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Cowboys on airplanes No doubt channeling Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood, the Italian design firm Aviointeriors Group has created a new airline seat dubbed the “saddle.” Ride them skies! What makes this seat interesting is that an airline can fit more of them into a plane than they can ordinary seats. Even on budget flights, the average legroom is about 30 inches. But the saddle seat allows only 23. I just measured from the backside of my sculpted self to my knee and it’s just under 26 inches. It’s true that I am a taller specimen than most, but I’m...

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The nation's social conservatives may have ceded center stage to economic conservatives and the "tea party" movement for the midterm elections, but they're not keeping quiet. Even as the fiscal tea party movement grabs the headlines, social conservative leaders are getting out their own message to selected audiences via e-mail, newsletter and pulpit - trying to ensure their followers flock to the voting booths in November. Eagle Forum President Phyllis Schlafly, a leading voice for pro-life social conservatives for decades, sends a monthly report to subscribers, authors a weekly column and airs a live radio show. Family Research Council President...

Sources at the Christine O’Donnell victory party revealed to The Freedomist that in December of last year Karl Rove met with Tea Party leaders in Dover, Delaware trying to get them to cut a “deal” in which they would leave Mike Castle alone and NOT support O’Donnell. The Freedomist has also learned that Rove was allegedly acting as an operative, although in what capacity it is not known, even as he is playing the role of a political analyst on Fox New in a fair and balanced way.

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he wants to attach to an upcoming defense policy bill an amendment that would help young people in the country illegally become legal U.S. residents. The Nevada Democrat said Tuesday the legislation known as the DREAM Act is long overdue. But he wouldn't say whether he has the votes for the amendment.

On Saturday I attended the 911 rally in NYC. Which was held in remembrance of the victims of 911, and against the proposed Ground Zero Mosque. Before I went there I had promotional materials, and flyers which outlined the threat of Sharia Law printed up. I also brought a camcorder with me, but outside of handing out the flyers, I was not exactly sure what my game plan was going to be. I figured I would play it by ear. When I got off the train I was a few blocks away from the main stage of the event. As...

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is just the latest keeper of the ObamaCare enemies list. Last week, she warned that insurers who dare to pass along to consumers the cost of new federal mandates would face "zero tolerance" from the administration. But the White House has been keeping tabs on critics of ObamaCare for more than a year. It started with the health czar's Internet Snitch Brigade: Last August, the White House Office of Health Reform called on its ground troops to report on fellow citizens who talked smack about the Democratic plan. The White House Web site...

Response to lawmakers cites 'best practices' concern Amtrak officials are defending their handling of the unexpected departure last year of longtime Inspector General Fred Weiderhold, whom top congressional Republicans say lost his job after exposing waste, fraud and abuse throughout the rail service. Mr. Weiderhold was forced to resign in June 2009 as part of a "systematic" campaign by Amtrak to remove him as the rail service's top watchdog, according to a congressional report Monday. But in formal statement issued late Monday responding to the report by ranking members of the Senate Finance and House Oversight and Government Reform committees,...

Seven people were killed and a woman was wounded early Wednesday morning when American and Iraqi troops raided a number of houses during a military operation in southern Falluja, the deputy governor of Anbar province said. Falluja is a Sunni town in Anbar province, about 60 km (37 miles) west of Baghdad. Deputy governor Mohammed Fathi Hantoosh's account was confirmed by police and hospital officials. The U.S. military would only say that an operation had been planned. "We acknowledge there was an Iraqi-planned and -led joint counterterrorism operation in Falluja," the military said, without offering further details.

The developer of the Ground Zero mosque is being bounced from his SoHo office, the Daily News has learned. Sharif El-Gamal, who runs the real estate firm Soho Properties and is heading the project two blocks from Ground Zero, was slapped with eviction proceedings last month after tallying up $39,000 in back rent, a Manhattan Housing Court filing shows.

With Congress back this week, Republicans need to get tough on taxes. That is, if the GOP hopes to prosper in November, party leaders need to get unambiguously with the American people -- and against the Obama administration -- in opposing tax increases. That is to say, they need to protect the soon-to-expire Bush-era tax cuts. Some are already there. Making the case forcefully are House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. The three have co-authored "Young Guns," a policy prescription recalling the GOP's "Contract With America" -- which...

NEW YORK (AP) — Tea party activist Carl Paladino wasted no time in setting his sights on Democrat Andrew Cuomo after confounding pundits and rolling over the leaders of New York's Republican and Conservative parties with a stunning win in the GOP primary for governor. "Andrew Cuomo has to answer to the people," Paladino said Tuesday after defeating Republican Party designee Rick Lazio, a former congressman. Cuomo "is going to have to debate me. I'll debate him 49 days if there are 49 days between now and then." "He was never vetted. He came in on Spitzer's coattails," Paladino said,...

Well, New York Republicans went out and got themselves an angry man. They may come to regret it. That's the upshot of yesterday's gubernatorial primary, in which Carl Paladino, multimillionaire developer from Buffalo, pretty much expelled the GOP establishment's candidate, ex-Rep. Rick Lazio, from public life. Actually, Lazio can be said to have lost this race far more than Paladino won. To say the former Long Island legislator kept a low profile is putting it mildly: Lazio ran as the Invisible Man -- refusing to debate, speaking in platitudes and generally just boring folks to tears. Even his notoriously uninspired...

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he wants to attach an amendment to a defense policy bill that would help young people in the United States illegally become legal U.S. residents. The Nevada Democrat said at a Capitol news conference that the legislation known as the DREAM Act is long overdue. He would not say whether he has the votes for the amendment. The act would allow young people who attend college or join the military to become legal U.S. residents. The young people must have come to the country when they were under 16 years of age...

Marketing consultant Christine O'Donnell upset Rep. Mike Castle in the Delaware Republican Senate primary tonight, handing the tea party movement a major victory and giving Democrats an unexpected chance to hold the First State seat.O'Donnell, who is making her third run for the Senate in as many elections, relied heavily on national surrogates -- from the Tea Party Express to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- to fuel a shoestring campaign against the iconic Castle who had held elected office in the state for more than four decades. "The people of Delaware have spoken," said O'Donnell in her victory speech....

09-15-2010 17:38 'North Korea delays Workers' Party meeting' By Kim Se-jeong North Korea appears to have postponed its meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party due to internal problems, according to observers here. It has been widely speculated that the meeting, which would have been the biggest political gathering in 30 years, could take place early Wednesday. Yonhap News Agency, quoting anonymous sources from North Korea, reported that the authorities there had informed international organizations operating in Pyongyang that the meeting would be delayed due to floods. “It appears that the flood damage had a severe effect on public opinion toward...

Even with relatively modest marketing spending, the product that was once a cast-off of little value is flying high . . . In casual dining, five wing-focused chains posted double-digit sales gains in 2009, according to Technomic, ranging from 12.5% at Wild Wing Café to 21.7% at Buffalo Wild Wings and 40% at Buffalo Wings & Rings. Only two of the seven chains it tracked declined in 2009: Hooters, down 4.9%, and Ker's Winghouse Bar & Grill, down 14.1%. By comparison, Applebee's was down 2.1%, Chili's decreased 4.8%, Champps was down 6.2%, T.G.I. Friday's dropped 6.4%, and ESPN Zone fell...

The freedom to practice one‘s religion – and not be required to profess an adherence to a state-sanctioned creed – is a recent occurrence in world history. Even today, it is not the norm. America is blessed with that freedom, but it was not attained easily. This nation‘s movement toward widespread religious toleration began in Maryland nearly four centuries ago, and its story is one of the ebb and flow of progress and reversal.The roots of religious tolerance – and intolerance – in Maryland can be traced to the reign of England‘s King Henry VIII, long before the colony existed....

Has anyone else thought to check the direction of Mecca from Ground Zero? I used QiblaLocator. Funny how the Cordoba house lies almost on the line, ain't it? If you rerun it from somewhere within the former WTC1 site, the line goes exactly through the victory mosque. Must be a coincidence...

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