COMPARE AND CONTRAST

President Obama this morning.



Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's statement last night:

"Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.

In light of the events of today, the United States government is working with partner countries around the world to protect our personnel, our missions, and American citizens worldwide."

 Mitt Romney's statement last night, September 11, 2012:

“I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

What provoked Mitt Romney's verbal attack on President Obama:

Earlier today, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt issued a statement that “condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims — as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.” The embassy said the statement was drafted and released before the protests. But the succession of events drew widespread criticism in the United States after violence broke out for appearing weak in the face of threats. 

Tweet by the chairman of the Republican National Commttee.

What about Americans standing together in the face of tragic death of four embassy employees, including Ambassador Chris Stevens?  Statements by Mitch McConnell (R) and John Boehner (R) demonstrate that now is not the time for partisan attacks.

“Yesterday we commemorated the anniversary of the attacks of September the 11th, and today we are reminded that brave Americans serve us every day at the risk of their own lives,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a statement. “We honor the Americans we lost in Libya and we will stand united in our response.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced plans for a moment of silence in the House and ordered flags at half staff.

“We mourn for the families of our countrymen in Benghazi, and condemn this horrific attack,” he said in a statement. “Eleven years after September 11, this is a jolting reminder that freedom remains under siege by forces around the globe who relish violence over free expression, and terror over democracy — and that America and free people everywhere must remain vigilant in defense of our liberties.”

Had Romney taken the better part, he would have honored the Americans who died and their families by expressing his sympathy and pausing for a spell, rather than quickly attempting to use the tragedy to further his political advantage.

The attacks on the embassies were supposedly in response to an inflammatory anti-Muslim movie that was attributed to "Sam Bacile", who may not be a real person.  The 15 minute video trailer of the movie that was first believed to have set off the attacks is an amateurish, incoherent mish-mash.  Administration officials are now investigating whether the attacks may have been pre-planned. In the meantime, I will not comment further on the attacks until more information is available.

OH THIS IS RICH

Dick Cheney by Gage Skidmore

Former Vice President Dick Cheney took a shot at President Barack Obama late Monday night after it was reported that the president has attended fewer than half of his daily intelligence briefings.

“If President Obama were participating in his intelligence briefings on a regular basis then perhaps he would understand why people are so offended at his efforts to take sole credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden,” Cheney told The Daily Caller in an email through a spokeswoman.

“Those who deserve the credit are the men and women in our military and intelligence communities who worked for many years to track him down. They are the ones who deserve the thanks of a grateful nation.”

Hey Dick.  When did President Obama claim that he took out Osama Bin Laden single-handedly?   Poor Dick and the Neocons.  This really sticks in their craws.  Bush probably doesn't care, because he said to Fred Barnes about Bin Laden, “I truly am not that concerned about him.”   

What good purpose was served by Dick Cheney and George Bush participating in the intelligence briefings on a regular basis if the two did not do a damned thing in response to the warnings of his intelligence and national security staff that a terrorist attack in the US by Osama Bin Laden might be imminent?

Picture by Gage Skidmore from Wikimedia Commons. 

AUGUST 6, 2001 PDB "A HISTORICAL DOCUMENT"?

I watched Condoleezza Rice's appearance before the 9/11 Commission in growing amazement at her pathetic attempt to justify the inaction of the White House in the face of the President's Daily Briefing of August 6, 2001 titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US".  Kirk Eichenwald, the author of an opinion column in yesterday's New York Times titled "The Deafness Before the Storm", allows that Rice's contention that the PDB was "a historical document" may have contained a kernal of truth, simply because for months the White House had been receiving warnings even more dire than the August 6 PDB.  Remember the the words of National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism,  Richard Clark?

Clarke wrote in Against All Enemies that in the summer of 2001, the intelligence community was convinced of an imminent attack by al Qaeda, but could not get the attention of the highest levels of the Bush administration, most famously writing that Director of the Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet was running around with his "hair on fire".

So yes.  In the sense that intelligence and security officials in the government had warned of an '"imminent attack" for months, and the Bush administration paid little heed, the August 6 PDB, the sole PDB declassified for the commission, could be labeled "a historical document". 

That is, unless it was read in conjunction with the daily briefs preceding Aug. 6, the ones the Bush administration would not release. While those documents are still not public, I have read excerpts from many of them, along with other recently declassified records, and come to an inescapable conclusion: the administration’s reaction to what Mr. Bush was told in the weeks before that infamous briefing reflected significantly more negligence than has been disclosed. In other words, the Aug. 6 document, for all of the controversy it provoked, is not nearly as shocking as the briefs that came before it. 

By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.

Neocons in the White House advised that Bin Laden was only pretending that he was planning an attack on the US, and Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al. chose to believe them rather than the intelligence and security experts.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda...what is point of the reminder on the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and another intended target in Washington DC, which was prevented when passengers attacked the hijackers on the plane that went down in Pennsylvania, that the intelligence agencies warned the Bush administration for months prior to September 11, 2001, that Bin Laden was determined to strike in the US?  I'm not sure, except to point out once again the incompetence of the Bush administration in its response to intelligence information.  Could it be because the Neocons had an agenda before they reached the White House, and the intelligence had to be twisted to fit the agenda, the agenda being to launch an attack against Iraq?

Now the Neocons, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have another agenda.  They are beating the war drums for an attack on Iran, and, once again, the intelligence about Iran's nuclear capabilities is in dispute.  Obama will be more than cautious about an attack on Iran for a number of reasons, including the  possibility of destabilizing further the already unstable situation in the Middle East.

But what about Romney?  From his own website: "U.S. policy toward Iran must begin with an understanding on Iran’s part that a military option to deal with their nuclear program remains on the table. This message should not only be delivered through words, but through actions."

And what would be the effect of an attack on the price of oil?  Do the warmongers, with their macho chest-pounding, who clamor for or threaten a pre-emptive attack on Iran think through to the consequences of a rise in oil prices on the world economy or to any of the negative consequences at all of launching an attack?

I watched with dismay and disbelief as the administration began its inexorable procession to the invasion of Iraq to protect the US and the rest of the world against Saddam's fast-moving development of nuclear weapons and his vast store of chemical weapons, which he could loose on the world at any moment, both of which turned out to be non-existent.  The reason I write is that I don't want our government to undertake this sort of deadly experiment again on the basis of junk intelligence.  I realize that it's quite likely that what I write here will make no difference at all, except, at best, to perhaps remind a voter or two in a swing state about what a vote for Romney might mean with regard to future military actions by the US. 

SEPTEMBER 11 - 11TH ANNIVERSARY

National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center

Mission Statement

Remember and honor the thousands of innocent men, women, and children murdered by terrorists in the horrific attacks of February 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001.

Respect this place made sacred through tragic loss.

Recognize the endurance of those who survived, the courage of those who risked their lives to save others, and the compassion of all who supported us in our darkest hours.

May the lives remembered, the deeds recognized, and the spirit reawakened be eternal beacons, which reaffirm respect for life, strengthen our resolve to preserve freedom, and inspire an end to hatred, ignorance, and intolerance.

Above: Photo by Joe Woolhead.

Following are quotes from the first and final verses of T S Eliot's "East Coker":

In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.
....

Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.

BREAKING SCIENTIFIC NEWS

Science Fact:

There is a species of antelope capable of jumping higher than the average house.

This is due to the antelope’s powerful hind-legs and the fact that the average house cannot jump.

Thanks to Doug.  I've already had two good laughs out of this one.

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT?

"Ask Mitt Anything" session, May 2007

Mitt Romney: “That pledge says ‘under God,’ and I will not take God out of our platform,” Romney said. “I will not take God off our coins, and I will not take God out of my heart.”

OMG! President Obama will?

Wait!

Obama spokesperson: “The president believes as much that God should be taken off a coin as he does that aliens will attack Florida,” she said. “It’s an absurd question to be raised.”

Whew! I can breathe again. I can tell you; I was worried.

I expect that Romney will mention God more often than Obama, but what does the Bible have to say?

Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: 'Execute true justice, how mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.’" (Zechariah 7:8-10)

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matthew 7:24-27)

So.  It's not how many times we say God or have the name of God displayed that counts, it's how we put into practice the teachings of the Good Book.

I'm told that Mormons use the KJV of the Bible.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.  As you see, the picture is from 2007.  Mitt has been running for president for a long time.  I doubt whether Romney would have an "Ask Mitt Anything" gathering now except with a carefully screened group, and even then....

OUR ISAAC

The rains of Isaac

The rains came after we thought Hurricane Isaac was over.  As you probably know Isaac was a huge storm, as was the eye, which passed directly over us, after which the wind came up again.  Then followed the rains, and the rains, and the rains.

The aftermath of Isaac

We were fortunate that downed limbs were the worst of the damage we suffered from the hurricane, but Grandpère had a huge clean-up job facing him. As you see from the little pile of limbs in the rain picture, he had already started to pick up before the rain stopped him. My son came later and was a big help to GP. You may wonder why I didn't help. I have a bad back. I know that's the common excuse lazy people use for not working, but, in my case, the excuse happens to be true. I'd have lasted about 10 minutes and paid for the short effort for a long time thereafter.

Piles of limbs waiting to be picked up

The city has not yet got around to picking up the piles of limbs along the curb.  One day...

Where the crepe myrtles were

Apropos of nothing to do with Isaac, GP cut down two crepe myrtle trees which were planted directly over the sewer line, whose roots growing into the pipe had probably caused our plumbing problem last year. The plumbers told us the trees should go, and, at first, Grandpère would not hear of taking down the trees, but he finally came around, and he and a neighbor cut them down last week.  The trees were not flourishing because their roots were blocked by the pipe, so they were no great loss.  The space along the driveway has a clean look now which I rather like.  The next step is to get a plumber with a camera to go in and examine the inside of the pipe to see if it is compromised, which it probably is, so we may be looking at a large repair bill.

This morning the weather was gorgeous...a delightful 65°F.  The day is still fine, but the temperature is already up to 81°F.  Still it was lovely to feel, if only briefly, a touch of fall in the air.

Tail end of a gorgeous sunset

The photo of the sunset was taken before Isaac. I was walking during the high point of the breathtaking beauty of the sunset, but I had no camera with me. By the time I reached home the sun had nearly set, so the photo above was the best I could do. I should carry my camera on my walk.

MARY BLACK - "BRIGHT BLUE ROSE"

Mary Black Live At The Royal Albert Hall

For all of you who must discover
For all who seek to understand  
For having left the path of others  
You'll find a very special hand
 
And it is a holy thing and it is a precious time  
And it is the only way
Forget-me-nots among the snow, it's always been and so it goes  
To ponder his death and his life eternally

Thanks to Tim Chesterton for introducing me to this wonderful singer with the lovely voice.

BINGEING WITH BARBARA PYM

Recently, I began rereading Barbara Pym's novels.  I have them all, but I was only going to read the one, The Sweet Dove Died, but Pym's fiction is addictive, and I'm now a good way through Excellent Women.  Before the Pym binge is over, I will have gone through all the novels again for probably the third reading.  I Googled around to see what I'd find online before writing this post .  On my second click I struck gold, pure gold at the Guardian - an article on Excellent Women, the very book I'm reading now, that links Pym to Jane Austen.  I'd already made the connection a long time ago, when I first began to read Pym.

Like Jane Austen, Pym painted her pictures on a small square of ivory, and covered much the same territory as did her better-known predecessor: the details of smallish lives led to places that could only be in England. Neither used a megaphone; neither said much about the great issues of their time.

On Excellent Women:

That world of vague longing is described in this novel in a way which not only shows us the poignancy of such hopes, but allows us to smile at them. One does not laugh out loud while reading Pym; that would be too much. One smiles. One smiles and puts down the book to enjoy the smile. Then one picks it up again and a few minutes later an unexpected observation on human foibles makes one smile again.

It is these asides, I think, that make Excellent Women so beguiling.

Oh, but one does laugh out loud, repeatedly, even in a semi-public place.  As I sat in a waiting room passing the time reading EW, I laughed out loud.  Fortunately, I was alone in the room, but I wondered whether the receptionist behind the glass heard me.

Even the names of the characters...

'And Mr Mallett and Mr Conybeare, just look at them,' she went on in a voice loud enough for the two churchwardens to hear.  'It wouldn't do them any harm to soil their hands with a little honest toil.  Teddy Lemon and the boys put up all the trestles and the urns.'

'Yes, Sister, we found everything had been done when we put in an appearance,' said Mr Mallett, a round jolly little man.  'It was quite a blow, I can tell you.' 

Mildred Lathbury, the first-person narrator, is having lunch with Everard Bone, an anthropologist, who had just returned from an archaeological tour holiday visiting caves in the Dordogne. 

'There are stone circles in Brittany, aren't there?' I began, trying to show intelligent interest.  'And then of course there's always Stonehenge.'  I remembered that my father had been interested in Stonehenge, and I seemed to see us all sitting round the dinner-table, my mother, father, a curate - I could not remember which curate - and a canon and his wife.  We were having a conversation about Stonehenge and suddenly all the lights had gone out.  The curate let out a cry of alarm but the canon's voice went on without a tremor - I could hear it now - just as if nothing had happened.  My mother got up and fussed with candles and the canon went on explaining his theory of how the great stones had been carried to Salisbury Plain.  It was an impressive performance and had been rewarded, or so it seemed to me, by a bishopric not long afterwards.  Thinking about it after all these years, I smiled.

'Yes, there's always Stonehenge,' said Everard rather stiffly.

I remember a conversation when I was in England last year about what a group of us would do on the day we met together.  One person in our group said, 'Can we not go to Stonehenge?'  All of us had seen Stonehenge, and we agreed that none of us were particularly eager for another visit.  Not that there's anything wrong with Stonehenge...

Mildred reminds me of myself in the way her mind drifts from the present moment to a time past and then responds to the memory with some sign, such as a smile, before drifting back to the present.

On marrying:

'Perhaps one shouldn't try to find people deliberately like that,' I suggested.  'I mean not set out to look for somebody to marry as if you were going to buy a saucepan or a casserole.'

'You think it should just be left to chance?  But then the person might be most unsuitable.'

The idea of choosing a husband or wife as one would a casserole had reminded me of Rocky's letter and his allegation that Everard had broken one of his casseroles.  I suppose a smile must have come on my face, for he said, 'You seem to find it amusing, the idea of marrying somebody suitable.'

Oh no.  I was somewhere else. 

I look forward to my binge.  I'd forgotten what a delight it is to read Barbara Pym.  Most of her novels are available at Amazon, and Excellent Women is on Kindle.

STORY OF THE DAY - MAKE BELIEVE

When I'm having a really bad day, she said, I pretend
I'm dead & you'd be amazed how much that perks you
right up.

I don't know about you, but it perked me right up to read the "Story of the Day".

From StoryPeople.