Jim DeVito wrote:You guys are funny. You are so quick to blame this administration for not keeping us safe.
I can't speak for those guys. But for 8 years the left has fought every move by the Bush admin with great resistance. Bush could have said the sky was blue while Pelosi and crew would argue 9 ways to Sunday that it’s not. So, part of this is political.
Also, Selective Outrage is being highlighted, again. If Bush was still in office and this happened, there would be holy hell raining down from all sides of the media and left. Dems in the house would immediately jump to their pulpits grandstanding to know the ‘truth’, deriding the lack of transparency and somehow the ‘war for oil’ would be blamed.
If politicians on both sides spent less time figuring out a game plan to keep or retake party power and more time fixing our problems, this country would be light years ahead.
There was nothing new about the procedures in place under Obama that made this attempt any more successful than it would have been under Bush. But you're right that the Bush administration would have faced intense scrutiny over it. Why? The only defense they could offer for themselves is that no attack had occurred since 9/11 (regardless that Richard Reid was on his way to the US...). Without that to fall back on, they'd have had absolutely no rationale for their policies.
What many on the left were right about during those 8 years is that "security theater" as practiced by the TSA does nothing to make us any safer.
I'll agree whole-heartedly with your final statement though.
there will always be a few affluent muslim kids of rich moderate parents who try to carry out some terrorist attack. They are the neoconservatives of the muslim world. There will always be a few attacks that succeed, regardless of what policies any U.S. President has. So far most of the Al Queda attacks seem fixated on utilizing commercial airliners.
If there is one thing George Bush proved to all these Saudis and Dubaiins making up Al Queda, it is that when Al Queda attacks the U.S., America will not regime change Saudi Arabia or Dubai: America will regime change a moderately secular nation like Iraq; where the girls used to take ballet lessons and the women work as doctors and lawyers and scientists. America has proven Paul Bremer is less effective at running Iraq than an administration under the umbrella of the Ba'ath party. Couldn't we have dropped bombs on at least a few Saudi Arabian shopping malls where the punk al queda kids hang out? Why not?
Rest easy Americans. you're far more likely to be murdered or attacked by regular American Criminals with no political or geopolitical goals. and there is nothing any president can really do about it, so don't worry what a Presidential candidate says about it one way or another.
If there is one thing George Bush proved to all these Saudis and Dubaiins making up Al Queda, it is that when Al Queda attacks the U.S., America will not regime change Saudi Arabia or Dubai:
A body scanner at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport would not necessarily have detected the explosives which the would-be syringe bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had sewn into his underwear. A Dutch military intelligence source told De Telegraaf newspaper that Al Qaeda has its own security scanners and has been practicing ways of concealing explosives.
Body scanners blocked by US 'could have prevented attempted plane attack'
The US blocked Dutch attempts to install full-body scanners for passengers travelling to the US before the failed suicide bombing of a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day, the Dutch interior minister said today.
Authorities at Schipol airport in Amsterdam had wanted to introduce the devices to monitor US-bound flights, but the scanners were not installed because US authorities wanted them to be used on flights to all destinations, said Guusje Ter Horst
The disclosure could put further pressure on Barack Obama, who has come under criticism in the US after the security lapse that allowed a young Nigerian Islamist to board a US plane on Christmas day carrying explosives. He has been charged with trying to destroy the Northwest Airlines flight, bound for Detroit from Amsterdam
Since TSA began regulating the screening system, approximately eight million prohibited items have been confiscated with an average confiscation rate of roughly 500,000 items per month in 2003. Along with mountains of abandoned cuticle scissors, the massive cache of prohibited items includes:
I remember going downtown to watch an outdoor bruce springsteen performance. Barack Obama was supposed to be there, so there were many visitors.
A drunk woman heckler kept shouting that Bush had kept her and us Safe. I didn't understand her logic. Saudi Arabia and Dubai will continue cranking out random wannabe terrorists.
Maybe they'll hitch a ride on one of Reverend Moon's commercial fishing boats. or borrow their parents' sail boats or private jets or an old DC-3.
Maybe some of us are poorer now than we were 5 years ago. The Feds have been subsidizing housing finance for the last 60 years or so. that enabled a lot of wealth. Lot of folks made some bucks as mortgage brokers or realtors. but the interest rates can't go much lower! President Obama is responsible for not lowering interest rates below zero. then mortgage brokers would be collecting more commissions and fees, making more sales.
Stephen Eisel wrote:Al Qaeda is testing our president and he is failing miserably.
Why would Al Qaeda be "testing" anyone? Perhaps Amsterdam is testing Al Qaeda and they are failing miserably.
WTC 1993, 9-11, and Iraq ( to name a few), Al Qaeda is always testing the the resolve of the US. Under Bush, Al Qaeda understood that the US would fight back. The question now is will Obama have the same resolve. (and I am not saying that one strategy is right or wrong (Bush vs. Obama))
