The number of identity theft victims is dramatically increasing with every day that passes. Every person that surf the internet should have some minimum

Renewable Energy (& Affordable) for the Rest of Us!

How about a program modeled on the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression only with a more specific focus: converting our power grid to clean energy to break the backs of oil and power companies that blackmail our economy, and in the case of oil, demand our tax dollars and the lives of our troops to increase their assets?

Private investors are not turning to agriculture to solve world hunger or eliminate rural poverty. They want profit, pure and simple. And the world has changed in ways that now make it possible to make big money from farmland. From the investors’ perspective, global food needs are guaranteed to grow, keeping food prices up and providing a solid basis for returns on investment for those who control the necessary resource base. And that resource base, particularly land and water, is under stress as never before. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, so-called alternative investments, such as infrastructure or farmland, are all the rage. Farmland itself is touted as providing a hedge against inflation. And because its value doesn't go up and down in sync with other assets like gold or currencies, it allows investors to successfully diversify their portfolios.

Senators from both parties on Tuesday put new pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to turn the power to trim entitlement benefits over to an independent commission. Among its chief responsibilities would be closing the gap between tax revenue coming in and the larger cost of paying for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits. The Government Accountability Office recently reported the gap is on pace to reach an “unsustainable” $63 trillion in 2083. Raising the debt ceiling has become one of a handful of “must-pass” pieces of legislation Congress regularly considers without the usual partisan posturing, and often without much debate...before Tuesday’s hearing was over, Sens. Conrad, Gregg, Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) publicly vowed to vote against raising the debt ceiling if a budget reform commission bill doesn’t come along with it.

The plan is to create a miles-wide array of photovoltaic panels, like the solar panels used on Earth, and place it in a geostationary orbit. - Solar rays are at least five times as powerful in space as they are at ground level, allowing the huge panels to gather vast quantities of energy. -- A report by researchers at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said: "Since solar power is a clean and inexhaustible energy source, we believe that this system will be able to help solve the problems of energy shortage and global warming. "The sun's rays abound in space." Once collected, the solar energy would be beamed down to a substation on Earth, using laser beams or microwaves.

The Obama administration is pinning great hope on the Afghan police initiative as part of a strategy to build up Afghan security forces to stabilize the country and turn back a resurgent Taliban. As the White House and Pentagon wrestle with ratcheting up U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Ball's firsthand experiences have left him feeling pessimistic about U.S. hopes in a primitive and geographically tortuous country that has resisted outside influences since before the days of Genghis Khan.