Janet Napolitano – PLEASE Make Up Your Mind

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano just can’t seem to make up her mind.  Did the system work in stopping the Christmas airline bomber?  … or didn’t it?

It all depends on what day it is I guess.  Here’s Secretary Napolitano on Sunday:

 

Here’s Napolitano Monday:

 

"The system worked". "The system obviously didn’t work". I was taken "out of context". Passengers having to defend THEMSELVES doesn’t seem like a workable system to me … unless the Obama administration is willing to adopt "right to carry" on commercial flights.

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BREAKING NEWS – 2nd Suspect Arrested in Christmas Airline Attack

A second Nigerian suspect has been arrested in the attempted attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.  Law enforcement officials had said that the suspect had locked himself in one of the plane’s restrooms.

Delta Air Lines spokeswoman Susan Elliott said crew members requested that security remove the man from Flight 253 after he became disruptive. The remaining 255 passengers got off safely, she said.

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Frank Kratovil Votes to Bring Guantanamo Detainees to US

Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) voted on Thursday to bring terrorists to the US to stand trail.  HR2898, an appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, allows for Guantanamo detainees to be brought to the US for trial.

Kratovil, who claims to be the “most independent Democrat in the House”, will undoubtedly claim that he voted against allowing detainees to come to the US.  Technically this is true.  In the spirit of John Kerry (“I voted against the war before I voted for it”) Kratovil voted in favor of recommitting the conference report with instructions.  In plain English that means that the motion to re-commit included language that would have blocked the Obama administration’s plans to bring terrorist detainees into the US.  However, Kratovil being the loyal Obamanista that he is, immediately turned around and VOTED FOR the bill, even though it included the provision to bring terrorists to our shores.

This should be expected from people like Kratovil and Obama.  Remember, Kratovil voted AGAINST the Obama PORKULUS bill BEFORE he voted FOR it.  This is the bill that was promised to stop unemployment at 8%.  Now our national unemployment rate is at 10% – AND RISING.  With a federal deficit of $1.42 TRILLION – AND ALSO RISING – Blue Dog Democrats like Frank Kratovil really must think that their constituents back home are dumber than the proverbial sack of hair.

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Obama To Receive Power Over Internet

Don’t count on your First Amendment rights to save us; not if S773 passes Congress.  According to the most recent draft of the bill, the President need only declare a “cyber-emergency” to seize control of vaguely defined “non-governmental networks”.   In addition, certain private networks will be required to be managed by federally licensed “cyber-security professionals”.  And since this is the Obama administration, I’m sure we’ll have some sort of “Internet Czar” wholly unaccountable to our elected representatives.

To be fair to President Obama, I don’t care whether he’s in the White House or not.  This type of legislation is a threat to the liberty of all Americans who use the internet.  Ironically, many of the same politicians who voted for the Patriot Act, and then later decried President George W. Bush’s use of it, are lining up to support this measure.  I’m reminded of when Woodrow Wilson was president and the postal service was used to censor media.  If you think that it can’t happen here, remember that it already has.

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Trying Terrorists in Hampton Roads

Would you house and try terrorists in an area that includes:

• Our largest naval installation?
• The shipyard responsible for building nuclear carriers?
• Where design work is done on our nuclear subs?
• Headquarters for the US AIr Force’s Air Combat Command and 1st Fighter Wing?
• Multiple other military bases?
• A nuclear power plant?

No?  I wouldn’t either.  Yet, the Obama administration is evidently giving serious consideration to doing just that.

Read more

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Obama Administrations Ignores Illegal Immigration

As Brian Kirwin has noted in Bearing Drift, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has changed the rules under which local law enforcement officers may detain suspected illegal aliens.  How many times must we repeat the same scenario, where honest citizens are robbed, maimed, or killed because certain groups in our society don’t want to appear xenophobic?

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Are We Next in the Destruction of Personal Liberty?

The United Kingdom, birthplace of John Locke and Edmund Burke, mother of constitutional democracy is poised to make yet another stab at the heart of individual freedom.  According to the Times, PM Gordon Brown’s government will introduce legislation that, among other things, requires identification to purchase a cell phone.

Those of us in America may look quizzically across the Atlantic and say “So what?”.  A database of over 72 million cell phone users in the UK could well be a useful tool against terrorism.  Yes it could, but at what cost?

As I have noted multiple times since the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001 – if we are willing to give up our personal liberty in an attempt to fight terrorism, the terrorists have won.  It seems that the terrorists are fast winning in the UK.

Personally, I don’t worry myself with the network of closed circuit cameras that are present on every street corner of London and every other British urban center.  I’m not overly concerned with their growing use here in the US.  We have no expectation of privacy in public spaces.

Does our fear mean that we should give up basic privacy such as what goods we purchase and what books we choose to read at the library?  I think not.  To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, those of us willing to sacrifice liberty for the sake of security deserve neither.

Unfortunately, the Thatcherite Tory party has gone the way of the Reagan Republicans.  Because of this lamentable fact, the world’s two pillars of freedom are in jeopardy – from ourselves.

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Big Brother Ed Rendell Is Watching You

Delaware Curmudgeon informs us that PennDOT, and Pennsylvania Ed Rendell have instituted a biometric drivers license under the guise of the federal Real ID program. Pennsylvanians are evidently in a snit. Class action suit to follow.

While I don’t consider my self a libertarian to the point of being paranoid, I say go get ‘em guys. In my view this isn’t so much a civil liberties issue as the fact that the law did not permit Rendell to allow the collection of biometric data. Of course, Ed Rendell is your typical Democrat. The rules only matter when it suits.

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FISA Bill Not What We’re Being Told

Alex Harris, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, tells us that the new FISA bill “goes way beyond telecom imunity”. While not a libertarian like Alex, I still believe in the wisdom of Ben Franklin:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Let’s assume that you are foolish enough to trust the government today. Will you then trust it with Barack Obama in the White House? Or did you trust it with Bill and Hillary in power?

That is why we have the rule of law. It shouldn’t matter who is in power. The government should protect our property and our liberty. When we willingly turn over our liberty, what should we then expect from the government?

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Terrorists In Our Midst

Why aren’t we hearing a lot more about this in the MSM (and no, it’s not a rhetorical question)? Two Arab students with pipe bombs, miles from a Naval facility? More than Enquiring minds want to know!

BTW – What is up with the University of South Florida?

Technorati Tags: terrorism, MSM, media, Q&O

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