Manhattan, NY - NYPD Commissioner: C4 Explosives In Lower East Side Cemetery From 2009

Explosives were found at a Lower East Side cemetery.

Manhattan, NY -  A cemetery worker found a black garbage back full of powerful explosives at a historic Manhattan cemetery Monday, but it was not capable of detonating, police said.

The bomb squad was removing the bag of C-4, a military-grade plastic explosive that is more powerful than TNT. C-4 requires a detonator, or cap, to explode and police said no caps were found at the scene.
It wasn’t immediately clear who put the bag in the East Village burial ground. Police were called to the scene around 10:45 a.m., and the streets nearby were closed.

There are two cemeteries side-by-side, both called Marble and both considered historic. It’s not clear which cemetery the bag was placed in. One was designated a landmark in the late 1960s. Six members of a branch of the Roosevelt family are buried there, as well as a Stephen Allen, former mayor and New York governor.

Police commissioner Raymond Kelly just held a news briefing and said the explosive were Initially discovered in May of 2009, but was rediscovered this Sunday again.

Virgin Galactic succeeds in first solo test flight

Branson's space plane glides to Earth from 45,000 feet

  

11 October 2010 9:57 GMT / By Rik Henderson

High above the Mojave Desert in California, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, dubbed the VSS Enterprise, has successfully been glided to Earth, by a pilot, for the very first time.

The spaceship, which is soon to start taking passengers out of the Earth's atmosphere at $200,000 a pop (£125,404), was carried up to an altitude of 45,000 feet by a mothership plane, WhiteKnightTwo, and released. It arrived safely back at Mojave Air and Space Port with no problems reported whatsoever.

The pilot, Pete Siebold, was thrilled to be part of such a landmark flight: “The VSS Enterprise was a real joy to fly", he said. "Especially when one considers the fact that the vehicle has been designed not only to be a Mach 3.5 spaceship capable of going into space, but also one of the worlds highest altitude gliders”.

Sir Richard Branson, who witnessed the flight, added "This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin. For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment. Now, the sky is no longer the limit and we will begin the process of pushing beyond to the final frontier of space itself over the next year".

It's unconfirmed whether he was wearing Spock ears at the time.

370 customers have already paid a deposit to take their seats on the Virgin Galactic when it starts its voyages. The sum paid to date totals over $50 million. Recession? Pah!

If you had the money, would you book a ride on the Virgin Galactic? Let us know in the comments below...

Column: Ex-FBI Says U.S. Must Close Case on USS Cole

Ali H. Soufan was an F.B.I. special agent from 1997 to 2005.

By ALI H. SOUFAN

New York Times Op-Ed

 

TEN years ago, Qaeda terrorists blew a hole in the side of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. Yet the attack’s mastermind still hasn’t been prosecuted, and many of the men tried and imprisoned for the bombing are again free.

As Washington debates whether to increase aid to Yemen, it should first remember its duty to seek justice for those sailors — and to heed the broader national-security lessons from the attack.
\
As soon as the F.B.I. received news of the Oct. 12 bombing, I flew to Yemen with a team to investigate. The bodies of sailors draped in flags on a blood-stained deck, guarded by teary-eyed survivors, formed a heartbreaking image that motivated us during the following months.

Our investigation faced difficulties from the beginning. Yemen’s weak central government’s on-again, off-again relationship with extremists meant that Al Qaeda had influential sympathizers in positions of authority, as well as among powerful tribes in the country’s vast desert. As a consequence, we regularly faced death threats, smokescreens and bureaucratic obstructions.

To read more click here.

Kentucky Senate: Rand Paul Discusses Medicare Coverage Payments

Republican Senate candidate “Rand Paul raised the idea Sunday that wealthier people like his opponent, the co-owner of a Kentucky Derby horse, should pay more for Medicare coverage,” the AP reports.

Paul also warned in a speech in his hometown that unless the U.S. starts dealing with its mounting debt, it could eventually face the same chaos that erupted in Greece when violent protests rocked that debt-plagued country.

Paul said his Democratic opponent Jack Conway has ducked serious discussions about shoring up entitlement programs facing mounting financial strain as baby boomers retire and live longer. He also accused Conway of vilifying him in television ads showing clips of Paul once seeming to tout the idea of a $2,000 Medicare deductible.

In his speech to supporters at the picnic, the tea party-backed Paul delved into the Medicare issue by floating the notion that wealthier people cover more of their expenses.

"If you own a racehorse like my opponent, or if you’re Bill Gates, do you think maybe you should spend more and pay more for the cost of Medicare?" Paul said, adding that taxes won’t adequately cover Medicare costs.

by senatus

Paul Krugman Laments that Centrist Obama Hasn't Spent Enough

I wish I didn't have to rush off to work this morning and begin the Research Paper project with my sophomores this morning because I'd love to sit here for a bit and eviscerate this Paul Krugman column.

I thought I was hearing things yesterday when I heard Krugman on This Week say that Obama is a "moderate centrist" president.  WHAT?  What the hell is he talking about?  I mean, I know the far left is unhappy with Obama about a few issues, but "moderate centrist"?  No .... way.

From today's Krugman column:

Here’s what you need to know: The whole story is a myth. There never was a big expansion of government spending. In fact, that has been the key problem with economic policy in the Obama years: we never had the kind of fiscal expansion that might have created the millions of jobs we need.

Ask yourself: What major new federal programs have started up since Mr. Obama took office? Health care reform, for the most part, hasn’t kicked in yet, so that can’t be it. So are there giant infrastructure projects under way? No. Are there huge new benefits for low-income workers or the poor? No. Where’s all that spending we keep hearing about? It never happened.

Oh my.  I wish I had time to put on a pot of coffee and provide list after list, example after example of Obama's expansion of government and wasteful spending.  (And don't throw the errors of the Bush administration in here; I never, EVER said they were perfect either and have argued against the bailouts as much as anyone.)

Read the rest and then feel free to eviscerate Mr. Krugman in the comments.  This one just leaves me aghast and agape that anyone could print such nonsense in a national newspaper, even in an OpEd.  Truly the end of responsible journalism occurred long ago but if you needed more proof, this is it.

Posted by Pat Austin

Obama’s In A Vice

President Obama is, politically speaking, being crushed in a vise, and it’s one of his own making. He has angered both the political elite, who berate his incompetence, and the masses of American people, who are massed in their anger at his policies and agenda.
Worse for him but not for America, it’s now too late for him to do anything about it until after the Congressional Mid-Term Elections.
A bit of moderation and due humility might have saved this political neophyte, but his arrogance and unfounded feelings of superiority have been his undoing. The upcoming elections will be more a referendum upon Obama than choice between candidates.
From TIME:

With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

On Friday, after the release of the latest bleak unemployment data — the last major jobs figures before the midterms — Obama said, “Putting the American people back to work, expanding opportunity, rebuilding the economic security of the middle class is the moral and national challenge of our time.” But elites feel the President has failed to meet that challenge and are convinced he will be unable to do so in the remainder of his term.

Moreover, there is a growing perception that Obama’s decisions are causing harm — that businesses are being hurt by the Administration’s legislation and that economic recovery is stalling because of the uncertainty surrounding energy policy, health care, deficits, housing, immigration and spending.

And that sentiment is spreading. Many members of the general public appear deeply skeptical of Obama’s capacity to turn things around, especially, but not exclusively, those inclined to dislike him — Tea Partyers and John McCain voters, but also tens of millions of middle-class Americans, including quite a few who turned out for Obama in 2008.

President Obama, apparently unused to responsibility, squandered all of his political capital on incessantly blaming President Bush for our problems, the GOP for preventing him from fixing anything, and Fox News for anything and everything he could dream up. Both he and America would have been better served if Obama had taken responsibility and worked to actually resolve the tactical issues before our country.

At this juncture Obama can shuck and jive all that he wants to in the hopes that he can convince the voters that everything America is struggling is someone else’s fault, but what has devolved into little more than blame it on the “Old White Guys” won’t work well anymore, especially since a lot of those Democrats who will still let him shill for them are themselves “Old White Guys.”

by jonolan

Deadspin.com Brett Favre Pics and Audio Were Paid For

Posted by MariaLianos

Brett Favre, Jennifer Sterger

A Deadspin editor has acknowledged that an undisclosed large sum was paid to a third-party in order to obtain damaging evidence against NFL start Brett Favre.

The married grandfather has been making huge headlines after alleged MySpace messages, voicemails and lewd photos of him surfaced on Deadspin.com, all in an effort to woo  Jennifer Sterger.

The information on Deadspin were edited in a video with commentary, along with audio of the voicemails and the alleged pictures of Brett.   Watch the video here.


Phil Reese, manager of Jenn Sterger, has told the AP that his client “did not provide Deadspin with any information.”

So then how did Deadspin get their hands on all of the evidence?

Something doesn’t smell right.  What is your take?

Gloria Allred: Brett Favre could pay Jenn Sterger to keep quiet

Jenn Sterger, the sexy TV personality who allegedly received X-rated crotch shots from Brett Favre is under no obligation to talk to NFL investigators – and, according to attorney Gloria Allred, she could even agree to a deal with the legendary quarterback to keep her mouth shut. Attorneys who believe their clients have legitimate harassment complaints can negotiate settlements that include confidentiality clauses, Allred told the Daily News Monday. “Parties often agree to confidential settlements rather than have one party pursue litigation,” said Allred, who represented Tiger Woods’ mistresses Rachel Uchitel, who is reported to have received a settlement from Woods prior to canceling a news conference, and porn actress Joslyn James. “If there’s no legal merit to the claim, that’s a different situation.” — NY Daily News