Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Cashill TWA Flight 800

How Sandy Berger paid back the GOP
Posted: January 29, 2007

Cashill continues...

As the No. 2 Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, Weldon had not only exposed the Clinton administration's lethal "Able Danger" breakdown, but he had also catalogued the CIA's failures before Sept. 11 in his book "Countdown to Terror." And he wasn't stopping there.

In late July 2006, I accompanied Mike and Joan Wire to visit Weldon in his D.C. office. The Wires, who live in suburban Philadelphia, had arranged the interview.

I happened to be in New Jersey at the time so we drove down together. The interview lasted two and a half hours and ended only because I had to leave.

Mike Wire just happened to be the most critical of the 270 eyewitnesses to an apparent missile strike on TWA Flight 800 on July 17, 1996. As is well enough known, the government had argued that a mechanical failure brought down the plane.

To make the story work, however, the FBI and/or the CIA had to manufacture from whole cloth a second interview with Wire that fit their invented scenario.

This was criminal obstruction, and it is easily verified.

To get some sense of what Wire and others actually witnessed, I have put two relevant sections of the video "Silenced" on YouTube. The skeptical reader would do well to review these clips: Part 1 and Part 2.

As late as 2001, I was as skeptical about TWA Flight 800 as the next guy. It was then that I met James and Elizabeth Sanders. The Sanders and TWA Capt. Terrel Stacey had been arrested in 1997 and charged with conspiracy.

An investigative reporter, Sanders was doing the job the major media had chosen not to do. Elizabeth, a TWA trainer, had introduced her husband to Stacey, then working inside the investigation; nothing more...

Unfortunately for America, by suppressing talk of TWA Flight 800, the Clinton administration had to suppress talk of a very real terror plot against the United States that culminated in the events of Sept. 11. ..

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54006

Sandy Berger firm shuffle

How Sandy Berger paid back the GOP
Jack CashillPosted: January 29, 2007
11:11 p.m. Eastern
World net Daily

On July 6, 2006, Stonebridge International, a global strategy firm, announced that it had added a new member to its high-profile, five-member advisory board – former Democrat Rep. Lee Hamilton.

True to form, the major media ignored the Hamilton appointment. They should not have. Hamilton, who had served as vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, had just joined a firm headed by the man who had criminally undermined that very Commission, Stonebridge chairman and founder Samuel "Sandy" Berger...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54006

natural sources account for more than 95% all atmospheric carbon dioxide

The list of professional skeptics is growing.

Still wondering what exactly altered Ron Bailey's long-standing position as a mankind-influenced global warming/climate change skeptic when he wrote, "We're all global warmers now."

"We're all global warmers now."

That exact phrase is what Bailey uses as the title of his August 11, 2005 piece in Reason Magazine noting a reversal of his long-standing position challenging global warming.

"We're all global warmers now."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34079.html

Obviously, we're NOT ALL global warmers now, and especially, not just because he has switched his position.


Global Warming Natural, May End Within 20 Years, Says Ohio State University Researcher
Science Daily — COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Global warming is a natural geological process that could begin to reverse itself within 10 to 20 years, predicts an Ohio State University researcher.

The researcher suggests that atmospheric carbon dioxide -- often thought of as a key "greenhouse gas" -- is not the cause of global warming. The opposite is most likely to be true, according to Robert Essenhigh, E.G. Bailey Professor of Energy Conservation in Ohio State's Department of Mechanical Engineering. It is the rising global temperatures that are naturally increasing the levels of carbon dioxide, not the other way around, he says.

Essenhigh explains his position in a "viewpoint" article in the current issue of the journal Chemical Innovation, published by the American Chemical Society.


Many people blame global warming on carbon dioxide sent into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels in man-made devices such as automobiles and power plants. Essenhigh believes these people fail to account for the much greater amount of carbon dioxide that enters -- and leaves -- the atmosphere as part of the natural cycle of water exchange from, and back into, the sea and vegetation.

"Many scientists who have tried to mathematically determine the relationship between carbon dioxide and global temperature would appear to have vastly underestimated the significance of water in the atmosphere as a radiation-absorbing gas," Essenhigh argues. "If you ignore the water, you're going to get the wrong answer."

How could so many scientists miss out on this critical bit of information, as Essenhigh believes? He said a National Academy of Sciences report on carbon dioxide levels that was published in 1977 omitted information about water as a gas and identified it only as vapor, which means condensed water or cloud, which is at a much lower concentration in the atmosphere; and most subsequent investigations into this area evidently have built upon the pattern of that report.

For his hypothesis, Essenhigh examined data from various other sources, including measurements of ocean evaporation rates, man-made sources of carbon dioxide, and global temperature data for the last one million years.

He cites a 1995 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a panel formed by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme in 1988 to assess the risk of human-induced climate change. In the report, the IPCC wrote that some 90 billion tons of carbon as carbon dioxide annually circulate between the earth's ocean and the atmosphere, and another 60 billion tons exchange between the vegetation and the atmosphere.

Compared to man-made sources' emission of about 5 to 6 billion tons per year, the natural sources would then account for more than 95 percent of all atmospheric carbon dioxide, Essenhigh said.

"At 6 billion tons, humans are then responsible for a comparatively small amount - less than 5 percent - of atmospheric carbon dioxide," he said. "And if nature is the source of the rest of the carbon dioxide, then it is difficult to see that man-made carbon dioxide can be driving the rising temperatures. In fact, I don't believe it does."

Some scientists believe that the human contribution to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, however small, is of a critical amount that could nonetheless upset Earth's environmental balance. But Essenhigh feels that, mathematically, that hypothesis hasn't been adequately substantiated.

Here's how Essenhigh sees the global temperature system working: As temperatures rise, the carbon dioxide equilibrium in the water changes, and this releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to this scenario, atmospheric carbon dioxide is then an indicator of rising temperatures -- not the driving force behind it.

Essenhigh attributes the current reported rise in global temperatures to a natural cycle of warming and cooling.

He examined data that Cambridge University geologists Nicholas Shackleton and Neil Opdyke reported in the journal Quaternary Research in 1973, which found that global temperatures have been oscillating steadily, with an average rising gradually, over the last one million years -- long before human industry began to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Opdyke is now at the University of Florida.

According to Shackleton and Opdyke's data, average global temperatures have risen less than one degree in the last million years, though the amplitude of the periodic oscillation has now risen in that time from about 5 degrees to about 10 degrees, with a period of about 100,000 years.

"Today, we are simply near a peak in the current cycle that started about 25,000 years ago," Essenhigh explained.

As to why highs and lows follow a 100,000 year cycle, the explanation Essenhigh uses is that the Arctic Ocean acts as a giant temperature regulator, an idea known as the "Arctic Ocean Model." This model first appeared over 30 years ago and is well presented in the 1974 book Weather Machine: How our weather works and why it is changing, by Nigel Calder, a former editor of New Scientist magazine.

According to this model, when the Arctic Ocean is frozen over, as it is today, Essenhigh said, it prevents evaporation of water that would otherwise escape to the atmosphere and then return as snow. When there is less snow to replenish the Arctic ice cap, the cap may start to shrink. That could be the cause behind the retreat of the Arctic ice cap that scientists are documenting today, Essenhigh said.

As the ice cap melts, the earth warms, until the Arctic Ocean opens again. Once enough water is available by evaporation from the ocean into the atmosphere, snows can begin to replenish the ice cap. At that point, the Arctic ice begins to expand, the global temperature can then start to reverse, and the earth can start re-entry to a new ice age.

According to Essenhigh's estimations, Earth may reach a peak in the current temperature profile within the next 10 to 20 years, and then it could begin to cool into a new ice age.

Essenhigh knows that his scientific opinion is a minority one. As far as he knows, he's the only person who's linked global warming and carbon dioxide in this particular way. But he maintains his evaluations represent an improvement on those of the majority opinion, because they are logically rigorous and includes water vapor as a far more significant factor than in other studies.

"If there are flaws in these propositions, I'm listening," he wrote in his Chemical Innovation paper. "But if there are objections, let's have them with the numbers."


Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Ohio State University.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010615071248.htm

Viewpoint Paper on Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
"Does CO2 really drive global warming? by Robert Essenhigh. Chemical Innovation 2001, 31 (5), 44-46. Copyright (c) 2001 American Chemical Society. This article expresses the views of the author and not necessarily those of Chemical Innovation magazine or the American Chemical Society."

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/ci/31/special/may01_viewpoint.html

See http://www.warwickhughes.com/climate/links.htm for Robert Essenhigh article link and more. I thought we had most of the contrarians already listed, but there are more, and more, and more...

Another branch of the far flung NASA Empire, this time with convenient site where you see an image map in red and blue of global temperature anomalies from 1979, collected by satellite, you can choose various layers of the atmosphere and by clicking on the map or making a rectangle with your mouse, can see a graph for that area.

http://weather.msfc.nasa.gov/temperature/

INQUA Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, whose President is Professor Nils-Axel Mörner of Sweden. Under the title "Research Topics 5: The expected sea level changes in the next century", the Commission says:
This is a topic of much controversy. … As it is now, the scenarios are primarily presented by people with little or no specialization in sea level research. This is especially true for the IPCC project where "sea level changes" are treated in ways far away from proper observational records.
Sounds like the IPCC I know.


http://www.pog.su.se/sea

World Climate Report: Professor Pat Michaels and colleagues exposing inadequate climate science and all sorts of new material.

http://www.co2andclimate.org/climate/

Search results

http://www.google.com/search?q=Robert+Essenhigh+Chemical+Innovation+2001&hl=en&sourceid=gd&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-40,GGLD:en

The question has popped up on posts contrary to the so-called concensus-that-isn't on man-made (fossil fuels) global warming.

Why is Pluto, warming?

Global Warming on Pluto Puzzles Scientists
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 09 October 2002


In what is largely a reversal of an August announcement, astronomers today said Pluto is undergoing global warming in its thin atmosphere even as it moves farther from the Sun on its long, odd-shaped orbit.

Pluto's atmospheric pressure has tripled over the past 14 years, indicating a stark temperature rise, the researchers said. The change is likely a seasonal event, much as seasons on Earth change as the hemispheres alter their inclination to the Sun during the planet's annual orbit.

They suspect the average surface temperature increased about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit, or slightly less than 2 degrees Celsius.

Pluto remains a mysterious world whose secrets are no so easily explained, however. The warming could be fueled by some sort of eruptive activity on the small planet, one astronomer speculated.

The increasing temperatures are more likely explained by two simple facts: Pluto's highly elliptical orbit significantly changes the planet's distance from the Sun during its long "year," which lasts 248 Earth years; and unlike most of the planets, Pluto's axis is nearly in line with the orbital plane, tipped 122 degrees. Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees.

Though Pluto was closest to the Sun in 1989, a warming trend 13 years later does not surprise David Tholen, a University of Hawaii astronomer involved in the discovery.

"It takes time for materials to warm up and cool off, which is why the hottest part of the day on Earth is usually around 2 or 3 p.m. rather than local noon," Tholen said. "This warming trend on Pluto could easily last for another 13 years."...

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto_warming_021009.html

search results for more

http://www.google.com/search?q=pluto+warming&hl=en&sourceid=gd&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-40,GGLD:en

Did you all read Don't Believe the Hype
Al Gore is wrong. There's no "consensus" on global warming.
BY RICHARD S. LINDZEN
Sunday, July 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT


http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008597

If you didn't you should.

More news

'Inconvenient Truth' Producer Pens Kids' Global Warming Text
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
January 30, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Move over, Chicken Little. A children's book planned for release in September is an attempt to "fill the minds of children with 'sky-is-falling' global warming hysteria," a Republican senator warns...

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200701/CUL20070130b.html

Drudge Report

Two New Books Confirm Global Warming is Natural; Not Caused By Human Activity
Tue Jan 30 2007 10:02:32 ET


Two powerful new books say today’s global warming is due not to human activity but primarily to a long, moderate solar-linked cycle. Unstoppable Global Warming Every 1500 Years, by physicist Fred Singer and economist Dennis Avery was released just before Christmas. The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, by Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark and former BBC science writer Nigel Calder (Icon Books), is due out in March.

Singer and Avery note that most of the earth’s recent warming occurred before 1940, and thus before much human-emitted CO2. Moreover, physical evidence shows 600 moderate warmings in the earth’s last million years. The evidence ranges from ancient Nile flood records, Chinese court documents and Roman wine grapes to modern spectral analysis of polar ice cores, deep seabed sediments, and layered cave stalagmites.

Unstoppable Global Warming shows the earth’s temperatures following variations in solar intensity through centuries of sunspot records, and finds cycles of sun-linked isotopes in ice and tree rings. The book cites the work of Svensmark, who says cosmic rays vary the earth’s temperatures by creating more or fewer of the low, wet clouds that cool the earth. It notes that global climate models can’t accurately register cloud effects.

The Chilling Stars relates how Svensmark’s team mimicked the chemistry of earth’s atmosphere, by putting realistic mixtures of atmospheric gases into a large reaction chamber, with ultraviolet light as a stand-in for the sun. When they turned on the UV, microscopic droplets—cloud seeds—started floating through the chamber.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash2.htm

Pluto Warming

not to be overshadowed by the revelations about PA's state legislative activities... How many freshmen legislators gave out the bonuses?



House Democrats give aides secret bonuses
By Alison Hawkes, For the Herald-Standard
01/30/2007

HARRISBURG - House Democrats have given certain legislative aides taxpayer-financed bonuses, but Majority Leader H. William DeWeese will not give any details about how much and who received the extra pay.

The secrecy of the transaction led citizen activist Gene Stilp to file a lawsuit Monday in Commonwealth Court against DeWeese, Speaker Dennis O'Brien, and acting Treasurer Anthony Wagner. Stilp said there's no proof the bonuses were not serving as illegal compensation for campaign-related work.

"When they won't release the names, the amounts, and lists and the state has been through a contentious election, there seems to me a very big question here about why these payments are being made," said Stilp. "It has to do with non-legislative work and so we will see."

The story of the "special meritorious bonus payments" first appeared Saturday in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, which obtained a copy of a letter DeWeese sent to staff bonus recipients earlier this month...


excerpt continued

Andrews also would not acknowledge recent disbursement of bonuses.

"Meritorious increments are awarded throughout the year," he said. "They could be at the end of a calendar year, fiscal year or at various other times."

Without DeWeese's cooperation, it may be very difficult to track staff compensation. Salaries of individual staff are obtainable records through written requests to the House Clerk's office, but they do not state any one-time bonuses.

Andrews declined to say whether he received a bonus.

Legislative staff are at-will employees whose salaries and benefits are not set by the state workers' contract.

Andrews described the bonus system, called "meritorious increments," as a reward when "you've done something extra." As an example of the kind of bonuses that might go out, he mentioned the policy people who would work over the next six months to craft the 47 bills in the governor's new health care initiative.

But he said it's not for campaign work.

"The House Democratic caucus understands the difference between campaign work and legislative work and we deny the claims made in the lawsuit," Andrews said.

Stilp said the public needs more proof.

"I'm looking for total openness in government and we don't have that here," he said. "Just like the pay raise and unvouchered expenses, they're circling the wagons. I don't trust anything they have to say."

On a different track, Stilp said he expects the new House Legislative Reform Commission, which meets for the second time tomorrow, to pick up the issue...

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17780800&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6

Publication: Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA)
Author(s): CHARLES THOMPSON AND JAN MURPHY Of The Patriot-News
Date: January 27, 2007
Page: A01


Democrats give some staffers bonuses // Snubbed aides question tax-funded payments

It was a very good year for House Democrats. Last year was so good that some caucus employees got to celebrate their successes with a bonus check that arrived earlier this month.

The taxpayer-funded bonuses went to an unspecified number of workers accompanied by a letter from House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Greene. The letter said it "was time to recognize people like you who have consistently demonstrated your dedication."

But DeWeese apparently didn't feel that all caucus employees deserved this recognition because not all of them received one of the "special meritorious bonus payments."

He indicated as much in his letter...

http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=116EE7F02E0F1F58&p_docnum=1

Monday, January 29, 2007

Global Warming Report

World Net Daily Headlines

ENVIRONETDAILY
8-degree jump if pollution doubles?
Report claims evidence for man-made influence on climate now stronger than ever
--Agence France-Presse

Report: Warming means hunger, thirst for billions
U.N. panel report says rising sea levels could flood 7 million homes
--Agence France-Presse

Celebrities warn: 10 years to save planet
Launch 'Global Cool' effort to get 1 billion people to change habits
--London Sun

WND.ARCHIVES, SEPT. 15
WorldNetDaily
U.S. climate researcher: We've got 10 years left
NASA scientist urges action, but records show summer of '36 hotter than '06
--WND

Waxman says Bush officials 'mislead' on warming
Democratic chairman examining government's response to climate change
--Associated Press

U.N. agency presses for climate-crisis summit
'Emergency' meeting would focus on hunt for successor to Kyoto
--Reuters

2 new books: 'Global warming' natural, moderate
Publications say human activity not responsible for temperatures
--EarthTimes.org

13% of U.S. never heard of 'global warming'
ACNielsen survey chief claims heat-up 'happening and is here to stay'
--Reuters

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/

Drudge Headlines

'BILLIONS TO GO WATERLESS' IN CLIMATE SHOCK...
ALL-STAR GROUP: 10 years to save the planet...
COUNTER: Two New Books Confirm Global Warming is Natural; Not Caused By Human Activity...
UN pushes for special climate summit...
Groups Allege Pressure...
Waxman pursuing White House over misdirection...

http://www.drudgereport.com/

U.N. agency pressures Ban on climate crisis summit
By Daniel Wallis
Tue Jan 30, 9:59 AM ET
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The U.N. environment agency pressured Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday to call an emergency climate summit amid dire reports about the risks from global warming.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070130/sc_nm/un_climate_dc_10

Global warming: rise of 4.5 C if pollution doubles, says draft report

Jan 30 9:44 AM US/Eastern

Earth's surface temperature could rise by 4.5 C (8.1 F) if carbon dioxide levels double over pre-industrial levels, but higher warming cannot be ruled out, according to a draft report under debate by the UN's top climate experts.
The draft -- being discussed line by line at the four-day meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) -- grimly states that the evidence for man-made influence on the climate system is now stronger than ever.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2007/01/30/070130144355.3d4dht2o.html

International Group Prepares to Issue Global Warming Report
Aired January 29, 2007


http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/29/ywt.01.html

Eiffel Tower to switch off lights as scientists finish major report on global warming
By ANGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press Writer
PARIS

Even the Eiffel Tower is out to save the planet.

http://www.greencoast.org/node/30341


Net the Truth Online finds

Don't Believe the Hype
Al Gore is wrong. There's no "consensus" on global warming.
BY RICHARD S. LINDZEN
Sunday, July 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT


http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008597

Climate chaos? Don't believe it
By Christopher Monckton, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:14am GMT 05/11/2006


Download Christopher Monckton's references and detailed calculations [pdf]

The Stern report last week predicted dire economic and social effects of unchecked global warming. In what many will see as a highly controversial polemic, Christopher Monckton disputes the 'facts' of this impending apocalypse and accuses the UN and its scientists of distorting the truth

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/05/nosplit/nwarm05.xml

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=global+warming+report+ipcc+wrong&btnG=Search

More debate

http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2007/01/18/al-gore-doesnt-want-to-debate-global-warming/
Mixed Reports on National Guard Border Confrontation
Monday, January 29, 2007
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C248124%2C00.html

Border agents case puzzling

Ballistics data don't support charge against border agents
Investigator: U.S. attorney twisted evidence to fit case – 'guilty of malicious prosecution'
Posted: January 28, 2007
10:45 p.m. Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Ballistics reports, used in the trial of Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, one of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting fleeing drug dealer Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, do not support the prosecution's claim the bullet was fired from Ramos' gun, according to documents provided to WND from Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Friends of the Border Patrol.

Despite the conclusion of a laboratory criminalist that he could not conclusively link the bullet removed from Aldrete-Davila with Ramos' service weapon, a Department of Homeland Security agent swore, in an affidavit of complaint filed against Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, that Aldrete-Davila was hit by a round fired by Ramos...

Homeland Security memos contradict U.S. attorney
Also reveal smuggler formed 'hunting party' targeting Ramos, Compean

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: January 31, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

In the high-profile case of two U.S. Border Patrol officers imprisoned after shooting and wounding a Mexican drug smuggler, two Department of Homeland Security documents apparently contradict the version of events put forth by the U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted the case.

The internal Department of Homeland Security memoranda – which have been denied Congress despite repeated requests by two House members – show that within one month of the shooting incident involving Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, government investigators had identified the smuggler as Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila.

But this seems to contradict U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton's claim that Aldrete-Davila came forward through a Mexican lawyer who offered to identify his client in exchange for immunity.

A March 14, 2005, memo notes that Aldrete-Davila's mother had contacted the mother-in-law of a U.S. Border Patrol agent to talk about the shooting and a memo from four months later talks about an interview with that Border Patrol agent. Also, the immunity agreement offered to Aldrete-Davila promises no prosecution against him will result from his testimony and reveals that it was signed on March 15, 2005.

Andy Ramirez, chairman of Friends of the Border Patrol, says the documents raise questions as to why Sutton chose to prosecute the Border Patrol agents rather than the drug smuggler.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54027

Poe seeks 'public' documents on border agents
Congressman hasn't read classified version to keep private facts secure

Posted: February 1, 2007
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54046

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Ohio secretary of state exploring 'drafting' poll workers
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio's secretary of state is considering a plan to draft poll workers to supplement an aging work force and shorten the job's long hours, a spokesman said Saturday.

Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, plans to ask the GOP-controlled Legislature to authorize the proposal, Brunner spokesman Jeff Ortega said Saturday. Experts said Ohio would be the first state to use a draft.

Brunner believes the move would lower the average age of poll workers from 72 and ease the workload. Ohio has about 47,000 poll workers -- or just over four per precinct.

Prospective poll workers would be notified by mail that they would be needed for two days of training and would be required to work an eight-hour election day. Currently, poll workers are in precincts for all 13 hours the polls are open.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/national/BO41339/

Sunlight Foundation Left Right Middle?

Sunlight Foundation founder (Ellen Miller) being interviewed on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace... he didn't appear to ask from where their funding originates, or whom they are funding... Wallace did make a comment referencing a belief they were a Democrat party leaning organization that targets mostly Republicans... but he didn't ask any detailed questions after Miller's defensive response... they're non-partisan... Wallace also didn't press whether they hold a position on global warming...

search

http://www.google.com/search?q=sunlight+foundation+&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-40,GGLD:en&start=10&sa=N

http://sunlightfoundation.org/

sunlightfoundation.org This page is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com

http://www.sunlightlabs.org/

http://sunlightlabs.com/popuppoliticians/

We're dogged in our search. Is the Sunlight Foundation a left-leaning organization?

search

Who talks about them and are they receiving funding in a roundabout way from the Sunlight Foundation?

What is their position on global warming, for instance?

Note: Sourcewatch reveals on site SourceWatch is an encyclopedia of people, issues and groups shaping the public agenda. It is a project of the Center for Media & Democracy; email bob AT sourcewatch.org...

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=110th_Congress

Sourcewatch notes the Center for Media & Democracy... funded by the Sunlight Foundation...

Center for Media and Democracy. A one year grant to develop the Congresspedia, a joint project of CMD and the Sunlight Foundation. $95,000.


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sunlight_Foundation

So anything Sourcewatch states about the Sunlight Foundation has to be taken as supportive of the Sunlight Foundation since Soucewatch receives funding from Center for Media & Democracy...

Sourcewatch
The Sunlight Foundation was founded in January 2006 with the goal of using the revolutionary power of the Internet and new information technology to enable citizens to learn more about what Congress and their elected representatives are doing, and thus help reduce corruption, ensure greater transparency and accountability by government, and foster public trust in the vital institutions of democracy. At the core of all of the Foundation's work is a focus the power of technology and the Internet to transform the relationship between citizen's and their government.

The Foundation's initial projects – from the establishment of a Congresspedia, the making of “transparency grants”[1][2] for the development and enhancement of databases and websites, and two separate efforts to engage the public in distributed journalism and offer online tutorials on the role of money in politics efforts – are based on the premise that the collective power of citizens to demand greater accountability is the clearest route to reform...

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Sunlight_Foundation

Global Warming

Launching “Sunlight Labs” | Sunlight FoundationThe Sunlight Foundation was founded in 2006 with the goal of using technology to ... the reality of needed steps to slow down the rate of global warming. ...
sunlightfoundation.com/node/603 - 24k

http://sunlightfoundation.com/node/603

Sunlight Gives $10K to NewAssignment.Net
I'm announcing today that NewAssignment.Net has received $10,000 in underwriting support from the Sunlight Foundation, matching the gift by Craig Newmark that got us started. Like Newmark, Sunlight is underwriting the test project we plan to undertake in 2006...

One of Sunlight’s first grants was $234,713 to OMB Watch to create a searchable database of government grants and contracts and put it online. (Congress has proposed doing the same thing, and says it would cost $9 million to get going.) That could figure in future New Assignment projects.

Miller says things on Capital Hill might change with “thousands of citizen journalists suggesting story ideas, providing research, analysis, reporting and muckraking.” An “all too cozy relationship” between lawmakers and the traditional press could be disrupted from outside. “Look at what bloggers – and their readers — have unearthed to date: unmasking anonymous holds on legislation; engaging citizens in uncovering earmarks; making lawmakers and candidates for office explain where they stand on issues like Social Security.”...

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/2006/09/07/slt_gift.html

More
Sunlight Foundation's Amazing, Fun Message Creation Tool
Remember the Chevy Tahoe build-your-own advertising campaign that went bad? Well, the Sunlight Foundation has its own rendition with a $5,000 contest entitled: What Do You Think Congress Does All Day?

They have everything you need to build your own video; the learning curve is about 15 minutes.

http://pjnet.org/weblogs/pjnettoday/archives/001341.html

Still searching finds

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/home?wid=10&func=viewSubmission&sid=2558

Raw Thought: Disinfecting the Sunlight Foundation

http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dissunlight

Real Path to 9/11 Hannity's America

Hannity's America showed a brief portion of the ABC docu-drama Path to 9/11, had two guests discuss the segment, and replayed the scene with the deleted material visible.

All that seemed to be deleted from the scene in question was the follow-up after an exchange between Sandy Berger and George Tenet with field agents backing out of the area saying the mission is aborted.

The rest of the clip prior to that remained the same, with an exchange obviously between Sandy Berger and George Tenet.

Guests were the producer Nowrswath and Martin Scheuer.

Nowrswath said he'd believed the result of the film was the same, without the deletion, the same intent was portrayed, basically the exchange between Sandy Berger and George Tenet. Berger equivocated on taking out bin Laden, and as Tenet pressed, Berger said it was up to Tenet to make the call...

Norswath said President Clinton contradicted himself on the Chris Wallace program when he said he'd tried to get bin Laden...

Hannity showed another clip of Bill Clinton which we posted previously...

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/2007/01/path-to-911-hannity-reviews-deletions.html

Bill Clinton on Osama Bin Laden
Videotape Feb. 15, 2002 Long Island Association You Tube with transcript

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvo2lQe81xk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eblogsforbush%2Ecom%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F007846%2Ehtml

You tube finds

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=path+to+911&search=Search

Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007 'Hannity's America' special report weekend - the REAL path to 9/11 and the controversy surrounding the cancelled ABC miniseries including scenes never before seen on TV that were edited out of the film... 9 PM tonight

http://www.foxnews.com/hannitysamerica/

Fox to air outtake from controversial Path to 9/11
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Unseen footage from the controversial ABC docudrama The Path to 9/11 has been obtained by Fox News and will be shown Sunday on Hannity's America.

The scene shows Sandy Berger, played by actor Devin Dunn, refusing to authorize an attack on Osama bin Laden despite a request from CIA officials, who said he was in their sights.

Berger was a national security adviser to President Clinton. The footage, which was expunged before it aired last September, was shown by the docudrama's senior producer and writer/producer at a World Affairs Council event at California State University. The footage was shown as Fox cameras rolled.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/4502709.html

U.S. Warned of Bin Laden A Decade Before 9/11
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/17/sitroom.01.html

Saturday, January 27, 2007

PA Reform Populists Want Convention Initiatives Referendums

A Pa Convention to alter the PA Constitution, the idea crops up again and again. Why? There's nothing wrong with the Pennsylvania Constitution. The PA Constitution was clear back in July 2005 when the state legislators voted themselves salary increases (completely legal by the way), but at the same time took the increases in the form of unvouchered expenses during the term in which the increases were passed. Unconstitutional.

It was the incumbents, the men and women holding an elected office of public trust who trampled on the already binding and clear tenets of the PA Constitution.

In the meantime, for treatment of the issue of a 2007 PA Con-Con and dangers of an open, general convention and further discussion points visit

http://dirtline.tripod.com/votefix/

good explanation of the sorry affair of the paygrab

http://www.clapper.org/bmc/blog/state-politics/pigs-on-the-wing

What does Tony Phyrillas want again, however, to smack the legislators into reality, yep, a convention and initiatives and referendums. Direct Democracy.

How many times does someone have to point to the framers of the PA Constitution and federal constitution to prove the founders did not create a democracy? Instead, they created a republic, a nation of the rule of law, not the rule of men...

Phyrillas persists in including the convention and initiatives and referendums among a listing of reforms the state legislators should consider as those proposed by the "people."

Actually, the other reform recommendations are not bad, but they can all be done without a convention.

All except for the term limits. Term limits will keep the two-party majority system in place, and shuffling names and faces around every twelve years or whatever the maximum of the term limits will be will only get different names and faces.

The entrenched party ideologies will not change, and those ideologies are exactly where the problems are.

For some reason, Phyrillas just doesn't get it. The same people who have abused the PA Constitution will be the delegates to a convention. Look for PCN to heavily cover the reform recommendations of Democracy Rising, too, with no rebuttal from those who object to convening a PA Constitutional Convention. If it all sounds familiar, it is...

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Pa. residents finally get a say on reform
Tony Phyrillas
Here's a switch. Pennsylvania lawmakers want to hear what Pennsylvania residents have to say...

A House panel studying the need for legislative reforms has set up an e-mail address where citizens can send their ideas for improving the lawmaking process, according to The Associated Press.

Here's your chance to tell the members of the Pennsylvania House of Lords that it's time to return government to the people.
Here's a few suggestions for ways to reform Harrisburg.

1) Convene a Constitutional Convention as soon as possible
2) Allow for voter Initiative, Referendum and Recall
3) Cut the size of the Legislature in half
4) Eliminate pensions for elected officials and all other lawmaker perks
5) Term limits on legislators, committee chairmen, legislative leaders
6) Redraw legislative districts to make them competitive
7) Real regulation of lobbyists and campaign finances
8) Eliminate legislative 'lame duck' sessions
9) Ban 'ghost voting' and all forms of 'proxy voting'
10) No more midnight votes; Do the people's business in the light of day

http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com/2007/01/pa-residents-get-say-on-reform.html

Tony Phyrillas constant refrain...

To make sure that reform is more than just talk, an unusual mix of organizations has formed a coalition that is pushing a "Roadmap to Reform.

"The campaign was announced last week in Harrisburg by nine organizations representing the left, center and right of the political spectrum. The coalition listed 10 ways the legislature can improve the way the people's business is conducted in Harrisburg and it challenged politicians to have the reforms in place before Oct.

1.The organizations proposing the "Roadmap to Reform" are: Common Cause Pennsylvania; Commonwealth Foundation, Democracy Rising PA, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Citizens for Legislator Accountability, Pennsylvania Council of Churches, Rock the Capital, Stop the Illegal Pay Raise Inc. and Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania.The "Roadmap to Reform" includes steps to make government transparent and elections more competitive, according to Tim Potts, co-founder of Democracy Rising PA.

It also includes a call to convene the state’s first general constitutional convention since 1873.

Key elements of the 'Roadmap' include:

• Banning lawmakers from taking gifts and entertainment from lobbyists.
• Posting all legislative votes for the public within 24 hours.
• Passing an open records law for the legislature.• Requiring the posting of lawmakers' expenditures and salary/benefits information online.
• Making lawmakers' health care insurance benefits consistent with the private sector.
• Banning fund-raisers while the legislature is in session.
• Authorizing and funding a constitutional convention to explore further reform.

It's an ambitious agenda, but why not shoot for the moon? The biggest obstacle to these reforms is the legislators themselves (and Gov. Ed Rendell) who like the status quo in Harrisburg.

Now that the voters have the legislators over a barrel, there's no time like the present to make demands for better government.The complete reform agenda can be reviewed at

www.democracyrisingpa.com...

http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com/

at Democracy Rising PA

Lobbyist Control
Ban gifts and entertainment
Quarterly reporting for lobbyists with expenses greater than $2,500 per quarter
Restoration of reporting requirements that were modified in the House.
Over by October
End session on or before October 1 by joint resolution
Propose an amendment to the Constitution to prohibit lame-duck session
Open Record
Require the General Assembly and each of its members to comply fully with existing law to the same degree and in the same detail as required of executive agencies
Require the judicial branch to comply with the Open Records Law
Assign a legislative body the immediate task of re-writing existing law to give
Pennsylvania the highest standards of integrity and openness in America for public access to government documents
Legislator Voting Records
All votes by individual legislator – including committee votes, procedural votes and votes on amendment and final passage – must be posted online within 24 hours with links to the language actually voted upon and the final outcome of the vote
Citizen Opportunity Period (COP)
Require a waiting period of at least 72 hours, preferably two weeks, between final amendment and final passage of all legislation in each chamber
Perks
Provide a monthly, online accounting for each legislator detailing the cost of all salary, benefits and expenses paid during the previous month
Permit per diems for actual expenses only as documented by detailed vouchers that are open to public inspection via the Internet
Prohibit all forms of unvouchered expenses
Adjust health care insurance benefits for lawmakers so that they are consistent with current private sector practices for ordinary workers
Competition
Campaign Finance
Prohibit fundraisers while the Legislature is in session.
Require public reporting of campaign donations one week prior to the primary and general election.
Reapportionment
Enact a requirement for legislative districts to be as politically competitive as possible (in addition to existing requirements)
Elections
Amend election laws so that they level the playing field for all citizens who want to run for public office regardless of party affiliation

Comprehensive Constitutional Change
General Constitutional Convention
Authorize a general constitutional convention at which all sections of the Constitution are available for amendment and to which all interested citizens have an equal opportunity to become delegates


Ballots & access: Party crashers

Why the need for a General Constitutional Convention? That question still has not been asked by any journalist I've read. Tony just goes along, doesn't ask can all of the reforms noted be done by simple legislation adopted by the legislators?

The answer is yes they all can be done by simple legislation, no need for "Comprehensive" Constitutional Change.

Roadmap to Reform May 26, 2006

http://www.democracyrisingpa.com/dr_fans/dr_news/20060526.asp

Isn't it an eye-opening coincidence that the Roadmap to Reform introduction on Democracy Rising PA is entitled United We Stand – “Roadmap to Reform”?

Ross Perot began United We Stand, then changed the name to United We Stand, America back in 1993, or thereabouts. Shortly after Perot backed out of a bid for President of the U.S. as a third-party candidate, rumors crisscrossed the country concerning Perot's support for a national second Constitutional Convention.

Fortunately, "the people" didn't fall for it, and there was no resounding grassroots push for a call for a federal convention, though Pennsylvania leaders at the time did offer a so-called "Conference of the States."

Russ Diamond judiciary constitutional convention and so forth

http://www.pacleansweep.com/amicus.html

Democracy Rising PA Questions and answers

http://www.democracyrisingpa.com/bulletins/response.asp

Providing for initiative, referendum and recall

Jim Panyard - "(One of my campaign promises)"
Russ Diamond - "Yes. As with other issues, we must examine systems in place in other states to determine an appropriate way to allow such democratic input while preserving our republican form of state government."

States should revolt on National ID

Maine revolts against digital U.S. ID card
By Jason Szep
Thu Jan 25, 8:27 PM ET
BOSTON (Reuters) - Maine lawmakers on Thursday became the first in the nation to demand repeal of a federal law tightening identification requirements for drivers' licenses, a post-September 11 security measure that states say will cost them billions of dollars to administer.

Maine lawmakers passed a resolution urging repeal of the Real ID Act, which would create a national digital identification system by 2008. The lawmakers said it would cost Maine about $185 million, fail to boost security and put people at greater risk of identity theft.

Maine's resolution is the strongest stand yet by a state against the law, which Congress passed in May 2004 and gave states three years to implement. Similar repeal measures are pending in eight other states.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070126/pl_nm/usa_idcard_dc_1

Public revolt quashes biometric ID chips
Citizens score success abroad while opposition to national card grows in U.S.
Posted: January 27, 2007
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

While opposition grows to a national ID card in the U.S., citizens of the southeast European nation of Serbia have successfully pressed their government to back off on a plan to make biometric data chips compulsory in the country's new citizen cards...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53945

Friday, January 26, 2007

Path to 9/11 Hannity Reviews Deletions from Film

Hannity's America program (Sunday, 9 PM, Fox network) to feature footage of ABC deleted scenes from Path to 9/11.

What has precipitated this revisit of the Path to 9/11 is likely Sandy Berger... John Gibson mentioned the upcoming Hannity programming this evening, and queried Lanny Davis on the scenes which were deleted after complaints were made at the time.

Friday, January 26:
• The REAL Path to 9/11: We've got a special preview for you tonight of Sean's investigation...

http://www.foxnews.com/hannityandcolmes/index.html

Sitting in for Hannity is Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris to co-host on Hannity & Colmes
Movie, television star to fill in for conservative half of team


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53956

Hannity and Colmes discussing the deleted scenes with Bill Sammon and Marc Ginsberg...

Sammon says everybody has admitted this is a dramatization, but why doesn't Sandy Berger come out and say what happened...

Ginsberg, says it's a distortion, through the lens of a writer who put things in and it is fiction...

Norris: did Tenet confirm that he was told by Sandy Berger to back off... Ginsberg studied the 9/11 Commission report... no doubt there were efforts to target Bin Laden, no evidence that Berger nixed, vetoed, or stopped any capture of bin Laden...

Sammon: you can't believe Sandy Berger, ... he publicly lied about taking items from National Archives... hard to take them at their words...

Norris: did anybody confirm what Tenet said...

Ginsberg: Tenet confirmed there was no evidence to that effect... no one suggests they were not doing the right thing here...

The pair discuss Carter's book with guest...

"There is nothing in the 9/11 Commission Report (the purported basis of your film) to support this portrayal and the fabrication of this scene (of such apparent magnitude) cannot be justified under any reasonable definition of dramatic license. In no instance did President Clinton or I ever fail to support a request from the CIA or US military to authorize an operation against bin Laden or al Qaeda."

Sandy Berger in letter to Robert Iger of Disney in re "The Path to 9/11"
September 5, 2006...

But Sandy, that's not what the National Commission Report says:

http://occupied-territory.blogspot.com/2006/09/dear-sandy.html

Get a preview of what Hannity may air

Trailer You Tube Path to 9/11 - Trailer contradicts ABC's Statement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHgbeJu1WGk

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=path+to+911&search=Search

path to 911 abc deleted scenes

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=path+to+911+abc+deleted+scenes&btnG=Search

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=985

Wonder whether Peter Lance will be a guest.

Sunday, Jan. 28
Join Sean for a 'Hannity's America' special report weekend as we look at the REAL path to 9/11 and the controversy surrounding the cancelled ABC miniseries including scenes never before seen on TV that were edited out of the film

http://www.foxnews.com/hannitysamerica/

Lance pulled his support from another film Inside 9/11, a National Geographic Channel special...

Former ABC News reporter Peter Lance says a U.S. National Geographic Channel documentary on al-Qaida based on his book is a distortion.
The winner of five Emmy awards said the cable channel's "Triple Cross: Bin Laden's Spy in America," scheduled to air Aug. 28, "skews the documentary so much in favor of the feds that it actually distorts the factual story."
Lance's book, "Triple Cross," which will be released in September, accuses law enforcement officials of negligence in tracking down Ali Mohamed, an alleged al-Qaida agent in the United States for years before Sept. 11, Daily Variety reported.
The book says Mohamed was hired by the CIA and worked for the FBI, all the while providing information to terrorists...


http://www.peterlance.com/Peter%20Lance/Nat%20Geo%20Doc%20Whitewash.html

Videotape Feb. 15, 2002 Long Island Association You Tube with transcript

Bill Clinton on Osama Bin Laden

WSJ's Fund claimed Berger and Albright "persuaded ABC to alter scenes involving them" -- but central falsehoods remain

http://mediamatters.org/items/200609120001

Under pressure from the left, ABC alters 9/11 miniseries

http://newsbusters.org/node/7456


Clinton officials rip ABC’s ‘The Path to 9/11’
Network calls miniseries ‘a dramatization ... not a documentary
By Howard Kurtz

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14707869/

ROBERT P. LAURENCE REMOTE CONTROL
'Path to 9/11' familiar yet enlightening
“The Path to 9/11” is no suspense story.

Before the opening credits roll, we know how it will end.

We can only watch with a growing, appalling sense of dread. We know how this chain of events is going to turn out. We know that no matter how many right decisions are made, the wrong ones will win out, and the nation will lose.

So we are spectators at a tragedy we've seen before, looking on helplessly as the disaster inexorably unfolds...

... Shot in the grainy, jumpy style of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, “The Path to 9/11” runs for six hours, and will air without commercials.

It has come under attack, however, from former members of the Clinton administration who have challenged its accuracy. Former antiterrorism chief Richard Clarke told The New York Times that a scene where CIA agents are stopped by Washington officials from grabbing Osama bin Laden is “utterly invented.” 9/11 Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste told the Times that while former President Bill Clinton is depicted as stopping a CIA attempt to kill bin Laden, he in fact did give the go-ahead.

“The content of this drama is factually and incontrovertibly inaccurate, and ABC has a duty to fully correct all errors or pull the drama entirely,” Clinton Foundation head Bruce Lindsey and Clinton adviser Douglas Band wrote in a letter to the network.

ABC has responded with a statement that no one has seen the final copy. The network said the miniseries is “a dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources.” Marc Platt, the film's executive producer, said the film “portrayed the essence of the truth of these events.”

The narrative is based on “The 9/11 Commission Report,” published by the bipartisan committee appointed to find answers to some hard questions. (Sources also include two books: “1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI – the Untold Story,” by Peter Lance, and “Relentless Pursuit,” by Samuel M. Katz.)...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060908/news_1c08remote2.html

ABC's Twisted 'Path to 9/11'

By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 9, 2006; Page C01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/08/AR2006090801949.html

Clinton blasts 9/11 film, amid report of changes
POSTED: 7:55 p.m. EDT, September 8, 2006

...The Times, citing Thomas H. Kean, the Republican who chaired the bipartisan 9/11 commission that investigated what led up to the attacks and who has been a consultant to the film, reported that a scene portraying former national security adviser Samuel R. Berger hanging up on a CIA officer at a critical moment is being altered. Two others under review, according to Kean, portray former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright apparently obstructing efforts to capture Osama bin Laden and Clinton being too distracted by impeachment and his marital problems to focus on bin Laden. (Watch Berger explain why the docudrama is "misleading to the core" -- 6:31)...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/08/abc.movie/index.html

ABC's 'Path to 9/11': Bill Clinton's Inconvenient Truth
James Hirsen, NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2006

"The Path to 9/11," a six-hour miniseries scheduled to air September 10 and 11 on ABC, has certain former members of the Clinton administration in a panic.


The docudrama is thoroughly sourced and exposes information that former members of the Clinton administration had previously tried to suppress: that there was a failure on the part of the administration to respond to terrorism, inaction that ended up being partly to blame for the tragic events that took place on 9/11.


"Path" is based on the 9/11 Commission Final Report and the 2003 book "The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, and Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It." New Jersey Governor and Commission Co-chairman Thomas H. Kean served as a consultant for the miniseries.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/9/4/172738.shtml
More posts

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=peter+lance

State of Disunion

clever lots of application... C-Span mentioned an article of that title, but then was pre-empted by Congress

http://www.google.com/search?q=state+disunion&btnG=Search&hl=en

Probably going to talk about Oliver North's piece

"State of disunion"
By Oliver North
Friday, January 27, 2007

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/OliverNorth/2006/01/27/state_of_disunion

Bitter Cold Unnoticed By Global Warmers

It's bitter cold all across America, yet global warmers don't jump on the facts. But wait when we have a warm spell - they'll pounce.

Rick Reichmuth of Fox News reporting Live on the weather throughout the day today.

Friday 4 A.M. Eastern

Arctic air continued to dive across the Great Lakes and into the Northeast on Thursday. With the absence of moisture and a low pressure center emerging from the south, the arrival of the arctic air was not accompanied by a massive snowstorm. The Northeast and Great Lakes, however, were not void of snowfall on Thursday. As the arctic air spread southward, light accumulating snow fell across the eastern Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic states. Frigid winds, which have and will continue to create bitterly cold RealFeel temperatures into Friday, howling across the mild Great Lakes allowed places downwind to experience more impressive snowfall totals. As of 11 p.m. EST Thursday, a foot of snow had blanketed both Meadville, Pa., and Harbor Beach, Mich. Despite the return to winter, most areas over the eastern two-thirds of the nation are still averaging above normal so far this January. The rainfall across Florida was definitely welcome as the rain did not fall too heavily to cause flooding problems; and, enough rain came down to lessen the rainfall deficit across the state. Besides a clipper system that sent a touch of snow into the Upper Midwest late in the day, dry weather prevailed across the country's midsection underneath an area of high pressure. A large bulge in the jet stream also allowed rain- and snow-free conditions to expand across most of the Western states. Trapped moisture in the lower levels of the atmosphere caused low clouds and fog, some freezing, to loom over the valleys of the Northwest. A pesky upper-level storm, however, grazed far southwestern New Mexico with some rain and mountain snow showers. Another upper-level storm brought a bit of rain to northwestern Washington.


http://www2.foxnews.com/weather/weather_local.asp

http://search2.foxnews.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&client=my_frontend&proxystylesheet=my_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&site=fnc&filter=0&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1&q=global+warming

Former Pres. Carter Historical Revisionist by Deletion

Carter stated subsequent editions of his book would have passage - deleted.

Talk about historical revisionist!


Carter defends book against allegations of anti-Israel slant

By News Agencies

WALTHAM, Mass. - Jimmy Carter, whose latest book has been attacked as slanted against Israel, received two standing ovations Tuesday as he answered critics during a much-anticipated talk at the historically Jewish Brandeis University.

The uproar over "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" recently prompted 14 members of an advisory board at Carter's international-affairs think tank, the Carter Center, to resign in protest.

Carter briefly addressed an audicence of 1700 students and faculty members, and responded to 15 questions selected in advance...

Carter's book has been criticized by some Jewish leaders as riddled with inaccuracies and distortions. Some have also argued that its comparison of Israel's treatment of Palestinians with South Africa's reviled apartheid system of racial segregation could undermine perceptions of Israel's legitimacy.

"I've been hurt and so has my family by some of the reaction," Carter, 82, told the audience. And he apologized for a passage that can be interpreted as supporting suicide bombings as a negotiating tactic, saying it was a "mistake" and would be removed from future editions. But he said a full Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories was crucial for lasting peace.

The university originally invited Carter on the condition that he debate lawyer and Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, a critic of the book. But Carter said he would only visit the campus without conditions. He later accepted an invitation from a committee of students and faculty to speak without taking part in a debate...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/817456.html
Can Tom Tancredo be elected U.S. president?
Why Fox News host said he 'might well be' nation's leader in 2008
January 22, 2007

With Hillary Clinton the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, and the Republican Party's conservative base disenchanted with frontrunners McCain, Giuliani and Romney, the candidacy of Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo – lionized by many for his bold stand on border security and illegal immigration – is moving closer to reality...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53876

Zogby's Road To New Hampshire telephone polling series kicks off with Hillary in a second-tier dogfight and Republicans split between conservative Gingrich and moderate candidates...

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1236

WND reports

10 most underreported stories of 2006
WND readers, editors compile annual 'Operation Spike' list

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53601

For instance, Tom Tancredo challenging the NAFTA Superhighway and North American Partnership Prosperity Act

Posted: July 13, 2006 By Joseph Farah
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus as well as author of the new book, "In Mortal Danger," may be the only elected official to challenge openly the plans for the new superstate.

Responding to a WorldNetDaily report, Tancredo is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of the government office implementing the trilateral agreement that has no authorization from Congress.

Tancredo wants to know the membership of the Security and Prosperity Partnership groups along with their various trilateral memoranda of understanding and other agreements reached with counterparts in Mexico and Canada.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51036

Related

The Legend of Barack Obama
By Garrett M. Graff

From out of nowhere, he’s become DC’s brightest star. Will his charisma and sense of destiny propel him to the White House in 2008?

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/mediapolitics/1836.html

CNN Puts Obama In Split-Screen With Bin Laden and Hussein

Run time: 02:41
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whK4515vD3Q

Posted on YouTube: December 12, 2006
By YouTube Member: tpmmedia
Views on YouTube: 6161

Posted on DU: December 12, 2006
By DU Member: sabra
Views on DU: 2908

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=385&topic_id=9597

CNN Puts Obama In Split-Screen With Bin Laden and Hussein
By Eric Kleefeld


http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/dec/12/cnn_puts_obama_in_split_screen_with_bin_laden_and_hussein

...the name issue is already nipping at the Senator’s heels — most recently as it relates to his lesser known middle name, Hussein...

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/osama-bin-laden/

CNN clip(featured in Jeanne Moos What's in a Name - Obama and Osama)

at least it appears Obama is not making the sign of the Illuminatists in clips CNN uses.

The 1,774th CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
Wednesday July 28, 2004 (Vol. Nine; No. 137) AM Edition

MSNBC and CNN Lionize “Rock Star” Obama,
See a Future President


http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040728am.asp#1

The 2,291st CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
3:20pm EDT, Monday October 23, 2006 (Vol. Eleven; No. 178)

ABC & NBC Hail 'Remarkable' and 'Exciting' Obama Presidential Bid

CNN's Tough Question to Obama: 'What's Your Biggest Fear?'

Time Magazine Trumpets Obama With 12 Pages of Hype and Excerpts

http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2006/cyb20061023.asp

Search results

Don't miss out on Oval Office 2008

http://www.ovaloffice2008.com/2005/06/busy-times.html

Anytime we mention conspiracy theories, we attempt to provide balance, so please check out the Jon Ronson book THEM: Adventures with Extremists

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Them-Adventures-Extremists-Jon-Ronson/dp/0330375458
Feds pressed to hand over border agent docs
Congressman files FOIA request on info that could favor Compean, Ramos
January 26, 2007 By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Homeland Security to force the handover to Congress of investigative documents the agency claims will support their accusation of criminal behavior by imprisoned former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.

In a telephone interview with WND, Poe explained the extraordinary procedure was necessary after DHS refused to furnish the reports to Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, arguing McCaul's chairmanship of the Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Homeland Security had passed to the Democrats.

The decision by Poe to file a FOIA request with DHS reflects increasing congressional concern the agency is conducting a cover-up of the Ramos-Compean investigation. Congressmen say the agency has continued to stonewall repeated requests to obtain promised investigative documents relevant to congressional oversight responsibilities.

WND reported yesterday McCaul held a meeting Sept. 26 with deputies of the DHS Inspector General's office in which the deputies made accusations of criminal misconduct against the Border Patrol agents. In attendance at the meeting were Poe and fellow Texas congressmen John Culberson and Kenny Marchant.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the DHS inspector general told the Texas congressmen the relevant investigative reports would be released the first day after the Oct. 23, 2006, sentencing of the agents. So far, however, DHS has refused to release the promised reports, despite repeated requests from McCaul...


Excerpt continued

Many of the factual aspects of the case are now being disputed by investigators, including the ballistics investigation into the weapons fired and the round subsequently extracted from the left buttocks and right groin of the drug smuggler by a U.S. Army doctor.

"For all we know," Poe commented, "the drug smuggler seemed to be pointing back at the Border Patrol agents with what could have been something in his hand based on the ballistics reports I am seeing. U.S. Attorney (Johnny) Sutton says the guy was shot in the buttocks. Well, now we find out that that isn't exactly accurate. The guy was shot from 'cheek-to-cheek,' or maybe from the side of his left buttocks to his right groin. There's a big difference in those two statements. You don't have to be a ballistics expert to understand that the body was turned if the bullet went from one cheek to the other cheek, or from the left cheek to the right groin."



http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53948

Funds set up for Border Patrol agents
Supporters of jailed men have 3 ways to financially help their families

Funds for donations have been set up on behalf of the families of two Border Patrol agents jailed for their actions in the shooting and wounding of a Mexican drug smuggler who was granted full immunity to testify against them.

The funds are meant to benefit agents Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos, who were sentenced to 12 years and 11 years, respectively, in October and reported to prison Jan. 17.

Supporters of the men believe they were wrongly convicted and the sentences handed down far too stiff...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53949

NAFTA Superhighway Sovereignty Threat Urban Legend

National top bureaucrat, Department of Transportation policy official, deems NAFTA superhighway threat to U.S. Sovereignty, Internet conspiracy... urban legend

Plan for superhighway ripped as 'urban legend'
Congressman, DOT undersecretary disagree over threat to sovereignty
Posted: January 26, 2007
By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
Congressmen and a policy official of the Department of Transportation engaged in a spirited exchange over whether NAFTA Super Highways were a threat to U.S. sovereignty or an imaginary "Internet conspiracy," such as the "black helicopter myths," advanced by fringe lunatics.

At a meeting Wednesday of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Jeffrey N. Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, testified.

During the questioning by committee members, Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, asked Shane about the existence of plans for a "NAFTA superhighway."

Shane responded he was "not familiar with any plan at all, related to NAFTA or cross-border traffic."

After further questioning by Poe, Shane stated reports of NAFTA superhighways or corridors were "an urban legend."

At this, the chairman, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., questioned aloud whether Shane was just "gaming semantics" when responding to Poe's question...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53950

Congressman battles North Americanization
Introduces resolutions aimed at stopping SPP from integrating continent
Posted: January 17, 2007 By Jerome R. Corsi

Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., is preparing to introduce a series of House resolutions aimed at stopping the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America from integrating the continent into a trilateral U.S.-Mexico-Canada structure of administrative law.
Goode also intends to block the previously undisclosed, but already signed, Social Security agreement to "totalize" U.S. Social Security benefits with legal and illegal Mexicans working in the U.S.
"I hope our effort will be successful in stopping the implementation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership," Goode told WND. "If we are not successful in stopping SPP, we are going to see further erosion in the sovereignty of our country."

As WND previously has reported, SPP has laid out plans for increased regulatory cooperation between the three nations in new, full-color, trilingual publications of the 2005 and 2006 SPP Reports to Leaders, which is archived in electronic form on the Department of Commerce SPP website...

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53803

'No EU in U.S.'
Tony Snow responds to warnings about North American superstate
Posted: July 12, 2006 By Les Kinsolving © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


Presidential press secretary Tony Snow yesterday emphatically stated that there would be no "EU in the U.S." when asked about administration efforts to more closely integrate state relations between Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

As WorldNetDaily reported, some critics of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America have said the program, though supposedly beneficial to the U.S., will lead to a North American superstate similar to the European Union, open borders, loss of sovereignty and even a common currency.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51029

Science catches up to observation

There was anecdotal evidence of just this around the nation for decades, just now a "study" confirms?

Damage to brain region helps smokers quit
Thu Jan 25, 3:13 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Damage to the brain "insula" -- a silver dollar-sized area located deep in the brain, surrounded by the cerebral cortex, disrupts the addiction to cigarette smoking and makes kicking the habit much easier, according to research reported in the journal Science Friday.

This finding could lead to the development of novel anti-smoking agents.

Previous reports have linked the insula with conscious urges. In addition, senior author Dr. Antoine Bechara, from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and colleagues previously encountered a two-pack per day cigarette smoker who was able to stop smoking with little difficulty after experiencing stroke-related damage to the insula.

These findings led the researchers to hypothesize that damage to the insula may help break the addiction to smoking.

To investigate, the authors compared smoking cessation in 19 smokers who sustained damage to the insula and 50 smokers who sustained damage to other brain regions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070125/sc_nm/smoking_dc_2

Spot in brain may control smoking urge
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Thu Jan 25, 5:44 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Damage to a silver dollar-sized spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a surprising discovery that may shed important new light on addiction. The research was inspired by a stroke survivor who claimed he simply forgot his two-pack-a-day addiction _ no cravings, no nicotine patches, not even a conscious desire to quit.

The quitting is like a light switch that went off," said Dr. Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California, who scanned the brains of 69 smokers and ex-smokers to pinpoint the region involved. "This is very striking."

Clearly brain damage isn't a treatment option for people struggling to kick the habit.

But the finding, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, does point scientists toward new ways to develop anti-smoking aids by targeting this little-known brain region called the insula. And it sparked excitement among addiction specialists who expect the insula to play a key role in other addictions, too.

"It's a fantastic paper, it's a fantastic finding," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a longtime investigator of the brain's addiction pathways.

"What this study shows unequivocally is the insula is a key structure in the brain for perceiving the urges to take the drug," urges that are "the backbone of the addiction," Volkow added.

Why? The insula appears to be where the brain turns physical reactions into feelings, such as feeling anxious when your heart speeds up. When those reactions are caused by a particular substance, the insula may act like sort of a headquarters for cravings.

Some 44 million Americans smoke, and the government says more than 400,000 a year die of smoking-related illnesses. Declines in smoking have slowed in recent years, making it unlikely that the nation will reach a public health goal of reducing the rate to 12 percent by 2010.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known, and it's common for smokers to suffer repeated relapses when they try to quit.

So imagine Bechara's surprise at hearing a patient he code-named "Nathan" note nonchalantly that "my body forgot the urge to smoke" right after his stroke...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070125/ap_on_he_me/smoking_brain_damage_4

Fox News: Wallace Admits Eating Horse Meat

The host of Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace, admitted this morning on Fox 'n Friends, that he hasn't tried so and such, squirrel, but he has tried horse meat.

What insanity. Maybe he should admit whether or not he's eaten dog meat. Sick.

horse meat consumption united states

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=horse+meat+consumption+united+states&btnG=Google+Search

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Dr. Manny Disbelieves Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Prevalent in Youth

this morning on Fox 'n Friends the trio, Carlson, Doocy, Kilmeade, were discussing the situation of the 3-year old who acted up on a plane before take-off and after a warning to settle the child or they'd have to get off, the family was asked to leave.

Fox 'n Friends hosts brought in Dr. Manny and the 911 Nanny. The pair gave their thoughts on the situation which made for some interesting disputes between them.

The most shocking portion of the discussion was when Dr. Manny said that the majority of children who attend pre-school or elementary school do not have Attention Deficiat Hyperactivity Disorder, but are diagnosed as such.

Fox streamed some so-called statistics across the screen.

It is unfortunate in my opinion that Dr. Manny continues to put out this false information.

He, as with many others, may not like the fact, or support the fact that physicians diagnose ADHD in children and then immediately prescribe Ritalin, but that doesn't dismiss the fact that ADHD exists in a majority of children before they attend school and continues throughout unless ADHD is treated.

I agree Ritalin is way over prescribed in the United States. But ADHD is a fact. It is prevalent in our youth, and we as a country need to fight for these children and their health.

Hopefully, Dr. Manny will read

THE LCP SOLUTION The Remarkable Nutritional Treatment for ADHD, Dyslexia & dyspraxia by B. Jacqueline Stordy, Ph.D., and Malcolm J. Nicholl

Hopefully, Dr. Manny will use his platform and notoriety to admit ADHD exists, and there are other avenues to take than over-prescribing drugs such as Ritalin.

More related

http://health.yahoo.com/news/171221

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Heidi Cullen Monologue on Global Warming Doomsday

Despite the claim made in Climate One executive director Matthew de Ganon's
posting of January 19, 2007 which references

Mission Statement, which states "One Degree's mission will be to present an open, balanced dialogue around the scientific facts concerning global climate change. We will provide a place where sound science can be heard and a forum where all people can question and debate."


on the Weather Channel again today, Heidi Cullen all alone during her spot on Climate Code, reviewed the Doomsday Countdown, Steven Hawkings predictions for global warming catastrophe, and, of couse the so-called smoking gun report...more...

without, of course, any debate or information to the contrary presented...

http://climate.weather.com/ontv/climateCode_thisWeek.html?cm_ven=one_deg_cc&cm_ite=one_deg_header&from=one_deg_header

http://press.weather.com/index.php/press_releases/135.html

heidi cullen climate code january 24


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=heidi+cullen+climate+code+january+24&btnG=Google+Search


http://catholicgauze.blogspot.com/2007/01/heidi-cullen-hates-me.html

UK Happenings

http://www.streetsblog.org/category/issues-campaigns/climate-change/

Stephen Hawking warns about warming
Celebrity cosmologist says Earth could end up as hot as Venus

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13485170/

James Spann copy of responses on original blog

January 18, 2007, 5:45 pm | James Spann | Op/Ed

571 Responses to ““The Weather Channel” Mess”


http://www.jamesspann.com/wordpress/?p=650

Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=heidi+cullen+weather+channel++january+24+2007&btnG=Search

More

Andy Revkin, The New York Times

http://climate.weather.com/blog/9_11069.html

Report Has 'Smoking Gun' on Climate
Monday, January 22, 2007

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON — Human-caused global warming is here, visible in the air, water and melting ice, and is destined to get much worse in the future, an authoritative global scientific report will warn next week.

"The smoking gun is definitely lying on the table as we speak," said top U.S. climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, who reviewed all 1,600 pages of the first segment of a giant four-part report. "The evidence ... is compelling."

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist and study co-author, went even further: "This isn't a smoking gun; climate is a batallion of intergalactic smoking missiles."

The first phase of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is being released in Paris next week. This segment, written by more than 600 scientists and reviewed by another 600 experts and edited by bureaucrats from 154 countries, includes "a significantly expanded discussion of observation on the climate," said co-chair Susan Solomon, a senior scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She and other scientists held a telephone briefing on the report Monday.

That report will feature an "explosion of new data" on observations of current global warming, Solomon said.

Solomon and others wouldn't go into specifics about what the report says. They said that the 12-page summary for policymakers will be edited in secret word-by-word by governments officials for several days next week and released to the public on Feb. 2. The rest of that first report from scientists will come out months later.

The full report will be issued in four phases over the year, as was the case with the last IPCC report, issued in 2001...

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jan22/0,4670,WarmingClimateReport,00.html

PA Will Freshmen Legislators Move to Eliminate Slush Fund?

Update March 4, 2007
Those who fought for reform, now taking advantage of benefits
By Alison Hawkes, For the Herald-Standard
03/03/2007
Updated 03/04/2007 12:16:10 AM EST


HARRISBURG - As candidates they rallied against the legislative pay raise and in favor of government reform, but as newly-elected state lawmakers many of those same individuals are taking the full array of taxpayer-financed benefits.


State-funded cars, free medical, dental and vision plans, $148 per diems, life insurance and a generous pension plan - many freshmen have signed up for them.

They include Fayette County Reps. Tim Mahoney and Deberah Kula, according to a review of House records.

Lawmakers' benefits package is far and above that of ordinary Pennsylvania workers, who have steadily been paying more and more in health insurance premiums and have largely lost pensions in the wake of defined contributions plans like 401(k)'s.

House lawmakers, on the other hand, receive free medical care for themselves and their families for the rest of their lives after 10 years in office, may retire with a pension at age 50, and do not have to turn in receipts to show actual expenditures to receive per diems which are supposed to cover lodging and meal costs in Harrisburg.

Some freshman lawmakers defended their decision.

Rep. Rick Taylor, a Montgomery County Democrat, said public office shouldn't just be for the rich who could afford to pay their own way and the benefits help fortify the Legislature against the power of the governor.

"I support the idea of lifting people up instead of emasculating the Legislature," Taylor said.

Rather than take away lawmakers' benefits, Taylor said Pennsylvanians should be getting health care and pensions, too. He wouldn't say whether the health care he expects citizens to get would be "free" in the same way as lawmakers.

Matt Brouillette, president of the conservative think-tank Commonwealth Foundation, said for lawmakers who trumpeted reform, the practice should start at home.

"The question is, did they campaign to end the very thing they are now taking advantage of?" said Brouillette. "Plenty of freshmen campaigned on reform but reform must begin at home, first and foremost. So it's a little troubling that so many are at the trough."

Some, however, are vowing that reform is not on the back burner. Rep. John Galloway, a Bucks County Democrat, said he plans to bring up lawmakers' benefits package to the House Legislative Reform Commission when it takes up phase two of its work this spring...

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18031816&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=480247&rfi=6


We're going to have input into reforms! Here in Pennsylvania. Believe. Believe...

House seeks voter input on reform
By Peter Jackson
THe Associated Press
HARRISBURG -- A special House panel studying the need for legislative reforms has established an e-mail address where residents can send ideas for improving the lawmaking process.

"We want to make sure that we are sending a new signal" from the House, said Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, one of two co-chairmen of the 24-member, bipartisan commission.

The e-mail address is reform@pahouse.net.

The Speaker's Commission on Legislative Reform, which held its first meeting Tuesday, will focus initially on new rules to improve the way the House of Representatives operates.

It is expected to make recommendations by March 12, the earliest that the full House could vote on them.

Later, the panel plans to explore an array of broader government reforms, including restrictions on campaign financing, expanded public access to government records and the imposition of term limits for legislators.

That phase is not expected to begin before summer and could stretch into next year, said the panel's other co-chairman, Republican Rep. David Steil.

House Speaker Dennis O'Brien established the commission earlier this month to underscore his commitment to reform in the aftermath of an electoral housecleaning that stemmed from the short-lived legislative pay raises of 2005.

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/local/16530870.htm


Freshmen Legislators take the taxpayer-funded cars 24 of 50

A Capitol Question: Can Harrisburg Change?
An occasional series on efforts to 'reform' Harrisburg.
New Pa. House members get free carsInquirer Analysis: Nearly half the freshman members of the state House have signed up for taxpayer-funded vehicles.
By Mario F. Cattabiani
Inquirer Staff Writer


HARRISBURG - Nearly half of the 50 freshman members of the State House - many of whom campaigned against free-spending politicians - have jumped at the chance to join the most-generous legislative auto-leasing program in the nation.

Even before they were sworn in Jan. 2, 23 first-time representatives lined up their free keys, with most picking out SUVs from the state's growing pool of fleet vehicles, an Inquirer review of House records shows...


http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/16494061.htm

What Pa. freshmen legislators drive

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=what+pa+freshmen+legislators+drive&btnG=Google+Search


By The Associated Press
Friday, January 19, 2007


A list compiled by The Philadelphia Inquirer of the state-subsidized vehicles that freshmen members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly drive and the monthly cost to taxpayers:

--Rep. Deberah Kula, D-Fayette; 2005 Jeep Cherokee; $290

--Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fayette; 2004 Dodge Durango; $439


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/election/s_489382.html

Rep. Timothy Mahoney took the taxpayers' subsidized state-lease vehicle

Freshman Forward in a Dodge Durango


Meanwhile Herald Standard's Paul Sunyak Gives the Duo Wows and No Scowls for car leases


Wow: Newly seated state Rep. Timothy S. Mahoney, D-South Union, is one of 12 House Democrats appointed by Speaker Dennis M. O'Brien to his Bipartisan Commission on Legislative Reform. Take time to remember this the next time a crusty, entrenched incumbent tells you one big reason for keeping him around is that a newcomer can't get anything done in Harrisburg. Mahoney has catapulted to the front row because he's willing to stand up and be counted, not cower in the corner and be a wallflower.

...Wow: Count newly seated state Rep. Deberah Kula, D-North Union Township, as an immediate philosophical improvement over her predecessor, the retired James Shaner. Here's why: Kula supports badly needed reforms in Harrisburg, including making a top priority of changing the Open Records Law that for too long has exempted the state Legislature. As a former magisterial district judge, Kula became used to public records being open and readily accessible to the public, a foreign concept to some of her current peers. Kula also supports establishment of a waiting period for all legislation, so all legislators and the public can fully digest what's in bills being put on the table. Taxpayers deserve no less, which is a concept Shaner never gave evidence that he grasped
...

http://www.heraldstandard.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17737445&BRD=2280&PAG=461&dept_id=468517&rfi=6

Tim Mahoney watching

2. LEGISLATIVE REFORM:

Pennsylvania has one of the largest State Governments in the nation. We don't need that many politicians. Tim would be willing to give up his seat in the interest of consolidating the legislative body. Tim is also committed to open government and disclosure. Pennsylvania residents should always have easy access not only to their state representation, but also to where and how their hard earned tax dollars are being spent.

http://www.votetimmahoney.com/platform.html

pennsylvania legislative slush fund

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pennsylvania+legislative+slush+fund&btnG=Google+Search

TAXPAYERS AND RATEPAYERS UNITED CRITICIZES SLUSH FUND AND DESTRUCTION OF PUBLIC RECORDS
TRU, founded by activist Gene Stilp of Dauphin County, is asking the legislature for answers and action in regard to a recent audit of the Legislature which he deems is incomplete.

He also wants Legislative leaders to determine what records have recently been destroyed by outgoing legislators and what the relevance of the destruction is to the constituency.

TAXPAYERS AND RATEPAYERS UNITED
CONTACT: GENE STILP, DIRECTOR 717-829-5600
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANIARY 22, 2007


TAXPAYERS AND RATEPAYERS UNITED SAYS 2005 AND 2006 LEGISLATIVE AUDITS ARE A WHITEWASH, CALLS ON MEMBERS TO PRODUCE REAL AUDITS FOR 2005 AND 2006, DEMANDS $215 MILLION SLUSH FUND BE INVESTIGATED. AND DEMANDS INVESTIGATION OF DOCUMENT DESTRUCTION


In a letter to all 253 members of the General Assembly, the citizens action group Taxpayers and Ratepayers United (TRU) is calling the recently released 2005 and 2006 audits of the financial affairs of the legislature a complete whitewash.


Gene Stilp, Director of Taxpayers and Ratepayers United stated, ‘We are asking the members of the General Assembly to immediately pass a resolution to do a complete professional internal public audit of all the funding of the General Assembly for the fiscal year 2004 - 2005 and 2005 - 2006. If it spent $308 in fiscal year 2005 – 2006 and $283 million in fiscal year 2004 – 2005, that’s $591 million that is unaccounted for. The 59% increase in slush funds in two years to $215 million must also be investigated and explained (2004 - $135 million; 2005 -$161 million).”

http://truthinourhouse.blogspot.com/2007/01/taxpayers-and-ratepayers-united.html


Taxpayers and Ratepayers United

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Taxpayers+and+Ratepayers+United+&btnG=Google+Search

TAXPAYERS AND RATEPAYERS UNITED MEMBER LETTER #1

1550 FISHING CREEK VALLEY ROAD 1-22-07
HARRISBURG, PA 17112
Attention Legislative Member:


The Legislative Audit Advisory Commission (appropriately named L.A.A.C.) has once again placed you at a complete disadvantage. It has just released the annual audit reports for 2005 and 2006. It is on your desk. If you haven’t read it yet, it is time.

http://truthinourhouse.blogspot.com/

More on legislators

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=tim+mahoney

http://netthetruthonline.blogspot.com/search?q=pennsylvania+speaker+house

Campaigns
http://www.campaignfinance.state.pa.us/CFReport.aspx?CFReportID=43759&Section=III&StartRow=1&RowsPerPage=45