Nothing can change my mind on the fact that I don’t believe that seeing members of the military with guns drawn is supposed to somehow cause panic. (Yes, the Coast Guard is a branch of the US military.)

The Obama comment wasn’t aimed at you, it was aimed at how Mr. Obama is trying to change 9/11 into in an effort to downplay the War on Terror and thus the “you” is collective for what Obama would have Americans do on the “National Day of Service.”

You talk about ignoring signs of danger, yet if the “drill” had been real, what would panicking about it have accomplished?

If concerned citizens contacted law enforcement, that’s fine and a good thing.

But the degree of anger this seems to have generated seems better directed at people like Charlie Sheen who took the anniversary as an opportunity to release a video asking the President to investigate “truther” BS.

Once again, I’m not attacking you personally, Canary, I just feel the reaction to the training exercise was an overreaction.

I do not appreciate you calling me crazy, and it wasn’t boats moving fast. There were men standing with guns. Prehaps you’ve not personally experienced real trauma.

“t really lowers the bar for what they need to achieve in some possible future attack to – well, just about nothing.”

They have 365 days a year for 8 years now. like this was so important on rememberance day?

“Boats chasing each other, just like on… oh wait.”
again, men were standing with guns under a heavy trafficked bridge
gun shots ringing.

“if anything drills should be peformed en masse on 9/11.”
Then they should announce it, and of course people would become numb to it and not recoginise if real danger happened. Go about their business without noticing, thinking it’s fake.

“Mr. Obama would have you plant a tree instead.”
I don’t deserve this remark. Don’t be so insensitive. Feel free to ignore any danger signs and chalk it up to a training excercise.

I can’t believe people are so crazily sensitive – between this and the panic about sonic booms in the LA area when Discovery was landing, al Qaeda must be laughing their butts off over how some boats moving fast now panics the American public.

It really lowers the bar for what they need to achieve in some possible future attack to – well, just about nothing.

Because simulated gunshots are so frightening on 9/11 because of all those guns that were used… oh wait.

Boats chasing each other, just like on… oh wait.

We shouldn’t be insensitive, but yet if anything 9/11 should be about preparedness.

If anything drills should be peformed en masse on 9/11.

What better way of honoring those who died than doing all you can to remain ready to prevent it from happening again?

Mr. Obama would have you plant a tree instead.

http://hotair.com/archives/200.....orn-video/

Somebody better start investigating the Maryland DA’s office to see how many ACORN employees they are supporting.

“The best way that we in the Coast Guard can remember Sept. 11 and our security obligations to the nation is to be always ready, and this requires constant training and exercise,” said Lt. Nadine Santiago in a statement.

I disagree. I saw the footage. Men standing on boats whipping around the bridge cars were driving over, with men standing with rifles.
Many people such as myself are sensitive on anniversary’s and holiday’s. It was the 2nd time WTC was attacked. Often people use anniversary’s to commit a horrible crime to make a twisted statement. Such as the OKC tradgedy happening one year anniversary of Waco.
I think today is a day of remembering, and sadness of WTC 9/11, and I can only ask why the heck did they make a perfect mock, shockingly real, with simulated gunshot bangs!!! on 9/11. They could have put a a digitable sign up, training excercise. Look Obama laughed and joked on National television about the fly over, and there are just some insensitive, callous people that enjoy frightening people. Then laughing over. Like telling bad news and saying “not. ha ha ha”.
And Gibbs had no place in being critical of the news, which was the purpose of the article. Anyone that saw the footage, is going to become alarmed. If Obama really didn’t know as he drove over the bridge, his security would have been laying on top of him, to save him. All a bunch of b.s.
Everyone is different, but if I had a family member killed in 9/11, most weren’t found. I would not want the pictures and voices of the terrorists at the memorial. I think it would be unbearable. I’m sure the city is looking for as much shock value as they can.

I seriously don’t know why everyone is so sensitive.

Personally, I think there’s no better day for a training exercise than 9/11.

While AF1 buzzing Manhattan was understandably disturbing, reports of gunshots on the Potomac are not exactly reminiscent of 9/11, no matter what their proximity to Obama’s motorcade.

IMHO this is much ado about nothing, fed by a press that is hyper alert for anything to fill their 24/7 airtime.

Earlier, the Coast Guard defended the timing by saying the best way to remember the tragic day is by being prepared.

“The best way that we in the Coast Guard can remember Sept. 11 and our security obligations to the nation is to be always ready, and this requires constant training and exercise,” said Lt. Nadine Santiago in a statement.

To me, that’s exactly right, and Voinovich is an idiot who is trying to make a big deal out of this for no rational reason I can understand except to perhaps try and blame Obama for something.

WASHINGTON – The Census Bureau on Friday severed its ties with ACORN, a community organization that has been hit with Republican accusations of voter-registration fraud. “We do not come to this decision lightly,” Census director Robert Groves wrote in a letter to ACORN, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

In splitting with ACORN, Groves sought to tamp down GOP concerns and negative publicity that the partnership will taint the 2010 head count.

“It is clear that ACORN’s affiliation with the 2010 census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 census efforts,” Groves wrote.

Stephen Buckner, a census spokesman, confirmed the letter, but declined…

ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson did not immediately return a request for comment.

In recent months, Republicans have become increasingly critical of the census’ ties with ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The group, which advocates for poor people, conducted a massive voter registration effort last year and became a target of conservatives when some employees were accused of submitting false registration forms with names such as “Mickey Mouse.”

ACORN has said only a handful of employees submitted false registration forms and did so in a bid to boost their pay.

Partly citing ACORN’s role, Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and David Vitter, R-La., earlier this year blocked a full confirmation vote of Groves for several weeks. Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn., also has been calling for a census boycott because of her concerns about whether the group would tamper with the high-stakes population count.

Up to now, the Census Bureau had defended ACORN’s involvement, explaining it was one of 80,000 unpaid volunteer groups that the bureau hoped would be able to raise local awareness…

ACORN fired two employees who were seen on hidden-camera video giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman who pretended to be a prostitute. Fox News Channel broadcast excerpts from the video on Thursday. On the video, a man and woman visiting ACORN’s Baltimore office asked about buying a house and how to account on tax forms for the woman’s income. An ACORN employee advised the woman to list her occupation as “performance artist.”

In a statement, ACORN Maryland board member Margaret Williams said the video was an attempt to smear ACORN…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....nsus_acorn

Politico: W.H. hits CNN for Coast Guard report
Carol E. Lee, Jen DiMascio Fri Sep 11, 2009

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today criticized CNN — not the Coast Guard — over the panic caused by the agency’s training exercise on the Sept. 11 anniversary….

Gibbs said he wouldn’t second-guess Coast Guard leadership for holding a Potomac River exercise on the morning of the 9/11 commemoration. But he took a shot at CNN, which initially didn’t know the maneuvers in the Potomac were an exercise…

Gibbs told reporters that the Coast Guard was holding a news conference to explain the exercise. “Hopefully CNN will go,” Gibbs quipped. …

The incident also set off a terse exchange between Gibbs and CNN reporter Elaine Quijano over the incident as Gibbs briefed reporters in his office. Quijano asked whether the public should have been informed about a training exercise on the Sept. 11 anniversary.

She also asked why Gibbs didn’t think the Coast Guard incident was comparable to an Air Force One flyover in New York for a photo shoot in April that set off a panic there. The head of the White House military office, Louis Caldera, resigned in the wake of that incident.
“If we set aside the media coverage, would you be asking this question?” Gibbs said.

“She doesn’t do hypotheticals,” another reporter joked, using a response Gibbs likes to give reporters who pose “if” questions.

“But reports them,” Gibbs said.
“Well, look,” Quijano said, “I’d like to set that aside for just a minute.”

“No I understand, and it’s not directed at you, just writ large at CNN,” Gibbs said.
As Quijano pressed further, Gibbs said, “If anybody was unnecessarily alarmed based on erroneous reporting that denoted that shots had been fired, I think everybody is apologetic about that.”

CNN, in a statement Friday afternoon, did not express regret for the network’s erroneous report or admit to jumping the gun on the story.

“Given the circumstances, it would have been irresponsible not to report on what we were hearing and seeing,” the statement read. “As with any breaking news story, information is often fluid and CNN updated the story with the official explanation from the Coast Guard as soon as it was provided.

The Coast Guard acknowledged at a news conference that its personnel simulated the sound of gunfire

on an open police radio frequency — which might have caused the confusion.

“That ‘bang bang’ was verbalized on the radio, but I want to emphasize no shots were fired,”
said Vice Adm. John Currier, the Coast Guard chief of staff.
But Currier did not apologize for the training exercise. He did promise the agency would review both the timing of its exercises as well as the way it works with the media.

“No I am not issuing an apology,” Currier said, adding that he felt the agency’s “normal, low-profile” training activities were blown out of proportion ..

Asked whether the morning of the Sept. 11 anniversary was the best day for such an exercise — which featured patrol boats making rapid, defensive maneuvers in the Potomac River — Currier said, “We will look at our procedures and the timing of this exercise.” …

Earlier, the Coast Guard defended the timing by saying the best way to remember the tragic day is by being prepared.

“The best way that we in the Coast Guard can remember Sept. 11 and our security obligations to the nation is to be always ready, and this requires constant training and exercise,” said Lt. Nadine Santiago in a statement.

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) is calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to explain the timing of the exercise, which occurred while top officials were attending memorial services for Sept. 11. Homeland Security oversees the Coast Guard.

“The anxiety caused by this situation on such a solemn day is extremely disturbing,” said Voinovich, a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee…

The Coast Guard’s Baltimore Sector office signed off on the scheduling decision, Currier said….At the White House, Gibbs defended the importance of such training exercises. “I assume that there’s a training exercise going on somewhere in this country right now….As for holding one on the anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, Gibbs said, “I tend not to question law enforcement in trying to keep the nation’s capital safe. If they feel like they need a training exercise, I’m not sure that we’re to second-guess.”…Whether the exercise is appropriate is “a decision that’s made by the Coast Guard,” Gibbs said.

Nia-Malika Henderson contributed to the story

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politi.....jcg–

Gibbs isn’t silly, he’s sicko

Bush’s intentions were to stimulate the economy.

Barry’s intentions are to enlarge the Federal Government. You have to be a numbnut not to realize that.

Many people have various opinions of Bush BUT no one can say that his personal goal was to enlarge the Federal Government and to threaten our liberty as Barry is so close to achieving.

I condemned Bush for being follish about the 787B gift Paulsen conned for his Goldman Sachs buddies and said he was a clown in his fiscal policies. In fact, government spending as a percent of GNP remained level during his terms and only shot up after the Soros triggered the meltdown, so I was probably too harsh on the second point. The first one stands, although his greater foolishness was to pick Democrats as his two top economic advisors. Once that was done, what was he to do when they declaired the sky was falling and only manna from heaven could fix it? He was pinned by his foolish choice of bureaucrats.

But unlike lockstep, follow the lemming liberals, on the conservative side, we criticize our leaders when they are wrong and praise them when they are right.

Bush is a great man for what he did for the country after 9/11. For that reason, he will go in the history books as a Truman like president. Not as great as Reagen and Eisenhauer, but clearly miles above any Democrat except Truman himself.

But his mistake handling the Soros Panic is even more clear now that the fascist vultures have swooped in to pick the country’s bones clean.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/polit.....ugust.html

But keep reading my posts Jasper. At some point, they will sink in.

The Shout Heard Around The World
proreason
September 10, 2009 at 4:35 pm

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) … two House Democratic leaders are calling for a formal reprimand if Wilson continues to refuse to make a public statement of contrition on the House floor.

Wilson told reporters Thursday that at the request of GOP leaders he called White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday night to apologize for shouting “You lie!” after Obama said illegal immigrants would not get insurance coverage through health care reform. But Wilson said he planned no further statement and suggested his error was more one of protocol than a poor choice of words.

Democrats said a House vote was delayed Thursday so Wilson could apologize on the House floor. GOP aides also said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had asked Wilson to make such a statement. But none took place.

The debate over Wilson’s punishment seems likely to carry into next week, an outcome which will delight many Democrats by keeping a media spotlight on what they view as a pattern of offensive behavior by opponents of Obama’s health reform efforts, now symbolized by Wilson.

…both Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said they want Wilson to go to the well of the House and do penance for his breach of decorum.

Clyburn said he would support a resolution reprimanding Wilson, or another punishment called a “resolution of disapproval,” unless the South Carolina Republican took some further step to defuse the majority’s anger. “I said to him that the proper thing to do would be go to the well [of the House] to apologize to his colleagues,” Clyburn said.

Otherwise, he cautioned Wilson that “there are more than 218 votes on my side” for some kind of sanction against him. “He has no remorse whatsoever.

Earlier Thursday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had also called Wilson’s apology insufficient and said he should face a formal sanction.

If it does, it will be despite the efforts of groups like MoveOn.org and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which were blasting e-mailing supporters yesterday in an effort to raise money and foment outrage over Wilson’s remarks.

“Stand against Joe Wilson’s unacceptable outburst,” the DCCC wrote in a message it urged backers to retweet on Twitter.

The DCCC said that Rob Miller, a Democrat and Iraq war veteran planning to challenge Wilson next fall, had scored more than $350,000 in online donations and pledges after the incumbent’s high-profile exclamation Wednesday.

Democratic analysts said the controversy provoked by Wilson had drowned out the GOP’s substantive criticism of Obama’s health plan and focused attention on the party’s obstructionist tactics.

“The White House has handled it beautifully,” said Democratic consultant Steve McMahon.

“Obama accepted the apology, but Joe Wilson’s behavior is a metaphor for the Republican Congress and many of those who participate in town hall meetings who are loud, ill-informed and not particularly persuasive to most people.”

Wilson, for his part, continued to press the issue that prompted his outburst — his view that Democratic legislation would give health care benefits to illegal aliens. There are provisions in the Democratic legislation that would deny federal insurance subsidies to illegal aliens, but Republicans say that the bills would not bar illegal immigrants from participation in new health insurance exchanges and that there are inadequate safeguards to keep aliens from signing up.

“The Congressional Research Service has indicated that indeed the bills that are before Congress would include illegal aliens. I think this is wrong,” Wilson said. “People who have come to our country and violated laws, we should not be providing full health care services [to them].”

While not defending Wilson’s tactics, Boehner and other Republicans yesterday echoed Wilson’s assertion that illegal immigrants would get new coverage under Democratic plans.

Boehner said it was “pretty clear” that illegal aliens could buy insurance through exchanges set up under one House bill. And conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh spoke for many conservatives who cheered Wilson’s confrontational approach and derided fellow Republicans for abandoning him.

“We are in the midst of an administration that is trying to tear down the institutions and traditions that have made this country great. He is lying, President Obama is, from the moment he opens his mouth until he ends the speech. I was shouting, ‘You’re lying,’ throughout the speech at the television,” Limbaugh said. “Joe Wilson simply articulated what millions of Americans were saying.”

entire article
http://www.politico.com/news/s.....26985.html

Democratic analysts said the controversy provoked by Wilson had drowned out the “GOP’s substantive criticism” of Obama’s health plan..

straight from the Jack, oops donkey’s as..mouth

To every service man and woman, to every firefighter and EMT, to every Border Security Agent, and to their spouses and families, thank you for the sacrifices you have made to keep this country safe since 9/11.

To the men and women in our intellignece services, thank you for your genius in overcoming the roadblocks the internal enemies of this country have thrown up to prevent you from keeping this country safe since 9/11.

And particularly to the families of the heroes who died to keep us safe, and the families of the innocent victims of the atrocity of 9/11, thank you, thank you, thank you. Your loved ones will be forever remembered. Forever.

I don’t really have a lot of faith (not a good choice of word but I can’t think of a better one right now) in the power of intercessionary prayer but today my prayers were for peace and rest for those who were lost, comfort and strength for their families, wisdom and resolution for the rest of us.

I hope those prayers are answered, I really do.

Eight years later: Remembrance and resolve
By Michelle Malkin • September 11, 2009 08:24 AM

Remembrance is worthless without resolve. Resolve is useless without action.

God bless our troops for doing what’s necessary to combat jihad on the front lines. Here’s how they are marking 9/11 overseas:

http://tinyurl.com/n2jkrs

And Never Forget –
Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties
as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 5139

Someone’s son or daughter, husband or wife, or father or mother.
http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html

Rest In Peace – all 8,136 of you – Some of Us have Not Forgotten and Never Will

UK ‘could face blackouts by 2016′

By Roger Harrabin

The lights could go out when coal and nuclear power stations are phased out.

The government’s new energy adviser says the UK could face blackouts by 2016 because green energy is not coming on stream fast enough.

Ministers have previously denied that the UK is heading for an energy gap.

But David MacKay, who takes up his post at the Department of Energy on 1 October, says that the public keep objecting to energy projects.

This, he says, is creating a huge problem, which could turn out the lights.

Professor MacKay is a researcher at Cambridge University.

His recent book, Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air, won applause for its examination of current government plans to keep the lights on whilst also cutting carbon emissions.

It concluded that policy is moving in the right direction, but the sums on energy provision simply do not add up – not enough power capacity is being built.

Speaking unofficially, he told BBC News that this meant that Britain could face blackouts in 2016 – when coal and nuclear stations are phased out.

Professor David MacKay: “The scale of building required is absolutely enormous”

“There is a worry that in 2016 there might not be enough electricity. My guess is that what the market might do is fix that problem by making more gas power stations, which isn’t the direction we want to be going in,” he said.

“So we really should be upping the build rate of the alternatives as soon as possible.”

Professor MacKay blamed the public for opposing wind farms, nuclear power, and energy imports, whilst demanding an unchanged lifestyle.

You cannot oppose them all, he said, and hope to have a viable policy on energy and climate change. …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci.....249540.stm

This is obviously the future of the US as well.

Let’s return to a 1910 lifestyle – because after all, isn’t it worth it to “solve global warming?”

Why worry about what kinds of light bulbs to use when the real question is whether we should have electric light at all?