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Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-adjustments-certain-rates-pay Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Executive Orders The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release December 23, 2009 Executive Order -- Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay Attached schedule By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the laws cited herein, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Statutory Pay Systems. The rates of basic pay or salaries of the statutory pay systems (as defined in 5 U.S.C. 5302(1)), as adjusted under...

For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear. For a servant when he reigneth, and a fool when he is filled with meat; for an odious woman when she is married, and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress. -- Prov. XXX. 21-22-23. Three things make earth unquietAnd four she cannot brookThe godly Agur counted themAnd put them in a book --Those Four Tremendous CursesWith which mankind is cursed;But a Servant when He ReignethOld Agur entered first.An Handmaid that is MistressWe need not call upon.A Fool when he is full of MeatWill fall...

IT’S been a tough year for fashion. The juice has been virtually squeezed out of it. Luxury retailers, after seeing margins erode like Nantucket beachfront, have leaned on designers to cut their prices. To stay afloat, design houses are reducing quality and promoting value. Meanwhile fast-fashion chains are eating their lunch as they reproduce runway looks in six weeks. As a symbol of self-inflicted misery, the listless, half-starved model may be perfect after all. At least the fashion world had Michelle Obama and Sarah Palin to help avoid the impression that, you know, nobody cares about clothes and big dangly...

Sarah takes on Big Oil: The compelling story of Governor Sarah Palin's battle with Alaska's 'Big 3' oil companies, as told by the state's top oil and gas editors, Kay Cashman and Kristen Nelson (Hardcover) Product Description Sarah takes on Big Oil illuminates Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's rise to power, along with her successes and failures in dealing with the industry that is the lifeblood of the state's economy. This book is a must read for those seeking to understand Palin's qualifications for national leadership. Purchasers of Sarah takes on Big Oil qualify for a free, two-year, online subscription to...

Kitty version of the famous "Carol Of The Bells". :)=^..^=

The very best from Ray Charles.

Formula That Gives You The Cracker Knack By Paul Sims 23rd December 2009 But if you simply must win when it comes to pulling a Christmas cracker, read on. For experts have devised a sure-fire way for tackling a cracker - and even come up with a mathematical formula to explain it. [Pic in URL]Cracking: Correct technique is pictured on the right Victory at the dinner table can now be guaranteed, they claim, so long as you follow: O = 11 x C / L + 5 x Q. In layman's terms, you need to pull down and backwards at...

The Senate vote on final passage of health reform almost scuttled their plans, but it looks like the First Family will still make it to Hawaii for Christmas. They've had a whirlwind holiday season so far, starting with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, through hosting more than 50,000 people for 27 parties and open houses, and ending with a visit by the First Lady, Malia and Sasha, and the family's dog Bo, to deliver cookies to the Children's National Medical Center. The Obamas have also started their own holiday traditions in their new home, adding a Christmas wishing...

It’s fitting that James Cameron’s “Avatar” arrived in theaters at Christmastime. Like the holiday season itself, the science fiction epic is a crass embodiment of capitalistic excess wrapped around a deeply felt religious message. It’s at once the blockbuster to end all blockbusters, and the Gospel According to James. But not the Christian Gospel. Instead, “Avatar” is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.

NEW YORK (AFP) – New Yorkers are used to fighting each other for space, but there may be a new contender in town according to a Rockefeller study that appears to have uncovered a new species of cockroach. > "A feather from a duster yielded ostrich DNA. A delicacy labeled 'sturgeon caviar' instead turned out to be from the strange-looking paddlefish. A popular Asian snack was revealed as giant flying squid. Bison DNA was found in a dog biscuit," the pair wrote on the Rockefeller University website. In fact, they found that 16 percent of food items were mislabeled, including...

My Grandfather was a lawyer in Chicago during Capone's time, and later served as a judge. Grandpa was also a lifelong Republican, back when being one really meant something. Every once in a while, he would tell a story or offer a poignant anecdote from those lawless days.One afternoon while he was reading the newspaper he remarked that here were only two kinds of politicians in Chicago - honest and dishonest. When asked what the difference was, Grandpa replied that an honest politician was one who stayed "bought". Party affiliations did not matter.

APPLETON — A 42-year-old man is claiming he was sexually abused by a female kitchen supervisor while he was an inmate at Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton. The inmate filed a civil lawsuit Dec. 17 in U.S. District Court in Minnesota seeking damages from the former supervisor, Dorienne Dolores Homan, of Odessa, Homan’s former employer, Compass Group USA, Inc. and Corrections Corporation of America, which owns the Appleton prison. The lawsuit alleges Homan’s former employer and the prison are liable for actions that led to Homan’s conviction for criminal sexual conduct against the inmate. Homan, 36, entered an Alford plea...

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A Great Falls man who found a $6,000 diamond ring at the mall has returned it to its owner and wouldn't even accept the reward. Chandria Murphy of San Antonio, Texas, was helping her mother at her chair massage business at a Great Falls mall earlier this month. She was getting ready to close up on Dec. 10 when a last-minute customer arrived. She took off her three-diamond ring and placed it on a table. She usually puts it in her pocket. Murphy finished up and went home before she panicked and realized she didn't have...

SNIPPET: "...let's get back to the woeful tale of Bro. Ismail Royer, as presented at the Umar Lee blog:" SNIPPET: "Mr. Royer, formerly associated with CAIR, is currently serving a 20 year sentence for his work on behalf of designated Terrorist group Lashkar e Taiba. Lashkar e Taiba is notable among other things for having killed 171 people in Mumbai in 2008, among many other atrocities."

The holiday season brings out the sentimental donation favorites every year. There are of course the used car donations, the Salvation Army and its famous and much needed Red Kettle drive, and then there are a myriad of others that feed the hungry and the homeless. And all of them have tremendous merit. Yet oftentimes lost in this holiday rush for cash donations are the women and children who are left in shelters during this Christmas period. Although the mothers may have taken the first important step to leave the abuser they are left in far too many cases in...

When the Lincoln store owner bought $700 worth of cell phones for $110 from an undercover officer, he didn't understand they were stolen, his attorney says. So Benicio Lobo, owner of City Mex Market Convenience Store, 338 N. 27th St., ordered two 27-inch flat screen TVs, two microwaves and two toasters. But he soon learned it was all part of an undercover investigation, spurred by confidential tips, that ended in his arrest and the arrests of four others in March. At Lobo's sentencing Monday, attorney Harry Moore argued his client had a less formal way of doing business and didn't...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiC7S12cwhE "TV AD: HARRY REID FAILED!" Video - Description - quote: OurCountryPAC December 20, 2009 More info: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org Senator Harry Reid has shown contempt for the American people and the people of Nevada. Now, "We The People" are fighting back, and the Tea Party Express (and its principal sponsor, the Our Country Deserves Better Committee) fights back with this TV ad campaign against failed Democrat Senator, Harry Reid. Category: News & Politics Tags: harry reid failed our country deserves better tea party express tv ad sharron angle sue lowden danny tarkanian

DURANT, Okla. -- The Oklahoma State Health Department is preparing to test a 60-pound beaver for rabies after it bit a small boy outside an apartment complex in southern Oklahoma. Tammy Lane said her 5-year-old son went outside to get the family cat on Saturday. But instead of finding a feline, he was attacked by a beaver after trying to pet the animal, according to KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. "I heard screaming. I went to see what was happening. His leg was pretty bad," Lane said. She rushed her son to a local hospital and called police. "They didn't believe...

The camp of Floyd Mayweather Jr. is claiming Manny Pacquiao is declining Olympic-style drug testing for their tentatively scheduled March 13 megafight, with Mayweather representatives going as far to say that one of the richest bouts in boxing history is in "jeopardy" because of Pacquiao's stance. Pacquiao has communicated that he'd be willing to give a blood sample only at the kick-off news conference 60 days before the fight, and after the bout, Mayweather representatives claim. Mayweather's father, Floyd Sr., stated publicly earlier this year that he'd discourage his son from fighting Pacquiao because he suspects the Filipino superstar is...

High-school kids in France are fighting for their right to wear revealing clothing to school. Apparently some schools have new dress codes that ban things like short skirts, piercings, and low-slung pants. At one school last week, a chick managed to convince 300 of 2,100 students to come to school dressed in violation of the new code. This meant revealing shorts or minis for girls and board shorts for guys. Their new headmaster was trying to ban skirts above the knee and clothes with holes in them. The protest organizer got in trouble, obviously. Her actions led to a three-day...

Despite reports that the Obama White House Christmas Tree is festooned with decorations of Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse Tung and a drag queen, those with a knowledge of dendrology believe the story to be Christmas Fool’s joke on conservatives. News of the Obama Administration’s White House Christmas Tree decorated with Communist and alternative-lifestyle ornaments has been carried by conservative media outlets Big Government and Fox News. The fact that Simon Doonan, who has used the famous Christmas window at Barney’s New York to make his left-wing political feelings known, was chosen to decorate the White House tree this year...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio woman who asked that police be called after she caught her 6-year-old daughter shoplifting a package of stickers said Wednesday that she was just trying to teach the girl a lesson early in life. Diane Lyons said she doesn't believe she overreacted when she discovered the girl, Shiane, had taken the $3.11 package of stickers used to make temporary tattoos. An older 10-year-old daughter told Lyons about the theft. Chief Ronald Yeager of the Carrollton Police Department in eastern Ohio arrived at the Discount Drug Mart Dec. 15 and took the girl to the...

(CNN) -- ... thanks to a "Seinfeld" writer whose father had made Festivus a quirky household tradition, a 1997 episode of the famed sitcom popularized the peculiar day. To hear it from Frank Costanza, the character played by Jerry Stiller, the December 23 observance calls for little more than the erection of an aluminum pole, the airing of grievances and the demonstration of feats of strength -- which preferably culminate in wrestling down to the ground and pinning the head of the household. For at least eight years, Julianne Donovan, 35, has been hosting Festivus parties in the Kansas City,...

A year before her disappearance, Susan Powell thought about divorcing her husband and even put together a plan in case he tried to kidnap her sons or strip her of her finances, friends told The Salt Lake Tribune. Susan Powell reportedly told her friends that she went so far as to set up her own bank account, prepare for a place to stay if she left her husband, Joshua Powell, and wrote up an informal will, the paper reported. Her friends said Susan Powell wanted to make sure they all knew about her plans, the paper reported. After fasting and...

Patriots, the time has come. We no longer can depend on the electoral system. We can no longer depend on our voices being heard from the streets. It is time to take a new direction in our efforts to restore our Constitutional Heritage. That directions is: STATES' RIGHTS VIA STATE NULLIFICATION OF ALL FEDERAL MANDATES THAT ANY STATE IS WILLING TO FIGHT THEREIN FOR THEIR RIGHTS! Unlike the "commerce" and "general welfare" clauses in the US Constitution that have been distorted and spun through many past United States Supreme Court rulings and can be argued forever, the 9TH and 10TH...

Before reading this thread, try clicking this link or reading the excerpt below, from a post by FReeper littlejeremiah:HOW COLLECTIVISTS USE THE DIAMOND TACTIC TO SWAY PUBLIC MEETINGS AND HOW TO THWART THEM by G. Edward Griffin In the 1960s, I came across a small training manual distributed by the Communist Party that showed how a small group of people – as few as four – could dominate a much larger group and sway the outcome of any action taken by that group. It was called the Diamond Technique.The principle is based on the fact that people in groups tend...

PETA Agrees With Pope That Environment Should Be Taken Seriously and Calls On His Holiness to Lead by ExampleFor Immediate Release: December 22, 2009Contact:Bruce Friedrich 757-622-7382Washington -- This morning, PETA sent a letter to Pope Benedict XVI commending him for his statement in which he linked world peace to preserving the environment and urging him to lead by example by going vegan and serving only vegan meals in Vatican City, including at the papal residence. The pope's statement for the World Day of Peace, which will be observed on January 1, called for "[moving] beyond a purely consumerist mentality." In...

Albert the Green Nosed Reindeer, had a growing bank account And if you ever saw it, you would even wonder how All of the other watermelons, used to scheme in smoke filled rooms But now because of Albert, they will gain control of you Then one smoky kwanzaa eve, Barack came to say Albert with your friends on high, won't you skew the truth tonight Then all the watermelons loved him, as they shouted out with glee Albert the green nosed reindeer, you'll go down in infamy!

Muslim Defendant Hurls Shoe At Old Bailey Judge While He Is Being Tried For Murder Of Former Somalian Prime Minister's Son By DAILY MAIL REPORTER 22nd December 2009 [Pics of Judge and Defendant in URL] A Nigerian defendant hurled his shoe at an Old Bailey judge during the murder trial of the son of the former prime minister of Somalia. Muslim Onochie Madekwe, 33, threw the trainer 30 feet across Court 9, causing Judge Gerald Gordon to duck for cover. The shoe hit the wall behind the judge and fell to the floor to the left of where he was...

I stopped eating pork about eight years ago, after a scientist happened to mention that the animal whose teeth most closely resemble our own is the pig. Unable to shake the image of a perky little pig flashing me a brilliant George Clooney smile, I decided it was easier to forgo the Christmas ham. A couple of years later, I gave up on all mammalian meat, period. I still eat fish and poultry, however and pour eggnog in my coffee. My dietary decisions are arbitrary and inconsistent, and when friends ask why I’m willing to try the duck but not...

A Miami-Dade clinical psychologist pleaded guilty Tuesday to manslaughter for supplying his young lover -- a one-time patient -- a lethal dose of painkillers and then failing to call 911 as she lay dying on his bed. Adam Feder, 42, will serve six years in prison for manslaughter and illegal trafficking of the addictive painkiller Oxycodone. After that, Feder will serve four years of probation and 384 hours of community service, according to his plea deal. ``It's a good resolution because Mr. Feder accepts responsibility for Rachel's death. He forfeits his license to practice psychology and pays for his crime...

Fifty-three percent (53%) of men Strongly Disapprove along with 39% of women

Awhile back, Leo posted these delightfully nostalgic and funny “Marital Rating Scales” from 1939 in the Community: [See linked article] After having a good laugh, what Kate and I both noticed after reading through these charts was that while we could imagine a modern day woman expecting her husband to live up to most of the standards on the Husband’s Chart, if a man expected a woman to adhere to the Wife’s Chart, he’d probably be met with the look of death. Now obviously some of the expectations on both charts are just silly, and part of the reason that...

Lewes pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley is now facing 26 total charges relating to rape and exploitation of minors. Bradley, 56, turned himself in to Delaware State Police Troop 4 detectives at 8:30 a.m, Friday, Dec. 18, and is being held at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown in lieu of $2.9 million cash bail. A preliminary hearing on the charges is set at the Court of Common Pleas in Georgetown on Wednesday, Dec. 23. By the end of the day Dec. 18, Bradley, chief pediatrician at BayBees Pediatrics on Route 1, had been charged with eight counts of first-degree rape of...

Child flown home by FedEx passes away By CELIA DEWOODY celiad@harrisondaily.com Published: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 6:07 AM Jada Harper, a little girl whom people in this community and across the nation had taken to their hearts, has died. The terminally ill child was flown home from Texas this fall on a special medical flight paid for by FedEx Freight so she could spend her last days with her family, Click image to enlarge CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Jada Harper enjoys a horseback ride last spring, before her illness was diagnosed. The seven-year-old daughter of Savannah and Jason Surface passed away at...

Celebrities and everyday people are discovering social networking has its pros and cons, says entertainment reporter JESSICA LEO. SOCIAL networking has joined sex, drugs and alcohol as the latest addiction plaguing celebrities. With Australians spending a third of their time online perusing Facebook, however, it seems the everyday Aussie is not far behind in mirroring the trend. British pop singer Lily Allen has become the latest celebrity casualty of the affliction, announcing she is quitting social networking sites and declaring she will be a "neo-Luddite". Allen joins US pop sensation Miley Cyrus and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, who...

A grand jury said that it found the shooting of a Georgia pastor by undercover officers to be justified. The report on the Georgia Bureau of Investigations investigation into the shooting was released on Monday. Baptist minister Jonathan Paul Ayers, 29, was killed outside a Toccoa convenience store on Sept. 1. Undercover agents said they were in the area watching Kayla Barrett as part of a drug investigation. An undercover agent, whose name will not be released, said, "We were going to do another buy for crack rock and work the prostitution angle as well." Investigators said Ayers, who was...

Let Barack Hussein Obama speak for himself: "The person who made me proudest of all though was my (half-brother), Roy. He was converted to Islam." (DREAMS OF MY FATHER) "In Indonesia, I spent two years at a Muslim school. . .I studied the Koran." (DREAMS OF MY FATHER)

My Car was parked in Scotts Valley Ca in the Kragens Parking lot. Even though the car was parked Separately far from any other vehicle someone rammed their bumper into my Drivers Side Door. it is a hit and run and there were no witnesses and I asked the shop owners but there are no cameras around. I just wanted to vent this is the second time I've had a car hit in Scotts Valley and they just run off. I've heard as well of kids being scraped off the road there due to incompetent drivers. Merry Christmas Happy New...

Lately the news has not been good - understatement of the year. If you can spare two hours to have a "mood enhancing" moviegoing experience - please go see "Blind Side" with Sandra Bullock.

Nathan Myhrvold is a former technology officer for Microsoft who has found his own company, Intellectual Ventures, which is involved in a number of technology development programs, including new forms of energy generation. Nathan Myhrvold also thinks that he has found a cheap and reliable way to solve global warming, which does not involve upending and perhaps destroying the world's economy. The global warming solution proposed by Nathan Myhvold involves Nathan Myhrvold's Anti Global Warming Scheme running a hose up to the stratosphere with balloons and using that hose to pump out enough sulfur particles to dim the sun's heat...

It’s game over for a 14-year-old Roxbury boy, whose overwhelmed mother was so exasperated with his incessant video game playing that she called the cops on him. The final straw for Angela Mejia snapped at 2:30 a.m. Saturday when, “I woke up in the middle of the night and saw the light on in his bedroom,” hours after she had told him to go to sleep. “Sometimes I want to run away, too,” Mejia said, breaking down in tears in her immaculate apartment. “I have support from my church, but I’m alone. I want to help my son, but I...

Led by a spike in robberies and assaults, the violent crime rate in Seattle increased by more than 21 percent during the first part of this year compared to last.FBI crime statistics released Monday showed there were 1,927 incidents of violent crime (murder, rape, robbery and assault) from January to June in 2009. That compares to 1,582 incidents during the same time period in 2008. Murders were down - eight during the period this year compared to 15 in 2008. There were 55 reported rapes compared to 65 last year. There were 908 reports of robbery compared to 707...

Tiger Woods and Wife: If They Split, How To Divide? Talk of divorce arises in Tiger Woods' crisis, in which riches and child custody issues could be at stake. By Jim Peltz and Carol J. Williams December 18, 2009 (snip) Woods and his wife reportedly entered into a prenuptial agreement before their 2004 wedding in Barbados, the terms of which could influence a divorce court's decision about property division. There already had been unconfirmed reports that Nordegren was attempting to renegotiate the agreement. "Prenups can be challenged, but usually the vulnerability of a prenup will be procedural," such as whether...

As the world continues to ponder the death of Brittany Murphy, many are curious as to exactly who her husband Simon Monjack is. While there's still absolutely no evidence to suggest he played a part in her death, many people and media outlets both past and present are raising a suspicious eye towards the British screenwriter. Monjack -- who penned and produced 2006's 'Factory Girl' -- wed Murphy in 2007 in a small, private ceremony at their house that seemed to come out of nowhere. The couple never announced their engagement, and hardly ever made public appearances together. Their nuptials...

The city of Baltimore declared today Frank Zappa Day in honor of the iconoclastic rock musician and composer, who was born there 69 years ago on Dec. 21, 1940. Last week the city's public art commission also announced that a bronze statue of Zappa would be erected outside of a public library sometime next year......

A retired minister from Manheim Township faces more charges for his alleged sexual misconduct with a teenage boy. Dennis E. Spangler, 64, was charged Tuesday with involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, indecent assault, sexual abuse of children and corruption of minors for his alleged conduct with a 13-year-old boy. He now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in jail if found guilty of the sexual intercourse charge. This is the third round of charges lodged against Spangler for his alleged conduct with the 13-year-old and with a 15-year-old boy. Law enforcement officials said Wednesday they are concerned there may...

Susan Ferriss Dec. 21, 2009 In rural, conservative Tulare County, Democratic Party activist Ruben Macareno has one wish after the recent skirmish to pick California's new Assembly speaker. "I hope the struggle is over, and it was an amicable one," Macareno said. He's worried that a bad aftertaste from the contest – which had a Latino vying against a Latino – could spoil his mission to galvanize Latino voters in a region where they're underrepresented politically. "In Los Angeles, or other parts of the state that are blue, maybe this fight is just a dot," said Macareno, the Latino caucus...

Routine self-monitoring of blood glucose levels by people with type 2 diabetes who are not taking insulin is an ineffective use of health resources as the modest benefits are outweighed by the significant cost of test strips, suggest 2 studies http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj091017.pdf and http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj090765.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca . In Ontario, blood glucose test strips are the third largest cost for the Ontario Public Drug Programs in 2007/08, accounting for $100 million or 3.3% of drug expenditures. Usage of test strips increased by almost 250% from 76,320 people in 1997 to 263,513 people in 2008. Almost 53% of...