Did Republicans Let 9/11 Happen?

NYT:  On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal. 

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. 

The article calls it negligence.  Nobody is that stupid.  There must be another reason.  

Anyway, to all you Republicans out there, HAPPY 9/11 DAY!!  You still celebrate it right?   Or have you stopped since Obama got Bin Ladin... ?

Barbaric

Raw Story:  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday insisted that President Barak Obama's health care reform law should be overturned and that people with preexisting conditions should be denied coverage if they have never had insurance before.

This is actually from back in March.  But it's no less disgusting today.  It's clearly not a view any president of the United States should have.

Two Faced

Think Progress:  This morning on NBC, Mitt Romney said that “there are a number of things that I like” about Obamacare and suggested he would retain: 1. The gaurentee that insurance companies couldn’t discriminate against people with pre-exisiting conditions, and 2. The provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents plan. 

Just hours later, his campaign quietly told a conservative website that he actually opposes those provisions of Obamacare

Wow.  This scumbag really thinks he can get away with telling sane, reasonable, moral people one thing, and the whack-job right wing base another... in the same day.  But anyway, yeah, he now says the free market will make sure people with preexisting conditions get taken care of.  Of course it will be anything but free.  As a matter of fact, getting sick in GOP world could cost you everything. 

Ecomonic Traitors

TPM:  Ann Romney pushed back Sunday against detractors whom she said have called her husband “heartless,” emphasizing that she and Mitt Romney have struggled, even if not financially.

“Mitt and I do recognize that we have not had a financial struggle in our lives,” Ann Romney said in an interview with Mitt Romney that aired on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.

This is not true.  Queen Ann and her husband have struggled mightely to defraud the American people and skip out on their tax obligations.  You don't get to such low or no taxes without a fight. Willard has also fought hard to help pioneer the mass outsourcing that's killing the (American) middle class.  

A Giant Miss

Raw Story:  Even many Republican had to admit on Wednesday that former President Bill Clinton knocked it out the park with his rousing endorsement of Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, but conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer clearly wasn’t feeling the love.  “I think it was a giant swing and a miss,” Krauthammer told Fox News anchor Brett Baier.

It's not often one finds themselves as completely alone in the world as Krauthammer is on this. It should definitely give people pause going forward when evaluating his conclusions. 

The Big Dog

Howard Fineman on Bill Clinton:  Still, for the first time, there was a sense that the Democrats – and the country for that matter – would not soon see another figure of his kind: the maddening yet brilliant mix of brains, eloquence, leadership skill, indulgent self-regard and not-quite-met potential that made him the quintessential Baby Boomer figure.

Yes, the Republicans committed treason against our democracy and against the will of the people, tried to remove the man from office.  But we can't fathom the conclusion that somebody who was elected president of the United States - twice - and produced the best results of any president ever, didn't quite meet his potential.  

Devastating Facts

. PolitiFact on Clinton's DNC speech:

"Since 1961 … our private economy produced 66 million private-sector jobs. So what's the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million."

Our ruling: .

Clinton’s figures check out, and they also mirror the broader results we came up with two years ago. Partisans are free to interpret these findings as they wish, but on the numbers, Clinton’s right. We rate his claim True.

While those numbers indicate the results of Democratic public policy is basically twice as good as Republican party public policy going back 50 years, since Reagan's trickle down economics became the GOP standard in 1981, the figures are even more strikingly in favor of the Democrats.