September 2001 (Fiction > Alternative History): The election results were still in dispute, and the headlines began coming in just as Mr. Bill Clinton caught himself jeering at the prolonged political quagmire that enabled him to still be in office this early September morning. The day's headlines chattered along, spouting off countering viewpoints and propaganda concerning the usual topics: allegations of Al Gore's campaign irregularities, the rising death toll from the riots in Miami over the ballot disputes, interwoven legal menageries being buried in the court system, and violent civil strife echoing demands for completely new elections. All these issues were still festering and new alarms were being fabricated over the dispute, which increasingly compelled civil concerns for national security and long-term stability. President Bill Clinton clearly held the reigns of power far longer than anybody expected possible, and things were looking like they were unlikely to change until the preliminary Supreme Court docket next week. The long awaited legal high court initiative would allegedly strike a blow against the stalemate. But Bill Clinton knew all too well that the Supreme Court was tagged to merely establish the process of decision-making for the arbitrators' guidelines on how to begin the controversial and potentially explosive election negotiations, so he was content to ride this one out at the helm and just let the chips fall as they may. That has become his mantra for his free ride in power after the failed elections. He enjoyed that laissez-faire prestige, especially with the obvious lame duck excuse for inaction to constantly fall back on. He enjoyed to joke about his overextended prestigious prerogatives to himself. Let it solve itself at the lower levels. They'll take care of it before it gets too far out of hand. Again.The primary attention of the entire National Security apparatus was directed inwards towards the political stalemate. Agency attention was diluted by tangling with some corrupting influences attempting to poke their special interests into the nation's "security" and the resulting internal audits, while other, genuinely sincere agents were also busy directing their efforts towards defending the cause and thwarting the evil deeds of the perceived internal enemy that was emerging. But the target that was being drawn was exaggerated and blurred into the public realm causing valuable national strategic intelligence resources to be expended for internal investigations and special political interests instead of investing the resources investigating foreign terrorist groups. Intelligence budgets chased this fabricated "crisis" that was simply a classic power struggle that had gone too far because it stretched into sensitive areas of strategic circles with competing interests. The legal battle of James Baker III vs. Al Gore would have been a more proper characterization of what it all boiled down to, but the new emerging problem was that the sensationalist media was blowing things way out of proportion, having already termed the dispute the "second civil war". To make matters worse, after their savory basking in the resulting ratings, they desirously upped the ante to standardizing the term "Civil War II" for their screen graphics. On the fringes of a fatigued public, there was heated debate that sometimes turned violent at the peril of civil order and stability. Riots started to break out in urban areas.The media was beginning to see its faux pas, but it was too late for the two Miami/Dade Co. TV stations that were burned to the ground. Conspiracy theories abounded about the TV stations' demise, some half-true, but most of the destruction was simply the product of frenzied rioters having a good time destroying things in the midst of the anarchy; who just couldn't care less about the Gore-Bush stalemate.