…or Federal troops to police the Homeland. Anyway you phrase it… this stuff gives me the creeps.
-Monkey
A Permanent Security Force For NorthCom: “The Army Times reports that the US army has commenced security operations in Northcom - an unstable country teetering on the edge of financial collapse - Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1. Luckily the local intelligence services have gathered a huge list - well over 1 million names now - of potential troublemakers for them to keep an eye on. Whatever happened to that ‘Posse Comitatus’ thing anyway ?
The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.
Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.
Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home. In August 2005, for example, when Hurricane Katrina unleashed hell in Mississippi and Louisiana, several active-duty units were pulled from various posts and mobilized to those areas.
But this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
After 1st BCT finishes its dwell-time mission, expectations are that another, as yet unnamed, active-duty brigade will take over and that the mission will be a permanent one.
‘Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future,’ said Army Col. Louis Vogler, chief of NorthCom future operations. ‘Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.’
Video of a cooking show host and her son hunting and killing a squirrel. Next, she shows how to make a tasty sandwich.
‘I promised him a squirrel sandwich and that is what he’s gonna get after school. You’ve heard of tuna melts or patty melts, well why not squirrel melts.’
Saturday Night Live couldn’t have done better than this.
The video above is taken from the exhibition ‘no future’ by Christoph Büchel, at the Sydney Biennale 2008:
‘no future’ transforms the gallery into a rehearsal space for a punk band of volunteers who are over the age of 80 years. in the space they rehearse the 1977 sex pistol’s hit, ‘god save the queen’, originally called ‘no future’, which was banned from BBC, but still made its way to the top of the charts despite this. the band gathers for practice and performs in public whenever they please during the gallery’s opening hours, during which their sessions are video-taped and recorded and will be released on DVD and CD at the end of the biennale.
christoph büchel at the biennale of sydney 2008(designboom,thanks Susannah Breslin)
Image: ‘Lead singer jill mckay practices ‘god save the queen’ with her band mates photo courtesy of lisa wiltse’
My brother Dave lives in Minneapolis and has been interviewing RNC delegates. Here is Barb Davis White in her own words (audio stream here):
White: My name is Barb Davis White and I’m running for the 5th Congressional District against Keith Ellison for the United States House of Representatives, which is called Congress.
Romm: Where are you on global warming?
White: Well, global warming really has not been proven. There are 30,000 scientists, including Al Gore’s professor, from Princeton, who says that we are now in a cooling stage. And ev-every — also every other climate that has been warmed had better grapes.
Romm: So you don’t believe in global warming and you don’t think that people caused it.
White: No, I think global warming is a scam. I think it’s a scam to put taxes — more taxes on us, and it’s called carbon taxes. Our environment has never been so clean, and if we want to push global warming, let’s push it on China, where the smog is so thick that you almost need a helmet to breathe. Let’s push it on Africa and see how they adapt to it, because they’re not going to.
That is frighteningly incoherent, even for a would-be GOP representative. Is this really the best person Republicans can find in Minneapolis? Or, perhaps that’s who they are recruiting. So you don’t end up totally depressed, there’s a second interview at the end with a DNC delegate who is a Minneapolis City Council member. So, yes, the Twin Cities have some sane politicians.
Don’t even think about running an illegal bingo game in Richland County, South Carolina.
The Richland County, South Carolina Sheriff’s Department (that’s them above) just obtained an armored personnel carrier, complete with a belt-fed, .50-cal turreted machine gun. Sheriff Leon Lott has charmingly named the vehicle ‘The Peacemaker,’ and insists that using a caliber of ammunition that even the U.S. military is reluctant to use against human targets (it’s generally reserved for use against armored vehicles) will ’save lives.’
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