Justice Stevens To Retire From the US Supreme Court This Summer

Justice John Paul Stevens is one of the longest serving members of the Supreme Court in history, and has been on the Court since 1975. He will be retiring this summer, opening the door for President Obama to nominate his second justice to the nation's highest court.

Stevens is the fourth longest serving justice in the Court's history and has served under three Chief Justices and seven US Presidents.

President Obama will more than likely replace Stevens with another judge with a liberal bent, such that the ideological makeup of the Court isn't going to change appreciably anytime soon.

No Joking Matter

What is it with people these days that they have become so totally unhinged about positions staked out by politicians, whether it is the President, members of Congress, governors, or government in general? This craziness has got to stop. I don't care what side of the political spectrum you're on, talking about violence to solve political problems is just flat out wrong - and may cross the line into criminality.

It's politics - making it personal serves no one and has more than once crossed the line into criminality as people have done more than just talk about violence.

It also means that political leaders bear responsibility too. They've egged on some of the craziness by not speaking out forcefully against the craziness - or even endorsing some of the crazier views by appearing at venues where such talk is openly advocated. This is a completely toxic environment for politics, and with the nation facing serious issues on multiple fronts - makes dealing with the issues even more difficult.

Here in New Jersey, the Bergen County teacher's union passed out a memo joking about the death of Gov. Chris Christie:

The memo is the latest salvo in a war of words between Christie and the union about wage and benefits concessions. The Record obtained the Bergen County Education Association memo that includes a closing prayer:

"Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor."

Association president Joe Coppola says the "prayer" was a joke and was never meant to be made public.

Of course it was never meant to be made public - doing so would disgrace and should have shamed the union (though that is highly unlikely since there is little that can shame such organizations). Christie's office got it right when he said that there was nothing professional about the group.

The unions are busy complaining because Christie has rightfully pointed out that the state is broke and that it cannot pay for the gold-plated level of spending that it has done for years on end. He's trying to change the structural deficits and bring spending more in line with anticipated revenues, which unions across the state are claiming will harm the children (the most common tactic across the board when someone has a pet project/spending initiative that is coming under attack). School districts across the state are being told to hold the line on new spending and to limit pay raises and other measures that private sector jobs have been doing for the past two years to survive.

No pay raises for teachers isn't going to stop teachers from teaching students, but it can reduce the pressure to increase local and state budgets for education necessitating tax hikes.

UPDATE:
The NJEA, the teachers union, has issued an apology over the "joke" memo distributed by its Bergen county office:

"NJEA condemns the inappropriate 'prayer' contained in a letter sent by the NJEA Bergen County regional offices and our Bergen County affiliate. Language such as that has no place in civil discourse. It was intended as humor, but it is not funny. Our ongoing discussion with Gov. Christie is centered on serious issues of significant importance to the state, and that must be the focus of all our conversation. We deeply regret that the 'prayer' reference was included in the letter, and we apologize to Gov. Christie for both the content of the 'prayer' and the lack of respect it demonstrated. I will be reaching out to Gov. Christie's office to apologize personally on behalf of all NJEA members."

The union leadership knows that they've got to deal with Christie over the budget and that disrespecting the governor brooks them no favors.

Career Redemption and Resurrection Roulette

There's nothing that people in the country love more than seeing someone famous getting knocked down a peg or 100. 

Except maybe seeing that person overcome the obstacles and situation and redeem themselves in public.

How else can one explain the reaction to Tiger Woods resuming his golf career in rather spectacular fashion at Augusta? He was cheered at practically every opportunity as he ended up with a four under 68 and was just two shots off the lead. Woods was so good that people actually could focus on his golf game and not on his sleazy personal life.

Then you've got former Newark Mayor Sharpe James coming home after a year stint in federal prison for selling city property to his girlfriend at a cut rate discount for $46,000 while she turned around and sold it for more than $600,000. He came home to a hero's welcome, and makes one wonder whether he's going to attempt to get back into politics. James is furiously attempting to rewrite the history, but the fact is that Newark is a much better place since James lost to Cory Booker and Booker cleaned house (incidentally finding the sales transactions and other

The same can be said of disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer who said as much this week. He is contemplating going back into politics, but I think his single biggest obstacle isn't that he admitted paying for sex with prostitutes (okay, call 'em call girls - but it's the same damned thing only that you're paying more for the same things), but that his judgment is so screwed up that he thought that David Paterson would make a good lieutenant governor.

That decision has cost the state dearly as when Paterson was elevated to governor, Paterson was a fish out of water and is incapable of governing in an effective manner being surrounded with multiple scandals of his own making.

Inventive Video of the Day

How many 70s/80s video games can you pick out from the references in this video game assault on New York City (and the rest of the world)?

I see that there's references to Pong, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Space Invaders, Tron, Tetris, and Centipede.


PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Arts and animation videos.

Via Gothamist.

No Charges To Be Filed Against Qatari Diplomat Who Caused Ruckus On Plane

The Qatari diplomat, Mohammed al Modadi, who caused a midair security scare aboard a United Airlines flight between Washington DC and Denver, isn't going to face charges after "joking" he was trying to light his shoes on fire. He was apparently smoking in the restroom (against federal regulations would ordinarily be subject to fines and criminal sanction), and then joked about setting his shoes alight.

Diplomatic immunity is the key here. He gets to avoid jail for his stupidity and arrogance, but we should be thankful that the federal air marshals intervened and the flight crew did the right thing. They had no way to know at the time the incident occurred what the man's intentions were.

Modadi has since been released from law enforcement custody and is on his way back to Washington.

New York Times Acknowledges Inevitability of Health Care Cost Containment

Cost containment pursuant to the recently passed health care reform package necessarily entails restricting and/or limiting the kinds of care that are available to the public. There is no other way around this, if the goal is to curb costs. It also means that the public will have to learn to accept the word no.

Managed care became loathed in the 1990s. The recent recommendation to reduce breast cancer screening set off a firestorm. On a personal level, anyone who has made a decision about his or her own care knows the nagging worry that comes from not choosing the most aggressive treatment.

This try-anything-and-everything instinct is ingrained in our culture, and it has some big benefits. But it also has big downsides, including the side effects and risks that come with unnecessary treatment. Consider that a recent study found that 15,000 people were projected to die eventually from the radiation they received from CT scans given in just a single year — and that there was “significant overuse” of such scans.

From an economic perspective, health reform will fail if we can’t sometimes push back against the try-anything instinct. The new agencies will be hounded by accusations of rationing, and Medicare’s long-term budget deficit will grow.

So figuring out how we can say no may be the single toughest and most important task facing the people who will be in charge of carrying out reform. “Being able to say no,” Dr. Alan Garber of Stanford says, “is the heart of the issue.”

It’s easy to come up with arguments for why we need to do so. Above all, we don’t have a choice. Giving hospitals and drug makers a blank check will bankrupt Medicare. Slowing the cost growth, on the other hand, will free up resources for other uses, like education. Lower costs will also lift workers’ take-home pay.

But I suspect that these arguments won’t be persuasive. They have the faint ring of an insurer’s rationale for denying a claim. Compared with an anecdote about a cancer patient looking for hope, the economic arguments are soulless.

The better bet for the new reformers — starting with Donald Berwick, the physician who will run Medicare — is to channel American culture, not fight it. We want the best possible care, no matter what. Yet we often do not get it because the current system tends to deliver more care even when it means worse care.

It’s not just CT scans. Caesarean births have become more common, with little benefit to babies and significant burden to mothers. Men who would never have died from prostate cancer have been treated for it and left incontinent or impotent. Cardiac stenting and bypasses, with all their side effects, have become popular partly because people believe they reduce heart attacks. For many patients, the evidence suggests, that’s not true.

Advocates for less intensive medicine have been too timid about all this. They often come across as bean counters, while the try-anything crowd occupies the moral high ground. The reality, though, is that unnecessary care causes a lot of pain and even death. Dr. Berwick, who made his reputation campaigning against medical errors, is a promising (if much belated) selection for precisely this reason.

Can we solve the entire problem of rising health costs by getting rid of needless care? Probably not. But the money involved is not trivial, and it’s the obvious place to start.

Needless care? That's a curious phrase because someone whose options are "needless care" and nothing else will take the "needless care" if that gives the promise of a cure or improved health situation. Even where the options are "needless care" and other treatment choices, the patient may still take "needless care".

It isn't a guarantee that a stent or bypass will prevent a heart attack, but it might. A whole lot of research has gone into this area, and doctors around the country still counsel their patients to go for the stents and bypass procedures. There are studies in support of stenting and there are those opposed in some cases. It depends on the situation, but

Giving patients more information is a win-win for all involved, but it might not necessarily mean that patients will choose the less-costly option. It simply means that more options will be provided to a patient that may already be bewildered by their situation and has to deal with the stress of a tough medical situation and decisions that affect their lives and those of loved ones.

It's far easier to claim a cost savings from pushing generic drugs where name-brand drugs are in use since they are equivalent medications, but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the whole range of medical procedures now in use.

C-sections are more common because they provide a measure of timeliness (you can schedule a C-section, but a natural birth can occur at any point), but also because doctors may shy away from a natural birth due to concerns over lawsuits and possible complications from childbirth that may render the child disabled in some fashion.

CT scans may be overused, but who's going to determine when they should or shouldn't be used to an even greater degree than they are at present. After all, under the current system, insurers already deny plenty of claims and opt to not reimburse for CT scans and other procedures, so how exactly will the new federal plans constrict and limit the procedures to only those that are necessary when there are already monetary incentives in place to restrict payment for those procedures. That's one of the complaints about insurers at present, and yet the cure for cost containment is even more of the same thing that people already complain about insurers - limiting treatment and diagnostic options.

US Moving Ahead With Nuclear Weapons Reduction and Nonproliferation Initiatives

President Barack Obama signed the New START treaty today, reducing the current level of US and Russian nuclear warheads by 30%.

The new treaty will shrink the limit of nuclear warheads to 1,550 per country over seven years.

But the two quickly turned serious when they took to the podiums, hailing the moment as an important step to improving the U.S.-Russian relationship and the safety of the world.

Obama, who said last year in a London summit that the American-Russian relationship had started to "drift," said that problem was fixed.

"Together, we stopped that drift, and have proven the benefits of cooperation," he said, arguing that the deal lets the two country start talking about cooperation on missile defense.

Medvedev said that at some points signing the deal — with the old START treating expiring last December — looked like "Mission Impossible."

But he was as upbeat as Obama in hailing it.

"This is a win-win situation — no one stands to loose because of this agreement," he said. "The entire world community has won.

Obama has been no fan of nuclear weapons and this is a feather in his cap for winning the treaty. Not only can this result in further cost savings for both the US and Russians, although the Russians are ever more reliant on their nuclear stockpile to offset a clear US technological advantage in conventional weapons, but it means that the dismantled weapons can provide another source of uranium for civilian nuclear power plants once the weapons grade uranium is processed into LEU. The treaty still needs to be confirmed by the US Senate, but I expect that to happen.

Meanwhile, a series of initiatives that began with the Bush Administration continues to bear fruit. The US has been working with various nations to shut down high enriched uranium reactors and convert it into a low-enriched uranium. The latest such country is Chile, which transported a shipment to the US for reprocessing:

Even as aftershocks from last month's magnitude 8.8 earthquake shook their equipment, U.S. and Chilean engineers worked together to carefully extract Chile's last HEU. It was no simple operation — the radioactive material was carefully loaded into specially designed casks and then lowered into two huge shipping containers for the ocean voyage. All told, 60 tons of metal were needed to keep just 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of HEU from leaking radioactivity.

After two and a half weeks at sea, including passage through the Panama Canal, a specially outfitted double-hulled ship arrived under U.S. Coast Guard escort at the Charleston Weapons Station in South Carolina last month.

Customs agents and nuclear inspectors made radiation checks as the containers were loaded onto flatbed trucks and then driven to the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where much of it will be converted to safer fuel and resold for nuclear power.

A year ago, Obama made a promise to lead a global effort to recover all of this material within four years — ambitious because it not only requires years of planning and diplomacy, but also highly specific technology and expertise.

No other country but the U.S. has put all these elements together — even Russia depends on U.S. help to safely dispose of uranium.

The U.S. has already helped convert or verified the shutdown of 67 reactors in 32 countries from HEU to low-enriched uranium, or LEU, which is much harder to weaponize. It also has secured HEU supplies in more than 750 vulnerable buildings and removed 2,691 kilograms of weapons-grade nuclear material for safer storage.

To help keep his promise, Obama has proposed a 68 percent increase in the Global Threat Reduction Initiative's budget to $559 million for fiscal year 2011, not only to recover more HEU but also to prevent smuggling of nuclear material by strengthening export and border controls and port security.

Next year's $2.7 billion budget for nuclear nonproliferation work begins to do this for plutonium as well, committing $300 million for a plant at Savannah River to convert 34,000 kilograms of plutonium recovered from warheads to fuel for nuclear power.

The program is operated through the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is part of the Department of Energy. It's important to note that the US is actually assisting the Russians in dismantling their nuclear inventory:

# Monitored downblending of over 352 MT of former Soviet weapons-origin HEU (enough for more than 14,000 nuclear weapons) for use in U.S. power plants, providing 10% of U.S. electricity.
# Downblended over 108 MT (enough for approximately 2,376 nuclear weapons) of surplus U.S. HEU into LEU for use as nuclear reactor fuel, with an additional 12 MT packaged and shipped for downblending (total of over 120 MT). Downblended over 11 MT of Russian civilian HEU to LEU.
# Downblending an additional 17.4 MT of HEU for the Reliable Fuel Supply initiative.
# Working to dispose of at least 68 MT of U.S. and Russian weapons-grade plutonium by converting it into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for commercial nuclear power reactors. Continuing construction of the U.S. MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility.
# Ended 43 years of weapons-grade plutonium production in Seversk by shutting down two reactors. Completed 53% of the Zheleznogorsk fossil fuel plant to replace the last reactor, to end all weapons-grade plutonium production in Russia.
# Monitoring safe storage of over 9 MT of Russian weapons-grade plutonium (nearly 1,125 warheads) to ensure its non-military use.

All this is on the heels of the consummation os a 2008 deal with India for that country to reprocess US nuclear materials for its own civilian nuclear program.

Qatari Arrested After Attempting To Blow Up Denver Bound Flight

This is a developing story, but apparently a Qatari man, who MSNBC identifies as a Qatari diplomat, attempted to blow up a United Airlines flight from Washington DC to Denver, Colorado tonight, but was thwarted by a federal air marshal.

The latest incident comes a week after the United States announced new security measures to replace the mandatory screening of air travelers from 14 countries that had angered some allies when it was imposed after a failed bombing on Christmas Day.

The measures were designed to significantly reduce the number of passengers pulled aside for additional screening and will not be based on nationality or passport, but on characteristics pulled together by intelligence agencies.

"These new measures utilize real-time, threat-based intelligence along with multiple, random layers of security, both seen and unseen, to more effectively mitigate evolving terrorist threats," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

A senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the new system would require travelers who match information about terrorism suspects, such as a physical description, partial name or travel pattern, to undergo additional screening.

ABC News identifies the individual as a diplomat in the Qatar embassy in Washington, Mohammed al Modadi, and the FBI reported that he had full diplomat immunity as the 3rd secretary and vice-consul.

One has to wonder whether the individual was properly screened or whether he was able to avoid going through security because of his diplomatic status.

Flights in and out of DC get a disproportionate number of air marshal attention because of the flight path through DC and high profile targets (to say nothing of various important passengers on board. Not that I'm complaining about it - just a good allocation of a limited resource. And it would appear that they got their guy before he could do any harm.

UPDATE:
Reports are now suggesting that the diplomat may have been joking about lighting a shoe bomb, but not that he actually had any such device, although MSNBC is reporting that the air marshal smelled smoke and confronted the man emerging from the bathroom.

A half hour before landing, an air marshal smelled smoke and confronted a man emerging from a bathroom who claimed he was trying to set his shoes on fire, WNBC reported.

It was uncertain if anything actually was on fire or if this was a joke, NBC reported. Investigators were looking to see what might be in the man's shoes.

If that is true, this guy is one arrogant and callous SOB for making a joke of such a serious matter - and one that has the potential to cause a diplomatic row between the US and Qatar, which is home to significant US military assets, including the home to the forward command of US Central Command.

Protesters In Kyrgyzstan Murder Interior Minister; 17+ Dead In Riots; UPDATE: Opposition Claims To Have Formed New Gov't

This situation has the potential to get quite ugly real fast. Kyrgyzstan hosts a US supply base for the war in Afghanistan and the unrest there has the potential to unseat the deeply unpopular president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Protesters marched against Bakiyev and because of high utilities costs and began clashing with police surrounding government buildings:

Anti-government protests swept across the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday as thousands of protesters stormed the main government building, set fire to the prosecutor's office and looted state TV headquarters. At least 17 people were killed and least 180 wounded in clashes, the government said.

The unrest has threatened the relative stability of this mountainous former Soviet nation, which houses a U.S. military base that is a key supply center in the fight against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.

Demonstrators furious over government corruption and a recent hike in power prices looted the state television and radio building and were marching toward the Interior Ministry in the capital, Bishkek, according to Associated Press reporters on the scene. Elite police opened fire to drive crowds back from government headquarters.

Opposition activist Shamil Murat told the AP that Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongatiyev was beaten to death by a mob in the western town of Talas where the unrest erupted a day ago.

Health Ministry spokeswoman Yelena Bayalinova said 180 people were hurt in the clashes Wednesday, without elaborating. Opposition activist Toktoim Umetalieva said 17 people died after police opened fire with live ammunition. That figure of 17 dead was confirmed by another government health official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

UPDATE:
MSNBC is reporting that opposition leaders are claiming more than 100 have been killed in the protests. Emergency officials say at least 50 have been killed.

UPDATE:
MSNBC now reports that the opposition claims to have formed a new government:

Opposition leaders in Kyrgyzstan said Wednesday that they have formed a new acting government in the Central Asian nation as rioting swept the capital of Bishkek.

The announcement was made on a state television channel after opposition members stormed the station.

Temir Sariyev, an opposition party leader, told The Associated Press that a coalition of politicians had agreed on a new prime minister as well as a new interior minister and new security chief.

Here's some video showing the riots in progress:



UPDATE:
A deputy minister was taken and beaten, but there's no word on his whereabouts since. This report suggests his eyes were gouged out even after opposition leaders tried to stop the protesters from doing that.

UPDATE:
Reports now indicate that the opposition is in charge as the president fled the capital city.

Leaders of the opposition said they had taken over key installations in Bishkek and were forming a new government. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev flew to Osh, a regional city where he enjoys support, according to news reports. His plans were uncertain, as was his ability to command the country's security forces and reassert his authority.

The death toll of about 40 was likely to rise, health officials in Bishkek said, noting that hundreds of protesters were injured in the violence.

For the United States, the upheaval is of particular concern because its Manas air base, near Bishkek, is a key transit point for supplying troops in Afghanistan. The Obama administration negotiated new lease terms for the facility last year after Bakiyev threatened to evict U.S. forces from the country.

Some in the Kyrgyz opposition accused the United States of ignoring allegations of rigged elections, suppression of independent media and physical intimidation of government critics, attributing its silence to a desire to maintain its military presence in Kyrgyzstan.

A new Kyrgyz government could sow fresh uncertainty over the base to express displeasure with Washington or to extract concessions. Some opposition members earlier called for closing the facility.

NJ Sales Tax Revenues Projected Below Even Christie's Estimates

A bad situation is projected to be even worse as the Office of Legislative Services found that sales tax revenues are going to be below estimates for the current fiscal year, and may be even worse next year:

Sales tax collections are projected to remain weak for the next 15 months, contributing to a continued fiscal malaise in debt-burdened New Jersey, according to a nonpartisan budget analysis to be made public Wednesday.

The Office of Legislative Services tax and revenue outlook, which was obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, shows tax revenues could be $82 million shy of projections for the final three months of this fiscal year. Revenues could be down about $168 million from the governor's office projections for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the analysis shows.

The projections show much of the revenue shortfall coming from continued weak sales-tax collections.

Legislative budget officer David Rosen is scheduled to present the updated revenue forecast to the Assembly Budget Committee on Wednesday.

The panel will also hear from Treasurer Andrew Eristoff. He is expected to be questioned about what Democrats are calling hidden tax increases in the proposed budget, including a higher deductible for senior citizens for prescription drugs, a change in the income tax credit for the poor and the lifting of caps on a hospital bed tax and ambulatory care facility tax.

The difference between projections from the Office of Legislative Services and the governor's office represent a fraction of Gov. Chris Christie's proposed $29.3 billion budget. However, additional budget cuts of $250 million would have to be made if the projections hold to keep the budget in balance as required by law.

Despite the state's fiscal situation, Christie said Tuesday he remained confident he and the Legislature would agree on a balanced budget by the June 30 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Democrats who control the Legislature have said they would only vote for a budget that reinstates an income tax surcharge on residents earning more than $400,000. Christie has said he would veto any budget that contained the surcharge, setting the stage for a possible budget showdown.

As readers of this blog should remember, Gov. Corzine increased the sales and use tax one point to provide for "property tax relief" and then promptly cut back the program because it simply didn't have the money. Well, the sales tax revenues are going to be down again, meaning that property tax relief is going to be hit again, and all state consumers will still see the increased sales tax, even as the economy continues slogging along.

Democrats are busy complaining about everything in Christie's budget except that they are unwilling to talk about reducing spending in any meaningful and measurable fashion - the reason that the state is in the mess that is is in. Reducing taxes like the sales tax would spur people to spend more - both in-state residents and those from neighboring states that have higher tax rates who come to New Jersey to buy at a discount.

They're also pushing to reinstate a temporary surtax on high income wage earners, even though the measure was meant to be temporary- it just goes to show that once taxes are imposed, they are incredibly difficult to get rid of because Democrats in New Jersey are addicted to taxes for the state to spend (and continue to spend even if the state lacks the revenues to support current levels).

NY Still Has No Budget In Place; Gov. Paterson Still Clueless

New York was supposed to have a budget in place April 1, but the state has managed that feat only six times since the 1970s. Yet, Gov. David Paterson has time to get snippy with Comptroller Tom DiNapoli when DiNapoli issued a report pointing out that the state is set to once again use all kinds of gimmicks to mask structural deficits.

A report the State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli Monday said that New York has been using financial gimmicks to mask the state's huge budget deficit, and "state lawmakers constantly move money around like a shell game," NBC-Channel 4 reported.

"Tell us something we don't know," was the governor's snide remark after reading the report.

"Rather than saying, 'Oh look there's a fire!' what we need is advice for how to put the fire out," Paterson said during a radio appearance early Tuesday.

Here's the advice: stop spending money that the state simply does not have and cannot reasonably expect to take in with tax revenues. Overly optimistic tax revenue projections have repeatedly fallen short, exacerbating the deficits.

The state needs to curb its spending, and last year was a prime opportunity to do so, yet the state increased spending using federal stimulus money to supplement the increase. This year, the state has less money at its disposal and there's no stimulus money either.

So, this year we must see a significant cut in state spending, or else the budget will remain out of balance.

Yet, this fundamental concept is so difficult for Albany to understand that they'll go ahead and pass a flawed budget that increases spending based on money that simply isn't there and then throw up their arms when the deficits reappear and require even more dire cuts.

Star Wars Animated Comedy Heading to TV

No, we're not talking about another Robot Chicken Star Wars special, but Seth Green is apparently involved in the project green lighted by Lucasfilm to run an animated comedy involving Star Wars characters.

Lucasfilm says it will explore the comic aspects of that "galaxy far, far away'' as it playfully and irreverently confronts the saga's characters and mythology.

Part of the creative team is Seth Green, who helped hatch the popular "Robot Chicken.'' He promises the new show will answer the question, "What do these Star Wars characters do when they're not overthrowing Empires?''

If George Lucas can stay away from direct creative control over the project, this has a shot at being funny. Robot Chicken's take on Star Wars is downright hilarious.

Obama Administration Nuclear Weapons Policy Is Destabilizing

The US nuclear strategy since the dawn of the nuclear age has been simple. Attack the US with any nuclear weapon or other WMD (chemical or biological), and the US may respond with nuclear weapons. The US simply didn't hold out that we would not use nuclear weapons in retaliation for such attacks (no first use).

It worked throughout the Cold War and even through the post-Cold War period, but now President Obama would like to throw out the policy in favor of one that has the potential to be far more destabilizing because it eliminates certain ambiguities as to when the US would respond:

Mr. Obama’s strategy is a sharp shift from those of his predecessors and seeks to revamp the nation’s nuclear posture for a new age in which rogue states and terrorist organizations are greater threats than traditional powers like Russia and China.

It eliminates much of the ambiguity that has deliberately existed in American nuclear policy since the opening days of the cold war. For the first time, the United States is explicitly committing not to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear states that are in compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, even if they attacked the United States with biological or chemical weapons or launched a crippling cyberattack.

Those threats, Mr. Obama argued, could be deterred with “a series of graded options,” a combination of old and new conventional weapons. “I’m going to preserve all the tools that are necessary in order to make sure that the American people are safe and secure,” he said in the interview in the Oval Office.

White House officials said the new strategy would include the option of reconsidering the use of nuclear retaliation against a biological attack, if the development of such weapons reached a level that made the United States vulnerable to a devastating strike.

Mr. Obama’s new strategy is bound to be controversial, both among conservatives who have warned against diluting the United States’ most potent deterrent and among liberals who were hoping for a blanket statement that the country would never be the first to use nuclear weapons.

Mr. Obama argued for a slower course, saying, “We are going to want to make sure that we can continue to move towards less emphasis on nuclear weapons,” and, he added, to “make sure that our conventional weapons capability is an effective deterrent in all but the most extreme circumstances.”

The release of the new strategy, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, opens an intensive nine days of nuclear diplomacy geared toward reducing weapons. Mr. Obama plans to fly to Prague to sign a new arms-control agreement with Russia on Thursday and then next week will host 47 world leaders in Washington for a summit meeting on nuclear security.

Presidents - Democratic and Republican - didn't make such changes because the policy was a sound one.

Now, by eliminating the ambiguities, rogue nations and terror groups seeking to obtain and use them, would exploit the new policies and undermine US national security in the process.

Bear in mind that US intel capabilities are anything but foolproof and a nation could engage in building its own nuclear capabilities without anyone knowing until it was potentially too late. Far too often, the first inkling of a nuclear weapons capability is when a particular nation detonates its first test weapon - see Pakistan, North Korea, China, or India. Even the former Soviet Union's nuclear capabilities were unknown until they detonated their first weapon (and later their first thermonuclear weapon) far earlier than US experts believed possible.

The President maintains that he's still leaving the existing policy in place for certain nations - like North Korea and Iran - but there is no reason to make this adjustment when terror groups and regimes may seek nuclear capabilities despite signing on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The President is also wedded to the notion of reducing US nuclear weapons inventories as part of a bilateral treaty with the Russians. That's all well and good, but even there the possibility that going below a certain threshold figure may lead to more uncertainty and the possibility that our nation's enemies might chance a first-strike to decapitate the US nuclear response.

This change in nuclear weapons doctrine is a serious mistake and shows that the President clearly doesn't grasp the seriousness of the threats arrayed against the US and how foreign powers may exploit the change to their advantage.

West Virginia Coal Mine Explosion Kills 25; 4 Remain Missing

A massive explosion deep inside the Upper Big Branch mine near Montcoal, West Virginia killed 25 miners and 4 others remain unaccounted for. It was the worst coal mining disaster in the United States since 1984. The explosion may have been due to a buildup of methane gas in the mine, but the cause has not been officially declared.

The accident was the worst in an American mine since Dec. 19, 1984, when 27 workers died in a fire at the Wilberg Mine in Orangeville, Utah, and it came just four years after federal regulators enacted a sweeping overhaul in mine safety laws. That overhaul, the first in over three decades, came after 19 miners died in a series of mine accidents in West Virginia and Kentucky — including one that brought criminal charges against a Massey subsidiary.

The explosion occurred about 3 p.m. Monday at the Upper Big Branch mine, 30 miles south of Charleston, in Raleigh County.

The mine, which employs about 200, is owned by the Massey Energy Company, based in Virginia, and operated by the Performance Coal Company.

Mine safety officials said that there were three groups of miners affected by the blast. One group consisted of nine miners who were leaving the site at the end of their shift in a vehicle known as a “mantrip.” Seven of the miners in the man trip were killed by the explosion while two others were injured and taken to the hospital by rescue workers.

A second group of 18 miners was said to be working a bit deeper in the mine, closest to the area where coal was actually being extracted. All 18 of them died.

A third group of four miners — the ones still unaccounted for — was even deeper in the mine.

The miners were all thought to be working more than 1,000 feet underground.

The explosion on Monday destroyed all communication lines inside Upper Big Branch, but Kevin Stricklin, an administrator with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said there were two rescue chambers near the blast site. If the miners could reach them, the chambers were stocked with food, water and enough air to allow them to survive four days.

Mr. Stricklin said that officials did not think there had been a roof collapse, but that they did not know what had caused the explosion in the sprawling mine. Upper Big Branch, which cannot be seen from the road, has 19 openings and roughly seven-foot ceilings, federal safety officials said.

Just a month ago, the mine was found to not be in compliance with mining safety rules, including proper ventilation and mitigation of methane gas. Despite a massive overhaul of mine safety rules four years ago, companies are still skirting the rules, and enforcement by government regulators is anything but assured.

The mine had been fined more than $1.5 million, but had paid only a fraction of the fines imposed by the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

Meanwhile, rescuers were attempting to drill three shafts into the mine to vent methane and carbon monoxide.

Bruce Springsteen Born To Run With Other Women?

Over the past few years, Bruce Springsteen was linked with a New Jersey housewife although her attorney and Bruce both claimed that there was no relationship. The woman, Ann Kelly, filed for divorce from her husband, and the New York Post now reports that her husband continues to contend that Bruce was her paramour.

Springsteen personally gave Ann front-row tickets to concert rehearsals on Sept. 24 and 25, 2007, for his "Magic Tour" shows at the Convention Hall in Asbury Park. Ann was so floored by The Boss' crooning, she allegedly told Arthur's mother, "It felt like Bruce Springsteen was singing to me."

In 2008, Ann allegedly opted to be with Springsteen rather than her ailing husband. While Arthur had open-heart surgery in Cleveland, the singer joined her at a table at the Turning Point restaurant in Pier Village in Long Branch.

As part of the divorce settlement, Arthur took the adultery claim out of his petition and both parties agreed not to talk to the media. At her West Long Branch home last week, Ann declined to comment to The Post. In past divorce filings, she has denied a sexual relationship with Springsteen. However, during a deposition over the summer, she declined to answer any questions about the singer, court papers show.

The breaking point in the marriage allegedly came when Arthur told Ann a witness had spotted her kissing Springsteen in the parking lot of their gym. Arthur also claimed that the day before he filed for divorce, Ann admitted to him that her "relationship with Bruce Springsteen was inappropriate."

The gag order will make it difficult to figure out whether Ann was actually having an affair with Bruce, but Bruce isn't saying anything and Bruce's wife Patti isn't available for comment either. Go figure.

Statistical Evidence Suggests Driver Error To Blame In Toyota Acceleration Mishaps

While experts and auto pundits are busy trying to find fault with Toyota and its response to claims of sudden accelerations and accidents purported caused by defective accelerators in a slew of Toyota models that have forced recalls of millions of Toyotas, some statistical evidence suggests driver error may be more at fault.

The Los Angeles Times recently did a story detailing all of the NHTSA reports of Toyota “sudden acceleration” fatalities, and, though the Times did not mention it, the ages of the drivers involved were striking.

In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89—and I’m leaving out the son whose age wasn’t identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.

These “electronic defects” apparently discriminate against the elderly, just as the sudden acceleration of Audis and GM autos did before them. (If computers are going to discriminate against anyone, they should be picking on the young, who are more likely to take up arms against the rise of the machines and future Terminators).

But Toyota is being mau-maued by Democratic regulators and legislators in the pockets of trial lawyers—who, according to the Associated Press, stand to make a billion dollars from blaming Toyota for driver error.

And that is before hundreds of past run-of-the-mill Toyota accidents that killed or injured people are re-classified in future lawsuits as an electronics failure in an attempt to win settlements against the company.

The age of the drivers is a striking feature and may suggest a correlation between the inability to discern whether the driver is pressing down on the accelerator or the brake and in the confusion believing that the vehicle is accelerating out of control on its own, rather than because the driver erred in his or her foot placement.

NHSTA has run studies in the past and found that the elderly are more likely to engage in pedal misapplication - and that electronic interference or other mechanical factors aren't likely to be confined to one particular age group or segment of drivers. In other words, operator error may explain the ongoing issue with unwanted accelerations.

Terrorists Attack US Consulate In Peshawar Pakistan

Al Qaeda and the Taliban both want to attack US targets in Pakistan, especially in light of the ongoing UAV airstrikes that have decimated Taliban and al Qaeda ranks in the past 18 months. Terrorists attacked the US consulate in Peshawar, killing 6 people in a coordinated bombing and rocket attack.

Six people were killed outside the consulate and at least 20 were wounded, according to a senior government official. None of those killed were Americans.

The United States Embassy in Islamabad said that at least two Pakistani security guards employed by the consulate were killed in the attack, and that a number of others were seriously wounded. The embassy confirmed that the attack was coordinated, and said it involved “a vehicle suicide bomb and terrorists who were attempting to enter building using grenades and weapons fire.”

Employees of the consulate were evacuated after the attack, according to the Pakistani official. Pakistani television reported that the consulate would be closed on Tuesday, but a United States Embassy spokeswoman could not immediately confirm that.

Militants managed to damage barracks that formed part of the outer layer of security for the heavily fortified consulate area, but did not penetrate inside, the Pakistani intelligence officer said.

Pakistani television networks showed a giant cloud of dust and debris rising from the Saddar area, where the consulate is located, shortly after 1 p.m. Local media reported that there had been three blasts. Authorities cordoned off the area and gunfire was heard long after the explosions.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and warned that “we plan more such attacks,” Reuters reported.

The attack on the consulate was not the only carnage inflicted by these terrorists; they butchered 43 people at a political rally. The largest Taliban faction claimed responsibility for the attacks and noted that these attacks were revenge for the ongoing UAV airstrikes and that they have thousands of suicide bombers at the ready for still more attacks.

"We have already told you that we have 2,800 to 3,000 fidayeen (suicide bombers). We will carry out more such attacks. We will target any place where there are Americans," he said.

Militants armed with guns and suicide vests targeted the US consulate in Pakistan's northwestern capital and unleashed carnage at a political rally on Monday, killing 43 people.

The apparently coordinated attacks were the deadliest so far this year in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where the government is closely allied to the US-led war against al-Qaida and in neighbouring Afghanistan.

UPDATE:
The UAV strikes have definitely put a crimp in how the Taliban and al Qaeda operate since the pace of strikes increased following the suicide bombing that killed senior CIA officials in Khost earlier this year.

Neither group can rely on methods used previously to avoid detection. They no longer can rely on satellite phones and must instead use courier. They can't rely on locals to provide shelter because the locals fear that they too would be targeted by the airstrikes.

Tax and Spend Is Killing Small Business

In New Jersey, private sector jobs were stagnant over the past decade - the first time in decades that this was the case, even as the state workforce grew (along with all the spending necessary - whether it was direct wages, pensions, and other benefits). All the state workforce growth was in state and local governments, and the private sector simply could not keep up with the taxing burden.

The current salary cost of this government expansion of employment is approximately $4 billion annually, using the U.S. Department of Labor’s average annual government pay of $57,179 in New Jersey (as of 2008, the last available data).

Assuming another 30 percent for benefits and overhead costs would bring the total to $5.2 billion.

At the same time, the private-sector’s total average annual pay declined by nearly $8.6 billion (-156,100 jobs multiplied by the average annual private-sector pay of $54,929). This translates into significant losses of state income and sales tax revenue.

The combination of the two has yielded the perfect fiscal storm.

The Great Recession, together with a very weak mid-decade (2003 to 2007) expansion has helped create the state’s deep budget hole. Between January 2008 and January 2010, New Jersey lost 245,400 private-sector jobs.

New York small businesses are getting taxed out of existence, because the tax burden isn't getting any easier with the latest round of taxes with the state scrambling to find revenues to close a multibillion dollar deficit.

A survey of 200 small businesses across the US by the economist found 51.5 percent of business owners in March were concerned about the viability of their businesses -- up from 49.5 percent in February. More than eight million jobs have been lost during the current 28-month recession.While a healthy 162,000 jobs were added in March, it was accomplished with the help of heavy government stimulus. Meanwhile, the average length of joblessness rose to 31 weeks and hourly earnings were down, albeit slightly.

In New York, interviews with more than a dozen small business owners by The Post found a group of owners hurting under the weight of the new taxes.

Teresa Kramer, co-owner of Northside Bakery in Greenpoint said she is scared.

"We'd really need to raise our prices by 20 percent to stay even because our profit margins are shrinking as costs keep rising everywhere -- for garbage and services, commuter taxes and other taxes," said Kramer, a Polish immigrant who operates the two-store division of Old Poland Foods. The business employs 20 and rings up annual sales of about $2 million.

Kramer has stopped short of raising prices, at least for now. She added: "We're producing more bread and product -- but we're still making less and less profit."

In Manhattan, Robert Schwartz, the CEO of a three-unit shoe store chain, said he has never seen the tax burden this bad.

"This has been as hard as we've been hit in my 36 years of running this company," said Schwartz, owner of Eneslow Shoes, which employs 50 people, including part-timers, on annual revenues of under $10 million. "It's a tough economy and our costs continue to rise."

Schwartz, who says he's putting his salary back into the business in response to the environment, adds that overhead from taxes and other outside charges have become unbearable. "I certainly don't think the new health care law will save me any money," he said. "Now New York City wants to develop this paid sick leave legislation that would give employees up to nine paid sick days. It's ludicrous. It takes the oxygen out of the blood."

It's a phenomenon that is expanding across the nation as states have few places to turn to find revenue to support existing state spending.

New York and New Jersey both have to deal with the core issue of job growth - both the expansion of the private sector and cutting back the government jobs that are simply overburdening all those who have to pay taxes to support a wholly unwieldy governmental burden.

Somali Islamists Inviting Osama and al Qaeda To Join Them In Somalia

Last year, I warned of the situation in Somalia and that as a failed state, it was a ripe region for al Qaeda to exploit. Well, it seems I wasn't alone in that assessment as one of the Somali Islamist groups aligned with al Qaeda's interests wants to have Osama bin Laden and his band of Islamic terrorists set up shop in Somalia.

This is bad news for Somalia,

During a press conference held in Mogadishu today, Moallim Hashi Mohamed Farah, the top leader for Hizbul Islam in Banadir province, welcomed Osama bin Laden and other foreign fighters to visit Somalia, Mareeg reported. While inviting bin Laden and jihadists from around the globe to fight alongside his forces against the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government, Farah also said the media was wrong to refer to jihadists as foreign fighters, and that the term should be used instead for African Union forces fighting alongside the Somali government.

Hizbul Islam and Shabaab are considered the two top Islamist insurgent groups in Somalia. While Shabaab is widely recognized as having close ties to al Qaeda, many counterterrorism analysts and African experts consider Hizbul Islam a domestic, nationalist insurgency with no links to foreign terror groups.

But Hizbul Islam is a radical Islamist group whose top leader has ties to al Qaeda. The group is led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is wanted by the US for his links to al Qaeda. He is also on the United Nations terrorist sanctions list, again for his ties to al Qaeda.

Aweys co-led the Islamic Courts in 2006 until the group was ousted from power during the Ethiopian invasion in December 2006. Last September, Aweys advocated for more suicide attacks in the country, just days after suicide bombers struck an African Union base in Mogadishu.

Given how al Qaeda is on the run in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq despite the occasional terror attack focused on the citizens of those respective countries, the US, NATO, and coalition partners are thwarting al Qaeda and a Somali operation would open up a new front.