I was in bed when Christine Nagy on Z100 said...
Just like everyone else, I remember exactly where I was and exactly what was going on at the time. I had set my alarm for 8:35am, the same as I had it set every other day, and just like every other day, I was in bed listening to the radio until about 9 trying to get those last few minutes of "like sleep" before doing the 5 minute rush to get out of the door and to work when Christine Nagy over Z100 radio said something along the lines of "we just got a report about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. We don't know if it's a small..." and I don't think I listened any further as I rushed down stairs to turn the TV on and see what the hell she was talking about. Sure enough, every channel had already ditched their garbage morning "news" and the same morning news clowns, that were surely just telling the "news" about Britney Spears or some other garbage celebrity, were now speculating that this was some tragic aviation accident and probably not terrorism. It was just moments later that I watched with my own eyes on my own TV as a second airplane flew into the right side of the picture and proceeded to crash into the other tower. I recalling screaming something along the lines of "holy sh** we're under attack!" but I was home alone so I don't know who the heck I might have been talking to or why I might have said anything. Living just 3 blocks from the Raritan Bay, I threw on some clothes and literally ran down to the beach and took a look across the bay, where I knew I could see the towers as I did many times before, just to make sure that this was no TV trickery, I was hoping and thinking that I was still dreaming and had a few more minutes before I had to get to work but before I could even reach the beach, the smoke from the towers had already left a trail across the sky and I knew that what I was about to see would be more awful than what was on the TV. A crowd had already gathered at the beach and we all stood in disbelief as we watched the towers burn, and we watched and most people engaged in idle chatter about how the NYFD would put out a fire 100 floors above ground level; we were oblivious to the horror and confusion that our neighbors, and many of these people's family members, were experiencing just miles away on the other side of the bay. It wasn't too much longer before we all just stopped speaking, watched a tremendous amount of smoke and dust billow up and one of the two towers had disappeared; no TV trickery, no magic trick, it was gone and I recall a few women who were standing together not far from me screaming and crying, I think I might have even shed a tear myself but I don't recall as a sense of anger had come over me by this point and I could also hear an older gentlemen telling some other people "we're going to war". At some point in that time, I heard people claiming to have heard on the radio that the Pentagon had been attacked, the White House has been attacked, the Sears Tower had been attacked, and there were planes in route to other targets; it wasn't until I eventually went to work that I knew anything other than the towers had really been attacked.

9/11 was NOT some government conspiracy, man.
I'll ask, and in fact BEG, you right now; *IF* you think 9/11 was some kind of government conspiracy, DO NOT vote for me. I might be the first politician demanding people NOT vote for me, but I'm serious, *IF* you believe that our government somehow plotted and planned the 9/11 attacks, I DO NOT want you to vote for me and I honestly hope that I manage to make decisions in congress that benefit everyone in the 6th District EXCEPT FOR YOU personally and I mean that wholeheartedly.

As I outlined, I watched the attacks happen with my own eyes. I've read all of the documents supporting all sides of the "debate" and I've watched all of the carefully crafted videos supporting all sides and it is mind boggling that there are people who are willing to ignore all of the obvious facts and instead chose to believe obscure, unreliable, misquoted or misunderstood quotes. Somehow, there are people who believe that the same government that they accuse of being incompetent could somehow pull off something as complicated at the entire 9/11 attacks. Somehow, these people believe that our "war on terror" is totally offbase and that islamic fundamentalists really do love the US and it is the US government that hates us; just stop, for one second, and think about it, use that brain atop your shoulders for one second and face the truth - your government, the people you elected, Frank Pallone included as he has never voted for any kind of national defense appropriations, was simply not prepared to be attacked, and we as a nation were caught with our proverbial pants down while people who hate us, for whatever reason, attacked us. Your government, the same incompetents that can't get anything else right, did not attack you, they also didn't defend this nation - and sadly, they are still not doing enough to defend this country. Some sports guys would claim "the best offense is a good defense" and our national defense today is just as bad as it was on 9/11, and people like Frank Pallone are doing nothing to make our borders and citizens any safer.

The War on Terror
I fully support the US War on Terror and I don't believe that we as a nation are doing enough to win that war. Our mission in Iraq is complete; we got rid of Saddam, we confirmed he has no weapons of mass destruction, let's get back to finding Osama Bin Laden now. He might be in Afghanistan, he might be in Pakistan, he might be in Africa somewhere, who knows, and that is the exact problem - we don't know where he is - and he is public enemy number 1 - we should know exactly where he is, and we should capture and kill him. If countries like Pakistan don't want to help us catch and kill him, or don't want to allow our military to operate freely in their country to capture and kill him, I propose a US trade embargo with Pakistan - keep your products and we'll keep our money - see if the government of Pakistan has a sudden change of heart. The US Constitution permits congress to authorize Letters of Marquee and reprisal, which allow the US government to target a citizen or subject or another state as reparation for an injury or crime committed by another state or it's citizens and subjects.

The War on Terror ends at our borders
The Patriot Act does NOT aide in the war on terror, it places we citizens at the mercy of the government and the act must be repealed immediately. The war on terror is best won by capturing and killing Osama Bin Laden in whatever country he is in right now. The war on terror does not, and should not, mean that the citizens of the US suffer needless surveillance and wiretapping to win the war on the terror. Protect our borders, all of them, to the north and the south, the international airports and shipping ports, and we'd do just fine. If the police in this country weren't burdened with arresting teenagers for drinking at the wrong age, and weren't burdened with writing traffic tickets for driving 5mph over the speed limit, and if the courts weren't burdened with lawsuits to resolve church issues such as marriage and divorce, and if the courts weren't burdened with hearing about traffic violations, then maybe the police and the courts could be going after real problems, like "home grown terrorism". If the government wasn't wiretapping you and me talking to mom and dad, maybe the government could be doing the detective work to find real criminals and wiretapping them instead. Just think, the Patriot Act lets the government wiretap your phone without a court warrant. If you are anything like me, those phone calls they might be listening in on (at our expense as tax payers) might include things like "Hi Mom." or "I don't want to buy your product and don't call here again!" or maybe "press 2 for English" - if we weren't paying for the government to listen in on that non-sense, MAYBE we could be paying for them to find the real problems, get a court warrant and address the real problem, almost like doing real police work.

Protect US borders, not "their" borders
Terrorism is intended to do one thing - make people live in fear of terror. While I am certain that 9/11 had nothing to do with a US government plot, I am convinced it has everything to do with the government's lack of defense. We have over 50,000 troops sitting on a border between North and South Korea, how many troops are stationed, armed and ready to fire, on the border between the US and Mexico? The US and Canada? We have armed and ready to fire ships in the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean Sea, Japan, China, India and everywhere else, how many war ships protect NY Harbor? The Chesapeake Bay? We fly armed air patrols over Iraq and Africa every day - when is the last time you saw an armed fighter jet protecting the sky's above your neighborhood? I'm not asking for a military police state, I'm asking for our borders to be defended at least half as well as we're paying to defend other country's borders.

As a congressman, I would vote to increase DEFENSE of the US spending, NOT offense from the US spending, which means I'll vote to bring our troops home from all other countries and have them ready and available to protect our borders just as we pay them now to protect other country's borders. I have no problem with my tax money being spent to protect me, so long as that defense doesn't impede on my personal civil liberties and doesn't mean I'm paying to make some savages in some other country safer. I represent this country, specifically this state, not South Korea or Germany or any other foreign nation, and I won't waste your tax money protecting the people of those countries before I spend your tax money to protect you from islamic fundamentalists and any other terrorists who might want to attack you, again, just as they did on 9/11.