Considering the fact pattern known to this point, I’d say the system failed miserably.
If it weren’t for ONE passenger with balls and a technical/human problem, Northwest 253 could have had an entirely different catastrophic ending.
There were — ahem — some clues beforehand:
– The man paid cash for his ticket; – He had no luggage; – He had no passport; – His FATHER called an American embassy to warn of his son’s predilections; – He was ON a “watch list” — oh yeah, that’s right: the “wrong” watch list
He sat in seat 19A. That seat was purposely acquired above the fuel tank of the Airbus A330-323X aircraft, number N820NW.
But ask Mr Obama and his administration?
This is nothing more than a singular crime, not an act of WAR.
With no greater a priority than a burglary or a simple assault in your neighborhood.
That’s the rallying cry barked by some in the Republican Party — and by many Demorats or Media Hounds who enjoy criticizing the GOP. Things like: “The GOP is attempting to kill itself by refusing to place more people of moderate values under the Republican Tent.”
Critics of the GOP invariably point to Barry Goldwater, for Christ’s sake, waaay back in 1964 as THE prime example of “too far.” Oh, please.
It would seem to me that the current problem with the GOP is that it has lost its way, had its rudder ripped away by persons laboring under the GOP label who are pretty much nothing of the sort — that is to say, truly Conservative.
Yes — some naysayers may be indicating — you must realize that every Republican voted down ObamaKare. But that, in my mind, is because even a dead clock carries the proper time twice a day.
Let’s examine, for a moment, some of that Big Tenting advocated by — uh, let’s see: the RNC and Michael Steele. How about:
– Pennsylvanian Arlen Specter;
– The lovely and dashing Olympia Snowe;
– Lindsay Graham;
– Tim Pawlenty;
– Even Mr John (Gang of 13) McCain.
And in my neck of the woods, how about Mr Green Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger?
True Conservatives all, yes?
Uh, no.
Now, even the Demorats are having their issues with “moderates.” They think they need more. William Daley wrote in The Washington Post:
The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.
All that is required for the Democratic Party to recover its political footing is to acknowledge that the agenda of the party’s most liberal supporters has not won the support of a majority of Americans — and, based on that recognition, to steer a more moderate course on the key issues of the day, from health care to the economy to the environment to Afghanistan.
The party’s moment of choosing is drawing close. While it may be too late to avoid some losses in 2010, it is not too late to avoid the kind of rout that redraws the political map. The leaders of the Democratic Party need to move back toward the center — and in doing so, set the stage for the many years’ worth of leadership necessary to produce the sort of pragmatic change the American people actually want.
While I would wholeheartedly agree that as the Demorats lean further Left, they are virtually assuring greater losses — I wholeheartedly disagree with its opposite contention: that the GOP needs to lean further Left as well.
In my opinion the Demorats want the GOP tent to be sufficiently large so as to eventually “become” the Demorats themselves. You could start with the above-mentioned individuals.
And a final question: do you see Demorats and “Progressives” (whatever in the hell does that mean anyway?) opening their tent flaps wide for Conservatives?
I might leave you with one quote from Mr Barry Goldwater:
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) – An attempted terrorist attack on a Christmas Day flight began with a pop and a puff of smoke – sending passengers scrambling to subdue a Nigerian man who claimed to be acting on orders from al-Qaida to blow up the airliner, officials and travelers said.
The commotion began as Northwest Airlines Flight 253, carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew members from Amsterdam, prepared to land in Detroit just before noon Friday. Travelers said they smelled smoke, saw a glow, and heard what sounded like firecrackers. At least one person climbed over others and jumped on the man, who officials say was trying to ignite an explosive device.
I delayed blogging today for a reason I’ll indicate below; after that, the first thing I encountered on the internet was this story.
After reading, I was heartened and then resolved. But I must elaborate on my resolution and thusly:
America, you need to wake up. Yes, the times are tough, making many of us tend to focus only on ourselves and our plight.
We need to continue to recognize that their are forces, foreign and domestic, who wish for a myriad of reasons to bring down this country.
It’s bad enough that, domestically, Mr Obama and his administration — yes, our own government — wishes to bring down a good portion of the structure of our nation (elucidated in the Cloward-Piven Strategy, the likes of which I introduced here). This is sufficiently horrible on its face and must be factored and dealt with.
But we’ve seemingly forgotten about one aspect of our foreign enemies — Islamists. And what they want to do to our country, IN this country.
And I can only hope this is a Wake Up Call for us, as citizens of the United States. And that we heed the call.
There are those, some who read this blog, who say that radical Islamists compromise only a very small percentile of the “good and honorable” members of the religion of Islam.
But just how many radical Islamists do you need to sour a nation, a series of nations, a movement, an entire religion, with violence, cowardice and hate?
I said then and I say now: Islam is as Islam does.
It is no more complicated than that.
You need to wake up America. Wake UP. Islamists are in our midst. We still seem to think that Islam is comprised of only people who “look” like they source from the Middle East. That is amazingly incorrect.
The greatest number of Muslims live in Asia (Indoesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh) and Africa (Egypt, Nigeria).
Throwing acid in the face of women who fail to don the hijab,[1] flogging people for sporting non-Islamic haircuts, and stoning to death violators of sexual norms are only a few examples of a raft of daily barbaric acts of Islamists in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and many Islamic lands. Other forms of Islamic brutalities such as Honor Killing[2] have already found their way to Germany and other European countries with the ever-burgeoning Muslim populations.
Islam is a cancer upon this planet. There may be some “good” or “nice” Muslims extant, of course; but they are so cowed by the radically-violent elements meaning, again, that Islam is as Islam does.
Upon learning of this recent event, my wife said: “They (the passengers) should have thumped him until he died.”
Jasper Schuringa has been identified as the Northwest Airlines passenger who helped subdue an alleged terrorist as he tried to detonate explosives on board flight 253.
A high-ranking law enforcement official told CBS News that the suspect, identified by multiple sources as 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab apparently used a syringe to inject a chemical into powder located near his groin, a technique not seen in previous attempted attacks.
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.
Tonight (Christmas Eve) I watched as the deputies I supervise continued, as the professionals they are, to do their jobs with no complaint, not a sound, upbeat, helping each other out. I dropped by their various work sites and sent some of them home early, so they could be with their families. My priority was to send home, as early as I could afford, those deputies with young children at home.
Because, absent the deep religious aspect, Christmas is for kids.
I can remember, being 6 or 7 or so, how I would help Mom put up the Christmas tree. At the time, most everyone had live Christmas trees. You would go to the local lot and select your favorite. If you were rich or strange you got a flocked tree. My best friend, Randy, his family always got a flocked tree. It was covered with some kind of unknown white material intended, I could only guess, to mimic snow. His family was always more avant-garde.
I was mystified by the Christmas tree. It was huge, green, fresh, had a wonderful pine smell like no other time of the year. We would hang lights, the kind with the huge, hot bulbs, and then drape the branches and needles with tinsel. The best tinsel was the kind you could mold into a big ball when the tree came down; it was lead. The light, fluffy tinsel was cheap. I hated it.
I would sit, at night, just before Christmas, in the den, in the dark, watching the lights. They didn’t flicker or blink, they just captivated. I would wonder: which are my presents? What is it? I would covertly try to pick up a present and shake it, gauge its weight.
The City of San Jose (CA) Police Department is fielding a trial program where 18 patrol officers will be testing a new head-cam device (see photograph).
Selected officers will be recording all contacts with citizens and calls for service.
