We may not have won but actually in my heart we did. Your kindness and care to come here each day and your voting meant so much to me. And we still can put the Finalist logo in the sidebar so that is special too. YOU ALL ROCK !
(((((((hug)))))
O’Hare Airport Security Breach – Over 100 Fake Security Badges, 23 Arrested The National Terror Alert Federal and local law enforcement agents raided several warehouses Wednesday at O’Hare International Airport and arrested 24 workers who were allegedly in the country illegally and using phony security badges for jobs on the tarmac, cargo areas and other restricted zones.
Also arrested Wednesday in a probe federal authorities said “identified national security vulnerabilities” were two company managers at Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc., a temporary employment agency in Bensenville. The firm allegedly hired the workers and provided them with deactivated airport security badges that allowed them to work at O’Hare, immigration officials said.
Ideal Staffing managers also knowingly allowed workers to lie about their identities on airport security applications, officials alleged. They said they’re still investigating whether there are more related security risks at the airport. One report indicates more than 100 workers at have been found with fake security passes.
Authorities said 110 of the badges issued to a contracting company did not match their owners. Of those arrested, 21 are from Mexico and two from Guatemala, the Associated Press new agency reported.
The case concerns workers employed by Ideal Staffing Solutions, which contracted work for carriers including United Airlines, KLM and Qantas. Applications for the 110 fake badges used social security numbers that did not exist or belonged to other people, some of them dead. One worker is said to have told investigators he was asked to rummage through a box of about 20 airport security passes and pick one with a picture that looked like him.
“The investigation identifies a vulnerability that could compromise national security, while bringing criminal charges against individuals who built an illegal work force into their business practice,” said Elissa A. Brown, special agent in charge for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office of investigations in Chicago.
Mary Gurin, 36, of Carpentersville, and Norinye Benitez, 24, of Franklin Park, were arrested and charged in separate federal complaints with one count of harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and one count of misuse of Social Security numbers, according to a release from the U.S. Attorneys office. There is a video here at the Chicago Tribune online http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-oharenov08,1,4075941.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
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Wild Thing’s comment……..
Fox News said that the person who hired them was an illegal. And what if they had been Al Qaeda terrorists? If they can get into one of the largest airport in the World, they are already in a bunch of smaller airports!
McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants are offering veterans a complimentary entree in honor of Veterans Day on Nov. 11, 2007. Veterans must provide proper ID to be eligible. Visit the McCormick and Schmicks website for details and to find a participating restaurant near you.
Wild Thing’s comment……..
I LOVE to see this happening. There may be other’s doing this but this is the only one I have found out about so far.
Glenn Beck radio show last week talked of having Duncan on the television show sometime for the full hour. Glenn has announced that it will be today, Friday, November 9 on Headline News. Glenn’s show airs at 7 PM, 9 PM and midnight (ET). It should be great!
I have never seen Glenn Beck’s TV show so this will be my first time to watch it.
Many active duty military are praising Fred Thompson, as the conservative leader they want as the next Commander in Chief. Vets 4 Fred website
Typical of these comments is this one from a soldier in Ohio:
“As a soldier, I know there is some pressure to not get involved in anything political, but as a current member of the finest Army to have ever existed, and a Combat Veteran of the crucial Iraq campaign, I feel it is my duty as a patriotic American to see a good conservative succeed our current commander and chief. Every Soldier wants a leader that they can proudly stand at attention and snap a salute to their President and with pride pay respects to a man of honor. This has become a very wishful desire given the current candidates that have chosen to run for president. I know with Fred that we will have that man of honor to look to for direction and leadership, and he has my 100% support. I don’t want a president that I can “tolerate”… and I surely don’t want a president that makes me nauseous to salute. Fred Thompson is the right man for the job… and I already get plenty of questions from curious people who respect my opinion when they see my FRED08 bumper sticker! I am excited to have a candidate that I believe in so much. In 2008, Fred will have my vote in the Primary… and in November of 2008, Fred will have my vote for President. Go Get’em Sir!” A soldier from Columbus, OH “
Hairdresser sued for refusing to hire Muslim woman in a headscarf Daily Mail.co.uk The owner of a hair salon is being sued for religious discrimination for refusing to hire a Muslim woman who wears a headscarf.
Sarah Desrosiers, 32, says she turned down Bushra Noah as a junior stylist to maintain the image of her salon, which specialises in “urban, funky” cuts.
She told Miss Noah, 19, she needed her staff to display their hairstyles to the public.
But the devout Muslim insisted that wearing her headscarf was essential to her beliefs. Miss Noah, who has been rejected for 25 different hairdressing jobs after interviews, is suing Miss Desrosiers for more than £15,000 for injury to her feelings plus an unspecified sum for lost earnings.
Miss Desrosiers, who set up the Wedge salon in King’s Cross, North London, 18 months ago, says she faces financial ruin if she loses the case.
She denies any discrimination and insists it is an “absolutely basic” job requirement that cus-Yesterday, Miss Desrosier said: “When a potential client walks past on the street, they look into a salon at the stylists to get an impression of what haircut they are going to get there.
“The image I have built my salon on is very urban, funky, punky. That is the look I am going for.
“If an employee were wearing a baseball cap or cowboy hat I would ask them to remove it at work.
“It has nothing to do with religion. But I now feel like I have been branded a racist. My name is being dragged through the mud.”
She went on: “This girl is suing me for more than I earn in a year.
“I am a small business and have only had my salon a year and a half. If I lose this lawsuit, my business will fold.”
In legal papers setting out her employment tribunal claim, Miss Noah alleges she was discriminated against at her interview in March and wrongly turned down for a job she was capable of doing because of her headscarf.
Yesterday, she said: “The advertised job of junior assistant stylist was perfect for me. I did NVQs in hairdressing at college and have 18 months experience at a salon in Ealing Broadway.
“On the phone, Sarah sounded very keen on me because of my experience and qualifications. I sent her my CV and she invited me in a few days later for a trial day.
“But when I got there, she looked at me in shock. She started making excuses about wanting someone who lived locally but I knew it was my headscarf.
“She said, ‘You really should have told me that you wear a headscarf’. She asked if I wore it all the time and I said, ‘Yes’. She asked if I would take it off for work and I said, ‘No’.
“Wearing a headscarf is very important in my religion and is non-negotiable. It is about showing your modest side.”
Miss Noah added: “I am Britishborn and I know the urban, funky look. Just because I wear a headscarf does not mean I do not follow the latest trends and fashions.
“Afterwards, I felt so devastated and depressed. It has always been my ambition to be a hairdresser but I have given up now after being rejected 25 times.
“It is always because of my headscarf, whether they say it or not.
“I just thought that Sarah should not be allowed to get away with it and that if I don’t stand up for myself, no one else will.”
The case will be heard at the Central London Employment Tribunal in January.
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Wild Thing’s comment……..
Ask this sue happy immigrant how many christians wearing crosses would get jobs in her home country. I wonder why she chose her and not the 24 others that rejected her? Maybe after so many rejections someone gave her the idea to sue next time. hmmmmm Just wondering.
If you run a hair salon you should certainly have every right to require that your employees display the quality of work that can be expected there. If someone chooses to cover her head she should not expect to work in any “beauty” salon that does not cater to head-coverings.
Bill Clinton draws criticism as Democratic campaign grows ever more caustic San Diego.com
WASHINGTON Bill Clinton was hit with caustic criticism Tuesday from his wife’s Democratic rivals, who accused the popular former president of falsely comparing questions about her candor to smears of past campaigns.
In a presidential nomination fight growing more intense by the day, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama also criticized the former first lady for having voted in the Senate against incentives for ethanol production and higher fuel efficiency standards. And 2004 vice presidential nominee John Edwards challenged her to spell out what she would do about Iraq.
The week after Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign accused her rivals of “piling on,” those foes showed no sign of easing up. They even went so far as to criticize the former president, a strategy that comes with risks in a party filled with voters who admire him for resurrecting the party in the 1990s. On Monday, in defense of his wife against political critics, Bill Clinton cited the “swift boat” television ads of the 2004 presidential campaign that questioned John Kerry’s patriotism and the campaign commercials in 2002 that suggested Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia was soft on terrorism.
Obama told The Associated Press he was “stunned” to hear Clinton make the comparison. Both Kerry, who commanded a Navy swift boat in Vietnam, and Cleland, who lost three limbs in that war, are decorated veterans who were defeated by Republicans.
Obama said Hillary Clinton contradicted herself at the end of a Democratic presidential debate last week when asked whether she supported a plan by the New York governor to issue driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. This week, the Illinois senator and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina have repeatedly reproached her on that subject.
“How you would then draw an analogy to distorting somebody’s military record is a reach,” Obama said.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, another candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, called the Clintons’ response to the debate “outrageous.”
“To have the former president come out and suggest this is a form of swift boating … is way over the top in my view,” Dodd said in a telephone interview.
A senior adviser to Sen. Clinton’s campaign, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said the former president’s remarks were not part of campaign strategy and in fact were considered counterproductive by the her advisers.
But Bill Clinton is a powerful advocate in the Democratic primary, and he is returning to the all-important first-voting state of Iowa Thursday to campaign on his wife’s behalf. Roughly half of respondents to recent polls say they approve of him, and even more say looking back they approve of how he ran the White House.
The morning after last week’s debate, Sen. Clinton’s campaign issued a video called “Pile On” that featured each of her male rivals calling her name the night before. Then, at Wellesley College, she joked about presidential politics being an “all-boys club,” and campaign surrogates suggested that sexism was behind the criticism.
Only then did Clinton herself say it wasn’t her gender but her lead in the Democratic race that had led to the intensified criticism. Said Dodd on Tuesday:
“If elected to the presidency, there will be a lot of tough questions, and if you can’t handle it in a debate without accusing everybody who has an issue with you of piling on or a sexist attack, somehow, first of all that’s unwise and, secondly, it’s false.”
Sen. Clinton acknowledged Tuesday that she could have done better in the debate, but denied that her stance on illegal immigrants has been unclear.
“I wasn’t at my best the other night,” Clinton said on CNN. “We’ve had a bunch of debates, and I wouldn’t rank that up in my very top list. But I’ve answered probably, I don’t know, more than 5,000 questions over the last 10 months and I have been very clear about where I stand and what I want to do for the country.”
“If they want to use their energy attacking me, that’s their choice,” she said. “I’m going to use my energy focusing on a new energy policy and so much else.”
In fact, her energy policy was the focus of criticism from Obama, with his campaign accusing her of voting 13 times against ethanol from 2002-2006, including measures to increase the amount of ethanol to be used as an additive in gasoline and to give liability protection for ethanol manufacturers.
“I think it is important to look at who has been a consistent champion on these issues,” Obama said. “I think I can make a legitimate claim that I have been consistent even when the politics is hard.”
Clinton’s campaign said she has backed tax incentives for blending ethanol into gasoline, tax credits for installing ethanol pumps and a mandate that the nation’s fuel supply contain 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022.
“She has always been a supporter of ethanol except for a time when there was evidence that New York would be hurt economically,” said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. “Apparently, Senator Obama thinks misleading the voters about his fellow candidates’ records is what the politics of hope is all about.”
Clinton also was the focus of criticism in New Hampshire. Edwards said she must answer questions about her plans for Iraq, including whether she would continue combat missions.
“If you believe what Senator Clinton believes, then you can support her,” Edwards said. “But if you believe that we need to bring this war to an end by getting all combat troops out and ending combat missions in Iraq, that is what I will do as president of the United States.”
Wild Thing’s comment……..
LOL this is the first time, really, anyone has talked back to the Clintons. Chris Dodd better watch his back and NEVER go near Ft. Marcy Park.
Now, she has cried “foul play” when faced with questions that no one helped her prepare for, there was no script for her to follow, no defensive player to run ahead for her. She used the “victim” card, of all stupid – and telling – things! Look what happened – the cracks have finally appeared to more than her advisories, and her true weakness has shown through. What next? Tears? Besides everything else vile about her, can anyone with a brain think this coommunist would make a good President or anything level of leadership in our government. Sheesh
At 61 years of age, after living a lifetime of lies, frauds, and needing others to keep her secrets, she is slipping – the mask she wears can’t hide all the ugly truths much longer.
A/OA-10/A Thunderbolt II
Primary function: A-10, close-air support; OA-10, airborne forward air control. Speed: 420 mph. Dimensions: Wingspan 57 ft. 6 in.; length 53 ft. 4 in.; height 14 ft. 8 in. Range: 800 miles. Armament: 30 mm seven-barrel Gatling gun; up to 16,000 pounds of mixed ordnance, including 500 pound Mk-82 and 2,000 pound Mk-84 series low/high drag bombs, incendiary cluster bombs, combined effects munitions, mine dispensing munitions, AGM-65 Maverick missiles and laser-guided/electro-optically guided bombs; infrared countermeasure flares; electronic countermeasure chaff; jammer pods; 2.75-inch rockets; illumination flares and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Crew: One. Inventory: A-10, 129 and OA-10, 75; Guard, A-10, 76 and OA-10, 26; Reserve, A-10, 44 and OA-10, seven
by Staff Sgt. Markus Maier
U.S. Central Command Air Forces Combat Correspondent Team AFPN
AL ASAD AIR BASE, IRAQ A new version of the A-10 Thunderbolt II has been flying over Iraq providing close-air support for the ground troops from Al Asad Air Base for nearly two months.
As part of the Precision Engagement Upgrade Program, the Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th Wing has been converting it’s A-10s from A to C models.
“We are the first A-10C model squadron to deploy to combat,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Smith, the 104th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron commander. “We just transitioned to the aircraft six months prior to coming here, and the C-model was officially declared combat ready just two weeks before we deployed. I am very proud of our unit. We’ve put in a monumental effort, as individuals and as a group to get to this point.”
The A-10C might look the same on the outside, but the recent upgrades have turned the aircraft, which was originally designed to battle Russian tanks during the Cold War, into an even more lethal and precise close-air-support weapons system.
A few of the key upgrades are a “first ever” for the aircraft, said Capt. Rich Hunt, a 104th EFS A-10C pilot. One of them is the situational awareness data link.
“Previously, for me to keep track of all the other airplanes that are around me or to help us perform the mission, I would literally have to write those down with a grease pencil inside my canopy or write them down on a white piece of paper on my knee board in order to keep track of all that,” Captain Hunt said. “Now I have a color display that has all of the other airplanes that are up supporting the same mission across all of Iraq right now. And they are all digitally displayed through that data link on my map. So now, especially at night when awareness is a little bit lower, I can look at that beautiful map display and know exactly what other airplanes are around me.”
The new system also provides the pilot with other critical information, such as what the other airplanes might be targeting, what munitions they have on board and fuel levels.
“That awareness provides us with a ton of valuable information in a very user-friendly manner,” the captain said. “(It allows us) to do our mission with a lot clearer understanding of exactly what is going on around us in the battle space and what our wingmen may be targeting.”
Another vital feature the data link offers is secure communication.
“All of the data that goes across that data link display is secure,” he said. “Using that data link, I can also text message. We use that in more of a command and control situation. For example, if we are flying a mission hundreds of miles away and our operations desk here gets information through the classified computer network of a mission that we may have to support, they can text message right to my airplane — and only to my airplane — and tell me exactly what I need to know.”
Something else the new C-model provides to the pilots is the integration of advanced targeting pods, which have also been upgraded. The new pods include long-range TV and infrared cameras with zoom capabilities and a laser target designator.
“Primarily, we still use the pods for weapons strikes,” Captain Hunt said. “However, in Iraq we find ourselves supporting the troops on the ground by doing a lot of counter improvised explosive devices missions.”
The pods infrared capability can be used to detect buried IEDs by picking up on their heat signature.
The new targeting pods have also been outfitted with the ROVER downlink capability, allowing the aircraft to transmit the live video feed to a joint terminal attack controller on the ground. This allows for more precise strikes with less chance of a chance for collateral damage.
“In Iraq that is especially important because it’s a very difficult situation when we provide close-air support in such a densely urban environment,” the captain said. “By the controller being able to look through my targeting pod real time, we can compare exactly what we are looking at and make sure we have an absolutely 100 percent positive identification of the target.”
Another upgrade that increases the A-10’s precision is that it can now employ the Global Positioning System-guided joint direct attack munitions.
“Sometimes we find ourselves where we have to destroy a terrorist stronghold location. But in the house across the street are friendly Iraqi civilians,” Captain Hunt said. “We know we have to destroy the stronghold, but we don’t want to cause any collateral damage whatsoever. So the JDAM has been outstanding for us. We’ve had unbelievable success where we’ve been able to strike the stronghold without causing any damage to the houses around it.
“Between the situational awareness data link, the targeting pod with the ROVER down link to the controller on the ground and the JDAM, the A-10C on this deployment has been an amazing success for us,” the captain said.
The A-10 has been around the Air Force since the 1970s and with these new upgrades will remain well into the future.
“As technology moved further ahead, we stayed pretty far behind,” Colonel Smith said. “And now, all over sudden, we have leapfrogged all the way pretty much to the front edge of all the technology for everybody.”
But the colonel also said while they are the first unit to fly the C-model in combat, their main focus is not on the upgrades.
“In our minds we are just flying like we normally do,” Colonel Smith said. “We don’t see ourselves as the first A-10C model in combat, we see ourselves as A-10 pilots out helping the guy on the ground. I have great respect for the men and women on the ground. They are the ones who are really putting their lives on the line when they are out there. Our job is to ride shotgun for them — to sit there in position, and ready for them when they need us. And now we have more tools available to do it faster and more precisely.”
Wild Thing’s comment……..
How’s that saying go…Don’t bother running, you’ll just die tired!
This is a great video…….A-10 “Warthogs from hell”
One of the most amazing — and fearsome — weapons in America’s arsenal is the M134 Minigun produced by Dillon Aero. GI Factory host Kelly Perdew sure got a thrill riding around in a Huey and tearing up the landscape at 3,000 rounds per minute.
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