Haitians fill triage center, but little treatment

The news doesn't get any better.

in reference to:

"Across much of Port-au-Prince, if you have a broken bone or a gash in your head, you'll get the same advice: Make your way however you can to the Hotel Villa Creole. They have a triage center in the parking lot where you can get top-notch medical care. Except you can't. There are no X-ray machines or MRIs. No surgeons and scalpels. There's one doctor, and no nurses. "We don't have anything. We have a little bit of Betadine, but we're running out," said Melissa Padberg, one of the owners of the quake-damaged hotel in the hills above the city. "And we have a little bit of gauze." On the patch of asphalt stained with streams of blood, volunteers separate critical cases from those with lesser injuries, but there isn't much more they can do. No matter how serious the injury, there's no way to get patients to a hospital. And so the grievously injured huddle under tents crafted from bloody sheets — moaning, bleeding and, too often, dying. Since the quake, at least seven bodies have been spotted in the lot. Padberg said 90 percent of the people at the hotel need serious care. "We can treat cuts, for now, but people are coming in here with much more than scrapes. They're coming in with compound fractures," Padberg said. "What we need is to evacuate the injured. We need to send them someplace, and we need transportation." Such desperation is repeated throughout Port-au-Prince, where even in the best of times infant and maternal mortality rates are astonishing and public hospitals make patients pay for latex gloves and syringes. The Pan American Health Organization said at least eight hospitals and health centers have collapsed or are otherwise unable to provide care and other health facilities are "overwhelmed, forcing people to be treated in makeshift areas.""
- Haitians fill triage center, but little treatment - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)

U.S. security firm traces Google attack to Chinese gov't

I wonder what the government in the U.S. is doing to protect Americans from the growing threat of Chinese hacking. Probably the same thing they did prior to 9-11...very little.

in reference to:

"A technical report compiled by U.S. security firm iDefense Labs has traced the source of the recent cyberattacks on more than 30 U.S. companies including Google Inc. to servers used by the Chinese government, news media reported Thursday. The report concluded the Chinese government was behind the attacks that search giant Google said were aimed at accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The cyberattacks came to light Tuesday when Google said its Gmail web service was targeted in an organized attack in late December that originated in China. The report by iDefense, a Silicon Valley lab helping some of the firms investigate the attacks, said researchers identified the command-and- control servers that were used for the attacks. The servers were found to employ IP, or Internet protocol, addresses that matched those owned by persons related to the Chinese government, the report shows. Google has said it may pull out of China because of the incident. The Chinese government said Thursday that such cyberattacks are banned in China."
- U.S. security firm traces Google attack to Chinese gov't+ (view on Google Sidewiki)

Arkansas man pleads guilty to threatening to kill Obama

Let's not forget there are still racists, excited by FOX and the Republicans, who want to kill the first black President.

in reference to:

"An Arkansas man has pleaded guilty to plotting to kill several African-Americans in 2008, including then-presidential candidate Barack Obama, the Justice Department announced Thursday. Paul Schlesselman of West Helena, Arkansas, faces 10 years in prison under a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors in Tennessee. Federal officials in Washington said Schlesselman threatened to kill then-Sen. Obama on October 23, 2008, shortly before the presidential election. He also planned to "murder dozens of people with a focus on murdering African-Americans" the Justice Department said."
- Arkansas man pleads guilty to threatening to kill Obama - CNN.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

la. Teen Accused of Lighting Boy on Fire Goes Free

This individual being set free might not have participated but he is a witness. The only way he should be let free is if he provided information in the case. He then has to be let free into the community where he will be considered a snitch. No one involved in this heinous crime should be let out scott free. The system failed again. You can bet that the animal that set Michael Brewer on fire won't serve more than 10 years. Not enough.

in reference to:

"la. Teen Accused of Lighting Boy on Fire Goes Free"
- Fla. Teen Accused of Lighting Boy on Fire Goes Free - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Officials: 'Credible Intelligence' on Terror Attack Planning Against U.S.

Given the recent ineptitude of U.S. government agencies in dealing terrorism, we need to be worried.

in reference to:

"Credible intelligence has emerged that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is plotting another attack against the United States and U.S. interests abroad, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.  print email share recommend (0) Credible intelligence has emerged that Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is plotting another attack against the United States and U.S. interests abroad, a senior U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed to Fox News on Thursday.  The intelligence is described as not specific about time, place or method of attack, but is being taken seriously, according to this official. The new information does not come from 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to bring down flight 253 on Christmas Day. According to those familiar with the intelligence, the strategic threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, based in Yemen, has intensified and the group is emboldened by the failed Dec. 25 plot.  "The threat did not end on Christmas Day", according to one source familiar with the intelligence. Al Qaeda in Yemen and the Al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, known as Al Shabaab -- translated as Mujahadeen Youth -- are described as having "shared interests and shared goals." U.S. counterterrorism officials say clear connections now can be traced between the two terrorist groups and they are not ruling out the possibility that they are working together to attack U.S. interests."
- FOXNews.com - Officials: 'Credible Intelligence' on Terror Attack Planning Against U.S. (view on Google Sidewiki)

China's 'aggressive' buildup called worry

The politicians in America have no concern for our national security. That is why they complete ignore the China military threat. We mustn't remain silent while they allow our enemies to grow stronger while we grow weaker. It could mean an end to U.S. to America as a super power. Which would mean we could be blackmailed into submission.

in reference to:

"China's military buildup is worrying to both the U.S. military and American allies in Asia, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific told Congress Wednesday. Adm. Robert F. Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, stated in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee that China's communist government and military have stated that their arms buildup is defensive, but he said the claim is questionable. China's "powerful economic engine is also funding a military modernization program that has raised concerns in the region — a concern also shared by the U.S. Pacific Command," Adm. Willard said. He said China's announced interest in supporting a peaceful and stable political environment to support Beijing's overall development "is difficult to reconcile with new military capabilities that appear designed to challenge U.S. freedom of action in the region and, if necessary, enforce China's influence over its neighbors — including our regional allies and partners." The comments were unusually candid for a senior combatant commander. In the past, most U.S. military commanders sought to emphasize that China's arms buildup did not pose a threat. According to the Pentagon's report on China's military, Chinese military forces have been developing an array of advanced weaponry, including new nuclear ballistic and cruise missiles, anti-satellite weaponry and cyber-attack capabilities, in addition to new more conventional ships, aircraft and ground-warfare capabilities."
- China's 'aggressive' buildup called worry - Washington Times (view on Google Sidewiki)

Video: Late-NIght Comics Spoof Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien Dispute

8-Year-Old on No-Fly Watch List Treated Like Terrorist

This is beyond outrageous. It is bureaucracy that endangers the lives of Americans, despite claims to the contrary. If it were not so frustrating it would be laughable. This disgusts me. al Qaeda can only be encouraged by this mindless system:

Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,” she recalled.

The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.

After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home.

“Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”

It is true that Mikey is not on the federal government’s “no-fly” list, which includes about 2,500 people, less than 10 percent of them from the United States. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the larger “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening.

At some point, someone named Michael Hicks made the Department of Homeland Security suspicious, and little Mikey is still paying the price. (His father, also named Michael Hicks, was stopped for the first time on the Bahamas trip.)

Both lists are maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are given to the Transportation Security Administration, which in turn sends them to the airlines.

A spokesman for the T.S.A., James Fotenos, said that as a rule, “there are no children on the no-fly or selectee lists,” but would not comment on Mikey’s situation specifically.

For every person on the lists, hundreds of others may get caught up simply because they share the same name; a quick scan through a national phone directory unearthed 1,600 Michael Hickses. Over the past three years, 81,793 frustrated travelers have formally asked that they be struck from the watch list through the Department of Homeland Security; more than 25,000 of their cases are still pending. Others have taken more drastic measures.

Mario Labbé, a frequent-flying Canadian record-company executive, started having problems at airports shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, with lengthy delays at checkpoints and mysterious questions about Japan. By 2005, he stopped flying to the United States from Canada, instead meeting American clients in France. Then a forced rerouting to Miami in 2008 led to six hours of questions.

“What’s the name of your mother? Your father? When were you last in Japan?” Mr. Labbé recalled being asked. “Always the same questions in different order. And sometimes, it’s quite aggressive, not funny at all.”

Fed up, in the summer of 2008, he changed his name to François Mario Labbé. The problem vanished.

Several Web sites, including the T.S.A.’s own blog, are rife with tales of misidentification and strategies for solving them. Some travelers purposely misspell their own names when buying tickets, apparently enough to fool the system. Even the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy once found himself on a list.

“We can’t just throw a bunch of names on these lists and call it security,” said Representative William J. Pascrell Jr., a New Jersey Democrat. “If we can’t get an 8-year-old off the list, the whole list becomes suspect.”

Obama's Approval Rating Dips to New Low

Just another empty suit.

in reference to:

"President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to 46 percent, according to a new CBS News poll. That rating is Mr. Obama's lowest yet in CBS News polling, and the poll marks the first time his approval rating has fallen below the 50 percent mark. Forty-one percent now say they disapprove of Mr. Obama's performance as president. In last month's CBS News poll, 50 percent of Americans approved of how the president was handling his job, while thirty-nine percent disapproved. Analysis: The Irony Behind Obama's Poll Numbers Mr. Obama still receives strong support from Democrats (eight in ten approve of his performance), but his approval rating among Republicans is only 13 percent. More importantly, Mr. Obama's approval rating among independents has declined 10 points in recent months – and it now stands at just 42 percent. Domestic issues – and not his response to terrorist threats - appear to be driving the president's approval rating downward. Just 41 percent now approve of his handling of the economy, which Americans say is the nation's most pressing issue. Forty-seven percent disapprove. The president's marks on handling health care, with reforms still under debate in Congress, are even lower – just 36 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove. Both of these approval ratings are the lowest of Mr. Obama's presidency."
- Obama's Approval Rating Dips to New Low - Political Hotsheet - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Poll: Obama Health Care Marks Hit New Low

1994 all over again.

in reference to:

"President Obama's approval rating on handling health care is at an all-time low, according to a new CBS News poll, something that is helping to drag down his overall approval rating. Just 36 percent of Americans approve of Mr. Obama's handling of health care, according to the poll, conducted from Jan. 6 – 10. Fifty-four percent disapprove. In December of last year, 42 percent of Americans approved of the president’s handling of health care, and 47 percent approved in October. Yet things could be worse: With Democrats in Congress continuing to negotiate the terms of their comprehensive health care package, both Congressional Republicans and Democrats receive even lower marks than the president on the issue, the poll shows. About six in 10 Americans continue to disapprove of how both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are handling health care reform: 57 percent disapprove of how Democrats are handling the issue, while 61 percent disapprove of how Republicans are handling it."
- Poll: Obama Health Care Marks Hit New Low - Political Hotsheet - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

CBS News Video: "Haiti Desperate for Aid"

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Yemen in war with al Qaeda, urges citizens to help

Sending U.S. troops there is out of the question. One Congressman called for the use of Predator drones. That's a much better option.

in reference to:

"Yemen on Thursday declared open war on al Qaeda and warned its citizens against aiding the global militant group, but Islamist clerics threatened jihad if foreign military forces intervene. Yemen has come under pressure to act against al Qaeda since attacks on its two main allies, Saudi Arabia and the United States, by militants coming from Yemeni soil. But facing an array of other threats, weak state control of much of the country, a burgeoning population and a weak economy, analysts say Yemen will need more than military might to stop the country from being a fertile breeding ground for militancy. "The war security forces launched against al Qaeda elements is open whenever or wherever we find these elements," the Yemeni Defence Ministry's online newspaper "September 26" said, quoting an unnamed security source. "The source warned citizens against hiding any elements from the al Qaeda organisation, calling for cooperation with the security apparatus and for them to inform on any elements." Yemeni security forces scoured rugged mountains for a second day using helicopters to hunt for some 25 suspected al Qaeda militants who fled raids on Tuesday in the southeastern province of Shabwa, security sources said. Violence also flared in a separate conflict with Shi'ites in the north."
- Yemen in war with al Qaeda, urges citizens to help | World | Reuters (view on Google Sidewiki)

Tel Aviv cult leader arrested for 'enslaving' 17 women, rape

This stuff doesn't just happen in the U.S.

in reference to:

"A 59-year-old cult leader from south Tel Aviv who was romantically involved with 17 women and fathered 40 children with them was arrested on Tuesday morning on suspicion of "enslaving" members of his group and raping a number of the women. Goel Razton, a self-styled 'spiritual guru,' was arrested during police raids on two addresses in Tel Aviv's Hatikva neighborhood on Tuesday morning, following a 7-month-long undercover investigation. His 17 partners were detained for questioning and later taken with their children into temporary protective care by the Ministry of Welfare and Social Services."
- Police nab cult leader Goel Ratzon for 'enslaving' 17 women | Israel | Jerusalem Post (view on Google Sidewiki)

Record year for foreclosures as unemployment rises

And no help coming.

in reference to:

"A record 2.8 million households were threatened with foreclosure last year, and that number is expected to rise this year as more unemployed and cash-strapped homeowners fall behind on their mortgages. The number of households that received a foreclosure-related notice rose 21 percent from 2008, RealtyTrac Inc. reported Thursday. One in 45 homes were sent a filing, which includes default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions. In December, more than 349,000 households, or one in 366 homes, were hit with a foreclosure-related notice. That represents a 14 percent spike from November and a 15 percent jump from December 2008. Banks repossessed more than 92,000 homes, up 19 percent from November. That increase was likely due to lenders working to clear their books at the end of the year, RealtyTrac said. Stemming the tide of foreclosures is an important step for the real estate market and the economy to recover. Because foreclosures are usually sold at heavy discounts they can lower the value of surrounding properties. Cities lose property tax dollars from empty foreclosures and declining home values, straining local economies. Home prices have stabilized in some cities, but are still down 30 percent nationally from mid-2006. The foreclosure crisis isn't letting up. Between 3 and 3.5 million homes are expected to enter some phase of foreclosure this year, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president of Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac, which began tracking the data five years ago. High foreclosures forced the federal government and several states to come up with plans to prevent or delay foreclosures to help troubled borrowers."
- Record year for foreclosures as unemployment rises - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Half of Americans Bring Work Home

Americans feel pressured to work longer hours in order to keep their jobs. The rat race is killing us.

in reference to:

"Nearly half of U.S. adults bring their work home and many say work interferes with family life, a new survey finds. The survey of 1,800 American workers finds work interferes with family, social or leisure life at least sometimes for almost 50 percent of the participants. The worst at this are professionals, the rich, and the highly educated. "People who are well-educated, professionals and those with job-related resources report that their work interferes with their personal lives more frequently, reflecting what we refer to as 'the stress of higher status,'" said lead researcher Scott Schieman, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto. "While many benefits undoubtedly accrue to those in higher status positions and conditions, a downside is the greater likelihood of work interfering with personal life.""
- Half of Americans Bring Work Home - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)