Just noting this, in case you've read about it: A bag caused some commotion when it emitted a popping noise when it hit the ground. And then smoke.

Smoke was seen coming from the luggage shortly after it was unloaded off a jet around 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Houston Airport System. The jet had just landed at the airport from Amsterdam.

Ground crews said they noticed something strange about a blue suitcase and were working to remove it when they heard a "pop" and smoke came pouring from it, according to an airport spokeswoman.

But:

It appears that it wasn't an explosive. A spokeswoman says it's "non-event," which signals to me it was non-sinister.

Enoxo, who tipped me, says they think it was an aerosol can that ruptured.

No one was harmed. I expect this will turn out to be nothing. Just the typical jitters and alarms after a bona-fide terrorist attempt.

Posted by: Ace at 12:53 PM | Comments (61)
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A short interview. Here are a few questions and answers from the end of it.

NEWSMAX: So how do you classify yourself politically?

MILLER: IÂ’m a Republican conservative. I am an objectivist. I do believe Ayn Rand rings true. I am not the more strident type, so I canÂ’t go all the way with it. But I do believe in accountability in the universe.

NEWSMAX: So you’re a Republican conservative, small “l” libertarian. Would that be correct?

MILLER: I hear libertarian thrown around a lot. I am registered as a Republican. As far as defense of the country and fiscal stuff, IÂ’m conservative. And IÂ’m socially liberal.

NEWSMAX: Are you a tea partyer?

MILLER: Yes, I would go in a second. I like the tea party people; I admire them. Yes, you can put me down for that. I like the fact that it stays small. Those big marches peter out the next day. I like the fact the tea party happens in peopleÂ’s drawing rooms.

NEWSMAX: YouÂ’ve denied it before, but your name often comes up as a potential public servant.

MILLER: You know what? As much as I would love to get at a podium opposite Barbara Boxer, and believe me, I have dreams about that, I am just not cut out for it. It’s the glacial aspect of it. It moves so slowly. I would get kicked out. I would just step up to the mic when they gave me my two minutes and say, “This is bull****.” We have got to make sure that these kids come back from war and they never pay another tax. Forget giving $60 million to ACORN; give it to the troops. I would just be so off the reservation that they’d probably kick me out.

Posted by: Ace at 11:56 AM | Comments (153)
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Don't worry too much -- Rubio crawled his way up from a far worse deficit before.

And half of that was just name recognition -- Crist had all of it, Rubio little. Now, Rubio got his name recognition going in the hotly contested Republican primary, but there are a fair number of Floridians who haven't engaged with Rubio yet. Everyone knows Crist, but not everyone knows Rubes. Yet.

Plus -- this is probably just mostly an announcement bounce:

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Florida Voters finds Crist earning 38% support to Republican Marco RubioÂ’s 34% and Democrat Kendrick MeekÂ’s 17%. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.

Two weeks ago, before Crist announced his decision to run as an independent candidate, Rubio held a seven point advantage in the race.

Since then, Crist has gained eight ( percentage points in the poll while Rubio and Meek have each dropped three (3) points. It remains to be seen if this is a temporary bounce or a lasting change in the race.

One problem here, though, is that as of yet, Crist appears to be a viable candidate -- and if he's viable, his support goes way up. That is, he garners not just the people who strongly prefer him, but those who weakly prefer him.

If he looks like a loser -- if a vote cast for Crist looks like a wasted vote -- he immediately sheds all those weak-preference voters, who move on to their second choice, and a fair number of the strong-preference voters, too.

Plus, if he makes Meeks the non-viable candidate, than most of Meeks' supporters desert him for Crist, for the same don't-want-to-waste-a-vote reason.

38% is Crist's high-water mark. His final number will be lower. If he starts to slip at all, it will end up being a lot lower.

Posted by: Ace at 11:49 AM | Comments (34)
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Five billion, all told, which is "a rounding error" in the GM bailout.

But this isn't about costs, of course. It's about identity politics. The Democrats want to pretend there's border enforcement going on to appease Whitey (or minorities who think like Whitey, of course) while actually not doing much enforcement, or engaging in ineffectual-by-design enforcement (virtual fences for everyone!), to curry favor with Hispanics. (Good Hispanics, I mean, real Hispanics, not Hispanics who think like Whitey.)

Republicans are wishy-washy on the issue, too, of course, because they fear backlash from Real Hispanics. (The ones who don't think like Whitey.)

They need to get over that. You can never beat Democrats in a bidding war like this -- if Republicans cave and say "half-hearted enforcement," Democrats trump that with "even less enforcement." If Republicans propose amnestying 1,000,000 illegals a year, Democrats trump that with 2,000,000.

Democrats can go as high as they like with such numbers, since most of the caucus in in favor of it (except for blacks, who on this issue, think like Whitey, but the Democrats have never been notorious for really caring what blacks think), and have no countervailing pressure to hold back on buying new votes.

Plus, you know, I kind of giggle when I hear Republicans talking about winning the Hispanic vote, and how conservative immigrant Hispanics are. On what? Religion? Fine, and on everything else, they're liberal -- they come, after all, from socialist countries, and even if they find those countries deficient (as they seem to), they're inculcated with the belief that the government exists to provide cradle-to-grave benefits. Even a more "conservative" immigrant from Mexico or South America is going to have an economic politics to the left of the average American.

Beyond that, there's the fact that George W. Bush -- the guy who did so very, very well with Hispanics -- got a mere 40% of the Hispanic vote. Which means that even our best guy with Hispanics ever looses 200,000 net votes for every million Hispanic voters.

It's unclear how many such "victories" we can endure before being obliterated as a party and as a movement.

It's worse than that, of course, because most of Bush's 40% came from non--recent-immigrants, that is, Hispanics who were assimilated Americans.

I don't know what the voter splits on recent immigrant Hispanics are -- I'd bet we don't come close to a 40/60 split, though. I'm guessing 25/75 at best.

So for every new 1,000,000 recent immigrant Hispanic voters, we lose net 500,000 votes.

And some in the GOP have this terrific idea where we amnesty 20 million.

Great. That will cost us only 10 million net votes.

And no, even if the GOP is pro-amnesty, it won't change that fact. Because if we propose amnesty for 20 million, they propose amnesty for 30 million plus.

No matter what we say do, we come out of this the "anti-immigrant party."

It's time to bite the bullet and accept that choices come with consequences. The GOP needs to choose and stop playing it both ways.

Posted by: Ace at 11:19 AM | Comments (136)
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May the Fourth be with you!

And, if my calendar is to be believed, tomorrow will feature the Return of the Fifth.

But that's in the future. And, like any good conservative blogger, I want to talk about the past.

Specifically, yesterday.

If you knew me, and you don't, you would know two things about me: I hate the Phillies and I love Tazers.

So what happens when I get to combine the two subjects? YouTube heaven.

The force was strong with that police officer. I haven't seen a padawan go down that fast since Nathan Lane auditioned for the part of "Hand Solo" in the off-off-Broadway adaptation.

(Don't you wish you were one of my twitter followers now? This is the kind of primo stuff you are missing.)

Posted by: Jack M. at 09:58 AM | Comments (270)
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Our favorite MSNBC News whore is back at it.

I mean the thing is that- and I get frustrated and there was part of me that was hoping this was not going to be anybody with ties to any kind of Islamic country because there are a lot of people who want to use this terrorist intent to justify writing off people who believe in a certain way or come from certain countries or whose skin color is a certain way. I mean they use it as justification for really outdated bigotry.

Yes, we need to get past the outdated bigotry of thinking, "My God, what have they (some Muslim) blown up now?" and move on to the new and approved bigotry of attacking people who have the temerity to not fall in line with Obama's political agenda.

Won't some racist teabager please step up and kill someone so Contessa won't be so frustrated?

Meanwhile, fresh from betting that the Times Square bomber was opposed to health care reform, Mike Bloomberg is warning people not take out their frustrations on Muslims.

Liberals have spent the last 8 years far more outraged about these mythical backlashes than the actual terrorist attacks.

Added: If you follow the link you'll see Brewer was very concerned about not prejudging the outcome of the Times Square case. Contrast that with her language abut the Michagan militia case.

And so there was part of me was really hoping this would not be the case that here would be somebody who is not the defined. I mean heÂ’s accused, heÂ’s arrested you know I donÂ’t want to convict him before itÂ’s time to do so. HeÂ’s the guy authorities say is involved. But that being said, I mean, we know even in recent history you have the Hutaree militia from Michigan who have plans to, letÂ’s face it, create terror. ThatÂ’s what they were planning to do and they were doing so from far different backgrounds than what this guy is coming from.

Notice, the militia suspects definitely had plans to "create terror". Shahzad? He's just a "guy authorities say is involved" and we have to be careful not to prejudge him.

Funny thing, Brewer the Whore apparently didn't realize the government case against the militia members took a bit of a hit.

Nine members of a Michigan militia will be released from jail pending trial after a federal judge on Monday harshly criticized the government's claim they had conspired to overthrow the U.S. government.

The decision is a significant defeat for federal authorities, who spoke in tough and triumphant terms after arresting members of a southern Michigan group called the Hutaree in March and charging them with conspiracy to commit sedition and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.

..Observers cautioned that U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade and her team should be worried about Roberts' assessment of their case, rather than her decision to release the defendants pending trial.

"The feds are in big trouble," said Lloyd Meyer of Chicago, a former terrorism prosecutor who won decades-long prison sentences against violent militia members in western and northern Michigan. "If they can't persuade the judge by clear and convincing evidence that the defendants are dangerous, how can they convince 12 jurors beyond a reasonable doubt? Her ruling looks like the feds are prosecuting U.S. citizens for jibber-jabber."

Thanks to Gabe for the militia story.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:34 AM | Comments (237)
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UPDATE: There are statewide primaries underway TODAY, May 4th, in North Carolina, Indiana, and Ohio. If you are in one of those states, get your intolerant, hobo-beating ass to the polls.

Please call your fellow teabagging racists to make sure they do the same. Original post follows.
----------------------------------

There's a modest load of Special Elections in May.

Don't be caught flat-footed if you are in any of these districts. Democrats' best weapon, as always, is ignorance. This cycle especially. They are cottoning on to popular sentiment and do NOT want publicity for these smaller races.

Don't let them win just because nobody knows there is an election that day. Make sure people know.

GET OUT THE VOTE IN YOUR AREA.

* Texas Senate District 22 - (May 8, 2010)
* Texas House District 100 - (May 8, 2010)
* Georgia House District 12 - (May 11, 2010)
* Georgia Senate District 49 - (May 11, 2010)
* Massachusetts Senate Middlesex, Suffolk, Essex - (May 11, 2010)
* Massachusetts Senate Norfolk, Bristol, Middlesex (May 11, 2010)
* Pennsylvania House District 20 - (May 18, 2010)
* Pennsylvania House District 138 - (May 18, 2010)
* Pennsylvania House District 147 - (May 18, 2010)

BOOYAH.

Posted by: LauraW at 08:56 AM | Comments (67)
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I love this guy. Like a viking.

Once again showing that he means to shake up Trenton, Gov. Christopher J. Christie declined on Monday to reappoint a sitting justice to the New Jersey Supreme Court, instead appointing someone who he said would show the restraint that was missing from the court.

The justice, John E. Wallace Jr., became the first one to seek reappointment and be refused by a New Jersey governor since the current State Constitution was adopted 63 years ago.

Justice WallaceÂ’s departure also means that for the first time in 16 years, the court will not have a black justice. If confirmed by the State Senate, Mr. ChristieÂ’s appointment of Anne M. Patterson, a Morris County lawyer, will give the court its first female majority.

Speaking to reporters in Trenton, Mr. Christie had only kind words for Justice Wallace, but he described the historically liberal court as “out of control” over the last three decades, usurping the roles of the governor and the Legislature in setting social and tax policies.

Christie just isn't playing by the rules the Democrats have set up to rig the game for so long. He's the man on the line and he's going to use all the tools in his kit to change things. "But this is the way we've always done it" simply isn't going to fly anymore. And not reappointing the only black judge? Clearly he's not afraid of the diversity bullies anymore than he is of the unions.

During Christie's term, 5 of the 7 members of the court will come up for appointment.

Things are going to change in NJ.

Posted by: DrewM at 07:43 AM | Comments (197)
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We can't keep counting on the incompetence of terrorists but first we have a bit of work to do on our own end.

(Faisal) Shahzad, who had been the subject of a huge manhunt, almost made it out of the country on a Emirates flight to Dubai, with a planned connection onward to Pakistan, according to the officials.

"He appeared real close to getting away," one federal official said. "The plane was buttoned up. Backed away from the jetway."

Authorities said that despite the manhunt, his passport had not been flagged and he was able to buy a ticket with cash and clear airport security.

FBI agents discovered Shahzad's car parked in a short-term lot at JFK airport Monday evening and searched for his name on airline passenger manifests.

The flight had begun to taxi for takeoff when FBI agents ordered it to return to the gate where Shahzad and two others were taken into custody. The other two were later released, authorities said.

Now it wasn't really quite that close. If they had been a few minutes later they could have ordered the plane to return, land somewhere else or worst case scenario, arrested him in Dubai or when he got off the plane in Pakistan.

Still, questions need to be asked about how a wanted terrorist manage to buy a ticket, presumably a one way ticket to Pakistan and still get on a plane. Did the NYPD/FBI not ask State/TSA to flag it? Or did the breakdown occur in the implementation?

8+ years after 9/11 and we're still treating old ladies at airports like they are prison drug mules but this can happen?

The system is not working.

Via Jake Tapper.

Added: Mayor Bloomberg emails to say, "We are investigating reports this individual was heading to Pakistan, not to escape law enforcement but because he can't stand living in the US now that health care reform has been signed into law".

Posted by: DrewM at 06:27 AM | Comments (230)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:02 AM | Comments (169)
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