Reply #92: Of course bush and his cronies

[salin]

ignored all sorts of intelligence warnings - including from day one of the transition. They shelved anti-terrorism efforts - and put Cheney in charge. Cheney, being too busy with his other task force (the energy 'paybackdonors' task force), didn't hold a single meeting prior to 911. Even after the intel briefing on teh Pheonix memo, even after the intel briefing on Minnesota. Even after the chatter got so loud that Ashcroft was told not to fly commercial. Even Ashcroft dropped the priority of the DOJ (and thus FBI) on antiterrorism efforts from the level under Clinton that in his budget priorities it wasn't even in the top 10 areas (it was high up by the end of the Clinton admin, btw) in his budget request of early September 2001 (even after all of the above mentioned).

Given that context - a level of denial, incompetence or "other priorities" it is not surprising that this administration failed to prevent 911. They were too busy fundraising. Too busy trying to kill Kyoto. Too busy trying to gut energy regulation. Too busy fighting Gray Davis in California over the energy crisis. Too busy trying to gut worker safety rules, agriculture safety rules, and environmental rules.

I think it is no predictor of whether another administration could prevent a future event.

Indeed, I think anyone of the current democratic candidates would do a better job on this front as others - as they are concerned about the people rather than simply making life more lucrative for their business cronies/political sponsors.