sears tower plot.

[c.j.jaxxon]

You know those of us who know better believe it was really a diversionary tactic from the real problems Pres. Bush is facing concidering that these guys weren't really that much of a threat. It's also a coincident that Vice Pres. Dick Chaney came to town the next day supposedly to speak and raise money for a republican canidate here. Georgie Porgie is having some problems most of the public hear don't know about.

[Mysteryman]

Well said mate. After over 20 years of regularly visting the US for work and vacations, I was heart sick during my visit last year to see just how many freedoms have been eroded, how much Shrub and the so called Christian right have twisted people's minds - especially on the East coast and how paranoid many citizens are.

Sad that such a free and very open society should buckle so easily - and I'm no way denegrating the impact or suffering of/caused by 9/11.

I'm originally from Manchester UK, a city bombed by the Germans and the IRA. I was told, straight faced, by many Americans that I could have no idea what it is like to be attacked in your own country!! This was before the London bombings last July.

[c.j.jaxxon]

Well we as the people who are "unknowing and uncaring" are letting it erode and we're so into our own daily lives that we figure we don't have time to protest let alone just writing a letter to the man who stole the election in the first place!

[Mysteryman]

There is no real national press (USA Today apart) the TV news tends to follow the Government line, especially since Fox News grabbed massive audiences by being ultra right wing, CNN is a shadow of its former truthful self and even ABC, once the most centre to "left" leaning TV news hardly squeaks today.

The average US citizen knows little or nothing of the rest of the world. In the early 1980s only 5% had passports, today the figure is around 12%-15% depending on where you find the statistics.

I used to travel to Eastern Europe and the US on business in the 1980s. Many in the US were surprised that:

a. I got into the USA with travel behind the Iron Curtain on my passport

b. I managed to "get out" of Communist countries.

I now live in Ireland. Many Americans I've met - generally well educated and in business at management level - think that Ireland is at war with England or that Ireland is an English province.

[c.j.jaxxon]

No joke!

[c.j.jaxxon]

When i said "no joke" I was agreeing with ya! Now who's gonna get the bullet? Saddam? George? What's his name, my main man holed up in the mountains in the mid-east? (DON'T ANSWER THAT!) !laugh! !laugh!