Obama Appointees

In a video address released just hours ago, President Obama for the first time publicly posits a link between the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.“We know that [Abdulmutallab] travelled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies,” Obama says. “It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qaeda, http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGZkMjA0YzZiNjhmNWVmNDUyYWU0NzZhNjZhYjRiYTQ=

[I would ask: is he trying to say that George Bush, or the nasty United States of America caused this crushing poverty? Is he intimating that if it were not for our greedy Capitalism, and if only we would send trillions of dollars of our money to their corrupt leaders, Yemen would be a lovely place? Or should he be saying that without Capitalism, there is yet one more country where the dictators who control the county are fomenting the crippling poverty in order to feed their own greedy needs?] [Yes, of course, as follows, he at least mentions the word war and defeat, but does blame Bush]

“Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred, and that we will do whatever it takes to defeat them and defend our country,” Obama says.

The video also contains thinly-veiled criticism of the counter-terror strategy of George W. Bush. Obama says that the current administration has “refocused the fight” against al-Qaeda on Afghanistan and Pakistan, while “bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.”

Speaking broadly once more, Obama says that this strategy has reaped benefits, thwarting unspecified terrorist plots on U.S. soil and saving “countless American lives.”

[Didn't we just narrowly escape a terrible plane explosion because our security has been compromised since Obama's inauguration? Didn't he appoint an inexperienced woman as Homeland Security Chief, who has declared our military veterans and Tea Party protesters as possible terrorists? She who actually declared, in her total ignorance, that the system worked? Hasn't he released from Gitmo some detainees, right back to Yemen, where they are plotting against us again? Isn't he ready to close Gitmo, and to try Muhammed in a NYC court of law? Hasn't he had the Miranda rights read to this terrorist, to be tried in a civilian court? Do you feel comforted and secure? George Bush was thoroughly condemned because he had been in office for over 7 months before 9/11 and failed to stop the plot. Obama has been in office for 11 months, was given (three days prior to this incident) a "shout-out" about an unspecified Christmas Day plot against America, had been warned by the father of the perp, and still failed to secure our nation. Where is the outrage at his continued ineptitude, exacerbated by his unwillingness to disrespect his own once-stated Muslim faith as a faith that believes in the death of ALL infidels? And just when will he grow up, be a man, and stop blaming his predecessor? It is he who is now our President, and it is his and his appointees' directives and agenda which are being followed.]

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The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show. The disclosure comes as pressure builds from Democrats on Capitol Hill for quick January confirmation of Erroll Southers, whose nomination has been held up by GOP opponents. (Snip) Southers, a former FBI agent, has described inconsistencies..... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123102257.html?hpid=topnews

Acknowledging he has given inconsistent answers to Congress, President Barack Obama's pick to lead the Transportation Security Administration wrote to lawmakers to explain a reprimand he received for running background checks on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend two decades ago.

In an October affidavit for the Senate committee, he initially said he asked a San Diego police employee to run a background check on his then-estranged wife's boyfriend and was censured by his FBI superiors 20 years ago for what he said was an isolated instance.

But a day after the committee approved his nomination and sent it to the full Senate, he wrote to the senators and told them that he was incorrect, that he twice ran background checks himself.

In the letter correcting the record, Southers also said he downloaded law enforcement records and shared them. He said he forgot the incident in 1987 or 1988. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100101/D9CUQQB01.html

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Another compromised Obama appointee-in-waiting is discovered: Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obama_nominee_under_fire_withdraws_fWUjQkPhanbrlCeY15PpkO#ixzz0bH4FRVpg

A controversial Obama administration nominee has withdrawn his candidacy for “personal reasons,” White House spokesman Tommy Vietor confirmed.

Jide Zeitlin, a former Goldman Sachs banker who was to be America’s financial point man at the United Nations, faced character questions amid allegations of identity fraud and improper business practices. One of his India-based firms is being sued in a New Dehli court for failing to pay $2.4 million to a client, The Washington Post reported in November.

He responded to the criticism by telling a November hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee “no one bats a thousand,” the newspaper said.

Zeitlin’s withdrawal was first reported by a Foreign Policy magazine blog. [Once again, our press is unwilling to give us the news...]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/16200/?ck=1
This is the link to the great Barack Obama National Anthem, first posted by Glenn Beck prior to the election last year....

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/us/politics/01terror.htmlKANEOHE, Hawaii —

The attempted bombing of an American passenger plane on Christmas Day could greatly complicate President Obama’s efforts to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as lawmakers in both parties call on the administration to rethink its approach. But evidence that Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen was behind last week’s failed plane attack will make closing the center even harder since nearly half the remaining detainees are from Yemen.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/01/01/democrats-join-calls-napolitano-step-following-failed-attack/ \

Though the CIA and an agency under the Director of National Intelligence have been under particular scrutiny in the preliminary review of possible missteps, Napolitano so far has taken the most heat from lawmakers. Not only does her department oversee the Transportation Security Administration, but her initial claim Sunday that "the system worked" was widely ridiculed and interpreted by critics as a sign that she's in over her head.Regarding the charges being dropped against the Blackwater guards: The issue was that the guards, as government contractors, were obligated to give an immediate report of what they had done, but the Constitution prevents the government from requiring a defendant to testify against himself, so those statements could not be used in a prosecution.

Some Republicans, who've taken issue with her in the past for calling terrorist acts "man-caused disasters" and other remarks, started calling for her ouster in the spring. The failed bombing on Christmas Day revived those calls.

Now Democrats have joined the chorus.

Terrorism, Our "Dumbed Down" Population, and Ten Most Corrupt Politicians

Stay warm and cozy while you celebrate a Happy New Year! May all your dreams come true.









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From the UK Telegrapy: There is no more solemn duty for an American commander-in-chief than the marshalling of “all elements of American power” – the phrase Obama himself used on Monday – to protect the people of the United States. In that key respect, Obama failed on Christmas Day, just as President George W. Bush failed on September 11th (though he succeeded in the seven years after that).

Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office. Obama may have rather smugly given himself a “B+” for his 2009 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants. He said today that a “systemic failure has occurred”. Well, he’s in charge of that system.

The picture we’re getting is more and more alarming by the hour. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100020934/barack-obama-gets-an-f-for-protecting-americans/
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As Ann Coulter has opined: In response to a Nigerian Muslim trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, the government will now prohibit international travelers from going to the bathroom in the last hour before the plane lands. Terrorists who plan to bomb planes during the first seven hours of the eight-hour flight, however, should face no difficulties, provided they wait until after the complimentary beverage service has been concluded.

In addition to the no blanket, no computer, no bathroom rule, perhaps the airlines could add this to their preflight announcement about seat belts and emergency exits: "Should a passenger sitting near you attempt to detonate an explosive device, you may be called upon to render emergency assistance. Would you be willing to do so under those circumstances? If not we will assign you another seat ..."
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Obama is the first president to give an international law enforcement organization like Interpol free rein within the territorial confines of this nation, presumably not excluding the arrest and exportation of Americans to be charged with crimes under international law.

Put simply, this means the Constitution is no longer the supreme law of the land in America. Thanks to Executive Order 12425 , which Obama signed Dec. 16 without explaining why, the supreme law of the land is now arguably whatever Interpol says it is, most likely as directed by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in conjunction with the United Nations.

There's also this observation by National Review's Andy McCarthy: "Being constrained by the Fourth Amendment, Freedom of Information Act, and other limitations of the Constitution and federal law that protect the liberty and privacy of Americans is what prevents law enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical." Executive Order 12425 circumvents all of that.

So tell us, Mr. President, why do you think Interpol should operate with no accountability and no transparency in our country? Is this what you had in mind in your 2008 presidential campaign when you said "we've got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded" as the U.S. military?

Pentagon generals and admirals answer to the president and Congress. Under Obama, Interpol answers to no American. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/What-is-Barack-Obama-doing_-8700165-80341107.html

[We can only hope that one blogger's remarks are valid: No executive order can supersede the Constitution, since all powers the executive branch has come *from* the Constitution. If Obama destroys the Constitution, he destroys any legitimate claim to power he may have.]

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From an email making the circuit: Even if each detail isn't exactly correct (and I'm not saying it isn't), the gist of this is oh, so true! So - just why do some of us actually trust the government to run our health care system? As I wrote earlier, the Congress even ran their cafeteria into bankruptcy! I would add that our Department of Education has failed to educate an ever increasing number of students. They choose to not embrace their education, and then cannot fully participate in our great system of American Capitalism!

• The U.S. Post Service was established in 1775 You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.
• Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.
• Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.
• War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.
• Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.
• Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.
• The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.
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• A federal judge has dismissed all charges against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards charged in a deadly Baghdad shooting. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina said Thursday the Justice Department overstepped its bounds and wrongly used evidence it was not allowed to see. He said the government's explanations have been contradictory, unbelievable and not credible. http://lucianne.com/thread/?artnum=513573
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• http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHoYSI84VdL0
• The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

  More than 3,000 patients eligible for Medicare, the government’s largest health-insurance program, will be forced to pay cash if they want to continue seeing their doctors at a Mayo family clinic in Glendale, northwest of Phoenix, said Michael Yardley, a Mayo spokesman. The decision, which Yardley called a two-year pilot project, won’t affect other Mayo facilities in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

  Obama in June cited the nonprofit Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio for offering “the highest quality care at costs well below the national norm.” Mayo’s move to drop Medicare patients may be copied by family doctors, some of whom have stopped accepting new patients from the program, said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a telephone interview yesterday.
  

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• http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2009/dec/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2009
  
• Each year Judicial Watch names 10 people to their "Most Corrupt Politicians List". You can go to the above website to read the details, but the "honorees" are:
  
• 1) Chris Dodd D-CT
  
• 2) John Ensign R-NV
• 3) Barney Frank D-MA
• 4) Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
• 5) Attorney General Eric Holder
• 6) Jesse Jackson/Roland Burris
• 7) President Barack Obama
• 8) Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
• 9) John Murtha D-PA
• 10) Charlie Wrangle D-NY
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http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/pravda.asp [from Russia's newly organized Pravda on-line magazine - which is not afraid to tell us the truth as they see it... Will we heed their warning?]
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas than the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama . His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America 's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more th en another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe . These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, losses, and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties, and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more than a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barack Obama 's command that GM's (General Motors) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self-given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance, and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Frank , a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern , enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive. The proud American will go down into his slavery without a fight, beating his chest, and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

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Health Care Bill, Terrorists, and Airport Security

One of the best ways to understand what a piece of legislation is all about is, well, to read it, (which too many of our elected officials refuse to do...or don't allow enough time for the American people to do). This is even more true when it comes to Obamacare.

For example, Grover Norquist had a little fun doing a word search on the House version of Obamacare and found some interesting patterns.

The Conservative Outpost points out the following: If you care about your freedom (and/or your money), take a look at how often the following words appear in the bill:

• "Tax" 87 times
• "Taxable" 62 times
• "Excise tax" 10 times
• "Taxes" 15 times
• "Fee" 59 times
• "Penalty" 113 times
• "Require" 118 times
• "Must" 58 times
• "Shall" 3,424 times

Not exactly the language of liberty, is it?

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Obamacare gives Medicare bureaucrats the power to ration health care by forcing doctors to prescribe cheaper medical devices and drugs. In the recent case of Hays v. Sebelius, the court ruled that Medicare doesn't have the right to make this rule, but Obamacare takes jurisdiction away from the courts to hear any appeal from decisions of the new Medicare Commission.

The "stick" applied to primary-care doctors is imposing financial penalties if they refer too many patients to specialists. The "carrot" is financial rewards to doctors who give up small practices and consolidate into larger medical groups or become salaried employees of hospitals or other large institutions. The Senate bill even has a four-page section artfully written to enable ACORN to get federal health care grants. This section describes grant recipients as "community and consumer-focused nonprofit groups" having "existing relationships ... with uninsured and underinsured consumers." http://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2009/12/29/ten_new_reasons_why_obamacare_can_still_be_killed?page=2

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/opinion/29herbert.html?_r=3

If even the plan’s proponents do not expect policyholders to pay the tax, how will it raise $150 billion in a decade? Great question.

We all remember learning in school about the suspension of disbelief. This part of the Senate’s health benefits taxation scheme requires a monumental suspension of disbelief. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, less than 18 percent of the revenue will come from the tax itself. The rest of the $150 billion, more than 82 percent of it, will come from the income taxes paid by workers who have been given pay raises by employers who will have voluntarily handed over the money they saved by offering their employees less valuable health insurance plans.

Can you believe it?

I asked Richard Trumka, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., about this. (Labor unions are outraged at the very thought of a health benefits tax.) I had to wait for him to stop laughing to get his answer. “If you believe that,” he said, “I have some oceanfront property in southwestern Pennsylvania that I will sell you at a great price.”

A survey of business executives by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm, found that only 16 percent of respondents said they would convert the savings from a reduction in health benefits into higher wages for employees. Yet proponents of the tax are holding steadfast to the belief that nearly all would do so. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to David Limbaugh, in part, regarding Barack Hussein Obama: The public is scared to death -- not about the ebbs and flows of the economy in the short term, but about the very survival of the country -- because of the reckless spending policies Obama is deliberately pursuing and the other "elements" of his destructive agenda to remake America in his image -- including going soft on terrorism.

What [liberals] need to get through their heads -- and then share with impervious colleagues -- is that Obama didn't undertake his radical agenda to turn America into a full-blown socialist state because of "the size of the problems (he) inherited." That was just a convenient excuse.

He had plans to "spread the wealth around" long before TARP became an acronym. He and his wife were trashing America as arrogant and dismissive long before this economic crisis fell into their laps just months before the 2008 election.

Obama didn't impose his Draconian stimulus bill or omnibus spending bills to jump-start the economy. He did it to transfer wealth and establish slush funds for re-election (I would add - funds with which to "buy" the votes he needs in Congress to pass his agenda]. He didn't push cap and trade to reduce "global warming," but to bring America down to size with the "underdeveloped" nations of the world. He didn't obsessively promote Obamacare to improve the economy, "bend the cost curve" (what a joke!), achieve universal coverage or improve the quality of health care. He did it to amplify the federal government's power over all aspects of our lives. http://townhall.com/columnists/DavidLimbaugh/2009/12/29/its_not_the_economy,_stupid!_its_national_survival!?page=full&comments=true

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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Whistleblowers-punished-for-warning-of-aviation-security-lapses-8693641-80219982.html

They've been frantically trying to warn America for the past six years: Aviation security is a joke, and it's only a matter of time before terrorists destroy another airplane full of innocent passengers.

The close call in Detroit on Christmas Day has vindicated a group of highly experienced experts -- including former airline pilots, federal air marshals and Federal Aviation Administration inspectors -- who were fired or demoted for pointing out obvious flaws in the nation's post-9/11 aviation security system to their chain of command.

Even now, facing financial ruin after their careers were trashed and their families destroyed, courageous members of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association ( airline-whistleblowers.org) refuse to be silenced.

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Hundreds of al-Qaeda militants planning attacks from Yemen'

“They may actually plan attacks like the one we have just had in Detroit. There are maybe hundreds of them — 200, 300.”

Dr al-Qirbi said it was the “responsibility” of countries with strong intelligence capabilities to warn states such as Yemen about the movements of terror suspects. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article6970574.ece

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The organizers of a Dearborn-area group on Facebook are calling for Muslims to protest against the actions of a Nigerian man accused of trying to attack a Northwest Airlines flight en route to Detroit Metro Airport on Friday. Majed Moughni, a Dearborn attorney, said Sunday afternoon that Muslims need to let the world know that those who would commit terrorism do not represent Islam. His Facebook group, Dearborn Area Community Members, is calling for local Muslims to hold a protest during the scheduled Jan. 8 hearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The 23-year-old was charged Saturday with trying to detonate an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday. He told federal authorities he was acting on orders from Al Qaeda. http://www.freep.com/article/20091228/NEWS02/912280316/Protest-planned-to-tell-world-Islam-is-peaceful
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Is the following (intrusive, invasive xrays that show us totally naked, and place frequent travelers at risk of high radiation levels) what you wish for our government to do to "protect" us all as we fly from place to place? Or do you think that some true profiling should be expected, singling out those types of folks who are currently targeting us and our county, as well as all other infidels, for death? I for one am weary of being picked out of line for further inspection of my purse and my carry-on bag (for explosives, among other things) while those who fit the terrorist profile are left unsearched because we are more afraid of not be politically correct than we are intent on saving lives.... Perhaps we could start by also searching those who actually fit the profile as well as little old ladies, babies and such. Now that would be a beginning!

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http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/18361
Percy Sutton, long-time Borough President of Manhattan passed away this week at 89. (Snip) There is one more little thing that Sutton is known for and that is for revealing that Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, a member of the Black Panthers and a well-known Islamist, was the benefactor that paid for Barack Obama’s Harvard education. In October of 2008 Sutton appeared on NY1, a cable news channel in New York City.
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Press reports have hinted at it for several days, but now the media has just come out and reported it: The same al Qaeda cleric who advised the Fort Hood shooter also counseled Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab – the Christmas Day bomber. Here is Victor Morton in the Washington Times: The Nigerian accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner had his suicide mission personally blessed in Yemen by Anwar al-Awlaki. There is more and more evidence that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who Awlaki works with, sponsored Abdulmutallab’s attack. And Awlaki’s involvement confirms that this was a professional hit attempt – not the work of an “isolated extremist,” as President Obama first claimed. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Weblogs/TWSFP/TWSFPView.asp#14619
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http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2009/12/30/napolitano-builds-undie-bomber-terrorists-went-great-lengths
The hapless Homeland Security head has a 679-word piece in today's USA Today basically promising to do better. She begins with this line [emphasis added]:

Friday's attempted terrorist attack against Northwest Flight 253 near Detroit is a powerful illustration that terrorists will go to great lengths to try to defeat the security measures that have been put in place since September 11, 2001.

"Great lengths?" Really? You buy a plane ticket for a kid, stick a few ounces of explosives in his nappies, then hope he'll make it onboard and remember which end to light.

And far from choosing someone with a good chance of completing his murderous mission, the plotters picked a guy with enough red flags surrounding him to have stocked a May Day parade back in the old Soviet Union. Need we count some of the ways?

• Denied British visa.
• On some kind of US watch list.
• Father warned our embassy and various intel agencies.
• Paid cash.
• One-way ticket.
• No checked luggage.

Napolitano would want us to imagine diabolical masterminds behind a fiendish plot that the Obama admin might be excused for not undoing. But far from demonstrating the "great lengths" to which the terrorists will go, what happened on December 25th illustrates only the deep incompetence of those responsible for stopping it.

Health Care Bill and Terrorists In Our Midst

Grover Norquist and Jane Hamsher are not often on the same side of anything, beyond both usually being in the Western Hemisphere. Norquist is a leading voice of fiscal conservatism as head of the anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform; Hamsher is a leading voice of the digital left, whose blog Firedoglake has taken on influence in speaking up for progressives during the health care debate and in pressuring lawmakers through its activist arm, FDL Action.

But the two have united to level serious allegations at White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and demand his resignation.

Hamsher and Norquist coauthored a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder today calling for a Department of Justice investigation of Emanuel for his role on the board of Freddie Mac, alleging that the White House, since Emanuel arrived there, has blocked an investigation of the government-sponsored mortgage lender. http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/12/odd_couple_of_norquist_hamsher_call_for_investigation_rahms_resignation.php
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The CBO's miscalculation regarding the Senate health care bill: Democrats had been insisting that bill somehow cut the deficit and strengthened Medicare, but as it turns out the CBO had to clarify that the savings of the bill were being double counted. The "savings" the bill produces either have to be applied toward the Medicare trust fund or they have to be put toward the cost of the legislation. Yesterday our President said: "This bill with strengthen Medicare and extend the life of the program. Because it’s paid for and gets rid of waste and inefficiency in our health care system this will be the largest deficit reduction plan in over a decade. In fact, we just learned from the Congressional Budget Office that this bill will reduce our deficit by $132 billion over the first decade of the program, and more than one trillion dollars in the decade after that."
NOT! This is but one more example as to why we cannot trust our government with the massive takeover of our health care..... What else has been overlooked, twisted or misstated? http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/The-massive-accounting-blunder-that-should-sink-health-care-reform-80065752.html
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The president accused Republicans of abuse for employing the very rules that make the Senate the "world's greatest deliberative body."

"If this pattern continues, you're going to see an inability on the part of America to deal with big problems in a very competitive world, and other countries are going to start running circles around us," Obama warned. What he is saying is that other governments around the world -- those tyrannical states that do not share our respect for the minority -- are better forms of government, better equipped to compete in this modern world. His casting aspersions on the very genius of the American government because he can't get his way is cause for alarm.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/rips_the_american_way_8Ns44nIAGjDwfD7BNSCQFJ#ixzz0ahnPNKSj

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On Wednesday, Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language website published an interview with US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who said he and Hasan communicated by email for over a year about the permissibility of killing US soldiers and Israeli civilians.

"The first message I received from Nidal was on 17 December 2008," Aulaqi told the interviewer, adding that Hasan initiated the email communication.

"He asked about killing American soldiers and officers and whether that was legitimate or not," Aulaqi said.

Links between the Muslim cleric and Hasan are already being investigated, but the interview reveals for the first time how long the two men knew each other and communicated, and also offers insight into how early Hasan was thinking about the possibility of attacking fellow servicemembers. ttp://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.bfa31bb71423ae24c6092cc685173db9.cc1&show_article=1

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The alleged Christmas Day terrorist had been in one of the U.S. government's many terror databases since November, which is when his father brought him to the attention of embassy officials in Nigeria. However, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab came to the attention of intelligence officials months before that, according to a U.S. government official involved in the investigation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because it is ongoing. Four weeks ago, Abdulmutallab's father told the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, that he was concerned about his son's religious beliefs. This information was passed on to U.S. intelligence officials. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091227/ap_on_go_ot/us_airliner_attack_investigation;_ylt=AqTZMxKmdKPxSrdZHXSMvqOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQwajY1ZmxoBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjI3L3VzX2FpcmxpbmVyX2F0dGFja1
9pbnZlc3RpZ2F0aW9uBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMwRwb3MDOQRwdANob21

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Cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. (Snip) They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of many ready to attack planes and kill tens of thousands."We know there are four or five radicalised British Muslim cells in the Yemen. Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2785733.ece#ixzz0ayz835MG

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Janet Napolitano's appearance on CNN this morning, in which she tried to put a happy face on the fact that a known terrorist sympathizer got onto a flight bound for America and nearly brought it down, has been widely and justly derided:

NAPOLITANO: What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action.

So the "system" consists of hoping there is an alert Dutch filmmaker on board, and that the terrorist's detonator fails?

Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated.
So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly.

The idea that responding to terrorist attacks, rather than preventing them, constitutes "success" is eerily reminiscent of our policies pre-September 11. The administration's spin was a little thick even for CNN's Candy Crowley. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/12/025255.php

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Obama feigns outrage over bonuses,
then approves bigger bailout for
bonus-givers Fannie and Freddie
Washington Examiner [DC], by David Freddoso

“The Obama administration pledged Thursday to provide unlimited financial assistance to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, an eleventh-hour move that allows the government to exceed the current $400 billion cap on emergency aid without seeking permission from a bailout-weary Congress.