Finally, a massive breakthrough has been achieved on President Obama’s Rediscovered War on Terror: police finally nail the guy who walked past Newark airport non-security.

Really? 28-year-old Haisong Jiang (sigh…okay, Volgi… Haisung Chiang) of (you guessed it) Piscataway, New Jersey, was arrested six days after he was asked to stay behind a rope. A few minutes later, the guard wanders out of the area (still to be explained), and over-eager Jiang ducks under the rope to welcome a girlfriend waving to him from the gate.

Okay, he should know better than to cross under a rope when he hasn’t been screened. But the nationwide manhunt that followed is exactly an echo of how badly our government functions.

In case you are wondering, for whatever reason, “Doesn’t this kind of too-eager-to-see-her behavior happen every week in airports around the country?” you misunderstand the political implication.

Because the President is angry, now, so everyone must be punished. Priapistic Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) spits saliva: “The message cannot go out to terrorists, people who would do damage to our citizens, that you could take a chance and get in….This has to be seen as the equivalent of a terrible crime…What he did was a terrible injustice to the 16,000 people who were inconvenienced terribly…This fellow was responsible for it. As such he has to pay whatever the maximum price is.” Yeah! USA! USA! USA!

Lautenberg should explain how inconvencing 16,000 people through incompetence by a government employee deserves the maximum price in punishment, but his incompetent voting for the healthcare bill, which will more than inconvenience millions, makes him a hero.Because that is precisely what terrorists do. They go to Newark airport and duck under a rope when a guard wanders out of position. Clearly, the system worked.

Lautenberg should explain how inconvencing 16,000 people through incompetence by a government employee deserves the maximum price in punishment, but his incompetent voting for the healthcare bill, which will more than inconvenience millions, makes him a hero. Seems that the Senator is coming off like a jackass.

And what of the guard, who has been on paid administrative leave since the event? It takes a week to catch some nightmarish brigand blatantly ducking under a rope—thanks to good detective work, because the guy turned himself in or we might still be looking for him—but we cannot explain what the guard was doing and why he is still employed? Ultimately, the guard is just as responsible for shutting down the airport. When a security component is defective, you replace it.

Here’s another thought. If Haisong Jiang was named, perhaps, عبد الغطّوبيوتر, would he have been the focus of a complete manhunt, called a horrible monster of a person, and had a Senator personally demand his surrender?

Yes, we can watch the video of how awful Mr. Jiang was, in ducking under that rope, but we apparently can’t see the video which confirms or denies the existence of a well-dressed Indian man assisting a terrorist onto an airport.

One also wonders that had the President not vowed to destroy all those responsible for interrupting his Hawaiian vaction, would Jiang have even been pursued? No, the passengers would have been rescreened, and Jiang forgotten as a gaffe made by a security guard who is now unemployed. Had Jiang been apprehended by security, he would have suffered a minor fine, probably payable out of pocket.

But the President is furious, and dammit, someone must pay. And Jiang, who dumbly decided to run up to an old acquaintance, is now the biggest criminal of all. Interesting how we can take a tiny fish from a small pond and promote him to scapegoat in order to impress the President that no, no, the President is not responsible for his administration’s constant fumbling of basic tasks!

At least Jiang was released shortly thereafter. Because he probably had to get himself a lawyer (as opposed to the government just giving him one as they are with Islamist terrorists), and everyone knew that this is not the caped crime-fighting crusade that Senator Lautenberg fantasizes it is.

Shades of World War I, when we aggressively pursued vaugely European folks for asking for braunschweiger instead of liver sausage, and beat the crap out of them to make a point that Democrats were totally calm and in control of the situation.

Update: Or you can read Mark Steyn say almost exactly the same thing, albeit 18 hours later.

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.