Friday, December 31, 2010

Your Doing A Great Job Teddy!

Register Guard Poll.
"Do you think Ted Kulongoski has done a good job as governor?"
Results: No-77%
             Yes-19%
             Unsure-3%
             Don't care-2%
That's not a very good record.  But then again, Oregonians reelected his mentor so expect more of the same.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Fun Time Lapse Video


December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse. Canon DLSR on tripod with remote timer taking a photo once every five minutes.

Approximately 20 hours in 40 seconds.

More at Facebook: Mike Black Photography

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Seasons Greetings


Merry Christmas to all that venture here and to all a wonderful New Year.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell- Don't Hold Your Breath.

From the reaction in the MSM you would think that DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) had been struck down with the signing of President Obama's pen. Don't rush to that conclusion just yet. Let's look at what the bill actually says. Words do matter:
:
The Act does not immediately repeal the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Act

"provides for repeal of the current Department of Defense (DOD) policy concerning homosexuality in the Armed Forces, to be effective 60 days after the Secretary of Defense has received DOD's comprehensive review on the implementation of such repeal, and the President, Secretary, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) certify to the congressional defense committees that they have considered the report and proposed plan of action, that DOD has prepared the necessary policies and regulations to exercise the discretion provided by such repeal, and that implementation of such policies and regulations is consistent with the standards of military readiness and effectiveness, unit cohesion, and military recruiting and retention."

1. " Provides for the repeal" NOT THE IMMEDIATE REPEAL.
2. "60 days after the DOD's comprehensive review on the implementation of such repeal" COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW? HOW LONG WILL THAT TAKE?
3. "the President, Secretary, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certify...that implementation of such policies and regulations is consistent with the standards of military readiness and effectiveness, unit cohesion and military recruiting and retention." THERE IS NO TIME LINE AND NO GUARANTEE THAT THIS WILL EVER HAPPEN OR THAT THOSE IN CHARGE NOW WILL EVEN BE IN POWER IF IT DOES.

This is not a done deal. The MSM will tell you that the polls and the national sentiment is conclusive, or "the science is in." Where have I heard that before. Oh yeah, global warming.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Nothing To See Here.


From This Can't Be Happening.

by:
Dave Lindorff

There was a black-out and a white-out Thursday and Friday as over a hundred US veterans opposed to US wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, and their civilian supporters, chained and tied themselves to the White House fence during an early snowstorm to say enough is enough.

Washington Police arrested 135 of the protesters, in what is being called the largest mass detention in recent years. Among those arrested were Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who used to provide the president’s daily briefings, Daniel Ellsberg, who released the government’s Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration, and Chris Hedges, former war correspondent for the New York Times.

No major US news media reported on the demonstration or the arrests. It was blacked out of the New York Times, blacked out of the Philadelphia Inquirer, blacked out in the Los Angeles Times, blacked out of the Wall Street Journal, and even blacked out of the capital’s local daily, the Washington Post, which apparently didn't even think it was a local story worth publishing an article about (they simply ran a photo of Ellsberg with a short caption).

Thursday, December 23, 2010

You Gotta Love Those Acronyms


The CIA has launched a WikiLeaks Task Force.
According to a report by the Washington Post, the agency has launched the task force to appraise the impact of thousands of sensitive diplomatic documents and military files hitting the web thanks to WikiLeaks.

Among the task force’s responsibilities is “whether the agency's ability to recruit informants could be damaged by declining confidence in the U.S. government's ability to keep secrets,” the report said.

CIA spokesman George Little told the paper that the panel is being led by the CIA's Counterintelligence Center. It is made up of more than two dozen members from departments across the agency.

The new task force is commonly refured to by the acronym WTF. How appropriate.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

We've Met The Enemy And He Is Us, or At Least Your Neighbor.



Continuing the meme that every American is a potential terrorist, the latest public official to weigh in is U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke of the ongoing fight to protect American national security and expressed his growing concern with the threat of homegrown terror - a danger which he said "keeps me up at night."

"What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," Holder told ABC's Pierre Thomas, in an interview that aired Tuesday morning.

"The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens -- raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born," Holder added.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

See Something, Say Something?

The Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the expansion of the Dept.'s national "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign to hundreds of Walmart stores cross the country-launching a new partnership between DHS and Walmart to help the American public play an active role in ensuring the safety and security of our nation.

More than 230 Walmart stores nationwide launched the "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign today, with a total of 588 Walmart stores in 27 states joining in the coming weeks. A short video message will play at select checkout locations to remind shoppers to contact local law enforcement to report suspicious activity.



The above video will appear at Walmarts that have video screens at checkout counters.
Does this remind any of you of the 1984 telescreens?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

We Have An App For That.


From Dvorak Uncensored:

Now it's possible to snitch on your neighbors from the convience of your smartphone.
Citizen Concept announces the launch of PatriotApp, the world's first iPhone app that empowers citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities via social networking and mobile techology.
The meme here seems to be that everyone is a suspected terrorist. Be afraid, be very, very afraid.