Flight 253

This incident reinforces the concrete assessment that Democrats do not understand National Security.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's initial position that the system worked because the attack wasn't successful due to unsuccessful execution is laughable. How did she pass the 3rd grade? In the spring her department warned civilian security to watch out for military veterans returning from combat overseas... and in the last 6 months 2 attacks have been carried out on our soil by Muslims with Middle Eastern Ties. Take the blinders off and use your brain!

President Obama didn't bring a tie to Hawaii? His staff couldn't find a menswear store with one anywhere on the island? The tie is trivial, but it shows his attitude towards this event. He doesn't think that this is a big deal. I'm astounded comparing his reaction to this incident to his reaction to the Cambridge Police Department's response to the report of a break-in at his friend Skip Gates' place.

The person who made the attempt to bring the plane down should be classified as a War Criminal and sent straight to GITMO. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Civilian court is not the arena to prosecute this enemy. Unless we want to lose more innocent civilian lives.

Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

Perfect timing for this. All the elites JET to Copenhagen to discuss the doom of global warming. Here's some snowfall in SACRAMENTO, CA. And HOUSTON, TX enjoyed some snowfall last Friday. They might need to update their agenda to be for GLOBAL COOLING!

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT?

So I see this headline on the Fox News Website:

Obama: Terror Networks Are Biggest Threat to U.S.

Are you kidding me? This is 3 days after the announcement that KSM will be prosecuted in civil court in NYC blocks from the World Trade Center. Why is the administration treating the terrorists like civil criminals and not war criminals? Why didn't they just invite KSM to the Yankees' ticker tape parade? Why didn't they invite him to the Commissioning of the USS NEW YORK, which has 7.5 tons of steel from the WTC that KSM planned to bring down? Is Mr. Obama's memory so short that he doesn't remember how success prosecuting the terrorists who tried to bring down the WTC in 1993 in the civilian courts worked?

Patriots-Colts

I'd argue against the criticism Belichick is taking. All 11 Colt defenders were at the line of scrimmage at the snap once Kevin Faulk moved out of the backfield. Why didn't Randy Moss run a Go route? The Indy CB was up in press coverage, and he's six inches shorter. Moss would win a jump ball, get a pass interference call, or defensive holding call. Instead Moss didn't run a real route trying to clear space for Faulk.

World Series

I'm not sure that Joe Girardi had a better option than cycling all of his starters through on 3 days rest. Joba Chamberlain was one of the 4 regular starters during the regular season but he was moved to the bullpen for the postseason when he struggled with high pitch counts late in the season. Chad Gaudin? He made 6 starts for them. I don't know that I could send him to the mound to start a WS Game. You can't "throw" a game away and that might have happened if he started Game 5. They would have had Burnett and Pettite on normal rest for 6 (7 if necessary) with Sabathia available (why I understood the move to start him in Game 4). The extra risk that I see is when pitchers go on short rest they also tend to make shorter starts. That's not a good sign for the Yankees who only trust 1 reliever right now, Mariano Rivera (though they trust 1 more reliever than the Phillies do).

Thinking about Rivera, in Game 2, the Phillies didn't send their runners on a 3-2 pitch in the 8th inning. Chase Utley grounded into a DP and the rally was done. The Phillies played for power but that usually doesn't work against Rivera. The Red Sox have had the most success against him; rarely do they beat him with HRs. They foul off lots of pitches, draw walks, run aggressively, and score on bloop hits. That is all Rivera gives up.

$250 Senior Stimulus

I'm not sure that I follow this one. Social Security receipients won't receive a Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) increase in 2010. Mr. Obama commented that their buying power would be diminished without a COLA increase in 2010 when announcing the plan to issue $250 stimulus checks to SS receipients. The ONLY reason there won't be a COLA in 2010 is because prices WENT DOWN last year. If SS income is constant and prices of goods purchase decrease, then buying power actually INCREASED! How many SS couples will head to their local Best Buy and purchase a new 32" HDTV, courtesy of the SSA?

ALCS Game 5

Once Nick Swisher worked the count full, I thought for sure Rivera would take at least an 8-7 lead to the bottom of the 9th inning. But Fuentes only needed to throw one 3-ball pitch and it was enough of a strike for Swisher to loft a fly ball to shallow left.

Where's Al Gore?

We've had some early frost and snow here out west. And the Patriots played the Titans on a snow-covered field today.. October 18th - 4 weeks into autumn, not winter! Global Warming? I think it has more to do with Mr. Gore's business interests.

Phillies help NYC Football Fans

Since the Phillies could host a World Series game on the evening of Nov. 1st, the NFL rescheduled the Giants @ Eagles from 4:15 to 1:00 and moved the Vikings @ Packers into the 4:15 doubleheader slot. Currently the Jets and Giants are scheduled to play during the 1:00 window... don't remember the last time that happened there (or the SF Bay Area, or DC-Bal, other 2-team markets). It's the first weekend of the flex game for NBC so if the league doesn't move the Jets to 4:05, NBC could move Jets-Dolphins to prime time. Denver-Baltimore and San Francisco-Indy could also be of interest to the flex schedulers.

Colts-Dolphins

I don't know what's the most astounding aspect about this game.

1. The Dolphins ran 82 offensive plays from scrimmage in a regulation game without using a no-huddle (including their 2-minute drill).
2. The Dolphins were 15 for 21 on 3rd down & made the 1 4th down they attempted.
3. The Colts scored on 5 offensive possessions - starting from their 19, 20, 20, 26, and 27. Total Time of Possession for the game, including their 3 non-scoring possessions - 14:53.
4. In the 2nd half, the Colts had the ball for 5:19 but outscored the Dolphins 14-10 by virtue of a missed Miami 49-yard FG and having a 4-point lead in the closing seconds.
5. The Colts had that 4 point lead because Manning only needed 41 seconds (and 1 of his 2 Timeouts) to move the Colts 44 yards for a Viniateri FG at the close of the 1st half.

Manny and Ortiz

Curious when we'll learn the other 95 names on MLB's 2003 steroid list. Someone over there needs to the rest of the names instead of the 1 or 2 every now and then. This is making Mr. Obama's handling of the Cambridge Police story look smooth. The Beer Summit? What a lame staged photo op.

Pelosi v. CIA

or perhaps Pelosi v. USA. This is just the latest example why the Democrats can't be trusted on National Security. The enemy chops people's heads off and uses people as weapons. Meanwhile the Democrats are motivated to classify waterboarding, sleep deprivation, temperature variations, etc., as torture and prosecute those who worked to keep the country safe. Is Speaker Pelosi's memory so bad that she doesn't remember 9/11? Was that on her notes she was reading from today?

$17 Billion is REAL money?

Not when compared to $3.4 TRILLION, or $3400 Billion. If we were to take a $100 slice of government spending, it would amount to 50 CENTS. We're saving a can of Sam's Club Soda at a Walmart vending machine for every $100 of spending.

To make matters worse, half of these cuts come from the Defense Department even though it only accounts for 20% of the spending. Two things boggle my mind.

1. Why is defense spending ONLY 20% of the federal budget?
2. Why is defense taking the brunt of the cutting during a time when we are fighting 2 wars?

Am I living in a Bizarro world?

Over/Under on Brett Favre

# of Starts for Minnesota this year: 0. It's not 0.5 in Vegas, it's 0.0, and you'd have gotten better Money Line Odds on the Lakers to win Game 2 vs. Houston tonight.

The trouble is that he likely didn't have the surgery that was supposedly necessary after last season's flameout with the Jets. While his record in the Metrodome was horrible in the 90's, he won regularly there once Mike Tice took the reigns. Could he win with the purple jerseys instead of against them? They do have a great running game, so maybe.

Turncoat Specter

From Sen. Snowe's Op-Ed in the NYT today:

It is for this reason that we should heed the words of President Ronald Reagan, who urged, “We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.” He continued, “As to the other issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.”

Who wrote this for her? Did she READ it before submitting it? She was one of the 3 GOP defectors to vote FOR the $787 BILLION dollar Porkulus bill WITHOUT reading it!

Did conservatives win the battle but lose the war with this development? I hope not.

NFL Thanksgiving Schedule

I was reading through the stories chronicling all of the Cowboys' national TV games and had to do a double take when I read that their Thanksgiving opponent is going to be the Oakland Raiders. The franchise that has lost 72 games in the last 6 seasons, never fewer than 11? Their recent national TV appearances have been centralized on the 2nd half of ESPN's opening night doubleheader. It works well since recent Raider teams fall behind so quickly that the outcome is known before the local 11:00 news starts on the east coast. But this game will be on CBS late afternoon... here's an idea. Send the Raiders to Detroit (on the NFL Network, that game shouldn't be shown over the public airwaves) and Green Bay to Dallas. We'd be able to enjoy some good football on Thanksgiving that way!