Testimony of a coverup

Regarding Flight 253 and a second man who was threatening to the passengers. Read about it here:

LINK ONLY TO MICHIGAN LIVE

San Francisco-another liberal disaster

Bookworm has quite a personal account:

There is nothing benign about American Leftism, and that it is even more dangerous than the nanny state some people seem willing to accept as the price of living in the modern world. Because American leftists are as committed to elevating the rights of the criminals, the crazies and the perverts as they are to taxing, quashing and directing the middle and working classes, we can anticipate the worst of all possible worlds: an America in which ordinary people live under totalitarian control and socialist taxation, while the worst elements in every society are allowed to run rampant.

Keep this in mind as you head to the polling place in 2010.

HOPE!

Heh. And we've been on top of this.

In the past 48 hours, the blogosphere has awakened to the cause of Scott Brown in Massachusetts. There hasn't been any recent public polling, but my sense is that a poll of likely voters would show Scott Brown within single digits of Martha Coakley, with those most likely to vote opting strongly for Brown. Perhaps the lack of polling betrays the conventional wisdom that Coakley would win in a rout, but maybe one of the more forward-looking public pollsters like Rasmussen or PPP will prove me wrong and poll this thing.

The case for a Brown upset can be summed up as follows: A January 19th special election would likely skew the turnout universe more Republican than it ever would be in the Bay State. The race has received comparably little attention, so turnout is likely to be low, and a minor surge in Republican turnout could go a long way.

Would you buy this car?

The Chevy Volt is advertised here. An excellent ad campaign and investment of tax dollars, no?

Polling TERRIBLE for Dems & Obamacare

Rasmussen; CNN also cited:

Lest Democrats try to console themselves with the thought that perhaps Rasmussen has got it wrong, CNN's latest poll, from just a few days before the Christmas Eve vote, showed Americans opposing Obamacare by a similar tally: 56 percent to 42 percent.

In light of these numbers -- and in light of the extreme difficulty that the Democrats had in squeezing a bill tailor-made for the House through the House, and one tailor-made for the Senate through the Senate -- anyone who thinks that either the passage or the subsequent implementation of Obamacare is anything remotely resembling inevitable, is forgetting that Tocqueville's book wasn't called Monarchy in America.

More on Interpol & Obama's order

Varying opinions:

To begin, 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.

Rush Limbaugh taken to hospital

Rush has chest pains and is listed in serious condition in a Hawaii hospital.

Jake Tapper clarifies Interpol order

This seems logical. Read it here:

"Conservatives can't have it both ways," the official says. "You can't be complaining about the hypothetical abdication of US jurisdiction at the same time you're complaining the Obama administration is not being tough enough on national security."

Obama administration officials say this new executive order doesn't allow INTERPOL to do any more than they were allowed to do once Reagan recognized them as a public international organization. Though clearly the Executive Order does prohibit US law enforcement from searching and seizing INTERPOL records, officials say, those provisions can be waived by the president if need be.

Heh-Ramirez

It wasn't my fault

Watch this incredible video about the "art therapy" the forward thinking Saudis are doing for terrorists. They show this like....it works!

Hope for the bomber to give up details?

Because he's a "criminal" with any attorney and rights and not an enemy combatant, we aren't allowed to get any information out of him about other plots in the works. Read at The Anchoress:

Noted at The Corner:

To see the danger we face because of Obama’s return to a law-enforcement approach to terrorist interrogation, read today’s front-page story in the Washington Post.

At the very end of the article, the Post notes:

Abdulmutallab remains in a Detroit area prison and, after initial debriefings by the FBI, has restricted his cooperation since securing a defense attorney, according to federal officials. Authorities are holding out hopethat he will change his mind and cooperate with the probe, the officials said. (Emphasis added)

Writes Marc Thiessen: Holding out hope? Change his mind? Are they kidding? A terrorist like Abdulmutallab is not a common criminal who should be told he has the “right to remain silent.” He is an enemy combatant, who tried to commit an act of war against the United States of America. He possesses vital intelligence about the terrorist network that deployed him to attack America, and may be planning still more attacks. The Obama administration has a responsibility to make him give up that information. Treating him like a criminal is an abdication of that responsibility, and puts our nation at risk.

There is a later note:

Several readers have pointed out that the Post has mysteriously dropped this line, which appears in the print edition, from the online version:

Authorities are holding out hope that he will change his mind and cooperate with the probe, the officials said.

I guess they have given up hope?

Interpol fiasco hits fan

Sit up and notice. Be vigilant!

No presidential statement or White House press briefing was held on it. In fact, all that can be found about it on the official White House Web site is the Dec. 17 announcement and one-paragraph text of President Obama's Executive Order 12425, with this innocuous headline: "Amending Executive Order 12425 Designating Interpol as a public international organization entitled to enjoy certain privileges, exemptions, and immunities."In fact, this new directive from Obama may be the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties. No wonder the White House said as little as possible about it.

Did Holder's Law Firm Represent Christmas Bomber Mastermind?

Jammie Wearing Fool has a perspective. Go here to read:

Don't mind us, just trying to connect some dots.

At least one leader of al-Qa'ida's branch in Yemen, where the failed bomber of a US-bound Christmas flight was allegedly trained, was freed from the US prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, a Pentagon list reveals.
The list, released in May, names 27 former prisoners who resumed terrorist activities after being released from Guantanamo, including Said Ali al-Shihri, who was transferred to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and later implicated in the bombing of the US embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, last year.

ABC television named Muhammad Attik al-Harbi, a former al-Qa'ida leader in Yemen, as another unrepentant former Guantanamo prisoner.

Hmm. That name seems familiar.

Obama greater than Jesus

I think they're serious. Of course, the Danish authors most assuredly doesn't believe in either God or Jesus, so nothing is lost. Or gained. Yet.

Despite all the compromises, it has finally been possible to ensure something so fundamental, as the right of every American not to be financially shipwrecked when their health fails them. Add to that the biggest ever financial support package in America’s history, a major disarmament agreement and the quickest-ever re-establishment of American reputation.

On the other hand, we have Jesus’ miracles that everyone still remembers, but which only benefitted a few. At the same time, we have the wonderful parables about his life and deeds that we know from the New Testament, but which have been interpreted so differently over the past 2000 years that it is impossible to give an unequivocal result of his work.

Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus – if we have to play that absurd Christmas game. But it is probably more meaningful to insist that with today’s domestic triumph, that he has already assured himself a place in the history books – a space he has good chances of expanding considerably in coming years.

Without, however, ever attaining the heavens....

Oh, Detroit!

Pelosi quietly vacations in luxury in Hawaii

Apparently she took a convoy of 3 planes over there. Government planes.

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What? Did you know a special election in MA could strip the Dems of 60 seats?

How is it we don't even know this? How is it that Republicans aren't SCREAMING at the top of their lungs that Massachusetts needs to get out and vote OUT the Democrat? Scott Brown is HOPE, for a change. Please consider contributing to Brown's campaign! The special election is January 19! Here is an article on Hill Buzz (the former Democrats) about this matter. Where is the opposition party? Are they such idiots they can't take advantage of this?

This is, truly, the most difficult essay we’ve ever had to write, but after an agonizing internal debate, we need to ask everyone who reads this to support Republican Scott Brown for US Senate in Massachusetts.

In any other year, in any other election, we’d work our hearts out for Martha Coakley. We like Martha Coakley. We’d love to see her be a United States Senator. But, this Massachusetts special election to fill the seat of deceased murderer and disgraced drunk Ted Kennedy is a chance to knock the Democrats down to 59 seats in the Senate, meaning the unconstitutional train wreck they’ve put this country on with Healthcare Rationing will come to a screaching halt the moment Scott Brown is elected.

New census may give red states advantages

Pretty insightful reading over at the Washington Examiner:

But in the final pre-count estimate just released by the Census Bureau, we already have a broad idea of where the results are headed and what they will mean politically.

The numbers are cause for alarm for Democrats.

Of the states gaining House seats -- Texas (three) and Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington -- only Washington is reliably Democratic, having last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1984.

Doctors' dilemma with health care reform

Why didn't they speak out earlier? There aren't going to be enough doctors and their salaries will be cut drastically with the new so-called "reforms."

They disagree strongly with the American Medical Association and its president, Cecil Wilson. With only 20 percent of physicians as members, the group has come out in support of the Senate health-reform bill, and it is focused on issues (blocking the cosmetic-surgery tax and the 5 percent tax for high Medicare users, for example) that most practicing physicians aren't really concerned about.

Most practicing docs are opposed to the current reform bills because they:

* Lack tort-reform measures for medical malpractice.

* Don't do away with scheduled yearly Medicare cuts and other across- the-board decreases in reimbursements.

* Expand insurance to 30 million more people without taking into account the doctor shortage and drop-out rate.

* Increase government oversight and extend a third-party payer system in which the doctor-patient relationship is obscured and most primary-care docs are paid less than veterinarians.

Impeach the judges! This is not a game!

Bush & Greenspan warned about mortgage meltdown

Remember this? Oh, maybe you don't since the MSM never caught on to it, willfully so. And guess who's at the bottom of the meltdown? Chuckie Schumer and Barney Fwank. Watch it here:

2 Al Q leaders behind Flight 253 plot former Gitmo prisoners!

Breaking news. They were in an "art therapy" rehab program. Apparently this is not a joke.

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Palin will be the nominee?

Huh. Interesting take on the development of the party interests, both Democrat and Republican. Read it here.

Obama is not listed here as part of the 2010 rising karma because his momentum is receding and his status and organization took a major hit at Copenhagen. His profile will continue to recede if the Democrats don’t change their ways. Connecticut senator Chris Dodd was critical this past week of the poor Senatorial decorum of the new people in Congress. It should be expected when Democratic publicists and advisers sent up a constant call in 2008 for a “rock star.” And one new senator in Dodd’s sight is in real life a standup comic. For five years the Democrats have passed over some their best, brightest and most capable people for “rock stars,” celebrities and utopians. Daley saved Al Gore from catastrophic failure in his race again George W. Bush. If Obama does not bring him in and get a new start, the Democrats will not hold against the rising conservative tide.

An accomplice to Nigerian terrorist?

Well, the Haskells established that the terrorist who set Flight 253 on fire did NOT have a passport...in fact, bypassed that little part of getting on board an international flight. Hot Air has commentary and the story.

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More on Obama's order to allow Interpol to function with impunity in US

Our Constitution now means nothing to Interpol, as they are lodged in the DOJ:

If the president of the United States has an aboveboard reason for making a foreign law enforcement agency exempt from American laws on American soil, it wasn’t shared by the White House.

Andy McCarthy, former assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, notes at National Review that the limitations that Obama removed are “what prevents law-enforcement and its controlling government authority from becoming tyrannical.”

A paragraph later, McCarthy describes Obama’s actions in the starkest of terms:

This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.

Some bloggers covering this story are noting that the law enforcement agency to which Obama has extended such extraordinary powers to has had a dismal past.

INTERPOL’s senior leadership was flush with Nazis from the late 1930s all the way into the 1970s. That fact allowed, going Godwin isn’t necessarily relevant to today’s organization. Khoo Boon Hui of Singapore is the current president of the organization, and the current secretary general is American Ronald Noble. Noble is perhaps best known in America for overseeing the Treasury Department’s review of the disastrous 1993 raid and siege of a Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, that left nearly 80 people dead. Noble had cautioned against the initial raid plan as being too dangerous, but the lack of any significant ramifications for federal officials that approved of the raid and allegations of a cover-up have inspired conspiracy theorists to derisively dub Noble “the Enforcer.”

But INTERPOL’s past isn’t what concerns us at this moment. Its current actions and the actions of our president are those that we question.

New Ohio law requires lights on

Did you know this? The nanny staters in Columbus decided to pass a law that you need to turn on your headlights when you use your windshield wipers.

Iran freedom fighters die in the street, cities burn!

And guess who hasn't spoken out yet in support of the freedom fighters? In fact, Dear Leader has supported the current Iranian regime in their attempts to beat the freedom fighters into submission and sometimes death. Angela Merkel spoke out in support today. Where's Obama? At the beach. But don't worry it's part of a greater "strategy."

I guess it's not really our fault

Huh. With The One ensconced as President of the World, bowing down to Arab leaders and pouring money into terrorist ratholes like Yemen, you'd think maybe the reasons for hating the USA might have seen their best days. Not so much. Read Victor David Hanson:

2) For the last eight years, many have patiently tried to suggest that the answer to "Why do they hate us?" does not entail poverty, Western imperialism or colonialism, support for Israel, past provocations, etc. Rather, radical Islam encourages in an Hasan or Mutallab age-old passions like pride, envy, and a sense of inferiority — all accelerated by instantaneous communications and abetted by continual Western apologetics that on a global level blame Westerners for self-induced misery in many Islamic countries. "They did it" is far easier than looking inward to address tribalism, gender apartheid, statism, autocracy, religious intolerance, and fundamentalism, which in perfect-storm fashion ensure an impoverished — and resentful and angry — radical Islamic community while the rest of the world moves merrily on.

NO CONFIDENCE IN NAPOLITANO

Outrage today over Napolitano's ridiculous statement that the "system worked," when a guy whose own dad said he was an extremist threat and who was on a "watch" list, who boarded a plane without a passport, and who paid for a 1 way ticket with cash, this guy tried to blow up a plane flying into Metro. Other reports today of 25 similar young men planning similar attempts on Western flights, AND a report that another Nigerian created a problem on the SAME FLIGHT to Detroit! Today officials are saying that this SECOND Nigerian, who also bought a 1 way ticket with cash and flew from Amsterdam AND who locked himself in the bathroom for an hour and was "verbally disruptive," that this SECOND Nigerian was "not a problem." In fact, he was released.

Where's the outrage? Where's the leaping into action? Where's the official statement, other than the casual response of going golfing for 4 hours? Is anyone going to check out the latrine facilities on the latest Flight 253 where the guy was locked in the bathroom doing who knows what? And are we still sending all those Gitmo prisoners back to YEMEN, where all this trouble started?

A law enforcement official said the man removed from a Sunday flight to Detroit posed no security risk to the plane.

The official says the passenger was taken into custody after becoming verbally disruptive on landing. Subsequent interviews by investigators determined he was a businessman who became ill during the flight.

A source confirmed this report to Fox News, saying the passenger was indeed sick and that the incident appears to be "a non-event at this point."

The One vacationing with no comment about terrorist attack

Once again, imagine if this had been Bush. Do we suppose Michael Moore will make a movie about The One's reaction to this crisis? Where is he? Golfing? Oh, huh, yeah. For 4 hours today.

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What is YOUR price?

I've been thinking about this health care mess the last few weeks. How is it possible that everyone has a price? Today the news is that the Catholic Health Association has no problem with taxpayer funded abortions. No matter that people of conscience believe that abortion is the murder of the unborn child. Ben Nelson had his price. Joe Lieberman had his price. SIXTY Democrat senators had their price. They all can be bought. Is nothing sacred? Is there no price too high, no distance too far?

Fr. Jonathan Morris just said on Fox News that the Catholic Health Association will lose the name "Catholic" if they disagree on any more issues.

Is there any other issue?

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Why don't you just tell them how to do it right?

Amidst the details coming out about Detroit's near miss terrorist attack, a number of commentators are pointing out that the terrorists need to be trained better, or mix the substances in the bathrooms...STOP!

"On the one hand, it seems he's been on the terror watch list but not on the no-fly list," he said. "That doesn't square because the American Department for Homeland Security has pretty stringent data-mining capability. I don't understand how he had a valid visa if he was known on the terror watch list.

"Why didn't he go to the toilets to detonate the bomb? Why would he try to set it off 20 minutes before he's going to land? It could probably have been successful had the person not been amateurish. I think this is a sign that it's much more difficult now for al-Qa'ida to pull off something serious."

Chaim Koppel, a security consultant, added: "I think the explosive was supposed to go bang rather than just start a fire. The terrorists probably didn't mix it well enough. Maybe they didn't do enough practice runs, but the more the guy is trained, the more exposed he is to MI5, MI6, the FBI and other security agencies, so he probably didn't receive enough training."

No one's going to take it anymore!

News from the Detroit flight:

At one point during the ordeal, passengers were told that the man who helped subdue the alleged attacker was exiting the plane. A female passenger who was seated 13 rows behind the suspect recalled the scene clearly. The woman, a nurse named Michelle from Dayton, Ohio, who did not want her last name published, described a blonde man with his fingers individually bandaged, and another bandage around his palm. A few people, she said, began to clap as he walked by.

Reflecting the new, more proactive security role that has emerged for passengers in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) told Fox News, "they were the first responders in this attack; they got the job done."

Media bias

Big surprise. The media is biased toward the left.

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."

"Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left," said co‑author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public policy scholar.

Sickening behavior

On the part of the fake callers, trying to appear to be Republicans and "praying" for people's deaths, racists and "tea baggers."

Al Q tries again on flight to Detroit?

Details are still sketchy. It appears to be true.

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More on a new threat

Interpol resides in our DOJ. Threats Watch believes this is a precursor to more ominous orders to come, particularly regarding our military and international prosecutions of our soldiers. Read more here:

In light of what we know and can observe, it is our logical conclusion that President Obama's Executive Order amending President Ronald Reagans' 1983 EO 12425 and placing INTERPOL above the United States Constitution and beyond the legal reach of our own top law enforcement is a precursor to more damaging moves.

The pre-requisite conditions regarding the Iraq withdrawal and the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility closure will continue their course. meanwhile, the next move from President Obama is likely an attempt to dissolve the agreements made between President Bush and other states preventing them from turning over American military forces to the ICC (via INTERPOL) for war crimes or any other prosecutions.

When the paths on the road map converge - Iraq withdrawal, Guantánamo closure, perceived American image improved internationally, and an empowered INTERPOL in the United States - it is probable that President Barack Obama will once again make America a signatory to the International Criminal Court. It will be a move that surrenders American sovereignty to an international body who's INTERPOL enforcement arm has already been elevated above the Constitution and American domestic law enforcement.

For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL's central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with "inviolable archives" from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds.

A new threat

Overwhelm the system. That's the methodology being employed. Here is another threat to our way of life and our sovereignty.

Why Does Interpol Need Immunity from American Law? [Andy McCarthy]
You just can't make up how brazen this crowd is. One week ago, President Obama quietly signed an executive order that makes an international police force immune from the restraints of American law[SNIP}

On Wednesday, however, for no apparent reason, President Obama issued an executive order removing the Reagan limitations. That is, Interpol's property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.

Snark

Christianity's influence

Whether believer, non-believer or atheist, no one can deny the influence of Christianity on the culture. What other season or celebration of a holy figure inspires the love and good will that exists this time of year?

What we celebrate

I decided the other day, amidst the unremitting bad news and sense of loss many of us feel, that living is hard. This sounds like a ridiculous statement. We are born, we live, we die. What's so hard about that? Anyway, I've been taught (and think I've learned) that the next world is more important than this one, so much more important.

But, here, where we are, living right and well is so hard. It's so easy just to slide in and out of each day without thinking, to watch television, listen to the radio, put music on, chat on the phone, never minding what really matters and not even realize what we are building.

It's a daily struggle to focus on matters that are deep and spiritual, rather than the little temptations that surround us more than in any other time in history...time stealers that burrow into our brains and snatch our intelligence and creativity.

The article at this link is meaningful. It hurts a little (truth often does), but it's worth reading and remembering what really matters. The joy isn't in expecting the change in people we help, but rather in ourselves, as we reach out rather than in.

Christmas is the beginning of a new cycle of teaching them, isn’t it? We show them the baby in a cave, and tell them to watch him just as the shepherds watched the miraculous star, and over the months to come we tell them what he did as a man, and we lead them to the tree which he climbed to die, and we fix their eyes there, telling them: watch, watch, see what has happened. Then we take them to his second cave, to the rolled-aside stone and the weeping women, and tell them to fix their eyes on his shoulders walking away, to hear him calling for them to follow, and we pray that this is the voice they remember as we grow feeble, not our own voices even, but the voice of the one they must follow if they are to have the gift we desperately want for them but cannot ourselves give.