The Morning Delivery

The Future of Social Security? ``Just the Facts Ma,am''

 

Ever since Gov. Rick Perry of Texas suggested that Social Security is nothing but a ``ponzi scheme’’ during a recent Republican Presidential debate, the rhetoric about whether the troubled underfinanced system is worth saving or done away with has sparked some heated debate about a program representing approximately one-fifth of the federal budget and provides retirement, disability and survivors' benefits to over 50 million Americans.

Though Mr. Perry has been heavily criticized for his ``ponzi scheme’’ remark, others, both Democrats and Republicans, are conceding Social Security is in desperate need of reform if it hopes to survive the coming decades ahead.

So as a way to lower the decibel level of the Social Security war of words being waged in the political arena, I compiled some of the most updated data available on the current state of the Social Security system  with the hope it is in line with Sgt Joe Friday’s indispensible directive : ``Just the facts Ma’am.’’

• The Social Security system is funded by a payroll tax of 12.4 percent up to a maximum amount of income ($106,800 in 2010). Half of the tax is paid by employers and half by employees.

• Ninety-six percent of wage earners in the country pay Social Security taxes, with most of them paying more in Social Security taxes than they do in federal income taxes.

• The largest group of workers not covered by Social Security consists of about one-quarter (5.7 million in 2007) of state and local government employees.

• According to the Congressional Research Service, as of June 2011, there were 54.8 million Social Security beneficiaries. Sixty-four percent of beneficiaries were retired workers and 15 percent were disabled workers. The remaining 21 percent were survivors or the spouses and children of retired or disabled workers. Currently, Social Security covers an estimated 156.9 million workers.

• In 2010, for the first time since the ratification of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, Social Security’s annual outlays will exceed its annual tax revenues, the Congressional Budget Office projects.

• When Social Security operates with a cash flow deficit, the program cashes in federal government securities to supplement current Social Security tax revenues.

• When there are no surplus governmental receipts, the increased spending for Social Security from the general fund can only be paid for by the federal government raising taxes or other income, reducing other spending, or borrowing from the public.

• The Social Security Administration’s 2011 Annual Report projects that the Social Security trust fund will remain solvent until 2036. Social Security benefits scheduled under current law can be paid in full until that time.

• Beginning in 2023, program expenditures are projected to exceed total income (tax revenues plus interest income) and trust fund assets will begin to be drawn down to help pay for benefits and administrative expenses.

• After the trust funds are exhausted, which is projected to occur in 2036, the program would operate using current Social Security tax revenues, sufficient to pay only an estimated 77 percent of benefit payments scheduled under current law in 2036 and about 74 percent of scheduled benefits in 2085.

• Between 2010 and 2030, the number of people aged 65 and older is projected to increase by 78 percent, while the number of workers supporting the system is projected to increase by 7 percent.

• During the 111th Congress, four Social Security reform measures were introduced with none of them receiving congressional action. Again, during the 112th Congress to date, several Social
Security reform measures have been introduced; but none have received congressional action

• An indication of the success of Social Security is attributed to the fact that between 1959 and 2009, the poverty rate for Americans age 65 and older dropped from 35.2 to 8.9 percent.

• According to the Urban Institute, even though the Social Security program was not designed to be the sole financial resource for retirees, in 2008 nearly a quarter relied on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income

• According to the Social Security Administration, 50 percent of the workforce has no private pension coverage; while 31percent of the workforce has no savings set aside specifically for retirement.

• By 2036, there will be almost twice as many older Americans as today – from 41.9 million today to 78.1 million.

• From 1984 to 2009, Social Security generated surplus tax revenues.

• The average Social Security benefit is $1,170 a month, or about $14,000 a year

• The full retirement age is now 66 and will increase to 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

• Nine out of ten individuals age 65 and older receive Social Security benefits.

• Social Security benefits represent about 41 percent of the income of the elderly.

• More than 50 million Americans – living in about one in four households – receive Social Security benefits, with about 70 percent going to retired workers and families, and the rest going to disabled workers and survivors of deceased workers

• In 2009, a record number of Americans filed for Social Security benefits, many opting to retire early.

• Retired workers and their dependents account for 69 percent of total benefits paid.

• Disabled workers and their dependents account for 19 percent of total benefits paid

• About one in eight of today’s 20-year-olds will die before reaching age 67.

• A much higher share of Americans retire before age 63 today than in 1970.

• Workers eligible for full retirement at age 67 will receive just 70 percent of their full pensions each month if they retire at 62. If the full retirement age is moved to 68, those who retire at 62 would receive only 65 percent of their full pensions.

• In fiscal year 2010: Medicare and Medicaid ate up 21 percent of federal spending; Social Security consumed 20 percent; Defense consumed 20 percent. Other mandatory spending, such as  veterans’ compensation, unemployment Insurance, and food stamps consumed 17 percent; leaving only 16 percent for everything else, including veterans’ health care, homeland security and law enforcement, education and student aid, roads and bridges, food and drug inspection, energy and the environment.

-Bill Lucey
September 15, 2011
[email protected]

Source:  The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; The Urban Institute, Congressional Research Service, Congressional Budget Office; Social Security Administration; The Bipartisan Policy Center's Debt Reduction Task Force.

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Web Sites to Keep in Mind

Congressional Budget Office: Social Security InfoGraphic (By the Numbers, Long Term Projections)

Congressional Budget Office: Social Security Policy Options

National Commission on Fiscal Responsiblity and Reform

Bipartisan Policy Center

The Urban Institute: The Future of Social Security

Social Securities' Annual Trustees Report

9/11: 10-Year Anniversary Guide of Facts, Stats and Historic Footnotes

 

With the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11 just days away, Americans will undoubtedly, as in prior anniversaries, mourn the thousands of innocent lives that were lost in Lower Manhattan on a day that began with clear blue skies-but in a blink of an eye-turned into a plume of black smoke when the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed like dominoes in front of millions of a shocked and traumatized television audience.

But unlike past anniversaries, this is the first 9/11 anniversary in which we take comfort in knowing the ruthless mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden, is no longer lurking somewhere in the foothills of Afghanistan or Pakistan, thanks to the US Navy SEALS tracking and eventually gunning him down  in Pakistan's northern city of Abbottabad.

Americans will also remember the 9/11 anniversary by reflecting on how much the world has changed over the last 10 years; and how vulnerable we really were prior to a terrorist attack on our own soil.

So as a way to consider how 9/11 impacted our lives and shaped public policy, I assembled some historical facts and statistics related to the dreadful day that refuses to recede from our memories.

• In an effort to combat terrorism after 9/11, President George W. Bush signed into the law the Patriot Act on October 26, 2001, a bill consisting of 342 pages, 156 sections, and giving the FBI and CIA expanded powers to tap phones, monitor Internet traffic, and allow federal agents to obtain business and personal records. The Senate approved the bill (98-1), followed by the House of Representatives in a 357-66 vote.

• The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.

• On March 4, 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives passed revisions to the Patriot Act (280 to 138), which placed curbs on the act’s powers, including protecting libraries from government intrusion and creating judicial oversight.

• According to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, 414 local, county, and state resolutions have been passed condemning the Patriot Act as a violation of civil liberties.

• According to the New York Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, as of August 2011, out of 2753 reported missing from the World Trade Center, 1122 victims have not been identified; leaving 1631 which have been identified.

• According to ``Bowker's Books in Print'' database, in the U.S. publishing market alone as of August, 2011, there have been 1,742 books written about 9/11, which includes fiction, pictorial books, and juvenile literature.

• According to The Foundation Center, 1,339 foundations, corporations, and other institutional donors made gifts in response to 9/11, which exceeded $1.1 billion in more than 4,500 gifts for relief and recovery efforts and for issues related to the attacks, including bioterrorism and civil rights

• The September 11th Fund of the United Way of New York City/New York Community Trust received $163 million, surpassing all other organizations; the American Red Cross Liberty Disaster Relief Fund received $150 million

• Foundations and corporations in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) provided 52 percent of all giving.

• The Social Security Administration estimates that $250 million in benefits have been paid out to people affected by the September 11 tragedy.

• The World Trade Center consisted of 7 buildings, including one hotel, spread across 16 acres of land. The buildings connected by an underground mall and concourse.

• The Twin Towers (1 WTC, or the North Tower, and 2 WTC, or the South Tower) were the signature structures, containing 10.4 million square feet of office space.

• Both towers had 110 stories, were about 1,350 feet high and were square; each wall measured 208 feet in length. On any given workday, up to 50,000 office workers occupied the tower, and 40,000 people passed through the complex.

• Each tower contained three central stairwells, which ran essentially from top to bottom, and 99 elevators.

• As of 9:00 a.m. units that were dispatched (including senior chiefs responding to headquarters) included approximately 235 firefighters. These units consisted of 21 engine companies, nine ladder companies, four of the departments’ elite rescue teams, the department's single Hazmat team, two of the city's elite squad companies, and support staff.

• According to the Congressional Research Service, the cumulative total appropriated from the 9/11 for war operations, diplomatic operations, and medical care for Iraq and Afghan war veterans is $1.283 trillion including: $806 billion for Iraq; $444 billion for Afghanistan; $29 billion for enhanced security; and $6 billion unallocated .

• According to Paul Colford, Director of Media Relations at The Associated Press, the first AP news bulletin on 9/11 moved on the A wire at 8:53 a.m with the headline: ``Plane crashes into World Trade Center, according to television reports’’; and it was AP’s own Jerry Schwartz who first coined the term ``Ground Zero’’  at 12: 29 p.m on 9/11, when he wrote: ``Emergency vehicles flooded into Lower Manhattan. No one knew what happened; the towers target of a terrorist bombing in 1993; seemed to be ground zero once again.''

• The first time the term ``9/11’’ was used to describe the terrorist attack on American soil was in a Bill Keller column in The New York Times on September 12, 2001: ``Correspondent: America’s Emergency Line: 9/11’’

• There were six Pulitzer Prizes directly awarded to journalists for 9/11 coverage and two more related to Afghanistan, which later entered the picture, according to Sig Gessler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes and a special faculty member of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.

• The 9/11 Memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011 on the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in a ceremony for victims’ families. It will open to the public on September 12, 2011, and will welcome visitors who have reserved free advance passes.  The 9/11 Memorial Museum will open in September 2012, a year after the Memorial.

Highlights of the Museum include:

• The names of 2,983 victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 will be listed on bronze parapets surrounding the pools.

• 8,151 tons of structural steel will be used in the Memorial and Museum when complete, more than what was used to build the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

• 485,919 gallons of water will be held in each Memorial pool.

• The Memorial pools will be approximately 200 feet in length.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in the wake of 9/11 to strengthen the security of the nation’s transportation systems while ensuring the freedom of movement for people and commerce.

    • Since 9/11, TSA has screened nearly 5 billion passengers, detected approximately 50 million prohibited items, including 4,600 firearms during airport checkpoint screening.

    • Since the agency’s inception, TSA has screened approximately 4 billion checked bags. Every checked bag is screened for explosives.

    • Approximately 500 advanced imaging technology machines are deployed at 78 airports nationwide. Since the technology has been deployed, more than 300 prohibited, dangerous, or illegal items have been detected on passengers.

    • Today, TSA recurrently checks over 20 million airline passengers, flight crew and transportation-related employees on a daily basis against the federal watchlist and identifies known or suspected terrorists working in, or seeking access to, the Nation’s transportation system.

According to the New York City Comptroller’s Office:

    • Total private employment in NYC fell by 97,500 jobs from August to December 2001, and reached a low in August 2003 with a total loss of 167,100 jobs. By June 2011, private employment added 76,000 more jobs than had existed prior to the attacks.

    • Since 9/1, the manufacturing sector has lost more than 80,000 jobs and the financial activities sector has lost more than 41,000 jobs. Although the City’s financial sector rebounded after 9/11, employment in this sector has not reached pre‐attack levels. The financial sector’s share of total City jobs has decreased from 12.8 percent to 11.6 percent. The manufacturing sector has decreased from 4.2 percent to 2.0 percent of total jobs.

    • The Fire Department uniformed headcount decreased by 3.9 percent in the fiscal year immediately after 9/11 (more than 2 percent of FDNY uniformed personnel perished on 9/11) but by FY 2005 had rebounded to pre‐9/11 levels. Headcount levels dropped below 9/11 levels in FY 2010 as a result of the City's budgetary constraints and has remained below since then

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
September 8, 2011

Source: 9/11 Memorial and Museum Press Office; The Foundation Center;  Transportation Security Administration; Office of NYC Comptroller John C. Liu; The 9/11 Commission Report
***

Selection of Front Pages on September 12, 2001

U.S. ATTACKED
The New York Times, September 12, 2001

Terrorists Hijack 4 Airliners, Destroy World Trade Center, Hit Pentagon: Hundreds Dead
The Washington Post, September 12, 2001

NEW DAY OF INFAMY,
Boston Globe, September 12, 2001

BASTARDS!
San Francisco Examiner, Sept 12, 2001

Darkest Hour
Denver Post, September 12, 2001

ACT OF WAR
Hartford Courant, September 12, 2001

OUTRAGE,
The Atlanta Constitution, Sept 12, 2001

`EVIL ACTS'
The Miami Herald, September 12, 2001

IT'S WAR,
The New York Daily News, September 12, 2001

TERROR HITS HOME.
The Houston Chronicle, September 12, 2001

UNTHINKABLE
The Salt Lake Tribune

For additional front pages related to 9/11, SEE, Newseum’s interactive archive

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September 11th Events Planned by NFL and MLB

September 11th had a direct impact on the professional sports world as well. The tragic terrorist attack led the NFL to cancel the second week of the season on September 16, 2001, while Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig cancelled games through September 16, making it only the third time in MLB history that games were cancelled due to war or national security reasons.

This year, on the 10-year anniversary, which just happens to fall on the first week of the NFL season, all games in each of the broadcast windows (1:00 PM, 4:15 PM and Sunday Night Football) will feature a special video introduction followed by performances of “Taps” from near the sites of the attacks, and moments of silence. For the 1:00 PM games, (the Baltimore Ravens hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers) “Taps” will be performed in Shanksville, PA while the 4:15 PM games, (the Washington Redskins hosting the New York Giants) will feature a rendition from Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA. NBC’s Sunday night game (the Dallas Cowboys visit the New York Jets) will include a performance from Hoboken, NJ, looking across the Hudson River to Ground Zero. Coaches, players and local first responders and other heroes will come together to hold field-length American flags for the playing of the National Anthem prior to each game.

It was announced recently that the National Football League and the NFL Players Association will contribute $1 million to three memorials and two charities related to the events of September 11, 2001. In addition, the NFL and NFLPA will donate all proceeds from the sale of auction items from games played on Sunday, September 11.  These items, which fans can bid on at www.NFL.com/Auction, will include game-worn autographed player jerseys, coaches and player hats, and commemorative game coins used during those games.

Major League Baseball teams, meanwhile, will be wearing flags on hats and the backs of jerseys, a special video will be played, a remembrance logo will be on each field, and each club is coordinating a service-oriented activity. In addition, each club is honoring public servants, first responders, and members of the military, while many are allocating free tickets for them as well.

Select Minutes of Events on September 11, 2001

5: 53: a.m.:  Hijackers Mohamed Atta and Abdulazis Alomari board a Colgan Air Flight from Portland to Boston, Ma.

7: 59: a.m.:  Flight 11 (American Airlines Boeing 767-223 ER, 23, 980 gallons of fuel, 81 passengers, nine flight attendants, and two pilots) takes off from Boston’s Logan Airport.

8:00 a.m.:  President Bush receives an intelligence briefing with a brief reference to a heightened ``security risk’’ having been reported during the summer, but not alarming enough for him to place a call to National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice.

8: 13 a.m.:  Flight 11 is hijacked; flight attendant Amy Sweeney witnesses three of the hijackers storming the cockpit at approximately 8: 20 a.m.

8: 14: a.m.:  Flight 175 (Boeing 767-222, 23, 980 gallons of fuel, 56 passengers, seven flight attendants, and two pilots, flying to Los Angeles) takes off from Boston’s Logan Airport 16 minutes after the scheduled 7: 58 a.m. departure time.

8: 20 a.m. Flight 77 (Boeing 757-223, with 11, 489 gallons of fuel, 58 passengers, four flight attendants, and two pilots)  departs Dulles Airport outside Washington for Los Angeles, 10 minutes after its 8: 10 scheduled departure.

8: 20 a.m.: Four hijackers from Flight 77 rise from their seats in the business class and shoot or stab passenger Daniel Lewin who was sitting in the row in front of them.

8:20 a.m.: Flight 11 stops transmitting its IFF (identify friend or foe) beacon signal.

8: 20 a.m.:  Flight attendant Sweeney uses an AirFone to call Boston’s Logan Airport to tell them that hijackers have stabbed two first class flight attendants, Barbara Arestegui and Karen Martin, while also informing them that the hijackers brought a bomb into the cockpit. Sweeney was still feeding information to the flight service manager (Michael Woodward) right up until the plane crashed.

8: 34 a.m.: Flight controllers hear a hijacker on Flight 11 tell passengers: ``Nobody move, please, we are going back to the airport. Don’t try to make any stupid moves.’’

8: 35 a.m: President Bush’s motorcade leaves for Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fl.

8: 38 a.m.:  The talkback button on Flight 11 stops working, an indication that the hijackers have replaced pilot John Ogonowski.

8: 42: a.m.:  Flight 93 (Boeing 757, 38 passengers (out of 182 seats), five flight attendants, and two pilots departs Newark International Airport bound for San Francisco, Calif.,  41 minutes late.

8: 46 a.m.:  Flight 11 slams into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, striking the 93rd-98th floors in the 110 story building, approximately 1,360 people die.

8: 46 a.m: Two French documentary filmmakers with their cameras rolling 10 blocks away from the WTC, capture a distant image of the first crash.

8: 48 a.m.:  CNN is the first major network to show footage of the crash with anchor Carol Lin saying: ``This just in. You are looking at …obviously a very disturbing live shot there-that is the World Trade Center, and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers.''

 8: 50 a.m.: The last radio contact with Flight 77 is made when the pilot asks for clearance to fly higher. Six minutes later, the plane doesn’t respond to a routine instruction.

8: 50 a.m.:  Flight 175, already off course, makes a complete U-turn and starts heading north toward New York City. About this time, a flight attendant reports the plane has been hijacked.

8: 52 a.m.: ABC breaks into regular programming to report the crash.

8: 54 a.m.:  Flight 77 from Washington veers off course over Southern Ohio, turning to the Southwest.

8: 55 a.m:  President Bush’s motorcade arrives at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, a visit intended to outline his education policies.

8: 55-9:00 a.m.: President Bush first learns of the crash when advisor Karl Rove takes the president aside to inform him of the tragedy.

8: 58 a.m.: Brian Sweeney of Flight 175 calls his wife and leaves the following the message: ``We’ve been hijacked and it doesn’t look good.’’

9:03 a.m.: Flight 175 hits the South Tower (Tower Two) of the WTC; the plane strikes the 78th-84th floors in the 110 story building. Approximately 100 people are killed or injured in the initial impact; 600 people in the Tower eventually die.

9: 03 a.m.: The WTC is evacuated before the second Tower is hit.

9: 12 a.m.:  Renee May, a flight attendant on Flight 77, uses a cell phone to call her mother in Las Vegas to inform her that her flight has been hijacked.

9: 17 a.m.: FAA shuts down all NYC Airports.

9: 20 a.m.: Conservative American television commentator (and lawyer) Barbara Olson, wife of Theodore (Ted) Olson, Solicitor General at the Justice Department, calls to inform him that the hijackers (on Flight 77) used knives and box cutters to hijack the plane.

9: 21 a.m: The New York City Port Authority closes all bridges and tunnels in NYC.

9: 27 a.m:  Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett calls his wife to tell her that the plane has been hijacked with a bomb on board.

9: 28 a.m.:  CNN, citing The Associated Press, report that U.S. officials think the attacks are believed to have been carried out by terrorists.

9: 29 a.m.:  President Bush delivers a speech while still inside Booker Elementary School: ``Today, we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Centre in an apparent terrorist attack on our country."

9: 32 a.m.:  The New York Stock Exchange closes.

9: 37 a.m.: Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon with approximately 125 people on the ground, later determined killed or missing.

9: 37 a.m.: Vice President Dick Cheney telephones President Bush to tell him the White House has been targeted and to stay away from Washington.

9: 40 a.m.:  Flight 93 transponder signal is turned off.

9: 41 a.m.:  Flight 93 passenger Marion Britton calls a friend to tell him two people have been killed and the plane has turned around.

9: 43 a.m.:  President Bush learns of the attack on the Pentagon as he reaches Sarasota Airport.

9: 45 a.m.: The White House is evacuated.

9: 48 a.m.: The Capitol Building is evacuated.

9: 57 a.m.: Passengers and hijackers struggle in the Flight 93 cockpit.

9: 58 a.m.:  Passenger Todd Beamer aboard Flight 93, indicates on a phone call they plan ``to jump’’ the hijacker in the back of the plane who has the bomb.

9: 59 a.m.:  Richard Clark, counterterrorism tsar orders all prominent land mark buildings and all federal buildings in the U.S. evacuated; and all harbors and borders closed.

10: 00 a.m.: Flight 93 passenger Elizabeth Wainio tells her stepmother, ``Mom, they’re rushing the cockpit. I’ve got to go, bye.’’

10:06 a.m.: Flight 93 crashes into a Pennsylvania countryside, just north of Somerset County Airport about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and 124 miles or 15 minutes from Washington, D.C.

10: 06 a.m.: According to Newsweek, U.S. intelligence pick up communications among bin Laden associates relaying the following message: ``We’ve hit the targets.’’

10: 08 a.m.: Armed agents surround the White House.

10: 10 a.m.: The U.S. military is put on high alert.

10: 13 a.m.: More prominent buildings in Washington are evacuated.

10: 15 a.m.: The front section of the Pentagon building hit by Flight 77 collapses.

10: 28 a.m.:  The WTC North Tower collapses, 102 minutes after hit by Flight 11.

10: 53 a.m.: New York’s Primary elections, already in progress, are postponed.

11: 00 a.m.:  More skyscrapers and tourist attractions are evacuated, including Walt Disney World, the Philadelphia Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, Seattle’s Space Needle and the Gateway Arch in St Louis.

11: 45 a.m.: Air Force One lands at Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport Louisiana.

12: 36 p.m.: President Bush delivers a second speech, which airs 30 minutes later, saying: ``Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward. And freedom will be defended.’’

1: 02: p.m.:  Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld calls the President and calls for war: ``This is not a criminal act. This is war.’’

1:02 p.m.: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani orders an evacuation of Manhattan, south of Canal Street.

1: 27 p.m.:  A state of emergency is declared in Washington.

1: 30 p.m.:  Air Force One leaves Louisiana and flies to Nebraska Offutt Air Force Base, the location of the U.S. Strategic Command.

4: 00 p.m.:  CNN reports there are good indications that bin Laden is involved in the attacks, based on ``new and specific’’ information since the attacks.

4: 10 p.m.:  The WTC Building 7 is reported to be on fire.

4: 30 p.m.:  The WTC Building 7 area is evacuated.

4: 33 p.m.: Air Force One leaves Nebraska and heads toward Washington.

5: 20 p.m.: The WTC Building 7 collapses; no one is killed.

6: 54 p.m.:  President Bush arrives at the White House.

7: 00 p.m.:  Secretary of State Colin Powell returns to Washington from Lima, Peru.

8: 30 p.m..: President Bush delivers his third speech of the day on live television in which he outlines the Bush Doctrine: ``We will make no distinction between terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.’’

11: 30 p.m..: Before retiring for the evening, President Bush writes in his diary: ``The Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century took place today…We think it’s Osama bin Laden.’’

Source: ``The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute By Minute: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road to 9/11-and America’s Response.’’ By Peter Thompson and the Center for Cooperative Research (Harper, 2004).

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Web Sites to Keep in Mind:

9/11 Memorial

September 11th Anniversary Events in NYC

September 11 Web Archive (Library of Congress)

September 11 Television News Archive

A Memorial List of Victims at the World Trade Center

The 9/11 Commission Report

Legislation Related to the Attack of September 11, 2001

World Trade Center Statistics (Skyscraper Museum)  

Did the Stonewall Riots Give Birth to the Gay Rights Movement?

 

 

To many, the New York Senate’s approval of the same-sex marriage legislation on Friday marked the culmination of the long struggle that many in the gay community had fought so valiantly for: equality before the law, a fundamental right in a civil society.

Coincidentally enough, Tuesday marks the 42-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City, a seminal event which many, but not all, consider the first shots fired in the Gay Rights Movement in the United States, which would transform American culture in the decades that followed.

It was in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, that police raided a prominent gay bar in Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, at 53 Christopher Street, rounding up a throng of patrons, mostly dressed in drag, and shoving them in a paddy wagon. Angry crowds gathered around the police vehicles began to thicken; and in a blink of an eye- sheer chaos had broken out.

The Stonewall Bar had a reputation for selling drugs, particularly acid and uppers. Raids at this Greenwich Village bar weren’t uncommon; police would often alert the owners that a raid was coming, usually early in the evening, so as not to drive away too many customers. Police would often just stroll through the bar without making any arrests.

 It was also widely known, if not in 1969, than certainly in the subsequent years that the New York Police, in this case the Sixth Precinct, were paid handsomely every week by the owners of this Mafia-owned establishment to keep the illicit activities of the Stonewall bar under tight wraps.

So why were the owners caught off guard on this muggy summer night, when eight detectives (with only one in uniform) burst through the doors after 1:00 a,m., questioned patrons while making a number of arrests?

There were many theories presented; but the most convincing  was based on the argument that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) had learned that owners were selling liquor without federal stamps; meaning they were likely bootlegged or hijacked right out of the distillery. And according to authors Martin Duberman and Andrew Kopkind, writing in the Grand Street Journal (1993), BATF also were aware of the secret financial alliance between the Sixth Precinct and the Stonewall owners; and alerted the police to the raid only at the very last minute.

What actually happened at the Stonewall that night, which triggered such a violent reaction from the bystanders lined outside of the bar, is a matter of conjecture with conflicting accounts and uncorroborated testimony.  But it seems reasonable to conclude (based on multiple newspaper accounts) is that many in the crowd that grew into a restless mob as the evening wore on, took issue with the violent treatment the police were inflicting on the gay patrons, drag queens and crossed-dressed lesbians- from reports of police slapping a patron with his night stick, to complaints that handcuffs were too right, resulting in some of the patrons swining back at the police as they continued to be smacked, shoved, and thrust into the paddy wagons like a herd of cattle.

Before long, bystanders began flinging coins, bottles, bricks, cans, whatever they could find,  in the direction of the police, while chanting ``Gay Power.’’ The mob was soon too much for the police to handle.  Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine ordered the police back into the bar where they tried to spray a hose at the wild mob; but remaining resolute-the crowd kept chanting, while turning Christopher Street into a wild carnival atmosphere with many hugging, kissing, while continuing their anti-police, vitriol with flames seen rising high above a string of trash cans.

Finally, the Tactical Patrol Force (TPF) a unit trained to crush riotous crowds came on the scene, armed with helmets, visors, weapons and tear gas and eventually after a long struggle were able to disperse the crowd and clear the streets by 3: 55 a.m.

In addition to all the blood that had been spilled with four police officers sustaining minor injuires- 13 people, seven of them Stonewall employees, were eventually booked at the Sixth Precinct on charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, among other charges.

A crowd of protestors gathered on the following night outside the bar, but police were able to control the crowd without incident; and the Stonewall Rebellion had finally come to an end.

So while many consider the Stonewall Riots a definite turning point within the gay movement in that it sparked national attention and led to the foundation of the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activist Alliance, others argue the Gay Rights Movement was born well before Stonewall.

Marcia M. Gallo, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and author of "Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights Movement" in which she chronicles the rise of lesbian rights of the post-World War II era, especially ``The Daughters of Bilitis’’, which was started in 1955 in San Francisco by four female couples, argues that ``without their  work and the efforts of many other in the homophile movement which grew steadily in numbers and visibility in the 1960s, the gay rights and later gay liberation movements would not have been possible.’’

It was their pioneering efforts, Gallo argues, which increased visibility and eliminated the social stigma of same-sex preferences imposed by medical, religious, and legal authorities. In particular, their agenda included the decriminalizing of laws against same-sex acts, the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), while creating institutions to serve and support lesbians and gay men in all facets of their lives.

Whether there remains disagreement over which incident or which group of individuals first sparked the gay rights movement;  what cannot be disputed is that equality under the law is finally beginning to be realized in areas thought unattainable a decade ago;  first with the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’’ , which barred gays from serving  openly in the U.S. military, and now with the passage of same-sex civil marriages in New York, joining Maryland and Rhode Island in recognizing same-sex marriages from other states.

As Professor Gallo tells it, ``while I celebrate the passage of New York's gay marriage bill this past Friday, I also see efforts to secure these basic rights as only one part of a much larger agenda to insure equality for all people regardless of sexuality, gender expression, race, age, and economic status. ‘’

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
June 28, 2011

 

Will President Obama Flaunt his German at Tonight's State Dinner?

 

As the First Family prepares to fete Angela Merkel and her husband Joachim Sauer during a State Dinner tonight at the White House, which will include a menu consisting of Tuna tartare with rye crisps and petite filet with Maryland crab ravioli and apple strudel, while entertainment will be provided by singer-songwriter James Taylor and the National Symphony Orchestra; it will be interesting to see if President Obama can impress his guests with his German.

Here, then, are a few phrases the president might consider using when raising a glass during tonight’s State Dinner toast.

Heute wieder ein Volk"
``Today once again one people!"
 
``Die freie Stadt Chicago gruesst die freie Stadt Berlin"
``Free Chicago greets Free Berlin!"
 
"Ich bin ein Buerger der Welt!"  "
``I am a citizen of the world!"

"Wir sind alle Berliner."
``We are all Berliners"

Uber allen Gipfeln 1st Ruh''
``Over all the mountain tops is peace’’ a line once used by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German poet novelist and playwright.

Of course, if Mr. Obama really wants to flatter his German guests, he could always make reference to George Clemenceau’s last dying words:  wünsche, aufrecht vergraben zu werden -- stehend Deutschland gegenüber“.
``I wish to be buried upright-facing Germany.''

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
June 7, 2011

2012 Presidential Candidates Belt Out Their Battle Cries

 

 

As we prepare to head into a hot blistering summer, the presidential timber for 2012 is already taking shape. Barring late entries by Sarah Palin and possibly Rudy Giuliani and a few others; the Republican field will most likely consist of Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and the wildest card of them all, the ``intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement, Texas Congressman Ron Paul.

Whether any of these candidates have the clout or a compelling narrative to unseat Barack Obama in the bruising months of the campaign battle that lies ahead, remains to be seen. But one quick way for a campaign to catch the attention of voters, especially the wide swath of independent voters, is to fashion a short catchy campaign slogan that will distinguish a candidate from their opponents; such as Harry Truman’s ``Give ‘em Hell, Harry!’’, , William Henry Harrison’s ``Tippecanoe and Tyler Too’’, and Ronald Reagan’s ``Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago.’’?

Taking a peek at the Republican candidates campaign slogans, none of them appear to have come up with a memorable phrase or one that separates them from their opponent. Mitt Romney, for example, is going with ``Believe in America’’; Tim Pawlenty says its ``Time for Truth’’, Newt Gingrich invokes ``The Future Together’’, Herman Cain says ``We Need a Real Leader with Real Solutions’’, while Ron Paul, probably the best of the bunch, demands we`` Restore America Now.’’

But if you think these slogans fall flat, remember that Barack Obama needed some convincing before settling on his 2008 signature slogan,, ``Yes We Can.’’ David Remnick  in his book, `` The Bridge: the life and rise of Barack Obama''   writes that ``Obama thought the phrase was too banal, but both [David] Axelrod and Michelle Obama convinced him it would help rouse the spirits of African-Americans and other voters who had grown so accustomed to hard time and their own sense of resignation.’’

Remnick additionally points out that the phrase ``Yes We Can’’ was first coined back in 1972 by the United Farm Workers, led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who fashioned the slogan `Si, se, puede'', ``Yes We Can’’ or ``Yes, it can be done.’’ Soon after that, in 1974, second baseman Dave Cash of the Philadelphia Phillies began using ``Yes We Can’’ as a team rallying cry; the slogan was reported to have given struggling Mike Schmidt the confidence he was lacking, propelling him to a breakout season in which he led the National League in home runs with 36.

Given the unnecessary racket over the legitimacy of his birth certificate, you would have thought Team Obama would have capitalized on such nonsense by promoting the slogan: ``Barack Obama:  Born  Made in America.’’

The word slogan, by the way, means a ``battle cry’’, which is derived from the Scottish-Gaelic word, `` sluagh-ghairm.’’
 
So what exactly makes an effective campaign slogan?  According to Audrey A. Haynes, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Georgia and co-author of a number of journal articles on campaign strategy, including ``The Media, the Campaign and the Message’’, published in the Journal of Political Science (2003) ``a good slogan’’ Haynes stresses, `` must do many things: catch the attention, be understandable - you have to be able to figure out what it means and who it applies to or the candidate does not get the benefit.’’

Based on Haynes criteria, it’s easy to see why Ronald Reagan’s 1984 reelection mantra ``Its Morning Again in America’’ struck such a responsive chord with the electorate: it suggested the economic recovery that took hold in 1983-brought America out of the recession that dominated the landscape during much of the 1970’s. It also evoked a stronger military might sorely missing during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

Yet another effective reelection battle cry was Abraham Lincoln’s ``It's best not to swap horses while crossing the river’’,  a resounding message to voters that he had brought the country this far, better to keep him in office considering there is still so much unfinished business.  This slogan was actually taken from a speech Lincoln delivered to the National Union League on June 9, 1864, in which he said: ``It is not best to swap horses while crossing streams.''

And after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson pushed the country into war, Warren G. Harding in 1920 campaigned from his front porch in Marion, Ohio, waving the slogan ``Return to Normalcy’’, a clear message of returning to what it was like in America before being subjected to the ravages of the Great War.

Another beneficial line of attack when constructing a campaign slogan is to accentuate the strong personality traits of the candidate or the disastrous consequences that would befall the country if your opponent is elected.

Lyndon’s Johnson’s `` The stakes are too high for you to stay at home'', a line from the infamous Daisy commercial, which depicted the Republicans and Barry Goldwater as extremists, capable of unleashing a nuclear bomb-resonated with the electorate and played a large part in LBJ’s landslide victory. Equally damaging to Goldwater was the 1964 September-October issue of FACT Magazine which polled 12,350 psychiatrists asking the question: ``Is Barry Goldwater fit to be president? 2,417 doctors replied, of those 1,189 said, ``no, he wasn't fit to be president.'', 657 said he was, and 571 said, they would have to examine the patient to give a professional response.

Harry Truman’s personality profile certainly received a positive jolt with the ``Give 'Em Hell, Harry!’’ slogan which Truman never used himself, nor was it written for him by a campaign staffer.  There are actually conflicting accounts as to the origin of the phrase. One version attributes its origin to a campaign supporter who yelled out the line during a whistle-stop in Harrisburg, Illinois;  others maintain the phrase originated with Truman’s running mate, Alben Barkley, who once urged the president: ``Mow em’ down Harry,’’ prompting Truman to respond, `` I’m going to fight hard, I’m going to give em’ hell.’’

George W. Bush in 2000 swayed a number of independent voters to his side of the ring with his ``Compassionate Conservatism’’ slogan, suggesting, if elected, he would lend a sympathetic ear to many of the social issues typically ignored by more dogmatic Republicans.  William Safire in his ``Political Dictionary’’ points out that ``Compassionate Conservative’’ was a term that could be traced back to a 1981 New York Times interview in which Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch objecting to the proposed cuts to the Peace Corps told reporter Judith Miller, `` I'm a conservative and proud of it, but I'm a compassionate conservative.''  Bush’s  other slogan:``No Child Left Behind’’ wasn’t all that original either, it was a phrase in fact first used by Marion Wright Edelman, head of the Children's Defense Fund Action Council, in referring to her charitable foundation.

Of course, the electorate has been known to respond well to popular songs, which when heard on television or radio, reminds voters of the candidate. Bill Clinton, for example, went with the popular Fleetwood Mac song, ``Don't Stop Thinking about Tomorrow'' as a campaign slogan, suggesting to voters that the future is full of bright possibilities with Clinton and Al Gore in the White House. One of Harry Truman’s 1948 campaign slogans was ``I’m just wild about Harry’’ a Eubie Blake song that became popular in 1921 from the Broadway musical ``Shuffle Along’’, while Irving Berlin, performing at a Dwight D Eisenhower fundraiser at Madison Square Garden in 1952 sang, ``I like Ike’’, a song from his musical, ``Call Me Madam’’ which quickly took hold as Eisenhower’s infectious campaign jingle.

Most importantly, prospective candidates need to steer clear of slogans that can backfire on them.  In 1844 when Whig candidate Henry Clay rolled out the campaign slogan ``Who is James Polk?’’, even some red-faced Democrats had a hard time citing Polk’s credentials. But as the campaign wore on, the slogan created some badly needed name recognition for the dark horse Polk, who just barely edged Clay by the narrowest of margins. Woodrow Wilson’s 1916 slogan ``He kept us out of war’’ only a year later to bring the country into war, inflicted considerable damage to his reputation among many Americans. 

Another campaign slogan gone bad was when Herbert Hoover came to be associated with the slogan: ``A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage’’ during his successful 1928 presidential campaign.  Less than eight months after taking office, the legendary Wall Street crash plunged America into the depths of the Great Depression. Interestingly enough, the ``chicken in every pot’’ slogan never appeared in any of Hoover’s speeches. A member of the Republican Business Men Inc. , however, did post an advertisement in The New York Times on October 30, 1928 titled: ``A Chicken for Every Pot.’’ Hoover’s Democratic opponent, Al Smith, during a speech in Boston, began quoting from the advertisement, which included the following words: ``Republican prosperity has reduced hours and increased earning capacity, silenced discontent, put the proverbial  chicken in every pot. And a car in every backyard, to boot.’’ It was only after the Depression hit, did the advertisement resurface and become associated with Hoover’s false sense of prosperity for the nation.

The most recent campaign slogan to backfire on a candidate in a harmful way was George H. W. Bush’s ``Read my lips – no new taxes’’ assertion, which was originally a sound bite from his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention. When in 1990 Bush agreed to a deficit reduction program, which included a tax increase, his credibility in staying true to his Conservative principles arguably cost him some badly needed votes in his loss to Bill Clinton two years later.

Many years ago in a David Frost interview, singer Elton John said that when all else fails when struggling to write a song-he would inevitably write a ballad.   You can never go wrong with a ballad or words to that effect, the British singer and composer told Frost. So too with presidential campaigns, when all else fails, write a catchy slogan about the future. FDR had ``Drive ahead with Roosevelt’’, Richard Nixon had ``For the Future.’’

It’s probably no coincidence, then, that President Obama (along with Newt Gingrich) is sticking with a tried-and-true slogan in calling attention to the ``future.’’ Team Obama is going with ``Winning the Future’’, while Mr. Gingrich is promising voters ``The Future Together.’’

With 13 million Americans still looking for work, the budget deficit spiraling out of control, and the Republicans offering few workable solutions to America’s frightful economic condition, the ``back to the future’’ approach is probably the best fit for 2012.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
May 31, 2011

Haven't We Seen This Movie?

 

Whenever you’re talking about the Kennedy’s,   a sex scandal is never far behind.

This time, though, the terminator is not a Kennedy. Maria Shriver, the daughter of Sargent Shriver, the principal architect of President Lyndon  Johnson’s ``War on Poverty’’ and Eunice Kennedy, the sister of John F. Kennedy, has been in the dark for over 14 years about her husband’s adulterous affair with their housekeeper at their Brentwood estate, which led to him ``fathering a child’’

Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mr. Universe, former California Governor, and fittingly, the star of the motion pictures, ``True Lies’’, the ``Predator’’, and ``Collateral Damage’’, now finds himself swimming in a sea of sharks as he attempts to drive back a mob of inquisitive reporters and photographers, along with trying to answer to his wife and four children on how he plans to make amends for his infidelity.

His fall from grace and rehabilitation will require a herculean effort. Whether the seven-time Mr. Olympia champion will be equal to the task remains to be seen.

If Schwarzenegger is finding any solace these days, it’s in knowing that fathering a child with your housekeeper, has a long storied history among prominent public figures.

Author William A. Cook in his biography on Pete Rose, makes mention that Babe Ruth, the ``Sultan of Swat’’, fathered a child from his housekeeper.  And in March, 1923, the Babe was slapped with a $50,000 paternity suit, this one from Dolores Dixon, a 19 year-old Manhattan Department Store clerk, claiming he fathered her child. The suit, however, was later dropped.

The revolutionary socialist and German philosopher Karl Marx, author of the ``Communist Manifesto’’ and ``Capital’’ also was known to have fathered a child by his housekeeper, Helen Demuth;  but the co-author of his published works, Friedrich Engels, protected his friend by claiming he fathered the child. Marx’s  wife believed him enough to keep the housekeeper on the payroll. It wasn’t until he was on his deathbed, did Engels confess the truth and the details of the affair became known.

Before his death in 2003 at the age of 100, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond raised more than a few eyebrows when it was learned that in 1925, the segregationist and states’ right advocate fathered a child with his family’s 16-year-old black housekeeper, when he was 22.

The housekeeper, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a retired Los Angeles school teacher, decided to break her silence about her affair with Thurmond so her family would have a more accurate account of their heritage.

Of course, lurid tales of politicians fathering illegitimate children extends back to Thomas Jefferson and reports he fathered children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings.

Rumors that Jefferson fathered her children  began circulating as early as 1802, when James Callender, a former supporter of Jefferson turned enemy when he was passed over for a government position, published the following letter  in the  Richmond Recorder on September 1, 1802: ``It is well known that the man whom it delighted, the people to honor, keeps and for many years past has kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves. Her name is SALLY...The African Venus is said to officiate as housekeeper at Monticello.''

And in 1998, DNA testing established a definitive link to the descendents of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Plantation records show Hemings gave birth to the following children: Beverly (1798), Harriet (1801) Madison (1805) and Eston (1808.)

During the presidential election of 1884, Republican operatives charged that Grover Cleveland, the bachelor son of a minister, ``Grover the Good’’ had fathered an illegitimate child while he was a lawyer in Buffalo. 

The Reverend George Ball published a letter in the Buffalo Evening Telegraph, chronicling how Cleveland seduced Maria Halpin in the cloak department of a Buffalo Department store. After becoming pregnant, according to Ball, Cleveland refused to take her hand in marriage as he previously promised and ``employed two detectives and a doctor of bad repute to spirit the woman away and dispose of the child."'. Cleveland was quickly labeled a ``moral leper’’ and in parades, strollers containing baby dolls were pushed down the street with chants, ``Ma, Ma, Where’s My Pa.?’’ Cleveland finally came clean and admitted to paying child support to Halpin for their son, Oscar Folsom Cleveland.

And during a time when reporters were expected to withhold reporting salacious trysts of public officials, Jane Grey Swisshelm, early in her Washington reporting career, 1850, alleged that Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster had fathered two illegitimate mulatto children. Swisshelm wrote: ``Webster was supposed to be a moral as well as an intellectual giant," yet "his life was full of rottenness."   As reward for this juicy tidbit, Swisshelm was swiftly fired by her editor at the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley.

Most recently, former presidential candidate John Edwards admitted having an affair with his campaign cinematographer Rielle Hunter, who later give birth to a girl, Frances Quinn. And former Cincinnati Reds slugger Pete Rose, and American Civil Rights leader, Jesse Jackson Jr. also fathered illegitimate children, which were thoroughly hashed over in the press.

So no, Arnold Schwarzenegger is not alone in representing yet another sordid tale of men behaving badly; but considering that he belongs to the party so proud of championing family values; his fall from grace in the age of hypocrisy, might redefine the G.O.P from the Grand Old Party to the party of``Grand Old Philanderers.’’

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
May 18, 2011

Osama Bin Laden: A Timeline

 

Almost four months before the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11, attacks, the world learned last night from President Barack Obama that Osama Bin Laden had been hunted down and killed, not in the hills of Afghanistan, but in a luxurious compound, just north of the Pakistani capital by special U.S. forces.

It took nearly a decade, but Americans finally achieved the revenge it so desperately wanted; which is to one day learn their government at long last ended the life of arguably the most malicious and vile criminal to walk the face of the earth.

In order to summarize the rise and fall of Bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda, I compiled a brief timeline of his life and career.

Osama Bin Laden Timeline

Born July, 1957, the 17th of 20 sons of a Saudi construction magnate of Yemeni origin.
Educated at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where  he attended lectures given by  Muhammad Qutb, brother of Sayyid Qutb, the key ideologue of a major Sunni Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Bin Laden reportedly first stepped foot in Afghanistan, just a few years after the Soviet invasion in 1979.

1984: Bin Laden and Abdullah al Azzam, establish a network of recruiting and fund-raising offices in the Arab world, Europe, and the United States, calling itself Maktab al Khidamat (Services Office) or Al Khifah, which many consider the  forerunner of Al Qaeda
NOTE: Azzam is believed by many to be the intellectual architect of the jihad against the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and later of Al Qaeda.

1986: Bin Laden permanently relocated to areas of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, where he made occasional forays across the border into Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet war, including a battle in Jalalabad.
NOTE: Although Bin Laden’s network was a de facto ally of the United States against the Soviet Union, U.S. officials deny they provided any monetary assistance to Al Qaeda.

1988: Azzam and Bin Laden begin to refer to their organization as ``Al Qaeda’’, an Arabic word meaning ``base of operation’’ or`` foundation’’ that would now operate as an Islamic “rapid reaction force’’ to provide assistance to any Muslims being threatened. At this time, U.S. intelligence estimate the size of that network to be between 10,000 and 20,000, but not all of these members supported or participated in terrorist activities.

November, 1989:  Bin Laden assumes control of Maktab’s funds and organizational mechanisms after the assassination of Azzam, which many believe was masterminded by Bin Laden himself to avenge his power struggle with Azzam.

1989: After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia, where he worked on forming a “mujahedin” army to oust Iraq from Kuwait. This lobbying effort was sharply rebuffed by the Saudi leadership.

1991: Unable to mend his rift with the Saudi leadership, Bin Laden relocates to Sudan, where he bought property with the intention of using it as training ground to train Al Qaeda militants—against the United States as well as for jihad (Holy War) operations in the Balkans, Chechnya, Kashmir, and the Philippines.

1992: Al Qaeda bombs a hotel in Yemen ,where 100 U.S. military personnel were awaiting deployment to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. No one was killed.

Feb, 1993:  The World Trade Center in New York is bombed. The principal bomb maker, Ramzi Ahmad Yusuf, suggests Al Qaeda played a leading role.

October, 1993: Al Qaeda arms Somali factions battling U.S. forces, killing 18 U.S. special operations forces in Mogadishu.

November, 1995:  U.S. military advisory facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is bombed, claiming the lives of five Americans. The four Saudi nationals, who masterminded the plot, claim they were inspired by Bin Laden and other radical Islamist leaders.

May, 1996; Under pressure from the U.S. and Egyptian governments, Bin Laden is expelled from the Sudan. He returns to Afghanistan, where he helped the Taliban gain control of Afghanistan. The Taliban captured Kabul in September, 1996. Bin Laden additionally issues a fatwa against Zionists and Crusaders.

June, 1996:  Al Qaeda played a hand in the bombing of the Khobar Towers complex near Dhahran in which 19 U.S airmen were killed, according to a September 11 Commission report.

February 22, 1998: Bin Laden issues a ``Declaration of War’’ against the United States and a fatwa on behalf on the World Islamic Front, calling on Muslims to kill Americans ``whenever and wherever possible.’’

August, 1998: Al Qaeda is thought to be responsible for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed about 300. During the same month, the U.S. launched a cruise missile strike against bin Laden’s training camps in Afghanistan, but miss him by just a few hours.

December, 1998: CIA Director George Tenet issues a ``declaration of war’’ against Al Qaeda in a memo distributed within the intelligence community.

1999: The FBI creates a special unit devoted specifically to Bin Laden.

June 7, 1999: The FBI places Bin Laden on its ``10 Most Wanted List’’

October, 1999: The UN Security Council imposes a number of sanctions against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, including the freezing of funds and restricting travel of the groups’ members.

December, 1999: An Al Qaeda plot at the Los Angeles International Airport is reportedly blocked by U.S. officials.

October, 2000: Al Qaeda activists orchestrate a ship-borne suicide attack on the U.S.S. Cole while it was docked  at the harbor of Aden, Yemen. In addition to the ship being severely damaged, 17 sailors were killed.

December, 2000: President-elect George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice are briefed on Al Qaeda and their covert operations in Afghanistan.

December 20. 2000: Richard Clarke, the counter-terrorism czar, announces a plan to ``roll back’’ Al Qaeda over three to five years until it is deemed ineffectual, which includes covert aid to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.

September 11, 2001: Al Qaeda terrorists hijack four U.S. planes, two of which crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, a third into the Pentagon Building  in Arlington, Va. Passengers struggled with hijackers in the fourth plane before it crash lands into a field in Pennsylvania. All told, the attacks killed 2,998 people, by far the worst attack on U.S soil.

October 7, 2001: The United State launches ``Operation Enduring Freedom’’, which calls for air strikes in Afghanistan against Taliban and al Qaeda forces.

 March 2-19. 2002: U.S. and Afghan forces launch: ``Operation Anaconda” in the Shah-i-Kot Valley, south of Gardez (Paktia Province) against 800 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

March, 2003: ``Operation Valiant Strike’’ is carried out when 1,000 U.S forces raid suspected Taliban or al-Qaeda fighters in villages around Qandahar in the southern region of Afghanistan.

May 1, 2003: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announces an end to major combat in Afghanistan.

March 11, 2004: An Al Qaeda affiliate bombs commuter trains in Madrid., Spain, killing 190 people while wounding more than 600 others.

July 7, 2005: Terrorists detonate backpack bombs in a London transit system, killing 52 people and wounding more than 770 others.

2006: British authorities thwart an Al Qaeda attempt to blow up planes over the Atlantic, arresting 26 suspected terrorist.

2007: Al Qaeda scheme to bomb some London nightclubs fails, when the crudely made bombs fail to detonate.

January, 2008: An airstrike near Damadola, a village in Pakistan, approximately five miles from the Afghan border, kills Abu Laith al-Libi, believed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative.

November, 2008: Laskari ``i`, Taiba, a Pakistan-based terrorist organization trained by Al Qaeda attacks hotels and restaurants in Mumbai India.

February, 2009: Some independent U.S. scientists, using geographic mapping, speculate bin Laden might be residing across the border from his former Afghan stronghold at Tora Bora.

May 1, 2011: Just a little before midnight, President Obama announces to a nationwide television audience that Osama Bin Laden is dead, nearly a decade after masterminding the September 11th attacks on American soil. Bin Laden was killed by American operatives after being shot in the head, three other men living with Bin Laden were also killed in an Abbottabad compound, just north of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
May 2, 2011

Source: Congressional Research Service, ``Osama Bin Laden: A Biography’’ By Thomas R. Mockatis, `The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute by Minute: A Comprehensive Chronicle of the Road to 9/11'' By Paul Thompson

Which Country First Hatched the Easter Egg Tradition?

 

In case you missed it, The White House has announced that on April 25th, they will be holding their annual Easter Egg Roll, an annual event that stretches back to 1878 during the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. 

By 1899, the event had become so popular that over 8,000 people were in attendance.  This year, the White House expects over 30,000 people to attend.

Despite the Easter Egg Roll being held every year, except for the years of the two World Wars and the Truman renovation of the White House, not until President Nixon would an Easter Bunny be part of the festivities, while President Reagan was the first to hide eggs with his signature.

This year, in keeping with First Lady Michelle Obama’s  anti-obesity campaign, the Egg Roll has been titled ``Get Up and Go’’, with its emphasis for children to lead happy and healthy lives, which  will feature a number of athletes, including Olympic athletes Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay.

With Easter eggs, not only at the White House, but within households throughout the United States, having become such a staple of our culture, I was curious exactly how long this tradition has been in existence.

One of the earliest references to Easter eggs holds that the egg was a symbol of the universe in the worship of Dionysius in Greece; and accordingly, many people looked upon it as a symbol of life.

Cultural historians, then, claim, when Christians borrowed the egg from other cultures, they made it symbolic of the resurrection of Christ, while children’s egg hunts is believed to have originated in the southern part of Germany by 1890, just about the same time as candy rabbits started popping up in the United States.

Before the Civil War, Easter celebration in the United States was largely restricted to Puritans and Evangelicals. It wasn’t until the flood of immigrants entered the country after the Civil War did Easter become celebrated in many Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic churches.

Of course, the emphasis on elaborate church ceremonies at Easter has a rich history, which many considered influenced by Roman Emperor Constantine in the early part of the fourth century.

And the tradition of the rabbit on Easter, many believe, can be traced back to Western Europe with the worship of the Anglo-Saxon figure of ``Ostara or Eostre’’, considered the goddess of the spring, who was worshipped in April.

By 1868, many U.S. newspapers began writing about the tradition of church goers putting on their most stylish dresses on Easter Sunday; and by 1879, The N.Y. Sun reported on the Easter Parade.

By 1878, Macy Department store advertisements could be found in many New York newspapers; and in the same year, The New York Sun ran an ad by E. Ridley & Sons  promoting "Trimmed Bonnets and Round Hats, Manufactured for Easter.’’

An article from The New York Herald gave an indication just how popular the celebration  of Easter was when in 1881 they wrote: ``A few years ago and Easter as holiday was scarcely thought of, except by the devout; now all are eager to join in the celebration."

It should also be remembered that eggs are firmly rooted with the Jewish tradition; the pasche egg has its origins in the Passover meal. And Jewish scholars highlight that the word egg is loosely interpreted as a symbol of spiritual rebirth, that is, to a new life after bondage in Egypt, and ``to the hope of redemption after persecution.’’

By and large, however, if you want to trace the real origins of the Easter Egg, you will soon realize that it was really a phenomenon brought to the United States by immigrants who held tightly to their native customs and traditions.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, for example, the sharing of eggs became an integral part of the Easter celebration. And in one year, historical records show the Tsar’s family presented each other with elaborate eggs designed by a prominent court jeweler.

Another Russian tradition was for members of the aristocracy to wear a necklace with tiny eggs, beginning with the midnight service and continue wearing it for 40 days after Easter.

In Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine, the tradition is for a family to return home for a meal after their Easter Sunday service with the food having already been blessed the previous day on Holy Saturday by a priest. The custom is after the priest blesses the food, the family presents him with an egg.  Then, before the Easter meal, the family stands in silence while the head of a household breaks an egg (which had previously been blessed by the priest) and distributes a piece to everyone present, while offering up blessings for happiness and a long life.

In England,  historical records show  King Edward I (1307) plunked down eighteen pence for the purchase of four hundred and fifty eggs, so that they could be colored or covered with gold leaf and be presented to members of the royal household.

Throughout Europe, red eggs are quite common during Easter with the color red representing Jesus shedding his blood. In Hungary, the custom is to decorate Easter eggs with red flowers, while children in Germany are told the Easter Hare sheds nothing but red eggs on Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) to prepare children for the Passion of Christ.

In many of the Catholic countries, such as France, church bells fall silent from Maundy Thursday until Easter. During this time, children are told the bells have gone to Rome to visit the Pope in order to collect the eggs for Easter Sunday.

In Ireland, children can be found collecting goose and duck eggs during Holy Week which are then presented as gifts on Easter Sunday. One popular Irish saying is: "One egg for a true gentleman, two for a gentleman, three for a churl [rude, boorish person], four for a tramp.’’

In England, particularly in Yorkshire and Lancashire, an old custom at Easter was for participants to dress in eccentric clothes with fake beards while proceeding through the village, begging for pace-eggs, food or money.

In Bulgaria, dyed eggs are prepared for a special festival, while the Easter cake (kusanak) is decorated with grapes, cocoa, nuts and fruit and served for breakfast on Easter Sunday with milk and salad made from the broken eggs from the traditional egg-tapping game.

In addition, Bulgarians, celebrate St. Lazarus' Day eight days before Easter in which groups of young girls go from house to house to honor the resurrection of Lazarus, where they are given red eggs and coins as tokens thought to bring them good luck.

 In Macedonia, the tradition is to dye Easter Eggs red on Maundy Thursday and then to display red sashes or handkerchiefs from the windows and balconies. Also in Macedonia, children return home after the Eastern Midnight mass to find red Easter Eggs under their pillows. In South Macedonia, moreover, red eggs are believed to be effective in warding off hail and thunder.

Instead of being flooded with gifts at Christmas, in Greece, Easter is reserved for the time of family gatherings and the sharing of gifts; and two weeks before their festival, colored eggs filled with sweets can be bought at a number of shops, including a vast assortment of Easter cards. Also in Greece, on the Tuesday and Thursday before Easter, residents hard-boil and decorate several eggs.

And in Serbia, children will often place red eggs in their vineyards on Good Friday in order to ensure a successful harvest.

So while the youngsters prepare for their traditional Easter Egg hunt in the next few days, they might be reminded how their discovery of a red-colored egg has special significance in so many different cultures and countries spanning the globe.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
April 21, 2011

Comparing U.S. Presidents' Love for Baseball

 

 

Ever since William Howard Taft became the first U.S. president to toss a ceremonial first pitch at a Major League baseball home opener on April 14, 1910 in Washington D.C., (the brainchild of owner Clark Griffith as a promotional idea) Presidents and baseball are about as inseparable as hot dogs and mustard or beer and pretzels; and as patriotic as apple pie, jazz music, and the American flag.

Of course, Taft was no casual fan. He reportedly attended several baseball games while in office and even coached his political friends and colleagues on the proper way to keep score. At Wrigley Field, a special box was installed especially designed for his wide girth.

Woodrow Wilson, much like his predecessor, displayed an abiding love for the game as well. Wilson attended four games during his first year in the White House, including a game between the Washington Senators and Boston Red Sox in which a boisterous fan prodded the 28th president of the United State to stand up during the seventh inning stretch. "Stand up, Woody!’’, the fan reportedly yelled.  Undisturbed over the boorish comment, Wilson was moved to laughter and rose to his feet, prompting a thunder of wild cheering from fans. In 1915, Wilson also became the first president to attend a World Series game, when he traveled to Philadelphia for a game between the Red Sox and Phillies,

Calvin Coolidge appears to have been somewhat of a fair weathered fan. ``Silent Cal’’ threw out the first pitch of Opening Day in 1927; but after attending again in 1928, the cold weather was too much for him and headed for the exits after the opening frame.

Sometimes, of course, politics and baseball just don’t mix.  Franklin Roosevelt, for example, found that out while attending Opening Day in 1937, when a plane flew overhead with a banner that read: ``Play the game, don't pack the court’’, an obvious reference to his ill-advised scheme to pack the U.S. Supreme Court. FDR didn’t take the message to heart and reportedly laughed it off while downing a few more peanuts. Despite the ominous rumblings of the war in Europe, FDR still managed to attend Opening Day ceremonies in 1940 and 1941.

Harry Truman attended 16 baseball games while in office, a presidential record that still stands. But Truman is best remembered for showing off is ambidextrous abilities by throwing out the first pitches with both his left and right hands at the Opening Day ceremonies in 1950.

After so many presidents took such a liking to baseball, Americans grew accustomed to seeing their president at Opening Day festivities; and if they weren’t, they grow suspicious.  President Eisenhower instead of attending Opening Day in 1953, opted instead to play golf at Augusta National. But after receiving such bad press for turning a cold shoulder to Opening Day (which as it turned was rained out) Ike raced back to the nation’s capital to attend the rescheduled opener.

President Kennedy had the distinction of throwing out the first pitch at the Senators’ new home, D.C. Stadium on a cold day in 1962 in which the president wasn’t shy about supplying plenty of autographs.

Lyndon Johnson didn’t to seem to share his predecessors’ fondness for the national pastime. He only attended two games while in the White House; and at the opener he attended in 1965, LBJ was so busy holding court with Vice President Hubert Humphrey and other members of his cabinet, that he completely missed a home run in the second inning.

Despite his passion for baseball, Richard Nixon got off to a rocky start at Opening Day in 1969, when he ordered a presidential seal to be displayed in front of his box; only to be embarrassed when the word ``presidential’’ was misspelled. And when it came time to heave the opening pitch, Tricky Dick fumbled the rock.

Still, Nixon continued to show his love for the game. Even when forced to stay put in the White House on Opening Day in 1970 to wait the vote of his Supreme Court nominee, G. Harold Carswell, Nixon still managed to dash off to the park later in the afternoon, showing up in the 5th inning. Nixon would often use baseball metaphors in his speeches, while praising the sport for "its integrity and its credibility that is beyond reproach.’’ Nixon additionally became the first president to attend an opener outside of Washington in 1973, when he was at hand to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day at Anaheim Stadium between the Angels and Kansas City Royals.

Both Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter exhibited little enthusiasm for baseball, but Ronald Reagan, a former baseball broadcaster, was quick to display his love for the game when he entered office. The Gipper threw out the first pitch at Opening Day in Baltimore in 1984 and then watched the rest of the game from the dugout. He would have attended the opener in 1981 had it not been for John Hinckley’s assassination attempt. Reagan also threw out the first pitch on Opening Day in Baltimore in 1986; and again in 1988 at Wrigley Field, where he would broadcast 1 ½ innings behind the radio mike.

George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both made history on Opening Day; Bush being the first president to attend an Opening Day on foreign soil (Toronto) in 1990 and Clinton was the first president to fire a pitch from the pitcher’s mound into the catcher’s mitt at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 1993. Bush’s son, George W. Bush, would make history by becoming the first president to attend an Opening Day in the nation’s capital (RFK Memorial Stadium) since Richard Nixon in 1969. And in 2008, George W. made history again by attending Opening Day in 2008 at Nationals Park in Washington D.C. where he helped the broadcasting crew on ESPN in which he called the first home-run ever to be hit in the new ballpark, a solo shot by the Atlanta Braves’ Chipper Jones.

In 2010, President Obama, despite some erratic throwing, was on hand for Opening Day at Nationals Park in Washington, DC between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals.

So you might be wondering which president holds the best record for the home team after attending the season’s curtain raiser? Well, according to press office at Major League Baseball, Woodrow Wilson was a perfect 3-0, LBJ was winless at 0-3, Herbert Hoover wasn’t much better at 1-3, FDR suffered 5 losses on Opening Day, winning 3, while Calvin Coolidge was a respectable 3-1; and both George W. Bush and William Howard Taft were 2-0.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
March 30, 2011

Opening Day Milestones

• In the American League’s first opener on April 25, 1901, the Detroit Tigers came up with 10 runs in the ninth inning and went on edge Milwaukee, 14-13.

• The Boston Red Sox christened Fenway Park on April 20, 1912 by beating their division rivals, the New York Yankees, 7-6.

• Babe Ruth opened Yankee Stadium in 1923 by slapping a two-run home run off of Boston’s Howard Ehmke to propel the Yankees' to a 4-1 victory.

• On April 18, 1925, Brooklyn Dodgers owner, Charles H. Ebbets, died from a heart attack at his Waldorf Astoria apartment as the New York Giants soundly defeated the heartbroken Dodger team, 7-1, at the home opener.

• On April 13, 1926, Walter Johnson, 41, whiffs a dozen batters, enough to outlast the Philadelphia Athletics knuckleballer Eddie Rommel, 1-0, in 15 innings.

• On April 16, 1940 at Comiskey Park in Chicago, The Cleveland Indians flame thrower Bob Lemon became the only pitcher to throw a no-hitter on Opening Day in a 1-0 win over the White Sox.

• On April 18, 1950, Billy Martin of the New York Yankees became the first rookie to slap two hits in the same inning during an opener in which the Boston Red Sox let a commanding 9-0 lead slip through their hands, losing to their hated division rivals, 14-10.

• April 10, 1959: Nellie Fox, who went 623 at-bats the previous season without a dinger, went 5-for 7 on Opening Day, which was punctuated with a 14th-inning home run off Detroit’s Don Mossi for a 9-7 Chicago White Sox victory.

• On April 8, 1975, Player-Manager Frank Robinson, the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball, smacks a first inning home run at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in helping the Tribe to a 5-3 win over the New York Yankees.

• White Sox pitcher Tom Seaver on April 8, 1985 surpassed Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators for the most Opening Day starts at 15.

• On April 4, 1988, Toronto's George Bell deposits three home runs in an Opening Day win over the Kansas City Royals.

• April 5, 1993: Late-inning defensive replacement Eric Fox of the Oakland Athletics belts a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th inning; his only home-run of the season, in a 9-4 win over the Detroit Tigers.

• On April 1, 1996, the New York Mets, faced with a 6-0 deficit, mount the biggest Opening Day comeback of the century by beating the St Louis Cardinals, 7-6.

• April 4, 1999: In the first Opening Day outside of the United States or Canada, The Colorado Rockies defeat the San Diego Padres, 8-2, at Monterrey Stadium in Mexico.

• On March 30, 2004: The Tampa Bay Devil Rays defeat  the New York Yankees, 8-3, in the first game of Opening Series 2004 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan; a game  in which Japan native Hideki Matsui of the Yankees  recorded the first hit of the season with a first inning double.

• On April 6, 2004: New York Mets rookie infielder Kazuo Matsui crushes a home run on the first pitch of the game to become the first player to hit a leadoff Opening Day home run in his Major League debut since Emmet Mueller of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1938.

• The first Opening Day to be played at night at Fenway Park takes place on April 4, 2010, in a 9-7 win over the New York Yankees.

• April  5, 2010:  In his first Major League at-bat, Atlanta Braves rookie Jason Heyward smacks a three-run home run in a 16-5 thumping over the Chicago Cubs.

-Bill Lucey
Source: Major League Baseball

Obama Takes a Breather to Concentrate on College Hoops

 

When it comes to college hoops, neither a historic tsunami in Japan, nor a ballooning budget deficit, nor rising food and gasoline prices, not even with the Dow Jones plunging more than 200 points, and with regional upheaval in Libya and a war in Afghanistan still brewing- could keep President Obama from filling out his NCAA Tournament bracket with ESPN’s Andy Katz for the third year in a row.

But with gloom and doom all around him, how can anyone possibly blame the president for tearing away from his daily chores and pressing schedule to concentrate on his real passion:  college basketball. After all, didn’t President Nixon try to call in a play to the Miami Dolphins head coach, Don Shula a week before Super Bowl VI?

It case you haven’t heard by now, Mr. Obama, staying in character with his measured well thought out temperament, isn’t picking any Cinderella’s-in fact he has all four number one seeds advancing to the Final Four with Ohio State falling to Kansas in the Finals. ``Kansas has more firepower," Obama told Katz.

And for the record, the president is 1-1 when it comes to picking championship winners; he correctly picked North Carolina in 2009, but neglected to take Duke last year.

So as we put the final touches on our own brackets, here are some feats, facts, and historic firsts to chew over while waiting for the opening tipoff of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

• Kentucky has had the most tournament appearances with 50 from 1942-2010.

• North Carolina holds the record with most consecutive tournament appearances at 27, from 1974 through 2001.

• UCLA holds the most consecutive tournament wins at 38 from 1964-1974.

• Seattle’s Elgin Baylor holds the record with the most rebounds (91) over five games during the 1958 tournament, averaging 18.2 rebounds a game.

• Joakim Noah of Florida has the most tournament blocked shots with 29 in 2006; although Navy’s David Robinson batted down 26 over just four games in 1986.

• Villanova entering the tournament as the number 8 seed in 1985 was the lowest seed (since 1979) to have gone on to win the NCAA Championship.

• Only four no. 15-seeds have advanced to the second round: Coppin St in 1987, Richmond in 1991, Santa Clara in 1993, and Hampton in 2001.

• North Carolina has entered the tournament as the number one seed a record 13 times from 1979-2009, followed by Duke with 11 from 1986-2010.

• From 1985-2010, the number one seeds are a perfect 104-0 after the first round. The number one seeds are then 91-13 after the second round.

• Some early knockdown punches have included: no 10-seed St John’s (NY) upsetting no. 2 seed Duke in 1979, 80-78 during the 2nd round ; no 12-seed Princeton knocking off no. 5-seed Oklahoma St in the 1st round in 1983; no. 11 seed Boston College just getting by no. 3 seed Duke, 74-73 during the 2nd round in 1985; no 14 seed Cleveland State stunning Bobby’s Knight’s no. 3 seeded Indiana Hoosiers during the first round in 1986, 83-79; no. 14 seed East Tennessee State advancing over the no. 3 seed Arizona in the 1st round in 1992; and no. 10 seed Kent State blowing by no. 2 seed Alabama, 71-58 during the 2nd round in 2002.

• UNLV in 1992 was 26-2 during the season with a .929 winning percentage, but still didn’t make the tournament, an NCAA record for teams who didn’t qualify since 1985.

• The only Independent team to win the NCAA tournament was Marquette in 1977.

• The Pac 10 Conference has won the championship a record 15 times, followed by the Atlantic Coast with 12 championships.

• California in 2002 and Texas in 2010 are tied at 7 with having the most teams qualify for the tournament from the same state.

• The highest-rated college basketball game came back in 1979 when two no. 33’s, Larry Bird of Indiana St. and Magic Johnson of Michigan State went head to head on March 26, 1979, in which 38 percent of the country who owned television sets had their station set on NBC for the first prime time NCAA Championship on national television.

• The most watched NCAA championship was broadcast by CBS on April 6, 1992 between Duke and Michigan, which was seen by 20,910,000 viewers.

• In the very first tournament game, Villanova defeated Brown 42-30 on March 17, 1939 in Philadelphia, while in the second game of the doubleheader; Ohio State defeated Wake Forest 64-52

• Tournament games were televised regionally for the first time beginning in 1952.

• Net income for the entire tournament exceeded $500,000 for the first time in 1966.

• A 32 team bracket was adopted in 1975.

• The term ``Final Four’’ first shows up in the 1975 Official Collegiate Basketball Guide on page five of in the National Preview Section, written by Plain Dealer writer Ed Chay.  The term Final Four was officially capitalized in the NCAA Basketball Guide beginning in 1978.

• In 1979, the bracket was expanded to 40 teams and eligible teams were seeded for the first time.

• Beginning in 1985, the tournament was expanded to 64 teams, eliminating first-round byes.

• In 1994, Bill Clinton became the first sitting U.S President to attend a tournament game when he attended the Midwest Regional Championship game in Dallas

• In 2008, for the first time in tournament history, all four no. 1 seeds advanced to the Final Four.

• Beginning in 2011, the tournament has been expanded to 68 teams.

-Bill Lucey
[email protected]
March 17, 2011

 Source: National Collegiate Athletic Association