WikiLeaks Reports Another Cyber Attack
Boston.com
WikiLeaks, the controversial whistle-blower website, reports that its website is suffering another cyber attack, the second one since Sunday.
The organization tweeted about the attack earlier this morning.
The WikiLeaks website was attacked Sunday, too, hours before it released thousands of confidential cables between US diplomats and foreign governments. The organization was eventually able to post the cables on its website Sunday evening.
WIKILEAKS: Impeachable
Atlas Shrugs
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The buck stops at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I received this most interesting message from an Atlas reader. While I am not sure of the accuracy of everything he asserts, he certainly raises some provocative and important questions. I hope Constitutional scholars are investigating such questions now.
The damage is incalculable. Bottom line: after this, no nation will work with us. No nation will trust us. People on the ground will not put their lives and their families’ lives on the line for so shabby and reckless and feckless an “ally.”
From BJ:
I appreciate everything you do in the name of Freedom and Liberty.
The first set of Documents WikiLeaks released earlier this year, I didn’t make it my duty to read them (because I read everything). I am in my 60′s, well informed -know American History, world history, understand how governments work, and I know that if this Government worked the way the US Constitution intended, we would be in good shape. However, I digress. I didn’t read the first set of WL’s. I remember thinking at the time, why the US Government, which would mean the WH, USSD, NSA, US Justice Department, and it GWOS the WH, refused to do anything.
Now, we have the 2nd set of Wikileaks (involving literally hundreds of thousands of documents), which this Government has known was coming for some time now. I DID read most of these documents this time, and I can tell you this one thing and that is his: Mr. Julian Assange (along with some 22-year-old Private in the US Army) did not do this alone. I realize that computer hackers are good at what they do: Mr. Assange DID NOT get his hands on literally 100′s of thousands of Documents from the U S State Department, etc., without someone in upper levels of Government (with Obama’s WH), and Holder’s Justice Department, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear. It simply cannot be done. You will not see any serious investigations by Holder’s (traitor to his core) I consider Obama, as well as Holder guilty of Treason of the highest order. Of course, I consider B. Hussein Mohamed Obama to be America’s number one enemy.
Basically, this would have NEVER happened under a Reagan Administration.
Does Wikileaks demonstrate impotence of Obama administration?
HotAir.com
posted at 2:55 pm on November 29, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
printer-friendly
Could the Obama administration have stopped any or all of the three Wikileaks data dumps? Former Bush aide Michael Gerson argues that not only could the White House have disrupted Julian Assange’s operation, but that given the potential damage that a breach of diplomatic and military security could mean on this scale, Obama had a duty to do so. The failure to act shows a weakness in Obama that increases the risk for the US, Gerson argues in today’s Washington Post:
WikiLeaks’ first disclosures caught the Obama administration by surprise. But how does the administration explain its inaction in the face of WikiLeaks’ two subsequent, and increasingly dangerous, releases? In both cases, it had fair warning: Assange announced what kinds of documents he possessed, and he made clear his intention to release them.
The Obama administration has the ability to bring Assange to justice and to put WikiLeaks out of business. The new U.S. Cyber Command could shut down WilkiLeaks’ servers and prevent them from releasing more classified information on President Obama’s orders. But, as The Post reported this month, the Obama administration has been paralyzed by infighting over how, and when, it might use these new offensive capabilities in cyberspace. One objection: “The State Department is concerned about diplomatic backlash” from any offensive actions in cyberspace, The Post reported. Well, now the State Department can deal with the “diplomatic backlash” that comes from standing by helplessly, while WikiLeaks releases hundreds of thousands of its most sensitive diplomatic cables.
George Stephanopoulos Spins Wikileaks Release of Documents as ‘Important Information for the Public to Have’
Newsbusters
By Scott Whitlock | November 29, 2010 | 12:18
Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos on Monday offered a sympathetic take on the decision of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to release potentially damaging U.S. security documents. The ABC host wondered if it was “important information for the public to have.“
Talking to Congressman Peter Hoekstra, Stephanopoulos read a quote to the Republican, repeating the words of Assange: “If citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.” Stephanopoulos then emphasized, “He says he’s performing a public service.”
In contrast, CBS’s Harry Smith also interviewed Hoekstra and appeared much more concerned about the impact on national security. The Early Show anchor referred to the massive leak as “stunning” and a “real potential time bomb.” Smith followed up, “Is there anything in this…that is potentially catastrophic in terms of the damage it could do?”
Stephanopoulos, however, made the case for the WikiLeaks founder: “But [the documents] also show instances where governments are not cooperating with us. A release showing that for years we’ve been trying to get the Pakistanis to allow us to secure their nuclear material. And now we know they haven’t done that. Isn’t that important information for the public to have?”
Hoekstra aggressively disagreed with the argument being made by the GMA anchor, arguing, “These are functions that need to be done by government. They need to be done by Congress and the executive branch. You know, this guy really is putting into danger our foreign policy and perhaps the lives of certain Americans around the world.”
A transcript of the November 29 segment, which aired at 7:06am EST, follows:
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And for more now on the potential damage to U.S. security and what can do about it, congressman Pete Hoekstra. He is a Republican from Michigan, sits on the House Intelligence Committee. Thanks for joining us this morning, Congressman. I want to start up by reading you a little bit more of what Julian Assange, the head of WikiLeaks said this morning. He said, “The cables show the U.S. spying on its allies in the UN, turning a blind eyed to corruption and human rights abuse. If citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.” He says he’s performing a public service.
REP. PETER HOEKSTRA (R-MI, House Intelligence Committee): Well I couldn’t- [coughs], excuse me. I couldn’t disagree more. You know, it’s not his duty or his responsibility to provide this public service to the American people. This is- These are functions that need to be done by government. They need to be done by Congress and the executive branch. You know, this guy really is putting into danger our foreign policy and perhaps the lives of certain Americans around the world. We’ll have to see what else comes out. But those are the consequences of this.
Lawmakers Call on Administration to Prosecute WikiLeaks, Designate as Terror Group
FoxNews.com
Published November 29, 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is shown on Capitol Hill in Washington Nov. 17. (AP Photo)
A top Republican congressman is calling on the State Department to designate WikiLeaks a “foreign terrorist organization,” as he and several other lawmakers demand the Obama administration find a way to prosecute founder Julian Assange in the wake of the group’s latest document dump.
WikiLeaks’ weekend release of more than 250,000 classified State Department documents has outraged Washington officials. The spilling of secrets this time deals with a trove of candid diplomatic cables and other missives spanning everything from Pakistan to Iran to North Korea and could jeopardize the United States’ sensitive foreign policy dealings.
WikiLeaks Drop Shows U.S. Striving to Maintain Order in Chaotic Global Relations
FoxNews.com
Published November 28, 2010
AP – This Aug. 14, 2010, photo shows WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Stockholm, Sweden.
Some of the diplomatic papers stolen from the State Department and leaked Sunday by WikiLeaks show more than just potentially embarrassing revelations about U.S. views of allies but disturbing developments among alleged friends as well as foes and competitive states.
The details from the cables being released — among 250,000 illegally taken from secret State Department records — include discussions on the U.S. being unable to stop Syrian arms to Hezbollah, its disappointment in Qatar to stop funding terrorism and hacking by the Chinese government of U.S. computers.
Other communiqués passed forward by the website to several newspapers also reveal U.S. talk about individual leaders like Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who the Guardian reported was noted to be “accompanied everywhere by a ‘voluptuous blonde’ Ukrainian nurse.”
The Guardian also cites cables that call Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin an “alpha-dog,” says Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is “driven by paranoia” and describes German Chancellor Angela Merkel as one who “avoids risk and is rarely creative.”
EU Approves $89B Bailout for Ireland
FoxNews | Associated Press
Published November 28, 2010
Nov. 28: Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, right, waits for the start of a round table meeting of EU finance ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels. Finance ministers from the eurozone and the EU are met in Brussels Sunday to agree on a financial aid package for Ireland. (AP)
BRUSSELS — European Union nations agreed to give $89.4 billion in bailout loans to Ireland on Sunday to help the debt-struck country weather its banking crisis, and sketched out new rules for future emergencies in an effort to restore faith in the euro currency.
The rescue deal, approved by finance ministers at an emergency meeting in Brussels, means two of the eurozone’s 16 nations have now come to depend on foreign help and underscores Europe’s struggle to contain its spreading debt crisis. The fear is that with Greece and now Ireland shored up, speculative traders will target the bloc’s other weak fiscal links, particularly Portugal.
In Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said his country will take euro10 billion immediately to boost the capital reserves of its state-backed banks, whose massive bad loans were picked up by the Irish government but have become too much to handle. Another euro25 billion will remain in reserve, earmarked for the banks.
The rest of the loans will be used to cover Ireland’s deficits for the coming four years. EU chiefs also gave Ireland an extra year, until 2015, to reduce its annual deficits to 3 percent of GDP, the eurozone limit. The deficit now stands at a modern European record of 32 percent because of the runaway costs of its bank-bailout program.
Cowen said the accord — reached after two weeks of tense negotiations in Brussels and Dublin to fathom the true depth of the country’s cash crisis — “provides Ireland with vital time and space to successfully and conclusively address the unprecedented problems that we’ve been dealing with since this global economic crisis began.”
Global Warming Nuisance Lawsuits Are Based on a Fatal Flaw
BigGovernment.com
Posted Nov 27th 2010 at 10:23 am
In my Big Journalism piece, “How an Enviro-Advocacy Group Propped Up Global Warming in the MSM – A Nov 2 Election Connection” I described how the “reposition global warming as theory rather than fact” phrase is a viral accusation against global warming skeptic scientists. The beauty of the phrase is its simplicity and powerful influence, even when people misstate organizations associated with it. Al Gore disciples say global warming is a proven fact, all scientists know this, but a minority received massive energy industry funding to say the science isn’t settled.
The phrase is prominently seen in Gore’s movie, full screen in red letters for six seconds, followed by a slide of a very old cigarette advertisement as a setup for the next slide where Gore quoted a supposedly leaked tobacco industry memo, “Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of creating a controversy in the public’s mind.”
Gore didn’t identify the origins of the “reposition” phrase in the movie, so errors occurring when it was repeated it are understandable. I’ve seen offbeat errors where blog writers say the phrase came from “a surgeon general”, that it was “a leaked government memo”, that it is part of “a movement by politicians to reposition global warming”, or that it was “memos circulated by some of today’s oil companies.”
But Gore himself said this, in a 2008 YouTube video, starting at the 29:10 point,
Exxon Mobil has funded 40 different front groups that have all been a part of a strategic persuasion campaign to, in their own words ‘reposition global warming as theory rather than fact’
This is inexplicably contradictory to the book version of his movie – although it takes one additional step to understand why - when he says in reference to:
…a relatively small but extremely well-funded cadre of special interests, including Exxon Mobil and a few other oil, coal, and utilities companies…. One of the internal memos prepared by this group to guide the employees they hired to run their disinformation campaign was discovered by the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Ross Gelbspan. Here was the group’s stated objective: to “reposition global warming as theory, rather than fact.
As I pointed out in my July American Thinker article, Gelbspan is neither the discoverer nor a Pulitzer winner, and a careful examination of his 1997 book The Heat is On reveals he specifically said the “reposition” phrase came exclusively from the 1991 Information Council on the Environment (ICE) public relations campaign, created by group of utility and coal industries.
Utility and coal, not oil – or oil industry associations.
Clinton urges China to send signal to North Korea
The Economic Times
27 Nov, 2010, 11.04PM IST,IANS
State Department spokesman P J Crowley announced the phone call on Twitter, days after North Korea launched an artillery assault on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong. The attack left four people dead, including two South Korean soldiers.
The US, South Korea and other countries have condemned North Korea’s artillery assault as provocative and destabilizing. US President Barack Obama has condemned the attack as an “outrage” and telephoned President Lee Myung Bak to affirm US commitment to South Korea’s security.
China has been reluctant to back tough policies and has so far not condemned North Korea for Tuesday’s hostilities, instead urging restraint on both sides. But as North Korea’s closest friend, the US has regularly sought Beijing’s support to pressure Pyongyang.
Crowley said earlier this week that China has a role to play in pressuring Pyongyang.
“Its not that China can dictate a particular action to North Korea, but it is that China, together with the United States and other countries, has to send a clear, direct, unified message that it is North Korea that has to change,” Crowley said.
The US has about 28,000 soldiers stationed in South Korea, a presence that has remained since 1953, when an armistice ended Korean War hostilities.
18 Former ACORN Workers Have Been Convicted or Admitted Guilt in Election Fraud
FoxNews.com
Published November 26, 2010
AP – An investigator enters the ACORN office in Las Vegas, Oct. 7, 2008.
The scandal-plagued ACORN may no longer exist, but its tarnished legacy lives on in court, as the activist group and its former employees face criminal punishment.
So far this year, at least 18 former workers have admitted guilt or been convicted on varying charges of election fraud. The punishment has ranged from probation to several months of prison time.
ACORN, once a powerful advocate for low-income and minority voters, shuttered its operations amid plummeting revenues in March, six months after conservative activists posing as a pimp and prostitute caught on video some of the group’s employees offering them tax advice.
But the group is still facing charges in Nevada on conspiracy to commit the crime of compensation for registration of voters.The trial, originally scheduled to begin Monday, has been postponed likely until next year.
Former workers across the country already are being punished for their criminal activities.
In Miami, seven former ACORN voter registration canvassers were convicted of “false swearing-in an election,” and sentenced to probation and community service and banned from participating in future political campaigns, according to court documents.
‘57 States’: Palin Fires Back on Facebook at MSM’s Gaffe Hypocrisy
TheBlaze.com
Posted on November 26, 2010 at 10:49am by 
Scott Baker
You would expect the liberal blogs to do it. And they did. They took a minor verbal gaffe by Sarah Palin and blew it up in big headlines. But then the MSM started to hit it too. We posted an AP report yesterday that did just that:
Sarah Palin is drawing criticism from around the world after declaring that the United States has to stand with “our North Korean allies.”
Palin’s gaffe, made Wednesday during an interview on Glenn Beck’s syndicated radio show, was quickly corrected by her host. But it drew immediate fire from liberal bloggers, who cited it as an example of the 2008 vice presidential candidate’s lack of foreign policy expertise.
Newspapers in Asia and Europe are repeating the criticism. The Times of India says Palin “did it again,” while London’s Daily Mail says she “may want to brush up on her geography.”
I was incredulous that they believed this to be a story. At the very end they had to begrudgingly acknowledge that it was clearly no big deal:
Threats against Obama: Michael Stephen Bowden is just the latest
CSMonitor.com
Nearly 1 in 10 US presidents have been assassinated or wounded in office. The Secret Service has made more than a dozen arrests in the past two years for threats against Obama. Retiree Michael Stephen Bowden is the latest.
By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer
November 26, 2010
The arrest of former New York City cop Michael Stephen Bowden for telling a Secret Service agent he’d like to put President Obama up against a wall and shoot him underscores the daily threat matrix for a job that is much more dangerous than, say, the harrowing experience of Bering Sea fishermen as dramatized on the popular TV show “The Deadliest Catch.”
This booking photo taken Nov. 23, and provided by the Spartanburg County jail, shows Michael Stephen Bowden of Woodruff, S.C. Bowden, 78, a former New York City policeman, was arrested earlier this month after he told a nurse at a Veterans Affairs clinic in Spartanburg he was thinking about killing President Barack Obama.
Spartanburg County Detention Center/AP
Related Stories
Nearly 1 in 10 presidents have been assassinated or shot while in office (the last being Ronald Reagan, in 1981), with another 11 escaping assassination attempts unscathed.
The Secret Service has been particularly busy chasing down threats to Mr. Obama, who faced a barrage of death threats and at least one credible assassination plot while a presidential candidate and since taking office in January 2009.
Last summer, author Ron Kessler wrote that Obama was receiving 30 death threats a day. Other reports state that federal agents had seen a 400-fold increase in threats from President George W. Bush’s last year in office. Secret Service head Mark Sullivan later pushed back at that assertion, saying “threats are not up” in the Obama era.
Nevertheless, in the past two years the Secret Service has arrested more than a dozen Americans for posing credible threats to the president. Because of concerns about his safety, candidate Obama received Secret Service protection earlier than any other presidential hopeful in US history. The Secret Service doesn’t publicize most threats, fearing that they could inspire copycat attempts.
China, Russia quit dollar
ChinaDaily.com
By Su Qiang and Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-24 08:02
St. Petersburg, Russia – China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday.
Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies.”About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies,” Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg.
The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities.
The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said.
“That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries,” he said.
Putin made his remarks after a meeting with Wen. They also officiated at a signing ceremony for 12 documents, including energy cooperation.
The documents covered cooperation on aviation, railroad construction, customs, protecting intellectual property, culture and a joint communiqu. Details of the documents have yet to be released.
Report: Harmful Errors, Accidents Still Common in Hospitals
FoxNews | Reuters
Published November 25, 2010
AP
NEW YORK – Despite a decade of efforts to improve patient safety in hospitals — initially inspired by a seminal report on the problem from the U.S. Institute of Medicine in 2000 — harmful errors and accidents are still common, new research suggests.
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that between 2002 and 2007, the number of patients experiencing infections acquired in the hospital, medication errors, complications from diagnostic techniques or treatments, and other such “harms” did not change.
Researchers looked at 2,300 patient admission records from 10 randomly selected hospitals in North Carolina. They found 588 incidents of patient harm resulting from medical procedures, medications, or other causes. Two-thirds of these complications were considered preventable by reviewers at the hospitals themselves.
Recently, the U.S. Office of the Inspector General released a report estimating that medical complications contribute to 180,000 patient deaths per year, and that overall, these complications cost Medicare up to $4.4 billion annually.
‘Ground Zero Mosque’ Outrage
Liveshots – FoxNews.com
November 23, 2010 – 11:35 AM | by: Eric Shawn
He wants your money. The developer of the so called “Ground Zero Mosque” is applying for federal taxpayer money to help him build the controversial and contentious project. The funds are designated to help lower Manhattan recover from the 9-11 terrorist attacks, which took place just around the corner from the proposed mosque and cultural center location.
Sharif El-Gamal, the head of SOHO Properties, says the money will be used for a variety of services for Park51, as the project is called.
In a statement, El-Gamal said he is, “…committed to exploring all sources of revenue and funding to build the community center,” noting that the request for a reported $5 million would help provide “social service programs….such as domestic violence prevention, Arabic and other foreign language classes, programs and services for homeless veterans, two multi-cultural arts exhibits and immigration services.”
El-Gamal did not specify exactly how much of the taxpayers’ funds would be allocated to “build the community center.”
“It’s absolutely disgraceful,” said an angry Congressman Peter King (R-NY) who is likely to be the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“It goes entirely against the spirit of the fund,” King told Fox News. “It’s an affront to the memory of all those who were murdered on 9-11. There are so many worthwhile projects in lower Manhattan. This shows a gross insensitivity to the most fundamental feelings of New Yorkers and to those murdered on 9-11 it is a slap in the face that is a terrible insult.”
King also notes that the reported $5 million request represents nearly one-third of all the $17 million that is now available. 265 groups have applied for the funding.
“It’s the height of arrogance, that is really desecrating the memory of the lives that were lost that day,” says construction worker Andy Sullivan, who is behind the group 911hardhatpledge.com which opposes the project. He says 45,000 people have logged onto the website to support his effort.
“He’s going to take the money that I work for? That gets taken out of my paycheck, to fund something that I am completely and absolutely against? Not on my watch.”
911 Getting 21st Century Update to Allow Text Messages
FoxNews.com
Published November 23, 2010
AP Photo/Seth Wenig SRSLY in danger? Just text a message to 911.
The 911 emergency response system was designed in 1968, well before the advent of text messages and cell phones. Citing the fact that 70 percent of 911 calls come from mobile phones, the FCC announced Monday that it is moving forward with plans to let people text message the details of an emergency situation to dispatchers.
Plans to modernize the 911 service has been under way for years; New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a similar effort to allow emergency centers to receive digital photos and videos back in 2007. But Monday, in a ceremony at the Arlington County Emergency Center in Virginia, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski announced the first steps to make it into a nationwide reality.
“911 is an indispensable, live-saving tool,” Genachowski said. “But today’s 911 system doesn’t support the communication tools of tomorrow. Even though mobile phones are the device of choice for most 911 callers, and we primarily use our phones to text, right now, you can’t text 911.
“I am pleased to announce that we will initiate a Next-Generation 911 proceeding next month — taking up an item during the Commission’s December meeting. It is an important first step,” he said.
The Next-Generation 911 service will allow people in situations where they are unable to speak to communicate with emergency dispatchers — to send a photo of a car leaving the scene of an armed robbery, to let a deaf person communicate with a call center, or even to allow environmental or chemical sensors or security cameras to transmit alerts.
Obama Spares Turkeys ‘Shellacking’ He Got at Polls
FoxNews.com | Associated Press
Published November 24, 2010
It’s official: President Obama has pardoned the National Thanksgiving Turkey.
Continuing a decades-old White House tradition, Obama issued pardons Wednesday to a gobbler named “Apple” and its alternate, “Cider.’ The two 21-week-old, 45-pound turkeys were raised on a California farm.
Obama said it “feels pretty good to stop at least one shellacking this November.”
The president wished America’s families, including many buffeted by the economic slump, a safe and happy holiday.
After the Rose Garden ceremony, the turkeys were to be taken to George Washington’s estate at nearby Mount Vernon, Va., to live. For the past five years, the pardoned turkeys had been sent to Disneyland in California.
Poll: 49% of Mexicans Think Drug War a Failure
FoxNews.com | Associated Press
Published November 23, 2010
AP – Nov. 19: Mexican soldiers inspect a home as residents flee border towns up and down the Rio Grande valley.
MEXICO CITY – Nearly half the Mexican public considers President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against drug cartels a failure, a poll suggested Tuesday for the first time since the conservative leader launched the deadly crackdown in 2006.
The survey shows 49 percent of respondents consider the crackdown has failed, compared with just 33 percent who think it has succeeded. Last time the Mitofsky polling agency conducted the same survey, in March, the results were almost the opposite, with 47 percent of those polled considering the drug war a success, while 36 percent thought it a failure.
Observers say the turnaround in opinion is a reflection of the public’s growing impatience with the crackdown, which has seen more than 28,000 people killed since December 2006.
“This is precisely because (people) aren’t seeing insecurity go down,” said Eduardo Gallo, whose association, Mexico United Against Violence, sponsored the survey.
Senate Democrats View 2012 with Trepidation
FoxNews.com
By Shannon Bream | November 22, 2010
While not even a month has passed since the last national election, Democrats are already worrying that 2012 may prove to be a tougher environment for the party – and one that could spark major turnover.
See, Senate Democrats have a lot to lose come 2012, because of the 33 seats in play next election, 23 are currently held by Democrats – or the Independents who caucus with them.
Republicans are only tasked with defending 10 seats, and GOP leaders feel confident they’ll actually net at least four additional seats and win back control of the Senate.
Some analysts, who have already begun digging in to the 2012 races, give Republicans the advantage. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics says, “There are 13 Democrats who are vulnerable to very vulnerable, while there are just six Republicans who are vulnerable to very vulnerable.”
Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) admits she’s feeling the heat. When asked about her 2012 re-election bid she replied, “I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say that I was worried.”
McCaskill is likely to be among the GOP’s top targets, which will probably also include: Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.).
And McCaskill acknowledges that Democrats have an uphill battle, “The voters obviously spoke very loudly a few weeks ago, and I heard them.” Other Democrats facing re-election, like Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) are publicly floating the idea of retiring altogether.
Nuclear Weapons Drivers Found Drunk on the Job, Energy Department Watchdog Says
FoxNews.com | Associated Press
Published November 22, 2010
WASHINGTON — Government agents hired to drive nuclear weapons and components in trucks sometimes got drunk while on convoy missions, including an incident last year when two agents were detained by police at a local bar during one assignment, according to a report Monday by the U.S. Energy Department’s watchdog.
The department’s assistant inspector general, Sandra D. Bruce, said her office reviewed 16 alcohol-related incidents involving agents, candidate-agents and others from the government’s Office of Secure Transportation between 2007 through 2009. There are nearly 600 federal agents who ship nuclear weapons, weapon components and special nuclear material across the U.S.
The report said that two incidents in particular raised red flags because they happened during secure transportation missions while agents checked into local hotels during extended missions. In these cases, the vehicles were placed in “safe harbor,” meaning they were moved to safe and secure locations.
Why Letting Tax Cuts Expire Will Hurt Small Businesspeople…Like Me!
BigGovernment.com
Posted Nov 22nd 2010 at 7:31 am
What drives an entrepreneur to start a business? Is it solely about money? Or is there something more? I argue that often it is the same creative drive that compels an artist to paint, a musician to compose, or a sculptor to look at a piece of rough marble and see an angel inside. And those who understand the mind of the small business owner know why the proposed tax increase in 2011 will do more harm than good to the very people this economy needs most to create jobs.
On FBN’s Bulls & Bears recently Democratic strategist Jehmu Greene, the token liberal steak tossed into the wolf den of laissez faire commentators, uttered words to the effect that if we allow the Bush tax cuts to remain, the “rich” (I guess that’s me?) will not put the money into the economy but rather just squirrel it away “in their banks…It would not go into job creation or creating capital for small business.”
My first thought was: “In my bank? Really? How many businesses have you owned?” (To be fair she did co-found some internet venture called Urban Hang Suite which shuttered in 2003). But then I reminded myself that, like Ms. Greene herself who has been in non-profit and/or government almost her entire career, very few people in the Obama administration, from the president on down, have ever started a business. Thus they cannot understand what drives entrepreneurs to succeed. They think it is just about take-home pay.
It’s said that small business owners work eighteen hour days for ourselves so we don’t have to work eight hours a day for someone else. And often our income on a dollar/hour basis is less than the established firms we may have left to go on our own. Certainly this is generally true for those few scary years at the beginning when a myriad of mistakes are made and unanticipated events occur that prompt the principals to pay ourselves only after all other obligations have been met So why do it? Why take such risk?
Half-million TSA protest letters on their way
A Free Press For A Free People
Join the party! End airport abuse, humiliation by Thanksgiving
WASHINGTON – More than a half-million individual letters of protest of the new system of institutionalized airport abuse and humiliation are on their way to members of Congress, Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, thanks to WND’s C.E.A.S.E. program – Cease Enhanced Airport Security Excesses.
The program allows the public to send 537 protest letters to each member of the House and Senate, Obama and Napolitano, with guaranteed Fed Ex delivery, for only $29.95. It is modeled after the historic “pink slips” campaign of last year that sent 9 million letters that drained the nation’s supplies of pink paper and put members of Congress on notice of what to expect in the Nov. 2 election this year.
Do you want to put a stop to airport humiliation through invasive “pat-downs” and “virtual strip searches”?
Here’s how to participate in the program, devised by Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, who has set a goal of ending the abuse by Thanksgiving.
Because of the volume of these messages, WND is able to send them less expensively than American citizens could send them individually. Through this program, you can send the 537 messages for only $29.95. To replicate that feat individually, postage alone would cost more than $236. But the impact of participating in the “STOP AIRPORT HUMILIATION CAMPAIGN” makes your protest much more impressive – being a part of a mass movement, rather than an individual grievance, explained Farah.
As the letter being sent to officials in Washington states, under the new screening protocols, passengers are subjected to a virtual “strip search” by being required to undergo a humiliating full-body scan, resulting in the display of a graphic image of their naked body to be scrutinized by a TSA agent.
Muslim Terror Imminent in Germany: Closes famous glass dome at Berlin’s Reichstag to visitors as terror fears mount
Monday, November 22, 2010
Posted by Pamela Geller on Monday, November 22, 2010 at 01:13 PM
Let’s pretend this isn’t what it is. Let’s strip search and terrorize little kids at the airport. That always works 
And to think Germany was partners with the Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, (aka Amin al-Husseini), the leader of the Muslim world, during the Holocaust. (scroll)
Newsweek Depiction of Obama as Lord Shiva Upsets Some Indian-Americans
FoxNews.com
Published November 21, 2010
AP – Lord Nataraja, with multiple arms and balancing on one leg, is one depiction of the Hindu diety Lord Shiva.
Newsweek’s depiction of President Obama on its latest cover has irked some Indian Americans who, fresh off Obama’s visit to the world’s largest democracy, are not happy with the image of the U.S. president as the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva.
The Newsweek cover shows Obama with several arms carrying policy issues while balancing on one leg. The headline reads: “God of All Things” with a subtitle, “Why the Modern Presidency May be too Much for One Person to Handle.”
Shiva, who is one of three pre-eminent gods in the Hindu religion along with Brahma and Vishnu, is considered the destroyer of the world, which must end, metaphorically speaking, in order to be reborn as a more universalistic place. However, the god’s purpose is not to foretell an apocalyptic ending.
Shiva is often manifested as Lord Nataraja, who has multiple arms and balances on one leg, and is viewed as dancing in a representation of the rhythm and harmony of life.
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism in Nevada, told the English-language Sify News in India that Nataraja is highly revered and meant to be worshipped, not indecorously thrown around. Zed, who is known for his work on interfaith dialogue, said it is not OK to use Hindu concepts and symbols for profit or self-serving purposes.
Suhag Shukla, managing director and legal counsel of the Washington-based Hindu-American Foundation, told FoxNews.com that her group doesn’t think Newsweek was being malicious or trying to offend Hindus, but “the cover was in line with the media’s comfort of utilizing Hindu symbols or deities to symbolize an issue.”
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