Mcnorman's Weblog

No Churchgoing Christmas for the First Family – TIME.

The Obamas have also started their own holiday traditions in their new home, adding a Christmas wishing tree to the decorations festooning the White House. But there’s one common Christmas practice not on the First Family’s schedule: a visit to Christmas Eve church services.

They don’t celebrate Christmas because????  Did TIME finally realize the real reason?

Reports: NWA passenger was trying to blow up flight from Amsterdam into Detroit.

The suspect jerk identified as Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, who according to federal documents is an engineering student at University College of London.  He was flying from Nigeria to the United States for a religious seminar, according to his entry visa, which was issued June 16, 2008 and was good until June 12, 2010.    Two are injured.  That is some religious seminar, huh?

Remember Richard Reid, the shoe bomber on Christmas Day?

“Eight years after Richard Reid attempted to blow up an airliner with explosives hidden in his shoe, today’s incident, on Christmas Day, is a disturbing reminder that the terrorist threat is still very real and that we must continue to be vigilant and alert,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee said in a statement.

“The White House is calling this an attempted terrorist attack,” Collins added. “It raises some serious questions, such as how was this person able to bring an explosive substance aboard a commercial airliner? And what is the Transportation Security Administration doing to address this type of threat?”

No joke, the guy has significant connections to nefarious characters.

“He is a 23 year old Nigerian who is also – it’s been confirmed to me – while he was not on a no fly list, his name was on a list for having terrorist connections,” King said during an interview Christmas evening on CNN…

“His name was in a database indicating significant terrorist connections,” King said…

“There’s a real worry about terrorist activity in Nigeria, so much so that last year the American government gave body detection technology to Nigeria for their airports,” King said. “Their level of security, we felt was not comprable to others.”

Yiid with Lid adds that the terrorist was on a federal no fly list.  Exit question:  victim card or crazy card?

On Wednesday, Astute Bloggers asked:

WEATHER? ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS? OR, TERROR THREATS?

FIRST THE CHUNNEL SHUT DOWN – DUE TO “WINTRY WEATHER”.

NOW PENN STATION – DUE TO “ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS”.

COINCIDENCE!? OR TERROR THREAT?

Instead of relying on DHS, we might begin to watch for signs like these?

TaxProf Blog on Twas The Night Before Christmas.  Link to enlarge.

Thrifty families accused of prolonging the recession – Times Online.

Anxious families are repaying debts instead of spending in the shops, amid concern over the uncertain economic outlook. The share of income saved in banks and building societies has risen to its highest level in more than a decade, heightening fears that faltering consumer demand could prolong the recession.

The savings ratio — the gap between household income and spending, which is often used to repay debts or add to savings — soared to 8.6 per cent between July and September, the highest level since 1998.

Analysts fear that consumer spending, which rose by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, its first growth since the start of the recession, will remain muted as households continue to repay debts and save.

This is what is referred to as the paradox of thrift.  Now, I have heard everything.

Fort Hood: Hasan Asked Awlaki If It Was Okay to Kill American Soldiers – ABC News.

In an interview published on Al Jazeera’s Web site, radical Muslim cleric Anwar al Awlaki says that Maj. Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 in last month’s Fort Hood massacre, asked for guidance about killing American military personnel in his very first e-mail.

Outrageous.

Awlaki claims that Hasan initiated the e-mail correspondence with a message on Dec. 17, 2008. “He was asking about killing U.S. soldiers and officers,” says Awlaki. “His question was is it legitimate [under Islamic law].”

Note to cleric:  Not normal for a shrink to be asking this question, actually VERY WRONG.

ThreatsWatch.Org: PrincipalAnalysis: Wither Sovereignty.

Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order “Amending Executive Order 12425.” It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other “International Organizations” as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945.

By removing language from President Reagan’s 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates – now operates – on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Let your blood boil.

Property and assets of international organizations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation. The archives of international organizations shall be inviolable.

Inviolable archives means INTERPOL records are beyond US citizens’ Freedom of Information Act requests and from American legal or investigative discovery (“unless such immunity be expressly waived.”)

Property and assets being immune from search and confiscation means precisely that. Wherever they may be in the United States. This could conceivably include human assets – Americans arrested on our soil by INTERPOL officers.

What is this man doing, does anyone really know?

For an added and disturbing wrinkle, INTERPOL’s central operations office in the United States is within our own Justice Department offices. They are American law enforcement officers working under the aegis of INTERPOL within our own Justice Department. That they now operate with full diplomatic immunity and with “inviolable archives” from within our own buildings should send red flags soaring into the clouds.

This is the disturbing context for President Obama’s quiet release of an amended Executive Order 12425. American sovereignty hangs in the balance if these actions are not prevented through public outcry and political pressure. Some Americans are paying attention, as can be seen from some of the earliest recognitions of this troubling development here, here and here. But the discussion must extend well beyond the Internet and social media.

Ultimately, a detailed verbal explanation is due the American public from the President of the United States detailing why an international law enforcement arm assisting a court we are not a signatory to has been elevated above our Constitution upon our soil.

Will POTUS give us an explanation?  I can’t hold my breath that long.  More from MM.