APRIL 4 ATTACKS UPDATE
April 5, 2011 - Reuters - President Clinton, whose term of office had labored under the shadow of the widely-disputed circumstances of her 2008 election by the Democratic House of Representatives in
an arcane electoral rule, remains missing and presumed dead.
Capitol Hill clean-up teams have recovered
remains of at least 318 individuals. The victims are presumed to include all 47 Democratic Senators and 224 Democratic members of the House of Representatives, along with Capitol Security, staff and building workers, Vice President Wesley Clark, Secretary of State Eric Shinseki, Homeland Security Secretary Patty Murray, and former President Bill Clinton.
GOP members of the House and Senate, who were spared in Monday's attacks because of the general boycott of President Clinton, remained defiant in their characterization of President Clinton's recent shutdown of the NSA over evidence of a
"coup plot" and her declaration of a National Emergency. Citing the events of recent months as "a deplorable, dangerous authoritarian takeover attempt," Senate Majority Leader and acting President Elizabeth Dole stated Tuesday that the nation's most urgent need was the swearing-in of a new President and a new Congress, expected to be hand-picked by the surviving government leadership.
TERROR PAIR INSPIRED BY CULT FILM
April 7, 2011 - AP - In the nation's largest terror attacks since September 11, 2001, two middle-class self-described "admirers of Al Qaeda" who infiltrated the USAF with the long-term goal of flying their F-16s into the Capitol Dome appear to have achieved their "dream" with horrorific results. Described as "outsiders among the outcasts" even in the well-disciplined, tightly-knit world of the U.S. Air Force, the trail of evidence has emerged to reveal a 2006 film, "V Is For Vendetta," as one of the sources of inspiration for Monday's attacks by Senior Airman Jason Chase and Airman First Class Ki Han.
"The government has grown into a monster, both partys (sic) are feared by the people ...instead of the people being feared by the government, as it should be," wrote Chase in his last diary entry dated April 3, on the eve of the attacks. The diary and other items, found in his personal effects and leaked to FOX News just three days after the Capitol Hill attacks, reveal a troubled loner who was privately enraged by the Air Force's investigation of Chase and Han last September for an alleged homosexual incident. The diary entries appear to have encoded a plot to "erase" the entire U.S. Federal Government in one swooping Kamikaze act -- and these entries pre-date the Air Force investigation, but appear to expand with fervor following the investigation, which had concluded that both airmen had not violated any boundaries.
The cryptic red "V" which adorns the inside jacket of the Chase diary signals the fantasy world which the journal elaborately depicts. For the would-be Al Qaeda martyr and "rescuer of democracy," the diary unravels a life of unreconciled contradictions and confused impulses. Like the terrorist "hero" of the 2006 cult film, Chase identified with feelings of personal injury and estrangement from the very society he sought to "liberate," and like the protagonist of the film, Chase appears to have embraced leftist elements, Islamic zealotry, and Jeffersonian extremism.
Sources close to the investigation say that the leaked Chase diary and other items, including an iPod carrying the music of Nine Inch Nails, Kanye West and the Sex Pistols, may contain encrypted secrets of an unknown network of Al Qaeda sympathizers and operatives, extending into the highest reaches of the U.S. military. "It's probable, given that Chase was almost weeks away from being promoted to Staff Sergeant, that the Air Force and other branches, especially Iraq Veterans who have been exposed to the likes of Air America, could have established long-term plans to disable the military or even have successfully aspired to overthrow it, crafting a network of moles and dissidents, within the military and outside it," suggested one unnamed high-ranking source. "There will have to be investigations, and a
purge."
PRESIDENT SCHWARZENEGGER SWORN-IN AS 45TH PRESIDENTApril 6 - AP - In the continuing
developments following Monday's attacks, Governor Schwarzenegger was sworn-in Tuesday night by Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts as the nation's 45th President at midnight in a live, televised gathering in front of the Lincoln Memorial. "America will rise from the ashes," declared President Schwarzenegger to a cheering crowd in his brief Inaugural remarks. "I will not let these terrorists, foriegn or domestic, nor their accomplices in political office --
our domestic enemies -- ever threaten this land again."
President Schwarzenegger again alluded to his 2008 campaign theme, reiterating that "America is not a home for the weak. America is a home for the strong." Many of the new President's supporters in the late-night crowd were from the
"Presidency In Exile" group, which had maintained a unsuccessful demand for Vote Fraud investigations following the disputed 2008 Presidential election, in which no candidate achieved the plurality of electoral votes required.
"We have lost much, we have been through many difficult years, but we have not lost our way as a nation. We have a duty to our forefathers to rebuild their gift to us, and we have a duty to our grandfathers and fathers who died to protect that gift, the land of America and its Constitution. We shall uphold that duty. We shall not turn our backs, as some would have us do. We shall protect and defend this great nation, even in this hour of pain and sorrow. Because even in this hour of midnight in our nation's history, we understand that midnight ... is where the day begins."
The President concluded his brief remarks by indicating that "we all have a lot of work to do, to restore this great nation and its great government. We all have a role to play, to 'give proof through the night, that our flag is still there,' that we will defeat the enemy." Schwarzenegger's first act as President is expected to be the signing of the New Constitution, already drafted and passed unanimously by the new Congress.
DAN RATHER SUPPORTS CBS' DECISION FOR NATIONAL MEDIA ACCESS ACT
April 12, 2011 - AP - Following the reversal of CBS' decision to oppose the National Media Access Act, former news anchor
Dan Rather stepped out of retirement one week after the April 4 attacks to urge his colleagues in media and journalism news to support the proposed legislation which would curb domestic media abuses by giving limited control and oversight of news and journalism to the Federal Government.
"Nitpicking is bad for America. We cannot afford the licentiousness of the past. Media has grown into an out-of-control wildfire, and the media inspirations of the perpetrators proves once-and-for-all, that we can't afford to allow wildfires anymore," Rather said in statements to the National Press Club on Monday.
Rather lauded the decisions last week of NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX News to offer President Schwarzenegger live access for any reason, at any time. The networks, except for CBS and CNN, also offered the President full control of their news departments, in a show of patriotism. "Freedom of the press does not mean a loaded gun is to be waved indiscriminately. In a sense, some of the blood of this tragedy is on the media's hands," Rather stated to a solemn room of his successors in the journalism field, some of whom were willing to characterize Rather as a "fallen statesman."
"I agree with CBS's decision," Rather said, describing the National Media Access Act as an overdue remediation to a culture in distress, even challenging the motives of dissenters, notably on the Internet blogs and Salon.com. "The only question in my mind of how to protect the nation from these deluded snipers and misfits is whether or not we can contain their hostility by this legislation alone, for the greater good."
Rather's speech reaffirmed that his early values and long-standing journalistic goals were well-served by the proposed legislation. "If the media doesn't take a stand against domestic terror, then it doesn't take a stand for America." Rather predicted a "reunified and rededicated national family" in an upbeat vision of the months ahead. "President Schwarzenegger is
going to restore America."
Schwarzenegger Accepts Nomination; McCain-Lieberman declare "National Unity Party"July 4, 2008 - AP - The Governor of California, whose plummeting poll-numbers were reversed when he was televised live in "action-hero" mode rescuing Californians during a catastrophic natural disaster, was nominated today for Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency. His running-mate, Rudy Giuliani, is also a modern folk-hero for his handling of the September 11 attacks.
"America is not a home for the weak. America is a home for the strong," said Schwarzenegger to a cheering Republican National Convention. The 2008 GOP convention had been under a dark cloud -- a gathering of a party which had been reeling from three years of economic depression, scandals, and unprecedented national disasters.
Many of the conventioneers expressed relief over the passage of
Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)'s legislation to permit foriegn-born citizens to become President. "We wouldn't have had a chance" against the Democratic Clinton/Clark ticket, one conventioneer said.
Instead, the immigrant-turned-Presidential candidate saga seems to have the potential to unify all corners across the weary nation, from the angry to the desperate, from the disengaged to the bereaved.
Others, however, have signalled their strong belief that only the "National Unity Party" of Senators John McCain and Joesph Lieberman can rescue a nation torn by war, economic strife and natural disaster. "The danger in times of an economic great depression, in any country, is the rise of a dictatorship and the popular demand for just such a solution," said a highly-ranked member of the RNC, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Schwarzenegger is toning-up the rhetoric instead of toning-down, and the other option is no option at all, because Hillary is too polarizing and tepid at the same time. A lot of us moderates feel that there is no solution except the NUP idea."
For the grand closing night of the 2008 Republican National Convention, however, the revitalized Republican Party, under the leadership of the California strongman, seems unstoppable.
