Are We Winning This No-Fly Debate?

Don't tell me truth actually got its boots on - the WaPo Fact Checkers join the LA Times and Slate (Bouie, Posner) in questioning the No-Fly/Terrorist Watchlist three-card monte being played by Democrats.

Obama speaks but the sheep don't bleat. Interesting.

Comments

[sbw]

Baa! Humbug!

[Comanche Voter]

The shepherd has lost his stick? Obozo has lost his mojo?

[Jeff Dobbs]

Truth-boots, three-card monte, sheep-bleating.

All within a post containing 41 words.

I don't care who you are, that right there is impressive.

[Jack is Back! (On Alert!)]

tBut TM lives in a state where the Guv is proposing a ban on gun sales to those on the terror-watch list. So much for the Constitution in the Constitution State.

[Marlene]

The Portland paper has an article this morning about the spike in gun sales. The owner of Smitty's Trading Post in Machias was asked by the reporter why people in the low crime state of Maine need a gun. It takes a wry Downeaster to say, "I don't expect a fire,but I have a fire extinguisher."

[Miss Marple 2]

I have to get busy. Back later.

[Threadkiller]

National Suicide? Nobody Knows Who Obama Is!

http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/12/55004/

[rse]

One more link that no one is telling us about. DOT is creating a $50 million slush fund for cities that are not part of metro areas and between 200K and 850K to 'redesign the American city." http://www.wired.com/2015/12/the-50-million-competition-to-remake-the-american-city/

buckeye-saw your comment on data conference. Do be familiar with UN Global Pulse and Data Revolution as what you hear locally is simply the local implementation of broader plans.

Back to reading them because someone has to when it dovetails with what bo and congress have just imposed on every child in every classroom. Privates as well in my reading but am waiting for my hard copy that I can tab and cross reference to my notes.

[Janet]

"To the Democrats, anything that stops them from doing whatever they want to you is a “loophole.”" ~ Glenn Reynolds

[Threadkiller]

http://pamelageller.com/2015/12/fox-video-pamela-geller-lou-dobbs-talk-trump-jihad-and-the-hug-me-im-a-muslim-loudobbsnews.html/

It seems The Daily Beasts' attempt to clobber Trump by exploiting a riff between him and Gellar has backfired.

It is too bad Gellar and Dobbs are wasting their breath on the brokered convention talk, since we have been told that this is nothing more than a "tempest" in a tweetpot.

[Threadkiller]

That is a good one, Janet.

[rse]

Instead of annotating all knowledge, this fits with my reading of a clear desire to circumscribe what it means to know and to specify the allowed filters framing thought.

https://hypothes.is/annotating-all-knowledge/

Supposedly tied to new standards for the worldwide web.

[Threadkiller]

Meant to put this here:

Imaginary diss?

A couple of short points (because the focus needs to be on his words) about this recording.  Initially, when questioned Cruz denied the statement.  Secondly, when questioned again by Megyn Kelly (last night) Cruz refused to take ownership of his words.   This is a pattern, a long, historic, and very specific pattern.  Pay close attention to his words.

Here’s the full audio as referenced in the New York Times article 

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/12/11/smug-cruz-the-full-recording-of-ted-cruz-comments-about-donald-trump-and-ben-carson/

It really is like the Romney 47%. Cruz has a small gathering and someone takes a recording off to The NYT? I hope he tars and feathers the snitch.

[Dave (in MA)]

The Kennedy family newsletter claims that the guy who would have brought Mary Jo comfort in her old age if he hadn't killed her was not actually on the no-fly list:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/12/11/ted-kennedy-wasn-the-fly-list/sfH9Z1JRrvXR3860gedr9J/story.html?p1=feature_sec_hp

Then, fairly late in the article they admit that they're splitting hairs.

[Captain Hate]

Still stage managing that slum called Camelot? Like that idiot Barnicle insisting JFK Jr was an excellent pilot. At least Junior didn't swim away from the wreck leaving his wife behind.

[buccaneer morgan]

That was a useful talking point back then, nothing more.

[Cecil Turner]

Jester: That was some of the best flying I've seen to date - right up to the part where you got killed.

[Marlene]

Dave,has it been determined that the Red Line going through four stops yesterday was *operator error* ? Howie Carr played the MTA song by the Kingston Trio yesterday to lighten the mood.

[buccaneer morgan]

The no fly is a totem, as with the tsa.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Imaginary diss?--

I listened to it and all he said was the question of responding to islamic terrorism is a challenging question for Trump and Carson.
That's it? That's the unspeakable insult?
Not quite Burr and Hamilton.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Lomg story about India's competing choices of solar and coal to expand their economy.
Notable to me only in the casual way the enviros who mostly ridicule other faiths have taken up the mantle of incessant Armageddons; "Solar or Coal? The Energy India Picks May Decide Earth’s Fate"

Why don't they just put on some sackcloth and tote the "Repent! The end is nigh!" sign around like the guy is always doing in those New Yorker cartoons?

[Sandy Daze]

Newt Gringrich in very good, brief National Defense University speech given 1 December 2015 :

excerpt:

Our first assignment is to look at facts and develop new words and new constructs to accurately describe what we are facing. Until we have done that we will be crippled by the very words we use and the obsolete ideas we are trapped in.

[Sandy Daze]

Wretchard's penultimate, Everything begins with identification ~ Choose Your Fascism

excerpt:

Everything begins with identification. Once the identity of the enemy is known, then the debate can begin over the proper, proportionate and just ways that should be adopted to combat them. The Western elites want a muddle. Just now the New York Times has a story about Mickey Hicks, aged 8, who is on the no-fly-list and can't get off it. What happens when you can't identify the enemy is everyone becomes the enemy, which suits some people just fine. They don't care about the peaceful Muslim -- and they do exist in large, perhaps overwhelming large numbers. They care about not antagonizing the violent sector among them for the tawdriest of considerations.

[Thomas Collins]

Ignatz, John Adams was even bitterly attacking Alexander Hamilton after Burr killed Hamilton.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=206

It looks as if the fainting couches are needed not only in credentialed moron academia, but also in every political discussion in an "unsafe space" (defined as a discussion in which not everyone nods in approval of the other person's NY Times approved talking point).

[buccaneer morgan]

Yes it's very near beer, perhaps odoul's.

[Stephanie]

We are realigning into new political parties. The Ostriches and the Prairie Dogs. The Ostriches don't see outside the beltway and continue business as usual. The Prairie Dogs are alert and see what is going on and are vanguarding the shift.

The old conservative v progressive is meaningless in this new realignment. Trump and Carson are both bringing in new voters that have, heretofore, never voted or never voted republican. Cruz is shoring up the grassroots from behind to assure they are kept in the new paradigm.

This entire paradigm shift is focused around the current war and the safety of the nation. These catalysts are aligning those who have traditionally not been aligned on many issues. Latinos, blacks and others are joining traditional conservatives to force these issues to the front. Blacks don't like immigration because of the competition for jobs and both blacks and latinos (along with practically everyone else) don't like open borders with terrorists hiding in the weeds.

There is a tremendous opportunity to capitalized on this and dramatically shift the landscape on which we elect our leaders and govern our nation.

The Ostriches, whose thinking resides in the beltway and in the past don't understand what is happening, don't think it matters and think they have it under control. They are sadly deluded. They have had a clue bat applied at least twice (2010 and 2012) and now still can't contemplate the new paradigm. They will be left behind.

Trump and now Carson have thrown down the gauntlet to the GOPe that they will leave the party if the backroom shenanigans aren't brought to a halt. Smart move.

[Old Lurker]

Two new parties works fine for me, Steph.

Particularly if it gets TK off his Consent Decree soapbox!

:-) TK.

[Peter]

Teddy should have been on the no fly last for his drunken Eskimo Power flight.

[Threadkiller]

I'm easy, OL.

:-)

[Dave (in MA)]

Marlene, I don't know. The only fairly recent piece of info I heard was that the train operator who the MBTA declined to identify, was found out by the media to be a guy who lives a few streets away from me. As of last night there were three stories being thrown around: operator error, someone tampered with the equipment, and equipment malfunction. A guy who called into Howie Carr seemed to think that it was a combination of all three: An equipment issue cause the train to fail to start, and the operator who'd overridden the 'dead man' switch on the train exited take care of the equipment malfunction, and when he did that, the train took off without him.

[Peter]

Eskimo power explained at the LUN

[Miss Marple 2]

Stephanie,

Carson's statement that he will leave the party if they don't quit has made shockwaves, according to what I heard on Laura Ingraham's show while I was out running errands.

It's not like Carson is a hothead who goes off on a tangent.

Those people in DC better stop it right now, or there will be a new party and they will be left sitting there by themselves.

[Frau Krokodil]

For daddy

[Threadkiller]

That's it? That's the unspeakable insult?

I don't know of there was anything that I would consider to be an unspeakable insult. What was dissish though was him seemingly explaining how he is somewhat disingenuous with his big hugs.

More troubling to me is that there is a traitor in his midst. And second place goes to his mixed answers on the event.

[matt]

It is a sign that none of the leadership as it is mistakenly called has articulated any sort of general principles that the Republicans can coalesce around.

For the most part with the exception of Trump it is lost in the clutter except when the Leftists want to tear down another candidate.

The monkeys are flinging poo at an accelerating rate and there are no grown ups in the House (or Senate). That issue alone is central to the future of politics in our country.

Do we get Marie Le Trump or Cronella De Ville?

[Cecil Turner]

Visiting an Eskimo village drove him to drink? Might give him a pass on that one.

[rse]

MM-this won't help. Going on and on about how Paul Ryan's ego was massaged by czar lamar to get ESSA despite boehner's retirement. If parents understood what that statute actually mandated they would all need constant private security.

"Speaker John Boehner's September announcement about leaving Congress was a shock to lawmakers who had been deep in painstaking negotiations for months on a bill [http://1.usa.gov/1KLrqRS ] to replace No Child Left Behind, which President Barack Obama signed into law this week. It meant that a key supporter of the bill would soon be gone. But then came Paul Ryan. The new speaker wanted to bring more old-fashioned legislating to the House. So Sen. Lamar Alexander sat next to Ryan during a visit to the senators' weekly Tuesday lunch, just days after Ryan was sworn in, and pitched him on the education bill. "I said, 'We've got a bill for you,'" said Alexander, chairman of the Senate education committee. "Here's an opportunity for you to do something big and bipartisan and successful - and do it in regular order."

- Rep. John Kline, education chairman in the House, also spoke with Ryan about the merits of the bill - which had drawn major opposition from the same conservatives who had pushed Boehner to resign. Weeks earlier, friends Ryan and Kline had each been trying to edge the other toward taking the speaker's gavel. Now, Ryan agreed to support Kline's bill. They'd bring it to the House floor for a vote soon, when Ryan was still new to the speakership and the bill could arguably pass off as part of Boehner's legacy, according to Alexander."

I have gone back in time to a Orwell conference held in Cambridge, UK in 1984 to find a suitable way to characterize what ESSA actually seeks to do. The nalysis out of the manhattan Institute and Heritage both appear to be deliberately deceitful in their coverage. Looks to me like they wanted statute because chamber did, but these think tanks also want to fundraise around supposedly being against it and the Common Core.

[sbw]

Sandy: words

-- Marx was a “romantic”. Romantics believe feelings that are beyond logic. Romantics staged a revolt against Kantian logic used to check consistency of thought.
-- Seeing Marxists as pseudo-scientific cherry pickers in revolt against logic puts them in the same anti-social, self-immolating class -- if you will pardon the expression -- as the French Revolutionaries.
-- Claude Levi-Strauss believed cultural structures held down the oppressed.
-- Antonio Gramsci, an Italian follower of Karl Marx, saw culture as a superstructure over reality. He believed a long march through the culture was necessary to resolve into a new social structure.
-- Michel Foucault believed ruling powers imposed structures. [Ironically, post-modernists believe if they rule things would be different.]
-- The chilling thought of post modernists like Bill Ayers, bomb-maker turned education authority, is their belief that the cold war was not lost because it hasn’t ended.
-- Progressives like Cass Sunstein in Nudge believe it is politically proper to mislead people for their own good and that the use of history as fiction can manipulate public support.
-- The meanings of words are dynamic to them. “Truth” becomes selective meaning crafted to win.
-- The only alternative to dealing with truth and falsity is power.
-- Today’s Cass Sunsteins are dilettantes without the interest in checking the work with experience or projecting potential consequences into the future. For them, words are weapons, not tools to reach understanding. They are anti-culture and anti-society fake emperors with no clothes who should be laughed at.
-- The belief that one knows best what is good for others is called hubris.

They have lost the value of “truth” because they don’t believe there can be any. They forget Karl Popper’s observation that if you can’t know what is true you can still prune away what experience shows is demonstrably false.

Lies undermine society. Leftists -- and that includes Democrats -- lie because they can’t see the consequences to society. One caught in a single lie, can never be trusted again.

[Jeff Dobbs]

I don't even own crocs!

[Dave (in MA)]

Frau, the cool kids wear corrective Crocs.

[rse]

sbw-unfortunately ESSA implements Cass's nudging if you go into as much detail as I do when I track something.

Yes, I am quite sure. 100% alignment between the nudging template and what all schools must now agree to do to get that Title 4 21st century schools money. Cass also says this is justified meddling by governments because we supposedly ratified the Universal declaration of Human Rights (my info has always been we did not but rejoining unesco acted as the ratification), but have not fully implemented it.

Governments get to neurologically embed if it's in pursuit on UN normative policies per Cass and most of the other institutions.

[Miss Marple 2]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/12/11/dhs-whistleblower-philip-haney-p-c-killed-investigation-might-stopped-san-bernardino-attack/

Extensive interview with lots of details. Looks to me like we are in a lot more danger than we thought.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

-- What was dissish though was him seemingly explaining how he is somewhat disingenuous with his big hugs.--

That he doesn't attack candidates who he believes will flame out and whose supporters he thinks will gravitate to him doesn't seem disingenuous to me. He had just gotten through explaining that he personally likes both of them, but it is a winner take all contest in a not very nice sport so again not seeing the problem. If anything he is demonstrating respect for them and their voters because he thinks they are his natural allies, but that they'll flame out as past outsiders always have.

[Cecil Turner]

Latest from the TAXPROF on the IRS scandal (H/T: Insty):

Washington Times op-ed, Why IRS Commish John Koskinen Must be Impeached, by Jenny Beth Martin (President & Co-Founder, Tea Party Patriots):

What's taking so long?

[James D]

Reading rse's 11:52 makes me want to see everyone on Capitol Hill hanging from a lamppost.

A bunch of supposed conservatives pushing through a 1,000 page bill they haven't read and don't remotely understand, which will only grow the federal government, damage our children and weaken our society, all to the benefit of flat-out Communists.

And they wonder why there's so much voter unrest and anger?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Scientists urge NOAA to stand up to congress's bullying; said bullying consisting of the representatives of the people who pay NOAA's salaries wishing to ask NOAA some questions and asking NOAA scientists to show their work.
Since scientists are supposed to show their work to begin with, especially publicly funded ones being asked by the public....

[NK]

Ig @1056 was brilliant.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Spengler's latest;
Obama's "Tolerable Level of Terrorism"

Interesting take.
Mentions something I didn't know which is Ted Cruz introduced a bill to name the MB a terrorist organization which would put the garrote around CAIR's slimy neck.

[Man Tran]

With all the references to lampposts in DC and Arlington, this comment over at AT blew my doors off:

Blame for Obama & Trump, yet no mention of the thoroughly corrupt DC establishment? Trump is merely a perceived antidote to the disease of nearly universal corruption obvious to those of us paying attention.
We're close to the point that "Journo-listers" and most of the members of CONgress will have to be swinging from lightposts along Pennsylvania Avenue before what Ted Cruz calls the Washington Cartel™ gets a clue. If I live long enough to see Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid, Elijah Cummings and their pals end up as Washington Windchimes, I'll die a happy man.

(Emphasis added)

[Captain Hate]

Any scientist should welcome the chance to describe and defend his/her methodology. Any irritation with doing so, over and above it being administrative drudgery, is probably an admission of unsound practices or underlying data falsification.

[Cecil Turner]

Extensive interview with lots of details. Looks to me like we are in a lot more danger than we thought.

Concur, not least because this was all he had:

So, if I had still been active duty, working on the case, and everything had been going as it was, I would have linked that mosque to the initiative, simply because people that were already in the database were going there. Therefore, either Syed would have been put on the no-fly list, because of his close affiliation with it, or his pending fiancee would not have been given a visa, because she was affiliated with somebody who was tied to that mosque.

That's it? The mosque was suspicious? Not exactly detailed actionable intelligence, especially considering at least one of the victims prayed at the same mosque.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

If one of our candidates would begin to INSPIRE the public by comparing Obama's lies and deliberate destruction of our society, to how simply returning to the Constitution would actually protect and defend every American citizen, begin the repair of our economy, provide hope for the future by educating our children using credible, non-propagandized curriculum.....

Maybe we could save ourselves.

On second thought, maybe we should just pray for a massive religious revival.

[Cecil Turner]

Interesting take.

I think it was interesting to note Obama's tone when he thought San Berdoo was just another nut with a gun . . . i.e., can't let this become new normal, have to act, and all that stuff.

Once it was established as terrorism, it was all get used to it and worry about backlash.

[Stephanie]

For the gourmands around here... it made me laugh.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10104089679262010&set=a.772467551910.2399853.23923442&type=3&theater

[NK]

CecilT/ManTran-- your last 2 comments were great. White Nut with a gun, Obummer goes into a moralizing tizzy... turns out they are Jihdis with bigger plans and probably connected to ISIS/AQ, nuthin' except more be nice to muzzie moralizing. Clear and convincing eveidence he hates real americans and is allied with Islamists. DC/Arlington Lamp posts. If you need lawyers for show trials of DC apparatchiks, just check my firm bio and give me a call.

[rse]

James-I think much of the "no time to read it" was also a set-up so people would not, but Lindsey Burke of Heritage playing the part of a Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Parrot with her "No Title 1 Portability" is just disingenuous.

Insisting that the bill could only be read "by breaking it up" meant no one would get the very clear flow. My reference to cass, by the way, involves bo's White House Office of Science and Technology. That's Paul Ehrlich protegee John Holdren and also the League of Innovative Schools.

I have already been in touch with the right people in DC so that I get a hard copy of precisely what was signed yesterday already to be tabbed from all my notes.

[jimmyk]

That's it? The mosque was suspicious? Not exactly detailed actionable intelligence, especially considering at least one of the victims prayed at the same mosque.

I don't see the relevance of the victim. Not everyone or even most worshiping at a mosque have to be jihadists to make it suspicious. And that's all he had because the investigation was stopped. Presumably if he'd been able to continue the surveillance and investigation he would have turned up more. We'll never know for sure, of course, but we also don't know how many other investigations have been stymied.

[rse]

That's me at the end of this podcast from yesterday. It's about 10-12 minutes. http://securefreedomradio.podbean.com/e/rep-peter-roskam-dr-stephen-blank-rep-trent-franks-fred-fleitz-robin-eubanks/

[Threadkiller]

considering at least one of the victims prayed at the same mosque.

The terror duo attended two mosques.

The DHS connection was through the other one.

[rse]

jimmy-when I am in NYC I will tell you some of what I have from the UK. They tend to run about 5 years ahead of us in implementation so it is like having a crystal ball.

There concern over Muslims who might be radicalized=Islamophobia=a hate crime such as Antisemitism. It all gets sucked into a legal obligation now of social cohesion.

[Rick Ballard]

The Persian/Shia Iraqi joint force operation is tightening the noose in Ramadi. The end of the Ramadi siege will allow the joint force operation to focus on the termination of the Fallujah siege.

I sincerely hope the headchoppers decide to die in place rather than test the investitures. Ramadi and Fallujah both deserve to be leveled.

[lyle]

Of course this is a must read:

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2015/12/can-left-learn-to-love-isis.html

Mr. Knish makes the very convincing claim that the treasonous left will come to regard ISIS as an ally much like it made itself fellow travelers with the Soviets. The only difference is that ISIS is not--yet--identifying and recruiting the useful idiots as the Rooskies did. I don't disagree with a single word of this piece. To wit:

Obama and Hillary contend that ISIS cannot be defeated militarily. And if it cannot be defeated militarily, the only options are Cold War containment or diplomatic outreach. It’s not too hard to imagine the arguments that will be made for the latter at the expense of the former. They were the same arguments that were made and are still being made by the left for engagement with Communist terror regimes.

ISIS has not done anything that the Soviet Union did not do. Its ideology is thoroughly different, but both were built on swamps of atrocity, mass murder, mass rape, ethnic cleansing and raw butchery. If the left could serve the Soviet Union, who is to say that it won’t learn to love the Islamic State?

[GUS]

The LEFT loves anything that the RIGHT despises. Unemployment. Left loves it..FUN EMPLOYMENT. Food stamps, out of wedlock births, failing schools, social chaos.
The left uses all of that to further it's commie agenda. Muslim terror is being used too. And denied at the same time.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

250 guys are holding a city that had a population of 450,000?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Almost comical; sunni ISIS selling most of its oil to its bitter shia enemy Assad, the rest to Turkey.

[Rick Ballard]

250 plus 10K fervent adherents to Baathist Salafism are more than enough. There are very few 'innocents' remaining in Ramadi or Falluja and the Iraqi government is not going to be in any rush whatsoever to feed them.

[sbw]

rse: jimmy-when I am in NYC I will tell you some of what I have from the UK

I’d like to hear that. And if it happens on a weekend, perhaps Wendy could hear that, too.

[daddy]

Frau asks "Why?"

Jack Nicholson answers, "Why not?"

[daddy]

Visiting an Eskimo village drove him to drink? Might give him a pass on that one.

Many Eskimo villages are dry. Maybe being away from the bottle, even for only a day, is what drove him to start guzzlin' like a Kennedy.

[Cecil Turner]

Presumably if he'd been able to continue the surveillance and investigation he would have turned up more.

Don't know why you'd presume that. The case is awfully tenuous. Note:

if I had still been active duty, working on the case, and everything had been going as it was, I would have linked that mosque to the initiative . . . [emphasis added]

So the guy in Atlanta would've added the SB mosque to the database? Obviously unknowable, but this is hardly a hot lead.

[Threadkiller]

First we must presume this to be meaningless?

 and everything had been going as it was

Ok.

[daddy]

250 guys are holding a city that had a population of 450,000?

535 Members of Congress, 1 Prez, and 9 Supremes are holding a Nation of 330 Million?

[Threadkiller]

Here is the video, again, of the guy who received a commendation letter for finding 300 terrorists using the same system that we now find out doesn't turn up any hot leads:

http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/12/10/whistleblower-says-he-could-have-prevented-ca-attack-if-government-didnt-cut-funding

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--535 Members of Congress, 1 Prez, and 9 Supremes are holding a Nation of 330 Million?--

The 330 million aren't shooting back...yet.

[Cecil Turner]

250 guys are holding a city that had a population of 450,000?

I was trying to find estimates of how many people are still there, and had no luck at all. The stories from last year said it was 400,000 at the start of the latest conflict but that "most" of the civilians had left (many relocated to Baghdad). That "1,200-1,700 families" sounds like ten-twenty thousand at most, which is hard to believe.

Decent NY Times story on the latest:

Civilians, raising white flags to approaching soldiers, have raced to safety under a hail of gunfire by Islamic State fighters who sought to use them as human shields. Others have had to pay hefty bribes to fighters to be allowed to leave.

“The condition of families under the control of ISIS is tragic,” Abu Hussein, who escaped recently, said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. “They do not let people out, and food and medication is running low because of the siege on all exits of the city.”

[Frau Krokodil]

Whistleblower gets laid off. Lois Lerner gets paid vacation, a cushy new job and fist bumps from the WH.

daddy, Jeff sez he has no Crocs. I bet he could arrange for you to pick him up a keen pair at your special shop. I'm with you on the footwear. Mama and Herr Frau have yet to appreciate them.