BBC Reported Building 7 Collapse 20 Minutes Before It Fell

An astounding video uncovered from the archives today shows the BBC reporting on the collapse of WTC Building 7 over twenty minutes before it fell at 5:20pm on the afternoon of 9/11. The incredible footage shows a BBC reporter talking about the collapse of the Salomon Brothers Building while it remains standing in the live shot behind her head.

Hell Has Frozen Over

At odds with Bush's policy

SCHWARZENEGGER BACKS EXIT TIMELINES

By Peter Nicholas

WASHINGTON - Aligning himself with congressional Democrats in the debate on the Iraq war, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Sunday that the United States needs to set clear timelines for bringing soldiers home, lest Iraq devolve into a quagmire with no end in sight.

Republican Schwarzenegger, speaking on CBS' ``Face the Nation,'' said Americans will not support a war that becomes an open-ended commitment -- a point, he said, that needs to be made to the Iraqis.

``We should let the Iraqis know that we are here until this time. And then we're going to draw back,'' Schwarzenegger said. ``We're going to draw our troops out of Iraq. I think a timeline is absolutely important, because I think that the people in America don't want to see another Korean war, another Vietnam war, where it's an open-ended thing.''

In Washington for an annual meeting of U.S. governors, Schwarzenegger is staking out a position at odds with that of his party's leader, President Bush, who in a Feb. 14 news conference said, ``The operation to secure Baghdad is going to take time.''

Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed the notion of fixed dates for troop withdrawal as recently as last week. ``I don't think you can put a timetable on it.'' Cheney also has castigated congressional Democrats for opposing Bush's planned ``surge'' of 21,500 soldiers to secure Baghdad, saying that approach would ``validate the Al-Qaida strategy.''

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday spoke out against efforts in Congress to limit the role of U.S. forces in Iraq, saying Bush would not allow himself to be constrained by such a ``micromanagement of military affairs.''

Asked whether Bush would abide by a binding resolution, now being drafted by Democratic leaders, that would include the start of troop withdrawal from Iraq, Rice told ``Fox News Sunday'' that such a proposal would go against his efforts to support the ``flexibility of our commanders to do what they think they need to do on the ground.''

``I can't imagine a circumstance in which it's a good thing that their flexibility is constrained by people sitting here in Washington, sitting in the Congress, trying to micromanage this war,'' Rice said. ``I just don't think it's a good thing.''

Schwarzenegger's position puts him to the left of most Republicans in Congress and those running for president. At minimum, most Democrats have called for setting a timetable for withdrawal, with some going so far as to set a specific date for removing U.S. soldiers.
The governor offered no dates in his remarks Sunday.

Schwarzenegger's stand mirrors that of some of the Democratic candidates for president. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, for example, has introduced legislation requiring that all combat soldiers leave Iraq by March 2008. Until this month, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., had refused to set a date for redeployment of all soldiers. Clinton has since called for removing some soldiers within 90 days. Former Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the party's vice-presidential candidate in 2004, wants an immediate drawdown of up to 50,000 soldiers, with a goal of no troops left within 12 to 18 months.

There are about 132,000 U.S. soldiers in the war that began four years ago.
Among Republic candidates for president, Arizona Sen. John McCain has been a Bush ally on the war and is backing the troop surge ordered by the president. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said earlier this month that ``we just can't walk out'' of Iraq. He previously said that he supported Bush's plan for 21,000 additional soldiers. Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney also has voiced support for Bush's troop surge.

Along with other governors, Schwarzenegger was to have dinner at the White House on Sunday night. He told CBS' Bob Schieffer that if he got the chance he would tell the president a timeline for withdrawing soldiers is essential.

``If the opportunity is there, I definitely will,'' he said.
When asked for a response to Schwarzenegger's comments, White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mama said, ``The president looks forward to meeting with all the governors this week to talk about his policies as well as hear their thoughts.''

Mindful of Bush's unpopularity in California, Schwarzenegger has never portrayed his White House relationship as especially cozy. Schwarzenegger avoided joint campaign appearances with Bush when the president visited California during the 2006 governor's race.
Schwarzenegger also has been at odds with the Bush administration over the deployment of National Guard troops to the border.

Land Of Ice & Snow

I had to cross some big ass snow banks to get to this kick ass spot.

This sign made it to the Washington DC march now it hangs on US23.

They Say ...

Pelosi, Planes and Partisan Propaganda

Pelosi, Planes and Partisan Propaganda

By John Nichols

Republican apologists for the Bush administration's failed fight inIraq and their amen corner in the media have been looking for something, anything, to distract the American public from a necessary discussion about the need to end the U.S. occupation of that country. They finally settled last week on the "scandal" involving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mode of transporation.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, was informed as she prepared to assume the speakership -- a position that places her third in the line of succession to the presidency -- that she could no longer travel as she previously had: on commercial airlines. She would, she was informed, have to fly as former Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Dennis Hastert had on a secure Air Force plane. So it was that, upon becoming speaker, Pelosi accepted her new circumstance and agreed to use a military plane with a fuel capacity that would allow for cross-country travel without stops.
That's not exactly the stuff of scandal. But, after an apparent "leak" from the Bush administration's Department of Defense to the White House-friendly Washington Times newspaper, the Times last week ran a story headlined: "Pelosi's Power Trip -- Non-stop Nancy Seeks Flight of Fancy."

Fox News jumped on the story, followed by other cable networks.

Republican National Committee stoked it with emails to reporters and briefing papers supposedly exposing Pelosi's imperial style -- and ambitions. The predictable Sean Hannity declared that Pelosi "thinks she's the president" -- seemingly unaware that by referencing the presidency he was acknowledging his own dear leader's regal pretensions

Republican members of the House actually brought the issue up on the floor of a chamber that should have been focused on the question of how and when to end a war that began as Dick Cheney's "power trip" and George Bush's flight of fancy" but has since turned into an international disaster.

House Republican Conference chair Adam Putnam, of Florida accused Pelosi of displaying "an arrogance of office that just defies common sense."

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, of Missouri, referred to the plane Pelosi would likely use as a "flying Lincoln Bedroom."

North Carolina Congressman Patrick T. McHenry, arguably the most consistently hysterical member of an increasingly hysterical caucus, described the speaker's plane as "Pelosi One," and declared that, "This is a bullet point to a larger value -- Pelosi's abuse of power continues.

McHenry accused the speaker of "exploiting America's armed forces and taxpayers for her own personal convenience."

Yikes! This was the Republican spin machine churning at full throttle.

There was only, er, one problem.

The charge that Pelosi was abusing her position was a complete fabrication.

The speaker did not request a bigger or better plane.

It was the man in charge of making security arrangements for members of the Congress who made the request.

House Sergeant at Arms Bill Livingood has confirmed that, for security reasons, he asked that Pelosi be provided with an Air Force plane that could make the trip from Washington to San Francisco without stopping to refuel.

"The fact that Speaker Pelosi lives in California compelled me to request an aircraft that is capable of making non-stop flights for security purposes, unless such an aircraft is unavailable," Livingood explained in a written statement. "I regret that an issue that is exclusively considered and decided in a security context has evolved into a political issue."

Livingood, who has served as sergeant at arms for 11 years, made similar arrangements for past speakers.

That was something the Republican National Committee and its media echo chamber could have discovered simply by contacting the Office of the Sergeant at Arms.
It is something that Republican Representatives Putnam, Blunt and McHenry should have known.

In fact, if this Congress had nothing else on its agenda, it might well be appropriate to inquire into whether Putnam, Blunt and McHenry used their positions to engage in a deliberate conspiracy to deceive the American people for partisan purposes.

But Congress has a higher calling. It is time to put aside the distractions and get focused on the discussion about war and peace that the administration and its acolytes on Capitol Hill are so determined to avoid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20070209/cm_thenation/1164718

Bush Budget To Cut Aid To Mich.

Bush budget to cut aid to Mich

WASHINGTON -- President Bush proposed on Monday a $2.9 trillion budget with cuts to social programs that critics say could deepen Michigan's economic and budget crises.
Under the plan, which would cover the 12 months beginning Oct. 1, Michigan would be one of four states to get a cut in funding for Medicaid, the joint state-federal health program for the poor.

Cities in Michigan and other states also would get less money for economic development grants, the state would get less for home heating aid to the poor, and funding for education programs such as special education would shrink.

Bush's plan would eliminate a federal program that helps manufacturers develop new technology and cut another program that provides aid to small manufacturers.

The cuts in domestic programs are part of Bush's drive to increase military spending and make several tax cuts permanent while still balancing the federal budget by 2012. Democrats accused Bush of budget sleight-of-hand, claiming to put the nation on course to a balanced budget but failing to plan for future costs such as the Iraq war and tax law changes.

"The president has proposed things that just are not possible," said Leighton Ku, a health care analyst at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank

Read More Here

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070206/POLITICS/702060376/1022

Let Them Eat Cake

Now King George II has more $$$$ for Iraq

Be Afraid Be Very Afraid

Knee Jerks

Two men pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges they created panic by placing "bomblike" electronic light boards displaying a cartoon character with an upraised middle finger throughout Boston.
Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards "bomblike" devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged transportation infrastructure in the city.
Judge Paul K. Leary told Grossman that, according to law, the suspects must intend to create a panic to be charged with placing hoax devices. (Watch a Web video of men placing the light boards on structures around Boston )
It appears the suspects had no such intent, the judge said, but the question should be discussed in a later hearing.