Archive for December, 2009
Sunday, December 27th, 2009
An al-Qaida operative tried to ignite an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was know to have terrorist ties, and managed to walk through the security system at a major European airport with an explosive device.
When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian native and a Muslim, attempted to ignite the device, it was the passengers who noticed that something was wrong, and did something about it.
Mark Steyn nails it:
On September 11th 2001, the government’s (1970s) security procedures all failed, and the only good news of the day came from self-reliant citizens (on Flight 93) using their own wits and a willingness to act.
On December 25th 2009, the government’s (post-9/11) security procedures all failed, and the only good news came once again from alert individuals.
While our Dear Leader and the democrats may have forgotten 9/11, the American people have not.
Update: Our Dear Leader‘s DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano was out quickly to provide the Obama administration spin on this foiled terrorist attack. Ms. Napolitano’s response shows that she is either a bold faced liar or dangerously incompetent. Neither one of those options are good for America.
DHS Secretary Napolitano kept repeating the the administration’s spin, “the system worked.” As I pointed out, that obviously is not the case. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was know to have terrorist ties, and managed to walk through the security system at a major European airport with an explosive device.
Ms Malkin points out:
If the “system” had “worked,” the U.S. consular officials who granted Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab a short-term visa last June would have revoked it immediately upon being informed by his father that he was a Muslim radical with al Qaeda ties.
If the “system” had “worked,” U.S. consular officials would have never granted Abdulmutallab — a rootless, young, single male — a visa in the first place in compliance with State Department visa regulation 214(b):
…
If the “system” had “worked,” Abdulmutallab would have been barred from the U.S. like he had been barred from Britain.
Epic Fail for Napolitano.
Posted in Global War on Islamofascism, Our Dear Leader, Politics | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
“You can’t even dignify this squalid racket as bribery: If I try to buy a cop, I have to use my own money. But, when Harry Reid buys a senator, he uses my money, too. It doesn’t ‘border on immoral’: it drives straight through the frontier post and heads for the dark heartland of immoral.” — Mark Steyn
Posted in Culture of Corruption, Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
It appears so, Politico reports that freshman democrat congressman Parker Griffith of Alabama is leaving the democrat party and join the Republicans.
Griffith, a medical doctor, is no fan of ObamaCare it seems.
A radiation oncologist who founded a cancer treatment center, Griffith plans to blast the Democratic health care bill as a prime reason for his decision to switch parties—and is expected to cite his medical background as his authority on the subject.
Posted in Politics | No Comments »
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Michelle Malkin publishes an open letter from a Nebraska doctor to her Senator:
Dear Senator Nelson:
I send this message under “Tort Reform” because the current monstrosity you have pledged your support to says nothing whatsoever about Tort Reform. You have sold the physicians of Nebraska for zilch (zilch for us, but beaucoup federal bucks for you and the liberal partisans in this state). As a family practice physician in Small Town, Nebraska, I was counting on you to be the lone voice of Democratic sanity on this issue, but you sold me out. I will dedicate
every spare minute of my time and every spare dollar I have to defeating you, should you run for re-election.
…
Thank you, Ben, for forcing doctors like me to earn less than the repairmen who fix our appliances. Case in point: We recently had our dishwasher fixed. The repairman who came to our house charged $65 just to come and ‘diagnose’ the problem, then charged another $180 to ‘fix’ the problem. You and your fellow lawmakers have fixed MY going rate (Medicare) at $35 per-visit. Thank you for securing such a ‘lucrative’ rate for me! Thank you so much for making me–someone with 8 years of education!–make less than a mechanic or appliance repair technichian. And thanks especially for falling in line with Obama and the rest of the Democrats to make such a socialist system permanent.
You have my disgust and disdain forever, you socialist-coddling coward.
The 2010 elections should be interesting.
Posted in economy, Politics | 17 Comments »
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Leftist Garrison Keillor is clearly a bit fuzzy on that whole “Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward Men” thing, at least where Jews getting involved with his holiday is concerned.
Garrison Keillor, self-appointed cultural representative of regular old Americans, ruffled some feathers yesterday with a mildly xenophobic rant about Christmas. After lambasting a Unitarian church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for “spiritual piracy and cultural elitism”—tweaking the lyrics of “Silent Night” for a singalong, in layman’s terms—he turned his ire in a different direction:
And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write ‘Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we’ll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah’? No, we didn’t. Christmas is a Christian holiday—if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.
Yet another example to prove that there is nobody more intolerant and narrow-minded than an tolerant and open-minded liberal. Yup, leftist are all for “diversity” as long as “those people” know, and keep, their place.
Posted in Barking Moonbats, Politics | No Comments »
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Merry Christmas! Let us revisit this classic 1989 film starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo and Randy Quaid in one of his best known roles.
B-Movie Archive
Posted in Movies | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Here is a glimpse of how members of Congress travel on your dime.
Besides rooms for sleeping, the 12 members of the House of Representatives rented their hotel’s fireplace-equipped presidential suite and two adjacent rooms. The hotel cleared out the beds and in their place set up a bar, a snack room and office space. The three extra rooms — stocked with liquor, Coors beer, chips and salsa, sandwiches, Mrs. Fields cookies and York Peppermint Patties — cost a total of about $1,500 a night. They were rented for five nights.
While in Scotland, the House members toured historic buildings. Some shopped for Scotch whisky and visited the hotel spa. They capped the trip with a dinner at one of the region’s finest restaurants, paid for by the legislators, who got $118 daily stipends for meals and incidentals.
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The tour provides a glimpse of the mixture of business and pleasure involved in legislators’ overseas trips, which are growing in number and mostly financed by the taxpayer. Lawmakers travel with military liaisons who carry luggage, help them through customs, escort them on sightseeing trips and stock their hotel rooms with food and liquor. Typically, spouses come along, flying free on jets operated by the Air Force. Legislative aides come too. On the ground, all travel in chauffeured vehicles.
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The cost they reported for such travel abroad was $13 million in 2008, a 70% jump from 2005, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records. Lawmakers don’t have to report the cost of domestic travel when the government pays. The $13 million didn’t include the expense of flying on Air Force planes, which lawmakers don’t have to disclose.
Oh there is more, much more. Go read the whole thing. There is no Recession in the democrat controlled Congress.
Posted in economy, Politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
The democrat‘s Culture of Corruption keeps marching on. The latest entry is Ngozi Pole, the former office manager for the late democrat Senator Ted Kennedy of the People’s Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Mr. Pole was arrested on six separate counts of federal fraud and theft. He illegally inflated his salary and submitting falsified records to the Senator’s Chief of Staff in order to hide his theft of tax payer money.
Posted in Culture of Corruption, Politics | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
An interesting bit of historical fantasy that reads like a cross between Horatio Hornblower and Jane Austen, with dragons. Yup, dragons, and the best dragons, of course, come from China. This is the first in series about a British Navy Officer who captures a dragon’s egg in a sea battle and ends up bonding with the beast when it hatches. Of course, it speaks English, and French. An interesting read. While I’m a mostly a hard core SciFi reader, I do enjoy good alternate history stories.
Monday Book Pick Archives.
Posted in Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »