A lot of people dropped the ball, you're right. Starting with Reagan, actually.

And, there wasn't the political will prior to WTC to do anything meaningful. The Rs certainly didn't see the threat, attempting to cut even Clinton's counter-terrorism budget.

And Clinton only wanted to do something when the domestic scene got hot. Well, GWB is like that, too. He has his hidden issues. Ever find out how the energy policy was formulated.

You ever wonder what GWB did for Enron? Prices for their products were skyrocketing, GWB said "No end in sight", and then Jeffords allowed the Ds to investigate. Enron would be fabulously wealthy had not the Ds discovered the price-fixing, the production limiting.

GWB can keep people's and the presses minds off that stuff as long as he can try to start a war. A la Clinton. Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.

But a democracy cannot long endure with a secret police, secret trials, secretly holding citizens indefinitely without charges or representation.

And seriously, it's the conservatives who are doing that. Not the ACLU, not the Democrats.

And it's scary. It's not a "gotcha" issue, really, well maybe it is. And, in addition, it is sincerely scary.

Arf