Travel Alert: You can't have it your way when traveling by plane

If you do not want to be scanned or patted down by TSA employees at  airports you should not fly commercial. You should save money enough to charter a plane, bypassing a stranger’s hands and that “porno” screening machine. Perhaps you should strip and walk naked through the line. Of course you run the risk of getting arrested for indecent exposure.

Susan Estrich (Creators.com) asked in a recent editorial: “Are people’s memories so short that they have forgotten that it was just last Christmas when a person with a bomb hidden in his underwear was caught on a flight to Detroit?”

My response is yes. And the media, once again, have created a scenario in which travelers and nontravelers can display false outrage. The same “outrage” was shown under George Bush’s administration, when they tried collecting information on travelers. Supposedly, it was dropped due to complaints from travelers and civil liberties groups.

I say false rage for a reason. If any of these travelers have visited their doctor regarding an unexplained illness in which an ordinary exam could not determine the cause, their doctor probably schedule an MRI, ex-ray, mammogram, EEG, CAT Scan, colonoscopy.

Your doctor touches every part of your body when you visit his or her office. The ex-rays, hands on exams and MRI’s are just as exposing as airport scanners and pat downs. Pap smears, colonoscopies, mammograms are even more invasive. You also get doses of radiation from the these machines.

As for the complaining public, you better hurry and realize that this is a brand new day in travel. Not even a president of the United States can keep you safe from danger. Realistically, you cannot protect yourself and your own family from danger. Preparing, planning and using precaution just is no protective shield from danger.

No one knows how or when America will be hit again by terrorists agan. For now Homeland Security is trying to thwart threats wherever possible, wherever they find them. Getting scanned, patted down or both at airports is far more pleasant than having a family member identify your remains at a makeshift morgue.

If there were no safety rules in play the outrage and outcry then will be: “Why didn’t the president and Homeland Security protect us from terrorists?” Good question. You cannot have it both ways. The continuing threats to America’s security are serious and real.

Talking loud, saying nothing

House Speaker John Boehner

Boehner was voted Speaker of the House to the 112th Congress. He finally got his wish. He says the House Republican caucus has yet to engage the issues they campaigned on. “We’ll have time over the coming months to discuss that issue and how we might move such an issue, but those conversations haven’t started yet,” he said.

This is the staged, planned, concocted strategy of Republicans. Not to engage the issue. They have sat on their hands for two years because they have no answers to problems. But mostly because they want President Obama to fail in a big way. They want his fall to be heard around the world.

Republicans have no answers to decreasing or balancing the deficit. They are only sure that they want to bring President Obama and his administration to its knees. They are are only sure that they want President Obama to be a one-term president, as stated by Mitch McConnell and Jim DeMint. They are sure that they want to tamper with the Constitution of the United States, and then tell Americans that President Obama is violating and ignoring the Constitution.

Republicans are sure they want the George Bush tax cuts to remain in place. The rich and powerful impregnated them with millions of dollars to win the midterm elections. And it's time to deliver. No waiting until the January swearing ceremony.

The obstruction will continue. Republicans will wait for Democrats to make a decision and they will disagree, and then tell America that Democrats refused to work with them; refused to seek their input. They have already decided that President Obama will have to play ball with them or else. They are daring him to think independently. They expect the President to extend more olive branches. They said the American people gifted them with a mandate.

If nothing gets done Republicans will hold regular press conferences to tell America: "We tried to do what the American people expect us to do, but President Obama wouldn't take any of our suggestions. He wants to ram his agenda down our throats. That's not what the American people want."

Corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan: A meat and potatoes diet of fattening money

Corruption has always been ripe as rotten fruit in Iraq and Afghanistan, starting with American companies such as Blackwater Security, Haliburton and other makeshift contractors from America. They saw a way to get rich quickly amid the Bush created chaos in these countries. Corruption and rip-offs began days after the first bombs were dropped in Iraq.

I saw one young American bragging  about flatbed trucks he delivered to Iraq. He had a multi-million dollar no bid contract. The trucks did not work; they were old and broken. The contractor said he did not guarantee the trucks would work. His corruption was bold and bodacious. He was arrogant enough to get on American TV in Iraq and make this confession with a smile.

There will never be security in Iraq or Afghanistan due to the many young men will to strap bombs to their bodies. Suicide bombers do not mind dying for their cause. Iraqi women are now volunteering to be suicide bombers. They want to kill American soldiers.

From the beginning America has been reluctant to join forces with the citizens of Iraq to strengthen their police and security forces. America was reluctant to engage the people in redevelopment and rebuilding what bombs destroyed. The loss of life was carelessly treated as “collateral damage.” Had they been paid a decent wage to rebuild their homes and businesses, the enemy wouldn't have been able to convince a great number of them to become suicide bombers. Americans felt that "nation building should begin in America.

Had the people in Iraq been treated fairly, with respect and asked to rebuild their homes and businesses after President Bush's "Shock and Awe" bombing campaign, the Taliban and other terrorists couldn't have thrived and survived for fear of  getting turned over to  American soldiers, or killed by Iraqis. The terrorists' foothold on the people would weaken. Citizens would have more to gain than to lose by cooperating with America.

Corrupt politicians in Iraq and Afghanistan, like those in America, are a hindrance to peace, stability and progress. Kickbacks, price gauging and free money are too seductive to ignore. Once the corruption ball started rolling downhill in 2001 it was hard to roll it back uphill.

“The Taliban is not a popular movement, but it exploits a population frustrated by weak governance,” stated a recent report titled Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan.  Citizen involvement is the key to thwarting Taliban threats of violence and retaliation against American soldiers and peoples in the Middle East.

Sean Hannity's wishful wishing: President Obama is heading for a psychotic breakdown

Sean Hannity

The Onion, a  satirical blog, posted a joke on its website Friday, November 26 about President Obama sending a “75,000 word email to the entire nation.” The essay implied that President  Obama was going over the edge. Mentally. The presidency was getting to him.

Hannity swallowed The Onion. Whole.

On his November 18 radio show he said President Obama was losing it. "He's unhinged." Hannity relished this thought. He was happier than a horny man asked to star in a porn movie!

Adding his personal spin to The Onion fable, Hannity said of the president, "He can't stand Biden. He hates the Clintons, the Clintons hate him. The only thing he's passionate about seems to be ESPN and playing golf, and playing some basketball. It's the only thing that gets his interest."

Hannity further stated that President Obama "brought more bad news on the economy, and has a meltdown every time he hears it." He said infighting and finger pointing in the White House is "at an all-time high." He said the President "shouldn't seek reelection in 2012."

Later Hannity had two guest pundits who wrote an editorial in the Washington Times, in which they also stated President Obama should not run for re-election in 2012. They were on Fox, reciting words from their editorials.

The kicker to The Onion fable is that Hannity claimed a "reliable Democratic source" told him about President Obama's approaching insanity, and his obsession with media critics, specifically Fox.

The Onion tale of a presidential meltdown via a "rambling email' shows that you can fool Obama haters 24/7 most of the time and twice on Sunday. Stupidity is forever, but ignorance, if treated by the right psychiatrist, can be fixed. Hannity should schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist as soon as possible. He is the one having the meltdown.

Radio host Rush Limbaugh goes bonkers over President Obama's Thanksgiving Proclamation

Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh cannot keep his foot out of his mouth. He’s smack-dab in the middle of his regular bitchfest. Again. President Obama is his target. Again. Rush always needs an enemy to attack. He is a delusional racist. He hates women and Democrats. He reeks of jealousy despite being a multi-millionaire. His bitching is exhausting!

Every day he's on radio he has to top what he said the day or week before. Ridiculousness and absurdity keeps his face in the spotlight. He is quoted by TV hosts like he's making news worth reporting. His much awaited words tend to feed salivating pundits. They like playing Limbaugh's sounds bites and nonsense. Bloggers and the media that loves him, try to rationalize his on-air squawking.

A proclamation issued by President Obama honoring Thanksgiving and the story relating to it, caused Limbaugh to go bonkers on the radio. He could not stop his butt from biting a plug out of his chair. He had a meltdown over a Thanksgiving message to the public from President Obama!
 
"Every cliche that is wrong about Thanksgiving shows up in his proclamation. The Pilgrims show up at Plymouth. The Indians had been there for thousands of years. We get off the boats. We don't know how to feed ourselves. The Indians show us how. They shared their skill in agriculture, which helped the early colonists survive and whose rich culture continues to add to our nation's Heritage. 

"Is it possible he believes it? I don't doubt that he believes it, and even if he doesn't believe it, he wants everybody else to believe it. Obama believes that this nation is fatally flawed since its founding, even before its founding, so it stands to reason -- you know, a lot of people did not hear the true story of Thanksgiving until I wrote it in my book in the early nineties. I can remember Snerdley and H.R. were stunned when they heard the first story of Thanksgiving, the real story, because we'd all been taught a variation of the Indians saved us. We had to draw pictures of it in school, that's exactly right, art projects of the Indians saving us".

President Obama said, “A beloved American tradition, Thanksgiving Day offers us the opportunity to focus our thoughts on the grace that has been extended to our people and our country. This spirit brought together the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Tribe, who had been living and thriving around Plymouth, Massachusetts for thousands of years.”

A caller thanked Limbaugh for his "historical perspective" on Thanksgiving. Another caller semi-agreed with Limbaugh. She was somewhat confused. She said, "You may be reading too much into it to say that Obama is perpetuating the entire myth. I wouldn't put it past him." 

"No!" Limbaugh exclaimed. "Obama said that Thanksgiving is about the Indians saving us. The true story of Thanksgiving is how socialism failed. Of course we showed them gratitude. We shared our bounty with them. Not because we didn't know how to make it. It's because we first failed as socialists. Only when we turned capitalists did we have plenty. The Indians didn't teach us capitalism." 

Limbaugh cannot accept history as is. Were Indians aware of socialism and capitalism? I don't think so! I am sure the story he wrote about Thanksgiving is riddled with historical facts that Limbaugh recorded when he stepped on the Mayflower.
 
Below is the Thanksgiving Proclamation delivered by President Barack Obama. If your analysis is the same as Limbaugh's, please leave a comment.

President Obama's THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION

A beloved American tradition, Thanksgiving Day, offers us the opportunity to focus our thoughts on the grace that has been extended to our people and our country. This spirit brought together the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Tribe -- who had been living and thriving around Plymouth, Massachusetts for thousands of years -- in an autumn harvest feast centuries ago. This Thanksgiving Day, we reflect on the compassion and contributions of Native Americans, whose skill in agriculture helped the early colonists survive, and whose rich culture continues to add to our Nation's heritage. We also pause our normal pursuits on this day and join in a spirit of fellowship and gratitude for the year's bounties and blessings.

Thanksgiving Day is a time each year, dating back to our founding, when we lay aside the troubles and disagreements of the day and bow our heads in humble recognition of the providence bestowed upon our Nation. Amidst the uncertainty of a fledgling experiment in democracy, President George Washington declared the first Thanksgiving in America, recounting the blessings of tranquility, union, and plenty that shined upon our young country. In the dark days of the Civil War when the fate of our Union was in doubt, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day, calling for "the Almighty hand" to heal and restore our Nation.

In confronting the challenges of our day, we must draw strength from the resolve of previous generations who faced their own struggles and take comfort in knowing a brighter day has always dawned on our great land. As we stand at the close of one year and look to the promise of the next, we lift up our hearts in gratitude to God for our many blessings, for one another, and for our Nation. This Thanksgiving Day, we remember that the freedoms and security we enjoy as Americans are protected by the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces. These patriots are willing to lay down their lives in our defense, and they and their families deserve our profound gratitude for their service and sacrifice.

This harvest season, we are also reminded of those experiencing the pangs of hunger or the hardship of economic insecurity. Let us return the kindness and generosity we have seen throughout the year by helping our fellow citizens weather the storms of our day. As Americans gather for the time-honored Thanksgiving Day meal, let us rejoice in the abundance that graces our tables, in the simple gifts that mark our days, in the loved ones who enrich our lives, and in the gifts of a gracious God. Let us recall that our forebears met their challenges with hope and an unfailing spirit, and let us resolve to do the same.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

Barack Obama