If you had asked me 1 year ago what I would be doing today, I never would have answered “Writing my first blog post.”. That thought would never have even entered my mind.
But time is at once man’s worst enemy and man’s best friend. As each day passed during the last twelve months, I felt increasing fear, despair, and eventually, anger.
I watched each day as our President and Congress spent their way into a multi-trillion dollar deficit. I watched our President and Congress ram a health care bill down our throats promising expanded coverage. I listened as each day we come to learn that the bill will slash Medicare and impose new taxes on medical devices, prescriptions, and procedures many of our own veterans or their spouses need or will need.
20 April 2010: An oil rig rented and operated by BP in the Gulf of Mexico explodes, killing 11 workers.
21 April 2010: All 115 workers are evacuated from the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig.
22 April 2010: The Deepwater Horizon collapses into the sea and sinks.
22 April 2010: President Obama delivers a speech on Wall Street to advocate more government intervention in the country's financial sector, but offers no reforms for Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which helped precipitate the 2008 meltdown. He also delivers a speech regarding the contributions of Earth Day to environmental awareness.
Meanwhile, 200,000 gallons of oil are spilling daily.
23 April 2010: President Obama blasts the Arizona governor, state legislators, police officers and residents for backing federal laws that prohibit illegal immigration.
23 April 2010: The oil continues to flow.
24 April 2010: The president delivers his weekly radio address, which focuses on further regulation of Wall Street. He also calls upon certain segments of his original supporters -- African-Americans, Latinos, Hispanics, and women -- and asks them to mobilize for political action.
24 April 2010: Efforts to contain the spill are hampered by lack of resources and difficult weather.
25 April 2010: President Obama interrupts a weekend getaway to meet with the Rev. Billy Graham in North Carolina.
25 April 2010: Oil spreads across the gulf and heads toward the Louisiana shoreline.
26 April 2010: President Obama appears in a "Vote 2010" video, distributed by his political action wing Organizing for America, which serves as a stark appeal to blacks and Latinos -- specifically -- for their votes in November.
26 April 2010: The Coast Guard warns that the spill could become one of the worst in United States history.
28 April 2010: The President holds a rare, impromptu press conference on Air Force One, addressing "questions on the Arizona immigration law, the financial regulation bill and other issues." Obama also prepared to make his second nomination to the Supreme Court and warns of a "'conservative' brand of judicial activism in which the courts are often not showing appropriate deference to the decisions of lawmakers."
28 April 2010: large pools of oil are spotted close to the Louisiana shore line.
29 April 2010: the White House Flickr Feed is updated with a photo of the President meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and senior administration officials, including National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, which indicates that they are urgently working the issue of the oil spill.
29 April 2010: Meanwhile, local officials, the Coast Guard and private citizens continue their efforts to prevent damage to the Louisiana coastline.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Perhaps if the oil breached the Louisiana levees, then caught on fire, and then turned New Orleans into a Dresden-like inferno, the President would stop campaigning for a couple of days and actually pay attention to his own, personal Katrina. Even The New York Times has noticed, decrying the President's lackadaisical response. But I'm guessing that somehow, someway, it's all President Bush's fault.
Hat tips: The EIB Network and The Big Picture. Related: 'Who's Responsible'? and 'Eight Days in April.' Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, the Washington Examiner, Jammie Wearing Fool and Cold Fury. Thanks!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
at
11:36 PM
Posted by
Don Vito Corleone
LISA MADIGAN
Name one (1) case of public corruption on she has prosecuted...just 1.
Hmm..house speaker's daughter, Obama supporter, doubt we will ever hear about corruption from her office, unless the case involves some downstate politician the Chicago and Cook County Dems seem expendable.
Lieberman: No US citizenship rights for terrorists
By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 -- 2:36 pm
A leading US senator called Tuesday, in the wake of the failed New York car bombing plot, for Americans who target fellow citizens with terrorist violence to be stripped of their US citizenship rights.
"If you're attacking your fellow Americans in an act of war you lose the rights that come with citizenship," Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, an independent, told reporters.
Lieberman said he was trying to amend an old US law "that says that if an American citizen is found to be fighting in the military of a nation with whom we are at war, they lose their citizenship."
The lawmaker from Connecticut said the law should state that "any individual apprehended, American citizen, who is found to be involved with a foreign terrorist organization as designated by the Department of State, would be deprived of their citizenship rights."
"If you have joined an enemy of the United States in attacking the United States to try to kill Americans I think you sacrifice your rights of citizenship," said Lieberman.
So who is telling the truth? Obama and his spawn claim that its was the airlines fault that Faisal Shahzad boarded an airline on its way to Dubai. On the flipside, it seems that the G would not have known where Shahzad was, had the airline not tipped them that he had purchased a last minute ticket with cash.
You decide who is telling the truth.
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers Eileen Sullivan And Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 36 mins ago
WASHINGTON – The no-fly list failed to keep the Times Square suspect off the plane. Faisal Shahzad had boarded a jetliner bound for the United Arab Emirates Monday night before federal authorities pulled him back.
The night's events, gradually coming to light, underscored the flaws in the nation's aviation security system, which despite its technologies, lists and information sharing, often comes down to someone making a right call.
As federal agents closed in, Faisal Shahzad was aboard Emirates Flight 202. He reserved a ticket on the way to John F. Kennedy International Airport, paid cash on arrival and walked through security without being stopped. By the time Customs and Border Protection officials spotted Shahzad's name on the passenger list and recognized him as the bombing suspect they were looking for, he was in his seat and the plane was preparing to leave the gate.
But it didn't. At the last minute, the pilot was notified, the jetliner's door was opened and Shahzad was taken into custody.
After authorities pulled Shahzad off the plane, he admitted he was behind the crude Times Square car bomb, officials said. He also claimed to have been trained at a terror camp in Pakistan's lawless tribal region of Waziristan, according to court documents. That raised increased concern that the bombing was an international terror plot.
Shahzad, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, was charged Tuesday with terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Saturday evening's failed Times Square bombing. According to a federal complaint, he confessed to buying an SUV, rigging it with a homemade bomb and driving it into the busy area where he tried to detonate it.
The Obama administration played down the fact that Shahzad, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, had made it aboard the plane. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wouldn't talk about it, other than to say Customs officials prevented the plane from taking off. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the security system has fallback procedures in place for times like this, and they worked.
And Attorney General Eric Holder said he "was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him."
But it seemed clear the airline either never saw or ignored key information that would kept Shahzad off the plane, a fact that dampened what was otherwise hailed as a fast, successful law enforcement operation.
The no-fly list is supposed to mean just that. And Shahzad's name was added to the list early Monday afternoon as a result of breaking developments in the investigation, according to a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
But when Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a Web forum where updates are sent if it were to flag him. Because they didn't, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before takeoff, the official said.
By that time, passengers are usually on board.
Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line: U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took off.
"There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them," Gibbs said. "If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be double-checked."
The list is only as good as the nation's intelligence and the experts who analyze it. If a lead is not shared, or if an analyst is unable to connect one piece of information to another, a terrorist could slip onto an airplane because his name is not on the watch list.
Officials allege that's just what took place ahead of the attempted Christmas Day attack on a Detroit-bound jet. In the case of the Times Square suspect, the intelligence process worked: Shahzad's name was on the list, but the airlines didn't check it when he bought his ticket.
Shahzad went through normal airport security before he boarded the plane. He was unarmed and had no explosive material on him when he was arrested.
Emirates did not return repeated calls for comments. Earlier in the day, the company issued a general statement saying it was cooperating with investigators and takes every precaution to ensure its passengers' safety.
The reliance on airlines to check government lists has been a known problem for years. The government has long planned to take over the responsibility for matching passengers to watch lists, but the transition has taken longer than expected. The new program is still in the test phase for domestic airlines and is still months away from beginning with international carriers.
___
Associated Press writers Pete Yost, Joan Lowy and Natasha Metzler contributed to this report.
Flipside:
Audio of pilot and ACT as Emirates flight is recalled to gate
Posted by CBSNews.com
U.S. authorities were tracking the Faisal Shahzad, 30, as he boarded Emirates Airline flight at Kennedy Airport bound for Dubai. The suspect made a cash payment for a one-way flight reservation, which triggered an alert by the airline to U.S authorities.
CBS News' Bob Orr said that Emirates Airline "notified the Department of Homeland Security and the rest of the federal government that they got a last minute request for a purchase- a one way purchase in cash - from an individual who wanted to go to Dubai. Those are all red flags. The airline said to the FBI and others this is suspicious and in fact, a short time later, the man was found on the plane and apprehended."
Administration officials said that Shahzad was placed on the federal no-fly list after authorities identified him, but the addition was too recent for the systems to automatically trigger an alert. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) instead resorted a more conventional "be on the lookout" type of alert to prevent Shahzad from fleeing.
Following is the exchange between the control tower and Emirates flight as it was on the runway and preparing for takeoff with Shahzad, and called back to the gate:
Ahhh Yes. The Obamanites try to place blame on the airline, when, in fact, it was tha airline that tipped off the G.
Republicans Slam Attorney General Eric Holder Over Terrorist Defense Lawyers at Justice Department
'Serious Concerns' About Obama Appointees Who Backed Gitmo Detainees
41 comments
By JONATHAN KARL
Feb. 26, 2010
In an escalating war of words with Attorney General Eric Holder, Senate Republicans are raising "serious concerns" about political appointees at the Justice Department who previously worked on behalf of terror suspects.
The Republicans told Holder in a letter obtained by ABC News that "unanswered questions" about these political appointees "raise serious concerns about who is providing advice on detainee matters." The letter, signed by all seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also accuses the Justice Department of being "nonresponsive" and "intentionally evasive" to questions on this issue.
The Senators are demanding answers about these political appointees by March 12, when Holder is next scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The Department's attorneys are subject to ethics and disclosure rules as required under both Department guidelines and this administration's own ethics rules, which are the strongest in history," Department of Justice Spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said in a statement today. "In a week that this Department secured a guilty plea from Najibullah Zazi for attempting to attack the New York subway system and indicted two of his co-conspirators for their alleged role in the attack, it should be clear that fighting terrorism and keeping the American people safe is our number one priority."
The Justice Department has acknowledged that at least ten political appointees at the agency previously worked on behalf of detainees in terror cases, including six lawyers who worked as legal counsel for detainees and four who worked for advocacy organizations.
The most prominent is perhaps Assistant Attorney General Tony West, who previously represented "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh.
Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal represented Afghan Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Hamdan in a case that was an enormous setback for the Bush administration's early plan for military commissions.
Assistant Attorney General Ron Weich acknowledged, in a letter earlier this month to Senator Chuck Grassley, that several appointees have defended detainees. But the letter did not list the names of the political appointees or answer questions about what work they are doing on detainee issues for the Department.
In his letter to Grassley, Weich said the former detainee representatives are not excluded from Department of Justice decisions on issues related to terror cases except for those involving individuals where there is a conflict of interest.
Many I talk to seem to take the November, 2010 elecot elections for granted. They obviously do not have intel. The same conclusion led to the 2008 election of a Marxist/Socialist CIF. Despite all the polls, all the talk show predictions of a 2010 mid-term sweep, by the time November come around we all might be left holding the bag.
Your opposition is preparing and organizing. Minimize them, and you might end up election night licking wounds rather than celebrating victory. Let's be honest. They far outnumber us in terms of infantry. So we have to be smarter, more diligent, and astute.
New York's Times Square evacuated after failed car bomb
Reuters
Posted at 05/02/2010 11:31 AM
Updated as of 05/02/2010 11:43 AM
NEW YORK - An apparent failed car bomb in a dark-colored sport utility vehicle which was smoking and emitted a small "flash" caused police to evacuate New York's Times Square on Saturday night, Broadway's busiest night.
A New York Fire Department officer told Reuters the vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires and was being treated as a "failed device."
The officer, who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said a man was seen fleeing the car and that police had protectively evacuated several blocks around the popular tourist area in the center of Midtown Manhattan in case there were other devices.
Times Square was eerily empty for several blocks on Saturday night, the busiest night of the week on the Great White Way as tourists and theater-goers watched from behind barricades as anti-terrorism units swarmed the scene.
New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said a vehicle had been left in Times Square, with smoke seen coming from it. Browne said a bomb squad responded and a small fire was extinguished.
The SUV was parked very close to a production of "The Lion King" on 45th Street. Women in evening gowns were among the crowd on one of the warmest nights of the year and the busiest night of the week for Broadway theaters in the area.
Vehicle and pedestrian traffic was very heavy on streets outside the evacuation zone, including Sixth and Eighth Avenues. All intersections in the area were blocked by police and fire department vehicles, lights flashing.
Another New York City firefighter who said he arrived early on the scene described the vehicle as a dark-colored SUV, and said it was parked at the corner of 45th Street and Seventh Avenue. He confirmed the vehicle was smoking and also said he saw "a flash" from the back of the SUV. The firefighter said a "mini-explosion" occurred around 6:30 p.m.
"The SUV was smoking. There was a flash and we put two and two together" and an evacuation was ordered, he said.
The bomb squad remained at the scene as of 11 p.m., including a firefighter in a bomb suit. A robot was being used to investigate the suspicious SUV.
Explosions were water cannons
Reuters reporters on the scene said they heard an explosion from the area of the SUV around 9:15 p.m. An NYPD community affairs officer said that and another small explosion heard by bystanders were the sound of water cannons aimed at the vehicle in an attempt to break through the glass.
Two fire trucks were also at the scene, prepared to douse the vehicle with water if needed, the firefighter said.
Police allowed some people to enter theaters to view Broadway shows in the vicinity but later blocked other theatergoers from entering. Some hotel guests were allowed back to their rooms.
At least some of the shows were allowed to go on.
The square itself was mostly evacuated by 8 p.m., according to Reuters reporters on the scene. Police had evacuated an area stretching from about 42nd Street up to 47th Street and including Seventh Avenue and Broadway.
A Reuters reporter on the scene said police began to broaden the area evacuated around 9:30 p.m., with crowds on 45th Street being pushed back from Times Square to Eighth Avenue to the west and Sixth Avenue to the east.
Tourists in the area expressed annoyance and amusement. Nam Vu, 24, said he had arrived by bus in New York at 8 a.m. from Canada and was prevented from meeting a friend at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square.
"I feel like I'm on a TV show," he said. "Where is (actor) Denzel Washington?"
People inside theaters and restaurants on Times Square were generally allowed to stay, or to depart the area, but only police and firefighters were being allowed in.
This week, the Illinois General Assembly will vote on a very important and historical bill. For the first time in Illinois history, a school voucher program has made it to a house vote. Essentially, the state would allow a student to opt out of a public school and be eligiblt to receive a voucher of approximately $3,400 ( a net savings to the state of over $3,000).
Unfortunately, this program would ONLY benefit a few communities located ONLY in Chicago. As written, it would only apply to what the legislators define as the "worst 10% of Chicago schools". Within the language of the bill itself, there is language that grandizes the savings to the state and the benefits of school choice. My question then is, if this almost bankrupt state can save $3000+ per each student that opts out, why not then make the same privilege available to all Illinois residents. Are there no bad schools outside of Chicago? Why not mute the cries that Illinois classrooms are over-crowded and lower the student per teacher ratio? For further reading on the issue:
From the Illinois Review
Is your legislator with the kids...or with the unions?
UPDATE: State Rep. Jim Durkin is telling constitutents he's a definite YES on SB 2494.
The Illinois House of Representatives is considering a key vote right now. Senate Bill 2494 would save thousands of children from Chicago’s worst schools by giving them a voucher allowing them to attend the school of their choice.
This program has been successful in other states, and it won’t cost downstate or suburban schools any money. After years of your tax dollars going to failing schools, this bill will also hold Chicago Public Schools accountable for their performance.
Is your legislator standing with the kids who need help, or with the teachers unions who oppose this bill? Below is a list of undecided legislators.
Call them and tell them to support Senate Bill 2494.
Representative District Capitol Number District Number
Elizabeth Coulson 17 (217) 782-4194 (847) 724-3233
Michael P. McAuliffe 20 (217) 782-8182 (773) 792-0749
Robert W. Pritchard 70 (217) 782-0425 (815) 748-3494
David R. Leitch 73 (217) 782-8108 (309) 690-7373
Donald L. Moffitt 74 (217) 782-8032 (309) 343-8000
ame privilege available to all Illinois residents? Why not mute the constant cries about overcrowded classrooms? Aren't there schools just as bad in Illinois towns outside Chicago?
In sum, I support vouchers wholeheartedly. I just feel the program as proposed is far to limited.
To view more discussion on the issue, please see the following article:
A grim report circulating in the Kremlin today written by Russia’s Northern Fleet is reporting that the United States has ordered a complete media blackout over North Korea’s torpedoing of the giant Deepwater Horizon oil platform owned by the World’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean that was built and financed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., that has caused great loss of life, untold billions in economic damage to the South Korean economy, and an environmental catastrophe to the United States.
Most important to understand about this latest attack by North Korea against its South Korean enemy is that under the existing “laws of war” it was a permissible action as they remain in a state of war against each other due to South Korea’s refusal to sign the 1953 Armistice ending the Korean War.
To the attack itself, these reports continue, the North Korean “cargo vessel” Dai Hong Dan believed to be staffed by 17th Sniper Corps “suicide” troops left Cuba’s Empresa Terminales Mambisas de La Habana (Port of Havana) on April 18th whereupon it “severely deviated” from its intended course for Venezuela’s Puerto Cabello bringing it to within 209 kilometers (130 miles) of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform which was located 80 kilometers (50 miles) off the coast of the US State of Louisiana where it launched an SSC Sang-o Class Mini Submarine (Yugo class) estimated to have an operational range of 321 kilometers (200 miles).
On the night of April 20th the North Korean Mini Submarine manned by these “suicidal” 17th Sniper Corps soldiers attacked the Deepwater Horizon with what are believed to be 2 incendiary torpedoes causing a massive explosion and resulting in 11 workers on this giant oil rig being killed outright. Barely 48 hours later, on April 22nd , this North Korean Mini Submarine committed its final atrocity by exploding itself directly beneath the Deepwater Horizon causing this $1 Billion oil rig to sink beneath the seas and marking 2010’s celebration of Earth Day with one of the largest environmental catastrophes our World has ever seen.
To the reason for North Korea attacking the Deepwater Horizon, these reports say, was to present US President Obama with an “impossible dilemma” prior to the opening of the United Nations Review Conference of the Parties to the Treat on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) set to begin May 3rd in New York.
This “impossible dilemma” facing Obama is indeed real as the decision he is faced with is either to allow the continuation of this massive oil leak catastrophe to continue for months, or immediately stop it by the only known and proven means possible, the detonation of a thermonuclear device.
Russian Navy atomic experts in these reports state that should Obama choose the “nuclear option” the most viable weapon at his disposal is the United States B83 (Mk-83) strategic thermonuclear bomb having a variable yield (Low Kiloton Range to 1,200 Kilotons) which with its 12 foot length and 18 inch diameter, and weighing just over 2,400 pounds, is readily able to be deployed and detonated by a remote controlled mini-sub.
Should Obama choose the “nuclear option” it appears that he would be supported by the International Court of Justice who on July 8, 1996 issued an advisory opinion on the use of nuclear weapons stating that they could not conclude definitively on these weapons use in “extreme circumstances” or “self defense”.
On the other hand, if Obama chooses the “nuclear option” it would leave the UN’s nuclear conference in shambles with every Nation in the World having oil rigs off their coasts demanding an equal right to atomic weapons to protect their environment from catastrophes too, including Iran.
To whatever decision Obama makes it remains a fact that with each passing hour this environmental catastrophe grows worse. And even though Obama has ordered military SWAT teams to protect other oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico from any further attack, and further ordered that all drilling in the Gulf of Mexico be immediately stopped, this massive oil spill has already reached the shores of America and with high waves and more bad weather forecast the likelihood of it being stopped from destroying thousands of miles of US coastland and wildlife appears unstoppable.
And not just to the environmental catastrophe that is unfolding the only devastation to be wrecked upon the United States and South Korea by this North Korean attack as the economic liabilities associated with this disaster are estimated by these Russian reports to be between $500 Billion to $1.5 Trillion, and which only a declaration of this disaster being an “act of war” would free some the World’s largest corporations from bankruptcy.
Important to note too in all of these events was that this was the second attack by North Korea on its South Korean enemy, and US ally, in a month as we had reported on in our March 28th report titled “Obama Orders ‘Immediate Stand-down’ After Deadly North Korean Attack” and which to date neither the Americans or South Korea have retaliated for and giving one senior North Korean party leader the courage to openly state that the North Korean military took “gratifying revenge” on South Korea.
And for those believing that things couldn’t get worse, they couldn’t be more mistaken as new reports coming from Japanese military sources are stating that North Korea is preparing for new launches of its 1,300 kilometer (807 miles) intermediate range ballistic “Rodong” missile which Russian Space Forces experts state is able to “deploy and detonate” an atomic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device, and which if detonated high in the atmosphere could effectively destroy the American economy for years, if not decades, to come.
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