More Failure To Launch

Homeland Security is working hard to keep would-be terrorists from making idiots out of themselves with fancy underwear this holiday season.

It was Christmas Day 2009 when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria was accused of trying to blow up a Northwest flight to Detroit by detonating an explosive device hidden in his underwear. Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, didn't address the incident publicly for several days.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan released a fact sheet on holiday security today that included improvements made since that incident, as well as the mass shooting in November 2009 at Fort Hood, Texas, and the attempted bombing in New York City's Times Square in May.

Federal authorities have "taken steps to ensure past anti-terror failures are not repeated," Brennan said at the top of today's White House briefing, adding that past "deficiencies" are being addressed.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Americans shouldn't notice much of a change.

"We're taking additional step but of course we can't tell you about them.  Trust us."

Meanwhile, enjoy your enhanced patdowns, because you can beat body scanners with clever packing techniques.