Mineta Asked to Stay !

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

Waitone

Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2002
Messages
5,406
Location
The Land of Broccoli and Fingernails
http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/12/9/150436.shtml
:what:

Say It Ain’t So; Mineta Should Go!
Michael Smerconish
Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004

Norman Mineta should have been the first to leave Bush's cabinet, not one of the few asked to stay!

The holiday travel period is a good reminder of just how far we still need to go when it comes to airline security in a post 9/11 world, and although Mineta’s power has been largely usurped by the Department of Homeland Security, it was he who set the mindset for the post 9/11 world.
Story Continues Below

There have been several significant developments with airline security in the last few months. None bode well.
First, what was touted as a passenger profiling system was instituted at Logan International Airport in Boston (from which two of the four airlines involved on 9/11 departed) really doesn’t profile, and yet, has drawn its first lawsuit.

The ACLU, surprise, surprise, maintains that the new system relies on race and ethnicity. I wish! Unfortunately, the architect of the new system, state police Sgt Peter DiDominica, has gone to great lengths to say that those factors which united the 19 on 9/11 - race, gender, religion, ethnicity and appearance – will not be relied upon. Go figure.

Second, the FBI agent who authored pre-9/11 memo now known as the “Phoenix Memo” – a recommendation that the State Department coordinate with the FBI so that flight students from Middle Eastern countries could be investigated – has now said that there was concern over racial profiling that stropped action on his recommendation.

Ken Williams is the FBI agent who wrote the memo dated July 10, 2001, and he offered those sentiments in his first ever interview given to the Arizona Republic, as he was receiving an award from war veterans.

Third, the TSA has instituted new policies on body searches that involve “use of the back of the hand when screening sensitive body areas, which include the breasts (females only) genitals and buttocks.” In other words, we’re still looking for bombs, not bombers.

There is lots of talk at this time of year about the Administration re-establishing priorities. Unfortunately, there is not enough discussion about airport and border security. Maybe Bernard Kerik will end the nonsense. What I do know is that now is the perfect opportunity to set the stage for a more aggressive posture with regard to our enemy.

And just to be safe, I’ve come up with a few questions that should be used at the Senate confirmation hearings for any prospective secretaries who will play a role in the war on terror:

“Mr./Ms. Secretary Designate, do you acknowledge that the war on terror is a war against radical Islam?

Mr./Ms. Secretary Designate, would you agree that the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were all associated with radical Islam?

And that they had their race, gender, religion, ethnicity and appearance in common?

And that in looking for those who would emulate the 19 on 9/11, we should be mindful of that which those individuals had in common?

Even if some call that profiling?”

Only a “yes, yes, yes, yes and yes” are acceptable.

Michael Smerconish is the author of “Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11”
 
Shortly before 9/11, Mineta was the %$#@ who issued a directive PROHIBITING extra security scrutiny of Middle-Eastern men. And after 9/11, airlines were fined millions of dollars for scrutinizing Middle-Eastern men more closely. In his warped little PC mind, profiling is considered to be more of a danger to us than terrorism. This story has been largely spiked by the media. :cuss:

Mineta has also been doing everything he can to keep pilots from being armed. :cuss:

And the new frisking procedures are nothing less than the legalization of sexual assault by TSA screeners. :cuss:

This Democrat holdover from the Klinton administration is being given a free pass because he's a minority. :cuss:

Any further doubts that Bush is a RINO? :cuss:

(And yes, Kerry would have been worse. :barf: )
 
My disappointment with GWB continues to increase............... :(

or to say it another way-My vote was the first step on the road to disappointment.
 
Because Kerry was bad, doesn't mean that GWB is good. Only less crappy on the RKBA but still pretty crappy. He is also clueless on the WOT, IHMO. Poor execution of what might be good ideas. He is also unable to divest himself of his worst advisers - like Rummy.
 
He is also unable to divest himself of his worst advisers - like Rummy.
Click to expand...

Actually Rummy is the best advisor he picked by far. The press hasnt said much about it but it was Rumsfeld that kept the army from using the european invaison strategy form the cold war on Afghanistan. Rummy forced the Army and the marines to use the insurgency approach and the light fast approach. The army guys wanted to do an old fashioned massed troop and tank invaision that would have taken years. You know the same approach that the Russians used to subdue Afghanistan. :rolleyes:

Rumsfeld insited that special forces infiltrate instead and use the insurgents from the Northern alliance against the Talliban, supported by our carefully directed strategic bombing. That approach saved thousands of US casualties and allowed us to take Afghanistan quickly.

Rumsfeld is the one trying to reshape the Army to fight the enemy we now face, while the folks in the top brass wanted to continue to fight the European style land battle of WWII (tanks, massed artillery, massed infantry).
 
Rumsfeld is the one trying to reshape the Army to fight the enemy we now face, while the folks in the top brass wanted to continue to fight the European style land battle of WWII (tanks, massed artillery, massed infantry).
Click to expand...

I believe you're correct.

Unfortunately, we're in World War IV, which ought to be won the same way we solved Japan's problem in World War II. Land wars in Asia rarely turn out as anticipated.
 
I'm reading Coulter's book "How to Talk to a Liberal". Read the airline security chapter last night. In it she has a lot of great ideas (some of which many of us must have thought of also) and she rips Mineta a new one for some of the reasons listed above. I agree, he should have been the first to go - before the election.
 
Bush would rather a fighter jet take down an airliner than the pilot successfully defend it. If pilots accomplished that very often folks might start griping about being unable to carry their own weapons on board.
 
Any further doubts that Bush is a RINO?
Click to expand...

Republican is as Republican does. I am sick of this pejorative. A Republican is under no obligation to be an extreme, minimalist government conservative. In fact, he or she won't get elected if to the liking of the intelligentsia, whose worst fear would be to have to shut up and actually do something practical and constructive.

A Republican is simply someone to the right of a Democrat. Guess what? That could be very close to the middle.

On another subject, the continuing Bush bashing is starting to sound really dumb, since the election is over. What does anyone expect it to accomplish? What would be more constructive would be to act more generally supportive of the President we have and do some work on who will run in the next election. To sound like Bush can't do anything right or to pin everything directly on him is just not very credible. If his personal demeanor bugs you, then just say so, but the fact is he is a pretty effective President. Actually, he got reelected.
 
Realgun, let us revisit your comments after we find out what his immigration "reform" legislation looks like early next year. He may well be toward the middle in a political sense but he is at a minimum a stout corporatist or worse an internationalist where things like borders are sooooo old fashioned.

The man has a consistent and demonstrated policy of setting land mines around the front door of the country and leaving the freakin' back door wide open. He then goes down to Mexico and advertises to future criminal aliens that the back door is open and they had better hurry up and come on in before we close it.

That sir, ain't conservative or middle of the road. :banghead:
 
Stormin' Norman "Manzanar" Mineta is an untouchable. He has a PC halo around him, period. And Bush is nothing if not PC, as we are learning more every day.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Kerik's withdrawal is absurd, ironic, and hypcritical. He's leaving because he has an illegal alien nanny? Why would this bother an Administration that prides itself on "welcoming" what Bush has referred as "hard-working moms and dads" from south of the border? Come one, come all, seems to be anthem these days.

I'll tell you how bad it is folks: even a flaming leftie nutball like Cong. Maxine Waters came out the other day denouncing our laxity toward illegal immigration. Yeah, it's political, but Bush & Co. seem determined to hand this issue to the Democrats. I guess they really believe the American people a) don't care and b) don't matter if they do.
 
If his personal demeanor bugs you, then just say so, but the fact is he is a pretty effective President.
Click to expand...

No, Bush COULD be an effective President--IF he stopped pandering to the government of Mexico, IF he stopped selling out the middle class of America, IF he learned what a veto was, IF he proposed a tough budget that really acknowledged that this country is heading for mass membership in Debtors Anonymous, IF he started calling our enemy who they are and not "global terrorism," IF he acknowledged that to win this momentous conflict we are going to need to mobilize en masse, not mall-hop, IF he understood that "homeland security" means empowering individual citizens to engage in responsible civil defense.

Bush has an historic opportunity here. He cannot afford to blow it. And we can't afford to let him blow it.
 
Totally disappointing. I really don't understand Bush, sometimes. It's as if he actually believes that "compassionate" conservative stuff. Mineta shold have been giving his walking papers years ago. And all this criticism is warrented. And YES, RINO is a good term - Local and national GOP leaders need to be reminded that many in the core will sit home on election day if our choice is between Democrats and RINOS. That is, they need to think at the margin, and in my humble opinion, as the GOP approaches RINO, more and more of the base says home.

Boltaction

http://www.individ.us
 
That is, they need to think at the margin, ... - boltaction
Click to expand...

The "margin" that matters and which determined the outcome of the election is the vast number of "undecideds", in the middle by definition. Other identifiable groups can be given a reinforcing dose of what they want to hear, already inclined to vote one way or the other, too far right of the Democrats to have a realistic alternative. By definition, they will always be somewhat dissatisfied.

The reason RINO is a dumb term is because it is relative to a stereotype that no one can dogmatically define and which no one fits exactly. RINO is then a term for anyone not just like me. Therefore, every Republican as an individual is a RINO.

The real "RINOs" are the libertarians in the RLC. They are so far removed from what really happens in the party and so lacking in influence that their presence in the party is almost a joke. However, that caucus is better than forming a separate party.

Those who are not fairly called RINOs are near the middle, since the GOP is actually centrist in real terms.
 
I'd have to assume this means that GWB thinks Mineta is doing a great job - or he couldn't find anyone better for the position.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top