Happy Thanksgiving

Ahlert lays out the case why Israel is never allowed to finish the job. Victory is always kept beyond their reach.

Meanwhile no nation would ever tolerate what they expect Israel to endure.

Obama said Israel is entitled to defend itself but the world will eventually, as it always does, pull radical Islamists , Jihadists, angry Palestinians etc. chestnuts out of the fire.

Is Hamas out of a certain type rocket as a result of the IAF's surgical strikes?   (See 1 and 1a below.)

Sent to me by a dear friend and fellow memo reader.  (See 1b below.)

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A British father, disgusted with his children and their behaviour etc. offers some advice. (See 2 below.)

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A disturbing reminder that figures to do lie and often tell subtle stories. (See 3 below.)

What I find fascinating about 2 and 3 is their message parallels what my book is all about.

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The U.S. Sec, of State, who could not protect her own employees, is now going to the Middle East to try and protect Gazans and Israelis.  (See 4 below.)

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Unions might be wise to learn about the story of the Golden Goose. 

Sowell's  last conclusion: the Government goose will live on so long as there are taxpayers is right, but where will the taxpayers come from ... that goose is also susceptible to bankruptcy!!(See 5 below.)

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Israel and the Iron Dome! (See 6 below.)

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DesMoines Register editorializes - 'Obama come clean' vis a vis Libya.  (See 7 below.)

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Freedom and a proposed bill that increase government surveilance of our personal mail.? (See 8 below.)

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Dick

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1)The Israel/Hamas Endgame: An 'Acceptable' Number of Missile

By Arnold Ahlert

There was a political cartoon published a few years ago that neatly summed up the expectations of the so-called International Community with respect to Islamic terror. It showed two prize fighters and a referee. One of the fighters represented the United States, and the other represented al-Qaeda.

In the first frame of the cartoon, the referee is going over a long a list of rules that the American fighter must abide by during the match. In the second frame, the ref turns to the al-Qaeda fighter. "You can do anything you want," he says. As the latest Israeli-Hamas confrontation looks on the verge of ramping up, absolutely nothing has changed.

In 2005, in a gesture that falls under the heading, "no good deed goes unpunished," Israel gave the Gaza strip to the Palestinians, uprooting thousands of Jewish settlers in the process. What did they get in return? The rise of Hamas, whose charter called for the annihilation of the Jewish State, after it defeated the PLO, and assumed control of Gaza in 2007. More than 8,000 missiles shot across the border into Israeli towns since 2009, including more than 800 this year alone. For those of you unburdened by a public school education, that comes to just over two missiles per day, seven days a week, 365 day a year.

The reaction of the international community to this ongoingatrocity? Zero, zip, nada. Why? When you cut through all the b.s., the answer is simple: the elitist, "enlightened" thinkers of the world can't possibly hold the Palestinians to the same standard of civilized behavior they demand from every other society, save one: Israel.

Israel is held to the highest standard of all, meaning that a couple of missiles lobbed their way on a daily basis is no reason to get excited. Don't believe it? Here is, by far, the stupidest question asked by a journalist this year, yet it provides invaluable insight as to what animates the worldview of the "deeper' thinkers. MSNBC host Mara Schiavocampo, in an interview with Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren posed this stunner:

"Living under the threat of rocket attack is certainly a psychological trauma. But what would you say to those who argue that the rockets are essentially very ineffective, they rarely do damage and that the response from Israelis is disproportional to the threat they're under?"

I'll tell ya what I'd say, Mara. I'd say maybe it's time MSNBC set up shop in Israel, in one of those border towns, like Ashkelon. If you and your colleagues have children, maybe you could send them to the school that was hit by a Grad rocket lobbed across the border in November. It didn't kill anyone, so no harm, no foul, right? I'm betting a few days of living under conditions where much of life consists of never forgetting where the nearest bomb shelter is, might give that word "disproportional" some genuine meaning.

Or not. Those who live in a world of moral equivalency, where Hamas thuggery and Israeli efforts to blunt it are two sides of the same coin, are willfully oblivious to such realities. Thus, for the umpteenth time, the following formula will be followed:

1. Hamas perpetrates terror until Israel reaches a breaking point

2. Israel responds with surgical strikes

3. The Hamas death toll mounts, due in large part to the reality that they put their ordinance among the civilian population

4. Any ramp up of Israeli military action triggers the International Community's condemnation of Israel's "disproportionate response"

5. Israel backs off, and a "truce" is secured.

6. The International Community stops paying attention

7. Hamas resumes firing missiles into Israel, and the whole cycle begins all over again

The only element that remains absolutely off the table? Victory. Israel must never be allowed to completely eliminate Hamas's capacity to launch missiles at Israeli men, women and children. That, above all else, is the sacred status quo that must never, ever be breached under any circumstances. In other words, the end game here comes down to one question: according to the "ethical" standards of the International Community, what is the "acceptable" number of Hamas missile launches Israel must endure in order to achieve peace?

Back to you, Mara.

1a)Hamas Potentially Out of Missiles Capable of Reaching Tel Aviv

By Amir Rapaport


The exchange of fire between both sides continues, but the ball is now in
the political court, As the UN Secretary General visits the region today. In
the field, the forces are as tense as ever, including tens of thousands of
reservists. Some of the fighters already wore camouflage, but it was not
certain yesterday that the ground maneuver would actually be carried out.
Hamas is preparing for a “victory”

In the meanwhile, a situation picture: the IDF has increased the pressure on
Hamas senior officials in the past day. Air strikes were directed towards
ammunition stockpiles in settled areas and towards senior targets in the
organization’s military wing. This was done at the risk of causing greater
harm to uninvolved civilians then compared to the previous stages of the
operation. At the same time, the IDF has refined the sensor-to-shooter cycle
process in the framework of targeting senior wanted officials and taking out
fire squadrons. The number of foiling events has risen to 20 per day.

In the past couple of days, the IDF has invested tremendous effort in
locating sites from which rockets were being launched towards Israel,
primarily the fire sites directed at the Tel Aviv metropolitan. The traces
led, among other things, to the soccer stadium at the heart of Gaza, which
was attacked on Monday morning. An analysis of the attack photos indicates
that it is possible that a sizable quantity of ammunition was stored inside
the stadium. In the field, Hamas still has thousands of rockets it can fire
at Israel, but its inventory of long-range rockets (20-40 kilometers) has
decreased considerably. It is possible that they have completely run out of
the Fajr 5 or “8 Inch" (Gaza produced) rockets launched at Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem, which have ranges of over 70 kilometers. A total of seven of
these rockets were launched after surviving the IAF’s attacks against the
long-range missiles from the start of the operation. If this is true, then
it means that no more rockets will be launched at Tel Aviv or Jerusalem at
this stage.

Is Hamas close to breaking? Certainly not. In the indirect negotiations,
which are mostly taking place with Egyptian mediation, Hamas has demanded
that Israel remove at least a part of the blockade imposed on the Gaza
Strip, after the ceasefire enters into effect. Israel has refused to commit
to that, but even so, it seems that at least now it does not seem that
Operation Pillar of Defense will be able to be considered a clear victory
for the IDF, one that will ensure that Israel’s southern region will remain
calm for years.

If Israel agrees then it represents early conclusions, but from Israel’s
perspective, it can be noted that it succeeded thus far in taking out the
head of Hamas’ military wing and severely damaging the organization’s
long-range missile arsenal. However, instead of al-Jabri, the “real boss” of
Hamas’ military wing rules with an iron fist - Muhammad Def, who was
severely wounded in an assassination attempt more than a decade ago. Other
missiles will be smuggled into the Gaza Strip instead of the ones that were
destroyed.

Hamas has succeeded in introducing Tel Aviv and Jerusalem into the threat
equation in this round, and even fired more than ten antiaircraft missiles
towards IAF aircraft (which did not hit any aircraft, manned or unmanned).
In other words, the results of the air strike are not comprehensive. If not
a tie, as the results of the Second Lebanon War were described by then IDF
Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, then a victory by points. For Israel to Israeli
eyes, and for Hamas to the eyes of those in Gaza (and perhaps also in the
opinion of other neighbors such as Hezbollah in Lebanon).

The IAF used completely precise armaments in the initial stage of the
operation, hitting targets with ranges of several meters, and not a single
“dumb” bomb was fired. The pressure imposed on the Hamas senior officials
works, in principle. Their personal concern of being hurt results in heavy
pressure towards the conclusion of the operation in the framework of some
sort of arrangement, with Egyptian mediation.
An operation – or not

While the ministers gathered yesterday at the Kiriya in Tel Aviv to discuss
the option of a ceasefire, or the possibility of initiating the ground
maneuver, the IDF continued the preparations for the operation, as though
there were no negotiations. From a military perspective, holding onto the
forces after completing the preparations for an operation is a situation
that cannot be continued for a long period of time.

The IDF has taken advantage of the largest reserve force mobilization since
the Second Lebanon War for a short refreshment of combat skills among the
reservists, but if the soldiers will be held near the Gaza border without
being activated, their irritation will be considerable. A ground operation,
even if it is eventually carried out, will be accompanied by additional
heavy aerial fire. The effort will involve casualties on both sides, and
will result in increased international pressure directed towards Israel to
bring about an end to the fighting.

Will a ground operation change the overall balance of operation Pillar of
Defense? Apparently not.


1b)A short time ago few ever heard the word Hamas. Today that name is part of the daily vocabulary of populations across the Earth. The term is synonymous with another Islamic term, jihad, which is “holy war” in Arabic. Here in Israel we are facing the ongoing and relentless hatred of the Arab Islamic world, and currently fighting a war of missiles sent from Gaza, the ancient homeland of the Philistines, from which the term Palestinian is derived.  Since vacating that area some years ago in an experiment of “Land for Peace”, the Palestinians under the rule of their elected Hamas leadership has chosen instead of using that now Jew-free territory to create a viable economy and a peaceful life, to smuggle in and launch thousands of rockets into Israeli civilian towns and cities. One can only wonder what armaments would be in use had there not been some control over their ports. This is a situation that no country would tolerate.

The Biblical word hamas has as its meaning not only violence, but corruption, deceit, and lies. The modern Hamas movement has declared as its sole raison d’etre the destruction of Israel.  Unfortunately, they are in accord with others of their Islamic faith to the north of Israel’s border in Lebanon, Hezbollah (the Party of Allah), who are now well-armed with many thousands of missiles. Iran, the powerful center of the Islamic revolution, is the supplier of these deadly weapons, and has for years officially declared its intention of wiping Israel from the map. At the same time Syria is in the upheaval of a civil war in which more than 30,000 Syrians have thus far been killed by their own people. From Afghanistan to Iraq to Sudan, the Islamic world is filled with violence.  And the revolution in Egypt has now replaced a secular government with the radical Muslim Brotherhood, which supports Islamic world domination, as its leader.  And all these events seem to comply with prophecies found in the Bible.

The Islamic world is not a happy one.  The constant fomenting of its unhappiness from North Africa across the Arabian peninsula of the Middle East to the Persian Gulf arises from the very worldview of Islam itself.  But as is so often the case, unhappiness seeks to find blame in another rather than itself for its unfortunate predicament. In the Islamic world the favorite and perennial scapegoat is very tinyIsrael, for which they find justification in their holy books, especially the Islamic hadit,or commentary of the Quran. And that blame is also aimed at the entire western world.

At the same time Islam states as its purpose the spreading of their religion and its worldview to the western world, and thus share its perennial unhappiness with others. Their efforts are succeeding brilliantly in Europe by the use of Jihad in all its subtle forms, the most effective being the Cultural Jihad.  The other form is fear of the Violent Jihad.

Islam is the very antithesis of the Judeo-Christian message, which is based on the foundation stone of one commandment in the Bible, Old and New Testaments, which is one word in the original Hebrew: v’ahavta (“you shall love”).  Love is not at all the central message of the Quran, but its motivating force is the diametrical opposite:  fear.

As Judeo-Christianity cools to a dying ember in the western world, extinguished by both corruptions in the churches and the ongoing efforts of the radical Left to erase the Biblical worldview from its populations, that vacuum created will quickly be filled with its antithesis.  One might just take a look at the modus operandi of both the unhappy Communist takeover, of the unhappy Nazi takeover, as well as the Islamic takeover, which is to erase the existence of Judeo-Christianity.  In the case of the Nazis, it was to exterminate the Jews carrying their old ideas of the one God, as well as to destroy the church and its message of love.

It is only to be hoped that educated people will consider these facts, and will take intelligent action to prevent such an outcome and downfall of the West in our time.

Elhanan Ben Avraham

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2)Ex-submarine captain fires salvo at his ‘inept’ kids

By Dan Buckley

Kids are a pain, teenagers are monsters and, as for 20, 30 and 40-somethings, they are the worst of all if they happen to remain emotionally dependent on mum and dad.

If you are not convinced, ask Nick Crews, a retired naval officer who blew his top when his son and two daughters suffered broken marriages and failed to fulfil their career potentials despite years of careful nurturing and tens of thousands spent on their education.

After years of frustration, the former captain of a British nuclear submarine fired off an email salvo to his three children. Bemoaning their lowly jobs, and the effect of broken marriages on his grandchildren, Crews, 67, from Plymouth, did not mince his words.

He sent his son and two daughters a devastating email in which he complained that he and his wife Sarah were seeing "the miserable death throes of the fourth of your collective marriages". In the email, he laments his three children’s "copulation-driven" self-indulgence and says he is fed up of "being forced to live through the never-ending bad dream of our children’s under-achievement and ineptitude".

He also vents his annoyance at having to endure countless tales of how wonderfully well the children of his friends and neighbours are doing. "If it wasn’t for the beautiful grandchildren," he wrote, "mum and I would not be too concerned as each of you consciously, and with eyes wide open, crashes from one cock-up to the next".

He was particularly incensed when his daughter Emily, who moved to France after marrying for the second time, upset her mother with tales of woe of being a French housewife and the loss of her high-flying career in England.

"With last evening’s crop of whinges and tidings of more rotten news for which you seem to treat your mother as a cesspit, I feel it is time for me to come off my perch," he wrote.

He signed off by saying he did not want to hear any more from any of his children until they had "a success or an achievement" or a realistic plan for the happiness of their children to tell him about.

Relations have been strained ever since Mr Crews sent his ‘Shit-O-Gram’. His youngest daughter Alice, 35, has refused to respond to the email.

His son Fred, 35, a divorced father who recently remarried and had a second child, refuses to speak to his father until he gets an apology. He said he responded to the message at the time but was "not going to dignify" it with a full response.

"It was horrendous receiving that email from my father," said his eldest daughter Emily, 40, an Exeter University psychology graduate. However, she admitted she needed a wake-up call and had since begun to turn her life around and was now working as a translator in France.

"Fundamentally, I couldn’t have a great quarrel with what he wrote," she said. 

The father's e-mail in full:

Dear All Three
With last evening's crop of whinges and tidings of more rotten news for which you seem to treat your mother like a cess-pit, I feel it is time to come off my perch.

It is obvious that none of you has the faintest notion of the bitter disappointment each of you has in your own way dished out to us.

We are seeing the miserable death throes of the fourth of your collective marriages at the same time we see the advent of a fifth.

We are constantly regaled with chapter and verse of the happy, successful lives of the families of our friends and relatives and being asked of news of our own children and grandchildren. I wonder if you realise how we feel — we have nothing to say which reflects any credit on you or us.

We don't ask for your sympathy or understanding — Mum and I have been used to taking our own misfortunes on the chin, and making our own effort to bash our little paths through life without being a burden to others. Having done our best — probably misguidedly — to provide for our children, we naturally hoped to see them in turn take up their own banners and provide happy and stable homes for their own children.

Fulfilling careers based on your educations would have helped — but as yet none of you is what I would confidently term properly self-supporting.

Which of you, with or without a spouse, can support your families, finance your home and provide a pension for your old age?

Each of you is well able to earn a comfortable living and provide for your children, yet each of you has contrived to avoid even moderate achievement.

Far from your children being able to rely on your provision, they are faced with needing to survive their introduction to life with you as parents.

So we witness the introduction to this life of six beautiful children — soon to be seven — none of whose parents have had the maturity and sound judgment to make a reasonable fist at making essential threshold decisions. None of these decisions were made with any pretence to ask for our advice.

In each case we have been expected to acquiesce with mostly hasty, but always in our view, badly judged decisions.

None of you has done yourself, or given to us, the basic courtesy to ask us what we think while there was still time finally to think things through. The predictable result has been a decade of deep unhappiness over the fates of our grandchildren.

If it wasn't for them, Mum and I would not be too concerned, as each of you consciously, and with eyes wide open, crashes from one cock-up to the next. It makes us weak that so many of these events are copulation-driven, and then helplessly to see these lovely little people being so woefully let down by you, their parents.

I can now tell you that I for one, and I sense Mum feels the same, have had enough of being forced to live through the never-ending bad dream of our children's underachievement and domestic ineptitudes.

I want to hear no more from any of you until, if you feel inclined, you have a success or an achievement or a REALISTIC plan for the support and happiness of your children to tell me about.

I don't want to see your mother burdened any more with your miserable woes — it's not as if any of the advice she strives to give you has ever been listened to with good grace — far less acted upon.

So I ask you to spare her further unhappiness. If you think I have been unfair in what I have said, by all means try to persuade me to change my mind. But you won't do it by simply whingeing and saying you don't like it.

You'll have to come up with meaty reasons to demolish my points and build a case for yourself. If that isn't possible, or you simply can't be bothered, then I rest my case.

I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed.
Dad

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3)Economic Disintegration is Almost Here

By Monty Pelerin

The disintegration of an economy and a society can take two courses. One course is like rust. It is slow and barely perceptible. The other is a sudden collapse. The first course, if left untended, eventually  turns into the second.

The US economy is now rusting away. Arguably it has been for decades. For anyone interested in looking, the signs are there. They will soon become unavoidable for even the most disinterested of our citizens.

Dan Amoss correctly described what is happening as a result of Washington's overbearing involvement in the economy:

All government-directed economic activity grows at the expense of the private sector. And the election suggests that government coercion will drive even more U.S. economic activity in the future. This is a shame, because freely adjusting prices, competition, and innovation elevate living standards. Mandates, price controls, and subsidies - coercive actions - depress living standards. Quality falls. Shortages develop and persist.

Mr. Amoss is correct but does not forcefully convey the reality of a dying economy. These effects are beginning to appear.

Many businessmen hung on, hoping for a change in the madness that passes for economic leadership and policy. These hopes were dashed with the re-election of the ideologue driving the madness. Obama won the electoral college, but not the confidence of business. They are just beginning to cast their votes and it does not bode well for the future. Here is a partial list of the business reactions to the outcome of the election:

Layoffs Announced Since Election:

• 1. Abbott Labs 700
• 2. Activision 30
• 3. Adventist Health 48
• 4. Airlines SAS 6000
• 5. AMD 400
• 6. American Cotton Growers 110
• 7. ArcelorMittal 20
• 8. American Independence Museum 4
• 9. Ameridose 790
• 10. American Airlines 4400 + 800 leaving voluntarily
• 11. American Coal 54
• 12. Atlantic Lottery Corporation 16
• 13. Assc Milk Producers 130
• 14. Aveo Oncology 45
• 15. ATI 172
• 16. Bankia 5000
• 17. Bechtel Power Corp 277
• 18. Bigpoint Games 47
• 19. Boston Scientific 1200
• 20. Brake Parts LLC 75
• 21. Brattleboro Retreat 31
• 22. Bristol Myers 500
• 23. Career Education 900 + Closing 23 Campuses
• 24. Cigna 1300
• 25. Citigroup 100
• 26. Commerzbank 6000
• 27. Consol Energy in W.V. 145
• 28. Covidien 595
• 29. Crouse Hospital Syracuse NY 70
• 30. Cummins 150
• 31. CVPH 27
• 32. DEP in Tallahassee FL 15
• 33. DuPont, Co. 64
• 34. Eagle-Tribune, Andover 21
• 35. Emanuel Medical Cente 24
• 36. Energizer Holdings 1500
• 37. Ericsson 1550
• 38. Exide Tech, Laureldale 150
• 39. City of Findlay, OH 39
• 40. First Energy 400
• 41. Gameforge Berlin 20
• 42. Gamesa Energy 92
• 43. GenOn Energy Inc 33
• 44. Glen Falls Hospital 29
• 45. Groupon 80
• 46. GT Advanced Tech 165
• 47. Harris' Broadcast 17
• 48. Hawker Beechcraft 400 + Facilities closing
• 49. Hill Rom 200
• 50. Hills Holdings 300
• 51. HMX Group 567
• 52. Hostess 627
• 53. Iberia Airlines 4500
• 54. ICM of Colwich 25
• 55. ING 2350
• 56. Judson University 21
• 57. Juniper Networks 500
• 58. Kaiser Permanente 84
• 59. Kinetic Concepts 427
• 60. Kratos Defense Security 125
• 61. Lackawanna County PA 11
• 62. Lightyear Network Solutions 12+
• 63. Lonza 500
• 64. Majestic Star Casino/hotel 80
• 65. Major Wind Company 3000
• 66. Martha Stewart Living 70
• 67. Medtronic 1000
• 68. Mills Manufacturing NC 68
• 69. Momentive, Inc. 150
• 70. Monitor Group 235
• 71. Montco Behavioral Health/Dev 58
• 72. NBC 500
• 73. Nebraska Medical Center 38
• 74. Neovia Logistics Services 52
• 75. New Energy 40
• 76. Ormet 200
• 77. Panasonic 10000
• 78. PayPal 320
• 79. Penn Refrigeration 40
• 80. Penske Logistics 50
• 81. Pepsi 4000
• 82. Philips Electronics 218
• 83. Pierce Mfg 325
• 84. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne 100
• 85. Research in Motion 200
• 86. Rheem Manufacturing 50
• 87. Sentry Foods 70
• 88. Shaw's Supermarket 700
• 89. Shawano foundry WI 90
• 90. Smith & Nephew 770
• 91. Smithfield Packing Co. 125
• 92. Solel Solar Systems 140
• 93. Southeastern Container 15
• 94. SpaceX 100
• 95. SRA Intl Inc 222
• 96. St. Jude Medical 300
• 97. Stryker 1170
• 98. Sulake 60
• 99. Sun Media 500
• 100. TE Connectivity 620
• 101. TECO Coal Corporation 90
• 102. Texas Instruments 1700
• 103. The Providence Journal Co 23
• 104. TMX Group Ltd. 100
• 105. Turbocare 220
• 106. Turkey Point Nuclear Plant 277
• 107. Oce North America, Inc. 135
• 108. Turbocare OCE 220
• 109. UBS 10000
• 110. US Cellular 980
• 111. UtahAmerican Energy Inc 102
• 112. Volvo Trucks Pulaski County 300
• 113. Wake Forest Baptist Medical 950
• 114. Welch Allyn 275
• 115. West Ridge Mine 102
• 116. Westinghouse 50
• 117. World Media Enterprises Inc 105
• 118. WPS Health Insurance 600
• 119. Wright Patterson AFB 115
• 120. Wyodak Coal Mine 11
• 121. Xerox 2500
• 122. Yakima Reg Med Ctr Washington 10+

Announced Business Closures Since Election:

• 1. Bakers Footwear closing 150 stores nationwide, including 21 in California
• 2. The SCA plant in Barton - Plans Staff Reductions
• 3. Handy Hardware to close its 2-year-old Meridian, Miss. warehouse
• 4. Caterpillar Inc. will close its plant in Owatonna Minn.
• 5. Waltz Pharmacy in Waldoboro Maine
• 6. Zac's Place in Hinsdale IL
• 7. Lone Star Steakhouse at 70th and O streets and Ruby Tuesday at 56th Street in
• 8. Lincoln NE
• 9. Career Education Corp - Closing 23 Campuses - 900 Jobs Lost
• 10. Handy Hardware to close its 2-year-old Meridian, Miss. warehouse
• 11. Shamrock Bar at Payne City's Rose Avenue. in GA
• 12. Monitor Company Group LP
• 13. ThinkEquity LLC
• 14. Homer City Funding LLC
• 15. Caterpillar Inc. will close its plant in Owatonna Minn.
• 16. Mount Pleasant's Albrecht Sentry Foods
• 17. The Target store at Manassas Mall Va.
• 18. Millennium Academy in Wake Forest NC
• 19. Target Closing Kissimmee FL Location
• 20. Calgary's iconic Rideau Music store ( International )
• 21. The Andover Gift Shop in Andover MA
• 22. Grand Union Family Markets Closing Storrs Location CT
• 23. Movie Scene Milford Location NH
• 24. Update: TE Connectivity Closing Greensboro Plant - 620 Layoffs Expected
• 25. Gomer's Fried Chicken in South Kansas City
• 26. Kmart in Homer Glen
• 27. Fresh Market on Pine Street in Burlington
• 28. AGC Glass North America to permanently close its Blue Ridge Plant in Kingsport Tenn.
• 29. The Target store at Platte and Academy in Colorado Springs
• 30. Island Colors - A Carolina Beach Clothing Store
• 31. The Roses store on Reynold Road in Winston-Salem NC
• 32. Meanders Kitchen losing its West Seattle location at 6032 California Ave
• 33. Bost Harley-Davidson at 46th Avenue North and Delaware Ave. in West Nashville TN
• 34. Townsend Booksellers in Oakland
• 35. The Kmart store in Parkway Plaza off University Drive in Durham NC - 79 Jobs Lost
• 36. Guarantee Shoe Store in Beaumont Texas
• 37. Associated Milk Producers Inc. Closing manufacturing facility in Dawson Minn. - 130
• 38. Jobs Lost
• 39. FacadeTek Inc Closes Whitestown Facility - 72 Jobs Lost
• 40. Comet Market in Punxsutawney Pa.
• 41. JC Penney store in Miracle City Mall Titusville FL
• 42. TurboCare Inc Closing Manchester CT Facility - 88
• 43. The United Colors of Benetton store on Armitage Avenue IL
• 44. Update: Bicycle shop Ten 27 Cycles 1027 Davis St. in Evanston IL
• 45. Two Sears Product Rebuild Centers in The Woodlands Texas
• 46. FesslerUSA Clothing Maker Closing in PA
• 47. Ralph Lauren's plans to close its 14 stand-alone Rugby locations
• 48. Nashville Sash & Door Co. Inc Tenn.
• 49. First Portuguese church in North America in Bedford Mass Closing?
• 50. International Fashions in Carbondale's University Mall IL
• 51. Harper's Old Army Surplus Store in West Monroe La
• 52. Nova Financial Holdings
• 53. The Party Warehouse in West Springfield Mass.
• 54. TLC Wine and Liquor at 1205 W. Main St in Kent Ohio?
• 55. The HAPPY Place 1042 N Coast Hwy, Laguna Beach, CA
• 56. Air Carrier Accessory Services - Chapter 7
• 57. SOW Inc. shelter on South Broad Street GA?
• 58. Systemax Inc., Closing Miami County Ohio Computer Plant - 120 Jobs Lost
• 59. Textbook publisher McGraw-Hill Cos. Closing 2 Distribution Centers - 166 Layoffs
• 60. First Place Financial Corp
• 61. Nash Finch Closing Cedar Rapids Iowa Food Distribution Center
• 62. Johnnie's Foodmaster MA Closing all 10 Locations
• 63. Rainbow Foods will be closing its Forest Lake location MN - 59 Layoffs
• 64. Berry's Camera Shop Inc. in Downtown Lafayette
• 65. Schreiber Foods to close their food packaging plant in Ravenna - 70 Jobs Lost
• 66. Kmart store at 5300 Salem Ave. Trotwood Ohio
• 67. Mr.Christie plant in Toronto ( International ) 2013 - 550 Jobs Lost
• 68. Coffee with T cafe in Stevenson Village business MD
• 69. Minas Basin Pulp and Power are closing a mill in Hantsport ( International ) - 135

Actual Layoffs:

• 1. The Colonial Country Shoppe on Park Street in Adams MA
• 2. Vestas Wind Systems Closing R&D; Office in Louisville - 60 Jobs Lost
• 3. Dollar Castle in downtown Ferndale MI
• 4. Bistro One West in St Charles IL
• 5. Sun Dog Diner in Neptune Beach FL
• 6. Jim's Builders Hardware in Wichita, Kansas
• 7. Madeleines Bakehouse in Fort Wayne Indiana
• 8. Barnes & Noble plans to close its doors in Union Station Dec. 31
• 9. The Semiahmoo Hotel in Blaine Washington
• 10. Highland Curves CA
• 11. The Salem Sport Shop in Salem Ohio
• 12. Navistar International Corp. to Close truck assembly plant in Garland, Texas - 900
• 13. Jobs Lost
• 14. Divine Mercy Catholic Books & Gifts Denton Texas
• 15. Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford IL
• 16. Garelick Farms Ends Production at Bangor Maine Facility
• 17. Fashion Tech Window Coverings in Portland?
• 18. Custom House Tavern Chicago IL.
• 19. Jim's Builders Hardware in Delano
• 20. Lone Star Steakhouse at 1801 22nd St. in West Des Moines
• 21. Sears to Close Woodlands Product Rebuild Center - 117 Jobs Lost
• 22. Whitehead Inc Rockford Real Estate Company
• 23. Robert's Mens Shop in Downtown New Philadelphia Ohio
• 24. Fort Tecumseh Olde Fashun Store in Ohio
• 25. Lakewood Beginnings Child Development Center in Lakewood Ohio
• 26. Green Fields Seed & Feed in Grand Junction Colo.
• 27. The Army and Navy Store in Melrose Mass.
• 28. Vitalistic Therapeutic charter school PA
• 29. Diamond Foods Inc Closing a plant in Fishers Indiana
• 30. Old Town Alehouse 5233 Ballard Ave in Seattle
• 31. Space Aliens restaurants in Minot and Grand Forks ND
• 32. DeWaay Financial Network LLC
• 33. Sears at Quail Springs Mall Oklahoma City OK.
• 34. Fashion Bug in O'Fallon MO is closing in January
• 35. Kmart Store in Oak Hill W. Va
• 36. Update: Jett & Hall men's clothing store in Richmond KY
• 37. D.C. school List of Possible Schools Closing to Be released Later today
• 38. Dunkin' Donuts in Holly Hill FL
• 39. Hostess Brands Inc Permanently Closing 3 Bakeries Following a Nationwide Strike
• 40. Philips Electronics subsidiary Lightolier will close its local fluorescent light
• 41. fixture manufacturing plant in Willington
• 42. Smithfield Packing Co. will close in 2013, laying off a total of 400 employees
• 43. SuperFresh outlets in Marlton and Westmont NJ
• 44. The Bagel Shoppe in Katonah NY
• 45. Ben Franklin and Homestead House Gifts in the Kimball Ridge Center in Waterloo IA
• 46. Several West Virginia Suzuki dealerships Being Forced to Close
• 47. Kowalski Cos Closing All 4 of its Metro Detroit Delis but to Continue Food
• 48. Production
• 49. Three Memphis charter schools and one in Nashville Tenn. Could Close Due to Poor
• 50. Test Scores
• 51. The Custer School District SD - Closing 2 Rural Schools
• 52. The Dressing Room, on North Lincoln Avenue IL
• 53. The Utica Office Of Ibope Ny

Bankruptcies:

• 1. AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc
• 2. Aletheia Research & Management Inc
• 3. Omtron USA
• 4. Helmkampf Construction in Olivette
• 5. Clear Light Publishers
• 6. Monitor Company Group LP
• 7. ThinkEquity LLC
• 8. Homer City Funding LLC
• 9. US Suzuki Distributor - Chapter 11
• 10. Revolt Technology

This list should frighten every thinking American. It is a huge warning regarding what lies ahead. These changes are coming to an economy that is already unable to provide jobs or sustain living standards.

Decline is a slow process, until it becomes fast. It is not easy to see at first. It should be obvious to most that our economy is approaching a critical stage. When you have destroyed the trust and confidence of business, there will be no job creation.

Some parting words are in order for those responsible for the decisions reflected above. Shutting down and giving up is anathema to the spirit that built this country and is now only found among our entrepreneurial class. It goes against the very fiber that drives success. It is a last resort for entrepreneurs.

The decision to quit is lonely, involves guilt, self-doubt and remorse. It is the last act for someone that has tried everything to avoid it. Giving up and withdrawing is not an act of retribution. People do not willingly choose to go to Galt's figurative gulch. They are forced there.

While the masses exult in the continuation of their  food stamps, cell phones and other booty, the real story of this election is yet to be told. The nation is about to find out that policies and elections have consequences more important than free stuff.

The war against private enterprise can no longer be denied. President Obama's re-election ensures that it will continue and likely accelerate. The makers are beginning to give up. The takers don't have a clue. Soon the country is going to get a real-life lesson in economics. TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch) is about to be learned.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4)-Clinton to visit Middle East for Gaza talks

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will leave Asia on Tuesday to visit Israel, Egypt and Ramallah, stepping upUS efforts to avoid a worsening of the Gaza crisis, an official said.

Clinton will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and discuss the crisis with Egyptian and Palestinian leaders, after leaving President Barack Obama's trip to Southeast Asia, said senior Obama aide Ben Rhodes.

Obama made the decision to send Clinton after speaking to Netanyahu and twice to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, after leaving East Asia summit meetings on Monday night, said Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.

The US president, on a mission to reinforce his foreign policy pivot to Asia, has made repeated calls to Middle Eastern leaders in recent days about a crisis which he says was precipitated by Hamas rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

Rhodes said Clinton would express the US interest in a peaceful outcome that protects and enhances Israel's security and regional stability, though he stopped short of calling her trip a mediating mission.

"The best way to solve this is through diplomacy, so that you have a peaceful settlement that ends that rocket fire and allows for a broader calm in the region," Rhodes said.

News of Clinton's trip came as Israeli leaders Tuesday discussed an Egyptian plan for a truce with Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group, and after the death toll from Israeli raids on the enclave rose to more than 100.

Senior Israeli ministers decided overnight to delay any ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to give Egyptian-led truce efforts a chance to work.

Palestinian officials said Clinton would visit Ramallah in the West Bank on Wednesday morning for talks withPalestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

US officials did not say exactly who Clinton would meet in Egypt. But Rhodes said Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government, which has close ties to Hamas, was playing a useful role in trying to calm the situation down.

"The president and the secretary believe that the Egyptians have been quite constructive in the conversations we have had," Rhodes said.

"They have expressed a sincere commitment to support a de-escalation here."

Clinton's arrival in the region will add to a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending a worsening of the crisis which could further destabilise the turbu

lent Middle East.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who has been in Cairo, is in contact with Clinton, US officials said.

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal meanwhile said his movement was committed to trying to secure a truce with Israel, but insisted it must lift its six-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt is leading efforts to mediate the truce, chairing marathon indirect negotiations in Cairo between Meshaal and an Israeli envoy.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5)Killing The Goose

Thomas Sowell

 

Killing the goose that lays the golden egg is one of those old fairy tales for children which has a heavy message that a lot of adults should listen to. The labor unions which have driven the makers of Twinkies into bankruptcy, potentially destroying 18,500 jobs, could have learned a lot from that old children's fairy tale.

Many people think of labor unions as organizations to benefit workers, and think of employers who are opposed to unions as just people who don't want to pay their employees more money. But some employers have made it a point to pay their employees more than the union wages, just to keep them from joining a union.

Why would they do that, if it is just a question of not wanting to pay union wages? The Twinkies bankruptcy is a classic example of costs created by labor unions that are not confined to paychecks.

The work rules imposed in union contracts required the company that makes Twinkies, which also makes Wonder Bread, to deliver these two products to stores in separate trucks. Moreover, truck drivers were not allowed to load either of these products into their trucks. And the people who did load Twinkies into trucks were not allowed to load Wonder Bread, and vice versa.

All of this was obviously intended to create more jobs for the unions' members. But the needless additional costs that these make-work rules created ended up driving the company into bankruptcy, which can cost 18,500 jobs. The union is killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Not only are there reasons for employers to pay their workers enough to keep them from joining unions, there are reasons why workers in the private sector have increasingly voted against joining unions. They have seen unions driving jobs away to non-union competitors at home or driving them overseas, whether with costly work rules or in other ways.

The old-time legendary labor leader John L. Lewis called so many strikes in the coal mines that many people switched to using oil instead, because they couldn't depend on coal deliveries. A professor of labor economics at the University of Chicago called John L. Lewis "the world's greatest oil salesman."

There is no question that Lewis' United Mine Workers Union raised the pay and other benefits for coal miners. But the higher costs of producing coal not only led many consumers to switch to oil, these costs also led coal companies to substitute machinery for labor, reducing the number of miners.

By the 1960s, many coal-mining towns were almost ghost towns. But few people connected the dots back to the glory years of John L. Lewis. The United Mine Workers Union did not kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, but it created a situation where fewer of those golden eggs reached the miners.

It was much the same story in the automobile industry and the steel industry, where large pensions and costly work rules drove up the prices of finished products and drove down the number of jobs. There is a reason why there was a major decline in the proportion of private sector employees who joined unions. It was not just the number of union workers who ended up losing their jobs. Other workers saw the handwriting on the wall and refused to join unions.

There is also a reason why labor unions are flourishing among people who work for government. No matter how much these public sector unions drive up costs, government agencies do not go out of business. They simply go back to the taxpayers for more money.

Consumers in the private sector have the option of buying products and services from competing, non-union companies-- from Toyota instead of General Motors, for example, even though most Toyotas sold in America are made in America. Consumers of other products can buy things made in non-union factories overseas.

But government agencies are monopolies. You cannot get your Social Security checks from anywhere except the Social Security Administration or your driver's license from anywhere but the DMV.

Is it surprising that government employees have seen their pay go up, even during the downturn, and their pensions rise to levels undreamed of in the private sector? None of this will kill the goose that lays the golden egg, so long as there are both current taxpayers and future taxpayers to pay off debts passed on to them

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.6)Beyond Iron Dome

Israeli tech is America’s hope

• By ARTHUR HERMAN

Regardless of how this current round of Israeli-Hamas fighting comes out, there’s one clear winner: the Israeli company called Rafael Advanced Systems, which makes the Iron Dome missile-defense system.

Iron Dome isn’t just saving Israeli lives; it may soon be saving American ones — along with other made-in-Israel technologies that are shifting the balance in the war with Islamist terror.

Indeed, Iron Dome is just one more example of why the survival of Israel is just as important to us as our support is for the survival of Israel. In terms of the coming high-tech war with terrorism, it may be more so.

One of the first of those technologies was actually unmanned drones, which Israel first pioneered back in the ’80s — in ways our armed forces started to copy more than a decade later.

But drones are struts and piano wire stuff compared to the sophisticated technologies of Iron Dome.

It’s an all-weather, highly mobile system with a range up to 43.5 miles. Each six-missile unit comes equipped with a battle-management computer system designed by another Israeli company, Mprest Systems, that can handle a sudden barrage of short-range rockets like the ones used by Hamas and Hezbollah.

In the current conflict, its success rate is 88 percent. In one attack on Sunday, Iron Dome shot down 15 missiles in a row— and thus far it’s kept Tel Aviv and Jerusalem free from carnage.

In many ways, Iron Dome’s technical success puts our defense industry to shame.

The system actually had its start during the first Gulf War, when our Patriot anti-missile batteries failed to protect Israel from Saddam Hussein’s Scuds. That convinced the Israelis they had to develop their own anti-missile technologies.

Theirs was a complex problem of how to create a series of protective umbrellas against the steady barrage of short-range rockets, mortar and 155mm artillery shells that various enemies have been flinging at Israel for years — as well as longer-range missiles like the Scud.

For the Pentagon, developing and deploying a major new weapons system like Iron Dome would take a decade. By contrast, the Israeli Defense Ministry gave Rafael the Iron Dome contract in 2007, and by March 2009 the system was fully ready for testing. The first true shoot-down test had to wait until July that year. More tests followed in 2010, and by March 2011 Iron Dome was declared operational — just two years after it was created.

But the story doesn’t end there.

To catch incoming missiles of a bigger variety, Israel Aerospace Industry makes the Arrow 2 — which, according to its developer Dov Raviv, has a 90 percent probability of knocking out a medium-range ballistic missile; it can even tell a warhead from a decoy.

Much of Arrow’s funding, like that of Iron Dome, originally came from Washington — but the engineering and production skill is Israeli. Meanwhile, our Missile Defense Agency is lucky when it gets a 60 percent probability of a missile shootdown. And its first successful test interception came in August 2005 — more than 10 years after Arrow 1 had done the same thing.

US companies are beginning to see the writing on the wall. Missile-maker Raytheon, for instance, has signed on with Rafael Advanced Systems to develop still another anti-missile missile: the so-called Magic Wand or David’s Sling, a two-stage interceptor designed to take out cruise missiles of the kind Hezbollah has been getting from Iranians and that will become the high-tech weapon of choice for tomorrow’s jihadists.

This is ironic: Raytheon was the developer of the original Patriot system, whose inadequacies put the Israelis down this road. It’s also the company teaming up with Rafael to market Iron Dome here in America — while our government has pledged to spend almost $1 billion on development and deployment of Iron Dome through 2015.

American defense companies know cooperation with Israel is the key to their future. We need the president and Congress and the Pentagon to realize the same thing — and to understand that helping Israel to win its war with terror, and to develop the tools for doing it, is going to be key to winning our own.

Arthur Herman’s latest book is “Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7)The Register editorial: Obama must come clean on Benghzai

There's nothing to be gained by a protracted fight

This nation has a long list of serious problems that it must deal with following the election of a new Congress. The last thing it needs is a protracted political fight over who knew what when surrounding the murders of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three U.S. government employees in Benghazi, Libya.

Some critics of the Obama administration, including Republicans in Congress, are determined to inflate the Benghazi attack into a full-blown scandal. President Obama’s administration seems determined to follow the standard script for Washington by sticking to the original story line, apparently in the hope it eventually will go away.

But this story is not going away.

So the first thing that should happen is the administration should lay out the events in detail and let the chips fall where they may. If someone along the line shaded or changed the facts, as they were known, to protect the administration, let that be known. If that means someone has to take the fall, so be it.

Members of Congress in both parties are asking questions about why the administration’s public statements about the origins of the attack contradicted early intelligence information that it was planned by terrorist groups, with the aid of al-Qaida, and timed for the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Contrary to that intelligence information, administration officials initially said the attack was an outgrowth of spontaneous demonstrations in the Middle East spawned by an anti-Muslim video. The theory is that evidence of a premeditated terrorist attack would have undermined the administration’s assertion that it had crippled al-Qaida by taking out Osama bin Laden and other leaders of the terrorist organization behind the 9/11 attacks.

It’s a serious charge. Ginning up intelligence information to explain foreign policy is wrong, whether it’s to protect a president seeking re-election or whether it’s used by an earlier president to justify going to war.

If that’s what happened, the public should have all the facts. The sooner relevant information is put out, the better. Rather than hunkering down, the Obama administration should make all key State Department and CIA officials available to Congress with instructions to answer every question and turn over every document.

This could be embarrassing. It could force some officials to say they were wrong. It may cause problems for United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice’s chances at winning a nomination as secretary of state. But that is far better than the alternative.

As President Richard Nixon discovered during Watergate, a “two-bit burglary” resulted in the downfall of a president as a result of an elaborate effort to conceal of the facts. That is the lesson the Obama administration should keep in mind as it lays out the complete story of the Benghazi attack.

The nation needs to get this controversy behind us so we can focus on the pressing matter of the federal government’s financial problems.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8)Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files.

by Declan McCullagh

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, isscheduled for next week.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.

It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democratboasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September. But after law enforcement groups including the National District Attorneys' Association and the National Sheriffs' Association organizations objected to the legislation and asked him to "reconsider acting" on it, Leahy pushed back the vote and reworked the bill as a package of amendments to be offered next Thursday.

One person participating in Capitol Hill meetings on this topic told CNET that Justice Department officials have expressed their displeasure about Leahy's original bill. The department is on record as opposing any such requirement: James Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, has publicly warned that requiring a warrant to obtain stored e-mail could have an "adverse impact" on criminal investigations.

Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that in light of the revelations about how former CIA director David Petraeus' e-mail was perused by the FBI, "even the Department of Justice should concede that there's a need for more judicial oversight," not less.

An aide to the Senate Judiciary committee told CNET that because discussions with interested parties are ongoing, it would be premature to comment on the legislation.

Markham Erickson, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who has followed the topic closely and said he was speaking for himself and not his corporate clients, expressed concerns about the alphabet soup of federal agencies that would be granted more power:

 ❝ There is no good legal reason why federal regulatory agencies such as the NLRB, OSHA, SEC or FTC need to access customer information service providers with a mere subpoena. If those agencies feel they do not have the tools to do their jobs adequately, they should work with the appropriate authorizing committees to explore solutions. The Senate Judiciary committee is really not in a position to adequately make those determinations. ❞

The list of agencies that would receive civil subpoena authority for the contents of electronic communications also includes the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission.

Leahy's modified bill retains some pro-privacy components, such as requiring police to secure a warrant in many cases. But the dramatic shift, especially the regulatory agency loophole and exemption for emergency account access, likely means it will be near-impossible for tech companies to support in its new form.

A bitter setback
This is a bitter setback for Internet companies and a liberal-conservative-libertarian coalition, which had hoped to convince Congress to update the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act to protect documents stored in the cloud. Leahy glued those changes onto anunrelated privacy-related bill supported by Netflix.

At the moment, Internet users enjoy more privacy rights if they store data on their hard drives or under their mattresses, a legal hiccup that the companies fear could slow the shift to cloud-based services unless the law is changed to be more privacy-protective.

Members of the so-called Digital Due Process coalition include Apple, Amazon.com, Americans for Tax Reform, AT&T, the Center for Democracy and Technology, eBay, Google, Facebook, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, TechFreedom, and Twitter. (CNET was the first to report on the coalition's creation.)

Leahy, a former prosecutor, has a mixed record on privacy. He criticized the FBI's efforts to require Internet providers to build in backdoors for law enforcement access, and introduced a bill in the 1990s protecting Americans' right to use whatever encryption products they wanted.

But he also authored the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which is now looming over Web companies, as well as the reviledProtect IP Act. An article in The New Republic concluded Leahy's work on the Patriot Act "appears to have made the bill less protective of civil liberties." Leahy had introduced significant portions of the Patriot Act under the name Enhancement of Privacy and Public Safety in Cyberspace Act (PDF) a year earlier.

One obvious option for the Digital Due Process coalition is the simplest: if Leahy's committee proves to be an insurmountable roadblock in the Senate, try the courts instead.

Judges already have been wrestling with how to apply the Fourth Amendment to an always-on, always-connected society. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police needed a search warrant for GPS tracking of vehicles. Some courts have ruled that warrantless tracking of Americans' cell phones, another coalition concern, is unconstitutional.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies already must obtain warrants for e-mail in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, thanks to a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010.