Get a grip America

I just recently returned from vacation. That is not said to show off (I swear). I say that because the Christmas crotch-rocket would-be bomber incident and all it's concomitant fallout happened while I was vacationing. I caught blurbs in the little Times Digest the resort gave us at breakfast, but honestly I was trying to disconnect. The first reports I saw made the incident seem potentially scary, but mostly just crazy. I quietly hoped that things weren't going nuts at home. I fantasized a day where right-wing wackos and pundits would quit constantly looking for a way to tear down our President and instead try to unite as Americans.

Alas, that fantasy was about as far off the one about me and David Beckham and a wild weekend in Vegas (*sigh*).

I digress. The point is it WAS nuts when I got home. Wingers were trying to slay the President again.

"He should have come home from Hawaii sooner." (because Underpants Bombers need to see a display of strength and confidence from the President. Hooey.)

"The President didn't take this seriously." (umm... whatever)

"Obama doesn't know we are at war." (an especially slimy position from the former VP considering his war-mongering and full of FAIL leadership in Afghanistan)

"We should treat him as an enemy combatant." (errr... Caribou Barbie, we don't even USE that term anymore. Try to keep up.)

Here's the thing. Sure, terrorism scares us. That is what is designed to do. People of all political stripes can admit that there is only so much that we can do in the way of national security to stop ALL terrorist plots. Does that excuse slack intelligence issues? No. Should the federal government be doing all that they can to protect us? Of course.

But really. How the HELL can anyone say that the President doesn't care about terrorists? That he is distracted by other pressing issues? I mean, it is sheer stupidity. I could be wrong here, but I don't remember Al Gore making the regular rounds to the pundit shows and blogging for WaPo spouting off about bad decisions that Bush/Cheney were making after he was out of office. In fact, I believe he spent his time working on something constructive .. like saving the planet. How very socialist.

Point is can't we get a grip? Bad enough that we are grounding flights over a container of honey. But Cheney, Palin, et al. are not helping the situation by their fear-mongering. In fact, they are only helping themselves politically. Shameful, at best.

Is it bothersome that al Qaeda continues to grow and morph and exponentially despise the West? Yep. Is it going to be difficult for intelligence agencies to find this new 'loner' whackjob terrorists? Yep. But drunk drivers scare me more than flying right now.

Seriously. Get a grip America.