Quotes of the Morning: Fly the Friendly Skies

“When Vice President Cheney went out of his way Wednesday to blast Democrats as weak on terrorism, he knew something that few Americans knew: Another stark reminder of the dangers of terrorism was about to hit the headlines.
The White House confirmed Thursday that senior administration officials have been aware since at least last weekend that British authorities were moving toward arrests in an alleged terrorism plot.
Some of these top officials worked in concert with the Republican National Committee to blast Democrats after Tuesday's primary defeat of Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a supporter of President Bush's Iraqi war strategy.”
-Cox News Service, August 11, 2006

“Sure, Cheney knew about the impending terror arrests, but that isn’t the point. He was just showing, once again, that the Democrats are bad for national security. Only the Republican party can save us from the terror of.. um.. terror.”
-Skippy

“The TSA, which has a budget of $6.2 billion and has seen its number of screeners drop to 43,000 from 55,000 in 2002, is one of the last lines of defense in the country's efforts to battle terrorism, particularly attacks directed at airplanes.”
-Washington Post, August 13, 2006

“We don’t need those additional 12,000 screeners. They were just bogging down our streamlined airport security systems.”
-Skippy

“Lawmakers and recently retired Homeland Security officials say they are concerned the department's research and development effort is bogged down by bureaucracy, lack of strategic planning and failure to use money wisely.
The department failed to spend $200 million in research and development money from past years, forcing lawmakers to rescind the money this summer.
The administration also was slow to start testing a new liquid explosives detector that the Japanese government provided to the United States earlier this year.”
-Associated Press, August 12, 2006

“I’m sure that they didn’t spend that $200 million because they already had everything under control and didn’t need to learn anything more. We shouldn’t worry.”
-Skippy

“The TSA should have banned liquids long ago or pushed more aggressively to develop technology to detect them because the threat from such explosives has been well-established for at least a decade, critics argue. They also wonder why the Department of Homeland Security, of which the TSA is a part, has seen its research and development budgets slashed from $110 billion in 2003 to $44 billion this year.”
-Washington Post, August 13, 2006

“See? The Administration must know what it is doing. No one in their right mind would cut $66 billion dollars from their R&D budget unless they really, honestly thought that they had every possible scenario covered. Especially with this huge threat of terrorism that they keep talking about.”
-Skippy

“The administration's most recent budget request also mystified lawmakers. It asked to take $6 million from the Sciences & Technology Directorate's 2006 budget that was supposed to be used to develop explosives detection technology and divert it to cover a budget shortfall in the Federal Protective Service, which provides security around government buildings.”
-Associated Press, August 12, 2006

“And that, as Dick Cheney will tell you, is why the Democrats are weak on national security. They just don’t take threats to government buildings seriously.”
-Skippy