LOTTOMIKE's Blog

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (April 4) - It's the casino equivalent of reaching under your couch cushions and finding a buck or so in loose change.

Only the take at the former Sands Casino Hotel topped $17,000 worth of coins that fell under or around slot machines over the past three decades.

The casino was closed last November and will be torn down later this year to make way for a new gambling hall. The 2,350 machines had not been moved in the 26 years the Sands operated in Atlantic City, so workers removing them expected to find some stray cash.

Just how much, however, was a surprise. It was $17,193.34, to be exact.

"We never expected this much," said Carmen Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for Pinnacle Atlantic City. "It was just shocking."

The money belongs to Pinnacle Entertainment Inc ., the Las Vegas company that purchased the Sands last year. New Jersey gets 8 percent of the money in taxes - the same as it would had the money been won from gamblers.

The money was coins, casino tokens and even a $100 bill.

Some had rolled into small spaces between machines, but most of it was found underneath them. The older-style machines contained buckets inside to hold coins that were deposited, and when they overflowed, sometimes coins rolled underneath the machines.

Workers even found money under the carpet.

"Some of the coins we had to pry up," Gonzalez said. "They were stuck to the floor, they had been there so long. They were real gunky and dirty, and had become like part of the cement. We had to dig them out of the floor with a knife."

The Sands is to be demolished, probably with a huge controlled implosion, in the fall.

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i just walked outside this morning to get something out of my van.i walk back to the front door and my neighbor four year and him were outside.this child was chewing on her toes.this disgusted me and i didn't eat breakfast.how do you gently tell a person that it isn't normal for a child to eat their feet?

yesterday i stopped at a restaurant and bought me two large fries and a coke and got skeeter dinner then i stopped at a store and picked my own numbers for the tn lotto 5 and bought a twenty ounce coke and a car magazine.i also glanced at the scratch offs before heading home.i almost bought an almond joy and liked to have never got out of the parking lot.the temperature has went from the 80's to near freezing for tonight.i thought about maybe watching my name tonight i think it comes on at eight or so.i have a craving for cotton candy but i don't know why.i'm fixing to go to bed here soon as i have a busy day and head.

i hope everyone is not going through too much with the pet food recall.skeeter is fine and he'll be seven in june and playful and feisty as ever.you'd be amazed to know that skeeter has ate human food his whole life and has never ate dog food in any form except t-bonz treats.this is one of the times i was thankful he doesn't eat dog food.by the way he had a krystal chik for dinner,lol.

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You ran cryin' to the bedroom
I ran off to the bar,
Another piece of heaven gone to hell,
the words we spoke in anger
just tore my world apart,
And I sat there feeling sorry for myself.

Then that old man sat down beside me
and looked me in the eye,
and said "Son, I know what you're going through,
You ought to get down on your knees
and thank your lucky stars that you got someone to go home to."

(Chorus)
You don't know about lonely,
Or how long nights can be,
Till you lived through the story
That's still livin' in me,
And you don't know about sadness
'til you faced life alone,
You don't know about lonely
'til it's chiseled in stone.

So I brought these pretty flowers
hoping you would understand
sometimes a man is such a fool,
Those golden words of wisdom
from the heart of that old man,
showed me I ain't nothing without you.

You don't know about lonely,
Or how long nights can be,
Till you lived through the story
that old man just told me,
And you don't know about sadness
'til you faced life alone,
You don't know about lonely
'til it's chiseled in stone.
You don't know about lonely,
'til it's chiseled in stone.

Young Turks Blog | Cheney Lurks in Bushes - News Bloggers

strange strange strange

Alan McConnell of Silver Spring, Md., stood near the Lincoln Memorial, the starting point for the "March on the Pentagon" Saturday, selling little green "Impeach Bush" buttons for a dollar each.

The proceeds, he said, would go toward making big green "Impeach Bush" yard signs. In the first hour at the rally, he made $150 in sales from the anti-war crowd that numbered in the thousands, all braving the windy, 30-degree weather in Washington, D.C.

The protesters participating in the march from the Mall to the Pentagon - a march intended to recall a 1967 anti-Vietnam War march -- made impeachment of President George W. Bush a high priority, waving signs that said "Impeach Bush for War Crimes;" "Visualize Impeachment, Save the Country;" and "Impeach and Imprison Bush," among others.

Both protesters and speakers at the march cited as reasons for impeachment their belief that Bush intentionally lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to "mislead" the country into war; the warrantless domestic surveillance of international telephone calls; and the leaking of CIA employee Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. Many also called for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney and cabinet officials as well.

The group ImpeachBush.org, a group founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, was a co-sponsor of the "March on the Pentagon," along with the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) Coalition.

"The president and vice president committed high crimes and misdemeanors. How many crimes do they have to commit? How long does this have to go on?" said Clark, who served on the legal defense team for Saddam Hussein when he was tried in Iraq for crimes against humanity. "Impeachment is the first step to restore order to the country."

ImpeachBush.org says it has collected more than 850,000 signatures on impeachment petitions and it claims to be the country's largest impeachment group. And there are other such groups.

Aggressively trying to sell his green buttons, McConnell, of the group United Local Impeachment Meet-up approached Monica McGovern, 47, who was holding a collection bucket for donations to the pro-impeachment group WorldCan'tWait.org in one hand and a "Stop the Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach Bush" sign in the other.

McGovern, who traveled from Bush's birthplace of New Haven, Conn., for the march, told McConnell she didn't have a $1 to spend on the green button, and declined his request to use money from the bucket for the purchase.

"I'm a conservative Republican and believed the president, but then I found out it was a lie and not an intelligence mistake," McGovern, 47, told Cybercast News Service.

She said she doesn't expect Congress to do anything about it.

"It's discouraging," she said. "But I have to do the right thing even if there is no chance."

Multiple speakers near the Pentagon led the crowd in chants of "Impeach Bush."

To be sure, protesters in the large crowd had multiple messages. Many held signs that said "9/11: It was an Inside Job;" "Who Would Jesus Bomb?" and "The Rapture is Not an Exit Strategy."

Others carried upside down American flags. At least one person wore a Bush mask with a red devil outfit including horns.

"They are Satanic," said Kennedy Hart of Northern Virginia, referring to the Bush administraton. "How do you run your own nation into the ground and kill mass numbers of people without being Satanic? They think they are above God and can use the world as their playground."

Hart held a sign that said "Impeach Cheney, Then Bush."

"If you just impeach Bush, who do you get? The one who designed the war," said Hart, who is part of the political action committee of perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

Despite the apparent broad support in the anti-war movement for impeachment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said more than once that impeachment is "off the table." However, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would preside over impeachment proceedings, has repeatedly expressed interest in taking up the matter.

Speaking to the crowd, former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia blamed her own party for not taking action on impeachment and ending the war.

"Why is impeachment off the table?" McKinney shouted into the microphone. "The Democrats are full partners in George Bush's war. As an American of conscience, I declare my independence from every bomb that was dropped. I declare my independence from every civil right violated. Sadly, I declare my independence from the leaders who let this happen."

But Ted Seaman, 73, a former member of the U.S. Air Force who came from Jacksonville, Fla., to march, said Valerie Plame Wilson's testimony to Congress on Friday gives momentum to the calls for impeachment.

"We're finally getting a breath of fresh air because subpoenas have been issued about the lies that were told," Seaman told Cybercast News Service.

Cindy Sheehan, who became a leading war critic after her son was killed in Iraq, said Congress will listen only if the public demands impeachment.

"We have to march the halls of Congress and tell them they work for you, not the corporations," Sheehan said. "We are the deciders, and we decided that George Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached, should be indicted and should be imprisoned."

By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer

Opinions vary about how long it will take to reach those "tipping points" and whether attempts to cut planet-warming gases churned out by power plants, vehicles and other human industry can slow, halt or reverse the harmful effects in coming decades. Some suggest it might be cheaper for society to adapt to the changing climate than to roll back the pace of warming.

But in the report, the second of three this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, thousands of climate scientists and representatives of more than 100 nations, including the USA, present in the most stark terms the "key global risks" — serious environmental consequences from the changing climate — that threaten humanity.

"It's time (a report) puts people on the planet into the picture" of global warming, says economist Gary Yohe of Wesleyan University, a lead author of the report.

Concerning the USA, the report will reference numerous scientific studies on the effects of spring arriving weeks earlier, says University of Montana ecologist Steve Running, an author of the chapter on North America. The "big climate signal and impacts" will be in the West, he says. Earlier melting of mountain snow, on which much of the region depends for water, would mean more severe dry spells and droughts that would trigger worse wildfire seasons. Lower stream flows also would threaten fish and wildlife.

Research also has predicted more frequent heat waves, increased rainfall and flooding in northern states, and more severe tropical storms on the Gulf and East coasts.

In its first report in February, the panel, backed by the World Meteorological Organization and conducted under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Programme, concluded that "unequivocal" evidence shows industrial releases of greenhouse gases have warmed the Earth an average of about 1 degree Fahrenheit in the past century. That makes it "very likely" that temperatures will rise 3 to 7 degrees this century, depending on future emissions.

This week's report, essentially a review and condensation of climate research since 2001, is designed to identify the dangers that the failure to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases present for the planet. Just as new buildings in earthquake zones are designed to handle more than everyday shocks, and fire insurance is meant to cover more than burnt toast, politicians and planners want to know worst-case scenarios, says Stanford University climatologist Stephen Schneider.

"In a sense, we are looking at a series of tipping points for humanity and climate," says Richard Moss, director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program Office.

Irreversible effects on plants, animals, farming and weather already are apparent, says biologist Camille Parmesan of the University of Texas in Austin, one of the scientists assigned to review the report. Studies weighed in the report show that warming has eliminated about 70 animal species and affects 59% of wild species surveyed.

"We are seeing plenty of potentially dangerous outcomes where the hotter it gets, the worse it gets," Stanford's Schneider says.

Moss says the roughly 5-degree rise in global average temperatures envisioned in the February report will cause damage that cannot be recovered. He echoes a warning by NASA scientist James Hansen in 2004 that the window for action is only 10 years. The Stern Review, a high-profile report last year by the United Kingdom's chief economist, Nicholas Stern, warns of serious financial threats to agriculture and commerce.

Some scientists question such concerns. Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg has become a spokesman for the view that trying to repair global warming will cost more money than just working to adapt the world to it. He suggests, for instance, that it would be cheaper to cure and eradicate malaria than to attack the rising temperatures that could expose millions more people to the disease.

Gore makes his case

Last month, Lomborg followed former vice president Al Gore to the microphone in testifying before a House committee. Gore, star of the Oscar-winning documentary on warming, An Inconvenient Truth, called the phenomenon a "planetary emergency." Lomborg countered that Gore "has gotten carried away and has come to show only worst-case scenarios."

Schneider argues that worst-case scenarios are still real threats. A collapse of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, which Lomborg downplayed at the hearing, genuinely worries scientists such as Stefan Rahmstorf of Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Rahmstorf has suggested sea levels could rise as much as 4.6 feet worldwide by 2100. Schneider says a simple cost-benefit analysis ignores the reality that poor people in Bangladesh and other low-lying lands would have to bear the brunt of climate change.

In Brussels this week, about 60 lead authors are working with representatives of more than 100 nations to distill, clarify and approve the panel's findings in a short summary for policymakers. The summary is out Friday; the scientific chapters arrive Tuesday.

Environmental and energy analyst Anthony Patt of Boston University, a report co-author, says the report will divide the possible effects of temperature increases this century into three grades: a 3.6-degree rise with warmer winters but few human catastrophes; an up to 7.2-degree rise that wealthy nations could handle but would prove calamitous to poor nations and many species; and an even higher rise, which "would prove difficult for any society to adapt to."

What are the yardsticks?

In grades of scientific certainty, physical effects such as temperature, sea level rise and concentrations of greenhouse gases are most certain, Schneider says. Next come biological ones, such as species extinctions. And the hardest to estimate are human effects, such as disease and hunger.

What the panel's report will not establish is whether vast infestations by pine beetles in the forests of the western USA and Canada are tied to warming, Running says. Although many scientists believe there is a link, he says, research has not focused enough on temperature. "My nose is telling me there's a climate-change signal here, but the papers in print yet aren't doing a strong enough analysis."

Worldwide, thresholds were outlined last year in "Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change," a summary of tipping points for which British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote the foreword. They include:

•At a 3.6-degree rise, all Indian Ocean coral reefs go extinct, and 97% of the rest around the globe are "bleached" or severely damaged. All Arctic ice disappears.

•At a 5.4-degree increase, half of all nature reserves become unable to conserve native species. The Amazon rainforest disappears.

•At 7.2 degrees or higher, coastal flooding is seven times worse than in 1990. Malaria threatens 330 million more people a year, and hunger jeopardizes 600 million. Australia no longer can grow food.

All of this leaves aside the most extreme risks that Schneider calls the "dark edge of the bell curve": melting of the vast Antarctic ice sheets; shutdown of Atlantic Ocean circulation, which brings warm weather to the United Kingdom; and the release of more greenhouse gases frozen in the Arctic tundra.

Some scientists, such as Penn State's Michael Mann, worry that the panel's reports lag behind the latest science because of a six-month research cutoff before their release, a lifetime in climate study.

Last month, for instance, a report in Geophysical Research Letters found that ocean acidification from increased carbon dioxide is likely to wreak "havoc" for shellfish and coral and disrupt food chains.

A Colorado State University analysis in March said warming will make grazing lands less productive by 2050.

A University of Minnesota team reported that Lake Superior has warmed an average of 4.5 degrees since 1979, about twice the local atmospheric warming.

Because the panel's reports trail such research, they are "always by design … a little conservative," Mann says.

In May, the climate panel picks up where this month's report leaves off: an assessment of ways to counteract and adapt to warming.

"I suspect we're reluctant to think about it because we're worried that if we start, we will have no choice but to think about nothing else," John Lanchester, who reviewed recent works on climate change, wrote in a recent London Review of Books.

"The scientists involved are not just talking in a new way, one unfamiliar to both them and us, but are in effect trying to sell us something," Lanchester says. "And we the public might be undereducated, but we know not to trust entirely someone who is trying to sell us something. … We deeply don't want to believe this story."

But James McCarthy of Harvard, incoming head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, says the reality of warming is accepted, with regional climate-change trends already playing out as predicted.

The biggest tipping point already may have happened, says John Drexhage of Canada's International Institute for Sustainable Development: Talk of global warming has become routine and accepted for all politicians, not just Al Gore.

By Dan Vergano and Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY

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(March 29) - In an interview with Barbara Walters, former New York City Mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani  said that if elected president, he would have no problem allowing his wife Judith Giuliani to sit in on cabinet meetings, "If she wanted to. If they were relevant to something that she was interested in. I mean that would be something that I'd be very, very comfortable with," he said.....

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