Frank Gaffney: Is North Korea Planning to Launch EMP Attack? (Video)

Frank Gaffney of The Center for Security Policy appeared on CNBC’s Kudlow Report, last night, to discuss North Korea.

Amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula, the North Korean government told foreign governments to leave South Korean territory for their safety. Today, Kim Jong Un’s government may launch missiles in a provocative test. Gaffney points out that Obama’s actions and rhetoric toward American nuclear disarmament is dangerous, and has contributed to North Korea’s aggressiveness. In addition, what’s the possibility of North Korea’s use of Electromagnetic Pulse attack?

Gaffney noted that one of the things he was most concerned about was the missile the Norks launched back in December that put a small satellite up into space and has a track that’s going to put it over the United States over the next week. This satellite, Gaffney worried, could be an EMP weapon, acquired from Russia, that they could decide to detonate over the United States’ electrical grid.

Case Not Closed: Questions Remain on DHS Ammo Purchases (Video)

Although  we’re told that nothing unusual is going on,  DHS’s extraordinary level of ammunition purchases in recent months continues to cause consternation and concern among many on the right.

Fox News tried to separate fact from fiction in this recent report that purports DHS has made even larger ammo purchases in past (Obama) years, although the numbers are substantially lower than the 1.6 billion rounds we’ve been hearing about.

Senator Tom Coburn concluded that this is much ado about nothing.

In a Forbes oped, Ralph Benko wrote, 1.6 Billion Rounds Of Ammo For Homeland Security? It’s Time For A National Conversation:

It confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security has issued an open purchase order for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition.  As reported elsewhere, some of this purchase order is for hollow-point rounds, forbidden by international law for use in war, along with a frightening amount specialized for snipers. Also reported elsewhere, at the height of the Iraq War the Army was expending less than 6 million rounds a month.  Therefore 1.6 billion rounds would be enough to sustain a hot war for 20+ years.  In America. Add to this perplexing outré purchase of ammo, DHS now is showing off its acquisition of heavily armored personnel carriers, repatriated from the Iraqi and Afghani theaters of operation.

***

It is utterly inconceivable that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is planning a coup d’etat against President Obama, and the Congress, to install herself as Supreme Ruler of the United States of America.  There, however, are real signs that the Department bureaucrats are running amok.  About 20 years ago this columnist worked, for two years, in the U.S. Department of Energy’s general counsel’s office in its procurement and finance division.  And is wise to the ways.   The answer to “why would DHS need such a vehicle?” almost certainly is this:  it’s a cool toy and these (reportedly) million dollar toys are being recycled, without much of a impact on the DHS budget.  So… why not?

Investors Business Daily reported that fifteen members of Congress have written a letter to the Department of Homeland Security demanding to know what’s going on.

Freshman California Republican Doug LaMalfa and 14 of his House colleagues, who signed on to his March 5 letter, are asking the Department of Homeland Security to explain why it is buying 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition of various calibers. They aren’t happy with explanations provided so far in the press by lower-level officials, answers meant to debunk “unfounded” concerns.

As we have noted, DHS has been buying lots of ammo, enough by one calculation to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraqi War.

Peggy Dixon, spokeswoman for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga., told the Associated Press that the training center and others like it run by the Homeland Security Department use as many as 15 million rounds every year, mostly on shooting ranges and in training exercises.

The massive purchases are said to be spread out over five years and due simply to the best practice of saving money by buying in bulk what comes down to five rounds of ammo for every man, woman and child on the U.S. That’s a lot of practice and training.

But Richard Mason, a former  told reporters with WHPTV News in Pennsylvania recently the hollow-point bullets being purchased by DHS are not generally used for training because they are more expensive than standard firing range rounds .

“We never trained with hollow points, we didn’t even see hollow points my entire 4-1/2 years in the Marine Corps,” Mason said.

Homeland Security has also acquired a number of Mine Resistant Armored Protection (MRAP) vehicles which have been retrofitted for possible service on the streets of the U.S.

They were formerly used for counterinsurgency in Iraq. These vehicles are specifically designed to resist mines and ambush attacks.

As we noted in a recent editorial, DHS is also seeking to acquire 7,000 5.56-by-45-millimeter NATO “personal defense weapons” — also known as “assault weapons” when owned by civilians.

If there are plausible explanations for all this, some congressmen would like to hear them.

Maybe DHS can answer Congress’ questions in a series of bullet points.

At CPAC a little over a week ago, Luke Rudkowski of We Are Change, asked Congressman Timothy Huelscamp about the large ammunition purchases made by the DHS. Huelscamp said that the Regime refuses to “let us know what’s going on.” (start at 1:12):

Fox News  reported that local law enforcement agencies across the country are facing an ammo shortage, as gun owners across the nation stock up on firearms and bullets.

Meanwhile, according to CNSNews.com, Rep. Timothy Huelskamp, R-Kan., said he still hasn’t heard back from the Department of Homeland Security on why it’s buying 1.6 billion rounds.

The Homeland Security Department, though, has said it needs the bullets for law enforcement agents in training and on duty.

Published federal notices about the ammo buy have agitated conspiracy theorists since the fall. The government’s explanation is much less sinister.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga., and others like it run by DHS use up to 15 million rounds a year, mostly on shooting ranges and in training exercises.

More than 90 federal agencies and 70,000 agents and officers used the department’s training center last year.

The rest of the 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition would be purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal government’s second largest criminal investigative agency.

OH Natl. Guard Reacts to 2nd Amendment “Domestic Terrorists” in Mock Disaster Drill

Last Thursday, the Ohio National Guard 52nd Civil Support Unit was deployed to Portsmouth to run a mock disaster drill. The exercise, overseen by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency was to practice their response to the potential release of a chemical, biological or radiological weapon. Terror drills like this one are somewhat commonplace since 9/11/2001, but there is one telling and scary difference.
Via The Examiner:

WSAZ reported: “The make-believe scenario is timely. Two school employees who are disgruntled over the government’s interpretation of the Second Amendment, plot to use chemical, biological and radiological agents against members of the local community.”

***

Portsmouth Fire Chief Bill Raison told the Portsmouth Daily Times:

“I think sometimes we tend to think of terrorism as just international terrorism. What’s the likelihood that’s coming to Portsmouth, Ohio? Most people think it’s not very likely. But we forget that there’s a lot of domestic terrorism. There’s organizations and things that go on within the United States that can be every bit as devastating as the international terrorism is.”

Really?

Where would someone get such an idea?

Perhaps, from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano who has described gun owners and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as potential terrorists.

In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

The report claimed that “rightwing extremism” is not limited to religious and racial hate groups but extends to “those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely.”

“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” said the report.

That’s right…according to the Obama administration anyone who believes that babies should be protected are just as dangerous as al Queda.

Read the entire DHS report…

They would also get the idea from the “Small Wars Journal”, a respected site, that last year issued a report entitled, “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A Vision of the Future;

It was written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army’s University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It posits an “extremist militia motivated by the goals of the ‘tea party’ movement” seizing control of Darlington, S.C., in 2016, “occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council and placing the mayor under house arrest.” The rebels set up checkpoints on Interstate 95 and Interstate 20 looking for illegal aliens. It’s a cartoonish and needlessly provocative scenario.

The article is a choppy patchwork of doctrinal jargon and liberal nightmare. The authors make a quasi-legal case for military action and then apply the Army’s Operating Concept 2016-2028 to the situation. They write bloodlessly that “once it is put into play, Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas.” They claim that “the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment,” not pausing to consider that using such efficient, deadly force against U.S. citizens would create a monumental political backlash and severely erode government legitimacy.

And a West Point think tank, which recently issued a paper warning America about “far right” groups such as the “anti-federalist” movement, which supports “civil activism, individual freedoms and self-government.”

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled “Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America’s Violent Far-Right.”

The center — part of the institution where men and women are molded into Army officers — posted the report Tuesday. It lumps limited government activists with three movements it identifies as “a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist movement.”

The West Point center typically focuses reports on al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists attempting to gain power in Asia, the Middle East and Africa through violence.

But its latest study turns inward and paints a broad brush of people it considers “far right.”

Combine this with an unsubstantiated but alarming report that Obama is using a new “litmus test” for his military leaders, and we’ve got trouble.

“The new litmus test of leadership in the military is if they will fire on US citizens or not.”

SEE ALSO:

Fausta: BlackHawks over Brickell UPDATED: What the heck is going on?

Michael Berry: Raw Footage: Massive Military ‘Training Drill’ In Houston Frightens Residents

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!

Nuns in Habits For Obama? Yeah Right!

Father Z saw these Obama buttons in the Washington Post, yesterday,  and got a little sick to his stomach:

It’s not that there aren’t plenty of Catholics – even nuns who wouldn’t sell out their faith to support an enemy of the Church. We know all too well that there are.

But those nuns tend to look like more this.

Note that they’re all older women with short cropped hair in ugly pant suits. Liberal nuns do not wear habits. They just don’t.

The nuns pictured above are “the nuns on the bus” who toured the country, last year, to  protest Paul Ryan’s reasonable and responsible budget cuts. They wouldn’t wear veils to save their lives.

Via the Janesville Gazette:

The Nuns on the Bus is a tour traveling to nine states to protest the budget that Ryan wrote and the House passed May 10.

The tour began in Iowa on Sunday. It stopped in Ryan’s hometown Tuesday.

The nuns object to the Ryan budget’s cuts in social services.

“We cannot stand by silently when the U.S. Congress considers further enriching the wealthiest Americans at the expense of struggling, impoverished families,” the nuns say on their website.

A crowd of about 140 people jammed the Main Street sidewalk in front of Ryan’s office and cheered long and loudly as four nuns disembarked from their tour bus and crossed the street.

A couple of dissenting nuns watched the spectacle with disapproval:

“We’re kind of embarrassed that they’re sisters, because so are we,” said Sister Joselda Kuhle.

The bus nuns don’t talk about issues such as abortion or that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, said the other nun, Sister Rosalia Bauer.

Bauer supported Ryan’s approach to the national budget.

“Jesus didn’t say give out handouts, give out handouts, give out handouts,” Bauer said. “He said, ‘Work!’ We can’t keep giving out handouts because we’ll run out of money.”

I wish the Gazette had taken a picture of those two nuns. I suspect they would look like the one on the Obama button.

Like these gentle souls who stood up for religious freedom and against Obama’s HHS mandate, in Kansas City, last Spring:

Nancy Pelosi Laughs (Video)

Via Greg Hengler of Townhall - this is guaranteed to be the most disturbing thing you see all day:

The horror.

Brought to you by….(I’ll let Hengler tell you.)

 

 

Confirmed: Family Research Council Gunman Carried a Chick Fil A Bag

Daily Mail: Local and federal investigators work to gather evidence after a security guard was shot in the arm at the headquarters of the Family Research Council August 15, 2012 in Washington, DC.

Big Government reported:

A gunman, posing as an intern, entered the The Family Research Council and shot a security guard. The FRC is a conservative pro-life and pro-traditional marriage organization which has been labelled as a hate group by leftists and gay rights organization in recent days. The gunman may have had more sinister motives toward FRC employees.

A source told FoxNews.com that the suspect “made statements regarding their policies, and then opened fire with a gun striking a security guard.” The gunman may also have been carrying a bag from Chick-fil-A, a restaurant that has been attacked by those on the left because of its owner’s stance against gay marriage and has been all over the news in recent weeks.

FoxNews.com reports the “gunman entered the lobby of the organization’s Chinatown headquarters around 10:45 and expressed disagreement with the conservative group’s policy positions” and “when the guard, who was not identified, asked him where he was going, he opened fire, according to police.”

Sources told FoxNews.com that after the guard took away the shooter’s gun, the suspect said, “Don’t shoot me, it was not about you, it was what this place stands for.”

“The security guard here is a hero, as far as I’m concerned,” D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said. ”He did his job. The person never made it past the front.”

According to FoxNews.com, the guard was shot in the arm and is in stable condition while the  gunman was being questioned by the FBI. The shooting is being treated as a case of domestic terrorism.

An NBC reporter on Twitter has since confirmed #FRC shooter had #Chik-Fil-A promotional materials in backpack, along with 2 loaded 15-round ammo clips.

The Daily Mail reported:

The Family Research Council is a right-wing, conservative lobbying organistaion that is against abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriages.

‘The police are investigating this incident,’ said FRC President Tony Perkins in a statement.

‘Our first concern is with our colleague who was shot today. Our concern is for him and his family.’

The council was also recently in the news when Mr. Perkins defended the chief executive of restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A, who made comments critical of gay marriage.

‘All Chick-Fil-A did was refuse to be bullied by the politically correct crowd,’ said Mr. Perkins.

The former president of the Family Research Council and former Republican presidential candidate, Gary Bauer also said at the time: ‘The values of the Family Research Council—pro-life and pro-family—are shared by millions of Americans of many backgrounds, and should not make anyone a target of violence.’

It’s about time conservative think tanks start labeling left wing groups it doesn’t like as “hate groups” – and I would include The Southern Poverty Law Center, and Human Rights Campaign among them.

The unhinged left is and always will be more of a danger to civil society than any of the conservative groups they demonize.

In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center named the FRC a “hate group” for opposing the homosexual agenda, along with several other Christian organizations.

The Human Rights Campaign also called the Christian organization a “hate group” for disagreeing with gay marriage.

Commenters at the HRC article blamed the pro-gay group for the shooting.

“Your article has lead to a shooting at the Family Research Center… you should feel disgusted with yourself, (sic)” wrote “Breitbart_Lives.”

“Well, HRC, you better hope you can prove all your claims against FRC because inciting Riot or Inciting Domestic Terrorism by stating inflammatory false information would be great grounds for a Lawsuit (sic),” wrote “Bill Steward.”

This is a developing story. Updates will be provided as they are available.

Update: Romney says he is “appalled” by the shooting, while Obama remains conspicuously silent. More here.

Megyn Kelly reported on her show, earlier today, that the case is bring called domestic terrorism:

SEE ALSO:

Dan Riehl: “Chicks-for-Gays”: Democrat anti-Chick-fil-A politicians and activists now have blood on their hands

Saturday Morning Thoughts

With Deb away, I guess its up to Geoff and I to make sure that there is something for Deb’s readers to consider on this day, and since Geoff doesn’t really post anything, it appears that it falls to me.

So this morning, I read about a  new translation of the Bible, that is “easier to comprehend”. 

Professor David Capes says the Bible “is probably the most owned and least read book out there. That’s because, for many, it’s too difficult to understand.”

The “own it but haven’t read it” demographic is his target market, says Capes, who teaches the New Testament at Houston Baptist University and was part of a team that compiled “The Voice,” a new translation of the King James Bible. Capes told CNN that the motivation behind the translation, seven years in the making, was to emphasize the meaning behind the words.

“‘The Voice’ considers the narrative links that help us to understand the drama and passion of story that is present in the original languages,” according to the website for the book. “The tone of the writing, the format of the page, and the directness of the dialog allows the tradition of passing down the biblical narrative to come through in ‘The Voice.’”

I really have mixed feelings about this.  While there are several translations of the Bible that are the result of years of translation from original greek texts, that have allowed for a deeper, richer understanding.  This still requires an effort from the reader, and it is precisely the difficulty in understanding certain portions that causes me to read from these translations in the first place. 

But what makes this different is the fact that it is someone re-writing a King James Version because it is too difficult to understand.  This smacks of the same thinking in which people denigrate the Constitution, because it is too hard to understand, or refuse to read the Federalist Papers because they are difficult, or CS Lewis’ apologetics, or…well, you get the point.  It isn’t the average person who benefits when such books are “dumbed down”, and it empowers the ones doing the dumbing down.  You don’t value what you don’t pay for, and when this version has abandoned the use of “angel”, “Christ”, and “apostle”, I don’t get a sense that it ends well.  It smacks a little too much of the continual “redefinition” of all things being forced upon us in other parts of culture and society.

The Final Insult: Napolitano Considering Exempting Muslims From Airport Pat Downs

Excuse me?

Uh…..

Pssssst TSA: Doesn’t this sorta defeat the purpose?!

According to Judicial Watch, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is actually considering waving airport pat downs for Muslim women who consider them offensive. I consider them offensive – do I get an exemption, too?

The demand came last week from the politically-connected Muslim rights organization that serves as the U.S. front for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Calling the searches “invasive” and “humiliating,” the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) advises Muslim women wearing religious head covers known as hijabs to reject full-body checks before boarding planes.

Those who are selected for the secondary screenings should remind Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers that they are only supposed to pat down the head and neck and that they should not subject Muslim women to a full-body or partial body pat-down, according to CAIR’s advisory. It further says that, instead of a body search, Muslim women can request to check their own hijab and have officers perform a chemical swipe of their hands.

While Americans are forced to deal with the degrading searches, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is actually considering exempting Muslims as per CAIR’s demands. Madame Secretary confirmed this week that there will be “adjustments” and “more to come” on the issue of Muslim women in hijabs undergoing airport security pat-downs.

In the meantime her agency is targeting a San Diego man who received worldwide media coverage for refusing to let a TSA agent conduct a thorough body search that he felt amounted to a “sexual assault.” Referring to his genitals, the man told the TSA officer; “you touch my junk and I’m going to have you arrested.”

The head of TSA in San Diego called a press conference this week to announce that the agency has launched an investigation into the 31-year-old software programmer who was not allowed to board the plane. The feds plan to prosecute and fine him thousands of dollars for making them look bad. Actually, the official charge is leaving the airport’s security area without permission, which is prohibited to prevent terrorism.

This is how completely upside down this country’s national security posture has become. The people who frankly, should be receiving the most attention at airport screenings may get exempted from the offensive grope and grabs, while innocent toddlers  in wheelchairs get worked over.

The “Don’t Touch My Junk” guy is a national hero. In saner times, he would be given a medal for refusing to submit to an insane, and unjust policy.

Linked by Maggie’s Notebook, thanks!

The Blaze Jumps The Shark

Image via SGP

Following Glenn Beck’s recent shark-jumping.

Unless this post is retracted, and an apology offered forthwith, I see no reason to continue having The Blaze on my blogroll, or to ever visit the site, again. Glenn Beck and pals are deploying the left’s most despicable Alinsky tactics against fellow conservatives,  now, and it defies all rational explanation.

Big Journalism’s John Nolte wonders what the heck is going on over there?

Beck’s fall from grace started when his site, The Blaze, falsely attacked James O’Keefe — to the delight of the very people who used to attack Beck. Then Beck, of all things, betrayed the Tea Party in the worst way any conservative could. I thought he’d hit bottom with that. After all, how much lower can you go than selling out to the mainstream media?

Well, yesterday, what I thought had been a rhetorical question was answered when The Blaze went full Andrew Sullivan, full Politico, full Wonkette, and and attacked Sarah Palin over a situation involving her family.

The Governor’s sin? Composing what amounts to a touching article about her family’s life with Trig – Todd and Sarah Palin’s youngest son with Down Syndrome.

To understand how misleading the Blaze attack is, you first have to read what Beck’s writer, a piece of work named Eddie Scarry (more on him below), wrote:

What’s the first thing that came to mind when you heard that Rick Santorum‘s special needs child was in the hospital with pneumonia late last month? I bet all of Mitt Romney‘s money it wasn’t Sarah Palin unless you are Sarah Palin. …Of the roughly 900-word article, 123 of them relate to Santorum and his daughter Bella who was born with Trisomy 18, a disability similar to Down syndrome.

It’s all downhill from there. For more perspective, the names “Rick” and “Santorum” appear three times total and are all found in the first paragraph. The word “my,” in reference to Palin herself, appears 15 times throughout the rest.

What the Blaze is intentionally doing here, is misleading its readers into believing Governor Palin was supposed to write a piece about the Santorum family and their daughter Bella. Moreover, The Blaze obviously wants their readers to believe that Palin selfishly exploited what happened to the Santorums so that she could write something all about herself.

Read the rest at Big Journalism - You won’t want to miss the screenshot of a vile tweet from the writer, Eddie Scarry.

The truth is, in the wake of the Santorums’ close call with Bella’s illness, Newsweek had reached out to Sarah Palin, asking her to write a piece about her life raising a special needs child. She had already written a Facebook post dedicated to Beautiful Bella Santorum.

The comments  at The Blaze are in virtual 100% agreement that the post in question was in poor taste, and a poor excuse for journalism:

Here are some samples:

KyWriter

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:59am

Geez, Glenn, this is one of the creepiest excuses for a blog article I have ever seen. Did you know this clown was writing it or did you assign it to him? If he wrote this without your knowledge, it’s time to tighten up your management style. If you assigned this hit piece, you need a prayer or two.

JackieJill128

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:51am

What a complete moron and perfect example of Palin Derangement Syndrome! I sincerely hope he will be dismissed. Very disappointed that Glenn and his staff overlooked this creep! Glenn: Do the right thing and remove him from your staff and issue an apology.

bigspike

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 12:08pm

time to send him back to Kos or PuffHo or wherever they scraped him up.

Rightwinger22

Posted on February 7, 2012 at 11:31am

You are losing your base Glenn. Time to wake up.

All the comments are in a similar vein.

Shark-cleared.

UPDATE:

Scarry updated with a weak attempt at a correction.

UPDATE: Many Palin supporters have read this post and taken issue with the fact that it does not mention Palin was actually asked by “Newsweek” to write about her experience raising a special needs child. She did not approach the publication and that is a crucial piece of information that should have been included for BLAZE readers.

This post was a brief analysis of the perception I, among others, had of Palin contributing to a magazine she regularly criticizes. And though my thoughts on Palin’s column still stand, it‘s also important to acknowledge that Palin’s experience raising her son Trig is a fascinating story and is worth a read in her book “Going Rogue.” –Eddie Scarry

No, the  point of the post was clearly to insinuate that she was selfishly and brazenly inserting herself into someone else’s story. Why else would he have been mocking her for referring to herself more than Santorum? The bit about Palin writing in a magazine she “regularly criticizes” was a single line, and obviously not the point of the piece because who the hell cares?

Linked by Doug Ross in Larwyn’s Links, thanks!

Loyal Friend of Joran Van Der Sloot Excuses Heinous Murder To Outraged Nancy Grace

I don’t watch her show, much, but every time I see her she’s seems teed off. Well here – she’s almost shaking with rage at this unbelievable creep of a guest who keeps insisting that his pal Joran Van Der Sloot was provoked by his latest victim because she had asked him about Natalee Holloway. She put herself at risk by putting herself in that situation, he argued.

‘You’re DEFENDING van der Sloot?’ she howled.

The conversation escalated when Grace described the bloody crime scene, and he persisted in his defense. Finally, she turned off his mic -  ”I reserve this for very, very few people, but you, sir, are a fool.”

Just between you and me, I think the word she was looking for, was “douchebag”, but that one’s probably not allowed per CNN’s media guidelines.

Hat tip: The Blaze

DHS Monitoring Websites In Order To Provide “Situational Awareness” In Order To Help Government Manage Responses to Cataclysmic Events

‘HOMELAND SECURITY’ MONITORING DRUDGE

‘WILL RETAIN INFORMATION’

…Or Something…

Remember back in the good ol’ days when Americans only needed to feel paranoid about being watched when they were communicating with foreign Jihadis?

Reuters reported Wednesday afternoon:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.

A “privacy compliance review” issued by DHS last November says that since at least June 2010, its national operations center has been operating a “Social Networking/Media Capability” which involves regular monitoring of “publicly available online forums, blogs, public websites and message boards.”

The purpose of the monitoring, says the government document, is to “collect information used in providing situational awareness and establishing a common operating picture.”

The document adds, using more plain language, that such monitoring is designed to help DHS and its numerous agencies, which include the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency, to manage government responses to such events as the 2010 earthquake and aftermath in Haiti and security and border control related to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A DHS official familiar with the monitoring program said that it was intended purely to enable command center officials to keep in touch with various Internet-era media so that they were aware of major, developing events to which the Department or its agencies might have to respond.

***

These include social networking sites Facebook and My Space – though there is a parenthetical notice that My Space only affords a “limited search” capability – and more than a dozen sites that monitor, aggregate and enable searches of Twitter messages and exchanges.

Among blogs and aggregators on the list are ABC News’ investigative blog “The Blotter;” blogs that cover bird flu; several blogs related to news and activity along U.S. borders (DHS runs border and immigration agencies); blogs that cover drug trafficking and cybercrime; and websites that follow wildfires in Los Angeles and hurricanes.

The Atlantic Wire listed specific sites they’re monitoring:

Social Networks

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Myspace

Blogs

• The Drudge Report
• The Huffington Post
• The New York Times‘s Lede blog
• Wired’s Threat Level
• Wired’s Danger Room
• ABC News’ investigative blog The Blotter
• “blogs that cover bird flu … news and activity along U.S. borders … drug trafficking and cybercrime”
• Jihad Watch
• Cryptome
• Informed Comment

Multimedia

• Hulu
• YouTube
• Flickr

I added Jihad Watch, Cryptome, and Informed Comment because they were also specifically mentioned in the Reuters article.

DHS confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the list, but officials authorized to speak for the Department did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Linked by Michelle Malkin in Buzzworthy, and Peach Pundit, thanks!

Video: Virginia School Board Doubles Down – Defends Having Third-Graders Sing Occupy Indoctrination Song

Via CBS 19 News:

The School Board in Charlottesville is clearly out of line, and not fooling anyone with their lame explanation for how kids came to sing a class warfare song at an assembly.

Indoctrinating other people’s children with their political messages is a tactic leftists use all the time.  Conservatives shouldn’t stand for it, and need to continue to sound the alarm on this story. This is an outrage.

video via Weasel Zippers, (watch for Zip cameo at the 44 second mark.)

Yes, they’re actually asking us to believe that the group, “Kid Pan Alley” doesn’t “shape or censor the lyrics”.  Third-grade children came up with topic, and  class warfare lyrics all by themselves.

Give me a break!

What do we know about the group, Kid Pan Alley, which the school board chair says is doing such good work? J Christian Adams reported at Big Government:

Kid Pan Alley’s infiltration into government schools goes well beyond Woodbrook Elementary in Charlottesville.  They have a presence in Payne Elementary in Lynchburg (VA), Union Elementary in Montpelier (VT), Campbell Court Elementary in Martinsville (VA), Burnley Elementary in Charlottesville (VA), Thompson Elementary in Marshall (VA), Pierce Elementary in Remington (VA), Red Hill Elementary in Virginia, Brownsville Elementary in Crozet (VA), and many many more.

Consider the results of Kid Pan Alley’s residency inside Parker Elementary Waimea, Hawaii.  They spent a week inside the school writing the song “Walk to Japan” with an apocalyptic environmental message.  “Reduce, reuse and recycle, maybe it’s time to face what we messed up, cause if we don’t save the ocean, we’ll have to walk to Japan.”

When you consider the leftist activists who introduced this garbage into Woodbrook Elementary, the agenda is even more clear.  Kid Pan Alley receives money from the William and Mary Greve Foundation.

The Greve Foundation funds many other causes at odds with American traditions, including the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is run by a 9-11 conspiracy theorist.  The Greve Foundation is headed by John Kiser, III, author of Communist Entrepreneurs : Unknown Innovators in the Global Economy.  (From a review: “the book is of value in confronting tired stereotypes about the inherent inferiority of technology under Communism.”)  Kiser is from Sperryville, Virginia, which might explain why so many Virginia elementary schools.

You can watch Kid Pan Alley’s video “If I Change One Thing” here for another whiff of Occupy.  The kids sing the answer: “If I could change one thing, I’d change all the rules.  Freedom would be free.  I’d be my own boss no matter what the cost.”  Sort of like a mob.

The nonsense continues in the song:  “What if kids could vote, its love that sets us free, when everyone has what they needed.  There would be no more war. Yeah, that’s what kids are for.”

Once again, the lyrics the third graders at Woodbrook Elementary “wrote”, with my suggested accompanying color sheet:

Suggested caption: “I’m so happy to be part of the 99, I’m going #2″

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be one of the 1 percent
I worked all the time
Never saw my family
Couldn’t make life rhyme
Then the bubble burst
It really, really hurt
I lost my money
Lost my pride
Lost my home
Now I’m part of the 99

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes — they’re the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied
’Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn’t need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don’t need to be first
’Cause I’ve got my friends
Here by my side
Don’t need it all
I’m so happy to be part of the 99

Some more coloring sheets for the kiddies at Woodbrook Elementary :

Just print these out to give the kids something fun and relevant  to color in between lessons:

Suggested caption: Because he was a blood-sucking Jew, Goldman Sachs CEO ‘s decapitated head is stuck on a pole at an “Occupy Wall Street” rally in New York

Suggested caption: Everyone dropped trou for some festive fun at the Occupy World’s Largest Gathering of Naked Santas.

Suggested caption: As members of the “1%”, police officers get what’s coming to them at #OWS protests.

Suggested caption: Zuccotti Love

Suggested caption: Exposing injustice in this sagging economy.

Suggested caption: “Time for some window-breaking fun!”

Suggested caption: Soon, #OWS may be coming to a park near you!

Suggested caption: Don’t worry, as one of the “99″, you’re safe.

Linked by Free Republic, thanks!

Video: The Ron Paul Twilight Zone

Some of Ron Paul’s most notable quotables, presented in nostalgic black and white as Twilight Zone music plays in the background. Pitch perfect:

You know what’s even more disturbing than Paul’s ideas?

The drones on YouTube who watched that video and still support”Dr. Paul”: – Ron Paul 2012!!!

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

#OWS Becomes A Den Of Thieves

As I’ve been saying, a whole host of left-wing pathologies are on display at the #occupy protests…

This is just one more thing you’ll never experience at a Tea Party.

The New York Post reports:

Occupy Wall Street protesters said yesterday that packs of brazen crooks within their ranks have been robbing their fellow demonstrators blind, making off with pricey cameras, phones and laptops — and even a hefty bundle of donated cash and food.

“Stealing is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Nan Terrie, 18, a kitchen and legal-team volunteer from Fort Lauderdale.

“I had my Mac stolen — that was like $5,500. Every night, something else is gone. Last night, our entire [kitchen] budget for the day was stolen, so the first thing I had to do was . . . get the message out to our supporters that we needed food!”

Crafty cat burglars sneaked into the makeshift kitchen at Zuccotti Park overnight and swiped as much as $2,500 in donated greenbacks from right under the noses of volunteers who’d fallen asleep after a long day whipping up meals for the hundreds of hungry protesters, the volunteers said.

“The worst thing is there’s people sleeping in the kitchen when they come, and they don’t even know about it! There are some really smart and sneaky thieves here,” Terrie said.

“I had umbrellas stolen, a fold-up bed I brought because my back is bad — they took that, too!”

“The people united will never be defeated” -

“This is what Democracy looks like!” -

“Tax the rich” -

“I’m taking your stuff!”

It should surprise no one that a materialistic movement that seeks to “redistribute wealth”, and is characterized by a pathological class envy would have this problem.

MORE:

Or as Ace puts it:

Wow, it’s almost like some people don’t respect the concept of private personal property, and think — how does it go? — that property should be parceled out from each according to his ability to each according to his need.

Hat tip: Rush, who started his show off, today talking about this.

In Interview Paul Krugman Says He has Regular Contact With White House, Bush WH Was “Evil and Stupid” – Obama WH “Good Guys and Smart”

Krugman laments that those good, smart guys in the Obama White House aren’t forceful enough. (after all, Obama could go over the heads of Congress and pass everything by executive fiat.)

He says he’s trying to make this Communist “progressive” moment in American history  a success.

This very special interview was conducted on September 3rd, and is brought to you courtesy of The Blaze: