That thud you hear is the other shoe finally dropping

[Brazenly Liberal]

The bad news just keeps rolling in for the Bush Administration. The poll numbers keep getting worse. A central figure in the 2002 illegal NH phone-jamming scheme is revealed to have made dozens of calls to the White House in the days surrounding the election. The "democracy" in Iraq, four months after the elections, has yet to form a government. With the 2006 general election still nearly 6 months away, Democrats have already begun to take seats in the House. Seemingly daily, new information emerges as to how aware Bush was that the "reasons" for invading Iraq were bogus - yet months after knowing, he still promoted them to the American public. The leaker Bush vowed to find turned out to be ... Bush and even the mainstream media is running headlines referring to him as the leaker-in-chief.

The Bushies have their own way of doing things and in the past, what's worked for them when inconvenient news is dominating the headlines is to scare the crap out of the nation, reminding us who our Daddy is.

So it was with a mixture of apprehension and cynicism that we waited to see what would happen now. Would the Statue of Liberty be bombed into the oceanic depths? Would plastic explosives be found packed around the cameras as American Idol went live? With this much bad news, it would have to be something bigger - maybe the Sears Tower would go down.

But no. It came not as a new threat, but a reminder of the pain of an old threat.

The recorded sounds of struggle and panic on United Airlines Flight 93 filled a federal courtroom here today as jurors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui listened raptly to the Sept. 11 hijackers seizing control of the cockpit and passengers trying to retake control, believing it was their only chance to avoid death.

Long silences in the 31-minute recording were punctuated by the cries of the hijackers at the controls, the passengers who were trying desperately to break down the cockpit door and the crashing of objects around the cabin.

There are also the sounds of what may have been the killing of a flight attendant as the hijackers took control: a woman in the cockpit moaning, "Please, please, don't hurt me." Her voice soon appears again for the last time as she is heard to say, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die" followed by one of the hijackers saying in Arabic: "Everything is fine. I finished."

The recording ends with a three-minute crescendo of noise as a passenger apparently just outside the door shouts: "In the cockpit! If we don't, we'll die!" http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/13/us/13moussaoui.html?hp&ex=1144900800&en=1de9ac97b4837979&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Repost from http://brazenlyliberal.com/blogs/bl/2006/04/that-thud-you-hear-is-other-shoe.html

[habitual]

1. quick note, removing the letters 'url' makes the links work

[Brazenly Liberal]

3. thanks!

fixed, I hope.:toast:

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Isn't this exactly what the whole sentencing trial of Moussaoui all

about? I can't remember the federal government holding a trial to determine if a confessed defendant can be executed or not, ever taking place before. Why wasn't Moussaoui just sentenced by the judge who took his confession? The whole thing was a plan to excite the masses again. And the 'jury' fell right into it or maybe, they just wanted to see and hear and relive all the stuff from 9-11.

[Love Bug]

4. Yes -- it's almost pornographic, isn't it?

[Brazenly Liberal]

5. Interesting you would put it that way

That's exactly what we call it, too - "9/11 porn"
:)

[mrcheerful]

6. Of course out rage, fear and revenge taking is as amerikan as apple pie.

Look at how many WWII vets are still comparing the attack by Bin Forgotten to the one on 12/7/41. Whats left out is terrorists are not countries or nations but individuals who are brain washed into thinking violence is the only solution to problems. Theres often no way to blame one group or another as governments and religions use these brain washed people to do their dirty work. Remember the king of neocons, Reagan, tried to paint the contras as freedom fighters then it was found out they were killing innocents? Same BS different group.

[Clark2008]

7. A defendant can request sentencing by jury

The defendant can either be sentenced by a judge or by a jury - and can choose which one he/she wants to do.

Judges, btw, are generally more lienient because, well, let's face it - they've seen and heard it all and are more hardened, so usually attorneys advice having a judge do the sentencing.