Five days after the Christmas Day bomber tried to blow up NWA Flight 253 over Detroit, President Obama is still on vacation in Hawaii. He has delivered two hasty, tie-less statements on homeland security from a makeshift podium in Honolulu whose underwhelming sum impact has been the equivalent of voting “present” (Obama’s career m.o.) By his own admission and in direct contradiction to his hapless DHS Secretary, the president acknowledged yesterday that “systemic failure” led to the breach.
Obama is not scheduled to return to Washington until Sunday. That’s four more full days of reinforcing his image as detached, aloof, and too damned tired to tackle the jihadi epidemic with the once-hyped energy and passion of a 48-year-old Super-Agent of Hope and Change.
Obama admits failures, goes snorkeling
Today, after a vacationing President Barack Obama conceded that both human and systemic failures of U.S. Intelligence had failed to bar a Nigerian man posing a reported security risk from boarding that Detroit-bound jetliner – a near-”catastrophic” breakdown in security – Obama left the reporters taking his words in Hawaii and went snorkeling.
“A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that completely unacceptable,” he told reporters who are with him in Hawaii for his family holiday.
The president said early findings have already made clear that there are “deficiencies” in the security system built since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that could have led to a “catastrophic” incident.
Joe Biden update: Phew! Time for some vacation
After a very busy time of secure teleconferencing from his Delaware home and being fully briefed by his national security staff on the explosive Nigerian underpants on that Northwest flight near Detroit, Vice President Joe Biden is off now on a little vacation for some badly needed R&R.
Like his boss, Barack Obama and entourage, who opted to spend the holiday far from his wintry hometown clime in Chicago in December, the 67-year-old Biden is forsaking Delaware for a sunny island — the Virgin Islands, to be precise.
Pelosi’s very private Hawaii vacation
Guarded by U.S. Capitol Police bolstered by officers on loan from the Hawaii County PD, Pelosi is enjoying what Hollywood Reporter calls: “…a picture-perfect stretch of beach on the Big Island’s chic Kona Coast….a private Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course and Pahu’ia, an award-winning oceanfront restaurant, $40 million worth of enhancements…20 new suites and … its lauded Hualalai Spa.”
According to the Hualalai Spa website, Pelosi may, “Enjoy complimentary pre-treatment rituals, relaxing by a quiet stream in the open-air Waiea, or Water of Life, garden. Or savour the lap pool, whirlpools, saunas, steam rooms and cold plunges, all set amidst lush greenery. (Pelosi’s) choice of skin-care and massage treatments may be enjoyed outdoors in our exotic new hales, secluded for privacy…. With the guidance of (her) spa therapist, (Pelosi may) choose from more than 20 local natural ingredients – from Hawaiian sea salt to crushed macadamia nuts – which are custom-blended to create unique personalized treatments.”
It is not clear how Pelosi arrived on the Big Isle. Her controversial military transport is not immediately visible amidst the forest of private jets which now crowd Kona’s Keahole Airport South Tarmac. Hawaii County is hard hit by shrinking tax receipts caused by the Obama recession, but Hawaii County Police Department spokesperson Chris Loos states that the department was able to aid Pelosi’s security detail without canceling other scheduled enforcement activities. Loos did not provide an estimate of the expense incurred by the County PD.
Where is the Secretary of State? Hillary Clinton has gone AWOL on the Iranian front
The White House should send a search party to track down Hillary Clinton. America’s foreign policy chief has been missing from the world stage for several days, and has become as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel at the height of the French Revolution. I wrote earlier in the year that Clinton had become the invisible Secretary of State, and her current absence certainly reinforces that impression.
One would have thought that with a potential revolution on the streets of Tehran, and with scenes of horrific and savage brutality against protesters by the Iranian regime, that Washington’s official voice on international affairs might at least have expressed an opinion. Even Barack Obama took time away from the golf course in Hawaii to comment (albeit rather weakly) on the latest developments in the Middle East’s biggest power, which included over 1,500 arrests by the brutal Iranian security forces and Revolutionary Guards, and the murder of at least ten dissidents.
I’m not aware however of a single statement from a senior official at the State Department on the latest situation in Iran – a disgraceful state of affairs and a huge abdication of responsibility.
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