From that foaming Right-Wing news organ, The Los Angeles Times:

Cost, need questioned in $433-million smallpox drug deal

A company controlled by a longtime political donor gets a no-bid contract to supply an experimental remedy for a threat that may not exist.

By David Willman, Los Angeles Times

November 13, 2011

Reporting from Washington—

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

Mr Obama and his Administration — corrupt to the core?

Imagine that.

I am shocked. Shocked, I tell you! I had clearly envisioned nothing more than simple, honest, courageous, trustworthy Hope and Change.

With this exception: Mr Obama Hoped that the Change he brought to DC would help to line his personal pockets and those of his philosophical minions.

I suspect (though I could immediately be proven wrong) that Mr Willman will not be paraded “front and center” on Letterman, on the Rosie Show, on OWN, on CNN, on MSNBC, on The View, even on Wolf Blitzer. On NBC, ABC, CBS.

That said: you think that Mr Obama is any different from, say, Joseph McCarthy?

I’ll submit this: Joe McCarthy did this nation a favor. Infinitely more than Mr Obama has and ever will.

BZ

P.S.
KGB records proved: McCarthy was correct. Go here and here and here and here.

Because when you do, the Leftists are revealed for the ignorant, evil and violent barbarians they are.

All OCCUPY camps should be LEFZs, or “Law Enforcement Free Zones,” in my opinion. It’s essentially what they want; it’s what they truly should receive.

First, because the local governments, mayors, city councils, county supervisors and other aligned boards don’t have the courage to delineate the OCCUPY camps as illegal, profane, unhealthy and in most cases, outright criminal and lawless.

In that regard, many local law enforcement heads have been told to stay away, to stand down. To allow whatever happens, to occur.

And in response, I say to my fellow law enforcement officers: do it. Step away. I know that it grates against every fiber of your being, but it will enable you to not only achieve a lengthier career, but reveal your upper echelons for the cowardly quislings they truly are.

Ensure that your fellow officers are safe. Ensure that your own family is safe. But, where the OCCUPY camps are concerned, carry out the orders that your Leftist government delineates — to the letter.

Let the OCCUPY camps live in their own excrement, squalor, bile and violence.

From FoxNews.com:

A rash of reports of sexual assaults at Occupy Wall Street protests across the country has both police and activists raising red flags.

Nearly a half-dozen assaults have been reported at Occupy camps, including three at the New York City protests, which have prompted protesters to set up a “women only” tent in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to provide a safe haven.

“The concern would be the rapes and attacks that aren’t reported,” said Sgt. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, a police union in New York City. “We have no way of really knowing. If you have three or five crimes reported, you really don’t know if it’s eight or 10 that happened.”

.

A murder occurred in an Oakland camp, directly adjacent City Hall.

Conclusion? In general, the OCCUPY camps are festering cesspools of violence and disease, displaying the worst of unsanitary conditions and indifference — with the overarching thought that Someone Else will take care of these issues and is “responsible.” Not themselves.

But here’s the true kicker. Which made me wonder when I actually stepped into the Alien Vortex Of Insanity:

-As a result, Oakland PD is “pleading” with the OCCUPY protesters to pack up and leave.

OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Both Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and the Oakland police officers’ union have again called on Occupy Oakland protesters to leave Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall, where they have had an encampment for a month.

They ASK these people.

Yes, Oakland is actually that stupid.

Once again, to my Law Enforcement Brothers and Sisters:

STOP pushing against the tide.

Simply give your bosses, managers and governmental managers what they want.

Step aside.

With two very important caveats:

• Cover your fellow officers and BE SAFE, plus
• Collect your paycheck.

You have to be smarter than your so-called “superiors.”

BZ

11-11-11.

It doesn’t get any more significant or clear than now. Today will be the only time in the history of Veterans’ Day that this combination of numbers will ever occur.

Veterans’ Day sources from World War I, where the armistice was signed and major hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day on the 11th month of 1918.

The history of Veterans’ Day is here.

God bless each and every American who served in our Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard — past and present.

I don’t fall into that category. I am only a civilian cop, not a veteran. I must be clear.

Our military veterans have kept, to date, our nation — the greatest experiment in the history of this planet — free, powerful and vital.

We have an obligation, you and me.

An obligation to ensure that their lives, their expenditures —

— were not made in vain.

BZ

And with that, we discover that the remains of some of our finest service personnel — our American Soldiers — have been dishonored, abused, lost and — worse yet — possibly even dumped in a landfill.

From The Washington Post:

Remains of war dead dumped in landfill

By Craig Whitlockand Greg Jaffe, Wednesday, November 9, 3:19 PM

The Dover Air Force Base mortuary for years disposed of some dead troops’ body parts by burning them and dumping the ashes in a Virginia landfill, a practice that officials have since abandoned in favor of burying the remains at sea.

The Dover mortuary, which is the main point of entry for America’s war dead, sent remains to the landfill from 2003 until 2008, according to Air Force officials. The manner of disposal was typically withheld from the relatives of fallen service members. The disclosure comes in the aftermath of several federal investigations into

Federal investigators said Tuesday that they had uncovered “gross mismanagement” at the Dover Air Force Base mortuary that cares for America’s war dead after whistleblowers reported horror stories of lost body parts, shoddy inventory controls and lax supervision.

The Air Force admitted that the Dover mortuary misplaced a dead soldier’s ankle and another set of remains that had been stored in a plastic bag. Employees also sawed off the damaged arm bone of a Marine so he could fit in his uniform and coffin — but did not tell his family.

Military officials said the incidents resulted from the strain of handling thousands of dead bodies, some with gruesome injuries that made it difficult to prepare remains for burial.

But the sloppy handling of troops’ remains at Dover painfully undercut the military’s commitment to treat war dead with the utmost honor. “There is nothing more sacred, there is nothing that is a more profound obligation than treating our fallen with reverence, dignity and respect,”

The two camps that actively fight for Americans:

• 1. The military soldier, and
• 2. The law enforcement officer.

Because there are sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. And I am PROUD to still be a SHEEPDOG after 40+ years in service. In my department, I am a Silverback.

This is the 236th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps.

But, under its current administration and perhaps even that of the one before — and even stepping back to the 60s and 70s — the American Soldier, one of the most pure of essence — has been thrown into situations from which they cannot escape or even overcome. Politics frequently trumps assignment and logic.

And still:

We find young American males who wish to shore up and literally, physically, fight for their country.

I’ve got to stop writing now. The tears are cascading down my cheeks.

Semper Fidelis.

“Always faithful.”

God bless all who served and who serve now. Military and civilian.

Where would we be without you?

BZ

From InfoWars.com:

Oil at $300 or $500 per Barrel If Israel Attacks Iran

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
November 8, 2011

Brent crude futures are up $1.17 a barrel to $115.73 on continued word that Israel may go it alone and bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. It is their highest level in nearly two months.

Read further, particularly regarding the Strait of Hormuz:

But it would be nothing compared to the cost if Israel attacks. In 2006, as Israel and the U.S. began to rattle sabers over Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards deployed bottom-tethered mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to a defector.

“The plan is to stop trade,” the source told Newsmax. One third of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The deployment was mentioned in a plan produced by the Strategic Studies Center of the Iranian Navy in 2005. It also called for a single operational headquarters integrated with Revolutionary Guards missile units, strike aircraft, surface and underwater naval vessels, Chinese-supplied C-801 and C-802 anti-shipping missiles, mines, and coastal artillery, according to the intelligence office of the Ministry of Defense in Iran.

Revolutionary Guards missile units have identified “more than 100 targets, including Saudi oil production and oil export centers,” the defector said. “They have more than 45 to 50 Shahab-3 and Shahab-4 missiles ready for shooting” against those targets and against Israel, he added.

It’s no secret that Iranian missiles can strike Israel. From GlobalPost.com:

The Tehran Times quoted Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force, as saying: “The range of our missiles has been designed based on American bases in the region as well as the Zionist regime.”

He added that if provoked, “We can hit [Israel] from Damghan or Semnan with our missiles.”

And: “America has made things easier for us by stationing its garrisons and camps in neighboring countries… We can attack all American facilities in the region by these missiles.”

The Israeli border is 745 miles from Iran and U.S. bases in Afghanistan are within their 1,242 mile range, but not Europe. Hajizadeh said Iran had the technological capability to build longer-range ballistic missiles but had chosen not to.

Specifically, the U.S. has bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a presence in Bahrain and Qatar and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.

That said, continuing from InfoWars.com:

On November 1, a group of 13 generals and admirals produced a report warning that a “sustained disruption” of oil “would be devastating – crippling our very freedom of movement.” The report, entitled “Ensuring America’s Freedom of Movement: A National Security Imperative to Reduce U.S. Oil Dependence,” was sponsored by a San Francisco-based Energy Foundation.

“Under a worst-case scenario 30-day closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the analysis finds that the U.S. would lose nearly $75 billion in GDP,” reports National Defense Magazine.

Last week, the Rapidan Group predicted oil prices over $175 per barrel if Iran is attacked. According to a survey conducted by the group of oil industry specialists, oil prices would rise on average by 23% in the first hours of the attack.

Arnaud de Borchgrave, writing for the UPI, suggests the price of oil would go much higher. “One bomb on Iran and oil prices could shoot up to $300 or even $500 a barrel,” he writes. “The Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iran, is the world’s most important oil chokepoint with a daily oil flow of 16 million barrels, roughly 33 percent of all seaborne traded oil, or 17 percent of oil traded worldwide.”

“While many experts in the market believe that a war on Iran would send oil prices soaring high between, at least, $200 and $300 for each barrel, the most optimistic analysis of the impact on oil markets of an Israeli attack on Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz said oil prices could spike by as much as $175/bbl,” reports the Fars News Agency, Iran’s official news outlet.

Gird thy loins, ladies and gentlemen. Our strategic oil reserves have already been tapped numerous times, our refineries need attention and, of course, the Leftists of our nation have consistently refused to allow us to build and create further refinery capacity, electrical generation stations, or allow us the capability to further tap the assets laying beneath our very feet.

Lack of real “energy independence” — the ability to tap our own abundant sources? Purposely curtailed by Leftists, Demorats and the Religious Left?

That policy is soon to bite us right in our national ass.

BZ