Eeyores news and view

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eeyore's News and View

Banned by U.K., Savage hits back
Radio talk star blocked from visits, along with terrorists, neo-Nazis
Talk radio host Michael Savage is considering legal action against Britain's top homeland security official after she released today a list grouping him with terrorists and neo-Nazi murderers banned from entry because the government believes their views might provoke violence.
In a telephone interview with WND, Savage said he is still waiting to hear back from attorneys, but he noted Britain has very strict anti-defamation laws.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she decided to publicize the list of 16 people banned since October to show the type of behavior Britain will not tolerate, according to U.K. news reports.
Savage's immediate reaction upon hearing the news was typically wry.
"Darn! And I was just planning a trip to England for their superior dental work and cuisine," he recalled thinking.
"Then it sank in," he told WND, "and I said, 'She said this is the kind of behavior we won't tolerate? She's linking me with mass murderers who are in prison for killing Jewish children on buses? For my speech? The country where the Magna Carta was created?'"
Smith explained to Britain's GMTV that she believed it was "important that people understand the sorts of values and sorts of standards that we have here, the fact that it's a privilege to come and the sort of things that mean you won't be welcome in this country."
"Coming to this country is a privilege," she said. "If you can't live by the rules that we live by, the standards and the values that we live by, we should exclude you from this country and, what's more, now we will make public those people that we have excluded.
In an interview with the BBC, Smith said Savage, the No. 3-rated radio host in the U.S., is "someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country."
Savage said his message for Smith and the people of the U.K. is, "Shame on you. Shame that you've fallen to such a low level."
"It's interesting to me that here I am a talk show host, who does not advocate violence, who advocates patriotic traditional values – borders, language, culture – who is now on a list banned in England," Savage said. What does that say about the government of England? It says more about them than it says about me."
The U.K. list also includes Hamas leader Yunis Al-Astal, former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Stephen Donald Black, neo-Nazi Erich Gliebe and radical pastor American pastor Fred Phelps, known for his virulent anti-gay protests at funerals. Phelps' daughter Shirley Phelps-Roper also is on the list.
Smith said the British government believes the people on the list have views or attitudes that could provoke violence.
"If people have so clearly overstepped the mark in terms of the way not just that they are talking but the sort of attitudes that they are expressing to the extent that we think that this is likely to cause or have the potential to cause violence or inter-community tension in this country, then actually I think the right thing is not to let them into the country in the first place. Not to open the stable door then try to close it later," she said.
"It's a privilege to come to this country. There are certain behaviors that mean you forfeit that privilege."
The others on the list are Jewish extremist Mike Guzovsky; imprisoned Russian skinhead leaders Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky; and Islamic leaders Wadgy Abd El Hamied Mohamed Ghoneim, Abdullah Qadri Al Ahdal, Safwat Hijazi , Amir Siddique, Abdul Ali Musa, Samir Al Quntar and Nasr Javed.
Said Savage, "How can a nation put me on a list and leave hate preachers in England who say that we're going to kill all of you? We're going to convert all of you to Islam. How is it possible that those hate preachers can't be deported from Britain, but I can be banned from Britain? People who advocate actual murder cannot be deported from Britain.
"How is it that liberalism has gotten so distorted and cowardly?"
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=9712

Homeland agency pulled back extremism dictionary
WASHINGTON — The same Homeland Security Department office that categorized veterans as potential terrorists issued an earlier report that defined dozens of "extremists" ranging from black power activists to abortion foes. The report was nixed within hours and recalled from state and local law enforcement officials.
Whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, Cubans and Mexicans, along with tax-hating Americans were among several political leanings listed in the "Domestic Extremism Lexicon" that came out of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) in late March.
The lexicon lists definitions for key terms and phrases used by Homeland Security analysts "that addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States," the report said.
Click here to download a PDF of "Domestic Extremism Lexicon" http://video1.washingtontimes.com/video/lexicon.pdf
Black separatism was defined as a movement that they said advocates the establishment of a separate nation within the U.S., and its members "advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence directed toward local law enforcement" to advance their goals. Black power is a "term used by black separatists to describe their pride in, and the perceived superiority of the black race," the report said.
Under the listing "antiabortion extremism," the lexicon cites a movement that "advocates violence against providers of abortion-related services." It notes that some people in the movement "cite various racist and anti-Semitic beliefs to justify their criminal activities."
"The lexicon was not an authorized I&A product, and it was recalled as soon as management discovered it had been released without authorization," said Amy Kudwa, Homeland Security spokeswoman.
"This product is not, nor was it ever, in operational use," Ms. Kudwa said.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the report "causes further concern that Congress needs to get to the bottom of exactly how DHS determines what intelligence products to distribute to law enforcement officials around the country."
"Although we have evidence that some of the groups described in this and other DHS intelligence products are an active terror threat to our nation, I would be interested in knowing why this lexicon mentioning left-wing extremist groups was deemed inappropriate by DHS and recalled, yet a similar report focusing on veterans, antiabortion activists and anti-illegal immigration activists was fit for distribution and sent out by DHS to law enforcement agencies across the country," Mr. King said.
The 11-page lexicon document lists terms from A through W, beginning with "aboveground," which is defined as extremist groups or people who "operate overtly and portray themselves as law-abiding," and ending with "white supremacist movement." The listing notes six categories of white supremacists: Neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan, Christian identity, racist skinhead, Nordic mysticism and Aryan prison gangs.
A "left-wing extremist" is described as someone who opposes war or is dedicated to environmental and animal rights causes, while a "right-wing extremist" is someone who is against abortion or for border enforcement.
The same "right-wing" definition appeared in a report last month that prompted an outcry in the veterans community for also suggesting that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were targets for extremist groups to recruit for attacks against the U.S.
That report was not recalled; however, the department said it has instituted changes to more carefully review these reports before they are sent to local law enforcement agencies.
"Since this happened prior to our last experience, our new internal protocols were obviously not in place," Ms. Kudwa said.
Roger Mackin, the head of the I&A responsible for the report that suggested veterans were being recruited to commit terrorist acts in the U.S., was replaced late last month. Ms. Kudwa said then that the personnel moves were categorically not related to the veterans-related story reported by The Washington Times in mid-April.
She also said Mr. Mackin would move outside Homeland Security, to the cybersecurity section at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The new detail for Mr. Mackin had been planned for several weeks and predated the April 7 report, Ms. Kudwa said at the time.
The latest report to become public, the lexicon on domestic extremism, stated that people involved with anti-immigration extremism "may have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism to advance their extremist goals."
"They are highly critical of the U.S. government's response to illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend 'rights' to illegal aliens, such as issuing driver's licenses or national identification cards and providing in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education."
"Cuban independence extremism" is defined as those who "do not recognize the legitimacy of the Communist Cuban Government and who attempt to subvert it through acts of violence, mainly within the U.S."
Mexican separatism defines those would advocate an armed struggle to take back Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas, the report stated.
Environmental extremism is described as those "who use violence to end what they perceive as the degradation of the natural environment by humans."
And, the "tax-resistance movement" is described as "groups or individuals who vehemently believe taxes violate their constitutional rights."
The criteria in the listings are a willingness to advocate or engage in criminal activity or plot acts of terrorism.
The report lists traditional extremist groups, such as racist skinheads or lone terrorists who might plot against the U.S., as well as some obscure groups. Racial Nordic mysticism is listed as an ideology adopted by many white supremacist prison gangs "who embrace a Norse mythological religion, such as Odinism or Asatru."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/05/homeland-pulled-back-extremism-dictionary/

Georgia says it stopped army mutiny
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgia said it had ended a brief mutiny Tuesday at a military base near the capital and thwarted a plan to disrupt NATO exercises.
The Interior Ministry first announced that the mutiny was part of a Russia-supported plot to overthrow the government, and that the suspected organizers had been arrested the night before.
But the ministry later backed off and said the plotters were intent mainly on disrupting NATO military exercises set to begin Wednesday in Georgia.
The several hundred soldiers at the base handed over their weapons and surrendered after speaking to President Mikhail Saakashvili, who suggested that force could be used against them if they refused to give themselves up to police, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
Saakashvili said in a televised address that the mutiny was an isolated case and the situation in the country
"The plan was to have military riots at different places all over Georgia," Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said. "To make sure that at the minimum the NATO training will not happen and at the maximum there is a full-scale military riot in the country."
Russia's NATO envoy Dmitri Rogozin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying the allegations of Russian involvement were "crazy."
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the Georgian government was engaged in its "latest anti-Russian prank." The ministry statement said, "Russia in principal does not interfere in the internal affairs of Georgia."
An official in Saakashvili's office said the intent of the mutineers seemed to be limited to disrupting the upcoming NATO exercises. There was no evidence, he said, that they planned a coup attempt. Neither is there any evidence of Russian involvement. He spoke on condition he not be identified because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Russia, which fought a brief war with Georgia last year, has sharply criticized the exercises, which it said would encourage Saakashvili to rebuild its devastated army.
The Georgian president has been the target of more than three weeks of street protests by opposition demonstrators demanding he resign. His government has accused Russians of supporting the opposition.
The official in Saakashvili's office said the mutiny was inspired by a small group of disgruntled officers who were involved in a similar action at the same base in 2001.
Opposition leaders said the reports of the planned coup were made up; some called it a "virtual coup" and a "staged play."
"It's nothing but a tall tale, and we've heard so many of them already," said Georgy Khaindrava, a former Saakashvili ally. "Saakashvili could not make up anything smarter."
Utiashvili, the Interior Ministry spokesman, had said the suspected coup plot was organized by a former special forces commander, Georgy Gvaladze. Gvaladze and another former military commander have been arrested, and other suspects were still being sought, he said.
He also had said the ministry has a video of Gvaladze talking to his supporters about the planned coup, and that he is shown saying that 5,000 Russian troops will come to support the coup, and that it was planned for Thursday.
A ministry statement released later said Gvaladze was accused of organizing the military mutiny.
Defense Minister David Sikharulidze said earlier that he had been blocked from entering the military base in Mukhrovani, about 20 miles from Tbilisi, the capital. The base's tank battalion of about 500 army personnel had announced that they would refuse to follow orders, he said.
Among the mutineers were civilians who had no relation to the battalion, he said.
The soldiers from Mukhrovani were bused to another base, where they were to be questioned.
The NATO exercises, which continue through June 1, were originally planned to include about 1,300 personnel from 19 NATO and partner nations.
But some former Soviet republics have recently decided not to take part.
Among the countries to back out was Armenia, which is dependent on Russia for its economic survival. Four other former Soviet republics — Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Moldova — and Serbia also had decided to pull out, the Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported Tuesday.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-05-05-georgia-coup_N.htm

At What Point Is a Traitor a Patriot?
by William Buppert
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power"
~ Benito Mussolini
We are now entering an era where not only is your patriotism questioned but the word traitor is bandied about with abandon by the usual suspects in DC whenever one is disappointed or outraged by the latest usurpation of liberties and freedom from the central government and the Offal Office in the WAFL (War Against Freedom and Liberty) House formerly known as the White House.
Little did we know that in 1917 Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin started an ideological race to see whether America or Russia would form the perfect Soviet union. Fast-forward to the last decade of the Busheviks and Obamunism and it appears obvious the Russians came in second and we took the Gold Medal. The collectivist efforts of the Government Supremacist Party with its Democrat and Republican wings have finally paid off and we are entering the home stretch where the Federal Government now takes ownership in major corporate ventures, the entire banking system and the national security apparatus is being used to seal the deal. I would submit the system is doomed but it does not mean the DC regime won’t take the rest of us down with it.
Now we are asked to pledge our support and monies to a government that is not only out of control and extra-Constitutional but seeking to turn America into a Stalinist hellhole flying a Green Swastika.
So what is treason and what is traitor?
The Constitution of the United States, Article III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort. This offence is punished with death. By the same article of the Constitution, no person shall be convicted of treason, unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. The more conventional definition means one’s refusal to acknowledge the legitimacy of the present government or performing services for foreign nations like spying or fighting as the Patricios did during the 1848 Mexican-American conflict.
Pay attention to the second clause. Who in America truly thinks we were destined to become a stronger imitation of the pathetic Soviet structure of state organizing principles embracing the worst economic nostrums, the brutality of occupation behavior by the central government toward its citizens ensuring the creation and nurturing of a special class of rulers in our own American nomenklatura? I would suggest that our rulers in DC are adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort because they are contravening the Constitution and the spirit and letter of limited governance on a daily basis.
Let me make one more clarification that will alienate some readers. My reference to patriot is lower case much like my use of libertarian. I have no use for the conspiracists, religionists and opportunists who use the capital-P Patriot nomenclature as a thin disguise for their lack of intellectual rigor or a red, white and blue excuse to avoid their financial obligations (I am not referring to taxes). Whether the Christian Identity church or the self-styled Patriot lawyers who plead their cases before government courts, I am not interested.
It is high time to revisit the definitions because the gulf between our rulers and the people is ever widening and the knives are coming out. The question actually becomes who is the traitor. Those who seek to lift the Constitution above men to substantiate the rule of law or a rule by men who hold themselves above the Constitution in interpretation. I have commented before that the Supreme Court is the use of robed government employees to expand and approve the growth of the Leviathan state at the expense of individual liberty with an imprimatur of legitimacy and it has proven out.
We now see that there is nothing the Federal government can recognize as a brake or impediment to whatever power they wish to exercise. We have sophisticated men and women going through intellectual rationalizations of torture and the imposition of institutionalized physical pain on men who have no Constitutional rights whatsoever. Washington, with a sweeping gesture of overbearing arrogance, participates in the largest multi-trillion dollar money-laundering exercise in the history of man to satisfy bankster special interests and does not allow the bill-payers to see where or what the money is doing and discourages the borrowers to repay the monies loaned.
So it appears as if we are laboring under a tyranny that would make George III blush. The Tea Parties have at least encouraged some Americans to look at their roots. I, for one, agree with the recent Tea Party critic on LRC that the events are far too civil but the time for mischief is coming. The original Boston Tea Party did not file EPA impact statements or ask permission to smash the state.
The point is that treason is usually the term employed by the besieged statists when they discover someone has parted the curtain or discovered their tailors are using vapor fabric. The eminent Lysander Spooner would inform you it is no treason at all to oppose bad laws.
The Congress has even gone so far as to question the use of wiretaps that catch them in the net when they betray their country to a foreign power which are the very authorizations they themselves enjoined against the American people. CongressCreature Jane Harmon obviously has loyalty issues that are much more germane to the traditional understanding of traitorous behavior:
Lo and behold, Jane’s had an epiphany. She now "think[s] the question is about ... did our government abuse the rights of American citizens, including members of Congress, with legal or illegal wiretappings…" It seems that compromising yourself on tape focuses the mind about as wonderfully as hanging does. And catch Jane’s conflating "members of Congress" with "American citizens." What a wit!
What an ingenious defense from the same Congress that has appointed the illiterate Janet Napolitano to head up the Department of Fatherland Security which is presently hounding the right-wing terrorists of the nation who either agree with the Constitution or served in the military. A tangled web we weave. So, so (your best Joe Pesci imitation), let me get this straight. I am a traitor if I wish to observe the Constitution as the highest law of the land using strict constructionist interpretation but I am a loyal American if I seek to exercise leniency or influence on the outcome of a spy debacle by AIPAC. Just so you know that justice turns in the way we have cynically come to expect in DC, the espionage charges against the AIPAC defendants have been dropped.
The Tea Party in 1775 was a traitorous act by Britons against Britain and a necessary event to sever the illegitimate rule of a faraway government (much like DC but more mild and principled) which sought through taxes, regulation and military occupation to lord over a people who wanted none of it. It was a traitorous act in the sense it refused to any longer recognize the legitimacy and span of control exercised by a many-tentacled imperial beast reliant on a host to draw energy and power from much like a remora. DC is the sine qua non of the modern phenomenon of a Remora Nation. It represents the last gasp of a grasping, imperious and unprincipled kakistocracy (government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens) desperately clinging to power for the sheer sake of it.
We are in a unique situation in these united States as opposed to the Colonists. We have founding documents in both the DI and the Constitution (dare we say the unfairly maligned Articles of Confederation) that can be used as a measure of performance and a report card for our rulers in DC. They have failed. The whole Progressive and Neoconservative project is in an ascendant position that will either collapse or seal the fate of all freedom-loving Americans. I would suggest that we are strikingly similar to the Soviet Union in the 1980s with the implementation of policies that are nonsensical, dangerous and economically illiterate. They are conducting themselves much like a nomenklatura bent on securing their fortunes and immunity before the whole rotten system known as modern twentieth-century American governance rips asunder under the weight of its stunning contradictions and absurdly vicious behavior to its host population.
My point is that the traitors aren’t us; it is every man and woman who places their allegiance to a contemporary power structure in DC and not to the foundational documents that animated the Founding. In the end, the government-media complex is a powerful propaganda tool which may succeed in identifying Americans who want limited or no government as traitors, so there it is. If a traitor is the American who takes a stand, draws a line in the sand and stands against the Red Tide emanating from DC, count me in the ranks. I love my country but fear my government.
"...it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds..."
~ Samuel Adams
http://lewrockwell.com/buppert/buppert22.html

Olofson machine gun transfer conviction upheld
May 4, 3:19 PM
David R. Olofson's conviction "for knowingly transferring a machinegun in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o)" has been upheld.
A May 1 ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on May 1:
In sum, the defendant’s proffered jury instruction was not a correct statement of the law, and the district court properly rejected it. Furthermore, the evidence presented at trial was sufficient to sustain Olofson’s conviction, and 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(o) and 924(a)(2) are not unconstitutionally vague as applied to the facts of this case. In addition, the district court did not abuse its discretion in either excluding the defendant’s firearms expert from the courtroom during the government expert’s testimony or in denying Olofson’s motion to compel the production of evidence he had requested from the government. Accordingly, we AFFIRM Olofson’s conviction.
Earlier today I reported on my WarOnGuns blog that exclusion of expert witness Len Savage from the courtroom during testimony by his government counterpart was held to be "not an abuse of discretion." The Wisconsin Law Journal case digest can be read here.
Olofson's legal options at this point appear to be to request the Seventh Circuit Court to hear the case en banc, to petition the Supreme Court, or to accept the decision. A relief fund has been established to fund his legal costs by Gun Owners of America.
More information on developments in this case will be reported as they're made known.
Click here to download the decision.
For those unfamiliar with the case, see the additional information at the bottom of this post. In short, Olofson had a semiautomatic rifle that could misfire if certain ammuniton was used. It was determined that even though it was a malfunction, it legally met the definition of a machine gun.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m5d4-Olofson-Machine-Gun-Transfer-Conviction-Upheld

Eeyore's News and View

Again it goes along with the article yesterday, we are hacked it seems constantly. We need to be as virulent as possible to with our web activities. Personal mail is another bug-a-boo, make sure you don't just throw your junk mail away but shred it all.
Hackers hit Monster.com's customer data again
Monster.com (MNST) said Tuesday that it will impose a mandatory password change for all North American and Western European users of its popular employment website by the end of this week.
The precaution comes after Monster quietly posted an online notice Friday disclosing that its customer databases had been hacked for the second time in six months. Thieves took user IDs, passwords, e-mail addresses, names, phone numbers, birth dates, ethnicity and state of residence for an undisclosed number of job seekers and employers, spokeswoman Nikki Richardson said.
BLOG: Victims may not be notified
Richardson said a criminal investigation is underway. She declined to confirm or refute a report by The Times of London that 4.5 million British users of Monster had their data stolen. She noted that the thieves did not swipe Social Security numbers, résumés or customer transaction data.
The theft underscores how cybercriminals are intensifying attacks on data storehouses. Last week, Heartland Payment Systems disclosed that hackers broke into the system it uses to process 100 million payment card transactions a month. "Data is king," says Don Leatham, senior director of solutions and strategy at security firm Lumension. "We will continue to see an uptick in targeted attacks in 2009."
Security and privacy experts say millions of Monster's patrons are in a particularly vulnerable state. Typing a stolen user ID and password gives an intruder access to everything available to the member job seeker or employer. Crooks "hoover up" such data, says Avivah Litan, banking security analyst at Gartner. They then correlate it with other information, stolen elsewhere, and use it to hijack bank accounts, break into systems and do other scams.
A data thief could type in a stolen user ID and password, gain access and then change the password to secure permanent access to the account, says Sam Masiello, vice president of information security at security firm MX Logic. "Considering many users are not always active, this leaves a huge potential for many accounts to be compromised," Masiello says.
Los Angeles attorney and privacy advocate Mari Frank says Monster users should feel violated. "Here they are, trusting that the information they give up is going only to prospective employers, and now the criminals have it. It's such a betrayal."
Richardson countered that Monster strives to "provide the best practical security we can."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2009-01-27-monster-data-hackers_N.htm

3 Russian warships visit Cold War ally Cuba
HAVANA: A Russian anti-submarine destroyer and two logistical warships docked in Cuba on Friday, a thumb-your-nose port call aimed at Washington in waters just 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Florida.
The arrival extends a tour that included stops in Venezuela and Panama and shows Moscow's desire to flex some muscle in America's backyard. It comes even as President Raul Castro reaches out to the U.S., offering to negotiate directly with President-elect Barack Obama and proposing an unprecedented swap of political prisoners.
"That is Cuba's diplomatic specialty, playing both sides, or all sides, on every issue," said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programs at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.
Russian sailors in white and tan dress uniforms stood at attention on the deck of the Admiral Chabanenko destroyer, which chugged into Havana Bay amid a cloud of gray smoke. The ships will be moored here until Tuesday, and the crew planned a tour of Havana that includes a trip to a Cuban naval school.
A Cuban cannon fired a 21-blast salute that rattled the windows of nearby buildings, and a naval band waiting on a cruise ship dock played the Russian and Cuban national anthems. A hulking barge that frequently ferries U.S. food to the island happened to be waiting in the area but had to move to make room for the Russian warships. It was unclear whether it had any American cargo aboard.
Today on IHT.com
Putin urges closer ties with West
At Davos, economic gloom is the order of the day
Stimulus plan set to pass, despite Republican critics
Washington's nearly 50-year-old trade embargo prohibits American tourists from visiting Cuba, but the U.S. has allowed cash-only sales of its agricultural products to the island since 2000 and has long since become the country's largest source of food.
Erikson, author of a new book called "The Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution," said he was not surprised to see Russian ships come to Cuba at the same time the communist government is promoting a thawing in its relations with Washington.
"Cuba has always been a country that wants to have its cake and eat it to," he said. "They want to keep the United States as the No. 1 enemy and at the same time benefit from U.S. travel and trade."
The Soviet Union provided billions of dollars in trade and annual subsidies to Cuba before its 1991 collapse. Relations soured after that, but the Cold War allies have become close again, with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visiting Havana in November.
Friday marked the first time Russian military ships have visited Cuba since the end of the Soviet era. About 100 Cubans — as well as tourists from Russia and other foreign destinations — watched the arrival from a nearby sidewalk. The crowd grew so large that police blocked off the right lane of a crowded boulevard adjacent the bay.
"This shows relations with Russia never deteriorated," said Eric Hernandez, a naval administrative employee who left his office across the street for a closer view. "Russia is a brother nation to Cuba, and Cuba has brother nations all over the world, despite what the United States wants."
But another onlooker, retired airport employee Jorge Fernandez, said he hoped the Russian visit wouldn't send Washington the wrong signal.
"The new president of the United States wants peace and tranquility with Cuba," he said. "This is positive for Cuba and Russia. But they might not agree in the United States."
The Russian ships arrived as Castro was set to return from his first state visit to Brazil, where he said Thursday he would consider releasing some jailed political dissidents as a gesture to opening talks with the Obama administration. Castro's trip also included a stop in Venezuela, where he met with U.S. critic Hugo Chavez.
Erikson noted that "the U.S. is important for Cuba, but it's not the only international relationship they're trying to manage."
"To some degree, the Cuban government says 'There's no way of knowing what the U.S. will do ultimately so we better have relationships with Russia, Brazil and China in our back pocket,'" he said. "It's hard to imagine Cuba saying 'We don't want Russian warships to come,' because they don't know what the U.S. will do."
The Russian ships' trip to Cuba has largely failed to register in Washington, but State Department spokeswoman Heidi Bronke rejected Castro's offer of a prisoner swap, saying the more than 200 jailed dissidents should be released immediately without conditions. Castro said the U.S. would need to release the so-called "Cuban Five," who were convicted in 2001 on U.S. espionage charges.
Cuban human rights activists also have panned the notion of a prisoner exchange, saying the jailed activists, independent journalists and political dissidents should not be used as bargaining chips.
In a statement Friday, the country's best-known political opposition leader, Oswlado Paya, called on Castro to free political prisoners without asking for anything in return, saying doing so "would be an act of justice for the people of Cuba, and is a moral and political obligation for the government."
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/19/news/CB-Cuba-Russian-Warships.php

These next two price winning idiots were probably bright and shining stars in there departments. You might think it strange that they waited so long to bust them. They were probably enjoying the show he was providing them, but seriously they have to build an air-tight case. The entitlement of being an government employee are amazing and you have to catch them in the act and even then most of them won't even get a repremanded. Look at former President Clinton.
Exclusive: CIA Station Chief in Algeria Accused of Rapes
"Ugly American"? Spy Boss Allegedly Drugged Muslim Women, Made Secret Sex Videos
By BRIAN ROSS, KATE McCARTHY, and ANGELA M. HILL
January 28, 2009
The CIA's station chief at its sensitive post in Algeria is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly raping at least two Muslim women who claim he laced their drinks with a knock-out drug, U.S. law enforcement sources tell ABC News.
Officials say the 41-year old CIA officer, a convert to Islam, was ordered home by the U.S. Ambassador, David Pearce, in October after the women came forward with their rape allegations in September.
Watch "World News with Charles Gibson" TONIGHT at 6:30 p.m. ET for the full report.
The discovery of more than a dozen videotapes showing the CIA officer engaged in sex acts with other women has led the Justice Department to broaden its investigation to include at least one other Arab country, Egypt, where the CIA officer had been posted earlier in his career, according to law enforcement officials.
The U.S. State Department referred questions to the Department of Justice, which declined to comment.
"It has the potential to be quite explosive if it's not handled well by the United States government," said Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who specializes in women's issues in the Middle East.
"This isn't the type of thing that's going to be easily pushed under the carpet," she said.
The CIA refused to acknowledge the investigation or provide the name of the Algiers station chief, but the CIA Director of Public Affairs, Mark Mansfield, said, "I can assure you that the Agency would take seriously, and follow up on, any allegations of impropriety."
It can be a crime for government officials to reveal the identity of a current covert intelligence officer, and CIA officials would not comment the status of the person under investigation.
One of the alleged victims reportedly said she met the CIA officer at a bar in the U.S. embassy and then was taken to his official station chief residence where she said the sexual assault took place.
The second alleged victim reportedly told U.S. prosecutors that, in a separate incident, she also was drugged at the American's official residence before being sexually assaulted.
Officials Say One of the Alleged Victims is Seen On Tape
Both women have reportedly given sworn statements to federal prosecutors sent from Washington to prepare a possible criminal case against the CIA officer.
Following the initial complaints, U.S. officials say they obtained a warrant from a federal judge in Washington, D.C. in October to search the station chief's CIA-provided residence in Algiers and turned up the videos that appear to have been secretly recorded and show, they say, the CIA officer engaged in sexual acts.
Officials say one of the alleged victims is seen on tape, in a "semi-conscious state."
The time-stamped date on other tapes led prosecutors to broaden the investigation to Egypt because the date matched a time when CIA officer was in Cairo, officials said.
Pills found in the CIA residence were sent to the FBI crime laboratory for testing, according to officials involved in the case.
"Drugs commonly referred to as date rape drugs are difficult to detect because the body rapidly metabolizes them," said former FBI agent Brad Garrett, an ABC News consultant. "Many times women are not aware they were even assaulted until the next day," he said.
A third woman, a friend of one of the alleged victims, reportedly provided a cell phone video that showed her friend having a drink and dancing inside the CIA station chief's residence in Algiers, which officials told ABC News provided corroboration the CIA officer had indeed brought the woman to his residence.
The officer in charge of the CIA station in Algiers plays an important role in working with the Algerian intelligence services to combat an active al Qaeda wing responsible for a wave of bombings in Algeria.
In the most serious incident, 48 people were killed in a bombing in August, 2008 in Algiers, blamed on the al Qaeda group.
The Algerian ambassador to the United Nations, Mourad Benmehid, said his government had not been notified by the U.S. of the rape allegations or the criminal investigation.
Repeated messages left for the CIA officer with his parents and his sister were not returned.
No charges have been filed but officials said a grand jury was likely to consider an indictment on sexual assault charges as early as next month.
"This will be seen as the typical ugly American," said former CIA officer Bob Baer, reacting to the ABC News report. "My question is how the CIA would not have picked up on this in their own regular reviews of CIA officers overseas," Baer said.
"From a national security standpoint," said Baer, the alleged rapes would be "not only wrong but could open him up to potential blackmail and that's something the CIA should have picked up on," said Baer. "This is indicative of personnel problems of all sorts that run through the agency," he said.
"Rape is ugly in any context," said Coleman who praised the bravery of the alleged Algerian victims in going to authorities. "Rape is viewed as very shameful to women, and I think this is an opportunity for the US to show how seriously it takes the issue of rape," she said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=6750266&page=1

Grassley launches porn inquiry
By ANDIE COLLER | 1/28/09 4:11 AM EST Updated: 1/28/09 12:05 PM EST
Chuck Grassley knows it when he sees it.
The “it,” of course, is pornography. And Grassley has seen it deep in a demurely titled section of a report from the National Science Foundation — a report that says NSF employees have been spending significant amounts of company time on smut sites and in other explicit pursuits.
Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, on Tuesday fired off a letter to the NSF’s inspector general requesting all documents related to the “numerous reports” and seven investigations into “Abuse of NSF IT Resources” cited in the foundation’s 68-page semiannual report.
Despite the less-than-lurid sound of the probes, the employees in question weren’t just logging onto their Facebook accounts or buying birthday gifts on Amazon.com. The report says they were watching, downloading and e-mailing porn, sometimes for significant portions of their workdays, and over periods of months or even years.
In one particularly egregious case, the report says one NSF “senior official” was discovered to have spent as much as 20 percent of his working hours over a two-year interval “viewing sexually explicit images and engaging in sexually explicit online ‘chats’ with various women.”
Investigators calculated the value of the time lost at more than $58,000 — for that employee alone.
Following an initial wave of incidents, the grant-making agency — which has an annual budget of $6.06 billion, and was created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science; advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; secure the national defense — reveals that probers then “selectively sampled” a single internal server and found even more workers harboring everything from software that can allow users to set up camera-to-camera connections to hard-core images and titillatingly titled bookmarks.
Committee investigators also learned from sources that one employee even had camera-to-camera software to facilitate his on-the-job sexcapades – and that the employee had complained to the IT specialist that his camera was working too slowly.
The foundation has since installed filtering software to prevent employees from accessing inappropriate websites and is currently trying to address the fallout from the agency’s adult-entertainment problem. This includes finding ways to support staffers who were “acutely embarrassed” by the filth-filled environment — like the employee who learned of a co-worker’s adventures in porn via sounds overheard from said co-worker’s computer speakers.
Grassley’s office has asked the foundation to turn over all “specific reports of investigations, audit reports, evaluations and information supporting the examination of the NSF network drive” by Thursday in an effort to “ensure that NSF properly fulfills its mission to strengthen scientific and engineering research, and makes responsible use of the public funding provided for these research disciplines.”
The semiannual report raises real questions about how the National Science Foundation manages its resources, and Congress ought to demand a full accounting before it gives the agency another $3 billion in the stimulus bill,” Grassley said.
An NSF spokeswoman said the agency had no comment on the report or its content.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18070.html

I linked together four or five articles a while ago on this, as the recessions (depression) deepens people will become more desperate and more violent. As gas went up there was more and more thefts of fuel from cars. Now they will become more violent.
U.S. recession fuels crime rise, police chiefs say
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Police chiefs in the United States say the economic downturn is fueling a rise in crime and warn that cuts to their budgets could handcuff their efforts to tackle it, according to a report on Tuesday.
Of 233 police agencies surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based law enforcement organization, 44 percent reported a rise in certain types of crime they attributed to the United States' worst economic and financial crisis in decades.
The survey, conducted in late December and early January, also found that 63 percent of the departments were making plans for overall cuts in their funding for the next fiscal year.
"We are not saying there is going to be a crime wave, but we are saying this is a wake-up call and we anticipate the situation will continue to deteriorate," PERF executive director Chuck Wexler told Reuters in an interview.
There has long been debate over the connection between crime and the economy, but criminologists, sociologists and police chiefs interviewed by Reuters in October predicted a rise in crimes as the United States sinks deeper into recession.
Crime has increased during every recession since the late 1950s, sociologists said.
"We know that when police departments saw increases in violent crime in 2005 and 2006, they were able to respond quickly by using overtime to flood crime hot spots with additional patrols and sending specialized units in," Wexler said in a statement.
"This helped to bring crime back down again in 2007 and the first half of 2008. The threat posed by the economic crisis is that a lot of departments will no longer have these options available to keep crime and violence down."
Of the 100 agencies who linked crime rises to the economic crisis, 39 percent said they had seen an increase in robberies, 32 percent an uptick in burglaries and 40 percent an increase in thefts from vehicles.
The PERF said on average the agencies who participated in the survey were planning a 6.24 percent cut in their overall funding, while many had already reduced funding in many areas.
Miami police chief John Timoney said police departments were normally the last agencies to be affected by a downturn in the economy because local authorities saw public safety as a top priority.
"The fact that most police departments currently are being asked to make cuts is an indication of how badly this recession is affecting local tax bases," Timoney said.
(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=248

Eeyore's News and a View

This is a link to a web sight in which private citizens can go to, and monitor the border via cameras along the US/Mexican Border. I think that is a pretty neat thing to do, to involve citizens who want to be involved.
http://www.blueservo.net

They got the boot just like they should have, one of the interesting things is even after the "apology" they airline would not re-book the flight. I don't thing they should have apologized at all, if i have reason the fly anytime soon i will see if they are flying where i'm going.
9 Muslims removed from flight get AirTran apology
January 2, 2009 - 3:45pm
By BRIAN WESTLEY
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - AirTran Airways is apologizing to nine Muslim passengers kicked off a New Year's Day flight to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security.
One of the passengers says the confusion started at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., when his brother was talking about the safest place to sit on an airplane.
In a statement Friday, Orlando-based AirTran says it refunded the air fare for the nine passengers and planned to reimburse them for replacement tickets they bought on another airline.
The airline said the incident on the flight to Orlando was a misunderstanding, but the steps taken were necessary.
AirTran also apologized to 95 other passengers whose flight was delayed by the incident.
http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1563095

Don't know if they are in your neighborhood, but worth finding out.
Giant offers free antibiotics
December 31, 2008 - 10:46am
WASHINGTON - Giant Food will offer free generic antibiotics to customers with prescriptions.
The aggressive promotion -- a first for the grocery chain -- starts Friday and ends March 21.
It will cover popular antibiotics, including amoxicillin, penicillin, ciprofloxacin and bacitracin ophthalmic ointment.
The declining economy and increased competition prompted Giant's move. Several experts say it's the first time they've heard of a retailer giving away prescription drugs.
Giant's free drug program will cover antibiotics commonly used to treat illnesses during the cold and flu season.
A typical antibiotic at Giant costs between $9.99 and $23.99.

Crew fights off Somali pirates with water jets
January 2, 2009 - 11:29am
By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Associated Press Writer
ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Crewmen fired high pressure water jets Friday to fight off heavily armed Somali pirates trying to board a Greek oil tanker in the dangerous Gulf of Aden, officials said. It was the fourth pirate attack of the new year.
Armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, pirates in three speedboats twice tried to board the Greek-flagged Kriti Episkopi but were driven away when the crew turned fire hoses on them and EU aircraft scrambled from a nearby European Union naval flotilla to help, shipping company and Greek government officials said.
The attack came a day after Somali pirates seized an Egyptian cargo ship and its 28 crew in the waterway, one of the world's most important sea routes. Also Thursday, a Malaysian military helicopter saved an Indian tanker from being hijacked and a French warship thwarted an attack on a Panamanian cargo ship and captured several pirates.
The captain of the Kriti Episkopi spotted the pirates' speedboats just before 8 a.m. GMT. While he took evasive action to try to shake them off, Greek authorities alerted the EU naval flotilla.
"An aircraft and a helicopter reached the ship very quickly, which scared the pirates off," a Greek Merchant Marine Ministry spokesman said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. "A frigate also sped to the scene. Everything now seems to be under control, but we remain vigilant."
The 29 crew members were unhurt and the tanker, carrying oil from the Persian Gulf to Greece, was not damaged in the attack off the Somali coast, according to the ship's operating company Avin International.
More than a dozen warships are now patrolling between the shores of Yemen and Somalia to try to protect commercial vessels in the key waterway, which links the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Countries as diverse as Britain, India, Iran, the United States, China, France and Germany have naval forces in the waters.
A French warship on Thursday intercepted two speedboats with eight Somali pirates as they were preparing to board the Panamanian ship, according to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office. The crew of the "PM L'Her" dispatch boat seized weapons and munitions and plan to hand the pirates over to Somali authorities.
Pirates attacked 111 ships around the Gulf of Aden in 2008, hijacking 42 of them and earning tens of millions in ransom. With the capture of the Egyptian tanker, 15 ships with more than 260 crew are still in the hands of pirates, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
The pirates have been able to operate so successfully because Somalia has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other.
http://wtop.com/?nid=387&sid=1505124

Ukraine warns EU serious gas shortages possible
January 3, 2009 - 9:40am
A gas pressure gauge indicating zero seen at a snow-covered transit point on the main pipeline from Russia in the village of Boyarka near the capital Kiev, Ukraine, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009. The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom on Saturday accused Ukraine of boycotting negotiations on a natural gas contract dispute that has led to supply reductions in several European countries. Russia and Ukraine also traded accusations over who was responsible for the drop in natural gas supplies to other European nations. Europe gets one-quarter of its natural gas from Russia, and 80 percent of that travels across Ukraine's pipelines.(AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - A senior Ukrainian official says European consumers will see serious natural gas shortages in only two weeks if Moscow and Kiev don't solve their dispute over gas supplies.
Bohdan Sokolovsky's statement raises the stakes in an escalating row between the two neighbors.
Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on New Year's Day after the two countries failed to resolve payment issues or agree on a price contract for 2009.
Most Russian gas bound for Europe travels through Ukraine.
Sokolovsky said Saturday even though Ukraine will continue shipping Russian gas intended for Europe, disruptions in supplies will occur in the next 10 to 15 days if Ukraine's gas is not shipped along with it.
He said the pipelines require a minimum amount of gas to avoid an automatic shutdown.
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) _ A senior Ukrainian official says European consumers will see serious natural gas shortages in only two weeks if Moscow and Kiev don't solve their dispute over gas supplies.
Bohdan Sokolovsky's statement raises the stakes in an escalating row between the two neighbors.
Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on New Year's Day after the two countries failed to resolve payment issues or agree on a price contract for 2009.
Most Russian gas bound for Europe travels through Ukraine.
Sokolovsky said Saturday even though Ukraine will continue shipping Russian gas intended for Europe, disruptions in supplies will occur in the next 10 to 15 days if Ukraine's gas is not shipped along with it.
He said the pipelines require a minimum amount of gas to avoid an automatic shutdown.
http://wtop.com/?nid=111&sid=1537031

Eeyore's News and View

10 things that won't survive the recession
Tight times, and budgets, will hasten the end for some things
By Mike Elgan
December 23, 2008
The government says we've been in a recession for the past year. Experts say it'll be at least another year before it's over. And everybody says it's the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Nice sound bite. What does that mean?
Who knows? We can be sure that this downturn will differ totally from the Depression, and also different from the many recessions we've suffered every decade or every other decade since the '30s. I'm not an economist or a historian, but it seems to me that this recession will be something unprecedented.
One reason is that that there was no Internet or mobile technology in the 1930s. That means individual people and companies have very low-cost, high-efficiency alternatives for doing a wide range of activities. That will accelerate the demise of those things fated to be replaced anyway.
Here are 10 things that I believe won't survive the recession.
1. Free tech support
The practice still employed by some companies of paying humans to answer phones and solve technical problems with hardware or software purchased for consumers will become a thing of the past. PCs, laptops, and hardware peripherals, as well as application software -- these categories will be purchased like airline tickets, with price becoming the sole criteria for many buyers. In order to compete on price, companies who now offer real tech support will replace it with message boards (users helping users), wikis, wizards, software-based troubleshooting tools, and other unsatisfying alternatives.
2. Wi-Fi you have to pay for
Everyone is going to share the cost of public Wi-Fi because the penny-pinching public will gravitate to places that offer "free" Wi-Fi. Companies that charge extra for Wi-Fi will see their iPhone, BlackBerry, and netbook-toting customers -- i.e., everybody -- taking business elsewhere. The only place you'll pay for Wi-Fi will be on an airplane.
3. Landline phones
Digital phone bundles for homes (where TV, home networking, and landline phone service are offered in a total package) will keep the landline idea alive for a while, but as millions of households drop their cable TV services and as consumers look to cut all needless costs, the trend toward dropping landline service in favor of cell phone service only will accelerate until it's totally mainstream, and only grandma still has a landline phone.
4. Movie rental stores
The idea of retail stores where you drive there, pick a movie, stand in line, and drive home with it will become a quaint relic of the new fin de siecle (look it up!). The new old way to get movies will be discs by mail, and the new, new way will be downloading.
5. Web 2.0 companies without a business plan
The era when Web-based companies could emerge and grow on venture capital, collecting eyeballs and members at a rapid clip and deferring the business plan until later are dead and gone. Yeah, I'm talking to you, Twitter. Sand Hill Road-style venture capital is shrinking toward nothing, and investors in general will be hard to come by. Those few remaining investors will want to see real, solid business plans before the first dollar is wired to any startup's bank.
6. Most companies in Silicon Valley
Tech company failures and mergers will leave the industry with a low two-digit percentage (maybe 25 percent) of the total number of companies now in existence. Like the automobile industry, which had more than 200 car makers in the 1920s and emerged from the Depression with just a few, Silicon Valley is in for some serious contraction. The difference is that the auto industry ended up with the Big Three, whereas the number of tech companies will grow dramatically again during the next boom.
7. Palm Inc.
Elevation Partners, which has among its principals U2 lead singer Bono, pumped a whopping $100 million into the failing Palm Inc. this week.
The idea is to give the company time to release its forthcoming Nova operating system, which will take the cell phone world by storm and give Apple a run for its money. It would have been far more efficient, however, to just flush that money down the toilet. With the iPhone setting the handset interface agenda, BlackBerry maker RIM kicking butt in the businesses market, and Google stirring up trouble with its Android platform, this is no time for a clueless company like Palm to be introducing a new operating system. By this time next year, Palm will be gone. And so might Elevation Partners.
8. Yahoo
Yahoo is another company that can't seem to do anything right. Or, at least, can't compete with Google. Yahoo will be acquired by someone, and its brand will become an empty shell -- used for some inane set of services but appreciated only by armchair historians (joining the ranks of Netscape, Napster, and Commodore).
9. Half of all retail stores
Many retail stores are obsolete and will be replaced by online competitors. Entire malls will become ghost towns. By this time next year, most video game stores, book stores and toy stores -- as well as many other categories -- will simply vanish. Amazon.com will grow and grow.
10. Satellite radio
I'm sorry, Howard Stern. It's over. The newly merged Sirius XM Radio simply cannot sustain its losses. The company is already deeply in debt and would need to dramatically increase subscribers over the next six months in order to meet its debt obligations. Unfortunately, new car sales, where a huge percentage of satellite radios are sold, are in the gutter and stand-alone subscriptions are way down.
Change is hard. But efficiency is good. While boom years gives us radical innovation and improve consumer choice, recessions help us focus on what's really important and accelerate the demise of technologies and companies that are already obsolete.
So say good-bye to these 10 things, and say hello (eventually) to a new economy, a new boom and a new way of doing things.
http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/12/23/10_things_that_wont_survive_the_recession_1.html

Great Depression witnesses remember
As Americans try to cope with lost jobs and lost homes and deal with the continuing crises in the financial and credit markets that some compare with conditions during the Great Depression, economists say that, so far, the United States has not seen the level of deprivation that marked the 1930s.
Nevertheless, the unfolding collapse in housing values has obliterated an estimated $4 trillion in home equity, which will cause millions of households to lose their homes through foreclosure. The bear market - the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 40 percent from its peak - has eliminated additional trillions of dollars in stockholders' wealth. Also, last month the unemployment rate reached its highest level (6.7 percent) in more than 15 years.
But by comparison, at its nadir the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 90 percent of its value in the Great Depression, when the unemployment rate peaked at
24.9 percent and economic output declined by 13 percent in a single year. (Even if the gross domestic product plunges by an annual rate of 5 percent during the fourth quarter, GDP will still be 1.2 percent higher in 2008 than it was last year.)
Robert E. Miller, 87; Queen Esther Woodard, 96; and Lillie Deloatch, 88, lived through those hard times, and they shared their Depression-era experiences in conversations at the Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home in Northwest.
Robert E. Miller, 87.
Born in 1921 at Columbia Hospital in the District , Mr. Miller spent the Depression years as a child in the nation's capital.
Robert E. Miller, 87, grew up in the District during the Great Depression with two sisters and three brothers. "We always had some kind of food. My father would eat opossum," he said. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)
Growing up in a home at 23rd and P streets on top of Rock Creek Park, Mr. Miller had two sisters, three brothers and a big German police dog - "and that was all that boys want, a brother and police dog."
His father worked as a night watchman from 7 at night until 7 the next morning, all for $75 a month. "We lived off that, and I don't know how you could say it, but we were a very happy family, eatin' with what we could get, your bread. ... A loaf of bread, white bread, cost five cents," he said.
"You didn't have any electric lights in your house. You had what they call coal oil lamps," he recalled. "We had no electricity at all ... no running water ... had to go down to the corner, pump's on the corner, just mash on the top and the water would come out. You take your bucket and go down there and pump, get your water, come back to the house, and that's the way you got your water."
In the winter time, Mr. Miller and his siblings had only one over coat to share among them. On the way to school, whoever got dressed first got to wear the coat. "The rest didn't have any, so we just walk with shirt sleeves, sweater, no sweater, and we'd walk [24 blocks] to Dunbar [High School]. We would walk that, rain, snow, whatever. . . . Get to school the best way you could, and still we managed to be happy, jovial, playin' all the time, never any fightin' anything," as he tells it.
He and his siblings would wear their shoes until the soles were completely worn out, using newspaper to cover the holes.
"But it was a tough time, I remember. I guess that was the recession then. People didn't have any jobs; they would stand on the corner and sell apples, nickel apiece. They were unemployed, they didn't have nothing else to do," he remembered. "That's the way they made their living."
Those were the days before credit cards, when life was simple. But one could have credit at the corner grocery store and pay it at the end of the month.
The merchant "just had a big ledger. You come in and get $20 worth of stuff. And the end of the month he was expecting you to pay him your $20, which a lot of people didn't do, but that's the way you worked."
At the time, Mr. Miller didn't know about the Depression. As a child , that that's just how things were. Times were hard.
"I thought that was just normal life," he remembers. "We always had some kind of food. My father would eat opossum. We'd go to Rock Creek Park, get a opossum for him, right in the park, bring it home, he'd eat it. I wouldn't eat any of it," he said.
"We always had sufficient food. Meager-type food. It wasn't the best food. We would maybe get some kind of meat, maybe neck bones or something like that. My mother would cook them, my father would eat the neck bones, and we'd eat what now would be thrown away: the greases off the neck bones, that is what we would eat, heat it up and pour it on in a plate, get some bread, and sop that, and we thought we were living good. We were happy with that."
Sharecropper's daughter Lillie Deloatch, 88, talks about her experiences growing up during the Great Depression: "Yes, indeed, I remember," she says. "When Hoover was in the seat, right? And we couldn't get good flour. ... We were poor, but a lot of love. We all went to church. We were all right." (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)
He said, "It was a nice childhood, but it was tough times. It never occurred to you that you were living in hardship.
"I did grow up knowing that you had to look ahead: If you get a dollar, don't spend the whole dollar. Spend maybe 75 cents, but keep a quarter. You're gonna need it one day. And that's the way I lived," he recalled. "I bought my first home like that, puttin' away nickels and dimes.
"I live in two different worlds, the world back then and world we got now, and the world we got now I don't think too much of it, to tell you the truth."
Queen Esther Woodard, 96.
Born on Jan. 26, 1912, Queen Esther Woodard was 18 years old when the stock market crashed Oct. 29, 1929. She is the daughter of a sharecropper.
Queen Esther Woodard, 96, was 18 when the stock market crashed Oct. 29, 1929. The Depression wasn't too hard for her, she recalled, because her father grew everything and they lived off the land. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)
Sitting upright in her wheelchair, Ms. Woodard is alert and full of life in a red sweater and a blue plaid blanket that covers her lap. She is surrounded by messages of faith, posters on the walls, eight Bibles on the shelves, stuffed animals on the bed and old photographs.
The seventh of 14 children , she grew up as a child in Rocky Mount, N.C. She married Oscar Woodard, a carpenter, at age 21.
Working the fields was not just for adults. Everyone who could work did so. Ms. Woodard worked in the fields from age 11, with her brothers and sisters. In the fields for long hours even after school, their labor was needed by their father, who toiled in the fields of peanuts, cabbage, sweet potatoes, collard greens and corn.
Robert E. Miller, 87, spent the Depression years as a child in the District. "We lived off that [$75 a month], and I don't know how you could say it, but we were a very happy family," he said. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)
"When I was a child, we didn't go to school but six months out of the year, and sometimes when we get home from school, we had to change our school clothes because we didn't have but one pair of shoes. Get them shoes off so you wouldn't wear them out too quick and go in the field and go to work," she recalls.
In addition to the hard times of the Depression, the country was also segregated. Her best girlfriend was white, yet they couldn't eat together at a restaurant. "But it didn't change the taste of the food," she says, laughing.
Ms. Woodard said life wasn't too hard for her and her family because her father grew everything, living off the land. Although times were extremely harsh, they were generous. Her father would kill the hogs, take the meat and give it away like he had no mouths to feed. He'd kill six hogs in November and six more in February, and that meat would last.
Taking the lessons and examples of her generous parents and strict religious upbringing during life in the Great Depression, she has given to others in need through the years. "I guess some people think I'm crazy, but you know, I don't value my money that well. I don't value it's so important to me that if you're hungry I couldn't give you a soda and sandwich."
Lillie Deloatch, 88.
Ms. Deloatch was born on May 8, 1920 in Branchville, Va., nearly 10 years before the stock market crash. Today she sits in her room at the Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home in the District, safe, comfortable and far from the farm where she grew up near the North Carolina border. The room is clean, the bed made.
She rests in her wheelchair, and the blinds are open to the street below, with its barren trees marking the winter season as the nation's economy remains in crisis.
Her father was a sharecropper.
"Yes, indeed, I remember," she says. "When Hoover was in the seat, right? And we couldn't get good flour. ... The hogs had died, and we didn't have no meat," she recollects. "We raised our hogs, chickens; we had cows, dogs, cats and eight children. There was a lot of love. We were poor, but a lot of love. We all went to church. We were all right.
"Momma made our clothes. Somehow, I don't know, somehow we made it. My father was a huntsman. He hunted rabbits and squirrels. We ate it."
Even though she lived on a farm, hardships were everywhere; not many were spared. On the farm, she worked in the fields picking cotton.
"It really was really a hard time. I remember my mother asked my father one day - he was taking a bail of cotton to Branchville: 'Joe, bring me a piece of cloth [so I can] make Lillie a dress to wear to field.' And he bought it, cotton material, and my mother cried. She said, 'Joe, Lillie never wore anything like this in her life.' And I liked it. It was all right for the field."
Ms. Deloatch compared life during the Great Depression to life today. "But back then, in those days, they was good old days. Wasn't like we hatin' one another like they do now. There was more love, you know," she said.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/29/witnesses-to-the-great-depression-remember/

Senior Chinese, Russian military officials hold first-ever talks via direct phone link
BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chen Bingde, chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China and his Russian counterpart Nikolay Makarov held their first-ever conversation via direct phone link on Monday.
Both military leaders hailed the successful launch of the direct phone link.
Chen said the launch of the direct phone link between the two countries' chiefs of general staff is another important measure for deepening pragmatic cooperation between Chinese and Russian militaries and another showcase of the tow countries' mutual political trust and strategic cooperation.
The direct phone link will help the two sides maintain timely communication on significant issues such as the exchange and cooperation between the armies and exchange views and collaborate stances in time on international and regional affairs, so as to promote the exchange and cooperation between the two militaries, Chen added.
For his part, Makarov said the launch of the direct phone link once more showcased the high-level of the China-Russia strategic partnership and the two countries' military ties.
He expressed his willingness to work with the Chinese side to keep frequent exchanges on the two armies' cooperation and other important issues in order to push forward their military ties.
The two leaders also exchanged views on international and regional situation, bilateral relations, and other issues of common concern.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/29/content_10575726.htm

Squatters: The latest real-estate menace
Vacant properties across the country are being seized by a new breed of squatters. They’re organized and often armed with fake paperwork, and it can take months to get them out.
When he moved in, David Dobbs did the same things most people would do when they set up in a new house. He unpacked his belongings, hooked up cable, transferred utilities, filled the swimming pool and watered the lawn, which was withering under the hot California sunshine.
"It was like he had just moved in and was a proud new owner," says Prudential California real-estate agent Tom Tennant, who listed the Corona, Calif., property.
The problem was, Dobbs had no right to move into the house: He was a squatter. The vacant house he occupied on affluent Star Canyon Drive was a foreclosed property owned by a bank, and it was in escrow to a new owner.
Dobbs is part of a troubling new breed of trespassers and con artists moving into vacant foreclosures across the country. Unlike most squatters, these people aren't derelict and living on the streets, and they don't move on once discovered by police or sheriff’s officers. It can take months to get them out, agents and attorneys say.
"Possession is nine-tenths of the law," says Michigan real-estate broker Ralph Roberts, author of "Protect Yourself from Real Estate and Mortgage Fraud." "You can call the police, but the police aren't necessarily going to move them out."
That's because some squatters successfully confuse police by claiming they have a right to be there, often showing bogus leases, as Dobbs did, to put off being evicted.
The scams
Squatting schemes can take a few different forms, police say. In some, individuals will gain access to a lockbox code on a property, open the door and start moving in. No breaking or entering is involved.
Or a con artist will hire an unscrupulous locksmith to change the locks on a property so he can place ads and rent it out to people.
What's your home worth?
In this scenario, the individual passing himself off as a landlord will collect first and last month's rent — sometimes from several unsuspecting people — before disappearing, says Detective Mike Wood of the Sacramento Police Department's real-estate fraud unit. Criminals also can lift information about a house off of legitimate real-estate listings and then put out their own ad on Craigslist to lure renters, he says.
But oftentimes, the squatters will knowingly produce phony leases or other documents that cloud the issue, and send the matter to the court system for a formal eviction, which can take as long as several months.
The woman accused of providing Dobbs with the bogus paperwork, Gwendolyn Johnson, is reported to have filed about a dozen deed transfers at the county recorder's office for houses where she planned to move squatters. She told the local newspaper that she seizes possession of these properties and leases them out to tenants for a one-time fee of several hundred dollars. (Johnson was recently arrested on a felony charge of falsifying documents and is out on bail awaiting her court date.)
But, attorneys say, even without legitimate-looking paperwork, it can be hard to evict squatting tenants once they've moved in and claim a verbal month-to-month agreement.
"A verbal agreement is just as binding" if it's real, says Los Angeles eviction attorney Dennis Block.
"They (the officials) have to decide who's telling the truth."
Squatters’ rights?
And that can be difficult. Police who are called out to a house don't want to arrest someone who has a legitimate right to be there, or was duped into renting a place from a bogus landlord. Most police and sheriff's officers don't want to face a lawsuit for acting too quickly.
"No one wants to get sued throwing someone out who's an actual victim" of a scam, Wood says.
Block says most police officers don't feel qualified to judge the merits of either side's arguments, so they simply tell real-estate asset managers to get an attorney to start the eviction process.
"The police are really there to keep the peace and make sure no laws are being violated," Block says. "They have to make a sure a crime existed before they make any arrest."
The eviction process, which starts with a five-day notice to vacate and ends with an order for the sheriff's department to remove the squatter, can take months if it is contested in court.
Real-estate agent Tennant, who was managing the Star Canyon property and had its utilities in his name, tried to get the squatter out himself, by persuading the city to cut off water to the property, a large Spanish-style home in a gated community, after Dobbs transferred it to his name along with electricity and gas.
In the weeks leading up to the order for his eviction, Dobbs broke the water meter repeatedly and even tried to tap into the water line illegally, sending water down the street and an officer to the house to arrest him on a misdemeanor charge of theft of utilities, Corona police confirmed.
Tennant says there is now an order for Dobbs to be evicted from the house. The one-time buyer of the property has since moved on, to look at other communities and other houses after a contractual clause let him out of the purchase because the house wasn't vacant.
Move-outs for money
Not all squatters are as tenacious as Dobbs. Some only want to stick around long enough to get a payoff from the lender to evacuate.
Banks, in order to speed up the eviction process and avoid legal action, are paying these occupants as much as several thousand dollars to get them out quickly, a strategy known as "cash for keys."
This practice, real-estate agents and law enforcement officials say, has encouraged all kinds of ne'er-do-wells to break into vacant foreclosure properties in hopes of earning a little extra cash.
"They get a place to live for a couple of months rent-free and the banks will give them a couple thousand in moving expenses," Wood says.
Some are pulling this scam repeatedly in a number of properties once they find out which lenders are paying.
If someone knows, for instance, that a particular lender is paying $3,000 for people to move out of their vacant properties, Roberts says, they have more incentive to target several of its properties for squatting.
"It's like they're letting people walk into the vault and take money," Roberts says.
Often, the same real-estate firm or lender keeps the same code for its lockboxes, making it easier for trespassers to move in once they get a code or combination.
Neighbors band together
Because these squatters have been so hard to evict, neighbors in many high-foreclosure communities have been forced to take matters into their own hands.
After squatters moved into several houses in Scott Elliot's 1,100-home gated community in Riverside County, Calif., he and other neighbors banded together to make life difficult for the squatters that police refused to throw out and to try to prevent new ones from moving in.
They tipped off the local news channel about these occupants to get news crews out filming them, and they formed a neighborhood watch of all of Victoria Grove's empty houses. They collected phone numbers for the local police as well as for the real-estate asset managers of all the vacant properties, and the neighbors called whenever they saw suspicious activity.
"In 15 to 20 minutes, we can have 30 people there standing outside. It's a show of force," says Elliot, a retired attorney who heads the community maintenance association.
In one case, these neighbors called the authorities early enough to get a new set of squatters out, who had pulled up to a house a half-hour after the last ones had been evicted, Elliot says.
"We are learning as we go," Elliot says. "We have succeeded in getting five groups of squatters out. I think we have the upper hand now, and our community is really together for the first time."
Agents, too, have had to step up their own surveillance of properties they are listing and take proactive measures to prevent them from being occupied, such as taking out all the toilets from a home or turning off utilities.
"I have my properties inspected once a week," Tennant says. "But most of the time access is being gained in the evenings or weekends."
Not just the bank's problem
Agents say the problem of squatting is only going to get worse as the unprecedented wave of foreclosures works its way through the system. Bill Collins, a real-estate broker with ERA Queen Realty in South Orange, N.J., says it is becoming a much bigger problem in his area.
"A lot of properties that were in very good condition are winding up falling through the cracks and being inhabited by squatters," Collins says. That's bad for the safety and value of the surrounding community, he says. And, it puts more strain on everyone; not only agents, but also police and sheriff's officers who are being repeatedly called out to these properties.
Tennant and others are pressing for more arrests in this "grand theft house." Police "need to react swiftly and harshly to this," Tennant says. "They need to send the message to someone with an organized criminal background that this isn't acceptable."
8 ways to avoid falling victim to a squatting scam
Squatting is a problem that can hurt renters as well as neighboring homeowners. Here's what you need to know to protect yourself.
Homeowners
1. Keep a list
If your neighborhood has a lot of vacant properties, keep a list of them as well as phone numbers for the real-estate agent or asset manager in charge of them, and local law enforcement contacts. Pass them out to your neighbors, so if anyone sees something suspicious, you can get someone out there to handle it quickly.
2. Catch them in the act
Try to catch squatters in the act of moving in. It's easier to get them out of the house before all the utilities are in their name, police officials say.
3. Organize a neighborhood watch
Most real-estate agents drive by their foreclosure properties regularly to make sure they're not being vandalized. But they mostly do this during the day and in the middle of the week. Squatters typically move in at night or on the weekend. If vacant houses are a problem in your community, sit down with neighbors and schedule times to patrol these properties at night or on weekends and call police if you see suspicious activity. It shouldn't be your responsibility, but ultimately, securing these houses protects your community's real-estate values and safety.
Renters
Some squatters are posing as landlords to lure people into paying them “rent.” Here are five ways to avoid being duped.
1. Do your research
Run an Internet search on the name of the person who's listing the house, as well as his e-mail address, phone number and anything you else you know about him, Woods and Roberts say. Often it can turn up complaints, arrests or other unflattering information about the fake landlord, or it can provide information that contradicts his story.
2. Say cheese
Most scam artists won't want to get their picture taken. So if you are leasing a place, suggest a picture to commemorate the special occasion of you finding a great new place. If they're shady, they'll most likely decline the snapshot, Roberts says.
3. Beware of the cash deal
If a landlord is asking for first and last month's rent in cash or a cashier's check, be a little skeptical, Roberts says. And don't do business with someone you haven't seen who just leaves a key and asks for payment to be wired because he's out of town.
4. Sign papers in an office, not on the hood of a car.
Just about anyone can pass as a landlord or property manager, armed with a set of keys and some boilerplate rental agreements. But it's typically safer to rent a place through a professional property manager, and it doesn't cost the renter any extra, as the owner is the one paying the fees.
5. If the rent is too good to be true, it probably is.
One of the ways con artists are able to entice renters into these vacant properties is with rents that are priced just below the market, police say. A low, low price makes many people willing to move quickly to fork over a deposit and not spend too much time thinking about the landlord.
Then, says Roberts, you become the problem in the community. "A tenant can pay real money to a bad guy and then be considered a bad guy."
http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=15819672

Show off, or better put showing off for the world. Just trying to draw attention.
Medvedev’s assertiveness troubles Putin
Published: December 30 2008 17:51 | Last updated: December 30 2008 17:51
It was an innocuous sounding comment in what appeared to be a routine television interview. But in the six days since Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, described his feelings about taking the oath of office in May, the corridors of power have been buzzing.
“The final responsibility for what happens in the country and for the important decisions taken would rest on my shoulders alone and I would not be able to share this responsibility with anyone,” Mr Medvedev told an interviewer.
For a normal president in a normal country, such a remark would have been a statement of the obvious. But to a select few, it was a “dog whistle”, a message audible only to those Mr Medvedev wanted to hear.
Usually when discussing such matters he stresses his “consultation” with Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and former president, who all but installed Mr Medvedev in his job and is thought to take most of the big decisions. But this time Mr Medvedev stressed that he was the single constitutionally empowered decision-maker.
Kremlin watchers say this assertiveness seems to be part of a new pattern, with Mr Medvedev appearing frustrated that, in spite of his constitutional power as commander in chief, he is stuck in a subordinate role.
“An apprehension is growing on both sides, particularly the Putin side,” said Dmitry Simes, head of the Nixon Centre in Washington, who spent last week in Moscow.
“No one is quoting Putin as saying anything . . .  But several of Putin’s associates are uneasy about his [Med­vedev’s] new assertiveness.”
Mr Simes said Mr Medvedev had summoned cabinet members and given instructions. “Clearly it was Medvedev reaching out to members of the cabinet on economic issues which normally would be considered Putin’s prerogative.”
A Putin adviser said Mr Medvedev’s remarks in the interview demonstrated a “cavalier” attitude. Mr Simes said: “Medvedev sounded very self-confident. He was not very deferential.”
Personal relations between the two men are warm, but most attempts by Mr Medvedev to pursue independent policies have been thwarted. Anti-corruption measures he championed were changed by Russia’s usually supine parliament in October. According to Russian press reports, plans by Mr Medvedev to appoint independent judges were thwarted by Putin allies.
Mr Medvedev’s big legislative success has been a constitutional change to lengthen the presidential term from four to six years, which has sailed through the approval process. The reason? “Everyone understood that this was Putin’s idea,” said the Russian-language version of Newsweek
Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre think-tank, said: “I don’t think he [Medvedev] is amused that. . . he is regarded as a junior partner.”
However, the economic crisis could test both men. Lilya Shevtsova of the Carnegie Centre said: “They both understand that the. . . system of power depends on them getting along.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cfa5d788-d697-11dd-9bf7-000077b07658.html