Calm the fuck down, America. Kerry and others were RIGHT

[Stinky The Clown]

John Kerry, during the 04 campaign, made the 'audacious' statement that terrorism should be considered a 'police matter' and dealt with as an 'inconvenience'.

With not one hint of snark on my part - HE WAS RIGHT.

But this is not about John Kerry. It **IS** about the bobble headed fuckwads all over teevee with their Code Red and their ban on Heather carrying suntan lotion with her on her vacation trip to the beach.

It is now indisputable that 9/11 could have been prevented by better police work. It is also a fact that **every** plot uncovered since then has been the result of better **police action**. In fact, it was competent police action that prevented plots BEFORE 9/11. The so-called 'Millenium Plot' was foiled by competent, international police action. The US and Canada.

The Pentagon can stay home and we would be no more or less safe from this kind of activity.

What I take away from the news today is that we are LESS safe today because of the policies of the Bushpublicans. Can ANYONE capable of more than cortex reflex now not see what's going on??? The ONLY thing the Bushpublicans have done is make personal gain from the threat of terror. They have NOT worked to make us safe. That's secondary. What they HAVE done is manipulate the facts to first scare the shit out of us and then make us see how, were it not for them, we'd all be dead from some horrible act from which only **they** can protect us.

Well I'm not buying it and I'm sick of this sham. I'm sick of the media playing it up. I'm sick of stunts like having the Rice woman warn us of mushroom clouds. I'm sick of news conferences that tell us nothing except to be afraid. I'm sick of body cavity searches just to sit my ass on an airplane.

And where is the boss? On his pig farm, is where. As usual. Every president we've had throughout our history would have been there this morning for that stupid press conference that we all saw. But not him. All we got was some photo op, staged at an airport. As if that were where policy is made and where they're standing around, sleeves up, pitching in.

Smoke and mirrors.

I don't doubt the Brits broke up a ring. I don't doubt that there are other rings-in-training bent on similar actions. I don't doubt that one bit. But I am completely bereft of even one whit of trust for the people who make our policies.

John Kerry was right. We knew it then and it should be crystal clear to everyone now.

Will the Dems debate this based on the FACTS? Or will they contribute to Joe Lieberman's campaign, saying at the same time how right he was and they're sorry? Will they bend over, drop their shorts, show their red asses to Ken and Karl and say submissively "Thank you Sir. May I have another, Sir?"

Enough is enough. It is long past time to stand up to the political terrorists now running this sad country.

[NMDemDist2]

1. funny that

dear Mr. Ketchup is pacing around the living room basically doing the exact same rant

no wonder I love you guys

[derby378]

2. Calm Down, Dear

This might help:

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2005/calm-down-dear-...

[yellerpup]

49. That clip really catches the mood. eom

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

3. Thank you for that Husb2Sparkly....

Mr. Wonderful came home about 30 minutes ago and alerted me to what was going on. I haven't even bothered to switch the teevee on. Same ole BS, different day...

You know I long for the days when we could trust our government and the governments of our allies to be truthful, but those days are long gone.

[livetohike]

4. Recommended. A great and true rant Husb2Sparkly

and may I add, "Wake the fuck up America!"

[derby378]

5. In all seriousness, we can SAY we're sick and tired of all this...

...but if we keep enabling them to pull this shit on us over and over again with our silence and our complacency, maybe we're just numb. Like a battered wife who's been punched in the mouth one too many times. Eventually, something snaps deep inside you. And when that happens, the only way out of that is to reach all the way in, hook that spring back into place, and come out swinging against the schmuck who put you down there in the first place.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. YES YES YES

And this nation and its citizens are, indeed, suffering the same pathology as a battered wife.

I hope they find the courage to work with us to rid us once and for all of these batterers, these political terorists who use things such as we're seeing today for no better reasons than the perpetuation of their death grip on our once great country.

[Turbineguy]

7. It seems to me that

the Bush Republicans are a throwback to feudalism where warring knights had a symbiotic relationship with one another in order to keep the peasants in check while living high off the hog at peasants' expense. A thousand years of development has led to a bit more subtlety and thus created the almost imaginary opponent "al Qeada", but the mentality is the same.

[ce qui la baise1]

8. LOL republicans are starting to make the most of this now.

Romney is mobilizing NG. AHHHHHH nothing like fear to stir up the sheep.
To bad they didn't catch the terrorists & lost sight of them.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

9. Wait a minute, like I said in my earlier post,

I don't even have the teevee on. Are you telling the Brits haven't caught these guys yet???

This is just getting more and more bizarre..... And what in God's name is the MA National Guard supposed to do??? Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't these inbound flights to the US???

[wryter2000]

18. Welcome to DU

[Kajsa]

53. ? Twenty four suspects were arrested.

Five,I believe, are at large.

http://tinyurl.com/s45s2

LONDON — Two dozen suspects arrested by British police Thursday were in the final stages of a plan to detonate liquid explosives on as many as 10 U.S.-bound airliners in what appeared to be the most ambitious terrorist plot since the Sept. 11 attacks, authorities said.

Officials could not say when the attacks were to be carried out but said the suspects, mainly British nationals of Pakistani descent, had acquired most of the materials to assemble explosives that could have killed hundreds of passengers as their planes crossed the Atlantic from British airports.

"It was very near to execution," a U.S. official said.

A Pakistani official said key arrests of British nationals in Karachi several days ago apparently helped break a case that had been under investigation for months.

[boolean]

10. It's ALL the media

It's the motherfucking cocksucking MEDIA that holds most of the blame. The politicians always do this sort of thing, but the media is the one that allows them to do it.

This way everybody gets rich.

[Red Knight]

33. Fox News is a hoot

First they have on Delay and Coulter to trash the Dems in general----with no one from the left to offer any "balance". Then they spend their time basically admonishing the voters in Connecticut and wondering aloud if the people who voted against Lieberman are sorry now.

Huh??????????

WTF does Lieberman's Iraq fantasy have to do with any of this? I agree that this is proof that the Iraq war is a collossal waste of money and lives and hasn't made us an ounce safer.

But over on Fox...America had better support the Iraq occupation or they are soft on terrorism.

What utter BS.

[exlrrp]

50. Why do you watch Fox?

I'd rather sit in the comfort of my own living room bashing myself on the head with a hammer

[KKKarl is an idiot]

11. ..

Currently Fox news is on where I am. The only news they are reporting is terror!! terror!! terror!! on this UK flights. But I am hearing nothing of the 34 people killed in one suicide bomb in Baghdad, Iraq today. What about the 3 American soldiers killed in Najaf, Iraq. How about the 2 missing crew members after a helicopter crashed in Anbar province in Iraq. Time to report the news where Americans are actually being killed over a stupid war. Why do we forget so easily about this fiasco?

[Stinky The Clown]

12. And the 15 IDF guys killed

by the 'terrorists in Lebanon ......

[welshTerrier2]

13. agreed but ...

i agree that terrorism, especially non-state terrorism, cannot be addressed militarily ... in fact, using military force makes the situation worse because it serves to boost anti-American sentiment and functions as an incredibly effective recruiting tool for those opposed to American policies ...

the one "clunker" in your post, and i don't think the statement was really your intent, was:

"The Pentagon can stay home and we would be no more or less safe from this kind of activity."

the reality is that if the Pentagon did stay home, we would be far more safe from this kind of activity ... the projection of US military force into other countries, cultures and communities is the ugly face that people see of America ... the building of more than 700 permanent military bases around the world, the imperialistic building of US empire and the often hideous conduct of American forces (rape, murder, drunkenness, etc) is not the image America should be projecting ...

If the Pentagon "stayed home", we would all be much safer ... this is NOT an argument for pacifist principles; it's a recognition that the way our military has been used has made us less safe rather than safer ...

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Yes and no ......

Yes, you're correct that it was not my intent to imply actual neutrality of them staying home or not.

To state it more correctly, with respect to this type of terrorist activity: The defensive branches of the Pentagon could stay home or not .....

The imperialistic branches should be boarded up.

[wryter2000]

20. And if the National Guard stayed home

We'd be safer from natural disasters.

[welshTerrier2]

24. hmmmmm ...

there's two ways to interpret that ...

one is that you were being sarcastic saying that the Guard "staying home" cannot prevent floods and tornados and earthquakes ... this would parallel an argument that terrorism and attacks on the US would happen even if we kept our troops in the US ...

the other interpretation is that, while natural disasters would still occur, their effects would be lessened if we didn't drain the Guard by sending them to an endless war in Iraq ...

the two situations are not at all parallel ... neither sending the Guard overseas nor keeping them at home has any impact on the "occurrence" of natural disasters ... however, sending troops unwelcomed into sovereign countries has a huge impact on the hatred that builds against the US ...

which did you mean?

[wryter2000]

27. This one

the other interpretation is that, while natural disasters would still occur, their effects would be lessened if we didn't drain the Guard by sending them to an endless war in Iraq ...

I can't quantify it, of course, but it seems to me that if the guard were home to help out when natural disasters happened, they might lessen the negative impact.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. 'Plot' ... 'Very scary' .... 'What frightens most Americans' ........

That stupid fucking bitch Nora O'Donnell speaking to all the camp followers about this incident. God Give Me Patience.

My mother always did novenas to St. Jude when my brother and I were kids. St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless cases. Maybe, after all these years, I ought to dust off her Missal and take up her prayer habits. The media is just plain hopeless.

[wryter2000]

21. While you're at it...

Could you include a few prayers for CBS political reporters? Last night they were full of the same old BS about the CT primary being a referendum on the war run by a bunch of bloggers. They even went so far as to say the bloggers had better get some more muscle if they expect to give Lamont a win in November. Instead of having someone from the Lamont campaign on, they had Eli Pariser from MoveOn. I love MoveOn, but in this case...

[Stinky The Clown]

30. 'The Moveon Crowd'

Part of the big meme. There's no search for facts or reasoned opinion ..... more like a washing machine stuck on spin cycle.

[eridani]

43. Pariser should have had the fricking sense--

--to demand that they interview one of Lamont's local organizers.

[ginnyinWI]

16. military actions are for fighting military enemies

In other words, for fighting state-to-state. All our military presence does now in the Middle East is feed the fire of Islamist extremism. It's like some blob in a science fiction film--every time you shoot at it, you give it more energy and it grows bigger and stronger.

It's not about "hating us for our freedoms". If that were true Sweden would be under attack; they're more liberal than we are in the U.S.

[wryter2000]

17. Absolutely

If there was the slightest, teenyest scrap of evidence that their war and all their torture and denial of rights to prisoners produced any information about a terra-ist plot, they'd be trumpeting it all over the known universe. Heck, if it were even close, they'd be making it up for the cameras. But even the biggest liars among them can't make a connection between their "war on terra" and keeping us safe.

[Bandit]

19. But.. but ..we are killing them over there

Why do we need to worry about any stinkin' police? We got soldiers killing them Arabs over there so we don't got to kill Arabs over here. Let the police go get them pot smokers, the real danger to American society...

[wisteria]

22. Kerry was correct. I often think back to those comments he made

and think how much better off we would be to deal with these terror threats that way.
IMO, Bush's way is not working- threats have gotten worse and the violence in Iraq is unending. Afghanistan is again having problems with the Talaban and most of the Middle East are probably cheering these latest terrorist plotters on as they try to attack us in one way or another.
We have given up many freedoms and I can't speak for you, but I have become cynical and un-trusting of everything said and done by this administration.
We have given Bush five years to get it right and I think he has failed to do so. It is now most definitely, time for a new direction and plan of action.

Oh, Bush is to give a new conference shortly. Gee, I wonder if this is going to be another plug to stay the course and be resolute, because we are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

[QuidditchFan]

23. Being on the side of truth does not suck...

And now the Democrats need to blast that message loud and clear. This is another example where clear dilineation between what they would do and what we would do is largely advantageous. I can already envision a very compelling advertisement where you have a sequential comparison of Kerry vs. Bush (and generalized to Democrats versus Republicans). The first video is of Kerry making his comments about fighting terrorism being an intelligence function. The second video is the terrorists from today being lead off in shackles. Third video is Bush lying about the reasons for going into Iraq. The fourth video would be compelling shots of the death and destruction that civilians and young soliders have endured. The fifth IMAGE is a map that includes Baghdad and London.

Why not?

[MH1]

25. Thanks. Excellent post. Recommended. n/t

[Impashund Ubique]

26. You are getting a little carried away...

Kerry never said what you are saying. He said that he wants to take America and the world back to the days when terrorism was just an inconvenience. He did, however, realize that it would take some work to get us back to the pre-9/11 world, where the forces of terrorism weren't so rampant. Bush has made it worse since 9/11, but Kerry realized that something did change in this world when the World Trade center was attacked. As for 9/11 being an event that could've been prevented, I guess that when you get a memo that says "Bin Laden determined to attack within the United States," one might get at least a little curious about what's going on *rolls eyes*

However, if you live in Israel, Palestine, India, etc.... terrorism was never an inconvenience for you because it has been a part of your national histories. By dealing with terrorism as just a police matter, you just suppress the problem, you never get to the root of what's causing that problem. But you don't get to the root of the problem by overthrowing dicators either.

[MH1]

28. Have you read Kerry's book, The New War?

I am not certain if he used the exact words you refer to, but if you consider his entire career in the Senate (BCCI, Iran-Contra, CIA drug-running), his former role as a prosecutor, and the approach he takes in The New War, then you see what Husb2Sparkly is talking about - the idea that a big part of an effective fight against terrorism needs to be good police work.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. Thank you .....

I had to be away soon after putting up this post. I just got back and am reading all the new replies.

What you cite is exactly the kind of reasoned thinking displayed by not only Kerry but other Dems as well. I think I recall Clark speaking about it, and Bob Graham, before he dropped out (and maybe even afterwards, too).

The key word that you rightly highlighted is 'effective'.

[LittleClarkie]

32. He saw terrorism as more of an international crime issue

and wanted to treat the problem as such. The goal was indeed to whittle the problem down to that of a nuisance.

[RadiDem]

29. Thanks - K&R -nt-

[nolies32fouettes]

34. terrorism is serious, but thanks for the post. Made my day!

[Stinky The Clown]

35. I agree. It **IS** serious. I only wish the Bushpublicans would take it so

Instead, they have clearly chosen to use it as a political cudgel.

For that alone they should rot in hell.

[nolies32fouettes]

51. that's why I am no longer a moderate--independent Republican or whatever!

I will NEVER vote Republican again unless the Democrats become as facsist or as corrupt as these Republicans are!!!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

36. Criminals or War Heros and Religious Martyrs- you decide

(I agree with you, I have posted this previously in 2 threads that both sank like stones.)

They got it wrong the moment they declared a War on Terror as a military exercise against nation states. While it may be true that some nation states support some specific form of terrorism, most do not. Most terrorism is (or at any rate used to be before Bush popularized and publicized the tactic)insurgencies and uprisings within a specific country against the powers that be, like the Basque separatists or the Chechen's or whomever. When it did go outside, it was more hit and run annoyances, like the Achilles Lauri.(and no, I am not downplaying the importance of ANY death in any terrorist incident or even the overall general importance of any incident)It used to be their (the terrorists) DESIRE to be seen as armies, hence their always grandiloquent names, many of which utilized the word "ARMY". When Bush declared this a military issue, he actually ELEVATED these groups from their former status as criminals, hoodlums or gangsters. He is personally responsible in my opinion for being their major recruiter. Osama who used to be analogous to a Sacco or Vanzetti, (admittedly more powerful damage-wise because he has more powerful instruments at his disposal) is now more analogous to a Simon Bolivar. It's much better to denigrate them as criminals and subject them to civil penalities even though that would involve (gasp!) courts and justice.

The Republicans even made a talking point about this which the Dems were completely ineffective in countering. Remember when they sneered "John Kerry would ARREST Osama".

[laugle]

37. Of course dumbfuck didn't show up, the threat was to the UK,

not to the US!!! However, that doesn't stop them from raising the fucking alert and milking this plot to the max!!!

The evening news even said there is no info of any terrorist attack in the US!!

I had to laugh when they said that the alert would be on until they were satisfied that there was no threat....Geez....could that maybe be until just after the election??????

[Timbuk3]

38. One more thing

The only plane brought down on 911 was brought down by CITIZENS, not the military and sure as hell not the GOP.

There's no way people will just sit quietly if they're on a hijacked plane from now on. Most of us would rather die fighting than sitting placidly in our chairs believing we're safe.

Except, of course, when it comes to electing politicians.

I'll never be able to figure that out.

[Kurovski]

39. K&R.(nt)

[texpatriot2004]

40. Kerry is intelligent, * is an IDIOT! nm

[Laurab]

41. I'm calm - just disgusted, really

and if and when there IS a terrorist attack, or if this one WERE really a prevented one, would we even believe the assholes who cried "wolf" just a few too many times? I hate what they've done to this country, and I just hope the dems don't enable them any more.

K & R!

[ladym55]

42. And now we all must run around in a panic

All I could think of today as I watched and listened to the media was that the terrorists must be laughing their asses off at the idiot Americans--all being required to DUMP all of the shampoo, shave cream, and suntan oil before waiting for HOURS in the check-through line. Everyone interviewed whined about "better safe than sorry." One supposedly progressive talk radio host was wound up and claiming ALL baggage must be checked--no more carry-on!!! How incredibly ridiculous this all is.

We have mishandled everything from top to bottom. Yep. This latest plot was solved through police work and international cooperation--not large bombs dropped on civilian populations. And what would have happened if one of the great minds of the Bush administration had ACTUALLY paid attention to the intelligence in 2001? That has haunted me for some time. Condi with the briefing about Bin Laden plans attack on US soil and Chimpy cutting brush. Who could predict?

[oxbow]

44. I wish you were on TV

It would be like a breath of fresh air in a room full of old farts

[SoCalDemGrrl]

45. Kick! Thank you..well put

[Raster]

46. This is just an insidious plot to make you have to buy toothpaste and

shampoo at your destination instead of bringing with.

[CrushTheDLC]

47. I'm still suspicious of this whole plot, especially the timing of it.

But what you say, and what Kerry said are indeed correct. The so called "war on terror", just like that other Bush Crime Family production, "the war on drugs", is a steaming pile of bullshit.

Osama Bin Laden (if indeed he had anything to do with 9-11) remains free to this day, while this country, and most others (The UK, obviously) aren't any safer by anyone's delusional standards

Our troops remain trapped in a civil war while the "real terraists" - if this story is legit - get caught by good old fashioned police work

If that's the case, then Kudos to Scotland Yard, and Fuck You's to Chimp & Cheney.

[ihelpu2see]

48. Basically, the republican response proves the point that the Terrorists

have won..... Right, we are told to run scared every time someone has thoughts of blowing up a plane. Should we be looking out for rental trucks full of diesel fuel and fertilizer, do we forget about Tim McVeigh, a christian terrorist. Or the snipers of DC....

[OzarkDem]

52. Bill Clinton said - and practiced - the same thing

There was a time in this country when most Americans believed terrorism was a law enforcement matter, not a military matter. It looks as though they're going back to supporting that same approach.