So, let me see if I understand this: the people who once flew jets into tall buildings also planned to, in their maniacal genius, fly jets into other tall buildings. Shocking. Not to sound like I'm patting the terrorists on the back, but isn't that just good planning? The thing that's really shocking to me is that anyone pays attention to these guys anymore.

I imagine Chertoff has a big file in a dark corner labelled "Miscellaneous Unused Scary Factoids" or maybe a bunch of those red glass cases with tiny hammers that say "Break Glass in Event of Poor Opinion Polls". The good news is that he seems to have used up all of the good ones.

I wish more of the media had listened to Bill Moyers absolutely brilliant speech at the National Conference on Media Reform. We've replaced real journalism with small-r reporting, where the spin doctors on both sides determine what gets printed each morning. Republican A says one thing, Democrat B rejects it, and we get two stories. All the while, no one wants to put the time, effort, or risk into actually digging up the deeper truth, let alone even shallow truths that didn't happen to find their way into the talking points.

Of course, the President isn't the only one who can scare us. Here's a little food for thought from Moyers' speech:

"An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda is less inclined to put up a fight, ask questions and be skeptical. And just as a democracy can die of too many lies, that kind of orthodoxy can kill us, too."

The problem is, Brown has no credibility at this point. This is a completely different tune than he sang shortly after the disaster. Do I personally believe much of what he's saying this time around? Yes. Will the general public believe it, especially once McClellan and others tap dance around it?. I'm not holding my breath.

Most people hear "hybrid" now and assume you mean funny looking cars that sound like vaccuum cleaners. The general public probably couldn't figure out why Bush wanted to outlaw Prius's while still giving them a tax credit. On the other hand, that would make as much sense as most of our energy "policy" does.

On an entirely different subject, thanks for telling me what Invasion is about. That show should be billed as "the most suspenseful boring hour on television". You spend the first half-an-hour of each episode on the edge of your seat, then realize nothing actually happened and go make a sandwich.

The next time I'm tempted to watch either more episodes of Invasion or Bush's next SOTU, I think I'll just TiVO some X-Files instead.

Remember, this is the man who once talked about "unleashing compassion" on the nation. I don't know about you, but I don't really want anyone's compassion unleashed on me, especially George's.

Besides, you're clearly misunderstanding. This isn't about budget cuts; it's about "gender reform". It's all good. Just ask Scott McClellan.

Don't you understand? Dick Cheney is a tool in the broader war against terror. When he's properly armed (as God and the 2nd amendment intended), he's an important weapon in our arsenal. Reporting his actions would tip the terrorists off about our gameplan and would ultimately endanger the troops. Katharine Armstrong should be investigated immediately, or at least run out of Texas.

A friend of mine turned me on to an absolutely fascinating article written by Major General Smedley Butler after the first World War. Phase one of his plan for ending war profiteering is simple and nothing short of brilliant:

"The only way to smash this [war] racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation -- it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted -- to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get."

Of course, they'd get a bit more than $30/month these days, but that'd certainly make Haliburton think twice.

What's amazing is how used to war we've gotten. With each war, we civilians are asked to sacrifice less and less. The first Iraq conflict was little more than a major television event, coupled, at my particular age at the time, with the vague fear that a draft might be reinstated. This Iraq "war" (still officially undeclared, of course) doesn't even merit much time on CNN. Even as I write this, I can't claim any great superiority on the matter or even wrap my mind around the idea that 100,000+ young men and women are risking their lives somewhere for a tenuous cause on my behalf.