Brigade homeland tours start Oct. 1

From the Army Times

3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT trains for a new dwell-time mission. Helping ‘people at home’ may become a permanent part of the active Army

By Gina Cavallaro - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 8, 2008 6:15:06 EDT

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.

whole text available at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/

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I think that "helping" in the above headline should be in quotes in addition to "people at home."

I take comfort in the fact that it when the English Army insisted on commandeering people's homes to use as HQ that sparked a lot of support for the Revolutionary War.

The most frightening thing to me about this, however, is that every day people will be watching this from home, and that the media will probably not really cover any activity in this deployment. Hell, mainstream media isn't even talking about the fact that there will be a deployment.

Any suggestions?

One thing is clear: it's time to mobilize.

Oh, also, Vote McKinney

Vote for the Presidential candidate that actually has the spine to talk about 9/11 openly and honestly.

Wall street "Bailout"

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY

TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS

Section 1. Short Title.

This Act may be cited as ____________________.

Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Authority to Purchase.--The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.

(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:

(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;

(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;

(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;

(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and

(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.

Sec. 3. Considerations.

In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for--

(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and

(2) protecting the taxpayer.

Sec. 4. Reports to Congress.

Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.

Sec. 5. Rights; Management; Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.

(a) Exercise of Rights.--The Secretary may, at any time, exercise any rights received in connection with mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act.

(b) Management of Mortgage-Related Assets.--The Secretary shall have authority to manage mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act, including revenues and portfolio risks therefrom.

(c) Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.--The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act.

(d) Application of Sunset to Mortgage-Related Assets.--The authority of the Secretary to hold any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act before the termination date in section 9, or to purchase or fund the purchase of a mortgage-related asset under a commitment entered into before the termination date in section 9, is not subject to the provisions of section 9.

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

Sec. 7. Funding.

For the purpose of the authorities granted in this Act, and for the costs of administering those authorities, the Secretary may use the proceeds of the sale of any securities issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are extended to include actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses. Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.

The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate two years from the date of enactment of this Act.

Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.

Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.

Sec. 11. Credit Reform.

The costs of purchases of mortgage-related assets made under section 2(a) of this Act shall be determined as provided under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as applicable.

Sec. 12. Definitions.

For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.--The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008.

(2) Secretary.--The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Treasury.

(3) United States.--The term “United States” means the States, territories, and possessions of the United States and the District of Columbia.

Notice the Following:

There is a very broad reading of the Secretary's power - there is no limit or review of his/her powers pursuant to this statute.

It appears that giving no-bid contracts (like in Iraq or New Orleans) are part of the Secretary's authority under this proposed bailout.

The Secretary's power is unreviewable by congress and the courts.

This Bill is going to be bad. Preserving these failing companies (who are failing because they made loans they knew would not be paid off, and they did it en masse) is passing on debt to millions of americans. In the last month, our national debt has doubled because the Treasury is bailing out these banks and investment firms.

It appears that, rather than fix the problem by trying to re-enact many of the protections and limitations of the New Deal era Glass-Steagall act (which was partially repealed in 1999 thanks to the tireless efforts of Phil Gramm, McCain's campaign Co-Chair), our political leadership, corporate prostitutes that they are, are going to use this economic crisis to even further loosen restrictions on banks and investment firms.

This bill smells of Milton Friedman. I can't officially blame him for this (as he's dead), but it's philisophically in line with his views - complete deregulation of big business.

Political Mucky Muck

There is a pretty sizable debate now swirling around some notes I've posted on facebook, mostly now between my husband and some of my friends from high school. Before this debate picked up, I thought my views reflected the truth behind the election: Obama/Biden are not completely blameless, but they would better lead this country than McCain/ Palin.

Then I visited a page on Cynthia McKinney.

http://votetruth08.com/

All these people claim to have our country's best interests in mind. All of them are using rhetoric to garner public attention. Why am I more likely to trust McKinney? She's actually been against the Iraq war from the beginning, for one. She raised questions about 9/11 before the commission report, for another. She's a non-CFR member and has some experience as Senator in Georgia.

Why do people think it's so important to have wartime experience or longstanding political experience to run the country? Grass-roots political work, community organization, small business management, and know-how should be all you need. Someone with years of political experience who never stepped on another continent in their lifetime ("You can see Russia from the coast of Alaska") or is unfamiliar with the war in Iraq should not be counted as a 'good candidate'. Radical ideas are not a detriment to this society - it's what our nation was founded on. Radical fundamentalism is a sure threat.

How do we fight a war when the biggest weapon is the media, and the media is out of the people's hands almost completely?

There is a war going on for your mind.

There is a war going on for your mind. Every day we are inundated with marketing campaigns. Americans are drowning in commercialism, branding – we watch it, we wear it, we listen to it, we eat and drink it, and in all this bombardment, we are being whittled down into nothing more than consumers, defined by what we consume.

Thanks and kudos to the flobots for putting this so well.