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On this site, we’ve detailed several of what surely must be dry run terrorist attacks . . . in , (see also ), and now Houston.
Our do-nothing response to these dry-runners shows, in spades, that we are NOT serious about fighting terrorism. Not a single thing has happened to any of the malefactors involved, all Muslims. The latest one, in Houston, is a joke. Only the joke is on us. So it isn’t funny.
Reader Phil and several Federal Air Marshals alert me to this alarming story from the Houston Chronicle, with the headline that says it all:

Brainless FBI Lets 2nd Shoe Bomber Go

HPD [Houston Police Dept.], airport security at odds over incident: Man allowed to board aircraft appeared to have bomb components
. . . [A] confidential TSA report obtained by the Houston Chronicle details a dispute between screeners and a police officer on duty at the airport.
The report states that a man with a Middle Eastern name and a ticket for a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta shook his head when screeners asked if he had a laptop computer in his baggage, but an X-ray machine operator detected a laptop.
A search of the man’s baggage revealed a clock with a 9-volt battery taped to it and a copy of the Quran, the report said. A screener examined the man’s shoes and determined that the “entire soles of both shoes were gutted out.”
No explosive material was detected, the report states. A police officer was summoned and questioned the man, examined his identification, shoes and the clock, then cleared him for travel, according to the report.
A TSA screener disagreed with the officer, saying “the shoes had been tampered with and there were all the components of (a bomb) except the explosive itself,” the report says.

And here’s the rub. The FBI cleared the man to fly. Cleared him? Cleared him?! The guy lies to TSA screeners about his laptop, his shoes have been tampered with and have bomb components, and he has a Koran and a 9-volt battery attached to a clock (timing device, hello . . .?). Sound to you like a guy who should be “cleared?”
Then, there is the bickering between dueling law enforcement authorities. Sound familiar (as in pre-9/11 bickering between the FBI and CIA)?

Houston police and the federal Transportation Security Administration disagree over who is responsible for allowing a man with what appeared to be bomb components board an aircraft at Hobby Airport last week.
Although the FBI eventually cleared the man of wrongdoing, police officials have transferred the officer involved and are investigating the incident while insisting that the TSA, not police, has the authority to keep a suspicious person from boarding a flight.

Frankly, if the TSA was not going to clear this man for travel, why did the Houston PD feel the need to allow him to fly? I mean, why do we have the TSA, if the HPD are now expert airport screeners?
Says reader Phil:

Middle eastern man with hollwed out shoes and bomb components minus the actual explosives was not arrested!?!?!

EXACTLY. But don’t worry the FBI and Houston PD felt the guy was A-OK. No probable cause at all. No biggie that he lied to federal law enforcement officials. Incredible:
FBI Special Agent Stephen Emmett in Atlanta said agents there investigated the passenger.

“It was looked at and deemed a non-event,” Emmett said, declining to give further details.
Meanwhile the officer involved in the dispute, J.O. Reece, has been transferred to a desk job, “the same place they send officers who are relieved of duty,” said Chad Hoffman, attorney for the Houston Police Officers Union.
Hoffman said Reece doesn’t understand why he was transferred “when it seems clear from the onset of the investigation that he didn’t have probable cause to detain anybody and that his actions were consistent with the law and HPD policy.”

A new shoe-bomber and they let the dude go. Don’t you feel safe? Federal Bureau of non-Investigation.

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Assem Hammoud, the ringleader of the Al-Qaeda plot to bomb several New York City tunnels and murder thousands of commuters, had strong ties to Detroit. And to Hezbollah.
Several of Hammoud’s relatives in Detroit–most of whom share his surname–have been indicted in a series of Hezbollah schemes, including money laundering, cigarette smuggling, black marketeering, and a series of other illegal activities all aimed at funding Hezbollah. Hammouds convicted in cigarette smuggling include Mohamad and Chawki Hammoud (see here, also), Bassem Hammoud, and others–all of them from the Detroit Hezbollah Hammoud syndicate.
Reportedly, Assem Hammoud had contact with some of his Detroit relatives over the years and more recently when he was in Canada, engaged in taqiyah (deception of Infidels) with his Canadian lovelies (note the Islam-prohibited alcohol in the pic), just like the Al-Qaeda training manual recommends. He had a Canadian girlfriend, holds a Canadian passport, and just “loves life and fun,” according to his mother. Sure, he does.

Al-Qaeda/Hezbollah Plotter Against America Assem Hammoud
(Pictured w/ Easily Duped Canadian Girlfriends at Right)
More might have been learned about Hammoud, his Al-Qaeda plot and its connection with his Hezbollah relatives in Detroit, were it not for the incompetence of U.S. Attorney a/k/a “Abu Porno,” President Bush’s outrageous nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals. Murphy and his staff sat on an indictment of several Hammouds and their Hezbollah pot FOR TWO YEARS! after the indictment was brought, enabling most of the Hammouds to flee the country back to Lebanon, flight that Murphy deliberately did nothing to prevent.
Hammoud, a Shia Muslim and member of Al-Qaeda, was also active in Hezbollah. This is important because it gives lie to the long-held misguided convention of FBI and CIA officials that Shi’ite Hezbollah and Sunni Al-Qaeda are at odds and don’t work together. In fact, they have and they do, as . And this operation being planned for New York tunnels was also likely a joint Qaeda/Hezbollah plot, giving lie to claims from Hezbollah supporters like U.S. Congressman a/k/a “Jihad Darrell” that Hezbollah is not a “global” terrorist group. It is and is a component of the Al-Qaeda network.
Among many other terrorist activities, Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda worked together in:
* the Khobar Towers bombing;
* training insurgent terrorists in Iraq;
* production of IED explosives used by terrorists in Iraq.
It is also significant that Assem Hammoud trained at Ein El-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon. That is a Sunni camp, more evidence that Sunnis and Shi’ites are working in unison against the common enemy–us.
We might have been able to learn much more about Al-Qaeda’s and Hezbollah’s intertwinement . . . if U.S. Attorney hadn’t wantonly let Assem Hammoud’s Hezbollah relatives flee the country over two years. Now, he’s being rewarded with a spot on one of the highest courts in the land for it.
So what was that President Bush was saying about how “you’re either on our side or the terrorists’ side?!”

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When Domino’s Pizza founder and billionaire Tom Monaghan set up Ave Maria School of Law, he claimed it was because all other Catholic law schools were liberal, and he wanted a conservative one.
So, given that, what the heck is conservative about helping illegal aliens? That’s the latest project of Ave Maria School of Law, which makes it . . . just like all the other liberal Catholic law schools. Question for our many conservative Catholic readers who are against illegal immigration: Is there any Catholic belief whatsoever that requires aiding and abetting illegal aliens?
More from “People Making News” in today’s Detroit Free Press:

Bridgette Carr, an assistant clinical professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law, was named director of the law school’s asylum and immigrant rights law clinic.

These Parties Aid & Abet . . .

(Tom Monaghan)
The Illegal Alien Invasion of America
Here’s more from the June 20th Detroit Spews:

The Asylum and Immigrant Rights Law Clinic at Ave Maria School of Law has named Bridgette Carr director. Carr, an assistant clinical professor of law, will now oversee the clinic, established in 2004 to provide pro bono services to immigrants in search of asylum and legal services.

Teaching those little kiddie lawyers-to-be how to help those illegal aliens. Because, G-d knows, there aren’t enough immigration attorneys, right?
The Ave Maria School of Law website is cute, too. It calls illegal aliens and their children not “illegal,” but the typical liberal “undocumented.” We note that Ave Maria provides lawyers to the children of illegal immigrants, so they can fight deportation. Gee, that’s the . Hardly conservative. And definitely NOT good for America.
It’s bad enough that Tom Monaghan and his paid stooge, Joe Cella, keep sticking their fingers into the Bush judicial nomination pie and mucking it up with outrageously horrid nominations like that of porn-addict, terror-sympathizer a/k/a Abu Porno. Now, he’s helping illegal aliens with profits from pizza you bought, enabling him to sell the company for gazillions.
Thanks, Tom Monaghan, for helping the invasion and ultimate destruction of our country.
Oh, and by the way, even though he long ago sold Domino’s, Monaghan still has an office at the company and maintains many strong ties and connections with it. He even owns much of the property utilized by and surrounding Domino’s Ann Arbor, Michigan headquarters. Don’t buy Domino’s. We can’t afford to finance more illegal aliens working the system.
Avoid the Noid. His name is Tom Monaghan. And his pizza is Domino’s (a/k/a the cardboard-flavored pizza).

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I never thought the next bullet might come from a Palestinian.

–Majdi Arabeed, owner of Al-Hurriya, Palestinian radio station in Gaza
You can always count on Islamo-fascists to go after each other. This time, it’s HAMAS issuing death and dismemberment threats against Palestinian media outlets. Which begs the question: Why does the world expect any peace with them if they can’t even get along with each other?
And there’s another question that should be asked: Where is the Mainstream Media (with the exception of USA Today) in exposing HAMAS’ death threats to Palestinian “journalists”? You know–the same Mainstream Media, which constantly attacks Israel.

You’d think they’d feel some sort of solidarity with their precious Palestinian “journalists.” But you’d be wrong. Their respect and awe of HAMAS and Islamofascism is greater than their phony devotion to freedom of the press. We exposed this, previously, when a Hezbollah-inspired Assad was published in a Lebanese newspaper. No outcry from the media on that either. Not a peep.
More details on HAMAS vs. the hardly-heroic Palestinian media (Note that Israel never did such things to these Palestinians):

In 20 years in journalism, Majdi Arabeed says, his only weapon was his mouth. “Now I have a gun,” he says, reaching behind his chair and dropping an AK-47 rifle on his desk.

[DS: Note he never needed a weapon when the Israelis were in control and allowed him to engage in his “journalism.”]

Arabeed, owner and editor of the Gaza radio station al-Hurriya, says he has received phone and e-mail death threats from people claiming to be from Hamas, the militant group that now controls the Palestinian government. He suspended the station’s news broadcasts in May, armed himself and hired two bulky bodyguards. News broadcasts have resumed on a limited basis, but Arabeed remains wary. . . .
Intimidation tactics
Arabeed and other Palestinian journalists say Hamas is trying to control news coverage.
Intimidation tactics compelled some media outlets, such as al-Hurriya, to suspend news coverage. Frightened columnists put down their pens. Hazem Abu Shanab, a communications lecturer at Gaza’s Al Azhar University, stopped writing his column for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and other newspapers.
Those tactics include:
* Death threats to journalists or outlets perceived as biased against Hamas, according to Arabeed and Reporters Without Borders, an advocacy group for journalists.
* Raids on radio and TV stations, including the sacking of Palestine TV’s bureau in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis by gunmen claiming to be from Hamas.
* Sharp public criticism from Hamas officials.
The Palestinian media do not have a tradition of independence. Before the Palestinian Authority was established in 1994, Palestinian news outlets were subject to Israeli censorship. When Palestinian – and Fatah – leader Yasser Arafat returned from exile in 1994, after the Oslo peace accords with Israel, he used government-run outlets such as Palestine TV to mold coverage. He jailed dozens of journalists and dissidents who criticized his rule or the accords with Israel. Arafat died in 2004.
For more than a decade, Palestinian media outlets were the domain of Fatah, says Basem Ezbidi, a political science professor at Birzeit University in the West Bank. . . .
Up to 70 death threats a day
Dozens of Palestinian journalists, primarily in Gaza, have been threatened . . . .
Four of Arabeed’s 32 staff members quit after receiving threats by phone or e-mail, he says. As many as 70 death threats a day filled Arabeed’s own voice mail. So in early May, he directed his staff to suspend its news coverage. . . .
By June 1, al-Hurriya’s news reports were back on air, but with a significant change: It now omits any reference to Hamas. For example, if the Hamas government issues a decree or meets with foreign officials, al-Hurriya will not report about it. The station’s workers believe they are less likely to anger Hamas if they don’t report on it. . . .
“I never thought the next bullet might come from a Palestinian,” he says in his cramped office. . . .
A skeptical public
Muhammad Dahody, director-general of Palestine TV, says his phone began ringing after Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused the station of fomenting civil war in an interview May 22 with the Qatar-based Arabic satellite network Al-Jazeera.
Dahody says he received 20 calls a day from Hamas militants threatening to dismember him if he didn’t change the station’s allegedly biased reporting. After his wife heard a sermon fulminating against him on the radio last week, he changed his phone number.
On June 4, militants [DS: That means terrorists.] ransacked the station’s bureau in Khan Yunis.
Palestine TV is a branch of the Information Ministry – which is now run by Hamas. Complaints about the death threats to Dahody’s superiors at the ministry were met with advice that he should be more favorable to Hamas, he says. He says he appealed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is also Fatah’s leader, and was told just to keep his head down. . . .
There “is no such thing as an independent Palestinian media outlet.”

Welcome to elections, democracy, and free press in the Islamic Mid-East–the focal point of President Bush’s Mid-East foreign policy.

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Crocodile tears running down our faces today, as we hear the news that HRH Barbra Streisand, Queen of Nostrils just can’t sell tickets to her latest “farewell tour” (as opposed to her “farewell tour” of six years ago).
Yes, it appears that the former girlfriend of the late and sometime alleged bed partner of Prez Slick Willie (to the point of Hillary when Hill was away) cannot convince even loyal subjects of the Nostril Kingdom to pay ticket prices ranging from $102.50 to $800.
According to the New York Post’s Page Six, fewer than 3,000 tickets have been sold to the Mighty Nostril Queen’s two October appearances at the Detroit-area Palace of Auburn Hills. Given this, it’s hilarious that The Nose has a six-ticket limit. Especially since her concert promoters are now considering putting her in smaller venues that will be easier to fill.
Oh, and then, there’s the controversy over The Nose’s backtracking on her promise to donate proceeds of the tour to charity. Reports the Post:

Another issue is that Streisand has said she plans to “donate millions of dollars in proceeds to environmental, education and women’s health organizations through her own Streisand Foundation.” But she won’t say exactly how much – which means ticket buyers can’t write off part of the whopping ticket costs as tax deductions.
Babs also faces the wrath of fans who saw her on her last tour, which ended in September 2000 with two Madison Square Garden sellouts that grossed $14.4 million. . . .
Some fans who bought tickets to Streisand’s 2000 tour are threatening to sue, claiming they believed those were her last live performances. And some are apparently hesitating to buy tickets for the new tour because they suspect it won’t be her last either.

So sad, too bad.

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No joke. The U.S., Canada, AND Mexico finally reached an agreement on illegal alien invaders.
Unfortunately, it’s an agreement to work together to protect Monarch butterflies, which migrate between the three countries. They also agreed to share information between the three governments about Monarchs and their migratory pathways and designate 13 areas as protected preserves for Monarchs.
Share info on migratory patterns, etc. Sounds familiar. Yup, we have our priorities straight. 20 million plus illegal aliens, and our country is focused on the most important national security matter in American life–Monarch butterflies.
In the meantime, our partner in the “comprehensive” immigration policy for Monarchs, relatively “conservative” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the Prez, yesterday, and urged the U.S. to be “flexible” in tightening border controls. He had the gall to lecture us, thusly:

Canadian PM Stephen Harper:
Our Partner in “Comprehensive” Monarch Immigration Reform

If the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won.

Wrong. The terrorists have won because our supposed “friend,” Canada, refuses to crackdown on its lax Islamofascist-dominated easy immigration rolls.
That must be the “flexibility” he’s talking about. With “flexibility” like that, we might as well make it as easy to enter as it is for Monarch butterflies. We’re almost there, anyway.

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On last night’s “NBC Nightly News,” we heard former Clintonista dip . . . lomat to North Korea, Wendy Sherman, say that North Korean despotic leader Kim Jong Il is a huge Michael Jordan fan. She said that she, therefore, presented him with a signed basketball from Air Jordan.
She didn’t get much in return for that. But neither is the Bush Admin with its , reminiscent of then-UN Weapons Chief Inspector Hans Blix threatening to send a threatening letter to Kim in “” (our ). (Amused by this impotence, Kim Jong Il feeds Blix to his pet sharks.)
So we have a better idea. Let the short man (Kim is a pudgy 5′ 3″) be towered over in person by new U.S. Envoy to N. Korea Michael Jordan. We think the man could get some results . . . or, at least, make Kim feel very unmasculine in the basketball giant’s presence.

Hey, if the Prez can (see ) toward successful diplomacy, why not another pop culture icon, who happens to be alive and available?
We’d prefer our forces shooting down their Taepodong-2 missile tests. But since Bush doesn’t have the cojones to do it, maybe Michael Jordan can achieve something off the battlefield.
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The Washington Post confirms Sherman’s basketball story and Stalinist murderer Kim Jong-Il’s love for his Airness, Michael Jordan and many other oddities of the World According to Kim:

His own bizarre story could make an interesting movie — a surreal epic with drunken orgies, exotic dancing, gourmet pizza, Michael Jordan, a crying contest, magical albino animals and a mummified corpse that reigns as “President for Eternity.”

American Special Envoy to North Korea?

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On this site, we’ve repeatedly criticized and lamented the ever-increasing feminization of men’s daily hygiene products and routines. We’ve attacked , , and a whole host of other formerly feminine regimens that should remain the domain of women, but aren’t–specifically hair- and skin-care products for men.
Now, frightening news about why we were right–that the these products literally turn boys into girlie-men: A study shows that hair and skin products (shampoo, body wash, cologne, soap, moisturizer) containing lavender and/or tea tree oil can lead to the development of abnormal, feminine breasts in boys. (The two ingredients are very commonly used in these products, such as Calvin Klein’s “Eternity for Men”–which contains lavender, for aroma and marketing purposes.)
No lie. Here are the details from HealthDay:

Personal care products containing tea tree oils and lavender appear to cause abnormal breast development in prepubescent boys, a new study found.

Calvin Klein Eternity for Men Product Line, Others Contain Lavender

The ingredients . . . have an estrogenlike effect. . . .
“There’s definitely an association between exposure to lavender oil and tea tree oil and gynecomastia (abnormally large breasts in men),” said Derek Henley, lead author of the research and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [NIEHS], in Research Triangle Park, N.C.

The condition is known as gynecomastia.

[W]hen Dr. Clifford Bloch, co-author of the study and a pediatric endocrinologist in Denver, saw five boys with the problem, he decided to investigate. All of the boys, he soon realized, had used over-the-counter health care products containing lavender and/or tea tree oil on their hair or skin.
When tested on human breast cancer cells, the oils appeared to mimic the activity of estrogen and also suppressed male hormone responsiveness. After discontinuing use of the lavender and tea tree oils, all of the boys saw the problem resolved.

More from The Washington Post:

NIEHS researchers Derek Henley and Kenneth Korach tested the effects of lavender and tea tree oils on human breast cancer cells. They found that both oils mimicked estrogen (a hormone that promotes the development of female breasts) while reducing the activity of androgens, which inhibit such growth. “Boys are getting a double hit,” said Korach.

Readers, don’t let your boys use these feminized “beauty products” for men. They cause grotesque, preventable problems and literally do turn them into GIRLIE-MEN. (And, as a result, your son may be forced to wear the “Seinfeld” inventions–a “man-ziere” or a “bro.”)
Yet more proof that sometimes Mother Nature fights back against the excesses of gender-role blurring in our defining-deviancy-down society.

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President Bush and Sylvester Stallone both turn 60 today. Happy Birthday to both.
Yes, even Rocky/Rambo is now an old geezer. But he still looks good for his age. Here’s a pic from December of last year, when “Rocky Balboa (Rocky 6)” was shooting. In some cases, maybe 60 really is the new 40. As we reported, the original .
As for Bush, strange but true: even the Clinton Library is celebrating his birthday.

In Good Shape: Rocky’s Real Life Alter Ego Turns 60

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ABC News’ Brian Ross reported, late last night, on the new Al-Qaeda tape, released to mark the anniversary of the 7/7 London subway bombing. (Brief video here.)
The new tape features not just Bin Laden and mastermind Ayman Al-Zawahiri, but Azzam Al-Amriki (“the American”), who used to be American Adam Gadahn.
Flashback: Read my piece on Gadahn’s American Imam –who converted Gadahn to Islam and the extremist he is today.
President Bush invited this terror-supporter, Siddiqi, to the White House just after 9/11 (and since) and accepted a Koran from him, noting the “Religion of Peace,” er . . . forced submission. Ironically, “Siddiqi” means “righteous one.” When someone converts an American to extremist Islam, it’s hardly righteous (except in Islam) and the last place that someone should be is in the White House feted by the Prez.
A better choice: Club Gitmo.

Azzam Al-Amriki (“Azzam The American”) a/k/a Adam Gadahn