BUSH NOW HAS CONTROL OF NATIONAL GUARD
January 17th, 2007Well, Congress gave it to him.
Note: It seems like there’s even more great stuff than usual on Life After the Oil Crash today.
Via: Stateline:
A little-noticed change in federal law packs an important change in who is in charge the next time a state is devastated by a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina.
To the dismay of the nation’s governors, the White House now will be empowered to go over a governor’s head and call up National Guard troops to aid a state in time of natural disasters or other public emergencies. Up to now, governors were the sole commanders in chief of citizen soldiers in local Guard units during emergencies within the state.
A conflict over who should control Guard units arose in the days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. President Bush sought to federalize control of Guardsmen in Louisiana in the chaos after the hurricane, but Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) refused to relinquish command.
Over objections from all 50 governors, Congress in October tweaked the 200-year-old Insurrection Act to empower the hand of the president in future stateside emergencies. In a letter to Congress, the governors called the change “a dramatic expansion of federal authority during natural disasters that could cause confusion in the command-and-control of the National Guard and interfere with states’ ability to respond to natural disasters within their borders.”
Path to Freedom and the California Frost Disaster
January 17th, 2007UPDATE: Help Path to Freedom
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Path to Freedom was the early inspiration for the life I’m now living. Sadly, the Dervaes have suffered terrible losses as a result of the freakish Arctic blasts that have recently hit California.
I emailed them, asking how we can help; if there was a link to send contributions? I couldn’t find a way to donate on their site. I didn’t hear back because they’re probably too busy to deal with email. If you know the Dervaes, please let them know that Bex and I want to help, and want to let the Cryptogon and Farmlet communities know where to send assistance.
Via: Path to Freedom:
It was another brutally cold night once again. That makes it three nights in a row with temperatures hovering near or below 20 degrees. In a span of a week temperatures went from an 88 degree high to a 20 degree low. Record Lows Set Across Southern California
Even though we had a sunny day yesterday, there were places in the yard where the ice didn’t even melt. The yard still looks like blue tarp city – why bother taking them down when there’s another night of cold temperatures.
We have to keep a sense of humor. We were joking with each other that before our new website was even a few hours old we were already out of business. Makes us chuckle at the irony of it all. Can’t really do much now, but try to make the best of the situation. It’s not like everything is lost, it’s just a huge setback. All we can do is pray that this was the only hard freeze for the year and if so we are blessed that it came early. If this sort of thing would have happened in March, boy o boy, would we be in trouble. With our relying on our garden for our sustenance where we try our best to cut ties to the grocery store as back up, we are praying for rain and not so cold temperatures, knowing that our stomachs rely on the earth to give us daily sustenance.
White House Firing U.S. Attorneys Involved with Republican Corruption Investigations
January 17th, 2007Via: Talking Points Memo:
Okay, so we already know that the White House has now taken the unprecedented step of firing at least four and likely seven US Attorneys in the middle of their terms of office — at least some of whom are in the midst of corruption investigations of Bush administration officials and key Republican lawmakers. We also know that they’re taking advantage of a handy provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the White House to replace these fired USAs with appointees who don’t need to be approved by the senate.
Given that these new USAs are being plopped into offices currently investigating Republicans and other administration officials and others into states with 2008 presidential candidates, there’s certainly ample opportunity for mischief.
So we’re looking into just how the White House is appointing.
Petzl Tikka Plus LED Headlamp
January 17th, 2007Becky and I are slowly acquiring things that will help us in an emergency. Light is something we mostly take for granted. In the Far North of New Zealand, however, the power goes out on a semi regular basis. This has accentuated the point for us: Do not wait to get reliable, backup lighting.
There is no shortage of options. While we all know about candles and lanterns, which should be a part of your plans, I would encourage you to strongly consider acquiring at least one high quality LED headlamp. Becky has owned a LED headlamp for years. I found myself borrowing it quite a bit. I decided that it would be a good idea for me to have one as well.
I wanted an excellent quality light. I wanted something that I knew I could rely upon, something that would last a LONG time. After researching the topic at length, because there’s so much Made In China garbage out there, I decided to go with the Petzl Tikka Plus.
The Petzl Tikka Plus LED Headlamp
Overall, the Petzl Tikka Plus is an incredible headlamp. It exceeded my expectations. The brightness, at full power, is roughly double what I had expected it to be. It seems impossibly bright, actually, for the size of the unit. There are three intensity modes, plus blinking, all controlled by a single button. I found that the ‘low’ setting is easily bright enough for any indoor task. The lamp will operate for 150 hours in the low intensity mode on a single set of three AAA batteries.
The build quality is excellent, it’s weather resistant and, while I haven’t subjected the unit to punishing treatment, it seems very durable. The Petzl Tikka Plus is made in France, by the way, for those of you who like to avoid buying things that are made in China when possible. (See Cryptogon references on Chinese fascism.)
It’s simple and inexpensive to stockpile batteries, or, better yet, get yourself a solar battery charger and a few sets of rechargeable AAA batteries. It will be easy to confront the darkness, with just a bit of preparation and forethought.
Tim Ryan, House Democrat from Ohio
January 16th, 2007Cut off funding for the wars, Tim.
Military Gear Bound for Iran, China Traced to Pentagon Surplus Sales
January 16th, 2007The Axis of Weasels.
Via: International Herald Tribune:
The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries — including Iran and China — who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department’s surplus auctions. The sales include fighter jet parts and missile components.
In one case, federal investigators said, the contraband made it to Iran, a country President George W. Bush branded part of an “axis of evil.”
In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, speaking on condition of anonymity, say those parts made it to Iran.
The surplus sales can operate like a supermarket for arms dealers.
“Right Item, Right Time, Right Place, Right Price, Every Time. Best Value Solutions for America’s Warfighters,” the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service says on its Web site, calling itself “the place to obtain original U.S. Government surplus property.”
Federal investigators are increasingly anxious that Iran is within easy reach of a top priority on its shopping list: parts for the precious fleet of F-14 “Tomcat” fighter jets the United States let Iran buy in the 1970s when it was an ally.
In one case, convicted middlemen for Iran bought Tomcat parts from the Defense Department’s surplus division. Customs agents confiscated them and returned them to the Pentagon, which sold them again — customs evidence tags still attached — to another buyer, a suspected broker for Iran.
…
The Pentagon recently retired its Tomcats and is shipping tens of thousands of spare parts to its surplus office — the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service — where they could be sold in public auctions. Iran is the only other country flying F-14s.
Major Investment Bank Issues Warning on Strike Against Iran
January 16th, 2007If you liked my Oil Options for Gamblers piece, you’ll love this. The underlying oil contract is up about $4 from where it was when I put out that call. I’m not tooting my own horn. If I thought I was such a great oil analyst, I would have bought some of those call options myself. All I’m saying is that oil’s move down reeked of a dark plot. Oil at multi month lows with all of this stuff happening in the Persian Gulf?
Tell me another one.
Of course, this could be a sucker bounce and we could see the next leg down very soon. That probably won’t happen, but it easily could. Could. Could. Could. Could. That’s why I don’t trade this crap. But a hail mary on the far out of the money March call options… Yep. That seems like the play that has been engineered to make the fewest people the most money.
Via: Raw Story:
Warning that investors might be “in for a shock,” a major investment bank has told the financial community that a preemptive strike by Israel with American backing could hit Iran’s nuclear program, RAW STORY has learned.
The banking division of ING Group released a memo on Jan. 9 entitled “Attacking Iran: The market impact of a surprise Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities.”
ING is a global financial services company of Dutch origin that includes banking, insurance, and other divisions. The report was authored by Charles Robinson, the Chief Economist for Emerging Europe, Middle East, and Africa. He also authored an update in ING’s daily update, Prophet, that further underscored the bank’s perception of the risks of an attack.
ING’s Robertson admitted that an attack on Iran was “high impact, if low probability,” but explained some of the reasons why a strike might go forward. The Jan. 9 dispatch, describes Israel as “not prepared to accept the same doctrine of ‘mutually assured destruction’ that kept the peace during the Cold War. Israel is adamant that this is not an option for such a geographically small country….So if Israel is convinced Iran is aiming to develop a nuclear weapon, it must presumably act at some point.”
Research Credit: BR
Federal Drug Agent Shoots Himself During Firearms Safety Class
January 16th, 2007How many of these dimwits are working for how many three letter agencies? How much is it costing American taxpayers? How many people are killed in f*ckups like this? Do we ever even hear about them?
This incident happened in a classroom. Think about the countless 4am, no-knock raids, carried out by people like the idiot in the video below…
Americans are living in a hiphop, supersized, Jesus freak version of Darkness at Noon. Anyone with a functioning brain lives in fear of the armed village idiots who serve the elite. This was the case in the Soviet Union. This is the case in America today.
I hate to keep coming back to that Idiocracy film, but that thing is probably the clearest expression, not of where we’re headed, but where we are already. Many of us have drawn upon themes from The Matrix in our commentary on events. Nope. I think The Matrix was the wrong analogy. Idiocracy is more on target. On target, get it? <--- I couldn't resist.
Guns don’t kill people. Idiot cops kill people; if they can manage not to kill themselves first.
More: Snopes
Related: Elderly Women Shot to Death While Defending Herself from Police
Related: Police Officer Escorts a Child to Use the Bathroom
Real Frankensteins
January 16th, 2007* shiver * If you thought the chimeras and the genetic primes were bad—I’m really not kidding—don’t read the piece below before going to sleep.
This is mainstream news out of the UK.
Via: Daily Mail:
Hidden deep in a Russian forest, and guarded by soldiers with orders to shoot intruders on sight, the medical research laboratories on the outskirts of Moscow were one of the Soviet Union’s best-kept secrets.
So the carefully-vetted journalists who were allowed past the forbidding perimeter fence on a cold February morning in 1954 were both apprehensive and curious about what lay ahead. Led to a courtyard outside an austere brick building, they waited in the bright winter sunshine to find out why they had been summoned. For a few minutes, only the sound of birdsong and the rustling of leaves filled the air but then a door slowly opened to reveal experimental surgeon Vladimir Demikhov – accompanied by the strangest looking animal they had ever seen.
Blinking unhappily in the daylight as Demikhov paraded it on its lead, this unfortunate beast had been created by grafting the head and upper body of a small puppy on to the head and body of a fully-grown mastiff, to form one grotesque creature with two heads. The visitors watched in horror and fascination as both of the beast’s mouths lapped greedily at a bowl of milk proffered by Demikhov’s assistants.
Resembling something dreamed up by Mary Shelley’s Dr Frankenstein, it seemed literally incredible. But as the Soviet propaganda machine informed the world, this canine curiosity was both very real – and a scientific triumph.
As revealed in a National Geographic documentary to be screened later this month, the creation of the two-headed dog was the first step in an astonishing race by Cold War scientists to achieve the seemingly impossible – the first ever human head transplant. In pursuing this medical goal, Vladimir Demikhov – and his American rival, Robert White – may seem to be the epitome of immoral scientists who ignored all ethical considerations in their pursuit of scientific advance. But in their own minds, they were brilliant pioneers prepared to think the unthinkable for the greater good of mankind.
Pookie Contributes $25 to Cryptogon and Issues a Challenge
January 15th, 2007UPDATE: ASTONISHING CRYPTOGON AND FARMLET READER RESPONSE TO POOKIE’S CHALLENGE
When I checked email this morning, I thought something had gone very wrong PayPal’s notification system. Nothing was wrong! A tsunami of contributions came in from around the world.
Results are below the initial post!
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If you are one of the few people who have supported Cryptogon by sending cash, buying goods on Amazon, signing up for hosting on Blue Host or any of the dozens of other options for support that I’ve presented here over the years, I sincerely appreciate your efforts.
The following message, however, is intended to be read by the rest of you, the thousands of regular readers who NEVER do anything to support Cryptogon.
Pookie is now the top contributor to Cryptogon. Along with her January contribution, she asked me to allow her to issue a challenge to all regular Cryptogon readers who don’t do anything to support Cryptogon and/or Farmlet.
Pookie highly values Cryptogon and Farmlet. Pookie is not impressed by the level of support that Cryptogon and Farmlet are receiving. Pookie knows that Becky and I are just scraping by. Pookie does not want to see less—or lower quality—content here because Becky and I have to spend our time working away from home. This would upset Pookie.
She wrote:
Pookie here, the donor formerly known as anonymous. I’ve just sent in my regular monthly donation to keep Cryptogon and Farmlet afloat, but here’s what I’m gonna do to keep your own self-respect afloat. How many of you freeloaders out there regularly get the shit scared out of your sorry asses from reading Cryptogon and then get the warm fuzzies and a renewal of faith by switching to Farmlet? Ya’ll know that kind of roller coaster ride is better (and cheaper) than drugs, so let’s show our freakin’ appreciation! I can’t believe I have to resort to conventional fund-raising ploys, but if you can pull it together and donate a total of $500 (or more) to Cryptogon and/or Farmlet within a 2-week period, I will match the $500. So stop whining and send in ten bucks. Now. Don’t even knock your brain cells together to think about it. Make the bitch (that’s me, you chumps) fork over the dough.
How about them apples?
I have to deal with reality. If Becky and I aren’t able to make the investments in the farm that are necessary to get things fired up, that’s my fault. Cryptogon takes up WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much time, considering what I have to show for it at the end of the month. Farmlet requires much less time, and will stay up no matter what happens. Cryptogon, however, hangs in the balance.
I’ve been up to my antics for nearly five years on Cryptogon. I have a wife now. We have a farm. We have cows and goats and a large garden! The bottom line is that we need to make investments in the infrastructure on our farm.
Whether we get that stuff done with Cryptogon, or not, is up to you. Lots of you need to kick in a little bit, or a few of you need to try to catch Pookie. Some of you refuse to use Paypal. That’s fine. Click on any Amazon link or banner on Cryptogon and make your purchases as you normally would. Need webhosting? Blue Host is excellent and they pay me $65 if you sign up with them.
Whatever you do, it needs to add up to a minimum of US$500 per month on this end. Pookie’s challenge for this month is a great test to see if it’s doable at all. If it’s not doable, with the number of you reading out there, it means that Cryptogon isn’t viable and I’ll need to do something else. No hard feelings. That’s just the way it is.
I’m really curious to see how Pookie’s challenge goes. If you value this resource, know that it lives or dies by your actions.
UPDATE: CRYPTOGON AND FARMLET READERS RESPOND TO POOKIE’S CHALLENGE
The response from Cryptogon and Farmlet readers to Pookie’s challenge has been unprecedented and astonishing.
Let’s tabulate the results so far. Below are the initials of the contributors, the amounts of their contributions and any comments they included with their contributions. As far as I can tell, contributions came in from the U.S., Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand.
NB sent $50 and wrote: “Suck it pookie!”
RF sent $25.
AS sent $30.
PR sent $50.
GM sent $50.
AH sent $25 and wrote: “It’s been awhile since I last contributed, but you’re still a daily read. Hope this helps and thanks for putting out such great stuff.”
CB sent $10 and wrote: “Responding to the Pookie challenge.”
KL sent $20 and wrote: “Hi Kevin, thanks for the good work, this is an overdue contribution. Kurt (of LivingGreenFarm.org – thanks for linking to us on Farmlet).
JK sent $10 and wrote: “Thanks Kevin & Pookie.”
SP sent $51 and wrote: “Keep up the good work.”
NH sent $100 and wrote: “Dear Kevin, I recently discovered Crytogon and was immediately drawn into the archives for long periods of time. Your efforts over the past 5 years and the example you are documenting on Farmlet are much appreciated. I don’t know whether you’ll decide to continue Cryptogon just from a mental energy standpoint (let alone a financial standpoint) given your new life, so consider my contribution to be for past efforts. The best to you and your wife.”
Wolfpigeon sent $40 and wrote: “An appreciative contribution from wolfpigeon.”
PA sent $100 and wrote: “pookie—crazy name, crazy gal! Long time listener, first time caller :)”
IL sent $104.79 via Farmlet.
RS sent $20 and wrote: “I couldn’t resist being in on the first day of the Pookie challenge. Good luck and take care.”
KL sent $50 and wrote: “I’m long overdue, my friend. Thanks for all the good subversive work. Your cows are GORGEOUS, and my wife (the small ranch manager) is especially impressed.”
I’m showing US$735.79 in response to the Pookie Challenge in under 24 hours! She had allotted two weeks for you to do it! You guys not only reached the goal to secure Pookie’s matching funds, you exceeded it by 47%. Again, IN UNDER 24 HOURS!?!
This is what I call a not-so-old-fashioned barn raising. Literally. We need to build a small barn to raise calves and milk cows. This is part of the investments in the farm that I was talking about… Man, it’s on for sure now!
Becky and I are in a bit of shock over this entire thing. It’s going to take us a bit of time to frame a coherent response to all of you. Meanwhile, I’ve skipped a couple of beats of the Internets to keep track of all of this, so I better get back to work.
UPDATE #2: POOKIE’S REACTION
Pookie has prepared a stament:
Clearly, some Cryptogoners and Farmlettians wanted the Bitch to Pay! And that’s damned decent of them – those 16 or so “Challenge A-Listers” now have the distinction of no longer being under the dire threat of a verbal dope-slapping by Pookie. Yes, they have been issued a reprieve and no doubt are Happy Campers sporting beatific smiles. May they always get laid. But there are a hell of a lot more regular readers than 16, so if each of the rest of you stops picking your nose and forks over a mere $10, that’ll take care of funding Cryptogon for the rest of the freakin’ YEAR, and then I can stop YELLING at you lowlives, pack up the circus, and get back to my life of dissipation and squalor, secure in the knowledge that my fellow Cryptogoners can creep out of the woodwork occasionally and show some balls.
Pookie has initiated payment of her matching contribution of $500! All I can say is that it has been an incredible 24 hours, and “Thanks” to all of you.
UPDATE #3: CONTRIBUTIONS CONTINUE — EVEN AFTER CHALLENGE
BS sent $25 via Farmlet and wrote: “It’s true you’re a strong worker and due for a raise – unfortunately there’s been an across the board spending freeze until the end of the quarter – nothing’s going through – my hands are tied. But I don’t want you to go away empty handed – so I’m going to give you a couple bucks out of my own pocket. This should keep you going until I can go to bat for you with the boys down at corporate – and I will go to bat for you – you’re my guy. Good? Are we good? Good.”
AZ sent $20 and wrote: “Cryptogon is one of three sites I visit near daily. I and my wife, like you and yours are struggling on our own plot of land here in Canada, we’re heating entirely with woodstoves and I’ll be building my own wind turbine in the summer, not to mention preparing the biodynamic garden. Anyways, here’s a small token for your work. Cheers, AZ”
AH sent $25.
JG sent $10.
Ktulu sent $20 and wrote: “Hello from France. Keep up the good work.”
MW sent $20.
VH sent $25.
