Imagine the hand-wringing and teeth gnashing that must be going on in newsrooms throughout the country as the Obama Administration continues to lurch and stumble through its first term. Editors and producers must be pulling hair out by the roots as they watch the incredible incompetence of the incumbent executive branch and the breathtaking corruption of the Congress, while they remain powerless to do anything about it.

They could be reporting on the incompetence and corruption if they were not wholly handcuffed by their fealty to the historic president and the liberal Congress. Think of all the potential Pulitzer Prizes they have allowed to circle the drain as they hold fast to their rigid support of the Hope and Change Administration.

They could be reporting stories about the incompetence of President Obama to run a war, as they did with such joy with George W. Bush. They might even find fault with Mr Obama for his apparent total failure to manage the American economy, as they did with Mr. Bush, despite tax cuts that added 7 million jobs to a booming economy (largely unreported by the press). They could have addressed the real reason for the economic collapse last year: the mindless lending of money to people who could never hope to repay it, sponsored by the likes of Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT).

They might want to peek into the workings of Hilary Clinton’s State Department to determine how avowed Islamic radicals like the Christmas Skivvy Bomber are granted entry visas to the United States. Even more fun could be had by the denizens of the press if they took two seconds to examine the incredible corruption of the Reid-Pelosi congress, who are busy ramming a Health Care takeover through congress with the help of hundreds of billions dollars of bribes despite the overwhelming opposition of the American people.

Alas, the loyal leftists and socialists in the American press are simply unable to wade into the plethora of potential Pulitzer Prizes and do their jobs: reporting the facts to the American people. They are so beholden to the radical leftists in the Obama Administration and the Reid-Pelosi Congress that they continue to turn their backs on that Prize, for which journalist used to strive for their entire careers.

Editors nationwide must be pining for the good old days when a Republican administration was in town and would allow them to do their jobs. They might be able to report that the administration was dropping the ball on protecting the nation from terrorist attack. They could be reporting on the hopelessly inept dealings of the Obama Administration with the Iranian Theocracy, that is about to introduce nuclear weapons to Middle East.

Maybe the New York Times and the Washington Post will endorse the Republican candidate in 2012, so they can get back to work.

TSA is on the Job!

The recent terrorist attempt to destroy Northwest Airlines Flight 253, enroute from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day has caused expected spasms in the airport security practices at U.S. airports.

Headlines have announced that passengers will now face “tightened security” when preparing to board flights. Hmmm, I thought that’s the kind of security we have been facing since the 9/11 attacks? Newspapers are reporting that passengers should now report up to four hours prior to a flight; they should expect to be patted down by security personnel, who already X-Ray shoes and confiscate water bottles.

The fact is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has focused on removing objects from airplanes rather than removing potential hijackers and suicide bombers. It is analogous to stopping gun violence by banning guns instead of jailing criminals who use guns.

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby hit the nail on the head in his August 23, 2006 column when he compared the U.S. version of airport security and real airport security as practiced by Israel. (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/23/what_israeli_security_could_teach_us/)

In the United States, we concentrate on removing bottled water and nail clippers from elderly ladies. In Israel, trained security personnel actively monitor the behavior of passengers, looking for actions that may be out of the ordinary. They look for furtive behavior or facial expressions that may betray hostile intent, or clothing that may conceal a weapon. Then, each passenger is personally interviewed by a security officer, who engages the passenger in a protracted conversation intended to reveal nefarious intent. The interviewers are called what they are: profilers. They operate on the certain knowledge that while all muslims are not terrorists, virtually all terrorists are muslim, and they focus their efforts accordingly.

Their efforts have apparently paid off handsomely for Israel. No El Al airliner has been hijacked for more than thirty years and no airliner has ever been hijacked from Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.

So, could we not institute the same, effective method of implementing airport security in the United States? No, we could not for two distinct reasons:

1. We have fallen victim to the straw dog of Political Correctness, which prevents us from profiling Arab or Muslim men.
2. We would need to hire a professional, well-educated, well-trained, and well-paid airport security force capable of professionally profiling all airport passengers.

We are capable of doing neither. Firstly, political correctness has gripped us so tightly that the press and the Obama Administration spent ridiculous amounts of time and ink to attribute the Fort Hood Massacre to anything other than radical Islamic jihad. Secondly, we have chosen to recruit TSA personnel from the barely educated, minimum wage earning group who are barely capable of confiscating water bottles from old ladies.

The current TSA is staffed by personnel like those in Philadelphia who recently required a U.S. Marine Corps honor guard, in dress blue uniforms and with orders in hand, who were escorting the remains of a Marine killed in action home to his family to submit to an intrusive search. To staff each airport with personnel trained and qualified to profile passengers legally would require many more highly paid employees than the TSA currently employs. It might mean that the TSA would have to release some of the highly compensated executive staff to make room for them. It would mean that actual, proven security techniques were being employed rather than the minimum wage window dressing we currently enjoy.

And we could make their jobs a little easier by pre-screening passengers. In effect, we could issue airport security clearances to people who are willing to submit to a background check to enhance airport security. That way, elderly women might be able to avoid the need to remove their shoes and hand in their water bottles.

But what would be done with the current employees of the TSA if we made the switch to trained, qualified profilers? No problem there. We will be needing lots of personnel to begin making medical decisions once made by doctors when the government takes over the health care system.

Prostitution Legalized in DC

A gang of thieves

As the Senate Health Care “Reform” legislation makes its halting way through a Senate choked with payoffs to compliant members, popular opposition to the measure continues to grow.

Yet, despite the vocal opposition of more than 60% of the American people, the Obama Administration, with congressional assistance from the Reid-Pelosi cabal, continue to push for the health care takeover. Senate Majority Leader Harry (D-NV), told reporters after a recent vote in the small hours of the morning that once the people knew the provisions of the bill, they would support it.

Huh? Did I hear the Senate Majority Leader say that he is pushing a one trillion dollar takeover of the U.S. health care industry, and the details of the bill are unknown to the people?

How could it be that the details of the bill remain unknown? In fact, the details of the bill are unknown to many of the democrat senators who will vote for it, let alone the republican senators or anyone else. How can this be true?

Do we not have a vigorous and curious adversary press, eager to find the steamy details of every bill appropriating the people’s money? Do we not have a dauntless press digging into every story to reveal the truth, to shine the light of day on the workings of government? Do we not have a press corps working diligently to scrub corruption and privilege from the workings of congress? Do we not have a press corps working tirelessly to claim the next breaking front page story or to win the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism?

Regrettably, the answer is decidedly NO! What we have is a compliant press corps, reduced to cheer leading the Obama Administration and passing over any details that may cause a blemish on the historic president. Instead of a vigorous watch dog press corps, we have a lapdog press corps content to roll over on its back and beg for crumbs. As an institution, the American press is guilty of gross, near-criminal dereliction of its duty to the people. Because it is the people to whom the press has a duty. It is not their duty to prop up the presidency of Barak Obama as an arm of the state-sponsored propaganda industry. It is their duty to reveal the truth to the people of the republic.

How else could the president make such definitive claims about a health care “reform” bill, about which no details have been made public? How can he claim definitively that there are no provision to fund abortions with taxpayer funds, that people who are satisfied with their health care plans can keep them, that the “reform” is deficit neutral? (What government plan to do anything has ever been deficit neutral?)

What would have been the response of the lapdogs if George Bush had attempted such a blatant power grab?

Reid to American people: Merry Christmas

Senate majority leader Harry Reid, (D-NV) had a special Christmas greeting for the American people, after ramming a test vote on the Senate’s Health Care Bill through that body in the early hours of Monday morning.

Reid, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans who reject the Health Care takeover, claimed the American people would support the bill once they knew what is in it. Unfortunately, no one will find out about what is actually in the bill until long after the bill becomes law. Reid has thus far refused to make provisions of the bill public.

Speaking to reporters in defense of the bill after the Senate completed its work after one o’clock in the morning, Reid said,” One American dies from inadequate health insurance every ten seconds.”

Reid failed to mention why the proposed health care “reform” would not provide any health insurance to Americans until four years from now, in 2013. If the bill is so good, Harry, why not allow those hapless Americans to live? Why wait until after the next presidential election to allow us to enjoy the benefits?

Don’t worry Harry. You’ll be retired several years by then.

I have been struck by a certain pose, often used by the new president on the podium. Note the upthrust chin, indicating great confidence in his message. There is more there, however. It also demonstrates an air of superiority and an arrogance and condescension often seen in photographs of a politician of a previous age, one who also shared the current president’s penchant for government control of his nation’s economy.