Homeland Security informs officials in 21 states that Russians attempted to hack their election systems in 2016.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Russians attempted to hack elections systems in Wisconsin and 20 other states in the run-up to last year's presidential election, Wisconsin officials said Friday. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified states of the attempted breaches on Friday, said Michael Haas, director of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The attempt in Wisconsin was unsuccessful, he said. 

According to the Associated Press, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Washington were also among the 21 states targeted. 

Wisconsin's voter registration system was targeted, as were election systems in other states that have a presence on the internet, Haas said. Haas said he did not know which states other than Wisconsin were part of the attempt by what Homeland Security officials told him were “Russian government cyber actors."

I am not at all convinced that these were only "attempts."

I think there had to be some successful hacks, and I would not to at all surprised to learn that there were a number of them.

I also think that ultimately we will learn that there more than 21 states targeted.

As I have said before, we are still at the beginning of all this and it is certain that there is so much, much more we are going to learn. 

White House considers giving Milwaukee Sheriff, who once called Hillary Clinton a "morally bankrupt," "straight up cop hater," the position of Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security.

Courtesy of Politico: 

The White House is considering David Clarke, the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, for a position at the Department of Homeland Security, three people familiar with the administration’s planning told POLITICO. 

Clarke is in line to be appointed as assistant secretary at DHS’ Office of Partnership and Engagement, which coordinates outreach to state, local and tribal officials and law enforcement. The position does not require Senate confirmation. 

A senior administration official cautioned it’s “not a done deal yet.” 

Clarke, a longtime supporter of President Donald Trump, has long been rumored as a possible candidate for a job in the administration and met with Trump in November at Trump Tower. He also spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last year.

Besides making the aforementioned remarks about Hillary Clinton, he was also sued for negligent homicide after a prisoner gave birth and her baby died in one of his jails.

That was only one of four deaths that happened in a six month time frame.

So considering this man's considerable baggage, and the fact that he is not exactly lily white like most folks hired by the White House, what was the deciding factor that made Clarke such an attractive candidate?

Red Square near the Kremlin with a Russian officer. Met earlier with Russian Foreign Minister who spoke on Mid East. pic.twitter.com/ZcDdQB65lb

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) December 10, 2015

Ahh, say no more.

Nothing says you have the right stuff for a job in the Trump Administration like ties with Russia.

The Trump Administration is now using Bush era tactics to keep the American population frightened and manageable.

Look I'm not saying there WILL be an attack, I am just saying if there is one it will be the most beautiful one ever.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued a stark warning Tuesday, calling the risk of a terror attack on the United States "as threatening today" as it was on 9/11. 

Specifically, Kelly outlined the danger posed by homegrown terrorists and foreign fighters from around the world who have traveled to Syria and Iraq with plans to return home. 

"The threat to our nation and our American way of life has not diminished," Kelly said during a speech at George Washington University. "In fact, the threat has metastasized and decentralized, and the risk is as threatening today as it was that September morning almost 16 years ago."

Look I am not saying there are not still terrorist plots out there, because I am sure that there are.

All I am saying is that Donald Trump is in desperate need of a diversion right now, and if we do not suffer a false flag event in the next few weeks I will be very surprised.

After all that would be Vladimir Putin's go to tactic in a similar circumstance.

Rachel Maddow gets her hands on a DHS intelligence document. There is not going to be any Muslim ban.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

A new U.S. Department of Homeland Security report obtained by MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" on Thursday finds that most foreign-born U.S. violent extremists are radicalized "several years after" they enter the country. 

"We assess that most foreign-born, U.S.-based violent extremists likely radicalized several years after their entry to the United States ... limiting the ability of screening and vetting officials to prevent their entry because of National Security concerns," read the document, which DHS verified to MSNBC. 

The intelligence assessment is titled “Most foreign-born U.S.-based violent extremists radicalized after entering Homeland; opportunities for tailored CVE programs exist,” and is dated March 1, 2017.

Rachel has been KILLING it lately.

Which just makes the trolls who come here to insult her seem even more laughable. 

REAL journalism is on the upswing and it is kicking the ass of Trump's fake news.

Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security only learned about the Muslim ban executive order as Trump was actually signing it on television.

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly

Courtesy the New York Times:

As President Trump signed a sweeping executive order on Friday, shutting the borders to refugees and others from seven largely Muslim countries, the secretary of homeland security was on a White House conference call getting his first full briefing on the global shift in policy. 

Gen. John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, had dialed in from a Coast Guard plane as he headed back to Washington from Miami. Along with other top officials, he needed guidance from the White House, which had not asked his department for a legal review of the order. 

Halfway into the briefing, someone on the call looked up at a television in his office. “The president is signing the executive order that we’re discussing,” the official said, stunned.

As we know the executive order was drafted by Stephen Bannon and a small group of White House advisers, without any input from career officials at the Homeland Security Department, the State Department or other agencies.

The reason given by  James Jay Carafano, a vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, and also a member of Trump's transition team, is a fear of leaks.

 “Why share it with them?” Mr. Carafano said. 

Well part of the reason you "share it with them" is that they actually know the legalities of something like this, and could  have shut it down or at least given guidance that would have helped to avoid those incidents at the airports.

“The details of it were not thought through,” said Stephen Heifetz, who served in the Justice and Homeland Security Departments, as well as the C.I.A., under the previous three presidents. “It is not surprising there was mass confusion, and I expect the confusion and chaos will continue for some time.” 

Trump's distrust of the intelligence agencies and his reliance on loose cannons like Stephen Bannon will be his downfall.

The only question is will that happen before he irreparably damages this country?

P.S. By the way a number of Trump spokespeople are claiming that this ban is just like the one that President Obama imposed on Iraq for six months.

Problem is, that never happened.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Former Obama administration official Jon Finer denied that any ban in Iraqi refugee admissions was put in place under Obama. “While the flow of Iraqi refugees slowed significantly during the Obama administration’s review, refugees continued to be admitted to the United States during that time, and there was not a single month in which no Iraqis arrived here,” he wrote in Foreign Policy. “In other words, while there were delays in processing, there was no outright ban.” 

Another former official, Eric P. Schwartz, the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration at the time, also told The Fact Checker that Trump’s statement is false: 

“President Obama never imposed a six-month ban on Iraqi processing. For several months in 2011, there was a lower level of Iraqi resettlement, as the government implemented certain security enhancements. Indeed, as we identified new and valuable opportunities to enhance screening, we did so. Nobody should object to a continual effort to identify legitimate enhancements, but it is disreputable to use that as a pretext to effectively shut down a program that is overwhelmingly safe and has enabled the United States to exercise world leadership. In any event, there was never a point during that period in which Iraqi resettlement was stopped, or banned.”

The Post gave those statements by the Trump spokespeople three Pinocchios. 

Now President Obama is ordering a "full review" of hacking by the Russians during this election. Now we're talking. Update!

Look I can't be manipulated, threatened, or bought. Who do you think I am, Donald Trump?

Courtesy of Politico: 

President Barack Obama has ordered a "full review" of hacking-relating activity aimed at disrupting last month's presidential election and he expects that report before he leaves office on Jan. 20, a top White House official said Friday. 

“We may be crossed into a new threshold and it is incumbent upon us to take stock of that, to review, to conduct some after-action, to understand what this means, what has happened and to impart those lessons learned," Obama counterterrorism and homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco told reporters at a breakfast arranged by the Christian Science Monitor.

U.S. intelligence officials have blamed the Russian government for pre-election hacking of Democratic officials and political committees. Several Democratic senators have asked Obama to declassify more details about the attacks and why the U.S. concluded the Russians were behind them.

Now, now we are getting somewhere.

And it's a good thing that President Obama is pressuring Homeland Security to fast track this investigation because we can essentially guarantee that Trump will put the brakes on it once he takes office.

Why you might ask?

Totally non-homoerotic photoshop of Trump riding bitch behind his puppet master Vladimir Putin.

Oh I think we all KNOW why.

Update: The Washington Post just dropped a bomb!

Courtesy of WaPo:  

The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter. 

Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances. 

“It is the assessment of the intelligence community that Russia’s goal here was to favor one candidate over the other, to help Trump get elected,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on an intelligence presentation made to U.S. senators. “That’s the consensus view.”

Well I think makes it clear beyond a reasonable doubt, that our current president elect ONLY "won" this election because a foreign country chose him for us.

Now pay attention to this part:  

The CIA shared its latest assessment with key senators in a closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill last week, in which agency officials cited a growing body of intelligence from multiple sources. Agency briefers told the senators it was now “quite clear” that electing Trump was Russia’s goal, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

To be clear this means that key Senators knew BEFORE the election that Russia was helping to position Trump for the win, and did not tell the American people, allowing them instead to go to the polls unaware that the Kremlin was pulling their strings. 

Senator asks for investigation in response to news that Trump's modeling agency illegaly hired immigrant women who did not have the appropriate work visas.

Trump: tough on illegal immigration unless he’s importing foreign models to exploit. https://t.co/eahs6srlDE

— Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) August 31, 2016

Courtesy of the Bipartisan Report:  

A United States senator just sent the Department of Homeland Security a letter asking for the immediate investigation of Donald Trump’s modeling agency after an August 30th publication by media outlet, Mother Jones, in which Trump’s company was accused of trafficking illegal immigrants willing to work as models. 

The openly anti-immigrant candidate is being accused of “illegally importing” women to work as models in his agency, and while this makes him look like a giant fool, it could also hold legal ramifications that would leave Trump paying a hefty fine, and possibly even serving jail time for human trafficking. 

This isn’t the first time that Trump has been accused of shipping immigrants in with the sole intention of exploiting them for near slave wages. One woman, in particular, was set to be on Trump’s cancelled MTV show “Girls of Hedsor Hall.” Earlier this summer, she spoke out against Trump, saying that he brought her here for no reason other than to be able to pay her less than minimum wage.

Good I'm glad SOMEONE is responding to some of these illegal activities undertaken by Donald Trump.

Don't forget he is also still being accused of multiple rapes, facing a lawsuit for ripping Trump University students off, and the subject of a probe into possibly illegal donations to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

And that is all on top of the thousands of lawsuits that already involve Donald Trump.

Oh yeah, this running for President was a great idea.

Jeb Bush says that his brother's response to 9/11 was "admirable."

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) suggested in an interview Sunday that the crux of responsibility for out-of-control spending in Washington during the 2000’s was in the hands of the Republican-controlled Congress, rather than his brother’s initiatives as president. 

Appearing on CBS’ “Face The Nation,” host Bob Schieffer asked the all-but certain 2016 GOP presidential candidate what he had learned from George W. Bush’s successes and mistakes in the Oval Office. 

Bush pointed to his brother’s inability to keep “the reins on spending” but suggested that it had largely been the legislative body in Washington that had failed to control costs. 

“I mean, because of the war and because of the focus on protecting the homeland, I think he let the Republican Congress get a little out of control, in terms of the spending,” Bush said.

Does he mean the wars that his brother lied us into, and the agencies he unnecessarily created that duplicated the efforts of the CIA and FBI? THAT out of control spending?

 When asked about George W's successes Jeb points out his response to the 9/11 attacks:

“We were under attack and he brought, he unified the country,” he said. “And he showed dogged determination and he kept us safe. And you know, you can talk about a lot of stuff, but when you're president of the United States and you're confronted with that kind of event, to respond the way he did is admirable.”

You know I wonder if the families who lost loved ones fighting in George W. Bush's war of choice would find his response "admirable?"

I don't know about anybody else but I find myself really enjoying the spectacle of Jeb Bush trying desperately not to crap all over his brother's legacy while also attempting to convince the American people that he would not be a similarly disastrous choice for President.

John Boehner blinks, House passes clean DHS bill with no attempt to defund Obama's immigration executive order.

Courtesy of CNN:  

The House cleared legislation Tuesday that will keep the agency operating through the end of September after a standoff last week threatened to shutter the agency and furlough thousands of workers. The 257-167 vote sends the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature. 

Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who rarely casts votes, backed the bill, along with his top lieutenants. A majority of House Republicans opposed the bill. Just 75 GOP lawmakers joined with 182 Democrats to push it across the finish line. 

The legislation does nothing to rein in Obama's immigration executive orders -- a top priority of conservatives. That issue was a sticking point for weeks as Republicans tried to tie DHS funding to the repeal of the orders but the party couldn't overcome Democratic filibusters in the Senate.

Seriously who didn't know that eventually the Republicans were going to have to cave on this?

I mean how did the so-called "party of fighting terrorism" think they were going to be able to justify refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security?

But you know this is REALLY going to piss off the teabaggers and they are going to work non-stop to remove Boehner from his leadership position.

House Republicans are so obstinate that they cannot even bring themselves to agree with other Republicans.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

The House of Representatives voted Friday night to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, so they can come back and have the same fight in a week. 

The vote was the result of a divide between Republicans in the House and Senate over whether to surrender now or hold out for one more week. The GOP had been hoping to use the DHS funding battle to block President Barack Obama's latest executive actions on immigration. Senate Democrats successfully pushed Republican leaders to allow a full-year DHS bill without immigration riders. That legislation passed the Senate 68 to 31 earlier on Friday, after even the most hardline Republicans said the effort to kill Obama's plans through the funding bill was futile. 

But House Republicans weren't ready to cave. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) brought a three-week continuing resolution to a vote Friday afternoon, only to be blocked when 52 Republicans joined the majority of Democrats in opposing it. House GOP leaders had to regroup, apparently reaching a deal with the more conservative members of their caucus to bring up a smaller stopgap measure that would keep operations running at DHS for just one more week. 

The Senate first passed the one-week continuing resolution by a voice vote, just hours before DHS was poised to shut down. The House then approved the measure by a roll call vote of 357 to 60. President Barack Obama signed it into law just before midnight. A majority of Democrats joined Republicans to vote for the short-term fix, after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told her colleagues that the passage of the one-week resolution would assure a vote on a full funding bill next week.

This is of course nothing but really bad Kabuki theater, because when a week is up and the Republicans try to force through a funding bill that strips funding for the immigration piece, the President will veto it, and they will be back at square one.  

I know the Republicans are hoping that the American people will blame any government shutdown or defunding of Homeland Security on Obama, but history has proven that is unlikely to be the case.

Right now the American people are watching is disgust as the Republicans, who now control both the House and the Senate, fight among themselves while the President pushes to do something significant about our broken immigration policies.

This seems like a lose/lose for the GOP, and a huge win for the man in the Oval Office.

New intelligence report circulated by DHS finds that sovereign citizen groups are far more dangerous to Americans than foreign Islamic terror groups. Cue faux outrage from Faux News.

Courtesy of CNN:  

They're carrying out sporadic terror attacks on police, have threatened attacks on government buildings and reject government authority. 

A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism. 

Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to -- and in some cases greater than -- the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.​ 

The Homeland Security report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010. 

The government says these are extremists who believe that they can ignore laws and that their individual rights are under attack in routine daily instances such as a traffic stop or being required to obey a court order. 

They've lashed out against authority in incidents such as one in 2012, in which a father and son were accused of engaging in a shootout with police in Louisiana, in a confrontation that began with an officer pulling them over for a traffic violation. Two officers were killed and several others wounded in the confrontation. The men were sovereign citizen extremists who claimed police had no authority over them.

This seems to  jive with an earlier report from the New America Foundation that that contained analysis from 2001-2015 which found that "Of 448 extremists counted, white men who were U.S. citizens outnumbered every other demographic by wide margins."

And this included "extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists, and anti-government militants."

So in other words dedicated Fox News viewers, and Sarah Palin supporters.

Oh yeah, there's going to be backlash. 

Greta Van Susteren interviews Never-Blink-Barbie concerning unfolding DHS "scandal." Remember kids, do NOT stare directly into her eyes!

Greta sets up the interview for Palin by addressing the website from that DHS worker I posted about yesterday, and inviting her to go all Alex Jones about it.

And Palin, eyes in never blink mode, does not disappoint:

"Oh thank you for covering this one Greta, this one is unflippinbelievable. This one is stupidity on steroids...Obama administration."

Greta, who looks like having to talk to the Wasilla Wendigo causes her physical pain, expresses disbelief that something like this can happen, and that the man's supervisors knew about it. (It should be noted that while the DHS signed off on the idea of setting up a website to sell concert tickets there is NO evidence that they knew what the website contained.) However Palin knows EXACTLY why it happened.

"We'll find out more as to whether he received approval if this or not, because evidently, thus far, it looks like he did  receive approval to have this side job of running the website. But its pretty ironic there that we hear that..uh..other officials are saying that appropriate actions will be taken if we what...form a committee and decide whether this guy has violated any kind of HR rules or not. Well it seems to be appropriate disciplinary action, with these very gnarly HR issues that we are seeing in..by some in the Obama administration. Result in what? Sharing tea and crumpets with the offending official. (Tea and crumpets? Where in the hell did THAT come from?) Look at the scandals in the IRS, the DOJ, now DHS, and NSA. (Wow that is a lot of acrimony over acronyms!) These are HR issues.  (Does she even KNOW that HR stands for Human Relations? She throws it around like she is referring to the KKK.) It starts at the top when the Big Brother bosses decide what rules, what laws, they choose to follow, that day. (Palin follows this up with that thousand yard stare of hers that makes her look like a ventriloquist dummy whose owner just stepped out for a smoke.)

Greta then suggests that it can be difficult to get rid of government workers, but then suggest that if she were in charge she would find a way to remove the guy from his job.

This Palin's cue to make this personal. 

"What are they afraid of, getting sued? So what? I fired people in my jobs as city manager (City Manager? I thought she was the Mayor?) and as Governor. And yep, I've been sued for firing those who have been engaged in nefarious acts. (You know like Walt Monegan who would not allow her to persecute her ex-brother-in-law, or the librarian who would not allow her to ban books, or the museum worker who would not stop teaching people facts. Such nefarious people.) So what? So you get sued. You have to go through that process, unfortunate, you know this is a society that loves these lawsuits. and so often it's the innocent who have to end up paying. And in this case it's going to be the taxpayer having to pay for court costs and everything else if the guy does decide to sue, but SO WHAT! Get him out of there. Maybe he's in a union, protected by some union thug leadership, thinking that this guy I a public servant. Well he's not a public servant, He wants to kill his fellow Americans, we need to get rid of him. And by the way it's very important that the leaders in these agencies, and in this administration, can truly have servant's hearts. (Wait, what? Well this train to Crazy Town just made a pit stop ins WTF-ville!) It's got to be more than just..um.. security for..uh..job security for an individual like this official. That isn't what we should be concerned about, it needs to be servant's hearts, Serving we the people." (Then she comes to a dead stop, and it's all dead eyes again.)

Greta then suggests the possibility that the man's superiors did not know about the website because the agency is too big.

Why is Palin grinning like that?

"Well I'm glad you bring that up. (Uh oh!) Because that's a fundamental problem in our government . It is so grandiose, so large, that things are out of control. This is an example of that. Where what, the agency even is so big that a supervisor, a boss, can't keep hold of one of its employees. (This might be a good place to remind everybody that Obama has been shrinking the size of government quite significantly since he has been in office.) Didn't do the right background information? Or continued information gathering? They gather information on all of us innocent Americans, why not one of their employees whose in charge of security, buying the guns and ammo? They couldn't do any surveillance, if you will, on this guy to find out what the heck his vocation, his avocation, happened to be? Trying to kill whites!"

Greta looks a little shocked and quickly moves the topic to Ashton Kutcher, acting as if it is beyond surprising that a liberal Hollywood type would advocate hard work.

Palin continues that theme and essentially infers that Kutcher must have abandoned his liberal ideals in order to embrace the conservative ones of hard work, which of course were NEVER simply conservative ideals. It is kind of humorous hearing a woman who works about once a week, and parties the other six, judging others concerning their work ethic.

After that segue Greta asks Palin about rumors that she might challenge Mark Begich for his Senate seat in 2014. (Can I answer that? She won't. Okay, fine let's hear her dance around the issue.)

"Well our present Senator, Mark Begich..'Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch' which is kind of how we refer to him up here. (No we don't.) He's being led by this bunch of Harry Reid, and President Obama...Mark Begich having been so supportive of their agenda. Ushering in Obamacare ,and incurring more and more debt. He certainly needs to be replaced. And we need someone there who understands that..uh..you know our country's going bankrupt ( Also not true.) and we need to rein in government, some simple 'we the people' type principles that need to be enacted. And that's not going to come from Mark Begich. He needs to be replaced, but Greta it doesn't have to be me. There are thousands of good Alaskans (Thousands?) with that servant's heart and the ability and the desire to serve we the people. Doesn't have to be me. I do think it's kind of hilarious though that Mark Begich seems to want to use my name as his fundraising tool so often with his far left friends (Translation: Alaskans who hate me.) cause every time I speak about this issue he'll fire of emails, and fundraising pleas saying 'Sarah Palin's talking about taking my job.' It's kind of in a panic there, being threatened I guess, but it doesn't have to be me, and as of this date I am not planning to run for the US Senate, but I certainly would never say never in this case." (Yeah how could she convince whose idiots to donate to SarahPAC if she stopped pretending she was going to run for office?)

Greta tries to get an actual answer out of Palin, but to no avail.

Said rather crankily, "The door is never going to be closed in terms of opportunity that could be out there to serve people who are deserving of those with common sense conservative values, but Mark Begich, and heck all those far left Senators I..err..ya know..they do need to be replaced..uh..President Obama does not need more numbers on his side of the aisle when it comes to incurring more debt and burdening Americans with more and more big brother government."

Okay did Palin actually rip Begich for using scare tactics to raise money? Seriously?

By the way though I may WISH that Mark Begich was working to push forward a progressive agenda, his recent ads on talk radio certainly do not support that. In fact most of them are very adversarial toward the President.

Damn that was quite a ride on the crazy train.

I will leave it up to all of you to discuss her wig, her thousand yard stare, and her word salad.

Me, I need some more coffee. This is MUCH too early to be listening to anything this stomach churning.

Update: Here is the official transcript, which I REALLY wish I had found before I transcribed this whole thing by hand. 

Apparently the FBI and Homeland Security were too focused on the Occupy movement to prevent the Boston Marathon bombing.

Courtesy of Truthout:  

The ACLU was able to obtain documents of intelligence reports filed in 2011. They reveal that on September 30, the DHS-funded Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC, was collecting information about an upcoming Occupy Boston rally in Dewey Square, just two days after Russia sent them the second warning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis recently told Congress he “would have liked to know” that there was a potential extremist with violent intentions living in his city, and accused BRIC of failing to properly inform local law enforcement about a possible terrorist threat. 

The DHS, which spent billions of dollars on fusion centers like BRIC, has been accused of gathering “crap intelligence” and using federal anti-terrorism programs and resources to spy on nonviolent protesters exercising their First Amendment rights, rather than stopping terrorists. When they should have been investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s extremist ties, the intelligence arm of the Boston Police Department was busy collecting information on peaceful antiwar activists from Code PINK and Veterans for Peace. That information was assembled in dossiers categorized under “Criminal Act,” “Extremists,” “Civil Disturbance,” and the more disturbing “HomeSec- Domestic.” 

In fact, monitoring the Occupy movement became DHS’ key focus in October of 2011, when the movement’s power and influence was at its peak. Among the topics included in the DHS’ daily intelligence briefing was “peaceful activist demonstrations.” That section was included in the same briefings as “significant criminal activity” and potential domestic terrorist acts.

Yes, well I think we can ALL see how a group dedicated to protesting the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process in this country would warrant that kind of intense scrutiny from our government, while a warning about a potential terrorist barely registers on their radar.

One has to wonder if Obama has done enough to rid of DHS of the Bush administration influences, or if they are now working from his playbook.

Perhaps we have NO real hope of severing the control big business has over government in this country until the day that we see the swearing in of one President Elizabeth Warren.

The separation of church and state is not applicable in Kentucky. And not realizing that can cost you a year in prison.

Socialist!

Courtesy of Alternet:

In Kentucky, a homeland security law requires the state’s citizens to acknowledge the security provided by the Almighty God--or risk 12 months in prison. 

The law states, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God as set forth in the public speeches and proclamations of American Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln's historic March 30, 1863, presidential proclamation urging Americans to pray and fast during one of the most dangerous hours in American history, and the text of President John F. Kennedy's November 22, 1963, national security speech which concluded: "For as was written long ago: 'Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'" 

The law requires that plaques celebrating the power of the Almighty God be installed outside the state Homeland Security building--and carries a criminal penalty of up to 12 months in jail if one fails to comply. The plaque’s inscription begins with the assertion, “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.” 

Tom Riner, a Baptist minister and the long-time Democratic state representative, sponsored the law. 

“The church-state divide is not a line I see,” Riner told The New York Times shortly after the law was first challenged in court. “What I do see is an attempt to separate America from its history of perceiving itself as a nation under God.”

“The church-state divide is not a line I see." So due to this idiot's inability to recognize Constitutional truths state government workers are threatened with incarceration for not promoting HIS religious point of view?

Interesting how "freedom" is ONLY applicable to those that think, worship, and love in the "correct" manner as determined by these superstitious small minded asshoels.

Fortunately there are some willing to challenge this in court.

Last week, American Atheists submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the law.

Of course, as we well know, this will be seen as an attack on Christianity rather than  an attempt to protect the rights of the citizens of Kentucky NOT to have religious views of others crammed down their throats on government property.

Terrorists are going to attack us with pregnant women. Wait what?

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning against a new type of terrorism carried out by women who appear to be pregnant.

Now for a second I was a really terrified by this, especially since I am afraid of pregnant women anyhow. (I am always worried they are going to try and sue me for child support.)

But then I read this:

Authorities say there is "no specific, credible intelligence" that says terrorists are planning to use women and suicide bombers to attack, but the warning was sent to agencies across the country in the wake of recent attacks overseas.

Just how desperate is the Department of Homeland Security to scare us? And why?

According to our government we have 755,000 terrorists in this country. Well gee if they say it then it must be true.

The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names, according to a new government report that has raised worries about the list's effectiveness.

The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004. Some lawmakers, security experts and civil rights advocates warn that it will become useless if it includes too many people.

"It undermines the authority of the list," says Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies. "There's just no rational, reasonable estimate that there's anywhere close to that many suspected terrorists."

The exact number of people on the list, compiled after 9/11 to help government agents keep terrorists out of the country, is unclear, according to the report by the Government

Accountability Office (GAO). Some people may be on the list more than once because they are listed under multiple spellings.

This is what 31 billion dollars buys us? That is what we spent on "Homeland Security" last year.

I have to wonder how many of us are on that list? You know, people who dare to challenge the governments judgement and choices. Are we the enemy too?

Because as you know,"If you are not on the side of the President, then you are on the side of the terrorists".

Bush fought the law and the law won.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause.

U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."

It is about time that Bush learned that not everybody feels the disdain for our constitution that he does.

Gee maybe our country is not completely broken.

Why are Democrats denied access to post-attack contingency plans?

Constituents called Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.
As a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubbleroom'' in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

I think that many of you have read or heard rumors that the President has placed secret plans to declare Martial Law in case of another terrorist attack in the Homeland Security bills. So here is a member of Homeland Security who finds himself denied access to assessing whether that is true or not. And what does that tell us?

You know it is almost impossible to be a conspiracy theorist with this administration because they are worse then anything most of us could imagine.

(I need to give credit to Crooks and Liars for bringing this story to my attention.)

What color code do we assign to Chertoff's "gut feeling"?

Here is an excerpt from a letter sent to Michael Chertoff by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson:

Words have power, Mr. Secretary. You must choose them wisely—especially when they relate to the lives and security of the American public. What color code in the Homeland Security Advisory System is associated with a “gut feeling?” What sectors should be on alert as a result of your “gut feeling?” What cities should be asking their law enforcement to work double shifts because of your “gut feeling?” Are the American people supposed to purchase duct tape and plastic sheeting because of your “gut feeling?”

It is an almost unbelievably irresponsible thing to say. Why would Chertoff frighten Americans because of an unsubstantiated feeling? It just seems to be another attempt to manipulate the emotions of our citizens. And I would expect them to be investigated to the fullest extent of the law.

And if something actually does happen after we have been given this warning, it would make Chertoff, Homeland Security, and our government the most likely suspects.

Homeland Security is not focused on terrorism. Then why do we have it?

Of the 814,073 people charged by DHS in immigration courts during the past three years, 12 faced charges of terrorism, TRAC said.

Those 12 cases represent 0.0015 percent of the total number of cases filed.

"The DHS claims it is focused on terrorism. Well that's just not true," said David Burnham, a TRAC spokesman. "Either there's no terrorism, or they're terrible at catching them. Either way it's bad for all of us."

The TRAC analysis also found that DHS filed a minuscule number of what are called "national security" charges against people in the immigration courts. The report stated that 114, or 0.014 percent of the total of roughly 800,000 individuals charged were charged with national security violations.

The real focus of Homeland Security is to monitor people that this administration finds threatening, not threatening to the country, but rather threatening to their administration.

So they tap all of our phones, and frisk us before we can board a plane to see Grandma, but they are really not going to catch the terrorists. Because there aren't any to catch.

But when there are some you can bet these guys will not even see them coming.