As If Suicide Vests Weren't Bad Enough ...

Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator

Exclusive: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb

By RICHARD ESPOSITO and BRIAN ROSS
Dec. 28, 2009

A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains of al Qaeda's attempt to down an American passenger plane over Detroit. [More]

Barack Obama's "briefing" this morning was woefully inadequate, monumentally embarrassing and hopelessly devoid of credibility .

Obama vows to use power to thwart terrorists

Philip Elliot, Associated Press Writer

HONOLULU President Barack Obama on Monday vowed to use "every element of our national power" to keep Americans safe and said the failed Christmas Day plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner was "a serious reminder" of the need to continually adapt security measures against changing terrorist threats.

But even as Obama spoke, word came that a State Department warning had failed to trigger an effort to revoke the alleged attacker's visa. And officials in Yemen confirmed that the would-be bomber had been living in that country, where terrorist elements quickly sought to take credit for his actions.

Remember Barack Obama's vows of government transparency? Or the vow that he wouldn't sign a health care "reform" bill that added "one dime" to the deficit?

Obama’s vows are worth NOTHING. If anything, they will embolden underwear bombers. They know Obama is all talk.

Later in the AP piece we read,

The White House said Obama’s low-key response was carefully calibrated.

Don't these "mainstream" media types tire of carrying the water for this corrupt and dangerously ineffective administration? Actually, the president's "low-key response" was another indication that Obama does not take terrorism seriously. He is bothered by the fact that his vacation is being disrupted by something he deems insignificant and unworthy of his divine attention.

Tennis games with Michelle, golf outings and gourmet dinners is what he is focused on right now, not underwear bombers or the security of the American people.

Janet Napolitano is a Threat to National Security and MUST be FIRED ... IMMEDIATELY!

Official Bungling Led to Plane Attack


Examiner Editorial December 28, 2009

Nearly 300 passengers and crew members of Northwest Airlines flight 253 came within a heartbeat of being incinerated on Christmas Day because 23-year-old Nigerian Jihadist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab somehow smuggled explosives past sophisticated anti-terrorist security measures in Europe. That the passengers and crew members survived is because of Jasper Schuringa, a brave man from Amsterdam who prevented Abdulmutallab from detonating a bomb sewn into his underwear. The device was made of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an explosive that has been around since before World War I. Three more factors in this near-tragedy deserve particular attention:

First, President Obama should demand the resignation of Secretary Janet Napolitano and fire her if she refuses to resign. It is clear from her comment that "the system worked" that Napolitano lacks the first clue about what is required to ensure safe commercial airline travel in an era defined by the war on terrorism. The system failed because an individual with known terrorist links successfully smuggled explosives on board a loaded commercial jet bound for the U.S. He did so by defeating screening measures in Amsterdam that mirror those used elsewhere in Europe and across the U.S. [More]

Obama will not fire Napolitano. That would be an admission that his choice for Homeland Security Secretary was yet another one of his miserable failures as president. She may be pressured to resign in order to take the focus away from Obama's own failure but he is not man enough to do it himself directly.

This is really offensive:

Security System Failed, Napolitano Acknowledges

By ERIC LIPTON and SCOTT SHANE
Published: December 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — The secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, said Monday that the thwarted bombing of a Detroit -bound airliner represented a failure of the nation’s aviation security system, not the success she and other administration officials had portrayed in comments over the weekend.

Ms. Napolitano said Monday on NBC’S “Today” that her remark the day before — “the system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days” — had been taken out of context. “Our system did not work in this instance,” she said. “No one is happy or satisfied with that. An extensive review is under way.”

As criticism mounted that security lapses had led to a brush with disaster on the Christmas holiday, President Obama ordered a review on Sunday of the two major planks of the aviation security system — watch lists and detection equipment at airport checkpoints. Some members of Congress urgently questioned why, more than eight years after the Sept. 11 attacks, security measures could not keep makeshift bombs off airliners.

The White House press office said early Monday that President Obama would make a statement within hours from the Kaneoho Marine Base in Hawaii, according to The Associated Press.

The family of the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, said Mondaythat they had been trying to locate him for weeks and had sought help from Nigerian and American officials. They said they would cooperate with an investigation.

His father, a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official, phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, American officials said, but the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010, was not revoked.

Instead, the officials said Sunday, embassy officials marked his file for a full investigation should he reapply for a visa. And when the information was passed on to Washington, his name was added to 550,000 others with possible terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.

So, Abdulmutallab boards a U.S.-bound airplane after paying CASH for the ticket and checking NO bags and "no flags were raised?" That spells "SYSTEM FAILURE" to me and anyone with a minimum of good judgment.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is a danger to the security of America. When she said just yesterday that the system had not failed, it was nothing but propaganda that flew so batantly in the face of reality that she was forced to lie about what she had said the day before. This is more than simply "backtracking." Secretary Napolitano's previous assertion that she was "taken out of context" when she said that the system had not failed is plain pathological. And the American "mainstream" media will let the Homeland "Security" Secretary get away with it.

Nuff said!

Capitol Hill: The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington, D.C.

Capitol Hill's Top "Earners":

Mary Landrieu (D-LA): reportedly got $300 million in extra funding for Louisiana in exchange for her vote for Obamacare. When reporters first asked her whether she had voted with the Democratic leadership in exchange for $100 million dollars, she was eager to set the record straight: “It’s not $100 million, it’s $300 million, and I’m proud of it and will keep fighting for it." Landrieu is obviously beyond anything slightly resembling shame.

Christopher Dodd (D-CT): managed to extort $100 million in taxpayer money for hospitals in his home state, particularly the University of Connecticut.

Ben Nelson (D-NE): got the federal government to use money from taxpayers of every other state in the nation to pick up Nebraska's Medicaid tab in perpetuity in exchange for his vote to cut off debate on the Democrat's abominable socialist health care "reform."

Fortunately, many are not taking this abuse of power lying down. Individuals and even some states are considering legal action based on the unconstitutionality of the "deals" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has cut with his corrupt Democrat colleagues.

Harry Reid's "Bribes" to Senators Landrieu, Nelson for Their Healthcare Votes Are Unconstitutional

Senate Candidate Bill Parson Cites Article IV Sections 1 & 2 as Prohibiting Reid’s Payola Ploy

MOAPA, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Retired Marine and former energy industry Project Manager Bill Parson, a Constitutional Conservative candidate for the Republican nomination to remove Harry Reid from the U.S. Senate in 2010, has denounced Harry Reid’s “purchase” of the votes of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) as unconstitutional under Article IV, Sections 1 and 2 of the United States Constitution.

“By granting citizens of those two states special taxpayer-funded rights unavailable in Nevada and 47 other states, the Senate has violated the Constitution and broken faith with the American people.”

“Setting aside the question of blatant public bribery – using taxpayer funds – it is clear that the “deal” that bought Senator Ben Nelson’s vote, and the earlier deal that bought Senator Mary Landrieu’s vote, are unequivocally unconstitutional,” Parson said from his home in Moapa, Nevada. Article IV Section 1 states that the: ‘Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.’ Constitutional scholars report that this clause is routinely applied to both the laws of the states being honored by other states, as well as to Federal laws that are expected to be applied equally in all states.

“However,” Parson pointed out, “the more specific constitutional prohibition against these one-state bribes – which give the citizens of one state privileges and tax-funded benefits unavailable to other states, Article IV Section 2 – reads: ‘The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.’ This provision clearly states that benefits such as those bargained away in the middle of the night to buy Senator Nelson’s decisive 60^th cloture vote, the one that broke the filibuster and paved the way to a power-grab that will take over one-sixth of the entire U.S. economy, was unconstitutional as well as potentially illegal. [More]

7 State Attorneys General Probing Nebraska's Health Care

(Columbia, SC) -- Seven Republican state attorneys general are thinking of suing over U.S. Senator Ben Nelson's health care politicking to benefit his home state.

The Nebraska Democrat wrangled a deal in exchange for his vote to overhaul the nation's health care system.

The Democrats need all 60 votes to break a GOP filibuster, and Nelson held out for both stronger anti-abortion language and some cash for Nebraska.

A provision in the Senate version of the bill calls for the federal government to reimburse the Cornhusker state 100-percent of its Medicaid costs.

Other states get only 91-percent. [More]

Health Care "Reform": Brought to You by the Democrat Party of Nonsense, Corruption, Sleaze and Payola

Rep. Ben Nelson (D-NE): King of Sleaze and Abortion Sellout

Healthcare Pork: Senate Bill Laden with Favors, Pet Projects for Democrats

Read the Senate’s mammoth health care bill closely and what you’ll find is a special interest bonanza rewarding thousands of Democratic pet projects across the nation and punishing industries and areas that didn’t have the clout to purchase pork. Among the winners: states like Nebraska, Massachusetts, Vermont and Louisiana, whose Democratic senators secured hundreds of millions of dollars for Medicaid expansion.

Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. These states are getting more federal help with Medicaid than other states. In the case of Nebraska — represented by Sen. Ben Nelson, who's providing the critical 60th vote for the legislation to pass — the federal government is picking up 100 percent of the tab of a planned expansion of the program, in perpetuity. Vermont and Massachusetts get temporary increases in the federal share of their Medicaid tabs. In Louisiana, moderate Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu negotiated $100 million for 2011 before announcing her support for the legislation.

Buying votes is Obama’s Chicago Way. Corruption is the name of the game. Nelson got Barack to pay Nebraska’s Medicare tab. Did Franken also get some kind of payola for shutting down Lieberman or did he do it for free?

Also, didn’t Obama say that people making $250,000 or less were not going to get hosed? Rep. Joe Wilson was right: Obama lies.

Ironically, the socialists are not happy themselves. They don’t think that whatever abomination behind which they have lined up (remember, Harry Reid and George Soros are not done writing the actual language behind closed doors) goes far enough down the totalitarian path.