Friday, November 2, 2012
President Photo-Op Goes AWOL as Lower Manhattan and Staten Island Descend Into Chaos
VERBATIM
Through Gothamist, via Ace and Hot Air, we get a picture of a Manhattan below 38th Street that is nearing the onset of a humanitarian disaster. Jonathan Maimon made a 5-hour, 12-mile run through some of the devastated areas and what he saw is... well, unbelievable.
1) Virtually every retailer, restaurant and grocery store south of 38th street is CLOSED. This is in an area covering 8 square miles. I only observed a handful of bodegas in Soho and the East Village, along with Ben’s Pizza on W3rd and MacDougal serving customers. Whole Foods Union Square had a sign reading “because there is no electricity, we cannot open.” There is no food, other than what you have in your refrigerator.Where's President Photo-Op and his Bomber Jacket, I mean, besides his jetting to his usual Vegas fundraisers and speechifying at campaign stops while hawking a Republican "War on Women"?
2) To that point, there are close to 400,000 people living below 38th street without power. The mayor earlier said it could be 3 days without power; some Con Ed guys I spoke with in the East Village think it could be longer. Nobody knows.
3) No working traffic lights in this region (drivers are generally being cautious and appropriately yielding to pedestrians). Apartment stairwells are pitch black. High rises have no elevator access...
5) There is no running water or flushing toilets for people living in the Jacob Riis Houses and surrounding NYCHA buildings on the Lower East Side. In my estimate, this is roughly 20,000 people. One family I spoke with is packing their bags and moving to Brooklyn until services are restored. But it did not appear that all residents were evacuating, even as their toilets did not flush.
6) I did not witness a single Red Cross Truck or FEMA Vehicle or in lower Manhattan. Recall the assistance these agencies provided after 9/11 - this is NOT HAPPENING. There are bound to be hundreds of elderly people, rich and poor, who live on the upper floors of buildings with elevators that are now disabled. IF POWER IS NOT RESTORED, THIS WILL MOVE FROM BEING AN ECONOMIC DISASTER TO A HUMANITARIAN DISASTER.
Where's Mayor Bloomturd, aside from moving giant generators into Central Park to power the NYC Marathon, hosting the Brooklyn Nets NBA game, and banning 16-oz. colas, that is?
The real "War on Women" (and children, and the elderly, and the infirm) is occurring in the Northeast, as President Training Wheels parties on, oblivious to the unfolding catastrophe as he was to the disaster in Benghazi.
Latest Benghazi Bombshells Rock Scandal
Several new details are emerging from the Benghazi scandal that are
sure to blow the entire scandal wide open. Just within the past 48
hours new revelations have come to light in the ongoing investigation.
When we visited on Oct. 26 to prepare a story for Dubai based Al Aan TV, we found not only Stevens’ personal copy of the Aug. 6 New Yorker, lying on remnants of the bed in the safe room where Stevens spent his final hours, but several ash-strewn documents beneath rubble in the looted Tactical Operations Center, one of the four main buildings of the partially destroyed compound. Some of the documents — such as an email from Stevens to his political officer in Benghazi and a flight itinerary sent to Sean Smith, a U.S. diplomat slain in the attack — are clearly marked as State Department correspondence. Others are unsigned printouts of messages to local and national Libyan authorities. The two unsigned draft letters are both dated Sept. 11 and express strong fears about the security situation at the compound on what would turn out to be a tragic day. They also indicate that Stevens and his team had officially requested additional security at the Benghazi compound for his visit — and that they apparently did not feel it was being provided.Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reported on a newly discovered cable indicating that the diplomatic post in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” concerned about local Al Qaeda training camps. She writes,
One letter, written on Sept. 11 and addressed to Mohamed Obeidi, the head of the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ office in Benghazi, reads: “Finally, early this morning at 0643, September 11, 2012, one of our diligent guards made a troubling report. Near our main gate, a member of the police force was seen in the upper level of a building across from our compound. It is reported that this person was photographing the inside of the U.S. special mission and furthermore that this person was part of the police unit sent to protect the mission. The police car stationed where this event occurred was number 322.”
According to a review of the cable addressed to the Office of the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Emergency Action Committee was also briefed “on the location of approximately ten Islamist militias and AQ training camps within Benghazi … these groups ran the spectrum from Islamist militias, such as the QRF Brigade and Ansar al-Sharia, to ‘Takfirist thugs.’” Each U.S. mission has a so-called Emergency Action Committee that is responsible for security measures and emergency planning.
More @ Freedom Outpost
HAUNTING MEMORIES OF BRAVE COMRADES
By J. Stryker Meyer
When I die, if the Lord gives me a moment to reflect before I breathe my
last breath, my first thoughts will be not of my loved ones, nor my
children.
I'll reflect on and thank God for Sau, Hiep, Phouc, Tuan, Hung, Son, Quang, Chau, Cau and Minh. Captains Tuong and Thinh and lieutenants Trung and Trong will follow them in my thoughts. Then, I'll think of my loving wife, our talented and unique children, and our folks.
Why the Vietnamese men before my loved ones? Without the courage, strength and fearless verve as combatants in America's secret war in Southeast Asia, I wouldn't have returned to the United States.
Today, on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, I'll pause to salute those warriors, men most Americans will never hear about, including the more than 3 million U.S. troops sent to South Vietnam during America's longest and costliest war.
There are many who do not respect or salute the Vietnamese who fought in Vietnam. That's because our country has failed to educate them about the Vietnamese, the country they sent us to and its history and customs. As Green Berets, we fought side by side with them, laughed with them and learned about their families, their dreams and hopes and fears.
The first group were members of Spike Team Idaho, a reconnaissance team that ran classified missions into Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam under the aegis of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group ---- SOG. Green Berets, Navy SEALs and U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance troops manned several special operation commands throughout South Vietnam.
I'll reflect on and thank God for Sau, Hiep, Phouc, Tuan, Hung, Son, Quang, Chau, Cau and Minh. Captains Tuong and Thinh and lieutenants Trung and Trong will follow them in my thoughts. Then, I'll think of my loving wife, our talented and unique children, and our folks.
Why the Vietnamese men before my loved ones? Without the courage, strength and fearless verve as combatants in America's secret war in Southeast Asia, I wouldn't have returned to the United States.
Today, on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, I'll pause to salute those warriors, men most Americans will never hear about, including the more than 3 million U.S. troops sent to South Vietnam during America's longest and costliest war.
There are many who do not respect or salute the Vietnamese who fought in Vietnam. That's because our country has failed to educate them about the Vietnamese, the country they sent us to and its history and customs. As Green Berets, we fought side by side with them, laughed with them and learned about their families, their dreams and hopes and fears.
The first group were members of Spike Team Idaho, a reconnaissance team that ran classified missions into Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam under the aegis of the Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Studies and Observation Group ---- SOG. Green Berets, Navy SEALs and U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance troops manned several special operation commands throughout South Vietnam.
I joined Spike Team Idaho in May 1968, after six members of the team
disappeared in a Laos target area. Three U.S. Green Berets and three
Vietnamese mercenaries were never heard from again and remain listed as
missing in action today. By '68, Idaho operated out of Phu Bai, 10 miles
south of Hue. In May, there were 30 recon teams there. By November,
Idaho was the only operational team left in camp. The enemy troops in
Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam were well-trained, fearless and
well-equipped.
Captains Tuong and Thinh and lieutenants Trung and Trong were helicopters pilots who flew Sikorsky H-34s in the Vietnamese 219th Helicopter Squadron for SOG. Time and again, they flew the older H-34s, which we called "KINGBEES," into landing zones where enemy soldiers tried to knock them out of the sky.
For several months in '68, the KINGBEES were the only aircraft flying SOG teams "across the fence" deep into enemy territory. In Laos, the CIA estimated there were between 30,000 and 40,000 North Vietnamese troops keeping the Ho Chi Minh Trail open, bringing supplies from the north to South Vietnam ---- and fighting SOG troops.
During my 17 months on Idaho, we always left targets under heavy fire from North Vietnamese troops. The ride home was in KINGBEES and every time we asked for one, it came, regardless of enemy fire. There are many Green Berets alive today thanks to the incredible flying skills of Vietnamese Kingbee pilots. And without the Vietnamese or Montagnard team members, there would have been more than the 161 killed in SOG operations.
Sau was the Vietnamese team leader on Spike Team Idaho. When I landed at Phu Bai, Sau had been fighting for Special Forces nearly five years. Weighing less than 100 pounds soaking wet, Sau had a remarkable sixth sense: He could smell the enemy. In the jungle he moved with complete stealth and silence, often cursing his larger American counterparts.
Hiep was the team's interpreter, who sometimes corrected U.S. troops on their English, as well as speaking Vietnamese, French and some Chinese.
Phouc, Chau, Son and Hung all signed up with Special Forces when they were 15 or 16. After hundreds of hours of intensive training, their age didn't matter as they stood tall in combat.
On Oct. 7, 1968, Spike Team Idaho, after trying to escape from North Vietnamese trackers, was attacked by NVA soldiers, who opened fire on full automatic. Sau had warned they were near. Although none of the Americans heard anything, Sau, Phuoc, Hiep and Don Wolken were on alert, with their weapons on full automatic, ready to go.
In those firefights the first seconds are crucial. The submachine guns we carried fired 20 high-velocity rounds in 1 1/2 seconds. Sau, Phouc and Hiep reloaded and drove the NVA back down the jungle-shrouded hill. We gained fire superiority, but the NVA never stopped coming at us. After a while, they were firing at us from behind stacks of dead bodies. They came at us from 2 p.m. until dusk, time and again rushing us, trying to overrun our position. We had Air Force Phantom jets, Skyraiders and helicopter gunships dropping bombs, napalm and cluster bombs and make strafing runs. That was the first time I could recall smelling burnt human flesh.
By dusk, we were low on ammo, hand grenades and rounds for our grenade launcher. Capt. Thinh flew his H-34 to a slight rise above our position, hovering in deep elephant grass ---- thick-bladed grass that grew more than 12 feet tall. Because the grass was thick and the NVA tried to close in on us again, it took us several minutes to get to the Kingbee.
When I arrived under it, I looked up at Capt. Thinh, sitting there looking as calm as a Rocky Mountain breeze in springtime, and he smiled. Finally, we were loaded and he yanked us out of there. Sau, Hiep, Phouc and I fired off our last magazine of rounds and threw our last grenade as we pulled out of the landing zone, again under heavy enemy fire.
Within a few minutes we were at 4,000 feet, returning to Phu Bai. We were safe and unharmed. The Kingbee had 48 holes from bullets and grenades in its side panels and propellers. The new American on the team quit the next day. Sau, Hiep and Phouc ate dinner before I arranged for Sau and Hiep to return to their families that night. That scene unfolded hundreds of times over the course of SOG's history.
I carry a deep, haunting guilt for having left them in South Vietnam.
(J. Stryker Meyer, a North County Times staff writer, served in the Special Forces from 1968 to 1970.)
Captains Tuong and Thinh and lieutenants Trung and Trong were helicopters pilots who flew Sikorsky H-34s in the Vietnamese 219th Helicopter Squadron for SOG. Time and again, they flew the older H-34s, which we called "KINGBEES," into landing zones where enemy soldiers tried to knock them out of the sky.
For several months in '68, the KINGBEES were the only aircraft flying SOG teams "across the fence" deep into enemy territory. In Laos, the CIA estimated there were between 30,000 and 40,000 North Vietnamese troops keeping the Ho Chi Minh Trail open, bringing supplies from the north to South Vietnam ---- and fighting SOG troops.
During my 17 months on Idaho, we always left targets under heavy fire from North Vietnamese troops. The ride home was in KINGBEES and every time we asked for one, it came, regardless of enemy fire. There are many Green Berets alive today thanks to the incredible flying skills of Vietnamese Kingbee pilots. And without the Vietnamese or Montagnard team members, there would have been more than the 161 killed in SOG operations.
Sau was the Vietnamese team leader on Spike Team Idaho. When I landed at Phu Bai, Sau had been fighting for Special Forces nearly five years. Weighing less than 100 pounds soaking wet, Sau had a remarkable sixth sense: He could smell the enemy. In the jungle he moved with complete stealth and silence, often cursing his larger American counterparts.
Hiep was the team's interpreter, who sometimes corrected U.S. troops on their English, as well as speaking Vietnamese, French and some Chinese.
Phouc, Chau, Son and Hung all signed up with Special Forces when they were 15 or 16. After hundreds of hours of intensive training, their age didn't matter as they stood tall in combat.
On Oct. 7, 1968, Spike Team Idaho, after trying to escape from North Vietnamese trackers, was attacked by NVA soldiers, who opened fire on full automatic. Sau had warned they were near. Although none of the Americans heard anything, Sau, Phuoc, Hiep and Don Wolken were on alert, with their weapons on full automatic, ready to go.
In those firefights the first seconds are crucial. The submachine guns we carried fired 20 high-velocity rounds in 1 1/2 seconds. Sau, Phouc and Hiep reloaded and drove the NVA back down the jungle-shrouded hill. We gained fire superiority, but the NVA never stopped coming at us. After a while, they were firing at us from behind stacks of dead bodies. They came at us from 2 p.m. until dusk, time and again rushing us, trying to overrun our position. We had Air Force Phantom jets, Skyraiders and helicopter gunships dropping bombs, napalm and cluster bombs and make strafing runs. That was the first time I could recall smelling burnt human flesh.
By dusk, we were low on ammo, hand grenades and rounds for our grenade launcher. Capt. Thinh flew his H-34 to a slight rise above our position, hovering in deep elephant grass ---- thick-bladed grass that grew more than 12 feet tall. Because the grass was thick and the NVA tried to close in on us again, it took us several minutes to get to the Kingbee.
When I arrived under it, I looked up at Capt. Thinh, sitting there looking as calm as a Rocky Mountain breeze in springtime, and he smiled. Finally, we were loaded and he yanked us out of there. Sau, Hiep, Phouc and I fired off our last magazine of rounds and threw our last grenade as we pulled out of the landing zone, again under heavy enemy fire.
Within a few minutes we were at 4,000 feet, returning to Phu Bai. We were safe and unharmed. The Kingbee had 48 holes from bullets and grenades in its side panels and propellers. The new American on the team quit the next day. Sau, Hiep and Phouc ate dinner before I arranged for Sau and Hiep to return to their families that night. That scene unfolded hundreds of times over the course of SOG's history.
I carry a deep, haunting guilt for having left them in South Vietnam.
(J. Stryker Meyer, a North County Times staff writer, served in the Special Forces from 1968 to 1970.)
Las Vegas Review-Journal Destroys Obama
Via Billy
In one of the most blistering denunciations of Barack Obama ever penned, the Las Vegas Review Journal published an editorial today that excoriated Obama not only for his ineptitude in the Benghazi attack, but also his duplicity afterward and the cooperation of a supine press:
The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until after Tuesday's election … The official explanation for why Obama administration officials watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours away in Italy? Silence.
The RJ also charged Obama with impotence as he flew off to Las Vegas instead of dealing with the attack.
Prompt and strong action from the White House on Sept. 11 might have saved American lives, as well as America's reputation as a nation not to be messed with. Weakness and dithering and flying to Las Vegas the next day for celebrity fund-raising parties are somehow better?
The RJ pulled no punches about the Obama Administration‘s efforts to destroy our economy and accused Obama of continually flat-out lying to the American people.
In one of the most blistering denunciations of Barack Obama ever penned, the Las Vegas Review Journal published an editorial today that excoriated Obama not only for his ineptitude in the Benghazi attack, but also his duplicity afterward and the cooperation of a supine press:
The Obama administration sat by doing nothing for seven hours that night, ignoring calls to dispatch help from our bases in Italy, less than two hours away. It has spent the past seven weeks stretching the story out, engaging in misdirection and deception involving supposed indigenous outrage over an obscure anti-Muslim video, confident that with the aid of a docile press corps this infamous climax to four years of misguided foreign policy can be swept under the rug, at least until after Tuesday's election … The official explanation for why Obama administration officials watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours away in Italy? Silence.
The RJ also charged Obama with impotence as he flew off to Las Vegas instead of dealing with the attack.
Prompt and strong action from the White House on Sept. 11 might have saved American lives, as well as America's reputation as a nation not to be messed with. Weakness and dithering and flying to Las Vegas the next day for celebrity fund-raising parties are somehow better?
The RJ pulled no punches about the Obama Administration‘s efforts to destroy our economy and accused Obama of continually flat-out lying to the American people.
More @ Breitbart
Russian circus performer beats himself to death in Acapulco jail cell, so they say
VERBATIM
I was personally acquainted with Anton. Mexican police are trying to hurry to get rid of his body cremated.
Today I learned of the tragic and very strange death of my good friend
Anton Alferov, which occurred in the city of Acapulco, Mexico.
The
scattered data, Anthony was arrested on the beach for what is an
administrative offense and with his mother was taken to the police
station.
Later, his mother was released and Anton left the station. Then, with huge bruises on the head and face, he was taken to hospital, where he later died. From the words of the police, he lost control of the camera and started banging his head against the wall and broke the toilet.
This version is a huge question.
On fragmentary information, he got into a fight with the police.
Anton was a circus performer of the highest class, this year fresh from a tour with Cirque du Soleil, the show OVO. He opened his own show in Acapulco, also conducted master classes in acrobatics and circus arts.
Were able to learn about it only because of fragmentary information in Facebook. There is little information on local Mexican sites.
Would love as much as possible to spread this information, what would it's not zamylili.
Very probably soon need to help the family. Today we learned that my mother had a huge emotional and mental breakdowns.
Very probably soon need to help the family. Today we learned that my mother had a huge emotional and mental breakdowns.
Repost welcome
===================
VERBATIM
In Acapulco, Russian acrobat Anton Alferov, who was part of the Cirque
du Soleil and who had resided in Acapulco for several years, met a
violent death which was not only absurd, but so far indecipherable.
Authorities have conducted the case in a sealed manner, to the point that not even the assigned case number of the preliminary inquiry to investigate the causes of death has been revealed. All that is known about it is from "law enforcement sources".
The story is astonishing: the athlete, about 35, was reportedly arrested by federal police in Costa Azul while trying to break in to a home. He was then they handed him over to the municipal police, who, in turn, passed him on to ministerial police. Another version says only municipal police made the arrest.
With contusions in various parts of his body, Anton should have been taken to hospital for treatment, but he decline to go, and ended up in the ministerial police jail cells. There he "went crazy" and beat himself against the wall and, like Hulk, ripped a toilet bowl from the floor and tossed it against the bars of the jail cell. By his own means, he beat himself to death.
Authorities have conducted the case in a sealed manner, to the point that not even the assigned case number of the preliminary inquiry to investigate the causes of death has been revealed. All that is known about it is from "law enforcement sources".
The story is astonishing: the athlete, about 35, was reportedly arrested by federal police in Costa Azul while trying to break in to a home. He was then they handed him over to the municipal police, who, in turn, passed him on to ministerial police. Another version says only municipal police made the arrest.
With contusions in various parts of his body, Anton should have been taken to hospital for treatment, but he decline to go, and ended up in the ministerial police jail cells. There he "went crazy" and beat himself against the wall and, like Hulk, ripped a toilet bowl from the floor and tossed it against the bars of the jail cell. By his own means, he beat himself to death.
A Surrender of Sorts
We are doomed, saith the preacher, and should accommodate ourselves to it. In times of growing governmental power, protestation at some point becomes futile. Little is served by standing in front of a charging Mongol army and shouting, “No! You should reconsider! Perhaps some other course would be advisable. Let’s parley….”
Complaint is useless. It is too late. It booteth not. We are done. The Mongols ride. America comes apart at the seams. The country turns into something altogether new, new for America.
In high school, I read Shirer, first Berlin Diary and then The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I had little idea what I was reading. A naval base in rural Virginia is not a hotbed of historical understanding, or any understanding. I knew nothing of Weimar or the Spartacists or the Treaty of Versailles. Still, I dimly grasped that a theretofore civilized country with great rapidity turned into something horrible. It was not an evolutionary change, like the Industrial Revolution. Brahms to Goebbels in a decade.
Something alike happens in America, and one wonders—I wonder, anyway—how can this be? In little more than a decade, the Constitution has died, the economy welters in irreversible decline, we have perpetual war, all power lies in the hands of the executive, the police are supreme, and a surveillance beyond Orwell’s imaginings falls into place.
More @ Fred On Everything
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