Let me start with an overall observation. I am sick and tired of terrorism mirrowing global warming as a purely political issue in this country rather than the very serious issue that it is and one that should be treated in a non-partisan, non-ideological fashion. Every damn time an attempted terror attempt is foiled or something like the Ft. Hood Massacre occurs, we get the same tired, mindless reaction from the far left/dems and the far right/republicans: The left tries to downplay the significance of what occurred, while the right completely overplays it. Terrorism, and keeping our American citizens safe therefrom, is an issue of the most critical importance these days, and I am God Damn tired of the left and right politicizing it CONSTANTLY.OK, that bit of ragin' being said, I'll move on to thoughts on Obama's reaction to the events of this past Christmas day. First, the fact that Obama didn't personally speak to the issue until three days after the fact, frankly, doesn't bother me that much. The American right, predictably, is jumping off of curbs over this, but who cares. If this terror attempt had been pulled off successfully, then obviously I expect to hear from Obama that very day. But that wasn't the case here. I do have a problem with Obama's minions sending out the likes of Janet Napolitano to test the waters last weekend on such talking points as "the system worked" -- which was absurd on its face. So Obama can be fairly criticized on that point, but I really don't have a criticism based on the mere fact he didn't personally speak on the thwarted terror attempt for three days. Interestingly, it appears from what I've read today that W waited something like 7 or 8 days before personally speaking to the Shoe Bomber incident (and apparently received very little, if any, criticism for the same). Now that was probably too long, but I'm not going to rant and rave about 3 days.
(BTW, the radical left progressive website Huffington Post first brought to light today (as best as I can tell) the W-Shoe-Bomber-Delay point, which Politico.com has now also picked up on. For the Huffington Post, this is classic liberal/conservative "Yeah, but look what you guys did" rhetoric. It serves to change the subject and fails to address the merits and substance of the current criticism of your own side. It also serves as a tacit admission that the current criticisms are valid. Put another way, it implies a belief that "maybe we did something wrong, but YOU GUYS DID THE SAME THING." This is one of the favorite rhetorical tools of both the far right and far left, and I just laugh in their face every time they try to use it on me since I'm not one of "You Guys." That mindless crap just falls on deaf ears with me. But I digress.)
Second, we have Obama's reference today to AbdulMutallab as an "isolated extremist." At best, this was an incredibly stupid statement. But frankly, I don't give it even that much credit. This was just another example of the sort of sickening state of affairs that the terror issue has become in this country as a result of its complete politicalization. Obama was following the typical liberal playbook of trying to downplay any attempted terrorist act that occurs, even despite overwelming evidence of this slimeball's connections to members of Al Qaeda, most particularly the mass of such sub-human creatures currently conglomerated in Yemen. There was nothing "isolated" about this, and I fear (and am almost certain) that we're going to get hit very soon with more attempts using this same modus operandi (did I spell that correctly?). Obama may well have his reasons for using a blatantly false term like "isolated" (such as a desire to give these terrorists no credit or publicity besides that which is absolutely necessary), but regardless of such reasons and how noble they may well be, when our president speaks to us about such an important issue, he needs to speak plainly and speak the truth. Anyway, I've rambled on long enough! Those are my thoughts tonight.
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