Real and Present Danger

More head-up-its-ass shameless propaganda from the Bush administration:

As boating season approaches -- Opening Day is Saturday in Seattle -- the Bush administration wants to enlist the country's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could be used in a terror attack.

[...] Today, officials will announce the plan, which asks states to develop and enforce safety standards for recreational boaters and asks them to look for and report suspicious behavior on the water -- much like a neighborhood-watch program.

If Sikhs ever start driving water taxis, Homeland Security will be inundated with tips from vigilant boaters.

"There is no intelligence right now that there's a credible risk" of this type of attack, says Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen. "But the vulnerability is there."

And there is no credible intelligence right now that terrorists are packing explosives up the ass of unicorns in an attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in America's magical creature infrastructure, but... well... you never can be too careful.

Or, just maybe, if the Bush administration really wants to better protect our safety, they might want to ask boaters to look out for a real and present danger: the beer-swilling, drunken skippers responsible for about a third of our nation's 700 boating fatalities annually, along with thousands of serious injuries and tens of millions of dollars in property damage. I'm just sayin'.

[David Goldstein blogs on WA state politics at HorsesAss.org]