A few nice vacation sell off images I found:
Lizzie Borden House (Bed/Breakfast)
Image by dbking
Erected in 1845, the home was originally a two family and was later made into a single family by Andrew J. Borden.
Andrew J. Borden bought the house at 92 Second Street to be close to his bank and various downtown businesses. The Bed & Breakfast is named after Andrew J. Borden’s youngest daughter, Lizzie. Although she was tried and acquitted of the murders she was ostracized by the community of Fall River.
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Lizzie Borden and the murders....Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was a New England spinster who was the only suspect for the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts. The murders, subsequent trial, and following trial by media became a cause célèbre. The fame of the incident has endured in American pop culture and criminology. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, she was at the time (and is to an extent today) widely believed to be guilty: no one else was ever arrested or tried, and she has remained notorious in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day.
During the morning of August 4, 1892, Borden's father, Andrew Jackson Borden, and her stepmother, Abby Durfee Borden, were murdered in the family home. The only other people present at the residence at the time were Lizzie and the family maid, Bridget Sullivan. Emma Borden, Lizzie's sister, was away from home. The Borden sisters' uncle, John Vinnicum Morse, brother of Andrew Borden's first wife, was visiting at the time, but was also away from the house during the time of the murders.
That day, Andrew Borden had gone into town to do his usual rounds at the bank and post office. He returned home at about 10:45 a.m. About a half-hour later, Lizzie Borden found his body. According to Sullivan's testimony, she was lying down in her room on the third floor of the house shortly after 11:00 a.m. when she heard Lizzie call to her, saying someone had killed her father, whose body was found slumped on a couch in the downstairs sitting room. Andrew Borden's face was turned to the right hand side, apparently at ease as if he were asleep.
Shortly thereafter, while Lizzie Borden was being tended by neighbors and the family doctor, Sullivan discovered the body of Mrs. Borden upstairs in the guest bedroom. Mr. and Mrs. Borden had both been killed by blows from a hatchet, which in the case of Andrew Borden, not only crushed his skull but cleanly split his left eyeball.
Over a period of years after the death of the first Mrs. Borden, life at 92 Second Street had grown unpleasant in many ways, and affection between the older and younger family members had waned considerably if any was present at all. The upstairs floor of the house was divided. The front was the territory of the Borden sisters, while the rear was for Mr. and Mrs. Borden. Meals were not always eaten together. Conflict had increased between the two daughters and their father about his decision to divide valuable property among relatives before his death. Relatives of their stepmother had been given a house, and John Morse, brother to the deceased Sarah Borden (the mother of the Borden daughters), had come to visit that week. His visit was to facilitate transfer of farm property, which included what had been a summer home for the Borden daughters. Shortly before the murders, a major argument had occurred which resulted in both sisters leaving home on extended "vacations". Lizzie Borden, however, decided to end her trip and returned early.
She was refused the purchase of prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) by local druggist Eli Bence, which she claimed was for cleaning a seal skin coat.
Shortly before the murders, the entire household became violently ill. As Mr. Borden was not a popular man in town, Mrs. Borden feared they were being poisoned, but the family doctor diagnosed it as bad food.
Lizzie Borden was arrested on August 11, 1892, with her trial beginning ten months later in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Her stories proved to be inconsistent, and her behavior suspect. She was tried for the murders, defended by former Massachusetts Governor George D. Robinson and Andrew V. Jennings. One of the prosecutors in the trial was William H. Moody, future United States Attorney General and Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
During the police investigation, a hatchet was found in the basement and was assumed to be the murder weapon. Though it was clean, most of its handle was missing and the prosecution stated that it had been broken off because it was covered with blood. However, police officer Michael Mullaly stated that he found it next to a hatchet handle. Deputy Marshall John Fleet contradicted this testimony. Later a forensics expert said there was no time for the hatchet to be cleaned after the murder. The prosecution was hampered by the fact that the Fall River police did not put credence in the new forensic technology of fingerprinting, and refused to take prints on the hatchet.
No blood-soaked clothing was found as evidence by police. A few days after the murder, Borden tore apart and burned a light blue Bedford cord cotton dress in the kitchen stove, claiming she had brushed against fresh baseboard paint which had smeared on it.
Despite incriminating circumstances, Lizzie Borden was acquitted by a jury after an hour and a half's deliberation. The fact that no murder weapon was found and no blood evidence was noted just a few minutes after the second murder pointed to reasonable doubt. Her entire original inquest testimony was barred from the trial. Also excluded was testimony regarding her attempt to purchase prussic acid. Adding to the doubt was another axe murder in the area, perpetrated by José Correira, which took place shortly before the trial. While many details were similar, Correira was not in the country when the Borden murder took place.
After the trial Borden and her sister moved to a new house called Maplecroft.[5] In June 1905, the two argued over a party Lizzie gave for Nance O'Neil and a group of actors. Shortly after that, Emma moved out of the house, and Lizzie Borden began using the name "Lizbeth A. Borden".
Lizzie Borden died of pneumonia on June 1, 1927 in Fall River, Massachusetts. The funeral details were not made public and few people attended her burial. Borden was buried in Oak Grove Cemetery under the name "Lizbeth Andrew Borden", her footstone reading "Lizbeth". Her will, probated on June 25, 1927, left ,000 to the Fall River Animal Rescue League. She also left 0 in perpetual trust for the care of her father's grave. Nine days later, her estranged sister, Emma Lenora Borden, died from a fall in Newmarket, New Hampshire, on June 10, 1927.
The house on Second Street where the murders occurred is now a bed and breakfast. Maplecroft, the mansion Borden bought after her acquittal, on then-fashionable French Street in the "highlands" is privately owned, and only occasionally available for touring.
Several theories have been presented over the years suggesting Lizzie Borden may not have committed the murders, and that other suspects may have had possible motives. One theory is that the maid, Bridget Sullivan, did it; possibly out of outrage for being asked to clean the windows, a taxing job on a hot day, just a day after having suffered from food poisoning. Another potential culprit was forwarded by Arnold R. Brown in his work, Lizzie Borden: The Legend, The Truth, The Final Chapter, in which Brown theorizes that the true culprit was an illegitimate paternal half-brother named William Borden, as a revenge killing in his failed efforts to extort money from his father.
Yet another theory is that Borden suffered petit mal epileptic seizures during her menstrual cycle, at which times she entered a dream-like state, and unknowingly committed the murders.
The book Lizzie by Evan Hunter posed the theory that Lizzie Borden had an affair with the actress Nance O'Neil, whom she met in Boston in 1904. In the early 20th century, it was still considered socially unacceptable for women to become actresses. O'Neil was a spendthrift, always in financial trouble, and Borden came from a wealthy background. The two got along, despite Borden's notoriety.
While there has never been any significant evidence that the two were intimate, the friendship was cited as the cause of Borden's final separation from her sister, Emma. O'Neil was later a character in the musical about Lizzie Borden, entitled Lizzie Borden: A Musical Tragedy in Two Axe, where she was played by Suellen Vance. Feminist Carolyn Gage refers to O'Neil as an overt lesbian, and although there are few documented details of any affairs, Gage claimed that her sexual orientation was well known in entertainment circles, despite her marriage.
The trial received a tremendous amount of national publicity. It has been compared to the later trials of Bruno Hauptmann, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and O.J. Simpson as a landmark in media coverage of legal proceedings.
The case was memorialized in a popular jump-rope rhyme:
Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.
The anonymous rhyme was made up by a writer as an alluring little tune to sell newspapers even though in reality her stepmother suffered 18 or 19 blows, her father 11. Though acquitted for the crimes, Lizzie Borden was ostracized by neighbors following the trial.
Lizzie Borden's name was again brought to the public forefront when she was accused of shoplifting in 1897.
Genealogy
Borden was distantly related to the American milk processor Gail Borden (1801–1874) and Robert Borden (1854–1937), Canada's Prime Minister during World War I.
Elizabeth Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were sixth cousins once removed, both descending from 17th-century Massachusetts resident John Luther. Rhonda McClure, the genealogist who documented the Montgomery-Borden connection, said, "I wonder how Elizabeth would have felt if she knew she was playing her own cousin.
THE SISTERS DUALITY AWARD ...
Image by mrbill78636
... the faces are from one face done in pastels by a well known Chinese-American artist in Corpus Christi of Sherry when she was fifteen years old. The duality is my concept of Sherry as my wife and also as the person who led me to freedom spiritually. She is also the person I hope will be led to wellness again very soon.
There's also the duality in my life of the Hindu religion and Christianity, the duality of the rattlesnake and the deer, the duality of good and evil. There's so much more I want to tell, but I think I'll proibably put most folks to sleep with the first three paragraphs. The duality of that elementary school teacher who made the Taj Mahal live and the Rev. Dr. who announced to me what I have believed independently for years. Welcome to my world.
If you look at the grooves and ridges along the Grand Canyon, or any river bank, you see the places where some rock and soil have withstood the assault of wind and water over a period of time. Survival of the fittest. The strong substance remains and the weak substance is washed away.
If you look at the animal kingdom you see the same struggle for survival. Our residential neighborhoods here in Central Texas a alive with deer. The deer are becoming adjusted to urban living because their natural habitat is being gobbled up by strip malls, housing projects and urbanization, required for our human population growth. The people are responding to the deer because the deer are beautiful and graceful and make their yards look attractive. I've fed deer for years and I hope they will survive their loss of habitat. We seldom see a diamondback rattlesnake in the neighborhoods because they have not been cute and cuddly, so have not survived. If we see one, we don't rest until we've killed it. Our children must survive and they certainly come first. Priorities.
Life is like a game, or more like a whole olympics of games. The first winner is the sperm which got to the egg first creating each and every one of us. But we're missing the whole point. You have to enter the race or you can't win it. Like the man who prayed to God asking that he win a million dollar lottery. After some months, he rails at God and asks, “Why haven't you answered my prayer.” From heaven a deep voice responds, “You haven't purchased a lottery ticket, yet, idiot!”
You have to be there to win. That's why the people with large population growth are winning the survival game; they're simply being there. The Muslim population of Northern Europe is exploding in growth to the point it is predicted Italy will soon become a Muslim nation. Hispanic people now are the majority in areas along the Mexican border. They have increased their population while the Northern European Americans are not even replacing themselves. This is a natural response to specific actions and decisions each group has made. The Hispanics made the decision to be there and the Non-Hispanics made the decision not to. The Muslims are winning in Europe because they came as deer, not rattlesnakes, and as did the Hispanics along the border. There are rattlesnakes in both groups and they have held the process back rather than helping. Of course, there are rattlesnakes in the populations being replaced as well. They tend to help the expanding group with their presence of danger to all.
I wasn't surprised when Barak Obama won the presidential election, but I was surprised at the margin of his victory. I had gathered the snacks together, popped the popcorn, had the ice and Cokes nearby and was prepared to stay up until two in the morning watching the election results on TV. I went to bed at nine-thirty, with a look of amazement on my face. I believe I was watching the actions of a population repelled by the presence of rattlesnakes. There are little cells of rattlesnakes all around us.
Sherry's career was destroyed by a small cell of rattlesnakes. Here's how it happened.
Sherry and I were married almost forty years ago. When we married we moved to Atlanta to take a job I had been offered. That didn't work out. The man who offered the job died only two months after we arrived. We stayed exactly one year and returned to Corpus Christi where I went to work for a paint manufacturing company. Sherry finished her Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and became a teacher in the public schools. I gladly switched to her church, the Methodist Church when we married. Sherry was a natural at working with people and children. Our church put together three part-time positions and offered Sherry a job as Day School Director, Youth Director and Sunday School Director. She was a sensation at that and several years later she decided she was being called to go to seminary and become ordained. I had become a stock holder in the company I was with and was managing a store that moved over five million dollars per year in commercial and industrial paint products. I could see the handwriting on the wall and knew that the rise and success of this small company was about to take a downward trend, so I resigned, sold my stock back to the company and we moved to Dallas where Sherry enrolled in Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
Four years later she was appointed pastor to two small churches northeast of San Antonio, then five years later to a church in north Austin, four years later to Johnson City where we fell in love with the community, the people and the loving nature of the church there. We stayed nine years. Then Sherry felt she needed a challenge, so she took an appointment to a church in Kerrville, Texas that had a reputation for being very hard on pastors. The pastor before Sherry stayed only a year, before the church leaders asked that he be replaced. Sherry moved in with the idea that love would prevail and that the negativism could be overcome.
The previous pastor had been a very fundamentalist soul and told several of the members he believed there were demons in the church buildings and was thinking about having an exorcism. Five years after Sherry took over the church I was ready to proclaim he was correct and I could provide addresses and phone numbers.
The first conflict came because some of the members of this “older people” church were telling new families who visited with children they would be much happier at the other Methodist church in town, because they had a program for children. Their complaint was that children left toilet paper on the floor of the restrooms and left hand marks on the walls. Sherry solved this problem by actively seeking families with children, creating a youth program, building a playground and developing a Vacation Bible School to die for. With everyone in Bible times costumes and a virtual Bible times village.
The demons continued to gripe, bitch and whine for over five years. Then two of the people Sherry thought were with her in a desire to keep the church providing a friendly place for young people and children turned against her. Their basic complaint was they supposedly believed the Bible was a penal code to be obeyed to the letter. My question to that was, “...so what in the Hell are you doing going to a church with a female pastor?” In the writings of the Apostle Paul, he instructs that the women keep silence in the assembly of the church. Probably the main break came when one of our members wanted to teach a special class on Religions of the World.
One of our members, Jim was not only a retired ordained Methodist minister, but had a Phd. In psychology and counseling. Jim came to Sherry and said he'd like to teach a class of about ten sessions, two hours long on the major Religions of the World. Sherry thought that was super and so presented the idea to the chairperson of the churches Education Committee. That person became very negative and said, “We can't even teach our members not to sin, so why are we going to teach them about other religions?” Needless to say Rev. Dr. Jim taught the class, I took it and had a most unusual experience while there. When Jim had explained the basic facts of the Hindu Religion, I told him immediately in front of the whole class, “Jim, that's what I've believed for years, in fact I've always wanted to be a Methodist ever since an old Methodist told me he believed even the American Indian warrior would go to heaven if he struggled to obey the wishes of his Great Spirit.
A few months later, Sherry asked the Bishop to relieve her of the assignment to the Kerrville church and she applied for recuperation leave. She was being treated for clinical depression and the added attacks by these new complainers was more that she felt she could handle.
This leads to my meeting my wonderful internet friends from India and my posting of the blessing from Lord Danesh.
From the internet here is a short statement of Hindu basic belief:
I.: What is Hindu Religion?
1. Hindu Religion, often referred to as Hindu Dharma, Vaideeha Dharma and Sanatana Dharma, is the world's oldest Religious faith. It was followed by the ancient civilization of the Indus valley, Ganges valley, Deccan and Cauveri delta, as well as other parts of India all over the Indian peninsula and surrounding areas of Asia. This Faith, known by many names, is followed and practiced in several ways and forms as it was practiced several thousand years back, with very little modifications, though it adjusted itself to the various times.
2. There are over 900 million to one Billion Hindus living throughout the world, mainly in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia from ancient times and also the Hindus settled all over the world now. There are also many new converts and followers to this practice in the modern world.
3. Hinduism, is as much a "way of life" as a religion and affects every aspect of life for Hindus from birth throughout their life. It is followed by the devout Hindu in every aspect of life and activity, and not just in a prayer only.
II.: Hindu Scriptures and Principles
4. Hinduism, unlike most religions, has no founder and no one scripture. Hindus do not have one "Holy Book" like many other religions, but many texts including the four Vedas along with their Upanishads, called the "Sruti", several Dharma Sasthras or Smrutis, Ithihasas and Puranas including the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Bhagavad Gita, or "Song of God", comes as part of Mahabaratha, is an essence of the message of the Upanishads and Hindu Philosophy and is considered to be a guide on how we should live as told by Lord Krishna to Arjuna.
5. Hindus believe that as all streams and rivers lead to the same ocean, all genuine religious (spiritual) paths lead to the same goal; worship of every form of "GOD" and celestial forces leads to the same good. So they do not try to convert others to our religion. Each one is allowed to pray and worship to a form or a formless according to one's own knowledge, desire, need and spiritual elevation.
6. Hindus believe in One God, beyond form, space and time and beyond human comprehension. They believe that God is Transcendant and Immanent at the same time and will create Itself according to everyones desire and needs to protect the pious, to detroy the evil and establish the Divine Rule of Law and Justice. So, they belive that God will come to them in every form one desires and prays according to one's need and wish.
III.: One God in Many Forms and Many Names
7. Most Hindus, needing a form on which to concentrate, worship that one God in different forms, worshiping one aspect of that One Divine Supreme Truth - Paramatma. -- Hindus see God in masculine as well as in feminine forms and also like a family. At the same time, they all understand the True nature of the Supreme.
9. Please understand that many of the sects of Hindus following the various forms of philosophy and worship andvisualize this same Paramathma - the Supreme God - as Narayana [Vishnu], or as Paramasiva [Siva] and Paraasakthi [Sakthi or Durga]. These are the major forms of Paramatma is understood and worshipped by the various sects of Hindu Devotees.
8. Hindu "Gods" are worshipped in the various incarnations, manifestations and forms as created by the supreme God Paramathma for the benefit of the Human creations to easily comprehend Him as He is. Hindus see that One God taking the masculine forms as Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the protector and maintainer, and Shiva as Siva-Nataraja - the destroyer and re-creator. -- Hindus see that One God in the female forms as Sakthi or Durga, - provider of energy and power, as Lakshmi, - provider of prosperity and wealth and as Saraswathi, - provider of knowledge and intelligence.
10. Here please note that unlike the other major world religions, Hindus also see the Supreme as Mother, including as Sri Meenakshi, as Visalakshi, as Kamakshi and as many other names of Sakthi. He is also seen as Father as in Siva in various forms in several Hindu Temples. -- The Temple in which they are worshipped is not just a congregation hall but a palace of the Supreme God [as the Queen or King]. The dovoted Hindu is able to obtain his or her comminion with the One Supreme God through the prayers to any of the forms as they see that One Supreme in every form or aspect they worship.
IV.: Hindu Rituals and Worship
11. Hindu worship takes into account the capacities and inclinations of different individuals. --Types of worship include Ritualistic worship (temple or home), offering (directly or through the priest) flowers, coconut, fruits, incense, flames of oil lamps and camphor, chanting of prayers in Sanskrit (or their mother tongue), etc.
12. Also: Worship through service of one's fellow man (charity) and by one's activity; -- Worship through studying of sacred texts and devotion to the Supreme; -- Worship through meditation with physical and mental discipline and through understanding first the inner self then the divine that is everywhere. -- Worship and prayers are the duties of the human soul to attain Divine protection from the effects of bad karmas and to get guided in the proper path.
V.: Hindu Beliefs & Tenets
==
13. Hindus believe in Ahimsa, or non-violence, which is the basis for the vegetarian diet of many Hindus. Hindus believe non-injury or Ahimsa in all activities which include thought, word, and deed. Hindus believe in Truth and that the Truth will ultimately prevail and protect. Hindus believe in following the Dharma or the divine Law that will protect them at all times.
14. Hindus believe in Karma, the law of Cause and Effect. Similar to Christian "As ye sow, so shall ye reap" or "What goes around, comes around." (No such thing as a free lunch.) -- Hindus strive to follow Karma Yoga which is Doing one's own duty without expectation of any rewards for it.
15. Hindus believe in reincarnation, or "life after life." (Results may occur in a following life.) Every individual soul returns to earth several times by rebirth to perform proper Karma to purify itself. Once purified by good karma, the soul reaches liberation with no-rebirth. Attachment, greed and lust leads to bad karma leading to grief and further suffering and rebirths to wash off those effects.
16. A goal of Hindus is to achieve Moksha, to be freed from the cycle of birth and death (when the "good" and the "bad" karmas balance.) or to reach Swarga, the abode of the Divine Soul or Paramatma [God] to serve at His feet.
So, that leaves me where I am today, looking for a way to combine the beauty of the Hindu religion and the love as taught by the Messiah of Love, rejected by Israel. I'm still working on it, and I'm still having problems with the concept of “loving my enemies.” .... So you see we've put our rattlesnakes far behind us and we're trying to focus on the beauty and tranquility of the deer. I still have an urge to go back and feed the deer. But you can never go back successfully, only forward to the ocean.
If you've read this far, you're probably very interested in the Hindu religion. Here's a wonderful site for more reading:
www.bnaiyer.com/vidya/vidya-bharathi.html
365.006
Image by twintermute
yesterday's topic: funny baseball names.
today's topic: terrorism and national security.
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Clinton 1, Chris Wallace 0 / part 2 (youtube video)
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Who Did What, When (Olbermann video)
(starts a little slow, picks up about 2 minutes in)
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"
A History of Clinton, Bush, and Terrorism (kuro5hin)
1. A mere 38 days after taking office, the World Trade Center is attacked for the first time. Clinton captures and imprisons Ramzi Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah.
2. January 1994: Clinton's first crime bill provides for stringent anti-terrorism measures, as does the more specifically targetted Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Clinton also requested and received funding for sponsoring simulated terrorist attacks to test the effectiveness of municpal response teams.
3. July 1996: Congressional Republicans object to Clinton's proposed expansion of the intelligence agencies wiretap authority. Newt Gingrich tells Fox News Sunday: "When you have an agency that turns 900 personnel files over to people like Craig Livingstone... it's very hard to justify giving the agency more power."
4. September 1996: Republicans in Congress refuse all of Clinton's requested counterterrorism spending. Orrin Hatch (R-UT): "The administration would be wise to utilize the resources Congress has already provided before it requests additional funding."
5. Summer 1998: Clinton issues series of top secret directives to the CIA authorizing the assassination of Osama Bin Laden and several of his top lieutenants.
6. August 1998: Alleged chemical weapons factories in Sudan are bombed. The bombings are met with bipartisan approval: "The President did exactly the right thing. By doing this we're sending the signal there are no sancturies for terrorists." -Newt Gingrich. Richard Clarke, counterterrorism expert under both Bush and Clinton, testifying before the 9-11 commission, on the bombing: "To this day, there are a lot of people who believe that it was not related to a terrorist group, not related to chemical weapons. They're wrong, by the way. But the President had decided in PDD-39 that there should be a low threshold of evidence when it comes to the possibility of terrorists getting their access -- getting their hands on chemical weapons. And he acted on that basis."
7. Paul Bremer to the Washington Post on Clinton: "he correctly focused on bin Laden". "Overall, I give him very high remarks" - Robert Oakley, Reagan counterterrorism czar.
8. Economy prospers, crime is down, abortions are down, and teenage pregnencies are down. Clinton, however, very concerned about the "growing threat of terrorism".
[...]
10. October 2000: USS Cole is attacked by suicide bombers, killing seventeen sailors and wounding 39 others. Clinton decides to leave any response to the incoming Bush administration.
11. Winter 2000: Sandy Berger briefs Condolezza Rice on al Qaeda. Later NSA Rice denies then confirms that this meeting took place.
12. Richard Clarke lays out the whole Clinton al Qaeda plan; NSA Rice likes him so much she decides he should stay.1
13. January 2001: Outgoing Clinton officials say "The Bush team thinks we're obsessed with terrorism".
14. February 15: Former US Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman issue a report that warns "mass casualty terrorism directed against the US homeland is of serious and growing concern". Recommends the creation of a National Homeland Security Agency.
15. April 30: Clarke presents plan to fight al Qaeda and to start a National Homeland Security Agency. Gets floated around the office, but is more or less ignored.1
16. May: The Bush administration gives million to the Taliban in an attempt to convince them to quit growing and exporting opium.
17. July 10: FBI agent sends headquarters a memo concerning some middle eastern students learning to fly who have no interest in taking off or landing.
18. July: Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet warns NSA Rice that a major attack on American soil is probably imminent.
19. August 6: George Tenet delivers to the vacationing Bush a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.", saying al Qaeda is planning on hijacking planes and possibly attacking New York. No action is taken. The next day Bush tells the press pool "I've got a lot of national security concerns that we're working on - Iraq, Macedonia, very worrisome right now."
20. August 16: INS arrests Moussaoui, saying he's "the type of person who could fly something into the World Trade Center".
21. August 25th: Bush still on vacation. Clarke's memo of fighting terrorism still sitting around, waiting for his attention. Bush tells press "Spot's a good runner. You know, Barney-terriers are bred to go into holes and pull out varmint. And Spotty chases birds. Spotty's a great water dog. I'll go fly fishing this afternoon on my lake." Later builds a nature trail.
22. Feeling the heat in August about an "imminent terrorist attack", acting FBI Director Thomas Pickard requests an additional million in anti-terrorism funding from the Department of Justice.
23. September 5: Eight months after Rice had been briefed, and 11 months after Clinton suggested Bush create it, Clarke's plan finally reaches the principals comittee. Bush is back from his month-long August vacation. Cheney, Rice, Powell, and Rumsfeld decide to advise Bush to adopt Clarke's plan with a phased in approach. They wait several days before they put it on his desk.1
24. September 9: The Senate Armed Services Committe recommends shifting 4 million from missile defense to anti-terrorism funding. Secretary Rumsfeld informs the Senate that he will recommend the President veto this.
25. September 10: Ashcroft sends his budget request to Bush. Includes spending increases in 68 different programs, none of which deal with terrorism. Ashcroft passes around a memo to his department of his seven top priorities, again terrorism isn't on the list. Acting FBI Director Pickard receives Ashcroft's official denial for Pickard's request for more anti-terrorism funding.
"
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My Pet Goat (youtube)
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: >note the absurd spin about how he had to
: >'project calm', as if his only other choice
: >was to jump up, scream and behead
: >himself in front of the children. what about
: >choice (c): get up, excuse himself politely
: >- maybe a little joke about how they keep
: >the president busy - leave the room and
: >get on the phone?
: Absurd? It was the proper thing to do. We all saw the look of anger on
: his face when he was informed of the WTC attack.
i don't know if 'anger' is the word i would use. frankly i'm not sure
exactly what kind of look it was.
: To have remained as calm as he did is a testament to his leadership
: skills.
you're ignoring my point. the issue is not whether he remained calm or
not. remaining calm was indeed the right thing to do. why did remaining
calm require him to stay in the classroom for seven minutes? in what
universe is it not possible to excuse yourself and leave a room calmly?
: >terrorists were flying planes into buildings,
: >he knew it, and he sat there for at least
: >seven minutes. the president is the only
: >person who can authorize the shoot-down
: >of a civilian airliner.
: Bush did authorize the vice president to order such a shootdown of
: Flight 93, but it crashed into a Pennsylvania field before fighter jets
: could intercept it.
sure, some unspecified period of time later.
actually there's some subtle speculation about that. you'll note in the
post article you cite there's a reference to bolton asking cheney to
"reconfirm" the order with bush. somewhere - sorry, i can't find a
reference offhand - i read that none of the other people in the room with
cheney at the time could be put on record as remembering the original
authorization with bush. my gut feeling, based on that, is that cheney
made the call on his own based on the information he had. i'm not really
criticizing him when i suggest that - technicalities notwithstanding, it
was probably the right thing to do.
but either way, bush was not on top of this. would it have made any
difference if he'd issued the authorization in those first seven minutes?
probably not. but he didn't know that at the time. was he even
interested in finding out? cause he didn't try.
: www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50745-2004Jun17
: >is that really less important than
: >"projecting calm" to a room full of sixth
: >graders who were still totally unaware of
: >the attacks? the nation needed his
: >attention during those minutes and it
: >didn't get it.
: You seem to forget that there were several news cameras in the room. He
: was thinking about more than the kids in the room.
so? see "you're ignoring my point" paragraph above. why would news
footage of the president (calmly) leaping into action to manage a national
crisis be bad?
--
: > sure, some unspecified period of time later.
: More importantly, as 9/11 Commission reports and several recent testimonies
: by the commanding general of US Space Command as well as Air Force CoS make
: it clear, they entire country had FOUR fighters on ready 5 alert status
: (which makes interception impossible even if the president picked up the
: phone and ordered the entire airspace to be cleared). [ ... ] To put
: it curtly, it was a complete SNAFU. [etc.]
i don't disagree with any of this. it's not my point. like i said: it
probably wouldn't have made any difference. the nation wasn't ready. my
point is that BUSH DIDN'T EVEN TRY. "america is under attack" - and his
first response was no response at all. he's selling himself as an Action
President, but giving tough-sounding speeches is easy. a leader shows
his true colors in a crisis. we've had the opportunity to see how he
behaved in exactly one crisis, and he choked.
i just don't understand how any president, upon hearing that planes are
being flown into buildings in new york city, doesn't get up and get on the
phone. it boggles my mind. it doesn't make him a bad person, but if that's
the best he can do in that situation, he shouldn't be in the position he's in.
