Color me speechless. I know the GOP is pretty adept at turning dem strengths into weaknesses, from Kerry's war-hero status to Obama's soaring crowd-drawing speeches. But while it's pretty obvious Mr. Noun-Verb-9/11 is beyond any sense of reality in claiming GOP advantage over Hillary's brilliant speech, I wouldn't put it past them to somehow able to turn that into an advantage for McCain, yet again! A stretch I know, but nontheless I worry dems will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat again.
I am assuming that most of us have played drinking games at some point or another. One of my favorite ones is watching "Strange Brew" and taking a drink everytime they say, "eh". Get trashed before the opening credits. Well, I have an idea....
What Obama needs to do? Isn't it frikkin obvious? He needs to FIGHT! He needs to not puss out from getting nasty and attacking McCain! Obama so far has managed to let people keep seeing shades of Kerry in him as a result. And so far, the biggest political story this summer is Obama's refusal to fight! I'm nervous and worried that he's going to stand there and take it, like Gore and Kerry. You can get crazy mad at me for telling the truth, but can you name one Democratic pundit who says Obama is doing an adequate job of fighting back?
This diary is not a conspiracy theory, I repeat, not a conspiracy theory. Rather, it is an analysis of the NIST's final report on what caused the collapse of WTC7. And while some people say that its time to move on to other things, I disagree because NIST is presenting a brand new hypothesis, and it deserves some critical analysis. Also, the timing is suspect, coming out right before the Democratic primary so people would forget about it. Well, I say let's not forget.
After reading the NIST press release and final report, the explanation of how a chain reaction total collapse was started by the failure of one floor girder seems both a wild guess and absurd on its face.
There are some significant anniversaries rolling around these next few weeks. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Prague Spring, a date which is even more significant given the Russian invasion of Georgia. We have the Katrina anniversary next week. The 7th 9/11 anniversary is coming around shortly. Each of these dates, like 11/11/18, has something to teach us about our present.
To date I've been a total Casandra on this website. I've spent a lot of time kvetching about Obama's eroding polls. My main goal is to try to alert people about potential bad news. Like the Stock Market, I've predicted 11 of the lat 6 Obama crises. I don't intent to stop now!
Have you noticed? "POW" is the new "9/11" in the Republican vocabulary. In honor of this new strategy, shouldn't we come up with a name for him that embodies both shameless uses of horrible events. Something like..."John McCain - 911 POW" or "POW John McCain - 9/11" or "John "POW" McCain 9/11" or "9/11 POW John McCain". Any other suggestions????
Much like the iconic towers that fell on Septermber 11th, 2001, a major component of the "9/11 Truth" movement argument has collapsed. One of the few really compelling arguments advanced was the "two planes/three buildings" mystery that highlighted the collapse of the World Trade Center 7 tower.
Scientists (oh those meddling kids!) have now developed a model of how this tower collapsed despite the fact that it was not also hit by an airplane.
WASHINGTON — A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.
The National Security Archive has just released a Load of Files Electronic Briefing Book No. 253 Posted - August 20, 2008 under the title: 1998 Missile Strikes on Bin Laden May Have Backfired with a subtitle: Extensive 1999 Report on Al-Qaeda Threat Released by U.S. Dept of Energy, Taliban Told U.S. They Wanted to Bomb Washington
With backlinks to the PDF's and more links in the sidebar on the left.
The REPUBLICAN congressional years 1994 - 2006 (and 2000-2008 President Bush years) will be remembered for all they've accomplished...
Seven year war in Afghanistan, 5 year war in Iraq with close to 660 billion dollars spent, part of which we now owe China to pay for them.
North Korea, Iran and now Russia, are all greater powers then before the GOP took control of government. Pakistan with nukes is about to lose their (U.S. picked) leader. China is now listed as having the most manufacturing companies in the world.
Yesterday at the Aspen Institute, John McCain made another "oops," as he called the Georgia v. Russia conflict the "first probably serious crisis internationally since the end of the Cold War."
I hate this time of year, and I have good reason. I start getting ready around now - I turn off the phone. I avoid the news. I take a long walk in the big blue and green room away from the computer, away from the flag-waving hype from loudmouthed Republican talking heads that makes me want to hurl my guts up for days because I know how shallow and temporary it is.
What makes me a little queasy is that August 13, 2001, is my own particular anniversary. Seven years ago today, blissfully unaware of whatever might have landed on Bush's desk, I suddenly decided that making backups of all my files to CD would be a Real Good Idea(tm). All my email, stuff I was working on, scripts and tools, etc. It just seemed like a good idea at the time. I burned 3 CDs worth of data and took them home.
One of the most enduring moments of the 9/11 Commission hearings came when Condoleezza Rice casually recalled the now infamous August 6, 2001 presidential daily brief (PDB). "I believe," she said, "the title was, 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.'" Now almost exactly seven years later, Secretary of State Rice seems to have missed the warning signs once again. Having sent mixed messages to Tbilisi in July and on vacation as Russian armor poured into the country, Condi Rice ignored the alarm, "Putin determined to strike in Georgia."
The Bush Administration's military tribunal system, created in the aftermath of 9/11 to process terrorism suspects, was on the verge of going down in history without a single conviction under its belt - nearly seven full years since its inception.
Well, pop the fucking champagne bottles, baby! They finally convicted a guy - bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan (of the famous Hamdan v Rumsfeld case) - of what he admitted to at the time of his capture in 2003 - being bin Laden's driver.
Normally, I'd treat this as the smallest of small deals - but with Bush and company trumpeting this as a great acheivement, proof that military arbitration is a more effective (they never said fair) way to deal with these suspects than civilian courts, I had to point out what a complete and total goatfuck this whole thing has become.
For those who are contemplating voting for anyone other than Barack Obama, whatever your motives may be, view this diary as a parable. I used to believe it didn't matter who was president, and never voted for president until 2004 - I was first eligible in 1972. I tell this to people I meet who say Obama is like all the rest of those pols, they'd rather vote for Nader. Today, on August 6, I find myself thinking how much it matters.
Arizona Sen. John McCain's campaign will donate $5,000 to the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Paul Lindsay, the senator's Pennsylvania campaign press spokesman, on Tuesday confirmed a report by network television stations that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate's campaign will donate the contribution it received in April from Ted Stevens' Northern Light PAC to the memorial. Indicted Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska pleaded not guilty on Thursday to accusations of planning to conceal thousands of dollars worth of gifts from an oil-services company.
King Laughlin, campaign manager for the National Park Foundation, said he was aware of the news reports, but he hasn't been contacted by McCain's office.
