For more than 20 years, the terrorist threat gathered, and America's response across several administrations of both parties was insufficient.--Condolezza Rice, while testifying before the 11/04 Commission this morning.

Did anyone watch her appearance, or listen to it on WILK? I, of course, was crawling through bushes all day, so I was tuned to WILK from 9am 'til noon. What else is new? Did I tell ya this Condi witch hunt wouldn't amount to fresh spit on the sidewalk? She really is an impressive woman, but unfortunately, she works for Dubya, so she'll never become a role model for young women to emulate. She's attractive, articulate, intelligent, well-read, and a Republican. Whoops! The "R" word. We'd rather have our young girls end up jiggling their boobies for tips much like Brittney than see them sink so low as to become Republicans. Did you know that Republicans starve seniors and barbecue kidnapped children? It's true. I swear. Ask Ted Kennedy before he passes out again.

In the beginning, I listened very intently to the give and take of Condi's appearance, but by about 11 am or so, it was obvious that the commission members had locked horns with someone who was not going to be intimidated by their bluster and their obvious disdain for her and her boss. Like Tommy always says, "When ya' mess with the bull...you get the horns." Despite three hours of the commission members pressing, and prodding, and waiting for that special moment when they could spring from their seats and yell in unison, "GOTCHA!," that special moment simply never arrived. In fact, the commission members asking for a fight were nearly gored to death in the public arena that they themselves demanded. And now they promise to deliver their findings. I can't wait for that. That'll be about as informative as reading McG's autobiography, tentatively titled: "The No Spin Hole."

Anyway, by 11 am or so, it was obvious to me that this was a circle-jerk of legendary proportions. Election year politics and little else. So...I grabbed the cell phone, called WILK, and asked for Sue Henry's extension. I asked her if she was going to cut in any time soon and treat us to some of her local talk magic. As it turned out, that just wasn't in the cards. WILK was staying with Condi until noon. I inquired as to what a popular talk show host does when bumped off the air by just such an event, and she said that the station manager had her moving the weights from the basement gym to the attic, because the gym is about to be remodeled. See that. It's not all glamour all the time for our local celebrities. I asked her opinion of the Condi event and she had this to say: "XX XXXXXXX XXXX XXX XXX XXX. XXX XXXXX XXX XX." Hee! Hee! Tune in tommorrow, kiddies.

And what was up with the gallery applauding whenever any commission member made it obvious by the tone of their questions that they were out for some Bush/Condi blood? I thought this was a fact-finding mission meant to result in a safer American homeland. I know from watching previous testimony that many of the onlookers were folks that had lost loved ones on 9/11, and when they applauded every time they thought Condi was about to start squirming, I felt really bad for them. First they bitched that a lump sum payment of millions of government dollars paid directy to them was not enough to allieve their grief, now they (Obviously registered Democrats) demand blood and an apology from an administration that not only got a late start thanks to Al Gore's Florida hissy fit, but also had it's nominees for cabinet positions and lower yet delayed by the opposite side of the aisle for months on end. If it's true that this team was late coming up to speed, the argument can be easily made that maybe we shouldn't have played petty politics with the prospective nominees of a new administration in the first place.

Who's to blame for the deadly 9/11 attacks? A bunch of losers armed with box cutters. Clinton turned a blind eye to the terrorist threat for too long, and it's entirely possible that Bush did also. And this is exactly what I was alluding to last night. While we should be focused on eliminating the folks that have promised time and again to kill us all and destroy our way of life, we instead quibble about who's to blame for their prior successes. When faced with war, we revert to our default position, our favorite sport if you will: Petty politics.

Oh, boy. I see we have yet another motivated gladiator ready to slay those in the arena of ideas that must cling to their anonymity. Yup! Another anonymous coward has invaded the forum page.

Was it really too much to ask that folks posting on that page reveal their identities for all to see and hopefully, to respond to? I've talked to many folks that feel that we should all rip anyone who posts without a legitimate address a new asshole. I asked them not to. I don't want the forum to become similar to a New York Jets chat room barged into by my brother, the ultimate "F-bomb" throwing, Eagle hating, Jets hating Giants fan. It's possible that I made the wrong call on that one. If some pussy is full of conviction, but light on courage; then why shouldn't they be verbally lashed to a painful cyber death on some lone outpost of a web page?

When I read the latest, scatter-brained post this morning, I thought to myself, "You know, this is getting as bad as SAYSO." I mean, really. How pussy-whipped can one be? I've got something to say and I'm gonna scream it from the rooftops with a black hood over my head!

I'm reminded of when Thom Greco sent me a rather scalding e-mail a while back after I bitched about his trains in one of my posts. His biggest problem with my comments was that he thought I was posting them anonymously. I advised him that my name, my pic, my kids pics, and my grandkids pics, as well as my address appears on this site quite often. After I responded to his e-mail, I didn't know what to expect next. Would he be even more pissed because some lowly serf such as myself had the balls to respond to a successful businessman in such a way? Much to his credit, he e-mailed me again and applauded me for bothering to get involved in my city and he even invited me to a Power Point lunch presentation about his fledgling plans for the Steam Heat property.

Short of libeling people, heated discussion on the internet can be a good thing, but apparently no one has any respect for anyone full of opinions and simultaneously full of alias e-mail addresses. As I headed off to work today, I was leaning towards deleting a post on the forum for the very first time. By the time I arrived back here a the adobe, I thought, "What the funk?" let's rip 'em all to shreds.

Here's the new policy as it applies to the forum. No address? No respect. Rip her to shreds! Oops! Another "Name that Band" moment. Rip her to shreds. Anyone?

One more time. Anonymous@goofy.net:

Conservative????? -- Huh??, 23:41:45 04/07/04 Wed [1]

Mark,

Thanks for justifying the deaths of many Americans for nothing more than a vendetta from a decade ago. Perhaps you can come here and be our new Public Information Officer?

Siaire al crap

I'm astonished that any Republican can have the "Stay the course" attitude when there are armed forces and American Civilians being treated like Jewish Settlers in the middle of Palestine. Are you guys really serious? Why are we even there? Oh, that's right, for the ficticious WMD's!? How about this for a reality check, We've had more troops killed since the "Almighty" that conservatives know him as, declared an end of major combat ops. For what, "Dad, I got em for you!" At what cost? Only a couple hundred American boys and girls. Oh, that's right, they were only democratic supporters anyway. Let's face it, they may've gotten Saddam, but hey what about the reason for even going to the middle east in the first place? Hey Usama, how is life? I'm guessing that the Republican party still firmly believes that he was really killed in all the bombing runs after 9/11. How about the thought of finishing one war before starting another? Hmm...can you remember how the Germans were defeated? For anyone to blast a veteran who served combat takes balls. As for the voting history of the Patriot Act, how about the fact that we were dealing with an emotional time and more importantly, if one congressperson or senator would've voted against the norm it would've been anti-American to do so.

All that say our president was justified in sacrificing our men and women in Iraq, I would suggest that you travel to your local recruiter and take up arms. You make that long journey to Kuwait. You take a long ride from Kuwait to Iraq. More importantly, you have shots fired at or near you and say to yourself that we're here for a good purpose. My @ss, you would be wishing that you were home in your snug lifestyle.

I know a little about what the troops are going through. I fully support the men, and women in uniform deal with Iraq aggression on a daily basis.

Believe it or not, I've decided to sit this one out. Mr. Anonymity has struck again and I wanna see what the rest of ya' have to say in response to his pearls of wisdom. Don't e-mail me. Go to the forum page and respond to that post. Hell, I don't even care if you agree with that train of thought. But for once, instead of waging Anonymous vs. Zorcong: Part 7; let's just see what all ya'll have to say to the less than brave folks who feel free to go on the attack, but prefer to remain faceless and nameless. Do it. Have at it. I wanna sit back and read for a change.

After reading that post, I entertained the idea of responding to it for a second or two before feeling the shame of having created an internet SAYSO. This was how I was going to kick things off: Your extreme vapidness combined with your obvious pompousity borders on intellectual dishonesty.

Give it a rip. And post your real e-mail address.

Time for some Atlanta Braves.

Later