kdconverse

Today President Obama gave a press conference discussing National Security issues and the proposed Guantanamo Bay closure. While assuring the American people as well as the rest of the world that he would return America's moral standing by removing the symbol that Guantanamo Bay has supposedly become, Barack Obama is considering a new version of Guantanamo.

Just yesterday President Obama told human rights advocates that he is mulling over the idea of "preventative detention". New York Times is reporting today that he wants to establish a system wherein we can incarcerate terrorism suspects who we have deemed a threat but cannot be tried for the predetermined threat. (What? We will put you into detention to stop you from committing an act we can't try you for?)

From the New York Times:
“He was almost ruminating over the need for statutory change to the laws so that we can deal with individuals who we can’t charge and detain,” one participant said. “We’ve known this is on the horizon for many years, but we were able to hold it off with George Bush. The idea that we might find ourselves fighting with the Obama administration over these powers is really stunning.”

The other participant said Mr. Obama did not seem to be thinking about preventive detention for terrorism suspects now held at Guantánamo Bay, but rather for those captured in the future, in settings other than a legitimate battlefield like Afghanistan. “The issue is,” the participant said, “What are the options left open to a future president?”

And let's not forget about all that warrantless wiretapping that had everyone upset with the Bush Administration including Barack Obama the candidate, who campaigned heavily on the idea that the warrantless wiretapping program was a serious breach of the national trust. Now we have repeated reports over the last several weeks that the Obama Administration is defending the program and in some cases even expanding its legal defense and viability which would suggest a continued use and a possible expansion of the program itself.

The defense of the program as reported:
"The federal government has finally responded to Jewel v. NSA, a lawsuit against dragnet warrantless wiretapping filed last September by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

In a motion filed on Friday, April 3rd, the Obama Dept. of Justice (DOJ) demanded that the entire lawsuit be dismissed based on both the Bush administration's claim that a "state secrets" privilege bars any lawsuits against the executive branch for illegal spying, as well as a novel "sovereign immunity" claim that the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance, unless there was "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications."

A report on MSNBC (a very Obama friendly network during the campaign) about the wiretapping program under the Obama Administration:


And if this weren't enough to set your mind racing, the non-partisan CBO has analyzed the numbers for the Obama budget and currently says (as reported in the Wall Street Journal):
"CBO expects growth this year to decline by 3%, while the White House's rosy scenario has it falling by only 1.2%. Both predict roughly the same growth rates in 2010 (2.9% for CBO vs. 3.2% for the White House) and 2011 (both 4%).

The big difference between the two guesstimates is in spending, with CBO calculating that Mr. Obama's proposals will increase federal outlays by $1.7 trillion more than the White House projects. Entitlement spending -- Medicare, Medicaid, and so on -- will increase by $1.1 trillion. In 2009 and 2010 alone, CBO estimates that Mr. Obama's budget will increase spending by $347 billion more than the White House claims.

As a share of GDP, CBO says this means spending will hit an astounding 28.5% in fiscal 2009, which ends this September, and still be at 25.5% next year, staying at close to 23% to 24% of the economy for the next decade. As CBO dryly notes, this is "above the average of 20.7 percent over the past 40 years." Even CBO's estimate is conservative because it assumes that most of the spending in the stimulus bill will be temporary, though Democrats are already planning to make much of it a permanent part of the budget baseline."

"This year's deficit will hit 13.1% of GDP and next year's will still be at 9.6%, assuming a healthy recovery, and then never get below 4.1% for the entire decade. These deficits assume the passage of Mr. Obama's enormous tax increases in 2011 and $629 billion in new cap-and-tax carbon revenues. The share of debt held by the public will double -- to 82.4% in 2019 from 40.8% in 2008.

And by the way, all of this is without including the costs of Mr. Obama's plan to offer "free" health care for the middle class. The White House budget includes only a "down payment" on health care, with every serious person figuring it will cost at least $1.2 trillion, and probably more."

Let's hear it for Change.

You Are a Snow Leopard

You have learned that you must rely on yourself, and yourself alone, to live a happy life. You are understand the world better than most people you know. You are very perceptive and intuitive. You need lots of space to think. If you don't get the space you need, you're likely to bite someone's head off. Because you are so thoughtful and solitary, people find you to be intense and mysterious. You're even seen as intimidating.

This is the very Big Cat that I have always thought was the most beautiful of all of the big cats. I = Happy.

It was announced that Bear McCreary is scoring Dark Void, one of the upcoming games from Capcom. The reason I am sharing this information is because Mr. McCreary just joined our community Capcom-Unity.com and is talking with fans on our site. If you want to talk with him come join us at Capcom-Unity.com. He is posting and responding to fan questions and I know there are a couple of BSG fans here.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

I have not posted any baby pics here on LJ so I figured I had better do it now.

Just born

Cleaned up and 1 day old.

Tiny hand.

Four days old.

Kieran checking up on brother.

Peekaboo.

Mama and Kieran ... Just cause.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

This morning at about 3AM the contractions started up. In fact they came on so quickly that we immediately decided to go to the local hospital rather than our planned hospital.

Christine had a rough time until the epidural was finally placed at about 5AM. After it took effect she was able to relax for a little while. This allowed the contractions do their job. She got to 10cm mo problem and Cayden moved into position. In fact it worked so well that Christine hardly had to push. They asked her to do 2 practice pushes and realized that Cayden was so far down that it only took ONE strong push and he was born.

8:11AM we finally met Cayden Alexander in person. He came to us healthy, weighing 6lbs 12ounces and 19 inches long. He made noise but did not cry and it took him about 2 minutes to properly latch on and begin sucking.

Mom is doing very well and happily cuddling her new little boy.

We have settled half-way on a name. A few middle names have been thrown about and we still have 8 weeks left to decide. Latest check-up showed everything to be great. We had a minor scare a couple of months ago with a dilated left ventricle of the brain appearing on an ultra-sound. Some additionally analysis showed that it was in fact within safe size limits and that the tech was just being extra cautious.

We also just switched doctors so that we can have Cayden at the same hospital that we had Kieran.

The official countdown clock is ready to start and we are all very excited. In fact Kieran actually said "Cayden" just the other day and one of his favorite books to read at night is the "I'm A Big Brother Now!" book. He pats Christine's stomach and says "brother" and he still responds well to other babies so hopefully that means that once Cayden invades the house in a more obvious way all will go smoothly.

From the New York Times

Originally posted September 11, 2003
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
By STEPHEN LABATON

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.

The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.

''There is a general recognition that the supervisory system for housing-related government-sponsored enterprises neither has the tools, nor the stature, to deal effectively with the current size, complexity and importance of these enterprises,'' Treasury Secretary John W. Snow told the House Financial Services Committee in an appearance with Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, who also backed the plan.

Mr. Snow said that Congress should eliminate the power of the president to appoint directors to the companies, a sign that the administration is less concerned about the perks of patronage than it is about the potential political problems associated with any new difficulties arising at the companies.

The administration's proposal, which was endorsed in large part today by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, would not repeal the significant government subsidies granted to the two companies. And it does not alter the implicit guarantee that Washington will bail the companies out if they run into financial difficulty; that perception enables them to issue debt at significantly lower rates than their competitors. Nor would it remove the companies' exemptions from taxes and antifraud provisions of federal securities laws.

The proposal is the opening act in one of the biggest and most significant lobbying battles of the Congressional session.

After the hearing, Representative Michael G. Oxley, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, and Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, announced their intention to draft legislation based on the administration's proposal. Industry executives said Congress could complete action on legislation before leaving for recess in the fall.

''The current regulator does not have the tools, or the mandate, to adequately regulate these enterprises,'' Mr. Oxley said at the hearing. ''We have seen in recent months that mismanagement and questionable accounting practices went largely unnoticed by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight,'' the independent agency that now regulates the companies.

''These irregularities, which have been going on for several years, should have been detected earlier by the regulator,'' he added.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which is part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, was created by Congress in 1992 after the bailout of the savings and loan industry and concerns about regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them as securities or hold them in their own portfolios.

At the time, the companies and their allies beat back efforts for tougher oversight by the Treasury Department, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Federal Reserve. Supporters of the companies said efforts to regulate the lenders tightly under those agencies might diminish their ability to finance loans for lower-income families. This year, however, the chances of passing legislation to tighten the oversight are better than in the past.

Reflecting the changing political climate, both Fannie Mae and its leading rivals applauded the administration's package. The support from Fannie Mae came after a round of discussions between it and the administration and assurances from the Treasury that it would not seek to change the company's mission.

After those assurances, Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chief executive, endorsed the shift of regulatory oversight to the Treasury Department, as well as other elements of the plan.

''We welcome the administration's approach outlined today,'' Mr. Raines said. The company opposes some smaller elements of the package, like one that eliminates the authority of the president to appoint 5 of the company's 18 board members.

Company executives said that the company preferred having the president select some directors. The company is also likely to lobby against the efforts that give regulators too much authority to approve its products.

Freddie Mac, whose accounting is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a United States attorney in Virginia, issued a statement calling the administration plan a ''responsible proposal.''

The stocks of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fell while the prices of their bonds generally rose. Shares of Freddie Mac fell $2.04, or 3.7 percent, to $53.40, while Fannie Mae was down $1.62, or 2.4 percent, to $66.74. The price of a Fannie Mae bond due in March 2013 rose to 97.337 from 96.525.Its yield fell to 4.726 percent from 4.835 percent on Tuesday.

Fannie Mae, which was previously known as the Federal National Mortgage Association, and Freddie Mac, which was the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, have been criticized by rivals for exerting too much influence over their regulators.

''The regulator has not only been outmanned, it has been outlobbied,'' said Representative Richard H. Baker, the Louisiana Republican who has proposed legislation similar to the administration proposal and who leads a subcommittee that oversees the companies. ''Being underfunded does not explain how a glowing report of Freddie's operations was released only hours before the managerial upheaval that followed. This is not world-class regulatory work.''

Significant details must still be worked out before Congress can approve a bill. Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.

I don't know how many times I have heard the "Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor." phrase but at this point it is far too many times. The Obama campaign is making a mistake by pushing this talking point out to all the media outlets. Why is it a mistake? Because regardless of the point they may be trying to make, the phrase plays right into the McCain campaigns attempts to portray Obama as an egotistical celebrity. It supports their message that Obama believes that he "is the one we have been waiting for" (Obama's own words). The fact that this phrase is getting used on every major network by random pundits and worse yet, celebrities, that get interviewed about the election just strengthens McCain's own message against Obama.

Obama rolls out new line of Faith and Belief merchandise.

From the site:
"Great news! We now have faith merchandise available for you to show your support for Barack Obama as a person of faith."
...
"Check out the Believers for Barack, Pro-Family Pro-Obama, and Catholics for Obama buttons, bumper stickers and signs...."
...
"We'll soon be rolling out merchandise for other religious groups and denominations..."

All of this comes to you from Paul Monteiro, Deputy Director of Religious Affairs, Obama for America.

Excerpts from the New York Post
---
WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

"He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview...

While in Iraq, Obama also tried to persuade the US commanders, including Gen. David Petraeus, to suggest a "realistic withdrawal date." They declined.

[His] latest position is that US combat troops should be out by 2010. Yet his effort to delay an agreement would make that withdrawal deadline impossible to meet.
---
If removing the troops from Iraq was such a high priority for Barack Obama, why would he want to delay the negotiations for troop draw downs? It sounds like he wanted the announcement to hopefully be tied to his Administration if he in fact wins the Presidency. Additionally, could he be thinking that it would hurt his chances of winning if progress in Iraq became more apparent to the public? He is trying his best to tie McCain to the Bush Administration, but if the Bush Administration can demonstrate progress in Iraq prior to the election then McCain benefits from the Obama campaigns efforts. If either of those instances are the case, it sounds like he doesn't care as much about the troops as he does about his chances at being President and he seems to already be thinking about his Legacy a bit prematurely.

I agree with the idea but I am saddened that it is being delivered by a man who lost his job because he reported a political hit piece days before an election based on falsified documents and then refused to admit the truth of the evidence for weeks. Nevertheless, reporting for the sake of truth and not profit would truly be a wonderful reality, one that we are not fortunate to experience in this day and age.

I guess at times it is unclear where I stand politically. The reason I say this is that I have been accused of being in the bag for Republicans when in fact my political views do not match with the Republican party (especially in its current incarnation). ( Read more... )

Last night we celebrated Christine's birthday out at a Moroccan restaurant in San Jose. A good time was had and good food was eaten. There was even some belly dancing to entertain us. The whole birthday celebration while fun and great to have was only part of the reason for getting everyone together. We also wanted a way to tell our parents and family all at the same time that Christine is pregnant.

It went off relatively well except for the fact that Kieran was not in any mood to cooperate. But once we were ready I took him outside so that I could reveal his new "Big Brother University Class of 09" shirt and when I returned Christine opened a planned present from our friends Kristin and Tarik. The present was a pack of newborn diapers with a message taped to it that read "For the new Converse arriving April 2, 2009". It took a moment for the grandparents to see the message because it was dark in the restaurant and people were spread out, but as expected there were tears which was what we had hoped for and we managed to get that moment(and Christine dancing with the belly dancer) on film.

So now I am sharing with the rest of the world. Christine is in fact pregnant (eleven weeks tomorrow) and as it stands right now the next Converse is scheduled to join us April 2 (which just happens to be our wedding anniversary as well). We are very excited and cannot wait to find out if Kieran will have a little brother or sister to play with.

Just wait for it....

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

HFPS - The Humanitarian

Humanity, Foreground, Big Picture, and Shape

( Read more... )

Two days ago, while I was driving the Jeep, I was run into. Deliberately.

I had just dropped Christine off at a nail appointment not far from work and was on my way back to work to finish up a few things. I was stopped at a stoplight. One car was in front of me, and maybe one or two behind me, in the middle lane and two cars were to my right in the other lane. The light turned green and we all crossed the intersection. The next block is a very short block and the lane to my right becomes a turn only lane now and the lane I am in is the one lane that proceeds forward. The white van to my right (also the second car in his lane) realizes that he needs over to continue through the intersection. He is currently driving next to me, the front of my car is parallel with the middle of his van. He comes over. I slam on my brakes so as to avoid being hit, not coming to a stop but slowing down extremely quickly to evade his vehicle. The car behind me also has to slam on its brakes to avoid rear-ending me. I honk to let the guy know that he just cut a bunch of us off and nearly struck me. He slams on his brakes coming to a stop in the middle of the road. The car behind me almost hits me again. I honked again, in shock and anger. His reverse lights come on and he proceeds to back into the Jeep slowly until he makes contact with the car and then he hits his gas a bit harder, pushing his van into the Jeep. All I can think is that he is trying to make it look like I ran into him. I grab my cell phone and call the police. He thankfully then drives away. I followed him down the street all the while talking to the police dispatcher explaingin what happened and giving them his license plate and a description of his van. We get four blocks and there is a motorcycle cop waiting for us.

I pull over behind the man who has just backed up into me in the middle of the street. I do everything I can to maintain my cool. I explain to the first officer who comes to talk to me what happened, during which time three or four more police cars show up to the scene. Soon I am left standing next to my car alone while four cops surround and question the man in the other car. He keeps waving his arms in the air and pointing to what I later found out was his Blood Pressure monitor. No joke. He has High Blood Pressure issues. Really?

Soon, one of the officers returns and tells me that the guy in the other car is claiming that I am lying about him backing up into me. That I am just angry that he cut me off so I am trying to get him into trouble I guess. He also explains that because there are no other witnesses, it would have to go to the DA's office as a road rage incident to be resolved. Things have calmed down, a few of the cop cars have left and I am thinking he hopefully has learned a lesson. I look at my Jeep closely and determine that there is no damage to be concerned with. I have a few more words with the one officer and then ask if I can go then. At this point the only other officer still there is examining the Vans bumper and my bumper. He realizes that the van has paint missing EXACTLY in the pattern and spacing of two parts of my bumper that protrude out past the rest of my bumper. The driver of the van begins making excuses "A million other cars on the road with that exact same bumper design." and "That's been there for a really long time." I get into my car and drive away satisfied that he now has some more explaining to do.

I later found out that someone else drove by later and took note of the fact that several more cop cars came back to the scene after I had left. I can only hope the man with the High Blood Pressure can do something about it before blood shoots from his eyes or he dies from a coronary.

The AP has reported that Barack Obama has introduced a plan to expand President Bush's faith based programs. A quote from the story;

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and—in a move sure to cause controversy—support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

"The challenges we face today ... are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama was to say, according to a prepared text of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "We need all hands on deck."

In addition to the expansion of the program Obama is looking to make this a centerpiece of his current vision for his potential Administration. He has expressed a desire to emphasize the programs importance in helping the Government extend its social programs and has suggested that he would support more frequent training sessions where larger Religious centers would train smaller churches and groups in the methods and procedures to be used.

Along with the expansion of the program, Obama also expects to grow the programs budget by $500 Million dollars.

Also mentioned was Obama's support for the groups running these programs to be able to hire partially based on an individuals religious faith but documents from Obama's campaign specify that hiring would have to be for portions of the programs that were not directly funded by government dollars.