Letters to the Editor
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So are you gay?
Those gay men, many of whom seem otherwise intelligent (thought not, frankly, well-adjusted) become distinguished by their extreme cattiness - none more so that Glenn Greenwald.
-- Ossifer Mancuso
Not that there is anything wrong with that, but you seem to have a lot of personal experience. Would you care to share more insight with the group?
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Secure against an incoming plane?
...though I do not wish to make any excuses for anyone within this maladministration, is that the school location was "secure," having already been thoroughly checked out, etc., by the Secret Service.
Not my idea; I read the suggestion somewhere online, but I honestly don't remember where.
-- Anonymust
surely you jest.
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Margalis
To the other poster, yes Bush said he saw the first plane hit on TV. Like so many other Bush admin fiascos the question becomes "stupid or liar?"
Stupid in that he actually saw the plane hit on live TV and revealed it publicly *twice*?
Or stupid in that he doesn't actually have a clue what happened that day?
As carefully as Bush is scripted and coached I find it extremely difficult to believe that his first faux pas was not brought to his attention by someone, even if it be Ctheney.
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Thanks bystander
Again. I don't know if I'll find it, it wasn't in the U.S. It seems a lot of people are questioning the revisions by now, so maybe enough will get saved. I think the government line is that she started to duck and then the bomb went off and that was why she hit the lever with such force. The neck injury that prompted a doctor (some reports say a medic, don't know what a 'medic' is in Pakistan) to say she had massive spinal injury seems to have disappeared, along with the shoulder/chest injury.
But people inside the car remember her slumping first, and the photographer seems to remember that too. Besides there was a story that the perpetrator was wrestled to the ground and then detonated himself. But there was a guy who was right next to a guy with a "Kalashnikov" who pushed the barrel away. He doesn't remember when that occured relative to the explosion.
I suppose it will all get sorted out, but the government apparently has a big stake in diminishing the bullets or bombs theories because it diminishes the martyrdom or something.
RMP is right that witnesses often aren't reliable, but some of these people saw things and then got injured in the explosion, or saw things and then shot photographs. Machines don't make the same mistakes and explosions don't go backward in time.
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Wabanatta_3
You could be close. I thought the screen name looked familiar.
A Confederacy of Dunces
From Wiki:
Angelo Mancuso is an inept police officer, the nephew of Santa Battaglia. The sergeant in charge is angry with him, and he must somehow make a major bust to avoid being kicked off the force, being reduced to wear ridiculous disguises, and spending time in the bus station toilets in order to arrest "suspicious characters"
Didn't we do rounds on this book title awhile back?
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My theory, Anonymust
And again I ask, why has no one complained about GWB's hair?
My theory is that there is so much to complain about that this just doesn't make the, um, cut (pardon please). ;->
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Bush in the classroom
All of you Bush defenders are getting this wrong, to an astounding degree. There are two issues:
1) What Bush did in the classroom
2) How the press covered it
In terms of 1), There's no ambiguity at all. Watch the videotape. The President is engaged in a press event (reading a picture book to children). His Chief of Staff interrupts to inform him that a terrorist attack is underway (two planes hitting the World Trade Center). He stares into space and then goes back to reading the book. He does nothing else until he's finished reading the book seven minutes later. This is not open to interpretation; there is nothing to "figure out." He simply did not realize that he was supposed to react immediately. Andrew Card realized that the event warranted the President's immediate attention and interrupted to tell him about it. Bush did not understand what he'd been told; did not realize that it was incumbent on him to act; to do something, so he did not.
As far as 2)goes, it's even simpler. There's no question that the press gave Bush a pass on this. Card etc. can say he was "weighing his options" etc. but you don't "weigh options" while reading a picture book aloud to children. You stop and do something. Obviously Card thought he would do this; he probably stood uncomfortably for seven minutes, thinking, "Should I lean back in and say, 'Mr. President, this requires your immediate attention?' or thinking 'I can't believe he's not doing anything' but not interrupting out of indecision. The point is that it never came up again except when liberals attacked Bush. None of the pundits who attack Democrats for being "weak" on national defense acknowledged that Bush had shown us all how he reacts to a crisis. Again, as far as b>2) is concerned, even if you think Bush reacted properly, you must acknowledge that, had Clinton or any Democrat sat there for another seven minutes (reading a book with a title like "My Pet Goat") we never would have heard the end of it. "My Pet Goat" would be permanently attached to the Democrat the way WIllie Horton was attached to Dukakis; Lewinsky or Whitewater to Clinton; wind-surfing to Kerry; haircuts to Edwards. (Never mind the comparative triviality of all these examples to the egregious, televised proof that Bush cannot properly react to something happening.)
Anyone continuing to defend Bush or the press on any of this is doing it on purpose for political reasons and is simply pretending not to see the truth.
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As I said, it was not my idea,
...just something I read somewhere else.
No jest intended, just discussion.
However, it is also worth pointing out that MacDill AFB is very close to Sarasota, and is the site of USCENTCOM.
I don't know enough of the details about 9/11 and I'm not an engineer, etc., but I can understand/sympathize with those who think there is much more than meets the eye. (Perhaps it is due to my coming of age in the late '60's and early '70's.) Surely, planning an event for Bush so near to MacDill for that day might support the notion of advance intelligence that something could happen that day.
Just playing the devil's advocate here...