A Small Victory

"And since
(1) nonsense incorrectly stated as fact, and
(2) nonsense incorrectly stated as fact, and
(3) nonsense incorrectly stated as fact; then
would you tell me the title of the report?"

"First, let me correct your..."

"It's a yes or no question. Just answer the question."

"I will, after I correct your assertions."

Someone forgot to use his hemarrhoid cream this morning.

He seemed to know about it here:

"Richard Clarke is Wrong About Iraq-- by Bob Kerrey"

"On Oct. 12, 2000, a bomb ripped through the USS Cole in Yemen killing 17 American sailors. And less than a year later, Mohamed Atta and his suicidal crew crashed civilian aircraft into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa. "

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110004923

Bob Kerrey's a straight shooter--I think he just doesn't like the format and wanted to make sure he got an answer. At least he waited for Rice to start answering the questions before interrupting her, unlike that hack Ben-Veniste. He's one of the good guys, and he's been rough on Dick Clarke, too.

If we're going to chat about hindsight, I'll pony up my familial bit of hindsight regarding Bob Kerrey.

After he came back to Omaha from Vietnam, my Dad gave Kerrey the loan which enabled him to set up his restaurant chain in Omaha and set him on the road to the guvship of my fair home state and then to the senate and now to the 9/11 commission. It's all my father's fault. On behalf of my family, I apologize!

My husband just threatened to call my father and bitch him out.

And get this: he gave Kerrey 100% equity with no collateral. Granted, Kerrey had some serious co-signers, but still... Ah, the heyday of the days before serious banking regulation when you could get a boatload of cash on a handshake.

Sigh. Like I said, I'm SOOOOOO sorry. But how could my dad have known he was going to turn into such an ass? (To give my father credit, know that he never voted for the jerk. And neither did I.)

The same level of @$$hood should also be ascribed to Richard Ben-Veniste, who looked like a mob thug in his pinstripe suit and sounded like a sleazy defense lawyer doing a cross examination. C-Span showed him having a conversation with someone else on the commission while Rice was giving her answers. Apparently he was interested in asking hostile questions, but not in hearing the answers.

It's just so much political bull $hit. All the Democrats stepped on Dr. Rice, and all the Republicans tried to make her (and, vicariously, the President) look good.

Point is, the Clinton Admin ignored this problem for eight years. Bush had 200 days to right that. In this country? With a split Congress? With all the other crap he would have had to do? Impossible, even if he knew all the answers, save when and where.

Everyone knows this, but there's this election, see.....

One expects a certain amount of political posturing, but it has reached sickening levels. When a country's leaders can't summon up at least some willingness to work together in the face of external threats, disaster usually follows. A case in point is the fall of France in 1940, which was in part a consequence of the behavior of politicians who used every issue as an excuse to beat up on each other, rather than as something to be seriously dealt with.

I know...wtf was that about??

I got the distinct impression that some of the commissioners were clearly enjoying their one opportunity to rake Condi over the coals if they could, Roemer was the one I saw, it was disgusting. Yech. Get yer rocks off, boys. So much for this being about 'trying to figure out what we can do better next time' in spite of one of the commissioner's (can't remember who) best efforts to bring the conversation back around to that.

At any rate, I was impressed by how she handled herself. She is a gem.

Did anyone else notice Kerrey seemed a bit flustered? I refer, of course, to him repeatedly refering to Rice as "Dr. Clarke".

J. Cross: I think it was 233 days, but, for the life of me, I can't remember where I repeatedly heard that particular number.

Norbizness, I read the transcripts nearly live at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ("All the news that Indymedia would print"), and Rice mentioned 233 days at no less than two or three times; one of the questioners rounded down to 230.

Or perhaps 233 looks familiar because 322 is the secret number of the Eulogians, a/k/a Skull and Bones. Hey, why is everybody leaving the room?

Election cant come soon enough.

Dell,

You can say that again.

Dr. Rice said 233 several times in her testimony today.

I just threw out 200 there because it still made the point....eight damn months to fix 8 years of PSDD

(Post-Somalia-Democratic-Disorder)