LOTTOMIKE's Blog

i am predicting again after a long hiatus.i'm back doinng the pick 5,west virginia cash 25,pick 4,pick 3,powerball,mega millions,etc.  i'm going to be studying keno here soon.i'd love to get into it soon.i guess i started off on a good note because i got this on my first "full" night of predicting below......

                                        april fools day!!!

WASHINGTON (March 31) - President Bush apologized to troops face to face on Friday for shoddy conditions they have endured at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He shook the artificial hand of a lieutenant and cradled a newborn whose daddy is nursing his remaining, severely injured leg back to health.

"The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures," Bush said during a nearly three-hour visit to the medical center - his first since reports surfaced of shabby conditions for veterans in outpatient housing. "The system failed you and it failed our troops, and we're going to fix it."

News that war veterans were not getting adequate care stunned the public, outraged Capitol Hill and forced three high-level Pentagon officials to step down. Bush met with soldiers once housed in Building 18, who endured moldy walls, rodents and other problems that went unchecked until reported by the media.

"I was disturbed by their accounts of what went wrong," Bush said. "It is not right to have someone volunteer to wear our uniform and not get the best possible care. I apologize for what they went through, and we're going to fix the problem."

He did not visit Building 18, which is now closed.

Bush critics questioned the timing of the president's visit _ six weeks after the problems were exposed and in the middle of the White House's battle with Congress  over funding for troops in Iraq .

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, among retired military officers who took part in a conference call before Bush's visit, said the president needs to make sure the problems are corrected.

"We have been shortchanging these returning soldiers ever since the conflict began," Gard said. "Look at the inadequate funding in the Veterans Administration. That's caused by the fact that there has been a deliberate underestimate of the number of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan  who will need care. We've got to make this a seamless web between military facilities and the Veterans Administration so the soldiers are not hung out to dry."

Bush has set up three commissions to look into the problems facing military personnel who come off of active duty and are moving into veteran status.

(March 27) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama accused the Bush administration on Tuesday of pursuing a policy of "social Darwinism" that leaves every man and woman struggling.

"It's a strategy that we've seen this administration pursue over the last six years, that basically says government has no role to play in making sure that America is prosperous for all people and not just some," Obama said to applause during an appearance before the Communications Workers of America.

The Illinois senator said the attempt to "divvy up the government into individual tax breaks" may be tempting, but government research and investment is what has made advances possible in the United States.

Obama, John Edwards and Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed the CWA's conference, each accusing the administration of failing to look out for average workers and vowing to make changes if elected president.

Clinton said she wanted to return to a time when the country and its leaders had big goals and achieved them — like improving civil rights or sending a man to the moon. She said she wished President Bush  would have used the opportunity of a unified nation after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to make the country energy independent or provide universal health care.

"We were waiting for the president to seize the moment to say, let's take this time and let's become energy independent so we're not sending money to people who fund those who then turn around and attack us," she said.

The White House had no immediate comment.

Before Clinton took the stage, union leaders removed some members of the anti-war group Code Pink who often protest her appearances. Barbara Easterling, secretary-treasurer of the union, went to the podium and explained that while CWA is deeply involved in the anti-war movement and considers Code Pink well-intentioned, they didn't want them to disrupt the event.

The protesters sang "Power to the People" as hotel management escorted them out.

NEW YORK (March 30) - Rudy Giuliani 's White House aspirations are inescapably tied to Sept. 11, 2001 - for better and for worse.

While the former mayor of the nation's largest city was widely lionized for his post-9/11 leadership - "Churchillian" was one adjective, "America's mayor" was Oprah Winfrey's assessment - city firefighters and their families are renewing their attacks on him for his performance before and after the terrorist attack.

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime - that's indisputable.

"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

Such comments contradict Giuliani's post-Sept. 11 profile as a hero and symbol of the city's resilience - the steadfast leader who calmed the nerves of a rattled nation. But as the presidential campaign intensifies, criticisms of his 2001 performance are resurfacing.

Giuliani, the leader in polls of Republican  voters for his party's nomination, has been faulted on two major issues:

His administration's failure to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center.

Regenhard, at a 2004 commission hearing in Manhattan, screamed at Giuliani, "My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" The hearing was a perfect example of the 9/11 duality: Commission members universally praised Giuliani at the same event.

A November 2001 decision to step up removal of the massive rubble pile at ground zero. The firefighters were angered when the then-mayor reduced their numbers among the group searching for remains of their lost "brothers," focusing instead on what they derided as a "scoop and dump" approach. Giuliani agreed to increase the number of firefighters at ground zero just days after ordering the cutback.

More than 5 1/2 years later, body parts are still turning up in the trade center site.

We want America to know what this guy meant to New York City firefighters," said Peter Gorman, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. "In our experiences with this man, he disrespected us in the most horrific way."

The two-term mayor, in his appearance before the Sept. 11 Commission, said the blame for the death and destruction of Sept. 11 belonged solely with the terrorists. "There was not a problem of coordination on Sept. 11," he testified.

Giuliani was also criticized for locating the city's emergency center in 7 World Trade Center, a building that contained thousands of gallons of diesel fuel when it collapsed after the terrorist attack.

The lingering ill will between Giuliani and firefighters was resurrected when the International Association of Fire Fighters initially decided not to invite the former mayor to its March 14 candidates forum in Washington. Other prominent presidential hopefuls, including Republican John McCain  and Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, addressed the nation's largest firefighters union.

According to the Giuliani camp, the contretemps with the union dates to tough contract negotiations in his second term as mayor. His critics deny any political motivation.

The IAFF drafted a membership letter - it was never sent - that excoriated Giuliani and promised to tell "the real story" about his role in handling the terrorist attack.

The then-mayor's decision to change policy on the ground zero recovery effort was "an offensive and personal attack" on firefighters, the letter said, going on to say that Giuliani's "disrespect ... has not been forgotten or forgiven."

Giuliani countered the attacks by releasing an open letter of support from retired firefighter Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son was among the 2,749 victims on Sept. 11. "Firefighters have no greater friend and supporter than Rudy Giuliani," Ielpi said.

A contingent of nearly 100 South Carolina firefighters also expressed their support for Giuliani and his White House hopes.

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant, predicted the 9/11 criticisms could resonate beyond New York during the presidential campaign.

"These are very emotional people who will touch a responsive chord with a lot of the electorate," he said. "The things that the 9/11 families say will wind up in television commercials used against Rudy Giuliani."

The issues also have forced Giuliani to try to strike a balance to avoid the perception that he's exploiting the attacks for his own personal gain. President Bush  faced the same challenge in 2004 when he invoked the attacks to portray himself as a strong and steady leader in the face of terrorism . Some victims' relatives criticized Bush for using the ruins of the World Trade Center in his campaign commercials, while others defended him.

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WASHINGTON (March 29) - In the 2008 race for the White House, the most personal details of a candidate's life -- from divorce to drug use to disease -- can become public issues and campaign-trail fodder.

Privacy is a relative term for the crowded field of presidential contenders, as marital histories, family feuds and medical traumas take their place next to health care and foreign policy as high-profile campaign topics.

From the multiple marriages of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to the cancer prognosis of former Sen. John Edwards's wife, Elizabeth, intensely personal and sometimes painful experiences are now headline news.

"Any presidential candidate must expect that all aspects of their lives are now open for public inspection in a way they weren't 20 or 30 years ago," said Steven Schier, a political analyst at Carleton College in Minnesota.

"We're starting to see private lives get picked over in a way a candidate's voting record used to get picked over," he said.

The personal troubles of presidential contenders became open game in 1988 with revelations about Democratic candidate Gary Hart's extra-marital affair, and gained steam in 1992 with reporting on former President Bill Clinton 's dalliances.

But with the growing popularity of celebrity news and the burgeoning demands of 24-hour news cycles and the Internet, the boundary between the public and private lives of politicians is thinner than ever.

Giuliani's three marriages, and his strained relationship with his children, prompted a flurry of recent stories and a plea to the media from the former mayor.

"The more privacy I can have for my family, the better we are going to be able to deal with all these difficulties," Giuliani recently told reporters in California.

Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, held a news conference and appeared on CBS's "60 Minutes" to discuss the recurrence of her cancer, prompting questions about whether they were using the illness to score political points.

Edwards said he had no problem with the close questioning on "60 Minutes."

"I think part of the evaluation of a candidate for president is a personal evaluation of the character and integrity and honesty of a candidate," he said.

PAINFULLY PUBLIC

Other candidates in both parties have seen painful aspects of their personal lives surface in public. They often volunteer the information themselves in hopes of reducing its impact.

Sen. John McCain , an Arizona Republican , admits his sexual affairs destroyed his first marriage. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois admitted in his autobiography to marijuana and cocaine use as a youth.

Before he declared his candidacy, Obama even paid off his old parking tickets from his law student days at Harvard University.

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's marital tribulations as first lady, when her husband was impeached in connection with an Oval Office sexual affair, are well documented.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, perhaps laying the groundwork for entering the Republican race later this year, recently admitted he was having an extramarital affair while leading the impeachment charge in Congress  against Clinton.

The effect on voters of this deluge of information is uncertain, analysts say, but personal details can play a huge role in shaping a candidate's image.

"It's all part of how people evaluate candidates," said Republican consultant Rich Galen. "It's like being on a jury -- you can put as much or as little weight on any piece of evidence as you want, but you have to hear all the evidence."

Personal information about candidates can be the easiest thing for voters to understand, said Linda Fowler, a political analyst at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

"They know someone who suffered from cancer, or they know someone at work who takes credit for things they didn't really do, and the press has made these kinds of cues very accessible," she said.

BOSTON (March 29) - More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers' financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX  Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period.

In a regulatory filing that gives the first detailed account of the breach initially disclosed in January, the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and other stores in North America and the United Kingdom also said another 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers.

The data that was stolen covers transactions dating as far back as December 2002, TJX said in the filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

TJX spokeswoman Sherry Lang did not immediately return a telephone message from The Associated Press seeking comment late Wednesday.

But Lang told The Boston Globe, which first reported the filing Wednesday night, that about 75 percent of the compromised cards either were expired or had data from their magnetic stripes masked, meaning the data was stored as asterisks, rather than numbers.

Lang said the extent of the damage may never be known because of the methods used by the intruder. Much of the transaction data was deleted by TJX in the normal course of business between the time of the thefts and the time they were discovered, the filing said, making it impossible to know how many card numbers were obtained.

"There's a lot we may never know and it's one of the difficulties of this investigation," Lang said. "It's why this has taken this long and why it's been so tedious. It's painstaking."

Avivah Litan, vice president of research and advisory company Gartner Inc., told the Globe the TJX breach is "the biggest card heist ever."

"This was obviously done over a long period of time, in many locations," she said. "It's done considerable damage."

Police charged six people in Florida last week with using credit card numbers stolen from a TJX database to buy about $1 million in merchandise with gift cards.

In Wednesday's filing, TJX said for the first time that Dec. 18, 2006, was the date it first learned that there was suspicious software on its computer system.

TJX said it believes hackers invaded its systems in July 2005, on later dates in 2005 and also from mid-May 2006 to mid-January 2007. The company said no customer information was stolen after Dec. 18, one day before it hired General Dynamics Corp. and IBM  Corp. to investigate. By Dec. 21, those investigators determined that the computer systems had been breached and that an intruder remained on the systems.

TJX said it notified federal authorities Dec. 22, and on Jan. 3, TJX officials and Secret Service agents met with banks and payment card and check processing companies to discuss the computer intrusion.

The company issued a news release Jan. 17 disclosing the breach but did not say how much data was stolen.

Framingham-based TJX is facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and lawsuits from individuals and banks accusing it of failing to do enough to safeguard private data and of delaying disclosure of the problem.

The company said in Wednesday's filing that its forensic investigation of the intrusion is ongoing and it is continuing to work to strengthen and protect its computer systems.

(March 28) -- Letter writers soon will be able to put pen to paper, slip it into an envelope — and seal it with a Sith.

A set of 15 commemorative stamps featuring characters from Star Wars is set to be unveiled today by the U.S. Postal Service in what may be the most popular philatelic event since Skinny Elvis beat out Fat Elvis in the early 1990s.

The stamps will be revealed this morning at the historic Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, one of a handful of theaters that showed the original Star Wars when it opened May 25, 1977.

To commemorate that 30th anniversary, the stamps will go on sale May 25, USPS marketing director Anita Bizzotto says, joking, "Two big Forces are uniting."

The Citizen Stamp Advisory Committee's decision to recognize Jedi, droids and evil Sith lord Darth Vader is part of the Postal Service's tradition of paying tribute to pop culture.

"We've done Disney characters, Jim Henson  and the Muppets, Hershey's kisses and comic book characters," Bizzotto says. "Star Wars is part of our culture. It speaks to all generations."

Star Wars creator George Lucas  was not involved in the process, but "he blessed the idea of it, and when the artwork was finished, he loved it," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensi

there are real stores like these in the united states although i've never shopped...

anyone here know about vehicles?

i have a 1997 chevy astro van.the air comes on and it blows through in certain vents in the middle and back part of the van. however in the whole front part of the van the air won't blow through the vents at all.what does this sound like it could be.i don't want some mechanic to take advantage of me because of my lack of knowledge in this arena.thanks......

DANIA BEACH, Fla. (March 27) - Anna Nicole Smith died of an accidental drug overdose of nine prescription medications, but an extensive six-week investigation found no signs of foul play, Florida authorities said on Monday.