Scooter Libby to go to Jail

On March 6, 2007, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted of four out of five felonies; two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to FBI agents and one count of obstructing justice. For this on June 5, 2007, he was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000.

Now the questions begin. Libby will appeal the verdict. Can he avoid prison during the appeal process? Will Bush pardon him? What role will politics play in all of this?

As U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton imposed the sentence and a $250,000 fine, he said his decision came "with a sense of sadness" because he was torn between admiration and disappointment. "I have the highest respect for people who take positions in our government and [try] ... to protect this country," he said. At the same time, the judge said, "I also think it is important we expect and demand a lot from people who put themselves in those positions. Mr. Libby failed to meet the bar."

Judge Reggie Walton did not immediately send Mr. Libby to prison. The decision on whether he can remain free while appealing the sentence will be delivered next week.

"The American people were reminded that even people in power, with friends in high places are not above the law"......Katie Couric, CBS news:

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"From the White House to the Big House"....Keith Olbermann on Libby's sentence, MSNBC

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Russia Angry Over US Missile Plans

Relations have not been so strained between Russia and the US since the days of the Cold War. The once cordially wary "friends" have been turning up the rhetoric against each other lately; all because of a US plan to include both the Czech Republic and Poland (two former Soviet block countries) in a missile defense system needed to counter a potential threat from Iran.

The Bush Administration plan is to place a radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in neighboring Poland. They insist that the plan is not directed at and has nothing to do with Russia. They also insist that they have the right to do whatever they deem necessary to protect America and its interests:

The US will not allow Russia to stop it from deploying anti-missile defenses in Europe, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said in Moscow. "I don't think anyone expects the United States to permit a veto on American security interests," she said after meeting President Vladimir Putin.

On the other hand the Russians see the US plan as a direct threat to Russia. President Vladimir Putin put it this way:

"If a part of the strategic nuclear potential of the United States appears in Europe and, in the opinion of our military specialists, will threaten us, then we will have to take appropriate steps in response.

According to Putin "appropriate action" could include targeting nuclear weapons at Europe:

We will have to have new targets in Europe," Putin said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin. These could be targeted with "ballistic or cruise missiles or maybe a completely new system" he said. And as if to prove the seriousness of his statements Putin announced the successful test firing of new Russian missiles calling it a response to U.S. plans to build missile defense sites across Europe, and suggested Washington is pursuing an imperialist policy that has triggered a new arms race.

In one of the tests, a prototype of Russia's new intercontinental ballistic missile, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia and its test warhead landed on target 3,400 miles away on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far eastern part of the country, officials said.

The military also tested a new cruise missile based on the existing short-range Iskander missile. "It can be used at long range with surgical precision," according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "Russia needs this weapon to maintain strategic stability." the new cruise missile, R-500, will have a range of up to 310 miles, the limit under a Soviet-era treaty that banned intermediate-range missiles.

"It wasn't us who initiated a new round of arms race," Putin said when asked about Russia's missile tests this week at a news conference in Moscow. In a clear reference to the United States, Putin harshly criticized "diktat and imperialism" in global affairs and warned that Russia will keep strengthening its military potential to maintain a global strategic balance.

As for the American assertion that the missile defense system was to protect against incoming missiles that Iran might launch. Mr Putin expressed skepticism:

“There are no such missiles – Iran does not have missiles with the range”. The US was insisting, he said, that the defense system was to be “installed for the protection from something that does not exist. Is it not sort of funny? It would be funny if it were not so sad.”

He speculated that the real motive was to provoke Russia’s retaliation and so “to avoid further closeness of Russia and Europe”.

The Chinese have also weighed in on the debate supporting the Russian position, saying it could shift the strategic balance of power.

"The Chinese side has always held that missile defense impacts the strategic balance and stability," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said when asked about the U.S. plan, which has drawn angry warnings from Russia. "It is not conducive to mutual trust between major powers and also regional security," Jiang told a news conference. "It can also bring new proliferation problems."

Both President Bush and President Putin are headed to the G8 conference in Germany where they will confront disagreements over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and Kosovo, as well as human rights and missile defense. Mr. Bush has also invited Mr. Putin to the Bush family compound in Maine early next month, in what American officials hope will be a more relaxed setting where the two can try to mend fences.

Is Google Big Brother?

For a company that didn't exist 10 years ago Google has come a long way. It is the most pervasive entity on the Internet. If you have ever used a computer, Google knows something about you. It has even coined a phrase that everyone understands: "To google". If you want to find out something about a particular topic, all you have to do is google it, meaning of course to search for it online. Google is a search engine, Google provides a host of services including email, video sharing, book searching, mapping and many business and consumer tools but most importantly Google is an advertising company. Advertising is how Google makes its money. Google has perfected the art of delivering the right ads to the right people at the right time. That is the power of Google.

Birth of a Giant

Google was co-founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University, and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 7, 1998. Google's initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, raising $1.67 billion, making it worth $23 billion. At that time each share was worth $85. Today each share is worth about $500. Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin are worth more than $16 billion each. On March 30, 2006, less than two years after its IPO Google was added to the S&P 500 index.

Growth by Acquisition

Google now employs more than 12,000 people with an annual revenue in 2006 of more than $10 billion. For more financial information and statistics click here. Since Sept 2001 it has acquired more than 40 companies, most of them for undisclosed sums. There are however some notable purchases on record.

• April 2003 - Applied Semantics - Advertising technology - $102 million


• Jan. 2006 - dMarc Broadcasting - Radio advertising - $102 million


• Nov. 2006 - uTube - Video sharing - $1.65 billion


• Dec. 2006 - Endoxon - Mapping technology - $28 million


• Feb 2007 - Adscape - Video game advertising - $23 million

The proposed purchase of DoubleClick an online advertising company for $3.1 billion has not yet been approved. The recent acquisition of FeedBurner for an estimated $100 million also puts Google in the RSS feed business.

Is Google Big Brother?

"Big Brother" — any omnipresent, seemingly benevolent figure representing oppressive control over individual(s) exerted by an authoritarian power....... from wikipedia

Google's motto is "Don't be Evil" but its ubiquitous presence on the Internet is near monopolistic and history has shown that monopolies, whether government-sponsored or private enterprise do not have a good track record. The fact of the matter is that we "trust" Google and Google knows an awful lot about us. It has just recently offered a new service that brings this into focus called "Web History". Below is part of the promo for this new service.

Follow interesting trends in your web activity.


Which sites do you visit frequently? How many searches did you do between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.? Web History can tell you about these and other interesting trends on your web activity. Want to learn more? Try the Web History Help page.

This proves, and Google readily admits, that your every search and web page visit has been recorded and stored on their system for future use. As of December 2006, Google is the most used search engine on the web with a 50.8% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (23.6%) and Windows Live Search (8.4%). Google indexes billions of Web pages, so that users can search for the information they desire, through the use of keywords and operators.

Although Google has a clearly defined privacy policy, have you ever read it? Do you know what kind of personal information is collected about you, how it is used and what your options are? Take a look at some of the highlights here. Some of it may surprise you.

TB carrier Quarantined

Andrew Speaker who was globe trotting with a drug resistant form of tuberculosis risking exposing others to the disease, has been admitted to a Denver hospital under Federally ordered isolation. Here is a video report of the incident.
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DRM-Free Music comes to iTUNES

Apple has released a new version of iTunes (7.2), its popular online music store called iTunes Plus. The big news here is that the new version now sells DRM-Free music. DRM or Digital Rights Management (better known as copy protection) is the software that is embedded into downloaded music which restricts how and where the music can be played. For instance music previously purchased from the iTunes music store could only be played on an iPod or an authorized computer. It could not be played on any other music player and could not be transferred to your friend's computer or a file sharing service because it would have to be "authorized" by you each time to be played. Apple has now removed this copy protection from a limited number of songs, those sold by the EMI group, and has urged others to follow suit. See the Apple announcement for complete details.

The new DRM-Free music vs the old DRM music:

• Will cost more - $1.29 vs $0.99


• Will be higher quality - 256 kbps vs 126 kbps


• Will be upgradeable for $0.30 each or $3.00 per album from the old music

iTunes Plus is launching with EMI’s digital catalog of outstanding recordings, including singles and albums from Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, Norah Jones, Frank Sinatra, Joss Stone, Pink Floyd, John Coltrane and more than a dozen of Paul McCartney’s classic albums available on iTunes for the first time. London-based EMI, is the world's third-largest music company by sales. Barney Wragg, the global head of digital music at EMI, said the iTunes Plus launch capped six months of work to convert most all of the company's digital catalog into a DRM-free format.

"Our customers told us two things deterred them from buying digital," Wragg said. "They weren't 100 percent confident that the songs they'd purchase could play on their devices, and they wanted something closer to CD quality."

"We definitely think it's the right thing to do," Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said. "In this case, EMI's a leader and we think others will follow."

Before you get too happy about the possibilities this new DRM-Free music is not a license to spread unlimited copies of your music all over the place. Apple will embedded inside each music file your full name and e-mail account. This information will be included in any copies made, allowing for a trail back to the original owner.

Earlier this year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called on the world's four major record companies to start selling songs online without copy-protection software. He expects that more than half of the 5 million tunes sold by Apple will be DRM-Free by the end of the year.

One minor drawback is that the music sold on iTunes is in the AAC format which some players don't recognize, this would mean that some users may have to convert their music to the MP3 format which is universally accepted.