I hope I'm wrong

So, there's a new national intelligence estimate out today saying that al Qaeda is planning high impact events in the U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence agencies on Tuesday warned that al Qaeda would intensify efforts to put operatives inside the United States and said there was a heightened threat of attack.

The assessment came in unclassified judgments from a "National Intelligence Estimate on the Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland," which is a compilation of views from the various spy agencies.

Al Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks in 2001, remained the "the most serious terrorist threat" to the U.S. homeland and its leadership continued to plan "high-impact plots," the report said.

Of course, any time a report like this comes out of the Bush administration, particularly when things aren't going well for Bush, one has to be wary of the possibility that Rove is trying to change the subject. Nevertheless, in this case I suspect the report is correct. And, once again, just like the last time there was an N.I.E. saying al Qaeda was planning a major attack on American soil, the prez is on vacation. So, I suspect the odds are probably pretty bad that we'll be able to stop it.

So, the question becomes, what will happen if we do have another attack of 9/11 magnitude? Will people rightly conclude that Bush is an idiot who has done next to nothing useful in protecting us and done almost everything he could to promote hatred of America around the world? Or, will they flock to the Dear Leader once again? I don't know, but I fear that one more attack will destroy whatever vestige of our democracy is left. The Dems will jump on the "get rid of habeas corpus" and "use torture wherever possible" bandwagons, and that'll be it as far as democracy is concerned. I hope I'm wrong.