Fore!

Or, maybe:

Obama Condemns Terrorists: "Dudes, You're Totally in My Sight-Line While I'm Reading This Green... A Little Courtesy, eh?"

Is this fair? It's just as fair as the Michael Moore attack on Bush the media propagated sixty six bazillion times.

Posted by: Ace at 02:54 PM | Comments (301)
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Department of Justice, yannow.

He wasn't fired outright; just transferred due to "controversies" he caused. And frictions with the leadership of this unit, which apparently didn't like having the voter intimidation division investigating actual voter intimidation.

Good Lord. They don't even care. They don't even care.

I guess you can afford not to care when the media's biggest FAQ is "how might I better pleasure you, Master?"

Posted by: Ace at 02:15 PM | Comments (96)
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Bureaucrats. What would we do without them.

Thrive, I suppose.

This article is old, but the problem continues.

Basically, a high-level athlete was seeking a work visa for his specialized skills in training athletes. He was first accepted for a temporary visa, then later denied a renewal, based upon a strange and kinda-arbitrary decision by the INS that his expertise was too high-level for the position he sought.

In 2006 Anatolie applied for what should have been a routine renewal of his H1B working visa for another three-year term. While the maximum standard answer time is 180 days, he waited over 18 months—which included numerous letters of support, including several from Congressman Christopher Shays—to receive the shocking answer: denied. Reason given? “overqualified” for his job—in spite of being granted his initial H1B working visa for the exact same position 3 years previously. Anatolie immediately appealed the denial and was told he would receive an answer within a maximum of 10 months. 14 months later he received the final decision regarding his appeal: dismissed—with no explanation and no right to further appeal.

Bill Whittle earlier wrote of this case:

"The biggest losers in our inability to control illegal immigration are the legal immigrants. What benefit do these honest people gain from playing by the rules? This is as clear a real-world example as you are likely to see of the lack of retaliation flipping a system from cooperation to betrayal."

The system worked.

H/t to Adam Baldwin.

Posted by: Ace at 02:07 PM | Comments (43)
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A man apparently videotaped the whole flight, according to witnesses, and the attempted bombing, of course.

...They were sitting about 20 rows behind Abdulmutallab, in a center aisle with her husband and daughter a row ahead of her and their two new adopted children, a six-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy.

Her daughter said that ahead of them was a man who videotaped the entire flight, including the attempted detonation.

"He sat up and videotaped the entire thing, very calmly," said Patricia. "We do know that the FBI is looking for him intensely. Since then, we've heard nothing about it."

This of course could be just some harmless activity that appears sinister in retrospect.

If it's genuine, I wonder what Al Qaeda's idea is here. If the bombing were a success, the camera would probably have been destroyed, and even if it weren't, it would be found by US authorities who presumably would keep it a secret (so as not to spread panic).

Perhaps it's a back-up plan -- if the bombing fails, this guy can still probably get off the plane, and upload the video for the world's horror, thus completing the important terror step in terrorism, even minus the actual mayhem and death.

Or, of course, if it fails -- Al Qaeda has a record of how security responded to the man and thwarted him.

Joke's on them in that case, then: Security didn't respond to the man or thwart him.

Ha, ha.

Don't we all feel wonderful about that.

I suppose a last possibility is if this plane had Go-Go in-flight internet... maybe he was periodically streaming video to some server in Dubai or something.

Update: Three men involved in attempt? Huh.

This is Kurt Haskell, the same guy who claimed he saw an Indian man trying to talk security into letting Abdulmutallab on the plane without a passport; skip ahead to around 3:15 and listen to him explain how that wasn’t the only Indian (Pakistani?) man who figured into the day’s events and how the contraption taped to the bomber’s crotch might not have been the only explosives on board. Remember, according to yet another passenger, there was a third man on the plane who was “very calmly” videotaping the entire flight, including the moment when the passengers jumped the bomber. Sounds like he’s not the same guy as the mysterious Indian man described by Haskell, as the latter was supposedly arrested on the spot whereas the former was allegedly allowed to leave and is now being sought by the feds. How big of a cell was on this flight, exactly?

Allah lost me there; I think this guy was arrested, whereas the videotaping man was allowed to leave.

Video at Hot Air.

Posted by: Ace at 01:21 PM | Comments (98)
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If true, I'd say this is the nail in the coffin for Gitmo North.

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Art therapy? Is "performance art" going to be Secretary Napolitano's next word for terrorism?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:26 PM | Comments (212)
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Um, no, the "tea baggers" didn't want to be called anything, but seemed to prefer "Tea Partiers" to the extent they had a preference.

Some did send tea bags to Congressmen. That doesn't evince a desire to be called a "tea bagger," any more than a gay man is asking to be called a "butt pirate" if he happens to use piratical words like "outlaw."

Nor did, say, peace activists demand to be called "peace fairies" or anything like that. Sure, you can call them that. (The media won't.) You can call them such, but you can hardly claim as your defense, "B-b-but they insisted I call them that!"

Um, sure.

Ann Coulter has noted this again and again: Tea Partiers did not call themselves "tea baggers," but the liberal media kept insisting they did, to 1) justify their own use of the slur (which was entirely made up by themselves) and 2) to make them appear dumb and naive and unsophisticated.

It was never, ever true. They just repeat it endlessly to justify using a sort of homophobic slur about deviant sex. The sort of slur they would scream about were it applied to any of their favored ideological/identity-politics groups.

And as a lot of people have noted -- fine, okay, we're the "teabaggers;" so whom does that make the teabagees? 'Tis better to give a teabag than to receive one. Indeed, half of the appeal of the computer game HALO seems built upon this premise. The whole point of killing an opponent is to gang-teabag his body afterwards (light silly videogame teabagging warning).

Dip 'Em? Why yes, thank you for asking.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:09 PM | Comments (124)
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Credit where credit's due. Finally he's condemning the regime. A bit late to the party, but still, helpful.

"The regime's attempt to govern using fear and tyranny will not make the legitimate aspirations of Iran's people go away." Close paraphrase. He did use the Boltonesquely undiplomatic words "fear and tyranny."

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (176)
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Janet "man-caused disasters" Napolitano: Splitting atoms... with her mind.

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Napolitano then went on to announce a "comprehensive full-spectrum White Paper analysis" on the divisive, pressing issue of "What Color is an Orange?"

But you'll be happy to know that the State Department is on the case.

The State Department had two chances to deny this Al Qaeda terrorist a visa. It passed on both opportunities.

According to a law enforcement source, the first failure came on Nov. 19, 2009, the very same day Abdulmutallab father’s, Dr. Umaru Mutallab, a prominent banking official in Nigeria, expressed deep concern to officials at the U.S. Embassy in Abjua, Nigeria, that his 23-year-old son had fallen under the influence of “religious extremists” in Yemen.

The second failure to flag an active visa belonging to Abdulmuttalab occurred the very next day in Washington, after MutallabÂ’s concerns were forwarded to officials there. It was only after the Christmas Day terror attack in Detroit that U.S. officials learned that Abdulmuttalab had been issued a visa by the U.S. Embassy in London valid from June 16, 2008, through June 12, 2010.

This is the Major Hassan problem all over again. What is the real rule for handling potential terrorists? Is it "act aggressively and decisively to protect American citizens, and worry about the consequences of being wrong later?"

No. That is the horseshit they tell you is the real rule for PR purposes. The real rule is Make no waves; make sure no one can ever accuse you of anti-Muslim bias; it's better to have 100 people die in a plane detonation than for one innocent (well, not that innocent, either) man get his friggin' visa application revoked."

And just for fun, Abdulmutallab wants you to know that "more like me" are coming.

This is a dreadful circumstance. Al Qaeda has long had a fascination with big, spectacular, blow-your-mind attacks. The trouble is, they're really difficult to pull off.

What many have been worrying about -- me among them -- is the day they figure out that big spectacular attacks are too difficult, and it's far easier to just do a series of small attacks. Blowing up one plane. Walking into one mall and opening fire.

Napolitano had better realize that she can't rely on terrorist incompetence to save us forever or else her own gross incompetence will soon have a bodycount starting in the dozens and perhaps even the hundreds.

Posted by: Ace at 11:20 AM | Comments (101)
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Catching up...

At least four people were reported dead today after Iranian security forces opened fire on opposition protesters who took to the streets in Tehran for a religious ceremony.

The shootings took place as tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered in the capital for the Shia Ashura ceremonies and to voice anger at the government.

The reformist website Rah-e Sabz reported that an elderly man was among the dead after being shot in the forehead at a crossroads in Tehran city centre. Three others were said to have been shot nearby at Kalej bridge, in Enghelab Street. Rah-e Sabz, citing witnesses, said crowds held up the elderly man and started chanting slogans against Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Videos at My Pet Jawa, including graphic ones. Let me steal one of them, from Gateway Pundit, that seems pretty important to me.

This is sort of tough to watch, but it seems to me pretty major -- and it has a happy ending. Apparently two men were being hanged by the regime. Protesters stormed the makeshift gallows and rescued them.

Seems so amazing it could almost be a faked propaganda video. It's like a Robin Hood rallying cry. Nothing emboldens the opposition like tales of the opposition kicking the oppressors' asses.

The toll of the dead is now up to 15.

At least 15 people were killed during massive anti-government protests in Tehran when opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the streets, Iranian state television reported Monday.

The report said 10 people killed during Sunday’s fierce clashes in the Iranian capital were members of “anti-revolutionary terrorist” groups, apparently referring to opposition supporters.

The other five who died were killed by “terrorist groups” in a “suspicious act,” the report said, without elaborating.

Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices on Monday, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the countryÂ’s reformist movement, opposition Web sites and activists reported.

Ed adds a great bit at the end, noting Obama's meaningless promise about supporting democracy and human rights, and also noting the BBC's twisted priorities. For the BBC, the big question is...

"What will bring calm to the violence in Iran?”

Well, for one thing, the regime could stop murdering people in the streets, eh?

The BBC just seems the regime to want to continue, doesn't it? It just wants "calm." Like the two parties are squabbling lovers, both equally at fault, and the only thing that's really important is that they put aside their petty sniping and just kiss and make up.

My Pet Jawa has another good find -- the regime is now simply stealing the bodies of those it murders from hospital morgues, to insure, I guess, they get no martyr's funeral, and maybe to keep the verified numbers of their victims as low as possible.

The regime sure seems to be cracking down harder. Which is not necessarily a good thing, as far as their personal interests go.

Update: The two men rescued from the gallows were later recaptured and then hanged.

I think that only takes away from the power of this video a bit.

Thanks to Herr Morgenholtz for that.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:35 AM | Comments (193)
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Ha, ha, ha. Tools.

In unrelated climate news -- Calcutta India is having (for them) brutally cold weather). Was AlGore or Ogabe in India recently?

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:41 AM | Comments (147)
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