If It’s Tuesday It Must Be Time To Patch Windows Again

Microsoft issues urgent Windows, Office security patches

Microsoft today released patches for 26 recently-discovered security holes affecting users of Windows and Office. It is urging companies, in particular, to prioritize patching certain vulnerabilities that are likely to precipitate active cyberattacks within the next 30 days.

The most worrisome security holes are easy for cybercriminals to exploit. Bad guys routinely reverse engineer Microsoft’s patches and quickly create and spread malicious programs designed to seek out and take of control of PCs that aren’t current on patching, security experts say.

Microsoft normally issues security updates on the second Tuesday of each month, known as Patch Tuesday. Most home PC users get security updates automatically, via Windows auto update. Home users just need to follow prompts to restart their PCs, once the patches are downloaded to their harddrives.

However, corporations typically take weeks to test security updates and install them company wide. “While everyone has been focused on the volume of updates today, it should be noted that there are 12 vulnerabilities with Microsoft’s highest exploitability rating,” says Sheldon Malm, senior director of security at vulnerability management firm Rapid 7. “This certainly raises the bar for customers to plan, test, and rollout these updates more quickly than usual.”

See also:
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for February 2010
Microsoft Plugs 26 Vulnerabilities With 13 Patches In Record Update
Microsoft delivers huge Windows security update
Microsoft Fixes 26 Vulnerabilities In Windows, Office
Slew of Critical Updates from Microsoft
Microsoft Fixes Windows Security Vulnerabilities in Patch Tuesday Update
Microsoft warns of TLS/SSL flaw in Windows

/lovely software, by now you should know the patching drill

Boy Do We Ever

Bush billboard in north metro asks “Miss me yet?”

A billboard with a picture of former president George W. Bush and the question “Miss me yet?” is getting a lot of attention in the north metro–not only for its message but because of the mystery of who’s paying for it.

The billboard is located off northbound Interstate 35 in Wyoming. It went up about one month ago.

Schubert and Hoey Outdoor Advertising of Minneapolis owns the billboard. The company’s general manager said that a group of small business owners in the metro rented the space. She wouldn’t reveal the identities of those business owners or how much they paid.

Businesses in the area said customers are commenting on the sign.

Sara Chouinard, who works at the Nesting Grounds coffee house said, “We’ve heard from quite a few customers about it. Some people think it’s pretty amusing. And other people find it insulting.”

Wyoming Mayor Sheldon Anderson said people have contacted him about the billboard.

Anderson said, “I’ve had people willing to donate money to keep the billboard up, but again I don’t have anything personally to do with it.”

Some people who have seen the sign said they can’t tell if its message is pro-Bush, anti-President Barack Obama or something else.

See also:
George Bush is back… on Minn. billboard, anyway
Bush Billboard In Minn.: ‘Miss Me Yet?’
Bush billboard on I-35: “Miss me yet?”
The George Bush Billboard: ‘Miss Me Yet?’
‘Miss me yet’ billboard shows power of outdoor ads in Internet age
Bush “Miss Me Yet?” Billboard Appears Near Highway
George W. Bush “miss me yet?” billboard derails day for MPR’s Bob Collins
‘Miss Me Yet?’ Billboard With Photo Of Bush Is Real; Not An Internet Trick
Who’s Behind the Bush Billboard?

/a big thumbs up to whoever paid for this billboard

Weekly Watch List

PCLN
BIDU
GMCR
ISRG
SIRO
BUCY
VRX
NETL
AAPL
BCSI
AAWW
GES
ACF
CREE
OTEX
SLAB
V
CERN

Additions:
CERN
NETL
OTEX
SLAB

Subtractions:
ABV
LFT
NMM
RAX
RNOW

All the indexes were down again last week although Friday’s late rally was a welcome sight. The NYSE composite fell 1.5%, the S&P 500 lost 0.7%, the Dow dropped 0.5% and the Nasdaq dipped 0.3%. The IBD outlook remains at “market in correction”. It’s still not a good time to be making new stock purchases, wait for a confirmed uptrend.

This week, there are no watch list stocks in a proper buy range.

/as usual, your mileage may vary, always do your own homework

Happy 99th Birthday Mr. President

See also:
Reagan birthday party draws Dole, crowd of 1,000 to presidential library
Ronald Reagan Birthday: Ronald Reagan’s 99th Birthday
On Ronald Reagan’s birthday, plans take shape for next year’s centennial
Republican’s rouse Reaganomics on his 99th birthday
Chuck Muth: Mount Reagan project kicks off in Nevada
Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library

/they just don’t make Presidents like they used to

Another Day Older And Deeper In Debt

Congress Approves $1.9 Trillion Debt-Limit Increase (Update1)

The U.S. Congress approved increasing the federal debt limit by $1.9 trillion, to $14.3 trillion, enough to prevent lawmakers from having to raise it again before November’s midterm elections.

The House voted 233-187 today to send the increase to President Barack Obama for his signature. The hike is more than twice the size of any of the four previous debt increases lawmakers approved in the past two years.

The Senate voted last month for the legislation, which includes a tightening of Congress’s “pay as you go” budgeting rules that may make it harder for lawmakers to add to the deficit.

“We have no choice, we have to take steps to get our financial house in order,” said Representative John Tanner, a Tennessee Democrat. The tougher budget rules “are a good first step,” he said.

Obama announced a 2011 budget request this week that projected the government will run $8.5 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years. Lawmakers of both parties complained that his budget plan wouldn’t do enough to control the shortfalls, while Moody’s Investors Service said it may cut the government’s bond rating in the next decade if the outlook doesn’t improve.

House Democrats, recognizing the political peril of an increase in the debt limit, decided to use a mechanism today that avoided a direct vote on the boost. Instead, they used a procedural vote that will trigger approval of the increase.

‘Procedural Games’

Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, accused Democrats of using “deceitful procedural games to hide the fact that they are raising the debt limit.”

Democrats said the pay-as-you-go changes showed they are serious about reducing the deficit. The plan will “usher out an era of irresponsibility and begin putting the country back on a fiscally sustainable path,” Obama said today in a statement.

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, said the plan is filled with loopholes. He called it a “fiscal charade” so that “we can go talk tough in the election about how we did this and that, while we bequeathed the next generation an inferior standard of living.”

The changes adopted today would enact lawmakers’ pay-as- you-go rules into law; the rules currently are frequently ignored by lawmakers. The rules require lawmakers to finance new federal benefit programs and tax cuts with savings elsewhere in the budget to avoid adding to the deficit.

See also:
House raises debt limit to $14.3 trillion
House sends debt limit increase, pay/go to White House
House sends $1.9 trillion debt-limit increase to Obama
House Votes to Hike Debt Limit
Debt ceiling raised: Again
The Vicious Cycle Between the Debt and the Ceiling
$1.9T US Debt Ceiling Hike Likely To Last Into 2011 -Source
Treasury Expects to Hit Debt Limit in February
US debt to hit proposed ceiling by end-February: Treasury
US National Debt Clock

To their credit, not a single Republican voted for this debt saddle.

/which is why we need to elect more Republicans this fall so we can cut up Obama’s credit card

Finally, A Use For Facebook

Two words: Zynga Poker

/because taking people’s very last chip is cruel fun

In Your Face Taliban, The Coalition Is Coming To Take Marjah And There’s Not A Damn Thing You Can Do About It

U.S. Announces Helmand Offensive

In a rare break from traditional military secrecy, the U.S. and its allies are announcing the precise target of their first big offensive of the Afghanistan surge in an apparent bid to intimidate the Taliban.

Coalition officers have been hinting aloud for months that they plan to send an overwhelming Afghan, British and U.S. force to clear insurgents from the town of Marjah and surrounding areas in Helmand province, and this week the allies took the unusual step of issuing a press release saying the attack was “due to commence.”

Senior Afghan officials went so far as to hold a news conference Tuesday to discuss the offensive, although the allies have been careful not to publicize the specific date or details of the attack.

“If we went in there one night and all the insurgents were gone and we didn’t have to fire a shot, that would be a success,” a coalition spokesman, Col. Wayne Shanks, said before the announcement. “I don’t think there has been a mistake in letting people know we’re planning on coming in.”

The risks could be substantial, however. By surrendering the element of surprise, the coalition has given its enemy time to dig entrenched fighting positions and tunnel networks. Perhaps worse for the attacking infantrymen, the insurgents have had time to booby-trap buildings and bury bombs along paths, roads and irrigated fields. Such hidden devices inflict the majority of U.S. and allied casualties.

Over the past few months, the new allied commander in southern Afghanistan, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, has revamped NATO’s coalition strategy in a region that is home to the Pashtun tribes and opium poppy fields that form the ethnic and financial foundations of the Taliban insurgency.

With the first of 30,000 new U.S. troops already on the ground in Afghanistan, Gen. Carter’s plan is to focus on two population centers—Kandahar city, in Kandahar province, and central Helmand province to the west. Combined, they are home to about two million of the estimated three million residents of southern Afghanistan.

Still, the military has taken an unusual step by broadcasting its imminent intention to assault a particular town, Marjah, and its environs. During World War II, civilians and servicemen were frequently reminded that “Loose lips sink ships” and “Enemy ears are listening.” For months leading up to the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, the Allies went to great lengths to disguise their target.

Similarly, the coalition in Afghanistan normally forbids—at the threat of expulsion—embedded reporters from writing about events before they take place. In this case, though, officials even released the name of the offensive, Operation Moshtarak, and said it would be a joint Afghan-coalition attack. Moshtarak means “together” in Dari, although the bulk of the population in southern Afghanistan speaks Pashto.

See also:
Allies publicly target Taliban
Coalition troops brace for biggest offensive since start of Afghan war
Marines gear up for push into Afghan Taliban enclave
Marines prepare to storm Taliban stronghold
US Marines, Afghan and NATO forces brace for battle in Afghan Taliban stronghold
US marines plan attack on Taleban stronghold
US, NATO, Afghan Troops Planning Major Southern Offensive
Troops Prepare and Publicize Offensive Against Taliban
Afghanistan: US and British to launch biggest offensive since 2001
U.S. Plans Defense of Kandahar

An interesting Coalition strategy indeed, will the Taliban flee in humiliation or flock to Marjah and die en masse? The overhead drones will surely be watching.

/either way, we’re taking the town

Thank You Director Obvious!

Intelligence officials say al-Qaeda will try to attack U.S. in next 6 months

The Obama administration’s top intelligence officials on Tuesday described it as “certain” that al-Qaeda or its allies will try to attack the United States in the next six months, and they called for new flexibility in how U.S. officials detain and question terrorist suspects.

The officials, testifying before the Senate intelligence committee, also warned of increased risk of cyber-attacks in the coming months, saying that the recent China-based hacking of Google’s computers was both a “wake-up call” and a forerunner to future strikes aimed at businesses or intended to cause economic disruption.

“Al-Qaeda maintains its intent to attack the homeland — preferably with a large-scale operation that would cause mass casualties, harm the U.S. economy or both,” Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told the committee in a hearing convened to assess threats against the country.

See also:
Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Intel chief: al-Qaeda likely to attempt attack
Officials Warn al Qaeda ‘Certain’ to Try Attack Soon
Intelligence Officials Warn Attempted Al Qaeda Attack Months Away
Al-Qaeda Likely to Try U.S. Attack Within Six Months (Update2)
Intelligence chiefs: Al Qaeda attack imminent
Al-Qaeda ‘to attempt US attack soon’
Senators Warned of Terrorist Attack on U.S. by July
Concerns grow over Al Qaeda’s group in Yemen
U.S. flying blind as intel chief says terror attack likely within six months

Al Qaeda still wants to launch attacks against the U.S. homeland at the earliest possible opportunity, really? You mean they haven’t given up on their global jihad against Western civilization? I’m shocked I tell you, shocked!

/in other breaking news, water is wet, fire is hot, and [expletive deleted] stinks

Obama Pounds 3.8 Trillion More Borrowed Nails In America’s Economic Coffin

We’re quickly nearing the tipping point where the interest payments alone on our debt will swamp our ability to pay them, yet Obama’s stomping the spending accelerator down to the floorboards with a record setting budget proposal, for the second year in a row.

Just wait until interest rates rise and watch how much more the interest on our debt is going to cost as we borrow even more, that is if anyone will still be willing to lend to us.

/Michael Ramirez

Obama to veil $3.8T budget with massive deficits

President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.8 trillion budget on Monday that will increase spending in the fight against high unemployment, boost taxes on the wealthy and freeze spending for a number of government programs.

The deficit for this year would surge to a record-breaking $1.6 trillion, according to a congressional official who had access to a White House summary document. That deficit would easily top last year’s then unprecedented $1.41 trillion gap.

The congressional source, who spoke on condition of anonymity before the budget’s official release, said the deficit would remain above $1 trillion in 2011 and would average 4.5 percent of the economy over the next decade, a level that economists consider a threat to long-term economic prosperity.

Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011

See also:
Deficit climbs to record under Obama’s budget
Obama budget: Record spending, record deficit
Obama’s 2011 budget underlines depth of US woes
Shadowed by deficits, Obama pitches economic plan
Budget reflects dire realities, Obama says
Obama’s budget illustrates dire fiscal straits
Breaking Down Obama’s Budget
Hard choices to come with fiscal year 2011 budget
Tax Proposals in the 2011 Budget: What’s In It for You?
Obama’s budget: Impact on your taxes
Obama Budget, Jobs Plan Get Early Tests on Hill
Obama’s budget proposal draws rapid fire from legislators

So, in the face of an obviously unsustainable deficit and debt trajectory, why does Obama insist on submitting a budget with record spending and record deficits? Why does he propose a fig leaf of a spending “freeze”, when drastic spending cuts are clearly called for? I think James Clyburn sums up this insane Democrat mindset best.

“We’re not going to save our way out of this recession,” the majority whip added. “We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that.”

Most economists believe that, really? The reality, as proven by history, is that only the private sector can create a sustainable recovery. Massive government deficit spending only creates a temporary boost, while crowding out private investment and adding to the national debt, which, in turn, sparks long term economic pessimism and turmoil. Eventually, this downward spiral will completely collapse in a national default.

/the time to stop the dangerous and reckless economic train wreck that’s looming is now, so vote like your standard of living depends on it, because it does

Weekly Watch List

PCLN
BUCY
GMCR
RAX
ISRG
SIRO
BIDU
LFT
VRX
BCSI
AAPL
ABV
AAWW
GES
ACF
CREE
NMM
V
RNOW

Additions:
AAWW
ACF
CREE
LFT
RNOW

Subtractions:
ASIA
NEU
SHOO
TLVT
WBD

Last week the institutional selling downdraft continued on higher volume, with no immediate end in sight. Most of the indexes broke through support levels as the Nasdaq dropped 2.6%, the NYSE sank 2.1%, the S&P 500 fell 1.7% and the Dow shed 1%. The IBD outlook remained at “market in correction”. Don’t try and catch the proverbial falling knife here. Hunker down and play portfolio defense until the market finds some footing.

This week, there are no watch list stocks in a proper buy range.

/as usual, your mileage may vary, always do your own homework