Four high-ranking officials at the State Department were placed on administrative leave on Wednesday for their role in the security failures that led up to the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September. Among those who lost their jobs was Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state who worked in the department’s diplomatic security bureau. In a news conference on Wednesday, former senior State Department diplomat Thomas Pickering–who along with former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen led a review board that drew up a report on what went wrong in the run up to the attack–said that the assistant secretaries of state were responsible for the security failures that led to the assault on the consulate. Also placed on administrative leave was Charlene Lamb, who was in charge of security for U.S. diplomatic outposts in other countries. Lamb became a lightning rod for criticism following her congressional testimony in October that she rejected requests for additional security at the compound in Benghazi, though she also said at the time that the State Department had an appropriate amount of security at the consulate when it was attacked. The other two officials who were placed on administrative leave included another official from the diplomatic security bureau and a diplomat from the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, neither of whom were identified.

State Department employees on administrative leave for security failures in Benghazi attack is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

What gifts are you giving this holiday season? As you know many Americans have started holiday shopping. Many of us hunt for online bargains spending hours researching the perfect gift for a family member or close friend. Some of us wait in long lines and are in a rush to get home to start wrapping that perfect holiday gift. But have you thought about volunteering on Christmas for a local charity this holiday season?

Volunteering is a truly rewarding experience and is a gift that means so much to those that are less fortunate.  There are many organizations that need help this Christmas season including churches, homeless shelters, hospitals, animal shelters, and much more.

This year I had an awesome opportunity to volunteer at a local church called Ecclesia.  Our church was moving to another location in downtown Houston at 1100 Elder Street.  The new location required a lot of volunteers to assist with sweeping, mopping, window cleaning, landscape maintenance, setting up furniture, and much more. I am proud to say that I joined over 400 volunteers with assisting the church and it was a rewarding experience to give back to the community.

This Christmas season why not help your community? Yes it takes time out of your day, but I guarantee you it will be a very rewarding experience.  Check around your local area for charity organizations that need volunteers.  Check out http://www.volunteermatch.org/ for a listing of organizations that need your help.

Give the gift that really matters: Volunteer this Christmas season is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

This is your last chance to prepare for an August update from Microsoft that will reject cryptographic keys less than 1024 bits.

An important update from Microsoft is coming in August and for those who missed the announcement earlier this year, it could actually break a number of things for some businesses who haven’t already prepared for the change. The update will block anything using a cryptographic key that is less than 1024 bits. Here are some of the repercussions of the update for those who haven’t prepared in advance:

• Error messages when browsing to web sites that have SSL certificates with keys that are less than 1024 bits
• Problems enrolling for certificates when a certificate request attempts to utilize a key that is less than 1024 bits
• Creating or consuming email (S/MIME) messages that utilize less than 1024 bit keys for signatures or encryption
• Installing Active X controls that were signed with less than 1024 bit signatures
• Installing applications that were signed with less than 1024 bit signatures (unless they were signed prior to January 1, 2010, which will not be blocked by default).

For a little background, with encryption, security is often measured in how long it would take to break that encryption, or more practically, in key lengths. The genius behind modern encryption is in the fact that some math functions are very fast in one direction, but extremely slow in the reverse. So by using a key to produce a cipher block from the data you wish to encrypt, you can get the result in a very fast time frame. But in order to figure out the key, or to break that encryption, it would take you a long time. Note that it’s still possible, — all encryption can be broken — but we still say it’s secure because of how long it would take to break it. However, this depends on two factors: how much processing power you have, and how long the key is. For example, if you were to implement an encryption system that used a 20-bit key, it would be horribly insecure, because breaking that encryption would take seconds for a modern computer. However, if the key length is 1024 bits, then those seconds would instead become several billion years.

Back a few years ago, most certificates were issued using 512-bit key lengths. With the computers we had then, brute forcing a private key was considered to be unfeasible, because it would take a ridiculously long amount of time. But now, most security experts consider that length to be too short, because of how fast processor power evolved, and with things like GPU arrays being used to crack passwords and so on. As the attack vectors evolve, so must security, and as such any modern certificate is now issued with a minimum of 1024 bits. But many businesses and corporations make their own certificates for a variety of purposes, from signing emails, to encrypting corporate websites, or even for their own internal login systems. Up until now, Microsoft products, such as Windows Server 2003 or 2008, allowed you to create certificates with a short key length, but after this update, this will no longer be possible.

Discovering usage of keys less than 1024 bits

So who will be affected? If your systems are kept up to date, and you’ve been following safe security practices, chances are this won’t change a thing for you. But many businesses have a large array of systems and server software, some dating from several years ago, and you may well have older certificates that no longer meet the new requirements. After the update, you may start seeing errors such as not being able to browse to a site that uses a certificate with a key of less than 1024 bits, problems enrolling older certificates to new client machines, failing to sign email, and so on. Again, most businesses won’t have any of these issues, but some networks that rely on older systems will be impacted. To find out if this is your case, the Microsoft TechNet post linked above has a series of commands you can issue using the Certutil tool which you already use to manage certificates.

To monitor an external website, a useful tool is the Qualys SSL Labs site, which not only tells you the key length used by the site, but other information on the certificate used to encrypt your connection. A bad case that could happen here is that your corporate website will start showing error messages to users, and that’s something you obviously want to avoid. A worse case however is if you rely on old hardware tokens. For example, some older DKIM and KVM switches use 512-bit keys, and the same is true for some cheap routers. While these things may or may not produce errors after this Microsoft update, it’s still worth looking into and replacing them with more secure alternatives.

So how much of a threat is there? In most cases, it’s not a huge deal. 512-bit keys have been broken, and while it’s not a trivial thing to do, as processing power keeps increasing, it will become more trivial. So you may ask, how much more secure is a 1024-bit key? Remember that it’s an exponential function, so doubling the key length much more than doubles the security. Of course, the holy grail in hacking would be to find a function that could factorize these keys as quickly as it takes to make them, and such a function may exist, which would render all modern encryption completely useless, but most security experts agree that this is an unlikely event. So for now, as long as all your corporate systems are already onboard with 1024-bit keys, you can sleep knowing that not only will this August update not break anything, but your data is truly secure.

Last chance to prepare for an August update from Microsoft that will reject cryptographic keys less than 1024 bits is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

The Pentagon official at the top of the US Defense Department’s cyber program says that an attack on the United States’ computer systems is not just on the way but that America is now more vulnerable than ever.

National Security Agency Director Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who also heads the Pentagon’s Cyber Command unit, tells reporters this week that the US is coming close to being hit with a computer attack that could devastate the country. Speaking before a crowd this week, Alexander warns, “The conflict is growing [and] the probability for crisis is mounting.”

“While we have the time, we should think about and enact those things that we need to ensure our security in this area. Do it now, before a crisis,” insists Alexander.

“What I’m concerned about is the transition from disruptive to destructive attacks,” he adds. “And I think that’s coming. We have to be ready for that.”

The US Congress is currently tasking itself with finding a way to fight cyberterrorism, but the inability to fully find a way to balance security with civil liberties has raised objections across the country. Alexander dismissed these concerns during this week’s address, however, insisting that the NSA does not “hold data on American citizens” and equated the US government’s association with major Internet entities as one that is relatively hands-off.

“Like the police force, like the fire department, they don’t see around buildings waiting for a fire to come on, you call them when it happens. In cyberspace, I see very much the same thing in our partnership with industry,” he alleges.

“We can protect civil liberties and privacy, and cybersecurity,” says Alexander, who insists his agency is “not talking about giving our personal e-mails to the government.”

Meanwhile, only last month the NSA sent a letter to two leading congressmen refusing to reveal the number of Americans that they have spied on through provisions made in 2008 to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a legislation that allows the government to go through correspondence that they believe is being sent overseas. In explaining themselves to the two lawmakers that asked for an answer, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO), the NSA said that that informing Americans about any spying they may have been subjected to would be damaging to personal privacy.

RT has also reported that, under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, the government is given practically an open invitation to access private information such as that contained in emails tens of thousands of times a year.

Elsewhere, recent reports have alleged that the United States has all the while been behind massive computer attacks waged not at its own citizens through spy programs but instead at Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. By way of both Stuxnet and Flame, a worm and malware, respectively, Obama administrations officials speaking with the New York Times have confirmed that the technology behind the cybercrimes was engineered on behalf of the American government and authorized by US President Barack Obama.

Speaking of attacks aimed at America, however, Alexander explains this week, “I do think that’s coming our way. You can see this statistically; the number of attacks is growing.”

Pentagon official at the top of the US Defense Department’s cyber program says that an attack on the United States’ computer systems is not just on the way but that America is now more vulnerable than ever is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

The General Services Administration says the strategic sourcing initiative for office supplies has saved $39 million over the last 18 months and is on track to save $208 million by 2013.

And office supplies are just the beginning of the products that soon will be part of the government wide Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI). The Obama administration plans to use the power of the government’s size to buy everything from print management to mobile devices and services to IT hardware.

But some small businesses not on the contract are demanding the White House step back and analyze the broader, unintended costs of these efforts. A growing number say they are in grave danger of losing their businesses, and thousands more could be right behind them.

Bonnie Whittaker says Adams Marketing is one of those small businesses. Whittaker, the company’s vice president for federal sales, said Adams Marketing’s revenue from the sale of office supplies under Schedule 75 to federal agencies dropped by about 30 percent to $9 million in 2011, and things only are getting worse in 2012. She said her company has earned about $3 million through the first two quarters.

“We’ve had to lay off five people because our sales have dropped so much,” she said in an interview as part of Federal News Radio’s week-long special report, Inside the World’s Biggest Buyer.

Adams Marketing is not alone. According to StopFSSI.org, there are hundreds of other companies whose revenue has dropped from as much as $19 million to $20,000 between 2010 and 2011 because of the FSSI blanket purchase agreement (BPA) for office supplies.

15 vendors win BPA

GSA awarded the BPA to 15 vendors, including 13 small businesses, in June 2010. The administration is strongly encouraging agencies to use the BPA to buy office supplies because of the potential lower costs.

GSA, under direction from the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, recently awarded commodity contracts for IT hardware such as mobile devices and tablet computers, and other BPAs are coming for computers, monitors and video teleconferencing equipment.

“It’s important to understand price is only one of FSSI’s key priorities. Socio- economic goals, including small businesses, understanding the government’s spending patterns, ease of use and removing government cost drivers are other key goals,” said Steve Kempf, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, Thursday before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce. “To accomplish these goals, on each specific initiative, we work closely with other agencies to develop features and requirements as well as obtain industry feedback and expertise. This thoughtful process has resulted in significant savings and smarter acquisitions in all of the initiatives we have undertaken.”

But not everyone agrees with Kempf’s assessment.

With office supplies being the first out of the gate, the 500 or so firms on Schedule 75 but not on the BPA, say FSSI is cutting them out of the $1.4 billion market and forcing them to lay off employees.

In 2009, vendors under Schedule 75 accounted for about $690 million in sales for office supplies, with small firms receiving more than $472 million (68 percent), according to GSA’s sales query tool. But in 2010 with the award of FSSI, small firms not under the BPA saw their market share begin to drop, and by 2011, agencies spent $121 million under the BPA and $465 million under Schedule 75. GSA and the firms expect those numbers to continue to come together.

Rick Vogel, a federal government sales manager for Coast to Coast Computer Products in Simi Valley, Calif., and one of the commodity IT winners to provide tablet computers, said the impact of the office supplies BPA on small firms is a microcosm of things to come from the administration’s aggressive expansion of strategic sourcing across the other areas.

He and Whittaker are part of the StopFSSI.org effort.

Long term consequences of strategic sourcing?

“The fact of the matter is that there are about 15,000 to 20,000 federal contractors out there and if they source each schedule down to even 40 contractors, you’re talking about limiting that original pool of 17,000 contractors, the gross majority of which are small businesses and socio-economic disadvantaged businesses,” Vogel said. “They will be closing their doors and laying people off in significant fashion. Our concern is not just the detrimental effect on small businesses, but it’s the effect of that loss of the jobs in the U.S. economy as it is. We believe the programs are somewhat penny-wise and a pound foolish in the fact that for every dollar or two they save upfront, they will be losing that same dollar or two, or even a greater amount, through the social programs being supported by the American taxpayer.”

Vogel, Whittaker and a growing number of others believe the administration failed to take into account the societal costs of the program.

Sam Bornstein, a professor of accounting and taxation at Kean University in Union, N.J., and a partner with the firm Bornstein and Song CPAs and Consultants, has been studying the impact of strategic sourcing on small businesses. Bornstein said his initial study of the federal initiative is showing the savings by agencies don’t present the entire picture.

“In our preliminary work, we discovered among the nine contractors that we had personally interviewed, we found 171 jobs lost to FSSI. That is shocking,” Bornstein said. “Based upon our preliminary research, we discovered that all we have to prove is a net job loss of 900 jobs, this will far exceed the $16 million of GSA claimed FSSI savings in [2011].”

He added the costs go beyond just job losses at the effected companies.

“GSA seems to be convinced, and adamantly convinced, that the FSSI is working well, but are not apparently aware or concerned about the off-setting factor, that these displaced small businesses — the financial distress, the failures, the mortgage defaults and foreclosures — and by the way, I should add, these will impact not only the U.S. economic recovery and part of that is the housing market because they are all interrelated,” Bornstein said.

He said the administration should have had GSA do a cost-benefit analysis to better understand the impact of FSSI.

Agencies mandating use of BPA

But Dan Gordon, the former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), said such an analysis wasn’t done and may not be possible.

“The idea that if you pay lower prices that some companies are going to say, ‘For that amount of money we will have to lay off staff’ and therefore you shouldn’t pay lower prices,” said Gordon, who now is the associate dean at The George Washington University law school. “I don’t think you and I would do that when we were making purchases. We wouldn’t walk into CVS and say ‘I know you are selling this product for $11, but I want to give you $15 because I want to be sure the manufacturers’ employees are well taken care of.’ I don’t think anybody would view the fact that vendors who charge higher prices will be losers in a real competition and therefore they may have economic problems. Golly, if that is taken into cost-benefit analysis, everybody’s actions would be very different and I don’t think in a good way.”

Kempf said GSA did a business case around whether this makes sense for the agency and then an acquisition strategy, but it’s up to the vendor to do the cost-benefit analysis on whether to bid or not.

“There have been some businesses that have been hurt by this and some who have been helped by this,” he said. “In procurement, there are winners and losers, and although it’s very tough for those who do not win and can’t go forward with us into Office Supplies 2 (OS2), there are consequences to procurements, good and bad.”

Vogel, Whittaker and others say they understand the consequences of procurements, but they believe FSSI for office supplies goes beyond simple wins and losses.

Vogel said many agencies are mandating the use of the BPA, which is taking away business that Coast-to-Coast, Adams Marketing and others have won on the open market. He said the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security, Interior, Agriculture and the Air Force all issued memos to staff either requiring the BPAs use or strongly encouraging contracting officers go to FSSI first.

Adams and Coast-to-Coast both won spots on an Army BPA for toner cartridges. Whittaker said the Army told them recently it would cancel the BPA as of July 31 to only use the FSSI contract.

Whittaker said it doesn’t matter if her prices or someone else’s is lower, the word has been sent down from above.

Even agencies, such as the Census Bureau, who have continued to use non-BPA holders, are feeling the pressure.

“They have to go through a waiver to save $300 and it took [Whittaker's customer] two weeks to get the waiver signed off to use my company,” Whittaker said. “She was told, ‘Don’t always expect this again. We are not always going to give a waiver because it’s cheaper.’ What kind of philosophy is that? Why in the world don’t they say, ‘If you can find it cheaper somewhere else, go’? This is taxpayer’s money, this is your money and mine. They are saying, ‘I don’t care what the price is.’”

Vogel, Whittaker and others say actions by OFPP and the promotion of the BPA by GSA created a de facto mandate.

BPA accounts for less than half of market

But Kempf said if there is a mandate or even a de facto one, more sales would go to FSSI, but that isn’t the case. GSA estimated agencies spend about $1.4 billion on office supplies every year, but in 2011, the strategic sourcing initiative brought in $257 million in sales.

“I would feel a lot more circumstance around this if we were seeing 90 percent of the market going to OS2 and 90 percent going to Schedule 75,” he said. “We are not seeing that from the agencies. There still are plenty of people out there that are not using OS2 and that aren’t using schedules. There are opportunities for both people in OS2 and on Schedule 75 for business.”

Gordon said OFPP never mandated the BPA’s use because they wanted agencies to make the decision on what works best for them.

“There were agencies — I don’t want to name them on the record — but at least two agencies where there were real disagreements,” he said. “One agency did analysis and said, ‘In terms of our needs, these do not offer lower prices.’ I said that was their decision to make. We didn’t try to escalate or overrule them. Another agency had various hesitations and we eventually discussed with them and they came up with a plan to gradually shift over.”

Kempf also said the amount of money going to the small businesses under FSSI — 74 percent of all awards — is larger than the sales to small firms under Schedule 75 — 67 percent. He added GSA shut off Schedule 75 to new offerors in an attempt to protect those with schedule contracts already. In fact, GSA just last week extended the moratorium on new offers for Schedule 75 for another year.

Vogel said while a higher percentage is going to small firms, the number of them eligible to compete is much lower and that is the bigger problem.

“The federal government does not have the responsibility to support everyone, but when they were supporting 500 small firms and they take it away and send the business to just 13, they are not being representative of supporting small businesses,” he said.

Sour grapes by unsuccessful vendors

Gordon added many of the complaints could easily be seen as sour grapes by those unsuccessful vendors. He said OFPP and GSA were following instructions from industry to make sure agencies used this second generation BPA.

“We went to the agencies and said, ‘If these offer you good prices, will you really use them?’ We got a whole series of agencies that said ‘Yes, we will really use them,’” Gordon said. “Industry wanted us to say these will really be used and we did what industry wanted, and now the losers are coming and saying, ‘But, why are you telling agencies to use these?’ We did it because industry wanted us to do it. I think we did the right thing. In retrospect, I haven’t heard any criticism that would make me say we didn’t take the right approach.”

The issue of strategic sourcing and its impact on small businesses has drawn the attention of Congress. During the House Small Business Committee hearing held last week, quite a bit of time was spent on the impact of strategic sourcing. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee on contracting and workforce, said GSA seemed to have made a good faith effort in the process.

“Whether or not there were folks who fell by the wayside or fell between the cracks, that remains to be seen,” he said. “If there are folks who feel like that happened to them, we need to know about it. We would be more than happy to have a follow-up hearing and figure out if that’s the case or not. We are just trying to get the facts to make sure the process is as fair as possible.”

Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), ranking member of the subcommittee, said the hearing left her needing more information about whether the process was fair.

“It’s actually hard to determine because it seemed as though the testimony was night and day,” she said. “The small business owner had a very different perspective than the commissioner from GSA. I would like to hear from other small businesses to hear what really is the truth. Just the question of whether this is mandatory or not was in dispute.”

On-ramps possible

Kempf said during the hearing GSA is considering how to add more small firms to the office supplies BPA.

“We are looking at some of these vendor networks where they could come in with some of the vendors who were awarded contracts with OS2,” he said. “We have been working with them and they have been under discussion with us about whether they could partner with them and become part of the team with some of the folks on OS2. We’re still considering that and working with them.”

Kempf said he didn’t have a time table for when a decision would be made about how to address possible on-ramps.

For Vogel, Whittaker and others, time is of the essence.

Whittaker said GSA could have easily kept a large number of small businesses engaged and still gotten better prices.

“This could have all been handled by fixing GSA Advantage and the schedule program,” she said. “It didn’t have to be done by narrowing the competition down to 15, which is not going to be good. Eventually, these prices will start rising up again, and there will be no more companies left to compete.”

Strategic sourcing: Pennywise but pound foolish? is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

Petaluma, Calif. – The following is a statement by the American Small Business League:

Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez and Congressman Sam Graves have been named by the American Small Business League as the most anti-small business members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The ASBL points to the that fact that Rep. Velazquez and Rep. Graves have worked for years to dismantle federal small business programs and divert billions in federal contract dollars earmarked for small businesses to billionaire venture capitalists and their syndicates. Both representatives have also given tacit approval for the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants by refusing to back legislation that would prevent Fortune 500 companies from hijacking federal small business contracts.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) has estimated that every year tens of billions of dollars worth of federal small business contracts are diverted to firms such as Lockheed Martin, Home Depot, John Deere, Apple Inc., Rolls-Royce and Italian defense firm Finmeccanica, which has 75,000 employees and over $30 billion annual revenue.

In 2005, report 5-15 from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General referred to the diversion of federal small business contracts as “one of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today.”

For the last seven consecutive years the SBA Inspector General has named the diversion of federal small business contracts as the agency’s “top management challenge” yet both Rep.Graves and Rep.Velazquez have blocked legislation (H.R. 3184, “The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act”) that would prevent corporate giants from hijacking billions of dollars worth of federal contracts reserved for small businesses.

“Let’s look at the facts,” ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. “America is in the middle of the worst economic downturn in 80 years; we know from the U.S. Census Bureau that small businesses create 90 percent of net new jobs; and that directing federal infrastructure dollars to America’s 28 million small businesses is one of the best ways to stimulate the economy and create jobs – but Reps. Graves and Velazquez are instead trying to dismantle all federal small business programs. These two representatives are prime examples of why Congress has such record low approval.”

Nydia Velazquez, Sam Graves are the most anti-small business U.S. Representatives, according to the American Small Business League is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

This tells the story, why Bush was so bad at the end of his term.

The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007 the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.

The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this:
January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress. At the time:

The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%

George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB GROWTH
Remember the day…

January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.

The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

Unemployment… to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy.

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress
So when someone tries to blame Bush…

REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!”
Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democrat Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 &2011.
In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budgets.

And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009.

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself. In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.

There is no way this will be widely publicized,unless each of us sends it on!

This tells the story, why Bush was so bad at the end of his term. is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

Two recent studies of mobile devices highlight how designers of smartphones and tablet computers neglect to fully comprehend the security and privacy risks of these devices. Cryptography Research found in its study that it is possible to eavesdrop on any smartphone or tablet PC as it is being used to buy something, bank online, or access a company’s virtual private network. A Cryptography Research executive says a criminal can decipher the process used to encrypt data and can then gain access to a financial account or company network, a type of attack that does not require the device to be modified in any way. The research company says it is working with a major smartphone and tablet manufacturer to put cyber defenses in its devices. McAfee showed in a separate demonstration that there are several ways to remotely hack into Apple iOS, the iPad and iPhone operating system, by remotely activating microphones on a variety of test devices and recording nearby conversations. McAfee also demonstrated that it is possible to swipe keys and passwords and steal sensitive data such as emails and text messages. Researchers in both studies say these attacks can be carried out without the user’s knowledge.

How secure is your smartphone? is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts

The House committee on Oversight and Government Reform released yet another new video clip today from the U.S. General Services Administration’s big-spending conference in Las Vegas, extending the embarrassing episode for the agency and the Obama administration.

In the newly surfaced clip, which is titled “POTUS [President of the United States] Wants a Press Event,” employees sing a fast-tempo melody, “Are you ready for a miracle? GSA’s going green.”

The video clip is another black eye for the government agency, after multiple videos were uncovered in an inspector general’s investigation, drawing sharp criticism from the House’s top cop, Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the committee, for wasting taxpayer money.

“This is not just about a single convention, but a festering culture of entitlement and wasting taxpayer money within the federal bureaucracy,” Issa, R-Calif., wrote in a statement. “Taxpayer’s time should be used for real work and not a high school musical like production on the Obama administration’s stimulus spending spree.

Read more about the Latest Government Services Administration Video Wasting Taxpayer Money

New GSA Video Puts GSA in Issa’s Crosshairs is a post from: Machine Solution Alerts