4.13.2004
Priorities under Ashcroft's Justice Department
Domestic Terrorism was not a priority for John Ashcroft before 9/11. Then-acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard sought more money for counter-terrorism and was rebuffed by Ashcroft on September 10 2001. May 10 of that year the Justice Department priorities included stemming gun violence and combating drug trafficking. Counter-terrorism goes unmentioned.
Read "The Phoenix Memo" offered by the aptly named website "The Smoking Gun":
Two months before the September 11 attacks, FBI agent Kenneth Williams sent the below memo to bureau brass in Washington and New York warning that a cadre of Osama bin Laden disciples might be training at U.S. flight schools in preparation for future "terror activity against civil aviation targets." Williams suggested a nationwide FBI review to determine whether such a "coordinated effort" could be seen in other localities. The Williams memo was roundly ignored, of course, until after the World Trade Center was leveled. (8 pages)
4/13/2004
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A Blackout is Crippling- Just a Thought
In a short period of time Logan airport in Boston and LAX in Los Angeles lost power briefly.
The Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas lost power Sunday
Kansas City Missouri lost power Monday.
Disconnected incidences, I know. If America lost power on a large scale, say, shortly before the election in November, would you be ready? Food, water, flashlights and battery powered radio handy?
Remember last summer's cascading blackout?
4/13/2004
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500 Days Out of Office While in Office?
In a follow up to yesterdays posting from yesterdays Guardian newspaper we see that nothing has changed in the Bush "presidential" leadership paradigm; that there has been no change in light of the seeming results of Bush's "missing" pre-9/11 vacation month.
President George Bush has spent more than 40% of his presidency at one of his three retreats, sparking criticism from Democrats that he is not taking his job seriously at a crucial time in US history.
Mr Bush was on his 33rd visit to his ranch in Crawford, Texas, at the Easter weekend, where he has spent 233 days or almost eight months since his inauguration, according to a tally by CBS news. Add his 78 visits to Camp David and five to Kennebunkport, Maine, and he has spent all or part of 500 days out of the office while in office.
4/13/2004
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Busy, Busy, Busy
Just in case you were getting all caught up in The 9/11 Commision and Iraq: "North Korea says standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war"".
4/13/2004
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The "Other Side" is Ugly
Are you familiar with the blog "Little Green Footballs"? I thought the name came from the medicine the fellow running it obviously forgets to take, as do many of the readers there, judging from links offered, the comments posted. Lots of hate there folks, that is about as much as I'll mention. The site sickens me. It is quite popular with, well, folks less evolved, shall we say, people that obviously didn't receive a good upbringing, judging from the comments. I must admit I have no time for it
To give you a sense of the tenor of this web presence, the tagline there is "totalitarian underpinnings optional"- no, I'm not making that up.
Take the Little Green Footballs quiz, wherein you get to guess whether the statement offered came from the site Little Green Footballs (LGF) or from Late German Fascists (LGF)- Hitler, Himmler and the like.
America, a land where free speech lets you see just how un-American, how un-human some peoples attitudes are. You gotta love it.
4/13/2004
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