No Safe Place

"Not to my knowledge," replied Hizzoner. "When you talk about intelligence, you don't leave anything out. Oftentimes, intelligence is of such a nature you don't publicly talk about what you're talking about, otherwise your intelligence is not as effective as you want it to be."

Think planes, Lee. Had anybody in high government ever seriously considered that terrorists might use U.S. passenger jets as a weapon? After all, there was that Hollywood bomb about a blimp crashing into the Super Bowl.

"I can't tell you anything was left out," concluded the mayor in a cover-your-ass declaration. "Certainly my experience was such that nothing has been left out during the time I served in Washington. We talked about all aspects of intelligence."

Brown then went on to make the major decision of the news conference. The civic show must continue, and there was no reason why City Council couldn't go on with its scheduled meeting at City Hall that afternoon. After all, what terrorist in his or her addled mind would put that esteemed body high on a hit list?

Cooler minds prevailed later in the day, and the meeting was postponed until Wednesday.

Brown could hardly be blamed for babbling on, with an unseen enemy with an unimaginable target list loose in the country. Behind him stood the massed minions of his administration, including local drug czar Don Hollingsworth, Police Chief Clarence Bradford, and the unlikely pair of chief of staff Jordy Tollett and councilman and mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez. They seemed to be radiating the message to the masses "We ain't afraid of no ghosts" in a much more convincing manner than CBS's rattled Dan Rather, who kept demanding his reporter confirm for him that the twin towers had collapsed even though they had already disappeared from his own television monitor.

Not everybody stayed with the ship. Enron, Dynegy and other energy towers emptied in a flash.

Brown encouraged Houstonians to donate blood in this time of need. Not a bad idea, really. At least it gives you something to do. Indeed, all in all, it was actually good to have his press conference to attend instead of simply feeling impotent and staring at the television screen.