HOMELAND INSECURITY

 

One wonders about the competence of America’s Department of Homeland Security after the recent pressure cooker bombs in Boston.

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With more than 200,000 employees, DHS is the third largest Cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.^[4] Homeland security policy is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council. Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy.
According to the Homeland Security Research Corporation, the combined financial year 2010 state and local HLS markets, which employ more than 2.2 million first responders, totaled $16.5 billion, whereas the DHS HLS market totaled $13 billion.^[5] According to the Washington Post, "DHS has given $31 billion in grants since 2003 to state and local governments for homeland security and to improve their ability to find and protect against terrorists, including $3.8 billion in 2010."<sup>[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeland_Security_Department

*</sup>

Did agents take their eyes off of the ball on this one, or more specifically, off of the bomber-brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

Or, were eyes ever on the two brothers to begin with?

Russia seemed to be more concerned---and to know more about these two brothers than the United States did:

 Russian authorities warned the FBI in early 2011 that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have been a follower of “radical Islam,” a revelation that raised new questions in Congress on Saturday about whether the Boston Marathon attacks that killed three and wounded more than 170 could have been prevented.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/20/bombmain/IQ48jNsFSG21X8jkkcSsMJ/story.html

UPDATE [May 1, 2013]:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317493/Saudi-official-Kingdom-warned-United-States-IN-WRITING-Boston-Bomber-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-2012-rejected-application-entry-visa-visit-Mecca-2011.html
 

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How cohesive and collaborative are local police departments, the F.B.I., C.I.A., and Homeland Security agencies?

 The answer is:

Not cohesive and collaborative enough.

Why did they fail this time?

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I haven’t kept up with the cable news wonks, or the A.M. radio blowhards, so I don’t know how much conversation there has been on this horrible lack of homeland security.

Something just isn’t right.

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Asked by ABC’s Dianne Sawyer if the Boston bombing reminded him of 9/11, Bush responded, “At first I was deeply concerned that there might have been an organized plot,” before adding that he thought the attack may have been “another consp” (Bush appeared to be saying the word conspiracy before he stopped himself, before continuing, “Another highly organized attack on the country and it still may be.”

While Bush almost described the bombings as a conspiracy, his wife glared at him.

Bush has made numerous statements in the past that have raised the eyebrows of those who are skeptical of the official narrative behind terrorist attacks, including a speech before the UN shortly after 9/11 during which he remarked, “Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th.”

The YouTube community responded to Bush’s statement by noting how his wife Laura reacted.

“Look at Laura’s eyes at the exact moment he utters “another consp”. "She gets extremely wide eyed for a slightest moment. Pretty revealing,” wrote one.

“Notice how at about 0:40, when the word “consp..” came out of his mouth, his wife’s eyes got bigger for a second. She definitely reacted to what he had said, as she looked directly at him, cuing him to cut it short and choose another word,” added another.

 

 

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Maybe some of the 3.4 billion dollars being spent on the new home for the Department of Homeland Security could be used to find out what went wrong:

Department leaders hope the $3.4 billion consolidation will help the department fulfill its core mission---protecting the homeland---in ways big and small.

"It will help us hold meetings," Secretary Janet Napolitano said. "It will help us build that culture of 'One DHS.'

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/09/homeland.security.headquarters/index.html?_s=PM:POLITICS

 

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“…protecting the homeland---in ways big and small”?

 

I guess you had better build that new facility lickety-split, because one big occurrence just occurred in a big way in Boston that wasn’t being monitored very well.

Perhaps in the new “culture of One DHS” future bombs won’t go off.

I’m not so sure about the ‘hold meetings” part.

Did meetings need a fancy new edifice in order to discuss and share information about the Tsarnaev brothers before they exploded their bombs during the Boston marathon?

The causes of the Boston marathon bombings should not be delayed or ignored like the causes were for September 11, 2001.

Nor should any evidence be swept under the rug or get shipped off to China!




Postscript:

Letter To Congress Calling For
Boston Bombing Investigation
From Si Contino
 Bucks County, Pennsylvania
5-4-13
 http://rense.com/general95/lettertocong.html







IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

HOTTER THAN HELL

 

Hell, as most of us know, is at the center of our planet, and not down there…

Somewhere or other place.

Heaven is still unknown to us, but not our faith that it, too, is somewhere…

Up there (or out there) some place or other.

Of course, there are those doubting Thomases that don’t believe in either place.

*

I have just learned that Hell is much hotter than we thought (if any of us ever think about it.) 

After all, we do have our lives to live, and we can’t be hot and bothered about Hell---except on Sundays---which is also known to be a hot day.

Sun.

Day.

Yes, Hell is hot---in fact, it’s hotter than Hell, and it may be hotter than the sun’s surface.

The surface of the Sun is hot – over 5500 degrees Celsius (which is nearly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit . But if new findings are correct, then the center of our own planet may actually be hotter – over 1,000 degrees hotter than previously thought.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/04/28/the-center-of-the-earth-may-be-hotter-than-the-suns-surface/

Because the center of the Earth is so hellishly hot, it’s quite unlikely that anyone or anything has ever lived there, except for the sinners who had to go live there.

Their lives are a living Hell because they have to live there:

 In hot, hot, Hell.

The closest we ever get to Hell is when volcanoes erupt, or when Rush Limbaugh is having a very bad day.

Fortunately, we can control one of these things by changing the channel.

  

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GEORGE W. BUSH SPEAKS AT THE OPENING OF THE GEORGE W. BUSH PRESIDENTIAL CENTER

 

"Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful."

—Former President George W. Bush, July 2012

 

 

“One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”

George W. Bush

 

I’ll make it easier on everyone, especially myself, and not give any long address today, but just repeat and thread together some of the things that I’ve said in the past.

These words, too, can be added to the George W. Bush Presidential Center after they’ve rolled off of my tongue.

Pardon all of the periods…I think they’re called eclipses…no, I’ve just been corrected…they’re called ellipses.

Thank you, Laura.

And thank y’all!

 

 

"I didn't grow up in the ocean---as a matter of fact---near the ocean---I grew up in the desert. Therefore, it was a pleasant contrast to see the ocean. And I particularly like it when I'm fishing…but I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully…and I trust God speaks through me…and I've got God's shoulder to cry on. And I cry a lot...and without that, I couldn't do my job...and I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace…and I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office…but my answer is bring them on.  People say, well, do you ever hear any other voices other than, like, a few people? Of course I do…and I miss being pampered…and you know, I guess I'm like any other political figure: Everybody wants to be loved…and it's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet…and when I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was. Today we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there…but this is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses…and

make no mistake about it, I understand how tough it is…I talk to families who die…and I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family... but the important question is, how many hands have I shaked…and I hope you leave here and walk out and say, ‘What did he say?’ 

Thank you!

 

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

THE FIRST EARTH DAY

 

"We only have one earth, so we need to take care of her."
That's what Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin believed. He was disturbed that an issue as important as our environment was not addressed in politics or by the media, so he created the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970. An estimated 20 million people nationwide attended festivities that day. It was a truly astonishing grassroots explosion, leading eventually to national legislation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.


I remember that first Earth Day.
I was living in Boulder, Colorado.
The most salient memory is of the many Geodesic Domes.
All of those triangles interconnected!
The dream-come-true of any hippie!
A couple of years later, when I was living alone in a quiet one-room "cottage" along Boulder Creek, I had an experience that truly put me in touch with the Earth.
It was a frosty white winter evening.
I was driving my Datsun truck and saw two people asking for a ride (their thumbs extended).
I stopped and asked where they needed to go.
They pointed ahead and said "Sugarloaf Road".
"Get in", I said.
His wife's name was Heidi. I forget his. But I won't forget his huge, red beard that was almost down to his knees.
When I stopped, they invited me to visit their home.
We walked through the snow-laden forest for about quarter of a mile.
"It's over there", said the long-bearded husband.
"Where?", I asked.
"That round circle on the ground", Heidi replied.
Her husband lifted a "door" and they invited me to come in.
Inside this hole dug into the earth was their home.
It was Z-shaped.
A small mattress sat on the top part of the Z. I sat here.
A treadle sewing machine was at the bottom of the Z.
"We put a Tepee on top when winter ends", Heidi said.
Then Heidi's husband showed me a round object covered with colorful "strings".
The strings were copper wires.
The round object was a small bicycle wheel.
"What is it?, I asked.
"It's this", he said.
And he handed me a small metal box.
"It's a bio-feedback machine".
I stared in disbelief at both objects.
"My company is called Psionics", he said.
It was the very first biofeedback machine. I felt honored.
I didn't stay long.
Heidi and her husband walked with me part way down the path from their home.
I was walking back to my truck astonished, when out of the cold blue evening sky a bolt of lightning struck just a few feet in front of me.
This thunderbolt out of Heaven was as remarkable as that meeting in the Earth.

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

I TOLD YOU

 

 

Mother was always right.

“I told you”, she would always say.

 “I told you.”

I know, mom.

I should have done what you told me.

Even at the airport on my way to Afghanistan she wanted to give me her St. Christopher’s medal, but I said no.

I could hear the words “I told you” when I was lost in India.

*

Here are a few other times when she used these words:

“I told you not to leave the house and play with those firecrackers!”

Fortunately, I only got second degree burns.

 *

“I told you not to take that BB gun with you!”

This was on a hiking trip with my dad and Uncle Ron to find LOST LAKE in Colorado.

  I don’t know whether they ever found it. 

The trip was interrupted when I fell down on some rocks in a stream---holding onto my Daisy BB gun!

 My fall produced an ugly gash on my forehead, and I had to be taken to a medical facility.

 *

“I told you not to buy that motorcycle!”

I begged my mom to sign a paper to grant me permission to buy a motorcycle, since I wasn’t 21.

She didn’t actually say to me “I told you” for this incident, but her words were tossing around in my brain as my bike and I fell down on a gravely, winding road in Sunshine Canyon.

I’m sure there were other times.

When I remember I’ll add them here.

 

IT’S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LEAVE THE EARTH

 

He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.
Albert Camus

One thousand years and counting.

Just enough time to leave the Earth and live somewhere else.

If we start now.

This is the good news.

My hunch is that it can be done much sooner, but I won’t brain wrestle with Stephen Hawking over this one.

[http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/14600-hawking-earth-doomed-without-further-space-exploration/]

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The bad news is that we may blow each other up well before then.

After that a new ball would get rolling.

A new leaf would be turned.

(Which reminds me of

)

 

Back to square one.

The earth would still be here, just not its brilliant humans---at least not the large numbers of them that exist right now.

Even Moses…I mean Charlton Heston…before he had his rifle glued to his hands…indicated his disgust at what humans could do:

“…we finally really did it. [screaming] YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! GODDAMN YOU ALL TO HELL! (camera pans to reveal the half-destroyed Statue of Liberty sticking out of the sand).”

[From Planet of the Apes ⁽¹⁹⁶⁸⁾, a film by Franklin J. Schaffner.]

Albert Camus came right to the point:

 

 

I include some notes that I took many decades ago that I believe are also relevant:

 

 

 

 

Here are some lines that I wrote decades ago that will add to the somber theme:

 

 

Last Appeal

Atomic madmen
You dancers
Of doom
Leave my Earth
Go live on the Moon
Leave my universe
Atomic madmen
You don't scare me
Boom.

Time Capsule

    

The cold machines from earth
Travelled as far as they could
And travelled empty paths
Through endless spaces
Filled with myriad stars and
Galaxies
For one thousand years.

It didn't matter, after all,
Since life on earth as men
Had known it was gone
And the men, the intelligent
Knowers and machine-lover makers
Had also disappeared.

The sun never felt a thing
And God remained inside
His big laboratory quietly thinking
About what to do next.

 

 

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

 

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