Followed By A Goon Shadow
With any luck, the hilariously stupid incarceration and expulsion of Cat Stevens will help convince Americans just how paranoid the Department of Homeland Security and its ilk are.
The DHS is a dysfunctional agency, run by the Bush administration’s single most incompetent civil servant—and that’s saying a lot—Tom Ridge. Ever since he was named to lead the White House’s homeland security effort right after 9/11, Ridge has looked confused, lost and hoping that no one notices.
Now we learn that Cat, who uses the name Yusuf Islam, was nailed over a spelling error. The real (supposed) bad guy is “Youssouf Islam.” Here’s Time, via AFP :
Time magazine, in its online edition, quoted aviation sources with access to the "no-fly" list as saying there is no entry on the list under the name "Yusuf Islam," but that there is a "Youssouf Islam" on the list. They said the incorrect name was added to the list this summer.
Could anything be dumber? Earth to DHS: The bad guys’ names are not written in English. You can transliterate them a million ways: Mohammed, Mohammad, Muhammad, Muhamad, Muhammed. It is literally an impossible chore, since Middle Easterners can write their names any way they like, without lying. (Meanwhile, I can’t resist the irony that Cat’s adopted last name was “Islam.” I mean, that is hard to miss, even for a sleepy DHS agent. Maybe if he’d picked the name “Joe Terrorist,” they might have looked twice.)
Kerry has turned the corner on Iraq—not completely, no, since I haven’t heard him say he agrees with Kofi Annan that the war was illegal. Now he needs to do the same on terrorism. Of course, he’s hampered by the fact that he voted for the PATRIOT Act, the analogue of his vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Still, the Bush administration’s police state is scary to a lot of citizens. The next time Kerry says that Iraq is a “diversion” from going after Al Qaeda (it was), and that he would focus on going after Osama bin Laden (he should), maybe he ought to add that we ought to stop looking for bin Laden here. He’s in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Time for Kerry to start ridiculing the Tangerine Alerts, the emergencies based on three-year-old Al Qaeda files, and, in general, the Bush administration’s obvious efforts to scare voters into staying the course. Even conservatives know this is a scare tactic and a hoax—why can’t Kerry say it, if Jay Leno and Jon Stewart can? Meanwhile, a little inoculation about the potential for an October Surprise might be a good idea, too. Right now, if Bush captured Osama bin Laden, it might look so suspicious that it would end up backfiring, in electoral terms. But maybe not. Just to make sure, the Democrats need to remind everyone that the White House isn’t above pulling some stunt in the next four weeks.
September 27, 2004
Dreyfuss Report
The DHS is a dysfunctional agency, run by the Bush administration’s single most incompetent civil servant—and that’s saying a lot—Tom Ridge. Ever since he was named to lead the White House’s homeland security effort right after 9/11, Ridge has looked confused, lost and hoping that no one notices.
Now we learn that Cat, who uses the name Yusuf Islam, was nailed over a spelling error. The real (supposed) bad guy is “Youssouf Islam.” Here’s Time, via AFP :
Time magazine, in its online edition, quoted aviation sources with access to the "no-fly" list as saying there is no entry on the list under the name "Yusuf Islam," but that there is a "Youssouf Islam" on the list. They said the incorrect name was added to the list this summer.
Could anything be dumber? Earth to DHS: The bad guys’ names are not written in English. You can transliterate them a million ways: Mohammed, Mohammad, Muhammad, Muhamad, Muhammed. It is literally an impossible chore, since Middle Easterners can write their names any way they like, without lying. (Meanwhile, I can’t resist the irony that Cat’s adopted last name was “Islam.” I mean, that is hard to miss, even for a sleepy DHS agent. Maybe if he’d picked the name “Joe Terrorist,” they might have looked twice.)
Kerry has turned the corner on Iraq—not completely, no, since I haven’t heard him say he agrees with Kofi Annan that the war was illegal. Now he needs to do the same on terrorism. Of course, he’s hampered by the fact that he voted for the PATRIOT Act, the analogue of his vote to authorize the war in Iraq. Still, the Bush administration’s police state is scary to a lot of citizens. The next time Kerry says that Iraq is a “diversion” from going after Al Qaeda (it was), and that he would focus on going after Osama bin Laden (he should), maybe he ought to add that we ought to stop looking for bin Laden here. He’s in Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Time for Kerry to start ridiculing the Tangerine Alerts, the emergencies based on three-year-old Al Qaeda files, and, in general, the Bush administration’s obvious efforts to scare voters into staying the course. Even conservatives know this is a scare tactic and a hoax—why can’t Kerry say it, if Jay Leno and Jon Stewart can? Meanwhile, a little inoculation about the potential for an October Surprise might be a good idea, too. Right now, if Bush captured Osama bin Laden, it might look so suspicious that it would end up backfiring, in electoral terms. But maybe not. Just to make sure, the Democrats need to remind everyone that the White House isn’t above pulling some stunt in the next four weeks.
September 27, 2004
Dreyfuss Report
posted by R7 | 9/28/2004 05:23:00 PM
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