1,987

[MonkeyFunk]

Days since 9/11, and Osama bin Laden is still free.

Can you imagine if a Democrat had been President in 2001? Everybody in America would know the exact number of days that the administration had failed to capture bin Laden. Remember the Iran hostage crisis? Nightline began during that crisis, and every night announced "Day 289... America Held Hostage".

This should have been, and should be, a talking point that is repeated by EVERY democrat and dem strategist on TV. I don't care if the question is about health care, the answer should be prefaced with "Well, today, 1987 days that we still haven't found bin Laden, the health care system is a mess..."

You know the Republicans would do it if Gore had been President. Of course, 9/11 probably wouldn't have happened, and if it did, Gore wouldn't have let bin Laden escape Tora Bora.

[yardwork]

1. I remember "the Iran hostage crisis" well and the constant drumbeat of war

I also remember how it was conveniently dismissed when Marines were killed under Reagan. And some people still think that the media is left-wing!

[Mr. Ected]

2. Sometimes WE Undermine Our Own Message, Though

Arguing that Osama was NOT the ringleader of 9/11, and that Bushco was behind the attacks.

[MonkeyFunk]

3. eh...

there are a few on the fringe pushing that message, but they have no real traction in the popular mind.

This "talking point" should've been a major factor in the '04 election. Every single Dem running for office should have pounded home the incompetence of this administration.

[Mr. Ected]

5. The Democratic Party Has Missed Dozens of Opportunities

To kill this heartless beast. But with conflicting messages, a dearth of media support, and an administration willing to lie to the cameras...it's a hard sell.

[Turbineguy]

7. Yeah. After all if

Bush was behind the attacks, it would be unfair to arrest Osama bin Laden. Oh wait, I forgot, they haven't arrested Osama bin Laden.

[MonkeyFunk]

8. And if Bush were behind the attacks....

then surely he'd be competent enough to arrest some patsy and become the great hero.

He'd also be smart enough and capable enough to plant WMDs in Iraq.

And if he were behind 9/11, he'd be smart enough to act like a hero that day, instead of scurrying around the country like a scared bunny.

Nah, he's just an incompetent boob.

[Turbineguy]

17. Yeah, you're right

If anybody was that good at pretending to be incompetent, he might as well be competent. It's less effort.

After all, if he had prevented the 9/11 attacks and caught the perps getting on the planes, well, we might have had to take a different view. Of course that would have also meant a different approach to Iraq. Saddam Hussein and his two despicable sons were doing rather well out of the sanctions. He could have pulled the rug out from under them. The GOP would not have had to cheat in 2004. Yes indeed. It would have been a different world. One might even go so far as to say God blessed us.

[SpiralHawk]

4. "Don't go picking on my bin Laden buddies." - Commander AWOL

"Me and Poppy have a 'special' relationship with the bin Laden clan. So why don't you just shut up and sit down."

- Commander AWOL

[MonkeyFunk]

6. actually

I think most people would view that as tinfoil woo-woo nonsense. Incompetence is a real issue to pound on, not some imagined friendship between Bush and Osama.

[SpiralHawk]

9. not Osama per se, but the bin Laden clan

The Bushes and the Saudi bin Ladens are as thick as thieves.

No tin foil necessary.

[MonkeyFunk]

10. yes

I know they've had many contacts and business relationships. But I also know that the Bin Laden family is huge, and Osama isn't exactly in their good graces. It's a link that sounds ominous, but on investigation, there's nothing there.

I don't believe, and I don't think Americans would believe, that Osama has gone free all this time because Bush is purposely letting him go because of his frienship with the bin laden family.

[SpiralHawk]

13. Oh, so you think NOT ONE bin Laden should have been questioned after 9/11?

To me that sounds like a tin foil theory. They Bushes and the bin Ladens are thick as thieves.


September 30, 2001

THE FAMILY
Fearing Harm, bin Laden Kin Fled From U.S.
By PATRICK E. TYLER

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 — In the first days after the terror attacks on New York and Washington, Saudi Arabia supervised the urgent evacuation of 24 members of Osama bin Laden's extended family from the United States, fearing that they might be subjected to violence.

In his first interview since the attacks, Saudi Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan, also said that private planes carrying the kingdom's deputy defense minister and the governor of Mecca, both members of the royal family, were grounded and initially caught up in the F.B.I. dragnet. Both planes, one jumbo jet carrying 100 family members, and the other 40, were eventually allowed to leave when airports reopened and passports were checked.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/010930nytimes

[MonkeyFunk]

14. Did I say that?

No, I did not.

I think it's outrageous that the bin Ladens were allowed to leave so quickly, without being questioned. That does not lead to the conclusion that Bush is actively protecting Osama.

[SpiralHawk]

15. Did I say that?

No.

But when the Bush Skull & Boner Clan, and the bin Laden Clan are curiously thick in all manner of dealings,
It seems likely to me that the bin Laden boys are not about to give up one of their own, and that Bush --
as amply documented -- has made only a lameass effort to find him.

[MonkeyFunk]

16. I'm confused

I didn't ascribe any beliefs to you.

You suggested I believed that not one bin Laden family member should've been questioned after 9/11.

What do you think I said you believe?

[SpiralHawk]

18. Ah, but you did

"That does not lead to the conclusion that Bush is actively protecting Osama."

I do not believe that. I believe the bin Ladens -- despite the propaganda stating that Osama is in disfavor -- are protecting their boy-o. And I strongly suspect that Commander AWOL and his cronies, so intimate with the moneybuck bin Laden clan, are not ruffling any bin Laden feathers in their so-called "efforts" to capture Osama.

[madinmaryland]

11. 1,423 days since the Declaration of Mission Accomplished.

Thanks Keith!!!

[MonkeyFunk]

12. yeah

I'm glad he does that. I wish more would.

But the 1987 is a more relevant number that shows the pure incompetence of these boobs.

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. Osama bin Laden is almost certainly dead.

And probably years dead, at this point. Even if he wasn't killed in the Tora Bora mountains, his medical history would seem to point to his not being among the living. A man with end-stage renal failure, on dialysis, surviving this long without a kidney transplant is fairly unlikely. Given that his last known location was in the rugged hill country of Afghanistan at a time when the area was under heavy assault from US and British air and ground forces, there's every chance he was cut off from access to a dialysis machine for some time; which means the chances that he survived are essentially nil.

[Auggie]

20. Anyone remember Anthrax?

Yet another conveniently forgotten bit of history