Suitably Flip

Homeland Security Chief: Who Needs Defense When You Have Luck?

Turns out "the system worked."

The system, apparently, is not designed to keep explosives and the watch-listed terrorists toting them off of commercial airliners.  The system is a coincidence generator, to be credited for seating sufficiently bold and quick-witted civilian passengers in the vicinity of trouble makers, able to intervene within seconds of any fuselage walls igniting in flame.

The Hero Of Northwest Flight 253

Jasper Schuringa takes the War on Terror Man-Made Disasters quite literally into his own hands.

The passenger who tackled a suspected terrorist on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 said Saturday that he’s “happy” to be alive.

Jasper Schuringa, a video director and producer from Amsterdam, told CNN how he helped the cabin crew to subdue Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old who reportedly ignited a small explosive device on board the plane Friday as it prepared to land in Detroit.

Schuringa said he heard a sound that reminded him of a firecracker and someone yelling, “Fire! Fire!”

But  he was only certain something was wrong when he saw smoke. He saw Abdulmutallab's pants open and he was holding a burning object between his legs.

"I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands and threw it away," Schuringa said.

He said he then screamed for water and pulled Abdulmutallab out of his seat and dragged him to the front of the plane.

Schuringa told CNN that Abdulmutallab seemed out of it and "was staring into nothing."

To ensure the suspect did not have other explosives on his body, Schuringa stripped off Abdulmutallab's clothes. He then handcuffed the alleged attacker with the help of a crew member.

Schuringa said the other passengers applauded as he returned to his seat and that he sustained minor injuries during the take down.

"My hands are pretty burned. I am fine," he said. "I am shaken up. I am happy to be here."

(HT: Brutally Honest)

Senators Go On Record Over "Cash For Cloture"

Jim DeMint's referendum on the practice of bribing Senators to vote for bills they otherwise oppose yielded some interesting results - most notably, the fact that only 53 of 60 Democrats were willing to rule it fair play.

(Funny.  If us regular folks tried to sell our votes, we'd wind up in prison.)

The ban on trading pork for votes thus failed 53-46, but a bunch of 2010 (and 2012 and 2014) campaign ads just wrote themselves.

And Then There Were 60, Again

For a 1:00 am procedural vote that will be step 1 of, um, some large number of steps required for the Senate to fully excrete the healthcare bill into actual passage.

And Then There Were 59

So long, Obamacare.  See you in 2010 (maybe).

“Climategate just got much, much bigger."

But the underlying science is still good.  It just has to be.

Barry Officially Least Popular Modern President

No other has matched the public antipathy he's secured by December of his first year in office.

As the year comes to a close, he's still in positive territory, but not by much. The latest survey, taken Friday through Sunday, puts the president's approval at 49%-46%. That is Obama's narrowest margin of the year, with his approval matching his low point in early October and his disapproval matching his high point later that month.

In comparison to the approval ratings for modern elected presidents in December of their first year in office, Obama's standing is the worst, though he's close to Ronald Reagan. In December 1981, Reagan's approval rating was also 49%, though his disapproval rating was a bit lower, 41%.

Gallup Poll ratings for the others: George W. Bush was at 86%, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; John Kennedy at 77%; the elder George Bush at 71%; Dwight Eisenhower at 69%; Richard Nixon at 59%; Jimmy Carter at 57%; and Bill Clinton at 54%.

Gitmo Terrorists Welcomed To Land of Lincoln 11-Day Prison Sentences For Violent Offenders

Via Jawa, the President's home state, having been tapped to import - um - undocumented jihadists, is having trouble keeping its own civilian prisoners behind bars.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Critics heaped scorn on Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Monday over a secret prison program that allowed hundreds of inmates — some violent offenders — to be released early, including some who only spent 11 days behind bars.

An Associated Press report released Sunday showed that more than 850 inmates — including repeat drunk drivers, drug users and even people convicted of battery and weapons violations — were released early under the program since September.

This happened because the Corrections Department abandoned a policy that all prisoners serve at least 61 days and gave inmates months of good-time credit upfront.

Quinn ordered a "top-to-bottom" review of the practice on Sunday after seeing the AP report. The Democrat would not say on Monday whether Corrections Director Michael Randle told him about the unpublicized practice, which is separate from an early release program of 1,000 inmates Quinn announced in September to save money in a budget crisis.

Obama Year-One Report Card: It's a B+!

A "good solid B+" no less.  A mere rounding error from an A-.

I'm not wholly convinced of the neutrality of the grader though...

President Barack Obama, in an interview that aired Sunday, gave himself "a good solid B-plus" grade for his first year in office.

Speaking with fellow Chicagoan Oprah Winfrey, the president claimed progress on economic and international fronts.

Indeed.  On unemployment alone, he scores a perfect 10.0, where his abject failure of a predecessor averaged a mere 5.3.

(HT: Ace)

Update:  Helluva curve.  B+ apparently now begins at 44%.

Millions At Least 3 Jobs Created Or Saved

While professional services types and blue collar workers in insufficiently politically palatable industries remain unstimulated, it's boom time for road pavers, solar panel installers and... Democratic pollsters.

Nearly $6 million in stimulus money was paid to two firms run by Mark Penn ... Hillary Clinton’s pollster in 2008.

Federal records show that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus helped preserve three jobs at Burson-Marsteller, the global public-relations and communications firm headed by Penn.

(HT: JWF)

Conflict-Escalating Warmonger To Accept Peace Prize as "War President"

As much as it pains me to say it, good on Barry.  We know it tears at the fiber of his being to contemplate a non-cloying non-placation of the euro-weenie crowd that's counting on him to formally acknowledge the hideous imperialist bloodlust that informs American foreign policy.

There’ll be no effort by Barack Obama to disguise or obscure the fact that he’s a war president when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Thursday…

The judges said they selected Mr. Obama to honor “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

But asked specifically if Mr. Obama will be accepting the Nobel Peace Prize as a war president, spokesman Gibbs was unambiguous. “Exactly,” he stated bluntly.
...
He can be expected to argue that the U.S. is escalating in Afghanistan in the cause of peace.

(HT: Allah)

Where Am I?

Busy, as it turns out.  Sorry for the radio silence here over the last many days.  I know it's tricky to navigate the day's affairs without benefit of my insights and biting cynicism.

I read in someone's cockamamie and self-indulgent "blogging best practices" post shortly after launching this site back in 2005 that you should never apologize for posting lapses.  You should just get back to posting.  Alas, I'm unable to do so in any meaningful way at the moment, but it shouldn't be much longer.  Stop in on Monday and we'll see what we can do.

Still, at the risk of angering the God of Blogging Best Practices, I thought I'd at least offer up a mea culpa and a stay-tuned in the meantime.