the things you believe you're seeing...

It's clean and efficient... Nuclear power will save the world, UN scientists claim Last updated at 10:35am on 30th April 2007 Leading scientists are today expected to back a major expansion of nuclear power as a way of saving the world from global warming . Other measures in a United Nations report include the use of GM crops to produce biofuels and the "capture and storage" underground of harmful CO2 gases. More than 2,000 scientists have contributed to the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) report and 400 of them met today in Bangkok to finalise it before publication on Friday. The report is the biggest to study the practical actions that could reduce emissions and its findings will play a key role in Kyoto negotiations which will take place in December. Powered by ScribeFire .

The Tax Foundation has announced that today (the 120th day of 2007) is Tax Freedom Day® -- Americans will work four months of the year, from January 1 to April 30, before they have earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels. April 30 is the national average -- the Tax Freedom Day® in individual states range from the state with the highest tax burden -- Connecticut (May 20) -- to the states with the lowest tax burden -- Oklahoma and Alabama (April 12). Here are the ten states with the heaviest tax burdens and the latest Tax Freedom Days®: 1. Connecticut (May 20) 2. New York (May 16) 3. New Jersey (May 10) 4. Vermont (May 9) 5. Rhode Island (May 9) 6. Nevada (May 8) 7. California (May 7) 8. Washington (May 6) 9. Massachusetts (May 6) 10. Minnesota (May 4) Here are the ten states with the lowest tax burdens and the earliest Tax Freedom Days®: 1. Oklahoma (Apri...

But wait, the steel melted? By fire? No way! It must have been demolition charges! Fiery Crash Collapses California Freeway Apr 29, 4:45 PM (ET) By MARCUS WOHLSEN OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A heavily traveled section of freeway that funnels traffic off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed early Sunday after a gasoline tanker truck overturned and erupted into flames, authorities said. Flames shot 200 feet in the air and the heat was intense enough to melt part of the freeway and cause the collapse , but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported. "I've never seen anything like it," Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said of the crumpled interchange. "I'm looking at this thinking, 'Wow, no one died - that's amazing. It's just very fortunate." Authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area co...

Some are speculating that the Senate vote today on the Iraq Surrender bill will be the last straw for Joe Lieberman. After the Senate votes to set a withdrawal date for US troops in Iraq, a surrender date, Sen Lieberman may be pushed over the line and switch parties to Republican due to his parties ownership and celebration of defeat. Think of the implications of a move like this. Sen Harry "we lost" Reid would no longer be the majority leader and all of the Senate committee chairmans would switch back to Republican control. It certainly be a site to see... Powered by ScribeFire .

I must say I am shocked and outraged! Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’ By Fiona Harvey and Stephen Fidler in London Published: April 25 2007 22:07 | Last updated: April 25 2007 22:07 Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits. A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place. Others are meanwhile making big profits from carbon trading for very small expenditure and in some cases for clean-ups that they would have made anyway. The growing political salience of environmental politics has sparked a “green gold rush”, which has seen a dramatic expansion in the number of businesses offering both companies and individuals the chance to go “carbon neutral”, offsetting their own energy use by buying carbon credits that cancel out their cont...

Even though I went through the trouble of traveling to the polling place? Oh brother! TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Maybe a congressional race was so nasty that a large number of voters simply didn't want to check the box next to either candidate. That's what state Sen. Mike Bennett said he believes happened in the now-infamous District 13 congressional race. Hoping to prevent a repeat, he persuaded the Senate Ethics and Elections committee to approve a bill, SB-494, on Monday that would require ballots to have the additional option of "I choose not to vote." That option could not win a race, and the actual candidate with the highest number of votes would win the election. Bennett, R-Bradenton, said the no-choice option would enable uninformed or disgusted voters to opt out in a way that clearly displays their intention to abstain for elections officials. Watch Local 6 News for more on this story. Powered by ScribeFire .

Realizing that his money train is seriously at risk of derailing, Russell Simmons is now, predictably, calling for certain words to be stricken from the lyrics of rap songs. It's such an empty and transparent maneuver its laughable. I wonder if the fact that rap CD sales are down 21% from last year, last years top 10 albums did not contain a single rap album and currently there are only 4 rap albums on the top 20 albums chart? Nah....couldn't be that. Could it? NEW YORK, New York (AP) -- Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said Monday that the recording and broadcast industries should consistently ban racial and sexist epithets from all so-called clean versions of rap songs and the airwaves. Currently such epithets are prohibited in most clean versions, but record companies sometimes "arbitrarily" decide which offensive words to exclude and there's no uniform standard for deleting such words, Simmons said. The recommendations drew mixed reaction and come two weeks aft...

Michelle Malkin has the latest batch of letters for Sen. Harry Reid and the White Flag Dems from military service men. Here's one; Sir, We have attack helicopters, the insurgents don't and this unit does not take prisoners. There is no such thing as a fair weather warrior, but you have become a fair weather Senator, a disgrace to our country and a hero to spineless people who will not fight anyone. Let us fight an enemy who will not quit fighting us even if you succeed in pulling us out of this country. The Iraqis overwhelmingly support us as their allies. What you are saying to the Iraqis is what? "Go to hell." How dare you say that this war is lost. You had better thank President Bush for getting rid of Saddam Hussein and insuring that Iraq will not have WMDs for the foreseeable future. You and Feingold are a piece of work when you assume to direct the commander in chief with your misguided defunding bills. I will follow our President, I will not follow you and yo...

From BlameBush ; School Shooting Reveals the Need for Bigger Gun-Free Zone Signs One day after the deadliest shooting rampage in American history, many are left wondering why it happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Certainly, more thorough background checks would reveal whether a prospective gun owner had gone on any wild murder-suicide sprees in the past. Mandatory creative writing classes for all firearm purchases would also be a way to determine if someone has an unhealthy obsession with violence and gore, or is simply applying for a job at CBS. Whether you’re in favor of such sensible gun control laws, or a mind-numbed minion of Chuck Heston, everyone can at least agree that Gun-Free Zones as they currently exist don’t quite work. Although Virginia Tech was a proud “Gun-Free Zone”, firearms still somehow found their way onto the campus. Obviously the so-called “gunman” wasn’t aware that he had entered such a zone, or else he would have thought twice abo...

Not sure what this is expected to accomplish...from the Yale Daily News; Weapons to go offstage Trachtenberg cites Virginia Tech attack Courtney Long Staff Reporter and Copy Editor In the wake of Monday’s massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions. Students involved in this weekend’s production of “Red Noses” said they first learned of the new rules on Thursday morning, the same day the show was slated to open. They were subsequently forced to alter many of the scenes by swapping more realistic-looking stage swords for wooden ones, a change that many students said was neither a necessary nor a useful response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Powered by ScribeFire .

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was among those who denounced yesterday's Supreme Court ruling upholding the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Act . Commenting on the decision, Reid said "A lot of us wish that Alito weren't there and O'Connor were there," indicating his desire that there has been a fifth vote to invalidate the statute, as Justice O'Connor had provided the fifth vote to invalidate Nebraska's partial-birth abortion ban in Stenberg v. Carhart. What is curious about Reid's statement, as NPR and some news outlets have noted, is not Reid's criticism of Alito -- Reid opposed Alito's confirmation -- but the fact that Reid supported, and voted for, the federal statute upheld in yesterday's decision. Reid was one of 17 Senate Democrats voting in favor of the bill in 2003. Reid also voted in favor of a ban on partial-birth abortion in 1999 (see here) and , as indicated in this "Meet the Press" interview, Reid was one...

The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday. " I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything , as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid said, on the same day US President George W. Bush was giving a speech at an Ohio town hall meeting defending the war on terror. Powered by ScribeFire .

As well they should. Parents of some of the victims were scheduled to appear on the Today Show this morning but canceled after NBC decided to air the videos, photos and writings of the VT gunman that were sent to NBC after the first shooting on Monday, April 16. I must say I found it distasteful myself that NBC aired this material. I was hoping for some sense decency from NBC and hoped that they would refrain from doing this, although I would have been shocked if they actually didn't air any of it. I guess ratings matter more than the victims families grief. What I find even more offensive and laughable is NBC's defense that they immediately notified the FBI when they realized what they had in their possession. Immediately after they had made copies of everything, apparently. And they add the fact that all persons who handled these materials wore gloves. Gloves? Oh great! Thanks for doing that! Oh and they are only featuring the material during 10% of their airtime. That...

Ok, so let me see if I understand this. Killer hurricanes = global warming No hurricanes = global warming Ok, got it! Global warming may spur wind shear, sap hurricanes Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:02pm ET17 By Jim Loney MIAMI (Reuters) - Global warming could increase a climate phenomenon known as wind shear that inhibits Atlantic hurricanes, a potentially positive result of climate change, according to new research released on Tuesday. The study, to be published on Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters, found that climate model simulations show a "robust increase" in wind shear in the tropical Atlantic during the 21st century from global warming. Wind shear, a difference in wind speed or direction at different altitudes, tends to tear apart tropical cyclones, preventing nascent ones from growing and already-formed hurricanes from becoming the monster storms that cause the most damage. The effect of global warming on wind shear is similar to the impact of El Nino, the periodic eas...

From another column that appears in the Kansas City Star ; It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent. Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves. Powered by ScribeFire .

So says Jason Whitlock; Rather than inspire us to seize hard-earned opportunities, Jesse and Al have specialized in blackmailing white folks for profit and attention. They were at it again last week, helping to turn radio shock jock Don Imus’ stupidity into a world-wide crisis that reached its crescendo Tuesday afternoon when Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer led a massive pity party/recruiting rally. Hey, what Imus said, calling the Rutgers players "nappy-headed hos," was ignorant, insensitive and offensive. But so are many of the words that come out of the mouths of radio shock jocks/comedians. Read the whole thing . Powered by ScribeFire .

Drudge says; SHARPTON VOWS MORE: 'It is our feeling that this is only the beginning. We must have a broad discussion on what is permitted and not permitted in terms the airwaves'... Developing... The more Sharpton ( and Jackson ) talks, the more people will start rooting for Imus... Powered by ScribeFire .

Snoop has chimed in with his completely incoherent take on the Imus controversy... "It's a completely different scenario," said Snoop, barking over the phone from a hotel room in L.A. "[Rappers] are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We're talking about ho's that's in the 'hood that ain't doing sh--, that's trying to get a n---a for his money. These are two separate things. First of all, we ain't no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC [the cable network home to Imus] going hard on black girls. We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mutha-----as say we in the same league as him." Powered by ScribeFire .

Ok, so she didn't actually write the piece herself, it was written by her staff for her "Couric & Co." video blog posts. Well, stolen by her staff from the WSJ. These videos are also offered to CBS radio and TV stations and the transcripts posted at CBSNews.com. But she did participate in creating a video where she talks about her fond memories of getting her first library card. Apparently fake memories. NEW YORK - A CBS News producer was fired and the network apologized after a Katie Couric video essay on libraries was found to be plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal. The essay was removed from the CBS Web site and an editor’s note was posted saying the item should have credited Jeffrey Zaslow of the Journal, the network said Tuesday. The essays are carried regularly on “Couric & Co.,” the anchor’s blog on the CBS News Web site. Couric and producers meet once a week to decide on topics and the producers write them for Couric to read on camera. An editor f...

According to Red State , there is a reason why Carl Levin changed his tune on cutting funding for the troops...Apparently he is doing what the Dems have been telling Bush to do for the last 4 years... Powered by ScribeFire . Powered by ScribeFire .

No fan of the way the administration has handled Iraq, Col Jack Jacobs rips the Brits;

Rooting for Nancy to keep winning elections... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria Wednesday – in which she called for dialogue with Damascus – was “brave” and “very appreciated” and could bring about “important changes” to America’s foreign policy, including talks with “Middle East resistance groups,” according to members of Palestinian terror organizations whose top leaders live in Syria . One terror leader, Khaled Al-Batch, a militant and spokesman for Islamic Jihad, expressed hope Pelosi would continue winning elections, explaining the House speaker’s Damascus visit demonstrated she understands the Middle East. “Nancy Pelosi understands the area (Middle East) well, more than Bush and Dr. (Condoleezza) Rice,” said Al-Batch, speaking to WND from Gaza. “If the Democrats want to make negotiations with Syria, Hamas, and Hizbullah, this means the Democratic Party understands well what happens in this area and I think Pelosi will succeed. ... I hope she wins the...

From NRO: In a press conference just concluded in England, the recently released British sailors and marines cleared up several things. Right up front, the commander of the group said that no matter what we may have heard them say while in captivity, they were definitely in Iraqi waters when captured. The senior Royal Marine officer shed light on the tactical situation: They were conducting the search of an unregistered transport vessel when they saw Iranian fast-boats approaching. They descended to their own boats, but were quickly surrounded by the Iranians, who came armed with heavy machine guns and RPGs. The sailors report that they were surrounded instantly and rammed several times; the Iranians trained their weapons on them and seemed very angry ("unstable" was a word one of the sailors used). It was the Royal Marine commander who realized that there was no option but to surrender – to fight back would have been suicide for many of them and would have caused an internat...

Looks like the surge is working as has been reported by other news outlets, including ABC News. Click here .... Powered by ScribeFire .

Yale trio charged in city flag burning incident William Kaempffer, Mary E. O’Leary and Randy Beach, Register Staff 04/04/2007 -NEW HAVEN — Three Yale University students are charged with burning an American flag hanging from the porch of a Chapel Street home early Tuesday in the Wooster Square neighborhood. When detained by police a few blocks away, they allegedly acknowledged it was a "dumb thing to do," according to a police report on the incident. Hyder Akbar Said, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19, were arrested on a range of charges including two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree arson, breach of peace, and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson. Police listed Hyder’s last name as Akbar Said, while Yale has him listed as just Hyder Akbar. The three students spent the night in jail and appeared dazed at their arraignment Tuesday morning when they entered Superior Court in leg irons an...

Ah yes, the tolerant left. I love how the college campuses are full of free thinkers, as long as the invited guests agree with them... Students Pelt Karl Rove After Speech at American University Wednesday, April 04, 2007 A rowdy protest broke out at the American University in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove delivered a speech on campus, local media reported. More than a dozen students began throwing things at Rove and his vehicle as he left a talk with the university's chapter of the College Republicans. Demonstrators prevented "the architect" f President Bush's presidential campaigns' vehicle from leaving the premises by laying on the ground. Rove was able to safely leave the scene after security officials physically removed the protestors. No arrests were made, officials said. Powered by ScribeFire .