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This Ridge is More Like a Cliff
(July 24, 2002) Homeland Security. Sounds good and it is a good thing. Sadly, that responsibility lies with Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and apparently a cheerleader for the jack-booted thug set.
When he was first appointed, Ridge promised to coordinate our various agencies and organizations to help prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attack. President Bush made a lot of really good speeches promoting Ridge as the right guy for this all-important job.
Now, several months later, I have to believe that the president was as wrong as wrong could have been. Let's look at Ridge's record thus far.
The first thing he did - after the traditional big government study - was to introduce a color-coded system of alert levels so that the American people would not be confused by the flow of alerts from all sources. On the face of it, this sounded like a good idea. But, like all things government, it did not work out that way.
Since its inception, the alert level has not changed once. Not in response to threats on the 4th of July or "so-called" specific threats against the Statue of Liberty or nuclear power plants. In fact, regardless of any threat information, Ridge has consistently refused to change from his preferred "yellow - heightened alert" status. What does that mean to us? We don't know because Mr. Ridge won't tell us.
We hear a lot about non-specific threats. Well, on any given day BEFORE 9/11, the USA received hundreds of "non-specific threats." Threatening the US is a hobby for some countries and organizations. So, these "non-specific threats" are nothing new and nothing extraordinary. In fact, any organization of any appreciable size gets daily threats. At the same time he was telling us to be afraid, he was telling us to go about our regular lives. In effect, he told us repeatedly not to react to his own pronouncements. Now there is a useful function.
In the meantime, Congress passed the Transportation Safety Act, which, besides calling for the close inspection of every underwire bra at every US airport, also directed the Department of Transportation (under Norman Mineta - another phony patriot) to develop and implement a program to arm our commercial airline pilots as a last line of defense against hijackers. the pilots wanted it, the people wanted it and most of the Congress wanted it.
Ridge's reaction? "If we arm the pilots, then where will we stop? Who gets armed next?"
Yes, that comment came from Tom Ridge and not Sarah Brady, even though it sounds like the anti-gun party line. I was at the 2001 Gun Rights Policy Conference in Cincinnati when Ridge's appointment was announced. A lot of our attendees from Pennsylvania warned us about Ridge and his anti-gun tendencies. I had no idea that he was a total pawn of the Brady folks as indicated by his comment.
Ridge and Mineta then set forth the policy of ignoring the law and refused to arm the pilots. Congress is a now having to pass the law again to force Ridge to actually do something to really secure our commercial air fleet. It is the policy of the United States (as generated by the Ridge-Mineta team) to shoot down the entire aircraft rather than give the pilots the chance to defend themselves.
This is usually presented as "White House policy," but that is only mildly accurate. More accurately, Tom Ridge has announced the policy as presidential without the benefit of actually being president.
After torpedoing genuine airline security, Mr. Ridge set his sights on us - the people. In his next grandiose failure, Ridge created the TIPS program. JR Labbe of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has written an excellent piece on this stupidity and has graciously given permission for it to appear here as well. Click to read JR's column.
In a nutshell, Ridge proposed that postal workers, delivery drivers and the like spy on us and report anything "unusual." And I thought Mel Brooks wrote "Springtime for Hitler".
In his latest act of jack-booted thuggery, Ridge has now suggested that we weaken the Posse Comitatus law that prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement. Obviously, Ridge's knowledge of history extends to approximately the day before yesterday, since the use of military as law enforcement is almost always a precursor to extreme repression if not downright fascism. Ask any Cuban living in Miami.
I am not suggesting that Mr. Ridge is a nazi or communist. He is not. He is however, the single most dangerous government official we have. And, if history is any indicator, he stands on a slope coated with oil. The journey from military law enforcement to oppression is a short one.
The simple fact that he would even suggest weakening or repealing Posse Comitatus shows his hand. The casual nature of his pronouncement indicates that he is not in the least concerned about security and more importantly, our rights. I almost expect Ridge to show up any day now in a nifty looking windbreaker with SECURITY BOSS stenciled on the back.
I recall meeting several high ranking members of our military at a reception about a year ago. The subject of US Armed Forces acting as law enforcement came up. The one point I came away from that reception with was that where law enforcement officers are trained to protect the rights of all, the military is trained to kill the enemy with no regard to rights.
This is as it should be. When we decide to send our women and men in uniform into battle, we send them with a single purpose - to win. We do not expect our soldiers to stop and give a Miranda warning to an Al Qaeda fighter. We expect them, as Gen. George Patton once pointed out, to kill the enemy before they kill us. That is their function, and, fortunately for us, our Armed Forces are very good at it.
We do not and can not have law enforcement at the muzzle end of an M-16. Yet, Mr. Ridge thinks that is just fine. His suggestions on Posse Comitatus reflect just that thinking. As I write this, big brave Tom Ridge is doing press spinning on the White House South Lawn. Is he talking about terrorists? Threats? New security measures? Nope. He is talking about subverting Congress' Constitutional budget and appropriation powers.
Why would he do that? Is Congress between him and something he doesn't want to tell them about? He won't say. When pressed he draws the curtain of National Security and returns to the need for him to be able to spend our dollars without the Constitutionally required permission of our representatives. Never a reason for the need - just the need. That is the true Ridge hallmark.
While terrorists pose a real and present danger to this nation and its citizens, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge poses a real and present danger to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
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Reach Tom Ridge at: Tom Ridge |
Reach Norman Mineta at: Secretary Norman Mineta |
Even an administration as good as this one will now and then
have a miscue. As citizens, it is our duty to tell them about
it so they can fix it.
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