The New York Times gets it wrong about NW 253

The finger pointing over NW 253 continues, and the spread of "Blame Bush" continues. From a NY Times article we learn this:

WASHINGTON — The finger-pointing began in earnest on Wednesday over who in the alphabet soup of American security agencies knew what and when about the Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up an airliner.

Okay, that's a start.

The crown jewel of intelligence reform after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the center was the hub whose mission was to unite every scrap of data on threats and suspects, to make sure an extremist like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be bomber, would never penetrate the United States’ defenses.

“N.C.T.C. is supposed to be the nerve center,” said Amy B. Zegart, who studies intelligence at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s the fusion center of all fusion centers. So if something was missed, that’s where the blame is going to go.”

Fair enough, or at least so far.

“It’s totally frustrating,” said Thomas H. Kean, chairman of the national Sept. 11 commission. “It’s almost like the words being used to describe what went wrong are exactly the same.”

Eleanor Hill, staff director of the joint Congressional inquiry into Sept. 11, called the emerging story “eerily similar to the disconnects and missteps we investigated.”

“There seems to have been the same failure to put the pieces of the puzzle together and get them to the right people in time,” Ms. Hill said.

Now the trap has been set.

But two critical pieces of information appear never to have been connected: National Security Agency intercepts of Qaeda operatives in Yemen talking about using a Nigerian man for an attack, and a warning from Mr. Abdulmutallab’s father to American diplomats in Nigeria about the son’s radicalization in Yemen. If the National Counterterrorism Center or any other agency had those two items and never linked them, Congress and the public will want to know why.

The echoes of Sept. 11 are obvious. Before the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the N.S.A., the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation all had gathered bits of intelligence about the future hijackers. The C.I.A. sounded the alarm about an impending attack, including the now-famous President’s Daily Brief of Aug. 6, 2001, titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

The trap is sprung. This is just Bush redux. Concentrate on the past. Pay no attention to climate of surrender the Left has created for the past year.

The author, Scott Shane, may or may not be aware of this bit of information from NSA Rice:

We convened on 5 July a special meeting of domestic federal law enforcement agencies because we could not rule out the possibility that the attack would be in the U.S." In fact, that was the meeting that we asked him to convene.

"At the special meeting on July 5 were the FBI, Secret Service, FAA, Customs, Coast Guard, and Immigration. We told them that we thought a spectacular al Qaeda terrorist attack was coming in the near future." That had been had been George Tenet's language. "We asked that they take special measures to increase security and surveillance. Thus, the White House did ensure that domestic law enforcement including the FAA knew that the CSG believed that a major al Qaeda attack was coming, and it could be in the U.S., and did ask that special measures be taken."

Link

So the August 6 PDB was redundant. It was old news to Bush who rightfully indicated his displeasure. Yet the press continues to talk about it as if the July 5 meeting and warning never happened.

That is either disingenuous or demonstrates ignorance of the facts. Reporters and newspapers should do better. But I don't think you will ever see a Lame Stream Media editor or reporter question such dim bulb reporting.





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France leads the way on a carbon tax

Well, it looks like the French have exhibited a bit of common sense. But not much.

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- France’s constitutional court rejected a proposed tax on carbon emissions, saying a web of exemptions violated the principal of equality and rendered efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions ineffective.

The government said it will make new proposals on Jan. 20.

The tax, which would have started on Jan. 1, was set at 17 euros ($24.38) per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in September. To make the tax more palatable, he partially or fully exempted power plants, public transport, airlines, farming and fishing, as well as 1,018 older cement, steel and glass factories.

In all, 93 percent of all industrial carbon emissions in France would have avoided paying the full tax, the constitutional court said in a decision published on its Web site. The tax would have fallen disproportionately on fuel for heating and cars, it said.

“The court ruled that the system of exemptions, due to their extensive nature, were contrary to the objective of fighting global warming and contravene the principle of equality before the tax system,” the court said.

The court rejected all the articles relating to the carbon tax in the government’s 2010 budget.

In a statement, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said a carbon tax remains a “priority for the President of the Republic and the government.” He said changes to satisfy the constitutional court will be presented at a cabinet meeting Jan. 20.

Let me help you get this in perspective.

A gallon of gasoline produces about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. Now if you drive 20,000 miles a year, which many US drivers do, and if your car averages 20 miles per gallon, then you have used 1000 gallons of gasoline. That is 20,000 pounds or 10 tons of carbon dioxide. That's %243.80 using France's tax rate.

Now you can collect that in one of two ways. First by a mileage reading. The DOT notes your mileage when you register the first time, then when you register the second time, subtract and you have the mileage. Take the EPA's two estimated MGP numbers, average the two and divide the result into the miles driven to get the gallons used. Then do the math for the carbon dioxide produced and price out the tax.

Now that's too easy plus they'd have to wait sometime before the second event (trading, selling, etc.). Maximum one year. Bureaucrats and econo freaks won't like that so you can bet your sweet bippy that someone will come up with a national average and we'll get a fifty cent per gallon carbon tax.

Of course the poor will get a rebate as a reminder to vote Democrat.







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Bush is to blame for NW 253

I wondered how long it would take for the Left to start blaming Bush for the Christmas Bomber. And it didn't take long.

One of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit was released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the terrorist from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia, where he entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and was set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

ABC News link.

The screeds are two pronged. First that innocent sweeties have been radicalized by unjust imprisonment and secondly, Bush let the bad ones go along with the ex-sweeties.

Yeah, I know. You couldn't make this sh*t up but remember you are talking Lefties here, all of them suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome made worse by the many failures of their demi-god, Obamie The Bower.

And when you ask them why they were just a few weeks ago screaming for us to release more they become angry and nasty.

But I have to admit that early on I was sure we could beat al-Qaeda with sex, drugs, rock 'n roll and skin tight blue jeans... I mean, who could think of jihad when sweet thing strolled by with that oh so nice roll of her hips? Problem is we haven't figured out how to get the blue jeans to the girls, much less the girls in the jeans.. and since failing to "just say no" doesn't mean special classes for pregnant students but stoning...



Well, that strategy isn't working out too well.

I also thought that the base problem was poverty. Give'em food, clothes and a way out and jihad would be a thing of the past.

And I was partly right but mostly wrong. Oh, the great unwashed will riot when called to do so by their radical Imams and kill their daughters for not wanting to marry their 70 year old cousin back home, but the real problems have not come from the Arab Street. The problems have come from the supposedly educated children of the middle and upper class. Check it out. The Christmas Bomber was a child of luxury. Look at the English and Scotland bombers. All middle class, most born in England. Major Hasan was born in the USA well educated and a Doctor. Then there was the university professor in FL who was tried and finally deported. The UNC student who decided to drive his car through groups of his fellow students. And just recently, the university student who killed his professor... and yes, members of the 9/11 terrorist team... and I am sure I have missed some.

I think that many young people are born with a desire to serve. To be members of a greater cause. To be a member of a special group.

We see it in high school cliches and sports, university sororities, joining the armed services and yes, juvenile gangs of thugs.

And never having been asked to sacrifice, sacrifice itself becomes the goal. We saw it in the 60's in hippy communes and groups composed mostly of middle and upper class kids. And we saw it later in the Kool Aid Massacre and in Waco.

And we are seeing it now in the attacks by the Muslim children of wealth and those born in the USA.

Simply put, the problem is that the radicals have turned wealth and privilege into an evil spectre. Recognizing they have done nothing except being born into wealth and privilege and not seeing the extremists shut down by their closed society they become easy targets.

The fact is that they are not being assimilated into western culture. Neither here, England or Europe.

And this is were the saying gets difficult. We have no choices. We must insure by whatever means necessary that in the US they assimilate or are tossed back to where they came from. And if the rest of western civilization doesn't follow our lead then we must get ready for a very long and very nasty war.







On Twitter I am Lesabre1

How can I resist redux

Trust me

This PM I received a rather thoughtful email from a young female who indicated strongly that she wanted to be my friend. My close friend. My close personal friend.

I never knew that my magnetic personality was so strong that it reached through the ether and bits and bytes and cause female swooning and deep rapid breathing.

But now I have evidence that it can.

Just as I recently had evidence that I was a person so trustworthy I could receive thousands, nay millions, of an unclaimed inheritance and distribute it to its rightful owners.

But why do I get the feeling that after a few emails back and forth "she" will want to give me a present, and all I need to is accept the International Money Order and, to show her my love, return a mere 10% or so via an USPS money order to a friend in the US? Of course the International Money Order will be fake and the USPS one will be real, paid for with my money. Out of the same pocket that the bank will demand I refund them the money they gave me from the International Money Order.

The question is, how do they get your email address?

I think in my case it goes back about three years ago when I placed a first edition of a book of poetry for sale on Ebay. Since it was one of only around 800 copies printed I put a healthy price on the rare copy.

And received an order for it almost immediately. I was so pleased I failed to note that the purchaser was a "Guest" member.

And when the email said he was in Scotland, I didn't mind. We traded some triva, established overseas shipping costs and established that since he wasn't a PayPal member, an International Money Order (IMO)would be fine.

Then the plot thickened. It was revealed that he was not the real purchaser but merely the agent for the purchaser who lived in Niger. And since hard currency was difficult to obtain he had, by some unstated means, managed to obtain an IMO payable in US funds, but the amount was quite a bit more than the purchase price of the book.

Would I mind accepting the IMO, cashing it, mailing the book and, keeping a suitable fee of my naming, mail the remaining cash to a friend in the US who would use the funds to purchase things for the person in Niger? Or if I didn't like that I could just purchase a USPS money order, or whatever.....

Somewhere in there I decided I wasn't really as stupid as they thought I was. I asked my bank what would be my position if the IMO was fake. It took'em about 30 seconds to say, "Responsible." Which mneant the bank got their money back, the thief got the book and since they wanted the USPS MO overnighted, it would be cashed and the thief long gone with the money.

When I emailed my dear chum in Scotland that the deal was off, he insisted that he had just sent me the IMO with a prepaid UPS envelope for me to use to send the USPS money order to his friend... and to please hurry because the funds were to be used to purchase cancer drugs to be sent to his mother in Niger.

And yes, the UPS pachage showed up and I refused it which caused the UPS folks quite a bit of concern.

I also reported all this to Ebay security who basically said, "Let the seller beware."

But once you get on the sucker list you never get off.




On Twitter I am Lesabre1

The Christmas bomber

bought a one way ticket paid for in cash, walked through security without a hitch, may have not had a Passport or Visa and had been ratted out by his Dad as a potential terrorist...............

And you want me to pull my shoes off?









On Twitter I am Lesabre1

The best Viagra ad I have ever seen

On the Internet in a forum's site..

"Viagra.....Roll over to learn more."

hahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahhahaah

I just can't stop laughing.



On Twitter I am Lesabre1

Books I am reading

I discovered D'Este while looking for a biography on Patton and then Eisenhower. He's retired military so I find him more believable than many authors on military matters.

"Warlord" covers Churchill from childhood through 1945 and although I have read several books on (and by) Churchill I find this one fascinating. It has 101 pages of notes, references and bibliography so you can make a good guess that it is detailed and (sometimes) heavy reading.



Booker is a man made global warming skeptic and this book details in page after page how the hoax was put together and why.

It should be required reading by every high school sophomore and TV news person.

It too has page after page of references and sources but who of the true believers will accept mere facts for the blessings and love bestowed on them by Pope Algore?







On Twitter I am Lesabre1