MACAIN IS A LIRA JUST LIKE HIS DADDY BUSH, IF YOU REALLY LISTEN TO HIM HE IS SAYING THE
SAME THING BUSH SAID EIGHT YEARS AGO.
Giuliani failed to make interoperable communications between the NYC Fire and Police Departments a reality after the 1993 WTC bombing. This failure was probably responsible for several hundred deaths of our firefighters on 9/11/2001. Mayor Bloomberg has made it happen, one of the many reasons why I believe Mayor Mike is the one to hammer the Department of Homeland Security into a workable, effective, accountable government agency. (I still cannot believe people are voting for Giuliani for FEMA or DHS (or anything else) at our separate website for cabinet nominations at http://puredem.wordpress.com as recently reported by A.D.)
Great news! Today's NYTimes reports that, not only are the Fire and Police department fully interoperable, but
"Emergency medical workers can now contact the police directly via radio. Fire officials use information beamed down from police helicopters. Law enforcement officers and emergency service agencies hold joint drills at high-rise buildings, jails and the city’s tunnels. Seven years after the harsh lessons of the Sept. 11 attacks, New York City has improved the ability of its Police and Fire Departments to operate together. On Wednesday, these and other advances were enumerated before the Federal Communications Commission at a public hearing in Brooklyn on improving public safety through better communications among government and emergency agencies. Speakers at the hearing focused on the lack of a national broadband public safety network, noting that some cities, including New York, Washington and Philadelphia, had improved agencies’ ability to talk to one another on their local networks, while others had lagged behind. ..."
Speakers at the hearing focused on the lack of a national broadband public safety network, noting that some cities, including New York, Washington and Philadelphia, had improved agencies’ ability to talk to one another on their local networks, while others had lagged behind. ..."
below or at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/nyregion/31comm.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
No, I'm not talking about faith as in religion and spirituality, though that may make an interesting post for later. I am talking about trust in the government, or lack thereof.
Conspiracy theories have run wild lately. There are always the nutcases wearing tinfoil hats talking about black helicopters. We'll always have those. But since 9/11, there have been much more serious, and perhaps credible, theories by people one wouldn't normally associate with that sort of thing. There are those that say that the government planted bombs in the WTC, and those that deny it was a plane that hit the Pentagon, but suggest instead that it was one of our own missiles.
I'll go ahead and say it right now- I don't believe either of these theories, despite some people I respect and sincerely look up to (not my family) believing in them. First, in the matter of the WTC. No, jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel. We can all agree on that much. However, steel does not have to melt for it to lose its structural integrity, especially with several hundred tons of weight resting on it. Consider that the first tower got hit closer to the top, and the second tower was hit closer to the middle. The second one fell first because more weight was resting on the compromised section of the tower. Would you say that jet fuel burns hotter than wood? Then consider that when I BBQ stuff in my grill, the steel grate that the coals sit on becomes glowing hot, and eventually starts to sag under its own weight. People also point to the windows blowing out as the tower fell. That is because the air was being forced down. Granted, much escapes from the top, as it doesn't exactly form an air tight container as it falls, but not enough escaped, so the several thousand tons of rubble falling combined with vibrations from the collapse were more than enough to blow out windows. As for the Pentagon... it has been said that very few people witnessed a plane crashing into it. Well, even fewer witnessed a missile crashing into it. The burden of proof lies with the accusers.
That's not to say I don't have my own ideas. I think, based on what I've read, that the Bush administration did know something was going to happen, they just didn't act on it. Whether it be that they intended a "wag the dog" (a war/disaster to improve approval ratings) or because they just didn't know what the hell they were doing, I think they knew something was going to happen. Of course, maybe that's just my own lack of faith in the government, which brings me to my topic.
