WARNING – BACKUP YOUR FILES

A computer virus that has been spreading around the world for months is set to come alive Wednesday.

Experts have struggled to tackle it, and they do not know who controls it or why it was created. But on Wednesday the virus, dubbed Conficker, will “call home” to its creator to seek new instructions. No one knows what will happen next.

“The biggest mystery about Conficker is why? What exactly is it that these bad guys are planning to do with it?” said Mikko Hypponen of the Finnish computer security company F-Secure.

I highly suggest that if you have any files or pictures you need backed up that you back them up TODAY before midnight.  Having no idea what, if anything will happen — I’m taking no chances and backing up ALL my files and disconnecting my backup drive.

Update: CBS report on virus (Video)

Run your Windows UPdate to get the latest updates for your Windows.

Run your Virus protection update to verify you have the latest virus protection (McAfee, Norton, Etc..)

You might also want to download these two software packages and run scans using them:

Superantispyware (free edition – bottom of page under Popular Links)

Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware (free edition – left side of page)

I guarantee NOTHING - just trying to assist my readers in anyway I can.  I know my workplace suggested I use these two sites to check for viruses on my computer.

UPDATE LAST: Apparently people are getting messages from UPS about a delivery problem – BEWARE it may be a virus (thanks Billie)

SIDE NOTES for Spyware software scans:

If your own virus protection (like Norton, McAfee) pops up with found viruses and wants to restart – say NO for now.  Let the spyware scan finish first, delete any that are found (unless it pertains to YOUR virus protection-virus protection name is included in file), close the scan, then do a restart.

GOOD LUCK!

“CASH FOR CLUNKERS” PLAN

As he rolled out one last reprieve for the nation’s troubled automakers, President Obama also restarted a legislative push that ran out of gas during last month’s stimulus talks: a $10,000 rebate offer to car owners who traded in their old models for more fuel-efficient wheels.

The “cash for clunkers” plan was originally proposed by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), at a total cost of about $16 billion. It was dropped from the stimulus amid GOP opposition, but Obama said today that he would “work with Congress to identify parts of the recovery act that could be trimmed to fund such a program and make it retroactive starting today.”

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who sponsored a $4,500 version of the “cash for clunkers” rebate alongside Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), has just released a statement promising to work quickly on complying with the president’s request.

On the face of it, this sounds fantastic.  It would not only help to get old gas guzzling cars off the road which helps the environment and save on energy consumption.  It would also help the dying auto industry to stay afloat, and it would give the new owner a brand new car for a much cheaper price, saving them money on gas and with 5-10 year warranties to finish off the whole deal.

What Republican would vote no to this? Some did, as the report tells us, during the stimulus package negotiations.

What are the requirements to receive this rebate?  Last I heard one requirement would be that the car had to be made in the U.S..  What does that mean?  Parts are made all over the world, does it mean the whole car (parts and all) has to be made in the U.S., or does it mean the finished product has to be made in the U.S.? (more…)

GOP’s Budget Greater Than Obama’s?

The GOP released a summary budget (no details) last week.   Now for a bit of news on that budget plan:

Rep. Paul Ryan(R-WI) has been most critical of the deficit impact of Obama’s budget, he has been unable to assess the deficit impact of his own budget. After being repeatedly asked this weekend by Bloomberg’s Al Hunt about “how large” the deficit would be under the Republican plan, Ryan finally respond, “A lot”:

HUNT: But the Obama budget deficit is $1.4 trillion. How, roughly, how large will yours be?

RYAN: Their budget deficit is $1.8 trillion. […]

HUNT: Gimme an idea of how large yours will be?

RYAN: A lot. Let’s put it that way.

HUNT: Pardon me?

RYAN: Now I can’t give you the specific numbers because we’re still waiting for some numbers back from CBO. But clearly we don’t want to have this kind of run up of deficits and debt.

Citizens for Tax Justice analyzed the income tax provisions of the GOP alternative budget and concluded that they would cost $300 billion more annually than the President’s income tax plans.

Looks like maybe the GOP is having a bit of trouble coming up with something that’s less than President Obama’s budget.  It also sounds like they want to BUY the voter’s vote again.

I sincerely hope they can come up with something similar, less costly but give us the same things that Obama is striving for.  Something that both Parties can negotiate with.

SURVEY:

I’m taking a survey:  How many of you think something bad will happen either here or overseas while Obama is away from America this week?

Obama: “Cling to Guns or Religion”

Pleas for help — spiritual and financial — are flooding U.S. churches, from tiny congregations to megachurches, as recession woes seep into the pews, a new survey finds.

Pastors say they’re giving out benevolent funds in record numbers, increasing ministries to the unemployed and the financially fearful, even reaching into their own pockets more to help.

Nearly two in three pastors (62%) report more people from outside their church asking for help, and nearly a third (31%) see more such requests from church members, according to a survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors.

The survey, by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling firm based in Nashville, finds that 40% of pastors say they have church members out of work, and 37% say their church has increased spending to help the needy. (The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.)

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Nearly one-third of Americans (32%) say crime has increased in their communities in the past year, and 72% of those impacted say it is Very Likely that increase is related to the poor economy. (more…)

Our Other Heroes of War

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — As part of the dramatic U.S.-led buildup of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Canada is to nearly double the number of dogs its uses to sniff out roadside bombs and other explosives…

“These dogs are fantastic workers. They save lives all the time,” said veterinarian Lt.-Col. Sharon Staples…

“They are in the same environment as the soldiers, but they have no idea what they are doing when bombs are going off everywhere,” Staples said. “Some won’t get back in a vehicle. Some won’t get out of a vehicle. They are shaking all over. But some are fine later on and can go out and do other missions.

“Those that can’t, and have PTSD, get re-deployed back at the base or get ‘dispositioned’ out” for a field injury, such as a lost limb, she said. It’s the canine equivalent of a soldier getting a medical discharge.

The animals cost about $15,000 each and deploy from a compound at the Kandahar Airfield bearing the sign “Dogs of War.” They’re so highly valued that, when they’re hit by snipers or blown up by bombs, they get priority for air evacuation over any human soldier who isn’t wounded.

“A wounded soldier will kick a dog off a helicopter flight, but nothing else will,” Staples said. “A wounded dog trumps a healthy soldier.”

I am really glad that the military thinks enough of these dogs that they are at least trying to treat them fairly.

I remember reading about the dogs we used in previous wars and the fantastic things that they did for our soldiers.  While I value every soldier in the field, they had the option to volunteer to serve.  It’s really sad that these poor animals are trained and used in ways that can end up killing them just for being comrades and obeying their masters.

IRAQ: Backpage Story

BAGHDAD — Sunni militants staged a violent uprising in central Baghdad Saturday after Iraqi forces detained a leader of the Sons of Iraq, a mostly Sunni paramilitary force that until recently had received salaries from the United States and is now on the Iraqi government payroll.

Sixteen people were injured in the battle in the once volatile Fadhl neighborhood, and five Iraqi soldiers were missing – snatched Saturday night by members of the Sons of Iraq, a security official said.

The arrest of Adel Mashhadani, who leads the force in Fadhl, and his assistant, heightened fears among Sunnis that the Iraqi government plans to divide and disband the movements now that its taken control of all but a few thousand of the 94,000 members across the country…

The Sons of Iraq in Baghdad were on the U.S. military payroll until late last year, tasked to secure their neighborhoods from insurgents fighting for Al Qaida in Iraq.Iraq. Now they are under Iraqi control in the capital and most of

But Saturday, members of the paramilitary turned their fury on the Americans as well as the Shiite-led government. U.S. military advisors accompanied the Iraqi forces when they picked up Mashhadani along with Salman Qaddouri, a deputy.

“They sold him,” said Khaled Jamal Qaisi, Mashhadani’s deputy, referring to the U.S. military.

“The Americans are vile people and they betrayed our trust,” Qaisi said. “We are the ones who fought al Qaida. They want things to return as they used to be? If they don’t release Adel al Mashhadani today, you will all be prisoners in your homes.”

We’d best watch out or we’ll end up losing those we ‘paid’ to do our work for us.  I warned back in 2007 when I first heard about this ‘buying off the enemy’ that it wouldn’t work, now I’m afraid I just might have been right.

Sort of reminds me of the stories about the mob in Chicago.  The bartender (U.S. in this case – no harm intended) offers to pay the Mob for security.  If the bartender quits paying, he gets killed or his place gets trashed by members of the Mob.

Cigarette Taxes Going Up Again Wednesday

WASHINGTON — However they satisfy their nicotine cravings, tobacco users are facing a big hit as the single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever takes effect Wednesday.

Tobacco companies and public health advocates, longtime foes in the nicotine battles, are trying to turn the situation to their advantage. The major cigarette makers raised prices a couple of weeks ago, partly to offset any drop in profits once the per-pack tax climbs from 39 cents to $1.01.

Medical groups see a tax increase right in the middle of a recession as a great incentive to help persuade smokers to quit.

Tobacco taxes are soaring to finance a major expansion of health insurance for children. President Obama signed that health initiative soon after taking office.

Other tobacco products, from cigars to pipes and smokeless, will see similarly large tax increases, too. For example, the tax on chewing tobacco will go up from 19.5 cents per pound to 50 cents. The total expected to be raised over the 4 1/2 year-long health insurance expansion is nearly $33 billion.

I sincerely feel sorry for smokers today.  They are being singled out as the one and only so-called sinners (sin taxed) of the nation.   I was a smoker for 31 years of my life.  I quit back in 2000 after many, many times of trying to do so.  It’s a very hard habit to break, almost as hard as quitting overeating; but at least with eating you have a replacement of some sort (may not be as good but it’s filling at least), smoking you don’t.  Those people that criticize or ridicule or make fun of smokers have no idea what it’s like.  (more…)

About My Letter to The Editor:

Some bloggers are responding to my letter to the editor about my thoughts that perhaps an increase in income taxes is in fact needed, by saying things like:

” Honestly, Connie, I don’t know where to begin. You might want to write a follow up letter to apologize to all your liberal friends for pretending to represent their thinking.

Here’s how the Illinois Income Tax works, in simple terms: Let’s say that 1993 Illinois total taxable (individual) income was $100. The tax revenue from that $100 would have been $3.00, right? $100 X 3%. Capiche?

Now, let’s say that the Illinois total taxable (individual) income had doubled to $200 by the year 2008. The tax revenue from that $200 would have also doubled – to $6.00, right?

Wow, see how the revenue miraculously doubles – even though the tax rate stays the same? Amazing.

It’s odd that you all seem to notice that INCOME increases and therefore revenue to the State also increases; but you ALL ignore the FACT that cost of living, repairs, maintenance, health care and goods have also increased, more so than revenue.

Let use the so-called $100 x 3% theory.  That comes to $3 you say.  Now we make $200 a year x 3% = $6.00 revenue, “miraculously doubles” right?

Well, lets look at the just the cost of health care for the State.  Health care alone has increased by 120% since just 2000 according to National Coalition on Health Care..

Revenue increased 3%, health costs increased 120%.  A 117% difference.  Even if you cut expenses by 100%, the cost of running the State is still 17% higher today then it was back in 93.

Get my point?

Just look at what Health Care Finance News reports for Individual’s income and health care costs are:  “The cost of an individual insurance policy has increased 61 percent – from $2,560 in 1996 to $4,118 in 2006. Nationwide, the amount that employees pay for an individual policy has increased 79 percent, with wages increasing just 10 percent over the period.”

You might have gotten that 3% increase in your wages people; but your health care cost– increased 79%.  You must have had to cut expenses by around 76%.  Did you?  Some how I doubt it;  instead, you demanded a raise from your employer, am I right?

The same people saying today that, “NO NEED FOR INCREASE INCOME TAXES, JUST CUT SPENDING”, are the same people that don’t believe in a living (minimum) wage or any increases in them, no matter how many years the wage has been paid and no matter how much the cost of living has increased.

I ignore those folks and face facts, even if those facts hurt me in the some way.

Pentagon: Re-Grow Limbs?

This is very interesting and exciting.  Just Imagine how many lives this would change.  Cross your fingers that they accomplish their goal.

The first phase of the Pentagon’s plan to regrow soldiers’ limbs is complete; scientists managed to turn human skin into the equivalent of a blastema — a mass of undifferentiated cells that can develop into new body parts. Now, researchers are on to phase two: turning that cellular glop into a square inch of honest-to-goodness muscle tissue.

The Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) just got a one-year, $570,000 grant from Darpa, the Pentagon’s blue-sky research arm, to grow the new tissues. “The goal is to genuinely replace a muscle that’s lost,” biotechnology professor Raymond Page tells Danger Room. “I appreciate that’s a very aggressive goal.”  And it’s only one part in a larger, even more ambitious Darpa program, Restorative Injury Repair, that aims to “fully restore the function of complex tissue (muscle, nerves, skin, etc.) after traumatic injury on the battlefield.”