The six-month election recount that turned former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken (pictured on right) into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities, according to an 18-month study conducted by a conservative watchdog group.
Below is another photo of Al Franken, the freshman Senator from Minnesota.
Any pro basketball team owner would have been really ticked at the way LeBron James handled the announcement of his move to the Miami Heat team at the end of his free agency.
Comic Sans is used by fourth-graders, authors of comic books and hardly anyone else. There surely was a special message to LeBron in the choice of fonts.As you now know, our former hero, who grew up in the very region that he deserted this evening, is no longer a Cleveland Cavalier.
This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment.
The letter refers to the actions of former Cleveland Cavalier basketball player LeBron James.
While the letter is truthful, it is no doubt the most expensive letter ever written by Dan Gilbert.
Link here and here.
The hope that fired up the election of Barack Obama has flickered out, leaving a national mood of despair and disappointment. Americans are dispirited over how wrong things are and uncertain they can be made right again.
There is a widespread feeling that the government doesn't work, that it is incapable of solving America's problems.
More of Zuckerman's assessment of Washington politics here.
Red, blue, green, fuchsia, burnt sienna, cyan, lavender, turquoise with a hint of gold, plaid... you name it.
Proving her right is an all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law that is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork.Section 9006 of the health care bill -- just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document -- mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.
The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year.
Now the IRS must start mopping up Congress's tax-reporting mess created by ObamaCare.
The Internal Revenue Service has begun the daunting process of figuring out how to turn the law's sweeping demands into actual rules for taxpayers.
Like many who have delved into the details of the new rules, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson is concerned about their far-reaching scope and potential unintended consequences.
The new rules are aimed at reducing the "tax gap" between what individuals and businesses owe and what they actually pay.
But the cost of that paper trail could swamp the small companies, sole proprietors freelancers forced to generate it. Pennsylvania business networking organization SMC Business Councils surveyed its members and found that they currently average 10 filings a year of 1099 forms. The new rules would push that average to more than 200 filings per year for a typical small business, the industry group estimates.
Diamond Offshore announced Friday that its Ocean Endeavor drilling rig will leave the Gulf of Mexico and move to Egyptian waters immediately -- making it the first to abandon the United States in the wake of the BP oil spill and a ban on deep-water drilling.
The Ocean Endeavor's exodus probably won't be the last, according to oil industry officials and Gulf Coast leaders who warn that other companies eager to find work for the now-idled rigs are considering moving them outside the U.S.
Many in the Gulf are saying thank you Mr. President -- your drilling ban is increasing our Arab world oil dependence and at the same time putting thousands of workers on the unemployment rolls.
The CEO of Houston-based Diamond, signaled that other of his company's rigs could be relocated, too.
"As a result of the uncertainties surrounding the offshore drilling moratorium, we are actively seeking international opportunities to keep our rigs fully employed," Dickerson said. "We greatly regret the loss of U.S. jobs that will result from this rig relocation."
This is especially troubling since the administration has made it clear that they will do whatever is necessary to keep the drilling ban in place.
It's much more than just gasoline. Click on the second link below for scores of products dependent on oil. Along with the economy in the Gulf, these products are all negatively impacted by the Obama drilling ban.
Link here and here.
The 2010 world cup was hosted by South Africa and ruined by tens of thousands of vuvuzela horns made in China.
The above AP photo shows Spain's Andres Iniesta as he scores a goal past Netherlands' Rafael van der Vaart during the World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Onlookers and railway officials stand beside a passenger train that derailed after an explosion in Kokrajhar, India.
Not knowing how to respond, I simply said “gr8.”
As Las Vegas's population and economy exploded over the past two decades, cultural and financial elite here sought to convince the rest of the world that the city known for Elvis impersonators and neon lights wasn't a cultural wasteland.
But many of those efforts are unraveling.
1. Last year, the Las Vegas Art Museum shut its doors as donations dwindled.
2. Tentative plans for a contemporary art museum downtown were scrapped.
3. A sculpture park that has cost the city around $700,000 sits empty, awaiting funds from a private group for its completion.
4. The final blow came from the announcement that David Hickey and Libby Lumpkin, an academic couple who propelled the city's artistic ambitions, are leaving Las Vegas.
I personally saw Las Vegas in the 1960's and 1970's through the eyes of a telephone company auditor on business trips rather than as a vacationer in town to visit casinos and attend live shows.
The closest thing to culture were a few oil paintings for sale at the Sahara.
The things that strike first time visitors to Las Vegas, as mentioned in the article, are Elvis impersonators and neon lights.
Nothing seems to have changed.
Link
A fisherman rows a boat through the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Chaohu, China.
One of the world's longest place names started out a bit shorter.
Photos taken during the dangerous running of the bulls at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain.
Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer's edge over Republican challenger Carly Fiorina has dwindled to 3 points as she seeks re-election in November, with more Californians now holding an unfavorable view of the three-term senator, a poll released on Thursday showed.
Boxer once held a 30-point lead over Fiorina.
Barbara Boxer is shown on left above. Carly Fiorina is on right.
Now, however, the former CEO of Hewlett Packard and a political novice, is ahead by a margin of only 47 percent to 44 percent.
One of Barack Obama's staunchest allies who has become a powerful liberal voice in the Senate since she was first elected in 1992, Boxer is facing her toughest challenge yet, as a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment sweeps the nation.
A watchdog group says giving away toys with Happy Meals contributes to childhood obesity and threatens to sue. McDonald's cites healthful menu choices.
Prince Charles views some decorated elephant sculptures at the Royal Hospital, London
LinkNo scalp would be as treasured by Republicans this fall as that of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (pictured). And no incumbent is receiving as much air support from the drug industry as is Reid, who championed a health care bill that pads drug company profits.
The drug lobby has begun a pro-Reid TV blitz in his home state of Nevada. One ad praises Reid for saving jobs and for understanding that "good jobs with good benefits [mean] a better future." The narrator then instructs viewers to "call Harry Reid today; tell him to keep fighting for Nevada families."
But "Nevada families" didn't pay for the ad. The drug lobby did. And while the TV spot makes only passing reference to the health care bill passed in March, there's no doubt this ad buy -- and the rest of the drug industry's generosity toward Harry Reid -- is a big thank you for the corporate-welfare "reform" bill that Reid shepherded through the Senate.
Bethune was found guilty on five charges, ranging from assault against whalers to trespassing onto a whaling vessel. Bethune had previously pleaded guilty to all charges but assault. 
At the May hearing, Bethune tearfully described the January collision between the Shonan Maru 2 and the Sea Shepherd's multi-million-dollar catamaran style speedboat, the Ady Gil. The crash sunk the Ady Gil (pictured), which Bethune captained.
Last night in the first game of a three game series with the St. Louis Cardinals the Rockies gave their fans another reason to give their heart medicine a workout.
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government helped pay the home air conditioning bills for more than 11,000 dead people, 1,100 federal employees, and 725 convicts in fiscal year 2009.
The payments were made by a $5 billion program known as the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
LIHEAP is designed to provide federal assistance, administered by the states, to help people pay the energy bills to heat their homes in the winter and cool them in the summer.
The GAO examined the LIHEAP programs in seven states: Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Michigan, and New Jersey and found evidence of fraud in each state.
Most glaring among the problems the GAO found were payments of LIHEAP benefits to dead people, some of whom, records show, had been dead for quite a long time.
The GAO matched LIHEAP data with federal civilian payroll records and found about 1,100 federal employees whose federal salary exceeded the maximum income threshold at the time of their application.
One such case involved a Chicago-area Postal Service employee making $80,000 per year!
The program also provided subsidies to the wife of another Chicago-area postal worker, who earned $84,000 per year, after the wife certified that her husband had no income.
The third chronic issue the GAO discovered was that the program repeatedly paid the air conditioning and heating bill of convicts who were in jail at the time the payments were made!
More here.
photo by Bogdan Cristel - Reuters via Time Magazine
Are they still in shock from the scandal surrounding their guru Al Gore? Are they in hiding, waiting to see if there are any other Gored women out there?
A flash of lightning illuminates the sky above the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple in Athens.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is blocking certain websites from the federal agency's computers, including halting access by staffers to any Internet pages that contain a "controversial opinion," according to an internal email obtained by CBS News.
Photo shows Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Director for the Obama administration.
As of July 1, TSA employees will no longer be allowed to access five categories of websites that have been deemed "inappropriate for government access."
The categories include:
• Chat/Messaging
• Controversial opinion
• Criminal activity
• Extreme violence (including cartoon violence) and gruesome content
• Gaming
The ruling did not specify how the TSA will determine if a website expresses a "controversial opinion."
There is also no explanation as to why controversial opinions are being blocked, although the ruling stated that some of the restricted websites violate the Employee Responsibilities and Conduct policy.
Do controversial opinion websites mean sites critical of the left-wing liberals in the current administration such as Matt Drudge and Rush Limbaugh? If so, will blocking certain Religious websites be next?
Conspicuously absent from the list are pornography websites.
Link
The 84-year-old queen is in Toronto, Canada for a visit.
In fact, they traded away Matt Holliday (upper photo) one of their two legitimate stars.
Well, now the "toddlers" have grown up. After a slow start, the Rockies have turned heads in the National League winning series after series including 2 out of 3 from the elite Boston Red Sox.
When signs of a severe economic downfall emerged more than two years ago, then-candidate Barack Obama was quick to point a finger at the man he hoped to replace.
More than sixteen months into his administration the message is still the same -- blame Bush.
Obama repeated that message when talking about the still-sputtering economy, twice reminding those at a town-hall meeting in Wisconsin that he "inherited" the economic mess.
It's a familiar message from his days on the campaign trail when criticisms of President Bush were as common as policy proposals.
"Nothing makes a president look weaker than pointing the finger at past administrations," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.
"By blaming somebody, it looks like you are playing politics and people just want jobs. They don't care about whose fault it is.
Playing the blame game only boomerangs on yourself."
The World Cup has introduced Americans to the vuvuzela.
1. Is this a complete list? Answer: no. The complete list on the Internet would take up too much room in cyberspace and a print article would exhaust the paper supply of most newspaper publishers.
2. Why did this appear on FoxNews only and not the other news outlets? Answer: because MSNBC, CNN, ABC, NPR, etc. were too busy digging in Sarah Palin's trashcans to find out her popularity secret. They are still rankled because, during the last presidential election campaign, Sarah Palin drew crowds in the tens of thousands at giant venues while Biden spoke to hundreds at Middle School gymnasiums.
Following is a list of just a few of Biden's political blunders - starting with the most recent:
1. On June 25, 2010, Vice President Biden was visiting a custard shop outside Milwaukee when the shop manager told him his dessert would be on the house if he lowered taxes.
"Don't worry, it's on us," the manager said. "Lower our taxes and we'll call it even."
Biden replied: "Why don't you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time?"
2. On March 17, 2010, Biden used a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House to honor the memory of the Irish prime minister's mother -- though she was alive.
"God rest her soul," Biden said as he introduced Brian Cowen and Obama. Biden quickly corrected his mistake, noting that Cowen's father, not mother, was dead.
"Wait ... your mom's still, your mom is still alive. It was your dad (who) passed. God bless her soul. I gotta get this straight," Biden said.
3. On July 16, 2009, Biden gave a blunt summation of the administration's approach to stimulus spending.
"People, when I say that, look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" he said at a stop in Virginia. "The answer is yes."
4. On Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 2009, Biden misspoke when he told a cheering crowd of supporters, "Jill and I had the great honor of standing on that stage, looking across at one of the great justices, Justice Stewart."
Justice John Paul Stevens -- not Stewart -- swore Biden in as vice president.
5. During his first campaign rally as Obama's vice presidential running mate on Aug. 23, 2008, Biden introduced Obama by saying, "A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States -- Barack America!"
That's just a few from the partial list at the link below.
If the White House gave out a 'village idiot' award it would certainly go to Joe Biden.
Its no wonder comedians have said Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to be Vice President as his insurance policy against impeachment.
Link
Charles, the Prince of Wales, doesn't exactly have to save for a rainy day: he collects Aston Martins, has three chauffeurs, and holds overseas investments totaling at least $68 million.
But as Britain copes with a bleak economic forecast and austerity measures meant to tackle its $230 billion deficit, the future king has embraced a royal version of frugality sure to make playboy princes around the world quiver: he's cutting back on canapés
and hosting drinks parties instead of lavish dinners.
The last year he even reduced his official spending by almost four and one half percent!
Are you impressed? Me neither.
Link
A picture of my cave
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