SOPA And PIPA Sponsors Caving In To Opposition

Stop Online Piracy Act. Here is an article - there might be better articles out there, but it will give you some info on it:
Why We Must Stop SOPA

Wikipedia to Join Web Blackout Boycott Protesting SOPA Boycott

TPMIdeaLab

SOPA And PIPA Sponsors Caving In To OppositionRep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), sponsor of the 'Stop Online Piracy Act.'

Carl Franzen January 13, 2012, 7:12 PM434237

As more and more actions are planned in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), the dual pieces of anti-online piracy legislation moving through Congress, the architects and supporters of these bills have finally begun tiptoeing back.

PIPA co-sponsor Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) on late Friday released a statement saying: “I would not vote for final passage of PIPA, as currently written, on the Senate floor.”

However, Cardin said he would remain a co-sponsor because it would give him “the opportunity to be an active participant in the process of addressing the most serious concerns raised by my constituents.”

Meanwhile, six other Republican Senate co-sponsors of PIPA — Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Tom Coburn (R-OK) — sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on Friday asking him to delay the impending full Senate vote on PIPA scheduled for January 24.

As the letter (which was cc’ed to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)) reads:

Since the mark-up, we have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights. Moreover, in light of potential cybersecurity implications, we believe hearing from the Administration and relevant agencies is imperative.

Reid in mid December filed cloture, breaking a block on PIPA that was put in place by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to prevent the legislation from moving forward. Reid’s move meant that the full Senate would have to quickly vote on PIPA despite the rising tide of opposition to the bill and calls to slow the process down.

As Donny Shaw points out at OpenCongress: The letter marks an “incredible turn of events,” given that support for PIPA seemed so high just a few short weeks ago.

And in perhaps the best sign yet that the online protests started by Reddit are having their intended affect, SOPA sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and PIPA sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) both released statements on their official websites over the past 48 hours announcing that they would be at least delaying the implementation of one of the more reviled aspects shared by both SOPA and PIPA, the one that would force Internet Service Providers (companies including AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and Time Warner) to impose Domain Name Service (DNS) blocking on foreign webpages accused of hosting pirated content. Essentially, the DNS blocking provisions would force ISPs to show an error message when consumers try to navigate to a website accused of piracy.

After hearing from various constituents and industry personnel who pointed out that the provision would essentially break the Internet for U.S. users, both lawmakers decided it is time to put the breaks on at least that part of the anti-piracy effort.

Smith was the more reactive of the two to these complaints, saying he would remove entirely the DNS blocking provision from SOPA.

“After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the [House Judiciary] Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision,” Smith wrote in a statement posed on his website Friday. “We will continue to look for ways to ensure that foreign websites cannot sell and distribute illegal content to U.S. consumers.”

Critically, Smith’s statement doesn’t say that the DNS provision will be eliminated entirely, only that it will be temporarily removed until “further examination” occurs.

That would likely entail more hearings involving “technical experts,” aka “the nerds,” Web entrepreneurs and engineers like Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, who are due to testify in a hearing on January 18 at a separate committee, the House Oversight Committee, which is chaired by stalwart SOPA critic Rep. Darrell Issa.

And the rest of Smith’s statement continues to explain just why SOPA was needed and why it was the perfect solution to cracking down on online piracy. Apparently, it just needed a little tweaking.

Intriguingly, this is actually the second major tweak Smith has made to SOPA on his own volition since he introduced it into the House in late October 2011. Smith also introduced a manager’s amendement in December attempting to narrow the definitions of what could be considered a “rogue” website under the bills, but critics weren’t satisfied, pointing out numerous other problems the remaining over-broad language.

Still, Smith’s turnabout is impressive, and especially rich given that less than 24 hours prior, he gave an interview to Reuters defying his critics and vowing to pass the legislation.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), sponsor of PIPA, couched his words even more. On Thursday, his office released a statement to the following effect:

“I remain confident that the ISPs - including the cable industry, which is the largest association of ISPs - would not support the legislation if its enactment created the problems that opponents of this provision suggest. Nonetheless, this is in fact a highly technical issue, and I am prepared to recommend we give it more study before implementing it.

“As I prepare a managers’ amendment to be considered during the floor debate, I will therefore propose that the positive and negative effects of this provision be studied before implemented, so that we can focus on the other important provisions in this bill, which are essential to protecting American intellectual property online, and the American jobs that are tied to intellectual property.”

As SOPA critic and IP expert Mike Masnick pointed out at Techdirt, however, “That is NOT removing the DNS blocking provisions. It is merely delaying them.” Still, Masnick was more celebratory about the late Friday developments, writing “All of this, by the way, is because tons of you (tons!) have stepped up and reached out to your Reps. and Senators and let them know that these bills are unacceptable. Let’s see if Harry Reid, Patrick Leahy and Lamar Smith finally admit that they, too, can hear you.”

Markham Erickson, executive director of Net Coalition, a Web industry group that represents Google, Facebook and numerous other leading brands, released a statement Friday applauding the move but saying it didn’t go far enough: “”While we await details on revisions to the House and Senate legislation, we wish to underscore that significant amendments still need to be made. Significant concerns with the private right of action, mandated search filtering, and legal risk and uncertainty still remain.”

Indeed, as Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge, an online citizens’ rights organization, said in a statement released to the press late Friday: “While we are pleased that some progress is being made, we are also firm in our opposition to both bills because some very bad provisions remain. The bills are still over-broad in their reach, for example (as in the Senate bill) allowing court orders against anyone a providing ‘directory, index, reference, pointer, or hypertext link.’ Both bills still include a private right of action with few protections from abuse, meaning that sites can be killed without ever being proven to violate copyright.”

And as Andrew Rasiej, Chair of NY Tech Meetup’s Board told TPM via telephone: “If Reid decides to cancel the vote, we’ll turn our protest into a celebration.”

Related:

How SOPA 2.0 Sneaks In A Really Dangerous Private Ability To Kill Any Website (including FR)

House Budget Chair, Paul Ryan (R-Wi) announces he no longer supports SOPA

Take a moment to first sign the TPN Stop SOPA petition

Also, A request to the American People- Nationwide Protest against NDAA- ACTION ALERT - Seems the Occupy Protestors are jointing the Tea Party and other conservative groups in this endeavor.  SOPA is believed to work hand in had with NDAA.

Which One Is Your Neighbor?

Map Of FEMA Camps: Find The One Nearest You!

Which one is your neighbor? Do you consider FEMA Camps an undesirable neighbor? How many are in your neighborhood?

Preparing for What is Coming as Government is Activating Fema Camps Across U.S.

-->  Single state defies Obama detention plan <--

How about your state?

Related:

Homeland Security Moves to Man FEMA Camps

How Homeland Security Monitors Its US Journalists

NDAA – Wake-up America

Montanans Launch Recall of Senators Who Approved NDAA Military Detention – Updated

Silent Running – Targeting of Americans

Martial Law Attempt in Louisiana Echoes Ron Paul’s Warning

Nazification of America

Stratfor Security Breach Was Not For Credit Card Data According to Hackers

SOPA and PIPA Sponsors Caving In to Opposition  -  These are designed work along with NDAA

A request to the American People- Nationwide Protest against NDAA- ACTION ALERT -  Seems the Occupy Protestors are joining the Tea Party and other conservative groups in this endeavor.

BFP Report: Meet the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘Distinguished’ Privacy Advisory Committee Members

Wednesday, 30. November 2011

Let’s See Who is Watching DHS Mega Fusion Center

Yesterday I came across an article on DHS plans to create its own internal fusion center so that its many agencies can aggregate the data they have and make it searchable from a central location. Let’s read a few excerpts from this typical half-hearted MSM attempt to provide a semi-complete picture of the state of ‘things’ when it comes to our government:

Information sharing (or lack thereof) between intelligence agencies has been a sensitive topic in the U.S. After 9/11, there was a push to create fusion centers so that local, state, and federal agencies could share intelligence, allowing the FBI, for example, to see if the local police have anything in their files on a particular individual. Now the Department of Homeland Security wants to create its own internal fusion center so that its many agencies can aggregate the data they have and make it searchable from a central location…

Of course this is another troubling development in an extremely troubling state of ‘things.’ However, this wasn’t the focus my attention. Here comes the not-really-reported angle in this half-covered story [All emphasis mine]:

The DHS is calling it a “Federated Information Sharing System” and asked its privacy advisory committee to weigh in on the repercussions at a public meeting in D.C. last month…

So what is this ‘privacy advisory committee’ and who are its members? This is what the article provides on that front:

The committee, consisting of an unpaid group of people from the world of corporate privacy as well as the civil liberty community, were asked last December to review the plan and provide feedback on which privacy protections need to be put in place when info from DHS components (which include the TSA, the Secret Service, and Immigration Services, to name a few) are consolidated. The committee raised concerns about who would get access to the data given the potentially comprehensive profile this would provide of American citizens…

It sounds good. Doesn’t it? It hits all the rights adjectives and catch phrases: Unpaid, Civil Liberties Community, Corporate Privacy Activists-Experts …Let’s read one more relevant excerpt and then I’ll tell you the ‘real’ significance of this half-covered report:

The committee’s recommendations are available in draft form below. DHS would not provide the original document — a “tasking letter” — that it issued to the committee describing its plans. But DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division did announce this month that it had awarded a contract to Raytheon for a “new system [that] will enhance how agencies manage, investigate, and report on law enforcement and intelligence activities by improving data sharing between multiple law-enforcement agencies,” reported Information Week. Raytheon’s work started on September 27, a week before the privacy committee got back to DHS with its draft privacy policy recommendations (available below). The committee noted that it had been given an “aggressive timeline” by DHS on coming up with its recommendations…

What got my mind wondering, what should have gotten the wheels turning in MSM reporters’ head, was this question:

Who are the members of this ‘selected’ aka government hand-picked, privacy-integrity advisory committee?

An important and very logical question, no? And I tell you what, not a difficult one to find an answer to. The article even had a link to the DHS website where the members of this ‘select’ committee are listed by name with their background. Check for yourself here. Because the information contained in this page is at least as significant and revealing as the point half-covered in this quasi exposé. Let me show you a few examples of what I am talking about here:

Chairman: Richard V. Purcell, Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Privacy Group, Nordland, Wash. Mr. Purcell runs an independent privacy consulting group, focusing on policies, practices, and education. He is currently Chairman of TRUSTe and was formally the Chief Privacy Officer for the Microsoft Corporation.

Well, Mr. Purcell had served Microsoft Corporations for many years, and only recently left MS to start his ‘vague’ consulting business.

In 2003 Microsoft was chosen as exclusive Department of Homeland Security contractor.

DHS has chosen Microsoft Corp. as its preferred supplier of desktop computer and server software, according to a statement issued late Tuesday…The contract “establishes a key partnership relationship” between the government and Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, the statement said…The deal is worth $90 million.

The business (and the large dollars involved) between Microsoft and DHS has been growing and prospering ever since. Every year, including this year, 2011, Microsoft is listed as one of DHS’ major private business contractors. Are you with me so far? Now during all these lucrative Microsoft-DHS business marriage years, Mr. Purcell was working as the CPO at Microsoft. Not only that, he was royally exposed in his involvement in the Microsoft-NSA Key-Echelon case and its subsequent cover up. You can read more on this major 2000 exposé and related communications here at Cryptome. Here is the title of the exposé and some background on Microsoft’s and Purcell’s  ‘intimate’ involvement in the NSA Key controversy and the subsequent cover up:

Microsoft Offer to Resolve “Questions About NSA_Key”, then Put Up a Brick Wall

Background : Duncan Campbell gave a presentation on Global surveillance and the Echelon network at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy 2000 (CFP2000) conference held in Toronto, Canada from 4-7 April 2000. During the presentation, he instanced the NSA_KEY controversy as one of a number of outstanding issues related to security and surveillance.

Richard Purcell, Microsoft’s Director of Corporate Privacy, also attended the CFP2000 conference. After the presentation, Purcell approached Campbell. He said that he wished to resolved the doubts about NSA_KEY. He would see that this was done.

Campbell then put a number of key questions, politely but persistently. After three weeks, Microsoft backed off. They refused to answer outstanding questions. They declined even to explain why they were unwilling to continue contact. They stopped answering e-mail.
…

I encourage you to read the entire communication-correspondence between the investigator and Purcell’s unit at Microsoft here. Also check out this article on ‘How NSA Access was Built into Microsoft Windows.’

You see, our government, the Department of Homeland Security, could not have cherry-picked a better candidate as its Chairman of Privacy-Integrity Advisory Committee. With his long years in Microsoft as an executive until recently, with his stocks and shares tied to Microsoft, with his proven track record in covering up privacy and liberty-violating government-private business collusion and practices, Mr. Richard Purcell appears to be the best candidate to chair the Department of Homeland Security’s ‘Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.’

Let’s check out another hand-selected colluder by DHS for its mockery of an advisory board on ‘privacy and integrity’:

Christopher Pierson, Chief Privacy Officer and Senior Vice President, Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (Royal Bank of Scotland- RBS). Dr. Pierson was President and Chairman of the Board of the Intraguard Phoenix Member’s Alliance, Inc., from 2003-2007 and served on the Arizona Office of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Coordinating Council from 2003-2006.

Well, right off the bat, this dude used to directly work for the Department of Homeland Security; 2003-2006. Now, what is this the Intraguard Phoenix Member’s Alliance, Inc.? Here are a few noteworthy excerpts from its website:

Arizona InfraGard is an alliance between the Arizona Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and individuals committed to protecting the nation’s infrastructure and its people. The members, who are representative of all infrastructure sectors, public and private, identify and mitigate physical and cyber threats through information sharing. Arizona InfraGard promotes best practices, security awareness and training, community outreach, and the exchange of information between law enforcement and infrastructure owners and operators.

So we have Mr. Christopher Pierson hand-picked by the DHS to watch over DHS practices and objectively advise on whether certain policies and practices violate the people’s privacy and integrity. The man used to work for them-the DHS, he worked with the FBI to help ‘share data,’ and now he will watch out for your privacy and mine!

Let’s check out other member:

David A. Hoffman, Director of Security Policy and Global Privacy Officer, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, Ore. Mr. Hoffman has experience in privacy policy issues at the business and technical level, working on issues of interoperability, improved data quality, and data retention. He serves on the board of directors for the non-profit privacy compliance organization, TRUSTe.

Where do I begin? Let’s begin with Intel Corporation’s business and services to the federal government as a contractor. They had so much that they had to form a wholly owned subsidiary ‘Intel Federal LLC.’ Of course Intel has major contracts and advisory positions with DHS. Oh, interestingly he is closely connected to Richard Purcell, the Chairman of this DHS mockery privacy advisory committee. Purcell is the chairman of this TRUSTe, and Hoffman serves on its board of directors. And here is another blurb on Hoffman from a release only 3 months ago:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a nonprofit public-private partnership focused on cybersecurity awareness and education for all digital citizens, today announced that David Hoffman, director of security policy and global privacy officer at Intel Corporation, has joined the organization’s board of directors.

…

NCSA board includes all our government partners and contributors to its surveillance program:

NCSA board members include: ADP, AT&T, Bank of America, Cisco Systems, EMC Corporation, ESET, Facebook, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Google, Intel, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Services, McAfee, Microsoft, PayPal, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Symantec, Verizon and Visa…

Please check the list of this laughable privacy advisory board and continue this thread. Whether it is a member from other government contractor moguls like IBM, or academics from University departments generously and heavily funded by our governments, or lap-dog watch-dog organizations funded by the shadow government players such as Rockefellers, Soros, Carnegie, Ford…you’ll see a board of clowns juggling self-interest and profits while faking advisory roles on the 99% absent-privacy and long-gone integrity committee.

Please follow the links in the article to find out more.

Also check out this article on ‘How NSA Access was Built into Microsoft Windows.’

Source:  Boiling Frogs  - h/t to Jean Stoner

Feds to Cut Off All TV and Radio Broadcasts on 11.09.11 - Is There a Connection Here? You Be the Judge…

DID YOU KNOW THE FEDS WILL TEMPORARILY CUT OFF ALL TV AND RADIO BROADCASTS ON NOV. 9th, 2011 (11.09.11)?

The Blaze: If you have ever wondered about the government’s ability to control the civilian airwaves, you will have your answer on November 9th.

On that day, federal authorities are going to shut off all television and radio communications simultaneously at 2:00PM EST to complete the first ever test of the national Emergency Alert System (EAS).

This isn’t a wild conspiracy theory. The upcoming test is posted on the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau website.

Only the President has the authority to activate EAS at the national level, and he has delegated that authority to the Director of FEMA.  The test will be conducted jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through  FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS).

In essence, the authority to seize control of all television and civilian communication has been asserted by the executive branch and handed to a government agency.

The EAS has been around since 1994. Its precursor, the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), started back in 1963.  Television and radio broadcasters, satellite radio and satellite television providers,  cable television and wireline video providers are all involved in the system.

So this begs the question: is the first ever national EAS test really a big deal?

Probably not. At least, not yet.

But there are some troubling factors all coming together right now that could conceivably trigger a real usage of the EAS system in the not too distant future.  A European financial collapse could bring down U.S. markets. What is now the “Occupy” movement could lead to widespread civil unrest. And there are ominous signs that radical groups such as Anonymous will attempt something major on November 5th- Guy Fawke’s day.

Now we know in the event of a major crisis, the American people will be told with one voice, at the same time, about an emergency.

All that’s left to determine is who will have control of the EAS when that day comes, and what their message will be.

THE STATE CAN ‘SEIZE CONTROL’ AND ‘THERE IS NOTHING I CAN DO’: GLENN BECK WEIGHS IN ON NOV. 9TH EMERGENCY BROADCAST TEST

The Blaze recently reported that at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, November 9th, The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission will conduct the first-ever national test of the Emergency Alert System, where radio and televised broadcasts across the country will be disrupted for roughly…three-and-half minutes:

“In essence, the authority to seize control of all television and civilian communication has been asserted by the executive branch and handed to a government agency,” wrote Buck Sexton in our earlier report.

During the upcoming test, an audio message will likely recite, “this is a test” while text at the top of the screen might read that an “Emergency Alert Notification has been issued.”

While emergency broadcast tests are typically used by state and local governments to issue severe weather alerts and other emergency information, there has never been a nationwide activation of the system before. Federal agencies cite the reasons for the national test are to ensure emergency preparedness and to pinpoint flaws in the new EAS system.

Meanwhile, the thought of the nation’s broadcast systems being completely cut off for nearly four minutes — in addition to broadcasters being stripped of control — has left many, including Glenn, feeling unsettled over who, exactly, will have power over our airwaves.

When speaking about the old EBS tests, Glenn said that it “didn’t take control away from the broadcaster.” The new system, however, “seizes control of the broadcast frequency.”

“If the state wants to take control…they can just take it and there is nothing I can do about it” Glenn stated.

Watch Glenn discuss these unsettling developments in the video HERE:

Seems There Are Going to be a lot of Unusual Things Going on Around that Time…  Is There a Connection Here? You Be the Judge…

From the Intel Hub
Massive Tsunami Drill Coincides With Continent Killer Asteroids Close Pass In November

Excerpt:

The following is to take place November 9 – 10, 2011 according to the International Tsunami Information Center — the conspiracy deepens:

9-10 November 2011: In August 2010, the PTWS Steering Committee (SC) met to discuss the progress of the PTWS during the intersessional period, including the next PTWS exercise. Considering the general objectives of PACWAVE08, the SC approved the PACWAVE Summary Report and requested Working Groups 2 and 3 (Tsunami Detection, Warning and Dissemination; Tsunami Awareness and Response) to cooperate in the preparation of an end-to-end communication exercise PACWAVE11 in November 2011. The actual evacuation of local communities (or parts of it) will be left to the decision of local or national authorities. A PTWS Exercises Task Team was formed, chaired by ITIC and New Zealand, to organize the exercise and elaborate on detailed scenarios.PacWave11 will be held on 9-10 November 2011 as a multi-scenario exercise that will allow all PTWS countries to exercise using a destructive local or regional tsunami scenario.  PacWave 11 will also be used to introduce new tsunami advisory products of the PTWC that were proposed by the PTWS Enhanced Tsunami Warning Products Task Team and approved by ICG/PTWS-XXIV. IOC Circular Letter 2390 was issued on 13 May 2011 announcing the exercise and requesting PTWS Countries to nominate a PacWave11 focal point.  IOC Manual and Guides 58 on How to Plan, Conduct, and Evaluate Tsunami Exercises was issued in July 2011.  The PacWave11 Exercise Manual (IOC TS 97) was published in August 2011.  UNESCO will issue a press release on 1 November 2011.

UN (UNESCO) Exercise Pacific Wave 11
There is a Naval Operation happening on Nov 9-10 called Exercise Pacific Wave 11,  to take place on Nov 9-10, 2011.

Exercise Pacific Wave 11
http://itic.ioc-unesco.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1686&Itemid=2333&lang=en
Letter from above site
http://itic.ioc-unesco.org/images/docs/ioc_cl_no.2390.pdf

Flyer for the exercise
http://itic.ioc-unesco.org/images/docs/pacwave11_flyer.pdf
Note this link at the bottom is where  you can download pdf files (also click the documents tab for more documents).

Exercise Pacific Wave 11. A Pacific-wide Tsunami Warning and Communication Exercise, 9–10 November 2011
http://www.ioc-cd.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewEventRecord&eventID=998
This google document allows you to see the entire document, while the pdf file below I could only see the title page.
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:hwVUW_MiPq4J:unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002114/211498e.pdf+execise+pacific+wave+11&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjaJrzpgJU5CyMd28bUDXVifyrlHMGS83rSazE0Lt_A7pHnXHVRkcEieQh6tmpstPen73gzvlBb4esUUvoqcMU96qQeUCsE5Q2xM72MVFuJEsGt1-djuMqc79BX9jxi7cA-oTYv&sig=AHIEtbQ6eVIZDGJkCkh_lCZiW-UTqzx4mA&pli=1
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission

Technical Series
EXERCISE PACIFIC WAVE 11
A Pacific-wide Tsunami Warning and Communication Exercise
9–10 November 2011
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002114/211498e.pdf (this file will lock up and  you will only see the title page)

This page allows you to download the manual
http://www.ioc-cd.org/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewDocumentRecord&docID=7707
Scroll down until you see on google doc p 25, & p 26

"Sample Tsunami Energy Forecast Map" and "Sample Coastal Tsunami Threat Map"
This isn't the first time Exercise Pacific Wave has been done. It was done in 2006 on May 16 and 17 using Philippines and Chile tsunami sources. Java is in roughly the same region as the Philippines and experienced several large devastating EQs (and a tsunami) soon after the exercise.

Pacific Wave was done again from October 28-30, 2008, and used a northeast Japan source.

Coincidentally there are other exercises scheduled.
Mega tsunami drill in Crete, Greece right now

The scenario:

An 8R scale earthquake strikes close to the island of Crete. A huge tsunami is generated.
The exercise is based on the July 365 BC tsunami when an undersea earthquake measuring over 8R occurred in the sea west of Crete and caused not only huge geological changes on the island, but terrible disasters, exacerbated by a tsunami that led to erase from the map dozens of cities Crete and caused thousands of dead.

The drill

The Pan-European wide drill called "Poseidon" was organized "on the map" last May and takes place these days 24 and October 25 on location (the schedule was for Chania but I heard that they included Heraklion too -the two biggest cities of Crete) .

On location, there are "watchers" from over 30 countries participating in the European Civil Protection Mechanism.  (I heard on tv that it concerns especially all the countries that are around the Mediterranean Sea).

Video: ΑΣΚΗΣΗ ΓΙΑ ΤΣΟΥΝΑΜΙ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGBrDbOFUmg&feature=player_embedded

Poseidon is a program funded by the European Union, aimed to prepare the Civil Protection Mechanism in Greece to deal with a devastating earthquake tsunami, through the cooperation of Civil Protection Authorities at local, regional, national and European level. The Civil Protection Authorities of Cyprus and France participate in this project and an evaluation of the exercise will be performed through the European Civil Protection Mechanism.

Check this too (both from the same site):  Successful test of the Tsunami Warning System in North-eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas

Paris, 10 August – The communication network of the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System for the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas (NEAMTWS) was tested successfully on 10 August, marking a leap forward for the system which was initiated under the aegis of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) in 2005.

The test involved the Tsunami Warning Focal Points of 31 countries in the region. They received a test message at 10.36 UTC via electronic mail, fax and the Global Telecommunications System (GTS) from the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI, Turkey). Early results show the messages were well received within a few minutes of being sent.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokov

a expressed satisfaction over the success of the test. “This past decade alone has shown us the terrible destructive power of earthquakes and tsunami on several occasions,” said the Director-General. “Today’s test represents a significant step towards improving security for the lives of tens of millions of people in the North-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, and meeting UNESCO’s ambition of establishing early warning systems globally.”
http://neamtic.ioc-unesco.org/

Also another drill October 12
Malaysia and 19 other nations to join Tsunami alert test
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/10/7/nation/20111007093729&sec=nation

Shelby County Hospital (TN)
http://www.lakelandtn.gov/pdfs/emergency/Volunteer%20Announcement%2011%2009%2011%20Community%20Exercise.pdf

On November 9, 2011 hospital personnel and various first responder agencies from the MidSouth region will participate in a community medical exercise. This exercise will provide practical training experience to prepare for medical response during a large scale event. On Wednesday November 9th, hospital personnel will work with volunteer patients playing the role of injured victims to provide a realistic and practical experience in treatment and response Oddly enough…the UK’s NEAF Nuclear Emergency Exercise has Exercise Nightstar 11 on 9 November 2011.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/emergexeprog.htm

Nightstar is an annual ‘live play’ demonstration of emergency arrangements.
Lessons learned from previous Nightstar...

Here is a website that has a simulation:
http://thetruthbehindthescenes.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/what-would-happen-if-asteroid-2005-yu55-hit-earth/

§ 1.7 Earth Impact by an Asteroid: Prospects and Effects
http://www.permanent.com/a-impact.htm

400 meter-wide asteroid to make pass by Earth

Posted on October 25, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol

October 25, 2011 – A 1300-foot-wide (400 meters) asteroid, which is more than one and a half times the length of a soccer pitch, will pass within 0.85 lunar distances of the Earth on November 8/9, 2011. Discovered on December 28, 2005 by Robert McMillan of the Spacewatch Program near Tucson, Arizona, 2005 YU55 is believed to be a very dark, nearly spherical object. According to NASA’s Near Earth Object Program: “Although classified as a potentially hazardous object, 2005 YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over at least the next 100 years. However, this will be the closest approach to date by an object this large that we know about in advance and an event of this type will not happen again until 2028 when asteroid (153814) 2001 WN5 will pass to within 0.6 lunar distances.” While neither the European Space Agency (ESA) nor NASA has suggested that YU55 poses a threat to Earth, plans to develop a mission to counteract a potential asteroid collision in the future are already underway. The ESA is planning to fire an ‘impactor’ satellite into a ‘test’ asteroid in 2015 to see if the object’s trajectory can be altered.  The Agency is conducting the test mission in light of the minimal threat posed by the 700-1100-foot-wide 99942 Apophis asteroid, which has a one in 250,000 chance of impacting Earth in 2036. -IWO

See this on the web page > Current trajectory of space object 2005 YU55

** Are the dates of the first-ever national test of the Emergency Alert System, instead of the usual state or local tests, coinciding with all the unusual ‘natural’ occurrences on or around 11.9.11 as well as the on-going global manmade OWS protests coincidental, planned, really a test, if so a test for what or is it the dreaded spark to set off a national emergency, to test ‘their’ ability to ignite a spark for a coming planned event for the future or the actual spark beginning the takeover by a Global NWO??? 

Food for thought… You be the judge!  And if it is more than coincidence are you prepared? **

Related:

Call a Radio Show, Get Recorded by the FBI… And Gov’t to Take Control of Communications Temporarily on 11/9/11

FEMA Communication Takeover Test Scheduled for November 9

Post-September 11, NSA ‘enemies’ include us & Homeland Security new Blacklist Policy

Post-September 11, NSA ‘enemies’ include us

Somewhere between Sept. 11 and today, the enemy morphed from a handful of terrorists to the American population at large, leaving us nowhere to run and no place to hide.

Within weeks of the attacks, the giant ears of the National Security Agency, always pointed outward toward potential enemies, turned inward on the American public itself. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, established 23 years before to ensure that only suspected foreign agents and terrorists were targeted by the NSA, would be bypassed. Telecom companies, required by law to keep the computerized phone records of their customers confidential unless presented with a warrant, would secretly turn them over in bulk to the NSA without ever asking for a warrant.

Around the country, in tall, windowless telecom company buildings known as switches, NSA technicians quietly began installing beam-splitters to redirect duplicate copies of all phone calls and email messages to secret rooms behind electronic cipher locks.

There, NSA software and hardware designed for “deep packet inspection” filtered through the billions of email messages looking for key names, words, phrases and addresses. The equipment also monitored phone conversations and even what pages people view on the Web — the porn sites they visit, the books they buy on Amazon, the social networks they interact with and the text messages they send and receive.

Because the information is collected in real time, attempting to delete history caches from a computer is useless.

At the NSA, thousands of analysts who once eavesdropped on troop movements of enemy soldiers in distant countries were now listening in on the bedroom conversations of innocent Americans in nearby states.

“We were told that we were to listen to all conversations that were intercepted, to include those of Americans,” Adrienne Kinne, a former NSA “voice interceptor,” told me. She was recalled to active duty after Sept. 11.

“Some of those conversations are personal,” she said. “Some even intimate. … I had a real problem with the fact that people were listening to it and that I was listening to it. … When I was on active duty in ’94 to ’98, we would never collect on an American.”

Despite his hollow campaign protests, President Barack Obama has greatly expanded what President George W. Bush began. And through amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Congress largely ratified the secret Bush program.

So much intercepted information is now being collected from “enemies” at home and abroad that, in order to store it all, the agency last year began constructing the ultimate monument to eavesdropping. Rising in a remote corner of Utah, the agency’s gargantuan data storage center will be 1 million square feet, cost nearly $2 billion and likely be capable of eventually holding more than a yottabyte of data — equal to about a septillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of text.

Read more: ttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62999.html#ixzz1Xm6j0XgI  -  Source: Politico - JAMES BAMFORD

Homeland Security new Blacklist Policy

September 8, 2011

A new report issued by Homeland Security Policy Institute, a "think and do tank", entitled "Counterterrorism Intelligence Law Enforcement Perspectives" calls for further centralization of the anti-terror apparatus inside the United States.

The changing, converging nature of threats faced today — especially those from terrorism, transnational crime and the use of technology to carry out criminal behavior — make it imperative that intelligence-led policing be integrated into the decentralized police structures and community policing principles of the United States.

The report lists a hierarchy of threats that include an overall "evolutionary shift" toward "a blended terror threat that unites foreign directed or inspired attacks with homegrown elements and operators."
This policy paper forms the new narrative that could justify the continuing infiltration and crackdown upon peaceful protest, civil disobedience, and even the questioning of American foreign policy and Homeland Security directives, whether on the street or in cyberspace.
The report opens with quotes from the two most ideologically repressive representatives of the Homeland Security initiative: John Ashcroft and Janet Napolitano.  Both of their quotes speak to coordinating federal and local efforts in the "war on terror," which HSPI interpreted as "accepted wisdom that weaving together of national efforts at the local, state, and federal levels is critical to US counterterrorism."
The preface to the report suggests that the current status of intelligence gathering and local police work is in vast disarray, "there is a consensus that . . . intelligence capabilities are lacking, collection is haphazard, resources are underutilized, and the U.S. has a limited ability to develop anticipatory knowledge concerning future attacks, mitigate risks, or respond to emerging threats."
This statement is meant to obfuscate the fact that a vast counterintelligence apparatus has been in place for some time, which includes, but is not limited to:

• 72 Threat Assessment Fusion Centers
• Citizen spy network directly reporting to the above-mentioned Fusion Centers
• COINTELPRO-style infiltration, surveillance, and harassment of activist groups, even those promoting peace and anti-war.
• Social network and Internet surveillance including hackers and paid bloggers to infiltrate sites and/or disseminate propaganda.
• Identity databases, including biometrics, pre-crime detection, no-fly lists, no-buy lists.

From this faulty assessment of how taxpayer money has already been spent to create a massive prison system for both body and mind, the report presents its foundational findings via surveys that indicate the merging of terrorists foreign and domestic.  This hierarchy reads as follows, and is supported by graphs and charts that indicate the responses from "intelligence unit commanders of the US' major metropolitan areas (who) continue to perceive terrorism as a real threat to the safety of their communities."

1. Homegrown / Domestic Terrorists
2. al-Qaeda / International Terrorists
3. Transnational Gangs / Organized Crime
4. Terror Support Groups
5. Drug Trafficking Organizations
6. Traditional Criminals

This hierarchy of perceived threats is then merged into an overall assessment of capabilities and intentions, which reveals that the twin concerns are first to "Spread Narrative" and second "Fundraising / Money Laundering."  Here we can begin to see the future direction of Homeland Security counterterrorism operations: banking and the Internet.
This conclusion is supported by the rest of the document which cites the need for centralization, precisely because the "enemy" is decentralized:

Most likely AQAP due to their decentralized outreach capabilities and ability to recruit via social media campaigns (i.e. Inspire.)

Furthermore, the base of operations apparently has shifted from the sands of the Middle East to "using the United States as an environment for building support and raising recruits."

Strangely, the report goes on to refute the idea that the overall system is in disarray by citing evidence that there is already cohesion in information sharing regarding the threat landscape.  Respondents overwhelmingly reported that they "Often" send and receive information to and from their local fusion center, while a majority indicated that they currently participate in the "reporting, tracking, and accessing" of the nationwide suspicious activity reporting initiative (NSI) which is nothing more than a catalog of citizen spy information fed predominantly from the private sector to law enforcement and upward to Homeland Security. Sharing is further solidified online through participation in the eGuardian system.

These local respondents also seem dangerously (or curiously) eager to sacrifice their autonomy, as they "placed greater importance on the information provided by federal authorities." Despite a cursory concern for privacy protection "the vast majority of respondents indicated that their departments would be willing to go beyond the sharing of information and share the sources from which the information originates (including confidential informants)."  In short, whatever it takes, and by all means necessary.

Finally, it is clear that local law enforcement is comfortable with the new hierarchy dictated to them by the Federal apparatus.  When asked to cite how they go about their intelligence gathering they "indicated that they turn primarily to federal officials or agencies for guidance" such as the FBI -- most often cited -- with DHS, the CIA, and military intelligence rounding out the agencies our local police wish to emulate in "structures and efforts."

In so doing, local police are seeking the currently unnamed intelligence "products" of such information-gathering efforts, which will be the subject of future inquiry.

And what was the #1 source listed for the gathering and sharing of this information?  Information from citizens -- not federal agencies.  The reason for this conclusion is cited at the end of the report which acknowledges a "time of increasing austerity" that implies might hamper the development and implementation of surveillance and data collection technology.  But the citizens of a country remain a resource easily tapped.  We should keep this firmly in mind as we look outward for signs of oppression.  Are we willing to take equal responsibility for what America currently has become, and for the direction it is headed? We have been slated as "practioners" in the role of national security, and as the report's final statement makes clear:

How practitioners conceptualize and perceive of the threat is of vital importance, their perceptions affect which threats are detected and when.  Furthermore, their perceptions represent an empirical guide for targeting the tools needed to develop anticipatory intelligence.  Whether, and how well this is done depends on the perceptions of the practitioners themselves...

We encourage you to read the full 22-page PDF, which seems to provide the justification for the next phase of the control grid which will affect every American throughout the real and virtual landscape.  Please comment below with your analysis and conclusions, as well as ideas for preserving our liberty during a time of heightened suspicion and paranoia that is now clearly re-directing its efforts onto American soil as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches

Print Version

Source: Activist Post - http://www.blacklistednews.com/New_Homeland_Security_Report_Sees_%22Evolutionary_Shift%22_in_Terror_Threat_/15622/0/0/0/Y/M.html

Airports to begin strip-searching passengers

You might want to take a minute to say goodbye to your personal liberties. They're flying right out the window -- and, as usual, it's all in the name of "protecting the public." You knew this was coming... After the failed terror attempt on Christmas day, the federal Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has decided to step up its security screenings. Their solution? Strip-search every passenger. It's not by hand, mind you, but it may as well be. The TSA plans to begin using full-body X-ray scanners that would essentially strip passengers of their clothing -- and their dignity. With these new scanners, no details would be left to the imagination -- which is just how the feds like it. Yup, Big Brother is a big perv. (And this will not solve the problem, nor is it necessary and it ads a new threat) But I'm not sure which is worse: The threat to your privacy or the threat to your health. Like X-rays, the new machines use radiation to create these indecent exposures. The experts claim that the low dose of radiation is perfectly safe -- even for children and pregnant women. That is absolutely untrue! Baloney. Exposing pregnant women to radiation can lead to grossly disfigured babies or can even cause women to miscarry. It's no coincidence that five female security guards had miscarriages after working with these supposedly safe machines. And it's not much safer for adults. Radiation can damage DNA and cause structural damage to your cells -- both of which can lead to cancer. In fact, Dr. John Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, believes that 50 percent of all cancers are caused by the radiation from medical tests -- the same ones meant to "protect" you by detecting cancer early! Bottom line: If you don't want to be fried with ionizing radiation every time you fly -- and if you'd rather not have airport workers paid to be peeping toms...you won't stand for this outright invasion of your rights. When it comes to these full-body X-rays, I don't care how low the dose is. There is no safe level of ionizing radiation. Period.

Dr. William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

It is time Americans began using some common sense, stop giving up their liberties for protection or the illusion of safety (which never helps or works out well), stop letting the government endanger our health and start demanding that the government worry about Americans and their rights and health instead of what “the world” thinks us!

We need to be proactive not reactive and insist the government use methods that work to insure homeland security and stop endangering us and our children with half-backed ideas and so-called medical, chemical, and electronic methods that actually damage our health and take away our freedoms!

Time to do what works: profiling and Israeli type security measures instead of radiating babies and hassling granny over a bottle of shampoo.

Must watch-Radical Islam and the Future of the West

The Third Jihad - The FREE 30-Minute Version

30-Minute Version of the New Documentary Film. The Third Jihad exposes the war the media is not telling you about. It reveals the enemy most western governments are too afraid to name.

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser is a Muslim American and former physician to the US Congress. After the FBI releases a radical Islamist manifesto describing how to destroy America from within, Dr. Jasser decides to investigate. The Third Jihad is about what he discovered.

Interviewees include Rudy Giuliani, Clinton CIA Director Jim Woolsey, NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Senator Joe Lieberman, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, and former terrorist group member Tawfik Hamid.

Hat tip: New Zeal

Ivana Trump Escorted Off Plane: Napolitano Declares 'The System Worked'

In response to a Nigerian Muslim trying to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, the government will now prohibit international travelers from going to the bathroom in the last hour before the plane lands.

Terrorists who plan to bomb planes during the first seven hours of the eight-hour flight, however, should face no difficulties, provided they wait until after the complimentary beverage service has been concluded.

How do they know Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab didn't wait until the end of the flight to try to detonate explosives because he heard the stewardess announce that the food service was over and seats would have to be placed in their upright position? I can't finish my snack? This plane is going down!

Also prohibited in the last hour of international flights will be: blankets, pillows, computers and in-flight entertainment. Another triumph in Janet Napolitano's "Let's stay one step behind the terrorists" policy!

For the past eight years, approximately 2 million Americans a day have been subjected to humiliating searches at airport security checkpoints, forced to remove their shoes and jackets, to open their computers, and to remove all liquids from their carry-on bags, except minuscule amounts in marked 3-ounce containers placed in Ziploc plastic bags -- folding sandwich bags are verboten -- among other indignities.

This, allegedly, was the price we had to pay for safe airplanes. The one security precaution the government refused to consider was to require extra screening for passengers who looked like the last three-dozen terrorists to attack airplanes.

Since Muslims took down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, every attack on a commercial airliner has been committed by foreign-born Muslim men with the same hair color, eye color and skin color. Half of them have been named Mohammed.

An alien from the planet "Not Politically Correct" would have surveyed the situation after 9/11 and said: "You are at war with an enemy without uniforms, without morals, without a country and without a leader -- but the one advantage you have is they all look alike. ... What? ... What did I say?"

The only advantage we have in a war with stateless terrorists was ruled out of order ab initio by political correctness.

And so, despite 5 trillion Americans opening laptops, surrendering lip gloss and drinking breast milk in airports day after day for the past eight years, the government still couldn't stop a Nigerian Muslim from nearly blowing up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day.

The "warning signs" exhibited by this particular passenger included the following:

His name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

He's Nigerian.

He's a Muslim.

His name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

He boarded a plane in Lagos, Nigeria.

He paid nearly $3,000 in cash for his ticket.

He had no luggage.

His name was Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Two months ago, his father warned the U.S. that he was a radical Muslim and possibly dangerous.

If our security procedures can't stop this guy, can't we just dispense with those procedures altogether? What's the point exactly?

(To be fair, the father's warning might have been taken more seriously if he had not simultaneously asked for the U.S. Embassy's Social Security number and bank routing number in order to convey a $28 million inheritance that was trapped in a Nigerian bank account.)

The warning from Abdulmutallab's father put his son on some list, but not the "no fly" list. Apparently, it's tougher to get on the "no fly" list than it was to get into Studio 54 in the '70s. Currently, the only people on the "no fly" list" are the Blind Sheik and Sean Penn.
The government is like the drunk looking for his keys under a lamppost. Someone stops to help, and asks, "Is this where you lost them?" No, the drunk answers, but the light's better here.

The government refuses to perform the only possibly effective security check -- search Muslims -- so instead it harasses infinitely compliant Americans. Will that help avert a terrorist attack? No, but the Americans don't complain.

The only reason Abdulmutallab didn't succeed in bringing down an airplane with 278 passengers was that: (1) A brave Dutchman leapt from his seat and extinguished the smoldering Nigerian; and (2) the Nigerian apparently didn't have enough detonating fluid to cause a powerful explosion.

In addition to the no blanket, no computer, no bathroom rule, perhaps the airlines could add this to their preflight announcement about seat belts and emergency exits: "Should a passenger sitting near you attempt to detonate an explosive device, you may be called upon to render emergency assistance. Would you be willing to do so under those circumstances? If not we will assign you another seat ..."

By: Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of a long list of books including: Godless

The System ‘Worked Really Very, Very Smoothly’ in Detroit?

Exclusive: The System Failed...Miserably Presidential Policy: Does It Make the Grade?, James Carafano, PhD The administration has a lot to do. Let's hope they get it right before the jihadists get lucky.

Rash of 2009 Homegrown Terror Plots Ends ‘Denial' Steve Emerson How did homegrown radicalization develop? And will the flurry of terror cases in 2009 force the issue?

The System ‘Worked Really Very, Very Smoothly' in Detroit? Daniel Pipes Eight and a half years after 9/11, our counterterrorism apparatus still appears to be in catch-up mode. What needs to be done to bring security in line with 2010 threats?

Homeland Security 101 Frank Gaffney, Jr. Napolitano told CNN that, "Right now, we have no indication [that Abdulmutallab's actions were] part of anything larger." Not "part of anything larger"? Is she serious? Does she take us for fools?

Tightening the Noose on Foreign Policy Herbert London As the plans for American foreign policy are being debated in the White House and the corridors of Congress, it is increasingly apparent that the options are limited.

Video: ‘Underwear Bomb' Packed Enough Explosive to Bring Down Flight 253 Radio Interview: Witness Says Terrorist Suspect Aided Onto Northwest Flight Sans Passport Video: Janet Napolitano gets grilled by Matt Lauer about her statement that "the system worked." Video: President's Statement on Terror Plot "this was an isolated terrorist incident" Video: Krauthammer and Stephen Hayes Blast President's Statement on Iran Al Qaeda Leaders Behind Christmas Day Attack Were Released from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 Video: Flight 253 Terrorist Warns ‘More Like Me' Are Coming to America The Imprudent Tyranny of Harry Reid - writes legislation that 'cannot be repealed!' Why Was Umar AbdulMutallab in Houston? Whom Did He Visit There? What Did He Plan? Hail 2010! The year of the American Citizen! Detroit terror attack: Yemen is the true home of Al-Qaeda. America's Latest Wake-Up Call Came on Flight 253 It looks like Sarah Palin is right again, this time on the issue of profiling. Exclusive: Why Worry about a Muslim Center at Ground Zero? Rachel Lipsky Serious questions must be asked of the Imam behind the mosque planned at Ground Zero and essential, unambiguous answers should be demanded, before we engage in self destructive deeds which undermine our own freedom and security.

Health Care Reform: A Modest (Hippocratic) Proposal Paula D. Gordon, Ph.D. Congress has a choice: Pass the proposed legislation and risk repeal by those voted into office in 2010 or begin anew with some realistic, low cost, clearly stated initiatives. Which will they choose?

Exclusive: You Can't Make This Stuff Up! (12/29/09) The Editors A daily roundup of idiocy, buffoonery and incompetence - courtesy of your government and its enablers.

We choose, you peruse.

1. Underwear Bomb Revealed as Terror Suspect Warns More Attacks Coming (FOX)
2. Al Qaeda takes credit for plot to down plane (WT)
3. Illinois Congressman Says Obama Official Agreed That Moving Terrorists to U.S. Prison Would Increase Risk (CNS)
4. Homeland Security Touts 2009 Accomplishments, Including ‘Secure Flight' Program (CNS)
5. Al Qaeda's Clear Message - The U.S. has to rethink jihad's global recruitment of terrorists. (WSJ)
6. Six Uncomfortable Answers
7. Preventing the Next Terrorist Attack - by Andrew Cline
8. Cyber-security chief resigns in protest - Calls consolidation of power in National Security Agency 'bad strategy'
9. States Draft Bills Regarding State Sovereignty
10. Key security agencies lack permanent leaders (WT)
11. Putin: U.S. Missile Shield Holding Up Nuke Deal (FOX)
12. Cross the River, Burn the Bridge - Obamacare is the fast-track to a permanent left-of-center political culture. By Mark Steyn
13. The Tipping Point in Iran (WSJ)
14. ‘No Place in Constitution' Gives Congress Authority to Mandate Health Insurance - Is Trampling on Individual Rights (CNS)
15. Justice transfers Panthers pursuer out of D.C. office (WT)
16. Letting The Cat Out of the Bag
17. Forget Supreme Court Challenges to this Monstrosity!
18. Shameless Islamist Doublespeak Rages On (PAJAMAS)
19. How the West Rejuvenated Pan-Islamism and the Global Jihad
20. The Open Hand, Slapped (Richard Perle)
21. Family of Kidnapped U.S. Soldier Urges Taliban to Send Son Home (FOX)
22. Analysis: Detroit terror attack is a major intelligence and security failure (TELEGRAPH UK)
23. Let's Roll 2 [Mark Steyn]
24. Janet Napolitano Made A Fool Of Herself On TV Talkshows
25. Let My Terrorists Go
26. Lying to Ourselves
27. On Planet Janet
28. Obama Acknowledges Flaws in Security, Vows Fixes… But Blames Bush (Again)
29. So What? Why Don’t We Profile? (FOX)
30. What? Nigerian Suspect Given Lawyers, Civilian Trial, Constitutional Rights
31. Republican Congressman Calls on Napolitano to Resign
32. Ooops! Freed Gitmo Alumni Plotted Airline Bombing
33. Lawmakers Spar Over Obama’s Decision to Transfer Gitmo Detainees to Illinois Prison
34. Ivana Trump Escorted Off Plane: Napolitano Declares 'The System Worked'

Thanks To Family Security Matters and Warbird

Barack's Enemies' list

Sorry to disillusion those of you who are still in denial about President Barack Obama's true socialistic and dictatorial nature, but this guy's militancy against his perceived enemies puts Richard Nixon's White House to shame. His war on Fox News is just his latest salvo.

Obama's perceived enemies are all those who have the temerity not to roll over for his extreme agenda. They all must be demonized, marginalized and silenced by a president who has turned the Oval Office into a glorified street-organizing headquarters to attack his opponents. Indeed, this self-described uniter is the most divisive president in memory, and his uncontrollable ego can't countenance legitimate dissent.

Discover the truth about the intimidation tactics used by today's White House in Whistleblower magazine's "MOB RULE: Under Obama, Chicago-style bullying and intimidation go nationwide"

Consider:

• He has smeared medical doctors with reckless charges that they administer unnecessary courses of treatment for profit, e.g., tonsillectomies and limb amputations.
• He publicly berated Chrysler's senior creditors as a "small group of speculators" who "endanger Chrysler's future by refusing to sacrifice like everyone else," merely because they wouldn't acquiesce to his demands and insisted on asserting their contractual rights.
• He has demonized "big oil" and other energy producers, free-market capitalists, corporate executives, pharmaceutical companies, Republicans who oppose his health-care plan as dishonest and partisan, the wealthy, municipal policemen who dared arrest his Ivy League professor friend for disturbing the peace, pro-lifers, global warming skeptics, the CIA, the military, the best health-care system in the world and George W. Bush every time he needs cover for the inevitably negative consequences of his policies.
• He uses his White House blog to attack his political opponents.
• He condemned opponents of amnesty for illegal aliens as "demagogues."
• He foreshadowed his true nature in the campaign with his spontaneous denunciation of small-town Americans as bitterly clinging to their guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them.
• His administration has likened "tea party" protesters to an "angry mob" and "potential terrorists." His adviser David Axelrod has said they "are not in the mainstream and not in the majority" and represent "the angriest and most strident voices."
• In reference to opponents of his health-care scheme, he said in a speech to a joint session of Congress, "I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it." He also said: "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them just to get out of the way so (Democrats) can clean up the mess." And this: "If you misrepresent what is in this plan, we will call you out."He has targeted and vilified the entire insurance industry for daring to oppose his plan, describing them as "those who would bend the truth – or break it – to score political points and stop our progress as a country," and accusing them of "filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads ... designed to mislead the American people." Even the liberal New York Times acknowledged Obama's use of "unusually harsh terms" in attacking the industry as being "interested only in preserving their own 'profits and bonuses.'" And in a true Stalinesque intimidation move, he is threatening to repeal the industry's antitrust exemption.
• He has abused the office of the presidency to personally attack Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and conservative talk radio in general. As we speak, his "czars" are devising schemes to shut down that very medium.
• Now he has launched an orchestrated attack against the only television network that makes a sincere effort at offering balance, Fox News Channel, in an attempt to isolate, demonize and delegitimize the organization because it won't follow suit and join the state-run media. The administration is vacillating between boycotting and allowing some administration officials to appear on the network. Obama singled Fox out as "entirely devoted to attacking my administration." Rahm Emanuel said it's "not a news organization so much as it has a perspective." David Axelrod said, "It's really not news; it's pushing a point of view." Axelrod implored ABC's George Stephanopoulos and his network "not to treat (Fox) as a news organization." White House communications director Anita Dunn, who has bragged about her success at controlling the media, said Fox is "like a wing of the Republican Party" that "spouts Republican talking points."
• They are also watching average citizens who speak out against Obama, the White House or their agenda.
• Homeland Security has a a right wing extremist list and an enemies list a mile long. See the DHS “report” here (PDF file here) You might

The common denominator of all these vicious White House attacks is that their targets are those who oppose the administration's agenda. Instead of selling its agenda the old-fashioned way – by convincing the unconvinced – it attacks those who dare to articulate and air the opposing point of view. This is a totalitarian, bullying administration, which is revealing its heightened state of panic and desperation over the public's growing awareness of the dangerousness of its policy prescriptions for America.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His book “Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today's Democratic Party” (Regnery) was recently released in paperback.

Source: WND

Let us all remember that today they come for your neighbor… tomorrow they come for you~

Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservative is real

Pulling No Punches

John McCain is red in the face and hopping mad. I’m sitting in his office in the Senate Russell Office Building, and he’s just rushed in after delivering a speech on the Senate floor where he seethed about the earmarks in the Homeland Security Bill.

“Can you believe they are putting $6 million of pork into Homeland Security?” he asks with his trademark clenched-fists. “They promised they wouldn’t do that. Ben Nelson [the Democratic senator from Nebraska] just inserted a $200,000 museum in Omaha into the legislative branch appropriations bill. These earmarks are a creeping disease. First members condemn them, then they condone, then they embrace them.” Then Mr. McCain adds, “Eight or nine Republican appropriators routinely vote for this pork.” Shaking his head he says, “It’s killing our party.”

If you thought that the senior senator from Arizona would ride off into the political sunset last November, inconsolable after losing his bid for the presidency, think again. He’s over it. And he’s as energized and spry as ever I’ve known him.

I interviewed John McCain for these pages four years ago when he was just launching his presidential campaign. Now I’m here to see how he is coping with defeat, and what his priorities are this year.

Many feared he’d become the Obama administration’s ambassador to the Republican Party, cutting deals to get things done. On the contrary: He’s emerged as one of the lead critics of Obamanomics.

He says he has worked to keep his relations with President Barack Obama “cordial,” but he pulls no punches criticizing the president’s economic policies. “Never. Never have I seen such a transfer from the private enterprise system to the government of such massive scale,” he says. He goes through the list: car companies, banks, insurance firms owned by government, and he especially grimaces when he mentions the $787 billion stimulus package.

Terry Shoffner

Not much has improved because of the stimulus. Mr. McCain scoffs, “And now, the answer is, according to the Obama economists, we didn’t spend enough.” He’s referring to the notion that we should have a second stimulus. This is not something the senator favors.

Asked about the deficits, his response is blunt. “I think it’s the biggest problem we’ve ever faced.”

Ever? “Yep,” he replies. “The only time where we amassed greater debt was during World War II, and that was temporary spending. We won the world war and then cut back. But now . . . the spending is permanent.”

“Look, this is a very popular, attractive, and eloquent president,” he continues. “But I think he was elected to govern in a centrist fashion. And instead,” he says, the administration is “governing from the far left.” Mr. McCain thinks this approach will capsize. “They don’t get that this is a right-of-center nation. Sooner or later, it becomes increasingly clear to the American people that he’s out of sync with the majority.” The latest polls are already showing some of this slippage: Mr. Obama’s favorable rating is now just over 50%, down from 70% his first weeks in office.

Will Mr. Obama ever move to the center as President Clinton did? “He will try to, but he’s got an overwhelmingly liberal Congress and his political instincts are to move to the left. It’s not an accident that he has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate,” he says, reciting a line from his campaign. On health-care reform, Mr. McCain calls the Pelosi bill “a fish in the sun” that smells more rotten the longer it sits. But he’s worried that this may end badly. The administration has “co-opted the hospitals, he’s co-opted the pharmacists; he’ll co-opt AMA [American Medical Association]. And by the way, if the pharmaceutical companies can save us $100 billion, why don’t they do it now? For the love of God, doesn’t this mean that they’ve been ripping us off?”

In the 2005 interview, Mr. McCain told me rather famously that “I don’t understand economics very well.” The Obama team echoed that phrase throughout the campaign. It’s still stuck in his craw, and it’s one of the first topics he brings up.

“Could I mention, Steve, that I kept hearing during the campaign the stuff about McCain being weak on economics. They obsessed about this in the media. They never said Obama is weak on economics. I came to Washington as a Reaganite limited government tax cutter.” He’s right about the media treatment. Neither candidate had a strong command of economics—certainly not Mr. Obama, as events have shown. Mr. McCain was simply being honest.

He seems perplexed that his pals in the media turned on him in 2008 after years of worshipful press treatment. “In 2000 [when he ran against George W. Bush] I used to go chat with reporters on the back of the bus, and we would have these long, pleasant conversations . . . . I was the underdog clawing my way up. But then in 2008, I noticed that it would be kind of a gotcha session with the press—a totally more hostile attitude.”

Yet conservatives had warned Mr. McCain that he would remain a media darling up until the moment he won the GOP nomination, at which time they would rip him apart. I’m only surprised that he was surprised this happened.

Mr. McCain is initially reluctant to talk about the campaign, but he provides me with snippets of what went right and wrong. He believes that he could have won the election had it not been for the market collapse in mid-September. “We were three points up on September 14. The next day the market lost 700 points and $1.2 trillion in wealth vanished, and by the end of the day we were seven points down. We lost the white college graduate voters, who became profoundly disillusioned with Republicans. And by the way, that was the way it ended up. We lost by seven points.”

He certainly was dealt a lousy hand. But I challenge him on whether he might have played that hand better. During the first days of the financial crisis, Mr. McCain looked indecisive and worse, a creature of Washington insider politics. Why did he suspend his campaign, and why did he vote for the $700 billion bank bailout plan, which was wildly unpopular with voters?

“You have no idea the pressure I was under,” he says. “I remember being on the phone with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Treasury secretary and [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke. They assure me the world financial system is going to collapse if I don’t vote for the bill. So I do the impetuous and rash thing by saying, look, I have got to go back to Washington and see how I can help. And by the way, so did Obama—but it was McCain that was the impetuous one. Obama came back to Washington.” Mr. McCain grumbles, “He was at the White House with me. But he wasn’t impetuous.” This is the only time in our interview he shows any bitterness about the campaign.

He feels he was misled by the Bush economic team. He wanted the focus of the rescue plan to be on housing and home owners under water—not the lenders or the big banks. “Paulson and Bernanke both told me on the phone, our primary focus is going to be on the housing crisis. That’s our primary focus. And then three days later they switched their whole priorities around.” Instead, the Bush administration got a $700 billion check from Congress to save banks, investment houses and eventually car companies.

Had he been president, Mr. McCain says he would have done things differently. “Small business has been ignored in this whole bailout. You know, I hate to use the word but it seems to me that the philosophy of Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke is trickle down, you know? Save Wall Street, save these financial institutions and then maybe they’ll have enough money to loan to the small business person. Wall Street seems to be doing okay. The executive salaries are fine.”

He continues: “But I just came from driving down Central Avenue in Phoenix and saw closed up storefronts because they’re too small to save, but these giant banks are too big to fail.” This is vintage John McCain, the economic populist fighting for the little guy.

If the market crash was the low point, I ask him for his best memory from the campaign. “The high point, I think, was the convention, the selection of Sarah Palin, and the enthusiasm that was generated all over the country.” His fondness for Mrs. Palin and her family strikes me as from the heart; he believes she was a net asset for the ticket.

“Let’s face it,” he says, “she galvanized our base in a way that I couldn’t. Everywhere she went she drew enormous and enthusiastic crowds like a rock star.” He says his only regret in selecting the Alaska governor was that no one on the campaign predicted the ferocity of the assaults against her. “To the liberal left, particularly the feminists, she is their worst nightmare.”

Since Mr. McCain was the co-sponsor of the McCain-Lieberman bill last year to limit CO emissions through a cap-and-trade system, I ask him about the climate change bill that passed the House last month and he surprised me with his opposition. “I believe climate change is real . . . but this 1,400-page bill is a farce. They bought every industry off—steel mills, agriculture, utilities,” he says.

So you wouldn’t vote for the House bill? “I would not only not vote for it,” he laughs, “I am opposed to it entirely, because it does damage to those of us who believe that we need to act in a rational fashion about climate change.”

A s Mr. McCain keeps circling our discussion back to fiscal responsibility, I ask him if the trillion dollar deficits are a sign that America is an empire in decline. “I think there’s a risk of that . . . unless we change. I’m a student of history. The shift in power from the British to the United States took place when the economy and the world’s gold reserves shifted and Britain went from the world’s [creditor] to a world debtor. The same thing could be happening now. I emphasize ‘could.’”

My last question is about the possibility for a 2012 rematch against Mr. Obama. “No chance,” he says.

But the good news for those who admire this maverick is that he’s likely to stay in the Senate for years and is focusing single-mindedly on holding back Obamanomics. For now, that means trying to stop budget busters like ObamaCare, but also saving a few million dollars at a time by cancelling museums in Nebraska, turtle crossings in Florida, and the endless flow of dollars to Democratic Rep. John Murtha’s airport to nowhere in Johnstown, Pa.

And then Mr. McCain is out the door—running to vote on another anti-pork amendment.

By STEPHEN MOORE - a senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal.

Newsmax Poll Shows Strong Support for Sarah Palin in 2012

An Internet poll sponsored by Newsmax.com reveals that nearly 4 out of 5 respondents would support Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for president in 2012.

A slightly larger majority believe the then-Alaska governor helped John McCain in the 2008 presidential race — while only 31 percent think McCain did a good job running for president.

The poll drew more than 600,000 responses, and Newsmax will provide the results to major media and share them with radio talk-show hosts across the country.

Here are the poll questions and results:

1) What is your opinion of Sarah Palin? Favorable: 83 percent Unfavorable: 17 percent

2) Do you believe Sarah Palin as a running mate helped or hurt John McCain? Helped: 80 percent Hurt: 20 percent

3) In the election between McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden, who did you vote for? McCain-Palin: 81 percent Obama-Biden: 16 percent
Other: 3 percent

4) Would you support Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for president in 2012? Yes: 78 percent No: 22 percent

5) Do you believe McCain did a good job running for president? Good Job: 31 percent Bad Job: 69 percent

6) Do you believe Barack Obama "bought" the White House by outspending McCain? Yes: 72 percent No: 28 percent

Posted: Knowledge Creates Power

Related Resources:

• We Figured Him Out - Ben Stein
• Obama Told Us This Was Coming… America Wasn’t Listening