the-peoples-patriot, a political Blog

Monday, September 08, 2008

Russian Troops Turn Away U.N. Convoy in Georgia

"He who is willing to sacrifice freedom for safety deserves neither freedom nor safety." - Ben Franklin

"One useless man is called a disgrace; two useless men are called a law firm; and three or more useless men are a congress" - John Adams

Politicians and diapers should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons.

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it."--Mark Twain

KARALETI, Georgia — Russian soldiers prevented international aid convoys from visiting Georgian villages on Monday in a blunt demonstration of power in a tense zone around the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

The ambassadors of Sweden, Latvia and Estonia said they also had been barred from visiting villages beyond Russian checkpoints.

Monday's show of authority came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy tried in Moscow to persuade Russia to honor its pledge to pull its troops back to the positions they held before the fighting broke out Aug. 7.

A convoy of four vehicles from U.N. aid agencies waited for about an hour at the checkpoint in Karaleti, but was turned away after a brief discussion with a Russian general who arrived to negotiate. The three aid agency SUVs and a World Food Program truck loaded with wheat flour, pasta, sugar and other staples were headed to Georgian villages around South Ossetia.

"We tried to do a preliminary humanitarian assessment mission. It didn't work out today as we would have hoped, and we will make every effort to continue to conduct such missions in the future," David Carden, who was leading the interagency mission by the World Food Program, UNICEF and the U.N. refugee agency, told The Associated Press.
For the rest of the story

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Thursday, September 04, 2008

IF your going to screw around, screw around big. It does cost much.

Breaking News Thursday, September 4, 2008, 1:05 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) Judge sentences disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff to 4 years in prison.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

McCain's dangerous choice from "MoveOn" email

Dear MoveOn member,

The other day was John McCain's 72nd birthday. If elected, he'd be the oldest president ever inaugurated. And after months of slamming Barack Obama for "inexperience," here's who John McCain has chosen to be one heartbeat away from the presidency: a right-wing religious conservative with no foreign policy experience, who until recently was mayor of a town of 9,000 people.

Huh?

Who is Sarah Palin? Here's some basic background:
She was elected Alaska 's governor a little over a year and a half ago. Her previous office was mayor of Wasilla, a small town outside Anchorage. She has no foreign policy experience.1
Palin is strongly anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest.2
She supported right-wing extremist Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. 3
Palin thinks creationism should be taught in public schools.4
She's doesn't think humans are the cause of climate change.5
She's solidly in line with John McCain's "Big Oil first" energy policy. She's pushed hard for more oil drilling and says renewables won't be ready for years. She also sued the Bush administration for listing polar bears as an endangered species—she was worried it would interfere with more oil drilling in Alaska.6
How closely did John McCain vet this choice? He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.7

This is information the American people need to see. Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family.

We also asked Alaska MoveOn members what the rest of us should know about their governor. The response was striking. Here's a sample:

She is really just a mayor from a small town outside Anchorage who has been a governor for only 1.5 years, and has ZERO national and international experience. I shudder to think that she could be the person taking that 3AM call on the White House hotline, and the one who could potentially be charged with leading the US in the volatile international scene that exists today. —Rose M., Fairbanks, AK

She is VERY, VERY conservative, and far from perfect. She's a hunter and fisherwoman, but votes against the environment again and again. She ran on ethics reform, but is currently under investigation for several charges involving hiring and firing of state officials. She has NO experience beyond Alaska. —Christine B., Denali Park, AK

As an Alaskan and a feminist, I am beyond words at this announcement. Palin is not a feminist, and she is not the reformer she claims to be. —Karen L., Anchorage, AK

Alaskans, collectively, are just as stunned as the rest of the nation. She is doing well running our State, but is totally inexperienced on the national level, and very much unequipped to run the nation, if it came to that. She is as far right as one can get, which has already been communicated on the news. In our office of thirty employees (dems, republicans, and nonpartisans), not one person feels she is ready for the V.P. position.—Sherry C., Anchorage, AK

She's vehemently anti-choice and doesn't care about protecting our natural resources, even though she has worked as a fisherman. McCain chose her to pick up the Hillary voters, but Palin is no Hillary. —Marina L., Juneau, AK

I think she's far too inexperienced to be in this position. I'm all for a woman in the White House, but not one who hasn't done anything to deserve it. There are far many other women who have worked their way up and have much more experience that would have been better choices. This is a patronizing decision on John McCain's part- and insulting to females everywhere that he would assume he'll get our vote by putting "A Woman" in that position.—Jennifer M., Anchorage, AK

So Governor Palin is a staunch anti-choice religious conservative. She's a global warming denier who shares John McCain's commitment to Big Oil. And she's dramatically inexperienced.

In picking Sarah Palin, John McCain has made the religious right very happy. And he's made a very dangerous decision for our country.

In the next few days, many Americans will be wondering what McCain's vice-presidential choice means. Please pass this information along to your friends and family.

Thanks for all you do.

–Ilyse, Noah, Justin, Karin and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Sarah Palin," Wikipedia, Accessed August 29, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin

2. "McCain Selects Anti-Choice Sarah Palin as Running Mate," NARAL Pro-Choice America, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17515&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=1

3. "Sarah Palin, Buchananite," The Nation, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17736&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=2

4. "'Creation science' enters the race," Anchorage Daily News, October 27, 2006
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17737&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=3

5. "Palin buys climate denial PR spin—ignores science," Huffington Post, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17517&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=4

6. "McCain VP Pick Completes Shift to Bush Energy Policy," Sierra Club, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17518&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=5

"Choice of Palin Promises Failed Energy Policies of the Past," League of Conservation Voters, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17519&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=6

"Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor," The Times of London, May 23, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=17520&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=7

7 "McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=21119&id=13661-5516917-wTt264x&t=8

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Saturday, August 30, 2008

FAA outage reveals odd computing practices

Normally I don't put the hold article in rather a link, but you need to know how inportant your lives are to your Goverment

And yes, it's paying. I know the P is missing

By JOELLE TESSLER and JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writers
Fri Aug 29, 4:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON - When a computer glitch at a Federal Aviation Administration center caused widespread airline delays this week, it served as a reminder that the U.S. flight system is waiting for a modernizing overhaul. But it also appears the FAA's management of its existing technologies falls short of standards in other vital sectors.

By using computing practices that would be considered poor in credit card networks or power plant operators, for example, the FAA was vulnerable to a problem caused when new software was loaded at the Atlanta center that distributes flight plans.

Because the FAA relies on just two computing systems, one in Atlanta and one in Salt Lake City, to handle that chore for the entire nation, the software glitch all but sank the system Tuesday. The Salt Lake center remained up and served as a backup, but it became overloaded by information coming from airlines. More than 600 flights were delayed from Atlanta all the way to Boston and Chicago.

A failure at the same Atlanta center caused major delays across the East Coast in June 2007.

Such breakdowns often can be prevented with sufficient redundancy, or enough different computers and communication channels to handle the same workload in an emergency.

Redundancy is so critical for power and water utilities that they can be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars a day if they're found insufficiently prepared — and $1 million per day if they're found to be willfully negligent.

"In the industries I work in, if you have something that critical, you generally build more redundancy," said Jason Larsen, a security researcher with consultancy IOActive Inc. who previously spent five years at Idaho National Laboratory examining electrical plants' control systems. "If this (FAA outage) happened at a power plant, I'd be telling them to open up their checkbook and expect to be fined."

FAA spokeswoman Tammy Jones stressed that these types of problems "don't happen on a mass scale or a regular basis," and noted that the FAA handles 50,000 to 60,000 fights a day. And flying on U.S. airlines has never been safer.

"The system is working," she said. "We are making sure people are getting from one place to another."

Basil Barimo, vice president of operations and safety for the Air Transport Association of America, a trade association that represents the nation's largest carriers, says the fundamental problem is that the FAA still relies on outdated technology, including a radar-based control system designed in the 1940s and '50s. Barimo is optimistic that the FAA's NextGen modernization program — a $15 billion-plus upgrade to satellite-based technology that will take nearly 20 years to complete — will help make more efficient use of the nation's airspace and safely allow more planes in the sky.

At the Atlanta center that saw this week's failure, the National Airspace Data Interchange Network computer has been owned and operated by the FAA since the 1980s, after the Dutch company that developed it went out of business. The network is being upgraded, and will have much more memory, process data much more quickly and be more robust and "fault-tolerant."

"We should see significant improvements by the end of September ... which should prevent the type of problem we had on Tuesday," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. The agency also is considering adding a third backup site for that and other systems at a technology center in New Jersey, but no final decisions have been made, she added.

However, Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association — a union that has been locked in a contract dispute with the FAA since 2006 — argues that the agency has tried to focus on future technology to deflect its lack of diligence in maintaining its current systems.

Not only did Church cite the agency's lack of a "safety net of redundancy," but he also pointed to its "fix-on-fail" policy of waiting for something to break before addressing a problem.

Indeed, in December, the agency exempted its computer maintenance personnel from having to perform some periodic certification checks as required by government handbooks for technical equipment. The FAA said that would eliminate unnecessary certifications that historically had little or no effect on total system performance and safety. And a 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office had found support for the idea in some instances.

But computing experts say they often advise private companies to reject that approach.

"It's common, you see it in retail too — it's the whole `don't fix it if it ain't broke' thing," said Branden Williams, director of a unit of VeriSign Inc. that assesses the security of retailers' payment systems. "It's unfortunate because it's very reactive, and it typically winds up costing you more. If you do fix-on-fail, it usually costs you more."

Of course, there's a difference between a private company's outage that delays your DVD order, and one at the agency administering airline traffic. And such events have happened to the FAA multiple times.

Communications between an air traffic control center in Memphis, Tenn., which directs planes passing through a 250-mile radius from the city, and an unknown number of airplanes were disrupted this month when a car struck a utility pole, severing a fiber-optic cable. Last September, the same center lost all its communications and some air traffic controllers had to use their personal cell phones to route planes out of the seven-state area. The FAA blamed that outage on the failure of a major AT&T Inc. phone line.

In May, the FAA system that issues preflight notices to pilots about runway, equipment and security issues went down for about a day when a server crashed and the backup operated too slowly to be effective. The database was not able to issue updates or new notices, but pilots continued to receive relevant information from local air traffic controllers and through alternate systems.

After this week's outage, Paul Proctor, a Gartner Inc. analyst focused on security and regulatory compliance for large corporations, said it appeared that the FAA didn't deploy the flight-plan computers with nearly as much redundancy as big companies generally have in systems critical to their operations.

"You need to do a good analysis about whether this is acceptable risk," Proctor said. "One of the things the government is betting on is the fact that if there's ... a failure, it's not a safety issue."

Sid McGuirk, associate professor and coordinator of the air traffic management program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., believes that given the budget realities facing the FAA, the agency has maintained a good balance. It keeps the system running efficiently without compromising safety, said McGuirk, a former air traffic controller and FAA manager for 35 years.

"From time to time, we are going to have a glitch, but it's a tradeoff," he said. "Would I like to see more modern equipment in the system? Sure. But most folks would not want to see their taxes tripled to pay for new technology every two years."

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Just in case you missed this Goverment is never very good at what it does.

Phreakers seize government phone system
Department of Homeland (in)Security
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco, Published Thursday 21st August 2008 18:41 GMT

Information technology workers at the US Department of Homeland Security are busy scraping egg off their collective faces after unknown hackers broke into their telephone system and racked up $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.

The hackers made more than 400 calls by accessing the voicemail system of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a subagency of DHS, according to the Associated Press. The system had recently been upgraded, and it appears a "hole" was left open by the unidentified contractor who performed the job. A spokesman didn't identify the hole but said it has been closed.

One of the older tricks in the annals of so-called phone phreaking is breaking into private branch exchange systems by using passwords that are set by default during initial setup. Security-minded admins will see to it that those passwords are changed, but bureaucracy and inertia being what they are, that doesn't always happen.

Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, India and Yemen were among the countries that received calls from the hacked FEMA account. Most of the calls lasted for about three minutes, but some were as long as 10 minutes.

Ironically, DHS, which is responsible for securing US infrastructure against terrorists, issued a warning in 2003 that unsecured PBXes were wide open to intruders.

"This illegal activity enables unauthorized individuals anywhere in the world to communicate via compromised US phone systems in a way that is difficult to trace," the bulletin read.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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McCain pick a woman as V.P. I guess the Republican arin't thou with us.

Till now I thought the Republican did really want to win this election. Now I'm thinking again,

DENVER - John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate, two senior campaign officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
For the rest of the story

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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From "Michael Moore", A Note I Sent to You -- Three Years Ago Friday.

From my email
Friends,

I'm am speechless after listening to Barack Obama's speech last night. So I'm sending you something I wrote to you two weeks after Hurricane Katrina. It remains every bit as relevant today, on Katrina's 3rd anniversary, as when I wrote it on September 11, 2005. Please give it another look. Here it is in full:

A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush... from Michael Moore

Dear Friends,

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

How does it feel to know that, the man you re-elected to lead us AFTER we were attacked, went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that, after the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have... zero experience in emergency preparedness (!), do you think we are safer?

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

When men who never served in the military, and have never seen young men die in battle, send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?!

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him at some fundraiser with John McCain. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a "flyover" in his jumbo jet, peeking out the widow at the misery 2,500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,

Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

(And my idea now, some three years later, is that they seek forgiveness and redemption by voting for Barack Obama -- or just stay home on November 4.)

P.S. An excellent film on Katrina, "Trouble the Water," is currently playing around the country. Go see it!

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Arctic Sea Ice Drops to 2nd Lowest Level on Record

By The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest minimum since satellite observations began, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Sea ice melt recorded on Monday exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.

With several weeks left in the melt season, ice in summer 2008 has a chance to diminish below the record low set last year, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Environmental groups said the ice melt was another alarm bell warning of global warming.

"It's an unfortunate sign that climate change is coming rapidly to the Arctic and that we really need to address the issue of global warming on a national level," said Christopher Krenz, Arctic project manager for Oceana.

"This is not surprising but it is alarming," said Deborah Williams, a former Interior Department special assistant for Alaska. "This was a relatively cool summer, and to have ice decrease to the second lowest minimum on record demonstrates that global warming's ongoing impact is profound."
For the rest of the story

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Monday, August 25, 2008

A link to a post from someone I can believe, John C. Dvorak

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/

Biden’s Son, Brother Sued
Published on August 25th, 2008
Posted by John C Dvorak

During the years that Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. was helping the credit card industry win passage of a law making it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection, his son had a consulting agreement that lasted five years with one of the largest companies pushing for the changes, aides to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign acknowledged Sunday.
For the rest of the story, http://www.dvorak.org/blog/

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

"Caroline: Pull a Cheney!" An Open Letter to Caroline Kennedy (head of the Obama VP search team) from Michael Moore"

Dear Caroline,

We've never met, so I hope you don't find this letter too presumptuous or inappropriate. As its contents involve the public's business, I am sending this to you via the public on the Internet. I knew your brother John. He was a great guy, and I know he would've had a ball during this thrilling and historic election year. We all miss him dearly.

Barack Obama selected you to head up his search for a vice presidential candidate. It appears we may be just days (hours?) away from learning who that choice will be.

The media is reporting that Senator Obama has narrowed his alternatives to three men: Joe Biden, Evan Bayh and Tim Kaine. They're all decent fellows, but they are far from the core of what the Obama campaign has been about: Change. Real change. Out with the old. And don't invade countries that pose no threat to us.

Senators Biden and Bayh voted for that invasion and that war, the war Barack ran against, the war Barack reminded us was the big difference between him and Senator Clinton because she voted for the war and he spoke out against it while running for Senate (a brave and bold thing to do back in 2002).

For Obama to place either of these senators on the ticket would be a huge blow to the millions that chose him in the primaries over Hillary. He will undercut one of the strongest advantages he has over the Hundred-Year War senator, Mr. McCain. By anointing a VP who did what McCain did in throwing us into this war, Mr. Obama will lose the moral high ground in the debates.

As for Governor Kaine of Virginia, his big problem is, well, Obama's big problem -- who is he? The toughest thing Barack has had to overcome -- and it will continue to be his biggest obstacle -- is that too many of the voters simply don't know him well enough to vote for him. The fact that Obama is new to the scene is both one of his most attractive qualities AND his biggest drawback. Too many Americans, who on the surface seem to like Barack Obama, just don't feel comfortable voting for someone who hasn't been on the national scene very long. It's a comfort level thing, and it may be just what keeps Obama from winning in November ("I'd rather vote for the devil I know than the devil I don't know").

What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we've known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.

That person, Caroline, is you.

I cannot think of a more winning ticket than one that reads: "OBAMA-KENNEDY."

Caroline, I know that nominating yourself is the furthest idea from your mind and not consistent with who you are, but there would be some poetic justice to such an action. Just think, eight years after the last head of a vice presidential search team looked far and wide for a VP -- and then picked himself (a move topped only by his hubris to then lead the country to near ruin while in office) -- along comes Caroline Kennedy to return the favor with far different results, a vice president who helps restore America to its goodness and greatness.

Caroline, you are one of the most beloved and respected women in this country, and you have been so admired throughout your life. You chose a life outside of politics, to work for charities and schools, to write and lecture, to raise a wonderful family. But you did not choose to lead a private life. You have traveled the world and met with its leaders, giving you much experience on the world stage, a stage you have been on since you were a little girl.

The nation has, remarkably (considering our fascination with celebrity), left you alone and let you live your life in peace. (It's like, long ago, we all collectively agreed that, with her father tragically gone, a man who died because he wanted to serve his country, we would look out for her, we would wish for her to be happy and well, and we would have her back. But we would let her be.)

Now, I am breaking this unwritten code and asking you to come forward and help us in our hour of need. So many families are hurting, losing their homes, going bankrupt with health care bills, seeing their public schools in shambles and living with this war without end. This is a historic year for women, from Hillary's candidacy to the numerous women running for the House and Senate. This is the year that a woman should be on the Democratic ticket. This is the year that both names on that ticket should be people OUTSIDE the party machine. This is the year millions of independents and, yes, millions of Republicans are looking for something new and fresh and bold (and you are the Kennedy Republicans would vote for!).

This is the moment, Caroline. Seize it! And Barack, if you're reading this, you probably know that she is far too humble and decent to nominate herself. So step up and surprise us again. Step up and be different than every politician we have witnessed in our lifetime. Keep the passion burning amongst the young people and others who have been energized by your unexpected, unpredicted, against-all-odds candidacy that has ignited and inspired a nation. Do it for all those reasons. Make Caroline Kennedy your VP. "Obama-Kennedy." Wow, does that sound so cool.

Caroline, thanks for letting me intrude on your life. How wonderful it will be to have a vice president who will respect the Constitution, who will support (instead of control) her president, who will never let her staff out a CIA agent, and who will never tell her country that she is "currently residing in an undisclosed location."

Say it one more time: "OBAMA-KENNEDY." A move like that might send a message to the country that the Democrats would actually like to win an election for once.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Ark. Dem. Party Chairman Shot At Headquarters

Ark. Dem. Party Chairman Shot At Headquarters
Suspect Shot After Police Chase; Condition Unknown
LITTLE ROCK, Ark (CBS) ― Chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, Bill Gwatney, in critical condition following a shooting at the Democratic headquarters in Arkansas. A gunman walked into his building and fired multiple shots, according to CBS affiliate station KTHV-TV.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/5dm86g

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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From the Giz Wiz, Dick DeBartolo

http://www.gizwizbiz.com/

Dick's gadget spots are low to medium-tech and light hearted. The light-hearted part stems from his second career as MAD Magazine's MADDEST Writer. For more than forty years he's been writing many of those famous off-the-wall movie, tv and ad take-offs. He started his MAD writing career in high school when he submitted an article. He thought it had been returned when his own envelope came back. The envelope was stuffed with cardboard, a check and a note: "ha, ha, thought you were rejected, but we bought your piece. Dick wrote the book GOOD DAYS AND MAD, which is all about the insane way MAD founder William M. Gaines ran his multi-million dollar empire. (No secretaries, no switchboard, even white wine in the water cooler one day!)

Dick appears regularly on WORLD NEWS NOW, the overnight ABC Network news program showing the latest gizmos and gadgets. He also appears on http://www.twit.tv/DGW Leo Laporte's, the tech guy, webcast website and has appeared several times on the HAPPY HOUR on the Fox Business Channel.
It's fun and so is he.

See and hear him:
GizWiz.Biz USB Smart Button

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The truth well out.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Friday, August 08, 2008

A Picture = one thousand words.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

send comments via Email to me

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Paris Hilton's reply to McCain in video

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

send comments via Email to me

Monday, August 04, 2008

You just lost more of your Rights, again.

You've got to listen to the first part of this, one of Leo Leporte - the Tech guys. He, Leporte and some of his tech friends talking about your loosing your laptop to Gov. agents.
http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/twit/TWiT0154H.mp3 . It doesn't take that long, and you need to know what your Gov. is doing to you again.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Friday, August 01, 2008

Unemployment at 4-year high, there better not be anyone out there that doesn't know why.

Not since 2004 have so many people been out of work. Employers cut jobs again in July, according to a government report Friday that showed the seventh straight month of job losses. Losses spread far beyond the battered construction and auto industries. Retailers cut 17,000 jobs, and professional services lost even more than that -- 24,000 postions.

For the rest of thestory

Vote better and have a better live.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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The Servants are ordering the Bosses around again...

Workers Going To Court To Stop Job Cuts
SACRAMENTO (AP) ― Thousands of state government employees will find themselves out of work today as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's money-saving executive order takes effect.

Those workers also will be backed by California's largest state employee union, which plans to challenge the governor's order.

Service Employees International Union said it planned to file a lawsuit today in Sacramento County Superior Court seeking to block the order, which Schwarzenegger signed Thursday amid a budget stalemate.
END

For the rest of the story

This happens ever time someone from So. Cal gets into the Gov.'s office. They try and screw the people. I don't understand why we keep voting so badly.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A JibJab Sendables eCard for you...

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Monday, July 28, 2008

Is Obama legal

I'm wondering.........

Think about this...... I always thought that Ms. Clinton had something on Obama. A birth certificate is a matter of public record. I wonder where it is. We know that Obama refuses to release his birth certificate, and for some reason it is not on file in Hawaii, that makes this VERY interesting!

So is Obama Legally Eligible to Serve as President?

SOME TIME AGO HILLARY SAID SHE HAD SOMETHING ON OBAMA THAT WOULD CHANGE THE ELECTION AND THAT'S WHY SHE ONLY "SUSPENDED" HER QUEST FOR THE PRESIDENCY, WELL HERE IT IS:

This came from a USNA alumnus. It'll be interesting to see how the media handles this... Barack Obama is not a legal U.S. natural-born citizen according to the law on the books at the time of his birth, which falls between December 24, 1952 , to November 13, 1986. Federal Law requires that the office of President requires a natural-born citizen if the child was not born to two U.S. Citizen parents. This is what exempts John McCain, though he was born in the US Panama Canal Zone. US Law very clearly states: ". . . If only one parent is a U.S. Citizen at the time of one's birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for minimum ten years, five of which must be after the age of 16".

That Barack Obama's father was not a U.S. Citizen is a fact. Obama's mother was only 18 when Obama was born. This means even though she had been a U.S. Citizen for 10 years, (or citizen of Hawaii being a territory), his mother fails the test for at-least-5-years- prior-to Barack Obama's birth, but-after-age-16.

In essence, Mother alone is not old enough to qualify her son for automatic U.S. Citizenship. At most, 2 years elapsed from his mother turning 16 to the time of Barack Obama's birth when she was 18. His mother would have needed to have been 16 + 5 = 21 years old at the time of Barack Obama's birth for him to be a natural-born citizen. Barack Obama was already 3 years old at the time his mother would have needed to be to allow him natural citizenship from his only U.S. Citizen parent.

Obama should have been naturalized as a citizen . . . but that would disqualify him from holding the office. The Constitution clearly declares: Naturalized citizens are ineligible to hold the office of President. Though Barack Obama was sent back to Hawaii at age 10, any other information does not matter because his mother is the one who must fulfill the requirement to be a U.S. Citzen for 10 years prior to his birth on August 4, 1961 , with 5 of those years being after age 16.

Further, Obama may have had to have remained in the USA for some time frame to protect any citizenship he might have had, rather than living in Indonesia.

This is very clear cut and a glaring violation of U.S. Election law. I think the Governor Schwarzenegger of California should be very interested in discovering if Obama is allowed to be elected President without being a natural-born U.S. Citizen, since this would set a precedent. Stay tuned to your TV sets because I suspect some of this information will be leaking through over the next several days.

If this is true? This needs to spread rapidly.

D, AKA Lets, Advising at keen as The Webster. Read my other blog, http://letslets.blogspot.com/ and or http://the-webster.blogspot.com/

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Monday, August 25, 2008

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Friday, August 08, 2008

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Monday, August 04, 2008

Friday, August 01, 2008

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Monday, July 28, 2008

Agree or not, talking it over is better...

Saturday Night Live - Palin / Hillary Open

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