COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

The Irresponsibility of alleged Commander in Chief Obama and Flight 253

Pilot furious at U.S. for silence on bomb
By Steve Danyluk, Special to CNN
January 5, 2010 9:44 a.m. EST


Airline pilot Steve Danyluk was flying over Atlantic during bomb attempt but wasn't notified that there was an ongoing bomb incident. Had there been a coordinated 911 type attack, there would have been a far worse disaster as he and other pilots were not notified.

Did no one in the Obama Administration ask what if?

The pilot only learned about it after landing and said "when I looked at the CNN Web site on my iPhone"

It is worse than the pilot argues because Obama stated empatheticaly that it was an isolated incident and one would assume the President of the United States making such a declaration, would not know what he was talking about. That assumption was wrong.

Obama had no clue. He no sense to ask. He is the alleged Commander in Chief.

_______________________________________

Editor's note: Steve Danyluk is an international first officer for a major U.S. airline and president of The Independence Fund, a nonprofit that supports troops wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(CNN) -- Following the attempt to bomb a passenger jet on Christmas Day, President Obama said that "once the suspect attempted to take down Flight 253, it's clear Homeland Security and Aviation Security took all appropriate actions."

I am a commercial airline pilot who was deep over the Atlantic flying from St. Kitts and Nevis for nearly six hours on Christmas Day following the attempted bombing on Flight 253.

I only learned about the incident after landing when I looked at the CNN Web site on my iPhone. I'm justifiably furious that I was not notified while airborne.

Our government clearly dropped the ball. President Obama has ordered a review into the intelligence failures leading up to the attempted Christmas Day bombing by Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, but an equally important review needs to be made into how events were handled once AbdulMutallab attempted to carry out his plan.
Specifically, why weren't the actions the Transportation Safety Administration outlines in our aviation manuals initiated, and what took place inside the federal Domestic Events Network in the immediate aftermath of the terror attempt?

Following the 9/11 review, the DEN was given the task of instituting new procedures for controllers on how to communicate information about suspicious aircraft throughout the system.

Why ... was the information concerning the incident available to me only on my iPhone?
--Steve Danyluk, commercial pilot

The Washington-based DEN Operations Center is supposed to allow federal agencies with jurisdiction over the security of U.S. airspace to communicate information in real time. So why, after eight years and billions of dollars, was the information concerning the incident available to me only on my iPhone?

Like many commercial pilots, I flew in the military. There, each squadron maintains something called a pre-mishap plan. Basically, it's a three-ring binder with a series of actions the watch officer is supposed to take when a mishap happens.

It's a very useful tool -- but only if the officer who is assigned to carry out the plan is familiar with the binder's contents. Good commanding officers run simulated mishap drills within their squadrons to ensure their junior officers effectively execute the plan.

I'm left with the sickening sense that after 9/11, the government spent horrific amounts of money to create the "mother of all" pre-mishap plans, but never effectively tested it. Why? Because unlike the military, where commanding officers rise up through the ranks based on professional competency, our government operates on a different model.

How else does one explain the failed governmental response to natural disasters like Katrina, or man-made disasters like the Christmas Day bombing attempt?

The silver lining is that AbdulMutallab's failed attempt gave us that test of the response system. It can only be attributed to luck that unlike 9/11, this was not a coordinated attack involving multiple aircraft.

Now that the gaping holes in our response have been exposed, let's do a thorough review of what took place on Flight 253 and ensure we have professionals in decision-making positions who will execute the plan if this happens again.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Steve Danyluk.


87 comments:

  1. Heaven must
    Have lots of lust
    Even though St. Paul
    Told us
    We must not

    But what did he know?
    About life?

    Poor St. Paul,
    So confused
    When life, great life, stares you in the face.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We must have patience with our young president. He is at that point where, on the backbench, he would be learning hard lessons fast.

    Mr. Obama is the very personification of ash's educated man. His card has been punched all along the way.

    As now he must be learning to his dismay,

    Education is had throughout life's stay...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Over the years I've met a number of educated folk who just aren't very smart.

    ReplyDelete
  4. All these near misses we've had since 9-11 have led to complacency and a President who thinks that Dammit Janet is qualified for Homeland Security. Eventually the virus will mutate and get through. If we get a series of planes going down one after the other (and no explanation why because all the evidence gets burned up) and even liberals will be calling for Obama's head on a platter. Maybe then they'll start taking profiling seriously.
    Instead of a no fly list for some assholes from the land of Islam they should all be on the no fly list, and have to apply for the "why fly" list to get here. Make them jump through some hoops for a change, since they don't wanna speak up about their Religion of Peace being hijacked.
    ----------
    Bobal, the thing about faith is that it is a leap into the dark. You don't get to peek at what's inside the presents on Christmas Eve and them come down on Christmas Day, open them, and pretend to be surprised.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ash said...

    Over the years I've met a number of educated folk who just aren't very smart.

    Tue Jan 05, 05:18:00 PM EST


    ...neither are parrots, despite mimicry being the sincerest form of flattery (with apologies to Linear)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Here's what happens in a multi-culti whirled.

    Gordon Brown tonight condemned as "abhorrent and offensive" plans by a controversial Islamist group to stage a march through Wootton Bassett.

    In a statement, the prime minister said the Wiltshire town had assumed a "special significance" in the life of the nation, which should be respected.

    The leader of Islam4UK has said he will try to persuade people in Wootton Bassett to back an anti-war parade along the main street – the same route used to bring home the bodies of troops from Afghanistan.

    Anjem Choudary , whose group is an offshoot of the radical al-Muhajiroun movement, has caused anger by calling for members to parade through the Wiltshire town carrying up to 500 coffins symbolising the Muslim dead from the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.

    Local politicians have asked Choudary to abandon the protest and a Facebook site dedicated to preventing the march quickly attracted more than 120,000 members.


    It will be interesting to see where this goes.

    Read more

    ReplyDelete
  7. Are we a post-racial society? Not yet, but we are now in a more diverse and multicultural world and we will see more Obamas on the political scene in the coming years.

    The Republican Party doesn't seem to get this yet. The world changed, and they didn't.

    The voters changed, and they didn't. They fought the last war, and lost as a result.


    Wrong War

    ReplyDelete
  8. Seeing you had not yet "blown" your brains out over something as banal a lust, I give you:

    “His essays advocated good-humoured acceptance of the vagaries of human life. For all his formal orthodoxy, he was a manifest sceptic: 'There is', he observed, 'no hostility that exceeds Christian hostility.' In practice, he preferred the Stoic amor fati to religious absolutism and abominated the righteous cruelty of those with undoubting convictions: 'It is putting a very high price on one's conjectures to have someone roasted alive on their account.'”

    How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

    ReplyDelete
  9. Let's see, the Commander in Chief is not the fellow that decides what information is delivered to pilots in transit, during a terrorist event.

    That is doctrine that has been developed by Federal professionals over the past decades of air hijackings and terrorist attacks. Policies and procedures developed by people schooled and skilled in threat assessment.
    Government employees.

    Skilled professional folk, like allen, for the almost 40 years of his combined Federal service or subsidy.

    Each and every attempted terrorist attacks is not routed to the White House for immediate crisis management, and thank whatever benevolence you wish that the management tasking is not directed to the Oval Office.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ah c'mon, rat, Obama is GOD, just not so good at it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. That's excellent, Allen, and has moved my finger, away from the trigger.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yes, DR, there are many "skilled professionals" in public service; some died at the WTC and the Pentagon on 9/11. Thousands of others have perished since. Their daily sacrifice is why volk such as you have lived long enough to harangue. Thanks for noticing.

    The point of this thread is the irresponsibility of the President's appointments based upon his political prejudices, naiveté and lack of professional grooming. I am certain that Deuce is aware that the White House is not traffic central.

    ReplyDelete
  13. bob,

    And Montaigne had a dirty little secret that we will not readily share with DR. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. The CIA station chief, let alone the staff, in Yemen was not chosen by Mr Obama, nor was the Chief of Base, at Chapman in Afpakistan.

    They were all seasoned professional Federals. Not political appointees of Team Obamamerica.

    The folks that wrote the doctrine for pilot updates during an event, the were Bushies, or other Federal professionals.

    Because, as we all have been told, time and again, the Obama Administration has not "done" anything.

    That there has been no "change".

    On that we have all agreed, time and again.

    ReplyDelete
  15. DR: The CIA station chief, let alone the staff, in Yemen was not chosen by Mr Obama, nor was the Chief of Base, at Chapman in Afpakistan.

    God help Sarah Palin when she has to deal with the appointed fuck-ups of Obama's four years.

    ReplyDelete
  16. For good or ill, Ms Nap... speaks for thousands of professionals. She was appointed by Mr. Obama. She is an impolitic nit-wit, exacerbated by the wholly unqualified assurance of a true believer.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Two Reasons Why It's So Hard To Solve A Redneck Murder:


    1. The DNA all matches.


    2. There are no dental records.

    ReplyDelete
  18. “This was a screw up that could have been disastrous,” Obama told his war council and national security advisers in the Situation Room meeting. “We dodged a bullet but just barely.

    It was averted by brave individuals, not because the system worked, and that is not acceptable.

    “While there will be a tendency for fingerpointing, I will not tolerate it,” Obama also said.


    Homeland Crew

    ReplyDelete
  19. Got everything lined up for tax time but my W-2s.

    Since when is shaking down Americans for Internal Revenue a "Service" ?

    ReplyDelete
  20. The office of the president is not a title without responsibility.

    Every cabinet officer serves under the executive office and has direct line responsibility for the administration and direction of his department. This has been referred to time and time again with Katrina being the most recently common stated example.

    George Bush had responsibility for the federal response to the consequences of a random event of nature and was held accountable.

    What event is more predictable and expected than the possibility of an islamic fanatic attacking a civil aircraft? What federal effort has commanded more public resources than the protection of civil aircraft?

    Obama commanded thousands of federal employees for his extravagant luxury vacation. Most of the extravagance was for the protection of his safety.

    The White House went to extreme measures to assure the public that Obama was firmly aware and in charge while playing golf.

    A simple procedure to alert all flying civil aircraft to take extra precaution and be alert to a possible coordinated attack would have been and should have been as important as everyone taking off there shoes and belts to get on a plane.

    How anyone can defend the failure of the Presidents staff to notify every airborne aircraft of the clear and present threat and danger is not the mark of a serious person.

    Obama went beyond neglecting to notify. Obama claimed it was a singular alleged event.

    Obama acted like a second lieutenant who failed to post perimeter guards for a platoon in combat under his command. When our LT was warned that there was a possible penetration by a hostile, the same LT determined that it was an isolated incident and failed to alert the remaining posted guards to be on the alert.

    Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. There is no defense for such dereliction of duty.

    ReplyDelete
  21. "This was a screw up that could have been disastrous," the president said during a meeting in the White House situation room, according to the White House media office. "We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked and that is not acceptable. While there will be a tendency for finger pointing, I will not tolerate it."

    Look in the mirror Barack.

    ReplyDelete
  22. An example of how dogma overules intellect and experience. Obama needs to be replaced.

    US President Barack Obama has said a Yemen-linked plot to bomb an airliner will not prevent the closure of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.

    The US has suspended the repatriation of Yemeni prisoners held there in the wake of the plot, claimed by a Yemen-based al-Qaeda offshoot.

    Nearly half of those remaining at the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are from Yemen.

    Mr Obama originally set a January 22 deadline to close the prison camp.

    But he admitted last November that that deadline had slipped to later in 2010.

    ReplyDelete
  23. That is not true, at all, deuce.

    The pilots of those planes aloft were alerted, by the proper authorities. That the pilots, or a single pilot, was unhappy with the level of information broadcast over the radio, regrettable perhaps, but not a sign of dereliction.

    Those that needed to know that an event was occurring, did. The extent of that notification the point of this thread, not that there was none.

    That the Federals see these as isolated incidents, despite the radicalized religious connection that the suspects all seem to share, another point of discussion, one that has been debated at length and decided.

    The Religion of Peace, a piece of Republican lexicon, first time I heard it referred to by a President.

    Whether or not the security professionals see these as isolated incidents or links in a chain, the Federal Government pronounces, first under Mr Bush and now continued under Mr Obama these events to be criminal incidents.

    From the first attempt at truck bombing the WTC, to M&M's DC killing spree, to Ft Hood's Army Major, that they are isolated incidents, just accepted policy and doctrine.

    By refusing to declare war on Islam and refusing to propose rescinding Federal statutes banning discrimination by nation of origin, race or creed neither Mr Bush nor Mr Obama were or are derelict in their performance as President.

    ReplyDelete
  24. "They were all seasoned professional Federals."

    This is certainly true of the COS, but COB and others at Chapman? Bios have not been published but the Agency takes newly-minted graduates and immediately ships them out en mass to Iraq and Afghanistan...there to be initiated into the business and prepped for what it considers more complex and challenging work at other posts.

    ReplyDelete
  25. "Obama needs to be replaced."

    Gonna be a long three years for you, dear host.

    ReplyDelete
  26. If the COB at Chapman was a recruit, then the caca is deeper than Obama could have ever shoveled from the sty at Langley.

    A job that would dwarf even a Herculean effort, just to reform the CIA, if they were putting FNGs in command of forward operating bases in Afpakistan.

    Making that rot is deeper seated than the stove piped intelligence that came to represent Federal failure in 2000 & 2001.

    ReplyDelete
  27. A suicide bomber who killed eight people in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan was a triple agent who apparently duped his handlers that boasts he wanted to die a martyr were just a cover, reports said.

    ...

    Jihadist websites reported his arrest in December 2007 without specifying its location, US monitoring service SITE intelligence said.

    ...

    Jordanian public opinion had already turned against the jihadists after Zarqawi's group claimed 2005 suicide bombings against luxury hotels in Amman that killed 60 people.


    Triple Agent

    ReplyDelete
  28. The secret to a long life: mediocrity in US presidents. Now there is compensation. Thanks Red.

    ReplyDelete
  29. "If the COB at Chapman was a recruit..."

    I think it was said she had 12 yrs experience with AQ. Given the way that operation was run, odds are she was relatively new or brand new to casework.

    ReplyDelete
  30. "Now there is compensation."

    That's the spirit.

    ReplyDelete
  31. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  32. The State Department, meanwhile, said it had revoked more visas for people with "suspected ties to terrorism."

    Many experts have expressed incredulity that Abdulmutallab was able to travel on a valid US visa, despite his suspected ties to extremists.

    Obama's high-powered meeting included the heads of the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the National Counterterrorism Center, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates.


    Screw-up

    ReplyDelete
  33. A small edit to the post title may be in order.

    The Irresponsibility of alleged Commander in Chief Obama and Flight 653

    253

    .

    ReplyDelete
  34. Deuce's avatar (hate that word since the movie came out) has reappeared as mysteriously as it disappeared...along with a little status line warning "Contains unauthenticated content."

    ?

    What the hell is going on?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  35. It simply makes no sense to treat an al Qaeda-trained operative willing to die in the course of massacring hundreds of people as a common criminal. Reports indicate that Abdulmutallab stated there were many more like him in Yemen but that he stopped talking once he was read his Miranda rights.

    ...

    President Obama’s advisers lamely claim Abdulmutallab might be willing to agree to a plea bargain – pretty doubtful you can cut a deal with a suicide bomber. John Brennan, the President’s top counterterrorism adviser, bizarrely claimed “there are no downsides or upsides” to treating terrorists as enemy combatants.

    ...

    That is absurd. There is a very serious downside to treating them as criminals: terrorists invoke their “right” to remain silent and stop talking.


    Crime Spree

    ReplyDelete
  36. "Contains unauthenticated content."

    Too funny.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Speakin of taxes, thank y'all for that $8k tax writeoff, btw.

    Sam's quote is so profound and full of wisdom it bears repeating:

    "This was a screw up that could have been disastrous," the president said during a meeting in the White House situation room, according to the White House media office.
    "We dodged a bullet but just barely. It was averted by brave individuals not because the system worked and that is not acceptable. While there will be a tendency for finger pointing, I will not tolerate it.
    "

    That man just exudes leadership!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Embattled Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd (D) has scheduled a press conference at his home in Connecticut Wednesday at which he is expected to announce he will not seek re-election, according to sources familiar with his plans.

    ...

    Much of this work was done through his chairmanship of the Senate banking committee, but he also held powerful posts on the health and foreign relations committees. With each major piece of legislation Dodd ushered into law in recent years, came criticism that he did not anticipate.

    The mortgage bill came in mid-2008, which some said was delayed because of Dodd's presidential aspirations, and the financial bailout became one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation passed in recent memory. His work on the stimulus bill, approved last February, was an attempt to rein in executive compensation at firms that had been bailed out, but instead led to sharp criticism when executives at AIG, the largest recipient of taxpayer dollars, still received seven-figure bonuses shortly thereafter.


    Stepping Aside

    ReplyDelete
  39. "While there will be a tendency for finger pointing, I will not tolerate it."

    I say it's Presidential Medal of Freedom time.

    That'd make two for Mueller, who apparently has been appointed for life.

    ReplyDelete
  40. If anyone's gonna be given the barbed wire broomstick it should be Janet...for that atrocious hair cut.

    Does she go to a barber for crying out loud?

    ReplyDelete
  41. And just to be clear: By "newly-minted graduates" I mean graduates of The School, not newly-minted college graduates.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Dodd
    Amazing how bright that New England Sun is in December.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I realize it's the wee hours of a weeknight but, man, you people are a dull bunch at the moment.

    I cracked open a perfectly good beer and pack of cigarettes and what do I get?

    Crickets.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Ummm,wasn’t that just finger pointing or does the Intelligence service not count?

    Jan 05, 2010
    It’s always someone else acting stupidly or a screwing up. For someone who will not tolerate “finger pointing” Obama certainly does a lot of it.


    I think the “Screw Up” was electing Numbnuts.


    Yeah, no finger pointing (identifying specifics), just a good ol’ generic `this was a screw up’. That makes it soundon a par with somebody booking the wrong room at a Waikiki resort for him.


    Obama, you’ve failed on your primary responsibility to the American people. Now will you kindly please GTFO.

    HE won’t tolerate any finger pointing…ha HA! I must laugh. I am quite sure he has done little else since his election over a year ago. ‘Bush’s fault…Bush’s war…Bush’s economy’…uh uh, pal. As the players say – IT’S ALL YOU.

    Jan 05, 2010
    Obama is hardly the intellectual his knee-pad fans claim.

    What do you expect from our CIA, FBI, Military, and the rest of our law enforcement community when you denigrate them collectively and personally over and over again….

    Mr. President……it is YOU who is acting STUPIDLY to think they got YOUR BACK when YOU do not HAVE THEIR BACK.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Just call me Jimminy.
    What's the beer?

    ReplyDelete
  46. I had my choice of Guiness, S.N. Pale Ale, or Club Colombia. I went with the Club.

    There's also 2/3 bottle of something white on the kitchen counter and maybe three remaining bottles of not particularly desirable booze in the bar.

    Beer it is.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Does she go to a barber for crying out loud,?

    Butch cut.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  48. And a clear, calm, cool-but-not-cold night on the terrace to go with it.

    Life could certainly be worse.

    ReplyDelete
  49. I love the smell of butch wax in the morning...and Brylcreme.

    ReplyDelete
  50. "I think it was said she had 12 yrs experience with AQ. "
    ---
    What does that mean?

    ReplyDelete
  51. There's compensation.

    Baldness is a sign of virility.

    ReplyDelete
  52. So you're a Sierra Pale Ale Fan too?

    ReplyDelete
  53. Big southern fried chicken outfit in this neck o' the woods: AQ Chicken.

    Autographed photo of Willy in the entrance foyer.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  54. Sierra Pale Ale...tastes like piss.

    I've taken a liking to the Flat Tire outfit's Belgium beers.

    And, they're brewed with wind power, so I get my ration of smug with my brew.

    ReplyDelete
  55. I once covered my fish with Brycream in the mess hall and ate it.
    ...that was the Dorm Mess Hall.
    My Dorm was all Jocks (except me) and they all decided to shave each other's heads.

    Guess I must have been compensating for that with the Brylcream Covered Fish.

    ReplyDelete
  56. I expect she's been ordered to lay low for awhile and have the Dept. spokespersons running cover with the media.

    She appears in interviews to be painfully, wincingly out of her depth.

    Which is why God created spokespersons. To lay on the charm, run interference, and smooth things over until your eventual shit-canning.

    Some are better than others, of course.

    Gibbs comes immediately to mind as a not particularly gifted one.

    Tony Snow was probably the best and Rumsfeld's person - what was her name? - was really good.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Rufus and I tend toward the Joe Six Pack style.

    ReplyDelete
  58. "I think it was said she had 12 yrs experience with AQ. "
    ---
    What does that mean?

    ReplyDelete
  59. Working for the agency on AQ?

    ReplyDelete
  60. My husband likes the Sierra Pale Ale.

    I've gotten away from ales over the past few years because I find them just too heavy when I'm in a beer-drinking frame of mind. I want something light, crisp.


    12 yrs. experience with AQ - what does that mean?

    My guess is she was an analyst or maybe even a planner with a different Directorate or organization until very, very recently.

    Like I said, there's just no way she'd been doing casework all that time. No way. The mistakes were too sadly obvious.

    And if those working with her had more experience, it failed to materialize.
    By all rights, there should have been a mutiny on the part of anyone with more sense. Even a last minute one would have done the trick.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Yeah, it's gotta be hell for the surviving family members.



    And even if this was her first swing at clandestine work - or let's be generous and say maybe the first swing in that part of the world - she clearly didn't "get it" to begin with. But who was the bozo in Kabul who agreed to fly out for this rather than raise holy hell over it?

    The more I think about it, the more depressing it gets.

    ReplyDelete
  62. Therefor I will not think about it.


    "...I get my ration of smug with my brew."

    And rufus will be so pleased!

    ReplyDelete
  63. But that entire operation now is gone. Shit the bed, the whole of it.

    The slack is going to have to be picked up elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Interesting insights, Trish.

    Apologies for my usual inane intrusions into the thread.

    You might like Blue Paddle Pilsener Lager by the brewers of Fat Tire, New Belgium Brewing, Ft Collins, Colorado. From the label: ...explores the boundaries where American lagers seldom journey. Reflective of Europe's finest Pilseners.

    Label also says ...is only shipped within our western territory, so you might be SOL along the Atlantic seaboard.

    My son got me started drinking Fat Tire.

    .
    .

    ReplyDelete
  65. Okay. Speaking of bed, I should be heading there. I unfortunately have to wake up to actually do something. Life sucks that way on occasion.

    I trust that whoever's left will stay on top of things in the EB sit room.

    ReplyDelete
  66. There's a great pub not far from my parents', in a Pittsburgh suburb and nondescript commercial strip, that specializes in Belgian brews and even has quite a few on tap. Pleasant atmosphere, decent grub.

    Whoulda thunk it would fly in western PA but it's been a hit since its opening a few years ago.

    I still enjoy the occasional Belgian beer - brings back happy memories of a somewhat miserable tour. And it IS good stuff.

    You Germans...you're sorry second-raters and we know it now!

    Anyway...

    ReplyDelete
  67. Michael Yon was arrested and handcuffed at SeaTac cuz he refused to answer the TSA dickhead's question as to his yearly income!

    ReplyDelete
  68. That's good for a donation to his tin cup.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Yon Detained, Handcuffed

    In January of 2009, Yon’s article “Border Bullies” detailed a Homeland Security officer coercing a friend to give up her e-mail password so that he could read private email correspondences between her and Yon.

    Regarding the incident in Seattle, Yon was adamant the TSA agents had overstepped their bounds: “If I am the guy on that passport and I don’t have any contraband in my luggage, it is a matter for the FBI, not the TSA.”

    “TSA people are out of control,” he said. “They are not doing their jobs, they are harassing people, creating animosity. They ask you ‘what time is your connective flight?’ and they bully you until you miss the flight.”

    ReplyDelete
  70. What's in a name?

    O there can be magic in a name

    The syllables flowing o so fine

    Like a river running

    Out here in the west

    Moving so clear and true

    Moving towards the coast

    Moving through the pine and forest

    Moving through the dunes and cactus

    Moving through the monstrous cities

    Comning to rest finally

    In the wide waters of all that is

    And if you don't think that is good,

    why, fuck you

    ReplyDelete
  71. I have fallen
    O don't you see
    For a woman
    Whose name I barely know

    And I much don't care
    The basics
    Is between
    She
    And me

    The wind moves as it will
    She teaches me
    To be still

    She teaches me
    What to do
    Good teacher she is

    She teaches me
    As the wind rises
    Not to be still

    ReplyDelete
  72. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  73. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fate of healthcare reform lies in the hands of the U.S. Congress, but the White House will use every weapon it has to steer its top policy priority through the legislature and into law.

    Healthcare Reform

    President Barack Obama and aides will make the public case for reform in speeches, interviews and blog posts in the weeks ahead.

    "I'll be rolling up my sleeves and spending some time before the full Congress even gets into session, because the American people need it now," Obama said in an interview with PBS' "Newshour" that aired on December 23.

    ---

    ...because the American people need it now,"
    Obama said

    He knows better than we know what we need.
    Bastard SOB

    ReplyDelete
  74. LT: Deuce's avatar (hate that word since the movie came out) has reappeared as mysteriously as it disappeared...along with a little status line warning "Contains unauthenticated content."

    It's part of the new Fairness Doctrine. Blogs and websites must present a fair and balanced viewpoint, with accurate and truthful information as defined by the Left. If they fail to do so, their certificate is pulled and the page will fail to render properly.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Doug: Michael Yon was arrested and handcuffed at SeaTac cuz he refused to answer the TSA dickhead's question as to his yearly income!

    Figure out what you want, Miranda Rights or No Underwear Bombers, and get back to me.

    "People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both." -- Ben Franklin, paraphrased.

    ReplyDelete
  76. Lifeof's partial defense of our new police state:

    91. Lifeofthemind:

    It is not computing for me why TSA would be asking Michael Yon these questions. Are we sure it wasn’t CBP? The fact that he said the Port Authority police intervened argues for TSA, who are not LEOs and depend on the local authorities for support. TSA inspect you going out and CBP inspects you coming in. Unless Yon had to be rescreened when changing planes why would an arriving passenger need to go through TSA? So who actually handcuffed Yon? CBP of course are Federal LEOs and turn people over to ICE. It is possible for me to think of a scenario in which CBP is doing a smuggling investigation and ask about your income.

    Jan 6, 2010 - 5:33 am

    92. Doug:

    Lifeof,
    Please read the “Border Bullies” link above and see what they did to his Thai friend.
    …intimidation not visited upon her by dozens of other countries, including Communist China!

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