rants from rob

U.S. House of Representatives Votes to Stop Selling F-14 Tomcat Parts to Iran

2007-06-12T03:33:00.000-07:00

Is it possible that maybe the representatives in the U.S. House actually do have some common sense? After all, why would the United States actually want to help Iran keep their jet fighters in good working order?

This vote on Monday to ban sales of F-14 fighter parts to Iran was the second time the House voted on such a measure.

This measure to stop selling left-over F-14 parts was voted on in May that was part of the military funding legislation package approved by the House but vetoed by President Bush.

Now the House of Representatives is sending the so named "Stop Arming Iran Act" as a separate bill to the President for his approval. It would seem this is one bill President Bush will have a hard time vetoing when it comes to his desk.

This bill is expected to gain Senate approval, and from there this bill would then head to the White House for final approval. Considering President Bush has all stated Iran is part of the "axis of evil", White House approval seems to be a given. However, the White House has yet to comment on whether they support this funding ban to a country they consider one that freely fund terrorists, and especially terrorists in Iraq.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., proposed the legislation after The Associated Press reported in January that buyers for Iran, China and other countries exploited weaknesses in Pentagon surplus sale security to acquire sensitive military gear including parts for F-14s, other aircraft and missiles.

In one instance, a surplus auction held by the Department of Defense ended up making its way to Iran.

In citing this AP story, Giffords said the goal of her bill, H.R. 1441, was to stop having military surplus sales from inadvertently ending up in Iran to help Iran maintain their military weapons.

Giffords went on to say the United States must ensure parts that are unique to F-14 fighters do not end up in Iran.

After the AP broke this story about jet fighter parts ending up in Iran, the Department of Defense said they would voluntarily halt sales of Tomcat parts. The Department of Defense also said they would review whether these fighter parts could be sold as surplus parts on the world market without posing a national security risk.
The Department of Defense went on to say they had all ready planned to destroy parts unique to the F-14, but other parts that are common to the Tomcat, and other jet fighters, might still be sold on the open market.

Back in the 1970's, the United States gave Iran permission to buy the F-14 fighters because both countries were allies at the time. Iran is the only country still known to fly the F-14 because the United States just retired their F-14 fleet last year.

The Department of Defense just recently decided to tighten security of surplus military parts when it was discovered that GAO ( Government Accountability Office) investigators posing as defense contractors were able to obtain more than one million dollars worth of sensitive military surplus parts. One item these investigators were able to purchase was a rocket launcher.

One of the new measures adopted by the Pentagon is the accurate identification of military surplus items to ensure they are safe to sell before actually putting these items up for sale.

Giffords and Wyden say a broad, permanent ban on the Pentagon's sale of the thousands of spare F-14 components is needed to make sure sensitive parts do not accidentally wind up in surplus sales, as has happened in the past.
This legislation calls for the banning of export licenses for F-14 parts.

In addition, this legislation will ban the sale of F-14, and F-14 parts, to anyone except museums and historical groups. Before the F-14's are sold to these groups, these planes also have to be rendered useless.

Read more about bill HR 1441 at Yahoo News

Hillary Clinton Looks For Her Jock

2007-06-11T03:42:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton would like to be known as a candidate that is not only smart, but is also considered a sports 'jock'. The 2008 Presidential hopeful has even gone so far as to list 'speed walking' as her favorite sport on her My Space account.

Besides listing 'speed walking' as one of her favorite hobbies, Sen. Clinton says she enjoys a good cross word puzzle, Scrabble, and gardening.

However, when it comes to actually showing herself as a weekend sports warrior, Hillary seems to miss the mark being hit by her chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

Many pundits feel the Illinois Senator is bringing back the sports glory days of the Kennedy clan's touch football games by showing his sporty side during pick-up basketball games. Most men view someone as being cool if they can show any ability to play a pick-up basketball game or two.

The problem, as one of her donors put it: “How does 59-year-old Mama run against sexy Obama?” (The donor asked not to be named speaking critically of his candidate.)

The American public is used to seeing their President involved in some type of sport such as George W. Bush tossing the first pitch at a baseball game, George H.W. Bush racing speedboats, Ronald Reagan sitting atop a horse, and even Bill Clinton hitting the golf links. Some pundits even point to Condoleezza Rice's love for the National Football League as a plus if Rice ever decides to run for president.

And herein lies the problem for Hilliary-How does she show her 'inner jock' without it appearing as if she is forcing a persona that she has no idea how to project to the American public.

“I certainly don’t foresee her playing basketball,” said Alan Patricof, a Clinton fund-raiser.

While her camp does feel the NY Senator will win when it comes to brains and guts, many in her camp feels she will badly lose when it comes to projecting a personality the American public will come to accept.

Hillary's spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said Mrs. Clinton is a very intelligent, warm, friendly, compassionate, strong and experience person. Columnist Ellen Goodman even went so far as to say Sen. Clinton would be the ‘caring commander in chief'.

However, Mrs. Clinton does realize that when it comes to winning the Presidency, the American public wants a president who is not only strong and smart but likable as well. And when it comes to likable, Sen. Clinton knows she needs to make up a lot of ground, and this has led Hillary to start poking fun of herself more and more during recent campaign stops.

At a recent campaign stop, Hillary made fun of her weight by seeking the help of the Lord, and Hillary has even gone so far as to making a video that mocks her. Sen. Clinton even likes to joke about her lack of singing ability.

But when it comes to being a sports jock, well it appears the 59 year old Senator may find this job a little harder to pull off than the job of poking fun at herself.

Last week, Sen. Clinton teamed with tennis legend Billie Jean King while sharing stories about how she once played softball, pick-up basketball, and tennis. The erstwhile presidential candidate even mentioned she once won an Arkansas doubles tennis tournament.

Sen. Clinton may find out that trying to show a sporty side at her age may cost her votes instead of helping her gain votes. All Hillary has to do is look back to the 2004 race for the White House to see how tricky it will be to convince the America public about her sports prowess.

Many people feel Sen. John Kerry lost major points with the American public when he tried to show off his sports skills by windsurfing, hunting and downhill skiing. This sports persona move back fired on Kerry because the America public ended up viewing him as a phony because he looked more like a fool instead of someone who could lead our country.

So if Sen. Clinton is a smart as everyone thinks, she may want to leave the sports persona image to the glamours and athletic looking Sen. Obama because sometimes it is better to reminisce about your 'glory days' instead of actually trying to recapture that moment in time.

Read more about the sporty Hillary Clinton at NYT.com

Immigration Bill Dies A Quick Death in the Senate

2007-06-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

Deep divisions within the U.S. Senate kills the Bush backed immigration bill allowing 'amnesty' to illegal immigrants. A compromise bill appears to be unlikely as Senate voting fell 15 votes short of the required 60 to move legislation forward.

The Democratic controlled Senate lead the charge in voting down a White House backed bill on immigration that may cause this hot button issue to be tabled for the remainder of 2007.

This deep divide with the Senate mirrors the feeling of Americans nationwide when it comes to deciding the fate of over 15 million people living and working illegally in the United States.

Despite the backing of most Democrats in the Senate, some of the more liberal Democrats voted against moving this bill forward because they felt this bill did not go far enough to ensure immigrant families were kept together. These more liberal Democrats also felt this bill did not adequately protect jobs for U.S.-born workers.

The division amongst Republicans came down to social conservatives wanting to remove any type of 'amnesty' language from this bill versus Republicans backing business who rely on these undocumented workers to fill unskilled and low paying jobs. Most of these jobs are found in the hotel, farming, construction and restaurant industries.

This immigration bill fell flat despite weeks of bipartisan work in the Senate. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives said they will not take up the immigration issue until the Senate is successful in passing an immigration bill.

Wondering what happened to President Bush pushing his people into helping the Senate pass a bill he supports, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said he hopes that someday the Senate will come together in crafting a bill that will gain Senate approval.

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, defended the work of the White House by saying the White House, and particularly Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Cherto, worked liked dogs right up to Thursdays vote in the Senate.

A statement issued by the White House said this set back did not signal a death knell for one of the President's top domestic issues. The White House encouraged Sen. Reid to allow debate on the immigration issue in the hopes something can be worked out. Administration officials were closely monitoring this situation from Germany were they are attending the G-8 summit meetings, but President Bush did not call any lawmakers to discuss this hot button issue.

"He obviously is disappointed by the setback," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said of Bush. "But based on the latest information we have, there still is a good chance this bill could go forward."

Placing tighter limits on immigration is a top priority for many conservatives, and this was evident when fighting occurred earlier in the year because limits were placed on incoming temporary workers. In May, Senators reduced this temporary worker program from 400,000 to 200,000 workers. Some Senators became even more furious when the Senate voted to stop this temporary worker program all together after five years.

Top U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbyist R. Bruce Josten told The Associated Press this week that the immigration issue is "divisive in the Republican base, it's divisive in the Democratic base, it's divisive in the business community. It splits organized labor, it splits the immigration community."

Republican Senators backing President Bush on this immigration bill came under fierce heat from people in their home state, local GOP officials, and even from conservative talk show hosts.

A recent poll conducted by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center indicates 55 percent of respondents favor imposing a penalty on businesses that hire illegal immigrants. 25 percent of the respondents said border agents are the best way to stop the flow of illegal workers, and 7 percent said more border fences would help stem the tide of illegals entering the country.

However, when the word 'amnesty' was removed from the polling questions, 62 percent of respondents who identified themselves as Republicans said they would favor giving U.S. citizenship to illegals all ready in the country if these illegals have jobs, pass background checks and pay fines. When the word 'amnesty' was put back into these poll questions, the percent of Republican responders who backed this type of program dropped to 47.

Read more about the defeat of this bill at Yahoo News

Hillary: Faith Helped Save My Marriage

2007-06-05T04:11:00.001-07:00

During a speech on Monday, Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said faith in God helped her cope with Bill's numerous infidelities.

Still standing by her man, Sen. Clinton said Bill's admission that he did have an affair is what helped her decide to stay the course of her marriage to the former president.

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought," Clinton said during a forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith and values.

Sen. Clinton also said she was not sure if she would have stayed with her marriage if not for her faith.

Hillary was speaking in front of a forum sponsored by the liberal Sojourners/Call to Renewal evangelical organization. Also invited to speak at this forum were rivals John Edwards and Sen. Barack Obama. This forum allowed these three presidential hopefuls the opportunity to speak about their most personal beliefs.

Sen. Clinton spoke openly about the ways she was tested both publicly and privately while the world debated her marriage. Hillary said it was during times like this that prayers and faith helped her cope with the many issues surrounding her marriage. Sen. Clinton went on to say that it is times like these were it is essential that you are grounded by your faith.

When it was his turn to speak. former Senator Edwards he prays-and sins- everyday. The crowd at this forum gasped loudly when moderator Soledad O'Brien asked Mr. Edwards to name his biggest sin. Edwards was able to gain the crowds support when he said he sins were so many that he could not name just one.

"I sin every single day," said Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee. "We are all sinners and we all fall short."

Trying to score points with moderator O'Brien, Edwards appeared at this forum wearing a purple tie. Purple is Ms. O'Brien's favorite color. Edwards also described himself as the candidate best committed to the Democrats goal of fighting the war against poverty.

Edwards does not feel his belief in evolution goes against his belief in God. Edwards also feels gays should have the right to marriage, but he went on to say that as president he would not impose this marriage right on the rest of the country.

Edwards feels the United States should not be labeled as a Christian country even though Edwards states to have a deep and abiding love for God.

Edwards said he has been going to church since childhood and that he was baptized when he was a teenager. Mr. Edwards did admit he strayed off the path as an adult, but he came back to his belief in God when his teen-age son died in 1996.

"It was the Lord that got me through that," Edwards said, along with both of his wife's cancer diagnoses.

Sen. Clinton on the other hand admitted her religious belief's do not come easy for her.

"I take my faith very seriously and very personally," she said. "And I come from a tradition that is perhaps a little too suspicious of people who wear their faith on their sleeves."

This forum allowed each speaker to have their say for 15 minutes during this CNN broadcast before a live audience from George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium. Clinton, Edwards, and Obama were questioned by Ms. O'Brien and church leaders from across the country.

Sen. Obama preferred to talk more about policy issues instead of any personal issues he may have. When asked about if he agreed with President Bush that the war on terror is a war against good versus evil, Sen. Obama said there is a risk in using such a narrow vision in defining this global struggle.

"The danger of using good verses evil in the context of war is that it may lead us to be not as critical as we should about our own actions," Obama said to applause.

Sen. Obama went on to say the attacks of 9/11 were the results of evil, but Obama was quick to point out the United States treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay is unjust.

Read more about this group forum at Yahoo News

NASA Chief Says Global Warming Is Nothing to Worry About

2007-06-03T04:35:00.000-07:00

The global warming debate was turned up a notch last Friday, June 1, when NASA chief Michael Griffin issued a statement saying he was unsure if global warming was an issue to be "wrestled with" at this time.

This bold statement on the issue of global warming is so counter to conventional wisdom because most scientists feel global warming is one of the top issues facing people around the world.

Mr. Griffin has come under fire from Congress in the past because Mr. Griffin has cut funding for programs designed to monitor global climate change. However, in a radio interview on Thursday, Mr. Griffin said he had no doubt there is a trend indicating global warming exists."

But, he told National Public Radio, "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

James Hansen, NASA's top expert on climate change, was totally caught off-guard by this statement because he said he almost 'fell out of this chair' when hearing about Griffin's remarks.

"It was a shocking statement because of the level of ignorance it indicated with regard to the current situation," Hansen told NPR.

Mr. Hansen went on to say Mr. Griffin must not be aware that over 170 countries have all ready agreed that global warming and climate change is a serious issue with worldwide repercussions if this issue is not addressed as soon as possible.

In a statement released later in the day, Mr. Griffin did say it is NASA's responsibility to collect, analyze and then release reports on climate change, but it is not NASA's responsibility to implement policies regarding strategies to combat climate change and global warming.

The Democrats wasted no time in taking pot shots at Mr. Griffin.

Bart Gordon, D-TN, heads the House Science and Technology committee, and he issued a statement saying that based on NASA's five year budget plan NASA will not be able to start any new Earth observation programs that were recommended by the National Academies for the foreseeable future.

"That's not going to get us where we need to be in our understanding of climate change."

The League of Conservation Voters is a national pro-environment group that is calling for Mr. Griffin to resign over his outlandish statements.

Griffin's comments are "deeply troubling," said Gene Karpinski, the group's president.

Mr. Karpinski also said global warming is real and humans are contributing to this problem. Mr. Karpinski said it is not 'rocket science' when it comes to taking action in regards to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr. Griffin's comments seemed to go against comments made by President Bush on the same day.

On Friday, President Bush was calling for the major industrialized countries to come together in developing a new global warming pact that will replace the Kyoto Pact that is set to expire in 2012.

Read more on this issue at Yahoo News

Pelosi Wants to Pass Gas This Year

2007-06-02T03:47:00.001-07:00

House leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement saying she would like to pass gas this year in hopes of reducing that bloated and pained looked on her face.

Of course the House leader is actually talking about Congress passing a bill that will cap the heat producing carbon dioxide emissions, and not natural occurring human and animal flatulence.

"I'd like to see it pass this year," Pelosi told reporters at a news conference. "Congress will act upon cap-and-trade legislation in this Congress."

These remarks by Pelosi came a day after President Bush called on the worlds 15 most influential countries to reach some type of agreement by the end of 2008 on a long-term plan to cut carbon emissions.

The Pelosi deadline for a carbon reduction bill marks the first time House leader Pelosi actually placed a time-line for Congress to take action on any type of legislation. Rep. Pelosi never demanded a time-line for troop withdrawals from Iraq because she left this 'hot potato' task to fellow minions like John Murtha.

The United States is the largest producer of heat causing carbon emissions, and Pelosi is endorsing the idea of a cap and trade system that she hopes will cut U.S. gas emissions in half by 2050.

Few details of this Pelosi gas reduction plan have been released, but it appears this bill will allow businesses to pollute as much as they want as long as they buy permits for pollution that exceeds set industry standards. There has not been any word on what would be done with the money generated from the selling of these pollution permits, but one can only wonder what wasteful programs will be funded with this money.

If Congress and the President are serious about reducing heat causing emissions, they would place a 'cap'on the amount of political 'hot air' and rhetoric that spews out of their mouths on a daily basis.

The United States and Iran End 27 Year Silence Towards Each Other

2007-05-29T03:11:00.000-07:00

Iran and the United States broke 27 years of diplomatic silence on Monday so they could talk about the lack of security in Iraq.

This four hour meeting held in Iraq brought together the two major players that will mostly likely determine the fate of an unstable Iraqi country.

U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said broad agreement over Iraq was made, but Mr. Crocker said Iran must stop giving arms and money to militants attacking U.S. and Iraqi security forces.

Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi issued a statement to the Associated Press (AP) indicating both the U.S. and Iran would meet again to further discuss Iraq's situation. However, Mr. Crocker said the U.S. will only meet again with Iran if Iraq invites the U.S. to further talks.

"We don't have a formal invitation to respond to just yet, so it doesn't make sense to respond to what we don't have," Crocker told reporters after the meeting.

These talks were held in the offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Mr. al-Maliki's offices are located in the Green Zone area of Baghdad.

The talks between the U.S. and Iran were the first formal talks between these former allies since Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 1979. 1979 was the year of the Iranian Islamic Revolution and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy.

An AP reporter who viewed this meeting said Mr. Crocker and Mr. Kazemi shook hands.

The American envoy called the meeting "businesslike" and said at "the level of policy and principle, the Iranian position as articulated by the Iranian ambassador was very close to our own."

Mr. Crocker went on to say the United States and Iraq would like Iran to actually put their words into actions by doing on the ground what they are saying during these meetings.

Speaking later at a news conference in the Iranian Embassy, Kazemi said: "We don't take the American accusations seriously."

Crocker did not go into detail about what Mr. Kazemi said during these meetings;however, Crocker did hint that Mr. Kazemi said Iran is willing to train and equip the Iraqi Army and Police in order to establish a new military and police structure in Iraq.

Iranian Ambassador Kazemi said U.S. policy to rebuild Iraqi security forces were inadequate to handle the current chaos in Iraq. Mr. Kazemi's statement also places sole blame for this chaos at the feet of Washington. Mr. Kazemi further stated his offer is meant to help Iraq rebuild their security structure that has been totally demolished by the United States.

Both sides said this ice-breaking meeting did not delve into the more difficult questions surrounding U.S.-Iranian relations: Iran's nuclear program and more than a quarter century of giving each other the cold shoulder.

Iran's Shiite theocracy worries the Bush administration will push for regime change, and act on this impulse, in Tehran the same way they did against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Meanwhile, the U.S. and their Sunni Arab allies are worried that Iran's growing influence in the Middle East will lead to further Islamic extremism.

On top of these worries, Iran is concerned with the U.S. relationship with Israel; and the U.S. is concerned about Iran's open hostility towards Israel.

The Americans maintain Iran must stop their Quad force from bankrolling and arming militants in Iraq. The U.S. was aiming this statement directly towards the aid going to Mahdi Army forces led by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The U.S. also claims Iran is shipping the deadly explosive formed penetrators, or EFPs. These EFPs are the armor piercing explosives being used in roadside bombs that are killing hundreds of U.S. soldiers. Mahdi Army forces have told AP reporters the Revolutionary Guards are supplying and training Mahdi soldiers.

Kazemi and Crocker did not discuss the issue of the seven Iranians captured by U.S. forces in Iraq. Five of these Iranians are still in U.S. custody.

Mr. Crocker said these talks were about Iraq only.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki issued a statement from Tehran saying further talks between Iran and the United States are possible, but only if Washington admits its Mid-East policy is a total failure.

Read more about this historic meeting at Yahoo News.

Clinton Crony Sued Over His Use Of A Company Jet to Ferry Bill and Hillary Clinton Around The World

2007-05-27T04:01:00.000-07:00

A long time Clinton crony is facing a lawsuit claiming the use of a company jet to fly Hillary Rodham Clinton around the country on business, personal and campaign trips is a waste of company resources.

This lawsuit claims Vinod Gupta has received more than $3 million worth of contracts from former President Bill Clinton to provide consulting services for Mr. Gupta's Nebraska based company infoUSA. These contracts are set to run from 2003 to 2008.

It is estimated Mr. Gupta has spent roughly $900,000 since 2002 flying Sen. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton on international trips to promote Clinton Foundation business and political events.

The suit, filed by infoUSA shareholders last year, claims those expenses as well as millions of others unrelated to the Clintons were a "serial misuse of corporate assets and resources." The Clintons are not a party to the suit.

Details of this lawsuit first appeared in a February edition of The Deal, a business publication. Further accounts of this lawsuit also appeared in Saturday editions of the New York Times and Washington Post.

This lawsuit only mentions a "high ranking" company official and his wife, but Clinton campaign staffers and unnamed company officials did confirm this case involves Mr. Gupta and the Clintons.

Messages left Saturday with lawyers for infoUSA and for Dolphin Limited Partnership, a hedge fund that brought the suit, were not immediately returned Saturday. Stamford, Conn.-based Dolphin owns 3.6 percent of infoUSA stock.

Phil Singer, a spokesman for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign said all flights were properly reimbursed and disclosed as outlined by FEC ( Federal Election Commission) rules. Mr. Singer also said Sen. Clinton followed Senate ethics rules in regards to these flights.

A message left on Saturday for a spokesman of the former president was not returned.

This suit will give the American public a rare view of how far a Clinton crony will go in order to gain the favor of these two very powerful politicians. This suit alleges Mr. Gupta spent $145,000 to fly the Clinton's, and himself, on a 2002 vacation trip to Acapulco, Mexico.

Gupta has always been a major contributor to Democratic fundraisers, and his loyalty was paid off when former President Clinton invited him to sleep in the White House's Lincoln bedroom. Mr. Gupta showed his appreciation for this night in the Lincoln bedroom by donating $1 million to the Clinton library in Little Rock, Ark.

FEC records show Gupta controlled entities supplied jets for Sen. Clinton on at least seven different occasions since 2002. Clinton campaign, and other political committee, staffers did pay the equivalent price of first-class air seat for those trips. These payments are required by law, but they are also a significant discount when compared to the actual cost of charter jet service.

So far, it does not appear Mr. Gupta has supplied any flights to Sen. Clinton for use during her presidential campaign stops.

Aides to Sen. Clinton say the 2008 Democratic Presidential hopeful paid $450,000 on flights during the first three months of her presidential campaign. Payment records show the $450,000 was for full charter flight service. The actual details of these expenses do not have to be reported until July 15.

FEC records also show that in addition to providing jet service for Sen. Clinton, Mr. Gupta has also donated $19.500 dollars to Hillary's Senate campaign, presidential campaign and her political action committee since 2001.

Before bringing the lawsuit against Mr. Gupta, Dolphin Limited Partnership did try to place three directors on the infoUSA board of directors.

Both in its suit and in its quest to alter the board, Dolphin has maintained that Gupta squandered company money not only on the Clintons but on a stadium sky-box and on a private yacht with an all-female crew.

Documents filed by Mr. Gupta defend this spending by indicating Mr. Gupta paid for the sky-box at the University of Nebraska with his own money, and then transferred the sky-box to infoUSA.

Mr. Gupta also sent a letter to infoUSA directors in 2005 to defend his expenditures on a boat and sky-box by saying these items are used to woo large clients and top performing company employees.

InfoUSA is a marketing information company that provides electronic, print and data processing services to its clients.

InfoUSA has come under intense heat and scrutiny not only because of Mr. Gupta's spending habits, but because of customer data sold by the company that ended up being used by crooks in bilking older people. The company has since issued a statement saying measures have been taken to ensure a sale such like this will not happen again.

Read more about this lawsuit at Yahoo News

Democrats Vow To Continue Their Anti-Troop Movement

2007-05-25T04:58:00.000-07:00

Conceding victory to President Bush in the latest battle of troop funding, Congressional Democrats vow to continue the fight when it comes to undermining our battlefield troops.

Congressional Democrats will continue their trampling of the U.S. Constitution by pushing President Bush on whether he has the authority to continue operations in Iraq.

This strategy by the Democrats involves continual and increasing pressure on the President and moderate Republicans over the issue of how long U.S. troops will be deployed in Iraq. With the Iraq war growing increasingly unpopular, Democrats believe increasing pressure will force moderate Republicans, and the President, to change course in Iraq.

"I feel a direction change in the air," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House panel that oversees military funding.

The Democrats had to drop their troop withdrawal plans from the latest troop funding bill because they knew the two thirds vote requirement to override the President was not present. However, this still did not stop Congressional Democrats from waging a vicious war with the President that once again left brave U.S. service personnel caught in the middle.

Congress did finally approved the revised $120 billion, pork laden troop funding bill on Thursday with the hopes President Bush would sign this bill before Congress takes their usual Memorial Day Holiday. The vote in the House was 280-142, and the Senate vote was 80-14.

Democratic Presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-IL, both voted against this bill.

Sen. Clinton, sounding like a broken Democrat record, issued a statement saying she supports the troops, but this bill does not compel the President to change course in Iraq.

Sen. Obama meanwhile said enough is enough, when it comes to giving Bush a blank check so he can continue on the same ill-fated course currently being followed by the President.

The votes by Clinton and Obama appear to signal a shift in their campaign stance against withdrawing troops from Iraq because earlier in the year both thought withdrawing troops from Iraq was not a good idea.

Thursday's legislative actions concluded weeks of fighting between Congress and the White House over funding for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush finally won, and he did receive an extra $17 billion in funding. However, almost half of this additional funding will go to Democratic pet pork domestic projects.

"If all funding bills are going to be this partisan and contentious, it will be a very long year," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.

Democrats were still claiming victory over the President by saying they were successful in further pushing the debate over continued U.S. involvement in Iraq. Democrats signaled their fight against the troops will continue in October when talks about the 2008 fiscal year budget begin.

"This debate will go on," vowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"Senate Democrats will not stop our efforts to change the course of this war until either enough Republicans join with us to reject President Bush's failed policy or we get a new president," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

The Senate will start off talks about the 2008 budget by discussing a defense spending bill authorizing more than $600 billion in spending for the military. Sen. Carl Levin, D-MI, heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he plans on attaching language to this defense appropriations bill calling for troop withdrawals with 120 days once this spending bill is approved.

Former Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.VA, said he will continue his fight for repealing the 2002 bill authorizing combat actions in Iraq.

Sen. John Warner, R-VA, issued a statement saying the security situation in Iraq needs to improve by Mid-July otherwise President Bush should seriously consider a change of direction for U.S. involvement in Iraq.

"It seems to me it's time for them (Iraqi troops) to ... step up," said Warner, R-Va.

The most critical votes for continued operations in Iraq will come in September when both houses of Congress begin debating 2008 war funding legislation. The House is planning to debate two cut and run bills- one bill deals with troop withdrawals by July 2008, and the other bill calls for repealing the authority giving the President to wage war in Iraq.

These September votes will most likely come after a visit from Gen. David Petraeus in which he will discuss whether or not the troop build-up plan is working. Also due in September is an independent assessment report outlining the progress of the Iraqi government.

"Those of us who oppose this war will be back again and again and again and again until this war has ended," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

According to the GAO (Government Accountability Office), more than $300 billion spent so far on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Therefore, the most likely action Congress should take is to stop funding these operations all together. This action is within the scope of Congressional powers granted under the Constitution, but so far the Democrats are afraid, or unwilling, to use this power granted to them.

Read more about the latest anti-troop Democratic actions at Yahoo News

Hillary Told to Ignore Iowa Primaries

2007-05-24T04:36:00.000-07:00

Fearing voter backlash from Iowa voters who will cast the first 2008 Presidential primary votes, a leaked memo from Sen. Clinton's Presidential campaign suggests the former first lady should 'skip' over Iowa.

Denouncing an internal memo suggesting "a new approach to winning" is needed, Sen. Clinton said she has no intention of not participating in the Iowa caucuses next year.

After a Des Moines Sunday Register poll showed Hillary trailing John Edwards and Barack Obama in Iowa, a memo from Mike Henry suggests Sen. Clinton's campaign money may be better spent in states that show the NY Senator is faring better than third place.

"I believe we need a new approach to winning the Democratic nomination," Henry wrote. "This approach involves shifting the focus away from Iowa and running a campaign that is more focused on other early primary states and winning this new national primary."

Because California, New York and Florida have moved up their primary dates, all presidential candidates are scrambling to adjust their approach for gaining their parties 2008 presidential nomination. These primary moves seem to be effecting the junior Senator from New York the most because her strategy of projecting herself as the eventual Democratic Presidential nominee is facing a stiff challenge from Edwards and Obama.

Mr. Henry went so far as to say Iowa is 'the weakest link' in the presidential hopes of Sen. Clinton.

Polls in Iowa have consistently shown Edwards winning the Iowa primary even though most national polls give the overall edge in almost every other state to Sen. Clinton. Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has privately pondered and acknowledged the fact that maybe Sen. Clinton should not waste her time with Iowa.

Mr. Henry's leaked memo suggest it will cost roughly $15 million to campaign in Iowa, and Mr. Henry believes this money is better spent elsewhere.

"We have the opportunity to change the focus of the campaign from a traditional process (Iowa first) to a campaign that favors us," Henry wrote.

Once the Clinton campaign found out this memo was leaked to the AP, Clinton staffers moved quickly into damage, and spin, control mode by offering a plausible explanation about the information contained in the Mike Henry memo.

"This memo offered the views of one person," Clinton told the AP. "I didn't see the memo and didn't know about the memo until it apparently fell into the hands of someone outside the campaign."

Clinton also went on to say that debates about the best course of campaigning is normal in any presidential effort.

Clinton also said she is the one who makes the final decisions about what direction her campaign takes, and Sen. Clinton feels a campaign is well served when there is healthy debate about how the campaign should be run.

Speaking on condition of anonymity. some senior campaign advisers do feel Clinton is best served by avoiding the Iowa caucuses, and this memo was created by Mr. Henry to make sure Hillary knew about other options besides participating in Iowa. Other advisers in the Clinton "inner circle" feel Iowa has long been the focal point of her campaign, and these advisers feel Sen. Clinton still shares this opinion.

Hillary has all ready won the support of Gov. Vilsack and his wife, Christie. These two often accompany Sen. Clinton during her Iowa campaign stops. Sen. Clinton is showing her dedication to Iowa by making numerous stops in Western Iowa starting this Friday.

Former Sen. John Edwards almost won the 2004 Iowa primary, and he has been stumping extensively in Iowa. In addition, Sen. Obama's campaign advisers senses their may be 'blood in the water' because polls in Iowa show Obama may be the best nominee for the general election.

The Iowa caucus goers have gained increasing power and influence within the Democratic party ever since Jimmy Carter rose out of no where in 1976 to win the Iowa caucus and eventually the Presidency.

However, Former President Bill Clinton skipped the Iowa caucus in 1992 because one of his rivals, Sen. Tom Harkin was from Iowa. By-passing Iowa did not hurt Mr. Clinton because he still went on to win the 1992 Presidential election.

A top Clinton strategist, Harold Ickes, said Sen. Hillary Clinton has been weighing her options in Iowa because of the big influx of nominees for the 2008 election.

"Every campaign games out different scenarios and this is one scenario," he said of the memo. "The campaign is moving in Iowa, is going to stay in Iowa, and Mrs. Clinton is very dedicated to winning the state."

The 2008 Iowa caucus, scheduled for January, 14, 2008, is still some time away, and opinion polls can change. This means Sen. Clinton still has some time to decide if she wants for 'fish or cut bait' when it comes to her involvement in this caucus.

Read more about this leaked memo at Yahoo News

Congress, White House Near Agreement on Troop Funding Bill

2007-05-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

It appears the Democratic controlled Congress will be the first to 'blink' on the issue of funding for U.S. operations in Iraq.

Fearing another Bush veto, Congress finally decided to drop their request for a troop withdrawal time-line as a requirement for further funding of troop activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Several unnamed officials said this bill will cost roughly $120 billion with approximately $8 billion earmarked for Democrat domestic funding issues. The domestic funding, which was initially resisted by the White House, will include aid for victims of hurricane Katrina and aid for farmers hurt by drought.

After an intense struggle between the White House and Congress over much needed troop funding, Congressional leaders hope this compromise bill reaches the President's desk by Friday so this bill can be enacted before the Memorial Day weekend.

Despite the concession, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., told reporters that the legislation would be the first war-funding bill sent to Bush since the U.S. invasion of Iraq "where he won't get a blank check."

Senate leader Reid and other Democrats quickly pointed to a provision in this bill that calls for setting standards the Iraqi government must reach in developing a more democratic country. U.S. financial aid would be tied to the Iraqi government meeting these set standards, but this bill also allows President Bush to continue giving financial aid to Iraq regardless of how well the country performs on reaching a more democratic society.

Sen. Reid said Democrats are still going to work towards developing a different defense bill later this summer that addresses what the American people desire-a change of direction in the United States involvement in Iraq.

Republicans are claiming victory over the troop funding issue because they claim the Democrats backed down on their demand for a troop withdrawal time-line.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, added, "Democrats have finally conceded defeat in their effort to include mandatory surrender dates in a funding bill for the troops, so forward progress has been made for the first time in this four-month process."

Democrats are also claiming victory by saying Republicans paid a price by seeing the Democrats wring out money for spending on domestic issues that should have be going to the troops.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, officials said the final details of this bill still remain in flux. These officials said House leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, intends to present this bill to her rank and file at a meeting later this evening.

This bill will give President Bush approximately $17 billion more than he originally requestd for funding the troops. $9 billion of this additional money will go towards funding defense related items and veteran health-care. The remaining $8 billion is earmarked for the Democrats domestic items.

The bill would also include the first increase in the federal minimum wage in more than a decade. Both the House and Senate have passed measures raising the current level of $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour in three separate 70-cent increases over 26 months. Those measures included modest tax breaks, mainly aimed at helping businesses that hire low-skilled or handicapped workers.

With the possibility of an agreement nearing, Reid and Pelosi also toyed with the idea of splitting this bill into two separate pieces. One bill would have been for troop funding only, and the other bill would have been for domestic funding issues.

Under this scenario, antiwar House Democrats would have been able to vote against troop funding while being able to vote for funding of domestic issues. The troop funding bill would have still passed the House based on strong Republican voting, but it would have also allowed anti-war advocates to show their voters they still voted against additional troop funding.

If this scenario did play out, Sen. Reid would have had to merge both bills in the Senate. This would have left Senate anti-war critics without luxury of voting against troop funding while voting for domestic funding.

The Democrats have been back in Congressional power for only a few months, but the Iraq war has been able to dominate the new Democratic Congressional agenda.

Congress has been trying to pressure President Bush into changing the course in Iraq, but it now appears the President still keeps the upper hand in a war that is becoming more and more unpopular as the days pass.

Read more about this latest troop funding measure at Yahoo News

U.S. Supreme Court Hands Victory to Telecom Companies

2007-05-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

By a 7-2 vote, the Supreme Court handed the nation's biggest local phone carriers a victory over consumers who filed an anti-competitive business practices lawsuit.

The court ruled in favor of the phone companies because it was found this consumer lawsuit lacked any factual support showing these local phone companies secretly conspired to stay out of the others territory when it came to supplying local phone and high-speed Internet service.

Justice David Souter wrote in the majority opinion that it was not enough to claim a conspiracy exists without having actual facts and evidence to back up such a claim.

Souter said the complaint alleging restraint of trade "comes up short." The consumers "have not nudged their claims across the line from conceivable to plausible," Souter wrote.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens objected to a federal judge's dismissal of the case. Stevens said federal rules, previous rulings and "sound practice mandate that the district court at least require some sort of response" before throwing out the case.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg joined Justice Stevens as the only two justices to vote in favor of the consumers.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals voted in favor of the consumers by ruling this lawsuit did show "a plausible claim of conspiracy."

This lawsuit shows the Supreme Court Justices are focusing their efforts on anti-trust laws. Two other cases to be heard by this court involve a suit against Wall Street Investment banks, and a case challenging a 96 year-old ruling which bans agreements between manufacturers and retailers who agree to preset pricing on certain products.

Attorney Joseph Simons, a former chief antitrust enforcer at the Federal Trade Commission, said it appears the Supreme Court wants to make over the anti-trust landscape by cleaning up areas this courts feels a clean-up is necessary.

The Chamber of Commerce and eight other business groups and companies filed papers supporting the phone companies.

The decision is "a triumph of the voices for America's wealthiest corporations," said attorney J. Douglas Richards, who argued the case for the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court.

Attorney Richards said it was deplorable the Supreme Court won't allow cases to progress so disclosure of any evidence the phone companies may have showing they did collude with each other in fixing the price of certain services.

This case came to fruition because of changes made to the 1996 telecommunications act which said local phone companies had to open up their monopoly of local phone service to other competitors. By agreeing to this, local phone companies were given the right to offer both local and long-distance service. At the time of this change, four local phone companies supplied roughly 90 percent of the local phone service to consumers.

This case, Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 05-1126, named Bell Atlantic Corp., BellSouth Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., and SBC Communications Inc.

Bell Atlantic has since changed their name to Verizon, and SBC bought AT&T and changed their name to AT&T. Bellsouth has just recently agreed to a merger with AT&T and Cingular.

A prominent firm of plaintiffs' attorneys represented the consumers by suing these companies when it was discovered these companies retained their own territory without competing with one another.

In his writing for the majority, Justice Souter wrote there was a natural explanation for these companies not competing with each other by saying these companies were sitting tight while waiting for each other to make the first move.

The consumers complaint also alleged the big 4 local companies conspired to keep smaller companies from competing in the larger companies market.

Justice Souter also wrote nothing in the consumers complaint suggest the defendants were resisting competition efforts by other companies, but instead the reaction of the defendants was quite natural because they were acting alone.

Attorney Edward Schwartz said this court decision should discourage anyone from filing an anti-trust lawsuit based solely on nothing more than parallel conduct with the hopes that some type of evidence against a defendant will pop-up in discovery.

The defense attorneys said it should be totally understandable these companies would decide on a individual basis whether is was worth the risk of entering into a new market.

The Bush administration also agreed with this Supreme Court ruling because the consumers case did not show concrete evidence of any wrong doing by the phone companies.

The Justice Department's solicitor general went on to say the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff's ability to show clear evidence these companies met with the intended goal of conspiring with one another to fix prices.

It is not sure whether a new lawsuit will be brought against these phone companies with additional information attached to the original lawsuit.

Read more about this decision at Yahoo News

Private Equity Firm Agrees to $25B Buyout of Alltel

2007-05-21T04:16:00.000-07:00

TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners agreed on Friday to buy Alltel wireless for $25 billion dollars.

Alltell becomes the latest publicly held company to fall into the arms of a private equity firm.

With Alltell's stock closing at $65.35 on Friday, TPG and GS Capital agreed to buy this corporate giant's stock for $71.50 in cash.

TPG was formerly know as Texas Pacific Group while GS Capital Partners is better known as the buyout arm of Goldman Sachs.

It is a common practice for private equity firms to purchase companies and then sell them a few years later. Private equity firms usually borrow money to make such investments. More private equity firms have been making these purchases because of a robust debt market that has fueled more leveraged buyouts in the last couple of years.

Alltell joins a growing list of companies that includes Chrysler Group (see my 051507 in the news article), contact lens company Bausch & Lomb, and credit card processor Alliance Data as companies agreeing to be bought by private equity firms.

Analysts have speculated Alltell would be an attractive target for a buyout because Alltell shares sell for about 9 times its cash-flow. Buyout companies have been willing to pay double-digits for companies because deals have been harder and harder to come buy. These buyout companies usually seek companies with strong cash flows because this helps pay down the debt borrowed for the deal.

Alltel is the top rural U.S. wireless provider, and speculation surfaced in February that private equity investment was starting to heat-up because of a conference call indicating Alltell was looking to review their strategic options.

Several teams of private equity suitors emerged earlier this month. Amid a wave of mergers and acquisitions in telecoms, Alltel Chief Executive Scott Ford had been eyeing a sale since the Little Rock, Arkansas-based company spun off its fixed-line arm last year.

Analysts predicated Alltell was hoping some kind of purchase agreement would go through in April or May because this would be before the governments planned sale of wireless airwaves. This government sale is expected to happen around August.

Once rival companies register to take place in this government auction of wireless airwaves, these companies are barred from talking to each other about mergers and acquisitions. And this rule is what led Alltell into finalizing a deal before the August air-wave sale.

Read more about Alltell at CNNMoney

Al Gore Takes His Climate Change Show on the Road to Istanbul

2007-05-21T03:01:00.000-07:00

The former Vice-President has been asked to give a presentation on climate change during a conference hosted by World Wildlife Fund, Turkey and Garanti Bank.

The former vice-president is being given credit for bringing more worldwide attention to global warming and climate change as the result of his wildly popular documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

Mr. Gore's presentation at this conference in Turkey will be based on his 30 years of work and research about the causes and effects of global climate change. This speech will be given to Turkish opinion leaders, leaders of the Turkish business world and media on June 12 at Çırağan Palace.

Mr. Gore has been able to assemble a team of renowned scientists and educators that are attempting to train more than 1,000 people on the causes and effects of climate change. Gore is hoping his team will be able to lead these people into coming up with a worldwide solution to global warming and climate change.

The former vice-president's presentation will show how global climate change is leading to the melting of icebergs and severe droughts and storms. This presentation will also involve a discussion about how misinformation is leading to worldwide confusion about global warming.

Mr. Gore plans to use scientific data to show the world can longer ignore the facts surrounding global warming. Mr. Gore also plans to discuss what can be done to combat climate change while inviting everyone to do their part in helping to save the worldwide environment.

WWF-Turkey Chairman Akın Öngör says, “Global climate change is the biggest environmental threat that the world faces.

Mr. Öngör points to severe flooding, bigger and more frequent forest fires, rapidly spreading diseases, a decrease in rainfall, and water shortages as some of the consequences attributed to global climate caused by an increase in the Earths temperature.

The leaders of this conference hope the invitation for Al Gore to speak at their conference will lead to an increasing awareness about the need for people to take action now in the battle against global warming and climate change.

Garanti Bank's President and CEO Ergun Özen says, “For 15 years, we have been the corporate sponsor of WWF-Turkey and have been supporting its environmental conservation projects. Our goal is to help create a more livable environment that is better conserved.

Mr. Özen also said his company supported a January viewing of Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in Turkey, and this led to Turkey inviting Gore to his presentation on global climate change. Mr. Özen is also among those people who hope the Gore presentation will lead to more people getting involved in the fight against global warming and climate change.

Read more about Gore's trip to Turkey at the Turkish Daily News

UN talks on Climate Change Stall--Is the US to Blame?

2007-05-20T03:40:00.000-07:00

UN hosted talks about climate change held in Bonn, Germany bogged down over the issue of US involvement in a climate change policy.

The issue at hand is the United States refusal to sign-off on the Kyoto Pact that is set to expire in 2012. Diplomats fear that without the United States agreeing to this pact, further discussions on global warming are fruitless.

The US is concerned the Kyoto Pact only targets the rich countries, and by doing this the emerging countries will be allowed to pollute as much as they want.

The United States and Japan, despite UN alarmists ringing warning bells, did not see much hope for launching more serious talks about extending the Kyoto Pact at the upcoming UN meeting to be held this December in Bali.

Japan's chief climate negotiator, Mutsuyoshi Nishimura said all emitters of carbon, including China and India, need to be involved in these talks, and not just the rich countries like the United States and Japan. Mr. Nishimura said his expectations of extending the Kyoto Pact in Bali are extremely low.

The United States never ratified the Kyoto Protocol and ruled out talks in Bali to change the pact's parent treaty, the Convention on Climate Change, a necessary step to extend Kyoto.

"Certainly it would be premature," chief U.S. negotiator Harlan Watson told Reuters.

Jamil Ahmad, coordinator for the G77 group which represents 132 developing countries, said developing countries should not be the ones targeted in the next Kyoto agreement for 2013.

"After the second commitment period future possibilities can be discussed, it's too far ahead to imagine a scenario for discussion," he told Reuters.

China, the world's second biggest carbon emitter, said developing countries have been trying to cut their carbon emissions, but further help is needed. Guoshun Sun, China's head of delegation, said developing countries need financial and technological assistance, along with resources, from all the developed countries in helping to curb carbon emissions in their countries.

Yvo de Boer, the UN's head of climate change, did acknowledge some "sticky points" in the debate on climate change, but Yvo went on to say it was a good sign to see the willingness of Brazil and South Africa discussing how the developing countries can shoulder some the the burden of committing to a climate change pact.

Germany is set to hold a G8 economic summit this June where a discussion on global warming is set to highlight this meeting of the world's biggest economic countries.

Germany's chief climate negotiator Nicole Wilke said, she hopes the change in policy by Brazil and South Africa will open the door for more serious talks about extending the Kyoto Pact beyond 2012. Ms. Wilke said Chancellor Merkel is hoping the G8 summit will pave the way for even more productive talks at the Bali meeting later in the year.

Proponents of climate change are worried about what will happen if he Kyoto treaty is allowed to expire without an extension being given to this pact. Nations have to come to an agreement and then parliamentary backing has to be won in a process that usually takes four years.

An agreement reached in Bonn, Germany, still needs to be signed-off at the Bali meetings that would create a fund to help most vulnerable countries. This agreement would also call for a group to give technology aid to countries that need such assistance.

"Everybody knows there's a higher public expectation on policymakers," said the head of the European Commission's delegation, Artur Runge-Metzger. "The results of the IPCC reports are creeping into delegates' minds.

A series of reports issued this year by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are said to be the cause of diplomats now focusing their minds to acting fast on the issue of how carbon emissions are effecting the world's climate.

Read more at Yahoo News

Congress and the White House Remian Locked in an Impasse Over a Troop Funding Bill

2007-05-19T05:06:00.000-07:00

The White and Congress remain in a deadlock over funding for US troops in Iraq because of the Democratic controlled Congress stubborn stand on setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.

While US troops remain in a deadly crossfire between insurgents and terrorists in Iraq, the US government remains bogged down on the issue of troop funding that will give these over-taxed troops much needed equipment and supplies.

After a nearly 90-minute meeting on Capitol Hill, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten issued a statement saying any bill with language mentioning any type of troop withdrawal action is something the White House is just not willing to accept at this time.

House leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and Senate leader Harry Reid, D-NV, issued a joint counter statement saying the Democrats latest proposal includes language giving the President the ability to waive troop withdrawals if the Iraqi government reaches certain benchmarks. These two Democratic leaders said they are also willing to remove domestic spending language attached to the troop funding bill as long as President Bush acknowledges the need for a troop withdrawal deadline.

These are the first concessions by the Democrats in their battle with the White House over a troop funding bill that is long overdue.

"To say I was disappointed in the meeting is an understatement," Reid, D-Nev., told reporters. "I really did expect that the president would accept some accountability for what we're trying to accomplish here."

At risk is the $90 billion dollar funding request President Bush states as necessary for continued operations through September in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Congress sent a bill to the President on May 1 approving the required funding of troops, but this bill also stated troop withdrawals must begin on Oct. 1. The President quickly vetoed this bill on the same day because of the troop withdrawal language.

According to a report released Friday by the GAO ( Government Accountability Office), the US has spent more than $300 billion on military operations in Iraq.

The Bush administration and Congressional Republicans say they are willing to consider legislation setting goals for the Iraqi government to reach if the Iraqis want to continue receiving financial aid from the United States.

However, the most pressing question is whether President Bush is willing to accept binding legislation calling for serious consequences to the Iraqi government if they fail to meet the established guidelines. Aides to the President say Bush should have the power to waive these restrictions, but Democrats say this compromise by the President is too weak.

Democratic and Republican aides gave hints that Pelosi and Reid both gave a lukewarm response to this Bush proposal because the Democrats are stuck on the idea of a troop withdrawal date.

Also not being ruled out is the idea of the Democrats sending the President another troop funding bill with withdrawal language still attached, but this action will just lead to another Bush veto.

"I was a little surprised that (the) Democratic leaders, at least so far, seem so dug in on that position" of setting a timetable, Bolten said. "Because it's a position that ... the president vetoed and which was sustained in" both chambers.

The Democrats have started to come under pressure to not cede ground on a troop withdrawal plan for a war that is becoming more and more unpopular. The House in particular is coming under fire to not give in to the President because many of the newly elected House Democrats were voted into office with the idea they would be able to bring the troops home.

"It is clear that the difference between the Democrats and the president is the issue of accountability," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "He will not accept any accountability or responsibility for what has happened there."

Attending this rare meeting between Democrats and Republican leaders were Bolten, White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley and White House budget director Rob Portman, as well as Reid, Pelosi, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Reps. Jerry Lewis and David Obey. Lewis, R-Calif., is the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and Obey, D-Wis., is chairman.

House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-OH, was also an attendee at this meeting. He took this opportunity to slam Democrats over their offer to remove domestic spending language attached to the troop funding bill because the Democrats want to keep the troop withdrawal language attached to any troop funding bill

"What a principled stand to take when we're talking about our men and women in uniform in Iraq taking on the enemy in a war that I think most Americans want to win," said Boehner.

Pelosi went on to say the troops would be funded, regardless of how negotiations with the White House are proceeding. Pelosi also went on to say she is still working with Sen. Reid on drafting a new troop funding bill Democrats want to send to the President next week.

The Democrats are not saying what this new bill will look like, but it appears nothing is off the table and that includes setting a troop withdrawal time-line.

Read more about this impasse at Yahoo News

Microsoft and Bill Clinton Team-Up to Fight Pollution

2007-05-18T04:07:00.000-07:00

The Clinton Foundation and Microsoft have teamed up in developing software that will help large cities create, track and share strategies to reduce carbon emissions.

Former President Clinton is set to speak in front of the C40 climate summit this week for the mayors of the world's largest cities to discuss his plans for new software and Web applications that are parts of a program being developed for tracking carbon emissions.

This software tool is designed to create a standardized way for cities all around the world to track their greenhouse gas emissions. By using this software, cities will be able to tell how effective, or ineffective, their carbon reduction programs are working.

The C40 summit of leaders from the world's major cities, which first met in London in 2005, was started with the aim of helping cities share ideas and band together to force down the price of technology to combat global warming.

It is estimated that urban cities use 75 percent of the world's energy, and these cities also produce 80 percent of the carbon emissions that lead to greenhouse gas pollution.

Bruce Lindsey, chief executive of the Clinton Foundation, said this software tool will be a key resource in the Clinton Foundation's work with cities worldwide in the fight against global warming.

As the world's largest software developer, Microsoft said they will provide this software, and associated services, for free. Microsoft also hopes to have this software in place by the end of this year.

The technical details still need to be worked out, but it appears most of these tools are going to be web-based and accessed through the Internet. This software should allow cities around the world to share data and policies that are working in reducing carbon based emissions.

Based on a formula developed by environmental groups, a city using the software would add up various factors like commercial space, residential buildings and transportation usage to gauge how much carbon dioxide a city produces.

Senate Set to Vote on War Funding Bill

2007-05-15T03:10:00.000-07:00

Democrats in the US Senate are set to cast what they call a dramatic anti-war vote this week.

Behind closed doors this week, some moderates in the Senate worked with the anti-war coalition in crafting a bill they hope will make President Bush rethink his Iraq war strategy.

On Monday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said the Senate will vote on whether funding for troops in Iraq will be halted sometime next year. This bill will most likely include language stating US troops need to start withdrawal maneuvers this fall. Sen. Reid said he plans to attach these two provisions to a water projects funding bill that is up for debate this week.

Voting on the water project funding bill should take place this Wednesday, and it is expected the Senate will still be short the 60 votes required to move any legislation forward in the Senate. Sen. Reid hopes voting on this bill will help him determine the political waters surrounding the issue of troop funding that even has the Democratic caucus divided on how far Congress should go in support of US troops.

"These are important votes," said Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau. "This will give members an opportunity to debate these issues and have up-or-down votes" on whether to end the war.

President Bush has all ready vetoed a $124 billion troop funding bill because this bill included a provision stating US troops need to be begin Iraq withdrawal tactics starting this Oct. 1.

The US House of Representatives all ready defied the President on the troop funding issue by passing proposed legislation that would only fund US troops in Iraq through July. This bill all ready appears 'dead on arrival' in the Senate because Democratic Senators do not want to give the appearance they are abandoning US troops deployed in a war zone.

"On our side of the aisle, Democrats believe they should do something very, very close to what was done in the bill that was sent to the president to be vetoed," Reid said.

Sen Reid and Sen.Carl Levin, D-Mich, are willing to allow the Senate to vote on legislation demanding troop withdrawals starting on Oct. 1, but this proposed legislation will also allow the President to waive that requirement.

Sen. Levin is the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He called this legislation the "second-best" option because he feels it allows the President to waive the troop withdrawal date, and this gives Bush no reason to veto this particular piece of legislation. However, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says Bush is still not in favor of Levin and Reid's newest withdrawal plan.

"Such time lines tie the hands of our commanders, weaken our friends, embolden our enemies and enhance the risk faced by our troops in combat," Perino said. "The bottom line is that a date for retreat is a date for retreat, and the president opposes such provisions."

Senator Reid is still facing pressure from more liberal Democrats who want to cut off all funding, as of March 31, 2008, for all troops still in Iraq. Earlier this year, Reid teamed with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis, to co-sponsor this legislation, but Reid says he does not intend to push this bill as the Democrats caucus position on funding US troops.

Feingold said the American public deserve to see, on record, the position Senators are taking when it comes to ending our misguided mission in Iraq, and then safely redeploying our brave troops.

This voting comes as nearly a dozen Republicans are discussing their own plan for further funding of troops in Iraq. A proposal by Sen. John Warner, R-Va, calls for the President to re-evaluate his Iraq strategy if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks.

"We're trying to put together a single document" that would address concerns of GOP senators, Warner, R-Va., said in an interview.

Warner said he personally backs a requirement calling for Iraqi progress reports that need to be sent to Congress before their usual breaks in August and September.

Warner would like the first report by July so Congressional members have an updated evaluation of the situation they can take back to their voters. Sen. Warner also said if the Iraqi government is not meeting their benchmarks at this time, President Bush should then consider whether a new Iraq war strategy needs to be developed.

Sen. Warner said this group of a dozen Republicans have been discussing this issue along with Sen. Bob Nelson, D-Neb, and the goal is to develop proposals that will provide bipartisan interest and support.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Norm Coleman, R-MN, are among the Senators working with Warner and Nelson in trying to come up with proposals that both Democrats and Republicans will like.

Sen. Nelson has drafted legislation that calls for reconstruction aid to be cut off if the Iraqis fail to meet certain political and security benchmarks. This legislation would also allow the President to waive the cutting of reconstruction aid if the President can show public justification for this aid to continue.

Nelson's proposed legislation would also call for the U.S. commander in Iraq to testify by Sept. 15 on the effectiveness of Bush's troop buildup around Baghdad.

"The Senate needs to move forward," Nelson said. "The president has signaled he will accept reasonable benchmarks."

Senators Warner and Nelson have worked successfully on Senate legislation before as part of the the "Gang of 14,". This "gang" was a group of senators who in 2005 drafted a compromise to end a Senate fight on judicial nominations.

Read more about the Senates Iraq plan at Yahoo News

Private Equity Firm Cerberus Plans to Bail Out Chrysler

2007-05-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

Cerberus has announced plans to buy a majority portion of the Chrysler business from DaimlerChrysler for $7.4 billion dollars.

DaimlerChrysler said on Monday Cerberus will receive an approximate 80 percent stake in the Chrysler group, and this skate will also include interest in Chrysler related financial services.

At the time of its founding nine years ago, DaimlerChrysler created a transatlantic merger that was worth roughly $36 billion dollars, but now Cerberus is buying into this once proud auto company at a fraction of its original net worth.

This deal has been in the work for months, and this will be the first time a US automaker has been held by a private equity group.

"Cerberus is the right strategic buyer for Chrysler, with a long-term commitment to Chrysler's growth and success. They are committed to working constructively with both union leadership and Chrysler's management team to help Chrysler realize its full potential," Chrysler President Tom LaSorda said.

At the moment, this move will not result in any job losses beyond the February announced plans of 13,000 job cuts. These job losses came on the heels of a report issued by DaimlerChrysler stating the company suffered $1.5 billion in operation losses for 2006. These losses were attributed to high fuel prices which led customers to flee their lineup of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.

This deals breaks up the mass-marketed line-up of American cars featuring
Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler that went along with Germany's premium Mercedes-Benz, luxury Maybach and Smart minicar brands.

This deal states Chrysler will be responsible for billions of dollars in pension and health care obligations resulting in a net cash outflow of 0.5 billion euros ($677 million) for the world's fifth-biggest car maker.

The German half of this automaker will, once this deal is approved by stockholders, go back to their original name of Daimler AG. Under the terms of this agreement, Daimler will still have to pony up another 650 million euros to cover long-term liabilities at Chrysler. This deal will also cut 2007's net profit by 3-4 billion euros.

"Even though I don't think there is a very strong valuation story, there is a very strong visibility story. One of the great parts of uncertainty surrounding Daimler is now not so uncertain," said Nomura analyst Michael Tyndall.

DaimlerChrysler put the Chrysler brand up for sale in February because they were dismayed over volatile earnings reports.

Bidders who went public with their intentions to buy Chrysler were Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. and Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International. Another Private equity firm, Blackstone Group, was also in the bidding for Chrysler, and it was said Blackstone was linked up with smaller buyout firm Centerbridge Partners in pursuing the bid for Chrysler.

Cerberus is a New York based investment fund that has built a massive private equity and hedge-fund practice. Wolfgang Bernhard, who helped turn Chrysler around early this decade, was hired as an adviser on this deal.

One of the keys to this deal was the company's unfunded obligations to health care related liabilities Chrysler had with the United Auto Workers ( UAW ). UAW represents factory workers at DaimlerChrysler, and these liabilities are estimated to be around $14.1 billion euros as of the end of last year. DaimlerChrysler released a statement saying Chrysler will live up to their responsibilities for this debt.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, who sits on DaimlerChrysler's supervisory board and had publicly opposed a sale to a private equity buyer, hailed the deal.

"The transaction with Cerberus is in the best interests of our UAW members, the Chrysler Group and Daimler," he said.

A main obstacle to Chrysler becoming profitable in 2008 will be their ability, or lack of ability, in ironing out a new contract with the UAW. It is believed Chrysler will be looking for a contract that reduces costs, particularly for health care, when the current contract expires in September.

"That unfunded health care really determines how much the business is worth," Nomura's Tyndall said, noting Bernhard, who used to be Chrysler's chief operating officer, was as well placed as any to have a clear view of this.

Cerberus does have some experience in the auto industry. Last year, General motors sold a 51 percent claim in their GMAC financing arm to a group of investors led by Cerberus. This deal was believed to be worth $14 billion dollars.

Read more about this bail out deal at Yahoo News

Spring Cleaning

2007-05-14T04:06:00.000-07:00

Since spring is here, I decided to do a little "spring" cleaning to my site.

After many helpful comments and suggestions on how to make my site easier to read, I have made some changes I hope will make site more enjoyable to read.

I hope you like the changes I have made.

Please keep the helpful suggestions coming because I rely on you, my faithful readers, to help me make this site a joy to read the news you need to know.

Thanks for your support and help.

Rob

US Indicates They are Willing to Discuss Iraq with Iran

2007-05-14T03:26:00.000-07:00

Bush administration officials indicated the United States is willing to dicuss Iraq, and Iraq only, with officials from Iran.

Officials from the United States released a statement on Sunday, May 13, saying the Bush administration is willing talk with officials from Tehran because US officials feel Iran is undermining the Iraqi government by exporting roadside bombs to terrorists in Iraq.

A spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney said the US is willing to listen to conversations limited to talks at the ambassador level. This statement was released after the Vice President met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said this willingness by the US to talk with Iran over security issues in Iraq is consistent with US policy and does not mean the US is taking a new position on talks with Iran.

The official news agency in Iran said the United States wants to meet with Iran in Baghdad to discuss security issues inside Iraq. Iran states this request from the US came through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran. The Swiss Embassy usually acts as an intermediary for the U.S. in the Iran.

"Iran has agreed to this (negotiation) after consultation with Iraqi officials, in order to lessen the pain of the Iraqi people, support the Iraqi government and establish security and peace in Iraq," the state-run IRNA quoted Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the foreign ministry spokesman, as saying.

McBride said the comments appeared to refer to what the U.S. has called "the Baghdad channel ... our willingness to talk to the Iranians at the ambassador level about Iraq-specific issues."

However, Ms. McBride would not confirm if this request for talks was an official request from the US government.

Another White House spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, said you could expect a meeting within the next few weeks between the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and the Iranians. Mr. Johndroe said this meeting will take place in Baghdad, and Mr. Johndroe went on to say the goal of this meeting is to get Iran to play a 'productive role' in Iraq.

While accompanying President Bush on a trip to help celebrate the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, Va., Mr. Johndroe further stated the so named "Baghdad channel" is something the US has been talking about for some time. However, Johndroe would not elaborate on whether the US actually requested to meet with officials from Iran.

Iraqi leaders have been pressuring the United States to meet with Iran because both Iran and the US hold the key to the fate of the Iraqi people.

Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, told the Associated Press ( AP ) he expects these meetings will take place in the next couple of weeks. Mr. Zebari said Baghdad was chosen as the site for these meetings because it would allow "serious, quiet and focused discussions on the responsibilities and the obligations of all to help stabilize the situation in Iraq."

Mr. Zebari said he was pleased to hear Iran was willing to meet in Baghdad with US officials.

This development came at a time when Vice-President Cheney was in Egypt trying to persuade moderate Arab nations to show more support for the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Another goal of this meeting was to curtail Iran's growing influence throughout the Middle East.

Lower level Iranian and US officials held rare talks about Iraq in March. These talks were a lead up to an international conference on Iraq that was held in Egypt this month.

Speculation of a Cabinet-level meeting during this conference never took place because neither Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice nor Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki wanted to make the first move. Both of these diplomats passed on a chance for high-level, face-to-face talks between Iran and the United States since a break in relations caused by the 1979 hostage crisis.

The only direct U.S.-Iran contact came in a casual chat between the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.

Until this spring, the administration dismissed calls for an outreach to Iran and Syria; at the Egyptian conference, Rice did sit down for a talk with Syria's top diplomat.

Zebari said he could not rule out the possibility these talks will also involve the five Iranians currently being held by US forces in Iraq. The US military claims these Iranians are suspects in a link between terrorists in Iraq and weapons being smuggled into Iraq.

Cheney was in Egypt for a short round of talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the future of Iraq. President Mubarak is a key US ally in the Mid-East, and the Vic-President was trying to shore up support about the effectiveness of the U.S. military buildup in Iraq. There is growing concern in the Arab world about just how effective the US has been in Iraq.

After these talks with the Egyptian President, Cheney plans to go back to Jordan for more talks with Jordan's King Abdullah. This weeklong trip to the Mid-East by the Vice President will also involve visits to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and to the carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Persian Gulf to rally troops.

The carrier USS John C. Stennis is currently about 150 miles off the coast of Iran. While on this carrier, the Vice-President issued a statement warning Iran that the US and their allies would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons and dominating the Mid-East.

Tehran still insists their nuclear program is for peaceful purposed only, but Washington is still 'sticking by their guns' in saying Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons.

Iraqi foregin minister Zebari said the US is trying to create crisis, panic, fear and insecurity in the region by saying Iran is building nuclear weapons. Zebari said this 'fear-mongering' is something Iraq strongly opposes.

Iran's Defense Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, was quoted as saying he warns Vice-President Cheney and other American leaders that any response by Iranian forces will be strong, swift and surprising. This statement came after he cautioned the US about use of military force against Iran.

Mr. Najajr also dismissed statements by Cheney as being those used for "psychological operations".

Read more about this possible meeting at Yahoo News

Britian Wants US, China to Change Approach on Global Warming

2007-05-14T03:19:00.000-07:00

The British envoy for climate change has asked the United States and China to change the way they approach the issue of global warming and climate change.

This appeal to the top two fossil fuel burners comes about a month before the G-8 countries gather in Germany for a planned summit to discuss a variety of issues including climate change.

Elliot Morley, speaking in Hong Kong on his way to Beijing, said all the G-8 countries must work together in creating new goals for reducing carbon emissions before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

The G-8 summit is a meeting of the worlds top economic countries, and a major discussion on global warming and climate change is set to dominate this meeting which takes place June 6-8.

The latest UN report about global warming states the world must take immediate action on climate change, or the world may suffer from severe consequences.

Morley said that last year's Stern Report, which stressed the economic cost of climate change, left the United States and China with no choice but to act.

Morley said the reason President Bush did not sign the Kyoto Pact is because the economic implications that may come from this pact are far greater than what the US can afford. Morley went on to say is what the Stern report really shows in the US cannot afford to stay idle on the issue of climate change and global warming.

Morley also said the G-8 members really need to get the US on board with the Kyoto Protocol, and that China really needs to get involved also if any progress is going to be made.

Morley feels a big change in US policy towards global warming is inevitable after the 2008 Presidential elections, but he thinks President Bush is starting to come around on the serious issue of US involvement in helping reduce greenhouse gases.

As part of his Asian trip, Mr. Morely is scheduled to meet with the Chinese parliament to discuss how China should be taking advantage of the opportunity presented by the rapid growth of China's economy.

Morley said the pace and scale of China's economic growth is gigantic, and because of this huge growth China needs to take advantage of building a strong economy based on the latest technology. Mr. Morley does not feel China is 'seizing the moment' when it comes to using technological advances to grow their economy while reducing carbon emissions at the same time.

However he said that China, which is expected to soon overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, was not "adverse" to tackling climate change.

During a speech organized by the Civic Exchange think-tank and the British Consulate-General, Mr. Morley said Gordon Brown, who is expected to succeed Blair as premier after the G8 meeting, plans to pursue environmental issues that will help Britain reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The G-8 summit meeting includes representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Britain and the United States. Five other countries, including China and India, were also invited to take part in this summit.

Read more about this British appeal at Yahoo News

A City in Texas Passes Anti-Immigration Law

2007-05-13T02:29:00.000-07:00

Voters in a Dallas suburb became the first in the nation prohibiting landlords from renting to illegal immigrants.

This vote on Saturday was approved by a 68-32 margin, but these final results have not been made official.

This was the first public vote for local government legislation that will crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Tim O'Hare, a City Council member who was the ordinance's lead proponent, said he hopes this measure will send a clear signal to the 'do-nothing' Congress in the Nations Capitol that something needs to be done about the out-of-control influx of illegal immigrants.

The legislation approved by voters, with some exceptions, requires landlords to verify renters are legal US citizens, or legal immigrants, before renting, or leasing, to anyone. Landlords who break this ordinance may be subjected to a misdemeanor charge punishable by a fine of up to $500.

Council members in Farmers Branch approved this measure back in November, but this legislation had to be revised in January to include exemptions for minors, seniors and some families with a mix of legal residents and illegal immigrants.

Farmers Branch has become the site of protests and angry confrontations, and opponents of the regulation gathered enough signatures to force the city to put the measure on the municipal election ballot.

Opponents are all ready planning to fight this ordinance in court, and these opponents are going to seek a restraining order to prevent the city from enforcing this approved measure.

The city was already facing four lawsuits brought by civil rights groups, residents, property owners and businesses who contend the ordinance discriminates and that it places landlords in the precarious position of acting as federal immigration officers. Their attorneys say the ordinance attempts to regulate immigration, a duty that is exclusively the federal government's. One lawsuit also alleges the council violated the state open meetings act when deciding on the ordinance.

Mr. O'Hare feels the city's economy and quality of life will improve once the illegal immigrants are kept out of the city.

Nationwide, more than 90 local governments have proposed, passed or rejected laws that seek to prohibit landlords from leasing to illegal immigrant. Other measures being taken by local governments include penalizing businesses that employ illegal immigrants, and training police to enforce immigration laws.

Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute office at New York University School of Law, said most of these measures taken by local governments usually fail the constitutional test.

"There is significant frustration, so that's what's driving it," Chishti said. "But the simple fact is they cannot do too much other than impress upon the Congress the need for immigration reform."

Illegal immigration is becoming a serious concern around the country, and it is time for the nation's leaders take a stand before the illegal immigration confrontation turns more violent and deadly.

Read more about this hot button issue at Yahoo News

Hillary Clinton States Bush Governs for a Select Few

2007-05-13T01:46:00.000-07:00

In a speech given on Saturday, Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said for the last six years President Bush has been operating a "government of the few, for the few and by the few."

Sen. Clinton said middle class families have been invisible to the President over the last six years, and she promised to be a President who once again sets goals for all people in America.

Democrats attending the Ohio state party's annual dinner gave a rousing cheer when the senator from New York asked, "Are you ready to end the war in Iraq and restore America's reputation around the world?"

Since 1900, only two Democrats have won the White House without winning Ohio, and there has never been a Republican who has been elected President without having the Buckeye state vote for them.

In a tightly called 2004 race, Ohio gave President Bush the votes required in winning re-election over Sen. John Kerry. However, Democrats are feeling a new sense of optimism that Ohio will once again vote for them as they did twice for former President Bill Clinton.

For the first time in sixteen years, a Democrat was elected as Governor of Ohio last November. Part of the reason a Democrat became Governor of Ohio was because of voter backlash caused by a state government investment scandal. This scandal led to Democrats also gaining three other statewide offices that were long held by Republicans.

Sen. Clinton's speech Saturday came in front of supporters willing to shell out $150 per plate that drew 3,000 people willing to hear another round of Bush bashing from the former first lady. This speech raised $550,000, after expenses, for the Democratic party. Chris Redfern, the Ohio Democratic Party chairman, said this is the most money ever raised by this annual dinner.

Sen. Clinton made a 'promise of gold for everyone' by saying when she is elected President there would be universal health care and affordable college for everyone. Sen. Clinton also promised a 'chicken in every pot' by saying she will also lead the charge in developing alternative sources of energy, and her administration would hire more qualified people for government jobs.

At the moment, Sen. Clinton is the front-runner in Ohio, and nationwide, for the Democratic nomination as President for 2008.

Earlier in the day, Clinton made a stop in South Carolina where she gave the commencement address at historically black Claflin University. During this speech, Clinton spoke about making college more affordable. She also gave a thumbs-up to her main challenger, Sen. Barack Obama, while making note of Clafin University's role in the '60's demonstrations.

"Think about the students from this university who braved tear gas and water hoses and beatings and bullets to protest the injustice of segregation and usher in a new era of equality and never lived to see the day of an African-American man running for president," Clinton told the crowd of around 4,000 at the college.

Sen. Clinton told the 320 graduating students they represented a minority who were able to afford the high cost of obtaining a college degree. She also went on to say many students and hardworking parents see their college hopes sink when they see the price tag that goes along with attending college.

Hillary went on to say government needs to play a larger role to ensure students who attend college are able to complete the years required to gain the degree of their choice. Sen. Clinton alluded to the fact that fewer than half the students who start college will actually complete their course studies.

"We need to begin by making college more affordable and accessible," she said. "I think we need to take on the student loan industry and send a clear message they will be held accountable for the way they treat and mistreat students and families."

Sen. Clinton is pushing a "student borrower bill of rights" that will set student loan payments at a percentage of income causing fees and interest rates on these loans to be reasonably affordable. Hillary went on to say students, and their parents, should not be caught in the 'bait-and-switch' game where one program is promised to these students, but then a totally different program is delivered.

Read more about Shillary at Yahoo News

Iraqi Officials Want US Troops to Stay

2007-05-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

Iraqi diplomats are being sent to the United States this week to help gain support from the Democratic controlled Congress that will allow all US troops to remain in Iraq a little while longer.

Hoping one-on-one meetings with Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress will lead to US troops sticking around in Iraq, Baghdad is dispatching diplomats to the United States for talks on the continued role of US military personnel in this war torn country.

The Iraqi diplomats are planning on meeting with members of both the Republican and Democrat parties, but Iraqi officials are hoping to meeting with Congressional members that are the most influential in the Iraq war debate.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh met on Thursday with more than 30 House Republicans and more than a dozen Senators just hours before the House voted to place limits on funding US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among those willing to meet with Minister Saleh were Senate leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., John Warner,R-Va., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

After meeting with Saleh,Iraqi Ambassador Samir Shakir al-Sumaidaie and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., over lunch, Sen. Norm Coleman, R-MN, issued a statement saying Iraqi officials realized Americans are starting to lose patience with progress being made in Iraq.

Iraqi lobbying efforts are not alone when it comes to applying pressure in the Nations Capitol over this boiler plate issue.

Sen. Clinton saw it has a good sign that some House Republicans met with President Bush to express their displeasure over how the war is adversely affecting the Republican party.

In an interview Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program with Joe Scarborough, Presidential hopeful Clinton said the Republicans who met with the President told him point blank that a change of course is needed in Iraq. Sen. Clinton feels Bush is still not ready to reverse course. Clinton went on to say that whatever the mission was in Iraq it appears the mission was either accomplished or finished, so if there are any remaining US interests in Iraq then these interests need to be spelled out.

Baghdad's ability to persuade Congressional members like Coleman and Chambliss is vital if the Iraqi government truly wants US troops to remain in Iraq. Sen. Coleman said he has started to become very doubtful of the President's plan to send additional troops to Iraq, and Coleman also said patience for the war is starting to wear thin.

Along with Coleman and Chambliss, Sen. John Sununu,R-N.H., are up for re-election next year, and these Senators are facing voters who are growing tired of a war were more than 3,300 US troops have been killed. All three Senators still decided to meet separately with Saleh to discuss Americas continued involvement in Iraq despite this growing concern among their constituents.

While most Republicans are still reluctant to pull their support from President Bush, some Republicans say the President's 'surge plan' will have until September to show that progress is being made in getting Iraq under control. If it does not look like progress is being made, more Republicans may join the ranks of calling for a different approach in handling the Iraq crisis.

Saleh is a Kurdish politician highly regarded by U.S. officials, speaks impeccable English, knows time is running out on continued US support of their troops in Iraq. He came to the Captiol so he could speak directly to American politicians about the extreme importance of success in Iraq.

"Iraq is a central battleground in this historic conflict" against terrorism, he said in a brief interview after meeting with Reid, the Senate majority leader.

The trip by Saleh to the US came on the heels of a trip made by Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, along with three other senior advisers. Al-Rubaie's trip to Washington was reported by the New York Times on Tuesday, but this trip did not garner much national interest in the United States.

With Congress ready to send the President another troop funding bill that is most likely going to set benchmarks for the Iraqi government, there is no hiding the fact these visits by Iraqi officials are meant to gain support for a continued presence of US troops in Iraq.

The question still remaining is what happens if the Iraqi government misses a benchmark or two? Will US troops be pulled from Iraq, or will the troops stay because only a few benchmarks were missed.

Senate leader Harry Reid has all ready stated publicly the US has lost the war in Iraq, and this means most Democrats want the troops out of Iraq to avoid further loses in a failed cause. Some Republicans say they still do not want to redeploy troops, but these Republicans are willing to withhold more than $5 billion in foreign aid to Iraq.

Even with the House passing a troop funding bill that would only last until July, many feel this bill will not pass the Senate unless changes are made to the language contained within this bill.

What is making matters worse in Iraq is a planned 'summer vacation' of the Iraqi parliment.

"Our armed forces are up to 150,000 troops; we're over $600 billion appropriated for this, lost 3,300 lives, 25,000 wounded fellow citizens. ... And the Iraqi answer? We're taking a summer off. Goin' fishing," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.

Minister Saleh said nothing has been decided about the 2 month vacation for parliament, but he thinks Iraqi lawmakers may be willing to cut this vacation short by a month. Saleh stressed the importance Iraqis place on being independent, and that Iraqis do not take kindly to being told when, and how long, they can recess from parliament.

Democrats viewed these meeting as beneficial because they were able to vent their frustrations over the Iraq war directly to representatives of the Iraqi government.

Reid's spokesman Jim Manley said the senator told Saleh that "U.S. patience, blood and treasure were not unlimited and that the Congress would be taking a more decisive role in the coming weeks and months."

Minister Saleh said he did understand the point Senator Reid was making, and Saleh said he would deliver this message to the Iraqi cabinet on Monday.

Read more about the Iraqi's visit at Yahoo News

Defiant House Passes Iraq Funding Bill

2007-05-11T02:36:00.000-07:00

Despite warnings from President Bush, the US House of Representatives passed a bill which provides troop funding for only three months, and there is not a guarantee that future funding will be approved.

The Democratic controlled House, by a vote of 221-205, passed this troop funding bill even though President Bush has promised to veto any troop funding bill that limits his power as Commander in Chief of the Armed forces as outlined in the US Constitution.

This bill calls for $42.8 billion dollars in additional funding for on-going support of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because the Democrats are doing anything they can possibly think of, except actually working with President Bush, to end the war in Iraq, this bill also calls for an Iraq war progress review in July before an additional $52.8 billion is released.

After the war progress review is completed in July, lawmakers would then debate if further US involvement in Iraq is warranted, or if it is time for the troops to come home before their mission is finished.

Bush wants the nearly $100 billion up front and without conditions. "I'll veto the bill if it's this haphazard, piecemeal funding," Bush said earlier in the day.

This bill now moves to the Senate were it is expected that Senate lawmakers will try to 'clean-up' this bill so President Bush does not have to veto a troop funding bill for the second time. At this time, it does appear as though Senators are willing to give the President his $100 billion in funding upfront. However, what is left to be seen is what type, if any, of benchmarks the Senate will attach to this bill before passing to the President.

President Bush said he is willing to use benchmarks to measure progress in Iraq, but the President, and Republican Senators, did not go into details about what these benchmarks would look like.

Arguing for the House's latest war-funding plan, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said, "The president of the United States himself has stated that our commitment in Iraq is not open ended. That's what this legislation says."

During the daylong debate that showed how deep the divisions are about the war in Iraq, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa, said, "We need to get our troops out of the killing zone."

Democrats continued to praise the efforts of US troops, but Democrats say Bush has totally mangled the war effort because he failed to come up with a successful political strategy for Baghdad.

Rep. Murtha said an example of this mismanagement by Bush is Iraq's oil, electricity production, steep price inflation,high unemployment rates, and potable water levels are below pre-war levels than when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ruled.

Murtha went on to say 3,381 US troops have been killed, and over 24,000 troops have been injured. Democrats have even gone so far as to call the situation in Iraq a civil war because the Iraqi's have been suffering worse losses because of sectarian strife.

Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, countered that Democrats' reluctance to fully fund the troops "clearly calls into question their commitment to men and women in uniform."

Staunch anti-war Democrats on Thursday pushed for a complete withdrawal of combat troops by early 2008. While they lost on a 255-171 vote, backers said the vote demonstrated a sizable portion of the House wants to end the unpopular war

Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent a letter to Congress stating the 2-step approach to funding favored by Democrats will cause major disruptions to the effective and efficient operation of military personnel. This letter also said continued fighting over troop funding "negatively impacts our forces in the field" by delaying mine-resistant vehicles and other combat equipment.

Most Republicans have been siding with President Bush on the troop funding debate, but some are starting to put the President on notice that if the situation in Iraq does not show significant improvement by September or October; then some of these Republicans may end their support for Bush on this issue.

The planned 'summer vacation' by the Iraqi parliament has particularly troubled US lawmakers because US troops will still be putting their lives on the line in the 'hot' zone while these Iraqi lawmakers take a break.

Read more about the Defiant Democrats at Yahoo News

Iran More Than Willing to Help US Exit Iraq

2007-05-10T02:07:00.000-07:00

Abbas Araghchi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, said on Wednesday that Iran is willing to help the United States develop an exit strategy from Iran.

During an interview with the Financial Times, Abbas Araghchi said Iran would be willing to work together in helping the US in developing a plan that would allow the US to leave Iraq.

Araghchi also denied allegations from the US that Iran is aiding insurgents in Iraq by supplying the insurgents with weapons. Mr. Araghchi went on to say there is no amount of pressure great enough that would force Iran to stop their nuclear program.

Araghchi told the Financial Times the US led invasion of Iraq was a total disaster, and that the US should not allow their withdrawal to become a total disaster also.

In a strange turn of events, Mr. Araghchi did kind of side with President Bush in saying that an immediate withdrawal of foreign forces from Iraq would probably lead to chaos and civil war. But, Mr. Araghchi did say some sort of withdrawal plan needs to be developed. Mr. Araghchi does think the US presence in Iraq is part of the cause for so much civil unrest and that Iraq is "suffering a vicious cycle."

Araghchi said this vicious cycle is one where one side is claiming to be in Iraq because of the 'war on terror' while the other side claims to be in Iraq because they are fighting foreign occupiers.

Mr. Araghchi answered allegations about Iran supplying weapons and aid to the insurgents in Iraq by saying the US should stop blaming others for the problems they created.

Mr. Araghchi went on to say the opposite is true about the flow of weapons between Iraq and Iran. Araghchi said that by reading the crime reports in Iranian newspapers you can see more weapons are coming into Iran from Iraq inside of the other way around.

Mr. Araghchi also said he feels the influx of weapons into Iran has led terrorists and criminals into viewing Iran has a possible 'target of opportunity'.

And this also makes the Iranian nuclear program even more of an issue because if Iran does fall into, if they are not all ready, the wrong hands, then there may be a real possibility criminals and terrorists will have access the necessary supplies needed to make 'weapons of mass destruction'.

Read more about Iran on Yahoo News

Hurricane Season Arrives Early This Year

2007-05-10T01:59:00.000-07:00

The Atlantic hurricane season got off to an early start this year with the first named storm, Andrea, of the season was announced on Wednesday.

The normal start for the Atlantic hurricane season in June 1st, but Floridians, all ready suffering from wildfires in the Northern part of the state, were treated to a preview of what may be a long and busy 2007 hurricane season.

Subtropical storm Andrea was seen forming off the coast of Florida on Wednesday, but it is expected this first named storm of the 2007 hurricane season is not expected to bring much damage. However, any water this system brings to North Florida and South Georgia will be a welcome site because of the raging wildfires in this region.

Unlike Katrina in 2005, and the devastating hurricanes of 2004, Andrea did not have the tropical cyclone power of these other hurricanes.

Because the Atlantic waters are still cooler than normal for ideal hurricane conditions, Andrea is lacking the warm core and organized thunderstorms that go with the formation of a hurricane.

A 2am bulletin released on May 10 by the national hurricane center in Miami states Andrea is starting basically stationary and still poor organized. Andrea is located about 135 miles southeast of Savannah, Ga and 115 miles northeast of Daytona Beach, Fl. This means Andrea is roughly in the area of the Jacksonville, Fl coastline.

Subtropical storm Andrea was only packing sustained winds of 45 miles per hour, and it is expected these winds will not increase. So much for getting a day off from work!!

The Atlantic hurricane season really does not begin to percolate until August when the Atlantic has had a chance to warm up to about 80 degrees or so.

Weather forecaster AccuWeather.com predicted on Tuesday that 13 or 14 tropical storms or hurricanes would form in the Atlantic this year and six or seven could hit the United States, with the Gulf Coast and Gulf of Mexico oil installations at high risk.

The Colorado State University team under forecast pioneer William Gray predicted 17 storms, of which nine would become hurricanes, and London-based Tropical Storm Risk similarly predicted 16.7 storms and 9.2 hurricanes.

Even if either of these predictions are true, the 2007 season would be considered mild when compared to 2005 when a record 28 storms formed in the Atlantic.

Forecasters had predicted 2006 would also be a heavy hurricane season, but only 10 named storms formed, and none of these storms turned into hurricanes that threatened the United States.

For now, Florida and Georgia are happy to receive the additional rain brought by Andrea to an area that is suffering from severe drought and wildfires.

Read more about Andrea at Yahoo News

Chevron May Admit to Saddam Kickback Scheme

2007-05-09T02:09:00.000-07:00

Chevron is ready to announce that it should have known that kickbacks were being paid to Iraq under the U.N. sanctioned food for oil program.

Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is set to report that U.S. oil company, Chevron, is ready to come clean concern payment they made for Iraqi oil they bought that was part of the UN food for Iraqi oil program.

These unnamed WSJ sources said negotiations are still on going about the settlement amount Chevron is going to pay because of these kickback payments, but it appears the fine is going to be in the neighborhood of $25-30 million dollars. If this payment amount is true, then this payment will be the highest paid by a US company in connection with the UN food for oil scandal.

Pundits speculate the UN food for oil scandal is one reason given as to why countries such as France and Russia were reluctant to help the US lead coalition dethrone Saddam Hussein.

President Bill Clinton put the food for oil program into play in 1995 because of concerns that the Iraqi people were suffering unfairly because of the sanctions imposed on Iraq because of Saddam Hussein’s ill-advised plan of invading Kuwait.

This program ended in 2003 because of the US lead coalition to invade Iraq because of Saddam’s unwillingness to follow UN guidelines that called for inspection of Iraqi weapons.

As the program food for oil program ended, there were revelations of corruption involving the funds.

Read more about his issue at CNN Money

Iran May Face Increased Sanctions Over Their Nuclear Power Program

2007-05-09T02:02:00.000-07:00

The worlds major powers were set to meet on Wednesday to discuss possible tougher UN sanctions against Iran over their nuclear power program.

The western world thinks the Iranian uranium enrichment program is not really a program designed to bring more energy to the people of Iran. Instead, these leaders of the western world feel this program is just a disguise for an Iranian program to build nuclear weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a statement on Tuesday saying President George W. Bush has not ruled out a possible military option against Iran because of their uranium enrichment program. But, the President has left on the table a commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran over their nuclear program.

Iran issued a statement early on Wednesday saying they are not going to give up on their nuclear program because this program is going to supply much need electricity to the Iranian people. Iran feels their nuclear program is beneficial to their people because it will allow them to use less oil at home, and this means Iran will be able to export more oil to countries around the world.

Iran is all ready facing limited UN sanctions over their refusal to freeze work on their nuclear program. More Iranian banks may face black listing if the UN does decide to increase sanctions.

The five permanent members of the UN security council-the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China plan to send political advisers to discuss increasing sanctions against Iran during the upcoming G-8 summit meeting to be held this June in Germany. Germany has also been invited to participate in these discussions. China has indicated they will be participating by phone.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns will represent the United States at the talks where delegates will discuss a recent meeting between European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

NOT BACKING DOWN

Mr. Solana said his meeting with Iranian negotiator Larijani was difficult because Iran has no intention of backing down from their nuclear power program.

An unnamed official from one of the G-8 countries said a current draft statement on nuclear non-proliferation is awaiting approval from members of the G8 group of leading industrialized nations. This drafted statement currently calls for more pressure to be put on Iran if Iran continues to remain defiant about halting their uranium enrichment program.

This unnamed official went on to say this statement will say the G-8 countries will support further sanctions against Iran if Iran does not comply with their obligations.

The G-8 countries include United States, Russia, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Japan. Germany is serving as the current president of the G-8 countries.

Several diplomats said the major power countries are satisfied with the way current sanctions against Iran are working. These diplomats also feel Iran is starting to worry about the economic pressures being put on their country.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a statement on Wednesday that Iran was not worried at all about the impacts the current sanctions are having on Iran. In an interview with the Financial Times, Araghchi said there are currently two options available to Iran and the Western World--confrontation and cooperation. Agaghchi said that if the Western World prefers confrontation, then lets get together and have at it.

So far, there has been three UN resolutions dealing with the Iranian nuclear program. Two of these resolutions have dealt with sanctions against Iran, but these resolutions have only led to Iran picking up the pace of their peaceful activities. Iran has also become less cooperative when it comes to having contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Read more about possilbe increased Iranian sanctions at Yahoo News

Astronomers Watch as Star Explodes

2007-05-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

Drawing oohs and aahs from astronomers that were peering through telescopes, a faraway star explodes and sets off one of he brightest supernovae ever seen.

This discovery was announced Monday by NASA as a lucky handful of astronomers viewed fuzzy remnants of this spectacular exploding star. This explosion was first discovered last fall, and it has scientists wondering if a similar celestial light show may one day light up the skies closer to Earth.

Astronomers used a variety of terrestrial based and spaced based telescopes in discovering this huge exploding star astronomers believe glowed roughly five times brighter than any other supernovae seen before.

Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, was the team leader of this group of astronomers that viewed the remnants of this giant star which was discovered last September by a graduate student in Texas.

"This one is way above anything else," Smith told The Associated Press. "It's really astonishing."

Smith said this star, SN2006gy, was freakishly massive because this star's mass was about 150 times the mass of our sun. Smith also said that because of how massive this star was, the resulting supernova was a special one that has never been seen before.

Unlike other stars that become black holes after they explode, the observations from the Chandra X-ray telescope indicate this giant star did not become a black hole which meant star SN2006gy actually skipped a step in the death of a star. So far, astronomers have not given an explanation as to way this star was able to skip this step by not becoming a black hole.

Most exploding stars have their brightness peaked for a couple of weeks before exploding, but star SN2006gy shone at its peak brightness for 70 days. Nathan Smith also said this star was shining at levels higher than other supernovae for several months prior to its explosion.

Star SN2006gy is located in a distant galaxy, and is about 240 million light years from Earth. Smith said another star similar to SN2006gy is only about 44 million light years away, and this star has the possibility to blow the same way. Smith thinks this star may blow any day or maybe even 50,000 years from now.

University of California at Berkeley astronomer David Pooley said if this closer star does explode in the near future; this explosion would not effect Earth. However; Pooley said the light given off by this explosion would be so bright that people would be able to read by the light of this star at night without the aid of artificial light. Pooley went on to say that only people in the Southern Hemisphere would be able to view this phenomenon.

Read more about this exploding star in Yahoo News

Will Switching to Organic Food Help the Poor?

2007-05-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

United Nations researchers told a conference on Saturday that a large scale shift to organic food will not only help the environment; the switch may also help feed the poor.

Even though organic food is still considered a 'luxury' that only wealthy people can afford on a daily basis, a large scale global shift to organic food may help in the fight against worldwide hunger.

Researchers found that the initial yield of crops would drop roughly 50 percent when industrialized, conventional agricultures use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are converted to more organic fertilizers. These researchers said this drop in crop production usually evens out over time, but this is one reason the push to a more wider use of organic farming has been placed on the sideline.

Researchers in Denmark discovered that the sub-Saharan Africa food supply would not be overly harmed if half of the land used for agriculture in Europe and North America were switched to organic agriculture by the year 2020.

This study found that while food production would fall, and the price of food would increase, these negative results could be off-set by land improvements and other benefits.

Niels Halberg, a senior scientist at the Danish Research Center for Organic Food and Farming, spoke at the the U.N. conference on "Organic Agriculture and Food Security", about how converting the sub-Saharan Africa farms to organic production could possibly help the hungry people in this region because they would have to rely less on importing foods from other countries.

This study indicates that if farmers went back to the old, traditional ways of farming; these farmers would save money and they would be able to grow more diverse crops because they would not have to purchase expensive chemicals and fertilizers for their fields. The report for this study went on to say that once a farmer is able to certify his crop as organic; this means the farmer would also be able to export any surplus crops for premium prices.

The researchers plugged in data on projected crop yields and commodity prices until 2020 to create models for the most optimistic and conservative outlooks.

Alexander Mueller, assistant director-general of the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, praised this report because projections indicate the number of people that will go hungry in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow. Mr. Mueller went on to say that because the effects of climate change are mostly likely going to hurt the world's poorest, and hungriest, people; a shift to organic farming would be a benefit in helping these people.

Nadia El-Hage Scialabba, an FAO official who organized the conference, said other studies show that organic farming may be able to produce enough food per capita to feed the current population of the world.

Ms. Scialabba said some models do indicate organic agriculture has the potential to secure a global food supply just as current chemical and pesticide farming does today, but organic farming would have a much lower impact on the environment.

Ms. Scialabba was quick to point out these studies were only economic models. Ms. Scialabba also said that organic farming is now used on a commercial level in 120 countries, and this type of farming represented a $40 billion dollar market last year.

One such study, by the University of Michigan, found that a global shift to organic agriculture would yield at least 2,641 kilocalories per person per day, just under the world's current production of 2,786, and as many as 4,381 kilocalories per person per day, researchers reported. A kilocalorie is one "large" calorie and is known as the "nutritionist's calorie."

The definition of organic farming, as defined by the United Nations, is "holistic" farming that avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, reduces pollution, and increases the health of plants, animals and people.

Read more about this issue at Yahoo News

On the Campaign Trail: Clinton and Obama Attack Bush Over Katrina

2007-05-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both made pledges of more federal aid to victims of hurricane Katrina during campaign stops in Louisiana.

These two Democratic Presidential hopefuls made speeches in front of the National Conference of Black Mayors on Saturday were they both took shots at the Bush administration's foreign and domestic policies of the last six years.

Sen. Clinton told these conference members how shocked and appalled she was to see people on rooftops begging to be rescued from the flooding caused by Katrina. Sen. Clinton said the Bush response to this disaster was complete incompetence.

In a morning speech that was punctuated with applause, Sen. Clinton went on to say that is a great injustice when our own American people are denied required resources, but she said this should come as no surprise since most Americans are invisible to President Bush.

Sen. Obama gave a speech later in the day that had to be moved to a larger venue than the one used by Clinton during the morning. Organizers of this conference said the venue change was necessitated by a much higher interest amongst reporters and conference members in hearing Sen. Obama speak.

Sen. Barack Obama noted the size of his crowd was much bigger because people are yearning for governmental change. This huge crowd gave Sen. Obama standing ovations throughout his speech.

During his speech Sen. Obama noted how New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been going through so much lately. However, during her speech, Sen. Clinton did not mention the name of the New Orleans mayor once when speaking about the challenges facing mayors.

Sen. Obama said the federal government should invest roughly $250 million for schools in New Orleans because these schools were neglected even before Katrina hit the area. Sen. Obama said that not only should the federal government be cleaning up the mess left by Katrina, but the federal government also has the responsibilty of cleaning up the mess that was in New Orleans prior to this disater.

Sen. Obama also mentioned that only 16 votes are required to override any Bush veto on Iraq, and that there is a certain Republican Senator from Louisiana who needs to change his vote. Sen. Obama was referring to Sen. David Vitter because the other Senator from Louisiana is a Democrat.

Of course Sen. Obama must have been speaking hypothetically because the vote of Sen. Vitter is really a moot point since the House of Representative has yet to override any Bush veto on Iraq funding.

The Bush administration pointed out that over $110 billion has been earmarked for rebuilding the Gulf Coast area that was devastated by Katrina in August of 2005. However, because of continued finger pointing amongst federal, state and local officials, including those in New Orleans, the pace of recovery has been slowed down.

Amber Wilkerson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said that while the Bush administration was focused on, and offering solutions, to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, Sen. Clinton was off pandering and making the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort a political issue.

Even though a judge issued an order against a Louisiana State University student to be held on a million dollar bond because of a death threat this student made against Sen. Clinton, it appeared no additional security was made for this event. It should be noted that Sens. Clinton and Obama all ready have Secret Service security wherever they go.

Sen. Obama also said to boggles the mind that the 10 percent match of FEMA ( Federal Emergency Management Administration ) money has not been waived for the Katrina relief effort as it was for the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and for hurricanes which have hit Florida.

Read more about Clinton and Obama at Yahoo News

Dozens of People in Panama Killed by Medicine Traced to China

2007-05-06T04:39:00.000-07:00

A New York Times report indicates a counterfeit chemical found in medicines used by humans killed up to a dozen people in Panama.

The Sunday edition of the New York Times reports that interviews and records show a Chinese company exported glycerin that was 99.5 percent pure which makes it deadly to the human body.

The Times reports states the source of this poison was hidden by Spanish and Panamanian middlemen who removed the suppliers names from shipping documents. The practice of removing names from shipping documents is used in order for distributors to continue business with certain companies.

The Panamanian health agency used this product to produce medicines unaware of the fact they were using diethylene glycol. Diethylene glycol, a chemical cousin of antifreeze, may cause kidney and neurological damage when ingested.

This report by the Times indicates that investigators in four countries were able to verify Taixing Glycerine Factory was the maker of this deadly counterfeit chemical. These investigators were able to trace down the company's certificate showing this glycerin shipment was 99.5 percent pure.

The sale of this poisonous syrup was brokered by a state owned business in Beijing. This sale then went to middlemen in Barcelona, Spain before reaching its final destination in Panama.

So far no one in China has been charged with these deaths in Panama. Chinese officials say their investigation indicates testing done on the product from Taixing Glycerine Factory found the suspected product was free of glycerin. A spokesperson for the Chinese drug agency also said Taixing Glycerine Factory has not broken any law.

Last year, Taixing Glycerine Factory spokesman Wan Qigang told the New York Times that only industrial use glycerine is made at the factory. Wan denied to answer any further questions from a Times reporter when this reported pointed out the website for Taixing Glycerine Factory shows an ad for 99.5 percent pure glycerine.

The safety of Chinese exports is coming under intense scrutiny lately because of concerns about tainted pet food that was traced back to an ingredient made in China. The Chinese industrial chemical, melamine, is being linked to an unknown number of cat and dogs deaths that have led to the recalling of more than 100 brands of pet food.

Read more about Chinese exports at Yahoo News

TSA Looses Employee Data Hard Drive

2007-05-05T02:48:00.000-07:00

The Transportation Security Agency has misplaced a hard drive that contains the data for approximately 100,000 employees. Included in this data was the employees Social Security Numbers, payroll information, and banking data.

TSA authorities discovered on Thursday that a portable hard drive containing employee information was missing from a controlled area at TSA headquarters. TSA chief, Kip Hawley, sent a letter to employees on Friday apologizing for losing their information, and he promised to give employees a year of free credit monitoring services.

The AP was able to obtain a copy of the letter Kip sent to employees where Mr.Hawley apologized for any inconvenience or concern employees had when hearing their personal data may have been compromised. This letter went on to say TSA does not believe any unauthorized person is using this information, but TSA wanted to bring this issue to the employees attention so the employees would be alert to any breaches in their personal security.

As of this writing, TSA officials still do not know if this data was stolen or simply misplaced, but the TSA has asked the FBI and the Secret Service to investigate this matter. TSA officials also said that any person who was found to be in violation of the agency's data-protection policies would be fired.

The portable hard drive that was lost contained the information of employees who worked for the Department of Homeland Security from January 2002 until August 2005. The TSA is a division within the department of Homeland Security that employs about 50,000 people. The TSA is also the agency that is responsible for the security of the U.S. transportation systems that include railroad stations and airports.

"It's seems like there's a problem with security inside Homeland Security and that makes no sense," said James Slade, a TSA screener and the executive vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union chapter at John F. Kennedy International Airport. "That's scary. That's my identity. And now who has a hold of it? So many things go on in your mind."

The TSA also posted a bulletin on their website informing people of this security breach, and directing people to contact them with any information they may have on this theft.

It is also worth noting that Democrats wasted no time in making this security breach at a Homeland Security division into a political issue.

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee,D-Texas, is a member of the House Homeland Security subcommittee whose task it is to oversea the TSA. Ms. Jackson has promised to hold hearings on this breach of confidential employee information because the TSA is charged with controlling security for buildings associated with the Homeland Security Department.

House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss, called this loss of information a terrible and unfortunate blow to an agency that all ready suffers from 'low' morale.

This is not the first time a government agency has lost critical data. Last year, a laptop that held data on roughly 26.5 million military personnel was stolen from the home of an employee working in the Veterans Administration Department. Law enforcement officials were able to recover this laptop, and the FBI said the information contained in this laptop was not compromised.

Read more at Yahoo News

Top U.S. Intelligence Analysts to Study Climate Change

2007-05-05T02:38:00.000-07:00

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a provision allowing part of the budget for spy programs to be used for studying climate change.

The House Intelligence Committee will require the National Intelligence Council to produce a report that specifically deals with the issue of climate change, but the Democrats are looking for even more to be done.

The House is planning to start debate on this proposed bill next week. The bill being proposed states intelligence analysts must produce a report which looks at the political, social, agricultural and economic risks associated with climate change over the next 30 years.

The Republican minority in the House rejected this plan because they feel there are more pressing issues for the intelligence community to study besides climate change.

Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the Office of the National Intelligence Director, said the intelligence community has all ready begun a study of the implications of climate change as it relates to U.S. national security plans. Feinstein went on to say the intelligence community performs various studies and scenarios that involve national security, and this includes possible security issues surrounding global climate change.

Another intelligence community official said, under the blanket of anonymity, that he could not go into details on exactly what the intelligence community's current study regarding climate change revolves around because this is best left up to the scientists.

Among questions that some are asking: Will drought and weather changes create mass migrations that could threaten governments? Will U.S. military bases be affected by rising sea levels?

It is been long standing policy within the intelligence community to perform studies that involve the effects of social and environmental issues as they relate to the security of the U.S. These topics of research include issues such as scarce resources, disease, mass migrations and national disasters.

In 2002, there was a National Intelligence Estimate on the next wave of HIV/AIDS; in 2004, one on the geopolitics of energy.

But as with any issue, debate about how the intelligence agency should, or should not, be used in studying climate change and its possible effects on U.S. national security was split along party lines.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mi, is the top ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, and he feels the Democrats have their priorities in the wrong order on this issue. Mr. Hoekstra wonders whether having the intelligence community perform a study on climate change would divert much needed resources from other more pressing security issues. Mr. Hoekstra went on to say that Republicans would like to use the intelligence community to work on studying terrorists, rogue nations and U.S. enemies.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif, went even further by saying the U.S. should not be involved in 'environmental spying'. Mr. Issa said valuable spy satellites and human resources should not be used on something an undefined as climate change.

The chairman of the House Intelligence committee, Rep. Silvestre Reyes( D-Texas), does not feel the proposed bill is doing a disservice to the intelligence community. Mr. Reyes feels climate change is a serious issue that has a direct impact on U.S. security interest so this issue does fall within the scope of duties for the intelligence community.

One Democratic aide was allowed to speak on this issue, but only if his identity was kept a secret. This aide then went on to say most of the data for this study could be obtained from unclassified documents, open sources, and data all ready in the governments possession. This unidentified aide went on to say the debate on this issue surrounds a report from 11 top-ranking retired military officials who found that climate change does present a serious threat to national security that could raise global tensions and affect the U.S. and military operations.

Retired Army Gen. Gordon Sullivan, chairman of a military advisory board that drafted the report, said the review avoided politics by looking at the possible security implications of climate change, not examining the science behind it.

Gen. Sullivan said the believes there is a trend suggesting the U.S. should use scholarship which relates to national security so that we can better understand how implications of severe climate change will have on the security of the U.S.

The report prepared by Gen. Sullivan and his group reviewed how climate change could lead to social destabilization, the ability to have access to food and water, severe weather, rising sea levels, and other climate changes that may cause people to migrate to other areas of the world which could then lead to a rise in global tensions.

Gen. Sullivan concluded by saying that many countries which look stable today may be incapable of dealing with the stresses that climate change may bring, and this in turn may lead to extremism because of a governments inability to manage the changes brought by global climate changes.

Read more about this issue at Yahoo News

Extremists Find the Web a Valuable Tool

2007-05-03T02:14:00.000-07:00

A recent report sent to Congress indicates extremists groups are finding the keyboard to be almost as valuable as guns when fighting for their cause.

This recent report is to be presented to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Thursday. This report will detail how terrorists groups have found that using the Internet can be less costly, faster, and more than secure than trying to buy weapons on the open market.

A panel of experts was created by George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute and the University of Virginia's Critical Incident Analysis Group to study how extremists have grown to use the Internet as a tool for more than just sending communications, propaganda and research. This panel has discovered the Internet is now becoming a valuable tool that extremists groups use for recruitment and training.

The report created by this group found that terrorists groups now use the Internet for activities such as:

"Dead drops": An e-mail message is saved as a draft rather than being sent. Anyone with access can log in and read the message, but it is less likely to be intercepted by authorities.

"Parasiting": Training manuals can be hidden deep inside seemingly innocent subdirectories on legitimate Web sites.

Research: Terrorists can research potential targets online, using both text and imagery.

Fundraising: Terrorists can launch their appeals for donations anonymously online.

Terrorists groups used to use mosques, community centers and coffee shops as meeting places, but this new report will show how these extremists have found that using Internet chat rooms as meeting places have become a more secure meeting place because these chat rooms have made recruitment efforts harder to detect and disrupt.

This report will also state how the Internet has become a good source for spreading the word about the new struggle of Western civilization against the Islamic world. This report goes on to say that it is not necessarily the goal of the Internet to become another 'killing tool', but the goal is to use the Internet as a secure broadcast and communications tool that extremists groups can use to meet and discuss mission plans before these plans are carried out in the real world.

[quote]For example, Hassan Abujihaad, an American-born Muslim formerly known as Paul R. Hall, was arrested in March and charged with disclosing secret information about the location of Navy vessels to terrorist groups. Prosecutors said he had been in contact with extremists online and had ordered videos promoting violent jihad.[/quote]

Some other findings in this report indicate how the Internet has made it much faster for people to become radical in a shorter period of time. What once took a person maybe years to become a disillusioned radical can now only take a matter of weeks by using the Internet. This report sites the 2004 train bombings in Madrid and the 2006 plot to bomb US flights from England as examples of how quickly 'fringe' groups can meet, recruit, and plan terrorist missions throughout the world.

One major factor this report mentions about the use of the Internet by extremists groups is the anonymity factor. With people able to disguise their true identities, the Internet has allowed people to become bolder in expressing their violent opinions. Some of these people may not be as violent as they portray themselves on websites and chat rooms, but the repeated message of violence may sway impressionable minds, especially among youth, to take more serious actions in the real world.

This report points to sites such as "Quest for Bush" in which the player fights Americans and proceeds to different levels like "Jihad Growing Up" and "Americans Hell." Other terrorists sites include music such as rap and hip hop in an attempt to lure younger people to their groups.

It concludes that a stronger counterstrategy is needed, possibly including the use of graphic visuals such as footage of dead children and images of other innocent victims of terrorism. "Distasteful as this may be to invoke, the power of visuals is profound," the report states.

Read more about this report at Yahoo News

Iraqi Lawmakers Plan to Take a Nice Summer Break

2007-05-03T02:07:00.000-07:00

Iraqi lawmakers have announced they plan to take a two month summer break because the summer heat in Iraq makes it too hard to meet.

Iraqi lawmakers do not seem to think violence in Iraq is bad enough to cancel a planned summer break in July and August, because these lawmakers know the US troops will continue to wage the war of terror on their city streets without them.

With plenty of work still to be done in Iraq, Iraqi officials feel there is no real pressing matter that cannot wait until lawmakers reconvene in September. Never mind the fact that Iraqi lawmakers have yet to reach agreement on matters like regulating distribution of the country's oil wealth and reversing measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because of Baath party membership. Oh yeah, one other thing, what about all the violence that continues to plague Iraq. I guess the Iraqi lawmakers have learned something from US lawmakers after all--nothing should get in the way of taking a nice, long vacation.

One good thing coming out of this Iraq summer break issue is the fact Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress have once again found common ground. Members of both parties have expressed outrage that Iraqi lawmakers are planning a two month vacation while US troops continue to have their blood spilled while trying to stabilize their country.

"If they go off on vacation for two months while our troops fight — that would be the outrage of outrages," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn.

Added Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb: "I certainly hope they're not going to take any sort of recess when the question is whether they're going to make any progress."

This plan by the Iraqi government once again has Democrats pointing to the need for a time table on US troop withdrawals from Iraq. Democrats believe that if Iraq knows US troops will be pulled out by a certain date; Iraqi lawmakers may decide to stay in session to work through some of the problems facing their country.

Republicans were quick to point out that even if the Iraqi government was given a time table that this does not necessarily mean factions within the Iraqi government will work together. Republicans feel these groups may 'ramp up' fighting which will lead to bigger bloodbaths because these groups will be fighting for control of Iraq because they will known an exact date when US troops will be leaving.

On Monday — the same day Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., issued a statement urging the Iraqi politicians to reconsider their summer break — the Iraqi parliament called for a ban on U.S. troops near a holy Shiite Muslim shrine. Protests were led by the radical anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's bloc after U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted a raid near the shrine.

If the Iraqi government feel they still need US troop support, then the Iraqi government may want to rethink this vacation plan. If more US troops are killed during this vacation period, the outrage of the American public may become so great that even President Bush will not be able to ignore the wishes of an ever growing populace that is quickly becoming more and more disenchanted with the efforts of the Iraqi governments ability to stabilize and control their own country.

Read more about the Iraqi governments vacations plans at Yahoo News

Bush, EU Leaders Unsure What to do about Climate Change

2007-05-01T02:19:00.000-07:00

President George Bush met with European Union Leaders on Monday to discuss what should be done about the "urgent" matter of global warming.

Other than defining global warming and climate change as a serious issue, President Bush's meeting with E.U. leaders at the White House on Monday did not produce any productive remedies on what should be done about this growing international issue.

German Chancellor Merkel said she prefers to look at the glass as being half full instead of half empty when discussing how this meeting went on Monday. Chancellor Merkel assessed her meeting with President Bush and EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso as being positive. Chancellor Merkel currently holds the rotating presidencies of the EU and the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations.

Earlier in the day, 400 of the world's leading climate change experts met in Bangkok during the start of week-long discussions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN's leading authority on global warming. The goal of this third session is to come up with a master blueprint on how to limit the worst causes of global warming. However, there seems to be a great divide in how this blueprint should look. Also, there was no mention on whether Al Gore would be attending this meeting or not.

Meanwhile, back at the White House, Presidents Bush and Barroso along with Chancellor Merkel issued a joint statement regarding energy security and global warming. All three leaders sang in unison about the need for "urgent, sustained, global action" to battle global warming.

"We are determined to ensure access to affordable, clean, and secure sources of energy to underpin sustainable global economic growth and to protect our environment," said a joint statement issued by the White House after the talks.

"Tackling the challenge of energy security will also require unprecedented international cooperation" on energy, it said.

Chancellor Merkel also said these three world leaders agreed on further US-EU talks regarding alternative-fuel standards. These talks may not take place until sometime next year. These three leaders also agreed on plans to talk further about global warming during the G-8 summit meeting to be held in Germany this June.

Chancellor Merkel went on to say that a 'proper agenda' needs to be set for UN talks on the environment in December on the Indonesian island of Bali.

President Bush noted that no viable solution to global warming will be found unless major developing countries like China and India are included, but President Bush seemed to indicate the White House is still going to chart their own course on global warming.

President Bush said each country will have to find a way to deal with greenhouse gases by coming up with their own internal strategy that leads to a reduction in these gases.

Earlier in the year, President Bush called for a 20 percent reduction in gasoline use over the next ten years, and with the price of gas where it is today, this goal may be reached even sooner.

The EU member countries met in March and they called for a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020. This 20 percent reduction will be based on 1990 emission levels. Germany;however, wants to be even more aggressive because they are calling for 40 percent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Chancellor Merkel said that if developed countries who have the technology to effectively reduce greenhouse gases doing nothing; then it will be a hard sell to tell the other less technological countries that they must do something to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The closing note of this White House meeting included statements about building clean coal plants and exploring carbon dioxide "capture and storage" technology for reducing harmful emissions.

Read more about this meeting at Yahoo News

Get in Shape by Defying Gravity

2007-05-01T02:13:00.000-07:00

In the resort town of Saratoga Springs, NY, health clubs are finding the benefits of gravity machines as a way for their members to get fit.

Saratoga Springs, NY may be better known for their health springs and as the August place to be for New York socialites, but now Saratoga may also be known as the 'gravity' exercise place to be.

During any weekday morning, men and women can be seen at the local YMCA pushing, pulling and grunting their way through at set of exercises on a 'slanted glideboards' machine. These 'Y' members use this machine to push with their legs, then pull with their arms — up and down diagonally, and this in turn forces these members to keep their glutes nice and tight.

The YMCA is one of the roughly 30 health clubs across the US to add gravity defying machines since the start of this year. Since health clubs generate roughly $17.6 billion dollars a year, health clubs will try anything in order to retain and bring in new members.

Brooke Correia of the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, said her club is always looking for new ways to make exercising more fun, effective, and challenging.

Gyms have come a long way since the medicine ball to the gut and the jiggling of hip and belly belts in trying to help people stay in shape and loose weight. Gym equipment is more sophisticated now because these machines can measure your heart rate and keep tabs on the distance you run, walk, or row.

Gravity equipment is now starting to compete with StairMasters and Pilates equipment for space time on the gym floor. The hook for using gravity machines is that these machines offer a range of cardio and strength-training exercises — you can even do Pilates on it — in a short period of time. The track is adjustable; the steeper the incline, the harder the workout.

"It's very intense," said Joanne Leiser after a 30-minute workout at the Saratoga YMCA. "It's quick and it's cool."

The gravity machines used in health clubs were introduced in 2003 by San Diego-based efi Sports Medicine, creator of the Total Gym. And believe it or not, you have probably seen the low-tech version of these machines being sold by Chuck Norris on TV infomercials.

These machines are usually given 'studio' times were groups of up to 12 people will form a semi-circle for a 30 minute workout while sweating to beats of Beyonce and Shakira.

"It's not beating the heck out of your body," said student Lori Tynan. "The machine keeps everything smooth."

Learn more about these new health machines at Yahoo News

States look to expand Health Coverage for Children

2007-04-30T02:22:00.000-07:00

Despite a warning from the Presidents top health chief, more states are looking for ways to expand health care coverage to more children.

More states are trying to expand health coverage to children under SCHIP, State Children's Health Insurance Program, so that some middle class families can obtain coverage for their children.

The SCHIP program was started over a decade ago so states could offer health insurance to families whose income was double the federal poverty program. This meant a family of four with a household income of $41,300 would qualify for this program. Some states decided to use the Medicaid based income formula which allowed these states to cover even more children.

Ten year later, 18 states offer SCHIP to families who have a household income that is 200 percent of the federal poverty level, and this is done with the federal governments blessing. Five other states plus the District of Columbia are set to join this list according to a recent survey conducted by Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families.

Lawmakers in New York State have raised the income level of their SCHIP program to $82,600 for a family of four. These families receive government help when trying to purchase health insurance. The poorer these families are, the greater state aid they receive.

However, Mike Leavitt, Health and Human Services Secretary, is worried other states will follow New York's example of raising the income level for these SCHIP programs. Mr. Leavitt states 71 percent of all children would be on "public assistance" if other states do decide to follow New York's example.

Mike Leavitt went on to say the spirit of SCHIP was meant to expand health coverage for children, but that is not the case. Mr. Leavitt points out that for every ten people that decide to join a health insurance plan funded by the public, 6 of these people are people who have left a private insurance plan.

Jocelyn Guyer, deputy executive director of the university center, notes that recent studies have shown that states feel that having kids on health plans funded by the public are better than having these kids stuck with no health plan at all.

Ms. Guyer went on to say that State leaders are moving away from President Bush because they see that middle income families are finding the cost of health insurance is becoming unaffordable and that some type of subsidy for health insurance should be allowed.

1997 is when Congress approved a $40 billion bill allowing for a children's health program that would last ten years, and over the last ten year this children's health program has grown to include roughly 6 million people of which 640,000 are adults.

The expansion of this program is a top priority for the Democratic controlled Congress, and it is likely Congress will renew this plan. The Democrats would like to increase spending on this plan to $75 billion over the next five years, but President Bush would like to spend less than half of what the Democrats are proposing.

States are supposed to match dollar for dollar any federal money received under this program, but on average states will spend $30 for every $70 received from the federal government for funding SCHIP plans.

The White House is seeking a plan that would cover low-income families only, but Mike Leavitt was quick to point out that all states should consider plans that would allow other families to have access to basic health insurance coverage.

Jocelyn Guyer was quick to note that some states may have to scrap their SCHIP programs if Congress does not act to this summer to provide the necessary government funding for these programs. Ms.Guyer said these state programs are not possible without assistance from the federal government in funding these programs.

The Senate Fiance Committee is considering taking up the issue of a children's health insurance bill sometime in May.

Read more on this topic at Yahoo News

Gore Calls out Canada on Their Climate Plan

2007-04-30T02:15:00.000-07:00

During a speech on Saturday in Toronto, Al Gore called Canada's plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions a 'sham' that gives industries a way to increase, and not decrease, these emissions.

Canada announced on Thursday a plan that would cut the countries greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent. This 20 percent decrease in greenhouse gases would be done by the year 2020. However, the Canadian government also said they would miss their Kyoto Protocol obligations that call for 35 industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Currently, Canada's greenhouse gas emissions are 30 percent above 1990 levels.

The plan of the conservative government was to reduce emissions that are directly blamed for global warming. The Canadian government was also looking to reduce emissions that would improve air quality, but this plan never really spelled out what type of regulation would be put in place to make sure this plan would be followed.

In his speech on Saturday, Al Gore said this plan by the Canadian government was a 'total fraud' because the plan did not state directly how Canada would reach it 20 percent greenhouse gas emission reduction goal by 2020. Mr. Gore went on to say this plan was designed only to fool the people into thinking the Canadian government was planning to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

He said "intensity reduction" — which allow industries to increase their greenhouse gas outputs as they raise production — was a poll-tested phrase developed by think tanks financed by Exxon Mobil and other large polluters.

Canadian Environment Minister John Baird went on to blast this criticism from Gore by stating the current Canadian government's plan is tougher than any plan that was under consideration when Al Gore was Vice-President of the United States. Mr. Baird also went to state that he would like to invite Al Gore to a discussion about Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr. Gore was in Toronto on Saturday to present his award winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," in front of a consumer environmental show.

During the showing of this film, Mr. Gore said the United States has no right to interfere with Canada's greenhouse gas emission plan; however, Mr. Gore went on to say the world looks to Canada for 'moral' leadership on this issue. This is why Mr. Gore found the announcement by the Canadian government on Thursday about their plan for greenhouse gas emissions as 'shocking'.

On Sunday, Stephane Dion, Canadian opposition Liberal Leader, came out and said he agrees with the statements made by Mr. Gore. Mr. Dion went on to say that Mr. Baird was embarrassing Canada with this plan because the world looks for Canada to do their part in reducing greenhouse gases.

Mr. Dion concluded by saying Canada is failing the world by not showing leadership on this issue, and that the current Canadian government is also failing the Canadian people.

Read more by this issue at Yahoo News

Break Out Those old Rabbit Ears if you want HDTV

2007-04-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

Rabbit ears may be making a comeback as consumers of LCD's and plasma TVs are buying these 'old' technological gadgets for these high tech TVs.

With local TV stations starting to broadcast their shows in High Def, consumers are finding out that hooking up the old 'rabbit ear' antenna can bring free High Def shows to their television sets.

Richard Schneider, president of Antennas Direct, is betting Americans will not hesitate in shelling out $50 for his new wave rabbit ear antennas if it means free local High Def shows can be brought into their homes.

Mr. Schneider recalls people were calling him nuts because he was building antennas from his garage and then selling these antennas out of the trunk of his car. But what started out as a small operation in Eureka, Mo has now turned into a $1.4 million year operation with seven employees.

Because Congress has ordered broadcasters to shut off old-style analog TV broadcasts by Feb. 17, 2009, more people with need some type of television that will be able to receive a high def signal. However, some people may not be willing to fork over the high cost that goes with a cable subscription. This is were Richard and his rabbit ears come into play.

Unlike the old analog signal that would give you a partial picture with some 'snow', the high def signal will give you those little 'block's of a signal before going black. This means some people will be able to receive a high def signal and some will not be able to receive this signal just an antenna hooked up to their TV.

Richard likes to tell people that if they live within 25 miles of a TV tower that it is best to use and indoor antenna, and that an outdoor antenna is best if you live 70 miles away from a TV tower. Mr. Schneider also notes that a TV signal is best reached if the antenna has a clear site, ie., no mountains or trees obstructing the antenna.

The Consumer Electronics Association has a Web site http://www.antennaweb.org/ that tells how far an address is from towers and recommends what type of antenna to use.

Megan Pollock, spokeswoman for this group, says receiving a high definition signal from an antenna may give you a truer high def picture because cable and satellite companies tend to compress the high def signals sent through the cable.

One downside to using only the antenna and not cable or satellite services is that you only receive local station broadcast. This means no ESPN, TBS, USA, SciFi, or HBO. However, if you are willing, or only watch, local stations then a onetime investment of $20 to $150 is well worth it for the ability to receive local High Def broadcast instead of paying for the high cost of cable or satellite service.

Read more about the return of 'rabbit ears' at Yahoo News

Doctors Remove 2 Pound Tumor From a Baby's Neck

2007-04-28T02:04:00.000-07:00

A day after she was born, a baby girl had a 2 pound tumor removed from her neck.

When Kari Whittington went to visit her doctor on Monday, an ultrasound test revealed a grapefruit size tumor growing on her baby daughter. Ms. Whittington had been to her doctor the prior month, and no abnormalities were found on an ultrasound performed during this visit.

A Caesarean section was performed on Thursday, and Kari's baby daughter, Addison, was delivered five weeks early. Once the delivery was successfully completed, baby Addison was stabilized before a team of nine doctors began their work of removing this large tumor.

Steven Rothenberg, pediatric surgeon, noted that the tumor began to bleed on its own, and that if they did not have everyone of the nine team surgical crew present, it was very possible that Addison would not have survived.

Rothenberg said the growth, called a cervical teratoma, is rare and occurs in about 1 in 50,000 births. The blood-swollen tissue and veins made up 40 percent of Addison's weight.

Dr. Rothenberg thinks little Addison will have to stay in the hospital for about 2 weeks before heading home. Dr. Rothenberg also feels the scar running along Addison's jawline, and the scar on her neck, should eventually disappear.

Read more about this story at Yahoo News

U.N. Chief Stands by Gore's Climate Change Theory

2007-04-28T01:57:00.000-07:00

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Friday that he will use Al Gore's theory on climate change to gain international support for his global warming initiatives.

Calling Al Gore's climate change message a ""very powerful political message", Secretary-General Ki-moon said he plans to use Gore's message as a wake-up for getting international action on global warming.

Mr. Ki-moon on Friday said he met with the Oscar winning documentary maker, and that Al Gore offered his support in helping the United Nations bring international attention to the issue of global warming.

Many people feel that Al Gore is still considered one of the top Democratic choices for the 2008 Presidential race. Mr. Gore has not said if he will jump into this race or not, but with his climate change theory being globally popular you never know what Mr. Gore will finally decide.

Mr. Gore and Mr. Ki-moon met for about a half hour on Friday, but after the meeting, Mr. Gore had no comment for reporters. Mr. Ki-moon on the other hand feels he can use the powerful message from Al Gore's global documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth" , as a rallying point for worldwide attention to climate change and global warming.

The U.N Secretary-General said he will work closely with the European delegation to the G-8 summit in calling for measures to be taken in the fight against global warming. The G-8 summit will be hosted by Germany in June. Mr. Ki-moon feels global warming should be one of the top issues during this G-8 summit meeting.

The European Union all ready promised last month to cut the carbon emissions from their countries by 20 percent below their 1990 levels. The European Union also said they would be willing to make a 30 percent cut in carbon emissions if the United States also agreed to carbon emission cuts. The European Union feels these cuts are needed to keep the Earth's temperature from increasing by less than 2 degrees.

The U.N Secretary-General went on to praise this voluntary action by the European Union by calling this move a "a very important initiative with which I would like to continue to cooperate fully."

Read more about this story at Yahoo News

New Genes Linked to Diabetes Found

2007-04-27T02:17:00.000-07:00

Diabetes is a disease that effects roughly 200 million people around the world, and now researchers have found new genes that may increase the risk of diabetes.

A group of four research teams recent studies show insight into the role played by genes in a disease influenced by behavior such as eating too much and exercising too little. These findings will published on Thursday in the Science and Nature Genetics journal.

These researchers hope their studies will lead to the development of new drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, previously known as adult-onset diabetes. In addition, researchers hope this will lead to genetic testing in determining if a person is prone to developing type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing worldwide diseases, but the cause of this disease is only vaguely known, and because of this, treatment and prevention efforts have been restricted.

This study involved scientists reviewing the 22,000 genes that make up the human genome. In addition, about 50,000 people with and without diabetes from countries all over the world were used in this study.

Scientists were able to discover about eight genes that give a clear indication of diabetes risk factors. Three of these genes were previously unknown to scientists who study this disease. Scientists state all eight of these genes are common in the general population.

Michael Boehnke of the University of Michigan, who led one of the teams, believes these teams have made a huge leap in the understanding of the genetic variants that contribute as risk factors to type 2 diabetes.

These researchers are quick to point out that how these three new genes play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes is still unclear. However, these researchers believe that 2 of these genes might be linked to the development, function and regeneration of certain insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Even though scientists have always known that heredity was a big cause in the development of diabetes, it has not been until recently that scientists have found certain genes that may also contribute to a person developing this disease.

Type 2 diabetes usually develops in people over 40 who are overweight, less active people, but researchers are now seeing this type of diabetes more and more in younger people, including children, who are obese.

There is still plenty of research to be done on the causes of type 2 diabetes, so researchers still feel the best way to combat this ever growing disease is by making correct lifestyle choices because obesity, poor diet and lack of exercise still play a major role in the development of diabetes.

Read more about this diabetes research at Yahoo News

Take the Highway Tunnel to Russia

2007-04-27T01:28:00.000-07:00

Over the last century, the idea of linking Alaska and Russia with a highway has always been a dream;however, that dream may now someday come true.

With only 68 miles of Bering Sea separating the 49th state from Russia, supporters of linking these 2 superpowers with the world's longest tunnel is starting to gain some renewed interest. The world's current longest tunnel is the Chunnel that runs 30 miles and links England with France.

Backers of this tunnel idea hope this will lead to an even bigger project- building a 3,700 mile railroad that would link Alaska's west coast with the gold and mineral rich Yakutsk Siberian region of Russia.

This super tunnel has a projected cost of $65 billion dollars, and the tunnel would burrow underneath a stretch of water connecting the Pacific with the Arctic ocean. Backers from both the United States and Russia made their pitch for this idea at the "Megaprojects of Russia's East," held Tuesday in Moscow.

A dose of reality set in during this meeting when a Russian economics ministry official wanted to know who was going to pay for this enormous project. However, Walter Hickel, a former Alaska governor and interior secretary under President Richard Nixon, remained optimistic about this grand plan saying this would help both Russia and the United States tap into the vast natural resources of a region were winter temperatures of minus 94 degrees are not unheard of.

Backers of this tunnel idea even started to dream of a possible London-Moscow-Washington train route.

Lobbyists for this tunnel claim a profit could be made within 30 years because lobbyists feel about 3 percent of the worlds cargo could move through this tunnel once it is completed. Experts believe it would take 20 years to build such a massive tunnel.

Maxim Bystrov, deputy head of the federal agency for managing Special Economic Zones, said his ministry would only look into this project if private financiers made a commitment to this idea.

This is not the first time an idea of linking the United States and Russia has come up. Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, gave the go ahead to such a project two times before, but his projects were stopped because of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution.

Despite all the grand planning going on during the meeting Tuesday, the light at the end of the tunnel seemed to dim some because a top economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, as well as the Russian railway minister, who had been billed to speak, changed their minds and cancelled at the last minute.

Even though the Russians seemed to pause at building this tunnel, a statement was endorsed Tuesday encouraging Russia, the United States, Japan, China and the European Union to develop this tunnel idea into their countries economic development strategies. This statement also urged the G-8 countries to continue discussing this tunnel linking project when they meet in Germany for the G-8 summit in June.

Read more about the great tunnel plan at Yahoo Biz

U.S. House of Representatives Approves Troop Pullout Plan

2007-04-26T02:22:00.000-07:00

Drawing the old line in the sand, the House on Wednesday approved a plan for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Despite a firm promise by President Bush to veto any bill that sets a time line for troop withdrawals from Iraq, House leader Nancy Pelosi gleefully announced a House bill that calls for a planned withdraw of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Gen. David Petraeus made a pitch to House lawmakers to give him more time to show the troop 'surge' in Iraq was working, but this plea in a closed House meeting was all but ignored by the Democrat led House. Gen. Petraeus is the top army general running U.S. operations in Iraq.

The 124 billion dollar troop funding bill was narrowly passed by a vote of 218-208. In addition to funding U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, this bills also calls for U.S. troop withdrawals beginning in October of this year.

This House bill next moves to the Senate for debate. With Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, all ready conceding defeat in Iraq, this bill will most likely pass the Senate before heading to the desk of President Bush.

President Bush has called for this bill to be quickly passed by the Senate so he can veto the bill and move on to more serious debate about troop funding before it is too late.

President Bush said he is willing to compromise with Democrats on a troop funding bill;however, President Bush said any bill involving a troop withdraw time line will be shot down because he believes any troop movement strategy is best left to the commanders in the field.

However, the Democrats were happy to point out a recent poll showing most Americans agree with them on this issue and believe victory in Iraq is no longer possible. This poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal indicates that only 37 percent of the American public sided with Bush and his Republicans in believing that Congress should not set a deadline for troop withdrawal, but 55 percent supported the Democrats view calling for a timetable.

The bill passed by the House provides more troop funding than the administration sought for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but says US troops are to start withdrawing from Iraq in October, with a non-binding target date of completing the pullout by March 31.

Meanwhile, during his closed door meeting in the House, Gen.Petraeus asked lawmakers to withhold judgment on the new Iraq strategy-- sending 28,000 additional troops--despite a spike in violence including in Diyala on Monday where nine US troops were killed.

Gen. Petraeus was quick to point out the progress being made in Iraq since the troop surge was announced in January. Gen. Petraeus noted the positives of this new strategy talking about the killing Friday of an Al-Qaeda kingpin, identified by the US command as the "security emir" for the east of Anbar province, and he also pointed to the capture of the head of an important weapons network that may lead to more evidence about Iranian involvement in the conflict.

Funding for the troops will eventually be passed by and approved by President Bush. However, what exactly this bill will include is still up in the air. One possible solution making the rounds hints at Democrats releasing funds one small chunk at a time to keep the Iraq debate at the center of political dialogue. Another possible solution being circulated hints at Democrats imposing certain targets showing improvement in Iraq which will force the administration to justify progress it says is being made.

Read more about the Democrats troop plans at Yahoo News

Fat Workers Costly to Employers

2007-04-26T01:32:00.000-07:00

A recent study suggests overweight employees are more costly to their employer than their slimmer co-workers.

A Duke University study found that overweight workers are involved in more work related injuries than their slimmer, more fit co-workers by an almost 2 to 1 margin.

These Duke researchers found that overweight employees had 13 times more lost work days because of work related injuries, and these employees medical claims were 7 times higher than co-workers deemed to be in better shape.

The overweight employee was more likely to suffer from back, wrist, arm, neck, shoulder, hip, knee and foot than other employees.

The Duke research team studied 11,728 people employed by Duke and its health system over the last 8 years. The results of this study found the higher an employees BMI, body mass index, the more likely this employee would have in filing a workers compensation claim.

This study indicates a higher BMI-40 or more-would lead an overweight employee to lose more work days when compared to an employee who is not considered overweight. A 6 foot tall man weighing 300 pounds is an example of a person with a BMI of 40 or more.

These Duke researchers are hoping this study will lead employers to offer more programs that promote a healthy lifestyle. The Duke researchers also worry this study may lead to employers discriminating more against overweight employees because of the higher risks and costs associated with having an overweight person at work.

John Cawley, an expert in the economics of obesity at Cornell University, cautions people to carefully review this study because a persons BMI does not take into account a persons muscle mass. For example, a body builder may have a higher BMI than a couch potato because the body builder has more, and more thicker, muscles than your average couch potato.

Employers are always looking for ways to 'cut the fat' from their companies bottom line, so investing in get-well and stay-fit programs may be one way an employer can make his companies bottom line look more healthy.

Read more about this Duke study at Yahoo News

Did Astronomers Discover Earth 2??

2007-04-25T00:40:00.000-07:00

Researchers announced Tuesday that a planet has been found outside our solar system that may be similar to Earth.

Astronomers said this planet, with "Earth-like temperatures, appears to be the right size planet they were looking to find. Researchers went on to say this planet might have water in liquid form. Finding liquid water on another planet is important because scientists believe that were this is liquid water-there is the possibility for life.

This galactic neighbor of ours is only 120 trillion miles away from own our Earth. This near-by, in galactic terms anyway, neighbor orbits a 'red-dwarf ' sun that is smaller, less-bright, and much cooler than our sun.

There is still a lot that astronomers do not know about this planet, and because of this, this planet could still be deemed as inhospitable once more data about this planet is received and analyzed. Researchers like to point out that Mars meets these habitability standards because Mars is similar in size to Earth, and Mars does have temperatures that would permit liquid water.

Michel Mayor, one of 11 European scientists on the team that found the planet, said the find of this planet is still important because unlike Mars this newly discovered planet was found outside our solar system.

This team of astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, because this observatory has a special instrument that can split light in finding wobbles in different light wave lengths. Wobbles in light waves are important because these wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

Astronomers found this planet by studying the light waves emitted from a red-dwarf star called Gliese 581, and this led astronomers to name the planet-planet 581. Astronomers believe this planet is about five times heavier than Earth.

There have been 220 other planets found outside our solar system, but these planets were deemed as inhospitable because they were either too hot or too cold. However, these astronomers got excited about planet 581 because their initial analyses indicate the average temperature may be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees.

So, for now at least, planet 581 has the scientific world buzzing because this find could be the big stepping stone in the search for "life in the universe".

Read more about Planet 581 at Yahoo News

What Color Is Your Diet??

2007-04-23T01:49:00.000-07:00

Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle
By Tom Venuto, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
url: burnthefat.com

QUESTION: Dear Tom: I’ve seen quite a few diet books lately that are based on the color of the foods you eat, including the rainbow diet, the color diet and the “color code” (sounds like the Da Vinci code, LOL!) Anyway, I’ve been reading your newsletters for a long time and I know how you feel about diet pills, books and gimmicks and I was wondering what you thought about these programs. Is it just another gimmick?

ANSWER: Based on the clever titles, it might be tempting to dismiss these programs as gimmicks, and in fact when your weekly menus are literally “color coded,” it might seem that the diet book authors are just scrambling for a new hook or premise on which to base an entire eating program.

I have not read any of those books you mentioned yet, so I can’t comment on any of them specifically. However, as “gimmicky” as eating from every color in the rainbow may sound at first, there is some very legitimate and scientific evidence that this is a great idea.

We are often given the advice to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables (which have a variety of different colors). Good advice of course; even common sense would tell us that. However, “eat a lot of fruits and vegetables”is vague advice because it could mean eating only apples and broccoli (red and green), and nothing else, but eating “a lot” of them. To take that advice to the next level, a better recommendation would be to eat a WIDE VARIETY of fruits and vegetables (not just “a lot”).

Even “wide variety” is not really defined. What is a wide variety? Did you know that there are hundreds of different types of fruits and veggies? To make an even greater distinction, you could begin to sort your fruits and vegetables by color and eat a wide variety every day (at least 5 to 9 servings) and an even wider variety spread over the span of each week.

Why would you go to all the trouble? Well, each various food color is indicative of the phytonutrients and other healthful nutritional compounds found within these foods. According to the textbook Sports & Exercise Nutrition by Katch, Katch & McArdle), over 4000 phytochemicals have been identified, and 150 of them have been studied in detail.

By definition, phytonutrients (also called phytochemicals) are naturally occurring, health promoting compounds found in the plant kingdom. There has been much research on the functional properties of these compounds, proving that they play important and diverse roles in maintaining your health and protecting you from disease.

Foods such as tomatoes (red), carrots (orange), broccoli (green), blueberries (blue) all contain important phytochemicals that play specific roles in health and disease prevention. Onions, whole grains, herbs, spices and other foods also contain their own special types of protective phytochemicals.

Here are some of the phytochemicals and naturally health-promoting compounds and the foods they correspond to:

FLAVONOIDS (quercitin, kaempferol, myricetin, catechins)FruitsVegetablesBerriesCitrus fruitsOnionsPurple grapesTea

CAROTENOIDS (luten, lycopene, zeaxanthin, a-carotene, b-carotene)CarrotsTomatoesCantaloupe Apricots

GLUCOSINOLATES (glucobrassicin, isothiocyanates, indoles)Cruciferous vegetablesBroccoliBrussel sproutsCabbage

SULFIDES (allium compounds, dithiolthiones)OnionsGarlicLeeksscallions

Each of these compounds has a health promoting role in the body ranging from antioxidant activity to cancer protection. There is much more going on here than just building muscle and shedding body fat. Eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and other natural foods has major health and quality of life implications.

It’s great news to know how much control we can take over our health and physical fitness simply with proper food choices (and proper exercise). The only thing about these discoveries that saddens and disappoints me is that it seems each time our scientists discover something, such as lycopene in tomatoes for example, someone wants to put it in a bottle and sell it to us. (Why not just go to the source and eat the tomatoes???)

I believe in an intelligent creator, and I believe that the creator of our bodies and this universe we live in, knew exactly what he was doing when he created the marvelous diversity of plants and animals that comprise our food supply. Although it may be prudent in this modern industrial age to take a multi vitamin/mineral supplement and maybe an essential fatty acid supplement for “nutritional insurance,” everything you need can be found in your food.

If you think about what the discovery of all these naturally occurring compounds really means, you will have to agree that food truly is the most powerful drug. Combine that with recent discoveries in physiology and psychoneoruoimmunology proving that our bodies are their own self-regulating natural pharmacies, and you also have to agree that the natural way is the best way.

In any case, it’s definitely not enough to think only in terms of calories and macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats). Energy needs and macronutrient needs are important, but also think about your nutrition in terms of a wide variety of natural foods, and that includes a wide variety of colors.

For more information about the all natural way to fat loss and better health, read about the Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle program at burnthefat.com

About the Author:
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle.” Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as on hundreds of websites worldwide.

For information on Tom's Fat Loss program, visit: burnthefat.com

The TRUTH About Credit Repair...

2007-04-21T01:56:00.000-07:00

=======================================
The TRUTH About Credit Repair...
-by Terry Price
(C) Copyright Terry PriceAll Rights Reserved

CREDIT SECRETS BIBLE
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Have you ever wondered what companies send you when they claim you can erase bad credit overnight? How about those ads that say you can get any major credit card without a deposit or a credit check?

Ads abound almost every where these days (online and off) selling books, systems and secrets tohelp you fix your credit. Many of these programs have claims which read like the covers of supermarket tabloids:

"In 3hrs my credit score jumped from 580 to 676!"...
"Erase bad credit and smash your debts with just 2 Magic Letters!".

Are these types of claims ALWAYS too good to be true? The answer is"Yes and... no".

While many people would love for you to believe the only thing that can fix bad credit is time; inreality... nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is, time is only one factor which can fix a credit report, but it's a far cry from being the only factor. How can I back this up? Easy.

Under a consumer protection law known as the Fair Credit ReportingAct (a.k.a. the FCRA) the only negative information which can remain on your credit report is not what is accurate... but what can be proved as accurate under the FCRA. What's this mean to you?

It means any negative item on your credit report can only remain there if it is accurate and CAN BE PROVED AS SUCH under the guidelines of the FCRA. This undisputable fact presents consumers with both good news and bad news.

The good news is that through the FCRA your credit score can most likely be improved dramatically in a very short period of time with only a modest amount of effort on your part.

The bad news is that while the actual "work" will take very little of your time, it is vital that you have good information on "how"to go about it. This is the bad news; 9 out of 10 courses on restoring your credit will do nothing more than lead you into snakepits because they will provide you with what the industry refers to as "Boiler Plate" dispute letters.These are nothing more than form letters and... quite frankly (more bad news) the Credit Bureaus and Creditors will laugh at you if you try to use them.

While I agree with the Federal TradeCommission (FTC) that "Anything a Credit Repair Clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or not cost"... the key element you need for success is the latest inside techniques and procedures to get the results you want. This involves strategies such as "Proofof Contract", "Constructive Notice","Challenge of Procedure" or"Restrictive Endorsement" and many others.

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Next from NASA: Robo Surgeon

2007-04-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

NASA will begin testing a portable robot surgeon developed by doctors and scientists from the University of Washington.

Starting sometime in May, NASA will begin underwater testing of a portable medical robot that will give doctors and scientists a feel for remote surgery that needs to be performed in space.

This portable robot can be controlled by humans over the Internet that are miles away from the actual surgical site. The U.S. Department of Defense is helping to fund this research so these portable robots can be used to treat wounded soldiers, to perform surgery on patients in remote parts of the world, and to help aid ill astronauts in space.

Professor Blake Hannaford, co-director of the UW BioRobotics Lab, said the main difference between this surgical robot and the ones now being used now in U.S. hospitals is communication and portability.

The current crop of robot surgeons weigh several thousand pounds which makes moving these robots to others sites a difficult task. These robots are not easily broken down, are difficult to put back together, and the current robots were not made to be controlled from miles away.

On the other hand, these new portable robot surgeons developed at the University of Washington have parts that weight only fifty pounds, are easily broken down for transportation, and these robot can easily be put back to together by non-engineers at remote sites.

This new portable surgical robot is called Raven. Raven will be testing its surgical skill in the Aquarius Undersea Laboratory off the coast of Florida. Raven will be underwater holding surgical instruments while the humans controlling its movement will be seated in Seattle.

The humans will sit in front of a computer screen while holding onto the same surgical instruments being held thousands of miles away by Raven. These doctors and scientists will be testing their, and Ravens, ability to sew rubber tubing. This rubber tubing is being used to simulate human blood vessels. This testing will be the same type of testing that is used to judge student doctors.

The surgical instructions from these doctors will be sent over a commercial Internet connection from Seattle to Key Largo, Fla. Once these commands reach Florida, they will be sent through a wireless buoy that is connected to a submarine-type research pod that will be 60 feet underwater. Inside the pod with Raven will be two NASA astronauts and a NASA flight surgeon.

Mitchell Lum,a research assistant and electrical engineering Ph.D. candidate, feels the most difficult part of these simulation will be the time difference between the surgeons command and the movement of Raven's arm. Mr. Lum thinks the time delay may only up to a second meaning the surgical test procedure may take longer than expected, but Mr. Lum still feels this test should be doable.

The major goal of this testing is not necessarily the successful completion of the surgery, but instead the goal is to show how easily Raven can be dismantled, transported, and then reassembled.

Dr. Mika Sinanan, a professor in the department of surgery at the UW Medical Center, has been working closely with this project, and he feels that Raven can be used for various applications besides battlefield use. Dr. Sinanan believes Raven can be used for any surgery requiring very precise work in small spaces, such as coronary bypass operations or prostate surgery.

Raven, along with two graduate students, will be flying down to Florida this Friday in preparation for its scheduled testing from May 7-18.

NASA will be paying for this testing, but the Defense Department will also help NASA pay for this project.

Read more about Dr.Raven at Yahoo News

Japan is Going to the Moon

2007-04-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

apan has announced that it plans to send a lunar orbiter satellite to the moon sometime this summer.

Not wanting to fall behind China in the race to the moon, Japanese officials have announced they have plans to do more than just study the moon.

JAXA said the much delayed SELENE lunar satellite will be launched sometime in August, and this probe will be sent into space by the H-2A rocket. The H-2A rocket in the main rocket used in the Japanese space program.

Satoki Kurokawa, JAXA spokesman, said this mission is going to be a very ambitious one because it will involve observing the whole moon instead of just parts of the moon.

Japan is hoping this mission will be a stepping stone to one day landing on the moon along with other manned space missions. JAXA is hoping its "Wish Upon the Moon" campaign will make the Japanese public more aware of its pursuit of the moon. This campaign will allow people to send messages aboard the SELENE probe.

At one time, Japan led the Asian space race when they put the first Asian satellite in space back in 1972. However, Japan has now fallen behind the Chinese in the Asian space race.

China successfully launched a manned space flight in 2003. China followed up this fete in 2005 by having two astronauts orbit the Earth for a week. China now has plans for another manned space mission along with their planned mission of sending a moon probe.

China has also been successful in launching four satellites into space as part of their Compass global positioning navigation system which should be operational sometime in 2008.

However, for a country that prides themselves on their technological savvy, Japan has had one misstep after another in their space program.

These setbacks include losing communication with one of its four spy satellites, scrubbing a planned mission to Mars because their probe moved off course, and losing their Hayabusa probe that was supposed to bring back the first samples from an asteroid.

Japan did launch a moon probe back in 1990, but this probe did not orbit the moon like what SELENE is supposed to do.

It also looks like China and Japan are going to have some competition from to other Asians countries as well. In 2000, South Korea started building a rocket launch site with the help of Russia. South Korea is hoping to have a satellite in space by next year.

India is also getting into the Asian space race with hopes of launching their Chandrayaan-1 moon mission this year or next year.

Read more about the Asian space race by goint to Yahoo News

Drink Milk to Control Your Diabetes?

2007-04-18T01:57:00.000-07:00

Scientists in Argentina said they have cloned four cows that are capable of producing human insulin in their milk.

If these genetically altered calves are capable of producing human insulin then the cost of treating diabetes may have gotten a lot less expensive.

These new calves are New Jersey heifers, and scientists involved in this project believe these calves will be able to start producing the human insulin hormone once they reach adulthood. These young calves have not been name yet, so they are just being called Patagonia 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The biotech company, Bio Sidus, is the one behind this cow-human insulin project. Managing director Marcelo Criscuolo said the cost of insulin could be reduced by as much as 30 percent if this research is successful. Mr. Criscuolo said the insulin cost can drop this much because the model of a genetically altered cow is one that allows for large production of insulin at a very low cost.

Mr. Criscuolo is very proud of the cattle-ranching know how of his fellow Argentineans which is why Marcelo feels Argentina has a leg-up on the world when to comes to research involving cows.

Pharmaceutical products from a cow are produced by scientists inserting a human gene into an embryo. Once this is done, the embryo is then inserted into a surrogate mother cow. To produce human insulin, the scientists inserted the human insulin gene into an embryo.

Bio Sidus started their research by taking a cow fetus from a slaughterhouse, and then removing selected cells from this cow. The scientists then took these cells and merged them with the human insulin gene. Finding a cow slaughterhouse in Argentina was not too difficult because Argentina is the worlds third largest beef exporter.

After the cow cells and human insulin gene were merged, researchers used cloning techniques to take the modified nuclei from these cells, and then these cells were injected into cow eggs. The cloning process starts the egg dividing as if it had been fertilized. This step was followed by scientists successfully implanting four embryos into four surrogate mother cows.

The calves developed from this process were given the titles Patagonia 1, 2, 3 and 4 because of the vast region in Argentina that stretches to the tip of South America.

Cow, horse, pig or fish pancreases were the first sources of insulin because insulin from these sources are almost identical to human insulin. Today, most insulin is produced by genetically engineered bacteria in tanks.

With about 200 million diabetics worldwide, these Argentinean scientists are hoping to have their insulin-laced milk in the worldwide market within the next couple of years.

Read more about cloning cows for insulin at Yahoo News

A Whale of a Day for New York

2007-04-18T01:16:00.000-07:00

A young minke whale lost its way on Tuesday and ended up in the New York City Harbor.

A young whale cruising around Gowanus Bay was being watched over by marine biologists on Tuesday. Gowanus Bay is the outlet from the mile-long Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, and this canal is known for its industrial pollution.

Kim Durham, rescue program director for the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, said this juvenile whale is approximately 15 feet long and appeared to be in good health. Ms. Durham also said the whale did not appear to be in distress. This foundation is based in Riverhead, NY where it specializes in cases involving whales, dolphins, seals and sea turtles.

A television news crew was able to get film of this whale as it jumped in and out of the water. This type of action is common among whales of the baleen species.

Even though this young whale was frolicking around in waters surrounded by docks and a large oil depot located at the end of this highly polluted canal, Ms. Durham was not overly concerned with any possible harm to the whale because of short term exposure to anything that may be in this water.

Durham was glad to note this whale was not swimming around in tight circles or showing any other signs indicating the whale my have some type of disease. Ms. Durham said researchers will keep an eye on this young minke whale overnight hoping this youngster will find its way back out to the deeper ocean waters. The U.S. Coast Guard and a police harbor patrol boat were on stand-by in case emergency assistance was required.

Live whales are a rare site in New York City, and no one is sure of the last time a live whale was actually viewed in the waters around the city. The last sighting of any whale was in 2000, when a dead whale was found floating in the harbor between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Investigators believed this whale died because of a collision with some type of ship.

The last live whale found in the New York City area was found off Long Island Sound in 1993. This whale was ailing at the time, but this whale was able to recover after spending eight months recovering at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.

As for the young minke whale in Gowanus Bay, Fran Hackett, a New York Aquarium official, said this youngster is doing reasonably well and just swimming around. Ms. Hackett went on to say this young whale probably found its way into the bay because it was following a school of fish.

Read more about this young whale at Yahoo News

When Parents Rewards Kids--Is This Considered Bribery?

2007-04-18T00:34:00.000-07:00

When parents give their kids rewards for sleeping in their own beds, or for behaving themselves in public, is this type of reward really a bribe?

Behaving in public and sleeping in my own bed is something my own parents would have expected from me; however, these days kids are getting anything from treats to money for doing things that were once considered normal child behavior.

This new approach to child rearing has some experts feeling that parents have gone 'soft'.
Kirsten Whipple, a 35-year-old mom in Northbrook, Ill, said she feels her parents would be taken aback if they found out how much she bribes her children. Ms.Whipple also thinks this 'bribery' mindset is a sign of the times for her generation.

Ms.Whipple has also found out that 'rewards' work best on getting her children to accomplish small tasks such as behaving when the kids have a baby sitter or when celebrating a good report card.

Of course, as is often the case, there is also a downside to giving too many rewards. Kirsten goes on to say rewarding, or bribing if you like, kids too much may give these kids a "sense of entitlement". This "sense of entitlement" is what has experts really worried.

Marcy Safyer, director of the Adelphi University Institute for Parenting, says there is a time a place for everything, and that this philosophy also applies to parents giving out rewards to their kids. Ms.Safyer points out that she would receive ice cream as a reward for behaving properly during church services, but she also goes on to say that parents may have lost the ability to effectively communicate that doing the right thing should be enough of a reward.

Robin Lanzi, a clinical psychologist and mother of four who's the research director at the Center on Health and Education at Georgetown University, thinks it may be unrealistic to think parents should not give their children a reward every now and then. However, Ms.Lanzi also notes the reward must match the achievement. She feels that giving a Nintendo Wii does not necessarily match the achievement of a child scoring a goal or two during a soccer match.

I also think this 'bribery' system may be more of a risk/reward system created by parents because of the times we live in. When I was growing up, parents never thought of spanking or slapping your hand when you misbehaved. This 'hot-stove' technique seemed to work well, at least on me, because kids knew if they did something bad their butt or hand would be 'hot' afterwards.

Now if your kid now mentions they were spanked or had their wrists slapped; I can guarantee you a call from the school principal or day care manager will coming along with a warning that the parent could be hauled to jail as a child abuser.

I can recall onetime may son and I were playing catch outside and he tripped over a curve and fell on the sidewalk, and because of this he received a nasty bruise on his forearm. The next day when I brought him to day care, one of the employees noticed this bruise, and for the next 15 minutes I had to explain how my son received this bruise, and this resulted in me getting a lecture stating I would be reported to child services and the police if my son ever came to day care with another bruise on his body.

I also give credit for children being able to 'sense' what their parents will and will not do when it comes to disciplining them for their behavior. If a kid knows the worst that will probably happen is a parent screaming at them, sitting them in a corner, or sending them to their room if they act badly; this kid may decide to act bad just to see if a better alternative action or 'bribe' will come from the parent. Therefore, children have been able to develop negotiating skills to get things they want. If a child knows the worse that is going to happen is a 'time-out' in the corner, this gives the child a leg-up on negotiating with their parents.

I have also noticed that as kids get older it is much easier to negotiate with them because they probably know there is more to loose. When my kids were younger, I will readily admit to 'rewarding' them for good report cards. Now when one of my kids bring home a bad report card, all I do is remove their gaming system or portable dvd player. When my kids protest this action as unfair, I can calmly explain to them that without good grades they will not be able to afford the 'luxuries' in life like gaming systems and portable dvd players, because they will not be able to a good enough job with bad grades.

So far, this negotiating tactic seems to be working. However, I am waiting for my kids to develop a counter tactic, but on the bright side my kids may also be developing some critical thinking skills that will help them later in life.

Read more about 'bribing' kids at Yahoo News

Democrats Try to Figure Out the Best Move On Iraq

2007-04-17T01:38:00.000-07:00

Facing the inevitable Bush veto on their Iraq funding bill, the Democrats must now decide what their next move will be in planning a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Despite the ever increasing unpopularity of the war in Iraq, there still remains a deep divide among Democrats regarding the funding of this war and leaving the troops out in the cold.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash, said that at some point the Democrats will reach their 'come-to-Jesus' point on whether Democrats do, or do not, give the troops the necessary funding required to continue their mission in Iraq.

Rep. McDermott is one of the 218 House members, mostly Democrats, who voted on March 23 to fund the troops, but this bill also contained a clause that would have the troops withdrawn from Iraq by September 2008. McDermott was reluctant to vote for the troop funding bill because he felt the $96 million request for the military would keep the war in Iraq going for another six months.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., launched an aggressive campaign amongst her fellow House Democrat for their vote in approving this troop funding bill because Rep. Pelosi thought this bill was the best way to end the war. Even with many Democrats being opposed to pulling out the troops, Pelosi got her wish when this bill narrowly passed the House by a vote of 218-212.

On March 29, the Democratic controlled Senate approved similar legislation that would require President Bush to start an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq with a goal of having all troops out of Iraq by March 2008. Again, this bill was narrowly passed by a vote of 51-47.

Members of the House and Senate are planning to meet on Tuesday to negotiate a final bill that will be some type of compromise bill that will please both very liberal Democrats like McDermott and conservative Democrat members like Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. Sen. Nelson is against any type of legislation that includes imposing any deadlines on troop movements.

Any type of compromise bill will still have to be approved by both the House and the Senate; however, most analysts view this as a mere procedural move with Democratic leaders not anticipating any serious opposition.

President Bush meanwhile said he does not have a problem with Republicans and Democrats debating about their differences in how best to handle the war in Iraq; however, President Bush feels it is not fair to have the troops put in the middle of this debate.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, said one option the Democrats are considering is a bill which will remove any withdrawal language with language that will tie funding the war based on certain Iraqi political progress milestones.

Senate majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, said that he was open to the idea mentioned by Sen. Levin, but Reid went on to say President Bush would not be receiving a bill with nothing on it about troop withdrawal.

Sen. Reid went on to say the Democratic controlled Congress is committed to funding the troops even though he is supporting legislation that would cut-off funding troop combat missions in Iraq after March 2008.

Sen. Reid went on to explain that there would still be funding for non-combat missions in Iraq that would include counterterrorism missions and missions to better train the Iraq security forces. However, Reid feels the time to continuing the funding of combat missions is coming to a close.

Read more about the Democrats Iraq plan at Yahoo News.

Democarts Tread Slowly on Medicare Cuts

2007-04-16T02:19:00.000-07:00

When Democrats won control of Congress last year, it seemed almost a foregone conclusion there would be cuts in the Medicare program because Democrats have a distaste for managed care health plans.

It is widely known that Democrats do not like health maintenance programs ( HMOs ), so most analysts felt it would only be a matter of time before Democrats began slashing away at the managed care portion of the Medicare program.

The Democrats are willing to cut managed care coverage from Medicare in order to give more funding for expanded health coverage for children who do not have health insurance.

However, when a warning was received from NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens about the possible adverse effects of cutting into Medicare would have on blacks and Hispanics; the Democrats decided to take a step back and rethink their plans on cutting any Medicare programs.

Iowa's GOP Sen. Charles Grassley summed up some of the politics behind the Democrats slow approach to slashing Medicare managed care programs by stating, ""There are a lot of blue states ... that have a lot of HMOs."

The Democrats had planned to slash as much as $50 billion over the next 5 years from the Medicare Advantage managed care program. Karen Ignagni, president of American Health Insurance Providers said once Democratic members of Congress starting reviewing these cuts; the less likely it became that Democrats would be willing to cut Medicare programs because of the impact it would have on the beneficiaries in their district.

Ignagni's group is lobbying for Congress to not make these cuts because of the huge impact it would have on seniors.

Rep. Fortney Stark, D-Calif., chairman of a House subcommittee on Medicare, feels health insurance companies that run the managed care program for Medicare are overpaid. Mr. Stark points to the fact that it cost $112 per member who is enrolled in an HMO or preferred provider organizations (PPOs) Medicare program as opposed to $100 per member in the traditional program.

Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., adds that right now Democrats feel Medicare managed care programs are nothing but 'slush' funds for health insurance companies running these programs.

Even though a vote on Medicare funding is still some months away, the consensus is the $50 billion cut from Medicare is all but dead. The Democrats did point out they may be able to make small savings in Medicare by slashing some fee for service programs.

Hilary O. Shelton, speaking on behalf of the NAACP, said that even a small cut in funding Medicare managed care programs would have a negative impact on seniors and minorities because they may not have access coordinated care and disease management services. Ms. Shelton also pointed out that seniors and minorities often suffer from more chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and some forms of cancer.

Rosa Rosales, national president of the League of Latin American Citizens, also came out to speak against cutting funding for Medicare managed care programs. Ms. Rosales said any cuts to these programs will threaten access to comprehensive benefits, result in higher out-of-pocket health care costs, and create financial barriers to care that will be particularly harmful for Hispanic seniors."

A memo circulated privately to all House Democrats stated that health insurance companies are more worried about turning a profit than finding less costly and more efficient ways to run managed care programs for Medicare. This private memo went on to say minorities usually do not enroll in managed care plans, and that minorities and low-income elderly are more apt to enroll in Medicaid. This memo also states that attempts to protect managed care payments from cuts would make it difficult to expand children's health coverage and increase benefits in the new Medicare prescription drug program.

Recent government statistics show more than 8 million beneficiaries are enrolled in managed care. This represents about 18 percent of the total Medicare population, and this number is growing. Congressional experts estimate that enrollment in Medicare managed care programs will reach 22 percent by next year.

Read more about the Democrats plan for Medicare at Yahoo News

Automakers look to Crash 'Virtual Humans'

2007-04-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

A group of nine international automakers are looking for a few good 'virtual people' to act as crash dummies.
Researchers have been asked by DaimlerChrysler AG, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp., Honda Motor Co., Hyundai Motor Co., Nissan Motor Corp., PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Renault SA, Takata Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and TRW Inc. to develop computer programs that involve crashing 'virtual humans' in order to help these automakers design better cars, trucks and SUV's.

The Global Human Body Models Consortium LLC believe these computer simulations will be better than crashing test dummies into walls and other other objects.

This group of automakers was set to announce the use of these computer simulations at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit. This international consortium of automakers have asked 40 research groups to send proposals so 5 test centers can be set-up to study crash effects on different parts of the body. Two of these centers will be studying full body crash effects.

These companies believe $18 million will need to be spent in developing these test sites, and these companies plan on sharing the cost of building these sites. This group of automakers is also hoping additional funding will come from the federal government and Michigan Economic Development Corp.

This consortium hopes to have the first 6 computer models up and working by March 2011. These first 6 simulations will involve small, medium, and large 'virtual' men and women.

Computer crash simulations are all ready being used by Ford Motor Company in developing vehicle interiors and restraint systems. The Ford simulations involve the use of a mid-sized adult male, but the nine group of international automakers hopes to speed up the development of simulations for different body types.

Even though these computer models are expected to bring in very sophisticated data, this automakers consortium still plans to back any data from these simulations up with physical test simulations.

Read more at Yahoo News

The Windy City Looks to Blow-in the Olympics

2007-04-15T02:51:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Olympic committee stuns the world by picking Chicago over Los Angeles as the U.S. choice to hold the 2016 Summer Olympic games.

Los Angeles was hoping to play host to their third Olympics, but in a surprise move it was decided Chicago would get the honor of bringing the Summer Olympic games back to the U.S.

Chicago now has to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC ) that it is the right choice to play host instead of other international cities that may include the likes of Madrid, Prague, Rome, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. And this may be no easy task because Chicago has all ready had to overcome USOC( United States Olympic Committee ) concerns about a lack of venues in which to hold the many different Olympic events. The IOC will choose the host city of the 2016 Summer Games in 2009.

The 11 member USOC board decided to go with Chicago despite Los Angeles having many Olympic venues set-up because L.A. hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. However, Chicago was able to sway the committees votes based mainly on the idea of developing venues along the cities lakefront area. This lakefront idea seemed to impress the committee because they think a lakefront venue will bring the needed 'magic' required of a city playing host to the world.

The Chicago bid centers around building a massive 80,000, $336 million temporary Olympic stadium in Washington Park. Chicago's bid also includes building a $1.1 billion lakefront village that would be built south of downtown Chicago which would be near the convention center.

The USOC has been looking for a suitable host site for the 2016 games ever since their 2012 site choice, New York City, lost out to London as host of the 2012 games. The USOC feels New York lost the bid because financing for a new stadium in Manhattan fell apart just weeks before the International voting took place.

This time around, the USOC required that any private financing had to be all ready in place, and that if the private financing fell through, then the local governments must be willing to pick-up the tab. Both Chicago and Los Angeles were able to meet this requirement.

The USOC feels Chicago has a good chance of winning the 2016 bid because 2016 will mark 20 years since the U.S. has played host to the Summer Olympic games. Atlanta was the last city to host the Summer games and that was in 1996.

USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth thinks Chicago falls in nicely into the IOC's idea of rotating the Summer Games on a geographical basis, so he feels 2016 will be the United States turn to host the Summer games. Ueberrouth feel this way because the IOC picked a European city for the Summer Olympics of (London) and an Asian city (Beijing) for 2008 as host cities for the next 2 Summer games. Another European City ( Athens ) played host to the 2004 Summer games.

Read more about this topic at Yahoo Sports

Researchers Want to Take Away the Internet

2007-04-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Researchers are mulling over the idea of scrapping the Internet and starting over; all with the government's blessing!!

With the Internet about two and a half years away from its fortieth birthday, serious thought is being given to the idea of scrapping the Internet and starting over.

Sept.2, 1969 is generally the date given to the birth of the Internet when UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock helped supervise the first exchange of meaningless test data between two machines. And now, forty years later the Internet has grown to be a worldwide phenomenon that a lot of people, and business' cannot live without in their daily lives.

Dipankar Raychaudhuri, a Rutgers University professor overseeing three clean-slate projects, said the Internet works quite well for many situations, yet the Internet was designed for completely different reasons than the way it is currently being used. Dr.Raychaudhuri states he is also amazed the Internet continues to work so well today.

Because of the technological advances in connection and computer processing speed, researchers think the time is now right for developers to rethink the underlying architecture of the Internet. This change in the Internets architecture could mean replacing networking equipment and rewriting software on computers to better channel future traffic over the
existing pipes.

Even Vinton Cerf, one of the Internets founding fathers as co-developer of the key communications techniques, said the exercise was "generally healthy" because the current technology "does not satisfy all needs."

The biggest challenge is any reconstruction of the Internet will be the ability to incorporate the needs of various constituencies. Developers will no longer be able to work quietly in a lab like they did in 1969. Instead, these developers will now need to balance the needs of business' because of the huge role the Internet now plays in how companies operate on a daily basis. In addition, law enforcement officials may also want to have a say on the new Internet configuration because of the wiretapping possibilities of the Internet.

The National Science Foundation wants to build an experimental research net known as GENI (Global Environment for Network Innovations). This Foundation is now funding several reconstruction projects at universities and other sites through the FIND ( Future Internet Network Design ) programs. Universities such as Rutgers, Stanford, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are involved in the FIND program. Also involved in the program is the Defense Department and other government agencies.

Government officials and researchers in the European Union are also exploring architecture reconstruction projects through their FIRE ( Future Internet Research and Experimentation) program.

One idea currently under discussion is to run a new network parallel to the current Internet that could possibly replace it, or perhaps incorporate aspects of the research that could lead to a major overhaul of the existing architecture.

These so called "clean-slate" efforts are still about ten or fifteen years aways from bearing fruit. Some analysts estimate it may cost up to a billion dollars to replace and/or modify the current software and hardware in the current Internet design. Congress will still have to come up with funding if any research is going to be successful, and with such a high price tag many elected officials may think twice about allocating money for any Internet 'upgrade'.

Advocates of the 'clean-slate' program point out that the researchers world of the '70's and '80's no longer meshes with the realities of the current commercial Internet because of the ever evolving dependence that worldwide commerce has on Internet usage. When the Internet was originally designed, this system was based on the trust users had with each other. But as usage of the Internet became more widespread, hackers and spammers slowly eroded away this user trust system.

Another fact advocates mention is the portability issue now in place with Internet users. Early researchers always thought Internet usage would be limited to fixed user stations. However, with wireless access growing more popular, researchers realize the need for better connection points and security need to be developed so users have more security and less 'black' spots in connectivity.

With the Internet be used for many diverse applications, clean-slate advocates feel it is no longer good strategy to just keep patching in workarounds because even small delays in transmitting data could possibly lead to life threatening situations. Just think of the doctor who is receiving surgical assistance via teleconferencing when all of a sudden there is a five to ten second delay, or even garbled transmissions, in input from another physician. This delay could be make a big difference in the outcome of this doctors surgery.

The ever increasing reliance on high speed connections, wireless access points, and the increased need for better security may mean the end to the Internet as we know it. But if developers around the world have their way, the Internet will come back a stronger, faster and more secure entity the world will need as remote work and commerce sites become more and more a reality in everyday life.

Read more about this topic at Yahoo News

Drew Bledsoe call it Quits

2007-04-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

After 14 years and 44,611 yards passing, quarterback Drew Bledsoe has decided to call it a career instead of playing back-up to Tony Romo, or trying to catch on with another team.

Now, this may not be the most earth-shaking news out here in the world today, but I still feel this is important enough to report on because Drew Bledsoe did have a stellar NFL career.

Drew Bledsoe is leaving the NFL as one of their all-time greats. With 251 touchdown passes to his name, Bledsoe ranks 13th in career touchdown passes, 7th in total passing yards, and 5th in completions with 3,839. Bledsoe was also a four time Pro-Bowl quarterback during his career.

Drew Bledsoe was a first round pick out of Washington State by the New England Patriots in 1993. Besides playing for the Patriots, Bledsoe also played for the Buffalo Bills and more recently the Dallas Cowboys.

During his retirement speech, Bledsoe said he felt fortunate to live his childhood dream of playing in the NFL. Bledsoe also feels lucky that he is able to retire with a smile on his face, and in relatively good health. Bledsoe also added that he was looking forward to spending falls watching his kids play instead of the other way around.

Drew Bledsoe was able to appear in a Superbowl when he led the 1996 Bill Parcels coached New England Patriots against the Green Bay Packers. Unfortunately for Bledsoe, Green Bay ended up winning the Superbowl.

When Bledsoe was injured in the second game of the 2001 season against the New York Jets, he was replaced by, at the time, little know quarterback Tom Brady who was a seventh round Patriots draft pick.

With Tom Brady able to guide the New England Patriots to the AFC title game, coach Bill Belichick, still went back to the veteran Bledsoe for this game. Even though Bledose was able to beat the Steelers and send New England into another Superbowl, coach Belichick decided to switch back to Brady for the Superbowl game.

And from this point on, the fate of Drew Bledsoe as leader of the Patriots was sealed because Tom Brady ended up leading the Patriots to a Superbowl victory over St. Louis.

Read more at Yahoo Sports

Did the Senate Get a Small Victory in the Stem Cell Debate?

2007-04-12T02:24:00.000-07:00

Did the Democratic Congress actually score a small victory over President Bush on Wednesday by lifting a key restriction on federal funding of stem cell research?

By a 63-34 vote, the Senate approved legislation to eliminate the nearly 6 year old federal funding restrictions on stem cells that were put in place by President Bush. However, many analysts feel that Congress will still not be able to come up with that one vote needed to override the President's promise to veto any federal stem cell funding legislation.

44 Democrats were joined by the 2 independents in the Senate along with 17 Republicans in voting for this very popular piece of legislation.

When the Democrats took control of the Senate last year, the Democrats vowed to lift the restriction on federal funding for stem cell research. But for now, it appears this very hot issue will be carried over to the general election voting in 2008.

Backers of stem cell research believe this type of research is necessary in finding cures for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and spinal cord injuries. On the other side, those against stem cell research point to the fact that stem cell research requires the destruction of one-day old embryos, and the opponents feel this is just another type of abortion.

None the less, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, hopes that President Bush will change his mind about vetoing legislation on federal funding of stem cell research. Sen.Harkin points out that roughly 400,000 unwanted embryos are in fertility clinics across America, and that all the proponents of stem cell research are asking is that instead of throwing these embryos away; why not allow these unwanted embryos be put to good use by using them in research.

Even though President Bush said he was going to veto this particular piece of stem cell legislation, President Bush did indicate he would be willing to sign into law a alternative stem cell bill that was passed 70-28 by the Senate which had strong Republican support.

The measure President Bush is looking to sign encourages research on certain types of stem cells, but this alternative stem cell bill still does not go past the 2001 restrictions. Critics are calling this bill a sham, but proponents still feel this bill would be better than nothing. Proponents also think this alternative bill is a step forward, albeit a small step.

The bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday would lift the federal funding restriction on stem cell research, but this bill would still prohibit the use of federal funding for creating embryos by cloning or other technology.

Backers of stem cell research do see a ray of hope for their cause. As Sen.Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, so succinctly put it, "President Bush is not going to be President forever."

Read more at Yahoo News

Game Over for 'Pacman", Henry

2007-04-11T02:47:00.000-07:00

The NFL came down hard on the terrible twosome of Adam 'Pacman' Jones and Chris Henry.

Sending a clear message about players off-the-field conduct, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a 1 year suspension to Tennessee Titans troublesome cornerback Adam 'Pacman' Jones. Troubled wide receiver Chris Henry of the Cincinnati Bengals received an 8 game suspension.

Because of their suspension, 'Pacman' Jones will lose his $1,292,500 salary for the 2007 season, and Henry will lose $217,500 as a result of his 8 game suspension. Not coincidentally, both Jones and Henry were teammates and starred for the University of West Virginia.

Commissioner Goodell also issued a written statement to both players warning them this is their last chance to save their careers. Goodell's written statement also warned both players to end their off-the-field antics if they still have any interest in returning to the NFL.

It should also be pointed out that Jones and Henry were disciplined under the 'old' NFL disciplinary policy. Mr. Goodell issued these penalties to Jones and Henry just before he announced a tougher league policy on players personal conduct. The new league policy will look for higher fines and longer suspensions for players, and this new policy is also taking aim at the owners of NFL teams who allow a players personal conduct to get out of control. The owners could be looking at a loss of draft picks or other penalties because of a players off-the-field misconduct.

Goodell went on to remind everyone that is a privilege and not a right to be an NFL player. Goodell also said that anyone involved with the NFL has to act responsibly and make the right decision regarding their personal conduct.

However, all is not lost for Jones because his suspension may be shortened depending upon the results of the Las Vegas stripe club shooting case. On the other hand, if the results of this case turn out worse than expected, Jones could be looking at a longer suspension.

This tougher player conduct policy will be put to the test again when the commissioners office, the players union, and the newly formed player advisory panel takes a look at Chicago Bears player Tank Johnson's case that involved Johnson being arrested by police for having an arsenal of weapons in his house.

Tank Johnson is currently in prison serving a four month sentence for being arrested because police raided his house and found six unregistered firearms. Commissioner Goodell plans to meet with Johnson once he is released from jail.

As for Jones, Jones' attorney Manny Arora did not have any comment on this decision by the NFL. However, Jones' mother, Deborah Jones, said: "I just pray that this can be changed. This is not fair for him. It's just not fair."

Read more at Yahoo Sports

New York Joins list of States for Feb.5 Presidential Primaries

2007-04-11T02:40:00.000-07:00

Not wanting to be on the bench when it comes to the 2008 Presidential primaries, New York State will join a list of other states by holding their primaries on Feb.5.

New York Democtratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed legislation on Monday that will move the New York primaries up one month from March 4 to Feb.5. This move by New York is setting the stage for a mid-winter showdown of Presidential candidates that could leave America facing the longest general election campaign in United States history.

With California and neighboring New Jersey having all ready moved their primaries up to Feb.5, New York felt they also had to make the move if they still wanted to be a 'player' in deciding who will be the Democrat and Republicans candidates for President.

A dozen more states are also considering moving up to the Feb.5 primary date that will set the stage for this day in February to become known as "Super-Duper Tuesday' and not just "Super Tuesday" as it has been known in the past. This date in February also comes just 22 days after the Iowa caucuses lead off the race for the 2008 White House.

This moves appears that it will favor Dem. NY Senator Hillary Clinton and former Rep. Mayor of NYC Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani's camp had been pushing Gov. Spitzer to move up the primary, and when the camp of Hillary Clinton gave their blessing to this move; the move became a done deal when the New York's Republican-led state Senate and Democratic-controlled Assembly last month passed a bill to approve this shift in the New York primary date.

Bill Gardner, the New Hampshire secretary of state, feels that all these states moving to Feb.5 could do more harm than good. Mr.Gardner thinks the race for each parties nomination could be over by this date, and because of this 'rush' to judgement the political process could be harmed.

Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, feels this will just give each political party more time to take 'pot shots' at each other candidates.

Chris Lehane, a veteran Democratic presidential campaign operative, feels with nearly every state moving up earlier in the year to hold primaries will make it very difficult for the second-tier candidates to get their message out because they may not be able to afford campaigning in all these states with the Feb.5 primary date.

Some political strategists suggests that having a super primary date will benefit a well oiled (lots of money) candidate who stumbles in the four earlier primaries. Other political analysts think holding a super primary so early in the year will cause the candidates to focus more on one region of the country.

The National Association of Secretaries of State shows Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah joining California, New Jersey and New York on Feb. 5.

If both the Democrat and Republicans parties do have their candidates selected by Feb.5, the American public will be able to look forward to 9 months of name calling, false ads, and more hate mongering than ever leading up to the general election vote in November.

Read more at Yahoo News

Schwarzenegger Throws Big Shadow over Presidential Race

2007-04-10T03:22:00.000-07:00

Arnold Schwarzenegger may not be able to run for President, but that does not mean the "Terminator" will not be playing a key role in who ends getting the presidential nomination for both parties.

Arnold would rather be in the action instead of in the wings, but because the US Constitution bars foreign born citizens from running for President that does not mean Gov. Schwarzenegger has not found other ways to be involved.

By moving California's presidential primaries from June to February 5th, Gov. Schwarzenegger has given California new status as a major force in determining which candidate will get a major leg up for their parties nomination.

In addition, Arnold plans to visit other early primary states to give speeches, but at this point exactly what the former action star plans to say or do remains up in the air. Many people feel that Gov. Schwarzenegger would have been a top, if not the top, choice for President because he is seen as the type of outsider the American public is looking for in a President.

Sacramento Bee editorial page editor Peter Schrag, an expert on California politics, feels the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger is in a very unusual position because outside of President Bush, Gov. Schwarzenegger may be the most well know politician in the country.

Matthew Baum, a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, adds that if Gov. Schwarzenegger was able to run for President, now would be a good time because Arnold has been able to successfully distance himself from the Republican Party.

As governor of California, Arnold will be able to direct media attention and fund raising efforts to whichever candidate he decides to back. So far, the California Governor has not decided who he will back because of his friendships with Sen. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. Not only is Gov. Schwarzenegger friends with these two candidates, these three also seem to have a lot in common politically because all three are seen as mavericks who do not always pull the Republican lines on issues as diverse as global warming, immigration, and the right to choose when it comes to abortions.

Gov. Schwarzenegger has been highly effective as a 'shadow' presidential candidate trying to gain national attention. Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist in San Francisco, feels Arnold is so popular because he is considered the anti-Bush. Lou Cannon, a biographer of Ronald Reagan, thinks another reason Gov. Schwarzenegger is popular is because of the fantasy appeal he has since Arnold cannot actually run for president.

With the national media never having to worry about a "President Schwarzenegger", many media people will be able to opine about how great a president Schwarzenegger would have been when these media people are comparing Arnold to past and/or current Presidents.

But however way you look at it, the 2008 Presidential race may just come down to who "The Terminator" has selected for termination from the run for the 2008 Presidency.

Read more about Da' Governor at Yahoo News

Teen Murderer, Now 18, of Grandparents Receives Plenty of Support

2007-04-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

Christopher Pittman was 12 years old when he shot his grandparents while they slept, but Janet Sisk still gets up at 5am to drive 100 miles to visit Christopher.

6 years ago, Christopher Pittman used a pump action shotgun to kill his grandparents, Joe and Joy Pittman, while they slept. After he finished killing his grandparents, he then torched their Chester County Home.

Pittman's trail was held four years later, and he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Christopher's lawyer had unsuccessfully defended him on the grounds that Christopher was high on Zoloft at the time.

Zoloft is a very strong anti-depressant that has carried the FDA's "black box" warning since 2004 which warns patients about possible side effects that include an increased risk of suicidal behavior in children.

Janet Sisk, director of the Juvenile Justice Foundation, describes Christopher has a shy, quiet and polite person.

Ms.Sisk spent this Easter weekend sitting across a table from Christopher at the maximum security prison in Columbia, SC were Christopher is being held. Janet also took the 100 mile trip from her home in Charlotte, NC to spend last Christmas Eve with Pittman.

Ms.Sisk is not the lone person who has spent time visiting Christopher. Over a half-dozen people make visits to Pittman because they are drawn to his case. One women has even flown from Michigan twice in the last year to spend time with Christopher. There are also hundreds of people who show their support in other ways such as promising to pay for college when he gets out of prison.

Ms.Sisk also sees Christopher now as more of a third son, and not the cold-blooded 12 year old killer that he was in 2001 when he killed his grandparents.

Pittman, who turns 18 on Monday, is now 6 feet 2 inches tall, but his supporters still see him as the quiet 12 year old that he was 6 years ago. Christoper was from from a juvenile facility to an adult prison 6 months ago, but he still does not consider himself an adult.

Teresa Strattard, the Michigan women who flew in to visit Pittman, says she felt a chord strike in her heart when she first saw pictures of the 12 year old Pittman on TV. Strattard has a son of her own, and she said that when she saw Christopher on TV it made her realize that maybe this could be her child, or anyone's child. This theme is a popular one that runs through the Pittman supporters camp.

Pittman supporters are hoping the South Carolina Supreme Court will overturn the conviction because of the outrage many people felt because Christopher was held in prison for fours years before he received a trial. Last October, many Pittman supporters met in Columbia to hear defense attorney Andy Vickery argue that his client's confession was influenced by Zoloft and his youth.

Christopher's mother has not been a part of his life for years, but Pittman's father, Joe, has traveled from Florida many times to visit his son. It was Joe's parents who were murdered by Christopher 6 years ago.

Barney Giese the prosecutor on this case declined to comment. However, Mr.Giese told the jury about the brutality of the murders and how Pittman told police that his grandparents "deserved it."

"I believe his grandparents would want us to give our love and compassion to their grandson and to fight for his freedom," Sisk said. "Those that really knew Joe and Joy Pittman and their kindness and love they had for their grandchildren, I'm sure, would agree."

Read more at Yahoo News

Wildlife Smugglers Willing to Test Airport Security

2007-04-08T03:29:00.000-07:00

Wildlife smugglers will do whatever is necessary to get their illegal products into the United States; including trying to bypass airport security measures.

Baggage handlers and inspectors of incoming passengers at Los Angeles International Airport probably have some good stories to tell about what they see people trying to bring into the United States.

Mixed in with the usual items such as laptops, lip gloss, and eye shadow there will also be found the sea turtle egg, rare butterflies, and elephant tusks. On one extreme occasion, a passenger was even found with some pygmy monkeys stuffed in their pants.

Because wildlife smuggling is the 2nd largest black market operation in the United States, these wildlife smugglers will take any measure necessary in order to grab a piece of this roughly 10 billion dollar a year industry.

With California being the most populated state in the U.S., this often makes California airports some of the busiest in the country. Unfortunately, it also makes California a prime spot for smugglers to try and bring illegal animals, and animal parts, into the U.S. This also makes LAX, the Los Angeles harbor and the San Francisco harbor some of the most popular entry points for smugglers to ply their trade.

Joseph O. Johns, the chief of the environmental crimes section in the United States attorney’s office in Los Angeles, has seen his office grow from one employee to eight employees over the last eight years because of the rapid increase in cases involving smugglers trying to sneak their poached products through Los Angeles entry points.

Mr.Johns's office has prosecuted cases ranging from the illegal importation of rare animals and plants to the killing of endangered species. One of these cases involved four people trying to market endangered dragon fish.

Another case in 2002 had a Palm Springs man tying to bring in Asian leopard cats through an airport. These rare cats were stuffed into his backpack. This is the same man who had the two lesser slow lorises, also known as pygmy monkeys, stuffed into his underwear. Mr.Johns thinks this man was successful in having these monkeys down his pants for the 18 hour flight from Asia because it is probably not airline policy to have their employees staring at a man's crotch.

However, if you think these are only individual people trying to make some big money, you may want to stop and think again. Mr.Johns points to a case were a pastor at a church, the Holy Spirit Association for Unification of World Christianity, in San Francisco was taking part in the illegal harvesting of baby leopard sharks from the San Francisco Bay. This pastor was using the money he received from the selling of these sharks to finance his ministries. One of these ministries included taking parishioners on a sea trip to learn about “ocean ethics".

The smuggling of wildlife not only breaks international treaties; these smuggling operations can also have unintended consequences for wildlife habitats in the United States.

“You might understand why we don’t want piranhas released in the Mississippi River,” Mr. Johns said.

And few people wish for the job of removing monkeys from underwear.

Read more about this story in the NY Times

102 Year Old Women Aces Golf Hole

2007-04-08T02:26:00.000-07:00

Let's see if Tiger Woods can beat this California lady when he turns 103!!

102 year old Elsie McLean of Chico became the oldest golfer ever to make a hole-in-one on a regulation golf course when she aced the par-3 100 yard fourth hole at Bidwell Park.

Elise thought she had lost her ball after she teed-off because she and her golfing partners could not see were the ball landed. The design of the par-3 fourth hole has a sloping green, and because of this, nobody knew the ball had actually gone into the cup.

While searching for her ball, Elise's friends, Elizabeth Rake and Kathy Crowder, decided to check the cup just on the off-chance the ball had happened to go into the cup. And sure enough, this is were Elsie's friends found her ball.

This was Elsie's first career hole-in-one, and she could not believe it when Elizabeth and Kathy told her were they found her ball.

Ms.McLean used a driver while teeing off on this 100 yard hole.

Elsie now becomes the oldest person in the golfing records books to record a hole-in-one. Harold Stilson was 101 years old when he recorded his hole-in-one at Deerfield Country Club in Florida.

Ms.McLean has been featured in golf magazines before, and now she will be making an appearance on the April 24th airing of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" to mark this special accomplishment.

"For an old lady," she said, "I still hit the ball pretty good."

So for you golf duffers out there like me, it looks like there may still be hope for us to one day record that elusive hole-in-one.

Read and see more about this story at Yahoo News

Tricky Ricky Williams wants back in the NFL

2007-04-07T02:08:00.000-07:00

Apparently, Ricky Williams prefers the NFL over the CFL. But the question is, does the NFL want another 'colorful' player who has a habit of causing more off the field headlines than on the field headlines.

Free spirited Ricky Williams has applied to the NFL for reinstatement in hopes of giving the NFL life one more chance.

Williams, who turns 30 in May, was suspended under the NFL's substance abuse policy for one year has sent a letter to the NFL asking the league to let him rejoin the Miami Dolphins. During his one year suspension, Williams was playing football for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League ( CFL ).

The Miami Dolphins have yet to comment on Williams request to rejoin the team because they are still waiting to see if the NFL will approved Ricky's reinstatement request.

Williams, a former Heisman Trophy winner at Texas, was originally drafted by New Orleans when then-coach Mike Ditka gave up all his picks in the 1999 draft to get his rights. He was traded to Miami for two first-round draft picks after the 2001 season and rushed for 1,853 yards for the Dolphins in 2002 and 1,372 the next season.

While with the Dolphins, Williams suddenly decided to retire at the start of the 2004 NFL season, but he came back to play a back-up role to Ronnie Brown in 2005.

Williams was suspended by the NFL on four other occasions because his drug test came back positive for marijuana, a substance Williams freely admits to using. The last failed drug test which caused Williams to be suspended for one year was for a substance other than marijuana, and may have been linked to Ricky's interest in holistic medicine.

Ricky's agent, Leigh Steinberg, said Ricky has been teaching yoga in California since his return from the CFL.

Read more about Ricky at Yahoo Sports

Forecaster to Al Gore--An Inconvenient Truth Indeed

2007-04-07T01:33:00.000-07:00

Dr. William Gray, one of the countries top hurricane predictors, slams Al Gore's stance on Global Warming.

Dr. William Gray thinks Al Gore has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to the climate. Dr.Gray feels Gore is just a "a gross alarmist", and that Gore is just one of those people who like to preach about the end of the world.

Al Gore was on a flight from Washington, D.C. to Nashville, and he did not have an immediate response to Dr. Gray's comments.

Gray, an emeritus professor at the atmospheric science department at Colorado State University, has long railed against the theory that heat-trapping gases generated by human activity are causing the world to warm.

For the last 24 years, Dr. Gray has become America's top hurricane predictor. Lately, Dr. Gray's mentee, Philip Klotzbach, has been taking over much of Gray's hurricane forecasting work.

Dr. Gray issued his statement on the same day the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change approved a report stating the world will face serious consequences unless all nations agree to adapt some sort of climate change policy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report states some of the consequences the world may face are shortages in food and water along with a possibility of increased flooding and other catastrophic weather events.

Dr. Gray believes the recent trend of higher hurricane activity is due to a multi-decade trend of high and low hurricane periods that relate more to ocean patterns instead of global warming. Dr. Gray went on to say he believes the ocean temperatures are going to drop in the next 5 to 10 years. A decrease in ocean temperatures will cause less hurricanes to develop because the formation of a hurricane relies on warm ocean water.

However, Kerry Emanuel, an MIT professor, and a rival to Dr. Gray feels Gray is very incorrect in his belief that global warming is not the cause of more hurricanes. Dr. Emanuel points out there is more than enough evidence showing the world is indeed getter hotter.

For now, it appears the debate about global warming will go on probably without any major change in policies by the world's nations. Let's hope Dr. Gray is right in his theories about global warming because if he is wrong the world may indeed be heading down the wrong path to climate change.

Read more at this debate at Yahoo News

Is America Ready for HealthCare Reform-Sen.Obama Thinks So

2007-04-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

Feeling confident after successful fund-raising trips;Sen. Barack Obama feels Americans are now primed for discussions on major health care reform.

With Sen. Barack Obama's camp reporting that his campaign has brought in around 25 million, Sen.Obama feels now is the time for Presidential candidates to start serious debates about the future of health care in America.

Sen.Obama states his campaign was able to bring in so much money because his campaign has been receiving contributions as small as $10 to $25. His campaign feels these donations are coming from the 'small' voices in America that are looking for radical change in the way our government is currently treating the American people.

Chirs Taylor,spokesman for the RNC (Republican National Committee ), said he hopes this sudden infusion of money will help Sen.Obama complie a more specific health care plan that Sen.Obama can share with the American people.

Sen.Obama responded by saying that he was moving slowly because he wants to make sure the required political support is there before any health care plan can be developed. Sen.Obama also notes that every time there is a Presidential election, all the hopefuls trot out these great health care plans only to see these plans dissolve because of the lack of political support needed to push the health care agenda forward.

Sen.Obama said is not tied down to any one way to fix health care, but he does seem to feel that some type of universal coverage may be effective in taking out the inefficiencies out of the current health care system. Sen.Obama thinks any health care plan needs to be centered around preventive programs, such as weight control. Sen.Obama feels the current status quo of health coverage is no longer an option, and that it is time to move forward with a new approach.

Obama feels a single payer health care plan similar to that run by Canada would be a good idea if he had to start a plan from scratch. However, Sen.Obama notes such a plan may not be a good idea because of the complex and established system of employer-based health coverage currently in place. However, Obama also points out that half the Americans are all ready covered by government run programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Sen.Obama is hoping to seek a consensus for a new system by holding small invitation-only health care meeting across the country to gauge public opinion on what is the best way to reform health care. Sen.Obama also rejected the idea that taxes will have to be raised in order to support any revamped health care system.

At a current meeting of 90 people in Mason City, Iowa, Sen.Obama said he was surprised to hear how many people were unwilling to change the current system of health care.

Doctor Janice Kirsch said the issue of health care reform is a lot more complex than just letting the government run health care for all Americans. Dr.Krisch notes there is just not a simple answer to such a complex problem.

On the other end, Mason City resident Kandee Bartholomew states her lack of health coverage has caused her to think carefully before taking on any activity because she is afraid of injury.

Wherever you stand on this issue, it does seem that some type of health care reform is needed to ensure all Americans have some type of coverage because Americans should not have to worry about taking part in a physical activity because it may cause injury.

Read more at Yahoo News

China to U.S.--We did not Kill Your Pets!!

2007-04-06T01:58:00.000-07:00

China denies they have any role in the deaths of pets in the United States.

The United States has blamed wheat gluten imported from China as the cause of pet food contamination that caused the death of many pets across the U.S.

Differing statements on whether China is even exporting wheat gluten to the U.S. is pointing to any ever bigger problem in the regulation of exports from China because China has a horrible record of food safety.

The Chinese issued a statement through their official newspaper of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine stating China does not have any part in the poisoning of pets in the United States. This is the Chinese agency that monitors the export of food, animals and farm products.

A March 29, 2007 statement issued on the China Inspection and Quarantine Times website denies China was exporting wheat gluten to the United States. However, this statement seems to contradict a statement released this week by two employees at the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co who claim wheat gluten has been exported to the United States.

The U.S. FDA has determined the tainted gluten came from Xuzhou Anying, but reports out of China claim this company has only been selling gluten within China. Imports of wheat gluten from Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology were stopped by the FDA last week when melamine, a chemical found in plastics and pesticides, was found in gluten made in the eastern Chinese city of Xuzhou.

Adding to the confusion, another report out of China claims the tainted gluten was not even manufactured by Xuzhou Anying. Instead, this report claims the tainted gluten was bought by Xuzhou Anying from companies in neighboring provinces.

Anying produces and exports more than 10,000 tons of wheat gluten a year, according to its Web site, but only 873 tons were linked to tainted U.S. pet food, raising the possibility that more of the contaminated product could still be on the market in China, or abroad.

Read more at Yahoo News

PSA Test May Not Help in Discovering Prostate Cancer

2007-04-05T04:33:00.000-07:00

The widely used PSA test men are told to get may not be all that good in discovering Prostate Cancer.

A report in the April 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute authored by Swedish researcher Dr.Katja Fall indicates PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen ) blood testing may be a poor tool for use in men who do not have to be treated for prostate cancer but are placed under "watchful waiting" by their doctors.

Because prostate cancer progresses slowly, doctors often use the 'watchful waiting' method when a tumor is found in the prostate. A rise in the PSA level usually indicates a tumor has gone from benign ( harmless ) to malignant (dangerous ).

This study led by Dr.Fall involved 267 men who were found to be in the early stages of prostate cancer. These men were not treated for their cancer, but they were closely followed to see if their cancer was progressing. This study was performed over a 2 year period.

Initial PSA values and the rate of change were associated with later development of cancer, the researchers reported. However, PSA readings were found to "perform poorly in distinguishing between those who develop a lethal prostate cancer from those at low or no risk of disease progression," they wrote.

Dr. Anthony D'Amico of Harvard Medical School was quick to criticize these findings. Dr.D'Amico said this study has far too short of a follow-up period in which to make solid conclusions about the PSA test. It should be noted that Dr.D'Amico led a team in which his research showed the PSA is a good test in predicting serious trouble. Dr.D'Amico's reasearch was performed 2 years ago.

Dr.D'Amico feels that because only 13 percent (34 ) of the men in Dr.Fall's study died from prostate cancer; a conclusion about what would happen to the other 87 percent of men in this study would not be valid.

Dr. Fall countered by saying his study shows a non-PSA test needs to be developed as another tool in helping doctors decide the best treatment plan for their patients.

Read more at Yahoo News

Next Time You Need a Tooth Filled, Ask Your Dentist for a Filling with Drugs

2007-04-04T03:20:00.000-07:00

For those of who you do not, or cannot, take pills, maybe having a tooth filled with a dosage of your medicine is the answer to your prayers.

Research is being done in Europe and Israel in finding a way to create a device that will deliver a drug dosage from a person's tooth. This research is being funded by the European Union.

The device, called the IntelliDrug, is supposed to go into a person's mouth. This device is supposed to deliver a certain dosage at specific times thus ensuring a patient is receiving the correct dosage at the correct time.

The goal of the researchers it to make this device small enough to fit into the mouth as a replacement tooth. Researchers think a replacement molar would be best for this device because molars are in the back of the mouth.

Dr. Andy Wolff, an Israeli dentist who initially came up with the concept, states patients usually take their prescribed medicines only about half the time they are supposed to take them. He believes this device will help patients take the proper medicine dosage because it will take away the inconvenient process of having a patient get up in the middle of the night.

Wolff's company, Saliwell Ltd., and German microelectronics institute HSG-IMIT are two of 15 organizations involved with the development of the device. The project is funded by a program that promotes cooperation between EU nations and Israel. The organizations include universities, companies, research institutes and hospitals. One notable name is Spanish telephone company Telefonica SA, which is helping with the communications technology side of the development.

Dr.Wolf states the mouth is the perfect place for such a device because the mouth is easy to access, and the drug can be sent directly into the patients bloodstream by way of the lining in a person's cheek.

In addition, Dr.Wolf feels that saliva, when mixed with the drug from this device, will be a more consistent carrier for a drug instead of taking a pill every 4 to 6 hours.

The IntelliDrug consists of a stainless steel housing, pump and custom valves to regulate the drug flow, a microprocessor, batteries, and a reservoir for the drug pill. Right now, this device is about the size of two teeth. n order for the drug to be delivered, this device has to be hooked to the side of a persons teeth so that it can hug the cheek. The developers are still trying to come up with a way to make this device smaller.

It is believed this device will help people who suffer from diabetes because these people have to take regular insulin injections in controlling their blood-sugar level. So, instead of having to inject insulin into their veins, a diabetes patient could wear the IntelliDrug when they need a dose of their insulin.

Drill more into this subject at Yahoo News

Techies Get to Work on Greener Energy

2007-04-04T02:34:00.000-07:00

Instead of looking for the next cool technological device, the "techies" in Silicon Valler are looking for ways to make energy more green.

The techies in Silicon Valley have long been known to have some of the best brains in the world, but instead of trying to start a new 'Silicon Valley' revolution, these people have turned their attention to "greener" energy.

The venture capitalists in this area have been investing capital in projects that include solar power, fuel cells, wind energy, biofuels, new lighting microchips, "smart" power grids, and other innovative energies.

Vinod Khosla, a top venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, states the alternate energy source sector is a very under researched industry, and this means investing in companies involved with alternate energy research is easy to get into.

Mr.Khosla points out that oil and coal companies spend virtually no money in research and development of greener energy. He also notes that most money spent by these companies in developing alternate energies is mainly a token gesture.

Regis McKenna, a veteran marketing strategist who helped launch Apple Inc., Electronic Arts, and Genentech, among others, thinks it could take years before "cleaner" energy companies can translate their research into commercially viable products.

McKenna likes to remind people that the computer's brain, the microprocessor, was developed in 1971. However, it took chip processing giant Intel another 10 years before they found a market for microprocessors in the computer sector.

Cleantech Venture Network, an industry trade group, states that investment in Silicon Valley clean energy ventures was around 500 million dollars last year. This amount includes not only venture capital but also corporate and some debt financing. Cleantech estimates that $3.6 billion was invested across the United States and Europe. However, it should be noted that most money, roughly $883.6 million, for clean energy technology is coming from U.S. investors.

More new spending on clean technology is still outpacing money spent in sectors such as computers, health care or retail start-ups, but the money being invested only adds up to about 3.7 percent of the overall market.

With more and more people being concerned about the effects that carbon based fuels is having on the world's environment, investors seem willing to give the alternate energy sector a chance to see what these companies can do with some financial backing. Hopefully, with help from the 'super' brains in Silicon Valley, these 'green' energy companies will find a solution that will lessen the worlds dependence on carbon-based fossil fuels.

Read more at Yahoo News

Policiticans Race for Your Votes in Hybrid Cars

2007-04-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

When it comes to getting votes, policiticans will stop at nothing to get yours even if this means starting the engine on a hybrid car.

In the race for getting elected, politicians will try or do just about anything to get, or stay, in office even if that means driving from place to place in environmentally healthy cars.

With more and more Americans looking at ways to save the environment and reduce their dependence on oil and gas, politicians have taken to driving hybrid cars and vehicles to show the American public they are the ones to choose in the upcoming 2008 elections.

Democratic candidate John Edwards has always made it a point to remind people that his family has switched from that ever popular, gas guzzling SUV to a more environmentally safe hybrid car.

John Edwards also has just recently announced that his 2008 Presidential campaign will become even more environmentally friendly by doing what they can to limit energy usage. Edwards campaign team also plans on buying "carbon offsets" in an effort to balance his use of carbon emissions he may use during his run for the Presidency.

However, if you think Edwards is the only one trying to 'green up' his campaign for office you would be wrong, because when it comes to the game of winning votes, politicians tend to follow the "'monkey see monkey do" philosophy.

Not wanting to fall behind her Democratic rivals, former first lady, and current Senator from NY, Hillary Rodham Clinton has requested that the Secret Service drive her around in a fleet of cars that includes Ford hybrid models. It should be noted the Mrs.Clintion often drives in vehicles owned and operated by the Secret Service.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama came out with a statement saying he often drives a flex fuel vehicle that can burn both fossil fuel gas and the cleaner ethanol and gasoline mixed fuel.

The Republicans are evn trying to get onto the hybrid car bandwagon in an effort to stop the Democrats from cornering the environmentally safe votes market.

Republican Mitt Romney made his announcement for his Presidential run while standing in front of a Ford Escape. The Escape is Ford's hybrid SUV model. While on the campaign trail, Romney likes to point out the fact his father, George, once headed AMC (American Motors Corp.). Romney notes the AMC Rambler was the first American car made with fuel efficiency in mind.

Romney may have a leg up on his fellow Republicans because it appears his competition is still struggling with this environmentally sound idea of having cars run on non-fossil fuel sources.

Republican Rudy Giuliani gave a an energy policy speech in New York last summer that included a pitch for the use of hybrid cars; however, Giuliani had his Cadillac Escalade, an SUV that gets about 13 mpg, idling outside for him. It should be noted that Mr.Giuliani did manage to walk to his next campaign stop instead of hopping into is gas guzzling SUV.

Even Senator John McCain has been slow to warm up to the idea of alternate fuel cars, because he is often seen driving around in a Cadillac CTS, which gets city mileage in the 15-17 mpg.

With more and more people becoming ever increasingly concerned about a safer environment, and also fuel conversation, maybe these politicians driving around in more fuel efficient, and environmentally friendly, vehicles will bring more attention to the subject of energy and environmental conservation.

Read more at Yahoo News

NY Lab Gets Big Results in Pet Food Recalls

2007-04-03T01:46:00.000-07:00

Until now, the New York State Food Laboratory had been quietly going about their business in testing foods sold at grocery stores. But, the amenity is now gone thanks to dogs and cats.

The quiet and nondescript life these scientists had by working at this lab is gone because 10 of their researchers made the stunning breakthrough on tainted pet food that is now rocking the country.

This team of researchers were the ones who made the crucial finding that a banned rodent poison called aminopterin may have been killing peoples pet cats and dogs.

The New York State Food Laboratory is part of the Food Emergency Response Network. This network is a federally supported group that has expertise in testing for chemical, biological, and radiological hazards in food and food products.

This lab is staffed by roughly 40 chemists, microbiologists and technicians that is one of the few state level labs capable of doing this testing. This lab regularly tests foods for pesticides.

When Cornell University was unable to figure out what was wrong with the tainted pet food, the scientists sent some samples of the tainted pet food to the New York State Food Laboratory located in Albany, NY. The chemists at this lab quickly got to work on numerous tests to eliminate hundreds of causes ranging from heavy metals to deadly fungus.

In just a matter of days, these researchers were able to pinpoint aminopterin, a derivative of folic acid, as the cause behind the tainted pet food. Aminopterin was once used to induce abortions, Aminopterin is also used in cancer research.

The scientists at this lab brought over 100 years of experience to this case, and they have long gone about their business with little fanfare. However, all that has change because of the stellar work these researchers did in quickly determining the cause of tainted pet food.

Read more at Yahoo News

Mets Run to World Series Title Starts Tonight

2007-04-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

Tonight at 8:05 PM, the NY Mets will start their run to the 2007 World Series Championship by going to St. Louis and playing a Cardinals team that beat them in the 2006 National League Championship Series.

With the Mets falling one game short of the World Series last year, they will start the 2007 season with 41 year old Tom Glavine taking the mound tonight.

Tom Glavine may be facing his last year in baseball, but if this is the case Glavine would like nothing better than to end his stellar, and most certain, Hall of Fame career by winning another World Series. Glavine won 15 games last year, and if he wins more than 10 games this year, he will have more than 300 wins in his career.

Hitting will not be a problem for this 2007 Mets team. The dynamic duo of Jose Reyes and David Wright will be back again to terrorize National League pitching. Carlos Beltran, Carols Delgado, Moises Alou, and Shawn Green will also be in the line-up for a batting order that should score 900 or more runs this year. Paul LoDuca and Jose Valentin will round up this hard-hitting line-up.

The Mets better plan on scoring lots of runs because when your team is anchored by two pitchers over 40’s; then your team may also give up some runs this year. Joining Tom Glavine in the pitching rotation this year will be over 40 (perhaps maybe even older) Orlando Hernandez. Hernandez won 11 games last year, but he seemed to struggle with the normal aches and pains suffered by a 40 year old major league pitcher. The Mets hope Hernandez can return to his ‘Yankee’ days pitching form when he was leading the cross-town rivals to World Series Championships.

John Maine did a good job filling in for injured star Pedro Martinez last year, and he will be looking to improve upon his 3.60 ERA, 6 win season from a year ago. The number four starter looks to be up and down pitcher Oliver Perez who was acquired in a trade from the Pirates last year. Perez was horrible during the regular season last year by posting a 6.55 ERA. However, Perez gave the Mets a good lift in the playoffs while filling in for Hernandez. Mets minor league phenom Mike Pelfrey will get a chance to secure the fifth spot in the rotation. If Pelfrey is not up to the task, former Dodger star Chan-Ho Park will be waiting in the wings.

The New York bullpen provided much needed relief pitching last year, and was one reason the Mets made the NL Championship Series. However, with Duaner Sanchez, Guillermo Mota, and Chad Bradford gone, the bullpen will have to relief on Aaron Heilman, rookie Joe Smith, and Park to hold leads until they can get to closer Billy Wagner so he can finish out games. Pedro Feliciano and Scott Schoeneweis will also be on hand to offer bullpen help.

The National League East is shaping up to be one the best, if not the best, leagues in all of baseball. The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies both made off season moves that make them look like serious contenders to knock-off the Mets. Add into this mix a Florida Marlins team that has a penchant for winning the World Series every five years; and you can see the Mets will really have their work cut out for them this year. The Washington Nationals, well, they are the Washington Nationals. What can you say about the National except wait ‘til ’08.

Willie Randolph may have to play mix and match with his pitching this year, but if he can have the Mets in the race until August, the Mets may be able to make a title run when a, hopefully, healthy Pedro Martinez returns to the pitching rotation.

My guess is Randolph will keep the Mets competitive, and somehow the Mets will win 93 games in ’07. This win total should be enough to win the NL East, or 93 wins should be enough to give the wildcard spot to the Mets. And as the Cardinals showed last year, once you are in the playoffs, anything can happen.

New Brain Study May Aid in Treating ADD

2007-04-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

Researches may have figured out how the brain is able to filter when something is important enough to focus on as opposed to just being a distraction.

Researchers have discovered that there are two physically different brain regions involved when the brain is filtering information to determine what is important enough to focus on as opposed to something just being a distraction. Since two different brain regions are involved, it may be possible to treat ADD by treating whichever brain region is not working properly instead of treating the whole brain.

Scientists have always thought there were different regions involved in this thought process, but until now scientists have been focusing studies only on one brain region at a time.

Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led this study that involved hooking monkeys up to wireless electrodes to see how their brain's reacted to different stimuli.

When the monkeys voluntarily concentrated, the so-called executive center in the front of the brain — the prefrontal cortex — was in charge. But when something distracting grabbed the monkeys' attention, that signal originated in the parietal cortex, toward the back of the brain.

The electrical activity in these two areas began vibrating in synchrony as they signaled each other. But it was at different frequencies, almost like being at different spots on the radio dial.

This study proved to be a good first step in finding out how different brain regions react to stimuli in order to determine when something needs to be focused on as opposed to something just being a distraction.

There are still some questions that need to be answered about the interactions between when a certain brain region signals it is time to pay attention. The biggest question may be--How does one region of the brain signal to other regions that it is time to start paying attention as opposed to signaling that something is just a distraction.

Read more at Yahoo News

Mario and Sonic the Hedge Hog form an Alliance

2007-03-31T03:32:00.000-07:00

You may want to do your holiday shopping early this year because this may be the 'hot' game your kids, or kids at heart, may be asking for this year.

Just in time for the holiday season, Nintendo and Sega are joining forces to bring Mario, Luigi, Sonic, and Tails along with others to compete in their own Olympics. This video game will be sold for use on the DS and Wii platform.

There has always been rumors that someday these to video heroes would team up, but until now both Nintendo and Sega could not figure out a way to make such a collaboration work.

Sega was able to secure the licensing rights to the 2008 summer games, and Sega will be designing this game with oversight coming from Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto.

These two companies are hoping to take advantage of the Wii's motion-sensitive controller to create a fairly physical, interactive game that has not yet been imagined for use on the DS or Wii. Both companies plan on revealing more in the coming months, but so far we know this game will feature Olympic events that revolve around running, swimming and table tennis.

With kids being more interested in video games than outside activity, and with the rise of obesity among children, maybe this game will be the perfect marriage between gaming and some type of physical activity.

I guess we will just have to see if these two gaming companies can come up with something that gives our video addictive children some type of much needed physical activity, because it appears most children are more interested in staying inside to play video sports games than going outside and actually running around and the playing the sport on a field.

Read more at Yahoo News

Ian Thorpe Fails Doping Test??

2007-03-31T02:43:00.000-07:00

Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe fights allegations that he failed a 2006 doping test.

The Australian swimming committee is racing to defend five-time retired Olympic champion Ian Thorpe against doping charges as reported in the French paper L'Equipe.

The sport's world governing body FINA has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport on a doping test without naming the athlete concerned.

Glenn Tasker, executive director for Australian swimming, is vehemently defending Thorpe against these allegations by stating that anyone who knows Ian knows the type of person Ian is, and that Ian is very much opposed to any type of performance-enhancing drug.

Mr.Tasker goes on to say that at the moment there is not even positive test, and that the finding right now is an adverse finding. Mr.Tasker feels that leaking this report about Ian Thorpe is a gross violation of Ian's privacy, and all athletes privacy, because the failed drug test has yet to be linked to any one swimmer.

Jacco Verhaeren, the coach of Thorpe's rival Pieter van den Hoogenband, also came to the defense of Thorpe. Mr. Verhaeren issued a statement saying he is very angry because somebody's career is being ruined over a test that has yet been proved to be a positive test, but the results were still leaked to the media.

Mr.Verhaeren states that Ian is a very honest person, and Jacco feels, that to him anyway, Ian is not under suspicion. Considering Mr.Verhaeren is the coach of a rival to Ian, you would think he would come out and issue a statement condemming Mr.Thorpe as a cheater. Instead, Mr.Verhaeren is standing behind Ian until there is a more complete investigation into this doping allegation. It should be noted that having a rival coach stand by you speaks volumes about the character and integrity that Ian must have within the international swimming community.

Thorpe is Australia's most successful Olympic athlete with his five golds at the Sydney and Athens Games and is also the only person to win six gold medals in one world swimming championships at the 2001 event in Japan.

More on this story can be found at BBC Sports

WTO wants U.S. to Allow Offshore Internet Betting

2007-03-31T02:02:00.000-07:00

The WTO has rebuffed the U.S. for their ban on offshore internet betting because it is unfair to offshore casinos.

The three panel World Trade Oranganization (WTO) handed down a 215 page decision stating the U.S. has failed to change their ban on offshore internet betting which may lead to possible commercial sanctions against the U.S.

Antigua and Barbuda brought a compliant against the U.S. stating U.S. policy against offshore internet gambling was costing small Caribbean islands a lucrative source of income.

The WTO found the U.S. was not applying the offshore internet gambling ban equally to American internet sites that offered remote betting on horse racing causing U.S. operators to have an unfair advantage over their competitors.

Two years ago the WTO did side with the U.S. on this issue because the WTO recognized the right of the U.S. to ban offshore betting as means of protecting public order and morals.

Gretchen Hamel, a spokeswoman for the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, issued a statement saying the WTO compliance panel felt the United States did not do enough to comply with recommendations concerning offshore internet betting. Ms.Hamel went on to say she feels this current finding did not undermine the favorable result the United States received in 2005.

To avoid sanctions, the United States would have to allow Americans to gamble on foreign internet sites, or eliminate exceptions to off-track horse betting, which includes internet betting, as outlined in the 1978 Interstate Horseracing Act.

Antigua filed their case against the U.S. in 2003 stating this ban on offshore internet gambling violated trade commitments the United States has as a member of the WTO. The U.S. disagreed, stating the Uruguay Round of global trade talks clearly intended to exclude gambling.

There are 32 licensed Antiguan internet gambling sites, and these sites employ about 1,000 people. These sites bring in approximately 130 million dollars to the Antiguan economy every year. Before the U.S ban on internet gambling, these online casinos brought in roughly one billion dollars of revenue.

Read more at Yahoo News

Fido, The Bomb Sniffing Robot

2007-03-30T02:12:00.000-07:00

The military is set to break out a bomb sniffing robot that will help soldiers better detect roadside bombs.

With roadside bombs accounting for nearly 70 percent of U.S. military deaths, the military announced that Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot Corp. will begin supplying the military with 100 of it's Fido bomb sniffing robots within the next few months.

Fido is the first robot that comes equipped with with an integrated explosives sensor. The bomb-sniffing sensor is part of the robot, with its readings displayed on the controller along with camera images. Otherwise, a soldier would have to approach the suspect object with a sensor or try to attach it to a robot. The new robot has a 7-foot manipulator arm so it can use the sensor to scan the inside and undercarriage of vehicles for bombs.

For the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is currently using around 5,000 robots to perform different missions in a effort to better safeguard the troops. In 2004, only 150 robots were being used in the field. The U.S. government is looking to spend approximately 1.7 billion dollars to bring more robots to the field. This spending is up from the 100 million that was spent in 2004.

These bomb sniffing robots will be especially helpful in situations where soldiers may suspect there is a bomb but are not sure because they may need a better understanding of what scenario the terrorists are plotting.

These robots do have some drawbacks such as indicating a false positive because of bomb residue all ready in the area. Another drawback is that every move the robot makes has to be controlled by a solider operating the controls.

Despite any limitations these robots may have, these robots have to better than what the soldiers are presently doing to detect possible bombs. Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Baker, 26, of Olean,NY describes on way soldiers currently check for bombs is by standing as far away from a suspected bomb as possible, and then dragging a rope with hooks attached over the suspected bomb hoping this action will either disable or explode the suspected bomb.

If these robots can save even one soldier's life, than any money spent by the government to get these robots into action is money well spent.

Read more at Yahoo News

China Looks to Crack into U.S. Cell Phone Market

2007-03-30T02:06:00.000-07:00

I wondered what the Chinese were going to do with all their cell phones that had porn on them.

China is looking to crack into the very competitive U.S. cell phone market by introducing two of their more fashionable phones at the 2007 CTIA industry gathering.

U.S. consumers may know the name Haier as a leader in home appliances, but now this air conditioner making company will be introducing two handsets through an unusual sales channel.

The two handsets, named Elegance and Sterling, are compatible with the cellular networks operated by AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA but won't be sold by any service providers. Instead, they will be sold "unlocked" through retailers, meaning that customers of those companies will be able to remove the small "SIM" cards from the battery compartments of their current phones and then slip them into the Haier handsets.

Unlocked phones are common in Europe and other markets, and this tends to make these types of phones more expensive. Cell phones carriers in the U.S. tend to offer up front discounts on phones as along as the customer commits to a one or two year service contract.

The Elegance handset, 1.25 inches wide and 3.5 inches long with rounded edges, went on sale through certain retailers last week, priced at about $250. The Sterling, priced at about $280, is slated to arrive in June.

No further details have been issued about what these phones will be equipped with, but since China has been cracking down on porn usage by their users, one option may be free porn for people who are into that type of media.

Read more at Yahoo News

Does Green Tea Help Keep Aids in Check?

2007-03-29T02:10:00.000-07:00

A new research study suggests that Green Tea may help in the fight against AIDS.

A substance called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) may help the body's immune system fight AIDS. When EGCG binds to immune system cells, this binding process makes it difficult for HIV to take hold as it usually does.

Researcher Professor Mike Williamson, of the University of Sheffield, said: "Our research shows that drinking green tea could reduce the risk of becoming infected by HIV, and could also slow down the spread of HIV.

This research is still in the preliminary stage, and the scientists involved in this study still warn that Green Tea will not be a cure for AIDS. However, these scientist feel that Green Tea can be a valuable asset in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

There is still more work to be done before any conclusive evidence can be made about the benefits of drinking Green Tea, or how much Green Tea needs to be drank in order to have any benefits in fighting HIV.

At this point, the research involves looking at the chemical in Green Tea that binds with the CD4 immune cells in humans. This testing is limited to test tube testing at this stage.

Lisa Power, head of policy at the HIV charity, Terrence Higgins Trust said: "Condoms keep HIV at bay. Anything that boosts your immune system is beneficial for people with HIV, but green tea can't be a substitute for proper medication and prevention techniques."

Read more about this study at BBC News

'Pacman' Jones and Chris Henry to face NFL Discipline

2007-03-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has decided to hand down discipline for two of the NFL's bad boys.
Within the next 10 days, new NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is set to announce disciplinary measures against Adam 'Pacman' Jones of the Tennessee Titans and Chris Henry of the Cincinnati Bengals. Goodell will make this announcement after he meets with these two players.

"These are part of the hearings I've had with a player or coach facing discipline decisions," Goodell said Wednesday as the league meetings concluded. "It's to get their perspective, look them in the eye and get them thinking. They are clearly (designed) to give me better info and more facts. I do it frequently."

The NFL commissioner is starting with Jones and Henry because these two players have a penchant for running afoul of the law. Everyone by now has probably heard of the trials and tribulations of 'Pacman' Jones, but Chris Henry has found his own little niche when it comes to bad boy behavior.

Chris Henry has been arrested four times in the last 14 months on charges that range from marijuana possession, a weapons charge, and a drunken-driving count that resulted in a guilty plea to reckless operation of a vehicle.

Considering all of the NFL players making more news recently for their off the field actions and not their on field actions, Mr.Goodell feels it is now time for the NFL to institute a new policy that deals with a players action away from the field. Mr.Goodell thinks the integrity of the NFL is at stake, and he hopes to have a player conduct policy in place before the start of the NFL draft. The NFL draft is set to take place on April 28-29.

I for one am starting to get a little tired of hearing about all the misconduct of players when they are away from the game. Let's hope the NFL comes up with some meaningful penalties other than fines, because let's face it, with the amount of money being made by the NFL players today, a fine is nothing more than a little slap on the wrist. If you really want to get a players attention, suspending a player from games is the best route to go.

Read more at Yahoo Sports

John Kerry Attacks Baseball,DirecTV Deal

2007-03-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

I guess John Kerry is looking for something to occupy his time since he has decided not to run for President. Maybe Baseball Commissioner is a better fit than President?

John Kerry has decided that having major league baseball move their "Extra Innings" baseball package from cable to DirecTV is not in the best interest of baseball fans. The "Extra Innings" package allows cable subscribers access to out of market baseball games.

At Tuesday's hearing, Rob Jacobson, president and CEO of iN Demand, owned by affiliates of the companies that own Time Warner Cable Inc., Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications Inc., offered to carry the package on the same terms that DirecTV is, while putting off the issue of The Baseball Channel until it is launched.

"This would ensure that for the next two years at least, all baseball fans would have access to the 'Extra Innings' package," he said. "If we're unable to reach an agreement when the channel launches, we'd give baseball the right to cancel the 'Extra Innings' deal. We think this is a fair compromise."

The switch from cable to satellite carrier DirecTV is not set to take place until 2009;however, baseball is giving the current carriers of the "Extra Innings" package until the end of March to match the $700 million dollar offer from DirecTV.

Not to be outdone by the Democrat Kerry, Republican Arlen Specter issued his own warning to major league baseball about this deal by stating, "When fans react, Congress reacts," he said, adding, "You may be well advised to act before we do." Specter has also been a critic of the NFL 'Sunday Ticket' DirecTV package.

I guess the only voice Congress is willing to listen to is the voice of the fan. I guess if you want Congress to move quickly, you better wrap your issue around a baseball or football.

Read more at Yahoo News