Not a minute too soon, the Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is creating “environmental justice” units that will be empowered to oversee regulations in conjunction with local governments throughout the country. The framework for the Environmental Justice Working Group includes eleven federal government agencies, including the TSA, the Secret Service and FEMA. Go big or go home, right?
“Environmental justice” describes the commitment of the Federal Government, through its policies, programs, and activities, to avoid placing disproportionately high and adverse effects on the human health and environment of minority or low-income populations. As described in the 2010 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR), our Nation’s vision of homeland security is a homeland safe and secure, resilient against terrorism and other hazards, and where American interests and aspirations and the American way of life can thrive. In seeking to fulfill this vision, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aspires to avoid burdening minority and low-income populations with a disproportionate share of any adverse human health or environmental risks associated with our efforts to secure the Nation. DHS joins with other departments and agencies to appropriately include environmental justice practices in our larger mission efforts involving federal law enforcement and emergency response activities.
Comforting.
So many government employees. Something must be found for them to do lest they be thought superfluous. I wonder how many laws every single citizen breaks every day because of the many thousands of regulations unknown to all but our betters?
One of these days the top will blow off and it's not going to be pretty.
The Constitution Club article jokes:
I can see the television series now – a Maxwell Smart or Barney Fife character – riding a Segway – as he battles diabolical conservatives hellbent on destroying the planet’s environment. Must-see TV.
Except this isn't funny. This sort of government nonsense is going to get people killed.
Wow! This is a big step toward the police state. I wonder what the Yanks will be doing to us next.
Wow. We're done down here.
Consider the Mandate. Read it:
"our Nation’s vision of homeland security is a homeland safe and secure, resilient against terrorism and other hazards, and where American interests and aspirations and the American way of life can thrive. In seeking to fulfill this vision, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aspires to avoid burdening minority and low-income populations with a disproportionate share of any adverse human health or environmental risks associated with our efforts to secure the Nation"
Could anyone tell me what this - operationally - means?
For example: 'resilient against terrorism and other hazards'. I understand (I think) what terrorism means but what are the 'other hazards'? And does my definition of terrorism mean the same as this Mandate? After all, Axelrod has publicly stated that the GOP are engaged in a 'reign of terror'.
And what's this about 'burdening low-income and minority populations'? With what? How are health and environmental concerns linked to 'securing the Nation'? Are they going to secure the nation by using..tear gas? Or biological whatever?
And how is it that only low-income and minorities will be affected? Will the tear gas be programmed to not affect someone with a low income or defined as a minority? What if it's in all all-black or all-hispanic community (ie, no longer a minority)? Will the tactics used be wise enough to know the difference?
Does anyone know what this means? It reads like a postmodernist article in an academic journal.
" our Nation’s vision of homeland security is a homeland safe and secure, resilient against terrorism and other hazards, and where American interests and aspirations and the American way of life can thrive.
And other hazards. That is the most powerfull statement ever.
Hands up who thinks this will affect keystone.
I am going to attempt a Liberal to English translation of that quote.
The nation's vision of Homeland Security means absolutely nothing will be built anywhere near protected classes or really gorgeous landscape.
Exception, the person or persons doing the building is listed among the bundlers for Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
I am going to attempt a Liberal to English translation of that quote.
The nation's vision of Homeland Security means absolutely nothing will be built anywhere near protected classes or really gorgeous landscape.
Exception, the person or persons doing the building is listed among the bundlers for Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
WTF! I kept looking for an Onion News Network disclaimer - it must be there somewhere. Liberal fascism is the only term that comes to mind.
speaking of mission creep....this is how it starts, i guess. :/
There's a lot riding on this election. One thing to remember is that DemocRats can read a map, and they know that they aren't winning any seats in Flyoverland. Meaning they're free to do WHATEVER THEY WANT out there.
The crypto vision statement of the " environmental justice " goons in the Obama Administration: " You will be a good environmentalist, or else! "
All they need are some nifty new shirts - in Sturmer brown, of course, and they can start breaking heads - in the name of environmental justice, of course.
With a good imagination, that could be a Volkswagpen TV commercial.
Oh wait . . .
I'm guessing since energy is in the national interest and energy independence goes a long way towards securing the nation, this will be used to stop/curb energy companies from drillling, cracking, emitting CO2 as well as force them to make 'reparations' to the poor, aka the over 50% who don't pay taxes. If Bo gets re-elected, watch out!
I had to check to make sure it wasn't April 1st when I read the article. Get real...the DHS, Secret Service and FEMA! I remember poking fun at Russia and their paranoid government.
"Comforting."
Mmmmm indeed.
Even more so knowing that The Department of (soon to be) Wasteland Security has just inked a contract for 450,000,000 (four hundred fifty million) rounds of .40 caliber ammunition with ATK. The significance of the ammunition type is better explained here.
http://bloviatingzeppelin.blogspot.com/2012/04/atk-secures-40-caliber-ammo-contract.html
Say hi to BZ.
It's not difficult at all, ET. What it means is that the lunatics who were burning down unfinished condominiums and blowing up SUV autodealerships now ARE the police.
It happens every single time. A supposed security crisis creates a clamour by the public to be protected. The government creates a new agency with new and unprecedented powers. A decade or less goes by and mission creep sets the new agency against the government's 'enemies du jour'. The oldest warcry of scheming demagogues has always been "L'etat en danger". Invented by the ancient Greeks and Romans and still in use today.
So never ever ever ever ever ever ever agree to give any government any kind of extraordinary power. The supposed cure always turns out to be worse than the disease.
HLS saving us from more then one fictitious "enemy" at the same time....egads.
Nah nothing could go wrong there...nope not a thing. Gotta have the govmints slimey mitts (no disrespect intended) in every little piece of everybody's pie no matter how small. I read this morning either the Agriculture Dept or FDA or Labor Dept was going to outlaw kids doing chores on family farms!!! Whhhaaattt????? They figure its akin to slave labor. The US of A is on the fast track to complete destruction...with Obummer leading the parade.
Sorry didn't read down far enough to see the other thread..
The totalitarian instinct is never far from the surface. Whatever excuse is handy.
1. Figure out what aspect of society you want to re-engineer.
2. Tack the word "justice" to the end of it.
3. Assign broad and arbitrary powers to a federal commission to bring about such justice.
4. Blame the ensuing economic collapse on George W. Bush.
Next on the list ... Nutrition Justice. The food police will be raiding a McDonalds near you.
Only traitors will own a V-8,traitors and gov't officials,but theirs will be necessary,purely for security and enforcement.
It's for your own good and the good of your country.
Sniff, what's the stench communism in the form of social justice for the climate.
That Super Bowl TV commercial seems to have morphed from satire to reality.......
Its a Nazi group only wearing green. I wonder when folks start to disappear. if Americans will figure out that a Coup has taken place. Ever since Obama made it legal to arrest Americans without warrants or reason last January? Hey he doesn't even have a time limit for incarceration. Plus several other acts of tyranny to counteract the Constitution he has made in the last few months.
@wally j
Ah yes, the last of the V-8 interceptors.
I thought things were pretty bad when the movie "Network" was prophetic. But now it looks like "Mad Max" soon will be revisited as well.
This is the key part of their "mission statement".
through its policies, programs, and activities, to avoid placing disproportionately high and adverse effects on the human health and environment of minority or low-income populations
Very apros pos .... the Green Reich .... OK America ... NOW ... have you had enough?
Yeah, I was stupified by this. This is, apart from being the onset of Green Tyrany, a complete end-run around the US Constitution.
The unelected dictate what Americans must do - for enviro-justice, of course.
Combine that with the new quai-dictatorial powers Obama granted himself, by executive order (all constitutional, you know) it could really be a Green Tyrany.
I personally believe that NASA should explore space, not outreach to muslims; that the Dept. of Homeland security, if it really MUST exist, should protect their borders and that the EPA should be SHUT DOWN at the first opportunity.
This is the Eco-Fascists doing and end-run around Democracy via the Bureaucracy.
ET at April 25, 2012 4:58 PM
In the American context, "other hazards" are right wingers and Republicans (not necessarily the same thing).
Remember this when the next bush type sells some new lettered agency to do some sort of crap security nonsense. When the left takes power, the remodel the mission statement.
What you need is a shorter alphabet.
Well i am sorry buti am not a conspiracy theorist but i will keep pointing to this it is called ...the U.N. AGENDA 21 ..LOOK IT UP AND READ ABOUT IT!!! sounds good but think of the power they will have to impliment it !!
1. In the immortal words of occassional commenter dwright, "Damn, Godwin's law, the Nazis are here".
2. The moment we heard the word "homeland" we shudda know. That is one creepy word.
3. We shudda known that any government "War on _______" would have a bad outcome; that the warred (sp?) upon matter would get much, much worse [see, War on Drugs, War on Poverty].
4. The terror got much much, worse and it's the government doing the terrorizing.
5. Randolph Bourne said: "War is the Health of the State". Just change "war" to "crisis" and the quote's just as serviceable. Trumped up "crisis" of course.
ET, please don't waste your formidable analytical skills on that mission statement.
Sounds like a license to "Eat the Rich". All those minorities living in unhealthy conditions... Justice must be done!
But, but I thought the war on the terror was over. Bark obama said it, so it must be true.
"Wow. We're done down here."
Hate to say it but my immediate reaction on reading this was: the US is doomed.
Question: Is aborting more minority or low income babies considered "having an adverse effect on the human health and environment of minority or low income populations"? Any other so called environmental injustices to the minority or low income populations seems rather minor in comparison. Only the left and their antihuman policies of pro abortion, high energy costs,high unemployment, high deficits, seem oblivious of the great harm their ideology has disportionately to the very people they say they are trying to protect.-
If the lieberals or God Forbid the NDP ever get into power Canada won t be far behind the Enviro-Nazis down south.Who would have thought that Americas freedom could be evaporated with a few strokes of Obamas pen,certainly not me and I will wager that most of the rest of you didn t think so either.
TSA/HSD IS the threat not the cure. I can't believe how fast the Whitehouse is erecting a fascist state.
If they don't stop drisking people and pushing guns in their face something's gonna pop.
Wow.... baffles the mind reading so of this crap.
"FEMA follows institutional controls to ensure that it's non federal grantees consider environmental justice in the delivery of disaster assistance"
F--- me......
Does that mean an endangered dust mite could come before the survivors of a disaster, or is it an opened ended statement that could mean anything a useless progressive in the system can think up to screw it up.
Maybe Ted Nugent was on to something last week?
Hopefully President Ron Paul can send out these Environmental Justice Units to dismantle all the wind farms.
Is there an American Implosion Clock I am unaware of?
Islamists already use the green flag? Oh wait, that's just finding efficiencies up front, nice...
Positively distopian.
Some of us wonder why the US is in decline and why China will be the next super power? Part of the reason is in the thread header.
So lets use our imaginations to speculate on how minorities and lower income groups will be prevented from bearing disroportionate costs.
1] subsidiea
2) taxes on those not in thos groups
3) coercion
Subsidies could be as benign as tax rebates for the poor on carbon taxes, allowing them to continue their carbon footptint without penalty. Could be more severe in that they are actually paid to based on some mythical consumption pattetn to enable them to pay the tax whether they consume that much
Taxes. Differential tax rates. Think of all citizens being assigned a tax rate that hits them at pos assigned thriugh their debit and credit cards. Poor minority pays 1% middle class white male pays 10%
Coercion- fines and jail time for consuming morebthan ypurbfair share and savings confiscated for redistribution in a "green manne"
Can anyone say: 'Atlas Shrugged'?
"No Pander Too Small Or Too Moronic!"
Is that panic that I smell?...
Obama is the best salesman the gun industry has.