"Ports" we screamed, "Ports!"

We here at littleboxes have been known to jump up and yell "talk about the ports" during the presidential and vice presidential debates. Kerry did briefly mention the ports but we did not hear Edwards mention them. Well, today he mentioned them! Yes. Yes. Yes.

Standing on a wharf with huge container ships behind him, the Democratic vice presidential candidate said only 4 percent to 5 percent of the containers coming into the United States are inspected for terrorist activity.

"If you're al Qaeda and you want to do damage to the American people, if you want to kill people in this country and you have dangerous material or a weapon, you know if you put it in one of these containers, it's got a 95 percent chance of getting in here," Edwards said.

He said the Bush administration needed to spend more money on technology and inspection of incoming ships.

"These people spend more money on the war in Iraq (news - web sites) in four days than all the money they've spent on homeland security since September 11, on screening this cargo," he said. "We have to do better than that, not just at our ports, but our border." (link to full article)