Eeyores news and view

This topic may have been out of the news lately but seems to have come back with a vengenace lately. Which is a good thing here is an article on illegal imagration. Heavy emphases on ILLEGAL.

Feds shift gears on illegal immigration
The Department of Homeland Security is changing the way it tackles illegal immigration, in many cases remaking or rescinding Bush administration policies.
The changes put heavier emphasis on employers, including more investigations of hiring records and fines for violations, says John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in DHS.
"We have to come to grips with the market for illegal labor," he says. "To get there, we have to move beyond individual cases."
The arrests of hundreds of illegal workers at a time in raids at factories and meatpacking plants were a visible component of President George W. Bush's immigration enforcement strategy.
The largest workplace raid under the Obama administration was in February, when 28 illegal immigrants were arrested at an engine manufacturer in Bellingham, Wash.
Guidelines issued since then make it clear that raids targeting employees won't be a priority. The agency still will arrest illegal immigrants as it conducts investigations, Morton says, but "we are going to place our focus … first and foremost on the employer."
On July 1, ICE notified 652 businesses that it would inspect their hiring records to make sure they verified their workers' legal status, and Morton says the push will expand. ICE began 503 such audits in all of last year.
Other changes:
• DHS announced on July 8 that it would rescind a Bush proposal to crack down on businesses that don't fire workers whose Social Security numbers don't match government records. The plan, tied up by court challenges, never went into effect.
The agency said it will move ahead with another Bush plan to require businesses with federal contracts to verify the legal status of employees using an online government database. The DHS says the system will catch inconsistencies earlier.
The department estimates that the rule will cover 3.8 million employees.
• Two days later, DHS announced new standards for a program that gives authority to enforce immigration laws to state and local law enforcement agencies that sign agreements with the department and undergo training. The revised contracts direct police to focus mainly on illegal immigrants who are already in jail or have been convicted or arrested in drug or violent crimes, not those involved in minor offenses such as traffic violations.
Tamar Jacoby supports the enforcement changes because, she says, ICE is using limited resources to target the worst offenders. Jacoby is president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a group of employers who want changes in the law to allow more foreign workers to enter the country legally.
"If we as a nation can prove to the public that we're able and willing and serious about enforcing the law, the public will be potentially more open to immigration reform," she says.
Rosemary Jenks of NumbersUSA, which calls for reduced immigration, criticizes the shifts, saying they will lead to fewer arrests of illegal immigrants. "The message is, if you come here illegally, you can get a job, you can stay under the radar, don't commit a crime and you'll be fine," she says. "It's essentially a de facto amnesty."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-07-20-immigration_N.htm?csp=34

Watchdog: TARP tab could hit $24 trillion
Think last year's $700 billion Wall Street rescue package was beaucoup bucks to spend bailing out the nation's floundering financial system? That's chump change compared to what the overall price tag could be, a government watchdog says.
The inspector general in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department's bank-bailout program says the massive endeavor could end up costing taxpayers almost $24 trillion in a worst-case scenario. That's more than six times President Obama's proposed $3.55 trillion budget for 2010.
Much of the bailout's attention has focused on the Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, which Congress hurriedly passed last fall. But about 50 other federal programs that began as early as 2007 could push the government's total financial support of the private financial sector to at least $23.7 trillion, says TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky.
The estimate - which the Treasury strongly disputes - was included in Mr. Barofsky's second-quarter review of TARP on Monday.
"TARP does not function in a vacuum, but is rather part of the broader government efforts to stabilize the financial system," said Mr. Barofsky in a statement ahead of his appearance Tuesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to discuss his report.
Extra costs include $2.3 trillion in programs offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), $7.4 trillion in TARP and other aid from the Treasury, and $7.2 trillion in federal money to support Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit unions, Veterans Affairs and other federal guarantee programs, he said.
The committee's top Republican, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, said the size and scope of the government's involvement in rescuing the struggling financial sector has reached a mind-boggling level.
"If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth of Christ, that wouldn't even come close to just $1 trillion; $23.7 trillion is a staggering figure," he said.
But the Treasury called Mr. Barofsky's estimate "inflated," saying that less than $2 trillion have been doled out to so far by all the programs he identified in the report.
The estimate also doesn't take into account the the repayment of TARP loans, the Treasury says, an increasing tally that so far has reached about $70 billion.
The Treasury has committed $643.1 billion of TARP money and has spent $441 billion.
In the nine months since Congress authorized TARP, the Treasury has created 12 programs involving funds that may reach almost $3 trillion, Mr. Barofsky said.
Although the Treasury is only authorized to spend the $700 billion approved last year by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, the FDIC and the Federal Reserve are expected to invest up to $1 trillion each in partnering with the Treasury on TARP.
Mr. Barofsky complained that while the Treasury has taken some steps toward improving transparency in TARP programs, it repeatedly has failed to adopt many recommendations that his office considers essential to providing "the highest degree of accountability and transparency possible."
The Treasury for months has refused his recommendation that TARP recipients be required to reveal exactly what they do with the money, a practice that the Treasury has called "meaningless" in light of the inherent "fungibility" of money.
Oversight committee Chairman Edolphus Towns said he was disappointed that the Treasury hasn't done more to increase transparency, adding that Mr. Barofsky's report "demonstrates more than anything why we need" a TARP watchdog.
"If the banks can't tell us how they're spending TARP money, then maybe they shouldn't have it," the New York Democrat said. "How can Treasury commit billions - and potentially trillions - of taxpayer dollars, but not ask recipients what they're doing with the money? That takes 'burying your head in the sand' to a new level."
The report also shows that the inspector general's office authorized 35 criminal and civil investigations involving TARP money through June 30. These investigations include suspected accounting fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, mortgage-service misconduct, mortgage fraud, public corruption, false statements and tax investigations.
Mr. Barofsky told The Washington Times earlier this month that "almost certainly we are going to be seeing a number of [criminal] indictments" coming from the investigations.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/21/watchdog-says-tarp-tab-could-hit-24-trillion/

Maloney apologizes for using N word
Posted: 05:20 AM ET
(CNN) – New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, apologized Monday for using the N word in a recent interview while recounting a phone call she had received.
"I apologize for having repeated a word I find disgusting," Maloney said in a statement. "It's no excuse but I was so caught up in relaying the story exactly as it was told to me that, in doing so, I repeated a word that should never be repeated."
Maloney, who is challenging Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for the 2010 Democratic Senate nomination in New York, used the full racial slur in an interview with the Web site City Hall while taking aim at Gillibrand's record.
"I got a call from someone from Puerto Rico, said [Gillibrand] went to Puerto Rico and came out for English-only [education]. And he said, 'It was like saying n—r to a Puerto Rican,'" Maloney said. "I don't know-I don't know if that's true or not. I just called. I'm just throwing that out. All of her-well, what does she stand for?"
Earlier Monday, the Rev. Al Sharpton — a supporter of Gillibrand's bid — sharply criticized Maloney for using the word.
"The quote by Congresswoman Maloney if accurate is alarming and disturbing at best," he said in a statement. "No public official even in quoting someone else should loosely use such an offensive term and should certainly challenge someone using the term to him or her."
The controversy comes the same day Maloney is set to hold a big-ticket fundraiser that includes an appearance from former President Bill Clinton. Clinton has also attended a fundraiser for Gillibrand.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/21/maloney-apologizes-for-using-n-word-2/

Eeyores news and view

We are on the brink, the only time we have ever spent this far in a deficit was never. Even during the wars when we went deep into debt, it was never this far and never did we give away so much of the money. In the past the money always went into local economies not to subsidies the rest of the world. We are mortgaging not only our futures but that of great grand children. It is not the fault of either party, it is the mind set on capital hill. Governments are not any different then private individuals, it just may take longer before they go bankrupt, or before it becomes public.

Budget deficit tops $1 trillion for first time
Jul 13, 8:20 PM (ET) By MARTIN CRUTSINGER
WASHINGTON - The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time ever and could grow to nearly $2 trillion by this fall, intensifying fears about higher interest rates, inflation and the strength of the dollar.
The deficit has been widened by the huge sum the government has spent to ease the recession, combined with a sharp decline in tax revenues. The cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also is a major factor.
The soaring deficit is making Chinese and other foreign buyers of U.S. debt nervous, which could make them reluctant lenders down the road. It could also force the Treasury Department to pay higher interest rates to make U.S. debt attractive longer-term.
"These are mind-boggling numbers," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at the Smith School of Business at California State University. "Our foreign investors from China and elsewhere are starting to have concerns about not only the value of the dollar but how safe their investments will be in the long run."
The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to $1.09 trillion. The administration forecasts that the deficit for the entire year will hit $1.84 trillion in October.
Government spending is on the rise to address the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and an unemployment rate that has climbed to 9.5 percent.
Congress already approved a $700 billion financial bailout for banks, automakers and other sectors, and a $787 billion economic stimulus package to try to jump-start a recovery. Outlays through the first nine months of this budget year total $2.67 trillion, up 20.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
There is growing talk among some Obama administration officials that a second round of stimulus may eventually be necessary.
That has many Republicans and deficit hawks worried that the U.S. could be setting itself up for more financial pain down the road if interest rates and inflation surge. They also are raising alarms about additional spending the administration is proposing, including its plan to reform health care.
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have said the U.S. is committed to bringing down the deficits once the economy and financial sector recover. The Obama administration has set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
In the meantime, the U.S. debt now stands at $11.5 trillion. Interest payments on the debt cost $452 billion last year - the largest federal spending category after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.
The overall debt is now slightly more than 80 percent of the annual output of the entire U.S. economy, as measured by the gross domestic product. During World War II, it briefly rose to 120 percent of GDP.
The debt is largely financed by the sale of Treasury bonds and bills.
Many private economists say the administration had no choice but to take aggressive action during the financial crisis.
"We have a deep recession hammering tax revenues and forcing the government to provide a lot of help to the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "But without this help, the downturn would be even more severe."
History shows the dangers of assuming too soon that economic downturns have ended.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt made that mistake in 1936. Believing the Depression largely over, he sought to reduce public spending and to balance the federal budget, but that undermined a fragile recovery, pushing the economy back under water in 1937.
Japanese leaders made a similar mistake in the 1990s when they temporarily withdrew government stimulus spending, prolonging Japan's recession into one that lasted a full decade.
Republicans in Congress are seizing on the deficit - and the persistence of the recession - to attack Democrats.
"Washington Democrats keep borrowing and spending money we don't have," said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio.
So far, interest rates have remained low.
This is partly because the Federal Reserve has kept a key short-term rate at a record near zero. Also, all the economic troubles in housing and the rest of the economy have depressed demand for credit by the private sector, meaning the government's borrowing costs are relatively low.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury security has risen by about a percentage point in recent weeks, but analysts note it is still trading at historically low levels of around 3.35 percent.
Geithner travels later this week to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, where he is expected to face questions about the U.S. deficit. As he did during a visit to China last month, Geithner will try to reassure investors in the Middle East that their U.S. holdings are safe from a calamitous bout of inflation.
The deficit of $1.09 trillion so far this year compares to an imbalance of $285.85 billion through the same period a year ago. The deficit for the 2008 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, was $454.8 billion, the current record in dollar terms.
Revenues so far this year total $1.59 trillion, down 17.9 percent from a year ago, reflecting higher unemployment, which cuts into payroll taxes and corporate tax receipts.
Under the administration's budget estimates, the $1.84 trillion deficit for this year will be followed by a $1.26 trillion deficit in 2010, and will never dip below $500 billion over the next decade. The administration estimates the deficits will total $7.1 trillion from 2010 to 2019.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090714/D99DSUG00.html

Boost in Food Stamps Helps Economy - Obama's stimulus plan has put more money into the hands of the poorest Americans by boosting monthly food-stamp http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/article/boost_in_food_stamps_helps_economy/

The Economy Is Even Worse Than You Think
The recent unemployment numbers have undermined confidence that we might be nearing the bottom of the recession. What we can see on the surface is disconcerting enough, but the inside numbers are just as bad.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary estimate for job losses for June is 467,000, which means 7.2 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession. The cumulative job losses over the last six months have been greater than for any other half year period since World War II, including the military demobilization after the war. The job losses are also now equal to the net job gains over the previous nine years, making this the only recession since the Great Depression to wipe out all job growth from the previous expansion.
... read the rest at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124753066246235811.html

U.S. mulling mortgage aid for unemployed
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is mulling new ways to delay foreclosure for jobless homeowners who are unable to keep up with monthly payments, an administration official said on Monday.
The official told Reuters it was reasonable for policymakers to consider options for loan forbearance -- allowing borrowers to delay, defer or skip payments -- that are more effective than those currently available in the private sector.
The number of failing home loans has been climbing for three years as risky borrowers have defaulted on their easy-to-get loans, property values have sunk and the unemployment rate has climbed.
But the official said the idea, which is still evolving, was difficult from a policy perspective and carries potential hazards. It could help more people struggling with economic difficulty, but it also could create perverse incentives that distort the housing market, said the official, who did not want to speak on the record about internal administration debates.
The official said such a program would be in keeping with other measures to help workers who have lost jobs in the current recession.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56D04920090714



Down the Mississippi: Barack Obama effect ends white rule in Deep South town
A tiny Mississippi delta town has elected its first black mayor after the white incumbent, unopposed for 30 years, faced a young challenger inspired by President Barack Obama's feat in winning the White House.

Here are a few quotes from the article, it is the problem with the way America thinks
...
Mr Brown was the first black man ever to stand for Mayor of Alligator and it took Mr Obama’s election to galvanise him into action. “Obama was a major influence on everybody,” he said, almost drowned out by the chirping of crickets in the sweltering afternoon heat. “He inspired me. I’m not going to take that from him.
...
"If we don’t look after our youth, what do we have? The population is dying out and I want more people here. I want better living conditions.
I just want the people to be comfortable. Small towns like this depend on government funding and that’s what we’re seeking."
...
The town’s facilities were substandard, he said, gesturing towards the humble town hall, where a “No Loitering” sign is nailed next to the door. “There isn’t even a phone or a fax machine in there. How can we communicate with the outside world and ask for things?" There was jubilation among the town’s blacks after Mr Brown’s victory.
(read the whole article link below, bolds are added by me) http: //www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/crossingamerica/5810701/Down-the-Mississippi-delta-town-elects-first-black-mayor.html

Eeyores news and view

This one will make one year of posts, that is what i had planned to do, so we are complete with this one (373 post's in 365 days). I think the blog will continue, it will just take on a new look and go a new way. Maybe one article a day and with a little more commentary (or views). It might not be everyday also, we shall see.

Thank you to the people who have checked it out in the past.

Here is a list of frequency of each of my topics, interesting, i think. Knowing me (or at least i thought i did) i would have predicted different emphasis, but how does the old saying go? "figures never lie, but liars figure".

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Groups demand that jail stop censoring religion
Civil and religious rights organizations are demanding that a Virginia jail stop removing Bible passages and other religious material from letters written to inmates.
Anna Williams, whose son was detained at the Rappahannock County Regional Jail, says officials cut out entire sections of letters she sent to her son that contained Bible verses or religious material. She says the jail cited prohibitions on Internet material and religious material sent from home. John Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute, represents Williams. His organization is challenging censorship of the mail. "She's a devout Christian, and her son's in jail there and she's been trying to send him letters with Bible passages and whatever -- and the jail has actually been going through snipping out portions of letters," the attorney explains. "[S]ome of the letters are full of Bible verses, so what her son is getting is absolutely at the end of the letter where she says goodbye, I love you, and those kinds of things." According to Whitehead, the situation is not an isolated case. "Various Christian organizations are trying to give Bibles to prisoners...and prisons and local jails are actually prohibiting [that], saying such materials could be dangerous -- and they're actually stopping them," he laments. "So this is a nationwide thing that we're seeing, and [it's] one reason why we're trying to get involved in this case and stop it and nip it in the bud." Whitehead tells OneNewsNow that courts have ruled there must be a compelling reason for censoring inmate mail -- and Bible verses, he says, hardly represent a compelling reason. Prison Fellowship, the ACLU, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and other groups sent a letter to Rappahannock Regional Jail Superintendent Joseph Higgs, Jr., calling the policy illegal. Higgs issued a statement saying the groups' letter prompted him to launch an internal investigation.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=598800
additional info can be had at
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/072009/07102009/478761

Globalize of the world is what it is about, the currency the borders and government and laws. Socialism and Communism.
Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About 'Global Governance'
Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”
“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.
“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.” President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.
Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.
“But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.” (Editor's Note: Gore makes the “global governance” comment at the 1min. 10 sec. mark in this UK Times video.)
Gore's call for “global governance” echoes former French President Jacques Chirac's call in 2000.
On November 20, 2000, then French President Chirac said during a speech at The Hague that the UN's Kyoto Protocol represented "the first component of an authentic global governance."
“For the first time, humanity is instituting a genuine instrument of global governance,” Chirac explained. “From the very earliest age, we should make environmental awareness a major theme of education and a major theme of political debate, until respect for the environment comes to be as fundamental as safeguarding our rights and freedoms. By acting together, by building this unprecedented instrument, the first component of an authentic global governance, we are working for dialogue and peace,” Chirac added.
Former EU Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom said, "Kyoto is about the economy, about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide." Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper once dismissed UN's Kyoto Protocol as a “socialist scheme.”
'Global Carbon Tax' Urged at UN Meeting
In addition, calls for a global carbon tax have been urged at recent UN global warming conferences. In December 2007, the UN climate conference in Bali, urged the adoption of a global carbon tax that would represent “a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations.”
“Finally someone will pay for these [climate related] costs,” Othmar Schwank, a global tax advocate, said at the 2007 UN conference after a panel titled “A Global CO2 Tax.”
Schwank noted that wealthy nations like the U.S. would bear the biggest burden based on the “polluters pay principle.” The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to “contribute significantly more to this global fund,” Schwank explained. He also added, “It is very essential to tax coal.”
The 2007 UN conference was presented with a report from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment titled “Global Solidarity in Financing Adaptation.” The report stated there was an “urgent need” for a global tax in order for “damages [from climate change] to be kept from growing to truly catastrophic levels, especially in vulnerable countries of the developing world.”
The tens of billions of dollars per year generated by a global tax would “flow into a global Multilateral Adaptation Fund” to help nations cope with global warming, according to the report.
Schwank said a global carbon dioxide tax is an idea long overdue that is urgently needed to establish “a funding scheme which generates the resources required to address the dimension of challenge with regard to climate change costs.”
'Redistribution of wealth'
The environmental group Friends of the Earth advocated the transfer of money from rich to poor nations during the 2007 UN climate conference.
"A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner coordinator for Friends of the Earth.
http://www.climatedepot.com/a/1893/Gore-US-Climate-Bill-Will-Help-Bring-About-Global-Governance.

For many, a simpler life is better
Shrinking paychecks and rising environmental concerns are prompting Americans to pare back their lifestyles.
"Perhaps the silver lining (of the recession) is that people are coming to realize they can live with less and their lives are richer for it," says Michael Maniates, professor of political and environmental science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa.
A third, 32%, say they have been spending less and intend to make that their "new, normal" pattern; 27% say they are saving more and plan to continue, according to a Gallup Poll in April.
Nearly half of consumers, 47%, say they already have what they need, up from 34% in November 2006, according to the 2009 MetLife Study of the American Dream.
"People are feeling forced and inspired to get back to what is core to them," says Julie Morgenstern, author of Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life. She says they're valuing objects less and experiences and people more.
Eric Dykstra, pastor of Crossing Church in Elk River, Minn., read Morgenstern's book, then ran across a blog by Dave Bruno of San Diego. Bruno launched a "100 Thing Challenge" in November and says he pared his own possessions to fewer than that.
Dykstra began encouraging members to reduce their personal possessions to 100 items. They took on the challenge — although some counted treasures such as a shoe collection as one item.
"People have really taken this to heart," Dykstra says. They donated so much to charity — boats, furniture, snowblowers — they filled a warehouse.
"The purpose was to break the hold of materialism," he says. He went from five suits to one, from a dozen ties to two. "It was very freeing."
Other signs of change:
• Enrollment in "voluntary simplicity" courses promoted by the non-profit Northwest Earth Institute in Portland, Ore., is up 50% in the past year.
"It was a perfect time to show people they're really not giving anything up" by buying less or eating at home, says acupuncturist Deborah Waddell, who hosted a course in February in Long Valley, N.J.
• Hundreds of schools have shown a 20-minute film, The Story of Stuff, on the environmental costs of consumerism, and more than 6.6 million people have viewed it online since December 2007, according to the Tides Foundation in San Francisco.
. Websites on living close to nature are getting more traffic. The Thoreau Society, devoted to naturalist Henry Thoreau, got 400 members in its first two months this year. The non-profit Simple Living Institute in Orlando has seen online hits double in the past year, says founding member Shirley Silvasy.
Bruno says, "The recession is like a wake-up call."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2009-07-12-simplicity_N.htm

Is Tougher Airport Screening Going Too Far?
The Transportation Security Administration has moved beyond just checking for weapons and explosives. It’s now training airport screeners to spot anything suspicious, and then honoring them when searches lead to arrests for crimes like drug possession and credit-card fraud.
But two court cases in the past month question whether TSA searches—which the agency says have broadened to allow screeners to use more judgment—have been going too far.
A federal judge in June threw out seizure of three fake passports from a traveler, saying that TSA screeners violated his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Congress authorizes TSA to search travelers for weapons and explosives; beyond that, the agency is overstepping its bounds, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon L. Marbley said.
Two recent court cases question whether TSA searches have been going too far.
.“The extent of the search went beyond the permissible purpose of detecting weapons and explosives and was instead motivated by a desire to uncover contraband evidencing ordinary criminal wrongdoing,” Judge Marbley wrote.
In the second case, Steven Bierfeldt, treasurer for the Campaign for Liberty, a political organization launched from Ron Paul’s presidential run, was detained at the St. Louis airport because he was carrying $4,700 in a lock box from the sale of tickets, T-shirts, bumper stickers and campaign paraphernalia. TSA screeners quizzed him about the cash, his employment and the purpose of his trip to St. Louis, then summoned local police and threatened him with arrest because he responded to their questions with a question of his own: What were his rights and could TSA legally require him to answer?
Mr. Bierfeldt recorded the encounter on his iPhone and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in June against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, claiming in part that Mr. Bierfeldt’s experience at the airport was not an anomaly.
“Whether as a matter of formal policy or widespread practice, TSA now operates on the belief that airport security screening provides a convenient opportunity to fish for evidence of criminal conduct far removed from the agency’s mandate of ensuring flight safety,” the ACLU said in its suit.
‘Mission Creep’?
TSA said in a statement on the Bierfeldt incident that travelers are required to cooperate with screeners, and while it is legal to carry any amount of money when flying domestically, the agency believes cooperation includes answering questions about property. As a result of the recording, however, TSA determined that “the tone and language used by the TSA employee was inappropriate and proper disciplinary action was taken.”
The cases will likely inflame TSA critics and frequent travelers who believe screeners take a heavy-handed approach and worsen the hassle of getting through airports with layers of rules and sometimes inconsistent policies between different cities.
“TSA agents don’t get to play cops,” says Ben Wizner, an attorney who filed Mr. Bierfeldt’s suit. The ACLU has heard an increasing number of reports of TSA agents involved in what he called “mission creep,” he says.
TSA spokesman Greg Soule says airport screeners are trained to “look for threats to aviation security” and discrepancies in a passenger’s identity. TSA says verifying someone’s identity, or exposing false identity, is a security issue so that names can be checked against terrorism watch lists. Large amounts of cash can be evidence of criminal activity, Mr. Soule says, and so screeners look at the “quantity, packaging, circumstances of discovery or method by which the cash is carried.”
Questioning travelers is part of TSA’s standard procedures, and the agency gives its employees discretion. “TSA security officers are trained to ask questions and assess passenger reactions,” Mr. Soule says. “TSA security officers may use their professional judgment and experience to determine what questions to ask passengers during screening.”
No one questions arrests made after TSA runs into evidence of drugs or other crimes during weapons searches. A bulge in baggy pants can be investigated, for example, because it might be an explosive. If it turns out to be cocaine, TSA is expected to report it to police or Drug Enforcement Agency officials.
.But once TSA has determined that someone doesn’t have weapons or explosives, agents sometimes keep searching—leading some legal experts to wonder whether questioning people about how much cash they’re carrying, the number of credit cards they have and even prescription drugs in their bags stretches the intent of airport security law.
Congress charged TSA with protecting passengers and property on an aircraft “against an act of criminal violence or aircraft piracy” and prohibited individuals from carrying a “weapon, explosive or incendiary” onto an airplane. Without search warrants, courts have held that airport security checks are considered reasonable if the search is “no more extensive or intensive than necessary” to detect weapons or explosives.
In testimony to Congress last month, Gale D. Rossides, acting TSA administrator, said the agency had moved past simply trying to intercept guns, knives and razor blades to “physical and behavioral screening to counter constantly changing threats.”
Every screener has completed a 16-hour retraining that “provides the latest information on intelligence, explosives detection and human factors affecting security,” she said. “We have revised our checkpoint Standard Operating Procedures to enable officers to use their judgment appropriately in achieving sensible security results.”
In the fake passport case, a man named Fode Amadou Fofana used a valid driver’s license with his real name at a Columbus, Ohio, TSA checkpoint. Because he had purchased his ticket for a flight at the airport just before departure, he was flagged for secondary screening. He didn’t set off metal detectors and TSA’s X-ray equipment didn’t see anything suspicious, according to court testimony. The bags were swabbed for explosive residue and did not trigger any alarms. TSA agents opened the bags and searched inside because he was selected for extra screening.
According to the judge’s ruling, the TSA agent involved testified that she had been instructed to search for suspicious items beyond weapons and explosives and to “be alert for anything that might be unlawful for him to possess, such as credit cards belonging to other people, illegal drugs or counterfeit money.”
The agent found envelopes with cash, which she considered suspicious. Three other envelopes had something more rigid than dollar bills. She testified she didn’t believe there were weapons inside, but opened them looking for “contraband” and found three fake passports.
Limiting Searches
Judge Marbley said the TSA had no authority to open the envelopes. In his ruling, he said prior cases clearly established that airport security searches should be aimed only at detecting weapons or explosives.
“A checkpoint search tainted by ‘general law enforcement objectives’ such as uncovering contraband evidencing general criminal activity is improper,” the judge wrote.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbus has filed notice that it will appeal the judge’s order.
Mr. Bierfeldt’s suit, filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, seeks to bar TSA from “conducting suspicion-less pre-flight searches of passengers or their belongings for items other than weapons or explosives.”
Mr. Bierfeldt, who was released by TSA after an official in plain clothes saw political materials in his bag and asked if the cash was campaign contributions, said he just wants to save others from harassment by TSA. “It’s the principle of the matter,” he said. “I didn’t break any laws and was no threat.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204556804574261940842372518.html

Amendment to Allow Guns in Public Housing Thursday, July 9, 2009
A House panel voted to add an amendment allowing guns in public housing. This is a huge policy shift - the Clinton administration made a big deal out of barring guns for Section 8 residents, along with requiring them to submit to warrantless searches and such. It's enough to make you think that the gun control was somehow linked to people control generally...
Carolyn McCarthy , D-N.Y., a longtime gun control advocate, said opponents of the Price amendment would try to remove the language from the bill at a later point
in the legislative process, without subjecting the issue to a recorded vote.
“What we’re trying to do will not involve votes,” McCarthy said.
Wow. Democrats are crossing the aisle to vote for this, and all she can do is hope to kill it procedurally.
Not only are we winning, we are crushing them.
http://defensivehandgun.blogspot.com/2009/07/amendment-to-allow-guns-in-public.html

Eeyores news and view

Copyright laws threaten our online freedom
By Christian Engström Published: July 7 2009 18:10 Last updated: July 7 2009 18:10
If you search for Elvis Presley in Wikipedia, you will find a lot of text and a few pictures that have been cleared for distribution. But you will find no music and no film clips, due to copyright restrictions. What we think of as our common cultural heritage is not “ours” at all.
On MySpace and YouTube, creative people post audio and video remixes for others to enjoy, until they are replaced by take-down notices handed out by big film and record companies. Technology opens up possibilities; copyright law shuts them down.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Curb on content threatens France Telecom - Jul-07.E-retailers find big brands hard to touch - Jul-07..This was never the intent. Copyright was meant to encourage culture, not restrict it. This is reason enough for reform. But the current regime has even more damaging effects. In order to uphold copyright laws, governments are beginning to restrict our right to communicate with each other in private, without being monitored.
File-sharing occurs whenever one individual sends a file to another. The only way to even try to limit this process is to monitor all communication between ordinary people. Despite the crackdown on Napster, Kazaa and other peer-to-peer services over the past decade, the volume of file-sharing has grown exponentially. Even if the authorities closed down all other possibilities, people could still send copyrighted files as attachments to e-mails or through private networks. If people start doing that, should we give the government the right to monitor all mail and all encrypted networks? Whenever there are ways of communicating in private, they will be used to share copyrighted material. If you want to stop people doing this, you must remove the right to communicate in private. There is no other option. Society has to make a choice.
The world is at a crossroads. The internet and new information technologies are so powerful that no matter what we do, society will change. But the direction has not been decided.
The technology could be used to create a Big Brother society beyond our nightmares, where governments and corporations monitor every detail of our lives. In the former East Germany, the government needed tens of thousands of employees to keep track of the citizens using typewriters, pencils and index cards. Today a computer can do the same thing a million times faster, at the push of a button. There are many politicians who want to push that button.
The same technology could instead be used to create a society that embraces spontaneity, collaboration and diversity. Where the citizens are no longer passive consumers being fed information and culture through one-way media, but are instead active participants collaborating on a journey into the future.
The internet it still in its infancy, but already we see fantastic things appearing as if by magic. Take Linux, the free computer operating system, or Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Witness the participatory culture of MySpace and YouTube, or the growth of the Pirate Bay, which makes the world’s culture easily available to anybody with an internet connection. But where technology opens up new possibilities, our intellectual property laws do their best to restrict them. Linux is held back by patents, the rest of the examples by copyright.
The public increasingly recognises the need for reform. That was why Piratpartiet – the Pirate party – won 7.1 per cent of the popular vote in Sweden in the European Union elections. This gave us a seat in the European parliament for the first time.
Our manifesto is to reform copyright laws and gradually abolish the patent system. We oppose mass surveillance and censorship on the net, as in the rest of society. We want to make the EU more democratic and transparent. This is our entire platform.
We intend to devote all our time and energy to protecting the fundamental civil liberties on the net and elsewhere. Seven per cent of Swedish voters agreed with us that it makes sense to put other political differences aside in order to ensure this.
Political decisions taken over the next five years are likely to set the course we take into the information society, and will affect the lives of millions for many years into the future. Will we let our fears lead us towards a dystopian Big Brother state, or will we have the courage and wisdom to choose an exciting future in a free and open society?
The information revolution is happening here and now. It is up to us to decide what future we want.
The writer is the Pirate party’s member of the European parliament
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/87c523a4-6b18-11de-861d-00144feabdc0.html

U.S. mortgage fraud 'rampant' and growing-FBISAN FRANCISCO, July 7 (Reuters) - U.S. mortgage fraud reports jumped 36 percent last year as desperate homeowners and industry professionals tried to maintain their standard of living from the boom years, the FBI said on Tuesday.
Suspicious activity reports rose to 63,713 in fiscal year 2008, which ended last September, from 46,717 the year before. California and Florida, centers of the housing bust, had the highest numbers of suspicious reports as foreclosures jumped, the stock market dropped and credit dried up.
"These combined factors uncovered and fueled a rampant mortgage fraud climate fraught with opportunistic participants desperate to maintain or increase their current standard of living," the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in its report.
"Industry employees sought to maintain the high standard of living they enjoyed during the boom years of the real estate market and overextended mortgage holders were often desperate to reduce or eliminate their bloated mortgage payments," it said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0751853920090707

White House among targets of sweeping cyber attack
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies for days was even broader than realized, also targeting the White House, the Pentagon and the New York Stock Exchange.
An early analysis of the malicious software used in the attack found its targets also included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post. Many of the organizations appeared to successfully blunt the sustained attacks.
The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attack. It was not immediately clear who might be responsible or what their motives were.
The attack was remarkably successful. Some of the affected government Web sites -- such as the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service -- were still reporting problems days after it started during the July 4 holiday.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Government-Web-sites-attacked-apf-1342411279.html?x=0&.v=5

Two Canada hog workers hit by new non-pandemic flu
SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, July 7 (Reuters) - Two farm workers in Western Canada have become infected with a new flu virus, health officials said on Tuesday, stressing the strain was not related to the H1N1 pandemic.
The two workers, both employees at a hog barn operation in the province of Saskatchewan, have fully recovered. A third case is under investigation.
The new virus contains genes from a seasonal human H1N1 flu strain and a flu virus common in the swine population called triple reassortant H3N2, said Dr. Greg Douglas, Saskatchewan's chief veterinary officer.
The virus is not connected to the H1N1 strain, sometimes referred to as swine flu, that has killed more than 400 people worldwide. That strain is believed to have begun in Mexico and has been labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
There are no signs of increased illness in the hog herd, Douglas added.
"This is a human health issue," he said. "Saskatchewan pork continues to be safe ... This is not a food safety issue at all."
Concern about the issue of pigs becoming infected with the H1N1 flu has been heightened in Canada since a herd in Alberta became infected in April. A human worker who had visited Mexico was initially suspected as the source but was later ruled out.
The Saskatchewan farm is not under quarantine, but the owner has agreed not to move the pigs, said Dr. Frank Plummer, chief science adviser for the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The virus would likely not have been detected at all if not for heightened influenza testing as a result of the pandemic, Plummer said.
"Any time there's a new influenza A strain, we have to be concerned about it, but these events occur and are almost always dead ends," he said.
All workers on the hog farm are being vaccinated. Douglas said he expects the hogs will eventually go to slaughter as they normally would.
The workers have been in Saskatchewan for about one year and had not recently traveled, said Dr. Moira McKinnon, Saskatchewan's chief medical officer.
Plummer said the new virus was likely transmitted from the pigs to the workers, but said the source of transmission of the pandemic H1N1 virus on the Alberta hog farm, which was quarantined in April, was probably human.
More than a dozen countries have banned Canadian hogs or pork since the quarantine.
Bob Harding, executive director of the Canadian Swine Health Board, said there is concern that markets could misinterpret the new virus's connection to swine.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08342126.htm

Eeyores news and view

Two-thirds of State Attorneys General File Amicus Brief Supporting Second Amendment Incorporation
Fairfax, Va. – Two-thirds of the nation’s attorneys general have filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the case of NRA v. Chicago and hold that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This bi-partisan group of 33 attorneys general, along with the Attorney General of California in a separate filing, agrees with the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms in the home for self-defense, disagreeing with the decision recently issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
“The historical record clearly shows that the Second Amendment was intended to apply to every American in every state in the country,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA chief lobbyist. “As the Supreme Court said clearly in last year’s landmark Heller decision, the Second Amendment protects an individual right that ‘belongs to all Americans’. Two-thirds of America’s state Attorneys General agree.”
The Seventh Circuit claimed precedent bound it from holding in favor of incorporation of the Second Amendment. However, it should have followed the lead of the recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Nordyke v. King, which found that those cases don't prevent the Second Amendment from applying to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. The Seventh Circuit opinion upholds current bans on the possession of handguns in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois.
California attorney general Edmund G. Brown Jr. is filing a separate brief arguing that the Supreme Court should take up NRA’s appeal and hold that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the States.
“It is fundamentally wrong to violate the civil rights of any law-abiding person based on their zip code,” Cox concluded. “The fundamental right of self-defense must be respected by every jurisdiction throughout our country.”
http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=12654

Microsoft warns of serious computer security hole
Microsoft warned users Monday about yet another serious security flaw related to its Internet Explorer browser for which there is no fix.
Security firm Symantec said the vulnerability, which affects PCs using Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating software, is already being taken advantage of by cybercriminals.
It can allow hackers to remotely take control of victims' machines. The victims don't need to do anything to get infected except visit websites infected with a tiny bit of code that taps into the security hole.
Dean Turner, director of Symantec Security Response, says a cybercriminal group has corrupted an estimated several hundred legitimate Web pages with such infections since July 1. The criminals most likely are sending out e-mail spam to trick victims into clicking to the corrupted pages.
Symantec researchers caught part of the malicious code moving across the Internet in a computer, called a honey pot, set up to receive infections. But they have not captured any samples of the e-mail trickery.
"This is not that uncommon," Turner says. "But this kind of exploit in the wild, with no security patch yet available, has the potential to affect hundreds of thousands of people."
A flurry of similar attacks on Internet Explorer took place in 2007 and 2008, but have slowed. Attackers in 2008 began to gravitate to security holes in popular applications, such as Microsoft Word.
And in the past few months, the most widely attacked program has been Adobe Acrobat Reader, says Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
The so-called zero day vulnerability disclosed by Microsoft affects a part of its software used to play video. The problem arises from the way the software interacts with Internet Explorer, which opens a hole for hackers to tunnel into.
Microsoft urged vulnerable users to disable the problematic part of its software, which can be done from Microsoft's website, while the company works on a "patch" — or software fix — for the problem.
Once the attacker gains access to a PC, the machine most often is used in a network of other compromised PCs, called bots, to spread spam and steal data. Bots are also widely used to spread promotions for fake anti-spyware subscriptions and to hijack cash from online banking accounts.
A Microsoft advisory says the company is working on a patch, which will be distributed "when it has reached an appropriate level of quality for broad distribution."
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2009-07-06-microsoft-security_N.htm

Banks get stingy on credit; new cards down 38%
Despite massive government efforts to bolster the credit market, banks are pulling back severely on card lending.
In the first four months of the year — the latest data — banks issued 9.8 million new credit cards, a 38% drop from the same time last year, according to Equifax credit bureau data. Low-risk borrowers can still get credit, but they're getting less than before. The average limit on a new card, after rising during the recession, slipped 3% so far this year to $4,594.
That's discouraging for those who want to see banks pumping liquidity into the economy. "The credit engine needs a tuneup," says Jim Powers, an Equifax assistant vice president.
While it's not surprising that banks are pulling back on unsecured loans as card defaults and delinquencies surge, "what's remarkable is the very sharp decline in lending," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.
The drop signals a shift in mind-set by issuers, which historically have raised credit card limits through booms and busts.
The government has tried to stimulate overall lending by funding securities backed by assets such as credit cards and mortgages. It's also injected billions of aid into banks in return for preferred stock.
But in the credit card market, policymakers are working at "cross purposes," Zandi says. President Obama recently signed a law imposing far-reaching restrictions on cards, mostly starting in February 2010. Those will likely lead to even fewer cards being issued, Zandi says.
Still, if this trend means issuers are "doing better underwriting, that could be a positive thing," says Lauren Zeichner Bowne of Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. What worries consumer groups, Bowne says, is that issuers are closing inactive cards and slashing limits even for responsible consumers.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-07-06-banks-credit-cards_N.htm

Germany's biggest bank admits spying on staff: spokesman
Germany's biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, admitted Monday it had spied on a former member of its supervisory board, suspected of disclosing 2001 third quarter results before their official publication.
A bank spokesman said the target was Gerald Herrmann, who represented the union Verdi on the board that year.
German magazine Der Spiegel had reported over the weekend that the bank hired detectives to spy on its employees including a member of its supervisory board, managers and a shareholder.
The bank launched an internal inquiry at the end of May into potential breaches of data privacy law in connection with the affair, Spiegel said.
The spokesman confirmed the investigation and said the financial market regulator Bafin had also been contacted.
Herrmann told the Handelsblatt business newspaper on Monday Deutsche Bank informed him of the case a couple of days ago.
He denied the allegations against him and said he suspected he was spied on because Deutsche Bank did not appreciate his criticism of a redundancy compensation scheme.
The bank apologised to Hermann but the union member said he wanted a personal apology from chief executive Josef Ackermann who promised a "zero tolerance" approach over the affair at an annual general meeting of the bank.
According to Der Spiegel detectives "kept an eye on the movements of these people, and made inquiries as to who they were meeting and when".
In 2006, managers were spied on because of their suspected links to media mogul Leo Kirch, who was involved in a legal battle with Deutsche Bank, the magazine said.
Spiegel also said minority shareholder Michael Bohndorf, a lawyer living in Ibiza, Spain, was spied on.
Several detective agencies may have been involved in the affair.
Among the agencies is one led by a former agent of the Stasi, the notorious secret police in the former East Germany, who was also implicated in a scandal at German phone giant Deutsche Telekom.
Deutsche Bank even used "female bait" to find "personal weaknesses of certain shareholders", the magazine added.
Scandals over violations of privacy law have rocked the German corporate world in recent months, notably at railway company Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b1bda39889783bf24189b0a92f01fc43.1a1&show_article=1

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

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