Paul McCartney performs for thousands in Tel Aviv

After a 43-year wait, Paul McCartney performed his first concert in Israel on Thursday, kicking it off with the familiar Beatles' song "Hello, Goodbye" to the joy of tens of thousands of cheering fans. McCartney billed the concert "Friendship First," saying he's on a mission of peace for Israel and the Palestinians.

Singing "Give Peace a Chance," he stopped and let the audience sing the chorus alone. "Here tonight you sang it, you want it," the 66-year-old rocker said. He dedicated the song to his fellow Beatle, John Lennon, who was killed in New York in 1980.

Fireworks lit the sky as McCartney sang "Live and Let Die."

A crowd made up of Israelis of all ages, estimated at 40,000, cheered as McCartney performed outdoors in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park on a warm late summer night. Some wore T-shirts with the slogan, "I love Paul."

He greeted the crowd with a mixture of English and Hebrew, wishing them "shana tova," happy new year, ahead of next week's Jewish new year holiday. He added "Ramadan kareem" in Arabic, a greeting to Muslims, who are marking their holy month.

His repertoire included many Beatles hits, as well as songs from his post-Beatles group, Wings. The songs included "Yesterday," "Back in the USSR," "Hey Jude" and "Jet." He added two encores.

Nadav Erez, 31, from the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion, danced enthusiastically throughout the concert.

"He should have come here long ago, he should have come again and again, he should come again and again and again," Erez said.

The Beatles had been scheduled to perform in 1965. But in one of the country's most widely repeated tales, an Israeli official supposedly called off the concert for fear it would corrupt the nation's youth. Only in recent weeks, it turns out the story may not have been true.

So pervasive is this story that Israel's ambassador in London, Ron Prosor, sent a letter to McCartney and Ringo Starr, the two surviving Beatles, to express regret over the matter.

"Israel missed a chance to learn from the most influential musicians of the decade, and the Beatles missed an opportunity to reach out to one of the most passionate audiences in the world," he wrote. He invited them to play during this year's celebrations marking Israel's 60th anniversary.

When McCartney announced plans for Thursday's concert, he acknowledged the brouhaha, saying he was finally coming "43 years after being banned by the Israeli government." He promised to give fans "the night they have been waiting decades for."

Ahead of the concert, newspaper columnist Yossi Sarid, son of the Israeli official who allegedly banned the Beatles, went on a campaign to clear his father's name. Sarid claimed his father had nothing to do with the decision, and that it involved a more mundane feud between two Israeli concert promoters.

Sarid, reached ahead of the concert, said he hadn't heard from McCartney's people and had no plans to attend. "The tickets are too expensive," he said.

A small group of Palestinians had urged McCartney to call off the show, saying it was supporting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. A radical Muslim preacher in Lebanon also called on McCartney to cancel the show.

During a visit to the biblical town of Bethlehem on Wednesday, McCartney brushed off the criticism.

"I get criticized everywhere I go, but I don't listen to them," McCartney said. "I'm bringing a message of peace, and I think that's what the region needs."

October Surprise

This financial raping of the world was planned
This IS the "October Surprise" we have been talking about, folks.
It has been planned for years - ever since Prescott Bush fell in love with Mussolini and Hitler.
And yes, my friends ... they plan to rob us blind.

The proof is call-girl Ashley Alexander Dupre.

Ashley, or "Kristin" has no particular connection to the government plan to dump over a trillion dollars of taxpayer debt notes on Wall Street in order to reward Wall Street for it's irresponsible behaviour.
She just happened to be the pawn sacrificed to take down New York governor Eliot Spitzer, who as governor, and previously as Attorney General of New York was one of the only mature adults in government willing to take on the corporate criminals on Wall Street during a time when the 'Federal government' (read cabal), had abdicated its responsibilities and partnered with the crooks to rape us.

Spitzer was unraveling the bailout plot, so he had to be silenced.
Only a moron would believe that random bank audits led to his exposure as a serial "John" as they claim.
Alan Dershowitz shows the overwhelming doubt in The Entrapment of Eliot.
He was under intense surveillance - the sort that the shrub won't allow to be reviewed by the courts.
There are no criminal charges against Spitzer as of yet (and there won't be) ... the evidence could not be presented in court as it was a result of surveillance without a warrant.

A month before he was taken down, Eliot Spitzer wrote a Feb. 14, 2008 Op-Ed for the New York Times titled Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers in which he detailed the cabal's efforts to prevent the States from taking any steps to forestall the current crisis.

As Spitzer was being taken down, in March 2008, the first $200 Billion dollar installment of the plan was being made.
Didn't know the bailout started back in March, did you?
That's when the Fed's Bernanke loaned 1/5th of a trillion dollars to the very thieves we are now promising another $700 billion to.
Greg Palast connected those dots back on March 14: Eliot's Mess The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked.
Add to that the $300 Billion spent on the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, and Bear Stearns tea parties.
That's $1.2 Trillion in less than 8 months. Someone is cashing out fast ... and there is that ninety odd acres in Paraguay, you know.

Sixteen Hundred

Even the world's 'wildlife' are taking note of Carolina Naturally.

Democracy First

You tell'em Craig!

The Liar and the Numbers

The Liar and the Numbers.

Planned Parenthood is suddenly a lot richer because of Sarah Palin.

Planned Parenthood is suddenly a lot richer because of Sarah Palin.

And the Republican vice presidential nominee will soon be receiving tens of thousands of thank-you notes.

A three-week-old Internet campaign is asking abortion-rights activists to send donations to Planned Parenthood in honor of the Alaska governor.

The origin of the campaign is unknown and Planned Parenthood officials insist it is not their doing.

Palin is a staunch abortion- rights opponent. The campaign is meant to translate anger at her position into money for an agency that provides sex education, women's health care and abortion services.

One e-mail making the rounds on the Internet says: "Instead of (actually, in addition to) all of us all sending more e-mails about how absolutely horrible she is, let's all make a donation to Planned Parenthood in Sarah Palin's name."

Katie Groke Ellis, field manager for the Planned Parenthood of the Rockies Action Fund, predicts that the five-state chapter of the group alone could draw $100,000 in donations.

Planned Parenthood gains from Palin e-mail campaign

Error-prone Detroit police crime lab shut down

The Detroit police crime lab was shut down by the city's new mayor and police chief after an outside audit found errors in some evidence used to prosecute cases involving murder and other crimes, officials said Thursday.

An audit by Michigan State Police found erroneous or false findings in 10 percent of 200 random cases and subpar quality control compliance at the lab, said Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy.

The report revealed a "shocking level of incompetence" in the lab and constitutes a systemic problem, she said at a news conference. When it came to recognized work standards, the lab met only 42 percent of a required 100 percent, Worthy said.

Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. and Police Chief James Barren made the decision to shut down the Detroit lab and use the state police lab for all Detroit criminal investigations. The lab commander was also relieved of duty, Barren said.

Officials have also started what will probably be an expensive and time-consuming analysis of past cases going back years in which lab findings were used or admitted into evidence, Worthy said.

"This may be only the tip of the iceberg," Cockrel said. A more detailed audit report is due next month.

Firearms work at the city police lab, housed in a former school outside downtown, first was halted in the spring after a firearms expert hired by defense attorney Marvin Barnett told Worthy about findings in his client's double-murder case.

The lab had determined that 42 shell casings from a May 2007 shooting were from the same weapon. State police later determined two different weapons were used. Worthy then ordered the audit.

Jarrhod Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree premeditated murder before the audit results, Barnett said. Williams hasn't been sentenced, and Worthy said he should be given the option of withdrawing his plea and getting a new trial, or continuing the plea.

But his attorney wants the case dismissed.

"I anticipated there would be some problems," Barnett told The Associated Press. "I never anticipated an audited error rate of 10 percent. It's not the tip of the iceberg. It's the iceberg itself. The question is, how big is the glacier?"

Criminals may have gone uncharged because of the lab's shortcomings, Worthy said.

"We have no idea how many people are walking around that have committed crimes that we don't know about," said Worthy, who also blamed the problems on human error, as well as a lack of funding, resources and training.

Barren has reassigned the lab as an evidence collection point and will move its 33 police officers to other positions. The lab's 35 civilian employees will get more training.

"As prosecutors, we completely rely on the findings of police crime lab experts every day in court, and we present this information to our juries," Worthy said. "And when there are failures of this magnitude, there is a complete betrayal of trust. We feel betrayed, as prosecutors."

The problems at the lab follow a sex scandal involving former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a former top aide that resulted in Kilpatrick's resignation. He will be sentenced to four months in prison and five years probation on Oct. 28.

Are you a Leaf Looker?

North Carolina's Masterpiece

Before long the leaves will flutter away from their summer branches and become a colorful carpet that covers the ground. Before they fall, however, many people, often known as "leaf lookers," make pilgrimages to the mountains and countrysides to view Mother Nature's glorious explosions of color. North Carolina leads the pack for leaf lookers, and depending upon the season, the species of trees involved, and the relative proportion of the three major pigments that are contained in leaves, just about every imaginable color combination may be seen.

No matter where you live, the panorama of autumn leaves is surely not too far away to enjoy. Some areas, like the Northeast, lose their color all too quickly. Others, such as the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains of America's Southeast, seem to retain their color much longer, but the displays in and around the United States are among the finest in the world.

The U.S. Forest Service has a special toll-free number specifically for leaf-lookers. The toll-free 'Fall Color Hotline' can be reached at (800) 354-4595. The automated voice system is updated weekly with information about peak fall foliage colors in various regions throughout the country. This is the 16th year this service has been provided and last year there were more than 29,000 callers. The Hotline will continue to operate through the middle of November, or as long as there is significant fall color in our national forests.

It's Not Easy Being Green
Many people might say that old Jack Frost is responsible for the color change in the leaves, but we now know that the change in coloring is the result of chemical processes which take place in the tree as the season changes from summer to winter.

Through spring and summer leaves serve as factories where most of the foods necessary for a tree's growth are manufactured. This food-making process takes place in the leaf in numerous cells containing chlorophyll, which gives the leaf its green color. Along with the green, leaves also contain yellow or orange carotenoids which, for example, give the carrot its familiar color. Most of the year … these yellowish or orange colors are masked by the greater amount of green coloring. But in the fall, partly because of changes in the period of daylight and changes in temperature, the leaves stop their food-making process; the chlorophyll breaks down, the green color disappears, and the yellowish colors become visible and give the leaves their fall splendor.

The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are actually caused by a chemical breakdown of glucose. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves to turn this glucose into a red color. The brown coloring in the leaves of trees like oaks is made from waste products remaining in the leaves.

It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful colors we enjoy in the fall season.

A Quick Guide to Fall Colors

Ash:
Green ash leaves turn yellow, but white ash leaves have a purplish cast. The leaves fall after those of walnut trees, but earlier than those of oaks and maples.

Bur Oak:
Buff to yellow colors predominates in bur oaks. The leaves remain on the tree and turn brown before falling.

Elms:
Elm leaves turn various shades of yellow with some turning brown before falling, others falling while still yellow.

Hickory:
Leaves turn yellow on hickory trees, then brown before falling.

Maple (Soft):
The leaves of soft (silver) maples turn yellow but do not turn brown before falling.

Maple (Hard):
Brilliant flame-red hues are the signature of hard maple leaves. The red pigmentation of some leaves breaks down before falling.

Oak (Red):
Red oaks have brilliant red leaves in fall, though the color is probably not as intense as that of some hard maples.

Oak (White):
White oaks have a more subdued purple color. The leaves then turn brown and often stay on the tree until new leaves begin to grow in the spring.

Here's a few takes on the 'Bailout'

"This is eerily similar to the rush to war in Iraq. We have been told repeatedly by Bush that the economy is fundamentally sound, and then all of the sudden they say the economy is going to collapse."
-- Rep Mike McNulty,

Read the rest here

"Tony Soprano would be very proud."
-- Steve Forbes, Republican, on Bush's A.I.G. bailout

Read the rest here

"Mr. President, you gave Wall Street the keys to the liquor cabinet, by failing to enforce our laws. And now you're demanding that Americans, who didn't get invited to the party, must pay for everything destroyed in the drunken brawl."
-- Rep Lyle Doggett of Texas,

Read the rest here

And I Quote

"The Democratic Convention felt like America, it looked like America.

But the Republican Convention was like watching a meeting in Dr. Evil's lair.

It was like all of the evil people got together, and they were having an evil board meeting..."

~ Wanda Sykes

Biker gang masquerades as Christian ministry

In more than 25 years at the helm of his biker-inspired Christian ministry, Phillip Aguilar has counseled Hells Angels, married Mongols and provided a place to crash for just about every hog-riding gangster and drug addict he's ever met.

But police say after years of bringing God to outlaws, Aguilar's chopper-riding Christians may have morphed into just the kind of gang they claim to save people from.

Aguilar and four other members of the Set Free Soldiers pleaded not guilty at their arraignments Thursday on weapons and gang felonies after a bar brawl that ended with two Hells Angels stabbed. One member of Aguilar's group is charged with attempted murder.

The case threatens to unravel Aguilar's counterculture Christian empire, a domain already well-known among bikers that's recently gained some traction in the mainstream.

His church, which runs several Southern California rehab homes, recently inspired an A&E reality show pilot, has close ties to a Christian rap group and has an urban-influenced clothing line called Soldier Made.

Some of those in the close-knit and largely under-the-radar Christian biker community, however, now wonder if Aguilar is converting sinners - or if they're converting him.

"I'm in seedy places, I'm in bad places, I meet with bad people and some of the outlaws, you bet. The key question is, are you participating or are you their minister?" said Tom Longbrake, a twice-ordained minister with Bikers for Christ who's often crossed paths with Set Free Soldiers at biker charities.

Aguilar, 61, who declined repeated interview requests, is free on bail. A preliminary hearing in the case was set for Dec. 4.

An attorney for Aguilar's son, who was also arrested, said those charged were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Set Free Soldiers were attacked by the Hells Angels while they ate hamburgers and shot pool at Blackie's by the Sea after watching a member's son in a surfing contest, said Lloyd Freberg, an attorney for Matthew Aguilar, 29.

Phillip Aguilar's attorney, Doug Myers, added that he has seen nothing in the prosecution's case to support the gang charges.

"Supporters talk about how Phil has helped them when they're down and out and that's what he's done for 20-plus years," Myers said. "They've even helped minimize the gangs in the area."

But search warrant affidavits and police reports - portions of which are sealed - indicate the fight may have begun because the Hells Angels felt the Set Free Soldiers were on their turf. A Set Free pastor caught fleeing the fight with a bloody knife in his car told police the brawl began when a Hells Angels leader confronted Aguilar and told him his group was not authorized to take the Hells Angels' business.

The pastor, Glenn Schoeman, who also pleaded not guilty in Orange County Superior Court, told police he was terrified of retaliation now that Set Free members had drawn Hells Angels blood.

A pre-dawn raid at the Set Free compound of four suburban homes just miles from Disneyland yielded gang paraphernalia, thousands of rounds of ammunition and dozens of guns and knives, said Sgt. Evan Sailor of the Newport Beach police.

Sailor said detectives also were alarmed by YouTube and MySpace videos that show members posing with guns and knives and riding their bikes with their faces covered with black handkerchiefs and, in one case, a skull mask.

"To me, it's indicative of more than just a Christian group. It's indicative of an outlaw motorcycle gang," Sailor said. "It's not like they're showing Bible study classes."

Yet Aguilar's son said the Set Free Soldiers are hardworking Christians who act and dress the way they do so their gospel resonates with hard-to-reach sinners: the drug addicts, the outlaw bikers and the prostitutes.

The elder Aguilar's own checkered past, including a stint in state prison for child abuse and a former heroin addiction, gives him even more credibility with his ragtag flock. Many call him "Pastor Phil" or "The Chief" and don't seem to mind the sometimes iron-fisted control he exerts over those in his rehab homes.

Kevin Knuth, 29, showed up on Aguilar's doorstep in 2004 just out of jail, homeless and addicted to drugs. He's been there ever since, living in the rehab center or sleeping on Aguilar's couch and helping with errands, household chores and the clothing line for free.

"The only place I find any sort of sanity, the only place where I feel like I have any kind of family, is here with Pastor Phil," said Knuth, who now wears a silver cross necklace and is drug-free and off probation.

Chinese banks told to stop loaning money to American banks

For the "Yeah we're screwed" file:

"Chinese regulators have told domestic banks to stop interbank lending to U.S. financial institutions to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported on Thursday."

China banks told to halt lending to US banks, South China Morning Post via Reuters.

FAIL,

The Splurge

Fast Food Hits Mediterranean and a Diet Succumbs

Small towns like this one in western Crete, considered the birthplace of the famously healthful Mediterranean diet — emphasizing olive oil, fresh produce and fish — are now overflowing with chocolate shops, pizza places, ice cream parlors, soda machines and fast-food joints.

The fact is that the Mediterranean diet, which has been associated with longer life spans and lower rates of heart disease and cancer, is in retreat in its home region. Today it is more likely to be found in the upscale restaurants of London and New York than among the young generation in places like Greece, where two-thirds of children are now overweight and the health effects are mounting, health officials say.

Fast Food Hits Mediterranean and a Diet Succumbs

Clear Enough?

Clear enough, for ya?

McPain bails on Letterman

Talk about disrespect!

But never fear, Dave skewers the old fart cleanly and neatly.

A Gallon Of Gas

Especially appropriate around these here parts this past few days ...

Nights In White Satin

1967 was a great year for music!

SE coast storm could become tropical

The National Hurricane Center said a low-pressure system off the Southeast coast could still turn into a named tropical storm, but it isn't there yet.

A hurricane hunter aircraft sent to examine the storm Wednesday found the low pressure system centered about 250 miles southeast of Wilmington "has not acquired tropical characteristics."

The hurricane center in Miami said the system has the potential to turn into a named storm on Thursday as it drifts westward toward the U.S. coast.

Either way, the system will bring strong winds, coastal flooding, high surf, and dangerous rip currents to big chunks of the East Coast over the next couple of days.

Meteorologist Robert Digiorgi at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Wilmington said winds will strengthen as the day goes on Thursday.

Oh, joy ...

Just a Question

Are you one of those wankers who voted for Bush ‘cuz he’d be more fun to drink a beer with?

How’s that workin’ out for ya?

And I Quote

Do, or do not. There is no 'try'.

~ Yoda.

Man farts at officer, charged with battery

From the 'You have got to be kidding' Department:

After being pulled over for driving with his car's headlights off, the gentleman pictured here failed a sobriety test and was arrested for drunk driving.

While being booked at the police station "[Jose] Cruz then allegedly moved closer to one of the officers and passed gas, the station reported. In the complaint, the investigating officer wrote that police noticed a 'very strong' odor."

As a result, Mr. Cruz was charged with battery.

West Virginia Man Charged with Assaulting an Officer

Hold on there ... if a fart is battery, then a kiss is, oh, let's not go there shall we ...

Planned explosion goes awry at Vermont airport

Officials at a Vermont airport say a planned explosion at a rock quarry went awry and showered planes and cars with large rocks.

Burlington International Airport Manager Brian Searles says rocks hit four small airplanes, several vehicles and some buildings Wednesday.

No one was hurt, but there was damage costing several hundred thousand dollars.

Some of the rocks were the size of microwave ovens.

The quarry is part of an area being readied for airport expansion. Searles says the airport will investigate how the explosion got out of hand.

*****

I am surprised DHS isn't on this like white in rice. Explosion ... Airport - I mean come on, do I have to spell it out for you? Wait there will be some 'official' saying 'terrorists' could be involved shortly and it will most likely turn out to either be a error in placement of the charge, an error in prepping the charge - to wit: too much powder, wrong type powder, etc, or just some bone-head that doesn't know a blasting cap from a bottle cap being put in charge of the explosives by lazy co-workers.

Monkey Business

They might be calling it monkey business in Mesa, Arizona, but police are interested in the outcome.

In that city, the police department has landed a $100,000.00 Grant to test how a Capuchin might perform as a one-critter SWAT team.

A Capuchin, with its human-like hands and problem solving ability, is considered the most intelligent monkey - Right behind the Chimpanzee in terms of brain power. (Which means far ahead of repugicans ... Oops, was that my outside voice? Sorry,. Please continue.)

Police there have purchased one and outfitted it with a Kevlar vest, camera and two-way radio and send it into spots where neither a man nor a robot can go.

"Everyone laughs until they start thinking about it," says Officer Sean Truelove.

*****

Where is Lancelot Link when you need him?!

Satanists move to control GOP

For decades, Republicans have had all the fun, eroding the barrier between personal beliefs and public policy and legislating their own faith-based morality as a means of consolidating power. But now another politically active religious group is coming forward and asking for their turn to team up with the GOP to dictate how other people will live their lives- Devil worshipers. That's right. As it happens, followers of Satan have become a formidable voting bloc in this country since the late 90's and could soon rise up to challenge evangelical Christians for their place in the GOP hierarchy.

Read the rest here.

Funny? I all ready thought there were in control of the GOP! Oh, well ...

Arctic sea "foaming" with methane?

An article in The Independent reports on a new scientific discovery that massive amounts of a greenhouse gas are spewing into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic sea. WorldChanging puts it into context, opening with the line that this discovery, if confirmed, "is really, really, really bad news."

"An Arctic Sea 'Foaming' with Methane: What Now?"

The Methane Timebomb

Axiom

If a man alone in the woods opens his mouth and speaks and a woman isn't there to hear him, is he still wrong?

Strong earthquake hits off Mexico's Pacific coast

A strong earthquake has hit off Mexico's Pacific coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado says the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.4 and was centered off the coast of Jalisco state.

The quake happened Tuesday night at 7:33 p.m.

There are no reports of damages or injuries.

No one listened then ... maybe, now?!

Here's a few things experts were saying about the economy before the meltdown.
That and a literary citation that was spot-on when written a few years back!

“In fact, now I come to think of it, do we decide questions at all? We decide answers, no doubt: but surely the questions decide us? It is the dog, you know, that wags the tail — not the tail that wags the dog.”
– Lewis Carroll

“Welcome to the conservative’s worst nightmare: The law of unintended consequences. Why? Nobody wants to admit it, folks, but the conservatives’ grand ideology is backfiring, actually turning the world’s greatest capitalistic democracy into the world’s newest socialist economy.”
– Paul B. Ferrell, “11 reasons America’s a new socialist economy,” MarketWatch, July 22, 2008.

“The US economy had better have luck on its side. Luck is about all it has left.”
– Clive Crook, “Only Luck Can Save America’s Economy,” Financial Times, Aug. 3, 2008.

Bystanders pull students from burning bus in Florida

More Heroes:

Passers-by are being credited with pulling students from a school bus that caught fire after it was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer in north Florida, killing one teenager, a school official said.

"This was a tragedy, but it's also a miracle," said Marion County Superintendent of Schools Jim Yance." "We're lucky one person got out of there alive."

About 20 middle and high school students were on the bus when it was rear-ended Tuesday afternoon. Two were critically injured and several others had injuries not considered life-threatening.

The student who died was identified as Frances M. Schee, 13.

"The kid was lodged and I just couldn't get her out," Chris Mann, an elevator installer who stopped to help when he saw the accident, told the Star-Banner. "There was nothing I could do."

Yancey said at least four bystanders helped the students.

"I'd say they probably got half the kids off the bus themselves," Yancey said. "They were showing more grief and remorse from not being able to do more."

Police said charges are pending against the driver of the tractor-trailer, Reinaldo Gonzalez, 30, of Orlando. He was taken to a hospital with head injuries.

Earlier this month, a chain-reaction crash southeast of Tallahassee involving a school bus, minivan and cement mixer truck killed an 8-year-old girl and injured seven other children and the van driver.

Gas Shortage Cancels Classes At NC College

A gas shortage that's frustrating drivers in the Southeast has prompted a community college in North Carolina to cancel classes for the rest of the week.

Officials say an increasing number of the 25,000 commuter students at several campuses of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College aren't showing up.

A spokeswoman for the college in western North Carolina says even professors are calling to say they're stuck at home.

Drivers throughout much of the Southeast have been scrambling to find gas since Hurricane Ike shut down or reduced work at more than a dozen refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Some stations don't have gas to sell, while others report long lines.

Congress, are you LISTENING!

Congress, are you LISTENING!
This from The Young Turks reflects what the Taxpayers are saying pretty well.

Irish Proverb

You've got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Clay is gay: Aiken comes out of the closet

And ...this is news?

Clay Aiken appears on the cover of the latest People magazine holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: "Yes, I'm Gay."

Okay, who was the one person on earth that didn't know this already?

So, Clay is gay - the world can keep spinning now! Whew!

Where the readers are ...

Here is who is reading Carolina Naturally now.

Games Without Frontiers

There is something chillingly Orwellian in this performance by Peter Gabriel.

Man charged after gun found in car near Obama home

Police have brought a felony gun charge against a member of a prominent Chicago family who was arrested after he approached security barriers outside Barack Obama's home.

The family of 31-year-old Omhari Sengstacke released a statement saying he had no intent to harm the Democratic presidential candidate or his family. The U.S. Secret Service also has insisted he never posed a threat to Obama.

Sengstacke was apparently intoxicated but not armed when he was arrested about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday. The gun was found in his car.

Omhari Sengstacke is the grandson of John Sengstacke, longtime publisher of the Chicago Defender.

Girl's hand reattached after jump rope accident

See there are still some good people around ...

A 6-year-old girl is recovering after surgeons reattached her left hand, severed when it was caught in a loop of jump rope that had snagged on the axle of her mother's car.

Erica Rix underwent 10 hours of surgery after the accident in early September and spent nine days in intensive care before returning home.

Erica was playing with a jump rope in the back seat of her mother's car and let one end of the rope out the window to flutter in the wind.

"I wanted to see it go up and down because I thought I was going to fly," she said.

The rope caught on the car's axle and a loop of the rope tightened around the girl's wrist, slicing off her hand.

"She was screaming and screaming and so I got out of the car and at her window that was just cracked about that much, the remaining part of her hand ... most of it was gone," her mother, Allison Rix, said.

Passing motorist Jim Bailey, of Saratoga, stopped and made a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

"I was trying to wave down a passer-by," Allison Rix said Tuesday, "and he stopped immediately and ran up to the car and had to assess the situation then - just like a superhero, I like to think of him - as he whipped out his belt and did a tourniquet" while she tried to call 911.

Rix said her cell phone got disconnected but another person who stopped was able to call emergency services.

Passer-by Pat Heller spotted Erica's hand lying on the street, and she and a resident directed traffic around it.

"I took some real deep breaths. I just kept telling myself 'This is a child's hand,'" Heller said.

*****

These heroes and the doctors who reattached this young girl's hand are what we need more of in this world!

On a happy note: Doctors says even with several more surgeries on the hand , the young girl should make a complete recovery and her hand will be as if this freak accident never happened.

California tribe fears losing land if dam is raised

The federal government is considering enlarging a dam to boost the state's water supply, which would flood what little land remains above water where a Native American tribe had fished and farmed for centuries.

Nine-tenths of the ancestral land of the Winnemen Wintu was submerged in 1945, when the federal government built a 602-foot dam downstream of their ceremonial and prayer grounds.

Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering enlarging Shasta Dam, flooding the remaining 22 miles of rocky, steep canyon shoreline, including two sacred rocks involved in coming-of-age rituals.

"These sacred places help keep the tribe healthy. They help keep it balanced and they help us to heal," said tribal chief Caleen Sisk-Franco. "There is no replacement. There's not an option to move it."

The desire by the few remaining tribal members to preserve the remnants of their homeland is running headlong into the desires of Central Valley farmers, the main beneficiaries of the federal proposal to enlarge Lake Shasta.

When it was filled to capacity, the lake flooded 46 square miles where tribal leaders say some 20,000 Winnemen Wintu once lived along the McCloud River. Their numbers fell to 395 at the turn of the century, with thousands massacred by western settlers and ravaged by disease during the Gold Rush. Today, the tribe counts 122 enrolled members, about a fifth of whom live in a makeshift village of trailers and a house on 42 acres of private land a few miles from the McCloud River, some 225 miles north of San Francisco.

Lake Shasta is the starting point for the federally run Central Valley Project, a system of 21 reservoirs, canals and aqueducts that funnel water to some 3.2 million acres of farmland and supplies water to about 2 million people.

Supporters say an enlarged lake is needed to meet the needs of California's growing population. The larger reservoir also would be able to store more cold water, which is needed to help the salmon that used to migrate to cooler water upstream before the dam blocked their path, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The bureau is studying whether to raise the dam by 6 1/2 to 18 1/2 feet, which would enlarge the reservoir by more than a tenth of its current size. That's enough water to serve the city of Los Angeles for more than year.

"What's so potentially promising about raising Shasta Dam, all things considered, is an opportunity to provide more storage at a facility that's already in place," said Ron Ganzfried, a supervisor in the Bureau of Reclamation's regional planning division.

A higher dam also would provide more hydropower, flood protection along the upper Sacramento River and combat future water shortages expected to come with climate change, according to a recent bureau report.

Although the price tag is steep - with preliminary costs ranging from $531.3 million to $854.9 million - it's far less than the cost of building a new dam. For example, the state estimates it could cost $3.6 billion to build a reservoir in a valley north of Sacramento that would store roughly the same amount of water as would be added behind a taller Shasta dam.

That makes it an attractive solution for California's farmers and municipal water agencies whose water supplies have dwindled after two dry winters and a federal court order that greatly reduced water diversions to protect threatened delta fish.

But conservation groups are concerned that swelling of the lower portion of the McCloud River would ruin one of the state's prized trout streams. They also question whether the additional cold water that would be stored behind a higher Shasta Dam would be saved and released for migrating salmon, as government officials claim.

Instead, environmental groups favor building bypasses for salmon to get them around the dam and into the McCloud River. They also advocate paying farmers and other users to increase water conservation efforts.

"We need to come up with permanent solutions that will increase flexibility and provide what we need for the salmon rather than reinvesting in the very projects that caused the problem," said Mindy McIntyre, a water specialist at the nonprofit Planning and Conservation League.

Federal officials say environmental organizations and the Winnemen Wintu tribe will be consulted as plans move forward over the next few years, but how much sway the tribe - which is not a federally recognized tribe - will have to block the dam project is questionable. Congress must still authorize and fund the project.

Although the tribe is small in number, its ties to the area remain central to preserving its heritage. The rocky shoreline along the McCloud River is where tribal members come at least once a year to celebrate the womanhood of their teenage girls. Medicinal plants are ground on a special rock and traditional prayers are offered.

Across the river, toddlers are introduced to another rock where tribal elders tell their ancestral stories. Both cultural spots could be swamped by the rising water if Shasta Dam is raised.

Boy, 5, dumped by school bus driver in NYC streets

A New York City mother wants to know why her first-grade son was left to wander the streets alone after being dropped off by a school bus driver at the end of the line.

School officials say they don't know who put 5-year-old Jaeden Vasquez on the bus Thursday - especially since he wasn't even supposed to be on it. He lives across the street from the school in the Bronx.

His mother, Aileen Bonilla, says the school apologized but that isn't enough.

Five-year-old children aren't supposed to be let off school buses unless an adult is waiting. Jaeden says he was ordered off the bus at the last stop, two miles from his home. A stranger brought him home.

School officials say they are investigating.

McPain says if you're here illegally...welcome!

But, only if you are Irish.

"There are 50,000 Irish men and women who are in this country illegally at this time, who are hard-working people, who want to become citizens. and I want to assure you that we will enact comprehensive immigration reform, after they do certain things, obviously, give them a path to citizenship in this country as part of an overall immigration reform package."

So much for the 'Brown People', Huh?

Britney's Sister in Porn Scandal

From the "Why is this even news?" Department:

Here is how Europeans view the absurdity that is the US

A picture of 17-year-old JAMIE LYNN SPEARS breastfeeding her baby has sparked a police pornography investigation in the States.

Read the full story here.

Or if you prefer the view from Down Under read it here.

Feds ask to put wolves back on endangered list

Federal wildlife officials have asked a judge to put gray wolves in the Northern Rockies back on the endangered species list - a sharp reversal from the government's prior contention that the animals were thriving.

Attorneys for the Fish and Wildlife Service asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula to vacate the agency's February finding that more than 1,400 wolves in the region no longer needed federal protection.

The government's request Monday follows a July injunction in which Molloy had blocked plans for public wolf hunts this fall in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho pending resolution of a lawsuit by environmentalists.

"What we want to do is look at this more thoroughly," Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Sharon Rose said. "We definitely have a lot of wolves out there, but we need to address some of (Molloy's) concerns in a way that people feel comfortable with."

At issue is whether a decade-long wolf restoration program has reversed the near-extermination of wolves, or if - as environmentalists claim - their long-term survival remains in doubt due to proposed hunting.

"This hit everybody really cold," said John Bloomquist, an attorney for the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "All of a sudden the federal defendants are going in the other direction."

The government's request to remand, or reconsider, the issue was filed in response to an April lawsuit from a dozen environmental and animal rights groups.

"I would call that victory. What they're requesting is to go back to the drawing boards," said Doug Honnold, an Earthjustice attorney representing the plaintiffs. They include the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States and other local and national groups.

If Molloy goes along with the government's request, the Fish and Wildlife Service would embark on a re-evaluation of wolves that could last for months or even years. The agency would again open the issue to public comment before returning with a new decision.

In the meantime, the killing of some wolves by government wildlife agents or ranchers would continue. More than 180 wolves were killed last year in response to wolf attacks on livestock.

A recent inventory of wolf populations in the three states showed their population in decline this year for the first time in more than a decade. Federal biologists say the decline occurred because wolves had filled up the best habitat in the region.

Honnold questioned whether disease, illegal hunting or other factors might have contributed to the drop, which saw wolf numbers decline from 1,545 during the summer of 2007 to 1,455 this summer.

Under the federal rule that took the animal off the list in February, authority over the region's wolf populations had passed to state agencies in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

In his July injunction, Molloy put that authority back in federal hands. The judge questioned whether wildlife laws within the three states - particularly Wyoming - would be enough to protect wolves from excessive or indiscriminate hunting.

Molloy also questioned whether packs had been intermingling enough to avoid inbreeding - a concern raised by recent research into wolf genetics.

Helpful Hints:

For Guys: A Guide to Girl Talk

By Amy Spencer

"Baffled by what women are getting at half the time you talk to them? Then keep this translation manual handy to decode her most misunderstood lines.

If you’ve ever spoken to a woman, it’s fair to say you’ve been confused by one. Yes doesn’t always mean yes, no doesn’t always mean no, and most of us have once in our lives even admitted, “Well, I may have said that, but I didn’t mean it.” What’s with all the mixed messages? “Women communicate by giving subtle suggestions instead of being literal, so we can check for positive reinforcement before we continue. We want to be careful about the impact we have on the other person,” explains Sharyn Wolf, CSW, a psychotherapist in New York City. But while figuring out what women really want can be difficult, it’s not impossible. So follow this guide to girl-speak. These are some of the things you might hear a woman say as you meet, date and woo her—and the code for reading between the lines."

Read the rest here.

Gunman kills 9 at school in Finland, shoots self

Another Fine US Export: School Shootings

A gunman whose violent YouTube postings made police bring him in for questioning opened fire Tuesday at his trade school in western Finland, killing nine people before shooting himself, authorities said.

It was Finland's second school massacre in less than a year.

The gunman had been questioned by police just one day before the attack about YouTube postings in which he is seen firing a handgun, Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said. He was released because there was no legal grounds to hold him, she said.

Witnesses said panic broke out as the hooded gunman entered the school in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki, and began firing in a classroom where students were taking an exam. The shootings began just before 11 a.m. local time (0800GMT), as about 150 students were at Kauhajoki School of Hospitality.

"Within a short space of time I heard several dozen rounds of shots, in other words it was an automatic pistol," school janitor Jukka Forsberg told Finnish broadcaster YLE. "I saw some female students who were wailing and moaning and one managed to escape out of the back door."

Kauhajoki Mayor Antti Rantakokko confirmed that nine people were killed. At least one other woman had a gunshot wound to the head before the gunman shot himself in the head, authorities said.

Finnish tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reported that police had identified the gunman as Matti Juhani Saari, a 22-year-old student. Authorities would only confirm that he was a student at the school, born in 1986.

The Finnish news agency STT said the school building was on fire and the gunman reportedly had explosives on him.

The gunman and the wounded woman were taken to a hospital in Tampere, two hours away, the hospital's medical director Matti Lehto told the AP.

"(He is) shot in the head so he is severely injured," Lehto said.

College rector Tapio Varmola told YLE the school had 150 students at the time and the shooting started in a classroom where 20 people were taking an exam.

Tuesday's rampage happened almost a year after another gunman killed eight people and himself at a school in southern Finland, an attack that triggered a fierce debate about gun laws in this Nordic nation with deep-rooted traditions of hunting in the sub-Arctic wilderness.

Power cut contributed to woman's death

I see corporate disregard for humans is not only in the United States!

An energy company's decision to cut off electricity to a New Zealand woman's home because of an unpaid bill contributed to her death from morbid obesity, a coroner's court ruled Tuesday.

Folole Muliaga, 44, a nursery school teacher, died two hours after the oxygen machine she used to help her breathe shut down when the government-owned utility Mercury Energy cut power to her home.

Muliaga's death on May 29, 2007, outraged New Zealanders, with Prime Minister Helen Clark denouncing the company's actions as heartless and intolerable.

Coroner Gordon Matenga said he agreed with two of four medical experts who presented evidence to the hearing that cutting the power had contributed to Muliaga's death.

"The cessation of oxygen therapy and the stress arising from the fact of the disconnection (as opposed to the way in which the power was disconnected) have contributed to her death," he said in his ruling.

Matenga also noted that Mercury Energy acknowledged it hadn't complied with Electricity Commission guidelines for identifying vulnerable customers at the time of Muliaga's death.

Muliaga family spokesman Brenden Sheehan said the family would instruct its lawyers "to explore all legal avenues" for compensation following the findings.

"The coroner established there was a cause and effect over her death, and that Mercury Energy didn't follow the guidelines of the Electricity Commission," Sheehan said.

Sheehan said he hoped the family and the agencies involved could reach an out-of-court agreement.

Olinda Woodroffe, lawyer for Muliaga's husband, said she was confident there were strong legal grounds for compensation.

A police investigation last year found no grounds for criminal charges against the utility.

Coroners in New Zealand can order inquests into unusual deaths to assess the circumstances so they can make recommendations to prevent future occurrences. The inquest does not assign blame.

At the time of Muliaga's death, the family believed it owed Mercury Energy 34.44 New Zealand dollars (US$26.67); the company later put the amount at NZ$168 (US$130.12).

Small accidents mean big trouble for supercollider

Scientists expect startup glitches in the massive, complex machines they use to smash atoms.

But the unique qualities of the world's largest particle collider mean that the meltdown of a small electrical connection could delay its groundbreaking research until next year, scientists said Sunday.

Because the Large Hadron Collider operates at near absolute zero - colder than outer space - the damaged area must be warmed to a temperature where humans can work. That takes about a month. Then it has to be re-chilled for another month.

As a result, the equipment may not be running again before the planned shutdown of the equipment for the winter to reduce electricity costs. That means Friday's meltdown could end up putting off high-energy collisions of particles - the machine's ultimate objective - until 2009.

"Hopefully we'll come online and go quickly to full energy a few months into 2009 so in the long term, this may not end up being such a large delay in the physics program," Seth Zenz, a graduate student from the University of California, wrote on the site of the U.S. physicists working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.

"It's obviously a short-term disappointment, though, and a lost opportunity," he wrote.

CERN spokesman James Gillies said the repair operation will last until close to the usual winter shutdown time at the end of November. There has been some discussion that the new equipment could operate through the winter, but no decision has been made, he said.

The melting of the wire connecting two magnets Friday would have taken only a couple of days to repair on smaller, room-temperature accelerators that have been in use for decades, Gillies said.

Gillies said particle accelerators using superconducting equipment at Fermilab outside Chicago and at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York state had similar problems starting up, but have been operating smoothly since then.

"Once they settled in they seem to be pretty stable," Gillies said.

At the Sept. 10 launch of the collider, beams of protons from the nuclei of atoms were fired first at the speed of light in a clockwise direction though a fire-hose-sized tube in the tunnel. Then proton beams were fired in the counterclockwise tube.

Jos Engelen, CERN's chief scientific officer and deputy director-general, said the startup showed that the LHC can handle complex operations.

"We have encountered a weakness in one particular connection during very final hardware commissioning," Engelen told The Associated Press by e-mail. "It is tough, but it can happen. We will make the repair and resume the very successful operation of the accelerator."

A transformer failed outside the cold zone about 36 hours after the collider's launch. That was repaired and the machine was ready again a week after it was shut down.

But the goal of the LHC - shattering protons to reveal more about how the tiniest particles were first created - was still weeks away because the equipment has to be gradually brought to the higher energies possible at full power.

"This was the last circuit of the LHC to be tested at high current before operations," Gillies said. "There are an awful lot of these connections between wires in the machine. They all have to be very well done so that they don't stop superconducting, and what appears to have happened is that this connection stopped being superconducting."

Superconductivity - the ability to conduct electricity without any resistance in some metals at low temperatures_ allows for much greater efficiency in operating the electromagnets that guide the proton beams.

Without the superconducting, resistance builds up in the wires, causing them to overheat, he explained.

"That's what we think happened," Gillies said. "This piece of wire heated up, melted, and that led to a mechanical failure."

Gillies said experts have already gone down into the 27-kilometer (17-mile) circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border to inspect the damage.

"By Monday I suspect we'll know more," he said.

Gillies said there is plenty for scientists at CERN to do between now and the startup of experiments, including studying cosmic rays that pass through collider's massive detectors.

Passenger charged in Canada bus attack

What is it with Canada and buses recently?

Police charged a man Monday with an attack on a Greyhound bus in northern Ontario that left a passenger hospitalized, just weeks after a suspect was accused of stabbing and beheading a fellow traveler on a Greyhound.

David Roberts, 28, was charged Monday with aggravated assault and breach of probation in the latest attack.

Police said the 20-year-old victim, who was not further identified, was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries.

Ontario provincial police Constable James Searle said the victim and his attacker didn't appear to know each other and that investigators were trying to determine a motive for Sunday's attack.

Police wouldn't confirm the victim was stabbed but witnesses said the attacker had a knife.

Anita Daher, a Winnipeg author sitting behind the driver on the bus traveling from Toronto to Winnipeg, Manitoba, said Monday that she heard a commotion from the back of the bus and saw a man clutching his chest in pain.

She said Roberts then demanded to be let off the bus before passengers called police on cell phones. Police said the suspect was arrested a short while later.

The attack came less than two months after the gruesome slaying of Tim McLean, 22, on a Greyhound traveling from Edmonton, Alberta, to Winnipeg with 37 passengers. Police said an assailant stabbed McLean dozens of times before severing his head in an unprovoked attack. Vince Weiguang Li is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is competent to stand trial for the killing.

Passengers who witnessed the latest attack questioned why police put Roberts on the bus.

"I certainly want to know how this happened," Daher said. "I would certainly like to see some security measures put in place.

Ontario Provincial police say they were assisting local officers with the alleged attacker shortly before he boarded the bus. But Searle said he couldn't comment further.

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh declined to comment on the incident.

Washington man gets 27 months in dragging death

A man convicted in the dragging death of an Eastern Washington University student has been sentenced to 27 months in prison.

Wendell C. Sinn Jr. was sentenced Monday. Last week, the 45-year-old entered an Alford plea to second-degree manslaughter, meaning he didn't admit guilt but felt he would be found guilty if he went to trial for the death of Jerid S. Sturman-Camyn.

The 20-year-old student was dragged more than 13 miles to his death by a pickup driven by Sinn's teenage son in November 2007.

Sinn was arrested after witnesses say he placed a noose around Sturman-Camyn's neck and attached it to the back of his pickup.

Justin Sinn, told investigators he didn't know he'd been dragging Sturman-Camyn. He hasn't been charged.

NYPD officer gets 5 years for stealing handguns

A former New York City police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing handguns from a police evidence room and trading them for painkillers.

Hubertus Vannes, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., pleaded guilty in May to criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal sale of a firearm. He had been an NYPD officer for two years when he was arrested last fall.

Prosecutors say Vannes admitted trading three stolen guns to a man for painkillers. He had 76 tablets of prescription painkillers in his possession when he was arrested.