Titled: Spy Agency Watching Americans From Space

WASHINGTON (AP) - A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.

Watching U.S. soil is a thankless and boring task - all you see is mud until the grass and weeds appear.

Seriously though, this is the season for sparkling revelations. First the phone tapping, then the call list recording and now the watching from above. These don't really suprise me, unlike maybe the gubbermint collecting all your trash together and databasing it.

Maybe its because I grew up in the UK, the most watched society in the western world, with its millions of cameras watching every move everywhere you make.

We maybe still get some protection from the resolution issue. The Israelis admit to a just over 2 foot resolution from theirs. Even commercial birds work around the 2 foot region. Enough to pick out people but maybe not enough yet to recognize them, unlike the UK's cameras.

I hope we have good, honest watchers watching the watchers.

Titled:   NSA kept domestic calls data: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The agency in charge of a domestic spying program has been secretly collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, including calls made within the United States, USA Today reported on Thursday.

It said the National Security Agency has been building up the database using records provided by three major phone companies -- AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. -- but that the program "does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations."

USA Today said its sources for the story were "people with direct knowledge of the arrangement," but it did not give their names or describe their affiliation.

The existence of an NSA eavesdropping program launched after the September 11 attacks was revealed in December.

Defending the controversial program, President Bush and his administration officials have said it aims to uncover links between international terrorists and their domestic collaborators and only targets communications between a person inside the United States and a person overseas.

But USA Today said that calls originating and terminating within the United States have not escaped the NSA's attention.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," the paper quoted one source as saying. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within U.S. borders, it said the source added.

The NSA has "access to records of billions of domestic calls," USA Today said. Although customers' names and addresses are not being handed over, "the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information," it said.

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005 and was nominated by Bush on Monday as director of the CIA, would have overseen the call-tracking program, the paper said.

Hayden, as well as NSA and White House officials, declined to discuss the program, USA Today said.

Among major U.S. telecommunications companies, only Qwest Communications International Inc. has refused to help the NSA program, the paper said.

Qwest, with 14 million customers in the Western United States, was "uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants," USA Today said.

It said the three companies cooperating with the NSA "provide local and wireless phone service to more than 200 million customers."

So they know which numbers you call, when and where. And the data is kept and analyzed. Of course we all guessed this was happening - it's just strange to see it talked about in the press. I had an expectation of privacy on my calls, at least expecting the records to be lost in the masses of data. But if they record every single one...

Titled:     The ABA Goes Wild

From the Powerline:

It's official: the American Bar Association is off the reservation. After several years of relatively good behavior, it has now drawn its knives and enlisted in the Democrats' 2006 campaign. Today, the ABA's judicial qualifications panel opined unanimously that Michael Wallace, nominated to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, is "unqualified" for the post.

This is ridiculous. Wallace's bio is here. He graduated from Harvard and (at the top of his class) the University of Virginia Law School. He clerked for the Mississippi Supreme Court, and for Justice Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court. President Reagan appointed Wallace to head the Legal Services Corporation. For some years, Wallace has had what appears to be a top-notch litigation practice, with an appellate focus, in Jackson, Mississippi.

Based on Wallace's resume, there are two reasons why the Democrats at the ABA consider him "unqualified." The first is that he is a Republican. He is General Counsel of the Mississippi Republican Party, and--no doubt a key fact--he served as Special Impeachment Counsel to then-Majority Leader Trent Lott for the impeachment trial of President Clinton. The second reason is that Wallace is from Mississippi. I doubt whether the ABA would dare to pull the same stunt with a Northerner.

With this nakedly political move, the American Bar Association has once again forfeited any claim to credibility.

Titled:   Walk a Quarter-Mile or Die

If you can walk a quarter-mile, odds are you have at least six years of life left in you, scientists announced today.

And the faster you can do it, the longer you might live.

While walking is no guarantee of health or longevity, a new study found that the ability of elderly people to do the quarter-mile was an "important determinant" in whether they'd be alive six years later and how much illness and disability they would endure.

"The ability to complete this walk was a powerful predictor of health outcomes," said study leader Anne Newman of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "In fact, we found that the people who could not complete the walk were at an extremely high risk of later disability and death."

Newman and colleagues recruited nearly 2,700 white and African-American men and women aged 70 to 79 to complete in non-running races. All the participants were screened and determined to be in relatively good health, and they had all said they had previously walked that far with no problem.

However, only 86 percent of them finished.

The scientists then monitored the health and mortality of all participants for the next six years.

"There was a big gap in health outcomes between people who could complete the longer walk and people who could not, with the latter being at an extremely high risk of becoming disabled or dying," Newman said. "What was really surprising is that these people were not aware of how limited they actually were."

Finishing times were found to be crucial, too. Those who completed the walk but were among the slowest 25 percent faced three times greater risk of death than the speedier folks.

This probably has a good correlation to the recent study showing the fact that the Brits are generally more healthy than Americans. Walking to and from shops and around town provides much more exercise than the equivalent US experience. I think I can still do the quarter-mile, but it sure is easier to drive.

Titled:   General: Zarqawi 'Bloopers' Tape Found

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, doesn't exactly look like a terrorist mastermind in a new videotape released by the U.S. military today.

In blooper-type footage from a Zarqawi video released last week, the al Qaeda in Iraq leader is seen fumbling with a machine gun.

It's quite a show. Firing at nothing in particular, then rotating around to point the barrel directly at a colleague. Then getting it stuck in single round mode, jamming and staring in confusion as someone has to un-jam it for him. Then others grabbing at the hot barrel and burning themselves. All in New Balance sneakers - infidel footware.

Certainly not the experienced combatant he portrays himself to be. 

I'm also not sure that New Balance can build much of an ad campaign around the footage.

Titled:   Policy on Iran nukes seems to be off-target

Mark Steyn compares Iran's behaviour to a domestic airline passenger:

You know what's great fun to do if you're on, say, a flight from Chicago to New York and you're getting a little bored? Why not play being President Ahmadinejad? Stand up and yell in a loud voice, "I've got a bomb!" Next thing you know the air marshal will be telling people, "It's OK, folks. Nothing to worry about. He hasn't got a bomb." And then the second marshal would say, "And even if he did have a bomb it's highly unlikely he'd ever use it." And then you threaten to kill the two Jews in row 12 and the stewardess says, "Relax, everyone. That's just a harmless rhetorical flourish." And then a group of passengers in rows 4 to 7 point out, "Yes, but it's entirely reasonable of him to have a bomb given the threatening behavior of the marshals and the cabin crew."

...

All the doom-mongers want to know why we went into Iraq "without a plan." Well, one reason is surely that, for a year before the invasion, the energy of the U.S. government was primarily devoted to the pointless tap-dance through the United Nations, culminating in the absurd situation of Western foreign ministers chasing each other through Africa to bend the ear of the president of Guinea, who happened to be on the Security Council that week but whose witch doctor had advised against supporting Washington. Allowing the Guinean tail to wag the French rectum of the British hindquarters of the American dog was a huge waste of resources. To go through it all again in order to prevent whichever global colossus chances to be on the Security Council this time (Haiti? The South Sandwich Islands?) from siding with the Russo-Chinese obstructionists would show that the United States had learned nothing.

Read the rest here

Titled: To Da Moon Baby 2

In a post in January I mentioned the potential for a meteoric rise in gold and silver prices.

On the 16th January, the prices of gold was a strong $560 an ounce and silver was $9.

Today, three and a half months later, gold is passing $675, silver $14.30, gains of 21% and 59% respectively.

Annualized, this is 72% and 203%.

Especially promising is Silver which has almost doubled over the last six months.

Considering in many places, there is no tax on purchases of physical gold and silver, and maintainance / storage costs are zero, this is an investment choice worthy of further inspection.

Precious metals of this class are traditionally hedges against inflation and are almost certain never to become worthless, unlike almost any other form of investment.

Think carefully.

Usual disclaimers apply: This is not intended as investment advice - please do your own due diligence

Titled:   A Fair Trade

Wizbang comes up with a novel concept to solve the immigration problem, both legal and illegal:

One of the more popular arguments against a crackdown on illegal aliens has been the "do you know how hard it would be to deport 12 million people?" My standard reply has been "then we better start soon."

Yesterday, I heard an interesting idea on a talk show. A caller suggested that we couple deporting illegal aliens with increased legal immigration. This was not a new idea, but his iteration of it was: a simple one-for-one exchange: for every illegal sent back, one legal is allowed in.

I think this is a good idea, but it could stand improving. Instead of a simple one-for-one exchange, I propose that for every illegal alien deported to their home country, one applicant currently going through the legal process is chosen at random for expedited processing. We, at once, punish the law-breakers and reward those obeying the laws.

(I have no idea how this will also get twisted into some form of racism/bigotry/xenophobia, but I have absolute faith in the illegal-alien advocates to find a way to do so.)

This could also have the benefit of fully splitting off the legal immigrants from the pro-illegal side, as suddenly they have an incentive to turn in illegals. If sending Sven down the street back to Norway means that Cousin Lars will have a chance to jump to the head of the legal line, then that just might do the trick the next time Sven annoys Lars' cousin.

I am loath to use such a cliche' as "thinking outside the box," but this notion is a perfect example of that. It's making the statement I believe we need to make -- we welcome and value immigrants, but ONLY if they obey the rules and respect the law from the outset. It punishes lawbreakers and rewards those following the rules. It's incredibly simple, self-explanatory, and could work wonders for the problem.

Naturally, I expect it to go exactly nowhere.

As a legal immigrant, and now a naturalized, fully-integrated and assimilated US citizen, I applaud this line of thought. Big problems have to be solved one step at a time. And anything that expedites the immigration of those willing to do things in a legal manner is a blessing. The endless forms, embassy interviews, afidavits of financial support, medicals, money and months and months of waiting sort the chaff from the wheat. And most Brits don't qualify to come here unless they get a job first, which is hard if you don't live here and can't legally come here on a visit to look for work. Brits don't even get a chance to play in the green card lottery. Yet they generally have a good education, reasonable health and speak English already.

I know of several families in the UK that are desperate to move to the US and can't. Families that work hard and want to become a part of society. Reform is long overdue.

Titled: Michigan Castle Doctrine Approved by House!

Law-abiding Michigan residents who actually and reasonably believe they are facing imminent death, great bodily harm or rape at the hands of a violent criminal are justified in using force to defend themselves and their families. They are no longer required to retreat from a violent attacker in their own home under a package of bills sponsored and spearheaded by state Rep. Rick Jones. The measures were approved today by the Michigan House of Representatives.

“One of Michigan’s most basic values is that a person’s home is their castle,” said Jones, R-Grand Ledge. “This legislation makes it clear that not only do you have the right to stand your ground and defend yourself, but you will not be prosecuted or sued for defending yourself or your family in your own home.”

The “castle doctrine” is enshrined as a sacred right in English common law. It holds if you’re wrongfully threatened or attacked in your home, you may meet force with force.

More at the MCRGO web site.

Titled:   Kwame Wallace

The ever-topical Opinion Journal brings us an interesting article on Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick echoing the words of southern segregationists:

In November voters in the Wolverine State will decide whether to approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot measure banning racial preferences by government agencies, including public educational institutions. Similar measures have won approval in California and Washington, both more liberal-leaning states than Michigan, so one would expect the MCRI would have a pretty good chance of passing.

Not surprisingly, the civil rights establishment opposes the Civil Rights Initiative, as the Associated Press reports:

In blunt and passionate tones, officials at a major NAACP fundraiser that drew 10,000 people blasted a ballot initiative that aims to restrict affirmative action programs in Michigan.

"On behalf of the city of Detroit, I say, 'Bring it on,' " Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said at the 51st annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday. "If you want a fight, there is one waiting for you right here." . . .

"There will be affirmative action here today," Kilpatrick said. "There will be affirmative action here tomorrow and there will be affirmative action in our state forever."

This puts Kilpatrick at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court, which, although it approved some of the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), also stated that "25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." That deadline is now only 22 years, one month and three weeks away.

More curious is Kilpatrick's choice of slogans. "Bring it on"? That's how losers talk. The mayor may as well inquire as to the location of the outrage or opine about the riskiness of the scheme.

Even worse is that "affirmative action forever" line, an echo of--of all people--George Wallace. In his 1963 Inaugural Address Alabama's then-governor declared:

In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.

It didn't quite work out that way. Eighteen months later, the Civil Rights Act was the law of the land. The Wallace-Kilpatrick parallel illustrates a point we made in January:

During the decades between Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act, white Southerners were extreme political outliers. Much of their political energy was invested in defending a system of racial discrimination that privileged them. They voted Democratic in overwhelming proportions, sometimes approaching 90%, even during periods when Republicans were the dominant party nationwide. . . . The political behavior of white Southerners then is remarkably similar to that of black Americans today.

Still, it seems odd for Kilpatrick to adopt the rhetoric of an avowed segregationist. Why not instead modify Martin Luther King: "I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged by the color of their skin, but not by the content of their character"?

Titled:    Finland Squirms as Its Latest Export Steps Into Spotlight

Has Dave thA decided to make up for a week or two of slow posting? Lost his job? 3 posts in one day? Well, I just couldn't resist reporting a story that digs deep at the European psyche.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Eurovision Song Contest, it is a yearly ritual of polite boredom, politics and occasionally music where the ever-expanding empire of Europe and guests pits its singers against each other.

It used to include a jury in each country that would award marks for all the other countries except themselves. This would lead to predictable voting, with the French always voting down the Brits and other nationalistic rivalries. (The UK scored zero overall in 2003, probably a reflection of the Iraq invasion as much as a poor song choice.)

This may explain why Ireland, famously neutral, has won seven contest, also a record.

Strange rules abounded thoughout the years - songs had to be sung in the local dialect - even the weird Maltese,  and with Lithuania singing in Samogitian which is a dialect of Lithuanian, making many songs totally incomprehensible to most viewers.

Norway holds the record for scoring zero point in three years ("nul points"), closely followed by Turkey and Austria.

The maximum duration of each song is three minutes, and although musicians of any genre can play, the musicians and songs selected for the Contest tend towards very commercial pop. Some viewers of the Contest view the event as a combination of camp entertainment and a musical train wreck (a fact played upon in the UK broadcast with the sardonic BBC commentary of Terry Wogan) and a subculture of Eurovision Song Contest drinking games has evolved in some countries.

It's worth noting that the voting system used for the Contest was originally designed to select a single compromise winner from a large field of candidates. A number of countries use this same system to select their entries, some of them going through several rounds of voting before selecting a winner. After repeated iterations of the system, variations from middle-of-the-road pop music tend to be eliminated.

So it is with great humor that I note the entry from Finland this year:

Don't forget this is a competition famous for the likes of Abba, and Céline Dion with most winners fading immediately into obscurity.

They have eight-foot retractable latex Satan wings, sing hits like "Chainsaw Buffet" and blow up slabs of smoking meat on stage.

"In Finland, we have no Eiffel Tower, few real famous artists, it is freezing cold and we suffer from low self-esteem," said Mr. Putaansuu, who, as Lordi, has horns protruding from his forehead and sports long black fingernails.

As he stuck out his tongue menacingly, his red demon eyes glaring, Lordi was surrounded by Kita, an alien-man-beast predator who plays flame-spitting drums inside a cage; Awa, a blood-splattered ghost who howls backup vocals; Ox, a zombie bull who plays bass; and Amen, a mummy in a rubber loincloth who plays guitar.

It is not the first time the contest, which began in 1956, has spawned discontent. Last year's Ukrainian entry song was rewritten after being deemed too political by government officials in Kiev because it celebrated the Orange Revolution. When Dana International, an Israeli transsexual, won in 1998 with her hit song "Diva," rabbis accused her of flouting the values of the Jewish state.

But not everyone in this Nordic country of five million views the monster squad as un-Finnish. Some Finns say that Lordi is right at home and that the band's use of flaming dragon-encrusted swords and exploding baby dolls expresses the warrior spirit of the Vikings.

Europe isn't what it used to be.

In 2006 the format of the Eurovision Song Contest was sold to an American Broadcaster in order to compete with American Idol in the ratings. The member countries of [Europe] will be replaced by the different States and territories of the United States.

Watch out USA.

Hat-tip to Nobody's Business again

Titled:   Multi-Culti Madness Goes Extraterrestrial

Malaysia (a country that has declared attending Friday prayer sessions mandatory) is getting ready to send a Muslim astronaut into space as part of an International Space Station mission in 2007. This poses quite the religious quandary.

Muslims are required to pray five times daily, turning toward Mecca during prayer. But as Zainal Abidin Abdul Rashid of Malaysia National University pointed out ..., the space station circles the Earth 16 times in 24 hours, with a sunrise and sunset occurring about every 90 minutes. "Does this mean we have to perform 80 prayers a day?" he said. ... On the issue of "qiblat" or the direction of Mecca, suggestions range from installing a special rotating seat so that the Muslim astronaut could turn easily toward Mecca, to using a calculator that can determine qiblat direction and the prayer schedule. Then there is also the question of how to perform ablution, a ritual cleansing of the body, with water-rationing in space. Also, how does one do the prayer ritual of kneeling and prostrating under zero gravity?

The physicist in me ponders the maths involved in calculating the position of Mecca on a rotating globe while in orbit, and the tracking of it during prayer. The rotating chair would have to revolve in 3 axes to avoid ending up facing away from it by the end of prayer time. Assuming that an orbit directly over Mecca is unlikely, there will quite a bot of spinning involved. Quite an image - a whirling dervish of prayer, flailing arms and legs...

The realist in me asks why anyone would think to do this at all, selecting instead an astronaut whose religious duties do not involve the re-engineering of the shuttle.

Hat-tip to Nobody's Business

See more like this at http://www.daybydaycartoon.com

Titled:     Greenpeace takes Kennedy to task

But Ted Kennedy? Sure enough, the activist group known for its flair for drama hammers the liberal Bay State senator - and Cape Wind opponent - in new ads being shown in states nationwide in the days leading up to a congressional vote that could doom the Nantucket Sound wind farm.

In the 30-second spot, a cartoon Kennedy looms over the water like a Japanese movie monster, pounding wind turbines as they sprout from the water, and barks, ''I might see them from my mansion on the Cape.''

See the movie here

Titled:   Iran oil bourse next week

Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said on Wednesday that the establishment of Oil Stock Exchange is in its final stage and the bourse will be launched in Iran in the next week.

He told reporters, upon arrival from Qatar where he attended the 10th General Assembly of International Energy Agency and consultations with OPEC member states, that registration of the Oil Stock Exchange is underway and the entity will operate after being approved by by Council of Stock Exchange.

He rejected a statement attributed to him saying that Oil Stock Exchange will bring to the ground the US economy and said, "I don't know who has speculated that I've not talked about US economy." Asked about conference on energy in Doha, he said that more than 60 countries and 30 oil companies and consultants took part in the conference.

Vaziri Hamaneh said that serious discussions were held including security of supply and demand, security of investment in energy and environment issues.

"The best method for security of demand in the oil sector is that consumers should be given opportunity to enter into partnership with the suppliers in investment in oil industry."

He said that the conference called for diversifying energy resources and cooperation of the developed states with the countries possessing oil and gas resources.

Asked about the oil price rise, Vaziri-Hamaneh said that oil price is being influenced by political situation, whereas it should be freed from political impacts and economic and technical fundamentals should determine the oil prices.

"As long as political impacts dominate the oil market, price hike will continue," he concluded.

Iran is going to sell oil denominated in Euros. Countries will need not buy US dollars to buy oil, reducing the value of the dollar even further.

 

Of course Iraq tried to do this just before we went in to save the dollar / world iraqi people.

Titled:   Cloned dog celebrates first birthday in S.Korea

The world's first and only cloned dog celebrated its first birthday on Monday, as the leader of the South Korean team that produced the Afghan hound faced a criminal investigation for possible fraud and ethics violations.

The team led by scientist Hwang Woo-suk unveiled the dog named Snuppy last August amid global fanfare. Time magazine named Snuppy one of the most amazing inventions for 2005.

The birthday celebrations at the university where Hwang once ran his lab were subdued. Snuppy, short for Seoul National University puppy, is in good health and weighs about 64 lbs, university officials said.

For his birthday, Snuppy enjoyed two of his favorite foods; ice cream and sausages.

How about that - a story from Korea of a dog actually being fed, not eaten.

Happy Birthday Snuppy.

Titled:   44 percent of Americans think that they pay the right amount of income taxes

John Lott brings us news of a surprising new survey that coincides nicely with the end of the tax season.

Apparently 44 percent of people think that they pay the right amount of tax. 48% think it is too high.

At first blush, this seems to say that taxes are about right, if a little high.

When you remember that nearly half of Americans pay no tax at all, you can see who the 44% comprise of.

In his Apr. 1 radio address, U.S. president George W. Bush discussed his fiscal policies, saying, "The debate in Congress over taxes ultimately comes down to this: Who knows best how to use your money—the politicians in Washington or you? I believe the money we spend in Washington is your money, not the government’s money. I trust you to make the best decisions about what to do with your hard-earned dollars, because when you do, your family is better off, our economy grows, and prosperity and opportunity spread throughout our great land."