Today is National Preparedness Day  

Is your association prepared for a disaster? What about your family or pet? Join me and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) Team on Friday, September 21 from 12:30-1:30pm ET on DelCor Sweet Spot Live as we discuss tips on getting prepared and look at how NACCHO is using social media to spread the word. What your question answered? Join us live tomorrow and Tweet your question to us at @KyleeCoffman or #sweetspot.

Also, here’s a fun look at the Call Me Maybe meme the American Public Health Association (APHA) put together to get the word out about National Preparedness Month.

Stranger in a Strange Land 2012-06-02: A Better Amercia by The Stranger onMixcloud

While the socialist-Maoist-Marxist-Trotskyite-Stalinist-communist-pinko-red-hippie John McCain badmouthed capitalism as ‘cruel’, and Bill Clinto went off-message on private equity, the old guard of Republicans (RINOs) futilely try to inject their reasonable wisdom into an insanely destructive party. Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY) has lashed out at members of his party for their unyielding obstructionist opposition to new tax revenues.

“The only thing [SuperPAC money] can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress.”

In America, a disturbing number of people seem to think that the impoverished are degenerates who deserve their fate and none of our society’s help. At least it’s encouraging to know that they also don’t believe the rich should get their unearned, undeserved bailouts. But these crooks don’t have anything to worry about.

Our police forces seem more interested in hauling away credentialed members of the media in cuffs. ”Your First Amendment rights can be terminated,” was the warning issued by a Chicago Police Department officer caught on video. Our hypocritical Commander-in-Cheeba seems more interested in busting up medical marijuana stoners, than any cartels.

via OccupyWallSt

And even during the 2008 Republican National Convention, at which FBI informants Brandon Darby and Andrew Darst set up David McKay, Bradley Crowder, and Matthew DePalma on charges of possessing Molotov cocktails in two separate incidents. It’s important to note that the only Molotov cocktails that figured in the RNC protests at any point were the ones used to entrap these young men: the FBI were not responding to a threat, but inventing one.

Over the past month, the FBI have shifted into high gear with this approach. Immediately before May Day, five young men were set up on terrorism charges in Cleveland after an FBI infiltrator apparently guided them into planning to bomb a bridge, in what would have been the only such bombing carried out by anarchists in living memory. During the protests against the NATO summit in Chicago,three young men were arrested and charged with terrorist conspiracy once again involving the only Molotov cocktails within hundreds of miles, set up by at least two FBI informants.

None of the targets of these entrapment cases seem to be longtime anarchist organizers. None of the crimes they’re being charged with are representative of the tactics that anarchists have actually used over the past decade. All of the cases rest on the efforts of FBI informants to manufacture conspiracies. All of the arrests have taken place immediately before mass mobilizations, enabling the authorities to frame a narrative justifying their crackdowns on protest as thwarting terrorism. And in all of these cases, the defendants have been described as anarchists in the legal paperwork filed against them, setting precedents for criminalizing anarchism.

Smashing bank windows, for example, may be illegal, but it is increasingly understood as a meaningful political statement; it would be difficult to build a convincing terrorism case around broken glass.

And now the Obama Justice Department is trying to do what Richard Nixon couldn’t: indict a media organization. . . . Charging Julian Assange with ‘conspiracy to commit espionage’ would effectively be setting a precedent with a charge that more accurately could be characterized as ‘conspiracy to commit journalism‘”

Key Democratic Senators such as Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein have publicly called for Assange’s prosecution for espionage (which in the case of both Assange and Manning may still carry a death sentence).

A group of journalists including Jeremy Scahill, Amy Goodman, Glenn Greenwald, and Kevin Gosztola joined WikiLeaks and their counsel, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), insuing the federal government over the extreme secrecy in the trial of Bradley Manning. CCR asked the court “to grant the public and press access to the government’s motion papers, the court’s own orders, and transcripts of proceedings, none of which have been made public to date.” CCR argues that the trial has been “even less transparent than the controversial military commission proceedings ongoing at Guantánamo Bay.”

Considering that any vaguely named combatant or anyone standing near said “combatant” can be blown up by the president without due process, it does seem like something we should probably guard against, right? Now, similar to the ‘Do Not Call’ and ‘Do Not Track’ lists, a ‘Do Not Kill‘ petition has been started to counter the president’s ‘Kill List’. People are now (only half-mockingly) begging the government not to kill them.

via Salon:

Could Obama order the targeted killing of an American citizen, in a country with which the United States was not at war, in secret and without the benefit of a trial? The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel prepared a lengthy memo justifying that extraordinary step, asserting thatwhile the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process applied, it could be satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch. Despite an executive order banning assassinations, a federal law against murder, protections in the Bill of Rights and various strictures of the international laws of war”

Attorney General Eric Holder then publicly claimed: “‘Due process’ and ‘judicial process’ are not one and the same, particularly when it comes to national security. The Constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process.” Both of those episodes sparked controversy, because of how radical of a claim it is.

John Brennan, the president’s counter-terrorism adviser, said in a recent speech that not a single non-combatant had been killed in a year of drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And today’s Times article quoted a senior administration official who said that civilian deaths were in the “single digits.”
But it turns out that even this hey-it’s-better-than-carpet-bombing justification is rather flimsy. The Times article says “Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties …It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.” This was the exact language used by George Zimmerman in his 911 call about Travyon Martin (“it looks like he’s up to no good”), classifying all males in the vicinity of suspected Terrorists in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia — including teenagers — as “militants” and “combatants,” and deeming them fair game to be killed solely by virtue of their physical location, gender and age.

And of course, President Obama is creating a great recruiting tool for anti-American fundamentalist forces.

“These attacks are making people say, ‘We believe now that al-Qaeda is on the right side,’ ” said businessman Salim al-Barakani, adding that his two brothers — one a teacher, the other a cellphone repairman — were killed in a U.S. strike in March.

Who would have guessed that continually dropping bombs on a country using remote-controlled sky robots and killing their civilians would breed hatred and a desire to attack back? Not only do these constant Obama attacks extinguish the lives of innocent people, but they also exacerbate the very threat they are ostensibly designed to address.

Of course, if the president continues to utilize authoritarian methods of torture, profiling, surveillance, illegal wiretapping, terroristic war tactics,and  robotic death-from-the-sky, surely the conservatives will call him out on this big government tyranny! What’s that? They’re calling him a socialist, leftist, a Maoist, and a Muslim? And the left supports his Big Brother extremism as well? As the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer asked: “Dems who think executive process is due process: Where were they when Bush‬ needed help with warrantless wiretapping?” or his indefinite detention scheme? Dianne Feinstein is more worried about stopping leaks and punishing whistleblowers than investigating the war crimes in the first place?

And WIRED gives us even more right-wing Nixonian extremism coming from the Obama White House:

The Obama administration is set to argue to a federal appeals court Friday that the government may breach, with impunity, domestic spying laws adopted in the wake of President Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

The case tests whether Americans may seek recourse or monetary damages when a sitting U.S. president bypasses Congress’s ban on warrantless spying on Americans — in this instance when President George W. Bush authorized his secret, warrantless domestic spying program in the aftermath of the September 2001 terror attacks. A federal judge found in 2010 that two American lawyers’ telephone conversations with their clients in Saudi Arabia in 2004 were siphoned to the National Security Agency without warrants. The allegations were initially based on a classified document the government accidentally mailed to the former al-Haramain Islamic Foundation lawyers.

The document was later declared a state secret, removed from the long-running lawsuit and has never been made public. With that document ruled out as evidence, the lawyers instead cited a bevy of circumstantial evidence that a judge found showed the government illegally wiretapped the lawyers as they spoke on U.S. soil to Saudi Arabia.

Against the government’s objections, San Francisco U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker awarded the two lawyers — Wendell Belew and Asim Ghafoor — $20,400 each in damages and their legal counsel $2.5 million in costs. It marked the first time anyone had prevailed in a lawsuit challenging Bush’s so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program.

The domestic spying program was first disclosed by The New York Times in December 2005, and the government subsequently admitted that the the National Security Agency was eavesdropping on Americans’ telephone calls without warrants if the government believed the person on the other line was overseas and associated with terrorism. Further news investigations found that the government had secretly enlisted the help of major U.S. telecoms, including AT&T, to spy on Americans’ phone and internet communications without getting warrants as required by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Parts of the surveillance program were so egregious that the upper echelon of the Justice Department, including then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, threatened to resign en masse if it wasn’t changed.

Congress, with the vote of President Barack Obama — who was an Illinois senator at the time — subsequently legalized much of the warrantless spying in the summer of 2008. The legislation also provided the nation’s telecommunication companies immunity from lawsuits accusing them of being complicit with the government’s warrantless wiretapping.

The government, however, claims said it cannot be held liable under the spying law, and that Congress has not waived sovereign immunity — meaning the government has not consented to being sued for breaching its own laws.

And via EFF:

In a disappointing ruling for government transparency advocates, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held the government could keep secret “cables describing waterboarding; a photograph of a detainee, Abu Zubaydah, taken around the time that he was subjected to the ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’; and a short phrase that appears in several Justice Department memos referring to a ‘source of authority.’” This suit came on the heels of revelations that tapes allegedly showing waterboarding were destroyed by a CIA officer. The court accepted the government’s argument that waterboarding was an “intelligence method” and therefore exempt from disclose. The Obama administration argued in favor of this interpretation despite previously banning waterboarding as torture. As the ACLU’s Alexander Abdo wrote, the ruling means “the CIA can effectively decide for itself what Americans are allowed to learn about the torture committed in their name.”

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites when looking for “signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.”

The list was posted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act, before suing to obtain the release of the documents. The documents were part of the department’s 2011 ’Analyst’s Desktop Binder‘ used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify ‘media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities’.

I present them all here in the hopes of generating more blog traffic and wasting expensive government resources. It is especially entertaining to know that one can get on Intelligence Agency radar with sentences such as “Pirates plot smart power pork cloud exposure, help aid meth lab explosion body scanner wave!”

~The Stranger
thestranger@earthling.net

Assassination, attack, domestic security, drill, exercise, cops, law enforcement, authorities, disaster assistance, disaster management, DNDO, domestic nuclear detection office, national preparedness, mitigation, prevention, response, recovery, dirty bomb, domestic nuclear detection, emergency management, emergency response, first responder, homeland security, DHS, maritime domain awareness, MDA, initiative, militia, shooting, shots fired, evacuation, deaths, hostage, explosion, explosive, police, team, DMAT, organized crime, gang, gangs, national security, state of emergency, security, breach, threat, standoff, threat, standoff, SWAT, screening, lockdown, bomb, bomb squad, bomb threat, crash, looting, riot, emergency landing, pipe bomb, incident, facility, hazmat, nuclear, chemical spill, suspicious package, suspicious device, toxic, national laboratory, nuclear facility, nuclear threat, plume, cloud, radiation, radioactive, leak, biological infection, biological event, chemical, chemical burn, biological, hazardous, hazardous material incident, industrial spill, infection, powder, white powder, gas, spillover, anthrax, blister agent, chemical agent, exposure, burn, nerve agent, ricin, sarin, North Korea, outbreak, contamination, exposure, virus, evacuation, bacteria, recall, ebola, food poisoning, foot and mouth, FMD, H5N1, Avian, flu, salmonella, small pox, smallpox, plague, human to human, human to animal, influenza, Center for Disease Control, CDC, Drug Administration, FDA, Public Health, agro terror, tuberculosis, TB, agriculture, listeria, symptoms, mutation, resistant, antiviral, wave, pandemic, infection, waterborne, airborne, sick, swine, pork, strain, Tamiflu, World Health Organization, WHO, quarantine, H1N1, vaccine, epidemic, Norvo virus, viral hemorrhagic fever, E. Coli, E Coli, infrastructure security, airport, CIKR, Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources, collapse, AMTRAK, computer infrastructure, communications infrastructure, telecommunications, critical infrastructure, national infrastructure, Metro, WMATA, airplane, chemical fire, BART, MARTA, Port Authority, NBIC, National Biosurveillance Integration Center, transportation security, grid, power, smart, body scanner, electric, failure, outage, black out, blackout, black-out, brown out, brownout, brown-out, port, dock, bridge, cancelled, delays, service disruption, power lines, drug cartel, violence, drug, narcotics, cocaine, marijuana, heroin, border, Mexico, cartel, southwest, Juarez, Sinaloa, Tijuana, Torreon, Yuma, Tuscon, decapitated, US Consulate, U.S. Consulate, consular, El Paso, Fort Hancock, San Diego, Ciudad Juarez, Nogales, Sonora, Colombia, Mara salvatrucha, MS13, MS-13, drug war, Mexican army, methamphetamine, Cartel de Golfo, Gulf Cartel, La Familia, Reynosa, Nuevo Leon, narcos, narco banners, Los Zetas, shootout, execution, gunfight, trafficking, kidnap, Calderon, Reyosa, Bust, Tamaulipas, meth lab, drug trade, illegal immigrants, smuggling, smugglers, Matamoros, Michaocana, Guzman, Arellano-Felix, Beltran-Leyva, Barrio Azteca, artistic assassins, Mexicles, New Federation, terrorism, Al Qaeda, terror, attack, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, agro, environmental terrorist, eco terrorism, eco-terrorism, ecoterrorism, conventional weapon, target, weapons grade, dirty bomb, enriched, nuclear, chemical weapon, biological weapon, ammonium nitrate, improvised explosive device, IED, Abu Sayyaf, Hamas, FARC, Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia, IRA, Irish Republican Army, ERA, Euskadi ta Askatasuna, Basque Separatists, Hezbollah, Tamil Tigers, PLF, Palestine Liberation Front, PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization, car bomb, jihad, Taliban, weapons cache, suicide bomber, suicide attack, suspicious substance, AQAP, Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula, AQIM, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, TTP, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, Yemen, pirates, extremism, Solamia, Nigeria, radicals, Al-Shabaab, home grown, homegrown, home-grown, plot, nationalist, recruitment, fundamentalism, Islamist, ice, emergency, hurricane, tornado, twister, tsunami, earthquake, tremor, flood, storm, crest, temblor, extreme weather, forest fire, brush fire, stranded, stuck, help, hail, wildfire, wild fire, Tsunami Warning Center, Emergency Broadcast System, magnitude, avalanche, typhoon, shelter-in-place, disaster, snow, blizzard, sleet, mudslide, mud slide, erosion, power outage, warning, watch, lightning, lightening, aid, closure, interstate, burst, cyber security, botnet, DDOS, dedicated denial of service, denial of service, malware, trojan, keylogger, Cyber Command, 2600, spammer, phishing, rootkit, phreaking, cain and abel, brute force, brute forcing, MySQL injection, cyber attack, cyberattack, cyber terror, cyberterror, hacker, china, conficker, worm, scammers, social media

• Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Coast Guard (USCG)
• Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• Border Patrol
• Secret Service (USSS)
• National Operations Center (NOC)
• Homeland Defense
• Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Agent
• Task Force
• Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
• Fusion Center
• Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
• Secure Border Initiative (SBI)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)
• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)
• Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS)
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• Air Marshal
• Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
• National Guard
• Red Cross
• United Nations (UN)

Domestic Security

• Assassination
• Attack
• Domestic security
• Drill
• Exercise
• Cops
• Law enforcement
• Authorities
• Disaster assistance
• Disaster management
• DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office)
• National preparedness
• Mitigation
• Prevention
• Response
• Recovery
• Dirty Bomb
• Domestic nuclear detection
• Emergency management
• Emergency response
• First responder
• Homeland security
• Maritime domain awareness (MDA)
• National preparedness initiative
• Militia
• Shooting
• Shots fired
• Evacuation
• Deaths
• Hostage
• Explosion (explosive)
• Police
• Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT)
• Organized crime
• Gangs
• National security
• State of emergency
• Security
• Breach
• Threat
• Standoff
• SWAT
• Screening
• Lockdown
• Bomb (squad or threat)
• Crash
• Looting
• Riot
• Emergency Landing
• Pipe bomb
• Incident
• Facility

HAZMAT & Nuclear

• Hazmat
• Nuclear
• Chemical Spill
• Suspicious package/device
• Toxic
• National laboratory
• Nuclear facility
• Nuclear threat
• Cloud
• Plume
• Radiation
• Radioactive
• Leak
• Biological infection (or event)
• Chemical
• Chemical burn
• Biological
• Epidemic
• Hazardous
• Hazardous material incident
• Industrial spill
• Infection
• Powder (white)
• Gas
• Spillover
• Anthrax
• Blister agent
• Exposure
• Burn
• Nerve agent
• Ricin
• Sarin
• North Korea

Health Concern + H1N1

• Outbreak
• Contamination
• Exposure
• Virus
• Evacuation
• Bacteria
• Recall
• Ebola
• Food Poisoning
• Foot and Mouth (FMD)
• H5N1
• Avian
• Flu
• Salmonella
• Small Pox
• Plague
• Human to human
• Human to ANIMAL
• Influenza
• Center for Disease Control (CDC)
• Drug Administration (FDA)
• Public Health
• Toxic
• Agro Terror
• Tuberculosis (TB)
• Agriculture
• Listeria
• Symptoms
• Mutation
• Resistant
• Antiviral
• Wave
• Pandemic
• Infection
• Water/air borne
• Sick
• Swine
• Pork
• Strain
• Quarantine
• H1N1
• Vaccine
• Tamiflu
• Norvo Virus
• Epidemic
• World Health Organization (WHO and components)
• Viral Hemorrhagic Fever
• E. Coli

Infrastructure Security

• Infrastructure security
• Airport
• CIKR (Critical Infrastructure & Key Resources)
• AMTRAK
• Collapse
• Computer infrastructure
• Communications infrastructure
• Telecommunications
• Critical infrastructure
• National infrastructure
• Metro
• WMATA
• Airplane (and derivatives)
• Chemical fire
• Subway
• BART
• MARTA
• Port Authority
• NBIC (National Biosurveillance Integration Center)
• Transportation security
• Grid
• Power
• Smart
• Body scanner
• Electric
• Failure or outage
• Black out
• Brown out
• Port
• Dock
• Bridge
• Canceled
• Delays
• Service disruption
• Power lines

Southwest Border Violence

• Drug cartel
• Violence
• Gang
• Drug
• Narcotics
• Cocaine
• Marijuana
• Heroin
• Border
• Mexico
• Cartel
• Southwest
• Juarez
• Sinaloa
• Tijuana
• Torreon
• Yuma
• Tucson
• Decapitated
• U.S. Consulate
• Consular
• El Paso
• Fort Hancock
• San Diego
• Ciudad Juarez
• Nogales
• Sonora
• Colombia
• Mara salvatrucha
• MS13 or MS-13
• Drug war
• Mexican army
• Methamphetamine
• Cartel de Golfo
• Gulf Cartel
• La Familia
• Reynose
• Nuevo Leon
• Narcos
• Narco banners (Spanish equivalents)
• Los Zetas
• Shootout
• Execution
• Gunfight
• Trafficking
• Kidnap
• Calderon
• Reyosa
• Bust
• Tamaulipas
• Meth Lab
• Drug trade
• Illegal immigrants
• Smuggling (smugglers)
• Matamoros
• Michoacana
• Guzman
• Arellano-Felix
• Beltran-Leyva
• Barrio Azteca
• Artistics Assassins
• Mexicles
• New Federation

Terrorism

• Terrorism
• Al Queda (all spellings)
• Terror
• Attack
• Iraq
• Afghanistan
• Iran
• Pakistan
• Agro
• Environmental terrorist
• Eco terrorism
• Conventional weapon
• Target
• Weapons grade
• Dirty bomb
• Enriched
• Nuclear
• Chemical weapon
• Biological weapon
• Ammonium nitrate
• Improvised explosive device
• IED (Improvised Explosive Device)
• Abu Sayyaf
• Hamas
• FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces Colombia)
• IRA (Irish Republican Army)
• ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)
• Basque Separatists
• Hezbollah
• Tamil Tiger
• PLF (Palestine Liberation Front)
• PLO (Palestine Libration Organization)
• Car bomb
• Jihad
• Taliban
• Weapons cache
• Suicide bomber
• Suicide attack
• Suspicious substance
• AQAP (Al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula)
• AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb)
• TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan)
• Yemen
• Pirates
• Extremism
• Somalia
• Nigeria
• Radicals
• Al-Shabaab
• Home grown
• Plot
• Nationalist
• Recruitment
• Fundamentalism
• Islamist

Weather/Disaster/Emergency

• Emergency
• Hurricane
• Tornado
• Twister
• Tsunami
• Earthquake
• Tremor
• Flood
• Storm
• Crest
• Temblor
• Extreme weather
• Forest fire
• Brush fire
• Ice
• Stranded/Stuck
• Help
• Hail
• Wildfire
• Tsunami Warning Center
• Magnitude
• Avalanche
• Typhoon
• Shelter-in-place
• Disaster
• Snow
• Blizzard
• Sleet
• Mud slide or Mudslide
• Erosion
• Power outage
• Brown out
• Warning
• Watch
• Lightening
• Aid
• Relief
• Closure
• Interstate
• Burst
• Emergency Broadcast System

Cyber Security

• Cyber security
• Botnet
• DDOS (dedicated denial of service)
• Denial of service
• Malware
• Virus
• Trojan
• Keylogger
• Cyber Command
• 2600
• Spammer
• Phishing
• Rootkit
• Phreaking
• Cain and abel
• Brute forcing
• Mysql injection
• Cyber attack
• Cyber terror
• Hacker
• China
• Conficker
• Worm
• Scammers
• Social media

One is from a Police Officer who commented on the Back to School Safety Tips post. He provides some valuable insights and information, as well as a great link:

Thank you for your safety posting. As a parent and police officer, I wanted to inform you and your readers with a few Back to School Safety Resources
Children going back to school this year is a serious concern to all parents and educators. With more than 50% of all students being bullied at one time or another, more than 500,000 internet predators surfing the web at any given time, seeking who’s profile they can attach a school or address to, parents must become more proactive in teaching their children how to be safe more than ever. Because of this, Carrington Books have provided a variety of free books and other online materials at: http://www.SafetyForSchool.com to help teachers and parents to teach their students how to say yes to safety.
The Student Safety Tips series at that site was written by an award winning police officer and is filled with things that students and their parent can do to increase the students overall opportunity to stay safe. They martial will be available online for free during the entire month of September 2011.
Administrators and Educators are encouraged to help provide each of their parents with information concerning these much needed resources.

The other is from a friend of mine at ICE (which stands for “In Case of Emergency”) concerning “September is National Preparedness Month” post yesterday:

Just a quick note to let safety folks know that ICE4SAFETY has compiled a “Twitter Load” of prep tips on our Twitter Feed at ice4safety as well as informative articles and Prep Tip Posters on the ICE4SAFETY Blog – We also feature some of our favorite safetyguy’s blog articles too…. If you are looking for a National Preparedness Month Safety Icon….we have that too on the mainpage at www.ice4safety.com  All are welcome to participate/contribute.  This is the 7th year we’ve participated in NPM since ASSE acknowledged ICE in 2005.  Thanks.

Check out the links that they provide as there is a lot of really good information and resources available there.

Being prepared not only makes sense, it is a duty for each one of us. When an emergency strikes responders cannot help everyone and resources are stretched to the max. Being prepared allows official responders focus their time, energy and resources on the most needy (handicapped, wounded, elderly, children, etc…).

Being prepared means being educated and it means having emergency supplies on-hand.

What are the supplies you’ll need?

Food
Food means having emergency rations. This can be freeze dried food, energy bars, canned goods and any other type of non-perishable food. Remember, however, not to tap into them until you’ve exhausted all the food in your fridge and freezer, in that order. Work your way through the food in the fridge first, don’t even open the freezer until the food in the fridge is used up. Then, once you do open the freezer, work through the food as it thaws (eat up stuff that is thawed first and allow stuff that is partially or completely frozen to remain in the freezer until it has thawed too). Then and only then, should you tap into the emergency rations. Emergency Smartpacks that are endorsed by the Red Cross are a way to go. Have several of these available for each person in your household. One of the advantages of these type of emergency packs are that you can take them with you if you have to leave or are evacuated.

Water
You should have several 5 gallon containers of water stored for emergency. You need one gallon per person, per day. As soon as the power goes out, fill up the bathtub. If water does run low after a while remember that you can use the clean drinking water in the toilet tank as well as in the water heater if you have to.

Source of heat

Wood stoves are the best source of heat in emergencies. Beware of using kerosene heaters and other types of heaters that might give off CO. You should have emergency blankets available. The silver aluminized blankets are extremely small to store and very effective in “reflecting” the body heat back. Use it in conjunction with other blankets for maximum warmth.

Emergency Radio
A battery powered emergency radio will keep you informed of shelters, emergency posts, news, etc… Remember to have enough batteries to keep it functioning as long as possible. Use the radio sparingly, just to check news and information, to maximize battery use.

Flashlights and lightsticks
One of the best advances in technology in the past few years has been the LED light. Because it uses so little energy, the batteries in the flashlights last 25 + longer than conventional bulbs. Have a few LED Flashlights on hand as well as several spare batteries and you should be good to go for quite a long time. Lightsticks are also a must have. There are several different types available, some which will burn up to 12 hours. Simply snap and shake and you’ve got a safe source of light, no matter what the conditions. They even work underwater. They will store for a very long time and will be ready for use when you need them.

First Aid supplies
In case of emergency, you’ll need more than just a basic first aid kit. A major emergency medical kit would be a good investment to keep on hand. Having first aid certification is also a good idea. If you don’t have it, however, most kits include a basic manual to walk you through the basics of what you’ll need to know for most emergencies medical issues.

Special circumstances also warrant special supplies. If, for example you’ve got someone who has medical needs that require power, you should probably invest in a good quality generator and plenty of fuel to keep their equipment running when the power is lost.

For more help in being prepared, be educated. The Red Cross has put out a great 4 page booklet that you can download for free that will help you be ready for any and all emergencies.

We all hope and pray for a long and safe life with no major catastrophe and emergencies. The reality is, however, that doodoo happens sometimes. Being prepared and knowing what to do when an emergency hits can make all the difference, even possibly between life and death.

by William O. Jenkins
Paperback, 47 pages, 2010, $25.00
ISBN: 1437942156

This congressional briefing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) efforts to assess national preparedness examines: (1) the usefulness and limitations of the national preparedness capabilities data that have been collected to date through selected evaluation efforts as described by FEMA; and (2) the extent to which FEMA has made progress in its national preparedness capability assessment efforts since a previous report in April 2009. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find publication.

Purchase this print-on-demand publication for $25.00:

America’s Islamist Fifth Column

By Deborah Weiss

December 16, 2009

Region: Middle East

The Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamist organization which originated in Egypt, has tentacles that reach around the globe. Its agenda is to establish worldwide sharia (Islamic) law. Because its tactics are largely non-violent and incremental, it operates under the radar and often goes unnoticed. Its plans are long term, but its adherents are patient. And make no mistake about it, it’s making inroads.

Now, evidence has surfaced demonstrating that the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is at the nucleus of Muslim Brotherhood front activity in the United States. A recently published book titled, “Muslim Mafia”, written by former investigator and counterterrorism expert David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry (author of “Infiltration”,) reveals the shocking details of the undercover operation conducted by Gaubatz’s son.

After having assumed the role of an Islamic convert and winning the confidence of CAIR’s leadership, twenty-nine year old Chris Gaubatz aka David Marshall attained an internship at CAIR’s national headquarters where he gained access to private meetings and top secret records. He was assigned to shred boxes of documents, but instead brought them home for further examination. There, he discovered persuasive evidence that CAIR, ISNA and NAIT are part of the Muslim Brotherhood network.

Drawn from thousands of memos, emails and faxes, Muslim Mafia demonstrates that CAIR:

• supports organizations with terrorist ties (indeed the Justice Department designated CAIR, ISNA and NAIT as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation trial, where several defendants were found guilty of funneling money to Hamas);

• overtly claims to cooperate with the FBI, but covertly advises Muslims to remain silent when questioned, thus obstructing investigations;

• builds unilateral “bridges” to law enforcement, the interfaith community and political circles in order to obtain information and cement relationships to provide itself with credence and possibly shield itself from investigation;

• is funded by foreign donors; and

• lobbies congress in possible violation to its IRS tax-exempt status and other US laws.

CAIR’s goals are:

via American Security Council Foundation (ASCF) : Commentary Posts.