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Thursday, March 3, 2011

Gas Prices 27 Cents Higher Than a Month Ago

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St. Louis area gasoline price up 17 cents from a week ago

Staff reports St. Louis Post-Dispatch 
Thursday, March 3, 2011 3:00 pm
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The average price for a gallon of regular-grade gasoline in the St. Louis area is $3.25, AAA posted Wednesday in its daily fuel gauge report. That's eight cents higher from the day before and 17 cents higher from the week before.

Gasoline prices have been rising over the past few weeks, with the local average more than 27 cents higher than a month ago.

Gasoline is 75 cents higher than a year ago, but is still well off the record high, $3.98 ($4.20 in Metro East), set in July 2008.

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Ameren Rate Increase Packed Hearing Room in Jefferson City

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Locals speak up against Ameren rate increase

www.fultonsun.com
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Because of the poor economy, it’s not a good time to let Ameren Missouri raise its rates.
That was one common message sent to the Public Service Commission (PSC) at Wednesday’s PSC rate case hearing in Jefferson City. About 70 people packed the hearing room, some speaking directly to Ameren Missouri’s CEO, Warner Baxter.
Some speakers told Baxter they can’t afford any rate increase. Sandra Callahan of Russellville said that despite not having luxuries such as a dishwasher, the bills are often increasing $3 or $4 a month.
“It may not make a difference to you people that own this big Ameren UE company, but I live on a fixed income of Social Security disability, and my check does not supply sufficient needs for your raises all the time.”
Baxter said he appreciates her concern, but that an increased need for energy in the future requires the company to invest for the future.
Later, he told the audience: “We put $5 million of energy-assistance programs available to consumers who are struggling to make ends meet. None of that $5 million is part of your bill. That is all eaten by shareholders. We are absorbing that.”
Clara Tremaine said she was a nurse on disability before retiring and hasn’t had a cost-of-living increase for three years. She said she lowered her thermostat to 65, then down to 60 in an attempt to keep her electric bills down. She said she lowers it to 50 when she leaves the house.
“I don’t know if my bones can take any lower” temperatures, she said.
Joy Sweigart echoed her statement, saying it’s the wrong time for a rate hike. “You have a lot of people who are just hanging on by the threads,” she said.
Daphne Koepp said she’s also on a fixed income. She said she turns down the thermostat and puts three or four quilts on her bed to stay warm. “You have to understand, not everyone can pay for increases, and I’m one of them,” she said.
The PSC is about halfway through an 11-month process to decide what increase, if any, Ameren can seek. It’s asking for about 11 percent, or about 31 cents per day per residential customer. The PSC last approved a rate hike for Ameren in July 2010 for 10 percent.
Nine people gave testimony on the record, and others spoke during a more informal question-and-answer period near the beginning of the 2 1/2-hour hearing.
Wilma H. Partee asked the commission to deny the rate increase or at least delay it until the economy recovers.
She criticized the PSC, saying it didn’t publicize the hearing well enough. She also questioned how accessible the PSC is, saying someone she knows recently had no luck trying to reach someone from the PSC by phone, and wasn’t allowed to talk to someone when he drove there.
Gregg Ochoa of the PSC’s staff said the public can reach a live person at the PSC by calling 800-492-4211. At Partee’s request, Baxter also gave a way for people to reach him directly: wbaxter@ameren.com.

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Android Malware DreamDroid steals user data and more once installed

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Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

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Android Malware DreamDroid Dubbed a Nightmare

Android apps have fallen prey to a malware that steals user data and more once installed on an Android phone.
March 3, 2011

BY: KELSEY WAANANEN
ANCHOR: ANA COMPAIN-ROMERO

You're watching multisource tech video news analysis from Newsy.


“The virus is capable of the following : it can place a phone call, read and keep your text messages, send and delete them also, put all of your contact information and send it to a remote server, and also silently download files.”
(Android Trek)

It’s called the Gemini Trojan, unleashed last December. Now, more than 50,000 Android users have been introduced to its bigger, badder successor. They’ve all been hacked by the newest Android malware -- deemed DreamDroid -- present in more than 50 apps on the Android Market. Google recently pulled those apps and one of their publishers off the market -- but the damage has already been done.

DreamDroid works to get user information about the phone, such as make, model and user ID. However, Mashable notes, the real danger comes later -- and that’s what makes this hack significant.

“...you can’t be sure that your device and user information is truly secure. Considering how much we do on our phones -- shopping and mobile banking included ... it might be best to take your device to your carrier and exchange it for a new one...”

A publisher by the name of Myournet repackaged popular apps with the malware, and slightly changed their names, and then submitted them to the Android Market. The list includes apps with names like “photo editor,” "scientific calculator,” and “chess.” But Android Police points out, hacking the user info isn’t the worst this malware can do.

“... the true pièce de résistance is that it has the ability to download more code. In other words, there’s no way to know what the app does after it’s installed, and the possibilities are nearly endless. ... this is the ultimate Android Trojan to date...”

But a blogger for CSO Online is not impressed by the DreamDroid malware itself, but more the impact it will have on the market.

“... there's nothing particularly remarkable here. Not to me, anyway. Smarter people may see it differently. But it is one more example of how the mobile threat has really shifted from an abstract concept to reality.”

BetaNews agrees
and notes this has exposed faults with Google’s model.

“Whereas Apple individually inspects every app that is submitted for inclusion in the App Store, Google allows for a developer to publish apps freely to the Android Market once they have been registered.  Google does from time to time comb through apps to ensure they meet guidelines, but this is done after it has already been live within the Android Market.”

Apps carrying the malware were present on the Android Market for 4 days before they were removed. AndroidCentral says the problem has already been fixed -- but only in the newest update.

“Starting with 2.2.2, AOSP has been fixed to halt this exploit, and with Gingerbread it no longer works at all.”

Finally, Techworld details what this means for current technology -- and cautions Google to take these threats more seriously.
“ … And Google? It needs to wake up from its focus on software and features and remember the lesson of Windows, the last major software platform to let itself get overrun with malevolent apps.”


Many sites echo Mashable’s sentiments-- the best way to make sure your information is secure is to completely wipe your Android device.

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DNA Testing Department of Homeland Security will unveil a new scanner this summer


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Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

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DNA Testing In The Future For Airports?

March 3, 2011
The Department of Homeland Security will unveil a new DNA scanner this summer. Some are saying it will be used at airports, but TSA says no way!
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BY TARA GRIMES
 
You're watching multisource US video news analysis from Newsy.

An advance in DNA technology has reached a whole new height. The Department of Homeland Security has developed a DNA scanner that can determine someone’s DNA with a swab of saliva in just one hour. The Department of Homeland Security tells nextgov.com the scanner will initially be used to test relations between refugees and asylum seekers. In the future it could be used to identify criminals, illegal immigrants, missing persons and mass casualty victims.

Notice that not once did the DHS mention the technology would be used in airports, but try telling that to the frantic media outlets who heard it would be.

KMOV REPORTER: “Recently a TSA agent working undercover was able to pass through a scanner and he had a gun on him.”
KMOV ANCHOR RUSSELL KINSAUL:  “Well, maybe that’s why the Department of Homeland Security is looking into a different type of scanner; a scanner of your DNA. U.S. security officials haven’t unveiled the scanner yet, but reportedly it’s about the size of a desktop printer. A TSA agent would then swab your mouth, put the sample in the machine and then wait a couple of minutes for results. The goal would be to combat illegal immigration.”   


The Daily started the mass panic with an article implying the portable scanner would be used at airports this summer. It’s not clear where the reporter heard this from, but TSA says no way!


On its blog, TSA explains, “...this is a simply a preliminary test of how the technology performs. … TSA is not testing and has no plans to use any technology capable of testing DNA.”

But it was too late to stop the media storm. Other media outlets got wind of The Daily’s article and went on the offensive. Fox’s Judge Andrew Napolitano says while a simple swab of the mouth seems inoffensive, it reveals the most intimate information about your genetic makeup.

He also doesn’t agree with using it to find illegal immigrants or human traffickers. Fox and Friends’ Gretchen Carlson also weighed in.

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: “That has nothing to do with safety on an airplane.”
GRETCHEN CARLSON: “Wait a minute, that’s a little bit ingenious. They’re not even protecting the borders!”
ANDREW NAPOLITANO: “Correct! This doesn’t keep anybody safe! This just feeds the government's veracious appetite to control people, to invade their privacy and to learn more about them.”


DNA collection isn’t new. Many point out how the Pentagon released an article in 2008 reporting it has a DNA database with 80,000 suspected foreign terrorists on it. Even those who have heard the TSA claim it isn’t testing DNA scanning are skeptical -- including Natural News’ Mike Adams.

“Of course, they will assure the public that they aren’t storing the DNA information … and the naked body scanners don’t store images, either. Oh yeah, and the TSA’s security procedures make air travel safer, too, if you can believe that.”

DHS, however, assures nextgov.com the intention of these scanners are for other purposes. They will cut down the cost of one DNA test from $500 to $100, and a trained technician at a special operating site won’t be needed. The scanner will also speed up the process of testing, especially when testing refugees and children.

 “When a refugee is allowed to come to the United States, parents, children and some siblings also could be eligible to enter. Citizen and Immigration Services wants to make sure those who claim to be relatives actually are... Similarly, the agency wants to make sure children are who their guardians claim them to be.”

According to Nextgov.com, the machine will be unveiled by DHS this summer. The DHS tells the site, to protect privacy the scanner will not sample DNA that could identify genetic problems.
 


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Trout Park Opener 2011 Gov. Jay Nixon joined in the celebration VIDEOS OF 2011 OPENER

Trout fishing opened once again on March 1, 2011 at Missouri's trout parks. At Bennett Spring State Park near Lebanon, Mo., Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon joined in the celebration. The honorary whistle blowers were Joe and Johnny Brooks from Marshfield, Mo.
Trout fishing opened once again on March 1, 2011 at Missouri's trout parks. At Bennett Spring State Park near Lebanon, Mo., Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon joined in the celebration. The honorary whistle blowers were Joe and Johnny Brooks from Marshfield, Mo..

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March 1st each year marks the Opening day of trout season at Montauk State Park, Missouri. Families gather from miles around to start fishing at 6:30 AM on opening day. Each angler lucky enough to catch a lunker (weighing 3 pounds or more) can officially have their fish weighed at the Dorman L. Steelman Lodge in Mountauk State Park and receive a coveted lunker patch for their efforts of landing a lunker trout.

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Up to 8,000 anglers expected at trout park opener

Feb. 18, 2011
mdc.mo.gov
PHOTO: Courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation
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JEFFERSON CITY–You can’t see it now, but a trout-fishing tide is rising. Missourians are rummaging around in basements and garages, patching waders, tying flies and checking fishing reels and lines. The wave will continue to swell throughout the remainder of February. When it breaks on March 1, Missouri’s four trout parks will be awash in anglers, and the anglers will be up to their bellybuttons in rainbow trout.
For more than 70 years, Missourians have made the late-winter pilgrimage to trout parks, where the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) stocks rainbow trout. Today, MDC stocks spring branches at Bennett Spring State Park (SP) near Lebanon, Montauk SP near Licking, Roaring River SP near Cassville and Maramec Spring Park near St. James.
The number of anglers present on opening day depends partly on weather, but it takes a major winter storm to make much of a dent in the throng at any of these destinations. The most important factor is what day of the week March 1 falls on in a particular year. Total attendance at all four parks has topped 14,000 in years past when the weather was good and the season opener fell on Saturday or Sunday.
MDC hatchery managers have 50 years of data on which to base predictions of angler turnout on any day throughout the catch-and-keep season March 1 through Oct. 31. This year, with a Tuesday opener, hatchery managers expect throngs of approximately 2,200 anglers at Bennett Spring, 2,000 at Montauk, 1,800 at Roaring River and 1,600 at Maramec Spring. If the March 1 weather forecast is unusually good, total attendance could top 8,400.
Hatchery managers use these estimates to determine how many trout to stock each day. Throughout most of the season, they stock 2.25 fish per expected angler. On opening day, however, they put three fish in the water for every angler they expect to attend. These fish average around 12 inches long. However, MDC also stocks dozens of “lunkers,” hatchery brood fish weighing upwards of 3 pounds. A few tip the scales at more than 10 pounds.
Three of Missouri’s trout parks–Bennett Spring, Montauk, and Roaring River–are owned by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Maramec Spring Park is owned by the James Foundation. The Conservation Department operates trout hatcheries at all four. For more information about trout-park fishing, call:
• Bennett Spring - 417-532-4418.
• Maramec - 573-265-7801.
• Montauk - 573-548-2585.
• Roaring River - 417-847-2430.
Anglers need a daily trout tag to fish in Missouri’s trout parks. Missouri residents 16 through 64 need a fishing permit in addition to the daily tag. Nonresidents 16 and older also need a fishing permit.
One new feature at all four parks this year is the availability of wader-wash stations. These are baths with a 5-percent salt solution for boots and fishing gear. They are designed to kill the aquatic invasive species, Didymosphenia geminata. commonly known as Didymo. It’s less appetizing nickname, “rock snot,” captures its slimy experience and general undesirability.
Didymo is an invasive alga that forms dense mats on stream bottoms. It can become so thick that it disrupts natural food chains, making fishing impossible. Its arrival in trout streams around the globe probably is the result of its ability to cling to the porous surface of felt-soled fishing waders. Didymo is known to infest streams in 19 states. The infested stream nearest to Missouri is in northern Arkansas.
“We strongly encourage anglers to make use of the wader-wash stations to clean not only waders, but any fishing equipment that has been used in other states,” said MDC Hatchery Systems Manager James Civiello. “Anglers can unknowingly spread the microscopic alga on fishing gear, waders, and especially in any porous materials on wader soles.”
Civiello said anglers can help prevent the spread of rock snot by cleaning fishing gear and waders and drying them in the sun for 48 hours when moving between waters. They also can help by replacing felt-soled waders with rubber-soled ones.
Trout parks are only one option for Show-Me State anglers. For more about the state’s extensive system of trout streams and winter trout fishing, visit www.mdc.mo.gov/7248.
MDC also maintains rainbow and brown trout populations in 120 miles of 17 streams designated as blue-, red- or white-ribbon trout waters. Lake Taneycomo has world-class trophy trout fishing, and MDC stocks trout in selected lakes and ponds in several communities around the state during the winter months. You can find details about all these trout-fishing opportunities in the Summary of Missouri Fishing Regulations, which is available wherever fishing permits are sold or at http://bit.ly/g8carJ. Information about winter trout fishing in urban areas is available at http://bit.ly/gSLEyx.
A Trout Permit ($7 for adults, $3.50 for anglers under age 16) is required to possess trout on waters outside trout parks. A fishing permit also is required, unless the angler is exempt.
A survey conducted in 2001 showed that trout anglers spent more per day on their sport than anglers pursuing any other species. Trout anglers’ expenditures that year totaled $115,561,474.
These expenditures generated more than $240 million of business activity, supporting 2,078 jobs and creating nearly $52 million dollars in wages. This produced more than $5.5 million in state sales taxes, $2 million in state income taxes and more than $8 million in federal income taxes.
Thirty percent of Missouri’s trout anglers come from other states, so a substantial portion of trout fishing expenditures is “new money” for the state’s economy.
-Jim Low-


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Decline of the Dollar as World's Main Currency

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Why the Dollar's Reign Is Near an End

For decades the dollar has served as the world's main reserve currency, but, argues Barry Eichengreen, it will soon have to share that role. Here's why—and what it will mean for international markets and companies.


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The single most astonishing fact about foreign exchange is not the high volume of transactions, as incredible as that growth has been. Nor is it the volatility of currency rates, as wild as the markets are these days.
Instead, it's the extent to which the market remains dollar-centric.
Consider this: When a South Korean wine wholesaler wants to import Chilean cabernet, the Korean importer buys U.S. dollars, not pesos, with which to pay the Chilean exporter. Indeed, the dollar is virtually the exclusive vehicle for foreign-exchange transactions between Chile and Korea, despite the fact that less than 20% of the merchandise trade of both countries is with the U.S.
Chile and Korea are hardly an anomaly: Fully 85% of foreign-exchange transactions world-wide are trades of other currencies for dollars. What's more, what is true of foreign-exchange transactions is true of other international business. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sets the price of oil in dollars. The dollar is the currency of denomination of half of all international debt securities. More than 60% of the foreign reserves of central banks and governments are in dollars.
The greenback, in other words, is not just America's currency. It's the world's.
But as astonishing as that is, what may be even more astonishing is this: The dollar's reign is coming to an end.
I believe that over the next 10 years, we're going to see a profound shift toward a world in which several currencies compete for dominance.
The impact of such a shift will be equally profound, with implications for, among other things, the stability of exchange rates, the stability of financial markets, the ease with which the U.S. will be able to finance budget and current-account deficits, and whether the Fed can follow a policy of benign neglect toward the dollar.
The Three Pillars
How could this be? How could the dollar's longtime most-favored-currency status be in jeopardy?
To understand the dollar's future, it's important to understand the dollar's past—why the dollar became so dominant in the first place. Let me offer three reasons.
First, its allure reflects the singular depth of markets in dollar-denominated debt securities. The sheer scale of those markets allows dealers to offer low bid-ask spreads. The availability of derivative instruments with which to hedge dollar exchange-rate risk is unsurpassed. This makes the dollar the most convenient currency in which to do business for corporations, central banks and governments alike.
Second, there is the fact that the dollar is the world's safe haven. In crises, investors instinctively flock to it, as they did following the 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers. This tendency reflects the exceptional liquidity of markets in dollar instruments, liquidity being the most precious of all commodities in a crisis. It is a product of the fact that U.S. Treasury securities, the single most important asset bought and sold by international investors, have long had a reputation for stability.
Finally, the dollar benefits from a dearth of alternatives. Other countries that have long enjoyed a reputation for stability, such as Switzerland, or that have recently acquired one, like Australia, are too small for their currencies to account for more than a tiny fraction of international financial transactions.
What's Changing
But just because this has been true in the past doesn't guarantee that it will be true in the future. In fact, all three pillars supporting the dollar's international dominance are eroding.
First, changes in technology are undermining the dollar's monopoly. Not so long ago, there may have been room in the world for only one true international currency. Given the difficulty of comparing prices in different currencies, it made sense for exporters, importers and bond issuers all to quote their prices and invoice their transactions in dollars, if only to avoid confusing their customers.
Now, however, nearly everyone carries hand-held devices that can be used to compare prices in different currencies in real time. Just as we have learned that in a world of open networks there is room for more than one operating system for personal computers, there is room in the global economic and financial system for more than one international currency.

Second, the dollar is about to have real rivals in the international sphere for the first time in 50 years. There will soon be two viable alternatives, in the form of the euro and China's yuan.
Americans especially tend to discount the staying power of the euro, but it isn't going anywhere. Contrary to some predictions, European governments have not abandoned it. Nor will they. They will proceed with long-term deficit reduction, something about which they have shown more resolve than the U.S. And they will issue "e-bonds"—bonds backed by the full faith and credit of euro-area governments as a group—as a step in solving their crisis. This will lay the groundwork for the kind of integrated European bond market needed to create an alternative to U.S. Treasurys as a form in which to hold central-bank reserves.
China, meanwhile, is moving rapidly to internationalize the yuan, also known as the renminbi. The last year has seen a quadrupling of the share of bank deposits in Hong Kong denominated in yuan. Seventy thousand Chinese companies are now doing their cross-border settlements in yuan. Dozens of foreign companies have issued yuan-denominated "dim sum" bonds in Hong Kong. In January the Bank of China began offering yuan-deposit accounts in New York insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Allowing Chinese companies to do cross-border settlements in yuan will free them from having to undertake costly foreign-exchange transactions. They will no longer have to bear the exchange-rate risk created by the fact that their revenues are in dollars but many of their costs are in yuan. Allowing Chinese banks, for their part, to do international transactions in yuan will allow them to grab a bigger slice of the global financial pie.
Admittedly, China has a long way to go in building liquid markets and making its financial instruments attractive to international investors. But doing so is central to Beijing's economic strategy. Chinese officials have set 2020 as the deadline for transforming Shanghai into a first-class international financial center. We Westerners have underestimated China before. We should not make the same mistake again.
Finally, there is the danger that the dollar's safe-haven status will be lost. Foreign investors—private and official alike—hold dollars not simply because they are liquid but because they are secure. The U.S. government has a history of honoring its obligations, and it has always had the fiscal capacity to do so.
But now, mainly as a result of the financial crisis, federal debt is approaching 75% of U.S. gross domestic product. Trillion-dollar deficits stretch as far as the eye can see. And as the burden of debt service grows heavier, questions will be asked about whether the U.S. intends to maintain the value of its debts or might resort to inflating them away. Foreign investors will be reluctant to put all their eggs in the dollar basket. At a minimum, the dollar will have to share its safe-haven status with other currencies.

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U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz In Favor of Obama Impeachment

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1st call for impeachment by member of Congress

'Absolutely,' Trent Franks tells blog, citing abandonment of DOMA law


By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WorldNetDaily

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March 02, 2011


A Republican congressman has told a left-leaning blog that if there is collective support, he would favor the impeachment of Barack Obama over his decision to stop defending the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Scott Keyes of ThinkProgress.org asked U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.: "I know Newt Gingrich has came out (sic) and said if they don't reverse course here, we ought to be talking about possibly impeaching either Attorney General [Eric] Holder or even President Obama to try to get them to reverse course. Do you think that is something you would support?" Keyes asked.
Read all about the grounds for impeachment.
Franks replied: "If it could gain the collective support, absolutely. I called for Eric Holder to repudiate the policy to try terrorists within our civil courts, or resign. So it just seems like that they have an uncanny ability to get it wrong on almost all fronts."
Keyes was referring to the announcement by Holder and Obama that they no longer would fulfill their official duties to defend the law of the United States when it came to the Defense of Marriage Act.
"While sexual orientation carries no visible badge, a growing scientific consensus accepts that sexual orientation is a characteristic that is immutable," Holder explained in a statement announcing the conclusion he reached with Obama.
Holder said he and the president believe the law is unconstitutional.
"The president and I have concluded that classifications based on sexual orientation warrant heightened scrutiny and that, as applied to same-sex couples legally married under state law, Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional," Holder said.Keyes had asked, "What recourse does Congress have? Could you, for instance, defund the Department of Justice if they don't reverse course and start to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act?"
Franks responded, "That's probably the strongest leverage that we have."
In a followup question from Keyes, Franks said he would support "in a moment" a move to defund the agency.
Think Progress describes itself as a "nonpartisan organization" tied to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It boasts of being named the "Best Liberal Blog" in 2006.
Comments on the site included mostly ridicule of Republicans:


  • "They have such weird priorities: they won't even investigate torture, but private relationships between consenting adults is something that gets their hackles up. I'm really surprised that impeachment hearings haven't already commenced. Must be part of the deal he got for not prosecuting war crimes."
  • "Republicans are acting like cry baby Democrat union thugs now."
  • "Impeach a president who shows support for the constitution? What doesn't this freak understand about equal rights for all … including rights for those HIS GOD created?"
  • "The teatarded and brain dead republicans need something to make them seem busy since they don't have a freaking clue what to do with the jobs and the economy. They know guns, religion, gays, abortion, and unnecessary wars. That is it."
But there also was a jab at Obama:
"What other laws do you think King Obama will choose not to defend in court?"
There was a massive negative reaction to Obama's move. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich described it as an attempt by Obama to dictate his perspective to America .
"The president is replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama," he said. "The president swore an oath on the Bible to ensure that the laws be faithfully executed, not to decide which laws are and which are not constitutional."
Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, said actions by government officials who were sworn faithfully to uphold the laws of the United States are "outrageous."
"This is a federal law and the federal government, including the Obama administration and the Department of Justice, has an obligation to defend this law," he said. "This law has been attacked before and has been upheld as constitutional."
"This is tyranny," he said.
Judge Roy Moore, the former Supreme Court chief justice in Alabama and now chief of the Foundation for Moral Law, said his organization has filed an amicus brief in a dispute over the federal definition of marriage.
"I'm glad we didn't elect to depend on the president to defend our law," he said. "I hope now Congress will step up and take up the battle where the president has stopped."
He said such "arbitrary" decisions about a law's constitutionality have no place in America.
"Basically, he's not upholding the rule of law," he said.
A statement from Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association said, "As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he was against homosexual marriage. Many people at the time suspected he was intentionally being dishonest for political expediency, because he thought it would hurt his chances to beat John McCain if he said he was in favor of homosexual marriage. Now the truth is out. He was lying."
Commentaries raised the issue that should the precedent stand, a subsequent president simply could say that he and his Justice Department no longer would defend Obama's signature law, Obamacare, in court.
But it's far from the first discussion of impeachment, as WND reported
Jonathan Chait at The New Republic, before the 2010 election, predicted that the House would impeach Obama with a majority in the House, but he wouldn't be removed from office because that would demand 67 votes in the Senate.
"Hear me now and believe me later: If Republicans win and maintain control of the House of Representatives, they are going to impeach President Obama. They won't do it right away. And they won't succeed in removing Obama. (You need 67 Senate votes.) But if Obama wins a second term, the House will vote to impeach him before he leaves office," Chait wrote.
In the public forum section of Chait's column, "Ironyroad" wrote, "They'll buy themselves a race war. People aren't going to take it lying down, because they'll know it's because Obama's skin tone isn't to their taste, not because of high crimes and misdemeanors."
In his explanation of why he believes an impeachment could be forthcoming, Chait says the reason itself actually won't matter.
"Wait, you say. What will they impeach him over? You can always find something. Mini-scandals break out regularly in Washington. Last spring, the political press erupted in a frenzy over the news that the White House had floated a potential job to prospective Senate candidate Joe Sestak. On a scale of one to 100, with one representing presidential jaywalking and 100 representing Watergate, the Sestak job offer probably rated about a 1.5. Yet it was enough that GOP Representative Darrell Issa called the incident an impeachable offense," Chait wrote.
WND reported earlier when Maj. Gen. Jerry Curry, who served in Vietnam and commanded the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground during his long military career, suggested Congress should simply hand Obama an ultimatum.
"Action should be taken by the Senate and should be taken by the House," he said. "They should serve notice on him and say, 'Mr. President, we love you but we want to tell you something. You're under a cloud of suspicion. We can't continue running this country with you in charge under this cloud. Now either you clear it up or you resign from office.'"
He was answering questions on Stan Solomon's "Talk to Solomon" show:
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