"Singapore’s Zero-Tolerance Approach to Counter the Financing of Terrorism" by Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, Head, International Centre for Political Violence

Traditionally, investigations of acts of crime and terrorism take place after they have been committed. With the increase in the lethality of terrorism, governments should prevent acts of violence though proactive investigations. Realizing the adverse impact an attack in Singapore will have on its global reputation as a safe destination for trade, commerce and investment, government invested significant resources strengthening its preventive capabilities.

How is new Terrorist Group in Gaza funded?

Reports yesterday that two rockets were fired into Israel by a previously obscure terrorist organisation known as the Brigades of Hizballah in Palestine, who has claimed responsibility, raises the question; how is this organisation funded, and what are the financial avenues through which money to support its activities flows? How the alleged Iranian sponsor gets the cash into the Palestinian territories is a mystery**, but the mere rumour that such is happening is enough to raise the level of risk for any financial institution in the region that is still passing funds of Iranian origin through third parties, enroute to unknown destinations. When Iranian funds are covertly transferred into the Palestinian territories, US regulatory sanctions, and even terrorist financing charges filed in US courts, are a real threat to the participants.

UN Updates Consolidated List of Al-Qaeda & Taliban

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 Committee has updated its list of Al-Qaeda, Taliban and associated individuals and entities. The Consolidated List is available on the UN website.

Defeating Terrorist Support Structures After Mumbai - Part III

by John Solomon

This is the third report of a three-part series addressing the terrorist structures involved in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.The first report provided an initial summary of the attacks with an emphasis on operational support.

The second report examined the structure of Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), the non-profit arm of Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT), the terrorist group believed to be responsible.

This report addresses the vulnerabilities that LeT/JuD exploited in the private and public sectors. In addition, the article assesses whether JuD will survive the ban the UN imposed on it on 10 December 2008....

California Lawmakers Face Lockdown as Budget Falters in Senate

By Michael B. Marois and William Selway

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- California lawmakers failed to reach agreement on how to eliminate a $42 billion budget shortfall as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to shut down hundreds of public works projects and fire thousands of state workers.

Senate President Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, plans to lock lawmakers in the capitol unless they pass a $40 billion package of tax increases, spending cuts and bond sales today. The bills, backed by the Republican governor and by Democrats, remain one Republican vote short. ....

Re-evaluation of National Security Ordered

By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, is re-evaluating the largest federal program for testing the country’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks, one of several Bush administration initiatives she has ordered to come under review.

As governor of Arizona, Ms. Napolitano sent a searing two-page letter to her predecessor as secretary, Michael Chertoff, complaining that a $25 million national exercise in October 2007, which she and 23,000 other federal, state and local emergency workers participated in, was too expensive, too long in planning and “too removed from a real-world scenario.”

Now, in her first weeks as head of the Homeland Security Department, Ms. Napolitano has ordered a review of that program and several others, including cybersecurity, a strategy for protecting the border with Canada, and the vulnerability of power plants and other critical infrastructure.

The directives implicitly raise questions about how well the Bush administration prepared the nation’s defenses against a terrorist attack. But they also reflect what homeland security analysts say is Ms. Napolitano’s desire to apply her practical experiences as a border-state governor to several important homeland security policies.

Her pointed comments on the emergency preparedness exercise, which she repeated last month at her Senate confirmation hearing, offer a glimpse into how Ms. Napolitano may retool one the centerpieces of the Bush administration’s domestic security architecture.

“If we’re going to be doing these kinds of things, and they are valuable, the underlying philosophy is a good one, but they need to be in my view streamlined,” Ms. Napolitano told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs last month.

Ms. Napolitano’s frustration with the system in place for rehearsing responses to natural disasters and terrorist attacks has struck a chord among state and local emergency managers, many of whom have long complained that the Homeland Security Department and its crisis-response component, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have failed to consult fully with local communities in disaster planning.

“If we’re going to do these exercises, D.H.S. needs to collaborate to a greater extent with local governments so we’re not wasting resources, we’re not spinning our wheels and we’re making the country safe,” said Russell Decker, emergency manager for Allen County, Ohio, who is also president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, which comprises 4,300 state and local agencies.

Congress is also eager to ensure that lessons learned from each exercise are broadly disseminated.

“If you participate in an exercise, you want to know its strengths and weaknesses,” said Representative Henry Cuellar, Democrat of Texas, who heads the House homeland security subcommittee that oversees emergency preparedness.

It will not take long to put Ms. Napolitano’s new thinking to the test. FEMA is completing plans for the next major exercise, scheduled for late July. Agency officials were reluctant to reveal too many details, but emergency planners in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas will be tested on how well and how quickly they detect a terrorist plot that begins with a mock attack in Europe and continues with a simulated strike against the United States from plotters infiltrating the border from Mexico.

The exercise this year, for the first time, focuses on preventing a potential attack, not just responding to a crisis, federal officials say.

Emergency planners say they have already taken Ms. Napolitano’s criticisms to heart, improving federal coordination with state and local partners in planning the disaster drill this summer, increasing the frequency of national exercises to every year from every two, cutting costs to encourage wider participation and providing feedback within 90 days to participants on what went well and what did not.

“Most of them were already on the radar scope in one way, shape or form,” said Steve Saunders, a retired Army National Guard major general who is an assistant FEMA administrator overseeing the national exercise division, “but her letter helped crystallize, I think, some of the things we needed to do.”

Mr. Saunders said he expected some changes as a result of the review ordered by Ms. Napolitano, but he cautioned in an interview, “don’t mess around” significantly with this year’s exercise or drills on the drawing board for 2010 and 2011 that will simulate an improvised nuclear bomb attack and a catastrophic earthquake.

Mr. Saunders said states and localities had already started budgeting for those exercises. “If we start shifting near-term activities,” he said, “it becomes fairly problematic.”

Sean Smith, the Homeland Security Department spokesman, said it was too soon to predict what Ms. Napolitano would decide, but added, “Her experiences with this were less than ideal, and it is something she will be reviewing.”

In addition, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is conducting a review of FEMA’s emergency preparedness programs, including the national-level exercises, that will be completed by the end of April.

States and cities routinely conduct emergency preparedness drills. Specialists in domestic security agree that it is also essential to hold large-scale national emergency exercises to test how federal, state and local officials and emergency personnel work together to prevent or deal with terrorist attacks.

Congress directed the government in 1998 to carry out a national exercise program, formerly called Topoff for the “top officials” who participate. There have been four major exercises since then, simulating chemical, biological and nuclear attacks. The exercises now also include foreign partners, like Britain and Canada.

Specialists in domestic security say Ms. Napolitano offers a new perspective to the program.

“She brings to the table real-world experience as a governor, as a person responsible for implementing these programs where the rubber hits the road,” said David Heyman, director of the domestic security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ms. Napolitano’s unhappiness with the program stems from her participation in the five-day October 2007 exercise, which simulated a dirty-bomb attack against Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; and Guam. It was planned to test how well federal, state and local officials responded to such a cataclysm.

Within days after the exercise wrapped up, Ms. Napolitano complained to Mr. Chertoff that federal officials never contacted top Arizona emergency officials during the drill, did not involve her as much as she said she would have been during a real disaster, and gave participants too much advance information about the drill.

“When you have months to prepare for an exercise and you know the exact scenario being contemplated,” Ms. Napolitano said, “a large part of the exercise’s value is lost.

Obama Plans Dramatic Changes to Reduce Nuclear Arsenal

By: Dave Eberhart

If he has his way, President Barack Obama will dramatically change the nuclear weapons policy of the U.S. – leaving behind Cold War doctrine and looking to a model of a minimal nuclear arsenal -- just ominous enough to do the job of deterrence.

Obama may be mired in the economic stimulus debate, but the clock is also relentlessly ticking on some volatile policy decisions regarding the nation’s aging nuclear arsenal – the stuff of that deterrence. Foreign nations, friend and foe, are poised to discover Obama’s nuclear agenda, while some critics within the U.S. are fearful that the new president will go too far, too fast....

U.S. intelligence report projects possible collapse of Palestinian Authority

from World Tribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has raised the prospect of the collapse of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority.

The report, titled "Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community," said Hamas, in the aftermath of its war with Israel in early 2009, has intensified the threat to the PA.

The report warned that both Fatah and the PA were split over such issues as a successor to chairman Mahmoud Abbas

as well as government reforms. The report said Hamas planned to exploit the divisions within Fatah and could challenge the PA over the next year.

"Disagreement between Fatah and Hamas about a range of issues such as the timing of national elections

and formation of a unity government could lead Hamas to challenge the legitimacy of Abbas's government and will remain obstacles to Fatah-Hamas reconciliation," the report said.

The PA has also been threatened by the increasing divisions within the ruling Fatah movement in the West Bank. The report said the battle between Fatah's old guard and younger members has blocked plans to convene the movement. Abbas's term had been scheduled to expire in January 2009.

"These internal conflicts threaten to fracture the party and damage its prospects in the run-up to PA presidential and legislative elections in 2009 or early 2010," the report said. "There is no consensus among Fatah officials regarding a replacement for President Abbas, who has not groomed a successor, and no potential leader has gained Fatah's full support."

The Hamas threat has been enhanced by Iranian financing, training and weapons since 2006.

"Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are engaged in an intense competition, with both sides seeking to emerge from the conflict in a stronger political position, but relations between the two organizations have been further embittered by the crisis," the report said.

Obama promises Palestinians he'll protect 'biblical heartland'

By Aaron Klein

President pledges to protest Jewish housing developments ....Obama is said to favor Israel withdrawing from nearly the entire West Bank.

Israel recaptured the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War. The territory, in which about 200,000 Jews live, is tied to Judaism throughout the Torah and is often referred to as the biblical heartland of Israel.

The book of Genesis says Abraham entered Israel at the West Bank city of Shechem (Nablus) and received God's promise of land for his offspring

He was later buried with the rest of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, except for Rachel, in Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs. The West Bank's Hebron was site of the first Jewish capital.

The nearby West Bank town of Beit El – anciently called Bethel, meaning "house of God" – is where Scripture says the patriarch Jacob slept on a stone pillow and dreamed of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. In the dream, God spoke directly to Jacob and reaffirmed the promise of territory. Earlier, God had promised the land of Israel to Abraham at Beit El. In Exodus, the holy tabernacle rested just north of Beit El in Shiloh, believed to be the first area the ancient Israelites settled after fleeing Egypt.

British Muslim student killed 20 in suicide bomb attack in Somalia

By Daily Mail Reporter

A university student who became a suicide bomber in Somalia is believed to be the first of a new wave of British-based Islamic terrorism.

The 21-year-old reportedly blew himself up at a military checkpoint killing up to 20 soldiers in the southern Somali town of Baidoa.

Raised in Britain, the unnamed bomber dropped out of a business studies course at Oxford Brookes University to travel to his country of origin in October 2007.

A member of al-Shabaab, a youth militia fighting to impose Islamic Sharia law, the man, from Ealing, recorded a martyrdom video before his trip imploring fellow British Somalis to follow his example.

In the video he says: 'Oh my people, know that I am doing this martyrdom operation for the sake of Allah.

'I advise you to migrate to Somalia and wage war against your enemies. Death in honour is better than life in humiliation.'

The bomber, whose family still lives in London, is the first reported case of a Somali based in Britain carrying out terrorist acts in the east African country.

However it is unclear whether British security services are aware of the case, which happened when the Somali prime minister was staying at a hotel near the checkpoint.

Jihadist websites claimed more than 20 Ethiopian soldiers were killed. The same group was reported to have killed six aid workers in December.

The killings come amid warnings that dozens of Islamic extremists have returned to Britain from terror training camps in Somalia.

MI5 director-general Jonathan Evans has raised concerns that Somali-trained militants could be plotting to carry out attacks in Britain or attempting to attract new recruits.

Yassin Omar and Ramzi Mohammed, two of the four men convicted of the failed July 21 2005 London Underground bombings, came to Britain as asylum seekers.

The Somali community in Britain numbers around 250,000, the largest in Europe, with the bulk of those coming to the country as refugees within the last 20 years.

Peter Neumann, a terrorism expert at the Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, said: 'The numbers I hear (going from Britain to Somalia) are 50, 60 or 70 but in reality we don't know.

'You don't need big numbers for terrorism. Somalia will never become another Pakistan, but that does not mean it is not a threat.'

Ethiopian forces occupied parts of Somalia in 2007 after ousting the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from the capital, Mogadishu.

The Ethiopians withdrew last month as part of a peace deal agreed between the government and moderate Islamists, leaving African Union peacekeepers and Somali soldiers - although many believe that they will not be able to keep advancing extremists at bay.

More than 16,000 people have been reported killed in the past two years.

Keyes: President 'has something to hide' about eligibility

By Bob Unruh

Alan Keyes, a 2008 presidential candidate who now is a plaintiff in one of the many lawsuits seeking to verify whether Barack Obama qualifies under the U.S. Constitution's requirements to occupy the Oval Office, says the tactics adopted by lawyers for the president confirm there is an issue for the courts to investigate.

Alan Keyes, who was the candidate of the American Independent Party, cited a recent exchange with lawyers representing Obama in which they warned they might seek monetary penalties against those raising the question of Obama's eligibility under the Constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural born" citizen.

"It confirms the common sense suspicion that he won't act forthrightly in this matter because he has something to hide," Keyes wrote on his blog after WND reported the warning about "sanctions" was raised by Obama's defense lawyers.

The onetime U.S. ambassador explained on his posting that those raising questions over Obama's elibigility – so far – have simply been ignored by courts.

"In effect, the courts are refusing the admit plaintiffs on this matter into the courtroom, thereby denying them justice," he wrote. "Madison wrote, 'Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It will be pursued either until it be obtained or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.'"

"The denial of justice is thus a despotic act that violates the basis not only of just government, but of civil society itself," Keyes wrote.

Obama voluntarily placed himself in the position of being asked to provide his information, he said.

"Given the Constitutional requirement, the only fact citizens need to justify their suit is the fact that Obama ran for president. He asked to be chosen, and therefore must answer the eligibility question," Keyes wrote,

Where's the proof Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or that he fulfills the "natural-born American" clause in the Constitution? If you still want to see it, join more than 240,000 others and sign up now!

"In the final analysis if the courts refuse to respect the Constitution, they are not the judges of their own action. The people must ultimately decide. Which is why I and others will use every outlet to inform them of the injustice being done not just to individuals but to the sovereign people as a whole," Keyes said.

WND has reported on multiple legal challenges that have alleged Obama does not meet the "natural born citizen" clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, which reads, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

Some claim he was not born in Hawaii, as he insists, but in Kenya. Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Several details of Obama's past have added twists to the question of his eligibility and citizenship, including his family's move to Indonesia when he was a child and on what nation's passport he traveled to Pakistan in the '80s, as well as conflicting reports from Obama's family about his place of birth.

The Keyes case is being handled largely by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, but others playing a key role in the legal actions include Orly Taitz of California as well as Philip Berg, both of whom already have had their arguments rejected as not worthy of hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a commentary on the dispute, Keyes wrote that the suggestion of sanctions "confirms Obama's ruthless determination to destroy anyone who continues to seek the information the Constitution requires.

"Why should they demand penalties against citizens who are simply seeking the enforcement of the Supreme Law of the Land? It is simply because their persistence runs contrary to the will of a supposedly popular demagogue? This smacks of tyrannical arrogance. That Obama thus signals his intent to bring financial ruin on those who won't accept his cover-up of the circumstances of his birth is a tactical escalation," Keyes said.

"As one of the targets of this escalation, I need no more convincing proof of the ruthless disposition so far successfully masked by his empty rhetoric of hope and change. Obviously he means to offer hope only to those willing to surrender their most basic rights. To any who insist on questioning his actions, he offers the drastic change of ruin and destruction. So be it. We shall be among those who learn firsthand the meaning of the sacrifices made by the Founders of our free republic, as they pledged and gave up their lives, their fortunes and the world's esteem," Keyes said.

The legal sanctions being sought are not the only obstacle facing those who say they want to investigate the truth of Obama's eligibility. Four state lawmakers in Tennessee recently agreed to act as plaintiffs in a case being assembled by Taitz, and immediately were attacked by columnist Gail Kerr in the Nashville Tennessean, who compared their plan to "a resolution honoring the Easter Bunny for doing such a great job with the annual colored egg delivery system."

The columnist wrote that Obama's campaign already has released documentation of his birth.

"They put it on their Internet site. Obama's mother was a U.S. citizen. His father was from Kenya. The man was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii. That, fellows, is a state. As in the 'United STATES of America.' It counts. See?" Kerr wrote.

Critics, however, have pointed out that the "Certification of Live Birth" posted by the Obama campaign and cited by various "truth" organizations is not the same as a birth certificate, and in fact under Hawaii law at the time was granted to babies who were not born in Hawaii.

Taitz wrote that her supporters should send "flowers, candy, banners, appreciation cards, teddy bears with big love sign and thank you sign to these courageous lawmakers: Eric Swafford, Glen Casada, Stacey Campfield and Frank Niceley."

The suggestion for sanctions came after Kreep sought records from Occidental College about Obama's attendance there.

The lawyer for the college, Stuart W. Rudnick of Musick, Peeler & Garrett, urgently contacted Fredric D. Woocher of Strumwasser & Woocher.

"This firm is counsel to Occidental College. The College is in receipt of the enclosed subpoena that seeks certain information concerning President-Elect Barack Obama," he wrote via fax. "Inasmuch as the subpoena appears to be valid on its face, the College will have no alternative but to comply with the subpoena absent a court order instructing otherwise."

Within hours, Woocher contacted Kreep regarding the issue, telling him, "It will likely not surprise you to hear that President-elect Obama opposes the production of the requested records.

"In order to avoid the needless expense of our bringing and litigating a Motion to Quash the subpoena, I am writing to ask whether you would be willing to agree voluntarily to cancel or withdraw the subpoena."

Woocher warned, "Please be advised, in particular, that in the event we are forced to file a motion to quash and we prevail in that motion, we will seek the full measure of monetary sanctions provided for in the Code of Civil Procedures."

Here is a partial listing and status update for some of the cases over Obama's eligibility:

• Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania Democrat, demanded that the courts verify Obama's original birth certificate and other documents proving his American citizenship. Berg's latest appeal, requesting an injunction to stop the Electoral College from selecting the 44th president, was denied.
  


• Leo Donofrio of New Jersey filed a lawsuit claiming Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court but denied a full hearing.


• Cort Wrotnowski filed suit against Connecticut's secretary of state, making a similar argument to Donofrio. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied a full hearing.


• Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California, in a case handled by the United States Justice Foundation, that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending, and lawyers are seeking the public's support.


• Chicago attorney Andy Martin sought legal action requiring Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to release Obama's vital statistics record. The case was dismissed by Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Bert Ayabe.
  
  
• Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Electoral College vote in North Carolina until Barack Obama's eligibility could be confirmed, alleging doubt about Obama's citizenship. His case was denied.
  
  
• In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.
  
  
• In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued the secretary of state seeking a determination on Obama's citizenship. The case was denied.
  
  
• In Georgia, Rev. Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama's birth certificate. His request for an injunction against Georgia's secretary of state was denied by Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter.


• California attorney Orly Taitz has brought a case, Lightfoot vs. Bowen, on behalf of Gail Lightfoot, the vice presidential candidate on the ballot with Ron Paul, four electors and two registered voters.

In addition, other cases cited on the RightSideofLife blog as raising questions about Obama's eligibility include:

• In Texas, Darrel Hunter vs. Obama later was dismissed.
  
  
• In Ohio, Gordon Stamper vs. U.S. later was dismissed.
  
  
• In Texas, Brockhausen vs. Andrade.
  
  
• In Washington, L. Charles vs. Obama.
  
  
• In Hawaii, Keyes vs. Lingle, dismissed.

WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi had gone to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama's birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.

The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii, which the state's procedures allowed at the time?

Veterans May Have Been Exposed to Contaminants When Getting Colonoscopies, Clinic Says

By Bill Poovey

VA Clinic Warns of Possible Contaminant Exposure

Chattanooga, Tenn. (AP) - Thousands of patients at a Veterans Administration clinic in Tennessee may have been exposed to the infectious body fluids of other patients when they had colonoscopies in recent years, and now VA medical facilities all over the U.S. are reviewing their own procedures. ....

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!