NYT: "Admin Has Fallen Far Behind On Stps Needed To Protect Homeland"

[kpete]

NYT: "While the administration has been pouring its energies and money into Iraq, it has fallen far behind on steps needed to protect the homeland. You would not know that from listening to the president or other top officials in recent days." 8/20


August 20, 2006
Editorial
Hokum on Homeland Security

Ever since British intelligence did such a masterly job in rounding up terrorists intent on blowing up airliners, the Bush administration has relentlessly tried to divert attention from the disintegration in Iraq and focus instead on its supposed prowess in protecting our country against terrorist attacks. That ploy ought not to wash. While the administration has been pouring its energies and money into Iraq, it has fallen far behind on steps needed to protect the homeland.

You would not know that from listening to the president or other top officials in recent days. In a tour of the National Counterterrorism Center in Virginia last week, President Bush declared that “America is safer than it has been” and assured Americans that “we’re doing everything in our power to protect you.”

If only that were so. The sad truth is that while some important steps have been taken to harden our defenses against terrorist attacks, gaping holes remain in our security net.

For starters, consider aviation, where billions have been spent to improve airline and airport security, with only middling results. The likelihood that terrorists will be able to hijack passenger jets as they did on 9/11 has been greatly reduced by hardening cockpit doors, arming pilots on some routes and placing many more air marshals on flights. The screening of all passengers, their carry-on bags and their checked luggage has also made it much harder to smuggle standard bombs or metallic weapons aboard.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/opinion/20sun1.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

[enfield collector]

1. yup, I can't take a mother lovin' snake onto

a plane yet the borders are wide open because big bizness demands cheap labor.

[whistle]

2. Neglecting our protection by definition means MIHOP and LIHOP

...when the next terror attack occurs

[babylonsister]

3. Katrina, or any future devastation of this country, anyone? How

effective will this admin be? 'Fallen behind' doesn't begin to tell the tale.

[glitch]

4. True, but do they have to call our country "homeland"? nt

[w4rma]

5. Communist Russia refered to Russia as their motherland.

Fascist Germany refered to Nazi Germany as their fatherland.

It's only appropriate that Rethug America would refer to America as a homeland.

[mcscajun]

6. I knew we were doomed the moment this word began to gain traction

in the common discourse. I got shudders the first time it was used by our government, but truly scared as it caught on.
:scared: I won't use it.

"Homeland" is an imperial word, whether fascist or not. "Our country" used to be sufficient.

[EFerrari]

8. Yes. It's in their contract with the BFEE. nt

[glitch]

9. When we expel the bfee we expunge their creepy terminology.

Who is with me?

edit: to add creepy.

[EFerrari]

10. I'll sign up to eradicate the neoNazi slang. In a heartbeat.

Wait - won't that make us the language police?!

lol

[glitch]

11. Yeah! It sure does! But a cancer is a cancer and sometimes you just gotta

operate.

Edit: it'll probably just go away on it's own. I think everybody who isn't paid to promote it is already sick of it. And the people who are paid to promote it are probably sick of it too.

[EFerrari]

12. Do you remember how you felt when you first heard one of these

criminal functionaries entone "homeland"?

I remember. It was like being socked in the stomach.

[glitch]

14. It triggered my spidey sense. I know it's important to take the language

in a coup, but it seemed so blatant and b-grade. But I now think blatant and b-grade is really all they're capable of.
They are creating a "new reality" and it's a tacky movie from the 70s.

And what's sadder? We let them.

[EFerrari]

15. Well, I don't know that we did. They own the media so our gestures

just aren't reported.

I proudly marched in Los Angeles and in San Francisco against both fake inaugurations.

Let's try to keep track of what we get done.

You are so right about the tacky b grade quality of their effort. Maybe b grade is how you succeed under the radar.

Fuck them, we have their number.

[glitch]

16. I was at the SF inaugaration protest, perhaps we saw each other and smiled

But I was more in the mood for a riot, I admit it.
And it ain't over til it's over. :hi:

[EFerrari]

17. It ain't over.

:hi:

[elehhhhna]

7. "fallen behind"? Were they ever AHEAD?

[agentkgb]

13. We're Not Safe Anymore

Of course, NSA spying is essential to our security, so Bush will be revising his speeches in light of Judge Taylor's decision saying we should stop it. We're not safe unless we're under the NSA's thumb. Telephones are much more dangerous than, say, our incredibly open ports.

[sakabatou]

18. They don't care about us

They are the sugar daddies to Big Businesses. And Big Business doesn't care about us.