French Rule: The Germanwings 9525 Investigation

Okay, so props to the French prosecutor who didn’t spoon-feed information to us for weeks as is generally done in investigations following mysterious plane crashes affecting U.S. carriers. Felt sorry for the man – it’s a dismal, sad, sorry business.  He acquitted himself with a nobility, a toughness,  and an admirable truthfulness through these difficult moments in a difficult time.

Among many striking moments during the now famous press conference was when the chief prosecutor, Monsieur Brice Robin, said that the victims of the terror, including the families, deserve to know the truth as soon as possible. This is very true. This is also very different from what we Americans have become accustomed to. The thinking in Washington these days is that we must be guided like children toward what can at best be described as well-meaning fantasies. If Germanwings 9525 had been downed in the Rockies, I am quite sure Americans would not yet know the plane was intentionally downed. The possibilities and various scenarios would be endlessly investigated with never a conclusion, nor an honest public statements.

There is a great tendency of the current administration in Washington to deny what is self-evident. It is a kind of phony, deceitful posturing that vaunts its supposed “concern” for victims of terrorism. The popular meme that the Obama administration cannot utter the words “Islamic terrorism” is only one thing. The same thinking “protects” us from seeing photos of the dead Osama bin Laden.

Certainly, there will be those who do not wish to see such photos but there are plenty like myself who would find it somehow healing, particularly those who most directly suffered the consequences of the 9-11 attacks.  The same sort of thinking applies to other recent aspects of government. Think of the health care law, passed by an unusual procedure without a public referendum. Think of the current nuke talks with the Iranians, about which nothing is known except that it is an obviously bad deal which will precipitate and arms race in the Middle East. This cavalier government-knows-all attitude is contagious, afflicting New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Assembly who passed the inaptly named “Safe Act” in the dead of night and without public debate.  The list is long of incidents where government potentates diminished or crushed the right of the people to know what is necessary to know if the republic is to function effectively.

So much for philosophical meanderings. The world right now is all the wiser for the honest candor of the French prosecutor who made no attempt to hide the bad news.  The hunt now settles on the background of 28 year old Andreas Lubitz, who defeated the German system and managed to get himself hired as a pilot for Germanwings  so that he could murder 150 people.  

Germanwings 9525 Crash : What's That Smell?

UPDATE:  Awaiting a news conference regarding Germanwings 9525 and my prediction will be NO NEWS. Or at least NO NEW NEWS. We will be given the same reassurances to the effect that "no connection to terrorism is known at this point."  The qualifying "at this point" statement is future cover, of course. But such statements were made even hours after the crash and before the one black box was recovered. Yes, governments have taken to reassuring us instead of telling the truth. Even though we have seen beheadings, people jumping out of skyscrapers instead of being incinerated, tortures, hangings, stonings, and other barbarism, the U.S. government still spoon-feeds us a steady diet of carefully structured gibberish. 

It may very well be that 9525 wasn't taken down by terrorists, but it may very well be that it wasn't down due to pilot error, mechanical failure, or any of the other rationalizations that are freely dispersed while the possibility of terrorism is routinely dismissed. The message is: "Just relax. Everything in fine. Let your government do your worrying for you."


Among the many jagged events surrounding the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, the worst is how the media has picked  up on a statement by a White House NSA spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan that “There is no indication of a nexus to terrorism at this time."

Of course, CNN and Fox News made the statement part of their lengthy broadcasts on the crash, usually tacking it onto the tail end or front end—with one egregious mistake. Neither media outlet mentioned the “at this time” phrase.  Leaving me to wonder how the White House could have ruled out terrorism in what seemed a blanket statement.

But now you can envision Bernadette responding to a news reporter question: “Do you think the crash could have been the result of terrorism?”  So of course, you respond with the truth—that there are no indications of terrorism AT THIS TIME.

         

        

Governments lie, sometimes with good intentions, but always with terrible outcomes.  At this juncture in the national psyche, the U.S. government in particular wants to project an attitude of calm, especially in the wake of the magically disappeared MH370 of  Malaysia. People should pound on the involved governments for answers. There are numerous unexplained or unsatisfactorily explained air crashes over the years. This latest crash smells of terror.        

·       There are conflicting versions as to whether the old plane (activated in 1990) had mechanical problems in the week and hours before it took off from Barcelona.

·       Whatever happened to the plane occurred in the safest part of the flight, i.e., at the cruising speed of 38,000 feet.  Most air disasters occur at takeoff or landing.

·       Were the pilots trained to hand fly the plane should its computers be knocked out by…say…some electronic interruption? Reports say they weren’t.

·       Indications are that the plane began a  level descent from 38,000 to the crash in eight minutes. There was no mayday or communication with air traffic controllers. The plane didn’t go into a flat spin or any other erratic pattern, say reports.

·        There are plenty of reasons and actual terror attacks indicating that terrorists are looking for soft targets now.

·       One of the black boxes has already been recovered. You can be sure someone has already listened to it and already has a great deal of information which leaves all news reports, including this one, high and dry.

        

Dr. Neulander: My daughter saw me carry injured wife - ePOST-STANDARD

Dr. Neulander: My daughter saw me carry injured wife - ePOST-STANDARD

Hillary Clinton Email Malfunction

Everyone’s busy. Hillary Clinton and Democrats all over the country are counting on it. They’re hoping that the controversy that brews strong today will evaporate as the campaign season develops. But right now, Hillary is facing increasing pressure from people in her own party to face the music…err, face the kilobytes of her email messages.  Hillary Clinton didn’t have it on her schedule for today but has since adjusted her schedule mainly due to the demands of Senator Dianne Feinstein who publicly assailed her for disregarding Obama administration rules and regulations regarding ‘open government.’ Here are some questions to ask when Hillary makes her excuses today:

Was there only one email server?  Where was it placed? In Hillary’s private house or in an office?  If it was in an office, who provided security for it?  Or wasn’t security provided at all? 

What company hosted the email server?  Were its employees properly vetted?  Was there an Edward Snowden among them?  Are there other Snowdens out there who hacked into the server?  Were you aware that they could have done so?

What levels of security were on the server(s)?  Could the emails be archived right now on ISIS computers? Did you not know, Hillary, that you were in violation of Obama administration directives?  Did you not know that an American Ambassador, an employee of your state department, had been fired for doing the same thing you were doing during your tenure as Secretary of State?

Did you know there was no specific legal penalty for violating FOIA rules and calculated that you could brazen it out with any stickiness which resulted from keeping your emails located on a private server located place unknown?

Did you ever receive warning from anyone in the administration chain that you were violating federal laws (though without legal penalty)?

Will you turn over your server(s) to the FBI and to Congressional investigators? 

Where are the emails regarding Benghazi?  Are there any emails about Benghazi that cannot be released?  How many? 

 Actually, the number of questions that Hillary’s disregard of a citizen’s right to know is endless. Someone with such a reckless disregard for American democracy should not follow upon a presidency which allowed it.   

47 American Patriots in Congress Send a Message to Iran

Iran wants to reestablish the Persian Empire and has already expanded its influence into four countries, including Iraq, where the U.S. expended its best human resources. The best way for it to magnify its power is to become a nuclear power. In the past, Iran has lied, cheated, threatened neighbors in the region, and ordered its troops into positions where they killed American troops.

 The Obama administration, with its feckless foreign policy failures, is anxious to put points on the board with a nuclear agreement that benefits Iran and contains nothing in the way of security for the west nor for its Arab neighbors. Essentially, the Obama ‘negotiations’ are an advertising campaign with a product that has a ‘sell-by-date’ of ten years. 

         The ten year period mentioned in regard to the talks fits well with the Koranic dictum that agreements with ‘infidels’ that treaties must be no longer than ten years.  The Koran says such agreements can be abrogated after ten years. The Obama administration will be long gone by then.  Iran will be a nuclear power. There will be an arms race with its Arab neighbors. If there’s anyone left in the region to sweep up the pieces of a nuclear disaster, they will look back on this bad deal negotiated by John Kerry and Barack Obama and wonder how an American president could have betrayed the responsibilities of his office. 

Forty seven Senate Republicans sent a letter to the ayatollahs with the purpose of derailing a bad deal which will hand Iran a major victory with a stroke of Obama’s fountain pen. This is a patriotic effort which must be applauded. The American people are tired of finding out what’s in an agreement only after it’s passed, especially when the agreement is a ten-year nuclear time bomb with a sell-by date. President Obama has consistently shown himself willing to accommodate America’s enemies against our better interests and security.  The president wants to count Congress out of the picture, and has mounted a blistering attack on the senators who are unwilling to gamble on our lives and our freedoms. If only President Obama could apply such zeal to his dealings with Iran!

The mullahs do not represent the Iranian people. They took power in a 1979 Islamic revolution, killed, kidnapped, or imprisoned anyone who stood in its way. They suppressed the Iranian people during the 2009 Green Revolution for democracy while President Obama, who had just taken office, found this entirely acceptable.  That’s who and what we’re dealing with. At least there are 47 courageous senators who know that and will not forget it. 

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez Targeted by Obama Justice Department

In January 2013, I wrote a blog article about New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez answering charges of a woman who claimed to have had sex with him while she was a minor. The report was carried in several newspapers, including the Newark Star Ledger where the original reports may be found in the archives.

The allegations against Menendez at that time also referred to the senator's association with Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist who the senator has called a friend and political supporter.  At the time, Menendez said the accusations of corruption were raised by the "right wing political machine."  He may want to re-think that one in light of the fact that Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder authorized critical prosecution stemming from those old allegations.

All of whatever happened with Senator Menendez was okay with the Obama administration for nearly three years.  What changed is that Senator Menendez took political positions that ran counter to Obama administration's foreign policies.

He spoke out vehemently in opposition to President Obama's recent reestablishment of relations with the Castro brothers corrupt totalitarian regime in Cuba.

He spoke out strongly in favor of Israel and opposed the dangerous nuclear deal John Kerry and the Obama administration are trying to foist on the American people.

I give Menendez credit. He showed considerable courage in taking those positions.  This comes  at a time when Obama is misusing all the tools and tricks of government bureaucracies to bypass legislators, and apparently, to punish anyone opposed to its policies.

Make no mistake about it, Menendez committed no crimes until he dared disagree with President Obama and the appeasment policies of key figures in the administration.  Now the full force of the Obama administration is crashing down on him with both feet for what have always been fuzzy allegations. 

 It's all done with a wink and a nod, folks. Another dog and pony show. Would it were that the Justice Department would be worthy of its name by investigating Hillary Clinton's Benghazi failings, and for illegally keeping all her email correspondence on a server at her private home. 

Consider too that, with Hillary Clinton ready to announce her candidacy for president, her husband was also mentioned as one of the frequent guests of the billionaire Melgen.  Oh, it's a dark and murky world the Democrats have created.  What tangled webs we weave...and so forth.

Peggy Noonan Trashes Jeb Bush – in favor of what?

Peggy Noonan has a way with words. In a Wall Street Journal editorial Sunday, Feb. 28, she used her way with words to short-circuit the presidential campaign of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.  Noonan earned her reputation working as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan. Reagan is regarded by many as the patron saint of conservatives though he was a practical man who likely would be considered an “establishment moderate” in today’s terms.

People who style themselves ‘conservatives’ these days are practicing a kind of ideological holier-than-thou religion. Holding themselves out as representatives of the “true cross” and getting everyone to buy into it is a primary objective. Losing presidential elections is the secondary one.  It’s like a game of pin the donkey, everyone going around blindfolded, trying to find the real conservative.

Along with this ultra obsession comes an inability to distinguish real conservativism from the faux celebrity chic kind espoused by celebrity chic copycat conservatives like Laura Ingraham and other blind followers of brand.

Noonan’s column ignores the sage advice of long-time authentic conservatives in the tradition of William Buckley – I’m referring to George Will  and Charles Krauthammer, both of whom are weary of ‘conservative’ stunt *ucking in Congress.

Both of these on Fox News panel were disgusted with the 52 Republicans who voted with 172 Democrats to kill the extension of funding for Homeland Security after it had passed the Senate. This is not the way to stop King Obama’s regal edict on immigration. Nor does this kind of stunt show a commitment to principles. What it does show is an attachment to show trials, failed governance, and losing. The presumption is that the American people are too stupid to think for themselves, the same thing liberal and left-wing bureaucrats of the Obama administration think about us.