Squirrel hijacks vacation snapshot

Just before the camera self-portrait timer clicked a squirrel found its way into the photo.

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Criminal charge over school a mealtime prayer

Educators face jail in Florida over a school prayer.

Students, teachers and local pastors are protesting over a court case involving a northern Florida school principal and an athletic director who are facing criminal charges and up to six months in jail over their offer of a mealtime prayer.

Principal Frank Lay and school athletic director Robert Freeman, will go on trial Sept. 17 at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union).

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Smokey the Bear turned 65

Smokey Bear was born in August 1944 but he has been denied retirement. Too much work to do.


He is a celebrity pitchman, pop icon and philanthropist.

He's so famous he was given his own ZIP Code, 20252, to handle the fan mail.

Smokey Bear is the longest-running public service campaign in U.S. history -- a simple message delivered by a humanistic bear.

Search: where are the stimulus jobs?

Searching for the stimulus jobs without much success

(click on picture to see video)
This is a lighthearted video, but the underlying point is no laughing matter.

At a time when Americans are looking to Washington for leadership, the trillion-dollar stimulus has been a wasteful failure.

Americans were promised the stimulus would keep the unemployment rate from going above eight percent. Its now nearly 10 percent, and rising.

Where are the jobs?

Air traffic controllers suspended over Hudson crash

The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended two air traffic controllers from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport over Saturday's collision of two aircraft over the Hudson that killed nine people.

The photo below shows the wreckage of the helicopter being lifted from the Hudson River.


The controller handling the flight of a Piper PA-32 Saratoga carrying three people was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident.

Also, the supervisor was not present in the building as required.

More of the story here.

News media ignored violence by liberals at Bush protest

News outlets that are focusing on the incendiary rhetoric of conservatives outside President Obama's town hall meeting Tuesday ignored the incendiary rhetoric -- and even violence -- of liberals outside an appearance by former President George W. Bush in 2002.

When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting "Bush is a terrorist!", the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.

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Video: Obama town hall orchestrated and controlled

Is the press corps starting to tire of the Obama Administration?

Even CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid (in the center of photo), along with Helen Thomas (in the left of photo), the consummate supporter of all things liberal, called Obama’s town hall meeting "orchestrated," "tightly-controlled," and seemingly "less transparent" than any previous White House occupants had ever dared.

Chip Reid and Helen Thomas double teamed Robert Gibbs (as shown in the video below) at the daily press briefing on the "tightly controlled" town hall meeting President Obama held on health care. Gibbs kept saying lets have this discussion AFTER the meeting.

Helen Thomas accused the White House of "controlling the press." She said almost all White House/Obama events are "prepackaged." She accused the White House of not "having any answers."

(click on picture to see video)

Big turbines “blowin’ in the wind”

Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens (pictured) says “harness the wind.” Others say “not so fast.”

More and more critics say windmills aren't that green, aren't a great source of energy and can be harmful to people's health.

The 200- to 300-foot-long blades on industrial windmills look almost whimsical from afar.

They appear to turn slowly. People sometimes stop to take pictures. "They look cool," said Eric Burch, director of policy and outreach for the Indiana Office of Energy Development.

Rows of wind turbines at Altamont Pass in northern California near Livermore.

Coachella Valley in southern California just north of the Salton Sea.

British offshore windfarm

The tips of those giant blades move at speeds approaching 160 mph, creating forces that send low-frequency vibrations through the ground. People three-quarters of a mile away sometimes say they can feel the vibrations in their chests.

If you can feel the vibrations in your chest from People three-quarters of a mile away, what must it be like for people living in the middle of a wind farm in the shadow of the turbines as in the photos below?




Cases of nausea, headaches, insomnia and other ills have become common enough in states with wind farms that they've been given a name: "wind turbine syndrome."

That newfangled illness is just one of a growing list of health effects, inconveniences, risks and cost considerations that have resulted in a backlash against wind farms.

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ObamaCare: 32 percent in favor - 57 percent oppose

Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% are opposed to a single-payer plan.

The 32% could be made up of government employees, union members and people who expect the government to fully support them with everything form free housing to food stamps.

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Senator can feel global warming while flying!

Democratic Senator from Michigan Debbie Stabenow (pictured) was recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee.

She must take her new appointment seriously because she says "Global warming creates volatility. I can feel it when I'm flying.”

She feels global warming when she is flying? Really? How out of touch with reality is that?

Facts from the article at the link below:

Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record; global temperatures haven't risen in more than a decade; Great Lakes water levels have resumed their 30-year cyclical rise (contrary to a decade of media scare stories that they were drying up due to global warming), and polls show that climate change doesn't even make a list of Michigan voters' top-ten concerns.

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GM hopes you’ll buy their new cars on eBay

General Motors will let customers buy cars and trucks online from some California dealers through eBay, the operator of the most-visited U.S. e-commerce Web site.

Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Pontiac brands will be available at gm.ebay.com.

The automaker chose California because that market has been “incredibly hard-hit by the recession,” LaNeve said. “We really think it needs a shot in the arm.”


Car shoppers can use eBay’s “buy it now” option to make an immediate purchase or negotiate a price. All sales close at the dealership when the buyer picks up the vehicle, he said.

Click here and here.

Obama said AARP supports ObamaCare - it doesn’t!

ABC’s Jake Tapper puts a rosy spin on a big Barack Obama lie by suggesting the president had a “senior” moment.

Obama today suggested that the health care reform legislation for which he’s pushing has been endorsed by the American Association of Retired Person.

“We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors,” the president said.

At another point he said: “Well, first of all, another myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?”

Only problem is, the AARP has not endorsed any plan!

How many other lies has Mr. Obama been telling us?

Link

Obama poll numbers continue to fall

Covering for Biden: “what he meant to say was...”

(click on picture to see video)
Are members of the media in the White House pressroom laughing at press secretary Robert Gibbs or Vice President Joe Biden?

Probably both.

How many times have members of the Obama administration tried to alibi for the Vice President by saying, “what Biden meant to say was...”

Depends on your definition of clunker...

Cow fighting in Battle of the Queens

Cows fight during the Battle of the Queens, a traditional cow fight held annually in Switzerland.

Members of the bovine family fight against themselves to establish a hierarchy within the herd.

During the combat the cows push against each other, forehead to forehead.

Protestors at a town hall meeting on health care

The photo shows people at a town hall meeting on health care reform sponsored by U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) outside of Alhambra City Hall in Alhambra, California, August 11, 2009.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ObamaCare protestors were un-American mobs wearing swastikas conducting "Astroturf" stunts.

Sen. Barbara Boxer insists the protests are fake because the protestors are too "well-dressed.”

ObamaCare supporters in Washington are incensed that citizens object to a socialist plan hardly anyone has read all 1,000 pages.

It seems they want anyone objecting to ObamaCare silenced. Objectors who can’t be silenced must be demonized.

Ka BOOM

A Greenpeace activist works on putting a fake bomb in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Greenpeace protested against underground storage of carbon dioxide.

Democrats call protestors un-American partisan mobs

Ordinary Americans petitioning their representatives being are being called "un American" and “partisan mobs” by Democrat politicians in Washington including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Actually, it is un-American to squelch opposing views.

The Obama election machine was once called Obama for America. It is now called Organizing for America and has been asked to show up at town halls and congressional offices as a counter to the protestors against the president's health care reform push.

SEIU union members have also been asked to join Organizing for America to silence the ObamaCare protestors.

When they attack their opponents instead of their opponents' arguments, it proves their arguments are not selling.

Never in the history of our country have we had a sitting president tell members of his party to “hit back twice as hard” against citizens who protest against his agenda.

Rank and file Americans who are opposed to ObamaCare are called “extremists trying to hijack the debate.”

The administration seems to have been caught flat-footed. The right has never really protested before. It has always been the left who demonstrated.

Link here and here.


If we need ObamaCare so badly why is Congress opting out?
Why are Unions opting out?
Why are public school teachers opting out?
Why are government workers opting out?

There is a Reuters report at the link below titled: Auto inventories tight, "clunker" interest slips.

Red hot auto sales under the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" incentive began to cool as dealer inventories tightened and showroom traffic showed signs of leveling off from its frantic pace of a week ago.


One industry analysis released on Tuesday forecast a steady decline in "clunker" related business even though the Obama administration and Congress added $2 billion to the program in recent days with hopes of matching the success of its first weeks.

More of the story here.

A report at the link below says:

The Democratic Party is panicking, lashing out like a cornered animal, all because its effort to take over the health care industry is coming apart like so much wet toilet paper.

Nancy Pelosi (pictured), who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself.

When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured "Astroturf" stunts, she replied, "I think they're Astroturf. You be the judge. They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health.

Swastikas? Really?

This is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander and idiocy.

Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protestors are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of ObamaCare, but she's also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

Sen. Barbara Boxer insists the protests are fake because the protestors are too "well-dressed.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says this is all "manufactured anger" because the protestors -- he calls them the "Brooks Brothers Brigade" -- are too tastefully appointed to be authentic protestors. Apparently only filthy hippies can petition government.

Brooks Brothers suites indeed. Every video clip shown in the news show average Americans, mostly in casual clothes conducting a serious protest against a 1,000 page bill few have read and they fees is being crammed down their throats.

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(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Rockies shortstop: Tulo terrific

Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (pictured) had a grand slam home run denied after a first ever video review at Coors Field.

Not to be denied, Tulowitzki finished the game by “hitting for the cycle” and driving in 7 runs in the Monday night 11-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.

"I don't know if I'll ever have a game like this ever in my career," Tulowitzki said. "Not too many people can say they had a cycle in the big leagues."

It was the sixth cycle in the majors this season when a player hits a home run, a triple, a double and a single in the same game.

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Congress drops $550M passenger jet plan

Democrat leaders in the House have dropped plans to spend $550 million in the Air Force budget on passenger jets to be used by lawmakers and senior government officials.

Before leaving for the August congressional recess, the House approved a Defense Appropriation bill for fiscal year 2010 that included $550 million for three Gulfstream jets and five military versions of a Boeing 737.

The opposition to the passenger jet purchase plan was bipartisan.

Even Missouri Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill (pictured) was against the Pelosi/Hoyer jet purchase plan.

McCaskill said, "The whole thing kind of makes me sick to my stomach. It is evidence that some of the cynicism about Washington is well placed -- that people get out of touch and they spend money like it's Monopoly money."

The funding for new planes is "a classic example of Congress being out of touch with the realities of deficit spending," said South Dakota Senator John Thune.

Link here and here.

Chopper wreckage from the Hudson River crash

The wreckage of a helicopter that collided with an airplane and crashed in the Hudson River is positioned on a pier in Hoboken, New Jersey after being lifted out of the river.

Photo from Time Magazine

Schumer: time to ram ObamaCare through

The Senate Democrats may be getting a bit desperate to get ObamaCare passed.

Chuck Schumer (pictured) a Democrat Senator from New York says time is running out for Senate negotiators on health care.

If a bipartisan deal cannot be reached in 37 days, Democrats will have to go it alone.

“If they can’t do it by Sept. 15th, I think the overwhelming view on the Democratic side is going to be, then, they’re never going to get it done” Schumer tells John Harwood of the New York Times.

“And there’s always a worry that, you know, delay, delay, delay, you lose any momentum whatsoever.”

Most Republicans and moderate Democrats are hoping Schumer is right when he fears ”they’re never going to get it done.”

If Democrats decide to circumvent the Senate’s usual 60-vote requirement by using budget reconciliation procedures, some aspects of the legislation may not qualify for action.

Reconciliation would also require stricter pay-as-you go rules which could mean even deeper cuts to Medicare payments.

If they try to shove this thru using the reconciliation process (requiring less than 60 votes), it will cost even deeper cuts to Medicare benefits.

The heavy reliance on Medicare savings was born out of a desire to minimize the amount of new taxes needed to pay for health care-reform.

Even without the additional cuts that would be required using the less than 60 vote reconciliation process, seniors will be shocked at the limited medical care that will be available to them. It will literally be take a pain pill and go home to die.

Link

The future of ObamaCare

Dreamin’ about a smartphone

Thinking about a smartphone to replace a tired old two and one half year old Moto Razr with a weak battery.

Dreaming about a Blackberry Curve or a Blackberry Bold or maybe even a Blackberry Storm ... or ... maybe none of the above ... depends on what deals Verizon has for a contract renewal.

Eye of the spider

A festival-goer wears a contact lens with a spider's net painting during the annual Wave-Gothic festival in Leipzig, Germany.

Borrowing on the rise?

“King George view” of voters health care concerns

(click on cartoon to enlarge)

Kenyan offers livestock dowry for Chelsea Clinton

Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for the hand of Chelsea Clinton (pictured) in marriage.

The Kenyan man first offered the dowry nine years ago to then-President Bill Clinton in asking for the hand of his only child.

He renewed it Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the proposal at a Nairobi town hall session.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria, the session's moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor's dowry was "not a bad offer."

However, Clinton said her daughter was her own person.

"She's very independent," she said. "So I will convey this very kind offer."

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Deficit increased $181 Billion in month of July!

Bailouts for financial firms and billions in tax revenue lost because of the recession drove the deficit to a record total of $1.3 trillion in July.

Tax receipts that have fallen due to the poor economy and increased spending to save car companies, banks and mortgage firms were major contributors to the federal deficit, according to CBO, which provides official budget numbers for Congress. The federal deficit grew by another $181 billion in the month of July.

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Jobless rate eased but is worse than they say

It is not surprising that the Obama administration is trying to put a positive spin on the jobless rate. The recent report of a slightly lower jobless rate is only part of the story.

The Washington Post reports:

The stabilization in the economy is not rippling through to ordinary American workers. Economists generally expect the unemployment rate to resume its rise in the coming months, ultimately reaching or surpassing 10 percent.

The July decline in the jobless rate came about not because more people had jobs, but because 422,000 people removed themselves from the labor force, essentially giving up the search for work. The number of long-term unemployed people -- those who have been out of a job but looking for more than 26 weeks -- rose by another 584,000.

The unemployment rate does not include people who have given up searching for work in the unemployed totals.

Link here and here.

Is your dog as smart as a 2-year-old child?

A Houston Chronicle report claims that a dog is about as smart as a 2-year old child.

Dog psychologist Stanley Coren says that, based upon various behavioral measures, dogs have the mental ability of a human child age 2 to 2.5 years.

The writer of the Chronicle report is not convinced. He says:

My 2-year, 2-month-old kid can have a conversation on the phone with her grandparents. Not sure my dog can.

Anyway, the average dog can apparently learn about 165 words and signals, while the smartest dogs can probably learn up to about 250 words. They can also count to four or five.

One commenter to the article said:

...as long as my dog remembers to fetch and I don't get my feet wet...then he can be as dumb as dirt!

The report says the five smartest breeds are:

1. Border Collie (pictured in typical sheep herding pose)
2. Poodle
3. German Shepherd
4. Golden Retriever
5. Doberman Pinscher

The five least intelligent breeds are:

106. Borzoi
107. Chow Chow
108. Bull dog
109. Basenji
110. Afghan Hound

Link

Ice chokes Northwest Passage in midsummer

The global warming alarmists are warning of 'extreme' melting even as the Northwest Passage is choking with ice in midsummer.

Unfortunately for the warmists, reality never seems to cooperate.

Despite predictions from a top U.S. polar institute that the Arctic Ocean's overall ice cover is headed for another "extreme" meltdown by mid-September, the Environment Canada agency monitoring our northern waters says an unusual combination of factors is making navigation more difficult in the Northwest Passage this year after two straight summers of virtually clear sailing.

In both the wider, deep-water northern corridor and the narrower, shallower southern branches of the passage, the Canadian Ice Service says pockets of more extensive winter freezing and concentrations of thicker, older ice at several key "choke points" are complicating ship travel.

Will Al Gore comment on this icy Northwest Passage story? Of course not.

This is just one more prediction of doom by warmists that failed to materialize.

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