The US had a chance to demonstrate how great a country we are after 9/11, and we botched it. Speedy and fair trials for anyone involved, total elimination of Al Qaeda, and political and economic pressure on governments that provide support for fanaticism. Instead our world image looks roughly like Saddam when he was pulled from his spider hole. Thanks a lot, W.

FarkingUpTheWrongTree: This is really one of the most fundamental flaws in our legal system. In order to find completely unbiased jurors, they wind up tracking down 12 of the most ignorant people they can possibly find.

Not true. This is what makes our justice system the best in the world, the knowledge that you have the opportunity to be tried by a fair and impartial group of people. Tracking down "ignorant" people is the fault of the attorneys-- they're making a classic mistake of mixing up "fair and impartial" with "not knowing the news".

You can still be biased to think that 9/11 was a horrible event, and still be unbiased as to someone's role/guilt in that event. The defense attorney is making a huge mistake in not believing that statement and is instead turning to the classic "let's find idiots" strategy. This strategy actually tends to backfire quite a bit, as the "idiots" in the jury are much, much more likely to render judgement based upon emotion than someone who knows about the case but still says that they can be impartial.

Bears dont like curry: I hesitate to put all the blame on bush.

You are, naturally, spot on. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith, Kristol, et al are evil motherfarkers who will most assuredly be spending the afterlife burning. But the president is the public face of the government. Bush is the one up on the podium saying "I'm the decider". "The buck stops here" is more than a slogan.

Consider this: Rumsfeld's statement of "go massive" on 9/11 being approved by Bush, versus the joint chiefs advising JFK to pre-emptively attack during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The president always has the final say.