Luke_Wilbur

Anil, What is your opinion of the current state of the world?

No problemo Joe Just don't get into trouble.

Here are remarks of Secretary Condoleezza Rice with Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain after their meeting. North Korea was a major topic *************************************** QUESTION: Hello. Madame Secretary, how imminent do you think a North Korea test launch would be? Do you regard it as a test and not as some sort of hostile act? And what would the consequences be? What would the United States do if, in fact, they do go ahead with the test? SECRETARY RICE: Well, Anne, we are working very closely with our allies. I, over the weekend in the last few days, have had several conversations with regional allies. Indeed, Foreign Minister Moratinos and I talked about the North Korean situation. We regard it as abrogation of obligations that North Korea undertook in the moratorium that they signed onto in 1999, that they reiterated in 2002 that is clearly a part of the framework agreement that was signed in September of this past year between the six parties. And so it would be a very serious matter and indeed a provocative act should North Korea decide to launch that missile. We will obviously consult on next steps, but I can assure everyone that it would be taken with utmost seriousness. I think it is already taken with utmost seriousness by regional states and by the world because it would once again show North Korea determined to deepen its isolation, determined not to take a path that is a path of compromise and a path of peace, but rather instead to once again saber-rattle. And so from our point of view it would be a very serious matter indeed. ******************************* Here are remarks of Japan's Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi about the North Korea missle test ******************************* Q: I would like to ask you a question about the North Korean missile. Does Japan suggest that its tough action against North Korea will depend at all on the trajectory of the missile launch, or is it irrespective of the trajectory? Mr. Taniguchi: Foreign Minister Aso gave remarks to the members of the Japanese press corps when he was asked what the Japanese Government would be doing in response to the launch. He said that the Japanese Government, together with the United States (US) Government, is going to bring this issue immediately to the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Already a Japanese legislation has been enacted at the last Diet session that would enable the Japanese Government to exercise further means to pressure North Korea. Foreign Minister Aso also said that the Japanese Government is going to use this newly introduced law to further pressure North Korea by using a variety of means. These are the points that Foreign Minister Aso has already mentioned. Q: Just to follow-up, has Foreign Minister Aso or any other minister said that this action will be taken irrespective of whether or not the missile, if it is launched, passes over Japan? Simply the act of launch of the missile would provoke an action? Mr. Taniguchi: He did not go into any details of that sort. When you say irrespective of the launch, you are suggesting perhaps that the North Korean government may have a couple of different objectives with respect to the launch. However, I cannot say anything about it because it has not happened. When it happens, there may be other elements to be taken into consideration. We have got to carefully see what the situation is going to look like, and by pulling together all the elements worthy of consideration, we will be coming up with a concrete decision about what to do. Q: The Republic of Korea (ROK) Government seems to make the impression that this might not be a missile launch, or they are trying to make a distinction between a missile launch and a satellite rocket launch. Is there any difference whether it is a satellite rocket launch or a missile launch? Mr. Taniguchi: Well it will surely involve technical details. I am not an expert on that so you should ask someone who has got a proper knowledge about that. I would say that immediately after the launch, given the technicalities and the expertise shared by the Japanese, US and ROK Governments, it would be made clear what sort of intention the North Korean government has had. Q: I understand that the Japanese Government has been sending warnings to North Korea through various diplomatic channels. As of yesterday, I believe there has been no response from them. Is that still the case? Mr. Taniguchi: There has been no response. Q: No response back from the North Koreans? Mr. Taniguchi: No response yet. Q: There was an article in one of the ROK's dailies today suggesting that some of the technology used in the electronic parts for the Taepodong-2 actually came from Japan. Is the Japanese Government aware of those suggestions? Mr. Taniguchi: Me, personally, I do not know anything about it. I have not read the article either. Q: Just further elaboration, various countries are continually testing missiles of various kinds. So Japan's objection to this potential missile is not solely based on the possibility of it crossing over Japanese territory. Is that the correct characterization, that it is based on the act of launch? Mr. Taniguchi: The opposition of the Japanese Government toward any attempt of a missile launch has been firmly backed by the pledge made between the Japanese and North Korean governments when the leaders of the two nations met in September 2001. This was clearly stated in the so-called Pyongyang Declaration; the moratorium for the missile test launch was clearly stated there. So by launching a missile, the North Korean government is going to violate both the spirit and text of the Pyongyang Declaration. I should also add that the North Korean government has been widely known to be a proliferator of technologies associated with missiles. So it is going to pose a danger, of course not only to Japan but also to the wider world. For these two reasons, any attempt to launch missiles has to be powerfully condemned not only by the Japanese Government but also by the international community as well. Q: If the missile accidentally lands in Japan or somewhere near Japan, would this be perceived as an attack by North Korea? Mr. Taniguchi: A judgment of that sort will depend on many subtle differences and elements. The decision has to be made as quickly as possible, that is the bottom line. But in order for the Japanese Government to reach that decision, it is also the case that you have got to take into consideration many elements. But that said, I should say that even if it is a terrible accident, the North Korean government is going to shoulder all the responsibility and it goes without saying that it has got to apologize most sincerely to the people and for the property that may be damaged by the accidental occurrence.

Here are the two emails I received today from Comcast. Here is the second message that was sent today

Dedrick of Comcast of customer service (1-800-266-2278 option 1 [English], option 1 [trouble], option 3 [home telephone service] ) stated that Comcast by accident gave Carmen Wilbur's number to another customer. They are trying to contact this customer to give the line back to Mrs. Wilbur.

That is pretty intense. I hope the leaders in Iran realize that Al Qaeda is a bigger threat to their country's existance than the United States. I am sure the authenticity of the document will be questioned.

Is 1223 the best bar in DC?

That is truly unbelievable. He must have been way nervous.

Is Melwood sponsoring your vacation?

NBC did a story about this in March. This issue seems to gaining interest, but the Pentagon already admitted the mistake and fixed the problem. ************************************************ The Department of Defense admitted in a letter obtained by NBC News on that it had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators to a database of possible domestic terrorist threats. The letter followed an NBC report focusing on the Defense Department’s Threat and Local Observation Notice, or TALON, report. Acting Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Roger W. Rogalski's letter came in reply to a memo from Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who had demanded answers about the process of identifying domestic protesters as suspicious and removing their names when they are wrongly listed. The recent review of the TALON Reporting System ... identified a small number of reports that did not meet the TALON reporting criteria. Those reports dealt with domestic anti-military protests or demonstrations potentially impacting DoD facilities or personnel,” Rogalski wrote on Wednesday. While the information was of value to military commanders, it should not have been retained in the Cornerstone database. Threats directed against Defense Department In 2003, the Defense Department directed a little-known agency, Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), to establish and maintain a domestic law enforcement database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats directed against the Department of Defense. Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also established TALON at that time. The original NBC News report, from December, focused on a secret 400-page Defense Department document listing more than 1,500 “suspicious incidents” across the country over a 10-month period. One such incident was a small group of activists meeting in a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., to plan a protest against military recruiting at local high schools. In his Wednesday letter, Rogalski said such anomalies in the TALON database had been removed. "They did not pertain to potential foreign terrorist activity and thus should never have been entered into the Cornerstone database. These reports have since been removed from the Cornerstone database and refresher training on intelligence oversight and database management is being given,” Rogalski wrote. Rogalski said only 43 names were improperly added to the database, and those were from protest-related reports such as the Quaker meeting in Florida. 'All reports concerning protest activities have been purged,' the letter said. Track Back http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11751418/

Can you tell us more about 'Children's education in China.'

Can you explain this? Thanks. Proposed Fiscal 2007 Revenue Actions by Type of Revenue and Net Increase or Decrease* (Millions) Maryland -13.3 Personal Income, -14.0 Other Taxes, -27.3 Total Virginia 380.7 Sales, 250.1 Other Taxes, 147.4 Fees, 778.2 Total

That is my point. We as a Nation cannot afford to have our large corporations stumble. We are at economic war with the world. For every American corporation there is a foreign one waiting to control the market. I am Red, White, and Blue when it comes to that.

Verizon Service Request ID 411193602 Mrs. Allgood from Verizon Natural Return department. This department is focused on bringing back old customers that have changed to another carrier. In addition, Verizon Natural Return helps people that want to switch carriers. Verizon Natural Return department gets email orders of work that they need to do to switch the customer. On June 8, the Verizon Natural Return department received an email order from Verizon Customer Service that Carmen Wilbur's phone number was activated with Comcast. Allgood, stated that Carmen Wilbur had been slammed by Comcast. This is noted on the Customer Service ticket. The Verizon Natural Return Department researched and found that currently Carmen Wilbur's phone line is inactive. Verizon Customer Service recieved an order from Comcast to switch the number on May 30, 2006 from National Marketing Center. (NMC) Based in Tucson, Arizona, the National Marketing Center is a wholesale customer lead generator that works on behalf of Verizon and Comcast. The NMC is responsible for end-to-end service delivery for all Verizon Wholesale Local products. The National Marketing Center is 1-800-684-9012. Comcast Customer Care. Mrs. Allgood's telephone number is 804-235-5597

Here is some feedback I have been receiving to give you some ideas: From the feedback, I am seeing that our content is way to buried for people and search engines to notice. I will start looking into that.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams today repeated his position that the proposed parking garage near the new ballpark in Southeast should be underground or built in such a way that permits development around it. The mayor told reporters that building a 1,200-space parking garage underground before the ballpark’s 2008 opening is feasible, economical and aesthetically desirable. He also noted that the nine DC Council members who voted in favor of the baseball project earlier this year all endorsed setting the parking underneath development. Mayor Williams said that he has asked Steve Goldsmith, the chairman of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and the leader of a task force that’s working to steer the project to completion, to press for underground parking to benefit the District’s long-term interests. “I strongly believe that it’s in the best long-term interest of the District to put these parking spaces underground, not above-ground as is frequently done in the suburbs,” said Mayor Williams. “It will serve the ballpark as well as the surrounding community for us to place this parking garage below ground so that we can build a productive mix of affordable housing, office, retail or residential development on top of the project. If we put the cars underground, as we do throughout most of the city, the District will reap more long-term benefits and millions of dollars in tax revenue. I want to encourage everyone involved in the undertaking to keep their eye on the big picture; we aren’t just building a stadium. We are creating a healthy cluster of development that will raise the standard of living for all our residents, reshape both sides of the Anacostia River and help make our city a livable and walkable place for the next 100 years. We should not sacrifice that vision for short-term gains.”

I have no problems with advertising at all. I actually endorse it. But, the problem I have is putting barrier on sharing information. I want to be able to search for a real movie or restaurant review that someone took the time to share with everyone than a paid infomercial anyday. I think that is why people are embracing MySpace.com like its the next Google. In addition, the amount of information you will find will be limited to whether the barrier accepts it or not.

Now that is pretty clever. Has anyone seen the movie?

I am getting email warnings that Internet Service Providers are going to start charging web sites money to access to their subscribers. Their reason is a rising bandwidth costs to access the internet. What does this mean? Verizon, Comcast, AOL, and other Networks will start reducing the possibility for innovation and freedom of choice. Seed companies will have very little time to fine tune their business model. In addition, business will start focusing away from the American consumer market. This has the ramifications of deflating our wealthy economy. We have to maintain a complete open market to sustain the lifestyle many countries covet. Please pass this message along and voice your comments on this topic.

Hi everyone, Raise your glass to conservation and join 2,000 young professionals from the D.C. area at FONZ’s second annual beer-tasting event, “Brew at the Zoo.” Enjoy handcrafted beers from a wide variety of local and European breweries, including Clipper City Brewing Company, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Hook & Ladder Brewing Company, and Wild Goose Brewery. Area restaurants, such as Chef Geoff’s, District Chophouse, Extra Virgin, and Mie N Yu, will provide hors d’oeuvres. Guests can also enjoy live music performed by a local band. Tickets are $35 for FONZ members and $50 for nonmembers. Proceeds benefit the Zoo’s Asian elephant conservation program. For tickets or more information, members of the public can visit FONZ online at www.fonz.org/afterhours.htm or call FONZ at (202) 633-3026.

I do not know if the last post was a representative of Ford or not, but it looks like the company is thinking about electric cars. But, from what I have read is they pulled the plug on the electric car project. Partial pun intended.

In the most comprehensive survey ever undertaken of the massive ice sheets covering both Greenland and Antarctica, NASA scientists confirm climate warming is changing how much water remains locked in Earth's largest storehouse of ice and snow. Other recent studies have shown increasing losses of ice in parts of these sheets. This new survey is the first to inventory the losses of ice and the addition of new snow on both in a consistent and comprehensive way throughout an entire decade. The survey shows that there was a net loss of ice from the combined polar ice sheets between 1992 and 2002 and a corresponding rise in sea level. The survey documents for the first time extensive thinning of the West Antarctic ice shelves and an increase in snowfall in the interior of Greenland, as well as thinning at the edges. All are signs of a warming climate predicted by computer models. The survey, published in the Journal of Glaciology, combines new satellite mapping of the height of the ice sheets from two European Space Agency satellites. It also used previous NASA airborne mapping of the edges of the Greenland ice sheets to determine how fast the thickness is changing. In Greenland, the survey saw large ice losses along the southeastern coast and a large increase in ice thickness at higher elevations in the interior due to relatively high rates of snowfall. This study suggests there was a slight gain in the total mass of frozen water in the ice sheet over the decade studied, contrary to previous assessments. This situation may have changed in just the past few years, according to lead author Jay Zwally of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Last month NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., reported a speed up of ice flow into the sea from several Greenland glaciers. That study included observations through 2005; Zwally's survey concluded with 2002 data. When the scientists added up the overall gains and losses of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, there was a net loss of ice to the sea. The amount of water added to the oceans (20 billion tons) is equivalent to the total amount of freshwater used in homes, businesses and farming in New York, New Jersey and Virginia each year. "The study indicates that the contribution of the ice sheets to recent sea-level rise during the decade studied was much smaller than expected, just two percent of the recent increase of nearly three millimeters a year," says Zwally. "Continuing research using NASA satellites and other data will narrow the uncertainties in this important issue." NASA is continuing to monitor the polar ice sheets with the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), launched in January 2003. ICESat uses a laser beam to measure the elevation of ice sheets with unprecedented accuracy three times a year. The first comprehensive ice sheet survey conducted by ICESat is expected early next year, said Zwally, who is the mission's project scientist. http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

http://www.evolutionofdance.com/ Judson Laipply is the creator and performer of “The Evolution of Dance”. Take 6 minutes to watch this one! Remember how many of these you have done!

A friend of mine sent me this and I just had to post it. I must warn you that these pictures will hurt your ribs from laughing.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is Gore's argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue - rather, it is the biggest moral challenges facing our global civilization. You can watch the video trailer and see what I am talking about. www.climatecrisis.net