12/31/09

Happy New Year from NoisyRoom!

To all our friends, may the coming year be a blessed and safe one. May it also be one full of happiness and security for each of you. We cherish each and every friend and associate we have no matter where you are…

To my clients and friends in Italy and Switzerland – Happy New Year!

To my clients and friends in China – Happy New Year!

To my clients and friends in the Cayman Islands – Happy New Year!

To my clients and friends in Israel – Happy New Year!

To my clients and friends in Europe – Happy New Year!

and to my clients and friends in the United States – a very Happy New Year!

12/31/09

Texas Tech Fires Mike Leach, PR Battle Ensues

By: Bob McCarty
Bob McCarty Writes

Texas Tech University’s firing of head football coach Mike Leach has launched what I predict will be a heated public relations battle involving YouTube videos and aggressive personal injury lawyers.

Within hours of news breaking about Leach’s firing, a 16-second video (below) which purports to show the electrical closet where receiver Adam James, son of ESPN sportscaster and former NFL running back Craig James, was confined for hours after suffering a concussion during practice was uploaded to YouTube.

The video was posted by family friend and public relations consultant Rebecca Shaw of Dallas-based Spaeth Communications at about the same time as a news release touting the video was issued via PRNewswire. The release included the statement below:

This video was taken by Adam James, a player on the Texas Tech Red Raider football team on Saturday, December 19th, after being confined by Coach Mike Leach in an electrical closet off the Press Room at Jones AT&T Stadium. James was suffering from a concussion received during an earlier scrimmage game. James was ordered to stand in the darkness until released several hours later. James momentarily turned on a light to record his surroundings with his cell phone.

I contacted Shaw by phone this morning to confirm her relationship with the James family and ask if they expect litigation to follow.

“They don’t have any idea what to expect,” Shaw said, careful not to rule anything out amidst a circus of media attention given to the case.

Shaw is wise for not ruling anything out. If the advertisement at right is any indication, Leach’s attorney Ted Liggett appears to be the aggressive type.

According to a post published last night at SBNation, a sports-focused fan site, Mike Leach’s Attorney Has An AGGRESSIVE Personal Injury Advertisement.

Developing…

12/31/09

How Will Obama Administration Officials Respond to Discovery of Rocket Launcher in Houston?

By: Bob McCarty
Bob McCarty Writes

According to a news report out of Houston this morning, police there found an AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher like the one shown in the photo above, alleged to belong to a man by the name of Nabilaye I. Yansane, in a southwest Houston apartment complex. Though I have yet to see comments by members of the Obama Administration in response to the news about this weapon, I have some ideas about what they might say:

“This was just an isolated incident.” — President Barack Obama

“Obviously, this was a mix-up. The rocket launcher was probably left there by a careless veteran returning from Iraq or Afghanistan.” — Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano

“Arabs traditionally welcome the New Year by firing larger, more powerful fireworks than we do in the United States.” — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

“It’s probably something the guy picked up at an Army surplus store and doesn’t deserve any more attention than it’s already received from Fox News.” — Press Secretary Robert Gibbs

Unfortunately, I suspect all of the above comments will be proven reckless and wrong. That said, should Americans be concerned about such a discovery?

According to a retired Navy SEAL friend of mine, the AT-4 is a one-time-use weapon capable of hitting a target from 300 yards, can bring down aircraft and can be remotely fired. Best of all for the one using it, my combat-veteran friend says, it’s the weapon of choice — short of a Stinger missile, that is — for someone who wants to take out a hardened vehicle like those used for executive protection.

Developing…

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

UPDATE 12/31/09 at 1:10 p.m Central: Remember the news story about the Continental Airlines pilot who, in June, reported a missile had flown past his aircraft while it was in the airspace above Liberty County, Texas. Perhaps this rocket launcher is the one used in that incident. Either way, troubling questions remain: How did the rocket launcher end up in Houston and who is responsible?

———-

Update: Brutally Honest – AT-4 shoulder-mounted rocket launcher found in Houston apartment…

12/31/09

The Rotting of the City by the Bay

Bookworm Room has an excellent piece up today on the history and political and economic progression of San Francisco. A once great and beautiful city that has rotted morally from within leaving a totalitarian wasteland which may be a window into the future of the rest of the United States.

Key excerpt:

This has been a really long post — the longest, I think, that I have ever written. I write it as a tocsin, warning Americans that there is nothing benign about American Leftism, and that it is even more dangerous than the nanny state some people seem willing to accept as the price of living in the modern world. Because American leftists are as committed to elevating the rights of the criminals, the crazies and the perverts as they are to taxing, quashing and directing the middle and working classes, we can anticipate the worst of all possible worlds: an America in which ordinary people live under totalitarian control and socialist taxation, while the worst elements in every society are allowed to run rampant.

Keep this in mind as you head to the polling place in 2010.

Indeed. Local and national politics is in need of a cleansing of epic proportions…

Read it all.

12/31/09

The Second Worst Day of My Life…

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

Lori and Kurt Haskell

May I just ask what the HELL is wrong with the FBI and DHS? Earlier today, I did a post on two bloggers being visited by the TSA due to their reporting on the new security directives for plane boarding. Visions of jack-booted thugs floated through my mind and it wasn’t pretty…

Then I hear from Bob McCarty that Obama has signed a new Executive Order (no – this is a different one than this and this) tasking the United States Postal Service with helping distribute countermeasures in the event of a biological weapons attack within the United States. Pardon me if I find that one scary as hell. Hell, I find duct tape more reassuring than that happy-fun piece of news…

Now this from Flight 253 passenger Kurt Haskell: ‘I was visited by the FBI’ – (Hat Tip: Kim Priestap):

“Today is the second worst day of my life after 12-25-09. Today is the day that I realized that my own country is lying to me and all of my fellow Americans. Let me explain.

Ever since I got off of Flight 253 I have been repeating what I saw in US Customs. Specifically, 1 hour after we left the plane, bomb sniffing dogs arrived. Up to this point, all of the passengers on Flight 253 stood in a small area in an evacuated luggage claim area of an airport terminal. During this time period, all of the passengers had their carry on bags with them. When the bomb sniffing dogs arrived, 1 dog found something in a carry on bag of a 30 ish Indian man. This is not the so called “Sharp Dressed” man. I will refer to this man as “The man in orange”. The man in orange, who stood some 20ft away from me the entire time until he was taken away, was immediately taken away to be searched and interrogated in a nearby room. At this time he was not handcuffed. When he emerged from the room, he was then handcuffed and taken away. At this time an FBI agent came up to the rest of the passengers and said the following (approximate quote) “You all are being moved to another area because this area is not safe. I am sure many of you saw what just happened (Referring to the man in orange) and are smart enough to read between the lines and figure it out.” We were then marched out of the baggage claim area and into a long hallway. This entire time period and until we left customs, no person that wasn’t a law enforcement personnel or a passenger on our flight was allowed anywhere on our floor of the terminal (or possibly the entire terminal) The FBI was so concerned during this time, that we were not allowed to use the bathroom unless we went alone with an FBI agent, we were not allowed to eat or drink, or text or call anyone. I have been repeating this same story over the last 5 days. The FBI has, since we landed, insisted that only one man was arrested for the airliner attack (contradicting my account). However, several of my fellow passengers have come over the past few days, backed up my claim, and put pressure on FBI/Customs to tell the truth. Early today, I heard from two different reporters that a federal agency (FBI or Customs) was now admitting that another man has been held (and will be held indefinitely) since our flight landed for “immigration reasons.” Notice that this man was “being held” and not “arrested”, which was a cute semantic ploy by the FBI to stretch the truth and not lie.

Just a question, could that mean that the man in orange had no passport?

Mr. Haskell goes on to enumerate the falsehoods and information manipulation by the FBI. So read the whole thing…

And AJ at The StrataSphere provides another piece of the terrorism puzzle. Think about it…

We are being lied to about virtually everything out of the government now and the mainstream media. Don’t trust your information from these outlets.

Update: The Jawa Report – Houston-based group hawked Al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki’s cds even after Ft. Hood massacre, Undie-bomber attended their “Ilmfest” Houston conference, two London seminars in 2008

Update: The Strata-Sphere – President Was Briefed On Holiday Attack 3 Days Ahead Of Time

Fox News – Second Passenger From Northwest Terror Flight Held, Released

12/31/09

President Tasks Postal Service to Distribute Countermeasures in Case of BioWeapon Attack

By: Bob McCarty
Bob McCarty Writes

Though the always-transparent (NOT!) White House web site contains no news of it, President Barack Obama has reportedly signed an executive order — yes, another one. This time, he’s tasked the United States Postal Service to help distribute countermeasures in the event of a biological weapons attack within the United States.

Why the Postal Service? Because, according to a New York Times report, of its ”capacity for rapid residential delivery.” Yeah, right.

AFP reports President Obama has given Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 180 days to come up with the plan for the USPS. Sigh.

Among those likely to be excited about the prospects of letter carriers distributing countermeasures to bioweapons is the man shown in the video above. During an anti-socialism rally Oct 3 in O’Fallon, Mo., he was one of a handful of union-organized counter-protesters who showed up to express unbridled support for government-run health care. Incredibly, he cited the USPS as a prime example of government’s ability to run things “beautifully.”

12/31/09

Our Prayers Are With Rush…

I have not commented on Rush’s condition because I did not want to jump the gun so-to-speak. I understand he is stable and doing better.

My prayers are with you Rush… We need you now more than ever and I hope that God waits a while longer to bring you home. Selfish I know, but we so desperately need you in our hour of need…

God bless and come home soon.

To those hate-filled people on Twitter and other places, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You show what you are truly made of and the evil you embody.

12/31/09

TSA Smacks Bloggers – Threats and Intimidation

Well, well, well… Look who is beginning to show their true colors.

From Yahoo! News:

WASHINGTON – As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

TSA special agents served subpoenas to travel bloggers Steve Frischling and Chris Elliott, demanding that they reveal who leaked the security directive to them. The government says the directive was not supposed to be disclosed to the public.

Frischling said he met with two TSA special agents Tuesday night at his Connecticut home for about three hours and again on Wednesday morning when he was forced to hand over his lap top computer. Frischling said the agents threatened to interfere with his contract to write a blog for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines if he didn’t cooperate and provide the name of the person who leaked the memo.

Threats, intimidation – from our own government. Who woulda thought it? True, it is a leak of security information, but I fail to see the need for these types of tactics in people’s homes.

As I understand it, the information listed the screening measures going into place because of the panty bomber incident. May I just point out that if you followed the example of the Israelis, all this hush, hush on screening measures would be unnecessary? Who gives a rats ass if the bad guys know since they couldn’t possibly get through. The only thing I see below that they are pissed about is the line on who is exempt:

The TSA directive outlined new screening measures that went into effect the same day as the airliner incident. It included many procedures that would be apparent to the traveling public, such as screening at boarding gates, patting down the upper legs and torso, physically inspecting all travelers’ belongings, looking carefully at syringes with powders and liquids, requiring that passengers remain in their seats one hour before landing, and disabling all onboard communications systems, including what is provided by the airline.

It also listed people who would be exempted from these screening procedures such as heads of state and their families.

May I ask how you can be sure that a ‘head of state’ or his family are NOT terrorists? Middle East anyone?

This incident shows just how fragile free speech is and how keeping the public informed can lead to governmental interrogation and intimidation. I understand that TSA is looking for ‘who’ leaked the info from within – but this smacks of thuggishness in my book.

On the Net:

http://www.elliott.org/blog/full-text-of-my-subpoena-from-the-department-of-homeland-security/(pound sign)more-10228

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/flyingwithfish/2009/12/30/the-fallout-from-sd-1544-09-06-the-feds-at-my-door/

UPDATE: Outside The Beltway – TSA Bullies Bloggers Who Published Leaked Procedures