DeMint and Civil Unrest

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) raises prospect of civil unrest due to the bailouts of major corporations. Everyone is going to want their piece of the Federal pie. But, what is going to happen when they realize the pie has already been eaten up?


The mind of a politician is always difficult to decipher. On one hand you don't know if the cretin is using fear tactics to gain support for his cause du jour. Or if they are speaking their mind out of genuine concern. This is exactly the corner we are painted into by Senator DeMint.

Regardless of his intentions he does raise a plausible scenario. Most of the American people are just now feeling the trickle down effects of the credit crunch and the recession. If it deepens our little credit driven consumer mentality is going to get a major shock. How people will respond when they cry for help and there isn't any is something to contemplate. Hopefully we will react like we always have, as Americans.

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On the Hill (Jackson Unlikely Replacement, Jim McCrery Sleeping With the Enemy, Boehner is Now Crusader Squirrel)

Daily look at the Congressional herd and their successes and absurdities. Today Jackson Jr. looses his mind, McCrery opts for pay for play with the Dems, and Boehner has an image makeover.


Jackson now unlikely Obama replacement

The Hill.com-Most political watchers in Illinois agree that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D), once a leading candidate to succeed President-elect Obama in the Senate, is now a long shot to fill the seat.

Jackson, believed to be “Senate Candidate 5” in a criminal complaint filed against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), did not help his own cause by holding a bizarre press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday during which he left more questions unanswered than answered. read more...

Junior, gave a bizarre speech the other day that was like a combination of a Southern Baptist Biblical recital and a cheap opportunistic political ad. People in Illinois may be questioning Blagojevich's sanity, but I think there is more than one nut in this tree. It answers to the name of Jesse Jackson Jr.
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McCrery joins Capitol Counsel

The Hill.com-House Ways & Means Committee ranking member Jim McCrery (R-La.) is joining Capitol Counsel, a lobbying firm now dominated by Democrats that specializes in tax policy.

The hire represents a contrast to the recent trend of firms and companies frantically hiring Democrats to their lobbying teams to account for the party’s recent electoral successes. Democrats next year will control the White House and both chambers of Congress. read more...

Seems someone in the Congressional wilds feels the need to try and appease the needs of frantic Republican members of Congress. Capital Counsel hopes to increase its "fire power" with the addition of McCrery. He is the the 2nd GOP'er to join the lobbying firm which has 10 members, 8 of which are Democrats. His addition sounds more like a fart in a hurricane than an increase in firepower.
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Analysis: Boehner forging new identity, flexing muscle

The Hill.com-Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) is emerging from the shadows of Tom DeLay and George W. Bush.

Boehner struggled to forge his own leadership style after beating Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to become majority leader in February 2006. The GOP Conference had tired of DeLay’s strong-arm tactics and constant ethics controversies. Boehner knew he couldn’t come on too strong, especially because Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was still Speaker.

When Democrats took control of the House and Hastert subsequently stepped down, Boehner stood by the leader of his party, President Bush, as many of his members were bucking the unpopular president.

Backing Bush on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout bill in late September and early October weakened Boehner and triggered more chatter that his time in leadership would soon come to an end. read more...

Rep. Boehner (R-OH) is trying to ride the hopeful wave to Speaker of the House in 2010 through a refromist identity. His new image of Crusader Squirrel could be helpful in cornering House GOP'ers to stand more fervently against Progressive onslaughts. Catapulting him right into the coveted Speaker position if he is successful. I would welcome the change just so I wouldn't have to hear Pelosi screeching anymore.

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Obama's Progressive Lie

Progressive/Collectivists are howling, ad naseum, about President-elect Obama’s “center-right” slate of cabinet choices. Much like the Bush team ingratiated the Evangelicals in 2000 and 2004 then turned their backs on campaign promises, Obama may be demonstrating the same pattern.

In a video from Hardball, via Brietbart.com, Chris Matthews, Tim Carpenter of the Progressive Democrats of America, and David Corn, Washington-Bureau-Chief of Mother Jones discuss possible scenarios of why Obama has picked the moderate team which he is currently assembling.

Justifications fly and lips are quivering as the Progressive “think tank” tries to rationalize Obama’s moves. Matthews’ inner tingle is leading him to believe it’s a “head-fake” to build up moderate support while Obama governs as a Liberal Progressive. Corn, tries to reduce the reasoning that America’s consensus positions are now Liberal and poor little Carpenter just keeps getting humiliated.



The only head-fake and hoodwink being perpetrated is on the Progressive Liberals, by Obama. The very same scheme, used on Evangelicals, by the Bush administration to get into the White House. Silly Liberals, this is why you look to history to understand tomorrow.

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NewsBuster's Comedy

Daily comedy from Newsbusters: Taking shots at the President-elect, Rino at large John McCain, and others.




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Lobbying for Freddie Mac Against Regulation, the Truth Finally Betold

The MSM is reporting that back in 2005 while there was growing concerns on the Hill about the need for regulation of Freddie Mac. The over-bloated and severely corrupt GSE started fighting back with an underground lobbying campaign that cut its opponents attempts off at the knees. Sad part is, most in the bloggin’ world already knew this, now the information is rather moot, but here is the story anyway.

From the AP

WASHINGTON – When the Washington Nationals played their first-ever baseball game in the nation's capital in April 2005, two congressmen who oversaw mortgage giant Freddie Mac had choice seats — courtesy of the very company they were supposed to be keeping an eye on.

Efforts to tighten government regulation were gaining support on Capitol Hill, and Freddie Mac was fighting back. The baseball tickets for home opener were means of influence.

The two Representatives in question were Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa. Ney is currently serving federal time for accepting gifts and political donations in exchange for favors in the Jack Abram off scandal.

Internal Freddie Mac budget records show $11.7 million was paid to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006. Power brokers such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were recruited with six-figure contracts. Freddie Mac paid the following amounts to the firms of former Republican lawmakers or ex-GOP staffers in 2006:

_Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, at Park Strategies, $240,000.

_Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota, at Clark & Weinstock, $360,297.

_Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, at Washington Group, $300,062.

_Susan Hirschmann at Williams & Jensen, former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, $240,790.

I must say, until this point I have had a certain affinity for Newt Gingrich, although, that has changed rather radically with advent of this report.

We have been expounding here that the Subprime bust, which is the cause of our present economic woes, was directly caused by more than one group or person. It was further facilitated by the greed of Washington Pols, power brokers, and lobbyists as well as Wall Street. Everyone was to caught up in the populism of the election to give a damn. So, now we are going to be trillions in debt just because everyone had to be right. Ain’t ego a bitch?

The records obtained by the AP reflect growing concern within Freddie Mac over a chorus of criticism from Republicans worried that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae had grown too big. The two companies owned or guaranteed over $5 trillion in mortgages.

The Bush administration and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were sounding the alarm about the potential threat to the nation's financial health if the fortunes of the two mammoth companies turned sour. They did eventually, when they took on $1 trillion worth of subprime mortgages and when their traditional guarantee business deteriorated. Commercial banks regarded Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae as competitors and were anxious to pick up business that would result from scaling back the two companies.

Pushing back, Freddie Mac enlisted prominent conservatives, including Gingrich and former Justice Department official Viet Dinh, paying each $300,000 in 2006, according to internal records.

Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model.

Dinh wrote a legal analysis of private property rights that viewed a hypothetical government-enforced sale of Freddie Mac assets as constitutionally suspect.

Bush has a long history of just plain screwing up, however, for some reason there is a sense of justification due to this. They knew what was wrong, but a severe case of blitzkrieg lobbying eliminated the effort almost before it could get off the ground.

The AP previously described, in October, how Freddie Mac thwarted efforts to bring a tough regulatory bill sponsored by Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and John McCain of Arizona to a full Senate vote.

Interestingly enough, with all of the names up there one is retiring in 09’, two have been defeated politically, and the last, well we know his story all too well. It makes you wonder about lobbying and the ferocity at which they go after their nemeses . Most of the attempts on Palin’s political career have been brought on by Washington insider Republicans. Why not those who sought to thwart a trillion dollar industry's expansion with regulation and oversight?

At a meeting days after Hagel's bill went to the full Senate, Syron and McLoughlin berated the company's in-house lobbyists for failing to keep Hagel's bill corralled in committee, said the four people familiar with events at Freddie Mac at the time.

Freddie Mac shifted into high gear, secretly paying a Republican consulting firm, Washington-based DCI Group, $2 million to kill Hagel's legislation. The covert lobbying campaign targeted Republican senators in 2005-06.

According to the newly obtained records, DCI's deployment was part of a broader campaign that targeted mainly Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The internal Freddie Mac documents show that 17 of the lobbying firms and consultants paid in 2006 were specifically directed to focus on Republicans and four on Democrats, with varying targets for the rest.

The main focus of the lobbying campaign seemed to be targeted at the Republicans due to the amount of fervor and opposition some in the party were calling for. I have found no evidence of Democrats calling for the regulation of Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. Rather there were calls from Chris Dodd and Barney Frank for its expansion. Now that their man Flint is safely tucked away in the White House and the Collectivists have firm control of Congress, the truth can be released. Frank and boys had just better keep their sucks shut about this one or they might drown with the rest of the rats.

Now, this fact about the Dems does not in anyway shape or form relinquish the Republicans of their responsibility in the matter. This was bigger than most could imagine and now that the election is over, maybe people will start seeing that, for all the good it will do.

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Republican Anh “Joseph” Cao defeats Democrat William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson

Cao defeated incumbent, Dollar Bill Jefferson, by a 50-47% victory, for the House seat in Louisiana’s highly Democratic 2nd Congressional District. Cao is a Vietnamese immigrant who formerly taught philosophy at Loyola University New Orleans, where he earned his Juris Doctor in 2000. Prior to his victory Cao was lawyer in the local New Orleans area.

From the Times Picayune.

His [Dollar Bill] defeat came on a day of abysmally low turnout, which political pundits had predicted could be Jefferson's undoing despite his demographic and political advantages.

Ironically, had Gustav not postponed the voting schedule one month, the general election would have been held the same ballot as last month's presidential election, when high turnout among African-American voters likely [major assumption] would have carried Jefferson to a 10th term.

Cao, like Bobby Jindal, ran on a platform of reforming the state of Louisiana’s abysmall political landscape. Jefferson has been seen by many as a purveyor, or poster child, of this corrupted system. Cao’s victory was by no means a mandate or landslide. However, the 2nd District is almost 66% Democratic, or 2 out of every 3 registered voters. Even if there was a low American-African turnout, the number of Libs within the district should have easily compensated and been in favor of Jefferson.

Regardless, the unseating of the career Representative, Dollar Bill, is a victory for the local voters in the district. The only justice left to be dispensed is the conviction of this crook who has made his living off the backs of the poor in New Orleans.

Picture credit to Times-Picayune.

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On the Hill (Blackwell for RNC Chair, Franken demands ANOTHER recount, & House work week to be extended.)

Daily look at the Hill and what the Congress folk are up to. Blackwell makes bid for RNC Chair, Franken wants ballots recounted, AGAIN, House work week to be extended.

Blackwell enters GOP chairman race

The Hill.com-The race for Republican National Committee chairman got more crowded Friday as a prominent conservative made a splashy entrance.

Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who has strong ties to the party’s conservative wing, is the latest candidate to declare for the position, doing so Friday in an email to RNC members.

Touting himself as a strong fundraiser with electoral experience and a vision for the future of the party (as well as a part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds baseball team), Blackwell promised to pull no punches. read more...

As noted Blackwell is the 2nd American-African to enter the race for RNC chair, the first was former Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele. Blackwell, like Steele has some notoriety as a Fox News Analyst, both have past electoral experience, and some success at fund-raising. The difference between the two is Blackwell is considered to be very conservative, whereas Steele is seen as somewhat moderate.
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Franken wants rejected Minn. ballots counted

The Hill.com-Democrat Al Franken is asking each Minnesota county to reconsider a number of rejected absentee ballots while claiming a four-vote lead in the recount of the undecided Senate race.

The campaign alleges that the absentee ballots were improperly disqualified. Franken is in a tight with Sen. Norm Coleman (R) for the only Senate seat yet to be decided.

"Today we are sending a letter to all 87 counties asking them that … the ballots for which there is no legal justification for them not being counted be opened and counted," said Franken attorney Marc Elias in a conference call Friday. read more...

Franken, has recently threatened to use his extensive Holly-weird connections to get the full cast of CSI to participate in the forensics investigation into missing ballots. This will be done to maintain the integrity of the investigation since they are all actors who play professionals on television.
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House will return to five-day work week in 2009

The Hill.com-House Democratic leaders have decided to lengthen the congressional workweek next year as they try to implement President-elect Obama’s agenda and clear a backlog of priorities no longer subject to the veto of President Bush.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) released a 2009 schedule on Friday that includes 11 five-day weeks and 18 four-day weeks. The House is scheduled to be in session for 137 days before the target adjournment date of Oct. 30. read more...

Therapists will also to be stationed on the Hill for Congressional members suffering from the trauma induced by the extended work weeks. Other suggestions have ranged from "nappy time" during the day to buckets of ice for members of Congrees to stick their heads in. The latter suggestion has drawn criticism since a noted side effect is "waking up to reality."

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Franken loses votes

Franken recently garnered about 37 votes from the Maplewood precinct, closing the gap between him and Norm Coleman. However, Minneapolis had a little something else to say about the lead.


Minneapolis discovery costs Franken 36 votes

What Maplewood giveth, Minneapolis taketh away.

Elections officials in Minnesota's largest city today discovered that one precinct came up 133 ballots short of election day totals, resulting in a net loss for Democratic challenger Al Franken of 36 votes.

The development wipes away what had been a boon for Franken in his bid to overtake Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, after Ramsey County officials found an additional 37 votes for Franken from a Maplewood precinct on Tuesday. What Maplewood giveth, Minneapolis taketh away. read more...

Coleman's very slim margin of victory is now growing. Interesting that out of 2.9 million people who voted, this contest has come down to less than 300 votes. Franken has had to start drinking more, I know I would.

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On the Hill (McClintock v Brown, Bush Florida Candidacy, Rangel and Pelosi)

Daily look at the Hill and what the Congress folk are up to. Brown concedes to McClintock, Jeb Bush for Senate in Florida, Rangel talking too much about Pelosi support.

Brown concedes to McClintock

The Hill.com-Republican Tom McClintock is headed for Congress after Democratic opponent Charlie Brown conceded the drawn-out California contest Wednesday.

Brown’s campaign said its candidate has called McClintock to congratulate him. The loss means Democrats will not add a seat to their 21-seat gain from Election Day. Races remain to be decided in Louisiana and Ohio.

In a letter to supporters, Brown said he was satisfied that their close election was conducted and counted fairly. read more...

This is hardly a fly in the ointment as far as the Democrats in Congress are concerned. The landscape of the House is: Democrats 256 seats with the Republicans 175 seats.
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Bush Florida candidacy would thin field

The Hill.com-The potential Senate candidacy of Jeb Bush is clearing the decks of Democratic and Republican challengers in the Sunshine State — as intended.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle said the former governor of Florida and brother of President Bush is popular enough to scare away Republican and Democratic challengers before many really consider a bid for the seat being vacated by the retiring Sen. Mel Martinez (R).

“It has Jeb’s name on it,” said Bob Butterworth, the state’s former Democratic four-term attorney general and secretary of the Department of Children and Families. “He has the potential to scare away people on both sides of the aisle.” read more...

Jed Bush is admittedly very popular in Florida and would more than likely secure Matinez's Senate seat. However, if this is a launching point for him to move further politically, his namesake would probably hinder him. I think it is safe to assume most Americans do not want another family political dynasty either.
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Accounts from private Rangel-Pelosi discussion vary

The Hill.com-A House leadership aide on Wednesday said Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) “went too far” in characterizing comments Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made about Rangel’s ability to remain chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

Rangel on Tuesday boasted to reporters that Pelosi had pledged to support him as chairman despite an ongoing ethics probe and various media articles that have negatively portrayed the New York lawmaker.

“She told me I am her chairman of the Ways and Means Committee as long as I want to be,” he said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a Harlem school, according to a report in the New York Post. read more...

I truly hope that Pelosi doesn't think that Americans buy her sickly attempt at appearing objective. Rangel needs to step down, he is under more investigations than Al Capone and all of this is tantamount to political cronyism. The very platform which Democrats have so vigorously campaigned against.

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Chambliss defeats Martin

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) took the great state of Georgia like Sherman. He resoundingly defeated Democrat Jim Martin in a scorched earth campaign that dashes the Progressive hopes of a guaranteed filibuster proof Senate on the rocks.

From Newsmax

ATLANTA — Georgia Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss handed the GOP a firewall against Democrats eager to flex their newfound political muscle in Washington, winning a bruising runoff battle Tuesday night that had captured the national limelight.

Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter month long runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.

With 88 percent of precincts reporting, Chambliss had 58 percent of the vote to Martin's 41 percent. The early returns came mostly from rural counties where Republicans traditionally wield significant sway in a still-overwhelmingly red state. None of the urban Democratic strongholds had yet reported results an hour after the polls closed. read more...

Chambliss's victory, while important, is both a major and minor and minor event at the the sametime. On the surface, it somewhat guarantees that Progressives will not have their filibuster proof majority. However, they still have many options.

There is the Republican appeaser factor. Some Republicans will, almost certainly, side with Progressives on certain issues and vote against their caucus. Thereby nullifying the filibuster option and giving the Progressive led Congress their 2/3's majority to invoke cloture. To overcome this, the Republican Minority Whip, Jon Kyl, will have to work overtime.

The Independents. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who caucuses with Democrats, will more than likely vote with the members of the Senate Democrats on the more notable legislation. And there is Socialist Bernie Sanders of Vermont, it is not even worth considering who he will side with.

The last is the little known or talked about, Budget Reconciliation Process. In its basics, "the reconciliation process is utilized when Congress issues directives to legislate policy changes in mandatory spending (entitlements) or revenue programs (tax laws) to achieve the goals in spending and revenue contemplated by the budget resolution." "First used in 1980, this process was used at the end of a fiscal year to enact legislation to fine tune revenue and spending levels through legislation that could not be filibustered in the Senate."

The Senate numbers now stand as Democrats 56 plus 2 Independents to the Republicans holding 42 seats. Norm Coleman's seat, in Minnesota, is still being contested by village idiot, talentless comedian, and libtard at large, Al Franken.

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NBER: Geniuses-at-Large

Seems the bean-counters and box-kickers over at the National Bureau of Economic Research are behind the power curve once again. They are telling us what most already know, w are in a recession! Wow, guys thanks! No one could have figured it out without you.

Washington Post-It's official: The United States is in a recession -- and it started a year ago.

The nation's economy peaked, and the recession began, in December 2007, the National Bureau of Economic Research announced today.

The group's Business Cycle Dating Committee, the semi-official arbiter of these things, defines a recession as "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income, and other indicators."

While analysts have been all but certain that a recession has been underway for months, there has been some debate over exactly when it began. Last winter, employers started cutting jobs and growth slowed significantly, but the decline appears to have accelerated over the summer.

The committee concluded that the start of the recession was December 2007 -- due in large part, it said in a statement, to the decline in jobs that began that month. But it noted that many other data points confirm the diagnosis.

"The committee determined that the decline in economic activity in 2008 met the standard for a recession," the group said in its statement. "Evidence other than the ambiguous movements of the quarterly product-side measure of domestic production confirmed that conclusion. Many of these indicators, including monthly data on the largest component of GDP, consumption, have declined sharply in recent months."

The NBER committee could eventually conclude that the recession has already ended. However, economists outside the group think that is unlikely, given that most economic data released in recent weeks have been getting worse, not better.

The NBER is a private, nonprofit group based in Cambridge, Mass. Its Business Cycle Dating Committee currently includes seven leading macroeconomists, and they made the recession call in a conference call Friday night, according to the group's statement.

An eighth member of the committee, Christina Romer, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, resigned last week; she has been named chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration. Her husband, fellow Berkeley economist David Romer, remained on the committee.

Guess the folks over at the NBER, are better at being late than never. I wonder if Plaxico Burress works for them?

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From Mumbai to New York

The question is finally being raised by someone as to whether the strikes in Mumbai have any bearing here in the States. Visible cautiousness can sometimes be misconstrued as paranoia or fear mongering. Nonetheless, the dramatic modification in tactics and where they transpired are quite significant.

From the Heritage Foundation;

Heritage Foundation-It is unwise to draw specific lessons and suggest trends based on any one particular incident, particularly when all the facts are not known. Nevertheless, there are do’s and don’ts that should be followed in thinking about the unthinkable—armed assaults in America.

Precisely the point I was attempting to make. There have been past attacks which were similar in nature to Mumbai, their wholesale practice, as the strategy du jour, has never been applied on an international scale. They have been isolated to particular regions, such as Russia, although there were plans for such attacks in the US.

Heritage Foundation-In October 2002, 50 heavily armed Chechen rebels seized a Moscow theater and held hundreds hostage. The rebels booby-trapped entrances with mines and rigged an explosive bomb in the center of the theater.

On September 1, 2004, a well-armed group of Chechen rebels invaded a school at Beslan in the North Caucasus. Armed with automatic weapons and explosives, they took more than 1,000 hostages. After a bloody stand-off, 334 hostages were killed.

Even the United States has not been immune from the danger of planned armed assaults. For instance, in August 2005, a Pakistani national was arrested as part of a terrorism investigation into a possible plot to attack the Israeli consulate, California National Guard facilities, and other targets in southern California. In 2007, the FBI arrested six men from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, for allegedly planning an armed assault on Fort Dix.

Mumbai, is the financial capital of India and a Mecca of tourism. Two highly attractive and alluring reasons for a terrorist group to target an area such as this. There is an opportunity to disrupt finance and an environment filled with targets of opportunity.

Then there is a distressing happenstance that has been overlooked. On February 26, 1993 the WTC was attacked by usage of a VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device) in an attempt to bring down the Trade Center. Likewise, a few weeks later, Mumbai was rocked by a series of thirteen bombings. One in particular was carried out in a very analogous fashion; a powerful car bomb exploded in the basement of the Bombay Stock Exchange building, killing fifty.

The motivation and perpetrators of these attacks were extremely different. However the "end result" they were trying to accomplish was the same. Disruption of the national financial system and the deaths of as many innocent civilians as possible. NYC shares commonalities with Mumbai; giving reason as to why both cities have been targeted somewhat frequently.

Also, terrorist and militant groups are notoriously prone for adopting and sharing strategies and technologies that have proven successful in the past. This gives them a template to operate from. So, it is not out of the realm of possibility that a similar attack could be attempted on our shores in a large metropolitan area such as New York City.

Another worry is a homegrown network of domestic terrorists, who are inspired by actions like those in Mumbai. Intelligence gathering, logistics, and movement would be far easier for them than their foreign counterparts. Garnering greater possible success by operating in an environment that they are familiar with.

For now, law enforcement, on a local and federal level, stand at high alert and our intelligence communities are gathering and analyzing the data from Mumbai. If there is even a shred of possibility this can occur in the US, I think it is safe to say they are on top of it.

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