Going to be a long winter...

There are times reading through the news when I want to run out to the nearest mound of dirt, dig a hole and bury my head in it until the fear has passed.

This was my reaction this morning when reading an article on CNN.com, titled, Incoming House intelligence chief botches easy intel quiz. Well, to be honest with you, I first thought, okay, this is one of the new kids on the block; maybe the intelligence question they threw at him was difficult. We can all agree that just because someone is in Washington does not make them an expert on something.

Newly elected politicians are normally given a period where their constituents give them the chance to learn the ropes. I felt this may be the case here as well, he was new to this specific job and was close to passing the article up, until I read what I will now quote directly from the site.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas “failed a quiz of basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah, two of the key terrorist organizations the intelligence community has focused on since the September 11, 2001 attacks.”

“When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."

“That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.”

The next few paragraphs quoted from the article are well worth reading.

“In an interview with CNN, Stein said he was "amazed" by Reyes' lack of what he considers basic information about two of the major terrorists organizations.

"If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball," Stein said. "You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with."

“While Stein said Reyes is "not a stupid guy," his lack of knowledge said it could hamper Reyes' ability to provide effective oversight of the intelligence community, Stein believes.”

"If you don't have the basics, how do you effectively question the administration?" he asked. "You don't know who is on first."”

This is it folks, the end of the line, the final stop, we are all in for a big world of hurt. One would assume if someone’s selected for a position of authority, they would at least have a working knowledge of what they are going to be doing. A small thought somewhere back in the corner of the mind, you know, that spot that tells our hands we have an itch and we had better scratch it.

It is time to bury our gold, stock up on water and canned goods, because folks, it is going to be a long winter.