Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

September Clues Pt.1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqEpuTGc98s


September Clues Pt.2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE3hvucKsRM


September Clues Pt.3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovB-Mrwn0fY&feature=related


September Clues Pt.4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocgm_a22l00&feature=related


September Clues - Part 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqvJyj5zEzg&feature=related


September Clues - Part 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE3lPxadzNI&feature=related


SEPTEMBER CLUES - Part 7 (last 2min)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QBEuAZqHoM&feature=related


September Clues 8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZgQfUOFUsA&feature=related


September Clues - Part 9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvH8VgN0r4k&feature=related



9/11 September Clues Complete (AUG.2008) Part 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHM78sXqHjo&feature=related


September Clues Epilogue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY-f20qCKyY&feature=related

Island off the coast of South America


View Larger Map

This island sets 500 miles or so West of Chili and has a long airstrip that is wide enough for the B2 bomber. One would have to wonder what the use of it is?

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Why is the supposed left wing media not calling for an investigation on the World Trade Center disaster

The main stream media and much of the left wing media are strangely quiet on the peoples call for accountability and their wish for an open and independent investigation on the WTC disaster. I tried googling "911 wtc investigation" and the first hit was the news about the final NIST report on the collapse of building 7. As I proceeded there were 6 more hits on the official story untill I found an article by ,OpEdNews, after looking at 27 articles. It was titled Author Griffin calls for the formation of a truth and reconciliation commission to heal the wounds of 9-11".




The Gatekeepers of the So-Called Left
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
By Charles Shaw

[EXCERPTS]

Last February United for Peace and Justice, the largest representative coalition within the American "anti-war movement", emerged from their second annual Assembly with a 2005 "action plan" that effectively caged the "anti-war" debate exclusively within the Iraq conflict to achieve partisan ends on behalf of the pro-war Democratic Party and their Neoliberal corporate benefactors. Their "action plan" refused to address any of the core issues of US Foreign and Defense policy, which are the root causes of a pervading culture of war and militarism that has taken over the nation in the years since WWII.


These decisions are part of a larger pattern of "regulated resistance", a system by which dissent is carefully managed and constrained by self, overt, or covert censorship; denial-based-psychology; fear of personal or professional criticism and reprisal; and pressure from powers above including elected officials and those establishment foundations which flood millions into the not-for-profit activist sector.

This establishment money, and the access it grants, has caused many ostensible resistance leaders to suddenly and dramatically abandon long-held ideological positions and shift their behavior towards doing what can clearly be seen as the bidding of those in power whose views and values are in direct contravention to the established mores of peace and justice movements throughout history.

These "resistance leaders" of the "Left" act as "Gatekeepers"—influential "progressive" figures who use their resources and visibility to regulate the debate, tactics, and rhetoric of the "anti-war" and other "progressive" movements.



The Gatekeepers of the So-Called "Left"

"The press is the hired agent of a moneyed system, set up for no other reason than to tell us lies where their interests are concerned." — Henry Adams

In his shocking investigative report "The Left Gatekeepers", journalist Bob Feldman researched purportedly "Left" activist and media organizations that receive substantial funding from large establishment foundations with known ties to the CIA, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and even the much-maligned Carlyle Group, the arms dealing "investment fund" featured in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, of which GHW Bush, the Saudi royal family, and, at one time, the Bin Laden family, are all equity partners.

Read the article
=================================================================
Charles Shaw was the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Newtopia,
which shut down in 2005. He can now be found at realitysandwich.com

Monday, December 15, 2008

Captain Sherlock Solves 9/11



Field McConnell Born 1949 to career USAF bomber pilot and WWII army nurse. He is a member of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Pilots for 9/11 Truth.

His web site is at CaptainSherlock.com

Biography:

1949-1967: USAF dependent living in Texas, Florida, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico, Hawaii
1967:Graduated from Punahou School, Honolulu
1967-1971: US Naval Academy, Annapolis
1971-1977: US Marine Corps pilot A4, KC130
1977-1993: North Dakota ANG pilot, F4, F16
1978: William Tell, World-wide fighter competition
1986: William Tell, World-wide fighter competition
1993: Retired as Lieutenant Colonel
1978-2007: North Central, Republic, Northwest Airline pilot
Retired early 3-5-07 due whistleblowing 9-11
Captain DC9, A320, DC10, B747-400

I began my study of 9-11-01 when the local paper, the Fargo Forum, called me at home early in the after noon of 9-11-01. The reporter talk about 40 minutes then asked if I could be
photographed for a front page story. The Fargo Forum, a Pullitzer Prize winning daily in Fargo ND, sent a photo guy out to my farm near Glyndon MN 13 miles east of Fargo ND.
I have that front page and page A5 [rest of the story and can email it to you]. On 9-12-01 the headline was "Our National Saw Evil" with photo of rubble, Osama, GW and me.

That demonstrates clearly that I was sought as an "expert" on 9-11. The newspaper knew that I had flown with and retired from the ND ANG as a L/C after having flown 16 years with them in the F4 Phantom and F16 Falcon.

My interested has remained high as my college classmate, [ USNA 71 ] was the Captain of AA77 which was vaporized over the Atlantic 45 minutes prior to the unmanned aerial vehicle that killed another USNA alum, Capt Gerald DeConto whose window the object flew into. I felt strongly on 9-11 it was an inside job, and by 9-12-01 I knew with a moderate degree of certainty that it, in
fact, was.

Here is the full version of his movie from Google or you can buy a CD from his web site. It is beautifully presented and contains information that won't be found anywhere else. It is 1 hour 16 minutes and can be streamed.

Full Movie

Friday, December 12, 2008

NIST's analysis of freefall speed vs David Chandler

WTC7: NIST Finally Admits Freefall (Part I)







In its draft report, released in August 2008, NIST attempted to cover up evidence that WTC7 fell at freefall, but the coverup was transparent. In its final report, released in November 2008, NIST finally acknowledged freefall, but couched it in a bizarre framework that continues to deny its clear significance.


WTC7 in Freefall--No Longer Controversial



BREAKING NEWS--NEW NIST ANALYSIS ACKNOWLEDGES FREEFALL FOR WTC7

NIST has reversed its earlier denial of freefall and acknowledged a period of freefall comparable to this analysis in their final report on WTC7 released in November 2008. They did their own measurement with a point near the center of the roof line and came up with an acceleration of 9.81 for approximately 2.25 sec. Their report did not, however, face the consequences of this acknowledgment: that ALL RESISTANCE was instantaneously removed across the width of the building, supporting pre-planted explosives as the cause of the collapse.

Contrary to the August 2008 NIST report on WTC7, the acceleration of Building 7 is measured and is found to be indistinguishable from the acceleration of gravity over a period of about 2.5 seconds of fall.

During the first round of questions in the Aug 26, 2008 NIST Technical Briefing (at 1:01:45 into the presentation) the following question was asked by David Chandler:

"Any number of competent measurements using a variety of methods indicate the northwest corner of WTC 7 fell with an acceleration within a few percent of the acceleration of gravity. Yet your report contradicts this, claiming 40% slower than freefall based on a single data point. How can such a public, visible, easily measurable quantity be set aside?"


Dr. Shyam Sunder replies:

"Could you repeat the question?"

[the question is repeated by the moderator, leaving out the word, "competent" as well as the last sentence]

"Well...um...the...first of all gravity...um...gravity is the loading function that applies to the structure...um...at...um...applies....to every body...every...uh...on...all bodies on...ah...on...um... this particular...on this planet not just...um...uh...in ground zero...um...the...uh...the analysis shows a difference in time between a free fall time, a free fall time would be an object that has no...uh... structural components below it. And if you look at the analysis of the video it shows that the time it takes for the...17...uh...for the roof line of the video to collapse down the 17 floors that you can actually see in the video below which you can't see anything in the video is about...uh... 3.9 seconds. What the analysis shows...and...uh...the structural analysis shows, the collapse analysis shows that same time that it took for the structural model to come down from the roof line all the way for those 17 floors to disappear is...um... 5.4 seconds. It's...uh..., about one point...uh...five seconds or roughly 40% more time for that free fall to happen. And that is not at all unusual because there was structural resistance that was provided in this particular case. And you had...you had a sequence of structural failures that had to take place and everything was not instantaneous."

Note that:
--He acknowledges that freefall can only occur if there is no structure under the falling section of the building.
--He acknowledges that their structural modeling predicts a fall slower than freefall.
--He acknowledges that there was structural resistance in this particular case.
--He acknowledges that there was a sequence of failures that had to take place and that this process was not instantaneous.

Thus, he acknowledges that their model is at variance with the observable fact that freefall actually occurred. Their response is to hold to their model, deny that freefall occurred, and put up a smokescreen of irrelevant measurements that obscure the reality.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Gender Benders & the evolution of species


Well folks, it's time to take a deep breath and go sit on the beach somewhere to reflect on what's happening to life on Planet Earth. According to scientific studies the sex characteristics of vertebrate life are evolving toward a unisex condition. This at a time when science is making breakthroughs in genetic engineering and the human genome has been mapped. We are now eating genetically engineered food, both animal and vegetable, and at the same time ingesting a plethora of chemical compounds that are saturating the environment. I have a feeling that if Charles Darwin were around today, he would be doing a whole lot of documenting, and would probably come up with a new theory. The theory of degeneration.

It's official: Men really are the weaker sex

Evolution is being distorted by pollution, which damages genitals and the ability to father offspring, says new study.

Geoffrey Lean reports

Sunday, 7 December 2008

The male gender is in danger, with incalculable consequences for both humans and wildlife, startling scientific research from around the world reveals.

The research – to be detailed tomorrow in the most comprehensive report yet published – shows that a host of common chemicals is feminising males of every class of vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals, including people.



Backed by some of the world's leading scientists, who say that it "waves a red flag" for humanity and shows that evolution itself is being disrupted, the report comes out at a particularly sensitive time for ministers. On Wednesday, Britain will lead opposition to proposed new European controls on pesticides, many of which have been found to have gender bending effects.

It also follows hard on the heels of new American research which shows that baby boys born to women exposed to widespread chemicals in pregnancy are born with smaller penises and feminised genitals.

"This research shows that the basic male tool kit is under threat," says Gwynne Lyons, a former government adviser on the health effects of chemicals, who wrote the report.

Wildlife and people have been exposed to more than 100,000 new chemicals in recent years, and the European Commission has admitted that 99 per cent of them are not adequately regulated. There is not even proper safety information on 85 per cent of them.

The rest of the story

Saturday, December 6, 2008

The Large Hadron Collider to restart next Summer


NY Times

By DENNIS OVERBYE
Published: December 5, 2008

The Large Hadron Collider, whose inauguration as the world’s biggest particle accelerator was cut short by an electrical accident last September, will run again next summer, but not at its full design strength, the project director said

“We have a lot of work to do over the coming months,” said Lyn Evans, in a press release from CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, “but we now have the roadmap, the time and the competence necessary to be ready for physics by summer.”

The machine, designed to collide protons with energies of 7 trillion electron volts apiece, is 17 miles around, and the superconducting electromagnets that steer the protons have to be cooled to 2 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. Parts of it have had to be warmed up for repairs, but CERN officials said that they hope to have the entire ring cold by the end of June, and that collisions perhaps as high as 5 trillion electron volts could begin in August.

Collisions at higher levels will not be possible by then because the magnets have not been “trained’ to the levels necessary for 7-trillion-electron-volt operation. This, CERN admits, is an “aggressive schedule” in the words of spokesman James Gillies.

The collider had just begun to fire up its beams of protons (but had not actually begun to collide them) , when, on Sept. 19, an electrical bus connecting two magnets developed a spot of resistance, began to heat up under the load of 9,300 amperes and vaporized.

Engineers reconstructing the mishap believe a spark punctured the blanket of super-cooled helium, which surrounds the magnets, and which itself is surrounded by a vacuum insulating layer. The helium flooded into the surrounding vacuum faster than relief valves could spray it into the main collider tunnel. The resulting internal pressures shoved some of the magnets, which weigh 10 tons, off their mounts and crunched the connections between them.

The beam pipes that the protons shoot through were also punctured and contaminated with soot.

Or as Dr. Gillies said, “It’s a mess.”

The incident happened in the last of eight sectors of the ring to undergo the testing needed to qualify for high-energy running and just two months before CERN would have shut down the collider for the winter, in order to save money on electricity. So the lab chose not to try to rush the machine back into operation this fall.

Not that they could have. To fix it all, 53 of the superconducting magnets will have to be brought out of the collider, which is 300 feet underground, to the surface for inspection and repair, a process that has already begun. Once they have all been fixed or replaced, the sector of the ring they occupy will have to be cooled all the way back down to near absolute zero again and tested.

In addition, the CERN engineers have performed diagnostic tests and found two other spots around the ring with suspicious resistance readings similar to what preceded September’s failure. Both are in sectors that had already been qualified for 5 trillion-electron-volt operations without incident.

One of them is in a sector adjacent to the damaged sector and has been warmed up. Dr. Gillies said engineers would look at it this winter. The other is in a part of the ring that is still cold and there is no plan to warm it up, he said.

CERN flirted briefly with the idea of warming up the entire ring this winter, in which case the colllider would not have operated at all in 2009.

“Everything was on the table,” Dr. Gillies admitted. But, he said, “The priority is to get data for the experiments.”


Large Hadron Collider - The Search For The Higgs [1 of 3]



Large Hadron Collider - The Search For The Higgs [2 of 3]



Large Hadron Collider - The Search For The Higgs [3 of 3]

Monday, December 1, 2008

US prepares for "continuity of government"



Think Again: The Invisible Battle Over Posse Comitatus

A largely silent battle has been fought over the president's ability to deploy military troops in the United States. Overturning longstanding statues limiting this ability has implications for martial law.

Lo and behold, President Bush has done just this, deploying an entire brigade from Iraq for domestic activities inside the United States. The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has, since October 1st, been under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force. Yet the mainstream media has raised nary an eyebrow at this striking expansion of presidential power taken in defiance of centuries of legal precedent—yet another in a series so large as to defy calculation.

Source: americanprogress.org

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Louis Theroux Weird Weekends UFOs 1/5

Louis Theroux Weird Weekends UFOs 1/5



Louis Theroux Weird Weekends UFOs 2/5



Louis Theroux Weird Weekends UFOs 3/5



Louis Theroux Weird Weekends UFOs 4/5



Louis Theroux Weird Weekends UFOs 5/5

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Geezerpower's guide to Arthur Scheuerman comments


Dispatches from Geezerville

Arthur Scheuerman has been copy pasting his improbable views all over the innertubes, so why not consolodate some of them in one place so we can read it over and over without having to spend so much time on Google. One of the mysteries of 911 is why he bothers...G:]


Blogs about: Who Is Arthur Scheuerman word press

www.dailynewscaster.com/2008/11/03

The Danger of Conspiracies and Pseudo-Science
Published by Ian on August 13, 2008


January 18, 2008 Swedish Structural Engineer: WTC Towers Did Not Collapse from Fire

dailynewscaster.com/2008/11/03


Kurt Nimmo Infowars


Friday, July 18, 2008
Why the World Trade Center Tower's floors could not 'pancake' collapse as we have been told.



September 11th Revisited - Were Explosives Used? June 22, 2008


Arthur scheuerman added these pithy words on May 31 08 at 4:46 pm 5/30/08


Video: Newly discovered footage of Building Seven and North Tower collapse Posted by sakerfa on November 8, 2008

Did Wang computer get it right?



In 1972 I was working for a civil engineering company in San Jose California, who called all of us surveyor grunts into the office to show off their computor hookup, a dialup to a Wang computer. We all took turns playing Pong which had just came out, then one of the engineers ran through a few courses (distance and bearing) of a land survey and did an inverse to come up with the closing distance and bearing with just a little button pushing. We knew how to do this long hand with a HP35 hand held calculator, which also had came out in 1972, but to see it done by a computer in so short a time was like a miracle to us.

The Wang had been around for a while, but was a long way from being a personal computor. It was basicly a telephone with a rudimentary key board and was a huge unit that served a number of clients. So we all know what evolved after that and how Bill Gates figured out that we could all have our own personal computer "PC". Well, we've got them now and each one of us has a lot more storage and computing power than Wang could even imagine, along with Google, which replaced Microsoft's Altavista search engine. Google, as far as I know, is a free service that gives you access to untold amounts of information along with storing vast amounts of your own information. My blog has over 1000 posts stored on google, and the articles, most of the links, and pictures are still stored there. My nephew has a blog, bmxmuseum.com, that sometimes gets 100,000 hits in one day and Google pays him a few cents for every hit, so not only do they give free storage, but they pay you for web traffic.

So Google in a way resembles the old Wang computer and has grown to be the largest data storage on the planet, look out for Microsoft because they are doing the same thing with servers that they did with the PC, as can be observed, in this video, by their new data center in Quincy Washington.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Paulson's New Program: Giving People Money They Can't Afford To Spend



24/7 Wall st.

Douglas A. McIntyre November 25, 2008

TreasuryThe news is as old as the Magna Carta. The consumer is broke. He does not have a dime. He is out of work. He is defaulting on his home equity loan, and the bank has reposed his credit card. It may be best to let his spending rest while his catches his economic breath.

Henry Paulson has other ideas. He wants to help people to borrow money that they cannot repay, now or in the near future.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, seeking to ease strains in the consumer credit market, plans to announce Tuesday the formation of a program to increase the availability of auto loans, student loans and credit cards."

The head of the Treasury is concerned that people who want credit can't get it. But, they can't afford it either.

The latest program points to the Achilles Heel of the entire $700 billion Paulson program. It provides capital to people, businesses, and programs which cannot be revived by the money nor can they sustain any of the economic improvement which the cash initially brings them. The backing of Citigroup (C) and AIG (AIG)--in the case of the insurance company, not Paulson's money--has only served to point out that they stand on clay feet. The cause of their problems, which is derivatives and loans tied to failing parts of the economy, cannot be solved by sums which are modest compared to the real trouble. In the case of AIG, the government is already caught in an endless rat warren.

Walking up to the average citizen and offering him more credit is like giving a pyromaniac a match. He so loves the warmth of the flames and the attendant mayhem that he cannot help himself. Passing the consumer more money will only bring more ruin to the credit system.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Grass roots and liberal government are alive & well in Silverton Oregon



Yep, I know Stu, he is a friend of the people. If you want to see a good movie with old time atmosphere then the Palace Theatre is the place to be. Stu will be at the door to greet you and the popcorn is reasonable, as is the ticket.

If you want to go to a mediaplex theater, or you're looking for a walmart store, you won't find one and folks around these parts like it just as it is...G:


Silverton gives its vote to transgendered mayor

by Kimberly A.C. Wilson, The Oregonian
Friday November 07, 2008, 7:04 PM

SILVERTON -- Close your eyes and listen as the new mayor strides down his hometown's sidewalks, greeting a pair of cowboys whose boots clap against the leaf-covered macadam.

"Good job, Stu," intones the taller one.

"Congratulations, Mr. Mayor," calls the other.

Stu Rasmussen hollers back just as gruffly, wrapping up an exchange that would seem at place in any small farming community.

Article @ Oregon Live



Yep, I know...my friend the Highwayman will be spitting nails and maybe even calling this blasphemy. And Dad? well, he'll just scratch his head, and wonder if there is any scientific or philosophic explanation at all. All I can say is that liberalism, "there, I did it, used the ism word...):", is no vice... Well, almost anyway.

If anyone chooses to be different, and is accepted in their own community or even accepted as a leader, then more power to them, as long as they represent the majority and do the will of the people. I know that Rudolph Giuliani will probably come to mind here, but he didn't represent the grass roots in NY city. In fact he represents graft and corruption and should be prosecuted for almost every crime in the book including murder.

Stu walks around freely in the community, and frequents thrift shops and flea markets presenting a contoversial face wherever he goes, while preserving the integrity and history of this
historical town.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Fed won't account for $2 Trillion of Bailout



Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose

By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg)

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.



$ and this from The Bailout Sleuth $

A change in plans

By Chris Carey on November 12, 2008 3:54 PM

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. confirmed Wednesday what was already becoming apparent -- that the government will not use any of its $700 billion financial-industry bailout fund to buy toxic assets from banks and other institutions.

Those purchases were the basis of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that Congress approved last month. The argument was that removing distressed assets such as mortgage-backed securities from the books of those companies would ease fears about their solvency, free up capital, encourage lending between companies and thaw a frozen credit market.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Anomalies at the WTC and the Hutchison Effect


VIDEO


by Judy Wood and John Hutchison


The Destruction of the WTC and “The Hutchison Effect”

In considering how the WTC complex was destroyed, many people have criticised the research posted here because it does not state or describe the exact technology employed.

These pages include data which strongly implicates a class of technology as being one of the main ones used.

The data below seem to strongly tie up with features of what has become known as “The Hutchison Effect”. The Hutchison Effect actually seems to describe a range of observed characteristics, some of which are listed below. John Hutchison is a Canadian inventor and experimental scientist who has been experimenting with “field effects” for almost 30 years. There is a great deal of information about him on the internet, and a selection is linked from this set of pages.

The table below lists effects and events seen at or in the vicinity of World Trade Center and compares those with observed characteristics of the Hutchison Effect. Clearly, the posting of this material is quite controversial, but even in the various documentaries that have featured John Hutchison, he has suggested that the techniques he has discovered and developed have been further refined by places like Lockheed Skunkworks, S.A.I.C. (Science Applications International Corp.), and also by perhaps other defense companies.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Bu$h gives his uh heartfelt congratulations to Obama



George Duhhbya Bu$h at his best:


"There's important work to do in the months ahead, and I will continue to conduct the people's business as long as this office remains in my trust. During this time of transition, I will keep the President-elect fully informed on important decisions. And when the time comes on January the 20th , Laura and I will return home to Texas with treasured memories of our time here -- and with profound gratitude for the honor of serving this amazing country."






Bush congratulates Obama on 'awesome night'


The Age
November 5, 2008 - 6:38PM
Page 1 of 2 Single Page View


US President George W Bush telephoned Barack Obama on his "awesome night" - a historic election win fuelled by the two-term incumbent's vast unpopularity.
Cloistered at the White House with family and senior aides while tens of millions of US voters flooded the polls coast to coast, Bush reached out to Obama and Republican rival John McCain when the outcome was no longer in doubt.
"Mr President-elect, congratulations to you. What an awesome night for you, your family and your supporters. Laura and I called to congratulate you and your good bride," Bush's spokeswoman, Dana Perino, quoted him as telling Obama.
"I promise to make this a smooth transition. You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life. Congratulations and go enjoy yourself," Bush told Obama, she told reporters by email.
After months of near invisibility during the campaign, Bush planned to make a public statement on the hard-fought 2008 White House race in the mansion's Rose Garden at 10.40am (0240 AEDT tomorrow).
And the president invited Obama and his family "to visit the White House soon, at their convenience", Perino said.
The US president also reached out to his defeated chosen heir, telling McCain "John, you gave it your all. I'm proud of you, and I'm sorry it didn't work out. You didn't leave anything on the playing field."
Bush also praised the Arizona senator's "fabulous and very classy" concession speech and sent his best to Cindy McCain, the candidate's wife, said Perino.
Vice-President Dick Cheney telephoned his successor-elect, Democratic Senator Joe Biden, to congratulate him, and planned to reach out to McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, said spokeswoman Lea Anne Foster.
Earlier, at a private dinner that doubled as First Lady Laura Bush's 62nd birthday party and the kickoff to an election-watching party, Bush had invoked God's blessing on whoever succeeds him, Perino said.
"The president gave a toast at the start of the dinner thanking those present for all the work they've done and for their friendship. He ended by saying, 'And may God bless whoever wins tonight'," she told reporters. Continued...

Well, there it is folks, a nice picture of Bu$h on the desk phone, and Dana Perino telling us what he said to Obama. The picture of Duhbya and the video of Duhhbya are both on the whitehouse.gov website, but his actual conversation is released in an email to reporters by the Whitehouse press secretary...G:?

Remember what colin Powell said about January



Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Barack Obama's Speech in Chester, PA | Oct 28 2008 US Politics & Gov't

This is all that I can find so far. Apparently there were 10 parts, of which part 7 and part 9 are missing.

Video credit to Chris Barrett & Xtian Bretz

http://www.directyourownlife.com

http://www.xtian.tv



part 1



part2



part3



part 4



part 5



part 6




part8



part 10

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Joe Biden delivers an ominous message about Barack Obama





So what is Biden doing talking about that would ordinarily be top secret stuff? Well, it isn't only him of course, but is probably coming directly from Bu$hco, and the Neocorporate Republic. Colin Powell mentioned a similar thing on Meet The Press Oct. 19th. and UN Ambassador John Bolton re-enforced Bidens warning. Is it just me or does this smell like the NWO?

CNS News

Thursday, October 23, 2008

By Josiah Ryan, Staff Writer

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden’s warning that a President Barack Obama would be tested by an “international crisis” in his first six months in the White House is not unrealistic, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told CNSNews.com on Wednesday.

However, at a campaign stop in Richmond, Va., that same day, Obama dismissed his running mate’s comments, explaining that Biden sometimes employs “rhetorical flourishes” while speaking.

Bolton told CNSNews.com: “I agree with Senator Biden’s concern. I think there are a variety of things going on internationally that could result in a crisis for the next president within six months or even before.”

At a fundraiser on Oct. 19, Biden had said: "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. … The world is looking. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Article

MSNBC 'Meet the Press'


statement at 2:40 into video...G:

Friday, October 24, 2008

Power of the POTUS



Helen Thomas reveals the true power of Ronald Raygun in this , short video, which doesn't surprise me at all. It is ridiculous to believe the main stream media as they attribute all of the important world decisions to one man, the president of the US, especially when considering our present sock puppet, George Duhhbya Bu$h.

Helen dumbfounded Duhbya at his first press conference, where she got the usual first question. This ended a tradition that she had enjoyed since the times of John Kennedy.

On May 17, 2000, after fifty-seven years working with the organization, Thomas resigned from United Press International (UPI) the day after the announcement of its acquisition by News World Communications Inc., a company founded and controlled by Unification Church leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon. She later described the change in ownership as "a bridge too far".

Viewpoint with James Zogby 2/14/08 - Helen Thomas

video part 1

video part 2

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Sarah Palin, Colin Powell, and the Bush Doctrine

John McCain Explains The Bush Doctrine To Sarah Palin



Colin Powell Decimates McCain's Rationale



The Bush Doctrine Explained

Chronology: The Evolution of the Bush Doctrine

Feb. 28, 1991

A war with Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein would be the first test case in the Bush administration's larger strategy for projecting U.S. power and influence in the post-Cold War world. Here's an overview of the people, the events, the major statements, and the policy battles behind what's become known as the Bush Doctrine.

The Gulf War's Ragged Ending; U.S. Decides on Containment Policy for Iraq

With a Gulf War cease fire declared, President Bush, Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell believe Saddam's hold on Iraq is tenuous. Bush urges Iraqis to rise up. They do, and within days Saddam has lost control of southern Iraq. But the rebellion is soon overwhelmed by Saddam's forces, which include helicopter gunships, and Bush orders U.S. troops not to intervene. It is estimated that thousands of Shiites were killed.

The failed uprising is a defining moment for neo-conservatives such as Richard Perle, William Kristol, and Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz complains that the U.S. inaction is comparable to "idly watching a mugging."

With Saddam clinging to power, Bush decides on a containment strategy towards Iraq: tough U.N. inspections, economic sanctions, and no-fly zones to protect the Kurds in the north and south of the country.

The War Behind Closed Doors


PBS: FRONTLINE

published feb. 20, 2003

In the first emergency meeting of the U.S. National Security Council on the day of the attacks, Rumsfeld asked, "Why shouldn’t we go against Iraq, not just al-Qaeda?" with Wolfowitz adding that Iraq was a "brittle, oppressive regime that might break easily—it was doable," and, according to John Kampfner, "from that moment on, he and Wolfowitz used every available opportunity to press the case." The idea was initially rejected, at the behest of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, but, according to Kampfner, "Undeterred Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz held secret meetings about opening up a second front—against Saddam. Powell was excluded." In such meetings they created a policy that would later be dubbed the Bush Doctrine, centering on "pre-emption", American unilateralism, and the war on Iraq, which the PNAC had advocated in their earlier letters.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Michelle Bachman R Minn revives McCarthyism

McCarthyism

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of intense anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate. The term "McCarthyism," coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Salon

The Palins' un-American activities

Imagine if the Obamas had hooked up with a violently anti-American group in league with the government of Iran.

By David Talbot

Oct. 7, 2008 | "My government is my worst enemy. I'm going to fight them with any means at hand."

This was former revolutionary terrorist Bill Ayers back in his old Weather Underground days, right? Imagine what Sarah Palin is going to do with this incendiary quote as she tears into Barack Obama this week.

Only one problem. The quote is from Joe Vogler, the raging anti-American who founded the Alaska Independence Party. Inconveniently for Palin, that's the very same secessionist party that her husband, Todd, belonged to for seven years and that she sent a shout-out to as Alaska governor earlier this year. ("Keep up the good work," Palin told AIP members. "And God bless you.")

AIP chairwoman Lynette Clark told me recently that Sarah Palin is her kind of gal. "She's Alaskan to the bone ... she sounds just like Joe Vogler."

So who are these America-haters that the Palins are pallin' around with?

Before his strange murder in 1993, party founder Vogler preached armed insurrection against the United States of America. Vogler, who always carried a Magnum with him, was fond of saying, "When the [federal] bureaucrats come after me, I suggest they wear red coats. They make better targets. In the federal government are the biggest liars in the United States, and I hate them with a passion. They think they own [Alaska]. There comes a time when people will choose to die with honor rather than live with dishonor. That time may be coming here. Our goal is ultimate independence by peaceful means under a minimal government fully responsive to the people. I hope we don't have to take human life, but if they go on tramping on our property rights, look out, we're ready to die."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Paraguay: Mariscal Estigarribia Airport is wide enough for B-52 bombers


According to the US government:

United States Has No Plans for Military Base in Paraguay

The June 13, 2005, Clarin article claimed that American “B-52 airplanes” could be used at Mariscal Estigarribia. In reality, the runways are too narrow for them. B-52s typically need a runway width of 150 feet (46 meters) to land and re-engined models will require a runway width of 175 feet (53 meters), according to a June 2004 report (page 28) of the U.S. Defense Science Board Task Force on B-52 Re-Engining. However, the runways at Mariscal Estigarribia are only 131 feet (40 meters) wide.

However if you scale it on Google Earth. It is .04 miles (60 meters) wide and 2.17 miles (3500 meters) long.

.04 x 5280= 211 feet which is 64.25 meters. So I could be off a little bit. It was probably built at 60 meters wide (60 Meters = 196.8503937007874 Feet), which is fine for a B-52

THE AIRSTRIP LOOKS PLENTY WIDE ON THIS VIDEO



Information Clearing House

Press Release - Council On Hemispheric Affairs

07/22/05 - - This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associates Mary Donohue and Melissa Nepomiachi.

• On June 1, 2005 the Paraguayan National Congress entered into an agreement with Washington that allows U.S. troops to enter into Paraguay for an 18-month period.

• The troops will help train Paraguayan officials to deal with narcotrafficking, terrorism, government corruption and domestic health issues.

• The agreement grants the U.S. troops legal immunity from possible offenses committed during their stay.

• Washington has long sought similar immunity for its troops in the Southern Cone, but Argentina and Brazil have firmly restricted granting such judicial liberty to U.S. troops.

• Bolivian officials and its press are also speaking out against the agreement, fearing the U.S. presence as a means to control the petroleum and natural gas sources in their country.

• Though Asunción and Washington claim that the U.S. has no intentions of establishing a permanent base in Paraguay, history shows a strange resemblance between the current situation in Paraguay and the development of the Manta base in Ecuador from a “temporary” facility into a major base.

Article

Thursday, October 9, 2008




I don't know a lot about the stock market,and speak from the viewpoint of a retired small business owner. I quit my regular job for health reasons, and went into the second hand and then antique business, which is maybe one of the last vestiges of free enterprise. What I heard in these discussions by members of the global elite was about solving problems from the top down, and in my opinion there are many problems down here on the bottom. The grass roots aren't doing so well these days, what with all of the chemical farming going on and no one hoeing their weeds because they seen an ad on TV & believe that Roundup is God's gift to the suburban lawn. This once great country was built on the concept of free enterprise and anyone could jump in without having to worry about restrictions and rules from every branch of government that quickly stifle any attempts to build something like, say, a more effecient automobile. In the 1910's & 20's there were at least two hundred makes of automobiles and trucks, many of them from small companies: they ran on gas, electricity, kerosene,or steam. If you owned a small farm you could buy a truck to haul your produce to market, of which there were many, or your grain to the family that owned an elevator. It was free enterprise and at that time was built from the bottom up. I'm not saying that its as simple as all this, but do think that this must be considered, and who knows, if this downhill slide continues with no brakes, we may be doing just that...G:

An early republican viewpoint:

"The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty--none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost."

Abraham Lincoln

Senior citizens hold their breath as Bu$hco promises more Social Security Benefits


Social Security Benefits To Go Up By Larger-than-Usual Amount

MarketWatch

October 8, 2008 Wednesday 8:22 PM EST

Robert Powell has been a journalist covering personal finance issues for more than 20 years, writing and editing for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Mutual Fund Market News.

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Amidst all the volatility and uncertainty in the financial markets these days, one thing is definite: Come October 16, Uncle Sam will announce the cost-of-living adjustment for 34 million Americans who now receive Social Security benefits.

Unlike in years past, however, that adjustment is expected to be among the largest increases in 25 years.

No one yet knows exactly how big the automatic benefit hike will be. But experts are predicting that Social Security beneficiaries will see their monthly benefit rise by at least 5%, perhaps more. In calculating the COLA, Social Security will look at inflation over the 12 months ended September 2008. For the year ended August 2008, inflation as measured by the consumer price index (CPI-W) was running at 5.4%.

That means the average monthly benefit could rise to about $1,137 from $1,079 now, a $58 increase.

What's more, unlike in years past, that increase won't be eaten up entirely by increases in Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, though it will be close. For about 95% of Medicare recipients, Part B premiums will remain at $96.40 in 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said last month.

Well, I haven't heard any good news like this for a long time,except for the fact that McPain is way behind in the polls. If Bu$hco and John McSame get their way there will be an attempt to put
some of the social security payments into the stock market so I'll be keeping my ear to the ground untill election day...G:


.......zzzzzzzZZZZZZZ

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Collapse of Building 7 By Arthur Scheuerman February 29, 2008

The Collapse of Building 7

By Arthur Scheuerman

FDNY Battalion Chief, Retired

Posted February 29, 2008

WTC's Building 7 was a 47-story office building completed in 1987 by Silverstein Properties on land owned by the Port Authority. It was built according to PA-NY-NJ codes developed for tenant alterations in the tower buildings. Building 7 was not hit by any planes but had damage from parts of Tower 1 impacting the south wall. Because of the damage to the building and the failure of the water supply, after talking to the owner, the Fire Department decided to evacuate the building and not attempt to control the fires but to let them burn out.

Building 7 had all the same deficiencies present in the Towers except that the bar joist, trusses were replaced with long span I beams. There were large growing fires on several floors as well as damage from the exterior columns of Tower 1 which peeled away during its collapse and hit the southwest corner and the middle of the south side of building 7, gouging out large sections. In addition to this damage, and problems with water supply the Fire Department Command decided not to fight these fires and ordered every one out of the building and out of the collapse zone (which was a large area including buildings and streets around building 7) It is the procedure when anticipating possible collapse to discontinue interior firefighting operations and that a collapse zone is cleared around the building. The anticipation of collapse was a brilliant conclusion and no lives were lost when the 47 story building collapsed about an hour and a half after the evacuation order was given. The BBC somehow misheard the orders to evacuate the collapse zone and reported the building had collapsed well before it actually did.



Figure 20a. Floors 8 to 45 plan. (Courtesy of NIST)



Building 7 was built over an existing Consolidated Edison power station. Above the seventh floor, the construction was very similar to that of the towers: with long-span outer floors, large open areas, unknown fireproofing on the steel, little lateral bracing in the core, and most likely weak column splicing. Since the perimeter wall columns were shear walls that resisted wind loads, the long-span floors (53 feet) acted as a diaphragm, transferring loads between exterior walls and between the walls and the core; the center core structure, as in the towers, supported only gravity loads with no lateral bracing except the floors. One important difference was that instead of steel bar-joists, the primary floor structure was more typical in that it had two-foot-deep wide flange steel 'I'-beams, nine feet on center, composite with a concrete slab.

The long-span steel I-beams had ¾-inch diameter by five-inch-long steel shear studs, about two feet on center that projected into the concrete. These studs provided bonding and composite action under load with the 5½-inch concrete floor. Shear studs were not provided in the core.

Similar sorts of floor-failure mechanisms, as those responsible for the towers' collapse, might have been responsible for Building 7's interior column failure, which triggered the progressive collapse. NIST studies (2, Appendix L) show that because of the large areas and long spans failure of one or more of three key interior columns on the east side of the building would travel vertically to the roof, collapsing all the floors on the east side and producing the initial kink in the east penthouse roof - the first indication of collapse as videotaped. As seen on the videotape, the west penthouse roof sank into the building five seconds after the east penthouse sank and indicates a horizontal collapse progression to the rectangular core, imploding the building.

I believe the collapse was unlikely to have started below the 5th floor, since the construction below the 5th floor was more conventional. These lower floors were reinforced with much lateral bracing and thick, reinforced membrane floors that would redistribute any lateral loads throughout the lower floors. The 5th floors to 7th floors were transition floors. There was speculation about the fire’s being on these floors and fed from oil-fired generators supplied from tanks on the lower floors. There was evidence for fire on the 7th and 8th floors.

The fire shown in photos 21 and 22 appears to be a very severe, but ordinary, office fire and was well above the area supplied with oil lines. There is a strong possibility that this building collapsed from this office fire alone. NIST was scheduled to complete its analysis of the cause of the collapse in late 2007. This report is my contribution toward the analysis.



Figure 21. The approximate fire location on the east side of floor 12. (Courtesy of NIST, modified by author)

Fire was first seen on the south side spreading east than photographed coming out of eight windows on the east side on the 12th floor. This fire must have dropped down to or spread up from the 11th floor, since another photo shows fire at four windows on the 11th floor. There was also fire showing at multiple 12th-floor windows on the north side and some windows on the 7th floor. This is a serious high-rise building fire that would have necessitated multiple alarms to control. There were various other fires on different floors. These photos were taken at around 2 p.m. Later photos show extensive numbers of windows burnt out apparently on the 11th and 12th floors and the 6th and 7th floors on the north side. The building collapsed about 5 pm, after the fire had burned out in most areas on the11th and 12th and 6th and 7th-floors.



Collapse Initiation Hypothesis

With a serious large area fire on the 12th floor, the two foot wide, long-span steel beams on the 13th floor, depending on the amount of fireproofing insulation installed, could have expanded and bowed, sagged or buckled downward and possibly twisted out or flopped over from the uncontrolled fire. The same scenario could have been happening on the 7th floor with fire weakening the steel on the 8th floor. Steel expansion and buckling would have deflected the floors possibly into suspension or the fire may have been burning long enough to weaken the steel causing additional sag. Unlike the bar-joist failure producing early pull-in forces, steel I-beam composite floors usually maintain push-out forces,- at least in the short-span configuration used in the standard frame construction,- caused by their expansion, during the fire, while the slab floors sag into tensile membrane action. It is unknown whether long-span floors act the same way. The large area of the concrete slab may have limited or increased tensile membrane action. As the steel beams first expanded from the heat, the studs might have pulled the slower expanding concrete into tension, possibly cracking it and removing some compression capabilities. This would have allowed the steel beams to bow or buckle sooner from the loads and thermal forces and the floor to sag and put torque on the connections to the girder supported by the three key columns on the east side. The sag could have also separated the wire mesh bond in the concrete over the girder. The girders themselves may have also been sagging.

As the sagging steel beams and girders cooled after burnout, they began to contract. Since they would have been seriously deflected downward, the beams would have been unable to overcome the inertia and lift the floor loads as they contracted, and strong pull-in forces would have developed. According to Seputro “Plastification of the steel beam leads to very high tensile stresses that may cause rupture damage to the connections after cooling. If the fire decays before the beam fails, the deformation and the steel strength will recover. The cooling phase causes shortening of the beam, which can be dangerous in the pin-pin and fix-fix cases as it may cause tensile rupture of the end connections”. Lamont, Lane, Flint and Usmani’s studies also indicate that in long span (10 meter) floors the beams can disconnect from thermal buckling and contraction on cooling.41

The increasing tension or torque in the 13th floor’s (or 8th floor’s) connections from suspension forces as the floor cooled and contracted after burnout could have started an edge detachment, or rip failure, detaching the beams along the north-south girder along the line of columns 79, 80, and 81. The “typical floor beam-to-girder and girder-to-core column connection was a single shear plate,” (2, Appendix. L, 7) but certain floors had reinforced connections. This tension or torque could have disconnected the west side of the east floor from the girder, allowing tension in the remaining portion of the floor to laterally displace one or more columns and break the column splices as the beams contracted. There were fewer beam connections to the west side of this girder than on the east side. The sinking of the east roof penthouse before any other visible failure indicates that one, two or three of the key columns (79, 80, and 81) were the first to fail. These were massive columns and most probably adequately fireproofed and would not have failed directly from heat.

The girder itself along the line of columns 79, 80 and 81 could also itself have sagged and detached from the remaining girder creating pull-in forces on the column(s) as the girder buckled from the heat and/or contracted from cooling.

A less likely scenario is that the floor attachments to Columns 76, 77, and 78 initially failed. As the 13th floor (or 8th floor) sagged and contracted as it cooled, the floor could have initially detached at these east core columns. The loss of restraint could have allowed the remaining tension in sagging and contracting floors to laterally deflect one or more of the three key columns (79, 80, and 81). There was a layer of welded wire mesh reinforcement placed in the concrete over the girders along columns 79, 80, and 81; this additional reinforcement might have strengthened these connections and thus caused the connections to the core to fail first. There was also fire on the 11th floor, and possibly the 14th floor (and the 6th and 7th floors). This could have assisted the failure of Columns 79, 80, and 81 by producing additional lateral forces.



Vertical Progression



Figure 22. East-West building middle section as viewed from the north showing column failure and resulting progression, putting all floors above in suspension; and the east roof shed is sinking. Reinforced floors are darker. (Diagram by author.)



This initial column failure was evidenced by the kinking and sinking of the east penthouse into the building’s roof and the simultaneous breaking of the windows on the east side of the north wall as it was pulled in by the suspended floors. The east wall was also reported bowing inward.

NIST studies have shown that because of the large floor areas, the failure of just one key column on any one of the lower floors would cause a vertical progression of collapse upward so that the entire section would come down. (NIST, S. Shyam Sunder lecture) This single-column’s failure initiating progressive collapse is a design defect noncompliant with the NYC codes. The buckling of these three key columns (79, 80, and 81) would have removed support for all columns directly above, putting all upper floors in immediate long-span suspension with eventual collapse. The breaking of the widows on the east side of the north face simultaneously with the buckling of the roof shed was evidence of this tension as the north wall was pulled and leaned in. This high tension in all the floors above could have failed the floor connections or buckled more columns, depending on the stresses and strains developed. As can be seen in the illustration, the floors would have been equally deflected in the initial collapse because of the geometry of the rigid columns pulling or pushing on the floors. This equal floor deflection would have created pull-in forces in the floors increasing, from the top floor downward, on the exterior walls and interior columns on the west side. This sequential increase of pull-in forces progressing downward is because the walls would have been leaning inward a greater distance at the top.

If the connections had held, and because the 14th floor was still intact, even though sagging, the exterior and interior columns more likely would have buckled near that floor. The question that needs analysis is what connections would fail first and what connections would hold with all 35 floors in suspension? NIST reported that the information available indicated that the floor–to-column connections would fail under this scenario without seriously damaging the perimeter or interior columns. However, certain connections on Floors 19 and 20 were reinforced, and Floors 21 to 23 used heavier steel. (2,126) These floors could have developed a higher degree of column destabilizing tensile forces before connection failure cut off these lateral forces.


Horizontal Progression West

One of NIST’s hypotheses involving the horizontal progression is that the impact of the debris from the falling floors hit a robust transverse truss between Floors 5 and 7 and rotated the truss, which would have pulled a line of core columns eastward, collapsing the core. This is certainly possible and may have happened, but probably not until after the core had already started collapsing from the tensile forces from the floors in suspension.

Floors 21 to 23 had slightly heavier steel framing than the others (shown darker in diagram, Figure 22). Portions of Floors 10, 19, and 20 had reinforcing plates on the bottom flange, and certain connections were reinforced. If other floor connections failed, these strong connections might have held and pulled a line of core columns eastward, especially if impacted by falling debris from the collapsing floors above. The fact that Core Columns 76, 77, and 78 on all the floors would have been subjected to suspension induced ‘pull-in’ eastward with increasing ‘pull-in’ on the lower floors, should be figured in.

Tension in the suspended floors above the buckled columns could have put floor connections to the core columns under immediate severe lateral stress on all the floors above 13. The failure of columns 76, 77 and 78 could have started the progression westward and been responsible for the kink in the north facade. If the floor connections to Column 77’s connection held on any of the levels above the 13th floor, a middle line of Core Columns 77 to 62, and possibly 59, could have been pulled eastward on any floor under the lateral forces. This line of middle core columns would more easily have been pulled eastward, since there were elevator shafts along this line and there were fewer floors that could have restrained these columns and floor beams from deflection. The connections to columns 76 and 78 on any floor above the thirteenth would probably fail first allowing the connection to column 77 to hold and pull the line the line of core columns 77 to 62 and possibly 59 eastward.


The reinforced connections on Floors 19 to 23 could have made it more likely that these connections would have held and buckled the middle line of core columns destabilized the remaining core columns. As this middle line of columns deflected, they would have pulled the remaining core columns inward toward the middle line, possibly buckling all the core columns on a floor. Debris hitting the girders and beams might have assisted in deflecting this middle line of columns. Columns 78 to 63 and/or 76 to 61 could have been pulled inward more easily since the attached beams did not have shear studs connecting them to the concrete floors. The elevator shafts without floors would offer little resistance to this inward buckling. These core columns which probably had weak splices would have had to buckle on only one floor to collapse the core structure and implode the whole building.



Five seconds after the east penthouse failed, the west shed disappeared into the roof indicating that the core failed before the building began descending. The breaking of the vertical line of windows near Column 54 on the east side of the north wall simultaneously with the sinking of the east penthouse indicates that the wall was being pulled inward by the sagging floors above the buckled core columns.







Figure 24. As-built elevations. Building 7. Courtesy of NIST.)

There were numerous diagonal braces in the core below the 7th floor. There were also thick reinforced concrete floors on the 5th and 7th floors. The 5th floor diaphragm was 14 inches thick and reinforced with imbedded steel “T” sections. The 7th floor was eight-inch reinforced concrete. This would have made it less likely that the initial failure started or progressed on these lower floors but, since the fire was also on the 7th floor, and the 8th floor was not reinforced and would have been receiving all the heat from the 7th floor fire, the 8th floor could have sagged and could have affected those columns.

The belt truss around the building at the 22nd to the 24th floors stiffened the perimeter wall and probably supported the outer frame and helped it come down as a unit above the buckling columns.

As the core failed, the perimeter walls were pulled inward, with the greatest deflection at the top floors. This “lean in” of the perimeter walls sequentially decreased the pull-in forces on each floor moving upward, and produced increasing forces on each consecutive floor moving lower. Various exterior columns and connections would have failed on the lower floors with the increasing tension. This perimeter wall’s buckling was not seen in the videos because it was below the line of sight because of the buildings in the foreground; it looked as though the building had just descended straight into the ground.

The evidence of dust expulsions from floor to floor upward from the southwest corner near the roof, said to be from “detonations,” would have been caused by the floors’ disconnecting sequentially in the corner as the tensions in the suspended collapsing floors increased after core failure. That these failures were sequentially upward shows that there were sequentially increasing tensions in lower floors due to exterior wall’s leaning inward.

The possibility that some weaknesses exist in high-rise buildings constructed with long-span floors and cores without lateral bracing and with weak column splices necessitates that all possible failure mechanisms be studied to determine the cause of failure and means to prevent future failure. NIST can do a computer analysis of the forces involved and connection strength to confirm or disprove the analysis and clarify this theory. With the increasing spans and size of floor areas of high-rise office buildings allowed by the use of steel, there is a critical need for new methods to test long-span floors to determine if they are, or can be, adequately protected from fire.

New methods should be developed for testing and determining the forces that affect these floors and their connections under collapse conditions. Long span ‘I’ beams may be affected by differential heating and expansion of different parts of the web or flanges causing early bowing, buckling or twisting, affecting structural integrity. Contraction of sagging steel beams of girders as they cool after the fire burns out may put extra pull-in forces on columns pulling them out of alignment and buckling them. If these long-span floors cannot be adequately tested and protected against progressive or global collapse, the spans should be reduced and the steel size and strength increased. Surely, lateral bracing of core columns on each floor should be required, the column splice strength increased and alternate load paths should be built in to handle floor loads in case columns fail. In situations where the failure of floor assemblies could affect the lateral stability of the columns, these floors should be considered part of the frame and should have the same degree of fireproofing protection as the columns.