1) Catholic Church Revises Constitution to Attract Anglicans... Catholic/Anglican/Christianity/Liberalism
2) Obama to Expand Bailout to Small Businesses... Obama/Socialization/Bail Outs/Economy
3) Obama's Afghan War Strategy 'Bears Striking Resemblance' to Bush's... Obama/Lies/Afghan War
4) Rules for a Radical White House... Obama/Liberalism/Communism
5) Obama support continues to drop... Obama/Poll
6) Florida Police Confirm Body in Landfill Is That of Missing Girl... Interest/Sad
7) Mum's the Word for NASA's Secret Space Plane X-37B... Space/Science
8) Obama czar tied to 'radical' homosexual group... Homosexuality/Liberalism/Public Schools
9) FCC Set to Pursue `Net Neutrality' Rules... Obama/Anti-Free Speech



1) Catholic Church Revises Constitution to Attract Anglicans... Catholic/Anglican/Christianity/Liberalism
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568655,00.html

October 20, 2009
The Roman Catholic Church made a stunning policy reversal on Tuesday in a move to attract thousands of traditional Anglicans who have become disaffected by a growing acceptance of gays and women priests and bishops.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams admitted that he was surprised when he heard that Pope Benedict XVI announced a new “Apostolic Constitution” to provide a legal framework for the many thousands of Anglicans and former Anglicans who wish “to enter into full visible communion with the Roman Catholic Church.”

The announcement paves the way for thousands of Anglicans worldwide to join the Roman Catholic church while maintaining elements of their own spiritual heritage.

Although Williams knew that talks had been taking place in Rome, he was unaware until two weeks ago of the radical nature of the proposals being drawn up by the Vatican.

Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who hosted a simultaneous press conference in Rome this morning, visited London only last weekend to inform Williams and the English Catholic bishops of what was being proposed.

Normally, talks between the two churches are conducted under the auspices of the Holy See’s Council for Christian Unity and it is significant that they have been left out of the new plans.

The constitution, a canonical structure, will provide “personal ordinariates” that will allow Anglicans to “set up church” within the Catholic church while retaining elements of their former ecclesiastical identity, such as Anglican liturgies and vestments.












2) Obama to Expand Bailout to Small Businesses... Obama/Socialization/Bail Outs/Economy
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/21/obama-expanding-bailout-small-banks-businesses/

October 21, 2009
The new effort comes as the administration is under pressure from liberals to shift the massive bailout fund's spending away from big financial institutions and toward reducing foreclosures and creating jobs.

President Obama said Wednesday small businesses on Main Street will have greater access to the government's $700 billion Wall Street financial rescue fund.

Speaking at a small business in a Maryland suburb near Washington, Obama announced a package of initiatives designed to increase lending, including a request that Congress increase caps for existing Small Business Administration loans.

The new effort comes as the administration is under pressure from liberals to shift the massive bailout fund's spending away from big financial institutions and toward reducing foreclosures and creating jobs. But it also comes as Republicans press Obama to end the rescue program and use bank repayments to reduce the national debt.

Obama said the Treasury Department intends to wind down and terminate bailout programs launched at the height of the financial crisis to stabilize Wall Street and aid the struggling auto industry.

The $218 billion Capital Purchase Program would effectively conclude at the end of the year. The program has been a central element of the bailout program, infusing banks with government money in exchange for preferred stock.

The administration also plans to cap two programs at levels below initial projections. One program designed to rid big banks of their bad assets will spend $30 billion instead of $75 billion, and another that supports a Federal Reserve effort to ease bank credit will top off at $30 billion instead of $80 billion. An initiative aimed at banks -- the Capital Assistance Program -- had no applicants and will also end, the official said.

Congressional and industry officials said there were few details about the new small bank proposal, including how much of the bailout money would be used. But the American Bankers Association, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last month, recommended a $5 billion program for community banks that have not yet received assistance from the rescue fund. The program, as suggested by the association, would apply only to those banks with assets of less than $5 billion.

"Community banks feel like the government assistance efforts to date have left them on the sidelines," said Mark Tenhundfeld, a senior vice president at the bankers' association.

The rescue fund, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has about $320 billion still available to spend -- a combination of unallocated money and more than $70 billion in repayments from banks that received bailouts since late last year. The TARP is set to expire at the end of December, but the administration could extend it until October 2010.

"Given that we are now well into October, it seems probable that there would need to be some extensions," Tenhundfeld said.

Sheila Bair, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., generally defined community banks as those with less than $1 billion in assets. In testimony to Congress last week, she said those smaller banks have become especially vulnerable in the face of mounting losses and defaults in construction and commercial real estate loans.

Bair testified that she had been discussing TARP help for community banks with Treasury officials, a step welcomed by Democrats but criticized by Republicans.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, urged the administration to end the program at year's end.

"I will strongly suggest to community bankers in my district that they reject an invitation from the Obama administration to participate in TARP," he said.













3) Obama's Afghan War Strategy 'Bears Striking Resemblance' to Bush's... Obama/Lies/Afghan War
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/21/cheney-strikes-afghan-criticism-obama-administration/

October 21, 2009
Former vice president returns fire on the Obama administration over an allegation that the Bush White House did not ask key questions about the war in Afghanistan, leaving the theater 'adrift'.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the Bush administration had developed a new strategy on the war in Afghanistan before leaving office -- a strategy that he said "bears a striking resemblance" to the one announced by President Obama in March.

In a speech to the Center for Security Policy, Cheney said the Bush administration handed Obama's transition team a policy review of the Afghan war conducted last fall to meet the new challenges posed by the Taliban.

"They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt," Cheney said.

Cheney's comments countered a recent claim by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the Obama administration had to form an Afghan war strategy from scratch because the Bush administration hadn't asked any key questions about the war and left it "adrift."

The comments add more fuel to the ongoing war of words between the former vice president and Obama administration officials over the current administration's national security policies, including the Justice Department's probe into alleged abuse of terror suspects by the Bush CIA and the president's plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Obama is currently debating whether to ramp up war at the request of his military advisers or scale back the effort and focus on going after Al Qaeda in Pakistan, as some of his political advisers are urging.

Gen. Stanley McCrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is reportedly seeking up to 40,000 additional troops on the ground where there are currently 68,000 U.S. soldiers.

Cheney called on Obama to support his military commander.

"The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger," he said.

"Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," he added. "Waffling, while our troops on the ground face an emboldened enemy, endangers them and hurts our cause."

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Cheney's statement was "curious."

"I think it's pretty safe to say that the vice president was for seven years not focused on Afghanistan," he said Thursday. "Even more curious, given that an increase in troops sat on desks in this White House, including the vice president's for more than eight months -- a resource request filled by President Obama in March."

"What Vice President Cheney calls 'dithering', President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public," he said. "I think we've all seen what happens when somebody doesn't take that responsibility seriously."

Obama has drawn sharp criticism from conservatives who argue that the deliberations are playing into the hands of the Taliban and damaging the morale of the U.S. troops fighting there.

Obama has said he will make a decision soon, possibly before Nov. 7 runoff election between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah.

Emanuel told CNN that the president is "asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side."

"It's clear that basically we had a war for eight years that was going on, that's adrift, that we're beginning at scratch, just at the starting point...and that there's not a security force, an army, and the types of services that are important for the Afghans to become a true partner."

In his speech Wednesday, Cheney prodded Obama to pursue the strategy he unveiled in March.

"They made a decision -- a good one, I think -- and sent a commander into the field to implement it," Cheney said, referring to McChrystal, who was chosen in May by Obama to lead the fight in Afghanistan.

"Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced," he said. "It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."

In March, Obama ordered 4,000 more troops into Afghanistan, bringing the total then to 21,000 additional soldiers since he took office.

"So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future," he said at the time.

But rapidly deteriorating conditions and a widely disputed and unresolved election in Afghanistan gave the Obama administration pause and led to the current policy review.

"Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission," Cheney said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Cheney for asserting that Obama is "afraid" to make a decision.

"That's really not a dignified statement," she said Thursday. "The president has a very difficult decision to make. I don't think that's a constructive comment to make."















4) Rules for a Radical White House... Obama/Liberalism/Communism
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/21/morning-bell-rules-for-a-radical-white-house/

October 21st, 2009
Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei report today:

President Obama is working systematically to marginalize the most powerful forces behind the Republican Party, setting loose top White House officials to undermine conservatives in the media, business and lobbying worlds.

With a series of private meetings and public taunts, the White House has targeted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the biggest-spending pro-business lobbying group in the country; Rush Limbaugh, the country’s most-listened-to conservative commentator; and now, with a new volley of combative rhetoric in recent days, the insurance industry, Wall Street executives and Fox News.

Obama aides are using their powerful White House platform, combined with techniques honed in the 2008 campaign, to cast some of the most powerful adversaries as out of the mainstream and their criticism as unworthy of serious discussion.

We are in no way the first to point this out, but this Obama administration strategy is taken directly from the pages of Chicago community organizer Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals. It identifies thirteen rules for progressive activists including, “The thirteenth rule: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Explaining just how far progressives must be willing to go to marginalize their “enemies” Alinsky explains a few pages later:

Many liberals during our attack on the then-school superintendent, were pointing out that after all he wasn’t a 100 percent devil, he was a regular churchgoer, he was a good family man, and he was generous in his contributions to charity. Can you imagine in the arena of conflict charging that so-and-so is a racist bastard but then diluting the impact of the attack with qualifying remarks such as, “He is a good churchgoing man, generous to charity and a good husband”? This becomes political idiocy.

And then in his final chapter, Alinsky reveals what progressives really think of the average American: “Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and way of life of the middle class. They have stigmatized it as materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized, and corrupt. They are right.”

Contempt for average Americans, and the desire to marginalize their common sense questions, is both at the core of the Progessive vision for governance and completely antithetical to the values of our Founding Fathers. Thomas G. West, author of The Progressive Revolution in Politics and Political Science, explains:

The Founders thought that laws should be made by a body of elected officials with roots in local communities. They should not be “experts,” but they should have “most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society” (Madison). The wisdom in question was the kind on display in The Federalist, which relentlessly dissected the political errors of the previous decade in terms accessible to any person of intelligence and common sense.

The Progressives wanted to sweep away what they regarded as this amateurism in politics. … Only those educated in the top universities, preferably in the social sciences, were thought to be capable of governing. Politics was regarded as too complex for common sense to cope with. … Only government agencies staffed by experts informed by the most advanced modern science could manage tasks previously handled within the private sphere.
…
The Progressives did not intend to abolish democracy, to be sure. They wanted the people’s will to be more efficiently translated into government policy. But what democracy meant for the Progressives is that the people would take power out of the hands of locally elected officials and political parties and place it instead into the hands of the central government, which would in turn establish administrative agencies run by neutral experts, scientifically trained, to translate the people’s inchoate will into concrete policies.

This is why you have Obama’s Energy Secretary telling auto makers how they must build cars. This is why Obama’s health care plan empowers a panel of “experts” to reorganize one-sixth of our economy from the top down. Commonsense questions like, “Won’t our electricity bills go up if we mandate power companies use more expensive alternative energy sources?”, and “Won’t our health insurance premiums go up if everyone is charged the same price and nobody can be refused coverage?” can’t be tolerated. People voicing such criticisms must be isolated and silenced. That’s what the White House campaign the Politico identifies today is all about.

Quick Hits:

* Neil Barofsky, special inspector general of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), warns that the $700 billion bailout program has damaged the government’s credibility, won’t earn taxpayers all their money back and has done little to change a culture of recklessness on Wall Street.
* President Obama raised between $2 million and $3 million for Democrats during a $15,200-per-plate dinner in new York last night.
* According to a new Washington Post poll, 63% of Americans say the Obama administration does not have a clear strategy for Afghanistan.
* Government Reform Chairman Ed Towns (D-NY) locked Republicans out of the committee room after the minority tried to force a subpoena vote in the committee regarding a Countrywide Financial investigation.
* According to a new study by the University of California, Berkeley, the children of Hispanic immigrants fall behind their peers in mental development by the time they reach grade school, and the gap tends to widen as they get older.













5) Obama support continues to drop... Obama/Poll
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

October 27, 2009
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 29% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11 (see trends).

The President’s Approval Index rating is -4 among women and -17 among men (see other recent demographic highlights).

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide believe the health care proposal being considered by Congress would raise the cost of care while 53%believe the quality of care would go down. Still, 45% support the plan and 54% say it is at least somewhat likely to become law.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates also available on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove.

In New Jersey’s race for Governor, Republican Chris Christie clings to a 3-point lead over incumbent Jon Corzine. The big news in next week’s election is that third party candidate Chris Daggett is losing ground. In Massachusetts, 49% say Governor Deval Patrick should step aside rather than run for re-election. However, a third-party entry in the race could help him keep his job. In Michigan, voters are evenly divided as to whether they want a Republican or a Democrat as their next Governor.




Thirty-three percent (33%) say the stimulus package enacted earlier this year has helped the economy. Thirty-one percent (31%) say it hurt.

Scott Rasmussen has recently had three analysis columns published in the Wall Street Journal. The most recent was on health care. Earlier columns were on the President's approval ratings and how Obama won the White House by campaigning like Ronald Reagan. If you'd like Scott Rasmussen to speak at your meeting, retreat, or conference, contact Premiere Speakers Bureau. You can also learn about Scott's favorite place on earth or his time working with hockey legend Gordie Howe.

It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama's numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That's because some of the President's most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote.



Rasmussen Reports has been a pioneer in the use of automated telephone polling techniques, but many other firms still utilize their own operator-assisted technology (see methodology).

Pollster.com founder Mark Blumenthal noted that “independent analyses from the National Council on Public Polls, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, the Pew Research Center, the Wall Street Journal and FiveThirtyEight.com have all shown that the horse-race numbers produced by automated telephone surveys did at least as well as those from conventional live-interviewer surveys in predicting election outcomes.”

Additionally, an analysis by Pollster.com partner Charles Franklin “found that despite identically sized three-day samples, the Rasmussen daily tracking poll is less variable than Gallup.” During Election 2008, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll was the least volatile of all those tracking the race. That stability is one reason that Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com said that the Rasmussen tracking poll “would probably be the one I'd want with me on a desert island."

A Fordham University professor rated the national pollsters on their record in Election 2008. We also have provided a summary of our results for your review. In 2008, Obama won 53%-46% and our final poll showed Obama winning 52% to 46%. While we were pleased with the final result, Rasmussen Reports was especially pleased with the stability of our results. On every single day for the last six weeks of the campaign, our daily tracking showed Obama with a stable and solid lead attracting more than 50% of the vote.

In 2004 George W. Bush received 50.7% of the vote while John Kerry earned 48.3%. Rasmussen Reports was the only firm to project both candidates’ totals within half a percentage point by projecting that Bush would win 50.2% to 48.5%. (see our 2004 results).

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters--is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Premium Members.

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large (see methodology). Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Over the past five years, the number of Democrats in the country has increased while the number of Republicans has decreased.

Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 37.2% Democrats, 32.7% Republicans, and 30.1% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.

A review of last week’s key polls is posted each Saturday morning. Other stats on Obama are updated daily on the Rasmussen Reports Obama By the Numbers page. We also invite you to review other recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.















6) Florida Police Confirm Body in Landfill Is That of Missing Girl... Interest/Sad
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568982,00.html

October 22, 2009


Florida police have tentatively identified a child's body found in a landfill as that of a 7-year-old girl who vanished while walking home from school on Monday.

Sheriff Rick Beseler said Thursday that Somer Thompson was identified based on clothing and a birthmark that matched an "odd-shaped" mark on her left shin.

The little girl was found partially covered in a Georgia landfill near the Florida state line, after investigators followed garbage trucks leaving the neighborhood where Somer disappeared.

Beseler told an early-morning news conference that investigators searched through 100 tons of garbage before finding the missing child. Authorities were holding another news conference Thursday at 4 p.m.

The sheriff said he had told the girl's mother to prepare for the worst, and called her Wednesday night after receiving the news that the body was Somer's.

"Needless to say, she was absolutely devastated," he said. "It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make in my life, and I hope I never have to make another one like that."

Somer's father, Samuel Thompson, gave an emotional interview Wednesday before the remains were identified saying he knew it was probably his daughter in the landfill.

"I'm so angry. I'm so hurt," Thompson, of Graham, N.C., told the Florida Times-Union as he wept. "My baby daughter laying in trash. Discarded like a piece of trash. God help the sons of bitches who hurt my daughter. They better find them."

The cause of death hasn't yet been released, but the Georgia Bureau of Investigation planned an autopsy Thursday in Savannah.

"We hope to learn the cause and manner of the death that will assist us in the criminal investigation we are actively undertaking at this time," Beseler said. "The early discovery will be tremendously helpful in this investigation to help find the person or people responsible for the death of this beautiful child."

Beseler said he still fears for the community until a suspect is caught.

"This is a heinous crime that's been committed," the sheriff said. "And we're going to work as hard as we can to make this community safe."

He wouldn't talk about what evidence police have recovered, or whether investigators believe the crime was committed by one or more people.

He said police have questioned more than 70 registered sex offenders in the area, and that process was continuing.

A crowd of about 150 people, some crying, gathered across the street from Somer's home on Wednesday, many clutching their children tightly. Others placed flowers under a tree.

"We are all devastated," said Tonya Jennings, a grandmother who lived three doors away and often saw the girl and her siblings come home from school. "I knew her."

Somer vanished on her mile-long walk home from school Monday in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville, after she squabbled with another child and her sister told her to stop. Somer got upset, walked ahead of the group and wasn't seen again.

The area where the girl disappeared is a heavily populated residential neighborhood. Authorities launched a countywide search involving helicopters, dogs and volunteers walking arm-to-arm through wooded areas.

Somer's mother, Diena Thompson, said earlier Wednesday that she assumed someone had her daughter. Police suspected foul play after first investigating whether she had gotten lost or fell on the walk home.

An FBI forensic unit is helping process evidence from the landfill in Folkston, Ga., located about 48 miles from where the girl disappeared.

People are encouraged to call the tip line at (877) 227-6911 with any additional tips and information that may help the murder investigation.













7) Mum's the Word for NASA's Secret Space Plane X-37B... Space/Science
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569143,00.html

October 22, 2009


You would think that an unpiloted space plane built to rocket spaceward from Florida atop an Atlas booster, circle the planet for an extended time, then land on autopilot on a California runway would be big news. But for the U.S. Air Force X-37B project — seemingly, mum's the word.

There is an air of vagueness regarding next year's Atlas Evolved Expendable launch of the unpiloted, reusable military space plane. The X-37B will be cocooned within the Atlas rocket's launch shroud — a ride that's far from cheap.

While the launch range approval is still forthcoming, SPACE.com has learned that the U.S. Air Force has the X-37B manifested for an April 2010 liftoff.

As a mini-space plane, this Boeing Phantom Works craft has been under development for years. Several agencies have been involved in the effort, NASA as well as the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) and various arms of the U.S. Air Force.

Over the last few months, I've been in touch with DARPA, Boeing, the Pentagon, the U.S. Air Force Space Command, as well as NASA itself. Either you get a "not in our portfolio" or are given a "go to" pass to another agency. Just a few weeks ago, I even commandeered a face-to-face "no comment" from a top Pentagon official for Air Force space programs about X-37B.

Tight-lipped factor

The tight-lipped factor surrounding the space plane, its mission, and who is in charge is curious. Such a hush-hush factor seems to mimic in pattern that mystery communications spacecraft lofted last month aboard an Atlas 5 rocket, simply called PAN. Its assignment and what agency owns it remains undisclosed.

But in a brief burst of light eking from the new era of government transparency, I did score this comment from NASA.

While the program is now under the U.S. Air Force, NASA is looking forward to receiving data from the advanced technology work.

"NASA has a long history of involvement with the X-37 program. We continue to monitor and share information on technology developments," said Gary Wentz, chief engineer Science and Missions Systems Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "We are looking forward to a successful first flight and to receiving data from some advanced technologies of interest to us, such as thermal protection systems, guidance, navigation and control, and materials for autonomous re-entry and landing."

The vehicle itself is about 29 feet long with a roughly 15-foot wingspan and weighs in at over five tons at liftoff. Speeding down from space, the craft would likely make use of Runway 12/30 — 15,000 feet long by 200 feet wide — at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Vandenberg serves as an emergency space shuttle landing strip, as a second backup after California's Edwards Air Force Base – which has also been noted as a landing spot for the X-37B.

Once in orbit, what such a vehicle might enable depends on the eye of the beholder. Intelligence gathering, kicking off small satellites, testing space gear are feasible duties, as is developing reusable space vehicle technologies.

Space test platform

Just last month, a U.S. Air Force fact sheet noted that the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), located in Washington, D.C. "is working on the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle to demonstrate a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the United States Air Force."

The mission of the RCO is to expedite development and fielding of select Department of Defense combat support and weapon systems by leveraging defense-wide technology development efforts and existing operational capabilities.

"The problem with it [X37-B] is whether you see it as a weapons platform," said Theresa Hitchens, former head of the Center for Defense Information's Space Security Program, now Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland.

"It then becomes, if I am not mistaken, a Global Strike platform. There are a lot of reasons to be concerned about Global Strike as a concept," Hitchens told SPACE.com.

The implications of the program as a possible space weapon are surely not lost on potential U.S. competitors, Hitchens said, who may well see anti-satellites (ASATs) as a leveler.

"Would this thing be vulnerable to ASATs? Yes, if it stayed on orbit any length of time," Hitchens added. "While I see value of such a platform as a pop-up reconnaissance or even communications platform, if weaponized it becomes yet another reason for other nations to consider building dangerous ASATs," she cautioned.

Another mission question is, to what extent the X-37B might play into the recent announcement that NASA is partnering with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a technology roadmap for the commercial reusable launch vehicle, or RLV, industry.

All that said, and after years in the making, the X-37B is approaching its first globe-trotting, milestone making and historic flight – that much is known.














8) Obama czar tied to 'radical' homosexual group... Homosexuality/Liberalism/Public Schools
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=732060

10/22/2009
A conservative organization says "safe schools czar" Kevin Jennings was once a member of a radical "bullying" homosexual activist group.

Calls are mounting for the removal of Kevin Jennings, President Obama's assistant deputy secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools in the Department of Education. Jennings' opponents contend that the founder of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) has no business being in that position after he publicly admitted that he was aware of the sexual abuse of an underage boy by an adult and did nothing to stop it many years ago. As a matter of fact, according to his book, Jennings encouraged the predatory sexual relationship.

According to Brian Camenker of the pro-family group MassResistance, another fact has surfaced regarding the GLSEN founder. Camenker says Jennings was once a member of Act Up -- a "radical homosexual group" he says "profaned churches, vandalized homes and businesses, and disrupted public events." In addition, he points out that Harvard University is thanking Jennings for providing a grant to help fund a recently opened Act Up exhibit on campus.

Brian Camenker"[The exhibit] involves anti-Catholic bigotry, clear examples in anybody's opinion of child pornography...and various sexual perversions," says the Massachusetts family advocate.

Camenker notes it is hard to believe that Harvard is thanking Jennings for helping with the exhibit. He adds that Act Up has been known to participate in perverse activities in Catholic churches, and they have also been known to terrorize office buildings.

At least one member of Congress and several pro-family groups have called for Jennings' resignation.













9) FCC Set to Pursue `Net Neutrality' Rules... Obama/Anti-Free Speech
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/us_tec_internet_rules/2009/10/22/275557.html?s=al&promo_code=8F24-1

October 22, 2009
Federal regulators are expected to take a step forward Thursday on rules that would prohibit broadband providers from favoring or discriminating against Internet traffic.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission says "network neutrality" regulations would prevent phone and cable companies from abusing their control over broadband connections. He says that's necessary to ensure subscribers can access all legal Web sites and services, such as Internet calling applications that compete with the broadband companies' offerings.

The chairman, Julius Genachowski, has the support of the two other Democrats on the five-member commission, enough to formally launch the net neutrality proceeding. That would likely produce rules for the FCC to vote on by next summer.