Breaking News — Senator Rand Paul detained by TSA

Rand Paul has been detained by the TSA for refusing a pat-down, after a x-ray showed an anomaly”

The Daily Caller has the story:

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s press secretary Moira Bagley tweeted on Monday that Transportation Security Administration officials were detaining her boss in Nashville, Tenn.
“Just got a call from @senrandpaul,” Bagley tweeted at about 10 a.m. on Monday. “He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”
Texas Congressman and current Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul – Sen. Rand Paul’s father – placed a post on Facebook about the news as well. “My son Rand is currently being detained by the TSA at the Nashville Airport,” Ron Paul posted. “I’ll share more details as the situation unfolds.”
Ron Paul adds, via Twitter, that the TSA detained his son “for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner.”
Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook page has a post about the incident too. “Senator Paul is being detained at the Nashville Airport by the TSA,” Sen. Rand Paul’s Facebook post reads. “We will update you as the situation develops.”
Sen. Rand Paul’s chief of staff Doug Stafford told The Daily Caller the Senator “was detained by the TSA after their scanner had an ‘anomaly’ on the first scan.”
via The Daily Caller.

To my libertarian and Ron Paul fans, please, do not freak out over this; the TSA were simply doing their jobs, I believe Rand Paul was released, but they would not let him fly on the plane he did try to board.

My friend, Ed Morrissey, who I do trust, weighs in:

No one thinks a Senator should get different treatment than anyone else, but that proves that the security theater we experience at airports isn’t designed with flight security as its primary goal. Besides, let’s not forget that TSA is already working on programs for clearing frequent travelers on an expedited basis who they know through prior investigation won’t pose a security risk on commercial flights. Who in their right mind thinks that Senator Rand Paul represented any kind of real security risk on board an aircraft? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Now, it might look like it was intentional, but I very much highly doubt that was even remotely intentional at all. I simply believe that the TSA wanted to do their jobs and Rand Paul refused to let them, and for this, he was detained and released and not allowed to fly. Let us not forget why the TSA put these regulations in place, on Christmas Day in 2009, an idiot kid from Nigeria blow himself up on a plane from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan; which by the way is my hometown and the airport that this almost happened at, is less than 10 miles from my HOUSE!

Anyhow, again, this might look bad, but I seriously doubt it is anything but Senator Rand Paul grandstanding against something that he feels is against his rights as a citizen. I personally disagree with that; I believe that safety of those flying here in America and abroad, should come first. Then again, I have never flown, nor will I ever. Too many planes crashing for this old man. 😯

Rand Paul refused patdown...
On way to Senate, March For Life...
Constitution: 'Privileged From Arrest'...
Standoff in Nashville...
A.Killough / CNN: BREAKING: Spokeswoman: TSA turns away Sen. Rand Paul
Tim Mak / The Politico: Rand Paul detained by TSA
ABCNEWS: Rand Paul in Pat-Down Standoff With TSA in Nashville

Others: Hot Air, The Gateway Pundit, Big Government, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Michelle Malkin, The Raw Story, Gothamist, LewRockwell.com Blog, Campaign 2012, National Review

Update: Now a huge Memeorandum thread.

Update #2: Smitty, who I consider to be a friend; makes some good points.

Social cons feuding over Republican pick

Sounds about right for a bunch of Christians, someone picks a candidate and the rest disagree. Hmm, I wonder if they are Baptists? 😉

Via the Washington Times:

In an evolving power struggle, religious conservatives are feuding about whether a weekend meeting in Texas yielded a consensus that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is the best bet to stop Mitt Romney’s drive for the Republican presidential nomination.
A leading evangelical and former aide to President George H.W. Bush said he agreed with suspicions voiced by others at the meeting of evangelical and conservative Catholic activists that organizers “manipulated” the gathering and may even have stuffed the ballot to produce an endorsement of Mr. Santorum over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Mr. Santorum, who nearly upset Mr. Romney in the Iowa caucuses, won the first ballot ahead of Mr. Gingrich in Saturday’s Texas meeting but the margin was too slim for organizers to claim a consensus. It was not until the third ballot, taken after many people had left to catch flights back home, that Mr. Santorum won more than 70 percent of those still in attendance and claimed the endorsement.

and this via Newt’s Campaign Website:

Atlanta, GA – Gingrich Faith Leaders Coalition National Co-Chair Don Wildmon released this statement today:
Perhaps you have heard a rumor that I have changed my support from Newt Gingrich for President to another candidate. I want you to know that is not true. To suggest that I have switched my support is inaccurate.
Without question, this election is the most important in the history of our nation. Our culture has become saturated with corruption and immorality. I firmly believe the future not only of our nation but all of Western Civilization is at stake. Voters in South Carolina will help decide if we can return our nation to its Judeo-Christian roots, or continue to slide down the slippery slope?
In the past, Christian conservatives have split their votes among three or four candidates. This has allowed the moderate-liberal wing of the Republican Party to capture the nomination. It appears we might do the same thing again.

He goes to laud praise on and support Newt, of course. I personally believe that this demonstrates just how unified Christians can be. Further more, I believe this is all really for naught; the social conservative ship sailed long ago. What really puzzles me is how Social Conservatives could honestly support Newt. The man has been married three times, how do social conservative square that with their beliefs that marriage is honored by God and that divorce is simply not a good thing? I guess that shows just how compromised the Evangelical Christian world has become. I will say this, Reagan was married twice and they still elected him. So, this is nothing really new.

But still, Newt?!?! My goodness. 🙄 I can see Santorum, he has kids, been married for a long time. But Newt? It makes no sense at all.

Two Instances of Republicans kissing up to black voters

Both of these idiots must be really desperate. 🙄

Instance one, Newt Gingrich sucks up to a black Church in SC:

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich faced a round of tough questions in a campaign event before an African-American church in South Carolina on Saturday.
Gingrich spoke with members of the Jones Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Columbia, S.C. for an hour according to media reports.
Many of the questions focused on a statement from the former House Speaker in December that “really poor children” have bad work habits, a remark which attracted criticism from civil rights groups.
“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works, so they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday,” Gingrich had said at a campaign event.

Since when does a white man, running as a Republican go down to SC and grovel before a bunch of blacks, who will most likely not vote for him anyhow? This reeks of nothing more than USDA choice desperation. I personally do not believe that Newt owes these idiots a thing at all. Gingrich spoke the truth, and if they do not like it — screw em. 😡

Instance number two, Mitt Romney is trying to buy the black vote in SC, I guess:

SUMTER, S.C. — Amid shaking hands and signing campaign posters, Mitt Romney did something he has never done before on the ropeline: He took out his wallet and handed a wad of cash to a woman waiting to shake his hand.
The woman, 55-year-old Ruth Williams, says she has been following the Romney campaign since he arrived in the state on Jan. 11, when she said she received a message from God to track him down.
“I was on the highway praying and said, ‘God just show me how to get [my] lights on,’ and I pulled up to a stop sign and his bus was there,” said Williams, who has been unemployed since last October. “And then God said, ‘Follow the bus,’ and I followed the bus to the airport.”
According to Williams, she followed the campaign bus to the Columbia airport on Wednesday, the same day Romney was arriving from New Hampshire. When Romney wasn’t on the bus, aides told her to go to the rally scheduled in Columbia later that day. When she showed up, Romney found her to say hello and pulled over South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to say “hello” too.
“He was kind to me and he made Gov. Haley come see about me,” Williams said. “He stopped doing everything.”

I have a shiny twenty-dollar bill that says that the only thing this woman was thinking is, “I found me a stupid honky that will give me money!” Nice going Mittens. Try to buy the black vote; modern-day slavery, all that is. I figure Mittens does not own a plantation for her to work on and that stuff is illegal now, so he figures he will just buy her vote. 🙄 Smart, real smart Mittens.

In short: We….are….so…..screwed. 🙁

What’s next? Perry allows some black man to wash his car? 🙄

Others: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Outside the Beltway, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, Washington Post, The Lonely Conservative, The Hinterland Gazette and CNN — CNN, The Politico and The Hinterland Gazette

Cross-Posted to Alexandria

Not Smart Isreal, Not smart at all.

This is not a good way to work with the United States:

Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA officers in order to recruit members of a Pakistani terror group to carry out assassinations and attacks against the regime in Iran, Foreign Policy revealed on Friday, quoting U.S. intelligence memos.
Foreign Policy’s Mark Perry reported that the Mossad operation was carried out in 2007-2008, behind the back of the U.S. government, and infuriated then U.S. President George W. Bush.
Perry quotes a number of American intelligence officials and claims that the Mossad agents used American dollars and U.S. passports to pose as CIA spies to try to recruit members of Jundallah, a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization that has carried out a series of attacks in Iran and assassinations of government officials.
According to the report, Israel’s recruitment attempts took place mostly in London, right under the nose of U.S. intelligence officials.
“It’s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with,” Foreign Policy quoted an intelligence officer as saying. “Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn’t give a damn what we thought.” — Via ‘Israeli Mossad agents posed as CIA spies to recruit terrorists to fight against Iran’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Not a smart way to do things if you ask me. I support Israel and the Country’s right to exist. However, doing this sort of thing, does nothing to garner support among those who might not be rabid supporters of the Country; you know, like our current President? I can well understand why Bush would be quite upset about something like this. I can almost assure you, that if this story had broken during the tenure of President George W. Bush; the outcry of the liberal media against Israel would have deafened me. Furthermore, the anti-Israel rats here in America would have crawled out of the woodwork and saying that we needed to sever ties with Israel or worse.

Again, as it does say in my sidebars, I am supporter of Israel; as Christian I understand the biblical significance of this wonderful Country. However, I am also mindful of those, who would want to see this Country removed from the face of the earth. These actions do nothing more than hand the anti-Israel crowd ammunition in their warped quest to see God’s chosen people destroyed and that land given to those who do not have rightful ownership of it. Israel should know this, but not everyone is given a measure of common sense.

Five European Nations to Be Downgraded by S&P

The fallout from the housing market bust here in America continues:

The Story:

Standard & Poor’s will cut the credit ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal by two notches and downgrade France and Austria by one notch, a French newspaper said Friday, without citing its sources.
The newspaper, Les Echos, said that S&P would spare Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg in its long-awaited adjustment of euro zone sovereign ratings.
It said the announcement would come at around 4:30 pm ET, after the US stock market has closed.
“Remain alert tonight when U.S. markets close,” one euro zone source told Reuters.
US stocks slumped in reaction, though were well off their lows, while European shares closed lower.
In December, S&P placed the ratings of 15 euro zone countries on credit watch negative— including those of top-rated Germany and France, the region’s two biggest economies—and said “systemic stresses” were building up as credit conditions tighten in the 17-nation bloc.
Since then, the European Central Bank has flooded the banking system with cheap three-year money to avert a credit crunch. At the time, the U.S.-based ratings agency said it could also downgrade the euro zone’s current bailout fund, the EFSF.
Five European Nations to Be Downgraded by S&P: Report – Business News – CNBC.

This is what happens when progressives game a system and it comes all crashing down around them. Now you would think that they would learn from this little idiotic mistake; well, you would be wrong. They honestly believe the way to recover from this, is by spending their way out of a recession. Idiots, all of them. 🙄

Federal Reserve leaders laughed and joked while housing marker crashed

This is why the federal reserve needs to be reigned in or better yet, ended:

The leaders of the Federal Reserve went around the room saluting Alan Greenspan during his last day as chairman of the central bank. Then Timothy F. Geithner, the future Treasury secretary, made a prediction.
“I’d like the record to show that I think you’re pretty terrific, too,” Geithner, who was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told Greenspan amid laughter on Jan. 31, 2006. “And thinking in terms of probabilities, I think the risk that we decide in the future that you’re even better than we think is higher than the alternative.”
On Thursday, the Fed released transcripts of its meetings in 2006, offering a new window into what was on the minds of some of the nation’s top economic and financial thinkers just ahead of the financial crisis and subsequent great recession. The transcripts, which are customarily released after five years, show that Fed leaders, armed with the best economic data available, had little idea of what was looming less than two years off.
Trusted to look toward the future and make decisions to keep the economy strong, they spent some of their time patting their leader on the back and even found time to joke about what turned out to be early-warning signs in the markets. While Fed officials — including several who are in key positions today — were aware that the nation’s rapid increase in housing prices was coming to an end, they significantly underestimated how much damage the popping of the real estate bubble would cause in the rest of the economy.
In his first meeting as Fed chairman, in March 2006, Ben S. Bernanke noted the slowdown in the housing market. But he said he shared the view that “strong fundamentals support a relatively soft landing in housing,” adding: “I think we are unlikely to see growth being derailed by the housing market.”
The year began with adulation all around for Greenspan. In that January meeting, Roger Ferguson, then Fed vice chairman and now head of the TIAA-CREF financial services group, called Greenspan a “monetary policy Yoda. — Greenspan image tarnished by newly released documents – The Washington Post

So far there is only one person even talking about the Federal Reserve and his foreign policy is horrible. So, nothing will change. In other words, business as usual. So much for that Tea Party eh?

(via HotAir Headlines)

Memo to CAIR: Thou Doth Protest Too Much

Now this is unbelievable. A couple of Marines decided to treat a few dead Taliban terrorists to a good old fashioned “golden shower.”

Here is the video:

Quoting CAIR:

“We condemn this apparent desecration of the dead as a violation of our nation’s military regulations and of international laws of war prohibiting such disgusting and immoral actions.
“If verified as authentic, the video shows behavior that is totally unbecoming of American military personnel and that could ultimately endanger other soldiers and civilians.
“We trust that this disturbing incident will be promptly investigated in a transparent manner and that appropriate actions will be taken based on the results of that investigation. Any guilty parties must be punished to the full extent allowed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and by relevant American laws.”

Allow me, as a proud American who lived through, witnessed on live TV and had to deal with the depression of what happened on September 11, 2001 — to show you, just WHO these Marines were pissing on….

They pissing on people that did this:

and this:

So, to you CAIR, I have two words for you turban wearing pieces of human excrement:

Piss Off!

If anything at all, you should be glad that angry Americans, like me, are not going around to Mosques in America and dragging your sorry asses out in to the streets of America and shooting you in the heads. You have been very highly protected by the United States Government, despite the fact that your backward religion instructs your mindless followers to kill people that disagree with your beliefs. You should be very grateful for this and should keep your mouths shut.

Remember you bastards, you started this little war on freedom — we did not. We did not want it — you did, and when you suffer, you complain. Crybaby pukes, you start a war against freedom and when some of our guys get the upper hand, you cry. Wah, Wah Wah…. cry me a river. 🙄

This is one of the many reasons why I believe that in the interest of National Security; that the ~~Religion~~ backward crap of ISLAM should be BANNED in America. This is not about Religion Freedom, this is about National Security and these bastards are a threat to humanity!

…and before anyone says it. I know it was Al-Qaeda that hit us, not the Taliban. Same difference, terrorists are terrorists, Jihads are Jihads… Big whoop. 🙄

Others: Pamela, American Power, Yourish.com,

Cross-Posted to Right Michigan

Update: it seems that most over at hotair.com agree with me.

They’re watching us: DHS is now monitoring Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and More.

Governments that watch their people, fear them:

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.
A “privacy compliance review” issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a “Social Networking/Media Capability” which involves regular monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.”
The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.”
The document adds, using more plain language, that such monitoring is designed to help DHS and its numerous agencies, which include the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, to manage government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A DHS official familiar with the monitoring program said that it was intended purely to enable command center officials to keep in touch with various Internet-era media so that they were aware of major, developing events to which the Department or its agencies might have to respond. — Homeland Security watches Twitter, social media | Reuters

I made reference to this in my previous posting. I had a video up there that could have been misinterpreated by some idiot Government zealot, so I canned it. I just do not want to take any chances. Either way, if they’re looking at the big sites, like HotAir.com; you can bet they will be looking at the smaller blogs too. I guess they figure if they cannot pass SOPA/PIPA, they will just snoop on us anyhow.

Needless to say, I will not be shooting and posting anymore videos on this blog or anywhere else. I just don’t need the hassle. 😡

(cross posted at Right Michigan)

Glenn Beck blows his back out

Poor Glenn Beck; the man leaves Fox News, because he made Rupert Murdoch worried and give Roger Ailes heartburn. So, he goes and sets up his own network, moves it and himself to Texas and what happens? He blows ~~four~~ (*) three disks in his back out…. Ouch.

Anyhow, here’s the short version:

…..and the loooong version, where they talk his back and a whole bunch of other stuff:

Exit comments: First of all, blowing out ~~four~~ (*) three disks in your back, by just bending over and touching a pencil? Oy. Note to self: get something to grab stuff on the floor. Second of all; in the short video the dude said that he did it, when he jumped on a table and Glenn himself said it was from bending over to get a pencil. Someone needs to get their story straight!

Exit Question: Really happened or publicity stunt? I mean, he did fake out a bunch of people before, by faking boiling frogs. I’m just sayin’ ya’ll! 😀

Update: * = When I first posted this, I watched the video first — I thought he said four disks, he said three. Oops. 😳

UPDATED! PLEASE READ!: Quote about President Barack Obama

Who said this?

“My question is, what legacy will he leave, having the opportunity to serve under such hugely dramatic circumstances and had such a huge impact on the universal state of things … how could he have had such a splendid opportunity to do more than most presidents would have ever been able to do, and he let that opportunity slip away from him.
I’m very cautious of the fact that those who think he has some second agenda and only if he could be given a second term for us to see the new light, new things will be revealed, new efforts will be made to take us to a place other than where we’ve been and where we languish. I just don’t trust that. I don’t believe that’s a safe way and accurate way to look at this scenario. If there was the kind of moral compass serving Barack Obama the way we hoped, the moral force would have helped him make choices, the absence of that force in his equations, that barometer to guide him when he has to make these decisions that are hugely complicated, he should have come to the table with the things that would have helped us in this moment of crisis.”

Continue reading “ UPDATED! PLEASE READ!: Quote about President Barack Obama” →