Monthly Archives: November 2006

Big Brother Is Checking Your Meal

Proving that it is on top of the latest developments in terrorist detection, the Department of Homeland Security has revealed it tracks airline passengers based on what meal they order:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Without notifying the public, federal agents have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments. The government intends to keep the scores on file for 40 years.

The scores are assigned to people entering and leaving the United States after computers assess their travel records, including where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered.

Let me guess how the Washington guys figured this one. The guy who orders the Halal meal is obviously the next Mohammed Atta.

Does anyone remember that, before they flew planes into buildings, the 9/11 hijackers visited Las Vegas and hung out in strip clubs ? Does anyone think that a truly dedicated al Qaeda terrorist would broadcast his existence by ordering an Islamic meal ?

Does anyone in Washington have an ounce of brains ?

Forget I asked that last one.

Why The Republicans Won’t Recover

Doug has been highlighting the reasons why the Republicans lost a few weeks ago. The question among many of us is whether they’ll have learned their lessons and have any chance of recovery. Judging by the people they’ve elected to party leadership positions, the answer is no.

And judging by what outgoing RNC chairman Mehlman says, it’s only going to get worse:

Or, as Mehlman told the GOP governors, back to “good policy that makes good politics.” He singled out an effort by outgoing Gov. Mitt Romney, another 2008 prospect, to expand health-care coverage to all Massachusetts residents. “That is the kind of innovation we need at the state level, and in Washington,” Mehlman said.

Hey Ken. We sent the Republicans to Washington to fight against this sort of “innovation”, when it was called HillaryCare. We don’t need you to offer the same tired stuff.

Why The Republicans Lost Part III

Chester Finn, a former Assistant Secretary of Education under President Reagan sums up quite nicely what’s wrong with the Republican Party today:

What’s gone wrong with the GOP? Let me start by quoting a friend who is both gay and conservative (yes, I know several such): “I’m for low taxes, strong defense and limited government. Why doesn’t the Republican party want me?”

There’s a two-part answer to that question and neither half is good news. The first is that today’s GOP doesn’t really want gays — and it yearns to supervise everybody else’s bedroom and reproductive behavior as well as (implicitly, at least) their relationship to God. The second is that Republicans are no longer really in favor of limited government. Besides having their own version of a nanny state, they want to spend and spend, start program after program, ladle out the pork, make deals with influence peddlers, and spin the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street. Yes, they still pretend to favor low taxes but that’s an illusion; they pay for limitless government via huge deficits that will mean high taxes for my granddaughter.

And as long as that continues, the GOP will continue to lose.

Previous Posts:

Why The Republicans Lost
Why The Republicans Lost Part II 

It Could Be Worse

For all the complaints one can make about politics in the United States, it pays to remind ourselves that things could be worse, we could live in a country where the public has so thoroughly bought into the big government ideal that there is little hope of things ever changing. For example, take our neighbor to the North:

Ottawa, ON –According to an Ipsos Reid survey among the general public, a majority of Canadian adults rank a patient wait times guarantee as more important than any other of the Government’s priorities. Of the five policy promises made by the Government of Canada during the last federal election, 42% of Canadians said that “a patient wait time guarantee that would reduce wait times for key health services” was the most important to them personally. This compares to lowering taxes (19%), restoring accountability to Ottawa (14%), tackling crime (14%), and implementing a choice in childcare program (9%).

One wonders where making sure the trains run on time fits in that list.

H/T: Club For Growth

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