HUH?  CAN THIS BE TRUE? – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  Why, there's a reset, isn't there?  The Russians are really our friends, aren't they?   Yes, obviously.  The intellectual classes say so. 

And so we move on in friendship and comradeship.  Yuch.  From Andrew Malcolm at IBD: 

Here's a disturbing idea whose time is about to come:

Emergency first responders across the United States may soon be relying on Russian satellites to plot the location of the mobile American distress call.

This is not an Onion story.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to deliberate next week on a plan to use Russian satellites over other competing satellite systems for tracking the exact location of U.S. emergency 911 calls from mobile phones, the source of most emergency calls.

The plan is backed by major U.S. telecommunications giants like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA, along with the Association of Public Safety Communications.

In an alarming story, the Washington Times reports the communications companies believe having the calls routed through Russian satellites would enhance the accuracy of their call locators and save emergency crews precious response time, especially when the caller is inside a building that can muffle tech locators.

Of course, such a system would also give Russians access to the American emergency response network, including the precise locations of every U.S. first responder.

And...

Some members of the new and enlarged Republican majorities in Congress are concerned about relying even in part upon Russia for domestic emergency communications, much as the administration must now rely totally on Russian rockets to get American astronauts into space.

“In view of the threat posed to the world by Russia’s Vladimir Putin," Rep. Mike Rogers recently wrote Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and James Clapper, director of national Intelligence, "it cannot be seriously considered that the U.S. would rely on a system in that dictator’s control for its wireless 911 location capability.” The Alabama Republican chairs a House subcommittee on strategic forces.

COMMENT:  Indeed.  No technological gain can possibly balance the loss of control.  I don't want Moscow controlling anything of importance to us.  And Obama clearly doesn't care.

January 23, 2015