Janet Napolitano

On Wednesday's All In show on MSNBC, host Chris Hayes devoting a segment to fretting over what he viewed as a "bizarre and perverse mismatch" at the country's willingness to act aggressively in response to deaths from terrorist acts, but the difficulty to get a response to the many gun deaths. He also described the 30,000 people who die from gun shots each year as "martyrs on the altar of the Second Amendment," as he complained of a double standard.

The MSNBC host teased the segment at about 8:11 p.m.:

According to the first paragraph of Alicia's Caldwell's report today at the Associated Press, aka the Adminstration's Press, Homeland Security Secretary Janey Napolitano told attendees at a Politico breakfast this morning (Politico's coverage is here) that, in Caldwell's words, "U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International and O'Hare International in Chicago, are already experiencing delays as a result of automatic federal spending cuts." Additionally, again in Caldwell's words, "she expects a cascading effect during the week, with wait times expected to double in worst cases."

Well, either someone forgot to tell airport spokesperson and the travel industry to fall in line, or said officials are refusing, according to follow-up stories at the Politico and the UK Telegraph. Notably, the AP had no such follow-up story at its national site as of 10 p.m. ET tonight, but did have a story by Pauline Jelinek ("HOW BUDGET CUTS COULD AFFECT YOU") published at the about the same time as the two follow-ups just noted dutifully echoing Napolitano's talking points. Excerpts from both follow-up stories are after the jump.

On Thursday, NPR's Morning Edition used a Republican mayor to boost Obama's push for infrastructure spending. On Friday, the same show displayed a new Tea Party Republican House member representing tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri to gush over the effectiveness of the Obama disaster relief team, as if to say "No Katrinas here, America." Janet Napolitano told NPR Long would give them a "12" out of 10.

Liberals have this habit of thinking that disaster relief somehow rebuts "foes of Big Government," or that Tea Party members ran on the promise of abolishing disaster aid. NPR reporter Frank Morris pressed hard on the chastened-anti-statist angle:

Amidst all the talk of Robert Gibbs' imminent departure as White House press secretary, could Andrea Mitchell be gunning for the gig?  NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent certainly gave a strong audition on today's Morning Joe, doing her best to paper over the latest stumbles by two gaffe-prone Obamaoids.

Mitchell first tried to paint an innocent gloss on Napolitano's curious boast that her homeland security minions are working "364 days a year" to keep the nation safe. Later, Mitchell spun with the best to explain away Biden's claim--at odds with official US policy--that the US will be "totally out" of Afghanistan by 2014, "come hell or high water."

Mitchell gave her game away with her facial expression at the very end of the video clip.  After Joe Scarborough gives her a skeptical "come on" for her shilling, Andrea breaks into a wry smile.  Cut me some slack, Scarborough, Andrea seems to be signaling. A gal's has got to give her best MSM try for the home team!

 

Newsweek's Eleanor Clift doesn't understand why Americans are uncomfortable with the new body scanners being used at some of the nation's airports.

Chatting about the subject on PBS's "McLaughlin Group," Clift sarcastically said, "Maybe we ought to worry about C-T x-rays and so forth - you never can tell when somebody might put that out" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Looks like the MSNBC-Obama merger is complete . . .

Janet Napolitano did double-duty on Good Morning America today, describing administration anti-terrorism efforts while serving as an MSNBC shill by parroting the liberal network's new marketing catchphrase, Lean Forward.

To complete the daisy chain, Napolitano was interviewed by ABC's Bianna Golodryga, wife of . . . former Obama budget director Peter Orzag. View video after the jump.

The topic was the foiled plot to send explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

He's only one of the most powerful Republican governors in the nation, yet Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano thinks he presides over Alabama:

That would be Mississippi, ma'am. Honestly, is this the most inept administration you've ever seen?  (h/t Sean & Wayne, 106.5 WAVH in Mobile, Ala. via Threefingersofpolitics.com)

On Saturday’s Fox News Watch, as the panel discussed revelations that Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano admitted to not having read the Arizona immigration law even as they criticized it publicly, FNC contributor Jim Pinkerton cited the Media Research Center, parent organization of NewsBusters, and passed on findings contained in the May 18 "Bozell Column," as he informed the panel that ABC, CBS and NBC had all ignored these embarrassing admissions by Obama administration cabinet members. Pinkerton:

And it was interesting, as Brent Bozell at the Media Research Center pointed out, not any of the big networks – ABC, CBS, or NBC – reported that Holder and Napolitano hadn't read it. And the major newspapers, the Post and Times, also didn't report it. By comparison, we could imagine what would have happened if a Democratic Congressman asked Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General under President Bush, if he hadn't read something. There would have been a typhoon of, "What a moron." And yet, stone silence from the mainstream media.

Panel member Rich Lowry of the National Review may also have picked up on a NewsBusters item when he recounted FNC veteran Brit Hume’s criticism of the inaccurate media coverage of the Arizona immigration law, and the mistake he admitted to making in initially believing the media misinformation. Lowry:

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Friday posted a highly-humorous video on YouTube mocking members of the Obama administration that have voiced negative opinions about her state's new anti-illegal immigration law without even bothering to read it.

See if you can name them as you sing a long:

On Thursday's Situation Room, CNN's Jack Cafferty blasted President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon for their criticism of Arizona's new anti-illegal immigration law, stating that the two were "whining" about the law. Cafferty singled out Calderon for having "a lot of nerve...complaining" about the Arizona law and labeled Congress's standing ovation for the Mexican leader "disgusting."

The commentator devoted his Cafferty File segment 13 minutes into the 5 pm Eastern hour to slamming the two leaders' criticism of the Grand Canyon's State's newly-passed legislation. Cafferty wasted little time and targeted Calderon first for his criticism of the law on American soil: "Mexican President Felipe Calderon has a lot of nerve coming into this country and complaining about Arizona's immigration law, when all the state wants to do is protect itself against a flood of illegal immigrants from Calderon's country." He continued that "Calderon and President Obama are both whining about the Arizona law. Calderon, who also took the message to a joint meeting of Congress, is calling Arizona's law discriminatory."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was interviewed on the morning shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC on Monday, but the strangest questioning came from CBS's Harry Smith. In discussing the Times Square car bomb, Smith implied to Napolitano that terrorists were inevitably going to win one of these days, and it was important to prepare the American people for government failure:

SMITH: This has been described as sort of amateurish, almost Rube Goldberg-like. We think about Najibullah Zazi, who was planning a terrorist attack for the subways of New York. Had there been a little more planning; had there been a little more forethought, one of these is going to be successful. Is a successful terrorist attack inevitable in the United States?

How should MSNBC supplement its income?  Have the DNC underwrite part of Norah O'Donnell's salary.  She's certainly earning it . . .

Yesterday, as noted here, a giddy Norah enthused that Charlie Crist's vote-splitting independent run gives the Dems "a real shot" to win the Florida Senate seat.

O'Donnell was back on the Dem ramparts this morning on Morning Joe, defending Janet Napolitano's execrable record on border security, leading Joe Scarborough to mock the Homeland Security secretary with some effervescent imagery . . .

Washington Post reporter Anne Kornblut issued a gushy article on Janet Napolitano on Tuesday, headlined "The crisis management expert: Homeland security secretary reemerges strong after the Christmas Day bombing." Kornblut quotes only Napolitano-praisers in her story, including aides and her colleagues at the White House. Kornblut praises her "encylopedic knowledge of pop culture" and tells of her always thinking of others, stopping to buy "an assistant of 11 years" a blue scarf in Madrid, complete with her security detail. Hyperbolic praise is the point of the piece:

Senior administration officials describe her as one of the most astute members of the national security team, some in hyperbolic terms. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, in a recent interview, declared himself as "head over heels for her," which doesn't happen often. White House terrorism adviser John O. Brennan hails her as "passionate" and "formidable."

How Napolitano, 52, won over hard-to-please heavyweights while managing the most unwieldy department in Washington is a testament to her relentless persona. The tough and stocky former prosecutor once climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and even delivered her speech at the 2000 Democratic convention three weeks after a mastectomy.

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd really wants a national security system that looks really nice and has lots of fancy bells and whistles, but is, beneath the shiny exterior, quite mediocre and extremely expensive.

Dowd implied as much when she asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in a New Years Eve interview, "Why is it so hard for those charged with keeping us safe to be as imaginative and innovative as filmmakers like James Cameron?"

Yes, Cameron is so imaginative that he managed to spend $400 million on what amounts to a visually dazzling remake of Disney's Pocahontas (see plot summary below the fold - h/t Big Hollywood).

Sometimes being such fans of President Obama makes liberal media types tie themselves into knots.  As I documented earlier today, the New York Times went to great lengths to insist America's rising debt is not the administration's fault.

MSNBC ranter Keith Olbermann decided to try his hand at the absurd apologetics Tuesday by concocting a wild vision of intelligence officials who care nothing about the country's safety, and only about their bureaucratic "turf."

According to Olbermann, this quasi-conspiracy theory is a possible explanation for how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was able to board a plane bound for Detroit. (video and transcript below the fold - h/t Hot Air's Allahpundit).

An airplane didn’t explode over Detroit because the Islamic jihadi was incompetent. But Washington Post columnist David Broder decided he would start the New Year by making a fool of himself. He suggested on Friday that the incident showed Janet Napolitano’s excellence. The headline read "Napolitano’s ‘no drama’ competence shows her potential."

Does Broder think he’s writing for The Onion?

Most Americans got their first "prolonged look" at Napolitano in the aftermath of the bumbled terrorist attack, he wrote. That’s true enough. But then she went on the Sunday shows and bizarrely claimed "The system worked," which any truly skeptical journalist would see as embarrassing spin. But it was Broder who followed with embarrassing spin:

Next time Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano needs a media flack/coat catcher, I know just the right person.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is lashing out at critics who took Napolitano to task for claiming "the system worked" in response to a terrorist with explosives boarding Northwest Flight 253 and nearly bringing down the plane on Christmas.

In the lead segment on her show Dec. 29 (click here for audio), Maddow told viewers of a "dramatic, unexpected appearance" by Obama that day, breaking from his vacation in Hawaii to make an "unscheduled statement to the press."

So, will Janet and company learn from their "one mistake," or will it be repeated until they do? I wish I knew.

 

NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd surprised Laura Ingraham on her radio show December 14 when she asked him which Cabinet official would leave next. He said it could be Tim Geithner, or it could be Janet Napolitano — so she can take the next vacancy on the Supreme Court!

That idea might have fizzled in the last few days, although Todd insisted Obama's "a big fan of hers." Here's how the conversation unfolded:  

TODD: The other one I would bet on is Janet Napolitano –

INGRAHAM (with sarcasm): She’s been effective.

TODD: And not a negative. On a – at the next Supreme Court opening, I betcha she gets the call.

INGRAHAM: (Pause, then a low voice) Oh wait a sec. I just lost my breath. What did you say?

TODD: Sorry. I know. Sorry. I’m just sayin’ --

INGRAHAM: Janet Napolitano?

TODD: You asked me to bet. You asked me to bet. I would say this. She’ll get the next opening.

INGRAHAM (amazed): Why?

Not a surprise, but still noteworthy: a heavy MSM hitter is now strongly suggesting that, post-NWA 253, a senior Obama admin official will be walking the plank.

Say what we will of her, but Andrea Mitchell has her sources.  So when the NBC correspondent declared on Morning Joe today that she suspects "somebody is either going to be resigning or forced to resign," we can pretty much take it to the [Federal Reserve?] bank.

Like a football coach trying to explain away the trouncing his team just took by building up the opponent, Janet Napolitano is seeking to diminish the Obama administration's NWA 253 failure by exaggerating the cunning of the Christmas Day plot.

The hapless Homeland Security head has a 679-word piece in today's USA Today basically promising to do better.  She begins with this line [emphasis added]:

Friday's attempted terrorist attack against Northwest Flight 253 near Detroit is a powerful illustration that terrorists will go to great lengths to try to defeat the security measures that have been put in place since September 11, 2001.

"Great lengths?" Really?  You buy a plane ticket for a kid, stick a few ounces of explosives in his nappies, then hope he'll make it onboard and remember which end to light.  

The outbreak of conservative anger over Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's mysterious declaration on CNN that "the system worked" when a terror attack almost succeeded on a Northwest Airlines flight is stoking a revisitation of her odd statement to a German magazine in March that "man-caused disaster" is a better term than "terrorism."

If you wondered which media outlets covered that gaffe last spring, the answer is: Most didn't. Here's the zero-mention list: ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, MSNBC (for the shows in the Nexis database). Even newspapers and news magazines skipped it: Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the AP wire were zeroes.

Fox News aggressively reported it. CNN mentioned it several times. The New York Times mentioned it three times. USA Today had one mention -- in a Jonah Goldberg column.

It took a tough question from Matt Lauer, but after having laughably claimed that "the system worked," DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has now conceded the obvious: that the security system that permitted Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to board NWA 253 with explosives "failed miserably."

On Today and in other interviews this morning, Napolitano attempted to use her own ignorance as a shield.  Each time she was hit with a hard question, her response was to the effect "yeah, we're wondering about that ourselves."  She also continued to point the finger back at George Bush, repeatedly mentioning that the security procedures in place were formulated under the Bush administration.  Whatever happened to "change you can believe in"?

But back to Today, where Lauer laudably asked Napolitano the necessary question: how could she possibly have claimed, as she did yesterday, that the "system worked"?

Interview with Chicago Fire Chief Alden Brown two days after the Great Chicago Fire:

ALDEN BROWN: One thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked. Everybody played an important role here: the local citizens took appropriate action.  Within literally an hour to 90 minutes of the incident occurring, all 128 towns and villages in the Chicago area had been notified to take some special measures in light of what had occurred in Chicago.  We instituted new measures on the ground, both in central Chicago and at Mrs. O'Leary's barn, where the fire originated. So the whole process of making sure that we respond properly, correctly and effectively went very smoothly . . . We have no suggestion that Mrs. O'Leary's cow was improperly inspected, but we want to go through and see.

REPORTER: But if Mrs. O'Leary's cow was properly inspected and yet she started the fire anyway, it doesn't feel that safe.

BROWN: Well, it should.  This was one cow of literally thousands of cows in Chicago.  And she was stopped before any more damage could be done.

OK, to be entirely accurate, that was not a statement by the Chicago Fire Chief of 1871. It was a very close paraphrasing of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's interview with Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union this morning [see video].

New York Times Magazine critic Deborah Solomon conducted an all-over-the-map interview with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, alternating between conservative "terrorism," lesbianism and Girl Scout cookies. At one point she wondered, "But do you think certain radio and television hosts are feeding intolerance and even terrorism?"

Solomon’s interview, which will appear in the August 16 print edition of the Times, also included an attack on Glenn Beck of Fox News. After repeating the host’s contention that President Obama "has a deep-seated hatred for white people," the journalist derided, "Do you think a statement like that incites hate crimes?"

Should there be a background check for national reporters?  

One wonders.  On June 21, CNN’s Anderson Cooper aired a special report for CBS’ “60 Minutes.”  In this report, Cooper repeated the tired, discredited, blatantly incorrect idea that 90% of Mexican drug cartels’ arms supply comes from the United States.  In addition, Cooper showed some interesting B-roll footage of seized weapon, some of which clearly cannot be bought on the civilian market.

Initially, one might note the M16A1, M16A2, M4, and what appears to be a standard NATO-issue M60.

Remember when NewsBusters told you about CNN ignoring a report on left-wing extremism?  Perhaps you have heard a reference to Timothy McVeigh recently, as an example of right-wing extremism?  Well, as it turns out, McVeigh isn’t the only extremist to bomb a building.

Please welcome Daniel Andreas San Diego (shown at right in photos via FBI.gov) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Most Wanted Terrorists list – notably, the only domestic terrorist on that list.  San Diego is wanted by the FBI for “his alleged involvement in the bombing of two office buildings in the San Francisco, California, area.”  Apparently, San Diego is suspected of being involved with two explosions at the Chiron Corporation in Emeryville – a corporation which the FBI says has had business ties to Huntingdon Life Sciences.  If you’ve read the report on left-wing extremism, that company is a top priority for left-wing extremists.

But the fun doesn’t stop there.

How much damage have these groups caused?  According to the FBI’s press release: