The White House acknowledged the new department — an idea Mr. Bush initially opposed — will face "growing pains" and will not be fully operational for at least a year and perhaps two.
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Signing the homeland security bill ends an odyssey for legislation that started inching through Congress nearly a year ago against Mr. Bush's opposition, only to see him offer his own version after momentum became unstoppable.
Intelligence expert James Bamford says it's a knee-jerk reaction to the attacks, done for public relations purposes, created in a rush, and it doesn't fix the system for sharing intelligence. He claims it not only won't increase efficiency, but may turn out to be worse than no change at all.
The only mechanism we have in place to question Govt. policy is dissenting opinion. It is a very slippery slope that we are venturing onto with the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act. Without dissent we may just find ourselves stripped of all rights —— not by this administration but by a future one.
KERRY: I can make American safer than President Bush has made us.
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KERRY: I believe America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we are leading strong alliances.
I‘ll never give a veto to any country over our security. But I also know how to lead those alliances.
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KERRY: I have a better plan for homeland security. I have a better plan to be able to fight the war on terror by strengthening our military, strengthening our intelligence, by going after the financing more authoritatively, by doing what we need to do to rebuild the alliances, by reaching out to the Muslim world, which the president has almost not done, and beginning to isolate the radical Islamic Muslims, not have them isolate the United States of America.
I know I can do a better job in Iraq. I have a plan to have a summit with all of the allies, something this president has not yet achieved, not yet been able to do to bring people to the table.
We can do a better job of training the Iraqi forces to defend themselves, and I know that we can do a better job of preparing for elections.
All of these, and especially homeland security, which we‘ll talk about a little bit later.
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KERRY: I believe in being strong and resolute and determined. And I will hunt down and kill the terrorists, wherever they are.
Presidential debate