The path to boredom:

I've been studiously avoiding the whole controversy about the ABC's mocumentary "The Path to 9/11" because there's already been too much said about it already. I'm of the mind that if the lefty bloggers and former Clinton administration officials hadn't freaked out, probably no one would have bothered watching it anyway. Now everyone is going to have to check out who gets more blame for 9/11. From the reviews I've read by people who've actually seen it, it seems like it's a real sleeperama; more than likely only the most hardcore politicos will be able to sit through all four and a half hours.

For myself, I wasn't going to watch it anyway because it's on at the same time on Sunday as the Giants/Colts game. (That Peyton Manning is a real punk, I'm hoping those New York football Giants will wipe that smirk off his face, but I'm not holding my breath.) Besides that, I'm probably not alone in thinking I don't want to spend four and half hours of being reminded about the 9/11 attacks. I could barely handle the black- screen scene in "Fahrenheit 9/11," which only played the sounds of the attacks on the WTC.

For me, the memories are still too raw. I was working a block away from the FBI building in DC on 9/11 and every time I see anything to do with that day I get this indescribable sick feeling in my gut. It took me weeks to begin to not break out in a sweat every time I got on the Metro to go to work. It didn't help either that right after 9/11 we had the anthrax scare in DC and a while later the sniper killings in Maryland and Virginia. It was bad enough that I was terrified to take the Metro, but then I didn't even want to stand outside the car long enough to pump gas. Every time I saw a jet flying overhead or a white truck, I had to stop myself from panicking.

So when I say how continually disgusted and appalled I am about how W. & Co. have exploited 9/11 and those who died on that day to further their political agenda, you can understand why. There's a special place in hell for those who built a case for invading Iraq on the rubble of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Now, comparing that to some stupid TV show is just silly. Let's keep our eyes on the ball here. As we speak W. is planning to give another one of his terror speeches on Monday, right after the conclusion of the last part of "the Path to 9/11." (Could he and Karl Rove be any more shameless?) No doubt, the speech will be heavy on the "war on terror" and mention Iraq very briefly if at all. That's kind of funny, incidentally, because they've been saying all along that Iraq was the "central front" in the war on terror, yet somehow its been conspicuously absent from W.'s new series of terror speeches. I wonder why?

But I guess Iraq is "old news," too, just like the new Senate Intelligence Committee report that says there was never any evidence that Saddam was in cahoots with al-Qaeda. [WaPo] We're on to bigger and better things; like trying the al-Qaeda detainees in W.'s kangaroo courts. And, more importantly, getting that legislation passed that retroactively immunizes those CIA interrogators that might have gotten a little too rough with their captives --and killed them. I can't wait for the final weeks of W.'s presidency when he starts pre-emptively pardoning all his partners in crime. Can a president pardon himself?

Note: You know, come to think of it, I read that Penny Johnson Jerald is playing Condi, so I might have to tune in for just that part. What perfect casting! To refresh everyone's memory; she's the actor who played President Palmer's conniving wife in 24. After playing Mrs. Palmer, Jerald should have no problem fitting right in to the Condi role.