Scientists Unveil Missing Link In Evolution

BREAKING NEWS

3:30pm UK, Tuesday May 19, 2009

Alex Watts, Sky News Online

Scientists have unveiled a 47-million-year-old fossilised skeleton of a monkey hailed as the missing link in human evolution.

This 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' is described as the "eighth wonder of the world"

The search for a direct connection between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom has taken 200 years - but it was presented to the world today at a special news conference in New York.

The discovery of the 95%-complete 'lemur monkey' - dubbed Ida - is described by experts as the "eighth wonder of the world".

They say its impact on the world of palaeontology will be "somewhat like an asteroid falling down to Earth".

Researchers say proof of this transitional species finally confirms Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, and the then radical, outlandish ideas he came up with during his time aboard the Beagle.

Sir David Attenborough said Darwin "would have been thrilled" to have seen the fossil - and says it tells us who we are andwhere we came from.

Darwin caused storm with his theory

"This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals. This is the one that connects us directly with them," he said.

"Now people can say 'okay we are primates, show us the link'. The link they would have said up to now is missing - well it's no longer missing."

A team of the world's leading fossil experts, led by Professor Jorn Hurum, of Norway's National History Museum, have beensecretly researching the 1ft 9in-tall young female monkey for the past two years.

And now it has been transported to New York under high security, and unveiled to the world during the bicentenary of Darwin's birth.

Later this month, it will be exhibited for one day only at the Natural History Museum in London before being returned to Oslo.

Scientists say Ida - squashed to the thickness of a beer mat by the immense passage of time - is the most complete primate fossil ever found.

This fossil is really a part of our history; this is part of our evolution, deep, deep back into the aeons of time, 47 million years ago.

Fossil expert Professor Jorn Hurum

With her human-like nails instead of claws, and opposable big toes, she is placed at the very root of human evolution when early primates first developed features that would eventually develop into our own.

Another important discovery is the shape of the talus bone in her foot, which humans still have in their feet an incredible 70 million lifetimes later.

Ida was unearthed by an amateur fossil-hunter some 25 years ago in Messel pit, an ancient crater lake near Frankfurt, Germany, famous for its fossils.

She was cleaned and set in polyester resin - and incredibly, was hung on a mystery German collector's wall for 20 years.

Sky News sources say the owner had no idea of the unique fossil's significance, and simply admired it like a cherished Van Gogh or Picasso painting.

X-ray of Ida's badly fractured left wrist

But in 2006, Ida came into the hands of private dealer Thomas Perner, who presented her to Prof Hurum at the annual Hamburg Fossil and Mineral Fair in Germany - a centre for themurky world of fossil-trading.

Prof Hurum said when he first saw the blueprint for evolution - the "most beautiful fossil worldwide" - he could not sleep for two days.

A home movie records the dramatic moment. "This is really something that the world has never seen before, this is a unique specimen, totally unique," he says, clearly emotional.

He knew she should be saved for science rather than end up hidden from the world in a wealthy private collector's vault.

But the dealer's asking price was more than $1 million (£660,000) - ten times the amount even the rarest of fossils fetch on the black market.

Eventually, after six months of negotiations, he managed to raise the cash in Norway and brought Ida to Oslo.

Prof Hurum - who last summer dug up the fossil remains of a 50ft marine monster called Predator X from the permafrost on Svalbard, a Norwegian island close to the North Pole - then assembled a "dream team" of experts who worked in secret for two years.

This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of the mammals. This is the one that connects us directly with them.

Sir David Attenborough

They included palaeontologist Dr Jens Franzen, Dr Holly Smith, of the University of Michigan, and Philip Gingerich, president-elect of the US Paleontological Society.

Researchers could prove the fossil was genuine through X-rays, knowing it is impossible to fake the inner structure of a bone.

Through radiometric dating of Messel's volcanic rocks, they discovered Ida lived 47 million years ago in the Eocene period, when tropical forests stretched right to the poles, and South America was still drifting and had yet to make contact with North America.

During that period, the first whales, horses, bats and monkeys emerged, and the early primates branched into two groups - one group lived on mainly as lemurs, and the second developed into monkeys, apes and humans.

The experts concluded Ida was not simply a lemur but a 'lemur monkey', displaying a mixture of both groups, and therefore putting her at the very branch of the human line.

"When Darwin published his On the Origin of Species in 1859, he said a lot about transitional species...and he said that will never be found, a transitional species, and his whole theory will be wrong, so he would be really happy to live today when we publish Ida," said Prof Hurum.

"This fossil is really a part of our history; this is part of our evolution, deep, deep back into the aeons of time, 47 million years ago.

"It's part of our evolution that's been hidden so far, it's been hidden because all the other specimens are so incomplete.

"They are so broken there's almost nothing to study and now this wonderful fossil appears and it makes the story so much easier to tell, so it's really a dream come true."

Up until now, the most famous fossil primate in the world has been Lucy, a 3.18-million-year-old hominid found in Ethiopia in 1974. She was then our earliest known ancestor, and only 40% complete.

Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known.

Bishop of Worcester's wife to Charles Darwin

But at 95% complete, Ida was so well preserved in the mud at the bottom of the volcanic lake, there is even evidence of her fur shadow and remains of her last meal.

From this they concluded she was a leaf and fruit eater, and probably lived in the trees around the lake.

The absence of a bacculum (penis bone) confirmed she was female, and her milk teeth put her age at about nine-months-old - in maturity, equivalent to a six-year-old human child.

This was the same age as Prof Hurum's daughter Ida, and he named the fossil after her.

The study is being published and put online today by the Public Library of Science, a leading academic journal with offices in Britain and the US.

Dr Hurum also found Predator X

Co-author of the scientific paper, Prof Gingerich, likens its importance to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, an ancient Egyptian artifact found in 1799, which allowed us to decipher hieroglyphic writing.

One clue to Ida's fate - and her remarkable preservation as our oldest ancestor - was her badly fractured left wrist.

The team believes this stopped her from climbing and she had to emerge from the trees to drink water from the 250-metre-deep lake.

They think she was overcome by carbon dioxide gas from the crater, and sunk to the bottom where she was preserved in the mud as a time capsule - and a snapshot of evolution.

But amazingly this final piece of Darwin's jigsaw was almost lost to science when German authorities tried to turn Messel into a massive landfill rubbish dump.

Eventually, after campaigning by Dr Franzen, the plans were rejected and the fossil-rich lake was designated a World Heritage Site.

But no doubt there would have been one person happy for the missing link to have remained hidden.

When Darwin famously told the Bishop of Worcester's wife about his theory of evolution, she remarked: "Descended from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known."

Now, it certainly is.

:: Ida's discovery has been made into an Atlantic Productions' documentary, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

Original article: [here]

Top Ten Ways to Spot Financial Fraud

I just re-read Harry Markopolis’ 2005 submission to the SEC. With a fisherman’s precision, he guts Bernie Madoff. He slits the Ponzi scheme down the center and lays bare the innards.

Blecch.

His language is crisp. The numbers are easy to follow. And as Markopolis fillets “split-strike conversion” strategies, there are no metaphorical references to scales, roe, or other kinds of fish gak. There’s only the damning evidence of his exposé.

Few of us share Markopolis’ expertise. With his special skills—an insider’s knowledge of puts, calls, and OTC derivatives—he first smelled the Madoff rot in 1999. It makes me wonder:

How can the rest of us avoid con artists? 

[READ MORE]

An invention that could change the internet for ever

Revolutionary new web software could put giants such as Google in the shade when it comes out later this month. The biggest internet revolution for a generation will be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before.

[READ MORE]

Figures on government spending and debt

Scientists a step closer to ‘reading minds’

A machine to read the mind came a step closer on Thursday, when scientists at University College London released the results of an experiment in which brain scans revealed the location of people moving around a virtual reality environment.

Demis Hassabis, co-author of the study, said it was “a small step towards the idea of mind reading, because just by looking at neural activity we were able to say what someone was thinking”.

The experiment, published in the journal Current Biology, is significant for neuroscience as it shows for the first time that memories are laid down in specific structures or patterns in the hippocampus, a brain region that is crucial for navigation, memory recall and imagining future events. [READ MORE]

Artificial life 'could be created within five years'

Artificial life could be created "within five years", researchers from the USA have claimed.

Test tubes in a lab: Artificial life 'could be created within five years'
Prof David Dreamer believes building a new lifeform from scratch is a daunting task but is confident it could happen in five to 10 years Photo: GETTY

Laboratories across the world are closing in on a "second genesis" - an achievement that would be one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time.

Prof David Deamer, from California University, said although building a new lifeform from scratch is a daunting task he is confident it can happen in five to 10 years.

[READ MORE]

Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

By BRADLEY R. SCHILLER (WSJ)

President Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package. [READ MORE]

Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System. [READ MORE]

No health insurance? Get help here

(CNN) -- Dr. John Di Saia was playing baseball with his son a few weeks ago, and just as he rounded second base, he tumbled to the ground, breaking his fall with his elbow.
Dr. John Di Saia was between health insurance plans when he ruptured his triceps tendon.

Dr. John Di Saia was between health insurance plans when he ruptured his triceps tendon.

"Guess I shouldn't have been running in flip-flops," says Di Saia. At first he didn't think much of the injury, but as it became more painful, he showed it to a colleague, who told him he'd ruptured his triceps tendon. "He said I needed surgery immediately."

One problem: Di Saia, a plastic surgeon in San Clemente, California, didn't have health insurance; he'd ended one policy a few weeks before and was about to start a new one. "It's pretty embarrasing when you're a physician and you say you don't have health insurance. They think you're some kind of an idiot," he says.

Once he got over the embarrassment, Di Saia buckled down and negotiated with doctors and the outpatient clinic to get the price for his surgery cut in half, from $4,800 to $2,400. While he says he was clearly at an advantage being a doctor, he thinks everyone can -- and should -- negotiate health care costs if they don't have insurance.

"You should always ask. Why wouldn't you try?" he says. [READ MORE]

Research on mice links fast food to Alzheimer's

LONDON (Reuters) - Mice fed junk food for nine months showed signs of developing the abnormal brain tangles strongly associated with Alzheimer's disease, a Swedish researcher said on Friday.

The findings, which come from a series of published papers by a researcher at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, show how a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol could increase the risk of the most common type of dementia.

"On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain," Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, who led the study, said in a statement. [READ MORE]

Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes

Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the US government laboratory which developed the first atomic bomb.

The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground. [READ MORE]

Road to Globalism - Talk of a Global Currency

The former Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has been saying for some time that the world should abandon the US dollar as a global reserve currency since its fluctuations tend to harm everyone who uses it for trade or as store of value. OPEC calls the US dollar a worthless piece of paper. Argentina, Cuba, Iran, Iraq and Venezuela have already said “no” to the dollar. [READ MORE]

Stupid is as Stupid Does

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Pause a moment, reflect back.

These events are actual events from history..

They really happened!!!

Do you remember?

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male extremist.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslim male extremists.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslim male extremists.

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by Muslim male extremists.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslim male extremists.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslim male extremists.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslim male extremists.

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslim male extremists.

9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslim male extremists.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim male extremists.

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by Muslim male extremists.

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslim male extremists.

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by-- you guessed it-- Muslim male extremists.

No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people... Absolutely No Profiling!

They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males alone lest they be guilty of profiling.

According to The Book of Revelations:

The Anti-Christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, he will destroy everything.

And Now:
For the award winning Act of Stupidity Of all times the People of America want to elect, to the most Powerful position on the face of the Planet -- The Presidency of the United states of America .. . A Male of Muslim descent who is the most extremely liberal Senator in Congress (in other words an extremist) and in his 40s.

Have the American People completely lost their Minds, or just their Power of Reason ???

I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the 'unknown' candidate Obama...
Oh and I love the Jesse Jackson approach, we don't like him because he's Black..!!

As the writer of the award winning novel 'Forrest Gump' so aptly put it,
'Stupid Is As Stupid Does'

Author unknown...

Change is not always good...

Remember the election in 2006?

Thought you might like to read the following:

A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $4.10 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
7) Food prices skyrocketing over 30% in 1 year.

America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!

Remember, it is Congress that makes the laws and spends our money -not the President. He has to work with what's handed to him.

Part 2:
Taxes...Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.
www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.HTML

Taxes under CLINTON-1999 Taxes under BUSH-2008
Single earning: Single earning:
30K - taxed- $ 8,400 30K - taxed $ 4,500
50K - taxed $ 14,000 50K - taxed $ 12,500
75K - taxed $ 23,250 75K - taxed $ 18,750
Married earning: Married earning:
60K - taxed $ 16,800 60K - taxed $ 9,000
75K - taxed $ 21,000 75K - taxed $ 18,750
125K - taxed $ 38,750 125K - taxed $ 31,250

Barack Obama promises to return to the higher tax rates if elected. It is amazing how many people who fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever.

If elected, Barack Obama has already promised that he will repeal the Bush tax cuts, and amazingly, a good portion of the people who fall into the categories above can't wait for it to happen.

PART 3:
You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this: Boy, am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. Read on...

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77
2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://wwwcis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html
4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
Verify at: http://transcripts.CNN.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.HTML
5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
Verify at: http://transcripts..cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.
Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html
9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html
10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html
11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and
marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl..com/t9sht
12. The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.'
Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf
13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm
14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.'
Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml
The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

Are we THAT stupid?

Rush Limbaugh: The man who's always Right

Although Rush Limbaugh doesn't actually work from a bunker, he does have a bunker mentality. His studio is on the third floor of a (purposefully) anonymous building 100 yards off the white sands of Palm Beach, Florida, and about a mile from his gated mansion (the one next to Chuck Norris's). Along with the Gulfstream jet (cost: $54 million), fleet of sports cars and eight-year contract, worth $400 million, this mansion is his reward for being the most listened-to talk-radio host in America, a title he has held for 20 years. [READ MORE]

Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber

Investigators trying to determine whether access was illegal
Friday, October 24, 2008 8:57 PM
By Randy Ludlow
The Columbus Dispatch
"State and local officials are investigating if state and law-enforcement computer systems were illegally accessed when they were tapped for personal information about "Joe the Plumber."

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher became part of the national political lexicon Oct. 15 when Republican presidential candidate John McCain mentioned him frequently during his final debate with Democrat Barack Obama.

The 34-year-old from the Toledo suburb of Holland is held out by McCain as an example of an American who would be harmed by Obama's tax proposals.

Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher's driver's license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate.

Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department.

It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver's license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business.

Paul Lindsay, Ohio spokesman for the McCain campaign, attempted to portray the inquiries as politically motivated. "It's outrageous to see how quickly Barack Obama's allies would abuse government power in an attempt to smear a private citizen who dared to ask a legitimate question," he said.

Isaac Baker, Obama's Ohio spokesman, denounced Lindsay's statement as charges of desperation from a campaign running out of time. "Invasions of privacy should not be tolerated. If these records were accessed inappropriately, it had nothing to do with our campaign and should be investigated fully," he said.

The attorney general's office is investigating if the access of Wuzelbacher's BMV information through the office's Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway computer system was unauthorized, said spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi.

"We're trying to pinpoint where it came from," she said. The investigation could become "criminal in nature," she said. Brindisi would not identify the account that pulled the information on Oct. 16.

Records show it was a "test account" assigned to the information technology section of the attorney general's office, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Thomas Hunter.

Brindisi later said investigators have confirmed that Wurzelbacher's information was not accessed within the attorney general's office. She declined to provide details. The office's test accounts are shared with and used by other law enforcement-related agencies, she said.

On Oct. 17, BMV information on Wurzelbacher was obtained through an account used by the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency in Cleveland, records show.

Mary Denihan, spokeswoman for the county agency, said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services contacted the agency today and requested an investigation of the access to Wurzelbacher's information. Cuyahoga County court records do not show any child-support cases involving Wurzelbacher.

The State Highway Patrol, which administers the Law Enforcement Automated Data System in Ohio, asked Toledo police to explain why it pulled BMV information on Wurzelbacher within 48 hours of the debate, Hunter said.

The LEADS system also can be used to check for warrants and criminal histories, but such checks would not be reflected on the records obtained by The Dispatch.

Sgt. Tim Campbell, a Toledo police spokesman, said he could not provide any information because the department only had learned of the State Highway Patrol inquiry today.

Presidential Tax Calculators

Barack Obama’s campaign Web site has posted a calculator that tells you how much you would be paying in taxes under his plan. The point, of course, is to demonstrate that Senator Obama’s plan “will cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.” If you select an income level of “$250,000 and up,” though, it does not tell you what your tax increase would be; it says only, “You will probably not get a tax cut under the Obama-Biden plan.” Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group, has also criticized the calculator’s methodology.

John McCain’s Web site does not appear to have a similar device. But there are a few other calculators on the Web that can give you more details, as well as a side-by-side comparison of how Senator Obama’s and Senator McCain’s proposals would affect you if passed.

This user-friendly site calculates the total taxes you would probably pay under both plans, although it does not show you how the figures compare with what you would pay under current law.

This site, run by an apparent Obama supporter, does give you a side-by-side comparison of the change in your tax liability. If you choose an income level at which you will likely see a tax increase under Senator Obama’s plan, it initially soft-pedals the result (”You probably will not get an Obama tax cut. This calculation is not perfect, and Obama has recently promised not to raise taxes for anyone making less than $250,000 per year.”) But at least it gives you the numbers. The calculations appear to be derived from an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank run jointly by Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute.

[Originally at: New York Times]

Obama reminds me of Castro

Obama reminds me of Castro

I just woke up and couldn’t help but think that in about a month from today we Americans, will be deciding the future of our country. I would be betraying myself if I don’t call the spade a spade, straight up from the way I see it.

The Democratic Party candidates, Barrack Obama and Joseph Biden are presenting and offering, in my personal opinion, the most liberal/socialist/communistic platform every offered to the voters of the United States of America.

Believe me, I know what I’m writing about because I am referring to something I heard before, a long, long time ago. As a matter of fact it was almost 50 years ago, in January of 1959, when a then young Cuban revolutionary leader offered similar ideas to us, the people of the country where I was born and raised.

“We are going to change this and we are going to change that!”

“We are going to change and eliminate all government corruptions...

“We are going to change the whole government and help you poor and middle class people improve your standard of living and go up with your lives....We will change everything and tap into and raid the coffers of the rich bastards to help you, the poorer and oppressed...”

This is more or less the condensed version of the speech Fidel Castro gave upon his arrival in Havana, to the many like myself, the middle class Cubans. That speech lasted more than four hours and I can’t help but see that the ticket Obama/Biden is proclaiming is the same theme.

Yes, definitely, we need changes in the way our federal government handles our affairs. Yes someone needs to stop the corruption in Washington, D.C. As a fact, when elected and sworn in, our congressmen/women and senators men/women are supposed to handle the problems facing the United States of American and all its citizens. They are not supposed to follow the platform any particular political party.

Wake up people before it is too late. Believe me, those guys will get everyone to one level — down!

Cesar Guerra

Lake Wales

Where pros are putting their cash

Money magazine asked several financial experts: What are you doing with your own portfolio in the wake of the financial crisis?

Karen Altfest, financial planner, Altfest and Co, New York, N.Y.

"I'm not looking at the market every 20 minutes, not listening to every talking head on TV. I'm not making many changes [to my portfolio] because I've been well positioned for some time. But I recently bought some additional bonds because I found some good opportunities in bonds with very high yields." [READ MORE][ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

Planting Seeds of Disaster

October 7, 2008 7:00 AM

Planting Seeds of Disaster
ACORN, Barack Obama, and the Democratic party.

By Stanley Kurtz (National Review Online)

‘You’ve got only a couple thousand bucks in the bank. Your job pays you dog-food wages. Your credit history has been bent, stapled, and mutilated. You declared bankruptcy in 1989. Don’t despair: You can still buy a house.” So began an April 1995 article in the Chicago Sun-Times that went on to direct prospective home-buyers fitting this profile to a group of far-left “community organizers” called ACORN, for assistance. In retrospect, of course, encouraging customers like this to buy homes seems little short of madness.

Militant ACORN
At the time, however, that 1995 Chicago newspaper article represented something of a triumph for Barack Obama. That same year, as a director at Chicago’s Woods Fund, Obama was successfully pushing for a major expansion of assistance to ACORN, and sending still more money ACORN’s way from his post as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Through both funding and personal-leadership training, Obama supported ACORN. And ACORN, far more than we’ve recognized up to now, had a major role in precipitating the subprime crisis.

I’ve already told the story of Obama’s close ties to ACORN leader Madeline Talbott, who personally led Chicago ACORN’s campaign to intimidate banks into making high-risk loans to low-credit customers. Using provisions of a 1977 law called the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), Chicago ACORN was able to delay and halt the efforts of banks to merge or expand until they had agreed to lower their credit standards — and to fill ACORN’s coffers to finance “counseling” operations like the one touted in that Sun-Times article. This much we’ve known. Yet these local, CRA-based pressure-campaigns fit into a broader, more disturbing, and still under-appreciated national picture. Far more than we’ve recognized, ACORN’s local, CRA-enabled pressure tactics served to entangle the financial system as a whole in the subprime mess. ACORN was no side-show. On the contrary, using CRA and ties to sympathetic congressional Democrats, ACORN succeeded in drawing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into the very policies that led to the current disaster.

In one of the first book-length scholarly studies of ACORN, Organizing Urban America, Rutgers University political scientist Heidi Swarts describes this group, so dear to Barack Obama, as “oppositional outlaws.” Swarts, a strong supporter of ACORN, has no qualms about stating that its members think of themselves as “militants unafraid to confront the powers that be.” “This identity as a uniquely militant organization,” says Swarts, “is reinforced by contentious action.” ACORN protesters will break into private offices, show up at a banker’s home to intimidate his family, or pour protesters into bank lobbies to scare away customers, all in an effort to force a lowering of credit standards for poor and minority customers. According to Swarts, long-term ACORN organizers “tend to see the organization as a solitary vanguard of principled leftists...the only truly radical community organization.”

ACORN’s Inside Strategy
Yet ACORN’s entirely deserved reputation for militance is balanced by its less-well-known “inside strategy.” ACORN has long employed Washington-based lobbyists who understand very well how the legislative game is played. ACORN’s national lobbyists may encourage and benefit from the militant tactics of their base, but in the halls of congress they play the game with smooth sophistication. The untold story of ACORN’s central role in the financial meltdown is about the one-two punch to the banking system administered by this outside/inside strategy.

Critics of the notion that CRA had a major impact on the subprime crisis ask how a law passed in 1977 could have caused a crisis in 2008? The answer has a lot to do with ACORN — and the critical years of 1990-1995. While the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act did call on banks to increase lending in poor and minority neighborhoods, its exact requirements were vague, and therefore open to a good deal of regulatory interpretation. Banks merger or expansion plans were rarely held up under CRA until the late 1980s, when ACORN perfected its technique of filing CRA complaints in tandem with the sort of intimidation tactics perfected by that original “community organizer” (and Obama idol), Saul Alinsky.

At first, ACORN’s anti-bank actions were relatively few in number. However, under a provision of the 1989 savings and loan bailout pushed by liberal Democratic legislators, like Massachusetts Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, lenders were required to compile public records of mortgage applicants by race, gender, and income. Although the statistics produced by these studies were presented in highly misleading ways, groups like ACORN were able to use them to embarrass banks into lowering credit standards. At the same time, a wave of banking mergers in the early 1990's provided an opening for ACORN to use CRA to force lending changes. Any merger could be blocked under CRA, and once ACORN began systematically filing protests over minority lending, a formerly toothless set of regulations began to bite.

ACORN’s efforts to undermine credit standards in the late 1980s taught it a valuable lesson. However much pressure ACORN put on banks to lower credit standards, tough requirements in the “secondary market” run by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac served as a barrier to change. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy up mortgages en masse, bundle them, and sell them to investors on the world market. Back then, Fannie and Freddie refused to buy loans that failed to meet high credit standards. If, for example, a local bank buckled to ACORN pressure and agreed to offer poor or minority applicants a 5-percent down-payment rate, instead of the normal 10-20 percent, Fannie and Freddie would refuse to buy up those mortgages. That would leave all the risk of these shaky loans with the local bank. So again and again, local banks would tell ACORN that, because of standards imposed by Fannie and Freddie, they could lower their credit standards by only a little.

So the eighties taught ACORN that a high-pressure, Alinskyite outside strategy wouldn’t be enough. Their Washington lobbyists would have to bring inside pressure on the government to undercut credit standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Only then would local banks consider making loans available to customers with bad credit histories, low wages, virtually nothing in the bank, and even bankruptcies on record.

Democrats and ACORN
As early as 1987, ACORN began pressuring Fannie and Freddie to review their standards, with modest results. By 1989, ACORN had lured Fannie Mae into the first of many “pilot projects” designed to help local banks lower credit standards. But it was all small potatoes until the serious pressure began in early 1991. At that point, Democratic Senator Allan Dixon convened a Senate subcommittee hearing at which an ACORN representative gave key testimony. It’s probably not a coincidence that Dixon, like Obama, was an Illinois Democrat, since Chicago has long been a stronghold of ACORN influence.

Dixon gave credibility to ACORN’s accusations of loan bias, although these claims of racism were disputed by Missouri Republican, Christopher Bond. ACORN’s spokesman strenuously complained that his organization’s efforts to relax local credit standards were being blocked by requirements set by the secondary market. Dixon responded by pressing Fannie and Freddie to do more to relax those standards — and by promising to introduce legislation that would ensure it. At this early stage, Fannie and Freddie walked a fine line between promising to do more, while protesting any wholesale reduction of credit requirements.

By July of 1991, ACORN’s legislative campaign began to bear fruit. As the Chicago Tribune put it, “Housing activists have been pushing hard to improve housing for the poor by extracting greater financial support from the country’s two highly profitable secondary mortgage-market companies. Thanks to the help of sympathetic lawmakers, it appeared...that they may succeed.” The Tribune went on to explain that House Democrat Henry Gonzales had announced that Fannie and Freddie had agreed to commit $3.5 billion to low-income housing in 1992 and 1993, in addition to a just-announced $10 billion “affordable housing loan program” by Fannie Mae. The article emphasizes ACORN pressure and notes that Fannie and Freddie had been fighting against the plan as recently as a week before agreement was reached. Fannie and Freddie gave in only to stave off even more restrictive legislation floated by congressional Democrats.

A mere month later, ACORN Housing Corporation president, George Butts made news by complaining to a House Banking subcommittee that ACORN’s efforts to pressure banks using CRA were still being hamstrung by Fannie and Freddie. Butts also demanded still more data on the race, gender, and income of loan applicants. Many news reports over the ensuing months point to ACORN as the key source of pressure on congress for a further reduction of credit standards at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. As a result of this pressure, ACORN was eventually permitted to redraft many of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s loan guideline.

Clinton and ACORN
ACORN’s progress through 1992 depended on its Democratic allies. Whatever ACORN managed to squeeze out of the George H. W. Bush administration came under congressional pressure. With the advent of the Clinton administration, however, ACORN’s fortunes took a positive turn. Clinton Housing Secretary Henry Cisnersos pledged to meet monthly with ACORN representatives. For ACORN, those meetings bore fruit.

Another factor working in ACORN’s favor was that its increasing success with local banks turned those banks into allies in the battle with Fannie and Freddie. Precisely because ACORN’s local pressure tactics were working, banks themselves now wanted Fannie and Freddie to loosen their standards still further, so as to buy up still more of the high-risk loans they’d made at ACORN’s insistence. So by the 1993, a grand alliance of ACORN, national Democrats, and local bankers looking for someone to lessen the risks imposed on them by CRA and ACORN were uniting to pressure Fannie and Freddie to loosen credit standards still further.

At this point, both ACORN and the Clinton administration were working together to impose large numerical targets or “set asides” (really a sort of poor and minority loan quota system) on Fannie and Freddie. ACORN called for at least half of Fannie and Freddie loans to go to low-income customers. At first the Clinton administration offered a set-aside of 30 percent. But eventually ACORN got what it wanted. In early 1994, the Clinton administration floated plans for committing $1 trillion in loans to low- and moderate-income home-buyers, which would amount to about half of Fannie Mae’s business by the end of the decade. Wall Street Analysts attributed Fannie Mae’s willingness to go along with the change to the need to protect itself against still more severe “congressional attack.” News reports also highlighted praise for the change from ACORN’s head lobbyist, Deepak Bhargava.

This sweeping debasement of credit standards was touted by Fannie Mae’s chairman, chief executive officer, and now prominent Obama adviser James A. Johnson. This is also the period when Fannie Mae ramped up its pilot programs and local partnerships with ACORN, all of which became precedents and models for the pattern of risky subprime mortgages at the root of today’s crisis. During these years, Obama’s Chicago ACORN ally, Madeline Talbott, was at the forefront of participation in those pilot programs, and her activities were consistently supported by Obama through both foundation funding and personal leadership training for her top organizers.

Finally, in June of 1995, President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and Secretary Cisneros announced the administration’s comprehensive new strategy for raising home-ownership in America to an all-time high. Representatives from ACORN were guests of honor at the ceremony. In his remarks, Clinton emphasized that: “Out homeownership strategy will not cost the taxpayers one extra cent. It will not require legislation.” Clinton meant that informal partnerships between Fannie and Freddie and groups like ACORN would make mortgages available to customers “who have historically been excluded from homeownership.”

Disaster
In the end of course, Clinton’s plan cost taxpayers an almost unimaginable amount of money. And it was just around the time of his 1995 announcement that the Chicago papers started encouraging bad-credit customers with “dog-food” wages, little money in the bank, and even histories of bankruptcy to apply for home loans with the help of ACORN. At both the local and national levels, then, ACORN served as the critical catalyst, levering pressure created by the Community Reinvestment Act and pull with Democratic politicians to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a pattern of high-risk loans.

Up to now, conventional wisdom on the financial meltdown has relegated ACORN and the CRA to bit parts. The real problem, we’ve been told, lay with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In fact, however, ACORN is at the base of the whole mess. ACORN used CRA and Democratic sympathizers to entangle Fannie and Freddie and the entire financial system in a disastrous disregard of the most basic financial standards. And Barack Obama cut his teeth as an organizer and politician backing up ACORN’s economic madness every step of the way.

— Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Institute.

[ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

What Says to Employers, 'Hire Me!'

After several long months of unsuccessfully posting his resume and applying to jobs online, Alex Ballin, 24, decided to take his job search into his own hands. The 2008 graduate from Radford University planted himself at a busy intersection in downtown Roanoke, Va., sporting a white sign that read, "Talented B.A. Needs Career" along with his business suit.

While Ballin's tactic was a more extreme -- and literal -- way to grab an employer's attention, with such uncertainty surrounding the economy, these intense and creative approaches are a must for today's job seeker. [READ MORE]

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Text

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 Text [PDF][442 Pages][Senate Version]

Full Text of the Bailout Bill [PDF]

Full Text of the Bailout Bill [PDF]-110 Pages

GM expects the Volt to be 100-mpg certified

General Motors Corp. said Friday that it had reached a preliminary agreement that cleared the way for U.S. regulators to certify the Chevrolet Volt as the first 100-mile-per-gallon car. But the Environmental Protection Agency said testing guidelines hadn't been finalized.

The Volt, an electric vehicle that can be charged at home and has a range-extending gas-powered generator on board, is expected to start selling in late 2010. GM says it will be able to travel 40 miles before the generator kicks in. [READ MORE]

Obama The Liberal Savior

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No
resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no
understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world
works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real
substance.

He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of
him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African
Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply
proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . Only a small part of
him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is
exclusively.

What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is 'African-American,' the
descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave
ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab
ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in
East Africa for centuries until theBritish ended it.

Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the
descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte
came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is
beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents
reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it
from the evil of being human to the evil of being white.

Thus Obama has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution
from the Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no
faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make
of any kind can be effective against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy
Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for
liberals to worship him: Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is
absurd.

Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and
are in no desperate need of a phony savior.

His candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any thinking American.

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler

Jack Wheeler is a brilliant man who was the author of the strategy to break the back of the Soviet Unionwith the star wars race and expose their inner weakness. For years he wrote a weekly intelligenceupdate that was extremely interesting and well structured and informed. He consults(ed) with several mega corporations on global trends and the future, etc. I think he is in semi-retirement now. He is a truepatriot with a no-nonsense approach to everything. He is also a somewhat well-known mountain climber and adventurer.

A Video Portrait Of Barack Hussein Obama

PART (1)

PART (2)

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Awesome soundtrack dudes...

Android’s threat to the iPhone

If Google plays its cards right, its unveiling of the first Android-powered phone on Tuesday will prove to be more than a distraction from iPhone-mania – it will be the moment the search giant capitalizes on Apple’s control issues.

First, the lowdown on Google’s (GOOG) Android mobile operating system. Think of it as an attempt to do for phones what Windows does for the PC, or OS X does for the Mac. But unlike Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL), Google isn’t looking to make money off of phone software or hardware; instead, it’s giving Android away for free to any phonemaker and wireless carrier who will bake it into a handset. Why? If people use their phones to get online, the more they’ll do Google searches, click Google ads, and in the process, make Google money. [READ MORE]

Common Misspelled Words

Common Misspelled Words [CLICK IMAGE TO ZOOM]

Secrets of Leading a Fulfilling Life

We live in a wonderful age, a time of great discovery and prowess. Yet many people believe that times are hard and that there are fewer opportunities for anyone to succeed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Success is not a set of circumstances is a set of attitudes. Even in times of great difficulty, there are always people who overcome adversity and become immensely successful.

Success never came easily to anyone. It takes a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. Both attributes are essential to reach goals and overcome minor setbacks today.

Strategies:

Be grateful for what you have: All of us have things for which we should be thankful. But we often overlook accomplishments such as a solid job or good health because we are obsessed with trying to achieve what we don't yet possess.

Working hard to reach a goal is important, but it can cause problems for those who focus on that goal and nothing else. Without stopping to appreciate what you have already achieved and realizing that it all can disappear overnight due to some quirk of fate, you leave yourself unprepared for inevitable setbacks.

Important: Think About what you already have before you start each day.

This sort of self-reflection will put your life in perspective and prevent you from having the feeling that all is lost when something doesn't work out.

Be enthusiastic about everything you do: Enthusiasm—that state of exuberance in which all things seem possible—is what drives each of us to pursue something we love. The Greek root word entheos means "possessed by a god or other superhuman power."

The individual who takes up an activity as a positive adventure can inspire the same attitude in others. The employee who looks for ways to enjoy his/her work—and to be enthusiastic about it— sets the stage for others to follow his example.

It takes practice to do anything well. Instead of dwelling on your dissatisfaction, focus on your happiness and watch it expand. A smile is contagious...and while no one can be sunny all the time, if you take up your task with enthusiasm, it is likely that those around you will catch your spirit. Conversely, negative behavior can destroy that spirit.

Example: When you are talking with someone and the two of you start to analyze the character of a third person who is not present, stop yourself. Gossip is always a negative force that leads you away from success and happiness.

It's also important to evaluate your level of enthusiasm. Questions to ask yourself...

-When I am asked to do a job, do I accept it enthusiastically and give it my all?

-Do I avoid cutting corners and give as much effort as promised or even more?

-Do I accept each assignment as a fresh challenge and a chance to grow as both a professional and a person?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, you must assess why your enthusiasm has diminished.

By developing a happy, positive acceptance of the good things that you have right now, you can be sure that you will know how to enjoy the surprises that come your way in the future.

Make sure your job is your career: A job can sustain your interest while you make enough money to support yourself in a comfortable lifestyle.

But a career is more than that—it is a vocation. The word vocation comes from the Latin root to call. Therefore, your vocation is a calling and, in a very deep sense, finding your vocation is finding yourself. When you have found your calling, you can give love through your work.

In fact, love is the key to successfully mastering your vocation. It directs you to those special talents you can give the world and shows you how to share them with others. It can return rewards far greater than the accumulation of wealth.

Realize that success is a journey, not a destination: Successful people do not stop working hard once they've reached their goals. Instead, they set new goals. These people know the law of inertia—it is easier for an object to stay in motion once it is moving. . .and to remain still once it has stopped.

Once you overcome your inertia of rest, you can use your inertia of motion to succeed at anything you start.

This will require you to work a little harder than those who are moderately; successful. That extra effort will product consistently higher quality in your work and fuel your morale. Your teamwork with your peers will also be extraordinary.

Learn as much as possible from those around you: You possess an inner wisdom that enables you to determine who your teachers are and what they have to teach you.

To find your teachers, look at the people closest to you—your family, your friends and your co-workers. The people with whom you spend the most time can tell you much about yourself.

To find teachers who will help you to become successful, carefully study the behavior and actions of those you admire a great deal. Look for someone with honesty, integrity and compassion, since these are the basic ingredients of a truly successful person.

And by becoming this kind of person, you will attract others of similar virtue. Your inner success will automatically create your outer success.

Perseverance is the difference between success and defeat: Reaching a goal may require repeated attempts. Each attempt brings you closer to achieving the objective and in the process helps you set other goals as well. Among these may be personal redirection or the achievement of a greater good that you had not initially planned.

Perseverance is the voice within, urging you that if at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. To persevere is to remain constant to a purpose, idea or task in the face of obstacles and discouragement.

In order to persevere, you must have positive and loving thoughts. That's because they spark a whole range of feelings that lift your spirits. If, on the other hand, you concentrate on negative thoughts and fearful emotions, you conjure up an even greater negativity. You'll also be more likely to abandon the goal you are trying to achieve. Source: Sir John Templeton/Bottom Line Personal Mag.

The Socialist Republic of Florida, Chapter One

Matthew Falconer
September 19, 2008
Chapter One Save Our Homes-The beginning of the end.

In 1992, Ken Wilkinson, a County Property Appraiser from Lee County, Florida, was successful in promoting and getting into law a bill known as "Save Our Homes." The law limited the increase in property taxes on "homestead property" to CPI (the Consumer Price Index) or 3% annually. A homestead property is a permanent residence, not a second home, rental apartment, or commercial building. Wilkinson said, "Government should not be in the business of taxing people off their primary residence." This sounds nice, but as is often the case with government regulations, there were unintended consequences.

Save Our Homes was sold to the people of Florida as a tax limit. This couldn´t be farther from the truth. In essence, Save Our Homes is flawed because it is not a tax limit, but a tax shift. The "savings" of homestead property owners was/is made up by additional taxation of non-homestead property owners. This tax shift is estimated at $7 billion a year and counting (2). The biggest effect of this law was that most Florida taxpayers were shielded from sharp increases in property taxes. Most residents did not have to share in the increasing costs and economic burden of a growth in government spending, and thus government was "politically sheltered" to spend revenues more freely. [READ MORE]

Hackers block Qaeda’s 9/11 terror on tape

Hackers prevented Al Qaeda from releasing a videotape to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Al Qaeda has traditionally issued a video or audiotape by either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri, the terror network’s two leaders, to mark their massive terrorist attack on the US.

As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media unit, had indicated earlier this week that it would post such a videotape on September 11. As-Sahab had banner images on the internet showing a silhouetted head with a question mark and the words, “Wait 11 September”.

The US-based intelligence group IntelCenter had speculated the video would be a message from Osama or Zawahiri with a recording of the last will and testament of Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders of the 9/11 attackers.

Sources close to US intelligence said, “Hackers knocked out Al Qaeda’s online means of communication, thus preventing them from posting anything to commemorate the anniversary.”

Western intelligence suspects two hackers who have targeted Islamicist sites before were responsible: Aaron Weisburd from Internet Haganah and Rusty Shackleford from the web group My Pet Jawa. Continued on Page 20

Both have been active in ongoing Internet battle between Islamicist hackers and their opponents.

Terrorism expert B Raman says, “I received word two days ago that it was possible the tape would not be released because of hackers.” He noted: “As Sahab is having problems. (Al Qaeda spokesperson) Adam Gadan, in charge of the website, has not been heard of for six months. There are reports he may have been killed in Pakistan.” He expects the tape to be issued three or four days from now. “Or they will send it to Al Jazeera.”

This is not the first time hackers have dented the plans of the world’s deadliest terror network. In 2004, a hacker group called TeAmZ USA had knocked out the websites of Abu Musal al-Zarqawi, late head of the Al Qaeda in Iraq, for showing tapes of Westerners being beheaded. The hackers left the image of a gun-toting penguin on the website.

Last year’s Al Qaeda anniversary videotape included a eulogy by Bin Laden to 9/11 attacker Waleed al Shehri and his video will — a recording made by suicide bombers before they carry out their missions. Al Qaeda failed to issue an anniversary tape in 2004 as well, leading to speculation Bin Laden had died. Last year, Washington released the anniversary tape two days before Al Qaeda did. Says Raman, “This was probably to deliberately show the US had hacked the password to Al Qaeda’s website.”

[ORIGINAL ARTICLE]

The Wall Street Panic of 2008

Panic: In economics, acute financial disturbance, such as widespread bank failures, feverish stock speculation followed by a market crash, or a climate of fear caused by economic crisis or the anticipation of such crisis.
-- Britannica Online

Make no mistake -- by this definition, what we've witnessed so far in 2008 is nothing less than a global market panic. [READ MORE]

Lowering your Blood Pressure Naturally with DASH

Y O U R G U I D E T O:
Lowering Your Blood
Pressure With DASH

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

What you choose to eat affects your chances of developing high
blood pressure, or hypertension (the medical term). Recent studies
show that blood pressure can be lowered by following the Dietary
Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan—and by
eating less salt, also called sodium.

While each step alone lowers blood pressure, the combination of the
eating plan and a reduced sodium intake gives the biggest benefit
and may help prevent the development of high blood pressure.

[DOWNLOAD GUIDE (PDF) HERE]

The Death Of OPEC

Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday. It said it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran.

As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home.

As the Saudis left the building the message was shockingly clear. According to The New York Times, “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate said. “We will see what the market requires and we will not leave a customer without oil."

OPEC will still have lavish meetings and a nifty headquarters in Vienna, Austria, but the Saudis have made certain the the organization has lost its teeth. Even though the cartel argued that the sudden drop in crude as due to "over-supply", OPEC's most powerful member knows that the drop may only be temporary. Cold weather later this year could put pressure on prices. So could a decision by Russia that it wants to "punish" the US and EU for a time. That political battle is only at its beginning.

The downward pressure on oil got a second hand. Brazil has confirmed another huge oil deposit to add to one it discovered off-shore earlier this year. The first field uncovered by Petrobras has the promise of being one of the largest in the world. That breadth of that deposit has now expanded.

OPEC needs that Saudis to have any credibility in terms of pricing, supply, and the ongoing success of its bully pulpit. By failing to keep its most critical member it forfeits its leverage.

OPEC has made no announcement to the effect that it is dissolving, but the process is already over.

Douglas A. McIntyre

[Original Article]

Sarah Palin Interview win Charlie Gibson (Part 2)

Charlie Gibson's Gaffe

By Charles Krauthammer

Saturday, September 13, 2008

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

He asked Palin, "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"

She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, "In what respect, Charlie?" [READ MORE]

Sarah Palin Interview win Charlie Gibson (Part 1)

Dear Mr. Obama

5 Reasons to Buy a Used Car

By John Rosevear

Ah, that new-car smell. For many, it's a wonderful intoxicant, one that lures them back to their favorite car dealer as soon as it fades from their most recent purchase.

But as with other intoxicants, getting hooked on that aroma can be an expensive habit. Two years after your purchase, long after the scents of newness have faded, your new car will have lost a ton of value -- 30% or more, on average. Combine that with the additional hit you'll take if you trade it in rather than sell it yourself, and you could be losing almost half of what you paid for that beast just two years ago.

If, on the other hand, you can live without the robust fragrance of alkanes, benzenes, and aldehydes during your morning commute, then you're in luck. A well-chosen used car can be a reliable, fun, and Foolish purchase that can give you years of (relatively) low-cost service.

Let's look at five reasons why it's worth thinking about buying used the next time around.

* Cars are more reliable than ever. Survey after survey shows that the best current cars provide longer, more dependable service than ever before. Consumer Reports regularly publishes lists of the best used-car bets, based on its own extensive survey database. Get a copy of Consumer Reports' most recent annual auto issue; you'll find great choices in most price ranges.
* Avoid the worst of the depreciation hit. Cars depreciate every year, but the biggest slices of value come off in the first two to three years of its life. A two-year-old car that's been well treated will still give you years of service -- and some of that new-car feel -- for thousands less.
* More car for less money. Want a BMW for Honda money? Or maybe just an Accord for Civic money? Buying used lets you take advantage of someone else's depreciation hit. (But research your maintenance and insurance costs first. BMWs are solid and durable cars, but their parts cost more than Honda's. Buy that dream car carefully.)
* The Internet helps you find what you want. Got your heart set on a red Toyota Prius with a navigation system? Before you start calling dealers looking for a new one, check out the used listings on sites such as AutoTrader.com and Cars.com. You may be able to find the car of your dreams: lightly used, close to home, and at a substantial discount from new.
* Dealer "certification" programs. Nearly every automaker now offers a used-car "certification" program, under which the manufacturer inspects, repairs, and "certifies" recent used cars that then get sold with a warranty. These programs are a notable compromise between buying new and buying used; they give used-car buyers a relationship with a dealer, a factory-backed warranty, and assurance that they're not buying major hidden problems. You'll generally pay a bit more for a "certified" used car versus one bought from a private seller, but the benefits can be substantial.

Some last thoughts: If the car you're considering isn't "certified," run its VIN through CARFAX to check for past insurance claims, and have a local mechanic inspect it before you decide to buy. If the seller won't let you have it inspected by an independent mechanic, don't even bother arguing -- move on to the next candidate.

And finally, although cars from Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have topped the reliability lists for years, don't rule out the domestics. The best products from General Motors and Ford have held their own in recent reliability comparisons, and the higher initial depreciation hit on domestic cars versus imports might lead you to an excellent value purchase.

Keep these tips in mind before you get behind the wheel of your next vehicle. You'll be happy you did.

Source: The Motley Fool

The Five Best Performing Stock Market Indicators

Sentiment index. The number of bearish investment services as monitored by Investors Intelligence, a stock-market advisory. Bullish sign: Almost 50% of the investment advisers are bullish. Fewer than 17.8% of the advisers are bearish. (The advisory consensus is usually wrong at significant turns in the market.)

Member trading. Bullish when members of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) swing from the sell to the buy side. Bearish when they swing to the sell side. This indicator has a bias toward the sell side as a general rule, so deviations are what are significant.

Funds' cash. Bullish when funds have more than 9.4 % in cash. Bearish when cash is below 6.2%.

Swing direction. Swings of more than 5% on the Dow. Bullish when up. Bearish when down.

Advance-decline figures. Two week daily average of advances minus declines on the NYSE as a percentage of total issues traded. Bullish when over + 13.8%. Bearish when below- 18.2%.

Investment strategy: The study that analyzed these indicators suggests that long positions in the stock market are justified when at least four out of five of the above indicators are in a bullish mode. Hold positions until the majority of indicators turn bearish. Sell short only when four out of five are in a bearish mode.

Source: Merrill Analysis, Inc.

Noonan: They're Paying Attention Now

Why is it a real race now, with John McCain rising in the polls and Barack Obama falling? There are many answers, but here I think is an essential one: The American people have begun paying attention.

It's hard for our political class to remember that Mr. Obama has been famous in America only since the winter of '08. America met him barely six months ago! The political class first interviewed him, or read the interview, in 2003 or '04, when he was a rising star. They know him. Everyone else is still absorbing.

This is what they see:

An attractive, intelligent man, interesting, but—he's hard to categorize. Is he Gen. Obama? No, no military background. Brilliant Businessman Obama? No, he never worked in business. Famous Name Obama? No, it's a new name, an unusual one. Longtime Southern Governor Obama? No. He's a community organizer (what's that?), then a lawyer (boo), then a state legislator (so what, so's my cousin), then U.S. senator (less than four years!).

There is no pre-existing category for him. [READ MORE]

Republicans see Obama coronation postponed

Just a few weeks ago, John McCain's critics were carping at his stuttering, off-message White House campaign, warning it could be steamrolled as Democrat Barack Obama took Europe by storm.

But McCain is back, just in time, with party nominating conventions and vice presidential picks looming. The Republican is sharper on the stump, firing off hard-nosed attacks and on a roll in the polls.

"We don't know who is going to win," said Republican pollster Brian Nienaber.

"But we certainly know that the myth that Obama is going to ascend uncontested to the presidency through adulation and grace and successful oratory is certainly not the case." [READ MORE]

After Russia's invasion of Georgia, what now for the West?

By John R Bolton 15 Aug 2008

Russia’s invasion across an internationally recognised border, its thrashing of the Georgian military, and its smug satisfaction in humbling one of its former fiefdoms represents only the visible damage. [READ MORE]

Barack Obama blinks in Hillary face-off

Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he's playing defense at his own convention. [READ MORE]

Obama vs McCain on Experience

John McCain
Congress 26 Years
Military 22 Years

Barrack Obama
Congress 143 days
Military 0

Just think how great a professional of any kind you could
be with only 143 days of experience!!!

People want change so badly? . . . . maybe we should
lower the experience requirement for doctors, lawyers,
airline pilots, etc. This would cause some change!

Obama's 143 Days of Senate Experience

Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama
have in terms of actual work days? Not much.

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United
States Senator, to the time he announced he was forming
a Presidential exploratory Committee, he logged 143 days
of experience in the Senate.

That's how many days the Senate was actually in session
and working.

The one single Senate committee that he headed never
even met -- once.

After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he
was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the
Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR,
JFK and Ronald Reagan.

Think about it.......143 days -- 20.4 weeks -- 4.7 months ...


Our children spend more time in pre-school getting ready
for kindergarten.

New digital camera? Know how, where you can use it

Digital cameras were one of the hot gifts these holidays — the first one for some people, an upgrade for others. Cell-phone cameras are everywhere too, and sites like Flickr and Buzznet — not to mention photoblogs — make it easy for anyone to share the zillions of photos they're taking.

With all these cameras snapping around us, I started to wonder about the laws regarding using them. Where can you shoot? What can you shoot?

A blogger I know shot a picture in an office building. One of the tenants had boxes of medical records sitting around in an unlocked office, visible from the hall. He published a picture of the boxes, which started a little brouhaha: He didn't have permission from the building's landlord, someone said, so he wasn't allowed to take or publish the photos.

That turns out not to be the case. [READ MORE]

Salaries and Benefits of U.S. Congress Members

Congress: Rank-and-File Members' Salary

The current salary (2008) for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $169,300 per year.

* Members are free to turn down pay increase and some choose to do so.

* In a complex system of calculations, administered by the Office of Personnel Management, congressional pay rates also affect the salaries for federal judges and other senior government executives.

* During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin considered proposing that elected government officials not be paid for their service. Other Founding Fathers, however, decided otherwise.

* From 1789 to 1815, members of Congress received only a per diem (daily payment) of $6.00 while in session. Members began receiving an annual salary in 1815, when they were paid $1,500 per year.

Congress: Leadership Members' Salary (110th Congress)
Leaders of the House and Senate are paid a higher salary than rank-and-file members.
Senate Leadership
Majority Leader - $188,100
Minority Leader - $188,100

House Leadership
Speaker of the House - $217,400
Majority Leader - $188,100
Minority Leader - $188,100

A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it.

Congress: Benefits

You may have read that Members of Congress do not pay into Social Security. Well, that's a myth.

Prior to 1984, neither Members of Congress nor any other federal civil service employee paid Social Security taxes. Of course, the were also not eligible to receive Social Security benefits. Members of Congress and other federal employees were instead covered by a separate pension plan called the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). The 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act required federal employees first hired after 1983 to participate in Social Security. These amendments also required all Members of Congress to participate in Social Security as of January 1, 1984, regardless of when they first entered Congress. Because the CSRS was not designed to coordinate with Social Security, Congress directed the development of a new retirement plan for federal workers. The result was the Federal Employees' Retirement System Act of 1986.

Members of Congress receive retirement and health benefits under the same plans available to other federal employees. They become vested after five years of full participation.

Members elected since 1984 are covered by the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). Those elected prior to 1984 were covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). In 1984 all members were given the option of remaining with CSRS or switching to FERS.

As it is for all other federal employees, congressional retirement is funded through taxes and the participants' contributions. Members of Congress under FERS contribute 1.3 percent of their salary into the FERS retirement plan and pay 6.2 percent of their salary in Social Security taxes.

Members of Congress are not eligible for a pension until they reach the age of 50, but only if they've completed 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62. Please also note that Member's of Congress have to serve at least 5 years to even receive a pension.

The amount of a Congressperson's pension depends on the years of service and the average of the highest 3 years of his or her salary. By law, the starting amount of a Member's retirement annuity may not exceed 80% of his or her final salary.

According to the Congressional Research Service, 413 retired Members of Congress were receiving federal pensions based fully or in part on their congressional service as of Oct. 1, 2006. Of this number, 290 had retired under CSRS and were receiving an average annual pension of $60,972. A total of 123 Members had retired with service under both CSRS and FERS or with service under FERS only. Their average annual pension was $35,952 in 2006.

CASH OF CAMPAIGNS CAN GO ELSEWHERE

By RICHARD L. BERKE, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: January 22, 1989

LEAD: Nearly 200 House members have stockpiled $39.2 million in campaign funds that they could use as retirement cushions because of a provision of the Federal election law, a new study reports.

Nearly 200 House members have stockpiled $39.2 million in campaign funds that they could use as retirement cushions because of a provision of the Federal election law, a new study reports.

The study, released this week by Public Citizen's Congress Watch, a research and lobby group here, found that lawmakers are increasingly raising money that they do not spend on their campaigns but are saving for their personal use or to deter potential challengers. [READ FULL ARTICLE]

Learning to Read Democrat

By MICHAEL KINSLEY
Published: August 9, 2008

Seattle

THE purpose of a party platform is pandering, but it is pandering of a particular sort. The Democratic Party’s platform committee has produced its 2008 edition, and now this draft awaits approval at the Democratic National Convention later this month. Like all platforms, it is not an outreach document. It is aimed at the faithful, under the assumption that only they will read it.

The platform is Democrats’ assurance that the party still loves them, their reward for supporting a candidate who may not have been their first choice and their consolation for betrayals yet to come. Much of it is written in code, lest it fall into the wrong hands.

Translating the document is no simple task. First, an alarmist note. Democrats favor “tough, practical and humane immigration reform.” And, “We will provide immediate relief to working people who have lost their jobs, families who have lost their homes and people who have lost their way.” It’s not clear what that third item refers to. Tax credits for G.P.S. devices? Presumably, “people who have lost their way” doesn’t mean illegal immigrants trying to find the border.

As a general rule, platforms of both parties avoid the word “people” in favor of “the American people” or “families” or “American families.” And platforms traditionally follow the rhetorical rule that there are three of everything. This year, though (in a development that will, I fear, reinforce prejudices about liberal profligacy), the Democrats have replaced the Rule of Threes with a Rule of Fours: “policies that are smart and right and fair and good for America,” or “a government as decent, candid, purposeful and compassionate as the American people themselves.” Or sometimes even Fives or Sixes (I’ll spare you).

Sometimes there are only two. Usually this means that some difficult trade-off has been resolved by the simple expedient of promising both alternatives. “We will ensure that our patent laws protect legitimate rights while not stifling innovation and creativity” — an excellent summary of the dilemma of patents since this nation’s founding. Or how about a promise of more research money for “common and rare diseases”? That about covers it.

Then there are the mystery phrases that suggest a triumph for one side in some obscure policy battle. In the midst of a frenzy of health care promises — basically, after the plan is fully implemented in 2050, no one will be permitted to get sick — the Democrats advocate “creating a generic pathway for biologic drugs.” Whether this is a triumph for health and common sense or the miserable handiwork of a drug industry lobbyist (or both!), I have no idea.

And speaking of health care, ordinarily it is not possible to overuse the word “American” or to overpraise this great country and its magnificent people. But the Democrats may have found a way in promising a health care system that is “uniquely American.” A uniquely American health care system is what we’ve got.

Capital Letters can be important clues, suggesting hidden motives and broken promises. “Our Children’s First Agenda” sounds more like a toy for future bureaucrats than a government policy. And a “Presidential Early Learning Council” sounds like what these kids will do when they grow up. “We ... will help Limited English Proficient students get ahead by supporting and funding English Language Learner classes.” This obviously has something to do with bilingual education (or “transitional bilingual education,” as the platform carefully calls it).

A promise to create a “Military Families Advisory Board” sounds as though the military families sold out cheap. On the other hand, a promise to “create an Advanced Manufacturing Fund” and to “expand the Manufacturing Extension Partnerships” sounds expensive and stupid. But that’s just a guess. I could be wrong.

The platform’s most bizarre promise is a tax break for fathers “who are responsibly supporting their children.” The best-hidden boondoggle is dropped into the second half of a sentence in a general passage about women. “We will invest in women-owned small businesses and remove the capital gains tax on start-up small businesses.” (Attention all conservatives: Do not panic! This passage does not mean that Democrats favor government investments in businesses, even small businesses, even small businesses owned by women. That would be socialism. It is a convention of platform-writing that all government spending is referred to as “investment.” The Republicans do it, too. That doesn’t make it right.)

The most shameless promise is one to “eliminate all income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 per year.” These seniors “should not have to worry about tax burdens,” the document says. Who should? Working people making less than $50,000?

“Some of” the cost of catastrophic illness will be taken off the backs of “employers and employees.” And borne by? Who’s left? I guess the unemployed.

As the end approaches, the issues start to blur. Is there really no “White House advisor on Indian Affairs” already? The “self-determination and sovereignty of Native Hawaiians?” Fine with me. The last paragraph is entitled, “Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.” Translation: “Let’s wrap this up and go have a drink.”

Michael Kinsley is a columnist for Time magazine.