'The Hunting Ground' director compares due-process advocates to 'climate change deniers'

'The Hunting Ground' director compares due-process advocates to 'climate change deniers' - The College Fix:
"The campus sexual-assault documentary The Hunting Ground has been under sustained attack by left-of-center law professors and journalists going back at least 11 months, when The Harvard Crimson fact-checked its claims about Harvard.
The criticism has flummoxed the makers of the film, who recently tried to convince Harvard Law students to file Title IX complaints against their own professors because they called the film a hit job on one of their accused students (Brandon Winston beat the allegations against him).
Now the film’s director is pulling out the big guns, ThinkProgress reports:
“This falsely accused thing drives me nuts,” Kirby Dick, who wrote and directed The Hunting Ground, told ThinkProgress. “The criminal justice system resoundingly resides in favor of the perpetrator.” [Tell that to Steven Avery.]
“There’s a real parallel between climate change deniers and rape deniers in terms of how they operate,” Dick added. “And there is going to be a similar parallel in terms of the impact on this culture… It’s taken 20 years for us to crawl out of that hole. We can’t just assume there are two sides and those two sides are equally weighted.”
Having failed to shame progressive advocates – led by nonwhite and feminist legal scholars like Jeannie Suk and Nancy Gertner – into renouncing their fealty to due process, rape hustlers like Kirby Dick resort to calling them the worst names they can think of (“creationist” can’t be far behind)."

The Legal Language That Might Stop the Obama Administration From Using ‘Genocide’ to Describe the Islamic State’s Actions | TheBlaze.com

The Legal Language That Might Stop the Obama Administration From Using ‘Genocide’ to Describe the Islamic State’s Actions | TheBlaze.com:

"The Obama administration continues pondering whether to classify as genocide the Islamic State’s targeting of Christians and religious minorities, even as European allies have opted for the term.

While some experts argue that it’s clearly a case of genocide, others contend the case might rest on the wording, “in whole or in part,” contained in the genocide treaty that the United States is a part of."

There's been a boom in driver's licenses issued to immigrants here illegally

There's been a boom in driver's licenses issued to immigrants here illegally - LA Times:
"...An estimated 605,000 licenses were issued under the law last year, accounting for nearly half of all new licenses, according to the California DMV.
Nearly 400,000 of the licenses were issued during the first six months.
"We believe that this new law increases safety on California roads by putting licensed drivers behind the steering wheel," spokesman Artemio Armenta said.
...Brown in August signed a trio of immigration-related measures, which included elimination of the word "alien" within California's labor code to describe immigrants in the country illegally.
The new laws also included allowing noncitizen high school students to serve as election poll workers and protecting immigrant minors in civil lawsuits..."

Laura Hillier died of leukemia while waiting for hospital bed despite having a donor

Laura Hillier died of leukemia while waiting for hospital bed despite having a donor | Daily Mail Online:
Friends of girl, 18, with leukemia sign her casket with loving messages in a final goodbye after she died waiting for a hospital bed during a shortage in Canada

1. Laura Hillier, 18, died after waiting for a bone marrow transplant during a hospital bed shortage in Canada, despite having willing donors available
2. An Ontario hospital said it could only do five transplants a month and there were about 30 people who were waiting to have the procedure done
3. At her funeral, friends and family signed her casket with loving messages
4. The Hillier family is now fighting in Laura's memory to end 'deadly' wait times for hospital beds in Canada

Lunch video-----Congratulations North Korea!

Noon-toon

Obamas’ expensive vacations spark lawsuit; ‘kingly entourage’ abuse of taxpayers’ money | BizPac Review

Obamas’ expensive vacations spark lawsuit; ‘kingly entourage’ abuse of taxpayers’ money | BizPac Review:

"Contending that the bill for Obama’s travel costs exceeds $74 million, but being stonewalled in trying to access the actual totals, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security for ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests, according to a press release issued this week by the conservative watchdog group.

(The Secret Service is under the authority of Homeland Security.)

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said taxpayers are being “abused” by the president’s “kingly entourage.”

“Now that we’ve sued, the Secret Service has stopped ignoring our requests for details on more of the costs of Barack Obama’s luxury vacations,” Fitton said in the statement. "

Global warming might be causing dogs to become depressed, say pet behaviourists

Global warming might be causing dogs to become depressed, say pet behaviourists | Environment | The Independent:
A boredom epidemic is sweeping through Britain’s dog population – and global warming could be to blame.
Across the country, there are reports of down-in-the-mouth mutts, and under-the-weather canines.
Leading pet behaviourists told The Independent that the number of depressed and unsettled dogs they have seen in recent months is unprecedented.
And they suggested that the spate of wet winters could be at the root of the problem, as owners cut down on the daily walks that are crucial to keeping dogs’ spirits up.
...“I’ve been working with dogs for more than 20 years and I can’t remember a time when they’ve been this bored.
I tend to see boredom in bursts but I’m seeing it chronically this winter,” said Carolyn Menteith, a dog behaviourist who was named Britain’s Instructor of the Year in 2015.
Ms Menteith spends much of her time outside walking dogs and has noticed a significant change in the weather in the past five years or so – as cold, crisp winters gradually give way to “constant wet dreariness”.
She – like many scientists and meteorologists – puts this down to climate change and expects to see more bored dogs in the future as global warming unleashes increasingly frequent and intense bouts of winter rainfall..."

World War III inches closer as Turkey says it may enter Syrian conflict

L. TODD WOOD: World War III inches closer as Turkey says it may enter Syrian conflict - Washington Times:
The reason Russia is possibly building a new airbase on the Turkish border inside Syria became clearer today as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hinted Turkey could enter the war on the side of the anti-Assad forces who Russia has been primarily targeting. 
The Syrian government made major gains against the Sunni opposition in recent weeks as the Syrian city of Aleppo looked to fall from the opposition’s control.
Turkey has repeatedly urged the American-led coalition against ISIS to do more to help the anti-Assad forces.
“We don’t want to fall into the same mistake in Syria as in Iraq,” Mr. Erdogan said, recounting how Turkey’s parliament denied a U.S. request to use its territory for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“It’s important to see the horizon.
What’s going on in Syria can only go on for so long.
At some point it has to change,” he told journalists on the return flight from a tour of Latin America, reported Bloomberg News.
When asked if Turkey could enter the Syrian conflict, Mr. Erdogan said, “You don’t talk about these things. 
When necessary, you do what’s needed. 
Right now our security forces are prepared for all possibilities...”

Iowa Dem Party fixes errors, but refuses to release raw vote

Iowa Dem Party fixes errors, but refuses to release raw vote - UPI.com:
"DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton remains the winner of the Iowa caucuses after the Iowa Democratic corrected errors in several precincts.
The Des Moines Register quoted Iowa Democratic Party officials as saying on Sunday that Clinton won with 700.47 state delegate equivalents, or 49.84 percent, while Bernie Sanders finished in second with 696.92 state delegate equivalents, or 49.59 percent.
The review of the count in select precincts came amid calls for an audit following reported discrepancies in the caucus results last week.
In one precinct, a single delegate showed up to vote for Sanders but was erroneously marked as voting for Clinton.
In all, party officials reviewed 14 precincts and found errors in five.
...The mistakes have also led to calls for the Iowa Democratic Party to change its process, which differs from the Republican Party's method of conducting a simple, secret straw poll.
The Democrats use complex math formulas, coin tosses and past voter turnout to calculate numbers from a series of headcounts..."

Obama DHS scrubs records of hundreds of Muslim terrorists

Obama DHS scrubs records of hundreds of Muslim terrorists:

"These new shocking revelations come fresh on the heels of whistleblower testimony in the wake of the San Bernardino jihad slaughter, revealing that the Obama administration shut down investigations into jihadists in America (and quite possible the San Bernardino shooters) at the request of the Department of State and the DHS’ own Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Division. Haney noted: “They claimed that since the Islamist groups in question were not Specially Designated Terrorist Organizations (SDTOs) tracking individuals related to these groups was a violation of the travelers’ civil liberties. These were almost exclusively foreign nationals: When were they granted the civil rights and liberties of American citizens?”

How is this not impeachable? When did foreign terrorists get civil rights?"

Dark green conifers across Europe have stoked Global Warming: French Research

Dark green conifers across Europe have stoked Global Warming: French Research | Maine News Online:
Planting more trees than what can be harvested has been recognized by activists as a key strategy in the fight against climate change.
But a new study published in the journal Science has found the claim to be false.
As per the researchers, more than 250 years of forest management in Europe has actually added to climate change rather than helping to stop it.
 In the study, the researchers have assessed the land-use history of Europe from 1750 to till date.
The researchers have included factors including deforestation and forestation and management changes and changes in types of trees planted and the amount of wood harvested.
They have also used models to assess the effects of the changes on the climate..."

AM Fruitcake

History for February 9

History for February 9 - On-This-Day.com:
William Henry Harrison (U.S.) 1773, George Ade 1866, Gypsy Rose Lee 1914 


Carole King 1942 - Singer, Joe Pesci 1943 - Actor, Travis Tritt 1963 - Country singer 


1825 - The U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes. 


1870 - The United States Weather Bureau was authorized by Congress. The bureau is officially known as the National Weather Service (NWS). 


1895 - Volley Ball was invented by W.G. Morgan. 


1895 - The first college basketball game was played as Minnesota State School of Agriculture defeated the Porkers of Hamline College, 9-3. 


1900 - Dwight F. Davis put up a new tennis trophy to go to the winner in matches against England. The trophy was a silver cup that weighed 36 pounds. 


1943 - During World War II, the battle of Guadalcanal ended with an American victory over Japanese forces. 


1950 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. This was the beginning of "McCarthyism."
 

1960 - The first star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was for Joanne Woodward. 

SPREAD THIS: Chuck Norris Reveals 1 HUGE Piece of Hillary's Past She Did NOT Want America to See

SPREAD THIS: Chuck Norris Reveals 1 HUGE Piece of Hillary's Past She Did NOT Want America to See:

"Most people think that the two most important names in the Democratic race for the White House in 2016 are Obama and Clinton. However, the two names you should be paying attention to are Cloward and Piven."

What is Socialism?

What is Socialism? | Intellectual Takeout:
So, there’s a video making the social media rounds with a CNN reporter supposedly asking Bernie Sanders supporters to define socialism.
 Here it is: 

Based on a lot of what we’ve seen in articles and online comments, the reporter probably revealed quite a bit of truth about what young Americans actually understand about socialism.

Back in July 2014, Reason released a report stating that 42% of Millennials preferred socialism, but only 16% could accurately define it. Ouch.

So just what is socialism? Quite simply it is the “popular ownership of the means of production”. 
In other words, a democratic government owns all of the businesses in the country and runs them for the benefit of the people.

If you don’t believe it, here are some socialists defining socialism from an earlier piece we did refuting the idea that all government action is a display of socialism. 
First up is Vladimir Lenin:

“What is usually called socialism was termed by Marx the 'first', or lower, phase of communist society. Insofar as the means of production become common property, the word 'communism' is also applicable here, providing we do not forget that this is not complete communism” (The State and Revolution)

Or

“For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly” (The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It)

Here's how the Socialist Party USA, which uses the term democratic-socialism, defines socialism:

“The Socialist Party strives to establish a radical democracy that places people's lives under their own control -- a non-racist, classless, feminist, socialist society in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community.

Socialism is not mere government ownership, a welfare state, or a repressive bureaucracy. Socialism is a new social and economic order in which workers and consumers control production and community residents control their neighborhoods, homes, and schools.  The production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few. Socialism produces a constantly renewed future by not plundering the resources of the earth.”

So there you go. 
Socialism is the government controlling not only businesses, but also neighborhoods, homes, and schools. 
Indeed, as the Socialist Party USA claims, it is a very different “social and economic order” than anything you’ve likely experienced.

Insane CA Taxes will Cause Super Bowl Players to LOSE MONEY to Play...

Insane CA Taxes will Cause Super Bowl Players to LOSE MONEY to Play... » Louder With Crowder
Some liberals are starting to realize that the math doesn’t add up but this story about Cam Newton and other NFL players LOSING MONEY this Sunday because of leftist tax policy is beyond ridiculous.
Players are basically paying San Francisco to be allowed to play in the SuperBowl.
Not making this up.
Since the Super Bowl will be held in Santa Clara, California this year, the visiting teams will end up paying the “jock tax.”
The jock tax is a tax levied on professional athletes.
States base this taxation of a player’s yearly income, which they then apply a duty day calculation, which looks at the ratio of duty days spent in-state against total duty days in a year.
Because athletes from both Super Bowl teams have to spend several days in California for the event, they will all have to pay an obscenely high tax rate based on their entire year’s income!
Each member of the winning team will receive a $102,000 check from the NFL, members of the losing team will each receive $51,000 just for participating.
This leaves those highly paid stars like Quarterback Cam Newton, who signed a five-year $103.8 million dollar contract last summer, in the red, according to Forbes.
He will owe California a total of $159,560 in taxes in 2016 just if they win and $159,200 if they lose, based on Forbes’ calculations, which factors 11 of the Panthers’ 206 “duty days” in 2016 taking place in California..."

Seoul: North Korea Fires Rocket Seen as Covert Missile Test (UPDATED) | TheBlaze.com

Seoul: North Korea Fires Rocket Seen as Covert Missile Test (UPDATED) | TheBlaze.com:

"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland."

Brexit - France to send Calais migrants to Britain if Out vote wins

Brexit - France to send Calais migrants to Britain if Out vote wins | UK | News | Daily Express:
MIGRANTS living in shanty camps in northern France will be put on ferries and sent to Britain the day after a vote to leave the EU, a French mayor warned last night.
Franck Dhersin said the Touquet agreement, which was signed in 2003 and places the UK border at the French ports, will be quickly torn up after an out vote, allowing the French government to hire DFDS ferries to start the mass exodus immediately.
...Plans for the mass ferry evacuations have the full backing of Calais mayor Natalie Bouchart and Xavier Bertrand, the recently re-elected powerful president of the Nord-Pasde-Calais-Picardie region.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Express, Mr Dhersin said:
“We all believe that Britain will vote to leave the EU because of the rise of nationalism, not only in your country, but in other European countries as well.
“Then the Touquet agreement we have at the moment, which puts the UK border in France, will quickly come to an end.
Be in no doubt, it will no longer exist.
“The border will move to Dover and so the migrants who come to Calais and other ports and towns in northern France will then be put on DFDS ferries and taken to Dover. This will happen..."

Secretary Kerry Says ISIS Aren't Muslims

Secretary Kerry Says ISIS Aren't Muslims | The Daily Caller:
At a conference of coalition members tasked with fighting ISIS in Rome yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry said members of the terrorist organization are not Muslims but apostates of Islam.
“Daesh [ISIS] is in fact nothing more than a mixture of killers, of kidnappers, of criminals, of thugs, of adventurers, of smugglers and thieves,” Kerry said.
“And they are also above all apostates, people who have hijacked a great religion and lie about its real meaning and lie about its purpose and deceive people in order to fight for their purposes.”
Apostate, according to The Washington Post, has traditionally been used to describe an individual or, in the plural, a group who abandoned or renounced their religion.
Kerry’s application of the term to ISIS is somewhat ironic considering the terrorist organization has justified its attacks on other Muslims by claiming the victims were apostates themselves, which suggests ISIS militants are active participants in the Muslim faith..."

Chicago Is Falling Apart

Chicago Is Falling Apart - The American Interest:
Budgetary pressures and low investor confidence are forcing Chicago’s public school system to borrow money at ruinous interest rates just to stay afloat. Reuters reports:
The Chicago Board of Education managed to sell only $725 million of an originally planned $795.5 million of tax-exempt bonds, and yields on the deal topped out at 8.5 percent, a massive premium relative to higher-rated debt sold in the U.S. municipal bond market and a clear indication of investors’ view of the depths of the district’s fiscal woes [. . .]
“It’s a Puerto-Rico grade yield and clearly signals that the district is on an unsustainable path,” said Matt Fabian, a partner at Municipal Market Analytics.
That the third largest city in the United States (until relatively recently considered a well-governed municipality with a promising future) is seen as this kind of risk by the credit markets should drive the message home that America’s bluest cities and states aren’t on a sustainable path.
And as the fiscal vise tightens around these governments, various political conflicts will come to the fore.
The first is internal: Public sector unions, which jealously protect their generous pension guarantees, will be pitted against the overwhelmingly Democratic constituencies that disproportionately suffer from underfunded public services (like Chicago’s failing public schools).
The second is external: If blue cities around the country remain unable to provide necessary services at sustainable cost levels, they will inevitably start clamoring for federal assistance. 
Some of that help will have to be given—but only in exchange for profound institutional reforms.
The ongoing blue model collapse is one of the most underreported, and politically consequential, stories of our time.
How it will be resolved—and the contours of the political and fiscal system that will emerge in its wake—remain an open, and crucial, issue.

Lunch video-----Aviation PhotoCrew Aerial Showreel

Noon-toon

After Complaining About Cost of Benghazi Probe, Dems Are Caught Engaging in ‘Height of Hypocrisy’ | TheBlaze.com

After Complaining About Cost of Benghazi Probe, Dems Are Caught Engaging in ‘Height of Hypocrisy’ | TheBlaze.com:

"Democrats on the House Benghazi committee who repeatedly complained about the cost of the probe awarded thousands of dollars in bonuses to staffers, public records examined by Fox News reveal.

According to the records, six Democratic staffers were given a grand total of $33,600 at the end of 2014 and 2015."

Excellent read!-----Great Myths of the Great Depression

Great Myths of the Great Depression | Foundation for Economic Education
Many volumes have been written about the Great Depression and its impact on the lives of millions of Americans.
Historians, economists, and politicians have all combed the wreckage searching for the “black box” that will reveal the cause of this legendary tragedy.
Sadly, all too many of them decide to abandon their search, finding it easier perhaps to circulate a host of false and harmful conclusions about the events of seven decades ago.
How bad was the Great Depression?
Over the four years from 1929 to 1933, production at the nation’s factories, mines, and utilities fell by more than half.
People’s real disposable incomes dropped 28 percent.
Stock prices collapsed to one-tenth of their pre-crash height.
The number of unemployed Americans rose from 1.6 million in 1929 to 12.8 million in 1933.
One of every four workers was out of a job at the Depression’s nadir, and ugly rumors of revolt simmered for the first time since the Civil War.
Old myths never die; they just keep showing up in college economics and political science textbooks. 
Students today are frequently taught that unfettered free enterprise collapsed of its own weight in 1929, paving the way for a decade-long economic depression full of hardship and misery.
President Herbert Hoover is presented as an advocate of “hands-off,” or laissez-faire, economic policy, while his successor, Franklin Roosevelt, is the economic savior whose policies brought us recovery.
This popular account of the Depression belongs in a book of fairy tales and not in a serious discussion of economic history, as a review of the facts demonstrates.
The Great, Great, Great, Great Depression
To properly understand the events of the time, it is appropriate to view the Great Depression as not one, but four consecutive depressions rolled into one.
Professor Hans Sennholz has labeled these four “phases” as follows: the business cycle; the disintegration of the world economy; the New Deal; and the Wagner Act.[1]
The first phase explains why the crash of 1929 happened in the first place; the other three show how government intervention kept the economy in a stupor for over a decade.
Phase I: The Business Cycle
Phase II: Disintegration of the World Economy
Phase III: The New Deal
Phase IV: The Wagner Act

Rams Stiff St. Louis, Leave City with $144 Million Bill

Rams Stiff St. Louis, Leave City with $144 Million Bill - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
St. Louis residents no longer have a football team, but that doesn’t mean they will get to stop paying for one. 
While the Rams won a vote in mid-January to relocate to Los Angeles, St. Louis taxpayers will still be responsible for making $144 million in debt and maintenance payments for the Edward Jones Dome. 

Lewis Reed, the St. Louis Board of Alderman president, has asked the NFL for money to help pay off the debt, but he seems unaware of how the multi-billion dollar league operates. 

As Reason has reported in the past, stadium financing is one way the NFL holds cities hostage—either pay for a state-of-the-art facility or lose the prestige of having a professional football team. 
This has resulted in often lopsided stadium deals that leave cities (and their taxpayers) burdened with much of the debt. 

As Reuters points out:

Across the country, cities have gotten stuck with substantial costs after sports teams leave or even move across town. Often, local governments must pay bonds, maintenance costs, or demolition fees after a team is gone.

Houston’s iconic Astrodome, once dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World, sits empty a decade after the facility housed 25,000 evacuees of Hurricane Katrina and nearly 20 years after the Oilers left. The Detroit Lions’ former Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, was used sporadically after the team moved downtown in 2002, but shuttered for good when the inflatable roof was deflated.

St. Louis isn’t the only city that regrets it’s deal with the NFL. 
Reason’s Ed Krayewski wrote just a couple weeks ago that San Francisco residents are having buyer’s remorse after realizing that their agreement with the NFL to host a Super Bowl in exchange for a new stadium in Santa Clara, CA resulted in a $5.3 million bill for early lease termination. 
So why would any smart city want the NFL? 
Reason TV explored this question in the video below..."

Obama bullied bank to pay racial settlement without proof: report

Obama bullied bank to pay racial settlement without proof: report | New York Post:
Newly uncovered internal memos reveal the Obama administration knowingly exaggerated charges of racial discrimination in probes of Ally Bank and other defendants in the $900 billion car-lending business as part of a “racial justice” campaign that’s looking more like a massive government extortion and shakedown operation.
So far, Obama’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reached more than $220 million in settlements with several auto lenders since the agency launched its anti-discrimination crusade against the industry in 2013.
Several other banks are under active investigation.
That’s despite the fact that the CFPB had no actual complaints of racial discrimination — it was all just based on half-baked statistics.
A confidential 23-page internal report detailing CFPB’s strategy for going after lenders shows why these companies are forking over millions of dollars in restitution and fines to the government despite denying any wrongdoing.
The high-level memo, sent by top CFPB civil-rights prosecutors to the bureau’s director and revealed by a House committee, admits their methods for proving discrimination were seriously flawed from the start and had little chance of holding up in court.
Yet they figured they could muscle Ally, as well as future defendants, with threats and intimidation.
“Some of the claims being made in this case present issues, such as use of [race] proxying and reliance on the disparate-impact doctrine, that would pose litigation risks meriting serious consideration prior to taking administrative action or filing suit in district court,” the Oct. 7, 2013, memo addressed to CFPB chief Richard Cordray acknowledges.
“Nevertheless,” it added, “Ally may have a powerful incentive to settle the entire matter quickly without engaging in protracted litigation.”
At the time, the Detroit-based bank was seeking permission from the Federal Reserve to remain a financial holding company. 
Without regulatory approval, Ally risked losing key business lines, primarily its insurance subsidiaries.
Prosecutors also sought to use the Community Reinvestment Act as leverage against Ally.
At the time, the FDIC was reviewing the bank’s compliance with the anti- redlining law..."

KICK THE COCKROACHES OUT: Sweden To Deport 80,000 Muslim Refugees Over Migrant-Linked Violence — Freedom Daily

KICK THE COCKROACHES OUT: Sweden To Deport 80,000 Muslim Refugees Over Migrant-Linked Violence — Freedom Daily:

"Sweden will deport 80,000 migrants who arrived in the country last year and also had their asylum application denied.

Anders Ygemen, the country’s Interior Minister, said that the Swedish government had asked the police and other agencies to organize and enforce their removal."

MUST READ!-----DHS ordered me to scrub records of Muslims with terror ties

DHS ordered me to scrub records of Muslims with terror ties | TheHill
Amid the chaos of the 2009 holiday travel season, jihadists planned to slaughter 290 innocent travelers on a Christmas Day flight from the Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan.
Twenty-three-year old Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab intended to detonate Northwest Airlines Flight 253, but the explosives in his underwear malfunctioned and brave passengers subdued him until he could be arrested.
The graphic and traumatic defeat they planned for the United States failed, that time.
Following the attempted attack, President Obama threw the intelligence community under the bus for its failure to “connect the dots.” 
He said, “this was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.”
Most Americans were unaware of the enormous damage to morale at the Department of Homeland Security, where I worked, his condemnation caused.
His words infuriated many of us because we knew his administration had been engaged in a bureaucratic effort to destroy the raw material—the actual intelligence we had collected for years, and erase those dots.
The dots constitute the intelligence needed to keep Americans safe, and the Obama administration was ordering they be wiped away.
After leaving my 15 year career at DHS, I can no longer be silent about the dangerous state of America’s counter-terror strategy, our leaders’ willingness to compromise the security of citizens for the ideological rigidity of political correctness—and, consequently, our vulnerability to devastating, mass-casualty attack.
Just before that Christmas Day attack, in early November 2009, I was ordered by my superiors at the Department of Homeland Security to delete or modify several hundred records of individuals tied to designated Islamist terror groups like Hamas from the important federal database, the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS). These types of records are the basis for any ability to “connect dots...”

AM Fruitcake