Well then I'll remember your feelings on this the next time terrorist kill over 4,000 people in the US. As for me, I never want to look any mother in the eye AGAIN who's child has died here in the US due to a terrorist attack - and have to tell her that I think the terrorists have just as much right to be here in the USA as does anyone else -- because that is the kind of country we WANT to be.

Theory and practicality are often at odds with one another.

Long ago, someone wrote that if a nuclear bomb ever hit NYC, it wouldn't arrive on the nose of a Soviet ICBM but in the hull of a freighter. This was before dozens of large container ships arrived in Port Newark and Port Elizabeth every day of the year. Each carrying over 100 individual truck containers. Impossible to check every one before they enter the port area. Even with triple or quadruple the resources we have employed at the moment---and yes, it's a paltry and pathetic effort at present. Even screening them before they left the unloading area wouldn't be much of a deterrent. You don't have to wait for a semi to hook up to it and drive it into lower Manhattan--you set a timer to detonate it at the dock. You kill everyone in a 2 mile radius and with the right wind, you blanket Manhattan with radiation.

Same thing with other ports, like Baltimore, that have large scale containerized freight operations. How many thousands of individual containers get off loaded every day at the various ports?

Like I said---I'm not smart enough to figure it out. Hopefully, intelligence assets can sniff out such a plan, but they still only need to get lucky once.

no offense spence (not directed "at" you) but IMO opinion America has to STOP bragging that they are the "GREATEST" or "BEST" country in the world. That is a big reason why a lot of other countries dislike us. We are to cockey. A lot of other countries don't suck either....

John Bolton :hihi:

On average 43,000 people die in car accidents each year.
17,000 of those are drunk driving related.


Statistically, thats a bit more "immediate" than terrorism.

And also statistically, drunk drivers are more dangerous *in the US* than a terrorist.

More people in the US *alone* die because of drunk drivers than of terrorism *worldwide*.

Nothing wrong with feeling you're the best, the US is pretty unique in the World community.

The problem is a lack of humility, overt entitlement and the obvious arrogance.

-spence

Okay, explain to me what else the government can do to prevent drunk driving...?? Or to prevent less car accidents..??

Make penalties 100x more brutal.

Take away licenses permanently.
Put people in jail for long periods of time for drunk driving.

I agree wholeheartedly likwid.....so let's do those things.

But why would doing any of those things prevent us from also fighting terrorism? In other words, the original statement made was that the USA needs to focus our resources on domestic issues that cause more deaths to our citizens then terrorism.

I don't see very many resources needed to implement your suggestions. So, let's do both - simultaneously --- fight terrorism AND fix the drunk driving issue. Seems we have the resources for both. One is NOT interdependent upon the other.

I have a low-cost, but ultimately greasy solution.

Put cooked bacon in every subway car, cargo ship, airport, and other suitable public places. Replenish as needed. Kinda like dangling some garlic to ward off vampires.

If you really want to get mean, invade all mid-east countries, then, institutite American football as the official sport. You know, pigskin? :hihi:

weewee :lasso:

weewee - you are a mess..... :rotf3:

The issue is, money can be spent fixing roads, fighting drunk driving, helping quell joblessness, the homeless and whatnot and we'd SEE the results, look at the numbers on the "war on terror". BILLIONS are being pumped out the door and out of our pockets yet what does it do for us? London wasn't "saved" by the war on terror. And there's plenty of big heads in the extremist scenes still running around and evading the US on probably a quarter of what we spend in a week to try and find them.

3 groups claiming responsibility for London, nobody is sure who did it.

They won't have to bomb the US to win, they're already doing a good job creating an ENORMOUS debt.

I agree. But again, all those things you claim we should be spending our money on, we actually ARE already spending our money on.

Seems to me your arguement lies in the AMOUNT of money you want to see spent on these other areas versus a war on terrorism.

So I will ask my final question on this thread -- what would YOU do if YOU were the President of the US, and you took a solemn oath during your Oath of Office that above all else you would protect the sovereignty of the US and safety of her citizens?

I don't equate bad roads with terrorism.....you could always choose to not drive if you think our roads put you at risk. You can't choose to not be blown to bits by a terrorist. But I do understand your desire to see your own tax dollars being spent on something for you that is more tangible for you to see results. My arguement is -- your money IS being used on something for you --- your safety and hopefully saving your life from a potential terrorist attack. Don't blame the US government for having to spend your money on preventing terrorism instead of the other things you want your money spent on -- blame the terrorists. Without them, we could be spending your money where you want it spent.

The money may be being spent on those things, but efficiently? Need we mention the 3 year project for the highway department to fix the 140 bridge in New Bedford right before 195? LOL I can't think of a single time that I went by that project that they were actually working and not just standing around looking pretty.

Honestly, I couldn't tell you what I'd do the president's shoes, I would never wanna be in that position.

And as far as choosing not to be blown to bits by terrorists? Sure you can choose not to be, because you REALLY think they're gonna blow up an area that has a couple cow farms and a lot of woods? Or howabout obscure cape beaches? :rotf3:

Back to money again since you edited, sure we can spend money on fighting terrorism, but do we need to spend it on $5 billion Halliburton contracts? And then be told that they didn't think they should tell us about it? Like I said, they don't have to bomb the US, just keep sending out propaganda, we'll keep HEMMORAGING money chasing ghosts and crap leads.

true spence, we are but "obvious arrogance" hit's the nail right on the head

And this would be a good poll:

Is it bad foreign policy or "blind hate"?
I'll take the former thanks.

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005...sible-for.html

ABC News just reported that the British authorities say they have evidence that the London attacks last week were an operation planned by Al Qaeda for the last two years. This was an operation the Brits thought they caught and stopped in time, but they were wrong. The piece of the puzzle ABC missed is that this is an operation the Bush administration helped botch last year.

I.e., last year Bush botched the effort to thwart the London subway attacks.

1. The London bombers, per ABC, are connected to an Al Qaeda plot planned two years ago in Lahore, Pakistan.

2. Pakistani authorities recovered the laptop of a captured Al Qaeda leader, Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, on July 13, 2004. On that laptop, they found plans for a coordinated series of attacks on the London subway. According to an expert interviewed by ABC, "there is absolutely no doubt that Khan was part of a worldwide Al Qaeda operation, not just in the United States but also in Great Britain and throughout the west."

Also important, but not reported by ABC this evening, after his arrest Khan started working for our side - sending emails to his other Al Qaeda buddies, working as our mole.

3. ABC reports that names in Khan's computer matched a suspected cell of Britain's of Pakistani decent, many of who lived near the town of Luton, England. According to ABC, authorities thought they had stopped the subway plot with the arrest of more than a dozen people last year associated with Khan. Obviously, they hadn't.

4. Those arrests were the arrests that the Bush administration botched by announcing a heightened security alert the week of the Democratic Convention. The alert was raised because of information found on Khan's computer (this is in the public record already, see below). In its effort to either prove that the alert was serious, or to try and scare people during the Dem Convention, the administration gave the press too much information about WHY they raised the alert. This put the media on the trail of Khan - they found him, and they published his name.

Because the US let the cat out of the bag, the media got a hold of Khan's name and published the fact that he had been captured - his Al Qaeda contacts thus found out their "buddy" was actually a mole, and they fled. Our sole source inside Al Qaeda was destroyed. As a result, the Brits had to have a high speed chase to catch some of Khan's Al Qaeda associates as they fled, and, according to press reports, the Brits and Pakistanis both fear that some slipped away.

Again, these were guys involved with the plot to blow up the London subway last week. Some may have escaped because of Bush administration negligence involving a leak.

I am neither GOP nor Dem....
I am neither liberal nor conservative....

....But, if this story is true, than that makes TWICE the number of times the Bush Administration (read ADMINISTRATION - not GW) let the cat out of the bag and ended up jeopardizing an agent in the field.....Carl Rove is not going to like this story coming out at this time.

Makes GW's team look pretty "loose" in how they handle info. But, I am sure past administrations had the same issues, but just covered them up better.....for all you Dems out there before you jump on the "I hate GW bandwagon" -- remember, JFK's administrtaion were no angels either. Neither was Nixon's (Watergate), Carter's, Ford's, Regan's, Bush Sr.'s, etc.

Homerun, you're just a pink panty wearing libber commie who doesn't have the guts to get the job done :hihi:

-spence

Every time they catch someone remotely important they blab it all over the news.

Its all about approval ratings.

Okay, if the bacon idea won't fly, how about spare ribs?


mmmmmmm, ribs.

Pork back ribs, or how about a beef short rib ragu?

God I love ribs :drool:

-spence

Alright Mr. Rove-Spence, you've outted me.....nailed me right on the head......now I have to look over my shoulder every day for some militant, PLM-slinging conservative looking to take me out with an innuendo right in the head :laughs:

yeah ben
 

quote FWW "Put cooked bacon in every subway car, cargo ship, airport."

we could have a bunches of portable george forman grills going...

bacon everybody? :)

after nine/eleven there was this guy complaining about the american flag hanging outside a neighbors apartment building.
wasnt that a clue?.....that this >>guy<< was a "stupid bad guy"....
that really pissed me off that no one figured that out....right away.

i dont believe in LOCKING UP America for screwing up... mainly because the rest of the americans have to foot the bill....and because the people going in come out worse people than before they went in..in many cases. Yet others get the message and fly right afterwards. Morality has taken a nose dive
in that -crimes are being committed by children more and more and more.
i dont think throwing them in prison is the solution....and is (will be)Part of the problem.


perhaps it would be better to have all criminals made to clean up the environment / fix roads ect, for no wages...

the more severe the crime....the more remote the location....with infa red
scanners, dogs ,bracelets implanted rfid tags and choppers there's no getting away.

imo ...the media has become a terrorist organization in itself because of that insatiable thirst for exposing everything instantaniously before thinking of the consequences.... just to get freakin ratings.

Mmmmmmmm, beef short ribs ... mmmmmmmmm :drool:

Actually, bratwursts would be more pleasing to the eye in mass transit stations than a stirng of pork ribs. And they're usually pre-cooked, so even if they've turned green and have a few flies on 'em, you can just grab a snack and foil terrorists at the same time. :hidin:

posters
 

we could have janet jackson posters exposing both breasts lol

if thats what it takes to keep them off all the transportation....

its so crazy... we grow up as babies loving breasts....then are told

never to look at them .....it's indecent....not proper, until your a certain age...

then it's perfectly fine...be youthful and lustful....and then as you age ...

hey dont be lookin at them anymore because your ........now you're an old pervert...

i say: use those breasts as weapons againt the bad guys .....:hihi:

Ahh, Raven, if you've ever been to Europe, pictures of women's breasts are everwhere. It doesn't seem to faze terrorists. I think I recall some of the 9/11 hjiackers going to a nudie bar the night before the WTC attacks. Their idea of blending in.

In this country, we'd be more likely to sprinkle some fried pork rind snacks on the subway platforms rather than paste up some topless hotties. :hee:

Raven for President...!! :claps: :claps:

I disagree. this administration is the most secrative administration this country has ever seen. For instance, remember the big Energy summit at the whitehouse- top secret, closed doors- we will never know what went on in there. How many state of the union adresses have we had durring this administration??? not many.. These guys are sneaky to the core. :hs:

yeah
 

:laughs: and the first thing i'd do as president....is to re-establish the presidential vegetable garden similar to what Thomas jefferson had. :btu:

then a citzen of America ID impossible to forge with a microchip inside.

then i would form a new military out of the meanest most badda$$ mofo's in Prison and say if you want out....then your going to war. your choice.
kick ass in here or free out there with guns.

i'd kick the media out of everything and tellem to shut the hell up.
alls their doing is spilling the beans and are out of control to the
point that americans are dying from their interference.

Friday, July 15, 2005

Well, it didn't take long, did it?

In the USA, the curtain opened on new anti-terror follies Wednesday when three Senate committees, in blustery response to the London bombings, voted to extend the power of the FBI under the Patriot Act to obtain library records without a subpoena. Exactly what suicide bomber or sleeper cell has so far been exposed by this powerful new intelligence weapon, we are not told. Did Osama fail to return his copy of 'Harry Potter'? Or 'Hijacking for Idiots'?

What we have here is the great con: to get us to pull each other's hair over the sanctity of library card privacy. We're dragged into some nit-wit debate over the "balance between security and civil liberties" -- with the defenders of America against terrorism sneering at the sissies from the ACLU.

Civil libertarians are all shook up that the FBI is going through our summer reading list. My concern is deeper. What I want to know is, who at the FBI is poring over my choice of novels, how much do we pay this guy and why isn't he reviewing Swiss and Pakistani bank transfer records instead?

If our nation's safety depends on enlisting Miriam the Librarian for anti-terror espionage, then I'm checking out.

****
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Subscribe to his commentaries or view his investigative reports for BBC Television at www.GregPalast.com.

Then check out dude, because our nation's security now entails enlisting EVERY American.

BTW - your book sucked....!! A bunch of conspiracy theories with no proof of anything.

Actually his book was good, and every single one of his "conspiracy theories" were backed with evidence.

I must be a terrorist then, I'm reading "Among the Believers". :bshake:

Did you know that before a suicide bomber blows himself to bits that he wraps his shlong in a towel to protect it from the explosion. That way he can use it for all the virgins waiting for him in heaven. So if your on a train and an extremist is approaching you with a lump in his pants he's either happy to see you or you'd better high tail it out of there. I wonder if bubble wrap would work as equally well? :confused:

I'll repaea......his book sucked.

I love the part where he claims the Florida election debacle of a few years ago was planned well ahead of the election by the Bushes.......please......give me a break. The Bushes aren't smart enough to pull off half of the stuff this guy claims they did.

Sometimes %$%$%$%$ just happens.......there doesn't always need to be some major conspiracy behind everything.