Quotes of the Morning: Gut Reactions

“A secret U.S. law enforcement report, prepared for the Department of Homeland Security, warns that al Qaeda is planning a terror ‘spectacular’ this summer, according to a senior official with access to the document.
‘This is reminiscent of the warnings and intelligence we were getting in the summer of 2001,’ the official told ABCNews.com”
-ABC News, July 2, 2007

“Aaaaaah! Be afraid! Be afraid! There are terrorist plots! Live in terror! ….wait, um.. Don’t the terrorists win if we live in terror?”
-Skippy

“Chertoff also played down a report that al-Qaida was planning a big attack in the United States. ‘We do not currently have any specific threat information that is credible about a particular attack on the United States,’ Chertoff told Fox News.”
-MSNBC, July 2, 2007

“Whew.. Luckily Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff was there to calm this down a little bit…”
-Skippy

“U.S. counterterror officials are warning of an increased risk of an attack this summer, given al-Qaida's apparent interest in summertime strikes and increased al-Qaida training in the Afghan-Pakistani border region.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune that he had a ‘gut feeling’ about a new period of increased risk.”
Associated Press, July 10, 2007

“Until he then turned around and tries to scare the poo out of us based on his ‘gut’. I guess that’s ok.. Some of the people I trust most think from their guts.”
-Skippy

“Every night on my show, The Colbert Report, I speak straight from the gut, okay? I give people the truth, unfiltered by rational argument. I call it the ‘No Fact Zone.’ FOX News, I hold a copyright on that term.
I'm a simple man with a simple mind. I hold a simple set of beliefs that I live by. Number one, I believe in America. I believe it exists. My gut tells me I live there. I feel that it extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and I strongly believe it has 50 states, and I cannot wait to see how the Washington Post spins that one tomorrow.”
-Stephen Colbert, April 29, 2006

“So there is no specific threat, but Chertoff’s ‘gut’ and apparently a secret U.S. law enforcement report both agree that something is going down. I guess that they don’t want to scare everyone or make them change what they do at all (or they’d be changing the terrorism color level.. remember that?), but they’d kind of like to have an available ‘I told you so’ if something… bad… happens.”
-Skippy

“Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the US”
-Presidential Daily Briefing, August 6, 2001

“Don’t worry though.. The brave men and women in Homeland Defense, with the support of Fearless Leader, will always be there to help protect us from harm that may, or may not, be coming.”
-Skippy

“The Bush administration has failed to fill roughly a quarter of the top leadership posts at the Department of Homeland Security, creating a ‘gaping hole’ in the nation's preparedness for a terrorist attack or other threat, according to a congressional report to be released today.
As of May 1, Homeland Security had 138 vacancies among its top 575 positions, with the greatest voids reported in its policy, legal and intelligence sections, as well as immigration agencies, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard. The vacant slots include presidential, senior executive and other high-level appointments, according to the report by the House Homeland Security Committee.”
-Washington Post, July 9, 2007