON ? As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush's military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.
A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said. .
Arrests? 1968 was before the 1976 DUI, but after the college arrests (stealing a christmas wreath and fighting at a school game), so why the concern? Surely they weren't worried about that, were they? Is that why the Bush team is handling this so poorly?
Or is it that the question of why he was grounded as a piolt come up? Too late:
Bush's loss of flying status should have spurred probe
President Bush's August 1972 suspension from flight status in the Texas Air National Guard -- triggered by his failure to take a required annual flight physical -- should have prompted an investigation by his commander, a written acknowledgement by Bush, and perhaps a written report to senior Air Force officials, according to Air Force regulations in effect at the time.
It's a big deal to be grounded, because Uncle Sam has spend a pretty penny training you. They don't like wasting money training soldiers. Wasting money on defense contractors is okay though.
Brigadier General David L. McGinnis, a former top aide to the assistant secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs, said in an interview that Bush's failure to remain on flying status amounts to a violation of the signed pledge by Bush that he would fly for at least five years after he completed flight school in November 1969.
"Failure to take your flight physical is like a failure to show up for duty. It is an obligation you can't blow off," McGinnis said.
...
A Sept. 29, 1972, order sent to Bush by the National Guard Bureau, the defense department agency which oversees the Guard, noted that Bush had been verbally suspended from flying on Aug. 1. The written order made it official: "Reason for suspension: Failure to accomplish annual medical examination."
The order required Bush to acknowledge the suspension in writing and also said: "The local commander who has authority to convene a Flying Evaluation Board will direct an investigation as to why the individual failed to accomplish the medical examination." After that, the commander had two options -- to convene the Evaluation Board to review Bush's suspension or forward a detailed report on his case up the chain of command.
Either way, officials said yesterday, there should have been a record of the investigation.
Or maybe the Bush team is frightened that this story might blow up into a wider story of George's wasted youth:
In an April 1998 interview with Houston Public News reporter Toby Rogers, former President George Bush's Chief of Staff Michael C. Dannenhauer admitted that Bush "was out of control since college. There was cocaine use, lots of women, but the drinking was the worst". According to Dannenhauer, Bush's use of cocaine started "sometime before 1977". He also claimed former President Bush had told him that his son had experienced a few "lost weekends in Mexico". Bush Junior, no stranger to the taste of his own feet, seems to have corroborated these claims, blurting out at a press conference that he hadn't taken drugs "since 1974".
- rob 3:35 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Hollywood President
Bush Web Site Pulls Clips After NBC Complains
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — Criticism from Republicans and Democrats that President Bush gave a shaky performance on Sunday on "Meet the Press" did not stop his re-election campaign from incorporating digitally enhanced excerpts from it into a promotional video that it posted on its Web site on Tuesday.
The campaign said it would remove the video from the site after NBC News complained that it was unfairly using the interview to support the re-election effort. The campaign said that it had violated no laws, but that it decided to take the video off after it realized how angry NBC News was over the use.
...
As strings play dramatically in the background, Mr. Bush says, "I've got a foreign policy that is one that believes America has a responsibility in this world to lead, a responsibility to lead in the war against terror."
The spot ends with the president saying: "To me that is history's call to America. I accept the call and will continue to lead in that direction."
Throughout the spot, the screen flashes gauzy images of the president as he addressed soldiers, the president as he saluted troops, the president as he shook hands with supporters and the famous view of the statue of Saddam Hussein being toppled in Baghdad.
NBC News executives said they were particularly alarmed that the excerpt ran with music and carefully chosen pictures of Mr. Bush.
The organization said in a statement, "This promotional video is set to music, edited for impact, and mixed with other images, graphics and footage unrelated to the interview."
The executives said the words seemed to have been digitally enhanced, to do away with some stammering.
Music, cutaway, audio post production. Yeah as fake as any hollywood production.
Thanks to Atrios.
- rob 2:56 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Move to Screen Bush File in 90’s Is Reported
HOUSTON, Feb. 11 — A retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard complained to a member of the Texas Senate in 1998 that aides to Gov. George W. Bush improperly screened Mr. Bush's National Guard files in a search for information that could embarrass the governor in future elections.
The retired officer, Bill Burkett, said in the letter to Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, a Democrat from Austin, that Dan Bartlett, then a senior aide to Governor Bush and now White House communications director, and Gen. Daniel James, then the head of the Texas National Guard, reviewed the file to "make sure nothing will embarrass the governor during his re-election campaign."
The Whitehouse is shocked, shocked, that anyone should dare look into the pResident's stirling Guard record now. They thought it would be looked into back in '98.
- rob 2:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Note to the gullible (its .org not .gov)
President Bush on Meet the Press: Complete Transcipt of Oval Office Campaign Kickoff With NBC's Tim Russert - WHITEHOUSE.ORG
MR RUSSERT: On Friday, you announced a committee, commission to look into intelligence failures regarding the Iraq war and our entire intelligence community. You have been reluctant to do that for some time. Indeed, you always seem to shy away from having anything to do with intelligence. Why?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first let me kind of step back, squint, stick out my little tongue a bit and ignore your question in favor of reciting the lines I've been practicing for the last few days. Here goes...
Intelligence is a vital part of smartness, and smartness is needed for serious thinking, but is sort of wasted on just everyday kind of thinking used in domestic policy. It takes thinking thoughts for fighting and winning our battle against the Muslamian evildoers. And remember that this war is a crusade that will never end so long as my handlers feel that its exploitation can help ensure that our iron grasp on the levers of self-enriching power is eternal.
What I'm saying is, we need a good intelligenciary system. We need really good intelligences. I mean, we really really really need the tops intelligencernarians.
- rob 2:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Reason Bush Has Live a Charmed Life- Wednesday, February 11, 2004 -
He's got the card:
Thanks to TCS reader Jordan! (who runs a fine site himself).
- rob 2:42 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Criminal Negligence! Bush doesn't want us to know what happened on 9/11. Why?
Stewardess ID'd Hijackers Early, Transcripts Show
The politically divided 9/11 commission was able to agree on a public airing of four and a half minutes from the Betty Ong tape, which the American public and most of the victims’ families heard for the first time on the evening news of Jan. 27. But commissioners were unaware of the crucial information given in an even more revealing phone call, made by another heroic flight attendant on the same plane, Madeline (Amy) Sweeney. They were unaware because their chief of staff, Philip Zelikow, chooses which evidence and witnesses to bring to their attention. Mr. Zelikow, as a former adviser to the pre-9/11 Bush administration, has a blatant conflict.
"My wife’s call was the first specific information the airline and the government got that day," said Mike Sweeney, the widowed husband of Amy Sweeney, who went face to face with the hijackers on Flight 11. She gave seat locations and physical descriptions of the hijackers, which allowed officials to identify them as Middle Eastern men—by name—even before the first crash. She gave officials key clues to the fact that this was not a traditional hijacking. And she gave the first and only eyewitness account of a bomb on board.
"How do you know it’s a bomb?" asked her phone contact.
"Because the hijackers showed me a bomb," Sweeney said, describing its yellow and red wires.
It wasn't boxcutters, it was bombs, knifes, mace (or pepper spray), they may have even had gas masks. Why don't we know this? Why the boxcutter story? Why such massive security faliures at Logan airport not being investigated?
The captain of American’s Flight 11 stayed at the controls much of the diverted way from Boston to New York, sending surreptitious radio transmissions to authorities on the ground. Captain John Ogonowski was a strong and burly man with the instincts of a fighter pilot who had survived Vietnam. He gave extraordinary access to the drama inside his cockpit by triggering a "push-to-talk button" on the aircraft’s yoke (or wheel). "The button was being pushed intermittently most of the way to New York," an F.A.A. air-traffic controller told The Christian Science Monitor the day after the catastrophe. "He wanted us to know something was wrong. When he pushed the button and the terrorist spoke, we knew there was this voice that was threatening the pilot, and it was clearly threatening."
According to a timeline later adjusted by the F.A.A., Flight 11’s transponder was turned off at 8:20 a.m., only 21 minutes after takeoff. (Even before that, by probably a minute or so, Amy Sweeney began her report to American’s operations center at Logan.) The plane turned south toward New York, and more than one F.A.A. controller heard a transmission with an ominous statement by a terrorist in the background, saying, "We have more planes. We have other planes." During these transmissions, the pilot’s voice and the heavily accented voice of a hijacker were clearly audible, according to two controllers. All of it was recorded by a F.A.A. traffic-control center in Nashua, N.H. According to the reporter, Mark Clayton, the federal law-enforcement officers arrived at the F.A.A. facility shortly after the World Trade Center attack and took the tape.
To this writer’s knowledge, there has been no public mention of the pilot’s narrative since the news report on Sept. 12, 2001. Families of the flight crew have only heard about it, but when Peg Ogonowski asked American Airlines to let her hear it, she never heard back. Their F.A.A. superiors forbade the controllers to talk to anyone else.
Has the F.B.I. turned this critical tape over to the commission?
...
The timeline that is most disturbing belongs to the last of the four suicide missions—United Airlines Flight 93, later presumed destined for the U.S. Capitol, if not the White House. Huge discrepancies persist in basic facts, such as when it crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside near Shanksville. The official impact time according to NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command, is 10:03 a.m. Later, U.S. Army seismograph data gave the impact time as 10:06:05. The F.A.A. gives a crash time of 10:07 a.m. And The New York Times, drawing on flight controllers in more than one F.A.A. facility, put the time at 10:10 a.m.
Up to a seven-minute discrepancy? In terms of an air disaster, seven minutes is close to an eternity. The way our nation has historically treated any airline tragedy is to pair up recordings from the cockpit and air-traffic control and parse the timeline down to the hundredths of a second. But as Mary Schiavo points out, "We don’t have an NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigation here, and they ordinarily dissect the timeline to the thousandth of a second."
Even more curious: The F.A.A. states that it established an open phone line with NORAD to discuss both American Airlines Flight 77 (headed for the Pentagon) and United’s Flight 93. If true, NORAD had as many as 50 minutes to order fighter jets to intercept Flight 93 in its path toward Washington, D.C. But NORAD’s official timeline claims that F.A.A. notification to NORAD on United Airlines Flight 93 is "not available." Why isn’t it available?
...
At 9:30 a.m., six minutes after receiving orders from NORAD, three F-16’s were airborne, according to NORAD’s timeline. At first, the planes were directed toward New York and probably reached 600 miles per hour within two minutes, said Maj. Gen. Mike J. Haugen, adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard. Once it was apparent that the New York suicide missions were accomplished, the Virginia-based fighters were given a new flight target: Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The pilots heard an ominous squawk over the plane’s transponder, a code that indicates almost an emergency wartime footing. General Haugen says the F-16’s were asked to confirm that the Pentagon was on fire. The lead flier looked down and verified the worst.
Then the pilots received the most surreal order of the morning, from a voice identifying itself as a representative of the Secret Service. According to General Haugen, the voice said: "I want you to protect the White House at all costs."
During that time, Vice President Richard Cheney called President George W. Bush to urge him to give the order that any other commercial airliners controlled by hijackers be shot down. In Bob Woodward’s book, Bush at War, the time of Mr. Cheney’s call was placed before 10 a.m. The Vice President explained to the President that a hijacked airliner was a weapon; even if the airliner was full of civilians, Mr. Cheney insisted, giving American fighter pilots the authority to fire on it was "the only practical answer."
The President responded, according to Mr. Woodward, "You bet."
Defense officials told CNN on Sept. 16, 2001, that Mr. Bush had not given authorization to the Defense Department to shoot down a passenger airliner "until after the Pentagon had been struck."
NORAD knew other planes had been hijacked, they knew the plane that hit the WTC was hijacked, why wasn't the order to fire at the planes given earlier? Oh, because despite several government agencies knowing we were under attack, Bush was busy reading a book about a goat with a classroom full of children. He continued to read to the children for at least another 5 minutes after being notified that the second WTC tower had been hit. The nation was being attacked and the President did NOT respond. That is the most glaring failure of leadership American has probably seen in decades.
When 9/11 commission chairman Tom Kean gave his sobering assessment last December that the 9/11 attacks could have been prevented, the Bush White House saw the bipartisan panel spinning out of its control. In the President’s damage-control interview with NBC’s Tim Russert last weekend, Mr. Bush was clearly still unwilling to submit to questioning by the 9/11 commission. "Perhaps, perhaps," was his negotiating stance.
Asked why he was appointing yet another commission—this one to quell the uproar over why we attacked Iraq to save ourselves from Saddam’s mythical W.M.D.—the President said, "This is a strategic look, kind of a big-picture look about the intelligence-gathering capacities of the United States of America …. Congress has got the capacity to look at the intelligence-gathering without giving away state secrets, and I look forward to all the investigations and looks."
Congress has already given him a big-picture look—in a scathing 900-page report by the joint House and Senate inquiry into the intelligence failures pre-9/11. But the Bush administration doesn’t look at what it doesn’t want to see.
"It is incomprehensible why this administration has refused to aggressively pursue the leads that our inquiry developed," fumes Senator Bob Graham, the former co-chairman of the inquiry, which ended in 2003. The Bush White House has ignored all but one or two of the joint inquiry’s 19 urgent recommendations to make the nation safer against the next attempted terrorist attack. The White House also allowed large portions of the inquiry’s final report to be censored (redacted), claiming national security, so that even some members of the current 9/11 commission—whose mandate was to build on the work of the congressional panel—cannot read the evidence.
Senator Graham snorted, "It’s absurd."
It's not absurd, it is criminal.
- rob 6:28 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Bush Administration: Making TV safe for Deaf people
Censor 'Scooby-Doo'? Words fail
The Bush administration has decided that people with bad hearing have bad judgment, too, and need special guidance from the federal government.
So the U.S. Department of Education is declaring about 200 television programs inappropriate for closed-captioning and denying federal grant requests to make them accessible to the hearing-impaired.
...
The government is refusing to caption Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, apparently fearing that the deaf would fall prey to witchcraft if they viewed the classic sitcoms.
Your government also believes that Law & Order is too intense for the hard-of-hearing. So is Power Rangers. You can rest easy knowing that your federal tax dollars aren't being spent to promote Sanford and Son, Judge Wapner's Animal Court and The Loretta Young Show within the deaf community. Kids with hearing problems can forget about watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, classic cartoons or Nickelodeon features. Even Roy Rogers and Robin Hood are out.
...
"Basically, the department wants to limit captioning to puritan shows. The department wants to ensure that deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are not exposed to any non-puritan programming. Never mind that the rest of the country is allowed to be exposed."
How imperiled the nation might be if The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle reached into the living rooms of the impressionable hard-of-hearing. Or, for that matter, Scooby-Doo.
The censorship raises baffling questions about who gets in and who's left out. The government has rejected Nancy Drew but is accepting Andy Hardy. Cory the Clown has won approval, but the Cisco Kid is toast. Charlie Rose and Rod Serling are worthy of captions, but Catherine Crier and Dominick Dunne aren't. Go figure.
My opinion is though, why the heck is the government paying for this at all? Making the stations/networks pay for it. They are using "america's airwaves" they might as well pay for some services for Americans.
- rob 6:11 PM - [PermaLink] -
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If the conservatives are making a stink about the picture of Kerry sitting three rows away from Jane Fonda at some outside event (probably a anti-war rally - see photo below), how come they aren't making a big deal about this photo:
Wow, he's much closer to John Lennon in this photo than he is to Jane Fonda, and didn't Lennon once sing "imagine there's no heaven" and meant that in a good way? Scandalous!
- rob 2:31 PM - [PermaLink] -
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And as you should everyweek, please check out: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots
2. The Bush Administration
If you accept the Bush administration's version of the War on Terror, everything is crystal clear. Iraq and al Qaeda teamed up to destroy the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. We invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein was in possession of vast stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, including, according to Dick Cheney, "reconstituted nuclear weapons." And the Bush Doctrine states that we will deal harshly with any country suspected of dealing with terrorist nations. As Our Great Leader himself stated in his address to Congress shortly after 9/11, "We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." So that's their version. Now if, on the other hand, you think that the Bush administration is full of shit, you'll find the War on Terror about as confusing as Justin Timberlake's "wardrobe malfunction" statement. It's common knowledge (if you don't listen to Sean Hannity) that 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists were nationals of our great friend and ally Saudi Arabia. Funny, I don't remember us invading them. And now comes the staggering news that our other great friend and ally Pakistan has been selling nuclear weapons technology to Iran and North Korea - and continued to sell them after 9/11 when they were supposed to be helping us stop this sort of thing. So what's the Bush administration doing about this? Tune in next week when we invade Syria!
- rob 2:01 PM - [PermaLink] -
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So many scandals, so little time.
Bush Aides Testify in Leak Probe
A federal grand jury has questioned one current and two former aides to President Bush, and investigators have interviewed several others, in an effort to discover who revealed the name of an undercover CIA officer to a newspaper columnist, sources involved in the case said yesterday.
...
FBI agents have interviewed those and at least five other current and former Bush aides and have questioned them about thousands of e-mails that the White House surrendered in October, along with stacks of call logs and calendars, the sources said.
The logs indicate that several White House officials talked to columnist Robert D. Novak shortly before July 14, when he published a column quoting "two senior administration officials" saying that Plame, "an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction," had suggested her husband for a mission to Niger to investigate whether Iraq tried to acquire uranium there as part of an effort to develop nuclear weapons.
- rob 1:55 PM - [PermaLink] -
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This somehow proves something?
Oh my! Thirty years ago, Kerry sat three rows behind "hanoi" Jane Fonda!! please. If he went to North Korea with her and praised the people shooting down our soldiers, then it'd mean something, the fact that they both attended what is probably an anti war rally means nothing.
This on the other hand does mean something:
But still, that's twenty years ago. Here's a graph from the present, that really does prove something:
- rob 1:53 PM - [PermaLink] -
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An interview with Rush Holt on a subject dear to TCS's heart
Representative Rush Holt on Paper Voting Trails and Restoring Voter Confidence - A BuzzFlash Interview
- rob 1:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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9/11 Panel to Get More Access to Memos- Tuesday, February 10, 2004 -
Sounds like good news:
WASHINGTON - The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks will get greater access to classified intelligence briefings prepared for President Bush under an agreement announced Tuesday with the White House.
The 10-member, bipartisan panel had been barred from reviewing notes taken by three commissioners and the commission's executive director, Philip Zelikow, who reviewed the data in December but couldn't take the summaries with them. Under the agreement, the entire commission were allowed to read versions of the summaries that were edited by the White House.
Then you read that last sentence again: Under the agreement, the entire commission were allowed to read versions of the summaries that were edited by the White House. Emphasis Mine.
That's right:
Some commissioners wanted to subpoena the unedited versions but that idea failed on a vote Tuesday by the full panel. Commissioners declined to disclose the vote count.
"I'm disappointed," said commissioner Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic senator from Nebraska who voted for a subpoena. "The White House, I believe, did not keep its word. The agreement narrows the scope of the report."
If Bush really wanted the commission to know what happened they would give the unedited memos. It's like a Hollywood starlet selling her "tell all" love diaries, but only after she's allowed to edit out all the drug references and black out the names.
- rob 1:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Kean - Don't give in
9/11 Panel Threatens to Issue Subpoena for Bush’s Briefings
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — Members of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks warned the White House on Monday that it could face a politically damaging subpoena this week if it refused to turn over information from the highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports given to President Bush before 9/11.
The panel's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican and the former governor of New Jersey, said through a spokesman that he was hopeful an agreement would be worked out before the commission's next meeting, on Tuesday. Commission officials said that negotiations continued throughout the day on Monday and into the evening with the office of Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel.
But other members of the commission said that without an immediate resolution, they would call for a vote on Tuesday on issuing a subpoena to the White House for access to information in the documents. The papers are known as the President's Daily Brief, the intelligence summary prepared each morning for Mr. Bush by the Central Intelligence Agency.
- rob 3:04 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Thanks to Atrios
Bush report lauds 'outsourcing' jobs
WASHINGTON - The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said Monday.
The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," a trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses and become a campaign issue, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the health of the U.S. economy.
Yes, outsourcing is good, because now we can get even cheaper fries an McDonald's because they'll only have to pay minimum wage for workers what with all the IT folks looking for work.
Well, it isn't surprising Bush is all for outsourcing; I mean its not like any of his friends are going to lose a job afterall.
- rob 2:59 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush and Snow play games with the future of America'a economic leadership and strength for short term political benefit
U.S. now says weak dollar OK in a calculated policy switch
Washington -- Treasury Secretary John Snow has tacitly but unmistakably abandoned Washington's longstanding support for a strong dollar in favor of a weak dollar that is getting weaker, though he continues to insist there has been no change in policy.
Stripped of the code words and elliptical references to "excessive volatility" in exchange rates, the message that Snow delivered over the weekend to finance ministers from Europe and Japan was that the dollar's plunge against the euro is just fine and that the dollar should now decline more rapidly against Asian currencies as well.
In so doing, the Bush administration has made a calculated economic and political choice. By condoning and even encouraging a cheap dollar, the administration is providing a big push to American exporters by making their products less expensive in foreign markets.
That should encourage more hiring and lower unemployment leading up to the election. The only immediate losers are exporters in Europe and Asia who have to choose between cutting prices and losing market share in the United States.
But the long-term risks are substantial. At some point, a weaker dollar will inevitably lead to higher prices for imported goods -- almost all consumer electronics bought by Americans, most of their clothing, many of their cars and much of the oil that provides the fuel to drive them.
Let's not forget that a weak US dollar could adversly effect the interest America's pays on its debt as well... but gee with the surplus that shouldn't be a problem.... Oh yeah, that's gone now. Really really really gone.
- rob 2:52 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush and Ashcroft and the war against Church Goers
Cross-Border Church Visit Costs Man $10,000
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Crossing the U.S.-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost a U.S. citizen $10,000 for breaching Washington's tough new security rules.
The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, a resident of rural Maine who lives so close to the Canadian border the U.S. customs office is right next door to his house.
Like the other half-dozen residents of Township 15 Range 15, crossing the border is a daily ritual for Albert. The nearby Quebec village of St. Pamphile is where they shop, eat and pray.
...
As a result, Albert says did not expect any problems three weeks ago when he returned home to the United States after attending mass in Canada, as usual.
The local U.S. customs station is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security.
Two days later, Albert was summoned to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally.
Ottawa has granted special passes to some 300 U.S. citizens in that region so they can enter the country when Canadian customs posts are closed, but the United States canceled a similar program last May.
That forces local residents to make a 200-mile detour along treacherous logging roads to get home via the nearest staffed border checkpoint. Emphasis Mine.
...
Albert has appealed the fine, but he has not attended a Sunday mass since.
"I feel like I'm living in a jail," he said.
Another man no longer attending church due to Ashcroft and Bush... and yet their war against church goers continues........
- rob 2:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bad Oil Man or Bad Fundamentalist Christian?- Monday, February 09, 2004 -
Here's the thing: Bush is a fundamentalist christian. He is a creationist, i.e. all life appeared on earth as described in the bible, but as an oil man he derived his living off of "fossil fuels". Where'd the "fossil" fuels come from? If God put the oil there (and it isn't a fossil fuel at all), it could explain his antithapy toward alternative fuels. In his mind you'd be choosing a fuel that God hadn't choosen for you.
Bush doesn't think it is your God given right to drive an SUV; he thinks it is your God given duty to drive a gas guzzling SUV.
Or maybe he never really understood the whole implication of what the word "fossil" in "fossil fuels" meant. I mean, let's face it, he wasn't a successful oil man... just an oil man.
- rob 2:45 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Gore: Bush 'betrayed us'
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- Al Gore, who lost the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000, assailed Bush, accusing him of betraying the nation by invading Iraq.
"He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure, dangerous to our troops, that was preordained and planned before 9-11," Gore told Tennessee Democrats at a party event Sunday.
The former vice president said that he, like millions of others, had put partisanship aside after the September 11 terrorist attacks and wanted Bush to lead the nation. Instead, Gore shouted to the crowd, Bush "betrayed us."
If this Gore ran for 2000 instead of the somewhat lame one, he'd have won be an even greater margin and this website would probably not exist. Yes, that means it would have been a better world.
- rob 3:44 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Democrats take a look at yesterday's sad Bush performance.
DNC Special Reports: Meet the Truth
President Bush's February 8 campaign stop on Meet the Press failed to answer the questions the American people deserve to hear about his failed policies. Instead, Bush took the opportunity to spin the facts and continue misleading the American people.
President Bush Claim Fact White House Cooperating with 9/11 Commission White House Stonewalled 9/11 Commission Every Step of the Way We Don't Know What Happened to WMDs David Kay Said No Weapons Existed Before the War Spending Higher Under Clinton Accounting Gimmicks Created Illusion of Clinton Spending
Momentum in Job GrowthJob Growth Is Weak Concerned About Job Creation Administration Won't Extend Unemployment Benefits Will Cut Deficit in Half in Five Years Deficit Will Be Significantly Higher than Bush Claims War, Corporate Scandals Responsible for Deficits Bush Tax Cuts Largest Cause of Deficits We Owe Our Troops the Best Under Bush, Military Suffering Resource Shortages
- rob 3:26 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Pentagon's Weather Nightmare
Doesn't this sum up the administration wonderfully. The pentagon is probably spending more money coming up with security contengency plans in case of global warming then all other branches are on actively preventing it.
Global warming may be bad news for future generations, but let's face it, most of us spend as little time worrying about it as we did about al Qaeda before 9/11. Like the terrorists, though, the seemingly remote climate risk may hit home sooner and harder than we ever imagined. In fact, the prospect has become so real that the Pentagon's strategic planners are grappling with it.
The threat that has riveted their attention is this: Global warming, rather than causing gradual, centuries-spanning change, may be pushing the climate to a tipping point. Growing evidence suggests the ocean-atmosphere system that controls the world's climate can lurch from one state to another in less than a decade—like a canoe that's gradually tilted until suddenly it flips over. Scientists don't know how close the system is to a critical threshold. But abrupt climate change may well occur in the not-too-distant future. If it does, the need to rapidly adapt may overwhelm many societies—thereby upsetting the geopolitical balance of power.
- rob 3:14 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The White House: A New Fight Over Secret 9/11 Docs
Feb. 16 issue - The White House is facing a new battle with the federal panel investigating 9/11. To mollify the panel chair, former governor Thomas Kean, President George W. Bush last week reversed course and agreed to a two-month extension that is supposed to ensure a final 9/11 report by July. But that might not be enough. Commission sources tell NEWSWEEK that panel members are fed up with what one calls "maddening" restrictions by White House lawyers on their access to key documents. Unless the panel gets to see the docs, the report "will not withstand the laugh test," a commission official says. The panel is threatening to force a showdown soon—by voting to subpoena the White House.
I must say, I've been very impressed with former governor Kean, I used to think of him as that guy who talked like he'd never been to Jersey while assuring me that his fine state and I would somehow be perfect together. I never really understood where his accent came from, nor why both a state and I could be raised to perfection when we were together, but I am putting that all behind me; now I'm just glad that he has something many democrats in congress don't have: a spine.
- rob 3:11 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Nato happy to ignore explosion in Afghan opium output, says Russia
Nato is turning a blind eye to the flourishing opium trade in Afghanistan to ensure the support of warlords in the struggle to maintain security in the country, Russia's defence minister has claimed.
Sergei Ivanov said Afghanistan was now producing nine times the quantity of drugs it did under the Taliban.
"It is understandable that by allowing drug peddling in Afghanistan, the [Nato] alliance ensures loyalty of warlords on the ground and of some Afghan leaders," he said. Emphasis Mine.
And people say we've achieved nothing in Afganistan. Bah. Next time you see Trainspotting, be happy and realize that you tax dollars played a part in making that lifestyle possible.
But seriously, hasn't the Bush administration shown NATO those adds about how drug money funds terrorism. Is this war on terrorism real? Or is a bad fox series?
- rob 3:06 PM - [PermaLink] -
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George Bush and his problem with intelligence: its all bad
At least George has gotten very good at the blame dance. Let?s watch:
Two years ago I projected a fiscal 2004 deficit of only $14 billion. Ahh... It's actually over 500 billion (and that is without counting the growing costs of Iraq and Afganistan) ooops. Well that's simple it was wrong because 9/11 changed everything!? oh, I said that months after 9/11? Oh well, my budget team must have given me bad intelligence. Bad bad intelligence.
Last year I lead the nation to war. A war that has cost a hundred billion dollars and counting, and the lives of over 500 american heroes to stop the imminent threat the Iraq posed to this nation with it's weapons of mass destruction. Ooops. No weapons of mass destruction? Well, umm it was the CIA, the CIA gave me bad intelligence. Bad bad intelligence.
Last July I happily announced with my newest tax cut would add an average of 305,000 jobs per month! Ooops:
Okay, so I'm off by 1,846,000 jobs, and you all are making a big deal of it, can I just say that isn't fair? I mean come on, if my budget only had a deficit of 1,846,000 eveyone would be saying how great I was. Really, its like you all have double standards. Anyway, it isn't my fault, my domestic team gave me bad intelligence. Whew boy, that's bad intelligence.
So please vote for me in 2004. And for those of you who argue that I'm not smart enough for the job, I'll say what I said in 2000. I'll hire lots of smart people to give me intelligence!
This post all started from reading an Atrios post.
- rob 1:56 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Happy Vice President's Day!
On the Monday in between Groundhog's Day and President's Day is the little known holiday: Vice President's day.
On this day each year Dick Cheney comes out of his underground hideaway and looks for WMDs. If he doesn't find WMDs we get six more weeks of winter.
Sniff, and I'm already sick of winter.
- rob 9:45 AM - [PermaLink] -
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the
president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
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- Teddy Roosevelt
"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of
its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work
for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering
hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the
Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make
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- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson
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"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain
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- James Madison
"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
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"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
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