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Massachusetts had, at last report, received $ 1.02 billion of an expected $8.7 billion from the Obama-Pelosi “stimulus money.” The state is asking for a total of $ 25.5 billion, so some projects are SOL. Unfortunately, some of the less politically powerful projects are getting the last several cars on the stimulus gravy train, whether shovel-ready or necessary or not. A look at all the “shovel-ready” projects in Massachusetts shows that the state continues to give all its resources to the cities and shuts the door on smaller towns (with one very interesting exception.) Massachusetts has received approximately $ 560...

America has been greatly blessed by God and has stood as the greatest country in the history of the world for over 200 years. America has many foreign and domestic enemies that are seeking her destruction.This thread is a daily call and reminder for people of faith who believe in God and in the power of prayer to make a commitment to intercede for America at this critical time in her history2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will...

Nancy Garrido, the wife of Jaycee Dugard's accused kidnapper, has a serious legal problem in her defense: She apparently kept the girl prisoner for a five month period while her husband Phillip Garrido went to prison for violating his parole, her lawyer acknowledged today. SNIP One of the many legal dilemmas Nancy Garrido faces is what she did during five months when Phillip was serving a prison sentence for violating his parole in 1993, just two years after Dugard was snatched off a school bus stop. Dugard was still only 13 when Phillip Garrido was returned to prison. But Nancy...

I'm in the middle of an audit and I need records from a company that went bankrupt recently. The name is True North Home Systems in Kennebunk Maine. I last contacted them in January and they have since went belly-up. I have been in contact with the locality, (no response/ answer) and have been to the State dept of commerce, state atty gen, state court and nothing of any consequence has been provided. Am I looking in the right place?

According to one ardent Barack Obama supporter in the House of Representives, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), if you oppose President Obama and Obamacare it is very likely because you are a racist. Her ideal of a great government leader, moreover, is Cuba's ruthless former dictator Fidel Castro, who has returned the compliment by praising Obama. Here are two brief excerpts from a video of Watson's disgraceful remarks shown on Hannity's America this week: WATSON: So, remember, they are spreading fear and they are trying to see that the first president who looks like me fails. And I want you to...

Apparently, Our Beloved Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, the most merciful, Lion of the Masses, Protector of the Common Man and Omnipotent Parental Figure, will give an address on September 8 to America's school children. The audience will be all children, preK-12. In protest of the forced ObamaTV viewing in classrooms across the nation everyone is encouraged to participate in a National Skip Day and keep your kids home. Take the opportunity to teach your kids true life lessons and not subject them to Obama propaganda. Maybe even use the day to make protest posters for the 912 March on DC!!...

OK, I came up with a slogan; short, snappy and truthful. Now we need to get these signs and bumper stickers out, so we need a sign designed that we can use from now on at tea parties, demonstrations, town hall meetings, etc. I think this quickly gets to the heart of the matter of what's wrong with this administration and its direction.

It is a beautiful peculiarity of this little people that it should it occupy so prominent a place in the history of Europe. There had long been witnesses for the truth in the A1ps. Italy, as far as Rome, all Southern France, and even the far-off Netherlands contained many Christians who counted not their lives dear unto themselves. Especially was this true in the region of the Alps. These valleys and mountains were strongly fortified by nature on account of their difficult passes and bulwarks of rocks and mountains; and they impress one as if the all-wise Creator had, from...

The pace of U.S. job losses slowed last month, a report released Wednesday showed, but the small improvement suggests a return to job growth could still be many months away. Service-sector employment declined by 146,000 in August while goods-producing jobs including construction and manufacturing fell by 152,000, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc., a payroll firm. The combined loss of 298,000 jobs was an improvement from July's revised drop of 360,000 and was less than half the pace of declines seen earlier this year. Meanwhile, revised figures showed worker productivity was even stronger than initially reported during the spring, growing...

"Because they don't have a racial justice frame."

Fewer American troops died in Iraq during August than in any previous month since the U.S. invaded in March 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein. That is in stark contrast to the situation in Afghanistan, which saw its deadliest month since Operation Enduring Freedom began after 9/11. Six U.S. soldiers died in Iraq during August, four of them in hostile circumstances. The figure is a drop of 74 percent over the same month last year, when 23 deaths occurred, 14 of them in combat. - In Afghanistan, where some 62,000 American and 35,000 allied troops are deployed, the trend continued in...

A Lutheran professor, Kurt Aland, after intensive study of infant baptism, says, "There is no definite proof of the practice until after the 3rd century," and he says, "This cannot be contested." A Catholic professor of theology, Hegerbocker (sp.), writes, "This controversy has shown that it is not possible to bring in absolute proof of infant baptism by basing one’s argument on the Bible." Good. B.B. Warfield, who is no mean theologian, was an astute and really a great, great theologian who, again, influenced my life in my seminary days…B.B. Warfield affirmed—he was, by the way, an advocate of infant...

President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on Sept 9. This comes as the White House has been signaling publicly that they are ready to take charge of the health care debate. So, this settles the 5th of the 5 health care strategy questions I laid out earlier on this blog today. The other 4 remain. - George Stephanopoulos

Two senior administration officials confirm to FOX News that President Obama is actively considering a prime-time address from the Oval Office or an address to a joint session of Congress to invigorate the debate, as Congress returns from a rocky recess. And the path forward, as the president sees it, is to unify Democrats around the three House bills and one Senate bill that have already passed out of committee.

Ancient faith of their Middle East fathers Guardian Weekly reader Catherine Ann Lombard writes on a visit to Mor Ephrem, the Syrian Orthodox Monastery at the far eastern border of the Netherlands and meets 45 boys who are learning to read and chant in kthobonoyo, the litur gical language that only about 300 people in the world speak today Tuesday September 1st 2009 The morning is hot and sticky, but I have promised Dayrayto Shmuni to help in the monastery kitchen and put on my long-sleeved T-shirt. How the nun manages during the summer months in her long black habit...

Every now and then I receive an email that I think deserves to be posted and a retired friend of mine in Kentucky sent this. He is not the author and dosen't know who is but I apprecieate him sending it.(Thanks Ed!) To Edisto Joe: Let me get this straight... Obama's health care plan is being written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it, by Congressmen and women who won't be subject to it, signed by a President who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay...

Here is a draft letter to my school district's superintendent about the speech Our Dear Leader intends to deliver to ALL public school students on September 8th, 2009. Feel free to use as a template: Dear Mr. XXXXXX, I am the parent of a XXXXX grader and deeply concerned that the school will be broadcasting an address from the President of the United States during my child's class time on September 8th. I have no idea what the content of this address will be, and am unable to vet it as a parent. The politicization of my child's education is...

<p>It was a blissful day for Greta Pruitt, a former school administrator for the L.A. Unified School District.</p> <p>On Monday night, firefighters had set backfires along the canyon slope of La Crescenta’s Briggs Terrace, where the Station fire was threatening several homes nestled below the canyon, including Pruitt’s 211-acre ranch home.</p>

Startled pigeons might not appear to epitomise the wonder of evolution, but a study has discovered that the birds can communicate with their wings. When a crested pigeon is startled into flight its wings produce a whistling sound which serves as an alarm call. The pigeons have "modified wings" that produce the whistle as they fly, but only this sudden take-off creates the alarm that causes other birds to flee. The team report their findings in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.