Eeyores news and view

The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence proved freedom is not free
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 Rev. John C. Blackford Religion Columnist
This is the time of the year when Americans celebrate patriotic themes. Memorial Day and Flag Day are meaningful, but the Fourth of July is accompanied by the most fanfare. Bands, parades and speeches remind us of our cherished gift of freedom.
Forest Lake has one of the largest Independence Day celebrations in Minnesota and it happens this week, July 1-4.
It all began on July 4, 1776 in the city of Philadelphia when a small group of men, suffering under the restraints of a European power 3000 miles away, and acting as the Second Continental Congress, declared their 13 colonies to be free and independent of Great Britain.
Knowing their proclamation would bring difficulties, they committed themselves and their constituents to what they believed was their “unalienable right” — freedom from tyranny.
The Revolutionary War resulted from their declaration. It was a time of tremendous hardship for the new nation, but it ushered in a new era for the world. What is sometimes overlooked, as we consider both the results and the sufferings of our founders, is the price that was paid by the signers.
Nearly all the 56 men of the Congress could be described as professional politicians, and 24 were lawyers. Yet, by affixing their signatures to Thomas Jefferson’s historical document, they risked everything.
Five were later captured by the British and died after being tortured. Nine were wounded in various confrontations with the enemy, and 12 had their homes set on fire.
The British failed to capture Francis Lewis, who represented New York. But after burning his Long Island estate, they took his wife and threw her aboard a prison ship, where she died a few months later.
Lewis never recovered from his grief.
Others who found their homes destroyed for signing were Lewis Morris, Arthur Middleton and Richard Stockton. Thomas Nelson, Virginia’s governor during the siege of Yorktown, implored General George Washington to blow up his mansion when he learned that British General Lord Cornwallis had made it his headquarters. Washington complied, but in doing so, destroyed Nelson’s main financial asset.
Virginia merchant Carter Braxton owned a fleet of trading vessels when he signed. The Royal Navy tracked down and sank those ships.
North Carolina’s Joseph Hewes also lost his merchant fleet in that he donated it to become the core for the new Continental Navy. He died at the age of 50 in 1779.
Made wealthy through his import business, Robert Morris was placed in charge of the new nation’s finances, which were in sad shape. To feed and equip Washington’s troops for the crossing of the Delaware River — the psychological turning point of the war — Morris used $10,000 of his own money, thus placing his personal fortune at the country’s disposal. He later died in poverty.
A year after signing, William Whipple of New Hampshire fought alongside Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates at Saratoga. The American victory there brought France into the conflict.
Connecticut’s Oliver Wolcott and South Carolina’s Arthur Middleton, Thomas Heyward and Edward Rutledge all saw combat, and the latter three were captured and tortured.
George Walton of Georgia was taken captive in battle, but received his release in a prisoner exchange in 1779. Fellow Georgian Button Gwinnett led a failed invasion of British Florida after returning from Philadelphia. Shortly afterward he was shot in a duel by political opponent Lachlan McIntosh.
New Jersey’s Richard Stockton was captured in November 1776, and spent years in prison. After his release he died a pauper in Princeton.
The same month that Stockton was captured, British troops devastated the campus of the College of New Jersey. Signer John Witherspoon spent the remainder of the war rebuilding the college before he went blind in 1792.
Thomas Lynch of South Carolina and his wife were lost at sea when their ship disappeared during a voyage to the West Indies.
Constant British pursuit prevented Delaware’s Caesar Rodney from getting medical treatment for a cancerous growth on his face. It claimed his life in 1784.
Thomas Jefferson went on to be elected governor of Virginia, but had to resign and go into hiding because the British hunted him relentlessly.
In the past 233 years since these 56 brave men risked all in the cause of freedom, many others have sacrificed to maintain and extend this wonderful gift. Their faith in freedom as a right granted by the providence of the Almighty to all peoples has been the great heritage of our country.
There are still enemies of this precious bestowal, and the threats may be more subtle today.
Americans need to be on the alert to guard against them, and to strengthen the things which will make us faithful to the cause of freedom.
http://forestlaketimes.com/content/view/3182/1/

Federal agents hunt for guns, one house at a time
In front of a run-down shack in north Houston, federal agents step from a government sedan into 102-degree heat and face a critical question: How can the woman living here buy four high-end handguns in one day?
The house is worth $35,000. A screen dangles by a wall-unit air conditioner. Porch swing slats are smashed, the smattering of grass is flattened by cars and burned yellow by sun.
“I’ll do the talking on this one,” agent Tim Sloan, of South Carolina, told partner Brian Tumiel, of New York.
Success on the front lines of a government blitz on gunrunners supplying Mexican drug cartels with Houston weaponry hinges on logging heavy miles and knocking on countless doors. Dozens of agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — sent here from around the country — are needed to follow what ATF acting director Kenneth Melson described as a “massive number of investigative leads.”
All told, Mexican officials in 2008 asked federal agents to trace the origins of more than 7,500 firearms recovered at crime scenes in Mexico. Most of them were traced back to Texas, California and Arizona.
Among other things, the agents are combing neighborhoods and asking people about suspicious purchases as well as seeking explanations as to how their guns ended up used in murders, kidnappings and other crimes in Mexico.
“Ever turning up the heat on cartels, our law enforcement and military partners in the government of Mexico have been working more closely with the ATF by sharing information and intelligence,” Melson said Tuesday during a firearms-trafficking summit in New Mexico.
Firearms dealers visited
The ATF recently dispatched 100 veteran agents to its Houston division, which reaches to the border.
The mission is especially challenging because, officials say, that while Houston is the number one point of origin for weapons traced back to the United States from Mexico, the government can’t compile databases on gun owners under federal law.
Agents instead review firearms dealers’ records in person.
People who are legally in the United States and have clean criminal records, but are facing economic problems are often recruited by traffickers to buy weapons on their behalf in order to shield themselves from scrutiny.
Knocks at the door of the shack that looked to be the definition of hard times went unanswered.
“I am out of here,” Sloan said a few moments later, as a pit bull lazily sauntered from the back yard. “I don’t like pit bulls walking up behind me.”
Test information source
On second thought, Sloan switched to Spanish and interviewed a neighbor.
The neighbor said the woman left a month ago after a fight with her husband or boyfriend, who still lived there with what she called “other degenerates.”
“An angry ex-girlfriend or wife is the best person in the world, the greatest source of information,” Sloan said.
The night before, the duo were in a stakeout where they watched a weapons sale.
They also combined efforts with the Drug Enforcement Administration for an aircraft to stealthily follow traffickers to the border.
On this day, agents weren’t wearing raid jackets or combat boots and weren’t armed with warrants.
Guns were hidden under civilian shirts.
Another tip took agents on a 30-minute drive from the shack to a sprawling home with a pool in the back and an American flag out front.
It turned out two handguns, of a type drug gangsters prefer, were bought by a pastor for target practice.
Some stories, they say, are hard to believe.
The lamest so far came from a police officer: He said he bought a few military-style rifles, left them in his car and — on the same night — forgot to lock a door. He couldn’t explain why he didn’t file a police report or why he visited Mexico the day after the alleged theft.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6505651.html

Should linking be illegal?
In a misguided attempt to aid newspapers, one of America's most influential judges is suggesting a new copyright law
Those who wish to keep the internet free and open had best dust off their legal arguments. One of America's most influential conservative judges, Richard Posner, has proposed a ban on linking to online content without permission. The idea, he said in a blog post last week, is to prevent aggregators and bloggers from linking to newspaper websites without paying:
Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.
Posner's notion set off an eruption from the likes of Jeff Jarvis, Matt Welch and Erick Schonfeld, among others. And they are right to be furious. Not only would Posner stop online media dead in their tracks, but he would also overturn long-established rules of fair use, which, among others things, allow for the reproduction of short excerpts of copyrighted material for the purposes of commentary, parody and the like – precisely what bloggers and aggregators do all the time.
And Posner, who sits on the seventh circuit court of appeals in Chicago, has a way of getting his way. A brilliant, provocative thinker and a frighteningly prolific writer, he was described in a 2001 New Yorker profile as "the most mercilessly seditious legal theorist of his generation". And if, at 70, Posner and his generation are not quite so influential as they once were, he is still a formidable presence on the legal scene.
In something of an irony for journalists who might be inclined to cheer Posner's latest, it was a 2003 opinion he wrote that helped cement journalists' modern status as cultural and social pariahs. Posner's decision in the case of McKevitt v Pallasch did more than any other to vanquish the idea that journalists called into court had some protection under the first amendment from having to reveal their confidential sources.
For a generation, journalists and their lawyers had relied upon the hazy wording of a 1972 supreme court case called Branzburg v Hayes, in which a bare majority ruled there was no reporter's privilege. One of the majority, Lewis Powell, wrote what his fellow justice Potter Stewart called "an enigmatic concurring opinion" suggesting that maybe, in some cases, there was a privilege. As retired New York Times lawyer James Goodale explained in the Frontline documentary News Wars several years ago, media lawyers used Powell's opinion to keep the reporter's privilege on life support for more than 30 years until Posner, finally, pulled the plug.
As an appeals court judge, Posner could not, of course, overrule the supreme court. In McKevitt, though, he didn't have to: he wrote that he had reread Branzburg and had come to the conclusion that, lo and behold, it meant what it said. No more reporter's privilege, although the states were free to create their own through shield laws and state court precedents. (All except Wyoming have done so, many of them long before McKevitt. And Congress may create a federal shield law later this year.)
Posner's opinion on copyright – expressed, thankfully, in a blog post rather than a ruling from the bench – has its roots in a celebrated essay he wrote for the New York Times Book Review in 2005 called Bad News. Although Posner was complimentary toward bloggers, and even asserted that their swarm-like verification system was superior in some ways to that of the traditional media, he nevertheless offered a few withering observations about where they get their material.
"The bloggers are parasitical on the conventional media," Posner wrote. "They copy the news and opinion generated by the conventional media, often at considerable expense, without picking up any of the tab. The degree of parasitism is striking in the case of those blogs that provide their readers with links to newspaper articles. The links enable the audience to read the articles without buying the newspaper."
Posner comes across as willfully blind to the ways in which bloggers and aggregators actually drive traffic to news sites, resulting in more readers seeing their content and, thus, their advertising. Yes, there are ways not to do it – the Boston Globe's wholesale, automated aggregation of a competitor's local content in a case settled out of court earlier this year comes to mind. But normal linking practices benefit everyone. The news business may be cratering, but it's not the fault of those who link to newspaper content.
Fortunately, Posner this time can't transform his desires into a judicial decree – his proposal would have to enacted in the form of an amendment to the copyright law. Unfortunately, such an idea is already making the rounds. Not to go all Kevin Bacon here, but Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz, who supports it, is married to Democratic senator Sherrod Brown, which led Jeff Jarvis to demand that Schultz register as a federal lobbyist.
The thing is, Congress has been known to act with great alacrity on copyright matters when they affect corporate interests. And newspaper owners have been remarkably successful in calling attention to their plight.
But though tax breaks, special non-profit status and other federal goodies will likely go nowhere, a law aimed squarely at the linking practices of sites such as Google News and the Huffington Post would probably prove popular, the facts be damned.
It's ominous that those would push for such a law now have an ally as brilliant and influential as Posner. Keep a close eye on this one.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/01/richard-posner-copyright-linking-newspapers

Ham radio operators not yielding to future By Hilary Kraus Staff writer
Chuck Ward likes to dial his technology down a notch.
He's a ham radio guy
And this is the time of year when Ward is in hog heaven as he and the Cape Fear Amateur Radio Society compete in national Field Day
The 61-year-old Morse code expert was among the 25 radio operators who gathered at Methodist University on Saturday and Sunday for the 24-hour event.
"Cell phones, the Internet, computers are OK. It's that time of change in the world." Ward said Sunday.
"This is just an old skill I want to keep alive."
The object of the competition was to communicate with as many other ham radio operators throughout the U.S., trading signals reports and location information.
Conversations were kept brief, be it through pecking out Morse codes or talking.
"It's like any other hobby," said Ward, past president of the local club, "This hobby is technical and very challenging."
To get things up and running, the club erected 40- and 30-foot antennas outside Reeves Auditorium.
Members set up mobile stations under tents to keep out of the heat. They operated off generators, batteries and solar energy.
Ward, who got a few hours of shut- eye in the back of his truck, said his group made more than 720 contacts. The only state missing was Vermont.
The Cape Fear Amateur Radio Society has about 95 members. Many are retired military.
"It's tough to get young people involved," said Leon Porter, a 43-year-old voice operator. "Their thinking is, why do I need to sit in front of a radio to talk to someone on the other side of the world when you have a cell phone to do that?"
Young Ethan LaMaster takes advantage of today's conveniences but also looks at things differently than his peers.
The 18-year-old got his ham radio license when he was 10.
LaMaster, a recent graduate of East Bladen High School, said he picked up the hobby because it's fun. Now, he likes the idea of being ready if disaster strikes.
"A car battery, a generator, any source of power and we can communicate," LaMaster said.
Ward started teaching Morse code in 1968 and introduced LaMaster to amateur radio operating.
"Morse code is my second language," Ward said.
His wife, he said, is not a fan.
"I had ham radio before I met her. That was one of the conditions," Ward said.
"She doesn't share the same enthusiasm."
http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2009/06/29/913233

Extra addition, a couple of articles on the economy and the flu that should not be over looked.

MOUNTAIN OF DEBT: Rising debt may be next crisis
July 3, 2009 - 3:38pm By TOM RAUM Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Founding Fathers left one legacy not celebrated on Independence Day but which affects us all. It's the national debt.
The country first got into debt to help pay for the Revolutionary War. Growing ever since, the debt stands today at a staggering $11.5 trillion _ equivalent to over $37,000 for each and every American. And it's expanding by over $1 trillion a year.
The mountain of debt easily could become the next full-fledged economic crisis without firm action from Washington, economists of all stripes warn.
"Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth," Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently told Congress.
Higher taxes, or reduced federal benefits and services _ or a combination of both _ may be the inevitable consequences.
The debt is complicating efforts by President Barack Obama and Congress to cope with the worst recession in decades as stimulus and bailout spending combine with lower tax revenues to widen the gap.
Interest payments on the debt alone cost $452 billion last year _ the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense. It's quickly crowding out all other government spending. And the Treasury is finding it harder to find new lenders.
The United States went into the red the first time in 1790 when it assumed $75 million in the war debts of the Continental Congress.
Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary, said, "A national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing."
Some blessing.
Since then, the nation has only been free of debt once, in 1834-1835.
The national debt has expanded during times of war and usually contracted in times of peace, while staying on a generally upward trajectory. Over the past several decades, it has climbed sharply _ except for a respite from 1998 to 2000, when there were annual budget surpluses, reflecting in large part what turned out to be an overheated economy.
The debt soared with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and economic stimulus spending under President George W. Bush and now Obama.
The odometer-style "debt clock" near Times Square _ put in place in 1989 when the debt was a mere $2.7 trillion _ ran out of numbers and had to be shut down when the debt surged past $10 trillion in 2008.
The clock has since been refurbished so higher numbers fit. There are several debt clocks on Web sites maintained by public interest groups that let you watch hundreds, thousands, millions zip by in a matter of seconds.
The debt gap is "something that keeps me awake at night," Obama says.
He pledged to cut the budget "deficit" roughly in half by the end of his first term. But "deficit" just means the difference between government receipts and spending in a single budget year.
This year's deficit is now estimated at about $1.85 trillion.
Deficits don't reflect holdover indebtedness from previous years. Some spending items _ such as emergency appropriations bills and receipts in the Social Security program _ aren't included, either, although they are part of the national debt.
The national debt is a broader, and more telling, way to look at the government's balance sheets than glancing at deficits.
According to the Treasury Department, which updates the number "to the penny" every few days, the national debt was $11,518,472,742,288 on Wednesday.
The overall debt is now slightly over 80 percent of the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product.
By historical standards, it's not proportionately as high as during World War II, when it briefly rose to 120 percent of GDP. But it's still a huge liability.
Also, the United States is not the only nation struggling under a huge national debt. Among major countries, Japan, Italy, India, France, Germany and Canada have comparable debts as percentages of their GDPs.
Where does the government borrow all this money from?
The debt is largely financed by the sale of Treasury bonds and bills. Even today, amid global economic turmoil, those still are seen as one of the world's safest investments.
That's one of the rare upsides of U.S. government borrowing.
Treasury securities are suitable for individual investors and popular with other countries, especially China, Japan and the Persian Gulf oil exporters, the three top foreign holders of U.S. debt.
But as the U.S. spends trillions to stabilize the recession-wracked economy, helping to force down the value of the dollar, the securities become less attractive as investments. Some major foreign lenders are already paring back on their purchases of U.S. bonds and other securities.
And if major holders of U.S. debt were to flee, it would send shock waves through the global economy _ and sharply force up U.S. interest rates.
As time goes by, demographics suggest things will get worse before they get better, even after the recession ends, as more baby boomers retire and begin collecting Social Security and Medicare benefits.
While the president remains personally popular, polls show there is rising public concern over his handling of the economy and the government's mushrooming debt _ and what it might mean for future generations.
If things can't be turned around, including establishing a more efficient health care system, "We are on an utterly unsustainable fiscal course," said the White House budget director, Peter Orszag.
Some budget-restraint activists claim even the debt understates the nation's true liabilities.
The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, established by a former commerce secretary and investment banker, argues that the $11.4 trillion debt figures does not take into account roughly $45 trillion in unlisted liabilities and unfunded retirement and health care commitments.
That would put the nation's full obligations at $56 trillion, or roughly $184,000 per American, according to this calculation.
__
On the Net:
Treasury Department "to the penny" national debt breakdown: http://tinyurl.com/yrxrsh
Peter G. Peterson Foundation independent assessment of the national debt: http://www.pgpf.org/
"Deficits do Matter" debt clock: http://tinyurl.com/l6mvjb

Hong Kong finds 1st case of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1
HONG KONG, July 3 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's health department said on Friday it had detected a case of human swine influenza virus that was resistant to Tamiflu, the main antiviral flu drug.
The World Health Organisation has declared a pandemic is under way from the new H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.
"This is the first time Tamiflu resistance in HSI virus (was) found in Hong Kong," a spokesman for the health department said in a statement.
Only two other cases of Tamiflu-resistant H1N1 have been found so far, in Denmark and Japan.
According to the statement, the virus was isolated from a specimen taken from a 16-year-old girl coming from San Francisco, who was taken in by the Port Health Office at the Hong Kong International Airport upon arrival on June 11.
The virus was identified during the health department's routine sensitivity test of HSI virus to oseltamivir and zanamivir, the spokesman said.
Tamiflu, a tablet known generically as oseltamivir, is made by Switzerland's Roche AG and Gilead Sciences (GILD.O), while Relenza, an inhaled drug known generically as zanamivir, is made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) under licence from Australia's Biota Inc (BTA.AX).
The department said that tests showed that the strain was sensitive to zanamivir.
Resistance to Tamiflu has been previously documented in the deadly bird flu virus H5N1 and seasonal H1N1 flu.
"You can always expect a certain number of resistances," said Roche spokeswoman Claudia Schmitt. "It does not necessarily mean that the strain is resistant to Tamiflu."
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssHealthcareNews/idUSHKG30741920090703

Eeyores news and view

Your Guide to Avoiding a Terrorist Attack
NYPD publishes handbook for landlords, security personnel
Warning that New York's skyscrapers remain a top terrorist target, the NYPD released a detailed guide today to making them safer.
World Trade Center: Before & After 9/11
View SlideshowSee photos of the World Trade Center before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and the pit known as Ground Zero in the aftermath.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly touted a 100-page report "Engineering Security" as an ideal safety roadmap for property owners.
"We have also provided in the publication and online the tools to calculate the risk to your building," Kelly told a group of owners gathered at One Police Plaza.
Police used the example of how a truck bomb filled with explosives can be loaded and driven to a target to illustrate the continuing terrorist threat. The report urged property owners to improve perimeter security, design buildings that can better withstand a blast, step up screening of visitors, design emergency evacuation plans and safeguard air systems in the event of a chemical attack.
These are not just lessons from 9-11, police said. The NYPD outlined more then 10 terrorist plots in past past years with the city in the cross-hairs of al Qaeda as well as homegrown groups. These included plans to attack the Citicorp Center and other landmarks, as well as plots on trains and transportation hubs.
"Terrorist intention to attack New York city's people, building or critical infrastructures is unambiguous," said David Cohen, Deputy Commissioner of the NYPD's Intelligence Division.
Officials said the report was designed to help existing buildings as well as future ones. The NYPD has given its opinion on plans for ground zero and the building of the New Yankee Stadium and Citifield. Real Estate Groups and the city's building commissioner welcomed the report.
"It will also act as an important tool for property owners to identify how to protect their buildings in the design phase," said Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri.
Other suggestions include using hard, fire-resistant substances to build walls and floors and posing glass facades "away from [higher-risk] buildings," and installing X-ray machines to scan packages.
"We understand that the threat of terrorism will remain a serious concern for the foreseeable future – and we continue to do everything possible to prevent another attack and mitigate the harmful effects one might cause," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "At the same time, we know that enhanced security does not need to come at the expense of aesthetic appeal, functionality, and environmental sustainability."
The FDNY, Department of Buildings and Department of City Planning and various professional organizations also lent insight into the final project.
http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Your-Guide-to-Avoiding-a-Terrorist-Attack-.html

Feds could seize Calif. parks if closed by budget
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The California governor's office says federal officials are threatening to seize six state parks if they are closed to help balance the state's budget.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed closing 220 state parks.
But the National Park Service warned in a letter to Schwarzenegger that six of those parks are on former federal land that could revert to the U.S. government if they are not kept open as parks.
State officials say they're trying to work with federal authorities to forestall a possible seizure. The state could also lose federal park funds.
The parks are Angel Island and Mount Diablo near San Francisco; Point Sur in Big Sur; and beaches at Fort Ord Dunes near Monterey, Point Mugu near Malibu; and Border Fields along the Mexican border.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D995Q9I00&show_article=1

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax
The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center.
What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted.

Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line.
The idea of shifting to a by-the-mile tax has been discussed for years, but it now appears to be getting more serious attention. A federal commission, after a two-year study, concluded earlier this year that the road tax was the "best path forward" to keep revenues flowing to highway and transportation projects, and could be an important new tool to help manage traffic and relieve congestion.
The decision by the 15-member National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission was unanimous, which surprised Robert Atkinson, the group's chairman. But he said it became clear as the commission's work progressed that a road tax on miles traveled was the best option.
"If you're committed to the system being improved then it was a no-brainer," he said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/nation/story/71078.html

The Dog Flu Virus: Are You or Your Pet at Risk?
In today’s Science Times, health reporter Donald McNeil writes about a new flu virus circulating in dogs. Mr. McNeil writes:
While fears of a flu pandemic among humans have shifted from the lethal H5N1 avian flu to the relatively mild H1N1 swine flu, the H3N8 canine flu has been a quiet undercurrent in the United States, rarely discussed except among veterinarians and dog owners in the few areas where it has struck hard: Florida, New York City’s northern suburbs, Philadelphia and Denver.
Dr. Cynda Crawford, co-discoverer of the dog flu virus.This week, Dr. Cynda Crawford, one of the discoverers of the virus and a veterinarian at the University of Florida veterinary school, joins the Consults blog to answers readers’ questions about the dog flu and the first vaccine approved for it.
Do you have a question about canine flu? Post your questions for Dr. Crawford in the “Add your comments” box below. We will be posting Dr. Crawford’s responses in the coming week. Check back for regular updates.
http://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/the-dog-flu-virus-are-you-or-your-pet-at-risk/?hp

Eeyores news and view

Joint Chiefs Chairman U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen outlines top U.S. threats
July 1, 2009 - 4:36am
Joint Chiefs Chairman U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen talks with WTOP's J.J. Green. WASHINGTON - A day after most U.S. troops have now left Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is the new principal focal point for the U.S. military.
WTOP asked Joint Chiefs Chairman U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen what it's going to take to win in Afghanistan:
"What it's going to take there to win is to provide security for the Afghan people, that would allow the Afghan people to develop confidence in their government, local government, provincial government, national government," Mullen says.
But winning also is going to require taking the fight to the Taliban.
"Clearly we're adding more troops there," Mullen acknowledges. "The fight is getting tougher. The Taliban is much more capable than they were last year and they've been evolving over the last three years, and that's one of the reasons we're putting the troops in."
Interestingly, Russia -- part of the Soviet Union that spent a decade trying to dominate Afghanistan -- is critical to U.S. plans to defeat the Taliban.
"Every Russian I've talked to does not want to see the Taliban return to running Afghanistan," Mullen says.
Mullen says part of the reason Russia does not want to see the Taliban return is the Afghan drug trade. It is dominated by the Taliban and runs right through Russia.
The U.S. and Russia have their differences, but Mullen says they have to put them aside to deal with common threats.
The U.S. and Russia have a had a few rough patches. In fact, Mullen's trip to Russia was planned with that in mind.
"In hopes that we can look to strengthen our relationship, which actually a year ago, or almost a year ago last August, you know fell on pretty hard times."
Mullen is referring to the Russian military dust-up with Georgia, which the U.S. supported.
One place where the U.S. and Russia are working together is off the coast of Africa.
"Facing this common challenge of piracy," Mullen says.
But right here in the U.S.'s own back yard, Russia has been very cozy with Venezuela, which by the declaration from its President Hugo Chavez, is no friend of the U.S. at this point.
"Every country gets to pick its relationships as they wish," Mullen says.
But when it comes to Russian relations in this hemisphere, Mullen pointed out, the Russians have been put on notice about U.S. concerns about certain Russian activities.
No doubt those activities have to do with U.S. enemies, such as Cuba, Venezuela and others.
http://wtop.com/?nid=778&sid=1706776


Harlem Transforms Into Neverland East
Eyes Of World On NYC As Fans Flock To Famous Harlem Theater For Public Remembrance, Thousands Line 125th St.
Fans from all over gathered to pay tribute to Michael Jackson at Harlem's historic Apollo Theater on Tuesday, where more than 40 years ago, the Jackson Five launched its career, and effectively, a new era in pop music with the introduction to Michael.
Thousands lined up along West 125th Street with many adorned in large black sunglasses and fedora hats, while dressed in multicolored sequined vests or Jackson's trademark sparkling white glove.
Tuesday's memorial, which began at 2 p.m., featured a eulogy by the Rev. Al Sharpton. A moment of silence was called at 5:26 p.m., the time East Coast fans learned that Jackson had died.
Sharpton told the crowd that Jackson "broke down race barriers." He and Director Spike Lee urged the audience to revel in Jackson accomplishments and disregard what they characterized as negative news coverage of the star.
"Michael made young men and women all over the world imitate us," Sharpton said. "Before Michael, we were limited and ghettoized. But Michael put on a colorful military outfit, he pulled his pants up, he put on the one glove, and he smashed the barriers of segregated music."
Sharpton then showed his own colorful dance moves to the crowd, dancing up a storm with Lee, DJ Chub Rock, and another woman while Jackson's music blared.
Shenia Rudolph, a fan from the Bronx, joined many who have been waiting for more than 12 hours outside the theater just to honor the King of Pop.
"He has made history. He is a legend in our own times," Rudolph says. "As from now, he is going to be remembered from here till tomorrow."
Many brought beloved scrapbooks and memorabilia while some were totally decked out just like Michael.
... (to continue reading go to the link)
http://wcbstv.com/cbs2crew/michael.jackson.apollo.2.1065167.html

Suspected NKorean ship changes course
By PAULINE JELINEK – 16 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.
The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution?
The ship left a North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material.
The Navy has been watching it — at times following it from a distance. It traveled south and southwest for more than a week; then, on Sunday, it turned around and headed back north, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Nearly two weeks after the ship left North Korea, officials said Tuesday they still don't know where it is going. But it was some 250 miles south of Hong Kong on Tuesday, one official said.
Though acknowledging all along that the Kang Nam's destination was unclear, some officials said last week that it could be going to Myanmar and that it was unclear whether it could reach there without stopping in another port to refuel.
The U.N. resolution allows the international community to ask for permission to board and search any suspect ship on the seas. If permission for inspection is refused, authorities can ask for an inspection in whichever nation where the ship pulls into port.
North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.
Two officials had said earlier in the day Tuesday that the Kang Nam had been moving very slowly in recent days, something that could signal it was trying to conserve fuel.
They said they didn't know what the turnaround of the ship means, nor what prompted it.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Sunday that Washington was "following the progress of that ship very closely," but she would not say whether the U.S. would confront the Kang Nam.
The sailing of the vessel — and efforts to track it — set up the first test of a new U.N. Security Council resolution that authorizes member states to inspect North Korean vessels. The sanctions are punishment for an underground nuclear test the North carried out in May in defiance of past resolutions.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Obama administration imposed financial sanctions on a company in Iran that is accused of involvement in North Korea's missile proliferation network.
In the latest move to keep pressure on Pyongyang and its nuclear ambitions, the Treasury Department moved against Hong Kong Electronics, a company located in Kish Island, Iran. The action means that any bank accounts or other financial assets found in the United States belonging to the company must be frozen. Americans also are prohibited from doing business with the firm.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gPE2T6srY36AqSumfp9KStLWUnAQD9956V482
Harrisburg chapter of NAACP urges martial law
The Harrisburg Chapter of the NAACP is calling on Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to suspend some civil liberties and impose martial law in the city to halt the wave of recent lawlessness.
Chapter President Stanley Lawson also called on Rendell to bring in the state National Guard for at least 30 days and to impose a curfew. In June, there have been at least 12 shootings, many of them in the daytime, including a man killed Wednesday at a busy city intersection during the lunch hour.
"The Guard is for floods and natural disasters. I don't know any more of a natural disaster than of our young people being killed," he said at a general membership meeting of about 25 people at Capitol Presbyterian Church, 14th and Cumberland streets.
"It's time for some real action," he said. "Right now the important thing is to stop this madness."
"We're beyond what the Harrisburg police department can do. We need help," Lawson said.
Martial law is a system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice, normally in times of emergency.
At about the same time Lawson was speaking, Rendell was at another community meeting in Harrisburg where he promised to have state police patrol city streets to increase the presence of law enforcement.
Lawson noted that there was historical precedent for the Guard to step in, recalling the race riots in 1968 following the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn.
Lawson said that many reasons have been given for the wave of shootings, such as drugs, robberies and neighborhood turf wars. Fear is the bigger reason, he suggested.
"The young men, it's fear, it's just fear. They think: 'I'm going to get them before they get me,'" he said.
When one man noted the presence of the Guardian Angels from York coming to Harrisburg, Lawson responded: "I appreciate the Guardian Angels, but I see what's going on in York, Lancaster and Philadelphia. It's everywhere. I'm concerned about what is going on in Harrisburg."
Member and attorney Stanley Mitchell noted the civil rights organization is asking for a short suspension of some civil rights, but added: "We have the civil rights not to be shot."
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/06/harrisburg_chapter_of_naacp_ur.html
White House Reporters Grill Gibbs Over ‘Prepackaged’ Questions for Obama
Go to the site for the video, but if it upset Helen Thomas a self professed Liberal, then it must have real stunk the place up. Here is her quote
"The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I'm amazed, I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and have controlled..." veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas said Wednesday.
http://www.breitbart.tv/white-house-reporters-grill-gibbs-over-selected-questions-for-obama/

Eeyores news and view

I should start a blog label called "you must be stupid to think this is a good thing" Nais is a very dangereous thing for any one that lives in this country. I guess i will just use the standard label of "abuse of government" for these first two articles. They think they are smarter but like Enstien, they are so smart they become stupid about things of common sence.
Rebellion on the Range Over a Cattle ID Plan
HORSE SPRINGS, N.M. — Wranglers at the Platt ranch were marking calves the old-fashioned way last week, roping them from horseback and burning a brand onto their haunches.
The Platt ranch covers 22,000 acres in western New Mexico.
What they were emphatically not doing, said Jay Platt, the third-generation proprietor of the ranch, was abiding by a federally recommended livestock identification plan, intended to speed the tracing of animal diseases, that has caused an uproar among ranchers. They were not attaching the recommended tags with microchips that would allow the computerized recording of livestock movements from birth to the slaughterhouse.
“This plan is expensive, it’s intrusive, and there’s no need for it,” Mr. Platt said.
Mr. Platt said he already did all he could to fight epidemics. He does not bring any outside animals into his herds, and he happily staples on metal tags that identify animals to help with brucellosis control. But as he drove his pickup from grasslands into dense thickets of piñon pine on this highland desert that requires 100 acres per cow, he explained why he thought the federal plan was wrongheaded.
Mr. Platt called the extra $2 cost of the electronic tags an onerous burden for a teetering industry and said he often moved horses and some of his 1,000 head of cattle among three ranches here and in Arizona. Small groups of cattle are often rounded up in distant spots and herded into a truck by a single person, who could not simultaneously wield the hand-held scanner needed to record individual animal identities, Mr. Platt said. And there is no Internet connection on the ranch for filing to a regional database.
Looking over the 22,000 acres that his cattle share with elk, pronghorns and mountain lions and where animals can easily disappear, Mr. Platt scoffed at the idea of reporting every death, as animal health officials prefer.
“They can’t comprehend the vastness of a ranch like this,” he said of federal officials. “They don’t appreciate what is involved logistically.”
Ranchers like Mr. Platt have been joined by small-scale family farmers and other agrarian advocates to oppose the national animal identification system, a plan first broached five years ago by the Bush administration. It has created more visceral opposition than officials expected.
The plan, which is still being ironed out, might have seemed simple enough. With the ever-present threat of animal epidemics, why not modernize the system for identifying livestock? Why not keep computer records of movements so that when a cow is discovered with bovine tuberculosis or mad cow disease, its prior contacts can be swiftly traced? The disease source and the herds needing to be quarantined can be determined faster, officials said.
“Now, when there’s an outbreak, we can’t trace prior movements quickly, and we end up testing a lot more animals than necessary,” said Neil Hammerschmidt, director of the identification program for the federal Agriculture Department. “We want to put in place the infrastructure prior an outbreak.”
Mr. Platt expresses his opposition in more measured terms than many. Web sites analyze every official statement with suspicion, and angry farmers have packed the “listening sessions” held around the country this spring by the Obama administration’s new agriculture secretary.
Rumors have swirled, and farmers are asking whether the government will really require tags on every baby chick and catfish fingerling or a computer report when a pet pony trots onto a neighbor’s land.
Underlying the opposition is the fragile economics of ranches and small farms, which are already disappearing. The extra cost of radio tags, scanners and filing reports when animals change premises would be crushing, some smaller producers say.
“My main beef is that these proposed rules were developed by people sitting in their offices with no real knowledge of animal husbandry and small farms,” said Genell Pridgen, an owner of Rainbow Meadow Farms in Snow Hill, N.C., which rotates sheep, cattle, pigs, turkeys and chickens among three properties and sells directly to consumers and co-ops.
“I feel these rgulations are draconian,” Ms. Pridgen said, “and that lobbyists from corporate mega-agribusiness designed this program to destroy traditional small sustainable agriculture.”
Paul Hamby, owner of Hamby Dairy Supply in Maysville, Mo., and a vocal opponent of the plan, said, “It is very much an economic and class warfare issue.”
“Fifty years ago,” Mr. Hamby said, “hundreds of thousands of farms raised hogs, and now very few players have control of the market. I believe one of the reasons for this plan is to consolidate the cattle industry.”
Jay Platt, the third-generation proprietor of the ranch, said the methods now in use were enough to fight the spread of disease.
The notion of centralized data banks, even for animals, has also set off alarms among libertarians, drawing former supporters of the Ron Paul presidential campaign like Mr. Hamby into the fray. One group has issued a bumper sticker that reads, “Tracking cattle now, tracking you soon.”
Among all the different types of livestock, cattle have the most pressing need for improved records, said Mr. Hammerschmidt, who added that some opponents were misinformed.
“It’s never been our intent to implant chickens, especially chicks,” he said. “People out there are saying that they have to microchip every chicken, and if that chicken crosses the road they’ll have to report that event to the government. That has really stirred the pot.”
Nor do officials want every small producer to buy a $1,000 scanner, Mr. Hammerschmidt said. “The tag could be read at the market or feedlot, where they are more likely to have a reader,” he said, suggesting looser monitoring than many ranchers fear.
Mr. Hammerschmidt pointed out that Michigan and Wisconsin, to strengthen the fight against bovine tuberculosis, now require radio tags for cattle. But he emphasized that the federal government had not mandated the tags, instead hoping it could prod states and individuals to join in.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “we need the ability to trace an animal where there’s a disease issue.”
Mr. Platt, the rancher, said he believed that the authorities already had ample information to pounce on diseases.
Though he is one of the larger independent ranchers, the business is precarious, Mr. Platt said, sustained by land trades and sales. “Any new expense will mean a loss for us,” he said.
Mr. Platt watched with pride as one of his adult sons worked a cutting horse in a timeless ritual, hiving off calves from the herd in the branding corral. “We do this because we just enjoy it,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/us/28livestock.html?_r=4&partner=rss&emc=rss

FDA may put restrictions on Tylenol
ADELPHI, Md. – The makers of Tylenol, Excedrin and other medications are trying to dissuade regulators from placing new restrictions on their popular painkillers, including possibly removing some of them from store shelves.
The Food and Drug Administration has assembled more than 35 experts to discuss ways to prevent overdose with acetaminophen – the pain-relieving, fever-reducing ingredient in Tylenol and dozens of other prescription and over-the-counter medications.
Despite years of educational campaigns and other federal actions, acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S., sending 56,000 people to the emergency room annually, according to the FDA.
The agency today asked its experts to consider a range of options: adding a "black box" warning label to the products, lowering the drug dosage in some products, or pulling certain types of medications off the market.
The drugs that could be pulled off shelves are combination medications, such as Procter & Gamble's NyQuil or Novartis' Theraflu, which combine acetaminophen with other ingredients that treat cough and runny nose.
The FDA says patients often pair them with a pure acetaminophen medication, like Tylenol, exposing themselves to unsafe levels of the drug.
But the industry group that represents Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth and other companies defended the products today, saying they pose a relatively small risk to patients.
Only 10 percent of deaths linked to acetaminophen medications involved over-the-counter combination cold medications, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.
The majority of deaths were caused by either single-ingredient drugs or prescription strength combination drugs like Percocet, which combines oxycodone and acetaminophen.
"We believe there is a clear health benefit of over-the-counter combination products containing acetaminophen," said Linda Suydam, the group's president.
The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, though it usually does. The panel vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Manufacturers could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in sales if combination drugs are pulled from the market. Total sales of all acetaminophen drugs reached $2.6 billion last year, with 80 percent of the market comprised of over-the-counter products.
Tylenol-maker Johnson & Johnson also pushed back against a proposal to lower the maximum daily dose of acetaminophen, which is currently 4 grams daily, or eight pills of a medication like Extra Strength Tylenol.
While taking more than 4 grams per day can cause liver injury, J&J argued that taking the exact dose is proven to treat osteoarthritis pain.
J&J also warned panelists that any new restrictions on acetaminophen would force patients to switch to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which carry risks of gastrointestinal bleeding and sometimes fatal kidney injury.
"When switching occurs, the risk of death increases," said Dr. Kenneth Rothman, a consultant for J&J. According to figures from Rothman, a 30 percent switch away from acetaminophen would result in an additional 5,000 deaths per year.
Top-sellers in the anti-inflammatory drug market include Bayer AG's aspirin and Wyeth's Advil.
Executives from Wyeth scheduled a series of media briefings last week, arguing there's no evidence that the reduced use of acetaminophen would cause more negative side effects with their drug.
"There are major flaws in their arguments that are not born out in real world experience," said Dr. Paul Desjardins, a vice president with Wyeth.
Desjardins pointed out that the U.K. has put tighter safety measures in place for acetaminophen without causing increased problems with Advil and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
For its part, the FDA has made clear it will not play king-maker in the market for over-the-counter medications. The agency says its only goal is to reduce liver injury, "not to decrease appropriate acetaminophen use or to drive people to use NSAIDS instead.''
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/article/658416

White House announces new lighting standards
WASHINGTON -- Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy.
"I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses," the president said, standing alongside Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the White House.
Obama said the new efficiency standards he was announcing for lamps would result in substantial savings between 2012 and 2042, saving consumers up to $4 billion annually, conserving enough energy to power every U.S. home for 10 months, reducing emissions equal to the amount produced by 166 million cars a year, and eliminating the need for as many as 14 coal-fired power plants.
The president also said he was speeding the delivery of $346 million in economic stimulus money to help improve energy efficiency in new and existing commercial buildings.
Republicans took issue with Obama's pitch.
"Conservation is only half the equation. Even as we use less energy, we need to produce more of our own," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "We have to admit there's a gap between the clean, renewable fuel we want and the reliable energy we need."
The White House added the event to the president's schedule at the last minute, just three days after the House narrowly approved the first energy legislation designed to curb global warming following furious lobbying by White House advisers and personal pressure by the president himself.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Monday that in phone calls to reluctant Democrats in endangered districts, Obama "affirmed his commitment to support the policy position that they were taking in helping to explain to their constituents and to the American public the great benefit of this bill."
The measure's fate is less certain in the Senate, where Democrats lack the 60 votes needed to block a certain filibuster.
Still, in an interview with a small group of reporters, Obama energy adviser Carol Browner said: "I am confident that comprehensive energy legislation will pass the Senate." But she repeatedly refused to say exactly when the White House expected the Senate to pass the measure, and she wouldn't speculate on whether Obama would have legislation sent to his desk by year's end.
The White House is working to keep energy in the spotlight even as Congress takes a break this week for the July 4 holiday. Obama has spent the past few days pressuring the Senate to follow the House while also seeking to show that the administration is making quick, clear progress on energy reform without legislation.
In February, the president directed the Energy Department to update its energy conservation standards for everyday household appliances such as dishwashers, lamps and microwave ovens. Laws on the books already required new efficiency standards for household and commercial appliances. But they have been backlogged in a tangle of missed deadlines, bureaucratic disputes and litigation.
The administration already had released new standards on commercial refrigeration. Lamps were next.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062902499_pf.html

Sen. Inhofe Calls for Inquiry Into 'Suppressed' Climate Change Report
Republicans are raising questions about why the EPA apparently dismissed an analyst's report questioning the science behind global warming.
A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.
The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin's report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined.
"He came out with the truth. They don't want the truth at the EPA," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a global warming skeptic, told FOX News, saying he's ordered an investigation. "We're going to expose it."
The controversy comes after the House of Representatives passed a landmark bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, one that Inhofe said will be "dead on arrival" in the Senate despite President Obama's energy adviser voicing confidence in the measure.
According to internal e-mails that have been made public by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Carlin's boss told him in March that his material would not be incorporated into a broader EPA finding and ordered Carlin to stop working on the climate change issue. The draft EPA finding released in April lists six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, that the EPA says threaten public health and welfare.
An EPA official told FOXNews.com on Monday that Carlin, who is an economist -- not a scientist -- included "no original research" in his report. The official said that Carlin "has not been muzzled in the agency at all," but stressed that his report was entirely "unsolicited."
"It was something that he did on his own," the official said. "Though he was not qualified, his manager indulged him and allowed him on agency time to draft up ... a set of comments."
Despite the EPA official's remarks, Carlin told FOXNews.com on Monday that his boss, National Center for Environmental Economics Director Al McGartland, appeared to be pressured into reassigning him.
Carlin said he doesn't know whether the White House intervened to suppress his report but claimed it's clear "they would not be happy about it if they knew about it," and that McGartland seemed to be feeling pressure from somewhere up the chain of command.
Carlin said McGartland told him he had to pull him off the climate change issue.
"It was reassigning you or losing my job, and I didn't want to lose my job," Carlin said, paraphrasing what he claimed were McGartland's comments to him. "My inference (was) that he was receiving some sort of higher-level pressure."
Carlin said he personally does not think there is a need to regulate carbon dioxide, since "global temperatures are going down." He said his report expressed a "good bit of doubt" on the connection between the two.
Specifically, the report noted that global temperatures were on a downward trend over the past 11 years, that scientists do not necessarily believe that storms will become more frequent or more intense due to global warming, and that the theory that temperatures will cause Greenland ice to rapidly melt has been "greatly diminished."
Carlin, in a March 16 e-mail, argued that his comments are "valid, significant" and would be critical to the EPA finding.
McGartland, though, wrote back the next day saying he had decided not to forward his comments.
"The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward on endangerment, and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision," he wrote, according to the e-mails released by CEI. "I can only see one impact of your comments given where we are in the process, and that would be a very negative impact on our office."
He later wrote an e-mail urging Carlin to "move on to other issues and subjects."
"I don't want you to spend any additional EPA time on climate change. No papers, no research, etc., at least until we see what EPA is going to do with climate," McGartland wrote.
The EPA said in a written statement that Carlin's opinions were in fact considered, and that he was not even part of the working group dealing with climate change in the first place.
"Claims that this individual's opinions were not considered or studied are entirely false. This administration and this EPA administrator are fully committed to openness, transparency and science-based decision making," the statement said. "The individual in question is not a scientist and was not part of the working group dealing with this issue. Nevertheless the document he submitted was reviewed by his peers and agency scientists, and information from that report was submitted by his manager to those responsible for developing the proposed endangerment finding. In fact, some ideas from that document are included and addressed in the endangerment finding."
The e-mail exchanges and suggestions of political interference sparked a backlash from Republicans in Congress.
Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., also wrote a letter last week to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson urging the agency to reopen its comment period on the finding. The EPA has since denied the request.
Citing the internal e-mails, the Republican congressmen wrote that the EPA was exhibiting an "agency culture set in a predetermined course."
"It documents at least one instance in which the public was denied access to significant scientific literature and raises substantial questions about what additional evidence may have been suppressed," they wrote.
In a written statement, Issa said the administration is "actively seeking to withhold new data in order to justify a political conclusion."
"I'm sure it was very inconvenient for the EPA to consider a study that contradicted the findings it wanted to reach," Sensenbrenner said in a statement, adding that the "repression" of Carlin's report casts doubt on the entire finding.
Carlin said he's concerned that he's seeing "science being decided at the presidential level."
"Now Mr. Obama is in effect directly or indirectly saying that CO2 causes global temperatures to rise and that we have to do something about it. ... That's normally a scientific judgment and he's in effect judging what the science says," he said. "We need to look at it harder."
The controversy is similar to one under the Bush administration -- only the administration was taking the opposite stance. In that case, scientist James Hansen claimed the administration was trying to keep him from speaking out and calling for reductions in greenhouse gases.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/29/gop-senator-calls-inquiry-supressed-climate-change-report/

Bath in diluted bleach relieves kids' eczema
Though most people reserve bleach for removing stains from clothing, a study in the journal Pediatrics says it also may offer relief to children who have the skin disease eczema.
The study, out last month from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, found that giving children with moderate or severe eczema diluted bleach baths reduced the severity of the disease.
Eczema can often cause itching, rash, crusting and other forms of irritation, the National Eczema Association says.
"This is a study that was based on the fact that we've known for many years that diluted solutions of bleach can be antibacterial," says Amy Paller, professor and chair of dermatology at the medical school and the senior investigator of the study.
Eczema patients often develop colonies of the bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, on their skin as a result of the itching and scratching caused by the disease, she says. The bacteria can exacerbate symptoms of the disease, so when eliminated by the bleach, patients usually feel some relief.
The 31 participants were split randomly into two groups. One received a bottle of bleach, the other a bleach bottle filled with water. Doctors did not know which group was using bleach, and participants were instructed not to tell researchers which group they were in.
Patients were told to use about a half-cup of bleach for a full standard tub and to soak for five to 10 minutes twice a week. After a month, researchers saw "a significant decrease" in the severity of the symptoms of the group using the bleach.
Robert Brodell, a professor of internal medicine and dermatology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, says dermatologists have been using the treatment for about 20 years, but this is the first scientific study on the topic.
"Many dermatologists wait until there's evidence that something really works because there are a thousand things out there that people do and when they're subjected to scientific study they don't work," he says.
Brodell describes the baths as an "adjunctive treatment," to be used in conjunction with moisturizers, antibiotics and other treatments.
"It is a component that helps a bit, but it's not God's gift to eczema patients," he says.
Paller adds that patients should consult with a physician before starting the treatment and cautions them never to put non-diluted bleach directly on the skin.
Julie Block, vice president for programs at the National Eczema Association, says the study will "help people learn options that they can do at home to empower themselves."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-06-29-eczema-bleach_N.htm

Eeyores news and view

The above cartoon is great to post one the one year aniversry of the Heller case against DC ans for the people.

There is a lot of unrest around the world right now. Here are a few articles today

Honduras torn between ousted leader, replacement
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Honduras is now torn between two presidents: one legally recognized by world bodies after he was deposed and forced from the country by his own soldiers, and another supported by the Central American nation's congress, courts and military.
Presidents from around Latin America were gathering in Nicaragua for meetings Monday to resolve the first military overthrow of a Central American government in 16 years, and once again Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took center stage, casting the dispute as a rebellion by the region's poor.
"If the oligarchies break the rules of the game as they have done, the people have the right to resistance and combat, and we are with them," Chavez said in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.
There is a deep rift between the outside world - which is clamoring for the return of democratically elected, but largely unpopular and soon-to-leave-office President Manuel Zelaya - and congressionally designated successor Roberto Micheletti.
Micheletti rejected any outside interference and declared a two-night curfew, while Chavez vowed that "we will overthrow (Micheletti)."
Zelaya was seized by soldiers and hustled aboard a plane to Costa Rica early Sunday, just hours before a rogue referendum Zelaya had called in defiance of the courts and Congress, and which his opponents said was an attempt to remain in power after his term ends Jan. 27.
The Honduran constitution limits presidents to a single 4-year term, and Zelaya's opponents feared he would use the referendum results to try to run again, just as Chavez reformed his country's constitution to be able to seek re-election repeatedly.
Micheletti said the army acted on orders from the courts, and the ouster was carried out "to defend respect for the law and the principles of democracy." But he threatened to jail Zelaya and put him on trial if he returned. Micheletti also hit back at Chavez, saying "nobody, not Barack Obama and much less Hugo Chavez, has any right to threaten this country."
Earlier, Obama said in a statement he was "deeply concerned" about the events, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned.
"I call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democratic norms, the rule of law and the tenets of the Inter-American Democratic Charter," Obama's statement read.
For those conditions to be met, Zelaya must be returned to power, U.S. officials said.
Two senior Obama administration officials told reporters that U.S. diplomats were working to ensure Zelaya's safe return.
The officials said the Obama administration in recent days had warned Honduran power players, including the armed forces, that the U.S. would not support a coup, but Honduran military leaders stopped taking their calls.
Zelaya said soldiers seized him in his pajamas at gunpoint in what he called a "coup" and a "kidnapping." The United Nations, the Organization of American States and governments throughout Latin America called for Zelaya to be allowed to resume office.
"I want to return to my country. I am president of Honduras," Zelaya said Sunday before traveling to Managua on one of Chavez's planes for regional meetings of Central American leaders and Chavez's leftist alliance of nations, known as ALBA.
Zelaya's call for civil disobedience and peaceful resistance appeared to gain only modest support in Honduras, where a few hundred people turned out at government buildings to jeer soldiers and chant "Traitors!"
Some of Zelaya's Cabinet members were detained by soldiers or police following his ouster, according to former government official Armando Sarmiento. And the rights group Freedom of Expression said leftist legislator Cesar Ham had died in a shootout with soldiers trying to detain him.
A Honduran Security Department spokesman said he had no information on Ham.
Armored military vehicles with machine guns rolled through the streets of the Honduran capital and soldiers seized the national palace, but no other incidents of violence were reported.
Sunday afternoon, Congress voted to accept what it said was Zelaya's letter of resignation, with even the president's former allies turning against him. Micheletti, who as leader of Congress is in line to fill any vacancy in the presidency, was sworn in to serve until Zelaya's term ends.
Micheletti belongs to Zelaya's Liberal Party, but opposed the president in the referendum.
Micheletti acknowledged that he had not spoken to any Latin American heads of state, but said, "I'm sure that 80 to 90 percent of the Honduran population is happy with what happened today."
The Organization of American States approved a resolution Sunday demanding "the immediate, safe and unconditional return of the constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the coup and "urges the reinstatement of the democratically elected representatives of the country," said his spokeswoman, Michele Montas.
The Rio Group, which comprises 23 nations from the hemisphere, issued a statement condemning "the coup d'etat" and calling for Zelaya's "immediate and unconditional restoration to his duties."
And Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou canceled a planned visit to Honduras, one of just 23 countries that still recognize the self-governing island.
Coups were common in Central America for four decades reaching back to the 1950s, but Sunday's ouster was the first military power grab in Latin America since a brief, failed 2002 coup against Chavez. It was the first in Central America since military officials forced President Jorge Serrano of Guatemala to step down in 1993 after he tried to dissolve Congress and suspend the constitution.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090629/D99493GO0.html

Chavez threatens military action over Honduras coup
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.
Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him during the army's coup against his leftist ally, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.
The Honduran army ousted Zelaya and exiled him in Central America's first military coup since the Cold War, after he upset the army by trying to win re-election.
Chavez said on state television if his ambassador to Venezuela was killed, or if troops entered the Venezuelan Embassy, "that military junta would be entering a de facto state of war. We would have to act militarily ... I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."
Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, part of a coalition of leftist governments headed by Chavez that includes Honduras, said he would support military action if Ecuador's diplomats or those of its allies were threatened.
The socialist Chavez has in the past threatened to use his armed forces in the region but never followed through. He said that if a new government is sworn in after the coup it would be defeated.
"We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," he said, while hundreds of red-shirted supporters gathered outside Venezuela's presidential palace in solidarity with Zelaya.
HISTORY OF COUPS
The United States has long accused the Venezuelan former soldier of being a destabilizing force in Latin America. Chavez himself tried to take power in a coup in 1992 and was briefly ousted in a 2002 putsch but was reinstated after protests.
Chavez, who accused the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush of backing his removal, said there should be an investigation into whether Washington had a hand in Zelaya's ouster.
"They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this," he said.
The White House denied any U.S. participation in the coup. "There was no U.S. involvement in this action against President Zelaya," a White House official told Reuters.
President Barack Obama said he was deeply concerned by the events in Honduras and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton condemned the action taken against Zelaya. A senior U.S. official said Washington recognizes only Zelaya as president.
The United States supported a number of military coups in Central America during the Cold War and used Honduras as a base for its counter-insurgency operations in the region in the 1980s.
Washington still has several hundred troops stationed at Soto Cano Air Base, a Honduran military installation that is also the headquarters for a regional U.S. joint task force that conducts humanitarian, drug and disaster relief operations.
Chavez and other Latin American leaders from his ALBA coalition, including Ecuador's President Rafael Correa and Bolivia's President Evo Morales, were headed to Nicaragua on Sunday to discuss what action to take over Honduras.
ALBA's nine members also include Cuba, Honduras and Nicaragua. Ecuador said Sunday it will not recognize any new government in Honduras.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE55R1S820090628?sp=true

NKorea criticizes US missile defense for Hawaii
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea criticized the U.S. on Monday for positioning missile defense systems around Hawaii, calling the deployment part of a plot to attack the regime and saying it would bolster its nuclear arsenal in retaliation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he ordered the deployment of a ground-based, mobile missile intercept system and radar system to Hawaii amid concerns the North may fire a long-range missile toward the islands, about 4,500 miles away.
"Through the U.S. forces' clamorous movements, it has been brought to light that the U.S. attempt to launch a pre-emptive strike on our republic has become a brutal fact," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary.
The paper also accused the U.S. of deploying nuclear-powered aircraft and atomic-armed submarines in waters near the Korean peninsula, saying the moves prove "the U.S. pre-emptive nuclear war" on the North is imminent.
... (more of the article at the link)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/29/AR2009062900307_pf.html

Russia Holds Major War Games In Caucasus
Russia Holds Largest War Games Since War With Georgia _ In Signal To Georgia, And To US
Thousands of troops, backed by hundreds of tanks, artillery and other heavy weaponry, began rumbling through the North Caucasus on Monday, as Russia began its largest military exercises since last year's war with Georgia.
The Caucasus 2009 war games are being seen by many experts as a warning shot for nearby Georgia, where the government says it has rearmed armed forces and where NATO recently wrapped up its own exercises.
Experts say the exercises may also be signal to the United States that Russia will give no ground on its efforts to maintain an exclusive sphere of influence in Georgia and other former Soviet republics. The games run through July 6 _ the day that President Barack Obama arrives in Moscow for a highly anticipated summit with Russia's Dmitry Medvedev.
Defense Ministry official say more than 8,500 troops will take part, along with nearly 200 tanks, armored vehicles, 100 artillery units and several units from Russia's Black Sea naval fleet.
... (read more of the story at this link)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/06/29/ap/europe/main5120564.shtml

China's banks are an accident waiting to happen to every one of us
Fitch Ratings has been warning for some time that China's lenders are wading into dangerous water
China's banks are veering out of control. The half-reformed economy of the People's Republic cannot absorb the $1,000bn (£600bn) blitz of new lending issued since December.
Money is leaking instead into Shanghai's stock casino, or being used to keep bankrupt builders on life support. It is doing very little to help lift the world economy out of slump.
Fitch Ratings has been warning for some time that China's lenders are wading into dangerous waters, but its latest report is even grimmer than bears had suspected.
"With much of the world immersed in crisis, China appears to be one of the few countries where the financial system continues to function largely without a glitch, but Fitch is growing increasingly wary," it said.
"Future losses on stimulus could turn out to be larger than expected, and it is unclear what share the central and/or local governments ultimately will be willing or able to bear."
... (more of the article is at the following link)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5675198/Chinas-banks-are-an-accident-waiting-to-happen-to-every-one-of-us.html

Eeyores news and view

45 and counting
Regulators shut 5 banks; 45 failures this year
By STEPHEN BERNARD and MARCY GORDON
NEW YORK (AP) - Regulators on Friday shut down five small banks, boosting to 45 the number of failures this year of federally insured banks. More are expected to succumb in the prolonged recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the failed banks: Community Bank of West Georgia, based in Villa Rica, Ga.; Neighborhood Community Bank, located in Newnan, Ga.; Horizon Bank in Pine City, Minn.; MetroPacific Bank in Irvine, Calif.; and Mirae Bank in Los Angeles.
Community Bank of West Georgia had $199.4 million in assets and $182.5 million in deposits as of May 15. Neighborhood Community Bank had $221.6 million in assets and $191.3 million in deposits as of March 31. Horizon Bank had $87.6 million in assets and $69.4 million in deposits as of March 31. MetroPacific Bank had $80 million in assets and deposits of $73 million as of June 8. Mirae Bank had $456 million in assets and $362 million in deposits as of May 29.
The two closures in Georgia brought to 14 the number of banks in Georgia that have failed since the beginning of last year, more than in any other state. Most of the failures have involved banks in the Atlanta area, where the collapse of the real estate market brought economic dislocation.
CharterBank, based in West Point, Ga., agreed to assume all of the deposits of Neighborhood Community Bank and to purchase about $209.6 million of the assets; the FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition. Neighborhood Community's four offices will reopen as branches of CharterBank.
The FDIC said it will mail checks to Community Bank of West Georgia depositors for the amounts of their insured funds. Direct deposits from the government, such as Social Security and veterans' benefits, will be transferred to United Community Bank in Blairsville, Ga.
All of the deposits at Horizon Bank will be assumed by St. Cloud, Minn.-based Stearns Bank NA. Stearns Bank also agreed to purchase $84.4 million of Horizon Bank's assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition. Horizon Bank's two offices will reopen Saturday as branches of Stearns Bank, and customers accounts will automatically be transferred to Stearns Bank.
Nearly all of MetroPacific Bank's deposits will be assumed by Tustin, Calif.-based Sunwest bank. Only about $6 million in brokered deposits will not be absorbed by Sunwest. The FDIC will pay brokers directly for the amount of those funds. Virtually all of MetroPacific Bank's assets are being purchased by Sunwest Bank. MetroPacific Bank's lone office will reopen Monday as a branch of Sunwest Bank. Deposits will be automatically transferred to Sunwest Bank.
Los Angeles-based Wilshire State Bank will assume all of Mirae Bank's deposits and $449 million of its assets. The remaining assets will be retained by the FDIC for later disposition. Mirae Bank's five offices will be reopened Monday as branches of Wilshire State Bank.
The 45 banks closed nationwide this year compare with 25 in all of 2008 and three in 2007.
The FDIC estimates that the cost to the deposit insurance fund from the failure of Community Bank of West Georgia will be $85 million. CharterBank's failure will cost the fund $66.7 million. The failure of Horizon Bank is expected to cost the fund $33.5 million, while the closure of MetroPacific Bank will cost the fund about $29 million. Mirae Bank's failure will cost the fund $50 million.
As the economy has soured, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. It now stands at its lowest level since 1993, $13 billion as of the first quarter.
While the pounding from losses on home mortgages may be nearing an end, delinquencies on commercial real estate loans remain a hot spot of potential trouble, FDIC officials say. If the recession deepens, defaults on the high-risk loans could spike. Many regional banks hold large numbers of them.
The number of banks on the FDIC's list of problem institutions leaped to 305 in the first quarter - the highest number since 1994 during the savings and loan crisis - from 252 in the fourth quarter. The combined assets of those banks rose to $220 billion from $159 billion.
The FDIC expects U.S. bank failures to cost the insurance fund around $70 billion through 2013. The agency recently adopted a new system of emergency fees paid by U.S. financial institutions that shifts more of the burden to bigger banks to help replenish the fund.
Congress has more than tripled the amount the FDIC may borrow from the Treasury Department if needed to restore the insurance fund, to $100 billion from $30 billion.
Government "stress tests" of the 19 biggest U.S. banks last month showed that 10 of them had to raise a total of $75 billion in new capital to withstand possible future losses.
A key government effort to ease the credit crisis reached a milestone on June 17 as 10 large banks said they had repaid a total of $68 billion in federal bailout funds.
The Obama administration on Friday established its process for pricing billions of dollars worth of warrants that large banks must repurchase to exit the $700 billion bailout program.
In addition to the $68 billion in bailout funds repaid by the 10 large institutions, another $2 billion has been repaid by smaller banks.
The closing last month of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the insurance fund $4.9 billion, the second-largest hit since the financial crisis began. The costliest was the July 2008 seizure of big California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion.
The largest U.S. bank failure ever also came last year: Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. fell in September, with about $307 billion in assets. It was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) (JPM) for $1.9 billion in a deal brokered by the FDIC.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090627/D992S6D00.html

For sale on eBay: Obama's 'Kenyan birth certificate'
BORN IN THE USA?
For sale on eBay: Obama's 'Kenyan birth certificate'
Seller claims Mombasa document 'certified copy'
Posted: June 27, 2009 12:40 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily
With dozens of lawsuits filed over access to Barack Obama's certified long-form birth certificate, many more lawyers working on his behalf to keep it secret and the validity of the U.S. Constitution hanging in the balance, guess where a "certified copy" of the original Mombasa "document" has been found? On eBay.
Item No. 160344928067, at least as of today, is described as "a certified copy of President Barack Obama's Kenyan Birth Certificate."
The seller, identified by the user name " colmado_naranja," states, "President Barack Hussein Obama II was born in The Coast Provincial Hospital at Mombasa inKenya at 7:24 PM on August 4th, 1961."
eBay offer for Obama's Kenyan birth certificate
The suspicion that Coast Provincial is, in fact, Obama's birth hospital is not new, with the subject having been discussed on both Internet blogs and forums already.
But the seller, who according to the eBay rankings has completed dozens of transitions on the behemoth auction site without difficulties, said this is the real deal.
The seller, who did not respond to a WND request for an interview, said online he was traveling in Kenya and repeatedly heard stories that Obama actually was born in Kenya.
"Kenyans were amused at how gullible Americans could be when it came to obvious things like the fact that Kenyans overtly admit to Barack Jr's Kenyan birth, yet the Americans continue to believe that they know better," the seller writes.
"I delved further and found that a birth certificate was on file at The Coast Provincial General Hospital at Mombasa," said the seller, who claims the certificate is in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
"I know several American expats that reside in Kenya. I asked the three that I could reach if they were aware of President Barack Obama's Kenyan birth. All three said that they were most obviously aware of his Kenyan birth. I was shocked. They went to further say that they weren't much concerned with it, after all they'd left the U.S. to start a new life abroad and didn't have much interest in what was taking place in the States. Besides, they said, who would believe them anyway?
"Along with my Congolese brother Andylenny (brother in heart, not blood) and a 1993 BMW with only one working door I was off to Mombasa to get myself a copy (certified I hoped) of Barack Jr's birth certificate," the seller reported.
Actual details of how the "certificate" was obtained are not reported.
Search of eBay auction site for 'birth certificate' brought up this list
"I am not posting any photos of the birth certificate here on eBay. I have not seen this birth certificate anywhere on the Internet, to post it here on eBay would lead to a flood of facsimiles on the Internet. This would inadvertently decrease the value of the certificate as well," the seller said.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest all of the questions.
WND has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, his Punahou school records, his Occidental College records, his Columbia University records, his Columbia thesis, his Harvard Law School records, his Harvard Law Review articles, his scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, his passport, his medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.
Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard in Pennsylvania
Because of the dearth of information about Obama's eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: "Where's the birth certificate?"
The campaign followed a petition that has collected almost 400,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.
The birth certificate seller is a self-proclaimed "collector of old Dominican and Cuban money" and has worked in the Congo.
"This spring I traveled through Kenya and its capital Nairobi. I was overwhelmed by the 'iconicized' face of U.S. President Barack Obama that displays itself throughout the country. I had lunch at a small eatery and noticed that the club sandwich with fried plantains was now known as 'Obama's Plate of the Day,'" the seller writes. "As an American I was bombarded with questions in English (English is national language of Kenya) on my feelings and opinions of a Kenyan governing the United States of America. The first several times I responded in saying that not enough time had elapsed since Barack Obama's appointment as president of the U.S.A., and that I'd have to hold my official opinion until at least January 2010, a year in office might be sufficient for me to judge his ability to govern the U.S.A.
"Naturally I thought that by 'Kenyan' they were referring to Barack Obama's blood, being that his father Barack Obama Sr. was a native of Kenya. After a day and a half of my being in Nairobi I learned that they were literally referring to President Barack Obama Jr. as being born in Kenya, a native of Kenya."
The seller also cited the fact that Obama has not release his "Hawaiian" birth certificate. His administration, the seller sayd, "in an attempt to put the birth certificate issue to a rest, has presented the American public with a FAKE, FORGED, Fraudulent Hawaiian Birth Certificate."
The seller indicated a willingness to respond to questions about the item, for which bidding was set to begin at $1,000. But the seller said questions would be evaluated and may not get a direct response.
The "certification of live birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.
If you are a member of the media and would like to interview Joseph Farah about this campaign, e-mail WND.
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102271

Mounting Jobless Claims Force States To Borrow Funds
The government checks keeping Candy Czernicki afloat are fast running out. The reason? U.S. states obligated to pay benefits to the swelling ranks of jobless Americans are piling debt onto strained budgets.
Fifteen states have depleted their unemployment insurance funds so far, forcing them to borrow from the U.S. Treasury.
A record 30 of the country's 50 states are expected to have to borrow up to $17 billion by next year, said Rick McHugh of the National Employment Law Project, a nonpartisan advocacy group.
"We are setting the stage for big pressures for states to restrict eligibility and benefit levels," McHugh said. "Those type of restrictive actions undercut the (Depression-era program's) economic and social stability purposes."
The state-run unemployment insurance programs are normally financed with payroll taxes paid by employers on each worker. But the funds' tax revenues are falling at the same time as benefit demands are rising.
Nine million Americans are receiving jobless benefits, triple the number who got checks at the beginning of the year. Experts predict the number of recipients will peak sometime this summer as long-term unemployed run out of benefits, which were recently extended and last for 59 weeks in most cases.
"I believe I have two months of benefits left," said Czernicki, 44, who was laid off from her Eau Claire, Wisconsin, newspaper editing job last year.
Unforeseen Impact
"I am living with my sister because, after eight months of unemployment, I couldn't be living on my own any more," she said. "I don't think my sister will throw me out. I know at least that I am not going to be homeless."
Jonathan Cohen was laid off by a New Jersey nonprofit a few months ago and is growing discouraged. Competition for available jobs is fierce and he fears his monthly unemployment insurance checks will stop before he lands a new position.
"Once unemployment runs out then I'm 100 percent drawing down on my savings," Cohen said. "I'm hoping that as the (federal) stimulus money gets through the pipelines you'll start to see more openings."
The majority of states that did not foresee the recession's devastating impact and failed to create an adequate cushion in their unemployment insurance funds may seek to raise payroll taxes, meeting resistance from employers, experts predicted.
"State unemployment taxes will have to go up, but unemployment will have to come down," said Andrew Stettner of the National Employment Law Project.
The financial stress on states is only part of a larger budget debacle most face.
Forty-six states have collective budget deficits totaling at least $130 billion, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and lawmakers are having to make unpalatable choices between tax increases and spending cuts.
Stimulus Helped
The $787 billion federal stimulus package offered the states $7 billion to expand who qualifies for unemployment benefits, and to extend the length of time benefits are paid to 59 weeks from 26. The package also permitted states to borrow interest-free through 2010 but the money must be repaid.
The last time so many states needed to borrow because of depleted unemployment insurance funds was in the 1980s.
"It's nothing new and it has been done before. So far ... not one unemployment check has bounced in this country and it just won't happen," said Diana Hinton Noel of the National Council of State Legislatures.
CNBC.com Blog: Executive Careers
One difference is the current recession is broader and has spared few states. The economy shed more than 500,000 jobs in each of the first four months of the year and the U.S. jobless rate is expected to climb above 10 percent by year-end.
Michigan, which of all the states had the highest unemployment rate in May at 14.1 percent, has doubled borrowings for its unemployment insurance fund to more than $2 billion since the beginning of the year. California owes the federal treasury nearly $1.5 billion and New York owes more than $1.3 billion, up from $358 million in January.
A few years ago, Texas sold up to $500 million in municipal bonds to meet its unemployment insurance obligations.
Jobless benefits are typically about half the worker's last salary. European countries are more generous, paying 60 percent to 80 percent of a worker's lost wages for at least a year.
A recent U.S. survey by CareerBuilder.com, an online job search Website, concluded that 23 percent of jobless Americans rely on unemployment checks to get by.
The checks often supplement meager earnings from part-time or temporary jobs.
"I have been taking just about anything but I don't know if I am going to be steadily employed," said Harvey, 53, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, salesman who declined to give his last name. He was let go a year ago by a store selling recreational vehicles when customers stopped showing up.
"When you lose your job, your bills don't stop, they keep coming in. It's a tough market out there. I have lowered my standards, taken odd jobs. No one wants to pay you benefits or a decent wage," he said.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/31565441

Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases
WASHINGTON — A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late.
"The bottom line is this is an important research project to determine the feasibility of using certain transactions and events to discover and respond to terrorists before they act," he said.
Aldridge said the database, which he called another "tool" in the war on terror, would look for telltale signs of suspicious consumer behavior.
Examples he cited were: sudden and large cash withdrawals, one-way air or rail travel, rental car transactions and purchases of firearms, chemicals or agents that could be used to produce biological or chemical weapons.
It would also combine consumer information with visa records, passports, arrest records or reports of suspicious activity given to law enforcement or intelligence services.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is home to the Pentagon's brightest thinkers -- the ones who built the Internet. DARPA will be in charge of trying to make the system work technically.
Rear Adm. John Poindexter, former national security adviser to President Reagan, is developing the database under the Total Information Awareness Program. Poindexter was convicted on five counts of misleading Congress and making false statements during the Iran-Contra investigation. Those convictions were later overturned, but critics note that his is a dubious resume for someone entrusted with so sensitive a task.
Aldridge said Poindexter will only "develop the tool, he will not be exercising the tool." He said Poindexter brought the database idea to the Pentagon and persuaded Aldridge and others to pursue it.
"John has a real passion for this project," Aldridge said.
TIAF's office logo is now one eye scanning the globe. The translation of the Latin motto: knowledge is power. Some say, possibly too much power. "What this is talking about is making us a nation of suspects and I am sorry, the United States citizens should not have to live in fear of their own government and that is exactly what this is going to turn out to be," said Chuck Pena, senior defense policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
Pena and others say the database is an even greater violation of privacy rights than Attorney General John Ashcroft's nixed proposal to turn postal workers and delivery men into government tipsters. No matter what protections Congress requires, Pena fears a database big enough and nimble enough to track the entire nation's spending habits is ripe for abuse.
"I don't think once you put something like this in place, you can ever create enough checks and balances and oversight," Pena said.
But proponents say big business already has access to most of this data, but don't do anything with it to fight terrorism.
"I find it somewhat counter intuitive that people are not concerned that telemarketers and insurance companies can acquire this data but feel tremendous trepidation if a government ventures into this arena. To me it just smacks of paranoia," said David Rivkin, an attorney for Baker & Hostetler LLP.
The database is not yet ready and Aldridge said it will not be available for several years. Fake consumer data will be used in development of the database, he said.
When it's ready, Aldridge said individual privacy rights will be protected. But he could not explain how the data would be accessed. In some cases, specific warrants would give law enforcement agencies access, he said. But in other cases the database might flag suspicious activity absent a specific request or warrant, and that suspicious activity could well be relayed to law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
"I don't know what the scope of this is going to be," Aldridge said. "We are in a war on terrorism. We are trying to find out if this technology can work."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html