Bush supporters' aftermath thread

"We must continue the work of education reform to bring high standards and accountability, not just to our elementary and secondary schools, but to our high schools as well."

Former President Jimmy Carter, in an interview for the January issue of GQ magazine, reveals how, on the recommendation of then-CIA director Stansfield Turner, he once authorized a psychic to make targeting decisions--while "in a trance"--for America's satellite surveillance system:

GQ: One of the promises you made in 1976 was that if you were elected, you would look into the [UFO] reports from Roswell and see if there had been any cover-ups. Did you look into that?

Carter: Well, in a way. I became more aware of what our intelligence services were doing. There was only one instance that I'll talk about now. We had a plane go down in the Central African Republic--a twin-engine plane, small plane. And we couldn't find it. And so we oriented satellites that were going around the earth every ninety minutes to fly over that spot where we thought it might be and take photographs. We couldn't find it. So the director of the CIA came and told me that he had contacted a woman in California that claimed to have supernatural capabilities. And she went in a trance, and she wrote down latitudes and longitudes, and we sent our satellites over that latitude and longitude, and there was the plane.

"I believe we are called to do the hard work to make our communities and quality of life a better place."

JW

You ought to read Lewis Lapham's account of his fresh-from-university employment interview at the CIA.

george, The only "paranoid fantasies" on these threads are the continued mention of 9-11 by the president in most of his speeches, and the "fear" of another attack on US soil.

It's paranoid if the words of a terrorist like Osama controls your life and freedoms. Just because there were some bombings in London and Bali, doesn't mean I'll stay away from my favorite city and favorite island. You are free to become paralyzed by Osama's words, but I refuse to sacrifice my freedoms and live in fear.

It's paranoid if the words of a terrorist like Osama controls your life and freedoms. Just because there were some bombings in London and Bali, doesn't mean I'll stay away from my favorite city and favorite island. You are free to become paralyzed by Osama's words, but I refuse to sacrifice my freedoms and live in fear.

Support for President Bush and for the war in Iraq has slipped significantly in the last year among members of the military's professional core, according to the 2005 Military Times Poll.

- Restore Iraq's infrastructure to meet increasing demand and the needs of a growing economy;

The Bush administration does not intend to seek any new funds for Iraq reconstruction in the budget request going before Congress in February, officials say. The decision signals the winding down of an $18.4 billion U.S. rebuilding effort in which roughly half of the money was eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein.

A Zeal to Defend Secrecy

Saturday, December 24, 2005; Page A15

In their zeal to defend President Bush for ordering the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on communications of American citizens, William Kristol and Gary Schmitt got key things wrong regarding the FBI's terrorism investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui ["Vital Presidential Power," op-ed, Dec. 20].

They are wrong about Moussaoui being a "U.S. person" who required a higher standard of probable cause under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Moussaoui was a French citizen in the United States with an expired temporary visa, which means that the higher FISA standard did not apply.

More important, and contrary to Kristol and Schmitt's assertion that "the Justice Department decided there was not sufficient evidence to get a FISA warrant to allow the inspection of his computer files," no evidence of Moussaoui's suspicious flight training and ties with terrorism was presented to the Justice Department. The department was never contacted and so did not decide anything; therefore, no decision was ever made regarding the given evidence and its subsequent application to FISA standards.

That means the FISA procedures were not the reason the FBI failed to inspect Moussaoui's computer files. Rather, the FBI's failure to share and analyze intelligence sufficiently is what enabled Moussaoui to escape further investigation.

-- Coleen Rowley

Now in his 70's, Lapham is nostalgic for the country of his youth, which he perceives as more generous of spirit and unity. You and he, I think, share some similarities, as you both see these traits as having diminished in America over time.

I, on the other hand, think they're alive and well...certainly in the red states and among the religious. It's "enlightened" folk like Lapham who've done the most to try to destroy these values and the faults noted by him are surely seen by some as the unintended consequences of liberal progress. In other words, Lapham notes the outcome, but fails to note the cause. Much like you.

Blatham wrote: "If America is represented by your framers, with their sophisticated educations and their broad respect for Enlightenment notions, then does it not seem more appropriate to consider Lapham a truer reflection of this America than a gun-totin', academic-hating long-haul truck driver from Albuquerque?"

Blatham - gotcha! From Albuquerque? Now hold on there you elitist, snobbish, Canada-loving, anti-Albuquerque stupid intellectual dude!

BBB :wink: