Monthly Archives: December 2009

Abandon ship! Abandon ship!

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In the last month, we have seen a freshman Democrat switch parties (after the national Dems pumped a million dollars into that race) and 11 House Dems state they will not seek re-election. Of those 11, 7 are believed to be in districts where the GOP is likely to win.

Recent main-stream media pundits report that more Democrats in DC will be switching party affiliation “soon”.  Today, “The Hill” reports that a fifth “formidable” Democrat candidate has withdrawn from challenging a GOP incumbent.

Democrat and prominent political handicapper Charlie Cook, publisher of “The Cook Political Report”, responded to a question from the host of MSNBC’s “Hardball With Chris Matthews” last week.  He said “I would not be surprised to see no Republican incumbent, House or Senate, lose…” in the 2010 mid-term elections.

In an article he authored this week, Cook also said that as the Democrats reach the end of 2009,

“instead of celebrating, they are bitterly divided. Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean and liberal bloggers are urging the Senate to defeat the health care bill. Many are criticizing President Barack Obama for compromising too much, saying the proposal doesn’t go far enough, while more moderate and conservative Democrats are petrified the bill and the President’s agenda are too ambitious and will cost them re-election next year.”

Apparently, some Democrats are getting the message and getting out now. More will get the message as the year goes on and for some, the message will become loud and clear on November 2, 2010.

The system works??

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By now you’ve heard of the terrorist who tried to take down a plane on Christmas Day, right?  “Undi-bomber” Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosives in his underwear and tried to ignite them on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.  Luckily for the almost 300 passengers on the plane, he only succeeded in starting a small fire and not in getting the whole package to explode.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday morning, Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano said “the system worked.  Everybody played an important role here.”  She followed that up by saying there is “no indication he was improperly screened.”  Robert Gibb, White House spokesman, said on “Face the Nation” that “in many ways, this system has worked”.

Apparently part of the plan is having an explosive fail and hoping there will be a passenger willing to take down the guy?  Maybe the part that worked includes allowing a man already on a watch list onto an airplane, allowing his visa to remain in force even after his own father informs the US that he’s become a radical jihadi, or maybe it was the part where he bought his ticket with cash and then got on an international flight with no luggage?

After Napolitano’s remarks, Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee, accused the administration of being soft on terrorism.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “It’s amazing to me that an individual like this, who was sending out so many signals, could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S.”

This morning on the Today show, Napolitano had to backtrack and admitted that “Our system did not work in this instance.”  The New York Times reported today that “counterterrorism experts and members of Congress were hardly willing to praise what they said was a security system that had proved to be not nimble enough to respond to the ever-creative techniques devised by would-be terrorists.”

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman said “We ought to, in our age, be able to put 500,000 names on a computer and have everybody who’s trying to come to the U.S. go through that list,”  on “Fox News Sunday.” “That doesn’t mean they’re convicted of any wrongdoing. But it would be basis enough to take this guy out of the line in Amsterdam and do a full-body check, and that would have determined that he was carrying explosives.”

Kinda sad when the head of Homeland Security has to have other people point out that, um, it was a big fail.

The system works??

Posted on by
1

By now you’ve heard of the terrorist who tried to take down a plane on Christmas Day, right?  “Undi-bomber” Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosives in his underwear and tried to ignite them on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.  Luckily for the almost 300 passengers on the plane, he only succeeded in starting a small fire and not in getting the whole package to explode.

On CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday morning, Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano said “the system worked.  Everybody played an important role here.”  She followed that up by saying there is “no indication he was improperly screened.”  Robert Gibb, White House spokesman, said on “Face the Nation” that “in many ways, this system has worked”.

Apparently part of the plan is having an explosive fail and hoping there will be a passenger willing to take down the guy?  Maybe the part that worked includes allowing a man already on a watch list onto an airplane, allowing his visa to remain in force even after his own father informs the US that he’s become a radical jihadi, or maybe it was the part where he bought his ticket with cash and then got on an international flight with no luggage?

After Napolitano’s remarks, Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Select Intelligence Committee, accused the administration of being soft on terrorism.  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “It’s amazing to me that an individual like this, who was sending out so many signals, could end up getting on a plane going to the U.S.”

This morning on the Today show, Napolitano had to backtrack and admitted that “Our system did not work in this instance.”  The New York Times reported today that “counterterrorism experts and members of Congress were hardly willing to praise what they said was a security system that had proved to be not nimble enough to respond to the ever-creative techniques devised by would-be terrorists.”

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman said “We ought to, in our age, be able to put 500,000 names on a computer and have everybody who’s trying to come to the U.S. go through that list,”  on “Fox News Sunday.” “That doesn’t mean they’re convicted of any wrongdoing. But it would be basis enough to take this guy out of the line in Amsterdam and do a full-body check, and that would have determined that he was carrying explosives.”

Kinda sad when the head of Homeland Security has to have other people point out that, um, it was a big fail.