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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
RobbySh You are really out on a limb there and sawing it off behind you! You need to check your facts before you go spouting off. The Democrats were not in control of the Senate. The Republicans were. And Carter is really reaching back into time to explain the failed Neocon policies that have only added to the misery in the middle east.
Gee, I hadn't realized how bad W was. How dare he collapse a bridge in Minnesota and let a Hurricane into New Orleans. What a jerk.
I will start by saying W is a horrible president, I'm against the war, the Patriot Act, his record on civil liberties and his drunken sailor spending. With that said, this article has more holes in it than the levies in the Big Easy.
The main problem with articles such as this is it is as if we live in a plastic bubble, and whenever a new president comes in, we move into a new one. Everything was wonderful when Clinton was President, and only when W came into office did we start to self-destruct. Without a doubt, W's policies amplified the situation, but until we all start to understand the core root of the problem, we will always be in these situations. And that core financial problem is the Federal Reserve and a monopolized fiat currency. Artificially lowering interesting rates, easy credit, & fractional reserve banking all create the boom and bust cycle that we have surprisingly only encountered when we have central banks and no competition in the money commodity. And pul-leaze, do not claim that “there’s widespread agreement among economists that the government needs to be spending a large sum of money on an economic stimulus package,” just because you heard Paul “the last living Keynesian” Krugman shout it out. Adding more money into the system is like taking a AA group and locking them in a liquor store overnight.
And now we are blaming W for the infrastructure problems? Is it no surprise that anything the government runs is soon ruined? And not funding Amtrak causes a decaying infrastructure? Why exactly is the government involved in running a transportation business? Again, no surprise that the only profitable (and well-maintained and service friendly) train business ever was run by a private company (James Hill).
One last thing, your numbers are way off. This situation is way worse than you claim, but thankfully we are moving into the Saint Obama bubble. Whew, I was getting nervous there.
Have you ever heard of a faulty premise-"Bush inherited a peaceful prosperous America"-most economist have said that the economy was going into recession, 9/11 happened because the laxness of the previous administration completely undermined intelligence and Oh yeah,blame the president for the weather-the dem leaders in NO could have evacuated the entire area but did nothing and when total catastrophe happens-need a government hand-out-what useless drivel-we'll see how the givers of what is not earned to the non productive do to our country over the next administrative term.
"the only reason 9-11 occured is because half wit Bush refused to rquire reasonable airport security or continue clintons policies to fight terrorism"
You're rewriting history.
Let’s take a look at airline security during the past 20 years. In December 1988, Pan Am 103 was bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 peo-ple. “Legislation and regulations were written [after the attack] requiring mass deployment of automated explosive detection technology at our airports to replace antiquated X-ray and metal detectors,” said Victoria Cummock, who lost her husband in the bombing. “Additionally, standards were set for minimum training and certification of airport and airline personnel, including national criminal background checks. This is just to list a few mandates spanning over a decade.”
Fewer than eight years later, TWA 800 exploded just off the coast of Long Island after departing John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 230 people on board. Initial speculation centered on a terrorist attack. How-ever, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the disaster was caused by “an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank.”
A month after the TWA 800 incident, President Clinton established the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which was chaired by Vice President Al Gore. The charter of the commission was “to study matters involving aviation safety and security, including air traffic con-trol and to develop a strategy to improve aviation safety and security, both domestically and internationally.”
According to Glenn E. Schweitzer and Carole Dorsch Schweitzer, Gore’s commission “strongly endorsed a system of computerized passenger profil-ing to help single out those individuals whom certain indicators suggested should have their possessions more carefully scrutinized.”
Unfortunately, as the Schweitzers noted, this profiling system soon found critics:
"Arab-American and civil liberty groups immediately lodged protests, arguing that passengers should be required to check their luggage, not their constitu-tional rights. They contended that even with safeguards, the proposed profiling policy violates the right to privacy and would cause humiliating travel de-lays for people with dark skins, national dress, and unfamiliar names. They pointed out that airline computer systems obtain data from law enforcement databases that may record a person’s arrest but not his acquittal. Also, they were concerned that the policy discriminates against poor people who do not qualify for credit cards."
In addition to opposition from Arab-American and civil liberty groups, the airlines also balked at the commission’s recommendations. Louis Freeh, then the director of FBI and a member of Gore’s commission, described the situation in his autobiography:
"Our report, issued in February 1997, warned that the airline industry and operations were vulnerable at multiple points to hijackings and terrorist attacks, but basically nothing was done about it. Politicians worried that the public wouldn’t tolerate long lines at security checkpoints. The airlines didn’t want to spend the money to beef up their own defenses. Appalled by the prospect of greatly increased user fees to help offset the proposed multibillion-dollar changes, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association questioned the commission’s independence and objectivity. What should have been a big step forward in the fight against terrorism devolved into the usual inside-the-Beltway brawl."
It was the Clinton administration that refused to enhance airline security because they feared a backlash of political correctness.
As far as continuing Clinton's terrorism policies, Michael Scheuer, the CIA agent who headed the bin Laden desk, summed up who was responsible for 9/11:
"That trio (Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger, and Richard Clarke), in my view, abetted al Qaeda, and if the September 11 families were smart they would focus on the dereliction of Dick, Bill and Sandy and not the antics of convicted September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui…. So, I look forward to ABC’s mini-series, as well as to seeing the quality of the network’s fact-checkers. If they do their job well, some of the September 11 Commission’s whitewash may start to be peeled away. If they fail, however, the reality that Bill, Dick and Sandy helped to push Americans out of the windows of the World Trade Center on that September morning will be buried in miles of fantasy-filled celluloid.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060704-110004-4280r.htm
(You'll need to use the Wayback Machine at www.archive.org to view this URL)
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
