RWC Unfiltered 7-30-11

• Terror Attacks On 10^th Anniversary of 9-11
• Obama’s Betrayal Secret Missile Defense Pack With Russians
• Modern Day Pogrom Echo From 1,000 Years Ago
• Wrong Bank Targeted
• Cyber War Waged Against U. S.
• Numismatic and 14^th Amendment Solution to Debt Ceiling:
• Taxpayers Paying $600,000 a Month To Make Obama Look Better to Jews.
• “It’s My MoneyAnd I Want It Now.”
• Dodd-Franks and Credit Crunch
• Is Obama Circling The Drain?
• Iran Moving Faster On Syrian Takeover.
• More Global Warming Fraud

Of the 266 men who have been Pope the youngest pope was likely not 11 years old as popular myth asserts. He was 12 named Benedict IX. (1032-45) he resigned and died in at a Monestary. But, I believe John XII was elected Bishop of Todi at age 10,

A new intelligence report by the Department of Homeland Security warns that terrorists can attack and disable key utilities in the United States by recruiting trusted insiders with access to such facilities.

The DHS report said a major utility like a chemical or oil refinery could give Al Qaida its best opportunity to attack the United States on the 10-year September 11 anniversary.

The report, Insider Threat to Utilities, said “violent extremists have, in fact, obtained insider positions,” and that “outsiders have attempted to solicit utility-sector employees” for damaging physical and cyber attacks.

Based on the reliable reporting of previous incidents, we have high confidence in our judgment that insiders and their actions pose a significant threat to the infrastructure and information systems of U.S. facilities,” the report said. Past events and reporting also provide high confidence in our judgment that insider information on sites, infrastructure, networks, and personnel is valuable to our adversaries and may increase the impact of any attack on the utilities infrastructure.”

The report said there was an attempted insider sabotage in April at a water treatment plant in Arizona, where a disgruntled night shift worker took over a control room and tried to create a giant methane gas explosion. “I am taking the plant hostage,” the worker said in a recorded 911 call. It was not an Al Qaida related plot.

The original name of Bank of America was Bank of Italy.

Obama appears ready to cave in to Russian demands on limiting U.S. missile defenses despite public promises not to do so.

Concerns have been raised by reports that Russia’s NATO ambassador Dmitri Rogozin is holding secret talks with the Obama administration on a secret deal.

Two months ago, the administration nearly agreed to a deal with Russia that would have imposed unspecified legal limits on U.S. missile defenses in a statement that was to be signed at the G-8 summit in Deauville, France. The statement sought to limit the location and numbers of missile interceptor deployments and was drafted by Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and a critics of missile defenses.

Remarkably, the Tauscher draft accord was pulled back at the request of White House officials who viewed it correctly as potentially imposing legal limits on U.S. missile defenses.

Rogozin, according to a Russian press report July 21, was involved in White House brainstorming sessions on missile defenses in what Nezavisimaya Gazeta said was a search for “compromise on missile defense between Washington and Moscow.”

Rogozin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabakov are holding the secret missile defense talks with senior White House, State Department, Pentagon and military officials.

A Russian source told the newspaper that “it has been proposed to hold a brainstorming session on issues concerning cooperation in this field.”

“For now, not one of the discussed options for cooperation has been disregarded,” the source was quoted as saying. “It is planned to analyze the existing groundwork and outline at least some reference points. We believe that a chance has not been lost.”

A U.S. official said there are fears the limits sought by the U.S. side in Deauville will be completed in Washington during the five day Russian visit.

The report also said Rogozin is being allowed to visit one of the most sensitive U.S. military sites, the Defense Integration and Operations Center at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, one of the military’s most classified facilities where both space and cyber warfare activities are developed.

Euro allies have almost collectively given up on Obama keeping his word particularly after he naively threw Poland and the Czech Republic to the wolves in furhtance of some misguided dream-like scheme.

A New Jersey school district has signed off on a new policy to allow random drug testing for sixth, seventh and eighth grade students.

Main stream media ignored an act by modern pogromist perhaps because they were Muslim jihadist attacking Jews. Please consider facts connected over a thousand years.

DNA linking seventeen Jewish skeletons found in a medieval UK well with a family horrifically murder of an entire family by Palestinian terrorist may seem like a long reach.

But, a grisly discovery was made in Norwich, England, recently. Seventeen Jewish skeletons, apparently from the same family, were found at the bottom of a medieval well. Archaeologists theorize they were thrown down the well by pogromists because they refused to convert to Christianity.

Ironically, according to a report by Italian journalist Giulio Meotti, the skeletons’ DNA was linked to the five members of the Udi Fogel family of Itamar, Israel, who were savagely stabbed to death in their beds by Palestinian jihadists on March 11. Ten centuries have passed between the atrocities, but the “plague” is still with us-the attempt to find a “final solution to the Jewish problem;” but now it focuses on the destruction of Israel.

Pogrom is a word for the organized killing of helpless people. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,

It is appalling to read that well-known Italian Catholic priest Mario Cornioli flippantly declared, “What is Itamar? An illegal Israeli colony built on stolen land.”

Why would anyone under any circumstances brush off the unspeakably horrific slaughter of an innocent family because he disagrees with where they lived?

Unfortunately, the priest’s attitude is not limited to a few bigots operating on the fringe. A whole range of vaunted Christian organizations have taken to the idea that Israel must be squeezed until it either disappears or is so emasculated that it survives only as a disheveled, discredited clan of Jews forced back into ghettos by emissaries of pseudo-Christian love and/or Muslim “humanitarianism.” Many believe this is the intention of the pro-Muslim U. S. President.

Each American uses approximately fifty-seven sheets of toilet paper each day! Assuming everyone used two-ply toilet paper.

Some local homeowners in San Jose, CA became so angry this week about unkempt foreclosed home in their neighborhood that they decided to do something about it. They got clever, and decided to take some of the trash and dump it at the bank responsible for the home, Wells Fargo.

There’s just one problem: they got the wrong bank. Oh, and they may be more than just “neighbors” - it looks like those neighborswere sent there by an ACORN derrivitive and may have been paid personnel.

Over 40,000 people have dropped Obama on twitter in the last few days saying they are annoyed by his incessant political haranguing. Obama whose rapidly falling approval rating that have dropped to new lowest levels. Creeping into that picture is the growing lament over his absent leadership or perhaps an inability to lead.

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn says that 24,000 sensitive files were stolen by foreign intelligence services from a U.S. defense contractor in sophisticated cyber attacks.

Lynn said sophisticated cyber attack capabilities are the province of nation states that can be deterred by U.S. military power from overtly destructive cyber attacks.

“We must nevertheless guard against the possibility that circumstances could change, and we will have to defend against a sophisticated adversary who is not deterred from launching a cyber attack,” he said.

“Tools capable of disrupting or destroying critical networks, causing physical damage, or altering the performance of key systems, exist today,” Lynn said on July 14.

“The advent of these tools mark a strategic shift in the cyber threat-a threat that continues to evolve. As a result of this threat, keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye. In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs.”

Lynn said nearly every sector, including electrical power grid controllers, have been attacked by hackers. Others attacked included the I.M.F., Citibank, Sony’s PlayStation Network, the secure token provider RSA, Google, NASDAQ, and multiple energy firms.

On the defense contractor attack, Lynn said the single intrusion in March was a significant compromise. “It was a data related to systems that are being developed for the Department of Defense,” he said.

“It was large, 24,000 files. It was done, we think, by a foreign intelligence service. In other words, a nation-state was behind it. And we don’t get into our understanding of exactly who that was.”

Speculation has focused on China or Russia, both states with very sophisticated cyber warfare and espionage capabilities that are in search of U.S. weapons data for their own arms development and for countering U.S. weapons in a future conflict.

The unclassified version of the new cyber strategy identifies the new warfighting domain but provide little in the way of detail about the threats and how the military will defend its networks and conduct offensive warfare against adversaries in the future.

Lynn said the current threat environment is characterized not by destructive attacks but by exploitation - theft of information and intellectual property from both government and private networks, causing losses at over a trillion dollars.

Reflecting the Obama administration’s policies of using military for limited defensive operation, Lynn said the cyber war strategy seeks to “prevent war” instead of fighting and winning a conflict in cyber space.

He said there is a risk of cyberspace being “militarized.” However, he said the U.S. would defend itself in cyberspace against hostile acts.

But he stated: “Our strategy’s overriding emphasis is on denying the benefit of an attack. Rather than rely on the threat of retaliation alone to deter attacks in cyberspace, we aim to change our adversaries’ incentives in a more fundamental way. If an attack will not have its intended effect, those who wish us harm will have less reason to target us through cyberspace in the first place.”

Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that current cyber warfare systems are mainly “point defenses” against attack that will be expanded to layers to provide greater but still limited defense and deterrence from attack.

“As we move to the future, fleshing out the command and control, fleshing out the sensor network and then building defenses that are more than point - they have to be regional in nature, global in nature - and then responses that are appropriate and proportional,” Cartwright said.

The super sophisticated Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear bomb making capacity has been jointly blamed on Israel and the USA. But, so far as is publically acknowledged it or a similar cyber weapon has been deployed elsewhere with against the USA anmd Israel or by them.

Free marijuana in exchange for registering to vote? This is exactly what a Lansing, Michigan, clinic has been offering patients for the past month. Patrons who registered to vote in a local city council election were offered free pot - a curious move that has caught the attention of lawmakers and media, alike. WLNS-TV has an intriguing report that explores the legalities surrounding the controversial scenario:

Yale’s constitutional law professor Jack Balkin has some smart aleck, clever, and humorous ideas about how to get around the debt ceiling. He writes:

Are there other ways for the president to raise money besides borrowing?

Sovereign governments such as the United States can print new money.

However, there’s a statutory limit to the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation at any one time.

Ironically, there’s no similar limit on the amount of coinage. A little-known statute gives the Secretary of the Treasury the authority to issue platinum coins in any denomination. So some commentators have suggested that the Treasury create two $1 trillion coins, deposit them in its account in the Federal Reserve and write checks on the proceeds.

The government can also raise money through sales: For example, it could sell the Federal Reserve an option to purchase government property for $2 trillion. The Fed would then credit the proceeds to the government’s checking account. Once Congress lifts the debt ceiling, the president could buy back the option for a dollar, or the option could simply expire in 90 days. And there are probably other ways that the Fed could achieve a similar result, by analogy to its actions during the 2008 financial crisis, when it made huge loans and purchases to bail out the financial sector.

The “jumbo coin” and “exploding option” strategies work because modern central banks don’t have to print bills or float debt to create new money; they just add money to their customers’ checking accounts.

Balkin goes on to argue that if the president is worried about defaulting on the debt, he may have a constitutional obligation under the 14th Amendment to violate the debt ceiling.

Section Four of the 14^th Amendment says, The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Merck announced Friday it will lay off 13,000 employees citing a weakening economy.

A March State Department report says the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel has been “given” nearly  $600,000 a month for a public relations campaign to improve Obama’s stinko image among Jews.. It is not a coincidence that the campaign is timed just as Obama is fund raising among jews and Israel supporters a group that shoveled hundred of millions into his 2008 campaign but has shown tepid support this time around - contributing just pennies on those 2008 dollars.

Obama has been hostile to Israel and more friendly to jihadist regimes

Facing rising Israeli distrust of Obama the Office of the Inspector-General reported that the embassy was shoveling $7 million a year saying “A fragile Israeli coalition government leans toward the views of its members from the nationalist and religious right, creating a challenge for diplomats seeking to build support for U.S. policies,”

The report says the embassy has failed to change Israeli public opinion against Obama.

“One of the embassy’s challenges is how to build support for U.S. policies in Israel at a time when peace talks are under way and little can be said about them publicly despite intense public interest,” the report said. “It will be useful to the United States for the ambassador, the DCM [deputy chief of mission], and the embassy’s public diplomacy section to continue developing outreach programs that explain and advocate fundamental U.S. positions to Israeli audiences who may be becoming more distant from the United States than in the past.”

The inspector-general team recommended that the embassy expand contacts with unidentified Israeli “mid-level politicians.” Another recommendation was that the embassy increase reporting on “domestic factors that affect the policies and stability of Israel’s coalition government.”

The report said the embassy was managing a $6.8 million public affairs program to garner support for Washington’s policy in the Middle East. The program included public appearances by the ambassador as well as exchange programs, grants and cultural events.

But the U.S. campaign has been hampered by a suspicious Israeli public and media. The report suggested that the Israeli media were exacerbating tension between Jerusalem and Washington.

“Much of the Israeli public is suspicious of U.S. efforts to promote negotiations aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state,” the report said. “The lively and fractious press often misinterprets American policies.”

As a result, the inspector-general recommended that the embassy expand non-political programs, particularly in the area of culture. The embassy was also urged to brief Israeli think tanks on U.S. policy, particularly the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank by 2013.

“The embassy understands that, in some difficult political environments, cultural programs can be an effective way to communicate American values to wide audiences,” the report said. “The OIG team recommended informally that the embassy use the new structure in PAS, as recommended earlier, to increase its communications about U.S. policies and values and to rebuild contacts with opinion leaders and influential think tanks.”

You know you’re getting old when your best friend tells you she’s having an affair and you want to know if it’s catered

Remember, not only did we contribute to Social Security but our employers did too. It evntually totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that’s close to $220,500. If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer’s contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working (me) you’d have $892,919.98. If you took out only 3% per year, you receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years, and that’s with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you’d have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

To be fair you’d hsve to buy disability insurance.

Emptying the Social Security Trust Fund and replacing its content with promissory notes was Lyndon Johnson and his Democrat henchmen’s idea to finance his Great Society.

Success is “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882)

Thursday, ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service said it put Uncle Sam’s credit rating on downgrade watch Wednesday, given the lack of progress in the negotiations to extend the U.S. debt ceiling ahead of an August 2 deadline.

Steve Forbes promptly called that politically motivated saying the U. S. has plenty to pay the interest on its debt, and that is where rating agencies should focus not on making or changing American politics.

With Republican lawmakers and President Obama butting heads over tax increases and spending cuts, Moody’s said the possibility that limit will not be raised soon enough to prevent a missed payment is posing a real risk of a short-lived default. The ratings agency telegraphed the move in early June, when it said it would revisit its view on U.S. debt if no deal was reached.

Because the Dodd-Frank bill placed new requirements on Nationally Regognized statistical Rating Organizations (NRSROs) intending to make them more forward looking after they collectively completely missed warning on the financial crisis most particularly the near collapse in 2008.

Dodd-Frank is the so-called Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law by Obama on July 21, 2010 and it is accused of trying to politically manipulate NRSROs as well as having profound long-term and unanticipated consequences of which Forbe’s complaint is but one.

Part of the complication to any downgrade of U.S. debt is the fact that a number of companies and agencies have implied government support. As such, Moody’s said it is also reviewing the Aaa ratings of such institutions, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and the Federal Farm Credit Banks.

Securities guaranteed, backed, issued or linked to the government or those institutions are also under review, as are a number of other bonds including certain issues from the governments of Egypt and Israel that are guaranteed by the U.S.

Despite the concerns of the rating agencies, the bond market does not appear to be afraid of a U.S. default, no matter how short-lived. The 10-year Treasury note was yielding 2.89% Wednesday, and both auctions this week have gone off relatively smoothly with ample demand

Ttaumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, has 85 letters. It’s the longest place name on Earth, and is the name for a hill, 305 metres (1,000 ft) high, close to Porangahau, New Zealand.

Results for Obama range from 42 percent (Gallup) to 47 percent (ABC News/Washington Post). On top of that, nearly every major recent polls shows him with higher unfavorables than favorables. Obama is polling worse in key swing states like Ohio and Michigan than he is in national surveys, according to a series of new “battleground state” polls.

Moreover, Obama’s numbers have dropped dramatically in many small states, suggesting that the debt crisis is doing him more harm than good and making the electoral math for him in 2012 very bleak.

“In every reputable battleground state poll conducted over the past month, Obama’s support is weak,” writes Josh Kraushaar, executive editor of National Journal Hotline. “In most of them, he trails Republican front-runner Mitt Romney.”

Thos poll results explain Obama’s intransigence on the Debt Debate because it has been that issue, or more specifically his abject lack of effective leadership that is driving his favorablkes down.

Add that to his stupendous lack of experience his glibness is not nearly enough to cover-up his his practical deficits. No matter how much he talks he has backed himself into a blind alley politically.

315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

U.S. military says that Iraq could be torn by an insurgency offensive in 2011.

Officials said both Shi’ite and Sunni militias were equipping and training for a major Iran backed campaign against the government of Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki. They said the offensive, supported by Iran, could include sustained attacks in both Baghdad as well as Shi’ite provinces in southern Iraq.

“All indications are that the militias are preparing for something big and have even suspended small-scale attacks in the meantime,” an official said.

On July 26, U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, nominated to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee, that Iran was working toward a massive attack to force the American military out of Iraq. Dempsey cited the bombing by the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in 1983 in which 241 Marines were killed.

“Iran’s activities in southern Iraq are intended to produce some kind of Beirut-like moment and, in so doing, to send a message that they have expelled us from Iraq,” Dempsey said. “It would be a gross miscalculation to believe that we will simply allow that to occur without taking serious consideration of reacting to that.”

On July 24, the Iraqi Interior Ministry reported the capture of an Al Qaida cell responsible for the death of about 100 politicians and security officers. The ministry said the 17-member cell acquired silencers and bombs to assassinate senior officials including Ali Al Lami, responsible for investigating the former ruling Baath Party.

Officials said the Iraqi militias represented rival interests, with Al Qaida and Sunni groups intent on carving zones that would be out of the control of the Shi’ite-led government in Baghdad. At the same time, Iranian-backed forces were representing Teheran’s interests to dominate the south, particularly Iraq’s crude oil and natural gas fields.

“It is clear that Iran is attempting to influence this decision with the actions they’ve taken, specifically over the last several months, in continuing to support, fund, train, equip surrogates in southern Iraq and central Iraq, specifically going after the remnants of our U.S. presence inside of Iraq,” U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said.

Officials acknowledge that the Al Maliki government has been paralyzed over whether to extend the stay of the U.S. military past 2011. They said Al Maliki was concerned over a confrontation with pro-Iranian politicians, particularly Shi’ite cleric, Muqtada Sadr, commander of the Mahdi Army militia.

“Every day [of delay] makes it more difficult” [for the U.S. military to continue its stay],” Odierno told the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 21.

Officials have identified the Iranian-backed Hizbullah Brigades as a key element in the insurgency campaign. The U.S. military has been holding the brigades commander, Ali Mussa Daqduq, accused of engineering attacks on U.S. soldiers in Iraq. But under an agreement with Baghdad, Daqduq and 10 remaining prisoners held by the U.S. military must be transferred to Iraqi custody by the end of the year.

“If he is released from United States custody, there is little doubt that Daqduq will return to the battlefield and resume his terrorist activities against the United States and our interests,” a July 21 letter by 20 senators to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.

Over the last two months, authorities have reported a major increase in insurgency attacks in Baghdad. But in July, assassinations and car bombings dropped drastically, leading officials to believe that the militias were planning a series of mass-casualty strikes.

“The Iraqi forces are strained and are not receiving sufficient leadership to handle this alone,” the official said. Others are far less charitable saying Iraqi forced can’t fight their way out of a paper bag and can not even defend its own country without massive American military forces.

Last week Iran swept in to take control of Syria’s missiles.

The reality will be colors pictures of American soldeirs facedown in a pool of blood. Then there will be more fake outrage including flaccid posturing from the White House.

“Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.”- - Golda Meir, Israel’s first female prime minister, during a 1957 speech

Could new NASA data deal a blow to some of the statements and predictions that have been made by global warming adherents? According to James M. Taylor, a senior fellow for environmental policy at The Heartland Institute, the answer is a resounding “yes.”

In Forbes, Taylor writes about some intriguing analysis of NASA satellite data that spans from years 2000 until 2011. Interestingly, the data show that the Earth’s atmosphere is actually allowing more heat to be released into outer space than global warming computer models previously predicted.

A new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing has found that United Nations computer models may be incorrect in overstating the amount of global warming that will occur in the future. The study also finds that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps much less heat that global warming enthusiasts have claimed.

A federal wildlife biologist whose observation in 2004 of presumably drowned polar bears in the Arctic helped to galvanize the global warming movement has been placed on administrative leave and is being investigated for scientific misconduct, possibly over the veracity of that article. You’ll recall the other incidents of misconduct.

As Obama’s two week war in Libya approaches the half year mark Obama has enlisted the Russians to make peace and their first action is to leave Ghadaffi nominally in power and install his son as Dictator. A thoroughly unfit conclusion to a costly, deadly, completely worthless effort.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” originally read “Life, liberty and the possession of property” Franklin and Jefferson changed it  feeling the former fit better in the completely free society they were creating.