Jim Patterson, Ex-Fresno Mayor, to Seek Election to 19th Congressional Seat

Former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson is expected to contest the 2010 GOP primary from California's 19th congressional district. It turns out that Representative George Radanovich, who has held the seat since the Republican earthquake of '94, is retiring. Patterson is expected to run against Radanovich's hand-picked candidate, State Senator Jeff Denham.

Hotline On Call has the report:

One source said Radanovich will back state Sen. Jeff Denham (R) as his replacement. CA Senate districts are actually larger than congressional districts, though Denham's is more closely related to Rep. Dennis Cardoza's (D) neighboring 18th district. Top GOPers had tried to convince Denham to run against Cardoza, though Radanovich's district has a stronger GOP lean.

But Denham is unlikely to get a clean shot at the seat. Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson (R), who had backing from the Club for Growth during his '02 primary against now-Rep. Devin Nunes (R), is also likely to run. One source even suggested that ex-Rep. Richard Pombo (R), who lost his neighboring 11th district to Rep. Jerry McNerney (D) in '06, may be a potential contender as well.

I'm focusing on Mayor Patterson since I'm fairly well-acquainted with him. We attended Fresno State together, both graduating in 1992. He's a super intelligent man with a business background in Christian radio. Although Hotline On Call doesn't mention it, I suspect Patterson is even more conservative than the incumbent. The California Central Valley's been a hotbed of tea party activism this year, and the water crisis has been hammering farmers. Apparently, Radanovich favors the San Joaquin River restoration project, a major Central Valley environmental initiative which is opposed by area farmers. And a recent Miami Herald piece reports that Patterson had signaled his intent to challenge Radanovich in the primary. That, combines with wife Ethie Radanovich health questions, moved the 9th-term congressman to call it quits. According to the Herald's report:

Republicans in California's San Joaquin Valley are girding for a potential intramural clash pitting former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson against incumbent Rep. George Radanovich of Mariposa.

Though Patterson has made no official campaign announcement, Republican and Democratic circles alike are abuzz with anticipation that he will declare his candidacy in early January. Privately, some Valley political activists say they have already been assured Patterson will challenge Radanovich.

"It's certainly going to be an interesting race if he does run," prominent Republican and Fresno Lincoln Club president Michael Der Manouel Jr. noted, though he stressed that no decision can be counted as final until candidacy papers are filed.

Patterson insisted Wednesday that he is still undecided, though he acknowledged he has been "testing the waters up and down the district." Tellingly, he added that he has no interest in running for an open seat in the state Legislature.

"I think I am suited best to be in Congress and that is where I'd love to serve in these times," Patterson said.

A primary race between Radanovich and Patterson would instantly become one of the most closely watched in California, if not the nation. It would likely become expensive, forcing campaign contributors to either choose sides or hedge their bets.

A GOP primary also would almost certainly select the next congressman from the 19th Congressional District. Republicans enjoy a commanding 44-37 percent voter registration advantage in the district, which sweeps through all or part of Fresno, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties.

Patterson's extremely ambitious. Folks mentioned his name for a congressional seat back in the early '90s, before he left the mayor's office. He's apparently a big fundraiser as well, with the support of the local business sector and Club-for-Growth activists. I imagine that State Senator Denham's going to have his hands full.

Hat Tip: Memeorandum.

Steve Clemons: Lost on al Qaeda's Threat in Yemen

I last wrote about Steven Clemons in September, when he appeared on CNN opposite Fausta Wertz. The discussion covered developments in Middle East international politics, and especially questions of developing-country nuclear proliferation. Clemons has an analysis up this morning, "The Yemen Brief: Expanding Scope of US Military Engagement Exactly What Bin Laden Wants." The piece also appears at the radical news outlet, Talking Points Memo (via Memeorandum).

I agree with Clemons when he suggests that "President Obama must step back and think about America's current strategic course." But Clemons' preceding passage is deeply problematic:

National security officials in the administration need to go back and read Peter Bergen's Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden in which he recounts many aspects of bin Laden's plan from the Islamic extremist uber-guru's own words - which was to draw the US deeply into the Middle East, and by its presence -- destabilize the governments in the region.

Bin Laden, hiding somewhere in Pakistan, remains the single most significant sculptor of global affairs today, pushing the buttons of an American superpower as well as other regimes, so that they engage in emotional, knee jerk crusades that undermine what is left of a global equilibrium and the perception of American power.

Bin Laden, Mullah Omar, and enemies yet to be named win with each new soldier deployed to the Middle East and South Asia.

I have not read the Bergen book, although published in 2001, the thesis that Bin Laden remains at the center of the global al Qaeda organization is badly outdated. While Bin Laden affiliates and family members remain important terrorist actors in global jihad, experts today speak of intense decentralization as the defining element of current international terrorism. As I reported previously, al Qaeda is now a drastically tranformed network of follow-on jihadi cells and copy-cat Islamists. Indeed, the group is actually making a comeback from its decimation in Iraq, when U.S. forces badly degraded the cells operating under Abu Musab al Zarqawi. In 2006, Zarqawi was killed by U.S. bombs in a fighter strike outside of Baqubah. (For more on this, see Frederick Kagan's pathbreaking analysis, "Al Qaeda In Iraq.")

I addressed some of Kagan themes in my recent piece, "Leftists Spin Attempted Northwest Airlines Attack as Evidence of Fake Al-Qaeda Threat." It's simply not true that al Qaeda today can be primarily analyzed in terms of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda is a "networked consortium" of loosely linked cellular bodies. I cited at my post the work of Audry Kurth Cronin. See especially, "How al-Qaida Ends: The Decline and Demise of Terrorist Groups." Plus, on terrorism more broadly, I discussed Brigitte L. Nacos' text, Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Understanding Threats and Responses in the Post 9/11 World. Be sure to read that post for the changing significance of terrorism post-9/11.

Steve Clemons' entry is certainly valuable in its publication of the Yemeni Ministry of Public Affairs communiqué, "Embassy of the Republic of Yemen Washington, DC Office of Media & Public Affairs." And Clemons is right to indicate that the administration faces serious challenges -- with renewed urgency -- on the national security front. Yet, his analysis is not especially helpful in identifying the types of strategic and tactical problems that late-edition al Qaeda organizations pose for U.S. foreign and military policy. Or at the least, Clemons wanted to begin his discussion from the bottom up, with those "enemies yet to be named." It will be these largely faceless operatives -- increasingly sophisticated and exponentially radical -- who will pose existential dangers to the U.S. and its Western allies in the years ahead.

Plus, be sure to watch Sheila MacVicar's penetrating analysis on al Qaeda in Yemen, especially her discussion of next-stage bomb technologies, "Yemen's New Wave of al Qaeda."

Too Little, Too Late? Obama Assailed for Response to Terror Attack

From ABC News, "Did Obama Respond Too Late to Terror Plot? Critics Assail President? Democrats Say the President Reacted Appropriately, Security Reviews Are Important":

The Obama administration has come under fire from critics who said the president waited too long to address the nation publicly about the Christmas Day terror plot, and that his administration has not been tough enough on terrorism.

The mostly partisan attacks came after Friday's attempt by a Nigerian national to blow up Northwest Flight 253 as it approached Detroit. Terror plots in the past have tended to unite the two parties, but recent attacks have departed from that norm.

President Obama has ordered a sweeping review of how the suspect managed to board the flight from Amsterdam, but that has done little to appease his critics.

Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, blamed the Obama administration for taking its eye off the threat of terrorism from abroad.

"I think there's enough blame to go around here," Hoekstra said Monday in an interview with ABC News. "The bottom line is we ended up with a bomb on a plane with a detonator ready to go off. That's totally unacceptable. There's probably failures at every step of the way, in Nigeria, in the Netherlands, and in the overall procedures. Early on in this administration, I think that this administration sent a clear signal that they believed that the threat to the homeland was not as significant as what it really is."

RTWT at the link.

Plus, at Politico, "Handling Problems the Obama Way." (Via Memeorandum.)

See also, Michael Goldfarb, "Damage Control in 5 Easy Steps!," and Flopping Aces, "Is Obama’s Weak Approach to War on Terror Inviting More Attacks?"

Marc Thiessen: Christmas Day Bombing Attempt Should Make Us Think Twice About the War on Terror

I received an e-mail from Marc Thiessen, giving me the heads up on his new piece at USA Today, "What We Don't Know May Kill Us." The essay is also available at Marc's blog, "My USA Today Column on Gitmo Connection to Northwest Airlines Plot":

The plot to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas Day was, according to multiple news accounts, organized and launched by al-Qaeda leaders in Yemen. ABC News has reported that the Nigerian man who attempted to blow up a plane over Detroit, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, spent a month at an al-Qaeda compound north of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, where he completed training alongside a Saudi al-Qaeda bomb-maker.

Little noted is the fact that the second in command of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the group that reportedly trained and deployed Abdulmutallab for his mission to attack the American homeland is a released Guantanamo detainee: Said Ali al-Shihri.While al-Shihri’s specific role has not been determined, it is increasingly clear that the terrorist network he helps lead was behind the attempted Detroit attack.

Known to Guantanamo officials as Detainee No. 372, al-Shihri was captured on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in December 2001. He denied being a terrorist and claimed to have traveled to Afghanistan two weeks after the 9/11 attacks to deliver money for the Red Crescent. At Guantanamo, he told officials that he had never even heard of al-Qaeda until he arrived in Guantanamo, and declared that “Usama bin Laden had no business representing Islam.” He promised that if released he would return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, reunite with his family and work in their used furniture store.

Despite evidence that he had trained in an al-Qaeda camp north of Kabul, he was released in 2007 to a Saudi rehabilitation program. But al-Shihri never became a furniture salesman. Instead, last January, he appeared in a series of jihadist videos identified as al-Qaeda’s second in command on the Arabian Peninsula. The New York Times reported that he is “suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa,” in September 2008.

RTWT at the link. Also, Marc's firm is Oval Office Writers, LLC.

Plus, you know Marc's over the target when Daily Kos profiled him earlier this year (warning: hatred alert), "Who is Marc A. Thiessen and why is he an apologist for torture?"

The Politically Correct Myth of Airline Bombers

From Lorne Gunther, "The Politically Correct Myth of Airline Bombers":

Each new layer of security, each new inconvenience for the travelling public, is mostly a placebo. It does very little to improve our inflight safety. Instead, each is imposed mostly to make it appear as though authorities are doing something and to give us the public some reassurance that they are safe in the air.

And most are implemented, too, to preserve the politically correct, multicultural myth that anyone is a potential terrorist, that all are equally worthy of official suspicion, that everyone must be searched as thoroughly as the next passenger in line.

.... by the time security personnel have caught on to one terror technique, the very real enemies of the West who would blow up airliners loaded with innocents have moved on to a new tactic. Once we learned to forbid box cutters, the terrorists moved on to shoes with fuses, then sports drinks laced with incendiaries and bags of powder strapped to their thighs.

No matter what we screen for, no matter how much we irritate and inconvenience passengers at airports, the bad guys will figure out new ways to bring potential death aboard our planes.

The real trick is screening out bad guys. But to do that would require a cultural will the West has not yet shown itself capable of. It would require us to admit that young Muslims -- mostly young Muslim males -- see themselves at war with the West, so they require a special level of scrutiny from security and intelligence forces.

Abdulmutallab's father, a prominent Nigerian banker, had notified the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria of his son's increasingly extremist religious beliefs. But no one had thought enough of the warning to subject the 23-year-old engineering student to an added thoroughness of search before he boarded a U.S.-bound flight.

Not all Muslims need be harassed -- not even most. Following 9/11, a U.S. think-tank devised a pre-flight screening technique that would red-flag the appropriate suspects.

Anyone, Muslim or not, who had a mortgage, had held the same job for more than 10 years, had a lengthy history of incident-free commercial flights, had a solid credit rating, a retirement account and no reports, like Abdulmutallab's, of extremist tendencies might well still have to do the detector walk-through, but wouldn't need to toss his latte and nail file before getting on a flight.

The trouble is, we are too timid as a culture to do the obvious -- focus on young Muslim men with radical connections, who have proven themselves to be 99 per cent of the problem.

Hat Tip: Kathy Shaidle. Video courtesy of Islamization Watch, "Airline Terror Suspect in Federal Prison."

Cindy Crawford! - UPDATED!

My wife's People Magazine came today. Cindy Crawford's on the cover. I don't see it online (People's website is funky that way), but checking Crawford's own homepage, she's got some links from earlier this year. Egotastic's got a shots of Crawford sunbathing in St. Tropez from 2007. This shot below is perhaps my favorite (although I've forgotten the promotion -- Georges Marciano, if I recall???). Also, at Ask Men, "MILF wish for Cindy Crawford."

UPDATE: Photobucket's censoring this shot of Cindy Crawford, so I'll add a straight bikini pic, from 2007, "Cindy Crawford Bikini Photos In Hawaii":

Plus, while searching around for a new image, and also from a Cindy fan (Victor Field) at the comments, it turns out that the topless shot is from a Herb Ritts photo-shoot for Playboy in 1988. I also found this awesome gallery of Cindy Crawford cover shots over the years. And in other (not so great news), Pepsi's pulling out of the Superbowl advertizing blitz for 2010. Previous years have featured Cindy Crawford guzzling soda out of a can. What a babe. (Ads are going to the Internet, so at least I'm in the right business.) Added: Just found the Pepsi ad:

You and Me ... We Used to Be Together...

Ace commenter Kreiz suggested some Smashing Pumpkins after last night's Jessica Simpson entry. I checked around for some clips. I like "Tonight, Tonight," which was Kreiz's pick, but the embed was disabled. I'll find another and post it. That, along with "Zero" as well, which I really dig. Meanwhile, enjoy No Doubt's "Don't Speak." Especially good here is the acoustic guitar break solo. Always loved it in the studio version, and it's a cool stage setup at the viddy ... more sounds later:

By the way, the commercial video that accompanied this song on initial release is one of the coolest clips from the '90s. No Doubt's a local Orange County band, and Gwen Stefani's live performance hipness is unsurpassed in that footage (here).

Northwest 253 Bomb Attempt Explodes Safety Vulnerabilities at TSA

From ABC News, "EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb: Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator." And regarding the second photo down:

It is a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN, less than a half cup in volume, weighing about 80 grams.

A government test with 50 grams of PETN blew a hole in the side of an airliner. That was the amount in the bomb carried by the so-called shoe bomber Richard Reid over Christmas 2001.

The underpants bomb would have been one and a half times as powerful.

This video shows a remote-controlled test explosion with 20 grams of PETN:

Just think if Abdul Mutallab's detonator functioned correctly - Jesus!

Also, from Fox News, "Metal Detectors Useless in Finding Powerful Explosive PETN":

The man who authorities say strapped a highly powerful explosive to his torso and tried to detonate it in midair never would have gotten aboard the plane if a different security detector had been used when he boarded the flight, security experts and officials say.

"Puffer" machines, full-body imaging scanners, a simple frisk or bomb-sniffing dogs all would likely have detected the chemical explosive PETN, experts say. But Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian suspected of trying to blow up Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day, encountered none of those deterrents when he traveled from Nigeria to Amsterdam and ultimately to Detroit.

Abdulmutallab may likely have passed through a magnetometer, the conventional metal detector used at most airports. It's a sophisticated a device that detects firearms, box-cutters, belt buckles and nail clippers — but it's useless in finding a small amount of powder capable of bringing down an airliner packed with passengers.

PETN is the primary ingredient in detonating cords used for industrial explosions and can be collected by scraping the insides of the wire, said James Crippin, a Colorado explosives expert. Used in military devices and readily found in blasting caps, the chemical is stable and safe to handle but requires a primary explosive to detonate it.

PETN was a component of the explosive that Richard Reid — the convicted "shoe bomber" — used in 2001 in his failed attempt to down an airliner. It also was used in an assassination attempt on the Saudi counterterrorism operations chief in August, according to the Saudi government.

Authorities say Abdulmutallab hid a quantity of PETN in a condom-like bag just below his torso when he boarded the plane in Amsterdam, and that he tried to create an explosion on board by injecting a liquid into it with a syringe.

See also Noah Shachtman, "Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’":

After an alleged terrorist unsuccessfully tried to detonate his explosive underwear on a Christmas Day flight to Detroit, current and former American officials are now using the failed attack to push for more airport scanners to spot such explosives — and a lot more.

The Transportation Security Administration in recent years has tried out a series of “whole-body imagers” to look for threats that typical metal detectors can’t find. These systems are the only way that smuggled explosives, like the one officials say was brought on the Christmas flight, can be reliably found.

“You’ve got to find some way of detecting things in parts of the body that aren’t easy to get at,” former Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told The Washington Post. “It’s either pat-downs or imaging.”

Well, folks will have to be electronically strip-searched if they're going to fly. Otherwise, the terrorists have won.

RELATED: Hot Air, "Audio: JetBlue announces dopey new TSA regulations."

TMZ Issues Retraction on Purported Kennedy-Nude Women Exclusive

At least they've got the honesty to admit when they're wrong. See, "Kennedy Picture -- A Fake" (via Memeorandum):

TMZ reports reports on Playboy's confirmation that the alleged John F. Kennedy-nude women photo was published in Playboy Magazine in 1967. (Check the Smoking Gun's post for more on the background, "TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax.")

Now, while TMZ is perhaps the leading gossip webzine in operation today, its retraction is an excellent example of journalistic standards bloggers ought to respect.

Recall my report the other day on Spencer Ackerman's recent dismissal of al Qaeda's attempted Northwest attack as a "desperate bid for relevance." Doug Ross picked up on my reporting with his entry, "Oops. Leftist apologists for terror screw up again (Chapter 4,860)." But checking "Attackerman's" page we find no retraction of his claims, and in fact he's moved on to make preposterous allegations suggesting that Joseph Lieberman's calling for an invasion of Yemen. (William Jacobson deftly shot down that stupid meme: "Obama Already Has Started Joe Lieberman's Yemen War.")

Frankly, following TMZ's example, Ackerman should issue his own apology and retraction. I'm not holding my breath. Both Charles Cooper at CBS and Darren Lenard Hutchinson still owe me an apology for their epic-fail posts from November (the latter attacking me as "Rightwing Fecal Matter").

I'm also waiting for E.D. Kain to publicly apologize for his campaign of intimidation and threats to my livelihood after he contacted my administration to get American Power to STFU. He's flatly said he had no responsibility to air his quarrels at the his blog, although he'd done exactly that previously -- in debate with Dan Riehl -- when the stakes weren't as potentially devastating to his already sullied reputation.

I've taken down two post recently. Luckily, readers and fellow bloggers caught my mistakes before they were widely distributed around the web. Had they caught the attention of the targets, I would have published an apology. It's simply a matter of principle. Some folks have it, even those at TMZ, and some don't.

RELATED: William Jacobson on TMZ's retraction, "TMZ Experts Say Obamacare Will Reduce the Deficit and Expand Care."

UPDATE: TMZ has changed the headline of their story to read, "Man in Photo is Not JFK." Interesting that I took a screencap!

Afternoon Babe Blogging

I've been been getting calls from readers for more babe-blogging, so here's an afternoon treat via Theo Spark, "Monday Mopsies ...":

And because of the time difference, Theo's "bedtime totty" is now up as well (extra large image-click is here).

Obama's Law Enforcement Response to Christmas Day Jihadi Attack: 'We Will Not Rest' Until Plotters Captured and Tried (VIDEO)

The video is here, and check Freedom Eden for the transcript, "Obama: Terror Statement (Transcript)":

Also, at The Hill, "Obama Pledges 'Thorough Review' in Wake of Attempted Airline Bombing." (Via Memeorandum.) But from AFP, the administration will take a law enforcement approach:

US President Barack Obama on Monday vowed an all-out pursuit of plotters of a failed Christmas Day bombing of a US-bound airliner, vowing "we will not rest" until they are captured and tried.

"A full investigation has been launched into this attempted act of terrorism and we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable," Obama said in his first direct public comment since a 23-year-old Nigerian allegedly tried to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as it approached Detroit.

The Wall Street Journal responds, "The Terror This Time: Janet Napolitano Says the System Worked. No, We Were Brave and Lucky" (via):

A U.S. government that has barred the phrase "war on terror" has nonetheless acknowledged that a failed Christmas day bomb attack on an airliner was a terrorist attempt. Can we all now drop the pretense that we stopped fighting a war once Dick Cheney and George W. Bush left the White House?

The attempt by 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab follows the alleged murders in Ft. Hood, Texas by Islamist-inspired Major Nidal Hasan in November. Brian Jenkins, who studies terrorism for the Rand Corporation, says there were more terror incidents (12), including thwarted plots, on U.S. soil in 2009 than in any year since 2001. The jihadists don't seem to like Americans any better because we're closing down Guantanamo.

This increasing terror tempo makes the Obama Administration's reflexive impulse to treat terrorists like routine criminal suspects all the more worrisome. It immediately indicted Mr. Abdulmutallab on criminal charges of trying to destroy an aircraft, despite reports that he told officials he had ties to al Qaeda and had picked up his PETN explosive in Yemen. The charges mean the Nigerian can only be interrogated like any other defendant in a criminal case, subject to having a lawyer present and his Miranda rights read.

See also, Michelle Malkin, "Obama's Statement on the Christmas Day Jihadi Attack; Perfunctory, Hasty, and Bloodless." Added: Gateway Pundit, "3 Days Later… Obama Finally Comments on Attempted Detroit Terrorist Bombing."

RELATED: From ABC News, "Abdulmutallab: More Like Me In Yemen: Accused Northwest Bomber Says More Bombers On the Way; Al Qaeda Promises to Hit Americans."

Michele Bachmann is Tea Party Favorite

Warner Todd Huston, my colleague at Right Wing News, has written an important analysis of the challenges for the tea party movement in 2010. See, "Tea Parties: The Biggest Mistake We’ll Make in 2010." I'm especially interested in this passage:

There was no unifying single goal of the Tea Partiers and no agency or party directing them. This means that the raw power behind them just might go untapped because there will be no way to translate the passion to power. Every transformative movement has been led by a single man and his small group of powerful adherents but the Tea Party movement has no such leader and might just find that its passion will dissipate until there is nothing left but disgruntled followers.

Don't get me wrong, I love the passion and was thrilled by the hundreds of Tea Parties with their millions of participants as it happened across this land in 2009. I was heartened that so many Americans were standing up to the anti-American left like that. But how do we channel that passion into something that can lead to positive change?

Without question powerful change needs is a leader. Unfortunately, unless a leader steps forward that can gather all those many Tea Party strings into a single strong rope, it is likely that the whole thing will just pass away and be left a footnote in history.

Actually, I've written about precisely this problem. I'm especially worried that the tea parties coalesce into a formal third-party movement to challenge the Demcrats and Republicans in the two-party system. That will kill the movement most of all. See my essay, "A Battle Within? Emerging Divisions in the Tea Party Movement." As I said there:

My hope is that the tea partiers can come to some accomodation with the most conservative leaders of the Republican Party, especially Sarah Palin. Our movement needs to work within the structural constraints of the single-member, winner-take-all system. This does not mean we need to compromise our constitutional principles of limited government and our moral foundations in divine historical exceptionalism. We do need vigorous but more centralized leadership, that's for sure, because the time is now for a conservative resurgence.

I've also suggested that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann stands with Governor Palin as the two most important potential leaders of the movement's possible merger with the base of the GOP. On that note, folks might take a look at this piece from the Los Angeles Times, "Michele Bachmann is Welcome at Tea Parties":

The Republican congresswoman from Minnesota has become a rare elected official to be embraced by the vocal small-government activists. And the GOP is taking note ....

In two terms in Congress, Bachmann has often used hyperbole and political theatrics to make headlines. And recently, she has achieved a rare feat: winning the trust of the anti-incumbent, small-government "tea party" activists who distrust most elected officials. And that puts Bachmann in a position of rising influence.

Republicans fear that the tea party conservatives will run their own candidates for office and drain votes from the GOP. In two recent polls, more voters had a high opinion of the tea party movement than of the Republican Party (and in one poll, higher than of the Democratic Party). The movement is blamed for tipping one House race already, a special election in upstate New York last month, to the Democrats.

Now, as the tea party crowd tries to organize and raise money for next year's Senate and House elections, Republican leaders are taking note of Bachmann's special rapport with the groups.

A new GOP website aimed at rebutting President Obama's jobs proposal, which features only a few lawmakers, includes Bachmann along with Republican leaders. And recently, the Republican National Committee put Bachmann on a conference call to discuss healthcare with a host of grass-root groups, including tea party activists.

"There's no question that congresswoman Bachmann fires up the base," said LeRoy Coleman, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "She's a powerful and galvanizing voice for this party."

That is not how all Republicans see Bachmann, 53, who once said that she was "hot for Jesus" and is quick to call Obama's governing plans "socialism." Some want to keep her at arm's length.

When Bachmann declared that she would ignore almost all questions on the census form, calling it an unconstitutional effort to collect personal data, three fellow House Republicans called her stance "illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country."

When former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell last year crossed party lines and endorsed Obama, he cited Bachmann's suggestion that Obama held "anti-American views," calling it "nonsense."

And in a survey this month by National Journal magazine, Republican members of Congress named Bachmann as being among the colleagues they would "most like to mute."

But her over-the-top comments have also turned Bachmann into a favorite of a conservative movement that believes the GOP has wandered from its traditional values. She is one of just two elected officials scheduled to speak at a national tea party convention in February. (The other represents Tennessee, where the convention will be held.)

"She can be derided by the political establishment and the media for being too abrasive. . . . But those people aren't trusted by members of the tea party," said Joe Wierzbicki, a spokesman for the California-based Tea Party Express. "Michele Bachmann is."

As an ambassador to the activists, Bachmann has tried to tamp down talk among tea party groups that they should form their own political party.

"I think this coalition will fit under a tent that's literally fashioned out of the parchment of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution," she said in an interview. "I think that what we'll do is emphasize the issues of commonality.

"The greater good right now is to defeat the move toward collectivism, as being advocated at a breakneck speed by the Obama administration," she said.

As a tea party confidant, Bachmann is in scarce company. Activists consider former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to be a leader, and TV show host Glenn Beck, but few elected officials.

RELATED: "Tea Partiers To Republicans: You Better Call For Full Repeal of Reform, Or Else." (Via Memeorandum.)

The System Worked? Janet Napolitano Flip-Flops on Terror Threat; President Obama, Still Mum on Thwarted Attack, Will Take Golf Break to Address Nation

At ABC News, "Terror in the Skies: Janet Napolitano Says U.S. Must Reexamine Terror-Watch and No-Fly Lists: Homeland Security Secretary, After Saying Screening System Worked, Concedes That Changes are Needed."

Meanwhile, President Barack Hussein Obama, extending his holiday vacation in Hawaii, has yet to address the nation on al Qaeda's latest threat to Americans. See, "Obamas Enjoy Private, Secure Hawaii Vacation," and "Obama "Likely" to Speak About Flight 253." As AWR Hawkins notes:

Somewhere in between the highly publicized rounds of golf and strolls on the beach that President Obama is currently taking while on vacation in Hawaii, someone in his inner circle needs to tell him there’s an important lesson to be learned from the failed terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. That lesson is that our posture towards terrorists (and terrorism) matters.

Let’s begin by agreeing that every successful terrorist attack against the United States doubles as a recruitment video for rabid jihadists, eager to spill the blood of infidels and strike terror in the heart of the “great Satan.”

We saw this after the Ft. Hood shootings on November 5, when militants Islamists took to American streets the very next day:

The message that should be taken from what took place yesterday at Ft. Hood … is that this war will be fought on American soil. That the blood of … American military personnel will run in the very streets they were raised in.

But when a terrorist attack is publicly thwarted, as was Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab’s attempt to ignite the incendiary material in his underwear on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, militants aren’t as quick to take to the streets. In fact, they hastily distance themselves from the incompetent bomber by denying his ties to al-Qaeda (although we already knew he was tied to al-Qaeda).

Citizens understand this. Thus when passengers smelled the smoke Abdulmutallab created while trying to carry out his attack, they jumped him, subdued him, and dragged him to the front of the plane. As Fox News reported on December 26, 2009:

Experts say an aggressive response from passengers has become the common response [to attempted terror attacks] since … 9/11.

But where is Obama’s “aggressive response”? What do average everyday citizens know that he doesn’t?

For starters, they know that the militant Islamists are bent on killing Westerners, and Americans in particular. And although as recently as Sunday, December 27, NPR had not retracted its position that Abdulmutallab only had “possible ties to terrorism,” citizens aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 had enough common sense to know that Abdulmutallab was attempting a terrorist act whether NPR-type thinkers could ascertain it or not.

More importantly, they knew his actions required an overpowering reaction.

And it's not as if the president couldn't mix recreation and official business (contra Marc Ambinder):

We should have a statement shortly. See The Hill, "Obama to make first remarks after Napolitano says system didn't work."

Meanwhile, Roy Edroso says "nothin' here ... just move along."

Napolitano Image Credit: IOWNTHEWORLD. Plus, from Ann Althouse, "Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claims responsibility and brags 'We have prepared men who love to die'."

Leftists Cheer Knife-Wielding Islamist Who Threatened to Blow Up Memphis Businesses

I saw the news last night but didn't write about it for lack of information. It turns out that Mohamed Ibrahim, the alleged Muslim jihadist who treatened to blow up gas stations in Memphis Tennessee on Christmas Day, is being cheered by leftist terror apologists. The radical River Mud Company blog did a little research. If you check the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office you get this data on Ibrahim's inmate information.

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Saturday that Ibrahim faced terrorism charges after threatening to blow up seven local businesses. He told proprietors at the BP gas station that "If you don't close this place up, I'm going to blow it to pieces." The police report indicates that Ibrahim had Islamist paraphernalia in his car, and he was carrying a butcher knife. Responding to news reports, a number of commenters on the right are appropriately questioning the decision to release this man on bail. But to the politically correct River Mud Company blog, a menacing jihadist, armed with a deadly weapon, treathening mass destruction, is just a "lone wacko." Not only that, he's a cool wacko, since he's scared the real enemey, conservatives tired left Fort Hood apologists:

I’d wager this guy doesn’t even belong to a mosque at all, much less some sleeper cell.

All that aside, we’re talking about a guy with a butcher knife up his sleeve threatening to blow up random East Memphis gas stations on Christmas Day. Not an airplane, not a skyscraper, but the corner dine and dash. That’s not an attack on Western civilization, it’s the behavior of a disturbed individual. To his credit, though, if he was trying to scare people, he certainly frightened the wingnuts.

I suppose they have a point. Between the threat to democracy posed by this dude and the attack on our freedoms from that other guy who set his balls on fire, how can Liberty survive?

The link at the quote goes to the communist Alternet. That "guy trying to set his balls on fire" is now under worldwide investigation for a near-catastrophic security breach that threatened hundreds of lives. The bomb materials Abdul Mutallab sought to deploy are among the most powerful currently available. In addition to the horrific loss of life, a succcessful attack could have shut down the U.S. and international aviation industry -- and the global economy -- on the scale of September 11, 2001.

So, yeah, there might be just a couple of reasons to take seriously these "lone" jihadis looking to kill untold numbers of people in an escalating holy war on the West. But it's not just the Abduls nd the Mohameds folks need to look out for. It's also the radical leftists are in total solidarity with these murderous demons, the communist-Islamist alliance against freedom.

Jessica Simpson's Christmas in New York!

I was reminded of Jessica Simpson while watching the Dallas game tonight. Tony Romo's a playa I guess, but I'd still be hangin' with Jessica. And now she's gettin' hot for Billy Corgan? Cant' see why. But no matter: Jessica was out and about for the Christmas holidays in New York City, and she looks simply fabulous -- sans make-up, a real turn-on in my book. According to a celebrity blog, "Jessica Simpson looks real fresh in these candid shots. I say this girl looks better with only a little make-up on. Her outfit looks great too." I couldn't agree more. More pics here, "Jessica and the Simpsons Gather For Christmas in NYC."

In case you missed it, check Smitty's Rule 5 roundup from this morning; and as always, check Theo Spark's "Bedtime Totty ... "

Gaza Freedom March - Toronto

The announcement's from the"Gaza Freedom March Toronto - Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid." The Facebook page is here.

My good friend "Blazing" at Blazing Cat Fur attended the event. See, "I went to the Toronto "Gaza Freedom March" and all I got was a Qassam Rocket," and "Toronto Gaza Freedom March Photo's Part 2 - Enter The Crazies."

This photo pretty much sum things up:

More communists here:

Counterprotesters take issue with the Hamas-Qassam civilian-targeted rockets:

Qassam rockets -- named after Izz al-Din al-Qassam, the militant Syrian preacher and Muslim Brotherhood member killed in 1935 while fighting British and Zionist forces in Palestine -- are the most recent innovation in attacks on Israeli civilians. Hamas first introduced them in Gaza in September 2001, about a year after the start of the second intifada. Although Hamas has the most advanced rocket manufacturing and launching capabilities, other groups have made similar weapons a staple of their arsenals, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Quds rockets), the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (al-Aqsa rockets), and the Popular Resistance Committees (Nasser rockets).

See also, Kathy Shaidle, "Arnie and I went to the anti-Hamas counterdemo today."

Here's a piece from an anti-Israel source, Wendy Goldsmith, "Toronto Peace Activists March in Solidarity to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza." Also, "1300 Activists Converge on Cairo: We Are Blocked But We Will Not Be stopped," and "Egyptian Security Forces Detain Gaza Freedom Marchers at El-Arish."

More from the Financial Times, "Cairo Blocks Gaza Aid Convoy," and Abu Dhabi's The National, "Campaigns to break the siege on Gaza."

See also the statement from the International Solidarity Movement (signed by Code Pink's Medea Benjamin), "Open letter to President Mubarak from the Gaza Freedom March."

RELATED: Caroline Glick, at the "Jerusalem Post:

EVERY DAY the dangers to Israel's security and very survival mount. At this time, the government and the people of Israel need to be able to trust in the IDF's ability to defend the country. Rather than earning that trust, those tasked with our defense are spending their time berating the political leadership for their own failures. Moreover, they are expressing a disturbing desire to pass the buck on fighting Israel's enemies while aggressively hounding Israelis.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: 'The System Worked'

Congresssional Quarterly's got the full transcript, "Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’." Here's the key passage:

CROWLEY: So, just to finish up on the question-- I do want to talk to you about security measures -- but do you think -- has there been any evidence of the Al Qaida ties that this suspect has been claiming?

NAPOLITANO: Right now, that is part of the criminal justice investigation that is ongoing, and I think it would be inappropriate to speculate as to whether or not he has such ties.

What we are focused on is making sure that the air environment remains safe, that people are confident when they travel. And one thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here. The passengers and crew of the flight took appropriate action. Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 flights in the air had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred on the Northwest Airlines flight. We instituted new measures on the ground and at screening areas, both here in the United States and in Europe, where this flight originated.

So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly.

It's mindboggling, especially live. Napolitano looks almost like a travel industry booster. She refuses to "speculate" on the suspect's ties to Islamist militants. She has no clue as to how close the U.S. came to another catastrophic terror nightmare:

I think Candy Crowley had Napolitano pinned down there for a second, on this comment about how the atttacker "was one individual literally of thousands that fly and thousands of flights every year." Crowley rightly follows up with " you are right, this was one individual, but that’s really all it takes," but then goes into her own long soliloquy that blows the moment. But check Napolitano's interview with Jake Tapper on ABC's "This Week":

Again we get this line that "the traveling public is safe." But what's most troubling is how the secretary keeps suggesting not only that "the system worked," but that "the passengers did their job." Hello! It's not the passengers' job to interdict terrorists! Whoa! The transcript is here. When Tapper asks about an investigation into the TSA's delays in deploying the latest screening technology, Napolitano replies:

Well, without going into the accuracy or inaccuracy of that particular report, new technology has been deployed, but there is a more important point to be made, which is that, A, technology is evolving all the time, it's not a static situation.

And B, even with the most sophisticated technology, everybody needs to play a part in their security. That's why I think the actions of the passengers and the crew on this flight deserve praise. That's why the men and women who have been working really overtime Christmas Day, yesterday, whatever, to make sure that all other flights remain safe, why that system is so important.

In any case, there's lots of disbelief and outrage on the right. Jonah Goldberg says Napolitano should be fired (via Memeorandum). Michelle Malkin adds that Napolitano's "hapless first-responder mentality is simply a reflection of the man who hired her." And from Darleen Click, "Janet Napolitano — open bets on firing resignation day."

Mousavi Nephew Killed in Tehran Protests

From the Los Angeles Times, "Deaths reported amid chaos and violence in Iran":

The Iranian capital erupted in massive and fiery morning-to-dusk protests as tens of thousands of demonstrators clashed with security forces on the occasion of an important Shiite Muslim holiday.

Several witnesses told The Times that Iranian security forces opened fire with live ammunition against unarmed protesters near College Bridge in in the capital. And opposition news websites reported that several protesters had been killed, including Ali Mousavi, the adult nephew of opposition figurehead Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Reformist websites said he was shot and taken to a Tehran hospital, where his uncle and other relatives soon arrived.

The information could not be independently confirmed, and a police source denied that protesters had been killed in a comment to the pro-government Fars News Agency.

But a witness in front of City Theater in downtown Tehran said she saw a fallen man, apparently stabbed in the back, and spotted another man falling to the ground after a volley of shots was fired near Enghelab Street, which emerged as the epicenter of the day's clashes.

The reports of deaths came during a harrowing day of multiple, rolling clashes between police and Iranian protesters coinciding with an important Ashura religious commemoration as well as the significant seventh day of mourning following the death of the country's leading dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

Reformist websites and witnesses also reported clashes in the cities of Qom, Esfahan, Najafabad, Kashan, Shiraz, Babol and Mashhad.

Demonstrators vowed to continue the protests into the night, with reformist news websites identifying key Tehran squares for gatherings.

"There is no let-up," said Farzad, a 30-year-old who attended today's protests with his girlfriend. "We will go ahead until we topple the government."

Across the capital, witnesses described scenes of pandemonium, which were confirmed by video footage posted online. One described Tehran as a war zone, and another likened the situation to open "civil war" as increasingly bold demonstrators took on security forces, in one case stripping a member of the security forces naked before letting him go, a witness said.

Despite a heavy crackdown, the protest movement that emerged from Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election has grown increasingly daring, with those who want abolition of the Islamic Republic increasingly vocal.

Protesters had vowed for weeks to turn today's annual Ashura commemoration marking the 7th century martyrdom of Imam Hossein into an anti-government demonstration.

Also, lots of videos at Jawa Report, "This Will Be a Day Long Remembered," and IranNewsNow, "Live-blog: Ashura in Iran – December 27, 2009":

And from the Guardian's report:

The authorities are taking a risk in using lethal force against protesters during the Islamic Moharram, during which war and bloodshed is deemed to be religiously haram, or forbidden. It raises the likelihood of a series of mourning cycles, as required by Shia tradition. It was such a mourning cycle that fatally undermined the Shah's regime when it tried to suppress demonstrations in 1978.

Revisiting the 'Terrorist Threat Debate'

I'm thinking about the circumstances surrounding the attack on Northwest Flight 253. I always do whenever there's another terrorist attack. I'm especially intrigued -- no bothered, actually -- by the response of the leftists. I've commented already on folks like Spencer Ackerman and Matthew Yglesias, inveterate America-bashers, so no need to rehash it. No, my sense is that even level-headed folks fail to appreciate the transformation in circumstances of American and international life since September 11, 2001 -- a transformation that had been building for sometime, as in the nature of global conflict and the increasingly catastrophic incidence of attacks on citizens of the United States and elsewhere. We don't think too often about this, since the possibility of personal danger seems so far removed for most people -- but also because it's been almost ten years since the attacks on New York and Washington. Time heals all wounds, so in that sense our healing has also made us increasingly impervious to the continuing threat of diabolical terrorism.

Northwest Flight 253 (Northwest is the parent company of Delta) sits on the runway in Detroit, having landed safely after an alleged attempted terrorist attack. Credit: J.P. Karas / Associated Press (Source).

I read some portions this afternoon from Brigitte L. Nacos' textbook, Terrorism and Counterterrorism: Understanding Threats and Responses in the Post 9/11 World. One passage from the introduction was quite moving, regarding the perception of danger in the age of postmodern terrorism. Nacos writes of the consensus perceptions of terrorism in 2001 and earlier:

Even before the dust had settled around the totally destroyed World Trade Center and the partially demolished Pentagon, people in the United States and abroad began to recognize that this terrorist assault pushed the United States and much of the world into a crisis that seemed equally dangerous as, or perhaps more explosive than, the Cold War conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States and their respective allies in the decades following the end of World War II. In some quarters, the end of the Cold War had fueled expectations for an even greater international understanding and cooperation and a "peace dividend" that would better the economic conditions in the underdeveloped world along with improvements in the industrialized nations. But during the 1990s, such dreams did not come true. Instead, there was a troubling wave of conflicts in many parts of the world.

Instant commentary in the media compared 9/11 with the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor sixty years earlier, claiming that both incidents had been as unexpected as bolts of lightening from a blue sky. Indeed, two months before the kamikaze flights into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a former counterterrorism specialist in the U.S. Department of State wrote in an op-ed article in the New York Times, "Judging from news reports and the portrayals of villains in our popular entertainment, Americans are bedeviled by fantasies about terrorism. They seem to believe that terrorism is the greatest threat to the United States and that it is becoming more widespread and lethal.... Nothing of these beliefs are based on facts" But others warned for years that the United States and other Western countries should brace for catastrophic terrorism that would result in mass disruption and mass destruction. Walter Laqueur, a leading terrorism expert, for example, who had characterized terrorism in the past as an irritant rather than a major threat, came to a different judgment at the end of the 1990s, when he concluded,

Terrorism has been with us for centuries, and it has always attracted inordinate attention because of its dramatic character and its sudden, often wholly unexepected occurrence. It has been a tragedy for the victims, but seen in historical perspective it seldom has been more than a nuisance.... This is no longer true today, and may even be less so in the future. Yesterday's nuisance has become one of the gravest dangers facing mankind.

Several horrific incidents in the 1990s and certainly the events of 9/11 proved the pessimists right and ended the threat debate. One could argue that the new age of terrorism began in December 1988 with the downing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, caused by a terrorist bomb that killed a total of 270 civilians on board (most of them Americans) and on the ground (all of them Scots). This was, at the time, the single most devastating act of terrorism in terms of number of victims. Actually, nearly as many Americans were killed when extremists of the Lebanese Hezbollah drove an explosive-laden truck into the U.S. Marine barracks near the Beirut airport in 1983. But while the victims were deployed as peacekeepers and thus were not combatants in the sense of fighting a war, they nevertheless were not civilians like the passengers and crew aboard Pan Am flight 103 and the people who died on the ground in Lockerbie ... whether civilians or members of the military are targets or victims figures prominently into the discussions of what kinds of violent acts constitute terrorism. The fate of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, along with the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that caused the death of 168 persons, represented turning points in the lethality of terror. Until these events, the widely held supposition was that "terrorists want a lot of people watching and a lot of people listening and not a lot of people dead." But after Pan Am flight 103 and the terror of Oklahoma City, this assumption is no longer valid.

The remainder of the introduction is equally fascinating. A key point mentioned is that while there has in fact been a declining trend in the number of terrorist attacks since the 1980s, there has been a concommitant tendency for increasingly spectacular incidents -- and importantly, this increase has been marked by the dramatic rise of religious terrorism, "the use of violence for political ends by groups whose motivations and justifications are couched in religious convictions, terms, and symbols."

On that point, and especially Islamist jihad, see Robert Fulford's essay today, "The West Has Work to Do" (via Blazing Cat Fur):

Of all the lessons learned in this painful decade, the most terrifying by far is that the West faces a long-term challenge from radical Islam. Crucial ideas about the future of democracy will increasingly focus on the passionate, articulate jihadist movement that is now making war on the West and everything the West cherishes.

There’s small comfort to be found in the fact that most Muslims deplore violence. Even if Islamists and their sympathizers are only a tiny minority, the vehemence and dedication of their movement can exert great influence in many countries. One Islamist dream, to begin by introducing shariah law, is not crazy. There are politicians who think of it as an interesting compromise.

What should worry us, at this stage, is our response to Islamists. Are we strong enough to fight them off? They assume we are not. They consider us lazy, decadent and complacent — and they have plenty of evidence to support their argument.

More food for thought here, "Officials: Only A Failed Detonator Saved Northwest Flight: Screening Machines May Need to Be Replaced; Al Qaeda Aware of 'Achilles heel'." (Via Memeorandum.)

And here, "Qur’an 8:12 ‘I will terrorize the unbelievers. Therefore smite them on their necks and every joint and incapacitate them. Strike off their heads and cut off each of their fingers and toes’":