American bringing sharks to Iraq

Not only are we terrorizing the citizens of Iraq,at least that is what Turbin Durbin and the rest of his fellow Defeatocrats are saying.  We also are sending secret squirrels into Iran.  Now the Americans are bringing sharks into Iraq.

                                        Fisherman nets shark 200 km from sea

                        NASSIRIYA, Iraq (Reuters) -
A two-metre shark has been
caught in a river in southern Iraq more than 200 km (160 miles)
from the sea.                        
                        
                        

Karim Hasan Thamir said he was fishing with his sons last
week when they spotted a large fish thrashing about in his net.
"I recognised the fish as a shark because I have seen one on a
television programme," he told Reuters.

The shark was pulled from the mouth of an irrigation canal
that joins the Euphrates River. The Euphrates joins the Tigris
River further east to form the Shatt al-Arab waterway which
flows south past Basra into the Gulf.

Dr. Mohamed Ajah, assistant dean of the college of science
at Thi Qar University in Nassiriya, said barriers in river
estuaries usually prevented sharks swimming upstream.

"In this case, I think this animal was there for a long
time but no one had managed to see it," he said.

Locals blamed the U.S. military for the shark’s presence.

Tahseen Ali, a teacher, said there was a "75 percent
chance" Americans had put the shark in the water.

"This is very frightening for us. Our children always swim
in the river and I believe that there are more sharks. I
believe that America is behind this matter," said fisherman
Hatim Karim.

Al Reuters

This is just too funny.  Sharks, especially bull sharks can live in fresh water and have been founds many hundreds of miles form the open ocean before.  They even caught one here around Alton, Il.

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Porker of the Month

Yes it is time for the porker of the month again at
Citizens Against Government Waste.  And this months winner is Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)

CAGW Names Sen. Shelby Porker of the Month

Washington

,

D.C.

– Citizens
Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Sen. Richard Shelby
(R-Ala.) Porker of the Month for October 2007 for an $11 million Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) earmark for his alma mater.

Sen. Shelby’s project was the largest of 401 earmarks worth
$191.2 million in the HRSA section of the Senate’s 2008 Labor, Health
and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations Act. Sen. Shelby’s $11 million is listed in the bill as going to the “

University

of

Alabama

[UA],

Tuscaloosa

,

AL

for construction, renovation, and equipment” but a press release on Sen. Shelby’s website specified that a “70,000 square foot interdisciplinary health services building” would be constructed.

UA’s
new health building will be funded by virtue of the senator’s position
on the LHHS Appropriations Subcommittee as well as his status as an
alumnus. Almost half of the HRSA earmarks went
to 15 LHHS subcommittee members and 60 percent went to the 29 members
of the full committee. The Washington Times reported
on October 15 that $42 million – 20 percent – was earmarked for the
alma maters of members of Congress. The average project for those
schools was three times higher than the amount provided for other
earmarks.  The neediest healthcare centers in
the country cannot be in the states of appropriators and the most
deserving schools those of lawmakers.

When lawmakers interfere and hand out their own funding, HRSA’s main goals suffer. A 2005 ExpectMore.gov assessment of
HRSA earmarks found that they “are not subject to a competitive or
merit-based process to ensure higher priorities are funded first” and
“divert people and associated financial resources from HRSA’s core
mission activities.”

This is not the first building Sen. Shelby funded via an earmark for the school he attended for undergraduate and law.  In 2004, Shelby Hall opened at UA, one of the largest buildings on campus. The
building was named after him, not because of a personal donation, but
because Sen. Shelby was able to steer $35.5 million worth of federal
funds to the facility. That is a generous endowment from the taxpayers of

America

for which Sen. Shelby gets credit.

Since October 1, the senator has issued 16 press releases, of which 11 related to earmarks. Ironically, his first press release of the month was to announce the introduction of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget.

For
being the poster child for HRSA earmark abuse with the largest project
directed to his alma mater, CAGW names Sen. Richard Shelby its October
2007 Porker of the Month.

Citizens
Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and
mismanagement in government. Porker of the Month
is a dubious honor given to lawmakers, government officials, and
political candidates who have shown a blatant disregard for the
interests of taxpayers.

Crossposted at Grizzly Groundswell

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Something to scare you on Halloween

Yes it is that time of the year for the Democrats in Illinois and all over the country to scare you with their tax hikes.   They will be used for all their little pet projects like raising my taxes here in St Clair country to pay for the transit system in Chicago.

Here is a little of what is coming form the Democrats here in Illinois:

Find below a sampling of tax increases Democrats have proposed in 2007:

Federal, State, County and City Taxes to be raised

Chicago Democratic Tax Increases: $292 million

 

1.         15% property tax increase
2.         Higher water taxes
3.         Higher sewer taxes
4.         Higher phone taxes
5.         Higher beer taxes
6.         Higher wine taxes
7.         Higher liquor taxes
8.         Higher leased car taxes
9.         Higher office equipment taxes

10.       Higher parking taxes
11.       New 15 cent per square foot tax on new office space
12.       New $120 annual tax on SUVs
13.       New 10 cent tax on bottled water

Collar County Democratic Tax Increases: $158 million

 

14.       Increased Cook and Lake county sales tax

(This is to bail out the CTA which the Illinois Inspector General reported has a 46% absentee rate and several floors of its headquarters have been unoccupied for years).

Cook County Democratic Tax Increases: $888 million

 

15.       Triple sales taxes
16.       Double gas taxes
17.       Double parking taxes
            (This is to hire 1,100 new employees, including patronage jobs)

State of Illinois Democratic Tax Increases: $7 billion

 

18.       New Gross Receipts Tax (Delayed by the state legislature)

Federal Expected Democratic Tax Increases: Tens of Billions

19.       Alternative Minimum Tax: increased from 4 million paying to 23 million
20.       Marginal Tax Rate Increase: Current tax relief will expire, raising the rate to 39%
21.       Social Security Tax increase: lifting the $94,000 income cap on FICA tax
22.       Dingell Carbon Tax: New federal property tax against any home over 3,000 square feet.

Crossposted at Grizzly Groundswell

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Stop the Flight 93 Memorial Blogburst

Lying about the 44 blocks

When Tom Burnett Sr. came out against the Flight 93 Memorial, the press asked architect Paul Murdoch if there were really  going to be 44 inscribed translucent blocks emplaced along the flight path (equaling the number of passengers, crew, AND terrorists). Murdoch acknowledged 43 of the blocks, but denied knowing about a 44th:

[T]here are 40 inscribed marble panels listing the names of the passengers and crew at the gateway to the Sacred Ground, where their remains still rest.

There is then an opening in the wall, Mr. Murdoch said, and three additional panels, which would include the date, Sept. 11, 2001.

"Where the other one is being fabricated, I don’t know," he said.

Yes he does. Paul Murdoch is fully aware of the large dedicatory glass block at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway:

Man and child stand in front of the 44th block, which forms the railing at the end of the Entry Portal Walkway. The glass block will be inscribed: "A field of honor forever." This Walkway provides visitors with their first view of the inside of the giant crescent. (From the Entry Portal page of the original design PDFs. Click pic for wider view.)

The flight path

The Entry Portal Walkway is built along the flight path. It signifies, in Paul Murdoch’s own description, the terrorists breaking the circle and turning it into a giant crescent. The flight path then continues down to the crash site, which sits in the middle of the mouth of the giant crescent (in roughly the position of the star on an Islamic crescent and star flag).

Just before the impact point is the Memorial Wall, also built along the flight path. This two part wall is where the other 43 blocks will be placed (the ones described by Paul Murdoch above):

The forty translucent blocks that run horizontally through the left hand section of wall (closest to the impact crater) will be inscribed with the names of the forty murdered heroes. The three on the right will be inscribed with the 9/11 date. (From the Sacred Ground Plaza page of the original design PDF’s. Click pic for larger image. The alternating white and gray depicts the zig zag layout of the translucent blocks.)

Challenged by the father of one of our murdered heroes, Murdoch told a desperate lie, feigning ignorance of one of the most prominent features of his own design: the huge glass block that dedicates the entire site. This should have been the end of his hijack attempt, but Murdoch’s deception was abetted by both the Memorial Project and the press.

The abettors

"That has been disproved so many times," said Bill Hayworth, the Memorial Project’s PR flack, when asked about the 44 blocks. Would it have been too much for reporters to ask for this proof?

In fact Murdoch is the first one to ever even deny that there are 44 glass blocks on the flight path. The only earlier Memorial Project statement about the 44 blocks was from Project Manager Jeff Reinbold, who told Alec Rawls in an April 2006 conference call that the giant glass block can’t be counted with the small glass blocks because it is bigger: "If we are going to count the big glass block with the small glass blocks," he said, "then we have to count the windows in the visitor center too." (Crescent of Betrayal, download 3, p. 146.)

"The windows in the visitor center are not on the flight path," Rawls replied. He never said they were all the same size, and he never said there are no other panes of glass in the Memorial. Reinbold’s silly dodges do not contradict Rawls’ 44 glass blocks claim in any way.

The press was also in on the deception. Kecia Bal, the reporter who quoted Hayworth’s dismissal of the 44 blocks claim had already verified the block count for herself. Mr. Rawls had earlier sent her close ups of all 44. She responded with a request for copies of the original design PDFs, so she could check the veracity of these close-ups for herself.

When Bal quoted Hayworth, she knew he was wrong, and allowed him to mislead the public by suppressing her own fact checking of the 44 blocks. People can think that the 44 blocks are innocuous if they want, but lying about the block count certainly is not innocuous. Similarly for many the other lies that are being told in defense of the crescent design.

Memorial Project members insist that it is just coincidence that a person facing directly into the giant crescent will be facing almost exactly at Mecca, but that isn’t what they are telling the public. They are telling the newspapers that the Mecca-orientation claim is false, while acknowledging amongst themselves that the Mecca orientation is real.

Again and again Murdoch, the Memorial Project and the press are lying in concert to cover up the facts of the design. Some people will be unsure what to make of the many suspicious features of the crescent design but no one should doubt the need to expose and condemn those who lie about the facts.

So what can we do?  Write, phone or fax the memorial project.

Flight 93 National Memorial

109 West Main Street

Suite 104

Somerset, PA 15560

(814) 443-4557 Phone

(814) 443-2180 Fax

Memorial Project Chairman, John Reynolds

jreynoldsparks@comcast.net

click here to email John Reynolds 

Project Superintendent Joanne Hanley at joanne_hanley@nps.gov

click here to email Joanne Hanley

Project Manager Jeff Reinbold at jeff_reinbold@nps.gov

click here to email Jeff Reinbold

Chief Ranger Jill Hawk (who conducted the phony internal investigation) at jill_hawk@nps.gov

click here to email Jill Hawk

Park Service spokesman Phil Sheridan at Phil_Sheridan@nps.gov

click here to email Phil Sheridan

Director, Northeast sector of Park Service (oversees Memorial Project) Mary Bomar at mary_bomar@nps.gov

click here to email Mary Bomar

Communications officer, National Park Service Gary Gaumer at Gerry_Gaumer@nps.gov

click here to email Gerry Gaumer

To emailing all of them at once:

click here to email all of the above

Be respectful, use your own words, but clearly send the message that
you agree with Tom Burnett, Sr., that they should respect his wishes
that his son’s name should be kept off the memorial, and that a more
appropriate memorial should be constructed on the crash site; one that
doesn’t memorialize the terrorists because in Flight 93 National Memorial Act, Pub. L. No. 107-226, the purpose of the memorial is spelled out: it is to honor the passengers and crew of the flight, and the last section of the law excludes the terrorists from the definition of passengers and crew.

If you need more to write about, watch this movie.

If you want to join the growing list of bloggers:

1. in objecting to planting an Islamic symbol instead of an American one on the crash site,
2. in objecting to its pointing to Mecca and the terrorists’ intended target,
3. in objecting to dishonoring the memory of the people who fought the terrorists on Flight 93
4. in pointing out how Paul Murdoch cleverly and symbolically cast the
   passenger and crew out of the Islamic heavens in the design while the
   terrorists are inside the Islamic heavens
5. in pointing out how the date and the site are dedicated to the terrorists
6. in pointing out the numerous redundant mosque design features
7. in pointing out the terrorist memorializing features
8. and post along with us on Wednesdays,

please contact caoilfhionn1 at gmail dot com with your website url.
She will, in turn, add you to the email list, send you the blogroll
code (if you want to put it in your sidebar), and will send you the
prewritten text to post. You should receive the email from Cao a day or
two prior to the Wednesday it should be posted, and tracked back to
Cao’s blog and Error Theory, if your blog has that capability. This
will help us track who in the blogroll is posting the blogburst.

Stop the Memorial Blogburst

1389 Blog – Antijihadist Tech
A Defending Crusader
A Fine Line Between Stupid and Clever
And Rightly So
Big Dog’s Weblog
Big Sibling
Cao’s Blog
Chaotic Synaptic Activity
Error Theory
Faultline USA
Flanders Fields
Ft. Hard Knox
GM’s Corner
Ironic Surrealism II
Jack Lewis
Kender’s Musings
My Own Thoughts
Nice Deb
Ogre’s Politics and Views
Part-Time Pundit
Right on the Right
Right Truth
Stix Blog
Stop the ACLU
The View From the Turret
The Wide Awakes
Thunder Run

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The Hillary Spend-O-Meter

Do you ever wonder what Hillary Clinton’s proposals would cost you and me.  Well, look no further, GOP.org has the Hillary Spend-O-Meter   It is up to $763 billion now, that is billion with a "b".  No wonder she said that the country couldn’t afford her plans.  We need to stop the spending and start getting the country out of the socialists programs that are holding our country back.  And stop the taxes that the Socialists in the Defeatocratic Party want to force upon everyone of us, to use for their pet projects, such as "Socialized Medicine".

We need a strong conservative to put up against Shillary.  Just look at what happened in Louisiana.  They elected a conservative Republican that did not campaign from the center, he campaigned on his conservative values and principles.  And we also need to unit after the Primaries are over and get behind any of the candidates.   None of this "I will not vote for Guilianni, McCain or any of the other candidates, whoever wins the primary,we need to get behind %100.

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Glenn McCoy

Glenn McCoy

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Lisa Benson

Lisa Benson

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The Born Loser

The Born Loser

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October 31

October 31,
1926

Houdini is dead

Harry Houdini, the most celebrated magician and escape artist of the
20th century, dies of peritonitis in a Detroit hospital. Twelve days
before, Houdini had been talking to a group of students after a lecture
in Montreal when he commented on the strength of his stomach muscles
and their ability to withstand hard blows. Suddenly, one of the
students punched Houdini twice in the stomach. The magician hadn’t had
time to prepare, and the blows ruptured his appendix. He fell ill on
the train to Detroit, and, after performing one last time, was
hospitalized. Doctors operated on him, but to no avail. The burst
appendix poisoned his system, and on October 31 he died.

Houdini
was born Erik Weisz in Budapest in 1874, the son of a rabbi. At a young
age, he immigrated with his family to Appleton, Wisconsin, and soon
demonstrated a natural acrobatic ability and an extraordinary skill at
picking locks. When he was nine, he joined a traveling circus and
toured the country as a contortionist and trapeze performer. He soon
was specializing in escape acts and gained fame for his reported
ability to escape from any manacle. He went on his first international
tour in 1900 and performed all over Europe to great acclaim. In
executing his escapes, he relied on strength, dexterity, and
concentration–not trickery–and was a great showman.

In 1908,
Houdini began performing more dangerous and dramatic escapes. In a
favorite act, he was bound and then locked in an ironbound chest that
was dropped into a water tank or thrown off a boat. In another, he was
heavily bound and then suspended upside down in a glass-walled water
tank. Other acts featured Houdini being hung from a skyscraper in a
straitjacket, or bound and buried–without a coffin–under six feet of
dirt.

In his later years, Houdini campaigned against mediums,
mind readers, fakirs, and others who claimed supernatural talents but
depended on tricks. At the same time, he was deeply interested in
spiritualism and made a pact with his wife and friends that the first
to die was to try and communicate with the world of reality from the
spirit world. Several of these friends died, but Houdini never received
a sign from them. Then, on Halloween 1926, Houdini himself passed on at
the age of 52. His wife waited for a communiquÉ from the spirit world
but it never came; she declared the experiment a failure shortly before
her death in 1943.

History Channel

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Image of the Day

Dance Dance Revolution

Two spiral galaxies swing past one another during a gravitationally choreographed dance in this new Hubble Space Telescope image. Known collectively as Arp 87, the merging pair consists of NGC 3808 on the right and companion NGC 3808A on the left. NGC 3808 is seen almost face-on while NGC 3808A is seen edge-on. Like other galactic mergers, a bridge of star material connects this pair. The corkscrew shape of the bridge suggests that stars, gas, and dust flow from the larger NGC 3808 to the gravitational pull of the smaller galaxy, forming an enveloping arm. Yet the gravitational attraction is hardly one-sided as both partners have become somewhat bent out of shape. Arp 87 was first catalogued by astronomer Halton Arp in the 1960′s. Now Hubble’s more powerful imaging reveals that colliding galaxies in general have a large number of super star clusters – or clusters more compact and richer in young stars than astronomers usually find in our corner of the universe. VIDEO:      When Galaxies Collide VOTE NOW: Most      Amazing Galactic Images Ever Crash      Course: Simulating the Fate of Our Milky Way – NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and SPACE.com Staff Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)   Return each weekday for a new SPACE.com Image of the Day.

 

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