i missed the show. Did they also mention the sound of the exposion as the plane was shot down? I was listening to the radio at the time the plane flew over our area in Ohio and then was shot down over Pennsylvania. Yes, it's true. Residents there said a military jet had just shot down a passenger plane. That would explain why debris was spread over an 8-mile area along the flight path. I'm sorry the people who tried to take back the plane were unsuccessful, but the White House had to be protected. This must be the most heartbreaking part of the whole thing for the family members.

Right. Teena...you forgot to mention that George Bush was flying the plane that shot down Flight 93. You also forgot to mention Al Gore really did win the Presidential election in 2000. You also failed to mention that Dick Cheney shot down Paul Wellstone's plane. Are you sure it wasn't the second shooter from the grassy knoll that shot down Flight 93?
What about Hallibuton blowing up the levee's in New Orleans? Get right on it.

Teena, here's what takes your idea from stupid to just plain lunatic: the notion that there would be a coverup if a fighter jet *had* shot down Flight 93.

Why cover up that tragic but necessary action, if it had occurred? An imagined notion that Americans simply couldn't handle it? You'd probably like to think that that "reality" is the straw that would break the back of Bush support in this country, but you'd be wrong.

I have no doubt that if a figher jet had shot down Flight 93, President Bush would have appeared with that pilot within the week, pinning a medal on him and telling Americans to always remember that he was a hero.

It's beyond stupid to think that this would have been regarded as a shameful act worthy of coverup. I leave it to those who claim that there is a coverup to demonstrate that that attitude exists in the current administration.

Mitch, I have to admit, you have my favorite troll. Like barrelfishing, but less sporting...like the barrel is filled with Stupid Juice(TM) and the fish are drinking it as much as breathing it.

As I first posted, the radio report came just after the shoot-down occurred. Why would someone concoct a conspiracy theory on the spot when the whole 9/11 tragedy was just unfolding? Your theory almost suggests that there were anti-Bush people ready to make the whole shoot-down story up. You must admit that is just as stupid an idea as you seem to think a possible shoot-down is, although that is what the jets ARE supposed to do when the country is threatened. Did you not read this statement?: I'm sorry the people who tried to take back the plane were unsuccessful, but the White House had to be protected.

Oh, I see, you're flogging a four-year-old fog of war rumor and then backing away from it the instant you're called on it.

Whatever floats your dinghy.

Teena....Since you just happened to be listening to the radio "in your area in Ohio' could you please tell us what station you were listening to and who in fact made the report on air and what time it was when you were listening. Could you also identify some of those 'residents' that you say saw a 'military jet' shoot down a passenger plane. How would you know that the White House was in fact the intended target?

The hardest part for me to listen to was Mark Bingham's mom's voicemail telling him he had to do something. Such determination - she had to know that she was essentially asking her son to kill himself for the greater good.

I bet the fighter jets locked onto his cellphone signal while he was downloading the voicemail. Damn you, Pres. Bush!

(Sorry)

(Thus proving what I told you about monomania, Mitch: It's catching!)

Oh, and did you catch the contrast between the flight instructor and the martial arts instructor? His part in the show was far too small to draw accurate conclusions, but the martial arts guy really did seem right pumped about his erstwhile student's apparently successful application of the techniques he taught. I hope I'm wrong.

Teena, I'm imagining the day, maybe about ten years from now, when you're sitting on a porch somewhere, possibly sipping tea, thumbing through your latest issue of "Better Homes and Gardens." You taking a lingering sip of your tea, and suddenly you just kind of pause there, and the cup falls from your hands and clatters apart on the floor, but you barely notice that. Because, in that instant, you will have suddenly and horrifically realized that everything you've believed in your lifetime up to that point has been completely and totally wrong. All those weird stares, you'll realize, weren't because people held you in high regard or thought you were particularly insightful, but because you've been so bat-shit unstable all your life, almost everyone has considered you a frightful loon. You'll be stuck in that position on your porch for a good six hours, unable to move, as wave after wave of embarrassing recollection washes over you: all the conspiracy theories you've bought into, all the myopic idiocy, all the countless times you openned your mouth or typed a sentence that was uninformed, hysterical nonsense. It will be a difficult six hours, Teena, but you'll get through it.

Teena- The program actually addressed the speculation that Flight 93 had been shot down, but quickly dismissed it by explaining that no military aircraft were anywhere near the area when it went down. Of course, the Discovery Channel producers are probably part of the cover up, aren't they? Along with the air traffic controllers, local fire and police officials in Pennsylvania, NTSB investigators, the military, everyone in the Bush Administration, the Trilateral Commission...

Waitadangminute, Elder - Wasn't Ilyan Ramon training in the US at the time? He was a pretty good pilot, I hear - that would explain a lot about why they (excuse me, I mean They) had to cover up the shoot-down - *and* why Columbia had to come down.