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"Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short."

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100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES

"'Obama criticized pork barrel spending in the form of 'earmarks,' urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress. 'Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability,' Obama said.' -- McClatchy, 3/11"
100 DAYS, 100 MISTAKES FOR BARACK OBAMA - New York Post

TheHill.com

"...beneath this superficial support, Obama’s specific policies run afoul of the very deeply felt convictions of American voters. For example, the most recent Rasmussen Poll asked voters if they wanted an economic system of complete free enterprise or preferred more government involvement in managing the economy. By 77-19, they voted against a government role, up seven points from last month." [our emphasis]
Read more TheHill.com

American Thinker Blog: Isn't this special? Feds knew flyover would cause panic

American Thinker Blog: Isn't this special? Feds knew flyover would cause panic:

Rick Moran

Cue the Church Lady:

Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.

THEY have forgotten....EDITORIAL

It seems like yesterday, we were headed for Bar Harbor Maine for a day that had special meaning to me, my husbands 50th birthday. Little did we know how insignificant that event would seem in just minutes.

The gas station was in Biddeford. I’ll never forget. Jimmy Buffet had been looking for “One Particular Harbor” on thee radio when I rolled down the window and was greeted by a wizened Marine who kindly asked how much? That was when everything changed.

His young mechanic, no more than 19 years old, came out of the Station with an odd look on his face. The old marine turned and gave him one of those withering looks an exhausted parent may give their child. That was when the younger man looked at him and said “They are saying a plane hit the World Trade Center in NY”…

The old attendant turned that withering look towards us. Private planes – idiots, he muttered…shaking his head as he pumped. “Go back to what you were doing” were his only words. He was there to work – not to jaw.

As the pump binged its gallon to gallon count, the young man wandered out again, only this time he looked worried.

“What is it NOW” The Old Marine was getting ticked off by the apparent lack of work around the place. The boy looked past him this time and directly at us “They just announced another plane has hit the Trade Centers”. There was a pregnant pause before the old guy shooed him away again…clucked a bit more about kids, before his face betrayed his thoughts. One plane…an accident…..but two?

We pulled out in silence, hesitated – then nearly knocked each other over to pop out the CD and find live reporting.

It was like being stuck in a black and white Raymond Burr horror movie. All we could get was AM radio, and the reports were as confused as the day. The further we went up in Maine, the stranger the reports got, the Pentagon? The President was missing??? The Towers were collapsing?

In 2001 we couldn’t find a business with a TV…..

In Camden, Maine we finally found a small black and white ( in keeping with the day ) and saw the image of smoke…because that’s all there was at that time. These seemingly mundane events are seared into my memory and drawn upon often.

We turned around. We knew people in those buildings….and even if we hadn’t….we turned around – birthday forgotten…family and Country on our minds.

What followed in the weeks and months after that horrible TERRORIST ATTACK (NOT “man caused disaster”) showed the absolute magnificence of America – of its people, of its compassion, of its raw power…It was something to behold…you remember now don’t you? YOU remember where you were standing….what you were thinking…..YOU REMEMBER.

Lately I wondered if it had ALL been forgotten. Listening to the constant drumbeat of vicious attacks on the Bush Administration. Listening to the apologies about who we are as a nation. People doing everything in their power to destroy “That Shining City on a Hill” as Reagan coined it. The celebrities who wouldn’t recognize the greatness of our nation if it bit them in the proverbial ass.

And then yesterday….a “photo op” with a presidential jet shot in the skies of lower Manhattan…without proper warning, without due consideration…without just BASIC understanding.

Listening to the screams of people running as the plane banked by skyscrapers made me hope perhaps WE have not forgotten…

Listening to the absolute lack of understanding over the incident come out of Washington made me realize…they haven’t just forgotten…

They never understood in the first place…and they’re in charge.

FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic - wcbstv.com

FAA Memo: Feds Knew NYC Flyover Would Cause Panic - wcbstv.com:

Threatened Federal Sanctions Against NYPD, Secret Service, FBI & Mayor's Office If Secret Ever Got Out"

The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room � Specter had disavowed a switch

The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room � Specter had disavowed a switch

PRUDEN: A pandemic of panic -- are we dead yet? - Washington Times

"We were all supposed to be in the graveyard by now, done in by AIDS, SARS, bird flu, poisoned peanut butter, Hong Kong flu, killer tomatoes, global warming and strangulation by kudzu. But here we are, proof that there really is life after death.

Now we learn that we might freeze before the pigs get us. (The chickens failed.) NASA scientists have observed that the solar wind is the weakest since we began keeping such records, that the magnetic axis of the sun is tilted to an unusual degree, and Ol' Sol is the quietest he has been in a century"

PRUDEN: A pandemic of panic -- are we dead yet? - Washington Times:

OBAMA'S ROUNDING ERROR - New York Post

... it amounts to 0.0027 percent of the $3.6 trillion budget.

Make no mistake: Obama's not asking for cuts of $100 mil from each department -- which would also be negligible. He's looking at a cumulative $100 million -- across the entire federal budget.

And this, after he signed one piece of legislation for $787 billion and another for $410 billion -- and then introduced a record $3.6 trillion federal budget.

...Let's face it: Federal spending was out of control even before Obama took office. His plans for massive outlays -- in both the short and long term -- are, frankly, reckless.

And if this is how he responds to public disapproval, he's merely going to make matters worse. For himself, politically -- and for the nation, fiscally.

America needs strong leadership from Washington to climb out of its economic depths. Token gestures on spending "cuts" don't . . . cut it.

Obama needs to get serious.
OBAMA'S ROUNDING ERROR - New York Post

Bush's big lies - Los Angeles Times

Bush's big lies - Los Angeles Times: "Bush's big lies
Behind the sordid memos that purported to give legal justification for the war on terror.
Rosa Brooks
March 5, 2009


How did they ever get away with it?

On Tuesday, the Justice Department released a batch of memos drafted in 2001 and 2002 by lawyers in the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel. Written mainly by John Yoo, then a deputy director in the office, they laid out the purported legal justifications for a theory of presidential power amounting to virtual dictatorship."

Bail out journalism - Los Angeles Times

Bail out journalism - Los Angeles Times:
Other democracies pay for accurate reporting, so why shouldn't the U.S.?
Rosa Brooks
April 9, 2009

This will be my last column for the L.A. Times. After four years, I'll soon be starting a stint at the Pentagon as an advisor to the undersecretary of Defense for policy.

Some might say I have a 'new job,' but because I'll be escaping a dying industry -- and your tax dollars will shortly be paying my salary -- I prefer to think of it as my personal government bailout."

American Thinker: The Torture Controversy

American Thinker: The Torture Controversy:

By Rob Miller
Amidst the huge controversy surrounding the story on the so-called torture memos, the bedrock issues are being almost entirely ignored in favor of political theater. And the potential for harm is enormous."

Storing the Carbon in Fossil Fuels Where It Came from: Deep Underground: Scientific American

For more than a decade, Norwegian oil company Statoil Hydro has been stripping climate change–causing carbon dioxide (CO2) from natural gas in its Sleipner West field and burying it beneath the seabed rather than venting it into the atmosphere.

The company estimates that since 1996 it has stored more than 10 million-plus metric tons of CO2 some 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) down in the sandstone formation from which it came—and all of it has stayed put, which means storage may be the simplest part of the carbon capture and storage (CCS) challenge.
Storing the Carbon in Fossil Fuels Where It Came from: Deep Underground: Scientific American