Napolitano Flip-Flop

KEEPING AMERICA SAFE?

On Sunday, in answering a question during a CNN interview about the terrorist traveling on a Northwest Airlines flight who failed in his attempt to detonate a bomb on the plane as it was landing in Detroit, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said:

".....And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action..."

After a day of being criticized for saying that the "system worked" when an admitted Al-Qaida trained bomber was able to board a flight to the US with explosive material embedded in his underwear and a syringe hidden in his pants with a chemical that would have ignited the home-made bomb, she did an about-face and said in interviews on Monday:

"... our system did not work in this instance. No one is happy or satisfied with that."

Fortunately for President Obama, he did not say at any time: "Heck of a job, Janet!"

All those who were so surprised by Napolitano's initial reaction that the system worked were just not familiar with the system as it is viewed by the Homeland Security Department. Passengers seem to be literally considered by Madam DHS and her department to be part of the "system", as noted on the Transportation Security Administration website which says: "You Play a Part" in transportation safety. See: http://www.tsa.gov/blog/

On December 26 (one day before she announced that the "system worked"), Napolitano's first press release regarding the terrorist's attempt to kill almost 300 innocent people on Christmas Day started with these words:

"I am grateful to the passengers and crew aboard Northwest Flight 253 who reacted quickly and heroically to an incident that could have had tragic results...."

Obviously, she thought the system worked because passengers, who are part of the system in her view, helped save the day! However, when more rational thinking people heard her statement and criticism poured forth, even by the mainstream news media, she changed her tune and said that the system failed, as everyone else recognized right away.

Now, as I noted in my post on Sunday, the inquiries of what went wrong have started. Fortunately, the President found time between trips to the gym and the golf course during his vacation in Hawaii to order quick internal investigations into the use of the various lists of suspicious characters that are compiled by the intelligence agencies and the National Counterterrorism Center. Obama wants to know why a young single man who paid cash for a one way ticket to Detroit from Amsterdam and was reported by his father to the US Embassy in Nigeria as having radical Islamic views did not get his name put on a list that would have alerted airport authorities to subject him to closer scrutiny before being allowed to board a flight to the US.

As I previously noted, the process for identifying those who should be put on watch lists involves a number of steps in the federal bureaucracy. The Washington Post published a graphic depiction of that process in today's edition: You can see it at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/12/29/GR2009122900017.html

Maybe the Washington Post can be of assistance to those charged by the President to analyze the systemic and human failures that allowed the Underwear Bomber to get on NW Flight 253 on Christmas Day. Sphere: Related Content

Evil Christmas Spirits

Instead of a spirit of goodwill toward men, Christmas 2009 turned out to exhibit the same murderous and terrorist acts of violence as occur throughout the world and the US on any other day of the year. On Christmas Eve in North Little Rock, Arkansas, a Salvation Army Major, who had served his community for many years to bring hope and joy to those in need, was shot to death by armed robbers in front of his three small children. On Christmas Day near Salisbury, Maryland, the body of an 11 year old girl was found three days after her abduction. A registered sex offender has been charged with the girl's kidnapping and is the focus of the investigation into her death.

Also on Christmas Day, a terrorist attempting to ignite an explosive device on a Northwest Airlines flight descending into Detroit was thwarted by passengers and alert flight attendants. Again, transportation safety agencies sprung into action after the fact to enhance screening procedures at airports around the world that are directed at the methods just used by the terrorist. Apparently, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) does not take seriously the slogan found on its own website (http://www.tsa.gov/blog/) that says:

"Terrorists Evolve. Threats Evolve. Security Must Stay Ahead."

The only way to stay safe on airlines is for the passengers to take seriously the TSA phrase that follows the words above on its site:

"You Play A Part."

The primary credit for preventing the attempted explosion on the Northwest Airlines flight reportedly goes to a quick acting Dutch passenger seated several seats from the Nigerian passenger attempting to ignite the explosive material fastened to his underwear. The explosive material used by this terrorist was the same material used by the "Shoe Bomber" on another Christmas flight from Europe in 2001, which was also stopped by quick-acting fellow passengers.

So while the government agents paid to protect airline passengers slow down the boarding process seemingly looking for weapons, bombs and other items that could cause havoc in the air, it is the passengers who appear to be the true wall of security when our government fails in its basic duty to protect the lives of people traveling on commercial aircraft.

Now the Congressional hearings and other Government investigations will begin again. Once again (just as it has been revealed in the case of the Fort Hood shooter) it has been reported that the accused Nigerian terrorist was reported to the US Government as a potential threat last month by his own father and was listed on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) database maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). However, someone in the government decided that he was not enough of a threat to list him on the "Watch List" or the "No Fly List", either of which would have required him to be selected for closer scrutiny before boarding a flight to the US in Amsterdam.

The NCTC appears to consider the TIDE list to be a list of nominees for the "Watch List" or the "No Fly List". NCTC continually reviews this list of nominees to determine whether to raise them to a higher status in the warning system of the US. This process of reviewing the TIDE list and how this list is used should receive special attention in the inquiries that will now take place.

Let's hope that airport screening becomes more effective after this new series of government inquiries....

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Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men!

Wouldn't it be nice if this seasonal proclamation of good cheer would be the guiding principle of all mankind all year long? If it were, we could get on airplanes a lot easier and quicker, it would be easier to walk into Government buildings throughout the US, it would even be easier to get into the Smithsonian Museums and those driving into the Washington, DC area on Interstate highways would not be greeted with overhead electronic signs that warn them "To Report Any Suspicious Activity". When friends from Kansas came to visit a few years ago (after 9/11, of course), they said they had never seen signs with that warning in the Midwest.

Through most of the 19th Century, ordinary citizens could walk into the White House (then called the Executive Mansion) and ask for an audience with the President. Now no one can even drive down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House since cement barriers have the street blocked. Even E Street that runs behind the White House south lawn is now blocked off to regular traffic.

In contrast to the fear and suspicion engendered by the heightened security around the world, we can all witness a spirit of goodwill among people of all nations during International Olympic Events. We saw the joy on the faces of the participants during the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics in Beijing last year. The Winter Olympics will soon start in Vancouver, and we will again witness people of all nationalities, ethnic groups, races, religions, customs and backgrounds of life experience joining together for competition on playing fields, ski slopes, ice rinks and other arenas for the thrill of the games, not on battlefields with weapons of all types used for the purpose of imposing dominance of one group over the lives of others.

But as we know, violence claims the lives of civilians, as well as combatants. Wars of the 21st Century are not limited to battlefields. Violence can strike any time and anywhere, as it did in NYC, DC and in a Pennsylvania field on 9/11/2001 and later in Madrid, London, Bali, Mumbai and repeatedly in marketplaces, hotels and other sites of civilian life throughout the Middle East. It can also strike neighborhoods and homes throughout the world for criminal or other irrational reasons.

While it may seem that we are living in very troubling times, let's continue to hope for a better world, celebrate the diversity of nature and mankind, find opportunities, as many do all year long, to improve the lives of others and try to live by the enduring wish of:

Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men!

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"Harry, Barry Christmas" Rush Also affects Senate Staffers and their Family Plans

The Washington Post today reported about the effect of the Christmas push for Health Care Reform legislation on "senators and hundreds of their health policy analysts, press secretaries and other aides -- not to mention the universe of police officers, clerks and student pages who keep the place humming -- wishing to be with their families" during the holidays, but who may be stuck in Washington instead. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/21/AR2009122103528.html?nav=hcmodule.

Now with predictions that bad winter weather could delay flights through airports in Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have agreed to a schedule that will allow the final votes of this session to be held Thursday morning rather than in the evening when it would be too late for many out-of-town Senate personnel affected by this marathon legislative push to get home for the holidays.

Finally, a bi-partisan move in the spirit of the season! It's too bad this type of cooperation can't be seen on matters of substance.

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The Grinch Who Stole Christmas from the US Senators

Just after midnight this morning, Harry Reid, US Senate Majority Leader, achieved a 60-40 vote strictly along party lines (including two Independent members of the Democratic Caucus) to keep the most recent version of the Senate Health Care Reform bill moving toward a projected Christmas Eve vote on passage of the bill. He kept the Senate in session all weekend during the worst December snowstorm on record in Washington, DC. He was even able to get 92 year old Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) through the frozen streets to the Senate Chamber at midnight.

During the Presidential campaign last year, candidate Barack Obama promised a "transparent" Administration that would seek bi-partisan Congressional action after pending legislation was posted on-line for at least 72 hours. Since the Health Care Reform bill is constantly changing as various deals are struck with Democratic Senators willing to compromise their values for Reid's agreement to provide more federal financial assistance to the voters of their states (see news about Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska for the last such deal), no bill to be voted on has remained the same for 72 hours, let alone be available to be read on-line for that long.

By the time the Senate received the latest endorsement from the American Medical Association today (which for some reason continues to support every variation of the bill), the AMA endorsement applied to the prior version of the bill! The version of the bill that the AMA recently supported may not have included the Manager's Amendment that Harry Reid sent to the Congressional Budget Office which deleted "provisions that would increase payment rates for physicians under Medicare", according to the CBO's analysis dated December 19, 2009.

Candidate Obama also promised that Americans would be able watch consideration of important issues on C-Span. Unfortunately, he failed to warn us that those debates and votes would be on C-Span live after midnight during Christmas week and on Christmas Eve when we would otherwise be gathering with friends and family for the holidays. Imagine how the families of the US Senators feel about old Grinch Reid and his White House team of enablers!

Why is there such a rush to push a major change in our health care system through the Senate before the holidays? Why not wait until next year and weigh more carefully the implications of the constantly evolving versions of the legislation? Could the rush to pass the bill be due to public polls that continue to show a constant decline in support for the reform being considered? If that is true, Harry the Grinch and the guys turning the screws at the White House are probably afraid Senators will be overwhelmed by negative feedback from their constituents when they are back home during the year-end recess.

Could the rush to pass legislation that will not implement insurance reforms until 2014 be related to increases in federal revenue provided in the bill through increased payroll taxes on high income taxpayers, new taxes on high premium insurance policies and cuts in Medicare funding that would go into effect more quickly? If so, that would mean that they are rushing to raise taxes and cut Medicare years before the widely praised health care reforms even become effective. With the goalposts of this ever-changing bill moving almost by the hour, it is difficult for ordinary citizens to know what is going on in the dead of night in the Capitol. Do the Senators really know?

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Czech President May Be the Only National Leader Who Really Understands the Objectives of the Climate Change Movement

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, who has written a book about the weaknesses in the theories regarding man-made causes for climate change and is thus regarded as a "skeptic", is concerned that the objective of the climate change movement is to tell people how to live their lives based on an "irrational ideology". He knows better than most world leaders of which he speaks. "I lived in a communist world where politicians told us what to do," he has said.

He is afraid that the goal of the current move to cap greenhouse gases and adopt mandates to accomplish any imposed limits on the emissions of such gases will result in dictating to the world "how to live, what to do, how to behave... What to eat, [where to] travel, and what my children should have. This is something that we who lived in the communist era for most of our lives — we still feel very strongly about. We are very sensitive in this respect. And we feel various similarities in their way of arguing or not arguing. In the way of pushing ahead ideas regardless of rational counter-arguments."

See http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/18/czech-president-klaus-global-warming-science-new-religion/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+foxnews%252Fscitech+%2528FOXNews.com+-+SciTech%2529 for more information on Klaus' views.

Klaus is not against the development of green technology, however. It is for that reason that I have suggested the need for a New Paradigm for Climate Change. If the purpose of the UN Climate Change conferences is to really solve environmental problems, there needs to be open dialogue and serious consideration of positive approaches to solving those problems, rather than pitting rich and poor nations against each and talking about controlling people's freedom of action.

The good of humanity and the Earth would be better served by releasing human ingenuity and problem-solving creativity that can be widely supported throughout the world and has the potential to actually produce results, rather than a politically correct movement driven by scientists who want continued access to grant money just to further conduct research that supports seemingly predetermined conclusions, as the e-mail ClimateGate scandal appears to suggest. Sphere: Related Content

Global Warming Has Paused

President Obama returned from Copenhagen to a snowstorm in DC. This is fitting since the Climate Conference ended frozen in a deadlock.

Although UN General-Secretary Ban Ki-moon ended the Conference by saying that a deal had been "sealed", the so-called agreement that the 193 nations in attendance endorsed was not a binding agreement but merely took note of a plan worked out by the US President and four other countries (China, India, Brazil and South Africa) at the last minute.

The major accomplishment of that five nation plan was to get China to agree to having its progress toward reducing greenhouse gases subject to verification, along with other nations. The plan also seems to commit countries in agreement to submit lists of actions to be taken toward averting the "climate crisis". There is also some type of promise to raise billions of dollars by the richer nations to provide to some sort of fund that would benefit the poor nations.

The final UN deal announced by the Secretary-General would apparently list the countries that were in favor of the "sealed" deal and those against it. What kind of an agreement is that? It's actually a phony deal, which is good for anyone who values the sovereignty of their own nation's government and opposes a "new world order" that would mandate individual behavior and actions to control greenhouse gas emissions that may or may not be causing a climate crisis.

While political leaders are spinning their version of a success story, environmentalists are disappointed. Greenpeace issued a statement saying: "Don't believe the hype, there is nothing fair, ambitious or legally binding about this deal... The job of world leaders is not done. Today they shamefully failed to save us all from the effects of catastrophic climate change."

So the question has to be asked: what was the purpose of hundreds of Conference delegates flying to Copenhagen on hundreds of private jets (even UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Prince Charles flew there on separate planes), using thousands of limousines and killing untold numbers of trees to produce who knows how many pages of paper to record drafts of agreements never endorsed? Did any of this actually accomplish anything in the pursuit of preventing a global warming crisis that many question is actually a crisis while others contend that, even if there really is global warming, it is not caused by humans (see my Post "Just Asking...")?

All that was accomplished was to "kick the can" down the road to Mexico City in December of next year when this same group of leaders, scientists, protesters, posers in polar bear suits and environmentalists gather again to grab the world's attention to try to cause anguish and hand-wringing by all the insufficiently sensitized people around the globe.

It seems that someone could find out where there is agreement on the potential adverse consequences that may result from: the continued use of fossil fuels, unchecked pollution of all types and severe weather that increases and decreases in cycles and could hit almost anywhere in the world at any time without sufficient warning.

Whether these problems are man-made, causing global warming or increasing in severity over time should not be the focus of so much argument and political energy. The focus should be on developing technology to help alleviate human, animal and plant life suffering or damage caused by these continuing global issues.

There is no point to the countless arguments about how much money should be redistributed from rich countries to poor ones, pledging to reduce global temperatures by some set limit that likely cannot be controlled by mankind in any effectively measurable way anyway and basically trying to scare people in developed countries into feeling bad about anything they do that is not GREEN enough! The focus should be on solutions to the problems that many on all sides of the current debates could probably agree need to be addressed.

My suggestion is to establish an international R&D fund to provide grants to the best and brightest minds in the world to stimulate the development of new technology that helps create cost-effective alternative energy sources to reduce pollution and wasteful use of scarce resources and that helps all countries adopt new methods of preventing the harmful effects of severe cyclical weather patterns wherever and however they occur. See my post on a New Paradigm for Climate Change.

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New Paradigm for Climate Change

Amid all the talk and anguish in Copenhagen during the Climate Change Conference about the "severe global crisis" that is coming and the need for urgent action by the developed nations of the world to contribute billions of dollars to the developing nations (to allow them to adapt to the terrible consequences of a warming world caused by the richer nations), the proposed solutions all seem to be directed at mandates and requirements to force caps on emissions of greenhouse gases by the developed nations, while they also pay tribute to the rest of the world (one developing country leader called it "reparations") for their sins of industrialized growth and prosperity.

Of course, this all comes at a time when most of the world is suffering (and now slowly recovering from) the most serious financial crisis and economic downturn that the world has experienced since the Great Depression. As noted in today's Washington Post, one of the main sticking points at the Conference is "how much the rich nations should pay the poor ones".

It is now reported that a UN body (the UN Environmental Program Governing Council) is prepared to present a recommendation at the end of the Conference to start a process to improve "international environmental governance". This recommendation came out of a meeting held by this UN body in Belgrade in June 2009 and is being called the "Belgrade Process". Again the focus of this process is to improve the approach to imposing global mandates to restrict the emissions of greenhouse gases because, according to the Belgrade Process, the UN process to date has suffered from a lack of adequate funding, "incoherence among bodies, weak linkages between science and policy, insufficient capacity at the national level to implement laws and policies" and a disconnect between environmental, economic and social spheres. See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,580496,00.html for more information on this.

A recent article in the December 14, 2009 issue of Time magazine entitled "Beyond Copenhagen" by Bjorn Lomborg (Director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center) suggests a new way to look at the issue of Climate Change. Lomborg says that "instead of trying to make fossil fuels more expensive, we should focus on making alternative energy cheaper". This suggests that there needs to be incentives to developing innovative technologies to help solve the Climate Change challenges, rather than prohibitions on fossil fuel use and caps on greenhouse emissions accompanied by continuing frenzied warnings that "The End is Near", 'The Sky is Falling" and the planet is doomed if we don't stop our misguided emissions of pollutants, including our natural exhaling of CO2! See http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1929071_1929070_1945639,00.html for the article.

Instead of requiring the richer nations to contribute to a fund that would be redistributed to poorer nations to "adapt" to the coming terrible consequences of Global Warming, why not have half that amount of money (proposals seem to be suggesting over $15 billion a year will be distributed from rich countries to poor nations) into a Climate Change Trust Fund governed by an internationally representative Board of Trustees, who would be tasked with making grants to applicants who offer the most promising proposals to develop new technologies that will result in the generation of cleaner, cheaper energy for all nations or help address any harm that climate change may cause. Such proposals could result in improved sources of alternative energy, cleaner methods of using fossil fuels, systems that would permit all nations to adapt to any negative consequences that may occur from climate change or any other innovations that would benefit the global environment.

This approach would unleash the entrepreneurial and creative energy of all qualified people in the world to work toward a positive goal that benefits all inhabitants of the Earth, including polar bears, not just those living in the developing nations, while holding back the so-called "rich nations" of the world. Use the innovative power of free enterprise to improve the quality of life around the world. Then set up valid systems of measurement to determine if this approach is making progress. It certainly should produce more progress and positive results than continued meetings around the world with protesters dressed in polar bear suits.



Without a change in the current "groupthink" approach to addressing climate change issues, the eco-extremists will continue their Doom and Gloom demonstrations and protests that produce nothing but photo ops.

By the way, is tear gas a greenhouse gas?????

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Just Asking.....

If climate change science is "settled" how can there be so many questions about whether global warming is really occurring at the rate projected by the climate change advocates' computers, whether global warming is really harmful to the planet or humans since CO2 is a natural gas that has been circulating throughout the history of Earth or why so many scientists with views that differ from the widely accepted global warming "groupthink" narrative have been barred from the public debate and/or dismissed as "crackpots" by global warming advocates and the major media?


The European Foundation recently listed 100 reasons why climate change is natural and not man-made as the scientists, world leaders, UN personnel and the many climate change-global government advocates gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark have been claiming with major news media support. The list is found at http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/146138 .


Among the reasons listed that should be capable of scientific documentation are:


* "A large body of scientific research suggests that the sun is responsible for the greater share of climate change during the past hundred years."


* "Accurate satellite, balloon and mountain top observations made over the last three decades have not shown any significant change in the long term rate of increase in global temperatures."


* "Rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere can be shown not only to have a negligible effect on the Earth’s many ecosystems, but in some cases to be a positive help to many organisms."


* "The historical increase in the air’s CO2 content has improved human nutrition by raising crop yields during the past 150 years."


* "Global temperatures have not risen in any statistically-significant sense for 15 years and have actually been falling for nine years."


* "The accepted global average temperature statistics used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that no ground-based warming has occurred since 1998." Sphere: Related Content