CA ON THE BRINK

By JUDY LIN

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California lawmakers on Monday were locked in a frustrating search for one more vote to approve a $42 billion budget-balancing plan state leaders say is needed to stave off fiscal disaster.

The stalled effort prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to make good on an earlier promise to begin the layoff process for thousands of state workers, though under the state's process it would take months for anyone to actually be laid off.

Lawmakers were in session for a state-record 30 hours before disbanding Sunday night, with many of them looking haggard and worn out after a futile attempt to secure the necessary votes. They regrouped Monday, but the expected budget votes kept getting pushed back.

Lawmakers have been trying to pass a combination of spending cuts, tax hikes and additional borrowing negotiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and leaders of both parties, who warn that California faces insolvency unless the Legislature enacts a midyear budget fix to close the projected $42 billion budget shortfall through June 2010.

The plan continues to fall short of votes because rank-and-file Republicans have refused to agree to $14.4 billion in higher taxes. Lawmakers believe there are enough GOP votes in the Assembly, but the Senate has fallen short by one.

State workers have been furloughed because of the budget crisis, some 2,000 public works projects are on hold and tax refunds and payments to vendors have been delayed. The state controller says the state will run out of cash at the end of the month if lawmakers do not act. ....

NSA identifies top 25 programming errors

(Compiler's note: A must read.)

Security Strategies Alert By M. E. Kabay

The critical importance of integrating security into programming is obvious to anyone who thinks about it, and it has been the subject of countless minatory or sometimes pleading articles. Google "secure programming" as one example of appropriate keywords and you’ll find nearly a million hits.

Back in 2001, I wrote five columns on the subject which I later collected and updated as the short paper “Programming for Security” that’s currently on my Web site.

Microsoft’s Michael Howard and Steve Lipner published Writing Secure Code, Second Edition (2003), The Security Development Lifecycle (2006); and Michael Howard and David LeBlanc wrote Writing Secure Code for Windows Vista (2007).

Now the National Security Agency, working with MITRE Corp., SANS, and dozens of industry experts from many other organizations, has published a valuable list of the top 25 most dangerous programming errors. The best description of the project that I have found is the SANS Institute report. SANS provides a detailed summary of the issues, including this introduction:

"Today [January 12, 2009] in Washington, D.C., experts from more than 30 U.S. and international cyber security organizations jointly released the consensus list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors that lead to security bugs and that enable cyber espionage and cyber crime. Shockingly, most of these errors are not well understood by programmers; their avoidance is not widely taught by computer science programs; and their presence is frequently not tested by organizations developing software for sale.

"The impact of these errors is far reaching. Just two of them led to more than 1.5 million web site security breaches during 2008 - and those breaches cascaded onto the computers of people who visited those web sites, turning their computers into zombies."

SANS provides a list of the errors with a link from each to the MITRE database called the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE). That site explains:

"International in scope and free for public use, CWE provides a unified, measurable set of software weaknesses that is enabling more effective discussion, description, selection, and use of software security tools and services that can find these weaknesses in source code and operational systems as well as better understanding and management of software weaknesses related to architecture and design."

The list itself divides the errors into three major categories:

• Insecure interaction between components.
• Risky resource management.
• Porous defenses.

Readers will find the threat model that was used in ranking the weaknesses particularly interesting. It presupposes a relatively skilled hacker intent on data theft or theft of resources and willing to invest at least 20 hours per target software package. The full process used in selecting the top 25 is documented and there’s also a list of 23 weaknesses that almost made it into the list.

This research project will be enormously valuable to working programmers, instructors in computer science, computer engineering and information assurance programs, and students in those disciplines.

Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point ....So we watch and wait as the lethal brush fires move closer.If one spark jumps across the eurozone line, we will have global systemic crisis within days. Are the firemen ready?

Intelligence community assesses cyber threat

by Ben Bain

This year’s annual threat assessment from the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) found that malicious cyber activity grew more sophisticated, targeted and serious during the past year and that trend is expected to continue during the next year. The assessment also said the intelligence community expects disruptive cyber activities to be part of future political or military conflicts.

The unclassified findings of the assessment were presented by DNI Dennis Blair before the Senate Select Intelligence Committee Feb. 12. Blair’s predecessor, Mike McConnell, presented cited a similar trend regarding cyber threats in the 2008 annual report.

The release of this year’s assessment came days after the Obama administration said it will conduct a full-scale review of the government’s cybersecurity efforts. That review will include a look at the multiyear, multibillion-dollar Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI) that started in January 2008.

The report said threats to the information networks of the United States come from nation-states, criminals and terrorist groups have expressed a desire to use cyber means to target the United States.

“Each of these actors has different levels of skill and different intentions; therefore, we must develop flexible capabilities to counter each,” the report said. “We must take proactive measures to detect and prevent intrusions from whatever source, as they happen, and before they can do significant damage.”

The report also said that, although work remained, there is “an unprecedented unity of effort across a broad coalition of government agencies, members of Congress, and leaders of industry,” but that the CNCI must remain a long-term national priority.

Blair also testified that it was important to include cyber defense from the “very first building block” of a new smart grid electrical system. Blair also said that he feels terrorist groups are most focused on using other methods of attack.

Blair also said cyber is not the area where he thinks terrorists have the greatest skills for the greatest destruction.

“I think that they have other terrible things that they can do to us that they are working on harder, they're better able to do and they seem to be more motivated to do – so it’s possible, but I don’t think the combination of terror and cyber is the nexus that we are most worried about.”

In today's intelligence hierarchy, who really runs the show?

By Pam Benson

In the old world, the CIA director ruled. He not only ran the spy agency, but he wore a second hat as director of Central Intelligence.

The DCI was ostensibly responsible for coordinating the activities of all 16 agencies and departments which make up the intelligence community.

Then came along the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) in 2005 -- a product of intelligence reform following the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Those intelligence failures were proof that you needed one person to focus exclusively on guiding the community.

Running the CIA in itself was a full-time job. The DNI would oversee the entire intelligence community while the CIA director concentrated on running the spy agency.

But there's a problem with this setup. Although the DNI was given more input into budgets and personnel than the DCI had, the DNI's powers are limited and somewhat vague. The intelligence chief has a say in lots of things, but there's no real muscle behind his decisions. It's not like the defense secretary, who has absolute authority over all department components.

Outgoing CIA Director Mike Hayden recently told reporters there is natural tension between the CIA and DNI, but it's "not a bad structure."

He did suggest, however, that the DNI's office was getting a bit bloated. "Americans being Americans, they're going to fill up their day trying to doing something impactful," he said, "which means between the two of us there's going to be a trench line ... out there."

And how did departing DNI Mike McConnell respond to Hayden's quip?

"Anytime you have organizations that have similar interests, you're going to have disputes," he said. "And particularly if the two leaders aren't working together and having a partnership and so on, the warfare at the trench level gets to be pretty much a raging battle."

McConnell said he had a good professional relationship with Hayden, so they made it work. But he added, "we don't have a department of intelligence. If this were the Department of Defense, there wouldn't be any question, but it isn't."

CIA nominee Leon Panetta got into the middle of the dispute during his confirmation hearing.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Michigan, wanted to know Panetta's understanding of the relationship between the CIA and the DNI. Would he be under the supervision of the DNI?

Initially, Panetta said he reported to the DNI and performed the tasks assigned to him by the DNI, but then he added: "we are an operational arm, just like the [National Security Agency], just like the [National Reconnaissance Office], and I believe the role of the DNI is to coordinate all our activities..."

Well, the NSA and the NRO are part of the Defense Department and report directly to the Defense Secretary, not the DNI. The CIA is the only intelligence agency that is not part of another department.

A bit baffled by Panetta's response, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, asked him point blank, "Is the DNI your boss or not?" Panetta's answer, "The DNI is my boss."

It makes you wonder how Panetta and the other new guy -- DNI Dennis Blair -- will play in the sand box.

DNI Annual Threat Assessment

(Compiler's note: H'mmmmm...)

Editorial - Washington Times

Democratic critics of the Bush administration howled for years about the alleged "politicization" of the intelligence community. Behold the Obama administration´s first major IC product, where politics seems to have played a visible role.

In a statement that dovetails nicely with the Obama administration's hurry-up offense on the stimulus bill, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair highlighted the global economic crisis as leading national security challenge in introducing the Intelligence Community Annual Threat Assessment to the Senate's intelligence committee. "The longer it takes for the recovery to begin, the greater the likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests," Director Blair said. He also stated that there is a "widely held perception that excesses in U.S. financial markets and inadequate regulation" were responsible for the crisis, which frames the argument in a way favorable to those seeking to impose stringent controls on markets.

While it is true that the downturn in the global economy will have an impact on national security for the United States (and most other countries), it will present as many opportunities as challenges. The report itself acknowledges that the decline in oil prices "may put the squeeze on the adventurism of producers like Iran and Venezuela," not to mention Russia. Also it states that the crisis gives the U.S. "the opportunity to fashion new international global structures that can benefit all."

Also worthy of note is that the news release that accompanied Blair's testimony highlighted four primary emerging areas of concern: the global economic crisis; global climate change; resource scarcity; and cyber security. But it is unclear why these areas were given special emphasis.

In the forty-five page statement, the economic crisis is covered in the first two pages, and the latter three issues appear briefly in the back. Blair admitted in his statement that most of these are "not traditionally viewed as 'threats' to U.S. national security." They are more properly viewed as strategic conditioning factors. Furthermore these sections largely discuss potentials – things that could happen, might happen, or may happen – rather that things that are happening.

Actual, ongoing threats – grouped down in the "also" section of the press release - such as the continuing war against violent extremism and the arc of instability in the Middle East (including the Iranian nuclear and missile programs), take up 18 pages in the front of the report. The 17 pages that follow deal with regional issues requiring immediate action, such as social meltdown in Mexico, high seas piracy, and other specific challenges. These are well-defined threats the intelligence community can play a role in combating. They are challenges that fall more naturally under the rubric of national security. They comprised the majority of the report. But they were not part of the Obama administration's legislative agenda last week. The administration may want us to ignore the elephant in the room, but they need to remember that he is armed and dangerous.

People NOT Buying Bailout

Very Interesting stats on the bailout....

33 Minutes - Protecting America In The New Missile Age

(Compiler's note: This is a must read it item.)

from National Terror Alert Center

A ballistic missile from a foreign enemy would take 33 minutes to reach the United States. With each passing day, this becomes a growing danger to America, yet our government has failed to build the missile defense systems capable of defending us against such attacks.

Our enemies are attempting to stockpile arsenals that threaten our freedom and prosperity. North Korea and Iran are the most prominent, but this also includes Russia, China and other nations that have missiles capable of killing Americans in very large numbers and threatening our allies.

The proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to rogue states such as Iran and North Korea pose a grave danger to the lives of all Americans.

North Korea is currently developing a long-range ballistic missile that could soon carry a nuclear warhead all the way to Alaska or California. Iran already has missiles that can reach Europe, and could soon acquire nuclear weapons. These countries could share their missile and nuclear technologies with terrorists, who would in turn be able to directly threaten New York City and other American cities with short-range missiles.

Once terrorist-supporting states get their hands on a nuclear missile, they would be free to attack us and our allies with impunity, knowing full well we would think twice before sending our armed forces into a country that could retaliate with nuclear missiles. They would be emboldened to threaten their neighbors, assert dominance in their region, and further destabilize dangerous situations. Thus, they would gain sanctuary from which to export more terrorism.

via Missile Defense - 33 Minutes Overview.

Introducing the Harley-Jihad

from Jihad Watch

Jahanam's Angels (note the turban)

In whatever era or place, here are the Sunnis and Shias at it once again -- this time in the guise of "bikers" warring in Sydney, Australia.

"Religious divide drives bikie war," by Dylan Welch for SMH.com, February 16:

AN ANCIENT religious enmity is at the centre of a new conflict in the Sydney bikie scene, with a new gang comprised mainly of Sunni Muslims warring with a group of bikies with a Shiite Muslim background.

While detectives continue to investigate the February 4 bombing of a Hells Angels clubhouse in Crystal Street, Petersham, police and other sources are indicating that the city chapter of the Comanchero is involved in an escalating feud with a new club, Notorious.

The president of Notorious is a Lebanese-Australian with a long-standing association with a bikie from a colourful Sydney Sunni Lebanese family. The two are among Sydney's original "Nike" bikies - sporting white sneakers, fashionable T-shirts and clean-shaven instead of the traditional boots, dirty vests and bushy beards - and both are from Sunni families from Sydney's west.

Notorious is considered by gang squad detectives to be the prime suspect in the Crystal Street bombing. One of its mottos is "Only the dead see the end of war" and its "colours", or coat of arms, is a turbaned skeleton holding twin pistols with "Original Gangster" beneath it. Today is the first time the club's colours have been revealed publicly.

On the other side of the conflict is the president of the Comanchero City Crew, a Beirut-born Shiite who grew up in the St George area. Comanchero has been one of the motorcycle gangs that have embraced the new breed of "Nike" bikie, and have been recruiting from the Lebanese and Islander communities for several years.

Traditionally, Lebanese Muslim migrants to Sydney have been geographically and religiously divided. The Sunni majority live in Sydney's west and south-west, mainly around Auburn and Bankstown, while the Shiite minority live in the St George area. "The two groups have no love lost between them," a senior police source told the Herald.

They have been fighting since the Sunni bikie, one of Sydney's most well-known gangsters, became president of the Nomads Parramatta chapter in the late 1990s.

In 2006, he was jailed over a Newcastle shooting. The following year, the Parramatta chapter's Granville headquarters was bombed, allegedly by the Comanchero, and the chapter subsequently disbanded.

A few of its members formed Notorious, probably at the request of the Sunni bikie.

"[The Sunni bikie] left the Nomads while he was on remand," said an investigator who has watched the two groups for years. "He was telling people he was planning to start up his own club. Around about the same time, Notorious appeared."

Unlike the Sunni bikie and the Notorious president, the Comanchero City Crew president was born in Beirut and grew up in Sydney's southern suburbs. He appeared on television in 2005 following the Cronulla riot and Maroubra reprisal violence, when he met members of the Bra Boys to calm tensions.

When the Herald asked the president of the Hells Angels city chapter about the bombing, he was succinct: "I've got nothing to say, thank you."

But bikie sources said the Angels believe Notorious may be responsible for the attack, which closed down Crystal Street for a day and damaged seven neighbouring businesses.

Neither police nor the Hells Angels have established why Notorious may have attacked the club, though the senior police source offered a simple answer: "They're just bloody crazy."

In the latest violence, a Comanchero member was shot in the leg when he was confronted by five Hells Angels at a park in Silverwater on February 7.

Secret police target government critics

The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin

LONDON

– Jacqui Smith, the United Kingdom's home secretary who already is embattled over claims she has "misappropriated" housing allowances, now has approved a new and ultra-secret intelligence unit to spy on groups opposed to government policies, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Called the Confidential Intelligence Unit, the agency will be housed in a high-security annex at Scotland Yard and will report directly to Smith.

The unit will have the same powers as MI5 to mount secret surveillance operations and recruit informers who will provide details of "domestic extremists" – this will include those in discussion to call strikes affecting rail and air transport.

Alarmed human rights organizations have described CIU as being "no different to the East German Stasi or the old KGB."

The unit is modeled on one that MI5 ran during the Cold War when the Security Service was ordered to spy on trade unionists and anti-nuclear campaigners. It led to the compiling of files on students at British universities in the 1960s and 1970s.

Among the files MI5 still holds are surveillance records on two senior members of the present Gordon Brown government, Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson and Justice Minister Jack Straw.

Discussion on Nationalization of U.S. Banks

This is a video that you may have missed.

Fed-up teller quits bank over Mexican IDs

(Compiler's note: A must read item.)

By Chelsea Schilling

A personal banker in Arlington, Va., is quitting his job after Chevy Chase Bank, one of the largest and best-known banks in the Washington, D.C., region, announced it will begin accepting consular cards from customers who many suspect are illegal aliens.

The bank announced its "Hispanic Banking Initiative" during a pilot program and is now accepting Matricula Consular de Alta Seguridads, or MCAS, at all of its branches so customers without U.S. government IDs may open accounts.

The MCAS is an identification card issued to foreign nationals living in the U.S. by the Mexican government via their 47 consulates. The National Council of La Raza estimates that more than 350 financial institutions currently accept them. Customers with the IDs – including illegal aliens – are able to open checking and savings accounts, order check cards, safe deposit boxes, cashier's checks and wire billions of dollars to Mexico.

"I was becoming stressed out at work because I just knew in my heart that if someone came to me with this card I couldn't just compromise my principles and open an account for them," Chevy Chase personal banker Albert Thompson told WND.

The U.S. banking system relies on Social Security numbers to track accounts, verify identity and report taxable earnings to the government.

"Accepting the Matricula skirts that issue," Bankers Online reports. "Many Mexicans who work in the United States do so in order to send money back to their homes in Mexico. FDIC says about $18 billion is wired annually from the U.S. to Mexico. Many U.S. banks have welcomed the IDs as a way to get a cut of this activity by profiting from the handling charges on the wires and increased deposits." ....

"What effort the consulates actually go through to verify that person's identity and location is questionable, which is why the bank requires an additional proof of residency – like a U.S. cell phone bill," he said. "It's as simple as that – a cell phone bill with an address in the U.S. and that card. Then we just take their word for it."

The U.S Treasury allows financial institutions to accept the Matricula Consular card as a valid form of ID. On Oct. 21, 2002, it issued a USA PATRIOT Act statement to Congress proposing rules that would require financial institutions to create customer identification and verification programs for all new accounts.

However, it states, "[T]he proposed regulations do not discourage bank acceptance of the 'matricula consular' identity card that is being issued by the Mexican government to immigrants."

But in 2003, the FBI Assistant Director Steve McCraw testified before Congress about terrorist and identity fraud threats associated with consular ID cards.

"The Government of Mexico has been particularly aggressive in marketing the use of its consular ID card, the Matricula Consular," his testimony revealed. "The crucial element in the acceptance of any consular ID card is the ability to verify the actual true identity of the bearer of the card. In today's post-9/11 world, this element is all the more important because, in order to protect the American people, we must be able to determine whether an individual is who he purports to be."

McCraw said foreign nationals who are in the United States legally have little need for Matricula Consular cards because they have passports available to prove identity, open bank accounts, gain access to federal facilities, board planes and obtain driver's licenses.

"It is believed that consular ID cards are primarily being utilized by illegal aliens in the United States," he said.

....After the U.S. government conducted extensive research on the Matricula Consular card, the Department of Justice and FBI concluded it is "not a reliable form of identification, due to the non-existence of any means of verifying the true identity of the card holder."

McCraw listed the following problems with the foreign ID:

• First, the Government of Mexico has no centralized database to coordinate the issuance of consular ID cards. This allows multiple cards to be issued under the same name, the same address, or with the same photograph.

• Second, the Government of Mexico has no interconnected databases to provide intra-consular communication to be able to verify who has or has not applied for or received a consular ID card.

• Third, the Government of Mexico issues the card to anyone who can produce a Mexican birth certificate and one other form of identity, including documents of very low reliability. Mexican birth certificates are easy to forge and they are a major item on the product list of the fraudulent document trade currently flourishing across the country and around the world. A September 2002 bust of a document production operation in Washington state illustrated the size of this trade. A huge cache of fake Mexican birth certificates was discovered. It is our belief that the primary reason a market for these birth certificates exists is the demand for fraudulently-obtained Matricula Consular cards.

• Fourth, in some locations, when an individual seeking a Matricula Consular is unable to produce any documents whatsoever, he will still be issued a Matricula Consular by the Mexican consular official, if he fills out a questionnaire and satisfies the official that he is who he purports to be.

McCraw said the consular card is vulnerable to forgery and that 90 percent of the estimated 2 million IDs in circulation are simply laminated cards without security features. He listed two major criminal threats posed by the cards, and one potential terrorist threat.

The first criminal threat emerges as illegal aliens use the ID cards as "breeder documents" for establishing a false identity. At the time of the report, McCraw said 13 states used the consular ID for providing driver's licenses.

"Once in possession of a driver's license, a criminal is well on his way to using the false identity to facilitate a variety of crimes, from money laundering to check fraud," he said. "And of course, the false identity serves to conceal a criminal who is already being sought by law enforcement."

These criminals often open bank accounts under several different aliases and may have numerous IDs with the same photo and different names.

The second criminal threat McCraw listed concerns human smuggling across U.S. borders.

"Federal officials have arrested alien smugglers who have had as many as seven different Matricula Consular cards in their possession," he said. "The cards not only conceal the identity of the smuggler, they also serve as a magnet for the victims who are enticed to entrust their lives to the smugglers, believing that the Matricula Consular that awaits them will entitle them to all sorts of benefits within the United States."

Despite the gravity of the first two threats, McCraw called the terrorist threat "most worrisome." While federal officials have come across people from different countries who have consular IDs, most are citizens of Central or South American countries – but least one individual of Middle Eastern descent has also been arrested in possession of a consular card.

He said, "The ability of foreign nationals to use the Matricula Consular to create a well-documented, but fictitious, identity in the United States provides an opportunity for terrorists to move freely within the United States without triggering name-based watch lists that are disseminated to local police officers."

McCraw said terrorists can transfer money from one financial institution to another and even board planes using the cards as identification.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., also warned against the acceptance of consular cards.

"The only people who benefit from having such an ID are those who have come illegally and have broken our laws," he said.

In a June 12, 2003, letter to Secretary Colin Powell, he wrote, "... using their consular offices here as lobbying agents to help undermine our immigration laws is an outrage and the State Department's apparent acquiescence in this endeavor is even more incredible. … If you do not take steps to halt our cooperation and support of this practice, our country will see a virtual tidal wave of such cards issued to illegal alien by their embassies and consulates in the U.S."

On Sept. 14, 2004, Congress rejected a proposal that would have prohibited financial institutions from accepting consular IDs – and U.S. financial institutions continued to tap the market by offering banking services to illegal aliens.....

Unthinkable

BRITISH and French nuclear submarines which collided deep under the Atlantic could have sunk or released deadly radioactivity, it emerged last night.....

THE DAILY FISH 14 FEBRUARY 2009 - "Valentine's Day Massacre of the Constitution"

My Dear Friends and Fellow Patriots.

Alea Iacta Est.

To no one’s surprise, the Senate voted for the trillion-dollar waste of our money last night. Coming on the heels of approval (or is it the approval by the heels) of the House, only the President’s signature is needed to make this law.

For the second time, the House Republicans banded together and not one voted for this truly dangerous bill. For the second time, three despicable alleged Republicans voted for it making it veto-proof.

One expects lies, prevarications, amelioration of fact, self-loathing and an undercurrent of Anti-American feelings by the Democrats, but to be thrown under the bus by Snowe, Collins and Specter is truly disturbing.

(To be fair, they are not exactly strong Republicans. Proof of this is their being referred to as “moderate Republicans” in the press. This is the same as calling the reptilian Reid as a “moderate Democrat.”)

I would be more forgiving, more understanding and more accepting of the passage of this pile of offal if those voting for it could defend their vote.

The ink was hardly dry on the document when it was sent for a vote. At over a thousand pages it tests credulity that any of the Member of Congress read it in its entirety. It is unlikely that many, if any, had their staffs divvy up the tome and have it read by committee.

It is equally likely that there are some dangerous, critical and threatening aspects included in the agate print of this disaster. Truly, at this point I am less concerned about raising spending 30% as to what is actually in this bill.

No, I have not read it. No, I do not know all the particulars about it. No, I can not cite one sentence to prove my point. And neither have the 535 people who voted on it. Or, is it 537? (More on that statement soon.)

But, I will read it, and I will not be shocked by its contents. Yet, we all will be affected and effected by it and by now it is too late. (And remember, I am the optimist.)

By now many of you are thinking that I am unfair, that I am being over-critical and that I have taken leave of my senses.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Take for instance the lies of Sen. Schumer. (For some reason, his office does not like it when I refer to him as Sen. Schemer. I advise that was a function of my spell-check.) (How many of you have just typed “Schumer” and spell-checked it?)(Told you) One day, he says that there is no pork in the bill, the bill that is nothing but pork and bribes. The next day he says that the American Sheeple do not care if there is a little pork. Which way is it Chuckie-baby? No pork, some pork, either way you lied at least once. Even though I have called the Senator on his aversion to truth, he refuses to contact me, debate me or sue me. I wonder why.

But, he is just the poster boy for the miscreants and malcontents masquerading as legislators. I would take up too much of this particular FISH if I listed them all.

Yet, as reprehensible as Schumer is, he is a piker compared to my personal bête noire, Harry Reid.

I would have more, any actually, respect for Reid if he had the gonadature to advise of all that was in the bill and give the Senators a few weeks to read over and digest the bill. The haste that he created in getting this piece of junk to vote makes one suspicious. And even with all the haste he delayed the voting until the very big liberal Sherrod Brown of Ohio to return from his mothers wake to cast the vote that would seal the deal. (My condolences go out to the Brown family. The death of a family member is always a sad occurrence.)

Even this was not without politics. The White House arranged a plane to fly Brown back and forth from Ohio as there were not commercial flights available for his being able to make the trip and return in time for Reid to break another promise.

(So, it is OK to charter a Member of Congress to ensure that an anointed piece of legislature gets passed and it is swell that Queen Nan of San Fran gets her own jumbo jet for her use but the Big 3 had to give up their jets? Jets that were actually earning money for the auto makers. And people wonder why this country is sliding down a slippery slope to servitude?)

You see, Reid promised that there would be at least 48 hours for inspection of the bill. Evelyn Bleeding Wood could not read a thousand-plus page pile of legislative legerdemain and make heads or tails out of it. However the best politicians that money can buy were given roughly 10-12 hours to become familiar with all its points, nuances and the like. Thanks for the 48 hours, Senator.

Makes little difference, it is all moot. Reid is pulling the levels and his Democrat minions are marching in lock step. All it took was a little arm-twisting of Snowe, capitalizing on Collins subnormal intellect and $6.6 Billion dollars for Specter’s pet projects to seal the fate of our Country. That’s all it took. The White House is putting us in the Poor House.

The “genius”, easily manipulated, self-proclaimed war “hero”, serial wealthy-woman marrier, John Kerry made one of the more scary speeches, even for him, in recent memory.

In a nutshell, he sold his and our souls to socialism. Bloviating that the bill was necessary, nay critical, because We the Sheeple are just too damn stupid to know how to spend our own money. He opined that giving back or letting us keep our hard-earned dough would not satisfy the needs of the new four-year plan.

Ya know, he is right.

I would do something silly like make a house payment, buy groceries, get more tailored shirts that I do not need, perhaps a new TV (since my presidentially promised plasma has not arrived) instead of doing something really productive for the state such as build new buildings for gov’t agencies (even though the gov’t owns thousands of empty buildings already that the gov’t can’t sell or even knock them down, it’s blocked by, you guessed it, Congress), or millions for fire houses (not one of the enumerated legislative things found in the Constitution), or spend hundreds of millions on hybrid cars (and at the same time dumping hundreds of millions of dollars worth of good used cars that the gov’t is currently using on the used car market, further depressing that market and impacting the Big 3 to whom they just gave billions) or other such frivolities.

Indeed, We the Sheeple are too stupid to spend our own money, these knuckleheads do a far better job at it than we!

And Kerry said it, he actually said the gov’t knows how to spend money for us better. He actually said it!

But this is just small potatoes (is that the correct spelling, Mr. Quayle?) compared to what is coming next. Other than the possibility of naming up to three justices for the SCOUTUS, other than doing an end-around the Constitution (yes, that same pesky document that keeps almost getting in the way of all the great plans the administration wants to do against We the People –see: Article 1, Section 8, P17) to give DC representation in the House, the President is looking to add to Rahmbo’s already full plate.

When not teaching disadvantaged kids how to curse (this was actually said by Shecky Obama) Rahmbo might be tasked with redrawing the Congressional Districts after the 2010 Census is delivered. I guess since they can not find any one honest enough or dumb enough to take the Sec Commerce gig, someone will have to gerrymander the CD’s.

But, that is food for a FISH for some other day.

Please pass this on to your Liberal friends, it is doubtful that they are aware of any of this.

I am John and I approve this message!

Br strong, keep the faith and pray. (While you can.)

God Bless

John

American-American

PS: As always, I appreciate and welcome your thoughts, ideas, comments, criticisms and remember, it’s only a trillion dollars. So far. Distribution with attribution, please. To be added to THE DAILY FISH, please send an email to: Jaksavin@aol.com with the words “ADD TO FISH” in the comment subject line (and anything else you care to write in the body.) To be deleted, same address with “DELETE FROM FISH” in the subject line. Thanks!

Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

(Compiler's note: A must read article)

By BRADLEY R. SCHILLER

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.

AP

In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the 1930s. At worst, a comparison to the 1981-82 recession might be appropriate. Consider the job losses that Mr. Obama always cites. In the last year, the U.S. economy shed 3.4 million jobs. That's a grim statistic for sure, but represents just 2.2% of the labor force. From November 1981 to October 1982, 2.4 million jobs were lost -- fewer in number than today, but the labor force was smaller. So 1981-82 job losses totaled 2.2% of the labor force, the same as now.

Job losses in the Great Depression were of an entirely different magnitude. In 1930, the economy shed 4.8% of the labor force. In 1931, 6.5%. And then in 1932, another 7.1%. Jobs were being lost at double or triple the rate of 2008-09 or 1981-82.

This was reflected in unemployment rates. The latest survey pegs U.S. unemployment at 7.6%. That's more than three percentage points below the 1982 peak (10.8%) and not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%). You simply can't equate 7.6% unemployment with the Great Depression.

Other economic statistics also dispel any analogy between today's economic woes and the Great Depression. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose in 2008, despite a bad fourth quarter. The Congressional Budget Office projects a GDP decline of 2% in 2009. That's comparable to 1982, when GDP contracted by 1.9%. It is nothing like 1930, when GDP fell by 9%, or 1931, when GDP contracted by another 8%, or 1932, when it fell yet another 13%.

Auto production last year declined by roughly 25%. That looks good compared to 1932, when production shriveled by 90%. The failure of a couple of dozen banks in 2008 just doesn't compare to over 10,000 bank failures in 1933, or even the 3,000-plus bank (Savings & Loan) failures in 1987-88. Stockholders can take some solace from the fact that the recent stock market debacle doesn't come close to the 90% devaluation of the early 1930s.

Mr. Obama's analogies to the Great Depression are not only historically inaccurate, they're also dangerous. Repeated warnings from the White House about a coming economic apocalypse aren't likely to raise consumer and investor expectations for the future. In fact, they have contributed to the continuing decline in consumer confidence that is restraining a spending pickup. Beyond that, fearmongering can trigger a political stampede to embrace a "recovery" package that delivers a lot less than it promises. A more cool-headed assessment of the economy's woes might produce better policies.

“Islam in America’s Classrooms: History or Propaganda?”

An Eye-Opening Report

Dear Sarah,

I’m delighted to announce that the Mission Viejo (California) chapter of ACT! for America, in partnership with the United American Committee, have just completed a concise, well-documented, readable report on how Islam is being presented in our public schools.

This is a great service to all of us, and an exciting testimony to what is happening in the ACT! for America citizen action network. I am so proud of our chapter leaders and what they are doing!

This is a report you absolutely must read!

In this report you’ll learn how the violent history of Islam is being whitewashed in our public schools…how the claims of Islam are presented as facts…and how students are required to participate in activities such as memorizing verses from the Qur’an. I discuss this in detail and give examples of schools across America in my book They Must Be Stopped.

Click here to view or print out the report.

In addition to reading the report yourself, please forward this message to everyone you know who would be concerned about what’s being taught in our schools.

I want to thank and commend the ACT! for America Mission Viejo Chapter and the United American Committee for a job well-done.

Always devoted,



Brigitte Gabriel
www.actforamerica.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ACT for America
P.O. Box 12765
Pensacola, FL 32591
www.actforamerica.org

Mexico’s Violence Spilling-Over into Texas, Dan Calls for a Plan

By Cary Wesberry

Texas officials are drafting plans for law enforcement and military responses to the growing Mexican gang violence threatening to spill across the U.S. border.” Worst-case scenario, Mexico becomes the Western hemisphere’s equivalent of Somalia, with mass violence, mass chaos,” Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based think tank, told Fox News. “That would clearly require a military response from the United States.”

With more than 5,300 people killed in Mexico last year owing to criminal activity, Mexico has been identified in a Department of Defense report as a country that could abruptly destabilize.

While Texas officials work on their defensive posture, the federal government has already developed a contingency plan that calls for armored vehicles, aircraft and teams of personnel along border hotspots. Military forces, however, would be deployed only if agencies like the Border Patrol were unable to quell the violence.

What is not being accounted for, however, is the flood of refugees that could swarm the United States in the event of a Mexican government collapse, according to Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry

“At this point, what we’re focusing on is spillover violence.” Cesinger told Fox News. “[Refugees] may be something that comes into consideration later on.”

Texas state Sen. Dan Patrick has called upon Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McGraw to present a comprehensive plan on refugees to the state’s Legislature.

“We have to seriously consider that as a remote possibility, so therefore, we need to have a plan,” he said.

Not an encouraging report. The longer we wait to secure the southern border, the worse it will be when the Mexican government hits the fan and goes splat.

4 key Dems in Congress seek inquiry into Arpaio sweeps

(Compiler's note: For an interesting video, clickon the title above.)

by Daniel González

Four leading Democratic members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Friday asked the new attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to investigate civil-rights complaints stemming from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's crackdowns on illegal immigration.

The four lawmakers called on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate complaints that deputies used skin color as the basis to search for illegal immigrants. They also asked that a federal agreement allowing the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office to enforce immigration laws be terminated if any problems can't be fixed.

The lawmakers are the highest-level officials, and the first under the new Obama administration and Democratic-controlled Congress, to make such a request. They are committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, Zoe Lofgren of California, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Robert Scott of Virginia.

Last year, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, along with civil-liberties and immigrant-advocacy groups, called for similar investigations of Arpaio.

The sheriff on Friday adamantly denied his deputies use racial profiling in arrests of illegal immigrants. "We're doing the right thing," he said. "If I was worried, with all the allegations, why would I keep doing it? I'm not stupid, having worked for the feds for 30 years."

The lawmakers' request, in the form of a letter, comes a few weeks after Napolitano ordered the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a wide-ranging review of immigration enforcement and border security. That includes a review of the federal program, known as 287(g), that gives state and local agencies the authority to enforce immigration laws.

In a memo, Napolitano ordered her staff to study the effectiveness of allowing police to arrest illegal immigrants vs. allowing jailers to identify and hold them when they are arrested for crimes. She also wrote that she wants to see what can be done to speed the process for signing more 287(g) agreements.

Arpaio said this week that he is worried the former Arizona governor will eliminate the provision that allows local police to arrest illegal immigrants.

Legal experts have said Arpaio's practices were likely to get more scrutiny under the Obama administration. Holder has a track record of investigating allegations of racial profiling against police departments when he was deputy attorney general under the Clinton administration. As governor, Napolitano yanked state funding that helped pay for Arpaio's controversial neighborhood sweeps, which critics said were aimed at arresting illegal immigrants.

In Friday's letter, Conyers and the other Democrats said that, in recent months, Arpaio had shown "a blatant disregard for the rights of Hispanic residents in the Phoenix area."

Lofgren is chairwoman of the immigration subcommittee. Nadler is chairman of the Constitution subcommittee, and Scott is chairman of the crime subcommittee.

The lawmakers wrote that Arpaio had apparently overreached his authority under the federal agreement by ordering deputies to "scour Latino neighborhoods" to search for illegal immigrants on the basis of skin color.

"As a result, members of the Latino community - whether they are U.S. citizens or foreign-born, whether they are legal immigrants or undocumented - feel under siege," the letter said.

The Democrats said an incident this month in which Arpaio, citing a need to cut costs, "paraded approximately 200 suspected illegal immigrants in shackles to a segregated area of his Tent City county facility" also warranted investigation.

Arpaio denied his policies are discriminatory toward Latinos and called the 287(g) program "a great success."

"We've done a great job when you look at all the arrests we've made and all the (illegal immigrants) we've found who have been booked into the jail," he said.

Arpaio compared the House members' request to similar ones made in the past year by Gordon and advocacy groups. None resulted in a federal investigation.

Vincent Picard, a spokesman for the Phoenix office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Arpaio has not violated the 287(g) agreement. The pact prohibits ICE-trained deputies from targeting illegal-immigrant suspects based on race or appearance.

Although allegations of racial profiling are common, not a single firsthand complaint involving ICE-trained officers in Arizona has been filed with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General or any other investigative agency, Picard said.

Some legal immigrants have been detained under the program, he said, but in every case, ICE determined they weren't carrying their green cards as required.

"Arizona's 287(g) program is working as intended," Picard said.

Conyers has come under fire from some Democratic lawmakers for pushing too hard for investigations of the Bush administration. Last year, Conyers threatened to file articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush that alleged constitutional violations of civil liberties. But he was discouraged by the Democratic Party leadership.

Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican and the only Arizona member of the House Judiciary Committee, was traveling Friday night and could not be reached for comment.

The Justice Department will review the letter, spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.

Napolitano has asked for a review of the 287(g) program because of questions about how agreements with state and local agencies are administered and if uniform standards are being applied, said Dean Smith, a Homeland Security spokesman. The review is due next Friday.

Republic reporter JJ Hensley and John Yaukey of Gannett News Service contributed to this article.

Radical Muslim Chaplains – Root Causes of Islamic Fanaticism and Terror

Unreal... Dems Include Random-Undefined $1.6 Billion For "Science" In Stimulus With NO Description

by Gateway Pundit


Democrats rammed the largest spending bill through Congress yesterday without even giving members a chance to read it.

And, now we find out that they included whole undefined categories with hundreds of millions of dollars assigned to these mysterious pet projects.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) was on Hannity last night describing this horrific Democratic boondoggle:


This is the "Science" category Rep. Price was talking about:

Click to Enlarge
Page 63, Bill Text HR-1
Democrats just plopped down $1.6 billion for "Science" with no wording at all on where this money is going to be spent, who is going to spend it or what they are going to spend it on.
Unbelievable.

Democrats just voted to dump billions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects that are not even defined.
Do you suppose this might invite corruption?
Name one business that could get away with this.

Truly- The inmates are in complete control of the asylum.

US Predator strike in South Waziristan kills 25

Official: Economic Crisis Top US Threat

National Intelligence Director Warns Of Dangerous Recession

WASHINGTON -- The economic crisis has trumped bullets and bombs in the intelligence chief's latest assessment of the top security threats to the United States. In his opening statement Thursday, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair is telling the Senate Intelligence Committee about the potentially dangerous effects of a sustained and deep recession.

Blair also said al-Qaida is less capable than it was a year ago but remains a leading threat to the U.S. And despite U.S. and international efforts in Afghanistan, the Taliban is regaining power in many parts of that country. He put much of the blame on Pakistan's inability to control the tribal area on the Afghan border.

The Elephant in the Room: Intimidating critics of Islam

By Rick Santorum

Politicians and citizens who raise questions about the religion are targeted.

We lost more than a million jobs in the past few months, the headlines remind us. So last month's story about a Dutch court's ruling that Geert Wilders was "inciting hatred and discrimination" - and that "it is in the public interest to prosecute" him - understandably didn't make the American news.

Did Wilders rip off a minority in a Madoff-style Ponzi scheme? No, he's a member of the Dutch parliament, and his precise villainy was releasing a 15-minute film. Entitled Fitna, it suggests a direct link between certain verses of the Koran and acts of terrorism.

Not to be outdone, the United Kingdom this week banned Wilders from entering the country. Its reasoning: His "presence in the U.K. would pose a genuine, present, and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society." A letter from the home secretary went on to tell Wilders that "your statements about Muslims and their beliefs, as expressed in your film Fitna and elsewhere, would threaten community harmony and therefore public security."

In 2007, Cambridge University Press destroyed unsold copies of Alms for Jihad after it was sued by Khalid bin Mahfouz, a Saudi-Irish businessman whom the book accused of financing al-Qaeda. So much for academics standing up against book-burning.

In 2005, reporters from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten were forced into hiding after publishing a series of 12 cartoons about Muhammad. Islamic fundamentalists found the images blasphemous and threatened to bomb the paper's offices and kill its cartoonists - apparently, in certain quarters, an alternative to a letter to the editor.

Last year, at the urging of the Canadian Islamic Congress, author Mark Steyn was forced to defend himself against charges of racism and "Islamophobia" that were filed with three Canadian human-rights commissions, based on his columns in Maclean's magazine.

And, following a 2008 U.N. resolution urging nations to outlaw "defamation of religion," several nations - including Italy, the Netherlands and France - are attempting to ban "hate speech" against religious groups.

All of these incidents are calculated to intimidate critics of Islam in Europe and across the West. The message in the European Union is clear: Politicians, religious figures, and even private citizens with religiously and politically incorrect opinions will be subject not only to Muslim protest, but to criminal prosecution and violent retribution.

What publisher will print Steyn's next book if it can be labeled a hate crime and banned in most countries? "Pretty soon, your little book is looking a lot less commercially viable," Steyn has said. "At the end of the day, there'll be a lot of . . . American books that will go unpublished here in America."

In addition, these incidents deflect attention away from real - rather than trumped-up - religious discrimination. In the arena of actual persecution of religious minorities, Arab and Islamic nations are much of the problem.

Look at the U.S. State Department's 2008 Report on International Religious Freedom. Among the dozens of limitations on religious freedom in the Arab-Islamic world are the crimes of apostasy - converting from Islam to another religion - and blasphemy against the prophet Muhammad, both punishable by death under Muslim Sharia law. Coptic Christians are, at best, second-class citizens in Egypt; Baha'is are savagely persecuted in Iran; and churches and synagogues are banned in Saudi Arabia, as is any non-Muslim religious activity in public.

This is not a front- or even back-page story in the American press today. Why? Because it has nothing to do with the economy.

The gathering storm I have been warning of for years has now formed over the West. Yet instead of fighting the gradual incursion of Sharia and the demands of an intolerant, even militant Islam, Westerners are cowering and fatalistic. Last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury conceded that acceptance of some parts of Sharia in Britain seemed "unavoidable."

So how did the market do today?

Federal obligations exceed world GDP

By Jerome R. Corsi

As the Obama administration pushes through Congress its $800 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan, the American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.

The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the U.S. government in bankruptcy, even before new continuing social welfare obligation embedded in the massive spending plan are taken into account.

The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government" as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury. ....

Breaking Intelligence Report: Obama to Drop Sanctions On Iran!

by Gateway Pundit

This article was published in Geostrategy-Direct , an open source intelligence (OSINT) newsletter that has a good track record.

The report would probably seem preposterous if it weren't for the fact that Team Obama already waived sanctions on Syria and is considering opening travel to Cuba.
It's like watching Carter on Speed.

This latest news comes from the February 18, 2009 edition of Geostrategy Direct (subscribers only):

DOSSIER: Ehud Barak
'Change' the mullahs can believe in: Obama to drop sanctions on Iran

TEL AVIV — Israelis may have gone to the polls hoping for "Change" but the status quo is all any of the candidates could look forward to whatever the outcome. Defense Minister Ehud Barack, has already glimpsed the future and has warned about what it holds.

Meanwhile, the status quo means continued rocket and missile attacks while international aid pours into the Gaza Strip and bolsters a regime run by Hamas, which is still considered by the United States to be a terrorist organization.

But "Change" is taking place, Barak has intimated, originating not in the Mideast but in Washington, D.C. in the form of a U.S. reconciliation with Iran.

Such a process could result in U.S. acceptance of Teheran's nuclear weapons program and the downplaying of its threats against Israel.

Just as Barack Obama entered office facing a massive economic crisis beyond the scope of his experience, likewise the new Israeli leader will have to make or delay making difficult strategic decisions from the minute he or she enters office.

Barak has already signaled what the new government can expect, officials here said.

The United States has abandoned its policy of sanctioning companies that aid Iran's nuclear and missile program, they said.

The officials said the new Obama administration of has decided to end sanctions against Iranian government agencies or companies that aid Teheran's missile and nuclear program. The officials said Israel has been informed of the new U.S. policy.

"We were told that sanctions do not help the new U.S. policy of dialogue with Iran," an official said.

Barak confirmed the new U.S. policy. In an address to the Herzliya Conference on Feb. 3, Barak said Washington did not say whether it would resume sanctions against Iran.

"We must arrive at a strategic understanding with the United States over Iran's military nuclear program and ensure that even if at this time they opt for the diplomatic option, it will only last a short time before harsh and necessary sanctions are imposed," Barak said.

Obama decided to end sanctions against Iran after determining that the U.S. measures had failed to block Teheran's missile or nuclear weapons program, officials said. Under the administration of former President George Bush, the United States accelerated sanctions on Iran in 2008.

In his address, the Israeli defense minister indicated that Obama had forged an entirely new approach toward Iran. He said the Israeli government has sought a briefing from the new U.S. administration.

A U.S. defense source said the White House would no longer enforce sanctions imposed by the Bush administration. The source said the decision has already been relayed to Iran.

"The administration has abandoned sanctions entirely," the U.S. source said. "It is a completely new ballgame."

Similarly, Obama has decided on a new U.S. ambassador to Syria and is expected to lift sanctions against a nation charged with aiding Al Qaida in Iraq and secretly building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance.

Diplomatic sources said Obama, in consultation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has asked Frederic Hof to become the first U.S. ambassador to Damascus since 2005. The sources said Hof, a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Middle East Policy Council, agreed to take the post.

The sources said the Obama administration was expected to suspend U.S. sanctions on Syria's military and energy programs.

They said Hof would be authorized to facilitate an expansion of U.S. relations with Syria, which deteriorated under President George Bush.

In 2005, the United States withdrew its ambassador to Damascus in wake of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Syria was blamed for the car bombing in Beirut in which Hariri and many of his bodyguards were killed.

The sources said Obama sent emissaries to Syria in September 2008 and pledged that if elected he would reconcile with the regime of President Bashar Assad. After his election victory, they said, Obama sent another message that promised to appoint an ambassador within the first weeks of his administration.