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Sunday, April 25, 2010 Rating change: GOP projected to win Murtha's seat With the Pennsylvania preview comes one more projected GOP takeover. On May 18th, a special election will be held to fill the seat vacated by John Murtha's unexpected passing. The pundits call it a toss-up, but polls give Republican Tim Burns an slight edge over Democrat Mark Critz. As a result, the race moves to a Weak GOP Gain. I'm looking forward to seeing if the momentum displayed in Massachusetts in January will still be going strong in May in southwestern Pennsylvania. This change brings the projected House...

PPP: Burns by three By: Josh Kraushaar April 20, 2010 12:07 PM EDT Republican businessman Tim Burns holds a three-point lead in next month's special election for Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday. PPP shows Burns leading Democrat Mark Critz, a former aide to the late Rep. John Murtha, 44 percent to 41 percent. Burns also has a higher net favorability rating than Critz: 45 percent of voters view him favorably and 26 percent view him unfavorably, compared with 41 percent who have a favorable view of Critz and 34 percent who have...

LATROBE – On paper, the nine counties meandering across Western Pennsylvania to form the 12th Congressional District numerically favor Democrats by a nice margin. In reality, people who live, work and pray here could not be more removed from the Democratic Party ruling out of Washington. More rural/suburban than urban/suburban, it is chock-full of conservative Democrats who believe in hard work, God and guns. It is a world that elite liberals fail to understand, as one Democratic strategist confessed in an e-mail: “Have to admit that America is about as foreign as France to me.” On May 18, ex-congressional aide...

While the White House was engaged in hosting a Nuclear Security Summit in Washington D.C., a major nuclear incident occurred in India that escaped the attention of the international press. Five people suffering from serious radiological burns were hospitalized in West New Delhi this week from contact with nuclear material in a Delhi scrap market. The material has been identified as Cobalt-60 which may be used for making a dirty bomb. Indian police sectioned off the 200 market stores in the thickly populated city of 14 million and sealed nearby establishments within a one-kilometer radius. Scrap dealer Deepak Jain and...

This is a VERY important election. We've been fighting for this seat for a long time and finally have a great shot of taking it both in the May 18 Special Election and in November. Tim Burns (R) has been selected as the GOP candidate to run in the May 18 Special Election against Mark Critz (D), but both Burns and another good GOP candidate, Bill Russell, are running in the May 18 Primary to face off against Critz in November. Burns needs our support now to win the seat on May 18.Note that this district went for McCain in...

Prof. (Emeritus) Michael Montgomery has shown a definite link between the Scottish English of the Ulster emigrants to America and the Appalachian English dialect. Robert Burns was a poet and a lyricist who studied and wrote in Scottish dialect. His most famous collection of poetry is "Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect." Burns collected Scottish folk songs, which he sometimes revised or adapted, and he traveled through southern Scotland collecting material for The Scots Musical Museum. Burns' poetry and lyrics thus reflect an extensive knowledge of the Scottish folk idiom. (Burns' letters, in contrast, are written in standard English.)

Russell Accuses State Republican Party Chairman of Collusion March 24, 2010 by David CroyleHarrisburg is talking about last night’s cable show in Kittanning where the Republican candidate for the 12th Congressional District accused the state Republican Party chairman of collusion.Bill Russell ran two years ago against John Murtha in his last election in 2008, raising $3.6 million and earning an impressive 42 percent of the vote. Following his loss, Russell announced he would run against him again.Since Murtha’s unexpected death on February 8, a special election will now be held simultaneously with the Primary on May 18. However, while Russell...

Smuggled and bootlegged, it has been the cause of transatlantic tensions for more than two decades. But after 21 years in exile, the haggis is to be allowed back into the United States. The "great chieftan o' the puddin-race" was one of earliest casualties of the BSE crisis of the 1980s-90s, banned on health grounds by the US authorities in 1989 because they feared its main ingredient ‑ minced sheep offal ‑ could prove lethal.

The Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) ray-cannon, mounted in a specially-equipped Hercules transport plane flying above New Mexico, has now succeeded in "putting a hole in the fender" of a ground vehicle driving along beneath it. The not particularly awesome result was announced by Boeing, maker of the ATL, yesterday. "In this test, a directed energy weapon successfully demonstrated direct attack on a moving target," said Gary Fitzmire, Boeing raygun veep. Though that is nothing new; Boeing's Humvee-mounted "Laser Avenger" ray-turret shot down a small flying robot earlier this year

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

Just listening to CNN online and heard Rick Sanchez interview this Media Matters guy and made no mention of MM's affiliations or slant, just that he works for "a media fact check group". I wanted to barf. It's to be expected coming from CNN, but here's the real shocker: they picked apart a Republican congressman's response (forgot his name) to a question. Sanchez asked him about spending and earmarks under the Bush Administration and why he's making a big fuss now instead of back then. The congressman rattled off several bills that Bush supported that he fought Bush on. Enter...

Thankfully, you don't have to make your own haggis; you can get it straight from the chill cabinet at your local Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer - in fact, you can even get a lentil-packed vegetarian version if you so desire. In the run-up to Burns Night, Macsweens of Edinburgh exports up to 800 tonnes around the world, from Canada to Kazakhstan, which is an awful lot of haggis by anyone's standards. And Americans will go to extraordinary lengths to lay their hands on a haggis (importing sheep's lungs is banned in the States), even smuggling them through Customs...

BETHESDA, Md. — Quentin C. Aanenson, a Minnesota-born fighter pilot whose wartime experiences helped millions of television viewers understand World War II, has died. A subject of Ken Burns' documentary "The War" and the producer of his own film a decade earlier, Aanenson died Sunday of cancer at his home in Bethesda, his son, Jerry, said. He was 87. "He lived a magnificent life," Jerry Aanenson said. "He said if he had a chance to be 15 again, he wouldn't take it." The native of Luverne, Minn., flew 75 combat missions in Europe as a captain in P-47 Thunderbolt fighters....

Schweitzer 'joke' may have grain of truth By JENNIFER McKEE Gazette State Bureau UPDATE 3:30 p.m. : HELENA - Gov. Brian Schweitzer said this week he was "just joking" this summer when he suggested he tampered with the hotly-contested 2006 Senate election. However, at least one Big Horn County observer was escorted out of a Crow Indian polling place that election night, (snip) Schweitzer has been criticized this week for remarks he made to a lawyer’s group in Philadelphia this July. In the remarks, Schweitzer insinuates that he tampered with election to secure a victory for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon...

Really? THE FACTS Aloe vera has been a common skin-care remedy since the Greek physician Dioscorides advocated using it for burns in the first century A.D. But only in recent years have scientists conducted research to determine whether it lives up to its reputation. Some have found that aloe contains certain anti-inflammatory compounds and may act as an antibacterial agent. But studies on its effects on minor and moderate burns have been mixed. In 2007, for example, a study in the journal Burns analyzed data from four controlled clinical trials involving a total of 371 patients, some were treated with...

A federal judge has rejected the appeal of a $24.2 million verdict against two railroad companies for injuries suffered by two teenagers climbing on a train car parked near Lancaster in 2002. U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, who presided over the trial, handed down a 60-page opinion this week rejecting the arguments raised by the responsible railroad companies, Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Corp., denying the companies' request for a new trial or to reduce the amount of the award. The jury could have divided the blame between the young men and the railroad companies, but after the trial...

HELENA - Republicans say John McCain now has a better chance in Montana's unique GOP caucus - open to only about 2,000 party volunteers and officeholders - after getting rid of a state chairman many in that group saw as a traitor. McCain dumped Montana's maverick lieutenant governor recently in favor of former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, much more popular with GOP insiders despite losing his re-election bid in 2006 amid suspicions over connections to a Washington, D.C., lobbying scandal. The move comes as McCain has spent time and money nailing down his conservative credentials in other states. In Montana,...

Scots ask US to lift haggis ban   Haggis, traditionally eaten on Burns night, is banned in the US The Scottish Government is considering asking the United States to rethink its ban on haggis imports. Imports of Scotland's iconic dish were banned by the US in 1989 in the wake of the BSE scare because it contains offal ingredients such as sheep lungs. Only an offal-free version of haggis is available in the US. The move would be backed by renowned haggis maker Macsween, which believes the American market could be a very lucrative one. A Scottish Government spokeswoman...

Ode Tae A Fart Oh whit a sleekit horrible beastie lurks in your belly after the feastie Jist as you sit doon amang yer kin There starts tae stir an enormous win’ ***************************** The neeps ‘n’tatties ‘n’ mushy peas Start workin’ like a gentle breeze But soon the puddin’ wi the sauncie face Will hae ye blowin ‘a’ ower the place ****************************** Nae matter whit the hell ye dae A’bodys gonny huv tae pay Even when ye try tae stifle It’s like a bullet oot a rifle ************************* Ye hawd yer bum ticht tae the chair An try tae stop...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...