Terrorism is Fun!

The Three Tenors Terrors like you've never seen them.  Everybody sing along.



H/T Don Surber

Let Me Tell You What Makes Me Nervous

Allahpundit:

What makes me nervous is the use of propane. Remember that London bombing plot three years ago, in which jihadis tried — and failed — to set off a bunch of car bombs around the city?...

Fuel-air bombs are hugely destructive, as this harrowing Danger Room article published after the London plot broke made all too clear. A fuel-air bomb properly detonated in Times Square on a Saturday night likely would have killed hundreds of people. If that’s what this was — and the feds evidently aren’t sure yet, despite reports of “fireworks” going on in the back seat and someone running away from the vehicle — then there’s a seriously dangerous individual running around NYC right now. Stay tuned. While we wait, check out this PowerPoint presentation generated by the NYPD after the London plot was foiled. The last slide is the one you’re interested in.

I tell you what makes me nervous, that we keep getting lucky.  I don't want to live in a police state but I also don't want to rely on luck.  Both 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombings are prime examples of what happens when luck runs out.

I expect law enforcement to be smarter than the average dumb ass terrorist and I am willing to support law enforcement and give them the tools they need to do their jobs.  If they have to "profile" to do their jobs, well, it's better than sending in the SWAT team to hassle little old ladies singing God Bless America. 

Janet Napolitano, and the president she serves, need to pull their collective heads out of their tailpipes, quit worrying about law abiding Tea Partiers and get about the business of securing our borders and keeping track of who is coming in and who is going out.

A second bomb has been found at the site of a marathon being run in Pennsylvania.  If anyone thinks that is a coincidence I've got some real sweet waterfront property for you.  The current Administration is all about control-controlling the air we breath, the food we eat, the roof over our heads.  How about they cut the crap and exercise an ounce of control over our national security.  I read somewhere that that is their job.

Read the rest of Allahpundit's post.

Quick Thoughts

I've had some kind of weird stomach virus for two weeks now and it has really put me behind the eight ball.  I overslept this morning and had to scramble to catch up when I finally made it to the office.  Now that I've settled in I was looking at Memeorandum and a few things caught my eye:

Three-year-old boy arrested as suspected terrorist in France

Aren't they all little terrorists at that age?  The stories that I could tell about my son, Jason, when he was young and don't even get me started on my granddaughter Olivia.  Turns out, it was the three year old's father who was the suspected terrorist, but that wouldn't have been a catchy headline.

Mack (R) compares Ariz. law to Nazi Germany

I think that people making the "Nazi" comparison need to read the law and when they are finished, read a little history.  This is total foolishness and only serves to belittle the dumbasses making the comparison.  While we are at it, why is Marco Rubio's position continually being misrepresented on this?  He said he had some concerns about certain provisions but supported the bill as a whole.  My favorite line from his reaction:

Throughout American history and throughout this administration we have seen that when government is given an inch it takes a mile

It is hard to argue with that.

I'm sure I'll have more on the turncoat, Charlie Crist, later but for now, Jimmie Bise put it best:

And so the World’s Tallest Oompa-Loompa has decided that he doesn’t want to actually run in a competetive primary where Florida Republicans, who he has been wooing with all the fervor of a drugged sloth, could bruise his fragile ego with a resounding defeat. He’s going maverick and will take his beating as an independent (via memeorandum). Of course, he won’t be giving back all the millions of dollars Republican donors gave him when Crist was the darling of the NRSC because, though he may hold Republican voters in contempt, he loves their money.

Jimmie, I am so stealing the World’s Tallest Oompa-Loompa tag!
Enough for now.  Looking at the computer screen causes very unpleasant side effects. 
.

Why are we just now learning about the "Fort Jackson Five"?

I drive my friends and family crazy because of my obsession over the "news".   I take a great deal of pride in the fact that I stay up to date on the current events that affect the world in general and more importantly, my country in particular.  So I am more than a bit disturbed that there was an attempted terrorist attack on one of our military bases before Christmas and word of the attack is just now filtering out.  From Michelle Malkin:

Erick Stackelbeck has the exclusive on a disturbing news development at Fort Jackson in South Carolina:

CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas. It is unclear whether the men are still in custody. The five were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base. (emphasis added)

The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.

A source with intimate knowledge of the investigation, which is ongoing, told CBN News investigators suspect the “Fort Jackson Five” may have been in contact with the group of five Washington, DC area Muslims that traveled to Pakistan to wage jihad against U.S. troops in December. That group was arrested by Pakistani authorities, also just before Christmas.

Why was this information withheld from the American public?  Further, why is it "unclear whether the men are still in custody"?  These terrorists attempted to kill our servicemen on our soil, surely they haven't been turned loose.

I understand that information should not be released prior to arrests being made but once we have terrorists in custody the only reason that the government would keep the public in the dark is because the facts are embarrassing to the government. 

Well, too bad if the facts are embarrassing.  Our troops put themselves in harm's way to keep us safe.  No member of the American military should be in harm's way while on American soil.  I want to know if political correctness once again has placed our service men in danger.

What? Were you expecting groupies?

Carol at No Sheeples Here thinks that Obama seems bored:

Quote of the Day

"POTUS delivered a vague and cheerful pep talk to the Organizing For America team these last days, and he again used the old campaign rhetoric of how the hard stuff was hard, and that changing Washington was hard, and that it was hard not to give up but it was the right thing to do…and so forth. The cheers were prefab. POTUS appears distracted, and, if he were not POTUS, there would be the suspicion of boredom."

Well yes, life is a bitch when you have to work for a living.  Constituents just aren't as much fun as groupies and there are days when you are surrounded by people who don't want to be buried wearing your tee shirt.You have to deal with people who have no flippin' clue what the hell arugula is and couldn't afford to buy it anyway.  You have to deal with people would rather eat plaster than apply for food stamps but they haven't worked for months and their kids are hungry.  You have to deal with people who don't give two shits whether a bunch of honor killing, genital mutilating terrorists like us-they just want to get on a plane without worrying about some inbred thug blowing up his nasty bits and taking the entire plane out in the process.  You have to deal with people who don't give a rat's ass about Global Warming because (a) they don't believe it exists, (b) they think it is a scam and (c) they don't want to pay more for their electricity just because you and your buddies stand to make a killing off selling carbon credits.  You have to deal with people you are happy with their medical care and aren't going to stand for the government seizing one sixth of our economy for themselves.  You have deal with people who think that you are a self-serving arrogant schmuck.  Don't like it?  Look on the bright side-only three years to go.

Detroit bomber was singing like a canary before being lawyered up

The Telegraph:

Detroit bomber 'singing like a canary' before arrest

The chance to secure crucial information about al-Qaeda operations in Yemen was lost because the Obama administration decided to charge and prosecute Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as an ordinary criminal, critics say. He is said to have reduced his co-operation with FBI interrogators on the advice of his government-appointed defence counsel.

The potential significance became chillingly clear this weekend when it was reported that shortly after his detention, he boasted that 20 more young Muslim men were being prepared for similar murderous missions in the Yemen.

The lawyer for the 23-year-old Nigerian entered a formal not guilty plea on Friday to charges that he tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on December 25 – even though he reportedly admitted earlier that he was trained and supplied with the explosives sewn into his underwear by al-Qaeda in the Arab state.

"He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up," Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph.

"I find it incomprehensible that this administration is treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue. The president has finally said that we are at war with al-Qaeda. Well, if this is a war, then Abdulmutallab should be treated as a combatant not a criminal."

Not only did our government throw away its chance to gather valuable intelligence from Abdulmutallab but worse, Abdulmutallab presented us with the opportunity to gather a particular type of intelligence that is now lost to us. 

Contrary to the stereotype being put forth by the White House that terrorism is born of poverty, Abdulmutallab represents the growing threat from upper income, educated young men who were raised or at least educated in the West.  We need to know why these young men are turning to terrorism, how they are being recruited and vetted, and how they are being trained. 

In any case, it is mind boggling that if Abdulmutallab was willing, in fact eager, to give us badly needed information about the threat that faces us that the government would do the one thing that blocks us from gathering that intelligence.  We need to be smarter about how we obtain intelligence.  We could start by not throwing opportunities out the window.

Systemic Failure

Credit Where It's Due [Mark Steyn]

Oh, be fair, Jonah.

2010: The United States Government revokes Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's visa a mere 12 days after he tries to kill 300 people.

2002: The United States Government approves Mohammed Atta's visa six months after he's actually killed 3,000 people - and is, in fact, himself deceased.

If that's not objective, measurable improvement in the U.S. bureaucracy, I don't know what is. Like they say, the system worked!

P.S. Now that he's no longer legally entitled to be in the United States, does that mean Mr. Abdul Mutallab is eligible for release to art school in Saudi Arabia?

Do you ever look around and think, "we are so screwed."?

Heavens to Betsy, Could This Administration BE Any More Embarrassing?

I almost hesitate to ask because it appears that the answer is not only "yes" but "HELL YES!" (or in this case, "YES WE CAN!").

Via Paco:

So, now we're going to offer the Christmas-day bomber a deal? Perhaps he's going to spill his guts in return for, what, a guilty plea on a charge of indecent exposure? Smoking on an airplane?

It is impossible to take this administration seriously on the subject of terrorism. Govern yourselves accordingly.

See the Counterterrorism blog for more information on the Nigerian terrorist and on the growing problem with Yemen.

Gee, what happened? Did the "pretty please with sugar on top" thing not work out? The man is a terrorist. Once upon a time, we didn't bargain with terrorists. Now we fluff their pillows at night and leave them a chocolate mint in the morning. One can imagine Osama sitting around the campfire in his cave with his buds laughing his ass off as they all take turns suggesting a more appropriate and wussified name for America now that were too girly to be referred to as the Great Satan.

In less than a year we have gone from the super power to a bunch of pretty in pink, Mother, may I, pansies. Even the French have bigger balls than us. How embarrassing is that?

The White House's Gift to Terrorists: Our Weakness

Obama is in trouble and he knows it. Consider this from the Telegraph:

In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Barack Obama patted himself on the back for having "refocused the fight - bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks".

He then told people to remember that "our adversaries are those who would attack our country, not our fellow Americans", before decrying "fear and cynicism" and "partisanship and division" - the code phrases for horrid Republicans used during his 2008 election campaign.

Complacency, faux moralising and partisan shots at Republicans. It was a neat summary of where Obama is going wrong after the Christmas Day debacle when the Nigerian knicker bomber managed to waltz onto a Detroit-bound flight. (emphasis added)

For a man who campaigned denouncing the politicization of national security under President George W Bush, it is worth noting how intensely political Obama's treatment of what might henceforth be known as Underpantsgate has been.

His White House recognized its political vulnerability more readily than it comprehended the level of danger faced by Americans. (emphasis added)

That last sentence should read: His White House cares more about its political vulnerability then it is concerned about the level of danger faced by Americans. Almost immediately after the Christmas day attack we learned of the bomber’s ties to Yemen and Anwar al-Awlaki, we learned that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s father had warned of his son’s radicalization and we learned of Al Qaeda’s involvement. But for all we had learned, the most important lesson was that when our country was attacked on Christmas it took our President three days to speak out and then he did such a weak job of it that he had to come back the next day for a mulligan. But there is no “do-over” when the American citizens learn that the White House had been given the information necessary to stop this attack and they did nothing.

Meanwhile, the White House was working overtime to build a case against Bush. A source in the White House counsel's office told The American Spectator of memos frantically seeking information that would "show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could".

Yet, President Bush kept this country safe for all the years following 9/11. He was honest with the American people about the threat we faced and how we were going to defeat our enemies. And we were safe until a weak and ineffectual country club manager wannabe took over as president. After Obama was elected he scrubbed the hard language terrorism and substituted pansy phrases like “man made disasters” and in doing so he telegraphed our weakness to the world. And it didn’t take long for the world to respond:

Republicans smell blood. There is a pattern in the Obama administration of dismissing Islamist terrorist attacks as regrettable random acts. In his radio address after Major Nidal Hassan's slaughtered 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama made no mention of terrorism or militant Islam, instead blandly promising that the "ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy" would "look at the motives of the alleged gunman".

Hassan was a committed Islamist who had corresponded with the fanatical Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki. In June, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Muslim convert being watched by the FBI and who had previously traveled to Yemen, murdered a US Army recruit in Arkansas. That rated only a tepid statement by Obama about a "senseless act of violence".

But the violence wasn't senseless, it had a calculated objective - just as Abdulmutallab was not, as Obama described him, an "isolated extremist". No wonder many Americans want to grab Obama by the lapels and scream: "It's the Jihad, stupid." Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, clearly struck a nerve when he charged last week that Obama was "trying to pretend we are not at war".

Obama can pretend that we aren’t at war but our enemies know better. And as long as the President of the United States continues to broadcast our vulnerability and our unwillingness to act our enemies will continue their holy crusade against us. In less than one year, Obama has undone everything that President Bush put in place to keep us safe. The blood that Republicans smell in the water is our own.

More at RedState: Barack Obama’s Vulnerabilities Will Get Us All Killed

Danish Cartoonist Attacked

A few days ago the Danish rag Politiken wrote a piece comparing President Obama favorably to Jesus Christ. More than a few us noted that comparing Obama to Jesus rather than to Mohammed was a far safer (and wussier) bet. It didn’t take long for that to prove true.

Mark Steyn:

Remember the Danish cartoons? A 27-year old Somali does:

Danish police on Friday shot and wounded a man trying to enter the home of an artist who drew controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

The man, a 27-year-old Somalian who was armed with an axe, was caught trying to break into the home of Kurt Westergaard at 10pm local time, police said.

Police shot the man, injuring him in his leg...

Mr. Westergaard's cartoon was seen at the time as the most controversial, as it depicted the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.

"Controversial" but entirely vindicated by events since. To return to the theme of my post a couple of days back, a significant percentage of Muslims in the west do not understand concepts such as pluralism and freedom of expression. A further percentage understand them very well but reject them as loser fetishes incompatible with the requirements of Islamic supremacism - and have a shrewd sense that when, push comes to shove, a lot of these fine liberal concepts crumble to nothing. Is the percentage of Muslims who support Mr. Westergaard's right to free expression and the broader principles of intellectual liberty sufficient to make the importation of legions of "27-year old Somalians" a net benefit to Denmark?

The answer to that seems obvious. But Mr. Westergaard is 74, and I'll bet his half-century-younger attacker grasps however crudely the demographic symbolism, in Scandinavia and beyond.

I seem to remember that at the time the cartoons were published more people expressed disgust at the cartoons than at the literally murderous riots that took place in several cities in Europe. It struck me odd that the same people who defended Piss Christ and statues of the Virgin Mary smeared in dung were the same people who condemned the Mohammed cartoons.

It really does matter whose ox is being gored but beyond that, if you support free expression then support it across the board. But those who claim that their “out thereness” is brave are only brave when bravery is not required. A quick look at Memeorandum reveals that only right of the center blogs are speaking out on the attack against Mr. Westergaard. The left of the center blogs who consider themselves to be the champions of all things great and small are their usual silent selves when it comes to Westergaard’s right to express himself with the fear of being beheaded.

More at:

Fausta’s Blog
Jules Crittenden
Gateway Pundit
The Jawa Report
Cold Fury

David Broder: President of the Janet Napolitano Fan Club

I came back from mini vacation to Largo on an emotional high. I can’t think of a better way to recharge and regroup than spending time with dear friends. Kara and Damon were incredible hosts and even though it had been over two decades since we had seen each other, we picked up right where we left off. Then I had my “Earth to Carolyn” moment.

It came as no surprise to anyone who knows her that Napolitano handled the incident and its aftermath with aplomb. In the years I have known her, she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance. If there is anyone in the administration who embodies President Obama's preference for quiet competence with "no drama," it is Janet Napolitano.

Is David Broder serious? He’s talking about Janet “the system worked” Napolitano, right?

…She is being criticized for saying "the system worked," but her part of the response system did work.

It must have been a frantic time for her. She was in San Francisco, far from her Washington office, and she must have had a sleepless night. But her eyes were bright, and her voice was calm. Everything appeared to be completely normal, except that her usual sense of humor was absent, as it should have been, given the circumstances.

…her part of the response system did work. In what possible way? Does Broder believe that the Department of Homeland Security is an after the fact agency? If that is the case we should rename the agency the Department of Homeland Janitorial Services. However, I think most American would prefer that a security agency prevent terrorist attacks, not come in after the attack and clean up the mess left behind.

Broder defends Napolitano’s dismal performance on television immediately after the attack by saying that she “refused to speculate…”. There was nothing to speculate about. The government had known about the Underpants Bomber for months prior to the attack. What Napolitano did was attempt to spin the attack in such a way that the American people would not find out that our government failed at their prime directive to keep this country’s citizens safe.

Our government failed but they got lucky. The Underpants Bomber was every bit as incompetent at his mission as Janet Napolitano was at her’s. We can’t count on luck. The American people need confidence that their government is looking out for them and when there is a failure that the government will deal with the failure in an upright and honest manner.
We did not get honesty or competence from Janet Napolitano. Broder is not looking at the situation with a critical eye. He is acting like a White House hack.

Are We the Next Israel?

Christopher Hitchens writing in Slate:

What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims. Our civil aviation is only the most psychologically frightening symbol of a plethora of potential targets. The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high. (emphasis ended)

Watching a news show or special or something several months back I remember them showing a schoolyard playground in Israel. Among the slides and swings and jungle gym were brightly colored bomb shelters. Even the youngest of the young children in Israel know that when the siren blows they have mere moments to get in the shelter. Every building, every event, every person is a target. Is that our future?

I agree with every word that Hitchen’s writes but I disagree with the finality with which he writes. There is a certain acceptance, an “it is what it is” about his words. I don’t accept that we are incapable of defeating our enemies. I want Hitchens to write one more paragraph, the happy ending, so to speak. I don’t think he’ll do that nor is it his job. We have an enemy bent on depriving us of our lives and our freedom. We must find the resolve to write our own happy ending.

Why O' Why Won't Dems Defend Obama?

Giggle Alert! Doofus Crossing! Hmmmm:

Are Democrats so cowed by Republican attacks on Obama’s foreign policy that they’re unwilling to defend him?

It’s now been five days since the attempted bombing of Flight 253 in Detroit, and Congressional Democrats are still turning the other cheek to Republicans who are using the incident to attack Obama’s entire approach to national security.

At first, I thought this line of attack, pushed by Rep. Peter Hoekstra and Rep. Peter King, might fizzle out, but this is clearly not going away. Take South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s comments to Fox News yesterday, which were featured in this morning’s lead POLITICO article on the Republican response:

“[S]oft talk about engagement, closing Gitmo, these things are not going to appease the terrorists,” he said. “They’re going to keep coming after us, and we can’t have politics as usual in Washington, and I’m afraid that’s what we’ve got right now with airport security.”

Once again, these are not just complaints about the Homeland Security bureaucracy; Republicans are calling Obama, and his strategy, weak on terrorism. While Democrats have shown a willingness to ding DeMint for putting a hold on Obama’s nominee to head the TSA, they have been completely silent in the face of these wider criticisms, even after the president articulated a defense of his foreign policy yesterday.

Yada, yada, yada. I don’t suppose anybody ever told His Verklemptness that you can’t defend the indefensible? After spending more political capitol than they process (see: Nelson, Ben) Democrats sure aren’t going to climb out on the ledge for Obama over this. Let’s face it, it took Obama three days to respond and then his response sucked. And, there is plenty of blame to go around, so it isn’t surprising that Democrats prefer to engage in a rousing game of “duck and cover.”

As far as Republicans calling Obama weak on terrorism, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

h/t Instapundit

Ponder This

In Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s own words:

"I imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the muslims will win, insha
Allah and rule the whole world, and establish the greatest empire once again!!!” reads one Feb. 20, 2005, post. The words “insha Allah” are the phonetic translation of the Arabic for “God willing.”

Sheesh! And the Left worries about the “Religious Right”! What will it take before the Left recognizes the threat that radical Islam poses to freedom? People like the “Underpants Bomber” aren’t interested in living in harmony with the rest of us, they want to dominate us and they are quite willing to use violence to achieve their goals.

The Left needs to remove their blinders and instead of harping over Conservatives take a moment to consider what their lives would be like under Sharia.

Asking Questions

By now we know that the attempted airline bombing on Christmas day was planned by two former residents of Gitmo who were released and sent back to Saudi Arabia. We know that the “Underpants Bomber” was trained in an al Qaeda camp in Yemen and we know that Obama has plans to send up to eighty current Gitmo residents back to Yemen. We also know Mr. Underpants was initially in a chatty mood, opining that there are plenty more like him out there. How much more will we know in the coming days? Not much.

By arresting Mr. Underpants and processing him through the civilian courts, giving him Miranda rights and providing him with a lawyer we effectively ended any chance that we could have had to gather information necessary to thwart other attacks. Not only did Homeland Security fail before the attack, they failed miserably after the attack.

Marc Thiessan has an informative article in today’s USA Today that deals with just this problem. We no longer question terrorists. We either kill them in air strikes or we lawyer them up. Thiessan:

Instead of looking for ways to release these dangerous men, we should be capturing and interrogating more of them for information on planned attacks. But that is something the U.S. no longer does. President Obama has shut down the CIA interrogation program that helped stop a series of planned attacks — and in the year since he took office, not one high-value terrorist has been interrogated by the CIA. (emphasis added)

The job of Homeland Security is to prevent attacks against Americans, not release ridiculous statements after the fact. When it comes to national security, what we don’t know will kill us.

Related:

No Sheeples Here: Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right. Homeland Security Stuck In The Middle.

Ruby Slippers: Underwear Bomb Contained Enough Explosives to Bring Down Plane

Another Black Conservative: Great Balls of Fire: Photos of the Underwear Bomber’s briefs

American Power: The Politically Correct Myth of Airline Bombers

"Terrorists - 1, United States of Fear - 0" My A$$

Let me share with you a comment I received on my earlier post "Lefties: What's the Big Deal About Blowing Up a Plane Full of People?":

Anonymous said...
Terrorists won the moment the "war on terror" was declared. The goal of terrorism is not to destroy, it is to undermine a society by TERRORIZING it, and that is EXACTLY what they have done.Terrorists - 1, United States of Fear - 0.

Where to begin?

First, I admire the simplicity of the commenter’s thought processes. “Anonymous” seems to be saying that if we simply ignored terrorists terrorism would not exist. Poof!

But no, we (read: Bush) declared the “war on terror” and in the thinking of Anonymous, we (read: Bush) created terrorism.

Anonymous opines that terrorists aren’t actually trying to kill us, they just want to scare us. Well it seems to me that the 9/11 crew and Maj. Nidal Hasan caused a great deal of destruction but I doubt that the people who stand on Anonymous’ side of the fence spend much time thinking about the lives of Americans lost or their loved ones left behind.

I think the part of the comment that bothers me, aside from its total inanity, is this: “Terrorists - 1, United States of Fear - 0.” Speak for yourself, puppy. I don’t see my fellow citizens crouching in fear. Just the opposite. Most Americans recognize the threat that radical Islam poses and rather than cowering they are resolute and fearless.

Reading between lines of the comment’s silliness is the typical Lefty assertion that America deserves to be a target. Bull hockey. We are the Land of Opportunity and Freedom. To this day scores flock to our shores to be part of the greatness that cannot be found in any other country on Earth. And it is, to paraphrase Tolkien, by the blood of our people that countless lands are kept free.

No, the terrorists have not won and they never will so long as patriotic Americans fearlessly face them down.

Another Airline "Incident" UPDATED

Fox News has just broken in to the program I was watching to announce that there has been another "incident" on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The plane is on the ground and everyone appears safe. Other than that, there is no information. I will update as soon as information becomes available.

UPDATE:

They are now announcing that a thirty year old Nigerian boarded the flight in Lagos without any luggage and then switched planes in Amsterdam. Mid-air he locked himself in the restroom and when he refused to exit, an air marshal broke the door down and took the man in to custody.

Nobody knows at this point what the man's intentions were but he followed the exact flight pattern followed by the Northwest flight 253 bomber.

Napolitano in Denial: “The system worked.”

Jonah Goldberg writing in The Corner:

Napolitano has a habit of arguing that DHS is a first responder outfit. Its mission is to deal with "man-caused-disasters" after they occur. It appears she really believes it. If the White House wants to assure people that it takes the war on terror seriously (a term Robert Gibbs used this morning by the way), they could start by firing this patently unqualified hack.

Goldberg is being kind.

Upon learning of the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253, our President continued his golf game and then went to the gym. That is this administration’s idea of taking the war on terror “seriously.” Their whole “alls well that ends well” attitude would be merely frustrating if it didn’t belie how unseriously they take the war on terror and by extension, the safety of the American people. One wonders what, if anything, these people think their job is.

We did not hire these people as janitors. It is not their job to come along after the fact and mop up the mess. If Napolitano doesn’t understand that, and it doesn’t appear she does, then Goldberg is right, she needs to go.


More at:

Memeorandum
The Other McCain
The Riehl World
Michelle Malkin
Hot Air

Lefties: What's the Big Deal About Blowing Up a Plane Full of People?

Prof. Jacobson, following up on his earlier post, brings us this gem from Matthew Yglesias:

Obviously, people shouldn’t be lighting anything on fire inside airplanes. That said, all the big Christmas airline incident really shows to me is how little punch our dread terrorist adversaries really pack. Once again, this seems like a pretty unserious plot. And even if you did manage to blow up an airplane in mid-air, that would be both a very serious crime and a great tragedy, but hardly a first-order national security threat....

Ultimately, it does no favors to anyone to blow this sort of thing out of proportion. The United States could not, of course, be “devastated” by anything resembling this scheme. We ought to be clear on that fact. We want to send the message around the world that this sort of vile attempt to slaughter innocent people is not, at the end of the day, anything resembling a serious challenge to American power. It’s attempted murder, it’s wrong, we should try to stop it, but it’s really not much more than that.

Then there is this post from Donald Douglas at American Power:

But there's something more significant to consider with regards to how the left perceives this terror plot. I'm reading Spencer Ackerman's post on this, "al-Qaeda’s Desperate Bid For Relevance, The Failed Plane Attack & Afghanistan." Despite his purported national security "credentials," Spencer Ackerman's woefully unserious about war and terrorism. Recall that this is the guy who called for President George W. Bush's death at the Hague, and for that reason alone his rants will garner the attention of leftist foreign policy vultures. A good example of this childishness is Ackerman's tweet from yesterday, seen here:

What is it going to take for the Left to take the threat that terrorists pose to this country serious? Let people gather for a peaceful Tea Party protest and the Lefties are screaming their fool heads off about "radicals" but let a real radical attempt to blow up a plane with 300 people on it and all you get from the Left is "eh, no biggie."

Of course, if they took the threat seriously then they would also recognize the need for action. Let's face it, the men of the Left aren't exactly known as real men of action. No, for this crowd, the only action they are interested in consists of the bong and sushi fete after the gallery opening.

The "pee pee pants" crowd ignores and/or downplays the dangers that radical Islam poses to all free people in part because their worldview doesn't allow for 'good vs. evil' or 'right vs. wrong'. Again, recognizing evil or wrongdoing requires action, and that is a no go.

Let them going quietly back to their fetes. Serious issues should be dealt with by serious people.

Officials Have Known About Northwest Airlines Bomber for Two Years

I am sitting here watching Fox's America's News Headquarters, who are reporting that an un-named source is claiming that our government has known about the terrorist who attempted to blow up Northwest Airline flight 253 for two years! And there is this report from Don Surber:

Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, who tried to blow up Flight 253 flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, is the son of Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, the recently retired chairman of First Bank in Nigeria.

From AllAfrica.com: “According to the family members, Mutallab has been uncomfortable with the boy’s extreme religious views and had six months ago reported his activities to United States’ Embassy, Abuja and Nigerian security agencies.”(emphasis added)

Coming on the heels of the Ft. Hood massacre, how the Hell could this happen? How is it that our government has evidence that people are dangerous yet they fail to protect us? Prof. Jacobson has written Terrorist Attacks Plane, Think Progress Attacks Pete Hoekstra, detailing the Left's attack on Rep. Hoekstra because Hoekstra dared to say “People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,” said Hoekstra.

Apparently this guy was on the "Watch List" but not the "No Fly List". Fat lot of good it does to watch someone if the government doesn't lift a finger to act on the information they receive. Hoeksra is on Fox right now pointing out that both Hasan, of Ft. Hood, and the Northwest Airlines bomber have ties to Yemen and radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

The Left can say anything they want but the fact is that President Bush did keep us safe for the seven years after 9/11. In Obama's first year we have already had one successful terrorist attack and we would have had a second one yesterday had it not been for dumb luck. I for one don't want to rely on dumb luck for my family's safety.