9/24 matters as much as 9/11. It matters because in the run up we'll get answers to hard questions that are being asked here and everywhere that supplies of that infamous ideological Kool Aid are running low. Questions like:
Do freedom and public free speech exist in the USA today?
How far are the gangsters willing to go to protect their turf and their profits?
Are we nearing the end of the nightmare, or is the rape of the people of the US just beginning?
It's a simplified but useful generalisation that there have been two kinds of diaries, and two points of view, posted on Kos after Katrina. The first point of view sees the Bush administration as merely incompetent. From this point of view Katrina was an unholy mess, but it was an avoidable unholy mess, caused by infighting and poverty of leadership.
The other point of view sees the Katrina aftermath as something more sinister; at the least an attempt at a very public land grab by the rich at the expense of the poor; at the far extreme - perhaps the domain of the foil hatted, perhaps not - a declaration of outright war on the poor and the black.
The truth about which group is correct isn't obvious yet. It will be after 24/9.
BushCo is now on the back foot. The MSM are breaking ranks, the knives are out among the military and the intelligence professionals - not that the real professionals liked BushCo much anyway - and even some loyalists are jumping ship as it founders.
With 24/9 on its way, BushCo can't afford more bad news. So if there's going to be a fight back, it's going to happen now.
Two things can happen here. The first is that BushCo falls apart. I don't see that as likely, because inside the Tower of Delusion everyone seems to believe the public is exactly where the public is supposed to be. Tanking poll ratings and some minor protests aren't going to change that, because when the shouting is over what can anyone do? The Rovatron will keep believing in this reality until the peasants storm the barricades. And since that's not going to happen, and there are enough cronies in high places to keep the spin machine oiled and running, that's all that anyone needs to know.
The other option is the clamp down. The major protestors are rounded up on a trumped-up terror charge. Maybe they just disappear, in the traditional way of dictatorships the world over. Maybe some major 'terrorist' event steals the headlines right before the public protest happens.
Or maybe the protest goes ahead, and nothing much happens.
Either way - this is where the truth comes out. This is where we're all going to wake up the next day and know exactly what we're dealing with, with no more ambiguity, no more denial, and no more wishful thinking.
I know what I want to happen. I want the protest to pass peacefully. I want people to be allowed to come, to make their point, and to go home.
I know what I think will happen. Based on the record so far, I don't think the next week or so is going to look much like that.
I wrote a lot of this diary before Cindy disappeared. I still could be wrong. I hope I am.
We'll know for sure on the 25th.