Doctors Say Hospital Surge Capacity has Worsened

(Analyst's note: Troubling at best. This could certainly lead to diminished health care.) by Anthony L. Kimery

'All of these problems have eroded hospital surge capacity' Despite the more than $8 billion that’s been spent on hospital and public health preparedness between 2001 and 2008, the nation’s hospital surge capacity remains inadequate for disasters like large-scale terrorist bombings, wrote two doctors in a commentary in the August 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). “Disturbing signs show that [hospital] surge capacity has diminished … despite assurances from governmental and nongovernmental officials that hospitals can quickly ramp up in response to a mass casualty event,” wrote Dr. Kobi Peleg of the National Center for Trauma & Emergency Medicine Research, and Dr. Arthur Kellermann of the Department of Emergency Medicine, Emory School of Medicine. ....

Democracy in Danger: What States Can Do to Safeguard America's Election System

(Analyst's note: Absolutely must read. Please read the entire original article by clicking on the title above.)

by Hans A. von Spakovsky with The Heritage Foundation

A long-time federal prosecutor once told me that as long as elections put people into positions where they can make decisions about how much the government will spend, who will receive the money, and how the government will exercise its power, elections will be important enough to tempt some individuals to steal them. As the Supreme Court recognized when it upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter identification law in 2008, flagrant examples of voter fraud "have been documented throughout this Nation's history by respected historians and journalists." Those examples "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election."[1]

The United States has one of the most decentralized systems of election administration for its national elections of any democracy. Unlike many other countries, we do not have a central government agency administering our federal elections. This is in accord with the Constitution, which reserves to the states the exclusive authority for most election decisions, including voter qualifications, except that Congress may alter "[t]he Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections" for Congress.[2] Even the relatively new U.S. Election Assistance Commission, created in 2002, does not have the authority to "issue any rule, promulgate any regulation, or take any other action which imposes any requirement on any State or unit of local government."[3] It can only recommend "best practices" in election administration to the states, an interesting charge given that most of the employees of this federal agency (and some of the commissioners) have absolutely no experience in actually administering elections. The states are still the chief administrators of our elections, although Congress has passed various federal laws in recent decades regulating election procedures, including the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA).

In order to have an election process in which we can be confident that everyone who is eligible gets to vote, the vote is counted, and the vote is not diluted by fraudulent votes, we have to have security and integrity throughout the entire process, from voter registration to the casting of the actual votes and the counting of ballots. Unfortunately, because of various problems with election laws and procedures in many states, we cannot currently ensure that such security is in place. This is particularly true because of the general lack of verification by some states of the authenticity of both basic voter eligibility at registration, including citizenship, and the identity of voters who show up at the polls to vote.

State legislators can take several steps to safeguard America's election system and to improve the integrity of the election process. Based on my experience as a local county election official administering voting registration and elections in the largest county in Georgia; as a career lawyer in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice enforcing federal voting rights laws like the NVRA and HAVA; and as a member of the Board of Advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, I would recommend the following legislation or regulations. While there are some steps that only Congress and the federal government can take, these are improvements to voter registration and voting procedures that states can implement. ....

.... These are all relatively simple steps that can be taken by state legislatures, but they are very important to protecting our democracy from errors and intentional fraud that can affect the integrity and security of our election process.

Hans A. von Spakovsky is a Legal Scholar in the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He is a former Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission and former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.[24]

==============================================================

You will also want to click here for absolutely stunning and supporting information (video). Please don't miss it.

Deposition now concluded, stunning; FBI whistleblower answered 'thorough questioning'; implicated Congressmembers in criminal conspiracy, bribery, espionage, sexual blackmail; Brewster Jennings bombshell ... Long gagged under the "state secrets" privilege by the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration's DoJ chose not to re-invoke privilege, paving the way for this information to finally make its way on to the unclassified public record. ....

Wild Misrepresentation Watch: Obama lies about AARP endorsement

By Michelle Malkin

President Obama assailed “wild misrepresentations” by his opponents at the Portsmouth town hall today. Health Care

But he wildly misrepresented his position on single payer.

And he wildly misrepresented the AARP’s position on Obamacare:

…the President may have overstated support for his plan in one instance. When asked about the potential impact of the reform plan on Medicare, the President said, “The AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare.” Problem is - the AARP has not yet endorsed the plan. The New Hampshire head of the AARP chapter here told ABC’s Lisa Chinn today that the AARP hasn’t yet made up its mind as an organization whether to endorse the bill.

President Obama, meet the AARP rank-and-file:

***

Obama has a history of wild misrepresentation of companies’ positions on his bills. Remember Caterpillar?

And this?

German Islamic Convert confesses to anti-US bomb plot

US kills 14 in strike on Taliban training camp in South Waziristan Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/08/us_kills_12_in_strik.php

By Bill Roggio

The US has killed 12 Taliban fighters in the latest airstrike in Pakistan's lawless tribal agency of South Waziristan.

One or more Predator strike aircraft, or possibly the more advanced Reaper, targeted a Taliban training camp in the town of Zangikhel in the Kani Karam area of South Waziristan. Three or more Hellfire missiles are said to have been launched at the training camp. The camp was run by Umer Barqi, a local tribal leader.

Eight Taliban fighters were reported killed in the initial strike and four more died while being transported to the hospital, Geo News reported. Residents told Pajhwok Afghan News that 14 Taliban fighters were killed. Five more Taliban fighters were said to have been wounded.

There are no reports of senior Taliban or al Qaeda leaders killed at this time; all of those killed are reported to have been "local Taliban."

The strike took place just three miles south of the town of Ladha, where Taliban leaders say they have been meeting to discuss strategy to battle the military, which has attempted to blockade the region and has launched airstrikes against Taliban hideouts in an effort to kill Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. ....

Orlando imam lies about Islam in Ohio custody case

from The Jawa Report

Last month, 17-year old Rafiq Bary disappeared from her New Albany, Ohio home. Now she has reappeared and stated in a Florida court yesterday that she is in fear for her life. Her crime? Converting from Islam to Christianity. Having taken shelter in Orlando with a Christian couple she met online, she's now at the center of a custody battle.

Other sites are ably covering this story, but what struck me was this quote that appears in today's Orlando Sentinel:

Imam Hatim Hamidullah, with the Islamic Society of Central Florida, said the Muslim faith does not call for a father to hurt his child, should she convert to another religion.

"It is not Islam for the father to bring harm upon his blood daughter or any other human being because of anger," he said. "Our position is to exhaust all measures that would bring peace and harmony back to the family," Hamidullah said. "Being angry and threatening the life of someone is not one of those methods."

The imam, of course, is lying through his teeth. In virtually every school of Islamic law (shariah), her death is DEMANDED for apostasy from Islam. She has every reason to be in fear for her life.

Don't take my word for it. Here's what Islam Q&A has to say on the matter: ....

Hamas-linked CAIR thugs protesting against free speech yet again

by Robert Spencer

Fresh from it successful effort at intimidating the American Library Association into dropping a panel at which truths about Islam and jihad would have been heard, the increasingly thuggish unindicted co-conspirators at the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are trying to strong-arm the San Diego Public Library into dropping an anti-jihad presentation.

CAIR's fear and hatred of free speech about jihad and Islamic supremacism mirrors the Organization of the Islamic Conference's international efforts to muzzle those who are telling the truth about this global effort to destroy free speech and impose a legal system that would institutionalize discrimination against women and religious minorities, and make the free exercise of the conscience a crime punishable by death.

"Library lecture drawing protest: Islamic group: Talk is tied to extremists," by Helen Gao for the San Diego Union-Tribune, August 11 (thanks to James):

SAN DIEGO — An Islamic advocacy group is protesting the San Diego Public Library's hosting of a presentation on Islam, saying the event is tied to an extremist group.

“Radical Islam: Its Components and Root Causes” is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at the downtown Central Library.

Michael Hayutin, local director of ACT! for America, will “give a slide presentation/lecture on radical Islam and describe the threat some Americans feel that it represents,” said a news release from the library.

“It's not coincidental that stoning, honor killing, suicide bombing, prosecution of women and gays is largely coming from one sector,” Hayutin said. “The reality is it's Islamic culture around the world that's producing those terrible things.”

That's simply the truth.

The San Diego chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a letter yesterday to library director Deborah Barrow asking that the library drop its sponsorship of the talk so “that local taxpayers are not made unwittingly complicit in the promotion of hatred and bigotry.”

The Islamic group is not asking for the event to be canceled; it wants the library to stop publicizing it under its letterhead. The council also is proposing that the library invite a local Muslim leader to offer a “mainstream perspective” at the event.

In a letter, Edgar Hopida, director of public relations for the local chapter of the Islamic group, cited statements attributed to Brigitte Gabriel, founder of ACT!. Gabriel reportedly told , “Every practicing Muslim is radical Muslim.”

Hayutin and Kelly Cook, national field director for ACT!, said their organization's goal is to give a different perspective of Islam, which Cook said has been a “very violent geopolitical movement” throughout history.

Hayutin said he asked the library to sponsor his presentation after he attended a July 11 presentation by Hopida, “Islamophobia: Its Components, Root Causes and Remedies.”

During his talk, Hopida blamed ACT! for perpetuating Islamophobia. By his own account, he also warned the audience that books by ACT! founder Gabriel are biased.

Gabriel is the author of “Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America” and “They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It.” Gabriel, who immigrated to the United States in 1989, grew up as a Christian in Lebanon, where her home was bombed and she was injured during the Lebanese civil war.

In a statement, Gabriel said the Islamic council's criticism of ACT! has no merit given that it was an unindicted co-conspirator in a trial involving an Islamic charity called the Holy Land Foundation. In 2008, the foundation and five of its former organizers were convicted of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The Islamic council said it does not condone terrorism....

A typically weaselly response. So does it condemn Hamas? It didn't say. Does it consider what Hamas does to be terrorism? Of course, CAIR reps were not asked this.

Head of U.S. computer emergency agency quits

from USAToday

The director of the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team has resigned, reportedly because she was frustrated by bureaucratic obstacles and not having sufficient power to do the job in the Department of Homeland Security, Defense Tech tells us.

Mischel Kwon, the fourth U.S. CERT director in five years, quit Friday, Government Information Security first reported. A holdover from the Bush administration, she was hired in June 2008. Before that, she was the chief IT security technologist for the Department of Justice.

Today GIS writes that Kwon has been hired by RSA as vice president of public-sector security solutions.

Last week we wrote about the departure of the White House acting cybersecurity czar.

In March, Rod Beckstrom, the director the National Cybersecurity Center, also under Homeland Security, resigned, citing a lack of agency support and what he saw as a power grab by the National Security Agency.

Friday, as Kwon resigned, the director of the National Cyber Security Center at Homeland Security said the Obama administration "has made cybersecurity a top priority."

Kevin Coleman of Technolytics, which describes itself as "an independent executive think tank," writes that the departures are troubling.

"These resignations highlight a much larger problem, it shows the inability of the federal government to hire and retain qualified cyber security leaders. Two months after President Obama pledged to 'personally' select someone to be the White House's cyber security coordinator (AKA Cyber Czar), the position remains unfilled. ...

"Why not takers? What do they know that we don't? The nation's security is actually at risk and not having a cyber czar doesn't help. The continued churn has other concerning implications that point to a much bigger issue."

Here's an interview with Coleman last month.

Teenage girl, convert to Christianity from Islam, fears for her life...in Florida

Encounters with “the mob”

By Michelle Malkin

Enjoy Steve Crowder’s hilarious reportage from deep inside “the mob:”

:

Very Dangerous Concept’: Newt Defends Palin’s ‘Death Panels’ Claim

Pelosi Promises Health Care for All By Halloween – Does That Include Illegals?

Paul L. Williams, PhD

Take that, protesters – despite protests to the contrary, a large loophole would provide full medical benefits to illegal aliens.

U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears

The Obama administration is proposing to scale back a long-standing ban on tracking how people use government Internet sites with "cookies" and other technologies, raising alarms among privacy groups. ....

U.S. bailout panel: toxic assets may need more Treasury support

By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Treasury Department should consider expanding programs to cleanse troubled assets from bank balance sheets if current efforts fail to restart markets or if economic conditions worsen, a U.S. bailout watchdog panel said on Tuesday. ....

.... COMMERCIAL PROPERTY TIME BOMB

The Congressional Oversight Panel said, however, that smaller U.S. banks faced billions of dollars in losses from delinquent commercial property loans and were far less able to raise capital and absorb losses than their larger counterparts. ....

Video: Town hall protester reports retaliatory threats

(Fox News Channel) "After the incident was aired on television, we had a visit that night, a message was sent to my family" ...

Taliban waiting for reply on soldier

from The Washington Times

DERA ISMAIL KHAN | A militant commander who is holding a U.S. soldier abducted in Afghanistan said Sunday that Taliban leader Mullah Omar's council is waiting for a response to its demands before deciding the American's fate.

It was the first news of Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, made public since a Taliban video was released July 18.

Surviving Disaster Series Premieres On Spike TV

(Analyst's note: Absolutely must read - watch.)

from National Terror Alert

For the past few weeks I’ve had the privilege of consulting in research for an upcoming episode of an incredible new show, Surviving Disaster, scheduled to premiere on Spike TV, Tuesday, September 1 (10:00-11:00pm ET/PT). Mark this date on your calendar, it’s a show you won’t want to miss!

Surviving Disaster – Picking up a few last minute items at the mall when violent gunmen storm the store…what to do? What if, on the daily subway commute, a bio weapon is released? Or a fire is blazing in the 12th floor office and the only way out is blocked? Disasters can strike at the most unexpected times, but Spike TV’s new original series “Surviving Disaster,” led by Cade Courtley, vividly takes viewers through catastrophic scenarios and arms them with the knowledge needed to survive the unthinkable. Navy SEAL Courtley is the ideal host for this timely series, having faced imminent danger for a living, conducting clandestine missions from the sea, air and land that include counter-terrorism operations, special reconnaissance and unconventional warfare. The series premieres Tuesday, September 1 (10:00-11:00pm ET/PT) with an episode dedicated to a plane hijacking.

Each week, Navy SEAL Courtley tackles worst-case scenarios and equips viewers with the practical information needed to save their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. Whether the threat is natural or man-made or on a national or personal level, Courtley speaks directly to the viewers and guides them through a comprehensive, step-by-step process to not only survive the big picture disaster, but endure the many dangerous obstacles that may occur within each catastrophic event. While leading viewers out of danger, Courtley not only provides helpful tips and hands-on instruction, but swiftly points out common misconceptions and fatal mistakes. Unlike any other series, “Surviving Disaster” may actually save lives by providing actions that anyone can perform. ....

U.S., Mexico Probe Oil Thefts From Pemex

By SUSAN DAKER

HOUSTON -- U.S. and Mexico authorities are investigating the purchase by U.S. companies of millions of dollars worth of petroleum products stolen from Mexican national oil company Pemex.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency will host a news conference with U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Mexican officials in San Antonio to discuss the scheme. The U.S. is returning $2.4 million in funds generated from smuggling to the Mexican government, a spokeswoman for ICE said.

A Houston executive pleaded guilty in connection with investigation after admitting that he and others conspired to buy the stolen products, which were loaded onto a barge in Brownsville, Texas, said Nancy Herrera, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston. "We're working with the Mexican authorities," Ms. Herrera said.

Donald Schroeder, the president of Trammo Petroleum, is set to be sentenced in December. Mr. Schroeder, court documents say, purchased the product knowing it to be stolen. Mr. Schroeder's attorney could not be reached for comment.

Ms. Herrera declined to identify what U.S. companies bought the stolen products from Mr. Schroeder. Court filings describe the buyers as "larger companies." ....

Jihadis thrice attacked Pakistan nuclear sites

by Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's nuclear facilities have already been attacked at least thrice by its home-grown extremists and terrorists in little reported incidents over the last two years, even as the world remains divided over the safety and security of the nuclear weapons in the troubled country, according to western analysts. ( Watch )

The incidents, tracked by Shaun Gregory, a professor at Bradford University in UK, include an attack on the nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha on November 1, 2007, an attack on Pakistan's nuclear airbase at Kamra by a suicide bomber on December 10, 2007, and perhaps most significantly the August 20, 2008 attack when Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers blew up several entry points to one of the armament complexes at the Wah cantonment, considered one of Pakistan's main nuclear weapons assembly.

These attacks have occurred even as Pakistan has taken several steps to secure and fortify its nuclear weapons against potential attacks, particularly by the United States and India, says Gregory.

In fact, the attacks have received so little attention that Peter Bergen, the eminent terrorism expert who reviewed Gregory's paper first published in West Point's Counter Terrorism Center Sentinel, said "he (Gregory) points out something that was news to me (and shouldn't have been) which is that a series of attacks on Pakistan's nuclear weapons facilities have already happened."

Pakistan insists that its nuclear weapons are fully secured and there is no chance of them falling into the hands of the extremists or terrorists.

But Gregory, while detailing the steps Islamabad has taken to protect them against Indian and US attacks, asks if the geographical location of Pakistan's principle nuclear weapons infrastructure, which is mainly in areas dominated by al-Qaida and Taliban, makes it more vulnerable to internal attacks. ....

U.S. military given approval to target Taliban-connected drug lords

(Analyst's note: A must read item.)

by Marisol

No longer looking the other way from the jihadists' cash crop. Almost 8 years of warfare is certainly enough time to figure out that the "hearts and minds" angle didn't work out on the opium issue. "U.S. Military Working to 'Kill or Capture' 50 Taliban Drug Lords," by Brian Ross for ABC News, August 10:

In a dramatic change of policy ordered by the Obama administration, the U.S. military has been given approval to "kill or capture" 50 Taliban-connected drug lords whose names are on a classified "kill list" being circulated to commanders, according to a report prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and obtained by ABCNews.com.

Military officials expressed anger today that the "classified program" had been revealed in the Senate report.

Click here to read the full report.

A Department of Defense spokesman, Bryan Whitman, declined to comment on the target list, but said "where terrorists do interface with drug networks that produces a security threat, a force protection threat, and is a legitimate target in those regards."

Senate investigators were told military commanders have been given, for the first time, the green light to "remove from the battlefield" the 50 drug lords on the kill list, which also includes another 317 Taliban and al Qaeda figures. [...]

The report also concludes that corruption at "district, provincial and national levels" of the Afghanistan government seriously compromises the Obama's administration's strategy to assign a higher priority to counter-narcotics efforts.

There have been recurring allegations and circumstantial evidence that the brother of Afghan President Harmad Karzai is closely linked with major heroin traffickers but the Senate report said the U.S. had yet to produce evidence that could be used in court.

An unnamed U.S. General told investigators, "We all assume that he is totally corrupt and engaged in the drug trade but when you ask for the portfolio, we don't have it."

Investigators said U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered evidence against Karzai's brother through the use of electronic intercepts but that the information could not be shared with the Afghans or used in court because the method of collection was top secret.

Also cited by U.S. authorities in Afghanistan is the case of a regional governor who was found with nine tons of opium in his office but allowed to resign and take a new position in the Afghan Senate. He was never charged with a crime.

In another example of the pervasive drug corruption, a U.S. State Department official told the Senate investigators that police chiefs in poppy growing areas "pay as much as $100,000 to get appointed to a job that pays $150 a month, with the knowledge that they will recoup far more in bribes and kickbacks."....