Eeyores News and view

What do or would you do when the unthinkable happens in your neighborhood?

Standoff In The Neighborhood

You’re driving back from the mall. There is a police car parked in the intersection of your street and the cross street you take to the mall. Lights are flashing all over. You stop well back and park. It takes only a few moments to find out there is a hostage situation three houses down from yours. The husband went postal when he found out his wife wanted a divorce.

You look at your watch. Your high schooler is already out of school and on the bus. You ask the police officer where the bus will be stopped. Here, you find out. So Junior will know what is going on. Little Alice is at dance class just down from the school. A quick call on the cell phone and you leave a message at Hubby’s work to institute plan Alpha. It takes a few minutes to get to the dance academy. Alice is getting much better. You tell the car pool mom that you’re picking her up. It’ll be a few more minutes. Time to run down to the Quick-Stop and get a couple of things.

Alice thinks it is kind of fun to be doing Alpha when you tell her why you’re picking her up. They’d only just walked through the plan before, with her at school. It’s tempting to divert to pick up Junior, but he knows the route to Jessica’s house just fine. You’d have to go through the bad part of the city from here to pick him up. Better to just go to Jessica’s and get Alice set.

Another quick call. This one to Jessica. Nuts. The cell never works here. Doesn’t matter. Jessica and you have discussed this a few times and have a plan. It’s a little surprising, but Jessica is home. You won’t have to get the hidden key for the travel trailer and stay there until she gets home at her regular time.

By the time you explain what is going on, Junior shows up and knocks on the door. Another explanation. Junior brings in the items you picked up at the market. A little extra for supper, just in case. It would have been fine. Jessica and family were having hamburgers. There is plenty of extra for everyone.

Everyone is sitting down to eat when Hubby shows up, running late from work, as usual. Since there hadn’t been an Alpha Blue code, just Alpha, he’d not been in a hurry.

The standoff was still going on, according to the six o’clock news. It was over by ten that evening, but the sleeping bags were spread out in Jessica’s living room. No point in hurrying back. Probably run into the media wanting sound bites. Not worth the hassle. There would be no problem getting up an hour early the next morning and going home to get ready for work and school. The plan had worked just like the drills.

End ********
Jerry D. Young
Copyright 2004

L.A. County officials offer a novel idea to save millions
Supervisors suggest putting unemployed parents to work caring for their own children as part of proposed changes to CalWorks and other state government aid programs.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
June 17, 2009
With steep state budget cuts under debate in Sacramento, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to push for changes to CalWorks and other government aid programs they said would save nearly $270 million.
Included in their suggestions is a novel proposal: Put unemployed parents to work caring for their own children.
"What we're saying is do not cut Welfare to Work outright: Target the cuts to the people who are the most expensive," said Miguel Santana, a deputy to the county's chief executive.
Parents now receiving assistance must attend job training and search for work. While they fulfill those requirements, they are eligible for subsidized child care, which typically costs the state about $500 a month per child in L.A. County.
The parents of children under age 1 may stay home and still receive benefits. Now, county officials propose expanding that to parents who have one child under age 2 or two children under age 6. Monthly job training and child-care costs for such parents often exceed their welfare check, Santana said.
In Los Angeles County, 8,000 households with more than one child under age 6 receive CalWorks-subsidized child care, according to the county's department of social services. If adopted, county officials estimate the proposal -- intended to counter Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's threat to eliminate CalWorks -- could save the state $140 million this fiscal year.
Some parents who would be affected by the change had mixed feelings.
After Antoinette Levenson's husband was laid off by a boat dealership two years ago, the mother of two applied for cash assistance and joined the state's Welfare to Work program.
Now Levenson, 27, is about six months from earning her associate degree in culinary arts and has a job lined up at Ralphs. She receives about $750 a month in assistance. The state also pays about $1,000 a month for her sons, Jaden, 4, and Gavyn, 2, to attend Canyon Vista Children's Learning Center in Chatsworth while she finishes school.
"If I had it my way, I'd stay home all day with my kids," Levenson said as she dropped the boys off Tuesday. "Then again, I love day care. My kids have learned so much."
Although Levenson said she is not sure she could replace her eldest son's preschool teachers, she is willing to try.
"There's times I just drive by and watch the kids," she said. "You'll never be able to get the kids' little years back."
But Priscilla Murillo of Canoga Park, a single mother with three children under age 5, said she wants to finish school and find a job as soon as possible. With her youngest child just a month old, Murillo, 27, could stay home now and still receive benefits. But she said the Welfare to Work program motivated her to continue pursuing her associate degree.
Murillo worries that if the state pays fellow single mothers to stay home, they will become dependent on welfare.
"I think it's good to push people," she said. "It helps them and it helps the economy."
Child-care providers also said they are concerned about looming cuts.
Michael Olenick, who heads the nonprofit Child Care Resource Center in Chatsworth, said 12,000 child-care staff members and parents in northern L.A. County alone rely on CalWorks.
"For many of them, it's the only source of revenue that they have," Olenick said of the CalWorks subsidies. "If they lose the revenue, then they end up on cash aid as well."
On Tuesday, a legislative budget committee in Sacramento rejected the governor's plan to eliminate CalWorks, proposing instead to cut it by $270 million. Those cuts include $175 million in reductions to child-care and employment services.
That would allow the county to move forward with its proposal, said Philip K. Browning, director of the county Department of Public Social Services.
"But it's still not a done deal -- the governor hasn't signed off on it yet," Browning said.
A spokeswoman for the governor said he will continue to push for the elimination of CalWorks but remains open to other options as he tries to close the $24.3-billion budget shortfall.
County supervisors -- who plan to pursue a waiver to get federal welfare funds even if CalWorks is eliminated -- also proposed Tuesday that the state cap and overhaul general relief for single people, as well as reduce payments to adoptive parents, disabled foster children and some child-care providers.
The proposal to allow more parents to stay home troubled some of the county supervisors, including Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who voted against exempting parents of children under age 2 from Welfare to Work.
"They should be seeking employment. In the long term it benefits everyone in the county," Antonovich said.
Supervisor Gloria Molina grudgingly voted yes.
"It doesn't fit with the spirit of Welfare to Work, but we're in a different situation," Molina said. "What we're doing is trying to say to them don't eliminate Welfare to Work -- here are some savings."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calworks17-2009jun17,0,6294929.story

Minn. lawmaker vows not to complete Census
Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household.
In an interview Wednesday morning with The Washington Times "America's Morning News," Mrs. Bachmann, Minnesota Republican, said the questions have become "very intricate, very personal" and she also fears ACORN, the community organizing group that came under fire for its voter registration efforts last year, will be part of the Census Bureau's door-to-door information collection efforts.
"I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home," she said. "We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."
Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau, said Mrs. Bachmann is "misreading" the law.
She sent a portion of the U.S. legal code that says anyone over 18 years of age who refuses to answer "any of the questions" on the census can be fined up to $5,000.
The Constitution requires a census be taken every 10 years. Questions range from number of persons in the household and racial information to employment status and whether anyone receives social services such as food stamps.
Mrs. Bachmann said she's worried about the involvement of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, in next year's census.
"They will be in charge of going door to door and collecting data from the American public," she said. "This is very concerning."
ACORN has applied to help recruit workers to help conduct the census. Republican lawmakers and some public interest groups have expressed concern over their involvement.
ACORN staffers have ben indicted in several states on charges of voter registration fraud stemming from the organization's efforts to register voters last year.
Mrs. Bachmann, who is in her second term in the House, has become a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and liberal talk show hosts for her unapologetic conservative views. She said she considers that "a badge of honor."
"It's clear when a person speaks out against those policies they become a target, and that should be concerning to everyone," she said.
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/17/exclusive-minn-lawmaker-fears-census-abuse/

EXCLUSIVE: Cuban spies' shortwave radios go undetected
MIAMI A retired State Department officer and his wife who are accused of spying for Cuba appear to have avoided capture for 30 years because their communications with the Caribbean island were too low-tech to be detected by sophisticated U.S. monitors.
Longtime State Department intelligence researcher Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn, 71, were arrested this month after a weeks-long sting operation in which they told an FBI agent posing as a Cuban intelligence officer that they received orders from Cuba's intelligence services over shortwave radio, according to a Justice Department affidavit.
U.S. intelligence spends little time combing the shortwave bands for secret, nefarious transmissions, said James Lewis, director and senior fellow for the Technology and Public Policy Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"I'm not surprised [the U.S. intelligence community] missed this," Mr. Lewis said. "We don't put an emphasis on monitoring this kind of activity."
Shortwave radio is a remnant of an era that existed before the Internet and satellite communications, including the sophisticated eavesdropping equipment of the National Security Agency.
But Chris Simmons, a former Cuba analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said Cuban intelligence still likes to use shortwave to communicate with its agents in the United States.
Former DIA senior analyst Ana Montes, arrested in September 2001 and convicted of spying on behalf of the Cuban government, also received her orders in shortwave communiques. So did Jennifer Miles, who in the 1960s was the last State Department official before Mr. Myers to be arrested on charges of spying for Cuba.
"While some countries have moved to computer-based communications [for clandestine operations], Havana still largely relies on shortwave broadcasts," Mr. Simmons said.
The International Amateur Radio Union said there are more than 700,000 amateur radio operators in the United States.
Though shortwave operators are required to have licenses to transmit in the United States, many do not, said one shortwave user, adding that used equipment is readily sold online.
The Justice Department affidavit said Cuban intelligence appears to have sent the Myerses an unknown number of messages since the late 1970s, using simple number-to-letter codes.
"If you broadcast short messages and are disciplined, you are going to get away with it," Mr. Lewis said.
Even if U.S. authorities detect a transmission and determine that it is a coded message from a foreign intelligence unit, they do not know for whom the message is intended, Mr. Simmons said.
"When an intelligence agent broadcasts from Havana, the footprint it puts down on the earth is hundreds of miles across," he said. "And so from an investigative standpoint, it's impossible to find out who it went to."
Just 50 to 100 watts, about the power needed to illuminate a light bulb, can broadcast a shortwave message halfway around the world, said Moe Thomas, a broadcast television engineering technician in Washington and a shortwave radio enthusiast.
Shortwave radio is considered a "robust backbone system" that works when "all other means of communication are down," Mr. Thomas said, noting that shortwave transmissions have been useful for disseminating information after natural disasters.
Many foreign embassies and U.S. agencies in Washington have shortwave antennas on their roofs, and the news broadcasts of the federally funded Voice of America reach some of the most remote corners of the world via shortwave radio.
A short numerical cipher broadcast from Cuba can easily go unnoticed among the many shortwave transmissions filling the airwaves.
Mr. Simmons said Cuban intelligence uses its U.S. agents to monitor military movements and gather other information and then puts it up for sale.
"The view from Havana is that U.S. intelligence is a commodity that is to be bought, sold and traded to anyone that can come up with the right offer," he said, claiming that Havana told Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein about the type of equipment and forces the United States was using ahead of the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq war.
"Havana has a very keen understanding of where our weak spots are ... and they exploit them," Mr. Simmons said.
Efforts to contact officials at the Cuban mission in Washington for comment were unsuccessful.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/18/cuban-spies-shortwave-radios-defy-detection/

Eeyores News and View

Makes me want to go out and buy a BugerKing Whooper, just because. With all the important stuff going on in the world and they want to fight over a commerical? The US would have a zero unemployment if all the 20 million illegals went back across the border and went home.
Mexico slams Burger King for 'whopper' of insult
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexico is protesting what it says is a whopper of an insult.
An advertisement for Burger King's chili-flavored "Texican" burger that has run in Europe shows a small wrestler dressed in a cape resembling a Mexican flag. The wrestler teams up with a lanky American cowboy twice his height to illustrate the cross-border blend of flavors.
"The taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican," a narrator's voice says.
The much-taller cowboy boosts the wrestler up to reach high shelves and clean tall windows, while the Mexican helps the cowboy open a jar.
Mexico's ambassador to Spain said Monday he has written a letter to Burger King's offices in that nation objecting to the ad and asking that it be removed. Jorge Zermeno told Radio Formula that the ads "improperly use the stereotyped image of a Mexican."
Press officials at Burger King Corp. offices in Miami, Florida, and Madrid, Spain, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Burger King is known for its signature Whopper hamburger.
One of the things that most angered Mexican officials was a print edition of the ad showing the wrestler wearing what appear to be a Mexican flag as a cloak.
"We have to tell these people that in Mexico we have a great deal of respect for our flag," Zermeno said.
Mexico has very strict rules about using the flag. In 2008, the government fined a foreign-owned publishing house, Random House Mondadori SA, for showing disrespect to the country's flag in a video posted online.
The video showed a literature fan wearing a Mexican flag like a cape as he barges into a book signing and rips a piece of cloth from the coat of Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho.
It is not the first time that fast-food outlets have offended Mexican sensibilities.
Mexicans and other Hispanics in the United States objected to a Taco Bell ad from the 1990s that featured a pint-sized talking Chihuahua that spoke with a Mexican accent.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97HSL0O1&show_article=1

Maybe a glimmer of hope?? I guess we will see
Europe starts legal action against UK over internet snooping
The European Commission has today started legal action against the Government over its failure to protect the privacy of British internet users.
The case was sparked by BT’s covert use of the controversial user-tracking technology Phorm on customers using its internet service in 2006 and 2007.
Phorm, a UK-based company founded in 2004, monitors users’ favourite sites and searches, and uses the information to deliver individually targeted advertising.
One of its most outspoken opponents is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, generally credited with inventing the web.
The European Commission has been concerned about the way Phorm was secretly tested in the United Kingdom. Last year, the Government backed Phorm after a complaint by Brussels.
But today Viviane Reding, the European Union's Commissioner for Information Society and Media, announced the first stage of legal action, saying that the Government had failed to implement European laws that protect internet users.
"Technologies such as internet behavioural advertising can be useful for businesses and consumers but they must be used in a way that complies with EU rules,” the Commissioner said. “These rules are there to protect the privacy of citizens and must be rigorously enforced by all member states.”
BT has already admitted that it conducted trials of Phorm without users’ consent in 2006 and 2007. A further, invitation-only, trial was conducted last year.
Ms Reding’s statement continued: “I call on the UK authorities to change their national laws and ensure that national authorities are duly empowered and have proper sanctions at their disposal to enforce EU legislation on the confidentiality of communications.”
Ms Reding’s contention is that UK laws must be tightened to protect consumers and comply with the ePrivacy Directive, which the UK Government signed up to in 2002. It came into force at the end of October 2003.
After receiving "hundreds of complaints" from UK citizens over the Phorm trials, EC officials wrote to Whitehall asking whether UK law adequately protected personal data.
"Following an analysis of the answers received, the commission has concerns that there are structural problems in the way the UK has implemented EU rules ensuring the confidentiality of communications,” the Commission said.
Although UK law makes it an offence to unlawfully intercept communications, the scope of this offence is limited to "intentional" interception only.
"Moreover, according to this law, interception is also considered to be lawful when the interceptor has 'reasonable grounds for believing' that consent to interception has been given.” City of London police refused last year to act over BT and Phorm's trials, insisting that BT’s customers had given their "implied consent" and that the companies had a lack of criminal intent.
The British Government “should have fined these companies,” an EC spokesman said today.
The Commission has now given the Government two months to respond to today’s “infringement proceeding” - the first stage of a legal process which could end up in the European Court of Justice for an alleged breach of the directive.
The directive states that user consent must be “freely given, specific, and informed”, and it requires EU member states to impose sanctions in the event of breaches of the rules.
The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which along with the Home Office received the Commission’s infringement notice today, said it would respond within the two-month time frame.
If no satisfactory reply is received by the Commission within two months, it may decide to issue a “reasoned opinion”, the next stage of the infringement process.
Brussels is also concerned that the UK has no regulatory body charged with controlling interceptions of communications by private companies. The UK’s Information Commissioner does not any power to enforce the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which governs interception, and the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners is mandated only to investigate interceptions by public authorities.
Ms Reding reinforced her stern message to the British Government in her weekly video message, delivered via the European Commission’s website.
“Privacy is a particular value for us Europeans; a value reflected in European laws for many years,” she said.
“However, in spite of the many advantages of technological development, there is an undeniable risk that privacy is being lost to the brave new world of intrusive technologies. On the global information highways, personal information is increasingly becoming ‘the new currency’. And I believe that Europeans… must have the right to control how their personal information is used.”
“European privacy rules are crystal clear,” she said. “A person's information can only be used with their prior consent. We cannot give up this basic principle, and have all our exchanges monitored, surveyed and stored, in exchange for a promise of ‘more relevant’ advertisements! I will not shy away from taking action where an EU country falls short of this duty.”
Phorm has already been investigated by the police and the Government over privacy concerns. It has attracted interest from UK internet service providers including BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, although no company has yet fully introduced the system.
Sir Tim spoke out passionately against Phorm at a meeting in the House of Commons in March this year. "It is very important that when we click, we click without a thought that a third party knows what we're clicking on," he said. "'What is at stake is the integrity of the internet as a communications medium. It's important there should be no snooping on the internet."
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6091811.ece

Hats Off for Surveillance!
Thursday, April 9, 2009 - Vol. 11, No. 89Just when you thought the world couldn't get any crazier...here's Mark Nestmann from the litigious frontier..."You may not have known it, but it may now be your civic duty to remove your hat in the presence of a surveillance camera. And don't smile, either-it might confuse the face-recognition software." "If New York City is any indication, this is a coming trend. Banks and other retailers have started to post signs asking customers to remove hats and any other face-obscuring accessories to "help us reduce crime." You see, hats and sunglasses make things more difficult for face-recognition software, as does smiling at the camera.""And it's not just businesses that are racing to identify everyone who walks in the door. The New York Police Department has proposed extending a CCTV network with 4,200 cameras in Lower Manhattan to cover midtown-Manhattan as well. The scheme includes license-plate recognition technology to identify all vehicles entering Manhattan. There's no word yet on whether or not face recognition will be included. However, I'd be very surprised if it's not part of the plan." "Will the new network catch many bad guys? Not unless the city passes an ordinance forbidding anyone entering Manhattan from wearing a hat, sunglasses-or smiling." "If CCTV is mostly "security theater," then what's it really good for? A recently released movie, Look, which presents life in a CCTV-surveilled world as a sort of reality show, provides an important clue. According to Adam Rifkin, who directed Look, in real life CCTV has more to do with titillation than security." ""We went into a mall security office and the guys were not looking for shoplifters. They were zooming in on girls with big boobs and following them around the stores. Those guards told me if they see something really interesting, they post it on YouTube."""Well, now you know the real purpose of CCTV networks. If you're out shopping in Manhattan or most other big cities, and you're a hottie, you just might be on YouTube!" http://www.sovereignsociety.com/2009Archives1stHalf/040909HatsOffforSurveillance/tabid/5553/Default.aspx http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=877.0

US Mumps Outbreak Friday April 11, 2008
Because of effective vaccines and high vaccination rates in the United States, mumps has been almost non-existent since 1990. In fact, a goal was established to completely eradicate the disease by 2010 in this country. However, a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine has shown that there was a widespread outbreak in the midwest in 2006. This outbreak apparently occurred despite good vaccine coverage. Most of those who got the disease had been immunized. Over 6000 cases of the mumps were reported in 2006 and most of those occurred in 8 midwestern states. It also appears most were among 18-24 year olds that were attending college. In the 12 years prior to the outbreak, less than 1000 cases per year were reported. This outbreak does not mean that the goal of eradicating mumps by 2010 is impossible, but it brings up important questions about the efficacy of the vaccine and the possible need for a change in the vaccine schedule.
http://coldflu.about.com/b/2008/04/11/us-mumps-outbreak.htm


Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates
BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday.
The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's.
The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.
China initiated its three-ship escort task force on Dec. 26 last year after the United Nations Security Council called on countries to patrol gulf and waters off Somalia, one of the world's busiest marine routes, where surging piracy endangered intercontinental shipping.
China's first fleet has escorted 206 vessels, including 29 foreign merchant vessels, and successfully rescued three foreign merchant ships from pirate attacks.
About 20 percent of Chinese merchant ships passing through the waters off Somalia were attacked by pirates from January to November in 2008, before the task force was deployed.
A total of seven ships, either owned by China or carrying Chinese cargo and crew, were hijacked.
Tianyu No. 8, a Chinese fishing vessel with 16 Chinese and eight foreign sailors aboard, was captured by Somali pirates on Nov. 14 and released in early February.
The second fleet of Chinese escort ships arrived at the Gulf of Aden on Monday to replace the first fleet.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/content_11184581.htm

Eeyores News and a View

Sheriff Joe makes the news again
Protest against Sheriff's immigration policy heats up
Reported by: Tony Arranaga
PHOENIX -- Tensions rose between two large groups of protesters in downtown Phoenix on Saturday afternoon.
At issue, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's stand on immigration and his policy to detain undocumented immigrants.
A group of about 1,000 people turned out to march from Steele Indian School Park, along Central Avenue to protest Arpaio's practices.
According to Sheriff's Office spokesman Doug Matteson, one man was cited for carrying a concealed weapon after he made verbal threats against Arpaio. He reportedly was also carrying handcuffs and a Los Angeles police department badge.
Deputies are investigating whether the man was permitted to carry the handgun.
The route continued downtown to the Wells Fargo building where Arpaio's offices are located. There is no word on whether the Sheriff was there.
The mostly-peaceful march suddenly turned tense, as a group of Arpaio supporters numbering in the hundreds began to shout at protestors along their route.
Phoenix police officers were posted along the route to keep both sides safe.
“We are excited to see such a strong and peaceful showing of opposition to the wrong-headed policies of Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” Salvador Reza of Puente said in a news release after the march. “... 5,000 marched today to make sure that the abuses that we’ve suffered under for far too long move from the local to being dealt with on the national level as well.”
Arpaio said that if the feds want to change the laws, he's still got two state laws on the books to support his efforts to crack down on undocumented immigrants.
marchers arrived at the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Building at about 1:30 p.m.
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/story/Protest-against-Sheriffs-immigration-policy-heats/Vyv7DAtHPEm7MOXPV9zIew.cspx

Semi-Automatic Rifle Ban Would Reduce Jobs, Not Crime
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- Responding to Attorney General Eric Holder's comment yesterday that the Obama Administration will attempt to reinstate a ban against semi-automatic rifles, the National Shooting Sports Foundation reminded Congress and all Americans that such a ban would cause jobs to be lost in a difficult economy, have no effect on reducing crime and would deprive millions of law-abiding sportsmen and gun owners of their Constitutional right to own the firearm of their choice.
Holder made his comments in connection with criminals supplying illegal guns from the United States to drug dealers in Mexico.
"The problem of criminals breaking the law to acquire firearms and illegally smuggling them across the border is not remedied by legislation that would violate the rights of Americans to own semi-automatic firearms," said Steve Sanetti, president of NSSF, the trade association of the firearms industry.
"These types of firearms, which are erroneously called 'assault weapons,' are used by millions of Americans for hunting, sporting and personal defense purposes," Sanetti added. "We can only conclude that certain officials are waiting for any politically advantageous excuse to announce the intention to seek a new ban on sporting rifles, a ban that would break the president's campaign promise to gun owners that 'I'm not going to take away your guns.'"
The industry and firearms owners were understandably outraged by Holder's comments yesterday, and today even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backed away from the idea of a new gun ban. "On that score, I think we need to enforce the laws we have right now," said Pelosi, surprisingly taking the position of pro-gun advocates.
Holder's use of the inaccurate term "assault weapons" is one that is deliberately used by gun-ban advocates to create confusion between legally sold, semi-automatic rifles and look-a-like, fully automatic military versions. While the civilian version of these rifles may resemble their military counterparts, the civilian rifle fires only one round with each pull of the trigger. Additionally, these rifles fire ammunition calibers no more powerful than traditional-looking sporting arms. Civilian access to fully automatic machine guns has been severely restricted since 1934.
Studies show that the ban against sporting firearms, known as the Assault Weapons Ban, that was in place from 1994 to 2004 did not reduce crime. Furthermore, there has been no increase in crime involving these types of firearms since Congress allowed the ban to expire.
A ban on sporting firearms also would have a severe effect on jobs and the economy. Sales of semi-automatic rifles have been strong over the last several months -- overall sales of firearms have increased as much as 42 percent -- and have allowed companies in the firearms industry to withstand, to some extent, the downturn in the economy.
"These semi-automatic rifles are the most popular rifle in America today and they are largely behind the recent increase in firearms sales," said Sanetti. "This is a bright spot in our economy and has helped save jobs in our industry."
Since the election last November gun owners have feared the Obama Administration would seek legislation that would infringe on their Second Amendment rights. "It appears gun owners' fears were well-founded given Attorney General Holder's comment that the Obama Administration will seek new restrictions on gun owners. A new gun ban would fly in the face of last year's Supreme Court decision in the Heller case that reaffirmed the Second Amendment right of all Americans to keep and bear arms," said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.
http://www.nssf.org/news/PR_idx.cfm?PRloc=share/PR/&PR=022609.cfm&CFID=4370336&CFTOKEN=4ec9be7ee4146df3-B7DF39EF-F7BF-B802-F55FABA960F1BCB6&jsessionid=f03026464e39ae9a23632f7655122e84197b

CIA Denies Helping Nazi Adolf Eichmann
March 01, 2009 12:33 PM ET By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
A gripping new book about the hunt and seizure of Nazi Adolf Eichmann, implementer of the "final solution," includes this stunning charge: The CIA knew his alias and his Argentina address but didn't tell Israel. Hunting Eichmann by Neal Bascomb says the CIA balked to protect Nazis working for it. Not exactly, Langley tells Whispers: "CIA did not, contrary to legend, know Eichmann's precise alias or whereabouts. We even got a tip in the 1950s that he could be at large in Jerusalem!"

The U.S. Government: Devious or Just Plain Stupid...
You Make the Call
Ben Bernanke - the "Sultan of Spin" himself - came out this morning and echoed the misguided hopes of CNBC's Trillion Dollar Survey from January. He optimistically believes that the crisis will be resolved before the end of 2009...that 2010 will be a year of recovery.
His hopeful yet empty words caused me to reflect on the progress of government intervention through this crisis so far. And I can come to only one conclusion;
I'm praying that they're devious.
That their measures are intended to fail. That they've got some secret plot...a conspiracy going on. Otherwise it means our leaders - political and economic - are just plain obtuse - complete with dunce caps.
Because there's no other way to explain the abysmal failure of rhetoric and 'policy' over the course of the last year. It's either deliberate or just thanks to incompetence. And with a darkening future ahead of us, we can only hope that it isn't the latter.
So I'm done holding it in. I've been watching this farce play out for months and it's time to let loose the broadside on these fools...smashing their misconceptions, half-truths and lies of omission to little bits.
Enough with the talk...it's time for the fireworks.
The Free Market Didn't Fail; The Regulations Did
Truthfully, every time I hear some politician talk about how this is an example of the failure of free markets, I want to whack the guy on the head with a rubber mallet.
There's a fine line between free markets and the deregulation that's allegedly intended to create a 'free-er' market...and that's a distinction most fail to notice.
And in the last few decades we haven't had anything even closely resembling a free market. Instead, we've had a 21st century banking system that's governed by a gutted 1940s regulatory structure.
I'm talking about some of more dangerous "free market reforms" of the Clinton/Bush era. The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act - which kept the banking system functional from the Great Depression through the end of the 20th century - and the 2004 decision to lift leverage limitations on American banks.
Were these regulations removed with the intention of creating a free-er marketplace? In my humble opinion; absolutely not.
These were crucial safety nets for our highly-regulated economic system that got in the way of bankers' profits. Removing them wasn't a free market initiative, and it didn't create a free market. It just made the whole situation far more dangerous.
If anything, the massive amounts of lobbyist money that made this deregulation possible prove - beyond a shadow of a doubt - that the U.S. government is too compromised to properly manage the economy.
Meanwhile, the government-mandated ratings agencies continued to stamp their seal of approval on questionable mortgage-backed securities. And the SEC continued to let Madoff and Stanford go about their business, long after they were warned of Madoff's shenanigans.
You're probably starting to see that it wasn't the free market that created today's problems, but the false sense of security brought on by "strict" government regulations.
So yeah, let's go ahead and build a bigger safety blanket. One that costs more, makes the market even less efficient, and ultimately proves to be as dodgy and inconsistent as the existing regulatory system. Now that's genius.
Taking it a step further; the size and scope of this crisis could be pinned directly on the Federal Reserve. That's right; Greenspan's 'liquidity experiment' and years of rock-bottom interest rates were the lungs blowing up the bubble. But that's a different story altogether.
Moving on to Lie # 2...
A Novel Idea for Politicians: Quit Lying and Make up Your Mind
This is a big one.
Asking a politician to tell the truth or actually make up his mind...well that's like asking a teenager to drive 20 miles under the speed limit. It's just not going to happen.
Generally, that's because telling the truth is bad for a politician's business. No problem there...I can respect that. But what about when it's actually a good thing for the country?
Take right now for instance. The markets are running scared. They're beaten down and oversold, waiting for a single ray of hope or even just some consistency. What do they get instead?
They get bald-faced lies like the most recent joint statement from the Treasury, FDIC, OTS, OCC and the Fed...one that macroeconomist Mike Shedlock calls "a Purposeful Joint Lie." A document so filled with puffery and damage control that it could make Ben Bernanke blush.
They get a government that fails to warn them that one of the people's newest acquisitions - AIG - is set to declare the single largest loss in corporate history. They get a President who tells the press that years of trillion dollar deficits are on the way...only to backpedal a few weeks later and promise deficits half that size by the end of his first term.
Hey government; I've got a novel idea. How 'bout you pick a story, and stick to it?
Want another shining example? Look no further than "illiquid assets." Know why they're illiquid? Because the government won't pick a value and stick to it.
The "illiquid assets" aren't worth face value, and they'd fetch maybe a third of their value in the secondary market (for sake of argument). But ever since Paulson's "Master Liquidity Enhancement Conduit" (MLEC) in the summer of 2007, the government's been waffling back and forth with half-hearted promises to pay 75% of face value...perhaps more...perhaps less. They just haven't made up their minds.
So instead of having the market's clearing mechanism do its magic, working out deals and determining a fair market value for these securities - so that we can all move on with the lengthy road to recovery - we've got the government in there gummin' up the works.
Faced with the decision of either shaking the rotten apples out of the tree or forcing taxpayers to pay for those rotten apples, they've chosen indecision. And the market's not happy about that.
Paving the Road to Great Depression II
Remember, sequels are always bigger, more violent and less entertaining than the original. Oh, and they also have a knack for rehashing the worst parts of the original.
But seriously folks, let's set the stage before I'm dismissed as a 'fearmonger' by people that don't know all the facts. It surprises me that so much of the news media has reverted to questioning whether this is even the biggest slump since the Great Depression. Have they been reading the same news I have?
Both George Soros and Nassim Taleb have gone on record as saying that we're facing a bigger slump than the Great Depression. In a little-known interview regarding his interest rate policy, Greenspan warned that this event could make the Great Depression, "look like a Sunday Picnic." And at least nominally speaking, you can safely say that this is the biggest asset price bubble in the history of human civilization. So yes, it can be a little unnerving.
And yes; a full-blown Depression is in the range of possible outcomes.
Especially if bumbling politicians and the Fed keep themselves firmly lodged between the economy and a recovery. Just look at 1990s Japan or 1929 America. In both cases, authorities got involved and mucked up the works. Unlike the barely-remembered 1920-21 slump, a deep recession that quickly corrected itself thanks to non-intervention.
Not that they couldn't be helping if they wanted to. They'd just have to make up their minds, quit pandering to their "sponsors" or just plain get out of the way. But that's not likely any time soon.

Russian bomber neared Canada before Obama visit
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian fighters scrambled to intercept an approaching Russian bomber less than 24 hours before U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Ottawa last week Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said on Friday.
The Bear bomber did not enter Canada's Arctic airspace but the two Canadian F-18 fighters had to order the plane to turn back, MacKay told a news conference.
Obama spent a few hours in the Canadian capital on February 19 on his first foreign trip since becoming president.
"I'm not going to stand here and accuse the Russians of having deliberately done this during the presidential visit but it was a strong coincidence, which we met with the presence, as we always do, of F-18 fighter planes ... and sent a strong signal that they should back off and stay out of our air space," MacKay said.
He also said Russia had stepped up its bomber flights toward the Canadian Arctic in the last few years, reviving a practice that was common during the Cold War.
MacKay did not say exactly when the incident occurred or how close the bomber came to Canadian airspace.
"It's not a game. It's not a game at all. These aircraft approaching Canadian or U.S. airspace are viewed very seriously," he said.
"We have asked on a number of occasions ... that we are given a heads up when this type of air traffic is to occur and to date we have not received that kind of notice."
In Moscow, a spokesman for Russia's defense ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
MacKay spoke after a meeting with U.S. General Gene Renuart, commander of the binational North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
"They (the Russians) have been professional in the way they have conducted their aircraft operations," Renuart said.
Canada's minority Conservative government has promised to spend billions of dollars boosting Canada's presence in the Arctic, which scientists believe has vast reserves of oil and natural gas.
"Our intention is very much to demonstrate our sovereignty, our capability to protect our territory, our airspace, our water (and) our people in the Arctic and that includes our resources," MacKay said.
Five countries with an Arctic coastline -- Russia, the United States, Canada, Norway, and Denmark through its control of Greenland -- have competing claims to the region.
Scientists say oil and gas exploration could begin during the summer months within decades.
Russia said this week it would respond to any moves to militarize the Arctic.
Ottawa -- which plans to build a deep water port in the region -- has stepped up sovereignty patrols in the Arctic and last August it said it would toughen reporting requirements for ships entering its waters in the Far North.
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE51Q2W220090227?sp=true

Eeyore's News and View

Sorry but i could not after a whole two days of looking find enough articles to fill on days worth of blog. What a shame. Under the topic of "Government that works"


Subject: SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

You all remember Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona , who painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb. Well.........

SHERIFF JOE IS AT IT AGAIN!

Oh, there's MUCH more to know about Sheriff Joe!

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18
million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe
offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.
The animal shelters are now all staffed and
operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in
his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has pris oners who are
experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone
who'd like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the
street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog
shows.
The best part? His budget for the entire
department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a
Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all
shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got
him. Cost us $78.
The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28
an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their
cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building
maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for
adopted animals.
I have long wondered when the rest of the
country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some
of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where
inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food,
doing all the work and harvesting by hand.
He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which
provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery,
where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8
for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the
Prison.
Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of
the vote.
Now he's in trouble with the ACLU again. He
painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline
phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal
aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn't doing enough in his
eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration
laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks
back to the border. He's kind of a 'Gi t-R Dun' kind of S heriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO

HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF

AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER
THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created
the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving
and charges the inmates for them.
He stopped smoking and porno magazines in
the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies.
He started chain gangs so the inmates could
do free work on county and city projects.
Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He
Wouldn't Get Sued For Discrimination.
He took away cable TV Until he found out
there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He
Hooked Up The Cable TV Again . Only Let In The Disney Channel And The
Weather channel.
When asked why the weather channel He
Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working
ON My Chain Gangs.
He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero
Nutritional Value.
When the inmates complained, he told them,
'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton...... If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'

More On The Arizona Sheriff:
With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than
Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press
Reports:
About 2,000 Inmates Living In A
Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been
Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued
Pink Boxer Shorts.
On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers
were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which
reached
138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.
Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels A
s Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.
'It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,' Said
James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. 'It's
Inhumane.'
Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who
created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink,
and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday
that he told all of the inmates: 'It's 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers
Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear,
But They Didn't Commit Any Crimes,So Shut
Your Mouths!'

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Maybe if all prisons were like this one
there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be
punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it's time for their
parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they ca n get back in to
live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can't afford to have for
themselves.

'Uranium For Iran Nuke In 2009'
Geoff Meade, defence correspondent
Iran will have enough enriched uranium to make a single nuclear weapon later this year, the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) predicts.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits a uranium enrichment facility
The think tank's Mark Fitzpatrick made the announcement at today's launch of its annual global review of military powers.
During 2009, Iran will probably reach the point at which it has produced the amount of low-enriched uranium needed to make a nuclear bomb.
Mark Fitzpatrick, International Institute for Strategic Studies
"But being able to enrich uranium is not the same as having a nuclear weapon."
However, the survey reports doubts over US Intelligence estimates that Iran halted its work on nuclear weapons six years ago.
This points to Tehran's continued development of long-range ballistic missiles able to reach targets in Israel and beyond.
The IISS recommends a mixture of carrot and stick as the best international response.
It concluded a dual policy of engagement and sanctions, testing possibilities for Iranian cooperation while adopting targeted containment strategies, is the best way to deal with Iran's nuclear programme.
Foreign affairs editor Tim Marshall said: "Several think-tanks have come to the same conclusion.
"The intelligence agencies are more reluctant to put a time frame on it, and the report itself says having enough enriched Uranium to build the warhead is not the same as building the warhead itself."
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Nuclear-Weapon-From-Iran-Within-A-Year-Expert-Says-Country-Will-Have-Enough-Uranium-For-Warhead/Article/200901415211260

Pelosi: Fewer babies = stronger economy
Charlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow - 1/27/2009 6:00:00 AMBookmark and Share
Central birth-control pillsHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi stirred up a hornet's nest by promoting the idea of spending of millions of dollars on birth control and abortion as part of the economic stimulus package.
"Contraception," argued Pelosi, "will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." Her comments came on ABC's This Week when asked by host George Stephanopoulos how expanding "family-planning services" to the tune of millions of dollars will stimulate the economy. OneNewsNow sought reaction from Susan Fani, director of communications for the Catholic League.
"It's quite shocking, actually, that the Speaker of the House -- who claims to be Catholic -- would go on national television and claim that contraception would reduce the cost to the government," exclaims Fani. "It's just beyond words, really."
Pelosi has five children and six grandchildren. Catholic League president Bill Donohue finds her comments revealing. "We have reached a new low when high-ranking public office holders in the federal government cast children as the enemy," he offers in a press statement. "But at least it explains their enthusiasm for abortion-on-demand."
pregnant womanWill the spending on "family-planning services" help dig America out of its economic doldrums?
"That's not going to help grow the economy," Fani responds. "It doesn't even make sense as a prospect for helping this country through our economic crisis. So it's wrong on so many different levels, and just shows...a very flawed thought process."
American Life League calls Pelosi's remarks "a betrayal" of her Catholic faith, and the Christian Defense Coalition says it is "unthinkable" that she would try to stimulate the economy by "seeking to reduce the number of children."
America needs to produce 2.1 children per couple to keep up with births to support the population -- and that rate is not being maintained. Economies in Europe have been especially hurt by a drop in birth rates.
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=398956

Senator Warns White House Will 'Create Crisis' and 'Panic' to Push Stimulus
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., criticizes mainstream media for not reporting loads of pork in proposed legislation.
By Jeff Poor
Business & Media Institute
1/27/2009 5:04:03 PM
Is the new Obama administration taking cues from the Bush administration to get Congress to act? It certainly seemed that way to, South Carolina’s junior Republican senator, Jim DeMint.
DeMint, speaking Jan. 27 at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., explained the Obama administration will “create crisis and widespread panic” just like its predecessor in order to get Congress to act expeditiously.
“I’ve been around long enough to know whenever someone tells me I have to make a decision right now, my response is no,” DeMint said. “That clears it up right away and I think more and more the Bush administration and now this administration knows that they’re not going to get a quick reaction out of Congress unless they create crisis and widespread panic. And that’s going to be their M.O. to get Congress to act.”
Another senator, James Inhofe, R-Okla., explained the Bush administration used a similar tactic, under the direction of former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, to get the $700-billion TARP bailout bill passed by Congress back on Oct. 4, 2008.
DeMint said some Republicans now regret they voted for the TARP package, even though there is no way to gauge what might have happened had it not been passed.
“I think there’s a lot of buyer’s remorse among Republicans who voted for the bailouts of all kinds last year,” DeMint said. “And, it’s hard to prove that, some of them are saying, ‘It didn’t work out so well, but it’d been a lot worse if we hadn’t.’ It’s hard, it’s hard to argue that unless you know anything about how business works.”
“And then it’s obvious that what we did was inject a whole lot of uncertainty into the marketplace,” DeMint said. “So no, I don’t think there’s discord because of that, uh, and I really don’t blame my colleagues. If you got the President and the Secretary of the Treasury coming in saying, ‘The world economy is going to collapse next week if we don’t do something.’”
DeMint criticized the mainstream media for not conveying the message that some congressional Republicans are trying to spread about this package –that it’s filled with big-government wasteful spending projects that will do little to “stimulate” the economy.
“Well, it’s a good question and a lot of us are saying that,” DeMint said. “It’s not being picked up at all by the mainstream media and that’s why again, we’re going to have to take our message through you to the people, Rush Limbaugh, anyone who will talk about what’s really in the bill. We don’t need to make it up. It’s like they’re in a different reality. They’re talking about a bill, that when you look at it, there’s no resemblance to what they’re talking about.”
DeMint said it will take grassroots efforts to put the brakes on this stimulus package and he admitted he has seen it from constituents that are concerned about the bailout culture in Washington, D.C.
“So if we can just get the truth to the American people, or just a segment of the American people, I think you’ll, you’ll see a groundswell of anger, again because there’s, there’s a real fatigue out there on these bailouts,” DeMint continued. “I think even people who are normally not that political are coming up to me and they just sense that we’re running this country into a ditch. I’ve never seen people so anxious and so – well, I mean they grab my arm. They’re no longer single issue people. They just say, ‘Thanks for fighting. What can I do?’ I’ve heard that at least a hundred times. That’s – we just need to let people know the truth and think that they’ll get engaged.”
http://businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090127165919.aspx

This one is over looked (probably on purpose because the news broke on the day of the inauguration (coronation) of our President. Strange timing or convenient timing. One news source i saw claimed when you add this one to other recent lapses in security (tjmax, being one of them) it would not be surprising if one and ten peoples using credit and debit cards has not had there personal information stolen , maybe not used yet, but be watchful of your bills.

MasterCard, Visa warn security breach may compromise data
Visa and MasterCard have begun notifying member banks around the nation to contact patrons whose card accounts may have been compromised in the Heartland Payment Systems data breach.
Robert Baldwin, Heartland's President and CFO, said in a USA TODAY interview that Visa and MasterCard are "instructing many card issuers" to offer fraud-monitoring protection, replace cards, or do a combination of both for customers whose card purchases were processed by Heartland. "We're heartsick over this," Baldwin said.
Heartland disclosed Tuesday that intruders cracked the system it uses to process 100 million card transactions per month from 175,000 merchants. Heartland began investigating late last fall, tipped by Visa and MasterCard; but its tech staff was stumped. "We brought in a forensic auditor and worked for over a month, and only last week we found proof that our system had been breached," Baldwin said. "Up to that point we had no internal data suggesting any breach."
The case could turn out to be the largest data breach yet reported. Anyone who used a payment card at one of the restaurants or retailers that rely on Heartland to process card transactions could be at risk. These merchants include "independent business people in towns and cities across America," including some franchise chains, "but not any corporate names anybody would recognize," Baldwin said. Heartland has been unable to ascertain "a specific start and end date" for the intrusion, and has not been able to determine how many transaction records were stolen, he said.
Security and privacy experts say Heartland should assume all accounts that made transactions when the intruders were on the system are compromised. "Are we talking two weeks or two months?" says Roel Schouwenberg, senior antivirus researcher at Kaspersky Lab. "With proper forensics they should be able to conclude the maximum number of possible victims."
Whatever the number, it will be costly. Retail giant TJX set aside $197 million in reserves to deal with the 2007 theft of 94 million records. "This is TJX on steroids," says Paul Davie, COO of database management company Secerno.
Heartland should feel urgency to notify everyone who could be a victim, says Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, a fraud-monitoring service. "Victims are sitting naked, not knowing whether to take extra steps to protect themselves," he says. "The default should be toward notifying all possible victims."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-01-21-visa-mastercard-credit-security-breach_N.htm

Very sad that this can happen in this Country
WWII Veteran Freezes To Death In Own Home
Bay City Electric & Light Restricted Power To Man's Home After He Did Not Pay Bills
BAY CITY, Mich. -- TV5 and WNEM.com has learned about new circumstances surrounding Marvin Schur’s death.
A limiter on Schur’s electric meter is being blamed for the man’s death. Now Bay City said it will notify customers before their power is shut off.
Michigan’s Attorney General Mike Cox said Tuesday he would review the case.
One local lawyer said the question remains: Who is accountable in the war veteran’s death?
http://www.wnem.com/news/18566890/detail.html

This one sounds a lot Politics as usual, or pay for play, Acorn helps Obama win so what is the response, very predictable.
Republicans Object to Stimulus Dollars for ACORN
Republicans say voter registration and community groups like ACORN could be eligible for funding under the Democrats' economic stimulus bill.
Republican lawmakers are raising concerns that ACORN, the low-income advocacy group under investigation for voter registration fraud, could be eligible for billions in aid from the economic stimulus proposal working its way through the House.
House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a statement over the weekend noting that the stimulus bill wending its way through Congress provides $4.19 billion for "neighborhood stabilization activities."
He said the money was previously limited to state and local governments, but that Democrats now want part of it to be available to non-profit entities. That means groups like ACORN would be eligible for a portion of the funds.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., told FOX News Tuesday that the money could be seen as "payoff" for groups' political activities in the last election. ACORN generally supports Democratic candidates and actively backed President Obama last year.
But he said the funding is just one example of frivolous spending items in the $825 billion package.
"It's just a long list of spending items. Not a real economic stimulus job creation bill," Vitter said. "It's line after line after line of favorite liberal spending programs, and it amounts to a big government bill -- not a job creation bill."
Democratic leaders in the House have already dropped federal funding from the bill for new contraceptive services and ongoing programs to stop sexually transmitted diseases after Obama told them that it did not fit in with the job-creating objectives of the package.
Obama plans to meet with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill Tuesday to hear some their input on the package. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama is open to suggestions.
"If there are good ideas -- and I think he assumes there will be -- we will look at those ideas," he said Monday.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/01/27/republican-leaders-raise-concerns-acorn-stimulus-dollars/

Eeyore's News and View

Officials: Toss salmonella-linked peanut butter
January 13, 2009 - 7:14am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Health officials are urging nursing homes, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants to toss out specific containers of peanut butter linked to a salmonella outbreak in 43 states.
The recalled peanut butter _ distributed by King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio _ was supplied only through food service providers and was not sold directly to consumers. King Nut challenged the finding, saying it could not be the source of the nationwide outbreak since it distributes to only seven states.
The outbreak has sickened more than 400 people and Minnesota health officials announced Monday they had found a match between samples from a King Nut container and the strains of salmonella bacteria making people sick across the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the outbreak may have contributed to three deaths.
Officials are concerned the peanut butter is still being used, and Heidi Kassenborg of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture urged all institutions to throw it away.
State health and agriculture officials said last week they had found salmonella bacteria in a 5-pound package of King Nut peanut butter at a nursing facility in Minnesota. Officials tested the bacteria over the weekend and found a genetic match with the bacterial strain that has led to 30 illnesses in Minnesota and others across the country.
"The commonality among all of our patients was that they ate peanut butter," said Doug Schultz, a spokesman with the Minnesota Department of Health. While the brand of peanut butter couldn't be confirmed in every case, the majority of patients consumed the same brand, he said Monday.
Minnesota officials were coordinating their investigation with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other states.
King Nut Companies on Sunday asked its customers to stop using peanut butter under its King Nut and Parnell's Pride brands with a lot code that begins with the numeral "8."
However, company president and chief executive Martin Kanan argued that King Nut could not be the source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak because the company distributes only to Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Arizona, Idaho and New Hampshire. No other King Nut products have been voluntarily recalled.
The peanut butter King Nut distributed was manufactured by Peanut Corporation of America, a Virginia company. In an e-mail earlier Monday, President Stewart Parnell said the company was working with federal authorities.
The peanut butter was distributed to establishments such as care facilities, hospitals, schools, universities and restaurants. King Nut says it was not distributed for retail sale to consumers.
The CDC on Monday raised the number of confirmed cases to 410, from 399 as of Friday, and Mississippi became the 43rd state to report a case. All the illnesses began between Sept. 15 and Jan. 7, but most of the people became sick after Oct. 1.
Kanan held out the possibility that the contamination came from another source, since the salmonella was found in an open container.
"That means there's a possibility of cross-contamination, somebody could have been cutting a piece of chicken and then stuck the knife into the peanut butter for a peanut butter sandwich," he said. "There have been no tests that have come back positive on a closed container."
The peanut butter contamination comes almost two years after ConAgra recalled its Peter Pan brand peanut butter, which was eventually linked to at least 625 salmonella cases in 47 states.
CDC officials say the bacteria in the current outbreak has been genetically fingerprinted as the Typhimurium type, which is among the most common sources of salmonella food poisoning.
Associated Press writers Martiga Lohn in St. Paul and Thomas J. Sheeran in Cleveland contributed to this report.
On the Net:
FDA: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/kingnut01_09.html
King Nut: http://www.kingnut.com/site.cfm/news.cfm

Firm Press Release

FDA posts press releases and other notices of recalls and market withdrawals from the firms involved as a service to consumers, the media, and other interested parties. FDA does not endorse either the product or the company.
Kellogg Company Announces Precautionary Hold on Austin and Keebler Branded Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
Contact:
Kellogg Consumer Response Center
888...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Battle Creek, MI -- January 14, 2009 -- Kellogg Company today announced it has taken the precautionary measure of putting a hold on Austin® and Keebler® branded Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Crackers, Cheese and Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, and Peanut Butter-Chocolate Sandwich Crackers.
FDA and other regulatory agencies have indicated that Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) is the focus of their investigation concerning a recent Salmonella outbreak thought to be caused by tainted peanut butter. PCA is one of several peanut paste suppliers that the company uses in its Austin® and Keebler® branded peanut butter sandwich crackers.
Kellogg Company's investigation has not indicated any concerns, nor has the Company received any consumer illness complaints about these products.
Nonetheless, Kellogg Company is taking precautionary measures including putting a hold on any inventory in its control, removing product from retail store shelves, and encouraging customers and consumers to hold and not eat these products until regulatory officials complete their investigation of PCA and Kellogg provides further information as to the resolution of this issue.
"Consumer health and safety is our top priority," said David Mackay, president and CEO, Kellogg Company. "We are taking these voluntary actions out of an abundance of caution."
While no additional consumer action is necessary at this time, consumers with questions or who would like a product refund can call the Kellogg Consumer Response Center at 888-314-2060.
http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/kellogg01_09.html

A Little History Lesson For Rep. Walter B. Jones About Military Chaplains
Written by Chris Rodda
Monday, 12 January 2009 00:00
By Chris Rodda
Here we go again -- the new session of Congress has just begun and another bill about military chaplains praying in Jesus' name has already been introduced.
On Jan. 7, Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC) introduced H.R. 268, a bill "To amend title 10, United States Code, to ensure that every military chaplain has the prerogative to close a prayer outside of a religious service according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience." H.R. 268, a regurgitation of H.R. 6514, which was introduced in the last congress but never made it to the floor, would amend Title 10 of the U.S. Code to state, in five separate sections:
"If called upon to lead a prayer outside of a religious service, a chaplain shall have the prerogative to close the prayer according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience."

The State versus the Internet: Kentucky
Starts a Trade War
There's a war simmering right now, that you may not have heard about. The object of the war is control of the Internet.
In some ways, this war is similar to the deceitful "harmful tax competition" campaign that industrialized nations have been conducting against offshore jurisdictions for more than a decade. It involves the same protagonists: industrialized nations versus developing countries. And one of the opening salvos of this war is occurring, of all places, in a Kentucky courtroom.
Kentucky is trying to force 141 Internet gaming sites, none of them based in the United States (much less Kentucky) to block access to Kentucky users, or to relinquish control of their domain names. The state alleges, among other things, that online gaming drains money from horse racing, a key source of tax dollars. Following a hearing last September, a state judge ordered the domain names to be transferred to the state. That decision is now under appeal.
Many of the sites have already been transferred to the state or are barred from being transferred to another owner. Other sites have informed users based in Kentucky they will no longer be able to use the site.
Internet gambling is no doubt controversial, but that's not the point. Kentucky has fired the opening shot in a trade war against the Internet. It's been able to seize the property of dozens of non-U.S., non-Kentucky companies because many of the domain names are registered in the United States.
What's more, there's no reason to think that this trade war will be limited to Internet gambling. The Internet is the fastest growing segment of the global economy. In just the past four years, global Internet sales have exploded from US$87.5 billion (2004) to an estimated US$204 billion (2008).
Given this track record, it should come as no surprise that governments want to shut down competition to local bricks-and-mortar businesses. That's particularly true given the state of the global economy. In the United States alone, more than 75,000 major retail locations are expected to shut down in 2009. Many will never reopen - the businesses that operated there will increasingly exist only in cyberspace.
If you're an Internet entrepreneur, you've chosen to be involved with what may be the only fundamentally healthy aspect of the global economy. But if you offer a product or service that can be construed to compete with a bricks-and-mortar company in an industrialized country, expect to be attacked.
To deal with these attacks:
Register your domain name outside any major industrialized country.
Set up backup servers outside major industrialized countries.
Be prepared for court challenges from governments, such as that of Kentucky, to steal your intellectual property (IP).
Finally—if your Internet business is successful—you should take steps to transfer the ownership of your IP to a suitable offshore structure, if you haven't already done so. That way, when the Kentucky's of the world come after your Web site, you'll no longer own the most valuable part of it. That may not make bureaucrats very happy, but it will help insure that you can continue operating online.
MARK NESTMANN, Privacy Expert &
President of The Nestmann Group
http://www.nestmann.com/

Sexually spread diseases up, better testing cited
ATLANTA (AP) — Sexually spread diseases — for years on the decline — are on the rise in the United States, with reported chlamydia cases setting a record, government health officials said Tuesday.
The increase in chlamydia, a sometimes symptomless infection that can lead to infertility in women, is likely because of better screening, experts said. In 2007, there were 1.1 million cases, the most ever reported, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least 15,000 women become infertile each year because of untreated chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., director of the CDC's Division of STD Prevention.
Syphilis cases, which number only in the thousands, also rose modestly, while the number of gonorrhea cases remained roughly the same. Syphilis can kill, if left untreated, but chlamydia and gonorrhea are not life-threatening.
Chlamydia can infect men, but rates are nearly three times higher for women. That's at least partly due to 1993 federal recommendations that emphasize testing for sexually active women age 25 and under. That focus on screening in recent years is no doubt driving the record numbers, said Dr. Jonathan Zenilman, a professor of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
"The issue with chlamydia is the more tests, the more you'll find," Zenilman said.
The percentage of young women being tested for the infection rose by double digits from 2003 to 2007, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a nonprofit that monitors health care.
The latest case numbers for chlamydia translate to a rate of 370 cases per 100,000 people in 2007, up 7.5% from 2006.
The reported cases are just part of the picture. Health officials believe as many as 2.8 million Americans get chlamydia each year.
Many men and women have no symptoms from it. Some women experience pain in their lower abdomen or notice a burning sensation or a pus-like discharge when they urinate. Some men may also feel a burning during urination or have a discharge.
Gonorrhea cases appear to have plateaued and are currently at about 356,000 cases. Syphilis was on the verge of being eliminated in the United States about 10 years ago, but lately has been inching up. More than 11,000 new cases of the most contagious form of the disease were reported in 2007.
Syphilis is relatively rare but has become a growing threat, particularly for gay and bisexual men, who accounted for about 65% of the 2007 cases.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-13-std-cases_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Obama Called ''Best Gun Salesman of the Year''
by Jim Shepherd , The Outdoor Wire
posted January 14, 2009
Editorial Opinion by Jim Shepherd with ''The Outdoor Wire''
In recognition of the unprece­dented demand for firearms by nervous consumers, The Outdoor Wire has named President-elect Barack Obama its "Gun Salesman of the Year". For me, it was a simple fact of recognizing that without President-elect Obama's frightening consumers into action, the firearms industry might be suffering the same sort of business slumps that have befallen the automotive and housing industries.
It's credit where credit is due. Mr. Obama has consistently voted against individual rights to firearms, appointed a re-tread Clinton administration full of gun banners, and made it plain to anti-gun groups that despite what he might say to the contrary, he's on their side That history, along with the unquestioned support of anti-gun organizations has spooked consumers into a buying frenzy for firearms that could be outlawed in another Assault Weapons Ban.
Manufacturers are months behind on orders for semi-automatic pistols, AR-style rifles, and anything with so-called 'high-capacity magazines, buyers we've surveyed across the country seem to have a single explanation for their rush to purchase firearms - Obama.
The buying panic is not limited to people you might be described as aficionados or even 'gun nuts'. Recently, I was in a gun store when a gentleman came and said he'd never wanted to own a gun before, but wanted to get one while he still could."
Since the November Presidential election, firearms sales have been at unprecedented levels. For December 2008 the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) recorded a twenty-four percent increase in background checks for 2008 (1,523,426) over December 2007 (1,230,525).
This follows a forty-two percent (42%) increase in November 2008, the highest number of NICS checks in the system's history. Those FBI background checks are required under federal law for all individuals purchasing firearms from federally licensed firearms retailers. In other words, gun sales have never been better.
Sales are so good that on Tuesday, January 6, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a notice to all federal firearms licensees that "an unprecedented increase in demand for ATF Form 4473 had run supplies low enough that dealers were temporarily given permission to photocopy the form until supplies caught up with demand. Completion of a form 4473 is required whenever a federal firearms licensee sells a fire­arm.
As a journalist with more than two decades of national newsgathering experience, I've never seen anything approaching what he calls the "Obama effect". In fact, gun and ammunition sales are at such frantic levels that they have surpassed the panic-buying of Y2K or anything during the Clinton years when the first Assault Weapons Ban was passed. This time, he says, concerned consumers are buying guns and ammunition in anticipation of Obama Administration actions to prohibit certain types of firearms.
In 1999, the fear was that computers would shut down, crippling the world. Those fears were unfounded. I don't think the fears of an Obama administration banning guns are unfounded. His record speaks for itself. He's never failed to support an anti-gun measure, despite saying he supports the Second Amendment.
Moves to prohibit firearms sales would drastically impact a billion-dollar industry that is not only healthy, but pours more than one hundred fifty million dollars annually into conservation programs through an eleven percent tax collected on guns and ammo.
The Pittman-Robertson Act provides the vast majority of funding for wildlife agencies at the federal, state and local levels and that money comes directly from the tax levied against gun owners. Damaging the firearms industry won't just put workers in the gun business out of work, it will severely impact wildlife and conservation efforts nationally. That damage could take decades to repair - if it can be undone."
Choosing President-elect Obama as the Gun Salesman of the Year is a lot like a good-news, bad-news joke.His election has driven gun sales into the stratosphere, but his opposition to guns and gun ownership may be the biggest threat the industry has ever faced. If he puts scoring political points with anti-gun groups ahead of economic realities, he will be deliberately putting thousands of people out of work. I don't see that as an economic stimulus plan with much of a future."
"Today, the facts are indisputable. Barack Obama has spurred gun sales in a time when the entire economy seems to be tanking. If that doesn't make him the gun salesman of the year - if not the decade - I don't know what would.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_142480.asp