The question is "Are we safe" The answer is a resounding NO!

[bklyncowgirl]

This is what the Democrats and anyone who cares about this country need to be shouting from the rooftops.

You wouldn't know that though from reading some posts on DU from people who are convinced that the British terror plot is a figment of Karl Rove's imagination.

Frankly it doesn't matter if Karl Rove and Dick Cheney cooked up vials of exploding hair mousse in the kitchen of Cheney's bunker. It doesn't matter if the people arrested are British Secret Service agents in disguise. It doesn't matter that these guys have hyped every terror threat from the homeless guys in Florida to the conveniently timed post Democratic Convention threat to NYC banks.

American people believe that their lives are at risk and they are going to vote for the people who can convince them that they will keep them safe and right now we see Republicans trumpeting TERROR TERROR TERROR and Democrats, with the few usual honorable exceptions, sticking their heads in the damn sand and waiting for it all to pass so they can get back to nattering on about health care reform.

The facts are very clear. Bush is a screw up. The Republicans are screw ups. The war in Iraq has been a disaster from the word go. Our ports are not safe. Our borders are not secure. The recommendations of the 9/11 commission have not been implemented. Osama Bin Laden and his henchmen are still free men while the three thousand of our citizens they murdered are dead.

We can do this better has to be the cry of Democrats everywhere and those of us in the Greek Chorus of the Blogosphere had better start pushing them to do it or it will be deja vue all over again.

[ixion]

1. actually, there is no such thing as safe

that's a myth promoted by those who seek to replace freedom with tyranny.

This is life. The are nasties. Be careful along the way. This is not Disneyland. You cannot remove all the nasties. Trying to do so leads us exactly to where we are today: on the brink of destrcution in order that we may (delusionally) give ourselves the impression we are 'safe'.

Just my two cents.

[bklyncowgirl]

3. As a philosophical statement, you are correct.

As a political slogan it is somewhat lacking--especially to a population who are so obsessed with their personal safety that they insist on taking monkey bars and merry go rounds out of playgrounds because some little kiddiepoo might get hurt.

The Republicans have used this obsession brilliantly. Democrats must use it too.

[ixion]

5. The Dems do use safety, as do Repukes... much to the disadvantage

of the people.

In either case, it is about limiting personal freedom at the expense of one person or another's pet peeve or cause.

In my opinion, a bit of realism would do us good right now. I think we've had way too much Disneyland® politics. It's that pollyanna view of the world that actually makes things more dangerous, because the best intentions toward safety ultimately wind up with what we have now: a police/nanny state.

[Philosoraptor]

2. Its amazingly easy to pull this stunt.

And damned clever when you look at it, from nine eleven to present day, the hoax worked so very well, absolutely jawdropping.

[bklyncowgirl]

4. It doesn't matter if it is a stunt.

That's the point I was trying to make.

Unless you have proof that it isn't a fake--and you don't--you just have suspicion (well grounded, yes, but still suspicion) people are going to believe that the threat is real and anyone who comes out and says it's a fake is going to sound to most people like total nutcases.

We need to point out the failures of the Bush administration that lead us to this point where Al Queda, five years after 9/11 can still strike us at will.