First 100 Days

Obama's Approval Rating at 100 days

RCP Average 04/14 - 04/26 -- 61.9 30.7 +31.2

Rasmussen Reports 04/24 - 04/26 1500 LV 55 44 +11
Gallup 04/23 - 04/25 1547 A 65 29 +36
ABC News/Wash Post 04/21 - 04/24 1072 A 69 26 +43
FOX News 04/22 - 04/23 900 RV 62 29 +33
Marist 04/21 - 04/23 975 RV 55 31 +24
Pew Research 04/14 - 04/21 1507 A 63 26 +37
Associated Press/GfK 04/16 - 04/20 1000 A 64 30 +34


1st bold # is approval rating
italic # is disapproval rating
2nd bold # is the difference

The Race to Contain

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – New Zealand reported suspected swine flu cases Monday in a second group of teenage students returning from Mexico, as Asian nations with potent memories of SARS and bird flu outbreaks screened travelers for fever with thermal scanners.

Hong Kong assigned a team of scientists to find a quick test for the latest virus to raise global fears of a pandemic, following confirmed human cases of the disease in Mexico, United States and Canada.

More than 100 people in Mexico are believed to have died from the new flu and more than 1,600 sickened, prompting widespread school closures and other measures.

In New Zealand, Health Minister Tony Ryall said two students and a parent among a group of 15 that had just come back from a class trip to Mexico had mild flu and were being tested for swine flu. On Sunday, officials said nine students and one teacher from a separate group that also were in Mexico "likely" have swine flu.

Tests were being conducted at a World Health Organization-registered laboratory in Australia to confirm whether the New Zealand infections are swine flu. Results are expected in the next few days.

Forty people — all the students and some teachers, along with their families — had voluntarily quarantined themselves at home. In addition, Ryall said three small groups of returned travelers were being monitored after reporting flu symptoms following recent trips to North America. He gave no further details.

Prime Minister John Key said everyone showing symptoms was being treated with Tamiflu as a precaution. Other passengers and crew on the suspect flights were also being given the antiviral drug, said health department official Julia Peters.

In Hong Kong, Thomas Tsang, controller for Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection, said the government and the territory's universities aim to jointly develop a quick test for the new flu strain in a week or two that will return results in four to six hours, compared to existing tests that can take two or three days.

He said in an interview with radio RTHK that researchers will develop the test based on genetic information from the WHO on the current swine flu virus.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan on Sunday said the outbreak had "pandemic potential" and held teleconferences with staff and flu experts around the world. She urged governments to step up their surveillance of suspicious outbreaks.

Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine. Other governments were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright.

Many nations issued travel warnings for Mexico.

Australia said airlines would have to identify passengers who may be infected, who would then be assessed by quarantine officers and sent for medical treatment if necessary.

"Before flights will be able to land here in Australia, pilots will have to ascertain whether anyone on board has flu-like symptoms," Health Minister Nicola Roxon said.

Tests were also under way on people with flu-like symptoms in Israel, France and Spain.

In the United States, at least 11 cases of swine flu have been confirmed. Canada's chief public health officer Dr. David Butler-Jones said six cases had been confirmed there, and all had links to people who had traveled to Mexico.

In Singapore, the health ministry said it began using thermal scanners Sunday at Changi International Airport to check passengers arriving from the United States. Travelers with high temperatures would be given a thorough medical examination, it said.

Thermal scanners and upgraded checks for flu-like symptoms were also being put in place at main airports in Japan, Thailand and Indonesia.

Hong Kong and Taiwan said visitors returning from flu-affected areas with fevers would be quarantined.

China said anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms within two weeks of arrival had to report to authorities.

A Russian health agency said passengers from North America running a fever would be quarantined until the cause is determined.

Many measures recalled those taken across Asia during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic and used more recently to monitor bird flu.

Drawing on their fight against SARS, experts in Hong Kong warned that swine flu seems harder to detect early and may spread faster.

The virus could move between people before any symptoms show up, said John Simon, a scientific adviser to Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection.

"Border guardings, thermal imaging will not detect much of this flu when it eventually comes through because a lot of people will be incubating," he said.

A New Zealand student who was among those sickened said her group had stayed with Mexican families in their homes during the last few days of their trip, to better their Spanish language skills.

"Some of us were getting coughs and stuff like that a few days before the end of our trip," the student, who was not named, told New Zealand's National Radio.

She said the symptoms were not bothering her so much, but the that official reaction and being quarantined was a strange experience.

"It's a bit movie-like, it doesn't really feel real," she said.

Globalization and Catastrophes

As the world grapples with the worst economic downturn in decades and the possibility of a flu pandemic, a growing body of research suggests the complexity of the modern global economy may make us more vulnerable than ever to catastrophe.

The financial crisis began as turmoil in one small segment of the US mortgage market. Within months it had morphed into a global meltdown affecting almost everyone on earth.

"The speed at which these events unfolded was unprecedented," said the World Economic Forum's 2009 report on global risk.

"It has demonstrated just how tightly interconnected globalisation has made the world and its systems."

Disease, too, can spread faster than ever before. Modern air travel means that any contagious outbreak can be worldwide in a matter of days. In the past, it would have taken months or years.

The more complex and efficient a system, the faster and wider any contagion can spread. Yet this interdependence is by no means always negative. The complexity of the world economy means risk can be more easily distributed, and often more easily mitigated.

Complex systems can often be adaptable - if one part fails, other parts of the network can assume the burden.

Network theory suggests that complex diversified systems can often bring greater stability. But only to a point.

"While this helps the system diversify across small shocks, it also exposes the system to large systemic shocks," Raghuram Rajan, who has been an IMF chief economist and adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, wrote in a 2005 research paper.

"It is possible that these developments...create a greater (albeit still small) probability of a catastrophic meltdown."

One key issue is the so-called "butterfly effect" - in highly complex systems, even a small event can be magnified and transmitted with highly unpredictable results. Edward Lorenz, a pioneer of chaos theory, noted that a butterfly flapping its wings in one corner of the world could cause a tornado far away.

Benoit Mandelbrot, a French mathematician and the father of fractal geometry, applied the theory to markets to show how "wild variability" is intrinsic to the system.

In network theory, one key finding is that complex interconnected systems organise themselves around key nodes. If one of these is hit, the whole house of cards can collapse.

This is one reason the damage done by the subprime crisis to major global investment banks had such a devastating impact.

And while specialisation in global supply chains has brought significant efficiency gains, it has also brought vulnerability. Disruption to a key node in the supply chain can cause dramatic and unpredictable turbulence in the whole system.

This was why global semiconductor prices nearly doubled following an earthquake that hit Taiwan in 1999, and why Hurricane Katrina spread turbulence throughout world markets.

Security analysts also worry that even a single terrorist attack could have a magnified impact if it targets a key point in global supply chains - for example, a major port.

In his book "The Black Swan", which examines the impact of major unexpected events, Nassim Nicholas Taleb noted that the appearance of stability in complex systems can be illusory:

"Random insults to most parts of the network will not be consequential since they are likely to hit a poorly connected spot. But it also makes networks more vulnerable... Just consider what would happen if there is a problem with a major node.

"True, we have fewer failures," he wrote. "But when they occur... I shiver at the thought..."

The complexity that makes financial shocks more potentially dangerous also means that pandemics can wreak greater havoc.

Analysts point out that when the Black Death plague hit Europe in the 14th century, killing around a third of the population, society did not collapse, because economic and social systems were relatively simple and so insulated from shocks.

By contrast, a plague that hit the Roman empire in the 2nd century, with a similar death rate, caused chaos - Roman society was much more complex and economically advanced.

In modern society, if key nodes are taken out by disease, the impact could be magnified exponentially. The "nodes" could be people essential to the functioning of society and the economy - doctors, truck drivers, engineers, port workers.

And just as with financial crisis, herd behaviour, panic and the spread of inaccurate or incomplete information could provide negative feedback loops, making the catastrophe even worse.

"Economic disruptions on the supply side would come directly from high absenteeism... There may also be disruptions to transportation, trade, payment systems and major utilities," the IMF said in a 2006 report on the impact of a global flu pandemic.

And beyond the immediate catastrophe, an overriding risk from both the financial crisis and any pandemic is that it causes a worldwide retreat from globalisation, with profound long-term consequences for the world economy.

In its 2007 report on global risks, the World Economic Forum imagined the consequences of a simultaneous pandemic and global liquidity crisis - a scenario that was purely speculative then but which now seems eerily prescient.

The result, it said, would be "a backlash against globalisation, which in turn compounds the hit on global demand". Across the world, it said, increased militarism and authoritarian tendencies would reshape global geopolitics.

The events of the next few months may show just how accurate such a scenario could be.

Technical Difficulties

The internetz goblins were at work last week and I was unable to post a new blog.

If you did not post last week because of this issue, you may post TWICE this week and it will count for your missing blog.

Thanks

Da Management

Should We Prosecute?

Politico - The Obama administration pledged not to prosecute CIA employees who carried out aggressive interrogation practices approved by top officials in the Bush administration. The pledge came as President Barack Obama authorized the release of four Bush administration legal memos detailing war on terror interrogation techniques that some have decried as torture. . .

"This is a time for reflection not retribution," Obama said. "We have been through a dark and painful chapter in our history. But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past."

Your Government Was Watching You...and You...and You....

The National Security Agency intercepted Americans' e-mails and phone calls in recent months on a scale that went beyond limits set by Congress last year, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

The problems were discovered during a review of the intelligence activities, the Justice Department said in a statement Wednesday night, and said they had been resolved.

Citing unnamed intelligence officials, the Times said the NSA had engaged in "'over-collection' of domestic communications of Americans." Sources reportedly described the practice as varying from significant to systemic to unintentional.

The agency also tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant, an intelligence official told the Times.

The NSA believed that the congressman, whose identity was not revealed, was in contact with an extremist who had possible ties to terror and was already under surveillance. The NSA then tried to eavesdrop on the congressman's conversations, the Times said.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair admitted Thursday that the NSA made mistakes and intercepted the wrong communications. But he emphasized the number of errors is small to the overall collection efforts and that each error is investigated, leading to corrective measures to prevent reoccurrences.

"Let me be clear. I do not and will not support any surveillance activities that circumvent established processes for their lawful authorization and execution," he said in a statement. "Additionally, we go to great lengths to ensure that the privacy and civil liberties of U.S. persons are protected."

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein said Thursday she will investigate the indications of new wiretap violations.

A bill passed by Congress in July 2008 authorizes U.S. intelligence agencies to eavesdrop without court approval on foreign targets believed to be outside the United States.

In its statement, the Justice Department said it has taken "comprehensive steps to correct the situation and bring the program into compliance."

"As the Justice Department and National Security Agency were conducting routine oversight of intelligence activities to ensure compliance with existing laws and court orders, officials detected issues that raised concerns. Once these issues were identified, the Justice Department immediately notified the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," said DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd, though he did not elaborate on what problems were found.

Once corrective measures were taken, Attorney General Eric Holder sought authorization for renewing the surveillance program, officials said.

"It is not clear to what extent the agency may have actively listened in on conversations or read e-mails of Americans without proper court authority, rather than simply obtain access to them," the Times said.

Domestic eavesdropping has been a contentious issue since 2005, when the Times revealed that for years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NSA intercepted international phone conversations and e-mails involving U.S. citizens without a warrant.

That program ended in 2007, and the following year Congress passed legislation requiring the NSA to get court approval to monitor the purely domestic communications of Americans who came under suspicion.

Torture Memos Released

NEW YORK – In response to litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Justice Department today released four secret memos used by the Bush administration to justify torture. The memos, produced by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), provided the legal framework for the CIA's use of waterboarding and other illegal interrogation methods that violate domestic and international law.

The ACLU has called for the Justice Department to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate torture under the Bush administration.

"We have to look back before we can move forward as a nation. When crimes have been committed, the American legal system demands accountability. President Obama's assertion that there should not be prosecutions of government officials who may have committed crimes before a thorough investigation has been carried out is simply untenable. Enforcing the nation's laws should not be a political decision. These memos provide yet more incontrovertible evidence that Bush administration officials at the highest level of government authorized and gave legal blessings to acts of torture that violate domestic and international law," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "There can be no more excuses for putting off criminal investigations of officials who authorized torture, lawyers who justified it and interrogators who broke the law. No one is above the law, and the law must be equally enforced. Accountability is necessary for any functioning democracy and for restoring America's reputation at home and abroad."

Three of the memos released today were written by Steven Bradbury, then a lawyer in the OLC, in 2005. The fourth memo was written by then-OLC head Jay S. Bybee in August 2002.

"Memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel, including the memos released today, provided the foundation for the Bush administration's torture program," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. "Through these memos, Justice Department lawyers authorized interrogators to use the most barbaric interrogation methods, including methods that the U.S. once prosecuted as war crimes. The memos are based on legal reasoning that is spurious on its face, and in the end these aren't legal memos at all – they are simply political documents that were meant to provide window dressing for war crimes. While the memos should never have been written, we welcome their release today. Transparency is a first step towards accountability."

"The documents released today provide further confirmation that lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel purposefully distorted the law to support the Bush administration's torture program," said Amrit Singh, staff attorney with the ACLU. "Now that the memos have been made public, high-ranking officials in the Bush administration must be held accountable for authorizing torture. We are hopeful that by releasing these memos, the Obama administration has turned the page on an era in which the Justice Department became complicit in some of the most egregious crimes."

Since 2003, the ACLU has filed several lawsuits to enforce FOIA requests seeking government documents relating to torture, rendition, detention and surveillance. These lawsuits have resulted in the release of thousands of records.

"We need to know our history to learn from history," said Arthur Eisenberg, Legal Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel on the case. "Disclosure of these documents is essential for our country, and will shed much-needed light on one of the darkest chapters in American history."

To read the memos yourself, see the ACLU website

Homeland Security Warns of Homeland Terror

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans on Wednesday said a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment unfairly characterizes military veterans as right-wing extremists. House Republican leader John Boehner described the report as offensive and called on the agency to apologize to veterans.

The agency's intelligence assessment, sent to law enforcement officials last week, warns that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of the country's first black president to recruit members.

The assessment also said that returning military veterans who have difficulties assimilating back into their home communities could be susceptible to extremist recruiters or might engage in lone acts of violence.

"To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable," said Boehner, R-Ohio.

The commander of the veterans group the American Legion, David Rehbein, wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano expressing concern with the assessment, which made its way into the mainstream press after conservative bloggers got wind of the analysis.

Rehbein called the assessment incomplete and said it lacked statistical evidence. He said the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by military veteran Timothy McVeigh was one instance of a veteran becoming a domestic terrorist.

"To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical 'disgruntled military veteran' is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam," Rehbein said in the April 13 letter.

Napolitano defended the assessment and others issued by the agency.

"Let me be very clear—we monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Napolitano said in a statement. "We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown, and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."

Napolitano said the department respects and honors veterans and that she intends to meet with Rehbein next week after she returns from a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border and meetings in Mexico City.

The agency describes these assessments as part of a series published "to facilitate a greater understanding of the phenomenon of violent radicalization in the United States."

In February, the department issued a report to law enforcement that said left-wing extremist groups were likely to use cyber attacks more often in the next 10 years to further their cause.

In September, the agency highlighted how right-wing extremists over the past five years have used the immigration debate as a recruiting tool.

Between September 2008 and Feb. 5, the agency issued at least four reports, obtained by The Associated Press, on individual extremist groups such as the Moors, Vinlanders Social Club, Volksfront and Hammerskin Nation.

But the references to military veterans in the recent report angered conservatives.

"The department is engaging in political and ideological profiling of people who fought to keep our country safe from terrorism, uphold our nation's immigration laws, and protect our constitutional right to keep and bear arms," said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla.,

Texas Rep. Lamar Smith accused the department of painting "law-abiding Americans, including war veterans, as 'extremists.'"

Indiana Rep. Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the House Veterans' Affairs committee, said it was "inconceivable" that the administration would consider military veterans a potential terrorist threat.

Can Tea Parties Change Modern Government?

Two months ago, 300 people showed up in a cold, pouring rain at Georgia’s State Capitol as part of the first stirrings of a modern-day Tea Party movement, protesting Washington’s expanding reach and a ballooning federal deficit.

Wednesday night, Edward Johnson, in a tricorn hat and Paul Revere coat, watched Act II: The capitol square here filled up with more than 10,000 protesters waving signs that said, among other things, “Welcome to Sweden” and “Don’t tax me, bro!”

The burgeoning Tea (Taxed Enough Already) Party movement is outwardly nonpartisan but has been dominated, at least at the Atlanta event, by Republican stalwarts like former Rep. Dick Armey. When asked whether it could achieve its goal of returning America to small-government roots, Mr. Johnson looked grim under the brim of his hat.

“On the one hand, I feel optimistic to see so many people coming out,” he said, gripping his 4-month-old daughter, Sophie, on the fringe of a rowdy crowd. “But I’m also pessimistic because I think it’s too late. I think both parties in this country are bent on repressing the individual rights the Founders worked so hard to craft into the Constitution.”

With protests in more than 700 US cities Wednesday, and perhaps over 100,000 Americans taking part, it’s clear that a populist counterpoint is expanding to protest what they see as Washington profligacy. They’re zeroing in on corporate bailouts, a historic stimulus package, and a budget that could add trillions of dollars to the already massive US deficit.

Critics call tea partiers an irrational minority, their movement a sign of a conservative power vacuum.

Yet the impressive organizing effort – styled in many ways like the Democratic social-networking playbook that worked so well last fall – does indicate to some experts that the Tea Parties could have an effect on the body politic.

“These grass-roots movements can make a big difference. We saw that with the suffrage movement, where you had to get people picketing the White House in addition to folks who were lobbying state by state for ratification,” says Elizabeth Bennion, a professor who studies voter mobilization at Indiana University at South Bend. At the Tea Parties now, she says, “These are people – liberal, conservative, moderate and unidentified – who are genuinely concerned about the debt that we’re passing onto our children and grandchildren.”

From Hartford, Conn., to San Antonio, from San Francisco to Punta Gorda, Fla., organizers saw the seeds of the protests sprout in a way that few of them could have foreseen. They were sparked in part by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli’s much-publicized antispending rant on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

The vast majority of the protests were orderly and respectful, with very few counterprotests. The only notable incident came in Washington, when someone threw a box of tea bags over the White House fence, forcing police to disperse the crowd and bring out a robotic bomb-sniffer.

The tea-bag incident notwithstanding, the White House pointed out Wednesday that 95 percent of Americans will enjoy a federal tax cut under President Obama’s plan. But protesters say that future tax increases are inevitable, as Mr. Obama looks to expand the government’s role and reach.

Atlanta protester Dwight Alcala says that both his parents are Filipino but he came to the protest because “I’m an American first.” His main concern is that free-for-all government spending leads to a freeloader mind-set that’s antithetical to the Constitution’s guarantees of individual rights. “We’re fed up, and we think there’s a better way,” he says.

Some protests eschewed party politics: One event in Chicago refused an entreaty from GOP head Michael Steele to speak. Others, such as the one here in Atlanta, were high-tech affairs, with huge TV screens, bands, and a recitation by “Paul Revere” (“The taxes are coming!”) – as well as appearances by state politicians like John Oxendine, Mr. Armey, and Fox News TV personality Sean Hannity, who aired his show last night from the scene.

Some have raised questions about how grass-roots the efforts really are, but even critics who attended the events or have talked to protesters say they are sincere.

“These are all average Americans in leadership roles,” insists Michael Patrick Leahy, a Nashville blogger and organizer of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. “These are people who are mad at the fiscal profligacy of the last years of the Bush administration, and Republicans as well as Democrats.”

The movement has already had an impact on Jeremy Kata, a 20-something grad student at Indiana University at South Bend, who helped organize a protest there. A former plant manager, Mr. Kata is now determined to enter politics, though at what level and where he’s not sure.

Ultimately, the impact of the Tea Party movement at the local level may be what’s most important, he says.

“This idea of what we are willing to pay in taxes and what do we need in terms of services, it’s even more visible at the local level,” he says. “These are issues being debated in almost every town and state in the union.”

Influencing state and congressional races is the movement’s ultimate goal, says Mr. Leahy, but there’s a more immediate priority: the upcoming budget vote.

“Policymakers will be following these protests in the news,” Professor Bennion says. “Republicans might feel emboldened as a protest party, and ‘blue dog’ or moderate Democrats may also feel empowered to speak out against the Democratic leadership, meaning that the majority party will have to look much more carefully at their concerns regarding spending and how they’re going to pay for things.”

Marc Cooper, director of Annenberg Digital News at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and a Huffington Post contributor, disagrees. For Republicans especially, he says, the Tea Party movement is an unwelcome charge by “the angriest, most rogue, extreme – not in a dangerous way – voices that I think do a lot of damage to Republicans.”

He adds: “These protests are really off the wall because they’re completely out of sync with a historic moment … [where] people are now looking to government, much as they did in the 1930s, for solutions. There’s a minority that’s going to oppose that, but that’s not where the center of the gravity is in the country.”

In fact, a study from the Pew Research Center released Wednesday found that 56 percent of Americans support Obama’s stimulus plan.

Standing back from the crowds at the Atlanta rally, J.C. Greene, an AmeriCorps volunteer, said he expected the crowds to be much larger – and more diverse. “They’re trying to build some momentum,” he says, “but I think it just mostly shows the state of our country right now.”

Texas....Secede?

Texas Gov. Rick Perry fired up an anti-tax "tea party" Wednesday with his stance against the federal government and for states' rights as some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, "Secede!"

An animated Perry told the crowd at Austin City Hall — one of three tea parties he was attending across the state — that officials in Washington have abandoned the country's founding principles of limited government. He said the federal government is strangling Americans with taxation, spending and debt.

Perry repeated his running theme that Texas' economy is in relatively good shape compared with other states and with the "federal budget mess." Many in the crowd held signs deriding President Barack Obama and the $786 billion federal economic stimulus package.

Perry called his supporters patriots. Later, answering news reporters' questions, Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

He said when Texas entered the union in 1845 it was with the understanding it could pull out. However, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede.

Texas did secede in 1861, but the North's victory in the Civil War put an end to that.

Perry is running for re-election against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a fellow Republican. His anti-Washington remarks have become more strident the past few weeks as that 2010 race gets going and since Perry rejected $550 million in federal economic stimulus money slated to help Texas' unemployment trust fund.

Perry said the stimulus money would come with strings attached that would leave Texas paying the bill once the federal money ran out.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, also Republicans, have been outspoken against the federal economic stimulus spending and were supportive of tea parties in their states. The protests were being held throughout the country on federal income tax deadline day to imitate the original Boston Tea Party of American revolutionary times.

In an appearance at the Texas Capitol last week, Perry joined state lawmakers in pushing a resolution that supports states' rights protected in the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He said the federal government has become oppressive in its size and interference with states.

Since then, Perry has been featured on the online Drudge Report, and other conservative commentators and citizens have latched on to his words.

After praising veterans in the cheering crowd Wednesday, he said: "I'm just not real sure you're a bunch of right-wing extremists. But if you are, we're with you."

Perry said he believes he could be at the center of a national movement that is coordinated and focused in its opposition to the actions of the federal government.

"It's a very organic thing," he said. "It is a very powerful moment, I think, in American history."

For her part, Hutchison issued a newspaper opinion piece Wednesday criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for spending on the stimulus bill and the $1 trillion appropriations bill.

"On April 15 — Tax Day — some in Congress may need a reminder of just who is underwriting this spending: the American taxpayer. I am deeply concerned over the swelling tax burden that will be imposed on all Texas families," she wrote.

The crowd at the Austin tea party appeared to be decidedly anti-Democrat. Many of the speakers were Republicans and Libertarians.

One placard said, "Stop Obama's Socialism." Another read, "Some Pirates Are in America," and it showed photographs of Obama, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wearing pirate hats.

Rebecca Knowlton, 45, of Smithville, said she took the day off of home-schooling her three children and brought them to the rally to teach them about civic duty. Knowlton, a critic of the Social Security system and the United Nations, said she felt camaraderie at the demonstration.

"The movement is growing stronger," she said. "You're not alone.

Havana Nights

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama directed his administration Monday to allow unlimited travel and money transfers by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba, and to take other steps to ease U.S. restrictions on the island, a senior administration official told The Associated Press.

The formal announcement was being made at the White House Monday afternoon, during presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs' daily briefing with reporters. The official spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the president's announcement.

With the changes, Obama aims to create new space for the Cuban people in their quest for political freedom and a democratic government, in part by making them less dependent on the Castro regime, the official said.

Other steps taken Monday include allowing gift parcels to be send to Cuba, and issuing licenses to increase communications among and to the Cuban people. About 1.5 million Americans have relatives in Cuba.

Obama had promised to take these steps as a presidential candidate. It has been known for over a week that he would announce them in advance of his attended this weekend of a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

"There are no better ambassadors for freedom than Cuban Americans," Obama said in a campaign speech last May in Miami, the heart of the U.S. Cuban-American community. "It's time to let Cuban Americans see their mothers and fathers, their sisters and brothers. It's time to let Cuban American money make their families less dependent upon the Castro regime."

Sending money to senior government officials and Communist Party members remains prohibited. Restrictions imposed by the Bush administration had limited Cuban travel by Americans to just two weeks every three years. Visits also were confined to immediate family members.

Other steps taken Monday include expanding the things allowed in gift parcels being sent to Cuba, such as clothes, personal hygiene items, seeds, fishing gear and other personal necessities. The administration also will begin issuing licenses to allow companies to provide cell and television services to people on the island, and to allow family members to pay for relatives on Cuba to get those services, the official said.

Also in that Miami speech nearly a year ago, Obama promised to depart from what he said had been the path of previous politicians on Cuba policy—"they come down to Miami, they talk tough, they go back to Washington, and nothing changes in Cuba."

"Never, in my lifetime, have the people of Cuba known freedom. Never, in the lives of two generations of Cubans, have the people of Cuba known democracy," he said then. "This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century—of elections that are anything but free or fair; of dissidents locked away in dark prison cells for the crime of speaking the truth. I won't stand for this injustice, you won't stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba."

He also promised to engage in direct diplomacy with Cuba, "without preconditions" but with "careful preparation" and "a clear agenda."

Some lawmakers, backed by business and farm groups seeing new opportunities in Cuba, are advocating wider revisions in the trade and travel bans imposed after Fidel Castro took power in Havana in 1959.

But Obama is keeping the decades-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba in place, arguing that that policy provides leverage to pressure the regime to free all political prisoners as one step toward normalized relations with the U.S.

Don't Tread On Us!

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry joined state Rep. Brandon Creighton and sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 50 in support of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I believe that returning to the letter and spirit of the U.S. Constitution and its essential 10th Amendment will free our state from undue regulations, and ultimately strengthen our Union.”

Perry continued: "Millions of Texans are tired of Washington, DC trying to come down here to tell us how to run Texas."

A number of recent federal proposals are not within the scope of the federal government’s constitutionally designated powers and impede the states’ right to govern themselves. HCR 50 affirms that Texas claims sovereignty under the 10th Amendment over all powers not otherwise granted to the federal government.

It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation that requires states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties, or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed.

More Natural Selection

A GERMAN woman mauled by three polar bears after she leapt into the moat surrounding their pen at a Berlin zoo was apparently suicidal after a string of setbacks, a newspaper reports.

The daily Bild reported today that Sandy K, 32, who is still in intensive care after the attack, went to the zoo alone on Friday while her eight-year-old daughter spent the Easter holiday weekend with her father, Sandy's estranged partner Lars.

Sandy had long had financial problems and in February, the electricity was cut off to her flat, which she had been lighting since then with candles.

"She occasionally came over with the kettle so she could heat up her water," a neighbour told Bild.

In the summer of 2007, she nearly lost her apartment due to rent arrears and mounting debts from internet shopping and was threatened with jail time unless she started paying them off.

Sandy had evidently been alone since Lars, whom she met during her studies, left her four years ago.

"She had been studying too long and I was working too much. We lost our love," Lars told Bild.The mauling made front page news, in part due to the celebrity of the polar bears at Berlin Zoo.

They shot to global fame in 2007 after the birth of the cub Knut, which was abandoned by its mother and survived only by being fed from baby bottles by a keeper.

Neither Knut nor his mother was involved in Friday's attack.

Against Natural Selection?

INDIANAPOLIS -- A man died Monday, days after he was involved in a swordfight with the grandson of a woman who was killed when she tried to intervene in the fight, police said.

Adolf Stegbauer, 69, died from complications of a stab wound. Charges pending against Chris Rondeau, 39, were expected to be upgraded. Police said he stabbed Stegbauer.

Franziska Stegbauer, 77, also died as a result of stab wounds after the fight early Thursday morning, but police were not initially sure which of the men had stabbed her.

Rondeau and Adolf Stegbauer got into an argument at a home in the 5200 block of Raceway Road that escalated when one of the men grabbed a sword, prompting the other man to also brandish a sword.

Rondeau was already held on an attempted murder charge stemming from the stabbing of Adolf Stegbauer.

Barack the Barbarian

CHICAGO - Conan the Barbarian became the governor of California. Now President Barack Obama has become Barack the Barbarian.

A new comic book series is due out this summer featuring a familiar look-alike who becomes president of Kickassistan.

In "Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli," published by Devil's Due, the loincloth-clad president battles with a woman of the north who wears glasses and a wolf's fur cape.

Here's how the publisher's website describes the issue:

"From a far away land rises a mighty hero. The son of peasants from two different realms, the one known only as Barack protects the people of Hope Kingdom at all costs. Watch as he takes on the likes of Boosh the Dim, Red Sarah and Cha-nee the Grim in this hilarious first issue!"

Another issue shows the Barbarian battling with an Ann Coulter-ish woman, "The Harpy of the Elephant Tower," in a skimpy bikini.

source

Arrrrgh....they be Pirates?

US crew members have retaken their hijacked ship but their captain is still being held by Somali pirates on a lifeboat, reports say.

Pentagon sources and relatives of the Maersk Alabama's 20 crew were earlier quoted as saying the ship was back under control after a struggle.

But later reports emerged that the captain was still in the hands of the hijackers, adrift in the lifeboat.

It was the sixth ship seized off Somalia in recent days.

It is reportedly the first time in 200 years that a US-flagged vessel has been seized by pirates.

The Associated Press reported that they had spoken to a sailor on board the Maersk Alabama who said the crew had retaken the vessel and one pirate had been captured.

But the unnamed sailor told AP that three of the pirates were now holding the captain hostage in a lifeboat.

The ship's owners later confirmed that the pirates were off the ship but holding the captain.

"We are working closely with the US military and other government agencies to continue to respond to this situation as it develops further and will provide additional information as we are able," Maersk said in a statement.

The ship was attacked by several small boats in the early hours of Wednesday in an incident apparently lasting for about five hours.

Maritime officials said the vessel took all possible evasive action before it reported that the pirates had boarded.

More than 130 pirate attacks were reported in 2008, including almost 50 successful hijacks.

Pirates typically hold the ships and crews until large ransoms are paid by the shipping companies - last year the firms handed over about $80m (£54m).

The huge increase in frequency of attacks has forced several navies to deploy warships in the Gulf of Aden to protect one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Can He Get a What What? Huh...?

MANITOWOC WI. — Justin Nickels was elected mayor of Manitowoc Tuesday, beating fellow Alderman Dave Soeldner by 15 votes from more than 9,400 cast.

The city's 27th mayor, Nickels, 22, officially begins work April 21. He replaces Kevin Crawford, who has served since 1989.

"Hard work pays off," Nickels said after receiving the news Tuesday evening. "The campaign is over. Now we need to focus on what's best for Manitowoc and move forward."

Nickels won with 4,711 votes to Soeldner's 4,696.

"It was a hard-fought campaign on both sides," Nickels said. "I just wanna thank (Dave). I look forward to working with him."

The Board of Canvass meets at 3 p.m. today to verify the vote count. Soeldner, 39, said he would wait to hear the results of that meeting before deciding whether to request a recount.

"My focus is on having an accurate vote count — not on making this a charade or a publicity stunt," Soeldner said Tuesday. "I'm going to exhaust all the reasonable alternatives that I have."

Tuesday night totals showed Soeldner won Nickels' district — District 2 — by three votes. Soeldner also picked up District 8, which he has represented since April 2008, by 116 votes.

Still, he was unable to garner enough support elsewhere to win.

"I'll be bitterly disappointed if I lose, because I think I'm the right choice for the city," Soeldner said. "But the one thing that I have is that I stayed true to myself and I ran a campaign that I can be proud of."

He said running a campaign such as this is "a big emotional investment," but he's not ruling out a future bid for the mayor's office.

"I'd consider it, but I just have no idea what four years can bring," Soeldner said. "I've got another career that I'm going try to keep going, and I'm committed to continue serving on the council in a job I love."

Soeldner's City Council term is scheduled to end next April. Nickels' post, which was up for election this year but went unchallenged, will be filled by council appointment. His replacement will serve a one-year term.

Though Nickels won't move into City Hall for another two weeks, he's planning to hit the ground running — starting today. He has a 7 a.m. breakfast for Manitowoc Public Utilities and a 10 a.m. meeting with Crawford and all the city department heads.

"There's no time to sleep," Nickels said. "It's time to work."

Nickels is to receive $68,830 in his first year in office, $70,207 in his second, $71,611 in his third and $73,043 in his fourth, according to city ordinance. The mayor's seat will be up for grabs again in April 2013.

Don't Spend All Your Cheers in One Place!

A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.
Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

Workers with dwindling wages are paying for groceries, yoga classes and fuel with Detroit Cheers, Ithaca Hours in New York, Plenty in North Carolina or BerkShares in Massachusetts.

Ed Collom, a University of Southern Maine sociologist who has studied local currencies, says they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

"We wanted to make new options available," says Jackie Smith of South Bend, Ind., who is working to launch a local currency. "It reinforces the message that having more control of the economy in local hands can help you cushion yourself from the blows of the marketplace."

About a dozen communities have local currencies, says Susan Witt, founder of BerkShares in the Berkshires region of western Massachusetts. She expects more to do it.

Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.

During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.

By law, local money may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States, says Claudia Dickens of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

"We print the real thing," she says.

The IRS gets its share. When someone pays for goods or services with local money, the income to the business is taxable, says Tom Ochsenschlager of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. "It's not a way to avoid income taxes, or we'd all be paying in Detroit dollars," he says.

Pittsboro, N.C., is reviving the Plenty, a defunct local currency created in 2002. It is being printed in denominations of $1, $5, $20 and $50. A local bank will exchange $9 for $10 worth of Plenty.

"We're a wiped-out small town in America," says Lyle Estill, president of Piedmont Biofuels, which accepts the Plenty. "This will strengthen the local economy. ... The nice thing about the Plenty is that it can't leave here."

Happy Opening Day

There are few days that make me as happy as today.

My kids birthday, my wedding aniversary, Christmas morning and the 4th of July are all at the top.

But then, there is opening day.

The perfect sport. It ends, when it ends. Time does not exist in baseball. I love everything about it. The smell of the grass. The color of the sky. The boxscore. The memories. The history.

Gazing into my crystal ball, I am ready to reveal my picks for the 2009 MLB season.

American League West

Rangers will go 162-0...then lose 4 straight to the Yankees in the playoffs.

Well, maybe not this season. Although continuing to improve, you just can't win in the heat of Texas. We will still be over .500 this season and have a better record than the Astros but will be a distant second to the AL West winners, the L.A. Angels

American League Central

Does it really matter?

I'm going with the Twins, simply because I caught a game in the Metrodome last season and thought it was cool.

American League East

What has become the hottest league in all of baseball (it used to be the AL West), the AL East will have 3 legit playoff teams. Sorry Rays.

The SAWX will take the regular season with the Yankees 4 games behind them. It will be a battle, since the Yankees dropped more than the AIG bailout on free agents this year.

American League Champions

Boston Red Sox

National League West

With the best young pitching staff in the division, the nod goes the the Dodgers. Young being the operative word. If they can keep it together, they may be good for a while. And hey, they have Manny! That has to be worth 10-12 wins itself?!

National League Central

See (AL Central)

I don't think it really matters here either. The Cubs showed last year how having the best regular season record means nothing. I think they repeat as Central champs...but it won't matter.

National League East

Although the Phillies were the World Champs last year, it will be short lived. Although I believe Philadelphia will make it interesting with a wild card birth, it's the Mets year. They will ride Johan Santana all the way to the pennant.

National League Champions

New York Mets

World Series Champions

Boston Red Sox

With the best 15 man pitching staff in the game, it will be party time in Beantown come October.

The only question will be will they Celtics and the Patriots join them?

New Town Signals Deathblow to Isreali Peace

The sign in big, red Hebrew letters reads “Welcome to Mevasseret Adumim, the Harbinger of the Hills”. A three-lane road with roundabouts leads up the hill to a police station and street lamps line the flyover that links the new town to neighbouring Ma'aleh Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements in Israel.

There are no houses, cars or people in Mevasseret Adumim: it is a town laid out, waiting to be built. That is because international pressure has so far prevented construction from going ahead. The area is the last piece of open land linking Arab East Jerusalem to the West Bank and critics said that to develop it would bury the very notion of a two-state solution to the Middle East crisis.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the area has been earmarked for development under a secret accord between Binyamin Netanyahu, the new, conservative Israeli Prime Minister, and his ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

Better known under its old British mandate name, E1, it is the most controversial development project in the region, one that diplomats and observers warn will trigger the collapse of the weakened Palestinian Authority, or drive it into armed resistance again.

Israeli army radio reported that the deal was struck between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Lieberman as part of the negotiations to form a government, and it would allow 3,000 homes to be built on E1.

Critics said that building a combined Jewish settlement and national park in the hills of E1 would cut the West Bank in two. And blocking mainly Arab East Jerusalem from the West Bank it would make it impossible for the Palestinians to have that side of the disputed city as their capital.

Khalil Shikiaki, a leading Palestinian political analyst, said: .“Failure to respond in an effective manner could lead to the collapse of the nationalist camp [the Fatah-led branch of Palestinian politics] My guess is, confronted with this development, the nationalist camp would probably support violence. Given the current tends I think of this as a potential trigger to major clashes.”

That view was backed by a senior Western diplomat, who feared that developing E1, which the Bush Administration urged against, may encourage Hamas to try to take over the West Bank.

All the pieces are in place. Land has been levelled for housing, the roundabouts indicate that more roads will soon spread out across the wooded hills and the existing road network hints at the future shape of Jerusalem, according to Haim Erlich, an Israeli researcher for the co-existence group Ir Amin.

Mr Erlich points to the almost completed flyover crossing the Jerusalem to Jericho highway, which links E1 to Ma'aleh Adumim, sealing the gap of Jewish suburbs around East Jerusalem. Once the two are joined and then combined with smaller existing Jewish settlements and an industrial area farther out in the West Bank, the so-called Adumim block will have about 45,000 residents and cover more land than Tel Aviv, the second- largest Israeli city, he said.

“If they are really going to build E1, the meaning of that for the Palestinians will ... [mean] that the talks about a two-state solution are only on the level of theoretical talks,” Mr Erlich said. “It's the end of the idea of the two-state solution.”

Construction workers are also busy completing a walled-off road with no turnings into East Jerusalem, which will run from the southern West Bank to the northern part. This would allow Israel to argue that the Palestinians have territorial contiguity. Mr Erlich and others in the peace camp argue that it will effectively leave the West Bank divided.

The office of the mayor in Ma'aleh Adumim declined to comment on the plans but in a statement that was issued recently it said that the thousands of homes would constitute “contiguous construction between our city to the capital Jerusalem and will be the Zionist response that will prevent the division of Jerusalem and the dislocation of Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Adumim [Adumim block] from the capital of Israel”.

The plans may be finalised under the Netanyahu Government but they were started two decades ago as part of the long-term Israeli strategy to secure the disputed city. A statement earlier this year from the Ministry of Defence, which has to approve all housing construction in the West Bank, made it clear that the state is not about to cede any of the area to the Palestinians.

“Ma'aleh Adumim is an inalienable part of Jerusalem and the State of Israel in any permanent settlement,” the statement, which was issued by the office of Ehud Barak, the Labour Party leader and Defence Minister in the previous and current governments, said. “E1 is a corridor that connects Ma'aleh Adumim to Mount Scopus [a longstanding Israeli pocket of land in East Jerusalem] and therefore it is important for it to remain part of the country. This is the position of Labour since Yitzhak Rabin and also of the Government of [Ehud]Barak in 1999, and the Americans know this position.”

Hagit Ofran, of the anti-settlement group Peace Now, said that building in E1 would fit with the reluctance of Mr Netanyahu to allow a sovereign Palestinian state.

“It's very hard to expect this Government will go for a two-state solution and negotiations,” said Ms Ofran, whose organisation protested outside parliament at the government inauguration with banners declaring: “This is not a unity government but a settler government.”

She said that the involvement of Mr Barak's centrist Labour Party in the Government would not act as a figleaf for the rightwingers' ambitions.

“Barak is worse than Netanyahu,” she said, pointing to the increasing numbers of settlers in the West Bank during Mr Barak's last term as Defence Minister. “They are trying to make it impossible for a two-state solution.”

The Mouse that Roared

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's rocket may have fallen into the sea, but military experts cautioned Monday against calling it a complete failure, noting that it traveled twice as far as any missile the country has launched.

Although the distance was still far short of showing North Korea could reach U.S. territory, it rattled the North's neighbors and countries around the globe, with the U.S. and its allies pushing for quick punishment at an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting held hours after liftoff.

The launch, which demonstrated progress, is a particularly worrying development for a belligerent country that says it has nuclear weapons and once threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire."

President Barack Obama, faced with his first global security crisis, called for an international response and condemned North Korea for threatening the peace and stability of nations "near and far" with what Pyongyang claimed was a satellite launch and its neighbors suspect was a test of a long-range missile technology.

"North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles," Obama said in Prague. "This provocation underscores the need for action, not just ... in the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons."

Council members met for three hours Sunday but failed to release even a customary preliminary statement of condemnation — evidence of the challenges in agreeing on some kind of punishment. China, the North's closest ally, and Russia hold veto power and could water down any response.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told CBS television Monday that the U.S. is calling for a Security Council resolution that would be binding under international law, so North Korea's leaders understand "they can't act with impunity."

Diplomats privy to the closed-door talks say China, Russia, Libya and Vietnam were concerned about further alienating and destabilizing North Korea.

"Our position is that all countries concerned should show restraint and refrain from taking actions that might lead to increased tensions," Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yesui said.

Analysts say sanctions imposed after the North's underground nuclear test in 2006 have had little effect because some countries showed no will to impose them. Those sanctions bar the North from ballistic missile activity. Pyongyang claims it was exercising its right to peaceful space development.

Still, Japan said it plans to extend its economic sanctions on the North for another year. The measures, among other things, prohibit Japanese companies from buying North Korean exports.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso urged the Security Council to take a firm stance against North Korea and said he would continue lobbying China and Russia for support.

"The international society should send a strong message to North Korea in a concerted action," he told reporters Monday.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak also pressed Monday for China's support, his office said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il personally observed the launch, Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday, expressing "great satisfaction" with the achievement.

Pyongyang's state media claimed again Monday that the rocket put an experimental communications satellite into orbit, saying North Korea's people were carried away by "great passion" over the news.

Byun Young Rip, chief of the country's science academy, said the launch would provide the North with a "scientific, technological guarantee" to launch more satellites, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

But U.S. and South Korean officials claim the entire rocket, including whatever payload it carried, ended up in the ocean after Sunday's launch. South Korean officials said the rocket's second stage landed in waters about 1,900 miles (3,100 kilometers) from the northeastern North Korean launch site.

That is double the distance a rocket managed in 1998 and far better than a 2006 launch of a long-range missile that fizzled just 42 seconds after liftoff. Japan, Guam, the Philippines, Mongolia and many parts of China now are within striking range, but Anchorage, Alaska, is roughly 3,500 miles (6,000 kilometers) from the launch site and the U.S. mainland much farther away.

Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based analyst for the International Crisis Group, said that while the rocket's first stage successfully broke away, it appears the second and third stages failed to separate or had difficulty doing so.

"So it has to call into question the dependability and reliability of the system," he said. "They're still a long ways off" from being able to successfully target and strike the United States, he said.

But Kim Tae-woo, an analyst at Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the launch raises the stakes at stalled disarmament talks because Pyongyang now has more to bargain away.

"Militarily and politically, it's not a failure" because "North Korea demonstrated a greatly enhanced range," Kim said. "North Korea is playing a game of trying to manipulate the U.S. by getting it within range, which is the so-called pressure card."

Pyongyang could carry out other provocative acts, such as a second nuclear test, if its rocket launch doesn't produce what it wants: direct talks with the U.S., said Kim Keun-sik, a North Korea expert at South Korea's Kyungnam University.

However, he said naval skirmishes or short-range missile tests are unlikely since they are "routine" provocations directed at South Korea, not the U.S.

"They will wait for the response to this satellite launch," Pinkston predicted.

North Korea, one of the world's poorest countries, is in desperate need of outside aid, particularly since the help that flowed in unconditionally from neighboring South Korea for a decade has dried up since Lee took office in Seoul in 2008.

Pyongyang routinely uses its nuclear weapons program as its trump card, promising to abandon its atomic ambitions in exchange for aid and then exercising the nuclear threat when it doesn't get its way. The North also has reportedly been peddling missile parts and technology.

Iran, another country with controversial missile and nuclear programs, defended North Korea's rocket launch.

"We always consider the peaceful use of space in the framework of international regulation as a right for all," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, said in Tehran.

Iran is believed to have cooperated extensively with North Korea on missile technology, though Iran denies it.

ATF

Has anyone noticed that in the last week, we have had an "alcohol" law, a "tobacco" law and a "firearm" law?

Weird....

Senate Passes DWI Checkpoints

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas, which has more alcohol-related traffic deaths than any other state, would allow police to set up sobriety roadblocks and force more drunk-driving suspects to give blood or breath samples under legislation approved in the state Senate Monday.

The bill allowing police checkpoints in large counties and cities passed the Senate 20-11 Monday. The chamber unanimously passed separate legislation aimed at forcing compliance from motorists who initially refuse to give breath samples when police suspect they're intoxicated.

Both bills still have hurdles to overcome, including passage in the House, before becoming law.

Texas is one of only 11 states that does not allow sobriety checkpoints, according to a Senate analysis. The U.S. Supreme has ruled that checkpoints are constitutional but haven't been allowed in Texas since 1994. That's when a state court ruled they violated the Texas Constitution because there were no statewide guidelines.

The author of the sobriety checkpoints legislation, Republican Sen. John Carona of Dallas, said the bill would make the roads safer while protecting civil liberties.

"We're not taking anyone's rights away," Carona said. "We're trying to ensure that my right and your right to drive safely on the roadway and be protected from drunk drivers is preserved."

Under his bill, SB 261, only the police in counties with a population of 250,000 or more, and cities with a population of 500,000 or more, would be allowed to set up roadblocks to check for drunk drivers.

The bill would also exempt federal highways and interstates, bridges, causeways and roads that serve as a single route into and out of a designated area, such as the one used to access South Padre Island, officials said.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Texas' 1,292 deaths in alcohol-related crashes in 2007 were the most in the nation. Another 30,000 were injured.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, police agencies and many local government associations support creating sobriety checkpoints. But civil libertarians and criminal defense attorneys say sobriety checkpoints are ineffective, promote racial profiling and treat innocent people like criminals.

Under the legislation, police would be required to consider the number of drunken driving arrests and accidents in an area the previous year. And checkpoints would have to be chosen without regard to the ethnic or economic makeup of an area. Police would also be required to announce the checkpoints in advance.

Still, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said the legislation would give too much power to law enforcement by removing the requirement that there be "probable cause" before motorists are stopped.

"Every law-abiding Texan could now be forced to stop and have contact with a police agency," Whitmire said. "If you're minding your own business you ought not be bothered."

Earlier Monday, the Senate passed a bill giving law enforcement more latitude in forcing motorists to submit to breath or blood tests. Currently, half of all Texans arrested for Driving While Intoxicated refuse a breathalyzer test, according to a Senate analysis.

Under a bill by Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, police could take a breath or blood sample if the officer believes that the person caused a serious accident, was driving drunk while transporting a child or has evidence that the person had two prior DWI convictions.

Take Your Gun to Work Bill Passes Senate

AUSTIN – Texans could carry their guns and ammunition to work – as long as they keep them in the car or pickup – under a bill passed unanimously by the Senate on Wednesday.

The measure by Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, would bar businesses from having policies that prohibit their employees from storing legal firearms and ammunition in their locked vehicles outside their place of work.

"People like their firearms in Texas, and if they want to bring them to the workplace, they are going to do it whether there is a policy or not," Hegar said in response to concerns that a disgruntled worker might be encouraged to bring a gun to work to settle a dispute.

He added: "It is not the firearm in the car that causes the problem, it's the individual who possesses the firearm."

About 230,000 Texans have a state license to carry a concealed handgun.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, a co-author of the bill, said company policies that prohibit employees with a concealed-handgun license from bringing a gun to work run counter to the original intent of the program – to allow license holders to protect themselves.

"If we continue to see more and more businesses adopt policies like this, pretty soon we are going to render a [concealed-gun license] ineffective. You won't be able to take a gun anywhere," he said.

Hegar said his bill would still allow businesses to bar firearms in company offices and in company vehicles. It would not apply to places where firearms are not permitted by state or federal law, such as a county courthouse or a federal government building.

Asked about the possibility of the measure sparking violence in the workplace, Hegar said cases of shootings in Texas businesses have been rare. One occurred two years ago at the Johnson Space Center in Houston when an engineer brought a handgun into a NASA office building – in violation of NASA policies – and shot and killed another engineer before killing himself.

Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said he was concerned that someone might use the law to legally carry dynamite or another explosive to work.

"What happens if somebody brings in dynamite under the provision that allows a person to carry ammunition to work?" he asked, saying such a situation could pose a serious threat at an energy or chemical plant.

Hegar countered: "Under this bill, you are not able to have dynamite in your car. Dynamite is not ammunition."

Employers would be able to ban firearms in vehicles that are parked in a fenced lot with controlled access. But the employer would have to provide alternative parking nearby.

Employers also would be protected from any civil liability for personal injury, death, property destruction or any other damages resulting from an occurrence involving a firearm transported onto their property.

U.S. Moves Fleet - Prepares for N. Korean Launch

The US and Japan yesterday deployed anti-missile batteries on land and sea to shoot down possible debris from an intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea is expected to test in the next few days.

Japan's upper house of parliament unanimously passed a resolution today urging North Korea to scrap its plan, saying it would "damage peace and stability, not only in Japan but also in north-east Asia".

South Korea also planned to dispatch its Aegis-equipped destroyer, according to a Seoul military official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said America had no intention of shooting down the missile itself, which satellite photographs show is sitting on a launch-pad in Musudan-ri. Pyongyang says the launch is intended to put a satellite into orbit, but any such ballistic missile testing or development is banned by a 2006 United Nations resolution. Two US warships armed with Aegis anti-ballistic missiles left ports in South Korea yesterday to monitor the launch, which experts say could take place as soon as Saturday.

Japan has positioned its own missile boats in the Sea of Japan and positioned Patriot missile batteries around Tokyo. More US-made Patriot missiles arrived in northern Japan yesterday to be transferred to bases there.

Japan previously hinted it might try to shoot down the North Korean missile, but has since said its missile shield is only there if the ICBM disintegrates and debris falls over Japan. If the launch is successful, the Taepodong-2 missile will drop its booster stages to the east and west of Japan as it rises through the atmosphere.

Gates told Fox News at the weekend the US did not plan to shoot down the missile. "If we had an aberrant missile, one that looked like it was headed for Hawaii, we might consider it, but I don't think we have any plans to do anything like that at this point." As contingency measures were being put in place, the US and Japan spearheaded a diplomatic effort to stop the test. The issue is already casting a shadow over the runup to Thursday's London summit on the global economy.

Japan's prime minister, Taro Aso, agreed with Gordon Brown on Sunday that if the launch goes ahead, the UN security council should consider taking action against North Korea. Barack Obama will discuss the issue with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, on Wednesday. China is seen as having more sway over the regime than any other nation, but Pyongyang has a history of defying Beijing.

A Washington thinktank, the Institute for Science and International Security, published commercial satellite photographs which appeared to show that a cover shrouding the missile for the past few days has been removed, leaving it glinting alongside its gantry at the launch site. Launch preparations come with the health of North Korea's dictator, Kim Jong-il, a source of speculation. There have been reports he has suffered one or two strokes, raising the question of who in Pyongyang is making decisions.

A launch could unravel on-off negotiations over the country's nuclear programme, under which Pyongyang agreed to dismantle reactors at Yongbyon in return for fuel and other economic aid.

The North Korean foreign ministry said at the weekend that "even a single word critical of the launch" from the security council would be interpreted as "a hostile act".

"If this is Kim Jong-il's welcoming present to a new president, launching a missile like this and threatening to have a nuclear test, I think it says a lot about the imperviousness to any kind of diplomatic overtures," Gates said.

But he added that there was no evidence that North Korea had mastered the science to use its plutonium stock to make warheads small enough to fit atop a missile, or reach the US coast with an ICBM.

Obama Demands GM CEO Resign

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner's departure.

"We are anticipating an announcement soon from the Administration regarding the restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. We continue to work closely with members of the Task Force and it would not be appropriate for us to speculate on the content of any announcement," the company said.

The surprise announcement about the classically iconic American corporation is perhaps the most vivid sign yet of the tectonic change in the relationship between business and government in this era of subsidies and bailouts.

Wagoner has been CEO for 8 years and at GM for more than 30. It is not yet clear who would replace him, or what role the administration would play in that process.

Industry sources had said the White House planned very tough medicine in Monday's announcement, which turned out to be an understatement. And it went to the very top. The measures to be imposed by the government will have a dramatic effect on workers, unions, suppliers, bondholders, shareholders, retirees and the communities where plants are located, the sources said.

GM and Chrysler first requested billions in federal aid in November, warning that they could run out of cash in a matter of months if they didn't receive it. In December, President Bush agreed to loan $9.4 billion to GM and $4 billion to Chrysler.

Last month, GM asked for $16.6 billion more and Chrysler requested an additional $5 billion.

Earlier this month, Obama agreed to loan $5 billion to American auto parts manufacturers to help them weather the steep drop in new vehicle orders and the financial uncertainty at the Big Three.

Obama and his aides may have honed in on Wagoner for two reasons. First, his company is asking for the most in total federal aid: $26 billion, a figure administration officials fear could grow even larger. Second, the GM chief was tied more directly to the ill-fated decisions that that brought much of the American auto industry to the brink of collapse. Wagoner joined GM in 1977, has had a senior role in GM management since 1992, and became CEO of the company in 2000. He is considered responsible for increasing GM's focus on trucks and SUVs—at the expense of the hybrids and fuel efficient cars that have become more popular in the last couple of years.


By contrast, Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli, whose resignation does not seem to have been demanded as a price of further federal aid, was a newcomer to the auto industry when he was lured to that company to help turn it around. Nardelli had previously headed Home Depot.

Government officials have little reason to tilt at Ford CEO Alan Mulally since his firm has not actually taken bailout funds from the government. Ford asked for a $9 billion line of credit from the feds, but the firm has said it has no plans to tap the credit facility.

Obama's move against Wagoner hearkens back to September 2008 when President Bush's Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, insisted that AIG CEO Robert Willumstad step down as part of an $85 billion bailout of the insurance giant. Paulson installed in his place Edward Liddy, a former Allstate executive. The AIG bailout has since grown to about $170 billion and Liddy has faced calls for his resignation in the wake of reports about hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of bonuses the firm agreed to pay to employees.

Obama said Friday in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” broadcast Sunday, that the carmakers were going to have to do more.

“There's been some serious efforts to deal with a combination of long-standing problems in the auto industry,” the president told host Bob Schieffer. “What we're trying to let them know is that we want to have a successful auto industry, U.S. auto industry. We think we can have a successful U.S. auto industry. But it's got to be one that's realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge at the other end much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is.

“And that's gonna mean a set of sacrifices from all parties involved — management, labor, shareholders, creditors, suppliers, dealers. Everybody's gonna have to come to the table and say it's important for us to take serious restructuring steps now in order to preserve a brighter future down the road."

Schieffer followed up: “But they're not there yet.”

Obama added: “They're not there yet.”

The Obama administration calls its task force “a cabinet-level group that includes the secretaries of Transportation, Commerce, Labor and Energy. It will also include the chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the EPA administrator, and the director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change. The Task Force will be led by Treasury Secretary [Tim] Geithner and [National Economic Council] Director Larry Summers.”

The panel’s chief adviser is Steven Rattner, a well-known investment banker and former New York Times reporter.

What's On Her Majesty's Playlist?

Barack Obama met the Queen at Buckingham Palace today and gave her a gift of an iPod loaded with video footage and photographs of her 2007 United States visit to Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg in Virginia. In return, the Queen gave the President a silver framed signed photograph of herself and the Duke of Edinburgh - apparently a standard present for visiting dignitaries.

It is believed the Queen already has an iPod, a 6GB silver Mini version she is said to have bought in 2005 at the suggestion of Prince Andrew.

UPDATE: Pool reporter Richard Wolf of USA Today says that an Obama aide told him the President also gave the Queen a "rare songbook signed by Richard Rogers". END UPDATE

Earlier, Mr Obama had spoken of his admiration for Her Majesty but indicated that his wife was handling the details of their royal meeting. "There's one last thing that I should mention that I love about Great Britain, and that is the Queen," he said at the end of his joint press conference with Gordon Brown.

"And so I'm very much looking forward to meeting her for the first time later this evening. And as you might imagine, Michelle has been really thinking that through -- because I think in the imagination of people throughout America, I think what the Queen stands for and her decency and her civility, what she represents, that's very important."

Mr Brown added: "Well, I know the Queen is looking forward to welcoming you and she's very much looking forward to her discussion with you."

There was widespread criticism in Britain and from Anglophiles in the US of Mr Obama's recent present to Mr Brown of a box set of classic American movies on DVDs that were not compatible with British DVD players.

G20 Protests Get Violent

Demonstrators clashed with riot police and smashed the windows of a bank in London's financial center on Wednesday in protest against a system they said had robbed the poor to benefit the rich.

Hundreds of protesters converged on a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, shattering windows.

Rescued by the government in October, RBS has become a lightning rod for public anger in Britain over banker excess blamed for the crisis. The protests were timed to coincide with a G20 meeting of the world's leading and emerging economies.

Mounted police and officers in riot gear surrounded the building to keep the crowds back. Protesters hurled paint bombs and bottles, chanting: "These streets, our streets! These banks, our banks!"

Police said a number of officers had been injured, and minor scuffles broke out as the afternoon progressed.

Generally, though, the situation appeared to be dying down and commuters in the small area of London affected by the clashes began to leave work for home.

HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

Earlier, protesters marched behind models of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse" representing financial crimes, war, climate change and homelessness.

Some threw eggs at police and chanted "build a bonfire, put the bankers on the top." Others shouted "jump" and "shame on you" at financial sector workers watching the march from office block windows.

"I am angry at the hubris of the government, the hubris of the bankers," said Jean Noble, a 60-year-old from Blackburn in northern England.

"I am here on behalf of the poor, those who are not going to now get their pension or who have lost their houses while these fat cats keep their bonuses, hide their money in tax havens and go and live where nobody can touch them."

A smaller demonstration against Britain's military role in Iraq and Afghanistan attracted several hundred people in Trafalgar Square, not far from parliament.

Police said they had deployed one of Britain's biggest security operations to protect businesses, the Bank of England, the London Stock Exchange and other financial institutions.

The protests, which brought together anti-capitalists, environmentalists, anti-war campaigners and others, were meant to mark what demonstrators called "Financial Fools' Day" -- a reference to April fool's day which falls on April 1.

Some 4,000 protesters thronged outside the central bank, and a Gucci store nearby was closed and its windows emptied.

RBS said in a statement it was "aware of the violence" outside its branch and "had already taken the precautionary step" of closing central branches.

Wooden boards covered the war memorial in front of the Royal Exchange, once the center of commerce in the City of London and now an upmarket shopping center. Building sites and roadworks in the financial district were sealed to stop people using building materials as weapons, police said.

Police stopped a military-style armored vehicle with the word "RIOT" printed on the front and a police spokesman said its 11 occupants were arrested for having fake police uniforms. By mid-afternoon a total of 19 people had been arrested.