Oh my, the hate mail I got for suggesting that we not create more terrorists and another Viet Nam by invading Afghanistan has been spectacular... although the literary ability of the writers leaves a lot to desired.
        The all seem to have gone to the george the lesser school of advanced thinking.
        Duh.
        I am firmly convinced that one reason georgie was sent flying around the country 09-11 was to keep him out of the White House so Dick Cheney and George Bush SR. could get things under control.
        Yeah, my sources say that daddy was there and in the thick of things, right down there in the ready room where no one without official position and clearance should be.
        But then, this is not a government hampered by laws.

        Some believe it was actually daddy who put together the "coalition" to support the U.S. As one reader said, "[Georgie] can't even pronounce half the countries names and doesn't know where they are. How could he have put together a coalition so quickly?"
        It stands to reason daddy did it (as he did before when he pledged American blood so the Saudis and other oil-rich Arab countries did not have to endanger *their* son's lives), not junior... daddy acting as the t-ball holder so junior could act as if he actually can hit something.

        Well, a Texas jury has decided Andrea Yates is sane enough to stand trial for the murder of her children.
        I disagree since I have seen post partum depression first hand (and suffered a mild form of it when I had to return home to a husband about as useless as a...)
        Anyway, what I want to know is why Rusty Yates, the fundamentalist religious hypocrite of a father - remember that lengthy try-out for showbiz when he turned his children's funeral into a media circus? - isn't in jail also.
        If HE had been the one to murder his children, his wife would have been arrested for "failure to protect," a charge that is almost always slapped on a woman when the man of the house does bad things to children.
        Rusty KNEW she was unwell and was hearing voices as well as having tried to kill herself.
        He did nothing except talk about having more children and what a poor housekeeper she was.
        Andrea Yates has got to be one of the most unlucky women in the world. To have been chosen by Rusty for her lack of self esteem that made her easily manipulated and to live in Texas that seems to glory in killing people.

        I can't even describe the disgust I felt when Kim Gandy, the new president and old bureaucrat of National NOW pulled away from Andrea Yates's defense of insanity based on her past medical treatment (that her husband wanted her off of) and post-partum depression. I thought that Kim, as the first mother to head NOW in almost two decades, would realize the trials of an over-bred and over-worked woman... but then Kim is of privilege.

        BTW, george the lesser's use of "act of war" was not only strong language meant to inflame the gun-totin' crowd, but... isn't there a clause in most insurance policies that cause them to be nullified in times of war?
        Imagine the money the insurance companies will save if the WTC destruction is considered an act of war... Of course the insurance/banking industry was a big, big $upporter of the bushette campaign and other repugnants.
        IF the insurance insurers get off the hook, who will pay... guess... look in the mirror.
        On this one, I sure hope I'm wrong.

From England's The Guardian 09-23-2001:

"Tony Blair is endangering the people of this country as well as Britons abroad. His willingness to join Bush's crusade' and use military force will neither avenge nor bring justice to nor honour the memory of the ordinary people who died so terribly in America last week because this will almost certainly lead to a gratuitous slaughter of more innocents in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere. It also risks nurturing a new generation of suicidal killers."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Arianna Huffington's column filed 09-20-2001:
Where Were the Lobbyists for the Public Good?

"As we continue to dig, both literally and figuratively, through the rubble left by last Tuesday's terrorist attack, it is becoming shockingly clear just how much the powers-that-be knew about our country's vulnerability - and how little they did to ensure our safety. //// "It's not like Dead or Alive' poster boy Osama bin Laden has been shy about his murderous intentions. Less than three months ago, he released a recruitment video in which he vowed: `It's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts most.'' This video warning was enough to cause the Pentagon to place U.S. forces on heightened alert - but apparently not enough to get our leaders to plug the massive holes in U.S. airport security."

        (Arianna Huffington has grown amazingly in stature since she divorced her republican, out-of-the-closet gay, filthy rich husband. Her columns have been startling in their honesty.
        She said a number of things back in the married days that I shudder over, but she HAS changed.
        Perhaps she has seen the light - the liberal light.
        http://www.ariannaonline.com/)

        Nancy R. wrote: "Someone suggested that as an alternative approach to getting bin Laden, we might tell the Taliban that they either give us bin Laden or we gather up all their women and send them to college. That should do it."

        Another email reader writes: "I seriously believe that the best way to get some of these terrorists is to send in women undercover operatives. They have such a low opinion of women, they would never suspect that we'd be capable of something so devious."

        Sounds great to me... HOWEVER... remember george the lesser is a fundamental xtian who doesn't believe women have any place in man's business which is CEO business, government leadership, and leadership in finance. Just get the coffe, girls...
        Condoleeza Rice is simply a cardboard character and the other bushette women - such as cabinet officers - are iron maidens... those who believe in no rights for you and only rights for them because they're republicans holding the fort down as fronts for the men to fool the damned fool women who vote.
        (Some sentence, huh? I'm using george the lesser as my speechwriter.)

        Karl Rove, Bush's director, tried to claim that the plane that hit the Pentagon was actually on its way to the White House and that was the reason - along with information that Aif Force One was an intended target - that george the lesser went into hiding 911.
        Many pooooohoooed the idea and checks of radar recording show that the plane was no where near the White House.
        Rove then claimed he saw different radar -
        Yeah, sure.
        That yellow streak down the back...

        I am firmly convinced that some "alternative" solution will be found regarding the Taliban harboring of Osama bin Laden and he will either be given up to the world court OR he will escape to some place like Indonesia...
        These alternatives will not only keep the Taliban in power but will make them repositories of huge pots of money from the bushette administration.
        Most importantly, it will keep the Taliban and the fundamental Muslim radical treatment of women as breeding and domestic animals in place.
        This keeping of women without education, or means of earning a living, or of an independent action or thinking is essential to the future of the radical repressive right wing religious agenda of EVERY male god religion from Southern Baptist to Mormon to Roman Catholic to Church of God, radical othodox Jews, radical Muslims, etc., etc.
        For they have been cooperating and have had meetings with each other.
        Look at the way they line up together at UN conferences on gender and birth control, etc.
        What do all of these male god right wing religions have in ABSOLUTE COMMON?
        The subjugation of women... every single one of them.
        Isn't it nice for women's rights to be the number one target of male religious fanatics likle Falwell, Robertson, the pope, the Mulsim mullahs, and the extremist orthodox Jews...
        Yeah, keep supporting those religions, girls, and you'll wind up wearing those little tents, unable to read a book, write a letter, use a computer, walk outside without a male family member escort, and not get proper medical care... and be bred at first menses and thereafter as much as possible until you die.
        Can't happen here?
        Hey - look at the way so many are EAGERLY seeking to give up civil rights in face of terrorist attacks.
        It can happen here with the placing of one more radical right wing nut case on the U.S. Supreme Court.
        With a 5-4 vote - as they chose the president of this nation against the voters' wishes - they can nullify the 19th amendment that confirms women's rights to vote.
        And as we were unable to do anything about the elevation of Smirk, we will be unable to do anything about our right to vote being taken from us.
        Because by the time this all happens, other things will be in place such as the control of the internet, further jailing of reporters who DARE to write against the bush junta's purposes, etc...
        Catters - the bush administration KNEW there were going to be attacks on this country and did NOTHING sbout it. They put troops overseas on alert but did not warn us here.
        The CIA and the FBI failed miserably and now the smirk administration wants to throw pots of money to them to continue to be inept, but in style.
        (The feebies admitted a "faulty translation" of a simple Arabic letter - a known language not a code - had them warning people in Boston [and travelers to the city] to beware of a terrorist attack last weekend so yes, let's give them more money...)
        BTW, there has been a great deal of criticism leveled at a few airline pilots who are instructing their passengers on how to overpower any potential hijackers, etc.
        WHY? SO WE CAN ALL BE PASSIVE VICTIMS?
        Catters, use you heads - when an administration is attempting to teach you NOT to protect yourself, you'd best do some hard thinking about displacing it.

        Does george the lesser have a double who is acting in his place?
        Can that stumbling, unable to get a full sentence together smirky person suddenly, over night become a great speaker? A great thinker?
        Has george the lesser been treated with hypnosis to get him to act differently?
        Who IS running this nation?

        Isn't it strange that the great and wonderful without peer capitalist system that moves the world's wealth and power into less than 2% of the world's population is in such dire straights as to need YOUR tax dollars to bolster it up?
        The airlines need your money to stay in business and their stockholders to make money...
        They aren't flying the friendly skies, they're flying through your wallet... and the republicans, in face of a recession that is quickly moving into a depression, want to reduce the rich man's taxes even more... while raiding the social security fund, a raid on YOUR retirement.
        Many of the youngies don't seem upset because they have been brainwashed in decades-long propaganda shit-spieling that has them believing that the SS won't be there for them - Well, if the repugnants have their way, it won't be... although under Clinton it was clearly on its way to being assured.
        Your retirement and your tax dollars gone because the capitalist system is the best in the world.

        By Leslie Fulbright from the Contra Costa Times:
        "She thought she did everything right. She went straight to the hospital after waking in pain. She told police all she could remember. She talked with family and friends.
        "Although she showed all indications of being slipped a date rape drug and preyed upon by two men, this Berkeley woman received no justice.
        "By the time she realized what had happened, there were no drugs in her system, robbing authorities of crucial evidence and making prosecution virtually impossible. Although often reported and investigated, officials said, few rapes involving debilitating drugs ever reach a courtroom."

        Although there MAY not be tests used today to detect the drug after a few hours, but no one is going to convince me that there is no residue somewhere in the body (in tissues) or that a test COULD be developed.

        It's just that it is women are being attacked and it is men who are getting their sexual "needs" taken care of.
        The article goes on to explain that the two most common rape drugs are out of the blood stream in 4 hours and the urine in 12 hours.
        "Contra Costa deputy district attorney Paul Sequeira said he has NEVER filed rape charges involving the drugs. There have been allegations, but no positive tests. None of the cases has made it past the reporting stage, the prosecutor said."
      [To hell with what the women say! The guy saying he didn't do it convinces the prosecutor!]
        "The drugs are rapidly gaining popularity, recreationally and for sexual assault, police say.
        " 'If someone has half a drink and appears intoxicated, someone should ask if she's OK,' the lieutenant said. Someone should notice things have changed and take the woman home, to a hospital or to police.' "
        The only thing anyone has to offer is that women should have a buddy system and stay together... which means two rape victims instead of one. And, of course, don't go out to bars, parties, etc. (Taliban without the tents.)
        As long as men are able to get away with this and fraternities seem to be hotbeds of drug rape then women will be unsafe.
        However, if women (damn, I wish we had at least one feminist organization in this country) stuck together and ridiculed men who need to use date rape drugs, etc., as well as develop new tests to detect it and public awareness, things will only get worse.
        How about a simple test for women to use in their drinks to detect the drug?
        Oh... what do you know, no one ever thought of that?
        How strange.
        Well, men have a simple blood test to detect testicular cancer but women have the crushing, painful mammograms.

        This was carried on CNN - very late at night. http://www.mirror.co.uk/shtml/NEWS/P10S1.shtml

        The Mirror, UK, September 16, 2001:

        "As his grey head came into view, faces in the crowd shone with hope.
        "They cheered, they wept, they hugged him. They pushed photo-copied pictures of their missing loved ones into his hands asking him in desperation to help them through this.
        And he did. Looking gaunt and tired from the stress of the past few days and the long flight from Australia, he took all hands that were offered, pumped them, looked into people's eyes and nodded reassuringly. He was clearly feeling their pain. This was the city where he had recently set up new offices in Harlem. This was the state where he now lived with a wife who is their senator...
        "And his eyes were dry. Unlike George W. Bush, Clinton wasn't weeping for himself or his nation but soaking up their tears, helping them to grow stronger and more resilient as he did so.
        "Here he was, flying straight to the carnage at the heart of the nation at his first opportunity.
        "Bush, on the other hand who, when tragedy struck scuttled around national airspace like a frightened rabbit as New Yorkers laid down their lives, had still to turn up in the city.
        "Bush's absence up until yesterday afternoon, had seemed both bemusing and wrong. His speeches had been stilted and uninspiring. His language muddled. His state of mind veering between an awkward blankness and an unfocused fury.
        "The president had left his desperate people feeling even more confused and frightened. Worried that a void had opened up at the top of their democracy.
        "And then Clinton turned up and showed in a few brief minutes the way to fill it heroically.
        "Which gave America one more reason to weep."

        As an atheist, prayers are a bit foolish in my mind but I wish there was some way to get someone to stop the madness in the Bush junta and stop a war that can only develop thousands more terrorists...
        Although, what no one seems to be asking is how can we have a war with Muslims when they control most of the world's oil? Why would the Saudi leaders want Afghanistan and its arch enemy Osama bin Laden destroyed ?
        Could there be a something about oil and oil prices?
        OH - figure that in a couple of weeks the "news media" will discover that the oil is OVER then and start running "oh gee oh gosh" stories full-time, as if it were the sex life of Condit, that we'll have to drill in artic Alaska. to make sure we have oil in case of war that the oilmen are starting.
        My, my, how it all fits together in an oil-minded administration.

        Somehow we must get the UN to act and call for a conference of moderates to have honest, decent Muslims oppose and scorn the radicals... and sensible, honest, decent christians to do the same to its radicals such as John Ashcroft, george bushette, Jerry Falwell, and Marion Gordon Robertson (the man who's so ashamed of his name he's renamed himself "Pat"), etc.