Wednesday
MICHAEL CHERTOFF’S "GUT FEELING"
REMARK MAY HAVE AMUSED SOME
BUT HAS ALSO CAUSED CONCERN
A timely comment: "These are the times that try men’s
souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will,
in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country;
but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks
of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily
conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the
harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." From
President George Bush? No. Senator John McCain or Joe
Lieberman? No. Secretary of State Condi Rice? No. This
comment is from Thomas Paine’s "Crisis," December 1776.
It could have been made by any one of our present
day politicians, or by their colleagues. These are indeed
times that try men’s souls, and like Thomas Paine, we have
many "sunshine patriots" who wave American flags and
affirm glibly their support for our troops who are engaged
in the conflict of war.
And how do we prepare to deal with the problems
which confront us? Our Secretary of Homeland Security,
Michael Chertoff, a member of the president’s cabinet,
announced to an audience in Chicago that he had a "gut
feeling" that the terrorists would attack us this Summer.
The reaction to this sort of an evaluation by our highest
homeland security official has been as might be expected.
Arnaud de Borchgrave, speaking for the Center for Strategic
and International Studies, made this comment: "I don’t think
you can assess the current terrorist threat by inflicting a
case of gastric distress on the country. .. This is not a very
serious way of handling the problem of terrorism."
In similar vein, Paul Williams, a former FBI terrorism
consultant, commented, "What a jerk. He better have more
in the pit of his stomach, so we can react according to reason
and not feeling. The American people right now don’t need
the feeling of anybody. They need the sound judgment of
officials."
And FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed to NewsMax
that al Qaeda intends to detonate a nuclear device that
would kill millions of Americans. He said the threat is so
real that he lies awake at night thinking about the effects
of such an attack.
Our highest intelligence official, Mike McConnell,
Director of National Intelligence, released unclassified
sections of the National Intelligence Estimate, stating that
"the U.S. Homeland will face a persistent and evolving
terrorist threat over the next three years." The report
included this comment, "the main threat comes from
Islamic terrorist groups and cells, especially al Qaeda,
driven by their undiminished intent to attack the homeland ..."
The situation was ably summed-up by – who else – Ann
Coulter, "For six years the Bush administration has kept
America safe from another terrorist attack, allowing the
Democrats to claim that the war on terrorism is a fraud,
a "bumper sticker," a sneaky ploy by a power-mad
president to create an apocryphal enemy so he could spy
on innocent librarians in Wisconsin... But now with the
U.S. Government – as well as the British and German
governments – warning of major terrorist attacks this
summer, the Treason Lobby is facing the possibility that
the ‘bumper sticker’ could blow up in their faces."
And it was summed-up more succinctly by the former
Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who opined: "Our
political system is broken. Our government doesn’t work."
It can be assumed, and probably correctly, that
Mr. Chertoff meant well and simply used a poor choice of
words. We can, at least, lament the deterioration in our
use of the English language since those days when our
founding fathers expressed themselves in the centuries
enduring brilliance of the Declaration of Independence.
One cannot conceive of those patriots attributing to a "gut
feeling" the fact that the colonies were being maltreated
by a corrupt monarch thousands of miles away. They
perceived their intent to establish a new nation based on
Judeo/Christian principles as under attack, and took every
means at their disposal to fight back in defense of a nation
which existed only in words on a sheet of parchment, and
a conviction which existed in their hearts and minds.
We who have inherited that nation and that concept
these 231 years later can do no less than to take that same
stand. If a Christian America was worth their pledge of their
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in 1776, surely it
is worth the same today.
You may ask: "What can I, as an individual Christian, do?"
You have at your disposal the most powerful privilege ever
accorded to any person – the right to vote. In the upcoming
national election next year – don’t be a no-show. Register and
vote . . . and persuade your Christian friends to join you. Vote
to bring America back to the nation we once knew, and stop
the liberals, atheists and homosexuals from further attacks
on the basic principles upon which this nation was founded.
A timeless quote for today: "In a society under the
forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite
and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be
said to reign as in a state of nature." – James Madison,
February, 1788.
Afterthoughts . . .
A word of correction is in order. Last week we
referred to President Bush’s favorable public reaction
as 33%, and the public’s favorable opinion of the
Congress as 24%. Both of those numbers should be
corrected. The public’s favorable opinion of President
Bush’s performance is more recently 34% – still not
a rating to brag about – while the favorable opinion
of the Congress is now at an all-time low of 14%.
"It’s the economy, Stupid." That was a sign put
up in the Clinton headquarters by Jim Carville during
the 2000 presidential campaign. It was Mr. Carville’s
opinion that the public’s understanding of the nation’s
economy was very important. Perhaps that same sign
should be posted in Republican campaign offices. At
this time we have just seen the Dow Jones Industrial
Average on the NY Stock Exchange hit an all-time high
of 14,000, having bested a previous all-time high of
13,000 just a short time ago. This at a time when
more than 60% of Americans hold shares of stocks.
Inflation is at a very comfortable rate of 2.69%. Claims
for unemployment benefits dropped last week by
8,000 from the previous week for a total of 301,000,
with the rate of unemployment holding steady at 4.5%
Right, Mr. Carville: "It’s the economy!"
We ignore, at our peril, the Muslims among us.
There is an old Arab saying, "Don’t allow the camel to
put his nose under the flap of your tent." There is a
more recent saying, American in origin, to the effect
that "All Muslims are not terrorists" ... its corollary
is "Up till now all terrorists have been Muslims."
America’s first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison
(D, MN) after stirring up a minor note of controversy
about taking his oath of office on the Koran, has now
made modest headlines by apparently comparing
George W. Bush to Adolph Hitler, by likening the
events of 9/11 to the destruction of the Reichstag by
fire so as to put the leader of that country (Hitler) "in a
position where he could basically have the authority to
do whatever he wanted." Mr. Ellison was addressing a
meeting of atheists in Minnesota, and promised them,
"You’ll always find this Muslim standing up for your
right to be atheists all you want." Even a casual student
of Islam would conclude from that statement that Mr.
Ellison isn’t even a very good Muslim.
And to be perfectly fair with the Congressman, he
did not omit Vice President Cheney from his references
to the Nazis – he said Mr. Cheney’s refusal to answer
some questions from Congress was "the very definition
of totalitarianism, authoritarianism and dictatorship."
The average length of those three words is 14.33 letters.
Who is to say that time spent in reading a dictionary of
the English language doesn’t pay off?
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