"I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor"

While voting to shut down the government Saturday night, apparently some of the House members weren't just drunk on power. From a Politico Congressional reporter:

I'm not over exaggerating when I say I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor.
— Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) September 29, 2013

And from a Buzzfeed reporter on Capitol Hill:

I def saw more than 1 member of congress putting a few back on Penn earlier. Ran into 2 in the liquor store.
— KateNocera (@KateNocera) September 29, 2013

And before they even got drunk, they were already acting like drunken pigs:

[T]hey have added a “conscience clause” to the spending bill which takes away preventative care from women, which includes birth control.  

[snip]  

Friday afternoon, Republican John Culberson from TX got huge applause from his colleagues when he compared the GOP’s effort to destroy Obamacare to the heroes of 9/11. Culberson compared the House Repubs to the passengers on United Flight 93 who overtook the terrorists and got control of the plane on 9/11. Yes, Seriously.

This is your government on drugs Tea.

9/11 Remembered...

The OPJ and I don't usually write about the same thing, but today is different.

This is a big deal.

Hey, you remember that Presidential Daily Briefing from August 6, 2001?

The one that the CIA was all shpilkes over (it was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike US") and the one that after he was briefed on it Bush tossed it aside with a casual "You've covered your ass, now."

Yea, that one.

Turns out, there's more to the story:

On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack. Administration officials dismissed the document’s significance, saying that, despite the jaw-dropping headline, it was only an assessment of Al Qaeda’s history, not a warning of the impending attack. While some critics considered that claim absurd, a close reading of the brief showed that the argument had some validity.

That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it. [emphasis added.]

This is from Kurt Eichenwald, reporter from Vanity Fair writing in the New York Times.

For years the Bush Administration said they'd not been told any details of any specific threat, right?  Eichenwald points out:

The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.

The neoconservatives then in command of the Pentagon, Eichewald adds, thought that it was a disinformation campaign by Bin Laden - a deflection away from his BFF, Saddam Hussein.  The grownups at the CIA disagreed but the neocons won out anyway.

There were more warnings that summer, warnings that were dismissed.  And some very bad things followed.

Something else we should remember whenever we hear that "Bush Kept Us Safe."

There's stupid and then there's STUPID

The stupid would be the recently polled 15% of Ohio Republicans who said Mitt Romney deserves more credit for killing Osama bin Laden than does President Barack Obama and the 47% who weren't sure if Romney or Obama deserved more credit.

The STUPID would be President George W. Bush and the neocons in his administration who it is now revealed didn't just ignore the infamous August 6, 2001 presidential daily briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S,” but also numerous direct warnings about a planned Al Qaeda attack that began in the spring of 2001. There were multiple warnings that were given to the Bush Administration in May 2001, June 2001, and July 2001. All ignored. Via The New York Times:

Yet, the White House failed to take significant action. Officials at the Counterterrorism Center of the C.I.A. grew apoplectic. On July 9, at a meeting of the counterterrorism group, one official suggested that the staff put in for a transfer so that somebody else would be responsible when the attack took place, two people who were there told me in interviews. The suggestion was batted down, they said, because there would be no time to train anyone else.

In both cases, perhaps "stupid" is not the right word. Willful ignorance because the facts at hand do not fit their preconceived beliefs is more like it.

And This Is All I'll Say About That...

From Paul Krugman:

What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te (sic) atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.

A lot of other people behaved badly. How many of our professional pundits — people who should have understood very well what was happening — took the easy way out, turning a blind eye to the corruption and lending their support to the hijacking of the atrocity?

The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

Hear, hear.

No comments on this one. I ain't in the mood.

UPDATE: Krugman has more:

Now, I should have said that the American people behaved remarkably well in the weeks and months after 9/11: There was very little panic, and much more tolerance than one might have feared. Muslims weren’t lynched, and neither were dissenters, and that was something of which we can all be proud.

But the memory of how the atrocity was abused is and remains a painful one. And it’s a story that I, at least, can neither forget nor forgive.

The rest is worth the read.

Fox - A Trusted Name In News

Only not so much.

Yesterday Fox "News" viewers saw this:


Media Matters has a description:

Fox News host Eric Bolling pulled a Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday, asserting that there were no terrorist attacks on "American soil" during President Bush's term in office.

Giuliani famously made a similar assertion in early 2010, saying, "we had no domestic attacks under Bush." Of course, the 9/11 attacks happened under Bush.

Bolling's misstatement came during a discussion on the network's Glenn Beck replacement show, "The Five." He and a panel—which included former Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino—were arguing about whether Bush had been guilty of "fear-mongering" during his tenure. Panelist Bob Beckel said that the former president had used fear-mongering around the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As he attempted to continue his point, Bolling cut him off and started to move on to the next segment.

"America was certainly safe between 2000 and 2008," he said. "I don't remember any attacks on American soil during that period of time." Nobody on the panel challenged this comment.

Today, Bolling tried to correct himself:

Yesterday I misspoke when saying there were no U.S. terror attacks during the Bush years. Obviously, I meant in the aftermath of 9/11. But that's when the radical liberal left pounced on us and me. Media Matters posted my error, saying I forgot about 9/11. No, I haven't forgotten. You see, I happened to be standing there watching in true terror as radical Islamists slammed planes into the towers that morning. I remember the towers collapsing, killing 3,000, including 16 of my close friends. And I really remember trying to comfort the kids of my friends at their memorial services. I'll never forget 9/11. But thank you liberals for reminding me how petty you can be.

Only he's still wrong. As Mediamatters dutifully points out:

2001 Anthrax Attacks. A March 2004 State Department report on "Significant Terrorist Incidents, 1961-2003" quotes then-Attorney General John Ashcroft saying of the letters containing anthrax mailed to various targets: "When people send anthrax through the mail to hurt people and invoke terror, it's a terrorist act." Five people were killed as a result of those letters in the autumn of 2001.

2002 Attack Against El Al Ticket Counter At LAX. In July 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet opened fire at an El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport killing two people and wounding four others before being shot dead. A 2004 Justice Department report stated that Hadayet's case had been "officially designated as an act of international terrorism."

2002 DC-Area Sniper. The state of Virginia indicted Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad -- along with his accomplice, a minor at the time -- on terrorism charges for one of the murders he committed during a three-week shooting spree across Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Muhammad was convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed for the crime.

2006 UNC SUV Attack. In March 2006, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV into an area of campus, striking nine pedestrians. According to reports, Taheri-azar said he acted because he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world." Taheri-azar also reportedly stated in a letter: "I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree."

Fox News - a trusted name in news, huh?

Osama bin Laden Dead Eight Years to the Day of Bush's "Mission Accomplished" Banner

Via Wikipedia:

"Mission Accomplished" refers to a banner titled "Mission Accomplished" that was displayed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during a televised address by United States President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003 and the controversy that followed. The speech was not actually titled "Mission Accomplished".

Osama bin Laden is dead

Just waiting for President Bush OBAMA (bitchez!) to say so officially.

UPDATE: Just to make that perfectly clear: Obama did in two years what Bush could never do in eight.

A very unlame duck

Via Talking Points Memo:

Senate Passes... Everything

Today in the Senate, they passed (by unanimous consent) the defense authorization bill that Republicans held up over objections to repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell just two short weeks ago; they passed by a voice vote the 9/11 First Responders Health bill that had been the subject of so much drama and debate; and they passed by a 71-26 vote the START nuclear treaty with Russia despite Republican objections to that as well.

And now, for good measure, they are currently voting to confirm Mary Helen Murguia to be a judge in the Ninth Circuit.

Um, Wrong. TWICE

From the Chicago Tribune:

In a rare public appearance, former President George W. Bush reflected on his presidency and his life out of the spotlight, poked fun at himself, and plugged his upcoming book while speaking at a conference for a finance trade association in Chicago on Thursday.

And then at the end:

"In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amid a real danger," he said.

The former president said his greatest failure in office was not passing Social Security reform.

Just two sentences and he got 'em both wrong.

Did he keep the country safe?

No. Not on 9/11, he didn't. The greatest terror attack on the nation's soil occurred on his watch and he was warned that something was going to happen. His administration dropped the ball and three thousand people died in New York City, The Pentagon, and in Somerset County, PA.

Was his greatest failure not passing Social Security reform?

No. His greatest failure (if it wasn't this failure to protect the nation on 9/11) would probably have to be causing the deaths of 4500 American servicemen and women (by lying about Iraq, about the WMD, about al-Qaeda). And then there's the domestic surveillance (an impeachable offense), and the torture (a war crime).

President Obama on the 9th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks

Volunteer in your community through Serve.gov.
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Oh Lord!

Billboard near the crash site of Flight 93

Nothing like using the tragedy of Flight 93 to make your political/religious point.

While this is certainly constitutionally-protected speech, if there were, say, Punctuation Police (or Style/Taste Police) heads would roll.

I am cringing now imagining that First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush might see this on their way to the memorial tomorrow.

And, is it just me or does it look like the plane is landing on the head of Jesus rather than him holding it aloft, which of course if he had, there would be no need for a memorial.

[shudder]

(H/T to A Spork in the Drawer who saw this at Joe.My.God.)
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NYC Terror Trials Moved To Western PA?

From Politico:

The Obama administration Friday abandoned plans to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Manhattan, following objections from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a senior administration official said. He will be tried domestically, but officials have not decided where. Options for the trial include a military base.

"It's dead," a source said.

The dramatic shift from the administration’s plan to hold trials for Mohammed and four other accused terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay in the metaphoric shadow of the World Trade Center came after Bloomberg, an independent who had been a vocal advocate of holding the trials in Manhattan, reversed his position on Wednesday.

[snip]

The trials would have to move to a federal courthouse, military base or other site in a state where crimes related to the 9/11 attacks were committed, with likely options including White Plains in the Southern District of New York, Newport News or Alexandria in the Eastern District of Virginia, or a venue in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Administration officials told the New York Times Thursday that any decision on an alternate site would be left to the Justice Department. [Emphasis added]

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Rudy "A Noun, A Verb, And 9/11" Giuliani forgets 9/11 happened

Rudy "A Noun, A Verb, And 9/11" Giuliani made the claim today on Good Morning America that “We had no domestic attacks under Bush.”


A spokesperson for Giuliani later claimed that Giuliani was “clearly talking post-9/11 with regards to Islamic terrorist attacks on our soil.”

Uh huh.

Of course now you're probably thinking to yourself that Rudy has also "forgotten" the Shoe Bomber. But, you'd be wrong. According to Rudy, the Shoe Bomber's attempted attack happened before 9/11:


He also claims in the above video that President Obama waited ten days to comment on the Crotch Bomber when it was 72 hours. Further point of fact -- aside from 9/11 and the Shoe Bomber happening on Bush's watch -- there were multiple anthrax attacks and the attack against an El Al ticket counter at LAX.

But back to Saint Rudy. "America's Mayor" severely fucked up when it came to New York City's security. He was the fucking idiot who insisted that the Command Center be placed at the World Trade Center even after it was attacked in 1993 and who also failed to "find a replacement for the radios that malfunctioned in 1993 left them unable to talk to each other, even about getting out of a tower on the verge of collapse." Moreover, '[a] Times editorial concluded in May that the Giuliani administration "failed in its duty to protect the workers at Ground Zero."' [ibid]

The country needs to go back to how it viewed Rudy right before 9/11: a national joke.

This, after all, was the guy who informed his then wife that he was divorcing her via a press conference and actually moved his goomah in with his wife and kids at Gracie Mansion. He's also the same guy who while running for mayor against the incumbent David Dinkins participated in a police riot where Dinkins (an African American) was hung in effigy and an African American City Councilwoman was roughed up on the steps of City Hall.

Rudy, you needed to turn in your NYC card a long time ago.


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More GOP Historical Revisionism

From Thinkprogress:

On CNN today, GOP strategist and former Dick Cheney adviser Mary Matalin argued that President Obama is speaking too much about the severe debt, deficits, and economic recession he inherited from the previous administration. Defending her former boss, Matalin charged that President Bush had in fact “inherited a recession” and the September 11th attacks from President Clinton:

And now this is what Matalin said:

I was there, we inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.

These folks have no shame.

And Still, They Spin

Yesterday on Hardball:


Some analysis from Washington Monthly:

Right off the bat, Fleischer argues that Bush inherited a recession from Clinton. That, at a minimum, is highly misleading. From there, pressed on whether he's "proud" of Bush's economic legacy, Fleischer said Americans will remember Bush as a president who "kept us safe."

When Matthews pointed out that the attacks of 9/11 happened on Bush's watch, Fleischer responded, "Chris, How dare you." It's not at all clear Matthews' comment was so outrageous to Fleischer.

Also note, towards the end, Fleischer argued, "After Sept. 11, having been hit once, how could we take a chance that Saddam might not strike again?" That man, obviously, is without shame.

I don't generally care for "Hardball" interviews, but Matthews' final point was a good one: "I'm proud that we no longer have an administration that uses that kind argument."

And yes, he DID say "After Sept. 11, having been hit once, how could we take a chance that Saddam might not strike again?"

Again?

These people have no shame.

Bush: "I was willing to make the tough decisions."

"You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions."

- President George W. Bush


(h/t to Daily Kos)
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Happy Anniversary!

Via Crooks and Liars, we're reminded that today is the day 7 years ago that President George W Bush was given the now infamous Presidential Daily Brief titled:

Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US

Had he actually done his job that day instead of playing near-mulligan free golf in Texas, the world might look very different now.

So Happy PDB day, everyone!

Depressing Headlines for a Cloudy Tuesday

1) White House ordered forgery to link al-Qaeda/Saddam to 9/11 attacks

2) After rape victim used cell phone to call for help, KBR bans use of personal phones in Iraq

3) McCain volunteers his wife for biker rally topless beauty pageant (Now he can use her in an ad with Paris Hilton against Obama!)
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Is Mitt Romney For Real?

From Talkingpointsmemo.

Transcript:

Cong. Ron Paul: At the same time those individuals who had predicted these disastrous things to happen if we leave Iraq are the same ones who said as soon as we go in it'll just be ducksoup, it'll be over in three months. It won't cost us anything because the oil will pay for it.

Gov. Mitt Romney: Has he forgotten about 9/11?

RP: At the same time the individuals who predicted the disastrous course, the domino theory in Vietnam, I was called to duty. I accepted that duty in the sixties. I served five years in the military. When we left there it was tough, yes. But now we trade with Vietnam. We talk to 'em. The President's come to this country. We go back and forth. We invest in this country. We can achieve much more in peace than we can ever achieve in these needless unconstitutional undeclared wars.

I can't say I'm a follower of Paul's but this is right on the money. And please please PLEASE notice what Mitt Romney's knee-jerk reaction to criticism of the war in Iraq:

Has he forgotten about 9/11?

Is that their defense of dubya's otherwise indefensible war? 9/11? For the umpteenth time - what did Iraq have to do with 9/11?

How much more ridiculous could that argument be? Uh, not much (coincidentally, I saw this last night):

Back to the non-cartoon ridiculousness.

If that's the best the guy who's leading the lackluster pack (albeit with "soft and shallow" support) in Iowa can do, then things look mighty scary for God's Own Party.

The Local Connection to the "World Trade Center" Movie

(Spoiler Alert! You may want to skip this entire post if you plan to see the movie and don't already know the details of the storyline.)

Today's Tribune-Review has an interesting article on Pittsburgh's connection to the movie "World Trade Center," directed by Oliver Stone. While the movie itself makes only a passing reference to a "sister in Pittsburgh," she and Allegheny County 911 played an important role in the rescue of the two officers trapped beneath the rubble.

Short Story Version:
David Karnes who lived in Connecticut went to Ground Zero on his own to search for survivors. He found two trapped men: Sgts. John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno of the Port Authority of NY and NJ. However, local cell phone signals were jammed and his attempts to reach local rescuers were thwarted and he ended up calling his sister, Joy Karnes, in Munhall. She, in turn, made a frantic call to Allegheny County 911.

Dispatcher Randy Tedesco expertly handled the call and passed the info to Michael Lupinacci, assistant communications manager for Allegheny County's emergency operations center. Lupinacci was unsuccessful in reaching the NYPD, Port Authority, and other rescuers by phone. He ended up faxing the message to the NYPD and dispatch technician Greg Bolar sent the same message over the National Crime Information Center. Lupinacci then left a message on David Karnes' cell phone letting him know that help was on the way. Here's what happened next:

At 8:37 p.m., an NYPD sergeant called Lupinacci saying they had received the fax and had dispatched rescuers to the scene. Deluged with prank calls and false leads, the NYPD asked Allegheny County to check out Joy Karnes' call "even to the point of investigating Joy -- to get somebody out there to see if she seemed to be legit," Lupinacci said.

Years of experience told Lupinacci, now 44, "This was a good call."

Still, county police were sent to Joy Karnes' home. "A half-hour later, NYPD called me and questioned me," Joy Karnes said at the time. "They weren't sure whether to believe it. They asked me if (my brother) had a psychiatric history. I told them he was a police officer and he walked out on an excellent job to do this."

New York firefighters called her on their way to the scene to verify the information once again. Rescuers in New York quickly found the site, erasing any doubt.

About 11 p.m., Jimeno was freed from the rubble and taken to the hospital.

"New York called us back and said they did make the rescue, and we couldn't have been more ecstatic here," said Bob Full, chief of Allegheny County emergency services.

Tedesco was home when he heard the news.

He said he was happy and relieved.

"Basically, it's a thankless job and you don't see the results much of what you do," Tedesco said.

McLoughlin, the 19th of 20 people rescued, was freed at 8 a.m. the next day. Genelle Guzman-McMillan, a Port Authority secretary, was pulled from the rubble 4 1/2 hours later.

And the rest, as they say, is . . . a major motion picture.

If you're thinking that this is not the kind of blog post that I normally do -- you're right. But, I remember hearing about the above event at the time it happened because, as some of you may have guessed by now, Mike Lupinacci is a relative of mine. He's my brother.

I will now officially and publicly forgive him for making us all watch every episode of the awful show "Emergency!" as kids. (I will, however, never forgive him for completely and savagely destroying my Barbie dollhouse.)

Oh yeah, and if you think about it, every person mentioned in this article did more to help on 9/11 than George W. Bush did.


Allegheny County 911 dispatcher Randy Tedesco

The Department of Emergency ServicesMichael Lupinacci, Assistant Communications Manager of 911,and Diane DePalma, Assistant Chief