The Post Office Safety Protocols Worked...

Just days after the Boston Marathon bombing, more frightful events are making headlines. Officials report that letters addressed to President Obama and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker tested positive for poison. The substance that raised concern may be a poison called ricin, which CNN describes as “a highly toxic substance derived from castor beans.” However, it is possible another organic substance triggered a false positive test result.
Unlike the bombings in Massachusetts, police sources told Time Magazine that they have a suspect in the Roger Wicker letter case, but declined to comment on the individual or the on-going investigations. According to Time, there is no evidence of a connection between the letter and the Boston Marathon attack. Events were already canceled at the U.S. Capitol after the bombings, and the discovery of these letters raised additional concerns among congressional officials. So far, no information has been released about a motive in these cases, or why either leader was targeted.
Many people remarked that the Boston Marathon bombing brought back the tragic memories of September 11th, and these possibly-poisoned letters are certainly reminders of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people. It was the very protocols put in place after those anthrax attacks that identified the letter sent to Rep. Wicker yesterday, and we are thankful that the security measures worked. The Maryland mail facility, where one of the ricin letters was detected, will be closed for a few days while the Capital Police and the FBI continue the investigation. In the coming days, more information will likely be available about the Boston bombing and the suspicious letter. Stay tuned.
Comments


Re-post from 9-16:
Palindromedary - Even with the report from the N.I.S.T. I am sure you will claim they are part of the conspiracy to cover up the government’s involvement with 9/11. In your mind you will see that they produced this report for Congress, therefore they cannot be trusted. So in your reality no matter what proof or information I bring forward, you will dismiss it as being part of the conspiracy. That is why I feel it is a no win situation when discussing the destruction of the Towers. Especially since you actually had the balls to state O.B.L. was working with the government concerning the towers! Perhaps I read that wrong. I will hold back from commenting about how you arrived at this conclusion on this issue because it would be a useless and not worth the effort. But, I wanted to show you there were actually people with the credentials and the ability to make an honest evaluation concerning this matter, not that it will have any impact on your belief system when it comes to our government. K.W. Please over look any spelling or grammar mistakes I may have made, it is very late and I am too tired to proof read my comments. Have a nice (delusional) day! Ha..Just a friendly joke!

Palin - If you Google the Twin Towers you find several more articles that support the findings listed above. I wanted to show how there are people on both sides that have different opinions of how and why the Towers did not withstand the attack from the two airliners crashing into them at full throttle. I respect your theory and it is backed by very educated individuals as is the theory that I posted from the report the N.I.S.T. gave to Congress. Have a good day. K.W.

Re-post from 9-16:
chuckle8 - The bill was originally designed in the White House and given to Senator Reid. You are correct in your statement that the House majority fell to the Republicans in the 2010 election. The Budget Control Act passed by the Republicans and the Democrats in congress and signed by President Obama in Aug. 2011 included the Sequestration or automatic cuts with the expiration of the tax cuts. When Congress could not agree on a budget, Sequestration went into affect as we went over the so called, "Fiscal Cliff" in Jan. 2013 and Sequestration was put off until Mar. 2013. This information was found in Wikipedia under Fiscal Cliff and Sequestration.
I stand corrected: It was the Democrats and the Republicans who passed the Budget Control Act in 2011, which included the Sequestration and the end of the Bush tax cuts and was signed by Obama. K.W.

I truly hope this stupid action with the attempt to kill or harm our elected officials is not the beginning of some, “home grown" terrorists attempt to make a statement using violence. As I have stated earlier, the end result of such actions will just drive our government to become more vigilant in taking away our civil rights in the name of safety. If the Boston bombing and the poison letters are linked, this could be the beginning of senseless violence in our country and will accomplish nothing. When the government feels threatened they have a habit of biting back and innocent people could be bitten in any attempt by the government to protect itself. It is a time for rational minds, not mindless attempts of violence against our people and our government. I can already here the conspiracy theorists begin to see a conspiracy by the government to further tighten its grip on our freedoms. I am not addressing my comment towards Palindromedary, I just want to make that clear that I understand and respect your opinion concerning the terrorist acts that have taken place and I am not pointing my finger at anyone who comments on this blog. K.W. I apologize for posting so many comments on today’s blog by Hartmann. It can get old to see the same person commenting over and over on the same day!

My feelings on all of this violence is that it is steming from all of the nasty lies being spread on the Internet by the Koch-Teapublicans and the NRA & their E-mail flunkies. These jurks will believe anything that they are sent no matter how foolish it looks, sounds, is. They never check thing out just automatically send it to their E address book.
It has been going on since Obama became President, none stop. Not sure if it is racial, or because they are very poor losers?

Well, Ken, I'm not going to repost my replies from yesterday. Anyone interested can just go there and read them.
And, I certainly had no need to reread your post from yesterday...that NIST piece is really an attempt to distract people from the truth because it really said nothing useful.
If you want to read useful things go to these web sites. http://www.ae911truth.org
http://pilotsfor911truth.org
http://www.stj911.org/
http://www.911truth.org/
Be sure to read the piece "Another Terror Attack; Another Terror Drill" at http://www.911truth.org
NIST...brought to you by the same government that wants to steal your Social Security! Keep on believin' that dogma, Ken. Whatever makes you feel better.

Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth http://www.ae911truth.org/
Consensus911.org http://www.consensus911.org/
Firefighters For 911 Truth http://firefightersfor911truth.org/
Lawyers For 911 Truth http://l911t.com/
Media Professionals for 9/11 Truth http://mediafor911truth.org/
Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth http://mp911truth.org/
Patriots Question 9/11 http://patriotsquestion911.com/
Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth http://pl911truth.com/
Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth http://rl911truth.org/
Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice http://stj911.org/
Scientists for 9/11 Truth http://www.scientistsfor911truth.org/
Scientists - Journal of 9/11 Studies http://www.journalof911studies.com/
The Science of 9/11 http://scienceof911.com.au/
Researchers - Complete 9/11 Timeline http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=911_project

I thought by now even back woods dumb $hits knew that even mid level exes. don't open their own mail.
Mail to the Pres. and congress is opened by low level postal and F.B.I way away from the Capital.
Is this a governmrnt ploy to grab more control?

akunard ~ You, my friend, took the words right out of my mouth. Of course they don't open their own mail anymore than they read their own email. Yet another Red Herring and False Flag attack, Not unlike the the anthrax letters sent right after 9/11 if you ask me.

Ken Ware wrote ~ " K.W. I apologize for posting so many comments on today’s blog by Hartmann. It can get old to see the same person commenting over and over on the same day!"
Don't apologize Ken! Ha! I for one never get enough of you.

Ken Ware ~ Appropriate Avatar for the discussion at hand I might say.
Anyway, my question is: DO YOU BELIEVE LEE HARVEY OSWALD KILLED JOHN F. KENNEDY?
Because I can see where if you believe that you probably believe anything. Don't forget this question comes from someone who believes in invisible people in the sky. But I can't believe the Warren Commission anymore than I can believe in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.
BTW How do you explain President Bush and his staff ignoring intelligence reports that "Osama Bin Laden determined to strike?" How do you explain his executive order allowing Bin Laden's family to leave the country after the attack? How do you explain his allowing Bin Laden to escape and focusing resources on attacking Iraq instead of the culprit?
These glaring facts incriminated the Government far more than engineering theories and demolition speculation. Don't you think?

For numbers nuts.
The Iraq Body Count Project that took place over 2003-2012 estimated a total of 172,907 Iraqi casualties in the Iraq war. A war that was the direct result of a conspiracy of the US Government to control Middle Eastern Oil Fields.
It is a known fact that no one in Iraq had anything to do with 9/11.
3,000 innocent American people lost their lives in 9/11.
The total capacity of the Oakland Coliseum during a sold out Raiders game is 53,200.
Therefore the casualties of this bogus war amount to over three sold out Oakland Coliseum Raider's games stacked one on top of the other. The sound of one sold out game of happy Oakland Raider's fans is deafening. Imagine the deafening screaming for justice of over three such sold out coliseums stacked one on top of the other with 172,907 innocent Iraqi casualties of an illegal war.
How do we as Americans justify the loss of 3,000 people and argue about the cause of the event when we know why 172,907 innocent people where slaughtered and do nothing about it?
Are we morally incompetent as well as blood thirsty?

Thom talked for a while today about the trend towards hate for the government and the right wing talk that inspires a lot of it. In my opinion events like the Oklahoma City bombing and possibly Monday's Boston Marathon attack, cowardly attacks against defenseless citizens, are almost always a result of anger against our government.
Comments like Grover Norquist's, "I'd like to get government down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub," a comment I find more disturbing than the shower scene in the 1960 movie, "Psycho," seem to be the norm with extreme right wingers like the Teapublican Party Reps. What they are really saying is, tear down this democracy, it's standing in the way of unregulated capitalism for the very billionaires that paid to get us elected to this, do nothing but obstruct job.
With government hate talkers on the air everywhere, it's not suprising to me anyway, that an event as horrific as the Boston Marathon bombing would occur. I know I shouldn't speculate, and I may be wrong, but it's just how I feel.

DAnneMarc asks: Why do we do nothing about the 172,907 innocent Iraqi casualties? It's called enthnocentrism on steroids. It was the same characteristic held by slaveholders in the deep south. Dehumanize the situation and moral standards go right out the window. Yes, preemptive war for profit qualifys as being morally incompetent...........but as usual the god almighty power of big money rules.

Uh, oh! Look out all you California anti-corrupt-government wackos out there..it may be time to duck....they now believe that the battery that set off the BM bombs was a remote control battery manufactured in California. I suppose they've never heard of mail-order.. or Amazon.com..who knows what state the BM terrorist(s) really live in but the keystone kops may be scouting around in Sunny California for clues. And beware...that cocaine you may be snorting at that party may not be cocaine at all....just saying! Ricin a Roni..the San Francisco treat.

Palindromedary wrote ~ "Ricin a Roni..the San Francisco treat."
I must say, Palindromedary you kill me. Pardon the pun. But actually, I saw a local news cast that had a close up of the battery held by a reporter that was stationed in front of the "alleged" company that manufactured the battery. They invited us back for an interview where they would ask representatives how they feel after their battery was used in such a manner. I almost fell off my chair laughing at such an inane topic. Our media is so vacuous and pretentious.

2950-10K wrote ~ About why we value American life over foreign peoples lives: "It's called ethnocentrism on steroids."
(Ethnocentrism: seeing one's own group's way of doing things as the normal and desirable way; assessing other people's ways of doing things from the perspective of one's own values.)
He further wrote: "Dehumanize the situation and moral standards go right out the window."
Congratulations my friend, you get an A+ and go straight to the head of the class. Keep up the good work!

DANNEMARC...What if instead of stacking them (3 sold out Raders games), we just put them side by side. I think it would be easier to do structurally!?!? ;)
Most Americans are okay with the blood of innocent lives lost...They accept it as Collateral Damage. Its part of our American Ideology. That is until it happens to us; but even then no one wants to take any real responsability...The kind that takes courage, disapline, and sacrafice...A willingness to die rather than kill. Which in no way implies being suicidal. Quite the opposite.
The immediate days that followed Sept. 11th 2001 our country was in a state of mental chaos and emotional hysteria, and the government via the media capitalized on this. Instead of first taking a moment to take a deep breath and allow the rise of anger and rage to go back down, which is the "rational" thing to do - We allowed impulsive behaviours to take the wheel on the Revenge Band Wagon. Very few Americans every asked the question "What caused this to happen?" Sure many asked Who! looking for someone to blame; and the one that was easiest to accept during such a chaotic moment was "Hate for Americans and our Freedom by a group of Middle Eastern Radicals"...Which, at best, was only a half truth.
There were only a few political/public figures that spoke up...Warning the American public that it would be more devistating than good to seek revenge; that we must not act hastey, but rather it would be better to act Diplomatic and get to the heart of the matter.
Of course anyone talking this way was considered Anti-American...Having sympathy for terrorist...Part of the problem. And with that...Here we are! No more secure than pre 9/11; in fact in many ways we are less secure, in grave debt, and less liked globally.
Personally I feel that our countries problems begin with the disregard to the Natives that occupied this land loooong before any white bread elitist showed up. America's history is stained in blood and our reputation is tarnished with bigotry...How the fuck are we the poster child for Equality, Democracy, Peace!?!? We can't peacefully get along with each other!

Hank of MI touches on that part of the Psyche of the American mind that is weird wild and a consciousness that is filled with an incredible store house of hate, racial or otherwise economic influence with fielding political civic power.
Many of us agree silently, knowing that it is true that some in high office are connected and committing treachery with their one percent money. It is an economic force placed into action at commonly coincidental times by these perpetrators. Whereas we the people have witnessed unparalleled obstruction, in the operations of the American government, observed by abuse of rule in the basic operation of the Congress, and the Senate. This obstruction is identified by Thom and many of the political analysts we all watch in his programing, whereas we the people watch as the dangerous pattern is increasing like a concert with its crescendo that could pound and pound till America shatters.
Done by political connections, though the media will avoid America’s internal corruption as nonsense described by weirdoes. When it is weirdoes are actually created by simple greed, then running the country to hell. Especially, any carrot-stick approach in media that exploits commercial time for profits that accelerates uncertainty. It is wide open obnoxious delivery of such bunk between news breaks and content. The revenue stream generated by such a hate algorithm is the new terror hate profiteering extension of the Bush family wars started for the same profiteering reasons.
Aristotle's theory of the "three souls (psyches)" (vegetal, animal, and rational) would rule the field of psychology until the 19th century. But that begs the question now what is it that rules our reasoning. Simple answer “Speech is money.” The Imams, the profits of the Supreme Court have crated our mess which we are witness, the Imams of profiteering are America’s Wahhabi cure, but our constitutional curse.

I don't think they want government small enough to drown in the bathtub so much as they want government just small enough to fit in your underwear.

DAnnemarc: Yes, I agree, the major news media is pretty pathetic...good for a few laughs and a lot of scorn (at them). I don't even buy the local newspaper anymore because they just raised their prices by 1/2 as much as they charged before and they had just previously raised their price by about as much. And about the only thing you really get is a handful of advertisements and a crossword puzzle. The news? Where is it? You can't count the propaganda they hash out...that's not even worth reading. And all of that crap they show us on TV news stations is not worth watching either...really.
The only thing really worth watching is RT, FSTV, and Link TV. A few years ago I would have included PBS...but that has gone down the neoliberal/neocon rabbit hole. But, the best place to get real news is the internet...except, of course, you have to sort through all the right-wing garbage first.
We are living in a very scary world now...where you just can't let your guard down..can't answer the phone, or answer the door, or go anywhere without being hounded by tricksters who want to rip you off.
There are even people going around knocking on doors posing as representatives of your local utility..or phone company. They even, sometimes, have "company badges" to "prove" who they are. Beware because they aren't who they say they are! This is happening nationwide. It is not just a local problem...or a sometimes problem...it happens all the time...in the last month alone, these people have rang my door bell about 3 times already..sometimes a couple of nice looking young ladies..other times men. All said they were from the local utility company..or an affiliate.
The actual utility companies, and local law enforcement, have put out messages to warn the public that these people are not from the utility company. The real utility company says that they don't send representatives to knock on people's doors..they only come out when they are asked to by the residents. Sometimes, the people at your door will admit (but still lying) that they are "affiliated with" the utility company.
Sometimes, if they manage to get you to open your security screen door (if you even have one) they'll force their way in, if they haven't fooled you into inviting them in, then they rob you or even kill you. All they have to do is to try to show you something you may not be able to see or read to get you to open the screen door and they have you right where they want you. They can barge right into your house. This has happened!
But mostly, these people are trying to pump you for information that they can later used to clean out your bank accounts. The best thing to do is just not answer the door unless you absolutely know who is ringing your door bell or knocking on your door. That's why I have surveillance cameras at my door...at my drive way on the sides and back of the house. All I need now is an anti-aircraft gun mounted on my roof! ;-}
I'd say that that 100% of the time that they are someone you really don't want to talk to anyway...religious proselytizer pests, salesmen pests, and other pests who want something from you (sensitive information) that they can use to hurt you.
No one is going to show up at your door offering you money unless there is a catch that will end up screwing you, big time, out of yours. It's high time to just shut most of that annoying stuff out. We're conditioned, like automatons to answer the phone, to answer the door...don't do it!
But, of course, there have been cases where, when people didn't answer the door, the scoundrels think no one is home so they sneak around to the back and break in. Maybe I'll get a couple of mean pit bulls myself! ;-} Naw, that's ok..I'd feel really bad if my pit bulls broke out of the yard and ripped apart some child playing in their yard. I'll just let my cameras record the the intruders, and I can watch them, and call the cops... and 3 hours later....they can call in the meat wagon to pick up my dead body...or the intruders dead body. That's why we need to keep our guns!!
And now...on to Cyberwar......not the game...the real thing!
Re-posted from 9-16: Palindromedary - I wanted to re-post my comments that include an analysis of why and how the towers cam down, because I posted so late you might have missed it.
Palindromedary - here is a copy of the transcripts from the investigation conducted for Congress by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. You were right about the main support beams and this report explains what happened and what caused the towers to fall. This information was copied from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/world-trade-center-collapse.html This report supports what I believe happened on 9/11 to the twin towers. Ken Ware.
SECTION 1: THE INVESTIGATION
SHAYM SUNDER: I'm Shyam Sunder. I am the lead investigator for the World Trade Center investigation that was conducted by the National Institute of Standards in Technology.
In many typical investigations, you have a partially collapsed building standing there that can be looked at by engineers.
In the case of the World Trade Center towers, the buildings had collapsed. And also there was an immediate need for search and rescue of people who might have been buried under the rubble. So there was also a need to clear the site as quickly as possible. It's very unusual that the evidence is so completely scattered, and that made our investigation a lot more complicated.
We realized that we had to model the complete aircraft impact. We had to model the evolution of the fires over the next hour, or hour and half. We had to model how the steel weakened as a result of the high temperatures. And lastly, we had to model the progression of failures-- local failures in the structure, which then led to the overall initiation of collapse. Each of these stages had very sophisticated models that were validated using the photographic evidence we have, validated using laboratory experiments that we conducted. And validated, ultimately, based on how the buildings actually collapsed using videos.
SECTION 2: IMPACT
Through a fairly sophisticated analysis of the video information, we were able to determine the airplane speed, direction of the airplane, and the orientation of the airplane as each of the airplanes impacted each of the buildings.
The north tower was hit at 8:46 by a 767-200 extended range airplane, between the 93rd and the 99th floor. The airplane was flying at about 550 miles an hour, with a total weight of somewhere on the order of 283,000 pounds.
The second building to be hit, which was hit 16 minutes later, was hit on the south face of the south tower. Again by a 767-200 extended range airplane, but this time between floors 77 and 85.
And one of the questions that comes out from looking at this information is how is it here we have two seemingly similar buildings—they were called Twin Towers—and they were hit by nearly identical airplane, but how come one building lasted for 102 minutes, the other building lasted for 56 minutes, which is nearly a factor of two.
SECTION 3: IMMEDIATE DAMAGE
On the outside of the buildings, on the perimeter, there were about 59 to 60 columns on each face. The first thing that happened as the airplanes went through the dense grid of column is that they got disintegrated by the columns, which acted like knife edges. Pieces of the airplane actually came out from the other end. For example, we had landing gear come out from the south side of building one, and we had an engine component come out from the northeast corner of building two.
The debris that was generated by the airplanes covered nearly between four and six floors of the buildings. Of course, in addition to the debris, we also had jet fuel that was dispersed in that region.
On the interior, in the core of the building, these buildings had 47 columns-- fairly massive columns inside. In the case of building one, six of the columns were severed and three of them were heavily damaged. In the case of building two, 10 of them were severed, and one was heavily damaged.
What is very important to note is that in the case of building two, that damage to the core was heavily in the southeast corner. So, it's like looking at a three or four legged stool, and essentially taking out one leg. Inherently, the second building was a lot more unstable than the first building, and one of the key reasons why the second building collapsed much faster.
SECTION 4: INFERNO
A number of factors contributed to having a very large, multi-floor fire that was uncontrollable. First and foremost, the sprinkler system was not functional, because the water supply to the sprinkler system was damaged by the airplane impacts.
We had dispersion of very large amounts of jet fuel through multiple floors, igniting fires through a large segment of all of those floors, which is very, very unusual.
Most of the jet fuel was burned in a matter of a few minutes-- maybe five or six minutes, but certainly less than ten minutes. Furthermore, about a third of the jet fuel actually burned outside the building, as a result of the fire balls.
So, what really was burning for the next hour or hour and a half was the everyday contents of the buildings. The workstations, the computers, the paper, the carpets and so forth.
In building one, the fires moved from location to location, every 20 minutes, consuming the combustibles in any given location. And as long as the windows kept breaking to provide the air that was needed for combustion, the fire kept propagating. Toward the end of the period when the buildings were about to collapse, the fires were actually on the south side of the building. And it's the south side of the building that played a key role in the collapse.
In the case of building two, a significant amount of the combustible debris was piled up on the east face of the building. And therefore, there was a persisting fire in the same location for a very, very long time. And the second reason for the early collapse of the second building was really this persisting fire on the east face of the building.
SECTION 5: COLLAPSE
The World Trade Center towers would likely not have collapsed under the combined effects of aircraft impact damage, and the extensive multi-floor fires if the fireproofing had not been widely dislodged by the aircraft impact.
What was applied to these buildings was spray-applied fireproofing. And the use of this kind of fireproofing for the floor system, the floor trusses, was very unusual.
When you heat steel up, and particularly when there's no fireproofing, the steel tends to soften, and loses strength and stiffness. It becomes very much like play dough.
In addition to the columns weakening, the floors that were in the vicinity of those faces also weakened. And as a result of that, the floors sagged. And the sagging of the floors actually helped pull the external columns inward. And caused an inward bowing of the external columns. That is captured in photographs.
What then happened after the inward bowing is there was a stage at which a critical amount of inward bowing took place, and the columns snapped. And essentially the columns, once they snapped, the inwardly-bowed columns suddenly sprung back and out. And once that happened, the top mass, that rigid mass of somewhere on the order of 10 to 20 floors just started moving downward.
And the structure below, because of the fracturing of the columns just before it, that had snapped, was unable to withstand the energy that was released.
The primary reason for the collapse was the fact that you had massive airplane damage. A massive amount of fireproofing that was dislodged, and a really huge fire, that all three combined initiated the collapse. There was no one particular event that played a more significant role. It was a combination of events that led to a general system collapse of the building.
SECTION 6: SAFER BUILDINGS
Our investigations are geared toward fact finding, and they're geared toward enhancing safety of buildings in the future. They're not geared toward fault finding. However, what I am able to say is that we did not find a deficiency in the building, in terms of the building being inconsistent with the New York City building codes, in a way that influenced the outcome of 9/11.
We made 30 recommendations as a result of the investigation. Both in the area of structural design, and in the area of evacuation and emergency response, we can make considerable improvements with minimal investment. And the return is going to be exceedingly high for those minimal investments. Particularly since, when we are dealing with tall buildings, we're dealing with the lives of a very large number of people.