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Murtha Ally Indicted in Kickback Scheme By John Carlisle Created 07/07/2009 - 18:12 Paula Reed Ward and Dennis B. Roddy reported [1] today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Federal prosecutors filed corruption charges yesterday against a onetime defense contractor who has ties to both John Murtha and a suburban Johnstown defense contractor currently under criminal investigation.Richard S. Ianieri, former president and CEO of Coherent Systems International Corp., was accused of accepting $200,000 in kickbacks. He is charged through a criminal information and is expected to plead guilty. The indictment of Ianieri represents the first charges leveled as a result of investigations...

The United States should be planning for a possible second round of fiscal stimulus to further prop up the economy after the $787 billion rescue package launched in February, an adviser to President Barack Obama said. "We should be planning on a contingency basis for a second round of stimulus," Laura D'Andrea Tyson, a member of the panel advising President Barack Obama on tackling the economic crisis, said on Tuesday. Addressing a seminar in Singapore, Tyson said she felt the first round of stimulus aimed to prop up the economy had been slightly smaller than she would have liked and...

In a letter released today and attached below, more than two dozen leaders of the Second Amendment community from across the nation urged senators "not to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next associate justice of the United States Supreme Court," citing their "grave concern" over her Second Amendment record. The individual signers include 14 members of the National Rifle Association's Board of Directors and Executive Council, including two past presidents of the NRA. Another five signers head the NRA state affiliate in their respective states - Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The signers also include the...

Obamunism is obamas form of fascism. This a humorous video but the reality is the obamageddon is just blowing a smokescreen to cover for his complicity in aiding them to rob you. They will also be allowed to rape, pillage and plunder you again with Crap and Tax. That is what they paid him for starting when he was a junior senator. All part of the obama deception he wants to give them more of your money that is what his advisors said today. The White House proposal, which would partially pay off investors in the failing institution as a...

The man backing part of the Global Climate scare can't even calculate how to place his windmills correctly, never mind his hot air about the much more complex subject, the climate. Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle have been scrapped, Pickens said today. He's now looking for a home for 687 giant wind turbines that he has already ordered. The windmills stand 400 feet tall—taller than most 30-story buildings. "When I start receiving those turbines, I've got to ... like I said, my garage won't hold them," the oligarch said. "They've got to go someplace."...

What? Kyoto won't work? Get outta here: An international group of academics is urging world leaders to abandon their current policies on climate change. The authors of How to Get Climate Policy Back on Course say the strategy based on overall emissions cuts has failed and will continue to fail. They want G8 nations and emerging economies to focus on an approach based on improving energy efficiency and decarbonising energy supply. Critics of the report's recommendations say they are a dangerous diversion. The report is published by the London School of Economics' (LSE) Mackinder Programme and the University of Oxford's...

New York—Even though Palin’s exodus has the media buzzing, there is a quiet whisper in the northeast that this could lead to a 2012 Presidential bid for the White House. Throughout the halls of Harvard and Yale, and in the Washington D.C. beltway, a growing apprehension is turning into fear. For many “conservatives” inside the beltway, Palin’s resignation as Governor of Alaska means only one thing: hoedowns at the White House. This, of course, would be acceptable only to the rubes that occupy flyover country—the same kind of Americans that dared to elect Ronald Reagan and advocate for the social...

You can’t turn on a television set lately without seeing some commentator or pundit talking about the riskiness, harping on the hazards, or listing the potential liabilities of Palin’s symbolic in nature, Independence Day decision to bail from her position as Governor of Alaska. Someone please tell me: what’s the big gamble? Let’s see: she might write a book, make millions and raise even more for the GOP? She could end up giving killer speeches on issues of national importance that bring the house down and command the attention of a national media that only our current commander in chief...

Speaking about the recent coup in Honduras, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said President Manuel Zelaya clearly “was in violation of his country’s constitution.” McCain made his comments on Twitter this afternoon: Violence and unrest in Honduras & China - we need to continue to stand up for human rights and democracy around the world! I regret the military takeover in Honduras, but it’s clear President Zelaya was in violation of his country’s constitution.

Women who say they don't need a man may well be right – after human sperm was created in the lab. The breakthrough could give hope to infertile couples and men left unable to have children after having cancer treatment. But don't worry guys, the scientists who created the sperm using stem cells don't plan to take you out of the baby-making process just yet. 'While we can understand some people may have concerns, this does not mean that humans can be produced in a dish and we have no intention of doing this,' said researcher Prof Karim Nayernia. 'The...

Supreme Knight Carl Anderson Denver, Colo., Jul 7, 2009 / 03:26 pm (CNA).- The head of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, has responded to Pope Benedict’s newly-released encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (Love in Truth), by denouncing attempts to use it to further political agendas rather than viewing it from the Church’s comprehensive understanding of the human person.In an interview with CNA on Tuesday morning, Carl Anderson, leader of the world’s largest lay Catholic organization, decried the “spin masters who will try to spin the encyclical in one direction or the other” and emphasized that “the Catholic reader should...

29th Annual Veterans Wheelchair Games Scheduled for Spokane July 6, 2009 WASHINGTON -- A wide range of disabilities cannot stop more than 500 of America’s greatest wheelchair athletes, all U.S. military Veterans who will begin competition at the 29th National Veterans Wheelchair Games being held July 13-18 in Spokane, Wash. “President Obama recently said that caring for Veterans and their families is a matter of honor as a nation,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “The National Veterans Wheelchair Games highlight our nation’s commitment to our wounded heroes. The Games also allow those Veterans to teach us all...

The political community's reaction to Alaska Republican Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement that she would resign on July 26 was swift, withering and very nearly unanimous. It's hard to dispute that Palin handled the announcement badly, but was her decision to resign really crazy, or just unexpected, with the press reacting to an unorthodox move by declaring it insane?

Ed McMahon died this week. He was a great entertainer, but prior to his stage accomplishments he was a distinguished Marine Corps fighter pilot in WWII earning six Air Medals and attaining the rank of Colonel. He was discharged in 1946 and was later promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the CA Air National Guard. Farrah Fawcett died this week after a long career in Hollywood as an actress. After she was diagnosed with cancer, she became an activist for cancer treatment and devoted her last remaining years encouraging people to seek treatment. She documented her plight on...

Today, we have two bits of news on Democrats' plans to pay for health care reform. On news story has the Democrats souring on a tax idea. At the same time, another news story has the Democrats warming up to the idea of another tax. First, the Democrats are souring on the idea of taxing health care benefits.

After seeing itself isolated in the hemisphere after expelling its president for a series of constitutional violations, the interim government of Honduras got a lifeline from its neighbor earlier today. Costa Rica has offered to mediate a solution to the standoff over Manuel Zelaya’s arrest and exile last week. Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, embraced the offer immediately:

It works out that US President Barack Obama is a man of heartfelt, long-held principles. It also works out that his principles are divorced from reality and unresponsive to any facts that contradict them. This much was made clear by a New York Times report on Sunday which discussed a recently "rediscovered" 1983 article Obama published in a student magazine on the subject of nuclear disarmament when he was an undergraduate at Columbia University

NEW YORK - Two young women have been named best couple at their Bronx high school. Seniors Vikky Cruz and Deoine Scott beat out two opposite-sex couples for the honor at Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School.

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New York, July 7 (ANI): ‘Transformers’ director Michael Bay reportedly made Megan Fox wash his Ferrari, as part of her audition for her role in the film. Bay had called the sizzling actress to audition for ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ at his house. “He made her wash his Ferrari while he filmed her,” The New York Post quoted Jason Solomons having said in Britain’s Guardian. He added: “She said she didn’t know what had happened to that footage. When I put it to Bay himself, he looked suitably abashed — ‘Er, I don’t know where it is either.’” ‘Transformers:...