And yet � what trouble did these cats from Enron really get in to? Tommy Chong is going to jail for selling glassware and yet those assholes are walking the streets, spending their millions, while their employees lost their retirement funds.

Color me royally pissed off.

I don�t even really believe in hell, but if it exists I hope there is a special place set aside for this kind of trash.

From my CA Democratic Party Newsletter this morning:

TAPES SHOW BUSH CRONIES LAUGHING AT CALIFORNIA: As Attorney General Bill Lockyer (D) prepares a lawsuit against Enron for price gouging, new audio tapes released in Washington State "indicate that Enron manipulated the western electricity market 88% of the days between Jan. 1, 2000, and June 20, 2001." According to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Enron "illegally obtained at least $1.1 billion in profits from western ratepayers." On tapes released earlier, Enron "traders joke about gouging California customers out of millions of dollars." The Enron debacle is part of a wider problem of energy companies - many with ties to the White House - bilking consumers. Consumers Union recently reported that since 2000, Big Oil has stiffed "consumers with about $250 billion in price hikes" resulting in "an increase in after-tax windfall profits of $50 to $80 billion to the industry." Enron was one of President Bush's top campaign contributors, with Enron CEO Ken Lay becoming a Bush "Pioneer" in 2000. In return for its contributions, the White House refused to support temporary price caps during the California energy crisis, and pressured its allies in Congress - even those from California - to vote them down in 2001.

~~~

I would also like to discuss (hopefully briefly, but I make no promises) this latest �disclosure� from the 9/11 Commission (courtesy of CNN.com):

Cheney Reportedly Ordered Planes Shot Down

By TERENCE HUNT

WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney repeatedly authorized U.S. fighters to shoot down hijacked airliners as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks unfolded but his orders did not reach military pilots until the last of the four planes had already crashed, the commission investigating the terrorist attacks said Thursday.

Cheney at one point believed incorrectly that his orders had resulted in the shoot-down of a couple aircraft.

The commission's report documented a day of confusion and miscommunication at the White House, Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

President Bush, at an elementary school in Florida to talk about education, was initially told that a small, twin-engine plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. He thought it was a case of pilot error. At the White House, Cheney was wondering �how the hell a plane could hit the World Trade Center� when he saw on television the second aircraft strike the South Tower.

When it became clear that the nation was under attack, Bush decided to continue his remarks to a classroom of second graders. �The president told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis.� Fifty minutes later, he was on Air Force One as it climbed into the sky with no certain destination. The objective was to get into the air as fast as possible and decide where to go, the commission said.

Cheney, in an underground bunker at the White House, held a series of telephone calls with Bush. He asked the president to decide the rules of engagement for combat planes being scrambled over Washington. Bush said he authorized that hijacked planes be shot down.

Cheney's command post received word at 10:02 a.m. that a plane, presumably hijacked, was heading for Washington. It was United flight 93 which crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside at 10:03 a.m. But the White House was unaware of the crash and was told the plane was still bearing down on Washington.

Sometime between 10:10 a.m. and 10:15 a.m., a military aide said the aircraft was 80 miles out and Cheney was asked for authority to shoot down the plane. He issued the order, the commission said. Minutes later, the military aide reported that the plane was 60 miles out and Cheney again was asked for authorization. Again, he said yes. . .

In most cases, the commission said, the chain of command in authorizing the use of force runs from the president to the secretary of defense and from the secretary to military commanders. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was briefed by Cheney at 10:39 a.m. that he had been authorized by Bush to instruct fighters to shoot down hijacked planes.

�And it's my understanding they've already taken a couple of aircraft out,' Cheney told Rumsfeld, according to the commission. Rumsfeld replied, `We can't confirm that. We're told that one aircraft is down but we do not have a pilot report that they did it.� �

� Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

OK, first of all � I don�t believe this bullshit about their supposedly not knowing exactly what was going on from the git-go and I don�t believe that they had this massive miscommunication keeping them from acting in a timely manner. First of all, that is a very scary proposition and I don�t know how we�d get anything done militarily if we are really this lame. More importantly, they had over 50 minutes between when the first plane hit the WTC and the crash in to the Pentagon. In this article, it says Cheney gave the OK to shoot down the planes when they still had 80 and 60 miles to go before they hit their destination. Come on now...Do ya�ll understand how many lapses of communication there would have to be for that to happen? The FAA by law has to inform NORAD immediately upon the hijacking of any plane � that last plane was well on its way toward it�s destination before it was turned around to head toward the Pentagon. The Air Force isn�t exactly hundreds of miles away from these targets.

There was ample time to act, is what I�m saying.

It�s all bullshit and I don�t buy it for a second.

I might add that this �disclosure� is rather conveniently timed to coincide with this new movie Fahrenheit 9/11 which includes the scene of Dubya continuing to read to those school kids even after being told we were under attack. It�s a big part of the movie and is being talked about a lot.

That said, I fully believe they authorized the hijacked planes be shot down. I have never written about it here because my views on 9/11 are nothing if not extremely controversial and frankly I fight enough battles without getting in to email combats with strangers (plus, I probably write enough in here that has warranted me a Big Red File at the FBI, courtesy of the Patriot Act). However, I said at the time that I thought the plane in Pennsylvania had been shot down, but that the Administration didn�t want to say that because they didn�t want the backlash which might have occurred. First of all, the wreckage from the plane was a full mile away from the supposed crash site, which seemed very fishy to me, as was the way the plane supposedly went in to the ground. When you saw pictures of it at the time, it was one round hole going deep in to the ground, as if the nose of the plane had buried itself there, presumably with the rest of the plane sticking up in the air. I may not be a scientist, but it seems weird to me that only the nose would make a hole � that no other part of the plane would fall over and wreck there or say break in half under it�s own weight. The nose of the plane is strong enough to hold up an entire plane? I don�t think so. And that doesn�t even begin to explain why the rest of the plane wreckage was a mile away.

You can ask my sister Barbara for verification about my position on this thing, because we argued about it extensively, at the time. I was saying I thought we shot that plane down and she disagreed.

Long time readers of this journal may also recall my talking about the Pentagon. I don�t know for sure and have only seen pictures of that crash site, but...I wouldn�t be surprised if they shot down the plane that supposedly crashed in to the Pentagon, also. In fact, I wouldn�t be surprised to find out that what crashed there wasn�t a plane at all, based on the pictures I have seen.

But whatever � that�s really neither here nor there. If they had to shoot down the planes, one can hardly blame them. I don�t have a beef with that at all.

My thinking is that they couldn�t really cover up the fact that they wanted to shoot down the planes, for some reason. Maybe there�s a paper trail or someone talked � I don�t know. But rather than copping to that now (and having us all know that they once again lied to us), they found a way to make it seem as if they wanted to shoot them down but were unable to do so.

I guess it�s better to be seen as totally incompetent, across the board, than it is to admit to another cover-up.

I really hope I�m alive and coherent in like fifty years when the truth about what happened on 9/11 comes out. Because I don�t think any of us has been told anywhere near the truth.

Now...a word about the resignation of CIA Director George Tenent.

Not that I don�t think he should go, but the fact is he is not the only one at fault...but of course he will be the one to go, because he was initially appointed by Clinton. Convenient. Oh how Dubya�s administration loves to try and make it seem like everything we�re dealing with now is really Clinton�s fault.

OK, on to more personal matters...I cancelled my 3 Day training walk tonight. I am moving on Saturday and since I can�t really start ahead of time it actually means more work for me right now because I have to pack up everything. Ergh...anyway, the walks take like two hours out of my day and I just couldn�t do that tonight.

Plus, work is absolute hell right now. I am so freakin� busy, I am going a tad crazy(er). The Little Big Man did, in fact, leave about an hour early yesterday...and then came in about an hour late today. And he already comes in at least half an hor later than I do. And he�s taking two days off next week. And we won�t even discuss how mad I am that Rob W. decided to have a �doctor�s appointment� which required him to leave two hours early today. I have that in quotes because I don�t believe he has an appointment at all. If it were my call I�d tell him to go fry fish and postpone his �doctor�s appointment� until Monday, after Kim has returned from N.Y. I mean, he knows we�re short-handed right now and he makes a doctor�s appointment? He didn�t tell us about it until mid-morning today, so my assumption is he just made the appointment (if he made one at all). Why couldn�t the appt. have waited until Monday, then?

Were it football season, I'd know exactly where he was really headed this afternoon.

The good news is that I am leaving work at like 1:30pm tomorrow, so that I can be at the new place for them to get the Rad Pad Jr. all gassed up and ready for me to burn things on the stove. So I get half the day off! Yippee!!! And since I have to be in the new apartment for them to hook up my gas anyway, I am also planning on spending that time putting in shelf paper and crap like that. I hope I can get a lot done in that half a day. I don�t want John to have to do much when he gets down here. Oh and then I�m having my cable installed on Monday morning, so I won�t get to work until after 10:00am.

Here�s the bummer�ya�ll know how I�m excited to see the new Salem�s Lot mini-series on TNT? Well, it starts Sunday. I assume they will repeat the first part before they show the second part on Monday (as they are wont to do on that channel)�I hope so, anyway. I will still have cable service to the original Rad Pad on Sunday, but if I leave my t.v. there for the night I will have to move it by myself, which I can not do. Therefore, I will be sans television Sunday night.

EEK! What shall I do?

~~~

Word of the Day for Thursday June 17, 2004

Potemkin village puh-TEM(P)-kin, noun:

An impressive facade or display that hides an undesirable fact or state; a false front.

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