WHERE IS HILARY'S HEAD

Madam Secretary Clinton - for someone tagged the smartest woman in the world, you have just besmirched that characterization by doing a very dumb thing.
The U. S. State Department you head is preparing a report to file with the esteemed (I use that term facetiously) Human Rights Council of the United Nations asking it to review Arizona's immigration law, now on hold after the same Obama Administration filed suit to enjoin the law from going into effect at the end of July.
I might point out this is the same U. N. Human Rights Council whose membership includes such bastions of human rights advocacy as Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
What were you thinking, Madam Secretary? How deeply you and the Obama Administration have embarrassed our country and its citizens - citizens, I might add, who pay the lion's share of support to keep the doors of the United Nations open.
The State Department contends the action it took to thwart the implementation of the Arizona law is an example of how the United States is protecting human rights.
What?
No where in its braggadocio report to the U. N. is it noted that the Arizona law was amended to mirror federal immigration law. Which makes this latest fauxpas by the Obama Administration even more troubling and embarrassing.
Arizona's feisty Governor Jan Brewer calls the State Department's report "outrageous." I cannot think of a better word to describe the State Department's action.

GET A LIFE STEVE SCHMIDT

Steve Schmidt has a boogie woman in his flawed political closet - Sarah Palin. And the former top strategist for the McCain campaign seems unable to exorcise her to cover his own failings. He's making another stab at it in a new book, Game Change, authored by liberal journalists Mark Halperin (Time Magazine) and John Heilemann (New York Magazine).

Schmidt reiterated his criticisms on 60 Minutes Sunday night, accusing Palin of being "unfocused" and ignorant of historic details. And once again Schmidt portrayed the former Alaskan Governor and McCain running mate as stupid, uneducated, totally ignorant of national and international issues and an overall screw-up.

Then to top it off Schmidt accused Palin of lying frequently and charged she misled the campaign when she declared a report of a state ethics probe had exonerated her of wrongdoing. Actually it did, except for questioning one instance of Palin using state funds to cover the cost of having her young children accompany her on an trip involving state business. Palin promptly repaid the amount and apologized even before she was tapped as a vice-presidential candidate.

Schmidt's largely unfounded accusation borders on slander. If Schmidt has facts to support his allegations of Palin's lack of veracity he should make such facts public. Not to do so raises questions about his own dishonesty.

Schmidt's continuing effort to lay blame for a failed campaign at the feet of Sarah Palin is yet another attempt to deflect criticism of himself and campaign manager Rick Davis. Would you hire these two for your next campaign? Not if you want to win.

As always, Schmidt and the authors of the new book are being aided and abetted by a compliant national media which seems ever eager to criticize Palin. Example - Anderson Cooper asking Schmidt if he knew early on that "she (Palin) didn't know anything."

"It was clear we had a lot of work to do," was Schmidt's pompous reply.

Schmidt's demeaning of Palin is a rehash of what he has been spouting for months. It's time he put a lid on that spout.

The two authors of Game Change also take Hilary Clinton to the woodshed, contending she was so confident of winning the Democrat nomination that she began planning her transition to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a year ahead of the election. There is no derogatory assessment of the Obama campaign which was found to be doing the same thing prematurely.

I wonder if people will stand in the cold for hours waiting to get books signed by these two unremarkable writers masquerading as journalists.

I seriously doubt it. And I seriously doubt their book will sell anywhere close to the two million copies already sold of Palin's book.

I've had enough of northeastern smug, chauvinistic, supercilious male journalists. I don't recall any male journalist spending weeks in jail on contempt of court charges for refusing to reveal sources as did Judith Miller when she still worked for the New York Times. She did so to protect the First Amendment rights of all journalists. Fortunately, Miller saw the light and is now a news analyst on the Fox News Channel.

Who says there is no Santa Claus?

Visit my website at: aliceajackson.com

WHERE IS HILARY HIDING?

It was heartening today to hear President Obama admit we are at war with Al Qaeda. He did forget to mention there are more Islamic terrorists groups, other than Al Qaeda, bent on our destruction. But let's not be picky.

Yes, the fault for systemic security failures in the wake of the failed suicide bombing aboard a Northwest Airlines flight headed to Detroit, falls at the President's feet. And he took full responsibility. Commendable. Yet, he failed to tell us who was really to blame. I, for one, would like to know. But let's not be picky.

There is clearly one government department to blame and like a stealth bomber, it is going unnoticed and unmentioned - the State Department.

Why did the State Department not immediately yank the visa of a person identified by his own father as "radicalized?" Yes, the CIA man who spoke with the father of the failed suicide bomber, did send a cable to Washington, which did not appear to stir any immediate concern.

The burning question is why would the State Department not invalidate the bomber's visa, if only on a temporary basis and only as a precaution? That can be done at the embassy level.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has been strangely silent through this crisis.

All aboard the Christman Day flight and all of us owe a deep debt of gratitude to several brave passengers aboard that flight, especially a man from the Netherlands who should receive a medal from our government. Instead, his individual quick action has not even been publicly acknowledged by the President or anyone in his administration as they paraded to the microphones.

It is time for Hilary to come out of the shadows and answer for the failures of the department she heads.

We should have imposed a one year moratorium on immigration and the issuing new visas following 9/11. We should at least declare a moratorium long enough now, to review all of the visas currently issued, other than diplomatic. It would tell us who wants in to the United States and for what reason. It would also allow time to check on anyone overstaying their visa.

In a sense, the State Department is a main line of defense in keeping those who would harm us out of this country. It, and the secretary who heads it, need to act more responsibly.

And yes, profiling, albeit politically incorrect, should be practiced. So far, the only people trying to kill Americans on their own soil from abroad have been young Muslim men issued visas.