today,
I had planned a go at the simple living craze, but was distracted by an article in New York Times under the headline: CIA Report finds its officials failed in pre-9/11 efforts.

The findings, which are still classified, among other things, pose a quandary for for the CIA and the administration, particuarly because El Presidente just last month (see posting 12/15 2004) awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom to CIA intelllligence chief George Tenet, for building a strong case for going to war with Iraq.

Already and selbverstaendlich, the article also empahsizes the methods of how the CIA and the administration is covering their own asses by removing and relocating personal involved in the pre 9/11 efforts and strategics.
An official reprensenting the CIA puts it this way: "To round up the good guys and shoot them for doing their jobs - I can`t help shaking my head."
That the planes actually did hit WTC and Pentagon on 9/11 and the only conclusion possible must be, that the goods guys didn`t do their job doesn`t seem to have any effect.
This kind of bending the thruth and information per se is by some called The Republican Noisemachine.

the deathtoll today: 1333 GI´s in Iraq, 119 in Afghanistan, and an estimated 100.000 dead iraqi civilians, but still there is no official count.