Fred Kaplan (Slate): The Out-of-Towner (must read)

In an otherwise dry day of hearings before the 9/11 commission, one brief bit of dialogue set off a sudden flash of clarity on the basic question of how our government let disaster happen.

The revelation came this morning, when CIA Director George Tenet was on the stand. Timothy Roemer, a former Democratic congressman, asked him when he first found out about the report from the FBI's Minnesota field office that Zacarias Moussaoui, an Islamic jihadist, had been taking lessons on how to fly a 747. Tenet replied that he was briefed about the case on Aug. 23 or 24, 2001.

Roemer then asked Tenet if he mentioned Moussaoui to President Bush at one of their frequent morning briefings. Tenet replied, "I was not in briefings at this time." Bush, he noted, "was on vacation." He added that he didn't see the president at all in August 2001. During the entire month, Bush was at his ranch in Texas. "You never talked with him?" Roemer asked. "No," Tenet replied. By the way, for much of August, Tenet too was, as he put it, "on leave."

And there you have it. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has made a big point of the fact that Tenet briefed the president nearly every day. Yet at the peak moment of threat, the two didn't talk at all. At a time when action was needed, and orders for action had to come from the top, the man at the top was resting undisturbed.

more...

http://slate.msn.com/id/2098861/

:argh:

is that the big dog wrote all over them... asking for action on items listed, asking for further info, etc.

That's how you spell LEADERSHIP!

There is one Clinton PDB that BushCo wants to release... probably the only one they can find that is even remotely damaging to the big dog.

the ranch. Which meant he lied in his testimony. ??? :shrug:

It is incomprehensible that this imbecile and his cabinet are not being impeached. Bush is simply not smart enough to manage a Taco Bell, let alone the United States.

As I send my check for thousands of dollars to the government for my tax burden, I wonder why it is that I have to pay such a large percentage of my income while these criminals loot the country and perform so miserably. I paid a higher percentage of my income (31%) to the government than that incompetent moron (Bush 28%) and the President (Cheney 20% ). I took 2 days of vacation, let alone 146 as Bush did.

What do I get for my fiscal responsibility to this government? The prospect of funding indefinite wars, a bleak future for my daughter who will live in a marginal or utterly failed economy under the threat of constant terrorism, the real prospect of poverty in my old age, the knowledge that I will die early from a preventable cause because I simply cannot afford to provide health coverage for my family after I retire.

I want Bush in jail for his crimes against humanity, and I want the Republican party thrown out of power for the next 100 years. They are fiscally irresponsible, morally repugnant, and incompetent at anything other than lining their pockets while the world crashes around them.

Edit: My reference to Cheney as President is deliberate.

His father took a lot of them also. Son does it each week going to Camp David. Is he bored at the WH or does he drink or some thing. The rich are different from you and I.