SAM' SOAP BOX - A CONSERVATIVES POINT OF VIEW

DISCLAIMER: THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE ARE THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF SAM AND ARE OPINIONS ONLY AND AS SUCH ARE PROTECTED UNDER THE 1st AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

This is a page dedicated to not being politically correct. I make no apologies. I feel there is way too much of that today. If you are easily offended, do not read this "Blog". It is full of political and social observations and comments. I am in my own way, attempting to educate all who want to know how our government works and how we can regain control so we can remain a government that is "Of The People, By the People, and For the People.

NOTE: I will not respond to or entertain any comments that are rude or disrespectful. Get your FACTS together before you comment then present them in a logical articulate fashion. Check out the sites I have include below. They are worth a look. This is a Living Document so please check back often. Click on titles to go to storys that I feel is relevant to the cause.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

DEMOCRATS LOOSE GRIP ON SUPER-MAJORITY


Thanks to Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss's re-election, the Dems loose the super-majority they were just drooling over. The GOP now has the power of the filibuster to reign in the out of control liberals. Click on the title to go to the story.

IS THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENING IN THE GUISE AS HOMELAND SECURITY?

Below is a story that went out yesterday on the Drudge Report. I went looking for it today because I was going to link to it for this article. But the story is gone and not to be found. I found it by doing a Google search. Thankfully I found it and was able to grab it. That in it self concerns me. This isn't the first time I have seen such alarming news to find later it had been pulled and not to be found. My concern over this is not misplaced. I am concerned that once the Feds put troops in place wherever, the possibility of civil rights abuse is quite prevalent. First, let me give you a little background. I am a 29 year military police officer retired. I served in both the regular Air Force and the Air National Guard System. Now, there are a few questions we have to ask. #1. Where are to troops going to come from? A. The troops could be either Active duty regular Army (Whatever Branch) or Guard and Reserve. In the article it is mentioned that the Guard and Reserve is not adequately equipped. Prior to 911 that was true. However, since 911, a lot of Units received the funding they needed to get up to operational/deployable status. The same funding could be used to equip these troops in accordance to their new mission. If these chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE Units are posted around the country, each unit must be specially equipped as to their mission tasking and be able to move on a moments notice wherever needed in the country. Now each state has their own Militia and is in my opinion, better suited to the task. I believe the National Guard will be tasked. Question #2. In what capacity will these troops operate? Will it be Federal (Title 10) or State (Title 32)? A. In my opinion, the vast majority of the time they will function under Title 32, but in the case of emergency, at the swipe of a pen, can become Title 10 in a heartbeat with hip pocket orders. #3. Are our troops trained adequately for domestic operations? A. Don't forget, our troops have received superb training in urban warfare in Iraq. They know how to kick in doors, neutralize threats, and they do it very well. Now, with all that being said, I am very concerned over the possibility of civil rights violations because of what was ALLOWED to happen in New Orleans after Katrina. The Governor of Louisiana with the concurrence of Mayor Nagan, ordered ALL guns to be confiscated. So the police went house to house and did just that. All guns to include family heirlooms were confiscated and some immediately destroyed. This happened to a families heirloom handgun. It was destroyed on the spot. The Government disarmed all law abiding citizens in the guise of security and the pre-eminent state of emergency. So, what is to happen if the unthinkable happens in one of these cities that has these CBRNE units in place? Are they going to be ordered to disarm everyone? And if so, will they do it? It is such a blatant violation of the 2nd Amendment that I would like to believe that no one would be crazy enough to do it. I realize that this is a very controversial move on the Governments part, but to a degree, I agree with the principle or overt objective here. However, if history is our guide, our Government has had the habit of when given an inch, takes a mile. In this case, can we afford that? Do we trust our elected Representatives to do the right thing and not violate our rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? If New Orleans is any guide.....we're in trouble........

Read this story and make up your own mind.........

Pentagon to Detail Troops to Bolster Domestic Security

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.
The long-planned shift in the Defense Department's role in homeland security was recently backed with funding and troop commitments after years of prodding by Congress and outside experts, defense analysts said.
There are critics of the change, in the military and among civil liberties groups and libertarians who express concern that the new homeland emphasis threatens to strain the military and possibly undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, a 130-year-old federal law restricting the military's role in domestic law enforcement.
But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, dedicating 20,000 troops to domestic response -- a nearly sevenfold increase in five years -- "would have been extraordinary to the point of unbelievable," Paul McHale, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, said in remarks last month at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the realization that civilian authorities may be overwhelmed in a catastrophe prompted "a fundamental change in military culture," he said.
The Pentagon
's plan calls for three rapid-reaction forces to be ready for emergency response by September 2011. The first 4,700-person unit, built around an active-duty combat brigade based at Fort Stewart, Ga., was available as of Oct. 1, said Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., commander of the U.S. Northern Command.
If funding continues, two additional teams will join nearly 80 smaller National Guard and reserve units made up of about 6,000 troops in supporting local and state officials nationwide. All would be trained to respond to a domestic chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or high-yield explosive attack, or CBRNE event, as the military calls it.
Military preparations for a domestic weapon-of-mass-destruction attack have been underway since at least 1996, when the Marine Corps activated a 350-member chemical and biological incident response force and later based it in Indian Head, Md., a Washington suburb. Such efforts accelerated after the Sept. 11 attacks, and at the time Iraq was invaded in 2003, a Pentagon joint task force drew on 3,000 civil support personnel across the United States.
In 2005, a new Pentagon homeland defense strategy emphasized "preparing for multiple, simultaneous mass casualty incidents." National security threats were not limited to adversaries who seek to grind down U.S. combat forces abroad, McHale said, but also include those who "want to inflict such brutality on our society that we give up the fight," such as by detonating a nuclear bomb in a U.S. city.
In late 2007, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a directive approving more than $556 million over five years to set up the three response teams, known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Forces. Planners assume an incident could lead to thousands of casualties, more than 1 million evacuees and contamination of as many as 3,000 square miles, about the scope of damage Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005.
Last month, McHale said, authorities agreed to begin a $1.8 million pilot project funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency through which civilian authorities in five states could tap military planners to develop disaster response plans. Hawaii, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Washington and West Virginia will each focus on a particular threat -- pandemic flu, a terrorist attack, hurricane, earthquake and catastrophic chemical release, respectively -- speeding up federal and state emergency planning begun in 2003.
Last Monday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates ordered defense officials to review whether the military, Guard and reserves can respond adequately to domestic disasters.
Gates gave commanders 25 days to propose changes and cost estimates. He cited the work of a congressionally chartered commission, which concluded in January that the Guard and reserve forces are not ready and that they lack equipment and training.
Bert B. Tussing, director of homeland defense and security issues at the U.S. Army War College's Center for Strategic Leadership, said the new Pentagon approach "breaks the mold" by assigning an active-duty combat brigade to the Northern Command for the first time. Until now, the military required the command to rely on troops requested from other sources.
"This is a genuine recognition that this [job] isn't something that you want to have a pickup team responsible for," said Tussing, who has assessed the military's homeland security strategies.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute are troubled by what they consider an expansion of executive authority.
Domestic emergency deployment may be "just the first example of a series of expansions in presidential and military authority," or even an increase in domestic surveillance, said Anna Christensen of the ACLU's National Security Project. And Cato Vice President Gene Healy warned of "a creeping militarization" of homeland security.
"There's a notion that whenever there's an important problem, that the thing to do is to call in the boys in green," Healy said, "and that's at odds with our long-standing tradition of being wary of the use of standing armies to keep the peace."
McHale stressed that the response units will be subject to the act, that only 8 percent of their personnel will be responsible for security and that their duties will be to protect the force, not other law enforcement. For decades, the military has assigned larger units to respond to civil disturbances, such as during the Los Angeles riot in 1992.
U.S. forces are already under heavy strain, however. The first reaction force is built around the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, which returned in April after 15 months in Iraq. The team includes operations, aviation and medical task forces that are to be ready to deploy at home or overseas within 48 hours, with units specializing in chemical decontamination, bomb disposal, emergency care and logistics.
The one-year domestic mission, however, does not replace the brigade's next scheduled combat deployment in 2010. The brigade may get additional time in the United States to rest and regroup, compared with other combat units, but it may also face more training and operational requirements depending on its homeland security assignments.
Renuart said the Pentagon is accounting for the strain of fighting two wars, and the need for troops to spend time with their families. "We want to make sure the parameters are right for Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. The 1st Brigade's soldiers "will have some very aggressive training, but will also be home for much of that."
Although some Pentagon leaders initially expected to build the next two response units around combat teams, they are likely to be drawn mainly from reserves and the National Guard, such as the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade from South Carolina, which returned in May after more than a year in Afghanistan.
Now that Pentagon strategy gives new priority to homeland security and calls for heavier reliance on the Guard and reserves, McHale said, Washington has to figure out how to pay for it.
"It's one thing to decide upon a course of action, and it's something else to make it happen," he said. "It's time to put our money where our mouth is."