Peculiar thing showed up on C-SPAN this weekend: cast and producers of the TV series 24 on stage at the Heritage Foundation. Three producer-writers, three actors, two tank-thinkers, moderated (I hope he won't be offended if I use that word) by Rush Limbaugh. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, gave an introductory talk and ( Read more... )

Curious about the new Department of Homeland Security document "Protective Action Guides for Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) and Improvised Nuclear Device (IND) Incidents," or "How to Clean up after a Dirty Bomb?"

ASCII-ized HTML version here. A PDF version is here, but be warned that upon downloading, it doesn't have a .PDF file extension, ( Read more... )

It occurs to me that, on a planet trembling with fear of a Bird Flu pandemic, now may not be the best time to dispatch the Ricola Mystery Cougher to wander among the population.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE GAME: To participate in the Ricola National "Thanks a Million" Game, watch and listen for the official Ricola "Mystery Cougher" between October 1 ( Read more... )

So the "REAL ID Act of 2005," which used to be part of H.R.418, has now been bolted onto an emergency-spending bill that is certain to pass the Senate. May already have happened, as I write this. Bruce Schneier discusses it here. Our states will be obligated to incorporate machine-readable info and digital photos into the driver's licenses they ( Read more... )

Google News says that the news of Secretary Ridge's departure is only four hours old, but I see it's already airing on C-SPAN 1 tonight in a few minutes:

06:26 pm News Conference: Secretary of Homeland Security Resignation
Department of Homeland Security
Thomas Ridge , Department of Homeland SecurityNow I'm imagining a story whose protagonist ( Read more... )

Spotted (via Talking Points Memo) an example of science fiction being used in the presidential campaign: a flyer showing... actually, it's a little hard to make out what it's showing, but gasmasks appear to be involved. Anyway, the text is self-explanatory.

(AP) Florida Red Zone -- August 14th, 2007 -- President Kerry warned parents and children ( Read more... )