In a curious coincidence, as Dick Cheney is warning the nation that POTUS Obama is neglecting the safety and security of Americans, comes news that we averted a substantial terrorist threat in New York City. Nice work, NYPD and FBI!

The Czar’s question is simple: who will take credit for this? The Bush administration, who will say this is proof that there is still a real threat, or the Obama administration, who will claim “detected and busted on my watch.”

Well, at any rate, the Democrats have already fired off their first salvo of nonsense. Said Charles Schumer (D-NY): “If there can be any good news from this terror scare, it’s that this group was relatively unsophisticated, infiltrated early and not connected to another terrorist group.”

Yeah, but they thought they were connected: from the Bloomberg link above: The suspects dealt with a law-enforcement informant, who they believed was affiliated with a Pakistan-based terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, in their attempts to obtain weapons. And what’s so relatively unsophisticated about blocks of C-4 and Stingers? These aren’t sparklers and bottle rockets, Mr. Schumer.

Continues the Bloomberg story: The alleged terrorist plot is the most serious in the U.S. since President Barack Obama took office in January. Obama’s plan to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison has raised criticism about what will happen to as many as 240 suspected terrorists, who may have to be relocated to prisons in the U.S.

Yes, and how exactly did the four relatively unsophisticated, unconnected terrorist group concoct their plans? The suspects knew each other through “prison—prison contacts for the most part,” New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a televised press conference in the Bronx.

Connect the dots. You put guys with real terror contacts in general population and what happens? What this should tell Senator Schumer, and the rest of the Democratic party, is that four morons—without genuine links to international terrorists and without training—can still come terrifyingly close to killing hundreds of people. Now imagine, as Mr. Cheney does, what experienced, connected, and trained guys could do.

(update:) And it seems the Czar is not alone in this supposition.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.