Climate Matters; The FCC's Power, and Republicans' Power to Change It; Millions Admitted to US Without IDs; Terrorist Threat is Real!; Airports Suspend Enhanced Security at Airports for Holidays

From the Independent, year 2000: Britain's winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.
Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.
"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.

Heavy snow will return occasionally, says Dr Viner, but when it does we will be unprepared. "We're really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time," he said.

The chances are certainly now stacked against the sort of heavy snowfall in cities that inspired Impressionist painters, such as Sisley, and the 19th century poet laureate Robert Bridges, who wrote in "London Snow" of it, "stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying". [As snow now blankets Europe, stranding millions and forcing long lines for people to take trains home for Christmas, I would say that the year 2000 predictions are indicative of all those who predict dire climate change based on just a few out of billions of years on planet Earth.  I keep asking what it was that produced global warming every 15,000 years or so on Earth - before man could be blamed.  We never hear that discussion, do we?]

Not any more, it seems. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

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The Wall St. Journal writes: A divided Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal by Chairman Julius Genachowski to give the FCC power to prevent broadband providers from selectively blocking web traffic.
The rules will go into effect early next year, but legal challenges or action by Congress could block the FCC's action. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) on Tuesday called the FCC's action "flawed" and said lawmakers would "have an opportunity in the new Congress to push back against new rules and regulations." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703581204576033513990668654.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
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The Chronical writes: More than 18 months after U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspectors were supposed to start enforcing stringent ID requirements at the nation's land borders, millions of travelers are still being admitted without passports or other secure IDs, a new government audit shows.

An Office of Inspector General report released Monday found that CBP remains unprepared to fully implement the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which officially took effect in June 2009 and requires all travelers, including U.S. citizens, to carry passports or one of a handful of other forms of secure ID.

In the first eight months after the requirements took effect, 2.3 million travelers failed to provide proper paperwork at U.S. land ports of entry. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7348243.html

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The UK Daily Mail writes: Al Qaeda terrorists planned to poison food at multiple US hotels and restaurants over a single weekend, it has been revealed this morning.
The 'credible' plot involved slipping the poisons cyanide and ricin into salad bars and buffets, according to CBS news.
The terrorist group behind the failed 'ink cartridge' attacks on cargo planes in October were said to have hatched the plan.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula branded the plot 'Operation Haemorrhage'.
Militants say the plot consists of 'attacking the enemy with smaller but more frequent operations' to 'add a heavy economic burden to an already faltering economy'. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/12/22/2010-12-22_terrorist_threat_on_united_state_still_real_warns_attorney_general_eric_holder.html#ixzz18qCU29c0


Just yesterday, our Eric Holder admitted that:  "The threat is real. The threat is different. The threat is constant," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"You didn't worry about this even two years ago - about individuals, about Americans - to the extent that we now do. And that is of great concern," Holder said.
The NYPD says it has long been aware of the dangers posed by homegrown terrorists and always has kept an eye on threats close to home.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/12/22/2010-12-22_terrorist_threat_on_united_state_still_real_warns_attorney_general_eric_holder.html#ixzz18qCU29c0

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(CBS)  In this exclusive story, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports the latest terror attack to America involves the possible use of poisons - simultaneous attacks targeting hotels and restaurants at many locations over a single weekend.

A key Intelligence source has confirmed the threat as "credible." Department of Homeland Security officials, along with members of the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, have briefed a small group of corporate security officers from the hotel and restaurant industries about it.
  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/20/eveningnews/main7169266.shtml
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The Canada Free Press reveals: Did you see the Washington Post this morning? That was the one sentence e-mail I received yesterday from my DHS contact who alerted me to the DHS/TSA memorandum about the domestic intelligence agency’s creating and maintaining a list of individuals who were determined to be “interfering” with the enhanced airport TSA screening procedures through their objections or “opting out” of such procedures. In my November 23rd report titled DHS making a list, checking it twice, I wrote that the DHS, through the arm of the TSA, under the direction of Napolitano and with the full consent of Obama, was collecting the names and personal information of such individuals, labeling them as potential “domestic extremists.”
Meanwhile, the very same agency was busily averting an uprising by air travelers and a potential public relations nightmare by temporarily suspending their draconian security measures during one of the busiest travel times of the year. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/31331
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