The boat is sinking,…

Bush’s top political strategist and deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove (r.), announced his resignation at a press conference on Monday. Ron Edmonds/AP/file

.Rove departure marks end of era for White House

President Bush’s political strategist strove to cement GOP control.

By Peter Grier | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 14, 2007 edition

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Washington – Strategist Karl Rove’s departure from the White House may signal the official end of an era of ambition for both the presidency of George Bush and the Republican Party as a whole.

The man President Bush dubbed “The Architect” long dreamed of leading a shift in US politics that would establish the GOP as the nation’s clear majority party. His policy goals were similarly grand – he pushed for seismic change in American education, retirement programs, and immigration policy, among other things.

His plans won two tough presidential elections. But US political realignment, if it’s happening, appears to favor Democrats. And today, the administration’s domestic agenda is at best stalled – and at worst gone with the wind.

“I think this takes the broadest claims for the Bush presidency off the table, as Karl Rove goes out the door,” says Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Mr. Rove’s departure may also deprive the administration’s critics of one of their favorite targets.

Democrats have long accused Rove of favoring a scorched-earth style of campaigning designed to win by dividing the electorate. They’ve seen his hand in everything from the leak to the press of the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame, whose husband was a critic of the war in Iraq; to the firing of eight US attorneys last year, possibly for improper political reasons.

The White House has declined to allow Rove to testify under oath before Congress in the US attorneys matter, citing executive privilege. Whether lawmakers continue to pursue him in private life with subpoenas to testify remains to be seen.

“Many in Congress believe Rove was behind all this US attorney business and really orchestrated it,” says Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “But they’ve not been able to prove it.”

In one sense Rove’s departure was expected. Officials often leave an administration as its time in office winds down, and the Bush White House is no exception. Among those who have already left are White House counselor Dan Bartlett, budget director Rob Portman, and top White House attorney Harriet Miers. [Editor's note: The original version misspelled Mr. Bartlett's name.]

“For someone to be in a White House for a full eight years is a very unusual thing,” says Professor Jillson.

But from a tactical point of view, Rove’s announcement was a shock. There were none of the usual rumors of departure. The news was passed, unusually, in an interview with Paul Gigot, the editor of The Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Karl Rove has been Bush’s political adviser since the beginning of the latter’s political career as governor of Texas.

“We’ve been friends for a long time and we’re still going to be friends,” said Bush at a White House appearance with Rove on Monday.

Rove told The Journal that he plans to write a book about his experiences, and that in all likelihood his days as a political consultant are over.

“There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family,” he told reporters on Aug. 13 at the White House. Rove plans to return to Texas with his wife and son, who is a university student in San Antonio.

crisis looming

NEWS ALERT
from The Wall Street Journal

Aug. 10, 2007

The Federal Reserve, in a statement that underscores the deepening severity of developments in credit markets, said it is “providing liquidity to facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets,” and will pump enough money into credit markets to keep the Fed’s target for the federal funds interest rate at 5.25%. U.S. federal-funds futures early Friday priced in about a 100% chance that the Federal Reserve will reduce its key lending rate by a half-percentage point to 4.75% by the next policy meeting on Sept. 18.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118673195378094167.html?mod=djemalert

Read the Fed’s statement:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118675254324894252.html?mod=djemalert

About one-quarter of America’s 577,000 bridges were rated deficient in 2004

Bridge collapse spotlights America’s deferred maintenance

By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 3, 2007 edition

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The tragic rush-hour collapse in Minneapolis of the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River is again forcing a reexamination of the nation’s approach to maintaining and inspecting critical infrastructure.

According to engineers, the nation is spending only about two-thirds as much as it should be to keep dams, levees, highways, and bridges safe. The situation is more urgent now because many such structures were designed 40 or 50 years ago, before Americans were driving weighty SUVs and truckers were lugging tandem loads.

It all adds up to a poor grade: The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the nation a D in 2005, the latest report available, after assessing 12 categories of infrastructure ranging from rails and roads to wastewater treatment and dams.

“One of America’s great assets is its infrastructure, but if you don’t invest it deteriorates,” says Patrick Natale, executive director of ASCE.

Among scores of recent examples:

•Last month, a 100-year-old steam pipe erupted in midtown Manhattan, killing one man and causing millions of dollars in lost business.

•The inadequacies of levees in New Orleans became horrifyingly clear in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The city is still recovering.

•In 2003, the Silver Lake Dam in Michigan failed, causing $100 million in damage.

America’s 577,000 bridges are of particular concern because they are subject to corrosion. According to the website of Nondestructive Testing (NDT), which advocates not damaging structures during testing, the average lifespan of a bridge is about 70 years. Bridges are inspected visually every two years. However, NDT notes, “it is not uncommon for a fisherman, canoeist, and other passerby to alert officials to major damage that may have occurred between inspections.”

In the federal government’s rating system, any bridge that scores less than 80 – on a scale of 1 to 100 – is in need of rehabilitation. A bridge scoring below 50 should undergo reconstruction under federal guidelines. In 2004, 26.7 percent of US bridges, urban and rural, were rated deficient, down from 27.5 percent in 2002, according to the US Department of Transportation (DOT).

Minnesota’s record is far better, with only 12.2 percent of its bridges falling into the deficient or obsolete categories.

Bridges down, foes weapons up

Last Updated: Monday, 6 August 2007, 09:35 GMT 10:35 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version 190,000 weapons ‘missing in Iraq’ AK-47 assault rifles might have ended up in insurgents’ hands The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says.The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years. The Pentagon did not dispute the figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures. About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. GAO, the investigative arm of the US Congress, said at least $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment. Correspondents say it is now feared many of the weapons are being used against US forces on the ground in Iraq. Discrepancies The GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005. MISSING IN IRAQ AK-47 rifles: 110,000 Pistols: 80,000 Body armour pieces: 135,000 Helmets: 115,000 During this period, security training was led by Gen David Petraeus, who now commands all US forces in Iraq. The GAO reached the estimate – 111,000 missing AK-47s and 80,000 missing pistols – by comparing the property records of the Multi-National Security Transition Command for Iraq against records maintained by Gen Petraeus of the arms and equipment he ordered. Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary Mark Kimmitt told AFP the Pentagon was “reviewing policies and procedures to ensure US-funded equipment reaches the intended Iraqi security forces under the Iraq program”. Weapons delay The report comes as a political battle rages in Washington over the progress of the war in Iraq. Gen Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are scheduled to report to Congress by mid-September on the success of efforts to halt sectarian violence and return Iraq to viable self-governance. Meanwhile, at the end of July, the US Defence Department admitted that the US-led coalition in Iraq had failed to deliver nearly two-thirds of the equipment it promised to Iraq’s army. The Pentagon said only 14.5m of the nearly 40m items of equipment ordered by the Iraqi army had been provided. The US military commander in charge of training in Iraq has asked for help in speeding up the transfer of equipment. Iraq’s ambassador to the US said the delays were hindering the fighting capacity of its armed forces.

jobs down

U.S. employment growth slowed in July. The Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls increased by 92,000 last month, down from 126,000 in June, as job losses in manufacturing and construction offset gains in many services industries. The data suggest the economy started the third quarter on a softer note after robust growth in the second quarter. Wage gains remained largely contained. The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, please see:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118614276507987248.html?mod=djemalert

Two-Factor Authentication

For the User

Two easy steps for PhoneFactor™ authentication:Step 1:

Enter your usual username and password.

Step 2:

Instantly, you receive a phone call. Answer and press #.

That’s It!

This simple process provides two separate factors of authentication through two separate channels (your computer and your phone service):

Something you know – your password.
Something you have – your telephone.

Why is Two-Factor Authentication Important?

WOW

The new book “Exploiting Online Games” by Greg Hoglund and Gary McGraw explains how cheaters are winning at online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft where millions of players compete in the virtual world to win battles or treasure that is sometimes later sold to avid game players for real money.

Priorities

Making sure your boss knows there is a problem
royhayward: “I spent a bit of time working in a professional recruiting office, and one of the things I gleaned from this experience was that some people let their boss know they are unhappy for the first time when they are turning in their resignation.”A game password is worth $8K?
JohnMcGrew: “You wouldn’t be surprised to see this as part of a James Bond plot, where the password is for the launch codes or something. But the idea that a password to a video game should be worth enough to commit a felony is just insane. Too many people need to get some lives.”

Linux Tracking

I am “smolten” with Linux!
Jack Wallen: “Linux isn’t sold generally. The majority of Linux users download a copy or get a copy burned from a friend or pick up their copy from the local LUG. You can’t really count those copies among Linux installations because there’s no way to track them. Until now… .”

Small Finland can do

Nokia Corp.’s second-quarter net income more than doubled to 2.83 billion euros, beating analysts’ expectations, as the world’s largest mobile-phone maker took a 38% share of the global phone market. Handset shipments jumped 29% to 100.8 million. Shares rose sharply in European trading.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, please see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118354409527857284.html?mod=djemalert