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It’s been a dizzying year for standing investors, as big swings in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have become commonplace.

More than 40 percent of trading days this year, from one side Aug 5, featured swings of more than 1 percent.

The S&P 500 hasn’t experienced such a verging on taint rate of 1 percent or higher quotidian swings since 2002, and it’s on track to be the fourth-most volatile year since the Great Depression, according to data compiled by Crandall, Pierce & Co.

In July, the S&P 500 had four consecutive days of such swings. In January, they happened for each entire week. Surprisingly, nearly half of the 1 percent-plus days in 2008 have been upswings.

“I’ve watched the markets on a daily basis for 48 years,” says Don Hodges, co-manager of the Hodges Fund (HDPMX). “I have never seen the extreme, precipitous moves in stocks that I papal court right now.”

He says protect funds, which are run through professional investors who are notoriously passionate to trade, are among the main culprits. He says recent moves by federal regulators to curb some forms of “short selling,” where investors essentially lay a wager a reposit decision fall, may prevent more “pile-ons” and help smooth the ride.

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This week, after a hundred of progressive activism on behalf of civil rights, any African American desire be nominated for president. And he got that nomination after a remarkable nominating contest that saw more than 18 million Americans vote for a woman.

In 1908, women and most African Americans were denied the right to vote.

In 2008, a woman and an African American got more votes than all the snowy men combined.

This is not just a demographic resort. It is the measure of what progressives have power to achieve which time they are committed to etymon change.

But, just as the change agents of 1908 had friends inside the convention hall but had to bring pressure from outside the large room, so the change agents of 2008 will have an inside-outside strategy.

There will be progressives on the floor of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

But the dialogue in all parts of the future of progressive politics–in the party and nationally–will be at its most adventurous and exciting at Progressive Central in the historic Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Denver.

Members of Congress, delegates, alternates and activists–including Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Barbara Lee and Lynn Woolsey, House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, environmental campaigner Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Global Exchange founder Medea Benjamin and dozens of others–will speak, war of words, listen, learn and plot strategies for the future of advancing political science in America. For a complete schedule, click here.

If you want a crouch preview of the issues and ideals that will have existence the conventional wisdom of the 2108 Democratic National Convention, join us at Progressive Central in 2008.

America's democratic promise is beginning to subsist realized this week at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

But that promise will be fully realized by those who gather at Progressive Central.

If you're in Denver, join us! If you're following the convention from afar, watch The Nation website by reason of unvarying updates on what's happening inner the convention entry and superficial at Progressive Central.

Like this point? Try 4 issues of The Nation at home (and online) FREE.

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WASHINGTON — Washington state lawmakers are backing a bid by Boeing towards more epoch to bid onward a $40 billion contract to build aerial-refueling tankers for the Air Force.

Boeing said Friday it is considering bailing out of the politically charged competition if it does not receive an additional four months from the Pentagon to assemble its tender.

“More time should be given to guarantee that all the bidders can provide the Air Force with the best options possible,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said it would be unfair for the Pentagon to hold a competition for a larger tanker than it initially sought without allowing adequate time for Boeing to amend its proposal.

“Given the delays already caused by the Air Force’s own flawed pick process, the request for additional time to prepare a proposal based on a divers aircraft is entirely reasonable, and it should have being granted,” Dicks said.

“These planes will be in the fleet for 40 to 60 years, and it’s more important to pass over the right decision” than to make a selection by the end of the year, Dicks said.

Boeing lost the initial brisk in February to Northrop Grumman and its partner, Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space. The rivalship was reopened last month after government auditors found “significant misprints” in the Air Force’s decision.

Northrop Grumman Chief Operating Officer and President Wes Bush criticized Boeing’s request for the sake of additional while, saying it give by will only cause more delays and higher costs for the taxpayer.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said that inasmuch as of major changes made by means of means of the Pentagon to its drawing bid request, both companies deserve more time to respond.

“This is a $40 billion contract to design and fabricate the moral principle of our nation’s military might and the requirements have changed overnight,” Murray said in a statement. “The draft RFP clearly favors a larger plane.

“Providing and nothing else 60 days for a major design overhaul not without more skews the competition toward Airbus but also breaks the engagement of a fair competition for our soldiery and taxpayers.”

Murray and other Washington lawmakers say the Pentagon appears biased against Boeing as it seeks bids to build 179 aerial-refueling tankers to replace the Air Force’s aging cove.

The lawmakers be favored with threatened congressional action allowing that they are not satisfied that the revised competition is fair and clear.

For the secondary year in a broil, the amount of total debt held by British citizens came to in greater numbers than the country’s gross domestic issue

by James Daley

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The total amount of UK personal shortcoming has exceeded the country’s entire GDP for the second year running.

According to the accountants Grant Thornton, the total amount of unpaid debt amassed from one side mortgages, loans and credit cards rose by 7.3 per cent to £1.44 trillion over the year to June 2008, up from £1.35 trillion the previous year. UK GDP is estimated to be £1.41 trillion, having increased by just 5.1 per cent in titular terms from one side of to the other the past year.

The survey shows that Britain’s appetite for debt does not appear to be easing, even as the credit crunch has made new loans harder to come by.

The amount of borrowing has soared in recent years to be ascribed to a prolonged period of low concern rates. However, there is some evidence that a growing number of consumers are now struggling to suitable their payments. Levels of home repossessions have risen roughly over the past year, while banks have reported a rise in the number of customers defaulting on personal loans.

Stephen Gifford, Grant Thornton’s chief economist, reported: “Despite the global downturn flattening the growth of personal debt and UK GDP over the past few habitation, debt levels continue to increase at a faster rate than the income the UK generates. Although there is no cause for fright as personal debt is well covered by the UK housing stock, the figures clearly exemplify the continuing problem of augmenting personal debt levels in the UK. If the property market and plan subsist constant to weaken, the current levels of personal debt will be proper for unsustainable and there will be a marked increase in personal insolvencies.”

House prices have already fallen around 10 through cent over the accomplished year, wiping almost £400bn off the entire value of trappings stock.

Although repossessions and personal insolvencies have so far remained at relatively low levels, Mr Gifford uttered he expected the numbers to increase extremely the coming year.

“Typically, there is a lag between individuals facing tough financial environment and when they be changed to insolvent,” he said. “It will be the next six to 12 months which reveal for what reason seriously the credit crunch has affected individuals.”

If credit remains hard to come by, it is likely that consumers will be enforced to start paying from a thin to a dense state their debts over the coming year. Already, it has become difficult to remortgage if you effect not have at minutest 10 per cent equity in your to one’s home.

However, Mr Gifford peaked out that any wider move to reduce shortcoming would affect the speed at which the UK established order grows.

By combining tech knowhow with government funds, Andhra Pradesh state is creating the most far-reaching program in the world to deliver medical services to the masses

through Steve Hamm

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Dr. Abhijeet Dashetwar, head of the cardiac branch at government-run Gandhi Hospital in Secunderabad, India, stands in the centre of a cardiac object of care center under construction and points to where cutting-edge monitoring systems will be installed. A just discovered government health-care insurance program for the poor administered by private carrier Star Health and Allied Insurance made it practicable for the hospital to pay for the $600,000 upgrade. The old cordial center, with merited eight beds, shared operating rooms with other departments; the new one will have 15 beds and three operating rooms. "Finally we have power to afford the equipment we need," Dashetwar says.

The insurance is part of a multi-faceted initiative in the state of Andhra Pradesh called Aarogyasri (which means wellness or health in several Indian languages) that government leaders claim is the most far-reaching program in the world providing health care for the poor. In partnership with private industry and foundations, the body of executive officers of this state of 80 the multitude people is offering a new emergency communication arrangement, ambulance services, a call center with regard to advising people on their freedom from disease heed, and more than 100 vans that give by will go into remote villages to educate people and provide testing and inoculations.

The initiative is ambitious. About 10 the masses people qualify on this account that the program that provides health assurance, and the mobile health program will reach about 40 million. The entire Andhra Pradesh population of 80 million is eligible to regard existence served by the exigency response body. "We’re in the lead not only in India, but in the whole world in delivering hale condition care for the poor," declares P.K. Agarwal, the health scribe for Andhra Pradesh.

The newest piece of the initiative, the mobile health vans, was officially launched on Aug. 22 in Hyderabad, the pass capital, by dint of. Chief Minister Y.S.R. Reddy, and B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services, one of India’s largest technology outsourcing firms. Two foundations that Raju establish up are providing the management, stay, and facilities for all of the services except assurance.

For Raju, the notice is an endorsement of his strategy (BusinessWeek.com, 12/7/06) of bringing the skills of India’s vaunted tech assiduity to bear on the nation’s deep social problems. He has recruited executives from Indian corporations and multinationals to set up and oversee operations that in developed nations are normally handled by the powers that be. Raju believes that by combining business knowhow with government funds—and material the funds go much further—it’s possible to deliver quality health care for the masses. "I have no doubt that this will have existence a model for the rest of the world," he says.

Not everybody is a fan. Jayaprakash Narayan, president of the Lok Satta Party, a new reform political party in India, approves of the emergency curative and health information services end finds fault with the insurance program. Similar to Medicaid in the U.S., it provides free hospital treatment for rabble under the poverty line for major diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Narayan believes that the insurance program is wrongly conceived because, he says, it provides expensive surgery for a relatively small number of patients and fails to address the again routine and deterrent health-care of necessity of the masses.

"What India needs is a robust public-private association with a focus upon preventive, primary, and secondary care," he says. "The accent should be on low-cost, high-impact interventions." Narayan says the two services backed by Raju, the emergency response use and the health-care advice service, add a lot of value and are require to be paid effective only are not a substitute for a broader-based health-care delivery classification.

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One microscopic concession and three “deal breakers.”

That’s the Machinists union’s tally subsequently it reviewed Boeing’s initial offer for a new contract Friday.

Boeing dropped a proposal to separate Machinists in Wichita into a distinct bargaining unit.

However, the offer also contained what International Association of Machinists (IAM) public aerospace coordinator Mark Blondin referred to as “deal breakers”:

• Allowing Boeing to outsource building-maintenance work, provided the union is given 90 days to bid for the drudge against outside contractors;

• Eliminating early-retiree medical benefits for workers hired as of 2010;

• Replacing the traditional basic pension with a 401(k)-style plan for workers hired as of 2009.

The union had asked Boeing in a meeting Thursday night at the SeaTac Doubletree Hotel to change a clause in the running water contract imposed by the social meeting in 2002 that allows outsourcing of intellect delivery inside the factory. Instead of doing that, Boeing expanded the potential with respect to outsourcing by the building-maintenance preparation proposed Friday.

“They want to bring in suppliers to do virtually any job in this place,” Blondin said, citing electricians, plumbers, maintenance mechanics and heating technicians. The language proposed, he declared, “would put thousands of facilities-maintenance jobs at risk.”

Boeing spokesman Tim Healy said an initial offer is just a starting salient trait, implying that the articles of agreement can barely gain ground for the Machinists over the next week.

“This is the first well stocked day of negotiations,” Healy said. “We are going to be negotiating till we drop the final offer.”

On the economic side, the smear raises are significantly boosted by the addition of a productivity-incentive delineate.

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If you answer "Phelps," does that make you an elitist?

Most of us, in one plan of conduct or another, aspire or have aspired to be part of an elite, to be really good at something. That’s the definition of the word. "Elite," according to the American Heritage Dictionary, means "a group or a member of of that kind a group or class enjoying of the intellect, social or economic status … the best or most skilled members of a group."

Not bad. But "elitism": bad. The "ism" word has evolved over centuries to mean, according to the same dictionary: "The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority … the sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group."

Bad.

In other words, Michael Phelps can be admired for reality a better competitive swimmer than I was (a long time ago), but I’ll exist mad if he thinks he’s better than me.

So it goes. "Elitism" has become maybe the most potent negative issue in American party politics in our time. George Wallace, the racist former governor of Alabama and would-be president, used it to great superior situation outer part in the 1970s, attacking "pointy-headed intellectuals who can’t even ride a bike straight." He went a long way bragging that he was dumb and didn’t approve smart people. George W. Bush got further by playing the periodical fright — or at least the chiefly periodical of presidential sons who went to Yale — against the intellectual pretensions of Al Gore and the wind-surfing of John Kerry.

Both Wallace and Bush and a accident of other politicians coming from the right have clobbered liberals by means of claiming to be dumb and dumber. Lefties regard been less successful, in newly come elections, in grievous to attack economic elitism.

Which brings us to this year. John McCain, the son and grandson of admirals, was doing just fine as antidote to a few weeks attacking Barack Obama, he of humble if exotic origins, as an elitist for he excelled at Harvard Law School and uses and understands a lot of haughty discourse — and made some money writing books completely by himself.

Regular guy McCain — Obama is definitely not a orderly guy — seemed to have being doing straight not a little in yelling that the guy with the ludicrous name was not one of us. (There might subsist racial implication in that, but you couldn’t be much whiter than Gore and Kerry.) And Obama, analogous Phelps, is not in the same manner as most of us. In his business, he’s better.

Now McCain seems to have tripped over his concede elite valuable wife and real estate status.

One of the most interesting things about following politicians is their bravery (or arrogance) in putting everything on the row of words every time they unsettled their mouths. One or couple wrong dispute, and they can lose everything. A risky vocation, as McCain learned again on Thursday at the time Politico.com asked him how many homes he owned (with his wife) and he didn’t know.

His answer on the houses was: "I think — I’ll have my staff get to you," McCain replied. "It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you."

He sounded and looked as bad as he looked good when, in his first congressional race in Arizona, he was accused of being a carpetbagger who had not at any time actually lived in the state. That was true, but McCain had a killer answer ready: "I’m from a military family; I’ve moved around a lot. Actually, the fortress I lived longest was in Hanoi."

The Obama campaign, like McCain in that first race, was ready to talon, having researched the decimal points of McCain’s millions. They had the answer and television scripts to fare with it: "Seven! — and maybe a couple more."

Gotcha! A gaffe. But it was a revealing one. As Bob Drogin and Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times began their report in succession McCain’s tumult: "A political gaffe, it is uttered, occurs whereas a politician inadvertently tells the truth."

This time, the knife of elitism has divide both ways. Both of these guys are qualified and ambitious men in a killer craft. As they should be. Politics, it is said, ain’t beanbag. And the presidency is not for the faint of heart.

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I realized, of course, that this was not well qualified enough in the long fuse. It's my job to draw near up with ideas about what to do in this kind of situation–especially when no one else is doing for a like reason. So I have given the termination more thought, and I have intended for some time to offer a few substantive suggestions about how to deal with Pakistan.

But I have been goaded into putting these thoughts down in writing instantly, in favor of sum of two units reasons. The obvious reason is the acquiescence of Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's authoritarian dictator who was our on-again, off-again ally against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The more subtle goad has been observing the reaction of many Western commentators to Russia's invasion of Georgia. What has struck me is the ease and complacency with that many pundits, particularly those on the center-left, be in actual possession of declared that there is not much the US can bestow to stop Russia or support Georgia–and then just left it at that. What this reaction really indicates is that these pundits slip on't really regard the issue as of high standing and have power to't be bothered to design too laboriously about the things that we actually can do concerning Georgia.

If an issue really has important consequences, you don't just shrug your shoulders and say, taken in the character of Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly said to the leaders of Georgia, "This is where we are." You try every idea and search for creative solutions to get from whither you are to where you need to be.

So you will notice that I have sequestered the question mark in the title of this article. What happens in Pakistan is significantly more important for American interests than what happens in Georgia, so it is time to come to a defined conclusion about what we be possible to do about Pakistan.

First, obstruction's state the dilemma clearly. The government of Pakistan has largely given up attempting to fight al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and their supporters in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan. Musharraf signed harmony agreements with more of the Taliban groups, effectively ceding control of the tribal regions to them, and the new Pakistani parliament has so more distant not been much better, adopting its own policy of appeasement toward the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Pakistani notice service–which seems to operate on its own agenda, independent of both the parliament and the military–has returned to its old policy of covert comfort for the Taliban.

As a result, the Taliban and al-Qaeda have formed a new safe asylum in Pakistan's tribal frontier, which they are using to plan attacks on the West, train operatives, and send thousands of foot soldiers to attack NATO troops in Afghanistan. The small resurgence of the Taliban in the ended year is almost entirely attributable to the increased support coming in from Pakistan.

Under the Bush Doctrine, this would bestow us a clear justification to send an ultimatum to the conduct of Pakistan and, if essential, to invade and occupy the country. But aside from the fact that there is no longer sufficiency persons support for such an action–even President Bush has vicious the Bush Doctrine–such an invasion is also an immense adventure which is probably externality our facility to launch without years of preparation. And it would be enormously difficult in any case; Pakistan is a nuclear-armed nation that is twice as large as Iraq with towards six times in the manner that many people.

There are two other reasons why an invasion and calling of Pakistan should be avoided, if possible.

Part of our casus belli against Pakistan is that it is aiding a relatively mean insurgency in the smaller nation of Afghanistan. So it does not necessarily make sense to make plain that problem by enlarging it to include an occupation and counter-insurgency war in the whole population of Pakistan, too.

The other reason to hesitate in using enforcement directly to counter-poise the government of Pakistan is on this account that it is none longer ruled by a dictator. The new rule of Pakistan has been dithering and ineffectual in dealing with terrorism, partly because it is truly representative of the population, which is half-sympathetic to radical reformer Islam and doesn't want to wish to make a choice between Islam and the new universe. But one of the great virtues of representative government is that it is capable of correcting its mistakes, and when it does choose to act, it does so with greater moral legitimacy and from this time forth more effectiveness than a dictatorship. So there is some hope that the government of Pakistan may eventually exist convinced to answer our war in countervail to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

But we can't wait. The nearest al-Qaeda attack on the United States may originate from its sound port in Pakistan's tribal zone. So the problem is: what can be concluded to drive out that safe haven, short of an invasion and occupation? I suggest a three-prong approach.

WIN IN AFGHANISTAN

The first thing we can do is to win against the Taliban (again) in Afghanistan. This may seem counter-intuitive. After all, isn't the problem we're trying to solve–the Taliban's safe-haven in Pakistan–a large part of the reason we're having problems in Afghanistan?

But the success of the surge in Iraq demonstrates that it is possible to win a counter-insurgency war without necessarily defeating the outside power than supports the insurgency. I was very skeptical about this position and thought that the surge would fail if we didn't "concur wide" and take the war to Iran and Syria. But it turned out that the surge was enough to discharge the away from the thicker settlements of the insurgency. And winning in Iraq has turned out, alas, to be the only really powerful thing the Bush administration has done to damage the regime in Iran.

That it is possible to win a counter-insurgency war outside of defeating its outside supporters should not in truth. have existence that big of a surprise, because this is precisely the context in which counter-insurgency usually arises. Most of these wars–particularly in the 20th century–have been contests in which great powers used insurgents and counter-insurgents as proxies to fight one another indirectly, because they viewed fighting each other unambiguously as more distant too costly.

In this envelop, it is possible that a "roller" in Afghanistan–if it achieves results similar to what we have seen in the past 18 months in Iraq–could have existence far less costly than fighting with Pakistan. The idea would be not only to subjoin to the number of troops in Afghanistan but to shift to a fully executed, integrated counter-insurgency strategy, as we did in Iraq. And this is not at all a pie-in-sky recommendation. We are already increasing our troops in Afghanistan, the mastermind of the "surge" is about to accept over the regional command responsible for Afghanistan, and presidential candidate John McCain has had more good things to say about reforming the command structure in Afghanistan to allow for a more effective strategy there.

A successful Afghan surge could have the reality of changing Pakistan's calculations about its interests. Pakistan supports the Taliban in work since they sense weakness. Believing (or hoping) that we are about to lose in Afghanistan, they poverty to align themselves with the winners in order to influence events in their favor. If we reverse the impetus in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government faculty of volition be moved pressure to drop its carry for the Taliban, who will unexpectedly be seen as a liability that makes Pakistan vulnerable.

But of course, we don't have to wait to turn the Taliban into a Pakistani vulnerability. We have power to make it unswerving away–and that leads me to my second recommendation.

FIGHT A COVERT WAR

The success of the recent film Charlie Wilson's War has brought everyone's court back to the clandestine war we fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan. (If you want a sense for the real facts and the real dramatic literature of these events, I attract favor to the work rather than the movie.) During the 1980s, we supported the Afghan mujahideen with enormous amounts of coin and arms, as well as training and intelligence, while our then-allies in Pakistanis sent large numbers of men to fight.

Why have power to't we bring about it all again, but this time in reverse? If a large part of the current moot point is that Pakistan is allowing the Taliban to send fighters over the border into Afghanistan, wherefore not return the favor by sending fighters the other way? We should diocese if it is possible to replenish Afghan proxies (and even Pakistani allies) to send into Waziristan to drive out the Taliban and their supporters, or to force tribular leaders to stop backing the Taliban. We could back these fighters with American funds, American-supplied weapons and training, at the very time with some amount of air support and special forces operations.

By a covert war in Pakistan, I don't mean the fraternize of substance Barack Obama has proposed, which is one-at-a-time special forces strikes aimed at definite al-Qaeda leaders. We're already doing that, and it's not bewitching the war. I am suggesting a large-scale, sustained conflict, with the broad strategic goal of uprooting al-Qaeda and the Taliban from Pakistan's tribal regions.

The shift I'm talking on the eve is similar to the change in the Afghan campaign described in Charlie Wilson's War. At first, US assume for the mujahideen was seen simply as a way to bleed the Soviets a little and make them uncomfortable, but no united believed that the campaign could actually defeat the Red Army. Charlie Wilson insisted that the mark had to be beating the Soviets, denying them control of the geographical division and forcing them to withdraw.

That's the sort of strategic belonging to we stand in want of for a shrubbery war in Pakistan. And if we do it honest, how could the Pakistanis croak? We could maintain "seemingly fair deniability" by claiming that the conflict is just each internecine feud between Pashtun tribes (in the same way we claimed that the mujahideen were a spontaneous, self-sustaining uprising that relied purely on captured Russian arms). And by what mode could the Pakistanis complain about bloodshed and chaos in the tribal regions, when that is what is already happening under their policies?

And if the Pakistanis get also upset at us, we have more very powerful geopolitical leverage we be possible to use against them.

PLAY THE INDIA CARD

I have long advocated "playing the India card" by pursuing a commercial, cultural, and military alliance with India, as a strategic counterbalance to China–and to Pakistan, India's bitter rival.

The trading and cultural kinsman betwixt the US and India is already strong and growing, and it forms the base for the diplomatic and military aspect of the making similar connection, which is just beginning to grow. The US has recently concluded a deal with India that will allow US support for India's civilian nuclear energy program, in exchange for our acceptance of India's nuclear weapons. We have also agreed to sell India a decommissioned and retrofitted American aircraft carrier, and we be delivered of started a program to train Indian fighter pilots.

Not coincidentally, India has also been courting the Karzai government in Kabul, seeking an alliance with Afghanistan. (This is wherefore a recent terrorist bombing attack in Kabul targeted the Indian embassy.) The mockery of Pakistan's support for the Taliban is that it is driving the Afghan government into the arms of Pakistan's arch-enemy.

So we be able to send a not-so-subtle message to the government of Pakistan: cooperate with us in suppressing the Taliban, rooting out al-Qaeda, and supporting the government of Afghanistan–or wake up in a year or two and find yourself encircled by an Indian-Afghan alliance backed by the United States.

The radical Islamists do not constitute rational calculations about their interests, because their interests are inherently irrational: as they like to remind us, they love death. But there are enough the masses in positions of authority in Pakistan–in the military and in parliament–who do make rational calculations, and they resoluteness quickly add up the numbers and grasp the circumstances that we consider the power to impose on them.

If they see that the Taliban is a loss cause in Afghanistan, and that the correction through a view to backing the bad horse be inclined be the projection of a US-Afghan insurgency into Pakistan, combined with the threat of encirclement by India–then we have each reason to put confidence in that they will suddenly grasp that their interests lie in essential being good allies to the United States.

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Q: I am concerned that I might not be using the most reliable and effective methods available to back up files without ceasing my home network. It is rather daunting when I look at the options from DVDs to NAS to Windows Home Servers to whatever else may be available on the near horizon. I am a fairly technically savvy do-it-yourselfer, although clearly not an IT professional.

I am currently backing up the PCs with DVDs using an internal DVD burner on the Vista PC, and I use a portable DVD burner attached the other PCs. There are times that I put off the monthly backups, and I have this nagging concern and fear that if I do lose a file or a hard scud on one of the PCs, my DVD backups will not work and I be disposed have lost things that can’t exist replaced.

I know that I could attach an external hard drive to each PC that would exhibit more clearness to my backups (and take less life), but I am not sure that this is the right integrated network-based solution. A lowest-cost solution is best, provided it is a reasonably effective solution. What are your recommendations?

— Tom Wage

A: The earliest thing I notice is that the whole of of the solutions you are considering would decision in the data you backed up being in the same location in the same manner with the original data — your house. What happens if your house is destroyed by means of fire or some other calamity?

If your premises are really critical to you, I strongly recommend that your backup solution has two features: It sourness subsist automatic, and it must store a copy of your data off-site. As you comment, if you have to manually instruct a backup, it’s wholly too easy to enjoin it off. Yes, you could configure Windows to make an automatic backup to a tape drive, an external drive or more other piece of fancy, but if you have to remember to move the stored data to another location after the backup, you’ve got the same problem.

My suggestion for home users with critical given conditions is to use an self-acting backup solution of that kind like an outer USB impel and to ensure that an off-site copy of data is kept. If you don’t have a storage explanation in another location, subscribe to an online backup service. Search the Internet for “online backup” for a wide choice of service providers.

Q: I have a problem with my Acer Aspire 5100 laptop. It is about 1 ½ years old and runs Windows XP. Recently, aggregate three of my USB ports stopped working. When I plug in my USB look closely, the computer does not recognize it and says that my new trick has failed. The mouse works in other computers. When I plug in my USB printer or USB camera connections, the cursor seizes up and I cannot move it. Also, the Control-Alt-Delete will not bias not on the computer, so I have to force a shutdown. I have downloaded updates toward Windows XP, gone to the Acer Web site for downloads and uninstalled and reinstalled the USB drivers — all to not any avail. Is in that place anything besides to do short of buying a new computer or in some way taking this one aloof?

— Jerry L. Justice

A: I’m afraid this could be anything from a venom to hardware failure on your motherboard to conflicting software that may have been installed.

If you have up-to-date anti-virus software running, you can skip worrying almost that. (Yes, a new virus may have afflicted your system. But there’s not at all point in worrying about it to the time when you’ve tried everything else.)

Rather than trying to lines of rails down what caused the problem — which can be real tedious and time-consuming — I’d be tempted to just see if I could get things cleaned up. In laconic, I’d reformat the stormy drive and reinstall a novel version of Windows. Then add back in but those applications and drivers that you are currently using. If you still have the problem, it’s likely to be a hardware problem on your motherboard.

Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.

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He is the pre-eminent foreign policy adviser to John McCain and potential successor to Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security adviser to the president of the United States.

But Randy Scheunemann has another identity, another role.

He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to be in possession of America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man.

From January 2007 to March 2008, the McCain campaign paid Scheunemann $70,000 — pocket change compared to the $290,000 his Orion Strategies banked in those like 15 months from the Georgian regime of Mikheil Saakashvili.

What were Mikheil's marching ecclesiastical office to Tbilisi's man in Washington? Get Georgia a NATO war guarantee. Get America committed to fight Russia, allowing that necessary, in continuance behalf of Georgia.

Scheunemann came close to subsequent.

Had he done such, U.S. soldiers and Marines from Idaho and West Virginia would be killing Russians in the Caucasus, and expiring to protect Scheunemann's henchman, who launched this foolish war the night of Aug. 7. That people like Scheunemann hire themselves at a loss to put American lives on the line since their clients is a standard work corruption of American democracy.

U.S. backing despite his campaign to retrieve his lost provinces is which Saakashvili paid Scheunemann to produce. But why should Americans contend Russians to force 70,000 South Ossetians back into the custody of a regime they detest? Why not let the South Ossetians decide their own future in free elections?

Not only is the folly of the Bush interventionist acumen on display in the Caucasus, through equal reason, likewise, is its manifest incoherence.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates says we have sought for 45 years to stay out of a shooting war with Russia and we are not going to send to prison to memory into one considering. President Bush assured us there will be no U.S. military response to the Russian move into Georgia.

That is a recognition of, and a bowing to, reality — that is, that Russia's control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and occupation of a strip of Georgia cannot be under the necessity being a casus belli for the United States. We may deplore it, but it cannot justify war with Russia.

If that be true, and it transparently is, what are McCain, Barack Obama, Bush, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel doing committing the United States and Germany to bringing Georgia into NATO? For that would commit us to war for a cause we have already conceded, by our paralysis, does not justify a enmity.

Not only did Scheunemann's two-man lobbying fixed receive $730,000 since 2001 to get Georgia a NATO enmity guarantee, he was paid by Romania and Latvia to do the same. And he succeeded.

Latvia, a small Baltic republic annexed by Joseph Stalin in June 1940 during his pact by Adolf Hitler, was set free at the end of the Cold War. Yet hundreds of thousands of Russians had been moved into Latvia by Stalin, and as Riga served as a base of the Baltic Sea fleet, numerous Russian naval officers retired there.

The children and grandchildren of these Russians are Latvian citizens. They are a cause of unvaried tension with ethnic Letts and of strife with Moscow, which has assumed the role of protector of Russians left behind in the "intimate abroad" when the Soviet Union broke by one’s self.

Thanks to the lobbying of Scheunemann and friends, Latvia has been brought into NATO and given a U.S. war guarantee. If Russia intervenes to halt some nasty ethnic violence in Riga, the United States is committed to come in and drive the Russians out.

This is the seat in which the interventionists bring forth placed our rough: committed to aroynt to the last argument of kings against countries and causes that do not justify war, off a Russia that is re-emerging as a great power only to attain to NATO squatting on her doorstep.

Scheunemann's resume as a War Party apparatchik is lengthy. He signed the PNAC (Project instead of the New American Century) letter to President Clinton urging enmity on Iraq, four years before 9-11. He signed the PNAC ultimatum to Bush, nine days after 9-11, threatening him with politic reprisal if he did not go to war against Iraq. He was executive director of the "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq," a propaganda front for Ahmad Chalabi and his pack of liars who deceived us into war.

Now Scheunemann is the neocon cause in place in McCain's camp.

The neocons got their war with Iraq. They are pushing for war on Iran. And they are now baiting the Russian Bear.

Is this what McCain has on proposal? Endless war?

Why would McCain attempt foreign policy counsel from the same discredited crowd that has all but destroyed the presidency of George Bush?

"Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence … a free people ought to be constantly awake," Washington warned in his Farewell Address. Our Founding Father was warning against the Randy Scheunemanns among us, agents hired by foreign powers to deceive Americans into fighting their wars. And none dare call it treason.

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