UV radiation from energy saving bulbs

There is a report at the link below titled: The energy-saving light bulbs that could leave you red-faced ... from UV radiation.

Congress passed and energy bill last year phases out Edison’s invention by 2014. Incandescent bulbs (upper picture) will go the way of the dodo bird in six years in the United States. The phase out date in the UK is 2011.

When energy-saving fluorescent bulbs become the only light bulbs available for household use, we may face some serious problems.

Experts warn that UV radiation from unencapsulated energy-saving bulbs (lower picture) can damage the skin if used closer than 12 inches to the body.

The Health Protection Agency said the UV threat could affect those who use reading lamps on their bedside tables.

Thousands of workers such as jewelry makers who work with their hands and use lamps at close quarters could also be affected.

Encapsulated fluorescent light bulbs, which are surrounded by a glass cover and look like traditional bulbs, do not emit high levels of UV.

Unencapsulated fluorescent light bulbs where the shape of the coil is clearly visible (lower picture) are the bulbs that emit UV rays.

Link

Train dumps 21,600 Xboxes: Microsoft sues DHL

Microsoft shipped 21,600 Xboxes from a Microsoft office in McAllen, Texas, to Long Beach, California, for eventual delivery to Hong Kong.

The Xboxes were dumped during a train derailment on one year ago.

Microsoft said it is seeking more than $2 million in damages from cargo-delivery service DHL as a result of the loss.

Link

Bush meets with world finance ministers

President Bush met with the world’s leading finance ministers from the seven biggest industrialized nations.

“We're in this together. We will come through it together,” Bush said from the Rose Garden, after a meeting with finance ministers from the world's seven biggest industrialized nations.

In the photo above President Bush (center) makes a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House after meeting with G7 finance ministers about the world financial crisis.

Link

Louis Farrakhan: Obama the messiah!

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan preaches from the pulpit that “Obama is the Messiah.”

(click on picture to see video)

…found on NewsBusters

MyKey: parental control car key from Ford

MyKey will turn your Ford car into your mom.

Talk about a back-seat driver! Ford Motor Co. has created a device which allows parents to control how fast their teenagers drive, limits the volume on the car radio and makes sure their seat belts are fastened.

It's called "MyKey," and Ford announced this week that it will be a standard feature starting next year on the 2010 Ford Focus and other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models.

The key can be programmed to limit the car's top speed, sounding chimes at 45 miles per hour, 55 mph and 65 mph.

The car's top speed can be restricted to 80 mph

Another feature disables the car's audio system until seat belts are fastened or limits audio volume to 44 percent of total volume.

Link

Shady associates catching up to Obama

A report at the link below says:

The conservative Judicial Confirmation Network is running a TV ad tying Obama to not just Rezko, but William Ayers (now using cartoons to spread his ideas) and the bombastic Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

You should expect to hear much more about these Obama associates -- some questions fair, others not; many associates legitimately slimy, others mere road kill on this political Autobahn -- in this last full month of the campaign.

Will the main stream media report these stories? If so, will it be the usual, “…let’s move along folks … nothing to see here…” that usually accompanies negative reports about the Obama campaign?

Mark Twain once said, “if you don’t read newspapers you are uninformed - if you do read newspapers you are misinformed.”

Link

GM stock at 58-year low - says not headed for bankruptcy

Shares of General Motors Corp. lost nearly one-third of their value Thursday, plunging to their lowest level in more than 58 years.

Standard & Poor's said the automaker's credit could fall further into junk status due to the “rapidly weakening state” of the global automotive market.

GM shares plummeted $2.15, or 31.1 percent, to close at $4.76 after falling as low as $4.65. That low marked the automaker's lowest trade since March 15, 1950.

The company dismissed speculation that it was headed toward bankruptcy.

A company spokesman said Friday:

Clearly, we face unprecedented challenges related to uncertainty in the financial markets globally and weakening economic fundamentals in many key markets, but bankruptcy protection is not an option.

Link here and here.

Study shows AIDS has been around for 100 years

AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) originated long before it was widely publicized in the U.S. in the early 1980’s.

The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests.

Genetic analysis pushes the estimated origin of HIV back to between 1884 and 1924, with a more focused estimate at 1908.

AIDS wasn't recognized formally until 1981 when it got the attention of public health officials in the United States.

Link

Most British judges to toss courtroom wigs

Judges in most British courts will finally stop living in the 17th century by discarding their horse-hair courtroom wigs (pictured).

While judges in criminal cases will still wear them, those in civil and family hearings will appear bare-headed in court, wearing a new-style plain black robe, the government said.

Wigs have been an emblem of the British legal system since the 17th century when the fashion for wearing them in wider society filtered through to the courts.

John Mortimer, the barrister and author of the Rumpole of the Bailey books, opposed the changes.

“The idea's ridiculous! A barrister without his wig would be like a doctor without a stethoscope,” he wrote in a newspaper article when the changes were first proposed.

Link

Pollster Zogby warns - Don’t believe the hype

Pollster John Zogby says the presidential race is still too close to call and could come down to the very last weekend before voters decide if they like or distrust Barack Obama.

With non-stop favorable coverage by the media, Obama should be twenty or more points ahead.

The report at the link below says:

Zogby’s latest poll, released yesterday in conjunction with C-Span and Reuters, shows Obama and John McCain in a statistical dead heat, with the Illinois Democrat up 48-45 percent.

Zogby said the race mirrors the 1980 election, when voters didn’t embrace Ronald Reagan over then-President Jimmy Carter until just days before the election.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Polls showed Walter Mondale ahead of Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Mike Dukakis ahead of George H.W. Bush in 1988. In 2000 polls showed Al Gore ahead and in 2004 polls showed John Kerry ahead.

This can only suggest that “push polling” was used.

There are many forms of “push polling.” The most common is to include more of one major political party than the other in the sampling base. Also, questions to respondents can be worded so that the desired result is obtained.

This year “push polling” is even easier by simply including a larger percent of blacks in the sample to show an Obama lead.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A discussion about polling should also include the exit polling on election day in 2004.

The early exit polls from precincts in Virginia showed an overwhelming lead for John Kerry, which had the Kerry Edwards campaign singing and dancing until the real vote counts came in.

It was an obvious ploy to try to influence voters in western states by showing a Kerry win in the making.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Link

Wide-scale ACORN voting fraud

Wide-spread voting fraud uncovered in several states.

In Nevada, state officials say the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team, including quarterback Tony Romo.

“Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada,” Secretary of State Ross Miller said, "and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4."

While those names will be flagged on Election Day, felonious voters may have better luck using other cutouts. Nevada, along with several other key battleground states, requires no ID to vote.

The FBI just raided ACORN headquarters in Nevada as a result of an investigation that revealed thousands of bogus registrations.

In North Carolina, where Obama has been running nonstop ads, ACORN has registered a record number of new voters, many of them suspicious. Statewide, Democrats are doing better than the GOP in new converts - even in traditionally Republican counties.

There have been 218,749 newly registered Democrats in North Carolina since January - more than five times the 38,337 new Republicans, state records show.

The numbers show a startlingly close political battle even in Republican-dominated Union County, with 4,233 new voters registering as Democrats and 4,362 as Republicans. In previous election years, new Republicans have outnumbered Democrats 2-to-1 in the fast-growing Charlotte-area county.

In Missouri, one ACORN registrant named Monica Rays showed up on no less than eight forms, all bearing the same signature.

Link here and here.

Taiwan suggests SARS intentionally started by China

Remember that SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic of 2002 that seemed to originate in southern China?

Before it was over hundreds of people around the world were killed -- including about 350 in China -- bringing Asian tourism and air industries almost to a halt.

An initial cover-up of the epidemic led to the sacking of Beijing's mayor and the health minister and led to scores of conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus.

Taiwan is now suggesting SARS was intentionally started by China.

Taiwan legislators wearing surgical masks and displaying banners with skull and crossbones took over parliament's floor on Tuesday after the country's security chief accused China of starting the global SARS epidemic six years ago as part of a biological warfare campaign.

Conspiracy theories about SARS have appeared before after two Russian scientists said that SARS could have been manufactured in labs.

Link

Obama objects to use of his middle name

There is an ABC News blog entry at the link below objecting to the use of Barack’s middle name, “Hussein.”

At a pre-rally speech in Bethlehem, PA today, Lehigh County GOP Chairman Bill Platt referred to the Democratic presidential candidate twice by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama.

Critics charge that such references wrongly imply that Obama is Muslim.

Who are the critics? Are they sure Barack is not really a Muslim? After all, he once referred to “my Muslim faith.” No one else said it -- just Obama. Later, it was passed off as a slip of the tongue.

Really, if you were a Christian, how could you mistakenly say “my Muslim faith?” Well, maybe. Give him the benefit of the doubt.

(click on picture to enlarge)

From a Lucianne comment:

When Bush 41 was running, Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) called him George Herbert Walker Bush 50 times in one speech. His point was to make Bush seem elitist and rich because he had two middle names. I still remember the disgust in his voice as he said “Herbert Walker” over and over again.

Obama supporters are publicizing his middle name “Hussein” all the more every time they object to its use.

Link

Environmentalists blast Starbucks for wasting water

Britain’s National Enquirer style tabloid, The Sun, reports on alleged water wasting at Starbucks stores in the UK as well as around the globe.

The article is called The great drain robbery.

The giant coffee chain has a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop at all its 10,000 outlets worldwide, wasting 23.4 million liters a day.

Every Starbucks branch has a cold tap behind the counter providing water for a sink called a “dipper well”, used for washing spoons and utensils.

Staff are banned from turning the water off under bizarre health and safety rules — bosses claim a constant flow stops germs breeding in the taps.

Starbucks defends itself against wasting water claims by environmentalists.

The company says the flow services a “dipper well”, used for keeping utensils clean, and that the taps run at very low pressure.

Link here for the Sun story. Starbucks rebuttal is here.

Woman took her speeding ticket to State Supreme Court

Christine Downs of Dover New Hampshire was determined to fight her speeding ticket.

The 24-year-old woman interrogated police and filed motions as she represented herself at trial last year to contest the $100 ticket. She even prepared a list of 96 questions.

She lost, but decided to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

She argued that police failed to respond to her request for engineering studies used to calculate the speed limit on the road where she was ticketed in May 2007 for driving 44 in a 25-mph zone.

On Wednesday, she lost again. The high court concluded that Downs “did not overcome the presumption that the posted speed limit was valid” and that the district court did not err in its finding of her guilt.

Link

Half-ton Mexican man dies of heart failure

Jose Luis Garza (pictured) of Juarez Mexico has died of heart failure. The 47-year-old man weighed 990 pounds.

Emergency officials had to knock down Jose Luis Garza's bedroom wall and put him in the back of a friend's pickup truck to take him to a hospital as he fought for his life. He was pronounced dead on arrival.



Garza followed in the footsteps of the world's fattest man, fellow Mexican Manuel Uribe of Monterrey, by taking his weight problem public. Garza lived about an hour away from Uribe in the northern town of Juarez.

Farza’s friend Manuel Uribe, whose record weight of 1,230 pounds earned him a place in the 2008 Guinness Book of Records, had tried to help Garza by sending him kiwis, grapefruit, pears and a protein supplement.

Link

Foreign media reports what leftist US media ignores

Someone in the media north of our border gets it!

The actual facts of why the US—and now the world—economy are in severe jeopardy have little to nothing to do with the current US administration or Republicans.

However, with the Democrats’ and their media continuing to call and report the Republicans responsible, the public might never know the difference.

Despite all proof to the contrary, the media … refuse to report on the actual programs that led to the current debacle. This is called “faked and manufactured news.”

Beginning with the Democrats and President Clinton’s push to force banks and mortgage companies to lend to low-income home buyers—coupled with the Democrats running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—the process that has placed us in the position of heading toward the current financial debacle was put into place. Then, with Clinton’s signing of the American Home Ownership and Economic Opportunity Act of 2000, the dye was cast.

Lenders not wanting to those who could not afford to buy homes were threatened by government investigation.

That’s when the ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) came into being in full force.

Huge balloon payments were the norm for the ARM and when they came due and equally huge foreclosure numbers for those who couldn’t pay them were the result.

As foreclosures increased, a domino effect began that took down mortgage companies and publicly exposed the corruptions inherent within the Democrats’ personal slush funds -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Republicans in Washington, including Sen. John McCain, have tried for years to pass legislation that would provide oversight on both Fannie and Freddie.

Democrats blocked each and every attempt.

Link

Democrat politician son indicted in Palin e-mail hack

David Kernell, a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student was officially indicted for intentionally accessing Governor Sarah Palin's e-mail account without authorization.

David Kernell is the son of long time Democrat State Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis.

The elder Kernell is chairman of Tennessee's House Government Operations Committee and a well-known Barack Obama backer.

David Kernell was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Knoxville and faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Trial is set for Dec. 16.

Link

NJ Hearse club: put the fun back in funerals

Marijane Counselman and her friend Lisa Schiller co-founded a unique club called the Formaldarydes.

Counselman drives a vintage hearse through the streets of Woodbridge New Jersey. It’s a 1987 Cadillac hearse that she bought on eBay.

Marijane Counselman describes her car's virtues: incredible amount of trunk space, smooth ride and the freaky stares she gets on the street.

Her hearse is decorated with purple flames on the side, a life-size plastic skeleton in the back seat, and cobweb-motif spinner hubcaps.





Counselman is 23 and has a 4-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter.

The car is so much fun to drive that even her mother-in-law, Sharon Counselman, takes it to her job at the main branch of the Woodbridge Public Library, earning her plenty of sideways glances.

Formaldarydes co-founder Lisa Schiller links her desire for a hearse to a life-long love of horror films.

She said her hearse in not welcomed by everyone on her street.

Her block would look like a Leave it to Beaver neighborhood but the hearse gives her house a Munsters’ look.

Link

McCain - Obama poll within 2 points

This is not good news for Barack Obama. After continual favorable press by the nations major newspapers and constant adulation by the alpha networks ABC, NBC and CBS as well as CNN and MSNBC, Barack Obama should be ahead of John McCain by a comfortable margin.

Obama is ahead by only 2 points making the race a virtual tie because the slender lead is within the margin of error.

A Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, was conducted before Tuesday's Obama-McCain debate. It was performed by live telephone operators in Zogby's in-house call center in Upstate New York, included a total of 1,220 likely voters nationwide, and carries a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percentage points.

Link

Report: McCain narrowly wins boring debate

According to a report at the link below, John McCain narrowly won the second presidential debate.

From the report:

Overall, though, the debate broke no new ground, produced no large gaffes and stained Tom Brokaw reputation. He couldn't keep the debate focused at all.



During the meeting, McCain got in sharply worded responses to practically anything Barack Obama brought up -- on energy, on health care, on world affairs.

By contrast, Obama -- while having some strong stances -- never seemed to gain his footing. He looked uncomfortable during much of the town hall meeting.

The last paragraph in the quote above pretty much summed up the debate.

It emphasized why Obama hates town hall meetings. He kept repeating his memorized pronouncements and campaign talking points.

Link

Dot com buyout: eBay acquires Bill Me Later

Auction giant eBay has purchased Bill Me Later, an online purchasing system smaller but similar to PayPal which is already owned by eBay.

The Timonium (Baltimore) based Bill Me Later allows customers to pay later for items purchased at more than 1,000 online retailers, including Amazon.com and Walmart.com, without entering credit card information. Instead, the customer fills in his or her birth date and the last four digits of the Social Security number.

The company uses its proprietary underwriting system to approve each transaction, which takes about three seconds. It picks up the tab and is repaid by the shopper. If customers carry a balance at Bill Me Later, they incur interest charges.

Bill Me Later has attracted large retailers, including 75 of the top 200 brand names, and nearly 4 million consumers.

The big question is - will Amazon.com, one of Bill Me Later’s biggest customers, abandon the relationship now that eBay owns Bill Me Later.

It is no secret that Amazon.com is not a friend of eBay but so far has been non-committal about its plans to continue using Bill Me Later.

Amazon.com issued this statement: “Currently, Bill Me Later is still available as a payment option on our site, but I can’t speculate as to whether we’ll continue to offer them going forward.”

Link here and here.

Homeless and felons ‘driven’ to vote in Ohio

Getting votes for Obama by “hook or crook.”

Volunteers supporting Barack Obama picked up hundreds of people at homeless shelters, soup kitchens and drug-rehab centers and drove them to a polling place yesterday on the last day that Ohioans could register and vote on the same day, almost no questions asked.

This was done by a pro-Obama group that takes advantage of a quirk in the state's elections laws that allows people to register and cast ballots at the same time without having to prove residency.

Republicans have argued that the window could lead to widespread voter fraud because officials wouldn't have an opportunity to verify registration information before ballots were cast.

This happened to a lesser degree in Ohio four years ago. This year Ohio Democrats seem determined to outdo the infamous Cook County Illinois “dead people vote.”

Link

Ebay cutting10 percent of work force

Online auction giant eBay has announced a ‘lean and mean’ move.

After a series of changes designed to draw more people to its online marketplace, eBay Inc.'s latest alteration is aimed at its own employees.

The auction site operator said Monday it will cut about 1,600 jobs, 10 percent of its work force, in its largest round of dismissals ever.

About 1,000 full-time employees will be gone, while eBay will achieve the rest of the cuts by letting temporary and part-time workers go and by leaving open positions unfilled.

This is a proactive move by eBay. Shares of eBay stock have lost about half their value this year.

More here.

Kim Jong-il: first appearance since August

The 66-year-old leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il (pictured) has not been seen since mid-August according to US and South Korean officials.

Now the North Korea leader is reported to have made his first public appearance since rumors surfaced that he had suffered a stroke and undergone brain surgery.

State media said Mr. Kim attended a student football match in Pyongyang.

Photographs accompanied the report of his appearance at the game but the report did not say what day the game had taken place.

Was it actually Kim Jong-il or was it a “double” that appeared at the game?

Link

Man read Oxford English Dictionary

Not just anyone would read the entire Oxford English Dictionary.

Ammon Shea, 37, who has been dissecting dictionaries since the age of 10, spent a year absorbing 59 million words, from A to Zyxt - the equivalent of reading a John Grisham novel every day.

Cooped up in the basement of his local library, the removal man from New York would devote up to 10 hours a day painstakingly making his way through all 20 volumes of the OED - helped by cup after cup of very strong coffee.

Among his favorite discoveries were obmutescence (willfully quiet), hypergelast (a person who won't stop laughing), natiform (shaped like buttocks) and deipnosophist (a person who is learned in the art of dining.)

Maybe he was obsessed by very, very short stories ... he really needs to get out more.

Link

Roswell NM residents claim Powerball jackpot

Roswell is well known as the site of a supposed UFO crash in 1947.

Last week Roswell is suddenly more associated with greenbacks than little green men.

Nine residents brought different attention to the town Friday when they claimed a Powerball jackpot worth more than $200 million.

Holly Baldwin bought the tickets at a gas station two hours before the Sept. 27 drawing. Her group decided to take a lump payment of more than $100 million.

They plan to invest most of the money and set up a charity trust.

Link

Autumn in the Rockies

Quaking Aspen in autumn gold

Doctors warn against exotic pets for children

The nation's leading pediatricians' group, the American Academy of Pediatrics, has issued a new report about dangers from exotic animals as pets for small children.

About ten years ago the hedgehog (pictured) became a popular pet for children.

Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets—or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter—because of risks for disease.

Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw—putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.

"Many parents clearly don't understand the risks from various infections" these animals often carry, said Dr. Larry Pickering, the report's lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, about 11 percent of salmonella illnesses in children are thought to stem from contact with lizards, turtles and other reptiles, Pickering said. Hamsters also can carry this germ, which can cause severe diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.

Link

Why a McCain emergence may happen

Hugh Hewitt has a thoughtful, insightful and provocative commentary at the link below (shown here in part):

America is a great and good nation, and it will not turn itself over to a party in the grip of its hardest left cadres, its most corrupt machine and its least experienced nominee ever.

Especially not when it has a man of enormous courage and proven devotion and sacrifice at the ready to lead through difficult times.

In a time of war and precarious economic uncertainty, it would be near suicidal to turn the world's most important job over to him [Obama].

His party is led by hard-left partisans in the House and Senate … there is hardly anything left of the old Democratic Party.

It isn't about a New Deal or a Fair Deal or a New Frontier. It is about radical change, and creepy children singing praises to their leader.

Obama would be a huge risk in even placid times of peace, full employment, and robust growth.

Link

Every boy loves autumn

Extra leg in photo of Nicolas Sarkozy and Pope Benedict

There is an extra leg in the photo below of Pope Benedict XVI and President of France Nicolas Sarkozy.





Was the picture ‘photoshopped’ in an effort to remove a man behind Sarkozy? If so, they forgot to remove a leg and foot … or maybe it’s the leg and foot of a midget walking behind Mr. Sarkozy.

Link

Troubling video of Obama youth group

(click on picture to see video)

What’s going on here? This video begins with youth in military uniforms chanting Alpha, omega...alpha, omega.

Are the young men in this video brainwashed like the Hitler Youth of the 1920’s and 1930’s?

The best adjectives I can think of to describe this paramilitary group is troubling and creepy.

And what about their chant Alpha, omega...alpha, omega?

This is from the Bible (Revelation 1:8) I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.

Have the people surrounding Barack Obama become ‘handlers’ rather than advisors and do they perceive Obama as the Anti-Christ?

Obama connection to terrorist sympathizer Rashid Khalidi

First, who is Rashid Khalidi? Khalidi (pictured) is a former professor at the University of Illinois and a Palestinian supporter. He is a fervent opponent of Israel.

Rashid Khalidi is now a professor at Columbia University. Khalidi seems to be a good fit at Columbia where the Middle East Studies Department has been criticized for hiring outspoken opponents of American and Israeli policy.

At a farewell dinner for Khalidi before he took the Columbia job, Obama 's speech was filled with glowing praise for his friend, including references to the many meals they had shared.

During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an “apartheid system in creation” and a destructive “racist” state.

Khalidi has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, Under Siege to “those who gave their lives ... in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon.”

Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.

As if that wasn’t enough connection between Obama and Khalidi this is even more binding:

Khalidi's wife Mona ran the Chicago area charity, the Arab American Action Network, that received substantial assistance from the Woods Fund, a left wing foundation that Obama and unreconstructed terrorist Bill Ayers were Board members. The AAAN was notorious for its pro-Palestianian sympathies.

Link here and here.

= = = = = U P D A T E = = = = =

Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes will discuss the close relationship between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi on a special broadcast of “Hannity's America” which will air tomorrow night (Sunday) at 9:00 PM eastern time.

OJ Simpson guilty - led off to jail

Former football star O.J. Simpson (pictured) has been found guilty of robbery and kidnapping.

The ruling came 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted of brutally murdering his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.

After a three-week trial, a Las Vegas jury deliberated for more than 13 hours on Friday on charges against Simpson and a friend arising from an incident at the Palace Station casino in September last year.

Simpson showed no emotion as he and co-defendant Clarence Stewart were found guilty on all charges, which could see both men facing a maximum life sentence.

Shortly after the verdicts were read out just before 11:00 pm (0600 GMT) local time, Judge Jackie Glass denied a request for Simpson to be released on bail and he was led away in handcuffs.

The 61-year-old former American football hero was accused of storming into a hotel room with a gang of gun-toting cohorts and seizing sports memorabilia from two dealers worth thousands of dollars.

He will sentenced on December 5.

Link

Source of the current housing and financial crisis

This video answers the question just what happened?

(click on Barney Frank photo to see video)

Link

Have you hugged a cop today? Iowa man did and got arrested

A 21-year-old Iowa City, Iowa man ran up to an officer and stuck out his arms.

The officer told him to "get away," but the man didn't take the hint and embraced the officer.

When the officer told the man to put his hands behind his head, he refused. He was then handcuffed.

The young man now faces several charges including assault on a peace officer and public intoxication.

Link

She bought house on eBay for $1.75: now what?

It began when Joanne Smith, 30, a Kennedy King College student who lives on the South Side of Chicago, was pricing PlayStations online.

When she saw an alert about the house sale she placed a bid.

Her eBay bid was a winner. The house was hers for $1.75. A combo meal a McDonald’s would have cost more.





After buying the house for $1.75, what's next?

The house is condemned, and it's in Saginaw, Michigan, a long commute from Chicago.

Saginaw, Michigan is overburdened with unsold houses.

A notice on the door of the home says a foreclosure hearing is pending.

She owes $850 in back taxes and a couple of hundred more in cleanup fees.

Did her $1.75 bid really turn our to be a bargain?

Link

Sarah Palin - it was her night to shine

I wasn’t able to watch the debate live last night. I did, however, see a recording of the first half of the debate later in the evening.

The local news report gave Palin a B+ and Biden a C-

I would agree based on the portion I was able to see.





Attorney John Hinderaker of Power Line said Governor Palin hit a Grand Slam during the first half-hour of the debate.

He further reports:

There were a number of good moments. One of my favorites was her “shout out” to her sister's third grade class back in Alaska, who got extra credit for watching the debate.

This was one of many reminders that, to the average television viewer, Palin is one of “us” and not one of “them.”

Mr. Hinderaker thought that, given Governor Palin's performance, Biden had an impossible assignment.

Biden made things worse with his inappropriate grins and grimaces while Palin was speaking, much like Al Gore in 2000, only worse.

Palin, in contrast, kept a steady demeanor while Biden was taking shots at her. Throughout, she commanded the stage and displayed more poise and confidence than her opponent.

For the first time on national prime time TV Sarah Palin was questioned in a setting that did not include “gotcha” questions to make her look bad and then edited later to make her look even worse.

It will be interesting to see how the main stream media will spin the debate to show that Biden was a big winner.

Media has political party affiliation amnesia when reporting corrupt Dems

An Associated Press report appeared yesterday titled: Former La. judge gets 10 years for corruption.

The brief report of only 115 words makes no mention that former Judge Michael Walker is a Democrat.

In part, the report says:

Former Caddo District Judge Michael Walker was sentenced Thursday in federal court.

He and Juvenile Court Judge Vernon Claville were convicted of racketeering in June after an FBI investigation dubbed Broken Gavel.

There is no mention that both of the corrupt judges are Democrats.

The main stream media has amnesia when it comes to naming political party affiliation when reporting corruption by Democrats.

Link here and here.

Debate moderator Ifill is big Obama booster

Gwen Ifill (pictured) will be the debate moderator tonight when Governor Palin and Senator Biden meet in St. Louis.

Ifill insists she is impartial, yet here are the facts:

1. She wrote a book titled: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.This pro-Obama book will be released for sale in January. If Obama becomes president, her book sales will increase dramatically giving her a vested interest in an Obama - Biden win in November.

2. She wrote a ‘puff piece’ about Barack Obama and his family.

3. She has faced criticism in the past for not treating candidates of both major parties the same.

4. She did not inform the Commission on Presidential Debates about her pro-Obama book or the pro-Obama article.

Ifill may as well wear an Obama button to the debate.

More on her partiality here and here. The Ifill Obama article is here.

Copy of Will Rogers WWI draft registration card

(click on draft card to enlarge)

Will Rogers (pictured) gave his occupation as actor and his employer was Florenz Ziegfeld and his place of employment was the Amsterdam Theater on 42nd St. New York, New York.

Florenz (Flo) Ziegfeld, Jr. put on a series of theatrical revues called the Ziegfeld Follies.

The draft card was signed in 1918 and gives Rogers age as 39.

New lead in the Steve Fossett disappearance mystery?

Adventurer Steve Fossett (pictured) has been missing since September 2007.

Fossett was last seen taking off in a blue-and-white Citabria Super Decathlon from the Flying M Ranch in rural western Nevada. Below is a 3-view of a Super Decathlon.

Fossett, 63, has not been seen or heard from since departing from the Flying M Ranch more than one year ago. He was on a short recreational flight and was to return by noon so he and his wife Peggy could leave Nevada on a private jet.



The Flying M Ranch is an exclusive retreat owned by hotel magnate William Barron Hilton.

Suspecting that Fossett had crashed his plane a massive search ensued. Several aircraft were involved in the search.

Fossett was never found and has been declared dead.

Why was it so hard to find the possible wreck of Fossett’s plane?

An ABC report in September, 2007 said:

Northwestern Nevada is a desert full of stuff — mining junk, old cars, bullet-riddled refrigerators, everything that you can possibly imagine. When you're looking, it's hard to determine from 1,000 feet what it is you're looking at. Fossett's plane could easily be hidden by trees in some remote valley.

The Citabria Decathlon has a range of 563 miles.

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Items possibly belonging to missing aviator Steve Fossett have been found by hikers in a remote area of California more than one year after his mysterious disappearance.

A hiker in a rugged part of eastern California found a pilot's license and other items possibly belonging to Steve Fossett, the adventurer who vanished on a solo flight in a borrowed plane more than a year ago, authorities said Wednesday.

The number on the pilot license in a photograph sent to the Federal Aviation Administration matches the number on the pilot certificate the agency has on file for Fossett, spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The hiker, Preston Morrow, said he found an FAA identity card, a pilot's license, a third ID and $1,005 in cash tangled in a bush off a trail just west of the town of Mammoth Lakes on Monday. He said he turned the items over to local police Wednesday after unsuccessful attempts to contact Fossett's family.

More information here.

Debate moderator has vested interest in Obama win

Gwen Ifill (pictured) is the debate moderator for the Thursday meeting between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden.

Her program Washington Week appears on PBS.

She has faced criticism in the past for not treating candidates of both major parties the same.

Now it is learned that she has a vested interest in a Barack Obama - Joe Biden win at the polls in November.

She wrote a book titled: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. This pro-Obama book will be released for sale in January. If Obama becomes president, her book sales will increase dramatically giving her a vested interest in an Obama - Biden win in November.

Should she withdraw as debate moderator? Yes.

Will she withdraw as debate moderator? No.

Link

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Gwen Ifill broke her ankle Monday night falling down the stairs in her home while carrying "research related to her moderating duties at Thursday's Vice Presidential debate in St. Louis."

According to TV Newser, despite the injury, Ms. Ifill will still moderate Thursday's debate.

Odd coincidence: When Sarah Palin was in high school she prevailed in a pivotal basketball game despite having to play on a broken ankle.

Link

Thinking cap will unlock extraordinary skills

Too bad my third grade teacher isn’t able to read about this thinking cap that should be able to unlock extraordinary skills.

I got rather tired of hearing her say, “alright now children, it’s time to put on your thinking caps.” As a third grader, I realized I was a child but resented being talked “down to” and I further disliked her reference to “thinking caps.”

In my literal world, a thinking cap was in the same mythical realm as Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.

The thinking caps she metaphorically spoke of couldn’t possibly have given us extraordinary skills, or anything else for that matter.

However, there is a report at the link below telling of a thinking cap being developed by scientists that can unlock ones hidden genius.

The device works by switching on and off certain sections of the brain and so unlocking its hidden potential.

The hairnet-like cap uses tiny magnetic pulses to change the way the brain works and has led to improved artistic ability, mathematical ability and proof-reading skills.

If the technique is perfected, the device could be marketed as a cap slipped on to boost creativity and intellectual capacity.

The technique is based on research into savants, like the Dustin Hoffman character in the film Rainman, who have extraordinary abilities as well as severe mental disability.

Link

UK police investigate eBay sale of spy camera

Last year, a civil service worker in the UK lost computer discs containing sensitive information on 25 million people last year.

In January, the Ministry of Defense said it had lost a laptop containing personal data on 600,000 recruits.

Now there is another security breach.

Britain's MI6 intelligence service is investigating how a camera holding sensitive information about al Qaeda suspects came to be lost by one of its agents, police said on Tuesday.

Media reports said the Nikon digital camera was put up for sale on Internet trading site eBay and sold for just 17 pounds ($30.64).

Its memory had names of al Qaeda members, fingerprints and suspects' academic records as well as pictures of rocket launchers and missiles, the Sun newspaper reported.

Link

Biden prepares for debate: claims underdog status

A New York Times blog entry at the link below is titled, Biden’s Debate Prep.

Senator Biden spent Monday in a hotel suite in Wilmington preparing for Thursday night’s debate with Governor Sarah Palin (upper picture).

As practice sessions unfolded behind closed doors, top aides tried, not terribly convincingly, to suggest that Mr. Biden (lower picture) - a two-time presidential candidate, 35-year veteran of the Senate and chairman of its foreign affairs committee - is the debate underdog to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“He’s going in here to debate a leviathan of forensics,” Mr. Biden’s spokesman, David Wade, said with an almost straight face, “who has debated five times and she’s undefeated.”

Mr. Biden’s spokesman was making fun of Palin of course.

In the same vein, David Axelrod, Senator Barack Obama’s top political strategist, also tried to play down expectations for Mr. Biden and to highlight Ms. Palin’s skills as a debater.

They must be taking Governor Palin seriously, however because they have a host of helpers.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Democrat of Michigan, joined the debate preparation team in the role of Ms. Palin. Ms. Granholm flew to Wilmington with Mr. Biden on Sunday night after the Democratic candidates made an appearance in Detroit earlier in the day and was expected to stay for a day or two of mock combat.

Also on the Biden debate team were Ron Klain, a former top aide to Biden in the Senate who has been helping Mr. Obama prepare for debates; Ricki Seidman, another former Biden Senate aide who is now a senior campaign adviser; Anthony Blinken, Mr. Biden’s chief foreign policy aide; and Valerie Biden Owens, Mr. Biden’s sister, political adviser and close confidante.

That’s an army of aides on Biden’s debate team.

Actually, the most important rule he needs to take to the debate with him is:

Step 1. Open mouth.

Step 2. Remove foot.

Step 3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 as often as necessary.

There will probably be one or two people on the Sarah Palin debate team.

One sure thing will be the media reaction as soon as the debate is finished. The media will declare Biden the winner no matter what happens during the debate.

Link

Hospital informs grandfather he is pregnant

Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach, Oregon informed a 71-year-old grandfather that he is pregnant.

John Grady Pippen, a retired mechanic and logger, was being treated for abdominal pain.

The hospital administrator said an errant keystroke caused the hospital's computer to print out the wrong discharge instructions.

Mr. Pippen was probably relieved to learn he wasn’t pregnant after all.

Link

Congress lives up to its 10% approval rating

George W. Bush has low approval ratings - right down there with Jimmy Carter - they both sank to 28%. Nixon’s approval rating was at 24% at the time of his resignation and Harry Truman left the presidency with an approval rating of only 23%.

With that background, it is easier to comprehend just how low the 10% approval rating of congress actually is. And now congress is living up to that rating!

Failure to act on an emergency financial bailout plan may push the rating down solidly into the single digit range!

Monday's crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can't even make sausage.

The 228-205 defeat reflects badly on all concerned, starting with the Democrats who run the House. The majority party is responsible for assembling a majority vote, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (pictured) failed in that fundamental task.

Her scathing partisan speech blaming Republicans and the “failed Bush administration” was not a reason for Republican house members to vote no.

But it is indicative of the way she has governed for the past two years -- like Tom DeLay without the charm.

The cynics are saying Ms. Pelosi deliberately tanked the bill by giving 95 Democrats a pass, knowing failure would hurt John McCain, and given her track record we can see why people would believe it.

Barney Frank blamed the Republicans for failure to pass the bill. Congressman Frank needs to lay the blame squarely at the feet of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for failure to lead. It could have passed comfortably if she could have convinced one fourth of the 95 dissenting Democrats to vote for the bill.

What next? One option is that Democrats will tell Mr. Paulson that they can pass his plan with more liberal votes, but that their price has gone up.

This would mean more of the tax, spend and regulate provisions that House GOP leaders stripped out before their rank-and-file headed for the exits.

These would only raise the price for taxpayers of the Treasury rescue and, if the equity provisions were too onerous, make the Paulson plan far less workable.

Now one wonders what failed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will do to bungle the next bailout try and will there be a stock market left to save by then.

Link

Blaming Barney Frank for financial crisis

A Boston Herald report at the link below says an instant poll, conducted by the newspaper, put blame on Barney Frank (pictured).

Rep. Frank (D-Mass) is considered the engineer of the “financial train wreck.”

Barney Frank is chairman of the House Financial Services panel. In the poll he received more blame than anyone else including President Bush or former fed chief Alan Greenspan.

Some [Boston Herald] readers argue all you have to do is click over to YouTube and listen to Frank, in the fall of 2003, swear “Fannie and Freddie (are) not in a crisis!” and are “fundamentally sound financially.”

The second link below shows a September 2003 report:

The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.

Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.

Baney Frank’s reply in 2003 was, The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.

As we are finding out now, problem was not exaggerated!

At the third link below is a report saying that Barney Frank was accused of ‘cooking the books’ for his gay lover Herb Moses. At the time Moses was a Fannie Mae executive!

Link here, here and here.

Pelosi: down in flames, her house in disorder

The $700 Billion Financial-Rescue Plan went down in flames 228 to 205.

Vote results:
Democrats 140 for 95 against
Republicans 65 for 133 against

The Democrats had the votes to pass the bailout package. So why didn’t they? Why did more than 40% of them go against Pelosi and vote against the bill? This was a big failure for Pelosi (pictured)

Did they want to wait until enough Republicans were on board so they could share the blame for passing such an unpopular piece of legislation?

House Republicans blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s speech. They said she had been too partisan in a floor speech prior to the vote.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) said that Pelosi’s speech “poisoned” the Republican caucus and “caused a number of members we thought we could get to go south.”

Not surprising since she put the entire blame on “the failed Bush policies,” which is not the best way to try to get Republican House members to vote with her.

The real reason the bailout failed to pass in the House is because many members, both Democrat and Republican, are facing tough re-elections.

House members are reporting that e-mails and phone calls to their offices were about running 800 to 1 against the bailout bill.

Democrats voted 140 to 95 in favor of the legislation, while just 65 Republicans backed the bill and 133 opposed it.

A bailout is needed very soon. Will Pelosi get her House in order in time for the next one to pass?

Link

German town boasts the largest jigsaw puzzle

Puzzle maker Ravensburger AG claims that the world’s largest puzzle was put together yesterday in only five hours in the southern German town of Ravensburg.
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The puzzle is said to have 1,141,800 pieces and is 6,500 square-foot in size nearly covering the town square.

The participants assembled more-than 4,000 smaller jigsaw puzzles, each with 252 pieces and standard puzzle motifs like animals, maps and landscapes.

The rectangles were then taken to the nearby town square and put together into the single massive 20-meter by 30-meter puzzle.





Upper photo shows the puzzle in Ravensburg town square. Lower photo shows participants standing on the puzzle.

A notary has submitted the result to the Guinness Book of World Records. Organizers say it is significantly bigger than the current record -- a 212,000-piece puzzle put together in Singapore in 2002.

We have put together several hundred puzzles but never a Ravensburg puzzle. Maybe it’s time for us to try one.

Link

Blame FDR, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton

It’s time for a game of pin the tail on the donkey. What is usually a fun kid’s game is, in this case, an exercise in pinning the blame on the Democrats who caused our sub-prime mortgage mess.

But first, a quick word about our main-stream media: they relished telling us week after week how bad the Enron scandal was and now refuses to give us the true reasons behind the sub-prime mortgage scandal.

It is indeed sad that it is up to foreign media to do the fair and balanced reporting job that the U.S. media should be doing.

A report at the link below has the real story from a source not committed to trashing conservative views.

Some milestones in the prehistory of the crisis:

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1933 - As part of the New Deal, investment banks are stopped from also acting as commercial banks (which would have given them bank deposits and more stability).

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1938 - As part of the New Deal, president (Franklin D.) Roosevelt creates Fannie Mae and in 1970 Congress creates Freddie Mac. With their implicit government guarantees they can offer cheaper loans and expand until they dominate the American mortgage market.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

1989 - The American government step(s) in and pay(s) for the savings and loan crisis, which sets a precedent.

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1995 - The Community Reinvestment Act is revised so that banks and thrifts are forced to give home loans to low and moderate-income households as well. In return they are allowed to repackage and sell those sub-prime risks to others, which Bear Stearns pioneers in 1997.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

2001-03 - Instead of letting the market get rid of bad businesses and loans after the dotcom bubble and 9/11, the (Federal Reserve) reduces its rate from 6.5 per cent to 1 per cent (with) a dramatic expansion of the money supply, which creates a real estate bubble.

Mae and Mac ran leverage ratios that exceeded 60 to one (cheered on by the Democrats) to keep giving loans to people who could not really afford it. It only took more traditional interest rates for the bubble to burst.

The independent investment banks that did not have access to bank deposits collapsed and almost brought the whole system down.

All those who now think that the solution is to give more powers to politicians, authorities and central banks should look at what they did with the powers they already had.

Link

Fake player at Dodger Stadium faces 4 years in prison

A 47-year-old man faces 4 years in prison for burglary and trespassing charges for stealing and posing in a Dodger baseball uniform.

He was arrested after a security guard found him walking on the field in a Dodgers uniform and holding a glove with two baseballs. He allegedly identified himself as a Dodgers player, but the guard recognized him from an earlier incident and called police.

Even if he could hit a curve ball, we doubt if manager Joe Torre will put him in his lineup for the playoffs.

Link

Converted 747 hotel to open in Stockholm

An unusual hotel will be ready for ‘take-off’ at the Stockholm-Arlanda airport in December, 2008.



It is a Boeing 747 that has been converted into the 25-room Jumbo Hostel.

The idea is the brainchild of Swedish businessman and entrepreneur Oscar Dios, who has been running hostels in Uppsala, Sweden for the past five years.

It was in 2006 that Dios first heard about the Boeing 747, which was for sale. Formerly flown by the now defunct Transjet Airways, the plane was wasting away in a hangar at Arlanda airport and hadn't flown since 2002.

The Jumbo Hostel can accommodate up to 85 guests.

Prices will range from €110 ($150) to €500 ($700) per night.

Link

Burglary suspect tied up like in old cowboy movies

The 26-year-old man went to the wrong house to steal a lawn mower.

The homeowner and friends overpowered him and tied him up with a rope like they did in the old cowboy movies.

Tom Mix would have been proud.

Link

Sarah Palin meets foreign leaders in New York

Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Sarah Palin.


Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sarah Palin.


Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Sarah Palin.


Left to right, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Sarah Palin, John McCain and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.


Sarah Palin and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.


Sarah Palin meets with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

Robber fled when teller asked “are you serious?”

A tellers sarcasm averts a bank robbery.

Police said a bank teller in suburban New York had a simple question for a would-be robber: Are you serious?

Police said that was enough to spook the female suspect, who fled the Roslyn Savings Bank in Centereach, New York.

The woman left without ever showing a gun.

Link

Will Missouri choose winning candidate again this year?

Missouri has a century-long reputation as a bellwether state. The “show-me state” has voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1904 except for 1956 when it Missouri went for Adlai Stevenson who lost to Dwight Eisenhower.

If you want to know who will win the White House in November, don’t worry about any of the other states. Just focus you crystal ball on Missouri and hope history repeats itself.

Link

Just a few Barack Obama gaffes

The gaffes Barack Obama (pictured) has committed would have crushed a Republican politician. But the reporters who can't get over Dan Quayle's misspelling of “potato” are silent about Obama’s gaffes.

Following are a few Obama-isms:

1. During a news conference in Israel Obama declared, “just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran.”

Obama’s committee? Obama isn't even a member of the Banking Committee, let alone its chairman. Why would he make such an arrogant, far-fetched boast?

2. He once said he'd visited 57 states, not including Alaska and Hawaii, and still had “one left to go.”

This may not have been a gaffe. He may have been referring to the 57 states of Islam.

3. He confused Sioux Falls, South Dakota with Sioux City, Iowa.

4. Said Arkansas is closer to Kentucky than to Illinois.

5. He claimed Iran doesn't “pose a serious threat to us,” then somehow recalled the next day that he has indeed “made it clear for years that the threat from Iran is grave.”

6. In 2007 he announced that tornadoes had killed 10,000 people in Greensburg, Kansas even though the real number was 12.

7. On the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Ala., he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement saying, “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.”

Actually, Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965.

8. In Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Obama showed off his lack of knowledge of the war in Afghanistan by commenting on a lack of translators. He said “We only have a certain number of them, and if they are all in Iraq, then it’s harder for us to use them in Afghanistan.”

The real reason it’s harder to use translators in Afghanistan is that Iraqis speak Arabic or Kurdish. The Afghanis speak Pashto, Farsi, or other non-Arabic languages.

Barack Obama’s gaffes are mostly ignored or covered up by the media.