The greatest series of earthquakes in U.S. history began when an 8.6 magnitude quake rocked the Mississippi River Valley near New Madrid, Missouri on December 16th 1811. The earthquake raised and lowered parts of the Mississippi Valley by as much as 15 feet and changed the course of the Mississippi River. At one point, the Mississippi momentarily reversed its direction, and created Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee. Now that was an earthquake.

I’ve experienced a couple of geological earthquakes that were unnerving at the moment, but in my lifetime there have been three socio-political earthquakes whose aftershocks have reverberated for decades:

The JFK Assassination, the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify a national election by installing George W. Bush as president, and the attacks of September 11th 2001.

Do I believe members of the Bush Administration were key players in the 9/11 attacks and either “made it happen” or “allowed it to happen?” I don’t know. I will probably never know. Over the last 12 years scores of credible sources have raised enough questions about The government’s “official story” to render it unbelievable. What I do believe is anyone capable of committing the supreme international crime, a war of aggression, is capable of anything.

So here we all are … 12 years after the event that was the 2nd half of the "one-two punch" that flattened the United States of America. 12 years after a socio-political earthquake completely changed the direction of the country. And either by chance or design, the Bush/Cheney regime was immediately at the ready to implement the course change.

In November 2007 I wrote the following about the first of the socio-political earthquakes to hit The New American Century.

11/09/07

George Bush Must Be President!

Election Night - November 7th 2000 - John Ellis of Fox News calls the state of Florida for George Bush after getting off the phone with Jeb Bush saying, "Jebbie says we got it!"

John Ellis is the first cousin of Jeb Bush and George Bush.

Within the next four minutes, NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC all followed suit. Later the networks retracted their prediction of a Gore victory and placed Florida back into the "undecided" column.

And then at approximately 2:30 am, with some 85% of the votes counted in Florida and Bush leading Gore by more than 100,000 votes, the networks declared that Bush had carried Florida, and had been elected President. However, most of the remaining votes to be counted in Florida were located in three heavily Democratic counties and as their votes were reported Gore began to gain on Bush. By 4:30 am Gore had narrowed Bush's margin to less than 2,000 votes, and the networks retracted their predictions that Bush had won Florida and the Presidency. Gore, who had privately conceded the election to Bush now withdrew his concession and announced that he would wait for a recount.

34 days after the election The Supreme Court prematurely ended the Florida recount.

According to the Justice Scalia:

"The counting of votes … threatens irreparable harm to Governor Bush, and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election."

Reactions to the Court's ruling were immediate and damning:

Yale law professor Akhil Reed Amar noted the five conservative Justices "failed to cite a single case that, on its facts, comes close to supporting its analysis and result."

Vincent Bugliosi wrote in None Dare Call It Treason:

If, indeed, the Court, as the critics say, made a politically motivated ruling (which it unquestionably did), this is tantamount to saying, and can only mean, that the Court did not base its ruling on the law. And if this is so (which again, it unquestionably is), this means that these five Justices deliberately and knowingly decided to nullify the votes of the 50 million Americans who voted for Al Gore and to steal the election for Bush … The stark reality, and I say this with every fiber of my being, is that the institution Americans trust the most to protect its freedoms and principles committed one of the biggest and most serious crimes this nation has ever seen--pure and simple, the theft of the presidency. And by definition, the perpetrators of this crime have to be denominated criminals.

Regardless of the Supreme Court decision, Al Gore was the choice of Florida's voters. The core finding of the eight news organizations that conducted a review of disputed Florida ballots was by any measure … Gore won.

Why was it so important that at every step of the recount process … from hired Republican thugs bused down to disrupt the recount … to the Supreme Court ultimately stopping the recount … Why was it absolutely necessary to install George Bush as President? What did he accomplish in his first 233 Days in office?

He moved to block federal aid to foreign groups that offered counseling or any other assistance to women in obtaining abortions.

He created the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to distribute government money to religious groups.

He ordered military strikes against Iraq. American bombs destroyed radar stations near the capital, Baghdad, killing two people.

He reversed a rule reducing the levels of arsenic in drinking water.

He rejected the Kyoto Treaty.

He refused to help consumers harmed by the California's electricity crisis.

He opposed comprehensive protections for patients in HMOs.

He refused to provide adequate funding for low-income energy assistance.

He decided to allow cable TV and telephone monopolies to expand.

He endorsed a bankruptcy bill that excessively punishes honest consumers hit by unexpected debts.

He proposed killing a program to help low-income consumers who cannot afford to open bank accounts.

He proposed ending government testing for salmonella in school lunches.

He spent 54 days at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., 38 days at Camp David, and a four-day weekend at the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, which worked out to slightly more than 40 percent of his time.

Why was it so important to get this guy in office? Why did the Elite Machine go to such great lengths to install this do-nothing half-wit?

And then … 234 days into his first term as president … September 11th 2001.

Since then 4,582 Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

23,000-100,000 more have been wounded.

An estimated 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed.

But most importantly to George Bush and his cronies … Over 467 billion dollars has been spent on the wars and is currently being spent at the rate of almost two hundred thousand dollars a minute.

I guess that's enough money to subvert the rule of law, corrupt The Supreme Court, destroy the Constitution, manipulate Mainstream Media, and turn this country into a Fascist State.

When we're talking about that kind of money … Screw the people … George Bush Must Be President!