Yesterday I wrote a piece for AOL News about the Times Square Bomb story (or, almost-bomb story), and the trip it had taken from “Lone Wolf” to dude with the wherewithal to hop an Emirates flight to Dubai by paying cash at the airport. One day later, it’s become dude with the wherewithal to hop an Emirates flight to Dubai by paying cash at the airport, and by the way it’s looking more and more like he was bankrolled by the Taliban.

Attorney General Eric Holder held a press conference earlier this afternoon to discuss last night’s arrest of Faisal Shahzad the prime suspect in Saturday’s attempted car bombing of Times Square. Today’s presser marked a notable shift in tone from Holder’s earlier statements on the matter; using the sort strong language that was reminiscent of press [...]

Something strange is happening in the wild west these days. Out in Arizona, the negative reaction from the recently signed immigration act has led to demonstrations against even those partially affiliated, and and it seems that everyone from local sports teams to not really local Iced Tea companies have been put into odd positions of politics.

Just how bad does the Obama administration want you to not compare the current catastrophe in the Gulf to Hurricane Katrina? Pretty badly it would seem. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar did a Full Ginsberg (and then some) on the morning shows Sunday and relentlessly employed the term “day one” (16 times relentless).

On ABC’s This Week, Jake Tapper moderated one of the best roundtables I’ve seen on any show, especially the segment on Arizona’s new “Show me your papers” law. Most of nonsense that has been advanced to defend or mitigate it got thrown against the wall, and Reverend Al Sharpton stood out on the panel by scraping it all off.

Today on the White House lawn, President Obama took time out from an event meant to honor the National Teacher of the Year to address the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The President announced that he has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the area, as well as swat teams to inspect the oil rigs in harms way. Judging by these comments and by media coverage, a the oil spill has usurped Arizona immigration as the news of the day.

Bret Baier‘s interview with President Obama wasn’t the only intersection of Fox News and the White House yesterday; Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night as well. And where the Baier/Obama sit-down was at times contentions, Bill O’Reilly was remarkably nice in interrogating the individual with whom he has vocally criticized, particularly during the Christmas Terrorism scare of three months ago.

Is it gay-baiting to call the head of the government agency responsible for surveillance and airport screening “Big Sis”? It is–according to Huffington Post’s Eat The Press Columnist Jason Linkins and Towleroad’s Andy Towle–when you are referring to the never-married Janet Napolitano and you reference Matt Drudge.

Throughout the Bush administration Helen Thomas became known in some circles as a tireless attack-dog reporter — which depending on your point-of-view, was either an admirable or annoying trait. It seems her style hasn’t become any less tenacious under the Obama Administration. And while we admire her longevity in the White House press room, made more impressive by gender barriers she’s passed — we firmly believe she’s being a little ridiculous here. To understand is to watch the video after the jump:

The failed Christmas attack on Flight 253 has inspired both politicians and opinion journalists to quickly attempt to identify who is most to blame. And it seems like the first to have fingers pointed at her in this story is Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security. But predictably, one can find whatever analysis conforms with one’s own opinion on any of the three major cable news channels. So we’ve edited together punditry from three commentators representing the Left, the Right and the Center, all in one video.

It’s hard not to wonder if the story of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab may turn out to be the biggest story of the year if it keeps developing the way it does. Actually, it’s getting hard not to feel a sense of deja vu all over again as more of the details come to light, because while the attempted attack on Northwest Flight 253 in no way resembles the horror and destruction of September 11, 2001 the lack of government preparedness in the face of a whole lot of intel leading up to it is starting to feel awfully familiar.

There is growing consensus that President Obama reaction to the failed terrorist attack on Flight 253 was, at best, tardy. While some have pointed out that his reaction was one of a calm and collected leader, the somewhat bungled message by Janet Napolitano has lead some to question the viability of her future as Secretary of DHS. Today, Obama made an audio statement, which surely set the cable news producers in overdrive to scramble for tonight’s shows.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano may have given conservatives a great new t-shirt idea yesterday by claiming that the system “worked like clockwork” once the flight 253 incident had occurred (a disclaimer that rendered the statement meaningless), but there may actually be some truth to the notion that the system worked. Napolitano’s statement (since “clarified”) was a wrongheaded attempt at reassurance, it seems that a whole bunch of other people have an interest in making you as scared as possible.

President Obama stepped away from his Christmas vacation in Hawaii to hold a short press conference in order to address Friday’s averted terrorist attack aboard Northwest Flight 253 as well as the escalating conflict in Iran. The President appeared without tie, or teleprompter, to reassure the nation that “we will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable” and that “the American people should be assured that we are doing everything in our power to you keep you and your family safe and secure during this busy holiday season.”

This holiday weekend featured news of not just one, but two potential terror attacks. Had this happened during the Bush Administration, we would have had a steady diet of Tom Ridge and color-coded terror alert system bars. Under President Obama — we finally see him speak three days after news broke. Were we better off with or without the color bars (and all that came with it?) Or put another way, should we be freaking out right now or not?

The biggest question to come from Thursday’s thwarted terrorist attack is how did someone on a watch list manage to get on a plane? This explanation from a senior administration official, via Politico, may go some ways to answering that question: There’s a lot of bureaucracy involved.

Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was on NBC’s Today show this morning, back-tracking a bit from her statements about the attempted terror attack made yesterday on several Sunday shows.

She says her comments about how “the system worked” were taken out of context – and she agrees the system actually “failed miserably.”

Where to point the finger over Thursday’s averted terror attack on Northwest Flight 253? How much responsibility for this falls on President Obama? Perhaps this is a good time to point out Obama has been in office three and a half months longer that George W. Bush was when September 11 occurred. So who inherited what?

Hot on the heels of Janet Napolitano‘s “The system worked like clockwork” appearance on This Week, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs faced questions from Jake Tapper, who got to the heart of the issue. If the flight 253 suspect was on a watch list, who was watching him? Gibbs’ response was equally on target.

Another incident has been reported on Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, CNN and BNO News are reporting. Details are still coming in, but here’s the information that’s available thus far, as gleaned from Twitter.

Jake Tapper interviewed DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano on ABC’s This Week, giving an early indicator of what the administration’s narrative on Flight 523 will be. Caught between the need to reassure a jumpy public, political opponents drooling at the chance to score points, and an unwillingness to tip our hand to those who would do us harm, Napolitano had her work cut out for her. Even given those factors, the Secretary’s overarching message was tone deaf, to say the least.

There may have been a brief reprieve because it did happen on Christmas, but make no mistake: the politicizing of the attempted attack on Northwest airlines flight 253 has begun. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) criticized President Obama on CNN Saturday, questioning the response of the administration in the aftermath of the potentially deadly incident. “It is important at a time like this that the President of the United States or someone in the administration would step forward,” said King, a congressman from New York.

HLN host Joy Behar somehow combined Mad Men and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” in a segment last night, talking to Bryan Batt, a gay actor from the show, and columnist Dan Savage.

But Behar threw another topic into the mix – the sexual orientation of Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.