The very people that TSA hired to use sophisticated psychological-based "behaviour analysis" to spot terrorist turns out to be a rapist and commits suicide. Wow! How effective is TSA at understanding "behaviour" and spotting terrorists if it is hiring rapists and suicidal people to staff its positions?
A TSA employee based at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport tried to kill himself after allegedly abducting a woman, sexually assaulting her then giving her a suicide note to deliver.
...
King, a behavior detection officer, has been with the Transportation Security Administration for nearly five years, spokesman Jon Allen told the AJC.
These are the guys who are giving people a choice between radiation exposure or groping to control the terrorist threat posed by 6 year old children and 80 year old grandmothers.
Just before the mid-term elections, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell candidly told the National Journal, "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."
If that means doing nothing to help 15 million Americans searching for work who can't find it, too bad. If that means blocking ratification of a nuclear arms control treaty with Russia that's wholeheartedly backed by all the top U.S. military leaders as needed for national security, so be it.
If that means stone-walling efforts to stimulate the economy with business tax cuts, or blocking extension of expiring jobless benefits, that's the way the cookie crumbles. If that means changing the law to direct the Federal Reserve to stop paying attention to unemployment and focus solely on inflation in its monetary policy decisions, we’ll ignore the fact that core inflation is the lowest in half a century.
In short, congressional Republicans don't want conditions in the United States to improve on any front before the 2012 elections. It's also clear they have no intention of cooperating with the president on any of the myriad problems facing the country. This was particularly evident when McConnell and John Boehner, incoming speaker of the newly Republican House of Representatives, said they were too busy to meet with Obama at the White House.
The above makes it utterly obvious that Obama is obtuse in continuing a policy of "reaching across the aisle" to find compromise. Worse, Obama first compromises his own position, then takes it to the Republicans who of course declare that the position is "extreme" and demand that Obama "compromise" by adopting the Republican position. Nutty.
The depth of intransigence and sabotage by the Republicans is truly monumental. Here is a bit from This Week with Christine Amanapour on ABC television:
AMANPOUR: And, again, as Admiral Mullen said, it's not just a nice treaty with a foreign country. It is about Russia's cooperation on all the issues that the United States needs, whether it's Afghanistan, Iran, and all the rest of it.
Plus, I don't know what you think, but some are saying that this could give rise to the hard-liners in Russia again, who just do not want to -- who just don't want to deal with the United States.
LUCE: Oh, absolutely. I think it's -- it's a dream -- if you picked two countries that would like to see a failure of ratification, it would be North Korea and Iran. And I think that -- if that argument doesn't work with the Republicans, that sort of basic elemental national security argument doesn't work, nothing is. There's -- there's a greater hatred of Obama than there is a love of American national security.
In short, the Republicans are fanatics who are willing to bring down the whole of America in order to get at their "enemy" Obama even if it hurts them and the American people. That is the very essence of fanaticism. It is completely dysfunctional. And this is what a majority of American electors choose a few weeks ago in the mid-term Congressional elections.
Funny, Congress has made sure that all those aggressive and demeaning "security" searches at airports are rules that apply to "the little people" but not to them. That's right. There is one law for the little people and a law for the "equal but better" people of Congress...
Here's a bit from a NY Times article entitled "No Security Pat-Downs for Boehner":
“Over the last 20 years, I have flown back and forth to my district on a commercial aircraft,” Mr. Boehner said at the time, “and I am going to continue to do that.”
And so on Friday, he did. But not without the perquisites of office, including avoiding those security pat-downs that many travelers are bracing for as holiday travel season approaches.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for the Republican leader, said in a statement that Mr. Boehner was not receiving special treatment. And a law enforcement official said that any member of Congress or administration official with a security detail is allowed to bypass security.
“The appropriate security procedures for all Congressional leaders, including Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid, are determined by the Capitol Police working with the Transportation Security Administration,” Mr. Steel said.
Here's a post on the WUWT blog. So a "green" advocate is willing to admit a mistake. Sadly a lot of money was wasted and a number of lives were lost in the third world back two summers ago when there was panic over food supplies and various countries closed their exports. This was not necessarily caused by the US, but diverting large amounts of food into a "fuel" stream meant cheap food wasn't available and people died. I hope the "green" advocates who worry so much about "Mother Earth" show a little concern for the "little people" that their policies have killed.
Gore admits the obvious: US corn ethanol was not a good policy
Posted on November 22, 2010 by Ryan Maue
Do not expect to read much about this in the NY Times — and definitely don’t expect any follow up questions about his motivation for climate policy ($$$). Former Vice President Al Gore has admitted that his “support for corn-based ethanol in the United States was “not a good policy”, weeks before tax credits are up for renewal.”
Gore was the tie-breaking vote in the Senate mandating the use of ethanol in 1994.
From Reuters:
“It is not a good policy to have these massive subsidies for (U.S.) first generation ethanol,” said Gore, speaking at a green energy business conference in Athens sponsored by Marfin Popular Bank.
“First generation ethanol I think was a mistake. The energy conversion ratios are at best very small.
“It’s hard once such a programme is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going.”
He continues (admitting more of the obvious):
“One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.”
However, don’t make the mistake that he has had an epiphany on climate change:
Gore supported so-called second generation technologies which do not compete with food, for example cellulosic technologies which use chemicals or enzymes to extract sugar from fibre for example in wood, waste or grass.
“I do think second and third generation that don’t compete with food prices will play an increasing role, certainly with aviation fuels.”
Gore added did that he did not expect a U.S. clean energy or climate bill for “at least two years” following the mid-term elections which saw Republicans increase their support.
By the way, if you want some solid facts to understand "global warming", try reading MIT's Richard Lindzen's testimony before Congress given last week. (You can see other expert testimony at the Congressional site.)
Sadly the fanatics don't bother listening to senior scientists like Richard Lindzen. Why would you if you've been brainwashed into believing that the "science is settled".
Yep... and here's the proof... from Penn & Teller's Bullshit! show:
Part 1:
Part 2:
My favourite part is 7:30 into Part 2 when they look into Al Gore and how "eco friendly" good old evangelist Al truly is. Well.. he's an eco-hypocrite with his super-size carbon footprint lifestyle and his money making carbon credit trading company! As Penn & Teller put it: he is into the business of selling indulgences to make your conscience feel better (and line his pocket).
Oh... and Penn & Teller admit that they don't know whether there is "global warming" or not. In fact, the honest scientists will tell you the same thing. The science isn't well enough developed and the effects are so small at this point in time that no honest climate scientist can talk about "global warming" as a threat to people or the planet.
Climate change is the new global terror, says Al Gore
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times New Delhi, November 20, 2010
Nobel Peace Prize winner and champion climate campaigner Al Gore outlined the doom the world is awaiting because of climate change and expressed disappointment at world leaders failing to clinch a treaty to fight the new global terror. Terming the logjam in climate negotiations as a “startling paradox”, the man, whose documentary, The Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar said the year 2010 had seen worst of climate change. “There was severe drought in Russia and extreme flooding in Pakistan. What more evidence is required for action,” he said at HT Leadership Summit.
Yep... Al Gore is staying busy, and still selling fear.
On a more serious note, here is an update of the Climategate controversy on its one year anniversary:
