Could there be a more damning indictment of the intelligence of most Americans than the figures reported in the latest poll?

Despite those vulnerabilities [figures showing doubts about his economic and other domestic policies], which the Democratic presidential candidates are busily trying to exploit, Mr. Bush retains a powerful advantage on national security. Sixty-eight percent, including majorities of both Democrats and independents, gave him high marks for the campaign against terrorism, and 68 percent said the Bush administration's policies have made the United States safer from terrorist attacks.

[While we're at it, we should note that this poll is the work of, well, yeah, the NYTimes/CBS News, and what the heck is a newspaper doing putting its own poll as its lead front page story?]

Just where is the evidence of our increased safety? There have been no more terrorist attacks within the U.S. since September 11. If that's evidence, it's the same evidence that showed we were safe before September 11. Are these 68 percenters saying we're safer because only people outside the U.S. are being slaughtered - by ourselves and others, in huge numbers which happen to include a certain count of American soldiers as well?

Accepting tyranny and waging world war, whether in bits or in total, will not make us safe.

And, back to my original question, I no longer buy the argument that our media makes us stupid. If that were true, everyone would be cheering for the little man in the flight suit. By the Times's count there may still be some on the sidelines.

[image from The Museum of Hoaxes]

greetings!

the full Yahoo! caption reads:

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tom Ridge (L) speaks with airline passenger Gloria Quevedo (R) of Chile as she is fingerprinted by Customs and Border Protection Officer Mary Armbrust at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on January 5, 2004. The United States began fingerprinting and photographing visitors from most countries on Monday in a controversial program to try to prevent potential terrorists from slipping in through the borders. REUTERS/Tami Chappell

So patriotic that it trumps the administration's disdain for "old Europe", even its hatred for the French.

Today the U.S. began taking mugshots and fingerprinting all visitors coming into and leaving the fatherland, although an exception is being made for citizens of European countries and Canada. Mexicans are also excepted, for now but since we have always made "special" arrangements for what we think of as the permanent threat of the darker people from the areas to our south, I'm sure we will continue to address the problem of those immediately below our border with the seriousness we think it deserves.

Basically, if you're not a white European, we just don't trust you and you just better watch out.

But does anyone trust the people in charge to make Americans safe? Tom Ridge, like virtually every member of this administration, wouldn't even have a passport if his current job didn't require it, and that kind of provinciality and just plain incuriosity shows in the disastrous policies which this government pursues.