Welcome Mat Out, Guess We Can Shut Down Border Patrol Now

I don't even know how this is possible legally. For me this just adds to the growing list of items on the list of things this administration has done to simply ignore the law or in the case of EPA invent new laws, to continue to push a far left progressive on the American people. The arrogance of the liberals in charge knows no bounds. We don't need no stinkin Congress. Don't like the law, just ignore it. Ain't that right Eric 'Fast and Furious' Holder.

Will these immigrants be able to obtain work permits while remaining in the country? Yes, officials said, though that is not new. Undocumented persons have always had the opportunity to apply for temporary work permits, which are reviewed on a case-by-case basis upon request.

From Black Panthers intimidating voters to launching investigations into who you deem to be political enemies there has never in my half century of life been a president who has so openly ignored and flaunted the laws of this country and never with an eye towards doing good for the country but rather to push a far left ideology and promote his reelection bid.

You know who this edict is really directed at? At those states who are passing legislation to arrest and deport the ever burgeoning illegal immigrant population in their state. The message is real simple. Sure you can apprehend them. Sure you can report them. We ain't doing nothing. It sends a very clear signal to the illegals to quit worrying about state laws since states don't have the power to deport, that is a federal function. Without any federal legislative authority what so ever he has effectively neutered the states and spit in the face of all honest immigrants and the tax payers of America. Hey maybe this part of grand, super delicious, yet be disclosed or written budget plan. You know with this decree we can close the Border Patrol, pare down the size of ICE and decrease the total number of employees at DHS. Who am I kidding, you can't fire federal unionized workers.

I once thought that even though this guy was a complete disaster as a choice for president that America could survive 4 years of him or any president for that matter. My God I survived Carter, but in the last 6 months or so I no longer believe that. It no longer is a joke to say that Carter was the best case scenario for this administration. They are making Carter, hell they make King George, look like the good 'ol days.

We are so screwed!

Big Sis: Uhh, Um, Don't Worry About Director of National Intelligence Being Totally Clueless

Um, uh, uh, well, uh, we, uhhhhh, like, I knew about it. Really, uhhh, gives you a safe feeling, no?

That is all. Move along now.

Don't Worry: Big Sis & Crew Are On the Job "24/7, 364 Days A Year". Wait, What?

And when they're working, they always give at least 99.72%!

“What I say to the American people is that we are, thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the American people safe.”

Awesome.

Still, a little 'CYA' never hurts. So J-Nap quickly points out that she can't just "hermetically seal" the United States, and James Clapper chimes in that they "aren't going to bat 1.000, necessarily" when it comes to stopping terror attacks on U.S. soil.

Indeed. But I think I'd feel just a tad better if Homeland Security officials would categorically reject the inevitability of future casualties on U.S. soil at the hands of terrorists, and leave the fatalistic pontificating to the pundits.



h/t: Weasel Zippers. Cross-posted.

Napolitano in April: Border is 'As Secure Now as it Has Ever Been'; Today: 'Napolitano to Arizona in Wake of Border Patrol Agent's Killing'

Back in the spring when Obama and his minions were busy attacking Arizona and filing suit against an American state for daring to try and protect themselves from the hordes of illegals, Big Sis visited DC.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, while testifying before a Senate panel, said the United States’s southwest border is “as secure now as it has ever been.”

“I say this again as someone who has walked that border,” she said. “I’ve ridden that border. I’ve flown it. I’ve driven it. I know that border I think as well as anyone, and I will tell you it is as secure now as it has ever been.”

Despite her ignorance and political expedience, that doesn't stop the bad guys.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is headed to Arizona on Thursday following a gun battle that killed a Border Patrol agent near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Agent Brian Terry was shot late Tuesday night on the U.S. side of the border in a canyon well known for its drug and human smuggling activity.

Napolitano, who is expected to meet with Border Patrol agents and employees in Arizona tomorrow, called Terry’s killing “an unconscionable act of violence against the men and women of the Border Patrol and all those who serve and defend our country.”

I suspect she's the last person the border agents want to see. Maybe she can rub it in and bring that stooge Eric Holder with her.

Four suspects are in custody while a search is on for a fifth.

Law enforcement authorities are scouring mountainous, rocky terrain on foot and on horseback, searching for one of five men suspected of shooting and killing Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on Tuesday night.

Four suspects are in custody, including one who is hospitalized.

"About an hour or so ago, one of our deputies picked up an undocumented alien in the general area, and he was referred to Border Patrol," Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada said shortly before 3 p.m. "We don't know if he had any connection, because there is a lot of that activity going on.

"The area has been completely saturated with law-enforcement personnel. Of course, our hope is they will come up with the additional individual."

Terry, 40, was killed about 11 p.m. while patrolling near Peck Canyon in a remote area by Arizona 289.

Border Patrol agents and officers from the Department of Public Safety are stationed on ridgelines throughout the area in the Coronado National Forest. Authorities also are stationed along Peña Blanca Lake.

The scene is about 10 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border and west of Interstate 19.

So not only is the border not secure, we've got this activity 10 miles inland. Sadly, with all this the media still refuses to call them illegal aliens.

Tired Old Memo: Al Qaeda Threat Overblown; Urgent New Memo: Al-Qaeda Threat More Complex

The left has been fond of telling us that al Qaeda no longer poses a threat to us and in fact just yesterday the current occupant of the White House said it was really no big deal. Just shrug it off. Besides, we don't want to fuel anti-American extremism with our behavior, as preached here.

In 2008, in his book “Leaderless Jihad,” Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former C.I.A. officer who has long studied terrorism networks, wrote that Al Qaeda was in decline, to be replaced by dispersed terrorists for whom it provided mostly inspiration. The new generation of extremists, he believed, would be less skilled and would likely pose less of a threat than the network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Dr. Sageman said he saw no reason to revise that judgment today. The plots of the last year should be carefully analyzed and the findings used to improve counterterrorism, not turned into fuel for thoughtless anti-Muslim panic and discrimination, he said.

“If we overreact and upset 1.5 billion Muslims,” Dr. Sageman said, referring to the global total, “then we’ll have a lot bigger problem on our hands.”

Fast forward to today and what do you know, we've got an election to win, so it's time to panic, everybody!

Three top Obama administration officials in the fight against terror said Wednesday that the al-Qaida threat to the United States has grown more complex in the past year and underscores the challenges of pinpointing and blocking terrorist plots.

In remarks to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday, Michael Leiter, director of the national counterterrorism center, said al-Qaida in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally.

Nonetheless, said Leiter, the terrorist group remains a capable and determined enemy that has proven its resilience over time.

"Groups affiliated with al-Qaida are now actively targeting the United States and looking to use Americans or Westerners who are able to remain undetected by heightened security measures," said FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said al-Qaida has inspired an array of terrorist groups.

"We are all seeing more diverse activity" by a more diverse collection of groups, said Napolitano.

"The threat is still all too real," committee chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said as the start of the hearing.

If I didn't know better I'd suggest they're instilling fear int he public just six weeks before an election.

Wasn't that the mantra every election cycle during the Bush years any time terrorism was mentioned?

Just watch: The Obama media will dutifully parrot these threats today after years of downplaying them while Bush was president.

Heartless Obama Rounding Up Illegals in Arizona

Geez, talk about having it both ways. Out of one side of his mouth he's pandering to the Latino vote in Arizona (and elsewhere) by declaring war on Arizona, while he's giving tacit approval for law enforcement to round up and deport illegals. Why, if he were a Republican, people would be calling him Hitler.

President Obama is suing Arizona for having its cops identify and round up illegal aliens -- even though he's also deputizing them to do the same thing.

That's right: Under a little-known federal program called ICE 287(g), the administration has continued to enlist at least eight Arizona state law-enforcement agencies to carry out the procedures at issue in the new Arizona law, which goes into effect July 29.

The program dates to a 1995 law signed by President Bill Clinton, which allows US immigration officials to train local law-enforcement officers and authorize them to ID and detain illegals. After 9/11, the Homeland Security Department entered into official partnership agreements with various police departments, allowing them to search federal databases for illegals.

The program spread across the country, including to Arizona. It now involves 71 state and local police agencies. Indeed, Homeland Security has even conscripted Arizona state troopers to help it enforce federal immigration rules. Obama's Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano, OK'd that agreement and another deal with a second state law-enforcement agency when she was Arizona's governor.

All told, the feds have deputized 1,100-plus cops in 26 states to round up illegals -- including officers in the liberal bastions of New Jersey, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Maryland and Massachusetts.

Damn racist liberals. Why do they hate illegal aliens so much?

Jan Brewer Ad Whacks Napolitano and Holder

After slapping down Barack Obama last week in devastating fashion, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer now takes a couple of Obama's dimmest bulbs behind the woodshed for a well-earned beatdown.

Why on earth Napolitano and Holder are employed after these recent humiliations is anyone's guess. I figure affirmative action means the hopelessly incompetent are protected in their jobs even when they're exposed as frauds.

Explosive Device Found in Pittsburgh

Looks like that man-caused disaster, Janet Napolitano, spoke too soon.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the rounds on Sunday morning news programs to assure Americans that investigators were taking steps to find the perpetrators of what she called a “one-off” bombing attempt on New York’s Times Square.

"Times Square, I think, is now safe. Right now we have no other information, other than it is a one-off," Napolitano said in an interview on ABC.

No sooner did she say that than a bomb was discovered in Pittsburgh.

Runners in the Pittsburgh Marathon were detoured as they approached the finish due to a suspected pipe bomb near a bus station near the end of the course.

CBS station KDKA-TV's Bob Allen observed the bomb squad at the Greyhound bus station at 11th Street and Liberty Avenue.

Allen observed bomb squad personnel getting into their special made suits and a robot being moved into position.

Police at the scene said that the device was a microwave with a pipe bomb inside. The microwave was in a white box near the entrance of the building.

Meanwhile, Pakistani Taliban are taking credit for the failed Times Square attack (via Allahpundit).

A top Pakistani Taliban commander took credit for yesterday's failed car bomb attack in New York City.

Qari Hussain Mehsud, the top bomb maker for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, said he takes "fully responsibility for the recent attack in the USA." Qari Hussain made the claim on an audiotape accompanied by images that was released on a YouTube website that calls itself the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.

The tape has yet to be verified, but US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal believe it is legitimate. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel on YouTube was created on April 30.

Durbin and Lugar Spit On Legal Immigrants

Might as well keep the Durbin bashing up. While researching the previous post about Durbin being subpoenaed in the Blagojevich trial I came across a story where he along with REPUBLICAN senator Richard Lugar of Indiana are asking Janet Nimconcoop to grant amnesty to illegal foreign students. What I found odd, besides the obvious, in their requests was the conditions they gave for granting this immunity.

Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin and Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who made the request in a letter to Napolitano Wednesday, are pushing a bill that would grant legal status to students who came to the U.S. before the age of 15, have no criminal records, and completed schooling or military service. It would not extend protection to illegal immigrant parents.

Yo, idiots. Illegal immigrants can not serve in the military. A background check is done during the enlistment process to verify citizenship. You must be in the country legally.

You know for a guy who compared our troops to Nazi Stormtroopers and members of the Pol Pot regime he seems to think these are just the qualifications you need now to be granted amnesty. Talk about political expediency.

It is just wrong to grant a special status to people who come to this country illegally while thousands of others try to abide by the rules and wait years to be given citizenship so that they can pursue what previously used to be known as the American dream. I am not quite sure what that dream is nowadays.

We are in the best of hands. Oh and Indiana, you have a problem.

Napolitano Slips Up, Uses the 'T-Word'

From the woman who nearly a year ago blessed us with the absurdity known as man-caused disasters, a clear sign back then the administration's approach to Islamic extremism would be meek and timorous, at best. Now whether this admission today represents a sea-change or if she simply folded under questioning remains to be seen.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the first Obama Administration official to publicly describe last year's deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Tex., as a terrorist act, according to a search of news clips and transcripts.

"Violent Islamic terrorism ... was part and parcel of the Ft. Hood killings," Napolitano told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday morning. "There is violent Islamic terrorism, be it Al Qaeda in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen or anywhere else, [and] that is indeed a major focus of this department and its efforts."

In the months since an Army psychiatrist -- who had been in contact with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen -- opened fired inside the Army base, many on Capitol Hill have urged administration officials to publicly identify the attack as terrorism.

Those calls have been used by Republicans and others to paint administration officials as weak on terrorism and subsequently unwilling to use the word "terrorism."

During the Senate hearing on Wednesday morning, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the Homeland Security Committee's chairman, called the administration's "reluctance" to use terms such as "Islamist extremism" or "Muslim terrorist" a "pet peeve of mine."

He said his "concern" about the issue was "aroused again" when an internal Pentagon review of the events leading up to the attack by Army Maj. Nidal Hasan on Nov. 5, 2009, never used such terms.

Lieberman asked Napolitano: "Has the administration made a decision to avoid any public reference to 'violent Islamist extremism' or 'Muslim terrorists'?"

Napolitano denied any such move.

"There has been no such decision," she said. "The [phrase] that you refer to, 'violent Islamic terrorism,' is something that we fight and deal with every day at the Department of Homeland Security. There is no doubt about that. It was the motivation [for the failed Christmas Day bombing], it was part and parcel of the Ft. Hood killings and other incidents we have seen this year within the United States."

It's obvious there was a decision to not use the word. Otherwise why the idiotic man-caused disaster?

This comes a month after a senior Obama Administration official characterized the Ft. Hood attack, which killed 13 people and wounded dozens more, as "an act of terrorism." But that official did not want to be identified publicly, speaking to reporters only on the condition of anonymity.

These people have no compunction running around calling tea party folks teabaggers at the drop of the hat, yet for months were reticent to label a terrorist a terrorist. I guess the teabaggers pose a greater threat in their minds.

David Broder Mistakes January 1 for April 1, Promotes Janet Napolitano for Higher Office

I can't figure out when exactly David Broder decided to try his hand at comedy, but he surely does have a gift. Today the "dean" of the Washington press corps comes up with a howler, a satirical tour de farce as he authors the puffiest of puff pieces extolling the calm, mannered leadership of Janet Napolitano. Seriously. I'm thinking Broder starting drinking heavily very early on New Year's Eve.

The Obama Cabinet is filled with talents, but many of the stars are of an age or temperament unlikely to turn them into successor candidates. Napolitano will face many substantive tests -- not just in dealing with terrorism but in playing an important role in immigration reform -- before she is a candidate for anything. But her potential is almost unlimited.

Broder may be even more out of touch with reality than the man who for some strange reason employs Napolitano.

Incompetent Homeland Hack: Uh, I Misquoted Myself or Something

Why on earth this woman still has a job is beyond me.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano conceded Monday that the aviation security system failed when a young man on a watchlist with a U.S. visa in his pocket and a powerful explosive hidden on his body was allowed to board a fight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The Obama administration has ordered investigations into the two areas of aviation security — how travelers are placed on watch lists and how passengers are screened — as critics questioned how the 23-year-old Nigerian man charged in the airliner attack was allowed to board the Dec. 25 flight.

A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano backtracked, saying her words had been taken out of context.

Here are her exact words.

On Sunday, Napolitano said, “One thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked.”

It wasn't until widespread ridicule and condemnation someone obviously got to her. Probably Obama's boss David Axelrod.

Obama, meanwhile, continues to golf and luxuriate in Hawaii, not a concern in the world for anyone but himself, naturally. He'll have a statement maybe at some point, once his handlers can load it into his TelePrompter.

I feel so secure with this crew in charge.

In the meantime, can someone point out how exactly Napolitano is qualified for her job, outside of affirmative action?

If indeed they must have a woman on the job, maybe Sarah Palin can help bail these buffoons out.

Update: Hmmmm. Nothing to worry about I guess. The system is working. Or so we're supposed to believe.

The ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee on Monday said the Obama administration has drawn an "iron curtain" when it comes to providing information to members of Congress regarding the attempted Christmas Day terror attack.

"It's very hard, even for me being on the Homeland Security Committee and the Intelligence Committee, to get any information out of this administration. We're still trying to find out what happened at Ft. Hood, they won't give us information on that," Rep. Peter King (R-NY) told Fox News Monday morning.

King also criticized White House officials for not speaking out on last Friday's incident yet.

"We're now what, 72 hours into this? And the President has not spoken, the Vice President has not spoken, the Attorney General has not spoken and Janet Napolitano has now told two different stories in two days," he said to Fox referring to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Yeah, but he told this to Fox, so it's not real news as told to us by the Obamatons.

Ironic, isn't it, that Obama has been on television nonstop for three years but all of a sudden is camera shy. Maybe he's got a creeping sense of shame.

Good News: Shamnesty to Soon Be Revived

Once you're done digesting your ObamaCare Christmas present, get ready for some dessert.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressed confidence Friday that Congress would introduce a comprehensive immigration reform bill in early 2010 and that debate and passage of the legislation could occur before the mid-term elections later that year.

They must really be determined to lose Congress next year.

Napolitano defined the terms of immigration reform as more than simply offering a path to legalization for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently in the United States. She called reform a three-legged stool consisting of more enforcement authority, improvements in travel for families and workers, and a "firm but fair" means of dealing with the illegal immigrants presently in the United States.

The Democrats want to put you in prison if you don't sign up for ObamaCare, but illegal aliens get to stay here on you dime.

Wonderful.

Thanks to Ed Morrissey for the link.

How About Sending Them Home?

I have never felt safer and more secure then I do now with the Department of Homeland Security headed by Janet Napolitano ... not. I haven't forgotten that she labeled folks who attended the Tea party Protests as a threat and gave a very weak rebuttal to the report that came out of her department that portrayed military veterans has ripe fodder for extremist groups.

Well, now Janet is proposing that the cost of holding ILLEGAL immigrants in our jails is just too high so she wants to move them to hotels and nursing homes.

Detainees who are not criminals could be kept in hotels and nursing homes, according to leaks of the plans.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to give details of the plans later.

To make her case she argues that housing the detainees in this manner would only cost about $14 a day compared to the $100 a day for keeping them in jails. Are these Obama flunkies just pulling numbers out of their butt and expecting us to swallow it? Will any reporter ask how she can find a hotel for $14 a day? My mom spent the last years of her life in a nursing home and I can safely assure you it cost more then $14 a day. This preliminary report also doesn't mention whether these hotels and nursing homes would be vacant of other residents prior to moving the illegals in. How would you like granny sharing a room with a Ecuadoran immigrant awaiting their deportation hearing? That $14 a day would barely cover the food bill.

Of course, her proposal includes ramping up the health care treatment for these folks while they are our guests.

How about this, Janet? Set up a court system that hears nothing but these deportation cases, have them operate 24 hours a day and give these people a ticket out of the country.

Napolitano to Canada: Stop Reminding Me of My Idiocy

Seems Janet Napolitano is yet another member of the Obama administration who doesn't like freedom of speech. What a shame. Maybe she shouldn't say such stupid things on the record.

U.S. Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano wanted to make it clear to Canada on Wednesday that she knows she misspoke when she erroneously said that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists entered the United States through Canada.

Napolitano, on her first trip to Canada since joining President Barack Obama's Cabinet in January, was discussing security issues with Canadian Minister of Public Safety Peter Van Loan.

Napolitano was trying to get past the diplomatic gaffe after an interview last month with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in which she said—incorrectly—that the Sept. 11 terrorists crossed into the U.S. from Canada. The comments caused an uproar in America's neighbor to the north.

The Sept. 11 commission found that none came through Canada. But other extremists have, such as the would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian convicted on multiple counts for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport around Jan. 1, 2000.

"We know, and I know, that 9-11 terrorists did not cross the Canadian border. I regret that the Canadian media only seems to hear that earlier misstatement by me to that effect," Napolitano said at a brief news conference, adding that she wants to move on.

"So let me be perfectly clear: We know that. But what they also need to hear, and what you need to hear from me, are all the things we are doing with Canada, and will continue to do with Canada, to further our joint security because we share the same interests."

Other U.S. politicians have also claimed that the Sept. 11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada, a myth the Canadian government continues to try to dispel.

Van Loan said Canada has accepted Napolitano's correction and "moved on."

Opposition Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said in Washington last month that he thought Napolitano was seriously ill-informed about the border. Napolitano has also said that Canada "lets people into its country that we don't allow into ours."

AP fails to identify who these "other politicians" are who made such claims. Seems to me they're trying to give cover to Napolitano by saying others are as dumb as she is.

I always find it amusing when liberals are caught saying something idiotic, they want to move on. When a conservative says something dumb, they're never allowed to move on. Usually their careers are ruined.

Aren't double standards wonderful?

Secretary Nincompoop's Worst Fears Being Realized

I am sure this is causing DHS secretary Janet Napolitano some sleepless nights, because we know the open borders doesn't. There is a rise in conservative right wing groups on *gasp* college campuses.

A student group that bills itself as "America's right wing youth movement" focused on countering radical multiculturism, socialism and mass immigration is causing a stir on a growing number of college campuses across the country.

The ultra-conservative political group Youth for Western Civilization is currently organized on at least seven university campuses. According to its Web site, the group hopes to inspire Western youth on the "basis of pride in their American and Western heritage," counter and ultimately defeat "leftism on campus" and create a social movement in which a right-wing subculture is an alternative to what it calls a "poisonous and bigoted" campus climate.

There are some brave young folks out there. They are not only having to battle the entrenched liberals in the halls of academia but risk running afoul of the highly vaunted Homeland Security. They have already drawn the attention of one of the most racist, pretending to be unbiased observers, organizations out there, the Southern Poverty Law Center. For those outside of the south, you probably aren't that aware of this group, but they are a thorn in the side of politicians down her. I think at one time right after hurricane Katrina they had FEMA on their watch list.

Officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which identifies and tracks hate groups in the U.S., told FOXNews.com that the YWC is not currently on its list, but some of the group's views are "suspect," including the notion that Western civilization is somehow superior.

If DHS had an actual list of right wing extremist groups it would probably be a faxed copy they received from this group. As far as I know, the SPLC doesn't know of any left wing hate groups.

I visited the groups web site and there isn't much there. If there is something more sinister we need to know, but so far I don't see that from this group.

Improving Cross-border Relations

Security Paranoia Defies Logic
This is borderline insanity. The most worrisome U. S. official confronting Canada today is a former Arizona governor who thinks the U. S. northern border, which she's only flown over and never actually crossed on the ground, is a security threat on par with the drug-running, immigrant-smuggling, terrorist-sneaking border wall with Mexico.

And there's simply no comparison between the illegal entry trickle from Canada and the alien immigrant wave and drug smuggling surge pouring into the United States from the south. Of the estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants who enter the United States each year, 57% come from Mexico. Just 6% of those living illegally in the United States are Canadian. Somebody should also warn the Secretary that recent statistics show 500,000 Canadians spent tourist dollars in her Mexican border state in 2006 and that Arizona rates Canada its second-largest trading partner with almost $3-billion in trade.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is moving unapologetically forward on beefed-up border staffing and enhanced documentation requirements that will make Canadians and travelling Americans yearn for the security paranoia of the George W. Bush administration.

Ouch. Methinks someone's a bit pissed that Hopenchange isn't all that it was cracked up to be. On the other hand, maybe it is, you know, cracked up and stuff. So to speak.

Ms. Napolitano's brief interview with the CBC this week was jaw-dropping confirmation we're dealing with an irrational senior U.S. official who can't differentiate between a secure border linking the world's largest trading partners and one that's a giant sucking sound for jobs going south and what's been described as an 'invasion' of desperate Mexicans illegally sneaking north.

Ya think???

She actually invoked the bogeyman of 9/11 terrorists sneaking into the United States from Canada to bolster the case for a crackdown, even though the most elementary research would've told her there's no evidence to support that bogus claim.

When challenged on her concerns, she insisted still-secret data, undoubtedly buried with the aliens at Roswell, justifies her concern. She surely must know that only 12 of the 48 al-Qaeda operatives caught between 1993 and 2001 were illegal immigrants and none of those came from Canada.


The infamous quote from early in her Homeland Security posting was to fret at Mexico's hurt feelings. "If things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border."

What's that precisely? Build another Texas wall? Does she have any concept that this 5,013-kilometre land border bisects towns and villages (heck, it even divides the stage from the seats in one Vermont-Quebec movie theatre)?

"The pattern at the Canadian border has been informality," she went on to say. "The borders are going to be enabled with greater technology, but it's not going to be going back and forth as if there's no border anymore."

Having crossed the border last week, let me assure you there's nothing informal or lacking about it. When friends on an annual golf getaway crossed at the 1,000 Islands, we joined a bunch of others in getting a major passport shakedown by armed American guards casting a very suspicious eyes at our duty-free haul of booze sandwiched between the bags carrying our instruments of fairway destruction.

They called me forward and demanded to know if I'd ever been arrested. Yes, yes, I confessed, there was a minor drug possession charge when I was just 18 (and I still insist it was Bob Green's pot), but it was wiped clean by a judge. It took a long discussion with border guards about the dangers of allowing in somebody never convicted of anything criminal before my born-in-the-U.S.A. birth certificate got me waved across.

I digress, but my point is that technology which can alert guards to a 34-year-old minor arrest that never resulted in a conviction shouldn't have much trouble fingering a known terrorist.

The new Homeland Security boss has a well-known Monty Python fetish. Perhaps she's decided to pattern herself after the black knight of Holy Grail movie fame, who declares "none shall pass," only to have his arms and legs hacked off in a sword fight even while insisting the amputations are ''but a scratch.''

If Janet Napolitano adopts a similarly defiant posture to squeeze her northern border into a business barrier, the United States will be cutting off the arms and legs of its integrated manufacturing base to block an enemy that doesn't exist.

Canuckians, unclench thy fists!

Via The National Post

Ralph Peters Hammers Janet Napolitano

Colonel Peters pulls no punches. He probably just found himself on the DHS watchlist.

DHS To Vets: Thanks For Your Service, Now You're Under Investigation

Despite her mealy-mouthed excuses yesterday, it's now painfully clear Janet Napolitano and her boss are deliberately targeting members of the military.

This is just outrageous and this woman should resign. In fact, Obama should resign as well, but that'll never happen.

These people are just contemptible. Our veterans put their lives on the line for this country and this is how they're repaid. Every veteran, friends and family should flood Washington with calls for her resignation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation earlier this year launched a nationwide operation targeting white supremacists and "militia/sovereign-citizen extremist groups," including a focus on veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to memos sent from bureau headquarters to field offices.

The initiative, dubbed Operation Vigilant Eagle, was outlined in February, two months before a memo giving a similar warning was issued on April 7 by the Department of Homeland Security.

Disclosure of the DHS memo this week has sparked controversy among some conservatives and veterans groups. Appearing on television talk shows Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended the assessment, but apologized to veterans who saw it as an accusation.

"This is an assessment of things just to be wary of, not to infringe on constitutional rights, certainly not to malign our veterans," she said on NBC's Today Show.

The documents outlining Operation Vigilant Eagle cite a surge in activity by such groups. The memos say the FBI's focus on veterans began as far back as December, during the final weeks of the Bush administration, when the bureau's domestic counterterrorism division formed a special joint working group with the Defense Department.

A Feb. 23 draft memo from FBI domestic counterterrorism leaders, obtained by The Wall Street Journal, cited an "increase in recruitment, threatening communications and weapons procurement by white supremacy extremist and militia/sovereign-citizen extremist groups."

The FBI said in the memo that its conclusion about a surge in such activities was based on confidential sources, undercover operations, reporting from other law-enforcement agencies and publicly available information. The memo said the main goal of the multipronged operation was to get a better handle on "the scope of this emerging threat." The operation also seeks to identify gaps in intelligence efforts surrounding these groups and their leaders.

The aim of the FBI's effort with the Defense Department, which was rolled into the Vigilant Eagle program, is to "share information regarding Iraqi and Afghanistan war veterans whose involvement in white supremacy and/or militia sovereign citizen extremist groups poses a domestic terrorism threat," according to the Feb. 23 FBI memo.

Michael Ward, FBI deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, said in an interview Thursday that the portion of the operation focusing on the military related only to veterans who draw the attention of Defense Department officials for joining white-supremacist or other extremist groups.

"We're not doing an investigation into the military, we're not looking at former military members," he said. "It would have to be something they were concerned about, or someone they're concerned is involved" with extremist groups.

Separated at Birth?

OK, since I mentioned this in a comment on the Janet Napolitano story earlier, it got me to wondering whether this hack and Donna Shalala may have been separated at birth.

We report, you decide.



Hmm. Maybe, although I believe Shalala is older. Definitely seem to be spawned from the same gene pool.

Although Shalala also reminds me of this television character from days gone by.

Strangely enough, though, seeing Eddie Munster now brings us full circle to another Napolitano.

OK, I'll stop now before I get carried away.