I called it on 9/11

No doubt about it, everyone remembers where they were, and what they were doing on 9/11. Hell, I don't even need to mention the year anymore, do I? Nope, that day has become my generations "Where were YOU when Kennedy was assasinated?" I sometimes wonder if comments like that last bit trivialize the impact of 9/11 on America, and Americans.

Then I remember how 9/11 REALLY was, at least in Bloomington, Indiana.

Let's just get this right out: that day was so shocking it shut my brain down for about 3 days. It took me that long to get in touch with my friends and family in NYC and NJ, and until I knew everyone was OK (well, not everyone...), I couldn't even come to grips with the tragedy.

I still can't look at pictures of the Towers. I just can't. I guess there are a lot of people like me, in that respect.

But I'm not here to write about 9/11, or the Towers, or the $2.99 Wal-Mart patriots out there with the plastic flags hanging off the windows of their cars, "United We Stand" bumper stickers festooning their vehicles. No, I'm not going to go into that rant; I've done it before, and I'm tired of that particular level of bullshit.

Thing is, around 2:00 on 9/11, sitting with some friends and trying to get a grip on myself, I remember the conversation we had while watching CNN. D remarked how this didn't sound like the act of a bunch of cowards (which many of us agreed with, and Bill Maher echoed hours later.) Then, I remember thinking, and saying, how 9/11 was going to be the best thing that ever happened to George W. Bush's Presidency. I remember telling my friends that when Bush came up for re-election, I wouldn't be surprised if someone got on TV and suspended elections, for the sake of National Security.

"My fellow Americans," it would begin, "due to the Justice Department's sure knowledge that terrorists plan to disrupt voting in the coming Presidential Election, we are hereby suspending national elections for the duration of the crisis."

Sure, you're thinking I'm a conspiracy nut, right? Well, I wasn't entirely serious when I put the idea out there, nearly 3 years ago, but since then, I've been taking a real close look at what our government's been up to. Especially recently.

DISCLAIMER: The following is going to look like a conspiracy theory. That's because it IS a conspiracy theory. However, I am not a left-wing loony-toon, neither am I currently under psychiatric evaluation. Nor am I insane or a paranoid. I simply see things, hear things, and have put them together in this manner.

Here's the thing: Tom Ridge announced recently that Al Qaeda is supposedly planning to "disrupt" elections in November. HOW? WHY? And what, pray tell, could ANY terrorist really do to disrupt elections on the national level? Blow up EVERY polling site? How about half of them?

Realistically, absent such mammoth undertakings, the polls are as safe as they've been since we stopped allowing partisans in the building years ago. It sounds to me like Phase 1 of "Operation: Scare the Voters."

What are we supposed to think? Sure looks like we're supposed to be SO SCARED of VOTING this Fall that enough people won't show up to vote, which would then pretty much hand Bush II the election.

Hey, if there really is a clear and immanent danger, why not just make everyone vote via ABSENTEE BALLOTS?

Then, the other day, our friendly CIA chief decides to step down, pre-empting his termination over the intelligence failures which "allowed" 9/11. Of course, the Bush Administration has been fingering the CIA for 2 years now on this, and refuses to accept any culpability for the attacks. The CIA is also apparently at fault for telling the White House Iraq had WMD, when it didn't.

So, with the elections "in jeopardy" we have lost the top spy in the country, and there doesn't seem to be too big a rush to replace him. Does there? Thing is, George T. was a good man, a Clinton man. Me? I think he saw the way the wind was blowing, saw where this Administration is going, and opted out. If he'd wanted to tag along with Bush and Cheney, they would've spun this differently, mark my words.


So now, we've got election worries, and no head of the CIA. Plus, we already know that everyone in Bush's administration with the slightest bit of integrity won't be back. (Poor Colin Powell...) Bush and Cheney (or should I say Cheney?) are lining things up right now, and I worry about where this is going. I worry that Tom Ridge will keep popping up on TV, telling us about how the Department of Homeland Security has learned Al Qaeda plans to bomb polls in fifteen states, but they don't know which polls, specificially. I worry that a National State of Emergency will be declared in October, just in time for the World Series. I worry that Bush will be President again, until he just decides to take over.

Look at the Federal judges he's installed. Congress is certainly backing him up with WHATEVER he wants to do. By next year, we'll be installing AT LEAST 2 new Supreme Court Justices (if Bush wins, how "conservative" will these people be?)

To me, it sounds like the United States is headed for some serious trouble. Things keep on like this, and I might consider Canada.


This rant was brought to you by the number 69, and the letters, L, S, and D.