It drives me crazy to see Republicans turning this failed attack into a political issue.  Congress needs to stop pointing fingers at each other and focus on this for what it is- a failed attempt to attack America.  This should open our representatives' eyes that the way forward is to work together to ensure that this doesn't happen again.  We don't need another 9/11.  We don't need another Patriot Act.  We need to re-evaluate our system, find the weaknesses and fix the holes. 

There were signs that should have been seen, and I believe they would have been if our security officials would have been trained to look for some of the now obvious signs.  For example, I don't see how hard it would be to crosscheck people on watch list to make sure that they don't have visas that allow them into this country.  It's simple; when someone is placed on a watch list, run their name with the state department. 

There are also some reports that the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was allowed to board the plane without a passport.  This is simply unacceptable.  If countries can't ensure that safety measures such as this can't be utilized, then maybe it's time we place some restrictions on these countries.  We are a powerful nation; we need to use that power for the right reasons.

Recently, in November, the suspect's own father contacted the FBI to warn them about his son and the possible risk that he posed; still he was allowed to board a flight into the United States.

There were other signs, that I'm sure were easy to overlook, but now seem plainly obvious.  We need to first focus on this and train security workers to look for them before we jump the gun and spend millions more dollars that we don't have on machines to take away more of our freedoms.  We need to realize that we are not the enemy here, and if we don't want to be victims of future attack we have to realize this.