Dana Perino:

We lived in San Diego at the time, and that morning my husband had brought me my morning tea, as he did every day at 5:30 a.m. Then he slipped out of the front door to take our dog on his morning constitutional. I wrapped myself up in a sweatshirt and shuffled into the living room to turn on the TV. I squinted as I was still waking up, and I thought — hmmm, it looks like the World Trade Center is on fire. And right then I saw the second plane hit the second tower. It felt like being in the beginning of a Hollywood film, seeing things that could never really happen. Right?

Like everyone else, we have stories of going to work, being sent back home, watching the empty skies, and getting used to the quiet that was so different from watching the planes come into the airport near our house. We felt like we wanted to do something, but like most Americans we could only talk and pray and watch as the events unfolded. We communicated by e-mail to friends from all over the world. One message sticks in my memory — it was from a friend in England who said, “I feel like someone just kicked my cousin.” I thought she captured that perfectly.

Two months later I was back in Washington, D.C., working as a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice. Over the next several years, I had a chance to meet many brave souls who had rushed into buildings to help, who watched people jump to their deaths rather than be burned alive, and who had decided to join the military or the intelligence community to help take the fight to the enemy. I’m humbled by them every day.

Marc Thiessen:

I was in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. I was blessed to be a few corridors down from the point of impact. But I felt the walls of my office shudder, and smelled the smoke that filled the hallways. Yet one memory stands out: To my surprise, no evacuation alarm ever sounded. We all simply filed out onto the lawn outside — where we looked back at the broken and burning Pentagon.

In the months that followed, the evacuation alarms in the Pentagon did go off several times, as false reports came in that other planes were headed our way. Each time, we exited the building and stood there looking up at the sky, waiting for the next attack. That attack never came.

There are only two possibilities that explain why: Either the terrorists lost interest in attacking America. Or we uncovered their plans and stopped them. The answer is self-evident.

In fact, unbeknownst to us, al-Qaeda had set a number of follow-on plots in motion, including a plot to blow up high-rise apartment buildings in the United States using natural gas; a plot to replicate 9/11 in Europe by flying hijacked airplanes into Heathrow airport and downtown London; a plot to replicate the East Africa embassy bombings in Pakistan by blowing up the U.S. consulate and Western residences in Karachi; a plot to blow up the U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti; and a plot to carry out the “second wave” here in America by flying a plane into the Library Tower in Los Angeles. An al-Qaeda cell was developing anthrax for attacks inside the United States. We did not know any of this.

These plots were uncovered, and the attacks disrupted, thanks to the counterterrorism tools the Bush administration put in place following 9/11 — including the CIA’s enhancedinterrogation program. Today, many in our country take the fact that we have gone nearly a decade without another terrorist attack for granted. They believe that the danger has passed. It has not. In December 2009, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula nearly succeeded in blowing up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it prepared to land in the city of Detroit. Less than one year later, AQAP penetrated our defenses a second time — this time getting two package bombs aboard planes headed for the United States, which were timed to blow up over the eastern seaboard.

By the Obama administration’s own admission, it was completely unaware that this terrorist network had developed the capability or intent to attack us here in America. Why were they taken by surprise? Because, unlike the period immediately after 9/11, the United States is no long capturing, detaining, and interrogating high-value terrorists who could tell us their plans to attack the homeland. Until a vigorous detention and interrogation regime is restored, we will be in danger of another terrorist attack like the one we suffered on 9/11 — or worse.

Tevi Troy:

The thing I most remember about 9/11 was how confused and unprepared everyone was — government officials and ordinary citizens alike. Cellphone service was gone very quickly, and very few officials, even at the senior levels, had Blackberries at the time. The streets of D.C. were filled with people who were wandering home, with very little information and high levels of anxiety. Rumors about a car bombing at the State Department and an attack on the White House heightened the tension.

In the decade since, the U.S. government has spent enormous sums of money aimed at making sure nothing like 9/11 ever happens again, and I am confident that we won’t see the same type of attack again. But our enemies are both evil and resourceful, and we must remain vigilant and nimble to prevent other types of attacks. What we learned on 9/11 is that we were not ready for that kind of attack, and we have acted to address that vulnerability. Unfortunately, there are other modes of attack, and the confusion I saw that day makes me wonder if we can ever be fully ready.

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The women’s vote is going to get a lot of attention in 2012, and for good reason, since candidates are going to need to fight to earn every vote they get.

In the midterm election of 2010, and for the first time since 1982, more women checked the box for the Republican candidate over the Democratic candidate when they cast their vote. That wasn’t a fluke – it was the result of lots of hard work and the concern of women about the state of the country and the families and friends they love.

While fewer women overall are serving in Congress than before 2010, running for office isn’t the only way to get involved. Increasingly, women are upping their participation in lots of ways, including opening up their checkbooks for candidates they support. Yet the largest growth in participation is in grassroots political activities, and women finding new and sustainable ways to hold their elected officials accountable.

One group, Liberty Lunch, invited me to speak to them in Lincoln, Nebraska in May – and I found out why this effort is one worth growing.

What started as an experiment among girlfriends over lunch has turned into a force of nature, where public officials clamor to be invited to speak and convince these women to back their policy agendas. Their efforts have created a group of savvy, politically active citizens who aren’t afraid to throw their collective voices into the fray. Recently, they even pooled resources to run an ad against Senator Ben Nelson in response to the “Cornhusker kickbacks” he received, because they were so outraged by what seemed like their Senator taking a bribe for a policy Nebraskans didn’t want.

Full post here

                          

While you were watching the political meltdowns…

Say you work hard and take a risk to start a business providing a good or service. The business is going fairly well and you decide to apply to get a federal government contract, because you can provide the result on time and on budget.

You’re totally qualified and the best person for the job. But, there’s a catch: In the past two years, you’ve given money to an organization that the current administration doesn’t like. You’re never told why, but you don’t get the contract. Was the decision based on merit? Or your donations?

You’ll probably never know. And what’s more, you probably won’t take the chance again and will stop donating to groups you worry aren’t going to sit well with the current group of government contract decision-makers (t name two opposing groups: National Right to Life or Planned Parentood).

You’re probably thinking this could not happen in America, right? Wrong.

Here’s what’s happening: The administration is planning to have President Obama sign what’s called an executive order, which is a policy tool that’s used when you don’t need – or don’t want to ask for – congressional approval.

Presidents have done this for decades, but rarely is an administration so brazen as to use it for purely political reasons. In this case, people will undoubtedly be discouraged from donating to a cause or political organization that they care about if it isn’t in line with the current administration, because getting the contract is much more important to their livelihoods.

Full article here

                          

The young woman from south Kivu province went into the forest outside her local village to fetch wood for her family’s stove, as women across the Democratic Republic of Congo do every day. But, like scores of other women in her country, she was accosted by rebel soldiers and raped.

“When I returned home, my husband kicked me out,” she said in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA). “He said I had probably gotten AIDS. I lost my child, and now I’ve given birth to another child from the rapes.”

While the world aches for Japan and sympathizes with freedom seekers in the Middle East, it averts its gaze from another crisis: the epidemic of sexual violence in the Congo, where hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been intimidated, harassed, and tortured for the last 15 years.

Rape is a tactic of war in the Congo. In their fight against the Congolese government, rebel soldiers in eastern Congo use rape to coerce the allegiance of the local population.

Monitoring groups such as Human Rights Watch document the tragedy. World leaders, including Secretary of State Clinton, decry it. High-profile advocates including Eve Ensler, Ben Affleck, and John Prendergast campaign to stop it. The United Nations has 20,000 peacekeeping troops on the ground in the Congo, yet even this force is overwhelmed by the scope of the violence.

Full article here

                          

Dana Perino talks fast, which is good, because she’s a busy woman.

The former White House press secretary and current Fox News commentator and owner of her own communication firm in D.C. is bringing her fast talking — and her innovative approach to encouraging young women — to Lincoln.

She calls it Minute Mentoring.

Think speed dating, Perino says, talking on her cell phone, paying her cab driver and heading into the next to-do on her list Tuesday morning.

Instead of scouting for a soul mate, you’re learning what it takes to be a successful professional from a room full of successful professionals in 10-minute chunks. Women only, please.

At Talent Plus on Thursday night, that means hearing what CEOs and entrepreneurs and politicians and administrators and academics and journalists have learned as female leaders.

Kathleen Allan of Lincoln is one of the women responsible for bringing Perino here.

Allan met Perino when she came to Lincoln to speak at an event for Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. They became fast friends.

They talked Republican politics. They talked strong women. Allan’s daughter Kristin ended up moving to D.C. and volunteered at Perino’s first Minute Mentoring.

“It was just an incredible experience for her,” says Allan.

Full article here

                          

It occurs to me that President Obama owes a debt of gratitude to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Why? Their cooperation to advance a resurgent conservative movement keeps saving President Obama from himself.

For the first two years of his administration, the president’s intentions, instincts, and indecisiveness stood in the way of what the country was expecting from hope and change. Over that time, a new wave of public opinion rose, ultimately cresting and swamping the White House in the November 2010 mid-term elections in which President Obama suffered an historic defeat. That wave was considered fleeting by many political pundits, and was framed as weak in strength by the liberal ruling class. The Tea Party movement was dismissed as something to be placated and ignored, rather than taken seriously and addressed.

Obama’s seeming entertainment of Tea Party ideals must have made Democrats cringe. How they must have held their noses and averted their eyes as it looked like he’d chosen his political future over his principles. He couldn’t really mean it, they thought—triangulation was simply the best way to pull one over on the Tea Party supporters.

Six months later, the conservative movement is growing. The Democratic communications machine churns out tiresome talking points which that lack both new ideas and a serious tone. How people snorted when they heard the accusations that Republicans were waging a war on women, and that they wanted seniors to eat cat food and to go without health care. C’mon guys—that is so 1990s. The public isn’t falling for that one anymore.

Full post here

                          

Over a year ago on this site — see About (Saving) Face, and A Ninth Reason Why KSM Will be Tried by Military Commission — and in other publications — see Why KSM Will Never Get a Civilian Trial, from the New York Post February 3rd issue — we predicted that KSM would never be tried in civilian court and would instead end up facing a military commission at Guantanamo. We admittedly were off about the timing when we said that the end was near back in January 2010. But we were right about the outcome…and the excuses Attorney General Eric Holder would use to justify this wholesale reversal.

Predictably, Holder is blaming Congress.  This was #6 in our reasons for why KSM would not end up in civilian court.  Holder goes even further than we expected, though, by saying that he knows better than Congress and if it weren’t for those interfering legislators, the original decision would have stuck.

Don’t believe it for a minute. As we explained last year, the administration has many reasons to reverse course — not the least of which is that the Attorney General himself made numerous unwise statements presuming KSM’s guilt rather than his innocence and his inevitable conviction, big no-no’s in civilian court which can get a case thrown out because of unfair pre-trial publicity. The administration’s calculus proved pretty straightforward — the risks to public safety of holding the trial in downtown Manhattan, combined with the possibility that some evidence against KSM might be inadmissible in civilian court or that his indictment might even be thrown out, vastly outweighed vindicating the principle that even enemies of the United States should be tried in civilian court, a principle that even stalwarts of the Left like Senator Chuck Schumer reject. In the end, pragmatism took precedence over ideology.

Full post here

                          

Former White House communications director Dana Perino will be editorial director for Crown Forum, the conservative-books imprint at Random House, Inc.’s Crown Publishing Group, National Review Online has learned.

Talking about the project, Perino tells NRO, exclusively: “You can’t beat a well-reasoned and longer-form book that allows the reader to broaden a perspective or challenge a perception. And, if you look at the bestseller lists, conservative authors rule across the board.  That must drive some people crazy, but it’s a fact!”

Perino will continue as a Fox News contributor and in other pursuits. Her new position grew out of an already-established-and-successful relationship with Crown, Perino having worked as a communications strategist on their publication of former president George W. Bush’s Decision Points.

According to a press release going out this morning:

Drawing on her many years of experience in Washington DC as well as her broad network of contacts in conservative political circles and beyond, Ms. Perino will recommend, initiate, and submit exclusively to Crown Forum six to eight nonfiction book projects each year, to be written by conservative political or media personalities. Ms. Perino will also play an active role in devising and implementing the promotional campaigns for select Crown Forum publications, including for Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer’s major work of political analysis that is scheduled to be published in advance of the 2012 presidential election.

Full post here

                          

Drawing on her many years of experience in Washington DC as well as her broad network of contacts in conservative political circles and beyond, Ms. Perino will recommend, initiate, and submit exclusively to Crown Forum six to eight nonfiction book projects each year, to be written by conservative political or media personalities. Ms. Perino will also play an active role in devising and implementing the promotional campaigns for select Crown Forum publications, including for Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer’s major work of political analysis that is scheduled to be published in advance of the 2012 presidential election.

In her new relationship with Crown, Ms. Perino will collaborate closely with Ms. Constable and Sean Desmond, Executive Editor, Crown Forum. Among the authors whom Mr. Desmond has edited for Crown Forum are Ann Coulter, Charles Murray, Patrick J. Buchanan, and Catherine Herridge. Mr. Desmond will also edit Mr. Krauthammer’s forthcoming book.

Ms. Perino will work from her offices in Washington DC, with frequent visits to her new Crown Forum colleagues in New York.

In 2010, Ms. Perino served as a communications strategist for the historic publication by Crown of former President George W. Bush’s memoir, Decision Points, which has sold nearly three million copies to-date.  Ms. Perino also served as a consultant to the May 2010 publication by Scribner of former First Lady Mrs. Laura Bush’s # 1 national bestseller, Spoken from the Heart.

Said Tina Constable, “We at Crown Forum are thrilled to extend our existing relationship with Dana Perino. With her keen intelligence, unfailing instincts, and close attunement to the American political landscape, she will be a unique and immensely valuable asset for our publishing program.”

Commenting on her appointment, Ms. Perino said, “I am looking forward to working with Tina Constable and her team at Crown Forum to provide a strong platform for bold and constructive conservative voices at a time when our country faces pressing issues and crises, both internationally and at home.”

Ms. Perino served as White House Press Secretary to President George W. Bush from 2007 to 2009 and was the first Republican woman to hold that position. For two years before taking over the podium from the late Tony Snow, she served as the principal deputy press secretary. Prior to that, she was deputy press secretary as well as a Justice Department spokesperson after the 9/11 attacks. Altogether, Ms. Perino spent over seven years serving in the Bush administration. Her political experience also includes working on Capitol Hill for Rep. Dan Schaefer (R – CO) and Rep. Scott McInnis (R – CO).

In addition to her work for Crown Forum, Ms. Perino will remain as President of her own strategic communications company, Dana Perino and Company, and will continue her association with Burson-Marstellar as a member of that firm’s Global Strategy Team. Ms. Perino will also continue to serve on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the governing board of all U.S. civilian international broadcast services, including Voice of America, to which she was appointed by President Obama in November 2009.

Ms. Perino is a frequent public speaker on how political decisions made in Washington DC are affecting America and the world, and her commentary can be found often in The Washington Post, Politico, and The National Review.  In May 2009 she was named a Contributor to Fox News Channel, where she is a frequent guest host and commentator, including weekly appearances on “Hannity” and “Fox and Friends.”

The parent company of Random House, Inc. is Bertelsmann AG.

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