Yet another Iranian scientist associated with Iran’s nuclear weapons program has been killed earlier today: Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, who was the deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, was killed when a “sticky” bomb was attached to his car by two men on a motorcycle; in the last two years, Israel’s Mossad has taken out four leading Iranian nuclear scientists; there are reports that this latest strike was a joint Mossad-MEK operation

Israel’s relentless campaign against Iran’s nuclear weapons program has claimed yet another Iranian nuclear scientist. Fars, the Iranian news service, reported this morning that a leading scientist involved in Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been killed in Tehran.

The scientist, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, was the deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, a key link in Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The facility houses a centrifuge farm with about 8,000 gas centrifuges.

Roshan is the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist killed in the last two years. Since the beginning of the decade, about a dozen leading scientists and engineers associated with Iran’s nuclear program have been killed.

The method of Roshan’s killing was similar to the method used by Mossad operatives to kill some of the other scientists: two men on a motorcycle rode near Roshan’s care and attached a magnetic – or “sticky” – bomb to the car, then fled. The bomb exploded a few seconds later.

Reuters reports that in addition to the scientist, the bomb killed one pedestrian and seriously injured another man who was riding in the car with Roshan. That man later died in the hospital.

Similar Mossad operations in the last two years:

• Two years ago to the day, on 12 January 2010, Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor, was killed when a motorcycle carrying a hidden bomb exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.
• In November 2010 a bomb attack in Tehran killed Majid Shahriari, a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran who worked for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. A few minutes later, in a different part of the capital, another scientist, another bomb seriously wounded Fereidoun Abbasi. When Abbasi recovered, he was appointed head of Iran’s atomic agency.
• In July 2011, motorcycle-riding gunmen killed Darioush Rezaeinejad, who was described by Iran as an electronics student. It was later confirmed that he was a scientist involved in Iran’s nuclear weapons program, specializing in developing high-voltage switches for triggering a nuclear warhead.

Time quotes Mickey Segal, a former director of the Iran Division in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) Military Intelligence branch as saying: “Many bad things have been happening to Iran in the recent period…. Iran is in a situation where pressure on it is mounting, and the latest assassination joins the pressure that the Iranian regime is facing.”

There are two interesting twists to this latest episode:

• The French daily Le Figaro writes that Israeli agents have been operating in the Kurdish regions of Iraq for some time now, recruiting and training Kurdish operatives for covert sabotage campaign against the Iranian regime and its strategic assets (see more detailed discussion in Intelnews). The Israeli-Kurdish covert effort in north-west Iran is similar to the U.S.-Bloch covert effort in south-east Iran. Since 2003, the CIA has been aiding Jundallah, an ethnic Baloch nationalist rebel group, to wage a campaign of violence and sabotage against the central regime in southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan in the name of local Baloch minority rights. Both efforts are aimed to destabilize the regime and weaken its hold on the country.
• This support by Israel and the United States (arms, training, intelligence sharing, etc.) of anti-regime groups in Iran may begin to yield results beyond blowing up bridges, power stations, and munitions depots: the usually reliable Richard Silverstein reports: “My own confidential Israeli source confirms today’s murder was the work of the Mossad and MEK, as have been a number of previous operations I’ve reported here.”

The MEK, or the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, is leftist organization founded in 1965 to fight against the Shah. For a short while during and after the 1979 revolution in Iran, the organization sided with the Ayatollahs, but by 1981 it broke with the regime and launched a series of sabotage activities against it. During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, MEK operatives were given refuge in Saddam’s Iraq and actively helped the Iraqis in the war against Iran.

The MEK was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the EU. The organization renounced violence in 2001, and the EU has removed it from the EU’s terrorist list in 2009. There are efforts in the U.S. Congress to remove the MEK from the U.S. terrorist list.

Source http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/bull20120111-israel-takes-out-another-iranian-nuclear-scientist

Are the words we all fear to hear.

Saddened is my heart to hear an officer fell.

While defending the community he loved so well.

Time he invested on the force never blinking an eye.

For risking his own life protecting us, we regard him most high.

How tragic to hear the echoes of the words “Deputy Down”.

Only to find their comrade, their friend, lying on the ground.

They all knew when they signed up that someday this could happen.

But it doesn’t stop their heavy hearts from being so saddened.

They lost one of their own, a friend, a brother;

Everyday they protect us, and every day each other.

An outpour of grief has stricken our fair city.

And outrage grows for the culprit on who we’ll NOT take pity!

How dare you show complete disregard for those who protect us;

They will find you, catch you, & serve you with a punishment that is swift & just!

He was an officer, a love, a son, a relative, a friend.

And until they find you the hunt will never end!

How can this happen to one of our own who just tried to keep the peace?

He’s supposed to be praised, honored, & respected, or thanked to say the least!

“Deputy Down” is a haunting phrase that burns right through your ears.

Because it means no twinkling smile, no more laughs, only tears.

The pages of his life have come to an abrupt end.

My heart aches for his family, love of his life, and friends.

My prayers are with his loved ones through the trying days ahead

The community is behind you, and many kind words will be said.

Rest in peace Deputy Bill Coleman as you rise from the Earth’s ground.

We’ll never forget you and your life well after the words,

“Deputy Down”.

Confessions of a private security contractor

MCSO Deputy Shot During DUI Traffic Stop

Published : Saturday, 17 Dec 2011, 9:30 PM MST

“We have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Muammar Qaddafi has been killed,” Jibril told a news conference in the capital Tripoli.

Qaddafi died of wounds suffered during his capture near his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, according to a spokesman for Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC).

“Qaddafi is dead. He is absolutely dead … he was shot in both legs and in the head. The body will be arriving in Misrata soon,” media spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News.

President Barack Obama plans to make his first comments on Qaddafi’s killing at 2 p.m. EDT. A top White House official told Fox News that the administration has received similar reports of Qaddafi’s death and “have confidence” in their accuracy.

A man who claimed to have witnessed the attack told the Associated Press Television News that he struck Qaddafi with his shoes after he was shot.

Footage aired on Al-Jazeera television showed Qaddafi was captured wounded, but alive, in Sirte.

The goateed, balding Qaddafi, in a bloodsoaked shirt and his face bloodied, is seen standing upright being pushed along by fighters, and he appears to struggle against them, stumbling and shouting. The fighters push him onto the hood of a pickup truck, before dragging him away, apparently toward an ambulance.

Later footage showed fighters rolling Qaddafi’s body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and his head bloody.

Click to view video of Qaddafi’s body in Sirte. (WARNING: Graphic content)

Information Minister Mahmoud Shammam said he has confirmed that Qaddafi was dead from fighters who said they saw the body. 

“Our people in Sirte saw the body … Mustafa Abdul-Jalil will confirm it soon,” he told The Associated Press. “Revolutionaries say Qaddafi was in a convoy and that they attacked the convoy.”

Col. Roland Lavoie, spokesman for NATO’s operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, said the alliance’s aircraft Thursday morning struck two vehicles of pro-Qaddafi forces “which were part of a larger group maneuvering in the vicinity of Sirte.”

“These armed vehicles were conducting military operations and presented a clear threat to civilians,” Lavoie said in a statement.

A commander of the new regime forces told AFP one of Qaddafi’s sons, Mutassim Qaddafi, was also killed Thursday.

“We found him dead. We put his body and that of [former defense minister] Abu Bakr Yunis in an ambulance to take them to Misrata,” Mohamed Leith said.

Seif al-Islam, Qaddafi’s son and one-time heir apparent, was also captured wounded by revolutionary fighters and is in a hospital, according to Liby’a justice minister. Mohammad al-Alagi said Thursday he was shot in the leg.

Celebratory gunfire and cries of “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Great” rang out across Tripoli as the reports spread. Cars honked their horns and people hugged each other. In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city’s fall after weeks of bloody siege by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.

Despite the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Qaddafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing Libya’s new leaders from declaring full victory in the eight-month civil war. This week, revolutionary fighters gained control of one stronghold, Bani Walid, and by Tuesday said they had squeezed Qaddafi forces in Sirte into a residential area of about 700 square yards but were still coming under heavy fire from surrounding buildings.

Reporters at the scene watched as the final assault began around 8 a.m. and ended about 90 minutes later. Just before the battle, about five carloads of Qaddafi loyalists tried to flee the enclave down the coastal highway that leads out of the city. But they were met by gunfire from the revolutionaries, who killed at least 20 of them.

Sirte — Qaddafi’s hometown and the last bastion of his supporters — was the last holdout against NTC forces. The town’s capture, which both military officials and new regime political sources said was expected later Thursday, would pave the way for the NTC to officially take control of Libya and move its headquarters away from its Benghazi stronghold in the east to the capital, Tripoli.

White House officials are monitoring the developing reports, but are unable to confirm the status of the former Libyan leader.

Libyan fighters captured Sirte Thursday, two months after the fall of Tripoli.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her department was still attempting to confirm the reports.

“[We] can’t confirm Qaddafi’s capture or death but if it’s true, it’s a big sigh of relief,” Clinton told Fox News White House correspondent Wendell Goler, who is traveling with her in Pakistan. “One more obstacle removed, but we still have a steep climb ahead.”

U.S. Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., said the death of Qaddafi “marks an end to the first phase” of the Libyan revolution.

“While some final fighting continues, the Libyan people have liberated their country,” the statement read. “Now the Libyan people can focus all of their immense talents on strengthening their national unity, rebuilding their country and economy, proceeding with their democratic transition, and safeguarding the dignity and human rights of all Libyans. The United States, along with our European allies and Arab partners, must now deepen our support for the Libyan people, as they work to make the next phase of their democratic revolution as successful as the fight to free their country.”

Britain’s jets and helicopters backed the rebels during the NATO campaign, and the government on Thursday promised assistance to Libya’s new leaders.

“Today is a day to remember all of Qaddafi’s victims,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said, referring to those in Libya and also the 270 people — mainly British and American — killed in the 1988 Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.

The only person charged in the bombing, former Libyan intelligence officer Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was freed from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds in 2009 because of illness. He remains alive and in Libya.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said Qaddafi’s death marks “the promise of a new” Libya.

“The United States demonstrated clear-eyed leadership, patience, and foresight by pushing the international community into action after Qaddafi promised a massacre,” the Massachusetts senator said in a statement. “Though the Administration was criticized both for moving too quickly and for not moving quickly enough, it is undeniable that the NATO campaign prevented a massacre and contributed mightily to Qaddafi’s undoing without deploying boots on the ground or suffering a single American fatality. This is a victory for multilateralism and successful coalition-building in defiance of those who derided NATO and predicted a very different outcome.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

EMBARGOED UNTIL DELIVERY

September 8, 2011

Remarks of President Barack Obama in an

Address to a Joint Session of Congress

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and fellow Americans:

Tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country.  We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that has made things worse. 

This past week, reporters have been asking “What will this speech mean for the President?  What will it mean for Congress?  How will it affect their polls, and the next election?”

But the millions of Americans who are watching right now:  they don’t care about politics.  They have real life concerns.  Many have spent months looking for work.  Others are doing their best just to scrape by – giving up nights out with the family to save on gas or make the mortgage; postponing retirement to send a kid to college. 

These men and women grew up with faith in an America where hard work and responsibility paid off.   They believed in a country where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share – where if you stepped up, did your job, and were loyal to your company, that loyalty would be rewarded with a decent salary and good benefits; maybe a raise once in awhile.  If you did the right thing, you could make it in America . 

But for decades now, Americans have watched that compact erode.  They have seen the deck too often stacked against them.  And they know that Washington hasn’t always put their interests first. 

The people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities.  The question tonight is whether we’ll meet ours.  The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy; whether we can restore some of the fairness and security that has defined this nation since our beginning.    

Those of us here tonight can’t solve all of our nation’s woes.  Ultimately, our recovery will be driven not by Washington , but by our businesses and our workers.  But we can help.  We can make a difference.   There are steps we can take right now to improve people’s lives. 

I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away.  It’s called the American Jobs Act.  There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation.  Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans – including many who sit here tonight.  And everything in this bill will be paid for.  Everything. 

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple:  to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.  It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for the long-term unemployed.  It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.  It will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled, and give companies confidence that if they invest and hire, there will be customers for their products and services.  You should pass this jobs plan right away. 

Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin.  And you know that while corporate profits have come roaring back, smaller companies haven’t.  So for everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for “job creators,” this plan is for you. 

Pass this jobs bill, and starting tomorrow, small businesses will get a tax cut if they hire new workers or raise workers’ wages.  Pass this jobs bill, and all small business owners will also see their payroll taxes cut in half next year.  If you have 50 employees making an average salary, that’s an $80,000 tax cut.  And all businesses will be able to continue writing off the investments they make in 2012. 

It’s not just Democrats who have supported this kind of proposal.  Fifty House Republicans have proposed the same payroll tax cut that’s in this plan.  You should pass it right away. 

Pass this jobs bill, and we can put people to work rebuilding America .  Everyone here knows that we have badly decaying roads and bridges all over this country.  Our highways are clogged with traffic.  Our skies are the most congested in the world. 

This is inexcusable.  Building a world-class transportation system is part of what made us an economic superpower.  And now we’re going to sit back and watch China build newer airports and faster railroads?  At a time when millions of unemployed construction workers could build them right here in America ? 

There are private construction companies all across America just waiting to get to work.  There’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that’s on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America .  A public transit project in Houston that will help clear up one of the worst areas of traffic in the country.  And there are schools throughout this country that desperately need renovating.  How can we expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart?  This is America .  Every child deserves a great school – and we can give it to them, if we act now. 

The American Jobs Act will repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools.  It will put people to work right now fixing roofs and windows; installing science labs and high-speed internet in classrooms all across this country.  It will rehabilitate homes and businesses in communities hit hardest by foreclosures.  It will jumpstart thousands of transportation projects across the country.  And to make sure the money is properly spent and for good purposes, we’re building on reforms we’ve already put in place.  No more earmarks.  No more boondoggles.  No more bridges to nowhere.  We’re cutting the red tape that prevents some of these projects from getting started as quickly as possible.  And we’ll set up an independent fund to attract private dollars and issue loans based on two criteria:  how badly a construction project is needed and how much good it would do for the economy. 

This idea came from a bill written by a Texas Republican and a Massachusetts Democrat.  The idea for a big boost in construction is supported by America ’s largest business organization and America ’s largest labor organization.  It’s the kind of proposal that’s been supported in the past by Democrats and Republicans alike.  You should pass it right away. 

Pass this jobs bill, and thousands of teachers in every state will go back to work.  These are the men and women charged with preparing our children for a world where the competition has never been tougher.  But while they’re adding teachers in places like South Korea , we’re laying them off in droves.  It’s unfair to our kids.  It undermines their future and ours.  And it has to stop.  Pass this jobs bill, and put our teachers back in the classroom where they belong. 

Pass this jobs bill, and companies will get extra tax credits if they hire America ’s veterans.  We ask these men and women to leave their careers, leave their families, and risk their lives to fight for our country.  The last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home. 

Pass this bill, and hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people will have the hope and dignity of a summer job next year.  And their parents, low-income Americans who desperately want to work, will have more ladders out of poverty.   

Pass this jobs bill, and companies will get a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job.  We have to do more to help the long-term unemployed in their search for work.  This jobs plan builds on a program in Georgia that several Republican leaders have highlighted, where people who collect unemployment insurance participate in temporary work as a way to build their skills while they look for a permanent job.  The plan also extends unemployment insurance for another year.  If the millions of unemployed Americans stopped getting this insurance, and stopped using that money for basic necessities, it would be a devastating blow to this economy.  Democrats and Republicans in this Chamber have supported unemployment insurance plenty of times in the past.  At this time of prolonged hardship, you should pass it again – right away. 

Pass this jobs bill, and the typical working family will get a fifteen hundred dollar tax cut next year.  Fifteen hundred dollars that would have been taken out of your paycheck will go right into your pocket.  This expands on the tax cut that Democrats and Republicans already passed for this year.  If we allow that tax cut to expire – if we refuse to act – middle-class families will get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time.  We cannot let that happen.  I know some of you have sworn oaths to never raise any taxes on anyone for as long as you live.  Now is not the time to carve out an exception and raise middle-class taxes, which is why you should pass this bill right away.     

This is the American Jobs Act.  It will lead to new jobs for construction workers, teachers, veterans, first responders, young people and the long-term unemployed.  It will provide tax credits to companies that hire new workers, tax relief for small business owners, and tax cuts for the middle-class. And here’s the other thing I want the American people to know:  the American Jobs Act will not add to the deficit.  It will be paid for.  And here’s how:

The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next ten years.  It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas.  Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act.  And a week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan – a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run. 

This approach is basically the one I’ve been advocating for months.  In addition to the trillion dollars of spending cuts I’ve already signed into law, it’s a balanced plan that would reduce the deficit by making additional spending cuts; by making modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid; and by reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.  What’s more, the spending cuts wouldn’t happen so abruptly that they’d be a drag on our economy, or prevent us from helping small business and middle-class families get back on their feet right away.  

Now, I realize there are some in my party who don’t think we should make any changes at all to Medicare and Medicaid, and I understand their concerns.  But here’s the truth.  Millions of Americans rely on Medicare in their retirement.  And millions more will do so in the future.  They pay for this benefit during their working years.  They earn it.  But with an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program.  And if we don’t gradually reform the system while protecting current beneficiaries, it won’t be there when future retirees need it.  We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it. 

I’m also well aware that there are many Republicans who don’t believe we should raise taxes on those who are most fortunate and can best afford it.  But here is what every American knows.  While most people in this country struggle to make ends meet, a few of the most affluent citizens and corporations enjoy tax breaks and loopholes that nobody else gets.  Right now, Warren Buffet pays a lower tax rate than his secretary – an outrage he has asked us to fix.  We need a tax code where everyone gets a fair shake, and everybody pays their fair share.  And I believe the vast majority of wealthy Americans and CEOs are willing to do just that, if it helps the economy grow and gets our fiscal house in order.   

I’ll also offer ideas to reform a corporate tax code that stands as a monument to special interest influence in Washington.  By eliminating pages of loopholes and deductions, we can lower one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.  Our tax code shouldn’t give an advantage to companies that can afford the best-connected lobbyists.  It should give an advantage to companies that invest and create jobs here in America.  

So we can reduce this deficit, pay down our debt, and pay for this jobs plan in the process.  But in order to do this, we have to decide what our priorities are.  We have to ask ourselves, “What’s the best way to grow the economy and create jobs?”

Should we keep tax loopholes for oil companies?  Or should we use that money to give small business owners a tax credit when they hire new workers?  Because we can’t afford to do both.  Should we keep tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires?  Or should we put teachers back to work so our kids can graduate ready for college and good jobs?  Right now, we can’t afford to do both.  

This isn’t political grandstanding.  This isn’t class warfare.  This is simple math.  These are real choices that we have to make.  And I’m pretty sure I know what most Americans would choose.  It’s not even close.  And it’s time for us to do what’s right for our future.     

The American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away.  But we can’t stop there.  As I’ve argued since I ran for this office, we have to look beyond the immediate crisis and start building an economy that lasts into the future – an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs that pay well and offer security.  We now live in a world where technology has made it possible for companies to take their business anywhere.  If we want them to start here and stay here and hire here, we have to be able to out-build, out-educate, and out-innovate every other country on Earth.  

This task, of making America more competitive for the long haul, is a job for all of us.  For government and for private companies.  For states and for local communities – and for every American citizen.  All of us will have to up our game.  All of us will have to change the way we do business. 

My administration can and will take some steps to improve our competitiveness on our own.  For example, if you’re a small business owner who has a contract with the federal government, we’re going to make sure you get paid a lot faster than you do now.  We’re also planning to cut away the red tape that prevents too many rapidly-growing start-up companies from raising capital and going public.  And to help responsible homeowners, we’re going to work with Federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4% — a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices. 

Other steps will require Congressional action.  Today you passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process, so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possible. That’s the kind of action we need.  Now it’s time to clear the way for a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American companies to sell their products in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea – while also helping the workers whose jobs have been affected by global competition.  If Americans can buy Kias and Hyundais, I want to see folks in South Korea driving Fords and Chevys and Chryslers.  I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with three proud words: “Made in America.” 

And on all of our efforts to strengthen competitiveness, we need to look for ways to work side-by-side with America’s businesses.  That’s why I’ve brought together a Jobs Council of leaders from different industries who are developing a wide range of new ideas to help companies grow and create jobs. 

Already, we’ve mobilized business leaders to train 10,000 American engineers a year, by providing company internships and training.  Other businesses are covering tuition for workers who learn new skills at community colleges.  And we’re going to make sure the next generation of manufacturing takes root not in China or Europe, but right here, in the United States of America.  If we provide the right incentives and support – and if we make sure our trading partners play by the rules – we can be the ones to build everything from fuel-efficient cars to advanced biofuels to semiconductors that are sold all over the world.  That’s how America can be number one again.  That’s how America will be number one again.     

Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy.  Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations. 

Well, I agree that we can’t afford wasteful spending, and I will continue to work with Congress to get rid of it.  And I agree that there are some rules and regulations that put an unnecessary burden on businesses at a time when they can least afford it.  That’s why I ordered a review of all government regulations.  So far, we’ve identified over 500 reforms, which will save billions of dollars over the next few years.  We should have no more regulation than the health, safety, and security of the American people require.  Every rule should meet that common sense test. 

But what we can’t do – what I won’t do – is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.  I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety.  I reject the argument that says for the economy to grow, we have to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit card companies, or rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health insurance industry from shortchanging patients.  I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy.  We shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards.  America should be in a race to the top.  And I believe that’s a race we can win.  

In fact, this larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everyone’s money, let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone they’re on their own – that’s not who we are.  That’s not the story of America.   

Yes, we are rugged individualists.  Yes, we are strong and self-reliant.  And it has been the drive and initiative of our workers and entrepreneurs that has made this economy the engine and envy of the world.

But there has always been another thread running throughout our history – a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation.

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our Union.  But in the middle of a Civil War, he was also a leader who looked to the future – a Republican president who mobilized government to build the transcontinental railroad; launch the National Academy of Sciences; and set up the first land grant colleges.  And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set. 

Ask yourselves – where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways and our bridges; our dams and our airports?  What would this country be like if we had chosen not to spend money on public high schools, or research universities, or community colleges?  Millions of returning heroes, including my grandfather, had the opportunity to go to school because of the GI Bill.  Where would we be if they hadn’t had that chance? 

How many jobs would it have cost us if past Congresses decided not to support the basic research that led to the Internet and the computer chip?  What kind of country would this be if this Chamber had voted down Social Security or Medicare just because it violated some rigid idea about what government could or could not do?  How many Americans would have suffered as a result? 

No single individual built America on their own.  We built it together.  We have been, and always will be, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all; a nation with responsibilities to ourselves and with responsibilities to one another.   Members of Congress, it is time for us to meet ourresponsibilities. 

Every proposal I’ve laid out tonight is the kind that’s been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past.  Every proposal I’ve laid out tonight will be paid for.  And every proposal is designed to meet the urgent needs of our people and our communities. 

I know there’s been a lot of skepticism about whether the politics of the moment will allow us to pass this jobs plan – or any jobs plan.  Already, we’re seeing the same old press releases and tweets flying back and forth.  Already, the media has proclaimed that it’s impossible to bridge our differences.  And maybe some of you have decided that those differences are so great that we can only resolve them at the ballot box.  

But know this:  the next election is fourteen months away.  And the people who sent us here – the people who hired us to work for them – they don’t have the luxury of waiting fourteen months.  Some of them are living week to week; paycheck to paycheck; even day to day.  They need help, and they need it now. 

I don’t pretend that this plan will solve all our problems.  It shouldn’t be, nor will it be, the last plan of action we propose.  What’s guided us from the start of this crisis hasn’t been the search for a silver bullet.  It’s been a commitment to stay at it – to be persistent – to keep trying every new idea that works, and listen to every good proposal, no matter which party comes up with it. 

Regardless of the arguments we’ve had in the past, regardless of the arguments we’ll have in the future, this plan is the right thing to do right now.  You should pass it.  And I intend to take that message to every corner of this country.  I also ask every American who agrees to lift your voice and tell the people who are gathered here tonight that you want action now.  Tell Washington that doing nothing is not an option.  Remind us that if we act as one nation, and one people, we have it within our power to meet this challenge.

President Kennedy once said, “Our problems are man-made – therefore they can be solved by man.  And man can be as big as he wants.”

These are difficult years for our country.  But we are Americans.  We are tougher than the times that we live in, and we are bigger than our politics have been.  So let’s meet the moment.  Let’s get to work, and show the world once again why the United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth.  Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America.   

According to a YouTube video message, the hacker collective Anonymous is planning to destroy Facebook on Nov. 5. The group alleges that Facebook has been giving personal information to governments, including Egypt and Syria. “Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so they can spy on people from all around the world,” the group said. Facebook denies the claims and said it only shares information with third parties if the user has previously agreed. Additionally, Anonymous is angry about Facebook’s privacy policies, which it says keeps information on the social networking site regardless of privacy settings. While the group did not explain how it would destroy the social networking site, a DDoS attack is seen as being the most likely method.

A group of hackers that has claimed attacks on websites run by the U.S. Senate and the Central Intelligence Agency posted a cache of documents from Arizona police, calling it a protest against a controversial state law.

On Thursday, Lulz Security posted files labeled as training manuals, emails, intelligence documents and other material that it says it poached from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

LulzSec, as the group commonly refers to itself, said the posting of the documents was a protest of Arizona’s SB1070, controversial state legislation that critics say is anti-immigration. The key provision of the law has been frozen because of legal challenges.

“We are targeting AZDPS specifically because we are against SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona,” LulzSec said in a release. “Hackers of the world are uniting and taking direct action against our common oppressors–the government, corporations, police, and militaries of the world.”

AZDPS spokesman Steve Harrison said the documents appeared to be authentic and said LulzSec most likely accessed them via the email accounts of eight officers.

“Our IT people are looking at this, trying to determine how this breach was made and how to stop it,” Harrison said. He added that Arizona authorities had received a tip about the hack, but did not provide details.

The hack comes amid a six-week-long spree of digital break-ins that has seen LulzSec target public and private entities both large and small. Targets have included Japanese media-and-technology giant Sony Corp. (SNE, 6758.TO), the Atlanta chapter of Federal Bureau of Investigation affiliate InfraGard and U.S. public broadcaster PBS.

Many of the Arizona documents appear to be routine. They include bulletins on wanted suspects from previous years, copies of court filings and a list of street terms for illegal drugs. The documents also include email correspondence and bulletins from other departments and agencies, including a warning about possible retaliatory terrorist attacks following the early May killing of Osama Bin Laden.

LulzSec did not respond to a request for comment via their Twitter feed.

-By Andrew Morse, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-439-6402; andrew.morse@dowjones.com

Rep. John Mica of Florida and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, both harsh critics of TSA, wrote to the Department of Homeland Security Acting Inspector General today and requested an investigation of TSA security failures, including a detailed summary of the security breakdown and corrective action taken.

This month, TSA delivered letters of “proposed termination” to 36 workers at Honolulu International Airport, including five members of its leadership team, and suspended 12 more after an internal investigation revealed that carry-on bags were allegedly entering airplanes without being screened.

“Unfortunately the incident at Honolulu Airport is just another example of what can happen when the nation’s transportation security agency acts as both the operator and regulator of aviation screening,” Mica said in a press statement. “It is essential that we have a full investigation of this massive TSA lapse and ensure the nation has the most effective security system possible.”

Mica is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which released a report earlier this month slamming TSA for halting a program that allowed airports to use privately contracted screeners.

“I have long expressed my serious misgivings about the TSA’s approach to securing an airplane,” Chaffetz added in the release. “This most recent incident in Hawaii only magnifies my concerns and highlights the failures of the TSA. There is a more effective and efficient way to handle aviation screening. I hope and expect this investigation will be the catalyst for change.”