tagged w/ Get R Done
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ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss has won re-election in a runoff, dashing Democratic hopes of capturing enough Senate seats to thwart Republican filibusters. Chambliss, who fell just short of the majority vote needed to win re-election in November, prevailed in a one-on-one rematch with Democrat Jim Martin.
With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Chambliss had 58 percent of the vote to Martin's 41 percent. Chambliss' victory thwarted Democrats' hopes of winning a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. It came after a bitter month long runoff against Democrat Jim Martin that drew political luminaries from both parties to the state and flooded the airwaves with fresh attack ads weeks after campaigns elsewhere had ended.
With Norm Coleman expected to win in Minnesota. Checks and Balances have been maintained.ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss has won re-election in a runoff,... more
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The fourth-grader from Castle Rock, Colo., advises Lothario wannabes to stop showing off, go easy on the compliments to avoid looking desperate - and be wary of "pretty girls."
"It is easy to spot pretty girls because they have big earrings, fancy dresses and all the jewelry," he writes in Chapter Three.
"Pretty girls are like cars that need a lot of oil."
He advises, "The best choice for most boys is a regular girl. Remember, some pretty girls are coldhearted when it comes to boys. Don't let them get to you."
Over a few Shirley Temples yesterday at Langan's on West 47 Street, Alec said that he culled his wisdom by peeking at his peers at play.The fourth-grader from Castle Rock, Colo., advises Lothario wannabes to stop showing... more
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I've been going into the grocery stores I frequent with high hopes recently, only to be disappointed. Gas prices are dropping—costing half what they were less than a year ago. And when food prices spiraled up earlier this year, food manufacturers explained that as gas prices rose, transportation costs rose with them.
So, I wondered, shouldn't food prices fall now? If you've been wondering why, too, I offer up a couple of possible explanations. First, from the Danville, Ill., Commercial News:
. . . the fuel price drop is almost one-sided. While gas moves downward by jumps, the price of diesel is taking a much conservative route. Recent prices in Danville averaged just under $2.90 per gallon earlier this week.
I understand about the difference between diesel and gas. Yes, diesel is staying persistently higher than gas fuel. But it's still down from highs that hovered close to $5 per gallon earlier this summer.
Another possible explanation: Fertilizer is petroleum-based. Crops this summer were planted when gas and diesel were much higher, as was fertilizer. So farmers still paid more for base costs this planting season, even though transportation costs to bring their products to market have dropped.
Here's one final thought, courtesy of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
Our problem started with oil prices but continues because of the terrible damage which occurred. Couple with that the World's condition and it doesn't look to good. This makes one realize how good we really had it.I've been going into the grocery stores I frequent with high hopes recently, only... more
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PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Troops killed at least six militants while one soldier died Tuesday in Pakistan's restive northwest, the military said, where the country is waging a bloody offensive against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
They died during a two-hour shootout involving Pakistani helicopter gunships, which started when militants ambushed a security forces convoy in the Kabal area of Swat valley, a military statement said.
"Security forces pounded miscreants' (militants') hideouts in Kabal area. Five militants were killed and another two injured," the statement said.
One militant and one soldier also died in exchange of fire, it said.
The mountainous, snow-capped Swat region is renowned for its ancient Buddhist relics and once attracted large numbers of foreign and local tourists with Pakistan's only ski resort.
But since last year it has been beset by violence blamed on pro-Taliban militants and the army has launched a major offensive on the area in response.
On Monday at least 10 people were killed and 50 injured after a suicide bomber blew up his explosives-laden car at a security checkpoint in the town of Mingora in the Swat valley.
The region has been turned into a battleground since radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, who has links to Pakistan's Taliban, launched a violent campaign for the introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the valley.
Maybe Pakistan's new Prime Minister means business, I hope so.PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Troops killed at least six militants while one... more
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ETROIT – Ford Motor Co. will tell Congress that it plans to return to a pretax profit or break even in 2011 when the Detroit Three automakers' CEOs appear before lawmakers this week to request $25 billion in government loans.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally said he'll work for $1 per year if the company has to take any government loan money.
After grilling the CEOs at hearings last month, Congressional leaders demanded plans from the automakers by Tuesday to show that they will survive if they get federal funds. The plan Ford submitted said the company will cancel all management employees' 2009 bonuses and will not pay any merit increases for its North American salaried employees next year.
The company also said it will sell its five corporate aircraft. The CEOs of all three Detroit automakers were harshly criticized during last month's hearings for flying to Washington in separate corporate jets.
Mulally said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday that Ford will give much more detail to Congress than it did previously, and the company will emphasize the steps it has taken to cut its labor costs with the United Auto Workers union.
Mulally said Ford will seek $9 billion as its share of the loan money but may not need to use it. The Dearborn-based company has said it has enough cash to make it through next year without assistance.ETROIT – Ford Motor Co. will tell Congress that it plans to return to a pretax... more
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The United States warned the Indian government about a potential maritime attack against Mumbai at least a month before last week's massacre in the country's financial capital left nearly 180 dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official told CNN. full story.
The fact that we knew a month before the attacks shows that we are doing our job quit well. I hope when America's turn comes around we are still focused. We can't afford another 9/11.The United States warned the Indian government about a potential maritime attack... more
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MUMBAI, India – India demanded that Pakistan hand over suspected terrorists believed living in the country — including its most-wanted man — as diplomatic wrangling between the nuclear rivals intensified Tuesday following the deadly Mumbai attacks.
A list of about 20 names was given to Pakistan's high commissioner to India during a meeting Monday night, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.
India has already demanded Pakistan take "strong action" against those responsible for the attacks, and the U.S. has pressured Islamabad to cooperate.
The moves come as the government faces widespread accusations of security and intelligence failures after suspected Muslim militants carried out a three-day attack across India's financial capital, killing 172 people and wounding 239.
The 10 gunmen had trained for months in camps operated by a banned Pakistani militant group before slipping into Mumbai from the sea, the only known surviving attacker told police.
India's foreign intelligence agency received information as recently as September that Pakistan-based terrorists were plotting attacks against Mumbai targets, according to a government intelligence official familiar with the matter.MUMBAI, India – India demanded that Pakistan hand over suspected terrorists... more
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As the credit crunch bites, Britons may be turning to sex as a cheap way to pass the time, a charity says.
A YouGov survey of 2,000 adults found sex was the most popular free activity, ahead of window shopping and gossiping.
The Scots were most amorous with 43% choosing sex over other pastimes, compared with 35% in South England.
Aids charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, which published the survey, also welcomed recent figures showing an increase in condom sales.
Around one in 10 respondents to the survey, carried in November, said their favourite free activity was window shopping and 6% chose going to a museum as the cheapest way to pass the time.
But the sexes differed on their priorities, with women preferring to gossip with friends while men had sex firmly at the top of their list.As the credit crunch bites, Britons may be turning to sex as a cheap way to pass the... more
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This is not the ancient sex tape
supposedly sold for $1.5m recently
This one looks ancient [very grainy, but that could
be have been doctored] and consists of
Marilyn Monroe performing various sexual acts
But is it really her? The tape which recently sold for $1.5 Million reportedly shows a 1950's Marilyn on her knees performing oral sex on a man who can't seen by the camera. The tape was in a safety deposit box of an F.B.I agent who died. His son sold it after he died. J Edgar Hoover wanted desperately to prove that the man was either JFK or RFK, but could not. Joe DiMaggio tried frantically to purchase the tape in 1966 for a reported $25,000.00. There is only one copy , and according to it's new owner "it isn't going anywhere". He better put it on CD, that old celluloid will wear out watching it every night.
Unscathed Corpse: The Lost Marilyn's Movie (???)
LINK quote [In 1980, a Swedish photographer discovered a 16mm hardcore sex short film from around 1948, purportedly featuring a young Marilyn Monroe. ...
unscathedcorpse.blogspot.com/2007/05/lost-marilyns-movie.html - 78k - Cached - Similar pagesThis is not the ancient sex tape
supposedly sold for $1.5m recently
This one... more
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The owner of the Taj Mahal hotel says the Mumbai hotel had been warned of a possible terrorist attack prior to this week's deadly terror assault.
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata would not provide details about the warning or the security measures that were enacted as a result, but he told CNN that they were eased in the days before gunmen entered the hotel.
Tata also told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that even if the security precautions had still been in place, they wouldn't have stopped the gunmen because they entered the building through a rear door that does not have a metal detector.
"If I look at what we had ... it could not have stopped what took place," Tata said. "It's ironic that we did have such a warning, and we did have some measures. People couldn't park their cars in the portico, where you had to go through a metal detector. They knew what they were doing, and they did not go through the front. All of our arrangements are in the front. They planned everything," he said of the attackers. "I believe the first thing they did, they shot a sniffer dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen."
Tata said the terrorists were very organized and moved with detailed precision.
"They seemed to know [the hotel] in the night or in the daytime. They seemed to have planned their moves quite well, and there seem to have been a lot of pre-planning."The owner of the Taj Mahal hotel says the Mumbai hotel had been warned of a possible... more
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In this Nov. 28, 2007 file photo, a social worker displays earrings and pendants AP – In this Nov. 28, 2007 file photo, a social worker displays earrings and pendants made using the AIDS …
LONDON – As World AIDS Day is marked on Monday, some experts are growing more outspoken in complaining that AIDS is eating up funding at the expense of more pressing health needs.
They argue that the world has entered a post-AIDS era in which the disease's spread has largely been curbed in much of the world, Africa excepted.
"AIDS is a terrible humanitarian tragedy, but it's just one of many terrible humanitarian tragedies," said Jeremy Shiffman, who studies health spending at Syracuse University.
Roger England of Health Systems Workshop, a think tank based in the Caribbean island of Grenada, goes further. He argues that UNAIDS, the U.N. agency leading the fight against the disease, has outlived its purpose and should be disbanded.
"The global HIV industry is too big and out of control. We have created a monster with too many vested interests and reputations at stake, ... too many relatively well paid HIV staff in affected countries, and too many rock stars with AIDS support as a fashion accessory," he wrote in the British Medical Journal in May.
Paul de Lay, a director at UNAIDS, disagrees. It's valid to question AIDS' place in the world's priorities, he says, but insists the turnaround is very recent and it would be wrong to think the epidemic is under control.
I came to this conclusion years ago. America has much less to worry about than they did in 1990. I used to speak at High school about AIDS. Africa still needs much work though. But, short of mandatory abstinence, what do you do? And...that won't work either, the disease will eventually run it's course. America has made a business out AIDS though, so another one bites the dust.In this Nov. 28, 2007 file photo, a social worker displays earrings and pendants AP... more
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Updated: 12:06 a.m.
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Obama plans to nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state on Monday
By BETH FOUHY | Associated Press Writer
12:06 AM EST, November 30, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama planned to nominate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state on Monday, transforming a once-bitter political rivalry into a high-level strategic and diplomatic partnership.
Obama will name the New York senator to his national security team at a news conference in Chicago, Democratic officials said Saturday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly for the transition team.
To clear the way for his wife to take the job, former President Bill Clinton agreed to disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997. He'll also refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference, and will cease holding CGI meetings overseas.
Bill Clinton's business deals and global charitable endeavors were expected to create problems for the former first lady's nomination. But in negotiations with the Obama transition team, the former president agreed to several measures designed to bring transparency to his post-presidential work.
You've come a long way baby.Updated: 12:06 a.m.
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Obama plans to... more
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MUMBAI, India – 9:21 p.m. Wednesday, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus __ Two young men walk casually through Mumbai's main railway station, a worn Victorian hulk bustling with late commuters heading home, scurrying past small food stands and juice bars and vendors selling newspapers. They enter near the taxi stand, where long lines of battered black and yellow cabs wait for fares. One wears khaki cargo pants and a blue T-shirt. A pair of small knapsacks are slung over a shoulder. He looks like a college kid.
They are, says a photographer who follows them on part of their grim journey, "backpackers with assault rifles."
The two — and other death squads working in pairs — are to wreak carnage in landmark after landmark across Mumbai over the next three days, creating panic in this normally unflappable city and killing more than 195 people.
Obama is on to something on the Pakistan page. Maybe we should take our troops from Iraq and move them to Pakistan for about 30 days of Military games. This crap needs to stop, Pakistan for some reason protects these people. Maybe they need some tough LOVE.MUMBAI, India – 9:21 p.m. Wednesday, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus __ Two young... more
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MUMBAI, India – A 60-hour terror rampage that killed 195 people across India's financial capital ended Saturday when commandos killed the last three gunmen inside a luxury hotel while it was engulfed in flames.
Authorities searched for any remaining captives hiding in their rooms and began to shift their focus to who was behind the attacks, which killed 18 foreigners including six Americans.
A previously unknown Muslim group with a name suggesting origins inside India claimed responsibility for the attack, but Indian officials said the sole surviving gunman was from Pakistan and pointed a finger of blame at their neighbor and rival.
Islamabad denied involvement and promised to help in the investigation. A team of FBI agents also was on its way to India to lend assistance.
Some 295 people also were wounded in the violence that started when at least a dozen heavily armed assailants attacked 10 sites across Mumbai on Wednesday night. At least 20 soldiers and police were among the dead.MUMBAI, India – A 60-hour terror rampage that killed 195 people across... more
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The State University of New York College at Cortland
Increasingly these days, we hear about Islamic fundamentalism from the Western media, the policy makers and many an intellectual. The term has gained so much currency that it deserves some serious scrutiny. It needs our attention especially because it is the Western rendition of Islam, and not an expression which Muslims have anything to do with. Apparently, it seems to imply that there is what you may call fundamentalist Islam as distinct from non-fundamentalist Islam. It seems to emphasize that there are those among Muslims who believe in the basic principles of Islam and there are those who do not.
So far, there have been only two sects in Islam - Shia and Sunni. The adherents of both agree that the Qur'an is the word of the Almighty as revealed to the Prophet Muhammadp. Both share the belief that the Prophet Muhammadp was the last of all the prophets. Further, both proclaim that Islam constitutes an ideology which goes far beyond mere praying, and that it provides universal principles for all crucial aspects of social life.
Despite this broad agreement between the two, relationships between the Shias and the Sunnis have been far from easy over the centuries to say the least. Now this interjection of fundamentalist/non-fundamentalist dichotomy might create a four fold sectarianism: the Shia fundamentalists and the Shia non-fundamentalists; the Sunni fundamentalists and the Sunni non-fundamentalists. Should this differentiation be allowed to take root in modern Islam, it would be an artifact of the West and not due to any intrinsic reasons within the community of Islam itself. Naturally, a closer look at this new expression is in order. What does fundamentalism mean and why is it being used in the context of Islam by the Western media and the policy makers? We shall address ourselves to these questions in this chapter.
Ilyas Ba-Yunus, Ph.D.*
The State University of New York College at CortlandThe State University of New York College at Cortland
Increasingly these days, we... more
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MUMBAI (Reuters) - The bodies of five hostages were found on Friday after Indian security forces attacked gunmen at a Jewish religious centre in Mumbai, an Israeli diplomat told Israeli television by telephone from the scene.
National Security Guard commandos stand on the rooftop of Nariman House in Mumbai November 28, 2008. (REUTERS/Punit Paranjpe)
"The incident has not ended," Haim Choshen told Channel 2. "Five bodies of hostages have been found inside the Chabad House. We still don't know whose bodies."
Also, an Israeli rescue service run by Orthodox Jews said its staff sent to Mumbai to help believed that hostages in the Chabad Centre had died.
"Apparently the hostages did not remain alive," the Zaka service said in a brief statement quoting its staff in Mumbai. It did not identify the hostages nor say how many may have died.
India's National Security Guards chief J.K. Dutt told Indian television that the commandos had killed two militants in operations at the center.
"We have neutralised two terrorists," Dutt said. "Along with that we have also found two bodies. Those bodies appear to be of hostages."
How many innocent people have to die before the United Nations takes this problem seriously? Apparently anti Jewish sentiment and anti American sentiment are so prevalent in The United Nations that this is looked at by them as business as usual. Global terrorism isn't just our problem, if the rest of the world doesn't take this serious what are we supposed to do? This to me says that The United Nations is just a play money fund for third world countries and we should not adhere to anything they say.MUMBAI (Reuters) - The bodies of five hostages were found on Friday after Indian... more
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Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday finally got the broad consensus he sought on the Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. - 149 of the 198 lawmakers present in the 275-member National Assembly gave their support to a deal that allows American forces to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. But Iraq's legislators also put the prime minister on notice: "We want to tell Maliki that we are building a new democracy, and that we're not ready anymore to let the power be in one man's hands, no matter who he is," said Abdel-Bari al-Zebari, a Kurdish lawmaker.
It is fairly apparent that the Iraqi's can't handle Governing themselves yet. The question is why not? And how do they plan to accomplish this? And....are they going to pay our expenses? Giving them their chance at freedom is one thing, breaking our own back in the process is yet another. There is plenty of oil money to rebuild their infrastructure and to pay us for our time. I think this should be a stipulation. The leaders in power have much to gain from success, and much to loose from failure. So...let them put their money where their mouth is.Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Thursday finally got the broad consensus... more
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CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said their young daughters will still have to do chores in the White House and won't get out of doing homework just because they're the president's children. In an interview with Barbara Walters, the Obamas said Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, will have lives as normal as possible. That means helping out around the house.
"That was the first thing I said to some of the staff when I did my visit," Michelle Obama said. "I said, 'You know, we're going to have to set up some boundaries,' because they're going to need to be able to make their beds, and clean up."
The girls, who will be attending the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, also will be expected to do their homework as usual. Although, the president-elect said, Malia has her eye on a special spot to write important papers.
I have to admit, he is already setting a good example. I also have to admit I am warming up to him. He already is returning something to The White House that has been gone since the Reagan years. The feeling that he, The President, is one of us, and that little things matter too. First the cupcakes for the VP. Now teaching his kids they're not too good to work. This guy keeps going and their wont be any Republicans left. If he can Govern as good as it seems he might be able too. America will be the better for it. Back in the beginning the Presidents were ordinary people with extra ordinary jobs. He seems to be much more ordinary than he was portrayed in both Medias Left and Right. He just might bring change to Washington. But, he better get some hand picked Secret Service men. If he decides to crimp the Military Complex he's gonna need them. But we, need them crimped, severely crimped. If someone makes an attempt on his life it won't be a Racist, it will be a Government guy. Of course they will disguise it as a Red neck or a KKK guy, the die has already been cast for that. This it what worries me. I sincerely hope he takes some executive actions against the Government Military Complex, the alien question etc. But he had better have some good guy's at his backside.CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, said their young... more
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