Friday, February 1

Money

Column by Jim Davies.

Bush Asserts Authority to Bypass Defense Act

“President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill. Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.” Nor are we bound to obey all those signing statements, executive orders, DHS mandates, and legislative measures that unconstitutionally infringe on our personal freedoms and rights.

Trains, Bloggers Are Threats in Drill

“It's the government's idea of a really bad day: Washington's Metro trains shut down. Seaport computers in New York go dark. Bloggers reveal locations of railcars with hazardous materials. Airport control towers are disrupted in Philadelphia and Chicago. Overseas, a mysterious liquid is found on London's subway. And that's just for starters.”

U.S. Military Not Ready for Major Attack, Study Finds

“The U.S. military isn't ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces don't have the equipment or training they need for the job, according to a report.” Millions spent on practice drills...yet they aren't ready...equipment and resources for mock attacks to terrorize the public, but not for real ones...guess those priorities make the REAL threat level quite clear.

DHS Announces $12.14 Billion for Border Security & Immigration Enforcement Efforts

"Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff previewed today a 19 percent increase over Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 in funding for border security and immigration enforcement efforts in FY 2009. This represents a more than 150 percent increase since President Bush has been in office, enabling the department to fulfill its border infrastructure, fencing and personnel goals by the end of 2008." Nice...look how much of our own money we are going to allow them to spend to lock us down like criminals. Don't miss the part at the end, where DHS wants to investigate US citizens to decide who is “eligible” to earn a living.

3 Journalists Believed to Have Died in Secret Prison

“An independent journalist arrested seven years ago with 10 newspaper publishers and editors is being held in a secret prison camp in Eritrea where at least nine other prisoners, including three journalists, are believed to have died, the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.” No...not the American secret prisons...yet...that we know of anyway....come to think of it, we don't really know who the CIA has locked away, do we?

Secret CIA Flights to Greenland Reported

“ Denmark will investigate claims that the CIA secretly used an airport on the Nordic country's remote Arctic territory of Greenland to transport prisoners in the U.S. war on terror, the prime minister said Thursday. Denmark , like many other European countries, began investigating reports in 2005 that the U.S. intelligence agency quietly touched down on their territory as part of the CIA's so-called 'extraordinary rendition' program. Human rights groups have criticized the practice, in which suspects are transported for interrogation to countries outside the U.S. for interrogation.”

Bush Orders NSA to Snoop on US Agencies

“Not content with spying on other countries, the NSA (National Security Agency) will now turn on the US 's own government agencies thanks to a fresh directive from president George Bush.”

America's Teetering Banking System

“The financial markets are deteriorating at a faster pace than anyone could have imagined. Mega-billion dollar private equity deals have either been shelved or are unable to refinance. Asset-backed Commercial Paper (short-term notes backed by sketchy mortgage-backed collateral) has shrunk by $400 billion (one-third) since August. Also, the market for corporate bonds has fallen off a cliff in a matter of months. According to the Wall Street Journal, a paltry $850 million in high-yield debt has been issued for January, while in January 2007 that figure was $8.5 billion---ten times bigger. That's a hefty loss of revenue for the banks.”

Key 9/11 Commission Staffer Held Secret Meetings With Rove, Scaled Back Criticisms of White House

“A forthcoming book by NYT reporter Philip Shenon — 'The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation' — asserts that former 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow interfered with the 9/11 report. According to the book, Zelikow had failed to inform the commission at the time he was hired that he was instrumental in helping Condoleezza Rice set up Bush’s National Security Council in 2001. Some panel staffers believe Zelikow stopped them from submitting a report depicting Rice’s performance prior to 9/11 as 'amount[ing] to incompetence'.”

NYPD Detective Charged With Pimping Teen

“A 13-year-old runaway returned home with a horrific account of being forced into prostitution by the kind of person who should have instead come to her aid: a city detective.”

Britney Spears Makes More News Than Bush

“Despite the economy drawing 'heavy coverage and widespread interest' last week, Americans and the news media see President Bush as a non-story, behind Britney Spears.”

Soldier Suicides at Record Level

“Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006. At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began.” (Free Reg. Req.)

Internet Failure Hits Two Continents

“High-technology services across large tracts of Asia , the Middle East and North Africa were crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope. Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage. Reports say that Egypt , Saudi Arabia , Qatar , the United Arab Emirates , Kuwait , Bahrain Pakistan and India , are all experiencing severe problems.”

Air Your Security Gripes on TSA Blog

“Frustrated by long airport-security lines? Certain those screeners aren't paying attention? Wondering why your grandma always gets frisked? The federal government wants to hear — or at least read — your gripes at the 'Evolution of Security' blog the Transportation Security Administration introduced Wednesday. And it promises those complaints and suggestions won't vanish into thin air.” Believe it or not, this isn't satire...but I bet it is surely the fast lane to the No Fly List.

Last Glimpse Inside Ancient Enigma

“You're in your jouncing people-carrier, taking in the agreeable but unremarkable view, and then suddenly it's upon you; a pointy attention-grabber at the side of the road, towering street furniture in the shape of a hazard-warning equilateral. This is crushing historical time expressed in trigonometry.”

Housecat's Genes Traced to the Middle East

“The roots of the domesticated cat's family tree all converge in the Middle East, with many surprising ancestral twists and turns along the way, reveals a new genetic study on house kitties that included purebreds, mutts and even feral felines.” Wow, wonder if DHS is aware of all of these Middle Eastern infiltrators among us...I'm harboring four of them myself.

Worship at Zeus's 'Birthplace' Predates the Greek God

“Excavations at Zeus's mountaintop 'birthplace' suggest the site's ash altar was in use at least 5,000 years ago—a thousand years before the earliest known versions of the myth of the Greek god.”

Netscape: The Browser That Started It All Dies a Quiet Death

“It birthed the web as we know it. But tomorrow, February 1, marks the demise of Netscape Navigator, the first commercial web browser.”

The Hideout

A photo blog.