FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2003

Yeah ... I'm, taking a few days off.  But I'm not out of touch..  The threat level is high, and if anything ugly happens I'll be on the air in a flash.  In the meantime ... a few notes before I go run on the beach.

AND WE'RE NO SAFER NOW??

Following Saddam's capture about three weeks ago the ever-irate Howard Dean sneered that the U.S. is no safer now than it was the day before 9/11.  I hope some reporter asks him that question again today on one of his campaign appearances.

Today we wake up to news that intelligence experts believe that a terrorist attack was probably averted by the cancellation of those Air France flights on Christmas Eve.  Investigators (unfortunately they're French investigators) are looking for some people who didn't show up for one particular cancelled flight ... including a trained pilot.  I guess we'll never know for certain, but the suspicions are that there may have been a plan to use one of the Air France aircraft as a missile to attack Las Vegas.  

If this story is accurate, then it is clear that U.S. intelligence services are doing quite a job protecting Americans.  There is no way they can make this country our the American people 100% safe from the intentions of Islamic terrorists, but bit by bit they're hacking away at the terrorist infrastructure.  Al Qaeda leaders and operatives are being captured or killed, and not it looks like planned terrorist attacks.  

Democrats, especially Howard Dean, have a bit of a problem.  Dean is trying to portray Bush's efforts at protecting America as being wholly ineffective.  That's where his "no safer" nonsense comes from.  He'll have to cook up some response to the Air France situation ... so here are some ideas he may float. Chose one:

• The discovery of these possible attacks was made by French intelligence officials with little or no help from U.S. interests.  The French are actually doing a better job of fighting terrorism peacefully than Bush is using force of arms.
• French officials are saying that there was no planned attack and this whole episode was overreaction on the part of the Bush Administration in an attempt to show the American people that they're really making progress.

Yes, I know ... the two suggestions are contradictory.  But have you been listening to Dean lately?  Contradiction doesn't matter.  Discrediting Bush's efforts in fighting Islamic terrorism does.

Here's something else many of us just learned over the past few days. The Homeland Security folks have installed outdoor sensors in over 30 cities in the United States. These sensors are designed to detect biological pathogens that might be released in the air by Islamic terrorists. These devices would provide an early warning in the event of a biological attack.  In Howard Dean's world this does not make us one bit safer.

MUD SLIDES IN CALIFORNIA

Those mud slides they had yesterday in California trapped many people in their homes in the San Bernardino hills. Some people, not everyone.  Rescue personnel will be working to get some people from their homes in those hills today.  But .. if you watch the videos of the mudslide devastation you will see some vehicles moving easily through the mud and the much.  SUVs.  Hummers.  The eco-radicals must really be beside themselves today.  First, their rabid protection of everything with a root or a pulse contributes to the severity of the fires in these hills a few months ago, then mudslides cause even further damage, and then, to make matters worse, people with SUVs manage to escape.  Sucks to be an environmental radical today, I guess.

JUST A FEW READING ASSIGNMENTS

Today's "must read."  Charles Krauthammer asks "The nine months of negotiations with Libya perfectly frame the war on Iraq and the fall of Saddam. How is it possible to ignore the most blindingly obvious collateral benefits?"  Benefits of what?  Of the war in Iraq, that's what.

You think lawyers aren't out of control in this country?  Here we have a two-year-old toddler who cut his head at a playground.  Now the boy's mother is suing the city and claiming lost wages for her precious kid ... a model, don't you know.

You might as well take some time to read my latest World Net Daily column.

A great Jonah Goldberg column on uninformed voters.   Could more people in this country be interested in what Paris Hilton is doing than George Bush?

VOTE ON YOUR FAVORITE CAPTION!

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