NASA ... the rocket science folks....

This in from NASA: Be prepared for emergencies.

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/hq/emergency/personalPreparedness/index.html

A major initiative has been placed on Family/Personal Preparedness for all NASA personnel. The NASA Family/Personal Preparedness Program is designed to provide awareness, resources, and tools to the NASA Family (civil servants and contractors) to prepare for an emergency situation. The most important assets in the successful completion of NASA’s mission are our employees’ and their families. We are taking the steps to prepare our workforce, but it is your personal obligation to prepare yourself and your families for emergencies.

Listen to Administrator Bolden’s thoughts on why it’s important that we “know our stuff” and “be prepared”.
Administrator, Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Video [which I could not link, so please see the link above]

[the vidoe should be here..]

Over the past year there has been an emphasis placed on the importance of Family/Personal Preparedness by Administrator Bolden for the entire NASA family. We have developed a set of informational guides designed to prepare you, your families and pets for emergencies.

A short video on preparing a family safety plan for local and national emergencies.

Protect and Serve ... whom?

See http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/ for bad behavior in your neighborhood. I'm just not a fan of no-knock raids and the loss of the 4th Amendment. Not all cops are bad, but neither are they good. I can understand 'closing the ranks' when a cop screws up, but there should be a limit. Covering for a fellow cop for DUI, sure I can understand that... but covering up beatings or murders, nope.

I'm wondering where the men and women in blue will stand in the next emergency. They did not do so well in Katrina, so far 2 going to prison for murdering -- shooting unarmed civilians -- and attempting to cover it up.

Or a map...

And a bad cop from Ohio - shamelessly palgeurized from Barnhardt.biz: Update 22 June 2011 - from Barnhardt.biz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kassP7zI0qc&feature=player_embedded

Sharia compliance and complacency

The largest development in DC in decades, on public property, will be compliant to sharia. I wonder if a kosher deli could rent there. Will passports be checked and exclude renters with Israeli visas/stamps? Does anyone care?

Via Atlas Shrugs:

Qatari Investors: Huge Downtown Development Project Must Conform to Shariah

See http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2011/06/23/who-needs-liquor-laws-when-youve-got-qatar/ for the article.

One money quote: "But as it happened, their hesitancy on bank branches meshed with the policies of their financial partners, who adhere to the restrictions of Shariah, or Islamic law, including the ban on collecting interest. Restaurants will be able to serve liquor, but retailers whose primary business involves selling alcohol will not be allowed, Mr. Alsup said.

In their marketing materials, Hines and Archstone say they intend to provide “an authentic place for urban residents to socialize outside their homes.” "

I guess going out for a beer or wine with friends is no longer authentic, and picking up some wine for dinner is equally unauthentic. Will women be able to shop alone or will a husband or male family member be required as an escort? Will stores be able to sell pork? Will bookstores carry Jewish authors or books arguing against sharia or islamic barbarism?

And add this from American Thinker: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/my_weekend_in_the_belly_of_the_beast.html

The take home quote: "So, my reflections upon having returned to New York from Dearborn after this eventful weekend: during the entire time I spent at the Arab International Festival, my overall sense was one of unease because of a palpable feeling that bad things were happening all around me. I came to the conclusion that Dearborn is a very, very bad place. It is lost. It is no longer part of America. It is a primary source of a virus that is spreading throughout this country -- of which the school situation in Farmington Hills is a perfect example." Please read the entire post.

Reason 31???

---

THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES

Delta adopts Saudi 'no-Jew' fly policy

Challenge to discrimination building as Congress, lawyers warned of plan

---

Posted: June 22, 2011
8:34 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WND

DeltaAir Lines' plan to add Saudi Arabian Airlines to itsSkyTeam Allianceof partnering companies would require the American carrier to ban Jews and holders of Israeli passports from boardingflightsfrom New York or Washington bound for Jeddah, prompting outraged accusations of illegal religious discrimination.

The issue, which has caught the attention of theAmerican Center for Law and Justicealready, was raised when Washington attorney Jeffrey Lovitkyperusingairlineprocedures for travel.

"As we learn more about the issue and facts, we are determined to ensure that was American citizens do not face discrimination by airlines like Delta that are passenger code-sharing with Saudi ArabianAirlines, said Colby M. May, director and senior counsel of the ACLJ.

Read the insiders' plans for America under Shariah, in "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America," autographed, from WND's Superstore.

"We will be communicating our position with members of Congress, the State Department and Delta Air Lines to ensure that the rights of American citizens are protected," he said.

(Story continues at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=314309)

--And this is the airline gouging troops flying back to the States for baggage fees

Read more:Delta adopts Saudi 'no-Jew' fly policyhttp://www.wnd.com/?pageId=314309#ixzz1Q77444F7

Here's Reason #30 to be Frightened

Return to the Article

June 20, 2011

TSA Now Storming Public Places 8,000 Times a Year

By Tara Servatius

Americans must decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly.

Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow.

A news report by ABC Action News in Tampa showed passengers being given the signature pat downs Americans are used to watching the Transportation Security Administration screeners perform at our airports. Canine teams sniffed their bags and the buses they rode. Immigration officials hunted for large sums of cash as part of an anti-smuggling initiative.

The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers, bus stops and public events to become a routine and accepted part of American life.

The TSA has conducted 8,000 of these security sweeps across the country in the past year alone, TSA chief John Pistole told a Senate committee June 14. They are part of its VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, which targets public transit related places.

All of which is enough to make you wonder if we are watching the formation of the "civilian national security force" President Obama called for on the campaign trail "that is just as powerful, just as strong and just as well funded" as the military.

The VIPR swarm on Wednesday, the TSA's largest so far, was such a shocking display of the agency's power that it set the blogosphere abuzz.

In a massive flex of muscle most people didn't know the TSA had, the agency led dozens of federal and state law enforcement agencies in a VIPR exercise that covered three states and 5,000 square miles. According to the Marietta Times, the sweep used reconnaissance aircraft and "multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams."

When did the TSA get this powerful? Last year, Pistole told USA Today he wanted to "take the TSA to the next level," building it into a "national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts."

What few people realize is how far Pistole has already come in his quest. This is apparently what that next level looks like. More than 300 law enforcement and military personnel swept through a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio Valley alone, examining the area's industrial infrastructure, the Charleston Gazette reported.

Federal air marshals, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI, the Office of Homeland Security and two dozen other federal, state and local agencies teamed up to scour the state's roads, bridges, water supply and transit centers under the TSA's leadership.

What is remarkable about these security swarms is that they don't just involve federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The TSA brings in squads of bureaucrats from state and federal agencies as well, everything from transportation departments to departments of natural resources.

The TSA had received no specific threats about the Tampa bus station before the April sweep, reporters were told.

They were there "to sort of invent the wheel in advance in case we have to if there ever is specific intelligence requiring us to be here," said Gary Milano with the Department of Homeland Security in an ABC News Action television report. "This way us and our partners are ready to move in at a moment's notice."

Federal immigration officials from Customs and Border Patrol swept the station with the TSA, looking for "immigration violations, threats to national security" and "bulk cash smuggling." (How the bulk cash smuggling investigation related to national security was never explained.)

"We'll be back," Milano told reporters. "We won't say when we'll be back. This way the bad guys are on notice we'll be back."

The TSA gave the same vague answers when asked about the three-state sweep this week. That sweep wasn't in response to any specific security threat, either.

The purpose was to "have a visible presence and let people know we're out here," Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia told the Gazette. "It can be a deterrent."

It might be -- if Americans are willing to live this way.

Tara Servatius is a radio talk show host. Follow her @TaraServatius and on Facebook.

UPDATE 23Jun 2011

TSA Theft of Passenger Valuables a Nationwide Problem

Share51

POSTED AT 1:59 PM ON JUNE 20, 2011 BY HOWARD PORTNOY
PRINTER-FRIENDLY

Houston, you’ve got a problem. Every airport does, and it goes by a familiar name: TSA theft.

In the case of Houston, the problem was Transportation and Security Administration agent Karla Renee Morgan, who decided to augment her salary by helping herself to the contents of passengers’ luggage as it passed through her security checkpoint.

The solution for Houston Police was to lay a trap. An undercover cop turned a wallet containing $1,000 in marked bills in to Morgan, claiming he had found it. By a remarkable coincidence, when Morgan headed out at the end of her shift, authorities discovered an identical wallet with identically marked bills in her backpack. The “lost” wallet had never been turned in to airport lost and found.

The apprehension of Morgan, who has been charged with a misdemeanor crime, is a law enforcement coup. Or it would be if it weren’t such pitifully small potatoes in the world of TSA crime.

In 2009, a TSA screener at Newark Liberty International Airport by the name of Pythias Brown was sentenced to three years in federal prison on multiple counts of grand larceny. Known to eBay buyers as “Alirla,” Brown had run the largest one-man theft ring in the short history of the Transportation Security Administration, netting an estimated $400,000 via the resale of stolen high-priced electronics.

And even Brown represents just the tip of the iceberg. According to TSA records, press reports, and court documents, Brown is just one of some 500 TSA officers who have been fired or suspended for stealing from passenger luggage since the agency’s creation in November of 2001. The airports servicing New York City—John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark Liberty—harbor the most flagrant offenders, but virtually no city in the nation is safe from the TSA’s sticky fingers.

In 2009, a half dozen TSA agents at Miami International Airport were charged with grand theft after boosting an iPod, bottles of perfume, cameras, a GPS system, a Coach purse, and a Hewlett Packard Mini Notebook from passengers’ luggage. Travelers passing through the airport’s checkpoints reported as many as 1,500 items stolen, the majority of which were never recovered.

In May of this year alone, TSA agents were arrested on the suspicion of theft at airports in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

So what’s the TSA’s response? That the ratio of crooks to non-crooks within the agency is minuscule—less than one half of one percent. The agency’s blog even assigns concrete numbers: Out of more than 110,000 employees, 200 have been accused of stealing. Assuming (big assumption!) that 200 is the absolute number of thieves within the agency’s ranks, that’s still 200 chances to pass through airport security and come out on the other side minus your valuables. In the meantime, you can look forward to invasive pat-downs,potentially dangerous irradiation from scanners, and the knowledge that the agency has an iffy record when it comes to detecting legitimate threats. If that doesn’t make you feel all warm and cuddly when you fly, nothing will.

Related Articles

• Latest TSA fail: Four massive chef’s knives waved through O’Hare security
• TX officials become TSA “grope” victims: Rekindle calls for anti-groping measure
• TSA takes toy away from mentally challenged man
• Former TSA supervisor at Newark jailed for stealing from passengers
• TSA reveals Newark airport has major security problems
• How safe are the scanners the TSA is using in airports?
• Rape victim arrested, manhandled after refusing TSA pat down

Update 23 June 2012: It's not just the blue shirted TSA going bad...

From: http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/

-- note that this is from a daily blog!

National Police Misconduct NewsFeed Daily Recap 06-22-11

June 23rd, 2011

Here are the 19 reports of police misconduct tracked in our National Police Misconduct News Feed for this Wednesday, June 22, 2011:

• Meriden CT police subject of 2 different excessive force suits involving officer who is police chief’s son [4]http://bit.ly/jmBvBa

• Craven Co NC deputy arrested after investigation showed he lied about fatal 100mph patrol car accident [0]http://bit.ly/inmhYm

• Albany NY settles suit for $250k to family of man killed in crash w/police cruiser that ran red light while responding to call [0] http://bit.ly/jZ6bO2

• Knoxville TN police sued by 70yr-old woman who lost use of arm after mauled by police dog that got loose [0]http://bit.ly/mSR1kz

• New Orleans LA cop accused by humane society probe of excessive force in fatal shooting of 3-legged pit bull [3]http://bit.ly/klOxyL

• US Park police arrest 2 reporters in DC at public taxi commission meeting, one was arrested for taking pictures [3]http://bit.ly/jDA69a

• South Burlington VT cop sued alleging he illegally searched woman for drugs 2x in 6mo, including a forced x-ray and a strip search in a public restroom [3] http://bit.ly/jZWSGc

• 2 Talbot Co GA deputies & a Talbotton GA cop arrested on unspecified charges in federal drug corruption probe [1]http://bit.ly/j3azKg

• Hamtramck MI cop pleads guilty to informing motorcycle club that the FBI was investigating & wiretapping them [0]http://bit.ly/mhRUsY

• Columbus OH police sgt charged w/felony & misd sexual imposition involving caretaker while he was on sick leave [1] http://bit.ly/lmQcrc

• Harlandale TX ISD police officer fired after allegedly pulling gun during argument with man in a bar [1]http://bit.ly/k99fsG

• 4 Alton IL cops sued by man claiming they falsely arrested him, DA dismissed charges citing lack of probable cause [3] http://bit.ly/l7RLLm

• Raleigh NC cop allegedly fired as part of probe into a number of officers accused of having sex w/prostitute [2]http://bit.ly/mjBrp4

• Niagara Falls NY cop sentenced to probation, treatment & community service on domestic violence conviction [0]http://bit.ly/ms1b7g

• Bartlesville OK police & police union sued by 2nd officer claiming harassment, discrimination & retaliation [3]http://bit.ly/kaPvZw

• Philadelphia PA police institute reforms in settlement w/black cop’s assoc over racial internet comments by cops [0]http://bit.ly/joS89A

• Albany Co NY settles suit for $85k to clerk claiming the sheriff did nothing to stop harassment by undersheriff [0]http://bit.ly/moWZ1Z

• Smith Co TX deputy fired for unspecified reasons weeks after another deputy forced to resign after DUI arrest [2]http://bit.ly/inEk8H

• Solon OH cop sentenced to $1000 fine, 3 days jail & 3 days treatment in plea to DUI charge for crashing into tree [0] http://bit.ly/jJHj03

From American Thinker

Are you prepared? At least in a small way?

Twenty-Nine Reasons to Be Angry And/Or Scared

see: http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/twenty-nine_reasons_to_be_angry_andor_scared.html if I went too far with the bold.
June 20, 2011

Twenty-Nine Reasons to Be Angry And/Or Scared

By Monty Pelerin

If you're not both angry and scared at the world's current situation, you're not paying attention.

Rained out from a planned and anticipated golf game is not a good thing. As a result, I find myself confined to the house and computer in a less than jovial mood and decided to list a few problems in the world today. The list grew beyond my intentions.

In no particular order, and hardly complete, is the following enumerated list:

1. The Eurozone is imploding and likely will be unable to hold in its present constitution, if at all.
2. Fiat currencies are being debased rapidly in a "beggar thy neighbor" attempt to juice domestic economies. Competitive devaluations provide no advantage when other countries match the debauchery.
   
3. More money/debt/federal spending is not economic policy if you view same as being able to fix or improve something. Such action is merely political, a form of political propaganda to convince the masses that the economy is improving. Temporarily propping up reported GDP may provide better headlines, but does not create jobs.
4. The purpose of so-called quantitative easing is to shore up bankrupt governments. The action itself is a form of default, albeit in slow motion. Pretending to honor commitments while inflating their value away is a criminal offense, but for government it passes for economic policy.
5. Inflation has broken out around the world, regardless of what government statistics say. Food and commodity prices are soaring, and these hit the least well-off the hardest. Rising prices of necessities serves to make them poorer and more desperate.
6. Citizen unrest around the world does not reflect some idealistic demand for Democracy as claimed by our political class and media. This unrest results from increasing hunger, loss of hope, and desperation by people of the world. Food prices are being driven beyond their ability to pay. They want something to eat, not some philosophy called Democracy.
7. Unrest will grow worse as food, energy and other necessities become more expensive. The unrest started in poorer countries but, as prices continue to rise, will spread to more affluent nations. Can "Democratic movements" occur in supposedly already democratic societies?
8. The "outs" in oppressive societies want to overthrow the "ins" in order to gain the right to plunder rather than be plundered. Retribution also plays a role. In a very real sense, these movements are little more than large-scale "gang wars" where one gang attempts to gain "turf" at the expense of another. Each battles for the right to own and exploit the "neighborhood."
9. Western social welfare states are broke and unable to honor their commitments. Sovereign defaults and austerity measures are inevitable.
10. Citizens of social welfare states, conditioned to believe they have the right to be supported by productive members of society, will not accept austerity measures willingly. Rioting and bloodshed will be most severe in the more pampered societies.
11. Political fear will prevent meaningful corrective action.P Governments will continue the charade of solvency via continued printing of money. They know it will not improve the economy, but it will enable them to continue to send out checks.
12. Inflation will ratchet up higher as a result of money-printing. That will only exacerbate civil unrest as the poor will be squeezed even more.
13. Developed economies are no longer growing. Most have not had true economic growth for decades. Excessive debt and easy credit were used to hide this reality in the US. It enabled living standards not supportable by incomes. Now debt is unsustainable and cannot be serviced.
14. A massive liquidation of debt is coming. Some of it will be via contractual paydown. Some of it may be inflated away, but most will be via default, producing numerousbankruptcies.
15. Job creation is a problem in all Western developed countries. In the advanced social welfare states of Europe it has been a chronic problem for decades. The US economy now suffers from the sclerotic disease that characterizes Socialism.
16. Decades of increasing regulation on business, employment, and incomes have finally taken their toll. These interventions have resulted in an economic climate where obtaining a reasonable return on investment is no longer perceived to be worth the increased risk associated with it.
17. Entrepreneurs and businesses withhold capital and refuse to hire in uncertain times.
18. Many businesses have voted with their feet, moving jobs and capital offshore to escape onerous regulations and taxes.
19. The continuously increasing redistribution of income means more has to be extracted from fewer producers to support the growing dependency class. Anticipation of higher taxes reduces the incentives to take risk, work hard, or employ more people. Economies do not grow or recover under such circumstances.
20. GDP numbers are inflated by wasteful government spending. But this spending is merely window-dressing. It creates no new wealth, products, or productive jobs. It is another form of redistribution that moves societies closer to bankruptcy. Despite a reported increased in GDP, nothing has improved. That is one reason why GDP can increase without employment increasing.
21. Central banks and their banking systems are insolvent. The amount of insolvency is difficult to estimate but is well into the trillions! Citizens have been looted to cover up this insolvency and bail out Washington's friends in the financial community. Sadly, all of this has been for naught, as a collapse of fractional-reserve banking is inevitable.
22. China is in an inflationary bubble with massive misallocation of resources. Underreported riots are breaking out in China where political unrest is a national sport.
23. China is the future economic world power, but that future has not yet arrived. Its current economic condition is likely not sustainable as a result of the distortions of central planning. It is a house of cards, awaiting a collapse.
24. Political strife in China will become severe when the economy implodes. How this turmoil is reconciled will determine how quickly China recovers and rises to become a world economic power. The political leaders and their apparatchiks will try to retain control with tougher restrictions on citizens. Ultimately they will fail, but it will prevent the true potential of China from being realized until free markets are embraced. That could be several generations away.
25. The US and other Western democracies have solved nothing regarding their economic problems. These countries, including the US, are heading for currency and societal collapses.
26. The massive debt problems of Western economies are mathematically impossible to solve. Massive defaults will have to occur eventually.
27. Real economic recovery cannot occur until the debt excesses are eliminated. Kicking the can down the road might be considered good political strategy, but it is terribly harmful economically.
28. The outlook for peace and tranquility in the world is not good. Governments in danger of failing and falling everywhere are not above using diversions to distract angry citizens. Some countries will probably be treated to "wag the dog" endeavors. Desperate scoundrels will stop at nothing to extend their reign in office.
29. I missed my golf game.

There is another item I could have added to this list, but it is too complex and much bigger and scarier than those above. It deals with the notion that most of the above problems do not result from this particular economic crisis. To be sure, most were exposed as a result of the current crisis, but that merely determined the timing of their revelation. Something else, much bigger and more permanent seems to be at play.

An economic crisis implies something of a relatively short duration with an eventual return to whatever represents a "normal" state. Recessions are cyclical. But so too was the Great Depression. While it lasted longer and was more severe than a recession, conditions returned to normal within a reasonable period of time.

What we are in, it appears to me, is the beginning of a massive secular change that will alter the way we view countries, economies and institutions. It is much bigger than an economic cycle and likely will represent an epic movement in terms of history. The history books a hundred or more years from now will recognize what happened more clearly than contemporary participants will be able to do. The changes will be massive and glacier-like in movement. No generation alive today will see the end of this massive secular change.

To be continued on the next rainy day.

Monty Pelerin blogs at www.economicnoise.com.