Mountain Sage

Watching the video in the previous post reminded me of this Dana Carvey skit that cracks me up every time I watch it. Hope you enjoy it.

Barack Obama gets a surprise visit in the night from ex-Presidents Bush Sr., Bush Jr., Clinton, Ford, Reagan and Carter to get a few pointers about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and why it’s so important.

Isn’t it reassuring to know our government is spying on all of us?

By Siobhan Gorman

The Obama administration lifted the veil Tuesday on a highly-secretive set of policies to defend the U.S. from cyber attacks.

It was an open secret that the National Security Agency was bolstering a Homeland Security program to detect and respond to cyber attacks on government systems, but a summary of that program declassified Tuesday provides more details of NSA’s role in a Homeland program known as Einstein.

The current version of the program is widely seen as providing meager protection against attack, but a new version being built will be more robust–largely because it’s rooted in NSA technology. The program is designed to look for indicators of cyber attacks by digging into all Internet communications, including the contents of emails, according to the declassified summary.

Homeland Security will then strip out identifying information and pass along data on new threats to NSA. It will also use threat information from NSA to better identify emerging cyber attacks.

NSA’s role is a careful balance because of the political battles that ensued over the agency’s role in domestic surveillance in the George W. Bush administration. Declassifying details of the NSA’s role, in a program initially developed during the Bush administration and continued in the Obama administration, will likely ignite new debates over privacy.

The White House’s new cyber-security chief, Howard Schmidt, announced the move to declassify the program in a speech at the RSA conference in San Francisco–his first major public address since assuming the post in January. He said addressing potential privacy concerns was one of the ten initial steps he planned to take. “We’re really paying attention, and we get it,” he said.

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Thanks to Alisilver for the headsup  on this.

First I will state that I do not approve of bullying or of teenagers using Facebook or any social network site to make disparaging remarks about a classmate.  BUT, the school over stepped it’s bounds.  There is something in this country called free speech and Megan, while a brat who needs to be disciplined by her parents or kicked off Facebook if she violated it’s terms of service, should NOT have been suspended by the school for what she wrote on Facebook at home.  The school has, in my opinion, violated her First Amendment rights and I hope the parents fight the suspension.  I also hope they take away her computer privileges for awhile.

OAK GROVE, Mo. — An Oak Grove man is outraged because he says the Oak Grove High School principal suspended his daughter for three days over comments she posted on Facebook.

James Wisemore says his daughter, Megan, used swear words to comment about a female classmate on Facebook. He maintains his daughter did not name the classmate, but the classmate responded online that she would be kicking Megan’s “a–” the next day.

James said the next day the classmate jumped his daughter, who is a freshman, in a hallway at Oak Grove High School. He said his daughter was kicked in the head and other parts of her body and punched. He said she curled up in a ball and protected her head and did not fight back.

James said his daughter was taken by ambulance to a hospital where she was treated at the emergency room. He said she has recovered from her injuries.

James said his wife was told by the Oak Grove High School principal that Megan would be suspended for three days for the offensive comments on Facebook but not for fighting. James said the other girl was suspended for five days.

James said the comments, while offensive, were typical teen banter and did not justify suspension. He says he believes his daughter’s First Amendment rights have been violated, particularly since she was not at school when she made the Internet posting and did not name the other student by name

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I remember reading about a plan to regulate vitamins, herbs and mineral supplements a couple of years ago.  The argument has typically been that the FDA needs to regulate them, but let’s face it, the FDA doesn’t do a very good job of regulating prescription drugs as evidenced by all the lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical companies would love to see supplements regulated and I suspect there will be a push to make them all by prescription only.  Heaven forbid the pharmaceutical companies miss out on squeezing more money out of consumers.  I for one depend on the supplement magnesium, which I talk about in this post.  When I take magnesium consistently I no longer suffer from ‘restless leg syndrome’ , apnea or vertigo.  If I had to get a prescription for it I can’t imagine the battery of tests I would be subjected to just to get this supplement.

Senator John McCain has introduced a bill that if passed, will drive up the cost of dietary supplements and restrict your access to them. The bill being spearheaded by Senators John McCain and Byron Dorgan supposedly originates from the controversy surrounding the use of steroids by Major League Baseball players. Since some unethical companies illegally sold steroid drugs as “dietary supplements,” certain members of Senate appear to have been deceived into believing that the FDA needs to be given additional power to ban dietary supplements across the board.

In order to mislead the public about the true nature of this bill, it has been named the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010 (DSSA). Despite nutritional supplements’ safety record, McCain’s bill would give the FDA authority to draw up a list of allowed and disallowed supplements (and supplement potencies). This bill would cause any dietary supplement to be classified as “adulterated” if it is “manufactured, packaged, held, distributed, labeled or licensed by a dietary supplement company not registered with the Secretary.” The “Secretary” in this case is the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the department of the federal government that oversees the FDA.

The FDA already requires manufacturers to maintain records of serious adverse reaction reports. This bill would require that all “non-serious adverse events” be submitted to the federal government. The problem is that when a large group of people take any product, there are always coincidental “adverse reactions”. This means that for any given product, the FDA can arbitrarily take the list of adverse reports submitted to it and use it as a basis to remove the product, even if there was not a single valid adverse reaction! Pharmaceutical companies would be able, under the Freedom of Information Act, to gain access to these reports, and petition the FDA to remove the supplement from the market. If McCain’s bill is passed, it will make it far easier for pharmaceutical companies to file use patents on what are now inexpensive dietary supplements and convert them into outrageously priced “drugs.”

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It’s about time.  Bipartisanship isn’t going to happen.  Most Republicans seem to think that bipartisanship means Democrats doing what Republicans want.   (Sorry to be so late posting this but I had to take my Mom to the eye surgeon today.)

Harkin: Reconciliation is a go

Sen. Tom Harkin told POLITICO that Senate Democratic leaders have decided to go the reconciliation route. The House, he said, will first pass the Senate bill after Senate leaders demonstrate to House leaders that they have the votes to pass reconciliation in the Senate.

Harkin made the comments after a meeting in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office including Harkin and Sens. Baucus, Dodd, Durbin, Schumer and Murray.

When asked whether the leaders had made the decision, Durbin said: “We are moving ahead with a version of the health care reform bill that we believe has a good chance of passing both the House and the Senate.”

He then put the onus on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to signal whether she can provide enough votes to pass the Senate bill, followed by a package of fixes through reconciliation.

“The first step is with Speaker Pelosi and so I will let her decide what it takes in the House,” Durbin said.

SOURCE

“Reconciliation is a legislative process in the United States Senate intended to allow consideration of a contentious budget bill without the threat of filibuster. Introduced in 1974, reconciliation limits debate and amendment, and therefore favors the majority party. Reconciliation also exists in the United States House of Representatives, but because the House regularly passes rules that constrain debate and amendment, the process has had a less significant impact on that body. “SOURCE

It appears Sen. Bunning takes his right to object more seriously than the needs of people to eat and have a roof over their heads.  What a jackass he is.  I expect to see the Senate bypass his objections as soon as possible to get the much needed funds to the states.

March 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Senate Democrats are likely to pass by next week a bill to reinstate unemployment benefits that expired Feb. 28, said Regan Lachapelle, a spokeswoman for Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Jobless benefits for thousands of Americans expired after Senator Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican, blocked a one-month continuation designed to keep checks from being interrupted. The provisions are part of a $150 billion measure intended to boost the economy.

The legislation would spend $81 billion to extend the unemployment benefits, including so-called Cobra subsidies to help the jobless buy health insurance, for the rest of this year. It also would send $25 billion to state governments to help prevent layoffs.

In blocking the legislation, Bunning complained that the $10 billion cost would be tacked onto the $1.6 trillion budget deficit.

“I am exercising my right as a senator duly elected from Kentucky to object,” Bunning said yesterday as Democrats tried again to pass the short-term extension.

About 400,000 people will lose unemployment benefits in the next few weeks if Congress doesn’t act, according to the Department of Labor. The agency also estimated that 500,000 Americans will lose access to Cobra by the end of this month. The program allows the jobless to buy health insurance through their former employer, with the government paying 65 percent of the cost.

The Transportation Department said it was putting 2,000 employees on furlough because highway money included in the legislation blocked by Bunning was being delayed.

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Good for Sen. Wyden.  Is blocking unemployment benefits for those who can’t find a job in this awful economy a family value?  What is wrong with Sen. Bunning?

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has vowed to prevent the Senate from extending any other expiring laws until it extends unemployment benefits and subsidized health insurance for laid off workers.

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month. When, on the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection Bunning replied: “Tough shit.”

The Senate adjourned on Friday without renewing the benefits. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people will stop receiving unemployment checks every week, starting Monday.

Wyden is outraged. “Denying [the unemployed] legislation that helps them pay for the basic necessities of life is fundamentally wrong,” Wyden told HuffPost. “For people that are getting hammered in this economy, trying literally to figure out from their kitchen table and their living rooms how they’re going to get by, this legislation is a lifeline.”

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This was a bad bill when it was passed and it’s a bad bill now.  It’s a violation of civil liberties and the Obama administration should be ashamed of continuing using terror as an excuse to spy on American citizens.  The thirst for power and control knows no party.

Obama signs one-year extension of Patriot Act

(AP) – 22 hours ago

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the nation’s main counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.

Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama’s signature Saturday.

The act, which was adopted in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, expands the government’s ability to monitor Americans in the name of national security.

Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:

_Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.

_Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

_Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

Obama’s signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.

The Senate also approved the measure, with privacy protections cast aside when Senate Democrats lacked the necessary 60-vote supermajority to pass them. Thrown away were restrictions and greater scrutiny on the government’s authority to spy on Americans and seize their records.

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The earthquake that hit Haiti was a 7.0, so this is a significantly stronger earthquake.

A massive earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 122 people and triggering a tsunami that threatened more than 50 countries and territories and sparked emergency plans to evacuate the coast of Hawaii.

The magnitude-8.8 quake was the worst in the South American country in half a century. As the earth heaved, bridges buckled, home collapsed into piles of bricks and cars flipped over. The 3:20 a.m. quake churned up a nearly eight-foot wave that smashed into the Chilean coast.

Tsunami warnings were issued in Central and South America, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the Pacific. In Hawaii, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said “urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.” At 6 a.m. local time, sirens wailed on the coast alerting people to tune into television and radio stations for instructions.

Washington Post

SOURCE.