Gaza (Death From Above) Live

The sounds of drones and explosions are constant though you may not see anything but flares in the night sky...



Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Cheer Up -- There's Always YouTube!

As I've pointed out in the past, I'm not into Doom Blogging. There's a whole genre of it, however, and it's very popular. A subgenre is Survivalism. And its antithesis. Thus the video up top. Ain't YouTube grand?

Out in the country, though, I'll admit you do think about these things, sort of a constant drone in the background of daily tasks and routines. Storms have periodically shut the interstate, after all, sometimes for days at a time, and the local roads can be difficult to travel even if they are open. There were two groceries in town, now there's one. What would happen if it closed or couldn't be supplied regularly?

But we stockpile food because we're lazy and don't want to have to go to the market every day. We have a lot of materials and supplies for all kinds of eventualities, simply because it is easier to keep them on hand than to have to go out and hunt them down in the event they're needed. If we were like some of the locals, we'd stockpile a lot more than we do.

We are advised to have guns because -- "You never know."

There's a clinic in town, but it would be one the first things shut were The Ultimate Collapse to come. We've been using a clinic in Albuquerque anyway (and I'd bet you it would stay open!) We keep a larger supply of medications on hand than we might otherwise, though, so as to be sure it's here if we can't get refills quickly.

All kinds of little adjustments.

The video is one of a series. Oh my.

Well How About That

According to today's notice over at the World Socialist Website, American Intelligence agencies stopped the State Department from revoking Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's US visa, unlike the situation with Britain which did revoke his visa once they were informed of derogatory information about the young Nigerian. Like he might have got hooked up with Teh Terrorists or something.

Apparently, the House Committee on Homeland Security (ah the Heimat!) developed this information at a hearing on January 27, a hearing that has so far only been reported on the website of the Detroit News. Interesting.

As the WSWS puts it:

The revelation that US intelligence agencies made a deliberate decision to allow Abdulmutallab to board the commercial flight, without any special airport screening, has been buried in the media. As of this writing, nearly a week after the hearing, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have published no articles on the subject. Nor have the broadcast or cable media reported on it.

This is despite—or perhaps more accurately, because of—the fact that this information exposes the official government story of the near-disaster to be a lie. President Obama, who has joined with top US intelligence, FBI and Homeland Security officials to insist that Abdulmutallab was inadvertently allowed to board the plane carrying explosives because of a failure to “connect the dots,” has from the start been deceiving the American people.

And that's being charitable.

That is not to say that the hearing was not reported on at all. It was. What wasn't reported -- except apparently in the Detroit News -- was that Abdulmutallab was apparently under surveillance by "intelligence" and when they were asked by the State Department whether they wanted Abdulmutallab to keep his visa, State was told "yes."

Another excerpt from the story:

Official testimony now records that US intelligence agencies deliberately let Abdulmutallab board Flight 253, putting the lives of hundreds of passengers at risk, in the course of an as yet undisclosed intelligence operation. Whether US agencies were unaware of Abdulmutallab’s plans, or consciously decided to allow an attack to proceed, remains unclear.

In this context, it should be noted that the reason for US inaction given at the hearing—that US intelligence did not want to alert Al Qaeda that it was watching Abdulmutallab—does not hold water. As congressmen noted during the hearing, US Customs and Border Protection had prepared to interrogate Abdulmutallab upon arrival in Detroit, as he was on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database. This would be counterproductive if US agencies were mounting a concerted effort to hide their interest in Abdulmutallab.

I see. Well.

On the one hand, we are being whipped to a frenzy of FEAR!!!™ over the incident in Detroit. "They're out to slaughter us all in our beds!!!!™" Yadda, yadda. On the other hand, yet again we are seeing the outlines of a deliberate action, one could even call it a plot, by "Intelligence" to Let It Happen On Purpose, the good old LIHOP theory that has also been applied to the 9/11 attacks.

On the other hand, breaking up utterly phony "terrorist plots" -- like the absurd Lodi Pakistani Ice Cream Truck Driver Plan to Blow Up The World -- are touted and paraded around as these Grand Successes in Great and Glorious (and Endless) War on Terror.

What a tangled web is woven.

Go read the story. Reach your own conclusions.



Update: And after all the screeching from the wingnuts that Abdulmutallab was ONLY interrogated for 50 hours minutes before being Mirandized, what to make of the stories that he's still talking and he waived his right to remain silent?

Detroit bomber 'providing intelligence about al-Qaida'

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up plane with underwear bomb, is said to have waived right to silence

The cognitive dissonance is at EPIC on the dial.