This Administration is Looking Wackier in its Desperation!

Seems like I'm using the word wacky a bit much. But it seems to apply to this Administration and its buddies. Now Cheney says Kerry can't protect us from a nuclear attack. And Ashcroft, Big Brother himself, says Bush rules by divine Providence! Its hard to believe serious politicians would dare push these buttons. But they apparently believe there is a paranoid lunatic fringe in American large enough to offset any loses created by such statements. And I'm afraid they are right. The most popular book in America advocates that we trigger a World War in the Middle East to precipitate Armageddon and the Rapture where all the true believers will be "lifted to heaven" prior to the final battle. The sooner the war starts, the sooner they get to heaven.
The New York Times > Opinion > Chiller Theater
As the election draws near, the Bush campaign grows ever more irresponsible in its effort to scare Americans into believing that voting for John Kerry will bring on another terrorist attack. In Ohio on Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney said Mr. Kerry was incapable of understanding, much less acting on, the specter of terrorists' creeping into our cities with nuclear bombs "to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans." Attorney General John Ashcroft was back in Washington, meanwhile, suggesting that God had spared America from an attack since 9/11 because President Bush's team was assisting "the hand of Providence."


Complete Article
Chiller Theater
October 21, 2004
As the election draws near, the Bush campaign grows ever
more irresponsible in its effort to scare Americans into
believing that voting for John Kerry will bring on another
terrorist attack. In Ohio on Tuesday, Vice President Dick
Cheney said Mr. Kerry was incapable of understanding, much
less acting on, the specter of terrorists' creeping into
our cities with nuclear bombs "to threaten the lives of
hundreds of thousands of Americans." Attorney General John
Ashcroft was back in Washington, meanwhile, suggesting that
God had spared America from an attack since 9/11 because
President Bush's team was assisting "the hand of
Providence."
Politicians like to tell scary tales about their opponents;
the Republicans have been complaining that Mr. Kerry keeps
accusing Mr. Bush of secretly planning to reinstate the
draft. But what the Bush campaign is doing is far more
serious and can't be dismissed as a particularly ridiculous
bit of political theater. The Republicans' habit of
suggesting that a vote for Mr. Kerry is a vote for the
terrorists - a notion that drew an embarrassing endorsement
from President Vladimir Putin this week - is a reminder of
the reckless way this administration has squandered the
public trust on public safety.
Mr. Ashcroft and Tom Ridge, the secretary of Homeland
Security, have turned the business of keeping Americans
informed about the threat of terrorism into a politically
scripted series of color-coded scare sessions. And Mr.
Cheney is even more discredited. The vice president hyped
the intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction long
after it had been debunked within the government. He still
draws a fictional link between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda,
and he was the first major figure in Mr. Bush's campaign to
turn the fearmongering about Mr. Kerry into a campaign
staple.
There is a real danger in having leaders so lacking in
credibility on this vital issue: if they ever deliver a
real warning, it could be discounted by a large segment of
the population, and that could really put hundreds of
thousands of lives at risk.
We don't need Mr. Cheney to tell us what everyone,
including Mr. Kerry, already knows: the threat of terrorism
is real, including from nuclear, chemical or biological
weapons, and defending against it is the government's
gravest responsibility.
Part of that responsibility lies in taking action. Although
Mr. Bush is running largely on this issue, his
administration has not provided enough money for important
security programs like safeguarding the nation's ports. And
it has squandered resources on half-baked cases against
people who posed no real threat and on a war in Iraq that
has actually increased the risk of terrorism.
But another big part of the government's role is to
maintain the highest possible level of credibility. Turning
our fears about a terrorist attack into just another
campaign commercial undermines this trust and make us all
more vulnerable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/21/opinion/21thu2.html?ex=1099391059&ei=1&en=911b5baed3a9f546
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