June 16, 2008
Posted by: Donna
That’s the date that the US visa was issued to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Who was President then? Oh, and two of the men who Abdulmutallab plan his attack were released from Gitmo in 2007. Who was President then, again? And who was the Governor of Arizona at the time? This is the person who should resign? Really, Andrew Sullivan?
See, Republicans inherit terror attacks, even those that happen eight months into a Presidency. Even when the President reads My Pet Goat like a dunce for seven minutes while planes fly into buildings. Even when he lets the mastermind get away. Naturally, it was Bill Clinton’s fault because….shut up, that’s why! Seriously, just ask Mary Matalin. She very glibly and with a straight face declared that the Bush administration “inherited” 9/11 on CNN Sunday. Not only was she not struck by lightning and turned into strip of beef jerky right on the spot, but no one on the panel with her rebutted it. Or you can be like Dana Perrino and just deny that any terrorist attacks happened on Bush’s watch at all. Which is sort of accurate, since Bush clearly wasn’t watching anything.
On the other hand, Democratic administrations are not only at fault for any failures on their own watch, but also those of any prior or subsequent Republican administrations. Additionally, the Democratic administration is culpable for breaches in security in other countries. Can’t hold Nigeria and Holland responsible, the poor dears.
Look, I understand that Obama owns this thing now. I think he understands that too. I hope he doesn’t give into the childish calls to sacrifice Janet Napolitano to the gods of fearmongering. At this point it appears that the only mistake she made was saying something that was massively taken out of context by the preening pundit horde (looking right at you, Andrew Sullivan). Janet, keep your head up, do your job well, and clean up the mess made by the last GOP administration as we always do.
Mark, who’s taking some film courses right now, made the brilliant observation that homeland security is akin to movie-making. A great movie is one where you forget you’re watching a movie. All the elements – story, script, directors, actors, lighting, sound, props, editing – weave together so seamlessly that it becomes all about the experience for the viewer. If you notice a particular thing about the filmmaking, say the sound or the lighting, the makers of the movie did something wrong. The problem, I think, with Homeland Security – well, start with the title. Homeland Security. Egads, what were they thinking? If Homeland Security vis a vis air travel were a movie it would be called “Captain Obvious vs. The Giant Ham Hands”. It would star Keanu Reeves. Nobody feels an iota safer because we have to take our shoes off at the airport and have to put the lip gloss in a baggie. It’s not only annoying as all hell but it heightens anxiety, which is pretty much the antithesis of feeling safe.
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This flight originated and the breach occurred, in AMSTERDAM. How much authority does President Obama and HHS secretary Napolitano have over security in THE NETHERLANDS? Answer: NONE!
And, Donna you’re too nice to Republicans.
You forget to mention that a key security position– that of Director of the Transportation and Safety Administration– is being held up by Senator DeMint (R-off the deep end) because he is against TSA workers joining a union.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/81356.html?igoogle=1?igoogle=1
Oh, and did you see the latest update? He was able to board the plane in Amsterdam WITHOUT A PASSPORT!!
Jeez, Eli!
Dick Cheney would have personally dealt with it in a manly Republican manner. (he would have cut taxes! and abortion! and welfare!) IOKYAR
What outrages me is the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor occured under under a Republican President who is quite probably one of the worst of all time, but it’ still makes the MSM unconfortable to confront this truth. I believe because a number of them loved being spoon fed and patted by the Bushies. Yet when a lame brain with a bomb gets caught, EEEEEKKK!!!. Obama is a failure! After all he set up TSA!
Oh wait.
Oops, I have made an error I must correct. A Republican adminstration (Cheny) would bomb Nigeria.
Or Amsterdam.
I forgot to add to my post that, based on my rudimentary knowledge of explosives gleaned in the Navy, the idiot was unlikely to blow up anything besides his “family jewels”.
One of the more telling bits I found on the internet was that the Brits were supposed to tell us when they found that bogus information on his visa app. They failed to do so and admitted to it.
Donna,
Some of your conclusions are, what is a word that won’t get me thrown off of here, I know disingenuous. To infer that the date June 16, 2008 is relevant to the event, is not right. When the Visa was issued, the terrorist, I mean suspect Abdulmutallab was not yet under any known suspicion. You folks will take any excuse to blame Bush.
Your second point which while valid, is quite hypocritical. It is true that in hindsight the Bush administration’s release of two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay was a mistake, your side had pushed for such releases to win the favor of foreign opinion.
Now let us get in to your main point. That Bush supporters blame Clinton for 911, yet Bush should not be blamed for the Christmas day terrorist plot. How about looking at facts once in a while?
Bush’s first 8 months in office. There was no experience of anything like 911. If anyone had predicted it ahead of time he would have been committed to an asylum. Also there were few mechanisms in place to deal with such an event.
Now we have the Obama team. The new administration had the advantage of the structures that 8 years of the Bush administration had built up. They had the 8 years of successes and failures of the war on terror to look back on. They also did not have the delay of a disputed election to deal with before taking office. These are relevant facts, unlike what you wrote.
“Bush’s first 8 months in office. There was no experience of anything like 911. If anyone had predicted it ahead of time he would have been committed to an asylum. Also there were few mechanisms in place to deal with such an event.”
The first attack on the WTC in 1993 didn’t happen, I guess. Oh yeah, it did, Not only did Clinton not blame his predecessor for it, he brought the perpetrators to justice and they are still incarcerated to this day.
“Your second point which while valid, is quite hypocritical. It is true that in hindsight the Bush administration’s release of two prisoners from Guantanamo Bay was a mistake, your side had pushed for such releases to win the favor of foreign opinion.”
What evidence do you have that “pressure” from “our side” led to those releases? Please produce it, or STFU.
“Bush’s first 8 months in office. There was no experience of anything like 911. If anyone had predicted it ahead of time he would have been committed to an asylum. Also there were few mechanisms in place to deal with such an event.”
Are you serious? Bush got a briefing in Aug. 2001 that Bin Laden was “determined to strike in the U.S” and there were numerous warnings that suspicious people were training at flight schools and not interested in learning to land. He told Tenet, “Okay, you covered your ass” when he delivered the PDB to him. He sat there and read “My Pet Goat” like a moron while planes crashed into buildings.
Donna,
” He sat there and read “My Pet Goat” like a moron while planes crashed into buildings.”
I suppose that he should have bolted up, scared the FS out of the little kids he was reading to, put his utility belt on, and swung out the window on his Bat rope!
“Bush got a briefing in Aug. 2001 that Bin Laden was “determined to strike in the U.S”
No Streisand, Sherlock. ” there were numerous warnings that suspicious people were training at flight schools and not interested in learning to land.”
They also had warnings of hundreds of other suspicious persons doing suspicious things that turned out to be nothing. They DID NOT have SPECIFIC information that TERRORISTS were training to fly suicide planes in to buildings.
“The first attack on the WTC in 1993 didn’t happen, I guess. Oh yeah, it did, Not only did Clinton not blame his predecessor for it, he brought the perpetrators to justice and they are still incarcerated to this day.”
The 1993 attack was a car bomb or did you miss that? From that Bush is supposed to magically know that 8 years later, planes would be used. Besides injuring 1000, 6 people were killed. The perpetrators, or as I call them terrorists should have been interrogated by military courts and executed.
You know we once had a Democrat in the White House who knew what to do with enemy combatants captured in the USA. That would be FDR, who after Nazi saboteurs were tried by the military, executed them in 1942.
“What evidence do you have that “pressure” from “our side” led to those releases? Please produce it, or STFU.”
So your hero Obama is not trying to close Gitmo????? So your hero Obama the Great is not pressuring every nation in the world to take some of these poor, innocent, misunderstood Muslim kids off of his hands??? Senator Obama never criticized the Bush administration on holding all of these detainees with out criminal trials???? I am sorry for taking that for pressure to release prisoners where evidence is shaky. My mistake. I will STFU until you post SRFS again. Which should be anytime now.
I’m Streisand AND Sherlock? Sweet! I have a great singing voice and I’m a crack sleuth.
BTW, Alan, Richard Reid the Shoe Bomber was tried in criminal court. Seriously, he was. He’s in prison for life. Don’t you feel OMG UNSAFE!!1 You should. You should be hiding under your bed RIGHT NOW. Wetting yourself.
Donna,
Richard Reid is in ADX Florence, Colorado. It is amusing how you Obama worshipers have so focused on closing Club Gitmo. Gitmo doesn’t sound so bad, when you read about ADX.
I’ll have you know, there is too much junk under the bed to hide there, and I have not wet myself, well there was that time I was drunk, and then when Obama won. Well I have not from fear since I was 30.
Anyway Richard Reid should be killed just for being the goofiest looking terrorist to ever get his picture on TV.
TMI, Alan. Really.