Should The President have Known About Al Queda's Planned Attack on Sept 11?

Did President George W. Bush drop the ball on National Security?  What would a President Gore have done differently?

My song, "Gone Now Forever"  ( XB Cold Fingers / You Tube ) tells the story of a man who was lost on September 11, and his family. My friend Maria loves it, but it brings a tear to her eye. It also brings me anger, and resolve.

I also wrote "City of Heroes" ( XB Cold Fingers ) to attempt come to grips with the attack of September 11. This began as an eyewittness account - I saw the flames from 34th Street and 7th and walked down as far as 18th St. It developed into a tribute to the men, women and children killed or whos lives were disrupted by the terrorist hijackers, including the cops and firefighters, who rushed into the Trade Center and the passengers and crew of Flight 93.

As I learned more about "Al Queda," which means "The Base," I re-wrote the song to challenge the notion of "Holy War." No religious leaders, I think, are worth following if the teach that “We are Saved and They are to be killed.”

Then, as I began to understand the official American response to the terrorist act, to the “Unholy War” that “brought the twin towers down,” I added an additional focus: our official response, the war in Iraq, our use of torture.

But … President Clinton and Vice President Gore knew that bin Laden was a threat. They knew he financed and or masterminded the simultaneous attacks on U. S. embassies in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998, and the October, 2000 attack on the U. S. S. Cole.

Should The President, then George W. Bush, have had a better understanding of the threat posed by bin Laden and his people? Tony Karon, in “Time” magazine on May 30, 2001, 3 months before the attack on the Pentagon and the second attack on The World Trade Center, wrote, 

“the conviction in New York of four footsoldiers of Osama bin Laden's jihad to drive the United States out of the Middle East.... the man named in the indictment as the architect of the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania wasn't even in court … Bin Laden remains holed up in Afghanistan under the protection of its ruling Taliban militia, and reiterated that it has no intention of handing him over for trial....“

“The war on terrorism is primarily about intelligence — being able to monitor your enemy's communications and anticipate his actions in order to confound his plans and keep him on the defensive.”

As we know from the mission that brought bin Laden to justice, in Pakistan, far from Kabul and even farther from Baghdad, the 'war on terrorism' is a war than can be effectively waged with small teams of commandos using “actionable intelligence.”

Should the President have been able to foil the attacks of September 11? This is an unknowable question. However, We sustained:

1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City,

1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,

1998 bombings of the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,

2000 bombing of the U. S. S. Cole.

And we foiled Al Queda's Millennium plot.

Should the President have been able to foil the attacks of September 11? Here's the timeline of events.  Here's the unclassified version of the August 6, 2001 intelligence memo to President Bush.  What do you think? 

And what would a President Gore have done?  

It's pretty clear that he would not have let bin Laden go and gone into Iraq. But what else? Gore knew that bin Laden was a threat.Clinton, as Commander-In-Chief, set up the CIA unit tasked to investigate bin Laden in 1996. After the Embassies were bombed he ordered an attack on bin Laden's compound in Sudan.

Cognitive Abilities Impaired By Wealth

The Anna Maria Blog reported here

[Australian] Mining magnate Gina Rinehart intends to bring in semi-skilled migrants to work in her mines. She doesn’t want Australian workers because our wages are too high so she’s had a brilliant idea - bring in desperate people from other nations willing and overjoyed at the opportunity to work for half the Australian wage. She’s trying to convince anyone who will listen that it’s got nothing to do with profit, she’s not being unpatriotic, she is simply suffering from an acute labour shortage.

The Anna Maria Blog reported in the same post that there are 10's of thousands of Australians who would want the jobs Rinehart wants to fill, but they would want them at union scale.

Rinehart has been publicly advocating that Australians should work for no more than $2 per day, given the rates at which Africans and Asians work. Does she include herself in that? If she was to start working for $2 per day? As she is said to makes $600 per second, 51.840 Million per day, what would she do with the $51,839,998 excess?

Mark Memmott, showing that he can cover arcane neuroscience as well as hard news at the NPR "Two-Way" blog, has reported that Rinehart, reported to be accumulating money at a rate of $600/second, appears to be having trouble with self-awareness, cognition, and empathy. Some memory loss may be indicated. These symptoms of cognitive deficits are most marked in a video which Rinehart produced herself, posted on the website of the Australian Mining Club (one suspects that the A.M.C.'s wine cellars are at exactly the right depth), in which she argues that great fortune is the product of merit. The BBC, which reported the $600 per second figure, also reported that she acquired her wealth via inheritance. It may be that her merit consists of having persuaded the legator of her merit in leaving her or his fortune to her, or that merit may have been self-evident.

Forbes currently lists Rinehart as the world's 29th-richest person, with a net monetary worth of $18 billion, and the wealthiest woman from the Asia/Pacific region. She could be headed toward becoming the world's richest person, the magazine speculated last year.

If Australia is, as Rinehart claims, to expensive for business ( Anna Maria Blog / Herald Sun / LA Times ) maybe she should move her operations, and herself, to China or Africa. If she did so would doubtless make Belgium's King Leopold look like a prince, or Mother Theresa.

Do Rinehart's mining interests include the mining of lead or mercury? Does she eat the lead? Mainline the mercury? Perhaps she eats whale?

It has also been suggested that lower income class warriors want to "Eat the Rich." If that is the case, Rinehart could feed a lot of them.

It's sad that such an obviously superior woman should be experiencing so much stress as the result of her wealth or the rate of accumulation of same. Perhaps Australian health authorities should temporarily place her funds in the hands of a custodian while she returns to her senses or regains her humanity or her sense of affiliation with same.

Perhaps Rinehart should spend some time with Paris Hilton. While Hilton's net monetary worth is estimated at only $100 Million, as opposed to Rinehart's $18 Billion, we suspect that Hilton has more fun and may have a more profound sense of herself as a person.

Paul Ryan, Marathons, and Character

On June 23, 1990, when he was in college, Paul Ryan ran "Grandma's Marathon," in Duluth, Minnesota, completed the 26.25 mile race in 4 hours 1 minute and 25 seconds. He took 1990th place.( Runners World / Article / Race Stats )

I've never run a marathon, and I think it's a tremendous accomplishment. If I ran several, I think I'd cite my best time and the number of marathons I ran. If I only ran one - and there are no records of Paul Ryan running other marathons - I think I'd remember my time, even after 20 years. If I did it in 4 hours, 1 minute, and 25 seconds, I might say "I ran the marathon in 4 hours."  And I'd only use the term "Personal Best" if I had run more than one. Because if you've only run one race, then your personal best is also your personal worst.

On a broadcast interview on the Hugh Hewitt show, on August 22, 2012 (description / transcript), Ryan claimed his "Personal Best" was "Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something." That's a huge difference from "I ran the marathon once in four hours."


What does this say about Paul Ryan's character? 

I think it speaks volumes and none of it good.

New Yorker / Daily News / Opposing Views / Politico

Why I Love Mitt Romney & Paul Ryan - If Only

Top 10 reasons why I'd love Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, if only,

1. I'd love Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan if only I was a money manager who spent each day considering whether I should sell my holdings in Apple, Ford, or IBM or speculate on Cree, Lighting Sciences, and Solazyme. Then I'd want low capital gains taxes, (except I'd be concerned that people needed jobs to buy the stuff my companies designed or manufactured).
2. If only, like Donald Trump, I was a real estate investor and pocketed a few million each time one of my buildings went bankrupt but the banks didn't want them so they forgave part of the debt, or I simply  owned a few buildings and lived off rents (except I'd be concerned that people needed jobs to pay the rent). (click, click, click & click)
3. If only I was a real estate shark and I made money buying, fixing, and selling foreclosed properties from banks (except I'd be concerned that people I'd sell to needed jobs to be in a position to buy).
4. If only, like Sheldon Adelson, I owned casinos outside the U.S. and was in trouble with the SEC, IRS, and DoJ over the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act over alleged bribes paid to develop them (except I'd still be worried that some low level bureaurocrat wanted to "bring me to justice"). (click, click, click)
5. If only, like some friends of Chris Christie, I owned a private, for-profit prison, half-way house, hospital, school, or other company that performed a government function and could help claim to shrink government by paying less educated or uneducated and less qualified or unqualified people minimum wage to do the work of skilled and trained people. And anyway, why should we educate the next generation? They're just going to be buying crap made in China. (click)
6. If only I owned my own private island and truly didn't interact w the outside world (except I'd be concerned about radioactive waste from Fukushima and US plants, fallout from French nuclear weapons testing, pollution from China, mercury in fish from coal plants, plastics in the oceans, and rising sea levels).
7. If only, like the Charles Koch, David Koch, Boone Pickins, I owned coal mines, coal plants, oil wells, refineries, frakking wells, or nuclear plants, or owned interests in companies like Halliburton, and I didn't go to the beach, didn't eat fish, and I didn't care that "Drill Baby, Drill" and "Burn Baby, Burn" means "Sweat Baby, Sweat," "Swim Baby, Swim," and ultimately, "Drown Baby, Drown." (And I can't charge you for sunlight.)
8. If only I owned gun shops or gun and ammunition companies and lived in a gated community, and never went to movies, didn't have children or grandchildren in or someday to go to college, and didn't go to meetings w my Reps in the House or Senate, or I, myself, lived in a state with reasonable restrictions on gun acquisition and gun ownership. (Why is it that we are not allowed to shout "Fire" in a crowded theater but are allowed to open fire in a crowded theater?)
9. If only the women I care about didn't need birth control or other medical care, and if I never needed doctors or nurses, because anyone who becomes a doctor, nurse, therapist, or other medical practicioner needs an education. ... BUT 
10. I'd really love Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan if only I was a comedian or writer working for Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon, Saturday Night Live or Rupert Murdoch and the Faux News crew.

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Copy Left (CL) 2012, XB Cold Fingers. Ownership Rights Reserved. Feel free to pass it along. This is a work of satire. But while it may be speculative, it's not fiction.  Look for this and my other observations on Cultural Forensics and my YouTube Channel, XB New Music.

Exclusive Interview With Mitt Romney

Wall Street, NY.  by XB Cold Fingers

On the eve of the Republican National Convention I interviewed Willard Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican candidate for President.  It was a "Thought Interview," which did not take place in reality. However, given that so much does not take place in reality, particularly on the campaign trail, it seems reasonable to conduct interviews that do not take place in reality.

"Mr. Romney," I began, "Your father George Romney, released 10 years of his tax returns, and in fact began the tradition of candidates for President disclosing their income and tax returns. He paid at a rate of about 35%.  You released one year of tax returns and suggested that you pay taxes at a rate of about 13% - much less than the 35% rate paid by your father, and also much less than the rate paid by most American taxpayers. So my first question, sir, is will you release tax returns from other years?"

Romney leaned back, took a sip of orange juice, and said, well no, releasing his tax returns didn't help my father become President, why do you think it will help me?

"But the people expect it," I said.

"Well, the people expect lots of things," Mr. Romney replied. "Things like good job. unemployment compensation, health care, being able to retire.  That's part of the entitlement society that we have to change.  Americans need to take care of themselves."

"Why then does your budget plan award oil companies $2.3 billion in subsidies?" I asked. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/23/734721/big-oil-buys-gusher-5-pro-oil-planks-in-romney-energy-plan/?mobile=nc

"We need to support industries we believe in, to help them get off the ground," he said.

"But oil companies are 'off the ground.'" I said, "And a lot of Americans support solar, wind, geothermal, marine hydro and efficiency - the so called 'nega-fuel-watts' of sustainable energy and the 'nega-watts' of efficiency. The cheapest unit of energy," I said, quoting Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute," is the one you don't have to buy."

"Well, yes, but Cheney, Boone Pickens and the Koch Brothers don't support that. They can't charge people for sunlight or energy they don't buy. Get a grip man." he added, almost emphatically.

Moving on, I said, “Rep. Todd Akin recently said 'in the case of legitimate rape, women don't get pregnant, they have a way of shutting that whole thing down.' Do you believe that Mr. Akin's lack of understanding with regards to human biology should disqualify him in the eyes of the voters?”

“I have no comment,” Mr. Romney said.

“Rep. Akin co-sponsored with Paul Ryan – your running mate – several bills which sought to render abortion illegal. Would you push to overturn 'Roe v Wade' and make abortion illegal?”

“I have no comment,” Mr. Romney said, “other than to say that abortion is the law of the land and our platform would seek to overturn it.”

“Really?” I said.

He looked around. “Are we on camera?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“No, Not really.” He said. “Abortion is a great issue for us. Those people get so riled up about it. They vote for us. We could say, 'Give us your houses, your cars, your money, because we're against abortion,' in fact we do, and they do. It's like gun control. Of course we should keep guns out of the hands of nuts. But a few isolated incidents keeps people afraid. And when they're afraid, they vote Republican.  It's also why we are gutting education. We don't want educated citizens who can think. We don't need them in our factories; they just cause trouble.”

“Turning to foreign policy,” I said, “President Obama ordered the mission in which Osama bin Laden was killed, in Pakistan. The Navy Seals who carried out the mission also brought back a treasure trove of actionable intelligence against Al Queda. He also ordered the successful drone attack on Al Awlaki. Doesn't that prove that the best way to fight terrorism is with intelligence and commandos or drones? and call into question the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?”

“I have no comment,” Mr. Romney replied.

“Regarding Iran,” I began, “You are on record for suggesting that 'All options are on the table.' How is this different from President Obama?”

“I am different than President Obama. Therefore it's different.”

He then asked me what time it is. I looked at my watch, told him.

“Well,” he said, “That's all the time we have. But I'd like your watch. May I see it?"
"Sure," I said, and handed him the watch. He put it on.

"You can never have enough watches,” he said.

I looked at the two secret service agents, and Paul Ryan, in boxing gloves.

“Thanks,” he said. “You realize that you're in trouble if I'm elected.”

“Yes, sir,” I said. “So are we all.”

– Copyright, ©, 2012. XB Cold Fingers. All Rights Reserved. Please note - this is a work of satire. At least, not in this universe. It might have happened in a parallel universe.

Justice Scalia on the Second Amendment

Justice Antonin Scalia, interviewed on Fox News, talking about the use by Aurora, Colorado, says,

Obviously the amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand carried. It's "to keep and bear" so it doesn't apply to cannons. But I suppose there are hand held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes that will have to be decided.... My starting point and probably my ending point will be what limitations are within the understood limitations that society had at the time.

The segment can be watched here, on YouTube. With the use of the word "limitations," and the phrase "it doesn't apply to cannons," Mr. Scalia appears to suggest that gun control is legitimate public policy. However, suggesting that "hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes will have to be decided" seems to me to absurd bordering on Kafkaesque. It would be one thing if Mr. Scalia was a commedian like Rush Limbaugh. But he is a Justice of the US Supreme Court.


It should also be noted that while the Second Amendment and the rest of the Bill of Rights were written in 1789, 223 years ago, and the US Constitution, ratified in 1787, was written 225 years ago; they were written to be relevant to the United States of America at that time and in the future. With all due respect to Mr. Scalia, we need to place limitations on the weapons that are available today, not only limitations of the world of 1787.
Would Jefferson and other authors and signatories of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, if you put them in a time machine, and brought them here, asked them to review the Bill of Rights, say "We must regulate cannons, but not assault rifles with 100-round clips or hand-held rocket launchers capable of bringing down airplanes?"

The Second Amendment

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America clearly states:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

How do we resolve this with the rights of people to attend movies (Aurora), go to school (Columbine, Virginia Tech) or to go to public meetings with their Representatives in the House (Arizona)?

We, as members of society must have the right and obligation to regulate access to weapons.

So the question we have to ask is how do we keep deadly weapons out of the hands of sociopaths and psychopaths? Is there a Catch-22 like problem, i.e.,

"Assault rifles are legal to own for anyone who isn't crazy, but anyone who wants to own an assault rifle is crazy and therefore can't own one?"

Or do we simply amend or repeal the 2nd Amendment?

There are precedents for changing the Constitution. Slavery was allowed until the Emancipation Proclimation and the 14th Amendment. Prohibition, established by 18th Amendment, 10/28/1919, was repealed by the 21th Amendment, 12/5/1933.

If you take the Second Amend to it's logical extreme, anyone can own any weapon. Therefore people should be able to buy bombers, aircraft carriers, like the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers, pictured above, or nuclear weapons ....

And consider Iraq under Saddam, Iran, Libya under Gaddafi, Nazi Germany. In those countries only certain people could get guns; only certain people could "serve." In the United States, on the other hand, ALL can bear arms Gay, straight, black, white, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Christian, Athiest ... one nation under sky ...