In a furious and frantic attempt at "spin," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that although Bush was warned about potential hijackings, the President had no way of knowing the planes were to be used as missiles. EXCUSE ME?!? Only a few days after being warned of hijackings, Bush is told of a guy with known terrorist connections asking to learn to fly a jetliner but not interested in learning how to land one -- and he couldn't connect the dots? What exactly did he think the terrorists were planning instead? Was he thinking at all? Apparently he was not. As a result, some four thousand perfectly innocent American civilians are dead, and their thousands of children and loved ones are widowed, orphaned, bereft because of stupidity at the top.

Only a few days before this shocking revelation, media sources revealed that the Republican National Committee was selling (what else to call it?) photographs of Bush looking pensive and sorrowful in the hours immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. These lovely glossies can be yours for a mere $150 in donations to the Republicans' campaign fund. Apparently the stupidity at the top extended to a revolting inability to recognize the utter inappropriateness of capitalizing on the tragedy of the terrorist attack.

Anyone could have figured out what the terrorists were planning, with the information provided to Bush. Clearly, however, he wasn't capable of making the extremely obvious connection. Neither, it seems, were any of the ostensibly-brilliant Bushites appointed to vital national-security posts. Meantime political operatives of Bush's party were delightedly raking in $150 a pop to trivialize the horrible tragedy. Jeez, Clinton only sold overnights in the Lincoln Bedroom -- a touch crass, maybe, but on the other hand it didn't exploit the death of innocents as the Bush photos clearly and inarguably do.

George W. Bush failed to act, when he had all the information to put two and two together. Worse, he failed to see the NEED to act. He dropped the ball, in as bigtime a way as anyone can drop the ball.

Enough's enough. This guy was first of all not elected. He and his cronies have made a career out of stonewalling Congress. The Bush Justice Department STILL hasn't issued a single indictment in the Enron (that's Enron-Bush's-largest-campaign-contributor)debacle. He backed out of the Kyoto agreement to lower global pollution. He tried to change a law to allow more arsenic in drinking water. He totally reneged on the nuclear-missile agreement with Russia that helped hugely to end the Cold War. He wants to drill for oil, well, EVERYWHERE, but most of all in the pristine Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. He infuriated every Western ally we have by slapping a punitive tariff on foreign steel. When the Mideast crisis boiled over again, he came down on the side of Israel -- not because he thought that was right, but because his spinmeisters told him he might pick up a lot of Jewish voters by doing so. He wants to ban stem-cell cloning even though it could help millions of people suffering from cancer, diabetes, AIDS -- because by doing so he throws a bone to his antiabortion supporters, not because he understands or cares about the implications. He has all-but-publicly kissed the ass of the Saudi royal family because, like his daddy, he worships at the greasy altar of Big Oil. What's next? Can we really afford to let this buffoon remain in office? We tried to impeach Clinton because he fooled around with an intern. Are we going to let Bush slide instead for pooh-poohing and ignoring information that led to the hideous death of thousands of innocent civilians?