December 31, 2009
Exclusive: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! (12/31/09)
The Editors
Whenever you think general incompetence by those who purport to serve by the consent of the governed can’t get any worse, think again:
“Obama Slams Security Breach” (Wall Street Journal, 12/30/09)
The U.S. had multiple pieces of information about alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, according to senior U.S. officials, including intelligence reports and communications intercepts suggesting a Nigerian was being prepped for a terror strike by al Qaeda operatives in Yemen.
The intercepts were collected piecemeal by the National Security Agency, which has been monitoring al Qaeda militants in that country, including former Guantanamo detainees believed to be leaders there.
In addition, the father of Mr. Abdulmutallab met with the Central Intelligence Agency at the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, Nov. 19, and told of his son's likely radicalization, U.S. officials say. That led to a broader gathering of agencies the next day, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department, in which the information was shared, a U.S. official said.
(read the entire article here)
This is a scandal. We had information about this man’s existence and intentions and yet nothing was done to stop him before he stepped on that plane? Where exactly do all of these agencies report? Who will accept responsibility for this shocking breach of security?
“The Dangers We Face” (JINSAReports, 12/29/09)
It was bad enough that United States agents failed to take seriously the visit by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father, a prominent banker, to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria to report his concerns about his own son's associates and behavior. It was bad enough that spokesmen for the U.S. government later said the father's concerns, "didn't rise above the level of noise." It was bad enough that after the attempt to blow an airliner out of the sky with more than 200 people aboard was thwarted only by the brave instinct of a passenger, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that all the security systems worked (a statement she was forced by public ridicule to recant). And it certainly was bad enough that the U.S. government moved first to its default position that Abdulmutallab was a lone actor, not a card-carrying member of a terrorist group.
And it was unfortunate that when President Obama finally made a public statement three days later, the best he could do was note that, "This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face" and "It's absolutely critical that we learn from this incident."
The danger we face is jihadist ideology which glorifies the killing of Americans and other Westerners, and what we should learn is that the "war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them" was not a figment of the previous administration's imagination.
(read entire article here)
Until we accept the truth – that jihadists are out there and bent upon destroying us and our society – nothing else we do will make a bit of difference. It won’t matter how many “extremists” we prosecute in our court system, and it certainly won’t matter how much we try to appease them with overtures of friendship. In fact, that’s exactly what’s feeding them: where we see compromise, they see weakness they can exploit. And they won’t stop until they either succeed or we forcefully stop them.
Which is it to be?
“Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank” (Bloomberg News, 12/30/09)
To close out 2009, I decided to do something I bet no member of Congress has done – actually read from cover to cover one of the pieces of sweeping legislation bouncing around Capitol Hill.
Hunkering down by the fire, I snuggled up with H.R. 4173, the financial-reform legislation passed earlier this month by the House of Representatives. The Senate has yet to pass its own reform plan. The baby of Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, the House bill is meant to address everything from too-big-to-fail banks to asleep-at-the-switch credit-ratings companies to the protection of consumers from greedy lenders.
I quickly discovered why members of Congress rarely read legislation like this. At 1,279 pages, the “Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act” is a real slog. And yes, I plowed through all those pages. (Memo to Chairman Frank: “ystem” at line 14, page 258 is missing the first “s”.)
The reading was especially painful since this reform sausage is stuffed with more gristle than meat. At least, that is, if you are a taxpayer hoping the bailout train is coming to a halt.
If you’re a banker, the bill is tastier. While banks opposed the legislation, they should cheer for its passage by the full Congress in the New Year: There are huge giveaways insuring the government will again rescue banks and Wall Street if the need arises.
Nuggets Gleaned
Here are some of the nuggets I gleaned from days spent reading Frank’s handiwork:
- For all its heft, the bill doesn’t once mention the words “too-big-to-fail,” the main issue confronting the financial system. Admitting you have a problem, as any 12-stepper knows, is the crucial first step toward recovery.
- Instead, it supports the biggest banks. It authorizes Federal Reserve banks to provide as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. So much for “no-more-bailouts” talk. That is more than twice what the Fed pumped into markets this time around. The size of the fund makes the bribes in the Senate’s health-care bill look minuscule.
- Oh, hold on, the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary can’t authorize these funds unless “there is at least a 99 percent likelihood that all funds and interest will be paid back.” Too bad the same models used to foresee the housing meltdown probably will be used to predict this likelihood as well.
Ever get the feeling that you’re one of those piggy banks that keeps getting shaken upside down until all of the loose change has been emptied out of you? And who will benefit? The Wall Street “fatcats” whom we’re told are a bunch of thieves and thugs. Why is it that, if they’re such a nasty bunch, that nearly $4 trillion (courtesy of you, the taxpayer) is being set aside to bail them out should they need it in future?
We sure wish Barney Frank had played Santa for our Christmas stockings.
Why are we even surprised at Mr. Barney's buffoonery behavior??? He should be tried and found guilty for treason along with many other "so-called" congressmen NOT working for the people that elected them but only for themselves......Where we need reform is in the term limits of these scoundrels in Washington who keep getting re-elected time and time again and further feather their nests with the spoils of our hard earned tax dollars and give-aways to buy votes...... What a SHAM our system has become.
posted by: PAULA
Thursday, December 31, 2009 at 02:34 PM
""This is a scandal. (The feral gummint) had information about ( knows al Qaeada is at war with our nation) and yet nothing is done to stop (illegal enemy combatants boarding America-bound aircraft). (Q1) Where exactly do all of these "agencies" report? (Q2) Who will accept responsibility for this shocking breach of security?""
(A1) To Jamie Gorelicker's Keep The Billy-Bubbah Blythes ("Cli'tons") and Company Out Of Prison "Wall.
(By cleft stick and slow runner the agencies send messages that the godless wall priests then stick in the cracks in the justifications and rationalizations for the execrable Gorelicker's Keep the Cli'tons Out Of Prison Wall.
(A2) Try pointing to where the responsibility lies. At the feet of the decades of un-and-anti-American activities of the hundreds of thousands of American-hating Socialist-International-subordinate "Democratic" potty-activist seat warmers who hate America and Liberty more than they hate our most barbaric enemy and who have so corrupted and politicized the feral gummint's every agency, department, bureau and "service" as to have rendered it useless to, in many instances, way way worse than useless to our nation's interests!
Brian Richard Allen
Lost Angels - Califobambicated 90028
And the Very Far Abroad
posted by: Brian Richard Allen
Friday, January 1, 2010 at 02:52 AM
