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<The latest Bush ad is out, and Bush goes right after September 11th: "My most solemn duty is to lead our nation to protect ourselves. I can’t imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September 11th.” Kerry campaign spokesman Chad Clanton said the ad showed how desperate the Bush campaign was: “This is Bush’s idea of an optimistic campaign? The president has his back against the wall, so now he invokes September 11th in his ads and getting rid of IRS on the stump. If you ever wanted proof that the Bush campaign has reached the point of desperation, now we have it. It’s another sign Bush has lost credibility -- he can’t speak to a single issue voters care about: not jobs, not health care, not deficits." Here's a look at the Bush-Cheney credibility gap in this ad: BUSH-CHENEY CREDIBILITY GAP “My most solemn duty is to lead our nation to protect ourselves. I can’t imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September 11th.” THE RECORD Bush Has Neglected America's Homeland Security Needs Bush Cut Grants for Fire Depts. By $246 Million in Next Year’s Budget, Though Grants Had Only Supplied “10% of…Need.”
Bush Cut Funding for State and Local Homeland Security Grants by $800 Million.
Bush Allowed the GOP Congress to Cut the Federal Airport Screener by Thousands.
Bush Implemented “Inherently Dangerous” Shipping Container Security Program That Fails to Sufficiently Screen for Radiation.
Bush Cuts in Port Security Grant Funding by 75 Percent, $150 Million, in Next Year’s Budget.
Bush And Ashcroft Have Consistently Cut COPS Program. Bush proposed cuts in the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Bush’s 2005 budget cuts the program by 87 percent. And, according to a secret OMB memo, Bush and Ashcroft plan to cut the COPS program by $43 million in 2006 and freezes funding at that level through 2009.
Bush “Backed Down” on EPA Plan to Secure Chemical Plants Under Pressure from Industry.
Port Security Shows Serious Gaps. Seven million cargo containers arrive in US ports each year, but as little as 2 percent of those are screened. The US has 361 commercial ports.
Less Than 10 Percent of the Nation’s Border Agents Secure the Northern Border. Only 1,000 border agents patrol the United State’s border with Canada, compared to 9,500 that patrol the nation’s southern border.
80 Percent Of Federal Agencies Face Homeland Security Challenges With Insufficient Information From DHS. Federal auditors report that most federal agencies are faced with operational challenges in responding to code-orange alerts issued by DHS. For example, 80 percent of agencies indicated that insufficient information on threats was an “operational challenge.”
Under Bush, Cargo on Passenger Airlines Remains Unscreened. On average, half of a plane’s hull on any passenger flight is filled with cargo, and 22 percent of the nation’s air cargo travels on passenger flights. The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin told lawmakers that the TSA screeners and privately contracted airport workers "performed about the same, which is to say, equally poorly."
Chemical Plant Attack Could Endanger More Than a Million Americans. The Department of Justice characterizes the threat of terrorism at one of the nation’s chemical facilities as “both real and credible,” and emphasizes that a chemical plant attack could be more dangerous than one at a nuclear power plant. The GAO reported, however, that 123 chemical plants are located in urban areas where a toxic release could endanger over a million people in a “worst case” scenario.
Mayors Reported That Cities Have Made “Little Or No Progress” in Many Homeland Security Funding Categories in the Last Year. A US Conference of Mayors report suggested that for some programs there has been “little or no progress” in administering funds since the first survey in August 2003. The report also found that “only about one quarter of the survey cities” had received critical infrastructure/ first responder funding, the exact same number of cities that reported receiving funding 5 months earlier.
BUSH-CHENEY CREDIBILITY GAP
“We cannot hesitate…”
THE RECORD
Bush Has Failed to Implement Information Sharing. “Almost three years later, all must acknowledge that, despite serious and sustained efforts by responsible government agencies, we still do not have the level of timely, routine and unfettered information sharing we know we need to prevent terrorism and respond to it as effectively as we must,” said Republican Christopher Cox, the House Homeland Security Committee Chairman.
Bush Has Failed to Establish Terrorist Database. The Associated Press reported that integrating the various terrorist watch lists had missed a December 2003 deadline after “struggling for months,” resulting in the US lacking a comprehensive list of suspected terrorists nearly three years after the 2001 attacks. Bureaucratic infighting as well as confusion over the role of various entities helped cause the delay. Tom Ridge said the “goal now is to have the work done by midsummer” and that it may be several months before a consolidated terrorist watch list could be compiled.
Under Bush, GAO Study Found a Lack of Intelligence Sharing with Federal and Local Officials. A recent Government Accounting Office survey found that only 13 percent of federal officials and 35 percent of state officials believed that the current level of intelligence sharing between federal, state, and local officials was adequate and effective.
Bush’s Conflicting Actions Are Hampering Intelligence Consolidation. A December 2003 report by the Homeland Security inspector general criticized the lack of centralized intelligence within the agency, saying that despite that function being “one of the principle objectives” behind DHS’ creation, responsibilities of other intelligence entities “overlap with, duplicate, or even trump” Homeland Security. The IG said that Bush’s creation of the other entities, including the , presented “an even harder challenge” to DHS’ mission. The report also criticized “insufficient staff,” slow consolidation, and delays in database consolidation for “further hamper… DHS’ effectiveness” in intelligence matters.
Bush’s FBI Lacks Key Equipment to Do Their Job. “Law enforcement agencies like the FBI continue to face such basic problems as field agents who lack internet access and the means to receive e-mail attachments.”
BUSH-CHENEY CREDIBILITY GAP
“…we cannot yield, we must do everything in our power to bring an enemy to justice before they hurt us again”
THE REALITY
New Evidence Suggests Bush’s Claim of Destroying al Queda is Outdated
“For the past several months, the president has claimed that much of Al Qaeda's leadership has been killed or captured; the new evidence suggests that the organization is regenerating and bringing in new blood.”
War In Iraq Helping Al Qaeda Recruit New Members. Former Bush counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clark believes that by going to war in Iraq, “we delivered to Al Qaeda the greatest recruitment propaganda imaginable.”
Bush Wants a Figurehead National Director of Intel. “The Sept. 11 commission also said the should have the power to hire and fire the heads of the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, the FBI intelligence office and other agencies. Bush’s plan, however, simply envisions giving the director a say in those decisions.”
Bush’s Intel Czar Will Have No Real Power. “Some members of Congress and 9/11 commissioners doubt Bush’s idea to allow the intelligence director to ‘coordinate’ foreign and domestic intelligence fully embraces the commission’s recommendation. The panel wants an intelligence czar with budget authority over the CIA, FBI, Defense Intelligence Agency and 12 other spy agencies, and the power to hire and fire their chiefs.”
9-11 Staff Director: Position Pointless Without Real Power. Philip Zelikow, executive director of the 9-11 Commission said about the national intelligence director, “If Congress takes the shell of this idea and then dilutes the powers so that it looks like they’ve done it but they haven’t really done it, then you will have another bureaucratic layer, and I’ll just say here, if that’s the way it ends up, they might as well not do anything at all because they’ll make us more worse off than we were before.” >
http://blog.johnkerry.com/blog/archives/002418.html
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