Sunday, May 30, 2004

Why, indeed?

Why is it that in our ports all across this country, we still don't have the inspection of containers that are coming into our nation? Why is it that our trains and other forms of transportation don't have the protection that we know would make us safer? Why is it that chemical plants and nuclear facilities still don't have the plans in place -- and the protections in place -- that are necessary?....

I'm not going to stand in front of you as a potential president and say that you can protect every single place and harden every single target in the country. All Americans know better than that....What we can do is protect against catastrophe. What we can do is protect the most logical places for the largest potential damage and danger.

And that's the responsibility of a president.
-- John Kerry

Just observe container ships entering the port of New Orleans or Charleston -- as I have -- and consider the implications of a nuclear device or dirty bomb in the harbor.

Then ask yourself if we can afford the Bush administration's inaction on homeland security. What we needed was inspection of containers and protection for nuclear plants; what we got was a color-coded "warning" system.

As my significant other observed, that color-coded crap is about as useful as the "duck and cover" routine we used to practice at school back during the Cold War...diving under our desks to avoid the fallout from a nuclear bomb.


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