Who Will Keep Us Safe?

With the five-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks nearing, we can count on the Repugs to make every conceivable effort to shift the rhetoric to the Eternal Now And Forever You Better Goddamn Believe It You Godless Commie Liberal War On Terror that we MUST FIGHT so the terrorists don’t follow us home (Dubya made a statement to this effect while he was trying to raise money for Lynn Swann yesterday, which was particularly nonsensical even for him, and of course, Linda Chavez started “barking” on cue this morning in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial section, a sure sign that the game is afoot - column was reprinted from creators.com).

Also In today’s Inky, Dick Polman provided what I thought was a pretty good analysis as to why the Repugs will likely fail in this tactic (and by the way, it would be nice if the Inky had the right link on its home page, instead of a link to Polman’s informative blog).

And to put an exclamation point on that argument as far as I was concerned, this story describes the recorded conversations between those in the towers at the time of the attack, some of the rescue personnel, and at least one 911 operator trying to save the victims (the tapes were released as a result of a lawsuit filed by the New York Times and relatives of the victims). This was one item that struck me.

Family members complained that their loved ones were betrayed by poor communication that could have steered them outside before the buildings collapsed.

I would submit that, had some sort of wireless emergency communications network existed, there may have been a different outcome. I realize that this is hindsight, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something about that now.

Also noted in the story was this passage (describing the scene at the World Trade Center as the attacks took place)…

"We're in a state of confusion," Battalion Chief Dennis Devlin said, standing inside a command post at the trade center as the towers burned above. "We have no cell phone service anywhere because of the disaster."

As the story notes, Battalion Chief Devlin died on 9/11.

So what have we done to improve our ability to aid and rescue others in the event of another attack?

Well, I think this link from The Democratic Party provides the answer, in particular this item...

FIRST RESPONDERS: Emergency Preparedness Still Inadequate. The President’s budget for 2007 proposed to cut $612 million from first responder grants and training programs. The budget cuts funding levels for programs designed to assist state and local law enforcement agencies by more than $1 billion compared to FY 2006, the Firefighters Grant Program was cut by 50 percent, and the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium, which trains first responders, was cut by 66 percent. In addition, the President’s 2007 budget requested no funding to enhance interoperable communications. [“The State of Homeland Security, 2006” prepared by the Democratic Staff of the Committee on Homeland Security; 2/06]

The whole laundry list from the Democratic Party link is nothing but a stunning indictment of the failed Repug leadership on this critical issue in particular.

So the next time you hear Ken Mehlman, Billion Dollar Cheney, Dubya or some other Repug clown telling us that the reason we are in danger is because the Democrats have fought Bushco on the warrantless spying in violation of FISA, “extraordinary rendition” and other violations of international law (and not the fact that our government has absolutely and utterly failed in its task of preparing for another attack), tell them to run that garbage past the families and friends of Melissa Doi (who died on the 83rd floor of the South Tower), Dennis Devlin and others and see what kind of a reaction they get.

Update: Speaking of Dubya's warrantless spying, this story is breaking everywhere (hat tips in particular to HuffPo and Atrios, and as far as I'm concerned, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor is Queen Of The Universe!).