More head-up-its-ass shameless propaganda from the Bush administration:
As boating season approaches — Opening Day is Saturday in Seattle — the Bush administration wants to enlist the country’s 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could be used in a terror attack.
[…] Today, officials will announce the plan, which asks states to develop and enforce safety standards for recreational boaters and asks them to look for and report suspicious behavior on the water — much like a neighborhood-watch program.
If Sikhs ever start driving water taxis, Homeland Security will be inundated with tips from vigilant boaters.
“There is no intelligence right now that there’s a credible risk” of this type of attack, says Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. “But the vulnerability is there.”
And there is no credible intelligence right now that terrorists are packing explosives up the ass of unicorns in an attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in America’s magical creature infrastructure, but… well… you never can be too careful.
Or, just maybe, if the Bush administration really wants to better protect our safety, they might want to ask boaters to look out for a real and present danger: the beer-swilling, drunken skippers responsible for about a third of our nation’s 700 boating fatalities annually, along with thousands of serious injuries and tens of millions of dollars in property damage. I’m just sayin’.
Neighbor informing on neighbor is hallowed tradition in countries with dictators.
“There is no credible intelligence” at the Dept. of Homeland Security or in the White House.
@1 – So my neighboorhood having a “Crime Watch” is a dictatorship?
Just this past weekend we caught a group of teens destroying the community park…should we have just ignored it?
Hannah,
“So my neighboorhood having a “Crime Watch” is a dictatorship?”
Your question betrays a logical fallacy. ratcityreprobate did not say that the implementation of neighbor informing on neighbor only occurs in dictatorships.
An additional point is that, generally, neighborhood crime watch programs focus on crime in a neighborhood undertaken by anyone…not just crimes committed by neighbors.
the beer-swilling, drunken skippers responsible for about a third of our nation’s 700 boating fatalities annually, along with thousands of serious injuries and tens of millions of dollars in property damage.
Those Republicans fill me with terror for sure! Imagine them let loose on the U.S. Treasury.
Scared yet?
Poor Hannah – Neighborhood blockwatch – mostly good because the neighbors are looking out for one another.
Relentless scare tactics about bad terrorists invading us – bad.
First – why warn them if we actually suspect this as an entry point (which we don’t).
Second, what good will it do?
Third, this is a lame brained idea with no intelligence behind it – kind of like the color warning system – designed to appease the real idiots who are paranoid but actually it accomplishes absolutely NOTHING.
@5 CorrectNotRight – I am not complaining about the block watch, just ratcity saying that “Neighbor informing on neighbor is hallowed tradition in countries with dictators”
Hey, if I’m driving down I5 and see an aggressive driver, I call 911. Same goes for a drunk, same goes for a burglary in progress.
Of course we could all sit back and ignore and maybe another 9/11 will happen. Intelligence was ignored regarding 9/11 plans for years, they just didn’t plan that attack over night. And remember the guy who was planning on blowing up the needle? Came in on ferry.
I guess the way I see it, if we all keep my eyes open to possible danger, the safer we are. Even if there is no “real” threat.
Did you ever think that, if we didn’t want to get involved in everybody else’s business, we’d be better off?
I think we need to stay out of all these other countries and worry about our own. Pull all the military out of Iraq and Afghanistan along with all the other countries we “occupy” with military presence. Quit supporting the poor countries ran by dictators or struggling socialist economies and worry about our own people. Feed and shelter our OWN people…
Great. Does that also apply to high taxes to pay for entitlement programs. Or should only the government be involved in our business?
Yeah! You tell ’em, Goldy! It isn’t like the Washington State Ferries aren’t a significant terror target, right? Besides, those boats are designed to withstand an attack FAR better than, say, the USS Cole…
Besides, I’d think you’d WANT to do everything you can to protect the big-money, Lefty-voting folks in places like Bainbridge and Vashon.
This, by no means, invalidates your comment about wanting drunken boating stopped. I totally agree with a tough DUI and BUI(? – boating UI) policy. I think the laws are FAR too lax in that area. I’ve heard horror stories of folks who should be stuck with a Metro pass for life.
Just wondering, though, would you also want to stop Lee and his pot party pals from going on a ganja-fueled boat ride?
So haw many “beer-swilling, drunken skippers” do we need ramming the boats of perfectly innocent Sikhs, Indians, Pakistanis, or Arabs before we realize that this is a dumb idea?
Marvin,
I don’t understand your comment. I was referring to US involvement in other countries’ affairs, not entitlement programs. Staying out of foreign adventures might be a good idea, given the popularity of such campaigns as Iraq.
‘Hannah’ wrote:
What about the crime watch? Surely we should be watching out for people doing illegal stuff and report them, or something!
Right, because everyone knows that we never have repeat DUI offenders. Once these people are picked up and lose their licenses, none of them ever drive drunk or with a suspended license or without insurance, ever again….
@15 – Tlaz says: “What about the crime watch? Surely we should be watching out for people doing illegal stuff and report them, or something!”
But we shouldn’t be worried about terrorist using boats, since there is no “real” threat?
Which is it? Watch out for illegal or suspicious behavior or not? Let’s say we do have a terrorist attack via the water, who do we blame for not policing the waterways?
I’m still laughing at the mental image of the U.W. crew team furiously trying to overtake and capture a terrorist in a speedboat!
Of course, a couple of months before 9/11 there was a flight instructor who reported to the F.B.I. that there was a guy, apparantly Arab, with a foreign accent taking lessons at his flight school, who seemed very interesting in learning navigation and basic flight controls, but had no intererest at all about how to learn to take off or land the aircraft, or how to communicate with towers or air traffic control. The report went up the chain of command, where it was ignored at the highest levels of the Bush administration. When Bush was briefed during his August vacation at his Crawford ranch by the CIA that “Bin Laden is Determined to Strike in U.S.”, including aircraft hijackings, Bush seems detatched and impatient, and then dismissivly tells the briefer “Okay, you’ve covered your ass” as he leaves the room.
Oops, copied post to wrong forum).
Which is it? Illegally invade other countries and steal their resources, or not?
I think what Goldy is getting at isn’t whether you watch or don’t watch. It’s the recurring theme of the Bush administration scare tactics which somehow seem to coincide with each electoral cycle. You know, like how an old Bin Laden tape taunting America suddenly surfaces the night of the last Kerry/Bush debate. Or how some terrorist warning or another seems to occur in the late summer of every election cycle.
The Republicans still believe the old polls where they were rated stronger on defense against terrorists than the Democrats, so they are still playing that card. A scared electorate is a Republican electorate, they believe.
The problem is, the electoral viewpoint has changed. The Bush administration no longer has any credibility left. After playing the “national security” card for the past seven years, it no longer has any power. The public believes that it is more likely that the Bush administration is lying about any specific security threat for partison political purposes than that the threat is true.
Which is really a shame. Because there may be some real threats out there. But we won’t be able to determine which ones are real, and which ones aren’t. One of the unfortunate consequences of repeatedly lying is that nobody believes you anymore.
America deserves better – America deserves a President who will be an honest representative of America’s best interests. That can only happen when a Democrat takes office in Jan. ’09.
LaxativeTeetotaler @ 16
I said the laws are too lax. Just like gun laws don’t stop criminals from using guns, our current laws don’t put a heavy enough penalty on DUI criminals that have revoked licenses. As far as I’m concerned, if you drive without a license due to DUI revocation, they shouldn’t just throw the book at you, but the whole damn Encyclopaedia Brittanica.
speaking of “bad” intelligence
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....d_outlooks
“look for and report suspicious behavior on the water — much like a neighborhood-watch program”
Forget about reporting; just authorize fishermen to shoot jet-skiers on sight.
What, exactly, is vulnerable out on the water? Are they afraid some Arab waterskier with an explosive belt around his waist is going to blow a hole in Lake Washington?
AP Poll: Clinton Pulls Ahead of McCain
“WASHINGTON (AP) – Hillary Rodham Clinton now leads John McCain …, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll …, 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama remains virtually tied with McCain, 46 percent to 44 percent. …
” … Harrison Hickman, a Democratic pollster unaligned in the primary … attributed Clinton’s gains to people moving from the ‘infatuation stage’ of choosing the candidate they like the most to a ‘decision-making stage’ where they determine who would make the best president. …
“Added Steve Lombardo, a GOP pollster: ‘This just reinforces the sentiment that a lot of Republican strategists are having right now – that Clinton might actually be the more formidable fall candidate for a lot of reasons ….’
“Also on Monday, the head of the Republicans’ House campaign committee said the party would rather face Obama in November ….
“When pitted against McCain, Clinton now wins among independents, 50 percent to 34 percent …. Clinton … does better among independents than Obama … in a matchup with McCain.
“Clinton has a newfound edge among seniors, too, 51 percent to 39 percent; McCain had previously had the advantage. And, Clinton has improved her margin over McCain among people under age 30 …. She also now leads among Catholics … and improved her standing in the South as well as in cities and among families making under $25,000 a year.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://news.aol.com/story/_a/a.....2509990013
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Mrs. Rabbit doesn’t like Hillary. I’ll tell you the same thing I told her: I don’t like Hillary either, but that’s irrelevant. One of 3 people will be the next president: Hillary, Obama, or McCain. Those are the only choices we have. I believe Hillary will be effective. I consider McCain unqualified and I believe Obama will get steamrolled not only by Republicans but also by the Pelosis and Reids of his own party. We need the bitch in combat boots if we want anything to get done, and there’s a lot that needs doing in the next 4 years. That’s why I continue to support her even though I dislike virutally everything else about her. I’m a pragmatist, pure and simple.
@11 Here’s a quiz for you wingnut kiddies:
Which costs us more:
[ ] 1. Maintaining the military forces and weaponry required to meddle in other countries’ business, or
[ ] 2. Taking care of our own sick, lame, aged, and poor?
@12 Uh-huh. Some towelhead in a speedboat full of dynamite guns the throttles and steers straight for a ferry. You pick up the phone to call the Coast Guard. The ferry would blow up before you could even dial 9-1-1, idiot.
Next time I see a drunk Republican ripping up a lake with his speedboat I’m gonna call Homeland Security to see what happens. I hope they send an F-16 to drop bombs on his ass.
Roger said:
“Forget about reporting; just authorize fishermen to shoot jet-skiers on sight.”
Not a bad idea, Roger.
TRM @ 12:
Actually, I’d rather be in a WSF vessel than a Navy destroyer if it was hit amidships by an explosive charge. I have family that helped build the last few generations of ferries, and they’re designed and built to survive a remarkable amount of damage, albeit mostly collision-related. A friend of my Dad’s told me that ‘his’ boats would survive anything short of an armor-piercing torpedo. And last I checked, al-Qaeda doesn’t have a navy.
And while Neighborhood Watch programs have been an effecitve crime deterrent, could you see boaters out there watching for terrorists? I see a movie out there, let’s call it “Minutemen Ahoy!”
Bunny Boy @ 26 “Which costs us… Taking care of our own sick, lame, aged, and poor?”
I don’t know the actual numbers, but since you meet all four criteria above, Rog, why don’t you tell us the amount of your monthly welfare check and we can just extrapolate… [Just to clarify… since you didn’t do anything to EARN that “retirement” money, it is rightly called “welfare”]
I took a hike along the beach under the narrows bridges to day. There were a few boaters out so I lingered around the bridges support piers acting suspicious, but none of the boaters did their patriotic duty and reported me.
Slackers!
Not reading any of the above commentary yet;
Goldy said: “If Sikhs ever start driving water taxis, Homeland Security will be inundated with tips from vigilant boaters.”
I have five Sikh friends who would love to discuss that comment with you.
Goldy, do you actually know the difference? Since many Sikhs drive STITA taxis I bet many out of towners do, but sadly many Seattle Moonbat! Donkey probably do not.
Rhp6033@18: You have your timeline screwed up. The terror pilot flight trainings began on Clinton’s watch. FBI Memos of 1998 and 1999 showed concerns yet no one in other field offices knew. Congressional inquiries showed internally the FBI didn’t share data during the 1990s. Go back and read the 9-11 and Senate reports. Your paltry attempt is on Hani Hanjour from the Phoenix FBI EC July 2001, who probably flew American 77. Try again…
Facts are not too friendly to you…
If the bad guys want to get their boat dangerously close to a ferry- they can put it on a trailer and drive it on.