Unfortunately we have to get the real implications from Stephen Colbert rather than the “real” media as you’ll see in the video below.

It comes down to these two things. As much as they’d like to convince us this was a pathetic, incompetent, amateurish attack it was still an attack. Second, if it were an individual acting alone, it would be almost impossible to detect prior to execution. But a multi-participant event would provide many more opportunities to disrupt it, if our current Administration were really trying.

Not that long ago, other attackers were called “isolated extremists” by our President, despite ample evidence that the Christmas bomber on a flight into Detroit clearly did not act alone, nor did the Fort Hood shooter. Can you see the pattern here?

Our government is failing miserably in their primary role, which is, protecting the citizens of the United States of America.  We shouldn’t have to depend on “dumb luck” to keep us safe.  What does Janet Napolitano have to say about it?  Virtually nothing.  No explanation.  No answer why this person who was recently put on the “no-fly” list was able to board a plane.  No answer as to how this amateur as they called him, managed to almost kill hundreds of Americans.

Let’s see what Napolitano’s “amateur” could have done:

New York Daily News reported from Kevin Barry, a retired NYPD bomb squad supervisor and the head of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators,

“‘Several hundred’ could have been killed or maimed by a fireball exploding from the Nissan Pathfinder found loaded down with firecrackers, fertilizer, gasoline, propane and alarm clocks.

“The propane-fueled flames wouldn’t have brought down any buildings and would have lasted only a few seconds, but with flames shooting as high as 30 feet, the toll on people nearby would have been devastating, Barry said.

“The fireball would have caused horrific lung damage and fried the hair and faces of anyone within a 50-yard radius.

“‘It could burn the throat and then cause death. It’s a difficult thing to deal with,’ Barry said.

“‘We came within a millisecond,’ added Barry, who put in 35 years with the NYPD, the last 20 years on the bomb squad. ‘Because had that detonator functioned correctly, we would have had a huge explosion.’

“Luckily, Barry said, the crude car bomb’s homemade detonator malfunctioned.

“‘It may not have been sophisticated,’ Barry said of the bomb.’ [But] it worked. It didn’t function as he designed it to. The main charge did not go off. That was a critical mistake for him.’”

Colbert was right, this is pretty scary.  There have been far too many instances where our national security has been compromised since President Obama has been in the Whitehouse.  We need to be DEMANDING that Janet Napolitano resign from her post as Homeland Security Secretary.  It is time for our government to FINALLY start acting the way it should and protect America from even “amateurish” attacks.

I was reading today from an American Thinker article whose author brought forth an interesting premise.  We know two things:  First, Iran cannot refine their own crude oil; second, if we “shut off the export” of refined petroleum into Iran, their country’s tyrannical regime will fail.  While the solution seems simple it’s been long overdue and one key Congressman, Howard Berman (D-CA), is blocking it at every stage possible.

AT reports that there is currently a bill ready for conference committee just waiting for its chair to select the members that will join him in finalizing the bill for a final House floor vote, long story short, Congressmen Berman has all but refused to do so.  He has changed his pre-Obama position of strong sanctions against Iran to his new Obama aligned “do nothing” policy.  There have been numerous reports of the Whitehouse using this Congressman to slow down the process.  Which begs the question……WHY?

I don’t yet know why but I’ll tell you this – President Obama has neglected his primary role as this nations Commander-In-Chief.  He has neglected to keep us safe and has done NOTHING to ensure our future safety and that of our allies.  This was seen with Fort Hood, the underwear bomber, as well as his policy overseas.  He refuses to meet with our longstanding allies but bows to dictators, let’s Russia push us around, compromises our Gulf Coast resources and refuses to get tough with a soon to be NUCLEAR ARMED IRAN!

I keep saying it and I firmly believe it; now is the time to act.  Now is the time to vote out these incompetent leaders that have no concept of what American exceptionalism means to the world.  We are a beacon of success and as Reagan said the last hope of freedom in this world.  Soon, if no action is taken, we may lose that hope with nuclear-armed terrorists and tyrants.  Once Iran has nuclear weapons it is only a matter of time before other unstable mid-East countries, Al-Qaeda and even Venezuela have nuclear weapons.  The time is now to stop these tyrannical, terrorist groups and nations from destroying global stability and the future of our great country and the world.

I firmly understand the desire for peace.  That said, it’s irresponsible for President Obama and the Whitehouse if they allow the Russians to limit our ability to defend ourselves and our ally nations in Europe.  The soon to be released revisions in US Nuclear Forces will be signed with a treaty between the US and Russia to decrease the number of nuclear warheads in each country.  Russia came out last week saying they won’t sign anything unless the treaty limits expansion of the US missile defense system.

The US has enjoyed a military technology advantage since World War Two. Even then we understood the need for a “high-low” mix of forces and weapon systems. Tanks always need to have infantry in support; aircraft carriers need a battle group to protect the flattops, the P-47 Thunderbolt started out as a fighter and turned into a fighter bomber with the introduction of the vastly superior P-51 Mustang. The current F16-F15 fourth generation fighter combination our Air Force employs and most recently the F22 and soon to be introduced F35 are more examples of the high-low mix of capabilities. The Obama Administrations stopping of the F22 program is at best troublesome and at its worst; it’s giving up our long term technological advantage in the battle space.

The treaties with the Russians limit our greatest advantage, the ability to deliver precision strikes from the other side of the world, not just with nuclear weapons, but also with conventional ones, by limiting our long range strike capabilities to a small number of deployed weapons. Thus taking away our ability to strike anywhere and anytime with precision on specific targets, think Osama Bin Laden in the open for just a few minutes and you will understand the need for such capabilities.

What is even more disturbing about US foreign policy right now is the fact that we are negotiating nuclear proliferation while Iran is more than ready to start producing nuclear weapons.  Their Qom facility for enriching uranium has been observed as “too small for nonmilitary uranium enrichment.”

We live in a dangerous world.  While I support renegotiating the START treaty with Russia I am not for giving up our power to defend ourselves and our allies overseas.  We need strong leadership that will position the US in a way we can fully defend ourselves from any coming threats.  Iran and North Korea both pose a significant threat to the US, our allies and even the world.  While we have yet to see all the details of this treaty, we as American’s should demand that President Obama sets the US up for success with our foreign policy.

Dave Funk, Candidate for Congress; Iowa-03 Responds to President Obama’s press conference on the failure of the Aviation Security system involving Northwest Flight 253.

It’s great for Barack Obama to channel Harry Truman with the line, “The buck stops here.” But he’s going to have to do a lot more than quote Harry Truman to fix things.

Saying he doesn’t want to assign blame to individuals as much as he wants to address a systemic failure in the air security system doesn’t get the job done.  Blame a system for individual failure is like the liberals’ oft-repeated refrain that something is ‘society’s fault.’ The fact is, there were individuals who made mistakes, innocent Americans could have died because of those mistakes and the people who were responsible should be held accountable.

This issue is about inaction, the inaction of the Executive and Legislative branches of the government, not since 2000, rather since the 90′s when we first had the ability to prevent attacks like this one from happening.

President Obama looks to quote Harry Truman while not understanding what really needs to be done.  Mandating no liquids in quantities greater than three ounces or even full body scans are not the answer, but instead deploying a hybrid of intelligence and technology to allow us to profile those that are more likely to be terrorists.  It’s like I said in my press release yesterday:

“Passengers must be analyzed based on flight history and current flight plans.  Individuals on the watch-list should never make it on an airplane let alone be given a US visa; especially when they have a one-way ticket from Amsterdam.”

Along with my associates at Laird & Associates we’ve developed a solution.  This solution has been presented to Senator Boxer and we reached out to Rep. Boswell.  We need real action from our representatives in Congress and from our Commander in Chief.  If we can’t trust this country’s leadership to take action and implement ‘best practices’ in airline security, attacks will not stop and American lives may be taken.  We cannot afford to stand by as if we’re safe like we always have and put ourselves at risk.

Contact Dave@FunkForCongress.com for more information or call 515.966.2066

www.CongressNeedsFunk.com

As we all know, this past Christmas day there was a terrorist attack that failed on Northwest Flight 253 bound for Detroit.  Again, our Nation has had its eyes opened as American lives were nearly taken mid-air.  Even during the pre-9/11 era, these risks were high and we tried to fix the security issues facing the airline industry.  After the creation of the TSA and moving into post-9/11, these same security risks are still not resolved.

After 9/11 we looked like we were doing something when in reality, we in fact, did nothing.  The result of these security efforts by the TSA were only successful at slowing down the process of getting to your gate at the airport.  I’ve been working with a team led by Admiral Cathal “Irish” Flynn and others including the Airline Security Firm of Laird & Associates and we’ve developed a solution.  This morning that team sent an open letter to Senator Boxer outlining these solutions.  We propose solutions that will more effectively help prevent terrorist attacks.

Rep. Leonard Boswell is on the House Subcommittee for Aviation.  I’d like to reach out and give Rep. Boswell a chance to make our airways a safer place to travel before terrorists have another chance at killing innocent Americans.  Here are the solutions proposed:

We need to combine intelligence and a careful selection of passenger information with redundant and data-integrated technologies.  We need to use what we know.  Passengers must be analyzed based on flight history and current flight plans.  Individuals on the watch-list should never make it on an airplane let alone be given a US visa; especially when they have a one-way ticket from Amsterdam.

While all travelers must be screened, they do not need to be screened to the same level if a profiling system based on a prospective passenger’s previous and current flight activity is employed.  With technology, we can effectively screen individuals and those that fit the profile can be sent through a separate line to be checked in where they can be further screened. Many people think of profiling in a racial sense, but instead it is done based on what we know about you, or in most cases, don’t know. The frequent business traveler or family on vacation does not require the same level of scrutiny as a Middle-Eastern young male with a one way ticket and no checked baggage.

We need to fully utilize the technology we have and the TSA needs to become more efficient at approving these technologies for use.  These technologies include more effective explosive, radiological and chemical detection systems.

Rep. Boswell MUST review these proposals and bring the members of this team to Congress to testify and get our policies changed.  We are not safe under our current circumstances and by merely ignoring these facts and implementing ineffective policies we are putting American lives at risk every day.

As an airline Captain and aviation security consultant with a lifetime of military and public service, I know that this attempt was preventable. Not by the hordes of TSA screeners we see in our terminals, but by a few other simple things.  The first is to positively identify every person who is boarding a commercial airliner and then stopping those who have been identified as suspicious or connected to groups like Al-Qaida. Sufficient technology exists to effectively deal with that part of the problem, yet our Clueless Congress and by extension, the Transportation Security Administration, have ignored it.  They have been more interested in having thousands of ineffective screeners placed around our nation’s airports for show.  The technology exists to properly screen for explosive and threat items.   It’s time we use it and not waste money on unnecessary staff, which would be the second simple change.

As I write this, Janet Napolitno, the Clueless head of the Department of Homeland Security is making the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows, stating “the system worked”.   Only a total idiot could believe that.  It’s time for her to be fired or resign.  We need those TSA screeners to be trained properly to detect signs of dangerous intent and have them utilize effective screening tools and technology and to identify our enemies and their intentions before they board an airliner. We need our Clueless Congress to stop the State Department from issuing visas to known or suspected terrorists allowing them to enter the United States in the first place. The British had already barred the bomber in this case from entering the UK, but yet our Clueless State Department did not revoke his visa.

The third part of this solution is to keep the military pressure on our enemies. It’s hard to plan any kind of a terrorist operation when you’re running for your life.  The previous Administration kept the pressure on Al-Qaida all over the world, and we need to restart those efforts.  Our current Administration and our Clueless Congress seem more interested in changing the war on terror into a law enforcement problem, instead of meeting this threat for what is, a WAR.

It’s a war and in a war, you need to kill the enemy to win. But let’s not forget, The Clueless Always Are…and thank God that a few brave Northwest Airlines passengers, like on United Airlines Flight 93 on 9-11-01, stepped up to the  plate to defend themselves and their fellow flyers, while our government failed us again.