NEW YORK, Sept. 11 — It was the scene of a nightmare: people on fire jumping in terror from the Trade Towers just before the buildings collapsed. “Everyone was screaming, crying, running, cops, people, firefighters, everyone,” said Mike Smith, a fire marshal from Queens, as he sat by the fountain outside the Supreme Court building, shortly after the second tower collapsed. “A couple of marshals just picked me up and dragged me down the street.”

“Suddenly the top of [the tower] just shatterred into tens of thousands of pieces. You could see the walls peel away. The whole thing just disappeared.”

— STEVE JOHNSON, MSNBC producer who witnessed the collapse “I JUST SAW the building I work in come down,” said businessman Gabriel Ioan, shaking in shock outside City Hall a cloud of smoke and ash from the World Trade Center behind him. “I just saw the top of Trade Two come down.”

MSNBC.com producer Steve Johnson, standing about six blocks from the towers in lower Manhattan, was also an eyewitness to the collapse. “About five minutes before the tower fell you could see people jumping from the upper floors. I watched six either fall or jump … The police rolled up [in] vans. Suddenly the top of [the tower] just shattered into tens of thousands of pieces. You could see the walls peel away. The whole thing just disappeared. Then the smoke came up. The cops started yelling, “Get back! Run! Get away!” I ran inside a hotel, and it went black outside because of the dust.”

Nearby a crowd mobbed a man on a pay phone, screaming at him to get off the phone so that they could call relatives. Dust and dirt flew everywhere. Ash was 2 to 3 inches deep in places. People wandered dazed and terrified.

“I was in the World Financial Center looking out the window,” said one woman. “I saw the first plane and then 15 minutes later saw the other plane just slam into the World Trade Center.”

Another eyewitness, AP newsman Dunstan Prial, described a strange sucking sound from the Trade Center buildings after the first building collapsed.

“Windows shattered. People were screaming and diving for cover. People walked around like ghosts, covered in dirt, weeping and wandering dazed.”

“It sounded like a jet or rocket,” said Eddie Gonzalez, a postal worker at a post office on West Broadway. “I looked up and saw a huge explosion. I didn’t see the impact. I just saw the explosion.”

Morning commuters heading into Manhattan were stranded as the Lincoln Tunnel was shut down to incoming traffic. Many left their cars and stood on the ramp leading to the tunnel, staring in disbelief at the thick cloud of smoke pouring from the top of the two buildings.

On the streets of Manhattan, people stood in groups talking quietly or watching on television at ground-level network studios.

Joan Goldstein, communications project leader for The Associated Press, was on a bus from New Jersey at about 8:50 a.m. when she saw “smoke pouring out of the World Trade Center building. We said, “Oh, my God! The World Trade Center’s on fire!”

Perhaps 10 minutes later, “All of a sudden, there was an orange plume, a huge explosion. It shot out the back of the building. Everybody on the bus was just moaning and gasping,” said Goldstein, who wept and trembled as she spoke.

The plume was from the second plane, but she didn’t see the plane because of the thick smoke.

She tried to call friends who work there, but couldn’t get through.

“It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Goldstein.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is now a different world we live in. For those that can’t get to a news site:

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 — Americans reeled in horror Tuesday as the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history sent planes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York, toppling the twin 110-story towers. An explosion later rocked the Pentagon in Washington. The White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol building were evacuated. Military jets patrolled the skies above both cities. The FAA grounded all civilian aircraft nationwide, but not before reports of another large aircraft crashing in Western Pennsylvania. President Bush vowed to “hunt down the folks who committed this act.”

THE FATE OF those in the twin skyscrapers was not immediately known. Authorities had been trying to evacuate the thousands of people who work in the twin towers, but many were thought to be trapped. “I swear I’ve never seen anything like this,” said MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield. “This whole place is like a complete war zone.”

At the Pentagon, eyewitnesses saw an aircraft crash into part of the sprawling complex. Walls were later seen to have collapsed.

An earlier report of a car bomb exploding outside the State Department was later denied.

In New York, the aircraft struck minutes apart, starting fires and sending smoke billowing out of the skyscrapers. The top of the south tower later collapsed onto the street below.

The first crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET.

MSNBC.com reporter Martin Wolk, who was inside one of the towers, said the lights flickered and then a loud bang was heard. People panicked and started to flee the building.

When they reached the lobby, smoke started to fill the building and people could see debris falling and many cars outside were damaged. “It was sheer pandemonium, people were screaming and crying, afraid to go outside because of the falling debris,” Wolk said. “We looked up and it looked like the top 20 floors were in flames.”

Another bystander described a barrage of debris raining down on the sidewalk below.

Shortly after 9 a.m., a second aircraft was seen crashing into the other tower. Broadcast cameras already watching the scene filmed the second plane as it slammed into the tower and exploded in a huge fireball.

A half hour later, President Bush made a brief statement to reporters, calling the disaster a “national tragedy” and attributing it to terrorists. He did not cite any specific terrorist groups but vowed to “hunt down the folks who committed this act.”

U.S. military jets reportedly took to the skies to shoot down any unidentified aircraft, and congressional leaders were taken to secure locations. A plane was reported to have been circling the Capitol building before the evacuation.

American Airlines later acknowledged that one of its flights had been hijacked Tuesday morning shortly after leaving Boston en route to Los Angeles.

In the wake of the crashes, New York airports and the Lincoln Tunnel were closed as precautionary measures. The stock exchanges in New York also did not open.

Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story buildings. The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the smoke.

Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower, one witness said.

In an earlier terrorist attack, the center was bombed on Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injured more than 1,000 others. Terrorist Ramzi Yousef and three others were convicted of orchestrating the attack. Three other indicted co-conspirators remain at large.

Traffic entering New York City from New Jersey was at a standstill approaching the Holland Tunnel as motorists stood outside their cars watching the fire.

Across the country, highrises like Chicago’s Sears Trade tower were being evacuated as a precaution. Buildings were also being evacuated in London.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Being goofy, I did an image search on google.com to see what would show up. For some reason, this is what shows up:

Now that my colon has finally decided to become a productive part of my body again, I can crawl outta bed to post.

Have you gotten your tax refund check yet? You know the gift we are all getting from Dubya so we’ll forget about him being an idiot? Well, Philip Gallion in Lake Shore, MN, just got his check — for $599.99. He was a little curious about why it was a penny short. His refund came with a 4-page letter from the IRS explaining that they realized he had underpaid his previous years taxes — by one cent — so they were taking it from his refund check. Accountants are so anal.

I’m not a huge sports fan. I watch every now and then. I like the Olympics, and of course some car racin, but other than that I could take it or leave it. But thanks to this basketball team, I may become an avid fan. I can’t wait to see the cheerleaders and the half-time show.

I’ve made it a goal for myself to get the column area working again. That doesn’t mean it’ll be done soon, of course, but it’s a goal. I also have a goal of being a billionare, so what’s that tell ya? Anyhow, look for that stuff to be online soon.