9/11 Should've Been Prevented......

[CShine 0]

For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

To find out who failed and why, the commission has navigated a political landmine, threatening a subpoena to gain access to the president's top-secret daily briefs. Those documents may shed light on one of the most controversial assertions of the Bush administration – that there was never any thought given to the idea that terrorists might fly an airplane into a building.

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on May 16, 2002.

"How is it possible we have a national security advisor coming out and saying we had no idea they could use planes as weapons when we had FBI records from 1991 stating that this is a possibility," said Kristen Breitweiser, one of four New Jersey widows who lobbied Congress and the president to appoint the commission.

The widows want to know why various government agencies didn't connect the dots before Sept. 11, such as warnings from FBI offices in Minnesota and Arizona about suspicious student pilots.

"If you were to tell me that two years after the murder of my husband that we wouldn't have one question answered, I wouldn't believe it," Breitweiser said.

Kean admits the commission also has more questions than answers.

Asked whether we should at least know if people sitting in the decision-making spots on that critical day are still in those positions, Kean said, "Yes, the answer is yes. And we will."

Kean promises major revelations in public testimony beginning next month from top officials in the FBI, CIA, Defense Department, National Security Agency and, maybe, President Bush and former President Clinton.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/17/...ain589137.shtml

[Ranger12 46]

Okay, first of all, duh, 9/11 should not have happend. It is not like they just made some incredible statement there. Secondly, how are you going to blame a man who had not even been the President for a year yet? Will somebody please tell me how Bush is to blame? Don't you think he would have tried to stop it if he could have? It is not like when Clinton was in office, was told where Bin Laden was, and decided not to act upon it.

People need to quit pointing fingers at the good guys and start focusing on what they can do to catch the bad guys. Kind of hard to do that when you are focusing your time and energy on the ones waging war against the terrorist. Just like the quack lady that is sueing Bush for 9/11 and wants Saddam as a witness against Bush. What is in the world can Saddam say against Bush?! :roll: The people in this world just keep getting dumber and crazier.

Lord, please come back soon!!!!

[CarolinaTiger 0]

to the extent that we can learn from the past in order to prevent future disasters, i'm ok w/ finding out "what went wrong".

if there were pieces of intelligence that should've been pieced together in order to have a reasonable idea of what, when, and where 'something' would happen, then let's do it... of course, you run into trampling people's liberties at some point, and that will meet with resistence...eventually a catch-22.

it appears that C.Rice is gonna be the fall gal here; her statement shortly after the attack being something like, 'i don't think anybody could've forseen the use of planes as missiles'... is being played on the radio now...and that can't be good for her.

i'm w/ ranger...in hindsight, it's easy to point fingers and say how things should've been done differently, but hindsight certainly doesn't stop at 1/1/1....

[Donutboy 0]

Okay, first of all, duh, 9/11 should not have happend. It is not like they just made some incredible statement there. Secondly, how are you going to blame a man who had not even been the President for a year yet? Will somebody please tell me how Bush is to blame? Don't you think he would have tried to stop it if he could have? It is not like when Clinton was in office, was told where Bin Laden was, and decided not to act upon it.

People need to quit pointing fingers at the good guys and start focusing on what they can do to catch the bad guys. Kind of hard to do that when you are focusing your time and energy on the ones waging war against the terrorist. Just like the quack lady that is sueing Bush for 9/11 and wants Saddam as a witness against Bush. What is in the world can Saddam say against Bush?! :roll: The people in this world just keep getting dumber and crazier.

Lord, please come back soon!!!!

Of course, the fact that the intelligence was there for Bush and he'd spent about two months of his first eight months in office on vacation didn't help. If the information bush is hiding would make Clinton bad, why would he be hiding it? After all, this is the group that falsely accused the Clinton staffers of sabotaging office equipment before they left. Let's see..... 15 of the 19 hijackers werre Saudi citizens...... Over 20 members of the Bin Laden family were in America on the morning of 9/11....... They were allowed to fly around the country and fly out of America without the first question being asked of any of them, even though you and I weren't allowed to fly...... All references to Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 commisions report have been blacked out and classified as "topsecret", something done towards no other nation mentioned in the report..... and remind me now of which American political family is good friends with the Bin Ladens...... Oh yeah, we're celebrating capturing the number one most wanted man who had nothing to do with 9/11 or the terrorist network responsible for it. Spin on brothers and sisters. It's working.

[DKW 86 7,447]

For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

Well, we had the 'peace dividend' being spent elsewhere rather than on intelligence. Cliton basically gutted much of our intelligence gathering and military while he was in office. Anyone remember the complete blindsighting we got when N Korea announced their nuke program? Our intelligence community found out on the news. The majority of the Koreans' work was during the Clinton Admin. We didnt even keep up with nuclear materials during the Clinton years.

We had some intelligence but it was not combined enough so that everyone found out about it. We have restuctured our intelligence side and should be better now. Better does not mean perfect tho. No president, Dem or Rep is ever going to be perfect on any issue.

[Tigermike 3,057]

One Democratic consultant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said his e-mail box is "filled daily with conspiracy theories" about supposed Bush administration plots.

    "There's no way to get away from it. To say the CIA knew where the world's No. 1 terrorist is right now and won't bring him forward, that's immoral."

I agree with this democratic consultant, it is immoral, just as the fear mongering and hate spewing of the democrats is immoral.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20031217-115113-2173r.htm

Hack journalism = overly vague & formulaic to the extreme

CShine http://www.aunation.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=3602

Using your definition, we can now call the Democrats,

Hack Politicians!

[WarTim 3,457]

Of course the liberals will try to blame this ,as well as the Kennedy assasination, on President Bush.

They have no message and no vision. NONE.

Come on, howard "the duck" dean?

Bush gets 4 more years easily.......

Next?

[Ranger12 46]

Okay, first of all, duh, 9/11 should not have happend. It is not like they just made some incredible statement there. Secondly, how are you going to blame a man who had not even been the President for a year yet? Will somebody please tell me how Bush is to blame? Don't you think he would have tried to stop it if he could have? It is not like when Clinton was in office, was told where Bin Laden was, and decided not to act upon it.

People need to quit pointing fingers at the good guys and start focusing on what they can do to catch the bad guys. Kind of hard to do that when you are focusing your time and energy on the ones waging war against the terrorist. Just like the quack lady that is sueing Bush for 9/11 and wants Saddam as a witness against Bush. What is in the world can Saddam say against Bush?!  :roll: The people in this world just keep getting dumber and crazier.

Lord, please come back soon!!!!

Of course, the fact that the intelligence was there for Bush and he'd spent about two months of his first eight months in office on vacation didn't help. If the information bush is hiding would make Clinton bad, why would he be hiding it? After all, this is the group that falsely accused the Clinton staffers of sabotaging office equipment before they left. Let's see..... 15 of the 19 hijackers werre Saudi citizens...... Over 20 members of the Bin Laden family were in America on the morning of 9/11....... They were allowed to fly around the country and fly out of America without the first question being asked of any of them, even though you and I weren't allowed to fly...... All references to Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 commisions report have been blacked out and classified as "topsecret", something done towards no other nation mentioned in the report..... and remind me now of which American political family is good friends with the Bin Ladens...... Oh yeah, we're celebrating capturing the number one most wanted man who had nothing to do with 9/11 or the terrorist network responsible for it. Spin on brothers and sisters. It's working.

And your point is what? Again please tell me in real hard facts how Bush was to blame? Also, I say this one more time, don't you think he would have stopped it if he knew about it? Do you think he wanted 9/11 to happen? There was intelligence that Al Qeada was active, but it did not point to the fact that they were going to fly planes into buildings. There is always intelligence about terrorists, but sorting through what it means is quite difficult. I was involved in a combat operation where the intelligence was supposed to have been solid. It was to a point, they just left out the part about heavily armed civilians with RPGs. Again, you make no real hard case for what you accuse Bush of. I say this again, at one time Clinton had real hard evidence of where Bin Laden was, but chose not to act upon it. Hmm...if you are going to blame a president, he would be a good place to start. Instead, Clinton chose to just launch a few Tomhawks into the Afghan country side, killing a few rocks along the way.

Please explain how Saddam being tied to terrorism is a spin. Last I read, there was pretty good documented evidence of that. When you have let Al Qeada train in your country, I think that is a good enough link. If you would quit believing everything that CNN tells you, you may realize the truth one of these days. Oh, I bet you are one of them that believe that the world is "no safer" with and evil child murdering dictator out of power.

So what vacation was Bush supposedly on during the first part of his presidency. Got something to back that up with? As far the "top secret" papers, I suggest you not even go there. Kind of dumb to be commenting about info that you really don't know what it is about don't you think? Since it is top secret, what info would you have that you make it sound like it is bogus. You in the loop at the Pentagon or something? Again, you make second hand comments about what you read and then comment about topics you know nothing about. Unless you have been involved in SOCOM operations in the field or at the Pentagon, it is really silly of you to comment about such things.

[Donutboy 0]

Okay, first of all, duh, 9/11 should not have happend. It is not like they just made some incredible statement there. Secondly, how are you going to blame a man who had not even been the President for a year yet? Will somebody please tell me how Bush is to blame? Don't you think he would have tried to stop it if he could have? It is not like when Clinton was in office, was told where Bin Laden was, and decided not to act upon it.

People need to quit pointing fingers at the good guys and start focusing on what they can do to catch the bad guys. Kind of hard to do that when you are focusing your time and energy on the ones waging war against the terrorist. Just like the quack lady that is sueing Bush for 9/11 and wants Saddam as a witness against Bush. What is in the world can Saddam say against Bush?!  :roll: The people in this world just keep getting dumber and crazier.

Lord, please come back soon!!!!

Of course, the fact that the intelligence was there for Bush and he'd spent about two months of his first eight months in office on vacation didn't help. If the information bush is hiding would make Clinton bad, why would he be hiding it? After all, this is the group that falsely accused the Clinton staffers of sabotaging office equipment before they left. Let's see..... 15 of the 19 hijackers werre Saudi citizens...... Over 20 members of the Bin Laden family were in America on the morning of 9/11....... They were allowed to fly around the country and fly out of America without the first question being asked of any of them, even though you and I weren't allowed to fly...... All references to Saudi Arabia in the 9/11 commisions report have been blacked out and classified as "topsecret", something done towards no other nation mentioned in the report..... and remind me now of which American political family is good friends with the Bin Ladens...... Oh yeah, we're celebrating capturing the number one most wanted man who had nothing to do with 9/11 or the terrorist network responsible for it. Spin on brothers and sisters. It's working.

And your point is what? Again please tell me in real hard facts how Bush was to blame? Also, I say this one more time, don't you think he would have stopped it if he knew about it? Do you think he wanted 9/11 to happen? There was intelligence that Al Qeada was active, but it did not point to the fact that they were going to fly planes into buildings. There is always intelligence about terrorists, but sorting through what it means is quite difficult. I was involved in a combat operation where the intelligence was supposed to have been solid. It was to a point, they just left out the part about heavily armed civilians with RPGs. Again, you make no real hard case for what you accuse Bush of. I say this again, at one time Clinton had real hard evidence of where Bin Laden was, but chose not to act upon it. Hmm...if you are going to blame a president, he would be a good place to start. Instead, Clinton chose to just launch a few Tomhawks into the Afghan country side, killing a few rocks along the way.

Please explain how Saddam being tied to terrorism is a spin. Last I read, there was pretty good documented evidence of that. When you have let Al Qeada train in your country, I think that is a good enough link. If you would quit believing everything that CNN tells you, you may realize the truth one of these days. Oh, I bet you are one of them that believe that the world is "no safer" with and evil child murdering dictator out of power.

So what vacation was Bush supposedly on during the first part of his presidency. Got something to back that up with? As far the "top secret" papers, I suggest you not even go there. Kind of dumb to be commenting about info that you really don't know what it is about don't you think? Since it is top secret, what info would you have that you make it sound like it is bogus. You in the loop at the Pentagon or something? Again, you make second hand comments about what you read and then comment about topics you know nothing about. Unless you have been involved in SOCOM operations in the field or at the Pentagon, it is really silly of you to comment about such things.

Bush warned in August 2001 airplanes might be hijacked and used in terrorist attack

George W. Bush..... no Known link between Saddam and Al Quida

Thursday August 9, 2001

"President Bush is on Day Four of his month long working vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. But along with the 100 degree weather he's also getting political heat from those who feel he's spending too much time away from the White House.

Bush’s "Excessive" Vacation

Bush chosen Chairman of 9/11 Commission had business ties with Osama's Brother in Law

9/11 report cut down to three pages after references to Saudi Arabia omitted

Under pressure from the White House, all mention of Saudi Arabia and its involvement in 9/11 was scrubbed from the report; whittling the document down from 4,727 pages to three doubled-space pages.

Don't you think it's kinda ironic that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis while none were Iraqis, 4724 of the 4727 pages of the 9-11 report concerned Saudi Arabia's role in September 11th and has been hidden not only from OUR eyes but from the commission charged to find what went wrong leading up to 9-11, the head of the commission appointed by Bush had ties to the Bin Ladens, a large contingency of the Bin Laden family was in our country on the morning of 9-11 and were allowed to fly freely around our country while the rest of us couldn't, the Bin Ladens were allowed to leave our country without the FBI or CIA asking them the first question about the attacks, Bush himself has admitted we have nothing that would tie Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks and yet we celebrate Saddam's capture as if that in some way vindicates the attack on our soil by the Bin Ladens.

[CCTAU 3,350]

MORE of yoiu rambling CRAP SHOW.

wonder how many watnings were there for alieans landing wihtin the next 10 years. Damn. If that happens, he would have known about that too. It's always easier to look back and see the signs, now that you know the results.

Get a life. This idiot wouldn't have put it together either. The brightest minds in our intelligence agencies missed this. What makes you think that one man could sort it out?

And if he is the anti-christ, like you say, then wouldn't he have

K N O W N before-hand?

[Donutboy 0]

MORE of yoiu rambling CRAP SHOW.

wonder how many watnings were there for alieans landing wihtin the next 10 years. Damn. If that happens, he would have known about that too. It's always easier to look back and see the signs, now that you know the results.

Get a life. This idiot wouldn't have put it together either. The brightest minds in our intelligence agencies missed this. What makes you think that one man could sort it out?

And if he is the anti-christ, like you say, then wouldn't he have

K N O W N before-hand?

He was told at least a month before the attacks that there was a threat that terrorists might hijack airplanes. This was reported to him by our nation's own intelligence. It wasn't the National Enquirer saying there were UFOs spotted. The terrorist threat was real but Dubya didn't feel the need to cut his month-long vacation short to actually lead and take any kind of preventative measure like, oh let's say making sure airline security is up to snuff or making it more secure. He never notified the top brass of the Air Force to be on standby should such hijackings happen. He never sent our Air National Guard or Air Force into the sky to escort the planes after he learned they were hijacked and one had already struck the WTC. He went into hiding himself, never worrying about the American people already in danger. Of course, he was a Chicken Hawk once before and it's so easy to revert back to one's ways when the crap hits the fan.

[Tiger Al 0]

Interestingly enough, though, airline security STILL isn't up to snuff. Remember the kid who snuck all of the illegal items onto MULTIPLE airplanes and left them there? They were still never found until after he e-mailed several people, including the airlines themselves, telling them what he'd done. We're so safe, though.

[Donutboy 0]

Interestingly enough, though, airline security STILL isn't up to snuff. Remember the kid who snuck all of the illegal items onto MULTIPLE airplanes and left them there? They were still never found until after he e-mailed several people, including the airlines themselves, telling them what he'd done. We're so safe, though.

And THEN, we wanted to prosecute the kid for displaying the airlines lack of security!!

[Tigermike 3,057]

He was told at least a month before the attacks that there was a threat that terrorists might hijack airplanes. This was reported to him by our nation's own intelligence. It wasn't the National Enquirer saying there were UFOs spotted. The terrorist threat was real but Dubya didn't feel the need to cut his month-long vacation short to actually lead and take any kind of preventative measure like, oh let's say making sure airline security is up to snuff or making it more secure. He never notified the top brass of the Air Force to be on standby should such hijackings happen. He never sent our Air National Guard or Air Force into the sky to escort the planes after he learned they were hijacked and one had already struck the WTC. He went into hiding himself, never worrying about the American people already in danger. Of course, he was a Chicken Hawk once before and it's so easy to revert back to one's ways when the crap hits the fan.

He was told at least a month before the attacks that there was a threat that terrorists might hijack airplanes.

There had never been hijackers who then flew the planes into buildings.

This was reported to him by our nation's own intelligence.

Unlike you & I the President gets all of his info from "our nation's own intelligence."

He never notified the top brass of the Air Force to be on standby should such hijackings happen.

If you think the top brass of the AF, Army, Navy, Marines & Coast Guard are not briefed daily and more often as needed you are pretty darn naive.

He never sent our Air National Guard or Air Force into the sky to escort the planes after he learned they were hijacked and one had already struck the WTC. 

How much time elapsed between the two planes hitting the WTC? Was there time to get fighter jets over NY sooner? Do you really think while this was happening that President Bush was reading the funny papers? One thing is for sure, he was not sitting at his desk with Monica between his legs.

He went into hiding himself, never worrying about the American people already in danger.

This is even more lame than most of your post.

When all this started and it was obvious what was happening the Secret Service put the President on Air Force One and kept him in an undisclosed location. That is STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE! It would have happened even if a democrat were in office.

[Tiger Al 0]

How much time elapsed between the two planes hitting the WTC? Was there time to get fighter jets over NY sooner? Do you really think while this was happening that President Bush was reading the funny papers? One thing is for sure, he was not sitting at his desk with Monica between his legs.

Mike, you're asking the wrong questions. The elapsed time between the two collisions is insignificant. According to FAA guidelines, if a commercial airliner deviates more than 15 degrees from its' flightplan OR turns off its' transponder it is to be considered a hijacked plane and NORAD is to be alerted. All of the planes that crashed on 9/11 had BOTH things happen.

No, Bush wasn't reading the funny papers, he was reading a book entitled, "The Pet Goat", with a class of second-graders at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fl. In fact, Andy Card came in and told him of the SECOND crash saying, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." At this, Bush probably sprang into action, God-blessing the kids and giving orders to lock down the skies and secure the borders and alerting the military, right? Wrong. Bush just sat there. He did nothing.

Have you ever seen the video from that day? I highly recommend that you watch it. You'll need the QuickTime Player and it may take a few minutes to download, but it's a very telling glimpse into how our great leader responded on hearing the news that America was under attack. At the beginning you'll see Chief of Staff Andrew Card come in and tell Bush about the second tower being hit. But, Bush goes on reading like he doesn't have a care in the world outside of that classroom. Evidently, "The Pet Goat" was a real page-turner.

[CarolinaTiger 0]

TA has been on this book reading thing for quite some time now...

that must really stick your craw, TA.

i watched the video clip and have a couple of observations/questions:

(a) the tapping of the pencil would drive me crazy if i were a student there...

( photo-ops must really suck sometimes...

© i expected him to be spoken to twice during the clip, not only once. when was he notified of the first plane crashing? why doesn't the clip show that, too?

(d) if bush sprang into inaction, as you contend, why does that bother you so much?

(e) what does the comma mean?

[Ranger12 46]

TA, I do agree with you that our airport security is still no up to speed. However I do highly disagree with your remarks about Bush's actions on that day. First of all, he acted the way he did to not scare the kids, so give the man a break. Secondly, the military had already reacted before he even needed to give the order. I work in the same building as the NMDC (missle command) and things were locked down pretty quickly after it happened. The JCOS does not have to wait for the president to tell them everything to do. There is SOP for certain events and Bush knew his military was doing what needed to be done. It is ridiculous to blame Bush for what happened then criticize him for how he reacted. He reacted the way a CIC should have reacted. I would hate to have thought what Al Gore would have done. If you want to point fingers, then point fingers at the communications break down that would have apparently happened under any President. You seem to forget, that we had F-16's in the air just moments after the second plane hit. Inaction huh? Again, hindsight is 20/20.

[Tiger Al 0]

TA has been on this book reading thing for quite some time now...

that must really stick your craw, TA.

i watched the video clip and have a couple of observations/questions:

(a) the tapping of the pencil would drive me crazy if i were a student there...

( photo-ops must really suck sometimes...

© i expected him to be spoken to twice during the clip, not only once.  when was he notified of the first plane crashing?  why doesn't the clip show that, too?

It sticks in my craw because whether he was reading a book, talking to his daughter or getting a Lewinsky, that's not what he should've been doing when America was being attacked. Get up and do your damned job!!! First, the visit to the school had been made public so anyone who wanted to take a direct shot at him with a plane would've known exactly where Emma Booker Elementary School was. Second, as distasteful as it sounds, only POTUS can authorize the downing of a commercial airliner. They knew that at least two planes had been hijacked and if there were more (there were) the one and only option available may have been to shoot it (them) down. Third, I don't think any meaningful intelligence was to be found in that book or that classroom and by staying there, he needlessly endangered the lives of everyone in that school, himself included.

He knew about the first crash somewhere between his hotel and the school which would lead you to wonder why he even went there to begin with instead of dealing with the situation.

(d) if bush sprang into inaction, as you contend, why does that bother you so much?

You're kidding, right?

(e) what does the comma mean?

What???

[Tiger Al 0]

TA, I do agree with you that our airport security is still no up to speed. However I do highly disagree with your remarks about Bush's actions on that day. First of all, he acted the way he did to not scare the kids, so give the man a break. Secondly, the military had already reacted before he even needed to give the order. I work in the same building as the NMDC (missle command) and things were locked down pretty quickly after it happened. The JCOS does not have to wait for the president to tell them everything to do. There is SOP for certain events and Bush knew his military was doing what needed to be done. It is ridiculous to blame Bush for what happened then criticize him for how he reacted. He reacted the way a CIC should have reacted. I would hate to have thought what Al Gore would have done. If you want to point fingers, then point fingers at the communications break down that would have apparently happened under any President. You seem to forget, that we had F-16's in the air just moments after the second plane hit. Inaction huh? Again, hindsight is 20/20.

You've contradicted yourself here. Which is it, "we have SOP's in place and the CIC is not necessary" or "you hate to think what would've been if Al Gore had been CIC" because you think his decisions wouldn't have been as sound as Dubya's?

If there are SOP's in place that cover it all, then Al Gore would've been more than qualified to handle the events of 9/11.

If there are NOT SOP's in place and decisions needed to be made, then why was Bush sitting there in that classroom doing nothing while America was under attack?!?

[CarolinaTiger 0]

(d) if bush sprang into inaction, as you contend, why does that bother you so much?

You're kidding, right?

(e) what does the comma mean?

What???

i'm not kidding... but your concern here is over something that MAY have happened but didn't. the fact that a plane didn't crash into the school serves as pretty good evidence that whatever was done to protect the president (and those children) at the moment worked pretty well. it sounds like you're upset because he didn't act the way you would have, or the way you wanted him to (whatever that way may be).

of all the things you complain about wrt bush, this one seems the biggest reach...the one least grounded in reason.

are you trying to insinuate that he didn't care what was going on? that he was unable to act, or act appropriately in a time of crisis? what?

sorry to belabor the point...his actions (or inactions) during the early moments of the crisis certainly haven't garnered much attention in mainstream media arenas, and i just fine it interesting

and the comma thing...that's what the teacher kept stopping and asking during the video clip...did you actually watch/listen to the clip, or just skip to the complaining?

[Ranger12 46]

TA has been on this book reading thing for quite some time now...

that must really stick your craw, TA.

i watched the video clip and have a couple of observations/questions:

(a) the tapping of the pencil would drive me crazy if i were a student there...

( photo-ops must really suck sometimes...

© i expected him to be spoken to twice during the clip, not only once.  when was he notified of the first plane crashing?  why doesn't the clip show that, too?

It sticks in my craw because whether he was reading a book, talking to his daughter or getting a Lewinsky, that's not what he should've been doing when America was being attacked. Get up and do your damned job!!! First, the visit to the school had been made public so anyone who wanted to take a direct shot at him with a plane would've known exactly where Emma Booker Elementary School was. Second, as distasteful as it sounds, only POTUS can authorize the downing of a commercial airliner. They knew that at least two planes had been hijacked and if there were more (there were) the one and only option available may have been to shoot it (them) down. Third, I don't think any meaningful intelligence was to be found in that book or that classroom and by staying there, he needlessly endangered the lives of everyone in that school, himself included.

He knew about the first crash somewhere between his hotel and the school which would lead you to wonder why he even went there to begin with instead of dealing with the situation.

(d) if bush sprang into inaction, as you contend, why does that bother you so much?

You're kidding, right?

(e) what does the comma mean?

What???

I was talking about his actions as far as the war on terrorism, not right when the attacks happened. I was thinking quicker then I was typing. Sorry, should have been a little clearer on that one.

[MDM4AU 336]

Republicans and conservatives listen up:

If you haven't already figured it out, the Libs have! Bush is a Nazi that hates America so much that he allowed her to be attcked. He was hoping for more attacks but the damned military got in the way.

Bush has done nothing good and every negative thing that has happened to America dating back to before he was in office is his fault. This is all according to the gospel of Lib. in the book of Pathetic Spin!

This is the truth because they said so!

[Tiger Al 0]

Republicans and conservatives listen up:

If you haven't already figured it out, the Libs have! Bush is a Nazi that hates America so much that he allowed her to be attcked. He was hoping for more attacks but the damned military got in the way.

Bush has done nothing good and every negative thing that has happened to America dating back to before he was in office is his fault. This is all according to the gospel of Lib. in the book of Pathetic Spin!

This is the truth because they said so!

Well, you've embellished just a tad, but you captured the gist of it!!!

[AUBoggs 0]

What happened on 9/11 was something new to the continental US thus all the "hindsight" opinion expressed in this thread is to be expected. I would hate to be in any President's shoes during a time like that. A president has to have thick skin to put up with all the "arm chair quarterbacking", especially after such a devastating event such as 9/11. Do I think everything was handled in the best possible manner immediatly after 9/11? No, but that's easy to say 2+ years later.