One 2010 U.S. Senate candidate who raised some of the most campaign dollars out of anyone in America is Rand Paul. In a tight primary race in Kentucky Paul faces Trey Grayson, current Kentucky Secretary of State who's backed by the Republican establishment. While Grayson has raised an impressive $1.1 million so far, dark horse Rand Paul has raised $1.7 million just since he began campaigning this fall. And in a recent independent poll, Paul showed stunning competitiveness as he edged favorite Grayson by nearly 15% points amongst likely Republican voters.
Rand Paul is one of the few truly independents, unbought and unbossed, whose once dim chance of election into the Senate brightens each day. His views are nearly identical to his father's, Ron Paul, former 2008 presidential candidate. He professes libertarian views which advocate limiting the scope of the federal government, specifically by cutting taxes and anti-competitive entitlements, eliminating bureaucratic waste and maximizing individual liberty. His anti-bailout, anti-corporatist rhetoric has obviously demonstrated solidarity with a large contingency of concerned Kentuckians who are sick with the way Washington does business. It is no secret the special interest run the country and in Rand Paul, a competitive alternative to the pay-to-play state emerges.
His sensible, common-man approach to tackling perplexing issues impresses and his ability to advocate for a government run by the People trumpets good old-fashioned honesty in steep contrast to the co-opted movements whose deceptive slogans entice but offer little content.
America is ready for fresh faces, but not yet wholly competent for fresh ideas. Paul embodies the necessary new ideas which are in fact very old. But its starkly practical and prescient solutions are revolutionizing. And Paul is an excellent messenger to usher in a new era of political awareness and autonomy.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Neo-Racism and the War on Terror
On Monday, the administration of President Barack Obama announced that due to the failed Christmas Day attack on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Transportation Security Administration has announced the induction of mandatory full body scanning along with extra security checks and searches for people traveling to the United States from nations that are "state-sponsors of terror". Due to one alleged act of tried terror, people (including U.S. citizens) flying from Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran and Lebanon, will now be required to be essentially strip searched while similar restrictions appear to await U.S. citizens flying domestically.
A highlighted map of these marked countries almost appears like a strange elongated seatbelt band stretching across north Africa and the Middle East. Including mostly majority Muslim nations too, the TSA has upped the ante on th4e screening of the most laughable and stereotypical terror suspect. For the first time in U.S. history, race and country of origin are now the primary conditions or requirements rather to gain access to passage into the new world.
For those living in these blacklisted countries, they are now (for the first time since 19th century-style imperialism) officially internationally recognized as subhuman and inferior to the many shades of what now qualifies as white. This designation parallels another ideology remarkably similar to the last century's greatest tyrants. And not only are these people inferior, they are assumed dangerous and at that an imminent threat to all people everywhere. The preposterous notion propounded by the U.S. government is simply that that's what they get for being non-white in the wrong place.
In this wicked form of neo-racism, those inferior are assumed guilty and must first prove their innocence. If they choose not to cooperate, places like Guantanamo Bay await them.
Not only is this neo-racism bigotry at best, it's alarming to other nations who view the War on Terror as an ideological lever used ever so skillfully by the West to achieve shadowy political and economic objectives. And worse, it's a strategy bound to make fast enemies and quickly turn long time allies into ardent foes.
Perhaps the most humorous part of this debacle of white supremacist policy is that their own regulation is ultimately unenforceable as foreign nations staff and direct their own airport security in their own fashion, regardless of what President Obama may choose to pompously dictate to them. Already, journalists are reporting no change in airport security in the blacklisted countries.
There is little the U.S. can do to police the world anymore at a time when more smaller countries demand a larger voice in world affairs. While a clash may not be eminent, America in arrogance will only suffer and become a 'rogue' state as it already is in the eyes of much of the globe. While airport security is important, leaders should not play politics with the chauvinistic white supremacist policies that seek to harass, punish and harm those merely for existing as equal human beings.
A highlighted map of these marked countries almost appears like a strange elongated seatbelt band stretching across north Africa and the Middle East. Including mostly majority Muslim nations too, the TSA has upped the ante on th4e screening of the most laughable and stereotypical terror suspect. For the first time in U.S. history, race and country of origin are now the primary conditions or requirements rather to gain access to passage into the new world.
For those living in these blacklisted countries, they are now (for the first time since 19th century-style imperialism) officially internationally recognized as subhuman and inferior to the many shades of what now qualifies as white. This designation parallels another ideology remarkably similar to the last century's greatest tyrants. And not only are these people inferior, they are assumed dangerous and at that an imminent threat to all people everywhere. The preposterous notion propounded by the U.S. government is simply that that's what they get for being non-white in the wrong place.
In this wicked form of neo-racism, those inferior are assumed guilty and must first prove their innocence. If they choose not to cooperate, places like Guantanamo Bay await them.
Not only is this neo-racism bigotry at best, it's alarming to other nations who view the War on Terror as an ideological lever used ever so skillfully by the West to achieve shadowy political and economic objectives. And worse, it's a strategy bound to make fast enemies and quickly turn long time allies into ardent foes.
Perhaps the most humorous part of this debacle of white supremacist policy is that their own regulation is ultimately unenforceable as foreign nations staff and direct their own airport security in their own fashion, regardless of what President Obama may choose to pompously dictate to them. Already, journalists are reporting no change in airport security in the blacklisted countries.
There is little the U.S. can do to police the world anymore at a time when more smaller countries demand a larger voice in world affairs. While a clash may not be eminent, America in arrogance will only suffer and become a 'rogue' state as it already is in the eyes of much of the globe. While airport security is important, leaders should not play politics with the chauvinistic white supremacist policies that seek to harass, punish and harm those merely for existing as equal human beings.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
U.S. Forces Attack Militants, Schoolchildren Alike in Afghanistan
In another shocking twist in the never-ending War on Terror, Jerome Starkey of The Times of London reported last week of a chilling special-operation which claimed the lives of over eight Afghanis in Ghazi Khan, a village in eastern Kunar province.
The U.S. continues to cower behind blanket-naming those among the dead in the war zone as "militant insurgents". However, upon closer examination and information gleaned from several eye witness account, it now appears that seven of those killed were children, shamelessly slaughtered after being rustled out of bed in the chambers of an Afghan boarding school.
Most damagingly, the school's headmaster reported the deliberate way in which the students ranging from ages 11 to 17 were killed. Other reports describe the students handcuffed before being summarily executed. Starkey reports that even President Hamid Karzai, the notoriously corrupt U.S. puppet acknowledged and condemned the slaying of the youngsters on his website.
In deliberately targeting civilians and minors as fair game, U.S. troops have made their situation as perennial occupiers untenable and increasingly dangerous. Little logical support can be parlayed for such actions when the nearly 100,000 strong foreign forces outnumber any still left Taliban by hundreds to one.
The War now lapses into the unnavigable, much like the Soviet-Afghan did when the effort disintegrated as early as 1983.
The history of empire is eminent and if nature has its way, little will come of a prolonged occupation already bordering on a nine years. Yet, in the new age of blowback and technological parity between strong and weak nations alike, a retaliation could be forthcoming far down the line. For a child whose best friend shed blood and cruelly paid the price, revenge for the gross atrocity will be no difficult matter. America eventually will face the repulse of such hate and malice now force-fed by our own soldiers to Afghan children.
If any morally reprehensible solution may come to sight, an investigation into the gruesome killings that occurred at Ghazi Khan must be forged. For even this small conciliation of a hearing may at the very least change attitudes to show American people do care no matter how cruel the dark special forces who portend to represent them may act.
The U.S. continues to cower behind blanket-naming those among the dead in the war zone as "militant insurgents". However, upon closer examination and information gleaned from several eye witness account, it now appears that seven of those killed were children, shamelessly slaughtered after being rustled out of bed in the chambers of an Afghan boarding school.
Most damagingly, the school's headmaster reported the deliberate way in which the students ranging from ages 11 to 17 were killed. Other reports describe the students handcuffed before being summarily executed. Starkey reports that even President Hamid Karzai, the notoriously corrupt U.S. puppet acknowledged and condemned the slaying of the youngsters on his website.
In deliberately targeting civilians and minors as fair game, U.S. troops have made their situation as perennial occupiers untenable and increasingly dangerous. Little logical support can be parlayed for such actions when the nearly 100,000 strong foreign forces outnumber any still left Taliban by hundreds to one.
The War now lapses into the unnavigable, much like the Soviet-Afghan did when the effort disintegrated as early as 1983.
The history of empire is eminent and if nature has its way, little will come of a prolonged occupation already bordering on a nine years. Yet, in the new age of blowback and technological parity between strong and weak nations alike, a retaliation could be forthcoming far down the line. For a child whose best friend shed blood and cruelly paid the price, revenge for the gross atrocity will be no difficult matter. America eventually will face the repulse of such hate and malice now force-fed by our own soldiers to Afghan children.
If any morally reprehensible solution may come to sight, an investigation into the gruesome killings that occurred at Ghazi Khan must be forged. For even this small conciliation of a hearing may at the very least change attitudes to show American people do care no matter how cruel the dark special forces who portend to represent them may act.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Shrieks for Full-Body Scanners Grow
Power is unwielding and intoxicatingly opportunist so that upon each hint of possible crisis becomes a welcome chance to enact radical and sweeping change. It was Rahm Emanuel, presidential Chief of Staff who put it best when he told the Wall Street Journal, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." "And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you that you didn't think you could do before."
After the failed Christmas Day plane bombing, another fearful atmosphere of crisis now prevails. While Americans remain aware of the attack, the general non-chalance toward the so-called failed terrorist attack contrasts starkly with the behooved huffing voices on the District of Columbia's congressional floor.
News reports over the weekend indicate increased congressional calls to intervene in Department of Homeland Security policies setting Transportation Security Administration procedures of screening passengers boarding aircraft in the United States. In particular, loud voices call for legislation enacting mandatory full-body scanning of all passengers.
To those unaware, full body imaging entails passengers being X-rayed, similar to what occurs to carry-on luggage. These high-ray machines produce lifelike bodily images of subjects, literally seeing entirely through all clothing, revealing a nude image.
Yet, the TSA insists their scanning limits what remote scanners view as facial features and genitalia are blurred. The TSA also maintains viewers monitoring the scans are placed in a remote location unable to see or be seen by the photographed subject.
Legislation mandating high X-ray scan imaging whose product borders on pornographic and involves certain moral and ethical violations, if not legal crimes, should never be forced on American people simply attempting to travel. If enacted, disastrous results will follow and an even greater curtailment of liberty will ensue. Domestic and international travel will become grounded and the world will revert to an isolationism in travel far grander than ever existed during Cold War times. Full body image scanning must be stopped!
Congress' hawkish calls to punitively harass, humiliate and degrade the blameless traveling public are open warfare upon the American People. These calls remain incongruous with public opinion and imply regulations which are legally questionable and ethically bereft. If the Union is to survive intact and in spirit, liberty must be preserved. For what little remains, the Union may, as some suggest, be beyond the pale.
After the failed Christmas Day plane bombing, another fearful atmosphere of crisis now prevails. While Americans remain aware of the attack, the general non-chalance toward the so-called failed terrorist attack contrasts starkly with the behooved huffing voices on the District of Columbia's congressional floor.
News reports over the weekend indicate increased congressional calls to intervene in Department of Homeland Security policies setting Transportation Security Administration procedures of screening passengers boarding aircraft in the United States. In particular, loud voices call for legislation enacting mandatory full-body scanning of all passengers.
To those unaware, full body imaging entails passengers being X-rayed, similar to what occurs to carry-on luggage. These high-ray machines produce lifelike bodily images of subjects, literally seeing entirely through all clothing, revealing a nude image.
Yet, the TSA insists their scanning limits what remote scanners view as facial features and genitalia are blurred. The TSA also maintains viewers monitoring the scans are placed in a remote location unable to see or be seen by the photographed subject.
Legislation mandating high X-ray scan imaging whose product borders on pornographic and involves certain moral and ethical violations, if not legal crimes, should never be forced on American people simply attempting to travel. If enacted, disastrous results will follow and an even greater curtailment of liberty will ensue. Domestic and international travel will become grounded and the world will revert to an isolationism in travel far grander than ever existed during Cold War times. Full body image scanning must be stopped!
Congress' hawkish calls to punitively harass, humiliate and degrade the blameless traveling public are open warfare upon the American People. These calls remain incongruous with public opinion and imply regulations which are legally questionable and ethically bereft. If the Union is to survive intact and in spirit, liberty must be preserved. For what little remains, the Union may, as some suggest, be beyond the pale.
Interest Rate 2010: How Low Can You Go?
As 2010 brings new air to life, the Federal Reserve Bank decides to keep it like the old. Carrying record-low interest rates (for inter-bank lending), the Fed's hypocrisy reaches similar ridiculous heights. At 0.25%, the interest rate has remained rock bottom since December 2008 in an effort to stem the abruptly relaxed tide of inflation originally set to be unleashed in coincidence with the global economic meltdown of 2008-09.
The pattern mirrors a similarly eruptive time during the early '00's when interest rates held low at 3-4%, then down from the 'normal' 7-8% during the late '80s and early '90s. But what deflated interest rates really mean is that the dollar-presses will be ratched up in an effort to print out a record cache of federal reserve notes which will greater devalue the American dollar, domestically and abroad.
There is no new sign the Fed will raise interest rates, an act which would undoubtedly bring sharp inflation an harsh despair to many. But while raising interest rates would adversely affect man, putting off this ultimately necessary measure will only delay and increase the enormous burden of the fettered crisis.
Not only is it irresponsible to not account for the fabulously speculative heights of unhealthy lending, it is criminal in practice as it saddles future generations with heaps of insurmountable debt for which they never personally incurred.
The Fed's failure to address this crucial decision only unmasks their mimed benevolence and tears apart their facade of stability. It is increasingly clear the ineptitude of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner are prolonging the economic crisis and corruptly rewarding the very entities whose criminal irresponsibility robbed the wealth of a blind nation.
It is upon the Fed for the burden of proof to fall. If interest rates are not raised the necessary 8-9% or even greater in the next year, and it is not done before foreign nations take action to dump the American dollar as the primary oil trading unit, America will face an economic collapse so grand it will make the enduring Recession look like a small down blip in the abysmal line charting economic stagnation.
The writing is on the wall. If we are to allow business to survive, it is fast time for the Fed to change how it does business.
The pattern mirrors a similarly eruptive time during the early '00's when interest rates held low at 3-4%, then down from the 'normal' 7-8% during the late '80s and early '90s. But what deflated interest rates really mean is that the dollar-presses will be ratched up in an effort to print out a record cache of federal reserve notes which will greater devalue the American dollar, domestically and abroad.
There is no new sign the Fed will raise interest rates, an act which would undoubtedly bring sharp inflation an harsh despair to many. But while raising interest rates would adversely affect man, putting off this ultimately necessary measure will only delay and increase the enormous burden of the fettered crisis.
Not only is it irresponsible to not account for the fabulously speculative heights of unhealthy lending, it is criminal in practice as it saddles future generations with heaps of insurmountable debt for which they never personally incurred.
The Fed's failure to address this crucial decision only unmasks their mimed benevolence and tears apart their facade of stability. It is increasingly clear the ineptitude of Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner are prolonging the economic crisis and corruptly rewarding the very entities whose criminal irresponsibility robbed the wealth of a blind nation.
It is upon the Fed for the burden of proof to fall. If interest rates are not raised the necessary 8-9% or even greater in the next year, and it is not done before foreign nations take action to dump the American dollar as the primary oil trading unit, America will face an economic collapse so grand it will make the enduring Recession look like a small down blip in the abysmal line charting economic stagnation.
The writing is on the wall. If we are to allow business to survive, it is fast time for the Fed to change how it does business.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
2000s
The decade that brought us Y2K and the growing uneasiness, among the more zanier elements of the population. It's the decade that gave us internet primacy and the birth of the professional internet. Incorporation of technology in our lifestyles reached seamless new heights. And the old dazzle of corporate television waned on, imploding into reality show obscurity.
Overall, it was a decade wrought by dramatics. There was glam in the rise of SUV Hummers and the jolt of the coming of age of gay acceptance. There was decadence in the lavishness of corporate pleasure and even greater deceit and pomposity in the great halls of power. There was terror and the aftershock and the aftermath from it we now know.
The rise of laptops and cell phones certainly changed us, for better or for worse, although I tend to believe the latter. And although the American nation spent the entire decade sitting in the den of treacherous wolves while being sabotaged in a top-down Ponzi scheme, a mild social evolution took place. Questions seemed more important than before. Authority never seemed so crooked and evidently rigged. The bad guys kept on winning, while most kept counting precious dollars shredded away on the rising prices of wheat, milk, corn and meat. Nothing could be taken as absolute anymore. Attitudes mellowed and some of the former 'rules' of the game no longer exist. Yet, while this instance produced certain positive change, there remain lamentable losses due to this new embodiment of Americana.
The peak and fall of the development of suburbia signnalled a new age and 'urban renewal' in the form of gentrification irked millions and uprooted thousands. A decade of lost opportunity and unfulfilled dreams was it in some ways. The shutting down of America and her proud business establishments was more than disheartening, gutwrenching really. Even worse, the intelligence of the nation faced continual insults and the movie industry's made-in-Hollywood trademark factory movie complex marched intellectual filmwork off the screen.
But not all I've mentioned was bad. Much good still rocked the '00s, it just got a little harder to find.
Nevertheless New Year's Eve promenades on and the passion, heartache and joy of the '00s will pass. The decade will continue in modern memory as a pivotal era in the history of mankind. But either way, its victores and pitfalls are now enshrined. May the 2010s carry on.
Overall, it was a decade wrought by dramatics. There was glam in the rise of SUV Hummers and the jolt of the coming of age of gay acceptance. There was decadence in the lavishness of corporate pleasure and even greater deceit and pomposity in the great halls of power. There was terror and the aftershock and the aftermath from it we now know.
The rise of laptops and cell phones certainly changed us, for better or for worse, although I tend to believe the latter. And although the American nation spent the entire decade sitting in the den of treacherous wolves while being sabotaged in a top-down Ponzi scheme, a mild social evolution took place. Questions seemed more important than before. Authority never seemed so crooked and evidently rigged. The bad guys kept on winning, while most kept counting precious dollars shredded away on the rising prices of wheat, milk, corn and meat. Nothing could be taken as absolute anymore. Attitudes mellowed and some of the former 'rules' of the game no longer exist. Yet, while this instance produced certain positive change, there remain lamentable losses due to this new embodiment of Americana.
The peak and fall of the development of suburbia signnalled a new age and 'urban renewal' in the form of gentrification irked millions and uprooted thousands. A decade of lost opportunity and unfulfilled dreams was it in some ways. The shutting down of America and her proud business establishments was more than disheartening, gutwrenching really. Even worse, the intelligence of the nation faced continual insults and the movie industry's made-in-Hollywood trademark factory movie complex marched intellectual filmwork off the screen.
But not all I've mentioned was bad. Much good still rocked the '00s, it just got a little harder to find.
Nevertheless New Year's Eve promenades on and the passion, heartache and joy of the '00s will pass. The decade will continue in modern memory as a pivotal era in the history of mankind. But either way, its victores and pitfalls are now enshrined. May the 2010s carry on.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Enhanced: Security State
As the aftermath of the attempted Christmas Day plane bombing sizzles on, an internal debate is raging amongst populace and ruling class alike over the lessons learned by this foiled plot. While much of the political commentary provided by CNN, the New York Times and the BBC focuses on the security breaches by alleged hijacker Farouk Abdulmutallb, few have dared discuss the motivations behind the attack.
And in the wake of the hatched plan, the conversation turns to the failure of security. In evaluating this topic, however, the analyses given by the so-called "experts" fail to pass the bar.
With reports indicating that the Nigerian born student acted in response to U.S. bombings in Yemen in early December that killed nearly 100 (reportedly including many civilian deaths), no newscaster will discuss the importance of such motivation in preventing future similar attacks.
While President Obama announced a comprehensive TSA airport security review in both intelligence-related and physical screening procedures shortly after the attempted bombing, it is unlikely even with more restrictive procedures that the American public will be made any safer.
To pursue a response-activated strategy that is guided by the principle we must retroactively address possible threats by insulating ourselves with another 'layer' of security is pure fallacy. If anything, more invasive physical screening procedures for average Americans will distract from true threats. With a "stay-the-course" foreign policy continued into the 2010s, threats remain possible and likely.
It is clear terrorism became a political football long ago. But as it continues in a new era, there appears no end to the Democratic-Republican enforced use of it to scare the people, then coddle them in an effort to break their will. By discouraging simple freedoms and introducing new humiliating screening procedures, which are at best, invasive of privacy and morally dubious, the American government is clear in its message of retributive action against the People, who are evidently blameless in the intelligence security breach which occurred on Christmas Day.
After investigation, Farouk Abdulmutallab was actually on a terror-watch list but was not flagged before boarding his flight. Clearly, there was a failure of screening on the front line intelligence level, which remains the best tool for authorities in the modern War on Terror. However, when this very list does not serve its purpose and the suspect's fathers reported him to authorities over two months prior to the incident, questions arise as to the viability of international security. Some have even suggested Abdulmutallab was helped to board the plan without holding a passport, aided by a well-dressed and explanatory American. While unsubstantiated, it certainly adds to the questions of how Abdulmutallab passed through security and who may have assisted in the act.
Simply put, security is not perfect nor will it ever be close to it. It is especially true with an organization as inefficient as the federal government running it. To expect the government (honestly folks, only so limited) to protect every person pre-emptively from any violent act in any part of a giant nation of 300 million people is absurd and untenable.
Just imagine the attempt! Stationed police and screeners at every private business or public place, all in efforts to "prevent terror". How far does this faulty paradigm have to go? What type of sane society would ever accept this arrangement!?
Stereotypically, the government has again decided to collectively punish an entire nation for one failure of airport security in a foreign land. Clearly, the failure here occurred due to negligence on behalf of Dutch and Nigerian authorities, not those working at the TSA. Mind yhou, the whole incident even ended prior to the plane touching down in Detroit, Michigan. And at that, the heroes of the failed attempt at terror were in fact those who will now be punished retroactively.
Without recourse or even a frank public debate, it appears the sheltered security-obsessed screening bureaucrats will win the day with morally-misguided and further repressive screening. Passengers have to contend with possible passage of a federally-backed "Rules of Behavior" enforced in all airports and all planes nationwide, and perhaps internationally. As Peter Greenberg of CBS reports, the more extreme of the privately-implemented security reforms in recent days include provisions prohibiting passengers from accessing any carry-on items for a whole hour prior to landing.
As old Aunt Ethel will be scolded and shunted for trying to finish that last page of the chapter in that paperback romance novel, little time will be left to deal with real possible threats who've been flagged by intelligence communities.
Meanwhile, political commentators call for mandatory full-body image screening for each person boarding aircraft in the United States, and this time with no "pat-down option". For those who are unfamiliar with full-body image scanning, the machine takes amazingly lifelike X-ray body photographs, seeing entirely through all clothes and producing a real nude image, with genitalia and facial images later blocked out from the generated picture.
Yet, it remains hard to believe agent Jim won't be looking even for a split second at grandma's kahoonies or little Tommy's rear. To assure against this possibility, the TSA has assured the American public no images are ever recorded and that all private parts are scrambled.
While it's likely there will be some compromise on this highly debatable front, security will be tightened in upcoming times and the American people will face greated frustration with the TSA. Fronted by the Department of Homeland Security as a self-appointed agency, the TSA is too laughably a creature of its own creation. 'Til that creature seriously catches up with reality and the reckoning of Americans, it is assured to drown in its own inept mediocrity and ineffectiveness.
And in the wake of the hatched plan, the conversation turns to the failure of security. In evaluating this topic, however, the analyses given by the so-called "experts" fail to pass the bar.
With reports indicating that the Nigerian born student acted in response to U.S. bombings in Yemen in early December that killed nearly 100 (reportedly including many civilian deaths), no newscaster will discuss the importance of such motivation in preventing future similar attacks.
While President Obama announced a comprehensive TSA airport security review in both intelligence-related and physical screening procedures shortly after the attempted bombing, it is unlikely even with more restrictive procedures that the American public will be made any safer.
To pursue a response-activated strategy that is guided by the principle we must retroactively address possible threats by insulating ourselves with another 'layer' of security is pure fallacy. If anything, more invasive physical screening procedures for average Americans will distract from true threats. With a "stay-the-course" foreign policy continued into the 2010s, threats remain possible and likely.
It is clear terrorism became a political football long ago. But as it continues in a new era, there appears no end to the Democratic-Republican enforced use of it to scare the people, then coddle them in an effort to break their will. By discouraging simple freedoms and introducing new humiliating screening procedures, which are at best, invasive of privacy and morally dubious, the American government is clear in its message of retributive action against the People, who are evidently blameless in the intelligence security breach which occurred on Christmas Day.
After investigation, Farouk Abdulmutallab was actually on a terror-watch list but was not flagged before boarding his flight. Clearly, there was a failure of screening on the front line intelligence level, which remains the best tool for authorities in the modern War on Terror. However, when this very list does not serve its purpose and the suspect's fathers reported him to authorities over two months prior to the incident, questions arise as to the viability of international security. Some have even suggested Abdulmutallab was helped to board the plan without holding a passport, aided by a well-dressed and explanatory American. While unsubstantiated, it certainly adds to the questions of how Abdulmutallab passed through security and who may have assisted in the act.
Simply put, security is not perfect nor will it ever be close to it. It is especially true with an organization as inefficient as the federal government running it. To expect the government (honestly folks, only so limited) to protect every person pre-emptively from any violent act in any part of a giant nation of 300 million people is absurd and untenable.
Just imagine the attempt! Stationed police and screeners at every private business or public place, all in efforts to "prevent terror". How far does this faulty paradigm have to go? What type of sane society would ever accept this arrangement!?
Stereotypically, the government has again decided to collectively punish an entire nation for one failure of airport security in a foreign land. Clearly, the failure here occurred due to negligence on behalf of Dutch and Nigerian authorities, not those working at the TSA. Mind yhou, the whole incident even ended prior to the plane touching down in Detroit, Michigan. And at that, the heroes of the failed attempt at terror were in fact those who will now be punished retroactively.
Without recourse or even a frank public debate, it appears the sheltered security-obsessed screening bureaucrats will win the day with morally-misguided and further repressive screening. Passengers have to contend with possible passage of a federally-backed "Rules of Behavior" enforced in all airports and all planes nationwide, and perhaps internationally. As Peter Greenberg of CBS reports, the more extreme of the privately-implemented security reforms in recent days include provisions prohibiting passengers from accessing any carry-on items for a whole hour prior to landing.
As old Aunt Ethel will be scolded and shunted for trying to finish that last page of the chapter in that paperback romance novel, little time will be left to deal with real possible threats who've been flagged by intelligence communities.
Meanwhile, political commentators call for mandatory full-body image screening for each person boarding aircraft in the United States, and this time with no "pat-down option". For those who are unfamiliar with full-body image scanning, the machine takes amazingly lifelike X-ray body photographs, seeing entirely through all clothes and producing a real nude image, with genitalia and facial images later blocked out from the generated picture.
Yet, it remains hard to believe agent Jim won't be looking even for a split second at grandma's kahoonies or little Tommy's rear. To assure against this possibility, the TSA has assured the American public no images are ever recorded and that all private parts are scrambled.
While it's likely there will be some compromise on this highly debatable front, security will be tightened in upcoming times and the American people will face greated frustration with the TSA. Fronted by the Department of Homeland Security as a self-appointed agency, the TSA is too laughably a creature of its own creation. 'Til that creature seriously catches up with reality and the reckoning of Americans, it is assured to drown in its own inept mediocrity and ineffectiveness.
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