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Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Southern Californians by the millions were signed up to simultaneously drop to the floor on Thursday and huddle face down under tables and desks for two minutes of imagined seismic turmoil in the biggest U.S. earthquake drill ever.

The Great Southern California ShakeOut drill was organized by scientists and emergency officials as part of a campaign to prepare the region’s 22 million inhabitants for a catastrophic quake that experts say is inevitable and long overdue.

The exercise is based on the premise of a magnitude 7.8 temblor striking the San Andreas Fault, similar in strength to a devastating quake that hit China in May.

Well over 5 million people officially signed up to take part in the drill, and organizers said they assumed many more would join in without registering.

At precisely 10 a.m. PST (1:00 p.m. EST), people in classrooms, offices and homes throughout the region will be asked to perform the prescribed “drop, cover and hold-on” exercise for two minutes, the duration of the hypothetical quake. They will be guided by a public service message distributed to businesses and schools and played over the airwaves by radio and TV stations.

WHY EARTHQUAKE DRILLS NOW? CONDITIONING THE MASSES FOR MARTIAL LAW?

Reuters AlertNet.

Landslides and flooding in Honduras have affected an estimated 320,000 people, wiped out almost half the crops and prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.

The Associated Press

By BEN EVANS – 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.

“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force,” Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. “I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”

Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”

Obama’s comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation’s foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps “to renew our diplomacy.”

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” Obama said in July. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.

Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors “common sense” gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he’ll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally.

“We can’t be lulled into complacency,” Broun said. “You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential.”

Obama’s transition office did not respond immediately to Broun’s remarks.

HISTORY COMMONS

Congressman Jim McDermott

Madam Speaker, I come to the House floor tonight to talk about an issue which I think is of grave concern to this country.

I recently read an article published in the Sydney, Australia, Morning Herald entitled “Foundations Are in Place for Martial Law in the United States.”

The author is a man named Ritt Goldstein, an investigative reporter for the Herald, and he said that recent pronouncements from the Bush administration and national security initiatives put in place in the Reagan era could see internment camps and martial law in the United States

ARMY TIMES

The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.

Now they’re training for the same mission — with a twist — at home.

They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.

Yahoo! News

GALVESTON, Texas - Residents trying to get back to this hurricane-ravaged city Wednesday spent hours fuming in gridlocked traffic, only to be turned away at the bridge by officials worried that the crippled island can’t accommodate that many people.

Traffic backed up for 20 miles along Interstate 45, the one route onto Galveston Island, with residents jockeying for position with utility workers, repair crews and police trying to begin repairs to the city wrecked by Hurricane Ike five days ago.

The city announced Tuesday that people could briefly return under a new “look and leave” plan, causing evacuees all over the state to pack up and head for the coast.

Hours later, it abruptly halted the policy, but some in the long line Wednesday angrily complained they’d never heard the policy was rescinded.

Bloomberg.com

FPI - YOU CAN CALL IT ANY PRETTY WORD YOU WANT. IT’S STILL MARTIAL LAW!

City police declared a nighttime curfew through next weekend, warning of downed power lines, broken traffic signals and water-filled roads. Power crews worked to restore electricity to the region, a task that could take a month, said utility CenterPoint Energy Inc.

CNN

Under the siege, constitutional guarantees are suspended, private vehicles without authorization are banned from the streets, groups are not allowed to meet; bars, restaurants and discos must close at midnight and residents are prohibited from carrying firearms, the officials said.