Posted on 08/12/2006 5:13:39 AM PDT by seasoned traditionalist
JOHN SOLOMON As the British terror plot was unfolding, the Bush administration quietly tried to take away $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new explosives detection technology.
Homeland Security's research arm, called the Sciences & Technology Directorate, is a "rudderless ship without a clear way to get back on course," Republican and Democratic senators on the Appropriations Committee declared recently. 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.
The department failed to spend $200 million in research and development money from past years, forcing lawmakers to rescind the money this summer.
(Excerpt) Read more at comcast.net ...
We have no way of confirming your background. You're an anonymous poster and you could be anybody with any background. I suggest that you look skeptically on any articles from the AP and do a lot of research on the other side of the story before posting them here.
In case you're not aware of this, let me just state my opinion: the AP has a very strong negative bias against President Bush and other Republican political leaders. Everything written by AP writers has to be carefully fact-checked to see if it is the truth and the whole truth.
Is there some sort of waiting period before you can post or give opinions? I though this site was here to bring conservatives together. I always thought that conservatives were more respectful of eachother, unlike democrats, whose motto seems to be "it's our way or the highway". Personally, I think the DHLS isn't all that. Maybe I'm missing something here but, how can we have HOMELAND SECURITY with open borders?
You know, this is all starting to P*SS me off.
I do not need any "instructions," "directions," or "informative advice" from anyone on how to evaluate a source for information, or anything else.
I was evaluating "sources" as a covert Intelligence Agent in Nam, and a subsequently as Fed Agent in the Office of Special Investigations (in the 60's) when you, and most other Freepers, were probably still wearing short pants.
Perhaps if some of you would take the time to read what others write and evaluate their missives, then you could save yourself (and others, like myself) a lot of time and aggravation.
I'm 63; been around (I would venture to wage) just a little more than you--or most other Freepers and did not just fall off the turnip truck.
I am--and have been for most of my life--a conservative.
Moreover, I am well aware of how the MSM and its many sources slant the news and how most, hate W and all of us silent majority, red state, conservatives.
As I said, if you would take the time to re-read my post, you would note that I referred to AP, as the "APROPRIATED PRESS."
Is that a hint? Do you have a clue, yet? Is that plain enough for you and all the others who have been giving me so much sh*t that of which I think of the "source?"
Yet like the proverbial stopped watch, the AP, Reuters, the NY Slime, or even on occasion, Pravda, can get it right once in a while, and to completely discount ANYTHING out of hand, without objectively seeking a more in depth search for facts, simply by considering the source, is to be disingenuous and narrow-minded, in the extreme.
Given that you were a "a covert Intelligence Agent in Nam" and you say you're a conservative, it's unusual that you would post an attack article like this without doing more research first so you could also post information about the other side of this story. If you're looking for information about the other side of this issue, this is a good place to find it, but it is unusual for a conservative to post an article like this and start attacking Bush in the middle of your post. That's why people are reacting the way they are.
There are some other aspects of your post that raise questions with me, but I don't want to be too confrontational with you because you probably are a real conservative. But let me just say that many other people on this site (including myself) have backgrounds in information analysis and we're quick to notice posts that do not fit the usual behavior for conservatives. So tell me, why didn't you do more research into this subject before shouting at Bush with this sentence?: "WHERE IS PRESIDENT BUSH AND WHY IS HIS LEADERSHIP LEFT WANTING?"
Do you really think it's the role of the POTUS to spend his time at this level of detail, and did it ever occur to you that one of those covert agencies (CIA/NSA) is already doing this kind of explosives detection in secret and thus DHS doesn't need the budget for this activity?
Dawgs can sniff this "sealed" stuff out though it takes time to train them.
I have a hunch that exposives detection is so important that this activity has been moved into the "black" budget of CIA/NSA and MI6, and thus DHS doesn't need the budget for this activity. I don't have any inside information; that's just an intuitive hunch.
I didn't complete that statement: In other words, I have a hunch that CIA/NSA, MI6/MI5 are now responsible for explosives detection in airplanes and key locations throughout the world, and these covert agencies are now handling this activity.
Well, I had to leave this thread yesterday to attend one of my grandchildren's birthday parties..... Oh did I mention that I'm a "seasoned" 68, and have 5 "seasoned" years on the traditionalist? He has mentioned he is 63 several times. Now, Ms panthermom, this is a place for conservatives, I agree. But when one starts out calling our conservative government "stupidity and incompetence" based on an AP story, one can expect some flak right off, don't you think? While it may not actually be one, it smells of a "troll."
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