Setting the Record Straight

The New York Post has an excellent editorial.

It comes after their meeting yesterday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Excepts on the subject of Richard Clarke (pictured)...

CONDI VS. BUBBA . .

Clarke told the commission a very different story during hours of private testimony behind closed doors - one that jibed with a 2002 background briefing he gave to reporters.

Back then, he said: "There was no plan on al Qaeda that was passed from the Clinton administration to the Bush administration. . . . [a] plan, strategy - there was no, nothing new."

Indeed, Clarke said, the Bush team in 2001 "changed the [Clinton] strategy from one of rollback [of] al Qaeda over five years to a new strategy that called for the rapid elimination of al Qaeda. That is in fact the timeline."

Bush, he added, took action on several "issues that had been on the table for a couple of years," such as instituting a new policy in Pakistan that convinced Islamabad "to break away from the Taliban" and boosting "CIA resources . . . for covert action five-fold to go after al Qaeda."

In fact, a 1999 Clarke after-action memo - the one top Clinton aide Sandy Berger later stole from the National Archives - identified national-security weaknesses so "glaring" that only sheer "luck" prevented a cataclysmic attack back then.

And, as Clarke told the 9/11 Commission publicly, there was nothing the Bush administration could have done that would have prevented the attacks.

Sure, he tells a different story now. But that, he admitted, is because of his opposition to the Iraq war, which he believes distracted from the War on Terror.

Secretary Rice was a lot more honest, explaining yesterday that there was no full-scale War on Terror "the way that we're fighting it now" - by either administration - before 9/11: "We just weren't organized as a country, either domestically or as a leader internationally."

The blame for 9/11 goes back fully 25 years, and includes both Democratic and Republican presidents.

At the same time, the Clinton years were bookended by al Qaeda bombings - the 1993 attack World Trade Center attack, and the October 2000 suicide assault on USS Cole - with plenty of blood spilled in between.

Clinton effectively slept through it all - and now he's trying to rewrite history.

It won't wash.

How Deep Is The Ocean?

I did not get the same elated feeling from this Republican Convention that I felt in 1980 and 2000.

It may be partly because of the Paulistinians who chose to disrupt, instead of support, the process.

More likely it is because of the severity of the situation that this country is in.

I do believe this will be the winning ticket in November and the scientific community is united in that fact.

I loved the speech from Chris Christie.

How could you not be moved when Condoleezza Rice recalled a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham. The segregated city of the south where her parents cannot take her to a movie theater or to restaurants, but they have convinced that even if she cannot have it hamburger at Woolworths, she can be the president of the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state.

I though Paul Ryan gave the best speech by a Vice Presidential nominee ever, and I've been watching both parties conventions since 1968, just beating out Sarah Palin from 2008.

Marco Rubio is the man, almost as smooth as Ronald Reagan.

It was interesting to find out that one of the Olympic athletes on stage, Jean Racine-Prahm, (pictured) resides in Iowa with her husband Ryan and children.

Mitt Romney made himself more human and had the right tone while talking about the differences between him and and the President -- President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise...is to help you and your family.

Do As I Say

Barbara Boxer became a little testes, err testy when she questioned Brigadier General Michael Walsh recently...

"I would, you know, do me a favor. Could you say 'senator' instead of ma'am? It's just the thing. I worked so hard to get that title. So I'd appreciate it. Yes, Thank you."

I agree.

Ma'am is a term of respect, especially among southerners and the military.

Boxer deserves none and the scientific community is united in that fact.

Let's revisit 2007 when Boxer was a little contentious with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice...

"Madam Secretary, please..."

Boxer is just being like the female breed of her surname.

She's no Tammy Wynette

Hillary pulled another "Stand by your Man" when she jumped UGLY regarding Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's factual dispute with Bubba.

HRC said, "I think my husband did a great job in demonstrating that Democrats are not going to take these attacks. I'm certain that if my husband and his national security team had been shown a classified report entitled 'Bin Laden Determined To Attack Inside the United States' he would have taken it more seriously than history suggests it was taken by our current president and his national security team."

Then what the hell is this?

Per the 9/11 Commisssion, on Dec. 4, 1998, President Clinton received a Presidential Daily Briefing titled "Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks."

And this?

"The Intelligence Community has strong indications that Bin Laden intends to conduct or sponsor attacks inside the United States."-Classified document signed by President Clinton in December 1998

Each time Bill and Hillary have lied, a piece of America has died.

Just go away, NOW!