Reading the news the last few days sure makes you wonder how we elect who we elect...from seeing Max Baucus actually drunk as a skunk speaking in the congress to the investigation of Allan Sanford and his "gifts" to many Republicans you gotta ask...who can we trust ?

These are the folks we send there to do our business. Sure does not make me feel comfy, safe or secure !

I'm sure there are some good one's but most I think are just plain crooks out for themselves. Two words. TERM LIMITS.

"...safe, comfy and secure..." while she is not elected, Napolitano is appointed by the POTUS. The only time one hears from her is in response to an incident like the recent bombing attempts out of Amsterdam.

It is unfortunate we have what we have as the so called representatives in Washington and the uninformed or permissive care less voters that re-elect them.

But in an appointed position...another politics first, qualifications second and performance (there is none at this point) last....one would think/expect more from a very high visibility, very responsible, key position there would be better candidates than Napolitano. She has not done one thing pro-active to combat the war on terrorism. Maybe she thinks since the term is not used by this administration it doesn't exist.

She states the current bombing attempt is not part of a larger plan. And she knows this, this quick how? How does she categorize the news coming from the UK of the 25 or so terrorists, discovered that have an objective to blow up Western airliners. Some how that rings of a larger plan to we the people....but not her?

I personally am very uncomfortable with a politician in such a key position regarding our safety.

The position needs an aggressive, pro-active war footing experienced leader, that errs on the side of doing more than necessary to protect this country and it's people. Not another speech making politician who knee jerks responses to an incident. She does not exactly exude the characteristics of competence!!

Knowing that we will be attacked in the future, isn't anybody concerned she is not covering the bases?

Standard Operating Procedure.....nothing pro-active that does not have personal or party gain assigned to it.

btk

PS sorry for the slight pirating of the thread but the words safe and comfy ans secure just pulled the trigger!

Everyone needs to read the following from NewsMax.com. Are we going to lay down and let these people, both foriegn and domestic, bring us (USA) down?


Ever since 9/11, the Democrats’ mantra has been that the FBI’s and CIA’s efforts to protect us are threatening our civil liberties.

As recently as two months ago, John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a bill to gut key Patriot Act provisions which the FBI has used successfully to obtain intelligence quickly.

“Over the past eight years, Americans grew tired of the same old scare tactics, designed to fool the public into believing that we needed to give up freedom to be safe from terrorism,” Conyers said. “It is a new day and an opportunity for reform.”

The truth is that since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, no abuse by the FBI — meaning an act done for political or other improper purposes — has ever been uncovered. The Democrats’ bill would essentially require the FBI to already have evidence of a crime before it can obtain the information necessary to determine if a crime has been committed.

This is the same no-win situation the FBI was in before the 9/11 attacks. Yet Democrats who tied the FBI’s hands behind its back back then had no compunction about criticizing the FBI and the Bush administration for failing to connect the dots before the 9/11 attacks.

In the same vein, President Obama has signaled to terrorists that even if they have knowledge of impending attacks, they will never face the same interrogation techniques used on our own troops as part of training exercises.
By threatening prosecution of CIA officers for following orders approved by the president, the Justice Department, and key members of Congress, Obama has undermined the CIA’s incentive to obtain vital intelligence by taking risks.

Now after witnessing the effort to take down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, Americans are seeing what can happen if we let our guard down. The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, has claimed links to al-Qaida, but Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano in the past has dismissed the entire notion of terrorism by referring to it as “man-caused disasters.”

Even before Obama came into office, civil liberties advocates had succeeded in limiting two tools that could have prevented the foiled attack by the suspect. One is whole-body imaging scanners that use radio waves or X-rays to reveal objects under a person’s clothes.

These scanners could have pinpointed chemicals that were apparently strapped to the suspect’s body.

The government has sought to expand use of imaging scanners, but privacy advocates and Congress have raised objections. The question is, Would passengers rather have their private parts scanned by security personnel or be blown up 40,000 feet above the earth?

The second tool is the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, which lists about 550,000 individuals, objects like cars, and addresses. From that list, the FBI develops the Terrorist Screening Data Base (TSDB), from which consular, border, and airline watch lists are drawn.

The Transportation Security Administration maintains its own “no-fly” list of about 4,000 people who are prohibited from boarding any domestic or U.S.-bound aircraft. Another list of about 14,000 “selectees” has been compiled. They require additional scrutiny but are not banned from flying.

Based on a warning from the suspect’s father to U.S. embassy officials in Nigeria that his son had fallen prey to radical Islam, Mutallab should have been on the list to receive additional scrutiny. But while he was in the TIDE database, he was never placed on the list to receive such scrutiny.

In placing individuals on these lists, intelligence officials receive constant pressure from the ACLU and other civil liberties advocates. Backed by Democrats, they have complained that there is something inherently insidious about the number of names on the lists.

“Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years; U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse,” a March 25, 2007 headline in the Washington Post warned.

Timothy Sparapani, the ACLU’s legislative counsel for privacy rights, has called the numbers “shocking.”

So blind are the Democrats to the need to protect the country that they have delayed extending the provisions of the Patriot Act by two months while they work on healthcare legislation, which would not begin to provide benefits to the uninsured until 2013.

Privately, FBI agents and CIA officers have been saying for some time that it will take another attack to awaken the country to the fact that we are putting ourselves at risk. If the Democrats have their way, nothing will change until another attack takes place. Then we will again see children on TV holding up photos of their parents, hoping that someone will say they are still alive.

Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.




by
Ronald Kessler
Dec. 28, 2009

People better wake up quick fast and in a hurry this year. Our current administration is not competent. In fact they are careless, reckless and in my option totally negligent.

We have a person in charge of homeland security with ZERO experience or qualifications. It's unbelievable how inept and naive these people are. Our government is now asleep at the wheel... except when it comes to spending money and recking the economy.

The sooner we get rid of "politically correct", the better off we'll be. If it will keep us all of us safe, by all means "invade my privacy" (body scans at airports, wire taps (now there's something that would be REALLY exciting on my phone!), drug screens, etc.

political correctness....allowing not doing what is right.

For those who cry foul for invasion of privacy they obviously have something to hide/fear.

All our enemies need to do is become members of these minority advocacy groups to protect what ever it is they want to do.

I say lower the boom and DO WHAT EVER IT TAKES to stop them. When a civil libertarian protestor/defender loses loved ones in a terrorist incident just watch them swing their tune.

The clock is ticking....it is only a matter of time before the terrorists will make a successful attempt. The proof so far is that they are trying. And in the non US media it is candidly reported the hundreds that are being trained to kill Americans. The clock is ticking...........

btk

Will you stand in line to let the government approve all of your purchases?

The same government that you say can't handle scheduling a medical checkup is going to watch over your every move?

Every news report points to the same cause over and over - failure of our government to communicate TO EACH OTHER. The suspect's OWN FATHER called in to law enforcement worried that his son might be heading down a path to terrorism.

And the scanners? Since 9/11 we've had the "blown puff of air" scanner technology which would NOT violate anyone's privacy and we're slower than molasses to deploy it! These 'body scanners' wouldn't do JACK to find explosives in checked baggage - but the air-sniffers CAN detect the residue that would be left on your clothes.

Once again, we run around like chicken little ignoring the obvious answers.

Once again, the passengers on a plane proved to be more adept than our government.

Once again, all the classic signs were ignored (cash for the ticket, no checked bags).

More laws and procedures don't do ANY good if we ignore everything current anyway!

offend no one....they plot in the permissive atmosphere to kill us with smiles on their faces.

Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like an aggressive POTUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

btk