(Jason Reed/Reuters – amazing eye. Love his photos.)
In case anyone had any question that the latest foiled terror plot was being used to political advantage by the Bush Administration, let me rid you of that doubt right now:
…But Bush’s Republicans hoped the raid would yield political gains.
"I’d rather be talking about this than all of the other things that Congress hasn’t done well," one Republican congressional aide told AFP on condition of anonymity because of possible reprisals.
"Weeks before September 11th, this is going to play big," said another White House official, who also spoke on condition of not being named, adding that some Democratic candidates won’t "look as appealing" under the circumstances. (emphases mine)
You tell me — crass, wrong, opportunistic, or arrogant? I lost people that I knew on September 11th, 2001, and the crass opportunism and cynical use of their deaths to provide CYA for the repeated failures of this Republican President and this Republican Congress is more than I can tolerate this evening. That the Administration has known about the potential terror plot in Britain for two weeks, but chose to build up this announcement of the information to the press just as Congress was letting out on a month-long campaigning recess…beyond crass.
And, might I ask, in what Administration EVER beyond George Bush’s has the Vice President been the person to whom reporters were to go for National Security quotes?
Read the entire AFP article. And then read it again. And then contemplate this:
“A similar plot, hatched by Ramsey Usef, to take down airplanes over the Pacific Ocean with liquid explosives was thwarted ten years ago. Our aviation system was attacked by al Qaeda five years ago on September 11. The 9/11 Commission recommended improving security screening to detect explosives at the checkpoint four years ago. And knowing of al Qadea’s affinity for repeating patterns like this, we have had ample reason to screen for these threats. It’s time for a new direction in homeland security which includes next generation technologies at our airport screening checkpoints that detect liquid explosives and plastic explosives.
“It’s also time to assess how much progress we’ve made in the war on terrorism. With resources diverted to an ongoing civil war in Iraq, Osama bin Laden still at large, a nuclear arms race in Iran and North Korea, the Taliban regaining strength in Afghanistan and escalating violence in the Middle East, are we safer than we were five years ago?”
I have had enough of the failure of this Administration to do anything but run a continuous public relations campaign so that it can keep covering it’s own ass for its own failures. The buck stops on their doorstep tonight. I have some questions for the rest of the country. Take your time and really stop to think about them, and be honest with yourself about the answers. Really honest.
- Do you feel safer now than you did five years ago?
- Is our military better equipped, stronger, and more fully staffed than it was five years ago?
- Have the President and his Administration done every possible thing to ensure more Homeland Security and Disaster Response than we had five years ago? (You may use the words Katrina and Gulf Coast in your response.)
- Do you feel that world affairs are going more smoothly than they were five years ago? Has the United States gained in stature among world powers? Are we more or less powerful today than we were five years ago?
- Is our economy better run and less volatile now than it was five years ago?
- Do you feel that your health care benefits are better now than they were five years ago?
- Is the nation a better place to raise your children than it was five years ago? How about the world?
- Are you and your family better off and more secure now than you were five years ago?
Had enough? Because I can keep going…and I bet you can, too.
(H/T to four different readers who sent me the link to this at nearly the same time.)
UPDATE: The DCCC has a timeline put together of the "scare the bejeebers out of the public" GOP fall campaign tactic. And you thought I was peevish before…
Related posts:
- Disgraceful: In 8 Years, George W. Bush Never Greeted Fallen Troops
- 1969-2009: The Years of Ash and Tears
- Stage-Three-Cancer Arkansan Hasn’t Seen Doctor in 7 Years
- You Know What CIA Has Been Doing? From the Skies? For Years? Legally?
- Rob Andrews Might Vote For “Five More Years of Exploding Health Care Costs”
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CIRO!
Ned in November!
It’s no surprise the Rethugs are pushing this. They’ve got absolutely nothing else to talk about. If it wasn’t for this, they’d have to hire mimes for their TV ads.
Christy for Senate!
I felt affirmed by your questions and your comments. Thank you.
We are definitely not better off and I think this scare is being used to make matters worse and to take the focus from the need to do things differently. I am passionate in my desire for truth and peace.
Thanks JWR two threads back for bearing that news.
Thank goodness for the Brits and the Pakistanis. They discovered the plot, investigated it, and conducted the sting.
That was the thought I had this afternoon when I heard a statement on the radio, by Michael Chertoff, about the situation. Lives were saved*, and we didn’t have to go to test what and how Homeland Security has cleaned up their act, post-Katrina. Well, okay, to be fair, for all I know, they really and truly have… but it’s just that Chertoff’s voice on the radio does not inspire confidence.
*I wanted to write a story, a few years ago during the baaaaaad fire season of 2002, about all the near-misses, of people who set fires, and caught ‘em in time. We never know what disasterous things mighta happened. Ever.
Yes, that is the message Democrats can unify behind.
Lieberman will end up helping Democrats to define themselves. He will be the foil (or attack dog) that makes them stand up and deliver this message. And Ned will help lead the way.
(And Rove knows this very well.)
Redd, spot on. Pure Rovian alien excrement. Does NOT pass the smell test!
This county’s and the world’s people are about as well off security wise as they were just prior to the start of WWII. And economically, we are about as well off as just before the great depression.
As for this latest airplane bomb scare coming from England? I wouldn’t be surprised in the least that the whole business was put together by Cheney and Rove, for the benefit of Bush and Blair.
i read this somewhere on Kos earlier today and i’m quoting from my overloaded memory circuits:
Ed Schultz on his show today… “more than 2500 dead [Americans], 250 trillion dollars, and i can’t take toothpaste on an airplane?”
i may not have the exact quote but you get the idea. i’m not a huge Ed Schultz fan but it cuts to the chase, doesn’t it?
funny christy, your entry today reminds me of a blog entry I had stared too lon ago to rememver…never finnished it though;
a man who works 40 hours a week;
Should be able to raise a family without going using public assistance
He should be ably to put healthy food on the table without using pubic assistance
He should be able to get afford health care for his wife and children, without using public assistance
He should be able to get his kids teeth fixed, without using public assistance
He should be able to put all of his children through college if they are eleigable scholastically, without using public assistance
He should be able to afford a vacation once a year, without using public assistance
If ANY company pays so little that these needs have to be assumed with public assistance, that company is STEALING from the very people that put their pockets in the first place
om the economy and the people that pay those taxes which are burdoned to accomodate those neccesities in life.
tag check
never finnished it though
I hope that Ned makes a statement soon. Kerry’s comments were carried on CNN and were quite strong that we are not doing enough for National Security. Although I comment only rarely I might now have to add my middle initial just so I’m not confused with that other JL so for now at least until Joe loses I’ll be JPL.
isis2 @ 11
Absolutely agree. I posted a diary on KOS this afternoon addressing that this become a Democratic weapon right now before the rove machine spins it into oblivion. I did hear Ed’s show today and he was all over it. I’m not an Ed head but he was talikng about what I wanted to hear.
Gopers have enough problems right now. They don’t have to lecture us on how to be Democrats or where the mainstream is.
Tout the latest terror scare Dick. Bur it was solved by good old fashioned police work, not war. But that’s that whole pre Iraq invasion mindset. You know, when the whole world was on our side…
(wow we’re getting our second heavy rain of the day here…wierd.
oops, that should read “money in their pockets in the first place”…last line
I WISH I could get the edit button to work here
What else is there to say Christy? Words can’t describe the frustration and despair I feel sometimes, and these fucking criminals have a large role to play. Satan is building a special wing for these animals.
Christy– I am back from CT- just a few hours ago, and struggling to catch up. And, this so pissed me off: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08…..38;ei=5087
Lieberman Seizes on Terror Arrests to Attack Rival
I hope that you or Jane can reprise all of the things that you’ve written about how the US is NOT SAFER now- port security nada, etc. etc. Joe’s role in the Homeland (sic) Security bill, etc. Joe’s talking points need to be knocked out from under him.
JPL ! — Jet Propulsion Laboratory sounds so space-agey !
A little OT…Dick Cheney, through his stock holdings, has gained about $294,000 per dead soldier since the start of the Iraq war. (sorry, no link)
Guess it’s been good for him…..
amen to all of the above. Of course we’re not better on any of the issues you raise, Christy. The f—— in the WH want us to feel fear and feel it any time we’re forget about it for a few days. They are losing ground and what else have they got to use for motivation?
We need to have a national debate, starting today, about what security really means and whether this administration is doing an adequate job of providing it. I think it should be defined pretty broadly, and I think the answer is this administration is doing a lousy job of providing it.
For five years, we have been battered over our heads with “9/11! National security! Homeland security! Terrorists! Threats! Warning, Danger, Will Robinson. Aliens approaching!”
We need to turn this process around. WE need to start raising the issue of security at every opportinity, and shining a light on how miserably the Republicans have failed to provide it. We need to make it OUR issue.
Come on, national Democratic leaders. Step up to the plate!
Lamont did respond today, in that NYT article.
I like it.
What a great commercial this would make! Different everyday folks, each asking one of those questions, with a well-known progressive, like Russ Fiegold delivering the last line.
Very powerful, Redd!
I know that Bush’s squandering of the balanced budget is included in the economy question, but I like to bring it up. Repeatedly. The fact that a federal deficit was a horrible thing under a dem president, but something to be encouraged in a repug presidency causes endless fascination for me.
jL @ 13
In a statement, Lamont said that U.S. national security and the nation’s ability to fight terrorism have suffered because of the Iraq war.
“Our force readiness to face another threat elsewhere in the world has been diminished because of our preoccupation with Iraq. Both anger at America around the world and the number of terrorists seeking to do us harm have increased,” Lamont said. “We are not stronger and safer because of Iraq; just the opposite is unfortunately true.”
Lamont said the U.S. needs to focus on catching Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders and building “a credible, effective foreign policy with our allies.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..eberman_28
When we bring our troops back from the middle of the Iraqi Civil War, we’ll be easily able to afford with that wasted money…
1. to adequately protect our ports and airports, by scanning EVERYTHING that comes in.
2. to provide universal healthcare to our citizens. This would actually save our corporations tons of money too.
3. to raise the minimum wage.
4. to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure.
It’s going to take some time to reverse the deliberate damage done to this country by the Neocons and their Republican and Democrat enablers (yes Joe Lieberman, I’m looking at YOU). But it all starts with withdrawing from Iraq.
God, I know I feel safer every time I watch an 80 year old woman remove her shoes and hold her arms out for scanning at the local airport.
Look at two perfect examples of biased bullshit reporting in the Times story on Lamont today.
1.
“He also continued his strategy of trying to link Mr. Lieberman’s views with those of the Bush administration, whose approach the senator has tended to support in the fight against terrorism.”
Oh, so it is just a “strategy” of linking Lieberman to the Bush administration.
The working assumption of the hacks who wrote this piece is that Lamont MUST just be playing political games here. Lamont couldn’t actually be conveying his GENUINE feelings about Lieberman’s statement. Thanks for the editorial statements, but I call total bullshit.
Okay, I meant to write “one perfect example”.
Well, spent some “quality” time at the gym (I say “quality” because I really, really hate to exercise, and the best part is when it’s over…), and think I sweated out some of my crankiness from today. Guess it’s at least good for that. *g*
Better off? Mmmmmm….no. And you all know what’s on the list. A list, apparently, that a majority of us seem to have, though some lists are longer than others.
Most people are working so hard just to keep from sliding into the abyss, that it’s hard for them to fully focus on the root cause of their distress. Many do not see politicians as being able to change anything, and to some extent, they’re right. For a lot of people, there’s no room on their revolving collection of things to worry about, and there simply isn’t time or energy left for getting worked up over torture and rendition and NSA spying and rampant corruption – even though it is those things that are eating holes in the foundation of this country.
I am thoroughly disgusted with the blatant manipulation of the message. Clueless why anyone still accords this administration even superficial credibility. Angry that we still have not taken control of the message.
It’s time to cut the crap and run these clowns out of town. They know nothing, and do even less that actually improves anyone’s quality of life (and by “quality of life, I don’t just mean “bank account). If there was one American on a plane today, or in an airport, who didn’t think about what we haven’t done in the last five years to make us safer, I will eat a bug. You choose.
Blergh.
Thanks cozumel. Is there a way Christy can put Ned’s comments as an update???
I’m glad it made it to Yahoo. How strong is a political party that uses fear to keep itself in power? How strong is a nation that blindly gives up it’s rights out of fear? How strong is a leader who hides behind the antics of a bully and is affraid of the mother of a slain soldier?
I refuse to labled a coward by the same people who are.
WAY too good not to haul up a couple of flights of stairs:
bob h @ 147
Hmmm
(^o^)
FDL is for better or worse a rock star and needs to get some serious rock star level server action going.
It would appear that every time advocates for drawing down or pulling out of Iraq (Iraqus Interuptus) appear to be gaining traction, another terror threat is exposed.
A peace candidate wins a primary and a terrorist threat is exposed.
I don’t believe for one minute that’s a coincidence. But I do believe the terrorist threat is real.
Our response to small cells of terrorists appears to be to bomb entire countries into the stone age then send out an army to kill the� people we consider a threat.
It’s like trying to kill a flea with an elephant gun.
And what the hell do we do with Bin Laden if we do catch him?
We seriously need to re-examine our positions and presence in the middle-east and get the hell out of there.� (And that’s what Joe Lieberman is really afraid of.)
A lot of this stuff will end when we’re out of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. And our fingerprints aren’t all over Lebanon & Jordan.
And it seems to me a more effective way to go after small cells of terrorists is to create small cells of undercover anti-terrorists.
And am I the only one who’s getting just a bit tired of terrorist threats being treated like photo ops?
And here’s a really dumb question. Since everyone in the world knows that cell phones are terrific when it comes to triggering a detonating device, how come we allow them on airplanes (and encourage people to use them)?
How about a kiss float with Karl, courtesy of Steve Clemons:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.c…..001589.php
Apparently the two have each other on speed dial.
yeah, today instead of pumpkin bread, somebody tossed Purina LieberChow into the giant Hamster Wheel powering the FDL server farm … the TCP/IP’s have been balky
I keep watching my V for Vendetta netflix dvd.
What grabs me and won’t let go about this movie?
flatford39 @ 14
that’s why i like this one-liner so much. it cuts through the usual misdirection rove, etc. are good at orchestrating. i think their goal is to exhaust us with fear and bogus information. i really hope it [or something like it] starts circulating.
just went over and read your diary. great points about police action vs. military action.
I remember right after 911 all those *town hall* meetings on Nightline. Groups of concerned citizens and first responders talking about the plans that needed to be made to secure our cities. It all sounded so practical and reasonable.
The only cities who’ve done the work in this regard have pretty much funded it themselves, probably from their education and after-school program budgets. I don’t think the federal money was ever distributed the way it was promised.
Plus, how many of our first responders are over in Iraq? A heck of a lot, I’d bet.
All that talk about all that planning, 5 years ago. The results? *poof*!
Perhaps today’s “reality” of toothpaste and mouthwash bombs goes deeper than what the intelligence agencies told us as the truth today.
Does your government ever lie to you?
I think today’s events, 9/11, 11/22/63 all go deeper than many of us are comfortable to think about. So we make it into a game…. right vs left, liberal vs conservative, democrat vs republican.
Just who is pulling our strings?
Well, if too difficult, back to the present game.
This administration is proof that there is no god. No god worth her salt would give a people such a government and call it democracy.
No to all the above.
I feel less safe, and economically diminished than I did five years ago.
J[P]L @ 13 and *ilson @ 19:
Boy oh boy, *ilson, did I do a double-take at your mention of Jet Propulsion Lab, with a scramble upthread to see where it came from. JPL’s my boyfriend’s employer, and from time to time I liveblog space-related events.
okay, to bring things (slightly) back to topic, I’ll share a little gossip with you. When a certain ex-halliburton ceo came to jpl to meet the mars rover engineers, soon after spirit and/or opportunity landed on mars, there was a certain amount of protocol and setup for the, um, ex-ceo… to arrange engineers in two columns. ex-ceo walk between ‘em, gauntlet style, lest an opportunity be given for the ex-ceo to approach anyone to shake hands and to give rise to an uncollegial spirit when certain engineers were to, well, rebuff the ex-ceo’s extended hand.
[bf didn’t work on Mars project, and I didn’t hear this story from him]
“A similar plot, hatched by Ramsey Usef, to take down airplanes over the Pacific Ocean with liquid explosives was thwarted ten years ago.”
And that was also prior to this bonehead statement…
“No one could have imagined them taking a plane, slamming it into the Pentagon” — I’m paraphrasing now — “into the World Trade Center, using planes as a missile.” – Condi Rice
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOL…..ranscript/
Eileen Left @
25
And don’t forget that this squandering is pretty much the only reason for any cloudiness about the future of the Social Security fund. Remember how it used to be so chic to kyah-kyah at Al Gore talking about a “lock-box” for Social Security? Well, what he wanted to put in that lock-box was precisely the surplus that Shithead has now completely squandered.
I could go on. Thanks for the post, Christy, this gets to it!
I’ll keep it short; 9/11 was an inside job…
http://www.911truth.org/articl…..1155307646
Pretty hard to do all those homeland safety things when your government is spending 250 million dollars a day in Iraq…
Oh and by the way, god damn do I fucking love TRex. God what a treasure of a boy.
EPU’d from late last night:
http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ent-236175
Sharkbabe @ 39
I keep watching it too. Not sure exactly what makes it so great. Perhaps the combination of reality, fantasy, and truth?
I have a similar reaction to the first Matrix movie…totally compelling to me. Same guys made it too hehe.
In answer to all your questions NO, with a capital N.
Homeland Security is a joke, this very same modus operandi was used in 1995 so what the hell is it with our government and securing airplanes. Olberman showed a clip from March 16th of this year with Lisa Myers demonstrating how easy it was to sneak bomb materials through 21airports.
Bush’s continuing Mid EASt fiasco is making us more enemies than anyone can count.
Bush’s economic policies have put generations at risk.
For god’s sake, how much more????
Lakezoarian @
48
Can you say “Reichstag Fire?”
When the real investigation starts, it should begin with PNAC and it’s need for a “new Pearl Harbor…”
prostratedragon @ 47
Anne @ 49
The U.S. taxpayer is going to get stuck for the bill in Lebanon too.
Okay. If you could have one minute with (pick one) any politician or leader or someone with the power to DO something, what would you say? (The person with the best answer will get to model the tiara for the assembled crowd).
This fear mongering is the most specious yet.
1. The plot was thwarted. Nobody was asleep. How a thwarted plot proves critics of the Iraq war would have allowed this plot to succeed is incoherent.
2. We have been told and everyone was expecting further plots. When one is thwarted it proves we are not expecting terrorist attacks? What?
3. This was done through investigative work, not bombs and troops. The plotters were all Brits. This is a symbol of the need for robust homeland security measures and good (cooperative) investigative powers, the very things Kerry and Dems have been calling for for a while now.
If we have never been in Iraq, this plot would have succeeded why? Fucking nonsense.
xyz @ 30
You were right the first time. First, as to “strategy” and second as to “trying” to link Lieberman to Bushco foreign policy. That make it sounds like the link isn’t actually there but is somehow being manufactured. Aaaargh.
PNAC,The 9/11 cover-up, and the fact that its been covered up, refuse to go away. I can only hope that a real investigation will ensue. I believe these facts are the very root of what has gone so terribly wrong in this country.
Two days after Lamont’s victory, the Fed announces a new terror plot and raises the terror warning to red for the first time since 9-11. Very interesting, indeed.
80% of the checked baggage is unchecked. No toothpaste tubes on carry-on but Gawd only knows what the hell is inside those giant suitcases hauled in those same airplanes …
Old Sow at 5:24 pm – A belated ‘you’re welcome.’ Would that it had been better news to deliver. :-(
Have you seen the latest driftglass? What a great idea. Lamont supporters dying their fingers purple!
http://driftglass.blogspot.com…..01996.html
You tell me — crass, wrong, opportunistic, or arrogant?
Yes
yeah — what’s up with that? no purple thumbs for the election in Connecticut? it is a democracy or what?
Whitehouse Complaint Dept.
Take a number
Another thing, the coverage indicates that the cooperative police and intelligence work here would have worked under existing FISA law. There is nothing in the reportage so far to indicate the need to suspend 4th Amendment protections.
Bringing up Mary’s EXCELLENT post upstairs for the evening crowd…
If it were up to Lieberman and Bush, we’d be finding volcanoes to ritualistically toss and infant and a virign into every few months – because there is evil out there and we have to make sacrifices.
idiots
How does Abu Ghraib, GITMO, flattened Fallujah etc – how do those things prevent more terrorists? Look at some of the more recent attack – “home grown” terrorists. Raised in the “freedom” that Bush recites will stifle terrorism. No disconnect button going off? The British arrests were — BRITISH ARRESTS. Brits. The reason these extremists hate us is for what we do and how we handle the ME, not for our “freedoms.”
And tossing another child into the volcano of Iraq is just stupid assinine idiocy.
If you don’t believed in “manufactured consent” then you are hopelessly naive.
If you go back in time and recall all the terrorism in Germany and Italy… the red brigades and the biedermeinhoff and how this was used to clamp down on the rights of europeans… everyone was scared of these crazy hateful terroists. The fact of the matter is that these terrorists were infiltrated by the intelligence services whose plants DID the bombings. They were black ops. This is a fact. Were there leftist radicals? Yes.. but most if not all of the terror was done by the intelligence plants.
Makes one wonder who is behind all this terrorism. The fascists love the chaos and use it to manipulate and clamp down on desent and take away democratic rights.
Folks… we have been there before and we are coming around again for the final “solution”.
Like I said, *ilson, do you think there was anyone in an airport or on a plane today who was not thinking about the bags that don’t get checked? About the cargo that doesn’t get inspected?
And someone please explain to me how a plot by British terrorists, discovered by British police, that targeted planes leaving Britain for the US, has anything whatsoever to do with the success of US policies since 9/11? And how the downfall of Joe “It’s all about ME” Lieberman is a harbinger for terror attacks.
9/11 anniversary coming up. Midterm elections getting near. Time for a terror alert! Bushco public relations will keep you all safe, you easily-manipulated masses! Mmmwahaha!
So the narrative:
Terrorist groups have routinely planned attacks on western countries. Generally, these plans are thwarted. The U.S. government under Clinton thwarted a plan just like this ten years ago. The British government (kudos to Blair and Scotland Yard) thwarted this similar plan. Unfortunately, when the Bush administration had its chance to thwart one of these attacks five years ago, it dropped the ball, despite all the warning signs.
That’s all. Bush has made this world less safe.
Sharkbabe @ 35
Thanks Sharkbabe – was just about to post my whine about how much worse things have been for the brave little non-profit art museum (where I proudly serve as curator) and so many of our devoted Friends from young to older are experiencing not simply financial stress but less visible but troubling psychological anxieties, most especially our Senior Friends.
Not sure how I managed witihout FDL and just the relatively short time I’ve felt so at home here can only imagine how many others agree.
And I’d sure be delighted to throw some money love in the pot a couple of times every month on pay days. If our fearless Jane & Christy and all are cool with that count me in. What the heck, not really sure what getting “some serious rock star level action” actually means but I’d follow your lead Sharkbabe anywhere — (not to mention punaise, lotus, zenurse, M aka valley girl, TRex, darkblack , SFTeddy Grandma, to name but a few of my favorite firepups, firelambs and fireprehistorics.
Sharkbabe 39 and Kurt 52:
Funny, BuzzFlash.com today wrote an editorial about the politicization of this whole terror plot and in their headline was the quote from the Chancillor character in “V” “I want them to know they NEED us.” Pretty much sums up the whole neo con garbage of today and, well, the past 6 horrid years. Maybe that’s why a lot of us like that movie.
wow. I was just in the middle of compiling a Had Enough list, with those two anonymous aides at the top of the list. I’ll post it here if it comes together. As always, thank you for your dedication and heartfelt posts.
I wonder if I could put in a bid for us to invite Thomas Ricks in for a Book Salon? Just heard him interviewed about his new book, Fiasco, on the Majority Report, and it sounds like a huge project. He’s been to Iraq three times and is the Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post. Strangely I don’t know how he’s keeping his job after writing this scathing expose…
He was going into great and painful detail about the way we deliberately humiliated the Iraqi men, especially, and the way we hurt their children in an attempt to get information, even though there was no info to be had.
Lots of detail on the stupidity of de-Baathification, etc.
Anyway, just wanted to put it out there as a suggestion. I think the book comes out this week.
The Republicans normally have pretty good message discipline, but I’m having a little trouble understanding what their message is today.
Is it that there was an alleged terrorist plot in Britain because Ned Lamont won the Connecticut primary?
or
Is it that the British foiled the alleged terrorist plot because Joe Lieberman has been such a strong U.S. Senator?
Karl, please clarify.
To answer all your questions-I DON”T THINK SO. You’re so right, after all these many years wouldn’t you hope they were already screening for this stuff. After the creation of this massive mess (homeland security)they have us throwing away our sunscreen. Is it just me or are these talking heads becoming taking suits? The DHS Director must have gone from a size 38 to 44 coat. What are those bulges at georges sholders? And I see Joe is still talking like a Republican. The “War on Terror” is still different than the war about WMD-remember them? How could you, they didn’t exist-remember? Also, is Dick in Wyoming looking for a new hunting partner?
*ilson makes a good point.
*ilson46201 @ 79
; )
Today’s ultimate lesson: Stop flying airplanes. May sound insane, but other than inconveniencing those who can afford to fly, putting people in the industry out of work, think of the benefits: NO MORE AIRLINES in bankruptcy. NO MORE PLANES to crash and burn and kill. NO MORE worries about airport, airplane security. HUGE SAVINGS IN FUEL consumed.
After all, would it not bring an end to this inane war on terror, with its misguided smart bombs? Parking all planes would be a small price to pay compared to what Iraq, Lebanon, and Afganistan have already paid.
“*ilson makes a good point.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Cozumel @
82
yeth, i was being pithy
Am I the only one who thinks that the collection of information from spying on the Senate & House Dems may be the reason they are so spineless about all the important issues presently?
Am I the only one who thinks that most all americans have had enough war and deficit (helloo? the polls!) and are ready to vote the crooks and war mongers out?… as if most people can’t see that their way isn’t working? Oh ye of little faith…all this weeping and gnashing of teeth…they will all be gone in November…believe it and picture it…it will be…
*ilson, I found your comment to be more informative about its subject than the cable news has been tonight on the true nature of the threats to U.S. security today.
I was just remembering the eight years of peace and prosperity that were my formative years. Now, I am coming to terms with the idea that I will never do as well as my parents, I will spend the rest of my life working to just trying to keep to the lower middle class.
In the past five years, I have seen my city attacked, an remember the acrid smell of that morning and the awful smell of rotting two weeks later. I ran for my life from my office building when a threat came in for the Empire State Building (down the street). I had to talk myself into driving over the bridges after the discovered the plot to blow them up and will myself to going back on the subway after they sounded that alert.
I am stressed out from the terror, broke from the economy and barely still optimistic.
I was giving thought to a bumper sticker that says “Vote for Sanity – Vote Democratic’ or the ActBlue version with the candidate’s naame instead of ‘Democratic’.
Because I don’t buy the timing on this either, and the TSA regulation is just plain nuts. Not to mention stupid: if you buy a beverage in the secure boarding area you have to finish or toss it before you board. Why is it called a secure boarding area if nothing in it is secure enough to take on the plane? And why couldn’t TSA/DHS make sure that there was enough water available on the planes or at the boarding gates today for passengers?
hibb@83, but they say the jet trails are actually acting as a substitute for ozone. After the the grounding after 9/11 the temps in major mets went up. What are we to do?
Do you think MY NSA guy did this just cause he knew I was flying to Europe?
Someone on Larry King Lies just said the reason they don’t have armed sky marshalls on every flight is that the expense would be too great.
We’re spending how many hundreds of millions of dollars a day fighting the War on Terra in Iraq?
Former inspector general of US DOT
“fighting the War on Terra in Iraq”
…so we don’t have to fight it here, remember?
How about this. We solve two problems at once.
We bring all 135,000 home from Iraq and make ‘em sky marshalls.
kiddo@56-yes we will pay the bills, not that2% with thw bush tax breaks. So what gives? WE give 3 billion to Isreal for aid, why? Their economy is fine. We expedite bombs for the new war then offer 30 mil to leb
DAB @ 99
That because he’s Senator Lieberman not Senator Lebannon.
spiderpaws @ 87
Honestly, I don’t think so. People like to talk about politics as either right or left, but more useful categories can be expressed in a 2 dimensional grid. (See Politcal Compass online). Social issues are on one axis, economic issues are on the other.
I think the Schumers and Hillarys and Liebermans have been moving away from the Base and into their own little area of the grid, that’s all. They don’t stand up to various issues because, simply, they aren’t opposed to them.
We of course don’t want them to drag the party there.
HopeSpringsATurtle @ 93
Naw, Hopie, he just wanted to mess up your mom’s travel plans. Of course, NSA’s aim being a tad imprecise, he managed to involve a few million other folks. Oh well, all in his day’s work . . .
Someone needs to explain to these guys that ‘crisis management’ does not mean ‘wait until there’s a crisis, then try to manage the news coverage’.
My nephew just stopped by. He had news. He is in the National Guard. He just found out he is being sent to Afghanistan. He is a MP and was told he will be a guard in a prison or riding security in convoy.
“fuck”
That was my response. He laughed and said, “that’s what I said”
I still see him as a kid.
This is a nephew who 5 years ago said things like “there is no difference, they are all the same”.
fuck
We talked a little about when he would leave and how long he would be gone. I told him, with any kind of luck, we might see the beginning of impeachment hearings after the next election.
His response …. “it can’t happen soon enough!”
This last 5 years have been hard. It is worse in regard to funding for the nonprofits I work with, it is worse for family because of VA cutbacks and access to health care for my father, it is worse in that my nephew is held hostage in the National Guard, and I have to depend on public health to treat a chronic health issue.
…..and I couldn’t stop crying as I told my husband about the Trex post, the young soldier dying, about Dr Turtle…..and the bastards in charge don’t have a clue.
vidocq @ 97
Works for me, vidocq!
And let’s not forget to get out there and go shopping! Must not let the terrorists win!
PKC – prayers for your nephew – and for you, too.
Yes, PKC, what Anne said. You’ll keep us up with his news, right? Please.
PCK
Sorry to hear about your nephew. But at least he’s going to Afghanistan, which arguably has some rational relationship to the war on terror, unlike Iraq…or, unlike Iraq had until we invaded it…
I hope he stays safe.
I mean, PKC
Suggested meme:
“I am not soft on terror, and I am not stupid either”
Crass, wrong, opportunistic, AND arrogant.
Also, remarkably stupid, since it emphasizes the abysmal failure of the Bush cabal to get Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen at a time when 60% of Americans believe that the Iraq occupation is a mistake?
PKC the thoughts of a lot of us are with you and your nephew and so many others in the same boat.
To me, as a vet, (with more service time in one enlistment than all of the top people in the Bush Admistration combined) cutbacks in the VA are the biggest betrayal of all.
It should be a huge campaign issue – everywhere.
“We’re not soft on terror — we don’t need no stinking blue pills in Dominican Republic, either.”
Heh.
But seriously, good one, tom durkin.
Cleanup in aisle 86
I repeat: Purple Fingers for Progressives! What if we did this in all our races? http://driftglass.blogspot.com…..01996.html
86 what if Bush had DefJef @
70
Yes, you are exactly right.
The quality of our childrens lives is dependant upon the intelligence of the questions we ask.
Alway important to dig deeper into our discomfort zone.
Cleanup also aisle 106.
Old Sow @ 117
If you put your mouse over 106 and look at the URL it’s one of those mysterious wordpress quote posts!?!?
iniquitous smote at 86 and 106
I see we have big DAB and little dab. How odd. I’ve been dab here since October but would be happy to change my moniker.
Leather Penguin at 106 — I lost two people that I knew — Mary Lou Hague and Madeline Sweeney. And I had a number of friends who were in NYC that day, and spent frantic hours trying to find out if they had been in meetings in the buildings, hurt from the impact, etc. Try being less of a vindictive asshole, and wake up to the fact that the Bush Administration hasn’t lived up to its promises. Dickhead.
Thanks *ilson46201
you are a soldier of the Lord, *ilson
The Lord Kobe.
I’m not a fan of the purple finger idea. It brings up bad associations for me. I think we can do better.
This could be a bit tin-foily of me, but I think today’s news–at least the timing of it–is almost ALL because of Lamont’s victory. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the Lamont win signify the first truly tangible victory of a veritable anti-war progressive (who also happens to be a charismatic, self-made businessman and family man) against thoroughly entrenched power? In almost 5 years?? This wasn’t just a “moral victory.” Someone we really like actually won this time, simultaneously giving the green light for Dems to finally come out of the shadows with gloves off. So what’s the first thing that happens? The Rethugs use today’s news to strike a first blow just as Dems take a tentative step back into the ring. Everything about today has the marks of trying to catch Dems off-balance, just as they are in the midst of coordinating. The neocons have been running scared. Lamont terrifies them. They must have been preparing–perhaps over the weekend–to use this news as an opening salvo in terms of defining debate and labeling Lamont, who, as commenter scarecrow suggested in an earlier thread is practically leading the party right now. In many ways, he is. And now even f*$king Lieberman is labeling him exactly as the Rethugs are. Rove/Cheney et al knew this was coming. It’s time to use Christy’s line of questions to throw their framing of national security back in their face, and also time to get Dems to heed Pach’s call that we can no longer be called extremists if we share the majority opinion on nearly every national-security related polling point. The Dems need to totally call BS and reframe the whole debate, now. And they also need to think about what kinds of sleazy tricks Rove might want to pull next, because a man who knows this might be it just might pull out all the stops. I think today is a good indication of that.
Both my wife and I are from Connecticut and we both voted for Ned.
But the purple finger idea is….well….not real chic. I’m not sure Gucci makes shoes to match.
Fiyero, yes, I was thinking about that today. Even if it gains them nothing, it is a very diabolical psychological ploy to put us off balance and dampen our hopes and enthusiasm. It’s quite evil.
Saw this over at Crawfordslist by a poster called Anon-paranoid. He posted the email he sent to Schumer and Lieberman. I doubt anything will come of it since the Democratic Party appears too be scared of its own shadow, but one can always hope something will I guess.
Anon-Paranoid said…
Last night I contacted Senator Reids office through email.
Tonight I sent an email contact to both Senator Schumer and Mr. Lieberman. Below is a copy. My name of course has been removed to protect the innocent, namely me. LOL
Dear Senator Schumer,
Now that Senator Lieberman has declared that he will be running as an Independent for the Connecticut seat of Senator in November, he has declared that he is no longer a Democrat.
Since he is now an Independent he needs too be stripped of all Democratic Commitee Chairmanships immediately and not be allowed to sit in any Democratic caucuses which may be held between now and the November elections.
The Democratic Party does not need a non democratic member too sit in on meetings where any information garnered could be leaked to the Republican Party by an outsider.
Mr. Lieberman backstabed President Clinton during impeachmenst and diminished the Democratic Party whenever it found the guts to stand up to President Bush.
Our Country does not need people like Mr. Lieberman representing us in Congress and those like him the American people will fight to remove from office for the sake of our country.
Below is a email letter I sent to Mr. Lieberman which states my reasons for rejecting his current stand against the Democratic Party and America.
Mr. Lieberman appears to forget that We the People chose who we want to represent us and he has clearly forgotten that if he really is a Democrat he would not be trying to destroy our system of Government by his egomaniac run as an Independent, thereby splitting the Party.
It appears he cares more about retaining the power of a Senate seat than Our Country or the Democratic Party. We can not let this stand if we indeed our a free country ruled by laws and our Constitution.
Sincerly yours,
[Removed to protect the Innocent]
PS: Copy of email to Mr. Lieberman.
Dear Mr. Lieberman,
I must say that I never saw a Democrat run such a disgusting race for a seat in my government as you did in the Connecticut Democratic Primary race on Tuesday August 8th., 2006. You ran it just like Karl Rove would have run it. And now that you have lost you refuse to accept the will of the people of Connecticut. Instead you insist on destroying the Democratic Party with what you call an Independent run for the Office of the U.S. Senate from Connecticut.
You lie when you say that it was a one issue race, that being about Iraq and your stance on it. Let me remind you sir that it was more than a one issue race. You brag about how you voted against Alito’s nomination to the SCOTUS and also how you marched with the black populace for equal rights. What you don’t say is that by your vote for cloture you rendered you no vote against Alito meaningless. Or that you have spoken out against Affirmative Action many times.
You also don’t tell the American People how you have stood by Bush on many issues that undermine the Constitution which you swore to Protect and Defend against all enemies both Foriegn and Domestic as he tramples all over it. Let me give you some examples of how he is declaring himself a Dictator while you and your Republicans friends sat silently by and watched him do it.
Lie us into a Illeagal War where we invaded a Sovereign Country and overthrew its Governmernt.
Committed War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in Iraq. {Torture, Rape and Murder of Innocent Civilians by members of our Military}.
Authorised and Condoned Torture. {Including the Deaths of some prisoners in American Custody}.
Authorised and Condoned the Kidnaping and Rending of citizens of other Nations to Countries for Torture. {Crimes against Humanity and the Geneva Conventions}.
Authorised and Condoned the holding of American Citizens without due process to which their entitled under OUR Constitution even if they are guilty of the crimes their being accused of. {Violation of the Constitution of the United States of America {Our Countries Law}.
Spying on American Citizens without a Court Order. {Another Violation of Our Constitution}. Perhaps he’s also spied on you and has dirt on you that you don’t want made public.
Signing Statements. {Stating that he will interput the Law as he see’s fit and disregard whenever he feels like it. Chosing to only follow the Laws he wants too, thereby placing himself above the Law and the Constitution which you swore to Defend before God and the American People}.
And least we forget the Patriot Act which all members of the Congress and Senate passed which mimics the German Enabling Act that Hitler got the German Legistlature to pass giving him Dictatorial Power over Germany. Why is this Act so damaging to our Constitution? Because it gives the President the power to Arrest Citizens without a warrant, hold them indefinitly without due process and violates the very Foundation on which our Country was Founded.
These are some of the reasons you were rejected in Connecticut, not because Ned Lamont distorted your record.
You have proven beyond a doubt that you are not a Democrat, but a Loyal Enabler for your Fuehrer Bush and his Gestapho Christian Fascist Mullahs who have taken over our Country. And you all are liable too be one day brought before a World Court and tried for your Crimes. You and all the Republicans and some Democrats who have enabled this Insane Madman to bring on World War lll in the Middle East as he seeks to build an Empire and all the while destroying our Country and our Military in his quest for more power.
Now why won’t you be honest and instead of running as an Independent run as a Republican instead. After all you have proven that indeed you are a Republican. For once in your life be honest to the American People.
Sincerely yours,
[Removed to protect the Innocent]
PS: Copy sent to Senator Schumer.
8/09/2006 11:55 PM
Is everyone else as angry at what’s happened over the past two days as I am?
From the brief euphoria of Lamont’s win – to shock and fury over how mean-spirited, selfish and vindictive Lieberman was and is – to the panicked and shrill response of BushCo and the other goopers – to the predictable use of fear and terror by the facists in power to control the American people.
Furthermore, the more Dem office holders hedge their bets by letting Lieberman continue to attack Lamont and demonize a majority of those in the Democratic Party because they think he will win in November (dream on), the more convinced I am that they are going to let the momentum and power of this moment of victory just slip away.
Someone please talk me off the ledge. (I need a yoga class.)
dab @ 119
Next time you post you could put some garbage in the box that says “website”, like http://// for example. That will put an underscore on your handle. Several people here have done that I’ve noticed. You only have to do it once for it to stay there.
dab -
Go to yoga, that’s where I’m heading. :)
We in New York City haven’t forgotten September 11, and we voted against that fool in overwhelming numbers. It’s a shame Republican voters, who are in such a froth about 9/11 to this day, see no significance in that.
Five years later and I still doubt whether it is wise to keep my family here, and take the subway to work every day. I see no indication that this administration really cares about our safety, to the extent that conflicts in any way with its own selfish ends, or exceeds its competence.
It’s a profound waste of human potential and progress that this Bush person has foisted on us, and on the world.
Fiyero is right. The way to beat the Roves and Liebermans of the world is to reframe the perceived status quo.
I believe all the polls in the next couple of months are going to show that opposition to the war in Iraq is the new mainstream and that it’s the Republican Party that has been taken over by a bunch of looney tune right wing war mongers whos policies have obviously failed.
I find it bizarre that it took an unknown, inexperienced candidate from a small state, to point the way forward for a party that in my mind has been gutless & clueless for the last eight years.
I don’t feel safer with an Attorney General who violates the law and recruits all of the apparatus of government to cover it up, under the blanket of “state secrets”
I don’t feel safer with a President that introduces legislation to give amnesty for war crimes he has authorized, or a Congress that says – what a fine idea.
I don’t feel safer having people of the caliber of Hayden, Gonzales or those who would follow them, in charge.
I don’t fee safer with courts that are being people by anti-Bill of Rights judges who have written the opinions authorizing torture, or ghost detainees, or ghost citizens being kidnapped by their government (no arrest warrant) and held in military detentions without habeas or access to counsel or knowing the charges against them.
I don’t feel safer when Federal Judges have had the administration lawyers lie to them to the point where it is unremarkable that a Judge would ask a lawyer for DOJ, from the bench, “why should I believe you?”
If any of them made me feel “safer” I still would hate them.
The “Defining Moment”:
When things reach the point where we can no longer carry our iPods aboard planes, the populace will finally realize that the Department of Homeland Security and, moreover, the current administration have failed us. The bazillions spent on the misdirected war in Iraq should have been better spent.
dab,
WE have the power to prevent the momentum from Ned’s win from slipping away. We don’t need no steenking DC Dinosaurs for that.
The fact that the White House is freaking out and attacking is proof that we hit a nerve. All we have to do is keep doing what we’re doing.
Each election we keep removing unhelpful DINOs, and before too long, none are left :)
dab from CT (formerly known as dab) @ 129
Don’t jump. We need you here, and Ned will need your vote in November. BTW, you didn’t have to change your name. It’s not like it was Mary. *g*
Paul @
134
oddly enough, if you depart from England to the USA, you cannot carry your IPod but if you are going to the UK from the USA, you still can carry it …
Cozumel @ 129
Or a URL to any website for that matter. You too, Mary *g*
Has anyone heard a word from Ned Lamont today?
I have had cable news on most of the afternoon and evening (in the background) and have not noticed any appearance by or mention of him. Did I miss something?
I don’t know if the media decided his victory Tuesday night was only a 24-hour story, if they just think a thwarted alleged terrorist plot overseas is so important that American politics no longer matter, or if they are deliberately keeping him off the air to suit their agenda.
What does anyone else think?
Flyero — hey, I think you’re right, but only in part.
The White House was already being scrutinized for its complicity in the Israel-Lebanon escalation, but…
The other black hole that is beginning to cause a gravitational pull on the Republican Party is the first anniversary of KATRINA.
Do not be surprise if they try to pull another one within the next two weeks to keep people focused away from Katrina and the continuing debacle that is our disaster response system.
They can’t game the system entirely, though. We’re already overdue for a major hurricane this season.
neurophius — I know I’ve seen print about his comments today about the terror alert at TPM’s site…
But the media’s gotten new marching orders to squash and obliterate and purge that shiny new Democratic hopeful.
I am having toobz trouble tonight – connection is a little wonky.
Thanks for the thoughts and support regarding my nephew.
and vidocq – regarding VA cutbacks …. I think it needs to be brought up every single day … “support our troops” ……….. as if.
I have spent quite a bit of time the last 18 months, working my father through the VA system for a referral to another VA hospital for surgery. It has been hell for him.
I have spent quite a bit of time in VA clinics and VA hospitals with Vets sitting there, waiting and a bit of complaining. These men and women deserve better.
The corporate owned media only play what the corporations want us to see. Breaking their hold on DC is not part of their agenda. Ned wants to break their hold on DC. Hence he gets mediocre coverage. Even without the fake terrorism brouhaha.
While i agree with much of the post, I gotta say it was the right move to sit on the information for two weeks. To say something before the authorities made the bust could have tipped the terrorists off that their plot was being observed, causing the sources and methods of intelligence gathering to be burned, and the terrorists to perhaps escape.
But I agree with your sentiments and those I have seen around the blogosphere tonight which support making this a victory now of Bush and the GOP, but of effective, efficient, and dedicated law enforcement.
Ned Lamon should come out tomorrow and highlight that this was a threat that was not in Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Lebanon, but rather one that emanated from the very places that 9/11 did- a Western nation and Middle Asia.
neurophius the best thing Ned lamont can do right now it seems to me is to stay in the background and raise money for the fight ahead.
This is really a dead news time. People on vacation. People taking their kids to college. People stuck in airports….
Seriously, the worst thing a politician can do is peak too early. Let Lieberman have the spotlight now. The public will soon tire of that smarmy little ferret.
Let Ned make the push and grab the news in mid October and November when it really counts.
neurophius – Difficult news day to cut through, especially for an upstart Senate candidate. Anything Lamont might have to say would no doubt be lost in the clamour of red alert! red alert! red alert!, anyway.
Paul @ 134
And the meter is running in Lebanon as well.
Paul at 144 — I completely agree that it was the right move to hold the information until after the bust. Absolutely the prudent and spot on thing to do. But to prime it with fundraising letters about terrorism by Rudy Guiliani, press availabilities by Dick Cheney and the like? Crass and opportunistic and wrong. National security should not be this Administration’s constant political football. Period.
vidocq said
“Let Lieberman have the spotlight now. The public will soon tire of that smarmy little ferret.“
is darkblack in the house?
Lieberman has shown in the last two days that his pre primary “I’m not Bush” speech was complete bullshit. When you’re in a hole you’re supposed to put down the shovel, keep digging, Joe
Okay if there are any real politicians outthere reading this stuff – pay attention.
PKC is right on it and if you don’t think you have a big time talking point with the VA Cutbacks and the treatment of guys who seriously sacrificed – try it on a few people.
Most of these guys didn’t make America wait when they were called.
Cozumel 7:46 pm
Cozumel, that is so true. The past two days, Joe has been channeling Bush, or Cheney, or Rove, or all the above. What did Bill Clinton call him–”a good Democrat”? Care to update that, Bill?
I don’t know who darkblack is (but if he agrees with me he must be okay)
Whew. Glad we stopped those bad guys in the streets of Baghdad, and greenlighted Israel’s ten-eyes-for-an-eye Muslim Goodwill Campaign. Global terra is on the run, we’re smokin’ em good now, eh boys? How’s that cargo container inspection program going… did Wal-Mart allow us to inspect more than five percent yet? And how about the results of the latest airport-screening test runs, the ones where plainclothes officers test the system by smuggling contraband aboard, and typically 50% of them get through?
Red-Blooded Americans should ignore any little voice in their head that notices that this was a terror plot foiled by clever and muscular police action — that kind of stuff is for wimps and Democrats — and stay tuned to Fox for breathless footage of a bombing camgaign against yet another peripherally-related Middle Eastern country.
Seriously though. If this is not one of the best ‘teachable moments’ for the USA public, in the last five years’ nightmare of lies, distortions, and neocon opportunism… I don’t know what is. I just pray that there is a recognized Democrat with the stature to get ten minutes of serious airtime, and with the talking points already lined up in short sentences of short words, to explain to the American people that the GWOT *really is* about police work writ large, coupled with international cooperation with our allies. NOT about opportunistic jingoistic invasions of unrelated countries, that are about as effective as whacking a hornets’ nest with a stick, and walking away.
I fear we are not going to get many more chances, before either the USA does something *really* stupid, or one of these terror plots gets thru and forever polarizes the situation beyond hope of repair. We need leadership now.
Eddy
There are a lot of times when I just want to punch Jonathan Alter, but tonight on KO he got it exactly right when he said the Republicans had exchanged FDR’s “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” for “the only thing we have to use is fear itself.” That’s it. That’s all they’ve got.
I’m perfectly willing to accept, for the moment, that the Brits disrupted a real terror cell composed of British citizens of Pakistani descent. I will even assume that the timing had nothing to do with American politics, or even British politics. That does not mean that Bushco and its wholly-owned subsidiary, HoJo, aren’t using it for political purposes and tying it to all kinds of things it has nothing to do with. Of course they are. It’s all they’ve got.
vidocq
darkblack is a fantastic artist who often displays his/her work at FDL. s/he has done a number of nice portraits of Joe Lieberman.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 151
Not to mention that if it was such a big deal of a threat to begin with, why on earth did both Bush and Blair just go on vacation while it all played out? What would have happened if they had moved early? What if they went off the radar?
Poor judgement all around.
Eddy 156 – well said indeed.
Kurt at 159:
I’m sure they wanted to pre-”project calm.” What’s calmer than absence?
neurophius @ 152
He has bet the farm that the
quagmire occupationwar on terror in Iraq will be better come November. Heh.No sources on record but …
U.S. Israel Selecting Targets for Cruise Missile First-Strike Attack
Take with a grain of salt.
But then again when you have a pResident who says things like this …
I think we have reason to be perrty nervous
Well I don’t really think you want Bush or Blair interfering with the operation itself. Better to let that sort of thing run itself. When beauracrats get involved in the minutiae of day to day political ops things don’t tend to go spectacularly- so the vacation time for Bush and Blair does not trouble me as much.
But Olbermann’s argument tonight on countdown made some sense to me- that Ned was attacked for being “weak on terror” because they knew this was coming down the pipe. I could buy that.
To me this highlights that if the Republicans want to play political football with national security, we need to expose them for running the Wing T and refusing to legalize the forward pass. They are not good at doing this stuff. Christy’s “are we safer now” question rings true, to me, but the following is the real challenge I think: to carve out a space to make arguments relating to a balance between living with terrorism and solving it. Right now the idea that these attacks could be just another permanent feature of the political landscape can not be raised (dare i call terrorism a nuisance!!!) but just imagine how quickly most terrorism events dissappeared from the news cycle before 9/11.
I had a frightening thought today- that perhaps every few years for the rest of my life we will have some terror plot unmasked. And this did not scare me in a politically Orwellian way- ie that the government will occasionally manufacture an outside enemy to pacify and unite the country. But just in a “if we keep fighting the war so incompetently, we’ll never be able to drink some bottled water on our flights to Cleveland”. The solution goes back to finding politicians who make friends, not enemies, and finding politics that is pragmatic and not ideological.
Let’s see how this works.
BarbB – I believe :b or :p – one or the other is the universal symbol for sticking my tongue out. *g*
Bush is using, Cheney is using, Lieberman is using – luckily for them, suits cover the track marks.
BTW – anyone watching Tony Snow’s performance at C & L, please notice: Yellow Tie.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain to Bush – of “they hate us for our freedoms” repetition — that the guys arrested in the UK were home grown. They had freedom. And fries. Still, they hated. He’s remarkably incurious about why.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 10
They don’t need to cook up something like that.
This administration sent an engraved invitation to attack with that expedited shipment of smart bombs to Israel to drop on Lebanon – - which of course they had to announce real loud.
And then there’s the little matter of insisting that a cease fire wouldn’t be any good unless it was a permanent fix. !@#$%^&*
And of course there’s the occupation of Iraq long past any invitation we might have had, along with the bellicose talk aimed at Iran.
So no, they don’t have to cook something like this up. They just needed to do one too many aggressive acts on the Muslim world and bingo. We get an attack plot.
Cue Gomer Pyle: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise.
TRex is up.
PKC @ 142
PKC:
Did you see my post last night about cuts in the VA’s brain-injury training?
They started these cuts as soon as they came into office.
dab-sorry to see you changed, however I think we would all agree here that change is good. In fact the sooner the better. Besides, I think we are all adults and know the difference between Caps and lower case.
Mary underlined @ 164
Sorry, I’m not emoticon-literate. I had enough trouble learning *g* as a substitute for :>) On TDS, an “official British carryonologist” just pointed out that, since these terrorists had grown up in England, the only solution was immediate regime change for the UK. He said Tony Blair had already signed off on the American invasion. So funny, and so obvious, that even people who don’t watch Stewart might get it.
Since the Republicans are still pushing the “cut and run” angle, I have a question:
Why doesn’t the press ask the President to identify HOW we will know that we have had sufficient success in Iraq to justify withdrawal of our troops? What is “victory?”
If we are given ANY type of guidance on the definition of success, then it should be asked why we aren’t there yet. What has prevented us from achieving these goals?
Moreover, I don’t understand why the Democrats do not simply say the following:
We were mislead into the war. We were lied to. We supported the President b/c it never occurred to us that the President would lie to America on an issue of such paramount importance. Once we were in Iraq, the Administration botched any chance we had to stabilize the country before it was essentially carved up into multiple protection rackets, wherein if you don’t sign up w/ a sectarian warlord, you are under constant threat that you will be murdered, your wife and children raped and killed, and all that you have left stolen from you.
At every important juncture over the past 3 years, when Ds in Congress attempted to force subpoenas and investigate where all of our reconstruction billions were going (since we obviously were not getting quick improvements in basic infrastructure from our contractors, most critically water purification and electricity), the Republicans have prevented oversight.
So here we are. The job was botched. Iraq will explode. There is no solution to this problem short of instituting a draft and re-conquering the country. This is undeniably because of what the Republicans have done: they have placed war profiteering above our safety and our moral obligation to the Iraqis themselves to follow through on our promises to improve their lives, and enable the westernized moderates to fight back against those who wish to turn Iraq into a theocracy.
As far as I can see, this is a fair statement of what has happened. So why the hell aren’t the Democrats acknowledging this reality and fighting back against this same old, Iraq=war on terror BS?
CJP
Thr Terrorpublicans, for better or worse, are in their element right now and are effortlessly grabbing the spotlight being cast by today’s terror bust. They have managed to steal much of the positive buzz of the CT upset, and have taken much wind from our sails.
The solution? Cut them off at the pass, right now. The method? Well, this may be wishful thinking, but perhaps Lamont is really ready for prime time and can step up to the plate (I certainly don’t see any other Dem “leader” doing such!) He can call a press conference for tommorow, (he most certainly has the national stage at the moment) and state simply and clearly that the time for fearmongering must end, and end right now. “Ae long last, have you no shame?” It worked to finally put Mcarthy to rest. It just might work now.
Granted, it would be a little bold. And if not stated clear and true, Lamont would become a sacrifical lamb. But if he could state the point with the sound of truth reverberating, it would be a defining moment.
Why anybody is surprised at the viciousness of the Republican “spin” about Lamont’s win and the importance of the “plot” to blow up airliners by the group in England throws me for a loop. It’s in the book; it’s in their playbook; they don’t know how else to handle things except negatively. There is no sense of reality here, only Republican “spin”. It will continue until the election and, if they prevail, we can expect it to continue unabated. So, please, don’t act surprised; and above all don’t act as if it won’t happen again and again. One more point: The Republicans have mastered one technique and use it very well: It is called “first strike.” They frame the argument and the Democrats have to respond to it. If only some smart Democrat had come forward, immediately, and said, “Expect this to happen, expect this type of campaign from the Republicans,” they might have taken the “first strike” capability away from the Republicans. And, by doing this, they might have begun to show how the Republicans are bending events to remain in power.
. . . and your little dog, too @ 166
I did not see your post regarding cuts to the VA budget.
The cuts to the VA are obscene.
Besides underfunding programs, I think there is more looting of various government programs than what we will likely ever know.
As cynical as I am about this administration, I am stunned with the number of ways they have been able to pull funding from programs. I have seen it in over-auditing Head Start, claiming over-payments on SSI disability payments, pulling funding for the Tribes because the administration and BIA has to pay attorneys for lawsuits, and pulling funding once it has already been allocated for program expenses.
DAB @ 167
Just making an observation – didn’t see the point in two people have the same handle & didn’t realize until tonight that there were 2 dabs, whether upper or lower case. No offense meant or taken. I’ll simply be dab from CT from now on.
Cheers
If you haven’t thought it through, How many times do we have to be reminded? There is no (quote) “war on terror” (unquote). It is a stupid statement, and I’ll explain why in a moment. I don’t mean that as a pejorative. And to repeat it, or give it any credence, is to help spread a lie, a deliberate attempt at propaganda, or a statement by a person who does not know what he or she is talking about. I find that the newspapers and television, as well as “blogs” on the internet, all use the phrase “war on terror” and it does everyone a disservice. Google alone states that there are 137,000,000 references to this phase.
When our President, George Bush, says those words, he is talking non-sense. So is anyone else using these words.
The words are inflammatory, and their ultimate effect often deliberately to cause people to suspend any rational judgment about the things the speaker wants to do because of this so-called “War on Terror.” When rational judgment is suspended, people will do anything no matter how ineffective it is because of the emotional mind-clouding power, and the fear it gives rise to, when such meaningless words are used.
It is also extremely sloppy journalism to repeat this phase, except as a direct quote, because it is meaningless. It is as meaningless as “war on laziness” or the “war on weather.” Journalists seem never to have heard of semantics, or an “abstraction ladder”, a key concept in semantics (well worth looking at), both of which deal with the meaning of words and how their use affects us.
Right now, we as a country are involved in a number of situations, some dangerous, some not, one or two very separate wars, some diplomatic efforts, and a very diverse set of circumstances that may possibly threaten our way of life, and we, as a country, appear to be afraid of a number of diversified groups of people who reside in various countries. We are also, as a country, possibly threatened in a number of ways by a number of countries, as opposed to small scattered groups of people. All of these have been lumped together into a catch phrase that is entirely meaningless, namely a “war on terror.”
If we can define what these groups and countries are and distinguish how they differ from one another, it can help us to understand what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what the characteristics of all this mixed up “war on terror” might really mean. This, of course, immediately implies that there is no one single opponent against whom we can wage war, but instead presents a variety of different situations, some more dangerous than others, each of them requiring that we handle them, as best we can, in different ways if we want to reduce any threat they pose.
• The first group of people that we claim to be fighting with is a vaguely defined group, once led by a man named Bin Laden, that calls itself Al Qaeda. It appears to be based in Afghanistan, but may have spread to various other countries. It is a loosely-knit, guerrilla group that dislikes “the West”, vaguely defined as European and American countries. We don’t know nearly enough about it to be “at war” with this group because it is so diffuse, and it is all too easy to confuse it with other groups at times. It is not certain that its leaders are alive or have control over this group because it is so diffuse. Originally, it was most probably responsible for the event known as “9/11”. We, as a country under President Bush, claim to be fighting this group but appear to have lost interest in pursuing this group forcefully.
I say “claim to be fighting” because, for all of our efforts, we have never caught Bin Laden, and Al Qaeda appears to be stronger than ever before. We have troops in Afghanistan, but they appear to be there mainly poised to defend the central government, which has been threatened by a number of groups including the Taliban (the prior totalitarian government), war lords in various provinces, and a loose network of guerillas including the Al Qaeda group. The current Administration, led by President Bush, has apparently de-emphasized our military efforts in Afghanistan and his rhetoric, his use of the words “war on terror”, appear to be mainly directed at Iraq, not Afghanistan.
The number of deaths of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan in this first military operation is 255 with 765 injured as of January 2006, as tracked by Wikipedia. I cite this figure in sharp contrast to the number of U.S. troops killed in the next military effort, still going on today, in Iraq which was 2,299 U.S. soldiers killed and 33,094 seriously injured as of March 2006 (cited at the site http://icasualties.org/oif/def…..fault.aspx). The disparity between Afghanistan and Iraq, in terms of dead and casualties is very revealing about what is being emphasized.
• The second group that we were fighting was the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. It was a war declared by President Bush, with no real resistance from Congress. The enemy was a vague one – mainly the dictator, Saddam Hussein, who somehow had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and was linked vaguely to “terrorists”, the same ones named in Afghanistan as being Al Qaeda. None of these reasons has proven to be true. I repeat: None of the reasons given for this war have been proven to be true. As cited above, more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq as a result of this war. Because of what the President and his Administration have been saying, and repeating as a mantra, according to many surveys, many people in the U.S. believe, irrationally, that this war is being fought as a “war on terror.” This is simply not an accurate or true statement.
It appears that Iraq has three major ethnic groups that have never gotten along. When Saddam was in charge of the country, the Sunni controlled everything with an iron hand. The Shiites, although in the majority, had no political power. The Kurds, the third group, also had no power. Once Saddam’s forces were overcome by the U.S. forces, the Shiites grabbed political power, the Kurds grabbed the northern part of the country, and the Sunni who had control and resented losing it have begun conducting an insurgency. The Shiites and the Sunni both have deep hatred of each other; it is obvious that the Sunni aren’t used to being out of power, and the Shiites resent all of the terrible things that were done to their people when the Sunni were in power. This is has led to brutal killings, with our troops in the middle, mainly siding with the Shiite majority. The country at this time may be in civil war.
Our troops really aren’t fighting “terror” or “terrorists” here. They are actually intervening in an internal conflict that has been going on for a long time back to when England and Winston Churchill was involved. I will add that there have been instances of non-Iraqi individuals crossing the border into Iraq from Syria and Iran to attack American military forces, and some of these individuals may be linked to Al Qaeda, but that is not the biggest part of the problem. In fact, because of our invasion of Iraq and our destruction of the status quo, by eliminating Saddam Hussein, it may be that we have opened a whole new breeding ground for, and encouraged, these individuals to learn how to operate successfully and conduct terrorist operations.
Iraq thus appears to be involved in a civil war of Sunnis versus Shiites, with Kurds protecting their interests, and some outsiders conducting guerilla terrorist operations aimed at fomenting unrest and driving the U.S. forces out. We cannot be involved in a “war on terror” here because there are at least four separate parties here, and it isn’t always clear who is doing what to hurt or kill whom.
• A third arena whom we are not fighting is North Korea, a dictatorship that is working to build an atomic bomb capability. This country is a military threat to South Korea because it possesses a huge standing army of more than a million soldiers. It is a country with a well-defined government, not a loosely organized group of individuals. We have not declared war on them, nor have they declared war on the U.S. But for some reason, at times, they have been included in this “war on terror.”
• A fourth arena that is also sometimes referred to under the mantra of “war on terror” is Iran. Iran is the largest country in the Middle East, with a government that is primarily run by its religious right. They may provide a place for Al Qaeda and other groups which dislike the U.S. for various reasons to develop and train members. We are not at war with Iran, and they are not at war with us. But, for some reason, they also have been lumped into this “war on terror”.
• There are other places in the world, such as South America and the Philippines, that have been also lumped into this “war on terror”, but, again, we have not declared war on them nor have they declared war on the U.S. Numerous groups, some of which hate the U.S. and some involved in insurgencies against their existing government, have the earmarks of “terrorists” in that they conduct underground operations, kill people indiscriminately, have loose organizations, may or may not be linked to other similar organizations.
• In general, it is also important to separate different types of terrorists (a very maligned word) into specific and different groups. For example, Basque separatists, in Spain, commit what we would call terrorist acts. So do the Tamil Tigers in northern Sri Lanka. They can both be called “terrorists.” Please note that, although these groups commit acts that seem to be terrorist acts, such as blowing up bombs in public places and killed innocent civilians, both of these groups are internal in their countries and act much as if they were engaged in a civil war against their existing government.
• So we are not at war with all of the groups I’ve mentioned. We couldn’t be. Many of them have no government for us to declare war on. It is sloppy use of communication to say that we are engaged in a “war on terror” when we really need to understand that there are many such groups around the world, each separate and different, each requiring different tactics, each posing a different type of threat (in some cases, no threat) to our country.
Please remember that next time you hear these words. If you understand what has been said here, you will be able to determine how absurd such a claim is (“war on terror”) and look at what the person saying these words is really trying to do. He or she may be trying to scare you so you don’t think clearly; he or she may be pushing an agenda to take rights away from you; he or she may be saying such words to get elected again; or to be considered “patriotic” or “strong” or “effective”. Always listen to the words and match them to the actions. The outcome may surprise you and open your eyes to what is actually going on.
The truly frustrating thing for me is:
I raised almost verbatim these same points to a conservative friend of mine in his journal. another man piped up and “schooled” me on all my misconceptons. He was articulate, wel-reasoned, and absolutely without fact on every one of his rebutals.
We are not at war with fact here, we are at war with faith. Not even a deistic faith, but a faith that a whole panoply of perceptions are correct.
how do you argue against someone’s perceptions?
Oklahoma kiddo @ 10
The timing is just incredibly coincidental… it seems:
GOP lapdog losing
Israel invades Lebadon for a blatant land grab and to be proxy for US by Syrian border
Blair came over just last week??
IRAQ getting worse every day
Taliban rising in afghanistan
Economy slowing down and congressional elections
9/11 coming up.
Osama (who’s that??) still free….
Tells me its about time for ………. a major distraction. How predictable is it???
Otis @
175
In my experience, It’s hard to break through the simplistic notions that folks regurgitate from the MSM. Frankly a lot of folks are clueless and others simply don’t care.
I’m talking about the lady who drives her Hummer to CVS and leaves the engine running while he daughter waits on line for perscriptions. Or the person who lets a young child stand in the front seat of a moving car.
Thankfully it only takes 10% of people to change their minds and the rest will follow. I always load up on the best soundbites of the day. “$280 Million a day for a war and you can’r take toothpaste on the plane?” “Is America more or less of a laughing stock since Bush ‘took’ office?
My favorite technique is what I call the “Joke Grenade,” where folks aren’t suppose to “get it” until sometime after they hear it. For example, I got advanced notice of an ad campaign from The Catholic League and wrote “Condomaniacs?” shortly before the ad surfaced. I was singing it three days before the ad came out, and the punchline came when folks saw the ads in the subway cars.
I was smiling quietly to myself for several weeks.
Major wire service softens its coverage of Bush terror exploitation: First version of AFP story about White House political exploitation of foiled terror plot was scathing. Later, softened version just made it seem like normal, partisan political bickering between Dems and Republicans. Spinmeisters at work? Or just “objective” journalism as usual? You decide. Compare and contrast these versions for yourself.
I know that I am being repetitious but I think that it has to be said over and over again.
This latest nonsense smells just like a rotting fish-IT STINKS!
Timing, use of existing facts making it more believable,media inclusion re “the facts”, neither head of state breaking off what they were doing,- ………
In a similar vein:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14290815/
Letter to the Editor (StarTribune) (8/11/06)
There is nothing new about liquid explosives used on airplanes. There is also nothing new about the Bush administration’s continued failure to protect airline passengers. While it is regrettable that terrorist want to kill innocent people and they must be stopped, it is important to note that until this most recent incident, the Bush administration (and the TSA) have allowed liquids aboard flights, thereby placing us all at risk. Do not be fooled: the Republican Party will attempt to gain advantage by politicizing everything they can to avoid responsibility for their continued failures.
Several nights ago (a day or two before the British raids rounding up possible terrorists) my roommate told me that he’d heard someone on Neal Boortz’s radio program state that August 22nd seemed to hold some significance for terrorist groups and that they would “light up the skies with fire.”
At the time I filed this away as interesting (and thought the “fire” in the skies referred to possible rocket attacks), but it was only after the reports came in from Britain that I began to wonder if someone associated with the Bush administration was “leaking” classified information again.
The quote on Neal Boortz’s radio program sounded awfully like something our intelligence services had intercepted while monitoring some possible terrorist group. And the August 22nd date sounds like part of the terrorist timeline for the planned bombing of trans-Atlantic flights.
Now, I don’t know who this guest was on Boortz’s radio program (from either Monday or Tuesday earlier this week) and my roommate couldn’t remember his name, but I just wonder what this guest knew about this airplane bombing plot and from whom did he get his information?
Because it looks to me like he revealed classified information about an ongoing terrorist investigation, maybe even precipitating the need for the British authorities to act before they were ready.
In other words, apparently this investigation had been going on for about eight months, with the British, United States and Pakistani authorities keeping potential terrorists under surveillance, whlie trying to uncover even more potential terrorists.
This disclosure on Neal Boortz’s program, just days before the British raids, seems too much like something staged by the Republicans for political purposes…while once again actually endangering our efforts in the war on terror.
Outing Valerie Plame. Outing the Khan guy over in Pakistan. Downgrading the counter-terrorism office before 9/11. The pattern of criminal negligence on the part of the Republicans and the Bush administration is staggering.
We definitely need a change in direction in America. The Republicans have failed us time and again. Their politicized, incredibly inept policies have actually jeopardized all the children of our great nation. Republicans have placed their party above our Constitution, above our Bill of Rights, above our nation’s security, both domestic and foreign. It is time for a change…before it’s too late.
Why aren’t we pounding home the message Osama Bin Forgotten?
After all, that is what has happened.