You LIE!!!
Nothing changed and that this was BUSH fault!
It has to be BUSH!!
BHO needs to be on TV now so that people know that he is not BUSH
Hope and Change

"we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have to live under them any longer."

Holy crap; you mean that most of the people on the terrorist watch list are Muslim. That has got to be because of those racists in charge of putting people on the terrorist watch list. It's not like there is an exlusively Muslim ideology that is deliberatly trying to kill us or anything. Everyone knows that a suicide bomber is just as likly to be Atheist, Hindi, Christian, Animist, Pagan or Vulcan as they are to be Muslim.

(Sarc)

You really have to go to school to be this stupid.

There were numerous people within multiple agencies that worked to undermine the Bush administration's policies. And the State Department has to be included within that list.

Let's not forget, Colin Powell directed Richard Armitage not to go public with the fact that he was Novak's source for what became known as the "Plame affair." Everyone twisted in the wind while top members of the State Department intentionally concealed this basic piece of information. I doubt that was done due to their dutiful embrace of the President's policies.

Well before that, during G.H.W. Bush's term, the Soviet Union's economy burned to the ground, yet it came as a great surprise to the pols and the public because neither State or our intelligence agencies ever reported even smelling any smoke.

Some of the people within these agencies have their own agendas, and they are career employees. Elected official come, and elected officials go. But the career employees go on and on until they finally retire.

So, if those career employees found policies more to their liking with President Obama, we should not be surprised that they were more fully embraced... regardless of the consequences for us common folk (although just now I'm willing to bet some career diplomats and State Department employees are in full c.y.a-mode).

1) it never ceases to amaze me that libs are so uncomfortable with the truth that young muslim males are the primary actors in terrorism and that they work so hard to turn a blind eye in order to show themselves as somehow morally superior to the rest of the world.

2) If people is State have a hard time with performing their job, then maybe they should join the rest of us out in the real world. Maybe it's just that the career leeches at State dislike actually having to work for a living and doing nothing about terrorism is so much easier. After all, preventing terrorism means work at State, letting 100's if not 1000's of people die just means a problem for the White House press office.

Let's not kid ourselves. The State Dept has for many years now not represented he people of the United States, nor has it represented virtually ANY administration.

State today represents the career lifer who doesn't want anyone rocking the boat, and the foreign governments they interact with. State spends more time trying to cozy up to every other nation rather than actually represent the interests of our country. This is true for both Dem and GOP administrations.

Quite frankly, there is a good argument for disbanding he State Dept. as a threat to our national security rather than Depts of Labor or Education. The latter two may be sources of graft and waste, but the corruption of State is one where they operate directly against our national interests.

"A U.S. State Department employee on the condition of anonymity because of concern that by speaking about the situation, their job could be endangered. "

Their job should be endangered.. Barrys too!

Just like the passengers lives were endangered by the idiocy of these buffoons.

The State Department did not want to isolate this guy on the off chance they were wrong and would make themselves look like they were profiling. This PC administration is going about changing all the protections GW put in place to keep us safe. Obama's first year and he had two terror attacks in our country. But, Obama is tired. Maybe after he rests. No. Not this putz. ww

jim m,

Quite frankly, there is a good argument for disbanding he State Dept. as a threat to our national security rather than Depts of Labor or Education. The latter two may be sources of graft and waste, but the corruption of State is one where they operate directly against our national interests.

Hmm but Dept of Labor is one of the reason that State acts the way they do. It all part of synergistic whole.

Students are constantly taught how Bad America and capitalism is. They are then told that war is never an option and diplomacy is paramount. With that as basis how do you expect state people to act.

Ahem.

Perhaps someone should point out that this is an anonymous blogger on a not-so-prestigious site claiming to be quoting, without verification, an anonymous bueaucrat who may or may not have his own parochial axe to grind. Just sayin'.

Well Bruce I don't see the State Dept tripping over themselves to explain why it is that they didn't get it right.

The fact is that the statement is congruent with past behavior of the agency. It has demonstrated itself to be bound by political correctness, and devoted to serving the interests of foreign governments and promoting foreign governments and their policies in DC rather than promoting US policies overseas.

If State had any credibility, we might conclude that this was just some crank. Unfortunately, State has no credibility. It has lost the sense that it serves the president and this nation and it serves itself and the lifetime bureaucrats who work there.

Ahem, Bruce
"....claiming to be quoting, without verification, an anonymous bueaucrat who may or may not have his own parochial axe to grind."

A simple question. Do read any newspapers or news magazines and if so may I ask which ones?

They don't call that place Foggy Bottom for nothing. Not because it is literally in a foggy bottom, but most of the people that put in ass time there are in a fog too. Some are in a drug induced fog, so they can say that they are not to blame for the mess we are in. With the current administration, the fog is thicker than usual.

"I get the impression"

That's a leftist for you....they always think they know what someone else is thinking or what their motivation is.

Good try at trying to defect Obama's failure to put national security first. If President Bush was responsible for 9/11 (no date, no names, no prior incidences of using airliners as bombs) according to you then Obama is doubly responsible since intelligence was given not only a time frame but also a name. And Obama did nothing to stop it.

15. Posted by Still An Unrepentant Democrat

So your assigning blame to Bush since he could have prevented 9/11 correct?

Still an Unregistered Democrat, please try to stay on topic. This thread is about the actions of a terrorist that occurred four days ago. It's not about George Bush.

16

I'm assigning responsibility to Bush because he was the president just as I'm assigning responsibility to Obama because he's the president.

Captain of the ship? Your watch? You're responsible.

Jamie Gorelick and Her intelligence wall is the missing link to 911 SAUD

Captain of the ship? Your watch? You're responsible.
18. Posted by Still An Unrepentant Democrat

Agree
No excuses about the previous job holder.
You want the job, as you mention, your responsible on day one.

I'm tired of being politically correct. Look where that has got us.

I'm going to pet the kitty the wrong way and if you don't like it, tough shat. I'm tired of dancing to their PC tune. Once in awhile you need to show people what's on your mind. I'm going to start showing them what I'm thinking and how their behavior pisses me off. (Like they care.) Maybe I'll get a drop of oil if I'm squeaky enough. It works for them. All they have to say is, "I'm offended."

Well, I'm offended. (How's that?)

Was I thinking out loud again?

SAUD "Captain of the ship? Your watch? You're responsible."

Ok then. This is for you and many of your fellow travelers who are quick to point at a few repubs for holding up the confirmation process of the new TSA bobblehead and others pointing at repubs for allegedly slashing TSA funds.

Are you as concerned about asswipe sen. dodd because he took/stole money away from aviation security to line the pockets of a fireman's union that supported his presidential campaign.

4.5 million dollars was to be used "for screening operations and explosives detection systems."

Instead it was used for firefighter grants. And BTW Sen. Lieberman and Sen. Carper co sponsored the amendment.

The sad thing is that in this case when Obama blames Bush he is in part right.

Ultimately of course he is wrong because he has had over a year to fix the mistakes of the Bush administration, but they were indeed mistakes. And of course it was Obama's embassy staff that the terrorist's dad talked to about a month ago. It wasn't Bush there a month ago. It was Obama.

But 2007 was still under Bush's watch and 2007 was when the Bush Administration let two terrorists out of Gitmo who then went on to plan this most recent attack.

Conservatives should not get defensive when Obama attacks Bush like this. Instead we should BEAT OBAMA TO THE PUNCH. We should say that indeed Obama is repeating the mistakes of the Bush adminstration. The American people would appreciate our honesty.

George W. Bush was one of the worse presidents in US history. Sure Obama is even worse but that doesn't erase the fact that George W. Bush was bad in his own right. Until we admit this we will never be able to move forward.

Again, Obama is in control now so blaming Bush for stuff that he should have corrected doesn't fly. But it would totally take the sails out of Obama for us to first blame Bush and blame Obama for continuing down the same path at an accelerated rate.

The CIA was also aware of Abulmutallab. Apparently no one cared, because the boy seemed more or less a loser. They were looking for pilot-terrorists like Atta, al-Shehhi, Hanjour, and Jarrah, or muscle-terrorists like the rest of the 9/11 hijackers.

They weren't looking for the idiot-loser-terrorist type. They forgot about Richard Reid.

Blaming Bush is hardly viable at this point, after nearly a year to review his policies and systems and recommend and institute changes nothing has been done at all. Besides, the key information on this guy came on Obama's watch, delivered by the man's own father to Obama's appointees. In addition, they had the British warning and no-fly restriction on him.

That Obama is over his head again here is evidenced by Abulmutallab being arrested as a criminal and permitted an attorney. He had already been talking his fool head off. Had he been taken as an enemy combatant and interviewed for a few hours by professional interrogators (no torture needed) without an attorney, he would have given them valuable details about the network which recruited him without any doubt. American and other innocent lives would be safeguarded.

But, nah! Give him a lawyer, let him shut up, offer him probational release if he signs up for "art therapy" classes.

Obama is a pathetic, spineless weasel.

Eventually the liberals are going to come to understand that the Islamic jihadists are at war with them. Liberals have told themselves for years that the jihadists are attacking bad America: the Christians, the conservatives, George W. Bush. As the jihadi attacks continue under Barack Hussein Obama, at least some of the liberals must eventually see the attacks are also aimed at killing/subjugating them.

At that time I expect the liberals to panic and try to surrender. Who are you going to surrender to, SAUD? Wouldn't it be better for you to figure that out beforehand?

Please tell us who you're going to surrender to, SAUD, so we can prepare also.

You folks are missing the spin. The liberal outlets are going crazy over the fact that a Republican Senator from SC, Jim DeMint, put a hold on the Obama appointee to head the TSA. DeMint says he wanted to know about unionizing the TSA. So, the TSA only has an "interim" administrator. (I suspect DeMint was in an intra-Senate pissing contest on some unrelated issue) Now, the NickerBomber shines a spotlight on DeMint. SOON, the Senator will be solely responsible for the bombing. The so-far unmentioned 2 ton elephant in the room is that the nominee is black and DeMint is from SC.

The Democrats gained the majority in Congress in 2006 by basically lying about terrorist surveillance. (Odd how we don't hear them whining about the "government spying on Americans" when the Democrats own the wiretaps.) It's ironic that surrendering the war on terror will help get the incompetent Democrats out of Congress. They'll be replaced by equally incompetent Republicans but at least they'll have a clear mandate to "Stop Obama."

Our nation's sole chance for survival is complete gridlock in Washington.

fderflier "Jim DeMint, put a hold on the Obama appointee to head the TSA."

As all those leftest nitwits bray at the moon over DeMint they ignore, or are too stupid to know, it took obama 245 days just to nominate someone to the TSA post.

No braying at the moon about that is there?

Let us play "who said the following" in March 2009?

Question: ..... in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word "terrorism." Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?

Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word "terrorism," I referred to "man-caused" disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

Our policies will be guided by authoritative information. We also have assets at our disposal now that we did not have prior to 9/11. For example, we are much better able to keep track of travellers coming into the US than we were before. The third thing is to work with our international partners and allies to make sure that we are getting information and sharing information in an appropriate and real-time fashion.

Our policies will be guided by authoritative information. We also have assets at our disposal now that we did not have prior to 9/11. For example, we are much better able to keep track of travellers coming into the US than we were before. The third thing is to work with our international partners and allies to make sure that we are getting information and sharing information in an appropriate and real-time fashion.

Thousands have registered with the ESTA program, and the rate of acceptance is around 98 percent. This new technology enables us to more thoroughly check who wants to visit our country.

Interesting isn't it? All have come to past right?

Well except tracking travellers, that hasn't worked out so well.

And that whole "politics of fear" thing is a Red Herring considering under this dimwits watch she and her dept issued a paper noting one great threat was returning American Soldiers who might become "radicalized" or join white supremacists groups.

I give odds of this asshole being fired by obama at one billion to one.

She's damn lucky not to be working for me, she'd be assigned as Head Shovel Carrier in a 300 elephant parade.

Where'd you get your info about the TSA nomination, Marc? Because it was my understanding that the guy was nominated last February. I could be wrong.

b henry... are you so intellectually lazy as to not be able to look yourself.

Obviously it is at some level yet you peer into your modem and see a reflection of someone who's dumb founded.

Your "understading" such as it is ... sucks.

"Open wide 'junior' veggies, even strained peas, are good for you? [search "obama nominates TSA administrator"]

Marc, thanks for the correction, even with the insults. My bad.

Not necessarily intellectually lazy, I just thought I had heard it on the radio. Guess I was wrong.

OK, maybe I'm a little bit lazy. Why so angry?

So DeMint has only held up the nomination for 3 months, and has no plans to release it, even after this incident. When will it be OK with the esteemed Senator to have an administrator in place?

I thought, according to the GOP, that presidential nominees deserved an "up-or-down vote." Or is that only for when the GOP holds the majority?

B henry... and at this point the vote is no from the repub side.

And BTW you have seen the latest on this guy right?

Seems as an FBI agent he used his power to surviel the boyfriend of and estranged wife.

The dems say so... that happened 20 years ago.

Problem is he told the current vetting process he hired someone else to tail his wide, said so on official papers.

NOW, he says WAAAAAAAIT, "I fucked up it was me who did the dirty deed not some guy/gal I hired."

So you see, it's more than potential unionization of the TSA it about a lying scumbag in a long line of lying scumbags obama has hired or attempted to hire.

I hadn't heard that.

So if he's a lying scumbag, maybe DeMint should release his hold, let the Senate have confirmation hearings, and the guy won't be confirmed. Then Obama can nominate someone else and we can get an administrator in place sooner rather than later.

But wait...using your office to influence a divorce/custody matter? Who does this guy think he is -- The governor of Alaska?

bh "So if he's a lying scumbag, maybe DeMint should release his hold, let the Senate have confirmation hearings, and the guy won't be confirmed.

Buwawahaha... right, you have [stupidly] placed to much confidence in these asshats. They confirmed that nutjob for science czar didn't they?

bh "But wait...using your office to influence a divorce/custody matter? Who does this guy think he is -- The governor of Alaska?"

Got your talking points from Levi Johnson didn't you.

Does that make you as much of a scardy cat pussy as he is?

Making unsubstantiated BS charges doesn't become you.

Some of these are jokes, ladies and gentlemen....is this thing on?