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What I Saw At the Napolitano "Revolution"
Townhall.com ^ | January 10, 2010 | Austin Hill

Posted on 01/10/2010 4:37:57 AM PST by Kaslin

Two terrorist attacks on American soil within les s than sixty days. Administration officials declare that “the system worked” after the Christmas day attack, only to be contradicted by the President days later. The President notes on December 29th that the Christmas day attack was carried out by merely an “isolated extremist,” but then declares on January 7 that “we are at war,” and that we must stay “one step ahead of a nimble adversary," in complete contradiction of his Homeland Security Secretary and his own previous remarks.

Oh, my –how does America’s liberal media explain it all away?

One of the most extraordinary accounts of this chaos was served up by Washington Post columnist David Broder. In the aftermath of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s sweep-it-under-the-rug “the system worked” analysis of the Christmas day attack, Broder published a column on January 1 explaining her terrific handling of the crisis.

“In the years I have known her,” Broder wrote, “she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance. If there is anyone in the administration who embodies President Obama's preference for quiet competence with ‘no drama,’ it is Janet Napolitano.”

Well, - gosh! - I can’t claim to have known Napolitano for “years” like the super-cool Mr. Broder does. However, I was an Arizonan for all six years of Napolitano’s tenure as Governor in that state, so I know some things about Ms. Napolitano.

As Arizona Governor, Napolitano was all over the road with policy positions on security. Early in her first term in 2003, she voiced support for a proposal to allow illegal immigrants to be issued state driver's licenses. When public outcry turned against her, she fell silent on the issue, and later refused to take a position on the matter when her fellow Democrats introduced legislation to actually make the driver’s license “dream” a reality.

And while 2003 saw the states of California and Texas contemplate whether or not to send state National Guard Troops to the U.S. / Mexico border, Napolitano opposed the idea for Arizona, arguing at the time that border security is a “federal issue” and not the job of state government. Yet three years later, in the midst of her 2006 re-election campaign, Governor Napolitano shocked Democrats and Republicans alike by dispatching the Arizona National Guard to the Mexican border, to “help” with the flood of illegal immigrants.

One of the most extraordinary components of Napolitano’s Arizona legacy has to do with her attempt to monetize state security. With virtually no input from the state legislature, Governor Napolitano used her executive powers to mandate the purchase and installation of speed-limit enforcing “photo radar” cameras which are now dispersed literally everywhere in Arizona - - in the city, and throughout the state’s vast rural regions as well.

Napolitano’s approach to speed enforcement is bad enough for its draconian, big-brother approach. But worse still, in a blatantly cynical move, Napolitano established that citations from the statewide “speed cameras” would carry with them no penalty to one’s driving record - - just a monetary fee. As long as offending drivers are willing to write the check and pay off the government, they can continue to violate speed limit laws with no restrictions on their driving privileges, and the state “profits” all the more.

In 2009 during her last few days as Arizona’s Governor, Napolitano explained that her “speed cameras” were a “solution” to the state’s budget woes. And this should raise concerns for all Americans today: as Governor of Arizona, our current Secretary of Homeland Security took the moral imperative of “public security” and reduced it down to a matter of mere revenue generation.

Had David Broder waited a couple more days before publishing his “I love Janet” piece, he may have seen the New York Times report on January 3rd noting that Napolitano’s “Arizona security experiment” is likely headed for the trash heap. As if the intended purposes of the program aren’t bad enough, Napolitano’s “photo radar” program has also failed to save Arizona from its budget woes, producing less than a third of Napolitano’s projected $120 million in annual “revenues.”

In the aftermath of the Christmas day terrorist attack, there has been chatter about shake-ups among President Obama’s security team. But don’t look for Napolitano’s departure any time soon. She “earned” a secure position in the Obama Administration by defying her long-standing friendship with the Clintons (President Clinton once appointed Napolitano as a “U.S. Attorney”) back in 2008 and endorsing Obama over Hillary. It is political cronyism at its worst - but it is the way things work in Washington.

And this is why we need a security professional heading-up the DHS – and not a politician.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: austinhill; bhodhs; blunders; cluelessindc; democrats; flight253; impeachobama; incompitano; napolitano; nationalsecurityfail; nowot; obama

1 posted on 01/10/2010 4:37:57 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin


2 posted on 01/10/2010 4:43:40 AM PST by Diogenesis ("Those who go below the surface do so at their peril" - Oscar Wilde)
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To: Kaslin

Don’t forget that Janet came to the attention of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy when she was Anita Hill’s attorney working to defame Clarence Thomas.


3 posted on 01/10/2010 4:46:25 AM PST by svxdave (Life is too short to wear a fake Rolex.)
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To: Kaslin
THREE TERRORIST ATTACKS IN 6 MONTHS. They are forgetting about the Little Rock army recruiting attack:

Gunman Kills Soldier Outside Recruiting Station

By STEVE BARNES and JAMES DAO

Published: June 1, 2009

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. A 23-year-old man upset about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan opened fire from his truck at two soldiers standing outside a military recruiting station here on Monday morning, killing one private and wounding another, the police said.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, was escorted from the Little Rock police headquarters in Arkansas on Monday. Muhammad is the suspect in the killing of a soldier in a targeted attack on a military recruiting center, police said.

The gunman, identified by the police as Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad of Little Rock, fled the scene and was arrested minutes later a short distance from the recruiting station, in a bustling suburban shopping center. The police confiscated a Russian-made SKS semiautomatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a handgun from his black pickup truck.

The two privates, who were both from Arkansas, were in Little Rock as part of a recruiting program that typically uses soldiers recently out of basic training to promote the Army in their home regions, Army officials said.

"They were serving their country," said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis, commander of the Oklahoma City recruiting battalion, which includes Arkansas. "They were just standing outside, just taking a five-minute break, just minding their own business" and this happens.

The dead soldier was identified as Pvt. William A. Long, 23, of Conway, about 30 miles north of Little Rock. The other victim, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, was in stable condition at Baptist Medical Center, Chief Stuart Thomas of the Little Rock Police Department said. In a lengthy interview with the police, Mr. Muhammad said he was angry about the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chief Thomas said. Previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, Mr. Muhammad told investigators that he had converted to Islam as a teenager, Chief Thomas said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/us/02recruit.html

4 posted on 01/10/2010 4:56:53 AM PST by Brilliant
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To: Kaslin
They're leaving out an important tie-in....Hasan @ Ft Hood.

Apparently, both Hasan and the panty bomber were both in contact with the Waliki (sp) guy in Yemen.

Let's be real....Everything is PC....because we have a born and raised Muslim in the White House.

Obama only used the word "War" because a huge mass of folks were complaining.

5 posted on 01/10/2010 5:08:16 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: Kaslin

Fear not! Brilliant, intellectual, really smart liberal Democrats are now in charge. There is nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.....nothing to fear, nothing to fear.

(To be repeated by the Liberal Press at least three hundred times a day, and even more on weekends.)

IMHO


6 posted on 01/10/2010 5:40:05 AM PST by ripley
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To: Kaslin
“the system worked”

More like “the system wrecked”

7 posted on 01/10/2010 6:22:57 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: Kaslin
Broder wrote, “she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance.

Imho Mr. Broder, Janet looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an on coming truck.

5.56mm

8 posted on 01/10/2010 6:35:59 AM PST by M Kehoe
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To: M Kehoe
Oh, my –how does America’s liberal media explain it all away?

I'm waiting for the, “It's all Bush's fault”. The present incompetent hasn't had time to correct it yet.

9 posted on 01/10/2010 6:53:28 AM PST by chainsaw ("When you subsidize poverty and failure, you get more of both." - James Dale Davidson)
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To: Diogenesis
One of the most extraordinary accounts of this chaos was served up by Washington Post columnist David Broder. In the aftermath of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s sweep-it-under-the-rug “the system worked” analysis of the Christmas day attack, Broder published a column on January 1 explaining her terrific handling of the crisis.

“In the years I have known her,” Broder wrote, “she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance. If there is anyone in the administration who embodies President Obama's preference for quiet competence with ‘no drama,’ it is Janet Napolitano.”

David Broder is either a lying sack, or completely inept. He writes an article about an epic fail in national security and proclaims how well it went. People are calling for Napalitano's resignation over this and now remarking how over her head she is.

10 posted on 01/10/2010 7:00:43 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
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To: chainsaw
I'm waiting for the, “It's all Bush's fault”.

Odd, normally that is the left's first refrain. Somebody is not on their game at the dnc (lower case on purpose).

5.56mm

11 posted on 01/10/2010 7:05:18 AM PST by M Kehoe
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To: Diogenesis

In the dictionary alongside the word ‘incompetent’ is that picture of Napolitano.


12 posted on 01/10/2010 7:34:45 AM PST by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannolis. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: All

ARTICLE SNIPPET from post no. 1:

“And this is why we need a security professional heading-up the DHS – and not a politician.”

#

http://www.truthusa.com/911.html


13 posted on 01/10/2010 9:04:32 AM PST by Cindy
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To: Diogenesis
You The Man !

NEVER Forget!

14 posted on 01/10/2010 11:02:38 AM PST by happygrl (Hope and Change or Rope and Chains?)
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To: Diogenesis

Excellent pics and coreographic message.


15 posted on 01/10/2010 1:40:30 PM PST by veracious
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To: Kaslin
Two terrorist attacks on American soil within les s than sixty days. Administration officials declare that “the system worked” after the Christmas day attack, only to be contradicted by the President days later. The President notes on December 29th that the Christmas day attack was carried out by merely an “isolated extremist,” but then declares on January 7 that “we are at war,” and that we must stay “one step ahead of a nimble adversary," in complete contradiction of his Homeland Security Secretary and his own previous remarks.

You can't hold this against the Obama administration, after all, the first reaction of a "progressive" is to lie...and once that's failed they lie again...once that's failed they try to tell a twisted version of reality...when that fails they argue that they are being quoted out of context.

16 posted on 01/10/2010 2:15:40 PM PST by highlander_UW (There's a storm coming - little kid at a Mexican gas station in The Terminator)
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To: Diogenesis

17 posted on 01/10/2010 2:28:30 PM PST by Moe Tzadik
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To: Moe Tzadik

Dayum.

If it rains, Obama and Janet will both drown.


18 posted on 01/10/2010 2:30:36 PM PST by onyx
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