Chertoff should take a deep breath

Montreal Gazette ^ | Friday, July 13, 2007 | Editorial

[GMMAC]

Chertoff should take a deep breath

The Montreal Gazette: Editorial
Published: Friday, July 13, 2007

Perhaps Michael Chertoff should take an antacid. Certainly he should be careful what he says before he causes Canadians to need a Tylenol.

The U.S. Homeland Security chief has been popping off about his suspicions, hunches and worries, but if he has facts to back up any of this, he's keeping those to himself.

Chertoff told the Chicago Tribune this week that he has a "gut feeling" that the U.S. faces an increased risk of terror attack this summer. The next day, he said threat levels were not at the 2001 level, sowing considerable confusion.

Of more concern to Canadians were his comments about the Canadian border, where the requirement of a passport to get into the U.S. has just been deferred. That happened under strong pressure, not from powerless Canadians but from "northern-tier" U.S. politicians and merchants.

Chertoff plainly resents the delay: "What do you think is going to happen to your business," he asked rhetorically, "when a guy comes across the border with a phony document and blows up a target in Buffalo or Detroit? Do you think that the ... public is going to then allow the border to remain open, or are they going to suddenly clamp down?"

Does the Bush administration really believe Americans would ever want to shut down the border in paranoid isolationism? There was no demand for that even after Sept. 11, 2001, and there's no reason to think there ever will be.

Immigration is a hot issue in the U.S., but the notion of terrorists sneaking in from Canada is overblown. Not one of the Sept. 11 killers came through Canada. True, Ahmed Ressam was arrested crossing into the U.S. in 1999 with a spare tire full of explosives and a plan to blast Los Angeles airport. But the U.S. can never seal itself in.

Instead of hinting idly that Canada is a hotbed of terrorism, Chertoff should mind his own business: The New York Times said this week that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission mailed a licence to a bogus radioactive-materials company set up by congressional investigators to check security. The licence, issued after only minor security checks, provided access to materials for a "dirty" bomb. Chertoff should keep his gut feelings to himself and use his head instead.

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

[GMMAC]

Compounding liberal-like illogic not dissimilar from that whined by the gun grabbing crowd - that terrorists & criminals, by definition scoff laws, are somehow going to curb their murderous ways in the face of additional regulations - U.S. Homeland Security Czar Michael Chertoff has now sunk to defending this nonsense with girlie-man prattling as to his mysterious "gut feeling".
Unsubstantiated fear-mongering is hardly a reasoned response to legitimate concerns with respect to damage to cross-border trade.

Day's aide responds to terror remarks
'Canada is not, and will not be, a safe haven for terror,' but it's still not immune to attacks
~ Ian Macleod, The Ottawa Citizen, Friday, July 13, 2007
Terror threat downplayed
White House backs off Chertoff's 'gut feeling' on summertime risk
~ Mark Silva & Naftali Bendavid, Chicago Tribune - Washington Bureau, July 12, 2007

[GMMAC]

[The Blitherer]

It sounds like Chertoff has managed to piss-off our neighbors to the North, as well as American citizens.

[devolve]

.

LOL!

Great profile page -

My grandfather McLeod came from PEI to the USA in 1998

I’ve got some McLeod-sorta (Dunvegan Castle) webpages I’ll send you later

[taxed2death]

If skeletor stopped whining about how “impossible” it is to secure our southern border....maybe he would have a shred of credibility.

[PhillyRepublican]

Chertoff and the entire Homeland security dept. are useless expenditures of tax money. Aside from investigating a 14 year old American boy for putting a ham sandwich on a school cafeteria table where muslim kids were sitting, giving money to mosques in the US for security cameras an alarms, helping throw border agents in prison, what do they do?
There is a Homeland Security office in Philly. If your ever walk past it you will see people standing around out front drinking coffee or smoking, people sitting on desks inside chatting but, never will you see anything that reminds you of actual work. Walked past there on day (it has a storefront window) and saw a guy with his head down on his desk SLEEPING. USELESS! COMPLETELY USELESS!

[G8 Diplomat]

Czar Michael Chertoff

Lol...if I knew his middle name I could completely Russify that...Tsar Mikhail Chertov has annoyed not only Americans about the border issue, but also Canadians now as well. The Bush Administration has really gone south (literally) since they were re-elected. Hopefully Hunter or Fred will be nominated and get elected to shape things up in 08.

[G8 Diplomat]

...when a guy comes across the border with a phony document and blows up a target in Buffalo or Detroit?

Buffalo or Detroit?! No one blows up the homes of my two favorite hockey teams!

Anyway...at first when I read it I thought they meant Target the store. I was thinking what an odd choice of buildings that is to blow up...

[GMMAC]

"He talkin' about Detroit's 8 mile?



... that already blowed up real good !!!"

[GMMAC]

Thanks.
There's a fairly famous WW1 Nursing Sister from PEI (just do a bit of Googling) by that surname.
Although there are a lot of Mc/MacLeods from down there, she could be a long-lost cousin, eh?

btw, I'm assuming you meant to type "1898" with respect to ol' Gramps?

[devolve]

[potlatch]

Very nice poster and music devolve. Think I found you some small poster of him one time??

[repentant_pundit]

Does the Bush administration really believe Americans would ever want to shut down the border in paranoid isolationism?

The Bush administration probably doesn't believe it, because they obviously didn't believe that Americans want border enforcement (until we caused a meltdown at the Senate switchboard a few weeks ago).

Paranoid would mean we fear someone's out to get us. And that's just delusional....September 11 and recent terror attempts were just our paranoia, right ?

Shut down and guard our borders, like most nations do.

.

[devolve]

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Whoops!

Correct!

- 1898 -

I lose track with his father and mother on PEI somewhere in the mid-1880s - So many McLeods/MacLeods on PEI and in Canada as you mentioned

If you research (lost) my notes - About 759 McLeod warriors and their families were sent to Virginia and the Carolinas and sold as slaves about 1675 after losing a battle to the English - It too is online - but.....

MacLeod
Macleod
McLeod
Mcleod
MaxLoud
Maxloud
MxLoud
Mxloud

(& many more spellings)

There are lots of spellings and as you are well aware - many used the surname of the Chief

Leod the Black married the daughter of a Danish Knight and had two sons on the Isle of Skye

Interesting history on Iceland, Greenland, Vinland well before that time

Sorry Columbus & algore

(global freezing problemos too)

About five centuries late....

-

Good surname links & info:

Home Page:

(Earliest recorded listing in England abt. 1050 in my files)

http://whipple.org

USA surnames:

(FDR, Eleanor, TR, Coolidge, original Mayflower links, about 8 or more American Presidents as some are not listed including the Bush family)

http://genweb.whipple.org/surnames.html

UK surnames:

(Colt ancestor abt. 1550)

http://uk.genweb.whipple.org/surnames.html

There is a captured Islamic flag from the Crusades here:

http://www.dunvegancastle.com/

[devolve]

.

Yes - I have a few posters - One you found for me

William Wallace is related to McLeod, Whipple, Prosser, Colt, Roosevelt, Cooke, Jefferson

I just upsized one to 600x870

That .midi is the one I resequenced a few years ago from the movie sound track changing to some lower octaves and adding a more haunting touch from the bagpipes tracks

[potlatch]

http://www.highlanderweb.co.uk/wallace/

Lol, I had to look up William Wallace!

[WOSG]

“Immigration is a hot issue in the U.S., but the notion of terrorists sneaking in from Canada is overblown. Not one of the Sept. 11 killers came through Canada. True, Ahmed Ressam was arrested crossing into the U.S. in 1999 with a spare tire full of explosives and a plan to blast Los Angeles airport. But the U.S. can never seal itself in.”

ARRRGH! What a stupid editorial... the poster-child counterexample for their whole editorial is right there.

Yes, we *do* need passport control even at the Canadian border, and yes, Canada *HAS BEEN* a point of terrorist plots - do they forget the plotters caught in Canada?
The case of the millenium plot where a terrorist attempted to come into the US from Canada is one where we got *lucky* due to a ‘hunch’ or ‘gut feeling’ that a border patrol officer had, so lets not discount those.

And yes, if we find that a terrorist attack occurred because we let someone in to the US due to lax border security, the s888 will hit the fan bigtime.

[devolve]

.

George Patton:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0256/I30444.html

Cody:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0081/I20615.html

John Alden:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0012/I67196.html

Colt:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0082/I11222.html

Walker:

(died at Plymouth Colony)
(about 25% of Americans have Mayflower ancestry - it is not rare)

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0362/I2577.html

Jefferson:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0178/I42836.html

Lee:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0200/I621.html

Washington surname listings are not available - Lee was related to George Washington (Mayflower listings include Washington)

FDR:

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0285/I15629.html

Nixon:

(Richard M. Nixon was related to FDR!)

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0237/I61492.html

Pressly:

(early spelling of “Presley” - Elvis was a fan of Nixon)

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0270/I21633.html

Custer: (abt. 1883 - 7 years after)

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0095/I101166.html

Bogart:

(Humphrey Bogart was descended from the Mayflower Cooke family)

http://genweb.whipple.org/d0046/I32975.html

—

Marilyn Monroe was related to all of the above (John Alden) - and to many FReepers too

—

[devolve]

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Thanks potlatch!

Good links on William Wallace

[potlatch]

Bump! G-Gramma Eve and G-Granpa Adam are impressed!

Lol, ‘don’t hit me’!! I know you are knowledgeable on this!