More on creepy terrorist guy

ABC's Jake Tapper had an interesting series of tweets tonight about the guy who tried to blow up the Northwest jet from Amsterdam to Detroit:

1) May 09 UK denies him a visa for claiming he'd study at bogus university. Per Home Secy that immediately put him on watchlist in UK.

(2) Nov 19, his father- a respected banker- reports son to US Embassy in Nigeria, says he's being radicalized in Yemen....

(3) Dec 16 he buys $3K ticket WITH CASH from KLM office in Ghana. Gives no address or contact info

(4) Dec 24 he boards plan in Nigeria for roundtrip multiday flight to US WITH NO LUGGAGE

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New Year's resolutions mostly fail

But the good news is, there are ways that work. After failing in the past to get started, earlier this year I decided to take small, steady steps and so far, so good with my exercise plans. Along those lines but much more impressive than my results is this story. The Guardian:

Of the 78% who failed, many had focused on the downside of not achieving the goals; they had suppressed their cravings, fantasised about being successful, and adopted a role model or relied on willpower alone.

"Many of these ideas are frequently recommended by self-help experts but our results suggest that they simply don't work," Wiseman said. "If you are trying to lose weight, it's not enough to stick a picture of a model on your fridge or fantasise about being slimmer."

On the other hand, people who kept their resolutions tended to have broken their goal into smaller steps and rewarded themselves when they achieved one of these. They also told their friends about their goals, focused on the benefits of success and kept a diary of their progress.

People who planned a series of smaller goals had an average success rate of 35%, while those who followed all five of the above strategies had a 50% chance of success, the study found.

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Republicans Who Opposed The Stimulus Continue To Pan It As A ‘Failure,’ While Also Taking Credit For Its Success

ThinkProgress:

Every Republican in the House and nearly every Republican Senator voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (also known as the stimulus). Although the Congressional Budget Office has credited the stimulus with creating up to 1.6 million jobs, the same GOP politicians who opposed the stimulus have attempted to justify their opposition to the policy by smearing it as a failure. But as ThinkProgress has documented, the same politicians are returning to their districts to take credit for the economic success of the stimulus.

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ABC gets photos of the bomber's explosive underwear; was more than enough to blow hole in side of plane

From ABC News:

It is a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams.

A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001.

The underpants bomb would have been one and a half times as powerful.

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Wash Post says it's time to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell

And Barney Frank said we should expect to see the legislation attached to the Defense Authorization bill this year. As Joe notes, that means we should expect to see the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell reflected in the President's budget submitted to Congress the first week of February. That is, after all, where the administration signals what it wants Congress to do that year. Read More......

ABC: Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by Bush in 2007

It seems Mr. Cheney will have some explaining to do. The Gitmo detainees were sent to Saudi Arabia, where they underwent "art therapy," and then were set free. But now the Republicans have a problem with President Obama wanting to try suspected terrorists in US courts. Maybe if we promise the maximum sentence will be "art therapy," the Republicans will come on board. Read More......

Homeland Security Secretary Napolitanon now admits the system failed

Yesterday, DHS Secretary Napolitano was either arrogant or tone deaf when she said the airline security system worked. That same line was coming out of the White House, so we can't just blame this on Napolitano "mis-speaking." Some guy got on a plane and tried to blow it up. He had to be stopped by another passenger. The system most definitely did NOT work.

At least Napolitano admitted the failure today:

The Obama administration admitted on Monday that air travel security failed when a Nigerian man with suspected ties to Islamic militants allegedly was able to smuggle explosives onto a U.S.-bound flight in an attempt to blow it up.

Asked on NBC's "Today Show" on Monday if the security system "failed miserably," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano replied: "It did."

Yes, it did. And, almost everybody seemed to understand that yesterday. Read More......

Recession now arriving in US courts

And it's probably not going to ease up any time soon. The story focuses the most on the state of New York though other states are seeing comparable increases as well. NY Times:

Contract disputes statewide in 2009 are projected to be up 9 percent from the year before. Statewide home foreclosure filings increased 17 percent, to 48,127 filings. Cases involving charges like assault by family members were up 18 percent statewide. While serious crime remains low, misdemeanor charges in New York City were up 7 percent and lesser violations were up 18 percent in 2009.

Judges and lawyers say the tales behind any number of cases, including low-level offenses like turnstile jumping and petty theft, are often a barometer of bad times. And they said that the data showed that courts nationally would be working through the recession’s consequences for years, much as they did with the flood of cases stemming from the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, even after the epidemic had slowed.

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Senate Dems about to cave on cap and trade too

It's just too "controversial" in an election year. So why should we expect them to do it in 2011, the beginning of the presidential primaries? Or 2012, a presidential election year and congressional elections? As Joe and I have written repeatedly, don't expect the Democrats to touch any controversial legislation for the next three years. And that includes DADT, DOMA, ENDA, immigration, climate change or any of their other promises.

And yes, they appear to be moving ahead on immigration. Just wait and see what they come up with, during an election year. It's not going to be pretty, and it's going to end up just like the health care reform bill. Except this time, the part of the unions and the health care reform groups will be played by the immigration and Latino groups. The WH will lecture them about accepting half a loaf and being too naively idealistic. Mark my words. Read More......

Corruption? Now women are good ol’ boys too

Progressives used to dream that women running for office in large numbers might just be what it took to clean up a corrupt political system. Clearly, nobody gave that message to Delecia Holt.

Last week, the three-time congressional candidate from California was found guilty on nine fraud-related counts, including writing bad checks for a Mercedes, for a hotel stay, and for expenses related to a campaign fundraiser. Apparently, Holt bounced more than 100 checks worth more than $56,000 over a three-year period.

True, she never made it to Congress, but she ran time and again on the Republican party ticket . Although it would be a stretch to call her a credible candidate, it does bring to mind how politicians cannot resist sticking their hands in the cookie jar. Some of them start reaching for it before they are even elected to office.

The reports of Holt’s violations surprise even the most jaded of us:

Four of the counts on which Holt was convicted relate to checks she bounced on a used Mercedes E320 that she bought and then failed to make valid payments on for three years.

Three more counts centered a month-long stay in 2007 at the Comfort Suites in Lake Forest, where she racked up $5,000 in unpaid charges and wrote three bad checks. She was receiving welfare payments at the time.

The final two counts had to do with a fundraiser she threw at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott in 2007, writing bad checks for a staggering $17,000 . The event was billed as a benefit for Habitat for Humanity, although an official with the charity said it did not participate and received no money.

It’s the same old story, only with a new twist. In the past, men with cigars would sit in smoky bars drinking scotch and making backroom deals – or fly to London casinos with lobbyists, or dry out with Altria reps in Palm Springs, or hot-tub with their industry pals in Hawaii. The list of miscreants is by now depressingly familiar – former senator Ted Stevens, former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, and that evergreen favorite, still in the House, John Murtha of Pennsylvania.

Now, sadly, it looks like the fairer sex is working hard to catch up to the good ol’ boys... Ironically, Holt once ran for Duke Cunningham’s old seat.

We had such great hopes. The Year of the Woman was going to bring change to Congress - it was the reason I, and many of my cohorts, first went to work in Washington. But the hopes of a parade of women marching into the Capitol and making it a better and warmer place – the thermometer is always set to be comfortable for men in suits - has not materialized.

Just over the past year, women with ethics issues have been splashed across the front pages from California to DC and back -- Rep. Maxine Waters for her illicit dealings with OneUnited bank and Rep. Laura Richardson’s for refusing to pay her bills.

It seems Ms. Holt, much like Richardson, was trying to use politics to shore up - and excuse - the disasters of her life.

Bottom line: many of these women have become business-as-usual. Too bad, really. They've been through the sausage factory and came out with the same skin. Read More......

On fixing the filibuster

There's something rotten in the U.S. Senate. The Minority Leader, enabled by his caucus, has set forth on a path of obstruction. Now, there are only 40 GOPers and the Democrats have 60 in their caucus, so any GOP filibuster can be busted. Unfortunately, members of that Democratic caucus aid and abet the GOPers. Exhibit A was the recent attempt to reform the health care system.

Ezra Klein outlined a couple of ideas being floated by Senators to end the gridlock and obstructionist tactics in the Senate.

Tom Harkin, the veteran Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate's influential Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was even more dismayed by recent events. His efforts to curb the filibuster began in the 1990s, when he was in the minority. "People say I only worry about this because I'm in the majority," he said Tuesday. "But I come at this with clean hands!" Back then, his partner in the effort to reform the filibuster was Lieberman. "The filibuster," Lieberman said at the time, "has become not only an obstacle to accomplishment here, but also a symbol of a lot that ails Washington today." Lieberman has since stopped worrying and learned to love obstructionism. But Harkin hasn't.

This isn't just a Democratic concern, though Democrats, being in the majority, are the ones raising it now. In 2005, Senate majority leader Bill Frist nearly shut the chamber down over the Democratic habit of filibustering George W. Bush's judicial nominees. "This filibuster is nothing less than a formula for tyranny by the minority," he said at the time.

Potential solutions abound. Harkin would eliminate the filibuster while still protecting the minority's right to debate. Under his proposal, bills would initially require 60 votes to pass. Three days later, that threshold would fall to 57. Three days after that, 54. And three days after that, 51. Merkley has some other ideas. One is to attract Republicans to the project by phasing the filibuster out six or eight years in the future, when we can't predict which party will initially benefit.

This kind of change would require Senators to look beyond their own narrow interests -- and act in the best interest of the nation. I don't see that happen given the current make up of the Senate. Does anyone? Read More......

Should the terror suspect have been better scrutinized?

It's a tough call. When you first read the details, you say "how could they let this guy get on a plane." But then, think about it - his dad called the embassy and complained about his kid. Sure, if you're a good embassy official, you add to the kid to a list of people who should be checked out. But do you revoke the guy's visa over a phone call from his dad? Then again, dad was right. But there are some half a million people on the list the guy was put on. That's a lot of people to work through, if at all.

Then again, dad wasn't just some run of the mill nut who was ticked off at his kid:

When a prominent Nigerian banker and former government official phoned the American Embassy in Abuja in October with a warning that his son had developed radical views, had disappeared and might have traveled to Yemen, embassy officials did not revoke the young man’s visa to enter the United States, which was good until June 2010.

Instead, officials said Sunday, they marked the file of the son, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, for a full investigation should he ever reapply for a visa. And when they passed the information on to Washington, Mr. Abdulmutallab’s name was added to 550,000 others with some alleged terrorist connections — but not to the no-fly list. That meant no flags were raised when he used cash to buy a ticket to the United States and boarded a plane, checking no bags.

Then again, son disappears, might have gone to Yemen, and has developed radical views. That would be enough to stop you from getting a visa, I suspect. And perhaps it should be standard protocol to put a flag on someone's visa when any such warning come in, pending a review to reinstate the visa.

This, however, is a bit odd:

Obama administration officials scrambled to portray the episode, in which passengers and flight attendants subdued Mr. Abdulmutallab and doused the fire he had started, as a test that the air safety system passed.

“The system has worked really very, very smoothly over the course of the past several days,” Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary said, in an interview on “This Week” on ABC. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, used nearly the same language on “Face the Nation” on CBS, saying that “in many ways, this system has worked.”

No it didn't. Crazy terrorist guy got on a plane with explosives, and only got caught because a passenger jumped him. That is not an example of the system working really really well. Had your wife or child or parent been on that plane - had you been on that plane - your first reaction wouldn't have been "well that went well." Read More......

In Iran, as government shoots protesters, "opposition movement that is becoming bolder"

From various news accounts, it sounds like the protests in Iran are more widespread and larger than those in the past. Yesterday was a holy day in the country, but that didn't prevent Iranian officials from shooting protesters. Here's the report from the New York Times:

Police officers in Iran opened fire into crowds of protesters on Sunday, killing at least 10 people, witnesses and opposition Web sites said, in a day of chaotic street battles that threatened to deepen the country’s civil unrest.

The protests, during the holiday commemorating the death of Imam Hussein, Shiite Islam’s holiest martyr, were the bloodiest and among the largest since the uprisings that followed the disputed presidential election last June, witnesses said.

One of those killed was the nephew of presidential candidate Mousavi, who assassinated, according to sources:

Mr. Moussavi was first run over by a sport utility vehicle outside his home, Mr. Makhmalbaf wrote on his Web site. Five men then emerged from the car, and one of them shot Mr. Moussavi. Government officials took the body late Sunday and warned the family not to hold a funeral, Mr. Makhmalbaf wrote.

That murder has probably turned Ali Mousavi into a martyr. Mourning his death will precipitate another round of protests.

The Times also noted:

The turmoil revealed an opposition movement that is becoming bolder and more direct in its challenge to Iran’s governing authorities. Protesters deliberately blended their political message with the day’s religious one on Sunday, alternating antigovernment slogans with ancient cries of mourning for Imam Hussein.

It seemed for awhile that the post-election turmoil was over. It's not. Read More......

Monday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

We're in the last few days of 2009. I really thought that this was going to be a fun year when it came to politics. I was wrong. And, we end 2009 with terrorism as an issue in the news. There's almost nothing Republicans love more than talking terror.

Both the House and Senate are in recess. There's talk that negotiations will begin this week on how to merge the House health care reform bill with the insurance bill passed by the Senate. So, they'll talk, but the Senate bill will provide the framework. The White House brain trust, in concert with Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu, among others, will make sure of that. Team Obama wants a win (as do the insurance companies and drug industry.)

Iran is experiencing mass demonstrations against the government again. This is a continuation of the post-election protests from the summer. It seems even more intense this time. And, that government is killing its citizens in cold blood on the streets -- and is making martyrs of the dead.



Let's get threading.... Read More......

Holiday spending up, a little

At this point, even small increases are good for businesses. Whether it's a good sign for consumers can be debated.

The spending bounce means retailers managed to avoid a repeat of last year's disaster even amid tight credit and double-digit unemployment. Profits should be healthier, too, because stores had a year to plan their inventories to match consumer demand and never needed to resort to fire-sale clearances.

Retail sales rose 3.6 percent from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24, compared with a 3.2 percent drop in the year-ago period, according to figures from MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse, which track all forms of payment, including cash.

Adjusting for an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the number was closer to a 1 percent gain.

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Kyoto negotiator blames Obama and US at Copenhagen

Maybe to some degree, but a bit strong. There is much too much blame to go around to single out any single person or country in this instance. That said, for years there has been too little emphasis in the US on energy savings. The uses much more energy per person than in Europe and that needs to change. The environmental groups have lost so much ground to the anti-climate change loons so maybe in the near term, people need to focus on the cost savings side of the issue.

In a letter to the Guardian, Prescott criticises the US climate change special envoy, Todd Stern, who "said at Copenhagen emissions weren't about 'morality or politics', they were 'just maths', with China projected to emit 60% more CO2 than the US by 2030".

In his letter Prescott claims that Stern's arguments "ignored the more transparent measure of pollution per capita, which shows the US emits 20 tonnes per person every year, compared to China's six tonnes, whilst America's GDP per person is almost eight times greater than the Chinese". He also attacks President Barack Obama for suggesting there had been a period of "two decades of talking and no action. That might have been true in America, which refused to sign up to Kyoto, but not in the case of China or Europe, who followed a lot of that protocol's policies. Indeed Obama's offer of a 17% cut is wholly dependent on Congressional approval and will still be less than Kyoto targets." Prescott is climate change convenor for the Council of Europe, with the role of exploring how to keep the talks on the road.

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