Monthly Archives: September 2011
More Leftist Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do Hypocrisy
Gov. Patrick Seen Riding In SUV During “Car-Free Week” – WBZ
Governor Deval Patrick did walk to a morning event on Beacon Hill – a stone’s throw from the Statehouse – but was quick to sheepishly admit that he probably hadn’t set the best example earlier in the day.
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“You got me!” grinned the Governor.
He’s talking about video shot by WBZ of Mr. Patrick leaving his Milton home this morning with his assigned state trooper at the wheel for the routine drive into work in his SUV.
One problem.
The Governor himself recently declared this “Car-Free Week,” urging people to ditch their autos in favor of public transportation, biking, walking, or at the very least carpooling – espousing the environmental and health benefits of that switch.
“It’s a little bit of hypocrisy,” observed one commuter.
We asked some regular folks if the Governor was ‘talking the talk’ instead of ‘walking the walk.’
“If he’s going to tell people to do something,” says another man, “he should try to do it himself. That’s the way I see it.”
“I carpooled this morning with my trooper,” says the Governor with a chuckle, “We both had to come together.”
He’s joking – and he’s not.
Of course, the Governor does have legitimate security, time, and logistics concerns.
He makes lots of stops on and off the beaten path – with a small entourage in tow – and some folks were willing to cut him some slack on that account.
“Going without a car has issues,” one woman told us. “It depends on where you’re going – where you have to be. It’s not always practical. I think you can still sell a message even if you’re not able to do it yourself that day.”
Indeed, the Governor was quick to urge people not to follow his lead.
“Look, it’s a great initiative for people who can make the most of it,” Patrick told reporters. “I hope they will and I hope during the course of the week to make the most of it, too.”
“Car-Free Week” in Massachusetts is actually an expansion of “World Car-Free Day” – which is Thursday.
A thousand cities in 40 countries are taking part.
The Governor says he’s got a crazy schedule this week, but will make good on his pledge to follow the spirit of the initiative – when he can.
The Red Line, by the way, is within walking distance of his house – one of three “T” stations within a half mile of home.
“He should be a role model for everyone,” one man told us.
“I got the gotcha question,” the governor admitted. “Believe me, I’m going to do my best.”
Times Atlas Accused Of ‘Absurd’ Climate Change Ice Error
Times Atlas Accused Of ‘Absurd’ Climate Change Ice Error – Daily Telegraph
The latest edition of the Times Atlas of the World claims 15 per cent of Greenland’s former ice–covered land has turned “green and ice–free” in the past 12 years.
But scientists at the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University say the figures are wrong, and that the ice has melted by less than one percent during that time. Professor Liz Morris, a senior associate at the institute, said a “serious error” had been made.
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She said the cartographers appeared to have muddled satellite data on elevation with ice cover and assumed that below a certain level there was no ice. In fact the ice sheet carries on to the shore in many areas.
She feared the “ludicrous claim” could be used as the latest tool to deny climate change, following similar exaggerations about the melting of the Himalayan ice glaciers.
The 13th edition of the “comprehensive” version of the atlas included a number of revisions made for reasons of environmental change since the previous edition was published in 2007.
Graham Cogley, Professor of Geography at Trent University, Ontario, Canada, said glacier shrinkage happens very slowly – at around 0.2 per cent a year – rather than the 1.5 per cent suggested by the Times Atlas.
U.S. Companies Banned But Cuba Will Begin Drilling Off Florida Coast By December
U.S. Companies Banned But Cuba Will Begin Drilling Off Florida Coast By December – Gateway Pundit
Thanks Obama… Thanks Democrats…
For decades, Democrats have blocked one effort after another to responsibly develop the energy resources our country possesses, transforming vast areas of opportunity into “The No Zone.”
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Because of current U.S. policy, U.S. companies are prohibited from developing oil fields that lie in Cuban waters and come within 50 miles of Florida. However, Cuba is exploring and developing these oil fields, estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to possess more oil than the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, and Cuba is partnering with China and other countries, such as Spain, France, and Canada.
The Castro Regime will begin drilling off the coast of Florida this year and will go deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in April.
But, US companies are not so fortunate. In December the Obama Administration issued a massive new ban on offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
In April, Shell Oil announced that because of Obama’s radical EPA, they will be forced to stop drilling off the coast of Alaska. A village of 250 people 70 miles away may be harmed by emissions.
Then there’s this…
Cuba announced that it will begin drilling in the Gulf by December.
Florida Trend reported, via Free Republic:
A giant, semi-submersible oil rig en route from Singapore will probably be drilling in the Florida Straits between Key West and Cuba in mid-December. The rig could arrive earlier, but Repsol, the Spanish oil company, wants to wait until after hurricane season ends before it begins drilling. This latest report on the progress of the Italian-made Scarabeo 9 oil rig comes from Lee Hunt, the chief executive of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, who just returned from a trip to Cuba last week as part of a joint delegation with the environmental group, the Environmental Defense Fund. Hunt also said that Repsol plans on having one well drilled by the end of the year. Read more at the Miami Herald.
But, Obama did blow a half a billion dollars on Solyndra.
Daily Benefactor News – Second Government Official Claims White House Asked Him To Change Testimony In Favor Of Company Tied To Large Democrat Donor
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Philip Falcone, the billionaire political donor whose hedge fund owns a majority financial stake in the satellite-wireless company LightSquared, says he told anyone in the federal government willing to listen that testing his company’s signal for GPS interference on commercial and military equipment “should not take that long.”
“Everything is already set up, the labs are set up. All we need are the list of devices that need to be tested. We have been telling the people who are asking for the testing of this for months now,” he said in an interview Monday.
Not all the bureaucrats who deal with GPS for the military and the federal government agreed. Still, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget urged federal officials testifying before two House oversight hearings in the last month to say they hoped testing for GPS and LightSquared interference would take only 90 days, according to interviews.
The Daily Beast obtained the paragraph the OMB asked government witnesses to insert into their recent congressional testimony, which says in part, “We hope that testing can be complete within 90 days.”
The issue of LightSquared and the OMB’s interest in testimony came to light last week when The Daily Beast reported that Gen. William Shelton, the four-star general in charge of the Air Force Space Command, told House lawmakers in a classified briefing that he felt pressured by the White House to change his testimony on LightSquared. Shelton ultimately rejected the White House suggestions and delivered his own testimony last week.
“We did not ask for any special favors and we have not asked for any special handouts, and consequently did not receive any special favors or handouts,” Falcone said.
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Anthony Russo, National Coordination Office, Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing at NOAA, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 15, 2011., Lauren Victoria Burke / AP Photo
On Monday, a second witness, Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, told The Daily Beast that he too was asked by the OMB to insert the 90-day timeframe into his testimony before the House Science Committee, but he refused. The hearing originally was scheduled for Aug. 3, then rescheduled for Sept. 8.
“They gave that to me and presumably the other witnesses,” he said. “There is one sentence I disagreed with, which said that I thought the testing could be resolved in 90 days. So I took it out.”
Russo said he objected to that language because “I have low confidence that we can complete all of the testing in 90 days.” He estimated that such testing would take at least six months. Russo called the White House efforts to alter his testimony “guidance rather than pressure.”
House Republicans now want to know whether LightSquared has received special treatment because Falcone and his wife have made tens of thousands of dollars in contributions in the last few years to the Democratic party. The White House has said the process for vetting Shelton’s testimony was routine. And Falcone and LightSquared have denied getting any special treatment.
LightSquared also has told Congress and regulators that the strength of its signal was approved in the mid 2000s by a Republican-led Federal Communications Commission and that its proposal to convert its satellite license to one for terrestrial mobile wireless devices would not change these interference issues.
Nonetheless, the issue of the timeline for testing is crucial to LightSquared, which wants to build a new wireless broadband service on a spectrum close to GPS signals as part of President Obama’s mandate to expand wireless access for Americans.
“The FCC mandated the most aggressive build-out in the history of telecommunications,” Falcone said. “We expect that we will have consumers on this network by the second half of 2012.”
Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman, said the OMB review of the witness testimony was routine and not designed to curry political favor, and that all the witnesses were allowed to raise their concerns about the LightSquared project.
“Every administration witness testifying at every hearing on LightSquared has been explicit in identifying the problems it would cause for GPS, and that LightSquared should not be allowed to move forward unless those interference issues are resolved,” he said. “If OMB professionals were making sure that testimony before Congress was consistent with administration policy, that means they were doing their jobs because OMB reviews and clears all agency communications with Congress, including testimony, to ensure consistency in the administration’s policy positions.”
Harold Furchtgott-Roth, a former Republican-appointed FCC commissioner, said it was highly unusual to put a timeline on the kinds of technical tests discussed in the OMB paragraph.
“Primarily these types of tests sometimes have a finite end and sometimes they don’t,” he said. “Sometimes they go on for long periods of time. To pick a number and say the tests have to end by a certain date is not consistent with commission precedent. Secondly, you don’t know what you will find when you do the test; you can’t predetermine that you will absolutely be finished after 90 days.”
Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA), the chairman of the House Science Committee’s subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, said he was troubled that four out of the five government witnesses before his Sept. 8 hearing had “identical language in their written testimony reflecting the administration’s view of the LightSquared project. The language diminished the otherwise blunt assessments the witnesses articulated during the hearing when pressed by committee members.”
Last week, the Center for Public Integrity first reported a batch of emails between LightSquared executives and staffers of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The nonprofit investigative journalism organization reported that LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja met with the chief of staff for OSTP just eight days before Falcone and his wife gave $30,400 each to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). Ahuja also contributed $30,400 to the Democratic Party, though he made the same contribution to the Republican Party in 2009.
Falcone told The Daily Beast he made the donations to the DSCC because his wife was hosting a fundraiser for women in politics. “She asked me to contribute,” he said. “If I had said no, all hell would have broken loose.” He also said in a separate interview with Fox News that he was a registered Republican.
Falcone had one meeting with an official from the OSTP, he told The Daily Beast. He also said he met with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in September 2009. “I did not want the FCC to be surprised,” he said. “It was a kind of in and out thing.”
Falcone said he does not believe he has received any favors from the White House. “I met in September of 2009 with somebody from the Office of Science and Technology. I never met Obama and I never met his advisers,” he said. “The discussion was around wireless in the marketplace and some of the things we were thinking and some of the different things we were doing.”
“We did not ask for any special favors and we have not asked for any special handouts, and consequently did not receive any special favors or handouts,” he said.
Furchtgott-Roth questioned the process by which the FCC granted a waiver to LightSquared so that it may use its initial license for satellite bandwidth to service terrestrial mobile devices. “In January the commission said LightSquared could use its license for exclusive terrestrial purposes,” he said. “That decision from January was an unprecedented and surprising development. That they would make this decision at the bureau level and not at the full commission level is just stunning.”
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DaleyGator DaleyBabe Monica Bellucci
An absolutely incredible beauty. There really are no words
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Tony Romo has punctured lung
Image via Wikipedia
Wow, I guess Romo showed his critics to be what I always thought they were, clueless! Romo showed a lot of guts and leadership yesterday!
IRVING, Texas — While a CT scan revealed only one fracture to Tony Romo‘s ribs, the Cowboys’ quarterback has been diagnosed with a punctured lung, according to sources.
Coach Jason Garrett, who never specifically addressed the lung puncture, said Monday that he did not rule out Romo playing next week against Washington, and sources confirmed that it doesn’t change his status for that game.
“I would not think there’s any reason to think that he won’t play Monday,” Garrett said. “We’re certainly hopeful.”
A source said the puncture was “very small.”
Romo said Sunday that because he was able to close out the game against the Niners, he would play against the Redskins on Monday Night Football. In the locker room Monday, Romo said the pain was the same as it was after the game.
Obama’s Urgent Jobs Plan: Right Now, ‘Right Now’ Means Sometime Next Month Maybe
Obama’s Urgent Jobs Plan: Right Now, ‘Right Now’ Means Sometime Next Month Maybe – Los Angeles Times
Everybody remembers the urgency of President Obama’s attitude toward the awful jobs situation.
Back in early August, Obama said the jobs situation was so urgent that he was going to give another speech about it – in a month or so, in September after his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
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And then in September the president announced he would give his major jobs speech to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7. But he neglected to check with congressional leaders first. And they suggested the 8th. So, since it was their House, the 8th it was.
“Tonight,” the president said in the first 34 of his 4,021 words to a national television audience that night, “we meet at an urgent time for our country. We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless, and a political crisis that has made things worse.”
The speech got panned as another political campaign one with Obama announcing, in effect, that…
…since the first stimulus spending plan of $787 billion hadn’t really worked, maybe another $447 billion stimulus spending plan would.
This is the kind of thinking that can make sense within Washington. But since “stimulus” has become a laugh line, he didn’t use that word anymore.
And, hey, the debt ceiling had been raised to $16 trillion. (Speaking of which the president speaks on the debt this morning in another speech because he’s a Real Good Talker.) So why not spend a half-trillion more to look like he’s doing something about the terrible jobs situation with 14+ million unemployed?
If Republicans didn’t bite, no one would know Obama’s Plan B was never going to work anyway. And he could try to blame the GOP next year for failing schools and rusting bridges. This also seems to make sense within WasObama prepares to speaks at the white househington these days.
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The president was in such a hurry to get this new spending going, everyone remembers, that during that address he said the phrase “right now” seven times. He didn’t actually mean right now that night because the NFL season was opening a few minutes after his remarks.
But Obama did want to show how really urgent he said the situation was, even though it had taken him 961 days as president to say them. And even though from Day #1 of the brief Obama Era polls had shown jobs and the economy were the No. 1 priority among voters but he pursued healthcare and financial reforms first. And even though unemployment had been at or above 9% for 26 of the last 28 months.
So, given the president’s professed urgency, the next day, Sept. 9, everyone asked where was his jobs legislation?
And, well, it seems the urgent jobs bill hadn’t actually been written yet but should be ready in a week or two. When the laughter died, the White House said on second thought the legislation would be ready for a photo op the next Monday.
Well, here we are on the next Monday after that next Monday and we’ve just learned from the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin, that actually it seems that body won’t really be seriously getting into the legislation for a while yet. The Senate has some other more important business to handle. And then there’s this month’s congressional vacation, which in Washington is called “a recess,” like elementary school.
Here’s the revealing exchange with a persistent host Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union:”
CROWLEY: When is the bill going to get on the floor?
DURBIN: The bill is on the calendar. Majority leader Reid moved it to the calendar. It is ready and poised. There are a couple other items we may get into this week not on the bill and some related issues that may create jobs. But we’re going to move forward on the president’s bill. There will be a healthy debate. I hope the Republicans will come to…
CROWLEY: After the recess, so next month? Or when will it actually begin to act on?
DURBIN: I think that’s more realistic it would be next month.
So, as of right now, “right now” uttered on Sept. 8 really means sometime at least one month later.
Good thing the president’s own Democratic party controls the Senate. Because, otherwise, there might be some kind of silly, unnecessary delays in deliberating Obama’s urgent jobs bill that he says will surely help the nation’s unemployed millions if only those Republicans don’t connive to slow things down.
Cable Man Arrested For Masturbating In Front Of Customer
Cable Man Arrested For Masturbating In Front Of Customer – Weekly Vice
Shane Wheatley, a 31-year-old Port Charlotte man was jailed Tuesday after he allegedly masturbated in front of a woman while installing her cable.
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According to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office, Wheatley showed up at the 24-year-old victim’s residence to install internet and cable television.
While he was working in the living room, he reportedly began touching his genitals through his shorts in front of the woman. She looked away for a moment, but when she glanced back, his penis was fully exposed and he was masturbating while looking and smiling at her.
The victim then ran out of the house and called police. Wheatley fled the scene.
Investigators say officers finally tracked down and apprehended Wheatley a month and a half after the incident.
Wheatley was booked into the Sarasota County Jail and charged with exposure of sexual organs.
Government Motors Awards Union Workers $5,000 Signing Bonus
Government Motors Awards Union Workers $5,000 Signing Bonus – Gateway Pundit
Government Motors will award union members a $5,000 signing bonus as part of a new four-year contract. The car company is still part-owned by the US Treasury. In fact, the U.S. Treasury still owns about 26% of GM’s shares.
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The AP reported:
The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses and the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.
The deal, which was reached late Friday, also includes a $2- to $3-per-hour pay raise for entry-level workers over the life of the contract and guarantees more union jobs, the people said.
Both persons asked to remain anonymous because the details of the contract haven’t been reviewed by all local union leaders.
The GM deal will serve as a template for contracts that still must be negotiated with Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. It would set the pay and benefits for 112,500 U.S. auto workers. It also sets the bar for pay and benefits at nonunion auto companies and other industries across the country.
The contract is the first since GM and Chrysler received government bailouts to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009. GM earned $4.7 billion last year.
Workers have to approve the deal before it can take effect. A vote is expected within 10 days…
…The union hoped to show that it can work cooperatively with auto companies as it tries to unionize U.S. factories owned by Nissan Motor Co., Volkswagen AG and other foreign automakers. King said the union remains committed to organizing those plants.
“As long as unionized workers are being forced to compete with nonunion workers who in most cases receive lower pay and benefits – many in temporary jobs – there will continue to be a downward pressure on the wages and benefits of all auto workers,” he said in a statement.
Also watching closely is the White House. GM received a $49.5 billion government bailout two years ago and is still part-owned by the U.S. Treasury. An agreement that is favorable to GM could help the company’s stock rise, which would get the Treasury closer to making back the money it is owed when it sells its remaining shares.
Yemeni Forces Kill 20 More Protesters In Capital
Yemeni Forces Kill 20 More Protesters In Capital – NewsMeat
Yemeni security forces killed 20 people, some shot by snipers from rooftops, in a crowd of protesters on Monday demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, medics and witnesses said, in rising violence that has broken an uneasy stalemate.
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In the worst bloodshed seen since March, medics at various hospitals said a further 113 protesters were wounded in the capital Sanaa, a day after 26 demonstrators in a massive anti-government march were shot dead.
Gunfire and shelling echoed sporadically across the divided capital as pro-Saleh troops and protesters clashed on Monday.
“Help me, oh my God look at this slaughter!” said the father of a boy who died from a gunshot wound to the head.
“We were just in the car on Hayel Street (near the fighting). I stepped out to get some food and left my two boys in the car and I heard the older one scream. The little one was shot straight through the head.”
Government troops were firing into the air to scatter demonstrators, according to witnesses. But a Reuters reporter saw snipers shooting from rooftops and upper stories of buildings into the throng of demonstrators. Some of the deaths appeared to have been caused by rocket-propelled grenades.
Injured people were whisked on motorcycles to a makeshift hospital in protester-dubbed Change Square where people have been camped for eight months calling for an end to Saleh’s 33 years of repressive rule in the poor Arabian Peninsula state.
Yemen is politically paralyzed as Saleh, now being treated in Saudi Arabia for wounds suffered in an assassination attempt, clings to power despite mass nationwide protests. The turmoil could strengthen the Yemen branch of al Qaeda and heighten the risk of militant attacks on U.S. and Saudi targets abroad.
“I fear the situation will get out of hand. There is no new initiative to cool things off and the other political players doubt that Saleh will abide by any terms that are set,” said Saadaldeen Talib, a former Yemeni opposition parliamentarian.
“Complete disintegration and chaos might come very soon.”
U.N. mediator Jamal bin Omar landed in Sanaa on Monday to review the latest developments, the state news agency SABA said.
Abdullatif al-Zayani, head of a bloc of wealthy Gulf neighbors of Yemen, was expected to arrive in Sanaa later on Monday to try again to win acceptance of a Gulf plan for a transition of power away from Saleh that the president came close to accepting on three occasions, before backpedalling.
Monday’s violence erupted as protesters tried to push further into areas of Sanaa controlled by government forces after extending their camp overnight to a junction known locally as Kentucky Roundabout.
Abdulwasia Dahnai, 39, said as he lay on a hospital floor awaiting treatment: “We marched to Kentucky Roundabout. I heard gunshots from above, looked up and could see gunfire coming from the building. Next thing I knew I felt a gunshot in my side.”
The area had previously marked the dividing line between parts of Sanaa held by loyalist troops and defected forces.
“The thugs are hurting our brothers. We will go, the road is open. The free men will meet at Kentucky Roundabout!” organizers shouted over loudspeakers in Change Square.
Earlier on Monday, troops belonging to defected General Ali Mohsen, who threw his support behind the anti-Saleh movement some months ago, blocked the protesters’ efforts to advance, in an apparent attempt to defuse the situation. Some Mohsen soldiers were among the injured at the hospital.
The new bloodshed, shredding a weeks-long stand-off, was the worst in recent months. Hundreds of people were wounded too when security forces fired on protesters who charged police lines.
In Geneva on Monday, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr Abdullah Al-Qirbi said Sunday’s bloodshed would be investigated and perpetrators would be prosecuted.
In a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he said: “The government of Yemen expresses its sorrow and condemnation for all acts of violence and bloodshed as those that happened yesterday in Sanaa. The government will investigate and hold accountable all those in charge of these acts.”
Sanaa for months has been split between Mohsen’s breakaway troops and Saleh loyalist forces in a maze of checkpoints, roadblocks and armored vehicles that many worry could quickly tip inflamed tensions into military confrontation.
Protesters on Monday managed to extend the territory of their camp by around one kilometers after hundreds slept there overnight. Ali Mohsen’s troops entered the area and were fortifying it with sandbags.
The new staked-out area brought protesters and troops backing them within 500 meters of Ahmed Ali Saleh, the president’s son and head of the Republican Guard units loyal to the government.
“I will go back out today once the doctors check the wound,” said Dhuyazen al-Shiah, 23, whose eye was bandaged after bullet fragments hit his face in Sunday’s clashes.
“I do this because I was tired of living with no dignity. I worked as a smuggler through Saudi Arabia because I couldn’t find a job here. I am committed to this now. I’ll keep going and either succeed or I’ll die.”
Further south, militants suspected of links to al Qaeda clashed with the army in the Abyan provincial capital of Zinjibar, just over a week after Yemen declared its troops had “liberated” the city from Islamist fighters.
Six militants were killed and three soldiers wounded in the fighting in the east of Zinjibar, a security official and residents said on Monday.
“Yemen is on a knife edge,” Peter Splinter of human rights group Amnesty International told the top U.N. human rights forum in Geneva, adding the risk of civil war was growing.
“Those who have been protesting peacefully for change are increasingly frustrated by the political deadlock.”
Is Nicolas Cage Immortal? Actor’s Amazing Civil War Doppelganger Posted On Ebay
Is Nicolas Cage Immortal? Actor’s Amazing Civil War Doppelganger Posted On Ebay – Daily Mail
The antique dealer jokes that his photo is proof Nicolas Cage is more than just an a-list actor – he’s also a vampire who lived during the American Civil War.
An eBay seller claims to have a 4” by 2.5” carte de visite photo from around 1870 of a man who looks exactly like the 47-year-old star of Con Air, Ghost Rider and The Rock.
The seller, who has put the starting price at $1million, says the photo is 100 per cent genuine and was taken of a man who lived in Bristol, Tennessee, around the time of the Civil War.
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The man who put the photo on eBay is Jack Mörd, of Seattle, Washington, whose Facebook page says he is originally from Los Angeles, California, and owns ‘The Thanatos Archive’.
‘My theory is that he allows himself to age to a certain point, maybe 70, 80 or so, then the actor “Nicolas Cage” will “die”,’ Mr Mörd joked.
‘But in reality, the undead vampire “Nicolas Cage” will have rejuvenated himself and appeared in some other part of the world, young again, and ready to start all over.’
The picture was found in the back of an album that contained many unusual death portraits from the Civil War era – but the Nicolas Cage lookalike was not identified by name, Mr Mörd said.
He has a 100 per cent positive feedback rating on eBay and his profile says he is interested in collecting and selling Victorian Era post-mortem photography, as well as other vintage pictures.
The eBay product description for ‘Nicolas Cage is a Vampire / Photo from 1870 / Tennessee’ says: ‘Original c.1870 carte de visit showing a man who looks exactly like Nick Cage.
‘This is not a trick photo of any kind and has not been manipulated in Photoshop or any other graphics program.
‘It’s an original photo of a man who lived in Bristol, TN, sometime around the Civil War.’
It is believed the photo was taken by a confederate Civil War prisoner of war photographer called Professor G.B. Smith.
Mr Mörd joked that Nicolas Cage could be a walking undead man who reinvents himself once every 75 years – and might be looking at going into politics or talk show hosting next.
Obama Wants To Slash Military Pensions
Obama Wants To Slash Military Pensions – Sweetness & Light
From those deficit hawks at the New York Times:
Retiree Benefits for the Military Could Face Cuts
By JAMES DAO and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
September 18, 2011As Washington looks to squeeze savings from once-sacrosanct entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, another big social welfare system is growing as rapidly, but with far less scrutiny: the health and pension benefits of military retirees.
Who is squeezing savings from Social Security? And when have public sector union health and pension benefits ever been called a “big social welfare system” by The Times?
Military pensions and health care for active and retired troops now cost the government about $100 billion a year, representing an expanding portion of both the Pentagon budget – about $700 billion a year, including war costs – and the national debt, which together finance the programs…
And the editors of the New York Times can’t sleep at night, for worrying about the deficit.
[T]he intense push in Congress this year to reduce the debt and the possibility that the Pentagon might have to begin trimming core programs like weapons procurement, research, training and construction have suddenly made retiree benefits vulnerable, military officials and experts say.
Perhaps it is time for the US military to be unionized. Then they will be sacrosanct, as long as they give their ‘fair share’ to the Democrat Party.
Not only would the military budget never be cut. But we would probably have endless wars.
And if Congress fails to adopt the deficit-reduction recommendations of a bipartisan joint Congressional committee this fall, the Defense Department will be required under debt ceiling legislation passed in August to find about $900 billion in savings over the coming decade. Cuts that deep will almost certainly entail reducing personnel benefits for active and retired troops, Pentagon officials and analysts say…
And never mind that Obama has already cut the Pentagon’s budget to the bone. In fact, to the marrow.
Under the current rules, service members who retire after 20 years are eligible for pensions that pay half their salaries for life, indexed for inflation, even if they leave at age 38. They are also eligible for lifetime health insurance through the military’s system, Tricare, at a small fraction of the cost of private insurance, prompting many working veterans to shun employer health plans in favor of military insurance…
So what is wrong with retiring at 38 and getting half of your salary and basically free healthcare?
While health care costs for active and retired troops are growing faster, military pension costs are larger. Last year, for every dollar the Pentagon paid service members, it spent an additional $1.36 for its military retirees, a much smaller group. Even in the troubled world of state and municipal pension funds, pensions almost never cost more than payrolls…
Hilarious. Yes, almost never. Except in all the places where pensions now do cost more than current payrolls. (Places that are usually Democrat Party bastions.)
Much like in the debate over Social Security, questions about the sustainability of the military pension system abound.
We thought only crackpots Rick Perry thought Social Security was unsustainable?
Each year the Defense and Treasury Departments set aside more than $75 billion to pay not only current and future benefits but also pensions for service many years in the past. But the retirement fund has not accumulated nearly enough money to cover its total costs, with assets of $278 billion at the end of 2009 and obligations of about $1.4 trillion.
The government tries to close the shortfall by simply issuing more Treasury securities each year, thereby adding to the nation’s debt…
Which is also known as ‘printing money.’
But the debt ceiling agreement approved this summer by Congress, under which the Pentagon must find $400 billion in reductions over the next 12 years, may force cuts once considered unthinkable. And if Congress does not adopt the recommendations of the bipartisan committee studying deficit reduction, the mandated reductions in Pentagon spending would more than double, to about $900 billion, and fall on just about every category of defense spending…
As we have said from the start, the idea behind Obama’s debt ceiling deal was to pit those who are opposed to raising taxes against those who don’t want to gut the military.
It’s just the old ‘cut the firemen cops first’ ploy – on a national level.
Hateful Leftists Demand Christians Get Permit For Bible Study In Private Home
City Demands Christians Get Permit For Bible Study – WorldNetDaily
Chuck and Stephanie Fromm already have been fined $300 for holding Bible studies for their friends at their home, and they face the potential for additional fines of $500 for each study held, according to a legal team taking their case to court.
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The newest conflict over Bible studies in homes in America arose in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., where city officials say city code section 9-3.301 prohibits religious organizations in residential neighborhoods without a conditional-use permit, a sometimes very expensive procedure.
The code cites “churches, temples, synagogues, monasteries, religious retreats, and other places of religious worship and other fraternal and community service organizations.”
But a Bible study in a home?
“Imposing a heavy-handed permit requirement on a home Bible study is outrageous,” said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, which is working on the case on behalf of the Fromms.
“In a city so rich with religious history and tradition, this is particularly egregious. An informal gathering in a home cannot be treated with suspicion by the government, or worse than any other gathering of friends, just because it is religious. We cannot allow this to happen in America, and we will fight as long and as hard as it takes to restore this group’s religious freedom.”
WND has reported on similar issues in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and in Gilbert, Ariz.
In this case, the city is demanding that the home Bible study is banned because it is a “church,” unless it purchases a ‘Conditional Use Permit” from the city.
Pacific Justice said it has represented larger churches that have been required to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars as part of the permit process on such items as engineering and traffic studies, architectural designs. The process includes public hearings and ultimately can result in a rejection by the city.
Pacific Justice says the Fromms already have been fined $300, and an appeal to the city was denied.
The organization points out that the city was founded as a Christian mission in the 1700s and is home to California’s oldest building still in use, a chapel where Father Junipero Serra celebrated mass.
Pacific Justice said it is appealing the city’s demands to California Superior Court in Orange County.
A message WND left with the city did not produce a return call.
A report from the city’s Dispatch newspaper said that Fromm, publisher of Worship Leader Magazine, wanted to hold Bible studies on Wednesdays that drew some 20 people, while similar studies on Sundays attracted up to 50 to their acreage that includes their home, a corral, a barn, a pool and a huge back yard.
The newspaper said city records showed someone complained, however, and a code enforcement officer first gave them a verbal warning and then issued citations in May and June.
“We don’t like lawsuits, but we have to stand up for what’s right. It’s not just a personal issue,” Stephanie Fromm told the newspaper. “Can you imagine anybody in any neighborhood, that one person can call and make it a living hell for someone else? That’s wrong… and it’s just sad.”
A trial is scheduled for Oct. 7.
The case is similar to a previous dispute in San Diego County. There, officials apologized after a code-enforcement officer tried to shut down a Bible study.
Documents Show Solyndra Sought Second Government Loan Guarantee For $469 Million
Documents Show Solyndra Sought Second Government Loan Guarantee For $469 Million – Daily Caller
Failed solar panel maker Solyndra’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that seven months after the Obama administration’s Department of Energy approved a $535 million federal loan guarantee, Solyndra applied for a second one valued at $469 million.
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“On September 11, 2009, we applied for a second loan guarantee from the DOE, in the amount of approximately $469 million, to partially fund Phase II,” Solyndra wrote in a report it filed with the SEC on December 18, 2009. “If we are unable to obtain the DOE guaranteed loan in whole or in part, we intend to fund any financing shortfall with some combination of the proceeds of this offering, cash flows from operations, debt financing and additional equity financing.”
Solyndra applied for that extra $469 million the same year it received the $535 million of ultimately wasted taxpayer money which is the subject of a current congressional investigation. According to the company’s SEC filings, that $535 million was only intended to cover Phase I of the construction of its “Fab 2″ solar panel manufacturing facility.
The second application came just one week after Solyndra broke ground on its facilities construction project on Sept. 4, 2009.
Solyndra told the federal government it needed a total of $642 million to complete Phase II, most of which would have been covered by the $469 million Solyndra sought to borrow with taxpayer-funded guarantees.
It’s unclear if the now-bankrupt and scandal-embroiled green energy company actually received a second loan. Department of Energy officials did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller’s request for comment, and the company’s SEC filing left the question open.
“Although the DOE determined on November 4, 2009, that our initial application was complete, and we submitted the second part of the application on November 17, 2009, there is no guarantee that the DOE will approve our application in the full amount requested or at all,” the company wrote in its December 18, 2009 SEC filing.
Dan Simmons of the Institute for Energy Research told TheDC that Solyndra’s failure looks even worse in light of its aim for even more taxpayer money in 2009.
“Solyndra saw the American taxpayer as their personal piggy-bank, so it’s no surprise that they wanted another half billion dollar loan from the taxpayer,” Simmons said in an email. “The only surprise is that the Obama administration rejected the second loan. After all, both private and Department of Energy financial analysts were not excited by Solyndra’s prospects before the first loan.”
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Daily Benefactor News – Dozens Killed In Himalayan Earthquake
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Dozens Killed In Himalayan Earthquake – CBS News
Rescue workers in helicopters and earth movers raced Monday to reach Indian villages cut off by mudslides after a powerful earthquake killed 53 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes in the remote Himalayan region, officials said.
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Three emergency workers were killed in the frantic, rain-soaked rescue effort. More than 6,000 troops worked to clear concrete slabs, bricks and mud to rescue scores of people trapped under houses that collapsed when the 6.9-magnitude quake struck the mountainous region Sunday evening.
Nine helicopters dropped food to villages, airlifted a medical team, evacuated the injured and conducted damage assessments, Indian Home Secretary R.K. Singh said. Heavy construction equipment was used to clear some of the blocked roads, he said.
“The rescue and relief operations are in full swing though they were hampered… by poor weather,” he said.
At least 32 people died and 100 others were injured in the northeastern Indian state of Sikkim, where the quake was centered near India’s border with Nepal, Singh said. At least 10 of those killed worked for the same hydroelectric project, he said. It was not immediately clear how they died.
Seven other people were killed the neighboring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, he said. Seven people died in Nepal, and China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported seven deaths in Tibet.
Most of the deaths occurred when houses, already weakened from recent monsoon rains, collapsed due to the force of the quake.
While rescue workers managed to reach many cutoff villages, Singh said it was still unclear what the final toll might be.
“There may still be villages where people are trapped under collapsed houses that we have not been able to reach,” he said.
By midday Monday, workers had managed to clear landslides from one lane of the main highway connecting Sikkim, and an initial convoy of 75 paramilitary soldiers had started moving toward Mangan, the village closest to the quake’s epicenter, officials said. They still had not arrived Monday evening.
In Gangtok, Sikkim’s capital, police cordoned off the office of the state’s top elected official after the building was severely damaged in the quake, police Chief Jasbir Singh said.
Nepal’s government said seven people died there, including two men and a child who were killed when a brick wall toppled outside the British Embassy in the capital, Katmandu. Nearly 70 people were injured, some of them seriously, and were in hospitals across Nepal.
TV broadcasters showed footage of buildings buckled, sidewalks cracked and two major roads collapsed in Gangtok, 42 miles southeast of the quake’s epicenter. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police said two of its buildings collapsed in Gangtok.
In India’s West Bengal state, utility workers toiled through the night to restore power to a large swathe of the state which plunged into darkness after power lines were snapped by the quake.
The quake, which was followed by several aftershocks, was felt as far away as the Indian capital. It caused some houses in China’s Himalayan region of Tibet to collapse and disrupted a border county’s telecommunications services, Xinhua said.
The region has been hit by major earthquakes in the past, including in 1950 and 1897.
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