Manny Villar

Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar, Jr. (born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and politician. He is the President of the Nacionalista Party and a member of the Senate of the Philippines. Villar was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2000—in which capacity he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada—as well as President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008.

He assumed the Senate presidency at the beginning of the Third Regular Session of the 13th Congress, as part of a power-sharing agreement with his predecessor Sen. Franklin Drilon. On November 17, 2008, Villar was forced to resign due to lack of support in the Senate.

Early life
Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar Jr. was born on December 13, 1949 in Moriones, Tondo Manila. His father, Manuel Montalban Villar, Sr., a government employee, hailed from Cabatuan, Iloilo and his mother Curita Bamba, a seafood dealer, came from Pampanga and Bataan. The second of nine children, Villar attended Holy Child Catholic School and started selling seafood at the Divisoria Market at an early age.

While Manny Villar was a working student, he was also putting in long hours as a fish and shrimp trader: working where the action starts during the wee hours of the morning when the freshly caught seafood arrives at market grounds. As a working student, he was able to put himself through school by finishing his studies at the University of the Philippines where he earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Business Administration.
After graduation, he tried his hand as an accountant at the country’s biggest accounting firm, Sycip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co.). He resigned shortly though to venture on his own seafood delivery business.

When a restaurant he was delivering stocks to did not pay him, he printed out “meal tickets” which he persuaded the restaurant owners to honor. He then sold these tickets at a discounted price to office workers. It took him one year to liquidate his receivables.
He worked briefly as a financial analyst at the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines. His job was to sell World Bank loans, despite the attractive rates of which there were no takers. Convinced that he could make it on his own again, he quit his job and promptly availed of one of the loans.

Business
With an initial capital of P10,000 in 1975, Villar purchased two reconditioned trucks and started his sand-and-gravel business in Las Piñas.
He started a sand and gravel business and then went on to establish one of the largest development firms in the Southeast Asian region, the Camella & Palmera Homes. Originally low end developers, the Company has recently started selling more high end homes under the Crown Asia brand name, although criticism have been voiced in the press of many such developments in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Davao His C&P Homes business has also been featured in international publications such as the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek, Asiamoney, and the Asian Business Review.
He earned citations such as the Ten Outstanding Young Men in 1986, the Agora Award for Marketing Management in 1989, Most Outstanding CPA by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1990, and Most Outstanding Alumnus in 1991.

Politics
As a successful businessman, he ventured in the political arena in 1992 and was elected as Congressman representing Las Piñas posting landslide victories. On his third term, he was chosen to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives. On November 13, 2000, he became the first House Speaker in Philippine history to impeach a President, paving the way for the elevation of the articles of impeachment to the Senate.
In the national elections held last May 14, 2001, despite being a relative newcomer in national politics, Manny Villar posted one of the most impressive showings in the national polls. On his first day in office, he was selected as Senate President Pro Tempore, the position he held until 2003.

He has also spearheaded the building of schools, sending out medical missions and setting up relief operations whenever or wherever needed. He led the inauguration of the Las Piñas-Muntinlupa-Laguna-Cavite (LPMLC) link road, more popularly known as Daang Hari, as part of his road improvement program aimed at easing traffic in the south of Metro Manila.
In February 2004, he was elected as President of the Nacionalista Party — the country’s oldest political party. He was also named the Most Distinguished UP Alumnus—the highest recognition given by the UP Alumni Association—for his exemplary public service and achievements. After the 2004 elections, he initially planned to run for the Senate presidency but agreed to let the incumbent, Franklin Drilon to finish his turn as Senate President until June 2006. Honoring the said agreement, his fellow senators unanimously elected him as Senate President on July 24, 2006.

He is recognized as the richest legislator in Philippine history where he was consistently the richest congressman from 1992 to 2001 and richest senator from 2001 until 2008 with a net worth of P 1,041,383,9246.
On the Forbes Magazine released October 2007, its list of “The Philippines’ 40 Richest,” he is ranked 5th and the year’s biggest gainer. From $110 million last year, his net worth shot up 755% to $940 million after the public offering of his company Vista Land & Lifescapes.
Senator Manny Villar's wife is Cynthia A. Villar, currently the representative of the lone congressional district of Las Piñas). He has two sons (Paolo and Mark) and a daughter (Camille).

2007 Senate President
On July 23, 2007, Villar was elected Senate President by a vote of 15-7, after the oath-taking of the 11 new senators, with the exception of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Those who voted for Villar were Senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Juan Ponce-Enrile, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Manuel Lapid, Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Ramon Revilla Jr., and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Villar cast a vote for himself. Those who voted for Pimentel were Senators Benigno Aquino III, Rodolfo Biazon, Francis Escudero, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Ana Consuelo Madrigal, and Manuel Roxas II.

Performance rating
On January 7, 2008, the Social Weather Stations (November 30 to December 3, 2007) survey revealed all-time high satisfaction grades for Vice-President Noli de Castro and Senate President Manuel Villar, Jr.: 64% satisfied and 23% dissatisfied - de Castro's performance, or satisfaction rating of net +41; 71%, satisfied and 13% dissatisfied for Villar, net +59.

Resignation
Juan Ponce Enrile was elected Senate of the Philippines President who replaced resigned Villar, who saw himself forced to resign due to lack of support in the Senate on November 17, 2008.

The 2010 presidency
Villar Jr., on June 6, 2008 announced that he is 99% joining the Philippine general election, 2010 (one percent, is on the possibility of no election), amid his nomination of the Nacionalista Party (NP), chaired by him. Villar stated that: "We are prepared to have alliance with other political parties." On September 4, 2008, Villar formally declared and confirmed his presidential candidacy.

"Villa Pacencia" Villar mansion
Manuel Villar and Cynthia A. Villar, bought and took over, on July 12, 2008, "Villa Pacencia," the 3-story 51-year-old white-and-green Laurel mansion, now a historic site, built by Jose P. Laurel, on 6,000 square meters prime Mandaluyong lot. The mansion has 2 historical markers - the 1957 note of its first creation, and the visit of Indonesian President Sukarno, who twice slept at the mansion (in 1963 visit, and again, later, with Filipino movie star, Amelia de la Rama). Jose P. Laurel built the house on No. 515 Shaw Blvd., several years after he stepped down as President. The mansion is the biggest of the 3 residences that Laurel built (in Tanauan, and in Paco, Manila, called the Villa Peñafrancia). The Villars refurbished the mansion and formally presented it to the Laurel clan, NP leaders, inter alia, for the June 10, 2008 blessing.

Pocket billiards promoter
Besides being an entrepreneur and a politician, Villar became a promoter for pool tournaments. He held the first Manny Villar Cup on May 5, 2008. The staging of this event became somewhat controversial because it took place at the same date of a tournament under the Philippine Pool Tour.

How to Spend Like a Frugal Millionaire

Saving thousands while still spending.

Millionaires make up just 2 percent of the population. They get a bad rap during recessions for being wasteful with their money and are frequently used as examples of excess. It's the millionaires that you don't see that you can learn from in times like these. I call them the frugal millionaires and interviewed 70 of them to uncover ways we can all be smarter with money.
Nearly 70 percent of the economy is based on consumer spending. To keep the economy going we need to keep spending but not waste money in the process. This is where the frugal millionaires come in. They've been smart with their money all along and haven't lost it all and had to remake it. These are the kind of people you want to learn from when it comes to spending your money.

Spending philosophy.
Frugal millionaires are unique thinkers when it comes to spending money:

1) they can easily delay their need for gratification when purchasing;

2) they are resourceful in getting what they want by carefully timing their consumer purchases;

3) they make living below their means painless;

4) they don't like wasting anything (especially money);

5) their sense of "self-entitlement" is highly minimized: and

6) spending is OK with them...depending on what they are buying (think: appreciating vs. depreciating assets).

Buying tips.
These millionaires keep more money than they spend, that's why they are rich. Their tactics work for them so they'll work even better for you. Key Point: They don't view shopping as a sport. They shop efficiently and spend their time doing more important things with their lives. Here are their tips that will help you save while spending:

Cars:

Buy used (or off lease) fuel-efficient cars, often with "certified pre-owned" warranties. This warranty can be better than a new car, plus the initial depreciation hit is avoided. Drive the car for a long time and never lease it.

Eating Out:

Bring half of a meal home to eat later (this also saves the waistline). Eat at happy hours. Bring wine from home and skip dessert. Value food quality over expensive ambience.

Eating In:

Eat better and less expensively by cooking at home. Make it a friends and family event. Get your kids involved. Bonus: You can have that extra drink without worrying about getting busted for driving under the influence. Also: buy day-old bread at the best bakery in town and freeze it. Eat oatmeal, because it's the most cost-effective breakfast food. Get a supermarket "club card" and buy food on special. Play the game of trying to see how much of a discount can be saved off the total food bill.

Clothes:

When you buy something new donate something used to charity. Buy traditional clothes, but wait for the off-season to acquire them. Go for high quality - not high price. Buy vintage clothing and avoid logo clothing and keep people guessing who the designer might be. Hint: There shouldn't be one!

Consumer Electronics:

Buy low-end gear that has the basic functionality of the more expensive stuff. Don't be the first to buy new technology. Wait at least one lifecycle so the bugs are worked out. Buy refurbished electronics whenever possible.

Computers:

Buy more mainstream computers with proven technology. Select higher capacity hard drives, a decent amount of RAM (the memory that the program runs in) and a cost effective processor. Super fast doesn't always equal super good...unless you are building airplanes or bridges. Laptops are a good compromise between desktops and netbooks. Don't go through the pain of upgrading operating systems on existing computers, it's not time efficient and you will probably go insane trying.

Going green:

Being green and frugal go hand-in-hand. Yet frugal millionaires don't readily fall for the trendy green hype machine. They typically buy green if it helps the environment and lowers their costs. They look at the timeframe when a product can pay for itself. They do use compact fluorescent lighting, turn off lights and equipment that isn't being used, monitor AC and heat usage (with programmable thermostats), drive efficiently, live in "right-sized" homes and turn off the water when they aren't brushing their teeth or washing dishes. Because they have trained themselves to not waste money they won't waste anything else either. They get into good habits and keep them going. You can, too.

'Cell Phone Elbow' -- A New Ill for the Wired Age

TUESDAY, June 2 (HealthDay News) -- First came Nintendo thumb. Then, Guitar Hero wrist. Now, for the latest affliction of the wired age, it's cell phone elbow.
Medically known as cubital tunnel syndrome, cell phone elbow is numbness, tingling and pain in the forearm and hand caused by compression of the ulnar nerve, which passes along the bony bump on the inside of the elbow.
One of the causes of pressure on the ulnar nerve? Too much gabbing, often brought on by those cell phone plans with unlimited minutes, experts say.
Prolonged flexing of the elbow, such as when you hold a cell phone to your ear while closing sales, talking to your mother or keeping tabs on your teens while you're at work, puts tension on the ulnar nerve. In susceptible people, holding the bent-elbow position for extended periods can lead to decreased blood flow, inflammation and compression of the nerve.
"Repetitive, sustained stretching of the nerve is like stepping on a garden hose," said Dr. Peter J. Evans, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Hand and Upper Extremity Center. "With the hose, you're blocking the flow of water. With the elbow, you're blocking the blood flow to the nerve, which causes it to misfire and short circuit."
The first symptoms patients often notice include numbness, tingling or aching in the forearm and hand, a pain similar to hitting your "funny bone." (The unpleasant sensation of hitting your "funny bone" is actually your ulnar nerve.)
As symptoms progress, they can include a loss of muscle strength, coordination and mobility that can make writing and typing difficult. In chronic, untreated cases, the ring finger and pinky can become clawed, Evans and colleagues note in a report in the May issue of the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.
Though there are no solid figures on how many people have cell phone elbow, hand specialists say the incidence is increasing along with the 3.3 billion cell phone service contracts active worldwide, Evans said.
Still, the disorder is less common than carpal tunnel syndrome, a related condition that causes pain in the hand and wrist. Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by compression of the median nerve that runs from the forearm into the hand.
"Cubital tunnel is the second most common compression syndrome we see," said Heather Turkopp, an occupational therapist and certified hand specialist at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich.
Most people who get cubital tunnel syndrome are middle-aged or older. Women get cubital tunnel syndrome more often than men -- and it's probably not because they talk more.
Although the precise reasons are unknown, women may be more susceptible due to hormonal fluctuations or their anatomy, Evans said.
And too much yakking isn't the only cause of cubital tunnel syndrome. Other causes may include sleeping with the elbows bent and tucked up into the chest, sitting at a desk with the elbows flexed at an angle greater than 90 degrees and driving with your elbow propped on the window for extended periods, he said.
In most cases, minor lifestyle changes can help alleviate symptoms, including using a hands-free headset for your cell phone. If sleep position is the problem, an elbow pad to keep the arm straighter at night can help.
More serious cases are referred to an occupational therapist, who may use ultrasound to loosen scar tissue that can form around the nerve as a result of the inflammation, as well as stretching, deep massage and "nerve-gliding" exercises to reduce pressure on the nerve, Turkopp said.
Doctors may also use anti-inflammatory injections or surgery.
Seeing your doctor soon if you're experiencing any numbness or tingling in your hand or forearm can prevent the problem from progressing to that point, Evans said

Storm Katrina

The Obama administration will announce plans today to virtually give away roughly 1,800 mobile homes to 3,400 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina who are living in government-provided housing along the Gulf Coast, officials said.
The administration also will make available $50 million in rental vouchers to income-eligible trailer occupants who move to targeted housing projects, and take over from Louisiana the job of helping residents find permanent homes, said a senior White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the formal announcement.

"We knew we needed to bring this program to a close," the official said. "We also want to ensure a humane and secure transition for all of them."
The sale option comes weeks after the trailer program formally ended May 1, and after Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said they could begin officially referring cases for eviction June 1.

FEMA typically provides disaster aid for 18 months. It extended assistance for 45 months since Katrina hit in August 2005.
About 1,150 families in FEMA housing live in units the agency classifies as mobile homes and park models, which will be offered for sale at $5 and $1, respectively. FEMA expects to free up an additional 600 to 700 units from its inventory to donate through state and local governments and nonprofit groups, the administration official said. Individuals who previously bought units will be offered refunds.

Its unclear what impact the changes will have. Many local jurisdictions refuse to alter zoning ordinances to allow small manufactured homes.
Thousands of existing vouchers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that are becoming available in Louisiana are going unused. Some trailer occupants await promised grants to rebuild their homes or do not want to leave their home sites. Others do not want to move to HUD-subsidized housing or to pay more rent. Some occupants are so sick, elderly or dysfunctional that they require more help to find housing, officials said.
Spokesman Clark Stevens said FEMA is committed to working with families case by case, adding that 139,000 other households have cycled out of the trailer program. "No one will face evictions from a temporary unit while these new measures are implemented," he said in a written statement.

Brian Deese

It is not every 31-year-old who, in a first government job, finds himself dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.
But that, in short, is the job description for Brian Deese, a not-quite graduate of Yale Law School who had never set foot in an automotive assembly plant until he took on his nearly unseen role in remaking the American automotive industry.

Nor, for that matter, had he given much thought to what ailed an industry that had been in decline ever since he was born. A bit laconic and looking every bit the just-out-of-graduate-school student adjusting to life in the West Wing — “he’s got this beard that appears and disappears,” says Steven Rattner, one of the leaders of President Obama’s automotive task force — Mr. Deese was thrown into the auto industry’s maelstrom as soon the election-night parties ended.

“There was a time between Nov. 4 and mid-February when I was the only full-time member of the auto task force,” Mr. Deese, a special assistant to the president for economic policy, acknowledged recently as he hurried between his desk at the White House and the Treasury building next door. “It was a little scary.”
But now, according to those who joined him in the middle of his crash course about the automakers’ downward spiral, he has emerged as one of the most influential voices in what may become President Obama’s biggest experiment yet in federal economic intervention.
While far more prominent members of the administration are making the big decisions about Detroit, it is Mr. Deese who is often narrowing their options.

A month ago, when the administration was divided over whether to support Fiat’s bid to take over much of Chrysler, it was Mr. Deese who spoke out strongly against simply letting the company go into liquidation, according to several people who were present for the debate.
“Brian grasps both the economics and the politics about as quickly as I’ve seen anyone do this,” said Lawrence H. Summers, the head of the National Economic Council who is not known for being patient whenever he believes an analysis is sub-par — or disagrees with his own. “And there he was in the Roosevelt Room, speaking up vigorously to make the point that the costs we were going to incur giving Fiat a chance were no greater than some of the hidden costs of liquidation.”

Mr. Deese was not the only one favoring the Fiat deal, but his lengthy memorandum on how liquidation would increase Medicaid costs, unemployment insurance and municipal bankruptcies ended the debate. The administration supported the deal, and it seems likely to become a reality on Monday, if a federal judge handling the high-speed bankruptcy proceeding approves the sale of Chrysler’s best assets to the Italian carmaker.
Mr. Deese’s role is unusual for someone who is neither a formally trained economist nor a business school graduate, and who never spent much time flipping through the endless studies about the future of the American and Japanese auto industries.
He lives a dual life these days. He starts the day at a desk wedged just outside of Mr. Summers’s office, where he can hear what young members of the economic team have come to know as “the Summers bellow.” From there, he can make it quickly to the press office to help devise explanations for why taxpayers are spending more than $50 billion on what polls show is a very unpopular bailout of the auto industry.

Several times a day he speed-walks to Treasury, taking a shortcut through the tunnel under the colonnade, near the kitchens. The other day he talked about how sharply perceptions of the industry’s future changed after Mr. Obama’s election.
“At the first meeting with Rick Wagoner,” he said, referring to G.M.’s recently deposed chief executive, “they were in a very different place. He said publicly that bankruptcy was not a viable option. It’s been a long process getting everyone to look at the options differently.”
In fact, from before Inauguration Day, few in Mr. Obama’s circle saw any other choice. Every time Mr. Deese ran the numbers on G.M. and Chrysler, he came back with the now-obvious conclusion that neither was a viable business, and that their plans to revive themselves did not address the erosion of their revenues. But it took the support of Mr. Rattner and Ron Bloom, senior advisers to the task force charged with restructuring the automobile industry, to help turn Mr. Deese’s positions into policy.

“The president’s instruction to us was that we had to come up with a solution that would work on a commercial basis, that didn’t involve indefinite federal financing,” Mr. Deese said. “But we didn’t want liquidation, which would have even worse effects. So the question was how do you design a very substantial restructuring, and do it fast.”

Mr. Deese’s route to the auto table at the White House was anything but a straight line. He is the son of a political science professor at Boston College (his father) and an engineer who works in renewable energy (his mother). He grew up in the Boston suburb of Belmont and attended Middlebury College in Vermont. He went to Washington to work on aid issues and was quickly hired by Nancy Birdsall, a widely respected authority on the effectiveness of international aid and the founder of the Center for Global Development.

But he wanted to learn domestic issues as well, and soon ended up working as an assistant for Gene Sperling, who 17 years ago in the Clinton White House played a similar role as economic policy prodigy. Eventually, Mr. Deese headed to Yale for his law degree. But his e-mail box was constantly filled with messages from friends in Washington who were signing up to work for the Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigns. Mr. Deese chose Senator Clinton’s.

“He was pretty quickly functioning as the top economic policy staffer through her campaign,” Mr. Sperling said. “He could blend the policy needs and the political needs pretty seamlessly.” On the day that the Clinton campaign ended, Mr. Deese left her concession speech and received a message on his BlackBerry from a friend in the Obama campaign urging him to sign on immediately to Mr. Obama’s team.

He resumed his policy work there, and found himself stuck in Chicago — unable to fly to Washington with his dog — as the economic crisis deepened. Finally, one night, he decided to get into his car with his dog and just started driving back to Washington. Tired, he pulled over to catch some sleep in the car.

“I slept in the parking lot of the G. M. plant in Lordstown, Ohio,” he recalled. The giant plant, opened during G.M.’s heyday in the mid-1960s, is where the Pontiac G5 is produced. Under the plan Mr. Deese worked on when he arrived in Washington, Pontiac will disappear.
“I guess that was prophetic,” he said, shaking his head.

Mystery of Giant Ice Circles Resolved

Strange circles have once again appeared in the frozen surface of Lake Baikal in Siberia, as spotted by astronauts aboard the International Space Station this April. News reports described the ice rings as a puzzling phenomenon.
But experts say they can explain the mystery, and it's not aliens - methane gas rising from the lake floor represents the likely culprit.
Methane emissions can create a rising mass of warm water that begins swirling in a circular pattern because of the Coriolis force, or the phenomenon caused by the Earth's rotation that also helps create cyclones.
"Once the water mass reaches the underside of the ice on the surface of the lake, the warm water melts the ice in a ring shape," said Marianne Moore, a marine ecologist at Wellesley College in Massachusetts who has spent much time studying Lake Baikal with Russian researchers. The lake is the largest (by volume) and deepest fresh water lake on Earth.
The latest ring patterns included a circle of thin ice with a diameter of 2.7 miles (4.4 km), although the circular patch was becoming a hole of open water. Astronauts spotted similar ice circles in both 1985 and 1994, and satellites have also made sightings over the past years.
This phenomenon is nothing new to the Russian government, which has documented circle sightings on an official Ministry of Natural Resources Web site.
"Interestingly, the government is also warning people that abnormally high emissions of methane may occur in these areas in the summer and fall, posing risks for ships," Moore told LiveScience.
The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources points out that random emissions of natural gas have probably always occurred in Lake Baikal. And such emissions would have created ice rings every few years.
"But, because of the huge size, it is practically impossible to see a ring standing on the ice or even from a mountain," the Ministry Web site notes. The Russian government has ordered daily space monitoring of the Lake Baikal area in recent years, which prompted many of the satellite sightings.
Tectonic activity deep in the Earth may be the trigger for such methane gas release, according to the Russian government.
That could have major consequences for Lake Baikal's rich array of plants and animals, Moore cautioned - especially in combination with a warming climate. Both could lead to spring ice disappearing more rapidly from Lake Baikal, which can typically hold onto an ice cover through June.
"Unlike other lakes in the world, spring ice is essential for the reproduction of the lake's top predator (the Baikal seal) and the dominant plants (under-ice phytoplankton) at the bottom of the food web," Moore said. "Without spring ice, the food web of this lake will be disrupted substantially."

Mahatma Gandhi

"The devotion of such titans of spirit as Lenin to an Ideal must bear fruit. The nobility of his selflessness will be an example through centuries to come, and his Ideal will reach perfection."

Mao Zedong

"We must have faith in the masses and we must have faith in the Party. These are two cardinal principles. If we doubt these principles, we shall accomplish nothing."

Che Guevara

“Struggles of masses and ideas. An epic that will be carried forward by our peoples, mistreated and scorned by imperialism; our people, unreckoned with until today, who are now beginning to shake off their slumber. Imperialism considered us a weak and submissive flock; and now it begins to be terrified of that flock...”

Karl Marx

"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Working men of all countries, unite!"

Hélder Câmara

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."

Confidential Nuclear Sites

WASHINGTON – The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of government and civilian nuclear facilities and their activities in the United States, but U.S. officials said Wednesday the posting included no information that compromised national security.
However, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, questioned about the disclosure at a House hearing, expressed concern with respect to a uranium storage facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Y-12 facility in Tennessee. The facility holds large quantities of highly enriched uranium, which if obtained can be used to fashion a nuclear weapon.
"That's of great concern," said Chu, referring to the Y-12 site. "We will be looking hard and making sure physical security of those sites (at Y12) is sufficient to prevent eco-terrorists and others getting hold of that material."
The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."
Chu said he had no details as to how the document was released, beyond that it involved the government printing office. "Someone made a mistake," said Chu, appearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee .
Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the document had been reviewed by a number of U.S. agencies and that disclosure of the information did not jeopardize national security. He said the document is part of an agreement on nuclear material inspection under the IAEA's nuclear nonproliferation effort.
"While we would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense, and Commerce and the NRC all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised," LaVera said in a statement.
An Energy Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly, said none of the sites on the list are directly part of the government's nuclear weapons infrastructure.
Included in the report, however, are details on a storage facility for highly enriched uranium at the Y-12 complex at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and some sites at the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, this official acknowledged.
Beth Hayden, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the agency reviewed the document as it relates to civilian facilities with NRC licenses and "we are confident that information of direct national security significance was not compromised."
The NRC has jurisdiction over commercial nuclear power plants and civilian uranium processing and storage facilities.
The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday. The document had been posted on the Government Printing Office Web site, but has since been removed from that site.
In a statement, the Government Printing Office said Wednesday: "Upon being informed about potential sensitive nature of the attachment in this document, the Public Printer of the United States removed it from GPO's Web site pending further review. After consulting with the White House and Congress, it was determined that the document, including sensitive attachment, should be permanently removed from the Web site."
The GPO said it processes and produces approximately 160 House documents during the two-year congressional cycle, and the list was received by the agency in the normal process and produced under routine operating procedures.
The document includes both government and civilian nuclear facilities, all of which have various levels of security, including details and location of nation's 103 commercial nuclear power reactors, information readily available from various sources.
The document details the location of the nuclear sites and what is being done there.
For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pa. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.
There are "zero" national security implications to the publication of this document, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. Aftergood found the document on the GPO Web site and highlighted it in his online bulletin.
"I regret that some people are painting it as a roadmap for terrorists because that's not what it is," Aftergood said.
"This is not a disclosure of sensitive nuclear technologies or of facility security procedures. It is simply a listing of the numerous nuclear research sites and the programs that are under way," Aftergood said. "And so it poses no security threat whatsoever."

Obama, Can he Win Muslim Hearts and Minds?

The scene: a packed auditorium at a major Cairo university. The speaker: a leader in the U.S. government, with a compelling personal story. The message: American foreign policy is "idealistic." The world should embrace the "challenge of listening," while seeking "a new standard of justice for our time." The impact: not much.
On June 20, 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered an ode to liberty, democracy and a bright future in U.S.-Arab cooperation to a group of students in Cairo. As an effort to sell Arabs on American foreign policy, it was a measurable failure: three years later, a piddling 6% of Egyptians told Gallup pollsters that they approved of the job performance of U.S. leaders.
Now, President Barack Obama is set to attempt a makeover. He will appear at a different Cairo university on Thursday to deliver a speech to the entire Muslim world. Not unlike Condi Rice, Obama is expected to offer an idealistic vision of the future, proclaiming a common purpose as allies who can celebrate their differences and embrace their similarities. But Obama's team hopes to succeed where Rice failed, in changing the deteriorating dynamic between the U.S. and the Muslim world. (See pictures of Islam's soft revolution.)
In appealing to the Muslim world, Obama starts with an advantage over Rice: his biography, which ranges from his international family, which included Muslim members, to his opposition to the Iraq War. As early as April 2007, candidate Obama had ventured that his unique story "allows me to say things to them that other Presidents might not be able to say."
Even before he speaks, Obama has registered considerably higher approval ratings in Muslim countries than his predecessors. A recent Gallup poll found 1 in 4 Egyptians now approves of the U.S. leadership. Governments in the Arab world have welcomed the new tone adopted by Obama in his early outreach efforts. "They are discussing issues, showing their concerns, but they also listen," Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit said of Obama's team during a recent visit to Washington. "I think they are very much different from the Bush Administration." Last month, Jordan's King Abdullah II enthused on Meet the Press, "In the Middle East, this President provides hope ... There's a collective hope that there is a new America."
When it comes to policy, however, Obama's message becomes a tougher sell. He may have sought to distinguish his Administration from its predecessor on issues ranging from treatment of detainees to an exit date in Iraq and a renewed push for Israeli-Palestinian peace, including a tougher line against Israel's expansion of West Bank settlements. But many of the policies that most aggrieve the Muslim world remain intact, and any changes will be slow in coming. Obama arrives in Cairo as the commander of a military whose deployment in Iraq continues, while its engagement in Afghanistan is steadily growing. Civilian death from U.S. air strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan continue to be a problem, while the situation in the Palestinian territories has deteriorated over the past year.
No matter how well liked Obama is personally, substantial differences over a raft of U.S. policies will not be easily papered over. "Our policies are a reflection of our interests and our alliances and while they may change moderately from administration to administration, the underlying interests are simply not allied with the policies that many Muslims around the world would like to see the United States pursue," explained Jon Alterman, a former State Department adviser, at a recent forum in Washington. "We're going to have to agree to disagree, and that's the first task for the President - to frame U.S. policy in a way that takes some of the passion out of the widespread hostility for the United States."
Alterman's advice dovetails with Obama's diplomatic approach on previous trips to Latin America and Europe, where rather than try to paper over differences, he focused on changing the tone of the discussion. "Where there is resistance to a certain set of policies that we are pursuing, that resistance may turn out just to be based on old preconceptions or ideological dogmas that, when they're cleared away, it turns out that we can actually solve a problem," Obama said in Trinidad.
Obama appears to believe that many of the world's most intractable problems can be alleviated by better communication and understanding. Similar themes are likely to be echoed in his Cairo speech: a call for dialogue and understanding that flows both ways, and which the Bush Administration, with its tin-eared visions of global transformation, sorely lacked. When Rice spoke in Egypt in 2005, she cast the democratic project as an American success story that would soon spread through the Arab world. "The day is coming when the promise of a fully free and democratic world, once thought impossible, will also seem inevitable," Rice promised the students.
Rice's historical prescription fell mostly on deaf ears. When Obama stands before his own crowd of Egyptian students, he is likely to avoid her mistakes, and instead emphasize the need for a respectful conversation.

Putin, the new star columnist

MOSCOW (AFP) – It looks like a standard weekly magazine column, written in down-to-earth language, dispensing folksy advice and with the intriguing title "Why is it hard to fire a person?"
But there is something different about the new star columnist for the Russian magazine Russky Pioner (Russian Pioneer) -- it's none other than strongman Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
After showing off his skills as a fighter pilot, half-naked fly fisherman, painter and even singer, Putin can now add magazine pundit to a growing and surprisingly diverse CV.
The piece for the trendy magazine, his first ever column for a Russian media outlet, will be published Friday. It is not clear whether it will be part of a regular series.
Choosing a hot topic as Russia enters its first recession in a decade and nearly eight million people in the country are without jobs, Putin cautioned management across the country against ill-considered decisions to fire people.
Managers of all levels, he added, should never avoid responsibility.
"One can never run away from the solution of a problem, bask in ignorance and think that God has fallen asleep on you," he wrote.
The column -- an advance copy of which was released to AFP -- also provided clues as to Putin's often controversial decisions to keep notorious officials in their jobs despite public discontent.
"I am deeply convinced that constant shuffles will not improve things," he said. "I distinctly understand that others who come in place of those fired will be like their predecessors.
"I can honestly say, for example, that had I not interfered in certain situations when I worked as president there would not have been a government in Russia a long time ago," Putin wrote.
Resorting to his trademark earthy style, Putin said he was prepared to forgive officials for mistakes, even if they "snivelled" or "burst in tears."
The only thing he was not ready to take was 'no' for an answer, he said. "There should be no 'impossible'. If 'impossible' than goodbye for sure," he said.
He also gave a slightly chilling account of what to do if the worst comes to the worst and a manager is forced to lay-off staff.
"You need to do this, above all, correctly. As for myself, in contrast to the former, Soviet leaders, I always do this personally.
"Before, people would find out they had problems from the television. I usually call the person into the office and look him right in the eye."
Putin said he then confronts the unfortunate official with the complaint about their work and tells them "that if it does not correspond to reality you can dispute it."
Despite his tough-guy image, Putin said he always took time to return people's calls and remembered to congratulate people on their birthdays.
"That's just my style of work with people," he said. "I know that calling on a birthday when a person is within his family circle and congratulating him means leaving a trace on his soul."
He said that people had expressed surprise that he could remember that a certain regional governor was celebrating a birthday on a given day.
"But I can't not know about it. This information has been sitting on my table since the morning," Putin said.
Andrei Kolesnikov, editor of Russky Pioner and one of Russia's most prominent journalists, said he wasn't sure himself how he tempted Putin to pen the column.
"I myself don't know how I pulled this off, it was my idea as the editor-in-chief of this magazine, I believe that any editor-in-chief dreams of publishing such a columnist on his pages at least once in a lifetime," Kolesnikov said.
Speaking on Ekho of Moscow radio this week, Kolesnikov added that he "of course" didn't edit the column and Putin would be paid for it in accordance with law.

Sonia Sotomayor

Soromayor as a child (on the left)

Facts on Sonia Sotomayor

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is sure to face some tough questions when she undergoes confirmation hearings later this summer. To prepare, she may want to look at what Yahoo! searchers are interested in. Folks are seeking the scoop on her background, biography, and stance on key issues. Here's a quick rundown on a woman who is sure to be one of the top news stories for months to come.
Ambition: From Nancy to PerryAs a child, Ms. Sotomayor loved Nancy Drew mysteries and had aspirations to become a police officer. When she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, a childhood doctor told her that career wouldn't be possible. So, instead, she focused her considerable energy on law. Watching an episode of "Perry Mason" in which the camera settles on the judge at the end of the show, she realized that the person with the gavel "was the most important player in the room." It's a judgment call that searchers have noticed: For the first time in a long time, lookups on the fictional lawyer are soaring.
Background: Born in the BronxAs soon as the nomination was announced, searches soared on "sotomayor biography" and "sotomayor background." Here's the scoop: She's 54 years old and comes from the Bronx, New York. Her parents came from Puerto Rico, and she grew up in a public housing project. After her father died when she was nine, her mother worked two jobs, and Sonia helped out by looking after her brother. She went on to graduate from Princeton summa cum laude and Yale law school.
Key casesAn article from Politico offers up a nice summary of some of Sotomayor's most important legal decisions. Over her career, she has ruled on topics ranging from abortion to affirmative action to gun control. Still, she isn't a prototypical liberal. Again according to Politico, she "resolved the cases in ways that complicate critics' efforts to peg her as a liberal." Time magazine calls her "moderately liberal." In particular, her decision on an affirmative action-related lawsuit brought on by firefighters has garnered a flurry of attention.
Healthy enough to serve?Though it was never a secret that Sotomayor has type 1 diabetes, her nomination has focused renewed attention on the condition. By all accounts, she has diabetes under control. According to the AP, officials from the White House consulted with Sotomayor's doctors about her health before offering her the position. Though she must continue to carefully monitor her diabetes, she was given the go-ahead.
Family matters: Do they matter?Among the avalanche of searches that came in following the nomination were a significant number of lookups for "sonia sotomayor family" and "is sonia sotomayor married." She was married to Kevin Edward Noonan while still a student at Princeton. The couple divorced in 1983 without children, and she has not remarried.
Will she be confirmed?Anyone who remembers Robert Bork's failed nomination for the Supreme Court knows that just because you're nominated doesn't mean you'll be confirmed. In Sotomayor's case, experts seem to think she won't face much opposition. Why? According to Washington insiders, Republicans will fight the nomination, but they'll have to do so carefully. And, this article concludes, GOP senators "won't likely be able to stop her."