I've Got A Feeling In My Gut

Lady Bird Johnson, 94 years old, has died. She was at her home, in Austin. This is kind of expected as she has been hospitalized recently for high fevers and testing. She leaves a legacy around the country promoting natural beauty, especially the planting of wild flowers on our nation's highways. Our state of Texas is magnificent in the spring when the bluebonnets bloom in open fields for all passersby to enjoy. Lady Bird deserves that credit.

So, how secure do you feel with Michael Chertoff in charge of Homeland Security? Seems he has a feeling in his gut. Yep. A feeling in his gut. This feeling in his gut tells him of a new period of increased risk, according to the AP.

Feeeeeeeeeellllliiiiingsssss.....whoa, whoa, whoa, feeeeeeeeeeellllllllingsssss.....

Is this what the department has become? See, my gut feeling told me back when this monstrosity was created that the idea was a bad one. The very last thing the federal government needed was another lumbering, inefficient bureaucracy. When the Democrats proposed the idea, surprise! the party of big government wanted bigger government, the President should have gone with his gut feeling and remained opposed to the idea. But, like so many other decisions, he accepted bad advice and caved. The department was created and we began with such nonsense as the color code of terror threat levels and being told to stock up on duct tape. Over one hundred positions in the department remain unfilled.

I think instead of the investment made in this new department, the monies should have been used to fix our existing intelligence agencies. Train scores of new intelligence employees. Improve local offices across the country.

Now we have gut feelings. I understand this was said during the course of an interview discussing the increased amount of chatter among sources in the field wishing to do us harm. I understand we are a bit on edge after what has been happening in Europe in recent weeks. But, please, don't subject us to such quotes as gut feelings from the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Apparently there are new video tapes from al-Zawahri continuing his rants on jihad. Rumors fly that government buildings are to be targeted. Who hasn't been having that thought anyway? If you've been to a courthouse in recent times I sure hope you've encountered more intense levels of security. It's there for a reason.

Or, maybe it's just a right wing conspiracy to take away all your civil rights. Republicans are the devils on earth.

Americans suffer from short attention spans when it comes to the continuing threat to our way of life. It'll take another catastrophic attack to shake everyone awake again. It's when, not if. Remember how the country came together immediately after 9/11? Then it began to fade. Then the politicians began the gamesmanship of political expediency. It continues today. This country couldn't even come together to continue the fight on into Iraq, a good spot to begin democracy in the middle east. I admit I was one who thought we should have finished up in Afghanistan before anything else was put on our plate. I was just as hesitant on invading Iraq as I was on invading in 1991. After the politicians approved the intervention and removal of Saddam, our policy since Clinton signed it into law in 1998, and President Bush grew serious with it, then screams of Vietnam and quagmires begin after about a week of the initial maneuvers. I have been amazed and completely disheartened by my fellow Americans who have held party over country. Terrorism is not a Republican or Democrat issue. The terrorists don't ask for your party affiliation before the bombs go off.

Now, as the administration struggles to end the deployment of the majority of the soldiers in Iraq, all we hear is loss and defeat and timetables to insure defeat. Suddenly, after 30 years of awareness of climate change and environmentalism, global warming is the most pressing issue of our times. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.

Feeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiingsssss.....