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The Perfect Valentine’s Day Outing
Looking for somewhere to take the love (or potential love) of your life? After all, Valentine’s Day only comes once a year and you want it to be super special and sure to be remembered and talked about until the next Valentine’s Day rolls around in 2013. Well, here is the perfect place if you are in New York City tomorrow.
It may not smell like a rose but a New York City sewage plant is offering tours for lovers on Valentine’s Day.
The tour host and superintendent of the Newtown Creek Wastewater treatment plant in Brooklyn tells the Daily News (http://nydn.us/xEFu6I) it’ll be a unique date, and one that special someone will never forget.
Jim Pynn says the highlight of the tour will be the plant’s giant egg-shaped digesters, which break down the noxious waste into harmless sludge and gas.
Pynn says each Valentine’s Day visitor will get a Hershey kiss – and at least something to talk about.
Go HERE.
(alas, I will not take my lovely wife there, as she said no way would she want to ever go to a sewage plant)
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As anticipated, Kate Upton has been revealed to be the chosen cover model for this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue after a few copies of the magazine accidentally arrived early at a gas station in Michigan.
Scans of the cover surfaced online shortly thereafter. A billboard with Upton’s cover was originally set to be unveiled during tonight’s Late Show.
This is quite an accomplishment for the 19-year-old model who made her debut appearance in SI’s Swimsuit Issue just last year.
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This looks depressing as hell. And really, all the buildings seem to be deserted with no lights, no people, nothing. Hey, just the place I tell you to send all our occupier dirtbags!
Thailand-based Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj captures the oppressive bleakness of everyday life in Pyongyang with his prize-winning photo of a solitary, illuminated picture of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, haunting the capital city’s decaying Brutalist apartment blocks at night.
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I found this damn hilarious!
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Another give away of our money by our president! Just to help his union buddies keep their jobs.
The White House intends to boost government subsidies for wealthy buyers of the Chevy Volt and other new-technology vehicles — to $10,000 per buyer.
That mammoth subsidy would cost taxpayers $100 million each year if it is approved by Congress, presuming only 10,000 new-technology autos are sold each year.
But the administration wants to get 1 million new-tech autos on the road by 2015. The subsidy cost of that goal could reach $10 billion.
The planned giveaway will likely prompt populist protests from GOP legislators, but it will likely also will be welcomed by auto-industry workers in the critical swing state of Michigan.
The new subsidy level represents a 33 percent jump from the current $7,500 government payout for each Volt buyer, even though the Volt’s buyers are already among the wealthiest Americans. It will be offered to buyers of any new-technology autos, including battery-powered autos and cars powered by natural gas, said a White House official.
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The latest scheme that the House of Representatives came up with to delegate their power-of-the-purse responsibilities is the line-item veto. This essentially allows the President to “rescind all or part of any dollar amount of funding for discretionary spending items in enacted appropriations bills.” The House passed its line-item veto bill (H.R. 3521) on February 8 by 254-173. The Senate is expected to take action on its line-item veto bill soon, most likely by trying to attach the bill to a “must-pass” piece of legislation.
Wait a minute! Doesn’t the Constitution (Article 1, Section 7) grant the power of enacting laws that raise revenue to the House of Representatives? The power the President has is merely to sign it or veto it. He doesn’t get the option to cross anything out to fit his fancy.
A similar line-item veto law was passed when Clinton was president. That one was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. So this time around, the current line-item veto bill includes a provision that Congress has the power to disapprove any presidential line-item vetoes.
Still, even with Congress retaining the power to disapprove line-item vetoes, why would the House want to give up some of its constitutionally vested powers and further upset the checks and balances of power among the three branches of government? Surely this must be a ploy by Democratic congressmen to grab more power for President Obama. However, it was sponsored by Republican Representative Paul Ryan and Democratic Representative Chis Van Hollen, and only opposed by 41 Republicans.
More here from The New American
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His pandering has reached new lows with this one!
Obama Begs Voters Not To Make His Daughters Switch Schools
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Haniyeh: No compromise, only armed resistance…
Hamas PM wraps up Iran visit, saying the “gun is our only response” and that “the path of resistance continues.”
Only arms and no compromise should be used in dealing with the “Zionist regime,” the Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh as saying Monday.
The “Gun is our only response to Zionist regime [sic]. In time, we have come to understand that we can obtain our goals only through fighting and armed resistance and no compromise should be made with the enemy,” Haniyeh said.
Read MORE.
(at what point in time will the non-islamic people of the world realize that the only enemy on this planet are there damn ragheads?)
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(LA Times) — One of California’s showcase solar energy projects, under construction in the desert east of Los Angeles, is being threatened by a deadly outbreak of distemper among kit foxes and the discovery of a prehistoric human settlement on the work site.
The $1-billion Genesis Solar Energy Project has been expedited by state and federal regulatory agencies that are eager to demonstrate that the nation can build solar plants quickly to ease dependence on fossil fuels and curb global warming.
Instead, the project is providing a cautionary example of how the rush to harness solar power in the desert can go wrong — possibly costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and dealing an embarrassing blow to the Obama administration’s solar initiative.
Genesis had hoped to be among the first of 12 approved solar farms to start operating in Southern California deserts. To do so, it had to meet certain deadlines to receive federal assistance. The 250-megwatt plant, being built on federal Bureau of Land Management land 25 miles west of Blythe, is backed by an $825-million Department of Energy loan guarantee.
Native Americans, including the leaders of a nearby reservation, are trying to have Genesis delayed or even scuttled because they say the distemper outbreak and discovery of a possible Native American cremation site show that accelerated procedures approved by state and federal regulators failed to protect wildlife and irreplaceable cultural resources.
(somehow, ever since Solyndra? this green initiative by our president keeps getting worse and worse)
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Letterman keeps coming up with jokes about Mitt and his dog. Now the democrats want to harness all dog owners in the country.
“Dogs Against Romney”? Democrats Say Unleash the Hound! — ABC News
Tomorrow outside the Westminster dog show at Madison Square Garden at noon the group “Dogs Against Romney” will protest “to ensure pet lovers are aware that Mitt Romney is mean to dogs,” according to the group’s press release.
While it may seem silly to some, Democrats are have every intention of making sure – if Romney wins the GOP nomination – that every voting American knows about the story of Romney putting his family dog Seamus in a kennel on top of his roof and driving from Boston to Canada, with said canine Seamus making his displeasure known in a rather scatological way. “I have a yellow Lab named Winston,” Fox News’ Chris Wallace said to Romney. “I would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car than I would one of my children. Question: What were you thinking?” “This is a completely airtight kennel, mounted on the roof of our car,” Romney replied. “He climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself. He was in a kennel at home a great deal of the time as well. We loved the dog. It was where he was comfortable.” “When Seamus crapped all over the car I’m fairly certain he wasn’t expressing pleasure,” one top Democrat told ABC News.
“31 million dog-owners vote,” said another.
Democrats are still trying to figure out the best way to bring this up. Certainly it wouldn’t be done by President Obama or any top surrogates. But given the world of social media, not to mention shadowy third-party groups, there is no shortage of ways for Seamus Romney to become a household name.
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Now she is starting to act and sound like her two best buddies, Barach and Michelle! Going for the desperation vote! Wonder how long before she uses the race card and says that white people don’t like her?
(NY Daily News) — Oprah Winfrey may be feeling the pressure over her fledgling network’s sputtering ratings.
A tweet from the talk show host’s Twitter account asked followers, “Every 1 who can please turn to OWN especially if u have a Nielsen box,” in what seems to be a plea to boost ratings numbers.
Winfrey publically apologized for the tweet, which was subsequently deleted — after being informed that the move may have violated Nielsen policy prohibiting networks from influencing ratings.
“I removed the tweet at the request of Nielsen,” Winfrey said in a statement Monday. “ I intended no harm and apologize for the reference.”
A Nielsen representative told The New York Times that an asterisk will be attached to OWN’s ratings
around the time the offending tweet was sent to account for possible bias.
At the time of the tweet, an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter,” the Oprah Winfrey Network’s signature show, was airing that featured the TV mogul visiting Hassidic Jewish families in Brooklyn.
She was almost immediately hit with a backlash: Several followers accused her of “being desperate.”
“The word ‘please’ is used as courtesy not a beg … ‘desperate’ not ever a part of my vocab … ,” Winfrey responded, according to EW.com
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And now this in closing: Why did the Japanese Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Okay, first they did not wear helmets, no pilots did back in WWII. Instead, like all pilots of all nations, they word leather caps. This was a hold over from the open cockpit days and was worn to protect the head from the wind and the cold. And also, so the pilot was in radio contact with his base or wing leader.
So there, kamikaze pilots can rest easy now.
Check out this full back tattoo
Taiwanese tattoo aficionado Annfaye Kao likes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so much that she decided to dedicate her entire back to the Disney classic.
The award-winning tat, which the 27-year-old says was inspired by a dream she had, took three months to complete. “At times I was in such pain that I wanted to hurry it up,” she says, “but luckily I didn’t give up and got it finished.”
According to Annfaye, everyone she knows loves it, “which makes me feel lucky to have so many understanding and supportive people around me in life.”
(wonder if she will finish out her front)
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Bill Hinzman, best remembered as the first zombie to appear on camera in George Romero’s horror classic Night of the Living Dead, passed away today of cancer. He was 75.
Nicknamed “Zombie #1” by fans, Hinzman’s role as the Godfather of all Zombies’ first on-screen ghoul established a working relationship with the filmmaker which lasted for several years, garnering Hinzman parts in several other Romero films such as There’s Always Vanilla, Season of the Witch, and The Crazies.
In the 80’s, Hinzman took a seat behind the camera, helming two of his own horror films — The Majroettes and Flesheater. His final movie, the Kurt Angle and Kevin Nash-starring indie horror flick River of Darkness, was released last year.
Below: Hinzman’s Cemetery Zombie scene from Night of the Living Dead —
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Having arrived at the Gates of Heaven,
Barrack Obama meets a man with a beard. ‘Are you Mohamed?’ he asks.
‘No my son, I am St. Peter; Mohamed is higher up.’
Peter then points to a ladder that rises into the clouds.
Delighted that Mohamed should be higher than St. Peter,
Obama climbs the ladder in great strides,
climbs up through the clouds and comes into a room
where he meets another bearded man.
He asks again, ‘Are you Mohamed?’
‘Why no,’ he answers, ‘I am Moses;
Mohamed is higher still.’
Exhausted, but with a heart full of joy
he climbs the ladder yet again.
He discovers a larger room where he meets an
angelic looking man with a beard.
Full of hope, he asks again,
‘Are you Mohamed?’
‘No, I am Jesus, the Christ;
you will find Mohamed higher up.’
Mohamed higher than Jesus!
Man, oh man! Obama can hardly contain his
delight and climbs and climbs ever higher.
Once again, he reaches an even larger room
where he meets this truly magnificent looking man
with a silver white beard and once again repeats his question:
‘Are you Mohamed?’ he gasps as he is by now,
totally out of breath from all his climbing.
‘No, my son, I am Almighty God, the Alpha and the Omega,
but you look exhausted.
Would you like a cup of coffee?’
Obama says, ‘Yes please!’
As God looks behind him, he claps his hands and yells out:
‘Hey, Mohamed, two coffees!’
Keep your trust in God;
your president is an idiot.
Found HERE.
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Rather than run from his record, Pres. Obama – as demonstrated by his State Of The Union speech and subsequent recitations of its themes on the campaign trail – has found a way to flip the bad economy on its head, and make the election about “empathy.”
In his look back at President Obama’s most recent State of the Union address, Wall Street Journal Deputy Editorial Page Director Daniel Daniel Henninger writes:
“Mr. Obama may not know much about the private economy, but he knows a lot about the uses of human anxiety. Proposing to replace his own bad economy with a virtual substitute “built to last” allows Mr. Obama to place himself outside the White House and on the street making common cause with the genuine economic anxieties of the American people. It also lets this president put in motion what he thinks he knows best—empathy. In “The Audacity of Hope” he put empathy “at the heart of my moral code.” Practice makes perfect. It is beyond audacious. How can a president simultaneously hammer real job creation with the Keystone XL pipeline decision, then go into the country and claim kinship with the anxieties of the jobless? No problem. Just do it” [snip]
Obama is not much of a leader. His team says he “leads from behind,” but really what he does is outsource leadership to the liberals in Congress. But there is no doubt as to his audacity. He, quite literally, wrote the book on it, the Audacity of Hope, and then proceeded to audaciously run for president in 2008 on nothing more than vague promises of Hope and Change.
Four years later, millions of Americans have lost hope in the Obama economy and dropped out of the workforce; the president knows he can not credibly claim to have turned the economy around despite having flushed a few trillion dollars down the drain. Obama can’t run on the economy that actually exists, instead, he’s going to run on an economy that could exist–if only those evil conservatives would just let him have his way. Once again, he’s going for a hope-a-dope strategy.
Read the article here.
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Hoekstra Taking Heat Over Super Bowl Ad
I’ve heard about this story here, there and everywhere since I woke up this morning…so thought I’d put it here and see what you all think about this…and the usual brouhaha coming from the left and some RINOs on the right.
Here’s the story via CBS News where Hoekstra defends himself and the ad:
Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra on Monday defended his controversial Super Bowl political attack ad that critics have called racially insensitive, saying it does not reflect criticism of China.
The ad, which opens with the sound of a gong and other traditional Asian tones, features a young Asian actress riding a bike in what appears to be a rice field. With what appears to be a straw hat resting against her back, she addresses the camera and thanks Democratic incumbent Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow – who is called “Debbie Spend-it-now” – in broken English.
“Debbie spend so much American money,” the woman says. “You borrow more and more, from us, Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good.” The ad implies that she is Chinese but never mentions China or any other nation by name.
“We take your jobs,” the woman continues, with a smile and a shrug. “Thank you Debbie Spend-it-now.”
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COMMENTARY | So, it’s finally official: Iran is a state-sponsor of terrorism. The word came from the mouth of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday when he categorically announced Iran would sponsor anyone — anywhere — that would work against Israel.
Khamenei also admitted to helping attack Israel through third parties, something Iran officially downplays or denies, the Associated Press reported. “From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help. We have no fear expressing this,” Khamenei told followers during morning prayers.
Iran has the role of aggressor down pretty well. If it isn’t spewing threats against the West on a daily basis, it is saber rattling in the Persian Gulf. Now its religious leader — the ultimate voice on all matters in Iran — has confirmed what Israel has been warning about for decades.
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One of the most popular Super Bowl advertisements last night was the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood, titled “Halftime in America.”
The spot is supposed to be encouraging, as it focuses on the resilience of Detroit. “It’s halftime. Both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half,” Eastwood says in the spot. “It’s halftime in America, too. People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared, because this isn’t a game. The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together, now Motor City is fighting again.”
But contrary to what the might ad suggest, the spot was actually filmed in New Orleans and Los Angles. “Yes, part of it was filmed in New Orleans . . . and some was filmed in various parts—such as Los Angeles,” Dianna Gutierrez said. She specifically points to the tunnel scenes as being taken at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, while the stadium shots were in New Orleans.
Asked whether any part of the ad was filmed in Detroit, Gutierrez said that previously taken footage from various parts of the Motor City was used. No image of Detroit was shot for the specific use in this ad.
(from what I gather, the commercial is only popular among the liberals)
Then Clint Eastwood himself on FOX:
Following the fall out over the controversial Chrysler Super Bowl halftime ad, Clint Eastwood spoke exclusively with O’Reilly Factor producer Ron Mitchell:
“I just want to say that the spin stops with you guys, and there is no spin in that ad. On this I am certain.
l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK.
I am not supporting any politician at this time.
Chrysler to their credit didn’t even have cars in the ad.
Anything they gave me for it went for charity.
Keep reading…
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In another setback for President Obama’s clean energy loan programs, the recipient of more than a half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees is laying off workers at their Delaware and California operations.
Delaware’s News Journal reports that Fisker Automotive, a California-based electric car start-up company, is laying off an undisclosed number of staff to try to reserve enough capital in order to qualify for more federal help from the Department of Energy, according to a Delaware state development official.
“They’re trying to preserve the cash that they have,” said Alan Levin told the News Journal. “And unfortunately, until they meet the milestone that DOE continues to set … they’re not able to access the additional capital that they need.”
The company also came under fire last year for taking federal loans while producing cars in Finland. Company officials told ABC News at the time that “there was no contract manufacturer in the U.S. that could actually produce our vehicle.” The company was working on reopening a shuttered General Motors plant in Wilmington to produce vehicles — an effort that top Obama administration officials lauded.
(Fisker Automotive as the Fat-Man-Gore-connected company given a huge taxpayer loan to build its cars in Finland)
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Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, wrote a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses for U.S. military personnel around the world that said that a regulation issued by the Obama Administration under the new federal health care law was “a blow” to a freedom that U.S. troops have not only fought to defend but for which some have recently died in battle.
“It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle,” the archbishop wrote.
Another line in his letter said: “We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law.”
The message from the archbishop touched off a controversy both in and outside the military when the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains told the service’s senior chaplains that Catholic priests serving as Army chaplains should be told not to read the archbishop’s letter from the pulpit.
The Archdiocese for the Military Services has described that move as a violation of the archbishop’s First Amendment rights as well as the First Amendment rights of the Catholic chaplains involved and their congregations.
The regulation the archbishop spoke about was finalized by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Jan. 20. It mandates that all health-care plans in the United States cover sterilizations and all FDA-approved contraceptives, including those that cause abortions. A “religious” employer exemption included in the regulation only applies to organizations that primarily focus on inculcating the tenets of the church in question, primarily employ members of the church, primarily serve members of the church, and is organized under the section of the Internal Revenue Code used by actual parishes.
Catholic hospitals, universities and charitable institutions would not be exempt from the regulation, nor would Catholic individuals, business owners, or insurers.
Archbishop Broglio’s letter minced no words in telling Catholics in the Armed Forces that the federal government was not only violating their constitutional rights through the new Obamacare regulation but was also violating the constitutional rights of all Catholics, while harming the freedom of religion generally.
“It is imperative that I call to your attention to an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith,” wrote the archbishop.
“The federal government, which claims to be ‘of, by, and for the people,’ has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people—the Catholic population—and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faith,” wrote the archbishop.
“And, as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to choose between violating our consciences or dropping health care coverage for our employees (and suffering the penalties for doing so),” said the archbishop.
(am thinking, if the Catholic Church can do this right, and get other Christian church groups with them, they can really defeat obama this year!)
