President Obama's New Plan to Decide Where Americans Live and How They Travel

"President Barack Obama's early comments on his opposition to suburban sprawl and his intention to alter the way Americans live and travel took a step closer to reality when he created an interdepartmental initiative on housing and transportation costs.[1] A March press release issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new interagency partnership to create 'affordable, sustainable communities.'[2]Included among its many goals are projects to:"

Authorities Investigate Payments by Rattner - WSJ.com

"Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the investment-firm executives involved with payments now under scrutiny in a state and federal investigation into an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter."

More Change we can believe in...

In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's | Electronic Frontier Foundation

April 7th, 2009

We had hoped this would go differently.

Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF's litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration's made two deeply troubling arguments.

First, they argued, exactly as the Bush Administration did on countless occasions, that the state secrets privilege requires the court to dismiss the issue out of hand. They argue that simply allowing the case to continue 'would cause exceptionally grave harm to national security.' As in the past, this is a blatant ploy to dismiss the litigation without allowing the courts to consider the evidence."

The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S. - Presidential Politics | Political News - FOXNews.com

"The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S. While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.

By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott

Thursday, April 02, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking 'fact' before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.

-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.

-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: 'It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States.'

-- William Hoover, assistant director for field operations at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, testified in the House of Representatives that 'there is more than enough evidence to indicate that over 90 percent of the firearms that have either been recovered in, or interdicted in transport to Mexico, originated from various sources within the United States.'

There's just one problem with the 90 percent 'statistic' and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S."

U.S. Rethinks Boycott of U.N.'s Durban Racism Conference - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

U.S. Rethinks Boycott of U.N.'s Durban Racism Conference - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com: "U.S. Rethinks Boycott of U.N.'s Durban Racism Conference
The State Department cites progress on a final document that was calling for slavery reparations, criticizing Israel and inciting religious hatred.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration may send a delegation to the U.N. World Conference Against Racism -- better known as Durban II -- after saying in February it would boycott the event for its inciting racial hatred, blatant anti-Semitism and calls for slavery reparations.

The conference, which starts on April 20 -- notably Hitler's birthday -- is strongly opposed by Israel and Jewish groups who say the first Durban conference in South Africa in 2001 amounted to an Israel-bashing session. The U.S. and Israel delegations walked out of that conference in protest over a draft resolution that likened Zionism -- the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state -- to racism."

Semi-Submersables are Latest Coke Traffickers Tool

Semi-Submersables are Latest Coke Traffickers Tool: "Semi-Submersables are Latest Coke Traffickers Tool
Associated Press | April 06, 2009
BOGOTA - It's a game played out regularly on the high seas off Colombia's Pacific coast: A U.S. Navy helicopter spots a vessel the size of a humpback whale gliding just beneath the water's surface.

A Coast Guard ship dispatches an armed team to board the small, submarine-like craft in search of cocaine. Crew members wave and jump into the sea to be rescued, but not before they open flood valves and send the fiberglass hulk and its cargo into the deep."

This is an interesting trend, the loads of cocaine are one thing, but terrorist being smuggled into the US is quite another....
-PWSOpinion .....

New Concerns Over Chinese 'Carrier-Killer'

New Concerns Over Chinese 'Carrier-Killer': "New Concerns Over Chinese 'Carrier-Killer'
April 01, 2009
U.S. Naval Institute

With tensions already rising due to the Chinese navy becoming more aggressive in asserting its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the U.S. Navy seems to have yet another reason to be deeply concerned.

After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a 'kill weapon' developed by the Chinese to target and destroy U.S. aircraft carriers.

First posted on a Chinese blog viewed as credible by military analysts and then translated by the naval affairs blog Information Dissemination, a recent report provides a description of an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) that can strike carriers and other U.S. vessels at a range of 2000km.

The range of the modified Dong Feng 21 missile is significant in that it covers the areas that are likely hot zones for future confrontations between U.S. and Chinese surface forces."