In a breathless display of hypocrisy and hyperbole Jacob Heilbrunn is drumming up the latest attempt by Al Qaeda as all Obama’s fault. The gist of the article is that President Obama did not lose his mind, overreact and scare the American people to death enough after the attempted attack.
Up in the Air: Obama’s Terrorism Failure
Major 9/11 Commission Recommendations Still Not In Place
TSA, Customs Agencies Still Lack Permanent Leaders
Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.
Obviously there were big mistakes made to let this man aboard the flight to begin with and from reports most of the blame lies with the State Departments poor screening when issuing him a visa. About the only article that explained how the system really failed is, “The Trouser Bomber Effect: Watching Government Cure Incompetence with Idiocy“. Not surprisingly the monetary influence of the suspects father probably played a part in the State Department’s decision to issue a Visa to the suspected terrorist.
Looking at the big picture I see too big problems in this country that is preventing us from solving our problems. The first is a whole political party that refuses to cooperate and make this country better for political reasons who is supported by enough of the public to aid and abet their obstructionism. The fact that there are dozens of appointments being blocked by the GOP in the Senate truly shows the depths of the GOP’s efforts to hinder progress or even a more competently run government.
The second is the shear volume of problems Bush left this country with in the first place. Even with a good plan to triage all of this country’s problems there are just too many problems to fix in a short amount of time.
Looks like Newt will have a fun time on MTP or whatever show(s) he’ll be on this Sunday.
Newt says Obama cares more about the rights of terrorists than the safety of Americans and Newt is also demanding that Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano resign.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/30/gingrich-terrorist-rights/
Gingrich/Palin 2012?
FYI: I moved all comments connected to the confusion over the “Request Deletion” function to the Help Desk.
In future, please post all questions about technical issues at the Help Desk so we can respond quickly and not disrupt other threads.
You can find a link to the Help Desk at the top of the far right column (titled, “CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE HELP DESK”), here’s the direct link which you can bookmark to keep handy: http://planetpov.com/2009/12/24/help-desk
BTW, as you know, The Planet is a dynamic site which we update and improve all the time, to make it a better and better place for the membership.
When functions are added or updated, they may appear differently. We will update the membership on major new additions or feature changes but do keep in mind that minor changes will occur from time to time. In this case, we have updated the function that allows you to edit your comments to the newest version. We have also updated WordPress to the newest version which has a few minor changes in appearance here and there.
Thanks!
Ad Lib…and everyone else too:
The confusion over the ‘Request Deletion’ thing was entirely mine, and the disruption was entirely my fault.
Apologies to all.
abby
abby,speaking for myself, no need to apologize. I can see how the confusion might have arisen. Please keep posting your very valuable insights!
Was it Will Rogers that said, “The Best Defense we have as a nation is the Atlantic and Pacific”? or something like that.
Europe has dealt with terrorism for years.
Ireland had, and still has the IRA, even though they are more complacent now, but France had the nail bombs in their public trashcans and since that happened, they no longer have those type of receptacles in Paris.
We’ve been lucky, until 9/11 and we’re lucky again since thwarting the shoe-bomber under BushCO, and now the Amsterdam bomber over Detroit.
I lived in Paris, right after 9/11, January of 2002 was when we flew over there to live for 2 years.
They had armed military everywhere on the subways and trains, because the United States being attacked like we were on 9/11, echoed throughout the world.
They set up blocks by schools, and they took so many precautions beyond what they already had in place.
Let me tell you, that riding the trains and subways, and seeing men and women in full military dress with guns, and I mean BIG guns strapped on, was discomfiting, but comforting nonetheless.
While we were in France, there were more terrorist attacks in other areas of the world, such as the subway in Japan, whereby so many were killed and then the relief workers going in, heard all the cellphones ringing from the dead.
We have to accept the threat as real, and we must never be off-guard.
We must be aware.
And we in the US have another problem beyond Europe, where guns are not so easily accessible.
We must worry about our fellow Americans doing drive-by shootings, or like what just happened recently here in the Phoenix area.
A 43 year old woman was shot and killed after shopping at K-Mart, and her killers were caught, but they killed her for a gang initiation.
And two days before Christmas, a 57 year old woman who always jogged in her upper class neighborhood was gunned down, and there are no suspects.
We live in a violent world and a violent gun-loving America, yet we’re not safer.
And you laugh at me for being paranoid.
Guess I forgot Pepe’s KISS suggestion – Keep it simple stupid!
DOH!
Interesting perspective! I know the genie is out of the bottle, but I wonder what things would be like if we didn’t have that darned 2nd amendment. (Oh boy! I’ll bet I’m gonna’ get grilled on that comment!)
Well, today, I trademarked my ” I blame Obama
Disney might be interested.
You’ve got to love Huffy they even try to make President Obama look bad by cherry picking bad pictures of him. This is the picture they used on the “systematic failure” article.
Meanwhile the AP used this more neutral picture.
In the top picture, O looks like he was just asked what he thinks of the coverage in the Huffington Post.
😆 so true.
I want one!
Me too, me too!
I found this on the Intertubes:
A Commander-in-Chief taking responsibility for once. What a concept!
Obama says ‘systemic failure’ allowed airline plot
But Obama and Napolitano are not showing enough emotion and eliciting “FEAR”.
Oh, we all must be afraid, very, very afraid, according to the Republicans.
Instilling FEAR is leadership, dontcha know and you bethcha!
It’s in Revelations, people!
Is that who “they” are?
Some really old guys that wrote the bible?
OMG
We are so screwed.
Charlie Patton?
I know it’s not Robert Johnson.
I plan to spend 2010 hiding under my bed.
And yet, I just turned off Ron Reagan’s fill in because she was saying that Obama’s speech was just like Bush — designed to keep him in office by scaring everyone.
I swear, this man Can. Not. Win.
I Tuned off both Thom Hartman and Ed Schultz. Thom Hartmans callers were 2-1 saying :what is wrong with you, What do expect in less than 1 year?
Yep, turned off both of those guys.
I’ve always had a problem w Thom Hartmann. He comes of as this intellectual type, but he’s got an ego the size of the moon, and he is not always the straight talker he pretends to be.
But Ed, I was disappointed. I liked his show. But he is off now.
Do the Repuglies have a “FEAR” trademarked? That could mean bucco bucks for them…
He had that No Bullshit tone in his voice. He was not happy.
There is another hp article about the recent terror incident, by John Gambrell, which does not blame Obama. Rather, it asks us to feel sorry for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, telling us how lonely and depressed and confused he has apparently been.
Hello? Millions of people are lonely and depressed and confused; they do not, however, pack explosives into their trousers and set out to blow up 300 people in mid-air.
How anyone can continue to read HP is beyond me.
If I click on an article and it leads me to HP, I quickly close the browser as I refuse to read that garbage.
As far as I am concerned, HP is a rightwing rag by a rightwing hag.
javaz, tell us how you really feel…LOL!
I’m rather proud that I did relay my feelings without one cuss word!
x10 I find little use for that site. The only time I might go there is because of a link.
I still check it out. I want to know what the progressive community is being told by its “leadership.” I should go to Kos more often for the same reason, but that site feels so disorganized.
And I keep posting because I feel obligated to turn the conversation back to the GOP and its obstruction — otherwise no one would ever say it over there.
Me too and there are still a few reasonable columnists over there I like to read as well. But I take their headlines and articles as seriously as I take the Drudge Report these days.
BTW you brought up a good point about some of the people who I call the “progressive saints”. The people that you mentioned are trusted by some progressives with absolutely no intellectual scrutiny. I like you refuse to deffer my independent thought processes to others just because they are a famous progressive pundit.
Exactly the concern I have. Naomi Klein, Glen Greenwald. David Sarota all are trusted names in the progressive community — and not without reason. I don’t know what’s going on with them. They’re acting like political novices.
And what’s interesting.. Now that Krugman is taking a very balanced view of the administration, he’s losing some credibility among hardline progressives. Whereas before, when he was spending all his ink criticizing Obama’s handling of the economy, he was one of the “saints.”
I think this contrariness has to do with the “inner revolutionary” that many lefties have. It’s too boring to plod through actual progressive legislation so they focus on the faults and cry for revolt.
Great point about Krugman. I noticed he is taking a much more realistic view these days. Unlike the lynch mob he is backing Bernake’s reappointment. Too many people buy into the group think whether it’s conservatives or progressives. Bernake and the Treasury Department are soft targets on the surface but if you drill down to what really occurred Bernake saved us from a Great Depression using the Fed powers the way they were designed and Geithner’s plan to recapitalize the banks using private funds worked.
Figures it’s like the people on the left who insist that al Qaeda never existed. Sometimes you can just take a ultra-liberal attitude too far.
Yeah, but how did the twin towers come down faster than the speed of gravity….?
[Don’t laugh. I’ve actually read that]
I’ve seen those conspiracy posts too. I have a number of friends who believe Bushco brought the towers down. To me, that sounds about as sane as the Death Panels and birth certificate conspiracies.
Woo Woos will be Woo Woos and no side of the political spectrum is immune.
Faster than “the speed of gravity”??? I didn’t know gravity had any speed! This sounds like something on a tea bagger sign!
Okay, I’m not into that part of the conspiracy, but both my husband and I agree, had the BushCO listened to the warnings, how simple would it have been to avoid 9/11 by beefing up security at the airports?
Box cutters would have been detected through the metal detectors.
And then again, there are still those who believe Pearl Harbor could have been prevented had they been listening.
Absolutely just the fact that Bush and Co. ignored the dozens of warnings they got was an abysmal failure in keeping us safe.
Remember when Ashcroft yelled that he didn’t want to hear anything more about al qaida?
Or when Condi Rice asked, Al who?
Yeah, BushCO inherited 9/11 from Clinton, even though the first WTC bombing happened within 4 weeks of Clinton taking office, yet Bush Sr. wasn’t blamed.
And yeah, let’s all ignore that the Clinton Admin found the culprit and that terrorist is still in prison.
Gosh darn it all, I hate Republicans and the corporate machine.
If they had granted Coleen Rowley a FISA warrant, we could have seized a computer with the plans on it.
Bush didn’t care about safety issues until it because a political windfall to keep us scared.
‘Request Deletion’ for WHAT? A strong opinion?
I don’t know who is posting that on there. 🙁
Are you talking here or on HP?
She means on here.
No way on here.
It must be a glitch if it’s happening here.
Heck, I’d’ve been banned from here if that were so.
Abby, try to hover over it. See if it’s a link. I think I know what you’re talking about. It’s there so that you can request that your post be deleted if you wish. Like say you posted something and had a change of heart about it then you could request it be deleted.
abby I don’t know what’s going on but I’ll contact AdLib immediately to see what’s happening with your comments.
abby, if you want I’ll hit “report comment”. Never knew wnt that link did! 😆
Paranoia runs deep
Into your mind it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Whoa, some freakiness going on – I’ve got to lay off the coffee!
Never mind this post, it’s based on a confusion….
quelle surprise, abby is confused.
No worries. I’ll call off the cavalry.
pas problem.
Happens to me all the time.
pas des problem.
Happens to me all the time.
I just had it happen to me!!!
Freaky.
I tried editing, and it did some very weird thing.
YIKES.
Maybe I should switch from coffee and have a glass of wine.
I see that too, on my own posts. I assume it allows us to delete our own posts if we decide we don’t like something we said! 🙂
To escribacat and everyone who has looked into the ‘REQUEST DELETION’ thing on my posts (next to the little red garbage can icon):
Thank you for your efforts. Scheherazade has kindly explained it all to me. I thought someone was requesting that my posts be deleted because they were offensive or something, and I couldn’t understand what was so wrong with what I said about the ‘sad and lonely’ terrorist. I’d never seen ‘REQUEST DELETION’ (or the little red garbage can) before.
Apologies if I alarmed anyone.
abby
:[
I’m paranoid as hell anyway, and for some reason, Pepe always replies to me that they want me paranoid, and that statement alone makes me even more paranoid.
What does Pepe know that I don’t?
Well, actually Pepe and everyone else knows a lot more than I do, but when it comes to my paranoia, oh, my head hurts.
😆
LOL !!!
OK, I’m outing myself.
I’m actually Ramirez.
… or am I?
heh heh heh…and you all knew that Andrea C was lurking here, but who knew that she was really….aiii….
….
…..?
What does that mean?
Are you now Spanish or Mexican or Cuban and not French?
Or am I?
You do like messing with my head, n’est ce que pas?
Or whatever.
I never did get the French writing thing down.
n’est ce pas.
That’s it!
You’ve corrected me before.
So, are you really Ramirez?
And if so, does that mean you are a sexy skunk, but with a Spanish accent?
HP seems to be doing all it can to make progressives look ridiculous.
nellie, do you know why abby keeps getting “Request Deletion” being put into her posts? 🙁 I’ve never seen it happen before.
Ohhhh nvm I see what it is…
It seems like WordPress (our hosting service) is doing some upgrading today. Some of the forms are different, the post options are laid out differently. (Or perhaps AdLib is working behind the scenes…)
What the heck are you guys talking about? I have not seen “Request Deletion” or a little red garbage can either in anything! I think you guys are smokin’ something! 🙂
Well, here it is fellow Planetarians, our answer to HP.
Yes, step right up and read who is pledging to take on HP!
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/05/28/tucker-carlson-plans-a-huffington-post-rival/
“”Tucker Carlson Plans a Huffington Post Rival””
Mr. Bow-tie, I’mma-conservative-Jon-Stewart-wannabe-taking on HP!
(I promise this is my last one and may I nominate myself for the most annoying poster on the PPOV?)
“We want to be creators of news.
Tucker Carlson had a show on PBS, and we used to watch it, even though it was difficult.
PBS canceled him, because viewership fell, and on his last show for PBS, he whined about the “liberal” PBS canceling him because ‘liberals’ can’t handle the truth or opposing viewpoints.
This, about PBS that has Charlie Rose and interviews Kissinger regularly among other Republicans and this, about a station that airs “Religion and Ethics”, which by the way, is an excellent show.
Tucker Carlson tries hard, but he’s no Ann Coulter or Glenn Beck.
Heck, he even failed, like DeLay, on ‘Dancing with the Stars’ or whatever show that is on Fox.
Carlson is a lightweight with a glass jaw.
Carlson is an asshat.
That, too. 🙂
j’avaz, O/T do you watch PBS out of Phoenix or Tucson? Or both?
We watch PBS from Tempe and ASU.
With the converter box for digital, we get 4 PBS stations, and we love them all, well, the 4th one is all music with desert scenes, but it’s good for mood music.
Do you do free TV with a converter box?
If so, channel 3 here in Phoenix, just added ‘THIS’ TV and it’s all movies, most old, but some fairly new.
It will be interesting to see how it compares. I’ve never been able to take Carlson seriously with that dumb bowtie he wears. Gawd.
I’m supposed to be working, but I have to add my 2 cents.
I saw this article, that for some reason, disturbed me more than all else I’d seen over at HP. I read it on the 24th, the day they posted it, and it was already closed for comments, which I found strange.
It is utterly shameless Obama Bashing at it’s high point.
Fox would be proud!!
How to combat this ceaseless attack of rethoric in the upcoming election cycle is my biggest concern.
We need a plan or these folks will tire us out. ?????
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/what-if-president-obama-s_b_402955.html
Maybe it’s the new coffeemaker from Santa, but today I am revved up and ready to go!
(it did help to take a few days off for frivolity, but I’m ready to take it on now)
YES WE CAN.
And yes, we will!
Fired up and ready.
I notice comments are closed for that piece of nonsense. He must have been getting pilloried.
Step by step, HP is increasing the right wing voice on the site. I’m expecting the progressive pretense to be thrown aside entirely within the next two years. Too bad for Tucker Carlson. He thought he’d found a new niche.
Nellie, I have an idea for the AH “project” you mentioned last week. I think it was Tiger who posted the link to the AH column archives. I skimmed through some of them and thought it was be interesting to do a more thorough job of that and track her trajectory over a period of years, based on her own writings. It would take some time but could be very revealing.
I saw those columns. I thought they were fascinating.
That she could transform a personal blog of such a modest quality into the Huffington Post is pretty remarkable. Arianna definitely has a good head for business.
I was thinking about looking at those columns to find out why and when her politics changed. Might be interesting to know that.
I’m also thinking HP might not be the only site to look at. It’s the demoralizing that I have a problem with. We need to find a different way.
This bullhockey from the “Fair and Balanced” station has got to stop –
http://rawstory.com/2009/12/simmons-obama-emboldened-terrorists/
“”Wayne Simmons, a former CIA agent and member of the military analysts program, which the New York Times outed in 2008 as a Pentagon propaganda effort, told Fox’s Brian Kilmeade that terrorists are “emboldened” to attack the United States and its allies because “they recognize … that there will be no repercussions from the Obama administration.”””
This just makes me sick.
I’m liking Reid more and more –
Harry Reid is going to push for the vote for a new TSA director no matter DeMint’s shouts about unions.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2009/12/29/cloture_tsa
I’m a big fan of Harry Reid. I like people who don’t bluster but get things done.
Yup, he does seem to walk softly and carry a big stick.
He appears to be a gentleman, and that is a trait sorely lacking in today’s political atmosphere.
What adult, in his right mind, can believe, with all the passenger flights across the world, that no terrorist will ever again board an airplane?
One can always say that the admin did not do enough. No admin has ever done enough about anything.
But compare that to BushCo’s reaction to the Aug 6 PDB.
The gulf between doing NOTHING and and not doing enough is absolute.
Obviously big mistakes were made and some heads should roll but fucking Repugs and even left leaning “terrorism experts” with books to sell are acting like this was a successful 911.
I am by no means sure that any big mistakes were made.
The evidence that I have seen does not necessarily take us there.
We have a whole ocean of information on terrorists. We would be lucky to review a bucketful of it.