why now?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3767915.stm

US terror suspect Jose Padilla had been planning to blow up apartment buildings and use a "dirty bomb", according to US Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

The former Chicago gang member has been held without charge at a US military prison as an "enemy combatant" for the past two years.

Mr Comey said the US Justice Department was releasing new information about him in order to explain his imprisonment.

Padilla has been in custody for two years. Why is it suddenly important to relrease this information now?

I heard two commnetators on NPR this morning, one a former senior member of the State Department's counterterrorism and one a former senior FBI CT officer; they affirmed that some of the people listed at the AG's recent press conference on an imminent "terror threat" are people the US intel and law enforcement community has known about since teh 1990s; some of them have been listed on the FBI's "wanted" website for months; why are they suddenly being splashed on the front pages fo the paper?

Can this administration manage to play politics with national security any more callously and blatantly?

perhaps someone could pass this on to Mr. Hastert

http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/powers_of_persuasion/knew_the_meaning_of_sacrifice/knew_the_meaning.html

perhaps our current adminstration could keep this in mind

I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call. A part of the sacrifice means the payment of more money in taxes. In my budget message I will recommend that a greater portion of this great defense program be paid for from taxation than we are paying for today. No person should try, or be allowed to get rich out of the program, and the principle of tax payments in accordance with ability to pay should be constantly before our eyes to guide our legislation.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in his "Four Freedoms" speech of January 6, 1941.

from the same speech, some good principles

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:

Equality of opportunity for youth and for others.

Jobs for those who can work.

Security for those who need it.

The ending of special privilege for the few.

The preservation of civil liberties for all.

The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living.

These are the simple, the basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding straight of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

more on the subject of free debate

( Some words from Robert M. La Follette )