This is good: A change of heart on terrorism security

The Obama White House has notified airlines that travellers will be subject to more random pat-downs. In addition -- and I think this is good and important -- all travelers from countries designated as "state sponsors of terrorism" will be patted down and have all of their baggage searched. (See the story on Politico.com)

The countries on the State Department list are Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. Other countries covered by the White House directive include Afghanistan, Libya and Somalia. A complete list was not released. I hope the list is much, much larger than this.

Do you think Team Obama has been finally jolted into alertness by the ease with which the knicker bomber got on a flight to the U.S. with enough explosives to blow an airliner out of the air? Or, are they embarrassed into the tougher action by the fact that they should have had this guy on a "no fly" list, but dropped the ball? Or, have the political wonks who run the White House discovered the likely political ramifications for them and their party for being perceived as being soft on terrorism?

I frankly don't care at this point. I just want a president who is angry -- no, outraged -- when al-Qaida tries to pull off something like the knicker bomber deal on Christmas Day. I'd like a president who shows me that his people's security are more important than the family vacation. I'd love to see Obama get into the office on Monday morning and flat-out fire a couple of his "can't we all just get along" political hacks he now has leading national security agencies.

I suspect we are instead going to get some wagon circling, some form-over-substance posturing and a whole lot of finger-pointing.

But, one can only hope for change.