Janetalia

The Absence of Competence

By Alan Caruba

Is it too much to expect the Attorney General of the United States, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the President to have actually read the law that the State of Arizona passed regarding illegal aliens?

Is it too much to expect the President not to use that law—-the same as a federal law—-as a lame joke at the recent White House Correspondents dinner?

Does anyone really think President Obama has a clue about the actual facts concerning the BP oil rig accident? When all the reports are written, here’s what they will say. It was an accident.

How can we expect the Obama administration to respond to terrorist attacks on America when they will barely use the word “terrorism” and almost never link it to Islam? Even wars are called “overseas contingencies.”

When words mask reality, reality has a nasty way of intruding.

We’re told not “to jump to conclusions” about the Fort Hood shooter even though he was a deranged Muslim fanatic. The Christmas day attempted airline bombing? Everybody did their job says Janet Napolitano of Homeland Security. Well, no, everyone except the bomber. Time Squares bomber? AG Holder wants to hold a trial of the 9/11 planner a couple of blocks away.

The whole Obama administration is shot through with people who got their tickets punched at various elite Ivy League and other universities, but who hold beliefs that are so mind-boggling that you wonder why the nice men in the white coats haven’t shown up to take them to a rubber room.

The Secretary of Transportation dislikes cars and makes no secret of it. Meanwhile, the government owns General Motors and is still trying to find ways to make selling their cars more difficult by raising mileage standards.

The Secretary of Energy thinks we should paint the roofs of our homes white to reflect back the light from the Sun in order to avoid the dreaded global warming. Apparently nobody has told him the Earth has been in a cooling cycle for the past decade.

The President’s science advisor thinks it would be a good idea to put chemicals into the water supply to reduce fertility. Too many people eating, breathing, and—-Oh my God—-exhaling the dreaded carbon dioxide that will kill us all! NOT!

The President pushed hard for his healthcare bill that was intended to reduce the costs of Medicare and, surprise, it will cost more if implemented. Around the nation, doctors are dropping out of the Medicare program. Try buying health insurance from any company other than the government in a few years. How stupid and Marxist is it to take competition out of this process?

As for the President himself, he is just an endless source of gaffs and pratfalls. Recall those early months when he couldn’t say a word without a TelePrompter? Remember Steve Croft of “Sixty Minutes” taking him to task for laughing inappropriately? “Are you punch drunk?” asked Croft. Or Fox News’ Bret Baier trying to get him to give a straight answer to ANYTHING?

We are now nearly a year and a half into Obama’s first and only term in office. He is still trying to blame former President George W. Bush for EVERYTHING. I half expected to hear him say that George W was seen fishing nearby the BP oil rig shortly before it blew up. It took Obama nine days to even fly over and look at the busted rig. Katrina, anyone?

Just call him President Kiss-of-Death. So far, every Democrat candidate that Obama has endorsed for election has lost. I hope he keeps it up.

Meanwhile, I pray that we last until November when we can throw the whole useless, crazy bunch of Democrats out of office and then slow down Obama’s mad race to “transform” America into something more closely resembling Fidel Castro’s Cuba or Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela.

His ultimate goal is to totally undermine the American system of governance along with the financial structure that maintains it. That is theis administration's greatest threat to the nation and is being relentless pursued.

(c) Alan Caruba, 2010

U.S. Anti-Terrorism Policy: Get Lucky

By Alan Caruba

“I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s history.”

That’s what President Obama said in his Cairo speech, an early effort to reach out to Muslims throughout the Middle East and the world. The problem is, he is dead wrong. Muslims were not here prior to or during the Revolution. They did not participate in the Civil War though for centuries they were notorious as slave traders. During World War Two they were on Hitler’s side.

And, over the weekend, a naturalized American, formerly from Pakistan, is alleged to be the man who tried to kill a lot of Americans in New York’s Time’s Square.

So, while not “always” having been part of America’s history, Muslims are currently leaving their mark on it in the twenty-first century.

This is an administration that abandoned the descriptive “war on terrorism” in favor of “overseas contingency operation” against “man-caused disasters.” That was an early indicator that the White House is clueless.

As recently as November 5, 2009, a Muslim member of the U.S. Army killed thirteen fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. The National Security Advisor, Jim Jones, was quick to write off the Fort Hood attack as “not terrorism related.”

This is a president who took his sweet time responding to the Christmas day attempted airliner bombing, calling it an “isolated incident” despite law enforcement reports that such attempts have been increasing in recent times.

The “underpants bomber”, Umar Farouk Adbulmutalleb was arrested, debriefed, and read his Miranda rights within an hour after being taken into custody, all with the blessing of White House counterterrorism chief, John Brennen. This is a classic example of how not to deal with a terrorist.

Meanwhile, Attorney General John Holder has been hot for holding the trial of the mastermind of 9/11 in New York! And this is an administration that came into office promising to close down our detention facilities at Guantanamo.

We have a complete idiot, Janet Napolitano, as the Secretary of Homeland Security. We are all now too accustomed to her glassy-eyed, deer-in-the-headlights responses to events that threaten the nation’s security.

Apparently, the Obama administration’s anti-terrorism policy can be summed up in two words, “Get lucky.”

There are still liberals ready to condemn the United States for 9/11 and subsequent attacks. The liberal mantra is that these attacks are the result of our actions in the Middle East, but that misses the point that the primary characteristic of Middle East Muslims is to always blame someone or some nation for their own failures.

The United States, the Great Satan, and Israel, the Little Satan, are the convenient targets of blame. Israel has been relentlessly attacked and the U.S. has been provoked throughout the latter part of the last century with countless attacks on our citizens abroad, our embassies, and on 9/11.

We must thank the many patriots working in our national intelligence gathering system and we can thank the personnel of the FBI and local law enforcement people for the extraordinary job they did in identifying and arresting the alleged Time Square bomber.

What we are learning, however, is that it is extremely difficult to thwart such acts of terrorism, that we allow far too much traffic to and from the hotbeds of terrorism in the Middle East, and that the sheer avalanche of intelligence we secure daily often obscures an attack.

What we know is that we have a White House filled with incompetent advisors to a president who is in total denial.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Distracted by Stupidity

By Alan Caruba

I have a friend who lives with his blind Malamute dog, Boris, in a cabin deep in the Missouri woods. He is as self-sufficient as one can be, but he is not one of those survivalists who are waiting for the Homeland Security to show up. He has to go into town to get dog food and pipe tobacco, although he has been brewing his own hard cider of late. It’s his latest hobby.

He is hardly cut off from the world and that seems to be his main complaint because he is of the opinion that it is largely populated by stupid people and, frankly, it is hard to disagree. As a result, we are both richly rewarded with evidence on a daily basis.

For example, it is abundantly clear (except to stupid people) that a majority of voters in 2008 elected a fool to be President of the United States of America and the presumed “leader of the free world.” Do not ask the presidents of France or Russia, or the Prime Minister of England for their opinions of him. For that matter, don’t ask former President Bill Clinton, who’s still waiting for his cup of coffee.

One of Obama’s first official acts was to dispatch Air Force One to do a low fly-by of New York City for a photo. For some reason, that scared the hell out of New Yorkers.

It is hard enough to get through life when most people around you have concluded that you are a dunce, but when it is America being judged as stupid, led by stupid people, and populated by too many stupid people, it is hard to get other nations to cooperate.

My own email and comments on my blog suggest that there are still plenty of very smart people in America and I think the Tea Party movement is evidence of that because these folks are looking for a home that is neither Democrat, nor Republican, but just sensible and a place where someone has actually read the U.S. Constitution.

As we close in on the anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration (remember the nearly two million folks that showed up in the freezing cold, thrilled to be a part of the hopey-changey thing?), but even by the kindest standards of judgment, it is clear that he is utterly clueless in an over-educated way that reeks of condescension.

You get the feeling that he has Tele-Prompters at the breakfast and dinner table in order to provide him with small talk. Without them, listeners begin to wonder if, at some point, he suffered some form of brain damage.

Worse, the next in succession is a Vice President who recently held a closed-door meeting on “transparency” in government. Behind him wait the Wicked Witch of San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi, who burns through $60,000 of jet fuel each way to and from the capital every week. Next in line is the Nevada troll, Harry Reid.

You have to be spectacularly stupid to blow billions of taxpayer dollars “bailing out” General Motors and Chrysler when the ordinary bankruptcy process would have spared us the insanity of owning a failed auto company. Capitalism rewards success and scorns failure, but those in power these days think capitalism is a bad thing.

Given the pathetic performance of other government-owned entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac and the fact that they have been exempted from the “financial responsibility” taxes Obama wants to impose on banks, it comes as no surprise that their executives collected multi-million dollar bonuses at the same time some government official was railing against similar bonuses for Wall Street bankers and investment executives.

In the midst of the worst financial crisis this nation has faced since the 1930s, how stupid do you have to be to try to “reform” Medicare in ways that slash billions from it while adding more people to its rolls? By what stretch of the imagination does Congress think it has the power to require people to buy insurance they do not want? And, it turns out, exclusively from the government.

What ever happened to the free marketplace where competition determined prices? There’s a reason insurance companies run all those TV commercials. Didn’t anyone in Congress or the White House ever take Economics 101?

The Founding Fathers said over and over again that the only way a republic such as ours can survive is if it is led by men (and now women) of “virtue”, by which they meant people that weren’t in public service to plunder the treasury. They knew those elected to public office would not all be angels, so they put together a legislative process that slows the passage of laws to a crawl. All manner of impediments exist and we should be very happy that they do.

I grew up in an era before television when newspapers, radio, and the Movietone News were the main sources. This may seem odd to today’s generation, but during World War Two the media did not compete with one another to be the first to tell the Nazis when and where D-Day would occur or which island in the Pacific would be invaded next.

This is a far cry from Walter Cronkite telling Americans that our troops lost the Tet Offensive in Vietnam when we had actually killed thousands of the enemy, rendering them a terrific blow. That was the first war of the modern era which the media wanted the U.S. to lose. It has since been followed by both the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Well before 9/11 America was locked into a war with al Qaeda even if no one in the White House wanted to give it much thought. By treating the 1993 bombing of the Twin Towers as a criminal act, the U.S. set in motion its final destruction. Now we have a government that wants to extend the protection of the U.S. Constitution to captured terrorists and try them in the heart of New York City. Do not tell me that is not stupid!

Just what do you do with an overweight, slovenly, Muslim U.S. Army Major who was also engaged in a lively exchange of emails with a jihadist mullah in Yemen? You give him his discharge papers. When you don’t, you end up with thirteen dead soldiers while he stands around yelling “Allahu Akbar!” Today’s military is so politically correct the rules of engagement on the battlefield include offering candy and soft drinks to the enemy before actually shooting at them.

Putting an idiot like Janet Napolitano in charge of Homeland Security aptly fits the description of stupid, but a close look at the monkey cage of loonies attached to the Oval Office reveals more social misfits than you could find in a Beverly Hills rehabilitation center.

We are stuck with Obama and his merry band of morons until 2012, but we can begin to clean house in Congress in November 2010 thanks to the midterm elections.

It’s up to the people with common sense and good judgment to take charge of this nation through participation in all manner of civic and political organizations, through a constant deluge of Congress to stop Obamacare, immigration “reform” (how I hate that word!), and the strangling of the free market economy that has enriched those willing to actually hold a job and lucky enough to have one.

The Terror Attack and Clueless White House

The Department of Job Security

New Rules for Air Travel

By Alan Caruba

The simple fact of the matter is that the only reason the Christmas Delta flight was not blown out of the sky with a powerful explosive was that the detonator didn’t work. Does it strike anyone as ironic that, according to government officials, the “answer” to airline safety is more and better technology?

El Al, the Israeli airline has never had a terrorist incident and that is because they actually profile the heck out of everyone who wants to fly with them. Blond, blue-eyed, Scandinavian? They want to know why you’re going to a particular destination, how long you intend to be there? Do you have family or friends there? And you had better have all your visas and passports in proper order. You may be a member of the Master Race, but you better have some damned good answers.

In America, it’s now routine for passenger to have to show up a day in advance, sleep on the terminal floor, take off your shoes and all the rest of your clothes, submit to an anal cavity search, and not bring anything as dangerous as a nail-clipper with you. No liquids unless they are less than three ounces and in a zip-closed plastic bag. None of this makes anyone the slightest bit safer except the morons at the TSA that came up with these rules.

There are now new rules such as not being able to take a leak for an hour before the plane lands, no pillows, no blankets, and nothing that even vaguely resembles comfort in airline seats that have been reduced in size to the equivalent of straight-jackets. Looking out the window will be considered suspicious activity.

Here’s what’s NOT suspicious:

Having “Muhammad” as part of your name such as Muhammad Abdul Muhammad.
Being Muslim.
Having no passport.
Being Muslim.
Paying for a one-way ticket with cash.
Being Muslim.
Not having any baggage.
Being Muslim.
Spreading a prayer rug in the waiting lounge, facing Mecca, and loudly praying.
Being Muslim.
Being Arab.
Being Muslim.
Being African.
Being Muslim.

And, finally,
Being Muslim!

Here’s my suggestion for a really good new rule: The United States Department of State should simply not issue visas to young, Arab or African Muslims for any reason. If you’re young and sporting a raggedy beard, you may not get a visa either. If you’re young, female, and are wearing a burka or comparable Muslim attire, you don’t get a visa.

I don’t care if they want to study anything at a U.S. college or university. There are lots of other places to study anything. I don’t care if they want to visit Disneyland. I don’t care if they want to become a rock’n roll star. If they want to be in the movies, let them go to Bollywood, not Hollywood.

This is the same State Department whom the father of the latest bomber warned weeks ago. When your daddy says you’re a jihadist that should be proof enough. At the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria they are still looking up the word “jihadist” because it is not in the handbook, “How to Spot a Freaking Terrorist!” Oops, sorry, I forgot that according to the present administration there is no “war on global terrorism” and the term “terrorist” cannot be spoken.

I find it quite strange that Americans think there is something wrong with being especially careful about letting anyone Arab, African, and Muslim on any flight to, within, and from the United States.

I find it even stranger that some Americans still are unable to figure out that there are people who are at WAR with them and live for the privilege of dying, becoming a martyr, and having 72 virgins in paradise for the honor of killing as many Americans as possible.

These people are called MUSLIMS.

Some of them even live in America and, frankly, I don’t want them getting on a plane here either.

When imams anywhere around the world tell them every Friday that the only reason they have for living is to die while killing infidels, some reasonable degree of caution is called for.

Note: For those who are offended by this indictment of Muslims, I fully understand that there are many decent Muslims in America and throughout the world. The point of this exercise is to demonstrate how incompetent and idiotic our government has become in protecting us against the bad ones.

Do You Feel Safer Now?

By Alan Caruba

Now that we have Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, do you feel safer?

I don’t. Aunt Janet could not manage to say words like “terrorism” or “9/11” in her recent testimony before a congressional committee. If you recall, the whole reason for the reorganization that created the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 was, well, homeland security.
It brought together 22 agencies and some 220,000 federal employees to ensure the nation was not attacked again and, if attacked, could coordinate recovery procedures.

This worked fine under the Republican administration of George W. Bush during which Tom Ridge and Michael Chernoff were in charge of the department, but Democrats and, in particular, those of an extreme Leftist point of view are always ready to embrace our enemies and blame America for any attacks or other threats they pose.

In a new book by Dr. Jamie Glazov, a historian who is managing editor of Frontpagemag.com, “United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny and Terror”, the author points out that, “Throughout the twentieth century, the Western Left supported one totalitarian killing machine after another. Prominent intellectuals from George Bernard Shaw to Bertolt Brecht to Susan Sontag venerated mass murderers such as Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and Ho Chi Minh, habitually excusing their atrocities while blaming America, and even the victims for the crimes.”

Today, the Left’s spokespersons include former President Jimmy Carter, Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, and Tom Hayden. And President Barack Hussein Obama who, in the first two months of his new administration has reached out to Palestinians, Syrians, Iranians, and initiated measures to eliminate restrictions on Castro’s Cuba.

Obama was elected for his opposition to the war in Iraq that deposed one of the most vicious despots of our times, Saddam Hussein, and which is demonstrating in its aftermath that democracy has taken root in Iraq. It is no accident that Obama's first television interview was with Al-Arabia or that he is proposing to give nearly a billion dollars to Hamas to "rebuild Gaza."

Will this administration decide not to call Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda or the countless other Islamist groups “terrorists”? Maybe it will begin to call them “tourists”? Granted Obama wants to increase the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, but that is virtually a guarantor of failure and he knows it. British and French generals have recommended returning Afghanistan to the tribes that have always run it. Let them fight the Taliban like they fought the Russians.

During the Clinton years, attacks on American embassies were seen as issues for the Justice Department. That’s why Osama bin Laden was allowed to slip away even when Sudan offered his capture. That’s why, when one agency of the U.S. knew that the 9/11 perpetrators were here illegally, they were not permitted to inform another agency and thus likely undermine their plot. The firewalls that permitted this travesty were put in place by Leftist Clinton appointees.

Lawyers, unlike military or counterterrorism experts, have a very different view of protecting the nation. They believe that the “rights” of terrorists take precedence over the rights of Americans to be protected against them.

This might be why the Village Voice, a very liberal weekly, opposed Aunt Janet when word circulated that she might be appointed to head the Department of National Security. She was scorned for having taken any action to defend Arizona’s border with Mexico. To the Voice, her failure to welcome every illegal Mexican at the border was a sin.

Napolitano is the ultimate political animal, always ready to test which way the wind is blowing, always eager to run to the front of the parade, and now prepared to ensure that the indifferent and dangerous policies of the Obama administration will be reflected in the work of her mega-agency.

As we have seen with the Hurricane Katrina fiasco, probably no U.S. government agency can effectively deal with an act of God, but the National Security Agency should surely be expected to motivate its personnel to remain vigilant against potential threats. They are some very good people who get up each day to protect us. They know who the enemy is, whether it is an al Qaeda operative attempting to sneak into the nation or a Mexican drug smuggler. We owe them our thanks and our respect.

The problem for the rest of us is that Aunt Janet cannot bring herself to use the word “terrorist” or even refer to “9/11”. This is perfectly understandable when the President cannot bring himself to refer to “the war on terrorism.”