An article published this week in the Washington Times details more information on what really prompted the removal of the Imams from a US Airways plane.  Apparently Muslim activists don’t read the Washington Times or they refuse to believe the agents, air marshals, US Airways staff and the passengers on the plane who are witnesses.  They have decided to file law suits against US Airways and yes, claim that the Imams were profiled based on their race and religion.  Well, they are wrong.  I wrote a piece several months ago discussing the rise of racial profiling at airports, specifically of Muslim men.

You can find that here:

http://scottrogers.townhall.com/g/a4811d7b-7169-4389-b142-4b49d2621446

 

 

There are certain facts that these activists refuse to accept.  No, there is nothing wrong with prayer, people do it every day and every where.  One does not use the Imams’ prayers as a basis for profiling.  However, when you have six men 2 seated in first class, 2 in the middle exit row and 2 in the back of the plane (a similar method used by the 9/11 hijackers), you are going to arouse some suspicion.  Activists claim that one of the Imams upgraded his seat and the other, who happened to be blind, was unable to get the upgrade, so he moved to the back of the plane to assist his blind friend…  That does not explain how they were actually seated 2-2-2 as explained above and as witnessed by the crew and passengers.  Also, why would they ask for seat belt extensions?  This is very rare occurrence.  I have flown a million times and never have I ever seen someone who isn’t extremely overweight ask for one of these.  Did they use them?  No, they put them on the floor under their seat.  Why would they do this, maybe they wanted to use them later after they ate their free pretzels and got fatter?  In the past these extensions have been used by hijackers to block rows so that passengers cannot move to the front of the plane or to the rear etc. I’m sure they make great strangulation devices as well. Does this behavior sound suspicious?  You bet.  Air Marshals are trained to look for this type of activity.  Americans, after 9/11, were told by the government to keep an eye out for activity that is suspicious and report it.  This is what the passenger who gave the note to the flight attendant did.  Is it possible that these men talked to an attorney before attempting this stunt?  Perhaps to see how far they could get it to go before someone said something?  Now they wish to sue to try to discourage our citizens from reporting such activity, when it is our responsibility to do so.  Is it also possible that during this ‘test’, these men took notes to pass on to others that may have links to terrorists?  Or was it just a misunderstanding and these men had none of these intentions?

 

When you combine the evidence, you see that the way airline and federal officials acted in this situation was very reasonable.  Maybe the Imams are hoping that some wacko leftist judge somewhere will believe their story and rule in their favor.

 

It is true they did not break any laws.  If anything, they tested the system and found that Americans are very vigilant when it comes to these situations, especially with air travel.  These men were profiled yes, but it was because of their strange behavior: where they sat, the utterances of Allah (yes I understand a Muslim in prayer says Allah over 20 times), but these utterances were not always during prayer, passengers supposedly heard them speak anti-American comments, and of course the seatbelts.  Strange behavior leads to you being pulled off a plane.  I’ve seen pilots land planes because one manic depressed passenger didn’t take his meds and threatened to blow up the plane.  Did we profile him because of mental illness?  No, we had no idea he was mentally ill until after the fact, but we must be error on the side of caution.

 

We also must take into consideration that there is an element of inconvenience placed on everybody when traveling, especially by air.  Any lawsuit against an airline because of the implementation and execution of very strict federal security guidelines should be dismissed immediately.  We cannot afford to be irresolute in a time of war.

It has been several weeks since the midterm elections, and the country awaits the Democratic take over of Congress. Americans decided to give power to the party that they think will bring the country back to where it belongs. Democrats really had a great time having press conferences that were mini-victory parties with screams into microphones about how the American people wanted ‘CHANGE’ and that is what they campaigned on (because they had no other plan). What a campaign concept. ‘Change’. I laughed at Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid while they were standing there talking about change. It reminded me of the movie ‘Distinguished Gentleman’ where Eddie Murphy gives his victory party speech that is a total mock of politicians in general. “We ran a positive campaign. We campaigned on the issues… the issue was CHANGE. Change for the future.”

If the Dems didn’t watch this movie 50 times before this fall’s election, I would be surprised. How horrible it is for them to steal lines from a movie! Let’s just remember Eddie played a con man in that movie.

Yes, the Republican party fell apart. Whenever you have a house divided it will fall, especially when you anger the people who are supposed to vote for you. One thing is certain, if Republican voters went out and checked DEMOCRAT on their ballot, they may be living to regret that decision in the next 2-6 years.

Democrats have already promised to raise taxes, spend money, earmark everything and basically remove our involvement in the war on terror. The latter will obviously endanger the country’s security.

One thing we know is that this Republican Congress along with President Bush spent way too much money, which, for some, is very hard to believe, but true. The lack of fiscal conservative leadership in the party brought them down on Nov 7th. Democrats could not criticize Republicans this fall for spending practices, instead they used ‘corruption’ as a method to influence voters. A lot of the democratic leadership are more corrupt than Tom Foley ever was. Not that I condone his behavior, but it seems the biased media decided to report on that for 2 weeks while Harry Reid was taking care of a few unethical land deals. Where was the media coverage on that? Fox News Sunday.

The fact is, America hates Washington DC. It hates politics, but more importantly it hates politicians. It was the Democrats who were better, ultimately, at making the Republicans look bad. Not only via political ads, but via exposing scandals that have been festering in Congress for God knows how long. And of course, Democrats had the main stream media helping them along. Not only do Americans believe Congress is corrupt, but they believe Republicans are more corrupt than Democrats. Wow. How mad do you have to be to not even vote or better yet vote for the opposing party?

The following things need to change in the GOP, some of this you already know.

1. Leadership – a new fiscal conservative leadership is essential if we plan to win the presidency in 2008.
2. Build trust with the American people. - We must put behind us all of the scandals and cover ups and build trust with our fellow Republicans as well as independent voters. During the Clinton sex scandal many Americans stopped trusting the Democratic Party. This of course helped Republicans win the white house.
3. Showcase that a large government is not the answer to the country’s problems.
4. Focus on the conservative values and policy that got them control of Congress in the first place

The irony here is that Democrats increase the size of the Government, and who has helped increase the size more than any Republican president recently? President Bush. With the Democrats in control of Congress, Bush’s so called ‘immigration policy’ will surely pass. It is not comprehensive, it is a cop-out. Amnesty will be everywhere and the Democrats will get what they want because on that issue, the biggest one of this century so far, they will claim victory. Republicans need to stand firm on enforcing the border and negotiating a good immigration policy that will not grant all of this amnesty to illegals. This will be tough.

Needless to say, Congress is now the Democrats’ to mess up. Don’t be surprised if they try go it a bit conservative here for the next 2 years anticipating a Democrat winning the White House in 2008. You know they have to crack before then.