• WikiLeaks Fallout
• Congress Demands Obama Correct Gaff On National Motto
• Liquid Bone Discovery Should Be Game Changer
• U. S. Primary Education Still Stinks
• Aspirin A Day Reduces Cancer Risk 21% Helps Otherwise
• California Redistricting Commission Met Yesterday
• Turkey Says Israel Will Not Be Part Of ABM
• Post Pummels Sean Penn For Latest Film Flim Flam
• Bush Tax Cuts and Unemployment Extended: May Be
• HILARY Blasts Saudis On Terror Money
• FCC To Propose “Bah Humbug” Internet Regulation on 12-21
• Russia-Israel Deal Making Hurts Iran
• Turkey Military Changes Anti-Islamicist Policies
• Big BCS Bungling Brouhaha

The FBI says Bah Humbug to the new video Barbie doll raising fears it could somehow be used for child porn but admitting it has no evidence of such use. It says its alert was intended for law enforcement so it would not overlook the doll when searching for evidence. Mattel is nonplus taking it all in stride as it continues to sell two Barbies every second 24-hours a day. Invented in 1959 Barbie is 51-years old.

Among the most sinister consequences of the WikiLeaks revelations has been a series of harshly candid evaluations from around the world that paint an at best blurry picture of Obama’s hapless American foreign policy. For instance:

Commenting about Obama’s foreign policy The U.K. newspaper, The Guardian said, “It is looking to many in the world that the world’s superpower is roaming helpless in a world in which nobody behaves as bidden.”

Last week The Christian Science Monitor wrote: “Beyond the momentary public relations dividend, one Israeli veteran of diplomacy said the widespread fear of Iran among America’s Arab allies does not bode well for the Obama administration’s foreign policy - particularly its efforts to engage Iran diplomatically.”

The German newspaper Der Spiegel described the latest WikiLeaks as indicative of “a political meltdown for American foreign policy. Leaving the trust by America’s partners… badly shaken.”

Sever Plocker, a columnist for the Tel Aviv newspaper Yediot Ahronot , WikiLeaks strongly suggests the world is in peril. According to Plocker, “The massive leak of American diplomatic telegrams indicates a single picture, sharp and clear… (That) the entire world, not just Israel, is panicked over the Iranian nuclear program.”

Even before the WikiLeaks in his book Obama’s Wars, Bob Woodward pointed out just how fragile the leadership in Islamabad has grown with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who is convinced that the Obama administration is plotting to overthrow and even occupy Pakistan.

Zardari, the leader of America’s most important ally on the War on Terror (Pakistan), believes that WE are the terrorists. Obama is determined to send billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan and enlist it in fighting the Afghan war, even though Washington believes that Pakistan cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.

It was Obama who promised to restore world confidence in the United States. But two years after taking office, he has done the opposite. On the domestic front, he has mounted inflationary strategies, while U.S. foreign policy has been a series of missteps that are breaking the confidence of traditional allies.

The Berkley, California City Council passed a resolution calling Bradley Manning the Army private who purloined the classified documents and gave them to WikiLeaks a hero and demanding he be released. Manning is in military custody awaiting court marshal.

Manning is among tens of thousands of junior members inside and loutside the military with access to such documents, called cables, and made them public via WikiLeaks.

In what they called “Operation Payback”, the network of online activists targeted firms including Mastercard and Visa, in the latest front of the battle over leaked US diplomatic cables.

The group, known as Anonymous and thought to be 1,500 to 2,000-strong, flooded the websites of the credit card companies, and that of the Swedish prosecution authority, with millions of bogus visits.

Their attack came after the financial giants, along with the online payment firm PayPal, announced they would no longer process donations to WikiLeaks as have Master Card and Visa.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange turned himself in to police in England today. When the judge asked him where he lived, he said he didn’t want to give out that information. Maybe “Wiki-hypocrite” would be a better name for this guy.– Leno

Members of Congress on Monday called on President Obama to issue a public correction after he incorrectly labeled E pluribus unum the U.S.’s motto in a speech last month, rather than “In God We Trust.”

The lawmakers, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, also said the president was making “a pattern” of dropping the word “Creator” when he recites the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence.

“By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of Independence and our national motto, you are not only doing a disservice to the people you represent you are casting aside an integral part of American society,” the representatives said in a stern letter asking for him to correct the speech.

Last month, while speaking at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta, Mr. Obama was trying to stress the similarity of the U.S. and Indonesia and said “it is a story written into our national mottos.”

“In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum - out of many, one,” he said, then compared it to the Indonesian motto, “Bhennika Tunggal Ika - unity in diversity.”

The official motto of the U.S., designated by a 1956 law, is “In God We Trust.” E pluribus unum is the motto on the Great Seal of the United States, and appears on the ribbon held in the beak of the eagle that dominates the obverse side of the seal.

‘Dandy’ Don Meredith has died after suffering a brain hemorage last weekend and going into coma. He was 72. The former Cowboy quarterback and popular broadcaster who, with Frank Gifford and Howard Cosell, created the wildy popular Monday Night Football now in its 41^st season. Famously Meredith used to signal a game was effectively over by his off key singing of the Willy Nelson song, “Turn out the lights the party’s over.”

Imagine an elderly woman comes into the emergency room after a fall. She has broken her hip. The orthopaedic surgeon doesn’t come with metal plates or screws or shiny titanium ball joints.

 Instead, she pulls out a syringe filled with a new kind of liquid that will solidify in seconds and injects into the break. Over time, new bone tissue will take its place, encouraged by natural growth factors embedded in the synthetic molecules of the new material.
   
Although still early in its development, the liquid is real. In the Brown engineering lab it’s called TBL, for the novel DNA-like “twin-base linker” molecules that give it seemingly ideal properties. The biotech company Audax Medical Inc., based in Littleton, Mass., announced on Dec. 7 an exclusive license of the technology from Brown. It brands the technology as Arxis and sees similar potential for repairing broken vertebrae.

When it’s worked out it looks revolutionary..

Because of a printing error, a billion new $100 bills have to be destroyed. They’re going to burn $100 billion dollars - just like they did with the last stimulus program. - Leno.

This is a joke but the details are essentially correct.

Primary education in America remains stinko. U.S. 15-year olds finish 25th out of 34 countries in math, post poor results in science (17th) and reading (14th)  South Korea, China, Finland and Canada dominate SK took the top spot from Finland this year.

Obama renewed his campaign vow to improve U.S. schools.  Obama was said to be very disappointed that the U.S. came a way below-average 25th out of the 34 countries assessed in mathematics, in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), according to the Paris-based Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development.

The exams were taken by nearly 500,000 pupils all over the world - from third-world countries to super powers

You have to be careful of political correctness this time of the year. You can’t call them “Santa’s elves” anymore but, undocumented little people. — Leno

 Daily aspirin reduces the risk of dying of cancer by 21% after five years, and the benefits appear to increase with time, persisting for twenty years in many cases, British researchers revealed in an Article published in The Lancet after gathering data from eight clinical studies - a meta-analysis - involving 25,570 participants who had been on aspirin therapy for at least four years. In all cases the trials compared aspirin to a placebo.

They also found that dying from any cause (not just cancer) was 10% lower for those on 75mg of aspirin per day.

The doses of aspirin in the eight trials ranged from 75mg to 500mg per day. The trials studied were carried out originally for the prevention of vascular events.

Earlier studies had suggested there might be benefits from long-term aspirin therapy against colon cancer. This is the first study, the authors explain, to show that aspirin protects against other cancers, such as esophageal, gastrointestinal, lung, brain, and pancreatic cancers.

The researchers found that daily aspirin treatment reduced the risk of death of several common cancers during and after the trials. The lower risk grew with time and persisted throughout different study populations.

The authors say their findings have implications for aspirin use guidelines, as well as understanding the process of tumor development (carcinogenesis) and the impact of drug intervention.

They investigators explained that their findings led them to believe that the benefits of daily aspirin for those aged 45 years or more far outweigh any side-effect risks. Long-term aspirin’s link to stomach and intestinal bleeding risk has historically put many doctors off prescribing it. We know that low-dose long-term daily aspirin can protect from cardiovascular events and stroke.

Long term daily aspirin was found to:

• Reduce 20-year prostate cancer risk by 10%
• Reduce lung cancer risk by 30%
• Reduce bowel cancer risk by 40%
• Reduce esophageal/throat cancer risk by 60%

The article suggests wider use of daily aspirin could potentially save thousands of lives in relation to cancer mortality alone.

Study leader, Professor Peter Rothwell at Oxford University, England, has been on daily aspirin himself for the last two years. He believes his team’s findings will have a major impact on public health policy. He adds that daily aspirin appears to be more beneficial than screening.

The researchers think that the best time to start daily aspirin would be when the risk of most cancers starts to rise significantly; during a person’s mid-40s.

Professor Chris Hawkey, President of the British Society of Gastroenterology said:

 “The study from Prof Rothwell represents strong evidence that aspirin can prevent the development of cancer, especially in the gastrointestinal tract, It is of more than academic interest: it should stimulate a re-evaluation of the role of aspirin with wider use of the drug. At the same time, we are acutely aware that aspirin is not without risks. In particular, it can cause internal ulcer bleeding and patients on aspirin should take a protective anti-ulcer drug such as omeprazole.

But aspirin is not the only measure needed to reduce the risks of cancer. Lifestyle measures such as remaining slim, not smoking or drinking to excess and eating a healthy diet all have an important part to play. People should not ignore warning symptoms like rectal bleeding especially if associated with tummy pain, change in bowel habit or weight loss.”

JP Morgan Chase Bank has told a Texas businessman to remove the Christmas tree he donated to its local branch because it could offend people.

According to Advertising Age, 91 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas. Statistically that means JPMorgan Chase runs a greater risk of offending more people than the few who could complain about a Christmas tree in its lobby.

Yesterday the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College, in conjunction with the California Target Book, held the first conference on the new Citizens Redistricting Commission, from 9:30 am to noon in Sacramento.

It looked at estimated populations for congressional and legislative districts that the Commission will use to draw new districts for California. It also looked at population shifts.

This conference follows the first meeting of the original eight members of the nonpartisan commission last week. This week, the initial commissioners will choose six additional members to fill out the full commission of five Democrats, five Republicans and four others.

For two days commissioners sat through lengthy briefings on the law and the process they must follow. The line drawing must be entirely in the open, with meaningful public hearings. They must adhere to federal constitutional standards, detailed state criteria, and the federal Voting Right Act.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the briefings involved Steven Lynn, the outgoing chair of the Arizona redistricting commission, who provided them with important practical advice: commissioners should not draw their own individual districts; they will fall in love with their own handiwork. Maintain partisan balance in the legal team and hire qualified professional staff.

The real work will begin after the holidays and the new districts should be drawn by August. It is going to be an interesting process.

A musician who went into a central London sandwich store to buy something to eat has had a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin worth 1.2 million pounds ($1.9 million) stolen, police said on Monday. It is still missing,

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Ankara has ensured that Israel would not be given access to a proposed NATO missile defense network, which would include radars and other assets in Turkey.

“Israel is not a member of NATO, and any cooperation is not a point in the issue,” Gul said. “I explicitly say that in principle this is not possible.”

In an interview with Euronews  on Dec. 3,  Gul reaffirmed Turkey’s condition for participation in the NATO missile defense shield. Ankara has demanded that the Western alliance not deem Turkey’s neighbors, Iran and Syria, as threats.

Ankara approved the NATO missile defense plan at the alliance’s summit in Lisbon, Portugal

in late November. Officials said NATO’s network would also support Turkey’s national missile defense program.

Since 2009, Ankara has banned Israeli participation in Turkey’s Anatolian Eagle air combat exercise, designed for NATO air forces. As a result, several Western militaries, including the United States, have reduced attendance.

In the interview, Gul said Israel  was no longer a friend or ally of Turkey. The president said Ankara still demanded an apology and compensation for the eight Turks killed aboard the Mavi Marmara ship, destined for the Gaza Strip and intercepted by the Israel Navy in April.

 ”The Mavi Marmara has changed a lot of things,” Gul said. “Israel is yet to compensate for this situation. Accordingly, we cannot forget it.”  

Consumer Reports customer satisfaction survey rates ATT worst for its cellular service; U. S. Cellular is best followed by: Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

AT&T received the worst possible ratings in eight of the nine categories including overall value, voice service, data service, phone support, staff knowledge, and resolution of issues, among others. Readers gave AT&T an overall score of just 60 out of 100, which is six points below its score a year ago and nine points below its nearest-ranked competitor, T-Mobile.

The usually liberal Washington Post ripped the new movie, “Fair Game,” starring left-wing red-diaper baby Sean Penn, to shreds. The film, now in theaters, takes the line that the Bush Administration

went  after  a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, because her husband, Joe Wilson, exposed lies about the Iraq War.

“Fair Game” is “full of distortions - not to mention outright inventions,” the Washington Post editorial said, such as depicting Plame “as having cultivated a group of Iraqi scientists and arranged for them to leave the country, and it suggests that once her cover was blown, the operation was aborted and the scientists were abandoned.” The paper explains: “This is simply false.”

‘Fair Game’ also resells the couple’s story that Ms. Plame’s exposure was the result of a White House conspiracy. A lengthy and wasteful investigation by a special prosecutor found no such conspiracy says the Post - but it did confirm that the prime source of a newspaper column identifying Ms. Plame was a State Department official, not a White House political operative.”

The Post said the film’s reception - by those on the left who normally look to the Post for guidance on most issues - “illustrates a more troubling trend of political debates in Washington in which established facts are willfully ignored.”

Penn’s parents were openly communist espousing the decline of the U. S. More recently he has befriended and extolling Venezuela’s Dictator Chavez. He has used his movie roles to advance his leftists ideology and this latest film is just another example.

Eight thousand English churches have had their roofs stolen. Thieves stole their roof to sell the lead sheeting that can bring $2,400 per metric ton. In many cases, churches have replaced their roofs only to be targeted again, in one case 14 times. Many of the church are of historic significance. Although less often used now lead sheeting, because of its durability, had been popular for centuries.

Liberals are fuming over Obama’s “collapse” in the face of broad pressures to extend the Bush Tax cuts for all Americans for at least two years and accepting a one year extension of unemployment benefits. Pelosi, Reid and others are threatening to block the deal.

Their opposition ignores a new Gallup poll showing 2/3rds supporting tax cuts for everyone and unemployment benefit extension too. Studies show keeping the tax cuts will add a million jobs and increase economic growth by a full percentage point.

Obama simply succumbed to overwhelming demands from every part of society except the most philosophically strident far left wingers determined to punish the most successful Americans and reward the least.

The deal preserves George W. Bush administration tax breaks for families at all income levels for two years, extends emergency jobless benefits through 2011 and cuts payroll taxes by 2 percent for every American worker through the end of next year.

Forty-seven percent continue to believe that repeal of the health care law passed earlier this year is at least somewhat likely and that has now been put on the front burner. 39% disagree.

Obama’s support is imploding giving encouragement to a growing field of challenges for 2012 including serious consideration within his own party.

As Congressional leftists vow to push through the so-called DREAM ACT comes news the total cost for illegal aliens in the U. S. is a staggering $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR- a third of a trillion!. That includes medical costs, direct welfare, WIC and other payments, indirect costs for food stamps. and  education - that doesn’t count all costs such as California’s taxpayer subsidized college tuition.

The United States believes its ally, Saudi Arabia, is ineffective at stopping terrorist fundraising in its own country, according to a cable obtained and released by WikiLeaks and published by the New York Times and the UK Guardian.

“It has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in a cable on Dec. 30, 2009.

In the same cable, Clinton pointed to donors in Saudi Arabia as the “most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide.”

Such candid remarks had never been made public before the release of diplomatic cables between the U.S. State Department and its embassies and consulates around the world by WikiLeaks. The whistle-blowing website began releasing cables Nov. 28 and plans to publish 251,287 reports in the coming days.

Michael Lerner, a rabbi, an editor of the magazine Tikkun and chairs the interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives said in a Washington Post article on Saturday, December 4, 2010 he’d nominate Congresswoman Lois Capps to replace Obama.  That he says would unambiguously commit to a well-defined progressive agenda and contrast it with the Obama administration’s policies. If not Capps then Lerner likes unfunny man Al Franken to replace Obama. Tikkun is a bi-monthly English-language magazine, published in the United States, that analyzes American and Israeli culture, politics, religion and history from a far leftist-progressive viewpoint.

The Federal Communications Commission is making plans to regulate the Internet, promising that the new rules will “preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet.” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will reveal the proposed rules On Dec. 21, but the Washington Times  says “it’s not clear under what law Mr. Genachowski thinks he can stick his nose into the businesses that comprise the Internet.”

In an editorial headlined “Wave Goodbye to Internet Freedom,” the Times states:

“Freedom and openness should continue to be the governing principles of the Internet. That’s why Mr. Genachowski’s proposal should be rejected and Congress should make it even more clear that the FCC should stop trying to expand its regulatory empire.”

It appears Genachowski has backed away from formally applying to Internet service providers the entire “Title II” common carrier regime, the prohibition against “unreasonable discrimination” that he has highlighted is, in fact, central to traditional common carrier regulation. Hence, this from the Communications Act’s Title II, Section 202(a): “It shall be unlawful for any common carrier to make any unjust or unreasonable discrimination in charges, practices, classifications, regulations, facilities, or services.”

His ideas will almost certainly ignite intense debate in the new Congress and among activists suspect of liberal notions against cable television and tamping down criticism.

The death toll in Mexico’s cartel-related drug wars has exceeded 10,000 for this year - with nearly half of the murders occurring in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

As of Nov. 19, the toll stood at 10,514, according to the Mexican newspaper Reforma. Given that the number of killings averaged 230 a week in the past two months, the total could reach 12,000 by the end of the year.

A U.S. State Department cable reported a Russian offer for Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle technology.

The November 2009 cable, acquired and released by WikiLeaks, said the Kremlin offered Israel $1 billion as well as the cancellation of a Russian contract to supply the S-300PMU1 air defense system to Iran.

The cable reported on a meeting between U.S. Undersecretary of State Ellen Tauscher and Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad. Gilad told his American interlocutor of the Russian offer, but added that Israel would not supply advanced UAV technology to Moscow.

Gilad was also quoted as saying that any advanced Israeli technology relayed to Moscow would be transferred to China. Washington has forced Israel to end arms sales to Beijing, which also purchased Israeli UAVs.

The cable highlighted Russia’s interest in Israeli UAVs. Moscow was reported to have signed three UAV deals with Israel worth more than $500 million for both exports as well as production in Russia.

In September 2010, Russia announced the cancellation of the S-300 deal with Iran. Days later, Israel and Russia announced a joint venture in UAVs.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pointed out during the first day of the Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on Thursday that according to a survey conducted for the Pentagon, repealing DADT could create an “alarming” troop retention problem at a time when the military is already shorthanded - as many as 264,000 could be lost.

Turkey’s military, under heavy government pressure, has suspended its dismissal of Islamic fundamentalists from its ranks.

The Supreme Military Council has halted the longstanding practice of expelling Turkish soldiers and officers suspected of Islamist ties. At a council meeting on Nov. 30, no soldiers were dismissed.

“This is unprecedented, but clearly reflects the fact that the military now answers to the government and not the other way around,” a Turkish official said.

 Relations between the military and government remain tense. President Abdullah Gul cut short the military council session for a trip to Kazakhstan. Usually, the president has ended the council meeting by hosting lunch for senior commanders.

On Oct. 29, the Turkish General Staff boycotted a presidential reception after the suspension of three generals. The generals have appealed to the Supreme Military Administrative Court.

Officials said the council has been under increasing pressure from the pro-Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to stop firing soldiers suspected of being fundamentalists. Over the last three years, the military council has been expelling fewer and fewer Islamists.

“The council discussed requirements for military operations as well security of Turkey’s borders,” a statement said.

In 2009, two military officers were dismissed. Before the military meeting, Erdogan met Chief of Staff Gen. Isik Kosaner to coordinate proceedings.

An aquarium in Japan is shocking visitors with its Christmas display — using an eco-friendly electric eel to illuminate the lights on its holiday tree.

In addition to a raspy new book “Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series” the cloud hanging over the BCS title game is whether the scandal surrounding Auburn Quarterback Cam Newton (Cameron “Cam” Jerrell Newton (born May 11, 1989 in College Park, Georgia) will cost Auburn the title and he a Heisman. The Number One ranked college football team is Auburn that will play the second rated team Oregon for the title..

Newton, many believe, will win the Heisman Trophy. But, the N. C. A. A. is investigating the recruitment of Auburn’s star quarterback, a central figure in the unfolding story is his father, Cecil Newton Sr., and the church he runs not far from their home in Atlanta.

Earlier this month, ESPN.com and other news outlets reported that John Bond, a former Mississippi State quarterback, said he was approached by a former teammate on behalf of Cecil Newton, Cam’s Dad, who was seeking $180,000 in exchange for sending his son there.

And Cecil Newton told ESPN.com that N.C.A.A. investigators requested bank statements and other documents related to his small church, the Holy Zion Center of Deliverance, Georgia which has struggled to keep the city from condemning a building that needed extensive repairs.

If the allegations are proved Cam could forfeit any awards and Auburn could be sanctioned- much like USC was over the Reggie Bush debacle.

Pasadena police broke up a brawl among 50-75 tailgaters, some who’d been drinking since 6:30AM, before the USC-UCLA football game at the Rose Bowl last Saturday. Two men were stabbed and a 44-year-old charged with attempted murder and jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.