Tony Snow has so much patience with this woman…

Helen.

Q I have two questions. Did the President call for the respect of sovereignty by both sides?

MR. SNOW: Respect of sovereignty?

Q You just mentioned Hezbollah.

MR SNOW: I think what happens here is that — yes, the President has called for everybody to respect the sovereignty of the government of Lebanon. And one of the things that he’s pointed out in the past is that when you’ve had a power vacuum in the South, which has been the case in the past, it has invited Hezbollah to go in and serve as a government within a government or state within a state. The Israelis have agreed to pull out as international forces move in, providing credible security for the people in southern Lebanon, and also, at the same time, providing some assurance that Hezbollah will not try to rearm again.

Q My second question: Why does the President want to modify the Geneva accords, conventions, to prevent inhumane, cruel treatment of detainees?

MR. SNOW: The President has never suggested modifying the Geneva conventions.

Q You mean that all these stories are wrong?

MR. SNOW: Well, the Geneva conventions, as has been construed — there are two things you’ve got to keep in mind. Number one, the Geneva conventions always must be construed especially — you’re talking about Common Article Three?

Q Yes.

MR. SNOW: — in manners that are consistent with the U.S. law. The second thing is this is a new situation because the Geneva conventions in the past have not been construed as applying to those who do not fight for duly constituted military forces. We will wait to see when we have a final decision on how to implement the Hamdan case. I think, at this point, what you’re reacting to is things that you’ve seen, and I’ll be happy to entertain more specific questions when we have a proffer.

Q Are these all speculative and not true?

MR. SNOW: No, it’s all trying to figure out the proper way also. One of the difficulties in Common Article Three is that there’s a great deal of vague language and rather than, “trying to change the Geneva accords,” what we’re trying to do is to interpret them.

Q Does the President have any concern about how Prime Minister Olmert’s political standing has been affected by all of this? A lot of criticism within his own country and around the world.

MR. SNOW: No, but I think the President does understand what happens when you’re in a period of war, which is that you’re always going to take some political heat if you’re trying to do what you think is right. And he certainly understands and appreciates the fact that there are going to be responses from people in any nation that is affected by war, and he certainly has a keen understanding and appreciation.

Q Prime Minister Olmert today said that Israel will continue to pursue Hezbollah leaders, “everywhere and any time.” I mean, do you view that as in line with the cease-fire?

MR. SNOW: Well, I think what we ought to do is just to see what people do on the ground and we’ll react to things going on on the ground.

Transcript taken from White House website, where a video is also available.

I heard a couple of things on TV this weekend that I feel a need to share. I can’t remember exactly which shows they were on, but they were on Fox. I don’t have a transcript so I will paraphrase.

1. Because Bush went into Iraq, there are more terrorists and more terrorist activity.

2. You don’t need 300 cell phone for an operation. Even Madrid only needed two or three. This proves that those boys were only trying to make money.

In response to #1 I say: The first salvo in this war was in 1979 when Iran violated our sovereign soil and took our embassy in Teheran. Then President Jimmy Carter did nothing. Ted Koppel got his start in late night TV news with Day xxx: The Hostage Crisis which eventuallly became Nightline after the hostages were finally released.

Just two examples from the Clinton tenure: The 1993 World Trade Center bombing which was treated as a criminal endeavor, and the attack on the USS Cole. Nothing was done there either.

A few other examples: The Marines in Beruit, Somalia, Pan Am 103. The Anchoress has more in a post I linked a few days ago, here.

The current boldness of the terrorists is a direct result of Jimmy Carter’s policies, and by extension, Bill Clinton’s policies. Actually, if you look at it, Bill’s policies really were Jimmy’s, after all Bill sent Jimmy to NoKo to negotiate a deal that Kim Jong Il signed with his fingers crossed behind his back.

So it’s really the policies that were in put in place by Carter and Clinton that emboldened the terrorists. This has been going on for almost 30 years, not just for the

In response to #2: Whatever makes you think that terrorists would only purchase “enough for an operation?” – that has to be one of the most illogical explanations I have ever heard.

This anecdote pre-dates the current security rules, but only by a few weeks.

I wear a leg brace so I always get “special” treatment at security. I always make the metal detector go off and always have to go to the little holding pen for further scrutiny. I am used to this and I am not complaining. There is a reason to single me out.

In San Francisco a few weeks ago I was asked to stand to the side for a minute while they waited for a female TSA employee to do my pat down. I was standing in a corner area by the x-ray machine for the next line. There were 4 foot “office cube” type walls in place to keep the lines separate. The gentleman working that x-ray machine could see me standing there, but couldn’t see my leg brace because of the wall.

This is where we get to the funny part.

“You armed?”, he asked.

I told him no, I wasn’t armed. I was “legged”, leg brace.

The point here being that I do not look like someone who would require extra scrutiny. Without the leg brace, I probably would not get any extra scrutiny.

At San Francisco, I was swabbed, patted down, my feet were checked, and I was even put in the puffer machine. It’s been 112 days since I quit smoking so there wasn’t even any sulfur or butane or lighter flint on me anywhere.

Going through security is really a minor inconvenience especially as compared to the major inconvenience of dying. The terrorists mostly match a certain general description, you need to start giving those people the extra scrutiny and stop giving 70-year-old grandmothers the same scrutiny.

When your suspect is a 6 foot tall, 300 pound, 50-year-old red haired male with a beard you really don’t need to be looking at 5 foot tall blonde females of any age. You don’t need to be looking at grandmothers of African descent, or grandsons of African descent for that matter.