If this makes you feel safer, then by all means: Vote Republican

Where to begin?

Do we start with the news from the BBC that, apparently, four of the men identified as the suicide bombers on 9/11/01 are in fact alive?

The identities of four of the 19 suspects accused of having carried out the attacks are now in doubt.

Saudi Arabian pilot Waleed Al Shehri was one of five men that the FBI said had deliberately crashed American Airlines flight 11 into the World Trade Centre on 11 September.

His photograph was released, and has since appeared in newspapers and on television around the world.

Now he is protesting his innocence from Casablanca, Morocco.

He told journalists there that he had nothing to do with the attacks on New York and Washington, and had been in Morocco when they happened. He has contacted both the Saudi and American authorities, according to Saudi press reports.

If at least four of the men named by US intelligence are still walking around talking to reporters, does this mean we should stop calling them suicide bombers and start calling them <air quotes> suicide</air quotes> bombers? (Hat tip to Becky at PK for this catch.)

Or should we start with the news that--thanks to our partners in peace, Pakistan--while you were kicking back over Labor Day weekend, Osama bin Ladin was probably doing pretty much the same? According to ABC News:

Osama bin Laden, America's most wanted man, will not face capture in Pakistan if he agrees to lead a "peaceful life," Pakistani officials tell ABC News.

The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part of a "peace deal" with the Taliban.

If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden "would not be taken into custody," Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, "as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen."

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border, but U.S. officials say his precise location is unknown.

In addition to the pullout of Pakistani troops, the "peace agreement" between Pakistan and the Taliban also provides for the Pakistani army to return captured Taliban weapons and prisoners.

"What this means is that the Taliban and al Qaeda leadership have effectively carved out a sanctuary inside Pakistan," said ABC News consultant Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism director.

The agreement was signed on the same day President Bush said the United States was working with its allies "to deny terrorists the enclaves they seek to establish in ungoverned areas across the world."

And yet, incredibly, Bush and the Congressional Republicans figure that banging the drum on national security is their best chance to keep control after November.

Of course, maybe it's not so incredible, considering that the latest Zogby International poll finds that 65% of Republican voters still--still!--believe the falsehood, repeated endlessly by Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, and their enablers in the media, that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11/01 attacks.

If it was only a matter of voters so willfully misinformed gettting the goverment they deserve, I'd sit back, laugh, and watch it happen.

The problem is, the rest of us keep getting stuck with the government they deserve too, and that has to stop.