The beat goes on

The drum beat of terror episodes has become the new feature of the Obama administration. Al-Qaida once again rears its head in sponsoring someone capable of setting himself on fire on an airplane, another act of terror like Richard Reid or those inmates at Gitmo that managed to hang themselves in a choreographed production.

Unlike the supermen of 9/11, the Taliban, or the Iraqi insurgents, the new crop of international terrorizers seem united only in their incompetence. But even though incompetent in doing damage to anything but their own sorry selves, the breathless reporters and pundits that follow their doings are united in their message to America, "Waaa, we're afraid! You should be, too!".

Alas for them and their hype, the current fears of Americans are much more real, powerful and mundane. Obama's distractions will have to escalate to have any real effect. Expect more fireworks in the near future.

UPDATE: Like clockwork, new restrictions on airline passengers.

UPDATE II: Chris Floyd points out an obvious connection that is making us very afraid; our latest lousy terrorist is being linked to the latest lousy target of our heroic robotic drone attacks: Yemen, one of al-Quaida's oldest and newest playgrounds. Like in Afghanistan in the past, they have monkey bars and highly trained trainers training terrorizers to set themselves on fire on airliners.