This'n'That;September 3rd[Beck;'NetControl;DairyFarmers]

Asking The Tough Questions! [Hopefully, Fluffy obama's "FluffyCare" will go down in flaming wreckage!! When it does, the taxpayer has Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and to the greatest extent-Glenn Beck to thank. As noted in the excerpted article below from the Financial Times, Beck's radio and television shows {totaling twenty hours each week} are major vehicles for bringing factual information to the American taxpayer. Mr Beck doesn't hesitate in asking the ACORN administration the tough questions; although the administration rarely comments or acknowledges those questions. Wonder Why?!?! On the topic of "tough questions, Glenn did a week-long TV 'series' on the tough questions the public must ask if we are to rescue the country from the hands of the socialists, marxists, stalinists and communists that surround Fluffy as "Czars." I shall periodically comment on the series; in a "day-by-day" format, under the "America Forsaken?" heading.] If the White House is trying to figure how it lost control of the debate over healthcare in August, it could take a look at Glenn Beck’s television and radio ratings. The conservative talk radio host, who also has an hourly slot on Fox News every day, has seen his viewer numbers soar even as opponents have pressed companies to withdraw advertising from the show. Earlier this month, Mr Beck, a recovering alcoholic and former pop music disc jockey who turned to political radio after 9/11, sparked outrage when he accused Barack Obama of being a racist. “This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people,” said Mr Beck. “This guy is, I believe, a racist.” [Beck probably ment that alleged Reverend Jeremiah Wright is the racist!!] Mr Beck, who attracts the third highest listenership at between 8m and 10m after Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, the more established conservative radio hosts, also sparked protests when he likened Mr Obama’s plans for a civilian corps to Nazi stormtroopers. The White House declined to comment on any of Mr Beck’s remarks. Observers say Mr Beck’s 20-hour weekly output has helped shift the debate away from Mr Obama on healthcare and fuelled talk that the proposed reforms would lead to a government takeover that would include “death panels” for senior citizens. “Glenn Beck makes Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity look like level-headed philosophers,” says Karl Frisch, a senior fellow at Media Matters, a liberal watchdog. “He peddles his own unique brand of paranoia.” People who work for Mr Beck, who earned an estimated $23m (€16m, £14m) last year, according to Forbes magazine, putting him in the top 100 celebrities of 2009, say critics unfairly take quotes out of context. They argue that Mr Beck, whose audience includes a higher ratio of women and young people than other talk radio hosts, is a libertarian, rather than a social conservative, whose strongest criticisms are on the expanded role of government. They also say he was a sharp critic of George W. Bush’s fiscal record and his conduct of the war in Iraq. “Glenn’s relationship is with his millions of listeners, readers and viewers who have a deeper connection with him than random newcomers who may have stumbled upon him through an out of context blog post,” says Stu Burguiere, executive producer of Mr Beck’s radio show. But nothing has gained Mr Beck such attention as his quips about the US’s first non-white president. Given the rise in his ratings, which were boosted further with an endorsement last week by Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, on her Facebook site, industry observers say they doubt Mr Beck’s earnings potential has been harmed. “Unfortunately, controversy sells in the end,” says Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers Magazine, which covers the industry. The numbers do not necessarily bear this out. Last month Mr Beck’s Fox News viewer numbers surged ahead of the season premiere of Mad Men following Mr Beck’s comment about Mr Obama. Mad Men got 2.8m viewers. Mr Beck’s show attracted 3m. Mr Beck’s next commercial opportunity comes later this month when he releases a book, Arguing with Idiots, that takes another shot at liberals. It is a lucrative business. His last book has sold more than 1m copies. It's NOT About Maximizing Control?? [The socialist liberals-Jay Rockefeller[d-WV] and Olympia Snow[r-Me]-are failing to realize that connection to the internet is completely optional... No one is forcing you, me, the DoD, no one, to connect!! Other than the "control" facet, why is there any concern at all??] During the Commerce Secretary Confirmation Hearing on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009, Senator Jay Rockefeller, that's Jay Rockefeller of the Rockefeller/Rothschild global elite known as the New World Order, said "When the internet was invented everyone fell flat on their face they were so thrilled, and the world began to do business in a different way.

• He continues: So, I mean, it really almost makes you ask the question would it have been better had we not invented the internet and had to use paper and pencil whatever?
• And That's a stupid thing to say, but it has genuine consequence, because it's on the internet that these acts of shutting down, ya know they have television ads every day saying the DOD is attacked 3 million times a day, and it's true. Everybody is attacked, anybody can do it.
• People say it's China and Russia, but there could be some kid in Latvia doing the same thing. I mean it's individual acts. It doesn't require a sleeper cell, ammonia, explosives, it's just an act.
• And yet it's an act which can shut this country down, it's electricity system, banking system, shutdown about anything we have to offer. It's an awesome problem.
• On the Intelligence Committee we were taken for a full day, to an undisclosed place in Virginia, to discuss this. It is a fearsome, awesome problem. It's broader than that too. I wonder where this stands with you, what your thoughts are and what we should be doing about it.

West Virginian Senator Jay Rockefeller is working on a bill that would give Fluffy control over the Internet in the event of what he terms a “cybersecurity emergency.”

• The bill would allow him to declare such an emergency and take control of private-sector networks.
• It doesn’t however specify what would constitute such an event or why the president would need to control the Internet during one.
• The bill, co-sponsored by Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, has been revised but ISPs and civil liberties groups are still deeply troubled by it.

“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”

• The bill also includes provisions for a federally run certification program for cybersecurity professionals and a mandate that certain private-sector networks and computer systems be run only by people who have obtained that certification.
• It also directs the White House to do “periodic mapping” of networks classified as critical and for the companies running those networks to hand over certain information to the government. While the government certainly must start taking cyber threats and security a lot more seriously, taking control over private networks should be the least of its concerns.
• Right now they need to exercise a lot more control over their own, which have been hit by DDoS attacks in recent weeks.

Fluffy obama himself admitted the government is not nearly as prepared for such events as it should be. He promised to create a new cybersecurity coordinator position within the administration, but months later it still has not been filled. It’s hard to understand why Sen. Rockefeller thinks the government should be able to take over private networks when it can’t even secure its own properly. "Cash For Cows" or "Money For Milk?" No doubt, New York's dairy farmers are in a financial "pickle," with milk prices at a historic bottom, currently about $5 per hundredweight below production costs. Nearly 3,000 mostly family owned dairy farms have gone out of business in the past 10 years. Price supports in the most recent federal farm bill, local farmers say, aren't sufficient to offset the effects of the recession and credit crunch. "The committee is looking into whether we can get some of this stimulus money and how it would be used," Minn Rep Peterson, Chmn of the House Agriculture Cmte said during a meeting in a large tent set up outside the New York Wine and Culinary Center. "There's money available." Massa said various state delegations are competing for about $1 billion in stimulus funds that was appropriated as part of the original $787 billion package.

• About 75 farmers and their representatives met with the two congressmen.
• While the discussion had none of the raucousness and rancor of recent town hall meetings on

health care, farmers attending expressed concern about inadequate price supports, corporate special interests, crackdowns on migrant farm workers.

Pending food safety legislation that organic farms say would unfairly target them. But the state of the New York dairy industry was the focus.

"I don't know where the money is coming from but it is urgent that it be done," said Sam Casella, a farmer and former Canandaigua town supervisor. William Eck, an Orleans County lawmaker who said he sold his farm before prices collapsed, said a strong market prior to the recession has held up dairy farmers to this point. "But if nothing is done by next year, or even this fall, farms will go under," Eck said. Til Nex'Time....