I agree with Caliann’s point about this being a turbulent, bloody step. Every time I hear him – and it’s painful for me to do so – I can’t believe that he was elected by my fellow citizens! My next thought, tripping on the heels of the first is, “Are you happy now?” (Yes, a variant on “are you better off”.) The answer to the last had better be a resounding “NO!” Then I can only hope those who made the horrific mistake of voting for him, and who answered “no,” have the courage to admit it to friends, family and loved ones, and never ever do this again…

As to listening to him, and by that I mean the physical act of receiving sound waves into the ear, I simply can’t do it without squirming. C’mon, where are the people out there with musical training, or who have taken communication courses? (I’ve the training and a BA in comm sci.) His inflections, his pauses, his tones of voice – don’t they scream liar liar to you? I realize the words are most likely written by speechwriters, but even they cannot deliver the garbage to the masses.

Hey! There’s our biomass supply answer!

So does that make the Shrub a glorified garbage man? Or in “PC” parlance, a “sanitary technician”?

(Heck – I even hate calling him the “shrub” as it insults all my shrub roses, especially the prize-winning ones …) :-)

As for 9/11, I do not believe that any of us simple peons have enough uncontroversial information to make an informed decision one way or the other. And why should we? We’re peons. Can anyone here state flatly, with indisputable facts, who killed JFK? A public assassination filmed on National Television? If not, how can we claim to know all of the events and information that was available, both classified and unclassified, that led up to 9/11?

Was Randy Johnson, in his prime, a better pitcher than Babe Ruth, in his prime, was a batter? While we may speculate endlessly and point to this bit of knowledge or that bit of trivia, the truth is, we will never know. Our position in that debate would depend upon whether we personally favored the Big Unit or the Babe.

Neither Al Gore nor George W. are as good at being leaders as the former gentlemen were as baseball players. My own opinion is that I have yet to see a truly great leader emerge during my lifetime. I can hope that statement does not continue to be true.

It is very easy to point fingers and lay blame over past events, but does anyone have ideas on how to insure past events do not repeat themselves? Or, perhaps, ideas on how to make changes in government/economics/society so that such events are looked upon by future generations in the same was we view the Inquisition and slave based economies?

We are not finished evolving in so many areas, why should we assume that this is the very best we can can come up with?

What I find very hard to believe (published reports or not) is that for nearly 7 months into the administration’s first term Rice, Bush or any of the cabinet members remained igorant of the threat and Gore was aware of it. That does not make sense. If Gore and Clinton fully appreciated the magnitude of the threat at the end of their term that information would definitely passed onto Bush. I know Clinton told Bush that Osama was a priority threat but that in itself means nothing.

If Al Gore knew the terroists were planning attacks on the US then what, as capacity of being the former Vice-President did he do during 2001 do to warn and advise the current administration about it?

If he knew something that Bush and the intelligence departments and didn’t act then I find that incredible.

W’s dad was the ex-director of the CIA and as former president he exercised is right to access intelligence reports from them (more so than any other former president) I believe. Are you saying that Bush Snr either knew less than Gore or that Bush Snr knew some stuff and didn’t tell Junior? Unlikely.

And I don’t recall Gore yelling up and down “I knew it! I told them so!” on the 12 September.

So I don’t thing Gore knew any more than W. I think it was more a matter of where Al-Quaida was on the priority list (somewhere under the Iraq methinks).

I still think 9/11 would of happened regardless of who was in Oval Office. The causes go beyound the incumbent and what was his early months of his first term.

Also, the green movement is a farce. Ethanol is taking food out of people’s mouths. It also burns more cleanly, but it causes more pollution to make in the first place. We’re damaging progress and our economy by with the carbon allowance insanity.

“EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY” — T. H. White