Bacchus. An integral part of my blog. I love this photo of him taken last year as well as the one I used for Christmas. My resolution is to keep his memory alive and well.

As for anything else resolution wise? Been there, done that. I find I haven't much discipline. But I do blog and I don't see that changing; not the content, not the style. Ho hum. I guess I will resolve to try and keep it interesting!

Here's to 2010. We'll hit the ground running!

A Dysfunctional Government

When commenting on the Christmas day terror attempt, the President had this to say, "We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable."

He might begin by looking within. You see, as bad as Napolitano's flip flop on how security measures are working was, there's an even more egregious element. The TSA, which answers to her, has no permanent administrator. First, it took Obama eight months to even nominate one. Then Jim DeMint, Republican from South Carolina, objected on the basis the nominee might allow the screeners to join a union.

While I'm no supporter of Unions, Obama is. Consider, too, that the American Federation of Government Employees, around since 1932, already has 600,000 members! Organizing screeners might well be on the drawing board. Frankly, I'd rather have them organized than to be without leadership!

All the puffery by Senators about the system being , lost and bloated or complaining about there having been five administrators in eight years ought to look at themselves!

So who is this administrator waiting in the wings? One Erroll Southers, a former FBI special agent, LA airport's assistant chief of homeland security and intelligence plus being a professor on counter-terrorism and associate director of the USC Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events.

Having read about him I think perhaps he should have Napolitano's job. He certainly has the credentials she lacks!

So there you have the problem. The President awards the top job as political payback then drags his feet on the nomination of the man who would cover her, uh, you get the idea. Then a Senator holds it up because of his own ideology and political agenda. The other Senators weighing in know this so disregard their self-rightous outrage.

It's called politics. When it's realized that the world today calls for more than playing the game, we might be safer. Until then our government, not al Qaeda, will be our own worst enemy.

It's Time For Profiling

I'm sorry. Our government has done it again. In Obama's remarks this afternoon he said this. "As Americans we will never give into fear and division."

We already have. To put the traveling public through what they are now enduring is criminal. Old ladies and men, children. Come on. I heard one story this morning about an elderly lady wearing a leg brace being forced to remove it. None of this is keeping us safe. It is one more example of the government not doing it's job and the public pays. Do you really want these people running our health care?

You have to understand the man with the potential explosive did everything right when it came to boarding the plane. He had a legal visa, in Nigeria one pays cash for everything so cash for the ticket was not an issue there, he was coming here to go to school hence the one way ticket. He has a home here and a home in Nigeria hence the small carry on bag. What's to question?

It's the inner workings that are lax. The inner workings are not going to be fixed by searching every man woman and child in the world. Not to mention destroying the airlines.

To be fair, this didn't start under Obama but he hasn't helped it any. By putting a state governor into the position of Secretary of Homeland Security just because she governed a border state is sheer madness. Had she resolved the problem of illegals from Mexico entering Arizona I might think she has a clue. But she didn't and doesn't. After all, she's the one who claimed the system worked before being taken to the wood shed and recanting.

That the man's father was concerned enough about his son's radical views that he warned American authorities doesn't indicate an internal family matter to me. Had I been the authority I'd have done some checking. Boy, what I would have found!

The watch and no fly lists are so huge they're impossible to monitor effectively. Obviously. Once it's found your on it, it's nearly impossible to get off. Senator Edward Kennedy could have told you about it. He was on it. As is CNN's Drew Griffin. Explain it!

Congress is so anxious to pass laws let them pass one allowing profiling. It is in our national interest! Forget political correctness and let the old ladies, men and kids be!

Oh, along with that law include this. Every member of Congress must fly commercial and go through the same security procedures that we do. No special lines to side step it. Remove shoes. Get wanded. Get patted down. Get a full body scan at airports that employ it. Get the air puff test. Stay in your seat the first half hour after take off and the last hour of the flight. Makes it interesting for a 90 minute flight doesn't it? And Senator Schumer, stay off your cell phone or lose it. No more delaying flights or having a crew member suffer your verbal abuse.

You represent us. Be one of us! Maybe then the review of the system Obama asked for might be actually be worth while!

Loveability And Ability Do Not Equate

Christmas is over. Just like that. After months and months of build up, the day arrives and passes and it's done. People are now out in droves returning unwanted gifts. So much for peace and love. Merry Christmas.

And so too, life goes on. The good and the bad. My cynical self is back. The sleigh bell (note Polar Express) Hub gave me is perched on my computer where I can jingle it in time of need. It will be often used and I will always hear it.

My cynical side surfaced when I read Peggy Noonan's column in this morning's Wall Street Journal. He Just Does What He Thinks Is Right. Had Obama himself written it I'd have thought it the height of ego. What he thinks is right. No matter what part wisdom and the advice emanating from it might be. But it came from a headline writer about the saccharine blathering of Ms. Noonan.

She speaks of the 'love' some still hold for him and how importantly embracing it is when so many are turning against him. I have a feeling that need for 'love' and those who give it blindly will be his downfall. I have a feeling it is part of the reason why he is slow to make decisions and when he does they are not as well studied as he'd like us to believe. One cannot risk the 'love'.

Personally, I don't care to 'love' my President. I want to believe in his abilities. I want to respect him. He has to earn it. It is more than being able to deliver a good speech that is set before him on teleprompters.

That he may be a great guy, is personable and warmer in person than his image indicates is great. So are a lot of people. That does not earn my love. I loved my dog. I love my husband. I love my family. I feel warm and happy and safe and loved in return when in their company. You see there has to be that personal connection. Without this it is not 'love'; it's an illusion. People who crave love tend to surround themselves with those who offer it willingly. That contrivance makes it meaningless except for the ego.

Where has he let me down? Other than the long, agonizing time it took for him to decide to send too few troops to Afghanistan, the most obvious shortfall is his blanket approval of health care which leads me to believe he knows not what all is in the two bills. The importance being that they exist. Not their content.

As importantly is what he said to the world in his Peace Prize speech.

So even as we respect the unique culture and traditions of different countries, America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal. We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi; to the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots in the face of beatings; to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran. It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation. And it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear to these movements that hope and history are on their side.

To date America has been a voice for absolutely nothing. Most vividly the deafening silence supporting the protesters of Iran's oppressive regime. Rhetoric. Actually, as Hillary said during the campaign, "words, nothing but words." Where ever the heck she is!

Without the backing up of words they are meaningless. They seem contrived. Everything is beginning to look like little more than slick orchestrations. Right down to the idea that the Lincoln Bedroom is no longer used for White House guests because the Emancipation Proclamation was signed there.

That is cynicism at it's height. If there is a bright side, I would suppose it's that there is no 'love' lost.