Becks warning- Government control of your computer

The Cash For Clunkers program is idiotic anyways unless you do not pay any taxes (in that case it is just another welfare handout) you are just having your tax money redistributed back to your pocket. Put it this way the $4,500 is your (or rather was your) money. All for what? Destroying a perfectly good running vehicle to trade in for another you may not be able to afford. Another bill to add to your personal deficit.

Here is the warning: It appears to apply to the dealer tab on the screen
"“This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the US Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personal, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign."

Some people are so damn naive. But then again look at who the majority elected as POTUS

I want to know...can i cry now?

OK, so I am at work and talking to a vendor on the phone, and we start talking about business trends, and can't figure out how come stocks seem to be doing better, banks are pulling in the money, yet businesses across the country say things suck...and are cutting jobs, salaries, whatever to stay in business.

Personally, my few credit cards have all shown little interest in the fact I have a excellent credit score, by reducing my available credit and raising interest rates...Dell raised their rate to 30% - I am not kidding. Major banks making a crap load of money from the bail out, and what happens to us???

Now the government (which supposedly represents us) is handing out (our) money to promote car sales, yet who has any money to afford the new $40,000 hybrids they want us all to drive? Even at half that amount, its a tough purchase with your earnings cut by 20%...

Now add in the fact that our presidente does not want to release any of his personal records, which would end the discussion about whether he is a natural born citizen..and that congress has gone full boat bozo about passing laws without much if any discussion, passing trillions of dollars of expenses we will all just need to buckle down and pay...WAIT A MINUTE

who the heck  said i wanted to be party to this land of looney baloney...so here i am being dragged kicking and screaming to the brink of personal finanical ruin by a thug and his henchmen that think what I have needs to be redistributed, and now you want to take over my health care??? what the hell, lets pass the Canice Recovery Act- any and every body, all 300 million gets a check for $10,000...thats only 3 trillion, what the heck?

Can I just cry now???

NC men charged with plotting 'violent jihad'

Frank Zappa had a song with the phrase "It can't happen here..." which poked fun at American mores and culture...although i doubt he would see a lot of humor in the headline today.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A father, his two sons and four other North Carolina men are accused of military-style training at home and plotting "violent jihad" through a series of terror attacks abroad, federal authorities said Monday.

Officials said the group was led by Daniel Patrick Boyd, a married 39-year-old who lived in an unassuming lakeside home in a rural area south of Raleigh, where he and his family walked their dog and operated a drywall business. But two decades ago, Boyd, who is a U.S. citizen, trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan and fought against the Soviets for three years before returning to the United States.

An indictment released Monday does not detail any specific terrorist plans or targets overseas, although it claims some of the defendants traveled to Israel in 2007 with the intent of waging "violent jihad" and returned home without success.

"These charges hammer home the point that terrorists and their supporters are not confined to the remote regions of some far away land but can grow and fester right here at home," U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said. He would not give details of the alleged plots beyond what was in a news release and indictment.

The seven men made their first court appearances in Raleigh on Monday, charged with providing material support to terrorism. If convicted, they could face life in prison. Court documents charged that Boyd, also known as 'Saifullah,' encouraged others to engage in jihad.

Boyd's beliefs did not concur with his Raleigh-area moderate mosque, which he stopped attending and instead began meeting for Friday prayers in his home, said Holding, who did not say whether any or all the defendants met with him.

Their wives told The Associated Press in an interview at the time that the couples had U.S. roots but the United States was a country of "kafirs" — Arabic for heathens.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j34g9gaPJEUOAIczVt028baWrkaAD99N6JT00

More of my thoughts...

For moment, i will try to stay off national politics...

I have thought about this quite a while, which doesn't make it any more or less valid, just the same idea keeps coming around.

I my travels throughout the country over the last 9 nine years I have seen large cities (which are getting generally larger) exercise more political clout than non-urban areas...you know, parts of your state cover the most ground, and are small town, farms, rural...what the media refers to as fly over country. Here in wacky California, the most people live in urban metropolitan areas, and what makes sense there does not necessarily make sense in the rest of the state. Country folk tend to be more conservative, not necessarily repoopicrat, but not into gun control as defined by liberal legislators. Not prone to wanting to legalize dope for taxes, or promote end of life counselling for senior citizens or any of the nonsense coming out of many capitols    these days.

Because these large urban areas have more people, they have more votes, hence while territorially someone like Obama lost in California, where the votes were concentrated in the urban areas he won, therefore majority rules and there goes all California's electoral votes to him.

So I was wondering why it an all or nothing deal? Why simple majority rule carries all the votes? Why cant each state allocate the electoral votes by pure per centage of the popular votes?

The other thing I have been thinking about is the same issue from the perspective of one large city dictating the laws for an entire state, like Oregon and Washington.

These states have several cities, but it the largest metro area that dominates statewide politics. In California that power struggle is between the San Francisco Bay area (SF Oakland San Jose) and "The South Land(a.k.a Los Angeles) "

So here is my idea- I think we would be better off if we passed a law that any time the national census determines a Metropolitan Statistical Area exceeds say a million people, it automatically is granted District status, making whatever laws passed in that district binding ONLY on that district. So we could have Portland, District of Oregon or Seattle District of Washington, or Los Angeles, District of California...and the legislatures of each state would then represent only the non district areas of the state...

Think of it...Chicago District of Illinois. I am just saying....

Of course, the obvious faults of this plan are many, especially if the President takes over the census (against the constitution, isn't it?)

My thoughts...

Several years ago, I started blogging mostly about myself and family, to amuse myself, and keep an online journal. As time progressed, i started to share that blog with strangers, many of whom have become friends. And has the conversations continued between us, my journals became more diverse, covering cooking, my travels, the death of my dog, my daughters wedding, etc. Then November 2008 happened...America elected Obama. Everything I had worked for, my savings, our retirement, the value of our home(which was supposed to be our backstop in the retirement plan) went from bad to worse....as you all know, and probably experienced as deeply as my family. And I remember thinking about how come January, I would give this brash man with some pretty expansive expensive ideas the benefit of doubt, and hope he could deliver, even though I doubted it. That was then.

Now, nearing August, he has led our government for 1/2 a year- so lets see where we are:

-deeper recession, more unemployed.

China is threatening to dump our currency in favor of something else;

once predominant American companies (GM and Chrysler) have gone in the dumpster, shedding thousands of good paying jobs, while simultaneously dragging the entire auto supply industry down with them.

He has overseen the most rapid expansion of national debt in our nations history, while achieving nothing of significant value in return.

His administration has continued to blame Bush for everything, including the debt, citing "Bush started it.." as a rationale.

His thug Chief of Staff routinely chastises the opposition, while his inept media spokesman makes feeble excuses for every presidential and vice presidential gaff...

He has proposed the idea, now being debated nationally, about Health care reform, when the issue really  is about insuring the uninsured which could be quickly remedied in a manner similar to auto insurance for the uninsured, and assignd risk pool that would lump the uninsured together and assign them to a company for coverage, perhaps with a subsidy to lower cost, not unlike the credit idea proposed ny Senator McCain back in the election, which was WIDELY dismissed by the Obamaistas.

The Obama administration has stood by idly by while pirates seize ships at sea, while thousands protest sham elections in Iran, and has the audacity to call a police department stupid in a matter the knows nothing about.

He has snubbed national leaders that are among the few friends the US has, such as the botched visit to the US by Gordon Brown of the UK, and Netanyahu of Israel, while authorizing the transfer (today) of $200 million to the Palestinian Authority "...to help ease their government's growing budget crisis.." This while states like California and Pennsylvania struggle to balance their financial houses due to the recession.

While on this topic of state wide (California) economic collapse, let me add that I am able to be home today writing this blog because my employer is going through a tough time financially, and so in addition to reduced salary, i get to spend an extra week at home. Since this makes me technically a part time employee, now there is discussion of cutting benefits as well, not to mention they already cut off the 401k contributions...meaning I am looking for another job, to make ends meet. That after a staff meeting where the previously stated temporary nature of the se cost cutting measures was being reviewed with an eye towards making them permanent. Not welcome news.

So amidst this now national insanity, i continue to hope (pray) that calmer heads will prevail. I also have made up my mind on some things, after discussion with my spouse:

We will never buy a GM car or truck until the government has NO interest in the company- likely never again

Same for Chrysler- which means our love affair with Jeeps now is limited to past models

We will support politicians that support America, not apologizers...

We will not help any incumbent get re-elected in 2010 or thereafter unless they realize they work for the people, not the other way around; we will specifically do what we can to defeat our current Senators from California, and that awful Nancy Pelosi...and our own ninny congresswoman...

We will continue our support for the organizations that lobby for things we believe in.

My sincerest wish that in 2010 we the people retake Congress, and curb the abuses of the current White House....

Obama's birth certificate challenge...

main stream media covering Obama birth issue...... this version is from YouTube.

After the congressman says the president is a citizen, listen to the angry call "PROVE IT!!".

Well Mr. Obama...can you prove it???

 

Additionally...watch this...grand jury indictments against Obama for Fraud and Treason...

Obama- Socialismo o Muerte! (Socialism or Death)

This was written last November, and is posted here to illustrate that not everyone was fooled then....or now.

Anyone would think we had just elected a hip, skinny and youthful replacement for God, with a plan to modernise Heaven and Hell – or that at the very least John Lennon had come back from the dead.

The swooning frenzy over the choice of Barack Obama as as President of the United States must be one of the most absurd waves of self-deception and swirling fantasy ever to sweep through an advanced civilisation. At least Mandela-worship – its nearest equivalent – is focused on a man who actually did something.
I really don’t see how the Obama devotees can ever in future mock the Moonies, the Scientologists or people who claim to have been abducted in flying saucers. This is a cult like the one which grew up around Princess Diana, bereft of reason and hostile to facts.
Just look at his sermon by the shores of Lake Michigan. He really did talk about a ‘new dawn’, and a ‘timeless creed’ (which was ‘yes, we can’). He proclaimed that ‘change has come’. He revealed that, despite having edited the Harvard Law Review, he doesn’t know what ‘enormity’ means. He reached depths of oratorical drivel never even plumbed by our own Mr Blair, burbling about putting our hands on the arc of history (or was it the ark of history?) and bending it once more toward the hope of a better day (Don’t try this at home).
I had attended an election-night party in a smart and liberal white area, but was staying the night less than a mile away on the edge of a suburb where Spanish is spoken as much as English, plus a smattering of tongues from such places as Ethiopia, Somalia and Afghanistan. As I walked, I crossed another of Washington’s secret frontiers. There had been a few white people blowing car horns and shouting, as the result became clear. But among the Mexicans, Salvadorans and the other Third World nationalities, there was something like ecstasy. They grasped the real significance of this moment. They knew it meant that America had finally switched sides in a global cultural war. Forget the Cold War, or even the Iraq War. The United States, having for the most part a deeply conservative people, had until now just about stood out against many of the mistakes which have ruined so much of the rest of the world. Suspicious of welfare addiction, feeble justice and high taxes, totally committed to preserving its own national sovereignty, unabashedly Christian in a world part secular and part Muslim, suspicious of the Great Global Warming panic, it was unique. These strengths had been fading for some time, mainly due to poorly controlled mass immigration and to the march of political correctness. They had also been weakened by the failure of America’s conservative party – the Republicans – to fight on the cultural and moral fronts. They preferred to posture on the world stage. Scared of confronting Left-wing teachers and sexual revolutionaries at home, they could order soldiers to be brave on their behalf in far-off deserts. And now the US, like Britain before it, has begun the long slow descent into the Third World. How sad. Where now is our last best hope on Earth?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1084111/PETER-HITCHENS-The-night-waved-goodbye-America--best-hope-Earth.html#ixzz0Lx7KSOds

Retired general, lieutenant colonel join reservist’s lawsuit over Obama's birth status

A controversial suit brought by a U.S. Army reservist has been joined by a retired Army two-star general and an active reserve Air Force lieutenant colonel.

Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook filed the suit July 8 in federal court here asking for conscientious objector status and a preliminary injunction based upon his belief that President Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as president of the United States and commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

However, before the issue got to court, Cook’s orders to deploy to Afghanistan were revoked. Lt. Col. Maria Quon, a public affairs officer with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis, said Tuesday that Cook was no longer expected to report Wednesday to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for mobilization to active duty. Cook, who claims he is now the victim of retaliation due to his suit, received his mobilization orders to report for active duty at MacDill on Wednesday.

The government, in its response to the suit, claims that Cook’s suit is “moot” in that he already has been told he doesn’t have to go to Afghanistan, so the relief he is seeking has been granted.

“The Commanding General of SOCCENT (U.S. Special Operations Central Command) has determined that he does not want the services of Major Cook, and has revoked his deployment orders,” the response states.

In a pleading revised after the revocation of Cook’s orders, Taitz argues that the application for preliminary injunction is not moot and that retired Maj. Gen. Carol Dean Childers and active U.S. Air Force reservist Lt. Col. David Earl Graeff have joined the suit “because it is a matter of unparalleled public interest and importance and because it is clearly a matter arising from issues of a recurring nature that will escape review unless the Court exercises its discretionary jurisdiction.”

Cook’s resubmitted Application for Preliminary Injunction is meant to encompass the possibility of Cook receiving future orders for deployment as well as to address and prevent “negative collateral consequences such as retaliation against Major Stefan Frederick Cook ...”

As to the retaliation issue, the revised suit states Cook lost his job at Simtech Inc., a corporation that does Department of Defense contracting in the field of information technology/systems integration, because of the suit. It also states that Cook has been subjected to “gossip” from people who believed Cook was “manipulating his deployment orders to create a platform for political purposes.”

Taitz, who has challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed the original suit with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. Two similar suits have previously been thrown out of federal court.

Seriously, is Senator Boxer really that dumb?

First she went out of her way to chide a senior military officer by doing what any military man would do, and respond to her as M'am, just like they are trained to call men Sir...it has nothing to do with not respecting her as a Senator, and everything about their training...then today she goes over the edge with comparison of NAACP to Black Chamber of Commerce...I have written her before, and she is a very condescending person, which has firmed my resolve to see she does NOT get re-elected....here's the video of her in committee...

$2 Billion dollar data center being built for NSA

"The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that the National Security Agency will be building a one million square foot data center at Utah's Camp Williams. The NSA's heavily automated computerized operations have for years been based at Fort Meade, Maryland, but the agency began looking to decentralize its efforts following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and accelerated their search after the Baltimore Sun reported that the NSA — Baltimore Gas & Electric's biggest customer — had maxed out the local grid and could not bring online several supercomputers it needed to expand its operations. The agency got a taste of the potential for trouble January 24, 2000, when an information overload, rather than a power shortage, caused the NSA's first-ever network crash, taking the agency 3 1/2 days to resume operations. The new data center in Utah will require at least 65 megawatts of power — about the same amount used by every home in Salt Lake City — so a separate power substation will have to be built at Camp Williams to sustain that demand. 'They were looking at secure sites, where there could be a natural nexus between organizations and where space was available,' says Col. Scott Olson, the Utah National Guard's legislative liaison. NSA officials, who have a long-standing relationship with Utah based on the state Guard's unique linguist units, approached state officials about finding land in the state on which to build an additional data center. 'The stars just kind of came into alignment. We could provide them everything they need.'"

All the Czar's Czars..huh?

Here is a list of Obama’s current and prospective Czar positions:

1. Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra.

2. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske

3. Copyright Czar:

4. Energy Czar: Carol M. Browner

5. Car Czar: Ed Montgomery.

6. Terrorism/WMD Czar: Gary Samore.

7. Health Care Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle.

8. Education Czar:

9. Economic Czar: Paul Volcker.

10. Mortgage Czar:

11. Urban Affairs/Housing Czar: Adolfo Carrion.

12. Guantanomo closure Czar: Danny Fried.

13. Great lakes Czar: Cameron Davis.

14. Stimulus accountability Czar: Earl Devaney.

15. Cyberspace Czar:

16. Border Czar: Alan Bersin (Former US attorney).

17. Intelligence Czar: Admiral Dennis Blair.

18. Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein.

19. Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg

20. Iran Czar:

21. Tarp Czar: Herb Allison.

22. Middle-East peace Czar: George Mitchell.

23. Science Czar: John Holdren.

24. Green jobs Czar: Van Jones.

25. Afghanistan Czar: Richard Holbrooke.

26. Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration.

27. Mideast policy Czar: Dennis Ross.

28. Information Czar: Vivek Kundra.

29. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley.

30. Faith-based Czar: Joshua Dubois.

30. Faith-based Czar: Joshua Dubois.

31. Climate Czar: Todd Stern.

32. Domestic Violence:

33. Green Jobs: Van Jones

So in effect we have NON-ELECTED officials, who are backed by The White House, who are given the tools and resources to do the bidding of the President and they are accountable to NO ONE! These czars’s don't have to undergo Senate Confirmation Hearings, they just get appointed.

But as the so-called "czars" keep piling up, it's raising serious questions about how powerful these White House insiders are and seems to make the term "czar" all the more appropriate. 

Privileged Life?

Recently in one of my blogs, someone commented that “Since you live a privileged life, you do see things differently than those not so fortunate”

That struck a chord in me, a bad one. The author went on to say that it was not bad, but it is the way it is, that we all evaluate things based on our own circumstances. I accept that. What I am having issues with is the notion that I live a privileged life.

I need to understand what exactly make me have a privileged life. So I thought about my life, which is written about extensively in these blogs, going back years (imported from the now defunct yahoo 360).

Lets see, childhood  - dad was a functioning alcoholic policeman, mom a stay at home mom; we lived in the suburbs with other working class people.

Dad got promoted to Sergeant, and we moved to another part of town, at the time thought to be probably upper middle class. Maybe my privilege started here. I got to earn my own money babysitting, and doing chores…

High school- oh yes, I had to buy my own clothes so I would know what its like to support myself, which meant I had to work summers….definitely privileged.

College- dad said don’t expect us to pay , you should just meet someone and be a mother and wife like your mom..Yup, privileged. (I managed to buy a car for $50 that my friends helped me keep running. One wheel drive and three working brakes- it was awful)

Post college- Oh, don’t think just because you worked and put yourself thru college we are going to let you move in with us again ( I was paying my parents rent until I was a sophomore in college, and said screw that and moved out…)

Numerous jobs, some Ok, divorce, followed by most pretty lousy, moving myself across country in a VW (everything I owned fit in the back seat) - privilege alright

Struggling for years to get more skills and promotions to find that decent job, from 1979 to 1993 I had so many jobs I can count them all- some lasted literally a day or so (that was a dry cleaner- I got fed up and threw a rack of clothes on a work table, only I missed and they went on the floor and had to be redone)…trust me, not privileged.

I have made a comfortable income I would say for the last 8 years or so. Getting here I have been sued, thrown in jail (OK I was booked and released, and the charges were dropped later), and seen plenty of the underside of our economy.

At one point I tried to get assistance to buy food, not welfare per se, just some food stamps or something, and was turned down because I won’t sell our only car, a 10 year old VW..” but if I sell the car, how do I get to work? We live 20 miles from town?  Sorry, you can always quit and go on assistance, you do have a child? “That’s when I decided our system wasn't working…that if people wanted a hand up, not a hand out, they should get it, but this welfare state mentality sucks….

and we decided to move from the country to the city and get decent jobs and pull ourselves up, because nobody else was going to, so that’s what honey and I did.

So yes, I guess I have a privileged life- privileged that I have the opportunity and ability to compete in a free market economy and be the best I can.

So excuse me for doing what I had to do to get where I am, but please don’t describe it as a privileged life…I have never been to the Hampton’s

Teleprompter Falls, Obama at loss for words...more to follow

ABC News' Sunlen Miller and Jake Tapper report:

If a teleprompter falls in the White House, does it make a sound?

Yes, especially when it’s the President’s teleprompter – or TOTUS as it is often referred to.

Midway through his speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon, one of his two small glass prompters came crashing down, hitting the wood floor and crashing in many pieces. It made quite a ruckus.

“Oh, goodness,” a startled President Obama said. “Sorry about that, guys.”

The press use to rag on Bush on how he couldn't talk, but once he was done speaking you know what his position was. Obama can give a great speech and when he is done people still scratch their head and wonder what he just said. The one thing I can say good about the Obama presidency is that the IQ of America is going up because the idiots that voted for him are finally smartening up. Every minute this idiot spends in office makes Jimmy Carter look smarter. Nobody thought that was possible until now. He truly works miracles.

So tell me, how is that "Hope and Change" working out for you?

http://www.palin4pres2012.com/

New Polling Show Public unsettled by Administration Failures

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 28% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President, in contrast to thirty-five percent (35%) Strongly Disapprove. This results in giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –7.
For the second straight month, voters are more likely to trust Republicans than Democrats on the economy.
Just 20% of adults favor a federal bailout for financially troubled states and 71% say the housing market won’t recover until the overall economy is stronger.

Palin 2012

Here is something I can relate to, so what will it be America...Palin or..

more of the same 

Your choice starts now...

Yahoo dumps GeoCities- another longtime product

I got this today, which sort of surprised me until i finsihed reading the entire message. essential the completely customizable tools i have been using for free for YEARS will now cost money, and be scaled back to better fit the market...screw em, I am done w YaSmell...

Please feel free to comment, and tell what you think about this...

YouTube - ZZ Top - La Grange

North Korean Cyber Attack- i told you so

Yesterday while the planet was mesmerized by the spectacle in Staples Center, the news media slowly put our a story that caught my attention, about how the South Korean government, and ours, had been targeted for a cyber attack. I suggested maybe it was the North Koreans (duh) Today i was proved correct:

"WASHINGTON – U.S. authorities on Wednesday eyed North Korea as the origin of the widespread cyber attack that overwhelmed government Web sites in the United States and South Korea, although they warned it would be difficult to definitively identify the attackers quickly.

The powerful attack that targeted dozens of government and private sites underscored how unevenly prepared the U.S. government is to block such multipronged assaults.

While Treasury Department and Federal Trade Commission Web sites were shut down by the software attack, which lasted for days over the holiday weekend, others such as the Pentagon and the White House were able to fend it off with little disruption.

The North Korea link, described by three officials, more firmly connected the U.S. attacks to another wave of cyber assaults that hit government agencies Tuesday in South Korea. The officials said that while Internet addresses have been traced to North Korea, that does not necessarily mean the attack involved the Pyongyang government"

OK, wait a minute

Our government is saying that the attack probably came from North Korea, but it wasn't the North Korean's??

That is possible, with IP spoofing and redirection of traffic, but how likely is it that the MOST paranoid nation on the planet would allow such a thing to happen? I sense a apology coming forth..from US!

"The widespread attack was "loud and clumsy," which suggests it was carried out by an unsophisticated organization, said Amit Yoran, chief executive at NetWitness Corp. and the former U.S. government cybersecurity chief. "This is not the elegance we would expect from sophisticated adversaries."

OK, loud and clumsy still kicked serveral servers offline for DAYS.  Cyber espionage relies on elegance, loud and clumsy tells me they didnt care, the intent was to see what they could do.

Denial of service attacks: overloading a computer system so that it can no longer function. This is the method allegedly used by the Russians to disrupt the Estonian government computers in May 2007.

Chinese Cyber war tactics call for gaining the intiative early, crippling the target nation infrastructure, targeting agencies and institutions that are softer targets; as the targets go offline, the communication lines to them become saturated, slowing down the local Wide Area Network; as the WAN becomes congested, the traffic becomes re routed, cascading into other portions of the web. Eventually vast areas could experience the equivalent to a power brown out as internet traffic slows to dialup speed.

Just know that the Pentagon uses more than 5 million computers on 100,000 networks in 65 countries.

Sami Saydjari, who has been working on cyber defence systems for the Pentagon since the 1980s, told Congress in testimony on April 25 that a mass cyber attack could leave 70 per cent of the US without electrical power for six months.

Oh, but lets not worry ourselves, Obie will talk them out of it...yeah, right

Enough already...what About REAL NEWS

The "King of Pop" dies,  and is immediately deified by the MSM. MEANWHILE- major wire services are buzzing the cyber news, that major South Korean and America web sites are under attack.

People at my work site stop work to watch coverage on the breakroom TV, and ask why i dont join them; I explain that I never really liked his music..surely i jest, I must have liked some of his music, right?? No joy, i never really liked any of it. Really.So this is the extent i will mention this here: Rest In Peace

Meanwhile-

WASHINGTON – A widespread and unusually resilient computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of several government agencies, including some that are responsible for fighting cyber crime, The Associated Press has learned.

The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week, according to officials inside and outside the government. Some of the sites were still experiencing problems Tuesday evening. Cyber attacks on South Korea government and private sites also may be linked, officials there said.

Others familiar with the U.S. outage, which is called a denial of service attack, said that the fact that the government Web sites were still being affected three days after it began signaled an unusually lengthy and sophisticated attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

Web sites of major South Korean government agencies, banks and Internet sites also were paralyzed in a suspected cyber attack Tuesday. Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokeswoman at the Korea Information Security Agency, said the U.S. and South Korean attacks appeared to be linked.

The South Korean sites included the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange Bank and top Internet portal Naver. They went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, Ahn said.

According to Rushlo, the Transportation Web site was "100 percent down" for two days, so that no Internet users could get through to it. The FTC site, meanwhile, started to come back online late Sunday, but even on Tuesday Internet users still were unable to get to the site 70 percent of the time.

"This is very strange. You don't see this," he said. "Having something 100 percent down for a 24-hour-plus period is a pretty significant event."

He added that, "The fact that it lasted for so long and that it was so significant in its ability to bring the site down says something about the site's ability to fend off (an attack) or about the severity of the attack."

Last summer, in the weeks leading up to the war between Russia and Georgia, Georgian government and corporate Web sites began to see "denial of service" attacks. The Kremlin denied involvement, but a group of independent Western computer experts traced domain names and Web site registration data to conclude that the Russian security and military intelligence agencies were involved.

Canice Opinion: Targeting South Korea and the United States simultaneously may seem to suggest ...hmmm, North Korea?

July 6th, 2009

Nothing to write about, or too much..so instead, music.

From the movie "Henry Poole Was Here" Some say its just a nice story, others see a religious overtone (duh) but for me its an emotional movie, I cry every time I watch it..

The Star Spangled Banner Story

This 11 1/2 minute narrative tells the story of what inspired the writing of the Star Spangled Banner By Francis Scott Key. Please take the time to listen...and remind yourself of what our forefathers gave to ensure this country survived... The oral history of the night that inspired our National Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. Listen to this story of our great Veterans during the war of 1812. The Star Spangled Banner, like you've never heard it

Semper Fi Marines - 4 July 2009

Honey talked to other Veteran's today at the VFW close to the parade we went to...and as usual bought all sorts of drinks, shared cigar's (and stories) and bought a bunch of lottery tickets for the big 4th of July Harley give away, which he knows he won't win, but who cares...the money goes to help Vets...
When we got home, he asked me to put this on my blog, so here it is:

Semper Fi, Marines!

Your patriotism and devotion to duty is not unnoticed by your brothers (and sisters!) in arms back here stateside!
Reuters:

Some 4,000 Marines are moving through southern Helmand to take back Taliban-held territory and pinch the insurgents' supply lines. Bravo Company has seen a lot of walking but up to now little fighting, though other Marines in the operation have had extended battles.

So far, the worst danger facing Bravo is the heat. Temperatures are well above 100 degrees , and medics treated several heat casualties Saturday.

The Marines walk in columns down dusty dirt roads, and every couple dozen steps they bend over at the waist to give aching shoulders a break. During frequent breaks, medics go up and down the line, looking to see if their men are drinking water.

Lance Corp. Bryan Knight, a mortar man, carries one of the heaviest pack. The 21-year-old Cincinnati native weighs a slight 145 pounds - and his pack almost equals him.

He carries a 15-pound mortar base plate, four mortar rounds that weigh 10 pounds each, about 15 pounds of water and another 50 pounds of combat gear - ammunition, weapon and his body armor, in all about 120 pounds of equipment.

Unsurprisingly, he is drenched in sweat. "The only dry parts of my clothes are the pockets," he said.

Captain Drew Schoenmaker, company commander,  said the heat was affecting militants as well, noting there were few daytime attacks theater-wide and none on his unit. He said he doubted people back in the United States could understand how hard his Marines work.

"Someone back home might say, 'Oh, it's 100 degrees here, too.' But you're not trying to carry 60 or 90 pounds and people aren't trying to kill you," he said. "And you can always step out of the sun. You can't always do that here."

Have a HAPPY and SAFE 4th of July

I will be reporting later about the TEA Party today , and other 4th of July activities...

 

 

4th of July - Is the New York Times Anti-American?

Is the New York Times un-american??

No. They are the last bastion of free thought in this country (-10 pts)

 

 1

No, but they kind of suck (-5 pts)

 

 0

Not Sure (0 pts)

 

 0

Yes, they have gone off the deep end (5 pts)

 

 0

Yes, and anyone that believes a word they write is a moron (10 pts)

 

 0

NYT - rather use it to start my fireplace than read it (you are a patriot 50 pts)

 

 5

In high school and junior college, I took classes in journalism, and majored in broadcast communications in college. The big names in the industry have come and gone, but the really big newspapers, the ones that almost have that aura of greatness were papers like the New York Times...yet reading a opinion piece in that paper about flying the flag, and its significance,  and the comments posted by readers,  made my stomach turn and blood boil.
Here is a sample:

"...in the Bush years of sanctioned torture and war built on deceit, many Americans withdrew from overt displays of patriotism. Some said they were ashamed of their country."

"Obama, the candidate, tried to explain why he initially stopped wearing a flag pin in 2007. No doubt, he was speaking for a lot of fellow citizens. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly as we were talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism,” he said in 2007. “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”

Obama’s comment sounded like a more tortured version of Samuel Johnson’s aphorism about patriotism being the last refuge of scoundrels... he neutered the public blowhards who costumed themselves in red, white and blue at the peak of the Bush presidency.

If your great-great-grandparents were bought and sold in chains at slave markets in the south, then perhaps you might have reason for mixed feelings about the flag.

If you were one of thousands of American citizens interned by your own government during World War II, then again, the flag would give you pause at times.

Or worse, if you were run off your land, the land of your ancestors, and not granted full citizenship until 1924 – American Indians, a storyline whose only changes are geographic – the flag can seem foreign, at best.

The challenge is to look at the whole of it – the awful history with the daring leaps of progress – and see something living, ever-evolving. "

My take on this narrative is that it suppose we as readers will agree and in solidarity with the oppressed among us NOT fly the flag....oh but wait, here is what NYT readers thought:
"Actually I think the real question to be asked here is: why do so many Americans (of any political persuasion) feel an urge to display their national flag outside their homes, businesses, on their lapels? Among democratic nations at least, this is a uniquely American behavior, which is baffling and frankly rather off-putting to foreign visitors."

"A 4th of July question? Is the US the best country in the world? Safest from crime? Fewest in jail? Most educated? Health care for all? Safest banks?Why celebrate?"
"

Yes, I bought two big flags last January on the day before inauguration day, and I put them up at my business on holidays.

To make it short: we got our country back."

[Canice note: I am so lucky to be an American! I have traveled extensively outside my home, the United States. The United States is still the beacon of hope for people around the world. Our freedoms, our all-inclusive open-ness, our culture that encourages and permits adventure and exploration, out lack of pretentiousness, our genuineness….is a gift to ourselves and the world. The Fourth of July is when we should pause and give thanks that with all our problems, we are the luckiest society in the world.
I am blessed to be a citizen of The United States! And I wish all my fellow citizens a Happy and Prosperous Fourth of July! ]