| Author | Message | ||
     Iamike |
If O's polls keeping droping like they have, I wouldn't be surprised at anything that he does. I don't like kool-aid, just study history. | ||
| Boltrider |
Kool Aid sucks. I need some Jack after reading that Canada Press article. | ||
| Blake |
>>> FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. "FEMA’s mission is to ... mitigate all hazards"? That's an awfully broad and vague mission statement, especially when looking at what some consider hazardous. | ||
| Geedee |
Repeating a lie over and over still does not make it the truth. Finding the truth, when it is hidden, is not easy, and why would the truth be hidden unless to deceive? http://www.abodia.com/2/United-States-is-a-corpora tion.htm My school motto was "Seek and ye shall find". I'm l  king. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Washington State National Guard for 4 years domestic, two abroad We did disaster response We did crowd control We did domestic community patrols We did Drug interdiction We did Search and Rescue We did EPW (Enemy Prisoner of War) We did Foreign Forward Based 'Liaison' work We did Language Translation We did Radio/Microwave/Communications Interception / Monitoring And we played a very mitigated and prepared role in WTO That is all open source - seek and ye shall find. The rest of the stuff we did - well that gets to stay classified for another twenty or so years. Our Emergency Response Division at the State level... that reports to the Governor and FEMA - no TS/S/C requirement. I have given briefs there many times - you can almost set your clock to the flooding in the PNW... you would think the Corps of Engineers would do something about it ;') (I have another ten years in the Navy doing spooky things with aircraft that 'don't exist') | ||
| Just_fred |
Spent almost 30 years doing Emergency Management in the military. In my units everybody had a least a Secret clearance - right down to the heavy equipment operators. Never been in the Navy, but in the Air Force, the Command and Control troops (Command Post, Operations types) all had at least a TS. For the same reasons, I'd think, Watch Officers need one. Pretty sure too that somebody up your chain of command has a TS. It's a Catch 22, I guess, that you don't know why you'd need one because you're never a part of those briefings that you need the TS to be a part of. Not trying to pick a fight - just saying there's a valid reason for Watch Officers needing a TS. And its not to limit the pool | ||
| Geedee |
City and Fred. I absolutely do not doubt anything that you have said or were involved in. My apologies if I came across as doing so. From what I know, FEMA was set up in 1978 to respond to emergencies of all kinds, but only at the request of the State Governor, who first had to declare a state of emergency and then request the President for FEMA assistance. Some 22 years later, as a response to 9/11, DHS was set up and FEMA became an agency of DHS. Now 22 formerly separate departments have been merged under DHS. From Wiki: According to Peter Andreas, a border theorist, the creation of DHS constituted the most significant government reorganization since the Cold War,[9] and the most substantial reorganization of federal agencies since the National Security Act of 1947, which placed the different military departments under a secretary of defense and created the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency. DHS also constitutes the most diverse merger of federal functions and responsibilities, incorporating 22 government agencies into a single organization.[10] Consolidation of power closes lots of loop holes and makes control so much easier. My question to you is this. When the State Government requests help from the Federal Government in an emergency, which Constitution is being applied? The evidence I see is the Constitution of the District of Columbia is. An example to mind is the blatant abuse of civilian rights during the Katrina response. | ||
| Just_fred |
Geedee If you'd like, you can research the Stafford Act. I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but that piece of legislation constitutes the statutory authourity for most US federal disaster response. And I believe now states must route any request for federal assistance through a FEMA Regional Administrator (there are 10 FEMA Regions) before it goes to the HQ for consideration. Where on paper, states and then regions are "supposed" to ask for help only when the need exceeds their capabilities, there are some Governor's etc who ask for Federal help and/or a Disaster declaration as a way to get federal monies (because they haven't budgeted properly at the state level). This is personal opinion, BTW, and for the record I do not work for FEMA or any DHS component Hope this helps (Message edited by just_fred on May 13, 2012) | ||
| Cityxslicker |
The reason none of the briefings I gave were classified - is that they went right from my desk and ops plan to the POA - who would get the info out to broadcast or print - Emergency Response without public disclosure, announcement, intent and notification - is a recipe for it's own disaster. And I did have the clearance - it is however based on situation and tasking - disaster response was NOT classified at our state level. Several other things we did - were; and many above the TS level. And as soon as the 'crisis' was over - the watch standing position was over- it was NOT a permanent position. As we are NOT in a constant state of 'disaster' response. And as there are no less than 16 OTHER intelligence agencies tasked and tracking terrorism - I do not feel that requirement is well met either... (I don't like that he is out to create a new intell agency either - I smell NKVD all over that one - pure Cheka in scope) | ||
| Aesquire |
http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/06/president -barack-obamas-complete-list.html I have not verified anything in the above list. For entertainment purposes only. ( Horror movies are entertainment, right? ) | ||
| Just_fred |
I'm all for public disclosure in emergency response. But again, "response" is only one aspect of the FEMA mission I'm not here to get into the various conspiracy theories, just trying to point out why a FEMA full-time watch officer might need a TS. I did not look at the job announcement that was posted, but my guess is that the Chicago position is at the Regional HQ there, a 24/7 function. Also not here to debate the number of intelligence agencies, but it only makes sense that information sharing is critical and you can't routinely share classified if the person on the other end isn't cleared. by the way, city, if you're involved in a classified program (like working with those aircraft that "don't exist"), posting it here is a bonehead move and a blatant OPSEC policy violation. Even military members without a clearance should know that. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
None of them existed when we flew them They have all be decomissioned, they no longer exist. Both Janes and the manufactures website have pictures and stats for the birds. We were never there, it wasnt us. | ||
| Moxnix |
Charlie Five. | ||
| Geedee |
Thanks guys. I'll look at the Stafford Act. Aesquire, the man is doing a brilliant job implementing the agenda. That's a remarkable list of achievements and could be even better if there was just a bit more co-operation. I don't know why so many are upset. And why would anyone begrudge the man some golf and holidays as a token of appreciation? | ||
| Aesquire |
....could be even better if there was just a bit more co-operation. Truth, that. It's a shame ( sarcasm icon here ) that the D Congress his first 2 years didn't cooperate with his agenda. Now the D Senate wan't even bring to a vote much that the R House passes. So I'd say Congress is cooperating MORE with Obama's agenda than they did his first 2 years. Of course, we don't know what his agenda is. He only talks about it with "his own". Rich lefties who give him money and want him to be far more radical than he seems to be..... to them. We have some few hints. He wants to kill Coal. He wants to stop Oil. He wants your energy bill to be very high so the market will support pond scum tech and unicorn farts. Oh, and giving a great big load of taxpayer money to companies that give Obama money. We know he's all about that. Also illegal donations from overseas, laundered with the able assistance of his Minion Holder, and the McCain Fiengold bribery reform act. ( which his campaign violates, but the DOJ will not investigate or prosecute. ) I do have to give Obama credit for being an able manipulator of his fawning press. We have heard about his opponent's bully incident from 1965, Obama's imaginary girlfriend, ( a mouthpiece in his "autobiography" for Obama's racial beliefs ) Kids on the Teat as part of some doctors "child rearing" philosophy, and of course, Obama's ploy to get gay money. No mention at all of the worsening unemployment, ( revised figures show, again, that the previous lie about improvement was itself in error ) Higher food and energy prices, and more casualties in the Afghan Front. Not to mention more betrayal of our allies in favor of the Next Soviet Empire. Yep, He's brilliant. | ||
| Moxnix |
Obamaville, 2013...  City may recognize this sort of place, Soviet housing. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
yep, but you should see Moscow since they have embraced capitalism. traffic jams to rival NYC, and prices of condos in similar tandem escalation. It's half time in History - we have switched sides. pity we could not learn from their FAILED 70 year experiment in socialism. pity they don't teach economics, history, politics for shiate - and apparently even at the University level. (PS The Crimea is the next 'fantasy island' money escape - they are working to build what Monte Carlo once was - and no banking regulatory tax predators.... for now. - safe haven for a while ) | ||
| Aesquire |
http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/change-and-so me-hope/?singlepage=true ...In the last few months some disturbing statistics made the news about California. We now have about nine million residents who were not born in the U.S—or one of every four Californians. In recent public school science testing, California school students ranked 47th in the nation. That’s the scientific reality beneath the thin tony veneer of Apple, Facebook, and Google elites. And of the last ten million persons added to California’s population, seven million of them are now on Medicaid. In that same last twenty years the number of new tax filers (150,000) was almost matched by the number of new prison inmates (115,000). ... | ||
| Moxnix |
City, people probably do not remove the windshield wipers from their car as they pull into the parking lot to climb upstairs (elevator broken) through the smell of boiling cabbage, past the wood alcohol drinker passed out on a landing, past the hooker servicing a john on the next landing, etc. Odd, what capitalist motivation does to change the feudal system....  City lives near here on Washington's Pacific Coast, this near the res. Paradise with an ocean view. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
it is a beautiful view - pity so much of the wilderness is being cut off under government land grab, and 'security' perimeter. 12 of the USFS roads I used to ride are now LOCKED, and signed, courtesy of Border Patrol. We have gone from a sleepy office staffed with 4 to a new building housing 32 Officers, plus the admin supporting staff. And the trail between Sequim and Quilcene is now heavily patrolled looking for 'poachers' of illegal wood to make guitars.....(even though all that was seized has been proven to be permitted cut) | ||
| Reindog |
It is finally OK to not like Obama. The fools and demagogues who bleat "racism" can officially go to hell. People are waking up and finally seeing that the king is naked. "Is Obama Imploding" by Roger L. Simon 5/19/2012. PJMedia. In The ESPN Man, the New York Times’ David Brooks wonders why Barack Obama remains personally popular despite the horrendous economy. The key is his post-boomer leadership style. Critics are always saying that Obama is too cool and detached, arrogant and aloof. But the secret to his popularity through hard times is that he is not melodramatic, sensitive, vulnerable and changeable. Instead, he is self-disciplined, traditional and a bit formal. I think Brooks is behind the curve here and Obama is about to implode. The signs are everywhere, including the just released North Carolina poll showing Romney in the lead by eight percent in a state Obama won narrowly in 2008. Other indications of incipient implosion that Brooks appears to have missed or ignored are the swing to Romney among women voters in the latest NYT/CBS poll and the overwhelming public sentiment that Obama’s new stance on same-sex marriage was politically motivated. It is becoming okay not to like Barack Obama. The Teflon cloak of being a cool, hip black guy, our first African-American president, is losing its power. That cloak of supposed post-racialism – not a “post-boomer leadership style,” whatever that may be – is what protected Obama. No one, not me, not David Brooks, wanted to be accused of racism. America desperately wanted to like Obama. But they can’t. We can’t. And not just because the economy is brutal. In hard times you get to see the individual up close, what he is made of. Roosevelt was one thing, Obama something completely different. Can you imagine having a “fireside chat” with Barack Obama? Brrr…. The incumbent is a petulant, defensive narcissist, not someone with the humanity, humility or the experience to lead us out of dark days. Most people know this. More and more they are allowing themselves to admit it. Soon this may be a deluge. The mainstream media will attempt to rescue Obama, just as Brooks is in his way, consciously or unconsciously, also trying to do. To some degree they will succeed. But I suspect not enough. The American public can only be pushed so far. That may account for the greatness of our country, what is referred to as American exceptionalism. We may be fools, but we have our limits. To be fair to Brooks, his column was published in the Times on May 14 – probably written a day or so earlier. In other words, ages ago. Evidence of the decline of Obama has been coming “fast and furious” of late (to borrow a term). Brooks and others of his ilk are slaves of the now-lethargic pace of dead-tree journalism. Stay tuned. http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2012/05/16/is-obama -imploding/?singlepage=true (Message edited by reindog on May 20, 2012) | ||
| Reindog |
From PJ Media May 12, 2012 - 4:46 pm - by Victor Davis Hanson Rays of Sun Amid the Storm The Rasmussen Tracking Poll recently had Romney up 50 to 42 over Obama. At this early juncture, such polls mean nothing—except as diagnostic indices of why perhaps both candidates go up and down in popularity. So why has Barack Obama plunged in the polls these last few days? The Republican slugfest is over. The media cannot headline any longer the daily conservative suicide. Barack Obama’s job report came out at 8.1% unemployment—but, more importantly, with information that a smaller percentage of adult Americans are working than ever before, and fewer in absolute numbers than nearly four years ago when Obama took office. So someone must be asking, “What then was the lost $5 trillion for?” Note, in this regard, the 5.4% unemployment rate that won George Bush the slur of a “jobless recovery” in 2004. There was some pushback to Obama’s spiking the football on the anniversary of bin Laden’s death. And have you noticed how Team Obama keeps losing the doggy wars? Seamus begat a photoshopped Dachshund sandwich; Romney’s supposedly terrible polygamist great-great grandfather in Mexico begat Obama’s polygamist father in Kenya; Rush Limbaugh’s “war on women” begat Bill Maher’s misogyny; Romney the high-school hair cutter begat tapes of Obama as the chronic drug user and recollections of Biden, the neighborhood teen bully. I know why the Obama people wish to distract from the economy, but at some point they must accept that they are losing these trivia tit-for-tats, and it now is beginning to show in the polls. (Hint: you may think it neat to ridicule a Mormon, but for purposes of fielding a clean candidate, Romney is a political operative’s dream in this age of adultery, sin, drug, and drink—which is why the Washington Post is back to a supposedly insensitive 18-year-old Mitt Romney this last week). The flip-flop on gay marriage, of course, did not win Obama a single vote, just plenty of one-percenters’ money. More injurious to his cause was his idiotic refrain about his “evolving” views. No one believed that yarn: fifteen years ago he was for gay marriage when it was smart politically for him to be so, and then he revolved to “no” when it was not. All that happened this week was that clueless Joe Biden jumped the gun. Obama with a wink and nod had privately assured rich gays, as he had Putin, that after his reelection he would give them what was wanted, but could not quite yet, given his need to hoodwink the clingers to get reelected. I think most voters understood that con as emblematic of this presidency. Then there are the lack of press conferences, the non-stop shakedowns of rich people whom he caricatures, and the somnolent speeches (“make no mistake about it,” “I/me/mine,” “in truth,” “let me be perfectly clear,” “I inherited a mess,” “pay your fair share,” and blah, blah, blah). Add all that up, and one loses 6-8 points. Keep doing it and he will lose even more. At this rate, Obama will be October surprising Iran. ........ http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/change-and-so me-hope/ Give Obama some credit. He has framed the 2012 election as a conflict of visions unlike any of our time. It’s our choice now, no excuses, no one left to blame. Change is coming, and with it, hope. This week I saw a ray of sunshine amid the clouds. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
Ayn Rand on 'inheriting a mess'.... After Wyatt torched his oil fields and disappeared, they were seized by the government.... In a discussion with the head of the State Science Institute' on the reconstruction of the fields - it is a problem of great technological difficulty, requiring the reconstruction of inventive processes "So how is it coming?" The progress is most gratifying. We have just been granted a new and larger appropriation. Mr Wesley Mouch is pleased with our work. So are Mr Balch of the emergency Commission , Mr Anderson of Crucial Supplies and Mr Pettibone of Consumers Production. I do not see what more could be expected of us. The project is fully successful ! 'Have you produced any oil ?" No, but we have succeeded in forcing a flow from one of the wells, to the extent of six and a half gallons. Tis is of cours is merely of the experimental significance, but you must take into consideration the fact that we had to spend three full months just to put out the fire, which is now been totally - almost totally - extinquished. We have a much tougher problem than Wyatt ever had, because he started from scratch while we have to deal with the disfigured wreckage of an act of vicious anti social sabotage - which .... I mean to say... it is a difficult situation..... yadda yadda yadda Ayn Rand ; Atlas Shrugged, Pub 1957 pg 321 in my copy. | ||
| Aesquire |
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/21/na to-leaders-approve-afghan-handover-plan/ Just to be clear. Iraq was the Bad War that GWB started to get even for Saddam trying to kill his Daddy. Afghanistan was the Good War, righteous, and noble. That's according to the Prez. Saddam's goons and the Taliban both gave aid to the terrorists. The Taliban let Osama stay in Afghanistan so we were right to attack them. Not right to attack Saddam, even though he actually had an army with chemical weapons that had already attacked & invaded 2-3 neighboring countries, Used Chemical weapons on both Iran and the Kurds, and was starving his own people, both with the Oil for Bribes UN program and the mass ecological destruction of the Marshes in the south of Iraq. That all makes sense to me....but I've known we were always at war with Eastasia and Eurasia was aways our friends..... Abandoning both countries to Iraq and the Taliban respectively ( supported by Iraq....supported by Red China and Russia..... We've always been at war with Eurasia, Eastasia has always been our friends.... ) is a mortal sin in so many ways. Like Congress screwed Vietnam in the 1970's. You may disagree that freeing 50 million people in those 2 countries was the right thing to do. You may disagree that occupying those places, putting in not-puppet but corrupt and useless locals in government was a good idea. ( come to think of it... i disagree with that ) You may even think it just fine to let the locals settle their disputes, because we really can't change those cultures, without severe dislocation. It's still a bad thing to abandon these folk like this. I don't want to get into screwing Poland, making the Dali Lama leave the WHite House by the back door next to the garbage chutes, ( don't want to offend China, whose leader's absolute power Obama admires and envies ) or the treatment of Isreal's Prez ( garbage chutes )... But I would like to mention the insane policy of "we must talk to" the Iranians. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5 i760w1acGNXZlC7DV5fkP24I0NxQ?docId=24993c54685c468 f9281f4c6f2a53399 Obama has screwed the anti-government movement in Iran, screwed the people of Iran by playing the sanctions game. ( does that EVER work? Do the leaders suffer AT ALL while the people starve and die of disease? Are these people in DC idiots? ) | ||
| Aesquire |
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/301075/face book-caliphate-mark-steyn So how’s that old Arab Spring going? You remember — the “Facebook Revolution.” As I write, they’re counting the votes in Egypt’s presidential election, so by the time you read this the pecking order may have changed somewhat. But currently in first place is the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi, who in an inspiring stump speech before the students of Cairo University the other night told them, “Death in the name of Allah is our goal.” Like! In second place is the military’s man Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister and a man who in a recent television interview said that “unfortunately the revolution succeeded.” Like! In third place is moderate Islamist Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a 9/11 Truther endorsed by the terrorist organization al-Gama’a al-Islamiya. He’s a “moderate” because he thinks Egyptian Christians should be allowed to run for the presidency, although they shouldn’t be allowed to win. Like! As I said, this thrilling race is by no means over, and one would not rule out an eventual third-place finish by a rival beacon of progress such as Amr Moussa, the longtime Arab League flack and former Mubarak foreign minister. So what happened to all those candidates embodying the spirit of Egypt’s modern progressive democratic youth movement that all those Western media rubes were cooing over in Tahrir Square a year ago? How are they doing in Egypt’s first free presidential election? You have 0 friends! ....... Egypt & Libya, US support for the overthrow of perfectly good, ( or at least not currently trying to murder us in large lots ) dictators seems to not have the "expected" effect. Of course, "expected" is in quotes, because, like the Housing Bubble, or the massive increase in US borrowing, ( or Greek borrowing, etc. ) people with an actual clue did expect it. ( the WSJ announce a few years back that only 13 economists predicted the housing crisis. I asked then, and now, WHY are we listening to all the others? Economists on tv seem constantly surprised by everything. So are 3 year olds, and they are probably more useful. ) This admin didn't really announce what they expected, ( other than higher energy costs ) and never explained why it was so vital to support revolutions right then and there, with what seems like no actual effort to ensure that the resulting governments wouldn't be far worse than before. A paranoid would believe Barry Dunham is a closet Muslim, working for a Caliphate and the inevitable fall of the US Constitution, as Sharia law takes over the world and leaves us as slaves. I'd argue with that paranoid. Except I have nothing to counter his fears, except the belief with no personal knowledge, that Barack Hussein Obama is, in fact, a true believer in Liberation Theology, not Islam. Well, he says so anyway. Take that for what it's worth. | ||
| Sifo |
I'd argue with that paranoid. Except I have nothing to counter his fears, except the belief with no personal knowledge, that Barack Hussein Obama is, in fact, a true believer in Liberation Theology, not Islam. What is lacking is any real argument that BO doesn't want the US Constitution to fall. In fact he has spoken of his disdain for the checks and balances imposed by the Constitution, and has said he will do what he can to get around those checks and balances. My only question is how far will he actually take it? | ||
| Moxnix |
It's not so much the Caliphate as the Ummah, translating: The Nation. As Christianity is sometimes called "the Body of Christ," Ummah is "the Body of Mohammad." The "Hub of Islam," that massive Muslim kingdom stretching from Asia to Africa was subdivided in its Middle East area by the Western Conquerors into independent states when they defeated the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW1. Ummah mandates a giant Muslim state. Barry spent time in Indonesia as a pup at one end of the Hub of Islam, and Kenya, his father's home country, at the other end. We are coming up on 90 years of a suppressed Ummah. Khalifah (Caliphate) is the unified pan-Islamic state ruling the entire Hub of Islam. An Ummah-wide revival includes obligation to fulfill jihad in global causes against secular un-Islamic regimes. The drive to establish Allah's rule around the world gives us assasinations of people like Anwar Sadat after the peace accords with Israel, or a 9-11 after the first Iraq war. Obama is a mutt, not all this, not all that, and driven, in my opine, by the factors of his upbringing and education, greatly influencing his muttness. And like many hybrid mutts, not to be trusted. | ||
| Just_ziptab |
Obama in Iowa last week: "I love coming to Iowa. Iowa is my home away from home." And the crowd erupts in cheers and applauds. WTF? Are people that stupid that they don't know BS when it's fed to them. Home away from home my ass.  ..........or are the cheers and applauds bought and paid for? | ||
| Moxnix |
... bussed in from the projects? | ||
| Cityxslicker |
the comedian always says how great it is to be where ever the f they are performing that night. I would place no more merit on it than that. I bet his teleprompter was "I love coming to (insert current venue). (Current venue) is my home away from home." |
