Eeyores news and view

This coin comes from an interesting source http://www.futureworldcurrency.com/ If you go to there manifesto and look at what they want it is truely amazing, look at #10

ART. 10
It will be the responsibility of the world's future citizens and the governments they put in place to make our Project a reality. This project is driven by a firm belief in the unification and co-existence of different peoples. It aims to promote an increasingly equal distribution of the planet's resources and human intellect.

Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ at G-8
By Lyubov Pronina
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.”
“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it.”
The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,” was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G-8 delegations, Medvedev said.
The question of a supranational currency “concerns everyone now, even the mints,” Medvedev said. The test coin “means they’re getting ready. I think it’s a good sign that we understand how interdependent we are.”
Medvedev has repeatedly called for creating a mix of regional reserve currencies as part of the drive to address the global financial crisis, while questioning the U.S. dollar’s future as a global reserve currency. Russia’s proposals for the G-20 meeting in London in April included the creation of a supranational currency.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aeFVNYQpByU4

Lawmaker says CIA director ended secret program
WASHINGTON (AP) - CIA Director Leon Panetta has terminated a "very serious" covert program the spy agency kept secret from Congress for eight years, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a House Intelligence subcommittee chairwoman, said Friday.
Schakowsky is pressing for an immediate committee investigation of the classified program, which has not been described publicly. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has said he is considering an investigation.
"The program is a very, very serious program and certainly deserved a serious debate at the time and through the years," Schakowsky told The Associated Press in an interview. "But now it's over."
Democrats revealed late Tuesday that CIA Director Leon Panetta had informed members of the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 that the spy agency had been withholding important information about a secret intelligence program begun after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Schakowsky described Panetta as "stunned" that he had not been informed of the program until nearly five months into his tenure as director.
Panetta had learned of the program only the day before informing the lawmakers, according to a U.S. intelligence official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity Friday because he was not authorized to discuss the program publicly.
Panetta has launched an internal probe at the CIA to determine why Congress was not told about the program. Exactly what the classified program entailed is still unclear.
The intelligence official said the program was "on-again/off-again" and that it was never fully operational, but he would not provide details.
Schakowsky, D-Ill., said Friday that the CIA and Bush administration consciously decided not to tell Congress.
"It's not as if this was an oversight and over the years it just got buried. There was a decision under several directors of the CIA and administration not to tell the Congress," she said.
Schakowsky, who chairs the Intelligence subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said in a Thursday letter to Reyes that the CIA's lying was systematic and inexcusable. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.
She said Reyes indicated to her the committee would conduct a probe into whether the CIA violated the National Security Act, which requires, with rare exceptions, that Congress be informed of covert activities. She told AP she hopes to conduct at least part of the investigation for the committee.
She said this is the fourth time that she knows of that the CIA has misled Congress or not informed it in a timely manner since she began serving on the Intelligence Committee two and half years ago.
In 2008, the CIA inspector general revealed that the CIA had lied to Congress about the accidental shoot down of American missionaries over Peru in 2001. In 2007, news reports disclosed that the CIA had secretly destroyed videotapes of interrogations of a terrorist suspect.
She would not describe the other incident.
Schakowsky said she thinks Panetta is changing the CIA for the better, adding that the failure to inform Congress was indicative of "contempt" the Bush administration and intelligence agencies under him held for Congress.
"Many times I felt it was an annoyance to them to have to come to us and answer our questions," she said. "There was an impatience and a contempt for the Congress."
The House is expected to take up the 2010 intelligence authorization bill next week. It includes a provision that would require the White House to inform the entire committee about upcoming covert operations rather than just the "Gang of Eight"_ the senior members from both parties on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Democratic and Republican leaders in both houses.
The White House this week threatened to veto the final version of the bill if it includes that provision.
Democratic aides said the language may be softened in negotiations with the Senate to address the White House's concern.
But Schakowsky said the wider briefings are the best remedy to avoiding future notification abuses.
Republicans charge that Democratic outrage about the Panetta revelation is just an attempt to provide political cover to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who in May accused the CIA of lying to her in 2002 about its use of waterboarding.
What Pelosi knew about the CIA's interrogation program and when she knew it _ and why she did not object to it sooner _ is expected to be emphasized by Republicans during debate over the intelligence bill.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=27&sid=1699547

84 sick cadets isolated at Air Force Academy
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) - The Air Force Academy says 84 cadets with flu-like symptoms have been isolated are being tested for swine flu.
Academy spokeswoman Capt. Corinna Jones told The Gazette in Colorado Springs Thursday that most of the cadets are "doolies", members of the incoming freshman class who began training June 25. She said the cadets under isolation in a dormitory began coughing and showing other upper respiratory symptoms over the past two days.
The academy has contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Air Force Surgeon General's office.
Jones says tests have been sent to a laboratory in San Antonio for analysis, and results are expected within 24 hours.
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=29&sid=1714503

Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner downloaded to his laptop the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Increasingly, government officials are promoting the chipping of identity documents as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge.
He filmed his heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it - even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.
Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card - credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.
Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."
An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential "only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational" - even though a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that government RFID readers often failed to detect travelers' tags.
Critics warn that RFID-tagged identities will enable identity thieves and other criminals to commit "contactless" crimes against victims who won't immediately know they've been violated.
Neville Pattinson, vice president for government affairs at Gemalto, Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, is no RFID basher. He's a board member of the Smart Card Alliance, an RFID industry group, and is serving on the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
In a 2007 article published by a newsletter for privacy professionals, Pattinson called the chipped cards vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists."
RFID, he wrote, has a fundamental flaw: Each chip is built to faithfully transmit its unique identifier "in the clear, exposing the tag number to interception during the wireless communication."
Once a tag number is intercepted, "it is relatively easy to directly associate it with an individual," he says. "If this is done, then it is possible to make an entire set of movements posing as somebody else without that person's knowledge."
Echoing these concerns were the AeA - the lobbying association for technology firms - the Smart Card Alliance, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Business Travel Coalition, and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy issued caveats. In its 2006 draft report, the committee concluded that RFID "increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security," and recommended that "RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings."
For now, chipped PASS cards and enhanced driver's licenses are not yet widely deployed in the United States. To date, roughly 192,000 EDLs have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
But as more Americans carry them "you can bet that long-range tracking of people on a large scale will rise exponentially," says Paget, a self-described "ethical hacker" who works as an Internet security consultant.
But Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says Americans "aren't that concerned about the RFID" in a time when "tracking an individual is much easier through a cell phone."
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks - and the finding that some terrorists entered the United States using phony passports - the State Department proposed mandating that Americans and foreign visitors carry "enhanced" passport booklets, with microchips embedded in the covers.
In February 2005, when the State Department asked for public comment, it got an outcry: Of the 2,335 comments received, 98.5 percent were negative, with 86 percent expressing security or privacy concerns, the department reported in an October 2005 notice in the Federal Register.
Identity theft and "fears that the U.S. Government or other governments would use the chip to track and censor, intimidate or otherwise control or harm them" were of "grave concern," it noted. Many Americans worried "that the information could be read at distances in excess of 10 feet."
Those citizens, it turns out, had cause.
According to department records obtained by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the AP, discussion about security concerns with the e-passport occurred as early as January 2003 but tests weren't ordered until the department began receiving public criticism two years later.
(AP) In this May 28, 2009 photo, a new "enhanced" United States passport lies, at left, beside an...
When the AP asked when testing was initiated, the State Department said only that "a battery of durability and electromagnetic tests were performed" by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with tests "to measure the ability of data on electronic passports to be surreptitiously skimmed or for communications with the chip reader to be eavesdropped," testing which "led to additional privacy controls being placed on U.S. electronic passports ... "
In 2005, the department incorporated metallic fibers into the e-passport's front cover, to reduce the read range, and added encryptions and a feature that required inspectors to optically scan the e-passport first for the chip to communicate wirelessly.
But what of concerns about the e-passport's read range?
In its October 2005 Federal Register notice, the State Department reassured Americans that the e-passport's chip would emit radio waves only within a 4-inch radius, making it tougher to hack.
But in May 2006, at the University of Tel Aviv, researchers directly skimmed an encrypted tag from several feet away. At the University of Cambridge in Britain, a student intercepted a transmission between an e-passport and a legitimate reader from 160 feet.
The State Department, according to its own records obtained under FOIA, was aware of the problem months before its Federal Register notice and more than a year before the e-passport was rolled out in August 2006.
"Do not claim that these chips can only be read at a distance of 10 cm (4 inches)," Frank Moss, deputy assistant Secretary of State for passport services, wrote in an April 22, 2005, e-mail to Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "That really has been proven to be wrong."
The chips could be skimmed from a yard away, he added - all a hacker would need to read e-passport numbers, say, in an elevator.
In February 2006, an encrypted Dutch e-passport was hacked on national television, and later, British e-passports were hacked. The State Department countered that European e-passports weren't as safe as their American counterparts because they lacked safety features such as the anti-skimming cover. Recent studies have shown, however, that more powerful readers can penetrate that metal sheathing.
The RFIDs in enhanced driver's licenses and PASS cards contain a silicon computer chip attached to a wire antenna, which transmits a unique identifier via radio waves when "awakened" by an electromagnetic reader.
The technology they use is designed to track products through the supply chain. These chips, known as EPCglobal Gen 2, are intended to release their data to any inquiring Gen 2 reader within a 30-foot radius.
The government says remotely readable ID cards transmit only RFID numbers, which correspond to records stored in secure government databases. Even if a hacker were to copy an RFID number onto a blank tag and place it into a counterfeit ID, officials say, the forger's face still wouldn't match the true cardholder's photo in the database.
Still, computer experts say government databases can be hacked. Others worry about a day when hackers might deploy readers at "chokepoints," such as checkout lines, skim RFID numbers from people's driver's licenses, then pair those numbers to personal data skimmed from chipped credit cards (though credit cards are harder to skim). They imagine stalkers skimming RFID tags to track their targets, and fear government agents compiling chip numbers at peace rallies, mosques or gun shows, simply by strolling through a crowd with a reader.
Others worry more about the linking of chips with other identification methods, including biometric technologies, such as facial recognition.
Should biometrics be coupled with RFID, "governments will have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time," says Mark Lerner, spokesman for the Constitutional Alliance, a network of nonprofit groups, lawmakers and citizens opposed to remotely readable identity and travel documents.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets global standards for passports, now calls for facial recognition in all e-passports.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090712/D99CRDAG0.html

Gay couple detained near Mormon plaza after kiss
SALT LAKE CITY – A gay couple say they were detained by security guards on a plaza owned by the Mormon church and later cited by police, claiming it stemmed from a kiss on the cheek.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the men became argumentative and refused to leave after being asked to stop their "inappropriate behavior." The men say they were targeted because they are gay.
Matt Aune said he and his partner, Derek Jones, were walking home from a concert nearby on Thursday night, cutting through the plaza near the Salt Lake City Mormon temple.
Aune, 28, said he gave Jones, 25, a hug and kiss and that the two were then approached by a security guard, who asked them to leave, telling them they were being inappropriate and that public displays of affection aren't allowed on the property. He said other guards arrived and the men were handcuffed.
"We asked what we were doing wrong," Aune told The Associated Press.
Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said in a statement Friday that the men were "politely asked to stop engaging in inappropriate behavior — just as any other couple would have been."
"They became argumentative and used profanity and refused to leave the property," she said. The church did not immediately respond to a request for more comment.
Police later arrived and both men were cited with misdemeanor trespassing, Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Robin Snyder said.
"It doesn't matter what they were asked to leave for," Snyder said. "If they are asked to leave and don't they are ... trespassing."
The church has been the target of protests over its support of a ban on gay marriage in California.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_re_us/us_mormon_church_trespassing_1

Mosquito pools test positive for West Nile virus
July 11, 2009 - 5:04pm
WASHINGTON (AP) - D.C. Department of Health officials say three mosquito pools have tested positive for the West Nile virus.
Officials said Saturday the mosquito pools were collected from a block on Washington Boulevard southwest, near Fort McNair.
No one in D.C. have been infected by West Nile virus this year. In 2008, six residents tested positive for the virus.
The health department recommends that residents eliminate mosquito breeding areas around their home by removing standing water.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1715806

Eeyore's News and Views

New al-Qaida threat: Thermobaric bombsPacks power like a nuke, but easier to build, blow up
Investigators now believe the bombing Sep. 21 that killed dozens and left massive damage at the Islamabad Marriott, including a gaping hole in the ground in front of the building, was a crude form of a device that intensifies and enhances an explosive – a thermobaric bomb, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The bomb was delivered in a truck that contained what investigators believe was aluminum powder in addition to grenades and artillery shells. The aluminum power is believed to have been responsible for the acceleration and expansion of the impact of the bomb.
While barriers around the hotel kept the truck bomb at some distance from the structure, the devastation indicated something raised the destruction level considerably.
The blast was thought to target Americans, since the hotel is a central location for U.S. personnel, including intelligence agents meeting outside the U.S. embassy. The hotel also is a temporary residence for U.S. personnel staying in the country.
Some five dozen people, including U.S. government employees, were killed by the truck bomb, which was said to include more than a ton of explosives.
If the analysis of the presence of aluminum powder is confirmed, it means terrorists with the capability can make such bombs without detection, since all ingredients are off-the-shelf.
Al-Qaida and related terrorist groups, such as the Tehrik-e-Taliban of Pakistan, are thought to have made the attack on the Islamabad Marriott hotel. If that is accurate, then by extension al-Qaida has developed an ability to fashion thermobaric bombs of huge potential.
"Thermobaric bombs … may be emerging as a weapon of choice for terrorists," declared Tom Burky, an explosives expert at the Ohio-based Battelle defense research institute.
Burky pointed out that thermobaric bombs are meant to take out big buildings and cave complexes where metal fragmentations from traditional bombs don't work well. He added that thermobaric blasts can push around corners and down corridors or deep inside caves.
When an explosion occurs in a bomb using aluminum powder, as in the Islamabad Marriott hotel blast, metal powder creates a fireball as it contacts the air.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76544

European governments scramble to protect banks
By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY
The Irish government Tuesday issued a blanket guarantee of its threatened banks, the latest sign that the U.S. financial crisis is wreaking havoc overseas. Irish officials moved swiftly to stem a looming loss of public confidence, deciding within hours to expose taxpayers to a potential 400 billion euro liability, not much less than the proposed $700 billion U.S. bailout that is drawing prolonged debate in Washington.
"It's a panic," says economist John Fitzgerald of Dublin's Economic and Social Research Institute.
Across Europe, governments are scrambling to safeguard banks, many saddled with now-toxic U.S. mortgage-related securities. Tuesday, the Belgian and French governments teamed in a $9.2 billion bailout of cross-border lender Dexia. The rescue came one day after the Belgian government joined with its Dutch counterparts to save Fortis, one of Europe's 20 biggest banks.
BELGIUM AND BEYOND: European bank gets $9.2 billion bailout
"It was essential to recapitalize Dexia to ensure the stability of the financial system," French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said, according to Reuters. Growing worries about European banks put pressure on the euro, which suffered its largest one-day fall against the dollar since its 1999 introduction, and drove interest rates on loans between banks to record highs. The euro ended trading at $1.41, down more than 2%.

In a reflection of growing credit market woes, the three-month European Interbank Offered Rate, a measure of what banks charge each other to borrow, hit 5.27%, up from 3.72% in early 2007.
After a flurry of bank rescues organized this week by shifting alliances of European governments, concern remains that a large continental institution may require saving. Several large banks are judged effectively too big to fail — and too big for any one government to save, says Daniel Gros, director of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
Germany's Deutsche Bank, Barclays of the United Kingdom and the French bank BNP Paribas, for example, all have enormous lending and investment operations balanced atop relatively narrow capital bases, he said. By one measure, total assets divided by shareholder equity, the largest European banks are almost twice as highly leveraged as their U.S. counterparts, Gros said.
European banks with substantial operations in the U.S., such as Deutsche Bank, could benefit from the proposed U.S. financial rescue plan. But continued piecemeal rescues are doomed, he says, likening Europe's financial landscape to where the U.S. was about six months ago.
Ultimately, Gros says Europe's banks will need a sizable capital infusion. He puts the likely tab at more than $360 billion to restore the 10 largest institutions to fiscal health.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-30-ireland-insures-bank-deposits_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

What will the following article do? Everyone that has that much money in an account already has it in several accounts. This is a bunch of junk.
FDIC deposit insurance limit could bump up to $250,000
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-30-fdic-insurance_N.htm

West Nile season appears to be mildest in 7 years

September 26, 2008 - 8:35pm

By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer

ATLANTA (AP) - The West Nile virus season is on track to be the mildest in seven years, with less than a third the number of serious cases as last year's total, U.S. health officials said.

As of Tuesday, there were 368 severe cases, with 18 deaths, according to preliminary reports. Mississippi and California were hardest hit, together accounting for nearly half the cases.

Most West Nile infections are reported in August and September, so health officials believe the worst of the season is probably over.

It's not clear why this season has been so mild, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the fewest cases since 2001, when the mosquito-borne virus was still emerging in the United States and was only reported in 10 states.

Mosquitoes often pick up the virus from birds they bite and then spread it to people. Perhaps the weather in some areas of the country was not as favorable for mosquito-breeding as in years past, some experts said.

West Nile virus was first reported in the United States in 1999 in New York, then gradually spread across the country.

About one in five infected people get sick. One in 150 will develop severe symptoms including neck stiffness, disorientation, coma and paralysis.

For all of 2007, more than 1,200 cases of severe West Nile illness were reported, and 124 deaths. The peaks occurred in 2002 and 2003, when severe illnesses numbered nearly 3,000 and deaths surpassed 260.

On the Net:

CDC West Nile information: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm

Man shoots himself in arm after being denied sex October 2, 2008 - 5:20pm
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Authorities say a Fort Myers man shot himself in the arm after his girlfriend refused to have sex with him. The Lee County Sheriff's Office reported that a 29-year-old man and his girlfriend returned home from a bar early Wednesday morning.

The girlfriend told deputies that her boyfriend wanted to get intimate, but she just wanted to go to sleep. When she refused, he became irate.

Authorities said the girlfriend went to a spare bedroom, and several minutes later she heard two gunshots. She told deputies her boyfriend came into her room and threatened her. He then stumbled into the kitchen before falling into the oven, knocking himself unconscious.

The man was treated for two gunshot wounds to the arm and was taken to jail.

The man was charged with threatening violence and firing a weapon in an occupied dwelling. He was being held on $100,000 bail.

___

Information from: The News-Press, http://www.news-press.com

China report urges missile shield Urges development of counter weapons
Bill Gertz (Contact)Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The United States needs new weapon systems, including missile defenses and other advanced military capabilities, to deter and counter China's steady buildup of nuclear and conventional arms, according to a draft internal report by a State Department advisory board.
U.S. defense policy has stressed missile defenses against Iran and North Korea. The report, by the Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), is the first to recommend such defenses against China, including technology in space.
The draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, said Chinese strategy goes beyond building forces capable of retaking the island of Taiwan. China seeks to "break out" by projecting power beyond its region including sea lanes that carry energy resources for its modernization, the document said.
"Using superior U.S. military technical capacities, the United States should undertake the development of new weapons, sensors, communications, and other programs and tactics to convince China that it will not be able to overcome the U.S. militarily," the report said.
The draft report presents a tough assessment of Chinese strategic modernization that goes beyond many current government and private-sector analyses that say that China's military modernization does not pose a major challenge to U.S. security interests.
For example, in an interview with The Washington Times in March, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden expressed professional "admiration" for China's rapid and sophisticated buildup and said it is "not inevitable that they will be an enemy." The report said that to reduce the chance of a miscalculation by China that could lead to a crisis or conflict, the United States "must take seriously China's challenge to U.S. military superiority in the Asia-Pacific region. ... China's military modernization is proceeding at a rate ... to be of concern even with the most benign interpretation of China's motivation."
Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said in a statement that China is "naturally becoming stronger and more influential in world affairs" after 30 years of reform, but remains committed to peaceful development and a "foreign policy of peace."
"China will not harm anyone or pose a threat to anyone. China's development is opportunity, not threat. Any versions of China threat will continue to be proved fallacious," he said.
Mr. Wang also said his government is "committed to the peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question and the peaceful reunification" of the island with the mainland.
The draft by the 17-member advisory board has not been officially released. A State Department official familiar with the report said it is in the late stages and could be completed in the next several weeks.
The official said the report's stark assessment of China's strategy and forces was in line with the board's mandate to provide frank advice to the secretary of state from analysts outside government.
Brandon A. Buttrick, the ISAB executive director, said his office did not know when members would complete their review. "If the report is an unclassified report, it will be made available for public distribution as we have done with the previous ISAB reports when they are approved by the ISAB," he said.

Chinese police march in Tiananmen Square. Associated Press
The board is headed by former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. The task force that produced the report was led by Robert Joseph, a former undersecretary of state and specialist on nonproliferation. The task force included former Sen. Charles S. Robb, Virginia Democrat; Allison B. Fortier, a vice president for missile defense at Lockheed Martin; and William Van Cleave, emeritus professor for defense and security studies at Missouri State University.
Mr. Robb said he initially took part but dropped out because of time constraints "notwithstanding my interest in the topic." He declined to comment further.
• Click here for China strategic plan PDF
Mr. Wolfowitz declined to be interviewed. Once the Bush administration's chief theorist on the war on terror and a major policymaker on the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Wolfowitz previously held numerous senior posts dealing with Asian affairs at both the State Department and Pentagon. He stepped down as World Bank president amid ethics inquiries in June.
The draft report said China's "major objective is to counter U.S. presence and U.S. military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capacities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit U.S. vulnerabilities." It said the buildup involves capabilities for "asymmetric warfare," such as space and computer weapons, that could help Chinese forces defeat a stronger U.S. military.
Among the areas of U.S. strategic vulnerability identified in the report are gaps in U.S. missile defenses; dependence on space for communications; the U.S. inability to use force against China except through aircraft carrier groups; and "fragile electronics and the Internet." The report recommends that the United States acquire new offensive space and cyber warfare capabilities and missile defenses as well as "more robust sea- and space-based capabilities" to deter any crisis over Taiwan.
China currently has about 20 missiles capable of reaching the United States but is projected to have more than 100 nuclear missiles, some likely with multiple warheads, by 2015, the report said.
Among the key findings:
• Continued rapid economic growth of 10 percent a year is "vital" for China to continue to compete with the United States and achieve its main goals of regime survival and regional dominance.
• China's industrial and defense espionage is aimed at obtaining advanced technology for economic and military modernization.
• The scale, scope and speed of China's rise fundamentally impacts U.S. national security, yet the U.S. "possesses only a limited understanding of Chinese intentions, and how Beijing's economic and military expansion affects these interests."
• China's military and civilian leaders are not always on the same page and that separation is a potential "focal point" for mitigating hostility. China's civilian leaders understand Americans but the Chinese military suffers from "clear paranoia and misperceptions" about U.S. intentions.
• To avoid an "emerging creep" by China toward strategic nuclear coercion, "the United States will need to pursue new missile defense capabilities, including taking full advantage of space," the report said.
On China's expansion after centuries as a regional power, the ISAB report stated that: "In China's view, Taiwan is the key to breakout: If China is to become a global power, the first step must include control of this island." Taking over the island would allow China to control the seas near its coasts and to project power eastward, the report said.
China views Taiwan, where nationalist forces fled from the mainland in 1949, as central to "the legitimacy of the regime and key to power projection," the report said. Taiwan also is seen by China as a way to deny the United States a key ally in "a highly strategic location" of the western Pacific, the report said.
Chinese authorities have said they desire peaceful reunification with Taiwan but will not allow it to declare formal independence and have not ruled out the use of force.
The advisory panel report also recommended that the U.S. increase sales of advanced conventional forces to allies in Asia and improve counterintelligence efforts.
Larry M. Wortzel, chairman of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, said he has not seen the report but that blocking Taiwan independence and gaining control of the island "is one of the highest priorities set for the People's Liberation Army by the Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee and the Central Military Commission." "If China accomplishes this, its military can concentrate on missions to expand China's presence, influence, and even control, in wider areas of the Asia-Pacific region," he said.
Mr. Wang, the Chinese Embassy spokesman, said China's budget for 2007 was $45 billion, or 1.4 percent of gross domestic product. He said this year's defense budget is $57.2 billion, an increase of 17.6 percent.
The United States spends about 4 percent of GDP on defense, according to the CIA World Factbook.
However, the Pentagon's latest annual report on China's military stated that China's military spending figures do not include spending on China's space program, strategic forces, foreign acquisitions, military-related research and development and paramilitary forces.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/new-us-defenses-sought-to-counter-beijing-buildup/

This weekend i'm playing catch up with a few of the older posts, i have collected. If i continue to post on the weekends it will be this kind of thing.


I hope all you all are being mindful and watchful of what is going on in the world around you and the Government and it's doings, the Bible calls this "walking circumspectly".


Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,

We don't need to worry about conspiracy's when we have them doing stuff like this right out in the public. As i have said in the past we have the great Country on earth right now (for the people) but it make you wonder what they are really doing. There is a lot of spying on the American people going on. On Sundays blog i might go into some of it, post some of the articles i have found about it. You need to keep your eyes open and be mindful of the things going on around you.


Bush signs new rules on government wiretapping


July 11, 2008 - 2:08am


WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed a bill Thursday that overhauls rules about government eavesdropping and grants immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the U.S. spy on Americans in suspected terrorism cases.
He called it "landmark legislation that is vital to the security of our people."
Bush signed the measure in a Rose Garden ceremony a day after the Senate sent it to him, following nearly a year of debate in the Democratic-led Congress over surveillance rules and the warrantless wiretapping program Bush initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It was a battle that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks and Democrats' fears of being portrayed as weak when it comes to protecting the country.
Its passage was a major victory for Bush, an unpopular lame-duck president who nevertheless has been able to prevail over Congress on most issues of national security and intelligence disputes.
Bush said the 9/11 attack "changed our country forever" and taught the intelligence community that it must know who America's enemies are talking to and what they are saying.
"In the aftermath of 9/11," Bush said, "few would have imagined that we would be standing here seven years later without another attack on American soil. The fact that the terrorists have failed to strike our shores again does not mean that our enemies have given up."
Even before Bush signed the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union said it would challenge the new law in court.
The president said the bill gives the government anti-terror tools it needs without compromising Americans' civil liberties.
Bush was joined at the ceremony by Vice President Dick Cheney, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and more than a dozen members of Congress.
The ACLU's lawsuit was filed on behalf of several civil rights groups. It wants a federal judge in New York to rule that the law is an unconstitutional violation of free speech and the right against unlawful search and seizure. It also asks that the judge permanently block intelligence officials from conducting surveillance under the law.
"The new law gives the government the power to conduct dragnet surveillance that has no connection to terrorism or criminal activity of any kind," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, in a conference call to reporters.
"A law like this is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution and with the most basic democratic values," he said.
Roger Atwood, communications director for the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization for the region, said the new law will impede the group's work.
"The mere suspicion that information provided to us, to our staff, will be accessed by the U.S. government can seriously affect WOLA's credibility and our effectiveness in Latin America in moving our work forward," Atwood said in the conference call.



With the West Nile Virus on the lose, i heard this on the news and figured it might help someone. Follow up to the earilier article.


What Can I Plant to Keep Mosquitoes Away?


July 11, 2008 - 4:59pm



Patty in Newburg writes: "Help! Please tell me what I can plant to chase away the swarms of mosquitoes we have every summer. I heard that if we planted lemon grass in pots, and placed them all around the yard, we might be able to enjoy a cookout. Is this true?"
Nope. Sorry, Patty. The only way a plant in a pot can protect you from pests is if you heave the pot at the annoying teenagers next door.
Lemon scented plants can protect you from mosquitoes, but only if you crush up the leaves of the plants and rub them on your skin. That's the basis of the only two non-DEET insect repellants on the market that have been shown to be effective in clinical studies: "Repel Lemon Eucalyptus," whose active ingredient is based on a strongly scented plant from Australia, and "Bite Blocker," whose active ingredient comes from a lemon-scented geranium.
(Gardens Alive sells Bite Blocker under the "Sting Free" brand name. Hey-GA! Mosquitoes don't sting -- they bite!)
Mosquito Repelling Plants & How to Use Them
Patty in Newburg writes: "Help! Please tell me what I can plant to eliminate the swarms of mosquitoes we have every summer."
Ah yes, the old "Mosquito repelling plant" trick. Sorry Patty, no plant can repel mosquitoes. Unless it's a lemon-scented herb whose leaves you crush and rub on your exposed skin.
In University studies, lemon-scented thyme was the clear winner. A good rubbing with its lemony leaves provided as much protection as some concentrations of the nasty toxic chemical repellant DEET. But while it's very attractive, lemon thyme is a small plant, and you'd need a lot of it to produce much repellant.
That's why I grow lemon balm in pots instead. Now, lemon balm is invasive and must be kept under control, but it's also a rapid grower whose wonderfully lemon-scented leaves are very effective at keeping mosquitoes away. And the famous "Mosquito repelling plant" you used to see being sold out of the backs of magazines is another possibility.
It's a lemon-scented geranium; and while it won't keep skeeters away in a pot, it will if you crush up its leaves and run them on your skin.
And Joel Coates, an Iowa State University researcher, feels that catnip is the equal of any of them. Just don't blame me if your cat tries to bat you around the floor.
Or Use Garlic to Safely Spray Skeeters Away
Liquid garlic oil-based products with names like Mosquito Barrier, Garlic Barrier and St. Gabriel's Natural Mosquito Repellant rid the sprayed area of mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers and other Pests of Summer for two to six weeks. Mosquitoes don't travel far, so these sprays will allow you to be outside safely at dusk with nothing on your skin but your clothes.


"Mosquito Barrier" and "Garlic Barrier" are available in both highly concentrated and dilute formulations in a variety of sizes, you mix them with water and apply using any standard sprayer. "Mosquito Repellent" from St. Gabriel Laboratories is a pre-mixed 16 percent formula in a quart-sized spray bottle you hook up to a garden hose to treat 5,000 square feet of outdoor area. You'll find all three products (and other, similar ones) at some retail outlets and on the web -- just search the names.
These sprays are very safe. They don't affect people, pets, birds, earthworms or the like. Garlic sprays are even approved for use in organic agriculture by OMRI (the Organic Materials Review Institute), the agency charged with deciding which pest controls can be used on certified organically grown crops.
Mosquitoes making you miserable? Follow this Easy Plan!

1. Drain all standing water on your property, especially your clogged up gutters. Mosquitoes don't travel far, and eliminating their breeding sites near your home can sometimes eliminate them completely.

2. Use mosquito dunks or granules containing BTI on ponds and other standing water you can't drain. These completely non-toxic products are safe for you're your family, birds, pets, fish and such, but prevent mosquito breeding for a full month.

3. Ddon't use the chemical repellant DEET. Its absorbed into your bloodstream; and that's the last place you need more toxins.

4. Instead grow lemon-scented herbs or catnip and rub the leaves on your skin; they can be as effective as the nasty chemical repellant DEET.

5. Don't use bug zappers; mosquitoes are not attracted to them.

6. Instead, spray outdoor areas with a garlic based repellant.

7. Get a Mosquito Magnet; a propane-powered device that attracts and kills the pests without poisons.




Got the following email from a few friends, so i figured i would post it here also. If you have any money in these i would watch out.

While the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is keeping secret itsofficial list of 90 troubled banks, ABC News has obtained other listsprepared by several research groups and financial analysts.The lists use versions of the so-called "Texas ratio" which compare a bank'sassets and reserves to its non-performing loans, based on financial datamade public by the FDIC in March.Analysts say banks with a ratio over 100 per cent would be the most likelyto fail, based on what happened to Texas savings and loans during the 1980'sBankCityStateTexas-ratio


Colorado Federal Savings BankGreenwood VillageCO 244.8

Eastern Savings Bank, FSBHunt ValleyMD 222.7

Integrity BankAlpharettaGA 191.6

Ameribank, Inc.WelchWV 153.7

First Priority BankBradentonFL 122.6

First Security National BankNorcrossGA 112.1

Magnet BankSalt Lake CityUT 110.4

Security Pacific BankLos AngelesCA 102.8

First National Bank of BrookfieldBrookfieldIL 102.1

The State Bank of LeboLeboKS 100.6


Source: Research Associates of America



eeyore

I thought this was an interesting article, please i hope any of you all are not dumb enough to fall for something like this.

Assassination e-mail targets your wallet July 17, 2008 - 6:41am

WASHINGTON - Imagine opening an e-mail and reading that the sender wants to kill you.
The assassination e-mail is one of the newest varieties of phishing scams, scams that try to get you to part with your hard-earned cash.
"It's almost kind of like a modern-day kidnapping," says Doug Gansler, Maryland's attorney general.
"They'll send out literally hundreds of thousands of these. If they get a few people to bite, they get a lot of money.
"It clearly works or they wouldn't continue to do it."
Gansler says most of the e-mails originate out of the country, with the scammers using stolen e-mail lists.
Those who do the phishing are "incredibly difficult to catch."
"The spammers are always ahead of law enforcement and generally one step ahead of the Internet providers," Gansler says.
Gansler's advice is simple: Don't send money to people you don't know.
"if it's not a contact you initiated, you the consumer, you the person on the computer, you ought not be sending them money."
Gansler also says Internet providers need to do a better job of filtering spam e-mails.

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1441765

I love the hypocritical world we live in and the wonderful press we have. It makes me so proud. Now before i start let me say i in no way endorse what Don Imus said about a year ago about the Rutgers female basketball players (www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9BjB7Bzr0), but he got fired and lost his employment because of it. He was castigated, humiliated and belittled. He apologized to everyone from the girls to the world. Don't get me wrong, he should have been fired for that and some of the other stupid stuff he said. but what gives? Jesse Jackson, a few years ago makes a comment and calls New York city "Hyme town" referring to the jews. Now he has called Obama the "N" word. He gets off with an apology then it will get swept under the rug, untill he does it again. Worst of all Al Sharpton was the one who lead the crusade against Imus, and now he won't even condemn Jackson what a hypocrite.


Fox: Jackson used N-word in crude off-air remarks July 17, 2008 - 5:00am

In this Wednesday, July 9, 2008 file photo, Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks during a news conference in Chicago. The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday, July 16, 2008.

CHICAGO (AP) - The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.
The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.
In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was "talking down to black people," and referred to blacks with the N-word when he said Obama was telling them "how to behave."
Though a Fox spokesman confirmed the TVNewer's account to The Associated Press, the network declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments.
Jackson _ who is traveling in Spain _ apologized in a statement Wednesday for "hurtful words" but didn't offer specifics.
"I am deeply saddened and distressed by the pain and sorrow that I have caused as a result of my hurtful words. I apologize again to Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, their children as well as to the American public," Jackson said in a written statement. "There really is no justification for my comments and I hope that the Obama family and the American public will forgive me. I also pray that we, as a nation, can move on to address the real issues that affect the American people."
A spokeswoman for Jackson's civil rights organization, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said she could not confirm that Jackson used the slur.
Jackson has called on the entertainment industry, including rappers, actors and studios, to stop using the N-Word. He also urged the public to boycott purchasing DVD copies of the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" after co-star Michael Richards was taped using the word during a rant at a Los Angeles comedy club in 2006.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has joined Jackson in opposition of the word, said Wednesday he wanted to hear the comments for himself and declined to discuss Jackson specifically.
"I am against the use of the N-word by anyone and I think we must be consistent," he told The Associated Press. "We must not use the word."

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1441528&nid=104


Ok her is my look to the future article for today's blog entry. This will give you and interesting look at what this Country will look like if we let Sharia Law rule here. Don't be mistaken over the last few years you have seen unrest in Europe over this issue where when an area becomes predominately Muslim, they want to be governed by Sharia Law. It is happening in England (www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1535478/Sharia-law-is-spreading-as-authority-wanes.html) and France (politicalbeachgirl.blogspot.com/2006/10/teacher-violates-frances-sharia-law.html) and other countries now, about a year ago in Canada this came up also (news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4215182.stm www.cbc.ca/news/background/islam/shariah-law.html). We recently had a cabbie that killed his daughter an "honor killing" (www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/011008dnmetteenskilled.7ba7cc6.html)

and now the latest outrage?

"Kidnapped Christian girls, judge ratifies marriage and conversion" By Qaiser Felix ("AsiaNews", July 16, 2008) Islamabad, Pakistan - District judge Mian Muhammad Naeem, of the section of Muzaffargarh, has ruled that the two Christian sisters "have converted in a legitimate manner to Islam", and for this reason they cannot be "restored to their family of origin". Setting aside the request from their father to regain custody of his daughters, the judge also admitted the "validity" of the marriage of the girls to two Muslims. Saba Younas, aged 13, and her sister Anila were kidnapped last June 26 in the village of Chowk Munda, in the province of Punjab, where they had gone to visit their uncle, Khalid Raheel. This is the same uncle who in recent days reported their kidnapping, asking for help from news organisations and human rights groups. According to Raheel's account, a Muslim fruit vendor named Muhammad Arif Bajwa kidnapped the girls, and then handed them over to a friend, Falak Sher Gill, who then organised the marriage between his own son and the older of the Christian sisters, Saba. In court, moreover, father and son both stressed the "complete willingness of the girl to contract marriage". The girls' uncle does not conceal his preoccupation, and denounces to AsiaNews that the Muslims involved in the kidnapping are acting as a "gang", recruiting the girls in order to "make them work in a bordello". This alarm has also been heard by the Catholic commission for justice and peace (NCJP) in the country, which confirms the words of Khalid Raheel: the kidnappers are believed to be human traffickers linked to prostitution, known to the police and under the protection of some local politicians. "For these unscrupulous people", charges Naeem Asghar, local coordinator of the NCJP, marriage is a pretence in order to control the girls, run their lives and exploit them for their own business purposes". The Catholic community continues to uphold the cause of Saba and Anila, and promises that the family will not be left to itself. Expressing the hope that the girls will be brought back home, the coordinator of the NCJP emphasises that "an appeal will soon be presented to the high court of Multan, to contest the decision of the district judge" and have the girls "restored to their parents".

http://wwrn.org/article.php?idd=29073

Not sure which part of the Country you are in but if you have trouble with mosquitoes, then you probably have to worry about West Nile Virus. It is starting to show up in my area, in the birds tested.

Mosquito samples test positive for West Nile virus
July 16, 2008 - 8:23pm
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Alexandria city health officials say mosquito samples taken last week from Daingerfield Island have tested positive for West Nile virus.
The samples were collected July 9. The health department says it's the city's first reported activity of the virus this year.
Officials say no human cases of the virus have been reported in the city this year. They recommend residents eliminate mosquito breeding grounds by emptying water from containers such as birdbaths at least once a week.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1441509

If you want to find out more info about it you can go to this site for more info

http://survivetheflu.tripod.com/id66.html


Have a great day

eeyore