Saturday, February 23, 2013

Larwyn's Linx: Today is the Day of Resistance

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Today is the Day of Resistance: RWN
National Security Leaders to Obama: Stop Disarming America: Nice Deb
12 Steps to World Government: American Digest

The Left is Circling the Wagons against Dr. Ben Carson: AT
Gun Manufacturers Boycott Anti-Gun States: CJ
Bracken Sends: Western

Obama's Speeches are Chilling: CDN
Rand Paul Slams Sequester Fearmongering: 'Making Stuff Up': NB
Boom: "The Obama Sequester": Cowboy

Economy

The Gilded Class Warriors: Hanson
The Feds Want Your Retirement Accounts: AT
Currency Wars Will Lead to a World War: Gerald Celente: Ticker

Why Britain lost its AAA rating: Spectator
Jerry Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy: Ace
Leviathan: “You Better Play Along If You Want To Survive”: Pelerin

Scandal Central

Find Your Local Day of Resistance Rally!
Blueprint NC: How A Shadowy Left-Wing Hydra Plans A Targeted Attack On NC Republicans: RS
Revealed: Why Obama won’t show the rest of his drone memos to Congress: Hot Air

Climate & Energy

DOE confirms LG Chem battery plant workers were paid not to make Chevy Volt batteries: AutoBlog
China admits pollution-linked 'cancer villages': France24

Media

Panic! ABC Warns of Sequester 'Fiscal Emergency' to 'Cripple' Much of America: NB
Cartel You Guys: The Media Has a Full-Blown Embargo on Soledad O'Brien's Ethnic Purge: Ace
Cruising Off Baja: American Digest

Washington Post Is Being As Subltle In Their Sequestration Coverage As You Expect: Ace
The Pro Second Amendment Commercial Banned By Major Media Conglomerates: SHTFplan
Facial morphs of 10 of the most popular adult performers: American Digest

The Fallows Principle: Ace
Axelrod and Gibbs Promise They Won’t Be Obama Surrogates on MSNBC: AIM
On CNN, Cause of Chicago Violence Is – You Guessed It – The GOP: NB

World

'Palestinian Authority' increasing violence ahead of Obama visit: Matzav
Guess What Religion’s Followers Put Out This Handy Guide To Stoning Adulterers?: Sooper
Did a Secret Vatican Report on Gay Sex and Blackmail Bring Down the Pope?: AtlWire

CNN: Blocked Access to Hagel Archives a 'Flashpoint': WS
You’re a SEAL Stranded in Hostile Territory: What’s in Your Survival Kit?: Bruce
Hee Hee! Egypt flooding Hamas smuggling tunnels with raw sewage: BNI

N. Korea warns US forces of 'destruction' before war drills: JPost
Gold And The Potential Dollar Endgame Part 3: Backwardation And Gold: ZH

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Why don't we have flying cars?: PopMech
How Google is preparing the world for Glass: CNet
Microsoft admits it was also hit by hackers, malware infects their Mac business unit: Sophos

Cornucopia

GIVE GENEROUSLY TO ANGRY WHITE DUDE'S AMMUNITION BANK FOR THE LESS FORTUNATE!: AWD
President and First Lady Michelle Obama Visit Walmart: iOTW
Man Drunk Drives An Electric Walmart Scooter For Six Miles: Jalopnik

Image: .2/23 National Day of Resistance: Will You Be There?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Today is the Day of Resistance

QOTD: "If you normalize interest rates, i'm not talking about a spike, just normalize where they were before QE and took them to 5.7% federal funding costs of the debt, that's $500 billion a year in interest expense that goes out door. We're having a heart attack over an $85 billion sequester when we can lose $500 billion just if you normalize. The way markets work if and when that were to happen, you don't normalize, you keep going because the market figures out that you now have a credit problem which is exactly what's happened in the foreign nations." --Stanley Druckenmiller

Friday, February 22, 2013

Take the Civic Literacy Exam

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute offers an extremely interesting Full Civic Literacy Exam.

I was feeling really good about my score until I finished reading Dennis's email.


He got 32 of 33.


Note: If your score was disappointing, I recommend regular downloads of The Mark Levin Show. The podcasts are free, you cheap ***.

Curiosity Takes a Panoramic Self-Portrait

Very cool.

This remarkable self-portrait of NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover includes a sweeping panoramic view of its current location in the Yellowknife Bay region of the Red Planet's Gale Crater. The rover's flat, rocky perch, known as "John Klein", served as the site for Curiosity's first rock drilling activity. At the foot of the proud looking rover, a shallow drill test hole and a sample collection hole are 1.6 centimeters in diameter. The impressive mosaic was constructed using frames from the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Mastcam. Used to take in the panoramic landscape frames, the Mastcam is standing high above the rover's deck. But MAHLI, intended for close-up work, is mounted at the end of the rover's robotic arm. The MAHLI frames used to create Curiosity's self-portrait exclude sections that show the arm itself and so MAHLI and the robotic arm are not seen...

There's also an interactive version of this panoramic series.


Racism, straight up

In the immortal words of the Janeane Garafalo*.


@KesGardner, who took the screen-cap, says: "I don't know whether to laugh or cry."


* Did I misspell her name? Who cares?

MUST-READ: Titan CEO Smashes French Communist Unions

Tyler Durden updates us on the developing -- and fascinating -- war of words between an avowed Capitalist and the Marxist French government, which is now in:

...Round 3, following round 1 in which the "Titan CEO Crushes Socialist "Work Ethic", Tells France "You Can Keep Your So-Called Workers" and round 2 in which "Socialist France Responds To Titan CEO, Hilarity Ensues."

...Excerpted from Titan CEO Maurice Taylor's follow up letter in response to Arnaud Montebourg's letter responding to Maurice Taylor.

Your letter shows the extent to which your political class is out of touch with real world problems.

You call me an extremist, but most businessmen would agree that I must be nuts to have the idea to spend millions of US dollars to buy a tyre factory in France paying some of the highest wages in the world.

Your letter did not mention why the French government has not stepped in to rescue this Goodyear tyre factory.

The extremist, Mr Minister, is your government and the lack of knowledge about how to build a business.

Your government let the wackos of the communist union destroy the highest paying jobs.

At no time did Titan ask for lower wages; we asked only if you want seven hours pay, you work at least six.

France does have beautiful women and great wine.

PS: My grandmother named my father after French entertainer Maurice Chevalier, and I inherited the name.

I have visited Normandy with my wife. I know what we did for France.

And down goes Montebourg! Down goes Montebourg!


NEW POLL: Guess Which Religion Published a Handy Guide to Stoning Adulterers to Death?

Rising multimedia star SooperMexican asks:

Buzzfeed just posted this pretty [Ed.: "pretty"?] evil guide to stoning people... Can you guess what religion’s adherents posted it?


I guessed Radical Episcopalians, but I don't think that's right.

You can vote in the poll by clicking here.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: We need not justify the exercise of our rights to would-be despots and tyrants

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

We need not justify the exercise of our rights to would-be tyrants: Sharpe
Ominous: Obama rids America's military of yet another top general: IBD
Obama: Smearing the American People, Aided by Cowardly GOP: Scoop

The Huns and Vandals Within: Camp o' the Saints
The Endgame for the Destruction of the United States: AT
To No One’s Surprise, Barrett Flips Off New York: TAG

Are the Rules Just Different For This President?: Elephant
Why I'm a Black Republican: RWN
Trey Gowdy Shreds White House Big Labor Lawyer’s Talking Points: Nice Deb

Economy

America's TBTF Bank Subsidy From Taxpayers: $83 Billion Per Year: ZH
Sequestration: DHS Sees Major Budget Cuts: Foundry
The California Tax That Terrifies Silicon Valley: CNN

Ammo Prices Have Doubled Since December: CNS
Obama Caught In Bald-Faced Lie On Sequester: Western
"We Have An Entitlement Problem" And One Day The Fed's Hamster Wheel Will Stop: ZH

Scandal Central

Treasury Identifies Billions in Waste: Roll Call
FBI Employees Sexting, Sending Porn, Bugging Co-Workers Offices: Bruce
Joe Biden's Shotgun Advice Could Land Jill Biden in Jail: USN&WR

Climate & Energy

I’ll take ‘global warming alarmists who cashed out to big oil’ for $500, Alex: Malkin
Why Are Gasoline Prices High and Rising?: CFP
Taxpayer-Supported Fisker Looking to China, Like A123: NLPC

Media

Of Media and Monsters: Ayoob
Prominent Staffer at Ministry of Truth Stepping Down: Driscoll
Big Three Network Double Standard on Labeling Scandalous Politicians: NB

The Fourth Estate Takes Five: Driscoll
For the First Time in My Life, I Am Ashamed of My Country: EIB
Intrade Traffic Plummets: Marginal Revolution

Liberal “non-partisan” coalition urges “crippling”, videotracking of #NCGOP leaders: Toldjah
Man Shoots and Kills Two Home Invaders: National Media Silent: ConHideout
News Flash: Liberals Are Ignorant, Uninformed Hypocrites: Bruce

World

Senators to Obama: Withdraw Hagel’s Nomination: Foundry
State Dept. Still Downplaying Religious Element in Terrorist Threat Advisory: CNS
US CEO Says French Workers Have Three-Hour Work Day: Slashdot

The Hagel Nomination and the Dangerous Folly of “Global Zero”: Foundry
Why Hagel’s Position On Israel is So Disconcerting: AmSpec
Disturbing Trend in our Military: Viewing citizens as threats: GNP

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Dot Commie: China's Military Behind U.S. Cyberattacks: IBD
NBC website hacked and distributes malware - here's what happened: Sophos
PayPal readies launch of mobile payments system in Europe: CNet

Cornucopia

Purchase the Liberal Rape Kit: iOTW
NBC To Finish 5th In Sweeps For First Time; Network Falls Behind Univision: iOTW
Obama's Monster: RWN

Image: Cruz, Rubio Call On Obama To Withdraw Hagel’s Nomination
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Make Five Calls for Freedom!

QOTD: "[What the Republican message should be:]

• Our current level of spending is unsustainable. Spending must go down. Period.

• This is a 2 percent cut.

• Sure, if we in the Republican party had complete control of the government, we would be implementing the cuts differently. But we don't. Congress can only appropriate funds; it doesn't run the departments and agencies that spend the money. That's the power and responsibility of the executive branch.

• If the Obama administration's response to a 2 percent cut is really to let all the criminals out of the jails and end food-safety inspections, then it is no longer disputable that he's a Stuttering Cluster-you-know-what of a Miserable Failure." --Jim Geraghty

Thursday, February 21, 2013

NO ONE SHOW JOE SALAZAR: The One Chart That Says It All About Women and Safety

One university in Colorado legalized concealed carry on campus in 2003. And here's what happened to sex offenses on campus:


Paging Mister Salazar. Mister Salazar. You have a telephone call at the front desk.


Reason #3,906 to support the Sequester: DHS to see major budget cuts

According to the Heritage Foundation, the Budget Sequester "cuts the DHS off at the knees."

They say it like that's a bad thing.

... the DHS will be hit hard if the sequestration is allowed to proceed as planned. Some of the areas highlighted are:

• The TSA would have to furlough front-line screening personnel at airports, likely causing significant delays at major airports throughout the U.S.

• The Coast Guard would have to reduce air and surface operations by 25 percent, put off maintenance of its aging fleet, and delay moving into its new headquarters.

• Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) would need to downsize its workforces of both CBP officers and Border Patrol Agents.

• The Department’s Science and Technology Directorate would be forced to cut major projects entirely, including research on protecting the U.S. electrical grid, and drastically slash others.

• Funding to the National Cybersecurity Protection System would be significantly reduced.

Hey! I've got an idea!

Maybe DHS could sell the couple billion of rounds of ammo it's stockpiled into the private market which so desperately needs it.

That way all of the airport crotch-grabbing and Southern border non-enforcing can continue apace!


Security Researcher: NBC Serving Up Malware

Help Net Security reports that NBC's website has been hijacked and is serving visitors a heaping helping of malware. And, no, I don't mean the Obama talking points they repeat on a daily basis. I mean real malware.

NBC's website has been compromised, and is redirecting users to malicious sites, reports Dancho Danchev.

According to HitmanPro, the website has been injected with malicious iFrames that lead to one of several compromised sites equipped with Java and PDF exploits.

It seems that upon successful exploitation of one of the vulnerabilities, the users are saddled with variants of the Citadel info-stealing Trojan that currently aren't detected by many AV solutions.

The server with which the malware communicates has already been sinkholed. Nevertheless, if you have visited the news outlet's website today, and your AV hasn't picked up on anything, use a new one to double check - preferably one of these that at the moment do.

Visiting the NBC's website is, for the time being, still dangerous, and even Facebook has moved to protect its users by not allowing the posting of the site's URL.

If it turns out the Red Chinese hacked NBC's computers, one obvious question comes to mind: How would we know?


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

Obama says that he can't cut spending by 2%, but just hiked payroll taxes on every American by more than that in January.

It would seem that the federal government can't diet by even 2 percent, but the president just hiked payroll taxes on every American -- the poor, the rich and the middle class -- by that exact amount in January. With new Obamacare taxes (on medical devices, capital gains, and higher health care premiums), the average American has had to tighten their belt by far more than 2 percent.

And what is the president's first priority to cut if the dreaded two percent "sequester" hits?

Barack Obama, who says he cares deeply about jobs, has now caused 800,000 civilian workers for the Pentagon to face as many as 22 days off without pay as a result of sequestration cuts.

That's correct: Obama's first tendency when it comes to cutting government is Defense. Not HUD. Not the EPA. Not the Department of Education or the Interior or the myraid of other paper-pushing agencies. He goes right after the Defense Department.

According to Roll Call, Obama's executive branch wastes more than "$400 billion to $450 billion [which is] lost in improper payments plus duplication".

It's actually more than that if you account for fraud and crime.

But, no, the Defense Department is Obama's target. Not the hundreds of billions in waste, fraud and duplicate spending in the federal government.

His ostensible Defense Secretary, the brilliant Chuck Hagel, wants to unilaterally disarm the United States while China, Russia, and terror states build their atomic arsenals.

And Obama gives -- not sells, gives -- F-16 fighters to the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian government. Which happens to be the same government that just today refused the U.S. access to a suspect in slaying of a U.S. Ambassador in Benghazi.

Historian Trevor Loudon was right all along: Barack Obama's true goal is to disarm America, to bring it to its knees on the global stage, and to see it humbled.


Who needs the Keystone pipeline? Americans are only paying the highest portion of their paychecks for gas in 30 years!

ETF Daily News reports:

...if you exclude the 2008 spike in oil prices (to be fair, seemingly a unique anomaly and unsustained), Americans are paying the highest portion of paychecks toward gasoline prices in the past 3 decades. 30 years.

But Democrats are for the little guy!


Hat tip: BadBlue Money.

Larwyn's Linx: Democide

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Democide: Bracken
Enforcing the Liberal Media Omerta: RSM
That Could Never Happen Here: GSL

Cruz: They Oppose Rubio Because He’s Latino: Patterico
Hispanicked GOP Elite: They'll Respect Us in the Morning: Coulter
Rubio Establishes ‘Victory Committee’ With Eye Towards 2016: Shark Tank

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!: RSM
Guns Prevent 3,600 Rapes per Day: Extrano's Alley
STL “Knockout Game” Thug Shot After Break-In of Armed Citizen's Home: WZ

Economy

Media ignores GAO report: Obama policies unsustainable: Breitbart
Obama’s Cowardly Mendacity Over Sequestration: RS
The RINO establishment’s astonishingly bad message on sequester cuts: York

Rand Paul blasts Obama for Sequester "Histrionics": STACLU
Cost of Obama's vacation could have saved 160 teachers' jobs: Dossier
Rioting Across America: NoisyRm

Scandal Central

Columbine survivor to Obama: Start gun talks with Fast & Furious: Times
Jackson Graft Case Further Indicts Black Caucus: IBD
Liberal logic: it's not "vote fraud" since Obama won: WyBlog

BUSTED: Team Obama Directly Implicated in Major NC Voter-Registration Fraud: Reaganite
Why Are We Not Talking About America’s $123 TRILLION Liability?: RS
Chris Christie Sums Himself Up: RWN

Climate & Energy

Coal Industry Regulations Were A Laughing Matter to the EPA: CNS
It’s the Sun stupid – The minor significance of CO2: Flopping Aces
EPA’s Coal Purge Claims Latest Victim: CFP

Media

Al Gore’s $500 Million Trojan Horse: AmSpec
Ratings-Killer @Soledad_OBrien Fired by Obscure Third-Place Cable News Network: RSM
Newtown Shooter Lanza Had Sensory Processing Disorder: ABC

Debate Commission Co-Chair: Candy Crowley "a Mistake": Breitbart
Joe Biden’s Felony Self-Defense Advice: Owens
Daily News Reporter Admits: Breitbart 'Friends of Hamas' Story 'Accurate': Breitbart

Lib Reporter to Obama: Fair or Not, You Own This Mess: GWP
A Lapdog Media Tactic: Pushing An Agenda With Misleading Headlines: Sooper
Rape Survivor: A Call Box Above My Head While I Was Being Brutally Raped Wouldn't Have Helped: Pavlich

World

Obama's Contempt for our Allies: Camp o' the Saints
Islamist Threat Spreads from Mali into Nigeria, Threatening U.S. Energy Security: Foundry
U.S. to strike back against China cyberattacks: Navy Times

Hagel Blocks Access to His Archive of Files at U. Nebraska: Breitbart
CAIR: War on Terror is Creation of Money-Seeking FBI: Mauro
Report gives new details of Mugniyah assassination: JPost

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Google's electronic eyewear gets 'OK Glass' voice commands: CNet
The world’s first 3D printing pen: Yours for just $75: ExtremeTech
Pinterest Completes $200 Million Funding at $2.5 Billion Valuation: AllThingsD

Cornucopia

Alec Baldwin’s Capital One Percenter RaceCard Commercial!!: Sooper
How eight fake cops stole $50 million in diamonds in 5 minutes : The Week
Liberal Logic 101: Rape Prevention Kits: RWN

Image: Life Imitates Art Imitating Food, or “Life in Washington”
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Saturday is the Day of Resistance

QOTD: "It is one of the great ironies of modern history that socialism, which promises a more humane, caring, and equitable society, has consistently delivered a more oppressive and mismanaged one. Socialism’s motto— Muravchik optimistically offers it to us as socialism’s “epitaph”—turns out to be: “If you build it, they will leave.”

If, one must add, they are allowed to leave. As Muravchik reminds us in this excellent survey of socialist personalities and socialist experiments, encouraging dissent is never high on a socialist’s agenda. The socialist pretends to have glimpsed paradise on earth. Those who decline the invitation to embrace the vision are not just ungrateful: they are traitors to the cause of human perfection. Dissent is therefore not mere disagreement but treachery. Treachery is properly met not with arguments but (as circumstances permit) the guillotine, the concentration camp, the purge."

...I see little evidence that socialism’s fundamental tenet—namely, the ideal of equality—is on its way to the dustbin of history. The wheels of egalitarianism may grind away more slowly in liberal democratic countries than in Communist ones, but grind away they do. It would be pleasant to think that in leaving history’s bloodiest century behind, we have also left behind the passions that sparked its unprecedented carnage. But time and again history has taught us that the hunger for equality is among mankind’s most brutal passions. It is for this reason that I believe the philosopher David Stove was correct when he identified “bloodthirstiness” as a central ingredient in the psychology of egalitarianism. Socialism will be conquered to the extent that egalitarianism is conquered. In the meanwhile, I fear that Stove is correct that “very far from communism being dead, as some foolish people at present believe, we can confidently look forward to bigger and better Marxes, Lenins, Stalins, Maos, Kim Il Sungs, Pol Pots, Ceausescus, Baader-Meinhofs, Shining Paths, and all the rest.” --Roger Kimball

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Spelling-challenged Leon Panetta warns DOD civilian employees of impending layoffs in urgent "MEMORANDOM"

Lee writes:

DoD civilian employees received this email today from Leon Panetta. Thought you might be interesting in posting it. The source is impeccable, received a copy him/herself, and gave me permission to use it as I wish.

Lee

P.S., Notice the SecDef office spelled “MEMORANDOM,” “consistant,” “personel,” and “contine” incorrectly. Unbelievable.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
1000 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1000

FEB 20 2013

MEMORANDOM FOR DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES

SUBJECT: Preparations for Potential Sequestration on March 1 and Furlough Notifications

For more than a year and a half, the President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I have repeatedly voiced our deep concerns over the half a trillion dollars in automatic across-the-board cuts that would be imposed under sequestration and the severe damage that it would do to both this Department and our national defense.

The Administration continues to work with Congress to reach agreement on a balanced deficit reduction plan to avoid these cuts. Meanwhile, because another trigger for sequestration is approaching on March 1st, the Department's leadership has begun extensive planning on how to implement the required spending reductions. These cuts will be magnified because the Department has been forced to operate under a six-month continuing resolution that has already compelled us to take steps to reduce spending.

In the event of sequestration, we will do everything we can to continue to perform our core mission of providing for the security of the United States, but there is no mistaking that the rigid nature and scale of the cuts forced upon this Department will result in a serious erosion of readiness across the force.

I have also been deeply concerned about the potential direct impact of sequestration on you and your families. We are doing everything possible to limit the worst effects on DoD personel - but I regret that our flexibility within the law is extremely limited. The President has used his legal authority to exempt military personnel funding from sequestration, but we have no legal authority to exempt civilian personnel funding from reductions. As a result, should sequestration occur and continue for a substantial period, DoD will be forced to place the vast majority of its civilian workforce on administrative furlough.

Today, I notified Congress that furloughs could occur under sequestration. I can assure you that, if we have to implement furloughs, all affected employees will be provided at least 30 days' notice prior to executing a furlough and your benefits will be protected to the maximum extent possible. We will work to ensure that furloughs are executed in a consistant and appropriate manner, and we will also continue to engage in discussions with employee unions as appropriate. More information and answers to frequently asked questions regarding furloughs can be found at www.opm.gov/furlough, under the "administrative furlough" section.

Working with your component heads and supervisors, the Department's leaders will continue to keep you informed. As we deal with these difficult issues, I want to thank you for your patience, hard work, and continued dedication to our mission of protecting the country.

Our most important asset in the Department is our world-class personnel. You are fighting everyday to keep our country strong and secure, and rest assured that the leaders of this Department will contine to fight with you and for you.

Leon Panetta


Oh, sure. The administration is real concerned with the effects of the sequester on the DOD. So concerned they didn't even spell-check their ridiculous memo.

Remember: the Government Accountability Office reports that Barack Obama's executive branch wastes at least $125 billion a year. It's probably far higher than that.

Yet the president hasn't raised a finger to address the rampant abuse of the public trust. Instead, he flies off to Palm Beach for yet another golf trip.

 

 

HEH: Marco Rubio, Benjamin Netanyahu poke progressive Democrat media right in the eye

My interpretation of this photo is Marco Rubio and Benjamin Netanyahu telling Democrat media to stick it.


For Democrat media, Sen. Bob Menendez's (D-ominican) hookers-for-favors scandal ain't a story, but Marco Rubio sipping water is. Which summarizes why their ratings are plummeting faster than Michael Moore in a giant vat of Hershey's chocolate.


AT LAST: DHS finally getting serious about the "pregnant women and kids with guns" threat

I refer, of course, to the vendor of shooting targets for the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies that has created a line of “non-traditional threat” targets that include pregnant women, children, mothers in playgrounds and elderly Americans. Seriously.

Finally, the DHS will put an end to the epidemic of seven-year olds and pregnant women shooting cops. The company says it's all about, uhm, realism.

The subjects in NMH targets were chosen in order to give officers the experience of dealing with deadly force shooting scenarios with subjects that are not the norm during training. I found while speaking with officers and trainers in the law enforcement community that there is a hesitation on the part of cops when deadly force is required on subjects with atypical age, frailty or condition (one officer explaining that he enlarged photos of his own kids to use as targets so that he would not be caught off guard with such a drastically new experience while on duty).


This hesitation time may be only seconds but that is not acceptable when officers are losing their lives in these same situations.


The goal of NMH is to break that stereotype on the range, regardless of how slim the chances are of encountering a real life scenario that involves a child, pregnant woman, etc. If that initial hesitation time can be cut down due to range experience, the officer and community are better served.

Because over and over again, history is replete with incidents of law enforcement officials being shot at by 7-year old kids and pregnant ladies.

With that as context, please consider the following news reports:

1. The Department of Homeland Security recently acquired 2 billion rounds of ammunition, which represents thousands of rounds per DHS employee.

2. Newly released drone records have revealed extensive military flights inside the U.S.; police departments and federal agencies plan to have as many as 30,000 drones monitoring Americans within the next seven years.

3. When Can the U.S. Kill Americans? The White House Won't Say -- and Won't Even Tell Congress; President Obama's successful efforts to renew and strengthen The Patriot Act under the NDAA means, according to the ACLU, American citizens may be subject to "indefinite military detention without charge or trial... for the first time in American history."

4. The FBI director said in March he'd have to check whether the president can assassinate citizens inside the U.S.. When questioned by Congress regarding a speech by Attorney General Holder, who offered his "legal justification for assassination", FBI Director Mueller was unable to say whether the president could unilaterally decide to assassinate U.S. citizens inside the borders of this country.

5. The DHS has specifically listed Americans who believe in "individual liberty" as potential terrorists. These "right-wing extremists" who insist in fidelity to the Constitution are, according to multiple studies funded by DHS, among the country's most dire terrorist threats. Not Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Ansar al-Islam, Hamas, or Iran's Revolutionary Guards -- together responsible for tens of thousands of murders -- but "violent right-wing extremists" who believe in the principles of the nation's founding.

6. The military recently deployed gunships over Miami, executing training exercises with local police departments. A few days later, similar exercises were conducted in Houston. Last year the military deployed ground forces, armored personnel carriers and tanks on the streets of St. Louis for "training exercises". Military exercises in domestic urban environments of this scale are "unprecedented".

7. Police departments throughout the country are receiving tanks, humvees and drones from the Department of Defense, according to a WLS-TV (Chicago) I-Team investigation. "Short of a weapon of mass destruction, you can get any kind of military gear that's out there," the police chief of Benedectine University told WLS. "We chose firearms and a vehicle." WLS also reported rampant theft of military equipment, including body armor and night-vision goggles issued to the Chicago Police Department.

And now we can add:

8. The purchase of "non-traditional" shooting practice targets by the DHS, which include realistic images of kids, pregnant women and seniors.

You progressives starting to get the picture?


Stunning new electronic eyewear -- Google Glass -- nears its debut #IfIHadGlass

Google's electronic eyewear -- dubbed "Google Glass" -- is nearing a milestone beta release for developers (or is it alpha, I always forget).

Google ... announced a promotion in which people who share interesting ideas about what to do with the device get the chance to become a "Glass Explorer," who can then pre-order a $1,500 prototype. The application deadline is February 27.


I offered up several ideas including one with a simulated picture:



In other words, Glass would offer up semi-transparent views of the pages/content represented by QR codes in magazines, on posters, etc. -- helping to bridge the physical to the virtual world. If you like the idea or some of my other ones, please consider retweeting!



Larwyn's Linx: Your Papers, Citizen

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Your Papers, Citizen: Fred Reed
The President’s Hard Authoritarianism: AIM
Newtown Shooter Picked School As It Was The “Easiest Target”: Cove

Democrats Unveil New Jim Crow Laws: GWP
Assault gun ban: Not that science and facts will stop the left: Q&O
Total Destruction of the U.S.: An Interview with Larry Grathwohl: AT

The Hagel Nomination: An Open Letter to Sen. Charles E. Schumer: Pipes
Obama’s Worst Speech Ever, Deconstructed: HayRide
Important PSA from Joe Biden: “Buy a shotgun. Buy a shotgun.”: Hot Air

Economy

Unions To Opt Out Of Obamacare: Jawa
As predicted: Cali's 1Q revenues dropping back to earth. Hard.: Moe Lane
Calvin Coolidge: Bigger Government Isn’t Better: Foundry

Only the suckers will pay with Obamacare: IBD
ILL: Deadbeat state takes up to year to pay for indigent funerals: Marathon
In 2011 Obama Threatened to Veto Any Efforts to Undo Sequester Cuts: GWP

Scandal Central

Dumb and Dumber: Top 15 Worst Stimulus Abuses: IJ Review
Obama Pushes Illegals Ahead of Legal Immigrants: Breitbart
DHS Target Supplier Includes Pregnant Women, Old Men For Target Practice: AmmoLand

Climate & Energy

‘Richard Windsor’ EPA scandal spreads, Administrator James Martin resigns over hidden emails: Watts

Media

Remember when Bush was blamed by the media for high gas prices?: IBD
Let the mockery begin: MSNBC political director David Axelrod becomes NBC analyst: Twitchy
Who Needs the White House Press Corps?: Weigel

Levin obliterates Obama's spending/cutting lies: Scoop
While the media sleep, Obama and other Democrats befriend Medicare fraudsters.: Malkin
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye: RWN

Liberals Take The Pro-Rape Position On Gun Control: RWN
Colorado Democrat Says Women Can’t Be Trusted With Guns, Backers Fail To Rebuke: RS
Dems are troglodytes about women and self-defense, and they’re selling this as a virtue: Bookworm

World

Report: Hagel Said Israel Headed Toward Apartheid, Netanyahu a ‘Radical’: Beacon
The Hagel-Cruz Bait and Switch: Tobin
Director of CAIR Missouri wants to prosecute Americans who insult Islam…using Sharia law: Creeping

Congressional Testimony Reveals Obama Lazy, Dishonest, Incompetent: ConHideout
Afghanistan And Iraq Head To Hell, Thanks To Obama: IBD
Cornell Student: Gandhi Championed Right to Bear Arms: CI

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue.com/Tech)

Asteroid Impacts: 10 Biggest Known Hits: NatGeo
Microsoft's $30 Million in Anti-Google Ads Put Political Advertising to Shame: AtlWire
Microsoft made a mistake with its mobile strategy, says Bill Gates: PC World

Cornucopia

Dept of Compulsory Health Outlaws Pre-existing Conditions: Cube
10 Democrat Tips for Avoiding Rape Without Needing a Gun: Looking Spoon
A Chinese Double Bogey: MOTUS

Image: The People's Cube
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Day of Resistance: 23-Feb Nationwide Rallies Against Obama Agenda

QOTD: "The freshman from Texas has ruffled a lot of feathers in his first six weeks in office on both sides of the aisle. His rough questioning of Hagel during the committee hearing and subsequent questions about the nominee’s financial records also raised the hackles of some senators and Washington insiders but there’s something slightly suspicious about the over the top reaction to Cruz on the news shows as well as from New York Times and Washington Post columnists. Even if we were to accept their dubious assertion that Cruz’s take-no-prisoners style of political combat is a shocking departure from the traditions of DC politics, the sudden interest in slamming the Texan is nothing more than a transparent attempt to change the subject just at the moment when Hagel’s nomination seems to be hanging in the balance. The herd instinct of liberal journalists is prompting them, as if on cue, to try and gull the public into thinking the real issue at stake here is not the elevation of a prejudiced and unqualified man to run the Pentagon but the supposed bad manners of one of Hagel’s most energetic critics." --Jonathan S. Tobin

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Oh, please, Mr. Obama: please save us from the Sequester that you created!

The man who invented the budget sequester now claims it will destroy America. Put simply, if America's had a more dishonest president than #44, I've yet to read about him.

...Obama's out there trying to raise fear on all of this talk about the sequester -- we're talking $85 billion. I want to put this in perspective. The federal budget is $3.5 trillion dollars a year, and we're talking about $85 billion that might be cut, and all of this disaster is gonna happen. Kids are gonna go hungry. Schools are gonna shut down. Bridges and road repair will not happen, and now prisoners are gonna be let go. $85 billion. It is like if you earn a hundred thousand, it's like losing a quarter. It wouldn't matter. Hell, what is the Sandy relief package, $50 billion? So while this is gonna cost us $85 billion, the sequester, $50 billion we're spending here on Sandy relief. Sixty. Pardon me. I was wrong. Sixty billion on disaster relief...

OBAMA: Emergency responders, like the ones who are here today, their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays in airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings. This is not an abstraction. People will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again.

...Obama is saying this as a freedom fighter. Obama is on the campaign trail, and he is trying to stop all of this from happening. He is fighting the forces that want you to suffer, and they are the Republicans. They are the conservatives, and they are Fox News and they are me...

...Obama wants you to think that Republicans don't care that tens of thousands of parents would have to scramble to find daycare, 'cause the Republicans don't care that daycare would be shut down. You see, none of this that he predicts here is debatable. In the minds of the low-information voter and in the terms that Obama is offering this, these are not things that might happen. These are what the Republicans want to do every day. These are the things that Obama is fighting to stop.

These are the people that he's fighting to stop. They don't care if your kid or your grandmother doesn't get her flu shot. They don't care if you or anybody else gets cancer screenings. They don't care if you lose your job. They don't care that the unemployment rate might tick back up again. All of this, as far as Obama is concerned, is what will happen every day if they're not stopped! This is not so much tied to the sequester. The sequester is just the most recent opportunity for him to characterize his opposition this way, and he is doing everything he can to stop this.

The fact that this sequester business is only $85 billion -- the fact that none of this would happen, the fact that there's no Republican who wants any of this to happen, the fact that it's other people's idea -- is irrelevant in terms of the people Obama trying to reach. This whole sequester is his idea! In fact, I've revised my thinking. I think he wants the sequester to happen because I think he wants to cut down the US military, in a big way. Most liberals do. Here it's gonna happen automatically. He's not gonna have to do anything but sit around and let it, but he's gonna score some political points along the way.

I believe this assessment is correct. Obama created the sequester. He designed its brutal cuts to the military. And he desperately seeks to eviscerate the military.


MANDIANT REPORT: How Red China Engages in Open Warfare Against America's Critical Industries

Mandiant has published a lengthy, must-read report (PDF) on a Red Chinese cyber-war unit [APT1] that is openly attacking American firms.

One of the primary methods the PLA gains a beachhead inside the target firm is through spear-phishing, which uses a personalized email that entices the victim into clicking on a malicious link.

The Initial Compromise represents the methods intruders use to first penetrate a target organization’s network. As with most other APT groups, spear phishing is APT1’s most commonly used technique. The spear phishing emails contain either a malicious attachment or a hyperlink to a malicious file. The subject line and the text in the email body are usually relevant to the recipient. APT1 also creates webmail accounts using real peoples’ names — names that are familiar to the recipient, such as a colleague, a company executive, an IT department employee, or company counsel — and uses these accounts to send the emails. As a real-world example, this is an email that APT1 sent to Mandiant employees:


At first glance, the email appeared to be from Mandiant’s CEO, Kevin Mandia. However, further scrutiny shows that the email was not sent from a Mandiant email account, but from “kevin.mandia@rocketmail.com”. Rocketmail is a free webmail service. The account “kevin.mandia@rocketmail.com” does not belong to Mr. Mandia. Rather, an APT1 actor likely signed up for the account specifically for this spear phishing event. If anyone had clicked on the link that day (which no one did, thankfully), their computer would have downloaded a malicious ZIP file named “Internal_Discussion_Press_Release_In_Next_Week8.zip”. This file contained a malicious executable that installs a custom APT1 backdoor that we call WEBC2-TABLE.

Although the files that APT1 actors attach or link to spear phishing emails are not always in ZIP format, this is the predominant trend we have observed in the last several years. Below is a sampling of file names that APT1 has used with their malicious ZIP files:

2012ChinaUSAviationSymposium.zip
Employee-Benefit-and-Overhead-Adjustment-Keys.zip
MARKET-COMMENT-Europe-Ends-Sharply-Lower-On-Data-Yields-Jump.zip
Negative_Reports_Of_Turkey.zip
New_Technology_For_FPGA_And_Its_Developing_Trend.zip
North_Korean_launch.zip
Oil-Field-Services-Analysis-And-Outlook.zip
POWER_GEN_2012.zip
Proactive_Investors_One2One_Energy_Investor_Forum.zip
Social-Security-Reform.zip
South_China_Sea_Security_Assessment_Report.zip
Telephonics_Supplier_Manual_v3.zip
The_Latest_Syria_Security_Assessment_Report.zip
Updated_Office_Contact_v1.zip
Updated_Office_Contact_v2.zip
Welfare_Reform_and_Benefits_Development_Plan.zip

The example file names include military, economic, and diplomatic themes, suggesting the wide range of industries that APT1 targets. Some names are also generic (e.g., “updated_office_contact_v1.zip”) and could be used for targets in any industry.


On some occasions, unsuspecting email recipients have replied to the spear phishing messages, believing they were communicating with their acquaintances. In one case a person replied, “I’m not sure if this is legit, so I didn’t open it.” Within 20 minutes, someone in APT1 responded with a terse email back: “It’s legit.”


Bottom line: trust no one.