Neal Boortz
Monday, Nov. 26, 2001

It's not terrorism.

Do you remember President Bush's speech to the Congress about nine days or so after the 9/11 attacks? Bush spoke of a grave threat facing this country, the threat of Islamic terrorism. The U.S. was going to war – a war to eliminate Osama bin Laden, his terrorist cells and terrorist cells around the world.

While Bush spoke, an even more hideous threat to our country was seen on our television screens – the junior senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton. There she stood, a blank expression on her face, eyes rolling, staring off into space and applauding as if (as one columnist described the scene) she had razor blades attached to her palms.

Hillary Clinton loves only one thing in life – and that thing is political power. Her so-called marriage to Bill Clinton was nothing less than a business partnership entered into for the purpose of seeking and maintaining political power. She recognized an engaging personality and latched onto it for a ride to the White House.

Chris Matthews hosts "Hardball" on CNBC. He's also a strong Democratic Party insider. Tim Russert was interviewing Matthews over the weekend. The subject of Hillary Clinton and the presidency came up. Matthews said that Hillary can't wait to become president of the United States. "She's dyin' for it," he said.

OK, it's bad enough Hitlary is just "dying" to be president. Listen to what else Matthews had to say. He said that Hillary is "miserable" right now because of all this patriotic stuff going on. Evidently patriotism really gets to Hillary. She can't stand it.

Matthews went on to explain that he remembered one incident where The Hildabeast was reluctant to pledge allegiance to the American Flag. She said, "I pledge allegiance to the America that can be."

Huh? Is Hitlary saying that the America that IS is not an America she would pledge allegiance to?

Will Hillary run in 2004? If she thinks she has a chance, you bet she will. And don't give me that nonsense about Hillary pledging to serve her full term as a senator from New York. That pledge means absolutely nothing to her.

She's a liar – fundamentally dishonest. When it comes to her political goals and aspirations, no lie is too big and no betrayal too great.

The most frightening question: Will the female voters of the United States put this dangerous, anti-American socialist in office?

Leave Those Charm Bracelets at Home

With every day that passes we hear horror stories about airline security. It's as if these screeners have to pass a test in absurdity before they're allowed to take their freshly decorated nails and hairdos-of-the-day to their security workstations.

Well – sit down. Just when you thought you'd heard the most idiotic story from airport security, another more idiotic story comes along.

You've heard of Ann Coulter, the conservative columnist, haven't you? Well, Ann says that she was going through security at the Spokane airport last Saturday when her charm bracelet caught the eye of one of the screeners. Right there, on Ann's bracelet, was a silver charm in the shape of a bullet. Some sort of a souvenir from Aspen.

The silver bullet charm was seized. The airline security supervisor was called. No help. Charm seized. Confiscated. Coulter reports that a few hours later when inquiries were made, the silver charm was missing from the security box of confiscated items. She believes the silver bullet is already wrapped and ready to be a Christmas gift.

Oh ... one more thing. Coulter was so outraged at the seizure of her silver charm that she asked for the name of the security screener. This prompted a call for police reinforcements.

As Coulter says, flying commercial airlines now has all the appeal and charm of a visit to a federal prison.

Another Airport Shutdown

Seattle-Tacoma shut down for three hours after a National Guardsman noticed that a metal detector wasn't working well. Finally – at long last – some alert individual noticed that the metal detector was unplugged.

From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Kandahar

OK ... Kandahar doesn't have shores, but who really cares.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Marines have landed. Depending on which report you read, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of U.S. Marines have landed near the last Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

It's unclear at the moment what their function will be, but my speculation is that they are there to capture any Taliban fighters who try to escape after U.S. air strikes on the city. Maybe they're there to mop up when the Taliban finally surrender.

At any rate, the fact that we're sending ground troops in tells me the end of the Taliban – and possibly the Head Weird Beard himself, is near.

Everyone Who Thinks the Northern Alliance Is Our Friend Raise Your Hands

There was a lot of news out of Ashcanistan over the weekend. As of this morning the Taliban have now reportedly surrendered Konduz, though heavy fighting is being reported throughout the region.

One of the most troubling reports is that of Taliban fighters just walking across the lines and switching sides. It seems that some of these people are more concerned about being on the winning side than any sort of ideological purity.

Maybe we should have paid more attention to our "friends" in Pakistan. They aren't particularly fond of the Northern Alliance. I wonder how long it will be before we adopt the same attitude.

Right now America is, at best, a "friend of convenience" to the NA. We've come in very handy in our role of softening up the Taliban for a Northern Alliance assault. You can be sure that once the American forces aren't needed, those friendly smiles on the NA faces will disappear.

Afghans – all Afghans – seem to just absolutely hate foreigners. Hard to blame them, I guess, especially when it comes to foreigners who look like Russians – and Americans look like Russians. As soon as their country is rescued from the Taliban and the al-Qaeda, they will want the foreigners out.

There will also be inevitable resentment against the United States. In this respect you must suspect that Afghans have a lot of French blood in them. When the war is over and Afghans start to exercise something that passes for self-rule, they'll start to develop a sense of resentment against the very power that enabled their victory – the U.S.

Maybe it would just be best to find and kill bin Laden, his al-Qaeda buddies, and then get the hell out of Dodge … with a warning to the Afghans that if they start to act up again we'll be back.

'We Have the Wind at Our Backs and We Don't Want to Lose It'

That is a quote from a Washington official in the Sunday Times of London. According to the story, the next targets in the war on terrorism will be Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. We have some scores to settle with all three countries, e.g., Yemen was where the USS Cole was attacked.

But on this side of the pond, most of the scuttlebutt says that Iraq will likely be next on the list.

As soon as bin Laden is taken care of, there will be one more foe out there to engage ... the media. The media have been portraying this war as a basic "get Bin Laden" exercise. Once that goal is reached, look for media pressure to declare the war on terrorism as having been won.

Anyway … who's next? Gentlemen, place your bets.

Pope Considered to Be Christmas Target

Many sources expect Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network to strike again at Christmas, and some believe top on his list is to kill the pope. Osama sees the pope as the symbolic head of the crusaders.

What is with him and the Crusades??? If this jerk were a Southerner, he would be waving a Confederate flag and driving around in a pickup with a "Fergit Hell" bumper sticker.

30 Pounds of Dynamite? No Big Deal

Chicago police found two suitcases containing 30 pounds of dynamite in the downtown area yesterday afternoon. A spokesman said the explosives "did not pose a danger." He said the dynamite "appears it was dropped off there and had been there a while."

The authorities seem to be taking a ho-hum attitude about it, but it seems to me that 30 pounds of dynamite is not something that should be left lying around a city street – especially these days. Hey, call me old-fashioned.

Well, We Know They Weren't Muslim

Did you know there's an annual pre-Christmas swine slaughter in Hungary? Here's the scenario: A visiting Croatian man rigged up a homemade stun gun and tried to stun a pig before slaughtering it. Big mistake ... he died of electrocution.

Another man was sent to the hospital with an irregular heartbeat after frantically trying to unplug the device. And finally, the pig's owner was so upset by the incident he had a heart attack and died.

Somewhere out there is a PETA member with a big smile.

Someone Please Make Sense of This for Me

New York has a Republican state senator by the name of Roy Goodman. Sen. Goodman chairs something called the Committee of Investigations. That committee was charged with the responsibility of assessing potential threats to New York state.

In effect, Goodman is one of those "homeland security directors" I warned you about last week.

Goodman's committee has issued its report. At the top of the list of things considered to be a security risk is all of those people flying around in their private airplanes. Goodman wants background checks of all private pilots. He also wants to have all baggage and cargo on private airplanes screened.

Imagine this. I get off the air on Friday and head to the airport to fly to South Florida. Before I can taxi for takeoff I have to call for a security screener to come go through my airplane and everything I put into it. Since there are scores of airplanes departing PDK on Friday afternoons, the wait could take hours.

I know most of you don't give a big damn about these threats to general aviation, because you don't own or fly a small private airplane. You'll just sit by and let characters like Roy Goodman all but destroy general aviation without so much as a word of protest.

You're just not going to worry about other people's freedoms, are you? You'll only get concerned when they come for you.

By the way – as I've pointed out before – there have been two terrorist attacks in this country using rental trucks. First we had the Twin Towers in 1993, then the Murrah Federal Building in 1995.

There has never been a terrorist attack using a small general aviation airplane. Roy Goodman's district is a good hunk of the posh district of Manhattan. You would think he would be concerned about bombs in rental trucks.

You would be wrong. Not one mention about screening rental truck cargos in his report. Not one mention about background checks on those who rent rental trucks.

Like I said ... would someone please try to make sense of this for me?

Maybe you would like to know more about Roy Goodman. Here's the link for his website. http://www.roygoodman.org

Oh, How I Love Those Leftist Bookstore Clerks

It seems that not one week goes by that I don't get e-mail from some person somewhere in this country who has a tale to tell. A tale of trying to find my book, "The Terrible Truth About Liberals," in a bookstore.

It seems that the title of the book really irritates the bookstore clerks. Come on, folks – working in a bookstore is not a career often pursued by ambitious capitalists, and the less personal ambition you have, the more likely it is that you will be a leftist. Many of these clerks look upon my book as some sort of a personal indictment against them.

Our latest tale of woe comes from Hampton, Va. A WNIS Boortz listener went to the Books-a-Million store in Hampton to find my book. The clerk was unable to locate a copy. I'll let the listener take it from here:

"She told me that she could order it for him, allow me to briefly read parts of the book and that if I didn't like it, I wouldn't have to pay for a book like that!"

In other words, "Sure, I'll order it for you. But you're not going to like it. Who would like a book called "The Terrible Truth About Liberals"? After you read a page or two, we'll just send it back."

Hey – I'm in my sixth printing. Just think where I would be if bookstore clerks didn't work so hard to discourage sales!

Kill Your Child, Go to a Dance – out in 3 Years

Do you remember Melissa Drexler? Name familiar? She's the prom queen who gave birth to a baby at her senior prom, threw it in the trash – then went back to dance with her boyfriend.

Drexler was initially charged with murder. Then the New Jersey prosecutors allowed her to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter. Her sentence? Fifteen years. And how long did she serve? Well, she's out next week. Served just a bit over three years.

Her attorney? He says "she's not a criminal. She's not going to go out and commit another crime."

Hell, she's already committed murder. And that doesn't make her a criminal?

Help Wanted

I'm told that there were some interesting help wanted ads in the Sunday Atlanta Journal Constitution. On page R11, column 3, we had an ad placed by DAL Global a division of Delta. The ad was for someone to search bags. The wage? About $8.00 per hour. Then we go to the very next ad. This one was placed by Dunbar Armored. The starting wage was $10.00 per hour

Guarding money can earn you two bucks an hour more than guarding the lives of airline passengers.

Neal Boortz is the hugely popular nationally syndicated radio host.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Al-Qaeda

War on Terrorism