Thanks, Chertoff

So our brilliant homeland security guy is warning that terrorists just might want to attack us, because it's summer. Guess they like warm weather or some such.

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune that he had a “gut feeling” about a new period of increased risk.

He based his assessment on earlier patterns of terrorists in Europe and intelligence he would not disclose.

“Summertime seems to be appealing to them,” Chertoff said in his discussion with the newspaper about terrorists. “We worry that they are rebuilding their activities.”He added, “I believe we are entering a period this summer of increased risk.”

Let me explain it for you: terrorists would like to attack us, but only on days that end in "y". Most of us know this. Your job is to stop them. When you make these kinds of public pronouncements, you're just fear-mongering. If you have a specific threat, get to work. But don't waste are time trying to scare us.

If the Bush Fear Machine six years after 9/11 still sees a need to scare the base with threats like this to justify the Escalation To Nowhere, then its time for JayRockefeller and Silvestre Reyes to drag Chertoff's butt to a hearing. Chertoff says that their concerns about Al Qaeda stem from their resurgence and regrouping in the areas along the Pakistan/Afghanistan border. If this is the reason for the new fear campaign, Democrats need to ask why then did the Bush Administration encourage Pervez Musharraf to allow the Taliban and Al Qaeda to regroup there in the first place?

Bin Laden is still free nearly six years after Tora Bora because Bush needs him to be free.

I'm not saying that the terrorist threat isn't real. It is. al-Qaida and their ilk have come right out and said they want to attack us. They want us to be afraid. And your stupid statements only help them. I would hope that you're department is actually trying to prevent such attacks. But here's the important thing: most Americans aren't fearful. We're courageous. Life is dangerous by it's very nature (heck, today's forecast calls for lightning in my area. People get killed by lightning. We aren't hiding under our beds though.).
Lot's of blogs think the fear-mongering is to distract us from other issues, and I agree that it's the intent. But I don't think it works anymore. We've heard "wolf" so many times, but we have lives to live.