So yesterday I had the privilege of driving from my office in psuedo-Santa Monica down to Torrance, for a family function. This involves using the 405, the 105, and the 110 all during rush hour. And it only took 6 hrs and 37 minutes - record time! I know I shouldn't bitch...lord knows there are people that have far worse commutes on a daily basis.

(By the way, I love all the hordes of people who've moved to LA in the last 10-15 years in order to make it in the industry who then bitch about how crowded it is here, how the traffic sucks, and how the people - usually from somewhere else - are so shallow & fake. Here's my suggestion: ...Then move back to where you friggin' came from! I know I sound bitter but I've been dealing with this phenomenon for years. Anyways, it's inconsequential: When I'm Royal Supreme Dictator of the new Southern California Republic I'll be deporting you all back home. In the meantime, enjoy!)

And now that I've vented Pat Buchanan-style, back to my point.

I was listening to NPR the whole way to Torrance, pretty-much dealing entirely with the 9/11 report (besides an important news-flash on the insignificance of marinating your steak - turns out it only penetrates the meat an 8th on an inch, tops). They interviewed this 9/11 widow, who lost her husband in Tower 2, and who's a chair on the 9/11 families' steering commission. She was a real pleasure to listen to, especially considering her eloquence in the face of the direct emotional stomach-punch that this report must be for her. She recounted how their families' group went to Washington, and kept getting the runaround from Congressmen, literally passed down the hall from one office to another, until the group finally commandeered an empty conference room, re-strategized, and turned the tables on Congress - re-inventing the rules of the game on the fly. They basically called a very-public press conference and announced to the country that any Congressmen that wanted to come to THEM should feel happy to do so.

Friggin brilliant!

But here's what gets me - that nonpartisan report obviously pulled a lot of punches due to the election season. It starts off offering a laundry list of key opportunities missed to prevent the attacks that in retrospect seem so basic and simple it's painfully tragic. i.e., put suspected terrorists on 'no fly' lists, or, pay attention to field agents in arizona...any attention given to just one of these details could have honed authorities in to gradually (and agressively) uncover what Al Quaeda had up its sleeve.

But, at the same time, the report refuses to go on record and say "the attacks could have been prevented."

...Huh?

Now THERE'S a great non-sequitor. On NPR both Rober Seegull AND the 9-11 lady quickly brushed past this seeing no problem in logic, saying that playing the blame game would get partisan and political and, I guess, counterproductive. "What's done is done and in the past - we need to move forward now" is what she said, in reference to the absence of any blame to either the Clinton admin, the Bush admin, or both, in the report.

I'm sorry - but if there's something we should know about either of those administrations, even if it IS all in the past, NOW's the time to tell us. It IS an election year, making it all the more important to assign blame wherever it may be, and allowing the voters of this country - all 102 of them - to be sufficiently informed going into the booth this November.

I don't care if it's 'partisan' or 'political' - it's time to get down in the mud and dig, people.