Maybe it's terrorism, maybe it's a problem in the power grid caused by a local Niagara Falls power generation plant.

Either way you look at it, this disaster, affecting over 20 million people, is a screaming example of the failure of the Bush administration to protect the people and resources of the US.

Assume the Bush Admin will deny any terrorist connection, since this would show total failure of the Homeland Defense Program. Of course , if it's not terrorism then it is due to massively incompetent energy system design and Planning-- also Bush's Fault.

Even if this massive power outage was totally innocent, due to a power grid problem that started at a local power plant, it is clear that the design and management of the nation's power distribution structure is seriously flawed. And this problem has to fall at the feet of the most incompetent, most poorly advised president in the history of the nation.

Even if this power outage was innocent of terrorist connections, it shows how amazingly vulnerable we are to terrorist assault. It is clear that a terrorist attack on a node like the power plant that purportedly set off the power grid collapse could have easily been accomplished.

There's been talk of building a protective web of cameras to guard our nuclear power plants. Now we know what a terrorist attack on the power grid can do to us-- shut down airports, wall street, cell phones, subways, work places, Wall Street...

Even if they turn the lights on in a few hours, we now know that almost two years after the horrible 9-11 attacks, the Bush administration has proven that it has left us frighteningly vulnerable to further attacks.

It appears that the official explanation will be a lightning bolt. You would think that lightning was a new phenomenon, that they were unable to prepare for a lightning bolt. Why not just say, as a number recent movie scripts have done, that "It was a miracle." Or why not say mice chewed on the wires and shorted them. It is astounding that such a common occurrence of nature could be the cause. The fact remains.... Either it was terrorism or massive incompetence.

If you think that the Bush administration would admit that there was any connection to terrorism, you have to be kidding yourself. They will cover this up and brush it off with vague references to power grid problems. We will never know, unless a whistle blower comes forward to reveal the truth. I fear for potential whistle blowers' lives.

And look at how the mainstream media obsequiously just passes along the reports from the government. No questions, nobody asking how such a massive screw-up could occur.

Of course, with the congress run by republicans who are dancing in lock-step to the Bush neocon-run cabal of trotskyites, it is unlikely that there will be the kind of in-depth investigation that should be done to understand what happened. Just as the Bush administration has impeded and blocked release of the 9-11 investigation, you can rest assured there will be a similar effort to prevent the truth on this management failure from surfacing.

Rob Kall rob@opednews.com is publisher of progressive news and opinion website www.opednews.com and organizer of cutting edge meetings that bring together world leaders, such as the Winter Brain Meeting and the StoryCon Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story. This article is copyright by Rob Kall, but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media so long as this credit is attached.