Dvorak News Blog

TSA Creator Says Time To Dismantle It

By Uncle Dave Thursday September 15, 2011

They’ve been accused of rampant thievery, spending billions of dollars like drunken sailors, groping children and little old ladies, and making everyone take off their shoes. But the real job of the tens of thousands of screeners at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is to protect Americans from a terrorist attack.

Yet a decade after the TSA was created following the September 11 attacks, the author of the legislation that established the massive agency grades its performance at “D-. The whole program has been hijacked by bureaucrats,” said Rep. John Mica (R.-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

“It mushroomed into an army,” Mica said. “It’s gone from a couple-billion-dollar enterprise to close to $9 billion.”

As for keeping the American public safe, Mica says, “They’ve failed to actually detect any threat in 10 years.”

“Everything they have done has been reactive. They take shoes off because of [shoe-bomber] Richard Reid, passengers are patted down because of the diaper bomber, and you can’t pack liquids because the British uncovered a plot using liquids,” Mica said.

“It’s an agency that is always one step out of step,” Mica said.

What FBI Agents Are Taught About Muslims

By Uncle Dave Thursday September 15, 2011

54 Comments

The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”
[…]
The FBI isn’t just treading on thin legal ice by portraying ordinary, observant Americans as terrorists-in-waiting, former counterterrorism agents say. It’s also playing into al-Qaida’s hands.

Focusing on the religious behavior of American citizens instead of proven indicators of criminal activity like stockpiling guns or using shady financing makes it more likely that the FBI will miss the real warning signs of terrorism. And depicting Islam as inseparable from political violence is exactly the narrative al-Qaida spins — as is the related idea that America and Islam are necessarily in conflict. That’s why FBI whistleblowers provided Danger Room with these materials.

SpongeBob Throwdown

By McCullough Thursday September 15, 2011

8 Comments

Private Contractors Costs More Than Government Workers

By Uncle Dave Wednesday September 14, 2011

68 Comments

This can’t be. Conservatives say reducing government will save money. There must be a mistake.

Despite a widespread belief that contracting out services to the private sector saves the federal government money, a new study suggests just the opposite — that the government actually pays more when it farms out work.

The study found that in 33 of 35 occupations, the government actually paid billions of dollars more to hire contractors than it would have cost government employees to perform comparable services. On average, the study found that contractors charged the federal government more than twice the amount it pays federal workers.

The study was conducted by the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit Washington group. The federal government spends about $320 billion a year on contracts for services. The POGO study looked at a subset of those contracts.

The study comes after months of criticism, mostly by Republicans, about what they see as the high cost of salaries and benefits for federal workers.
[…]
But POGO said its study did not just compare the salaries of the two sectors; instead it focused on what the government actually pays contractors to perform services versus how much it would cost to have that work done by in-house staff members.

Pic of the Day: The World’s Most Powerful Men

By McCullough Wednesday September 14, 2011

56 Comments

Thanks to Gasparrini

Award Winner: 4th Amendment Underwear

By Eideard Wednesday September 14, 2011

24 Comments

Now there’s a way to protest those intrusive TSA X-ray body scanners without saying a word. Underclothes printed with the 4th Amendment in Metallic Ink. Let them know they’re spying at the privates of a private citizen. The 4th Amendment to the US Constitution is readable on TSA body scanners.

From the designers:

“4th Amendment Wear made a statement without having to say a word. It’s what we considered ‘technological Judo’ – it used the very act of invading someone’s privacy to communicate a message that questioned how far Americans were willing sacrifice that sense of privacy. It didn’t outright condemn the search – it just raised questions. It gave the wearer a sense of individual liberty to be able to express their concerns, while not causing a disturbance.”

Har.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

Ooops!

By Uncle Dave Tuesday September 13, 2011

17 Comments

Caption This Photo Op

By McCullough Tuesday September 13, 2011

46 Comments

Moonlighting!

Bystanders save motorcyclist trapped under burning car

By Eideard Tuesday September 13, 2011

63 Comments

Police in Utah are searching for a group of construction workers, students and bystanders. But for a good reason.

This group is credited with saving a man’s life by working together to lift a burning car and pull a man to safety.

It was a “life-saving move that the Logan Police Department does not want to go unnoticed,” said Jeff Curtis, assistant chief of the police department in Logan, Utah.

The incident occurred Monday morning on a street near Utah State University and was captured on video.

Police said the BMW pulled out of a parking lot and in front of Wright. Curtis said the motorcyclist tried to avoid the car, which resulted in him laying the motorcycle down. After crashing, gas spilled out of the motorcycle and ignited, engulfing both the motorcycle and the front end of the car in flames…The motorcyclist became lodged underneath the burning vehicle…

Curtis said police are trying to find the people who helped so they can be recognized for their efforts at a city council meeting.

People torn from an ordinary day by extraordinary circumstances. Caring – as we all should – for the life of another human being.

Missing CEO Located 20 Years Later

By McCullough Tuesday September 13, 2011

17 Comments

Authorities believe they may have tracked down one of the world’s most wanted tax cheats, ComputerLand founder William H. Millard, after more than 20 years on the run. The eccentric millionaire was tracked down in the Grand Cayman Island, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. He was reportedly spotted living in a yellow mansion with his wife. He left ComputerLand in 1987 after a long battle against investors, moved his family to Saipan – and even began building a castle on the island’s coastline, according to the Journal.

But after things went south and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands ordered him to pay $36 million in taxes in 1994, he disappeared. During his time missing, he was traced to Singapore, Ireland, Brussels and Hong Kong – before finally being spotted taking a walk outside his home in the Caymans. Prosecutors told the Journal he’s linked to a network of 50 shell companies, trust and banks accounts.

“This is one of the most sophisticated and complicated cases of offshore asset structuring that we have ever seen,” Kim, the prosecutor, said.

If nabbed, the legal troubles will add onto the long fall of Millard, who was once considered one of the richest men in America. His computer chain, ComputerLand, had 800 retail outlets that did a whopping $1.4 billion worth of business in 1984, according to a 1985 Fortune Magazine article on Millard.

Caption This Mugshot

By McCullough Tuesday September 13, 2011

60 Comments

Smoking dope helps to lose weight. Har!

By Eideard Monday September 12, 2011

24 Comments

Anybody who’s smoked marijuana knows about “the munchies,” that desire to eat everything within reach. But a study from France has found that, surprisingly, pot smokers are actually less likely than non-smokers to pack on weight.

Using data covering more than 50,000 U.S. adults, researchers headed by Yann Le Strat, a psychiatrist at the Louis-Mourier Hospital in Colombes, France, found that roughly 14 percent to 17 percent of the people reporting that they smoked pot at least three days per week were obese.

That compared with a 22 to 25 percent obesity rate among people who said they had not used pot in the past 12 months.

“Initially, we thought we made a mistake,” said Le Strat, adding that he and co-author Bernard Le Foll checked the results several times to make sure they were correct. “This is only a preliminary result. It doesn’t mean that marijuana does actually help you lose weight, but perhaps there is a component that does.”

I hope someone lets us all know when they want to run further studies in the United States. There will only be about 150 million volunteers.

US Military Personnel in Libya, Four to be Precise

By McCullough Monday September 12, 2011

32 Comments

Despite repeated assurances from President Obama and military leaders that the U.S. would not send uniformed military personnel into Libya, four U.S. service members arrived on the ground in Tripoli over the weekend.

According to Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby, the four unidentified troops are there working under the State Department’s chief of mission to assist in rebuilding the U.S. Embassy.

Kirby noted the embassy in Tripoli was badly damaged during the conflict between Muammar Qaddafi’s forces and the rebels. Two of the military personnel are explosive-ordnance experts who will be used to disable any explosives traps left in the embassy. The other two are “general security,” according to Kirby.

Kirby also made clear these troops are in no way part of a military operation on the ground. They are armed, however, if for some reason they need to protect themselves.

The troops are only expected to be there for a short while. After the assessment of the embassy is complete, they are expected to leave.

Obama assured Americans in March when the bombing campaign over Libya began that there would be no boots on the ground. From the East Room of the White House on March 18, he said: “The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya.” Kirby wouldn’t say if there were plans to send more U.S. troops in the future.

Move along now…nothing to see here.

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Bunga Bunga!

By John C Dvorak Sunday September 11, 2011

5 Comments

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