Breaking: Secretary of Transportation resigns...

[xyboymil]

Mineta out..

www.msnbc.com

[babylonsister]

1. 'Nother man overboard! nt

[Blaq Dem]

28. And Karzai's brother is linked to Afghan drug lords!

Criminals!!!! Mineta is bailing the hell out!!!!

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

2. Shaping up to be quite a Friday!

How about 'president to resign' That would really make my day!

[SpiralHawk]

3. "More time with my family..." etc. etc. etc.

Typical republicon propaganda BS from another failed repulicon

[xyboymil]

5. Exactly...Another failed Repuke "spending time w/family"..

Gimme a break...

[Bacchus39]

15. when did Mineta become a repuke???

he was Secretary of Transportation under Clinton too. I can't believe he lasted this long well into Bush's second term.

[SharonRB]

49. Exactly!

How he hung on this long with this bunch, I'll never know. He must have a very strong constitution -- Of course, these guys have no Constitution (at least they don't believe in it).

[SharonRB]

48. Actually, Mineta is a Democrat

The only one in the administration. I'm surprised he lasted this long and didn't quit a long time ago.

[Psephos]

52. He's a donk, not a puke. n/t

[Posteritatis]

62. "spending time with family" is also euphemism for

"undisclosable policy squabbling." He could've been a fuckup who's falling on his sword; he could also have annoyed the wrong people and wound up getting pushed onto it.

I don't have the info either way, but "spending time with family" isn't exactly an exclusively Republican claim.

[patcox2]

8. He's a democrat, the only holdover from Clinton.

NT

[OKNancy]

9. Mineta is a Democrat

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Mineta is a Democrat, not a Republican

[Stand and Fight]

20. Actually.... I believe he's a Democrat. n/t

[Rich Hunt]

26. oh, oops!

Someone made a mistake up there....

[nolabels]

4. There actually was a Secretary of Transportation?

You could have fooled me :rofl:

[wordpix2]

67. my q too---we still have abandoned rail lines, no HOV lanes, no buses

Another do-nothing bureaucrat doing nothing for commuters outside of Hartford and New Haven CT. Of course, where would the $$ come from since it's all going to Bush cronies and Bush's war?

[nolabels]

75. Oh, but you fool yourself in such thinking

Them bureaucrats do have function, they take up the space where parts of REAL functioning government could be interacting with it's citizens

[donsu]

6. he will show up someplace else making even more money

nt

[Benhurst]

7. When the going gets tough, the Secretary of Transportation gets going ...

going, gone!

Buh-bye, asshole!

[unda cova brutha]

25. why do you call him an a$$hole?

[Benhurst]

29. He allowed himself to be the token Democrat in the junta's

cabinet. He was an enabler. And an enabler for the Bush Crime Family is an asshole, whether a Democrat, Republican or Independent.

[disndat]

55. A sellout

Probably didn't want to be on the wrong side, come Nov. '06.

[petgoat]

61. He told the 9/11 Commission a story completely out of line

with the official account. It's hard to believe he wasn't subjected to
extreme pressure not to.

He said Cheney knew flight 77 was approaching DC, and it appeared a shootdown
order had been issued. The official story is that Cheney didn't get to
the WH bunker until 9:58, way too late to have ordered 93 shot down until
after it had already crashed.

[dogfacedboy]

77. Could've been trying to get things done.

Probably tried to get things done, but couldn't because of Bush Admin retards.

[Bushwick Bill]

10. Don't ever forget this.

Mineta: "During the time that the airplane was coming into the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President...the plane is 50 miles out...the plane is 30 miles out....and when it got down to the plane is 10 miles out, the young man also said to the vice president "do the orders still stand?" And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said "Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary!??"
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050724164122860

Professor James Fetzer focused on this yesterday with Hannity (actually, Ollie North) and Colmes, and Mineta resigns the next day? :tinfoilhat:

[Virginia Dare]

12. Must be getting too close to the truth....

Mineta has strong ties to the airline industry, particulary United Airlines, and the fact that he's a Democrat, it has always made me suspicious.

[grasswire]

21. on Frontline...

....it was said that Cheney believed that he HAD ordered two planes shot down. They have the audio of him saying so.

[Zynx]

56. If he ordered the planes shot down, he did the right thing.

[petgoat]

59. Yes and no.

I agree that shooting down and frustrating a suicide hijacking is preferable to allowing
it to complete its mission.

Flight 77 thus should have been shot down and, if Cheney was tracking it, why wasn't it?

If flight 93 was shot down, what was the hurry? Look at the map. They were going to be
over Blair Witch country for another ten minutes before they started hitting the DC Metro
area. The FBI was in contact with the telephone call recipients and thus must have known
about the plans to take over the plane.

Perhaps 93 was in fact headed for a strike on Three Mile Island--which info would then be
suppressed because while the officials clearly want us to be afraid, they'd prefer that we
not be afraid of nuke plants.

Jim Hoffman says the debris trail (east of the crash zone) suggests that the plane had
turned back toward Pittsburgh and was holed in the air and that the passengers had
regained control of the plane. This could explain the three minute discrepancy between
the seismograph time of the plane crash (10:06) and the official time of 10:03--the
officials suppressed the last three minutes of cockpit voice recorder that indicates the
passengers regained control. If so, was the shoot-down a tragic mistake by an incompetent
military? Or was it ordered because there was something about the plane or the hijackers
that the officials didn't want us to know?

We won't get the answers until we get a new investigationm of 9/11.

[wordpix2]

68. good point about the nuke plant since BushCo wants us to "know" they're

"safe."

These plants are NOT safe since they are ALL targets for terrorists, even IF they were safe from malfunctions and human error otherwise that could cause a meltdown.

[pauldp]

33. I thought the same thing.

What coinky dink.
:tinfoilhat:

[petgoat]

38. Wow.

Don't forget Newsweek's report in February that the White House
censored the 9/11 Commission report's initial expressions of
skepticism about Cheney's account.

Murder will out.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11436302/site/newsweek/page/6/

[Eugene]

11. AP: Transportation Secretary Mineta To Step Down

Jun 23, 2006 10:11 am US/Central
Transportation Secretary Mineta To Step Down
Mineta's Resignation Is Effective July 17

(AP) WASHINGTON Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, the only Democrat in President Bush's
Cabinet, will step down next month.

Mineta's resignation is effective July 17, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday.

Mineta, 74, was plagued with back problems during his tenure as transportation secretary and
spent months working from home and the hospital. But he has since recovered, and Snow offered
no explanation for why he has decided to leave now.

Snow paid tribute to Mineta's long history in public life: his service in the Army, his elections
to local positions in California, his 20 years representing California in the U.S. House, and
his tours in two Cabinet positions, as Commerce secretary under former President Clinton and
now under Bush.

<snip>

Full article: http://wfrv.com/topstories/topstories_story_174112546.html

[jaysunb]

14. Wonder if it has anything to do w/ this

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=15497

[Carni]

19. OK now that is weird...Corsi is dissing bush?

That's the swift boat asshole...wonder why he would kick dirt at the man he lied to put in office?

I heard a caller make reference to this on Ed Schultz the other day and frankly I don't know what to make of it esp if Corsi is writing about it (?)

WEIRD!

[jaysunb]

23. exactly !

As soon as I saw his name I felt leery, but these people all have different agendas. ( repubs) Bush is a corporate front man, the fundies and haters are tools. Some of them are begining to recognize that and go their own way.

[Carni]

24. I am so confused at this point I can't even keep track!

I used to believe that they had meticulously planned each leak and project to a T but now what is scaring me even more is that indeed, like you said... they all seem to have their own gigs and one hand doesn't seem to know what the other is doing...I am thrilled to see them implode but I fear what will be left in their wake! It's obvious that there isn't anyone steering the ship right now!

[wordpix2]

69. dittoes re: Corsi dissing NAFTA superhwy; re: Coulter ad near article, did

you notice she's still wearing that slinky black dress she wore on the Today show at 7 a.m.? She must never take it off. :rofl:

[obreaslan]

16. Couldn't take being part of the CORRUPTION SANDWICH.....

[Sadie5]

17. Surprised me when he was appointed

Ask yourself why Bush would hold over a Clinton democrat. Too, when all the fuss was going on with the damages to the WH this guy was silent. Did Minetta change his party affiliation to get into the Clinton WH.

[maxsolomon]

22. because the * admin could give a shit about transportation?

name one thing that has improved during mineta's bush tenure.

amtrak? hell no.
fuel economy? hell no.

more freeway lanes don't count. that's not improvement.

[corporatemedia]

18. Mineta was part of Menudo. He passed the age limit...

and had to leave. Otherwise there would be some kind of "explosion" involving "video".

Well, that's my theory...

[katty]

27. run, Norm, run!! you'll be happy you did!

[Fovea]

30. I have a bad feeling about this

Goodnight, and goodluck, Amtrak.

[crikkett]

31. Hmm. I wonder...

Mineta was once mayor of San Jose...

Yesterday sitting Mayor Gonzales was indicted for conspiracy wrt. the city's garbage co. changing union affiliation from Longshoremen to Teamsters...

People who resign from the * Admin to spend time with family tend to be in legal trouble...

... :tinfoilhat:

[wordpix2]

70. in CT, one of the big garbage co. heads was charged for ties to mafia &

associated illegal practices.

[IndependentVoice]

32. so how many people are left from his original cabinet?

[Psephos]

54. Including Mineta, three. n/t

[wordpix2]

71. there's Dickhead, Condi, Rummy, and ???

[leesa]

34. Will he get a Medal of Freedom to keep his mouth shut about 9-11?

Eactly what happened at the FAA that day? Why were the air traffic controllers tapes allowed to be cut into little pieces and distributed into multiple wastebaskets without comment by the powers that be?

[baldguy]

35. Any scandals at the DOT coming up?

Or is he leaving to spend "more time with his family"?

[Penndems]

36. Norman Mineta was Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration

after former Secretary Ron Brown died in 1996. He's been Secretary of Transportation for the past five years.

The man is tired, for crying out loud!

[petgoat]

37. I hope he stays out of small aircraft.

Mineta told the 9/11 Commission that he saw Cheney in the White House bunker at
9:25 discussing with a young man an apparent shoot-down order, apparently about
flight 77, which twelve minutes later hit the Pentagon.

The 9/11 Commission says that Mineta can't tell time, that Cheney didn't get to the
bunker until almost 10:00, that the conversation didn't take place until 10:15,
and they were talking about flight 93, which they believed to be still in the air.

The article in Newsweek last February called "a Shot Heard Round the World" expressed
some between-the-lines skepticism about the official account. They rather
ambiguously cited a time of 9:35, and reported that 9/11 Commission staffers did not
believe Cheney's account but the report was "toned down" after WH complaints about
the draft.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11436302/site/newsweek/page/6/

Mineta has never recanted his testimony, and his story is one of the smoking guns of
the 9/11 truth movement. The Scholars for 9/11 Truth have a petition asking that the
unidentified young man be produced to testify under oath, and also for the release
of other suppressed evidence like airplane parts, securicam tapes that should show
flight 77 hitting the Pentagon, and video and photos of the WTC collapses.

http://www.st911.org/

Read the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/929981172?ltl=1141667399#body

[DoYouEverWonder]

39. Mineta was one the first to get to the WH Bunker on 9-11

He definitely got there before Cheney did. I would love to know what he saw and heard that morning, especially since Cheney's story floats around so much.

[Penndems]

40. Me, too - and I hope once he catches up on his sleep and

gets reacquainted with his family, he writes a tell-all book. ;)

[petgoat]

41. "I would love to know what he saw and heard that morning"

Shazzam! http://www.911podcasts.com/display.php?cat=8&med=0&ord=Name&strt=0&vid=70&epi=0&typ=0

I love the internet!

[Penndems]

43. Petgoat, you are "da bomb" - thank you!

:hi:

[Snaggletooth]

50. According to Mineta, Cheney was already there when he arrived.

Where you there as well? And if not, how do you know who was where and at what times?

Snaggletooth the Crone

[DoYouEverWonder]

51. According to this account in the Washington Post

It seems that Mineta was already in the bunker when Cheney finally got there.

In the tunnel below the White House, Cheney stopped to watch a television showing the smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center towers, heard the report about the plane hitting the Pentagon and called Bush again. Other Secret Service agents hustled Rice and several other senior White House officials included in an emergency contingency plan into the bunker with the vice president.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, summoned by the White House to the bunker, was on an open line to the Federal Aviation Administration operations center, monitoring Flight 77 as it hurtled toward Washington, with radar tracks coming every seven seconds. Reports came that the plane was 50 miles out, 30 miles out, 10 miles out-until word reached the bunker that there had been an explosion at the Pentagon.

Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order-there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's directive to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary.
" pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those goddamn planes down."
Sitting at the other end of the table, Cheney snapped his head up, looked squarely at Mineta and nodded in agreement.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26

[Penndems]

42. Thanks for the links, petgoat - I'm bookmarking this thread

In regards to the 9/11 Commission's statement that Secretary Mineta can't tell time, my response would be that he can tell time just fine - in fact, infinitely better than anyone in the current Administration.















(on edit: typo)

[wordpix2]

72. I'm bookmarking this, too,in my 911 folder. I am again MIHOP/LIHOPping

[Uncle Joe]

44. If I remember correctly, I believe it was Norm Minetta that helped Al Gore

rescue those doctors, patients and victims from New Orleans. It was Norm that Al called to get the flights approved, while others were resisting it.

[Odin2005]

45. Geez, not every resignation is for political reasons.

His back problems are apparently very bad, I highly doubt there is anything political about this.

[paparush]

46. Plagued by Back Problems...... Must be from having to bend over

and get reemed by the Bush**.

[disndat]

57. Right on

the money!

[UrbScotty]

47. Only Rum and Chao will remain from Dubya's original cabinet

[Riverman]

53. Always a Repug Light Former San Jose Mayor, lobbyist, small time

insurance man previously. I believe his family was in one of the Japanese camps in WWII. He was a lightweight city councilman and mayor in San Jose, CA during its rapid growth era - taking SanJo from the "Valley of the Heart's Delight" - orchards are far as the eye could see in the wonderful Mediterranean climate with the best Class 1 soil in the world that the immigrant Italian, Portugese and Japanese found in the early 1900's to the "Capital of Silicon Valley" subdivisions, clogged freeways and smog - known as "LA North". He sold out to development interests many moons ago. Not really known for any accomplishment as a Mayor or later in Congress. While in Congress he divorced his long time wife and married his young admin assistant. Nice Guy, huh?

After Congress he became a high paid lobbyist for Lockheed and Martin-Murietta (air and defense industries). Thus, Clinton made him the Commerce Secretary. Does anyone really think that Bush made him Transportation Secretary because he was a democrat or of Japanese ancestry?

He's a pig and always has been!

I said it, I meant it and I'm here to represent it!

[mopinko]

58. there goes my impeachment plans

he was the only democrat in the line of succession. i wanted to keep impeaching people till we got to norm. oh well.

[petgoat]

60. If the Dems sweep the House in November, Pelosi will be

Speaker. Right in line after Cheney.

[wordpix2]

73. wow, I had not thought of THAT-too bad for repukes their lies are known

far and wide---it will be hard for them to lie their way to victory this time.

[Posteritatis]

63. This just leaves the more entertaining possibility

of running out of successors entirely. ;)

(I've always had a morbid, morbid curiosity about what would happen if all seventeen successors weren't available for one reason or another..)

[OregonBlue]

64. MINETA HAS BEEN OUT THERE TOUTING THE SUPERHIGHWAY!!

I've read several speeches that he's given in Texas, Kansas City, etc. He's all for the private superhighway. If I were a betting woman, I'd bet that he has some BIG TIME financial interest in a company or companies that are going to get the Superhighway contracts. Now that Lou Dobbs is on the case, he knows it will come out.

If he leaves now, maybe he's hoping he won't have to disclose his financial dealings in this one!!

In fact, I'm gonna write to Lou and ask him if he can ferret it out. Any DUers out there that can get the financial scoop on this guy?

And by the way, this will absolutely destroy the entire west coast economy. Are all the Washington, Oregon, and California DUers calling their Senators and Reps and asking them how they could have voted to allocate funds for this travesty?

[undergroundpanther]

65. A few days ago Du thought I was full of shit on this

[OregonBlue]

66. Well, I only read a few of the DU posts on this topic. Instead I got

busy sending the information to Oregon, Washington and California Governors and Senators. I did not realize you had already suggested this so, if you immediately thought of it and I finally had the light bulb go on, it may very well be true. Actually in my letter to Lou Dobbs and Keith, I asked them to check it out. I also asked Oregon's governor to "follow the money" with the transportations secretary' resignation.

Great Minds Think Alike;-)

[wordpix2]

74. allocate funds for the NAFTA superhwy? No problem, repukes will just

tax, borrow and squander as usual, in the way that makes the rich richer and us middle class and poor folk poorer.

[OregonBlue]

79. I agree but why in the world would West Coast Senator and Reps

be going along with this. Gordon Smith of Oregon sits on the transportation committee. He knows exactly what is going on and not only did he not alert West Coast Senators, he's okay with it. This has the potential to truly destroy the West Coast. Do you realize how huge ports are out here? What a huge percentage of the state revenues come from port fees and port employment? We are the left coast and I think the pugs want to make us pay!!

[TheVirginian]

76. I find it hilarious

That Bush's Cabinent members (like Norton, Mineta, Andy Card, etc.) have served longer than anybody else at their posts, yet when they resign people on this board jump all over it like its an indication of anything but standard, if delayed, job turnover.

[wordpix2]

78. the revolving door is standard, you mean---leave gov post to work for corp

orations that pay more for the departing employee's WH connections. THAT is standard practice in DC :puke: