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Tom Ridge: I'm Not Second-Guessing Bush Terror Alerts
Tom Ridge's new book, The Test of Our Times, isn't even out yet and already the former Homeland Security chief is backing off some of its claims. In the book Ridge says that shortly before the 2004 election, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a "vigorous" discussion, pressured him to raise the national terror threat alert level after Osama bin Laden released a videotaped message, suggesting they did so for political reasons.
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Ridge writes that @he rejected raising the level because bin Laden had released nearly 20 such tapes since 9/11 and the latest contained nothing suggesting an imminent threat."Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level, and was supported by Rumsfeld," he writes. "There was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?' "
Rumsfeld's and Ashcroft's argument, according to the book, is that President Bush's ratings tended to go up when the terror alert level increased. Ridge writes that even though he won the argument and the threat level wasn't raised, the incident prompted him to quit the Bush administration.
Not surprisingly, Rumsfeld, through a spokesperson, dismisses Ridge's claims as "nonsense."
Now, one day before the book's release, Ridge is back-peddling slightly. He tells Time, "I'm not second-guessing my colleagues." Rather, he says, he's simply having second thoughts about decisions made at the Cabinet level in the Bush White House. In the interview, he even goes so far as to say it was "wrong" to include the incident in the book.
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Christopher Weber
Christopher Weber is a writer and editor in Los Angeles... more
Comments (12)
lzllon
3:10PM Aug 31st 2009
The Mayo Clinic, the world famous institution cited by all sides in the contentious health care debate, defines schizophrenia as a serious brain disorder "in which reality is interpreted abnormally" resulting in "hallucinations, delusions, and disordered thinking and behavior." Apparently, that affliction is now running rampant among supporters of the Republican Party. As recent polling about conservative beliefs regarding Medicare, taxes, supposed "death panels," President Obama's citizenship and more shows, the crisis of Republican schizophrenia has reached epidemic proportions.
Here, then, are the five symptoms of incurable Republican schizophrenia:
(If you exhibit one or more of these warning signs, see your physician immediately. If you don't have health insurance - and if your state voted Republican, you're much more likely not to - Democrats will try to provide it for you.)
1. "Keep Government Out of Medicare." In July, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) described an angry constituent who confronted him at a South Carolina town hall meeting, "keep your government hands off my Medicare." Despite his best efforts to explain that Medicare is a government program, the voter, Inglis lamented, "wasn't having any of it."
But as new data from Public Policy Polling revealed, that same cognitive failure is now far more widespread than swine flu. While 39% of all Americans responded that the government should "stay out of Medicare," 59% of self-identified conservatives and 62% of McCain voters hold that oxymoronic view.
2. "Barack Obama is a Muslim." An April survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 11% of Americans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, a figure largely unchanged since its polling started in March 2008. Yet 17% of Republicans and 19% of white evangelicals (74% of whom voted for John McCain) insist the President is an adherent of Islam, despite his repeated pronouncements and decades of church attendance to the contrary.
3. "Barack Obama Was Not Born in the United States." This contagion is running rampant among the ranks of Republicans. And even with repeated treatments of birth certificates and Hawaiian newspaper announcements from 1961, there is apparently no cure.
A DailyKos/Research 2000 poll found that a stunning 58% of Republicans did not believe (28%) or were unsure (30%) that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the United States. To be sure, this is a Southern pathology, a region home to 69% of all birthers and the only part of the country to increase its Republican presidential vote in 2008. This week's PPP survey only confirmed the chronic birtherism plaguing the Republican Party:
Only 62% of respondents reported believing that Obama was born in the United States. 10% thought he was born in Indonesia, 7% thought he was born in Kenya, 1% thought he was born in the Philippines, and 20% weren't sure. Among Republicans 44% think he was not born here while just 36% believe that he was.
(In a promising development, only 10% of respondents weren't sure if Hawaii is part of the United States. On this score, conservatives were only slightly more confused than liberals and moderates.)
4. "Government Death Panels Will Euthanize My Grandma." Sadly, the Republicans' Birther and Deather psychoses represent a cradle-to-grave illness.
Despite the vaccinations administered by PolitiFact, ABC News, the New York Times and countless other care-givers, Republicans persist in their virulent health care death panel delusions. This out-of-control CTD (conservative transmitted disease) has spread like wildfire, thanks to vectors like Betsy McCaughey, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. (Even a Republican like Senator Chuck Grassley, previously diagnosed by President Obama as sane, came down with the deather flu.)
An NBC poll this week quantified the deather madness: a staggering 45 percent said it's likely the government will decide when to stop care for the elderly. (Majorities also wrongly believe that reform proposals on the table would constitute a government "takeover" of the health care system, one which would cover illegal aliens.)
As MSNBC noted, viewers of Fox News - a strong predictor of Republican allegiance - were overwhelmingly afflicted by this health care dementia:
In our poll, 72% of self-identified FOX News viewers believe the health-care plan will give coverage to illegal immigrants, 79% of them say it will lead to a government takeover, 69% think that it will use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and 75% believe that it will allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing care for the elderly.
5. "President Obama Raised Taxes on Working People." The Republicans' profound cognitive disorders are not limited to their hallucinations about Barack Obama's birth or the health care imbroglio. As the Tea Party movement shows, furious right-wing zealots are outraged by no taxation with representation.
As promised, Barack Obama in the stimulus package delivered on his pledge of tax relief for 95% of American households. Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) didn't only jump start gross domestic product and refill empty state coffers in the second quarter of 2009. As Nate Silver thoroughly documented, "Obama has cut taxes for 98.6% of working households."
Nevertheless, frothing at the mouth Tea Baggers spouting Republican Tax Day lies took to the streets not to thank the President, but to blame him for the tax cuts they received. While Andrew Sullivan described their unreasoning mania as "adolescent, unserious hysteria," the Daily Show's Jon Stewart diagnosed their disorder:
"I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing."
Back in April, I appropriated Daniel Patrick Moynihan's classic statement to conclude that with their rag-tag band of revolutionaries, secessionists and agitators for violence, Republicans were "defining political deviancy down." Sadly, the delusional and the deviant are now descending on town hall meetings with guns. The Republican schizophrenics are no longer just a danger to themselves.
Here, then, are the five symptoms of incurable Republican schizophrenia:
(If you exhibit one or more of these warning signs, see your physician immediately. If you don't have health insurance - and if your state voted Republican, you're much more likely not to - Democrats will try to provide it for you.)
1. "Keep Government Out of Medicare." In July, Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) described an angry constituent who confronted him at a South Carolina town hall meeting, "keep your government hands off my Medicare." Despite his best efforts to explain that Medicare is a government program, the voter, Inglis lamented, "wasn't having any of it."
But as new data from Public Policy Polling revealed, that same cognitive failure is now far more widespread than swine flu. While 39% of all Americans responded that the government should "stay out of Medicare," 59% of self-identified conservatives and 62% of McCain voters hold that oxymoronic view.
2. "Barack Obama is a Muslim." An April survey by the Pew Research Center showed that 11% of Americans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim, a figure largely unchanged since its polling started in March 2008. Yet 17% of Republicans and 19% of white evangelicals (74% of whom voted for John McCain) insist the President is an adherent of Islam, despite his repeated pronouncements and decades of church attendance to the contrary.
3. "Barack Obama Was Not Born in the United States." This contagion is running rampant among the ranks of Republicans. And even with repeated treatments of birth certificates and Hawaiian newspaper announcements from 1961, there is apparently no cure.
A DailyKos/Research 2000 poll found that a stunning 58% of Republicans did not believe (28%) or were unsure (30%) that President Barack Obama was in fact born in the United States. To be sure, this is a Southern pathology, a region home to 69% of all birthers and the only part of the country to increase its Republican presidential vote in 2008. This week's PPP survey only confirmed the chronic birtherism plaguing the Republican Party:
Only 62% of respondents reported believing that Obama was born in the United States. 10% thought he was born in Indonesia, 7% thought he was born in Kenya, 1% thought he was born in the Philippines, and 20% weren't sure. Among Republicans 44% think he was not born here while just 36% believe that he was.
(In a promising development, only 10% of respondents weren't sure if Hawaii is part of the United States. On this score, conservatives were only slightly more confused than liberals and moderates.)
4. "Government Death Panels Will Euthanize My Grandma." Sadly, the Republicans' Birther and Deather psychoses represent a cradle-to-grave illness.
Despite the vaccinations administered by PolitiFact, ABC News, the New York Times and countless other care-givers, Republicans persist in their virulent health care death panel delusions. This out-of-control CTD (conservative transmitted disease) has spread like wildfire, thanks to vectors like Betsy McCaughey, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin. (Even a Republican like Senator Chuck Grassley, previously diagnosed by President Obama as sane, came down with the deather flu.)
An NBC poll this week quantified the deather madness: a staggering 45 percent said it's likely the government will decide when to stop care for the elderly. (Majorities also wrongly believe that reform proposals on the table would constitute a government "takeover" of the health care system, one which would cover illegal aliens.)
As MSNBC noted, viewers of Fox News - a strong predictor of Republican allegiance - were overwhelmingly afflicted by this health care dementia:
In our poll, 72% of self-identified FOX News viewers believe the health-care plan will give coverage to illegal immigrants, 79% of them say it will lead to a government takeover, 69% think that it will use taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions, and 75% believe that it will allow the government to make decisions about when to stop providing care for the elderly.
5. "President Obama Raised Taxes on Working People." The Republicans' profound cognitive disorders are not limited to their hallucinations about Barack Obama's birth or the health care imbroglio. As the Tea Party movement shows, furious right-wing zealots are outraged by no taxation with representation.
As promised, Barack Obama in the stimulus package delivered on his pledge of tax relief for 95% of American households. Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) didn't only jump start gross domestic product and refill empty state coffers in the second quarter of 2009. As Nate Silver thoroughly documented, "Obama has cut taxes for 98.6% of working households."
Nevertheless, frothing at the mouth Tea Baggers spouting Republican Tax Day lies took to the streets not to thank the President, but to blame him for the tax cuts they received. While Andrew Sullivan described their unreasoning mania as "adolescent, unserious hysteria," the Daily Show's Jon Stewart diagnosed their disorder:
"I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing."
Back in April, I appropriated Daniel Patrick Moynihan's classic statement to conclude that with their rag-tag band of revolutionaries, secessionists and agitators for violence, Republicans were "defining political deviancy down." Sadly, the delusional and the deviant are now descending on town hall meetings with guns. The Republican schizophrenics are no longer just a danger to themselves.
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(-5)
(-5) 
Truth
6:12PM Aug 31st 2009
You're a typical Alinsky trained leftist suffering from terminal moral turpitude.
Lets look at your litany of lies:
1) You deceptively imply that only Republicans oppose Obama's Commie Care, when in fact, Independents oppose it by 2 to 1, and many Democrats also oppose it.
2)Either through stupidity, or more deception, you try to equate the popular sentiment that wants Obama to leave Medicare the way it is with people wanting the government out of Medicare. You are using isolated incidents of people who misspeak to prove your weaselly point.
3)Barack Obama was raised Muslim but when, in his early thirties, he decided to run for office, he converted to Christianity. This makes him an apostate Muslim. Apostasy is the worst sin in Islam.
Obama then attended a "Christian" church run by another apostate Muslim, Reverend Wright, who instead of preaching Christian Gospel, preached Blacl Liberation Theology, and hate of this country. The interesting thing about Wright and Obama, the two apostate Muslims allegedly turned Christian, is that they stayed very close friends with nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In fact, Farrakhan described the apostate Muslim, now allegedly Christian Obama as "the hope of the world", and "the messiah".
Does that mean Farrakhan has converted to Christianity too? I don't think so. Obama nver really converted at all. and Farrakhan knows it, and the circumstatial evidence proves it.
4)You really lied your ass off on the death panel stuff. The FACTS are that the Comparative Effectiveness Research Committees are there for the purpose of deciding who gets what care based on formulas, which will result in denied care, which is Euthanasia by Denied Care. Yes the death panels exist, and in fact, Obama's entire Commie Care is based on death panels. Nice try, asshole.
5)More lies. Handing out money to people who don't pay taxes is not a tax cut. It is redistribution. Obama's Cap and Tax is a tax on everyone, and will hurt the poor the most. Commie Care is another huge tax increase. Everything Obama has done, or proposed to do is one way or another going to raise taxes.
BTW, Jon Stewart is a comedian, idiot.
Lets look at your litany of lies:
1) You deceptively imply that only Republicans oppose Obama's Commie Care, when in fact, Independents oppose it by 2 to 1, and many Democrats also oppose it.
2)Either through stupidity, or more deception, you try to equate the popular sentiment that wants Obama to leave Medicare the way it is with people wanting the government out of Medicare. You are using isolated incidents of people who misspeak to prove your weaselly point.
3)Barack Obama was raised Muslim but when, in his early thirties, he decided to run for office, he converted to Christianity. This makes him an apostate Muslim. Apostasy is the worst sin in Islam.
Obama then attended a "Christian" church run by another apostate Muslim, Reverend Wright, who instead of preaching Christian Gospel, preached Blacl Liberation Theology, and hate of this country. The interesting thing about Wright and Obama, the two apostate Muslims allegedly turned Christian, is that they stayed very close friends with nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In fact, Farrakhan described the apostate Muslim, now allegedly Christian Obama as "the hope of the world", and "the messiah".
Does that mean Farrakhan has converted to Christianity too? I don't think so. Obama nver really converted at all. and Farrakhan knows it, and the circumstatial evidence proves it.
4)You really lied your ass off on the death panel stuff. The FACTS are that the Comparative Effectiveness Research Committees are there for the purpose of deciding who gets what care based on formulas, which will result in denied care, which is Euthanasia by Denied Care. Yes the death panels exist, and in fact, Obama's entire Commie Care is based on death panels. Nice try, asshole.
5)More lies. Handing out money to people who don't pay taxes is not a tax cut. It is redistribution. Obama's Cap and Tax is a tax on everyone, and will hurt the poor the most. Commie Care is another huge tax increase. Everything Obama has done, or proposed to do is one way or another going to raise taxes.
BTW, Jon Stewart is a comedian, idiot.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) albanbok
10:24PM Aug 31st 2009
Poor American Proletariat confused by Preachers and Republicans in need of votes of the Proletariat shaking hands with great success, but Conservatism of Republicans and Preachers are two completly different things in itself. Proletariat needs beer and potatoe chips and Preachers deliver them to Republicans for pay-back in the form let us say "Faith base initiative".
Edward Kennedy - THE GREAT!!!! May His memory be Eternal!!!
Current Health Insurance is a Biblical Harlot riding on Americans.
They (Harlot and Republicans) descriminate sick , poor and old. And
you have to buy Afflac too!! But when you get sick They-Harlot
supported by Republicans cancel Insurance and Americans 1.6 Million
per year getting bancropted!.
So now is a time for Insurance for all Americans! let us stop
monopoly of Harlot and Rpublicans support of it.
God bless Obama and all Americans!!!!!!
Republicans are more conservative until conception, but after that
Democrats getting all responsibilities for the rest of the life of
new conception (person), so in conclusion -in Gods eye Democrats are
far more conservative than Harlot-Republicans!!!!
MOMENTO MORE !
Edward Kennedy - THE GREAT!!!! May His memory be Eternal!!!
Current Health Insurance is a Biblical Harlot riding on Americans.
They (Harlot and Republicans) descriminate sick , poor and old. And
you have to buy Afflac too!! But when you get sick They-Harlot
supported by Republicans cancel Insurance and Americans 1.6 Million
per year getting bancropted!.
So now is a time for Insurance for all Americans! let us stop
monopoly of Harlot and Rpublicans support of it.
God bless Obama and all Americans!!!!!!
Republicans are more conservative until conception, but after that
Democrats getting all responsibilities for the rest of the life of
new conception (person), so in conclusion -in Gods eye Democrats are
far more conservative than Harlot-Republicans!!!!
MOMENTO MORE !
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(0)
(0) WADE....
10:39PM Aug 31st 2009
2nd Amendment…and what it’s really for.
Great video...
Texas state representative, Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, whose parents were killed by an insane gunman while her gun was out in the car, gives very moving and bold testimony about the REAL reason that the second amendment was designed to protect our God-given right to keep and bear arms.
She lets them know at the very end...our gun's are also to protect us/the people from the Government!!!!!!!
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/2nd-amendment-and-what-its-really-for/#respond
Great video...
Texas state representative, Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, whose parents were killed by an insane gunman while her gun was out in the car, gives very moving and bold testimony about the REAL reason that the second amendment was designed to protect our God-given right to keep and bear arms.
She lets them know at the very end...our gun's are also to protect us/the people from the Government!!!!!!!
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/2nd-amendment-and-what-its-really-for/#respond
RATE THIS COMMENT: (1)
(1) jjddixie1
3:19PM Aug 31st 2009
Can't wait to rush out and spend money on this RINO's lame "tell all" book..
"Is Tom Ridge calling himself a liar?" hehe.. he's not the only one.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/08/is_tom_ridge_calling_himself_a.html
"Is Tom Ridge calling himself a liar?" hehe.. he's not the only one.
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/08/is_tom_ridge_calling_himself_a.html
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(4)
(4) kunzsp
3:25PM Aug 31st 2009
Several in the Bush administation are cashing in on
President Bush, which I think is deplorable.as he is the
best president in modern history.
No comment on the above comments.
Phyllis Kunz
President Bush, which I think is deplorable.as he is the
best president in modern history.
No comment on the above comments.
Phyllis Kunz
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-1)
(-1) PCL
5:36PM Aug 31st 2009
So what is the name of your optometrist? I would love to find those 'rose colored' glasses that you managed to see through to come to that conclusion.
http://splashinthepacific.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/cheney-offended-by-possible-torture-investigation-oh-boo-hoo/
http://splashinthepacific.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/cheney-offended-by-possible-torture-investigation-oh-boo-hoo/
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) kunzsp
3:39PM Aug 31st 2009
Some who were in the Bush administration are cashing in
on George W. Bush which is deplorable because he is the
best president in modern history. He changed the world
with the ouster of Saddam.
Phyllis Kunz
on George W. Bush which is deplorable because he is the
best president in modern history. He changed the world
with the ouster of Saddam.
Phyllis Kunz
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-1)
(-1) pamulij
3:52PM Aug 31st 2009
If you define moderan history as being from January 20th, 2001 until january 20, 2009, that would be the only paossible way that bush was the best president in modern history. Other than that I can only imagine a mentally ill person making that statement. A person who lives in the real world would have noticed that he left office with the lowest job approval rating of any president, McCain wouldn't let him campaign with him, and he'll go down in history as the president who invaded a country because they had weapons of mass destruction, but they didn't exist. He made the world a much more dangerous place because by removing Saddam, who wasn't a threat to us, he took away the only enemy of Iraq, enabling Iraq to spend much more money on nuclear research because they no longer had to be concerned about ground wars with Iran. In less than 5 years Iran will be totally controlled by Iraq
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) WADE....
6:05PM Aug 31st 2009
Eric Holder should be tried for TREASON...
Eric Holder supports prosecuting Patriotic American’s but not Murderous TERRORISTS !!!…
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/eric-holder-supports-prosecuting-patriotic-americans-but-not-murderous-terrorists/
RATE THIS COMMENT: (1)
(1) samsonov
10:12PM Aug 31st 2009
Edward Kennedy - THE GREAT!!!! May His memory be Eternal!!!
Current Health Insurance is a Biblical Harlot riding on Americans.
They (Harlot and Republicans) descriminate sick , poor and old. And
you have to buy Afflac too!! But when you get sick They-Harlot
supported by Republicans cancel Insurance and Americans 1.6 Million
per year getting bancropted!.
So now is a time for Insurance for all Americans! let us stop
monopoly of Harlot and Rpublicans support of it.
God bless Obama and all Americans!!!!!!
Republicans are more conservative until conception, but after that
Democrats getting all responsibilities for the rest of the life of
new conception (person), so in conclusion -in Gods eye Democrats are
far more conservative than Harlot-Republicans!!!!
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(2)
(2) jmbcorex
12:13AM Sep 1st 2009
Eric Holder should be dissolved by the CIA...c'mon CIA alumni...give that low rent Holder something to think about...darkness brings opportunity...lmao if they could...pure glee would descend on me...who is it who said "death snips proud men on the nose, throws a pair of dice and says read em and weep"...cackle...cackle...cackle
RATE THIS COMMENT: (1)
(1) 
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