Memo to Muslim terrorists: Americans have something you don't: true grit

Superstorm Sandy Survivor

At last count I have eight half-finished essays piled up but it's come to my attention that some Muslims terrorists have said that Superstorm Sandy was Allah's retribution for an anti-Mohammad movie trailer. So I''m going to take a few moments to reply.

The United States of America covers much of a vast continent, and this is not including Hawaii and Alaska.  We have so many different climates and weather systems that we've been visited by every natural disaster you can think of, and so many times that nobody bothers to keep count anymore.

And you know what all that adversity has done to Americans? It's made us a very strong people.  Here in America we don't run away from disaster, we run toward it:  to save, to help, to rescue, to rebuild.

And what about you?  All you do is whine, whine, whine. And if you can't get your way from whining you'll blow yourselves up and take out as many people with you as you can.  What a standard of masculinity.

You're weak, inside.  That's from too many generations of you expecting Allah to act as your slave.  Well I have news for you.  Allah doesn't like being treated like a slave -- or a coolie or servant.  And He's taken to wearing ear plugs so He doesn't have to listen to your constant whining.

Why don't you try something new for a change?  Make yourselves useful. I know this is a novel concept but once you get the general idea it gets easier to fathom as you go along. So look around you, then roll up your sleeves and get busy doing simple stuff, like helping villagers in your neighborhood dig wells and plant crops.

That, instead of scheming and plotting how you can establish a global kingdom in the name of Allah -- a kingdom in which slaves do all the work for you. While you sit around and write poetry and yammer about your ideas of God.

Here's an idea about God for you:  Do you think Allah is a chump?  Do you think God wants slavery in His name?   So not only are you weak and lazy, you're also phonies.

Your problem is that you don't actually believe in God. You believe in jinn. That's your real idea of Allah:  whine and bang your forehead on the floor a thousand times, and Allah the Great Genie will do your bidding.

Your other problem is that more you act like mentally-challenged small children, the more you're treated as such. The upshot is that nobody will tell you what Pundita has just told you.  Everyone tiptoes around you and says, 'Don't offend the Muslims.'

This means you've become like the emperor in the parable of the Emperor's New Clothes. The emperor was very absent-minded. But because he was the emperor none of his subjects wanted to tell him that he'd forgotten to dress one morning. So everyone pointed at the naked fool and said, 'What fine clothes you're wearing today, Your Magnificence!'
     
Now where was I?  The United States, twenty-first century, by one reckoning of time.  To finish up:

Foreigners shouldn't be misled by images of weeping Americans telling the television camera, 'Oh woe is us, what do we do now?' The BBC and CNN International lap up those images; they love to see
Americans looking helpless after a disaster.

Many of those Americans who speak to reporters are in physical shock -- they're interviewed directly in the aftermath of losing their homes, or after sitting out in the elements for hours waiting to be rescued from a rooftop, or wherever. What the television cameras don't show so much is the thousands of survivors who say, 'Now we rebuild.'

Foreigners should also not mistake the large American capacity for self-criticism for our defining national characteristic. Yes, we're always finding fault with ourselves. But our defining characteristic is fortitude; what we call in the USA "true grit."

Why you should vote for Mitt Romney even if you hate his views on foreign policy and don't like Mormons



I seem to recall explaining in 2005 to Pundita readers that the United States was in for a little unpleasantness not far down the line with regard to economic health and complicated financial matters. Not wanting to start a panic I didn't do the ashes and sackcloth routine.  In fact I've had very little to say on this blog about international finance, even after Jim Sinclair nearly had an aneurysm when he learned the Obama administration was fiddling with SWIFT in a ploy to force Tehran to the negotiating table.

I add that Sinclair wasn't the only one.  The Brazilian government was so alarmed, General Martin Dempsey had to fly in there to assure that while it might look as if Obama was barking mad, he could personally vouch for Obama's sanity.

But the Brazilians didn't think he was mad; the SWIFT stunt told them that he and his advisers couldn't chew and walk when it came to dealing with the crisis in the international monetary system.
 

To cut a story,  there are reasons why headlines on the "EU debt" crisis all but vanished from the front page of Google News in the critical three months running up to the American presidential election. 

Yes, yes, I've been told a hundred times that the Google bots are completely nonpartisan. But there are governments in Western Europe and people on Wall Street that prefer to have Obama reelected; this on the theory  he'll continue to jawbone Ben Bernanke in their favor, and that Mitt Romney won't. 

As to what Bernanke or any Chairman of the Federal Reserve can do to play Hans Brinker, beyond what's already been done -- nothing but make things worse, as long as Obama is jawboning. 

So in my view, it's really important for Americans to get their priorities straight when they head for the voting booth tomorrow. With real unemployment in the USA at over 14 percent, with many of the employed working only low-paying part time jobs, and with the thing called contagion hanging over this country, this is not the time to make Romney's views on Russia, China, Iran, Israel and Pakistan one's top priority.

Nor is it the time to sit out the election on the theory that Romney in Washington would make no difference to Business as Usual in this city.  At this point I don't care if he makes no difference.  What I care about is the United States getting through the next two years intact.  Obama is not capable of managing this feat.  Romney, who has a record of turning around failing enterprises in the public and private sector, and who knows how the international monetary system works, has a fighting chance of managing this.

Moreover, if something should happen to Romney while he was President, Paul Ryan has the acumen to deal intelligently with financial matters.  Joe Biden does not.  .       

Nothing's guaranteed, of course;  it's very late in the day. But I judge that at the least, Romney knows how to avert the worst-case scenario for the USA. 

With regard to Romney's religion, which I suspect is more a concern to those who aren't religious, in any traditional sense, than to most Christian Evangelicals (at least at this point), here is my view:

You wanted cheap stuff from China and cheap oil from the Gulf Arabs. You got your wishes.  So now you're in a position not unlike that of the person who looks at Mt. Everest and says, "I've climbed worse than that in Colorado."

When you're half-way up the mountain and know you can't go higher and can't figure how to get down, what do you say to the Sherpa who appears out of nowhere and asks if he can guide you back to base camp?

If the answer is, "I'm concerned about your religion," then with all due sympathy for your spouse and offspring, anyone that silly is probably best left to freeze to death.

The artwork featured in this post is the illustration for Jiang Shixue's explanation of the EU debt crisis, which is titled, EU debt crisis is a snake with nine heads. Pundita collects explanations of the debt crisis as a hobby.

Twenty-One Steps

Spc. Brett Hyde, Tomb Sentinel, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), takes his twenty-one steps across a water soaked mat while guarding the Tomb during Hurricane Sandy at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, Va., Oct. 29, 2012. The Tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Snow, rain, wind or heat has never stopped the Tomb Sentinels from guarding the tomb for over 64 years.
Credit: U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Jose A. Torres Jr


Photograph, one of 34 showing the effects of Sandy, collected by the staff at Live Science.

Oh God. There's more. They're doing so much singing it sounds like a goddamn aviary

According to military sources, Libyan authorities have not given the US military permission to fly armed drones over populated areas like Benghazi. However, for some time the unmanned aerial drones that have been watching Libya’s chemical weapons sites did have permission to be armed.

Stop swearing, Pundita. You know what all this singing is about; right?  It's not about the presidential election. It's about the November 15 congressional closed door-hearing on Benghazi. Well. This does it for me. I'm going to go join a nunnery now. Goodbye.

What laser capability did Benghazi team have?
By Jennifer Griffin
Published November 04, 2012
Fox News

Sources who have debriefed the team that was at the CIA annex the night of the attack in Benghazi say that the CIA operators from the Global Response Staff, or GRS, were equipped with Mark 48 machine guns and had two types of laser capability. Each weapon had both a “passive” as well as a “visible” laser that could be used against the Libyan attackers.

Fox News has learned the guns were fitted with PEQ-15 lasers. The “passive” laser is not visible to the naked eye but can help team members identify hostile forces when the shooter is wearing NODS, or Night Observation Device attached to their helmet. The visible laser system places a red dot on the attacker and warns the attacker not to shoot, encouraging them to flee the scene. US troops often use the visible laser to scare children or other civilians who find themselves in the middle of combat activity. When civilians see the laser they often back off in order not to be shot.

The GRS team that was present at the CIA annex provided security for the CIA station, as they do around the world. They are highly trained in countersurveillance, close target reconnaissance and in depth reconnaissance. Enemy fighters have learned in Afghanistan and Iraq to use their cell phones to follow or intercept these “passive” lasers without having night vision or NODS.

The Annex team also had Ground Laser Designators, or GLD. This kind of laser equipment emits code and signal when there is overhead air support, unmanned aerial surveillance, drones or Spectre gunships, for instance.

A source present the night of the attack says that the GRS team that was defending the annex asked where the air support was at midnight. Former SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed 5 hours and 15 minutes later.

The military is preparing a timeline from the night of the Benghazi attack and plans to outline what assets were available to commanders in the region, including AFRICOM commander General Carter Ham, who was visiting Washington, DC on September 11 and was in the Pentagon overseeing the operation that night.

Pentagon spokesman George Little says, “On the night of the attack on American personnel and facilities in Benghazi, there were no armed unmanned aerial vehicles over Libya, and there were no AC-130s anywhere close.”

On Thursday, the CIA excluded Fox News from a briefing for a small group of reporters in which they provided a timeline from the night of the attack in which they explain that at 5:15 a.m. (7 hrs and 28 minutes after the attack on the consulate began) five mortars are fired at the annex, three of them striking the roof and killing Woods and Doherty.

The CIA told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius that “the rooftop defenders never ‘laser the mortars’ as has been reported,” a reference to an earlier Fox News report. The CIA added the “defenders have focused their laser sights earlier on several Libyan attackers, as warnings not to fire.”

The US military says that two unarmed Predators were overhead Benghazi that night and providing one stream of video back to Washington beginning at 11:11 p.m. (1 hr and 24 minutes) after the attack began.

US military sources say that the second Predator was not armed even though it took off from Sigonella Air Base in Sicily after the attack began to provide back up to the first Predator which was at the end of its orbit and running low on fuel. US commanders say that in reference to the drones positioned at Sigonella: “Not all aircraft are armed. Ours are not.”

According to military sources, Libyan authorities have not given the US military permission to fly armed drones over populated areas like Benghazi. However, for some time the unmanned aerial drones that have been watching Libya’s chemical weapons sites did have permission to be armed.

Uh oh. Now ze lid she is completely blown off L'Affaire Benghazi. Holy crap.

I visit the Drudge Report maybe three times a year.  I don't know what possessed me to visit just now; I guess I was looking for unusual stories about Superstorm Sandy.  And there was a headline in red about Benghazi. I said to myself, "Remember we're not following Benghazi anymore. Don't click on that link."  But I did.

Security officials on the ground in Libya challenge CIA account
By Adam Housley with additional reporting by Jennifer Griffin
Published November 03, 2012
FoxNews.com

Despite a carefully narrated version of events rolled out late this week by the CIA claiming agents jumped into action as soon as they were notified of calls for help in Benghazi, security officials on the ground say calls for help went out considerably earlier -- and signs of an attack were mounting even before that.

The accounts, from foreign and American security officials in and around Benghazi at the time of the attack, indicate there was in fact a significant lag between when the threat started to show itself and help started to arrive.

According to the CIA, the first calls for assistance came at 9:40 p.m. local time from a senior State Department official at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, to the CIA annex about a mile away.

But according to multiple people on the ground that night, the Blue Mountain Security manager, who was in charge of the local force hired to guard the consulate perimeter, made calls on both two-way radios and cell phones to colleagues in Benghazi warning of problems at least an hour earlier. Those calls allegedly went to local security contractors who say that the CIA annex was also notified much earlier than 9:40 p.m. U.S. military intelligence also told Fox News that armed militia was gathering up to three hours before the attack began.

One source said the Blue Mountain Security chief seemed "distraught" and said "the situation here is very serious, we have a problem." He also said that even without these phone and radio calls, it was clear to everyone in the security community on the ground in Benghazi much earlier than 9:40 p.m. that fighters were gathering in preparation for an attack.

Many of these security contractors and intelligence sources on the ground in Benghazi met twice a week for informal meetings at the consulate with Blue Mountain and consulate staff, and at times other international officials. They were all very familiar with security at the consulate -- and said the staff seemed "complacent" and "didn't seem to follow the normal American way of securing a facility."

Both American and British sources say multiple roadblocks set up by fighters believed to be with Ansar al-Sharia were in place in Benghazi several hours before the 9:40 p.m. timeline and that communications also alluded to "heavily armed troops showing up with artillery." Fox News was told by both American and British contacts who were in Benghazi that night that the CIA timeline rolled out this past week is only "loosely based on the truth" and "doesn't quite add up."

Fox News was also told that the local guard force meant to protect the consulate perimeter "panicked" and didn't know what to do as the attackers took up positions. Sources say other guards simply "walked away".

One former Special Op now employed by a private company in Benghazi said that even the safe room wasn't properly set up. He said "the safe room is one of the first measures you take" and that he is "not sure how you can set a safe room without fire suppression and ventilation in case of fire." He also said, "Ambassador Stevens would likely be alive today if this simple and normal procedure was put into place."

As details emerge of serious security issues before the attack on Sept. 11, Fox News is also beginning to hear more frustration from sources both on the ground in Benghazi and in the U.S. Multiple British and American sources insist there were other capabilities in the region and are mystified why none were used. Fox News was told there were not only armed drones that monitor Libyan chemical weapon sites in the area, but also F-18's, AC-130 aircraft and even helicopters that could have been dispatched in a timely fashion.

However, George Little, a spokesman from the Pentagon, denied their presence in the area.

"On the night of the attack on American personnel and facilities in Benghazi, there were no armed unmanned aerial vehicles over Libya, and there were no AC-130s anywhere close," he said.

British intelligence sources said that unarmed drones routinely flew over Benghazi every night in flight patterns and that armed drones which fly over chemical sites, some a short flight from Benghazi, "were always said to be on call." American sources confirmed this and questioned "why was a drone armed only with a camera dispatched?"

Another source added, "Why would they put a ragtag team together in Tripoli as first responders? This is not even what they do for a living. We had a first responder air base in Italy almost the same distance away." Despite the team arriving from Tripoli that night, sources said sufficient American back-up never came.

British sources on the ground in Benghazi said they are extremely frustrated by the attack and are still wondering why they weren't called for help. “We have more people on the ground here than the Americans and I just don't know why we didn't get the call?" one said.

Both American and British sources said, at the very least, the security situation on the ground and the lack of proper response were the result of "complete incompetence." The covert team that came in from Tripoli was held up at the Benghazi airport for more than three hours by Libyan officials. Sources said the team notified officials in Washington that they were being delayed within 30 minutes of their arrival.

They also point out that these questions "don't even address the military capabilities of our United Nations ally Turkey, who (has) forces available a similarly short flight away." Fox News has learned that Turkey had a number of embassy staff in town the night of the attack and that the Turkish consul general met with Ambassador Stevens in Benghazi the night he and the three other Americans were killed.

One source asked, "Were the Turks not warned? What forces were available from our ally Turkey? Especially since they had officials there in Benghazi also and had to be concerned … and where was the U.N. in all of this?"

Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

Sigh.

Why didn't NYC Mayor Bloomberg think to ask visiting marathoners to pitch in and help the New Yorkers hit hard by Superstorm Sandy? Why government as we know it today has run its course in the USA

OVERTURE

Manhattan

Her group was planning to take the thousands of dollars raised this weekend and stuff a bunch of $20 bills into envelopes for families who need to pay that next cellphone bill. Or stock the refrigerator. 

"People have to throw out everything in their fridges," she noted. "This is restock-the-fridge money."

"I understand the need for FEMA and the Red Cross and all the rest," she added. "But we're talking about no lines, no red tape. Just immediate help. These people have suffered enough."

Staten Island

Photo Caption
Volunteers walk toward homes to help residents clean up, Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012, in Staten Island, N.Y. A Superstorm Sandy relief fund is being created just for residents of the hard-hit New York City borough. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Borough President James Molinaro say the fund will help residents displaced from their homes. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

INTRODUCTION
Two exhibits; emphasis throughout mine:

EXHIBIT 1
CBS News, New York Local, November 2, 2012 12:02 AM:

Staten Islanders On Sandy Response: We’ve Been Left FAR Behind

Borough Is In Shambles, But Little Help Has Arrived; They Ask: Where Is FEMA?

“Red Cross is here with hot chocolate and cookies. We need blankets, we need pillows, we need clothing. We can get hot chocolate and cookies, we need help!” resident Jodi Hannula said.

It was almost too much for Hannula to bear. She said she had 30 years of memories washed away by flood waters.

And with no flood insurance, she said she’s been pleading for help, but finding little.

“You hope that the government does the right thing and steps in and helps us out. We have been looking for FEMA, [but] FEMA has not been here,” Hannula said.

People on Staten Island argued that they’ve been neglected while other parts of New York City, and the Jersey Shore, have been showered with attention.

“We are far from fine, and the fact that the mayor wants to have a marathon this weekend, when we’ve had people who have lost their lives or house, everything they’ve worked for their whole lives … I mean, its unbelievable to me,” Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis said.
[...]
“It’s total devastation. It’s not just New Dorp Beach. It’s the whole shore from Tottenville to South Beach,” resident Kyle Haberstroh said.

Donna Solli confronted Sen. Charles Schumer on Thursday afternoon, demanding food and more assistance.

Later that night she got a meal — and a promise for more Friday morning.

“Yes, I have food. I haven’t had food in two days and I have food, finally,” Solli said.

Residents were organizing a huge cleanup day on Saturday. They said if no one else is going to help them restore their community — Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano was to visit Staten Island Friday in response to the community’s complaints — they’re going to do it on their own.

EXHIBIT 2
Reuters, 6:16 a.m. CDT, November 2, 2012:

Scope of Sandy's devastation widens
By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From New York City's Staten Island to the popular beach towns of the Jersey Shore, rescuers and officials on Friday faced growing evidence of widespread destruction wrought by superstorm Sandy, mounting anger over delayed relief and a rising death toll.

The total killed in one of the biggest storms to hit the United States jumped by a third on Thursday alone, to 98. In New York City, 40 people have been found dead, half of them in Staten Island, which was overrun by a wall of water on Monday.

Among the dead in Staten Island were two brothers, aged 2 and 4, who were swept from their mother's arms after her car stalled in rising flood waters. Their bodies were found near each other in a marshy area on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Richard Serino planned to visit Staten Island on Friday amid angry claims by some survivors that the borough had been ignored.

Scenes of angry storm victims could complicate matters for politicians, from President Barack Obama just four days before the general election, to governors and mayors in the most heavily populated region in the United States. Obama visited New Jersey on Wednesday and has received praise for his handling of Sandy.

"They forgot about us," said Theresa Connor, 42, describing her Staten Island neighborhood as having been "annihilated." "And (Mayor Michael) Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on!"

Fury has been escalating throughout New York at Bloomberg's decision to proceed with the world's largest marathon on Sunday, vowing the event - which attracts more than 40,000 runners - would not divert any resources storm victims.

"If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I will scream," New York City Councilman James Oddo said on his Twitter account. "We have people with no homes and no hope right now."

Staten Island, which lies across New York Harbor from lower Manhattan, is home to about 500,000 residents, many blue-collar workers whose families have lived there for generations.

CRIME FEARS

In New Jersey, entire neighborhoods in oceanside towns were swallowed by seawater and the Atlantic City boardwalk was destroyed. At least 13 people were killed in New Jersey and the toll was not only financial, but heavily emotional as well.

"There's nothing more precious to people than their homes. Those are where their families are, their memories and possessions of their lives, and there's also a sense of safety to home," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said late on Thursday.

"That sense of safety was violated with water rushing into people's homes at an enormous rate of speed and people having to literally swim, climb, jump for their lives," he said.
[...]
In blacked-out New York City neighborhoods, some residents complained about a lack of police and expressed fears about an increase in crime. Some were also concerned about traffic safety. New York police officials were not immediately available to comment.

"People feel safe during the day but as soon as the sun sets, people are extremely scared. The fact that Guardian Angels are on the streets trying to restore law just shows how out of control the situation is in lower Manhattan," said Wolfgang Ban, a restaurant owner in Manhattan's Alphabet City neighborhood.

The Guardian Angels are a group of anti-crime volunteers.

Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro directed his anger over relief efforts at the American Red Cross. "I have not seen the American Red Cross at a shelter, I have not seen them down on the south shore where people are buried in their homes, they have nothing to drink and nothing to eat," he said.

The American Red Cross said it was doing everything it could to aid those affected by the storm as quickly as possible and that help was on the way to Staten Island, usually reached by a 25-minute ferry ride from Lower Manhattan.
[...]

******************0***********
The uproar about New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's refusal to call off this Sunday's marathon, the biggest in the world, finally decided Hizzoner late Friday afternoon to bow to the public will -- a first for him -- and to cancel the marathon.

But by that time thousands of marathoners from all over the USA and the world had descended on New York, taking up hotel space that was badly needed by Sandy survivors who'd been rendered homeless by the storm, and taxing the beleaguered NYPD, which had to divert some of its police force to security the city in the wake of the storm (yes, the looters have been at work) to preparing security for the marathon.

As the two reports I featured above indicate, everyone was furious with the mayor's initial decision to continue with the marathon; this included the city's sanitation workers, who were volunteering time without pay to help fellow New Yorkers in need of assistance with trash and debris removal after the storm.

The irony is that several marathoners expressed support for Mayor's decision to call off the marathon. They said that after seeing conditions in the storm-hit areas, they'd planned not to run in the marathon and instead volunteer their time to helping New Yorkers who were hit hard by the storm.

Well, sure.

So why didn't Hizzoner think to ask marathoners to pitch and help instead of running the marathon? Because it would never have occurred to him to make that kind of request.  Anyone who says that lack of brainpower or compassion is the reason it wouldn't have occurred to him doesn't know about Michael Bloomberg.

This is a very smart person, and although he often goes overboard with paternalism in the execution of his mayoral duties, no one can say he doesn't have a heart. And this was a very rich man before he went into politics, a man with a very successful business career who never needed a government paycheck.

The reason it didn't occur to him to ask marathoners to become volunteers is that Michael Bloomberg is a man of his times, which looked to better government as the solution to America's problems. Yet his times were blown away by a series of disasters -- security-related, weather-related, economics-related -- that hit the United States of America starting around the turn of this century.

The upshot is that it would take every American adult working for government to be able to deal effectively with all the present challenges, if you want to rely on the government approach.

The way to deal effectively with the challenges of our times has been pointed to by the American Paul Glover and the Englishman Phillip Blond, and by hosts of Americans who joined and started 'localism' movements during the past decade. (See my February 2009 post, Localism, Faux Localism, and "Rise of the red Tories" ... and the website for Paul Glover's nonprofit organization.)

All these people are implementing on their own nongovernmental solutions to problems that affect their communities.

Yet, oddly, American pundits who protest the loudest against 'big government' studiously ignore this approach. Instead they keep calling for 'smaller' government -- and by gum they're determined to back political candidates who will make government smaller.

Okay, but then who's going to make up the shortfall when government gets smaller? Many government agencies fulfill needs in this country.

When pushed, the anti-big government pundits say of course there has to be some government, and they also call for more volunteerism. But volunteerism is only one part of the approach that's needed.

So the approach is working itself out in ad-hoc fashion; like Topsy, it's just growing. One example: Several Americans who've been unable to procure business or mortgage loans since the banking crisis have banded together to start loan cooperatives. Simple, saves a lot of red tape -- and redirects the energy needed to fight out political solutions to where it really needs to go:  to actually solving the problem faced by individuals who desperately need a loan.

That's one of the big drawbacks with trying to turn the solution to big government into a political one: it diverts a lot of energy from creativity and from the actions needed to actually solve a problem. And of course it diverts a lot of money.

Another irony is that the hyper-focus on political solutions -- which no matter how hopeful always translate into Business as Usual in Washington -- has created a subculture in the USA of ardent survivalists.

Americans aren't idiots; we know that when a real disaster strikes we can't immediately depend on the government for help. So, many Americans have been stocking up on food, guns and ammo, and gold; this ahead of what they fear is the bottom falling out of the U.S. economy.

These actions have understandably worried the Department of Homeland Security. This has in turn created a bunker mentality among many survivalists: the government is out to get us so let's buy even more guns and ammo. This in turn worries Homeland even more, and it goes on and on like that.

Hello, just stop thinking so much about the government. Wherever you find a need, think up a way you and those in your community can fill it. Then implement your experiment and refine it as you go along.

Look at Paul Glover's HOURS currency idea; he didn't know at first exactly how to implement it. He was in new territory.  He even worried that he might be arrested for counterfeiting the money he was printing up. Well, as long as you're not printing up Federal Reserve-issued currency, you're not breaking the law.

But Glover's idea is simply a tide-over during an economic crisis for small towns that don't want to see the majority of their stores shut. Everyone agrees to price a currency at what they can afford to pay for it. In the case of HOURS, an average of an hour's pay -- a little over minimum wage, if I recall correctly,  If store-owners agree to accept the HOURS currency, this means people can still purchase goods, goods they couldn't afford to buy if the currency was dollars.

How neat is that?

Of course the cheaper currency cuts into the store owner's profits but it's better than going out of business. And the Federal Reserve money (often incorrectly described as 'government-issued' money) you save with using HOURS currency, you can then use toward paying bills that have to be paid for with dollars.

And you don't have to purchase and hoard very expensive gold if your community has HOURS. Once the HOURS currency system is established, your town can immediately switch to using it when a real economic crisis or national emergency strikes. When the crisis is over and the salad days return, then you can go back to using dollars.

So, really, the solution isn't big government or small government; it's impermanent and fungible government. There are times a big government agency is needed, times it's not. It depends on the situation. This situation-driven approach to government is where we're headed -- by a long way around, and in
haphazard fashion, but we'll get there.

Another irony is that many Americans want to get more involved in running things themselves and have the capacity to do so. Look at this report from the Associated Press:

'What Can I Do?': New Yorkers Seek Ways to Help
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer
NEW YORK November 3, 2012
Associated Press via ABC News

Normally on a Saturday morning, Erica Siegel, a 33-year-old real estate agent, would be working or taking a run. But this weekend found her packing rolls of toilet paper, boxes of garbage bags, and canned vegetables and soups to bring to a Queens park, where they would be sorted for delivery to storm victims.

Siegel's also been asking fellow real estate agents to join her in an effort, advertised on Facebook pages and blogs, to find vacant homes — for sale or rent — to help house storm evacuees.

"I have to tell you, it feels like a virus going around, this need to help," she said, speaking a mile a minute as she raced to get out of her house. "So many people are feeling it."

In ways big and small, ordinary people from storm-affected areas are seeking out opportunities to help. In terms of drama, these efforts don't rise to the level of the heroic rescues that have made TV newscasts — like the man who ventured into chest-deep waters to rescue a stranded cab driver. But they are a way, these people say, of giving something, if just a little, to those who, by mere chance and geography, suffered more than they did.

"It turns out, people really, really want to do something," said Lyn Pentecost of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, which serves some 150 low-income families and was thrilled to find supporters donating more than $15,000 in less than four hours Saturday, following a 7 a.m. email. "They just want to know how to do it."

A world away on the Upper East Side, where power was never lost, Kim Hartman, a mother of three, was one of those who found herself searching for ways to help.
"I looked at the kids and they were sitting around, doing nothing," she said. "I wanted to stop the inertia."

So she took two of her kids and a friend to a local food pantry, where they spent three hours preparing packages for the needy. It turned out there were too many volunteers on subsequent days, so this weekend, the family is making hundreds of packaged lunches at home and bringing them over.

"This makes it very real to my kids," said Hartman, who's also hosting four guests from areas without power. "You can look at the pictures, but I think you need to walk out the front door, to really feel the change that has happened in the city."

The efforts are being organized in a myriad of ways: On Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, community blogs, school email lists, or by word of mouth. They are supplementing the much larger-scale efforts by relief agencies like the American Red Cross and religious-affiliated organizations like the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, the Catholic Charities of New York or the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

The smaller, community-based efforts tend to focus on more specific needs. And so, while the Red Cross encourages financial donations, rather than material goods, as the most effective way to help, Staten Islander Sean Sweeney's Facebook page is full of requests for work gloves, boys' shoes, a generator for a family in distress, or an immediate need for manpower on a certain street corner.

"Anyone looking to get dirty can meet me at 326 Seaver Avenue this morning," Sweeney, a former community board chairman in the hard-hit borough and also an amateur photographer, posted on Saturday. "Bring gloves and your resolve and I don't mean carpet cleaner." [Pundita note: There's a U.S. brand of carpet cleaner called Resolve]

"I am looking for boys' clothes 'n toys for 8 and 10 year old boys!!!" one woman wrote earlier. "Work gloves are needed," wrote another. "New - Used - Mismatched. It doesn't matter."

A few days ago on his page, Sweeney says, he asked if anyone could spare a generator for a man who was a quadriplegic and had no power. Within hours, he had not only a generator but someone to help him bring it over.

"People have opened their hearts," Sweeney said. "With Staten Islanders, there's zero degrees of separation. This is the kind of thing Staten Islanders do."

In Queens, where Siegel, the real estate agent, was packing food and supplies on Saturday, she was joined by fellow teammates who had all planned to run Sunday's marathon together. Mayor Michael Bloomberg had canceled the race the night before. So the team decided to meet anyway and keep an earlier plan to work on hurricane relief, followed by a brainstorming session for their next marathon, in Pennsylvania next week.

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where residents were relatively unaffected by Sandy, volunteer coordinator Shelly Fine found a similar spirit of resolve.

Fine, a former assistant schools superintendent who is trained in rescue efforts, put out an appeal for volunteers and found himself fielding hundreds of calls and emails.

"People were very forthcoming, offering their time and their skills," he said. "They're saying, 'What can I do?'"

Fine found that the best use of his own time was sitting in front of the computer and matching offers to needs — for example, two shelters closed and he had to redirect people to another. One shelter found it needed hygienic wipes to clean cots. Another needed trained medical personnel.

Elliot Zweig, 32, works at a nonprofit think tank, and found himself wanting to help out on Wednesday. He contacted Fine through a blog called the West Side Rag. Soon, he and his wife, a nurse practitioner, were staffing the medical room of a shelter on 84th Street. It was the first time Zweig had volunteered in a similar way since 9/11.

"I watched the TV news, saw all the tragedy and devastation, and I felt very spared — I was safe and comfortable," Zweig said. "We were the lucky ones, who could help."

This week, it's been hard to log onto a website of any organization — a school, a gym, even a store — and not see a reference to Sandy and efforts to help. The 92nd Street Y, in Manhattan, offered families free arts classes and gym time. PTA groups at schools discussed bake sales to raise money.

On a larger scale, NBC held a benefit concert Friday night, featuring Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and other stars, with donations going to the Red Cross. Barneys New York, the luxury store, was giving 10 percent of its proceeds from Sunday sales to the Red Cross.

Some recovery efforts involved not a group, but merely an individual seeking to help a neighbor. Julia Strom spent three nights — from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. — caring for a woman in her 90s by candlelight. Doing so "was a privilege; it heightens and beautifies life," the 53-year-old Strom said.

Sometimes, agreed Pentecost, of the Lower Eastside Girls Club, it's the littlest things that count the most — what she called "small acts of great love."

Her group was planning to take the thousands of dollars raised this weekend and stuff a bunch of $20 bills into envelopes for families who need to pay that next cellphone bill. Or stock the refrigerator.

"People have to throw out everything in their fridges," she noted. "This is restock-the-fridge money."

"I understand the need for FEMA and the Red Cross and all the rest," she added. "But we're talking about no lines, no red tape. Just immediate help. These people have suffered enough."

———
Associated Press Writer Verena Dobnik contributed to this report.

So the enthusiasm and capacity are here now. It's just a matter of harnessing it beyond crisis periods.

Summary of Sandy's effects, state by state

I want to preface this post with thanks.to the Associated Press ("AP") and Reuters.

You'll note that my last post was simply passing along a Reuters report via ABC TV news on the Sandy disaster and the threat that a new gathering storm is posing the water-logged American northeast.  This post is simply passing along an AP report carried by CBS TV news -- CBS and ABC being two of the three "free" (no charge for viewing) national American "broadcast" television networks.  (NBC is the third.  PBS, 'public television,' supported by private and public money, being a fourth free national news outlet. PBS gets many of its news feeds from the BBC).

This is not the time to ask why American television and press have become so dependent on AP and Reuters, or to ask whether it's good idea for news gathering to become consolidated in a few organizations.  Both questions are important, but right now is the time to say that I don't know what Americans would do without AP and Reuters and their veritable armies of reporters, writers and editors.  They have done a tremendous job of reporting on Superstorm Sandy and the storm's aftermath. 

Need I add that the lifeblood of a genuine democracy is accurate information on major events in a nation?

The following hardly explains the extent of the devastation left by Sandy, which is best conveyed in photographs, personal accounts and in-depth reports. But it conveys at a glance Sandy's range in the United States.         

A state-by-state look at superstorm's effects
AP via CBS News website
November 3, 2012, 11:41 PM EDT (updated 11:40 PM(

The massive storm that started out as Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast and morphed into a huge and problematic system, killing at least 107 people in the United States. Power outages now stand at more than 2.2 million homes and businesses, down from a peak of 8.5 million. Here's a snapshot of what is happening, state by state.

CONNECTICUT
Memorial held for firefighter hit by falling tree. Deaths: 3. Power outages: 85,000, down from a peak of 625,000.

MASSACHUSETTS
Ship heading to Elizabeth, N.J., to house emergency workers, power crews and others. Deaths: None. Power outages: none, down from 400,000.

NEW JERSEY
Rationing system for auto fuel takes effect in northern New Jersey, creating confusion and frustration. State allowing displaced residents to vote by email or fax. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announces she will visit Sunday. Deaths: 23. Power outages: 1.1 million, down from 2.7 million.

NEW YORK
Lights go back on in lower Manhattan after days of darkness while resentment builds in hard-hit, still-powerless outer boroughs. Children go back to school Monday. Deaths: 48, including 41 in New York City. Power outages: 900,000, down from 2.2 million.

PENNSYLVANIA
Between 250 and 300 polling places remained without power just days before Tuesday's election. Red Cross closes all but two of its shelters. Deaths: 15. Power outages: 100,000, down from 1.2 million.

RHODE ISLAND
President declares a major disaster, freeing up federal funding for recovery efforts. Volunteers in Westerly work to clear away debris. Deaths: None. Power outages: none, down from more than 122,000.

WEST VIRGINIA
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano visits and pledges resources for state to recover from heavy snowfall. Deaths: 6. Power outages: 65,000, down from 270,000.

OTHER STATES WITH STORM-RELATED DEATHS
 Maryland (4), New Hampshire (1), North Carolina (3), Ohio (2), Virginia (2).

To help victims of Sandy, donations to the American Red Cross can be made by visiting Red Cross disaster relief, or you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Sandy: Disaster relief now in race against oncoming freezing temperatures and storm

The weather forecast remains bleak. An aggressive early-season "Nor'easter" storm was expected to hit the battered New England coast next week with strong winds and heavy rain.

"There's no heating oil around," said Vincent Savino, the president of Statewide Oil and Heating, which usually supplies 2,000 buildings across New York City. "I don't know how much fuel we have left: maybe a day or two."

Reuters, Saturday, November 3,  1012 - 9:11 PM EDT:

U.S. disaster relief in a race against freezing cold
By Joseph Ax and Jeanine Prezioso [with reporting from Reuters bureaus throughout U.S. Northeast]

(Reuters - New York) - Fuel supplies headed toward disaster zones in the U.S. Northeast on Saturday and a million customers regained electricity as near freezing temperatures threatened to add to the misery of coastal communities devastated by superstorm Sandy.

President Barack Obama, neck-and-neck in opinion polls with Republican rival Mitt Romney three days before the general election, told emergency response officials to cut through government "red tape" and work without delay to help ravaged areas return to normal as quickly as possible.

The power restorations relit the skyline in Lower Manhattan for the first time in nearly a week and allowed 80 percent of the New York City subway service to resume, but more than a million homes and businesses still lacked power, down from 3.5 million on Friday.

The power outages combined with a heating oil shortage meant some homes could go cold as unseasonably frigid weather sets in. Forecasters saw temperatures dipping into the upper 30s Fahrenheit (around 3 degrees Celsius) on Saturday night with freezing temperatures expected next week.

In Staten Island, the New York City borough whose half a million residents bore the brunt of Sandy, people tried to stay warm.

Tom Clark, 43, and family members were burning wood in a steel drum on their front yard. Clark said the family and their dogs planned to go stay at his mother-in-law's heated house. George Harrison, 39, and his wife had masks hanging around their necks that they had used to shield them from the stench of raw sewage when they entered their flood-hit house.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano visited Staten Island on Friday amid assertions by some angry residents that they had been ignored by emergency relief workers.

The weather forecast remains bleak. An aggressive early-season "Nor'easter" storm was expected to hit the battered New England coast next week with strong winds and heavy rain.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Saturday urged those without power and heat - especially the elderly and other vulnerable groups - to head to shelters where they could keep warm and receive food.

"Right now it's starting to really get cold," he said.

In New York and New Jersey, more than 18,000 people remained in shelters, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said.

BLOOMBERG CRITICIZES UTILITY

"There's no heating oil around," said Vincent Savino, the president of Statewide Oil and Heating, which usually supplies 2,000 buildings across New York City. "I don't know how much fuel we have left: maybe a day or two."

The post-storm chaos also threatened to jumble Tuesday's election, with Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney locked in a tight race.

The storm's death toll rose to at least 110 with nine more deaths reported in New Jersey on Saturday, raising the total in that state to 22. Bloomberg put New York City deaths at 41.

Sandy killed 69 people in the Caribbean before turning north and hammering the U.S. Eastern Seaboard on Monday with 80 mile-per-hour (130-kph) winds and a record surge of seawater that swallowed oceanside communities in New Jersey and New York, and flooded streets and subway tunnels in New York City.

Bloomberg praised utility Consolidated Edison for making significant progress in restoring power to customers, but warned New Yorkers that it would be days before everyone had electricity again and fuel shortages ended.

But he had sharp words for the Long Island Power Authority, LIPA, which he said "has not acted aggressively enough" in its power restoration efforts, above all in the Rockaways, a beachfront community in the borough of Queens.

In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie ordered rationing that allows only half of all cars to buy gasoline each day.

"I was there (at the Jersey Shore) yesterday and I will tell you, it looked like we had been bombed," Christie said "There are homes in Bay Head on the beach that had been driven by the storm surge into the houses across the street."

Obama won praise for the federal storm response but the devastation was so widespread that angry storm victims continued to appear on television days after landfall. The storm damaged or destroyed thousands of homes and displaced voters, forcing election officials to improvise at early polling stations.

Christie ordered county clerks in New Jersey to open on Saturday and Sunday to accommodate early voters and ensure a "full, fair and transparent open voting process."

New Jersey authorities also took the uncommon step of declaring that any voter displaced from their home by superstorm Sandy would be designated an overseas voter, which allows them to submit an absentee vote by fax or email.

Tight gasoline supplies have tested the patience of drivers - fistfights have broken out in mile-long lines of cars - but a reopened New York Harbor meant fuel was reaching terminals.

To alleviate one of the country's worst fuel chain disruptions since the energy shortage in the 1970s, some 8 million gallons of gasoline and other petroleum products have been delivered since Friday, with much more expected this weekend, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

Cuomo also announced the Defense Department would set up five mobile gas stations in the metropolitan area, providing people with up to 10 gallons of free gas. New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs said the fuel was for personnel and first responder vehicles, which have priority.

At least 1,000 drivers queued up at the Freeport Armory in Long Island, only to be told the gasoline would not arrive for at least eight hours more, one driver said.

"There's just so many people getting very frustrated. People don't know what to do," said Lauren Popkoff, 49, a history teacher who had been in line for four hours.

Bloomberg said the fuel shortages would be easing soon.

According to the U.S. Energy Informational Administration the number of dry stations in the New York metropolitan area plunged to 38 percent on Saturday from 67 percent on Friday. The U.S. Department of Energy confirmed on Saturday that most filling stations in the metro area had fuel.

New York City's overstretched police got a break with the cancellation of Sunday's marathon, a popular annual race that became a lightning rod for critics who said it would divert resources.

People are also worried about crime. In one hard-hit Queens neighborhood, a garage full of debris stood open with a sign next to it reading: "LOOTERS WILL BE CRUCIFIED - GOD HELP YOU."

Police arrested a man who was wearing a Red Cross jacket and checking front doors of unoccupied houses in Staten Island.

The Obama administration directed the purchase of up to 12 million gallons (45 million liters) of gas and 10 million gallons of diesel, to be trucked to New York and New Jersey. It also waved rules barring foreign-flagged ships from making U.S. domestic fuel transfers.

Consolidated Edison, battling what it called the worst natural disaster in the company's 180-year history, restored electricity to many Manhattan neighborhoods, though some 11,000 customers on the island were without service.

The company said 270,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County still had no power, down from nearly a million who were cut off by the storm.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus throughout the U.S. Northeast; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

John Batchelor's questions about Benghazi

Pundita is suffering from information overload about news and opinion on the Benghazi Affair. When I visited Pajamas Media today to read Richard Fernandez's latest about Benghazi, I counted 14 headlines on the front page from posts by various contributors that had the word "Benghazi" in the title. (Best title: Roger L. Simon's Benghazi: The Democratic Party Will Be Lucky if Obama Loses)

I am proud to report I didn't read any of them, in the same way I didn't give in at Whole Foods the other night and buy a box of chocolate brownie mini-muffins -- although I confess I kept the box in my shopping cart until I got to the checkout counter.

So. The Benghazi story is now well-covered by many others, including Fox News, which means it's time for Pundita to turn her attention to other matters after taking a break this weekend.

Before signing off I want to list questions that John Batchelor asked in his November 1 post about Benghazi. He ran the questions together in one paragraph so I separated them into a list format; I think this makes it a little easier to comprehend the very grave issues related to the Benghazi attack. The issues vastly transcend Washington's frantic CYA leaks and counter-leaks on Benghazi:

Real Time Benghazi Puzzles
by John Batchelor
The John Batchelor Show
November 1, 2012
[...]

What of the report that there was a CIA UAV overhead that retired and was then replaced by a second CIA drone?

What of the report that neither drone was armed?

What of the report that there was an AC-130 gunship on another mission about an hour away that was available and was turned back or refused?

What to make of the report that Doherty and Woods were on the annex roof to "paint" a target for an intervention by air support?

What of the report of an advance reaction team (am told it is called a counter-intelligence force or CIF) was available from outside of Libya?

What of the report that POTUS and SecDef Panetta were together in the White House Situation Room around 5 pm ET (11 pm Benghazi time) and were able to watch the assault or its aftermath in real time?

What of the report that AFRICOM General Ham was at the Pentagon that day? ]

What of the report that General Martin Dempsey told General Ham to stand down the CIF team?

What of the report that SecDef Leon Panetta ordered a special operations unit to prepare to deploy from the US?

What decisions did POTUS make before he left for AF1? [to fly to Las Vegas, Nevada for a fundraiser]

What decisions did POTUS make enroute to Nevada?

What of the general observation about the chain of command that when POTUS is present, no one makes any final determination without his approval?

What of the report that the Benghazi CIA station was directed out of the White House by Counterterror Czar John Brennan -- in the same fashion Admiral John Poindexter and Colonel Oliver North once ran the Iran-Contra operation out of the White House?

Was there a presidential finding for the Benghazi operation? Was Ambassador Chris Stevens part of the operation?

Why was the Turkish ambassador meeting with Ambassador Chris Stevens just prior to the attack?

What is the relationship between POTUS and President Recip Erdogan of Turkey that the two countries share knowledge and connection with Libyan mercenaries associated with Jihadist/Islamist elements in Cyrenaica?

What does Libya get for contributing mercenaries to the so-called Free Syrian Army?

Fog of Election

The inquiry will go far in establishing what I am told is the Obama administration policy of making concessions to the strongmen of the Arab Spring. If Mr. Obama is reelected, the inquiry will trouble the second term in much the same way Iran-Contra troubled Mr. Reagan's second term.

.If Mr. Romney is elected, then the matter will fold neatly into the category, What Can Go Wrong and Why with Intervention in Libya?

Link between an organizer of 9/11/12 attack on U.S. Cairo embassy and attackers at U.S. Libya mission

I wonder what Hosni Mubarak is thinking, right about now. But then, 'I warned those stupid idiots' isn't much satisfaction when one is behind bars.

For all you 12-year olds -- what are you doing reading this blog? But is there anyone on the planet who doesn't yet know that the spontaneous attack on the U.S. embassy in Cairo was a straight-up al Qaeda-planned op? So unless you just can't get enough details on the Cairo op, the only really interesting part of Thomas Joscelyn's Nov 1 report for Long War Journal, Old school Egyptian jihadists linked to 9/11 Cairo protest, Benghazi suspect is that it's now pretty much in the bag that there's a significant link between one of the instigators of the September 11 Cairo attack and the armed attackers who struck the Benghazi mission on the same day.

The funny part -- if you like this kind of humor -- is Tom's Nov 2 report, Egypt arrests pro-al Qaeda jihadist tied to Benghazi suspect. Gosh I hope this guy doesn't die falling down the stairs at the police station or from committing suicide by two bullets to the brain before U.S. authorities can question him.

Speaking of U.S. authorities trying to question suspects tied to the Benghazi attack, you'll never guess who wangled access to the Tunisian 'suspect' now in Tunisia -- the one who was placed inside the Benghazi mission on the night of the attack by a CCTV camera at the mission.  Nope, not the President of the United States, not the Secretary of State; they got told to bug off when they asked whether some of their people could question him. It was two Republican Senators, loaded for bear. From today's Washington Times:

The Tunisian government has granted American authorities in-person access to a suspect in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, according to two Republican senators.

Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia have been working closely to push for U.S. access to the suspect, Ali Ani al Harzi, a Tunisian citizen who allegedly was caught on video during the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

On Friday, Mr. Graham and Mr. Chambliss said the Tunisian government has agreed to allow U.S. investigators in-person access to al Harzi.

"We are very pleased the Tunisian government is working with American investigators to allow in-person access to Ali Ani al Harzi," the two senators said in a joint statement. "Under this arrangement, the interviews will be under Tunisian supervision and consistent with their sovereignty and meets the needs of our investigative team."

Mr. Graham, the ranking Republican on the foreign aid appropriations subcommittee, Wednesday threatened Tunisia with a possible suspension of U.S. aid if the country refused to grant U.S. authorities access al Harzi.
[...]

Now if only senators Graham and Chambliss got as forceful with Pakistan's regime we might finally see real progress in the War on Terror.

After all the trouble Washington went to after 9/11/01 to set up a counterterrorism task force, the White House didn't consult it on 9/11/12. "The response process was isolated at the most senior level," says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. "My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I [were] not consulted."

Absent coordination from Counterterrorism Security Group, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official says the response to the crisis became more confused. ... Another senior counter terrorism official says a hostage rescue team was alternately asked to get ready and then stand down throughout the night, as officials seemed unable to make up their minds.

I yanked another of my posts last night because it was useless. With the way my luck is running I shouldn't have written it was a safe bet that Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin would be on Greta Van Susteren's show last night. While Greta's interview with Kansas Republican Pat Roberts about Benghazi made up for Jennifer's absence (See the video of the interview), I would have lost money if I'd placed any on the bet.

I pulled the post rather than simply update it because I was annoyed with myself. In the rush and tumble I attributed a bombshell report to Jennifer that she'd talked about during her appearance on Fox's 6 PM news show, but which was actually filed first by CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson. Jennifer's report on the same topic wasn't published until today.

So by way of penance I'll feature here Sharyl's report and link to Jennifer's:

Sources: Key task force not convened during Benghazi consulate attack
By Sharyl Attkisson
CBS News
November 1, 2012, 6:02 PM

CBS News has learned that during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG).

"The CSG is the one group that's supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies," a high-ranking government official told CBS News. "They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon."

Information shared with CBS News from top counterterrorism sources in the government and military reveal keen frustration over the U.S. response on Sept. 11, the night Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a coordinated attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.

The circumstances of the attack, including the intelligence and security situation there, will be the subject of a Senate Intelligence Committee closed hearing on Nov. 15, with additional hearings to follow.

Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack.

CBS News has agreed not to quote directly from the emails, and to protect the identities of the sources who hold sensitive counterterrorism posts within the State Department, the U.S. military and the Justice Department.

As to why the Counterterrorism Security Group was not convened, National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor told CBS News "From the moment the President was briefed on the Benghazi attack, the response effort was handled by the most senior national security officials in governments. Members of the CSG were of course involved in these meetings and discussions to support their bosses."

Absent coordination from Counterterrorism Security Group, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official says the response to the crisis became more confused. The official says the FBI received a call during the attack representing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and requesting agents be deployed. But he and his colleagues agreed the agents "would not make any difference without security and other enablers to get them in the country and synch their efforts with military and diplomatic efforts to maximize their success."

Another senior counterterrorism official says a hostage rescue team was alternately asked to get ready and then stand down throughout the night, as officials seemed unable to make up their minds.

A third potential responder from a counter-terror force stationed in Europe says components of AFICOM -- the military's Africa Command based in Stuttgart, Germany -- were working on a course of action during the assault. But no plan was put to use.

"Forces were positioned after the fact but not much good to those that needed it," the military source told CBS News.

"The response process was isolated at the most senior level," says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. "My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I (were) not consulted."

The official says a protocol set forth in a classified presidential directive calls for the Counterterrorism Security Group (CSG) to be convened in the event of a possible terrorist attack. According to a public military document, the directive was designed to "synchronize the efforts of all the government agencies that have a role to play in the Global War on Terrorism."

The Administration also didn't call on the only interagency, on-call, short notice team poised to respond to terrorist incidents worldwide: the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST). FEST's seasoned experts leave within four hours of notification and can provide "the fastest assistance possible."

FEST Teams deployed immediately after al Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, and the USS Cole in 2000, but were not used for Benghazi, to the chagrin of some insiders. It's likely that the CSG task force, if contacted, would have recommended FEST aid.

"First a tactical response was needed," says a senior U.S. counterterrorism official, "and while that was being implemented, the holistic response could have been developed and deployed within hours" which could have allowed the FBI investigate safely on site well ahead of the "24 days it took."

When asked why the FEST wasn't utilized, a State Department official said it was used previously in East Africa because of damage sustained to a U.S. Embassy "to help restore communications and other infrastructure support. In this case, that was unnecessary at Embassy Tripoli."

A White House official told us that at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies." He also said a "small group of reinforcements" was sent from Tripoli to Benghazi, but declined to say how many or what time they arrived. The Pentagon moved a team of special operators from central Europe to Sigonella, Italy but gave no other details.

Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans died in a protracted battle over the course of eight hours. It's believed two of the victims, Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, died in a mortar attack some six or seven hours after the U.S. Mission was first overrun by a terrorist mob that burned buildings and used AK-47 rifles, bombs, and mortars.

Mexico's crime cartels: In Michoacan state it's pretty quiet. The quiet of defeat.

Soldiers point out pastel-colored, air-conditioned narco-mansions that stand out from the cluster of humble rural shacks in many of the small towns. ... The cartel consists largely of men from the Tierra Caliente, and they promote themselves as a mystic Christian order dedicated to protecting the population from abuse at the hands of the military and police.

I saw the following report only by chance, while I was trawling the Fox News website for reports on Benghazi. When I read that an Associated Press reporter (unamed) had bravely embedded with Mexican troops to get a "soldier's eye" view of the cartel wars, I decided to snatch a moment to post the introductory paragraphs from the reporter's efforts, which are a window on a state in Mexico that lives under martial law -- the law of criminals. 

My only quibble:  the title of the report refers to a "drug" cartel. Mexico's crime cartels have moved way, way beyond just drug dealing.

At launching point of Mexico's drug war, quasi-religious cartel rules 6 years later
Associated Press via Fox News
November 2, 2012

APATZINGAN, Mexico – Forest-camouflaged pickups roared to life as the Mexican soldiers pulled on their black masks and hoisted their Heckler & Koch G3 assault rifles.

The three-truck convoy pulled out of the base to patrol the rugged, mountainous region of the western state of Michoacan, when a raspy voice burst out of an unencrypted radio inside one of the cabs: "Three R's, 53." Three army vehicles, headed your way.

It wasn't a soldier's voice. The radio had picked up a call from the Knights Templar, a quasi-religious drug cartel that controls the area and most of the state. Its web of spies monitors the movements of the military and police around the clock. The gang's members not only live off methamphetamine and marijuana smuggling and extortion, they maintain country roads, control the local economy and act as private debt collectors for citizens frustrated with the courts, soldiers say.

"Because they're vigilant and well-organized they roll around here with a lot of ease," said Lt. Col. Julices Gonzalez Calzada, the leader of the patrol.

Felipe Calderon launched his presidency in December 2006 by sending the army to Michoacan, his home state, to battle organized crime that he said threatened to expand from drug trafficking to controlling civil society. His administration says it has debilitated many of the cartels with a leadership-focused offensive that has killed or captured 25 of the country's 37 most-wanted men.

But he has failed to stop drug cartels from morphing into mafias infiltrating society in the sun-seared Tierra Caliente, or Hot Country, a region named for its steamy weather, but now also too hot with gang activity for many to live and work safely. The government annihilated the leadership of one previous cartel, La Familia Michoacana, but a splinter group, the Knights Templar, moved in to take control.

Rank-and-file soldiers say they feel largely powerless in the face of an enemy that hides among the population. They say whenever they make strategic strikes, the gang's professional-grade infrastructure is replaced almost as fast as it's taken down.

Now the two sides largely co-exist.
[...]

Okay, Gen. Petraeus. Now you need your mouthpieces in the 'intelligence community' to explain why Tyrone Woods was making himself an easy target on the annex roof by using a laser spotter to call in an air strike on the mortar crew firing at the annex -- an air strike that never happened. Or do you want to lob this question to SecDef Panetta's mouthpieces?

The Fox News reports on the Benghazi Affair are reminding me of the old RAID insecticide cartoon commercial -- cockroaches scattering in every direction when they see the spray can and yelling, "It's RAID!" 

Hillary Clinton's mouthpieces are trying to get the lid back on. Max Fisher at the Washington Post, a conduit for State  Dept. views, worked himself in knots today in his attempt to pin blame for Ambassador Chris Stevens's death on -- Ambassador Stevens.

And David Petraeus's mouthpieces are scrambling to explain It Wasn't Us. See Greg Miller's report today for the Washington Post. CIA rushed to save diplomats as Libya attack was underway

(I don't blame Greg, who's a very good reporter. He's just passing along what his sources told him -- probably after they sat on his chest and recounted a few stories about reporters disappearing under the oddest circumstances because they didn't report quickly enough on what their sources told them.)

[flipping a pen in the air]  General Petraeus. Mrs Clinton. Mr Panetta.  Wouldn't it be simpler, if you want to save your agencies, if you stood up and told the American public in your own words what you know?  Made a clean breast of it?

Mrs Clinton, nobody died because you stood by your man in the Monica Lewinsky Affair. But four Americans were killed in Libya. So I suggest you start singing like a bird about what you know regarding Obama's decisions in the Benghazi Affair, and hang the presidential election. Just a reminder: Your ass is now on the line, Madam Secretary

Hello out there. Is there anybody in the milblog/diplo part of the American blogosphere who has NOT yet read Catherine Herridge's October 31 report?  Or who didn't hear what she told Greta Van Susteren last night on Greta's show? 

Well if you haven't then I guess you don't know yet that the roof has blown off the U.S. Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense and the White House.  And no -- it's not going to die down.  It's going to get much worse. 

Even Republican Sen. John McCain, who did so much to push U.S. involvement in taking down Gaddafi, is in shock.  He said in public that he cannot mentally encompass what Clapper and Petraeus did. Well, this is what happens when you're taking orders from a President you know is more of an Assassin-in-Chief than a Commander-in-Chief and you just sit there like a stump on a log as your response.

Even Foreign Policy magazine has -- finally -- jumped into the fray. I know they hate fighting on the same side as Fox News. But it so happens that the survivors of the 9/11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi -- who are all probably Democrats -- are extremely upset that they were turned into cannon fodder. And surely they're just as upset about the murder of four of their colleagues.  Clearly, from the number of documents and statements that have been leaked to Fox reporters Jennifer Griffin and Catherine Herridge, their view is that if Fox is the only media outlet that will listen to them, so be it. But breaking news as of about five minutes ago, now other outlets are jumping into the story, including CBS and I think -- could it be? -- ABC News.

So please no more complaints from readers that I kept yanking posts I was putting up last night.  There was a little excitement here last night in Punditaland. The only way I could calm down was by writing one of my 'Let's try to put this in perspective' essays that first I yanked then rewrote, and I'm still not happy with it.

And for those fellow bloggers and correspondents who tell me they don't watch TV -- better join us proletariat down here in the mud and turn on the boob tube -- to Fox cable.

All right.  Here is the entire Oct 31 report but I warn  -- I WARN -- that you really need to hear Greta's interview with Catherine Herridge -- and the next interview, in which Greta spoke with Rep. Jason Chaffetz  -- before you can get some idea of the scope of the storm that's bearing down on Washington. Will the storm break before the presidential election?  Doesn't matter. This isn't about a President's antics in the White House with a paramour in a blue dress:

Exclusive: Classified cable warned consulate couldn't withstand 'coordinated attack'
By Catherine Herridge
Published October 31, 2012
FoxNews.com

The U.S. Mission in Benghazi convened an “emergency meeting” less than a month before the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, because Al Qaeda had training camps in Benghazi and the consulate could not defend against a “coordinated attack,” according to a classified cable reviewed by Fox News.

Summarizing an Aug. 15 emergency meeting convened by the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Aug. 16 cable marked “SECRET” said that the State Department’s senior security officer, also known as the RSO, did not believe the consulate could be protected.

“RSO (Regional Security Officer) expressed concerns with the ability to defend Post in the event of a coordinated attack due to limited manpower, security measures, weapons capabilities, host nation support, and the overall size of the compound,” the cable said.

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.

The details in the cable seemed to foreshadow the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. compound, which was a coordinated, commando-style assault using direct and indirect fire. Al Qaeda in North Africa and Ansar al-Sharia, both mentioned in the cable, have since been implicated in the consulate attack.

In addition to describing the security situation in Benghazi as “trending negatively,” the cable said explicitly that the mission would ask for more help. “In light of the uncertain security environment, US Mission Benghazi will submit specific requests to US Embassy Tripoli for additional physical security upgrades and staffing needs by separate cover.”

As for specific threats against the U.S., the cable warned the intelligence was not clear on the issue, cautioning that the militias in Benghazi were not concerned with any significant retaliation from the Libyan government, which had apparently lost control in Benghazi. A briefer explained that they “did not have information suggesting that these entities were targeting Americans but did caveat that (there was not) a complete picture of their intentions yet. RSO (Regional Security Officer) noted that the Benghazi militias have become more brazen in their actions and have little fear of reprisal from the (government of Libya.)”

While the administration’s public statements have suggested that the attack came without warning, the Aug. 16 cable seems to undercut those claims. It was a direct warning to the State Department that the Benghazi consulate was vulnerable to attack, that it could not be defended and that the presence of anti-U.S. militias and Al Qaeda was well-known to the U.S. intelligence community.

In a three-page cable on Sept 11, the day Stevens and the three other Americans were killed, Stevens wrote about “growing problems with security” in Benghazi and “growing frustration” with the security forces and Libyan police. The ambassador saw both as “too weak to keep the country secure.”

Fox News asked the State Department to respond to a series of questions about the Aug. 16 cable, including who was specifically charged with reviewing it and whether action was taken by Washington or Tripoli. Fox News also asked, given the specific warnings and the detailed intelligence laid out in the cable, whether the State Department considered extra measures for the consulate in light of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks – and if no action was taken, who made that call.

The State Department press office declined to answer specific questions, citing the classified nature of the cable.

"An independent board is conducting a thorough review of the assault on our post in Benghazi," Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said in written statement. "Once we have the board's comprehensive account of what happened, findings and recommendations, we can fully address these matters."

Then and Now: Instructive parallels between 9/11/01-Benghazi and Katrina-Sandy storms

So much has been happening on two fronts -- the incident now known simply as "Benghazi" and the Sandy Superstorm -- that my attempts to keep up with news about both has made me feel as if I'm watching a lightning-fast tennis match. I've been determined to keep up because I'm seeing what I find to be instructive parallels between four events: Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, and the 9/11 attacks of 2001 and 2012. It's just that I'm having a hard time articulating what I find so instructive about the parallels. What follows is the best explanation I can muster at this time.

Sandy and Katrina

Several of the worst incidents from Sandy would have happened under any conditions in that storm. The fires in the Breezy Point neighborhood in Queens, New York are one example.  But I think it's a different story, one strikingly reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, with regard to the devastation that Sandy wreaked on New Jersey beachfront communities. 

All up and down the New Jersey coast, as Brian Williams (NBC News) described last night to Larry Kudlow (CNBC's Kudlow Show) after he saw the devastation first-hand, Sandy's strike created a new shoreline and swallowed many miles of beach in the process. Brian told Larry that the wind-driven waters just swept through everything in their path.

That sounded to me like an echo of the underlying situation that allowed Hurricane Katrina )2005) to cause such devastation to Gulf coast shores.  I recall that flood management engineers and environmentalists who looked into the Katrina tragedy identified the disappearance of vast marshy 'wetlands' as the underlying reason for the great devastation that the hurricane wreaked on the Gulf coastline and coastal cities.  This is because the marshy lands act as kind of sponge for the wind-driven waters. So they're the first line of defense against an ocean's fury during a hurricane.

Without the networks of wetlands, the second line of defense -- the 'barrier islands' -- is little barrier during a significant storm.  So the coastline for the land mass behind the islands no longer has any real defense against the brunt of the water's pounding during a high-velocity hurricane -- or even the slow-churning lesser winds of a storm like Sandy. 

Benghazi and 9/11/01

As more and more layers are peeled from the Benghazi tragedy, we find a defense community in pretty much the same situation that existed in the weeks prior to the 9/11/01 attack. From monitoring 'signals intelligence' in 2001, defense analysts knew, by picking up a lot of 'chatter,' that a terrorist group(s) was preparing a major attack on American soil. But they didn't know exactly where or when the attack would occur.

From eyewitness accounts and whistleblowers at State, CIA and DOD, a parallel story is emerging about conditions prior to the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. The comparison isn't entirely symmetrical because it came out just yesterday that by the middle of August, Ambassador Christopher Stevens was quite sure a major attack would be launched against the U.S. Benghazi mission, and that it could be imminent -- and he communicated his assessment in a cable directly to SecState Hillary Clinton with copies to relevant parties in Washington. But I think my comparison holds together in a general fashion: there was the same ostrich behavior on the part of Washington, the American media and the public in the months leading to both "9/11" attacks.

It's as if a new era arrived, with its vast changes in weather patterns and attack patterns, and nobody is yet fully processing the nature of the threats. I guess such an observation is actually old news. But Sandy coming on the heels of Benghazi struck me as a kind of exclamation mark to the fact that civilizations start to fall at the point where they're no longer able to process the cumulative effects of their past.

Then and Now

I know I'm not saying all that very well. Casting around for an analogy to further explain -- it's like people who know on one level they're aging but don't adjust their lifestyle patterns to acknowledge the fact.

A man in his late 40s has a heart attack. It turns out that in many ways he's been living as if he was still in his early 20s -- burning the candle at both ends, heavy drinking on the weekends, black coffee for breakfast, burger and fries for lunch, and so on.

Actually nobody 'gets away' with such behaviors; they do take a toll on the body, but the natural vigor and recuperative powers during youth mask the toll. Then, when the natural defenses of youth disappear, the cumulative toll combined with the older body produce a serious health issue.

It's the same in many ways with any nation, any civilization; there's a toll for all the little mistakes it makes, but this isn't very evident during the civilization's youth. Then the civilization becomes brittle with doing the same things the same way over and over, complete with the same little mistakes.  Then one day it meets with events that are new to it. Then the cumulative effects of its earlier mistakes and repetitive behaviors combine with the new events to produce what seems to be a sudden catastrophic setback that leads to a fall.

While taking in news reports on Sandy I was struck by the many times meteorologists used the term "unprecedented" to describe the storm. Unprecedented in the history of the American nation, perhaps, but this land has probably been visited by many strange and violent weather patterns going back millenniums. What's different is that for millenniums the shores that fronted the oceans had powerful natural protection -- wind breaks that had probably been in existence as long as the land mass itself existed.

Then, in the space of about a century, the crucial wind breaks -- the wetlands -- began to shrivel then all but disappeared. That was 'okay,' in the manner of a young person getting away with burger and fries for lunch, as long as the global weather pattern remained relatively gentle. Now the pattern seems to be cycling into another type -- one that might be very violent for several years, whether or not it's the harbinger of a new kind of global warming trend.

Why did the wetlands become a ghost of their former selves? For the answer I'd have to dig into this blog's archives or return to doing the kind of research I did after Hurricane Katrina. But I vaguely recall the disappearance was due to a combination of things; among them, waste from modern industry being dumped into waters near the wetlands and, paradoxically, the brilliant engineering feats that created the modern system of levees. The latter somehow interfered with the ecosystem of the wetlands.

The levees were 'okay' in that they were built to withstand a certain level of water force. They were no longer okay when the force greatly increased.

The point is that weather events in this century that wreaked "unprecedented" damage on the Gulf Coast and now the Atlantic Coast might be a reflection of weakened protection for the shore lands -- something that's been on its way for a century.

In the same manner the Cold War way of doing things was 'okay.' But when Washington and West  European capitals applied the Cold War template, which had worked well in Eastern Europe, to the modern Middle East and North Africa they faced an Islamist movement that was not focused on a quest for democracy.

So one might say that Washington's inability to head off the attacks on the U.S. Benghazi mission and the U.S. embassy in Cairo was the most visible result of repetitive Cold War behaviors. Although Washington and other NATO countries gave lip service to dealing with the Islamist threat they were tending to ignore the now in favor of a time when their behaviors seemed to work okay. The catch is that the time, like the body of a 20 year-old for a man in his 40s, no longer exists.

What is renewal, anyhow?

Of course there are limits to the parallels one can find between an individual and a nation or civilization. But I think it's within bounds to ask whether a nation that's had severe setbacks can right itself, in the way a person in his 40s who's had a heart attack can expect to live a long life if he makes healthy changes his lifestyle.

I think the answer depends on what one means by a nation "righting itself." To switch analogies somewhat, I've seen makeover artists work wonders on both men and women and do it without surgery -- not only shave years off their appearance but also make them look more attractive.

How do the makeover artists do it? What's their secret?

First, they refuse to see the person they're making over as the person wants to see himself or herself.

What makes many people look so old is trying to look the way they did during a specific stage in their life -- often, their senior year in high school! This means they've created an image in their mind of how they should look -- an image that ignores who they are now. The upshot is that they look very inappropriate.

Oddly, this translates to the person looking older to others than he is.

So the makeover artist takes years off a person's appearance not by trying to make him look younger but by making him look appropriate to his present.

Can these observations somehow be applied to a nation, if only in a limited sense? My hunch is that the answer is somehow yes.

As to exactly how the observations somehow apply -- I'll have to ponder some more and get back to you on that.