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Nodding, Nanny Napolitano

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, our homeland security nanny who increasingly seems to have only a nodding acquaintance with her job and is quickly gaining on VP Joe Biden in the verbal gaffe department, recently released a so-called "intelligence assessment" report, which was based on policy and opinion rather than citing supportive studies or fact-based intelligence trends. Even more troubling, this "report" was never meant to become known to the public, much less to the people it targeted. It was released to law enforcement agencies only. Therefore, it was actually an attempt by a powerful agency of our government to act in secret, identify or "target" a sector of our population by inference, opinion and policy differences rather than any actual facts, and to have American citizens so identified "investigated" and "reported." But the so-called "intelligence assessment report" was somehow "leaked" and picked up by news media who made it public.

This report profiled and targeted veterans, Americans opposed to the social policies of President Obama, and those who oppose abortion, same sex marriages, restrictions on firearms ownership, and one-world government -- as "right-wing extremists" and "potential domestic terrorists."

Even worse, Napolitano called on state and local law enforcement agencies across the country to investigate and report on these so-called "right-wing extremists."

Well, up until recently, I thought of myself as a more-or-less friendly neighbor and a pretty good citizen, father, grandfather and friend. I was and am a conservative and an unashamedly proud American, but I didn't realize before this "report" that I might also be considered a "right-wing extremist."

Let's see, what would make me think that Secretary Napolitano would think I am a "right-wing extremist"? (1) I am a 26-year military veteran. Worse than that, I am a Vietnam veteran. And a disabled veteran to boot. Wow, look out! (2) I actually am opposed to many of Obama's social policies and think he and a Democratic Congress are pushing this country to the left as far and as fast as they can, using the current economic crisis as rationale (read: "cover" or "distraction") -- an economic crisis, by the way, clearly traceable back to at least 2001 and Democrats in Congress for refusing to regulate the GSE's (Government Sponsored Entities) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac whose collapse started the fall of the financial house of cards. And (3) I am opposed to: (a) abortion, except for cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother's physical health, (b) same sex marriages but not civil unions, (c) any restrictions on Second Amendment rights to firearms ownership or use, and (d) one-world government, also known as "globalization," and advanced by such things as LOST (the Law of the Sea Treaty), the Kyoto Accords and other world-wide measures, often designed to inhibit developed nations' capabilities, co-opt their sovereignty and create some ideologically and idealistically utopian, world-wide "level playing field" in which nations yield their own vital self-interests to cooperate and compromise for the "betterment of all." (Of course, we should just wait for Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and others, to include any smart sovereign nation, really, to actually do that. Wait, but don't hold your breath.)

But, I digress. The point of this article is to "out" myself, I guess, and admit to my friends and neighbors that, at least according to Nodding, Nanny Napolitano, I must be a right-wing extremist -- and I live just down the street or across town from you and, for Madame Secretary, I live within 20 miles of Washington, DC. So, I guess you should all be afraid -- be very afraid. Not of me, but of your increasingly out-of-control, out-of-touch and inept government. After all, any government big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take all you have, or words to that effect by one Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Remember him? He seemed to know about Big Brother long before Orwell and 1984. I wonder if he would have been thought of, say, by the British and perhaps some of his own fellow Americans, as an extremist, too? Just a thought.
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DHS Secretary Napolitano, the Acrobat

[Editorial note: This article was initially submitted on 3/23/09 to Letters to the Editor, Washington Times, but, so far as I can determine, was not published.]
 
Instead of referring to threats from terrorists, former Arizona governor and now President Obama's Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is referring in her speeches to “man-caused disasters.” Huh? What?

Now, the times I've seen Secretary Napolitano on TV, she looked like a serious person with a somewhat impressive presence. You might even say she looks like someone with some gravitas. She did not look like a circus acrobat. But, get the contortion she tried to pull off below.

When asked by a reporter if her avoidance of the term terrorism means that Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer poses a threat to our country, Napolitano replied, "Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word ‘terrorism,’ I referred to ‘man-caused’ disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.”

Perhaps only a nuance? A nuance? I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of the Obama Administration trying to show how smart they all are because they can "nuance," indicating that only they are intellectual enough to fully understand the subtle shadings of meaning, blah, blah, blah. You can intellectually "nuance" yourself into inaction if you're not careful and bury yourself so deep in the weeds that you can't even see the forest or the trees. And "man-caused disasters"? What kind of verbal avoidance and contortionism is that? The author Ronald Kessler has correctly noted: "By this logic, the FBI should refer to serial killers and serial rapists as 'man-caused afflictions.' After all, we do not want to create fear about serial killers."

Now, remember also that Napolitano, in her first appearance at Congressional committee confirmation hearings, so avoided using the words "terrorist" or "terrorism" that she was finally asked about it. This was after her opening statement of about 20 minutes in which she avoided mentioning any kind of foreign threat and focused almost exclusively on Homeland Security's responsibilities for domestic disaster relief.

And remember also that, with even some in the mainstream media recently reporting on increasing violence, killings and kidnappings along our southern border with Mexico, the only "field trip" I've heard reported that our new Secretary of Homeland Security has taken so far was to count FEMA trailers somewhere, not inspecting our as-yet-still-unfinished border fence or directly coordinating with and being informed by our (her) border patrol agents. When asked about the growing trouble along our southern border, Napolitano has basically only said that we have contingency plans we can use if and when necessary. Well, lady, there are people, American citizens, in Texas, Arizona and southern California, as well as some major cities in other parts of the country, who might say "if and when" has already arrived, so what are those "plans," exactly?

I think Madame Secretary's priorities are either backwards or at least insufficiently "balanced." And isn't "balance" also "nuance"? I mean, you need good balance to be a good acrobat, don't you?
 
Addendum: To be fair, since I originally wrote this article, the DHS Secretary has recently ordered some additional personnel and equipment to our southern border and has now, finally, visited at least part of the border area on her way to meetings in Mexico. While these most recent actions are encouraging, I still question her understanding of the scope of the threat to our national security currently represented along our all-too-porous southern border, as well as her, and President Obama's, intentions in enforcing existing immigration laws and dealing with the issue of illegal immigration generally. Recent indications on these latter issues are not encouraging, as I will discuss in an upcoming article.
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