Go Back to the B3 Home Page
Complaints, compliments, arguments? Email me.
[<< "We're Number One!! We're Number One!!"] [Archive Index] [>>"Ephedra ban"]
12/29/2003 Archived Entry: "Homeland Security to the World: 'Do as we say, or else!'"
Homeland Security to the World: 'Do as we say, or else!'
So Tom Ridge is on TV, announcing that any airline from any country he decides is under orders to put armed air marshalls on any flight they decide needs one, or they won't be allowed to land their planes in this country.
Is this a thinly-veiled side-step of incurring the cost of putting American air marshalls on flights? Looks like it to me.
Replies: 5 people speak up
Way to follow that money ...always gotta follow it ... course, who could forget how the Bush Petrolicans tried to cut air marshalls in America until the public got word and they had to put the segue in reverse?
Posted by Dr. Damfa @ 12/29/2003 10:42 PM NY
This Just In!
sorry to post a link to the mediawhores... but I find this extremely funny:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,106890,00.html
I thought that plastic and duct tape was a great diversion. I never would have thought of using almanacs. Be on the lookout for people with almanacs... they might be literate, and they could be a threat.
Posted by sellursoul @ 12/29/2003 10:43 PM NY
What criteria would he use? Which airlines give no bid contracts to Halliburton, per chance?
Posted by TechnoPeasant @ 12/30/2003 12:48 AM NY
Could be but can you serioulsy imagine the impact to the US economy if they denied flights to the US? Plus are the standards of Air Thirdworld Crap hole going to be enough to be effective? You need specialized weapons for air marshals, wrong kind of bullet hits the cabin wall and implosion.
I think they want to put Homeland security front and center so they have something to point to and can say "Loooky! We do thing! You safe! Vote GOP! Saddam baaaaahhhhd!"
Posted by salvage @ 12/30/2003 10:19 AM NY
Tom Ridge and the entire Dept. of Homeland Security need to be seriously reconsidered.
First, there's that silly color-coded system (a numeric system, like DefCon, would have been better).
Second, the whole duct tape and plastic sheet routine was simply an embarrassment.
Third, those dramatic upgrades in the threat assessment from Yellow to Orange were absurd. We're asked to be "vigilent" but not told when, where, or how a new threat might be implemented.
Four, the ability of a 20-year old college student to place mock-terrorist materials on four planes does not inspire confidence in our airport security systems.
And now we have the "almanac" warning. In my mind, these guys lost credibility looong ago. However, I suspect that the hicks who inhabit NASCAR country eat this shit up without question.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 12/30/2003 11:05 AM NY
